Would it have freakin killed the author to just have them say I love you or explicitly decide to go out?

Just watching people make out is nice, sure, but I was hoping for some...romance. Not just kissing. Like damn that's boring if they never actually communicate any emotion.

last edited at Jul 29, 2019 8:19PM

ah yes, a Just Friends ending. I guess you can kinda tell from pretty early on that this isn't the kind of series that's going to make any actual real changes or developments between their characters.

I'd say it's fair to call the main "relationship" yuri-bait.
kissing alone doesn't imply a yuri-type relationship, as even straight women can be okay with kissing other girls (especially in the younger experimental periods). at the very least though, some of those side-characters do seem to have some gay stuff going on, but, like...

nuuuh, i ctying ;-; i love it so much and now its a bye bye! then, i though they will be a couple, but clean and unique friendship is fine too :3

This got pretty clearly axed, which is kinda sad. My guess is around half of the last volume. It's reaaaaaally visible that author had some arcs planned for drama and explanations and had to just cram them in the last few chapters, where one or two more volumes would suit it more

I am not even angry over the ending, since it's very open towards the future in yuri-positive way, more sad for the author...

Huh, yeah I agree with above. Axing is pretty evident from the last chapters.

last edited at Jul 29, 2019 9:48PM

So it just sort of stopped? Actually weird how the "we can't swap" thing seemed like it was going to lead up to some big dramatic revelation but then... didn't

People are saying that it looks like it got axed, but I'm not sure that's the case: While the number of unfinished plot threads could be a symptom of cancellation, they could also be evidence that the author just didn't have a plan for anything and decided to call it quits before completely running out of ideas

So, an enjoyable series right up until it abruptly stops. Don't regret reading it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it

Although it kind of meandered towards the latter part, I am genuinely sad to see it end. It was often the highlight of a month of Dynasty Reader for me, and that's with AnoKiss, YagaKimi, Futaribeya, etc. in the mix.

ok

Aaawwww that's the end?
Would have loved to see them in love with each other in the end but it looks like that conveniently swapping thingy for desires like food stays the main point of their relationship

yuri don't sell and get axed.

That was a pretty underwhelming ending.

I wish people would stop using the word bait. it is very misleading.

...if there's a little of something attracting and luring beings expecting more of that in, only for it to not be more of that thing but something different (to whatever degree), how's that not bait?

Because it was yuri. There was a lot of yuri in this story. Call it bait if it tricks you thinking it is yuri but then goes fully hetero in surprise.

S P E C I A L ending
aka can't be bothered to write an actual conclusion so left it open

So it just sort of stopped? Actually weird how the "we can't swap" thing seemed like it was going to lead up to some big dramatic revelation but then... didn't

People are saying that it looks like it got axed, but I'm not sure that's the case: While the number of unfinished plot threads could be a symptom of cancellation, they could also be evidence that the author just didn't have a plan for anything and decided to call it quits before completely running out of ideas

So, an enjoyable series right up until it abruptly stops. Don't regret reading it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it

That would be a fairly surprising super-ultra-hyper-writer's block, as there were quite a few new pairings that could be explored into a bit of depth, the author showed before that he isn't afraid of this with Akiho and Fuyumi. The logical candidates for this were both Yume/Satsuki and Ayu/Tomoyo, where both of these pairs offer different dynamics than any other pairings explored so far.

And really, even if we went with what we have now and didn't go into deeper exploration of new pairs, extending what we got and doing it in the same pace for another volume is something basically any mangaka can do, especially considering they have editors overviewing them.

I'd search for more, but my lack of fluency in Japanese kinda limits me. All I can find is that the manga ended in April and got its last tankoubon instantly (which might be usual, dunno). Won't ask Tomekichi, as that would be rude.

That was pretty much what I expected out of the ending: status quo is god.

It's pretty typical for this type of 4-koma I'd say. They always keep all options open and at some point just stop. Well. Most of the time anyway. I don't think this necessarily means it got "axed", it might just have been decided that it'd be discontinued (at least to me that's a difference ^^).

Ahh, I'd miss this odd little manga. Even though the end is quite loose, I'd say it feels like there's still an 'invisible continuation' going on in my head for this manga with how the ending was delivered.

Yeah, when people mentioned that, "They start swapping with other girls," I imagined something much different. I'm sad to see it go, but overall I'm pretty okay with this ending. I wouldn't call it a 'best friend' ending. It's more of an open ending with heavy romantic tones imo. It's pretty easy to view the ending as hinting towards them one day losing their ability to swap for good and remaining 'special' (wink, wink) to each other in spite of it, but open endings get a bad rap in general, so I'm not surprised to see the poor reception here.

I'd say it feels like there's still an 'invisible continuation' going on in my head for this manga with how the ending was delivered.

See, that's the magic of open endings :)

Honestly, if the author had forced a sudden confession in there it would have felt cheap and unbelievable. The manga has been building them up steadily, but they just weren't there yet. I think this open ending kept the integrity of the author's style.

There were at least two other real yuri pairings in this anyway, so it's not bait.

Honestly, if the author had forced a sudden confession in there it would have felt cheap and unbelievable. The manga has been building them up steadily, but they just weren't there yet. I think this open ending kept the integrity of the author's style.

There were at least two other real yuri pairings in this anyway, so it's not bait.

I would of totally bought a confession if things would of kept the mood depicted in page 6 of chapter 51 and kept going till the very end. But this was a fun manga and the ending is to be expected so it's sorta ok. I wanted to see that girl who likes Haruko pursue her more but oh well, will look for Doujinshi on this >:v

Sigh... why is it that authors have no clue how to end their series? I'm pretty sure like 80% of these series have bad endings. Is it really so hard to end it with them going out?

I think the issue is more related to how manga and serialization works in japan than authors being incompetent (though for some case, I do believe some lack of competence on the author part is also a factor, more on this later).

As most of us know, mangas runs in magazine for an undetermined time and are often subjected to reader's polling to measure how popular a series is. Which means that an author can pretty much runs a manga for a long time as long as it keep drawing a considerable interest (Yes, I'm looking at you, detective conan and your 1000+ chapters).

Based on that, unless an author actually want to go for a set number of chapters, they kinda have to keep things running while making some progress to the story to keep things entertaining, avoid readers getting bored and keep performing well enough to keep rolling. Reason why in romance mangas, the main couple is pretty much bound to keep avoiding confessing to each other because in a lot of people's mind : confession of main couple means nearing the end of the manga. So yeah, also why side couples are more lucky as they can make more progress without making it so it's about to end (room for two is actually a good example of this one, keeping the main girls in a sort of shraudinger yuri state while side couples are actually dating).

The consequence is that when a series is suddenly axed, the author is given a small number of chapter to actually wrap up the whole thing (usually around 3 to 5, it seems), with no regard of the current state of the series at the time.

So yeah, making a fitting end all of a sudden with just a few chapters to work with ? Probably means reworking a lot of things and that is, I believe, where an author talent will shine, as a skilled one might be able to do good under such dire circumstances, but at the same time, you might have been, prior to the axe falling, in such a state, story wise, that no amount of talent can credibly recover in time for the finish, which will way too often leave the reader with a feeling of discomfort.

Sorry for the wall of text, but thought it might help to share those thoughts. If not, well, just toss it in the bin o/

This story was great, even with the no actual confession by the main duo and any kind of story for the two no-swap pairs besides a few pages

Aaawwww that's the end?
Would have loved to see them in love with each other in the end but it looks like that conveniently swapping thingy for desires like food stays the main point of their relationship

100% agree but there is a bit of comfort in Haruko saying they'd be special to each other even without swapping. That said, given Haruko is gay, at least, and Natsuko probably is at least bi, they should have made far more progress. The other probably good thing is we can imagine the adventure continuing. They're still close with the actual yuri couple, and they show no signs of parting from each other. at worst, theyre where the two girls in Futaribeya were at the start when Sakurako moved in.

Sorry for the wall of text, but thought it might help to share those thoughts. If not, well, just toss it in the bin o/

Actually that was a pretty good job of being concise. I try not to think about all that while reading a series, but the "Grand Finale" blurb made us all painfully aware this time. Thanks for that, I seriously would have wasted more words conveying the same info.