Miyu-chan wa Zutto Tomodachi - Ch. 5 - Murai's Home, Set Ablaze

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"A fresh and suspenseful romantic comedy about the gentle protagonist and his cute but rather quirky childhood friend, along with their friends and the adventures they get into!"

It's been fun to watch the gap between that description and the actual series get wider and wider.
It's Uchuujin no Kakushigoto all over again. Maybe Hideki is just (another) pseudonym of Hamita.
 
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I'm sorry but what the hell even was this. What is the character dynamics and what is the plot? There's been basically no credence given to the "mystery" of who Miyu is since the reveal the real one died. The MC has done like no prying into her or trying to figure out what the hell is happening. Even now he doesn't seem to care "that" much. Like she's been impersonating your childhood bestie since chapter one and five chapters later you've just arrive at "maybe she's a bad person".

Also for crying out loud there's nothing achieved by not showing readers whether she actually started the fire or not. It's a nitpick but so many series do this thing where we follow a character the entire time and there's no hint of them doing something sneaky (like planting something that could start a fire). Then all of a sudden the thing does happen and in a flashback it's revealed they did it all along. Like no Miyu has been on panel and with the MC the entire time they were visiting and then they stayed together through the evening. The only way I could see it working (and kudos if the author does this) is if something in the taiyaki that the mother and neighborhood association prez spilt sparked the fire (but still then how). Otherwise it'd be more interesting if it were genuine bad luck and a coincidence. Though I don't know what could have sparked a fire in the car even if it's full of junk.

Chapter 1 started really interesting and it's been a train wreck since. What's frustrating is you could take out every chapter since the first and I'd be no less lost or feel like I'm missing anything. The bully storyline turned out to be a nothing burger as expected and didn't really do anything for either character. Or like I saw comments that it'd be a great reveal that the father was super important to Miyu'd backstory. Nope. Even the mom was so boring and came out with the generic sob story. We didn't really get any interesting drama or conflict that moved the main plot forward (not that I know what that is) or developed the characters or even just revealed what foundation we're starting with. Which brings me to the main character.

My god why is this main character so passive. Even by shounen rom-com settings he is so damn passive. He has no presence and that's a big reason why there's no conflict and it doesn't feel like anything is happening. Because he doesn't let anything happen. He's just kinda nice, but not even really nice because he's so passive about it. Like in both exchanges between Miyu and the bully's mother he clearly doesn't approve of her being so blunt but doesn't do anything about it. Like he slightly apologizes and that's it. Then in his own encounter with the mother he again doesn't do anything to help her or clash with her. He's supposed to be the main character and is just kinda there all the time. Like what? I'd be interested if he were aggressively nice. Like if following the Mom yelling at him he just helped out and tried to clean anyway or if he just did anything. Something that also frustrates me is that we got a bit of his background with his own father having passed away... but the plot doesn't do anything with that? I mean I guess it still can if we're still dealing with this bully arc next chapter (God no; I'm trying to give it 10 chapters to find its footing but that just gets harder and harder), but I mean that's the type of thing that should be brought up to help move the plot along or affect other characters. Like if it was said to the bully or his mom to help them wake up and realize a death in the family doesn't excuse their actions or mean life stops marching forward. Instead the MC says it to the character it has the least affect on (I can barely even tell if she was really listening) to the point that he might as well have just been monologuing to a mirror.

So far Miyu is the ONLY driving force. Without her this would literally be a bathtub story and that's really bad. The problem is that because of this no one is standing up to Miyu and there's no actual conflict (even just on a drama or slice of life level). The MC is just going along with her despite knowing she's committing literal identity theft of his childhood friend. The former bully isn't even really standing up to her. The mom and neighborhood association lady got to yell a bit but neither actually clashed with her. Monster classroom kinda worked (and it didn't work for long) because characters like Miyu was paired with a no-nonsense MC and there was that constant power struggle.

Currently the only way I could see this working is as a short chapter comedy like that one other series by the same author. I just can't believe this is a serialized story with linear progression. As of now, it just feels like things are happening. I'm not really given any reason to care and I don't at all feel invested. Again I'm hoping the Manga will find its footing by chapter 10. But currently it's just yikes.
 
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I was thinking "Dayum that's messed up!" thinking about author's more prominent romcoms but then I remembered author also did 1-nen A-gumi no Monster which is quite messed up too heh.
 
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i am getting massive troll and massive gremlin vibes.. i like it but also don't.
 
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Impersonating a dead girl and worming her way into her old relationships? already pretty bad, but now she out there burning people's houses
 
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She's literally this girl
Disaster_Girl.jpg
 
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"Maybe she's a bad person"

Sure, she could actually be doing all of this for the benefit of others - Murai and his mother might actually have a better quality of life with a fresh start. But the villain monologue puts her at least squarely in "asshole" territory.
In all fairness... that dude was a horrific bully towards mc, if I were in her position I'd likely feel similarly to her. Though I wouldn't outright state so straight to his face nor commit arson.

The urge would be there but wouldnt actually do it lol
 

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