Harima x Eri will repair itself on its own. Harima obviously likes Eri, especially since he was testing her in Ch.217 to see if she would return. Once they both get over their stubborn nature, they'll be just fine.

Yakumo's interference is a very good reason why she doesn't deserve to end up with anyone (Hanai included). Simply admitting to the fact that she's spent the duration of the story deliberately interfering with Eri and Harima's relationship doesn't make up for what she did. The best thing that she can do right now is to stay out of the way.

oh my all of a sudden so much Yakumo hate, for shame, you're all misunderstanding



now how is that fair? Yakumo shallow? lets not forget all the effort she put forth to help Harima throughout the entire series. She spent days at his house helping him with his manga despite how it might harm her reputation at home AND with her sister, whom she loves most. Remember the cosplay scene where she 'stole' hanai's glasses? She did it in order to cheer Harima up, don't tell me that's not thinking about him.

For someone who is shy, she sure has no problem announcing other people's private crushes, hitting out at people who she doesn't like, and conning Hanai out of his glasses.



'Act'? i hardly agree! How is she 'pretending' to be nice when she let Tenma go work on the manga with Harima, when the manga was the only real thing connecting her and Harima? She was willing sacrificed her own feelings in hopes of bringing Harima and Tenma closer, all because HARIMA liked TENMA. No matter how you look at that, despite her saying it was for Tenma, it really was 100% for Harima. She IS nice, if anything, i think Sawachika's gets away too much with HER 'arrogant-love-at-the-cost-of-others' act! Now that is even more offensive.

Though i have not brought it up in the past because i like clean competition in this topic instead of trying to win votes through defaming the other candidates' personality much, i'll talk about it if you will talk about Yakumo like that -_-. Harima loves Tenma, Yakumo loves Harima. What does eri do? She tries to completely 360 Harima's love interests without thinking about how he might feel. Yakumo works towards Harima's interests out of love, as long as it makes him happy. If you read carefully, Eri was the first to take the offensive on Yakumo, completely putting Yakumo down and making accusations against her, simply out of jealousy. I say it was about TIME that Yakumo slapped her in the earlier chapter! After the way Eri so arrogantly tossed aside her friendship with tenma because she's too tunnel-visioned, and STILL act spoiled when Tenma waits an ENTIRE DAY in the cold for her. Sure Eri meant to say one thing, but the point is, she said another! If anything, Eri's Harima obsession is the thing bringing everyone ELSE down!

Yakumo isn't a saint, as much as we Onigiri fans would all like to believe
. She has her limit, and if anything, i applaude her for being able to keep her feelings at bay for so long. I think her telling Harima about Eri did nothing, really. It all went back to square 1 when Eri so deftly dodged the 'rejection' from Harima, lol. So if anything, Harima just feels the fool, but he's back to thinking Eri doesn't like him again, so all's normal more or less. The Harima & Eri pairing is still possible and faaar from ruined.



Yakumo was actually trying to DEFEND Eri when she told Harima that Eri liked him, saying that she only ripped up his 'manga' because she was in love with him. Yakumo tried to make it so that Harima wouldn't completely hate Eri.

Shame on you for wrongly blaming Yakumo with completely ruining the Harima & Eri coupling !

Last edited by SiLNeT at 3:56 pm, Apr 19 2007

and sorry for the long post, were little to noone defending Yakumo i felt like i just had to xD

Last edited by SiLNeT at 3:56 pm, Apr 19 2007

Thank you for straightening it out! Oh finally theres some uber defense for the yakumo side.

p.s I did try to defend her....though it was a bad effort

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Everyday I'm tumblin'

heheh that you did =), the only one too lol, thanks for the effort though ^_^

Well I think it's fair to say that Yakumo is Harima's closest friend (probably only friend). He does owe her alot for all the time she spent helping him with his manga and hasn't really done that much to repay her.

On the other hand , remember that chapter where Harima took Shuji, Akira, and Tenma to that expensive restaurant and couldnt pay the bill. Eri was there to pay it for him. She told him to within 1 year bring her some flowers. He never did do that and knowing Harima he most likely completely forgot. And from the last few chapters I got the feeling that Harima wants nothing to do with her from now on and Eri has simply gotten tired of Harima. I believe Yakumo is to blame for this cause Harima and Eri were getting closer and just needed more time. Rushing them to make a decision like that was only bad for the relationship. But like I said before I hope Yakumo takes advantage of what's in front of her.

sad to say this, but i doubt Harima and Eri woulda gotten close to the point where they actually would be a couple. Personally, i felt that there was no progress really. I mean, from Eri's point of view there seems to be, but looking at Harima, it felt like there was no progress at all. This is of course, no fault of Eri herself, but i believe that Harima will no doubt stay fixed on Tenma till the end of this manga, it's just his way. i don't think he'll go for Yakumo either truthfully, but there's nothing to do but hope and support =)

Well the Eri/Harima relationship did progress just a little, Yakumo and Harima never went to Tokyo together did they? Actually its kind of idiotic of Harima to go all the way to Tokyo to meet Eri without considering why she would ask him to meet her there. Even though it was just to eat at a restaurant with Eri, still all the way to Tokyo? That just shows how much of an idiot he really is. Remember Eri also asked Harima to come inside her house cause it was cold outside. Yakumo (in form of the cat) ran away to prevent Harima from entering Ojou's house. Yakumo definitely did not want Ojou and Harima to seriously get together, part of why she slapped her.

I think its safe to rule Eri out of it now. Tenma still seems fixated on Karasuma and actually has never considered Harima. I think she is actually disgusted at that idea.
Now that Hanai and Miko seem to have something going on , that leaves Yakumo and Harima. I think they will end up together seeing as how she understands him better than anyone else.

The next few chapters wont go into any of this. It seems Hanai and Togou (Megane and Macaroni according to Harima) will have a fight.

She's definitely been lacking in the character development side of things. It's a matter of taste, though. If you buy into the whole "perfect girl" thing and it holds your interest throughout the story, then so be it. The two big things that we've seen from Yakumo is her sense of obligation, and her anger. Neither contributes towards making her the heroine of a romantic comedy.


Yakumo helped Harima out when he asked her to. She was oblivious to the damage that it could cause her family, since Tenma was the one who had to constantly point that out to her.

There's an undercurrent of anger that Yakumo directs towards Tenma, although she almost always ends up redirecting it towards others. For one, Yakumo is unable to accept Tenma for who she is; any reminder of Tenma's incompetence drives her berserk. If Yakumo believed that the comments made against Tenma were unfair, she would speak up to defend Tenma (as Eri does she feels that Harima is unfairly accused of something, in similar situations). Instead, Yakumo lashes out physically - her anger is generated because deep down, she is in agreement with them.

The worst case of all was Yakumo's recent physical assault on Eri. Ironically, she attacked Eri for doing the very same thing that Yakumo herself did to Tenma when they were children, back in Ch.174.


Yakumo does whatever she pleases, whenever she pleases. All this time she was avoiding Hanai because she doesn't want him to pursue her romantically. Yet, when she wants to use him, she is more than willing to get close to him and lie to him to steal his glasses.


Yakumo decided on her own in Ch.206 that she wanted to pair Harima and Tenma up. She didn't ask Harima if he wanted her help, and she certainly didn't ask Tenma - who she knows, mind you, is clearly in love with Karasuma.

And pay attention to the context in which it comes up. Yakumo's classmates pointed out that Eri was getting close to Harima - which is when she decided to act (and she later admits in Ch.215 that she didn't want that pairing to happen). Why? So that Harima could remain the same - "always... forever." She wasn't pushing for Harima x Tenma because she was supporting Harima; rather, she was pushing for the pairing because she wanted to force Harima to stay the way she wanted him to be. To achieve that end, she was willing to break up both her sister's relationship with Karasuma, and Harima's budding relationship with Eri.


Well... Ch.212?
Eri's given up on her love for Harima countless times throughout the manga for his sake. She wants to try her hardest, but unfortunately, her problem is that she tries to hard to please everyone other than herself (which was one of the big themes of the Omiai storyline). That was part of the reasoning behind Akira's speech in Ch.213; hopefully she'll give Eri more of a push in the future.


People vote for whoever they want to, at the end of the day. Did you really read through all this discussion before clicking in your vote? I certainly didn't.


Yakumo complies with the things he asks her to do, as his assistant. Eri tries to build a relationship with Harima, by trying to find out his interests, and trying to spend time with him.


If you read b21, you'll see that Yakumo suspects that she was creating problems for Eri, but she continues to act the way she does, regardless. Ch.215 brings everything to light - Eri may have gotten angry with Yakumo, but Yakumo was also goading her.


The irony is that Yakumo did the exact same thing to Tenma in Ch.174. The only difference between the two scenes was that Yakumo interrupted Eri and Tenma's attempts to resolve the situation by physically assaulting Eri - which, according to her own admission in Ch.215, was motivated by the phone call that she received earlier about Harima and Eri spending the night together, not because of her concern for Tenma.


Well, the thing about her built up anger is that she needs to resolve it, rather than bottle it up. There's nothing to applaud about controlling your rage - the healthy approach is to come to terms with what is generating it. Until she resolves things with her sister, she'll continue to attack people on impulse whenever someone makes the mistake of saying the slightest thing about her sister.


I know that. The point here is that it's just plain rude to reveal a person's secrets like that. If Yakumo had the slightest bit of consideration, she'd encourage Eri to speak to Harima about it. For that matter, if Yakumo really had consideration for Eri, she'd have the courage to apologize in person after revealing her wrongdoing in Ch.215, rather than just talking to Sara about them.


Harima didn't hate Eri at all for ripping his 'manga'. If you look back at Ch.216, he was more upset at the fact that Eri was the one who had hurt him than at the fact that his manga was destroyed. Even when he got his manga back from Tougou, he completely forgot about it when he heard the news that Eri loved him. Yakumo's interference was unnecessary.


Well, she's his manga assistant. She gains from learning the tricks of the trade, and he gains by having help with the completion of his manga. I'd say that's pretty fair.


Which, again, is one of those reasons why Yakumo doesn't deserve to end up with Harima. Before Ch.215, it seemed like there was room for the fact that all the times Yakumo interfered with Harima and Eri's relationship was mere coincidence, allowing us to still believe that she was acting with good intentions. Now, we just can't believe in that anymore.


Well, I think Harima is a little smarter than you'd give him credit for. In Ch.197, Harima told Eri that he thought that she was cute, and the next chapter he told her that he had a lot of fun staying over at her house. In Ch.210, he's fiercely protective of Eri - he doesn't want her to catch a cold, but he's also worried about her having to stay with him at the love hotel. In Ch.216, he's mourning the fact that Eri was the one who hurt him, rather than mourning the loss of his manga. In Ch.217, he starts trembling after he hears that Eri loves him - and tests to see if she will return after he talks to her on the roof. When she doesn't, he breaks down and disappears from school completely.

I'd say that Harima is having some serious conflicts regarding his feelings for both Eri and Tenma. Yakumo is pretty much out, especially after what she admitted to doing, and after her realization that Eri and Harima really are meant for each other (which is something that strikes me as a little awkward to take back). The big thing to watch for will be to see how Harima pulls himself out of this current slump.

First of all, the mangaka has to get out of the side story of Hanai.

I think the mangaka is just creating a filler arc after major events in the story, but the mangaka has to get back to Harima, Eri, and Yakumo

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my pick now and 4ever: Harima &Eri

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"The only thing to fear is fear itself" (Franklin D Roosevelt)

Its not always what it looks like...

I was not talking about her personality development, i was responding with the assumption that she is being accused of being a shallow person (i.e. doesn't care about others, judges people before even knowing them)


That is true that she was oblivious to the damage at first, but when she did find out the results, did she stop helping Harima completely? No, she in fact still continued to support him and help him with his works, despite knowing the rumors being spread, which in truth affected her more then it others.



What you speak of here is what's natural in almost everyone. Like i said before, Yakumo is not a saint, she's meant to have flaws, as do everyone. If you wanna speak about acting on anger, then what of the scene where Eri completely shaved Harima bald through anger? Or of the several where she kicks and or punches him out of anger? If you want to judge her based on undercurrent emotions of violence, then you should judge Eri too, for she seems to be even more prone to rash actions then Yakumo, so its unfair to judge Yakumo thusly



These are completely different things in terms of circumstances and outcome. For Yakumo's case, they were children. If you were to judge every person of their acts as a child, then i'm willing to bet that that nearly everyone would be a criminal. Also, she forgave Tenma in the end. Now Eri, she's no longer a child, and should not be thinking thusly. She should have forgiven Tenma already after Tenma spent an entire day and night outside her house to talk out their problems. But she did not, in fact, it took another whole chapter before Eri could vocally forgive Tenma, involving a monstrous snow-shoveling undertaking. Yakumo was a child, and forgave Tenma when she trudged through the rain to give Yakumo a new book. Eri is no longer a child, and it took Tenma being outside in the blistering cold a whole day and night, as well as writing an apology in the snow on a massive field.


This is another completely misunderstood part. She was NOT using him, in fact, he was using HER for his cosplay desires, which she had to abide to due to the fact that that was the theme her club was doing for the festival. And the idea to pretend to be a manga artist with glasses to help Harima did not originally come from her, she just agreed to it in order to help him.


That is besides the point, her niceness is still not an act, it was genuine. She is still sacrificing her own feelings to do this, and as you said, she is sacrificing them on her own free will, which makes it even more genuine. And once again, the same thing could be said about Eri, who is also completely ignoring Harima's true interests by forcefully trying to make him like her.


Tenma had no true relationship with Karasuma, and if you read back to the christams/new years chapter when Harima shows Tenma his manga, there is a very obvious hint about the relationship between the two. And if you read back on the chapter where she exposed Eri's infatuation, along with a few chapters before, she ADMITTED that Eri was a better person for him then she was. Now why would she intentionally and consciously try to break them up after such an admittance?


Please give me some solid examples of times when she tries too hard to please everyone other then herself, when herself is also included in the equation.



You are you, others are others, not everyone thinks the same. In fact, i voted before the discussions, but that's because there were no discussions at the time. If i were not as familiar with this series and have am unsure about which couple i like more, then yes, i would actually read through a bit to see which seems more justified.


And the same cannot be said about Eri goading Yakumo? If you remember to the first instance of hostility between the two, it was when Eri first suspected Yakumo of going out with Harima. She intentionally put Yakumo on teh spot when her friends when asked by her friends if Harima was going out with her(eri), pulling Yakumo aside and saying something along the lines of "No, she's the one Harima is seeing". It took till b21 for Yakumo to suspect, probably, but Eri knew she was creating problems from the very beginning.


Once again, the situations are not exactly the same, as explained before. And im glad that she admitted to her own fault, it shows that she's not meant to be perfect, and that nobody really is perfect. To be able to admit that to herself is one step to bettering herself, for she regretted it after. If she were to know that and still act stubborn about it, thinking she was justified, then i would have no choice but to agree with you that she is a shallow, thoughtless person.


I applaud the effort, not the means. I admit that yes, there are better ways to solve it, but teens being teens, Yakumo couldn't really admit it to herself in the first place, and took the confused naive action of thinking it would be best to bottle it up, and the sorrow it caused her must have been great, and for that, i also applaud her for doing the best she could since she's never experienced those sort of things before.


Rude it may be, but was it not more rude, cruel even, to make Harima believe his script was totaled? It made him completely lose hope of his dreams to become a manga artist, making him completely and utterly give up. Her action in 215 itself was not wrong in my opinion, her reasons were. Eri needed someone to snap her out of it, and realize what she's doing to such a dedicated friend. If Yakumo were to apologize for it, it would only justify Eri's cruelty towards Tenma. It wasn't just because she liked Harima that she slapped Eri, after all.


It was a feeling that could have lead to hate, a feeling which was avoided. Whether or not it was unnecessary would remain known only truly to the mangaka himself.


That would be true if she had been planning to become a manga artist to began with, otherwise her learning the tricks of the trade would be useless to her, so she really didn't have much to gain.


The cat scene could also be interpreted in another way, what if seeing the two of them together pained her too much to stay? Harima didn't have to run after the cat after all, cats are cats and they're expected to know their way around their cities. What if Yakumo was just sparing herself the grief by trying not to witness what could take place, instead of concsiouly trying to break the two of them up? That was a very ambiguos chapter, so i don't think too much can be read into it aside from teh fact that their relationship affected Yakumo.


Believing whether or not her 'interferences' were coincidence, depends on us. I never believed them to be coincidences, but then again, i never believed them to be interfering. the only strong proof of said 'interferences' with the two as a couple, was when she confessed Eri's love to Harima, but even then it was with the hopes of the two of them actually getting together (though i dunno how she thought this would have happened since she knew Harima liked Tenma, i blame the mangaka for not further thinking things through before making them act), her intentions were the opposite of the outcome.



These are all simply his personality. He's innately nice, and since he's fixated on Tenma, staying in a love hotel with another girl would stain the purity his 'love', lmao. And truthfully, even i would break down like that if i believe i had made such a terrible mistake, or i was played for a complete and utter fool. Broken pride is the easiest thing to make a person break down. And note that it was pride that made him break down, as can be seen in the actual chapter where it flies away, not grief


Yup, i have to agree with you there though, Yakumo is out unless something else happens. But i believe Eri is out too, as is intended by the Mangaka, only Tenma will be the possible outcome.

All this said, I don't really hate Eri or anything, i like her for both her positives as well as her negatives, because they make up her character and Eri would be Eri without either. It's just that it's unfair to be judging Yakumo based on her faults (and make her out to be a conniving, spiteful person) while not consider that she shares a lot of her faults with Eri as well. Neither are truly terrible characters, and neither should be made out to be such intentionally. Despite what i've said about Eri, i know that she has a very kind side to her too, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't have a cruel side like all other characters.

how's that for a long reply xD

Maybe we should move these discussions into another thread under a title of something like "Yakum & Eri" lol. Any admins think this is a good idea and wanna do it?

Well, Yakumo does make seem to make snap judgments about people. She hasn't spent any time with Eri; so how could she possibly know anything about Eri's strengths, weaknesses, or who she loves? Yet she seems to have a lot to say about her, regardless. She doesn't know all that much about Hanai, but based on their first meeting, she avoids him entirely unless she wants to use him.

Even take Sara. She's supposedly Yakumo's best friend, but their relationship is completely one sided. We always see Sara showing concern for and asking about Yakumo's situation - when do we ever see that reciprocated? When Sara saw Mikoto and Asou's developing relationship, why wasn't Yakumo trying to support her?

I wouldn't really call it shallow, but I wouldn't describe Yakumo as an emotionally warm and caring type. She shows worry in a few select situations, but she just doesn't take initiative in the same way that a Belldandy would or a Honda Tohru. Strangely enough, despite Eri's tsundere/ojousama roots, I'd be much more inclined to put Eri forward as demonstrating those genuinely warm and caring traits. She may make mistakes when her pride gets the better of her in the short term, but she always proves herself to be truly kindhearted in the long term. That kind of emotional warmth is what really wins over the fans to Eri over the story, regardless of whether her tsun-tsun irks you.


At no point in the manga is Yakumo shown to be affected by those rumors. She denies them when asked directly, but she otherwise ignores them. Tenma was the only one who had any concern about the issue.


The thing is, most people don't bottle up their anger to the point where it becomes pathological. Yakumo goes absolutely berserk whenever you trip that Tenma switch. What's more, she's never actually bothered to sit down and ask herself why she snapped - she walks away feeling completely justified.
All you need to do is just say the right words and she loses complete control. There are plenty of people with short tempers, but when it reaches the point of a near reflex, there's a real problem there.


The thing is, Eri makes amends for the actions that she does out of anger, so she always grows from it. If you look through the story, Eri has become much calmer and more mature as these events have progressed. I'm sure several months earlier, Eri might have gotten upset or exacted revenge on Yakumo for that physical assault. Yet Eri had the maturity and grace to set aside Yakumo's immature behavior and used it for her own personal growth.

Yakumo has always been presented as the sort of character who can "do no wrong", so she's never grown throughout the story. It's interesting how much the roles have switched - several months earlier, during the cultural festival Eri was envying Yakumo's strengths, and felt inferior when matched up against her. Now, we see that Eri never had a need for such self doubt - she's completely surpassed Yakumo (something that Yakumo herself seems to recognize in Ch.216).


If you recognize that Eri is not a child, then you should also recognize that Tenma too is not a child, and should know better than to stay out in the cold when there is plenty of shelter available nearby. But that's another story.

It's really up to Eri to decide whether she wants to forgive Tenma or not. If she decided to never ever forgive Tenma, that too is her choice - and no amount of physical abuse from Yakumo can change that fact. But even if Yakumo felt that it was wrong, shouldn't she consider the fact that she, too, rejected an apology from Tenma once, before she knew the lengths to which Tenma was willing to go to get it accepted? Shouldn't Yakumo know the feeling, having watched with surprise as her sister collapsed from sheer exhaustion on the front steps of her own house? Yet she doesn't even bother to talk - the only thing on her mind is revenge. But as Yakumo herself confesses in Ch.215, it's not revenge for Tenma - it's revenge for the fact that Eri spent the night with Harima. No matter how you look at things, nothing can possibly condone Yakumo's actions in light of that fact.


Akira gave her the idea that she could get Hanai to do what she wanted through the cosplay, but it was her decision to manipulate him to get what she wanted. Regardless of who developed the plan, by agreeing to do the job, Yakumo shows that she finds that action acceptable.


It's impossible to force someone to like you. Harima has completely free choice as far as his time with Eri is concerned - if he didn't want to spend time with her, then he would have refused. What Eri is doing is building a relationship with him - which is something that any sensible person would do in the same situation.

What feelings is Yakumo sacrificing to set up Harima and Tenma? She made it clear already that she wanted the two to get together - she disliked the idea of Harima and Eri getting together. In Ch. 206 she makes it clear that she doesn't have a romantic interest in Harima - she selfishly wants to preserve him the way he's always been - and in Ch.215, she realizes that she has been acting unfairly as a result.


Who Tenma dates is Tenma's decision, wouldn't you say? It's rather arbitrary for you to just dismiss the pairing just because you don't agree with it.

There are plenty of things that can be taken as hints either way. Harima's decision to take a picture of Eri with him when he runs away to sea is one of them.


She's not, now - but this is after she just admitted to trying to keep them apart and realizing that what she was doing was absolutely terrible. This last act may be done with good intentions, but it was executed poorly, regardless.


The easiest one is during the Omiai arc. Start with around Ch.150. Eri says that her parents want her to go to an Omiai, but to prevent Mikoto from worrying, she dismisses the issue and says that she'll reject it, even though she plans on fulfilling her duty to her family. She shows us that she very much wants a relationship with Harima, talking about how envious she is about the others freedom to be with who they want to be, but she feels that she needs to make her parents happy - which is why she decides to sacrifice her feelings for their sake. Fortunately, Harima steps in to keep her from making that decision. I can give you plenty more if you want.


Then you won't begrudge such people from getting the information that they want, would you?


No, Eri honestly thought that Yakumo was dating Harima, based on Yakumo's ambiguous response.


Well, admitting your mistakes is an important part of character growth - it's what makes Eri such a strong character now. But it seems like too little, too late. There are plenty of earlier times where I would have liked Yakumo to sit down and think about her actions, especially regarding her behavior towards Hanai. Part of the problem is that she's never been adequately developed as a character, so we've never seen that sort of admission before. The really big thing that I want to see from her is for Yakumo to sort out her anger surrounding Tenma - which is where all of these outbursts come from. Once she does that, she can work towards becoming a better person.


Well, she did. Until she found out about the situation with Eri and the manga, which forced her to face what she had been running from all along.


Well, everyone deals with things to the best of their ability. We can only go by what we've seen - and until Yakumo takes more steps to repair the damage that she's caused, we can't really judge her otherwise.


Yakumo didn't know that the script wasn't totaled, so talking about Eri's feelings does nothing to change that belief.


It's Eri's choice whether or not she wanted to accept that apology. There's nothing cruel about choosing who you want to spend time with and who you don't.


But the fact that it is quoted as a big reason is one of the things that makes it inappropriate. Had she done it purely for Tenma's sake, perhaps it would have been a slightly different story - but the fact remains that Yakumo hit Eri out of anger for Eri's relationship with Harima.


The fact that she spends time outside of her work with Harima to go take classes to become an editor shows that she has a personal interest in the subject, so the tricks of the trade are useful to her.


Partially, although Ch.215 implies that she did have a motive and desire to do so.


There's no talk about the purity of his love, though. The only thing that we see is his concern over Eri getting sick, and the unusual fact that he seems to be imagining more from the situation than Eri is.


We'll have to wait and see for that one. ;)


The point that I'm making here is mainly that Eri has always paid dearly for those faults, and has grown into a very strong character as a result. Yakumo, however, has been treated as if she can do no wrong, which is why she has reached the state that she has in recent chapters.


If she had a cruel side, she's done a remarkable job of growing out of it. But that's what makes Eri a truly magnificent character.

[b]spoiler[/b]

Tenma is my favorite character to be together with Harima. I can understand why so many people would be annoyed with Tenma, but the way she reacted when Eri was treating her so badly really won me over. Tenma might be naive in a lot of ways but she's a true friend that will stay with you till the end. Harima's dream is Tenma and I always vote for the guy to get the girl of his dreams in the end.

That said, as a second choice I like Eri over Yakumo. Yakumo is really nice and sacrificial, but her relationship with Harima would be dull as heck. You could not have a manga with only Yakumo and Harima, I would yawn myself to sleep. Eri is the one girl who has grown the most throughout the series and she is the one most likely to be with Harima IF

Harima ever gets out of his tunnel vision with Tenma. And right now going past 200 chapters that looks like a big IF to the annoyance of many

Well Eri hasn't spent much time with Yakumo either, yet all the same she tries to interfere with Yakumo & Harima's relationship. So the same could be said to both. But Yakumo's snap judgements are based on immediate actions taken by the other person, such things don't exactly require association or knowledge of the person beforehand. And i still think it's an exaggeration to say that Hanai was being used, he's always constantly hounding Yakumo for attention, but she only took Hanai's glasses that one time. I'd say she unconciously borrowed it rather then intentionally 'used' him.


There was no real solid proof that Sara was troubled by Mikoto and Asou's developing relationship. And support-wise, she does it with her presence. Helping Sara out with her church duties, even helping with that church photoshoot, despite having to associate with Hanai.


The problem with feeling moments of when Yakumo is warm and caring, and when Eri is warm and caring, is that their personalities before hand makes it harder/easier to spot those moments. Yakumo is usually calm and passive, so when she does do nice stuff (ie bringing out hot chocolate to Harima on valentines when he was spying on Tenma) are quick to be forgottten due to the constant atmosphere of said warmth that the mangaka tries to put forth. Eri on the other hand, she is often portrayed as cold and decisive, making her moments of warmth all that much more easier to spot, due to its large contrast with her outer personalites, and thus, easier to appreciate. They both have a lot caring, kind moments.


Well, Yakumo is the quiet type who keeps most her feelings bottled up, like discussed before. Those rumors were indeed affecting her as you can see through her reactions to them, the faint blush put here and there, the stammered replies. In general, i don't think any japanese-high-school girl would want rumors about them staying the night over at another male's house. The assumption that such rumors would affect her is natural, no doubt intended by the mangaka, else he would skip the scenes where Yakumo is directly questioend about the rumors.


That is not quite true, the scene where she is crying to Sara is a prime example of her definitely not walking away feeling justified for when she snapped, and could be taken as her moment of 'sitting down and asking herself why she snapped'. She is working through her emotions and naivete as the manga progresses, which i consider to be quite good character development.


She does make amends for some of the actions, but not all. Many, such as kneeing Harima across the head in the second volume, was left at just that. And i believe the reason she didn't exact revenge on Yakumo, was not because she had grown in maturity and grace, though im sure she has, but it was due to self-guilt at knowing Yakumo was justified in slapping her. Eri herself wanted to apologize, that is known, but she did not due to her stubborness, she felt one way but acted another. She has indeed grown in the past, but refusing to forgive and continuing to say hurtful things is not a sign of that growth.


Yakumo's growth throughout this manga has been more subtle and slow, speeding up ever since the last few chapters. And i would not say that Eri has completely surpassed Yakumo, in fact, she was not inferior to begin with, she was just playing on the wrong strengths. I believe she and Yakumo are quite equal. Yakumo's admittance seems to be more out of self-loathing, a repentance for having slapped Eri in the first place if you will.


lmao that is very true. But then again, it's tenma we're talking about, she doesn't seem to have matured too much over the years xD.


Yes it is up to Eri whether or not she wants to forgive Tenma. And she does at that, but her words came out differently. But first, think of why she loathed Tenma to begin with, was it justified in all truth? Just because Tenma got along well with Harima, Eri hates her enough that she would completely spurn a friend that cares about her that much. If its personality we base off of for whoever gets Harima, then that would make me most definitely not vote for Eri. Whether or not Yakumo's personality wins is another matter, as she does have her faults too. Tenma collapsing on the front steps of the house is equivalent at the very least, to Tenma spending an entire day and night outside eri's house. Now, Yakumo forgave Tenma after the collapse, Eri still did not. So Yes, even after that, Yakumo does indeed have the right to judge if she compares Eri to herself in the past. And there are some actions that are meant to not be condoned, Eri does have her own moments where her actions should never be forgivable, but you have to take the good with the bad.


Like i said, she borrowed Hanai's glasses, and that was after spending most of the day with him in the first place. If anything, it can be considered compensation for him hounding her endlessly when she is uncomfortable with his straightforward manner. If everytime you borrow something from someone else that you're not completely familiar with can be considered condemnable manipulation, then everybody would be a mastermind in manipulation. This matter with Hanai is trivial, and caused no real harm, nor was any harm intended. He got back his glasses as well as spend time with a girl he is infatuated with.


The forcefulness i talk about is not the same forcefulness as holding them down and forcing them to like you, but rather getting in their face at every possible moment to try and spend time with them despite not knowing if they really like someone else, ignoring how others may feel about him. I know that to some this may be normal, but it's still being hard-handed nonetheless. It's not that he didn't want to spend time with her or not, he just does, with no ulterior motive. Like the shrimp scene, he agreed with her because he was hallucinating alien shrimps and whatnot. After agreeing, just backing out of something like that would not be right.


She wanted Harima and Tenma to get together because she believed it would be 'best'. Yes, she did indeed love Harima at the time, and how come it seems like she wasn't sacrificing anything to set them up? Because she hides it so well trying to deny her own feeling so that others may be happy. Ch.206 is just more denial in hopes of things will turn out right, though the evidence that she likes him is very much still there. And chapter 215, yes she realizes she's been acting unfairly, but that is just more self-loathing after realizing that she outright acted for her own benefit for the first time. Which i believe is unfair since she does not have many moments where what she does is solely for herself, save probably the cat scene. Everybody should be allowed to be selfish every once in a while.



I am not dismissing the pairing, i am judging based on what's happened, as you are judging the Yakumo & Harima pairing based on what you believed happened. If you're a supporter the idea who Tenma likes is Tenma's decision, and shouldn't be changed by anyone else, then who Harima likes Harima's decision, and shouldn't be changed by anyone else. Course, this then leads to noone end up with anyone, rofl. But, that's how it'll go.


really? i never noticed that part. if indeed he took a picture of specifically Eri and Eri alone, with no other pictures accompanying, then yea i would consider that to be a huge hint lmao.


If you're talking about the slap, then that is by no means keeping them apart, it did nothing to keep them apart. Any other instances, i fail to see her sole intent to be fixated on keeping the two of them apart (once again, asides from the cat scene, which i consider too ambiguous to judge from).


Yes i would actually prefer a more solid example, as that situation is a normal decision based on family. Most anybody would do what's best to please their parents, asides from those truly horrible people that intentionally tries to hurt their parents. And, in the end, she ended up deciding on behalf of herself, rejecting the proposal. Of course she made sure her mother was ok with it at first, but she acted against her original intentions nonetheless. So she was indeed selfless at first, but the sacrifice did not carry out. Her intentions were there, but in the end she did what was best for her.


No i would most definitely not, but i would begrudge unjustified information being given.


which makes it even worse, as she attempts to intervene early on, while under the assumption that something was already happening between the two.


But following what you say, it would still be too little too late no matter what she does right? I don't believe in this, it is never too late to change, in life or in manga xD. Those 'outbursts' can be considered family pride, which is a very important thing in Japan. Wanting to protect your loved ones and keeping them pure is a normal reflex to any human being. She seems no more different to me then anybody else, so why persecute her so? If she were to go around attacking and humiliating people out of anger for herself, then yes i would have to agree with you, but she does not. If you are going to persecute her for defending her sister, then you should persecute Eri also for attacking Harima and shaving his head out of anger. You should not judge one while turning a blind eye on another.


She did not believe herself justified, that is why she was crying, because she hated herself for it. Like i said, if she felt justified even after realizing that, [i]then[/] i would admit her to be a bad person as you have been saying.


That is true, and that is why there should be no more "Yakumo does not deserve anyone" type discussions, for it is unfair and unjust to think so.


Yes she did know that the script was totaled, or at least something of the sort, else she wouldn't have been out there to try and convince Harima not to give up on his dreams, saying that Tenma was working on a backup script(why work on a backup script if you don't know that the original was not totaled or the like?). And Harima explicitly said "why did she tear up my manga", to which Yakumo responded (and yes this is indeed under the assumption that 'she' was Eri) "It's because sawachika-senpai is in love with you". A response to counter what he was saying "And i thought she was a good person too...", trying to convince him that she was indeed a good person, just a bit misguided.


No, that would not be cruel if it was just anybody, but Eri and Tenma are the best of friends, along with Mikoto and Akira. Anybody who would just toss aside such a deep friendship just because they think"its not cruel about who you choose to spend time with and who you don't" is most definitely not a good person in general. And once again, Eri DID want to forgive, but she was too stubborn to. That at least makes her not a bad person, but it doesn't make her a good one either in that she can't act on the feeling (ironically making her much like Yakumo).


No, she began to hit Eri out of anger for Tenma's sake, but when the slap connected it was driven by her own emotions. There is a difference to what you say. Eri provoked her to slap, if she did not say such things in the first place, Yakumo would not have gone up to Eri out of nowhere to slap her.


It was not because of a personal interest, the classes were an attempt to find a way to better help Harima out in his manga, to improve Harima's work. She did not start making her own mangas like Tenma did, so it was not for her own future career at all.


True that it is implied, but a lot of things are implied and taken otherwise by the reader. I felt that it would be starting Ch.215 that she would conciously take decisive action and possibly even intentionally interfere, there is no solid proof she did such a thing intentionally before this chapter.


Wouldn't you worry about someone getting sick if they're out in the cold too long, and only you're there to help? I believe its one of Harima's better traits, to care about others, whether or not it is haphazardly. Like he cared for Yakumo-cat, lol. He's just the type of guy who actually worries about others over himself at times most fitting, "being the man" and whatnot. And i think the purity of his love is implied if not stated, lol. God knows he rants about Tenma enough as it is.


and hopefully it won't be another chapter where nothing goes anywhere, just touching upon things slightly xD


I guess, but that is mainly due to the people around her treating her so, (i.e. Tenma putting most of the responsibility on her and making it seem like Yakumo's the older one). So the point i've been trying to make is that Yakumo is not as bad as you say she is, just misunderstood and naive, still learning about the world and such. Eri does have a year's head-up on her, at that age, experience-wise. So Yakumo isn't a terrible person who deserves absolutely noone, i feel that saying that is far too harsh.


heheh, truthfully, i like most of the characters in SR, some are very thoughtful and well-thought out. A think they're all magnificent in there own way, I just favor Yakumo most =). I believe that most 'cruel sides' are being ironed out as the series goes along, but Eri and Yakumo specifically are being very nicely developed, if somewhat crudely.

But one specifically terrible person was Kido and her outright betrayel to her boyfriend.

for more rants about Kido, please respond in the topic "Do you think KIDO should Die?" =)


Last edited by SiLNeT at 9:32 pm, Apr 20 2007