Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru - Vol. 15 Ch. 197 - The 197th Move

[Selfisch]

I do get why people like Rin; in isolation she's a great character, and I'd have happily read a series with her as the FL. Or heck, even if she had come in much earlier and it wasn't 100% clear that Ayumi had already made his choice I might have been tempted to cheer for her.

But as you said, it just feels kind of sad watching her still fight a hopeless battle. It would have been much more satisfying to see her make her move, get rejected, and then hopefully find a new partner. Then it would feel fine to have her still tease and encourage Ayumi, because it would feel more like she was helping a friend she cared about instead of trying to break up a relationship.

Okay yeah, you're right, a story focused on her as the FMC would also be good, and while I wouldn't have rooted for her if she had been introduced at a point where she felt like an actual choice for the girl Ayumu ends up with, she would totally have been a worthy love rival, like one that actually might be a threat. To be fair, I would have despised her if that was the case because I don't like love rivals, but at least she wouldn't be such a sad character 😅

And yeah, she could have been a great addition to this story if we had seen her move on, her teasing for example could have been a great driving force for Urushi, because while Rin, Ayumu and we as the audience would see it as teasing between friends, she wouldn't and therefore have a reason to tie him down faster. Also as you said her helping him as a friend would feel a lot better if she wasn't also still gunning for him.

 

[aryllelric]

I missed when we changed heroine

Yep that’s what I’m saying 🫠

 

[Kisato]

 

[Kaeos999]

he already has rejected her lol

she doesn't quit but she's never really been in the race, Ayumu will get with senpai and b friends with her

I know that ayumu and senpai will be together it's her manga, but even though i ship ayumu and senpai so hard, every rin chapter mades me to rethink my ship and it doesn't feel good at all. I forget about the rejection i think i read this while thinking about another manga 💀

 

[creeper6530]

We playing "Strip Shogi" now?
...spats are hot.

That sound like something Urushi would say after coming in (except the part about the spats)

 

[Nemo2342]

Okay yeah, you're right, a story focused on her as the FMC would also be good, and while I wouldn't have rooted for her if she had been introduced at a point where she felt like an actual choice for the girl Ayumu ends up with, she would totally have been a worthy love rival, like one that actually might be a threat. To be fair, I would have despised her if that was the case because I don't like love rivals, but at least she wouldn't be such a sad character 😅

I'm not a huge fan of love rivals either; I'd rather everyone get to be happy and having a love rival generally means that someone is going to end up disappointed. However if we're going to have one, I'd at least like them to be a credible option so the readers have some hope that their preferred pairing prevails.

I don't think I would have pulled for Rin either though. I like the Ayumi/Urushi dynamic more (as frustrating as it can be at times) than Ayumi/Rin. Auymi and Rin are just a bit too similar, so that'd be my second choice.

 

[dowiet]

Sore loser competition almost escalated to the point of no return. I was sort of expecting Urushi to come marching in at the best possible moment

 

[danglion]

I don’t understand romance manga sometimes, I’m just following along cause it’s cute but why is it always the second love interest who has WAY more chemistry than the main love interest always the one who loses, no I’ll stick with blank slate perfect girl who I’ve known for a short time & have just a bit of chemistry to be viable, I don’t hate Urushi she’s cute, but why did they make Rin so likeable it’s crazy

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Selfisch]

I'm not a huge fan of love rivals either; I'd rather everyone get to be happy and having a love rival generally means that someone is going to end up disappointed. However if we're going to have one, I'd at least like them to be a credible option so the readers have some hope that their preferred pairing prevails.

I don't think I would have pulled for Rin either though. I like the Ayumi/Urushi dynamic more (as frustrating as it can be at times) than Ayumi/Rin. Auymi and Rin are just a bit too similar, so that'd be my second choice.

Yeah, if they are going to add love rivals at least make them feel like actual rivals and not just a character that's obviously there to be a love rival until they are inevitably turned down, even if that is essentially what happens to all love rivals some of them just show that's what's going to happen. For example in "Komi can't communicate" Manbagi was an actual rival, they had great chemistry and they actual had great "progress" chapters between them, so I actually felt bad knowing that she is eventually going to lose, but here it was like "this girl is interested in the MC who is already madly in love with somebody else... and now she was turned down...", like why did they keep trying to add "progress" chapters for their relationship after she was turned down, that's just kicking someone who is already on the ground😭

Honestly I feel like Rin and Ayumu work better as friends than they do as a couple, and Urushi/Ayumu actually feel like an awkward teen romance. Not that I have anything against (childhood-)friend romances, they are great too but that's not what the focus of this story was so I just never really felt for their relationship that way.

 

[Nemo2342]

Honestly I feel like Rin and Ayumu work better as friends than they do as a couple, and Urushi/Ayumu actually feel like an awkward teen romance. Not that I have anything against (childhood-)friend romances, they are great too but that's not what the focus of this story was so I just never really felt for their relationship that way.

I could see an Ayumi/Rin relationship if you did something similar to early Kaguya-sama. Two competitive idiots each trying to push the limits and trying to get the other person to confess first. Heck you could even do the whole "confession happens after a victory" thing, and just drag it out with reasons why that win didn't count or that it has to be best X out of Y.

I agree that Ayumi/Urushi had that nice awkward feeling that made it a lot of fun to read. It's what originally drew me to the series, and I like that we still get a little bit of that even though they're basically dating at this point. I certainly would not have wanted to switch to a different tone mid-series.

 

[Selfisch]

I could see an Ayumi/Rin relationship if you did something similar to early Kaguya-sama. Two competitive idiots each trying to push the limits and trying to get the other person to confess first. Heck you could even do the whole "confession happens after a victory" thing, and just drag it out with reasons why that win didn't count or that it has to be best X out of Y.

I agree that Ayumi/Urushi had that nice awkward feeling that made it a lot of fun to read. It's what originally drew me to the series, and I like that we still get a little bit of that even though they're basically dating at this point. I certainly would not have wanted to switch to a different tone mid-series.

Point is, they would have worked in a different series, even if they stayed exactly the same, but in this one their relationship just doesn't fit as a romantic one.

Yeah, because you either have to go with one or the other, I don't even think I would enjoy a series where it's actual love rivals (like where both of them feel like an option) and both of them have a different connection to the MC. I know the childhood friend losing is like a staple romance trope, but I actually don't think I have ever read a Manga like that, probably because those are usually the ones where there's to love interests from the start and I just don't read those.

 

[Grimmycoffee]

A JK is not a loli.

I think he's saying she's a JK and a loli

Whether Rin is a loli or not is a completely different matter tho.

 

[fujikawakenji]

Let me vent a bit.

Yes im a childhood friend type of guy but i dont like how , in most romance manga, the friend and the MC always seems to have a more natural progression in their relationship compared with the Female MC. Like “yeah you’re physically attractive and our personality works perfectly with each other. I’ll still go with that random girl i got a crush on for no reason and that our relationship is still super akward even after 2+ years.”. It always feels like the relation between the mc and the childhood type friend is better written than the main relationship of the series.

Worst part is childhood friend always has to have the biggest balls and be the first to confess in the series just so that the MC can “understand the true meaning of love” and immediately cucks her with the female mc lmao. She then gets a revelation from god or whatever and understands why she got cucked then proceed to stick with male mc.

Anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk and justice for childhoods friends. The writers never treat them well.

(also any good recommendation on childhood friend actually winning ?)

childhood friend love: I want to end the game of love

 

[Candymon]

She's one step ahead of him again. Unfortunately he's not following in her direction.

 

[AnotherDuck]

Anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk and justice for childhoods friends. The writers never treat them well.

I find that childhood friends are the FMC, a side character introduced as an obstacle, or one of several love interests. In the first case she tends to win, in the second never, and the third only if it's a harem ending.

I used to like them, but then I saw too many entitled childhood friends who claim they have some right to the MC because they're childhood friends, and those are just obnoxious. So now it depends more on the situation, but I'm generally sceptical.

 

[Atelierwanwan]

I prefer the cold over the heat. I live in Australia so it gets really hot. Unfortunately being an adult I can't enjoy the cold like I used to. Getting up at 5:30am on a cold morning to walk to work sucks. Once I'm working it's not so bad, until I need to use water, sometimes it's even iced over. I love just hibernating in my room with a heater on but it's too damn expensive now. Gotta appreciate my mother who put up with my power costs when I used to have my heater on all winter.

 

[Saya2879]

he already has rejected her lol

she doesn't quit but she's never really been in the race, Ayumu will get with senpai and b friends with her

On paper he rejected her, but in reality he told her that he was ok with her still trying to seduce him.

 

[subliminal]

On paper he rejected her, but in reality he told her that he was ok with her still trying to seduce him.

HIs brain rejected her, his body strongly disagreed and interrupted the signal to the mouth.