I don't often leave comments as I typically just read the manga that I follow and go about discussing the chapter releases in private with my friends, but I feel impressed to leave a comment about this chapter. If you feel disappointed that Akasaka-sensei used this trope, then we must not have been reading the same manga up to this point. We all should know by this point in time that this was the endgame, that the ultimate hurdle and roadblock to the romance between Miyuki and Kaguya would be her family and the Shinomiya group as the symbolic equivalent of Kaguya-hime's home being the moon, and her inevitable return to the moon, as in the Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter, which this manga borrows from heavily.
With that out of the way, I am sorely impressed with how blunt Akasaka-sensei is being with Kaguya being faced with the crushing reality of the patriarchy that she was born into, and how she intends to fight back. Honestly, I don't mind this trope because this is truly still an issue, and I suppose that this is Akasaka-sensei's way of using his platform to make his readers aware of the societal ails which rob many women's agencies and power as to their own self-determination. Reading through the comments, I see that many readers seem to want the solution to be a concerted effort between all main parties in the manga, but I personally do not see anything wrong with Kaguya and Miyuki working toward their dreams on their own terms and separately. Like Kaguya says, simply running away from the Shinomiya group without any power or influence of her own does not solve her problems, and will ultimately end with the group bringing her back by force. Since the main point of contention at this point in the story is between Kaguya and the patriarchy that has caged her since her birth, I think it makes a lot of sense thematically for her to destroy the cycle from within with the power that she can amass by herself as a means to the end of dismantling the patriarchal operation of the Shinomiya group. Is it a roundabout way of doing things, when we could just have Kaguya and Miyuki be together if they both just escaped the Shinomiya group abroad? Yes, but it at least doesn't feel like a cop-out, and if anything, I think it's empowering for Kaguya's character for her to face the circumstance of her birth and try to change that with her power.
I am looking forward to the next chapters with much anticipation.
