I smell an ending coming soon

ch 46, pg 6, "I want her to say" should be, "stay"

pg 47, "can't case" -> cause

ch 48, pg 4, "carrer" -> career

Aah, the couple ending chapters before the final curtain call. Ladies and gents, it's been an honor following this series with you all.

Well, since we’re coming to an end, which relationship deserves a spin-off manga?

Care to take the vote?

I think this manga will end like Sasameki Koto, where the third year goes by in a single chapter or so to quickly wind up the manga. This latest volume will be the last, IMHO.

ch 48, pg 4, "carrer" -> career

There should be credit given to readers who assist editors in polishing up their final drafts. Is there a way for Administrators or Moderators to hand out ego-inflating points (having to monetary benefit but bragging or respect rights) to readers who care about improving upon the art?

I mean, it’s cool to get “accepted” to suggestions on mangas.

What's the deal with all the couple's going around saying they're not a couple, like wtf

Good old Chiharu aka my fave, just outright saying yeah we're a couple instead of this "she's my precious friend" bullshit

Also MC really doesn't need to go round asking people what their love interest means to them in order to figure out her own feelings, that's just silly. She's just a time wasting before the big confession at the end

Oh well, nearly at the end now!

Hmm, “half the couples aren’t yuri”? Is that true, or is that just blowing smoke out of someone’s ass? Let’s see, shall we?

Let’s start with the ones that are definitely couples in a romantic sense:

• Sawa & Itsuki—we know that because we just saw it.
• Asuka & Mikaze—broke up, then got back together. Closest we’ve seen to people actually having sex.
• Mizuki & Moe—sexiest kiss in the series; planning their lives together.
• Chiharu & Izumi—“We’re a couple,” says Chiharu.
• Amane, Ryou & Nina—hmm, we don’t see them in a naked 3-way, true, but if that’s not yuri, I don’t know what it is.

Almost certainly going to be a romantic couple rather shortly:
* Shiramine & Yurine

Ambiguous Status for a Reason:
* Aika & Haine—Incest
* Nagisa & Hikari—Double Tsunderes, will deny they like each other when they’re living together with a bunch of cats in their 70s.

Longtime Friends in a Remarkably Intense Relationship:
* Yukina & Towako

So, not counting the unrequited and/or silent crushes and the Little Theater pairs, and assuming that the definition of “yuri” doesn’t require on-panel fisting scenes as confirmation, I’m seeing a good deal more yuri than not.

YMMV.

I agree, if anything, it just feels like the mangaka was just taking Shiramine through these couples in the reverse order of how publicly explicit they maintain their relationship. For example, Mizuki and Moe have planned to live together and everything, but haven't really told anyone of their relationship, even Shiramine. Of all the couples in this series, they seemed to be the couple that has the most stable relationship. They are that couple that everyone around can assume as a constant.

Is this the end?

Not yet, but if it's supposed to end after everything between Ayaka and Yurine has been settled, I'd say we have only this volume left, and maybe one more at most after this.

i'd die from fluffy if there could be a timeskip to show all the couples..... :3

last edited at Jan 20, 2019 5:03AM

It was definitely a good move to have these three chapters released at once. On their own they would be rather lacking, but bundled together they draw a nice line through the series and the relationships that developed. Shiramine using the side-couples experiences as a mirror to her own actions throughout the manga might be rather cliche, but it is very well done and appreciated.

I can tell that some of these responses were more intended as "the public image" rather than just coming straight out with it, so I can forgive that not all of them just said they are a couple. Mizuki and Moe have no need for definitions or fancy words, they are just meant for each other and know it.

Honestly I was surprised to realize that Sawa still didn't think of them as a couple though. It's good that this was resolved here! In the end you cannot measure love, so there is no comparison to be made. In that sense Shiramine's questioning actively helped a couple out too, so at the very least for that, this introspection was worth it.

Chiharu was as suave as always about it, much appreciated. Mikaze and Asuka are the most experienced couple for a reason as well, showing that they are past the "gotta hide it" stage.

Now the only thing I take issue with is Towako and Yukina. This is something I already felt during their own arc, but they really never resolved their feelings well. They are far too stuck in their master and servant dynamic, metaphorically speaking. They are just not on eye-level and it will take a while for them to truly overcome that.

Haine and Aika is a case where I'm most thankful for the ambiguity. Sure, they obviously overstep all the lines of what a normal "family" is like, but overtly going for the romantic option would create a lot of conflict which is just unecessary. Sometimes a relationship has to be ambiguous to work.

Although the conclusion was apparent to everyone, for Shiramine this was quite a bit of work. Just as she said herself, she had wasted most of her school life on being competitive and agonizing over her mother. She is behind in the social understanding department, ironically more than Kurosawa, who learned to be a social person from her hahaha

Looking forward to Kurosawa's surprise. Who knows? It might even be a white lily and kiss for her dearest girl~

What's the deal with all the couple's going around saying they're not a couple, like wtf

IDK, just not wanting to declare it to all and sundry like the worst kind of Twitterer maybe? Some people prefer a certain degree of privacy and I'd point out preciously few of these girls are particularly close to Shiramine personally, ergo that much less inclined to speak frankly of private matters...

On another note I like how practically everybody treats that headband as just about organic part of Shiramine.

last edited at Jan 20, 2019 7:57AM

Even I can tell that these responses were more intended as "the public image" rather than just coming straight out saying am a lesbian, cause not everyone is ok homosexuality that the reality of it, I like how Cano work that in.
So I can forgive them.

Thanks for pointing out the typos. Also, chap 48, page 18, second panel is "Do I want Kurosawa and I", not "Do you want".

Regarding the couple/non-couple thing… It actually reflects Canno's own evolution in her approach. If you remember, in the early volumes no one talked about "couples" or "love" (except Yurine, and that was in a superficial way), the romantic aspect was very subdued. There wasn't even a real kiss until the end of volume 3. That goes with that interview 2 or 3 years ago where Canno said she tended to like ambiguous relationships that skirt the line of love. Then you had Moe screaming "I love you" to Mizuki in volume 4 and it gradually became more and more explicit, until volume 9 where we had a bona fide conventional couple, with confession and all.

The thing with this series is that every couple defines their relationship in their own different way, so having all of them go "we lesbians yo!" would kind of defeat the point. Even in Mizuki's case, saying that Moe is her "most intimate friend" isn't inaccurate. As she says, "she never had to think about it", she just knows they're together.

Sawa's case is a bit baffling though, as I'm not sure what has changed between her and Itsuki after this chap.

By the way, I liked that callback:

I think this manga will end like Sasameki Koto, where the third year goes by in a single chapter or so to quickly wind up the manga. This latest volume will be the last, IMHO.

The author already confirmed that this would be the last volume, so yeah. X)

Well, since we’re coming to an end, which relationship deserves a spin-off manga?

I'd say Chiharu-Izumi. These two are just too good together. <3 Or Mizuki and Moe as they plan their marriage or something.

last edited at Jan 20, 2019 8:41AM

Regarding the couple/non-couple thing… It actually reflects Canno's own evolution in her approach. If you remember, in the early volumes no one talked about "couples" or "love" (except Yurine, and that was in a superficial way), the romantic aspect was very subdued. There wasn't even a real kiss until the end of volume 3. That goes with that interview 2 or 3 years ago where Canno said she tended to like ambiguous relationships that skirt the line of love. Then you had Moe screaming "I love you" to Mizuki in volume 4 and it gradually became more and more explicit, until volume 9 where we had a bona fide conventional couple, with confession and all.

The thing with this series is that every couple defines their relationship in their own different way, so having all of them go "we lesbians yo!" would kind of defeat the point. Even in Mizuki's case, saying that Moe is her "most intimate friend" isn't inaccurate. As she says, "she never had to think about it", she just knows they're together.

Sawa's case is a bit baffling though, as I'm not sure what has changed between her and Itsuki after this chap.

I would have to agree with you & your statement on this matter.

@Lyendith
Your explanation seems to sum it up in a nice bow.

What changed between Sawa and Itsuki is that Sawa acknowledged that they are a couple and that she will put her all into the relationship despite feeling inadequate. This new chapter implies that what we saw previously was still her just going along with Itsuki while not being decided... which is the baffling part for most of us I think.
At least it's solved now.

PS: Those pictures mostly just make me realize again how much the artstyle changed. I'll always have a soft spot for the earlier, more expressive and rough drawings of many artists, but the refined and gorgeous art of their later works is always nice to look at.

Yeah, I'm always mixed between liking the more polished and controlled style of later volumes and regretting the liveliness and spontaneousness (?) of the early art. Not just for AnoKiss either.

Chiharu is especially beautiful in this chapter.

Is someone following the story? I mean I get lost every update and confused by the huge amount of parallel stories, I dunno if I should wait for it to end to read it in one go.

Is someone following the story? I mean I get lost every update and confused by the huge amount of parallel stories, I dunno if I should wait for it to end to read it in one go.

I don't feel lost at all tbh.
At most you might get a little confused about all the characters when they just suddenly converge, but that's what the relationship sheet on the first page was for.
It certainly can't harm to read it all in one go. Surely most of us here will do that as well once this volume is finished~

Chapter 48 pages 5 and 11 have an errant "to" as preposition for "ask" -> "questions to ask the other girls" and "You can ask Kusakabe your question" (or to preserve the word order "pose your question to Kusakabe").

I'd be completely at sea with these chapters without the character graph.

As the series and its readers slip into a reflective and retrospective mood, I was considering what would be the funniest single line in the series (so far). My current nomination:

“That means no Moe for you!”
(Delivered in a particularly moe way.)

Runner-up: “Tastes sweaty.”

(That’s granting that the bulk of the humor in the series tends to be tsukkomi/boke exchanges and more developed scenes.)

Random observation: Yurine’s sister, Sumire, is incredibly cute.

Well, since we’re coming to an end, which relationship deserves a spin-off manga?

Care to take the vote?

I'm definitely most interested in a spin-off for Nagisa and Hikari, if only because their "rivalry" is entertaining and we still need a true kiss! lol

As the series and its readers slip into a reflective and retrospective mood, I was considering what would be the funniest single line in the series (so far). My current nomination:

“That means no Moe for you!”
(Delivered in a particularly moe way.)

Runner-up: “Tastes sweaty.”

(That’s granting that the bulk of the humor in the series tends to be tsukkomi/boke exchanges and more developed scenes.)

It would be woefully limiting to declare any one line in this story the funniest, so I will just say that pretty much any interaction between Chiharu and Izumi qualifies for me. Never a dull moment between those two~

"That's called being a stalker, Moe" in chapter 4. That, or Ayaka's sappy imitation of Moe in chapter 16. Or the dicitonary definition gag in chapter 46.

…A lot of those involve Mizuki or Moe, don't they. XD

^ Also yes, ChihaIzu is comedy gold.

last edited at Jan 20, 2019 11:00AM

(That’s granting that the bulk of the humor in the series tends to be tsukkomi/boke exchanges and more developed scenes.)

It would be woefully limiting to declare any one line in this story the funniest, so I will just say that pretty much any interaction between Chiharu and Izumi qualifies for me. Never a dull moment between those two~

Well, as I suggested, I was just starting small. We’ll have plenty of time to get to the “Funniest Expression,” “Most Heartwarming Moment,” “Top Little Theater Episode,” “Best Overlooked Character,” etc. as the series winds down.

• Nagisa & Hikari—Double Tsunderes, will deny they like each other when they’re living together with a bunch of cats in their 70s.

This is, in my opinion, the most hilarious description of a couple... ever.