I Love You, as a Friend - Vol. 1 Ch. 6 - Declaration of Intent

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Thank you sooooooooo much for the chapter <3 I love this series so much.
 
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Manga like this is sometimes frustrating because it doesnt really address the issue. Like nobody has ever told her why people don't wanna be friends with her? Her messing around with guys is a part of it, but 1st chapter, she was fucking around with another girl's boyfriend.

Who's going to want to be friends with you when you do stuff like that That's? That's breaking a whole lot of girl codes right off the jump. She also likes to be touchy feely and sexual with guys right off the bat, and a lot of folks ain't into getting touched up on.

I sometimes have to remind myself that manga doesn't have to be super realistic, but the character development gets irritating when it's like this.
 
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@cupcakeparty

Agree 100%. My biggest issue with the manga so far is that they aren't addressing the fact that she has slept around with multiple people. Now granted their aren't alot of chapter so im not really that pressed that we aren't given a backstory, but eventually the story will have to address it. So many people are calling this manga cute when I just cant see it like that.
 
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@cupcakeparty @starch12313 the boys were able to manipulate her because she automatically believes things people say to her. It's sad, it's obvious from the first chapter. They obviate/vacillate/fluctuate between her being clever and just wanting to have sex with him to her being really naive and wanting to make friends. It's bad writing. I dunno how yuchi sensei thinks about her personality.
 
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@starch12313 I just want them to address it because it's a major personality trait that people in her school react strongly too. We barely get any interaction with other students besides the whispering.

@walczyk It feels like they want her to be the sympathetic girl who gets taken advantaged of or the bare bones, unapologetic girl. I wish there were more reactions that weren't the surface level "Oh. She's a slut." "She's a whore." Like come on. It gets old after a while.

We all know kinda know what the guys think about her because of the ML, but the female student dynamic is way more interesting because she tends to fuck people's boyfriends. It would be so interesting if they explored that.
 
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@walczyk

TLDR: The genre and the conflict, conflict each other, and although this doesn't make a story bad it makes it very hard to be good. This author sadly enough cannot handle such a thing therefore making the story bad.

I do think shes aware of her actions though, as noted in the first chapter when she jokes to the girlfriend that she just sucked off her boyfriend. I could see her being very naive and trustworthy though as noted when she instantly fell in love with the mc. My biggest issue from a character standpoint is that the overall feeling that the story gives off (so far) and her as a character conflict each other so it makes the manga really jarring to read. Like as I noted in my previous response, people keep calling this story cute, and to their defense the story so far is selling itself as a romcom, but then again the story makes a note that she has had sex with multiple people. So like yea the story is being presented as cute when in fact it isn't, because the elephant in the room isn't being addressed. Now sure eventually the issue will be addressed, but the way the story handles it imo is terrible. Not only does it ignore it (as in the mc holding no real interest in it), but the author has the gal to almost switch the genre. And I think you nailed that with your remark on how the author doesn't know her personality, because hes trying to write a potential dark character in a genre that doesn't benefit the conflict. Its very difficult for any author to create a good story that has conflicting things in it, whether it be setting or character, but it can be done. The author isnt doing a good job at it, because the way hes writing the manga its as if hes imposing the conclusion without getting to the conclusion.

Stories similar to this that do a good job at it, address the conflict and when they're done with it than they reach the conclusion. Now often that conclusion will be the end of the story, but just as often that conclusion will allow them to change the tone of the story, because no longer are they held by the conflict, and thus they can continue the story with a different tone. This story assumes itself the right to have such a conclusion in the beginning without actually resolving the conflict. And that to me is the biggest issue that I have with it. People have to understand that the severity of a conflict will have restrictions on the story. And ignoring that will automatically make it a bad story.

Its not a cute manga. It doesn't have the right to be a cute manga give the type of conflict that it has. Despite this the author is trying to jam in a conflicting genre into the story. Now that isnt to say that it cant have happy moments, but to assume full romcom is not right.
 
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@VINT64 No it doesn't.

This is essentially what happened with Uwa-Koi or School Days where various characters slutty characters corrupt the protagonist over the story
 
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@cupcakeparty

It feels like they want her to be the sympathetic girl who gets taken advantaged of or the bare bones, unapologetic girl. I wish there were more reactions that weren't the surface level "Oh. She's a slut." "She's a whore." Like come on. It gets old after a while.

This so fucking much. I have a slightly different take but I generally agree. The story is making her out to be sympathetic, but we're given information in the story from herself that she is well aware of her actions. So im left questioning why I should be sympathetic towards her. As you noted above shes could be take advantage of, but than again shes clearly aware of it so is she being taken advantage of. This story is just trying to shove in things that really need explanations being them. Im not gonna be sympathetic to a girl that doesn't deserve it, no matter how hard the story pushes it.
 
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@Siikalahna IKR!!!
These students aren't normal to think that everyone need to think a certain way to be theirs freinds!!
It's like some tyranic regime policy 😨
I personally have different freinds that thinks and believes different things , we share 1 or 2 interest but that it!
I find it fun to discuss and have the experience of theirs different way of thinking and how they handles theirs life , and most of the time i learn new things from them , so what these are thinking is super abnormal to me
 
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panels in p.27 kind of feels redundant. possible friend and the student president both say "ok", for emphasis or effect that they both sympathized, they could have overlapped the bubbles, I wouldn't know if that would be more messy though, as in the fact that they would have stretch across their panel, but that's more of the editorials office's fault. the girl seems significant enough to be a recurrent character BUT her role seems so minor, without the bridge with the prez. it feels very lackluster for a first appearance. (also possible rival character bc she blushed, very ambiguous but a rival now would be a pitfall) for effect to show that possible friend isn't that sympathetic, they could've had the text bubbles jarred so that it wouldn't look like the same "feeling".
also I understand that this story isn't everyone cup of tea. but let alone previous chapters which go over rumors and small discussion on her general behavior, her female classmates have quiet down and they're only making snide remarks recently because her candidacy MAKES people notice her. more effects with the text bubble could've conveyed that better, mainly the passage of time/the severity of those words. I do think that it's ridiculous that didn't try to antagonize those girls: such as some inner monologue of what the journalist thought she was going to get, to only get annoyed. and it's ridiculous for mob behavior to just- dog pile in order to listen to a conversation. the lack of a antagonist including the protagonist themselves, makes this story a journey about growth but the dynamic is too weak for it, comedy some times get in the way of the stories pacing
it's not a favorite but I like this story because one) the FMC has difficulty understanding basic human interaction. tbh they should have a flashback exploring experiences that made her this way. she is aware and is as much of an optimist about herself that she is awkward and a little pessimistic about interacting with others, two) they dynamic makes it so that the president feels an undesirable guilt, his concern isn't love, that much seems to be true. but he's also shocked to exploring more of his character with this new interaction.
a lot of the story is lost among the lack of emphasis/urgency/severity that could be conveyed in just the panel shape or dynamic text bubbles
 
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Holy fuck there are a lot of words here for only six chapters.

Gyarukong seems to be sexually knowledgeable but socially retarded, like a porn-addled nerd boy. Nobody tells her what she does isn't okay because the girls don't want to catch skank from her and the boys aren't going to ruin a chance at some easy fucking. This is established in like the first chapter.

There's not really an issue with the story here, but the reader's personal belief in the virtue or lack thereof of willing thots.
 
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They're really trying to push the idea that the fmc is this sympathetic character and that all her classmates are evil. I really wish the author would stop dismissing how they're fully justified in not liking her. Also, what's up with the obvious favoritism lol if she ends up winning the election I don't know how I'd feel about that : \
 
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"All of us here grouping up and thinking the same way is how friends should be."
One of the saddest things I've ever read.
 

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