Hope You're Happy, Lemon - Ch. 63

[misopogon]

I'm with Lemon, but this was a very sloppy way to do things I'm afraid; there could've been a more reasonable angle to explain the break up

 

[mgRdr]

bad writing

I am sorry to say this, but any unsubstantiated claims of "bad writing" are self-defeating, since they don't demonstrate nor prove anything other than the critic's dislike of the work.

 

[Waha]

Kind of feels like the author backed themselves into a corner with this one. Because of how they wrote their reunion at the very beginning of the series they needed to write this flashback bit in a very specific way so that part makes sense. It couldn't be too mean or nasty since Lemon tried to brush it off at their first meeting while also still making it impactful enough so that Sunao's side of it makes sense. I guess as a result you get this being perceived as an attempted joke from her perspective that spiraled into full loss of communication. Eh, it works I suppose but really does feel a bit sloppy.

I also think if Sunao approached her with this rumor first it would make more sense if she went along with it considering her internal monologue about wanting to be perceived a certain way in front of him. If he said something about it first I could see that destroying her last bit of identity and Lemon just saying fuck it. Unfortunately because the author also set this up as a revelation from her side this route wasn't possible but this might be why Sunao fumbles out that line immediately after she confesses her "joke"

 

[Raiho_06]

Welp time to read comments from people who dont understand

 

[Mangamoz]

On mangaplus, it's primarily thoughtful positive comments - on here and it's just negative toxicity, so gross.

That's because they erase negative comments there, you ain't seeing the full view of people's opinion's there.

 

[Umbrum]

I am sorry to say this, but any unsubstantiated claims of "bad writing" are self-defeating, since they don't demonstrate nor prove anything other than the critic's dislike of the work.

Perhaps but just explaining it as "this is how some teenagers are" and "you wouldn't get it since you've never been in X situation" doesn't prove that this is good writing.

BokuYaba is an example of teenagers being emotional, cringy and overly insecure yet it never felt unreasonable to me, I was capable of understanding their stupid mistakes even if I never made those mistakes myself. Sure, on principle their age is enough to justify them making mistakes for being insecure, but on this manga the mistakes themselves don't feel natural.

Anyone has done stuff they regret as teenagers, most have just never jumped from keeping the facade of being perfect to telling lies that make them seem worst at the eyes of people they hold dear. Yes, as pressure builds up it's easier to make mistakes but that'd reflect itself differently, and while there are many ways to justify or explain the particular way in which Lemon reacted to said pressure, that's not covered on the manga.

Add up that from our perspective Lemon didn't even remember the lie at first and even after that, it took her a while to display awareness of how it hurt Sunao. You could get people to understand telling a stupid lie such as this one, but's harder to believe that a good person would forget about telling a lie like this.

 

[chiruno09]

So, are people just pretending to forget that she had been enduring the bullying of her supposed friends? That she should be able to make rational decisions during this time? Should someone tell them that people in real life have probably done worse than what she did?

 

[ale_city]

Lemon characterization is good, but the way the misunderstanding happened is written very sloppy. And its kinda bad since its the main crux of the story.

agreed. I liked the flashback, I am not going to lie, I don't know if we will get another chapter (wouldn't be surprised since we got some time after the break up for Sunao's, wouldn't mind either) but I feel the author really fumbled this chapter with the final explanation. Sure, Lemon's characterization adds up, sure she was under a lot of presure with these mean girls, but god does it feel dumb how she went with the lie. It doesn't ruin the story for me, I am more invested in seeing how their issues are mend than the origin of them, we knew it was a lie from the first chapter after all, but this explanation left me a little dissappointed.

 

[Ecclectic_Moose]

She is not in the title in the official release though. Original is "Good luck to you, bitch". This title is just localization. A bad one at that but publisher probably chickened out.

I mean, technically she's still in the title.

 

[Rafalga]

I mean, technically she's still in the title.

Well that's technically correct. Best kind of correct.

 

[Narehate]

Hell nah, maybe that was trying to paint her in a better light but nah, she's just genuinely a garbage human being 😐

"Lets keep it light" Proceeds to say she cheated on him going along with rumors clearly circulating, but then gets shocked when he goes and asks about it 😑

"I dont want to tell him, because then he feels sorry for me and that makes me feel pathetic", so lets go and tell him i cheated on him, because that makes not me feel pathetic, but him instead 🫡

All of this could've easily been avoided by her simply speaking, she ain't deserving a second chance no way in hell

Me when I see a middle schooler being bullied make a bad decision while under emotional stress

 

[Rafalga]

Kind of feels like the author backed themselves into a corner with this one. Because of how they wrote their reunion at the very beginning of the series they needed to write this flashback bit in a very specific way so that part makes sense.

I mean Sunao's flashbacks made that part obvious. He apparently managed to gaslight himself so hard that he ended up having nightmares and pure hatred towards the whole thing...somehow. As soon as that part was shown, any follow up was sure to be some asspull writing exercise to keep Lemon in the race. So here we are. First chapter is not even canon at this point. It can't be unless both leads have bird brains.

Author better pull some more shit about why Lemon completely forgotten everything she did by the time they've met again. She didn't act like she did, she legit didn't remember.

This is just a terrible bait and switch attempt where author blundered the switch.

 

[Ninoren]

Me when I see a middle schooler being bullied make a bad decision while under emotional stress

Sure, if we take real middleschoolers as basis, but not the supernatural manga middleschooler who weren't really acting like middleschoolers to begin with, considering all the shit they've shown, in here they were in some aspects portrayed as more mature as they would be in some aspects, hence i judge her on that, she was shown as clearly being aware of what all that gossip etc entailed

 

[Pibata]

author-san is trying SOOOO HARD

 

[Narehate]

Sure, if we take real middleschoolers as basis, but not the supernatural manga middleschooler who weren't really acting like middleschoolers to begin with, considering all the shit they've shown, in here they were in some aspects portrayed as more mature as they would be in some aspects, hence i judge her on that, she was shown as clearly being aware of what all that gossip etc entailed

I don’t think being aware of what gossip entailed means “maturity” considering her characterization here is specifically that she’s hyperfixated on other people’s perception of her. It makes sense for her since she’s probably thinking about it all the time.

 

[Rafalga]

Sure, if we take real middleschoolers as basis, but not the supernatural manga middleschooler who weren't really acting like middleschoolers to begin with, considering all the shit they've shown, in here they were in some aspects portrayed as more mature as they would be in some aspects, hence i judge her on that, she was shown as clearly being aware of what all that gossip etc entailed

But you see, "teenagers!" is a out of jail free card when it comes to terrible shounen romcom writing.

 

[Ecclectic_Moose]

I don’t think being aware of what gossip entailed means “maturity” considering her characterization here is specifically that she’s hyperfixated on other people’s perception of her. It makes sense for her since she’s probably thinking about it all the time.

This is where I'm sitting. She can notice all of that shit, but real maturity is being able to filter the bullshit and only care about the important folks. Lemon cannot do that right now and she gets overwhealmed by it and fucks up. I can see how this is a logical outcome of her faults and her virtues.

And I say all of this as someone rooting for Kogahara.

 

[mgRdr]

Perhaps but just explaining it as "this is how some teenagers are" and "you wouldn't get it since you've never been in X situation" doesn't prove that this is good writing.

At least those are conversation starters. If some people see the situation depicted as something they can relate to and resonate with, at the very least this means that the writing is plausible.
When we start consuming an artistic work we know nothing about, we do so with an implicit assumption that it will meet our expectations of being good, otherwise we wouldn't be investing our time and potentially money in it, and we then subtract imaginary "goodness points" from it for each criticism we have. So in a way, the writing of any artistic work is apriori perfect until proven otherwise.

the lie ... hurt Sunao

Sorry for chopping up the quote but I gotta address this first.
We were led to believe at the beginning of the manga that it was the lie that hurt him, but that is not the case. The lie did not hurt him, the breakup did, it's just that Sunao then used the lie to make himself forget about his love for Lemon.
And the lie was not even intended to be a lie, it was supposed to be a joke with which Lemon could then take back the most impactful thing that she just said, she just didn't get to deliver the punchline.
So in the grand scheme of things, the lie itself is a non-entity.

it took her a while to display awareness of how it hurt Sunao. You could get people to understand telling a stupid lie such as this one, but's harder to believe that a good person would forget about telling a lie like this.

First, Lemon didn't forget about the lie, she herself made it clear that she remembers about the four-timing thing in the first chapter, and that it was, in fact, just a lie.
Second, Sunao made convincing enough pokerface during their first meeting that he didn't mind Lemon's presence, and after that the bodyswap situation made the lie much less relevant, to the point that Sunao himself forgot that that was something he cared about.
Third, it is not unreasonable to think that after three years the guy would move on from a stupid and unbelievable lie he was told in his teens. I mean, if being a teenager is not a good enough excuse for Lemon telling this lie, why should we think that Sunao being a sensitive teenager and falling for said lie is a valid grievance?

most have just never jumped from keeping the facade of being perfect to telling lies that make them seem worst at the eyes of people they hold dear

Perhaps most didn't, but some definitely did, and I don't see Lemon's reaction as unplausible.
Her facade of being perfect was not perfect (given that the girls correctly pointed out that Lemon saw herself as someone better than them), and maintaining it was taking toll on her. The one person she didn't need to maintain her facade around was not there anymore in a way, she wished she could still confide in her best friend Sunao about things that were hurting her at the moment, but instead there was her boyfriend Sunao around whom she thought she need to maintain the facade. And so, as she wished things could go back to the days they still were friends, she momentarily blurted out the thing she did not mean to say.

 

[insert]

Better written than AOT's ending

 

[3turtlesinacoat]

Lemon characterization is good, but the way the misunderstanding happened is written very sloppy. And its kinda bad since its the main crux of the story.

I feel about the same except i dont really mind. Idt there was ever gonna be a satisfying explanation for it given what we knew about the people involved so this is as good as it gets.

Im a bit confused why she never contracted him afterwards but i bet thats what the next chapter focuses on (likely some sort of self improvement, which as we can see by the previous 60 chapters didnt really work).

Overall my enthusiasm for this series has started to wane a bit ever since they started their vacation so im gonna have to reevaluated how worth it is to continue it after their discussion thatll take place once the flashbacks end.