Sigh. I'm so tired of those conversations. That's exactly the reason I stopped reading manga and bothering with following conversation, because both were tiring and just not going anywhere. But fine, I'll humor you.
karp posted:
Well see, the first thing is, it's NOT true that Uta's confession was "what kept most people interested in reading it." I can absolutely see that if you were looking at the manga that way, you'd be frustrated. I... honestly don't understand seeing the manga that way, but fine.
Except the literal title of the manga is "Even if this string won't connect" (referring to the red string of fate) and the first chapter is all about Uta being depressed over her love for Kaoru. Also the official english subtitle by mangaka is "secret crush on my sister". Literally the second freaking page, the title drop, the entire hook of the series is presented as a Uta's love story. To say the story initial premise isn't about Uta's one-sided love is pretty disingenuous. For someone preaching how this story is better read as a whole, you sure forgot how exactly it started.
This really isn't the kind of manga where a confession happens and a bomb drops;
The thing is, by the way the premise was structured, Uta's confession should be the most important thing happening in the entire manga. I'm not expecting to see some huge drama and changes to status quo every chapter. I read enough of those mangas. Honestly I'm sick of them, because most of the time the only reason it happens is to shake status quo and nothing else, it doesn't feel organic. No, what I'm saying is that it's story about Uta's unrequited love for Kaoru. Her confessing her feelings to Karou can't go well. That's why it should be the last thing she does, but when she do it should matter. It really didn't. And even if I'm overexaggerating the importance of it, it still should have actually been shown since it's supposedly the basis of entire premise of the manga.
Also this author mastered the art of keeping the status quo as unchanged as possible. Well if you're happy with very small and barely noticeable changes and can handle reading something like that for many chapters. More power to you. To most people it makes for a boring read. Sure it's not that nothing happens, but what happens should be significant enough to keep readers invested. But it isn't. Maybe the 100 small conversations and baby steps is how it works in real life, but it's fiction. I know people love talk about work feeling realistic, but true be told, most of life is boring af, so writing something truly realistically is just no engaging. I and what most people are probably fed up with is the fact there weren't many meaningful changes in the story so far and we're 27 chapters in. I'm sorry, but writing about how for the umpteenth time character doesn't do something don't make for a interesting story.
And sure it's not always wrong to either withhold information or have character not do something, but it's all about balance. Doing that few times is fine, but if all story ever does is that and moments when audience actually learn something or character does something is exception to the rule, that's when it starts to become a problem. Many people kept insisting that eventually we'll learn everything we need to know and read waiting for that moment, so everything will finally click. And that's exactly what I meant that even if story doesn't have enough going for it, if there are things people are interested in learning a answer to, they'ill keep reading, regardless how good or bad story is.
This isn't a big mystery; it's a conflict that's mostly from Kaoru's point of view and about her more than it's about anything else. This story might a well be named "Character Based Not Plot Based," so I just really don't see these mysteries. The author is doing one thing: leaving the question open about whether or not Reiichi is cheating because Kaoru herself doesn't know and the story is about how Kaoru deals with this situation. We're sitting with the tension as Kaoru tries to address it without actually making any waves, and that's not working.
Em no. First of all, as I already shown, it was supposed to be Uta's story. Entire first volume and majority of second one is shown from Uta's perspective and the whole cheating bs doesn't start until chapter 10. It's a... mystery to me how you can consider Kaoru and that stupid plot line a main focus of the story. Especially since it's not like cheating gets so much more focus than everything else and few times it resurfaces, it gets forgotten just as quickly. It's not like it's all Kaoru is worrying about. In fact, we are barely shown Kaoru worrying about it, for supposedly main focus of entire story.
Second, not once I said this story is plot based. Yes, it's based on characters and we're supposed to be following their development and changes. The thing is, in order to do that we first need to actually understand the characters. Who they are and who they were. And that's where the whole withheld information becomes a issue. We are clearly shown there's 2 set of characters. Kaoru, Uta and Reiichi before something vague and mysterious happened in the past and after that. Those characters are completely different from each other. When I tried to have conversation about it before, and complained how Kaoru's character is inconsistent, I was told, that it's because I was talking about "old" Kaoru and it's the "current" Kaoru. And that's the issue. Entire premise is based on fallout and aftermath of something that happened in the past that fundamentally changed all 3 characters and is still haunting them to this day and we, as a audience, don't know what it was about. And it's not like we don't need it to understand them, because those events are constantly referenced in story. So say what you want, but in order to really understand the current situation characters are in, why they changed, how they changed and what can be done about it, we must know what happened. How are we supposed to have any constructive conversation or fully understand any changes and implications to characters, without even knowing the whole picture of situation they are in right now. It's not like I read it specifically for mystery or put huge importance on knowing those events. It was author themselves who did that and build entire story around it. They are crucial if you want to know why things are the way they are and why characters made the choices they did, so if once those information are finally revealed and they don't make sense, this story will collapse in on itself. The truth of the matter is, majority of conversations people had here were about their assumptions and guesses, instead what we actually know. That's saying something. It might not be a mystery story, but hell, it sure is written like one.
Third, I have separated issue about entire cheating thing, but the thing is, initially, I actually liked how it was handled. Reiichi was clearly feeling guilty about it and seemed to realize he was fucking up. He wanted to confront Kaoru about it now that cat was out of the bag. Kaoru's feigning amnesia to avoid talking about it wasn't bad either. It actually felt like something someone would do in that situation. The issue is everything that happens afterwards. The whole issue is basically swept under the rug. It should have been focus for next chapters, when people are invested in it. It could even end up with Kaoru trying to confront Reiichi and failing. We get some break and then she goes back to confronting him again. Instead the thread is dropped completely, we get sidetracked with different stuff, then when Kaoru finally remembers "Oh right, my husband might be cheating on me or something" and despite being the coward she is, she finds guts to ask him 1 fucking phone call and the thread is dropped again for many chapters. Instead of audience reacting to it as "Oh, she is confronting him, will we learn the truth!?" it was more like "Oh right. There was that. Will we finally learn anything about it?" Oh also. That phone call. What it was about again? See where the issue is? Just mentioning something and not following on it at all is... not how the story works.
Nothing doesn't make sense; nothing is setting up a grand twist. This isn't some complex twists and turns, here. This is one thing we don't know because we're supposed to be sympathizing with Kaoru. This is one reason I think reading chapter by chapter is detrimental especially to this story, and reading it all at once helps: It keeps you from seeing cliffhangers and expecting big reveals.
Also you keep saying that we should read entire thing in one go, but you constantly avoid addressing the whole high school girl romance side story issue. Checking again now, their existence feels so random and intrusive. Having someone for Uta to talk to is 1 thing, but their whole storyline is so far removed from what is going in actual main story, it's astonishing. If author liked them so much and wanted to write about them, they should just make new series about them, because as it stands, all they accomplish is take focus away from the actually important events and dilute the story even more than it already is, as well as just making the already slow pacing even worse. If you're not interested in them at all they just feel like padding.
You know. I really wanted to read this series for character development. Uta's character development. Her angst. Her story. I didn't mind some distractions here and there. I didn't mind that there might been some past history we initially don't know about. But after Kaoru's accident, it felt like story just lost focus and become a mess. New elements were constantly introduced to be dropped next chapter. Direction was all over the place. Things were build up to then never deliver. Barely anything was explained and only more things were added. I really liked Uta's character so I tried to read it for her, but once author cut out her confession from story, I said enough.
I remembered about another thing that was set up and then forgotten, but wasn't sure where to put it. Reiichi wanted to ask Uta something, but he backed off. Again, stuff like that is fine every now and then, but when it's almost everything we ever get, that's when it becomes a issue.
last edited at Nov 22, 2019 12:39PM
