yams

yeah this chapter has had me switching loyalties extremely fast HFJDJSJS arata im rooting for u!!!! i think this is where the real story begins y’all… really deeply curious how sanari going to act? praying this is gonna be a daytime shooting star/hirunaka no ryuusei situation where they keep it kinda ambiguous but also somewhat obvious that the 2nd ml is gonna come out on top

the pacing is weird but i am kinda intrigued by sanari’s whole deal like. he clearly likes her but is scared of his own wants. like… okay… the kiss at the festival happened bc sanari was jealous and he wanted to… run away from that feeling. i thought that standoff between the two mls was interesting bc sanari exposed his truest self to arata: someone who thinks of himself as a bad guy, someone who acts differently based on the situation, someone who lies to the girl he likes to smooth over the awkwardness. arata’s taller than him, isn’t cynical, and can treat ichika right — like… to an emotionally constipated guy, it makes sense that sanari lashed out. but what i dislike is the author’s wishy-washyness on character development like. ichika isn’t learning anything new, she just kinda confidently stepped into a situationship — at first, i thought it was actually gonna go somewhere but it’s dragging. i think it would have been more effective if the kiss scene at the festival was framed to be scary and horrifying from the jump, instead of tense and romantic. ichika obv didn’t like it lol. i def like the beginning character explorations in this manga but the story needs to be confident enough to take a stand for it to stick the landing: either commit to sanari’s growth, or develop ichika and arata to the point where ichika finds her original sense of self-worth again lolll