Wake Ari na Kanojo-tachi - Ch. 18 - Her Feelings

[MangaDex]

 

[spoopycat]

Ah, my heart

 

[Gothic_Catalyst]

Thank you.

 

[Cornonthekopp]

Ooh real angsty stuff

 

[BozMagic]

I'm crying im crying plz don't end like this, Neji don't do this please

Thanks for the translation

 

[icekatze]

Vivi, find someone better. She ain't worth it.

 

[BigRedScarf]

GO GET UR GF BACK!!! >_<

 

[yukaru12]

im on the fence bout how to feel about mc chan. On one hand, i understand her predicament of upholding the expectations set by her people at a young age with the hope that she could save them all. Thats a lot of pressure to put on one girl. However, on the other hand, i do not like how she is treating vivi. she literally made a promise to vivi and the woman who saved her that she would stay and take care of vivi but now shes throwing that out the window. The way she is being written makes her a complete pushover, considering she didn't even object when that one other titan came and said lets have kids. And the guy seems very insensitive in the sense that he couldn't read the mood the mood vivi and her had as well as not even ask how she felt about it. I mean you'd think he would considering shes been away from home for a long time that she possibly could've changed her mind

 

[MISHYPANIC5]

Thanks for the chapter!

 

[undeadclown]

The problem with this shit is their relationship progressed way too much before this plot development hit. It makes the MC look like a flighty bitch. She was basically telling Vivi she loved her and is now like “get out, I’ll see you like once a month maybe.” She doesn’t seem nearly torn up enough about this. She is not acting like someone choosing duty over love. She’s acting like she never cared in the first place outside of just feeling pity for Vivi’s condition.

Vivi deserves better. MC is a cunt. Even her inevitable realization that she loves Vivi (something she already fucking realized) and must get her back won’t save her character from this goddamn disaster of a plot. I can’t believe Neji had the audacity to joke about the audience complaining about a male showing up in a yuri manga before writing literally the most cliched and stereotypical scenario of why people specifically get mad at it happening. You’d think he’d write that joke if he, you know, meant to subvert the stereotype rather than lean into it so hard it ruins his story.

 

[rurikuchan]

Well, i'm confused. Just a few chapters ago that she stated that she loved Vivi and now she just gives in that easily. What a pity and disappointment i'd say, smh
it's pretty mean of me to say this but if the titan on the other side can't do anything to defend themselves against external threat(human for example) but copulating and producing more off-springs even though they have magic that is advanced enough to travel to a different world then, yeah, they should go extinct, the human on that side wasn't technically wrong in saying that the titan took too much land and did nothing with it

 

[shemper]

thank you for your work!

 

[Pyoro]

Yeah, all the worst tropes for this arc. Even if I didn't care about the specifics it'd just be a trite slog to get through; seen it done too often, always develops in the same way - it's not interesting.

 

[Lilliwyt]

@undeadclown For one, Neji is a woman so it's "she" and second, you realise that Kara could have just break the ties and just tell Vivi they wouldn't see each other period ?

I also love how people are assuming things without acknowledging the big responsability who lie on Kara's shoulders. We talking about a species in the verge of dissapearance, not just a simple, "a woman need to make childrens". Also, you don't know Neji very well if you think she gonna let that going through. Theywill probably go back together and find a solution for theTitan race.

 

[Msaid08]

@Lilliwyt No it is a "woman needs childs" thing. Obviously there is lots of other titan girls. He can go and have a child with them. The fact that their child will not be a special one makes it a "woman needs child" thing. If it were that their child will be special and end the war I would be okay with that.

 

[Generika]

Thanks for the translation!

I understand what a lot of the people in the comments are saying frankly....
Setting up some form of "greater responsibility" to be apposed to a lesbian romance is a huge trope, and one with homophobic roots at that. I really should be more mad at this series for taking this route, but for some reason I'm not...? I really don't have a justification, but this sits ok with me for the time being. Usually when this trope is invoked it's a responsibility to family. Either arranged marriage or taking over the family business...
This time it's still technically family, but the need seems more serious. For me personally, if I were in Kara's shoes I'd probably make the same choice, frankly. Even if I wasn't at all attracted to men and I was in love with someone else I'd probably know that the survival of my people was more important.
Maybe if we had more context.....? Like, why does it have to be Kara? Why can't she just give birth and go to live with Vivi afterwards? I guess I have faith that the author will tackle these questions. Maybe I'm naïve but that's how I feel atm.

 

[Evelyn666]

Thanks

 

[mirewitch]

Wow this arc is bad. The "forced marriage" trope is terrible under normal circumstances, but this situation is so hilariously contrived it almost feels like a parody.

First off, Kara and marriage-man aren't literally the last titans. There are presumably at least hundreds of titans left or their species is doomed to die from inbreeding's genetic problems. As such, while Kara is understandably under pressure to have children, its not like she's going to kill off her species if she doesn't.

Second, pregnancy and marriage are entirely different things. I realize they probably don't have IVF in the titan world, but they have access to the human world where such things are commonplace. And even if that's not an option for some reason, people have employed variations on the "turkey baster" method of pregnancy for hundreds of years. And even if that's inexplicably not an option, they could just have awkward sex once. I don't see why marriage is a requirement. In fact, wouldn't it be better for the Titan species if they didn't get married, since Kara and Vivi could raise the child and marriage-man could go find another mate? I guess that runs into the "off-worlders can't visit the titan world" issue, which brings us to...

Third - the titan world's rules are contrived and silly. When we went to/from Vivi's world in prior chapters, Vivi just drew a circle and they traveled to the other world. Kara was literally dying from poison and she had no problems travelling. Yet somehow children are too weak to handle the ride to Kara's world, and foreign people like Vivi can't make the trip at all? I realize the author can make whatever world-jumping rules she likes, but this is feels extremely convenient.

Fourth: I don't understand why Kara couldn't raise her children in the modern human world (with Vivi). Like, even if we roll with the concept that kids and old people can't "handle the burden of travelling to another world," Kara could still get pregnant on the modern human world and just not go back. The "reason" given is that it would be "throwing away our pride as titans." But like, Titans are being genocided in her world. Her mother was literally killed by this genocide. Why on earth would Kara choose to raise a child there when a way safer alternative exists? The notion that Kara would care more about her pride than her child's safety is wildly out of character.

Fifth, I hate how this storyline has treated Vivi. She was mistreated by her family for so long, and when she finally forms a real connection, it's broken almost immediately. And the worst part is that the manga seems to put the blame for it falling apart on Vivi. We don't have a scene where Kara realizes how dumb her decision was, or how she betrayed both Vivi and the promise she made to her foster mother. Instead we have a scene where Vivi inexplicably didn't realize Kara had romantic feelings for her, and a side character tells her to be more honest with her feelings. I hate it.

I've ranted for far too many paragraphs, so I'm going to stop. Maybe future chapters will clarify Kara's feelings, and acknowledge how shitty she was to Vivi. Maybe there will be more exposition to make the marriage concept feel less contrived. Maybe Vivi will make a tearful speech about love, and everything will work out just fine. But regardless of what upcoming chapters do, this arc has left a bad taste in my mouth, and makes me not want to read this author's works in the future.

 

[kojiro481]

It does all feel a bit like a big '' real life Japan is pretty terrible for gay people isn't it/ demographic curve '' allegory , which Neji hasn't really done before in this blatant of a way. It might not be her best writing ever but as far as narrative triggers go it does the job just fine IMO. Lets see where Neji-sensei takes us with it before calling it bad !

 

[undeadclown]

@Lilliwyt Neji being a girl doesn’t change anything I said, so you can stop treating that like some kind of “dunk.” Bad writing is bad writing, regardless of the gender of the person responsible. In fact if was Neji was a guy, that would possibly even give them more of an excuse to bungle a female character this badly. It wouldn’t really fix anything but you telling me the mangaka I only knew the name of was a woman didn’t make this plotline any less shit. It did not make putting a joke about adding a guy to a yuri manga and then proceeding to do the thing people hate about that happening any less of a dumb decision.

And yeah, I know the MCs are going to get together in the end. I’m not stupid, I know how these plots go. That doesn’t change the fact that no sudden revelation or declaration of love will fix how Kara handled this. You can’t go from “it’s THAT kind of love” to “get out of the house I have to fuck and have kids for titan race. I’ll feed you once a month “ and not come off as a massive bitch. You acting like Kara not totally breaking off contact and letting Vivi literally starve is some saving grace that helps her character is laughable. If she didn’t do that she’d be an outright villain. The fact that her internal monologues seem to have forgotten the “it’s THAT kind of love” and make her somehow confused about her feelings makes it even worse. Like I said their relationship had progressed too far for Kara’s attitude here to be acceptable. You can still do the duty vs love plot if you want (drama and all), but she would have to act way more conflicted about it than she is.

At this point I don’t see any way to salvage Kara’s character that won’t feel cheap or unearned.