It also shows how far Kurosaki has come in his acceptance of himself and his relationship to Teru. That said, this incident I'm dancing around does provide an opportunity to show more than Teru's ability to freak out and recover. Not that we shouldn't try to be strong, just that we shouldn't let ourselves get carried away into thinking that a few self-defense courses are all we'll need in life to be safe, or that we'll always think clearly when we're taken by surprise. Yes, this could be viewed as encouraging the 'damsel in distress' but if the first girl admitted to The Citadel (a previously all-male, elite military school) had to have the physical requirements changed because there was no way she could reach them, I think that says something about women in general compared to the strength of men. When Teru is knocked off-balance by events, it's nice to see it play on her insecurities for a while. Much as we of the female persuasion would like to believe we are strong enough to handle anything, it's not true. My favorite part of this volume, though, was how Teru dealt with weakness. Combined with the way Motomi Kyousuke has aged Kiyoshi as time goes by, making him a teeny bit more bishie, I'm looking forward to this sub-plot more each time I see it. Rena, for all her arrogance, has a good heart, and Kiyoshi, for all his hatred of the elite, is smart enough to see beyond the surface with her. The growing relationship between Kiyoshi and Rena could have been really improbable, but because those two met through Teru and hang out near each other because of Teru, it actually works very well when they start talking by themselves. Kurosaki himself is slowly changing from a guy who would act like a jerk to make sure there was distance between him and Teru, to a guy who can occasionally lean in close and sniff the perfume she's wearing without saying something that will completely ruin the moment. She's still intelligent, even in her more insecure moments, and she's still pretty funny, especially when she tries to seduce Kurosaki after a makeover by her friends. Now, in a series like Dengeki, you can start off a volume with Teru and her friends summarizing everything that isn't shown and having her friends lose it when they find out she hasn't even so much as kissed Kurosaki and it'll be called 'breaking the fourth wall'.

The advice? Cut out their observations and make the story move. When I started writing several years ago (as if I'm some expert) I heard that the moment your characters start talking about how the story isn't moving, that means the story isn't moving.

Dengeki daisy vol 1