Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! - Vol. 2 Ch. 16 - Kouhai and Harassment

[Kireato]

@givemersspls

Asai isn't trying to manipulate them from the shadows and certainly she doesn't want to see them suffer as she is shipping them. She's just doing what we are doing - watching the fairly cute interaction between Sakurai and Uzaki and enjoying it and letting it progress naturally without meddling in it. Although she is presented as being a bit of a pervert in the way she enjoys watching them, I wouldn't say that she is that disgusting.

As for Sakaki, I'm not a meddler myself, and I definitely find his question to Uzaki to be too personal since they barely know each other yet. To be fair to him, we know how Sakurai is and since Sakurai told Sakaki to drop the line of thought that Uzaki might be his girlfriend, the only way he was going to get a better understanding of their relationship was to ask Uzaki bluntly how far it had gone.

Well, neither Sakurai nor Uzaki are looking for any romance in any case. Uzaki cares for her senpai in a really weird way too - worrying like a mother. I'm not sure how that came to be.

 

[BCS]

That credit page was better than entirety of this series up to this point.

 

[Lozen]

@givemersspls
I don't know man I feel like we are both reading two totally different manga's, but more power to you. ✌

 

[Kireato]

@givemersspls

As you say yourself, screwing around doesn't have a malicious meaning and I'll point to the other things she says to show that she doesn't want to see them suffer. She says: "Your attacks might nip the bud before it can bloom". Screwing around means: "to waste time in silly or useless activities" which is exactly what they are doing; she did not say screw themselves, which is how you seem to be interpreting it. It's just like watching animals or small children screwing around and getting a warm fuzzy feeling from it because it's cute. Asai is rooting for them not against them.

Also, she is specifically NOT trying to hook them up against their wish. She says: "They don't need outside help, so keep out of it", "if you mess with them at all, I won't stand for it" or still "you should be observing them from afar, in the darkness". I'm really not sure how someone who is doing nothing and not interfering in any way is ignoring what they say and not taking into consideration what they want. They haven't asked for anything and she is not doing anything - she is only enjoying the show. And we are also enjoying the show.

Sakaki is the one who is trying to see if there's a relationship he can help build here, not Asai. And his interjection: "Aren't you the bad guy?" is an overreaction. He is saying that he considers it bad to not help these two because, as Sakurai's friend, he actually just wants to see him happy. But Sakurai himself has made it clear he is not interested in any relationship. To be fair to Sakaki, sometimes people need to be pushed into things they don't explicitly want in order to help them move forward, so I don't consider Sakaki a bad guy for meddling here.

To sum it up, I don't consider either Sakaki or Asai to be doing what they're doing out of bad intentions. I just think that your view of Asai is a bit too negative. But look, I'm unlikely to change your opinion, I just wanted to present my interpretation to see if it helped change your mind. If it doesn't, that's that.

 

[Entryhazard]

"Aren't you the bad guy?" was for the lowkey hypocrisy of her treating him as villainous scum for trying to push them together when she herself does nothing purely for the entertainment value of watching from afar, making her actually not less selfish than him
It's just comedic timing

 

[FredFriendly]

@givemersspls Give me a break. Instead asking a completely normal thing, "Are you two dating?", he barges right in with a totally inappropriate question, "Have you guys had sex yet?" You consider that completely normal? He doesn't know what kind of relationship they have or even if they're dating, nor does he know or care how offensive Kouhai might find such a question. It's not just inappropriately blunt, it's also rude, obnoxious, intrusive and, particularly in Kouhai's case, sexual harrassment. The guy has no etiquette and is an extreme embarrassment to us guys who are actually polite to women. He should disappear for a few more years and leave our "couple" alone.

 

[Kireato]

@givemersspls

Oh yeah, I wouldn't be starting conversations if I didn't think they were useful. I do know it's hard to convince people to change their opinions though.

And it is true that she did a few things. In the yakiniku chapter, we are reminded that they gave Sakurai's address to Uzaki when she asked for it when she learned he was sick and they wanted to have an update on what was going on, and as you say, in this chapter, she is interfering with Sakaki's meddling. Now to be exact, the yakiniku chapter is the one where the Asai family decided they should not press matters and in this chapter, she's asking Sakaki to not meddle further in the future. She didn't exactly interfere with anything yet and it's not like she can actually prevent Sakaki from doing anything.

But the issue is that you're judging Asai on things she hasn't done and a delusion she hasn't expressed. You're saying she will manipulate from the shadows to hook them up if they fail to hook up by themselves but she hasn't done that yet. That's very hypothetical. And the Asai family has already made Sakurai aware that they thought he and Uzaki made a nice couple and Sakurai has already denied it to them (so they already talked with him to his face like normal people) but I don't think they have any delusions about them hooking up. They certainly think the current situation is very cute and enjoyable to observe. (And that's also another aspect of Sakaki calling them a bad person - because Asai thinks the current situation is very enjoyable, she may very well not want them to hook up. Whereas Sakaki thinks that them hooking up will be better. As I said, Asai is deriving some slightly perverted enjoyment out of this, but I don't think that's horrible. It's like enjoying watching animals or kids do cute things or stumble. Sometimes we want to help them, sometimes we want to watch over them as they learn through their failures.)

It's really difficult to say, but right now at least, Asai hasn't done anything bad and I don't really think she'll do anything twisted in the future or that she'll be shown as getting off from this. It doesn't seem like that kind of manga. And well, I definitely agree with you that Sakaki only has good intentions. In fact, I think that even if Asai hadn't come to talk to him he would probably have stopped trying to push Uzaki and Sakurai together simply because they were quite clear. But maybe he'll do more, we'll have to see.

 

[Dijon]

Walls of text below ?

 

[ma_ko]

wow that's a lot of arguing for a simple romcom

Thanks for the chapter as always

 

[farkenell]

lol the peanut gallery is growing.

 

[burnttoast54]

Sakaki must've been browsing the authors pixiv

 

[episode]

I kept using kanbaru as kouhai's voice in my mind and it was perfect. (re: monogatari series)

 

[MasterPannya]

I don't like that dude.
I don't like how he approached them.
That's just rude. Even if they're going out, asking if they had sex is just rude.
Jesus, talk to me that way and I really might reconsider our friendship.

 

[akinoseiji]

@episode

Uzaki already has a VA, if you haven't seen her youtube debut.

 

[Markgraf]

Geesh, this is the 3rd argument in the comments today (Komi-san, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, & now Uzaki), & I'm not even halfway through my list of updated chapters yet. You'd think that romcom & isekai manga were all candidates for Pulitzers & Mann Booker Awards.

I'm just going to meekly continue emulating the original target audience & indulge in these stories as light entertainment that brings a smile to my face & a few chuckles into my life.

Uzaki says all that needs to be said when she remarks that Sakaki is kind of an asshole. And until she & senpai become aware of Asai's stalking operation, there's no real need for us readers to get into a turmoil over what she is or isn't doing.

I'm just gonna grab me some popcorn & watch.

 

[Ganteng097]

I just want to enjoy my popcorn here guys, can't you atleast discuss it in some other manner...
And pls be kind to the other, you don't know what kind of war that they have passed

 

[Kiriha]

@givemersspls "screwing around" is the translator's word of choice and might not carry over well the original meaning (can't check the raw because it isn't available anymore in seiga.nico). Just like how sexual harassment is used more broadly in Japan and sometime carry different meaning like most of loan word used inJapan.

 

[Moxle]

Wish I could post the strip but I have no idea how to LOL.

WHITE WHALE
HOLY GRAIL

 

[kuma]

so, instead we get wing woman rivalries? lmao....

 

[backspace]

Hmmm I also wanna watch them and just eat popcorn at a distance but there are times where you wanna throw a stone to a calm lake just to see what will happen