Can you imagine, if that's why she decided to hurry up the wedding? Yuzu's face lmao
Well, if Sabu pairs that up with Matsuri then pushing Gramps down the stairs upon receiving the news of Mei's pregnancy, I'm down.

Then Shirapon’s yakuza crew bursts in . . .

Inspiration for the scene (except in this case the yakuza are there to kill Udagawa's family, Udagawa and Gramps). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upwg6JMtyCg

what would make you think that Mei is pregnant?
The plot.

I mean…
She left for a whole year, it's nine months of gestation, she could practically have given birth.

The point of the timeskip was to show that Yuzu and Mei are still in love even after months of being apart. Also, to have Matsuri attend the academy post-time skip in order for her plan to sneak into the Udagawa mansion to work, since it required Matsuri to be wearing an Aihara Academy uniform.

I'd also like to point out that Udagawa thinks of Mei as still being a child, since he wants to put their arranged marriage off so she can finish school and graduate before Mei is forced into any kind of commitment.

And Mei's goal isn't to have a baby, it's to take over the academy and run it.

Add in the fact that chapter 41 seems to be the final chapter based on the Yuri Hime magazine preview, and it's very unlikely such a drama would be introduced in the finale. The author constantly mentions Yuzu and Mei's happy future together as a couple in her author notes for the volumes, so the story will obviously end on a very happy note for them.

last edited at Jul 22, 2018 11:35PM

Suigetsu posted:
The author constantly mentions Yuzu and Mei's happy future together as a couple in her author notes for the volumes, so the story will obviously end on a very happy note for them.

Meibot: I am currently creating a smaller unit

Yuzu: It's fine, we will raise it together :')

The End

And the Loser Lesbian Award goes to...

Sorry if someone has already asked this question and had it answered.

I was under the impression that Citrus was going to go for 50 odd chapters. Does anyone know why the sudden (or at least I'm assuming sudden) change?

Citrus having 50+ chapters was only a rumor. What happened was a new fan read the series on a certain manga site that counted the volume bonus chapters in the chapter count. Then that person spread the misinformation that Citrus would be over 50 main chapters long since they didn't realize the volume bonus chapters were being counted in the total.

This has become a fairly widespread rumor since it was spread around on social media so much, so I'm expecting quite a bit of shock once chapter 41 comes out.

last edited at Jul 23, 2018 2:12AM

Is Mei a trap?

And the Loser Lesbian Award goes to...

Y-Yuzu?

The adaptation was already a warning, like for previous series of the magazine, the anime adaptation's purpose was to promote the last volumes. And the volumes are a top seller for the editor. Citrus, after Yuru Yuri is their series that sells the best in tankobon format. They earned new readers after the anime attracted by the series, so very unlikely that it is ending cause of the wedding being a drama not appreciated.

That makes no damn sense, investing in an anime just to promote a single volume is the dumbest thing I have heard yet. You would expect them to use it to promote several more volumes, not just a single one.

Yuri Hime did the same thing with Love to Lie Angle and NTR. Released anime adaptations just shortly before the series were planned to end.

I'm almost glad that this is ending at first this one was entertaining but now I rage when I see Mei's stupid face, she does not deserve Yuzu I hate characters that get the happy ending without doing shit to achieve it, wish Yuzu ended up with Harumin(best girl), I feel like nene wishing for the impossible.

A story's climax isnt usually at the very end. There is usually a wind down period after showing the effects of the climax. Her stating there is the climax means nothing about when it would actually end.

That's not how Yuri Hime uses the word climax in relation to its previews. The word climax means the final chapter of a series as far as the magazine is concerned for the monthly preview.

I'm almost glad that this is ending at first this one was entertaining but now I rage when I see Mei's stupid face, she does not deserve Yuzu I hate characters that get the happy ending without doing shit to achieve it, wish Yuzu ended up with Harumin(best girl), I feel like nene wishing for the impossible.

"In this world there are unlimited possibilities. HaruYuzu too, can still exist..."
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/citrus_ch40#8

I hate characters that get the happy ending without doing shit to achieve it

Totally agree.

~40 pages will be not enough for a proper (and Happy) ending. Except in only one case: a twist!
Mei is not reciprocate Yuzu's feeling, and marry this guy. Inherit the School which is her greates wish and dream.
Time lapse... see Yuzu walking with Harumin hand by hand and later a kiss.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 9:30AM

The HaruYuzu shippers be like: https://goo.gl/images/cdJByA

Maybe this is just me rationalizing my previous attitude about a series that I once liked pretty much (even though I also thought it was kinda silly and flawed in construction), and where I was really rooting for the characters to be happy.

But in all my time in reading manga/comics, I've never had a stronger sense (for all the reasons we've discussed at length here) that the story the author thinks she's telling isn't the story she's actually telling. (Again, this is assuming that there is a happy ending and that there isn't some super-ninja-mangaka move coming up.)

noir66: I think we're gonna need a bigger twist than that. My current version involves Mei actually being the witch Yuko from xxxHolic in disguise, and the entire series is the required payment for a wish Yuzu had come true.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 1:49PM

once again it's yuzu running after her as***le sister who'd rather keep her family sh*tty inheritance and being some random guy breeding cow than live happilly evef after with her yuzu who actually REALLY loves her.... can someone explain to me WHY people still ship mei X yuzu and WHY yuzu keep chasing such an As***le as mei while mei didn't put any effort in their relationship since the BEGINNING? please tell me i want to understand.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 2:15PM

I honestly think Sabu knows exactly what she is doing. People have been interpreting this as a sweet love story for some reason, but it's not sweet right? It's bittersweet, as Sabu always said, so we are basically being the audience to a love train-wreck. We are meant to see it as a mostly one-sided, unfair love story. Mei is not the hero, she is the villain and the princess being rescued at the same time. People will see her differently according to their experiences. I wouldn't even discard a bitter ending at this point, but even what a happy or bitter ending would constitute is different for different people, again according to whether they see Mei as the villain or the fragile princess.

Personally in my opinion the ideal partner for Yuzu would be Harumin, but I don't want her to be with Harumin either because Yuzu friend-zoned Harumin so hard and Matsuri deserves Harumin much more at this point. So, I kinda wish for Mei to not get married and they both go their separate ways, grow up and meet up as adults to finish the unresolved feelings if any.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 3:53PM

I honestly think Sabu knows exactly what she is doing. People have been interpreting this as a sweet love story for some reason, but it's not sweet right? It's bittersweet, as Sabu always said, so we are basically being the audience to a love train-wreck. We are meant to see it as a mostly one-sided, unfair love story. Mei is not the hero, she is the villain and the princess being rescued at the same time. People will see her differently according to their experiences. I wouldn't even discard a bitter ending at this point, but even what a happy or bitter ending would constitute is different for different people, again according to whether they see Mei as the villain or the fragile princess.

Personally in my opinion the ideal partner for Yuzu would be Harumin, but I don't want her to be with Harumin either because Yuzu friend-zoned Harumin so hard and Matsuri deserves Harumin much more at this point. So, I kinda wish for Mei to not get married and they both go their separate ways, grow up and meet up as adults to finish the unresolved feelings if any.

i completly agree with you. especially about what you said about harumi. but if mei got married so be it! she isn't honest and for me she don't deserves happiness. so if she spend her life with a man she don't love only because of business well whatever. i just don't want to see yuzu suffer (ONCE again!)

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 5:04PM

@matsuri_wins That’s an interesting take, and a somewhat plausible one. But if that’s the case, I’d stil argue that it was a very badly mishandled one, with the text failing to send the right signals and messing around with irrelevancies for far too long.

Sure, readers interpret the actions of characters against a template of their own experiences and subjectivities, no doubt. But the idea that Mei is intended to be an ambiguous Rorschach blot subject to multiple, irresolvable interpretations implies that Saburouta is being a much more sophisticated and complex storyteller than anything else in the series suggests. To me, anyway.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 5:03PM

@matsuri_wins That’s an interesting take, and a somewhat plausible one. But if that’s the case, I’d stil argue that it was a very badly mishandled one, with the text failing to send the right signals and messing around with irrelevancies for far too long.

Sure, readers interpret the actions of characters against a template of their own experiences and subjectivities, no doubt. But the idea that Mei is intended to be an ambiguous Rorschach blot subject to multiple, irresolvable interpretations implies that Saburouta is being a much more sophisticated and complex storyteller than anything else in the series suggests. To me, anyway.

As to the author's exact intent, only she knows that, but it is very clear that Mei has always been purposely written to be a mysterious and ambiguous character. Who Mei really is as a person and what she is thinking and feeling behind her impenetrable mask has always been the central mystery behind this series. That much seems quite clear.

Saburouta is skilled at writing good characters and rather poor at writing plots which makes for an overall rather uneven experience for the reader. She has demonstrated that she is capable of rather sophisticated storytelling when it comes to character development and interaction. Chapter 36 was an example of what Saburouta is capable of at her best.

That chapter made it very clear that she had been foreshadowing and intentionally building Mei's characterization with this over arching plot twist in mind since the first few chapters of the manga. It was in that chapter that we finally see all the puzzle pieces fall into place as to why Mei has acted the way she has up until this point. That chapter gave me a new found respect for Saburouta as a writer. Having said this, she is also capable of some really cheesy soap opera style cliches when it comes to trying to drive the plot along. She basically has these well developed and quite nuanced characters trapped in the story line from a bad daytime drama. Anyway I don't mean to diminish her work, but rather to point out that she is more skilled than a lot of people give her credit for. It's just that her skill set as a writer is a bit uneven.

Unfortunately, given her weakness when it comes to crafting the plot, I think ending the story well is going to be quite a test for this mangaka. I wish her luck with it.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 6:20PM

As to the author's exact intent, only she knows that, but it is very clear that Mei has always been purposely written to be a mysterious and ambiguous character. Who Mei really is as a person and what she is thinking and feeling behind her impenetrable mask has always been the central mystery behind this series. That much seems quite clear.

You’re right about that, and it’s well said. Yuzu, on the other hand, is quite the opposite (that’s why, despite what a number of readers believe, I thought that for quite some time in the story the two of them had real chemistry as a couple).

If the story had started out and stayed as Yuzu’s story alone as she struggled with her feelings towards this mysterious yet strangely attractive person, rather than starting as Yuzu’s story, developing into the story of the two of them as a couple, then backtracking so that Mei is nearly as opaque at the end as she was at the beginning (only now having racked up a bunch of “being shitty to Yuzu” points so that readers can hate her) that would be a much better story, or at least a more consistent one.

Saburouta is skilled at writing good characters and rather poor at writing plots which makes for an overall rather uneven experience for the reader. Unfortunately, given her weakness when it comes to crafting the plot I think ending the story well is going to be quite a test for this mangaka. I wish her luck with it.

As do I.

Edit: Following up on your edit:

That chapter made it very clear that she had been foreshadowing and intentionally building Mei's characterization with this over arching plot twist in mind since the first few chapters of the manga. It was in that chapter that we finally see all the puzzle pieces fall into place as to why Mei has acted the way she has up until this point.

Here I think we disagree. Had the arranged-marriage issue been kept alive in the story from time to time, even in very slight ways, I would agree with you.

But the story was built on Yuzu and Mei facing a series of hurdles (some of them very preposterous, to be sure) to their being together. The engagement to Rapey-sensei was disposed of pretty definitively when the grandfather says, “It’s time for you and you alone to decide how to live your life.” Her later determination to take over the school is never put in terms of “and that will require an arranged marriage” until the surprise is sprung on everyone at the summer getaway. (I know there may be a couple of very vague but inconsequential hints that we understand later, but basically the issue comes from nowhere as far as readers are concerned.)

That brings up the inside-the-story, character issue: since Mei knew (we are supposed to now understand) that taking over the school always required an arranged marriage undertaken by her own choice, yet she never said a word to Yuzu about it, her relationship with Yuzu from that point onwards (i.e., most of the story) was based on false pretenses and inevitably headed toward a betrayal.

I really don’t think that readers are supposed to think of Mei as unworthy of Yuzu at this point; I think we’re supposed to be sympathetic to Mei’s emotional anguish but we haven’t been given enough reason to do so.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 6:36PM

I think we were actually supposed to see Mei as someone who was full of false pretenses and mindlessly heading toward a betrayal actually, while at the same time feeling bad for her because we also see her as Yuzu sees her. She has displayed self-hatred (like calling herself "twisted"), had sexual harassment problems and was aggressive towards people like Nene and Matsuri. I mean, what in Mei's characterization has ever shown her to be A Good Person(tm)?

Also the grandfather statement is well known to have been mistranslated. He actually said "for now".

Basically if readers were seeing Mei as someone who needs to be saved, that's only because Sabura was successful in making them ignore the evidence and see her as Yuzu sees her.

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 8:48PM

^ Like I said, it’s an interesting theory. But I see it as a function of readers rehabilitating the story rather than an author’s actual accomplishment, simply because too much of the story hasn’t been about that at all.

How does the student-council election fit into that theory? How does the date-with-written-manual fit into that? How does the introduction of Shirapon and the festival sequence support that?

Crudely put, I don’t see how you can have (from an authorial perspective) “Mei really has been a bitch all along” without also necessarily having “and Yuzu has been a complete idiot.” At that point we’ve moved from a poorly constructed plot to the author trolling the audience for the entire series. Maybe the final chapter will show that to have been the case.

And Mei has in fact been unnecessarily harsh at times, but in Matsuri’s case, she had it coming. lol

for myself (and it's only a personal opinion not the truth) mei is just a heartless b*tch who never intend to return yuzu's feeling until the moment she really began to realise that she was "in love". plus she is a coward! she never face yuzu to tell her the truth. as someone said this is a betrayal. because it's mei who made move on yuzu (she kissed her without a warning it was almost as if she wanted to rape her) so when she qualifie herself as "twisted" for me it's kinda true. for me she will stay the sicko who made a move on her new "sister" on their first meeting only to constantly reject her (sadistic?) AND the coward unable to face her true feelings and unable to be honest with others. (sorry but leaving your "girlfriend" with just a letter to explain how you bretrayed her all along it's really the most cowardly thing i could imagine.) and i apologize for those who like mei.i also agree with the other post saying that yuzu as also been an idiot! that far too true. she IS too naive! looks like a SM relationship! mei is torturing yuzu and yuzu seems to want more!

last edited at Jul 25, 2018 9:25PM