Jun 03, 2025
Whilst I do enjoy the slice of life, given that you had set out both a goal, obstacles and stakes, it feels like the middle of your story really sags. There hasn't been any meaningful progression for the past couple of chapters, the plot kind of widening in scope without deepening. Backstories are okay, but I can't help feeling that the ordering of the events here really suffers from a pantsing plotlessness. In a vacuum, they are fine, but when linked together to the narrative... well.
We go from the Seven Flags sponsorship, to the festival, then dovetail-dive into Sae's side hustle and the backstory thereof, then her and Rhino's backstory, then Ryuuka's mum backstory. I get there is some emotional throughline to all of this, but at the same time we both u-turn the vibe and end up into a kind of a side quest. Realistically, the only progress it feels that we've made for a while is relayed to us by the spreadsheet snippets at the end of select chapters.
Now, there is an argument that Ryuuka develops throughout these chapters, and I'm not going to oppose that. It's true that she ends up sharing some very heartfelt anecdotes about her father, and her mother, but I'm a little unsure about the proactiveness of her evolution throughout all of this. It seems to me that she develops more as a reaction to external stimuli: Kurumi dragging her places, Little Shit's mischief, Gran Gran's whims, random Kaiju dreamweaving her, Sae's requests. And whilst that's an okay way to do *some* character development, it often feels like the *only* way. I'm also a little unsure as to what the lesson she is meant to be learning is... carpe diem?