Kusunoki-san wa Koukou Debut ni Shippai Shite Iru - Ch. 58 - I already know that, I know it!

[MrPP118]

That sounds kinda boring tho

I'll take the "boring" option over something that goes against the current story.

 

[Freeland]

The happy ending is pretty simple here.

Kusunoki and Keisuke get together, Moe and Kusunoki remain friends and Hebikawa overcomes her own beliefs and becomes real friends with all three.

Ain't this manga boring enough?

 

[MrPP118]

Ain't this manga boring enough?

I'm starting to notice a pattern with the posters who find this outcome boring 🤔

 

[MrPP118]

Also maybe some people are placing their expectations too high? This isn't some high psychological manga that will randomly subvert expectations, it's a pretty vanilla romcom.

Obviously we're going to get some tension and drama along the way but I'm pretty sure Kusunoki and Keisuke getting together is a pretty done deal as shown early on.

I'm far more invested in seeing how Hebikawa changes, how Kusunoki overcomes her own fears to face Moe honestly and what role Keisuke will have in all of this.

 

[Lex27]

Man, Moe is just such a good girl and cutie. The author had to nerf her power level by giving her a boyish haircut. Imagine best girl with longer hair, maybe even the patrician's choice, a ponytail.

 

[MrPP118]

Man, Moe is just such a good girl and cutie. The author had to nerf her power level by giving her a boyish haircut. Imagine best girl with longer hair, maybe even the patrician's choice, a ponytail.

Moe with a ponytail would be adorable, I'd claim her myself.

 

[rymar]

🐍🐍🐍

 

[Widi70kg]

Just do harem atp😅

 

[UdenEmpati]

Also maybe some people are placing their expectations too high? This isn't some high psychological manga that will randomly subvert expectations, it's a pretty vanilla romcom.

Obviously we're going to get some tension and drama along the way but I'm pretty sure Kusunoki and Keisuke getting together is a pretty done deal as shown early on.

I'm far more invested in seeing how Hebikawa changes, how Kusunoki overcomes her own fears to face Moe honestly and what role Keisuke will have in all of this.

I mean—I would say it's not a "vanilla romcom" in the sense that Hebikawa is included in the first place. Her whole character is a notable shift from the 'standard formula' of harem romcom manga plotlines, especially as she's not even the traditional "cool rival character" who exists as a primary narrative tension point to steal away the protagonist's love interest; she's there to actually fight the protagonist (Kusunoki) on a narrative axis that's wholly removed from the romance part of the series.

That right there takes this entire story in a different direction. The fact that Hebikawa is finding herself both mixed up in the harem race, but also finding herself falling for Keisuke bit-by-bit means it's not a full deviation, but the primary basis of her character is a foil to Kusunoki specifically—and again, she's not a romantic rival (that would be Moe, going by the usual methods of storywriting).

A agree with your larger point of it very likely being a foregone conclusion that Kusunoki will "win" in the end in terms of the relationship outcome, and I also think that Hebikawa's involvement will primarily involve her own story arc progressing to where she overcomes her personal past traumas and learns that she can reasons to be a better person who doesn't make herself and those around her miserable.
But this series is very specifically not the standard fare, that I can understand where some readers are being tripped up because of the change in all the usual signals that would be expected if this were the usual harem setup. Hebikawa is pretty much the entire reason for that, which also would go a long way to explain why she has found such success and popularity among some of the readerbase. She is by design an outlier to the premise, and that foundational unusualness makes her inherently interesting to the audience.

 

[Nehona]

The reason Hebikawa and Moe have fans is simple.

This manga is SO cliche, they're the only original thing in this otherwise unremarkable story. And so of course a part of the public is loudly cheering for them, hoping for a subversion of the perceived, implied ending with Kusunoki.

Mind you, an ordinary story is not necessarily bad. Here however, I do feel it's a bit bad. Kusunoki has been so.... flat... for the entire manga that by the time she actually started to think for herself and be just a tiny bit more proactive, most readers were already cheering for Moe or for Hebikawa. It's been what, 4-5 chapters since she actually started to do something? Very late in the story. This is the author's fault, who had her be so... empty... for most of the story.

Up until the last few chapters, she was literally just looking at the story from the sidelines, the other characters have been far, far more interesting. What is Kusunoki's main sellling point? That she does nothing and tries not to offend anyone and just looks. How is that supposed to be interesting?

I don't know what ending to hope for, honestly. But if it is an ending with Keisuke ending with Kusunoki, she has a LOT more to change, grow and improve from now on. As is now, she's by far my least favorite heroine and an ending with her like this would be so underwhelming.

 

[WaterSoluble]

Kusonoki automatically being amazing at volleyball—carrying her team, and destroying actual volleyball players—is kind of emblematic of why she's such a nothing character. The story keeps presenting plots for MC and FMC that consistently resolve in the easiest way possible.

This seemed like an easy set-up to have something like "Hebikawa makes a dive for the team, demonstrating unexpected solidarity" or "Moe is short in a game where height matters, and feels overshadowed" or something like that, but instead the closest we got to that was... Hebikawa doing a high five.

The black speech bubble will hopefully lead to something interesting. It would be good to see Kusonoki end up being more complex than "shy, nice, pretty, charismatic and good at everything."

 

[UdenEmpati]

You can't go calling Moe nasty when she's not like that at all and let's face it if anyone is insecure it's gotta be Hebikawa and overcoming her own beliefs.

Moe is quite literally insecure in her feelings for Keisuke running up against the fact that her best friend since childhood likes the same boy.

The larger point is she's just a tsundere—she's been loud and confrontational from the moment she was introduced, and it's just her behavior lining up with that character archetype. I think the other commenter is just reacting to the most recent string of chapters where Moe has been more overtly in other peoples' faces, which makes sense as she was shaken up by Hebikawa needling her back in the diner chapter about the truth of the dynamic between Kusunoki & Keisuke.

Moe isn't actually "nasty", but she hides her fear and uncertainty behind a big mouth. She got into Hebikawa's face back in the classroom because she needed a "win" after Hebikawa poked at the wounds Moe hides over the love triangle she finds herself in, and in this chapter she hides her crush on Keisuke by talking trash about him in that same way that you often see some people "picking on" their crush when they can't be honest about their feelings.

 

[Asheron]

Mind you, an ordinary story is not necessarily bad.

I read the author's other translated work on mangadex and it's not bad either. But it's kind of unsatisfying with how expected and boring it concludes. What makes this Kusunoki series more interesting is Snek 🐍 and I hope her spicyness continues through to the end and she ends up as the winning heroine. An ending where, "And they all became friends"... . OMG might as well just write 400 chapters of RAG slop nothingness if that's how its going to end.

Snek needs to help Kusonoki become an independent person and realize who she is and can become, which is not with MC (that part of her is holding her back and keeping her who she was!). Becoming an independent person is a process which Snek is way ahead of Kusunoki on and why she deserves to be winning girl.

This series is getting to a length where it needs to have interesting developments and a strong conclusion if you are going to shell out for 10+ volumes. Devolving into a no-progress generic slop series must be avoided at all costs!

 

[man]

snake will soon reveal her master plan that destroys all the status quo

trust in 🐍

 

[Asheron]

Kusonoki ... being ... she's such a nothing character.

Is hopefully something Hebikawa will make her realize. It would be a really nice development if Kusunoki became erotic, recognizing that she has to change herself and compete, and some fan service was added to this manga. Just imagining Hebikawa "coaching" her as Kusonoki tries a Kabedon on MC... comedy gold!

 

[Trobilobada]

THE GURL CHEERED ME UP I'M LOCKING IN
Writing is so bad and cliché it's comedy gold.

 

[MrPP118]

I read the author's other translated work on mangadex and it's not bad either. But it's kind of unsatisfying with how expected and boring it concludes. What makes this Kusunoki series more interesting is Snek 🐍 and I hope her spicyness continues through to the end and she ends up as the winning heroine. An ending where, "And they all became friends"... . OMG might as well just write 400 chapters of RAG slop nothingness if that's how its going to end.

Snek needs to help Kusonoki become an independent person and realize who she is and can become, which is not with MC (that part of her is holding her back and keeping her who she was!). Becoming an independent person is a process which Snek is way ahead of Kusunoki on and why she deserves to be winning girl.

This series is getting to a length where it needs to have interesting developments and a strong conclusion if you are going to shell out for 10+ volumes. Devolving into a no-progress generic slop series must be avoided at all costs!

Alot of your logic can very easily apply to Hebikawa and Hebikawa doesn't deserve to "win" by getting with Keisuke.

She's got a long way to go before she can be seriously considered a romantic rival and Hebikawa has three points against her:

1. Keisuke has no romantic feelings for her

2. The one Keisuke likes is Kusunoki

3. Even if by some miracle Keisuke gained romantic feelings for Hebikawa that will all go down the drain the moment her scheming against Kusunoki is revealed

The only way Kusunoki can possibly lose at this point is if she fumbles the bag despite everything being in her favour and even if Kusunoki did screw up and let's say she did reject Keisuke, it's far more likely Keisuke would go for Moe.

Not sure why the RAG mention was needed but there's literally nothing wrong with this series having an ordinary ending.

It's the journey that matters, not the destination.

 

[Sheza]

Translation staff group chat:
10% "Oh you added an extra word here."
90% "How tf did he hit a home run with a bunt!?!??!"

Thanks for reading!!

that ball should have broken the bat if it had enough force to rebound towards a homerun lmao

 

[Sheza]

It's painfully ironic how both girls are agonizing over this "conflict" between them. Given how much it's weighing on both of them it's pretty obvious that their friendship is more than strong enough to survive some love rivalry. They just need to stop dancing around each other.

This manga would have ended ages ago if these characters dont dance around each other. IDK how these people arent exhausted with all these drama already.

 

[Chronigan]

I hope the black hair girl get slimed soon enough

I didn't know she was going to be on Nickelodeon.