Kuso Onna ni Sachiare

[Tap2]

This is obviously trash.

The kind of trash that I then bookmark and come back every week just to see how bad it can get out of morbid curiosity.

And now we go read Rental girlfriend ...
Woe is us ...

 

[Tap2]

too few.

Language police FTW.

 

[Tap2]

I said to myself "no gonna read the comments for this one, this manga has 'that' topic, it's going to be infested in it, ignoring all the other qualities it has"

Glad I was wrong, there are the typical "she bad, how she could she" but there are others that at least are willing to give it a try. Nice.

For me, this manga in general, there are two big camps one could be at this point of the story (ch7), MC ditches completely Lemon, goes with the other girl and she accepts it and moves on... Very typical, and if done bad, boring. The other and the one I want to see how would be done, Lemon redeems herself, maybe she told the lie for some dumb reason in the heat of the moment, she sees how much hurt made MC and really tries to show him that everything would be better moving onwards.


As a side note, I don't understand what people want Lemon to do, it's clear she likes him and wants to at least get him know that she isn't like before. She accepts the huge error she made, and she wants to get better with him, the only fault she has in this moment of the story? Not telling MC that it was a lie... But let's be honest, at that point of the story, if she said something, MC would shrug it off as "she just want to get together with me again", shooting off all her intent of prove that she isn't how she was when they were together.

Maybe I'm biased because I like Lemon design? Maybe, but I'm willing to give this one a fair read even without it.

Also, and this is something no one seems to say (I've read quite a few very badly worded (I'll stop malingering now) comments without finding anything on this), HOW would a life with anyone other than Lemon turn out?
Lemon, and the other (probably) woman would have a pretty strange life. Same for what's-his-face, if Lemon gets together with someone (worst case would be blonde friend of what's-his-face, although he likes what's-his-face ... (but I seriously don't like him for some reason)).
And MC (got bored of typing WHF) actually still does have feelings for Lemon, so what the H? Just go for it.
(Well - whenever the mangaka gets tired of writing this manga ...)

 

[TestAddress]

And now we go read Rental girlfriend ...
Woe is us ...

Woe to those with RaG(e).

 

[zapyourtumor]

title drop after 94 chapters its joever

 

[HiddenArmy]

Holy just found this old comic vol.1 pv, voiced by Kugimiya Rie.

 

[Oobaka-san]

Okay little update. I couldn't read through all the flashback what mostly seemed like a drowning in self-pity and self-righteousness, with all those non-characters without faces - so you know they are not important. Her breaking up with the protagonist still makes no sense "oh I meant something different, or we should pretend or that's what my "friends" told " then maybe don't begin with "let's break up" and when asked to explain yourself don't run away. Her whole situation is absolutely not understandable "being too perfect or trying to so everyone hates you and don't want to understand you" - Oh my maybe I am the problem? IDC. Those brats made their problems into Lemons problems and she understands this even. So wtf? And even if I try to understand this whole thing, why not make up with him after all this time? Tell him! That is the least you can do. It's not that Lemon is a bad character, but the story makes her into a bad character. The whole time everything she does is going to be admired and she takes on everything to be admired at the end of the day. There are so many logic jumps that I can't even fathom what this story wants her to do... On one hand the story show her off, as if she is the best person there is. On the other hand is that the exact trauma she can't get over? And her not even being sure to like Sunao when they get together is okay, I even liked it, but then the story doesn't really give us a chance to see whats so good about him or makes her falls so hard for him, that years later she still loves him... This manga has it's highs but boy are the lows low... logic and plot holes and way too much babble without saying anything. Two to three chapters without making a point. Which the manga is notorious for in general but in the flashback I wasn't enough interested anymore.

OK, seeing this and other statements, I saw a few points of confusion. I just read this, not all of it but skimmed through, found those chapters, and read through much of the flashback, and there's a few points a little off, so I thought I'd post my own "summary" (which will probably be longer than any of these posts.

From Sunao's perspective, the two of them were perfect together, always having fun and getting closer and closer as a couple every day. He was even getting help from her with his desperate studies to try to get into the elite school she was going for. Then things started to get weird. She'd go out of her way to deliver things he needed to borrow and insist that she be the one to come pick them up, suggests they mostly just meet up after school, becomes extremely insistent he not go near her class. Then he overhears some girls talking about rumors they heard that behind her sweet face Lemon was a black-hearted schemer and actually had four boyfriends. His first reaction was how the heck could a rumor that ridiculous develop. I mean, just the time management alone would be a nightmare for anyone, let alone someone who's already got a lot on her plate like Lemon. At the same time, it feels clear there's stuff going on and she's not telling him, even though she would normally complain about everything to him no matter how big or small. Then he sees her standing outside one day, thinks she was waiting for him, only for her to say she wants to break up and that she was four-timing him. When he comments he was going to talk to her about that she flinches, asks where he heard it, then gets upset and leaves. He can't get through to her again, and when he has to hand in a "future plan" sheet notices he still has her school listed, thinks people are going to be weird about it if they see he's still trying to get into the same school as the girl who dumped him, so he changes it. Throughout the rest of the year they don't talk once, and his mind is racing through all sorts of possibilities, as, again, this is a girl who would come to him about anything and never hold back, but she was upset enough to make up a lie rather than share the truth with him. He spent a long time broken over the idea that she either had stuff going on so bad she couldn't even tell him or had grown to hate him so much she'd tell a story like that, and the pain just didn't let up, especially since they just didn't communicate at all after that. Ultimately he wound up feeling that it hurt less to write it off that she's a "sh!t woman" who four-timed him. Clearly, all options he could think of felt traumatic for him, but he convinced him that was the least painful, and even in the "present" he still believes any truth must be even worse and thus wants to avoid hearing it.

From Lemon's perspective, she starts out noting that she has an awful personality and knows it. She has a few real friends, but mostly just reads people and figures out a response that will make her look good while moving things in the direction she wants. This is demonstrated with a cliquish group of girls who ended up in her class in the new year (I'm guessing 3rd year). They come up and invite her to group with them in a coming outing, and inside from what she knows of them she quickly sees their invitation as "we'll do you a favor and LET you be one of us", and quickly counters that she promised to go with some others but they have plenty of room for everyone so if THEY want to join HER they're welcome. Sure enough, they refuse as they wanted to let her join their pretty girl group, not to join her and her group. The whole act is stressful to her, and she even recognizes that in the rankings of worst people she'd be even worse than them for putting on a nice face while secretly looking down on them. Her only solace is Sunao, the one person she lets her guard down around. She'll always go to him to vent and whine about her stress without holding back. Unfortunately they can't spend near as much time together since entering middle school, and she worries they might end up in different high schools and having even less time together. At this point he asks her out, and since she'd never even thought about romance she starts to hesitate before accepting simply to avoid wrecking their friendship, but the joy on his face makes her so happy that she quickly realizes it's not that she didn't feel these things, it's just that she'd never noticed or thought about it. Every day she finds herself loving him more and more. But then problems start coming up in class. That clique she rejected keeps badmouthing her behind her back (and she has good hearing and a tendency to listen in on these things). One girl they'd "let" join them had claimed to like Sunao since the first year (though it looks like she just named a hot guy because the others were gushing about their crushes), and they treated anyone's feelings overlapping with one of them as an unforgivable crime. Once, she hears them complaining about her alone in the classroom when she was going back to grab something. They recall that one girl's boyfriend had voted for Lemon on a stupid "hottest girl" poll the guys did and got found out. Then they remember a hot senpai who'd confessed to her before. And the other day they saw her "walking home" with yet another guy who also wasn't Sunao. They started calling this "four-timing" and the more they talked the more they embraced that idea, while she steamed outside, angry that she'd have to be called a cheater just because a boy she hardly knows thinks she's cute, or because someone confessed to her and she turned them down on the spot, or because she just happened to be walking in the same direction as someone (even though she was "alone" with him for just a minute before her friends caught up). Still, she struggles to not let it bother her. Going out has actually added stress to her, because the more she loves him the more she wants him to be with a "perfect" girl, something she knows she isn't. She struggles to keep him out of it because doesn't want him to know about such minor things as she worries she'll look pathetic or petty, and she worries he might overreact even though it hardly even qualifies as "bullying", and at the same time she keeps trying to act perfect because she wants to teach herself to actually become what she pretends to be. Meanwhile, things keep getting worse and it keeps getting harder and harder to handle her relationships and maintain her facade, let alone try to get closer to becoming that person. It comes to a head one day when the clique confronts her in the hallway, actually bringing up the claims of four-timing as well as telling her straight that they see through her good-girl act and know she's looking down on them, and that's why they hate her guts, while all the while people are passing and listening in. She finally blows up and tells them if it's like that nothing she says would ever satisfy them, so why don't they just shut up and leave her alone.

Finally, on one particularly bad day she decides to just stand outside and not go in for a while when Sunao shows up. She tries to act like nothing's wrong, but inside she's exhausted and misses the days when they were just friends and could simply be themselves without holding back. She wishes they could be like that again, thinks "if only we weren't lovers" and without even thinking the words "I want to break up, let's break up" pop out of her mouth. She's at least as shocked as him that those words came from her mouth, and she tries to think of a way to pass if off as something silly or a dumb joke, decides to say "Yeah, I'm four-timing you... at least according to some stupid girls in my class. Awful, right? They're being such idiots but I don't want you to get caught up in this mess, so let's pretend to break up until we graduate and don't have to deal with them anymore!", but she only gets through the first part when he says he was going to talk to her about it. Realizing the rumor's spread so far, terrified that he might believe it, struggling with all these emotions and stresses, she finally breaks, asks where he heard the story, and then escapes, unable to even run because her legs just won't listen. She tries to think things through and work up the courage to talk to him but just doesn't have the courage anymore, and then she accidentally sees his "future plans" sheet with the changed high school when she bumps into the teacher. She's heartbroken but thinks it's obvious that he wouldn't want to be with a crap woman like her, that it was really just a matter of time and she shouldn't be surprised that any and all positive feelings he had would have dried up after what happened. She only manages to try and work up the courage on graduation day, but her sister gets in an accident and she has to see her in the hospital while all he knows is that she didn't take her normal route home, leaving him convinced she'd avoided him.

So no, she didn't "give in to peer pressure" like someone said, and she didn't "want to break up". She wore herself out trying to maintain a mask while trying to change herself into that mask and keeping him away so he wouldn't get involved, especially when he was struggling with his studies. Then in the end, in a moment of extreme weakness when she was already at a breaking point, she accidentally said something she didn't mean, tried to correct, but found out that he knew some of the worst things she wanted to keep him away from and ran away.

I won't say this is a great execution, it does feel like things were blown out of proportion and both were made to care a bit too much about insignificant things so they'd be too afraid to just talk for like five minutes. And it really is frustrating that they left so much of it completely unknown for such a long time. Seems like a bit of a trend, honestly, as I recall at least one or two other stories with similar problems. For example, there was one about a guy who was having some strain with his girlfriend and tried to make up on their anniversary only to find her "cheating" on him right in front of his place, so he dumped her. Various other stories progress, with him meeting a younger girl and getting caught up in her messes, dealing with his female best friend who apparently knows this younger girl, etc. while also occasionally encountering his ex who seems to still like him but never says more than "I didn't actually cheat on you" (only at another point to say it could be called "cheating"). Finally after the longest time it's revealed that she'd gotten jealous of how close he was with his female best friend, to the point that he'd rely on her more than his own girlfriend, so she tried holding hands with a boy who liked her in hopes she could be friends with him, and maybe if she had a good male friend she'd understand him having such a close female friend better, only this was their anniversary and her boyfriends saw it and instantly jumped from "she's holding hands with someone besides me" to "she's having sex with another man on our anniversary". Again, seems like authors have difficulties when they put too much on their plate at once. Trying to make a story where a guy is heartbroken to the point of trauma over a girl having "cheated" while making that girl 100% devoted to the guy even after a long breakup is not easy, and it can wind up coming across as a stupid overreaction, something that can only be made worse by trying to drag the drama out and wait too long to reveal the truth. Still I've seen worse. I even recall a story where a guy is traumatized to the point of giving up on everything and treating all his friends and family like they don't exist for more than a decade because of a slight scolding and a little teasing in kindergarten over an accident.