Ao Haru Ride Chapter 36 Discussion

Rinji- said:
Wait... So does Murao have feelings for Kou or it's just Kominato's misunderstanding?

Celilari said:
I hate Kou. He missed his chance and like, he wants to ruin the relationship that Kikuchi fought so hard to have? Wtf? For me, a guy like him that choosed to be with another girl, even if he had his motives (pity), doesn't deserve Futaba.

anamisan24 said:


I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but what relationship are you talking about? oh, yeah, the one he force into her since he didn't wait for her feelings to change like he said at the beginning. The one he feels so insecure, shown by his jealousy attacks. I bet his previous girlfriend left him for that. Talking about pity, I really hope Futaba is better than Kou, and once she figures out everything, she just break with him instead of continue with him out of pity.

zensunni said:

Exactly! Touma is basically a jerk, in my opinion. Sure, Kou was stupid and blew it when he chose to not accept the feelings of the girl he loves because he was afraid she would be hurt by his support of a friend. He should have told her that they weren't dating, he was just supporting her as a friend, but that is in the past. He waited to long to confess because he wanted to "do it right" and make things perfectly clear to the little manipulative b!%@# that he was not going to be her support service anymore.

Meanwhile, Touma, knowing that Futaba still had feelings for Kou and that she was hurting and vulnerable, went ahead and confessed to her even after he admitted that it was not the "right" thing to do and that it was not fair to her. Then, after telling her that he would wait for her to make a decision, he saw an opening after they saw Kou and the b!%@# at the park and gave her an ultimatum, then pretty much told her: "So you're going to give me a shot, right? Cause you're mad at the other guy and you want to make him pay and I'm gonna take advantage of that."

Then, to make matters worse, he used his little "turn 180 degrees" thing that he used for a "perception check" earlier to drive home a point about not "seeing things that are right in front of you" and used it to kiss her while her eyes were closed. She didn't complain about it, but when he kissed her the second time, after her eyes popped open in shock, she did NOT look like a girl who was happy about being kissed (see this image: here) She looked like she was putting up with it, not enjoying it, and perhaps a bit scared. Look at the eyes, and then her brow in the "second kiss". That doesn't look happy. Compare that to the look on her face when Kou kissed her (images: page 36, page 37, page 40, page 41, and page 42). She looks surprised, but not scared after the first kiss. He then TALKS TO HER and asks her to close her eyes if she is willing. She does.

Take a look at the difference between her face kissing Touma the 2nd time and her face kissing Kou the 3nd? time (page 42) that should tell you everything you need to know!

Anyway, I think it was entirely wrong for Touma to do what he did and when he gets hurt it will be all on him.

EDIT: I got the wrong image originally for Kou and Futaba's kiss... Correcting...

neo_valkyrie said:
So Touma is selfish for going after a girl who loves someone else and Kou is a saint for going after a girl who he rejected/hurt/misused?

I can't.

SilaChiin said:


EXACTLY my thoughts! Thanks for writing them down so smoothly.

Btw, I don't think Shuuko has feelings for Kou. I think she's pitying him, but she still supports Futaba's attempts to forget about Kou, because she doesn't want Futaba to get hurt again.

neo_valkyrie said:
So Touma is selfish for going after a girl who loves someone else and Kou is a saint for going after a girl who he rejected/hurt/misused?

I can't.

Celilari said:


That's what i thought too. They're being hypocrite since they favours Kou.

jose21 said:


Aren't you as well. Forget she said Touma.
If somebody ask you is he selfish for going after a girl who loves someone else would u seriously say that he is not? WTF....
Also, aren't U a bit hypocrite by saying "if the author was not so quick on make Kou fight for her", just after you admitted a sentence before that Touma was little forceful. Hey, don't u think the author was a little quick in making Touma go out with her instead of waiting for her feelings to change, just like he said he would at the beginning.
About the jealousy thing, well IMO that is escalating and will only get worse since their relationship is weak, cause she obviously not over Kou. And imagine how will he react when he finds out she went with Kou.

zensunni said:


Touma even admits that it would be cruel to Futaba to push his feelings on her when she was just rejected. He told her he would wait for her decision, then changed his tune and said he couldn't wait and forced her to answer, right after Futaba thought she saw Kou on a "date" with Narumi. I don't care how much of a "nice guy" his friends think he is, if you act like a selfish jerk, you are a selfish jerk.

Right now, Futaba is trying to like him. She doesn't want to hurt him. She hasn't shown any evidence that she actually feels love for him. (The look on her face when he was kissing her was really, really unpleasant! That didn't look like a girl in love.)

We all know that it won't last. The question is: how bad will it get before they break up. Will he force himself on her? Will he do something he will regret? Will he bow out gracefully? Will he try to hurt the two of them or even just Kou?

I can't help but get the feeling that the story is reaching the end, especially since it is close to the same length as Strobe Edge now.

BTW, did you see the first week sales for volume 9? 203,905!!!! That is HUGE!

katarin said:

Futaba likes Touma, she feels at ease with him, she doesn't reject his kiss, blushes when she thinks of it, appears happy when she sees him...

katarin said:

if she ended up falling in love with him, he wouldn't be the selfish jerk who pressured her into a relationship, he would have been the second love who taught her how secure, functioning relationships are supposed to feel.

katarin said:

But it's quite clear that Futaba is going to end up with Kou, which is why we'll see Touma as the one who stole her away from her intended partner... and as a jerk who forced her to choose.

katarin said:
It would have been much easier to fall into the typical shoujo manga formula of making him one dimensional (overly obsessive, abusive, or just no personality, etc).

katarin said:

Instead she makes him believable. He's honest, straightforward, likable, and yet flawed by being insecure about his relationship and Futaba's feelings. He doesn't overdo his insecurities or express them with childish, passive aggressive acts--instead, he talks to her about it, which I think we can all appreciate. ^_^

Celilari said:


That's what i thought too. They're being hypocrite since they favours Kou.

Chinensis said:


Probably because he is better designed than Touma and majority prefers the 'jerk' type of males.

jose21 said:


I think everyone is missing the point here, I don't think anybody has said that Kou is a saint, but that Touma is not the saint we are supposed to believe he is. Come on, you guys are implying with that sentence that he is being selfish.
I mean seriously, forget Touma for a second, and tell me if somebody ask you:
is average joe selfish for going after a girl who loves someone else? you will seriously say that average joe is not. Who is being a hypocrite now?

Also, even thought I didn't agree with most of what Katarin said, I find it funny that her statement defending Touma was better than any others written by Touma x Futaba fans, and she is not even shipping Touma x Futaba.

jose21 said:
Does that mean that if Kou would have fallen in love with Narumi, Narumi would be a saint?

katarin said:
But let's look at this objectively: what exactly has Touma done wrong?

Claiming that Touma was "taking advantage" of Futaba is insulting to her. I feel like people have this weird idea that girls need to be taken care of and don't understand what's going on and need to be treated like delicate little flowers. Touma clearly tells her that it's okay to date him to forget about Kou. Futaba isn't an idiot, but she does seem to lack perception when it comes to things like love. Touma realizes this and that's why he is always straightforward with her. For example, here Touma says that he'll be "frank." He continues to be frank and honest.

katarin said:
Furthermore, Futaba agrees to date him. Futaba isn't a pushover. She didn't just give in because he pressured her and she isn't the kind of person to go out with someone she didn't like at all. Her feelings may not have been romantic, but she was open to having them grow. Is there really anything wrong with that? I think not. Since both parties in this situation are aware of Futaba's lingering feelings for Kou, I don't see a problem with dating someone in order to forget someone else.

katarin said:
Furthermore, Futaba agrees to date him.

jose21 said:


Does that mean that if Kou would have fallen in love with Narumi, Narumi would be a saint?

katarin said:

Let me give a better example:

Sally and John are in love but John (for whatever reason) is unable to be with Sally. Enter Drew, who falls in love with Sally and steals her away from John. Drew and Sally end up falling in love and start a relationship.

Is the way that Drew and Sally got together morally reprehensible? Debatable, but not the point. Does anyone have the right to deny them their happiness? No. This is a rare example of the ends justifying the means.

katarin said:


@jose21 - I'm not so much arguing with you as I am defending Touma. Y'all are making him out to be this horrible person (i.e. jealous, selfish, manipulative, jerk), but there's more to it than that. Touma is also a high school boy in love (are we forgetting that they're like what, 17?). It's easy to talk about what he should've done or shouldn't have done in retrospect, but the mangaka is going for realism and real life is hardly that simple. Anyway, it's pointless to argue "grey" with someone who insists on "black or white," right or wrong.

Ultimately, I think Touma is a good guy. If I'm arguing anything, I'm arguing that. He's flawed, but well-intentioned and honest at the core. He also fights for what he wants. I, personally, admire that.
I don't think that he's going to do something drastic like force himself on Futaba (not in his character and, frankly, that's not Sakisaka-sensei's style). If anything, it'll be Futaba who apologizes for not being able to forget Kou. Touma will probably end up bowing out.

Aerensianic said:
In a way you can place some blame on Futaba here. She is essentially trying to get over Kou by going out with him and hoping that later on it will work out. I also think that she is somewhat misunderstanding her own feeling and translating that into thinking that she might like Touma because that is what she is trying to do (so that she can move on mostly). I don't think she is in love with Touma in the slightest but instead is responding to a guy 100% different from Kou who is upfront and assertive about his interest. She got into the relationship for the wrong reasons imo and Touma is just hoping that he can truly make her fall for him once she forgets Kou.

jose21 said:

PS where is my picture, and your example better explained. Did I get it wrong? did they fall in love before starting the relationship?
If he would have waited like he said, and then started the relationship, I would be saying Kou is a fucking douche bag trying to get her back when she is already in love with somebody else.

By the way, I just wanna know your opinion, do u think the reason Touma decided not wait any longer was cause he saw them talking in the class and got jealous?
Do you the first kiss (which was in way stolen) was result of him seeing them doing that thing on the window and got jealous?

jose21 said:
@katarin
I think you should be brave and just start shipping Touma x Futaba. There is nothing wrong with that. I find it weird how you defend Touma better than any other Touma x Futaba fans. The way you talk, it almost sound like you are shipping Kou x Futaba only cause you rather be with the winning team than the losing one. I wouldn't be surprise if you change of shipping if the probability of Touma ending up with Futaba were higher.

katarin said:


Haha! No, I am a hardcore Koutaba shipper. I could write a novel listing off the reasons why they should be together. However, I also like Touma as a character and I just felt like he was being misunderstood. Anyway, we haven't seen enough of Touma to really be able to say if he and Futaba would be a good match in the long run, but I was just defending his moral character. In terms of chemistry, Kou and Futaba absolutely take the medal. (:

Aerensianic said:
The only problem I have with Touma is that yes while he liked her she clearly is still not really at that stage of her liking him but he put pressure on her in a moment not too soon after seeing Kou and still being confused.

I don't think hes an asshole or anything, but you won't find any sympathy from me when she dumps him for Kou because he knew all this going in (and as you said he even realized that Kou was starting to come around so he knew that they both liked each other and still went for it).

His interactions with her while they were dating are a bit manipulative but you can't blame him at all for trying to get the girl your dating to forget the guy she was hung up on (I am not even sure manipulation is truly the right word here but meh can't think of anything atm). I didn't like him stealing a kiss (was in a weasley way and too soon imo).

katarin said:
I wonder what Futaba's going to do in the next chapter? It's pretty clear that she's not even close to being over Kou. I think Shuuko is picking up on that because we always see her face and a speech bubble going "..." whenever she saw Futaba smiling widely, laughing, or talking excessively.
Also, in the previous chapter when Futaba and Kou saw the shooting star (am I the only one who thought of Hirunaka no Ryuusei here?), she vision starts getting "sparkly," for a lack of a better word, and then she starts running... but this time away from Kou rather than towards him.

Is she running away from her resurfacing feelings?