@kwendy
He's of a patient type, that can fearlessly cast his nets and await the best opportunity, so that the "win" would be not just a "win," but
the "win," the resolute, unconditional one. He wants to do everything just 'right' so that there would be no uncertainty or doubts. He understands that the only way to earn true loyalty and affection is to make people strive for it themselves.
In other words, he perfectly, albeit naturally somewhat apprehensively (provided he's not very experienced), understands that if he goes on the decisive offensive now, he will win her over; she
will be with him. And he at least guesses that she likes him too, he's not dense by any means: if there appears a rival, he won't just stand on the sidelines and hope for her to remain loyal by herself, it's too much a risk.
The thing is, he doesn't know
how much she would want to be with him from her
own wishes, compared to being swayed by an atmosphere. He's uncertain in a number of things, and he wants to be as sure as possible, at least while the time allows. If there were a crisis, a do or die situation, he would do what needs to be done, even if the result is to be imperfect. But, while he can, he will gather his forces, trying to encircle the target and thinking of all possible weak points of his stratagem. The better he is prepared, the more perfect the result would be.
So far it's a great manga, at least from the perspective of these things. It's very rare to see in such works people that are into each other without unrealistic drama, who just want things to be as smooth and natural as possible.
Urushi is already his, they
both understand it, and actually she deserves a praise for patiently waiting for him. From the last few chapters we can see that she's feeling to accept him as he is, not caring whether he's into some strange stuff, and she's even ready to leave her comfort zone for him, or more like, she's willing to band her opinions if it's for him. She's a nice, lively girl. But at the same time both of them are not sure. They literally play shogi of their relationship, biting, attacking, and retreating until they both are ready for a perfect battle, the result of which wouldn't be depended on a chance. A battle that is already won from the begging, just like taught in The Art of War. Chances are, Ayumu is actually interested in shogi itself, too.
On a side note, judging from author's other works, he really can screw a great or at least decent concept, seemingly whenever he's more interested in another project.
Fudatsuki no Kyouko-chan, I'm looking at you. Thankfully, so far it's been 42 great chapters without much of a quality drop, and one can see Yamamoto being much more experienced now. It looks like he takes this work seriously, if not affectionately. If he really manages to make it just 'right,' without the usual oversaturation of drama in romance manga, or, which is less likely, without unnecessary false (god forbid
not false) second love interests, it has the potential to become a really, really good work. One can ever stretch his speculation so far as to suggest that he always wanted to make a drama-free, natural and somewhat realistic, to his abilities, romance manga with aliments of comedy, but to do so he would have to be a respected author with a lot of creative freedom, which he wasn't by the time of
Kyouko-chan, but he seems to be is now, with
Shogi-san. Godspeed, we'll see how it goes.
P.S. Shout-out to the translation team! It's great that the people translating it are treating this work with affection too. If anything more, I'd ask to include retail novels-only pages, like art and info-dumps. The is "Volume 1 Extra Stuff," but there is no such for Volume 2. Please do this, if you can. And thanks.
