Maria no Danzai - Ch. 28 - Ally and Enemy

[HSK]

why didn't okaya tell nagare the safeword? is he stupid?

 

[NIB]

So the theory that Okaya being gay for Nagare is getting stronger, interesting.
btw, Nagare's sense of justice is also daddy's fault.

 

[FiddlePop]

I've seen those flowers before, is this secretly a BL series?

🤝

When I saw page 9, I only had one thought: Secret BL unlocked

 

[KoriCongo]

Alright, I'm seeing a few people express how they feel about what appears to be a romantic/sexual undercurrent to Okaya's treatment of Nagare. As someone with - unfortunately, a lot of experience with bullying dynamics, I figure I could shed some light on a different perspective. TL;DR: My bet is that it's infatuation, not love. Thought process below.

A weirdly prevalent phenomenon I and a few of my peers have noticed over the years in sadistic bullies, is that they do tend to find a favourite, however, their most frequent victim is rarely who outsiders-looking-in would deem the most "fun" to bully.

It's often victims who - in spite of options to reduce the trauma (Nagare running away as Okaya suggested), display resilience. Not so much defiance, though that has appeared also. More importantly, it's the idea that the victim perpetuates the dynamic regardless of the reasons for doing so. I've seen particularly twisted individuals say that their favourite victim is the one they spend the most time around, interact with the most, and so feel a warped sense of acceptance from them. Most victims will either run, break, or fight back. A victim who stays, in their eyes, accepts the dynamic. It's not love these bullies feel for them, it's infatuation, which will often manifest itself in similar ways.

In Okaya's case, it could very well be love; I have to say that I'm not certain just yet. Though if I had to bet on it, I'm going with infatuation for this one detail in Okaya's bullying: Okaya has never demonstrated any sexual deviancy in his bullying, but he has explicitly escalated his bullying simply to see how far Nagare would go, as if he's pushing to see how much he can do and still be accepted.

It's pretty clear sadistic lust, even Okaya didn't want Nagare to actually die. To him, it was always about pushing limits, seeing what WOULD break Nagare. In a way, he found an equal, the impenetrable wall to his unstoppable force. It isn't LOVE, even onesided. It just that he found the one person that completes his sadistic world view, a real enemy to him.
Good to remember at the end of the day, he is a teenager. A completely immoral psychopath, but also a teenager who is still somewhat finding himself. Imagine breaking people for years, trying anything to fill that hole in your life, getting more "allies" in your circle, never finding fulfillment despite your wealth and power.

You find the one person who will always go against you, that basically made it his life mission to stop yours.

And he just dies out your control. Your fault, but not in a way you get to have fun. It is the other side of that "vengeance is empty" trope, evil itself feels empty when you don't get to break him.

Makes me wonder if he started to actually PUSH AWAY his group after Nagare's death then never seeing them as anything more than "allies".

EDIT: To double up on that "enemy" idea, think about how many victims Okaya and co. bullied. Think about how he doesn't even view them in the same light. They were just targets to him. But the one dude that pushed him back, that was a real enemy. Someone that didn't just hate him but wanted to stop him.

Of course he became instantly obsessed over him. He found the Superman to his Lex Luthor.

 

[Ai_Sora]

So Okaya was super interested in Nagare because he never ran away or gave up like his previous victims. Nagare kept fighting and denying him, which in turn made Okaya feel like he had to destroy him more. But, the way that scene was drawn made it seem like Okaya was sexually/romantically interested in Nagare. Which would turn this story into a very twisted “bully teases crush” trope that it does not really need considering how brutually cruel these people are. No amount of backstory can justify them torturing and murdering Nagare.

It is clear that Okaya's twisted passion for Kiritaka was not used as a justification or excuse. On the contrary, it shows how dangerous any attention and love a psychopath like him feels is. Okaya tortured people he had no feelings for, and took a twisted interest in Kiritaka, one of those people, and killed him (even though it wasn't his intention). Although her obsession with Kiritaka continued after his death, she remained a sociopath and continued to persecute people. The “Bully teases crush” trope is used in a way that is extremely twisted and scary, but also realistic and accurate. If it were used as a cliché, this would be an BL where Okaya gets together with Kiritaka, not a thriller story where Maria takes revenge on Okaya.

 

[Reckert]

The vibe I got was that Okaya was into Nagare, but he doesn't understand his own feelings. Maybe.

 

[Altaria789]

He called her mommy😰

 

[qwejdj]

Wow
I started this managa just now
And now it's end

Like why
I was having so much fun reading with out thinking anything

And now I have to wait for the next week

By the way like how the fuck can someone think of w-rap*ng in such a dire situation???

 

[qwejdj]

Can anyone say when will the next chapter be?

 

[NoiseBandit]

Can anyone say when will the next chapter be?

Chapters release every other Friday, so the next one will be posted on the 26th.

 

[readerw40]

i’ll be honest, compared to the other bullies, before this specific chapter, Kinugawa was the most likable to me (least hateable), but in this chapter they’re trying so hard to justify his inevitable death

 

[SIOrganism]

Indomitable human spirit. He truly is his parents’ child

 

[pandascepter]

breh.