Good chapter. Much as I enjoy the main duo, their eternal back and forth is a bit tiring. And tendou is a decent character who could get fleshed out a bit more, and this is certainly a decent way to do it.

Figures Fred friendly would read something just to complain about it and be a dick to people who actually like the thing they're continuing to read. FF goes so far as to translate something he doesn't like, lol

Wooow thx for chap

@Purplelibraryguy @Yautja @lurker123 This series might as well be renamed "79% Tendou" since..

Spoiler

big agree to everything @Purplelibraryguy said

still feel bad for precious baby tendo tho :( but le sad backstory isnt an excuse to be a dick to people for no reason in the present lol

happy to finnaly see an update. damn tho leaving things like that.

@Entryhazard I didn't say she was evil. I just don' t like her. And I don't think "nasty and hostile" is out of line as a description. I mean, she's certainly hostile--I don't think there can be a lot of controversy about that. And whatever reasons she might have for being bitchy to Tsubasa all the time, they have no justice behind them--Tsubasa has not herself done anything to deserve it. Punishing people for things that are not their fault is nasty; you'd think she'd have learned that from people doing it to her.

Mind you, if I found this arc compelling at all, I'd certainly dislike the people making her childhood miserable far more than I dislike her. But I still don't like her and I'm unlikely to start liking her real soon. Sue me.

@FredFriendly @Purplelibraryguy I think you're vastly overestimating her evil here. The story is pretty clear that even in the present despite her cynicism Tendou is not as bad as she claims to be in more than one occasion. Off the top of my head I clearly recall despite claiming of only looking out for herself she got in a fight with a gang of delinquents to save a passerby, or while she is trying to get Yuu and Tsubasa together to obviously get the latter out of her way to Tachibana, Yuu can tell she is doing it for more than just her own advantage.
Also there is another evident reason for her vehemently rebuffing Tsubasa's attempts at befriending her besides her frustration regarding Tachibana, but I'll leave that one to guess.

This amount of backstory is excessive for a character who's not much more than a side-character. Not only is this type of arc pathetically overdone and unexceptional, not just in this case but in general, it's also being used as an artificial life expansion of the series. It'd be one thing if it was well done or at all original or somewhat unpredictable but it's not. Everyone knew she'd have this kind of background, it hasn't done anything all that interesting or welll, and it's not being done because it's super relevant as much as it is a good time delay. The story was making good progress, but like always, they had to cram in some semi-irrelevant shit to drag out the series.

@Purplelibraryguy

My sentiments, exactly. It's not like being treated horribly and unjustly is guaranteed to turn you into such an evil witch incanate as Tendou. There are plenty of examples in both real life and in manga where someone who's been bullied and/or abused does not turn into a nasty, vindictive and vicious creep.

No matter how hard the mangaka tries to do a 180 makeover on Tendou's personality so that the minions will feel boo-hoo all sad for her and miraculously fall in love with her newly developed character, it ain't gonna work on me. I say, transfer her to a school at the farther reaches of Okinawa so we don't have to put up with her anymore. The sooner the better.

As storytelling I do think it's gratuitous and a kind of tired technique: You take the dislikable, even downright nasty, character, show their nastiness for a good while so the readers thoroughly dislike them, and then you show the tragic tearjerking Backstory That Made Them That Way so the readers will feel sorry for them and change their opinion. It's overdone, it's heavy-handed, and it's neither as plausible nor as deep as people who use the device think. Incidentally, studies suggest that what most encourages selfishness and psychopathic traits is actually wealth and privilege.

The other thing is that I can feel sorry for someone without actually liking them. She has surely been treated horribly and unjustly. It should not have happened. And, she shouldn't be treated horribly or unjustly in the present either, and maybe there should even be some allowances made. But that doesn't mean I'm going to actually like someone who, in the present, is nasty and hostile.

Sad to say, if I'd been in her class I probably wouldn't have helped, or even really noticed what was happening to her. I was not sociable, and too busy dealing with being bullied myself to pay that much attention to other people's problems--although it hit me lighter than most because unlike her I had a supportive home life, and I also never gave much of a damn what other people thought, so the main problem was just trying to avoid getting caught and beaten up. I suppose indirectly my mere presence as another target would have helped a bit by diverting some attention from her. You can only pay attention to so many scapegoats.

I don't think she did it and is being turned into a scapegoat.

@puppi I, for one, am not confusing fantasy with reality. I don't like Tendou as a character, and I wouldn't like her, either, if she was a real-life classmate. Besides, shit happens at all levels of society, be it rich or poor, high echelon intelligence or low-life scum. The rich and high echelon intelligencia are simply more proficient at hiding their disgraceful and sub-human behaviors. Just think of Harvey Weinstein or Ted Kennedy, for example...

I understand wanting to get back to the main story, but as someone who teaches in a low income area, these stories hit really close to home. And I find it ironic that the feeling 's for Tendou "don't care, not part of the story I care for" is what happens to these children in real life.

it's not a side-story tho, Tendo has always been an important supporting character since the beginning of the story, that now the story is explaining what er deal is is not a sidetrack to write mor chapters because it's more likely that eventually telling this flashback was planned as long plays like this already happened with Extra Guy being related to Ai being foreshadowed several chapters in advance

Thank you @FredFriendly for saying it. The development is as slow as it is and then you added side stories. ?

I don't like Tendou, don't feel anything for her and am not interested in her. I have no interest in her background or development and don't care if she gets a "good end." Side-tracking away from the supposed real story "must just be a way to extend the franchise (and keep the weekly dollars flowing) by delving into the backstories of the side-characters that the audience couldn't care less about."

Oh, and by the way, I underestimated the length this side-character drama fest at 8 chapters. Add at least a 10 to that number (and counting)...

Its not like I don't like Tendou, don't feel for her or am not interested in her or anything. But her background and development is weightier than the MCs. I want a good end for her, but this isn't her manga supposedly

He's just a kid
He's just a kid
He's just a kil kid
Dangit.
Kids can do some fu*ked up stuff sometimes.

Oh dear ?