Anyone who understands what the fuck is going on in this chapter please let us know.

Basically a lot of anime host radio shows to promote them, which often feature the cast, sometimes acting in character. One of the notable examples is the Hidamari Sketch radio show, which sparked the whole Terry Asumi meme. As for this chapter in particular, Kyouko seems to be trying to do her job properly while Mirei is messing with her (that, or they're both intentionally putting the yuri business into practise), while Wanko is being Wanko, flubbing up as per usual but getting her act together at the end.

But what are those sounds they keep making?

Anyone who understands what the fuck is going on in this chapter please let us know.

Fuu afun?

last edited at Nov 18, 2020 12:18PM

I don't think the themes are trite at all. To say that is to dismiss the very real feelings a lot of people have to go through in life. That's like saying that exploring the nuances that can be found in the clash between good and evil in a story is trite. It's simply not true. A good author will find a way to write a good story for the themes of their choosing. You can have compelling characters, a unique setting, etc.

Then that's a creative, engaging story with trite themes.

I'd say there's a ceiling to HOW good a story can be with simplistic or dull themes, but it can absolutely be engaging and have good characters and stuff.

"Unrequited love exists" is... not deep or interesting.

That's not all there is to it. The main conflict of this story is "How will Uta ultimately deal with her unrequited love?" and not just "Does unrequited love exist?" That's an absurd thing to say. On the topic of this main conflict, the author decides in the end to NOT answer this question, and instead faff about with things nobody asked for, like Risako and Reiichi's drama, that girl who was in that beach photo in the end, that whole "I wanna have kids" moment with Kaoru, etc. The author wasted a lot of time on actual narrative garbage instead of putting that effort into exploring the themes they brought up in the beginning of the story. A bunch of non sequiturs that all ended up in the garbage bin along with the main plot point, unresolved, until the end of time.

The author DOES address how Uta deals with her unrequited love: they dedicate pages of it in the last chapter to Uta stating out loud how she treasures it and has perspective on it and has decided not to try to move on from it. That's the answer: that's how she deals with it. The fact that it seems like nothing is that it's an extremely trite and boring situation she's in.

Unrequited love is one of those things that's very hard to write about because it's all-consuming when you experience it, but not remotely interesting to observe from the outside. There's just not much to it.

The author actually does a really impressive job adding to the theme to make it as interesting as possible, like how Kaoru and Reiichi are portrayed as having unrequited love for one another (his is platonic), or how Kuro wants to unhealthily and constantly be the object of unrequited love so she doesn't have to commit. None of this ends up informing Uta's situation much, but it does allow the manga to explore deeper themes.

Wait, hold on. We're getting far from the point I'm trying to make. I made no claims that there's no merit to exploring the trauma people experience. What I'm saying is that, at its core, the failures of this story are technical, not thematic. To be more specific, I actually think that the themes of Todokanu Ito are refreshing, but the way the ending of this story was handled was a disservice to its themes. You can have an ending where Uta moves on from Kaoru, or one where they get together, or even one where Uta is left to evaluate and sort out what path she will take moving forward, introspection-style, but we got none of those. The author chose to ignore the central conflict and chose to give the readers an ending that refuses to address the elephant in the room. That's why it fails, and not because of any reader's personal experience. If that were the case, then a lot fewer people would be upset about the ending.

The problem is, the themes ended up being really trite. I've read a kabillion manga with a high school girl opining "I will lock away the precious blossom of my youthful love without regrets and move forward celebrating the bittersweetness in my heart."

I think there just kinda was never a lot any author could do with Uta. She's in love with Kaoru and has decided not to try to get over it and is pretty much mature about the whole thing. "Unrequited love exists" is... not deep or interesting.
Kaoru (and Reiichi) is in a much more interesting position, wrangling societal and parental expectations, figuring out the difference between different kinds of love, trying to balance your own desires with the needs of others. But Uta is portrayed as the protagonist (at least at first), and anyone empathizing with her is going to just be frustrated with Kaoru. I feel like the big selling point was "a high school girl is in love with her sister-in-law!!!" and with that the author painted themself in a corner.

Okay, so what did this wrap up and what are we meant to take away from it?

Kaoru: Lives on her own for a while, "keeping Uta's love in her heart," and then, post-college, reconnects with Uta and they get together. Presumably this is much healthier than her marriage because she's thinking about what she wants rather than expectations for her.

Uta: Thrives in her work despite constantly being depressed she can't bring in "the results." What "the results" are is currently unknown. Presumably in a happy relationship with Kaoru. Stays friends with Kuro and is on good terms with Reiichi. Wears a pendant in the shape of Pac Man.

Reiichi: Lives literally next door to the apartment his sister and ex-wife fuck in, so

Kuro: Stays with Miyabi in what is presumably a healthy, happy relationship, though she's super tsundere about it. Still very unclear if she's supposed to be ace or not. Buys a smart watch. Starts wearing her hair down and frankly it looks great.

Konatsu: I... think confessed her love to Uta? Because there was the weird moment looking at her picture, and Uta says she knows what it feels like to be the target of unrequited love? But it's not clear. Then she goes to Hawaii or somewhere for college and gets a sun tan.

Risako: Maintains a good relationship with Kaoru, and, like, maaaaaybe there's the implication her friendships keep get from shutting herself off from people. Otherwise completely unknown.

There's information here! It's just... piecemeal, and what we get is entirely predictable. The thing that bugs me the most is the author pulling out the very trite manga trope message of "ohh my treasured childhood innocent memories are a precious bittersweet treasure in my heart and I will hold onto them and reflect on the fragile impermanence of schoolgirl love as I enter adulthood." I could stand to lose this message from all manga, but here, it's completely incoherent to do that and then have her END UP WITH KAORU ANYWAY.

Listen, author, I get being rushed into doing an ending in a single chapter, but Kaoru is clearly the character you care about most, and Kaoru getting in touch with her own desires (and queerness) is a much more interesting thing to focus on than Uta... deciding not to change. Like seriously you have the dynamic character and the character determined to stay the same and you focus on the latter I mean

Also, the weird moment I'm fixated on is Kaoru's friend doing bicep curls on the zoom call.

last edited at Oct 23, 2020 8:32PM

...how did Kaoru change her clothes? She didn't go home.

...eh, it probably was the same magical genie that caused Uta to happen to be in the exact place she was walking by when Reiichi called.

PS: fully rooting for Risako/Kaoru over Uta/Kaoru as an ending. Uta gets whatshername, that extra character who was in love with her teacher or whatever.

She did go home. She's wearing her wedding ring when she talks to Risako (Chap. 35, p. 9) but she's later taken it off and left it where Reiichi sees it (Chap. 36, p. 6).

aaahhh good catch. I thought for some reason she wasn't wearing it with Risako, but it makes more sense for her to have taken it off after.

I honestly feel like more groundwork has been laid to set up Kaoru/Risako in a real relationship than anything else. But I actually figure what's gonna happen is in the flash forward we'll be at Risako's wedding to some dude we don't know because "look Risako doesn't push people away anymore for some reason" and that's all we get.

also jesus christ author just have Uta figure out what Kaoru meant and go to the grave because unlike Reiichi she's not panicking. Having Kaoru just happen to walk by, I mean come on.

...how did Kaoru change her clothes? She didn't go home.

...eh, it probably was the same magical genie that caused Uta to happen to be in the exact place she was walking by when Reiichi called.

PS: fully rooting for Risako/Kaoru over Uta/Kaoru as an ending. Uta gets whatshername, that extra character who was in love with her teacher or whatever.

last edited at Sep 27, 2020 3:42PM

Is the food a fetish thing? It's really seeming like a fetish thing.

Kinako-chan is the greatest evil of this or any other age.

Look at her. Just LOOK AT HER.

Does it count as "gay for pay" if the person's actually gay?

EDIT oh wait never mind, I just looked closer. Cute.

last edited at Aug 17, 2020 10:32PM

Love it, love it, love it. This is some of the most graceful writing I've seen in a manga in a long time.

I love Komari trying to stave off her impulse to argue and explicitly connect the dots, because her empathy tells her that won't be effective, and because she knows the image in her photo will do the job better than talking could. It doesn't mean anything if the Cool Aunt connects with Kon; she's gotta see her parents get her.

(I also love her saying she's in the second half of her 20s, despite it being made clear she's 30)

Oh, and I love the way the dad's brought up. He's still around, but Kon very quickly points to something he bought her as evidence he cares.... something utilitarian that anyone would need.

It's a real victory for the offbeat art style, too, especially that final page.

Oh thank god, a new character I can actually tell apart from sight from everyone else.

I was thinking how Saeko have some hidden inner woman within herself, but I'm not sure about it anymore.

Now I think she is the slightest form of trans man. A straight trans man, exclusive top, who is somehow comfortable with female body, until sexually using that body in a way who Saeko isn't.

In that case, Saeko is not transsexual, but some transgender issues here are obvious. Tomboys belong to lesbian spectrum observing through sexuality and assigned sex at birth, but to transgender spectrum as well, observing identity expression through boyish look. Like both in same time.
I would be glad to hear other opinions about it, without drama and judgment to my personal point of view.

Saeko is watching herself from above "with cold eyes", it's definitely a split of personality in a moment. Her identity is "watching" her sexuality, expressed in a "wrong" way (being bottom is just unnatural for Saeko, she can't identify with it, she does not have anything to give through it, it simply is not a part of her inner being and it can't be forced).

This is my impression in current situation, how I perceive it for now.

This is interesting, and it would be cool if a manga like this explored that, but I don't think it's what's going on. It's been made pretty clear that Saeko's issue is with PLEASURE. It's shown that she's fine being touched until it starts to feel good, at which point she locks into a panic mode of cursing at herself in her head. As a teenager, she didn't seem upset getting penetrated by a guy, except it confirming how gay she is.

She doesn't think she deserves pleasure for some reason we haven't fully explored yet. Whether that's the central part, or if it's the fear of looking vulnerable, it's not clear.

So... they were partly into one another at the start because of the things about them that're fucked up. Miwa appealed to Saeko because her clinginess took up so much space, Saeko could completely avoid ever opening up or being vulnerable.... but now Miwa wants to do things on her own. Saeko appealed to Miwa because she's so good at deflecting and making things copacetic and so could relieve Miwa's anxieties... but now Saeko wants to try to be open about serious stuff.

So they inevitably gotta break up, because they've been able to help one another be better people, which wrecks the dynamics that brought them together in the first place.

So, uh, two of the couples literally just ended with a time skip where one of them is with a dude and the other one just pines forever?

It's actually hilarious that they get off the phone and are like "She seems to be totally over her crush!" and literally THIRTY SECONDS AGO she was cupping the chick's face longingly.

I've criticized the hell out of this series and stand behind it, but this latest chapter was a huge step in the right direction. Look, one of them trusted the other to be around other people without cheating!

OH hey, Naomi's back!!!

And those other two characters whatstheirnames

That's right! Never change, character who I don't remember who you are!

poggers

Even Risako lied about meeting with him in early chapters. It's just gets confusing... Like, why? They were friends, Kaoru and Reiichi were friends with Risako, they know it, also the part were Reiichi and Risako dated, everything's known until now, even Uta knows it because Risako told her... Reiichi could've told Kaoru that he was working with Risako, and that's it, but neither that.

Reiichi lied because he was guilty about his feelings and is extremely bad at communicating with Kaoru anyway. Then he had to keep lying because he lied the first time.

Risako lied because she wanted Kaoru to find out and feel betrayed and cut her out of her life, so Risako wouldn't have to be in love with her anymore.

ok but that guy's head is just so small though. Look at it. It's. It's so tiny.

Anyway, so everyone involved is a decent person (though some are very stupid), and being the target of unrequited love can be just as hard as having unrequited feelings, because of the pressure of not hurting the person. And Reiichi's real tragedy is, he doesn't have friends and doesn't know how to make any. Instead of just being Risako's friend. he makes it this weird half-cheating thing.

It seems very very likely that they'll get divorced and we'll jump ahead five years and Kaoru has gained self-confidence and then she randomly runs into Uta and they leave together and the manga ends. Which, y'know, sure. The only real tension left is if Risako and Reiichi will end up together (and if that happens I'll be pisssssssed)

I just want a spin-off where Risako mentors the cat pigtail girl about how to be a bad-ass business lesbian.

last edited at Jul 19, 2020 3:08PM

The nurse is in love with the stuffed rabbit, right?

I was horrified, and then I got to the boob-sucking part and... I dunno, a piece of me kinda respected it. They really went full-out in telling a creepy joke in the creepiest way possible.

This is a pretty untraditional adaptation of Waiting For Godot, but I like it.