The plot for the next couple of volumes: Shiho rejects Aki because she doesn't want her "love" out of pity, then Aki tries to convince her that's not the case, while genuinely falling in love more and more with Shiho in the process.
How does it sound? I'm half-kidding, but honestly I would find out of character for Shiho to accept whatever Aki is going to say to her in the next chapter, although everything seems to indicate that it will be the case.

And you believe that calling concepts like the narrative role of protagonist and antagonist “rigid thinking” isn’t condescending?

It definitely wasn't my intention to sound condescending. And I never mentioned those two roles...

I think some of you have too rigid a conception of what the narrative structure of a story should be,

LOL. I guess that’s one way of phrasing it.

I thought you didn't like condescending remarks? Maybe you should be looking somewhere else to satisfy your literary tastes. A manga targeted at teenagers probably won't do.

Shiho has not been the cause of a conflict that serves to develop the story of the original protagonists.

Yeah, that's not true at all in my opinon. I can write about it in more detail later, but at least I wanted to express my view on the matter now.

I think some of you have too rigid a conception of what the narrative structure of a story should be, almost like checking a textbook to make sure it follows a certain pattern, instead of seeing it as the way an author has to convey something.

But I do agree that the band competition has taken too long to resolve. You can't have an Arc longer than the rest of the series combined in a (relatively) short manga like this one.

Just because it's interesting: I'd imagine that volume 8 would have Shiho and Aki. If that's the case it would be 5-3 cover appearances.

Shiho has only appeared once on a cover (Volume 5), which is crazy given her predominance from Volume 4 onwards. Also, the vibes you get from the covers of Volumes 6 and 7 (Himari and Yori being lovey-dovey) are completely different from what's actually going on in the chapters within them. They are marketing the series as a "fluffy romance" as much as they can.

But once Shiho did enter at around chapter (14-18?) it's been fine for what it's trying to do.

Chapter 15 was the first "proper" appearance, but her first introduction was in Volume 2 actually, which speaks for itself regarding the author's intention for her.

last edited at May 28, 2023 2:29PM

And to be clear, it’s not a professional mistake for an author to choose a narrative strategy that proves popular with readers, just an artistic one.

Wouldn't it have been a much safer strategy to continue with the day-to-day lives of Himari and Yori, as their relationship develops (similar to what the author I Can't Defy the Lonely Girl did)? Let's not pretend that the author took the easy path with the series, because I would say that it's rather the opposite.

The fact that those two are on the cover of Volumes 6 and 7 instead of Shiho clearly shows what the main selling point is.

yori lives in shiho s head so rent free to the point that she even speaks Ill of her in front of himari, that's just how much she despises yori

It's literally the exact opposite. For example, when Yori and Himari were about to kiss for the first time in the karaoke, she decided not to out of her jealousy for Shiho. When they were hanging out together during the summer festival, Shiho's sole presence ruined Yori's mood for the rest of the date (she even ended up crying in front of Himari). There's even a chapter where Yori said "I definitely don't want to lose to Izumi-san", so she does care about winning the competition.

You won't find Shiho thinking or talking about her unless someone asked her opinion. To be fair, it's not Yori's fault. Shiho lives rent free in everyone's head, even the readers'.

last edited at May 27, 2023 2:34PM

besides is not like yori has something to prove to shiho as far as I'm concerned the only reason yori wanted to win was to help aki, the only time yori and shiho had something that barely resembles a rivalry was went shiho got a bit touchy Feely with hima to make yori jealous

Yori has an inferiority complex towards Shiho. It's kind of ironic considering what happened in the past, but we've never seen Shiho have any kind of thoughts regarding Yori, yet the opposite has happened several times. She has caused Yori to have insecurities both regarding her skills as a singer/performer and in her personal life with Himari.

What puzzles me is why the people around her keep putting up with her shit, like sure she's a "realistic teen", but other "realisticas teens" would already be done with her, even if her character makes sense it's weird how everyone just shrugs their shoulders and go "good ol shiho am I rite" whenever she acts annoying.

Shiho has actually always been very nice while she's hanging out with Momoka and Hajime, or when interacting with Himari alone.

Lol that panel of yori and shiho facing each other was hilarious, as if yori actually gave a flying fuck about shiho or whatever she's up to. It's also hilarious how no one but hima could muster the strength to chase after shiho cuz she's such a pain to deal with, so even her bandmates avoid her like the plague when she's mad

I mean, winning the competition is also important to Yori. SS lost during the audition and Shiho told her that "she has a long way to go" (I think it was the only time they spoke, lol). Not to mention, she even wrote a new song for the occasion. Whatever the case, Yori is lucky to have the plot armor on her side.

Happy endings are fine, but does Shiho deserve to be happy after everything she’s done? She’s evil, she’s cruel, she’s a monster! She is the worst person in the story by a mile and her having a happy ending with Aki, ESPECIALLY after how she has treated Aki and the people Aki cares about, she really does not deserve to be happy

Honestly, I thought you were being sarcastic at first. Shiho is the person who has suffered the most throughout the story, as she's someone who has always been burdened by expectations, pride, jealousy and guilt. I'm not denying the bad things she's done (I do believe that Shiho will eventually come to terms with why some of her actions were wrong and show accountability for them), but readers are overreacting in their criticism of her and this long Arc. The person she's hurt the most is herself, after all.

My heart wants Aki and Shiho to make up and fall in love because I love happy endings, but my brain says it wouldn't make sense to move this fast because just recently, Shiho was still big mad about her first love not noticing her feelings because she was too busy pawing after another girl.

It would be unrealistic for Aki to fall in love with her so suddenly and it would be unrealistic for Shiho to reciprocate those feelings right away.
The ideal would be for them to reconcile, become friends again and for the relationship to develop little by little, but I don't know if that will be the author's intention. Sales are great and there's an anime coming soon, so it's all up to them really.

Sorry, I can't stand Aki.

Why? I honestly can't say even a single bad thing about her. She even helped Himari and Yori to become a couple despite her own feelings.

It seems that SS is going to win the competition after all. Don't worry Shiho, you can't do anything against such a massive plot armor.

I'm still not sure what kind of message will Aki try to convey to Shiho. It's not like she can fall in love with her in just one day... Right?

Both Volume 12 (beautiful cover, as always) and an anthology of the series will be out this month. The manga went from 600000 copies in circulation for Volumes 1-11 to 1 million copies in circulation for Volumes 1-12. Great news.

I think this Arc had some of the best written chapters in the entire series, but to each their own. The manga shifted its tone lone ago by now, so no one should be surprised by all the drama.

Chapter 57: It was always pretty clear from her first appearance back in Volume 4 that Youko was/is a psychopath.These types of people like to play with people and their feelings. There isn't really much more to it. I just hope she stays well away from Yano and Hime.

Judging by the comments on this site, I don't think watayuri is going to dethrone MagiRevo in terms of "studio being passionate about yuri and pulling a huge power move, shuffling around the adaptation specifically so they can adapt farther and explicitly have them be in love and kiss"

A show like MagiRevo is much more appealing to the average male viewer's fantasy. Yuri is My Job! can't compete in that regard, and I honestly don't mind. I think its writing quality speaks for itself.

because I really truly doubt it's possible to shove a minimum of six volumes into one cour

It's definitely possible, but the studio opted for a super faithful adaptation, without rushing anything nor skipping scenes (at least so far), and I respect them for that, as I love the current pace (whether it's the right decision from a business point of view is another matter). The problem with not adapting up to Volume 6 is the lack of a proper payoff and the possibility of people believing the series is Yuri bait.

On the contrary her actions and dialogues are pretty in line with each other, she says she hates kyo, then she cuts ties with her without hesitation and in a sense kyo´s death actually relieved her from her past, she now doesn´t have to apologize nor confront her eternal rival, she can just pretend that they had great relationship and sweep under the rug all the bad parts (that mind you were all shiho fault).

Shiho hated the fact that she was better at playing the violin than her, not Kyou herself, which I don't need to explain is vastly different. It's the same thing that happened with Aki: Shiho couldn't stand not being number 1 and decided to cut ties entirely with her.

I repeat, why would Shiho visit her grave regularly if she really hated her? Guilt might be a factor, but I doubt it's the only one, as we even saw Shiho crying in front of it while remembering her. At the very least, Kyou is her inspiration to keep striving for perfection. Or at least that's how I see it.

last edited at Apr 28, 2023 12:40AM

I don't get why momoka and Hajime are so fixated on shiho, is not like she was an integral part of kyo s life, they were fiends for a brief period of time and then she just cuted ties with her altogether cuz she couldn't take the L gracefully. Is just baffling seeing her lover and sister going to this random person that haven't talked to kyo in years and who she was presumably in bad terms and practically beg her to play music. The fact that till the day of her death kyo never actually got mad and always rooted for shiho while on the other hand shiho never acknowledged that she was wrong and deeply hurt kyo is infuriating

Neither of them (not Hajime at least) know the details of their fight, but they do know how special Shiho was to Kyou, as she frequently told them herself.

She herself said that she choose to play the guitar cuz kyo wasn't allowed to and that gave her a sick sense of victory. How on earth could you read it as she wanting to stay connected to her, kyo was still alive when she started playing guitar, she could just talk to her intead of being the worst friend ever.

Because Kyou was the most important person in her life before she met Aki. The things she said and did contradict each other as proof of this. Shiho uses defense mechanisms so she doesn't have to deal with the pain: For example, in Chapter 34 she said that Kyou was just an "acquaintance" to her and that she was even relieved that she died, but if that were true then she wouldn't have gone regularly as we saw to her grave to talk to her and tell her about her life, nor would she (as I wrote before) formed a band with Momoka and Hajime for Kyou's sake when she wanted to quit music.

Shiho loves to lie to herself, repeating in her mind that she is a heartless and selfish person. Acting way tougher than she truly is. But I am convinced that those are simply defense mechanisms to protect herself, as she can't deal with defeat in a mature way.

last edited at Apr 25, 2023 10:31PM

Oh wow, I nearly overlooked that. Not "some of her actions were wrong". All. All of them were wrong. Shiho did not do a single correct thing aside from breathing in oxygen.

She is doing her best (along with Momoka and Hajime) to keep the memory of her former friend/rival, Kyou, alive. Shiho formed her current band even though she wanted to quit music altogether at that moment. The reason why she chose to play the guitar was to stay connected to her, even though at the time she understood it as a selfish act (defense mechanism). People really underestimate the weight of carrying the death of a loved one, especially at that age.

That brings me to another point of critique of the series, though. Why would Aki even want for Shiho to be part of her life? We see that she does, but we do not really know why.

I would also like to see more about their relationship from back then, but with what we've seen so far it's obvious that she was the most important person to Aki.

Maybe Vol 8 will cover Aki’s journey to getting over her first love/reconciling with Shiho whether it’s platonic or romantic.

We are currently at Volume 9, lol. But yeah, I'd love to read more chapters from Aki's perspective.

last edited at Apr 24, 2023 8:13PM

I’m also wondering what’s left for our true mains? What other obstacles are in store for them and all the other girls?

The only thing left unresolved is Aki and Shiho's relationship (plus Shiho's internal insecurities), so I'm pretty sure that fixing their bond (and helping Shiho to be happy) is this manga's endgame.

I just find it amusing that a story which primary focus was low-brow comedy, T&A and fights got this specific topic so much more right than a drama series with focus on character relationships.

Shiho told Aki the truth just two chapters ago, so let's wait a little longer before jumping to conclusions, shall we? I mean, I don't think it would make sense from a narrative point nor it would be satisfying to the readers if she doesn't come to terms with why some of her actions were wrong (it's not like she doesn't know that, but her defense mechanisms have always been stronger until now), show accountability for them, apologize to everyone and finally overcome all her inner conflicts. Otherwise, a potential relationship with Aki would still be built on uncertainty and insecurities, almost certainly leading to more problems.

I hope she's not thinking something like "meh, what's the point of even watching them perform? I already won anyways~" YOU STARTED THIS SHIT! at least have the decency to see it through.. but that's worse case scenario, right? I mean, there's no way right?

I get your point and it's valid, as it would be disrespectful of her to not even watch their performance, but it was actually Aki, not Shiho, the one that made the whole bet regarding the winner of the band competition.

Don’t think Shiho will accept Aki’s word… Will Aki have to prove herself? And besides, just because she’s over Yori doesn’t mean she’s in love with Shiho. Will Shiho be more flexible about being friends now that Aki isn’t pining for Yori?

Is Hima gonna find her in the graveyard and drag her back just in time to see Aki sing about her? What will the next arc be?

All difficult questions to answer right now. I'm particularly intrigued to find out what Aki came up with in the span of a single day. I don't think she could write an entire new song for obvious reasons, so maybe it's an old song that's special to both of them?

Whatever the case, I'm having a hard time imaging what kind of relationship they'll have moving forward.

last edited at Apr 23, 2023 9:30PM

I'm assuming she realized that she'd settled her feelings with that hand touch. She no longer has her crush and probably hasn't had it for some time. She'll try to communicate that to Shiho with her song. She seems to want reconciliation but, as per her conversation with Shiho, Aki doesn't want to reconcile while still pinning for someone else.

Yeah, I think you are right. After all, Aki wants to convey a message to Shiho with their last song, and It can't be something like "I still have feelings for Yori, but let's be friends" as she knows Shiho would never accept that.

I don't know if it was stated before, but I certainly didn't expect SS's performance to be the next day. I'm glad, because thanks to that Aki had time to refresh her head a bit. Otherwise it could have ended pretty bad for them. I wonder what was that Aki realized about her feelings.

People will start complaining about the last page, which I understand, but it obviously won't be anything serious at all. The author just wanted to end the chapter with a cliffhanger.

last edited at Apr 23, 2023 8:29AM

The challenge “if you can’t name a better-written character in the story than Shiho, that means that Shiho is well-written”

No, it means "then all the other characters you enjoyed so much reading about are even worse written characters".

This is a completely foolish assertion. “If you don’t like everything about this story, why don’t you just stop reading?” always is a nonsensical question.

there are many reasons a person might continue to read a story besides being enamored of a particular character who has come to dominate the story

You really like doing that, don't you? Extreme statements like those ones to go off on a tangent instead of answering a simple question that never implied what you are saying.

"Just give me more of Himari’s journey to becoming a thirsty little lesbian".

I get the impression you never gave a fuck about "literary quality" until Shiho started to appear more frequently in the story.

it has nothing whatsoever to do with literary quality.

I never mentioned literary quality in my post, I just tried to explain why she's a well written character in my opinion.

You have shown yourself to be utterly unable to distinguish between “liking the character and being interested in what she does” on the one hand and basic standards of narrative craftsmanship on the other.

Answer the question then: Who is a better written character than Shiho in the story and why? If you can't think of any, then the fact that you come back every month to continue reading the series can only be described as Stockholm Syndrome.

Preferences are subjective, but how can anyone say that Shiho is a bad/poorly written character? Whoever claims that is simply blinded by their hatred. She ticks all the boxes:

• Has a backstory, which allows us to understand what she has been through (not only all the self-imposed pressures we always talk about, but also the death of one of the most important people for her, Kyou, at a very young age, which many people here seem to forget) and that have led her to be the way she currently is.

• She has both very marked strengths and weaknesses (and that leaves room for personal growth and development, which is very important).

• She is, and no one can deny it, consistent, both with her words and with her actions. We all know, to a greater or lesser extent, what to expect from Shiho. Her personality does not change based on what is necessary for the story to progress.

• Personal goals. Objectives. Motivations. As I said here before, she is the main plot device that drives the manga, for better or worse.

• She is the character that feels most human out of everyone. Why? Because all of the above.

If you don't agree with what I've written, who do you think is a better written character than her? What would the manga even be about at this point if she didn't exist? It maybe be over by now.

And looking at how kyo even after her desth never got a proper apology I highly doubt that neither aki nor the SS girl will receive one

That wouldn't make sense from a narrative perspective nor would it be satisfying to the readers (not even for those who like Shiho so much, like me). I think it's obvious that there will come a point where she will take responsibility for her bad deeds (not that she doesn't know thet a lot of her actions were wrong, but her defense mechanisms have always been stronger until now), apologize to everyone, and redeem himself by the end of the series.

this is why i would have chosen to follow aki in this arc as she has been established to fuffil her role well and shiho could still get development through her.

I think that's partly what's going to happen after the band competition.