Time to play "Is this an uncritical depiction of lovebombing, a critical one, or am I just being grumpy and overthinking what's supposed to be a comedy?"
Ironically, despite the 100 Days manga having a lot more blatantly questionable stuff, I think I like that one a lot better because there is the genuine feeling that both parties are on some level interested in each other, even if one of them is deep in denial due to her internalized stuff. Here, it just feels like Mai's being pushy and creepy and more-or-less completely disregarding Renako's wishes for friendship, and Renako comes across as genuinely stressed and miserable on their "lover's days." Honestly kinda reminds me of something similar that happened between a friend and their ex; just, red flags for days. I think I'll keep an eye on this in case it gets better, but at the moment, I'm just getting a really uncomfortable vibe here.
I will give Mai that like, her whole thing of "why can't lovers and friends be the same thing?" is a good outlook on stuff, Renako clearly has some stuff to work through about that, but that doesn't make Mai's actual behavior any less pushy. One of those cases of a manga portraying the main relationship so weirdly that I sincerely hope Renako ends up with literally anyone else, (maybe Ajisai? She seems like she'd actually respect her boundaries some) even if it's probably never gonna happen given the setup thus far.
last edited at Aug 22, 2022 9:27PM