Pushy attitude aside, i never had any doubt that Natori was gonna help her out with a drink. She's just that kinda person. And it's not like she promised her (soon-to-be, i'm sure) girlfriend to be her exclusive bartender or anything. Heck, i'm sure in the future Natori will open a bar of her own that will be open to human- and oni-kind alike.

Call me crazy, but is Natori being mind controlled or something? Between that “prisoner” comment and how pliable she suddenly became, it feels like there’s something supernatural at play.

I could also just be misreading things, though.

Aju san getting horny

i have a feeling we are going to need the harem tag at some point

Well, she looks like trouble. Why is it always the cute ones?

Based on the shadowy outline of what is presumably the previous bartender, im guessing this is a lovers spat which will be resolved within the next two chapters

I can see why she'd feed her one time. She's got a performance, she's already pulled this stunt and she wouldn't be able to line someone else up in time, so OK, even if she's an annoying arrogant narcissist, mix her a drink, fine, it's not a huge deal.

But what the brat is saying seems pretty clearly to be that she wants our heroine? to be her exclusive bartender from now on, and main girl seems to be giving in to the idea without even once in her thought bubbles considering the issue of the person she's CURRENTLY doing this for, and like . . . why?

I have trouble coping with the characterization in this manga.

I have trouble coping with the characterization in this manga.

It seems really straightforward to me, though? Naori's dream is to be a bartender. She loves serving alcohol to people. She hardly needs a compelling reason, she jumped for joy the first time she had an opportunity to do so. I don't know why people are treating this as though they just witnessed infidelity. Neither Hinata nor Anju are going to have a good time if they expect her to be exclusive.

The second personality trait ever introduced for Naori, incidentally, right after her love for mixing drinks... was being weak to pressure. So that's also very in-line with her characterization.

I guess you can complain about the author setting up this kidnapping scenario at all if you wanted to view serving drinks to an oni as a romantic/sexual metaphor (as vampires and drinking blood often is), but in terms of characterization, it's spot on in my view. Honestly I would prefer to read about exclusivity myself, but the story was never set up for that from the beginning since it runs contrary to Naori's desire to own her own shop, and I think her serving alcohol to another oni at some point was basically inevitable.

last edited at Oct 1, 2023 3:00PM

Yeah idk if something got lost in translation, but it feels like this chapter is missing a couple of pages of dialog to fully explain why MC is going along with all of this seemingly without resisting..

Yeah idk if something got lost in translation, but it feels like this chapter is missing a couple of pages of dialog to fully explain why MC is going along with all of this seemingly without resisting..

Naori loves two things: Mixing drinks and Cute Demon girls.

Yeah idk if something got lost in translation, but it feels like this chapter is missing a couple of pages of dialog to fully explain why MC is going along with all of this seemingly without resisting.. // shes stuck there and is a nice person

ok so the drink thing is a metaphor huh. they werent really being subtle with how much aju is touching her and the suggestive nature/possessiveness of it

Personally I think equalizing romantic interest with the act of barkeeping here is misplaced. Natori likes making drinks for people on basis of it being her passion.
And while she may be easily flustered by a pretty face and easily swept along by external pressure, i'm pretty convinced that the thing blooming between her and Hinata is the only actually romantic tension there is so far.

Personally I think equalizing romantic interest with the act of barkeeping here is misplaced. Natori likes making drinks for people on basis of it being her passion.
And while she may be easily flustered by a pretty face and easily swept along by external pressure, i'm pretty convinced that the thing blooming between her and Hinata is the only actually romantic tension there is so far.

Yeah, I'm not getting why people are upset. Neither Natori nor Hinata are treating the serving of drinks as sexual in any way. Maybe at a stretch a kind of married couple thing because Natori makes her a drink before she leaves in the morning, but they definitely aren't seeing it as romantic (yet).

Personally I think equalizing romantic interest with the act of barkeeping here is misplaced. Natori likes making drinks for people on basis of it being her passion.
And while she may be easily flustered by a pretty face and easily swept along by external pressure, i'm pretty convinced that the thing blooming between her and Hinata is the only actually romantic tension there is so far.

Yeah, I'm not getting why people are upset. Neither Natori nor Hinata are treating the serving of drinks as sexual in any way. Maybe at a stretch a kind of married couple thing because Natori makes her a drink before she leaves in the morning, but they definitely aren't seeing it as romantic (yet).

Yeah, at most it maybe has smth domestic to it, as in Natori providing for Hinata, but that's it and only between those two.

She made it a Green Grasshopper by using cream. Had a few as a kid.

You know what even if there's sexual tension here, I don't mind actually. Naori gets to have as many Oni girlfriends as she likes. Though I'd imagine that her Bartending for Aju is going to last only as long as Hinata can get a new bartender/the old bartender back.

Really enjoyed this chapter. Aju did let Hinata know that shes just borrowing Naori for the moment and Hinata didn't seem to care or worry. Aju even said she'd explain after. Plus she knows Naori is Hinata's crush and has shown no romantic interest of her own. The rest was just Naori getting caught up in what seems like an amazing concert and watching a professional go to work. Plus there's the added awe of witnessing an oni struggle in her own way to be seen and the mixed emotions that led to excitement but also tears.

The real question is whether Hinata is a bit unsettled by seeing Aju with her horns out at the concert. That stare at the end after Aju showed her horns on stage suggests something in that direction. Their different approaches to the oni issue (and the issue itself) seems to be the actual thing coming into focus here and not what people were worrying over.

last edited at Oct 10, 2023 7:11PM

Ooohh this was a great chapter, liked it a lot! It gave us just as much characterization on Aju as on Natori. And we also get to see more about why she decided to help out Aju. She's dazzled by dazzling people, she likes to make drinks, she helps ppl out when they're in trouble and, most importantly, she's very empathetic, maybe even too much.

She sees how Aju learned to cope with her own situation and she cries at how messed up it is, even though she was being starstruck by idol Aju at the same time.
This has solidified my hunch that at some point in the future Natori will be opening her own bar as a place for any oni to be themselves and feel at home at.

Also neat lil showing of Hinata being all "grrr, she's mine >:c", just hecking kiss already

last edited at Oct 10, 2023 5:25PM

I really was enjoying the hell out of this until the last couple chapters. I have no idea what the hell is going on. Maybe the mangaka just suddenly developed an obsession with idols or something?

Not sure why so many do this whole "time to add more characters" thing around this point, it goes well so seldom.

I really was enjoying the hell out of this until the last couple chapters. I have no idea what the hell is going on. Maybe the mangaka just suddenly developed an obsession with idols or something?

Not sure why so many do this whole "time to add more characters" thing around this point, it goes well so seldom.

A major theme of this manga is the way Hinata hides a part of herself from most of the world, how that effects her, and how she wants to change it. The idol industry involves a lot of similar themes, even in normal settings, so introducing an Oni character who's an idol allows the author to explore that theme through a different lens, while also drawing stronger parallels to the real world.

I really was enjoying the hell out of this until the last couple chapters. I have no idea what the hell is going on. Maybe the mangaka just suddenly developed an obsession with idols or something?

Not sure why so many do this whole "time to add more characters" thing around this point, it goes well so seldom.

A major theme of this manga is the way Hinata hides a part of herself from most of the world, how that effects her, and how she wants to change it. The idol industry involves a lot of similar themes, even in normal settings, so introducing an Oni character who's an idol allows the author to explore that theme through a different lens, while also drawing stronger parallels to the real world.

And they explored that really well in this chapter already. The way Aju uses her profession as an opportunity for release and to be in her original form is already a great commentary on the various approaches to the situation, especially when compared to Hinata.

last edited at Oct 10, 2023 7:45PM

idols are great

You know what even if there's sexual tension here, I don't mind actually. Naori gets to have as many Oni girlfriends as she likes. Though I'd imagine that her Bartending for Aju is going to last only as long as Hinata can get a new bartender/the old bartender back.

Yeah, it probably wasn't their intention but these past chapters made me beleive Naori and Aju were slowly falling in love with each other. In fact, I think if I had started the manga with this chapter, I would have been convinced Aju and Naori were endgame.

But in this case I feel it wouldn't feel forced if they go the poly route with Hinata, Naori and Aju.

Aju representing every goth/emo teenager here lol

IT'S NOT JUST A PHASE, MOM! THIS IS WHO I REALLY AM! puts on black clothes and eyeliner