hmmm...Nicely done! :)

THAT WAS ducked up

The sequences to the story are actually pretty clear: pages and partial pages with a white background to the gutters are the "present," where Chiharu is dead (and stuck in a memory/experience loop) and Hiro is continuing her work as a model. Pages with a black background to the gutters are flashbacks to Chiharu's lived past, including the dream she had the night after she saw Hiro and Mao.

When she woke up from that dream and started getting ready for what she believed to be a date with Hiro, and no doubt addled by the sleeping pills and her disrupted sleep patterns, she lost consciousness and drowned in the bathtub. She keeps trying to fulfill that date with Hiro by the ocean, but only when she gets there does she realize that she's dead.

You can track the transitions from the black-guttered past to the white-guttered present on pages like p. 66 (in her dead-present she's in her school uniform with no socks) and page 74.

I say the sequences are "clear," but there's actually a clever use of contrasts between gutters and panel interiors, of bleed panels, and of panels with no gutters so that the time-shift signals can seem ambiguous and not very schematic at first.

And I don't think Hiro has forgotten Chiharu at all--every time Chiharu gets to the ocean and cries, her tears turn to rain; every time it rains, Hiro flashes back to a vision of her dead friend and cries. Hiro's tears then become the drop that awakens Chiharu in the bathtub again.

tbh I think I understand most of the story but the one you said on the last paragraph, really made me more understand what's happening at the end of the story!!! thanks a lot OMG!!
"Hiro's tears then become the drop that awakens Chiharu in the bathtub again." this is really sad
I feel like, Chiharu's existence depends on Hiro's action, as long as she cries every time it's raining she will
awaken Chiharu and yes it's a looping hell T - T

that is why you need to sleep enough so you won't die while bathing

anyway, looks like she's now in an endless loop, keep going back to the bath and keep looking for her gf, what a really sad ending

I really FEEL YOU T T

guys whos the artist for the first page/cover

I really hope there's at least depressing as fuck tag since tragedy would be a spoiler.

Actually, tags are always spoilers. But they spoil the general aspects and main lines of the work rather than the specific details. It's another kettle of fish altogether than, say, revealing the name of the murderer to someone who's about to read a mystery book. Thanks to the tags, you know in advance the mood of the story and the broad issues that will be tackled, and 99,9% of readers find it extremely helpful - as it let them pinpoint releases they will like and avoid releases they will dislike.

In the case of this oneshot, depressing as fuck is definitely needed. And no, it's no spoiler.

I’m not addressing any issue here, just musing on some. Tags have (at least) a double function: to alert readers that a given story might be something that they would want to read or is something that they might not want to read, and some specific tags are more often one kind than the other.

(I mean, I’m sure there’s somebody out there for whom Depressing as fuck makes for absolute must-read catnip, while for somebody else Princess carry constitutes a trigger warning. Neither of those people is me, however.)

The thing that bothers me just a little (and I’m pretty sure there’s no practical solution for it) are those stories that legitimately earn one of the “warning”-type tags for their content, but are so high in quality that people who ordinarily avoid those specific tags think it’s really a great read anyway. (Like me for this one—the way I’m generally feeling these days a Depressing as fuck tag would have kept me away from this story, at least for a while. But I’m really glad I read it.)

Actually tagging stories concerning perceived quality sounds completely impractical (what could possibly go wrong, amirite?), and maybe the only workaround is to post comments saying, “I usually hate ________ stories, but this one is great!” But I personally don’t tend to check out comment threads for series I haven’t read yet.

My only real point is that I do appreciate getting tips for really good stories I haven’t read yet, and I hate to see other people missing out on great work, so I’m just kind of wishing for a way to communicate to other readers, “Yes, it is Depressing as fuck, but in this case that’s a good thing!”

I understand how you feel.

There is a solution (of sorts) people have been talking about for years -- and I mean that literally: I have seen it mentioned in posts from as far as five years back -- but I don't know how feasible or practical it would be. It's the "Favorite" button.

If readers could click on a button to "favorite" the stories they really like, and if we all could see next to every title how many "favorite" votes it has received, it would help a lot when deciding what to read. "Hm, this manga is tagged het, rape, tragedy and depressing as fuck, but it got 20.000 Favs... perhaps I should give it a try..." That's the general idea.

If readers could click on a button to "favorite" the stories they really like, and if we all could see next to every title how many "favorite" votes it has received, it would help a lot when deciding what to read. "Hm, this manga is tagged het, rape, tragedy and depressing as fuck, but it got 20.000 Favs... perhaps I should give it a try..." That's the general idea.

That actually sounds like a really great idea, although in keeping with the Depressing as fuck way of world at the moment in general and of digital social interactions in particular, I can't help but think that if there were such a system somebody out there would figure out a way to do something horrible with it.

Holy shit I'm literally dropping water out of my eyes dude what the fuck

don't recommend reading this before going to bed, my heart hurts now

If readers could click on a button to "favorite" the stories they really like, and if we all could see next to every title how many "favorite" votes it has received, it would help a lot when deciding what to read. "Hm, this manga is tagged het, rape, tragedy and depressing as fuck, but it got 20.000 Favs... perhaps I should give it a try..." That's the general idea.

That actually sounds like a really great idea, although in keeping with the Depressing as fuck way of world at the moment in general and of digital social interactions in particular, I can't help but think that if there were such a system somebody out there would figure out a way to do something horrible with it.

If people actually use the "Favorite" reading list, the feature doesn't even need a button -- only a little info box showing how many favorite lists a story is on.

last edited at Oct 28, 2018 7:02AM

Well while I saw the first page I immidiate think "She dead".

last edited at Oct 28, 2018 10:10AM

Well while I saw the first page I immidiate think "She dead".

Well, yeah--the opening is a little mysterious, but stories where a character wakes up to a subtly disorienting situation and eventually turns out to have been dead all along are a well-established horror/thriller sub-genre, and one of its inherent qualities is that at first the audience suspects that something is up but isn't quite sure exactly what that is. "They're dead" tends to be a good guess.

The "what" question is indeed fairly important in such stories, since there's always a big reveal: "[Character] is actually dead!" But the "how" and the "why" are the real points of interest.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/PlayingWith/DeadAllAlong

last edited at Oct 28, 2018 10:47AM

well shit, that wasnt wholesome lesbian happiness, that was wholesome depression.

When i see the tag "Depressing AF" i know my hearrt cant handle it, yet why do i still read it..... really hate tragedy, feels bad for chiharu .˚‧º·(ฅдฅ｡)‧º·˚.

hiro is an asshole. what a horrible person.

I'm so glad I got to read this one before the horrible spoiler tags got added.

u guys who can figure this out make me feel so stupid
esp withthe black and white pages

Never feel stupid just because someone else gets something you don't get. Everybody thinks a little differently, and some people are more accustomed to decoding symbolism or story structure than others. It's almost entirely about experience and reading history. The reason I come to these forums in the first place is because hopefully I can learn something new about the work, or that sharing my own thoughts will help someone else glean some extra meaning or interest from it. I'm wrong as often as I'm right, at least, but it's part of the fun of it for me.

So don't be down on yourself. ;p

It would have hit harder if Hiro hadn't been such a dick, and if it was actually possible to drown by falling asleep in a bath.

She was shown earlier being prescribed sleeping pills. So, there's that.

Also she's got a genuine sleeping disorder, she may not wake up autonomically.

OH MY FUCKING GOODNESS

It's scary that the depression ride never ends.

Oof... That hit me deep man

Oh dear, my heart is taken
From my chest
Oh dear, my heart is taken
I can never rest

By the moon
I can feel your hear beating
By the moon
I can hear you call

Here in the dark
My love wanders on
When the cruel morning comes
Then again she's gone gone gone gone

Brave though the stars they make me
I can't breathe
Brave though the stars they make me
I can never leave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KKrVVPIVcc

Ohh myy... That hurts so beautifully. To think that it was Hiro who confessed first and that Chiharu was the one that inspired her to strive in the modelling career. Damn that was a horrible way to end and I love it in a really depressing way.

I reread this and all i can say is that this author knows exactly how to do a perfect ending.

guys whos the artist for the first page/cover

The artist is Kippu. On the covers of all 4 Avalon books, there's a short story regarding the cover image, which is also written by Kippu. So, there's a wretchedly depressing short story of some sort to go along with this cover of Avalon Bitter