Alright, I guess this one requires a larger dose of ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ than most. The thing is just that this sort of ‘externally engineered romance’ is such a staple of high school comedy manga and anime that I just needed to have it in here. For old time’s sake!
I admit that the whole concept is dated, and realistically Mopey and her besties would never go to this sort of effort in this day and age. Realistically, they would simply create a fake Grindr profile for Hiroki and then let nature run its course.
But where’s the fun in that? It’s much better to do this the old-fashioned way…treating it as a serious operation, planning and scheming, identifying the objectively best partner for Hiroki, more planning and scheming and then – shenaningans! That way, not only will Hiroki and his new partner be happy at the end, but our three fujoshi will also be happy and proud of their handiwork: a relationship that is a true work of art, not influenced by nature.
So the three set out to do all of this the right way. Starting with the first step: Stenciling the name of the operation onto a brown file folder. That’s, like, key. If you have a folder like that you and everyone else will know that this is serious business.
Mopey defines the general objective, and then Megumi narrows that down to a specific target, using highly rational and scientific methods. And all of the data she has available, which is usually the downfall of this sort of approach. But perhaps not this time, because there’s actually quite a bit of data to go around. The PE grades are probably an excellent predictor for potential as a cricket player, and the girl-curated list of homosuspicion likely also boasts high accuracy…sure, a few guys might be on there on the basis of innocent mishaps or misunderstandings, but by and large… And then there’s the list Hiroki supplied himself, which is an excellent…opportunity to change the subject.
Anyway, the guy in the scientifically accurate crosshairs turns out to be a yankii/troublemaker/teenage delinquent type. Because that makes sense in character terms, on basically all of the three levels that Megumi based her calculations on. But mostly because it makes things a lot more difficult for Mopey and Co., and what’s a plot without complications? Plus, if Hiroki and this guy (Youichi, by the way) do end up together, they’ll have lots of gap moe.
More on Thursday.
Sometimes the ideal strategy is not to go for ideal guy and consider option 2 and 3.
No no, let’s see where this goes.