This was a pleasantly entertaining comedy manga about one high schooler's frustrations brought on by being in long-time love with his incredibly dense friend.
Eno was so annoying when he was introduced but I get his purpose in the story. I really hoped he'd secretly be in love with Nanase, since the setup was there for this to happen, but alas, it never materialized.
I would also love a spin-off about the two voyeur friends, Takahashi and Kuraoka, but alas again.... sensei denies us.
What was there though, regarding the relationship between the two protagonists, Nanase and Hina.... (spoilers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...they both do turn out to reciprocate their feelings, and this is all 100% present in the story that sensei meticulously laid out.
(disclaimer) I'm just gonna say right now that this is in response to some comment I saw claiming Hina didn't really love Nanase, because I completely disagree, and I will be explaining why, since I feel all the evidence is plainly there, but I will admit that some of it is a bit nuanced. It gets a little ranty at the end; fair warning.
How is it that Hina loves Nanase? Let me count the ways...
1. He says that he does.
QED.
Oh, that's not good enough? Well, aside from it being literally (note proper use of "literal" here) present in the story, and that it was completely Hina's own conclusion about himself.... Fine. I'll make a big long list, as I love to do it seems. :P
- Hina is portrayed as a dense idiot who lives in the moment and doesn't think about stuff too much.
- He was friends with both Nanase and Eno in middle school.
- Nanase stuck by him while Eno went to another school, thus it was just Nanase and Hina for a while.
- Nanase and Hina spent lots of time together before having a sexual relationship, just being friends and generally enjoying each other's company. Thus they liked being around each other regardless of the sexytime they have later.
- Later, after Hina initiated a physical relationship, Hina found that he enjoyed the sexytime he spent with Nanase as well.
- Prior to Eno's appearance, Hina had all of his emotional and physical needs met by Nanase, so he never had to think about his feelings about the situation at all. Not like Hina ever thought much about anything. The two were basically like an old married couple at this point already. Hina even liked him despite all the nagging he did about going to school and eating his veggies and whatnot.
- Eno appears and forcibly drives them apart due to his own jealousy. Hina starts hanging out with Eno because of Eno's insistence and Nanase backing off because he respects Hina's personal autonomy, and because Hina is friends with both of them and just goes with the flow. Hina is living in the moment again, but slowly starts to realize that his emotional and physical needs are not being met by hanging out with Eno instead of Nanase.
- When Hina faps while thinking about Nanase after not being around him for a few weeks is the moment he realizes that he's feeling in a way about Nanase that he doesn't think about his other friends. Keep in mind that all this stemmed from Hina's wrong-headed conclusion that Eno and Nanase were dating, and Hina chose to think about and get jealous of wanting to be with Nanase, not Eno. So there is a difference between whatever Nanase was to him and what Hina's typical sort of friend, like Eno, was to him.
- Remember, Hina had dated girls in middle school, so he had at least some experience with this.
- But also note that Hina voluntarily stopped dating girls once he and Nanase got into their physical relationship, due to no prompting or instance by Nanase.
- Hina then uses Eno as an experiment (at the restaurant) to see if any of his friends would do to fill the hole left by Nanase, and found that Eno just didn't do it for him. Either way, there was no response to or from Eno, so Hina concludes that it's not the same. Nanase had been filling the role of something more than a "friend" to Hina, and Eno was the litmus test to determine what "friend" constituted.
- I'd also point out that people are less likely in a society that's extremely homophobic to even consider how they feel about their same-sex friends in a romantic sense, which could explain part of the reason why Hina'd never thought about it before. But I will admit that Hina has utterly no personal decorum and no personal filter to such a degree that this concept may not apply to his character much. Still, he admittedly knows what gays are and thus his behavior must be influenced by this to at least some degree, however small.
- Anyway, the fact that Hina came to the conclusion that he loved Nanase all by himself, without Nanase's prompting, despite Eno's interference, or their friends pushing them together, and even then, when Nanase ran away because even Nanase felt their "likes" weren't the same... Hina forced the issue, something he'd never done prior for anything, stating in no uncertain terms that he did in fact like Nanase, and basically Nanase had no business making up Hina's mind for him.
- Also, Hina saying what he likes about Nanase is that he's good at sex is reason enough for a dunder head to love someone. Yubin was asked the same question in Window to Window and he immediately responded that he likes Ginu's pretty face. Both are pretty shallow reasons, but why ask an idiot to give a nuanced description of why he loves someone when it's been made clear all throughout the manga. Going back to Window to Window, Ginu muses that he probably loved Yubin from the start for no reason at all. Why does there have to be a reason? And why does that reason have to be good enough to prove to someone who isn't even involved?
All that aside...
It's always bothered me when I hear people say "can't two guys just be friends?" because the implication is always that they shouldn't like each other romantically no matter how much they care about each other. Friendship is a much better basis for a romantic relationship than what I would consider the opposite, pure lust, because at least then you get by default someone you enjoy being around, who respects you and cares about your well being, and who you probably have a few things in common with. And if you also find you can be sexually fulfilled by them, then what's the problem, chief?
So yes, as portrayed in this manga, from the nuance all the way at the beginning of the story to the explicit statement at the end: Hina loves Nanase too. Love isn't this magical thing that you need to shout passionately into the wind, or fight a war over, or go through some kind of trial by fire to realize or earn. It's not something you can define at the best of times, and it isn't something for other people to decide for someone else.
Also, this is a comedy manga, so it seems kind of disingenuous to try and foist nuanced character development on basically a 1-page gag comedy. Notice that the story is presented in a 1-page vignette format at the beginning, and about 3/4 of the way through (around vol 6 ish), there is a section presented like a regular serial manga in chapter format while the Eno x Hina x Nanase situation finally works itself out, and then it switches back to the 1-page gag vignette format for the rest of its length. Expecting deeply nuanced character development (which I would argue is still present) is inappropriate for a series with a tone like this. You're supposed to spend your time laughing at the hijinks, not delving into whether or not there was enough nuance in Hina's portrayal to decide if he really does love Nanase or if he's just fooling himself when he says he's does.
Whine whine whine, would I like some cheese with my wine? Why yes, I would, thank you. I need it, after writing this far-too-lengthy brainturd. :P
This was a pleasantly entertaining comedy manga about one high schooler's frustrations brought on by being in long-time love with his incredibly dense friend.
Eno was so annoying when he was introduced but I get his purpose in the story. I really hoped he'd secretly be in love with Nanase, since the setup was there for this to happen, but alas, it never materialized.
I would also love a spin-off about the two voyeur friends, Takahashi and Kuraoka, but alas again.... sensei denies us.
What was there though, regarding the relationship between the two protagonists, Nanase and Hina....
(spoilers)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...they both do turn out to reciprocate their feelings, and this is all 100% present in the story that sensei meticulously laid out.
(disclaimer) I'm just gonna say right now that this is in response to some comment I saw claiming Hina didn't really love Nanase, because I completely disagree, and I will be explaining why, since I feel all the evidence is plainly there, but I will admit that some of it is a bit nuanced. It gets a little ranty at the end; fair warning.
How is it that Hina loves Nanase? Let me count the ways...
1. He says that he does.
QED.
Oh, that's not good enough? Well, aside from it being literally (note proper use of "literal" here) present in the story, and that it was completely Hina's own conclusion about himself.... Fine. I'll make a big long list, as I love to do it seems. :P
- Hina is portrayed as a dense idiot who lives in the moment and doesn't think about stuff too much.
- He was friends with both Nanase and Eno in middle school.
- Nanase stuck by him while Eno went to another school, thus it was just Nanase and Hina for a while.
- Nanase and Hina spent lots of time together before having a sexual relationship, just being friends and generally enjoying each other's company. Thus they liked being around each other regardless of the sexytime they have later.
- Later, after Hina initiated a physical relationship, Hina found that he enjoyed the sexytime he spent with Nanase as well.
- Prior to Eno's appearance, Hina had all of his emotional and physical needs met by Nanase, so he never had to think about his feelings about the situation at all. Not like Hina ever thought much about anything. The two were basically like an old married couple at this point already. Hina even liked him despite all the nagging he did about going to school and eating his veggies and whatnot.
- Eno appears and forcibly drives them apart due to his own jealousy. Hina starts hanging out with Eno because of Eno's insistence and Nanase backing off because he respects Hina's personal autonomy, and because Hina is friends with both of them and just goes with the flow. Hina is living in the moment again, but slowly starts to realize that his emotional and physical needs are not being met by hanging out with Eno instead of Nanase.
- When Hina faps while thinking about Nanase after not being around him for a few weeks is the moment he realizes that he's feeling in a way about Nanase that he doesn't think about his other friends. Keep in mind that all this stemmed from Hina's wrong-headed conclusion that Eno and Nanase were dating, and Hina chose to think about and get jealous of wanting to be with Nanase, not Eno. So there is a difference between whatever Nanase was to him and what Hina's typical sort of friend, like Eno, was to him.
- Remember, Hina had dated girls in middle school, so he had at least some experience with this.
- But also note that Hina voluntarily stopped dating girls once he and Nanase got into their physical relationship, due to no prompting or instance by Nanase.
- Hina then uses Eno as an experiment (at the restaurant) to see if any of his friends would do to fill the hole left by Nanase, and found that Eno just didn't do it for him. Either way, there was no response to or from Eno, so Hina concludes that it's not the same. Nanase had been filling the role of something more than a "friend" to Hina, and Eno was the litmus test to determine what "friend" constituted.
- I'd also point out that people are less likely in a society that's extremely homophobic to even consider how they feel about their same-sex friends in a romantic sense, which could explain part of the reason why Hina'd never thought about it before. But I will admit that Hina has utterly no personal decorum and no personal filter to such a degree that this concept may not apply to his character much. Still, he admittedly knows what gays are and thus his behavior must be influenced by this to at least some degree, however small.
- Anyway, the fact that Hina came to the conclusion that he loved Nanase all by himself, without Nanase's prompting, despite Eno's interference, or their friends pushing them together, and even then, when Nanase ran away because even Nanase felt their "likes" weren't the same... Hina forced the issue, something he'd never done prior for anything, stating in no uncertain terms that he did in fact like Nanase, and basically Nanase had no business making up Hina's mind for him.
- Also, Hina saying what he likes about Nanase is that he's good at sex is reason enough for a dunder head to love someone. Yubin was asked the same question in Window to Window and he immediately responded that he likes Ginu's pretty face. Both are pretty shallow reasons, but why ask an idiot to give a nuanced description of why he loves someone when it's been made clear all throughout the manga. Going back to Window to Window, Ginu muses that he probably loved Yubin from the start for no reason at all. Why does there have to be a reason? And why does that reason have to be good enough to prove to someone who isn't even involved?
All that aside...
It's always bothered me when I hear people say "can't two guys just be friends?" because the implication is always that they shouldn't like each other romantically no matter how much they care about each other. Friendship is a much better basis for a romantic relationship than what I would consider the opposite, pure lust, because at least then you get by default someone you enjoy being around, who respects you and cares about your well being, and who you probably have a few things in common with. And if you also find you can be sexually fulfilled by them, then what's the problem, chief?
So yes, as portrayed in this manga, from the nuance all the way at the beginning of the story to the explicit statement at the end: Hina loves Nanase too. Love isn't this magical thing that you need to shout passionately into the wind, or fight a war over, or go through some kind of trial by fire to realize or earn. It's not something you can define at the best of times, and it isn't something for other people to decide for someone else.
Also, this is a comedy manga, so it seems kind of disingenuous to try and foist nuanced character development on basically a 1-page gag comedy. Notice that the story is presented in a 1-page vignette format at the beginning, and about 3/4 of the way through (around vol 6 ish), there is a section presented like a regular serial manga in chapter format while the Eno x Hina x Nanase situation finally works itself out, and then it switches back to the 1-page gag vignette format for the rest of its length. Expecting deeply nuanced character development (which I would argue is still present) is inappropriate for a series with a tone like this. You're supposed to spend your time laughing at the hijinks, not delving into whether or not there was enough nuance in Hina's portrayal to decide if he really does love Nanase or if he's just fooling himself when he says he's does.
Whine whine whine, would I like some cheese with my wine? Why yes, I would, thank you. I need it, after writing this far-too-lengthy brainturd. :P