There's something entertaining about a username meaning "triangle" posting only to a story called "How to Break a Triangle." (No criticism, I'm just easily amused by word games.)

On the other hand, Erika's suffering is nothing compare to Koto since is not that big of deal to give up on someone who obviously can't reciprocate your feelings.

Must be nice to never feel it's that big of deal to give up on your crush—who is also your closest friend—for years. To never dwell with the "what if(s)" situations if things were right. Must be nice, must be really nice.

Let go of someone who doesn't like you back truly isn't that big of deal.
Especially if you have ever be mutually in love, you wouldn't want to waste time on them who obviously can't reciprocate your feelings.

Yeah, apparently using other as a rebound is the only way in this world to move on from someone else.

The only way...? Oh the irony. If that's how you see how moving on should be then let us agree to disagree here. I'll still believe that using others as rebound isn't necessary to actually move on and start anew with someone else who isn't just to simply fill the void, but to really have the connection, to have the chemistry, and to fall in love deeply with another one.

You can't really understand what l am trying to say here, seriously？
I only say that because you said Erika would definitely become high school Koto ver.2 if she did try to move on.
Likes there's no other way than using other as a rebound.

I don’t disagree with the points you make, but judging the “morality” of the characters’ actions is ultimately subject to the extreme artificiality of the “spirited away” situation—what exactly should a person do when they or their crush or their rival disappears one day and then reappears seven years later physically unchanged and with no memory of time passing?

And you certainly could be right—that situation may in some sense have been triggered by all the characters’ wishes, but that’s basically irrelevant to judging the morality of the characters, because, at least so far, the story hasn’t shown the slightest inclination to make that premise explicit or to otherwise explore the mechanics of how the “supernatural” works here.

I kinda disagree with how you interpret the story. Yeah the literal premise is supernatural events that never happen IRL (as far as we know), but it's not like they have no analogue whatsoever to realistic situations. That is, in fact, precisely why the morality debates on this forum get so heated. Is maintaining an unrequited love for years a moral failing? How much of Koto's treatment of Aya is justified because (a) Aya legitimately does need her help and (b) Koto still has severe PTSD from Aya's disappearance? What exactly should Aya do now that her old life has been completely taken away from her? All these are extremely relevant questions to actual people, no supernatural bullshit required, and for that reason this manga is managing to call forth a lot of passion in its readership. I think that's a sign of its high quality.

What exactly should Aya do now that her old life has been completely taken away from her?

All these are extremely relevant questions to actual people, no supernatural bullshit required,

I’m really not seeing how these two statements have any logical connection. Under what circumstances does an actual person “have their whole life taken away from them” and reunite with their schoolmates apparently 7 years younger and with their domestic situation eradicated apparently overnight?

This seems to be arguing that as long as we ignore the entire premise of the series, the issues it raises are very down-to-earth and realistic.

What exactly should Aya do now that her old life has been completely taken away from her?

All these are extremely relevant questions to actual people, no supernatural bullshit required,

I’m really not seeing how these two statements have any logical connection. Under what circumstances does an actual person “have their whole life taken away from them” and reunite with their schoolmates apparently 7 years younger and with their domestic situation eradicated apparently overnight?

This seems to be arguing that as long as we ignore the entire premise of the series, the issues it raises are very down-to-earth and realistic.

Add enough details and no work of fiction is applicable to real life. Probably nobody IRL had exactly the same backstory and issues as Touko from Bloom Into You, but the character's themes of loss and trying to live up to an impossible ideal are universal, or close to it. Obviously nobody IRL has ever been through exactly what Aya has. But the more general feeling of being unmoored, having no idea what to do with your life, being dependent on your loved ones and so alternately being grateful to them and feeling a certain amount of guilty resentment? Those are 100% realistic issues. I think you're approaching this story too literally.

What exactly should Aya do now that her old life has been completely taken away from her?

All these are extremely relevant questions to actual people, no supernatural bullshit required,

I’m really not seeing how these two statements have any logical connection. Under what circumstances does an actual person “have their whole life taken away from them” and reunite with their schoolmates apparently 7 years younger and with their domestic situation eradicated apparently overnight?

This seems to be arguing that as long as we ignore the entire premise of the series, the issues it raises are very down-to-earth and realistic.

Add enough details and no work of fiction is applicable to real life. Probably nobody IRL had exactly the same backstory and issues as Touko from Bloom Into You, but the character's themes of loss and trying to live up to an impossible ideal are universal, or close to it. Obviously nobody IRL has ever been through exactly what Aya has. But the more general feeling of being unmoored, having no idea what to do with your life, being dependent on your loved ones and so alternately being grateful to them and feeling a certain amount of guilty resentment? Those are 100% realistic issues. I think you're approaching this story too literally.

And if you strip the context from any given story and talk about it at a high enough level of generalization, you can assert its "universality."

As we've seen, ignoring the specificity of how this story works certainly enables readers to deliver a wide range of personal moral judgments.

There's something entertaining about a username meaning "triangle" posting only to a story called "How to Break a Triangle." (No criticism, I'm just easily amused by word games.)

Lol you got me there. At first I didn't intend to step in the forum and just be a silent reader (without having an account) but yes to what Cogito said.

this manga is managing to call forth a lot of passion in its readership. I think that's a sign of its high quality.

This series would certainly be my favorite ever. Every main characters here are so complex in depth just how I love it because IRL people are also that complex. We do good things but we also do bad things, both to get by what we need/want to do in life itself.

Personally, I find the trio's struggle to be relatable or at least understandable (aside of Aya's case of time-shift), bit by bit after we get to see their respective POV.

So when some readers come at them my mind was like, "Huh? How are you not understand them after reading their own POV?"

But after the debate I get the conclusion that our value just doesn't match one another. Hence the varied opinions from readers.

That ending...

last edited at May 1, 2024 12:57PM

Damn this Koto is stupid.
The situation as a whole is not an easy one true but seriously can you act a bit more possessive?
How it happened does hardly matter she is back together with her and starts to get her life under control and then this idiot tries to take all of that away so she can be reduced to be her little pet.
Seems like she is the one that doesn't wanna grow up.

Yeaaaahh, that was bound to happen.

Things are getting awesome

You only have yourself to blame Koto

Yeeaa, the slow-moving trainwreck has just hit the station (mixing metaphors there, I know). This was bound to happen from the start, and Koto is wholly responsible for Aya's leaving, but on the other hand, I am not sure she could have acted any other way in that situation? Koto may be an adult in day-to-day situations, but when it comes to Aya, her schema is that of a 14 years-old kid whose girlfriend has apparently ghosted her for no reason. Her trauma leads to possessiveness as a survival adaptation, which, ironically, is what drives most people away. Koto is responsible for Aya leaving in this chapter, but let's not blame a trauma survivor for surviving the only way she knew how.

last edited at Jun 8, 2024 4:37PM

Realistically though people would normally be over it after 7 years especially when they had just barely gotten together so there's likely much more to it than this.

But I'm also the kind of person who breaks up with someone and then just acts like nothing ever happened and is just like "heeeyyy bestieeee" again. Unintentionally, even.

last edited at Jun 8, 2024 4:51PM

I'm disappointed on the story front.

Like, Koto went from 10 MPH to 120 MPH on a toxicity scale. (Don't question my units.) How do you even recover from that? There's bad ideas and then there's BAD IDEAS.

Wonder where Aya will go.

Realistically though people would normally be over it after 7 years especially when they had just barely gotten together so there's likely much more to it than this.

"Realistically" is doing some heavy lifting. Neither Koto or Erika have grown out of their childhood crushes after 7 years. At least Koto tried dating other people but it's strange she couldn't find anyone that'd make her move on from the girl in middle school she briefly dated.
Most people will find they're very different person at 21 than they were at 14 and that they want and expect different things in a romantic partner. "Realistically", Koto would find it increasingly difficult to see a 14 year old Aya as a possible romantic partner because the difference in life experience and maturity are just too great.

So I suppose Aya's running away to Erika's place? She showed a bit of fondness towards her this chapter for helping her get a chance to act again. Wouldn't it become a dramatic triangle if Aya started crushing on Erika instead? I'll be rooting for that chaos (mainly because I'm rooting against a possible het ship between Aya and her coworker/study buddy).

I think Aya and Koto will be just fine. They have a lot in common because both suffer from abandonment issues, so they can understand each other. They just have to talk it out.

It would help if Erika tells Aya how Koto has been doing since she disappeared, and I think Erika is gonna do just that because guilt is finally piling out in her heart. You can tell she's starting to feel guilty for wishing that Aya and Koto will part ways.

last edited at Jun 8, 2024 6:23PM

Realistically though people would normally be over it after 7 years especially when they had just barely gotten together so there's likely much more to it than this.

"Realistically" is doing some heavy lifting. Neither Koto or Erika have grown out of their childhood crushes after 7 years. At least Koto tried dating other people but it's strange she couldn't find anyone that'd make her move on from the girl in middle school she briefly dated.
Most people will find they're very different person at 21 than they were at 14 and that they want and expect different things in a romantic partner. "Realistically", Koto would find it increasingly difficult to see a 14 year old Aya as a possible romantic partner because the difference in life experience and maturity are just too great.

So I suppose Aya's running away to Erika's place? She showed a bit of fondness towards her this chapter for helping her get a chance to act again. Wouldn't it become a dramatic triangle if Aya started crushing on Erika instead? I'll be rooting for that chaos (mainly because I'm rooting against a possible het ship between Aya and her coworker/study buddy).

Sometimes it doesn't happen that way. Koto is very likely neurodivergent in some way or another, and given Aya is someone she idealized to an unhealthy degree already, if she has certain neurotypes (borderline personality disorder, etc), it's easy to imagine Aya having become her FP. It's not easy to move on from someone who slots into your brain like that, and you can't just replace them with someone who doesn't scratch your brain in a similar way—which is an explanation as to why she never had a "normal" relationship that felt like it lived up to the feelings of recognition she got from her idealized person paying attention to her.

To imagine, then, that same person reappearing seven years later, exactly the same as they were... only this time, the power dynamic is slanted entirely in Koto's favor, it's very easy to imagine why it'd be a recipe for abuse. Even if she doesn't have BPD, Koto has a number of traumas and brain problems. and they're clearly untreated.

So Koto finally snapped and done goofed... And then there's Erika being overdramatic....
Man it sucks to be Aya.. I wonder if Koto can come back from that error, and if Erika will try to go for her now.
Anyways, it's a fucking mess, I love it, thanks for the chapter!

OH NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH GAS

i really really hope aya and koto can figure things out and be in a healthy relationship together, even if they have to wait for aya to grow up a little. koto just needs therapy honestly but it's gotta be hard to move past the fear that the most important person in your life could disappear at any moment. i dont blame her for how she's acting at all tbh, even if its like, the worst thing for aya in this situation

imma be real
21 year olds are not that much more mature er than 14 year olds

imma be real
21 year olds are not that much more mature er than 14 year olds

Ehhh gotta disagree there. I've been around both in the past few years. I'm a fair amount older than either.
14 year olds are literal children and that's the only way you can treat them. I have a couple of family members around this age. Well a bit older by this point...damn time keeps moving.
21 year olds are in a vague "young adult" state where it's simple to talk to them like adults but they'll be childishly ignorant about topics here and there. Still pretty much an adult by any measure. I've had a few kids around this age work for me during the summer for the past several years.

imma be real
21 year olds are not that much more mature er than 14 year olds

Ehhh gotta disagree there. I've been around both in the past few years. I'm a fair amount older than either.
14 year olds are literal children and that's the only way you can treat them. I have a couple of family members around this age. Well a bit older by this point...damn time keeps moving.
21 year olds are in a vague "young adult" state where it's simple to talk to them like adults but they'll be childishly ignorant about topics here and there. Still pretty much an adult by any measure. I've had a few kids around this age work for me during the summer for the past several years.

While that's certainly true, 14yo/s are def not anywhere near on the same level as 21yo/s, it is worth remembering what a big influence trauma can have in regards to stunted emotional maturity.

Of course that is to say, even with all that in mind we shouldn't wave off Koto's role in all this. In the end she's still the adult in this relationship and in a position of power over Aya as her de facto guardian, which automatically makes it her responsibility to act like it. Whether she's emotionally equipped to or not.

Aya is quickly shaping up to be one of my favorite yuri characters ever. Her coworker friend is absolutely right; despite being thrust into one of the shittiest situations imaginable, she's managed to pick herself up and keep moving forward. In just a few short months she has a job, a path to earning a high school degree, and has now even obtained something of a career trajectory with the theater troupe. That is insanely impressive for a 14-year-old with almost no support system. And then, as soon as her girlfriend -- whom she depends on for food and housing, mind you -- starts being abusive, she's self-confident enough to just up and leave immediately. I love her.

Putting it in these terms, I wonder if there's more to Koto's behavior here than just her abandonment trauma. One line that stood out to me is when she said, "That's how you've always been. Before I realize, you're moving forward. And then, just leave me behind." It feels like she's talking about more than just Aya disappearing. I think Koto, despite her love for Aya, has also always had an inferiority complex about her: the beautiful girl who can do anything. Aya says she wants to be "level with" Koto, but perhaps from Koto's point of view, their current arrangement, with Aya totally dependent on her, is the only way for them to actually be equal. As soon as Aya starts standing on her own again, Koto fears, she'll realize how much better she is than Koto and ditch her for someone she's more suited for.

That said, I disagree with the posters who say we can't blame her for this, and/or hope for them to get back together. I don't think there's any coming back from what Koto did here. I don't think she's irredeemable, but she has a lot of work to do before she's ready for another relationship.