Kusunoki-san wa Koukou Debut ni Shippai Shite Iru - Ch. 39 - I just... I don’t want to deny who I am

[draxdeveloper]

And in the next chapter:
Ririsa proves that under her dirty layer there is another dirty layer

 

[3turtlesinacoat]

I mean yeah this turn was plenty obvious. She cant handle there being someone like the girl she wantwd to be as a child but convinced herself to be impossible. (Btw, remember how she essentially justified bullying and using people to herself because there are no good people and her evidence for her idol having a dark side was... suspected underage drinking and smoking. Hilairious)
Shes concious enough to realize that if its possible to be a good person, then her whole philosophy doesnt really work and all the terrible shit shes been doing doesnt have an excuse anymore, and apparently that terrifies her.
Like a the kind of person who tries to dig up old tweets when presented with an opinion that contradicts their own, she wants to "expose" shizuka. She has tried this already multiple times and is now ramping up

 

[Renger]

Everyone join me in Harmonizing

3.2.1 BITCCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!


Ok good everyone tho Justin your a little on flat on your TCHHH work on it, but take five everyone we will meet up next chapter. Choir dismissed.

 

[Wolfhat]

I'm a little happy she isn't changing

 

[AbuHajaar]

Nasty bitch

 

[neozeed]

I could fix snek

 

[lenovoaxioo]

I'm still marveling at her just holding on to the villainess role like a lifesaver. What do you even call whatever the fuck's wrong with her? Twist of Cain?

Accepting mistakes is hard, I'm sure we are all have argued online and found out that we are wrong. Even for such small thing, we don't really wanted to admit mistakes.

Now imagine if the mistakes is a life changing one. You would wanted to justify with your all.

 

[aznkane87]

I guess I'd call it "having her character sacrificed on the altar of the story every so often" because I think you nail it when you say "villainess role." Right now she's not doing evil for the sake of doing evil, or for personal gain, or malice, or through negligence. If the point is to protect her psyche, she's clearly smart enough to rationalize her way out of the problem. So we're left at "become the evil you're afraid exists in the world, to justify hardening your heart." And the result is "scenery-chewing villainess" instead of "realistically awful person."

It's very much the kind of motivation that's easy to arrive at in an armchair psychoanalysis fashion, and convince yourself it's true because it tells a complete story... but it's absolutely not the kind of thing a real person thinks to themselves ahead of time as their motivation to act. That's bananas.

When she isn't behaving like this, I think her characterization as a pragmatic not-that-mean Mean Girl is actually really well done, and it's so close to another possible version of her role in the story that I have to assume the author is avoiding it deliberately for some reason:

A version of Hebikawa that's naturally cynical and callous, and has fully accepted that nice girls finish last would see her younger self in Kusunoki and want to make her more snek-like to protect her from a world she knows is too harsh to accept that kind of defenseless naivete. One that would love to go through life like Kusunoki does, but has been burned way too many times. I'm not really sure yet why this path wasn't chosen, because it doesn't even need a radical change to come back around to the light side - apply one Magic of Friendship directly to the forehead and she'd be strong enough to not have to be afraid anymore.

It's a real weird choice.
Hebikawa totally has a Danzig poster in her room, though.

Because that would make her boring. Like you said, one the "magic is friendship" later and basically her utility to the story is over.

Hebikawa being the villain is what makes this manga interesting in the first place because otherwise it's not an especially unique or interesting set up. Kusonoki is not a very unique heroine.

And having her finding motivation in resentment of Kusonoki which will lead her to bury her feelings for MC she seems to start developing will serve to make her more complex than other losing girls in any other typical love triangle set up.

 

[Kaito57]

No sympathies for Irie : her daddy issues were no excuses to basically bully her classmates and then run away like a coward.

 

[Roriipupper]

YOU FUCKING BITCH

YOU NEED A GOOD FUCKING SLAP TO THE FACE

 

[JasonBourne117]

Snakey just alternates between being quite compelling and being chuuni as shit with her coping about liking her own edge.

The snake motiv for that girl is quite fitting...

 

[MamonDelicious]

BRO IMMA SMACK YOU

 

[colorlesseatstomboys]

Am I the only one who's stopped taking this manga and it's characters seriously now?
I dunno even with all the monologues and back stories the characters still feel dull and halfhearted to me.

 

[BattleKangaroo]

Yeah snake for the win. Hahah what is wrong with me...

 

[SyncXloud]

Sometimes i feel r-worded when i am reading manga, today was one of those days. Not that it is terribly bad but jesus christ, how much more in your face can this manga get.

 

[GooseBolt]

I guess I'd call it "having her character sacrificed on the altar of the story every so often" because I think you nail it when you say "villainess role." Right now she's not doing evil for the sake of doing evil, or for personal gain, or malice, or through negligence. If the point is to protect her psyche, she's clearly smart enough to rationalize her way out of the problem. So we're left at "become the evil you're afraid exists in the world, to justify hardening your heart." And the result is "scenery-chewing villainess" instead of "realistically awful person."

It's very much the kind of motivation that's easy to arrive at in an armchair psychoanalysis fashion, and convince yourself it's true because it tells a complete story... but it's absolutely not the kind of thing a real person thinks to themselves ahead of time as their motivation to act. That's bananas.

When she isn't behaving like this, I think her characterization as a pragmatic not-that-mean Mean Girl is actually really well done, and it's so close to another possible version of her role in the story that I have to assume the author is avoiding it deliberately for some reason:

A version of Hebikawa that's naturally cynical and callous, and has fully accepted that nice girls finish last would see her younger self in Kusunoki and want to make her more snek-like to protect her from a world she knows is too harsh to accept that kind of defenseless naivete. One that would love to go through life like Kusunoki does, but has been burned way too many times. I'm not really sure yet why this path wasn't chosen, because it doesn't even need a radical change to come back around to the light side - apply one Magic of Friendship directly to the forehead and she'd be strong enough to not have to be afraid anymore.

It's a real weird choice.
Hebikawa totally has a Danzig poster in her room, though.

Excellent description of why I enjoy Hebi's vague intrigue of pink haired girl. I feel like something more provocative should have happened before we had the play-like inner monologue. Like pressure from her distant parents or some other stress that causes her to twist that protective instinct into something worse because this is a rationalization and she's trying to prove that her ideals aren't wrong, which is an amazing idea, it's just we have no reason for her to stare in a bathroom mirror and monologue like the character of a play when each character has been written somewhat human. Except shorty falling in love with MC, that was silly and just tropey shonen garbage.
I have no dog in the fight for who to win, but Hebifans keep fighting, you're like three-quarters of my enjoyment of this manga.

 

[Schneemilch]

I think she is afraid. Afraid of the truth, that the world is not evil and does not attack the innocents.
And that is the reason, why she wants to destroy Kusunoki.
Because if Kusunoki would prevail, she would have to accept, that she threw herself away for nothing.

 

[darthkotya]

The higher this snake tries to climb, the harder she'll fall.

And I'm all for it.

 

[TrueGoddessReincarnation]

Yes please use me not Rio from Navy Zipfile!

 

[WaterSoluble]

Hebikawa continues to be the main factor that makes this story interesting.

A+ Character.

She's in the difficult situation of needing to change her perspective, but considering that she's being exploited by her step-father, the downside of realising "my worldview of wrong" is potentially being traumatised by fully realising that her step-dad is victimising her and she's not actually the one in control of that "relationship".