Osoraku Kanojo wa Ore no Aniki wo Neratteru - Ch. 16

[heheheheheheheha]

Save your lil broooooo

 

[Szaal]

I like the wars in the comment. Let me remind you that there are girls that are literally trying to scurry favors on him again, though fortunately Hinagi stopped them.
If Hinagi didn't step in, if those girls managed to get Tohno, asking for his contact, he will obviously ran away. Back to his desk. Then Houjou will ask for his contact.

Things could've been worse off than what actually happened in this ch.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Kinda weird development. I'd like it more if he still had an aversion to it due to trauma while knowing that Houjou isn't like that. Him going "I dunno." Is kind of a betrayal to the trust he's grown to have with Houjou so far tbh

Except that he doesn't know.

Houjou's behavior up to now is basically friendly stuff. But that's about all it is. He has no reason to suspect that she's not "playing the long game" whilst ultimately gunning for Rei. Because it's implied that he's had it happen to him before.
And even then, that's not the only weighty moment here - because in terms of the context of high school kids in Japan--at least in romcom school age manga--exchanging contact info is a big step. We see it over and over how much of a milestone it is.

But for Tohno, it's always been a point where he gets let down or used or otherwise betrayed by any girl who's asked for his before, because it's 100% been to get to Rei.
It doesn't matter how much Houjou "might be different", that's an actual rough point/trauma spot for Tohno, and even the way his facial expressions are depicted in this chapter showcase that he likely had, more than anything, an automatic response to the question and kneejerk pulled away and ran.

It's meant to be a dramatic moment in the story, because it's the first "make or break" moment where actual stakes are involved for Tohno and Houjou. Everything up to now, even the Sports Festival, has been relatively tame and lighthearted up to this point.
But this isn't "I'll root for you running the relay", this is an actual (contextually) intimate point of contact and connection for Tohno, and for him/kids in Japan, it's not a flippant thing to go handing out your info like that to someone of the opposite sex.

So Tohno's reaction is honestly an appropriate & effective narrative beat for the direction the story is likely going from here, and it's meant to feel like a jarring, outsized reaction on his part with much more dramatic undertones for that very reason.

 

[Eycaj]

)egitimately, everything Houjou's done with regards to Tohno could simply be her being friendly.

We see that she's got a weird sense of social boundaries, and is that "quirky" kind of popular girl wherein that sort of behavior could just be "hey I'm just being friendly and stuff".

Tohno has zero indication that anything Houjou has done, is anything but either superficial friendliness, or is part of some ploy to butter him up in order to get access to his brother.
Because, again, it's all happened to him before.

Brother, with all due respect, chapters 8-16 are NOT superficial displays of friendliness. I don't know what planet y'all live on where that level of interaction and dialogue is superficial, but it ain't the same as mine.

She's actively pursuing him as a friend, going out of her way to talk with him, find him before and after school, talked with him first after the sports festival, shared parts of her daily life with him, while also taking an interest in his.

Are her interactions platonic? Yes, they could definitely be platonic. Does that matter in regard to his trauma? No. He literally says at least three different times, "Houjou really is different." Regardless of reader perspective, he has been given more than enough evidence to know she's different. He said it himself.

You are giving this story far too much credit. Him being a bit insufferable and being justified in his trauma are not mutually exclusive. My point is that this drama feels artificial because it is. This specific conflict needed to happen earlier in the story, because it feels hamfisted now. It's only in manga that contact information is such a big deal, even in Japan. It's like how they make a big deal out of indirect kisses, but in reality nobody gives a shit.

 

[Haydrion101]

That was a look of genuine heartbreak and terror, bros. It's like, all at once, it came crashing down. He likely had the thought, however fleeting, "oh. There it is. She's just like them." Somebody give my boy a hug...

 

[UdenEmpati]

You are giving this story far too much credit. Him being a bit insufferable and being justified in his trauma are not mutually exclusive. My point is that this drama feels artificial because it is. This specific conflict needed to happen earlier in the story, because it feels hamfisted now. It's only in manga that contact information is such a big deal, even in Japan. It's like how they make a big deal out of indirect kisses, but in reality nobody gives a shit.

emphasis mine.
This is literally a manga, therefore it's unsurprising that it's making a big deal about this step between Tohno and Houjou. If it's precisely the sort of thing people in Japan expect from their romcom comics, then why act like it's not appropriate to be used right here in a Japanese romcom comic?

Whatever Houjou's actions and demeanor toward Tohno, this is still a shift in the situation between them, and it's reasonable to expect that he would react more automatically than rationally when faced with the exact scenario that burned him every time before.

He can say "Houjou really is different" all he wants, but that doesn't erase the fact that he's also had his guard up this entire time, even through those interactions during the sports festival. He wants to believe she's not going to be like every other girl before her, but that doesn't mean that his experiences are suddenly overwritten in this moment here and now.

Like I said - this is a shift in the narrative tone and placement for their situation going forward. It's why it feels and looks so much more serious than the previous instances of him having this or that fluster/crashout over being approached and interacted with.

You can feel that it's hamfisted and unnecessary, but I maintain that it fits the narrative beat of things escalating between the Two Leads and works contextually with what we know of the ML's past and with how these sorts of events are utilized within the genre and the medium at the meta level.
We're moving to the next act of the plot arc, and whatever comes next is the stage being set for their relationship progressing through the ML's litany of issues as the FL starts the process of breaking down the walls he's built up.

 

[dingo12345]

I hope this gets resolved soon. I need more fluffiness

 

[Baddtraxx]

JUST WHEN WE GET PROGRESS ITS BACK TO SQUARE ONE

 

[GIN_8_6_]

Just stop using mobile phone then the girls won't be able to contact you

 

[Rannnnn2]

Understandable. Its trauma. Its like Inami from working who have a fear of Men and can violently lash out because goat Souta lets him. But for our boy here who have the opposite of that, and he been keeping it in? Understandable my dude

 

[bingoboyop]

Damn, author remembered the premise? Should have used these setups way way earlier. This was how most of their interaction should have gone from the get go. Now it has a chance to become interesting again but not holding my breath.

Also some of you guys here might be legit sociopaths. How hard are you self inserting to tell him to man up? God damn. Can't expect much from romcom slop addicts who want to read the same story and spam the same retarded comments 54623462nd time in row i guess. Fucking freaks

Case in point below.

We must have been reading different mangas because most of his interactions with Houjou have involved him doubting her intentions, it's a natural progression that now they wre seemingly closer and she tried to take a step that the resistance is bigger. I don't understand where the idea that the premise is forgotten coming from.

 

[Remissio]

I have returned to share my further over analyzing of the story and Trauma!

It really hit me this chapter, his reaction is very impactful, that face he made was dreadfully tragic and traumatized so my brain started running through what has happened.

A lot of this likely isn't accurate and is a bit of projection but let's gooo!!

From what we have seen from Rei, he seems to care about his li'l bro Tohno. But he also seems to care greatly about his public persona. When at school he keeps mostly in his clique of fans and in his act doesn't seem to make much attempt to interact with his brother. At home he is slovenly and tiresome to deal with by Tohno likely resulting in him not seeing Rei as too reliable or trustworthy. It is possible that Tohno tried to approach his bro about this issue when they were younger but Rei either didn't grasp the situation or dismissed it. They're both still kids there is no reason to believe they wouldn't make such mistakes when they were even younger. Maybe they had a fight and Rei said or did something that planted a seed in Tohno of unreliability or untrustworthiness regarding his big Bro. We haven't seen such information yet so it is still projection and speculation. And we also don't have much about the parents yet. I forget if they mentioned them or if they're abroad or something but given how they live at home lol.

The next part is also big theorizing but given how the other paranoia has been treated somewhat jokingly by the author vs the current contact issue which has caused a much deeper scar in Tohno's psyche. I am thinking he likely befriended a girl and shared his contact. And who knows, maybe the girl actually cared about him they could take this route if they ever wanna bring her back for drama. But maybe others tried to use her to get info on Rei through Tohno and it resulted in something like maybe she got pressured into handing out his contact to the other annoying girls and so he was flooded by unsolicited harassment and messages about Rei from all these other girls, and maybe the one who had befriended him had pure motivations but was a pushover and got peer pressured by all the other girls but he still saw it as a betrayal, and it caused him big distress to the point either he moved or the family changed schools or the girl just happened to move away and wanted to apologize but couldn't, even through text because he changed his contact info to escape all the unsolicited Harrassment but overall the damage is done, he can't trust girls with his contact info and in his eyes maybe this one other girl he had trusted left suddenly after giving his info to everyone for Rei Simps and he just can't deal with it again.

And then if u want extra cliché love triangle drama u can have this old friend come to the school, and be more extroverted when maybe she used to be introverted. And she tries to approach Tohno but he is very averse to her. And he closes himself off after Houjou had finally reconciled with him again and we get a whole ass arc about him learning what happened and that this girl didn't mean to betray his trust but he understandably still says like: "even if the intention was not there, the result cannot be reversed, we can try being friends again but I don't fully forgive you," and maybe she wants to try dating him and not has to deal with Houjou being closer, and so on and so forth.

Hopefully not tbh hope the author goes other places with it but I want Tohno to find happiness with Houjou and I want whoever traumatized my boy to maybe not suffer but experience some sort of karmic consequence.

Thank you for reading my Prequel Fanfic Layout I guess.

 

[Cordi1]

Of course. It's life. You get over it.
Dude's potentially ruining an opportunity because of his fear. It's weak.
I say potentially, because we all know it's going to turn around in the next chapter or two - this character has been written such that he recognizes his faults and adapts, contrary to most MMC's in these sorts of manga, and despite the comment section handling it with kids gloves.

get burned enough times and you'll eventually want to take a break from it all, I assure you.

 

[Rafalga]

We must have been reading different mangas because most of his interactions with Houjou have involved him doubting her intentions, it's a natural progression that now they wre seemingly closer and she tried to take a step that the resistance is bigger. I don't understand where the idea that the premise is forgotten coming from.

Most of manga's run, his "trauma" has been played for laughs and him folding on the spot. Houjou didn't even had to try so hard.

Until this chapter. This chapters shows what an actual trauma looks like. Someone who shows this levels of trauma response should have been acting this way since the very start. There is still the question of why Houjou being so obsessed with him but that's another matter all together.

 

[Phantasmoon]

So the MC should've finished the main plot of the whole story, his biggest problem, something he's dealt with his whole life at chapter fucking 15? Maybe you were looking for an axed manga that speedruns its whole story in 5 chapters but the most basic storytelling shouldn't be to resolve the conflict that the entire plot is based around at basically the starting point. That's not even talking about the stupidity of thinking that a girl being vaguely nice to you will immediately fix your trauma of girls who only acted nice to you to get to your brother, especially when not a single event where his fear could be alleviated has even happened yet.

I think he refers not as that he should had gotten gone by it at this point, but actually at least get past the starting point, to be fair the author botched it putting a lot of slice of life chapters literally forgetting the actual premise because let's being honest, in 16 chapters, the only time things went forward were during the Hasegawa chapters and the last chapter of the sports festival which makes 3 out of 16

 

[derra8]

The way I see it, Houjou's brought chocolate and flowers and has been knocking on his door, ringing the bell. This last chapter she put her hand on the doorknob and tried to open it.

From his perspective, there have been other Houjou's in the past. They have wounded him terribly. Now the door has been locked, deadbolted, nailed shut, barred and concreted over. It's not opening. Ever. Bringing a bigger bouquet or showing up more often to the front door will not change this.

She needs to know more about his trauma and to decide whether or not it's worth pursuing him. He needs to commit to putting himself out there even if it means being vulnerable. They will have to work together to establish a bond by, say, opening a window.

Honestly at this point Hasegawa is closer than Houjou in starting a relationship with Tohno for the simple facts that she knows about his trauma, acknowledges it and is trying to help him in her own way (note: Hasegawa is not at all in the race). It's a shame that his friends didn't pull Houjou aside and share anything, but it looks like Hasegawa is being positioned to do this.

This differentiates the manga from a simple "winning over a shy boy" and I'm interested in seeing how it develops.

 

[UdenEmpati]

The way I see it, Houjou's brought chocolate and flowers and has been knocking on his door, ringing the bell. This last chapter she put her hand on the doorknob and tried to open it.

From his perspective, there have been other Houjou's in the past. They have wounded him terribly. Now the door has been locked, deadbolted, nailed shut, barred and concreted over. It's not opening. Ever. Bringing a bigger bouquet or showing up more often to the front door will not change this.

She needs to know more about his trauma and to decide whether or not it's worth pursuing him. He needs to commit to putting himself out there even if it means being vulnerable. They will have to work together to establish a bond by, say, opening a window.

Honestly at this point Hasegawa is closer than Houjou in starting a relationship with Tohno for the simple facts that she knows about his trauma, acknowledges it and is trying to help him in her own way (note: Hasegawa is not at all in the race). It's a shame that his friends didn't pull Houjou aside and share anything, but it looks like Hasegawa is being positioned to do this.

This differentiates the manga from a simple "winning over a shy boy" and I'm interested in seeing how it develops.

I like your pointing out that despite Tohno having several friends, it would seem Hasegawa is the closest to him in the specific context that pertains to Tohno "working through" the block that makes him keep Houjou at arm's length.

It will require both of them to make this work, as it should - and I am mostly wondering how Houjou will be made aware of Tohno's whole situation.

She does have her serious and thoughtful sides as shown in her caring about her best friend Urara, but Houjou is kinda quirky and doing her own thing a lot of the time. She had that serious moment with Tohno when she encouraged him to join the Relay, but I am unsure as to how she would even begin to try and ask about Tohno's "Walls", much less work toward 'finding a window', as you put it.

Hasegawa will likely be instrumental, but the exact path forward eludes me at the moment.

Which I like immensely. This is one of the first romcoms wherein I can't predict what'll happen because it subverts the usual tropes pretty effectively, as you mentioned with regards to "getting the shy boy". So being unable to confidently guess the plot is a big 'plus' in my book.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I think he refers not as that he should had gotten gone by it at this point, but actually at least get past the starting point, to be fair the author botched it putting a lot of slice of life chapters literally forgetting the actual premise because let's being honest, in 16 chapters, the only time things went forward were during the Hasegawa chapters and the last chapter of the sports festival which makes 3 out of 16

I would argue that this chapter is "the starting point" for them, insofar as we're finally getting to the meat of the main point of conflict that is the ML's trauma and the first time the FL really comes up against it in a meaningful way.
Every point before that was, as you said, "slice of life"-type stuff -- where the ML's "trauma" was played off more for laughs, than anything, and everything had a much more lighthearted tone overall.

This is the first real shift toward something that isn't comedic or "cute serious", like the Sports Festival Arc. Even that had an tone of positivity and earnestness, wherein the ML was pushing through his personal block of hesitation when it came to competing alongside his older brother.

But this moment with Houjou asking about contact info is directly related to what I suspect is the real underlying issue with Tohno - the reason he doesn't trust girls isn't because they're after his older brother, but because they're never actually interested in him.

And that's the difference here. Everything else thus far is Houjou being friendly, but it's just that - her being friendly. Interested, maybe. Arguably, there's visual indicators that she feels some sort of way about Tohno, but she's being nice, interacting with him, encouraging him to participate during the festival, but all of that is rather surface-level when it comes to stuff you do for friends. And all the while, Tohno still had his guard up and questioned her motives, even if he starts wanting to believe she's different.
But the exchange of contact info is a significant meta milestone in the romcom genre, and it carries clear additional meaning and weight for Tohno - and is seemingly involved with some major part of his overall trauma/core character conflict.

And so now we're at the actual starting point where Houjou is attempting to make a real connection to Tohno that would exist outside the school walls and give her access to him beyond merely being a classmate/surface-level sorta-friend.
That would fully mean that Tohno can't keep her at arm's length and keep himself "safe" by way of simply leaving school and removing himself physically from any situation that turns sideways on him.
So that's why this reaction is different, and why it makes sense contextually. It's a significant step forward in Tohno putting his trust in a girl, when he's been burned badly enough every time before that he'd walled himself off completely. Whatever they had between them before, this is an escalation of that connection and their relationship and because Houjou doesn't know about his deal, she's stepped on a landmine, and doesn't understand.

And Tohno's not trying to hurt her - he's having a trauma response and pulled back. He didn't scream in her face, physically lash out. He simply left, and then returned all closed off.
He's certainly confused Houjou and I'm sure she's hurt to some extent by his refusal and subsequent frosty demeanor (beyond the usual prickly attitude he generally had before), but that's where the true start of their dynamic that exists beyond her being quirky and friendly and him being flustered and unsure.

 

[SatchelBagman]

Popping in real quick to remind anyone complaining about pacing that we are on Chapter 16 of a manga with normal-length chapters that happens to alternate its main plot releases with side stories. We are maybe a third of the way through the second volume. I know we're all feral for plot development in this romcom but let it breathe.

 

[Justanotherson]

For those who saying tohno is weak or a baby or something. Irl there are people who are willing to do every things to convince you that they want good for you and be a good friend but yes they just manipulate you for whatever purpose they have. I also encounter some people when they need your help they will do & say whatever just to get to your good side. Once they get what they want, depend on each person but they can treat you like garbage. So yeah dont blame tohno 👍 .Just a little bit sad that after multiple chapters that “ a bit different “ is actually just a bit. But well this cliff hanger makes me craving for the next chap.