Kusunoki-san wa Koukou Debut ni Shippai Shite Iru - Ch. 56 - Her absence has left me feeling strangely off

[Litreara]

To be fair, the only character in this manga I can imagine Hebikawa stabbing, literally, is her mother's creepy ex. In which case, yeah, I'd expect droves of readers to defend her while her popularity skyrockets.

Thanks for proving my point. You took my hyperbolic statement, invented a scenario where stabbing someone would be justified, and then said you'd defend her. Fandom immunity at its finest.

 

[Asheron]

Just a note to the scanlator, in this panel, hebikawa still calls him with 'shizuki-kun', the translation here feels like hebikawa is baiting the girls that she's already dare enough to call shizuki with his first name when it's not the case.

Aside from the name, I think best girl rubbing his arm against her breast is probably what is baiting the other girls.

 

[Asheron]

She flirted with him to antagonize the other two. She did everything deliberately to get a reaction out of the other two.

TBF, it was very rude of the other two to impose themselves on Hebi's date. Some mild antagonizing is to be expected. If the other two aren't confident enough to STEP UP, then they need to STEP ASIDE for our snek queen! 🐍👑💕

 

[Arlo]

Is there something I'm missing here? Is there some appeal to a miserable, manipulative, dishonest piece of shit that I just don't understand?

It's weird enough that Shizuki, in spite of his trauma that was the literal center of the manga initially, just will not smack that bitch down like she deserves, but then I come to the forum and look around and it's completely filled with people apparently unironically simping for that foul, self-absorbed whore.

I don't get it. Yeah - she's pretty. And that's it. IMO, there's absolutely nothing else about her that's even the least bit appealing, and to the contrary, she's utterly and completely repulsive. Self-centeredness is repulsive. Dishonesty is repulsive. Manipulativeness is repulsive. And if you take those character traits away, along with her pretty face, there's nothing left. She's just an empty shell.

So where's the appeal? I just don't see it.

 

[jojoka]

So where's the appeal? I just don't see it.

She's more interesting than the other two because she actually has some character.

 

[Misticsan]

Thanks for proving my point. You took my hyperbolic statement, invented a scenario where stabbing someone would be justified, and then said you'd defend her. Fandom immunity at its finest.

Well, there was another point to my comment: that criticism of Hebikawa tends to paint her as much worse than she really is. That realistically speaking, it's far more likely for her to be portrayed sympathetically by this very manga (not just by fans) when truly bad things happen. Case in point, the aforementioned creepy ex.

All her evil acts (badmouthing people behind their backs, thinking ill of others, pretending to be friendly, teasing rivals, etc.) aren't particularly vile and are kept at harmless romcom levels. In fact, she's been a victim of far more serious evil herself. Is she a bad person? Yes, she is, but hardly irredeemable. It helps that she isn't friends with Kusunoki or Moe, so it's not as if she has a moral duty to put their feelings above her personal interest, and she's actually trying to be nice to Shuzuki in her own way.

 

[Asheron]

Hebikawa was a nasty person, and she still is, and I am glad she stays like this. It's a breath of fresh air, makes reading this interesting.

Hebikawa is not nasty in a deliberately hurtful way, she is just pro-active and forceful in positioning herself as a contender. It really bothers me when passiveness and blandness gets rewarded because of FMC plot armor. It would be interesting to see this manga end with passivity being a losing trait lesson. There are way more deserving co-main girl heroines who have been less passive (like Onodera 💕 confessing many times but not being heard) but still end up losing because of Chapter 1 origins.

Moe and Kusonoki can confess after MC is already in love with Hebikawa! The snek's charms should be impossible to resist!

Looking forward to gym class now and outings with the girls being all together! The classroom change will be great for giving them more equal time. It will give Kusonoki a chance to up her game as well when she gets to see up close how strong her competition is. (No one things I am referring to you Moe-chan, sorry )

 

[Silfir]

I can't help but be reminded of The Girl Who Can Properly Say "I Love You" is Too Strong. Nobody's complaining there that the titular character has absolutely no tolerance for her so-called love rivals' dilly-dallying.

That's exactly the energy Hebikawa is bringing here.

I would understand the pushback a little better if she was exhibiting villainous snake behavior to get an unfair advantage in the contest, but it's the opposite. It's very likely she invited Shizuki in front of the other girls to probe how they would react, and knew it was likely to end up with all four of them going, when she could have instead waited five seconds and gotten Shizuki all to herself. By flirting with Shizuki in front of them, she openly declared war. It's not nice (because Hebikawa is not a nice person), but it sure as hell isn't sneaky.

Is she a bad person? Yes, she is, but hardly irredeemable. It helps that she isn't friends with Kusunoki or Moe, so it's not as if she has a moral duty to put their feelings above her personal interest

Hell, it's not even in her personal interest to give Moe a wake-up call, and she just did it anyway. If they were friends, we'd call that being a wingwoman.

 

[Ragnolock]

TBF, it was very rude of the other two to impose themselves on Hebi's date. Some mild antagonizing is to be expected. If the other two aren't confident enough to STEP UP, then they need to STEP ASIDE for our snek queen! 🐍👑💕

Again we are pretending she didn't do that just to spite them.

 

[Ragnolock]

So like how you were addressing what i said? Sure.
we like Hebikawa for antagonising them, it makes the story more fun. We want her to stir the pot because the pot needed to be stirred. Great of you to compare a fictional mildly mean high school girl to actual serial killers, shows your insane mindset.

Ahh yes I was comparing her to a serial killer, and not just using it as a point to say "Things that are interesting are not necessarily good". You people seem to like misinterpreting things to fit your agenda. Weird how this always seems to happen with the snake defense force.

 

[Ragnolock]

She's more interesting than the other two because she actually has some character.

Or 90% of the people commenting are rampant shitposters trying to cop internet points for having an edge take.

 

[puppeto4]

Based and snekpilled

 

[Arlo]

She's more interesting than the other two because she actually has some character.

And a hurricane is more interesting than a sunny day, but I don't see anyone saying that hurricanes are the best weather.

 

[Ragnolock]

And a hurricane is more interesting than a sunny day, but I don't see anyone saying that hurricanes are the best weather.

Omg I wish I came up with this analogy

 

[Litreara]

Well, there was another point to my comment: that criticism of Hebikawa tends to paint her as much worse than she really is. That realistically speaking, it's far more likely for her to be portrayed sympathetically by this very manga (not just by fans) when truly bad things happen. Case in point, the aforementioned creepy ex.

All her evil acts (badmouthing people behind their backs, thinking ill of others, pretending to be friendly, teasing rivals, etc.) aren't particularly vile and are kept at harmless romcom levels. In fact, she's been a victim of far more serious evil herself. Is she a bad person? Yes, she is, but hardly irredeemable. It helps that she isn't friends with Kusunoki or Moe, so it's not as if she has a moral duty to put their feelings above her personal interest, and she's actually trying to be nice to Shuzuki in her own way.

I don't disagree that her actions are low-stakes, I've said that a bunch of times. But low-stakes malice is still malice, and "not so bad" isn't a defense. The "no moral duty" argument doesn't really hold either. She's actively trying to disturb Kusunoki through Keisuke while pretending to be her friend. That's not indifference. That's active deception. And I totally disagree with the "she's actually trying to be nice to Shizuki in her own way" take. She's giving very malicious glances at Kusunoki while doing it. That doesn't read as kindness to me. But like I said, she has fandom immunity, so her malicious attitude in the chapter is going to be framed as her being nice to Keisuke.

 

[Chronigan]

Snake does what snake do

I was gonna say that! Well, actually I was gonna say Snake will be snake.

 

[Qnomei]

Is there something I'm missing here? Is there some appeal to a miserable, manipulative, dishonest piece of shit that I just don't understand?

It's weird enough that Shizuki, in spite of his trauma that was the literal center of the manga initially, just will not smack that bitch down like she deserves, but then I come to the forum and look around and it's completely filled with people apparently unironically simping for that foul, self-absorbed whore.

I don't get it. Yeah - she's pretty. And that's it. IMO, there's absolutely nothing else about her that's even the least bit appealing, and to the contrary, she's utterly and completely repulsive. Self-centeredness is repulsive. Dishonesty is repulsive. Manipulativeness is repulsive. And if you take those character traits away, along with her pretty face, there's nothing left. She's just an empty shell.

So where's the appeal? I just don't see it.

I have to agree. On top of that, Shizuki's reactions to her antics have been negative this entire time. There's not even a hint of him changing his feelings about her in any way but negative since the story started. He'd be actively pushing her away if he wasn't so nice.

Plus she doesn't even like him, either. There's no hidden feelings or anything there.

The only one of the three he's actually starting to like more than he did at the start is Otobe, and even then it was just a tiny bit. Enough to be friends at least.

 

[Chronigan]

Author trying to paint her as a lonely girl who just want to be loved, my ass : it's just that most people already noticed her true nature and rightfully stay away from her !! If only our main 3 could skip the fake politeness and tell her to unkindly f*ck off...

You can still feel sorry for someone in pain even if the pain is because of there own actions. I'm not a snake fan or apologist, she has done some horrible things, but she is also in a shitty situation. She kinda reminds me of Mami.

 

[sw9ne]

Snake goddess🙏
People need to read https://mangadex.org/title/cf1c93cc...suga-osananajimi-o-suki-ni-natteshimaimashita if they want to see what an actual irredeemable pos heroine looks like.

 

[Natsuki_Subaru_Flugel]

Love is war!