So far the story has managed to construct this dichotomy of vision & agency and how it reflects both the protags but also the journey that they must go through. But imo it kinda falls apart a bit at the end. The 1st big failure I want to touch upon is the part where Miya confronts Koto and the end and the Taxi scene.
The taxi scene is supposed to be the moment where Kousuke has realised his own vision and is exercising his agency to get what he wants. How he does this though is completely against the nature of his conflict with Miya and represents one of the big problems of the narrative, in that the author doesn’t actually know how to use Miya well in conflict with her father.
Before this moment, Miya already confronted Koto and already had a resolution with her as to the nature of their relationship. While Miya in this case is reacting to Koto’s act of agency in apologising, she articulated a vision of what their relationship is with Koto and given that she is like her dad, she should be able to act on with that agency to help out her friend. This should connect into the taxi scene, with Kousuke, armed with his new ability to articulate what he wants and ability to understand others better to connect with Miya about her relationship with Koto and so they can go help her/understand each other.
But then the author during the taxi moment, the author basically makes Kousuke use his newfound desires and vision to….ignore her and run to Koto. While he did for the first time say out his desires that he loves Koto, this basically did not resolve the nature of his conflict with Miya and in a way confirms the Miya view that his internal state is that he does not care. The author kinda bandaid this a bit after he came back and for the first time since the scene before Miya came out of shut in; to say that they should talk to each other to understand each other. Ideally I think Kousuke's conflict with Miya should reflect Koto’s conflict with her mother in scope but due to the framing and focus of the story on Koto, it ended up being less developed.
That also brings me to the second big failure of the manga, and that is the framing of Koto as the Femme Fatale and the focus on love/lust. After we know about Koto’s backstory and family situation, the frame of the femme fetale is subverted ( reflecting the subtitle of the manga) but as the story moves on and things becomes more “heated” for the lack of the better word; culminating in the kiss at the park; it detracts from what worked about their relationship in that they help complete each other and devolves to just wanting to fuck. Koto at the beginning likens Kousuke to a puppy that she wants to take care off and then by the time of she followed him on his business trip, has completely just boiled down her desire to fuck him. This focus on their love is also what I think lead to that very stupid and cringe taxi scene, complete with the “only I get her” line.
I think in a way the author wants to show that Koto, despite being a person with vision and desire, is still a teenage girl with her desires not fully realised outside of what she sees about her mother. It also shows the folly of her relationship with Kousuke and he, being a person that has a hard time understanding individual people, only responds with generic responses until the very end. This is reflected in how the story ends, with not a relationship but in a sense a stepping stone towards being more fully formed. Koto likewise, once having been able to exercise more agency, is also able to let go of Kousuke more easily, compared to her very needy and stalkerish behaviour before.
I do however felt that the story overused it to the point it detracted from what should have been their conflicts( her lack of agency and his lack of vision, which culminated in the park scene), especially with how many times foreplay situations occurred before the park scene(2 i think but that's already too many considering how flirty it was already).
On a small tangent, I am slightly amused now that I think about it that the most fully formed human being in the story is the blond guy who is friends with Miya. He essentially acts as the source of her epiphanies and visions throughout the series and was there for her even at the toughest moment(when her father bailed on her to fuck her friend).
