#i don't think people understand the value suetsugu places on making an effort to do better in our relationships

[formashimataichi]

I mean I love tchy and their growth throughout the series and as that person said that even if they had to get together it'd still be a deconstruction of unhealthy romance tropes bcs they have learnt/are learning from their past experience but I also agree with you on rest of the things like if I didn't love taichihayarata and accept chrt I couldn't imagine enjoying it to the extent I do as of now,and in the end i'd just want him to get a worthy conclusion after developing amazingly all this time (sorry if I said too much,I still really like your blog,your unbiased-ness in reading amazes me I hope to reach that level of tolerance one day/pos)

No worries, I understand what you're saying! That's precisely what I love about Taichi and Chihaya's relationship, is the thing, and what still makes it one of my favorite relationships explored in the entire manga despite the fact that I don't ship it anymore. I think it's very rare to see a narrative so dedicated not just to deconstructing the development of harmful behaviors within a relationship like theirs, but also emphasizing on how people can change for the better and ensure the survival of their relationships with the people they care about if they address certain behaviors. There's been so much time and effort put into helping Taichi and Chihaya move past their codependency on each other while staying true to the fact that they're always going to be supporting each other, even from afar, and it's incredibly endearing to me. It's so often in shoujo / josei that we see "second love interests" fade away into the background because their importance outside of the romance is irrelevant, but what Suetsugu seems to really solidly establish with Taichi is that he's not just important to the narrative because of his feelings for Chihaya. He's important for being his own person with his own problems and with his own dreams, and we get to see those explored at length because he's an integral part of the story in aspects beyond one subsection of genre. Even more gratifying is that, past all of that, his relationship with Chihaya is still important and shown as worth maintaining. They don't suddenly disappear from each other's lives, and the narrative doesn't give up on their friendship. It's allowed to persist and help them grow even while it's evolving into something better than what it used to be, and that's something really refreshing to do in a genre that often doesn't know how to reconcile unrequited love between friends without making one party or the other permanently disappear. Obviously, it's painful to have to transition from that state of loving someone romantically and accepting that they'll never feel the same way about you, and it's definitely something that Taichi is still in the process of, rather than it being resolved within him completely; but I find it to be very hopeful that Suetsugu insists on the importance of believing in our relationships and caring about people and recognizing that romantic love and platonic love do hold equal, if distinct, ground in our lives. In general, her entire perspective on human relationships is very hopeful, and I think that can be a bit jarring for readers who expect otherwise. People need people. That's something she's worked hard to emphasize from the beginning of this tale to its end.

[formashimataichi]

Well forgive me too because I'll also be blunt.

When I describe those things as "failure" I'm not making a value judgment, I'm just describing what happened. He had an objective that he set for himself(not by me) and he failed at that. You can say that the point is that it's wrong for him to consider that a failure in the first place well you have to take it up to him, it doesn't mean I'm wrong for calling them failures.

I don't agree with your description of Taichi's arc I think it's richer than that. Although I do find it curious that you present it as unnegotiable objective reality, I still wouldn't mind such a conclusion. It's coherent and reasonable. But more importantly I think it's wrong to think that other that wish for another conclusion are missing the entire point of his character development. I think their complaints are reasonable and I can imagine a totally coherent and satisfyung arc that concludes with their wishes.

I get what you understand the arc to be. Developing healthy competitive habits such as realizing that not getting what you want is fine and doesn't mean that you'll never get anything you want again (you use the same rationale for getting beaten in Karuta and not ending up with Chihaua). People who disagree with you aren't stupid, they do realize that about him. After all pretty much in every competition-centered story you get losses and setbacks, and learning how to cope with that is something the characters learn to pick themselves up back again. But the problem and what makes this unsatisfying for the people is that what usually is a minor story arc in those stories is suppose to br Taichi's entire character arc. And criticizing that does not mean that they're too stupid to understand the character or that they're replicating his mom's behavior.

At the end of the day it's reasonable that people who see a main character try their hardest want them to succeed(at their set objective not the sort of meta, ex post facto objective). I think if it was always going to be the arc you're describing, it would have been better to not develop him into a main character. I think that would have made it less likely for people to identify with him.

I’m not calling people who have these complaints stupid, though? Nor do I think it’s unreasonable to have qualms when he’s struggled so much, and fans have seen themselves reflected in that struggle. Even I’ve identified a lot with that inability to necessarily reach the top despite doing almost everything I can to get there. But I just don’t agree with people who think there’s no worth in telling a story about a character so connected to and traumatized by the concept of “loss”. It’s certainly true that addressing this kind of topic with a main character is a gamble, because letting go of that “loss” when it’s utilized with a side character instead is a little easier; they’re not the central focus of the story, their life presumably goes on in some vague depiction, and we can still focus on the main characters who are fated to “succeed”. But that’s precisely why I think Taichi being a main character with such an arc is so important—it’s not something you typically see main characters be put through despite it being such an important obstacle that many athletes face in real life. And I realize that’s not something that necessarily all readers would be satisfied with, as this genre builds expectations in you to connect to people whom you ultimately want to see “succeed”, but I think it’s important to understand the story that Suetsugu is trying to tell and why putting these kind of stories at center stage rather than simply relegating them to the sidelines is important. It’s a subversion of the genre and the expectations that it tends to builds in its readers with the general trend of protagonists that it follows. Sometimes, we reach the end of our years in high school, and we don’t win. That shouldn’t have to diminish our efforts nor act as a final hammer to our dreams for the future. There is more to life beyond high school, and there are more opportunities to succeed and thrive, and that’s something that I can understand would be hard for readers to accept because a lot of high school sports manga are insular in their focus and don’t look to the post-high-school future or what it means for the protagonists. But just because Suetsugu has chosen to do something different and explore loss in a way that’s not terminal doesn’t mean it’s of any less value as compared to those other stories. You don’t have to agree with that subversion of genre per se, but I think saying it’s not worth portraying or that it’s something that shouldn’t be focused on within a main character is a bit of a premature conclusion, because it seems to imply that telling stories about characters who don’t succeed within a given time frame or depiction of narrative aren’t worth it at all.