Yeah, it was quite clear for me. At first I thought she was also into Mogumo themselves, and was jealous about Tetsu, but after reading to the end of the chapter, I feel it was more like “Let’s be miserable together”, especially with the 一緒 | なかまはずれ usage.
During the first volume some people complained that characters look like very young children. In this chapter we could compare how author draws characters intended as young children 
And there’s one Mogumo’s anatomy mystery solved:
Yeah, it helps, though still a bit of a judgmental person even as a kid with the “no boys!” tone (but guess some kids are like that… But, when you have a visitor it is very rude. I could somewhat accept it if it was a random kid coming over on the playground (though even then it would be rude to only include the sister when both are strangers)
I don’t know. I need more to like her.
Having “wonder if I could fall for this person” just to have her get a boyfriend is not deep enough for me to sympathise. I’ve had my crush look me in the eyes, call my name and ask if I could move over so he could look at the girls behind me… yay me!
Also makes it feel like her feelings for Mogu is more a “back up” cause her first choice fell through, so any crush she had got weekend by that story actually… I don’t know… I will need more to like her personality and choices.
That scene made me giggle =P
We got an answer and it was kinds cute! <3
Yeah I think it is a start to make her motivations clearer. I also still have the suspicion she will out Suzu, but lets hope she turns around.
I do hope she gets a “redemption” story arc, where rather than trying to give her pity from the past she will change for the better and do something self sacrificing to help someone else. I don’t WANT to hate her, cause she is their oldest friend and I don’t want it to be a “they found better friends so bye!”
Though, IRL I did 
I had “that friend”, got away from their toxic behavior (mine was way worse, but the similarities makes me dislike the character even more because of the bad memories). I have much better friends now 
I thought Kotone’s motivation would be jealousy or some cliché of the sort, but I really like what the mangaka did with the character. I don’t think it’s a matter of forgiving/liking her, but at least her background helps us understand a little bit more of why she is like this and about her toxicity? I tend to be more forgiving with teen characters since teens are pretty unstable and normally have all sorts of messed-up ideas which make them go through these kinds of experiences and then mature. I also have a soft spot for repressed characters so… I can’t say that she’s the best, she most definitely is not, but I’m rooting for her! I really hope she doesn’t out Suzu, though. Either way, I’m all for not-so-wholesome characters and redemption arcs!
P.s. I also loved the scene in which Tetsu asks his sister if she would prefer him to call her 姉貴… My heart 
P.s. 2 I sense drama regarding Mogumo’s sister… we’ll see
I’m glad to get a bit of background on Kotone, but so far I don’t think her past is a good excuse for her current behaviour. I hope that she grows as a character. I hope we get to find out more about Mogumo’s family too. I assume there is some conflict there based on the fact that Mogumo lives alone, so I’m hoping we get some more information about them.
With regards to the next book, I think I can keep up with 2 chapters a week - but my copy of volume 3 hasn’t arrived yet and if it doesn’t arrive by the start date, and we are going to read two chapters a week, then there is very little chance of me being able to catch up! We’ll see what happens though. 
There is still time for it to arrive!
Yeah, for me it’s also no excuse. I understand the mechanism, but eh. I’m too annoyed that any social improvement is blocked not only by narrow-minded people, but also by people who could actually get profits from the change.
As for her age… Idk, people I knew in real life got even more closed to new concepts as they aged, not the other way around. I actually preferred teens’ way of thinking.
Since we are a small group, I think two people who voted against speeding up are too valuable to ignore them - 2 people is still 30% for us
So I think we should stick to the current schedule and also keep the 1 week break.
To be honest, I like Kotone’s backstory. Not that I sympathise with her or even need her to become part of Mogumo’s new friend group, but I want to see her grow and overcome her internalised issues. And also apologise to Tetsu of course.
Same here, I’m willing to cut her some slack because of her age.
Week 5 - Chapter 11
Start Date: May 15th
Previous Week: Week 4 - Chapter 10
Next: Volume 3 (starts May 29th, same speed)
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「もぐもはもぐもだよ」 has to be my favorite quote so far of the series. I very much shows the affection and understanding 鉄 has towards もぐも.
I did not realize that this was the last chapter in the volume. I think despite what the cover might suggest the drama wasn’t all encompassing and rather well handled. And I like that the romance (at least so far) only plays a relatively small role. The art has been great the whole series so far!
Completely unrelated:
In your mind do you color in the characters especially the hair color? I just saw the colored image of こと at the end of the volume and it felt so off seeing her in color, for me they only exist in a black white world.
I can’t believe this volume is over already
Same here! This gives me hope that their relationship won’t turn into some drama driven by constant miscommunication.
I really want to see more of Kotone and Mogumo’s relationship in the future. At this point they could either reconcile or grow apart completely, and both options would be interesting to explore.
I’m really excited for the next volume! (I’m still glad we’re taking a short break though, I need to catch up on some other book clubs 
)
I’m always a bit confused when I see those coloured images because they never match what I’m imagining, for example in my mind Mogumo’s hair is a more yellow light blond
I finally managed to finish chapter 10 yesterday. I had an absolutely crazy week, so I was a bit later with reading it than usual. I liked getting more background on Kotone and I think it explains a lot of her behaviour quite well. It’s no excuse to stay that way though, and I really hope she changes in a future volume (both for the sake of redemption and so she can be herself). But even though I understand her attitude better now, I still really dislike her relationship with Mogumo. It just seems so unhealthy to me.
I don’t colour them in in my mind and to be honest I have trouble recognizing them when I see them in colour. They look so different than they do in black and white
I only realized it was her on the cover when she started crying in the middle of the volume! I wasn’t sure which character it is earlier, thought that maybe it’s Mei or Mogumo 
Btw, I really enjoyed cover talk in atogaki, I like such snippets of interesting production info.
Chapter comments:
Scene at the cafe felt like a feast at the end of the shounen manga arc 
(okay, such victory-celebrating feasts aren’t restricted to shounen manga only, but it was my first association)
Kotone, well, I’m still grumbling about her and I wonder if I’ll warm up to her before the end of the series.
#1 (page 148) Is she saying that one day she wants to be as good in using デパート cosmetics? Why デパート cosmetics in particular, why not just cosmetics? At first I was thinking I’m missing something and maybe it’s about working in デパート as a cosmetics seller, but I think I’m overthinking it.
#2 (page 161) Is Kotone reminding Mogumo when the trash is being collected? Isn’t this something that Mogumo should remember very well already? 
Here I also started wondering if I’m overlooking something and I started creating bonus scenarios (like, maybe Kotone is saying she will collect trash personally for whatever reason yes I know it doesn’t make sense)
As to your questions:
I also get a tone of like, “always look both ways, don’t eat raw chicken” from that second panel. Like I think she’s half jokingly, half sincerely just reminding Mogomu about basic things as she’s leaving to show she worries about them. (so it’s less that Mogomu wouldn’t know it already and more just about the reassurance)
Thank you both! 
Hmm, interesting! I didn’t know it デパコス are considered more luxurious. I wonder where the cheap brands are then. コンビニ ?
I like that interpretation, because I was worried that Mogumo needs to be reminded about such basics ^^" I know about specific day for trash in Japan, just… it seemed weird that Mogumo wouldn’t know this.
To me it seemed like they’ve been a part of each other’s lives for so long that it’s just second nature to Kotone to remind Mogumo of these little things they might forget otherwise, which seemed a bit bittersweet to me in that moment considering they’re clearly growing apart.
What a great volume! Super excited for next one.
I saw the image of Kotone before reading the volume so from the beginning I imagined her with red hair, but in other mangas I just give everyone black hair if it’s painted in black, blond/light brown hair if it’s in white. So I do color them in my mind! With other mangas I’ve found out later that a character has blue hair or smth and it always surprises me as well
Very late to the party, but I’m done with the volume too!
It did?? I felt like Mogumo was exactly the kind of person who would forget to take out the trash. Like, you get out of the house in a rush perfectly on time, and see all those blue nets outside and you are like “fuuuuu well one more week can’t hurt”. Not that that ever happened to me.
