July 6th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Spotted Flower Chapter 12 (Manga)
Spotted Flower manga chapter 12 review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
NOTE: For the purposes of this and future reviews, until the characters are given names, I will call the “not Saki” woman “Oku-san” (a term for a wife) and I’ll refer to the “not Madarame” guy as “Danna–san” (a term for a husband). For this chapter, I’ll refer to the “not Hato” guy as “Trap-san” since he’s in drag for this chapter.
Danna-san meets up with his former club kohai, Trap-san, who’s a famous, porn manga-ka and doujinshi artist who’s circle gets a wall spot at Comifest. Trap-san gives Danna-san the very rare doujinshi that he’d been wanting, after having pulled some strings to get it.
Trap-san shifts the conversation to Danna-san’s wife and her pregnancy. Danna-san discusses it, leading Trap-san to remark that Danna-san hasn’t been with a woman in some time. Danna-san is embarrassed, but Trap-san presses forward, remarking that he knows that his sempai can’t get excited by a pregnant woman, thus he offers to take care of things for Danna-san. When Danna-san starts panicking, Trap-san says he’s joking, saying he knows that Danna-san couldn’t and wouldn’t do such a thing since he’s spineless.
When they part ways, Trap-san makes sure to get physically close to say goodbye.
Returning home, Oku-san is surprised that her husband has returned so quickly. When he reveals the doujinshi, she remarks that it could have just been mailed to him. She reasons that Trap-san just wanted to meet with him, which Danna-san agrees with. He asks if that’s OK with her, which she’s fine with, but seeing as how Trap-san left his perfume on Danna-san’s coat, she understands he’s flaunting it at her and that he hasn’t given up on her husband.
Thoughts/Review:
Ah, another very wrong but humorous chapter from Kio-sensei.
So now the “not Hato” character shows up. The “not Madarame” character sure is tolerant of a lot. Were it me, and someone (male OR female) I was not attracted to kept hitting on me, famous or not, I just wouldn’t want to be around them. I can be friends with anyone, but personally, I like a LOT of personal space. So, even joking about breaching that space if I’m not interested in that person in that way would make me highly uncomfortable, and would make me want to keep a greater distance from said person. If the “joking” continued after I had made it clear that I was uncomfortable with it, then our friendship would be over. (And I’ve done this many times in the past, but it was all woman.)
That brings me to Danna-san in this chapter. Much like Madarame in Genshiken, he comes off as uncomfortable to a degree when he’s teased in the fashion that Trap-san teased him here, but he seems to set that aside, whether the teaser is male or female, he has no problem remaining that person’s friend. Even if Trap-san wasn’t a famous, porn manga-ka and doujinshi artist, Danna-san would still be friends with Trap-san, no matter how much Trap-san hit on him.
In a way, it makes his already puzzling relationship with his wife even more puzzling. I still cannot fathom how he hooked up with her in the first place. I can understand why he’d be attracted to Oku-san, but even as Trap-san pointed out, Danna-san is spineless. So what got him over the hump to ask her to marry him? (And that doesn’t even begin to address why she looked at him and said, “I’ve got to have me some of that so I can have his children.”)
Still, Oku-san knows the score, even if her husband is clueless (or chooses to be blind to what’s going on). I guess she knows her husband won’t do anything, so there’s nothing to worry about.
As always, it is fun seeing where this alternate universe manga goes from here. ^_^
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Lol i love the fact it was a trap. that one line make the whole chapter go from serious to deadly funny instead XD
I agree. ^_^
I’d personally disagree with !Hato’s assertion. In some situations, it could be true that refusing to engage in an affair demonstrates that a person is spineless… but I would think that at least the majority of the time, the spineless one would be the person who “goes with the flow” and bends to the will of whoever is closest at the time.
I hear what you are saying, but if that were true, then how’d he end up with anyone? Or rather how’d he not end up with everyone?
I guess it would have been clearer if I had said that this specific facet of this particular incident didn’t demonstrate that !Madarame was being spineless. Which is about as carefullly-guarded a statement as I can compose, and doesn’t say a lot for !Madarame. (^_~)
Declining something that he doesn’t want (and we don’t have any good evidence that he does want it), whether it could get him in trouble or not, is the opposite of spinelessness – at least inasmuch as he was willing to decline the offer per se. But on the other hand, his passive consent to !Hato acting this way in the first place demonstrates a good deal of spinelessness all by itself.
Frankly, his passive consent to !Hato acting this way seems like a bad omen to me, wrt his relationship with !Saki… but that would be another rant. (^_^);
Ah. I hadn’t thought about it like that, but that’s a good point.
It certainly isn’t a good thing in Genshiken. Still, it doesn’t say anything good about !Hato by having him not give up on !Madarame, even though !Madarame had gotten married and is clearly heterosexual.
Urgh, this chapter is f****ng disturbing!
The close-ups on “not Hato” ‘s lips, his eyes, his “joke” and finally his scent…seriously, what the hell ?
Ok, he still loves “not Madarame” but hitting on him while the target is straight and has a pregnant wife is 100% wrong.
“Not Hato” seems to be so sad and jealous that the looks like he’s on the verge for committing suicide or even worse (killing “not Saki”, page 3 speaks for itself ).
I hope we will see a “not Sue” character one day.
I didn’t get the feeling that “not Hato” was on the verge of committing suicide, but I agree with the sad aspect, especially clinging to something that can never be.
That would be awesomeness and a half! (Or at least, that’s how I imagine it.)