black girl in my yuri manga!!!
sadako is so adorable lol. head empty, girl just wants attention. it's definitely a testament to the quality of the mangaka's skill that her very unique worldview is portrayed so strongly, meanwhile the world around her is a lot more grounded and mature--it's not easy to juggle two things at once like that, but it has a really great effect in moments like the one where she doesn't really get a lot of the hate comments. the story itself isn't lighthearted and dismissive of them, it feels almost unsparing, meanwhile they don't register with her and it doesn't impact the trajectory of her story--at least for now, because that disconnect builds a tension between the two of them. you feel like the story could shift tone quite easily if she snags on the attitude of the world around her. super interesting.
it's really interesting to get a better sense of what's going on in this work with the background of having read a lot of sal jiang's other stuff. she does really seem to like hateromance, doesn't she? i really like it when authors have like, A Thing they do that they're clearly very invested in and have thought out from a bunch of different angles, like yes, please deliver me the next iteration of your thesis on why it's exciting when women are super into each other and resent each other at the same time, im here to learn. this is a really different take on her normal, very real-world adult style, too, so i'm really interested to see a different take on her favored theme here.