Overall, I think I really love this series so far. The representation in it isn't PERFECT (especially with how sexualized Noa is, but ya know, it's a manga), but I don't think I've ever seen a manga (especially not a slice of life) try do an intentional, honest, and (relatively) compassionate portrayal of what SEEMS to be borderline personality disorder. Like, Noa checks so many of the boxes perfectly, and not just in a tropey "yandere" way. The series is also doing a great job portraying that strange, quasi-platonic codependent enmeshment that can come when certain neuroses meet (like Noa's borderline and whatever emotionally avoidant rescuer thing Rihito's got going on. There's probably a name for it, but I digress). I have some personal experience with that kind of relationship, and the clear (and distinctly unhealthy) intimacy they share is absolutely palpable and VERY familiar to me. As someone else said, they are basically indistinguishable from a romantic partnership, but they never crossed the barrier from platonic to romantic, leaving them in this nebulous, almost queer-platonic space. Now, while I can't necessarily say that ALL queer platonic relationships are INHERENTLY bad/codependent, I can say from experience that this kind of unresolved and addressed emotional interdependence, founded on both party's simultaneous desire for and fear of intimacy, as well as one party's (Noa's) intense emotional needs, and the other party's (Rihito's) apparent reliance on the first person's emotional needs for relationship security (not as well explored overall, but that seems true to my experiences, and this most recent chapter -105- touches on it a bit with the whole "that only works because you know they won't hate you" thing) can become very toxic and emotionally draining. Though I probably have traits of both, I relate to Rihito's position as the emotional caretaker the most, and that shit can get TIRING, even though it was serving me on some level, and I was the one doing it to myself. Even though I do think some of his "putting of distance" between himself and Noa is a symptom of his emotional avoidance, that unfair deligitimizing of boundaries in the latest chapter and questioning of your own right to boundaries when dealing with your emotionally needy "partner" is very real as well and I think very typical of this kind of relationship, and I hope the series doesn't ACTUALLY try to insist that he's in the wrong for wanting space. That being said, I find myself rooting for them in spite of everything, and I legitimately can't decide if I want them to define the relationship more appropriately or fully breakup (even though the latter would probably be healthier 9 times out of 10)
