Someone's Girlfriend - Ch. 56 - Nothing Left to Give

[Cirrius]

Cmon dude, dont be stupid, aint no way umimi doesn't hear you screaming like that lmao

 

[Homuranagi]

It was so stupid though Japanese woman don't really act like that do they?

japanese women do act like that

 

[essensue]

I think one of the biggest issues with the whole MC/Takuto/Shizuku situation is that the story is constantly telling us that they're all best friends, but what it shows us is that MC clearly doesn't consider Takuto that close of a friend,-snip-

Spoiler: This got long, sorry.

You're brushing up against something I've long had in my notes as a half-formed suspicion: There's something off about the way the author either understands or portrays human intimacy. Not exclusively sexual, though that's a little... eh, also. But like, any kind of emotional connectedness in this manga is tainted, misaligned, or has a cloud hanging over it... or is simply absent. Its world should, at this rate, be a lonely one for Riku, because we never really see him confide in anyone about all the shit people are putting him through. And not gonna lie, he comes across as a bit of a psycho for not being affected by it. It's hard to put my finger on, because we're used to just assuming that things exist normally unless otherwise specified, in fiction, and the nature of this story and the way it's structured is that if anyone ever talked about the central mysteries of the series, they'd evaporate.

Not that it needs to be that way, mind you. This isn't a very (intentionally) psychological story at all, so following normal rules, allowing dialog with other parties is super useful in a lot of ways, and depicts a more realistic life. You would assume that if that's not being done here, there's a good narrative reason. And I think you'd be wrong in that assumption, is my point with this. Contrast with something like Mysterious Girlfriend X where undermining intimacy to create an unsettling atmosphere of alienation is deliberate and effective?

You mention the manga being dog-water awful, and I agree, overall, but it's not ONLY awful. Most of the important 'mechanical' writing skills you'd expect of a professional are like, really quite competent to above-average. Good, even. And yet there are really notable exceptions. When you zoom out even a little, the story that those skills are used to tell is very, very stupid. It sucks that I can't think of a more fitting way to describe it, because that's typically used so casually, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart: It's fucking stupid. It's not poorly done in a way that's consistent. It's surprisingly bad. It goes out of its way to do dumb things that it seems really proud of. And that does make it a certain kind of interesting to me, because it's like a fun little extra mystery that the author included completely unintentionally! What completely basic thing will slip through this week? Why didn't anyone in the process say "no, that's dumb?" All these questions and more.

Like, as an example, allow me to point to chapter 33 where Umimi finally snaps and demands answers from that piece of garbage she's trying to hook up with, and it's really jarring because she's calling out the absurdity of the lack of progress which we're just taking for granted at this point. We're numb to how terrible he is. But she finally has this big emotional cathartic moment where she unloads years of pent up feelings and forces Riku to take her seriously and look at her. Finally, someone is making sense and trying to get answers, and yet... And yet. She has no pants on. And has deliberately just removed them. For this purpose. Her moment of character growth is spent Porky Piggin' it, lips to the wind, cheeks in the breeze. I think the author intended for this to convey her desperation at having tried all the things that made sense to her. I think the author intended for this to be hot. I don't think the author intended for what could/should have been a relationship-defining moment of emotional connection between these two characters to be that absurd and "wait, what?"

The frustration is hilariously funny to read in these comments.

If you're frustrated by the plot, the Mangaka won.

If you're sticking around to see what happens next no matter how stupid every chapter has been, the Mangaka won.
-snip-

What if I'm sticking around to see what happens next because of how stupid every chapter has been? I get this point of view, because I also often cynically go there when I emotionally punch out of a story because it's wasting my time, but... I think this author is really trying. I think they're really going for dark pathos and tragedy. I think they think this is a really important story they need to share with the world and have put a shit ton of work into, which is really tragic in its own, unintended way on a lot of levels. Which makes it interesting. But still bad.

Like, I don't think this is necessarily "allowing yourself to get sucked down an intentional rabbit hole that cynically hurts you." I think this is "getting weirdly emotionally invested in the travails of a Roomba that's somehow gotten itself stuck and not noticed."

 

[NorseLoki]

'I have nothing left to give you' she says... did she lose her virginity to someone else then?

 

[NorseLoki]

No they don't. I was a teenager once, and I've raised four of my own. Once they turn into raging inferno of hormones, reason and morality go right out the fucking window.
I acknowledge my stupidity while in the clutches of the teenage condition.


I'm pretty sure teenagers are all of the above.

There's the weirdly specific "i won't shower but baths are okay" phase,
The phase where you quietly dispose of things that shouldn't have been used for masturbation but were,
the "I thought you were friends with [X]" "Oh we're friends now but we hate each other" phase
the "my parents are TOTALLY cringe" phase,
...and a few other phases that are probably specific to my own children.


The rest of your post is posturing for the audience and high-grounding.
Try being a little honest with yourself- better yet, try raising a few of your own (or don't, you sound overwhelmingly horrible, don't breed for nothing else except my sake, if for no other reason) and leave it at that.

Yes... yes they do have morality. I knew what was right from wrong and I also knew not to be a dumbass (when it came to sex). Giving excuses for why some teenagers are idiots isn't all that great.

 

[essensue]

'I have nothing left to give you' she says... did she lose her virginity to someone else then?

That certainly seems to be what most are inferring. Even if she did, they've literally been best friends since they were little kids, so like... Why would that matter? The melodrama of whatever bullshit she's on is just... what? And meanwhile her mom/getaway driver is giving exactly one facial expression of 'mildly confused, but mostly unconcerned' to this screaming, full-sprint chase that has burst into her car.

 

[orangerain7734]

This is way better than rental girlfriend.

Can't change my mind.

I mean, we haven't seen the MC get off to getting cucked by his crush with another guy (though I haven't seen that moment, I'm glad I jumped out of that bandwagon before it happened), so as long as we haven't got to that point yet nor have seen why Shizuku's acting like a complicated/cryptic bitch, I'm holding my rage comment with a one-star review before dropping everything. I'm convinced that we won't get to see what her 'reasons' are until 'graduation day', as in the final chapter, but I could be happily wrong.

 

[dejw]

I'd really rather just see more of tits instead, preferably Yako's. Pretty sure that's why actual volumes keep selling at all.
I do not follow this for the writing or story author, wtf

 

[rezced]

I'm just waiting to read the big revealation about Shizuku secret. Ngl, the douchebag from the beach arc has refused to take on the proposition to sleep with her after she said to him the reason for why she can't sleep with anyone for now. We talk about a rapist scum who got cold feet after that.
So it better be big

 

[coyote_vdb]

I don't particularly want to defend hatewatchers/readers (I kinda am one myself) but what is the purpose of comments such as yours? I see this exact comment (most often with a bit more ego and insults) every single chapter on any slightly controversial work.

People can have fun reading garbage and have a right to type about it. Heck, this is a thread to discuss chapters of a manga. I see many comments making some very good points, too, even if they pretty much always contain flame.

Well looks to me like a pretty sad way to "have fun". And not a way that will give you good memories in the long run.
I guess you see comments like mine because I'm not the only one to wonder why people would spend their time being negative on works they dislike instead of on works they find good and which gives them positive energy.
Well, that's your life, fellows, you spend it as you want.

 

[Sakurei]

Ok I got this figured out. You can drop this after finishing this post because you know the rest of the plot. I don't know if someone else ever wrote some theory similar to this in these threads, I don't read them (or the manga lol) that throroughly.

Shizuku is being forced into an arranged marriage by her family or some other entity in her life. The proceedings for this took some time, so they decided to finid a guard dog for her while they take care of business. They decided to apporach Takuto for that. It would explain why she always listened to Takuto when she was being flirty with Riku, seeing as Takuto would report that stuff. It would also explain why she didn't break up with him - she couldn't - he was her watchdog.
The reason why Takuto (who is a childhood friend of both Riku and Shizuku) is doing this is unclear, but there have been hints as to him being gay so maybe it's a way to get rid of a love rival. It doesn't explain why she went out with Umimi though so I admit this is shaky. Maybe it has something to do with feelings of inferiotity after all.

This explain why she was in such a rush to get dicked by Riku, as well. EIther she would lose her worth to the prospective husband if she wasn't a virgin (probably not since Shizuku kept mentioning she can't be together with Riku) or she simply wanted a happy memory for herself (and him because she knows he likes her - I think this is more likely) before she was sold of into a loveless marriage and a loveless life. In either case, she wanted to be with the guy she liked first and foremost.

Now with the current chapter (and the fact that the author lifes NTR), there is a real chance she finally had to meet her future husband, who then proceeded to have sex with her (hence she has nothing left to give to Riku - their potentially happy memory can not happen anymore). She feels dirty and used (as tends to be common with rape victims but maybe that's not true and I'm too cumbrained) and doesn't want to pollute Riku with herself. So she avoids him.

If this is all true (or roughly true), the reason she didn't tell Riku might be that she figured he would do something dangerous to try and keep her safe, whcih she didn't wish for.

 

[mrclamp]

Ok I got this figured out. You can drop this after finishing this post because you know the rest of the plot. I don't know if someone else ever wrote some theory similar to this in these threads, I don't read them (or the manga lol) that throroughly.

Shizuku is being forced into an arranged marriage by her family or some other entity in her life. The proceedings for this took some time, so they decided to finid a guard dog for her while they take care of business. They decided to apporach Takuto for that. It would explain why she always listened to Takuto when she was being flirty with Riku, seeing as Takuto would report that stuff. It would also explain why she didn't break up with him - she couldn't - he was her watchdog.
The reason why Takuto (who is a childhood friend of both Riku and Shizuku) is doing this is unclear, but there have been hints as to him being gay so maybe it's a way to get rid of a love rival. It doesn't explain why she went out with Umimi though so I admit this is shaky. Maybe it has something to do with feelings of inferiotity after all.

This explain why she was in such a rush to get dicked by Riku, as well. EIther she would lose her worth to the prospective husband if she wasn't a virgin (probably not since Shizuku kept mentioning she can't be together with Riku) or she simply wanted a happy memory for herself (and him because she knows he likes her - I think this is more likely) before she was sold of into a loveless marriage and a loveless life. In either case, she wanted to be with the guy she liked first and foremost.

Now with the current chapter (and the fact that the author lifes NTR), there is a real chance she finally had to meet her future husband, who then proceeded to have sex with her (hence she has nothing left to give to Riku - their potentially happy memory can not happen anymore). She feels dirty and used (as tends to be common with rape victims but maybe that's not true and I'm too cumbrained) and doesn't want to pollute Riku with herself. So she avoids him.

If this is all true (or roughly true), the reason she didn't tell Riku might be that she figured he would do something dangerous to try and keep her safe, whcih she didn't wish for.

Haven’t read any chapters in awhile myself, but this has been my theory for awhile now.

She is being forced into an arranged marriage with someone she does not and will not love, but her family is powerful and she has to do it.

I don’t think though that she had sex with the future husband yet. My bet is that when she just disappeared she was meeting them and her purity was confirmed there. She wanted to lose that purity to the guy she liked (Riku) before they checked. Now that the future husband knows she is pure she is unable to do the thing she wants which is lose it to the guy she likes because the family will know. She says she has nothing left to give because she can’t give that to him without possible retaliation against her or the guy she gave it to. The rapist college guy probably got scared because when he heard her family was powerful and her situation he didn’t want to get his ass handed to him over it…but Riku is a friend so nothing might come of that with her family.

 

[mustithepuzzy]

This manga is a whole fucking mess of bullshit 😭

 

[AmnaelFamnael]

I swear this mc doesn't deserve any of the girls, especially not Yako. I don't like Shizuku or Umimi, but even they deserve better than this dense coward

 

[WL4949]

Hope it was the manager guy 🙏

 

[Insignis]

That oneshot genuinely made my heart drop. I genuinely have no clue how people sit through and enjoy anything related to NTR (yes I know, this included), but to each's own I suppose.

Maybe I am weird, or NTR porn mangas I ended up reading cause of my idiotic way of ignoring tags and reading anything that I stumbled upon just broke my perception, but that one-shot wasn't even remotely as bad as those NTR porns. Heck I am not even sure I would call it NTR, cause we don't know if they were in relationship and the girl was closer to being scared of MC than loving him, and he loved idea of getting better more than her to the point he brain-fucked himself after seeing them fucking.

Like genuinely that one-shot was actually interesting of a concept to read.

The frustration is hilariously funny to read in these comments.

If you're frustrated by the plot, the Mangaka won...

For me it was - interesting a bit story, will read.
Then it gone worse and worse, but then a bright sun showed up amid all the clouds - Yako.
Not only she has long hair, smallest tits among the girls, but also seems to be only sane thus far.
So like I read this to see if she will show up again, and if we will get nice pages with her.
Thou I want to see what is that tragic/dramatic ending that author themselves supposedly spoilered somewhere.
I simply don't care if author wins anything here.

Ok I got this figured out...

This was one of my ideas/theories, along an alternative that she is ill and needs money for operation so she "sells" herself for money and wanted to lose v-card to the dude she likes before that selling happens.

As for why Takt dated Umimi - IIRC its explained - theres a flashback to Takt talking with Umimi about why they dated each other, and Takt told Umimi that they are similar, and that they dated each other because they wanted to find out if they could love someone else or something similar either explicitly said or implied strongly. One of things that hinted at Takt being gay for MC, he tried to date Umimi to forget MC, but it didn't work. Would still work with your theory and him dating Shizuku. Or she could also be "a next try" or something.

 

[Monn12]

efforts to decrease space

Agreed with your statements. I will add one thing to this: Both of them are his best friends + he loves the girl. Though the thing about poorly written is spot on.
As for love x hate relationship with this manga....Likely the same but my hate was stronger so i decided just to finally see the great "reveal" and shelf it forever. I'm more eager to see if author will manage to pull something really worthwhile for her buffoonery or will it be a hollow bullet (my bet on hollow bullet).

 

[Monn12]

No they don't. I was a teenager once, and I've raised four of my own. Once they turn into raging inferno of hormones, reason and morality go right out the fucking window.
I acknowledge my stupidity while in the clutches of the teenage condition.

I think most people here "were" or "are" those teenagers. To my knowledge and memory while most of us did goofy stuff (sometimes illegal stuff) a lot of things were tame and controlled. Risks were to a degree calculated.
For example i could smoke pot or drink and there was always risks of parents finding out BUT we were doing it safe locations with enough time to sober up. Sex with girls were with condoms only (except one guy, who to this day trusts his ability). There was drama with girls due to ego and hormones but never infidelity.

On the other hand i have had the pleasure to "befriend" borderline (or true) sociopaths and psychopaths. Who really had no impulse control. Did stupid stuff with us + mugged, potentially raped and etc. (learned that years later after a get together).
They were indeed people with enough gal to cuck their friends behind their backs.
Heck i've known my school friends from kindergarten, what sort of imbecil i would be to betray them like that? 14 and up are ages that already have had some exposure to infidelity be it their close ones, media or books and in all 3 cases you can learn that it is deplorable act with massive consequences.

I actually thought that some of my friends girlfriends were hot but whenever a sneaky thought has crossed my mind, images of consequences flooded my mind. I was a teen but not a moron, hormones make you more prone to emotional decisions (rash decisions) but they don't make you a brain dead moron.
There is stupidity during teen years and then there is morally evil deeds, i was somehow raised to avoid evil deeds. Not even a religious person (never was) but i think 7 deadly sins are great guidestones for prosperity of humanity. The older i got the stronger those things resonated with me BUT they were there already implemented by my surroundings.

Sadly or luckily i didn't have the pleasure of raising children but had enough god-children, little siblings (huge age gap) and cousins to look after to understand that teenage stupidity is indeed something hard to avoid but morality of their stupid deeds is indeed something we can steer

I'm pretty sure teenagers are all of the above.

There's the weirdly specific "i won't shower but baths are okay" phase,
The phase where you quietly dispose of things that shouldn't have been used for masturbation but were,
the "I thought you were friends with [X]" "Oh we're friends now but we hate each other" phase
the "my parents are TOTALLY cringe" phase,
...and a few other phases that are probably specific to my own children.


The rest of your post is posturing for the audience and high-grounding.
Try being a little honest with yourself- better yet, try raising a few of your own (or don't, you sound overwhelmingly horrible, don't breed for nothing else except my sake, if for no other reason) and leave it at that.

Man, with your statement here i really doubt you are a parent. At best a young adult.
At worst you really are a parent and not a good role model.

Lastly, there are adults even old people(60+) who cheat who stated they won't cheat or thought of cheating before. I suspect they are like you, during teen years could do it but now as an adult you understand it more deeply how you could potentially ruin everything in your life BUT you never really thought of it as something morally wrong or at the very least you thought about being caught and facing problems but never really thinking about the affected parties (for example how your partner would feel devastated).

P.S. Fuck, "Try being a little honest with yourself" this ticked me off, if you were like that or are like that don't imagine that everyone is like that.
When i was younger i experimented with substances and had a wild idea that almost everyone if not everyone did them too at some point, color me amazed when i understood that i was wrong. It's like cheaters think everyone cheats and the list of examples goes on.

 

[Monn12]

And - oh yeah - notice how the timer has stopped on the end frames? No more countdowns. He knows he has you.

The most vexing part? We know that too. What's even more vexing? Some really good works are being canceled or keep being under dogs, while this is actually having good sells records.
I'm in it for her reveal, why was the girl acting like that (i just can't find a reason for this). I don't read this story, i check the comments and check some panels where MC and FMC have one on one talk to finally see the culmination. I would never buy this manga if it was the only option but i would search for spoilers.

Or look at the rent a girlfriend, it just keeps on going. I don't read it but i once started reading it. After some years it popped of on some manga webpage as "updated", i checked my library and indeed it was there registered as something i've started. I log in here, MAL and other web pages and check reviews and comments. Despite having strong negative comments and not so amazing ratings it just keeps on going. By the way i've stumbled upon this series again like with rent a girlfriend, it just popped out as "updated" on the main page so i was curious.

But yep you are right, author is just messing with us and author knows how to do it. Next time though i would avoid this author since i was hooked by cheap drama and my damn curiosity that i can't deny. While authors "knows" it also damages the long term reputation, everything now hangs on how elaborately author would explain her weird behaviour.

 

[NorseLoki]

That certainly seems to be what most are inferring. Even if she did, they've literally been best friends since they were little kids, so like... Why would that matter? The melodrama of whatever bullshit she's on is just... what? And meanwhile her mom/getaway driver is giving exactly one facial expression of 'mildly confused, but mostly unconcerned' to this screaming, full-sprint chase that has burst into her car.

To this point I'm just reading this hot pile of garbage to know what is so mysterious. What is the mystery involving her and Takt.. etc. Once that comes to light I'll probably drop it since I hate things that beat around the bush repeatedly.