History WebComic / RedString

* FalseDichtomy - The end of the comic acts as if Makoto must choose [[spoiler: between continuing his relationship with Miharu or breaking it off for the sake of her family.]] The problem? The comic doesn't actually present any reason why Makoto needs to choose between them, as he can easily have ''both.'' [[spoiler: Miharu's parents only tell her they're worried she isn't serious about her relationship and she'll break Makoto's heart and chase him away from the restaurant.]] The obvious resolution is simply [[spoiler:Miharu and Makoto telling them they're serious about the relationship. Something Makoto clearly already knows since he decided to propose to Miharu, thus marrying into the family which would immediately soothe any concerns about him leaving her family in the lurch. Instead, he phrases it as Miharu having to choose between him and her family.]]

** By the end of the comic, Miharu became this for Makoto. Any personality traits she had had before their hook up vanishes and she becomes a limp noodle that caves to Makoto's wishes, no matter how absurd. In the end, MIharu become the very thing she didn't want to be: a nail that gets hammered down.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion - This was played completely straight - Aiko is openly promiscuous and irresponsible, so naturally she hits up her boyfriend's fmaily for money for the abortion. Because she's bad, she even laughs off the idea that getting an abortion is serious. In contrast, Reika's mother refused to have one despite Reika's father trying to pressure her into it - to the point that she entered a loveless marriage just to make the pregnancy work. [[spoiler: And just to further highlight what a good girl Reika is, she naturally never even considers abortion when she thinks she's pregnant. She just assumes she and Eiji will raise the potential child.]]

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion - Aiko is definitely ''not'' a good girl.
** [[spoiler: But Reika's mother ''was'', insisting on keeping her even if it meant going into a loveless, ultimately doomed marriage.]]

* BrokenAesop: Red String is supposed to be about love and growing up, though the later chapters of the comic show almost everyone (including our heroine) acting like immature, whiny, TooDumbToLive teenagers who seem to have confused infatuation with true love and not progressing that much in their relationships.

* BrokenAesop: Red String is supposed to be about love and growing up, though the later chapters of the comic show almost everyone (including our heroine) acting like immature, whiny, TooDumbToLive teenagers who seem to have confused infatuation with true love and not progress that much in their relationships.

* EntitledToHaveYou: Makoto does this to Miharu in his first appearence. As many readers pointed out, he never stopped either - and people enable him left and right. [[spoiler: Then again, since even the ''author'' felt he was entitled to Miharu, it's hard to argue with his logic.]] Kazuo is the only person that ever calls him out directly on this behavior. [[spoiler: The story does this, not to highlight that Makoto still acts entitled to Miharu by virtue of never leaving her alone, but to make the reader feel bad for Makoto for being insulted.]]

** [[spoiler: Makoto originally made no mention of how he was going to afford to quit his job and fly all over the world and wine and dine with Miharu. This led to the obvious conclusion that his parents were basically letting him quit a job they'd invested a lot of money and time into and were on top of that paying for him to screw off with the owner's daughter.]]

** She also openly announced the redraw of a page at the end where [[spoiler: Kazuo forced a kiss on Miharu.]] The original drawing made it appear akin to a rape attempt, complete with [[spoiler: Miharu wiping the kiss from her lips]] and the author explaining to the readership that this was intended to have consequences for [[spoiler: Kazuo]]. After a solid evening of angry tweets, e-mails, and pleas from genuinely upset rape victims who expressed the forcefulness of the scene had triggedered flashbacks, Gina admitted she'd failed as an artist and redrew the page to a tamer scene that showed [[spoiler: the kiss was mutual.]]
* ParentsAsPeople - The adult cast is well fleshed out and have their own problems, quirks, and character flaws.

* OnlySixFaces

** Yosue Makoto manages to get away with stalking Makoto and, in the climax, [[spoiler:aggressively confronting Kazuo behind Miharu's back]], without punishment or discovery in the latter case.

* ConflictBall: In Chapter 51, [[spoiler: Miharu's parents learn about her relationship with Makoto. Instead of being supportive as they've been shown to be in the past, they suddenly inform her that this would be a problem with their finances and insist she break up with him]]. It comes completely out of nowhere as up until this point in the story, there was ''no'' indication that [[spoiler: they were having financial problems.]] After passing the ball to her parents, they [[spoiler: reveal that they're just worried she'll break Makoto's heart if they break up and make things awkward.]]

* EasilyForgiven - In Chapter 50, [[spoiler: Reika unilaterally breaks up with Eiji due to her own insecurities over a [[TeenPregnancy pregnancy scare]] combined with [[FreudianExcuse her fear of Eiji becoming like her father]]. After receiving no explanation and a very cold shoulder for a length of time, Eiji speaks with Reika once in the following chapter and all is peachy again.]]
** In the only posted free epilogue resolving the open Kazuo plotline, [[spoiler: Kenta of all people, after his wife divorces him and moves out. He feels really sad about it, shows up at their house unannounced when Kazuo is there, and apologizes for hurting them. The resolution is not played out, but Kazuo's reaction is to give his dad another chance and it is heavily implied that both Emi and Kazuo are going to forgive him.]]

* KarmaHoudini - There is a notable pattern of [[spoiler: Reika acting mean or unfair towards Eiji, ''Eiji'']] apologizing, and [[BetaCouple the couple returning to normalcy almost immediately]].
** After acting like a creepy stalker who overstepped his boundaries one too many times, pretending to be Miharu's friend just so he could be close to her and being a possessive jerk, you would think Yosue Makoto would have been put in his place by this time. Nope! All of his "flaws" are brushed off and he is never given a proper tongue-lashing for his very deliberate and selfish acts. He even gets to date Miharu for no reason other than the plot demanded that he be rewarded. By the end of the comic, he even [[spoiler: quits his job in favor of dating Miharu full time. Apparently his parents are not only okay with him completely embarrassing them by quitting a job they arranged for him just so he can date the daughter of one of the owners, they're going to pay for him to travel the world with her. Miharu's parents, who had previously worried that something exactly like this would happen, don't react at all. Meanwhile, the guy has already secretely visited Kazuo, thrown Kazuo's abusive home and suicide attempt in his face as weaknesses, and learned from Kazuo that Miharu was given an offer to leave with him. He does not tell Miharu any of this. Instead, he makes all of the job-quitting arrangements without informing her and drops the invitation to travel with him in her lap, clearing intending to one-up Kaz. Miharu still does not know about this and he has thus far continued to lie to her about knowing. Instead of calling him out on how similar his request was to Kazuo's, she accepts his proposal for travelling and marriage.]]

** In the only posted free epilog resolving the open Kazuo plotline, [[spoiler: Kenta of all people, after his wife divorces him and moves out. He feels really sad about it, shows up at their house unannounced when Kazuo is there, and apologizes for hurting them. He is welcomed back with open arms because apparently one apology makes all the physical and mental abuse he heaped on his family okay.]]

* CosmicDeadline - Once it was announced that only 15 pages of the comic were left and Miharu [[spoiler: still hadn't ever indicated breaking up with Makoto ''or'' indicated any continuing indication of wanting to date Kazuo again, anyone who could count was slamming their heads on the wall when the story was still trying to pretend, with a mere five pages left, that she might have somehow dump Makoto and date Kazuo again.]]

* TheyDo - Reika and Eiji eventually get together. Also, Kazuo and Miharu finally have sex after several misses. [[spoiler: Of course, both couples have since broken up.]]

* TitleDrop - Aside from the numerous mentions of red strings in the comic, the chapter "Crash and Burn" had one of the characters say this near the end of the storyline.

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler: The entire ending of Red String can be summed up with this. We're supposed to think that Miharu and Makoto being together/engaged is a great, wonderful thing and there is nothing wrong with it. But what will they do for income? Where will they live? What happens if Miharu get pregnant? What are their long-term goals? Makoto just threw away a very good job just to be with her, which many fans considered to be a stupid move. Reika and Eiji don't seem to have really resolved anything or grown from their experiences, only confirming (in the eyes of fans) that Reika will continue to act immaturely and Eiji will have to protect her from reality.]]

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Many people have pointed out that besides enjoying cooking, jewelry making and being from a rich family, Yosue Makoto has no other definite personality traits outside of being obsessed with Miharu. [[spoiler: In the final chapter of the comic, faced with a dilemma that his job MIGHT complicate his relationship with Miharu and learning that a rival has made her an offer to leave with him, Makoto chooses to quit his job to make "dating Miharu and eating food with her" his full-time job.]]

* IdiotBall: More and more characters progressively laid hands on this ball towards the conclusion of the comic. Special mentions go out to Reika during her pregnancy scare and Makoto during the final story arc.

* IdiotBall: In Chapter 51, [[spoiler: Reika]] discovers she might be pregnant because she's late with her period. At no point in the entire storyline does she ''ever'' seem to go and get a pregnancy test. Nobody in the story tells her to get one either - everyone acts as if she's pregnant and starts worrying about the consequences. [[spoiler: She turns out not to be pregnant, though the story never says why - she's ''still'' never shown to have taken a pregnancy test or spoken to a doctor, and we don't even know if she got her period.]] After this, her logical response to discovering the results? As revealed in Chapter 52, it's to [[spoiler: break up with Eiji because she's afraid he'll resent her if she WAS pregnant.]] At no point does she consider that [[spoiler: ''breaking up with him over a false alarm is also a really terrible thing to do to him.'' Nor does she realize that the simpler solution would be both of them ''not having penetrative sex'' until they were ready to start a family.]]
** After the ConflictBall she gets smacked with in Chapter 51, Miharu decides to start juggling an IdiotBall since [[spoiler: she doesn't even bother to ask them to explain ''why'' dating Makoto would be a problem since up until this part of the comic, there was no indication the family was in any kind of dire financial straits, nor do they actually give a reason why her dating Makoto would cause problems with this.]] She then passes the ball to Makoto, who decides that [[spoiler: rather than actually talk to them or his parents to resolve why their relationship that he apparently values more than the restaurant would be off-limits, he decides to simply date Miharu in secret...which would naturally cause ''further'' problems as her parents are also technically still his bosses and at some point they're going to find out.]] Rather than do the obvious and simply tell them [[spoiler: either that she and Makoto are serious enough to not do that or that Makoto is capable of handling that,]] Makoto, without even consulting Miharu first, [[spoiler: announces in front of her entire family that he will just quit his job entirely so, in his words, Miharu won't have to choose between her family and him...except that they weren't forcing them to choose their relationship OR the restaurant, they just wanted them not to cause drama and him quitting to date their daughter instead is literally the exact thing they were afraid of happening. Then it gets even dumber when the penultimate page of the comic is Makoto proposing marriage to Miharu, which she accepts...which means ''Makoto quit the restaurant for no reason at all'' since he's still marrying into their family!]]

** After acting like a creepy stalker who overstepped his boundaries one too many times, pretending to be Miharu's friend just so he could be close to her and being a possessive jerk, you would think Yosue Makoto would have been put in his place by this time. Nope! All of his "flaws" are brushed off and he is never given a proper tongue-lashing for his very deliberate and selfish acts. He even gets to date Miharu for no reason other than the plot demanded that he be rewarded. By the end of the comic, he even [[spoiler: quits his job in favor of dating Miharu full time. Apparently his parents are not only okay with him completely embarrassing them by quitting a job they arranged for him just so he can date the daughter of one of the owners, they're going to pay for him to travel the world with her. Miharu's parents, who had previously worried that something exactly like this would happen, don't react at all. Meanwhile, the guy has already secretely visited Kazuo, thrown Kazuo's abusive home and suicide attempt in his face as weaknesses, and learned from Kazuo that Miharu was given an offer to leave with him. He does not tell Miharu any of this. Instead, he makes all of the job-quitting arrangements without informing her and drops the invitation to travel with him in her lap, clearing intending to one-up Kaz. Miharu still does not know about this and he has thus far continued to lie to her about knowing. Then again, even if he somehow doesn't get the girl in the end, it's a rather minor problem since his parents are clearly going to take care of him no matter what he does.]]