p5 b7 No. Why would you do that? She JUST stated she can't decide, why wouldn't you have a discussion and hear the entire team's opinions before picking? Like they did after the first round. And why press for a decision now? Remember, Aoba is still up front in the middle of her presentation. What the fuck?
p6 b7 SEE LOOK AOBA IS STILL STANDING UP IN FRONT OF EVERYONE WITH HER PRESENTATION WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING?
OK but seriously, take a minute and consider this entire series of events. You have this rivalry between Momiji and Aoba that has been building up for two full volumes now, and a rivalry specifically over the next character design position being built up for the better part of a volume, and it's decided in a single panel, on a whim. Right there. In front of everyone. While someone is still standing in front with their presentation. And the copycat work is the one that gets picked. (Seriously the only difference she could point to was they wear protective gear. But they only seem to be presenting a single team, when there are going to be a large number of teams in the game, all who are going to need to have unique designs, so that can barely be called a difference. Over the course of designing numerous teams, Aoba would surely make a few with some gear.) After depicting the reaction to Momiji's presentation as being the worst, and after specifically having a huge build up and reaction to Aoba's presentation. After the first round, they spent a long time deliberating over the positives and negatives of each submission before giving any feedback, and if anything the final decision is much more important. So you'd expect them to give the same careful discussion to that, too. But suddenly nobody has any opinion. Not Hazuki, despite speaking up earlier about there being no reason to choose Momiji's copy over Aoba. Not even Christina, despite it taking a full chapter just to convince her to give Hajime any chance at all. This is even a major plot point for her in the next chapter. To which I can only respond "It's a little too late to start worrying about that now! If you're gonna be that worried about it, why did you agree so easily?" Hajime herself clearly cannot decide, yet instead of taking time to think it over and ask for opinions from the other management, they have her decide on the spot. Which seems like a terrible idea. Also, Momiji's not even a full employee yet. She's still in school, and technically an intern. She doesn't graduate until the end of this volume. What are they doing making her a core team member? There are just so many problems with this, both from a storytelling standpoint and from a plot standpoint. All the buildup, for it to end like this. We've been shown Aoba's growth and resolve the entire time, while there's been a single chapter of Momiji drawing with Hotaru, and haven't really seen any growth in her character. From a storytelling standpoint, Aoba is the one that is presented as being ahead the entire time, even during the actual presentations. Momiji is always shown as being behind Aoba in some way, and she's constantly self aware of that. So seriously, what? I can understand if the author wants to give every character a time in the spotlight, but he really needs to do it in a way that the readers can accept and understand the final outcome being what it is.
p7 b6 See, even Momiji herself doesn't understand the plot doing this.
p7 b8 she couldn't even come up with her own idea, man. How can the management have faith that she'll be able to make however many different designs for everything that's needed?
p8 I don't care how you try to explain it after the fact, it makes no fucking sense in the plot itself.