Why do so many manga have the "Let's have some fun and play with..." character that drags everything to hell.
I despise those tropes. I've dropped several otherwise interesting manga & anime because of sh**-stirrers.
I really see this vitriol for Toki as unfair, because all she has done is acknowledge the elephant in the room. Sure, her intentions are selfish, etc. etc. But is she wrong for pointing out the implications of the sisterhood contract, when that relationship is what forms the basis of this yuri manga? A relationship which, may I remind you, involves an age gap and surrogate sisterhood. So let's not pretend as if Toki is sullying a wholesome and fluffy little romance with her evil manipulative presence.
I honestly found the sequence where she insinuates that Meguru actually wants to "have fun" with Kasane properly unnerving, combined with Meguru's mortified reaction. She couldn't possibly have been in such deep denial, right? But she really was, which is just such a juicy source of angst.
And now, Chapter 14 reveals that her relationship with Hiromi was in fact pretty unusual itself, with even the contract itself being Hiromi's idea. The story seems to be taking the age gap more seriously as a barrier, dashing any remaining hopes that Meguru is a devious OL hunter mastermind just playing the long game to get a hot older girlfriend, and showing her to be quite a few shades more naive than the younger party in age gap romance tends to be, which I think shakes up the premise a little bit. Meguru is not even close to being ready to "upgrade" from "sisterhood", and now we get to wonder if there's really a way for that to happen in a way that doesn't feel skeevy, whether soon or years from now.
Of course, I could be wrong, and maybe Hijiki will sprint to an ending within a single volume. But now that it's clear there's a bit more gas in the tank than I assumed, I'm really curious where she could take the story from here.
last edited at Mar 29, 2024 8:52PM