Man, Wakaba is dense.

Komaki is what you would call a "self-sabotaging idiot".

I enjoy the manga but damn, Komaki is one of the most useless lesbians I've ever come across while Wakaba (although I can at least understand why sorta) is really living up to that dense protag mantle. I mean, Wakaba, is it really such a complicated mystery about what she loves when her barely disguised hints are literally kissing you in the face? Someone help these girls, lol

Wakaba isn't really that dense or in denial, she pretty openly cares about Komaki, she's just frustrated to do so because it sucks being in love with a bitch who hates you. I can barely comprehend why Komaki thinks Wakaba hates her and her consent is impossible to get

Wakaba is more consistent, and convinced herself that she hates Komaki. Yeah her love is obvious from an external point of view (both are), but that doesn't mean Komaki is going to feel confident in confessing. In fact, I seriously doubt Wakaba would even take such a confession seriously - she's convinced herself that Komaki is this heartless, distant person she has to bring back to heart, and doesn't seen that Komaki is already down to heart and right next to her. Well, at least if we were playing blame game, it would be pretty easy to say that Wakaba refusing to recognize that Komaki is in love with her despite her constantly making up "games" to be closer to her, both simply to spend time with Wakaba and to get intimate.

IMO it's pretty obvious both are in denial and refuse to admit how much the other loves them, and twist their own minds to justify not recognizing and confessing their own feelings. It was actually the point were the manga picked up for me, realizing Wakaba's mind is also quite twisted and distorts things, much like Komaki.

Also, while the intensity is obvious excessive and beggars belief, not to mentions materializes in... not the healthiest way to put it mildly, I like that the root cause of the distance between them remains simple and likely. Komaki sees Wakaba as a pretty, popular girl she likes, but who doesn't like her back for who she is, and wants to stay close to her but believes it pointless to confess. Wakaba sees Komaki as a rival, someone she loves being with but who doesn't want to say nice things about her, doesn't want to admit to herself how close they are.

I enjoy the manga but damn, Komaki is one of the most useless lesbians I've ever come across while Wakaba (although I can at least understand why sorta) is really living up to that dense protag mantle. I mean, Wakaba, is it really such a complicated mystery about what she loves when her barely disguised hints are literally kissing you in the face? Someone help these girls, lol

Komaki expresses physical attraction to Wakaba, but not romantic attraction. Given the occasional comments about Wakaba's "child-like" body, that physical attraction probably doesn't feel great or reflect all that positively on Komaki. Wakaba presumably just thinks Komaki objectifies her without actually liking her.

They are right for each other!!!

I definitely think the Bit with this one is gonna start wearing thin soon if they don't make some significant progress soon. I can only take oh-so-much toxic yuri before it turns from angst to unentertaining lmao

All this debate about "density" meanwhile I just think it's funny how Komaki had to eat dirt again because she was too stubborn to resist Matsuri's needling. She is so terrified of showing even a little vulnerability that it makes her do the most absurd things.

Edit: thanks rainbow8 idk what I was smoking

[snip] This manga feels so, so much worse than Arioto. As someone who was a little iffy on arioto, going back and reading it now makes it seem vanilla compared to this shit.

I don't think the comparison on that basis fair. Of course this manga (abbreviated as Ubaware from here) is darker for various reasons, but there has been no proper sex here so far, or even nudity. The level of sexual content in Arioto is erotica, but Ubaware is just suggestive. There are situations that are sexually charged, but even when Komaki made Wakaba strip it went nowhere. (Komaki cuddling a naked Wakaba and ogling her body was weird, but neither party was getting off.) It says plenty that the most sexual bit that you could latch onto was the bellybutton slurping, which was a short lived moment that also didn't escalate further. The fact that Ubaware so far contains no sex scenes also means that Komaki has not had the same "opportunities" to experience pleasure like Marika has.

I don't see why anyone would expect Ubaware to feel similar to AriOto or ShuuKura. This isn't really a romcom (the most important difference probably!), and it involves no casual or compensated dating either. The sexual situations are facilitated by a game, but the relationship is not casual, since the leads have a complicated history that goes back to their childhood. This is not a relationship that started with a game or a monetary transaction, instead the game is a toxic escalation of a pre-existing rivalry, where the formerly innocent stakes of the bets become weirder and more sexual.

When Wakaba loses a bet now, Komaki takes her body as payment. In Arioto and Shuukura the "dating" is the commodity and money is the payment, and in Arioto "dating" also forms the "gameplay" of a bet (if the dating simulation satisfies Marika enough to approve of lesbian relationships, she has to give Aya a "refund"). Sou could say that Arioto and Shuukura are Pay for Gay, but Ubaware is Pay by Gay.

last edited at Nov 19, 2024 7:57PM

Matsuri had to eat dirt again because she was too stubborn to resist Matsuri's needling

I think you got at least one name confused.

This tendency for manga and light novels nowadays to have titles like this that are basically the first part of the story and super specific? Where did I see this before? My conclusion was the AO3 fan fiction site and its use of tags. If it didn't have tags, like the other site fanfiction.net doesn't, most AO3 writers would instead have titles like this.