I've only ever heard of that being an undesirable technique, likely to cause hand/wrist problems...
Was that a translation error or are we dealing with a webtoon creator who doesn't have a clue what they're talking about? (Which wouldn't be unusual, but it's so much nicer when they know at least a bit about the playing the piano properly.)
This isn't the most excitement-filled webtoon, but in later chapters I've discovered myself actually smiling in real life while watching some of their heartwarming playfulness together while doing things.
Does anybody know if this is one of those stories with the main characters all having messy love relationships (love triangles/squares and so forth)? The other manga by this creator is lovely, so I'm hoping not, but I'd like to know in advance because I don't enjoy those messy love dramas. (I don't need to know actual spoilers of who ends up with who or anything, just generally is it straightforward 1 x 1 or not. ) Thanks if you know!
At ch 101.
Yep. The main female characters have practically no personality other than pushy or angry. High school friend constantly hit the MC and got angry at him for not behaving as she wished. Actress pushes everyone around even when it's for a "good" purpose. Sister orders him around whenever she can get away with it (at least she gets to be a concerned family member sometimes, although that's still not an actual personality trait).
Despite being the stereotypical kind and motherly nun/orphanage head, the orphanage Sister is the only one so far who's had a clear personality, a meaningful impact on the MC and the story, and genuinely complex feelings about something (the MC trying so hard to save her when she'd already accepted things made her clearly conflicted because you could see she wanted to struggle to survive for his sake but also wanted him not to struggle against what she felt was inevitable and be more hurt because of it). But she was barely in the story.
It's not that all the male characters are complex, there are of course the usual amount of generic enemies and bullies etc. However, there are also key male characters that provide interesting and enjoyable interactions and through their distinct personalities propel the plot forward and bring out different things in the MC.
It's also nothing new for stories aimed at a male audience to have trouble writing female characters with genuinely interesting personalities and purposes within the plot, it's just a pity that they are wasted when they could be adding as much (or more) to the story as his friends or the secretary. The reason so many people complain about romance in these action stories isn't that romance itself is bad, it's that it's not done interestingly and instead feels like it holds up the real plot. It would be different with compelling female characters who are interesting to read and have complex dynamics with their MCs that add to the overall plot make you want to keep reading.
Anyway, just having a little sigh as I struggle through a tedious part of a webtoon I'm otherwise enjoying and invested in. It's OK if you're still enjoying this part, this is not any judgement on that, I'm just letting out my personal disappointment at one aspect of the story that could be so so much less mediocre and more incredible!
Only two chapters but I'm definitely hopeful for this one based on these. The MC has flaws but is fundamentally very decent, which I like. The quirks of all the characters do far are a feature of the story that make it interesting so far, but there's the promise with this creator that we'll get to see more than only that as the story progresses without losing what makes them interesting. There's an underlying heart in this.
Just want to list out some negatives to get them off my chest because I was quite hopeful about this and have ended up disappointed. I know a lot of people are enjoying this and I don't want to dampen your enjoyment (nor be disrespected for validly expressing my opinions).
- Why does the solution to a problem with a man (the stalker) have to be solved by relying on a man? Urgh. Not just within the story, but as a plot decision at all. I do get that manga creators are always coming up with ridiculous reasons to throw the main couple together, but this story is making a big deal about men looking down on women and having a strong female lead, and then makes this fake marriage the premise for the rest of it. It's also a really bad trait that many men have to not respect women saying no unless they already have a boyfriend - as if we're obliged to be with them unless another guy already has dibs. So, I doubly would've liked to see her solve that problem on her own, even if it was because she gained some support when she returned to her family home. I'm honestly not really enjoying them having to pretend to be married at all, I think they could've had a good cohabitation and faux-to-real family story without it, but at the least they could simply have had Futaba somehow misunderstand and then they went along with it so she felt secure, rather than have it start as a solution to get a stalker off her back.
- There hasn't been a character so far in this story who doesn't just jump around doing and saying whatever they want or deciding what others are like without considering anybody's feelings. It's really frustrating. Don't drag people into a lie, throw don't throw people about if you don't like what they're doing, don't force people to be together, don't force people to hug/kiss etc. MC, ML, child, brother, friend, neighbours, media people etc etc. It's making the story feel really rushed and inconsidered.
- Uh. She's fallen in love with him why? Because he's a rude, discriminatory, uncommunicative, judgemental prick but he cares about tea and threw her one or two unsexist comments. Guess that's one way to get her to lower her standards. And yes, I know he's of course a good guy because he's the male lead, but I'd like to actually properly see it if she's going to become devoted so easily, not just him mostly being awful but - oh, he meant well. This manga is like some self-conscious feminism from the 80s written by men. It has well-intentioned ideas, but it thinks by showing how men can discriminate against women, by having a plucky "strong-willed" female lead, and then having a guy say one time that he doesn't care about her being male or female he just looks at her as a person, suddenly we've achieved some wonderful equality. In the meantime the female lead has fallen in love and is only motivated 40% by fixing her family legacy and 60% by impressing the guy she loves and supporting him in his work. Which is always a FINE option for a woman to choose, but hardly a new or particularly empowering path to show. I'm just a bit disappointed. (As a side note, I kept hoping she'd come along and have insight and skill from growing up in a tea-making family that she could use to teach him what he's still lacking in tea-making. But oh well.)
- Can we just SLOW the hell down a little? One of the reasons I have all these issues above is that there isn't a lot of time spent on anyone's thoughts or reasons, apart from the MC's recent reflections on her unconvincing new feelings of love and devotion. It feels like they only met four days ago and he's barely treated her like a person more than a few fleeting times. Merely being treated like a person is just basic, it's not romantic. I don't know, everything just feels really rushed and chaotic. I wouldn't mind some if the actions and decisions characters are making if I could see a little more intelligence, common sense and consideration.
I think there are probably more things and things I could have explained better, but I'm just sort of thought dumping in an effort to process why I'm a little disappointed in this. I can see its potential but sadly this is not it for me.
If you actually read this, um...good job? I'm sorry? If you disagree, that's fine, I don't really mind, it's perfectly valid for people to take different things away from the same piece of media. I'm happy people have something they enjoy reading and that the the scanlators' efforts haven't gone unappreciated.
Hm. The problem with this story to me was that everyone just jumped from this to that without enough transition. "Oh I'm happy!" "Oh I'm upset!" "Oh, you shouldn't be upset!" "Oh I'm sorry!" "I'm sorry too!" etc. In older brother's story we'll sometimes get a whole chapter of them, especially Naoto, processing his feelings, talking aspects over with others, thinking things through on his own, making attempts to understand Toudou's feelings, seeing Toudou's perspective etc.
And while I'm not saying I wanted things in this manga to be tediously drawn-out, I felt unsatisfied with many of the problems and interactions along the way because there was often too little of this. I get that Hokuto is younger and also seems to naturally act on his immune emotions without much thought, and that's fine...However, it felt more like a summary of events sometimes when someone would say a single line to him and he'd suddenly be behaving differently, without us seeing his internal process.
I wanted more of that from Suzuki, too. We got a longer and not very appealing sequence about him liking to tease Hokuto (that characteristic is always a turn-off for me anyway), but never really got to see his reactions to problems - was he annoyed, was he confused, did he reflect on his own behaviour, did he genuinely not worry much? etc. Again, it's not that I wanted everything dragged out, but sequences like the friend visiting or the fight between brothers felt shallow and rushed. Honestly, the friend visit probably should have just been left out.
There are lots of strong aspects to this story, it just lacked some of this in order to be properly satisfying for me - to make the main couple's behaviour feel properly nuanced and sympathetic enough.
Oh I just noticed the title is a pun - Kimi no Sumire = Your Violet; and the character's name is also Kimino Sumire.
Ok, I knew I liked his one, but I like this a lot more than I'd remembered...despite wanting to laugh every time the translator used "admired" instead of "aspired" ("he admired to be a CG artist")! hehehe
I love it when the chemistry is really there and you totally get why they like each other and can see how genuinely they're into each other. (⌒▽⌒)
Oh. For a moment I thought it might have been an adaptation of the BL esport novel "I Can Do It"...
╮(￣▽￣)╭
A family member has red-green colour blindness and this prompted me to go and look up those glasses. Disappointingly, it turns out they don't actually correct the perception of colour, they just filter out some of the wavelengths that confuse the impaired receptors and help the wearer see a bigger contrast between red and green. They also aren't suitable for nighttime or driving, and can be expensive. Could still be pretty useful if the inability to distinguish between the two is having an impact on daily life, but not a magical solution.
I'm so glad commenters dislike this ML's actions as much as I do, rather than excusing it just because he fell in love/is the ML.
I got to ch 10 and just couldn't stand him, so I jumped to 20, nope, no better. Jumped to ch 30, nope, no better. Jumped to 40, MC is planning to leave - yes! Go! Be free! Be happy! Please don't let them trap you with this jerk!