whats with the ominous atmosphere at the end?

Also. They are probably use to thinking of Fujishiro as a bit of a jerk and a bully. You probably would get a little weary if someone you didn't like started hanging with one of your friends, right?

At least asking that friend for their side of the story before shunning them is just common courtesy (and basic decency), right? Especially when they're rather visibly finding the turn of events awkward.

Reading the 11 pages of the discussion, it's amusing how many people didn't get the character of Kurokawa. At least at first. I surmise that, now, they must be understanding her a little better... right?

I mean, it's not that hard to get. The hetero version of the trope is as old as literature. You know what I'm talking about? The story where the female lead claims to hate this guy who is super handsome, cool, rich, popular and has dozens of sexy women at his feet... she hates him, hates, hates, totally hates... then one day he confesses his love to her and asks her to marry him, and she fly-glomps him and starts kissing him. Yeah, cuz she didn't really hate him, what she hated was the fact that he didn't pay attention to her; once that's fixed, all's well in the world and they can start making babies. What we have here in "Useless Princesses" is a variant of this old trope on a yuri note. Kurokawa doesn't really hate those haughty, beautiful, arrogant, sexy, snobby alpha bitch princesses. She loves them and puppy-adores them and crushes on them like crazy. What she hates about them is that they won't return her feelings! That's why she has these (seemingly) contradictory sentiments of "I hate her, she's a bully!" and "I want to protect her shining smile!"

It seems quite clear to me that Kurokawa is a little lesbian in the making, who may or may not completely understand herself yet. Even her love of BL/yaoi fits in the picture. (It's a genre for girls by girls, and the characters are usually projections of female fantasies, to a point that it has been described as "lesbian fantasies in male drag" by some researchers...)

The one character I myself find kind of puzzling is Fujishiro. Okay, so being dumped by her trophy boyfriend was a big shock, sure... and being comforted by Kurokawa was nice, yeah... but going from there to "I'm-a dumping all my old friends and I'm-a relinquishing my queen bee position and from now on I'll live with Kurokawa in a cozy little hole in a quiet corner of the classroom, just the two of us, forevah!" is, like, kinda too big of a leap... obviously there's something in her psychology that escapes me...

Also. They are probably use to thinking of Fujishiro as a bit of a jerk and a bully. You probably would get a little weary if someone you didn't like started hanging with one of your friends, right?

At least asking that friend for their side of the story before shunning them is just common courtesy (and basic decency), right? Especially when they're rather visibly finding the turn of events awkward.

Yes. You are correct but i was under the impression they were just "considering" shunning her.

Reading the 11 pages of the discussion, it's amusing how many people didn't get the character of Kurokawa. At least at first. I surmise that, now, they must be understanding her a little better... right?

I mean, it's not that hard to get. The hetero version of the trope is as old as literature. You know what I'm talking about? The story where the female lead claims to hate this guy who is super handsome, cool, rich, popular and has dozens of sexy women at his feet... she hates him, hates, hates, totally hates... then one day he confesses his love to her and asks her to marry him, and she fly-glomps him and starts kissing him. Yeah, cuz she didn't really hate him, what she hated was the fact that he didn't pay attention to her; once that's fixed, all's well in the world and they can start making babies. What we have here in "Useless Princesses" is a variant of this old trope on a yuri note. Kurokawa doesn't really hate those haughty, beautiful, arrogant, sexy, snobby alpha bitch princesses. She loves them and puppy-adores them and crushes on them like crazy. What she hates about them is that they won't return her feelings! That's why she has these (seemingly) contradictory sentiments of "I hate her, she's a bully!" and "I want to protect her shining smile!"

I obviously need to read more heterosexual romance. If I ever want to write good stuff, I'm going to at least know what's common and what's been done to death.

It seems quite clear to me that Kurokawa is a little lesbian in the making, who may or may not completely understand herself yet. Even her love of BL/yaoi fits in the picture. (It's a genre for girls by girls, and the characters are usually projections of female fantasies, to a point that it has been described as "lesbian fantasies in male drag" by some researchers...)

I've heard a few times that some gay women had a thing for yaoi or male/male slash fiction and such when they were young. No idea how prevalent it was when I heard it or how prevalent might be nowadays.

The one character I myself find kind of puzzling is Fujishiro. Okay, so being dumped by her trophy boyfriend was a big shock, sure... and being comforted by Kurokawa was nice, yeah... but going from there to "I'm-a dumping all my old friends and I'm-a relinquishing my queen bee position and from now on I'll live with Kurokawa in a cozy little hole in a quiet corner of the classroom, just the two of us, forevah!" is, like, kinda too big of a leap... obviously there's something in her psychology that escapes me...

Very good point. Definitely noticed this. Hope there is something to it.

random posted:

Also. They are probably use to thinking of Fujishiro as a bit of a jerk and a bully. You probably would get a little weary if someone you didn't like started hanging with one of your friends, right?

At least asking that friend for their side of the story before shunning them is just common courtesy (and basic decency), right? Especially when they're rather visibly finding the turn of events awkward.

They are probably more share same hobbies friend then close friend see ivycrown post:

ivycrown posted:

I think one of the things with Kurokawa's friends is cultural. In japan they have several different words for 'friend', including ruitomo which is a hobby friend, or a friend based on having the same interest or personality. This is fairly common and since this type of friend isn't based on deep feeling or connection but just because you're into the same thing, it's easy to understand why the friendship would dissolve so easily if the person started deviating from whatever that shared interest or hobby is.

So it makes sense that Kuro's hobby friends are outcasting her since she is becoming more of a riajuu (normie) then they can take. Also, seeing Fujishiro changing her appearance to look more plain is more of a mockery to Kuro's hobby friends since she was (still is?) a gyaru.

The one character I myself find kind of puzzling is Fujishiro. Okay, so being dumped by her trophy boyfriend was a big shock, sure... and being comforted by Kurokawa was nice, yeah... but going from there to "I'm-a dumping all my old friends and I'm-a relinquishing my queen bee position and from now on I'll live with Kurokawa in a cozy little hole in a quiet corner of the classroom, just the two of us, forevah!" is, like, kinda too big of a leap... obviously there's something in her psychology that escapes me...

Very good point. Definitely noticed this. Hope there is something to it.

I don't think it's super complicated. She's on the rebound from a bad breakup, Kurokawa was there for her at a critical moment. She's infatuated, and she is in the process of discovering she likes girls. (or a girl, at least)

She probably hasn't even figured out -why- she is so desperate to be around Kurokawa yet. She just knows she feels excited and happy when she's around, and running into that is how she's coping with the trauma of having someone cheat on her and dump her. (pretty cruelly, at that)

My take on the friends: People on these forums seem to have this attitude that if somebody does something bad, they're awful and terribad and they should be hated and reviled.

These characters are literally children. They are stupid, and inexperienced. They don't know how to process emotions, they have no barometer for what's great or terrible. They are learning to socialize and interact while stumbling around each other, and they -are going- to screw up. All the time.

When I was in middle school/high school, I had falling-outs with various friends several times. Sometimes it was because I'd done something wrong, sometimes it was just that they misunderstood something or came to a bad conclusion on their own. It worked out eventually for the most part.

Kurokawa's friends are thinking of distancing themselves because they don't know what's going on with her and Fujishiro, and they're afraid of getting caught in the blast radius when things blow up. Yeah, that's not the morally correct thing to do, but they're kids. They're allowed to be a bit stupid about things. That's the point of the story, to watch as they learn these lessons and grow up.

last edited at Aug 13, 2018 3:28PM

Oh, also, I like the way they subverted the "I'll make her cute!" trope:

"I can make you cute! It'll be so fun and then you can be cute and popular with me in the cool kids club!"
"But I don' wanna."
"Okay! Then I'll make myself plainer and be inconspicuous and chill with you in the nerds clique!"

People were heavily bitching about Fujishiro being shallow and trying to pretty up Kurokawa, but that really kind of shows that she just wants to be with her one way or another, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get them in the same clique.

I mean, it's still going to be a colossal mess one way or another, but it's cute that she's trying so hard.

Fujishiro willing to throw everything out the window and even reinvent herself to get along with Kurokawa. I actually love how this is going.

That part is reminicent of Secret Recipe - please recall Wakatsuki went from "ho hum being popular is great just go on one date and stupid guys buy you anything you want and they fight each other, how amusing" most popular girl in school - to crying over the club president, not wanting to wash her hair because "she" - the nerd with a handful of friends and no confidence - braided it, and then washing her previously pampered hair with sink cleanser in the janitor's closet. Although Wakatsuki was too clueless to make a good job of reinventing herself, that was what she thought she was doing.

Edit: I know Fujishiro's friend group was going to have a problem, but I didn't predict Kurokawa's own friend group ditching her because of Fujishiro though ;_;

That harkens back to Secret of the Princess - she started dating the popular girl and all her friends deserted her. The switch is that in SOTP the carefree tomboy was the most popular girl and the fashion and cuteness obsessed, brainwashed girl was the normal one.

Fujishiro willing to throw everything out the window and even reinvent herself to get along with Kurokawa. I actually love how this is going.

That part is reminicent of Secret Recipe - please recall Wakatsuki went from "ho hum being popular is great just go on one date and stupid guys buy you anything you want and they fight each other, how amusing" most popular girl in school - to crying over the club president, not wanting to wash her hair because "she" - the nerd with a handful of friends and no confidence - braided it, and then washing her previously pampered hair with sink cleanser in the janitor's closet. Although Wakatsuki was too clueless to make a good job of reinventing herself, that was what she thought she was doing.

I'd like to add that unlike here, in Secret Recipe Wakatsuki was in love with the president from the very beginning of the manga and well aware of it too. She just decided to play around and not actually confess at first because she assumed it wouldn't be reciprocated.

Fujishiro doesn't know that she has a crush on Kurokawa yet, but she clearly does.

I've heard a few times that some gay women had a thing for yaoi or male/male slash fiction and such when they were young. No idea how prevalent it was when I heard it or how prevalent might be nowadays.

Twenty years ago, yaoi/slash was incredibly popular with gay women. The founding mothers of the old Yaoi Slash Mailing List (which was for a long time the only place to talk about these things in the English-speaking web) were mostly gay or queer ladies. I remember one of them, Jeanne Johnson, also an essayist in Aestheticism magazine and other media, who returned to Canada from Japan in '96 and, writing on the subject of the Japanese community of yaoi fans and doujinshi authors, wrote these lines: "I had never seen this kind of pan-sexual wonderland happening anywhere in my life before" and "I never dreamed such pleasures existed until I found them in the polymorphous perversity of the Japanese doujinshi" and "I was surrounded by a cheerful explosion of homoeroticism unthinkable in any other country in the world. And now that it seems ready to spread into the West as well, I'm glad to be in the front line of the fight."

Mind you, things may have changed nowadays -- as yuri has become way more popular, and pretty much mainstream in media aimed both at boys and at girls (twenty years ago, next to yaoi, the yuri niche was rather small).

last edited at Aug 13, 2018 9:18PM

I'd like to add that unlike here, in Secret Recipe Wakatsuki was in love with the president from the very beginning of the manga and well aware of it too. She just decided to play around and not actually confess at first because she assumed it wouldn't be reciprocated.

Fujishiro doesn't know that she has a crush on Kurokawa yet, but she clearly does.

I completely agree, but Wakatsuki had a whole roster of cluelessness about herself and - everything - to fill in. And I think the initial kiss test in Secret Recipe was mostly for real. At first she was all I feel sorry for this girl I wanna give her a hug (thought she was a poor little firstie) then she was like what is this tender feeling? Then she was all wait do I like girls? and I think therefore the "test" part was completely sincere, what she withheld was the name of the target girl. and the fact that feeling sorry for President was what really made her consider joining, not boyfriend-hunting as she claimed.

For the record I think there is a lot of deliberate homage to Morinaga Milk in this series by Ajichi:
Fujishiro is Wakatsuk (brought low, but also brought somewhat out of brainlessness, by love)i + Akko of GF (makeover obsession) + Miu of Secret of the Princess (fixed ideas of how girls must be and doesn't know her feelings)
Kuro is somewhat of a mix of Mari of GF and President of SR. I don't see the tomboy of SOTP in her, though.
Also I feel like the overall tone of a Morinaga series was invoked, somewhat.

"THe princess must not have her smile tarnished!" is odd, agreed, but overall, Kuro seems like she's got her head on straight. Enough to play the straight woman. :)

last edited at Aug 13, 2018 7:48PM

I completely agree, but Wakatsuki had a whole roster of cluelessness about herself and - everything - to fill in. And I think the initial kiss test in Secret Recipe was mostly for real. At first she was all I feel sorry for this girl I wanna give her a hug (thought she was a poor little firstie) then she was like what is this tender feeling? Then she was all wait do I like girls? and I think therefore the "test" part was completely sincere, what she withheld was the name of the target girl. and the fact that feeling sorry for President was what really made her consider joining, not boyfriend-hunting as she claimed.

The narration at the bottom of this page: https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_secret_recipe_ch03#12 I'm pretty sure flat out tells you she already had a huge crush on prez (because she's cute, smart, and nice) and the kiss test was literally just an excuse to get one kiss in before moving on with her life.

I agree that this story is very much in the style of Morinaga Milk. I also think most, if not all of the ongoing yuri drama manga about high school girls owe a lot to her works.

last edited at Aug 13, 2018 8:09PM

I don't think it's super complicated. Fujishiro's on the rebound from a bad breakup, Kurokawa was there for her at a critical moment. She's infatuated, and she is in the process of discovering she likes girls. (or a girl, at least)

She probably hasn't even figured out -why- she is so desperate to be around Kurokawa yet.

That would be cute... but, if that's the case, I'd like to see some confusion. In this last chapter, she looks cool and unflappable -- always in control, full of self-assurance and right on top of the situation. That's not the normal reaction when your whole world is turning upside-down, when your feelings are in turmoil and you are thinking about discarding all the things you had valued up to that time (because they suddenly seem worthless). I'd like to see her act bewildered and panicky, I'd like to see her question her choices and worry about the consequences. It's unrealistic that she's so calm and Kurokawa is the only one going into a tizzy.

I don't think it's super complicated. Fujishiro's on the rebound from a bad breakup, Kurokawa was there for her at a critical moment. She's infatuated, and she is in the process of discovering she likes girls. (or a girl, at least)

She probably hasn't even figured out -why- she is so desperate to be around Kurokawa yet.

That would be cute... but, if that's the case, I'd like to see some confusion. In this last chapter, she looks cool and unflappable -- always in control, full of self-assurance and right on top of the situation. That's not the normal reaction when your whole world is turning upside-down, when your feelings are in turmoil and you are thinking about discarding all the things you had valued up to that time (because they suddenly seem worthless). I'd like to see her act bewildered and panicky, I'd like to see her question her choices and worry about the consequences. It's unrealistic that she's so calm and Kurokawa is the only one going into a tizzy.

Fujishiro just exploded at her old group of friends on one moment, then made radical changes to her looks overnight. I don't think she's handling this well at all. A psychiatrist and friend once taught me that exaggerated emotional responses are rarely related to its apparent trigger, and are more often signs of deeper, subconscious conflicts. The way I see it, Fujishiro isn't calm or cool, she's completely out of balance.

.......but that's just an interpretation, we have no idea whether this is actually intended by the author or not.

last edited at Aug 13, 2018 10:55PM

You are quite right, we don't know. >_< That's why I said before that there's something in her psychology that obviously escapes me... I have no idea what's really going on in her head...

I just want to say, that horse costume was cute af.

"If you're not comfortable with stepping into my world, then I'll step into yours instead. Problem solved!"
Wow Nanaki is really really simpleminded. The first page was her saying that being cute and popular is everything but few chapters later is just 'Kuro is everything and I'm willing to throw away my friends and looks to befriend her!'

This is a little too quick but it's Nanaki so, I don't feel like it's rushed.

I mean, it's not that hard to get. The hetero version of the trope is as old as literature. You know what I'm talking about? The story where the female lead claims to hate this guy who is super handsome, cool, rich, popular and has dozens of sexy women at his feet... she hates him, hates, hates, totally hates... then one day he confesses his love to her and asks her to marry him, and she fly-glomps him and starts kissing him. Yeah, cuz she didn't really hate him, what she hated was the fact that he didn't pay attention to her; once that's fixed, all's well in the world and they can start making babies. What we have here in "Useless Princesses" is a variant of this old trope on a yuri note. Kurokawa doesn't really hate those haughty, beautiful, arrogant, sexy, snobby alpha bitch princesses. She loves them and puppy-adores them and crushes on them like crazy. What she hates about them is that they won't return her feelings! That's why she has these (seemingly) contradictory sentiments of "I hate her, she's a bully!" and "I want to protect her shining smile!"

It seems quite clear to me that Kurokawa is a little lesbian in the making, who may or may not completely understand herself yet. Even her love of BL/yaoi fits in the picture. (It's a genre for girls by girls, and the characters are usually projections of female fantasies, to a point that it has been described as "lesbian fantasies in male drag" by some researchers...)

The one character I myself find kind of puzzling is Fujishiro. Okay, so being dumped by her trophy boyfriend was a big shock, sure... and being comforted by Kurokawa was nice, yeah... but going from there to "I'm-a dumping all my old friends and I'm-a relinquishing my queen bee position and from now on I'll live with Kurokawa in a cozy little hole in a quiet corner of the classroom, just the two of us, forevah!" is, like, kinda too big of a leap... obviously there's something in her psychology that escapes me...

I think you are on to something with this. A lot of people forget that love and hate arent opposites but instead two sides of the same coin. They are both strong emotions and one can easily turn into the other like what i think is happening in this case. Any hate Kurokawa has/had towards Fujishiro, even if hidden deep inside, is converting into love for her over time. Its also something that Kurokawa isnt exactly aware of herself yet despite gushing over Fujishiro's looks.

I've heard that sort of thing in discussions a few times but the voracity of it is unknown to me. I definitely think that Kurokawa is likely a lesbian who just hasnt.... 'awoken' to her feelings on the whole thing.

I find Fujishiro's character complex but done well. Someone up the thread suggested that, shown through the first chapter, Fujishiro's world view is warped and shaped by societal pressures which had led her to being a gyaru and a bully. The drastic change of going from queen-bee gyaru to clingy outcast friend of Kurokawa suggests that she seeks approval and somewhere that she feels she can be herself. This relationship with Kurokawa will also be the spark that eventually opens her realization that she likes girls, just like i think it will spark for Kurokawa. Its all just a matter of time til the spark occurs.
I think she finds something attracting and positive from the first event where Kurokawa was the one to comfort her after the break-up with two-timer. We dont know anything really about her past so i can only guess but perhaps there is something there that is likely responsible for her extremes of emotion and relationships.

last edited at Aug 16, 2018 7:35AM

Oh, that's a very good point there. The need of approval is most likely the key to understanding Nanaki. She seeked approval before as a gyaru princess, and she became the top gyaru of the school to bask in everyone's adulation. Being dumped by her bf, and the cruel words at the breakup ("You're pretty, but also boring and stupid, I don't give a damn about you!"), must have hurt her a lot. Her worldview was certainly shaken. So it's very likely that she's now seeking approval from Kurokawa, doing everything to gain approval from her, as she feels she is the one person who is sincere and can be trusted!

The bomb planted in last chapter's cliffhanger is that Kurokawa is about to lose all her old otaku friends because of her new relationship with Nanaki. :-( They will probably ostracize her as a riajuu from now on... Please, please, whatever supernatural power is listening to my prayer, please give Kurokawa the strength to take the blow with coolness and equanimity!!! I don't want to read a scene where she yells words of hate at Nanaki: "You ruined my life! It's all your fault! Get away from me!" and more similar stuff... no, no, please, no...

(...)So it's very likely that she's now seeking approval from Kurokawa, doing everything to gain approval from her, as she feels she is the one person who is sincere and can be trusted!

I do agree, that is one way to look at it. But from another perspective, even if it starts out as a search for approval, I think that by the time she sees Kuro-chan smiling at her eyebrows in the mirror it's kind of gotten past the approval-seeking point and into the gay zone. 'If trimming her eyebrows and making her just a bit cuter makes her smile like that, then I want to make her even cuter/happier! And then maybe kiss her. And do XXX and yyyy with her. And then zzzz. And maybe even hold hands!'

(...) I don't want to read a scene where she yells words of hate at Nanaki: "You ruined my life! It's all your fault! Get away from me!" and more similar stuff... no, no, please, no...

Though probably inevitable I also hope that this won't be the case....

last edited at Aug 16, 2018 6:45PM

I'm liking how this is developing, quite surprising, maybe she will go completely off her gyuro path, wonder if the other one will have further change too.

'I want to make her even cuter/happier! And then maybe kiss her. And do XXX and yyyy with her. And then zzzz. And maybe even hold hands!'

I laughed out loud. :)

What is it with holding hands in yuri, I wonder, that makes it, like, the pinnacle of intimacy? There are so many series where two girls can't hold hands in public without creating a scandal... I remember one story, "Cotton Candy" it was called, where the two main characters never ever did anything touchy-feely except holding hands from time to time -- and that was enough to make other people go: "GAH! Look! Lesbians!"

Absolutely loving this story!! This is the kind of gyaru I love!! and the other character seems so cute too! Can't wait to keep up with this story especially because my other fav gyaru (Yuzu) has already come to an end crycry

Yeah same here
But Yuzu still was kinda acting like a slut so it's fun seeing gyaru character changing so fast