This manga feels like those youtube content farms, where a company broke the algorithm and found a way to produce the cheapest, most brain-dead, lifeless content on the app, but still manage to rake in hundreds of millions of views, because the majority of people consuming media just want to be entertained, and don't care about quality. And while that means giving up your integrity as an artist, at the end of the day, selling to the majority always means more money.

You guys love to act like sophisticated readers, but then we have that Can't Defy the Lonely Girl, Useless Princess, and Citrus are some of the most popular series here. God helps us all.

Hey now lol. I won't stand for Citrus slander. That's my mess and I'm waiting for the new Citrus+ to come out.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 4:17PM

This manga feels like those youtube content farms, where a company broke the algorithm and found a way to produce the cheapest, most brain-dead, lifeless content on the app, but still manage to rake in hundreds of millions of views, because the majority of people consuming media just want to be entertained, and don't care about quality. And while that means giving up your integrity as an artist, at the end of the day, selling to the majority always means more money.

You guys love to act like sophisticated readers, but then we have that Can't Defy the Lonely Girl, Useless Princess, and Citrus are some of the most popular series here. God helps us all.

Now I won't stand for Citrus slander. That's my mess and I'm waiting for the new Citrus+ to come out.

I'm not going to lie, I only read the first few chapters (I do have read the entirety of the other two), so maybe I shouldn't have included it. My bad.

Edit: And I noticed your question on the previous page. I will write my answer later.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 4:19PM

I'm not going to lie, I only read the first few chapters (I do have read the entirety of the other two), so maybe I shouldn't have included it. My bad.

I'm joking. It's not an issue. It's fine not to like the same stuff. I guess that answers the earlier comment too, since I enjoyed Lonely and Useless for what they were as well (mostly comfort food). But this isn't their thread so.

Edit: awesome, I'll check back for your response later.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 4:22PM

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if, after this Shiho drama is wrung dry, one of the characters inexplicably die, and then it turns into a gritty mystery drama for another 20 chapters or something.

Make the character that dies Shiho and we have a deal.

Of course it matters. If Shiho was planned from the start, then all the more reason you should make an effort to see what the author is trying to tell with her, instead of acting like she sabotaged your fluffy romance. Pretending to know what is better for a story than its own author (and calling it "objectivity") is just too pretentious.

If Shiho's arc was planned from the start and still comes off as tacked on, I'd say it's a failure from the author all the same.

On top of that, Shiho's character just doesn't make any sense. Shiho is a deeply selfish and self-centered character; there's nothing wrong with that. What's strange is how the story doesn't acknowledge this. We are shown how she hurts the people around her and make herself miserable all on her own too, yet the story bends all over itself to blame anyone but herself for this. How does that make any sense? And let me be clear I'm not talking about lack of accountability. Accountability is not necessary to make a good story. But there's lack of accountability and there's outright contradicting what you show your readers.

This is not about preference or taste. It's not something subjective. When something doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. You can like it all the same, and that's fine, but it doesn't change the fact it doesn't make sense.

When Shiho was conceived, or with which intent, is irrelevant.

Of course it matters. If Shiho was planned from the start, then all the more reason you should make an effort to see what the author is trying to tell with her, instead of acting like she sabotaged your fluffy romance. Pretending to know what is better for a story than its own author (and calling it "objectivity") is just too pretentious.

Why do you assume that I don't know or am not trying to understand what the author is trying to tell with Shiho? Key word here is try, because I believe that the execution is what failed. Again for the people in the back. I am fine with Shiho existing. I am fine with her sabotaging my fluffy romance. I am not fine with those things being executed poorly. Despite what Rian Johnson is trying to do with his movies, subversion of expectation is not a mark of quality of its own. Is has to be done well, like all writing. The author can try all they want, at some time you have to look at what they actually did. You are not going to pay someone for painting your house when what they actually did is tear down the walls in the process, no matter how hard they tried to paint them.

I look at what the story is. Why the story is the way it is and what it should have been is secondary. The author might have tried to write a multifaceted story with complex relationships and emotions that all intermingle and therefore lead to inexcapable conflict where there are not really guilty parties. But what is on paper is the story of a broody miseryguts that is solely to blame for all conflict, and drags every other character and their aspirations down to revolve around her pettiness gravity well.

I am not saying I know what is better for the story, I just look at what is there and analyse that, because that is fun for me.

Also LOL at someone who scoffs at the concept of objectivity calling someone else pretentious.

This is not about preference or taste. It's not something subjective. When something doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. You can like it all the same, and that's fine, but it doesn't change the fact it doesn't make sense.

So it's been decided. What does it matter that others disagree? Nothing. My feelings just so happen to the objectively correct ones. A few people on the internet makes these decisions. I've gotta join that council.

Sorry, that's my first and last snarky comment. Generally try and avoid it but that one was difficult and I'm sometimes weak.

I'm interested to see what they cover in the anime now. Those discussions will be something.

Also LOL at someone who scoffs at the concept of objectivity calling someone else pretentious.

Who scoffs at objectivity as a whole? The argument is it's difficult to apply in this context, not that it does not exist. The concept isn't even novel within the arts. Many would agree with that idea (and of course some would not). Although pretentious isn't a word I'd use. I agree that's a bit contentious (which this all already has been), plus Citrus was mocked so I'll side with you on that one.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 5:05PM

De la guerra de las bandas pasamos a la guerra en los comentarios. People need to chill.

This is not about preference or taste. It's not something subjective. When something doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. You can like it all the same, and that's fine, but it doesn't change the fact it doesn't make sense.

So it's been decided. What does it matter that others disagree? Nothing. My feelings just so happen to the objectively correct ones. A few people on the internet makes these decisions. I've gotta join that council.

Sorry, that's my first and last snarky comment. Generally try and avoid it but that one was difficult and I'm sometimes weak.

I am all for discussing this, but saying that you feel different is not applicable here. If someone says that something does not make sense, you saying that you feel different is simply not helpful. Noone can argue your feelings, and most sane people don't want to. By all means, provide examples for why you feel that way. Why you feel that Shiho does makes sense, that the story does not contradict it's own logic to try to justify her. That is a very interesting discussion I would love to have. And please don't reduce this to feelings. The argument here is "the story breaks it's own consistency by saying A is true while showing B to be true." That is not a feeling I have, that is me comparing fact A to fact B and spotting contradictions.

To clear up any possible misunderstandings, objective does not mean universally true or agreed upon, objective means measurable.

I'm interested to see what they cover in the anime now. Those discussions will be something.

Also LOL at someone who scoffs at the concept of objectivity calling someone else pretentious.

Who scoffs at objectivity as a whole? The argument is it's difficult to apply in this context, not that it does not exist. The concept isn't even novel within the arts. Many would agree with that idea (and of course some would not). Although pretentious isn't a word I'd use. I agree that's a bit contentious (which this all already has been), plus Citrus was mocked so I'll side with you on that one.

Hey, I proudly own physical volumes of Citrus, so I am with you on that one.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 5:25PM

Hey, I proudly own physical volumes of Citrus, so I am with you on that one.

I actually don't have physical versions yet. I wanted the special art book though. I've got physicals for Vampeerz (favorite) and Hello Melancholic though. Speaking of: Vampeerz just dropped!

The argument here is "the story breaks it's own consistency by saying A is true while showing B to be true." That is not a feeling I have, that is me comparing fact A to fact B and spotting contradictions.

The problem is that this does boil down to feelings. You're explaining why you feel the way you do but your feeling comes before your logic and you use your logic to explain. Although I guess we could debate that as well. The point I'm making is I've already said that while this is not a grand experiment in writing, I genuinely do not have the same abrasive reaction to Shiho, nor the same connection to our first introduced pair. I did not read Shiho's intrusion as invasive but a natural process. The story always seemed to be an anthology of sorts that would shift to new pairs as old pairs got together. I hesitate to go into detail because that would require researching my way through the entire manga and I've been avoiding that. Maybe when I have time I can do that. As someone said previously your innate feelings about Shiho is the crux of the issue and to put it simply, I find her and Aki's struggle more compelling when compared to the other rather vanilla pair. The focus on the feelings of others is to make it clear that the story has communicated this same "feeling" in a large enough portion of its audience. This is to say that these feelings are a result of the author's decisions but no author will satisfy everyone. Would the story be well written if it appealed to those here but was hated by most? Since you say it's an exercise in objectivity, I guess you'd say yes--as you say you're arguing for objectively true rules of writing. I'd say no.

Edit: even "measurable" does not change anything. What are you measuring and what's the agreed upon method of measurement? How do you objectively measure? We'll be at this all day. It'll just be semantics. For that matter, let's say we measure partially using audience satisfaction. That's something we can measure much easier but that's been cast aside as "selling out," and "people will like anything that has drama." So what is it, exactly? My experience is that what's "objective" shifts just like something that's subjective. I also don't want to make it seem as though I don't understand general writing guidelines. My profession would make that difficult. They're guidelines determined by there ability to communicate to an audience. Not necessarily objective rules used to objectively measure writing as good or bad. There's more to it than that.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 6:00PM

This is far from the first manga series to discover that it can extend, or even overturn, its initial premises by turning its focus toward an emotional trainwreck of a side character who proves popular with audiences, either because that character's problems are "relatable" or because some segment of the audience likes to watch train wrecks, or both.

And it's even often the case that readers who preferred the first part of the story keep reading it, maybe because they hope the story will right itself, or because they value the ongoing glimpses of the parts that they previously liked, or maybe, like readers who get invested in a story often do, they just want to find out what happens.

Your reply is definitely the one that has resonated with me. I feel sold to more than anything. Whisper You a Love song is no longer a story that the author wants to tell, but a story that the author thinks the readers want, and since they can't satisfy everyone, they are bound to leave people behind.

At a certain point, the writing feels immature. It's like the author learned that conflict, unrequited feelings, and emotional turmoil in a story can make it popular, so they're min maxing all those by shoving them into the story and dragging them out, because obviously drama sells no matter the quality of the writing, right?

I wouldn’t go nearly as far as all that. I don’t think the author is being cynical, insincere or exploitative in their work; I think they made a choice that’s worked out OK for the commercial success (i.e., continuation) of the series, but at the expense of the focus and coherence of the (in the terms I have been using) “the work of narrative art.”

Like many a mangaka before them, they had to decide where to take the story after the MCs, Iori and Hima, got together, and preferably in a direction (one supposes) that would involve the rest of the side characters, especially the band(s). They might have come up with something that directly involved those MCs and explored the issues (about love, about connecting to other people, etc.) that had previously mattered to them.

But instead the author went with an external character whose issues were much more serious than anything that had gone before but whose motivations were less than compelling (unarticulated unrequited love) and whose plot goals were vaguely defined. (Beating the other band in a competition would address Shiho’s issues how, exactly?)

As I mentioned, the more the story tried to explain and justify Shiho’s hostility and resentment, the more the initial MCs were sidelined and the less the “battle of the bands” plot mechanic made sense as an endgame. And the Iori/Hima relationship may seem “standard” or “ordinary” compared to Shiho’s angsty thrashing around, but that’s in large part because the author stopped developing those characters in favor of the new kid on the block.

It will indeed be interesting to see how an anime adaptation might try to integrate the divergent parts of the manga version. * A Shiho who mattered from the beginning could very well be an interesting character; I can think of a half dozen ways they could make her an integral part of the initial plot rather than a divergence from it.

EDIT: * [Insert this sentence above] I think the notion that criticizing a character’s place in a story’s structure or the relationship of their stated motivations to their represented actions as being a mere matter of the “feelings” one has about the characters or personal “preferences” is quite glib and dismissive, as if readers are simply saying, “I don’t like people like that.”

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 6:01PM

[Insert this sentence above] I think the notion that criticizing a character’s place in a story’s structure or the relationship of their stated motivations to their represented actions as being a mere matter of the “feelings” one has about the characters or personal “preferences” is quite glib and dismissive, as if readers are simply saying, “I don’t like people like that.”

If that's for me, that's a misreading of what I said. But this has gone on long enough and Vampeerz just came out so I'm leaving this one.

Hey, I proudly own physical volumes of Citrus, so I am with you on that one.

I actually don't have physical versions yet. I wanted the special art book though. I've got physicals for Vampeerz (favorite) and Hello Melancholic though. Speaking of: Vampeerz just dropped!

I did not know Hello Melacholic got an english release! I have to pick that up, that is one of my favorites on this site.

The argument here is "the story breaks it's own consistency by saying A is true while showing B to be true." That is not a feeling I have, that is me comparing fact A to fact B and spotting contradictions.

The problem is that this does boil down to feelings. You're explaining why you feel the way you do but your feeling comes before your logic and you use your logic to explain. Although I guess we could debate that as well. The point I'm making is I've already said that while this is not a grand experiment in writing, I genuinely do not have the same abrasive reaction to Shiho, nor the same connection to our first introduced pair. I did not read Shiho's intrusion as invasive but a natural process. The story always seemed to be an anthology of sorts that would shift to new pairs as old pairs got together. I hesitate to go into detail because that would require researching my way through the entire manga and I've been avoiding that. Maybe when I have time I can do that. As someone said previously your innate feelings about Shiho is the crux of the issue and to put it simply, I find her and Aki's struggle more compelling when compared to the other rather vanilla pair. The focus on the feelings of others is to make it clear that the story has communicated this same "feeling" in a large enough portion of its audience. This is to say that these feelings are a result of the author's decisions but no author will satisfy everyone. Would the story be well written if it appealed to those here but was hated by most? Since you say it's an exercise in objectivity, I guess you'd say yes--as you say you're arguing for objectively true rules of writing. I'd say no.

Edit: even "measurable" does not change anything. What are you measuring and what's the agreed upon method of measurement? How do you objectively measure? We'll be at this all day. It'll just be semantics. For that matter, let's say we measure partially using audience satisfaction. That's something we can measure much easier but that's been cast aside as "selling out," and "people will like anything that has drama." So what is it, exactly? My experience is that what's "objective" shifts just like something that's subjective. I also don't want to make it seem as though I don't understand general writing guidelines. My profession would make that difficult. They're guidelines determined by there ability to communicate to an audience. Not necessarily objective rules used to objectively measure writing as good or bad. There's more to it than that.

No, I am explaining what is. How I feel about the status quo does not factor in yet. You made it sound like my brain just threw dice without me noticing that made me hate Shiho from the get-go, and I then scrambled and made up inconsistencies in order to pretend to have a logical reason to hate her. I assure you, that is not the case. Has your initial feeling about a character never changed after learning new information? My innate feelings on Shiho were quite positive, I liked her design and found her role in the story intriging. My dislike started after learning new and contradicting information about her. Furthermore, if I present evidence from the story why an event does not make sense, does my emotional reaction to it even matter? Either the event makes sense or it does not, emotion does not come into play here.

Easy example: A story states that it takes 2 hours going from point A to point B using method C. Events take place that support that information. Later on, a character that is shown to be at point A starts travelling to point B using method C. He is shown to arrive 1 hour later. Without additional information, that is a so-called plothole, a contradiction within the internal rules the story previously established. Me noticing that does not require any feelings on my part. It can lead to feelings, but the first step of recognizing that incongruity is pattern recognition, not emotion. When I say Shiho does not make sense, this is what I mean. Of course, we may feel differently about the contradiction, but you simply don't get to say, "Oh, that is not a problem, I feel like the character travelled for 2 hours that time". That is what I mean by objectively bad writing: blatantly false, conflicting or missing information presented by the story without intent. (Intent is important here, as many comedies use senseless writing with intent to great effect, for example). Simply put, the writer made a mistake. Me recognizing that logical error is not emotion-based, my reaction to it is. You are equating step one with step two here.

Of course, you are perfectly fine in enjoying an objectively badly written story. I have done so on many occasion, and will continue to do so in the future. I also don't equate good writing with appeal to audiences at all. How many people or which people like a story has nothing to do with quality. I consider a story competently written when it follows it's own rules without mistakes, and when it also nails the emotional beats, characters and themes, then I would call it good. Of course writing is more than following some rules, but competent writing is the bedrock, the foundation. It is necessary to transport the emotional content to the audience without getting lost. If a story nails one of them, but fails at the other, I cannot call it good, when there are so many stories that succeed on both aspects.

Again, if you feel positive about Shiho, more power to you. Have fun, enjoy the story your way. I neither can nor want to take that enjoyment from you. If you feel we naysayers present factually incorrect information about the story, by all means, correct us. But "I feel differently" is not a counterargument to "This cup is blue", wether we talk about a real cup or a fictional one.

You're definitely not alone in that, so I wouldn't worry. I wonder what you think the ending of these events between Aki and Shiho will be--also what role you think Himari and especially Yori will have? There's a lot of comments coming through so you might not see this anyway.

Regarding the band competition, I honestly can't predict which one will win, and I think the author deserves credit for that. I initially assumed that SS would win, since it made the most sense narratively (since the reason for Shiho's departure was at stake). Then Shiho promised Himari to grant her a wish if Laureley won, so I changed my mind. Then we had the chapter where Yori got the inspiration to create a new song, which made him think that SS might win. And finally it happened something that I would never have thought: Shiho telling Aki about her feelings just before the concert. This will probably have a very negative impact on her performance, so I wouldn't be surprised if Laureley wins the competition partly thanks to that.

Once the competition is over, as I wrote here before, I think that Aki will talk to Yori, tell her the truth about Shiho's departure and, now understanding how dangerous it can be to suppress feelings, will decide to come clean with her, so that she can be properly rejected and leave everything that back.

It probably sounds crazy, but I feel like Yori could be the link to bring them closer again. Himari has tried several times and has always failed (not that it's his fault). Perhaps Yori, now knowing that she is "responsible" for this whole situation as she was the one who "took" Aki from Shiho, decides to talk to her. I've been looking forward to a face-to-face talk between them for a long time and I'm pretty sure it's going to happen.

And while I do believe Shiho and Aki will be a couple at the end, It feels like it's something that's going to take a lot of chapters to be done coherently, so I might be wrong. Shiho has a long way to go to be an emotionally stable person to be in a relationship with someone.

tell her the truth about Shiho's departure

It's not like she hide from her. She just literally learn it. They already talked about Shiho departure before.

If this series does anything good, it's at getting people to talk about it :P I don't think I ever saw that much text produced in response to a single chapter before.

Regarding the band competition, I honestly can't predict which one will win, and I think the author deserves credit for that.

... you know, I'll give you that, but this is greatly overshadowed by the fact that at this point no one cares about the outcome (neither in this comment section, nor in-universe), even Shiho herself acknowledged that by now.

It was said in this thread a million times by now so I'm not saying anything new, but the more I think about the battle of the bands, the more baffling it is. It was the focus of a significant chunk of the story by now, the characters were hyping it up forever... yet the manga runs for so long that I don't remember if there was ever a point at which I actually cared about the outcome of the battle. It's not like from the point of view of the readers the stakes were ever high - why should we even care why that assholish character left the band?

I would guess that at the start most readers were obviously interested, but the more it dragged on, the less reasons there were to care - Shiho wasn't getting any more likeable (if anything, the author appeared to be determined to show that she has no redeeming qualities whatsoever), the mystery was slowly revealing itself anyway, and now the author decided to fully solve it even without that stupid battle. All these additional conditions of the wager weren't substantial either.

At this point someone could say that it's the journey that matters, not the destination, but the problem is that the journey was really long, and somewhat bumpy, with only occasional stops to look at the scenery. That analogy only makes sense if you don't think too much about it so please don't, but I'm of course talking about the fact that we did in fact get some singular pieces of fluff along the way, which I think did contribute to the fact that plenty of people still didn't drop this story and are still producing walls of text such as this one by yours truly :P

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 9:33PM

If this series does anything good, it's at getting people to talk about it :P I don't think I ever saw that much text produced in response to a single chapter before.

The opposing positions can probably be summed up as:

Pro: "This is Shiho's story now--and that's great!"

Con: "WTF?" Or perhaps, "WTFF?"

It was said in this thread a million times by now so I'm not saying anything new, but the more I think about the battle of the bands, the more baffling it is. It was the focus of a significant chunk of the story by now, the characters were hyping it up forever...

Even though I loved the chapter, I have to admit that it was kind of hilarious that after so many chapters leading up to the competition, Laureley's performance lasted just a couple of pages.

Also LOL at someone who scoffs at the concept of objectivity calling someone else pretentious.

I'm not denying the concept. For example, I think we can all agree that claiming to know what's better for a story than its author is objectively pretentious. How about that?

No, I am explaining what is. How I feel about the status quo does not factor in yet. You made it sound like my brain just threw dice without me noticing that made me hate Shiho from the get-go, and I then scrambled and made up inconsistencies in order to pretend to have a logical reason to hate her.

We're using "feelings" differently. It's my fault since I try and take shortcuts in order to avoid stretching out these messages further. And anyway there's no point having a philosophical debate in relation to this manga, so as I said I'm leaving it.

I consider a story competently written when it follows it's own rules without mistakes, and when it also nails the emotional beats, characters and themes, then I would call it good. Of course writing is more than following some rules, but competent writing is the bedrock, the foundation. It is necessary to transport the emotional content to the audience without getting lost. If a story nails one of them, but fails at the other, I cannot call it good, when there are so many stories that succeed on both aspects.

That's one way of measurement amongst many, yes. Remember I'm not arguing that I think this is well written.

@Kabu

Shiho telling Aki about her feelings just before the concert. This will probably have a very negative impact on her performance, so I wouldn't be surprised if Laureley wins the competition partly thanks to that.

This part I expected based on the themes the story has tried to play with. I also don't think it matters who wins the competition. It was never really a battle of the bands but between 2 people (stringing along others). That was always positioned as a superficial event--the meat of the issue was her relationship with Aki and the event was just a stand in made up by Shiho to avoid the issue, as is in her character. The event isn't really the climax. It's been in the background for a reason (because even the 2 of them know it's not the real focus).

It probably sounds crazy, but I feel like Yori could be the link to bring them closer again. Himari has tried several times and has always failed (not that it's his fault).

Yeah, not crazy at all. That's definitely plausible. I'm assuming the story will bring Yori more involved now and we'll finally resolve the situation with Aki (which has hung over the story since the beginning). I'd bet that Shiho's abrasive actions pushes the AkiYori much needed discussion. I'm not completely convinced that the story will focus on getting Aki and Shiho together though. But it's left a lot of room to do either.

And while I do believe Shiho and Aki will be a couple at the end, It feels like it's something that's going to take a lot of chapters to be done coherently, so I might be wrong

Yes, to be done coherently. It's possible they start earlier than that though, it's hard to say. There's also the economy of space. I'm not sure how much longer they intend this manga to go. Generally, I favor a more drawn out, slow building of smaller interactions but the writer could probably get away with a quicker resolution, if we go by how other well received manga have handled similar issues. We'll have to see. The next chapter should say a lot about where the manga intends to go from here.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 10:18PM

Yes, to be done coherently. It's possible they start earlier than that though, it's hard to say. There's also the economy of space. I'm not sure how much longer they intend this manga to go. Generally, I favor a more drawn out, slow building of smaller interactions but the writer could probably get away with a quicker resolution, if we go by how other well received manga have handled similar issues. We'll have to see. The next chapter should say a lot about where the manga intends to go from here.

I don't think that would be a satisfactory result. Shiho needs to grow a lot as a person, come to terms with why some of her actions were wrong, show accountability, and overcome all her internal conflicts. Otherwise, a potential relationship with Aki would still be built on uncertainty and insecurities, almost certainly leading to more problems.

Not to mention that Aki has to move on from Yori first and fall in love with Shiho.

As I mentioned a while ago, this manga is currently the best selling series in the magazine, with an anime yet to be released, so I assume the author is free to take all the time they need to do whatever they want.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 10:36PM

I don't think that would be a satisfactory result. Shiho needs to grow a lot as a person, come to terms with why some of her actions were wrong, show accountability, and overcome all her internal conflicts. Otherwise, a potential relationship with Aki would still be built on uncertainty and insecurities, almost certainly leading to more problems.

Not to mention that Aki has to move on from Yori first and fall in love with Shiho.

As I mentioned a while ago, this manga is currently the best selling series in the magazine, with an anime yet to be released, so I assume the author is free to take all the time they need to do whatever they want.

Yeah, they're doing well. So, I agree. It wouldn't surprise me if they take this slow and unravel the other issues as you said. They're getting overwhelming positive feedback which says they're communicating well enough to their audience. That's already been apparent. When I say "get away with" I'm referring to how their core audience would receive it. I could see 1 or 2 of the next chapters focused on their reconciliation, for example. By reconciliation I mean being cordial with one another, not anything major. Then, future volumes could focus on all of the girls growing together in unison. The whole reason for nearly every character's interactions are Shiho and Aki's history and Shiho's quitting; so once that's dealt with we have a clean slate. As I always say, we'll have to see.

last edited at Mar 19, 2023 10:50PM

pray to god that i don't want this to continue too much longer because i don't want totake another 2 volumes of that

I haven't read this one since that shiho girl appeared. I just enter from time to time when it gets an update to laugh at the comments lol.

Gotta love how dismissive some people were when I speculate that aki was gonna blame herself and probably gonna be the one to apologize
Even if it's clear to everyone that all of shiho s struggles are self inflicted, I legit think Takeshima eku is trying to convince people that they aren't and that she isn't at fault

Just look at kyo, people like to talk about how expectations and pressure broke shiho, when In reality kyo was the one being forced to play and win by her parents, while being hated by shiho for being better than her. And despite the fact that Shiho ruined music for both of them the manga frames her as the victim and glosses over the fact that kyo lost a friend due to circumstances completely out of her control and for a long time believed it was her fault

Same with the scene with aki and yori, there could have been a scene showing aki concerned for shiho, showing that she's also important to aki and that giving up that easily was a mistake, but instead there's a heavy focus on how sad she was for seeing aki with another girl, as if aki betrayed her by falling in love with yori

Gotta love how dismissive some people were when I speculate that aki was gonna blame herself and probably gonna be the one to apologize
Even if it's clear to everyone that all of shiho s struggles are self inflicted, I legit think Takeshima eku is trying to convince people that they aren't and that she isn't at fault

Yea, ive seen several people in this thread claim with full confidence that takeshima will absolutely show shiho as the one at fault and have her apologize/repent, but honestly i think theres a legitimate chance that wont happen. It might well be a "both sides made mistakes" thing if even that. Alot of manga in general can be really bad at having their characters take accountability, having them commit misdeeds of varying severity and then get away if a quick "sorry" if even that. (Like a chapter i recently read, not sure if on here, had a character try to push another character down the stairs and then was like "sorry, i was jelous" and every1 is like yea that checks out)