Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui! - Ch. 238 - Since I'm Not Popular, We'll Have The Wrap-Up Party Here Again (Part 1)

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It's simply going to end. This series has been going on for 15 years.
If anyone wanna feel old like me, the anime adaptation was 13 years ago.

Remember that Kotaku article denouncing that the anime was too cruel and mean? And that the joke was seeing Tomoko suffer?
 
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AI reference? I thought the story was supposed to be set in past like in 2010 or something. Anyway Nemo's mind is broken from exposing her bad side to her parent that she stopped caring any more.
I mean, how many manga have u read that have started in like say the 90s and are still going, but suddenly the characters go from flip phones to smart phones?
 
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Honestly it has never been made explicit.
My take is that Mako is upset that Yuri is no longer dependent on her. In addition Yuri's increasing eccentricity offends her sensibilities. Mako has been lashing out at Yoshida for similar reasons.
I think you're spot on about Mako/Yuri, but I always though what was grinding Mako's gears about Yoshida is that despite years of Mako paying special attention to her, Yoshida (1) still sees Mako as just another random classmate, and (2) Yoshida seems to be getting increasingly into guys (or, Tomoki specifically).
 
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People with better memory, remind me.
Why Mako hates Yuri?
Honestly it has never been made explicit.
My take is that Mako is upset that Yuri is no longer dependent on her. In addition Yuri's increasing eccentricity offends her sensibilities. Mako has been lashing out at Yoshida for similar reasons.
I think you're spot on about Mako/Yuri, but I always though what was grinding Mako's gears about Yoshida is that despite years of Mako paying special attention to her, Yoshida (1) still sees Mako as just another random classmate, and (2) Yoshida seems to be getting increasingly into guys (or, Tomoki specifically).

It's been long cemented in the manga itself that Yuri sees Mako as a mom (Yuri said she would be okay with kissing other girls in a play as long as it doesn't involve Mako for this reason). The same is also hinted for how Minami sees Mako, in fact, there's a parallel between Yuri and Minami in which both depend on Mako's company because they often don't have anyone else to talk with because they don't have a very "socially acceptable" personality, as Yuri has lowkey neurodivergent traits of being unable to hold a conversation and read the mood with conventional people while Minami is a bully that can't socialize without shittalking.

Mako's primary characteristic was always being the kind friend, the glue that connects these two to other social circles no matter how inconvenient these two acted, in other words, she's the forgiving "mom friend" that seemed to promise unconditional friendship more than Asuka herself. However, anyone that notices the themes behind Watamote will notice that many characters over the course of the series gradually show more complex fronts than what they started as.

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What we're currently noticing about Mako is that she's not the """perfect""" archetype of an overly kind girl common in moe anime and has her limits, but not only that, she has her own needs to be attended as well. She doesn't want to be the only one serving others, she wants to be recognized for her efforts as well.

With this in perspective, this "twisted" Mako we've been seeing lately is less of hating Yuri or anyone else herself but is more related to the fact her own desires aren't being met despite how much she helped others in previous arcs: as most have figured out by now, Mako grew to strongly care for Yoshida. So much that she tries to interfere in the yankee's future life decisions to the point of loathing the idea of both boys and girls being in potential romantic situations with her and even attempting in her own way to sabotage the possibility. Her affection turned into obsession, so one can conclude that Mako grew to have different priorities since meeting Yoshida, so she wants to spend more time with Yoshida and less on being the "mom friend" to our childish duo Yuri and Minami. And since our neurodivergent Yuri can't understand what is going on with Mako, Mako gradually is letting go of her kind persona and instead is turning her emotions more transparent; therefore, the reader is actually seeing now when Mako gets fed up, when Mako gets jealous, when Mako gets manipulative.

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I mean, how many manga have u read that have started in like say the 90s and are still going, but suddenly the characters go from flip phones to smart phones?
Detective Conan did just like Nozaki's example, they casually slipped into smartphones and nobody batted an eye. A different example would be Captain Tsubasa's anime remake, they updated to smartphones day 1.
 
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Detective Conan did just like Nozaki's example, they casually slipped into smartphones and nobody batted an eye. A different example would be Captain Tsubasa's anime remake, they updated to smartphones day 1.
A wild example was Card Captor Sakura, which introduced a new arc after about two decades. In the original series, it was actually a fairly important plot point that thanks to family connections, two main characters are able to use these big plastic phone toy things to communicate. Like they were extremely privileged to have that--there was no expectation that middle schoolers would have a way to contact each other as needed normally.

Then the new arc shows up 20 years after the original started. Suddenly the characters are casually video chatting on smart phones, and of course this just seems like something kids would do. Even though in story it's only like a year later.

It caught me really off guard because I was actually looking forward to seeing the circa 2000 world depicted in a modern anime for continuity, but they didn't bother. There are other blatant continuity issues actually referenced in the plot (so presumably intentional) which means they could have a justification for the world changing, but they didn't seem to bother with that for the phones. You're just supposed to accept it as a minor detail even though it really is pretty significant.

Also I miss CashMoneyChiyo's Nozaki translations. It's been years. :meguuusad: I suppose at some point they just gave up when even the official translations got ahead of them.
 
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With this in perspective, this "twisted" Mako we've been seeing lately is less of hating Yuri or anyone else herself but is more related to the fact her own desires aren't being met despite how much she helped others in previous arcs: as most have figured out by now, Mako grew to strongly care for Yoshida. So much that she tries to interfere in the yankee's future life decisions to the point of loathing the idea of both boys and girls being in potential romantic situations with her and even attempting in her own way to sabotage the possibility. Her affection turned into obsession, so one can conclude that Mako grew to have different priorities since meeting Yoshida, so she wants to spend more time with Yoshida and less on being the "mom friend" to our childish duo Yuri and Minami. And since our neurodivergent Yuri can't understand what is going on with Mako, Mako gradually is letting go of her kind persona and instead is turning her emotions more transparent; therefore, the reader is actually seeing now when Mako gets fed up, when Mako gets jealous, when Mako gets manipulative.
Amazing write-up, thanks for the details! I found the bit where Yoshida cluelessly stabs Mako through the heart.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on why Asuka's kinda catty with Nemo - "Are you drunk" comment here, the backhanded reassurance after her parents see her lewd voice acting in Ch. 234 ("I wouldn't worry too much, Nemoto-san. Your parents are also responsible for giving birth to you."). I get Asuka sometimes is subtly rude to girls who get close to Tomoko, but she doesn't do that to Yuri or Emoji, and Nemoto's not into into Tomoko like Emoji is either.
 
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Detective Conan did just like Nozaki's example, they casually slipped into smartphones and nobody batted an eye. A different example would be Captain Tsubasa's anime remake, they updated to smartphones day 1.
Don't forget hajime no ippo, initial D is also kinda guilty of this but moreso with their cars than the actual phones
 
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How is it that Yuri not being able to get a word in the funniest moment in the chapter. XD

So simple. So good!
 

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