While I continue to enjoy this series over all, and I do realize who the actual audience for this series is, I can't help but continue to be bothered about the treatment of women in this volume in particular. I have said it before and I will say it again, this series would be better served by having no female characters rather then using them as a signal to the reader when Hikaru is up against a weak player. The fact that Hikaru loses to a girl Insei is only to show us just how he really is starting from ROCK BOTTOM.

That said, at least he (and the people around him) do not fall into the same braggadocios crowd as the characters in Bakuman. This seems to be because the author herself is a somewhat overly (IMHO) self-deprecating woman. This could be very well why the female characters are so sub par. Although I'm only the most armchair of psychologists. This strikes me as more tragic then infuriating, which is probably another reason why I continue to read rather then throwing the whole thing down in disgust. IDK we all read and enjoy things we don't 100% agree with or find totally edifying.