Kotonoha released chapter 4-7 yesterday!
---------- Post added September 07, 2011 at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was September 06, 2011 at 03:04 PM ----------
With 2/3 of the only collected volume translated, I think I like A Girl By the Sea more than Punpun. The relationship between Koume and Isobe is so petty, passive-aggressive and mean. Just like teenaged friends with benefits in real life. They both are so horrible at hiding their real feelings too. Koume claims she has no feelings for Koume, but is over at his house every day. And not just for sex, she genuinely seems to enjoy talking to him, spending time with him. He claims to have feelings for her but seems uninterested in anything but sex, completely tuning her out in between.
I love that she'll have sex with Isobe but won't kiss him. What a callous way to deny someone intimacy, to reduce sex to something mechanistic.
After the last batch of chapters it is clear that Koume is not "the girl by the sea", that it is the girl who's picture is on the thumb drive. Maybe she has some connection to Isobe's brother? Maybe not, but her picture seems to mean more to Isobe than a random pretty girls would. I wonder how he will react to Koume deleting her from his hard drive. Even if she does not like Isobe, as she claims, Koume certainly hopes to possess him. She is clearly jealous that he is looking at another girl. Not only did she delete the file, but the girl by the sea made her insecure enough that she took her top off for the first time. I wonder what consequences Kashima seeing them together will have? If a rumor starts it does not bode well for their relationship. She certainly will not have any of it, denying her interest in him publicly. And he is sure to become more passive-aggressive over her denial.