This was an incredibly frustrating read. The manga has every bit of opportunity to go on an interesting or subversive way, and yet missed it every single time.
Like okay, you have an immature "heroine" who just got a reality check that maybe life is more complicated than a shoujo manga. Will this mean it will deconstruct her perspective of the concept of protagonists and side characters? And of her seeing herself as "the heroine"? I guess they do kinda touched upon it, but the way the subsequent arcs just have all the other characters revolved around her and her relationships undermined the message I think they were trying to portray in the first chapters.
A more interesting story will explore the toxic codependent relationship that she and her childhood friend have with each other. It will have them realize and acknowledge that they tie each other down to the point that it's suffocating and a hindrance to their self-growth.
This is why I think having Nakajima and ML be closer is a missed opportunity. This is not to say to actually have them end up with each other, but we get to see other sides of ML when he's with her. And we also see little bits of growth of Nakajima besides her usual detached self. They are opposites of each other that can help each other grow. She's decisive and stoic that the wishy-washy ML can learn from, while he has demonstrated that he can break her cold persona which she can benefit from. But instead what was that arc for again? Was it to incite jealousy again?
Adachi's writing especially on the latter part of the story just reeks off misogyny. FL referring to her as "b*tch," when between the two of you, she's not the one who has stolen someone else's boyfriend??? Her becoming more s'xually liberated is demonized, and most especially, her motivation for turning a 180 is a man......
I guess this is one of the main problems that I have with this manga. The main characters judge the other characters for something that they should be guilty of. The ML being judgmental of Hiromitsu for maybe toying with FL's feelings and FL and her views of the women around the two guys...
With the side characters being far more interesting, I guess I do wish that the MCs no longer be the heroes of this story.
This was an incredibly frustrating read. The manga has every bit of opportunity to go on an interesting or subversive way, and yet missed it every single time.
Like okay, you have an immature "heroine" who just got a reality check that maybe life is more complicated than a shoujo manga. Will this mean it will deconstruct her perspective of the concept of protagonists and side characters? And of her seeing herself as "the heroine"? I guess they do kinda touched upon it, but the way the subsequent arcs just have all the other characters revolved around her and her relationships undermined the message I think they were trying to portray in the first chapters.
A more interesting story will explore the toxic codependent relationship that she and her childhood friend have with each other. It will have them realize and acknowledge that they tie each other down to the point that it's suffocating and a hindrance to their self-growth.
This is why I think having Nakajima and ML be closer is a missed opportunity. This is not to say to actually have them end up with each other, but we get to see other sides of ML when he's with her. And we also see little bits of growth of Nakajima besides her usual detached self. They are opposites of each other that can help each other grow. She's decisive and stoic that the wishy-washy ML can learn from, while he has demonstrated that he can break her cold persona which she can benefit from. But instead what was that arc for again? Was it to incite jealousy again?
Adachi's writing especially on the latter part of the story just reeks off misogyny. FL referring to her as "b*tch," when between the two of you, she's not the one who has stolen someone else's boyfriend??? Her becoming more s'xually liberated is demonized, and most especially, her motivation for turning a 180 is a man......
I guess this is one of the main problems that I have with this manga. The main characters judge the other characters for something that they should be guilty of. The ML being judgmental of Hiromitsu for maybe toying with FL's feelings and FL and her views of the women around the two guys...
With the side characters being far more interesting, I guess I do wish that the MCs no longer be the heroes of this story.