LOVE-BULLET - Vol. 1 Ch. 0 - A Cupid's Solution to a Love Triangle

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This looks great! It has a nice art style, everything is just a bit... curvilinear, I guess? Angular isn't the right description, so I'll go with that. Inee clearly spares no expense when it comes to detail either, the guns are insanely detailed and they are drawn a lot, so that must've taken a ton of time. The body armor on Kanna especially is also very detailed. Though it might seem like it isn't much, when you realize the mangaka's going to be drawing it hundreds of times it becomes a lot more daunting. The character design is also really good. Though it isn't too noticeable unless you look, the Cupids all have recognizable faces (independent of the hair). Of course, the rest of the character design is great.

-Ena is obviously straight-laced. This is reflected in her design. She's lightly armored, wearing a simple school uniform, and nothing above the standard (elbow and knee pads, fingerless gloves). She's also got the twin braids and glasses, further cementing her as a nerd. Her weapon being a rifle, as well it being the only scoped weapon in the squad, displays her precise personality.
-Koharu is obviously the least experienced, just from looking at her. Her twintails lend her a sense of youth and innocence.The vest she wears is a bit too big for her, giving the impression it's borrowed equipment and serving to make her look smaller. Her outfit doesn't vary much from the default but she's more armored than Ena and Chiyo. However, this just gives the impression she needs armor more than them, rather than looking like she's better prepared. The fact she wields a pistol cements this. It's the bare minimum when people think guns. It doesn't have the stopping power and precision of Ena's rifle, doesn't have the high fire rate of Chiyo's uzis, and doesn't have the raw destructive capability of Kanna's grenade launcher. When a character wields a pistol like that, it's assumed that it's only an intermediary until they can get something better.
-Chiyo is obviously very unconcerned with most things and more sporadic than the rest of the Cupids. She's the least visibly armored, with only the gloves and knee pads. Her clothing is loose and more casual than what Ena and Koharu wear. Her hair is in a free-flowing ponytail. And, of course, she wields uzis, often depicted as sporadic weapons that operate in high bursts and long pauses. Also, I might be onto nothing here, but I think she looks kind of like the Cupid getting resurrected in the first couple pages. She has the same eyes and, during the battle when she's wallrunning, her hair flows in the same way.
-Finally, Kanna. She looks more reliable, as evidenced by her armor being the heaviest off all the Cupids. The beret gives the sense that she's experienced and more military-like than the rest. The sleeves of her shirt are baggy, increasing her profile just a bit and making her look more solid. The collar of her shirt also comes out and up to her chin, making it looks a bit like an EOD suit. However, she's still more interested in going her own path. She's got a loose side braid and, more importantly, wavy hair, reflecting her willingness to bend the rules (or orders) for what she thinks is best. She also wields a grenade launcher, which is a very stalwart weapon.
I might be reading too far into this, but I don't really care. It's fun. Also, I'm calling it now: Kanna falls in love with one of the other Cupids. She's already been shown ignoring fighting and directly sabotaging her teammate for personal reasons. She also recovered from the envy induced by the love bullet faster than what is considered usual. Being the first one shot by it might be foreshadowing. I'm pretty sure that Cupids not being able to fall in love is due to some outside limitation imposed on them, a limitation that can be broken somehow. And if anyone can break something, it's going to be the grenadier. At least, if this manga ends up being story-driven, rather than episodic. Also, it would be funny if the person whose weapon is abbreviated GL fell in lesbian love.
 
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Even if they use grenade, each person only fall in love with first person they see so even if the grenade affect a group of people there is no way for one person to love two or more
Thank god someone actually noticed that
 
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That divorce gag was hilarious, but it does make you wonder: is ALL love granted by cupids? Or can people still fall in love naturally?

If it's the latter, it's kinda messed up that they fell out of love but you force them to fall in love with each other again, totally invalidating the reasons they even considered divorce, but if it's the former, I guess that's just how people fall in love with each other again
 
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I might be reading too far into this, but I don't really care. It's fun. Also, I'm calling it now: Kanna falls in love with one of the other Cupids. She's already been shown ignoring fighting and directly sabotaging her teammate for personal reasons. She also recovered from the envy induced by the love bullet faster than what is considered usual. Being the first one shot by it might be foreshadowing. I'm pretty sure that Cupids not being able to fall in love is due to some outside limitation imposed on them, a limitation that can be broken somehow. And if anyone can break something, it's going to be the grenadier. At least, if this manga ends up being story-driven, rather than episodic. Also, it would be funny if the person whose weapon is abbreviated GL fell in lesbian love.
Really astute observations! You might be onto something there with your prediction, but our translator wanted to note that the Japanese made it pretty clear that it's a hard rule that Cupids are incapable of falling in love. However, the first few pages mention that Cupids are motivated to do their jobs in order to get a "second chance at life". If the story ends up making it to multiple volumes, we might get to a point where we see what it means for a Cupid to get that "second chance" (though interestingly, the Japanese word for "reincarnation" wasn't used).

The next chapter throws some interesting new tidbits of info and suggests the manga will be more story-driven so we'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it!
 
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Meh. I guess I should've seen this coming given the yuri tag. But my curiosity won out and I wasn't really shocked at the solution.

Also the idea of these cupids meddling in people's lives rubs me the wrong way.
 
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Crazy interesting + great introduction to the series. I am now invested!!
 
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Wish it'd been poly end, just go for when they're both in her field of view lol, can't be that hard. But seems like a fun series regardless.
 
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Gonna be real funny if both the childhood friends distance themselves to the girl because she has a gf now leaving them both heartbroken. Thanks alot dumbfuck cupids.
 
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This is somehow better than i expected, reminds me of blue archive
 
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Saw the cashier 'twist' coming as soon as they gave her a bit too much focus when she was handing back the picture. Then had to read a dozen or so pages before my suspicions were confirmed. It's a bit frustrating when the mystery is this obvious, but doesn't get resolved until that much later.
 
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There's something a bit fucked up about watching these meddling retards casually messing with people's lives.
 
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The premise is indeed quite weird with the guns in the mix. The system described in this manga is also strange and leaves to wonder several things:

  • Do the cupids have a boss they report to? And does the boss tell them who to pair up?
  • If there is a boss, should the boss really not care about the cupids shooting at random at potentially ruining the lives of uninvolved people? A one-sided love like the one depicted can do some real harm you know.
  • If there isn't a boss and the cupids are allowed to do whatever they want, does it not defeat the whole purpose of making people fall in love and find happiness when the cupids are out there pairing up randos with no consideration to the compatibility?

In short, I have a huge problem with the cupids just randomly shooting like that and not caring about the consequences. I personally consider it very bad worldbuilding when the author only cares about ways to convey his intentions and disregarding everything in the process.
 
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The premise is indeed quite weird with the guns in the mix. The system described in this manga is also strange and leaves to wonder several things:

  • Do the cupids have a boss they report to? And does the boss tell them who to pair up?
  • If there is a boss, should the boss really not care about the cupids shooting at random at potentially ruining the lives of uninvolved people? A one-sided love like the one depicted can do some real harm you know.
  • If there isn't a boss and the cupids are allowed to do whatever they want, does it not defeat the whole purpose of making people fall in love and find happiness when the cupids are out there pairing up randos with no consideration to the compatibility?

In short, I have a huge problem with the cupids just randomly shooting like that and not caring about the consequences. I personally consider it very bad worldbuilding when the author only cares about ways to convey his intentions and disregarding everything in the process.
If you read a little more closely, it's explained that Cupid bullets will not work if there's no baseline compatibility between two individuals. So Cupids in this universe are pairing up people who have the potential to like each other, else the bullets won't work at all. (What compatiblility means isn't explained further until Chapter 7 but extends to sexual orientation, personality traits of both the Target and the potential love interest, etc.) Love in real life is messy and expecting a story about Cupids to push a narrative that every single (and often young )Cupid is always choosing the best partners with extremely thorough consdieration when even adult healthcare workers irl fail to consistently adhere to a "do no harm" mentality would be a little naive and idealistic, if anything.

For the other aspects of worldbuilding like who is their boss (it's stated on the first pages that the Goddess of Love is the one making Cupids), they're not explained all at once, but in parts as the main character (a newbie Cupid) learns more about her role. If you want to know more you can keep reading.
 
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If you read a little more closely, it's explained that Cupid bullets will not work if there's no baseline compatibility between two individuals. So Cupids in this universe are pairing up people who have the potential to like each other, else the bullets won't work at all. (What compatiblility means isn't explained further until Chapter 7 but extends to sexual orientation, personality traits of both the Target and the potential love interest, etc.) Love in real life is messy and expecting a story about Cupids to push a narrative that every single (and often young )Cupid is always choosing the best partners with extremely thorough consdieration when even adult healthcare workers irl fail to consistently adhere to a "do no harm" mentality would be a little naive and idealistic, if anything.

For the other aspects of worldbuilding like who is their boss (it's stated on the first pages that the Goddess of Love is the one making Cupids), they're not explained all at once, but in parts as the main character (a newbie Cupid) learns more about her role. If you want to know more you can keep reading.
Yeah I know what they said about compatibility (edit: it was mentioned in later chapters so I didn't know at Ch0). It is just their convenient way to say that everything we do is fine even if we mess up. Apart from that, their stray bullets do not necessarily hit 2 people at once, leading to unrequisited love, if it ever becomes mutual. I mean, the love triangle happened in the first place because some cupids messed up and somebody else has to clean up the results.

Besides, I am not expecting the cupids to be top researchers about love (which they should be, at least in the story settings, since you know, it is their job), but would you just do anybody off the streets just because there is a "base compatibility"? Because that's what happens when they shoot randomly. Your example of doctors and nurses don't even come close because the cupids are just like toddlers shooting water guns in the pool, only that they kinda don't give a fuck about who they end up shooting because of that mechanic (except if it is their target, you know, because all other people don't matter for some reason. And before you say it is to prevent to from just shooting up a bunch of randoms and see what sticks, that is what they do unintentionally when having the gun fights).

As for the story, I got to ch3 only and I gotta say that kinda development ain't for me. I know there is an audience out there, but I personally prefer lighter stuff. Thanks for the heads up tho, and don't take my comment the wrong way, I just like to analyze stories.
 

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