Watashi Datte Seishun Shitai Desu yo, Hontou wa. - Vol. 1 Ch. 5

[thewomanliest]

If you're trying to make me feel bad by calling me pretentious then 'good luck', I guess.

I'll give you oversimplifying by reducing it to cultural bias, though. Any given grouping of people will have myriad dynamics and assumed norms between them even within a greater collective tier of organization, and those can be incongruent or in-harmony in ways that defy easy categorization.

My point is that this is, at some level, a work created by a person drawing experiences from the context of their environment and lived perspective. It's also far and away not the only work of its kind that contains similar motifs, and while that's not to say that Japan is the only place to have legal, and some amount of cultural acceptance for relationships like this, it at least informs some portion of it being present in fictional works from there.
If that still runs afoul of what you think is reasonable to cite before crossing a line into objectifying Japan as a cultural entity, then I guess that conversation can be had as far as it pursues constructive understanding.

I will say that those who feel adversely about it are not wrong in doing so, and insinuating otherwise is mean-spirited of me.
I do think it's less important a point than the big reveal of the obvious foreshadowing of who Shouko's actual target of affection was, and so seeing so many comments dedicated to it feels like missing the point of the chapter and stymies more relevantly-focused discourse.

But again, no one person here should be an arbiter on what others choose for input.

Arguing about that input, sure. But never outright censoring or prohibiting it.

the “pretentious” comment wasn’t about trying to make you feel bad, it’s just how it comes off when you act like everyone reacting now just didn’t get it earlier, and position yourself as having “already known” while dismissing other people’s reactions. and phrasing it as “i’ve made the mistake of assuming it was obvious” doesn’t exactly help your case either.

but i digress, no one’s “missing the point,” people are just reacting to something that was explicitly confirmed this chapter. that’s normal. discussing the moral/ethical implications of the author’s choices is relevant.

honestly, i think treating a work like it exists in a vacuum is a disservice.. not just to the work itself, but to the people engaging with it, too. it's important to actually think about what’s being presented, not just isolate one part of it as “the point.” yes, the reveal is that she likes Tenri, but it's not just "oh she likes her" it's "oh she likes her cousin," and that obviously affects how people interpret it. you can’t just brush something off because the story doesn’t frame it as a big deal. that doesn’t stop it from being one for readers.

and yes, culture can influence media, but that doesn’t mean people’s discomfort is just a misunderstanding of that culture. both things can exist at the same time. acknowledging cultural context doesn’t invalidate people’s reactions to it.

if anything, the amount of discussion around it just shows that it is a significant part of how the reveal lands.

also, nobody said anything about censoring or prohibiting it. i don’t think any work should be censored, but when a work includes taboo or morally questionable elements, it’s normal, and even crucial, for people to discuss and critique them rather than just ignore them.

 

[wlftchtr82]

Does it irk me a little bit that it’s incest? Yes, yes it does.

Does the fact they weren’t raised together make it less worse to me? A little bit, yeah.

Oversharing nuke but my maternal grandparents where second/third cousins who iirc only got properly acquainted well into their adult years when they both came to a foreign country (where I was eventually born), so to me I can draw that parallel of “well it’s not completely weird if you weren’t literally raised as family and are cousins just in name”. I’d be a hypocrite if I condemned those cases…

Still not in the “incest is wincest” bandwagon tho… Ew, guys. Also y’all shut up that it’s not as bad if they are both girls, a 1st cousin is a 1st cousin and the family dinner’s vibes would be weird af if they started dating.

Good thing Shouko has an awkward girl with open arms ready to give her love.

 

[Figtree22]

This is peak

 

[MelonManic]

WHATS WRONG WITH THE OTHER OUTFIT
Shit was IMMACULATE

Some people are freaks like that if their curious if there one ya like they be flat out asking, ya gotta have an answer ready so they don't get suspicious

Hmmm... Pivot to talk about the cousin, slight blush when talking "who wouldn't fall in love" ...
Ya know I vaugely remember it, but I believe her being in love with her cousin was called out by many in the first or second chapter yeah? To think I'd be basically confirmed here
Or course I've no issue with it so long as the goal is to move away from such, so then the question becomes how?

Well one must love themself before others BWHAHAHAH

DAMN FRIEND GROUP AAAAAH
This is why we don't have friends

The pause lol, "oh... Oh him again" truly someone in love

T? Oh god I'm bad with names, that's the confirmation innit?
I'm not foolish enough to drop a Yuri simply be incest is involved as a possibility nono, that depends on the execution and the fact it's clearly not the endgame
Aside from that rather lovely and the end scene leading up to the reveal? Fantastic composition and all that jazz, ya can really feel it ramp up

Have a nice day(I forgot :/)

 

[midnightgalaxy]

why did i have this creeping feeling it was going to lead to this UGHHHHH . unfortunately, i was really liking the story up till this point LOL in denial abt how she might like her cousin barf
literally why

 

[tranhere]

The cousin????

 

[spiffinn]

thanks for the update! and what a chapter at that!

 

[doggirlhazel]

kinda glaringly obvious it was her cousin from the start but that's fine too, at least she knows her crush is a lesbian now