Rant on Ao Haru Ride

Hey, I haven't posted on this blog in a while. I'm back because I felt tempted to rant about one of the mangas I'm reading; it's called Ao Haru Ride. I'm too lazy to write up a nice summary about the manga, so hopefully those of you who are curious will be able to find nice summaries of it somewhere online.

Oh yeah, this will include spoilers as I've read up to the most recent chapter (Chapter 34), so if you don't want me spoiling anything for you, stop reading now. Yea. Ok. Here I go.

So okay. I was really enjoying this manga up until the point after Kou and Futaba have a really nice kiss scene. Everything after that started going wrong and I started getting frustrated with where the manga was headed. Kou learns that Narumi is actually going through a lot of tough stuff right now, with her father's death and her being rejected by her mom and her boyfriend and all (correct me if I'm wrong here, because I don't really remember the details anymore at this point). And then this kid decides he should stay by Narumi's side, and then this shit happens:

the moment I lost faith in my otp

 I would've actually felt sorry for Narumi if she hadn't pulled the "Oh you know that kiss didn't mean anything" and dropped the hint that she and Kou had already supposedly kissed before (like are we just gonna skip over this, dear author?? Kou did admit that they kissed, but how did this come about? Are we gonna be kept in the dark for this? I mean Narumi did ruin Kou and Futaba's kiss scene just by mentioning it...if you get what I'm referring to here).

And Touma isn't any better either. He did the same as Narumi did by telling Futaba to just think of that accidental kiss as meaningless. Oh hush, you don't have any say in whether the kiss was meaningless or not, Futaba and Kou do because they're the ones that were directly affected by it, not you or Narumi.

what the actual fuck Kou

And so because Kou feels bad for Narumi, he decides to concentrate on supporting her and attempting to abandoning his feelings for Futaba. Okay, this would've been fine if Narumi had actually just leaned against Kou as a friend and tried to get her life together at the same time, but no we know that Narumi does not actually put in any effort whatsoever and just decides to lean on Kou, and only him alone. And moreover, she pretends that she doesn't have any feelings for him and wants him to be with her as a friend when she actually wants him to be there because she has romantic feelings for him??? She's just manipulating him, even though she clearly knows that he actually has feelings for someone else??? I wish I could feel sorry for Narumi, I wish I could. Because I know I would be totally lost if I had no family around me to support and love me. I would be totally lost if I was in a completely new environment at that, too. And she's only in high school at that. She's gone through something traumatizing at a young age, just like Kou did. But Narumi is just so unlikeable that it's hard to do that, I'm sorry, Narumi.

I love how Kou doesn't give him the answer Touma wants
I don't even know at this point whether he asked this for Futaba anymore
from what I've read so far, Touma seems like he's done everything so far just to get Futaba

So okay, now that I've skimmed through the chapters again up to this point, I've got to give credit to Kou in terms of caring more about Futaba than Touma does. I can clearly tell now that Touma mainly does all this shit for himself and not for Futaba, whereas we see Kou going out of his way to protect Futaba and his brother back in the principal's office. Yeah okay sure, I guess Touma does care for Futaba somewhat, I mean, he does like her and wants to be nice to her, but not to the extent that Kou does. Fuck, thinking about this just makes me so mad, Touma makes me so mad, he doesn't deserve Futaba at all to be honest. Even with the efforts he put into making her like him and stuff that follows, I still don't believe that he deserves her. I'll rant more about this later on.

haha loser

Lol but again, just because I gave credit to Kou for caring more about Futaba than Touma does, it doesn't mean that I forgave him for what he did - he hurt Futaba's feelings for this certain responsibility he feels for Narumi. I guess that it's much more complicated for Kou, and I understand that it's not something he can easily find the solution to, but still. He deserves it because he hurt Futaba and made Futaba reach a conclusion that Kou does not like her. All in all, I'm on Futaba's side, really.

I thought it was cute that Kou was holding onto Futaba, but then again, what horrible timing can he have. Now that he's realized that he should break off the commitment he's made with Narumi, and now that he sees that there's a high possibility that Futaba will lose feelings for him - he now holds onto Futaba. Haha, horrible timing indeed, especially when Futaba's already trying her best to forget Kou after he rejected her. I'm so glad that Futaba clearly tells him what Kou is doing is disrespectful and selfish, and that she definitely isn't an idiot who would just like Kou forever. You go, girl. I love how she knows when to strongly state her opinion.

this manipulative little bitch

good bye I hate everyone

ok hold the fuck up you little piece of shit

TOUMA MAKES ME SO MAD HOLY SHIT. OK HOLD UP YOU IMPATIENT YOUNG MAN, I get that you're desperate for the girl, but why the fuck do you have to push the girl into being in a relationship with you, and make her like you? If you really cared about her, then I don't know, maybe you would give her some time and space for her to get over what was possibly a rather painful heartbreak? Why can't Futaba just let time heal her wounds and make herself happy? Why does she need another guy to make her happy, especially when she doesn't even like him back?? This is just gonna be some sort of a rebound relationship (did I use the term correctly) and is bound to not last very long.

Okay, I get that Touma is sort of rushing into this because he sees hints of Kou trying to get Futaba back, and since there's still a possibility that Futaba might want to start actively pursuing Kou again, he wants her to be his asap. But then again, that's all he fucking wants. He just wants Futaba to be his, regardless of how Futaba feels. She fucking feels bad okay for Touma and doesn't want to hurt his feelings, she clearly states that, but no, Touma's like I don't care I just want you to be mine.

Why is Touma the one speaking for Futaba, why is he the one who takes back Futaba's belonging, like just WHY. Is this his own way of saying to Kou, "Futaba's mine now, you have to speak to me before you attempt to make any advances on her"?? I don't know. But it wouldn't be surprising if he does feel somewhat superior over Kou that he has the girl he wants and Kou doesn't.

And maybe Futaba's scared to directly face Kou because her feelings for him are still there, lingering in one corner of her heart.



Ugh, as you can tell, I really do not like Touma. I'm sorry for anyone who actually likes Touma or the Touma-Futaba pairing and read through this. It's fine if you make advances on the girl you like since she's single, but I don't think it's fine to push her to be in a relationship with you, when she feels uncomfortable hurting your feelings. If you really did care about the girl, you wouldn't do that. But since you did push her into being in a relationship with you, I don't believe that you care about the girl, and that you're just a selfish person. Please don't pull that "I won't make you feel insecure and make you cry" shit, it doesn't justify your actions whatsoever. I'll just bring up Andou from Strobe Edge as an example. He made multiple confessions to Ninako and tried really hard so that Ninako will like him back, but whenever she rejected him, he tried to make advances on her again. But I don't remember him ever pushing her to be in a relationship with him. Or I guess I should also give Ninako credit, but Ninako made it firm that she couldn't go out with him when she didn't like him back, and Andou also gets a gold star because he didn't insist on it even after she said so. Granted, these characters are in different situations, so I guess they have their own reasons for acting like such as they did, but at the end of the day, I still won't like Touma lol.

What I want from this manga is, for now, is that Kou tries hard to get the girl back. Although that's not the most respectful thing to do considering that he rejected her and she's already in a relationship, I'd like to see Kou put himself in Futaba's shoes and feel what she felt. Kou also has problems because he prioritized his feelings and didn't really see things from Futaba's point of view, so it's time for him to care more about her feelings than his. Man do I sound like I don't make any sense? Because I don't think I make any sense anymore I'm just really hungry because I haven't had a proper meal yet today haha. I might sound biased with Kou but I just really cannot forget how much chemistry Kou had with Futaba, and I can't help myself but compare it with the chemistry Touma and Futaba has, which is by the way, equal to zero. I just want to see some character development in Kou first, and see how the story goes from there. I guess. I'm just hungry and tired really but I felt like incoherently ranting about my feelings for this manga. So I'm sorry if I didn't make any sense and if there are any inaccuracies in how I analyzed the manga...I didn't mean to offend anyone though, this rant was mainly for me to just let out all the feelings (that are mainly negative at this point lol) I have for the manga. Yeah.

If anyone read this rant from the beginning to the end, you receive a gold star. And I hope you have a wonderful day. Yup.