This is just obnoxious at this point.

Better this than endless slice of life with subtext.

Welcome to angst folks. We have a nice dispensable wall over here with over 500 china to choose from. Smash shit to your hearts desire.

This is definitely heartcrushing, but therein lies the hope in the first place. The sheer fact Shou has been explicitly doping us up on angst only to poison us centered around the pain of broken romance means that he is not only making it clear that he is intentionally making the focal centerpoint of the story around the two in a ROMANTIC sense, it also means that most of the best storytelling techniques advancing from here involve something far more heartlifting and satisfying.

I don't think I need to explain the first part to clearly, I know most here can see and clearly understand that fact. The second is just iterating a commonly employed but superbly effective tactic to soak in the audience: wrench their hearts dry, soak 'em back up even better. The more effective and ingenious the storytelling, the better effect this has on audiences (usually accompanied by a deluge of tears).

...but I think it's worth pointing out that if I didn't walk away from my computer for a few hours, my comment would probably be spewing a litany of derogatives and curses and Shou since that would accurately reflect my mindset immediately after reading this >.<

Jesus Christ this manga

its almost painful reading the amount of subtext in this. I'm hoping that its finally going somewhere now with the two of them moved out, though it'll probably just be the both of them angsting about not seeing each other. though we're not married lolol just friends

It would be nice to see how this finishes. I reckon it'll end in a non committal way, like the two go through whatever backstory issues they have and then move back in together. But we won't be told if its as friends or as partners because lol this is Stretch

This is not the last chapter yet..I'm still hoping for something to happen..there's no yuri tag here either..but I'm really f*cking hoping...

Shou is reading this comments. And laughes all the way to the bank. The wink at "spouses" shows he knows perfectly how the readers feel about the relationship between the two. He knows what they want, but it doesn't mean he's going to give it in a straightforward way or quickly. Or at all.

last edited at Oct 1, 2015 3:05AM

so is it confirmed anywhere that stretch will be ending soon?

so is it confirmed anywhere that stretch will be ending soon?

It's just the end of the volume. All the rest is speculation. None ever said it's over.

What just happened... D:
WHAT
JUST
HAPPENED
D:

What just happened... D:
WHAT
JUST
HAPPENED
D:

Plot?

What a shock!!!!

so is it confirmed anywhere that stretch will be ending soon?

It's just the end of the volume. All the rest is speculation. None ever said it's over.

Oh shit, really?

So when's the next entry expected?

so is it confirmed anywhere that stretch will be ending soon?

It's just the end of the volume. All the rest is speculation. None ever said it's over.

Oh shit, really?

So when's the next entry expected?

October 15.

Still not understand what you guys are talking about.
Keiko moving was mentioned chapters ago right ? What's so suprise about that ?

the fuck is this. why is this happening again? I know they mentioned it but the reason seemed vague...

Also I feel a time skip coming. :(((

Still not understand what you guys are talking about.
Keiko moving was mentioned chapters ago right ? What's so suprise about that ?

It wasn't mentioned, it was implied, very poorly at that. People had to go back to read it through to see the signs after the chapter about Keiko moving was posted. I'm guessing most of the people frustrated at this development don't like it because it came out of left field for them (and me), it's like you're watching a comedy and suddenly the apocalypse happens and you don't know why the hell it did, because there was no sign of it happening :P

bighandxyz

so is it confirmed anywhere that stretch will be ending soon?

Come to think of it, when did we last have a chapter with pages of stretching in it??

What a shock!!!!

Said Mikasa with a surprised tone of voice.

I wonder if the readers in Japan are as obsessed about it as we are... I think they might be just men that happen to read that magazine and not really care about it... ;_;

I wonder if the readers in Japan are as obsessed about it as we are... I think they might be just men that happen to read that magazine and not really care about it... ;_;

This manga has very good rates on the site. And I think it's more a josei aimed at women than aimed at men.

Five bucks on it ending with friendship-ness.

One thing I want to share with you from this morning.
What if Keiko decided to move out not because of work but because she broke up with her ex now? Implying she was sticking to the room where they started living together and even though she herself rage-quit the relationship after the miscarriage and after being told off by her mother, she still hasn't released her ex deep down in her heart. So now that she did break up, she decided to take a step back from everything, her ex, her apartment, her work, and kinda start from scratch. I mean, even though I stroke this through in my earlier post, but she actually did reply to Saki, "What I really need to do now is to do my best at work and take a step back". This "step back" could refer to having issues at work, e.g. a career change etc. But what I thought it really meant was Keiko's decision to really rewrite her own life kinda.

And it's interesting that in response to that Saki says, "Well, if the two of you are bound by fate, then no doubt you'll meet again, this way or another". It's interesting how she speaks about Keiko and her ex here, but how it actually projects to Keiko and Ran who met in Tokyo under such crazy circumstances. So I think this pretty much settles the ending for me. There's drama now, drama I've been waiting for months already, and drama which I totally love for the emotions it brings, but I certainly still believe in the happy ending.

Nooooo!!!! Noooooo!!!! crying in a corner

that was depressing

I wish I could say this was unexpected. But it wasn't.

So Ran and Keiko got together because of their own life circumstances, bouncing off each other, with Ran teaching Keiko stretching and obviously even falling in love with her.

And then they part.

The only question that remains for me is why Ran never told Keiko how she feels about her.Then again, one-sided loves that are never expressed are pretty much a staple in these kinds of stories.

I don't know whether there will be another volume. If not, I actually find this ending kind of fitting, although very depressing. If there will be another volume, then Ran and Keiko had better be together by the end of it!

last edited at Oct 1, 2015 9:37AM