Let’s Start The Closing Meeting. ~ So Begins The Bullying Trial ~ - Vol. 1 Ch. 5 - Idol

[MangaDex]

 

[KnightSpark]

Wow. Headed straight into the fire, now.

Also, whoever guessed that the teacher stole the card, congrats. Your guess was right on the mark.

 

[caliche9700]

Interesting, now i wanna see what can a famous idol do to ruin a persons life.

 

[Ochrolv]

Wow she managed to achieve her dream to be an idol & will now have influence to get her revenge. I'm glad the teacher is a revenge target because there is no way he should continue being a teacher especially how he acted after the card got stolen. Can't wait to see him lose everything with the hopes his family leaves him (unless they're also shitty people). Thanks for the translations.

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

i know they say "success is the best revenge" but i think life ruination is a close second. thankfully Tojo has both in mind

 

[danbellucci]

yawn obviously not actually himari doing this class thing which is why the culprit is using the avatar.
dropped

 

[cybeast21]

Okay I genuinely didn't expect that twist

 

[aa11bb]

This manga has a Battle Royale feel to it, or maybe that's just me.

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

yawn obviously not actually himari doing this class thing which is why the culprit is using the avatar.
dropped

couldn't it also be for plausible deniability since she's now a public figure? i don't think it's impossible that there's someone else behind the avatar, but i don't see who it could be (other than her mom maybe).

 

[Japije01]

Best served cold indeed

and her being an idol is a Fancy Cherry on the top indeed

They certainly screwed up Big Time now that the girl they used to pick on back then is now a superstar

With that amount of cloud and fanbase no one could just ignore her now that she had all of them on her palms to enact the deeds she've been longing for

 

[undeed]

huuuuh...didn't expect that idol twist
I thought this was just like Isho, Koukai but with some expected gore later, knowing the author/mangaka duo

I'm intrigued now

 

[essensue]

couldn't it also be for plausible deniability since she's now a public figure? i don't think it's impossible that there's someone else behind the avatar, but i don't see who it could be (other than her mom maybe).

It could - though like you say, the plausibility of that dentail's a little "eh" when nobody else would seem to have a motive.

Sometimes there's no foreshadowing or cute hints at all, and you're just actively misled by the work.

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

Sometimes there's no foreshadowing or cute hints at all, and you're just actively misled by the work.

i know what you mean, some plots aren't worth trying to make sense out of because the author didn't try to make sense out of it either. i think this author is generally good though.

I hope you won't be super mad if this were to be like that.

i will be, and everyone in this thread will be receiving a Zoom link

 

[mgRdr]

couldn't it also be for plausible deniability since she's now a public figure? i don't think it's impossible that there's someone else behind the avatar, but i don't see who it could be (other than her mom maybe).

It is someone who seemingly knows enough of Himari's story. Himari is the most plausible, but could also be her undead mom

 

[UdenEmpati]

couldn't it also be for plausible deniability since she's now a public figure? i don't think it's impossible that there's someone else behind the avatar, but i don't see who it could be (other than her mom maybe).

There's also the simple fact that the avatar covers Himari from having to actually face them again--at least right away.
Those children tortured her for years, with enthusiastic consent from their teacher. The amount of trauma she still carries would be massive, and facing those who put her through so much, even over a video screen, could undo whatever progress she'd made that allowed her to recover enough to become an idol.

And besides - the cutesy avatar being the visual that the others have by way of interaction is just creepy. There's that inhuman quality that removes any sense of familiarity; think the Jigsaw Mask. It makes this impersonal, while also relying on the history between them all to carry the emotional weight necessary to impart her revenge--it's just enough like Himari to make it clear that it's her wrath that will come down upon them, but removed enough that it leaves a sense of uneasy distance.

Like...they're all so unimportant to her even in this very intimate moment of vengeance, that she doesn't even feel it necessary to look them in the eye while she slides the knife in.
They didn't treat her like a human, and now her as a not-human is coming for them.

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

There's also the simple fact that the avatar covers Himari from having to actually face them again--at least right away.
Those children tortured her for years, with enthusiastic consent from their teacher. The amount of trauma she still carries would be massive, and facing those who put her through so much, even over a video screen, could undo whatever progress she'd made that allowed her to recover enough to become an idol.

And besides - the cutesy avatar being the visual that the others have by way of interaction is just creepy. There's that inhuman quality that removes any sense of familiarity; think the Jigsaw Mask. It makes this impersonal, while also relying on the history between them all to carry the emotional weight necessary to impart her revenge--it's just enough like Himari to make it clear that it's her wrath that will come down upon them, but removed enough that it leaves a sense of uneasy distance.

Like...they're all so unimportant to her even in this very intimate moment of vengeance, that she doesn't even feel it necessary to look them in the eye while she slides the knife in.
They didn't treat her like a human, and now her as a not-human is coming for them.

well said, even the author themself might not have considered Tojo's methods to this extent. but it's almost certain that she still carries the emotional scars from bullying, and i hope we get to see some of that as the story progresses.

 

[bc524]

I feel like the MC is also going to get punished at the end, but I don't think it would be fair.

He was a kid, he tried and did what he was supposed to, exhausted all his options. You cannot hold it against him for not staying. It wasn't betrayal.

I know this is fiction, but the fact that this logic pops up pretty often makes me wonder if there's some truth in it on how actual Japanese society treat the topic.

Blamed for trying to help.

 

[Keykrion]

I feel like the MC is also going to get punished at the end, but I don't think it would be fair.

He was a kid, he tried and did what he was supposed to, exhausted all his options. You cannot hold it against him for not staying. It wasn't betrayal.

I know this is fiction, but the fact that this logic pops up pretty often makes me wonder if there's some truth in it on how actual Japanese society treat the topic.

Blamed for trying to help.

Secondary to that, he was a child and his parents dragged him from the situation, not much he could do.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I feel like the MC is also going to get punished at the end, but I don't think it would be fair.

He was a kid, he tried and did what he was supposed to, exhausted all his options. You cannot hold it against him for not staying. It wasn't betrayal.

I know this is fiction, but the fact that this logic pops up pretty often makes me wonder if there's some truth in it on how actual Japanese society treat the topic.

Blamed for trying to help.

by the same logic - Himari is also a child, and all she saw was Kitami saying he would help, and then in at least one instance, telling her to not talk to him at school because that would just give the class more reasons to continue targeting them, and then he suddenly just disappeared entirely and cut off all contact, for six years.

We know what happened by virtue of being outside the story. But that doesn't mean Himari, just as young as Kitami was, ends up seeing it the same way from her perspective.
And it would appear that Kitami just put it all behind him and never tried to reach out afterward, once.

Now importantly - he was not one of Himari's abusers. We know that, and Himari knows that. He was the only one who didn't join in with the rest of the class & sensei and made an effort at any point to try and reach out and help her directly, that we have seen (as someone else mentioned, there were two other students who approached the sensei, but I do not believe they interacted with Himari directly at all). But that might not be enough, in her eyes, and we will have to wait and see what her verdict is when it comes to him specifically.

There's another point that separates him as well, though. Himari used Kanzaki Noa to put together the
"reunion" in the first place. But it's not clear she had any way of knowing Kitami would be there, as he was invited along by Tsuda, entirely on Tsuda's own. Given Kitami just vanished after transferring schools, it's possible that Himari didn't think he'd show up, and that he was simply "gone" from all of their lives. So his being there could have been a surprise for her.
Plus, she never responds when Kitami has his outburst during the meeting--all the others yelled at him, telling him he ran away and that it was his fault for being a bad class president that they didn't all get along better. So we don't even know Himari's impression of Ktami being present whatsoever, at this point.

So he could be a part of her revenge plan, or he might not be. I could see a consistent argument for both, though I agree that from a high enough vantage point, he's at minimum not nearly as deserving as the others.



Frankly, what I'm curious about is how Kanzaki's crush on Kitami will factor into the story. She clearly liked him in some capacity, and she lost her shit and started leading the bullying on Himari when Kitami prioritized helping Himari out. I wonder if that old schoolkid crush will come back into play at some point, and in what manner.

 

[mgRdr]

He was the only one who didn't join in with the rest of the class & sensei

Well there's Satou and Takagi who are being propped up as bystanders who've at least reached out to sensei and asked him to intervene