Reminder that we’re following the new schedule as voted on in the home thread
Week
Start Date
Chapter
Percentage
文庫ページ
Week 10
Apr 4
stop at the section beginning with 2月２４日
62%
371
Week 11
Apr 11
stop when you see chapter 12
69%
413
Week 12
Apr 18
stop when you see chapter 13
75%
446
Week 13
Apr 25
stop when you see chapter 14
80%
479
Week 14
May 2
stop at line break ending 再び汽笛が鳴った
86%
512
Week 15
May 9
stop at the end of the book, not including 解説
98%
584
Discussion Rules
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My argument from last week still stands. Rika and Reiko seem to be each other’s most important person. If they could just admit it, they’d probably be happiest together instead of each one being miserable with their respective guys.
Somehow…most men in this book are pretty disgusting, each in their own way. Of course, the most recent addition in this chapter is a prime example.
After this week I see your point. I also get the strong impression Reiko is leaning in that direction. I’m not so sure about rika.
I definitely did not have dog heist on the bingo card of what would happen this week.
I’m honestly completely baffled by reikos reason for doing all that. One meeting with kajii got so under her skin that she thinks she is loosing rika? Even after they just spend time together and seemed to get closer again??
Reiko is real strange to me. She seems to now be boxed in into her ideal view of how a “perfect” family should be. Every bit of discrepancy is a total failure. But I honestly think she overreacted about her parents. I can see why she doesn’t approve and is disappointed. But it seems both parents didn’t mind their arrangement much? It doesn’t seem like they didn’t love her.
On the other hand the guys saying ‘I don’t like doing sexual stuff with my wife’ also have a screw loose, if you ask me.
I don’t think Reiko is onto something with yokota. He is just some poor slightly deranged guy who gets some free food and cleaning now. I’m open to have come Reiko clean and cook for me. I’d even be grateful
We have been getting glimpses since early on of Rika having sexual thoughts about women, but I didn’t expect that Reiko may also have feelings for Rika. Imagine the book going full Thelma and Louise lol
We learn that Ryo has a Madonna-whore complex and that’s why they haven’t been intimate. I’ve heard of people going to couple’s therapy for that, but I have a feeling this will not be resolved in the book.
I have come to terms with the fact that I would not get along with Reiko in real life and that affects my judgment of her. We see in this reading more of how she judges other people, and start to see how she’s not as good at understanding people as it may seem at first (she’s still leagues ahead of Rika though). For example, how strongly she believes that open marriages are fundamentally wrong and that her parents are at fault for not understanding her explaining why they’re wrong, not that they could just have a different perspective.
We also see it with how she assumes Yokota will just give into her wants and also be grateful for her, and then is surprised when he has his own thoughts and preferences. Ngl it makes me happy that she can’t figure out why Yokota doesn’t like her like he did Kajimana. I suspect that he is able to feel the judgement emanating from her. She gave him pancakes made for her dog and then was upset why he didn’t prefer that over the clearly inferior cup noodles he usually has. One theme of this book has been that even when women do things for themselves, men will assume it’s for them and that women putting themselves first is better for everyone. In Reiko’s case, she’s doing the cooking and cleaning expecting him to be grateful and then is upset when it doesn’t go that way, which he can probably tell. If she were to do things without the expectation of something in return, like Kajimana, it’d probably go over better.
Heh, was about to say, this sounds like a Madonna complex. I also know someone impacted by it. After giving birth her husband wouldn’t touch her because she was now a mother and “mothers can’t be sexual”. I guess for Ryo it started even before motherhood! I also don’t have high hopes for it resolving in the book. For one thing, Reiko seems to have some suppressed lesbian yearning to deal with, and for another she uhh…kinda isn’t acting the most rationally at the moment. Stealing a dog and living with some random dude in hopes of…understanding a woman she met twice? Who is maybe stealing the affections of her crush.
I have to say that while the writing is still a bit dense for my taste, I’m enjoying this perspective more. It’s so clearly unhinged but also with a bit more brain power to it. I felt like Rika just had things obvious happen to her and she was all like, “BUT WHY?!?!” [insert surprised pikachu]
