I don't get why people are complaining about a perfect ending, sure it's cheesy but you edge lords gotta have a happy ending one in a while...especially since it's rare in the yuri world

I don't get why people are complaining about a perfect ending, sure it's cheesy but you edge lords gotta have a happy ending one in a while...especially since it's rare in the yuri world

If I can add my two cents, it's because there's no indication that her friend was interested in girl in the first place. We can always justify it by saying there's bi people, but the story didn't take time to show it.

I guess I can excuse it since there's a (big?) time skip, so perhaps the friend learned of unknown feelings for the MC during that period - even if it apparently happened when somebody else confessed to the MC (the mirror about the start of the main story is funny).

So yeah, it's happy but it looks a bit forced.

Now, who is thirsty? LOL

Since this was featured, I read it all in one sitting.

This is like Girl x Girl x Boy, except from an alternate dimension where it's shit.

Yea, I read it too because it was featured, but I'll stop at chapter 10. It isn't doing it for me. People saying the ending is forced? I felt like the whole story was forced right at chapter 1. But that's just me tho~
:))))

I don't understand why this was featured when it took so much flak when it was scanlated.

I liked it :)

i didn't get to read it when it first came out and reading it all in one sitting, I can say that it's actually a pretty good series. Most of all the butt-hurt hate comments are probably because the story was released chapter by chapter, causing a lot of subtle things to slip by. I do agree the dude is a jerk but I think it really does represent how people act in real life when "they tease the person they like". He also thoroughly annoyed me, but I wouldn't hang around people like that in the first place.

And Mako does start showing that she likes Youko after the past tense confession, although quite subtly. I mostly think the reason why this story is featured because it shows the growth in their characters between Youko and Maki. Youko starts out with her inferiority complex and directed hate towards Rude-pai. But she grows up and learns to get past her inferiority complex, even if it's just a bit. Maki learns to embrace her appearance and gains self esteem. Both stand up for each other and are there for each other when they are teased by other people. The rude-pai is still rude but he apologies. The best thing that could happen is that he swallows his feelings and leaves without causing more problems.

In the end it was a nice tied up story.

This was set up like the typical shoujo where there's a love triangle and the main character is constantly teased and bullied by a jerk, but her being upset and hurt is actually ~tsundere~ and she gets with the boy after all...

I love that it didn't go that route. It took the path and setup and style of one of those, and it explored it from the perspective of a main character who genuinely wasn't slowly falling for the jerk. I love even more that it took the chance to go the route where this was what made her realize that she loved her friend. Felt like the story actually respected Youko's feelings, even if it feels like Maki didn't for being her best friend.

I agree with RuneHex, it tied up nicely.

I don't understand why this was featured when it took so much flak when it was scanlated.

Most likely, that's why it was featured.

Idk. I liked it when it was being released. Characters felt realistic and the way it turned into yuri was unexpected but a nice surprise. I don't really care it was rushed or w/e since they ended up being together.

i didn't get to read it when it first came out and reading it all in one sitting, I can say that it's actually a pretty good series. Most of all the butt-hurt hate comments are probably because the story was released chapter by chapter, causing a lot of subtle things to slip by. I do agree the dude is a jerk but I think it really does represent how people act in real life when "they tease the person they like". He also thoroughly annoyed me, but I wouldn't hang around people like that in the first place.

And Mako does start showing that she likes Youko after the past tense confession, although quite subtly. I mostly think the reason why this story is featured because it shows the growth in their characters between Youko and Maki. Youko starts out with her inferiority complex and directed hate towards Rude-pai. But she grows up and learns to get past her inferiority complex, even if it's just a bit. Maki learns to embrace her appearance and gains self esteem. Both stand up for each other and are there for each other when they are teased by other people. The rude-pai is still rude but he apologies. The best thing that could happen is that he swallows his feelings and leaves without causing more problems.

In the end it was a nice tied up story.

It had an issue with focus. A very bad one. Instead of dealing with instrospection and her acceptance of the main character's sexuality as it's main premise, that story takes the backseat to the actual story, which focusing on coming to terms with the fact your best-friend-then-girl-you-like fell for someone else, and how not to hate that someone else despite the fact they're also kind of a bully. It usually should be the other way around, that should be a subplot or backstory, but instead it takes preponderance over the entire manga.

It's probably easier to digest if read in one sitting, since that way you're less likely to be burned by if you finish reading in like half an hour. in episodic release, though, you had rude sempai being main focus, and waited a couple weeks to see rude sempai was STILL the main focus. And believe me people did notice the subtle hints, them being the main reason they kept back for the next chapter in hopes of the story improving, taking a turn in focus; but, again, they were subtle hints, of somethign that should taking the spotlight.

last edited at Feb 14, 2019 6:35AM

This was a lot of fun, but I've never seen a yuri story try so hard to fail the bechdel test before. It's like every scene that didn't have keita in it was about him instead. Is this what viewers of het rom coms go through every time?

last edited at May 26, 2019 12:47PM

I would've preferred if the junior girl won in the end and Maki remained a friend. The skip from "friend with a crush on someone else" to "loves her back" was too jarring and kinda ruined it for me.

Reread this in honor of Stella Record ending, and I still really like it. I think a lot of the hate this manga got is due to misplaced expectations -- basically people expecting this to be a yuri romance manga. Lemonade is a yuri manga in the sense that Youko is in love with another girl, but it's not a romance manga. Rather it's a coming of age story, focusing mainly on Youko's character growth. Her crush is an important part of her growth, but it's important inasmuch as it creates in her new emotions that she doesn't know how to deal with. While the plot is largely about Maki's unrequited love for Keita, the story is about Youko learning to deal with her jealousy and resentment to support Maki and at least to understand Keita, even though she never stops hating him. I think this manga does an excellent job depicting subtle growth and maturity for all of its middle school characters; it feels very real and grounded to me, which I very much appreciate because romance manga, particularly ones that take place in elementary or middle school, are so often highly idealized.

I also, honestly, quite like how the manga uses Keita. Like @MegaWallflower says, it has the setup of a typical "male lead is a jerk to the MC and she claims to hate him but really likes him" -- Pikari and Naomi even accuse Youko of this directly -- except Youko legitimately does hate Keita and never really warms up to him. Keita's teasing of her isn't a meet cute, it permanently ruins any hope of him building a positive relationship with her, romantic or otherwise. I think that's really interesting! Youko eventually coming to recognize that Keita isn't actively malicious and has positive qualities, yet never making up with him or becoming friendly, is a real rarity when love rivals are almost always either pure evil or future friends. Even a lot of adults are unable to admit the humanity of those they hate and Youko developing the ability to do this is one of my favorite parts of her character arc.

The last chapter admittedly is pretty out of place with the rest of the manga -- thematically it probably would've been more appropriate for Youko's first love to be unrequited and for her to try out dating her kouhai instead -- but as an epilogue that rewards its characters with a happy end I think it serves its purpose well enough.

Anyway, that's my opinion of Lemonade. If you happen to be reading this comment and haven't read the manga, give it a chance! Just don't expect it to be something it's not.

last edited at May 12, 2023 2:49AM

No matter what happened, I just wanted Youko to end up with a gf, cause she deserved it. This was definitely a fun, cheesy story to read, with funny moments and cute art. I wouldn't mind coming back to this in the future.

this was soooooo cute I can’t it was perfect