Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai

[shanimebib]

Originally Posted by blackman

I wonder if the author will do the same as "Hikaru no chikyuu ga Itakoro" LN, where the 1st love of MC move to abroad but eventually he fall in love again and ends up with other girl.

This is not that kind of story. Uruka's "existence" is too powerful.

Besides, you have to understand the weight of the word "Aitai". It is a very powerful word in Japanese literature/ fictions. Take it same as "dropping food from the chopsticks" as the first hint of romance.

"Aitai" is one of the few classical "end word"s of romance stories in many manga, LN, LA, J-doroma I have read/seen. In fact, I have not seen this word is used in a story only to not make it happen. The only exceptions are when someone deceases or is already deceased. But it will be quite the stretch to end Uruka's life.

That's why I will say @erotora's list is now completely useless. It has impurity in it.

[WingedAccelerator]

Looking at the Korean scans...

Originally Posted by WingedAccelerator

Fumino and Rizu, plus Sensei and Senpai as well are gonna cheer for Nariyuki, because they know about his feelings for her, just watch.

Close enough.

[Tenzen12]

Well, it's not like it's out of place for this situation.

[shanimebib]

Originally Posted by WingedAccelerator

Looking at the Korean scans...

Close enough.

You still have your chance to redeem most of it. Someone may need a ride to go to the airport. Still wondering what role Senpai might play. Won't be surprised if 3 chapters left appeared on top of the next chapter (148).

Otherwise, I will stick with the other one that this is the penultimate volume. The rest of the chapters will be closures/sending off for the other girls and fast forward into the future with Uruka returning to Nariyuki and jumps on his arms.

r/ is doing good. I thought people would be more salty but the downvotes are stopping at -7 or -8 in most cases with a very few with -10 (or lower).

Edit: Also, I am not gonna bother trying to read korean. Kills my entire day because I literally have to use google translate to make sense.

[WingedAccelerator]

I can understand people throwing a tantrum over their favorites losing, but it saddens me that they try to tell themselves that this ending is the asspull, it's disgusting, it came from nowhere compared to 5toubun's. No matter how hard I try to find reason, it all comes down to general hate towards Uruka. Her negative bias started with denying she was in love with Nariyuki early on, when he asked. Apparently, this makes her a "war criminal", but you can joke yourself out of a serious confession, it's totally not the same. Or you can keep significant informations to yourself about the past, even when the protagonist asks for details. What is Uruka's gradual buildup anyways compared to flashbacks and mystery "subversion"?

[shanimebib]

^I don't even want to get to comparisons anymore because I am sick of proving people otherwise with valid arguments.

Copying from MAL on length of her arc, why she is the deserving winner and what makes her leagues better than orange girl:

Because we are in the end game and end girl will obviously get more focus?

How many times do I have to tell you? The similarities with being genki girls and sharing a past really mean nothing much when Uruka constantly came to Nariyuki's mind with each event that preceded it because she actively tried to make him notice her feelings.

An example would be even in the festival dual chapters when Nariyuki gets stranded with Fumino after failing to catch the last train. There was a single page where he looked at Uruka and blushed because of what happened with her in an earlier chapter with a monologue and reference point supporting them. No heroine got these kinds of follow-ups as much as she did. Anything that happened with Uruka kept on showing up as the manga progressed. Other heroines also got those moments but not as regular follow-ups.

There are tons of them. Ignoring them is the same as not following the manga.

Also, Uruka actively tried to confess and it's incredible how people say she kept on shooting her own foot when in most cases it was something out of her control - being told that he has someone he likes (post Rizu kiss), misunderstood as practice (pool scene), misunderstood as liking someone else herself (infirmary scene), being told that he is not into romance because his exams come first (post noodle bar walk), suddenly being asked to confirm if it was him (same chapter), even when she was about to say that her chocolates were "honmei" (yes, the Japanese release says "Ho") she got caught by his family.

OT: Not everyone is like Nino. But that was also the point where the other manga was at its very best. It started to become weaker by arcs and then weaker by chapters and then a complete garbage. /OT Ends.

She also kept her own promise that she would tell him when he is done with the exams. What's wrong with that? She never "used" anyone in an underhanded method to reach him either. She never ever held any "repulsive" emotions towards others as well. She never once wore two faces. When she said she finds Rizu adorable, or Fumino very beautiful or Sensei very appealing, she said what she exactly thought of them. She even shared Nariyuki's middle school pictures with Fumino and Rizu, letting them have an opportunity to experience how Nariyuki was like. Do you still not see the differences between her and the other girl from that series?

If they are both fruits baskets, she is like a basket filled with deep red apples and ripe red plums. The other one is like a basket full of tangerines and oranges (similar to her character colour). You really don't know if she is really sweet or sour on the inside. Just because they are both fruits baskets, you cannot say they are basically the same.

So, don't drag her down to the other girl's level. It's not very amusing.

[Tenzen12]

I am genuinelly impressed how can same thing look completely different based on who does it. Both BokuBen and 5T have not chosen girls end support choosen ones, but where 5T had winner and bunch of sad loosers, Tsutsui did really well to make sure show that Fumi and Rizu are more then that and got they pay off.

I found it pretty smartly written.

[1001010]

Legitimately awful development. If he wants the Uruka end then so be it, but don't sabotage the other heroines. Are you seriously telling me Fumino/Rizu won't have the chance to properly confess, and that Mafuyu won't have some sort of closure scene? Has this ever happened in a WSJ romcom? Last time I checked, the MC knowing the feelings of all the girls was norm. The only time I can think of is when Tsugumi confessed her feelings to Raku, but covered his eyes so that he didn't hear it.

[wuhugm]

^Better than forcing kiss and confession in school festival for 5 girls

[shanimebib]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

^Better than forcing kiss and confession in school festival for 5 girls

In retrospect, it was cringe really. But then it tops everything ever happened with appearing as the brides on the Orange and Trophy-kun's wedding. How contrived, twisted and lack of taste can lead someone to write something like that and for the fans even to like it.

It's no different than the other manga that everyone trash talked until a while back where 4-5 girls wanted to marry this guy who was a programmer or something. Forgot the name. Even that didn't go this far.

Edit: Found it. https://myanimelist.net/manga/42263/Iinazuke_Kyoutei

[wuhugm]

^Iinazuke Kyoutei had all the heroines except the childhood friend to be bitches
The bias is extreme

English is out for latest bokuben
Flatchest and Udon just gave up like that
I don't think "Yuiga loving Uruka" was established that much, at least from their perspective (mine too without that cheat flashback)
Too soon to give up
Not blaming Uruka, but her going abroad is forcing everyone to make decision
Similar with, "Letting someone wins because terminal illness" trope
Can understand people who feels that this victory is sabotaged

[James Rye]

Rizu's support was really sad. "I am too dense to understand the feelings of others..." god damn it, girl, if only your character was handled differently from the beginning. From all the main girls you had the biggest character development and a real change visible to all readers.

Next chapter Sensei will drive Yuiga to airport and Yuiga will confess and then either Uruka stays or she won't, it will be her decision though.

[Lex79]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

^Iinazuke Kyoutei had all the heroines except the childhood friend to be bitches
The bias is extreme

English is out for latest bokuben
Flatchest and Udon just gave up like that
I don't think "Yuiga loving Uruka" was established that much, at least from their perspective (mine too without that cheat flashback)
Too soon to give up
Not blaming Uruka, but her going abroad is forcing everyone to make decision
Similar with, "Letting someone wins because terminal illness" trope
Can understand people who feels that this victory is sabotaged

He flat out admitted his feelings to them, they really have no alternative other than giving up.

Now, there is definitely some wasted potential in how romance was handled. In the end, two girls never truly entered the competition (sensei and senpai) and the other two were held back by denseness and guilt. The connection was too indecisive for most of the manga. It's kinda ironic considering that the author until the valentine arc always tried to present all the heroines as candidates to victory. Luckily, this manga has always had multiple strong points, and my evaluation isn't significantly impacted by this shortcoming.
The force ghost dad was a bit excessive, though.

[Tenzen12]

I just took force ghost as Yuiga projecting thoughts he was afraid verbalize on his own.

Originally Posted by wuhugm

English is out for latest bokuben
Flatchest and Udon just gave up like that
I don't think "Yuiga loving Uruka" was established that much, at least from their perspective (mine too without that cheat flashback)
Too soon to give up
Not blaming Uruka, but her going abroad is forcing everyone to make decision
Similar with, "Letting someone wins because terminal illness" trope
Can understand people who feels that this victory is sabotaged

I don't know about Fumino and Rizu perspective, but Uruka was in lead from very early stage and more importantly she was only one who got mutual romantic development. From certain point it was either Uruka or Mafuyu, but Mafuyu would require much more effort to be set properly.

As for that flashback, it wasn't really important imho. It was just recap with more details and those details wasn't what made difference

[WingedAccelerator]

Both Rizu and Fumino with a Yotsuba quote... End me.
This aside, I have kept saying this, but Tsutsui really salvaged Rizu's jokes status in the last dozens of chapters for me.

I also liked that this is their happy graduation, instead of skipping graduation.

Originally Posted by Lex79

The connection was too indecisive for most of the manga. It's kinda ironic considering that the author until the valentine arc always tried to present all the heroines as candidates to victory.

It really wasn't.
I, Tenzen, MK, shanimebib highlighted multiple times that Uruka got the "meaningful" stuff almost every time. Stuff that had a lingering effect on Nariyuki, recurring things, mutual development. The seed for her win was planted with her first two-parter, where she denied Nariyuki is the boy she likes. This thing haunted Nariyuki. In the lingerie shop chapter, he was angry and jelous when he thought Uruka is picking a bra for her non-existent crush, so he picked the one he wanted for her instead. Uruka wore it chapters later and he was delighted to see it. In-between, he was down after he heard that Uruka likes someone else and things got awkward between them. Uruka told all of them to not to come to her swim competition. Nariyuki ignored this and stayed up all night to study, so he can skip cram school and watch Uruka instead. Then they sneaked in their middle school, where he admitted how much courage Uruka gave him, when his father passed away. Plus, he also suggested Uruka can practice confessing on him and when she did it, his heart skipped a beat. He started calling her Uruka from this moment, not Takemoto. All of this happened in the first 50 chapters.

[wuhugm]

^All those strictly between Yuiga & Uruka
Other heroines never came to the realization that Yuiga can only accept Uruka
If you want to make them easily give up, at least spend some time to show them being romantic and there's no space to get between them
Till now Yuiga blushed to all of them and no one has special circumstances like Uruka with "crush" and "abroad" so we don't know how he'll react if they have the same case

[shanimebib]

^You really think so?

Remember the two parter where Fumino got to sleep with Nariyuki in a futon after being stranded for the night, stargazing, bonding with him like it was just the two of them and even waking up holding hands? Yeah. That two parter.

Now recall the start of Uruka wearing a ponytail more regularly. His heart skipped a beat in those two parters I mentioned above seeing Uruka in a ponytail which was a direct followup from another chapter, that happened several chapters back at it, where he complemented her saying the ponytail looked good on her. Ever since, she started wearing her ponytail every now and then, including the campus visit where he enters the ONLY non-erotic romantic moment with any heroine in the entire manga, imagining resting his head on her lap and enjoying hanami in springtime of campus life.

These moments are super Uruka exclusive, simple and non-erotic, WITHOUT him knowing about her "crush" and "abroad" stuff. They only came to hit him much later when he learned that her "crush" doesn't exist and she will be going to study "abroad".

The groundwork was already there, albeit not made too obvious for obvious reasons. Fans failed to notice them. If you go to MAL or r/ you'll see that both Uruka and non-Uruka fans have failed to make these connections.

[wuhugm]

^It's not about the readers, but the characters
As you said, Fumino has that "sleeping together" stuff
So in her perspective, she should feel that their relationship is special
But then why gave up?

Fumino and other heroines "special circumstances" have way less impact than Uruka's

Just look at Senpai's "fake couple" thing, just forgotten like that

[shanimebib]

^It's not Uruka's fault for Fumino's constant denial and then becoming jealous of Uruka. It was heading towards that from the start. I always said if Uruka's shooting on her foot (which only happened once mind it, the rest were out of her control due to circumstances that put her in a weird/difficult position to admit it), Fumino's denials time and again were far worse.

As for the last one, there are few chapters left to address the "fake couple" thing so it's not like NOT addressed at all until the manga actually ends. If it does though, without addressing, I will admit that part.

But no way Fumino's special circumstances. There were no follow up in Nariyuki's monologues unless they were kiss/bra related. She gave up exactly because of her character development. She overanalyzed human emotions, took the role of Nariyuki's master, undermined her own relationship with Rizu and Uruka, and of course failing to notice Nariyuki's growing affection for Uruka.

Even Rizu's realization was too little too late when she finally started to understand human relationships/ emotions and how they worked. Her closure was actually much earlier. The moment she realized she "loved" herself during the exam chapter. That was her closure if you consider her arc. Similarly, Fumino's was perhaps the moment her confession lost in raindrops and wouldn't even confirm when asked, practically only reaching Uruka where has been 100 chapters back.

Of course, the manga can also go another 100 chapters to changes their "special circumstances" to something more concrete, but unfortunately, they story's high school setup with teacher-student relationships has already come to an end. Unless we delve into post high school story (which bear in mind, is going to happen in Kaguya-sama).

It was the timing that was against them. Yes, Uruka have had the edge over others for being in love with Nariyuki for a long time, but she tried in the present story. Others didn't for the one year they got with him until it was too late. Can we blame the author for not expediting their relationship progression with Nariyuki much earlier, giving them room to explore romance? Yes. We can. We can also blame the author for giving the accident and chocolate to Uruka and giving her more advantage than she had. But we cannot blame him just now when it is already over. It was already heading to this conclusion for a long time now. Uruka end deal was foreshadowed as early as chapter 25/26 and it became almost obvious after chapter 105 that she will be the end girl. But haters keep on saying she has no chance, her ship sunk etc. etc.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

^It's not about the readers, but the characters
As you said, Fumino has that "sleeping together" stuff
So in her perspective, she should feel that their relationship is special
But then why gave up?

Fumino and other heroines "special circumstances" have way less impact than Uruka's

Just look at Senpai's "fake couple" thing, just forgotten like that

It's Fumino, even less apt person could figure Yuiga doesn't really think much about that night. Which of course doesn't mean she didn't hope for such "special relationship" in future.

But why they give up? I don't think they did. I mean they obviously gave up in the end, but not until Yuiga gave them honest answer how he feels. I am fairly sure, when they woke up that morning they still had hopes up.