[frubam]

Oh, welcome to the fam Kanon =03.

Originally Posted by Kanon

All caught up now. With the latest chapter, I'm actually a bit afraid the author is going to try to redeem Yuko by having her become a rape victim. I don't really think so though, the previous flashback showed a hint she was already twisted even before any of that happened. Whatever is going to happen will provide her with a reason to kill that guy, as it's obvious she never attempted to commit lovers' suicide and outright killed her boyfriend, probably with Nozoe's help. I'm expecting it to be a relatively petty reason though. She's definitely also the one who torched her mother's bar.

Didn't think much about the bar, since it was during Chako's flashback and monologue, but Yuko torching the bar makes a lot of sense. Wonder what's the story behind that one.

Also I thought the initial lover's suicide story was strange, because the news article said the guy died and she lived, but her reasoning that was stated in the old news article didn't sound in-line with the whole suicide thing that she told Reiji(the time they slept together). Kinda handwaved it off, but if she actually killed that guy, it would def be a reasonable conclusion to the discrepancies of her statements.

Originally Posted by Kanon

As of now, she's definitely the source of all evil, with Nozoe coming in second place since he's the one who put Nagi into Reiji's path after all.

Nozoe evil? I'm rather on the fence about this =0v. On one hand, he certainly instigated the events of the story by sending Nagi, but I can't see him outright sabotaging peoples lives directly like Ms. Shiba has. Now I will say that "I WON!" declaration he did after the Yuko accident makes him suspect of 4D chess-level manipulations no doubt, but I think he also wanted to do something to help Reiji. I would say that the two feelings are not mutually exclusive, and so, at least in that junction, he'd be one of the lesser evils in this story, hell perhaps maybe even its savoir from Reiji's perspective.

Originally Posted by Kanon

Yuko was rescued before anything could happen. They told us she's the cause of the war between the two gangs but none of the specifics. Uryu actually seems like a cool guy, gave Nozoe plenty of chances. Chances Nozoe completely blew up.

At first, it did seem like Yuko made Uryu look like some kind of a**hole bully. Even stranger that she never said anything derogatory about him, but her "tone of voice", and her expressions gave me that impression. But, he is a pretty cool guy. I thought when he saw Yuko with Akira last chp(92) that he, with that cold look of his, would come back for revenge at a later time, but nope, guess he just saw that they were together and decide to leave them alone. Then he gave Akira the chance to take Yuko before he did, even though he fought an entire gang for Yuko's sake. I could have guessed that Uryu was a upright guy, but before, it was harder to grasp when looking at it only from Akira's perspective.

Originally Posted by MK-95-

...but new developments usually alter reader's established perception of them, so that's not as reliable as I'd want it to be.

Yeah, just like with Uryu, so very true. At this point it shouldn't be a surprise; this series has been doing that with almost every character up til this point, but I still am in awe of how the author can change this dynamic multiple times on the same character. Its like they can balance their cruelties with their vulnerabilities at the same time, which can give a shift from, say, "they are evil" to "they were a victim", then they jump to being "evil" again(ofc, using "evil" as a catch-all here). Just wonderful storytelling =03!

Originally Posted by Kanon

Next chapter, either something tragic happens to Yuko, Nozoe simply gets NTR'd, or what he'll witness is her true evil self. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out she instigated the whole war on purpose.

Definitely believe she started that war on purpose now. That look when she asked Akira "what did Uryu say to you?", I knew that, even at this time, she has probably been the instigator of all these events. I'm not sure what's to come. NTR DOES seem likely, like that would really push Akira over the edge, but that might also discount him from having the chance to be Reiji's father. He still a)has to become Reiji's father(unless, well, he ISN'T Reiji's father), b)date Shino'oka(stated this to Chako where he threw up on her, unless, well, Shino'oka WASN'T the girl he dated that looked like Chako), and c)get the idea to escape the town forever. Last thing I recall, he wanted to die and take Yuko with him, but decided not to because of Yuko, so he'll need a catalyst to remove that ideal. Can't wait to see how this upcoming revelation will change the narrative (^,^ )!