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

[grumbles]

generational fumble 😭😭😭

media literacy is dead

 

[UdenEmpati]

I feel like his character should have developed past this behavior by now in regard to Houjou.

You're allowed to be traumatized, yeah, but Tohno has little regard for how he's hurting Houjou. She's constantly getting stone-walled for shit she didn't do to him, nor has she ever shown signs of doing to him.

I really wanna empathize with Tohno, but he's spent a lot of this series being insufferable. This just feels like author-forced drama, and it really doesn't work for me.

Imagine you're trying to get closer to someone, and every time you try to, you're met with nothing, or even outright denial. That shit will get to you.

She's also given no outright indication that she's interested in him. Legitimately, 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".

We the readers have the advantage of being outside the story and seeing everything. Not so for the people within the narrative, and 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.

We're right at the point where his reservations born of past trauma are coming to the forefront. This chapter is literally the starting line for their actual relationship dynamic, with Houjou asking for his contact info. You can see it in the tonal shift of his mood and behavior. This isn't the slapstick comedy reaction where he gets flustered and manic. He got serious, then fully removed himself and went off entirely.
That's the signal that the tone of the plot itself has shifted, and it's meant to be an important moment for their characters and their dynamic.

You can absolutely feel sympathy for Houjou. I'd argue we're meant to by the author, as the readers. But that doesn't mean we're supposed to discount what Tohno's going through, and the validity of his emotions and thought processes. It's very much setting up the coming conflict of the narrative between them, and is the crux of his growth as a character and their (presumed) future relationship potential.
And what matters here is how Tohno reacts to what Hasegawa is asking him, and how he & Houjou act the next time they're near one another.

I usually hate this sort of stuff in stories, but this is honestly the first time I've seen the misunderstanding/miscommunication conflict work and work well in a story, because of the interplay of characters and the backstories and circumstances surrounding them.

If it's not for you, that's fine. But it's not bad writing, either.

 

[Rafalga]

Which begs the question: why the fuck Tonho never mention this to his brother when it started?

As far as i remember, i think even his family have been comparing him to his brother since they were little. So its a kind of "learned helplessness" situation. It became such a normalized act for him (getting compared to his brother and found lacking) that he doesn't consider the option to speak against it. He probably thinks "yeah, why would they be interested in me?" and he would be proven right every single time (so far). In his mind, this has nothing to do with his brother for him to complain to him. His brother however should have noticed it by now if he cared about him as much as he says he does. His entire family seems to be shit.

 

[grumbles]

I feel like his character should have developed past this behavior by now in regard to Houjou.

You're allowed to be traumatized, yeah, but Tohno has little regard for how he's hurting Houjou. She's constantly getting stone-walled for shit she didn't do to him, nor has she ever shown signs of doing to him.

I really wanna empathize with Tohno, but he's spent a lot of this series being insufferable. This just feels like author-forced drama, and it really doesn't work for me.

Imagine you're trying to get closer to someone, and every time you try to, you're met with nothing, or even outright denial. That shit will get to you.

this sound like you dont understand other perspectives

Why would he trust anyone trying to get close to him when every time its been trying to get close to his brother?
This is the lone exception because we are third party viewers. WE know shes into him but hot damn how do they convince each other? THAT is the drama, that is the intrigue.

 

[undeadman]

nm.

Tf does this meeeaaaan?!?!?!?!?!

 

[Darkshade13]

Tf does this meeeaaaan?!?!?!?!?!

I originally had another post there, but it was mostly just a flippant joke that people ended up reacting badly to because so many here are super invested in the drama of the story while I'm not. I decided I didn't want a ton of constant reaction notifications for those posts anymore because I don't care to keep discussing it, so I edit the post down to nothing because I can't delete it myself. Then later on I responded to another post explaining most of this, but by now it's probably a page or two back and people are likely to miss it.

It was me just saying "never mind"

 

[Phantasmoon]

Which begs the question: why the fuck Tonho never mention this to his brother when it started?

Considering how is his brother at home, you even think it's possible?

 

[Phantasmoon]

T

As far as i remember, i think even his family have been comparing him to his brother since they were little. So its a kind of "learned helplessness" situation. It became such a normalized act for him (getting compared to his brother and found lacking) that he doesn't consider the option to speak against it. He probably thinks "yeah, why would they be interested in me?" and he would be proven right every single time (so far). In his mind, this has nothing to do with his brother for him to complain to him. His brother however should have noticed it by now if he cared about him as much as he says he does. His entire family seems to be shit.

This is why I said his family is a joke and his friends (the actual goats of this manga) are the ones keeping Tohno from closing himself from everyone (as seen when they explained his situation to Hasegawa), because of it wasn't for them, hoo boi.

 

[Phantasmoon]

I originally had another post there, but it was mostly just a flippant joke that people ended up reacting badly to because so many here are super invested in the drama of the story while I'm not. I decided I didn't want a ton of constant reaction notifications for those posts anymore because I don't care to keep discussing it, so I edit the post down to nothing because I can't delete it myself. Then later on I responded to another post explaining most of this, but by now it's probably a page or two back and people are likely to miss it.

It was me just saying "never mind"

I'm not taking anyone's side but... people read these type of things to invest in the plot so... can you actually blame them?

 

[UdenEmpati]

This is why I said his family is a joke and his friends (the actual goats of this manga) are the ones keeping Tohno from closing himself from everyone (as seen when they explained his situation to Hasegawa), because of it wasn't for them, hoo boi.

The thing is, he seems like he gets along great with his family.
If you go back to the Sports Festival, he gets along with them, and his parents don't dote on Rei over him, and Rei also doesn't look down on Youta whatsoever, even going so far as to be super excited that his little brother was actually participating and directly competing against him.

And Youta looks up to his brother and loves him. He sees him as a rival, but also as an inspiration, and looking back and reading, their parents are excited to see them bo.th compete and aren't making a show of preferential treatment of Rei over Youta, or anything

So it's not his family that's the issue - it's their peers at school and everyone around them. Youta has his friends, sure- but all their classmates and other kids at school? They're the ones who are putting Rei up on a pedestal and comparing the two of them constantly. And it's been that way since they were kids.

Youta absolutely does it himself, as well - he explains as such back in chapter 8-10 in the lead-up to the Festival Relay.

But he doesn't resent his brother, at least in his own words - only the comparisons being made between them by all the other kids, and related to that, the fact that girls are only ever trying to use him to get to his brother.

 

[Darkshade13]

I'm not taking anyone's side but... people read these type of things to invest in the plot so... can you actually blame them?

I don't care if anyone invests in the plot. I do care about them investing in the plot so much that when I make a flippant joke they turn around and smugly/condescendingly chortle at those that don't share their investment or particular interpretation of things. I shouldn't have to defend myself from people being assholes because I don't seethe with indignant rage about how terribly the MC is treated by others.

 

[draxdeveloper]

I mean, he IS wrong but we can't really blame him.
Just look, he was close to get another attack that would make he close again.

 

[draxdeveloper]

The thing is, he seems like he gets along great with his family.
If you go back to the Sports Festival, he gets along with them, and his parents don't dote on Rei over him, and Rei also doesn't look down on Youta whatsoever, even going so far as to be super excited that his little brother was actually participating and directly competing against him.

And Youta looks up to his brother and loves him. He sees him as a rival, but also as an inspiration, and looking back and reading, their parents are excited to see them bo.th compete and aren't making a show of preferential treatment of Rei over Youta, or anything

So it's not his family that's the issue - it's their peers at school and everyone around them. Youta has his friends, sure- but all their classmates and other kids at school? They're the ones who are putting Rei up on a pedestal and comparing the two of them constantly. And it's been that way since they were kids.

Youta absolutely does it himself, as well - he explains as such back in chapter 8-10 in the lead-up to the Festival Relay.

But he doesn't resent his brother, at least in his own words - only the comparisons being made between them by all the other kids, and related to that, the fact that girls are only ever trying to use him to get to his brother.

I even think he kind off tries to protect his brother.
I mean, he even says that he somewhat accept that girl (forgot her name) because he believes her feelings are real, and she would not get disappointed with the real Rei

 

[Shitty]

A great chapter!! Hasegawa is genuinely being a great big sis, and his trauma is actually being taken seriously instead of being used as a cheap gimmick

 

[Heika]

Everyone clear the runway, because the drama has arrived ✈️

 

[Mivy]

Yeah cant blame him he has been used for so many years that shit hurts and sticks

 

[JagdPanther]

At least page 12 was super cute.

 

[reicchimaster]

Some people don't really understand how trauma works. It's not like he's dense or got no balls. Girls who took advantage of him in the past broke him, and something that's broken cannot be easily fixed.

Houjou would be able to fix him, but she should do some extra effort.

 

[ChancedPotato]

I feel like his character should have developed past this behavior by now in regard to Houjou.

You're allowed to be traumatized, yeah, but Tohno has little regard for how he's hurting Houjou. She's constantly getting stone-walled for shit she didn't do to him, nor has she ever shown signs of doing to him.

I really wanna empathize with Tohno, but he's spent a lot of this series being insufferable. This just feels like author-forced drama, and it really doesn't work for me.

Imagine you're trying to get closer to someone, and every time you try to, you're met with nothing, or even outright denial. That shit will get to you.

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.

 

[FearlessDawg]

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