I love this chapter, so it’s great to see it get a better translation here :)
Things that are just good in this chapter:
- Marika acknowledging internally that she is in love and the brat tamer dynamic being better communicated / clearly consensual
- Dealing with being gay and thoughts on coming out and hurtful assumptions in a really clear and direct way that a lot of yuri side steps
- Marika being a literal card carrying lesbian and her friends definitely being like “huh”… but she’s still not mentally grouping herself as a lesbian when thinking about lesbian spaces and support
A lot of Arioto isn’t realistic, but this pivot chapter is a wholesome, gentle, grounded, and funny development in Marika’s gradual process of understanding what it means to be queer.
This chapter (or equivalent pages) in the LN is when I became a ride or die for this series. We’ll see more in the upcoming onsen trip, but Marika really is just addicted to goalpost moving. Even after acknowledging that she’s definitely gay and loves her girlfriend she still has to find a way to win the bet. That’s fun, I like it. And we all know how that’s going to end up.
The friends being a couple the whole time genuinely surprised me, and was my sign that, problematic elements and all, this series has a good heart. Very wholesome indeed.