Osananajimi wo Mirume ga Kawatte Shimatta - Ch. 7 - How to Address a Childhood Friend

[MangaDex]

 

[razorshaleh]

New Meme template, lol and nice airbag from Sayaka-chan on the last page

thank you for translation

 

[Hauberk1800]

It is kinda lame just to quit cause your best friend did better than you, but I also get it cause I'm kinda lame too

Thanks for the tl

 

[cryum]

Hes only been at it a year? Thats kind of impressive in its own way. He probably can do it when he tries.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I actually hope the author leans hard into the self-indulgent sulking and misery of it all.

Going from "having to help Sayaka with everything" to being surpassed by her--first in martial arts, and then seemingly in every facet of adolescent life (academically and socially), would arguably do a number on the ego of a pubescent boy, based on those I knew growing up. Deciding to "take his ball and go home" over it isn't really that unheard of, nor even all that alien of a reaction--especially given how much Sayaka seemed to depend on him all that time prior.
Him acting super sullen toward her, snapping, being short, avoidant...would all be honestly in-line with what we're shown as the catalyst for the shift in his demeanor and day-to-day; I can't say it would be good, character-wise, but it'd also establish a clear baseline of where he's at, and how far he needs to go to grow as a person and come out the other end as a reasonably-adjusted young adult who actually deserves the kind of friend that would stick by his side, even as his own mother has seemingly had it with him.
Sadly, I do not think we'll get a proper pity party about it, though, because the first chapter had Kazuki freaking out over discovering that his childhood friend is actually a hot sexy babe, and every interaction between them since then has been him fighting the hormones trying to hijack his brain. If he were truly resentful and sullen about what had transpired, he'd be more angry, I figure, than anxious & frantic. That tells me that he's not resentful toward her, even as she represents (even in part) the reason he gave up.
Perhaps it'll be a matter of "Kazuki knows it's not Sayaka's fault in the end and thus can't bring himself to resent her". Which is actually remarkably mature of an outlook, given everything else we've seen about him, but I admit I want the melodrama of him being a petulant child, so that the transformation into a halfway-decent Kazuki at the end of the series feels more satisfying. Purely just me and my own tastes, of course, but it would be far heavier than it would appear the author is intending to go, so.



But at least the open contempt that his mother shows toward him makes sense, now. If he did simply quit without telling her the reason, then she'd be understandably upset with (and seemingly even disappointed in) her son. If she does know the reason, then I suspect she thinks it's bullshit (which, agreed), and that he's being a dumbass (again, seconded) and wants Kazuki to grow the fuck up a little or at least not continue throwing his life away. (She's maybe a bit harsh, but if it's been like this for a year, then she might have simply run out of patience, which....yeah, understandable.)

Can't say I'm super surprised at this development, but I'm just glad we have a concrete reason for why Kazuki is the way he is, now. It's even understandable as to why Sayaka still seemingly likes him and wants to be around him--he helped her all their childhood, and I wager she might not even know the reason he quit the dojo (which makes me think his mother doesn't, either). But he's only ever been helpful to her, protective over her, and a friend to her, so that's all she sees, and she is attached to him as a result. She might not have romantic feelings (or at least not be aware of having them), which makes this attraction one-sided from his end; though I hope that more than any sort of romantic progression, we see character progression for Kazuki.

If he comes out the other end of this having grown up a bit to the point his own mother isn't embarrassed being seen in public with him, I'll consider the author having succeeeded, whatever the situation between him and Sayaka.

 

[Crisisninjax]

Authors really gotta stop using video games as a crutch to show negative changes. It would be bolder to show a person more withdrawn, refuse to engage with the world, doomscroll, talk back to their parents ect. Saying video games are bad in over indulgence is fine but it's always just surface level. The story is constantly trying to say the MC isn't exactly like FMC so he's a loser. In my opinion it would have been much more interesting for their interests to just diverge and they meet im the middle and rediscover each other.

 

[JoeKerr]

Kazuki's mom has equipped chancla.
Kazuki's mom is evolving into Mexican mamacita!

 

[Grauser]

I was starting to miss this series. Thanks for the tl.

 

[19801980]

Thank you for translation 👍🏻😁

 

[Darklight99]

Just read it all right now, yeah I'm tired of series about FMC who are the hottest, smartest, strongest at everything with MMC who are losers. Why does the FMC need to be perfect in everything? Why are they always such flawless beings? And why are the MMC always portrayed as losers? Why can't he have his own thing? Oh he gets shitty grades, everyone thinks he's so creepy, he barely had friends, he's a shut in. I hate such shit so much. And all the author can show about him being a shit in is him playing video games as if playing video games isn't a super common hobby around teens in the entire world.

 

[colorlesseatstomboys]

Just read it all right now, yeah I'm tired of series about FMC who are the hottest, smartest, strongest at everything with MMC who are losers. Why does the FMC need to be perfect in everything? Why are they always such flawless beings? And why are the MMC always portrayed as losers? Why can't he have his own thing? Oh he gets shitty grades, everyone thinks he's so creepy, he barely had friends, he's a shut in. I hate such shit so much. And all the author can show about him being a shit in is him playing video games as if playing video games isn't a super common hobby around teens in the entire world.

yeah the tropes kinda annoying. especially when they also add that he and she weren't always like that but it was the opposite.

more irksome because I can see myself in there, went from extrovert to giga introvert idek why (definitely puberty). I'm just glad I have friends who refuse to leave me the fuck alone, idk how they aren't over my bullshit yet.

 

[KensouADV]

Authors really gotta stop using video games as a crutch to show negative changes. It would be bolder to show a person more withdrawn, refuse to engage with the world, doomscroll, talk back to their parents ect. Saying video games are bad in over indulgence is fine but it's always just surface level. The story is constantly trying to say the MC isn't exactly like FMC so he's a loser. In my opinion it would have been much more interesting for their interests to just diverge and they meet im the middle and rediscover each other.

Videogames here are used as his escapism to cope with everything @UdenEmpati said above. It's one thing to have it as a hobby, connect with friends and all. Another is to do a complete shift in lifestyle due reasons that can be addressed in other ways to the point it's affecting him negatively (like bad grades). I just wish both could have a heart to heart talk so Sayaka could be the one to help him overcome his problems this time. But as much as people think she's the "ms. perfect", she has a hard time to express herself needing Kazuki to tell other people off for example so, not sure how she would react to the truth and how she would try to help. But of course Kazuki doesn't want her to feel guilty about it when it looks like he knows it's all on him.

Like the manga and others said here. It's not even a year since he's like that and he's still a kid. Sayaka herself might even realize she doesn't like karate all that much and was just following Kazuki all along and find something else that she really likes.

 

[pir0zhki]

I mean, I love video games as much as the next person, but it's true that they are pretty much the standard outlet for teens these days who are avoiding doing anything else. In Japan it's either gonna be games or manga, but even where I live it's readily apparent that if a teen is avoiding homework or chores or whatever else that a parent might expect, they're almost always going to be playing videogames or watching YouTube/tiktok instead. In our case, it's roblox and fortnight, explicitly designed to prey on the attention spans of kids and teens. I'm sure they have their own equivalents in Japan.

 

[Crisisninjax]

Videogames here are used as his escapism to cope with everything @UdenEmpati said above. It's one thing to have it as a hobby, connect with friends and all. Another is to do a complete shift in lifestyle due reasons that can be addressed in other ways to the point it's affecting him negatively (like bad grades). I just wish both could have a heart to heart talk so Sayaka could be the one to help him overcome his problems this time. But as much as people think she's the "ms. perfect", she has a hard time to express herself needing Kazuki to tell other people off for example so, not sure how she would react to the truth and how she would try to help. But of course Kazuki doesn't want her to feel guilty about it when it looks like he knows it's all on him.

Like the manga and others said here. It's not even a year since he's like that and he's still a kid. Sayaka herself might even realize she doesn't like karate all that much and was just following Kazuki all along and find something else that she really likes.

I do get what the author is trying to do i'm just not a fan of the video games are bad trope because the authors usually lack nuance needed to tell a story about escapism.

What tends to happen is another character usually the FMC, confronts the MMC about their drastic change, cries about it and then the MMC acts like video games are cigarettes quits em like a bad habbit and then spends the rest of the manga playing catch up until the MC's become clones of each other and then MMC's mom will coo over FMC saving her son from his addiction. It's cute and simple but It's also basic and been done to death. The trope is up there with rock and roll is the devil's music.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I do get what the author is trying to do i'm just not a fan of the video games are bad trope because the authors usually lack nuance needed to tell a story about escapism.

What tends to happen is another character usually the FMC, confronts the MMC about their drastic change, cries about it and then the MMC acts like video games are cigarettes quits em like a bad habbit and then spends the rest of the manga playing catch up until the MC's become clones of each other and then MMC's mom will coo over FMC saving her son from his addiction. It's cute and simple but It's also basic and been done to death. The trope is up there with rock and roll is the devil's music.

except I suspect you're missing the nuance that, in Kuzaki's case, the "video games thing" is being portrayed as an actual issue in need of addressing, rather than a simply hobby that he spends an appropriate amount of time engaging with. He's actively falling asleep in class because he stays up playing games, and his grades and academic performance are middling for the same reason. We've also seen two separate situations where his mother has to drag him and threaten him over his video game playing because he's neglecting to help around the house, or is otherwise so preoccupied that he's not hearing her when she's calling for him.

Sure, you can critique that it's the choice of video games that is the problem, just on its face. But because Kazuki is meant to be falling into a "shut-in lifestyle" in the wake of quitting martial arts, there's only so many things a teenager could reasonably be doing in his room at all hours of the day and night that also don't keep the tone of the series as lighthearted as it is. The other would be reading manga, which (in my opinion) would be just as tired of a trope, and even less applicable for Kazuki's character, as he's shown to be competitive and already has the built-in enjoyment of the physicality of martial arts. Going from something that active to something sedintary is already a jarring shift, but to go from the "active and external" nature of martial arts to something "cerebral and internal" like reading manga or LN or literature in general wouldn't make sense for him, as it represents too great shift.
Beyond that, he'd have to just be sitting on his computer surfing the web--which again, isn't as tied into his existing character traits (he plays fighting games, for a reason). And even with the suggestive tag, Kazuki wouldn't be reasonably looking at porn all day - especially given the extremely innocent flustered reactions he has to Sayaka every chapter, right from the outset. The amount of time he's spent in his room, he'd at minimum be much more sexually forward in his internal narration, and we're seeing nothing like that. So that also wouldn't fit his character or the series' tone.

But underneath all of that, it's not like the author's saying "video games are the devil and everyone else in the series knows they're morally wrong", or anything. But Kazuki is spending time and energy on them to the clear detriment of other aspects of his life and his relationships, and that is the issue being presented.

 

[Crisisninjax]

except I suspect you're missing the nuance that, in Kuzaki's case, the "video games thing" is being portrayed as an actual issue in need of addressing, rather than a simply hobby that he spends an appropriate amount of time engaging with. He's actively falling asleep in class because he stays up playing games, and his grades and academic performance are middling for the same reason. We've also seen two separate situations where his mother has to drag him and threaten him over his video game playing because he's neglecting to help around the house, or is otherwise so preoccupied that he's not hearing her when she's calling for him.

Sure, you can critique that it's the choice of video games that is the problem, just on its face. But because Kazuki is meant to be falling into a "shut-in lifestyle" in the wake of quitting martial arts, there's only so many things a teenager could reasonably be doing in his room at all hours of the day and night that also don't keep the tone of the series as lighthearted as it is. The other would be reading manga, which (in my opinion) would be just as tired of a trope, and even less applicable for Kazuki's character, as he's shown to be competitive and already has the built-in enjoyment of the physicality of martial arts. Going from something that active to something sedintary is already a jarring shift, but to go from the "active and external" nature of martial arts to something "cerebral and internal" like reading manga or LN or literature in general wouldn't make sense for him, as it represents too great shift.
Beyond that, he'd have to just be sitting on his computer surfing the web--which again, isn't as tied into his existing character traits (he plays fighting games, for a reason). And even with the suggestive tag, Kazuki wouldn't be reasonably looking at porn all day - especially given the extremely innocent flustered reactions he has to Sayaka every chapter, right from the outset. The amount of time he's spent in his room, he'd at minimum be much more sexually forward in his internal narration, and we're seeing nothing like that. So that also wouldn't fit his character or the series' tone.

But underneath all of that, it's not like the author's saying "video games are the devil and everyone else in the series knows they're morally wrong", or anything. But Kazuki is spending time and energy on them to the clear detriment of other aspects of his life and his relationships, and that is the issue being presented.

I hear what you're saying and I did catch his mother's complaints. I have no issue understanding the story, I just don't believe in the big 26, we need to tred the video games are bad trope when doomscrolling is right there. My issue isn't that the kid is escaping into games it's that the author writes about it like games are inherently bad.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I hear what you're saying and I did catch his mother's complaints. I have no issue understanding the story, I just don't believe in the big 26, we need to tred the video games are bad trope when doomscrolling is right there. My issue isn't that the kid is escaping into games it's that the author writes about it like games are inherently bad.

I would have to go back and reread the previous chapters, then, because I just don't see it as saying video games themselves are inherently bad, just that he's too deep into them and using them to run away from his life.
If he ends up giving up video games entirely in the pursuit of growing as a character and renounces them or something, then I would agree that your concerns here hold merit. But we're not at that part of the story yet, and I don't believe we've been shown anything that points to the author conveying that particular message.

 

[Resound]

so when will the male mc show his friend that he is better taking someone down in bed?

 

[loran.w01]

Glad to see someone pick up on this goated manga, thanks!

 

[JoeKerr]

Remember kids, a good pair of airbags can save your life.