I feel like there's gotta be something going on in page 8 that I'm missing with Kishibe just staring at Denji for awhile before responding, especially with the little flash on the top middle panel
Remember: during their movie date, Makima said that it was worth watching dozens of bad movies to find that one good one. So she was lying to his face and now he knows it.
At the start Makima appeared to be a great person. But as the story went on more and more of her personality was revealed until we have reached this point, where she appears to be a sociopath.
So at the beginning, people liked her because she looked great and was saying good things.
But now people like her because she is a great villain or because they are into the type of relationship. There are also a few who just think she is a great character in general, but not someone you should date.
I personally am of that last opinion. Similar to how Yuno Gasai is a great character to read about, but would make for a very scary real world relationship.
@Temperans Thanks for the insight!
The way you phrased it makes the reasons for liking Makima appear very depended on the individual readers perception of her.
Like, for me she appeared very shady right from the start. I felt like she was trying too hard to appeal to Denji and on top of that she did it in a very mechanical way, like she tried to appear human. I already got stuck really early on the assumption that she's either not human or a psycho- or sociopath. Then again, a lot of the cast appear emotionally scarred in one way or another, so Makima only appeared slightly more weird than the rest of the crew, which didn't make her stick out too much.
As for the great villain part, I'm not sure yet. She does seem good at playing a long manipulative game, but it's kinda hard to gauge how much credit she should get for that, because her control powers just seem so immensely powerful right now. I'm still wondering what forces opposed her so that she had to play this long game instead of just curb-stomping everyone in her way. There are a lot of puzzle pieces already to answer that question, but I can't really put everything together yet.