#responding to this ask about komaba made me realize that i dont think ive spoken about ayame very much on this blog

[komabaichirouu]

listen i know arakawa vehemently refused the idea of introducing a love triangle/a love rival in silver spoon

but heres the thing

she already did

her name is ayame minamikujou

she is introduced as mikage's childhood friend. shes loud and condescending and annoying. but most importantly she is viscerally jealous of hachiken's spot in ezo ag because it means he gets to go to school with mikage.

she believes he took the place that belongs to her. she treats him poorly. refuses to remember his name and picks whatever number comes to her mind instead. to a point that becomes ridiculous. like what the fuck is this

she shows zero respect towards him but she. compliments mikage a lot? under the guise of being a rival of course but like we know how gay rivalries tend to be. she shows a lot of faith in mikage's abilities and pushes her to be better. she's even the whole reason mikage becomes less nervous and competes as well as she did.

i dont have the panels but did i mention that she founded an equestrian club at her school and is its only member? going through all that trouble just to see mikage in competitions? probably getting hounded by faculty to get more members or to give it up? all that for a girl? interesting. very interesting

anyways the day hachiken collapses she drops by to be a general nuisance, but when aki asks for her help, she calls her dad to bring her horse with zero hesitation

the second she hears aki intends to go to college, she decides she wants to go too (once again under the guise of "competition", which is fooling absolutely nobody by now)

when she fails and shingo pushes her to try again, she complains that it means she would be aki's junior.

what this means :

a- confirmation that just like many other things literally her only motivation is to be with aki

b- as pointed out by hachiken, she fully believes that aki will get in through her recommendation

when aki's recommendation is accepted she brags about knowing aki had it in her all along. and like, she's right. she believed in mikage the whole time (even though she shows it in her weird ojou-sama ways)

bonus: she hates men

the entire thing is hilarious in and of itself (imo she is THE funniest character) but what makes it funnier is the idea that arakawa didnt put in a love rival at the request of her editor, just to write a character that is essentially a mockery of the idea.

even funnier than that is the fact that hachiken was sitting there, worrying sick about the possibility of aki and komaba being together because of a few misunderstandings, when this girl is essentially claiming that she will steal his gf whenever she's on the page

ok ive spoken my truth time to hide away for a few more months