I'd say "Get a room"
BUT THEY WERE JUST IN A ROOM AND DID NOTHING??? c'mon guys you both like each other just say it
always sayin Hildegard this, Hildegard that
Destroying the world because she made him blushu 1 fucking time
bruuuuuuhhhhhh get off that incel shit, por fa VOR
Omg right though
Is Amakusa Ryou a pedophile? Probably not. However, I think that people's discomfort with this story is both natural and well justified. Amakusa is a wealthy adult man who is using his money and resources in order to force his affection onto Ichika. She constantly voices her discomfort and protests his involvement with her, but he—with the blessing of her friends and family—persists.
Sure, this sort of reluctance/cat-and-mouse dynamic is common in romance stories, but it reads differently here, because this series isn't slapsticky or goofy—there's a definite power imbalance between them. He has lots of resources at his disposal: money, transportation, his good looks, & supporters* which he uses to stalk and harass her. (*Rio gives her brother info like Ichika's address & what she does at school and also lures Ichika into situations where she's alone with Ryou.)
And yes, It's true that Ichika is starting to have feelings for Ryou. That doesn't change the fact that he basically groomed her.
P.S. Some in the comments for this series have suggested that since "Age Gap relationships" are supposedly more common in Asian Countries, people from western countries doesn't have the right to criticize this story or express disgust at their relationships. That's stupid. 1)People have the right to feel how they feel about shit: For example, black face/sambo type characters pop up quite a bit in Anime. I'm allowed to think that's bad and offensive even if they don't. 2) Stalking seems to be common in Japan. The problem here isn't that Ichika's in highschool, it's that Ryou is stalking a highschooler that wants nothing to do with him.
Even if ichika stalked ryou that too is problematic
I don't think that looks and money equates to a power balance in their relationship. Like theres really no emotional power imbalance between them, theyre on equal standing in their interactions. Going by your logic, anyone rich and handsome can only be allowed be with someone equally rich and handsome which makes no sense to me. I don't really think he's exploiting or abusing her so idk whether I'd consider that as grooming. Like yeah I think your first description was accurate of him being a rich guy and using that to his advantage to force his affection onto her but thats it really. Do you think itd be fine if you take away his looks, money, and supporters? I guarantee you he'd still be insistently courting her just in a different way. Basically what it boils down to is a guy who pushes his affection onto a girl and stalks her lol. Not that stalking is good lol but I don't see any grooming or whatever
The thing is - child grooming is a tool with an objective for sexual abuse. Do I think this is an iffy relationship due to general differences in emotional maturity? Yes - super unrealistic in that regards. However, I've noticed no sexual undertones. The end goal for the male lead isn't sex, which is why this relationship is differentiated from his previous relationships. What I would have appreciated though is a direct conversation with the guardians, like in Takane to Hana, where the family understood and consented prior to courtship.
Well she goes to the same school as his sister right? Whether it's a private school or because they live within a certain area, there shouldn't be too big of a gap. I mean I just don't find it logical for someone who's really wealthy to let their sister go to a normal school since he seems to be her guardian? Also, she has to at least be middle class and have a stable life since we see no problems with that throughout the story. To sum my gibberish up, he shouldn't have too much of an advantage over her because of money.
I mean for the supporters thing his sister outright told him if our MC doesn't like him she won't support him. I'm pretty sure she is able to judge what kind of character her brother has and can make the right choices. The mom literally talked to him for 30 minutes before even letting him in their house and she repeatedly asked our MC if it was ok beforehand. Though the MC did misunderstand it turned out fine. I don't see a problem with them ;/
For him using his good looks... I don't get that man-.- How are you supposed to use good looks to groom someone anyways?
Anyways I personally would prefer if she ended up going out Tamaru. Even if that mini essay of mine is supporting him I know I wouldn't date someone 10 years older than me. She'll end up with the ML anyways so there's really no point in complaining imo.
Exactly, this is how grooming works! I read this story because it was funny at times, but the more I got awareness on real life pedos the more the story didn't sit well with me. I wish the story could have been her in college and him working. I'm 30 years old, so I can read stories and not romanticise them in my real life BUT I worry about potential real life high schoolers who read these stories, I hope the know that IT IS NOT OK for an adult to romantically pursue them! And if it happens, they should IMMEDIATELY report it!
His end goal is to be her partner, and unless he's asexual, I think that it can be assumed that a romantic relationship would include physical intimacy.
To me, having her guardians consent is sort of besides the point since 1) her mom obviously is happy with it and 2) Ichika wasn't happy with it, so her parent's consent shouldn't overrule that
The issue isn't just that he has access to more resources/power than her, it's that he uses those things in order to disregard what she wants & push his will onto her.
I mean, if this was a normal relationship where he respected her boundaries, the imbalance would be fine. Instead, this series depicts a battle of will between a teenage girl and an adult man who are on deeply unequal footing. ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
I don't really have time to respond to every one of your points, so I'm just going to talk about 1–I definitely disagree about your interpretations of the mother's actions! First, that 30 minute conversation didn't seem to be her vetting Ryou—it seemed like she was excitingly gushing over his gifts for 30 minutes. Like they were chatting because she liked him. Secondly, she definitely was NOT forthcoming when she asked Ichika whether he could come in. She asked if it was okay if "Amakusa-san" could come in, when she refers to him directly as "Ryou-kun". The fact that she didn't specify which amakusa she was talking about is sus as hell to me, lol
Anyway, Yayyyy fellow Tamura supporters unite! They have a really nice chemistry together imo
Yeah, I agree. There's a lot of people mentioning that there aren't lots of sexual undertones, so it's not grooming, but irl a predatory man isn't going to come out with that stuff at the beginning.
wow he was racist the whole time Σ( ￣□￣||)
This was weird, I don't recommend it.
Blackmail ain't cute, fam