Blastaar I didn't analyze your argument in my previous reply, I just took the last part, I think your communication skills are great
Ah, understood.
Like any genre fan, I don’t expect every yuri manga to be excellent—sometimes mere mediocrity serves to pass the time. (Fan service in itself I can take or leave depending on how it’s done, but as you say, it’s often just an attempt to distract from bad writing, inept art, etc.)
I all but dropped this one a few pages in, but found myself engaged in it enough to wonder what happens next (in both the “following the actions of the characters” sense and the “can this author keep the wobbly vehicle from crashing entirely” one).
It’s certainly true that adolescents check out each others’ bodies for a variety of reasons (curiosity, desire, self-comparison, etc.), but it seems to me that there really is something quite male-gaze-y about a lot of the fanservice in this one—it’s the difference between discreet side-long glances at something attractive and a group of schoolboys haw-hawing to each other about seeing some girl’s panties.
Put another way, I actually wanted to see Usa’s unabashed sexual desire as a fun and refreshing take on adolescent female sexuality, but instead of the fanservice showing how the character sees the world, the shots keep putting the reader in the position of a creepy schoolboy.
Like the bottom right panel here:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/skeeter_rabbit_ch01#25