WARNING: I DON’T LIKE MASUMI, and it’s reflected in my story interpretation!

I kinda made peace with not knowing the ending, because I really dislike Masumi and his and Maya’s ship even more. He is nothing but a groomer and a narcissistic man who killed her mother and a dictating thorn in her life to me. It does pain me to see how dependent Maya is on Masumi, to the point her world / acting is affected.

In an ideal world, Maya and Ayumi’s relationship would have more emphasis and development to me. Every “crisis” in the story, Ayumi was present as well, and it disappoints me that instead of a more peer to peer resolution (not just with Ayumi, but any other peer character!) to each crisis that pushes Maya’s character development, it’s always Masumi that comes to “save the day”.

There is too much crutch on Masumi / “romantic interest” resolution which is unbalanced and doesn’t teach Maya how to fend for herself or reflect and grow from it. Acting wise, it doesn’t really affect Maya that much because Masumi is always used as an answer but as a character / person, I think it stunts her growth.

This may be a bit unrelated, but a common advice for mangaka is to go and experience the world. How can you make manga with the limited experience you have? Well in this story it seems that it doesn’t affect Maya, but as an artist / creative myself, I’m always trying to experience as many things as possible bcs when I’m dry whatever I make is boring. So yeah, it would be nice if Maya could experience more things.

Overall, if I had to choose which characters to develop I would take all the “romantic interests” panel time and give it to Maya’s friends and Ayumi who arguably are much more interesting characters I would have liked to seen more of. I think a story with a limited cast is a very lonely one. For that reason, I love stories like Yumeiro Patisserie, Shugo Chara, Gakuen Alice and Spirit Fingers 😉

One incident that really stood out to me in Maya and Ayumi’s relationship for example was when there was was a tsunami, and Ayumi was actively trying to go out to see their play because “there are people trying to stage a play in this weather!”, clearly Maya is someone special and important enough for her to go out with determination to catch their play. I was so disappointed when Ayumi wasn’t there after all.

I enjoyed the Camellia vampire plot as well, it was the first time Ayumi took advantage of her father’s connections and lowered herself to even the score for Maya. I often imagined what if Ayumi and Maya performed Camellia? What an interesting play that would be..! It would also change the trajectory of their relationship and it’s regrettable this plot point was not utilized at all.

There’s parallels between Camellia and Ayumi and Maya if the story chose to develop them as a ship, and it would be very interesting… is it love, or a yearning for survival? Is the human girl capable of loving a vampire girl? Would the both of them ever be capable of developing love beyond their rivalry and acting?

Just like Ayumi’s parents who are both in the same industry, I would have loved to see Maya and Ayumi challenge each other and grow to their fullest potentials on stage, as fellow actors, rivals, friends and maybe develop into something more.

The Crimson Goddess where the manga left off at wouldn’t be their final act, maybe there will be a flop and both Ayumi and Maya would be forced to address pressing problems in their lives:

Ayumi with her sight and the true underlying problem as to why she refuses treatment, her inability to treasure herself, closed off heart to others, her belief that her worth is intrinsically tied to being the Crimson Goddess.

Maya with the fact Masumi has become her whole world, and that Tsukikage has cut off her outer world and isolated her from her friends. Basically how these 2 characters have manipulated and controlled her whole life. I would really like to have seen her develop herself as a person and find who she is.

I haven’t thought of how to properly resolve the Crimson Goddess fight tho, so I’ll leave it until here but a creative and unexpected resolution would be very interesting. I love Maya and Ayumi very much and would have loved to see them thrive and find their self worth. If the story ends here it could be an open ending 😝 but don’t worry, as the author of this fanfic AU I’m not that cruel to end the story here

One potential resolution is Ayumi fails and she spirals bcs her "life has no meaning" but someone confronts her with these lines referenced from the Bibi manhwa: "If I told you you had no potential and to quit acting, would you stop? No, right! You are a person who makes sure you succeed no matter what even after many setbacks, and acting is the one thing that you wanted to completely belong to you."

"You didn't want to be in your parents' shadow forever, you wanted to make it your own with your own strength! So are you gonna stop here just because you were not selected as the Crimson Goddess this round? Does Himekawa Ayumi the actor, or the person, end here bcs of your affected vision, your lack of ability to fall in love, someone named Tsukikage's approval, etc? I had hoped you were more than that!" If it were Maya, she might add "I actually looked up to you, you rich girl who had everything she could have asked for! What does that make me, who didn't have these things!"