Harapeko Oyako to Motokare Yanushi - Ch. 27

[darekpawlo]

Damn bro, that was desperate. Is someone threatening to kill your family unless you bait?

Bait? You must be coping if you don't think MC is a simp

 

[Rnaospol]

Oh yeah, they are ABSOLUTELY gonna have a real child together before the story ends.

Minori is their real child vro

The matter of siblings, however, is assured.

 

[finalm]

Bait? You must be coping if you don't think MC is a simp

If I'm coping, then you're just projecting, bro. We make for a nice pair. You want to be nice, don't you?

 

[rabidfish]

wild when people will sympathise with a dead guy not even actively in the story before they'll consider the woman's side of things without reducing her to epithets or "the one a thing is done to".

Also - heads up, it's never mentioned whether Kyou married. he was only ever referred to as "Minori's father".

i mean im a man. so i cant really empathize with a mother or a widow without being disingenuous. I'd be lying if i said "i understand what she's going through" cuz i cant.

 

[UdenEmpati]

i mean im a man. so i cant really empathize with a mother or a widow without being disingenuous. I'd be lying if i said "i understand what she's going through" cuz i cant.

Which is why I said "sympathize" and not empathize.

Though I do apologize, because I came at you more strongly than you deserved, given the comment you actually initially replied to was problematic whereas yours was decidedly neutral.

I admit that this series has attracted, as can clearly be seen in the comment sections of this and previous chapters, those who seem determined to engage with the series in the most surface-level of manner and who hold sentiments that are almost startlingly misogynistic or otherwise reductive as it pertains to the story being told. And for whatever reason I've chosen this manga as my hill to die on in calling people out for such nonsense.
You didn't actually say anything that reinforces that, and so I am sorry for attacking you specifically like that.

 

[Kalamel]

Man is the definition of beta. Still hung up on ex. Meanwhile she happily married a man, had a kid. Now he is taking care of another man’s seed.

if this is still how you think why do you even read this

Man is the definition of beta. Still hung up on a debunked mindset. Meanwhile we happily accept humanity, enjoy stories. Now he is taking care of another man’s bullsh*t.

 

[jojoka]

I'll just touch on the last portion specifically because it's the operative point.

You're not misreading the story. It is melancholic, and I would argue you're viewing it correctly, at least to an extent. Takaharu is portrayed as a profoundly lonely man who never got over the most important person he had & then lost, and we're now seeing him struggle to make the most of the second chance he's been handed.

Other people seeing this as a cute love story that's full of whimsy isn't wrong, but that doesn't mean their interpretation is wholly accurate. I would argue this is tragic, but it's also hopeful in the sense that, for these two people specifically, they've been given a second shot at happiness with one another, if only they can get over the past and their ongoing trauma and regrets and hangups to simply try.

It's grounded in the sense that the relationship they had and the dynamic between them now is nuanced and deep in how layered it is, but that doesn't mean it's not still a story that's working toward a happy ending that sees a "best case scenario" play out of otherwise rather dreary circumstances. As you said - you had a relationship that impacted you greatly and that you did at one point have regrets, but you moved on.
What if you hadn't? That "what if" is Takaharu, and this is the story of him trying to find the happiness that he's denied himself in being unable to let go.

Some people would uncharitably call it "wish fulfillment", but how many of us have some sort of regret that we, even if "over it" now, don't occasionally think back and say "what if"? Stories are a way to play out that fantasy, and that's what this manga is. The art style is light and fluffy and whimsical, and I honestly argue it contrasts very nicely with the subdued pacing of the story and the often-times somber and pained notes in the interactions between Kyou and Takaharu. We can sympathise with what they're going through, because theirs is a relatable story that's taken to a narrative extreme for the sake of dramaticisation.
But while the themes are heavy on the regret and the stagnation in Takaharu's life, the intent is to see what becomes of the here-and-now, and what he can do with the sort of opportunity that I would bet many people wish they had a version of in their own lives.

Yeah I dont hate the story I just find it depressing asf
If there was a plot twist and all of this was schizo delusions from Takaharu that would be a cinema ending lol.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Yeah I dont hate the story I just find it depressing asf
If there was a plot twist and all of this was schizo delusions from Takaharu that would be a cinema ending lol.

I don't mean this dismissively or flippantly, but I do think that how one approaches a story like this does say something about the kind of person they are when confronting the heavier sides of life.

And I only say that because I too can relate to Takaharu in some fairly substantial ways, but I personally treat this as a chance to see what could happen if a 'second chance' were to somehow present itself. Hence, why I view it as a hopeful story, even with the depression-inducing history of the leads and the melancholy that pervades Takaharu alongside the resigned determination of Kyou when it comes to being Minori's mother.
It's very much a sad tale, but there's a chance of a happy ending for the three of them, and I enjoy it for those facets.



I do personally think a delusion finale reveal would be a cop-out, but that's subjective preference and I'd be a fool to take serious issue.

 

[Luna-pyon]

One step closer to Minori getting a stepdad.

 

[jojoka]

I don't mean this dismissively or flippantly, but I do think that how one approaches a story like this does say something about the kind of person they are when confronting the heavier sides of life.

And I only say that because I too can relate to Takaharu in some fairly substantial ways, but I personally treat this as a chance to see what could happen if a 'second chance' were to somehow present itself. Hence, why I view it as a hopeful story, even with the depression-inducing history of the leads and the melancholy that pervades Takaharu alongside the resigned determination of Kyou when it comes to being Minori's mother.
It's very much a sad tale, but there's a chance of a happy ending for the three of them, and I enjoy it for those facets.



I do personally think a delusion finale reveal would be a cop-out, but that's subjective preference and I'd be a fool to take serious issue.

I very much a person who believes in self betterment over anything else and I think the escapism that a lonely man can only be saved by an ex-lover who moved on from him isn't a good message or whatever, If he was successful and moved on but felt empty and loney but had that emptiness filled with his ex-lover and her kid entering his life. Ok thats fine but its the fact hes kinda a loser whose nearly 40 whose life can basically be defined as pre and post Kyou just doesn't read as a happy ending, it reads as he couldn't live without them. Being defined by your relationship with another person just seems like the most depressing thing in the world to me so if it ends with him basically only being saved by Kyou and Minori and without them he would have died sad and alone it seems like the ultimate defeat to me.

 

[silencers]

kyou definitely wants to pick up where they left things off

 

[Ragnolock]

I'm actually surprised that you people are actually still reading this series given how categorically you seem to reject the nuance and maturity of the premise.
The effort it takes to maintain this level of immaturity in your worldview of relationships would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic, or dangerous to others who might fall victim to making your acquaintance one day.

I've decided to stop engaging with these people. They are clearly either mentally ill, or just misogynistic. Either way if we just ignore them they will eventually just fuck off because they are not getting the attention their parents never gave them.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I very much a person who believes in self betterment over anything else and I think the escapism that a lonely man can only be saved by an ex-lover who moved on from him isn't a good message or whatever, If he was successful and moved on but felt empty and loney but had that emptiness filled with his ex-lover and her kid entering his life. Ok thats fine but its the fact hes kinda a loser whose nearly 40 whose life can basically be defined as pre and post Kyou just doesn't read as a happy ending, it reads as he couldn't live without them. Being defined by your relationship with another person just seems like the most depressing thing in the world to me so if it ends with him basically only being saved by Kyou and Minori and without them he would have died sad and alone it seems like the ultimate defeat to me.

Well he does have success as an artist -- he's even doing solo gallery shows, as we see back from chapter 9, and then a few chapters after when Minori actually attends. He appears to paint on commission as well, or at least has clients calling the house about painting work, and Azuma shows up about other painting-related employment when he's introduced.

So he does have a life in the 17 years that Kyou isn't around, and we also don't see all that much of what he was doing in the interim to begin with. For all we the readers know, Takaharu could very well have been just living his life, albeit not within a partner or anything--and it was the act of Kyou coming back to him that reignited things for him at all.

So, less him being an abject & despondent "loser" who's simply taking up space in his grandmother's house for 17 years, and more him going through the days focusing on whatever needed doing in the moment, right up until his past came back into his life. That might be me trying to put a charitable spin on it, but reading back through the series again, I don't think it's necessarily an inaccurate interpretation of what we've been shown. I think that framing it as "Takaharu's story, pre- and post-Kyou" simplifies the reality that Takaharu did spend 17 years as a professional painter and illustrator who has produced work worthy of gallery showings, and learned to cook, and has a cat, and that he was living plenty before she showed up. Maybe not utterly fulfilled, but that's hardly a state of being that's universal for people, whether they have the love of their life next to them or not.

Like I said - it's wish-fulfillment, to a point, because of the whole "second chance" thing that not everyone gets to experience. I just think that it's allowed to be a more mellow and less-happy story, while still possessing plenty of light and loving moments, and that it can build toward an ending that sees them all fulfilled. And that it can do so without making Takaharu entirely reliant on Kyou for his happiness, or creating some sort of toxic co-dependency between them.
Merely that this is an opportunity for them to achieve happiness beyond what would have been possible if they'd never crossed paths again.

Again - I might be approaching this more optimistically and choosing to see things in a more-idealised context, and I realize that and I do not think you're inherently wrong for choosing to see it the way you do. But if anything I've said makes sense to you--whether you agree with it or not--then I consider that enough.

 

[HunterCO]

 

[darekpawlo]

If I'm coping, then you're just projecting, bro. We make for a nice pair. You want to be nice, don't you?

What else would you call a guy that hasn't been able to move on from a girl that he dated for like what 1-2 years and she ghosted him for 10 years if not a simp, enlighten me please

Edit: Like @Zirconis2023 said, they dated 3 months and she ghosted him for 17 years

 

[Zirconis2023]

What else would you call a guy that hasn't been able to move on from a girl that he dated for like what 1-2 years and she ghosted him for 10 years if not a simp, enlighten me please

they dated 3 months and ghosted him for 17 years

 

[_hng_]

Damn, the comment section is inundated with incels who think all women either have to do submit to them or are sluts, instead of having their own life, while looking down upon other men who can't move on from past love as beta cucks.

 

[darekpawlo]

Damn, the comment section is inundated with incels who think all women either have to do submit to them or are sluts, instead of having their own life, while looking down upon other men who can't move on from past love as beta cucks.

Damn buddy, this isn't twitter or reddit, throwing around insults as arguments doesn't work here

 

[_hng_]

Damn buddy, this isn't twitter or reddit, throwing around insults as arguments doesn't work here

I sure believe for a moment that this thread is Twitter or Reddit, given how people can't even tackle a nuanced topic without reducing it to "simp" or "beta".

 

[UdenEmpati]

What else would you call a guy that hasn't been able to move on from a girl that he dated for like what 1-2 years and she ghosted him for 10 years if not a simp, enlighten me please

Edit: Like @Zirconis2023 said, they dated 3 months and she ghosted him for 17 years

I'm not sure if you know what "ghosting" means if you're using it like this.

She broke up with him, they had a final phone call where left a standing offer to always reach out to him if she needed him, and then that was that and he continued on for the interim until she wandered back into his life.

You can be reductive about calling him a simp if that's the extent to which you can engage with thi



I will say though that it's kind of humorous that you're trying to call out someone else for "using insults as arguments" when you're doing the exact same thing by calling Takaharu a simp and then dismissing his character and the arc of his story. I don't know if you see the parallel, but.