Most Japanese women don't seeing as how the average age for a Japanese woman to marry is 29. Seems to be just an excuse to repeat the plot from volume 1.

Most Japanese women don't live in rich and upper-class society. The rules aren't the same. It's the same problem, but not the same plot.

There's a good illustration of that in Gokujo Drops. The main character wasn't brought up in a so-called "high class" household, even though it's later revealed that her dad isn't poor at all, and thus the idea of omiai isn't something she's ever encountered. However, to the girls who come from wealthy families at her school it's almost routine, although in a lot of cases done just for show and they have the choice to refuse candidates. A nice illustration of differing social expectations.

I stand corrected then, it's just the idea that late marriage means that there aren't any pressure for marriage altogether seemed a bit wrong to me.

last edited at Feb 21, 2018 11:22AM

Ive been reading up on it a little more. According to Wikipedia, even though Omiai isnt exactly a full arranged marriage and more like a job interview, only 6.2% of Japanese marriages in 2005 were arranged via Omiai. This is a significant decrease from a top estimate of 30% in 1998. If anything it seems times are changing, hopefully Yuzu can force this kind of change into the Aihara family.

I'm just going to copy and paste an excellent analysis of previous volumes and how they tie with Mei's letter made by an insightful anon at /u/

Volume 1 - Had Harumin explain how relationships between girls worked at their school and established the deal with fiances. Also had Mei's grandfather as a huge influence on Mei.

Volume 2 - Yuzu learned of Mei's troubled upbringing and dedication to the school from Himeko. Then Shou shows up and we're given the message that there's no one way to live your life.

Volume 3 - Matsuri is there to trigger Mei's jealousy to get her to pursue Yuzu. And while the reader is made to doubt Matsuri's observations, most of them about Mei do ring true to some extent in hindsight.

Volume 4 - Shows that Mei is willing to try to run away from her problems.

Volume 5 - Mitsuko forces Yuzu and Mei to make hard choices, but also introduces the concept of creating your own path with a strong will. Volume also showed how much Mei loved the school, even having to hide her grandpa's photo when kissing Yuzu in his office.

Volume 6 - Yuzu and Mei's relationship intensifies and the ring is given to Mei, which triggers her deeper feelings. Mei acting awkward while comforting Yuzu in the library now has a more negative meaning in hindsight.

Volume 7 - Mei starts actively trying to figure out if she loves Yuzu. By the end of the volume she realizes that she does.

Volume 8 - Sexual tension reaches its peak and is really the "calm before the storm" of volume 9.

Volume 9 - Everything starts to go to hell when Matsuri learns of Mei's engagement. Their friends worry and ponder their future, Yuzu is oblivious to why Mei is acting weird, while Mei is obviously torn. Eventually the guilt overwhelms Mei when Yuzu is thinking of their future together, so timeskip to after Mei bails in order to fulfill her duties. We get a short "where are they now" of the rest of the cast.

last edited at Feb 21, 2018 12:30PM

We saw this

I genuinely do not know what this is doing like this feels like something from 30 years ago
Japan actually has a higher marriage age than the US so I don't know I almost think in fact it's probably true that this is mostly for drama and that we are overthinking this we need to stop thinking about how realistic this is and just think how can more drama come about

last edited at Feb 21, 2018 12:40PM

I'm honestly just glad that people are finally cutting the whole putting the blame on Mei (since she's being dutiful and honestly her situation is hardly in her control) and putting the blame where it really stand: Her father. Sure, he was portrayed positively in the whole "following your dreams" aspect of this manga, but he's being highly irresponsable by saying fuck it all and leaving everything in his daughters hands. What did he expected by putting all the pressure into a -highly mature but still - teenager girl?

@auikimaya

it's true that Mei's father is a selfish prick. He left all his responsibilities to Mei. but I don't think it will stop his grandfather from setting up an arrange marriage for her. (On a side note. it seems that most of the Citrus anime viewer likes Shou which is nuts.)

Everyone was just really shock when they read chapter 36 because almost nobody expected Mei to choose the arrange marriage. the time skip made it even worst. tbh the only thing that came from my mind was how can Mei do that to Yuzu and I'm sure that's what everyone was thinking after reading it.

last edited at Feb 21, 2018 3:50PM

I'm honestly just glad that people are finally cutting the whole putting the blame on Mei (since she's being dutiful and honestly her situation is hardly in her control) and putting the blame where it really stand: Her father. Sure, he was portrayed positively in the whole "following your dreams" aspect of this manga, but he's being highly irresponsable by saying fuck it all and leaving everything in his daughters hands. What did he expected by putting all the pressure into a -highly mature but still - teenager girl?

It is actually even worse than that, because Mei was in primary school when he left, his leaving caused her quite severe emotional damage that was never fully patched up. And before he had his sudden 'revelation' and decided to say "fuck it all", he was actually quite strict himself, and impressed upon Mei the whole duty/legacy significance. Then one day out of the blue offered her to abandon it all with him. What was a child her age to think?

An adult travelling the world, engaging in 'philosophical' soul searching, lol. Which, as some pointed out, would have been fine if he was a bachelor without kids, but when you are doing this knowing full well your responsibilities have now fallen on your young daughter, it is a shitty move. He is her father, for fuck's sake.

I guess the audience (though I suspect this was probably more prevalent amongst the western fans) just liked the idea of him throwing away the chains of his birth and upbringing too much to really delve into negative consequences of his actions, since I saw very little animosity directed at him (contrasting with the grandfather, who is for many Lucifer incarnate).

last edited at Feb 21, 2018 4:02PM

OK, I’ve seen several different numbers in the discussion here, and I’m terrible both at math and at matching up Japanese grade levels to equivalent ages, so let me ask: in the latest chapter,

How old is Mei?

How old is Yuzu?

They're 16/17 probably, if they started in their 1st year of high school, being 15, and one year passed since the beginning of the story, that would put them at 16yo~.

last edited at Feb 21, 2018 4:44PM

universally upsetting

I really hope chapter 36 is not the end of the CITRUS story. I waited so long for the next chapter and it turns out to be like this. My heart felt down. I hope there an turnover for this story.

Can't we just rename the series in: "How to break Yuzu's heart in nearly every chapter"?

I guess the audience (though I suspect this was probably more prevalent amongst the western fans) just liked the idea of him throwing away the chains of his birth and upbringing too much to really delve into negative consequences of his actions, since I saw very little animosity directed at him (contrasting with the grandfather, who is for many Lucifer incarnate).

That's the thing that puzzles me: Even thought the grandfather is taking a decision for may disregarding her agency, he's doing it out of duty. Meanwhile, mr. free spirit just went ahead and said "fuck it all" and left all responsibilities to his very immature and extremely damaged daughter, and somehow Mei's at fault for being damaged as fuck. I don't know man, I'm not saying her leaving Yuzu like that was the right thing to do (Far from it), but it makes sense to me her reaction and decision, once you put everything into consideration.

Expecting Yuzu not to chase and come after her... Stupid Mei.

At this point, it feels like Mei has become the Justin Bieber/Taylor Swift of Yuri manga/anime world; its just so much fun to hate on her. Everybody just jumps on the bandwagon of hate without even considering the damaged nature of her character or the fact that she is suffering so much. Why so hate? Because she didn't turn out like her f**ktard father and is actually a responsible human being?

At this point, it feels like Mei has become the Justin Bieber/Taylor Swift of Yuri manga/anime world; its just so much fun to hate on her. Everybody just jumps on the bandwagon of hate without even considering the damaged nature of her character or the fact that she is suffering so much. Why so hate? Because she didn't turn out like her f**ktard father and is actually a responsible human being?

It's all a question of whether you can excuse Mei's actions or not. If you see what she is doing as "being responsible", and understand that she's a deeply flawed character with lots of issues of her own, you might be able to "excuse" what she is doing to Yuzu. But that would require the reader to be sympathetic towards Mei, which is just not something a lot of people can do, seeing as she is not a relatable character all things considered.

And therein lies the issue. If you only see Mei's actions for what they are and not why they are (which is the way most people judge other's actions towards themselves in their day to day lives) you can only see Mei selfishly benefiting from somebody being in love with her, while not having the decency to tell them the truth before the inevitable meltdown, hurting the other person deeply in the process, and in the end instead of putting in the effort to help the other person understand, she just leaves them to deal with the pain alone.

So the real dilemma is deciding between which of these two questions hold more weight:
Did Mei have compelling reasons to do what she did? and
Did Mei end up taking everything she could from their relationship and severed it at a point most beneficial to her, disregarding the other person completely?

Most people seem to see the second question as more important than the first one, hence all the hate.

Why so hate? Because she didn't turn out like her f**ktard father and is actually a responsible human being?

What Silfay said, I'll just add that we are, as readers, supposed to feel what the MC (Yuzu) is feeling. What she is feeling is betrayal from the one she loves(d?) the most, it hurt. Since not everybody is as strong as Yuzu, they end up hating the one who hurt Yuzu (them by proxy?) : Mei.

Some people wanted Yuzu to find somebody else. I dread the prospect of seeing another love triangle, but this time with somebody who seduces Yuzu and make her forget Mei...

The fact that Mei decided to date Yuzu, give her hope for the future, while fully knowing that one day they would have to break up the entire time makes it very hard to be sympathetic to her. I can fully understand people hating her, not because of her duty to her grandfather and family but because of the way she played with Yuzus heart.

The fact that Mei decided to date Yuzu, give her hope for the future, while fully knowing that one day they would have to break up the entire time makes it very hard to be sympathetic to her. I can fully understand people hating her, not because of her duty to her grandfather and family but because of the way she played with Yuzus heart.

To be fair, Mei resisted the relationship for a long while. It was Yuzu who aggressively and persistently pursued her, even though she should have known how unlikely it was to turn out well.

To be fair, Mei resisted the relationship for a long while.

Mei has been Little Miss Conflicted from Day 1–it’s her defining characteristic (along with being unable to communicate her feelings directly—how many important conversations have Mei and Yuzu actually had while looking each other directly in the face, rather than one speaking into the other’s back, or them sitting side-by-side looking ahead, or with a stuffed bear in between them, etc.?). At least when they kiss they have to look at each other.

In all kinds of stories, when the protagonists get in crisis, we look to see who can potentially intervene for them—who knows what they need, and who would be motivated to help? In this story, only a handful of people even know what the problem is at the moment, but the list of people who might potentially help is basically every character in the manga except Rapey First Fiancé and Mr. Almost-Compensated Dating Guy (with the good guys even possibly including Gramps, once he finds out what the real deal is).

I think the immediate narrative strategies getting us to this point have been both very abrupt (the reintroduction of the arranged marriage problem) and quite clunky (sudden time-shift + Dear Yuzu letter when the narrative had been crawling along—how long were we at that freaking fireworks festival?—and depicting important scenes directly). But when it comes to characters who could possibly help save the day we have an embarrassment of riches.

last edited at Feb 22, 2018 9:02AM

To be fair, Mei resisted the relationship for a long while. It was Yuzu who aggressively and persistently pursued her, even though she should have known how unlikely it was to turn out well.

I know Im repeating myself from my first post but the most recent episode of the anime compliments the current manga events quite nicely. In the most recent episode Yuzu asks Mei if she can hope for their relationship to become anything more, of course Mei shuts her down with the classic "no, we are both women and sisters."(I would have liked to see her reveal her eventual engagement here since that would be a bigger barrier than their genders and legal family relation.) That should have been that, but then as soon as Mei sees Yuzu getting close to someone else she drops the excuses and goes on the offensive. I just can't forgive her for doing that to Yuzu. It would have been much easier for Yuzu to get over her then but Mei disregarded Yuzus eventual heartbreak because of her jealousy.

Enjoying the happy moments in the Anime is much harder knowing full well what comes next in the story. It just makes Mei look more and more like the bad guy.

last edited at Feb 22, 2018 9:38AM

That was when Mei just play with Yuzu feelings.

@themusicman500 Exactly. Mei knew she has to get married someday and this relationship won't turn out well. So she tried to overcome her and back away from accepting Yuzu's feelings. But she couldn't help falling in love with her. I mean, who could.

@Silfay Yes, I do sympathize with Mei, but I'm not saying everything she has ever done to ruin their relationship is justified or excusable. I'm just with her on her latest decision. I didn't like it when she sexually harassed Yuzu, even if it was a plot point & she had reasons for it. I didn't like when she was constantly putting off Yuzu when she wanted to be just ''sisters''. I didn't like it when she didn't tell Yuzu about the impending marriage thing. Maybe she didn't even know it herself until they came back from the trip (chap 34, grandpa's call) idk, but still. But she made a right decision (at this situation) by choosing to go on with the marriage. I'm just saying people should not hate her based on this decision. The time skip was stupid though, but for that SU is to blame not Mei.

In the end, Mei is just a human who is prone to mistakes. Even if she acts like a very mature Ojou-sama, we know how innocent and childish she is (just remember Matsuri arc, chap 22 or vol 7,8). She is just a teenager, you can't blame her for not taking decisions like an adult.

Also, Mei didn't play with Yuzu's heart, she wasn't the one who made Yuzu fall for her. It was Yuzu who just fell in love with her after a forced kiss (I'm not justifying it, I didn't like this development anyway). Its not like Mei just went on and thought ''Dis bish bimbo af, Imma jus play wid her heart and break it wen I'm bored of her lol.''

@Yuri Queen Mei went on the offensive? Where? The only time Mei's acting ''offensive'' is in her interactions with Matsuri. She never directly confronts Yuzu in any way, except the shoujo hug in ep 7/chap 9 and chap 12. Heck, she even goes on a compensation date with a old fart after Matsuri blackmails her, even though she could have told Yuzu the truth. After Yuzu rejects her in chap 13, she never approaches Yuzu by herself again. It is Yuzu who chases her in chap 16. So tell me, what was ''offensive'' here?

last edited at Feb 22, 2018 11:35AM