Just Be Friends

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This was painful to read.

And I don't mean it by that it was sad or tragic, or whatever. The problem is that Just be Friends' first part is the most uninteresting thing ever and the second is just plain stupid and insulting.

These characters, while in high school, and all of their lovely adverntures are like the most basic and lazy usage of stereotypes. Giving someone a popular trait is not bad in itself, because you always add something yours tho.

This had nothing of that. Yeah I mean it's supposed to be an interpretation of a song but it's still a self-written piece of story influenced ... by something.

Extroverted, carefree and popular girl enters the school and everyone is just "wooow". There's also our typical loner who is supposed to be smarter than the other guys. They sit next to each other and start dating.

That description seems pretty sweet fundamentally, but we already know they are going to be together from the first few pages. Therefore there's not any anticipation over what's going to happen. It still doesn't mean it won't be good - it's a nice concept that could work pretty well actually. But yeah like I was saying it's just formulaic to the bone. I swear to god I've seen the exact same storyboard and progression in a couple of other manga combined together. The romance part was completely boring, which already doesn't make me want to wait for le big reason why Miyuta broke up with Tachibana.

Another thing are these generic as sentences like "We got closer, but the distance between us is only increasing" bullshit or "What a coward, I can't even say what I feel omgggg". Come on - this is a textbook example that's been used dozens of times and it's impossible to feel moved or know the characters better in the way they're portrayed. I just don't sense even a tiny bit of personality in them. They are like living templates.

You could say that this setup was all "intentional" just to show a not really known side of what happens after the confession, but that's the only reason of counter-argumenting myself I've found. If that was true, then they even failed that - the actual reason of them breaking up is problematic as fuck, which I will talk about in the second part of this.

After the first time skip we are shown that Miyuta is feeling unwell because of Tachibana's work. He thinks that their relationship is pointless and he wants to break up with her. Thus we reach the climax of the second part, where he finally says it. But here's the thing - he had large trouble doing this and he still had feelings for Tachibana, yet he still didn't even think of like, I don't know, talking with her? It's the fundament of being a couple. But what I despise the most is that the author makes this desicion seem like a mature departure and ending this chapter in their lives. Tachibana devoted herself to the thing she loved the most, while still loving Miyuta, 'cause she thought he was ok with it, I mean he wasn't fucking syaing anything. Then out of the blue Miyuta drops a bomb on her, because he's not emotionally strong enough to discuss his frustration.

That fucker is basically justifying the breakup as "help with Tachibana's carrier". Can you imagine how disgusting that is? He's trashing her feelings for him and decides by himself what's better for Tachibana,

A couple years later Miyuta says something along the lines of "if I had been more mature back then, would I end up with her?", but it's just a silly thought, cause he says he's happy with his new girlfriend. Well, it seems like a great character development. But unfortunately just seconds later he says he wants to be born again and again just to see Tachibana. Come on dude, it that were to happen you'd just ruin another person's life (his new gf) without feeling even a bit of guilt. Every single human does harm to someone unknowingly but this guy keeps on manipulating and using others without a shred of realizing this, let alone remorse, or at least it's shown that way.

I am fully aware that Miyuta is just a human being and it's natural that he would encounter these unpleasant things, but it's shown here as if he did not do anything wrong and these forcefully melancholic situations are explained by cheapest values and usage of morals possible.

Oh and the art is just lazy, not detailed by any means and boring with unnatural face expressions.