Phew, I’m so happy – no more discrimination, bias and insensitivity in this strip. OK, there’s a bit of good, old-fashioned bullying, but since Megumi isn’t a minority, it should be okay. Well, okayer. Or do bespectacled nerds count as a minority? I’m not even sure…there seem to be more and more of us, but technically still fewer of us than of ‘them’?

OK, so it might not be quite ideal yet, but bullying Megumi should still be somewhat okayer than discriminating against short people? Especially if it’s Mopey doing the bullying, who has a kind of special license for this sort of thing*. Mostly, but not exclusively, covering Snuka. And she’s Megumi’s best friend, which means Mopey’s bullying can be assumed to be based on the concept of ‘tough love’ and to be intended to be in Megumi’s best interest in some sort of non-obvious manner.

Failing that, Mopey didn’t even pick Megumi as a bestie, she got her assigned.

And on top of that, Mopey gave Megumi every chance to resign herself to her fate and come quietly. The kind of cheery personality Mopey is affecting in panels two to four hurts something deep inside her, even in her current incarnation. Like she’s doing something that goes against a fundamental constant of her very existence. It’s not easy for her, and she still attempted it first, before resorting to bullying. If that’s not true friendship/love, I don’t know what is.

But the killer argument is that Megumi needed to be on the team because there are simply not enough other characters. Plot necessity will beat morality 10 times out of 10 in a B-movie.

More on Thursday.

*Which, by the way, she had to show to get an American-style, bullying-suited locker installed.