No, I can't.
Well, I explained right above why I, at the very least, thought of it was coming kind of out of nowhere or not as something that could be an end game from the start. What follows kind of generally point to this direction as well.
I don't know why you've gotta assume the worst of a writer who obviously had an intent simply because that intent was nonstandard.
It's in the realm of the possibility, they would just need several discussions with close ones or very insistent fans. I could/should have also specified that it's also possible no one influenced them at all (don't know why I put she, I don't really know if it's the case, heh).
Why's it gotta be that he or she was pressured? Why's it gotta be that the direction changed or the story changed?
No reasons for the pressure question, it's just a possibility because, once again for the latter one, it didn't feel like it was going to end this way from the premise, from the attitude of the main male character. It was supposed, or felt like, to be a story about Tokujira and Itsuki from the start and then the last chapters happened, I'll talk about it later in my post.
The characters themselves pointed out how Keitarou's feelings for Aoi were entirely undeserved.
Did they? I don't recall it like that, perhaps I should read it again.
He assumed she didn't care about how he looked, but she did.
There could be more ridiculous reasons to be interested in/falling in love with an other individual, also Tokujira is kind of (really) beautiful from what it is said about her and the numerous confessions or even her title.
He put on a disguise and hid his true self, such that she never knew his true self. There is no logical reasoning that would lead to a good romantic outcome from that, but also there doesn't have to be no romance in the story whatsoever.
Fair enough, the disguise was an issue in itself from the beginning. It was one of the primary root of conflict in the story.
As I said, it all has to do with expectations. Why not make him see that despite her fear of men, despite her coldness towards him, she was deserving of those sentiment after all, heck, he spent the entire story trying to seduce her, through a proxy admittedly. And then when he finally succeeded, she could have as well realised he was somebody she could appreciate or even love, which she did; the important points being how it would have happened and how they would've gone past those troubles to help Tokujira go past her fear of men, finally opening herself to the world and for them to end up together or not, it could have ended non romantically in the end, even without Botan in the equation.
Enter Botan, who HONESTLY doesn't care about how he looks.
It's still a bit far away in my memories, but I kind of remember Botan honestly hating Ituski at first for both his personality and his looks that she found scary as everybody else. Only overtime, as you said, because he lied and used his girl persona did she start to warm up to him, mostly because he told her it was to help her very best friend - without female Itsuki (similar to Tokujira but later) she would have never accepted him, just like Tokujira.
There's no fairytale trappings with their development AND it happened very early on (volume 2, I remind you).
The development of their relationship began right from the moment they met, the development of their romantic feelings well.. For Botan, I agree, it happened early on, for Itsuki, it wasn't that obvious. I found her to be a (good hearted) annoyance for most of the story, because she was getting (involuntary) between Itsuki and Tokujira's relationship - typical triangle love issue.
The only reason she ended up winning Keitarou's heart is because thematically, her winning his heart made the most sense. Nothing here was an accident.
Now, even if I like tsunderes, it didn't work for me and she still felt as an hindrance. I still cared more for Tokujira and wanted her to be happy, possibly with Itsuki because they genuinely felt things for each other, even if it was based on a lie - as was the reason Botan started to accept him and ultimately fell for him.
I didn't feel Itsuki was falling for Botan at all, it didn't make sense to me either because of how the story was playing it out. What made sense was that Botan was a really good friend not necessarily a good love interest. But then chapter 29 and afterwards happened.
The fact that fans of Botan were afraid that she wouldn't be end game is a pretty good indication as to why some people (me included) found that Itsuki falling for her was coming kind out of nowhere. It can makes sense, yes, but having Itsuki be with Tokijura in the end could made sense as well. Even if it was her intent from the start, it didn't feel like it to me.
[...] I don't like how your criticism is worded. Good writing, planning, and sense of character relationships that goes against cliche and standard should be respected, not scoffed at.
The only thing I'm scoffing at is the final chapter that feels like a middle finger to the entire story. I cared more about Tokujira, she was at the centre of the entire intrigue, she and her problems were the driving force of the story, the reason why Itsuki went into trap mode and did everything he did with Tokujira and Botan - heck she even is the reason they found each other in the end and she suffered for it. So when the final chapter is focused on a bland and uninteresting problem between Itsuki and Botan, and the only major thing happening is their date with Itsuki going all stupidly "omigod she's so cuuutee ;3;"... In a story with drama and heavy feelings, it felt kind out of place and not so cute to me at all, just cheesy kind of bleeeh romance, not the good cheesy kind.
I felt kind of robbed because them ending up together wasn't (or didn't look like) the goal of the story so why focus on it in the last (three) chapter(s)? There were no pay offs for Tokujira's part of the story, we only have vague mentions that she is smiling more and having fun taking care of a kouhai, whoop dee doo, but what about it? Has she really completely gone past her fear of men? Why her smile when she looks at her kouhai is framed like that? etc.
There is cute moments though when we see Tokujira joke about being the one that was dumped and about going out on a date with him crossdressed again (and what I already mentioned) so that was pretty good, but I want to see more of how it affects them. Yes, this last chapter felt like a waste, a bit too rushed.
That said, I'm not really convinced their writing was that clever nor innovative; how is having the guy falling for the "girl who truly cared for his true self from the beginning" is going against cliché? Not that I have anything against clichés, if they're done well they're pretty fine in my book. But again, overall I really loved this story or I wouldn't be writing so much about it.
last edited at Dec 11, 2017 8:45AM
