Haimiya-senpai wa Kowakute Kawaii - Ch. 41

[GennArc]

It amuses me to no end how strongly people react to any hint of drama while readily eating up the same poor writing when it was just romcom. Apparently, any mangaka gets a free pass as long as they’re writing mindless romcom fluff, but the moment they introduce some sort of drama, they immediately become a hack.

 

[henman]

weird stupid unneeded drama

 

[bluenorvo]

In my opinion this author is very awkward when doing serious drama. The first major drama where he started ignoring senpai and Koyuki's arc both has a strange pace to it, like it didn't feel smooth at all, I don't know how to word it. This one too.

 

[IHateGravity]

It amuses me to no end how strongly people react to any hint of drama while readily eating up the same poor writing when it was just romcom. Apparently, any mangaka gets a free pass as long as they’re writing mindless romcom fluff, but the moment they introduce some sort of drama, they immediately become a hack.

Drama's one thing(we're nowhere close to knowing what kept Haimiya from school); going from 0-100 while skipping 1 to 99 is another.

 

[Chronigan]

I doubt that this is indicative of a potential axe. This series sold something like 400k copies, so it's doing extremely well, and I think it's safe from the axe for the time being. This is just (forced and rehashed) drama.

I really hope so.

 

[Kaito57]

Just what kind of trauma such a shy guy could have possibly went through to start shaking like this !?

 

[TheHorsemanOfTheApocalypse]

Me when I pull drama out of my ass:

 

[hezmund]

The problem was the execution leading up to the break, not the break itself. He wasn't just outwardly fine, but inwardly fine, which is something as readers we uniquely have access to. And THAT is what the problem is. He wasn't feeling any build up of pressure that would cause him to react like this suddenly.

Which is precisely how trauma can work? it's quite clear in this chapter that it was the wording of her comments and the expectation he derived from them that triggered him. His reaction likely came as a shock to him as much as it did to anyone else, and his avoidant behaviour afterwords is also a classic trauma response, especially for a teenager.

Trauma responses do not require a build up of "pressure" before they manifest. They can be sudden and unpredictable.

 

[SirBlizz]

You're conflating my real-life example of "trauma doesn't require foreshadowing" as me using my real-life example to win an argument. There's no argument to win, I'm not trying to change anyone's mind about whether this was a good narrative decision or not. If you dislike the way it was handled, that's entirely fine. It's a subjective experience after all. Personally, I really liked it and it gave me chills.

I was simply pushing back against the notion that "trauma must be foreshadowed to be effective." This manga is a great, and fairly realistic example of how someone's trauma may suddenly and visciously affect them with no build-up or explanation. I was obviously aware of my wife's trauma, so I knew where it came from. But what if she was at work? If a coworker knew nothing of her past experience (she doesn't talk about it for obvious reasons) and had an injury that caused a lot of blood and my wife had a trauma response. It would genuinely appear to come out of nowhere, and no one would say "Gosh, you could have given us a heads up..."

Fine, sure, you're "not trying to win an argument" (Although statements like "pushing back against" really undermine that claim but whatever, fine.)

But look, you're trying to paint me as the bad guy for telling you its kind of a dick move to pull out real life trauma in a debate about the quality of a piece of writing, as though it being vaguely similar your personal experience somehow makes it acceptable writing, and not something clumsily shoved in for some cheap drama. This is a story not real life, there are rules, a character we have followed for about 41 chapters should have more indications of being traumatized before suddenly having some sort of, quote unquote "realistic trauma attack".

Also note how many people are being snide or trying to start an argument about manga readers not being able to handle "realistic trauma" or even just "drama" That's something people like you cause by throwing out landmines like this.

 

[WillBeVisible]

It amuses me to no end how strongly people react to any hint of drama while readily eating up the same poor writing when it was just romcom. Apparently, any mangaka gets a free pass as long as they’re writing mindless romcom fluff, but the moment they introduce some sort of drama, they immediately become a hack.

Yes, I read this for the romcom fluff, if I wanted a psychological manga or a drama manga I would read something else.

 

[WillBeVisible]

I doubt that this is indicative of a potential axe. This series sold something like 400k copies, so it's doing extremely well, and I think it's safe from the axe for the time being. This is just (forced and rehashed) drama.

Hopefully, despite disliking this jarring tonal shift I still want to see more of Haimiya, but I expect a dip in readers, those 400k people picked up the manga for the romcom and introducing forced drama might put a lot of people off.

 

[SirBlizz]

Hopefully, despite disliking this jarring tonal shift I still want to see more of Haimiya, but I expect a dip in readers, those 400k people picked up the manga for the romcom and introducing forced drama might put a lot of people off.

Despite my own complaining about it, I am confident in Kamiyama's ability to write out these things, even if they are very clumsy about introducing them.

I doubt this will be one of those romcoms that commits to a sudden and jarring change in tone.

 

[Scipo0419]

Fine, sure, you're "not trying to win an argument" (Although statements like "pushing back against" really undermine that claim but whatever, fine.)

But look, you're trying to paint me as the bad guy for telling you its kind of a dick move to pull out real life trauma in a debate about the quality of a piece of writing, as though it being vaguely similar your personal experience somehow makes it acceptable writing, and not something clumsily shoved in for some cheap drama. This is a story not real life, there are rules, a character we have followed for about 41 chapters should have more indications of being traumatized before suddenly having some sort of, quote unquote "realistic trauma attack".

Also note how many people are being snide or trying to start an argument about manga readers not being able to handle "realistic trauma" or even just "drama" That's something people like you cause by throwing out landmines like this.

I'm not making you out to be the bad guy. I'm not discussing the quality of the writing either. I'm explaining that the expectation of "we should have seen signs" is a flawed expectation because that isn't how trauma works. In some cases? Sure. Someone traumatized by nearly drowning would absolutely show signs and hesistation near water. But when it's something as vague as "someone expects something from me" it may not show up in daily life. Or do you think he should have been trembling anyone asked him to take out the trash because that's an "expectation"?

You don't have to like the way it was introduced, that's up to you and your preferences. I'm just pointing out, with my real world example, that Trauma isn't always something that can be foreshadowed through observable behaviors. In fact, a sudden introduction like this can be, and is, used a narrative device for character development. Not to mention he also showed difficulty in joining the band like a chapter or two ago. That difficulty could have been born from the trauma.

It's also not a dick move to use examples and analogies to make a point, but that's a different topic.

 

[Sidurgen]

The thing about trauma suddenly rearing its ugly head is valid. It's realistic. It happens, and with good writing, it's definitely feasible to work with.

At the same time, as a story, it gains better credibility with foreshadowing and setup, and it can seem jarring to pull a plotline out of nowhere. Whether this is good or not at this point in time depends on the author's skill of following it up and whether the jarring effect was purposive/intentional or not. Whether this develops into something better or not, we're not able to tell yet, outside of track records of how previous plot hooks and pathos has been handled.

Regardless, what I'm personally hoping for is that this leads to an improvement of how Kurose is handled as a character, maybe this adds better depth to him in the long run that sets him apart from the generic MC.

 

[ImBoredSoHereIAm]

not liking the timing of this but I guess that's how trauma works anyways

 

[habla]

lmao that's a lot of readers who didn't think anything of this pro level musician not playing and not wanting to be in a band

 

[GennArc]

Drama's one thing(we're nowhere close to knowing what kept Haimiya from school); going from 0-100 while skipping 1 to 99 is another.

But you were okay with their relationship being 100 (okay, maybe 60) from the start while skipping 1 to 59, and then wasting dozens of chapters on nothingburger hijinks without anything meaningful happening and without any decent interactions taking place, right? So why are you not applying similar standards to the lighthearted part?