Kimi ga Hoeru Tame no Uta wo, - Vol. 5 Ch. 22 - Scream

[retolee]

I hear an axe falling after seeing that speedrun to the competition’s finale.

Maybe it’s just me, but this chapter moved lightning fast through the plot.

6 chapters spent building up this competition just for them to win in 10 pages. Honestly EZ mode.

 

[Riedone]

Of course that's gonna happen, when there's something important to talk about, arrgghhh

 

[GennArc]

All that was needed was RURIKO to stay in touch to limit damage. A realistic initial attempt would be something like "You've got our phone numbers. Remember, we'll talk Sunday nights your time when I can, and otherwise Miyako and (agent) will sort it out. I want to stay part of your life." The line and agreement isn't the point here, it's the effort and clarity that's needed to not break a kid's heart.

This is addressing the premise, "the background". It's a "what if it was a different story".

A satisfying narrative answer isn't that hard in concept. Why do parents who isolate child custody between them fuck up communication IRL? Embarrassment, no-contact holdover from secretly very messy divorces with or without legal fault, ambition one child is seen holding back, pride they made the right choice, narcissism that a child who is more a symbol to them than a person won't matter or will understand to let this go, shameful pessimism that it doesn't matter or their constructed hypothetical provides a happier life for the lower-talent (or a slightly higher support-needs IRL) child. There're plenty of other variations.

And that would be satisfying? If Yuu's mother went "Sorry, I was too prideful to admit I made a wrong choice of abandoning you" +something about Miyuki, would you or others really find it a satisfying resolution?

 

[Prismatic-chan]

hmm.

Already felt a bit iffy about how it seemed like Yuu's mother would just be absolved of what she'd done with comparative imbalance of "repercussions" compared to the immensity of her transgression, but now that she's also having some sort of health emergency I feel like that's being further undercut.
Can't imagine Yuu holding her mother to account if next chapter she's sick in a hospital bed. Even outside of cultures that put a lot of emphasis on the concept of filial piety, that sort of behavior is generally frowned upon and seen as diverging from the expected norm, no matter how much the parent might have fucked up the life of their child.

who cares though?
she should completely shit on her mom, that's gonna satisfy the super genius readers!!
and it will absolutely elevate the story for sure and help the characters develop, right?
there's a reason why you're not the manga writer.

 

[sandeboi]

who cares though?
she should completely shit on her mom, that's gonna satisfy the super genius readers!!
and it will absolutely elevate the story for sure and help the characters develop, right?
there's a reason why you're not the manga writer.

What a lame response.
Yes it would satisfy the readers because the mother is a horrible person.
The author is practically gaslighting us at this point with all these shitty scenes about guilty conscious and hidden sicknesses.
"there's a reason why you're not a manga writer" Are we just going to pretend mangakas are suddenly good writers? Even the most popular shows have horrible writing that gets carried by visuals.

 

[Prismatic-chan]

What a lame response.
Yes it would satisfy the readers because the mother is a horrible person.
The author is practically gaslighting us at this point with all these shitty scenes about guilty conscious and hidden sicknesses.
"there's a reason why you're not a manga writer" Are we just going to pretend mangakas are suddenly good writers? Even the most popular shows have horrible writing that gets carried by visuals.

my issue is people playing morale apostles.
right now, we know as little as Yuu does.
so instead of going all pitchfork and torch mode, maybe wait until you know the entire context.
acting rashly is not very smart, to say the least.
but on these discussion boards, everyone is being emotionally unstable and marking every comment they disagree with, with a strike.

i thought discussions are about different opinions, and the reasons behind them.
not attacking everything you disagree with.

 

[UdenEmpati]

who cares though?
she should completely shit on her mom, that's gonna satisfy the super genius readers!!
and it will absolutely elevate the story for sure and help the characters develop, right?
there's a reason why you're not the manga writer.

Clearly a few people in this very thread care.

The fact you jump straight to 'Yuu shits on her mom' like it's a binary choice of blanket forgiveness or vitriolic monologue makes me wonder why you think you have the grounds like insult me saying "there's a reason you're not the author", though.

 

[Prismatic-chan]

Clearly a few people in this very thread care.

The fact you jump straight to 'Yuu shits on her mom' like it's a binary choice of blanket forgiveness or vitriolic monologue makes me wonder why you think you have the grounds like insult me saying "there's a reason you're not the author", though.

there is a difference in insulting someone and pointing out a fact.
if you take that as an insult, that's entirely on you.

 

[itmealice]

wow we're really making this even worse huh

 

[hbmonk]

there is a difference in insulting someone and pointing out a fact.
if you take that as an insult, that's entirely on you.

Literally everyone would take that as an insult. You're very committed to acting like you are the emotionally superior one here and that everyone else is just mad that you have a different opinion, when your first post in this thread was full of sarcasm and insults.

 

[irwen]

so they actually won, huh. and Kashikaze-sensei, we love you, but what is this cliffhanger

 

[othiym23]

Kashikaze at her best shows how strong bonds give people the strength to tackle their most deep-seated issues and move forward together. Kashikaze at her worst is endless asspull clichés and cheap shoujo melodrama. Can't Defy the Lonely Girl was always balancing those two sides on a knife edge (I ended up really liking it, but I thought it was good despite the writing instead of because of it), and in this one the knife seems to have cut right through the beam.

That said, she's one of the best character designers in yuri and even if the art seems a little more hastily rendered than some earlier chapters, it's still very good looking. And I think she can still pull it out as long as RURIKO doesn't immediately succumb to Anime Wasting Disease.

 

[Kohiko_lunar]

"be an actually good mother or die"
yuu's mom: dies on the spot

 

[Prismatic-chan]

Literally everyone would take that as an insult. You're very committed to acting like you are the emotionally superior one here and that everyone else is just mad that you have a different opinion, when your first post in this thread was full of sarcasm and insults.

don't blame me when you are the emotionally unstable one.
and no, not everyone would take it as an insult, only butthurt people would.

 

[graynile]

the fuck?? now you dare to die??? fucking face your bad parenting first🤬.


However, this chapter was great. i think author could drag the contest a bit more. still a great chapter.

i want to see an anime from it so badly😢😢

 

[Andigo]

This is addressing the premise, "the background". It's a "what if it was a different story".


And that would be satisfying? If Yuu's mother went "Sorry, I was too prideful to admit I made a wrong choice of abandoning you" +something about Miyuki, would you or others really find it a satisfying resolution?

I gave a wide array of how these things can go, you want a pretty simple and bland outcome? At least that's how it feels for me. You don't need to assume words in my mouth when I gave you so many already!

The ending scene was cheap pathos. Free pity, so far. The big payoff is not here yet so I can't judge it strictly.

It's more interesting when the irreconcilable conflict isn't papered over and highlights people's internal conflicts. A mom who made a clean call and handled things as best as could be expected and regrets the rest cleanly... is too clean. Some hate on the mom comes from a place that she's neither realistically nor dramatically flawed at this point, which (realistically and dramatically) undercuts the readers' emotional investment. I read the mom like a realist, this was the dramatic basics.

It's fine to disagree but don't pretend it's some obvious view you expect to be the norm. I mean, at this rate it feels the author already is probably on your side, so...

 

[GennArc]

I gave a wide array of how these things can go, you want a pretty simple and bland outcome? At least that's how it feels for me. You don't need to assume words in my mouth when I gave you so many already!

Putting words in your mouth? I took one of the scenarios you yourself suggested would be satisfying and simply asked if that’s what you’d actually want.

Some hate on the mom comes from a place that she's neither realistically nor dramatically flawed at this point, which (realistically and dramatically) undercuts the readers' emotional investment. I read the mom like a realist, this was the dramatic basics.

What I usually see in these threads is that 99% of the hate comes from people on their moral high horses. They go on about how unsatisfying it would be if Yuu's mother is simply forgiven, how she and Miyuki should at least get slapped etc. It's not about writing or characters' emotions, it's simply about the character getting punished for their wrongdoings. Like here
https://forums.mangadex.org/threads...ch-16-the-one-i-admire.2583239/#post-29326412
Like, what matters most is that good guys get rewarded and bad guys get properly punished, not that the intricacies of human relationships are explored in any meaningful way.

I agree with you that she's not well-written, at least not yet. Seriously, this applies to almost every character in this manga, but especially to her and Miyuki. And this is also why I find this drama to be a lesser problem, the author never really put much effort into it in the first place. The bigger problem right now is that the theme she has been developing (i.e. how music brought Yuu and Haru together and what it means to them) suddenly stopped working.
So basically what @othiym23 wrote: the author's strengths should outweigh her weaknesses for the manga to be good, and right now, the opposite is happening.

 

[arcosapphire]

Yeah that last page definitely feels like an asspull. Like really, Ruriko shows no sign of this at any point, but the moment she is finally about to have a heart to heart with the daughter she abandoned, she can't finish a sentence because she's overcome with the cough of death?

It feels bad and cheap because of how extremely "convenient" the timing is, along with the fact that it doesn't feel like a realistic illness so much as a soap opera one. Like come on, what if that happened minutes earlier when she was hosting an event live on the internet? She seemed to have no qualms about it, so it's just hard as a reader to take this at face value. It feels internally inconsistent.

Well, at least The Moon on a Rainy Night is having a peak moment to offset this.

 

[Andigo]

one

When I said at least two. You know how that looks like a blatant slip you didn't process my words. Stories layer elements, and in situations like this they should layer a small set that enhances themes.

It's not about writing or characters' emotions, it's simply about the character getting punished for their wrongdoings.

Like, what matters most is that good guys get rewarded and bad guys get properly punished, not that the intricacies of human relationships are explored in any meaningful way.

You're mind-reading about others intentions and goals to infer that it undermines their argument (one word for it is bulverism). Their feels or desires doesn't de facto make them wrong or unable to see a dramatic element you missed. This is a case where it's more fair to say that the desire for the universe to make sense is part of appeal of stories. Stories also can make use of the meaninglessness to highlight details. Any of that can layer, freeform, to meaningfully lay out intricacies of human relationships. There are plenty of options. Baggage around parents may touch off emotion but we're thousands years into that being part of good plots.

You were dismissive about how others viewed a plot gap, and list sweeping assumptions as if reason not to consider the criticism.

The presentation so far is flat, we don't even disagree there. Nor about the more important plot thread which was not the topic at hand. Your thoughts unrelated to others is totally fine, good chat.

I don't expect much, the point on the author's strengths is fair and she hasn't had much delicate toxicity in her serialized manga afair, but I doubt it's beyond her skillset to land the mom plotline. I'll stay open to whatever her creative priorities turn out to be. Alternatively, this could be a sign the manga got cut short from plans but I'm skeptical of that for now.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Alternatively, this could be a sign the manga got cut short from plans but I'm skeptical of that for now.

honestly, this makes me wonder.
There was so much build-up leading to the contest, with so much animosity from Miyuki specifically aimed at Haru, that the "resolution" where Yuu ....didn't really stick up for Haru at all. And that's leaving aside the contest taking all of ~30 pages from start to finish, and the lack of any real setup for Ruriko as a character beyond the surface notes we've gotten (famous singer, walkout parent, apparently incredibly sickly).

I'm not saying that the author got word from her editor that it was time to wrap things up, but the pacing does feel a bit rushed, and it kinda makes me wonder at Rurika just collapsing out of nowhere like this, when we've had zero indication or foreshadowing up to this point that anything medically-significant was going on with her whatsoever. And if she was told "hey this needs to end this volume" or something, then a mysterious sudden-onset health crisis for the offending parent does seem like the sort of thing that would compel her child to forget all past grievances in order to quickly make amends before said parent potentially dies, or something.
No way of knowing until we see the next chapter, though.