oh boy, this can either go very very well or very very annoying

I think it's the latter. Kurumi is kinda like starting to have feelings for Ruriko. She wants to know more about her and etc , but then Rio appeared. I feel like she's gonna be jealous a lot. If Kurumi feels uncomfortable and kinda insecure when they have just met in the restaurant, what's more if Rio started living with them. Also, what if the reason why Rio, as Ruriko said, has a problem with the family was because she likes girl? And then Rio, although it's not clear for now, also likes Ruriko? That's gonna be annoying. Geez, my imagination is running wild
(;ŏ﹏ŏ)

I don't really understand what people are so upset about. Rio hasn't even been hinted at being into Ruriko, so I don't see a love triangle on the horizon,

No one said anything about a love triangle. It's that she's annoying and guaranteed to horn in on time with Ruriko and Kurumi. Like they were literally just planning their next ~date~ "bonding day" and now this.

The mangaka can choose which scenes to depict. If she wants to draw more Kurumi/Ruriko bonding moments, she's still perfectly capable of doing so. If you just don't like Rio because you find her annoying, that's fair enough, though I suspect it's because you're adopting Kurumi's perspective too uncritically.

Yes, she certainly can draw that. I want her to draw that. But the framing and timing of story beats informs their intent.

We just went from a scene where one of them is jealous because of all the things she doesn't know about her wife to a scene where they talk about their next date being a stay-in relaxing time where they indulge in sharing the things they like with each other and then immediately follow that with a scene where the known freeloader (who inadvertently triggered that jealousy which catalysed that date idea) is now begging to stay with them. I don't think it takes any rocket voodoo to know what story beats that sets us up to expect. The author is free to subvert the expectations they've primed (and I hope she does), but it's called "subversion" precisely because it's rare.

Assuming that she's going to disrupt their life, harm productivity of the one who works from home, destroy their date idea merely by her presence, and cause tension between them, isn't "adopting Kurumi's perspective too uncritically", it's just reading the subtext the story presents.

??? She's just unemployed? There's plenty of legitimate reasons someone might be unemployed. This is pretty excessively harsh on a girl we still know very little about.

She seems to have been unemployed for multiple years, though, and I think the more telling thing is that she was seemingly ungrateful and didn't bother doing chores even when living at Ruriko's place for free. Then she meets Ruriko again and literally the first thing she does is ask to freeload some more, even though Ruriko is now married. That is... not a good look, to be frank.

Yeah, honestly, I was less put off by her being jobless (although the unironic use of “funemployed” gave me pause), and more bothered by how completely indifferent she seems about the feelings of the people around her. I mean, yes, she was invited to sit with them, but as soon as she was she literally pushed Ruriko out of the way, insisted a Ruriko buy her stuff, and then asked the two of them to take her in. Then you have her complaining about how Ruriko would get mad at her for not doing something as basic as picking up after herself, seemingly unaware as to what she did wrong. She just came off as very self-centered, and it put me off.

That, and I just don’t like her character design. Maybe it’s the droopy eyes? I don’t know, it just doesn’t jive with me.

last edited at Sep 8, 2022 5:56PM

Assuming that she's going to disrupt their life, harm productivity of the one who works from home, destroy their date idea merely by her presence, and cause tension between them, isn't "adopting Kurumi's perspective too uncritically", it's just reading the subtext the story presents.

You're reading the subtext of Kurumi's perspective, since the manga is told from her point of view. Kurumi is the one jealous of Rio, who felt disrupted by her presence (which made her unwilling to give Ruriko her present), and felt tension with Ruriko (since she saw Ruriko letting her guard down more with Rio than she does with her).

Looking at things objectively, though, Rio not only knows that Ruriko has loved Kurumi for years but is happy that she finally "bagged" her, even joking about wanting them to adopt her. Her worst crimes according to this thread are freeloading when she doesn't have money (I wonder what people think she should do instead) and not picking up her socks.

Like I said, if the complaint is just "I don't like this new character because I find her annoying," that's totally fair. You don't have to come up with an abstract justification for not liking a character. But I really do think the anxieties about her becoming a third wheel and causing dumb drama arise from adopting Kurumi's perspective, since she has those anxieties (which I guess means that the mangaka wrote these chapters effectively if they're causing this reaction). Trust in Ruriko!

While asking a friend you randomly bumped into and already freeloaded off previously to adopt you seems like a considerable red flag, specially given how unapologetic she is about it, I'm only really worried about it from a financial point of view.
Lovey-dovey couple's bonding time-wise, it's obvious from Ruriko's horrified reaction when Kurumi asked her to sit with them that if Rio got in the way of their relantionship, the first one to find trouble with that would be Ruriko herself, so I don't see any need to panic about the addition of a "third wheel" in this case.

I have one of two guesses about Rio - she's either exactly what she seems; an annoying, gleefully unemployed freeloader who, while not malicious per say, makes a habit of leeching off her friends and is generally a pain in the neck. Alternatively, she's someone used to putting a happy face on her very real troubles and may suffer either from depression or general "genuinely doesn't know how to adult properly" syndrome. I'm kinda hoping for the latter angle on her character, personally.

Either way, regardless of the reasons for her behavior, I feel like the doom and gloom about her is a bit premature. I do get it - she's set up as an annoying character, so seeing more of her means more exposure to her annoyingness, and she's probably gonna throw Ruriko and Kurumi's home life out of whack, even if unintentionally, for the next while. However, a big theme around her introduction is how it brings up a side of Ruriko that Kurumi hasn't known until now, so I'm hoping that rather than just existing as a roadblock like people fear, she can also bring a new perspective and unconventional developments along with the negative aspects of her presence.

At the very least, I forsee a mixture of her genuinely trying to wingwoman for Ruriko offsetting her disruptiveness, that could be quite amusing if done well. And so far, the author hasn't done anything to hurt my trust in that.

Rio the mob has spoken.
Grab some old newspapers and find a park bench somewhere.

You don't have to come up with an abstract justification for not liking a character. But I really do think the anxieties about her becoming a third wheel and causing dumb drama arise from adopting Kurumi's perspective, since she has those anxieties (which I guess means that the mangaka wrote these chapters effectively if they're causing this reaction). Trust in Ruriko!

lol, I'm not? Even if Rio were my favourite character, I'd have the same expectations for this sequence of events-- this is about the most obvious setup you can get for relationship tension and attendant character growth. I'm not sure how you can read it and think "oh yeah, this is going to go off without a hitch" or whatever unless you're an optimist and used to being wrong most of the time. Like I said, maybe I'll be surprised, but I have no reason to expect it.

Put another way: I trust Ruriko. But I also trust Kurumi and Rio.

That's the least appetizing pizza I've ever seen.

Not sure why I'm getting the vibes rio is the type that likes to mess around with different guys and what ruriko doesn't want to talk about might be rio always brought different dudes back when they lived together. Maybe I've read too many this kind of drama, hope I'm wrong.

Only if it means the two of them will sleep in the same room finally.

How to add this to my lists? Anyone who know?

Upper right, to the left if your username, is a drop down menu, with the lists.

Or click "Lists" and you can create a new list.

last edited at Sep 9, 2022 2:35PM

Not sure why I'm getting the vibes rio is the type that likes to mess around with different guys and what ruriko doesn't want to talk about might be rio always brought different dudes back when they lived together. Maybe I've read too many this kind of drama, hope I'm wrong.

Yeah, my gut guess was her "place to stay" was with a guy from online dating (or maybe that she knows from before) and she just got thrown out (or threatened or worse.)

??? She's just unemployed? There's plenty of legitimate reasons someone might be unemployed. This is pretty excessively harsh on a girl we still know very little about.

She seems to have been unemployed for multiple years, though, and I think the more telling thing is that she was seemingly ungrateful and didn't bother doing chores even when living at Ruriko's place for free. Then she meets Ruriko again and literally the first thing she does is ask to freeload some more, even though Ruriko is now married. That is... not a good look, to be frank.

Yeah, honestly, I was less put off by her being jobless (although the unironic use of “funemployed” gave me pause), and more bothered by how completely indifferent she seems about the feelings of the people around her. I mean, yes, she was invited to sit with them, but as soon as she was she literally pushed Ruriko out of the way, insisted a Ruriko buy her stuff, and then asked the two of them to take her in. Then you have her complaining about how Ruriko would get mad at her for not doing something as basic as picking up after herself, seemingly unaware as to what she did wrong. She just came off as very self-centered, and it put me off.

That, and I just don’t like her character design. Maybe it’s the droopy eyes? I don’t know, it just doesn’t jive with me.

Wow, glad I'm not the only one. While I didn't like her character from the start, the unconcern for the feelings of others was very off-putting, since she's supposed to be a 'fun' character (that's my interpretation anyway). I also disliked how she avoided the question of her family. Her private details she has every right to keep private, until she tried to mooch off the couple. Now (to my mind), she has an obligation to explain herself and her full situation until they are satisfied if she wants to third wheel them in their house.

But this girl has made a decision to be useless and dependent. She only needs help because she has explicitly chosen not to do anything that would make her not need help.

??? She's just unemployed? There's plenty of legitimate reasons someone might be unemployed. This is pretty excessively harsh on a girl we still know very little about.

Not unemployed. "funemployed". Asked "Are you planning on paying rent" she didn't say either "Yes" or "As soon as I find a job", she said "'Course not". She didn't want to be a normal, pulling-your-weight roommate, she wanted to be "adopted". And her past situation was the same, apparently she never paid any rent while she lived with Ruriko before: Ruriko notes that she treated the two differently because "She pays rent and you were a useless freeloader". There is no indication she has any interest in or intention to find anything like a job. Nor does it sound like she contributed to the maintenance of the household while she lived with Ruriko before, instead making extra work for Ruriko (leaving her socks around etc).

Her basic position seems to be "I'm cute, so let me stay with you and be useless (wink, giggle)."

I do think it's going to turn out that her parents are bad and she's having trouble with problematic guy relationships and she's screwed up on the inside and all that jazz. And I won't go so far as to say I don't give a damn. But whatever her situation is, it would probably be a lot better if she hadn't adopted a strategy of deliberate worthlessness.

And as a reader, knowing that the writer is going to busily turn around the initial impression and try to redeem her just makes me more annoyed, really. I wouldn't mind having an annoying character so much if I didn't think the mangaka was about to tell me "No, you can't consider her annoying because we're shaping the plot that way" when sorry, she's bloody annoying and nothing the storyteller can do is really going to fix that.

To me she stinks of "Progress is moving too fast, editor thinks we need to stall, so add a random character to create some complications". And for me that's an unnecessary story approach anyway. Assuming we have 2X chapters left, I would much rather spend X chapters getting to the confession and then X chapters on nice relationship stuff, than X chapters on complications with annoying side character and then X chapters getting to the confession, the end.

It would be fantastic if Kurumi put her foot down like this.

But of course it's not what's going to happen, sigh. Usui Shio wants Rio to stay with them to stir up the stagnant waters.

At the present state of things, Kurumi and Ruriko are perfectly happy with their chaste sexless marriage and it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon. If things go on like this, they're going to make love for the first time, oh, when they're 55 or about. Usui wrote herself into a corner and Rio is the solution she came up with to work her way out of the impasse.

"What, you and Ruriko sleep in different rooms? But aren't you married? So when do you have sex? You don't?!? Kurumi-san, that's too cruel! Poor Ruriko! Why, when we were living together in Paris I ate her pussy every - single - night! What? Why, yes, of course Ruriko is a lesbian!! You're her wife and you didn't know?"

It would be fantastic if Kurumi put her foot down like this.

But of course it's not what's going to happen, sigh. Usui Shio wants Rio to stay with them to stir up the stagnant waters.

At the present state of things, Kurumi and Ruriko are perfectly happy with their chaste sexless marriage and it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon. If things go on like this, they're going to make love for the first time, oh, when they're 55 or about. Usui wrote herself into a corner and Rio is the solution she came up with to work her way out of the impasse.

"What, you and Ruriko sleep in different rooms? But aren't you married? So when do you have sex? You don't?!? Kurumi-san, that's too cruel! Poor Ruriko! Why, when we were living together in Paris I ate her pussy every - single - night! What? Why, yes, of course Ruriko is a lesbian!! You're her wife and you didn't know?"

honestly, you're most likely completely right..and I don't know whether knowing that things are going to go that way disappoints me more or less about how this manga just ended up using the same dumbass plot device/side character type as way too many others :\

Damn, I could never say no to letting Rio stay for a bit. I'd be annoyed at there being no plan to help with rent if they were looking for a long-term thing, but everyone needs somewhere to sleep.

I do hope they go into the more serious, sad part of Rio's story though, otherwise it feels unearned narratively.

Ok, I think I've lost interest in this manga. Having the 'friend' move in with them looks like a way to introduce completely unnecessary drama.

Ok, I think I've lost interest in this manga. Having the 'friend' move in with them looks like a way to introduce completely unnecessary drama.

that comment aged poorly

Well well well. Look at that. That wasnt a bad start. Turns out they needed an easy going mama to smooth things over. Now let me knock on that wood real quick.

last edited at Oct 22, 2022 5:55AM

Instead of a rival, they've clearly gotten a daughter... :D

Im glad it looks like she is a comedic addition and maybe a nudge rather than some actual love rival.

p.s Those tests dont have to be symmetrical do they? I though that was just due to the method they used to use to produce the images. I dont think the symmetricality has baring on the results.