Halfway through, thought I’d share a piece of my mind on the second hetero paring of the series.
I just think I should mention that Iruru’s crush for Take is a bit expected (because there has been hints that she wants to see him on various occasions and they are just together a lot) but also not that expected from me here. Because…Frankly I thought she has some unresolved tension with Kobayashi-san before. I don’t recall it ever being solved, as we’re just supposed to believe that Iruru gave up eventually because she kept being given the slap treatment.
More on Take. In this series he’s obviously the love interest of Iruru and it’s clear the moment he appears in a story with her. Due to the environment, she’s not going to meet anyone else anytime soon, let along getting close with another person, thus the few choices for Iruru is already there. On the table.
But considering the nature of Iruru’s relationship before Kobayashi appeared, she’s really immature and Kobayashi along with Take is the only one that has shown her some true care. And that made her vulnerable towards special relationships. As a result, she would love those people rather quickly.
And because every time Iruru shows affection in her way, Kobayashi slaps her tits while Take flusters and nosebleeds. Whoever would gain more fun and affection from her in the long term should be plain to see. Not to mention Take was there to help when she resolved one of her most important past histories.
Leaving this comment, I suppose I should mention that I am not saying that it is unreasonable or unrealistic. It all makes sense, so that love is true—At least when I am reading the main book I can count on the author being loyal to itself—I just feel like she could have been much more than being in a 2.0 and schoolage maturity version (we’ve got Kanna and Saikawa for that) of a Louca-Shouta relationship (which I’ve accepted long ago, by the way, because Shouta is indeed a pretty special boi who is in need of nurturing as I hardly—if ever see his actual parents caring for him despite the fact that it was established long ago that his mom does the housework while his dad brings a bunch of financial stability.)
I think at this point what this story has potential for is possibly a love rival kind of character. That was my initial thoughts when I saw Kobayashi comforting Iruru and Tohru wanting her out. I personally think it would have been rather thrilling when they compete with each other while obeying Kobayashi‘ orders of harmony domestically life simultaneously.
In the end (of course) it would have to be Iruru to be the one who gives up, but by then she would have learned so much about humans and their lives and love from Kobayashi so that she may search for her own eventually. It would be pretty nice because it was obvious from the way Kobayashi and Torhu looks at her that she is a (bigger than Kanna) child in the house. She’s learning and I think she and us would benefit a lot from just studying with the people in their friendship circle first. Adding new characters that has no prior strings attached to the main cast and is not especially mandatory —especially after all those already released stories— is dangerous. Because it gives the suspicion that the relationship is just appearing out of thin air or worse — forced.
And Take’s position here is —forgive my choice of words and hints of spite— rather convenient. Somehow I feel that his character is the easiest to write because as of now he’s just a really normal and average high school student with the basic settings of a galgame protagonist. Unlike every other character in the series that is getting close with the world of dragons, he’s the least special, and that’s counting Kanna’s couldn’t-be-more-obvious simp along with her found friendship in New York.
At least the creators (probably) acknowledged this fact. In the official anime, he’s not even there in the final scene of the intro despite the fact that Iruru is there already when all of the supporting cast was there at some point during the intro song. Not to mention that at the end of season two Iruru wanted to marry Kobayashi as well when Torhu announced first for the hand in marriage.
Well, at the end of the day, what am I trying to say? I guess I watched this manga/anime for the sake of unconventional things that doesn’t allow much room for normality, and this very classic relationship dynamic paired with an even more classic love interest just throw me off-guard.
If there were more depth for this mutual love eventually (which is unique and can’t be done by many others) instead of the author’s fetish fuel similar to Shouta and Lucoa at the beginning, then I would be very surprised…and very welcome.