Logically speaking, Kaoru has only so many realistic ways of getting out of the situation and keep on living:

• Let Uta leave and keep on pretend having a happy married life with Reiichi; Maybe pop a kid or two. Fade into obscurity.
• Let Uta leave, divorce Reiichi, live on her own and later, once healed, find a new man (since she's hetero) and start a new family.
• Let Uta leave, divorce Reiichi later when the shit hits the fan, go live with Uta in a happy yuri couple after seeing the light.

You forgot the equally unlikely, yet also viable possibility of:
-Confront Reiichi about the cheating, find out it wasn't cheating (or forgive him if it was), fixing their disconnected marriage and living happily. Oh and Uta still leaves I guess.

Reiichi is kind of the wild card here. He has shown both signs of just being with Kaoru out of guilt and actually loving her. There is still a chance things can be fixed. If that happens and things stabilize maybe the both of them can convince Uta together and make it work out, even if Uta has to keep her emotional distance and make peace with her failed love.

Well we are talking about fictional choices here, because Kaoru won't be able to see this. I still think this is up to Reiichi. He really needs to actually contribute to the story for once.

After reading the last two posts, I wonder if making a post that would partially re-iterate an earlier post of mine (as I planned to before reading the last two posts) would actually be viable at this point...

last edited at Mar 25, 2019 9:58AM

Reiichi is kind of the wild card here. He has shown both signs of just being with Kaoru out of guilt and actually loving her.

Quite so, which is one reason the failure to clarify what the deal with him actually is feels like the author simply withholding information from us in order to preserve the possibility of playing that wild card in whatever way happens to be convenient when it’s needed.

Reiichi cheating?:
* Preponderance of the evidence: YES
* Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt: NOT YET

Of course, “he really loves his wife but is still cheating because reasons” is like the oldest cheating-husband cliche in the book, so common and hackneyed in real life that it’s relatively uncommon in fiction, because after all, if you’re cheating what difference does it make if you “really” love the person you’re cheating on?

Again, the extensive list of things that supposedly matter but don’t actually matter for long stretches of the text is the basis of my dissatisfaction with the series, countered only partially by the several signicant things it does well, or at least sufficiently well enough to keep me reading.

@BV: You are aware that posts wondering if you should post are actually posts, right?

last edited at Mar 25, 2019 10:15AM

@BV: You are aware that posts wondering if you should post are actually posts, right?

I am aware of that, yes, but I think there was a misunderstanding between what I wrote and what you read:
In that post, I wondered whether I should make a certain kind of post (as described in that wondering post), and not whether I should make a post to begin with.
Jeez, this is like the stupidest thing I got annoyed with in a long time.
Hopefully, this clarifies the misunderstanding.

let me ask yall something since im not a writer
does it really take a month to write a ch like this?
or did the drawing take long?

I am aware of that, yes, but I think there was a misunderstanding between what I wrote and what you read:
In that post, I wondered whether I should make a certain kind of post (as described in that wondering post), and not whether I should make a post to begin with.
Jeez, this is like the stupidest thing I got annoyed with in a long time.
Hopefully, this clarifies the misunderstanding.

How about this: Just keep those contemplations of possibly posting in the headspace.

let me ask yall something since im not a writer
does it really take a month to write a ch like this?
or did the drawing take long?

As a wannabe writer I wanna say that writing takes longer than you could possibly imagine... but honestly professionals can do it quickly enough if they have to.
It's definitely the art. Monthly chapters go from between 25 to 40 pages. That is an incredibly tight schedule. Being a mangaka is a nightmare.

There is also the fact that the manga is released in a monthly magazine so its not really an issue of how fast the mangaka is done anyway.

last edited at Mar 25, 2019 1:10PM

The author is withholding a lot of informations on purpose. Either to distill future revelations, or to have alternate scenarios ready depending on the ratings of the series. Or both.

go chaosteam !!!!!

But we are in a manga, so the scenario is probably not going that way The third one seem unlikely for now, since Kaoru never really showed any indication to be into girls. But that could change.

I think, only last of three scenarios is possible here. First two just kills Kaouru as a MC in the manga. But I agree that now Kaouru absolutely not into girls, so I'm curious how mangaka will trying to fix it and how long it takes.

IMO, the next move of the author will be to make things explode harder, with the cheating of Reiichi being exposed. Before or after Uta leaves. If it's before, Uta won't leave, because Kaoru will be devastated and how could Uta leave her love interest alone? Or she will come back running.

Yeah, and here we have another interesting possibility, when Uta somehow supress her romantic feelings, takes responsibility on Kaouru, and they both start living as a family. So the manga ends right at the point, where "Ani no Yome to Kurashite Imasu" was started.

I might be harping too much on this now, but seeing people say Kaoru shows no interest in girls, I'm not saying you are wrong

But this panel (especially with all the heartbeat noises on the page before) is kind of odd, ain't it? Are we just assuming Kaoru is blushing out of fear? She has never really shown to be extremely shy to the point of blushing on close contact, has she?

This could mean absolutely nothing other than that she was embarrassed by the confession, but I'd keep that in the back of my mind for the future.

last edited at Mar 25, 2019 2:15PM

Aight, thank you @petsid and @BugDevil for giving me the courage to make (a slightly altered version of) the post I contemplated making before.

This page:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/my_unrequited_love_ch21#9
suggests (to me, at the very least) that Kaoru may not have actually fallen in love with anyone up to that point... and that her thinking she did fall for Reiichi may be another making of her absolutely, ridiculously over-the-top self-deception...
Now, I may be mistaken with what I said in the previous paragraph and what I'm saying in this paragraph, but that page is, IMO, even more of a convincing argument that Kaoru (without even realizing it) fell for Uta than the image of her blushing that @BugDevil showed us all here.
I made of it what I did, and you're free to make of it what we will...
I just fear that having a different opinion from others may result in me feeling like I shouldn't have made this post in the first place (which, come to think of it, is why I made that post wondering whether I'll make this post or not).

last edited at Mar 25, 2019 2:27PM

@BV
The reason I did not include that page is because anxiety can stem from many places. There is a completely legitimate reason for her to be anxious to talk to Uta here, that being her fear of confronting her. Something Kaoru is famously bad at. Blushing on the other hand feels out of place.

As for the "Reiichi Deception" (political thriller?) I wouldn't bet on it. Those flashback chapters were rather strong evidence for her feelings being genuine. Naturally with a story this messed up you could still be right. I think there is no true way to disprove your hypothesis (other than that she seemed to be pretty happy about kissing him etc.).
I'll just add that the two are not mutually exlcusive. Kaoru can love Reiichi and still develop feelings for Uta too.

PS: Don't be afraid to post things people disagree with. It's far better to engage in a discussion than to spam irrelevant things. This isn't a bad idea at all.

Fergawdsake, BV—stop worrying and say what you have to say. It’s fine.

I think for some time several of us have been saying a version of: there have been signs about Kaoru pointing in several possible directions all along—her extreme attachment to Uta, her consistent skinship with her, the oddly ambiguous relationship with Reiichi, etc. The phrase you use, “without even realizing it,” could well be Kaoru’s personal motto.

She may be definitively het. She may also be definitively oblivious to who she really is and what she ultimately wants. To echo my previous post about Reiichi’s cheating:

Is Kaoru completely het?

• Preponderance of the evidence: YES
• Beyond all reasonable doubt: NOT PROVEN

Reiichi is kind of the wild card here. He has shown both signs of just being with Kaoru out of guilt and actually loving her.

Quite so, which is one reason the failure to clarify what the deal with him actually is feels like the author simply withholding information from us in order to preserve the possibility of playing that wild card in whatever way happens to be convenient when it’s needed.

Reiichi cheating?:
* Preponderance of the evidence: YES
* Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt: NOT YET

I can't agree. I mean, I think this is where it is For Kaoru, sure, but with what we've seen of his and Risako's behavior when they're away from Kaoru (hell, sometimes when they're with her) I think it would take a special kind of naivite to rule not guilty.

Of course, “he really loves his wife but is still cheating because reasons” is like the oldest cheating-husband cliche in the book, so common and hackneyed in real life that it’s relatively uncommon in fiction, because after all, if you’re cheating what difference does it make if you “really” love the person you’re cheating on?

Evidence points to "He married her out of pity after her mom died". He likes her, but his heart belongs to Risako and always has. Plus -she's- clearly bitter about the fact that she lost him to Kaoru's personal tragedy. I seriously doubt it's a -coincidence- that his "business trips" happen to keep coinciding with wedding anniversaries and birthdays and couples holidays. I don't think he pays attention to those things, but I'd bet money Risako does. I know there's no concrete evidence on this point, but it just makes too much sense to ignore.

What I find interesting about that is that, if he doesn't turn out to be an asshole homophobe ("But you're both girls!!!"), he'll probably end up feeling EVEN SHITTIER about everything. If he doesn't already know, which honestly also wouldn't surprise me. It'd add a lot to his feelings of being trapped and disgruntled about the marriage if he knew that he was also tearing out his little sister's emotionally traumatized heart and stomping all over her feelings all the time.

Again, the extensive list of things that supposedly matter but don’t actually matter for long stretches of the text is the basis of my dissatisfaction with the series, countered only partially by the several signicant things it does well, or at least sufficiently well enough to keep me reading.

I disagree, but I feel like it's pretty subjective, so I can't argue with it. ;p I think we've been setting up dominoes up to this point, and Uta just kicked over the first one.

Flash news: not every yuri manga has a yuri ending.

True, though het endings are way less popular than they used to be.

Wait, there was a time when those were popular?

Yes. I mean, not with yuri fans or queer genre fans in general, but with manga artists, it used to be. Manga in the 70s and 80s was replete with "It's a phase" stories or "and then they moved on and got married" stories, because they reinforce the "Normal" sociopolitical paradigm. Hell, this is part of why some older fans on these forums are so goddamn traumatised that they see het endings loom the instant a male characters hows up in a single panel.

For any of us that actually empathise with LGBTQ characters and want to see ourselves represented, the current trend of girl meets girl, girl gets girl, is kind of a recent phenomena.

PS: Don't be afraid to post things people disagree with. It's far better to engage in a discussion than to spam irrelevant things. This isn't a bad idea at all.

.

Fergawdsake, BV—stop worrying and say what you have to say. It’s fine.

.

What else can I say, other than:
Anxiety is a bitch.

omg that credits page

Reiichi is kind of the wild card here. He has shown both signs of just being with Kaoru out of guilt and actually loving her.

Quite so, which is one reason the failure to clarify what the deal with him actually is feels like the author simply withholding information from us in order to preserve the possibility of playing that wild card in whatever way happens to be convenient when it’s needed.

Reiichi cheating?:
* Preponderance of the evidence: YES
* Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt: NOT YET

I can't agree. I mean, I think this is where it is For Kaoru, sure, but with what we've seen of his and Risako's behavior when they're away from Kaoru (hell, sometimes when they're with her) I think it would take a special kind of naivite to rule not guilty.

We’re not disagreeing—I’m talking about what has been made definitively clear in the text itself. You seem to have considerably more faith than I do that the author couldn’t potentially pull some fake-out to explain away all the circumstantial evidence that so apparently points to Reiichi cheating.

We’ve also established that you have considerably more respect for the writing and structuring of this series than I do, so what I see as authorial dithering and intentional withholding of information from the audience for no legitimate reason you see as . . .something better than that. I actually hope you’re right.

Wait, there was a time when those were popular?

Yes. I mean, not with yuri fans or queer genre fans in general, but with manga artists, it used to be. Manga in the 70s and 80s was replete with "It's a phase" stories or "and then they moved on and got married" stories, because they reinforce the "Normal" sociopolitical paradigm. Hell, this is part of why some older fans on these forums are so goddamn traumatised that they see het endings loom the instant a male characters hows up in a single panel.

For any of us that actually empathise with LGBTQ characters and want to see ourselves represented, the current trend of girl meets girl, girl gets girl, is kind of a recent phenomena.

Ah, so by popular you meant editorially enforced and culturally brainwashed. Yes, I am fairly aware of the "Onee-sama's secret garden: Don`t tell your fiance about this" era. The trauma some people here experienced surely was great.

I'm by no means opposed to hetero stories or endings. Thanks to the changing times this or other Yuri themed stories these days turning out het is actually a unique thing, which gives it some merit. It just has to be set up right and make sense narratively.

Uta has to move on, there's no other option because it's clearly shown that Kaoru only wants to go back to her pseudo happy life, those last lines in the recent chapter doesn't convince me that she cares about how Uta feels. To me, she only wants someone she can cling to so she can forget how messed up her life is, regardless their feeling. Intentionally or not, asking someone who you rejected as a whole to stay with you as if nothing happened is the most cruel thing one can do. Sure shit hurts as hell, but time got Uta's back (or everyone's back?!), move on and the wound will heal itself. Her moving on might also push Kaoru to confront Reiichi, to hear what he has to say and decide what to do on her own.

The author is withholding a lot of informations on purpose. Either to distill future revelations, or to have alternate scenarios ready depending on the ratings of the series. Or both.

Not revealing information for dramatic purposes is just normal writing

i wish the author would introduce a new love interest for Uta, this girl deserves some happiness. Kaoru at this point just pisses me of with her insensitivity

The author is withholding a lot of informations on purpose. Either to distill future revelations, or to have alternate scenarios ready depending on the ratings of the series. Or both.

Not revealing information for dramatic purposes is just normal writing

It would take a lot more thinking than I’m willing or able to muster at the moment to clearly articulate what I see as the difference between information in a story that we aren’t given that creates atmosphere or contributes to a slowly building plot on the one hand and information that seems to be hinted at but not revealed because the author hasn’t quite decided what to do with the matter, or even if they’re going to bring it up again at all.

But I feel like I feel that difference here, and not in a particularly good way.

So they have finally reached the point of no return....Things won't go back to what they were before :(

Hell yeah, it's gay time baby.