@Blastaar

Matsuri's personality didn't change however she did mature in the manga as she starts to appreaciate the people around her compared to the Matsuri from before, who treats other people even her friends like her toys that she could manipulate for her own entertainment.

Mei was indeed rapey as we have seen in the anime but abusive is pushing it. We don't know for sure what kind of hell she needed to endure with Amameya that turns her from being sexually aggressive with Yuzu every time she gets emotional. Remember Mei has been used all her life by the people who was supposed to care for her. So it is only logical that she will change after spending time with Yuzu and Ume. the only two people that showed her what family and love really is.

While I find Shirapon as the most ridiculous side-character in the manga next to the Tachibana sister. Matsuri is probably the best temp antagonistic character in Citrus even if it was over-the-top because her motivation for being a thorn on Yuzu and Mei's relationship did make sense. Similar to Mei, Matsuri probaby finds Yuzu as the only person who truly cares for her unlike the arc with the Tachibana sisters, Himeko and Harumin's older sister. plus, Matsuri made Mei realized that she can't only have Yuzu as her sister, no matter how much she tried to keep their relationship that way.

last edited at Mar 3, 2018 12:14AM

Most of the time people who call Mei abusive are the ones who have completely ignored Mei's character development. Look at her. She has developed from a typical shoujo rapist kuudere to a cute & innocent kuudere who doesn't even know how to date. She can't even go to sleep without Yuzu, as somebody mentioned in a previous post. But her character development is so subtle that the people I'm talking about fail to notice it. Like Matsuri's character development was more visible and everyone noticed it. In Mei's case, you have to pay a lot of attention.

@Yuri_lvl100 Which Tachibana sister are you talking about?

last edited at Mar 3, 2018 1:48AM

Still Mei acts like a dick.

Most of the time people who call Mei abusive are the ones who have completely ignored Mei's character development. Look at her. She has developed from a typical shoujo rapist kuudere to a cute & innocent kuudere who doesn't even know how to date. She can't even go to sleep without Yuzu, as somebody mentioned in a previous post. But her character development is so subtle that the people I'm talking about fail to notice it. Like Matsuri's character development was more visible and everyone noticed it. In Mei's case, you have to pay a lot of attention.

@Yuri_lvl100 Which Tachibana sister are you talking about?

Mei's character development is subtle? LOL They're probably not reading the manga. If they can remember, Mei is the type of person who has problems expressing her feelings. She helped Yuzu in her own way. she help Yuzu in her academics, cover for her when she violates the school rules, comfort Yuzu and reassure her that there's nothing wrong about their relationship, no matter what the society might think about them, She even risk her position as the Student Council President just not to get Yuzu expelled and we all know how important the academy is to Mei.

All in all, Mei is a good person, she's not that really good at expressing herself and she did struggle to trust the people closest to her because of her family and bastard fiance. that's why she was cold AF to Yuzu when Yuzu tries her hardest to get close to her because she probably thinks that Yuzu only has ulterior motives but she started to change when she realized that Yuzu truly cares for her.

The Tachibana sisters from the school trip? Sara and Nina? The arc when Yuzu confess her love for Mei.

last edited at Mar 3, 2018 10:07AM

Mei has had plenty of character development but it's not a surprise her behaviour is still so controversial. It depends on whether she is judged by her actions or by her actions + why she does what she does. If she is judged only by her actions, honestly she is still very far from being as caring towards Yuzu as Yuzu is towards her, and this whole letter thing was of course just even more reason for negative judgements. If I was friends with Yuzu, I would have to tell her to move on and find a healthier person who can reciprocate her feelings more directly...no wonder people like Harumin so much.

OMG I THINK I KNOW WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN. SO, MEI IS GOING TO KEEP WEARING THE RING AROUND HER NECK (on the necklace) AND Then one day the Manager will see it and think that it looks familiar, and he's going to remember Yuzu telling him that the ring was for 'her lover', so he'll assume that Mei is Yuzu's lover! And then he's going to ask Mei about it, and Mei will confess and cry etc. AND THEN he'll let her go and cancel their marriage because he wants her to be happy and to be with Yuzu. So Mei will go back to Yuzu and then... I don't know what. But then I had this idea that maybe the Manager ends up inheriting Aihara academy?? Idk highly unlikely but those are my thoughts :)

I love you

I love you

Love you too!

Also what if this is just an epic acceptance story, and Mei just needs to grow the guts to tell gramps. Cos didn't he catch Mei and Yuzu in a sexual position in the beginning of the story? Yeah He expelled Yuzu, but it was cos he had the wrong opinion of her and didn't want her near Mei since she could be a bad influence. Not cos he doesn't like gays right?? Like wouldn't it be the dream ending if gramps was like 'remember when I told you that you can make your own choices?' and then Mei chooses Yuzu.

that's what this point is about. She must choose between Yuzu or Aihara legacy. Even if she chose second, she should tell Yuzu in face why she done this.

Mei has had plenty of character development but it's not a surprise her behaviour is still so controversial. It depends on whether she is judged by her actions or by her actions + why she does what she does. If she is judged only by her actions, honestly she is still very far from being as caring towards Yuzu as Yuzu is towards her, and this whole letter thing was of course just even more reason for negative judgements. If I was friends with Yuzu, I would have to tell her to move on and find a healthier person who can reciprocate her feelings more directly...no wonder people like Harumin so much.

Like I said before, Mei isn't the type of person who can express her feelings very well. But if you re-read the arc with Shirapon. Mei is boldly showing her feelings for Yuzu and wasn't afraid if everyone will see them all lovey-dovey with each other. She fed Yuzu while Ume (their mom) was busy trying to find a salad dressing, she tried to cling to Yuzu during the festival, asked Yuzu to kiss her when the fireworks began and was even begging Yuzu for more, she always wear the couple ring Yuzu gave her even when she told Yuzu that she won't wear it because it violates school rules, gave Yuzu some sort of hickey while knowing full-well that their mom is awake. it's true that Mei isn't showy when it comes to her feelings but why would Yuzu be with someone she doesn't love romantically?

Anyway, I re-read the Vol 3 Special and it was kind of hinting that Harumin might have romantic feelings for Yuzu. Matsuri told her that she can tell they both like the same person because of her female intuition and Harumin who had a hint of blush in her face couldn't answer back and immediately wants to walk off. I know it's wishful thinking but who knows? if Harumin will finally make a move on Yuzu in the upcoming chapters. but I still like Mei x Yuzu more. it will just be interesting to read because if there's anyone Yuzu is closest with next to Mei, it is Harumin. the only person she probably wouldn't mind dating after the events of chapter 36.

last edited at Mar 4, 2018 9:29AM

I actually got from the Special that Matsuri understood both Harumin and her like Yuzu as a friend and care a lot for her, not that it's romantic feelings (I really don't think Matsuri ever had true romantic feelings for Yuzu by the way, I guess it was more like "you are stealing my bff with your sexiness so I'm going to try to lure her back with sexual stuff too" kinda thing).

But hey that might be my bias because I ship Matsuri x Harumin so hard :P Yet Harumin could definitely be "final boss" if the series extends to 12 volumes, and because she is so nice, Yuzu could be happier with her in the long run. The only bad part about that would be fans not ever wanting to see a broken-hearted Harumin in case Yuzu ultimately left her to go back to Mei. I seriously think lots of people would flip out and stop reading the series, Harumin is too loved lol So it would be a very risky move from the author.

As for Mei x Yuzu, yeah I know Mei cannot express her feelings etc and been trying in the last several chapters. Again I don't doubt she is crazy for Yuzu in her own way, that much is obvious. But if we forget Mei for a moment and only look at Yuzu, she could easily do better. The only reason Mei "asking for more kisses" is seen as so impressive and "proof of love" is because she is constantly depriving Yuzu of basic affection in the first place.

As we said Mei is handicapped when it comes to feelings.

I actually got from the Special that Matsuri understood both Harumin and her like Yuzu as a friend and care a lot for her, not that it's romantic feelings (I really don't think Matsuri ever had true romantic feelings for Yuzu by the way, I guess it was more like "you are stealing my bff with your sexiness so I'm going to try to lure her back with sexual stuff too" kinda thing).

But the thing is, Harumin went silent and didn't have a counter argument when Matsuri said that and she immediately walk off to avoid the issue which only proves what Matsuri said before, that Harumin always run away from conflict to avoid getting hurt. and if you re-read the part where Matsuri teased Nene that Harumin is her girlfriend and told her that Harumin only thinks of Yuzu as a friend. she had this little text that says "As if" I don't know if she's talking about Harumin ever becoming her girlfriend or the "As if" means, As if it isn't obvious that Harumin has feelings for Yuzu. I mean, why should Harumin avoid what Matsuri said if she only think of Yuzu as her friend and nothing more. Besides,every time Matsuri opens her mouth it's always about romantic or sexual relationship and never about friendship. The way she implied it means they both like the same person (romantically). she could have worded it differently. I honestly think Matsuri would have pursued a romantic relationship with Yuzu, if it weren't for Mei.

But hey that might be my bias because I ship Matsuri x Harumin so hard :P Yet Harumin could definitely be "final boss" if the series extends to 12 volumes, and because she is so nice, Yuzu could be happier with her in the long run. The only bad part about that would be fans not ever wanting to see a broken-hearted Harumin in case Yuzu ultimately left her to go back to Mei. I seriously think lots of people would flip out and stop reading the series, Harumin is too loved lol So it would be a very risky move from the author.

Why will it be a risky move? I actually think a lot of manga and anime fans of Citrus wants to see Mei x Yuzu x Harumin. Harumin is like the only character in the manga who can compete against Mei for Yuzu's affection. We know Harumin is not dense as she wants to appear, it has been implied before that she knows Mei and Yuzu's relationship and maybe that's why she said she has no romantic interest for Yuzu. Matsuri did said that Harumin is a suspicious person.

As for Mei x Yuzu, yeah I know Mei cannot express her feelings etc and been trying in the last several chapters. Again I don't doubt she is crazy for Yuzu in her own way, that much is obvious. But if we forget Mei for a moment and only look at Yuzu, she could easily do better. The only reason Mei "asking for more kisses" is seen as so impressive and "proof of love" is because she is constantly depriving Yuzu of basic affection in the first place.

Mei begs Yuzu for more kisses because she can't contain her feelings for Yuzu anymore. She's completely acting the same way as Yuzu. Mei even starts liking the same thing Yuzu likes. Remember she ate spicy curry because Yuzu like it, even though she can't tolerate spicy food, she cuddle Yuzu and pretended that she's imagining her to be Kumagouru. Yuzu can probably do better but she's in love with Mei and Mei definitely need someone like Yuzu who has lots and lots of love to give for a person like her. Hopefully, she can reciprocate it more openly in the upcoming volumes.

last edited at Mar 4, 2018 2:07PM

Why will it be a risky move? I actually think a lot of manga and anime fans of Citrus wants to see Mei x Yuzu x Harumin.

No... Stop it.

But the thing is, Harumin went silent and didn't have a counter argument when Matsuri said that and she immediately walk off to avoid the issue which only proves what Matsuri said before, that Harumin always run away from conflict to avoid getting hurt. and if you re-read the part where Matsuri teased Nene that Harumin is her girlfriend and told her that Harumin only thinks of Yuzu as a friend. she had this little text that says "As if" I don't know if she's talking about Harumin ever becoming her girlfriend or the "As if" means, As if it isn't obvious that Harumin has feelings for Yuzu. I mean, why should Harumin avoid what Matsuri said if she only think of Yuzu as her friend and nothing more. Besides,every time Matsuri opens her mouth it's always about romantic or sexual relationship and never about friendship. The way she implied it means they both like the same person (romantically). she could have worded it differently. I honestly think Matsuri would have pursued a romantic relationship with Yuzu, if it weren't for Mei.

Gosh, this manga is so annoying because the dialogues are vague enough that they can be interpreted in whatever way you want LOL I actually read this entire part as something like, Harumin hinting that she is not interested in Yuzu that way, because she would be open to Matsuri herself. The fact that Matsuri starts flirting with her right after and from then on cemented that idea in my mind. Oh well, who knows. The "As if" I understood as, "as if Harumin would prefer Yuzu over me", like classic Matsuri being full of herself just as she used to think she was the obvious choice over Mei :P

But hey that might be my bias because I ship Matsuri x Harumin so hard :P Yet Harumin could definitely be "final boss" if the series extends to 12 volumes, and because she is so nice, Yuzu could be happier with her in the long run. The only bad part about that would be fans not ever wanting to see a broken-hearted Harumin in case Yuzu ultimately left her to go back to Mei. I seriously think lots of people would flip out and stop reading the series, Harumin is too loved lol So it would be a very risky move from the author.

Why will it be a risky move? I actually think a lot of manga and anime fans of Citrus wants to see Mei x Yuzu x Harumin. Harumin is like the only character in the manga who can compete against Mei for Yuzu's affection. We know Harumin is not dense as she wants to appear, it has been implied before that she knows Mei and Yuzu's relationship and maybe that's why she said she has no romantic interest for Yuzu. Matsuri did said that Harumin is a suspicious person.

I think people would be super sad if Harumin ends up broken hearted, she is the only character who doesn't deserve it. Also it would be cool (and original) to have a true friendship between her and Yuzu, rather than something influenced by romance.

Mei begs Yuzu for more kisses because she can't contain her feelings for Yuzu anymore. She's completely acting the same way as Yuzu. Mei even starts liking the same thing Yuzu likes. Remember she ate spicy curry because Yuzu like it, even though she can't tolerate spicy food, she cuddle Yuzu and pretended that she's imagining her to be Kumagouru. Yuzu can probably do better but she's in love with Mei and Mei definitely need someone like Yuzu who has lots and lots of love to give for a person like her. Hopefully, she can reciprocate it more openly in the upcoming volumes.

I actually never realized she was only pretending it was Kumagoro. Again, vague storytelling...Anyway as long as she reciprocates openly I am fine with MeixYuzu as endgame.

last edited at Mar 4, 2018 5:09PM

As much as I want Mei to be the one to come clean and fix things, Yuzu has to confront her first and prompt her to let out her real feelings. Yuzu is the only one who can break Mei's "resolve" whatever that means... To take responsibility for her grandfather's school since she is capable of it, and has anyone ever thought that maybe she does give an actual damn about taking over it instead of letting it crumble down. I think she'd feel sad about it closing down or letting someone else take over. She wants to be proud of accomplishing what her father couldn't. If she's doing it out of her own will like she indeed states, that's something utterly different than her acting out of "noble idiocy."

Noble idiocy and doing it out of her own will aren't mutually exclusive tho. She could genuinely want the school to be hers and be a noble idiot who thinks letting Yuzu go is her best shot at the school.

I really REALLY don't want Yuzu to be the one who triggers Mei's true feelings tbh. Yuzu has done enough. Almost every major step forward in their relationship (that i can recall offhand anyway) has been Yuzu's initiative AND now that Yuzu's heartbroken AF cos of Mei seeing her run after Mei again would make me pretty frustrated. Mei needs to grovel and make up for this, she should be the one chasing Yuzu for once.

Plus, with the time skip we've we've established Yuzu has resigned herself to the breakup. If she were gonna chase Mei it would've been right after the letter, makes no sense to have it after the timeskip. I think it's more likely that either (1) as we get closer to the wedding Mei realizes she's miserable and decides to fix things or (2) Yuzu/Mei's friends see how miserable Yuzu still is over this and go and talk to Mei/the fiance sees how miserable Mei is and talks to her about going for the future they each want for themselves, which pushes her to be braver and stand up to gramps.

It would be amazing if the final arc of this series was Mei figuring out what was really important to her and fighting to fix her mistakes.

Mei's character development is subtle? LOL They're probably not reading the manga. If they can remember, Mei is the type of person who has problems expressing her feelings. She helped Yuzu in her own way. she help Yuzu in her academics, cover for her when she violates the school rules, comfort Yuzu and reassure her that there's nothing wrong about their relationship, no matter what the society might think about them, She even risk her position as the Student Council President just not to get Yuzu expelled and we all know how important the academy is to Mei.

All in all, Mei is a good person, she's not that really good at expressing herself and she did struggle to trust the people closest to her because of her family and bastard fiance. that's why she was cold AF to Yuzu when Yuzu tries her hardest to get close to her because she probably thinks that Yuzu only has ulterior motives but she started to change when she realized that Yuzu truly cares for her.

I completely agree with your views on Mei. I did say she was a kuudere which means she has a difficulty expressing her feelings. I think Mei's development is relatively subtle, compared to the other characters. And yeah, people who ignore it haven't been reading the manga properly. The whole point of my ramble was to show that Mei isn't abusive. So I think we are on the same page.

The Tachibana sisters from the school trip? Sara and Nina? The arc when Yuzu confess her love for Mei.

I know who the Tachibana sisters are duh. I was asking which one of them did you find ridiculous.

Why will it be a risky move? I actually think a lot of manga and anime fans of Citrus wants to see Mei x Yuzu x Harumin.

No... Stop it.

Yes...please stop it.

Hey so is the anthology canon? If it's canon then based on the chapters released yesterday it's now established that Matsuri likes Harumin and that she doesn't know whether Harumin likes her back, likes Yuzu or just doesn't like anyone yet. Harumin is impossible to read.

If you have to comb through the manga with a magnifying glass to see the character development then there isn't much to actually find.

If you have to comb through the manga with a magnifying glass to see the character development then there isn't much to actually find.

Good thing you don't have to do that here unless you're paying literally zero attention.

I tried to stay away from this comment section for a while....

I'm kinda glad to see it's still as toxic as Chernobyl's contingency site...

I tried to stay away from this comment section for a while....

I'm kinda glad to see it's still as toxic as Chernobyl's contingency site...

Yeah that's what happens when a character's schizophrenic behaviour turns the MC and readers into blue-balled neurotics xD Only solution at this point is aggressive Yuzutop or Mei being run over by a truck before the wedding.

I tried to stay away from this comment section for a while....

I'm kinda glad to see it's still as toxic as Chernobyl's contingency site...

Yeah that's what happens when a character's schizophrenic behaviour turns the MC and readers into blue-balled neurotics xD Only solution at this point is aggressive Yuzutop or Mei being run over by a truck before the wedding.

Funny for you to say that. On Chinese forum, readers already made a special thread about nuking the wedding car with the manager and Mei on board. Or other way to nuke Mei... let's wait smoothly the resolution, good vibes will happen after all the drama, that the author's style.

last edited at Mar 5, 2018 1:16PM

Chill guys. Its just a manga, about some lesbians.

Chill guys. Its just a manga, about some lesbians.

So are you saying there’s something more important than that?

I’ll believe it when I see it. . .