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- Mar 1, 2023
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I've seen a number of series with similar starting points. The main character, in one way or another, goes through an experience with another character (almost always a cute girl) that crushed him mentally. Most that I know of don't have the girl come back afterward. Take, for example, Outbreak Company, where before the hero was sent to another world he'd become a NEET as a result of the trauma of his childhood friend's rejection. The manga altered the inciting scenario to make it much lighter, even making the girl apologetic for hurting him and for having given him the wrong impression. In the original, she just blinked and said "heck no, I'd never go out with you" and then, when he asked why became confused and responded "I mean, you're an otaku" like it should have been so obvious it went without saying, all while seeming completely indifferent to his pain. I've also seen multiple stories where the main character overhears a girl who's very close to him talking to her friends about how pathetic and/or creepy he is.
Thing is, every time I see something like this I long to see the girl return and see him after he'd grown or after the things she disparaged proved to be good qualities that gave him success in life and/or love. Like in Outbreak Company, I haven't bought more than the first volume but I'd buy and binge the entire series if I found out there was a scene later where, say, Petralca arranged for her to come as an assistant ambassador, ostensibly to give perspective on different aspects of Japanese culture but really to show the woman who broke her beloved's heart all the great things he'd achieved specifically through his otaku hobbies. I recall one series where the character came back in a satisfying way: My Dress-Up Darling, in which the MC lost all confidence and became shy and ashamed after his childhood friend burst into tears while telling him how gross it was for a boy like him to obsess over dolls. Much later, after more than a hundred chapters, this girl comes back briefly, and something mildly obvious from the fact that she was CRYING over him supposedly being "gross" is revealed: she wasn't really upset that he had an unusual hobby and didn't even mean it when she said he was gross. She was just upset because it sounded like he was leaving and because it looked like he'd been saved by those dolls when all her efforts couldn't get through to him. And afterward she'd felt nothing but shame at having said something so hurtful to her best friend. This is also partly performed in Oregairu, with some later scenes seeming to suggest that she does eventually come to feel some regret for her actions, and there are a couple series where the girls that traumatized the guy never left him and remained regretful and apologetic since almost immediately after it happened. But what I'm looking for is stuff where the girl is absent or near-absent through much of the story but returns later after progress and recovery have been made, at which point she either acknowledges or learns how wrong she was.
Thing is, every time I see something like this I long to see the girl return and see him after he'd grown or after the things she disparaged proved to be good qualities that gave him success in life and/or love. Like in Outbreak Company, I haven't bought more than the first volume but I'd buy and binge the entire series if I found out there was a scene later where, say, Petralca arranged for her to come as an assistant ambassador, ostensibly to give perspective on different aspects of Japanese culture but really to show the woman who broke her beloved's heart all the great things he'd achieved specifically through his otaku hobbies. I recall one series where the character came back in a satisfying way: My Dress-Up Darling, in which the MC lost all confidence and became shy and ashamed after his childhood friend burst into tears while telling him how gross it was for a boy like him to obsess over dolls. Much later, after more than a hundred chapters, this girl comes back briefly, and something mildly obvious from the fact that she was CRYING over him supposedly being "gross" is revealed: she wasn't really upset that he had an unusual hobby and didn't even mean it when she said he was gross. She was just upset because it sounded like he was leaving and because it looked like he'd been saved by those dolls when all her efforts couldn't get through to him. And afterward she'd felt nothing but shame at having said something so hurtful to her best friend. This is also partly performed in Oregairu, with some later scenes seeming to suggest that she does eventually come to feel some regret for her actions, and there are a couple series where the girls that traumatized the guy never left him and remained regretful and apologetic since almost immediately after it happened. But what I'm looking for is stuff where the girl is absent or near-absent through much of the story but returns later after progress and recovery have been made, at which point she either acknowledges or learns how wrong she was.
