Miyu-chan wa Zutto Tomodachi - Ch. 19 - Report

[123moh555]

Why all this author works start so well than it go downhill from it after awhile?

 

[Mangamoz]

Mystery box plot strikes again.

 

[Xonthelon]

"Let's run away together!" ... Ok, not a line I expected in this situation with this pairing, but it served its (unintended) purpose, so he deserves Miyu's praise at least.

"What could it be?!" Good question. But the author didn't give us much to work with. My best guess is that Miyu-2 realized Hongo is too much emotionally shaken by the situation to actually fake his everlasting love towards Miyu-1, so he can be dismissed as potential culprit?

 

[Akitooo]

i think hongo has feelings for yuushin, since he swings the other way he doesn't feel embarassed or shameless sharing a house with a girl alone. that's what i got from miyu's reaction and that flashback

 

[Shrimperor]

Is that what they call elopement

 

[biologist]

What if just like generic Miyu, this Hongo can also sense Miyu(real) inside Yuushin and view him as Yuushin[Miyu(real)]?

 

[sw9ne]

I'm assuming Hongo is gay.

 

[Meijin]

I just took it as Hongo having the gay in him. Dude punches holes in walls and barring some taiyaki monster tier quirk a girl isn't going to be able to do that.

 

[BryanPliskin]

This is confusing as heck.
At first I don't even know whose flash back that was.
After looking at it carefully, turns out that was Miyu's flash back since the 'wh-why?' part is when they first meet. Then on re-read, it turns out the other panel is from the same event, but the dialog was changed.

During the past chapter, he said something along the line of 'I remember you now, you're Tahara Yuushin right?', but in this chapter, the translation is a bit confusing when they changed the dialog and use 'the person close to you is Tahara Yuushin' which I, and probably a lot of people, would interpret as, 'You and Yuushin are actually close', but when we take a look at the past chapter, you'll realize it actually meant to say 'This person next to you is Tahara Yuushin'.

Now, what I think the author was trying to hint from all these and what Miyu realized is,
This Hongo is not the same Hongo the real Miyu was close with back in the day.
That's why he didn't remember Yuushin right from the get go.
Probably the Hongo everyone's know was the one that breaks down and become the neet/jerk. This one is the brother that has to now live as Hongo Haruto and has to learn every aspects of the real Haruto to live as him; so he didn't really know Yushin or Miyu personally from the beginning and only see pictures and memorize just a few key person (like Miyu), so he can't remember Yuushin right away and has to connect the dot from Miyu to Yuushin. Also Yuushin had a throwaway line in past chapter questioning can someone grow that tall in the span of time they don't meet.

All these, to me, points to this is the brother, not actual Haruto.

---

Some people mentioned he's a she...
yeah, maybe not even the brother, but the sister

EDIT
Yeah... when you look at it through this lens of he's actually the sister living under the identity of Haruto, everything seems to click into place.

• the fact he notice facial features difference from Miyu
• the fact he doesn't give a second though to staying over alone with Miyu
• the fact he blushes when Yuushin asking him to run away together (no proof, but I bet this sentence doubles as 'let's elope' in original JP)
• the fact author draws him with long lashes at close up (Yuushin doesn't have this feature, only Miyu)

We might even find difference in some facial features (such as the two moles under eyes) if we really dig to find a picture to compare.

I kinda believe in this theory more and more.

even with this explanation im still very confused

 

[Takuma_Aki]

even with this explanation im still very confused

TL;DR is that, Hongo didn't remember Yuushin from the get go and the wording used (which was different from the past chapter) seemed to hint that actually he wasn't remembering Yuushin after all and more like he was connecting the dot from Miyu that this person has to be Yuushin -- he recognizes Yushin in a roundabout way, like by process of elimination that if this girl is Miyu, a guy friend in her circle that fits the bill of his appearance is Yuushin (hence he mention Yuushin doesn't change much except for glasses).
I just went on and on a bit that the flash back and past chapter used different wording and the one in flashback (this chapter) is a bit confusing. Comparing with past chapter, I concluded the meaning of the dialog there was the above.

The rest is me theorizing where would the above info lead to if it's true, which I argue, maybe 'he' doesn't know them personally because 'he' isn't Haruto, only lives under the identity of Haruto and has to remember these info and pictures of Haruto friends (from back in the day) and that's probably the meaning behind the hint given in flash back dialog. Also we already have that plot thread mentioned that Haruto has to live in place of his brother who breaks down -- so, not too outrageous to think that the plot might actually be half truth and it is actually flipped on its head. And then where does that theory lead to next. And combine it with the theory of he's a she... blah blah blah

Not sure what implication it was for the flash back on next page of Yuushin saying he had no idea Miyu was close to Haruto though, but probably a hint that some info is wrong, and Yuushin was probably in the right that the two wasn't close because Yuushin is the actual close friend who knows everything about Miyu better than anyone. Where would this info lead to, I still have to idea.

 

[Babymech2]

I just took it as Hongo having the gay in him. Dude punches holes in walls

Fellas... Is it gay to punch a wall until you make a gloryhole?

 

[WhiteRabbitBR]

oh yes

 

[Trevoga]

okay, good to know that it's not just me that's confused

 

[karmsand]

Is he is a girl?

considering the ear piercings, the way s/he casually wants to go to Miyu's house and the way s/he blushes on page 20...
unless he's just gay (that's a possibility too)
we'll see in the obligatory "let's share a bath" next chapter

 

[arcosapphire]

I was assuming Yuushin just realized that if Miyu was alone with Hongo, topics might come up that Miyu didn't have the necessary knowledge about, letting Hongo see through her facade. So he was just protecting her from being found out.

That said...this story loves to overcomplicate things, so sure, it could totally be that Hongo is not Hongo or even a boy.

The author seems to really love these Batman Gambit type things, where everything falls perfectly in place according to Miyu's plan regardless of how wildly unlikely it seems to the reader. We can point out a million things that could go horribly wrong and blow it all up, but that doesn't matter if the author ensures such concerns never crop up. It's a sign of bad writing, but people will endlessly excuse it because "otherwise we wouldn't have a story" or whatever. Whereas the real job of a writer is to ensure we have reason to believe it would work out the way it does.