Week 9・気になってる人が男じゃなかった (Beginner Book Club)

Japanese Language Book Clubs
21
On Chizuru

That was my interpretation as well - and even before that, there were forced smiles, playing things off with awkward laughter, that sort of thing, followed by the conclusion that she’s better off not sharing her taste in music with others at all.

That’s not what you do when your friends just have different tastes. That’s what you do when the shit they give you genuinely hurts.

Yeah, definitely - Aya’s very much also not addressing the issue. Though Chizuru isn’t really making an effort to understand either, it’s only Mao who even tries after Koga’s so enthusiastic - even if her conclusion is still that she’s not into it at all.

All in all Chizuru isn’t being a particularly good friend on that front.

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22
On Chizuru

I mean, even in the flashback to their first meeting, her facial expressions seem to be shouting “ugh, why are you bothering me? go away”. Though a lot of that could be because half-open eyes seem to be part of her default character design. And angry eyebrows. Attack eyebrows.

Maybe she’s Scottish.

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23
On Chizuru

I think that’s just a case of resting bitch face tbh :joy: she does at least seem to genuinely care about Aya, even if she’s not the best at being a good friend in some ways.

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24

Ah, high schoolers

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25
On Chizuru

Are we talking about the flashback on page 132 here? That’s an awkward “I don’t get it and don’t know what to say” to me. Fitting for the apologetic tone of what they are saying. It’s not even that surprising, considering that her musical taste seems rather unusual among her peers.

Man, y’all’s view of Chizuru is so different to mine. She definitely could make more of an effort to understand and to be supportive, but Aya is just sad that she can’t talk about her hobby with them, not because they are abusive or shitty to her or anything.

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26
On Chizuru

It’s the flashback on page 152. She just has that constantly annoyed look no matter what she’s doing or who she’s talking to.

As for the interpretation of Chizuru, the comments she makes early on in the manga tend more towards “I don’t care” (or as @Belthazar said, “your taste in music doesn’t matter”) and “your taste in music is weird” than towards “I don’t like the same music”. That’s a pretty crappy attitude to take towards something a friend is passionate about, even if you don’t really mean it that way.

But more so, it’s Aya’s reactions - look at Aya’s face and thoughts on page 132, that’s not a reaction you should have when talking about a hobby to a friend, even if you know your friend doesn’t have the same interest as you. Doubly so considering the relief she expresses after Koga jumps in (page 133/134). You don’t feel that relief about not getting a certain reaction if you weren’t dreading that reaction to begin with. And you don’t draw the conclusion you shouldn’t talk about certain interests to your friends unless the reaction is negative rather than neutral - and that’s a major part of what makes Aya’s connection with Mitsuki so significant, going from “it’s better to keep this to myself” to “I have someone I can share this with”.

I’m not saying Chizuru is malicious or otherwise intentionally being mean. I don’t think she is. But it’s very clear to me that the reactions she gets do genuinely bother Aya, beyond just “it’s a shame they don’t get it”.

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27
On Chizuru

Ah. Yeah, the one on page 152 is completely harmless - that’s just how she looks. I mean, they even became fast friends after that.

I don’t see the “your taste in music doesn’t matter”. I do see the “your taste in music is weird”, which yeah, is a bit crappy.

I think Aya might be afraid of boring her friends (which is possible), the friends thinking her hobby and by extension Aya herself is a bit weird (also possible and not a big problem), and maybe more broadly of not fitting into the group anymore (which is probably rather unfounded).

That face is a panicked “Oh shit, I’ve been raving about this again, they are gonna think I’m weird”. Look at the panel before it - that’s the flashback that directly leads to her making that face. “Ah - I don’t know that band” and “Sorry, I don’t get Western music…” with apologetic/awkward faces - does that seem negative or neutral to you? To me that’s neutral, but maybe you disagree there. If Aya’s face was a reaction to something more negative, the author would’ve probably picked a flashback to that instead.

100% agreed on that, but in my opinion the “it’s better to keep this to myself” is because of missing positive feedback.

I don’t know about you, but if I’d talk about something and my friends were like “Sorry man, I don’t really understand this specific interest of yours” I’d also stop talking about it. And if the topic is dear to my heart and I’d have nobody to talk about it I’d be really happy to find someone later. Not the fault of my friends though.

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28
On Chizuru

page 24 - しらねっつの. I take that as a pretty solid statement of “I don’t care about that stuff” :smile: even if it’s just in the form of “I don’t know anything about that and have no desire to”

It’s probably meant in good fun on her part, but I’m not convinced Aya takes it that way. That said, that’s also why I’m putting part of the blame here on Aya, because she’s not exactly expressing that towards Chizuru either, and a lot of that could be prevented by her just saying “yo, that shit’s pretty hurtful, could you not”

I guess I can see that. It’s not really how I interpret Aya’s reactions, and it doesn’t explain to me why she feels like Mitsuki saved her from her friends’ reactions on page 134 because a simple “actually I won’t bore you with that stuff” would prevent boring her friends if it was about that, but I can see it.

Depends on the person. With frequent reactions of “lol that’s weird” and “meh, don’t care”, I can definitely see that as negative.

But yeah, I can see your point.

I wouldn’t :joy: I will infodump and gush about anything, to anyone, and that is a threat.

I can see your point here too. I’m not convinced, and I don’t share your interpretation, but I can see both sides :slight_smile:

Also in Chizuru’s defence, she does show she’s willing to put in the effort to understand when it’s called for. She shows up to the RHCP concert, after all. And (mild spoilers for very early volume 2) she even ends up liking it :joy:.

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29

Wk forums has a strange fascination with chizuru

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30

Don’t know what you mean…

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31
On Chizuru

She was a bit panicked of being thought of as weird, and her 推し thought of her feelings, jumped in to help her and protected her from the awkwardness.

(And I don’t think the feeling afterwards is relief, but rather a feeling of “wow, was that heavy reaction of my 推し for my sake”?)

Yeah, but isn’t that also the case for pretty much any negative reaction she could possibly be afraid of - it would be preventable by not gushing about the topic?

She really likes music, so she will start talking about it enthusiastically when prompted, and only then remembers that her conversation partners aren’t really into it.

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32

stopping on volume one, you are quite patient

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33
Chizuru

Not if they’re in the habit of commenting negatively on your music taste in general, even when you just mention it - like when she only mentioned the Foo Fighters earlier in the manga

But Mitsuki defused it when she basically exploded with enthusiasm, shifting the reaction from the usual “wow, weird music taste” and “don’t know, don’t care” towards Aya to more of a “wow, that was certainly a way to react” towards Mitsuki

I think we should stop clogging the thread with Chizuru though :joy:

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34

Why? It’s about time we had some actual plot discussion. :stuck_out_tongue:

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35

Precisely. Also, this ends on such a mean cliffhanger there’s hardly anything else to talk about :grinning:.

Aya's friends

In addition to what’s been said before, I also think both of Aya’s friends are a bit hurt that Aya is spending so much time with Mitsuki and doesn’t hang out with them anymore and by now, it probably feels like they are slowly drifting apart to all of them. They show opposite reactions - Mao tries to get into Aya’s type of music to get closer to her again, but Chizuru seems to be the type who lashes out when she’s sidelined like this. It’s all so relatably high schoolish to me :kissing_heart:.

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36
Aya's friends

Chizuru’s pretty explicit in that being why she’s pissed off, at least - new girl gets all the attention, and suddenly she’s not the number one friend anymore despite being friends with Aya from the start. I’m not sure if Mao is actually hurt by it the same way Chizuru is, the impression I get from her is more that she’s caught in the middle between Chizuru and Aya, but maybe she’s just not as assertive in expressing herself (which fits in with her being kind of a “background character” in this conflict, not knowing what to do when Aya confronts them, and then eventually following Chizuru without a word).

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37
Aya's friends

I think that’s exactly it. Mao might be a bit hurt, but not to the extent that Chizuru is. I think she stuck with Chizuru during the conflict because Aya had Mitsuki to help her weather it, and Mao didn’t want Chizuru to be alone.

Edit: possibly also because she’s the easy-going friend between two hot-temperrd ones, she might be trying to persuade Chizuru to talk shit out offscreen

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38
Comment on random detail on page 155

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In this panel, Aya seems to be standing on a newspaper while checking her outfit, presumably so the boots don’t touch the floor. This is such a nice little everyday life detail.

But now I’m wondering if this is a common thing since I have never seen this in other works (manga or other), or if this is just something the author does herself :thinking:

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39

I’ve caught back up the the club after being away for a few weeks!

I was ridiculously pleased with myself for instantly understanding レッチリ when I read it.
Maybe its not the most normal way to realise I’ve made progress - but thats the sort of thing that would have had me confusedly sobbing into a dictionary in the past. :laughing:

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40

For me this week was the hardest one, with the largest number of unknown words of all weeks!

Also, I couldn’t help it and read the whole thing to the end. :grimacing:

Really looking forward for reading vol.2 together, which already sits on my bookshelf! :eyes:

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