Forum › My Master & Furry-eared Girl Mel discussion

1185287_545264538860379_946420239_n
joined Aug 30, 2013

this is absolutely adorable I love it.

1585018273014
joined May 25, 2017

im dumb in love with the bird

Img_0215
joined Jul 29, 2017

Besides being cute and adorable (which is just another way of saying “Itou Hachi”), this chapter is, like, both serious development and crucial backstory.

I love the chapters of industrial-strength cuteness, but this one suggests the possibility of the story actually going somewhere.

Tumblr_mzkufvpuyp1sgerido1_500
joined Oct 25, 2014

my this story is way too adorable.

deltahalo241
Tag%20rock%20snake
joined Aug 16, 2014

"I'm not scary am I?"

Proceeds to tell young girl her entire traumatising backstory

joined Dec 10, 2017

Omg it’s being translated again!!! :D

13051743_10209394128839678_5264927321810147707_n
joined Mar 19, 2016

GanbaRuby, Mel!

Cnwdrjjvmail6tq
joined Jun 30, 2017

Omg omg omg omg i am sooo happy right now! Thank you so much for the translation!!!! Mel And Master are so cute!!! Master blushed for the first time And we finally can see why master is like that. It is such a beautiful story! Sadly Itou finished It so soon.

52722-l
joined Nov 8, 2017

This series is so cute. xD

1461894977557
joined Jun 12, 2015

Child slavery is not cute.

Photo
joined Feb 24, 2017

As far I know, this got 8 chapters (unless a 9th is already made) but this just gonna get cutier :3

1441805673401
joined Sep 25, 2015

Child slavery is not cute.

For you

Meiavatar
joined Feb 9, 2017

Having lousy day
Read Itou Hachi
Life is good

Img_0215
joined Jul 29, 2017

Child slavery is not cute.

Mel is not a slave.

schuyguy Uploader
Imura%20ei%20music%20concert%20face
Yuri Project
joined Jul 14, 2016

Child slavery is not cute.

Mel is not a slave.

Mel certainly seems to be willing, and we saw that nobody told her to do any work until she requested it.

However, the whole situation with the beastkin is either deliberately creepy or hilariously tone-deaf. They're raised in a very strict school and taught basic work skills from a young age. Then, while still children (12 or so) they're "adopted" by someone who they refer to as their master.

More than anything else, this sounds like something similar to slavery. The way the governments of the US, Canada, and Australia forced native families to send their children to dormitories so they could learn how to behave like proper civilized folk, and be taught their subservient roles in society, comes to mind.

Maybe not all beastkin are treated this way, but these are orphaned girls, and maybe all orphanages in this world operate this way, not just the ones for beastkin. Maybe the organization has very strict standards for potential "masters" to make sure none of them will abuse their wards (and they'd probably have to do continuing check-ins as well).

Maybe, through whatever means, this whole system we've seen somehow makes sense in Itou Hachi's world. There are no abuses, and all beastkin are well-treated and happy. I'm perfectly willing to accept that. We haven't been given very much information, and the story is cute. But it doesn't change the fact that what we've been presented so far looks very much like they're a subservient race whose lives are controlled by humans, who are free to use them for their own purposes.

last edited at Jul 2, 2018 8:20AM

Untitled%203
joined Feb 3, 2013

There are no abuses on screen, you mean. I recall one of the doujins was about Mel almost being kidnapped.
But yeah, I also got creeped the hell out when the author made that school background story for Mel, with implications of selective breeding. Specially since it seemed the author's intentions was to make Mel look more adorable.

last edited at Jul 2, 2018 9:30AM

schuyguy Uploader
Imura%20ei%20music%20concert%20face
Yuri Project
joined Jul 14, 2016

There are no abuses on screen, you mean. I recall one of the doujins was about Mel almost being kidnapped.
But yeah, I also got creeped the hell out when the author made that school background story for Mel, with implications of selective breeding. Specially since it seemed the author's intentions was to make Mel look more adorable.

The kidnapping appeared to be just a random occurrence, not really related to her species. Some bystanders talked about how kids were being kidnapped, and they should look out for their children. That's not really what I'm talking about.

But now that I think about it, if you include the doujins, then some of the shit her master pulls would certainly be considered abusive if it happened in real life.

Anyways, I'm fine with it, it's just a story, and it's cute. It's just kind of funny to think about. It's even funnier when you consider, like you said, that it seems like the whole dormitory thing was written with a complete lack of awareness of how it looks.

last edited at Jul 2, 2018 11:04AM

Img_0215
joined Jul 29, 2017

There’s no doubt, as I have said here before in some detail, that there are marginally creepy and disturbing undertones to certain aspects of this story. There are other aspects that may or not be disturbing except we don’t have much information about them (like much of anything about beastkin families of birth, for example), and since Itou Hachi as a storyteller never seems particularly interested in detailed world-building, we probably never will.

Age-gap stories always involve a certain degree of squick, and it would take some much more mathematically minded person than I am to calculate the squick-multiplication factor of an interspecies, same-sex, age-gap, unequal-social-and-economic-status relationship.

That said, some of the discussion here reminds me of the question that came up about Nakatani Nio’s “Commearication”—does fondling a person’s fox ears count as sexual? It’s just kind of hard to extrapolate the ethical implications of that from everyday life because human beings don’t have fox ears.

(I hope that last assertion did not require a spoiler tag.)

last edited at Jul 3, 2018 3:50AM

Untitled%20design
joined Jul 13, 2016

I’m just wondering whether all works of the author are in the same universe (well not taking sayuri and kindred spirits into account). Because in other works the Beastkin are portrayed to be from some far away country that are distinguished by their ears and their acceptance of gay-marriage, not that they’re bred selectively to be sold as slaves. I thought Mel was just from an orphanage of some sort but oh well, maybe I’m just mixing things up or don’t have them correctly in mind :c

Img_0215
joined Jul 29, 2017

I’m pretty sure that in this case, Itou Hachi’s creative process went something like:

  • There should be little girls with furry ears and bushy tails. Cute ones.
  • And in a maid costume.
  • If a maid, then a boss, who is a woman, because yuri.
  • The maid should climb up on things then slip and fall so the master can catch her. Cutely.
  • The maid should be an orphan or something like that. A cute one.
  • You know what else would be cute?—a cute yet mildly S&M collar to go with the cute maid costume.
  • A cute grandma to bring tea.
  • Butterflies.

Without denying in the least the somewhat disturbing nature of the implications of this story’s premises, I think the detailed social, economic, and cultural substructure of this fictional world is way down the list of the author’s priorities for this story.

In short, the primary answer to the question “where do the beastkin come from?” is: from Itou Hachi’s desire that there be cute little girls with furry ears and bushy tails wearing maid’s aprons.

And yuri. Cute yuri.

schuyguy Uploader
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Yuri Project
joined Jul 14, 2016

Agreed. Itou Hachi knows enough to prioritize the important aspects of story-telling.

Hana3
joined Mar 22, 2018

I'm sorry, but I have to firmly disagree. I think butterflies would have to be above cute tea grandma, in Itou Hachi's mind.

Img_0215
joined Jul 29, 2017

I'm sorry, but I have to firmly disagree. I think butterflies would have to be above cute tea grandma, in Itou Hachi's mind.

Oh, granted—that was just a back-of-the-envelope list. I would remind you, however, that without grandma Collette we don’t have someone to cover Mel and Master with a blanket when they fall asleep together on a bench in the garden.

Just saying.

OmegaBlue0231
joined Jan 11, 2018

I like this chapter, her friend is the real voice of reason.

Capturedsfdsss_x213
joined Mar 16, 2018

Hey, the world runs on cute grandmas

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