So, I have discussed this with a friend of mine, but I just feel the need to put it out there despite whatever may come of it. It’s a slow start so please bear with me.
So, for those not exactly familiar with this webcomic, it is basically a kind of requel (remake sequel) from this storyline that a guy named Pommu created that originally centered around these two guy friends who happen to reunite with an old childhood friend of theirs in college, a girl who when she was younger was a bit tomboyish and they basically just saw as another boy, but now in college, she has grown up to be quite an attractive young lady.
I can’t remember the original “story” exactly, but it was basically a love triangle type of feel, one guy being a bit nerdy and the other more sports oriented. The artist does do more adult oriented content at times, but this for the most part was more humorous and cute to me, showing the shenanigans that took place as these two guys kinda “fought” (but not really) for her affections kinda, though mostly they just hung out and it was a bit similar to old times, with the more spicy stuff available on their Patreon or whatever. From there, they then went on to make a prequel series about the girl’s parents, called Dragon Tamer… and from that series it led to… THIS.
Now, THIS series skews heavily from the original in my opinion, with the love triangle angle being dropped to have the more sporty guy now get paired with the girl’s older sister (I forgot to mention this, but she was also introduced in the storyline, she was essentially this girl with a foul mood who bullied the two boys and beat up the sporty one when he tried to stand up to her, which continued on even after they got older) while the nerdier guy got their childhood friend.
So here is my (probably) “unpopular opinion” about this series… IT WAS BETTER BEFORE THE FORCED PAIRINGS. Like, the love triangle angle just made for a more entertaining story to me, following these two guys who become attracted to their old childhood friend after the reunite, who don’t exactly fight for her affections exactly (like I said, they do all keep being friends and just hanging out with each other, but the two guys do still find her attractive and such) and the hijinks they all get into now that they’re all back together, showing instances from their past and then some mirrored moments in the future.
With these pairings, it just feels way too forced to me to feel like a natural thing… like, the original joke/role with the older sister was she kept scaring off her dates by coming on too strongly and being way too aggressive. That and being a bit of an ass who bullied and beat up the two guys (mostly the sporty one). Anyway, she was just a background character in THEIR story. But now she’s being brought out front with them and they decided to make one of the guys she bullied and beat up regularly growing up (the one that fought back against her trying to stand up to her) into her eventual love interest while her younger sister is now being paired with the more openly nerdy guy… and it feels like nothing is changed with her whatsoever (though that could possibly change as the series isn’t that far in yet, and honestly feels abandoned by the creator (which I’m not exactly complaining about)) as she still acts like an ass, bullies people at the college, picks fights with the sporty guy, etc etc…
Honestly, it really just felt like the character gained popularity due to being hot, so the creator decided to remake the story to involve her more, decided to use the “enemies to lovers” and “bully” tropes and forced sporty to be her paired partner, but didn’t have a real idea on where to take her to make her more than the original background character she was meant to be.
But that’s just my opinion on it. Hopefully no harm done here, because I mean no disrespect towards the creator whom I still respect and see as a very talented artist. It’s just my opinion of this one thing they’ve done.
Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. If anyone would like to discuss, feel free to. I may or may not join, but let’s just agree to keep it civil and respectful.
