Tsuruko Returns the Favor - Ch. 38 - STUDENT AND TEACHER

[MangaDex]

 

[brndndss]

..i dont buy it. hes gonna keep coming back to fairyland. for his own enjoyment

at least that century long blackmail misunderstanding is finally resolved

 

[ActuallyArma]

Had to double check to see the status of this. Felt like we were approaching the end here. He finally learned what he wanted to learn, that misunderstanding (that stopped being funny a long time ago) was cleared, had a title drop, and now we have him saying his "final goodbye" to the cafe.

Feels like the bow has been tied and the axe has possibly been dropped

 

[Friendly-Sentence710]

"Then I want to see it too. You enjoying something from the very bottom of your heart"
Bow-chica-wow-wow music begins playing

misunderstanding (that stopped being funny a long time ago) was cleared

at least that century long blackmail misunderstanding is finally resolved

In all honestly, the Blackmail misunderstanding I thought was still funny. They did a good job of building it up, having characters that would realistically and consistently behave in a manner to maintain and deepen the misunderstanding, and the juxaposition between the completely different views of the same interaction was well done, and was excellent absurdity.

The fact this blackmail mattering at all was dependent on him wanting to know about his sister and then the manga having him doing nothing about that for 30 chapters, that was infuriating.

 

[AlterArsene]

Hmmm... tbh I dont want this story to end

 

[undeed]

Felt like we were approaching the end here.

next chapter is the last chapter

 

[Hicleric]

I had the realization I'd actually read a story with moe stick-ups by this author

Hopefully Jump pairs them with a real writer next time so their talents aren't suborned by awful writing.

 

[ActuallyArma]

In all honestly, the Blackmail misunderstanding I thought was still funny. They did a good job of building it up, having characters that would realistically and consistently behave in a manner to maintain and deepen the misunderstanding, and the juxaposition between the completely different views of the same interaction was well done, and was excellent absurdity.

The fact this blackmail mattering at all was dependent on him wanting to know about his sister and then the manga having him doing nothing about that for 30 chapters, that was infuriating.

Agreed wholeheartedly on the doing nothing for 30 chapters. It genuinely felt as though the author forgot the whole point of him going there in the first place.

For me the misunderstanding bit got old quick, it kinda felt like a Temu edition of Aharen-san since the misunderstanding was always a "Omg is she... threatening me?" and never much more (Not that I can really fault them there cause Aharen is meant to be a goofy one whereas here there's not really much room for others, but you get what I mean). Began to feel like an over used gag rather quick

 

[Friendly-Sentence710]

Agreed wholeheartedly on the doing nothing for 30 chapters. It genuinely felt as though the author forgot the whole point of him going there in the first place.

I think they wrote themselves into a bit of corner having her be dead before the manga started. "Uncovering the secret life of a beloved relative" is some rich material if you know how to work it, but given this went right into wacky misunderstanding territory it felt overly dark compared to the tone of the rest of the manga.
I mean shit the reveal "I want to wear cute clothes before the cancer gets me" is some really dark shit in a cute manga.

For me the misunderstanding bit got old quick, it kinda felt like a Temu edition of Aharen-san since the misunderstanding was always a "Omg is she... threatening me?" and never much more (Not that I can really fault them there cause Aharen is meant to be a goofy one whereas here there's not really much room for others, but you get what I mean). Began to feel like an over used gag rather quick

They kept it varied and infrequent so it never got to me, and the only thing that was bad which was the driving force that gave teeth to the "blackmail" was so weak and was largely ignored.

 

[fight2live]

fuck yeah, communication!

 

[brainman]

The writing behind this is almost fascinating in how fucking atrocious it is. It had all the right components and characters, it just needed to put them in the correct order and framework to make it all click.Yet here we are, with the transparent reveal that the only way this manga managed to reach 38 chapters at all is by waffling with no direction for 30 of them.

I want a team of analysts taking this one apart, because rarely have I seen a more frustrating manga. You have an overly serious person looking into the secret life of his dead sister/mother figure, a student trying to find herself in a strange place related to his sister, with her own family troubles going on, you could've drawn obvious parallels between Tsuruko building her own identity at the cafe with Nekokado's sister doing so, while also drawing parallels between the worries a mother/maternal figure has between Tsuruko's mom and the sister. Like, the story basically writes itself, but instead of using the components already there from the start, they laser-focused on that wack ass misunderstanding that never made sense, and clashed tonally with the dead sister plot, and then dragged their fucking feet for almost the entire manga's runtime, only to land on the most flaccid reveal that wraps things up neatly in one chapter.