Tonari no Seki no Kobayashi-san

They are both insane, and so far I've not been given a reason to sympathize with either. Right now, if both were to die in a fire; I would roast marshmallows.

The comments so far are  more amusing than the manga itself, particularly for ha-ha'ing.

Personal space... he hehe hehehe

*SNIPPED*

To be fair, my translation of that line was quite liberal. What she says is 「び。。。びっくりしてまた叩いちゃった。。。」, which translates literally to something like "He surprised me so I (accidentally) hit him again..." so it's not as major as what you're reading into it. That being said, yes she has issues, but he's also being wicked pushy to the point where it does get annoying at times, although generally that's only because he a positive thinking idiot who wants to be her friend.

Spoilering long boring argument

Well . . . he has problems with body language, and in ch.2 he got a bit . . . overexcited.  But objectively speaking, so far he has asked for help with homework, introduced himself, and tried to return her book.  Surely that's not at the level of "insult to the word creep".

She on the other hand has thrown the book at him and hit him a few times.  

Spoiler

On one hand, she's made herself clear in a way . . . but the disproportion is so extreme between whatever he does and her reactions that it's not surprising if he ends up with a sort of cognitive dissonance, a disconnect where he can't make much sense of what's going on.

Take that moment where she hit him twice.

Him:  You left your book behind yesterday, and I figured you'd want it back.  Here you go.

Her:  Hits him, realizes he may be hurt, says "Are you al . . ."

Him:  Turns back to her puppydoggish, saying it's nothing (despite bloody nose)

Her:  Hits him again

Notice the obvious distinction between her perception and what happens:  She says to herself "I can't help but hit him when he jumps at me like that"--but if you look at the frames, his body was still turned away from her and his posture was straight up, not leaning towards her.  All he did was turn his head back in her direction.  And to nail him, she had to use full extension--he wasn't closing in on her.  So he didn't jump at her, like, at all.  But she definitely felt as if he had.

Clearly she has some kind of major problem, history or something, leaving her with a bad near-instinctive reaction when someone intrudes even remotely on her personal space.  But she's kind of crap at explaining it.  If she's going to be that dangerous to anyone doing basic social interactions or giving back her lost property, she should have a pamphlet or something.

Now it's true that we should probably make allowances for her because of manga exaggeration and unrealism about violence.  But does she get a pass for violence because manga at the very same time we hit him with realism-plus, like he's supposed to be a perfect full adult well versed in all the latest correct ideas about behaviour, rather than an idiot teenager whose denseness is being used for comic relief in a manga?  Standard seems uneven.

Apparently, you and I have different opinions about what is, and what is not, socially acceptable.

The very first thing he does in chapter 2 is to invade her personal space again and actual puts his hand on her shoulder. I don't blame her for whacking him in the face. A guy who she doesn't know, who she has already told to not to speak to her, comes along and actually touches her, what girl wouldn't get pissed?

Later, he chases after her, screaming at the top of his lungs, scaring the wits out of her, and he's not a creep?

Since you're allowing him a pass for invading her space, touching her, ignoring her stated wish to be left alone, scaring her, acting like a stalker, then, yes, I will allow her a pass for whacking him. I just wish she had a baseball bat at the time.

Whether or not his actions and character are supposed to be used for "comic relief," I haven't found any of this funny at all so far.

Every romance manga need a wingman/ best bro.

Well . . . he has problems with body language, and in ch.2 he got a bit . . . overexcited.  But objectively speaking, so far he has asked for help with homework, introduced himself, and tried to return her book.  Surely that's not at the level of "insult to the word creep".

She on the other hand has thrown the book at him and hit him a few times.  

It's really rare for me to give up on a manga or webtoon after only three chapters, but I just can't stomach this MC. This guy acts more like an MC's annoying rival, the one you love to hate, and who eventually loses out in the end. But he is the MC and, no doubt, he will get the girl in the end, an eventuality that I find revolting, yes, even after only three chapters. Calling him a creep would be an insult to the word creep.

Dropped like a lead balloon.

But what about Tonari no Seki-kun? It's been a year.

I'm not sure yet how I feel about our protagonist's inability to take 'no' for an answer.

A year goes by and all of a sudden the "annoying pest" switch gets flipped and he won't shut up, won't take no for an answer, won't listen to what she says, passive aggressively pushes himself on her, invading her personal space and ignores her feelings completely. This is our MC? Oh, great...

I can empathize with how he wants to get to know her, but he deserves a smack up side the head for being such a obnoxious jerk. I just hope he learns from his mistakes and has some actual character development, otherwise this will just be too annoying to follow.

I'm not sure yet how I feel about our protagonist's inability to take 'no' for an answer.

My guess is there will be a backstory along the lines of she's either afraid of men/people, or she had a very negative experience interacting with others and now avoids everyone as a result. Or another interesting prospect would be that due to some incident she hates/doesn't trust people's smiles, after all he was smiling most of the time talking and it would be ironic since his interest in her began with a smile.

She didn't smile once. I feel betrayed.

She's smiling right next to the text "I'd like to bask in the warmth of their smile right alongside them"

Oh don't worry next chapter's got you covered. I just need to get off my ass and translate it.

And you call that sit next to each other? That's like a really huge gap between you two as if the artist's just intentionally ignoring some dude's place between them

Wow, it's as if the author wanted to show that there was a great distance between those 2 characters!

Homework is nothing but evil.

Would this level of introversion be considered pathological?

So I guess danderes are the new tsunderes?

Bro, do your homework yourself.

Spoiler

Blondie and Ms. Brunette are prolly going to be my OTP.

This one might turn great one if they don't fuck up. Love the art.

Wow, that school uniform is very... crumpled. I would say, "wrinkled," but this is beyond that; it looks like their uniforms were made from paper.

Ah well. It doesn't matter whether the artist is a bit green, if they can tell a good story. We shall see, hmm...

She didn't smile once. I feel betrayed.

Oh don't worry next chapter's got you covered. I just need to get off my ass and translate it.

But what about Tonari no Seki-kun? It's been a year.

It's licensed already as far as I know.

She didn't smile once. I feel betrayed.

The always do that with the prologue ..cut things out.

go to Barnes&Noble/Borders/Books-a-million or a library that keeps itshelves stocked with current releases to find out.

huh. so there *are* a bunch out.

thought it was gonna be another couple of years before anything appears since it had gotten licensed.

... that is not the Seki I thought. Well, we'll see where it goes, but damn you for reminding us of what we miss so dearly!
... what ever did happen to translating his antics anyways?