Kusunoki-san wa Koukou Debut ni Shippai Shite Iru - Ch. 51 - I want to say… even just a little of how I feel.

[Asheron]

This is just your every-day slightly above average romcom without Snek. Hebikawa is what makes it peak!!

 

[Kagimizu]

I get a really foreboding feeling out of this, for some reason. Maybe I'm just not used to a romcom protagonist trying to convince himself she might like him back, but him continuing to read into the situation when she herself isn't aware of her feelings... I feel like this is heading for a T-bone car crash.

 

[jayjay97]

COWARD!

 

[ciera]

need snek

 

[Shrimperor]

MC and pink hair being wimpy around each other
Snek

 

[UdenEmpati]

I get a really foreboding feeling out of this, for some reason. Maybe I'm just not used to a romcom protagonist trying to convince himself she might like him back, but him continuing to read into the situation when she herself isn't aware of her feelings... I feel like this is heading for a T-bone car crash.

Likely because this has to mirror Kusunoki's previous experience from grade school, right up until her expectations/fears of history repeating can be subverted.

And the last time this situation arose for Kusunoki, it resulted in her being ostracized and beaten down for three years of her life. Additionally, while she's come a ways in improving her mental fortitude since then, she's also repeating mistakes, and making new ones, but unilaterally trying to remove herself from the situation instead of gritting her teeth and facing Otobe and Keisuke head-on.

The circumstances aren't identical--she's older, for one, and Otobe and Keisuke aren't the same people that her two former friends from grade school are.
But just like before, she knows that her female friend likes her male friend, and she doesn't know that her male friend likes her.

Furthermore, she might have nascent feelings for her male friend--though she's not aware of them, and I'd argue that it's only implied in a few places along the narrative we've seen thus far, but that it's not something that could be confirmed, beyond it being 'expected' if we assume this story plays out like others in its genre.

But while Hebikawa and her relationship to both Keisuke and Kusunoki are a new wrinkle that could change the calculus of how this plays out, it's still largely following the same steps before. Kusunoki sees it in part, and initially opted to just run away entirely, thinking that would solve things. It obviously didn't, and now she has to change tactics, but the core problem of nobody being honest with one another and trusting one another persists. (Which, is where her fortune from this chapter comes into play.)
And until that gets addressed, that "T-Bone car crash" feeling is exactly what we the readers should be feeling as an impending outcome from where things presently stand.

 

[Junomano]

I'm not sure she would have agreed on the spot but that would definitly make her think A LOT about it
Now since they still aren't thing, drama can still happen(not impossible even if they did become a thing, some people can be messed up)

 

[Isobe-jan]

so much ink is being spilled in the comments damn

Glad mc is honest with himself about how he feels, unlike kusunoki.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Glad mc is honest with himself about how he feels, unlike kusunoki.

I don't think she's not being honest with it.

I'd argue she's not even aware of whether she feels anything for Keisuke. We the readers can say she does, but in-story, unless I missed something, nothing's happened to give more than an impression that there might be some unconscious bit of attraction on her part.
And I'd say it can only be implied because it's what's expected by way of the genre of story and what we'd see happen based on the tropes at play. But re-reading the story again...other than a few panels from Kusunoki sprinkled throughout the chapters here and there that show her making a face for a moment...she really is just ignorant of romance and her feelings toward it, beyond the "I don't like it because it ruined things for me before".

 

[b-no]

Snek lady...

Where are you snek lady...

I need you snek lady...

Please snek lady...

Joking aside, I'm glad Keisuke is taking it step by step but would appreciate a faster development. Still, no snek lady...

 

[vinostrife]

F that snake, we dont take your kind nice in here!

 

[TheBigMonk]

Thanks for the chapter!
The snek wars still rages on in the comments. (where snek?)
Meanwhile tanned filler girl fans are crying in the corner.

 

[Friendly-Sentence710]

Thanks for tl.

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I miss snek

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Illustration from author

If snek dangerous, why hot?

Keisuke getting hung up on "what if the past repeats itself" is a touch annoying, but is also understandable. Clearly he's not over Hebikawa's rejection of him before, but that stuff takes time, and he's only just starting to move forward where Hebikawa is concerned, anyway--insofar as letting go of the trauma he'd felt from the past once finding out that it meant nothing to her, and focusing instead on what he wants in the future.

This manga does a lot of established tropes but puts the time and effort into show us WHY these are issues for our characters so I really don't mind them.

Both of them have real, solid reasons for clinging to the status quo instead of the usual BS.

 

[Tonius]

I love Hebikawa, she's my favorite character in this manga but the people asking for her whatever she is present or not in the chapter are really starting to get annoying.

Stop it ! it's not funny anymore.

 

[Kagimizu]

And until that gets addressed, that "T-Bone car crash" feeling is exactly what we the readers should be feeling as an impending outcome from where things presently stand.

I guess my main fear is why I called it a "T-bone" specifically. Rather than going in opposite directions for a head-on collision, Kusonoki is seemingly entirely unaware of his feelings. Meanwhile he's reading too deeply into things and hyping himself up for what will be a very poorly timed confession. Meaning she's gonna end up blindsided and thrown for a loop, and both of them are likely going to end up hurt.

 

[ipmanvsthemask]

The progress with Kusunoki this chapter felt pretty lackluster. This gives me the slightest of hopes that Hebikawa has a chance of winning.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I guess my main fear is why I called it a "T-bone" specifically. Rather than going in opposite directions for a head-on collision, Kusonoki is seemingly entirely unaware of his feelings. Meanwhile he's reading too deeply into things and hyping himself up for what will be a very poorly timed confession. Meaning she's gonna end up blindsided and thrown for a loop, and both of them are likely going to end up hurt.

More than fair, and it's understandable because that's both the exact setup we're being shown, and the expected outcome should things repeat as they did for Kusunoki in the past.

The difference, though, is that Keisuke and Otobe are not those children from the first go-around. And, we're not at the point where Keisuke is imminently confessing, meaning that there's time for other developments to occur.
Plus, Hebikawa's now involved, and there was no equivalent in the past iteration. She's the spanner in the works for Kusunoki here, and will be at least one major reason why history won't repeat itself.

But yes--for the sake of Kusunoki and Keisuke's dynamic, it is uncomfortable, and like I said, I think that's the sentiment the author is reaching for. Even as things are different now, the major themes are all present once again, and so this becomes a test of whether Kusunoki can do a better job navigating what she's aware of, and whether she (and Keisuke, and Otobe) can trust one another enough to risk being honest with their various feelings.

 

[bluenorvo]

Both are pretty much stuck in the past. Unless they can break out of it nothing will change I guess.

 

[UdenEmpati]

This manga does a lot of established tropes but puts the time and effort into show us WHY these are issues for our characters so I really don't mind them.

Both of them have real, solid reasons for clinging to the status quo instead of the usual BS.

right - like I said, it's understandable.
at the very least, the author does a good job of showing continuity of characterization, where quirks and thought processes and habits are informed by established past events and patterns that are internally consistent.

We're not getting actions and reactions and thoughts that aren't grounded in things that happened previously; nothing that's happening is contrived for the sake of pushing a particular plot point.
It's still frustrating in the moment as an immediate gut reaction, but I don't dislike what's occurring in any way, and I'm much more satisfied because it all has precedent.

Like...the ice skating date felt less justified, because Kusunoki was always shown as having great athleticism and generally talented at whatever she chose to do. Her suddenly being comically garbage at something, and then the "flying kiss" that should have involved chipped teeth at minimum, felt really bad compared to what occurred this chapter and much more like forcing the kiss just to push their relationship forward by whatever means necessary.

But this behavior from Keisuke specifically, I can enthusiastically get behind.

 

[CheesiBoye]

This feels like an accident happening in slow motion. So she knows how her friend feels, and how she feels conficted about that. If she and moe dont set things straight before he confesses, he's going to go through the same rejection arc, which i think might be inevitable for his narrative arc of having to address that former rejection. I see it more likely than hebikawa clearing up her actual emotions and decisions from back then, or even them being in a situation where he can atleast view that experience with less contempt/fear.