Jump to content

Primary: Sky Slate Blackcurrant Watermelon Strawberry Orange Banana Apple Emerald Chocolate Marble
Secondary: Sky Slate Blackcurrant Watermelon Strawberry Orange Banana Apple Emerald Chocolate Marble
Pattern: Blank Waves Squares Notes Sharp Wood Rockface Leather Honey Vertical Triangles
Photo

Osawa is wrong


  • Please log in to reply
73 replies to this topic

#1
Purple Library Guy

Purple Library Guy

    Fried Potato

  • Donator
  • 695 posts
  • LocationCheck Rivendell, or Vorbarr Sultana, or Adrilankha. No? Try Vancouver.
I think he's going at this all wrong. You can have a rivalry with your bud for the girl (although even there, I think maybe it's a bit better to ask her what she thinks about it). But you can't have a rivalry with your bud who's dead. He has become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. You can't defeat his memory, he's untouchable now. And anyway, geeze, he's your friend, it's kind of churlish.
You can't beat him and you shouldn't; you gotta join him. He supplies the memories, you supply the actually being there with her, and you take care of the girl for him now that he can't.

So now they're talking across each other. He's "I'm going to beat him and then confess" and she's "We have to do this for him"--it's a recipe for trouble.

#2
Mira

Mira

    Potato Sprout

  • Members
  • 8 posts
That's what makes love a complicated thing man...For me? No. I honestly don't give a. But for many? Yes. Plus he liked her before being friends right? Were they really that close?

#3
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato
Exciting new release, really thrilling sports and the romance is starting to heat up with a new love triangle, too.

Tn7HA0h.png


#4
Comadrin

Comadrin

    Fried Potato

  • Members
  • 799 posts
  • LocationManetheren, but more realistically Southern California
Like it, really love it. Great manga. Trouble is that I like the silly girlfriend as much as I do the childhood friend/manager who got him back into rowing. She's klutzy and all that, but she's got a heart and a lot of character. I do NOT want to see her stepped on or tossed aside.

On the sports side, the mangaka really understands rowing. I did it my first year in college (eight man shells) and it is a fantastic sport. I have experienced runner's high (before my knees gave out) but the endorphin blast from rowing is just like it is portrayed in this manga. The world gets brighter, your body feels like it's floating, and you feel as though you can row at top speed until the end of time. Not true, of course, but still quite an experience.

The coach from the nationals is someone I have seen before in manga and real life. He reminds me of the more moronic coaches from Adachi Mitsuru's baseball manga. In baseball, he would have thought that Willie Mays merely had good PR and some luck.

#5
Purple Library Guy

Purple Library Guy

    Fried Potato

  • Donator
  • 695 posts
  • LocationCheck Rivendell, or Vorbarr Sultana, or Adrilankha. No? Try Vancouver.
I completely agree with you about the silly girlfriend. She's a good kid and she's got spunk. It's gonna be sad if/when she loses. But that adds something to the manga, too--gives the rivalry an extra dimension compared to if she was distinctly second rate, just an obstacle.

#6
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato
Yeah, Chiiko is the best, a shame she's not his first choice, even if he did live with her, she must have just been a replacement for Misao.

And I'm still amazed at how exciting this manga and it's depiction of the rowing action is, I never had any idea it was such a thrilling sport. I guess I was just never around it before.

Tn7HA0h.png


#7
Comadrin

Comadrin

    Fried Potato

  • Members
  • 799 posts
  • LocationManetheren, but more realistically Southern California
Svines85,

If you get a chance, online or something, watch the women's 2 person crew from England in their final for the London Olympics. It was pretty exciting.

#8
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato
Sounds good, I'll have to try to Youtube it, thanks

Tn7HA0h.png


#9
Comadrin

Comadrin

    Fried Potato

  • Members
  • 799 posts
  • LocationManetheren, but more realistically Southern California
Well, I definitely enjoyed the two chapters just posted. I really like Hara Hidenori's manga, they are great. I still like the ditzy girlfriend a lot, too. She is quite a character. My opinion about the national team coach has, if possible, gotten worse. I think this is shaping up to be a great manga, and I'm looking forward to more releases down the line.

#10
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato
Great new chapter....... Osawa really is a moody thing isn't he? No slack for the women (or anyone else i guess) if they get in the way of his obsession.

Tn7HA0h.png


#11
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato
Fiiiiiinally.......

Tn7HA0h.png


#12
Azuma

Azuma

    Potato Spud

  • Contributor
  • 20 posts
Yes, finally. But I still don't think Oosawa will do anything.

#13
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato

Yes, finally. But I still don't think Oosawa will do anything.

Yeah, you really may be right....what a complicated situation they're in, it's like a love triangle but it's far, far worse with the added guilt of one of the triangle's actual death. And poor Chiiko, she's almost like an after-thought in the whole mess. She might be a little ditsy but she's probably the only one that's not thoroughly messed up at this point. I'm rooting for her to come out on top.

Tn7HA0h.png


#14
Purple Library Guy

Purple Library Guy

    Fried Potato

  • Donator
  • 695 posts
  • LocationCheck Rivendell, or Vorbarr Sultana, or Adrilankha. No? Try Vancouver.
It's always tough rooting for someone you know is gonna lose . . . I feel for you, old bean.

Osawa is redeeming himself in terms of my original post, so I'm pleased: "So I'm gonna go there for him, because he can't now . . . I have to!" That's the right spirit--not competing with his dead friend, but taking up his torch.
Although she sees that it's partly because he blames himself; he left rowing because he blamed himself, and now he's driving himself because he blames himself. But she's carrying her own guilt; she wants him to leave his behind but she can't drop hers . . . it's very strong, very emotionally compelling. Well played, Hara Hidenori-sensei.

Edited by Purple Library Guy, 30 November 2012 - 12:29 AM.


#15
Comadrin

Comadrin

    Fried Potato

  • Members
  • 799 posts
  • LocationManetheren, but more realistically Southern California
Hmmmm. So the titular boyfriend (deceased) knew that his girlfriend really loved his best friend (and rowing partner) and then killed himself (I don't know whether it was drowning or a heart attack) while trying to prove that there was one place he could beat him. Damn, that's pretty convoluted, and not very decent of said deceased friend. Kind of like the motorcycle racer from KNIM, knowing that the girl loved his friend, but had to die saying that he'd never give her up. It's sort of like knowing you're going to die or commit suicide, so you lay the guilt on everyone who cares for you with a scoop shovel. Not the nicest thing in the world.

#16
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato
@Comadrin

Yeah you're right. It was already a very complicated relationship the three of them were sharing even before the death. And while that might have served to clear things up under other circumstances, in this case it only served to make things even more complex and painful for the survivors.

And yeah PLG, I know, I know. But still, Chiiko, while a little dingy, seemed to show a certain amount of intuitiveness when it came to Osawa and his emotional state, both before and after she realized she had some competition. I'm not counting her out of the equation just yet. xD

Edited by svines85, 30 November 2012 - 03:16 AM.

Tn7HA0h.png


#17
Comadrin

Comadrin

    Fried Potato

  • Members
  • 799 posts
  • LocationManetheren, but more realistically Southern California
Yeah, Chiiko's a total sweetheart. In a way it sucks when the mangaka is as good as this one. Instead of going for the cheap/easy love triangle of good vs. bad choice, Hara Hidenori makes it just as hard on the reader with her love triangle as she does on the mc. No wonder I hit follow for anything this writer puts out. Looking forward to more of your stuff, Hara Sensei!!

#18
Purple Library Guy

Purple Library Guy

    Fried Potato

  • Donator
  • 695 posts
  • LocationCheck Rivendell, or Vorbarr Sultana, or Adrilankha. No? Try Vancouver.

Hmmmm. So the titular boyfriend (deceased) knew that his girlfriend really loved his best friend (and rowing partner) and then killed himself (I don't know whether it was drowning or a heart attack) while trying to prove that there was one place he could beat him. Damn, that's pretty convoluted, and not very decent of said deceased friend. Kind of like the motorcycle racer from KNIM, knowing that the girl loved his friend, but had to die saying that he'd never give her up. It's sort of like knowing you're going to die or commit suicide, so you lay the guilt on everyone who cares for you with a scoop shovel. Not the nicest thing in the world.

Well yeah, except the guy didn't know he was going to die. The KnIM dude had a terminal illness, so he was toast no matter what and used it in a kind of unfair way, but the dead boyfriend in this just pushed too hard out of frustration and got unlucky. At most, you might say he was fey in a rather archaic sense--in a state of mind that sort of predisposed him to doom. But people in that doomed mood never realize it themselves. So I find it hard to blame him.

#19
svines85

svines85

    Sweet Potato

  • Contributor
  • 14,063 posts
  • Locationunderground like a wild potato
Great new chapter, and Osawa certainly didn't reject her so yeah, chances for poor Chiiko just fell some more. Oh well.

Tn7HA0h.png


#20
Comadrin

Comadrin

    Fried Potato

  • Members
  • 799 posts
  • LocationManetheren, but more realistically Southern California
The latest chapter makes it look better for the late friend. Before, I had the suspicion that he had rowed himself into cardiac arrest, but apparently a storm was the cause of his death, rather than him self-destructing as I had assumed before. One of the problems in manga (and in real life, as well) is falling out of love, or realizing that one was mistaken in love has such huge ramifications, especially when it is among friends. I made a conscious decision not to get married at a too young age, as emotional maturity and judgement come several years after physical maturity. There were two cases in my high school (early 1970's) of 17-18 year olds committing suicide after a breakup, leaving lifelong pain and regret for the survivors. Hormones and urges coming before maturity and judgement is definitely one of the bummer things about being human.