Ogawa Yayoi - Tramps Like Us, vol. 04-08 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

Reading five volumes in a row may have been a mistake, as nothing much happens and the interaction does get a little repetitive at times. On the other hand, I still love the Momo-Sumire relationship so much

Comments

Spoilery comment

[marfisa]

I think you may have actually gained a more objective overview of the series by reading so many volumes in a row. I say this mostly because your perspective on Hasumi is rather different from mine (I've pretty much been reading the volumes one by one as they came out over the past two years), although logically, when I think about it, your view does make sense. Based on what the readers have seen of him, especially in recent volumes, Hasumi does seem a lot more understanding and likely to be tolerant of her so-called imperfections than Sumire gives him credit for. Of course, having grown up in a family where she apparently couldn't do anything right, even before more recently being effectively punished for her "unfeminine" level of competence and achievement both on the job and by her ex-fiance, it's hardly surprising that Sumire appears to find it inconceivable that any man more theoretically eligible than the apparently homeless slacker she semi-accidentally adopted as a "pet" could ever be seriously interested in the real her--

Re: Spoilery comment

[marfisa]

Speaking of which, that was definitely one of the more blatantly contrived and plot-driven developments in the story--and it was an end-of-volume cliffhanger, yet. But at least Ms. Lee did have some shred of relatively plausible motivation, however unjustified, for pulling that stunt. Obviously it was irrational for her to take it out on Sumire--and, indirectly, Hasumi--because she was bitter about being impregnated and ditched, albeit not by Hasumi. But at least it makes somewhat more sense under the circumstances that Ms. Lee would lash out because she was jealous of Sumire, and resentful of Hasumi's having apparently gotten more serious about this new rival than he ever had about her, than it did for Mayumi, or whatever the heroine's alleged best friend was called in "Absolute Boyfriend," to trash her relatively average-looking friend's reputation and make a play for her boyfriend just because she got some kind of sadistic kick out of habitually stealing other girls' boyfriends, regardless of how the girls or boyfriends in question