Aug 23, 2021
Alright I catch up. I will say, a lot of the dialogue that you write here would probably infuriate me in an anime, but it actually reads a lot better in book form than it does on the screen. Some of it still kind of bugs me to be honest...I'm trying to think of what bugged me right now....anyway
I think part of the reason could just be the construction of the book. In a lot of the anime there's like an attempt to like posture a lot of these characters as like real human beings, but Kohei's perspective is kind of interesting because that's not necessarily how he views them. Maybe there's too much like reliance on the archetypal/caricatured nature of these characters, but I think in some instances like with Mari and Yukimura I've kind of come around on the way they say things and then how Kohei internalizes them.
I feel bad for Mari especially in this instance because she just constantly changes her persona to kind of fit what she thinks Kohei would want, but for a number of various internalized and 4th wall breaking reasons, it's kind of clear that Kohei is either incapable of understanding or doesn't want to. I think in this sense the whole childhood friend/MC dynamic is sort of explored in sort of interesting ways.
The grading system adds like a nice backdrop to it because in spite of Kohei's reservations and complaints about it, the irony I feel is found in the way that Kohei essentially mechanizes his relationships in similar ways. This latest chapter is kind of evident of that. The other thing that stands out the most is when Mari is upset, the way he kind of resolves the conflict is to just spend points and then go make food with said points, it's like falling back on transactional methods is how Kohei copes with not being able to properly understand human emotions. I don't know if that's necessarily what you sort of wanted to push, but it's just something I gleaned from what was going on.
As for the narrative and other things uhhh....there was that kind of abrupt switch after the Post-Modern arc, but it wasn't that bad. I feel like I have other thoughts, but they might just be re-litigating things I've brought up before so it's not really necessary to spew them again at this point.
Good job desu
