Sigh.
This arc continues to be annoyingly stupid and the worst part of the series thus far. The angst feels forced and stale already, I just want to move on as quickly as possible.
I feel like calling this an "arc" is more melodramatic than the actual content. It's just one chapter split into two parts.
She arrived at the end of 41, and I imagine this (and it's ramifications) will be the focus of the whole volume which would get us to a minimum of 45. Is a volumes worth not an arc? It's definitely been presented as a shift in the story using all the typical hallmarks. If all this suddenly resolves next chapter (which would be abrupt and it's own issue), maybe I'll agree with you.
Thanks for this, the introduction of glasses and the way the drama is going definitely feels like this is an arc that started a bit ago and will continue for at least a few more chapters. So I don't think calling this an arc is me being melodramatic at all, even if it ends up being a shorter arc, which I hope it is.
Can you really call this an "abrupt nosedive in quality", considering what came before?
Yeah because beyond the context, the execution is the main issue people are having. I agree with Blastaar--the Kase-san similarities are spot on. This one feels a bit worse than that to me because this person has even less of a relationship to anyone and her presence has now apparently triggered uncharacteristic issues within the main relationship. With Kase we could also try and explain away the illogical nature of it with the sports relationship, team synergy and pressure aspects, even if those were also a major stretch to me.
This as well, I personally don't mind the teacher romance drama in this series. For me the sudden introduction of glasses and the way the drama is unfolding here is the series driving into a brick wall, but until now I was enjoying the series in general. So I'm just hoping we move past this quickly and onto things I enjoy more.