Quote from residentgrigo
their friend getting her face trampeled in ? In japan ?
People in Japan are awfully meek, so i don't see where you are coming from, plus it's something that actually happens quite often on RL,
When an unresolved situation that needs people to take a decision is suddenly imposed on them, most tend to become indecisive and try to do nothing unconsciously, hoping for time to pass so they don't need to take a side, because at the moment they think taking either side would be "bad" to take. This is a normal outcome in a Moral Dilemma, since they are not the kind of things you can resolve easily when actual tough is put into it.
I'm not saying this is perfect by a long shot, but it certainly is more realistic that: "Leave my Nakama alone!"
Furthermore, this manga is a Drama, so taking too many chapters on an arc that is too "nice" or "refreshing", while nice on tough, is quite not as good when applied, since people tend to "like" it, but still not care much about it.
For a good example, Marvel Comics, one of the two biggest comic labels in the world, has making the readers "mad" as one of their main strategies, because outraged readers tend to buy the comic more.