Mietemasu yo! Aizawa-san - Vol. 5 Ch. 28 - Hanamura of Evil

[MangaDex]

 

[Beltaro]

It's sad what a Frankenstein's monster Masaki became. The way she's leveraging her superficial qualities to get Michi's interest. Those qualities Honda brought out of her, got jealous of her over, which now Masaki is using to hurt Honda in return. Masaki's still crossing some red lines but in my book Honda's the one who came away most negatively this chapter.

Honda seems afraid of turning her back on Michi like she did Masaki yet she's doing exactly that right now. She knows Masaki is going to take advantage of Michi but is too cowardly to be there to stop it. At the same time, we've known Honda long enough to respect she's better than this. She clearly feels guilty over what happened to Masaki and appreciates Michi to the point of being uncomfortable getting any closer. Both Honda and Masaki are truly bound by that thread of self-loathing.

Speaking of self-loathing, nothing drives a ghost to action like her girlfriend getting girled on. Aizawa must feel horrible for what she's doing to Kasumi but either her human side is overwhelmed with jealousy or her ghost side is taking control post-possession. Like her subconscious switching with her consciousness? It's not really clear what Aizawa's eyes going black means yet, if anything, but there's clearly an involuntary aspect to her powers.

Dorothy lamented recently how Aizawa-san limits her ability to draw yuri scenarios, between the plot focus, ghost rules, and Michi's denial. But now that limiter's taking a beating. Michi turned to this whole Honda x Masaki x Michi throuple hoping to justify her feelings as platonic and is now confronted with Masaki being gay for her, Masaki making a strong argument Michi's gay, and Aizawa's feelings for Michi being anything but accidental. This might hit the status quo harder than the concert. There's no way out of this without making a bigger mess.

Even if there's nothing supernatural about Masaki(?), the horror she represents is still the same as that 'jumpscare' spread in her intro chapter: she's the absolute denial of Michi's friendzone. The biggest threat to Michi's comfy school life, and by extension Aizawa's stability.

I think it's important to note both Honda and Masaki are completely wrong about each other.

• Honda thinks Masaki hates her, but Masaki's most frustrated when Honda denies her own dream of being an idol.
• Honda thinks Masaki hates DeLphi, but Masaki shows nothing but fondness and respect for them.
• Masaki thinks Honda hates Aizawa, but Honda's obsession with Aizawa was impure adoration.

Honda's projecting her own self-loathing on Masaki. Masaki might be bitter but what she hates most about Honda is the way she denies herself. I used to think this could be Masaki gloating over Honda's defeatism but it sure looks like the opposite now. And Masaki's demand, 'You can't talk to Reona or anybody else,' gives away this isn't just about hurting Honda. I think her attraction to Michi is genuine. She wants Michi, but all to herself. That's Masaki's trust issues showing, fearing Michi would abandon her like Honda did.

As for what's next, here's my fanfic/speculation:
We know there's consequences to Aizawa's repeat possessions of Kasumi. Made very clear lately. Aizawa is having a harder time fighting it as well. And it's high time Aizawa got out of her corner. So what if she's unable to depossess Kasumi now that Kasumi is more hole than human? What if this mess spills over into forcing Michi and Sayaka to acknowledge Aizawa a little more? I doubt it can be fixed without Karasuma getting involved, but she's busy dating Tear. Either way with 2 chapters before the end of the volume it's going to get worse before it gets better.

random thoughts:

• I can't stop marveling at how well this manga shifts tones to de-escalate (or inverse). The moment Kasumizawa grabbed the stool you knew what was coming. But even while it detonates more than defuses, it's still one of the funniest moments so far.
• Next chapter's the test of whether I belong in an asylum for thinking Masaki has some kind of ghostvision. It's weird she brought up Honda and Aizawa right before Aizawa shows up, and weirder that it's plain Aizawa and not Kasumi at first. We know Michi can't see that, though she'll know in an instant it's not Kasumi. So maybe if Masaki can see star auras she'd also immediately tell something's wrong with Kasumi. Not the worst power to have when the 2 main ghosts are idols. But that's guesses upon guesses.
• We still haven't seen DeLphi's past this volume like Dorothy promised in last volume's extras. So expect a chapter catching up on what happened to them.
• When Masaki gets serious at the end, she reverts to 'Michi-chan' instead of Micchy.

 

[Osha]

Reasonable reaction, get her ass.

 

[bkre]

sayaka seeing that big gap on her own girlfriend and still acting like everything’s normal is insane. she may be an idiot at times, but loyal af

you can definitely feel aizawa’s anger through her shadow when masaki tries kissing michi lol

 

[SomeGuy1]

Aizawa is going to fix her via percussive maintenance.

 

[Mangamoz]

The fucking tonal whiplash of going from a scary jumpscare, to a lesbian sexual assault about to happen, to:

SHOINK 🪑

 

[vvboondoggirl]

michi being like "i'm not g[ay]" in the middle of that was wild, poor baby.

 

[UdenEmpati]

you can definitely feel aizawa’s anger through her shadow when masaki tries kissing michi lol

it will always be the hair for me. The more it flips the bird at conventional physics, the more you know the power-up to a beat-down is happening.

 

[hinata2kill]

yes it is reona falut
She abandoned her friend when she needed her most, pretend that she isn’t the one that was cheering and pushing her to try out for an idol position. Girl yes you are a bad person for doing that BUT GIRLY YOU DO NOT START FORCING YOURSELF ONTO OTHER PEOPLE JUST CAUSE U WANT REVENGE😭🙏

 

[UdenEmpati]

Well, I think Honda's not good here. She's not bad, but she's gotta lot of baggage that she's just refusing to grab off the airport carousel and actually unpack, and even though I understand why she's unaware of it, the fact remains that her stubbornness in wallowing in her self-loathing is going to just continue causing problems for Michi (and others), because (in my mind) it's distracting Michi from being forced into finally starting to grapple with her Aizawa Problem.
Now if she continues being this aware in her shitty behavior, then I'll reassess whether she's getting coal from Santa this December.

Though I have to say that Masaki might be doing everyone a favor in assaulting Michi because it being that blunt might be what it takes to get Michi to take the blinders off and actually take a look at herself. Once, y'know, she works through the fallout trauma of this latest bout of whiplash incidents involving GhostKasumi and the Stool of Interjection.

It was weird when Masaki's pupils specifically turned fuzzy; I didn't see them doing that in the rest of the chapter, but I know she has the Star Aura vision; I'll have to go back and see if that was an aspect of her specific eyes, or if that was some weird anomaly due to how scary she got this chapter. It seemed super important (since everything around eyes is in this title), but I'm too forgetful to stake a claim here sans confirming with re-reading.

I do think Aizawa has the right of it at the end, though. Yes, braining someone isn't a good look (especially when you can hide behind the fact you're a ghost piloting an innocent girl's meatmech), but I can't fault her reaction in this moment because while Masaki's very much helpin the plot, she's very much not helping anyone's heart (including her own, in my mind anyway).

 

[feignedremoteness]

Maybe Masaki is partially projecting onto Michi as similar to her past “gloomy self,” and wants to protect/control her based on that. Maybe she wants to be the one in control of the situation this time?

She’s also a bit needy, so even if she likes Aizawa well enough, she’s probably frustrated that the two people she’s closest to are constantly paying more attention to a dead girl than to her.

 

[emmadrew]

God, I feel so bad for Michi. All she's ever done is try her best, and now Honda is distancing herself from her, Masaki is trying to sexually assault her, and Aizawa is about to commit normal assault on her behalf, while non-consensually stealing Kasumi's body.

Thank you for the TL!

 

[jmax565]

Lots of moving parts. It’s great fun. This manga is really something special.

 

[HansumNapolean]

Strangely, this is probably one of the most interesting depictions of homosexual assault. Obviously, Masaki doesn't scream homophobic at all, but she instantly goes: "Michi is into girls, so that means she should automatically be into me." It's probably the most stereotypical assumption ever, to the extent that it's funny. Michi is actively resisting, trying to shove her off, repeatedly saying that she doesn't want this. Misaki grabs her hand, makes her grope her chest, and pushes her down for a kiss. Just reading it makes me grossed out.

It's especially amusing, considering that Michi has shown no indication that she's interested in Masaki beyond normal friendship behavior. Masaki is purposefully misconstructing Michi's behavior by justifying her attraction towards women as: "she must want any beautiful woman that walks near her."

Also, it's interesting how it is framed when Michi is forced to grope her. It looks like her chest is being warped in the same fashion as Aizawa possessing someone. It reads like a horror scene, even if there are no ghosts or violent threats. It's almost like Michi is being dragged, even if she's technically being forced to touch Masaki.

 

[alfirizkyr]

They played it off as a joke in the final page but the idea of an obsessed ghost in forced possession turning physically violent with a body that knows no better is terrifying.

 

[shemper]

Thank you for your work!

 

[Gothic_Catalyst]

Thank you for the chapter.

 

[saintnessMP]

This is really a crazy chapter, kudos for that.

Nothing is gonna end well in these recent chapters, from a friendship break up to a literal assault on michi.. I'm honestly getting curious on the possession that's taking a toll on Kasumi, Sayaka might bring in karusama in soon to help whatever the hell is happening to her girlfriend and MAYBE interfere with the involuntary possession that's happening to Aizawa. Just a guess but I'm really praying for things to get good soon, I miss my comedy ghost yuri☹️

 

[MagnaDrake]

Always a treat to see the contrast of cute moe romcom art suddenly switching to literal body horror. Author is really good at maximizing this aspect.

 

[Roodypatooti]

So the hole in Kasumi literally sucks Aizawa in now. She wasn't even thinking about possessing her, but Kasumi's like a black hole.
Also that one panel when their faces are just about to touch... the way it's framed, it feels like Kasumi finally caught a glimpse of Aizawa.