And by the law of unintended consequences, Maki forms the spin-off manga, Takeru’s Harem.
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I read the upcoming reading a bit early, so I filled out the vocabulary. I can’t wait to see everyone’s thoughts 
Story comments
Aw, Rin’s a real one. Although her help is backfiring a bit 
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We’re up to chapters 77 and 78.
We’re picking up the story where 76 left off last week.
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Story Comments
Legitimately burst out laughing when I read this last night. 
Definitely excited to see Rin pushing Ayumu to get better and attempting to help with that. I’m curious, though, with this motivational poster (which…undersells what it actually is, but the term for this is escaping me even though I would swear I’ve seen it somewhere before):
Which 先輩 does she want to confess to, I wonder. 
Gut instinct for what future drama may lie indicates Ayumu, but then it seems a bit odd she would be helping him confess to somebody else. (Or maybe it’s possible she has already reached that goal, confessed, and was rejected). Either way, I guess the future will have to tell! The slow burn of the series is definitely heating up a bit, and I’m excited for that.
Laughed pretty good at this too. 
Sorry, Urushi, but that image is very much 子供っぽい.
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Comments
I immediately thought Ayumu was the senpai, and it would make sense story-wise (love triangle lets gooo). It makes it kinda sad that she seems to have given up and is helping him confess to Urushi tho, but I guess time will tell
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Story comments
I also think it’s Ayumu. That’s why I said she was a real one, helping her crush succeed with his crush. It’s very sweet and selfless, but also sad, like you mentioned.
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Following those comments...
Likely depiction of Rin’s other senpai, the one not being considered in this discussion of her middle school era crush:
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Comments
At first I thought it might be Ayumu too, but discarded the thought quite quickly. (can’t really describe why though )
Since they talked about 風林火山 before, there should be two more senpais right? Maybe it’s one of them.
Also Rin beat Ayumu at shougi and removed his senpai title, so if she didn’t suceed before (as suspected here), she would have suceeded now (?).
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Comments
Well, her poster was actually saying that if she achieves an Ippon, then she will confess. I believe Ippon is the highest possible score in kendo. So by beating him in shogi, she hasn’t actually succeeded in her set goal. (And I would bet if they were return to kendo, he would be immediately reinstated as senpai; I think it’s in the context of shogi that he has lost his title). But either way, I am curious to see who it could be! I wouldn’t doubt if it were someone else, also, just because it seems odd that if it were him, she is helping him now to confess to Urushi, but the rules of manga would point to this being a drama point later on. 
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Various thoughts:
For the 風林火山, was it mentioned that they were all in Ayumu’s grade, or might some have been in Rin’s grade?
For the shogi club, if her target were in the kendo club in high school, would she not join the kendo club still?
That’s an interesting consideration. Considering she lost to him in their recent kendo match, I feel like the shogi context makes sense.
The alternative is Ayumu could just best her with the bamboo blade again and regain his position, but he’d just lose to her in shogi again soon after so no reason to bother.
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We’re rounding out the volume with chapters 79 and 80, plus the おまけ.
This week, we learn that actions have consequences. We also get to see my favorite line from the series: 「名前がひらがな！」
Happy Halloween, everyone!
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Story comments
If Maki complimented Urushi for her name being hiragana, I guess that means all of us are extra cool, because our names would be in katakana in Japanese
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Has anyone developed a website to help convert gaijin names to 当て字?
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I’m not sure. That could be interesting though, just for funsies. There may be several options, and if so, I guess you would pick based on your favorite kanji. Hm, I don’t know if I have favorite kanji, actually
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I caught up just in time to finish the volume with everybody!
I was going to ask why that is a compliment, but it seems マキ is just being weird.
Mostly-answered question on page 134
I think I’ve mostly answered this but I figured I’d post in anyways if anybody else has the same question. I was trying to figure out what りん is saying on page 134:
認めざるを得ませんね
I was so confused what 「を」 was doing in the middle of two verbs until I finally found this grammar point: ざるを得ない
「認める」 means “to deem; to judge; to assess”. So I think she is saying “I can’t help but to judge”. I’m not sure but I think she’s agreeing with たける and saying “I can’t help but to judge you as the winner”.
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Page 134
I would say that definition 4 in Jisho, to admit or to accept, or definition 1, to recognize (as the winner, in this case), are more appropriate than the “to judge” meaning, but other than that, you got it! That’s probably just splitting hairs though.
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Don’t forget, we’re going into volume 7 this weekend!
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