There Was a Cute Girl in the Hero’s Party, so I Tried Confessing to Her - Chapter 59

I think Yuuga is a great example of toxic masculinity.

Hear me out, I’m saying this as a sociologist, not some left-winged nutjob.

Yuuga is told countless times what his problems are, and consistently bottles up his emotions and never presents them in any meaningful capacity to any of his party members- you know, the people he was adventuring with for years. He only recently opened up to Youki, and even then he didn’t really want to change his actions, he was looking for acceptance from another man.

On the other hand, we have Mikana. She’s been head over heels for Yuuga for a looong time, and Yuuga has had a codependent relationship with her from the get go. Without Mikana, Yuuga can’t regulate his emotions, and is the whiny brat we see 90% of the time. Mikana has gotten so used to this that her being with Youki as his emotional dumping ground is normal to her.

Yuuga literally says “If I mess up 99 times, scold me 100 times.”
He’s already placing the emphasis and blame on her before they’ve even officially gotten together!

Even at the end, when Yuuga got the king and Mikana’s parents to agree to the proposed marriage, he did that without consulting anyone, and he only did it because he had to. If Yuuga and Mikana were regular people and didn’t have hero status, wouldn’t he just be seen as someone creepy and obsessed?

This plays into the end, where we see that the entire time, Yuuga wants Mikana, despite him not really bringing anything but baggage to the table, at least in a mental sense. Continuing to harass Mikana after that firm rejection wouldn’t be seen kindly in most cultures nowadays! Yes, I am comparing the culture of this work of fiction to that of generic Western Europe, because it doesn’t bother to distinguish itself from it.

I think the writer knows this though, and makes Youki and Cecilia act as best they can with Yuuga: uncomfortable yet slightly supportive, lecturing Yuuga like a child because they are having to take Mikana’s place temporarily as an emotional coach.

Anyways, cute chapter!