Imasara desu ga, Osananajimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimaimashita - Ch. 18.5 - Pajama Party

[essensue]

Does it worsen yami's character? Only a little, she actually (if rumors are true) makes a lot of good choices. Followed by one bad at the end. Now what is catastrophically ruined is yuu's non-character. We have had it on "good" authority that yuu likes hikari, this being from both hikari and yami. But with this it seems that both are unreliable narrator's. Now again the non-character that is yuu is absolutely ruined here cause every word and action he's ever taken is now called into question like the ones that support both Yami and hikari thinking that he likes hikari. Heck the only thing I think yami does wrong here is kiss yuu back which is backstabbing her "irreplaceable friend". So yeah, if rumors are true this really turns this story into a complete dumpster fire cuase we are being lead by 2 unreliable narrators meaning we don't know what's true cause the author has been lying the entire manga.

Thanks, broadly agree, minus only the "Hikari thinking Yuu likes Hikari" part, though I think we're led to believe that:

Spoiler: What I think the author's going for:

Hikari has trouble believing Yuu likes her, and is endlessly frustrated by her not-quite-advances going unnoticed or ignored. Yami's more certain that Yuu likes Hikari, but...

I get the sense that the author is trying to misdirect the reader while outright lying as little as possible, letting the reader's familiarity with the conventions of the childhood friend romance genre do the heavy lifting and having the reader's mind fill in the blanks with stuff that will ultimately be proven wrong. He usually even has Hikari introduce the trope in narration to prime the reader for it.

So I think it's really interesting that every time Yuu does something post-Yami to suggest that he likes Hikari, it's the kind of thing a "virgin dipshit romcom protagonist" would do. Getting flustered over her pressing herself against his back and needling him about seeing other girls, or being shy about being seen going to her school for the festival, or embarrassed about trying to get into her school. A couple times we even get steamy Yuu/Hikari action... that's then revealed to be happening entirely within her head.

Then we learn he's not a virgin dipshit romcom protagonist - he's not a virgin, this isn't a romcom, and he's not the protagonist. Maybe his blushing at her physical teasing is about how this this reminds him of Yami and actually makes him uncomfortable - something's... off when his voice is quavering there. Maybe the actual reason he doesn't want to go to the festival is because he's nervous about seeing Yami there knowing that she's avoided him for a year. Maybe he was telling the truth about his wanting to catch up to Hikari in high school being completely platonic, because he totally no-sells the false accusation that he and Hikari are dating in the restaurant right before that comes up.

It's worth noting that he never actually admits even to Yami that he was attracted to Hikari. She certainly INFERS this, because there was someone he "wanted to catch up to and walk beside" and that person happened to be a girl. It almost sounds like he cops to it when Yami accuses him of liking her on their second meeting, but on the next page it becomes clear he's talking about something else.

So it's entirely possible that Yami's conviction that Yuu loves Hikari is a product of Yami's low self-esteem, jealousy, and insecurity. She's very clearly hung up on it chapter 26, where a fear of running into this mystery girl is one of the reasons she's avoiding even going back to school. In 13.5, she assures Hikari that Yuu likes her because Yami "lost count of how many times Yuu talked about his childhood friend and how much she meant to him"
which leaves a glaring and obvious opening for misinterpretation, because it's still implication rather than admission.

But yeah, all this ambiguity comes at the cost of never letting us see what's going on in Yuu's head in the current day from Hikari's perspective. That fits with Hikari's anxiety over how much he likes her back, but extends to sometimes not even showing Yuu's face during crucial moments. You're right about the storytelling methods leaving him a non-character in the present day.

edit: actually, GennArc found a panel where Yami says in narration that Yuu told her he always loved Hikari, so while we don't see him say it, seems reliable enough to say that pre-Yami Yuu had romantic feelings for Hikari

 

[Esper]

Pantsu on page 1. Highly appropriate for a pajama party though.

 

[Friendly-Sentence710]

Here. Just as you said, there are some raw versions where for some reason they don´t have it in numerals.
This should be 0.5 or even 35.5 because we are supposed to return to main timeline in 36

If Hakari was over the for a sleepover dressed like that it would just be an "Over" because there would be no sleep happening.

Thanks, broadly agree, minus only the "Hikari thinking Yuu likes Hikari" part, though I think we're led to believe that:

Spoiler: What I think the author's going for:

I get the sense that the author is trying to misdirect the reader while outright lying as little as possible, letting the reader's familiarity with the conventions of the childhood friend romance genre do the heavy lifting and having the reader's mind fill in the blanks with stuff that will ultimately be proven wrong. He usually even has Hikari introduce the trope in narration to prime the reader for it.

The counterpoint no Yami-simp can answer is:
Bro stood at his window for 30 minutes while Hikari worked up courage to ask him out on a date via text. You don't do that for just a childhood friend. Yami hereself in the last extras talked about how much Yuu wouldn't ever shut up about his childhood friend even when they were banging.

I'm not saying Yami endgame isn't possible, but if it is its not the well-scripted reveal the Yami-simps claim it is.

 

[Gothic_Catalyst]

Thank you for the chapter.

 

[Catbowl]

Here. Just as you said, there are some raw versions where for some reason they don´t have it in numerals.
This should be 0.5 or even 35.5 because we are supposed to return to main timeline in 36

Thanks; that's odd. The other pics I've found all seem to be this version (click for larger):

 

[nogoodsumbeach]

Compared to the other weeks, this time the leaker ( he / she is from a Korean forum. They always get the chapters early) just wrote two small sentences. Sadly not images too
I also wanna see if it's true or not lol

Oh well thats a shame, Thanks for the info tho.

 

[GennArc]

Maybe he was telling the truth about his wanting to catch up to Hikari in high school being completely platonic, because he totally no-sells the false accusation that he and Hikari are dating in the restaurant right before that comes up.

It's worth noting that he never actually admits even to Yami that he was attracted to Hikari. She certainly INFERS this, because there was someone he "wanted to catch up to and walk beside" and that person happened to be a girl.

Nah, I'm pretty sure it's as straightforward as it looks. This page is where Yami says he actually told her about being in love with Hikari, doesn't sound like she inferred that.

Spoiler

 

[Exceleratorr]

Also, since the manga omitted a lot of stuff from the WN version again, I will just post some details.

Spoiler

By the time the clock pointed to around 1:30 am, the chaos had mostly...

Ayami: "The ones who say, Let's stay up all night talking! are always the first to fall asleep~."
Hikari: "Ahaha, Aya-chan, cut them some slack~."

...well, not completely died down, but close enough.
At least, thanks to the noisy duo finally dozing off, I didn't have to worry about disturbing the neighbors anymore.

Ayami: "Seriously, you're all just way too goody-two-shoes. I'm surrounded by little kids."
Hikari: "Wait, Aya-chan, have you really stayed up all night before?"
Ayami: "Oh, plenty of times. I've had a guy keep me up until morning, you know~."
Hikari: "Ughhh, you just had to go there again~."

Even so, I couldn't deny that, just for tonight, Aya-chan's tales had come to my rescue.
If it weren't for her, Haru and Yuki's relentless curiosity about my next-door childhood friend would've exposed everything -- his name, his school, maybe even his life story.

When I was at my wits' end, it was Aya-chan's blunt and shockingly unfiltered anecdotes about her vast male experience that turned the tide.
Her stories left everyone else too flustered or stunned to respond, they were my saving grace.

Like the time she bailed on a paid dating meetup, or when she hit up a love hotel at the crack of dawn, or how she went to the beach with a guy but never made it outside their hotel room.
Tales like that... stories no one knew how to react to... came pouring out one after another.

Thanks to her oversharing, the others started talking less and less, until one by one, they finally drifted off to sleep.
And so, my innocence (?) was spared for another day.

Where can I read the novel?

 

[GennArc]

Where can I read the novel?

On that same website. Seems like they stopped translating after chapter 31, but everything before that is there.
Or if you know Japanese, novel chapters are officially uploaded to Note.

 

[story645]

But seriously, I'd be pissed if the guy actually initiated the kiss.

Both Aya and Hikari's POV of that scene have Aya initiating - the difference is that Yuu looks surprised in Hikari's POV and more into it in Aya's.

 

[middle-the-nerd]

@EijiRin, one cannot simply mention leaks without sharing what they know.

Thanks for the chapter!

Yeah i was thinking the same thing bro blue ballsing us

 

[Brainulator9]

Yeah, not really loving these "extras" that show up after the rugpulling twist and completely change the tone and context of the surrounding material. Imagine somebody coming along and reading the series from the beginning a year from now, and also imagine that person innocently being like, "wow, that was a really cute chapter, but I don't get this extra - lemme check the commen-OH NO

At this point, I feel like this manga's reputation has already been irreversibly shifted such that future audiences are less likely to be fooled.

 

[MellowV2]

Can I say I don't buy how Hikari and Yami became best friends? All Yami did at the start was tricking Hikari into a potential rape scenario. Her chasing the guy away at the end was not out of kindness because she literally created the problem in the first place.

Let's say if the guy arrived for Yami while Yami and Hikari were talking, then started pushing both girls into sex, and Yami is like "wtf? I know I invited you but don't you drag Hikari into this" and ran away with Hikari, it'll be a way better reason for Hikari to like Yami.