I actually really enjoy this portrayal of jealousy and how it's being treated. It's so real. Yeah it's convoluted and stupid bs but real life problems are that way. Hima is just way more kind about it than most folks would be. That said, I like that I feel like I can see the real motivations behind what everyone is doing. The author is keeping just the right amount of subtly and showing their hand when it makes sense to. Top tier writing in a manga. T-T

I'd bet my shoelaces that Shiho is acting out because she felt like her buddy was picking Yori over her. It would explain why she got SO MUCH MORE UGLY realizing Yori and Hima were together and that the love she let divide them had totally not manifested into anything.

I'm still super invested and enjoying the heck out of this, but I understand why people might want something a lot more black and white.

Communication helps solve your troubles. Who'd have thought?

And sure took her a while to realize the situation she's now in... :D

I'd bet my shoelaces that Shiho is acting out because she felt like her buddy was picking Yori over her. It would explain why she got SO MUCH MORE UGLY realizing Yori and Hima were together and that the love she let divide them had totally not manifested into anything.

I have the theory, and I'm sure many others here as well, that Shiho had a crush on Aki when they were in the band together, and the reason she quit was because she found out her love was unrequited, and because of this Shiho has always resented Yori.

I mean, Shiho clearly has a fixation on her that is not normal. Every time she talks to her it is to say something mean or to provoke her. Of course, this could also be explained by the fact that Yori is the new singer of her old band and nothing more. But I think that's unlikely.

The cherry on top is Shiho becoming friends with Hima only to learn after that she’s also connected to Yori. I read someone here describing the situation as "Shiho considers Yori the one who's taken everyone away and her bet involving Hima is her way of taking someone away from Yori and hurt her."
I think this would explain why, right after hearing that Hime was Yori's girfriend, Shiho decided to accept Aki's bet but with the condition of making Hime her band's manager.

last edited at Mar 20, 2022 4:24PM

So Shiho continues to be the petty villain, huh
To the people expecting some tragic past: we've already seen her past, it was in chapter 25. And it wasn't really all that tragic if I may add lol. I was actually one of the (probably few) people who liked her backstory, but I still find it annoying to see her do pointless mean things like this. It also makes any friendly interactions she's had with Hima feel fake, when she's deliberately trying to act as if they're close just to make Yori jealous. Like, why is everyone even bothering to make up with a person like that at this point? Her bandmate covering her mouth to shut her up was a bit funny though.

I liked the rest, it's good to see that they actually talked about things. And more scenes with them blushing are always welcome!

Well this chapter was everything I wanted and more, I don't mind if the fireworks festival kiss is a cliche trope as it's almost always fun. The main thing for me here is the lead up. I felt like the complicated and messy communication was well written, and finally has them on more even footing. Where there's not exactly a perfect solution, same as real life often times, but now they're communicating about it.

Now that they've deepened their bonds and aired out their troubles, the kiss feels great. This is the first chapter for this series that I've really loved in a good while.

Oh yeah, this gives me hope

Feels nice being patient during the setup so that the payoff hits just right when it eventually comes. When the series introduced Laureley and the band battle I feared it might shift away from Yori and Himari's relationship too much and lead it to stagnating, but in hindsight I feel they were used to develop said relationship quite well. I don't think it took too long to get there, Yori needed to wallow in her jealousy a bit before she could come to terms with it.

As for Shiho, I'm okay with her shenanigans as long as she isn't forgiven too easily. Assuming she loses the band battle, that will already be punishment, but then she also needs to apologize for being so antagonistic and try to make things better.

^^
The confession/kiss at the fireworks festival being interrupted is just as much of a cliché if not more so I was kinda wondering how it'd go. It still kinda happened with the second attempt, heh.

last edited at Mar 20, 2022 6:43PM

BeanBeanKingdom posted:

^^
The confession/kiss at the fireworks festival being interrupted is just as much of a cliché if not more so I was kinda wondering how it'd go. It still kinda happened with the second attempt, heh.

It's really funny that they managed to put the kiss AND the interrupted kiss in the same scenario, like "I want them to be happy but I also need that cliche trigger"

People seem to have forgotten we already saw Shiho's past, and it wasn't pretty or sympathetic. It showed Shiho has been a huge bitch even before she met Aki.

Back then she had a friend but the moment she realized her friend was better than her at an instrument they both played (was it violin?) she got angry and bitchy and ruined their friendship.

Honestly, I don't think the problem right now is so much that Shiho is in love with Aki. I don't think she is. I think she just can't deal with the fact she wasn't number one in Aki's life. She has a pathological need to be number one, to be the best. That's all there is to it.

She's petty and selfish and there's no redeeming quality to her.

last edited at Mar 20, 2022 7:20PM

this might be the first time ive seen an animanga high schooler doing high school level math

this might be the first time ive seen an animanga high schooler doing high school level math

Depends on the country,so called "high school level" can be quite different.

Also,butt naked in your house?

Go gettem',tiger!

Seeing Yori insecurities and jealousy come out finally to Kino was SO NICE to see! I'm so glad they communicated to each other and that Kino reassured Yori! I love them so much xx

Also, Yori seems to want something to happen since Kino is in her house ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Is that a fcking calculus? Lol I love all sorts of maths except that.

I forget, has Himari ever met Yori's incredibly young-looking and hot dad?

People seem to have forgotten we already saw Shiho's past [...]

Well, yes. But we still don't know what actually happened to cause the rift between her and the band. This is the part everyone's still wanting to see.

People seem to have forgotten we already saw Shiho's past [...]

Well, yes. But we still don't know what actually happened to cause the rift between her and the band. This is the part everyone's still wanting to see.

Wasn't it shown in chapter 20 perhaps? Shiho wasn't satisfied with ss girls band performance, then she and Aki had an argument, that ended up with Aki slapping Shiho and then her quitting : P

People seem to have forgotten we already saw Shiho's past [...]

Well, yes. But we still don't know what actually happened to cause the rift between her and the band. This is the part everyone's still wanting to see.

Wasn't it shown in chapter 20 perhaps? Shiho wasn't satisfied with ss girls band performance, then she and Aki had an argument, that ended up with Aki slapping Shiho and then her quitting : P

Pretty sure there's more to it, seeing how Shiho is still refusing to talk about it. Which sparked the battle of bands in the first place.

luinthoron posted:

People seem to have forgotten we already saw Shiho's past [...]

Well, yes. But we still don't know what actually happened to cause the rift between her and the band. This is the part everyone's still wanting to see.

Wasn't it shown in chapter 20 perhaps? Shiho wasn't satisfied with ss girls band performance, then she and Aki had an argument, that ended up with Aki slapping Shiho and then her quitting : P

Pretty sure there's more to it, seeing how Shiho is still refusing to talk about it. Which sparked the battle of bands in the first place.

I feel like the flashback is more about the other members and whatever noble reason they have and Shiho involvement's in that noble cause would make her better or like a mutual benefit kind of deal.

People seem to have forgotten we already saw Shiho's past [...]

Well, yes. But we still don't know what actually happened to cause the rift between her and the band. This is the part everyone's still wanting to see.

Wasn't it shown in chapter 20 perhaps? Shiho wasn't satisfied with ss girls band performance, then she and Aki had an argument, that ended up with Aki slapping Shiho and then her quitting : P

Pretty sure there's more to it, seeing how Shiho is still refusing to talk about it. Which sparked the battle of bands in the first place.

Shiho doesn't want to talk about it probably because her reasons are dumb. At best, she was in love with Aki and threw a tantrum out of jealousy. At worst, she did it simply because she couldn't stand she wasn't Aki's number one.

There's a reason we were shown her past from before Shiho met Aki. It established that Shiho has been a huge bitch from the get go so we shouldn't expect her to have sympathetic justifications for her current actions.

last edited at Mar 21, 2022 1:54PM

People seem to have forgotten we already saw Shiho's past [...]

Well, yes. But we still don't know what actually happened to cause the rift between her and the band. This is the part everyone's still wanting to see.

Wasn't it shown in chapter 20 perhaps? Shiho wasn't satisfied with ss girls band performance, then she and Aki had an argument, that ended up with Aki slapping Shiho and then her quitting : P

Pretty sure there's more to it, seeing how Shiho is still refusing to talk about it. Which sparked the battle of bands in the first place.

Shiho doesn't want to talk about it probably because her reasons are dumb. At best, she was in love with Aki and threw a tantrum out of jealousy. At worst, she did it simply because she couldn't stand she wasn't Aki's number one.

There's a reason we were shown her past from before Shiho met Aki. It established that Shiho has been a huge bitch from the get go so we shouldn't expect her to have sympathetic justifications for her current actions.

I don't even read this manga anymore and I've come to hate Shiho more and more lol

kinda weird that people are calling shiho 'irredeemable" because she's been kind of a bitch a few times and messed with the MCs. she's not murdered anyone (yet). like, that's her role in the story, we'll see where it goes.

It's about context though. The female teacher in Scum's Wish is a huge bitch and I loved her. She had no redeeming backstory, she was there just to needle the female MC and I thought she was awesome. It's not about Shiho being a bitch, it's that she feels pointless in this story, and it's super weird that so many people in the story are willing to overlook just how awful she is. Hima not caring is one thing since manga protagonists seem to have to be perfect paragons of forgiveness, but the rest of the cast also being so just feels absurd.

Am I the only one who actually likes Shiho cuz I like people with her stereotype lol

Am I the only one who actually likes Shiho cuz I like people with her stereotype lol

I like the archetype she is too, lol
It's kind of like the lesbian equivalent of... a Komaeda...

In any case, an earlier post said "Shiho has no redeeming qualities" in the same paragraph as they stated that she has a pathological need to be the best.
It's... not very difficult to pull character development out of a complex like that. All she has to do is find someone who's absolutely, conclusively better than her at something that she can't fathom giving up, AND be in love with this person. Then she gets to have a whole journey about it.
Or the author could Given it up and she patches over her broken heart by ruining every relationship she could possibly have then fall for a normal-ass wife five years later.

Am I the only one who actually likes Shiho cuz I like people with her stereotype lol

I like the archetype she is too, lol
It's kind of like the lesbian equivalent of... a Komaeda...

In any case, an earlier post said "Shiho has no redeeming qualities" in the same paragraph as they stated that she has a pathological need to be the best.
It's... not very difficult to pull character development out of a complex like that. All she has to do is find someone who's absolutely, conclusively better than her at something that she can't fathom giving up, AND be in love with this person. Then she gets to have a whole journey about it.
Or the author could Given it up and she patches over her broken heart by ruining every relationship she could possibly have then fall for a normal-ass wife five years later.

Pulling character development for Shiho isn't necessarily the issue here, it's the timing. She's established herself as the villain for so long that any development we get now will be too little too late, unless this gets drawn out even more. I don't think resolving her attitude or relationship problems will be nearly as easy as you make it out to be...

I'd bet my shoelaces that Shiho is acting out because she felt like her buddy was picking Yori over her. It would explain why she got SO MUCH MORE UGLY realizing Yori and Hima were together and that the love she let divide them had totally not manifested into anything.

I have the theory, and I'm sure many others here as well, that Shiho had a crush on Aki when they were in the band together, and the reason she quit was because she found out her love was unrequited, and because of this Shiho has always resented Yori.

I mean, Shiho clearly has a fixation on her that is not normal. Every time she talks to her it is to say something mean or to provoke her. Of course, this could also be explained by the fact that Yori is the new singer of her old band and nothing more. But I think that's unlikely.

The cherry on top is Shiho becoming friends with Hima only to learn after that she’s also connected to Yori. I read someone here describing the situation as "Shiho considers Yori the one who's taken everyone away and her bet involving Hima is her way of taking someone away from Yori and hurt her."
I think this would explain why, right after hearing that Hime was Yori's girfriend, Shiho decided to accept Aki's bet but with the condition of making Hime her band's manager.

Dang now that you put it that way, pretty easy to see what's coming, so now I'm bored lol.

The kiss was nice. Now go take a shower with hima :).