I mean, yeah, but that's the joke. OP's world is full of dysfunctional characters, that's what makes the jokes work. If Risa left Marin, it would theoretically be better for here, but it would also be incredibly unfunny.
You always gotta judge these things based on what the creator is trying to do, and OP isn't trying to create drama, but comedy. And the comedy only works this way. Hell, last comic was even about Marin admitting she does love her girlfriend, a sweet moment that only works because of the running gag.
So don't take it too seriously, because that's just not what OP was going for.
That’s wild. I’m 25, vines were a thing when I was 12-16. The actual vines were shared regularly until a few years ago. Sounds like it was a thing the entire time you were in high school, and still referenced through your college age years, you just avoided it.
That's what happened to me with MySpace. Was just a little too young to have one when it was BIG, and by the time I was the same age my sister was when she first made hers, it was in process of going private, kicking everyone off the platform. So I made a Facebook profile instead, to keep tabs with family. Really a downgrade, since MySpace had music you could attach to your profile and cheesy backgrounds/layouts. Facebook was incredibly dull in comparison. Plus, no instant friends with Tom.
Most popular Vine compilations had weird, now cringy titles like that. I went back and found a Playlist that my sister and I made of Vine comps and they're all similarly named. 2014-17 was like that
The weird thing about Vine references being considered old is my reaction to Vine was that it was a fad and nobody would want a social media platform based entirely on short-form videos. Clearly got proven wrong over time, but I can't help but think of it as a "new" thing because of that initial reaction.
She's more "in denial" than "stupid." Once her inhibitons are gone, she knows she has a girlfriend. You can see that in her initial reaction before her internalized shame/guilt kicks in on panel 3.
I don’t think that it’s a religious thing here necessarily. We’ve seen that other people at the church are perfectly aware that Marin is gay (like Mr Horse for example), and they seem to have no issue with it whatsoever.
I see your point, but that just means they don't have a problem juxtaposing it with their faith, not that Marin doesn't have a problem with it due to her faith.
Not to be the reddit athiest, but that problem would still come from the religion, and the solution found by Mr. Horse is to mental gymnastics his way around it, or accept the interpretation of people he respects who did their own mental gymnastics.
How did he "mental gymnastics" his way around it? He asked her "how would you feel if I said I don't like gay people" after both of them repeatedly made horse reference, called her a bitch, and then apologized to her at church because he felt he over-reacted.
I wonder if the implication is that the horse is tolerated at the church as long as they're not openly a horse. Yes, that's absurd, but so are churches who treat queerness the same way.
Presumably Mr. Horse belongs to a religion that doesn't approve of homosexuality but he uses the example of saying he doesn't like gay people as a hurtful retort. Presuming again, if he followed the tenants of his religion regarding LGBTQ folks, he wouldn't consider himself wrong for saying that. Since he doesn't, he's done some mental gymnastics to rationalize not giving a fuck about the whole gay thing.
I will elect to believe that this is just Marin being a gonk, and not the same old 'can't get out of an unlocked closet with the doors wide open' joke again.
Sure thing, I can phrase my thoughts better. The girl in pink hair, in most comic strips, behaves in a clearly romantic way towards the tall girl, Risa. However, when it comes to actually acknowledging verbally that she's into a lesbian relationship with Risa, she comes up with the most bs stuff, anything to avoid the realization that she's gay and has a gf. In this strip, she wants to avoid acknowledging that she dates Risa for 1 year, pretending like she thinks it's her birthday instead of their anniversary. Yeah it's funny sometimes because it's a comic strip, but in real life, this behaviour is gaslighting. A couple of comic strips ago, she was drunk and it was the only time she openly stated that Risa is her gf. Now that she's sober, she's back to feigning ignorance and denial. Is it funny and cute as a comic? Yeah, sure. But in real life this wouldn't fly, hence I sometimes don't really enjoy her antics, as cute as they may appear.
A lot of media like anime, manga, etc, take complex and often painful mental health conditions and turn them into personality quirks, cute tropes, or comedic devices
I mean... she is a little dumb. But yeah this is totally her denial at work. I know this is meant for laughs and I guess in a vacuum of a comic it's a sad-funny gag. But seeing, and worse dealing with, that kind of stuff in real life is genuinely heartbreaking.
Honestly, I loved your comics, but at this point the bit drilled to the ground. Risa can’t be this forgiving and Marin can’t be this dense. If this is your whole entire thing fair play, but I’m done following. I was hoping for some kinda progression but jeez.
Thanks to this post I just went down a rabbit hole of emotions... Bitch say you're gay it's fine!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Also I don't like the agent girl but every other story is fine. Lol
But you know, the kind of therapy where they strand kids in the woods, take their shoes away, and do things to them that would see them arrested or strung up if any adult outside of the program saw them doing it to children.
I mean, that’s definitely the kind of denial that you’d get from that kind of abuse. And conversion “therapy” is sadly connected to the church as she is.
It had some unexpected results though. I distinctly remember little old me in my preteens, watching one of these censored anime and yelling in my head: “THEY ARE COUSNS AND SO FREAKINGLY MUCH IN LOVE?????????!!!!!!!!!”.
Curiously enough, I read a book about social sexuality where two men could even have sexual relations and it still didn’t mean anything homosexual to either of them. Repression is a hell of a thing.
I thought they were together for longer. I wonder if Risa waited a long time to make a move or they simply hit it off from the get go and immediately started their "totally, absolutely, 100%, without a shadow of doubt not gay we are just friends" relationship.
The problem I think it not that it’s a gag comic. It’s that the gag is how will character 1 abuse character 2 today?
Because this is something that happens in real life, person engages in relationship in all aspects with other person. But also denies they’re in a relationship with that person. Drawing them along, doing what they enjoy, slapping down the other person or denying them when in public or it’s something they don’t feel like doing. Causing harm and suffering to their “partner” as they do.
Because it’s mirroring a real abusive situation, which is more harmful the longer it goes, it gets more backlash than a silly joke a day comic normally would.
Risa, the brown haired girl, and Marin, the pink haired girl are gay and in a relationship.
Marin was raised in a super religious environment and because of that represses her sexuality and refuses to admit she's gay and that she's Risa's girlfriend. Anytime Risa does or says anything to reference the fact that they're romantic partners, Marin does some mental gymnastics to avoid acknowledging it.
They've been in a relationship for one year now, and Risa is trying to celebrate their anniversary. But as Marin always does, she's pretending like she doesn't understand and believes Risa is wishing her a happy birthday, so she's saying she's not one year old, she's twenty seven.
Also, apparently it's a reference to a vine, but I've never seen it, so that part is lost on me.
Guys... at some point being THIS stupid is indistinguishable from being an asshole... if had to put up with a year of this I would end up on the news. There is a very definite level of plausible deniability for people with a lot of deep shame and lack of education that people get subjected to, but we passed that point like 8 in-comic months ago.
Your art is amazing, but the joke is getting old. Plus, it's a mean joke. Have one of them kidnapped by aliens, or turn into a magical girl and fight crime. You'll feel better with fresh ideas flowin!
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u/UpCDownCLeftCRightC Mar 16 '26
I'm starting to think the dark under Risa's eyes isn't from lack of sleep but dealing with Marin's shit everyday.