Imasara desu ga, Osananajimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimaimashita - Ch. 25 - Before Dawn

[KatUltra]

I understand the complaint about pacing and yami. And I may be biased here in liking ntr-esque stories for their emotional drama for the characters. But I think plenty of other manga have introduced serious love rivals or even just one off rival arcs much later into their series.

The examples off the top of my head would be things like Komi-San introducing manbagi like 100 chapters in. And that particular arc lasted a long time.

And while many of those position the later start characters clearly having no chance of winning, there’s a whole trope about arriving last but getting some kind of important boost I.e. a kiss or important date/event. It wouldn’t have the same development for a love rival if they have no shot and get 0 development.

Yea I agree there could have and probably should have been more foreshadowing that this would happen or at least could. IMO I think contrary to other opinions the series should have run a little longer before doing this to give more runway to the arcs of all the characters involved.

I think it’s still pretty clear hikari will win somehow. The tone shift into another character never drops that idea. Yami, for all her edge, never contradicts the notion that ta-kun and hikari will end up together, just that yami and ta-kun have this history.

There’s literally only the vaguest of teasers as to how things will play out in the current time.

I also wouldn’t really call the first 20 chapters free of drama. There’s still smaller twists and reveals about ta-kun that progress his and hikari’s relationship. It’s got a balance of sweet moments to character building via their insecurities. They really only do stuff that close friends could do platonically as well with the romantic tension coming from Hikari’s thoughts.

Anyway tl:dr I think there are pacing things that could have been tweaked, and that the twist isn’t some big deception of the audience bc plenty of romance dramas and even comedies have rivals show up and take some kind of initiative. Though I get it’s not for everyone, but I think that’s true of most series.

 

[Akikako]

Like I said, its titled "it's a little late,...", the childhood friend it's late and another already take him...this is the story.

 

[Axrod]

Hi,

I think it did romanticize romance but in a good way people read this and think wow i want to fall in love like that too. I see what you mean but i have to disagree about it being cutthroat, its the same as anything else in this world you gotta take action to get anything. The waiter wont bring me food before i order it and while crude also applies to romance its not cutthroat it just favors those who are confident. Now i understand where you are coming from and i agree anyone who considers that crap to be realistic deserves to be reality checked cuz they honestly need it.

I dont think your language was appropriate because then you could just attack anyone you dont agree with you got to draw a line and the best one is to not insult people over their opinion just try to convince them otherwise. Reviews will never be that good of an indicator once the amount of readers hits a certain point because there are too many people that some are bound to dislike and that is apparent from a quick look at the top rated. And review bombing is not about it being an actual 1 but dropping it enough that people can understand that it is not as high as they think it should be and 1s bring down the averages. It is ok you have realized the error in your ways.

I can agree to an extent about the whole people will shape up and look past their past but there are lines you absolutely must draw. As an older brother i could never forgive anyone ever no matter what if they laid hands on my siblings and nothing could ever change my mind. I dont care if they were whipped into shape after the fact there are just things that are not forgivable and should never be.

The thing is while it is consensual she without a doubt took advantage of a young man she just met who was going thru albeit mundane some stuff this is irrefutable he was clearly vulnerable and it is stated she wanted to drag someone with her instead of doing something real about her situation. I am truly sorry about what happened to you it sounds horrible and something no one should go through ever. But if i may ask how did you respond to that? You dont strike me as the type to go and manipulate someone after that. Which is what she did. The point i was making is that she took this traumatic incident decided to to take it out on someone else rather than seek help. I know a girl who went thru a yami situation and she got help got the guy locked up and no boy she had just met was manipulated.

I think you find some parts relatable which is understandable but this is not very realistic. It is a possible situation like dying of a shark bite in the desert but dying of a shark bite in a desert is not realistic. There is a key difference. The way she handles the already rare situation in the most evil way possible is unrealistic.

Cheers

 

[Axrod]

Not every story is meant to be predictable, the literal definition of plot twists is to introduce something unexpected. So it's funny that you are here saying that this isn't a plot twist because it's something you didn't expect when that actually proves that it succeeded.

Say you and me become good friends. We hang out a lot. One day i beat you up and rob you. Is that a plot twist cuz you didnt expect it or is it betrayal because we were good friends. The guy is just saying that there is not enough build up to call this a good twist its just a punch in the face. The 6th sense a movie has a highly regarded plot twist not because it knocks people off their feet but because there were just enough hints that you could guess where it was going but not guess the actual twist, this just didnt have that.

 

[darkrap19]

This is NTR the likes of which I've never seen

Is the ntr you are talking about in the room with us?

 

[ShrimpShady]

Is the ntr you are talking about in the room with us?

it's probably out there doing somebody's partner

 

[Vkking]

This is NTR the likes of which I've never seen

This literally isn't NTR.

If anything Hikari is the one who will probably end up cucking Yami who is still in love with Yuu and had him first.

Also damn the overreactions to this series are so funny.

 

[KaiserBeo]

You know the more I think about it the more I wonder, was Yami the girl back in Chapter 12?

Anyways, let us all welcome our new Paul, Yami.

 

[Vkking]

You know the more I think about it the more I wonder, was Yami the girl back in Chapter 12?

Anyways, let us all welcome our new Paul, Yami.

Yami is absolutely nowhere near Paul. That's a crazy comparison.

 

[habla]

What chapter did hikari turn him down I must've missed it.

Looks like I got two things mixed up:

• in 16 we learn she turned down another of their childhood friend group
• in 17 she thinks she "maybe would have" turned ta-kun down if he'd confessed

So it's more of a case of I didn't like him at the time but he didn't actually try than I turned him down and changed my mind.

 

[NotSomeone]

My personal thoughts on this manga/web novel and why it's seen such backlash. I'll put my pros and cons here. Remember this is all just opinion, I only speak for myself.

Cons
1. Pacing. The pacing of releases and timeline in the manga is bad. If your going to do bi-weekly releases you need more than 4-7 pages. You can not get enough information across in that time frame in a timely manner to get the audience ready for sudden tonal shifts. It took 7-8 months with bad foreshadowing. In 8 months you got 93 pages of story before the tonal shift. That's so little for such a long time and that made people invested into a manga with a genre they weren't expecting.

2. Story. I actually think the story is not that bad. In fact if this had been paced correctly and we got say 10-12 pages every other week, then I think there could be something really good here. But pacing is an integral part to writing a story and the author and artist just completely missed the mark for people who are reading the story at the current pace.

3. Underdeveloped characters. The characters are forgettable at the current pace of releases. I see nothing special with any of these characters except for the artwork which is great. If you are going to give small bites of story then the characters also not going to have time to develop. At that point it's nice for like a small romcom, but a drama doesn't feel right with so little backstory. It feels forced when exposition is given so little time.

Pros
1. Story. I know what you're thinking, but isn't the story a con. Yes at its current pacing it is. I think this story has so much potential but it's being squandered by time. I think this story will read much better in volumes than as chapters. I wish they would have gone that route, condense the chapters together and form a more cohesive story that someone can read in longer chunks. I think it will be much more enjoyable.

2. Art. It goes without saying but the art is wonderful. Not much more to say on that.

3. It's not NTR. The folks who have been screaming ntr are just plain wrong. This is not NTR in any sense of the form. Yomi's motivations are awful but she wasn't stealing anyone away from anyone. She acted on the mmc insecurities which makes her an awful person, but there was no stealing of anything here. Hikari didn't even know he liked her that way.

Overall I think it deserves a low score currently because of how badly paced it is. However I think after it's released in volumes, it will read better. But I also think the volumes will suffer from pacing because of the original pacing. But it won't suffer enough to not be enjoyable as a volume.

Lots of wasted potential.

You youself recognized the problems with pacing are due to the way the story is published and not about how it's written.
While It's better for the author to think about how his story is going to get published, he should not limit the story he want to tell because of it - Sometimes authors don't even have a say on how the story is published.
Also remember this is an adaptation from a novel, we can assume even less author intention behind where manga chapters cut and go.
AND people are acting as this is the story's ending while it's structured to be the halfway point.

I am not saying you're not right to feel disappointed, I just feel that blaming the author and the writing is wrong.

 

[noleafclover75]

You youself recognized the problems with pacing are due to the way the story is published and not about how it's written.
While It's better for the author to think about how his story is going to get published, he should not limit the story he want to tell because of it - Sometimes authors don't even have a say on how the story is published.
Also remember this is an adaptation from a novel, we can assume even less author intention behind where manga chapters cut and go.
AND people are acting as this is the story's ending while it's structured to be the halfway point.

I am not saying you're not right to feel disappointed, I just feel that blaming the author and the writing is wrong.

The author is publishing this themselves... he's writing the story and manga at the same time in conjunction. In other words, he has complete control of this.

It's self-inflicted. Only the author is to blame, there is no one else. Yom just draws it.

That's why it's even more disappointing to most of us. He chose the pacing and release schedule. No outside influence.

 

[Vkking]

The author is publishing this themselves... he's writing the story and manga at the same time in conjunction. In other words, he has complete control of this.

It's self-inflicted. Only the author is to blame, there is no one else. Yom just draws it.

That's why it's even more disappointing to most of us. He chose the pacing and release schedule. No outside influence.

Well i'm guessing Yom doesn't have a group of assistants to help so maybe author choose bi-weekly to ease the workload and demand on Yom?

 

[noleafclover75]

Well i'm guessing Yom doesn't have a group of assistants to help so maybe author choose bi-weekly to ease the workload and demand on Yom?

It was a bad decision. Write out your novel first and then let the manga come afterwards, so that the manga can be paced better.

This is why editors and publishers are important. Its why musical artist bring in producers during album recordings. They need someone to call them out when decisions can be bad. They aren't always right but at least you can have a different perspective.

 

[GodsTheGuy]

Well, I will write it here though no one will ever read it, but the problem with the story is not the guy having sex (like c'mon he's a teenager, sometimes it just happens), but the way the whole thing was setup.

For 20 chapters we had the MC's viewpoint, and when the viewpoint finally changed, it threw a bunch of stuff against the whole past 20 chapters.

It's just bad writing and nothing more, where author wants to do something different with this story, and they took the old Japanese way of NTR.

The thing is, most stories like these only lose steam afterwards because there's nothing much remaining, a redemption arc because FL/MC needs to win, which is boring and r*tarded.

If author does a 360 and make NTR san as a winner, then okay, worth it, but if it doesn't happen the whole arc is just a bad way to spice everything up.

 

[noleafclover75]

Well, I will write it here though no one will ever read it, but the problem with the story is not the guy having sex (like c'mon he's a teenager, sometimes it just happens), but the way the whole thing was setup.

For 20 chapters we had the MC's viewpoint, and when the viewpoint finally changed, it threw a bunch of stuff against the whole past 20 chapters.

It's just bad writing and nothing more, where author wants to do something different with this story, and they took the old Japanese way of NTR.

The thing is, most stories like these only lose steam afterwards because there's nothing much remaining, a redemption arc because FL/MC needs to win, which is boring and r*tarded.

If author does a 360 and make NTR san as a winner, then okay, worth it, but if it doesn't happen the whole arc is just a bad way to spice everything up.

The bad pacing and writing wouldn't even make it worth it in the end imo (just my opinion, if anyone likes it currently that's cool).

This has been a masterclass on self-publishing and what not to do. You can't feed such small bites of what looks like a romcom for almost 9 months and think a sudden tonal shift that was poorly foreshadowed would hit. There were only 96 pages of manga released between the beginning and the new arc. That's less than 5 pages per chapter.

 

[semon_demon]

what a piece of shit LMAO

 

[Stinger]

Say you and me become good friends. We hang out a lot. One day i beat you up and rob you. Is that a plot twist cuz you didnt expect it or is it betrayal because we were good friends. The guy is just saying that there is not enough build up to call this a good twist its just a punch in the face. The 6th sense a movie has a highly regarded plot twist not because it knocks people off their feet but because there were just enough hints that you could guess where it was going but not guess the actual twist, this just didnt have that.

Those things are not mutually exclusive. The guy was not saying this is a bad plot twist, he was saying it isn't a plot twist at all when that is exactly what a plot twist is.

Plot twists also works in hindsight not just foresight, and there actually were hints that Hikari doesn't know everything about Yuu.

 

[teppro789]

Those things are not mutually exclusive. The guy was not saying this is a bad plot twist, he was saying it isn't a plot twist at all when that is exactly what a plot twist is.

Plot twists also works in hindsight not just foresight, and there actually were hints that Hikari doesn't know everything about Yuu.

Seconding this, I just read all of the chapters after seeing a tweet talking about how the author "dropped a nuke" on the series (and I have never heard of this before today), and to be honest, the hate this series is getting is overblown. Sure the plot twist can be and is polarizing, but if you really think about it, calling this an "180 spin" or "NTR-esque development" is simply stupid and dumb.


Right from the start until chapter 21 we've all been seeing the world through Hikari's POV, and I believe this was intentional for building up to this flashback arc. In other romcom series like Kaguya-sama, Uzaki-chan or Sono Bisque Doll, readers have multiple perspectives into the characters lives and thoughts, but that's not the case here. So throughout the story, we've only known about Hikari and her views, and clearly there're many hints that showed that she doesn't know everything about Yuu, because after all up until this point, she's still just a childhood friend of Yuu. All that feelings of her towards him? All in her head, and the roundabout way she acts around Yuu does not help her case here. Again, there's no real "romantic relationship" here to be "ruined", nor did Yuu "cheated" on Hikari. I do not get the "NTR-esque" accusations some people are putting on this series. The latest chapters (and some readers actually failed to realize this) are a flashback from a year and a half ago (ch.22's name is literally "It Happened, A Year, and A Half Ago"). This flashback arc and the events during it does explain Ayami's action in the end of ch.21, but it does not mean the story is "ruined" since we don't even know what Hikari's doing/thinking during this time. Maybe she haven't even harbored those feelings for Yuu yet. We don't know that yet, and maybe it will be explained in future chapters. Again, there's no "NTR" because the potential romance hasn't began, and the characters haven't known about that potential romance yet.


Now, I can understand the frustration of readers who have been followed this series since chapter 1, who began reading this thinking it would be a normal wholesome romcom series, because it has been 9 months from ch.1 to this point. 9 months for 96 pages does indeed sound very poor, and the author/publisher should've done better with the pacing of this. The whiplash can undoubtedly be felt for the ones who were emotionally invested in this series for a long time. But in my opinion, the story hasn't concluded yet, we're still only on ch.25, and I can see multiple routes that this storyline can go on. Don't judge too hastily, and let the author have time to tell it fully. And to all the new readers that are being introduced to this series through negative tweets and comments, I recommend you read this from the start, and you might come to the same conclusion as me.

 

[noleafclover75]

Seconding this, I just read all of the chapters after seeing a tweet talking about how the author "dropped a nuke" on the series (and I have never heard of this before today), and to be honest, the hate this series is getting is overblown. Sure the plot twist can be and is polarizing, but if you really think about it, calling this an "180 spin" or "NTR-esque development" is simply stupid and dumb.


Right from the start until chapter 21 we've all been seeing the world through Hikari's POV, and I believe this was intentional for building up to this flashback arc. In other romcom series like Kaguya-sama, Uzaki-chan or Sono Bisque Doll, readers have multiple perspectives into the characters lives and thoughts, but that's not the case here. So throughout the story, we've only known about Hikari and her views, and clearly there're many hints that showed that she doesn't know everything about Yuu, because after all up until this point, she's still just a childhood friend of Yuu. All that feelings of her towards him? All in her head, and the roundabout way she acts around Yuu does not help her case here. Again, there's no real "romantic relationship" here to be "ruined", nor did Yuu "cheated" on Hikari. I do not get the "NTR-esque" accusations some people are putting on this series. The latest chapters (and some readers actually failed to realize this) are a flashback from a year and a half ago (ch.22's name is literally "It Happened, A Year, and A Half Ago"). This flashback arc and the events during it does explain Ayami's action in the end of ch.21, but it does not mean the story is "ruined" since we don't even know what Hikari's doing/thinking during this time. Maybe she haven't even harbored those feelings for Yuu yet. We don't know that yet, and maybe it will be explained in future chapters. Again, there's no "NTR" because the potential romance hasn't began, and the characters haven't known about that potential romance yet.


Now, I can understand the frustration of readers who have been followed this series since chapter 1, who began reading this thinking it would be a normal wholesome romcom series, because it has been 9 months from ch.1 to this point. 9 months for 96 pages does indeed sound very poor, and the author/publisher should've done better with the pacing of this. The whiplash can undoubtedly be felt for the ones who were emotionally invested in this series for a long time. But in my opinion, the story hasn't concluded yet, we're still only on ch.25, and I can see multiple routes that this storyline can go on. Don't judge too hastily, and let the author have time to tell it fully. And to all the new readers that are being introduced to this series through negative tweets and comments, I recommend you read this from the start, and you might come to the same conclusion as me.

It's too late man, pacing is very important to a story and the author failed miserably. Which is a shame because it has potential. You can't expect to invest people into something they think is lighthearted for almost a year and expect them to be fine with this.

They really needed someone telling them this was a bad idea, even the artist yom was caught by surprise by the shift. When even your artist is like "huh" that's not good.

Pacing is a core tenant of story telling and it's a huge failure. Dramas need time to tell the story better.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pace_(narrative)#:~:text=In literature, pace or pacing,conveying the desired emotional impact