Even as a ardent defender of the manga I do think the ongoing festival and Tomokibowl arcs are, well, not what they could've been. I have some remedies of my own (makiing the festival arc briefer, focusing less on the humour and more on the "feels", thinking stuff out rather than just having it drag, having Tomokibowl be a minor subplot etc.), the thing is that for one reason or the other it didn't work out. Maybe the writer was burned out and didn't want to put much effort in or maybe he just fucked up. Or he didn't based on on if you liked the arc or not of course.

Anyways, that's not the point of the post. Bordering on fanfic territory, title. Personally, I feel like having an arc focused more or less entirely on Hirasawa was the most natural progression, a la Minami arc. Hear me out.

How do you make a largely sol manga feel like it's consistently pushing it's plot forward? By developing it's characters. The thing that makes arcs like the field trip, Disney land or Minami arcs so beloved is that it either focuses on the growth of a character (field trip, Minami) or showcasing said growth (Disney Land). While the festival arc attempts to showcase growth it's not something we haven't seen already in the Disney land arc making it feel like a retread, and everyone is a frustratingly stagnant character in the Tomokibowl, especially the titular man himself who's just kinda apathetic towards the storyline himself.

How to fix this though? Either have Tomoko get a new growth or as the manga actually figured itself out, have a new protagonist entirely. To some degree this is why Tomoki has gotten so much spotlight this time, because Tomoko's central conflict has been dealt with entirely, and this wasn't even a bad idea as we know from the Minami arc. To some degree I think they were trying to emulate said arc with Sachin, but to a much lighter extent while giving Tomoko the spotlight too. I don't know why, but I remember that the Minami arc had a markedly worse reception when it was ongoing, and maybe the Japanese fandom didn't like it a alot, either way it feels like the writer feels obligated to have some Tomoko shenanigans, and while I don't exactly agree with that, who could blame the fans? They took up the manga for Tomoko, sure they should be a bit open minded about it but at the same time... The manga hasn't finished Tomoko's arc because there's a glaring plot thread hanging and it's annoying me.

Hirasawa Shizuku.

Somewhat of a foil to Tomoko, she also fills up the lonely girl archetype but barely so. She's just not popular within boys. Tomoko is obviously supposed to be "the girl" in her life who helps her through it. Now there was a girl who helped Tomoko too right? Oh right, Megumi. If it wasn't obvious, the manga was going for a circular arc thing where Tomoko was supposed to be to Shizuku what Megumi was to her. But for some reason the manga just... Forget about it? I admit, maybe having the girl not actually be lonely may have not be the smartest move, maybe they did make her way more one dimensional than Tomoko which makes development harder, but yk what they could've done? Given her an entire arc exploring her like Minami.

This was, we can preserve Tomoko's status as the protagonist or at least a Deutaragonist while progressing a character. Her arc is obvious, she befriends some girls. This also ties the manga into a nice little bow.

Now I know what you are saying. This is still possible, and you know yeah if the manga goes on for another 10 years obviously, it is inevitable. But why not now? Why clog the manga with even more characters and then have them go in the back burner with half assed arcs to be continued later. It just makes the manga seems fragmented and takes a way a lot of its original impact which was on its laser focus on one protagonist. This is why I think the new Prez (who's also a foil) is a bad idea rn, it just doesn't make sense to introduce more characters.

And no, this wouldn't be the "final" arc of the manga. It'd obviously be either a epilogue, a romantic arc with Katou, or a heartfelt one with Tomoki. In any case, it is not how the manga is now and ya know, i thought I'd share how I'd want it myself.

Got the portraits done with the help of a friend on the sdv discord

Figured people would appreciate this cake my friend made for my birthday (by request)

Some people may find this too hackneyed a topic to be discussed, and others will simply give a one-sided answer, but here I go.

https://preview.redd.it/dqjks7ybjs0e1.png?width=663&format=png&auto=webp&s=61fc96083486f85e3bb46e8c4223e35cfa9bad08

If I though the affair can be solved by just saying "Hahaha!! Look that weird and pervert gloomer who bases her perception of reality on her in her experiences with anime and videogames, make fun of her after seeing how reality explodes in her face", I wouldn't be posting this discussion.

So, based on what the series has shown along its more of 200 chapters, is there anything more in the way how Tomoko interprets people than just her prejudices of them? How accurate are these in long term?

https://preview.redd.it/4kluclc42s0e1.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=0406cfeb77ea8b89a3ef8bebe3d6718a46f9e735

I knew I had to bet money that Wakui was a two-faced girl.

>>https://imgur.com/a/raw-watamote-chapter-226-3-raw-dnJ4RhZ

Next chapter comes out on December 5.