This manga is missing a tag, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Well, at least is not directed by Michael Bay, it would have ended with the couple exploding or something...

Gah... I checked this hoping to cheer up my horrible mood a little... BIG failure. I'm more depressed now.

If author want to make realistic manga, realistic is not cheating bisexual, it's not rape innocent girl story, its not college student free sex life stories. how about make story about ordinary boring life with uninteresting character, that's realistic.

the author sure seems to love negative stereotype and promoting it.

Amano drew many sweet and fluffy and even NSFW stuff prior to this. I don't think you should dismiss her like this just because of this one-shot. But who knows, maybe you do think everything Amano drew has negative stereotype. /shrug

...Am i the only one that didn't get negative vibes at all? Still looks like a happy manga even with the tornado

Nah, we're on the same boat. It's just hard for the yuri community to leave their imaginary, perfect, no male allowed little world. Reality isn't really convenient, is it?

don't mix reality with fictional manga please;)

If you are so upset about this to the point of replying multiple times to assert what you think manga should be, then maybe you should just make your own instead of spending time on here replying to everyone who says anything about being realistic. Some people are going to enjoy what others don't, just like how you don't enjoy having realistic situations in a medium that's mostly fictional.

people have different view and taste, I know that, respect or just don't mind them. well i'm sorry if my comments upsetting people that like this manga I should just not care but I can't just like how you care what other think about this manga. and this manga just happen to tick me off because exactly the author used to draw fluffy manga before. heck i don't even like fluffy too sweet stuff that much, I just don't like male in the story, that's all.

@emteen
This isn't the first time Amano Shuninta includes a man in her stories tho. And if you define as "fluffy manga" all of her work till now then you better go read some more.

@emteen
This isn't the first time Amano Shuninta includes a man in her stories tho. And if you define as "fluffy manga" all of her work till now then you better go read some more.

ok fine. I should not troll here anymore:)

There you are Centifolia. Come to think of it I should posted the link to that manga along with the quote..oh well
anyway sorry for the confusion and thank you for the link!

Nah. I was just surprised that my old post was being quoted. You can spam it all you want. No need to take credits :)

Well dammnnn

I have to admit that I really liked the story. While the ending did come as a surprise, and like many I made a sad face for a few seconds, I also found it uplifting in a way. The very fact that people like Amano Shuninta depict this reality, and that it is even scanlated, is something that I believe to be very important.

Have a look at the World Values Survey. Just throw the name into Google, they’re easy to find. Go to Data & Documentation -> Online Analysis. Look up some of the cultural factors in Japanese society, in particular when it comes to marriage and LGBT acceptance. Marriage does not always represent an “oh we’re so in love” feel-good scenario, but is often a much more functional element; not necessarily a commitment to another person, but seen as part of one’s duty to society. In such a setting, it is culturally perfectly acceptable that a marriage fulfils a purely formal role – love and intimacy are not required. The Japan Times even has an article titled “Sexlessness wrecks marriages, threatens nation’s future”, including a study showing that the Japanese have the least sex in the world by a fair margin. Factor a lack of social acceptance of LGBT people into that and you have a recipe for exactly the sort of situation Amano shows here.

So why do I feel it important that such Doujins exist? Because, if the only representation is one of happy schoolgirl lesbians living in a fully accepting society, then we will never see the societal changes that are necessary. One of the elements that made, for instance, Prism so gripping is the scene where the girls are suddenly confronted by discrimination. This echoes the experience of many in real life, and not always is there someone fully accepting to save the day. Can a manga change that? Amano’s story will not singlehandedly change the world, but it may open the eyes of some people in Japan and abroad to the situations that many find themselves in today. Maybe the very indignation that people are displaying can cause them to think that a more open and accepting society is something to strive for. At least that’s my positive takeaway from this one.

why

Have a look at the World Values Survey. Just throw the name into Google, they’re easy to find. Go to Data & Documentation -> Online Analysis.

Thank you so much. I've enjoyed the reading for over an hour. +10 for the rest of your comment

well, look at the bright side, they live next to...each other? ;-;
Me no like the ending!! but sigh, i still liked it tho. xD
Can you Imagine all the planning they had to do just to be close to each other again eve if they're both married to a man they don't even love?

well, look at the bright side, they live next to...each other? ;-;
Me no like the ending!! but sigh, i still liked it tho. xD
Can you Imagine all the planning they had to do just to be close to each other again eve if they're both married to a man they don't even love?

It could be they just stumbled upon each other and developed a relationship between each other while their husband might be working somewhere else or just working too many hours.

Also, it's not really specified if they don't love their husbands. Now before someone grabs me by the throat, please understand that you can love a person without being lovers. I mean... I love my mother, my sister and a few close friends and would put my life on the line for them, but that doesn't mean I want to hit the sack with them.

Still... this situation is... less than optimal to say the least.

last edited at Aug 22, 2014 12:33AM

...Am i the only one that didn't get negative vibes at all? Still looks like a happy manga even with the tornado

Nah, we're on the same boat. It's just hard for the yuri community to leave their imaginary, perfect, no male allowed little world. Reality isn't really convenient, is it?

+1

... but really.. what's up with people hating on men? they're not "evil", geez. Sometimes when I read some comments on this site i think that some people would make them all disappear form earth if they had the chance to do so.

well, look at the bright side, they live next to...each other? ;-;
Me no like the ending!! but sigh, i still liked it tho. xD
Can you Imagine all the planning they had to do just to be close to each other again eve if they're both married to a man they don't even love?

It could be they just stumbled upon each other and developed a relationship between each other while their husband might be working somewhere else or just working too many hours.

Also, it's not really specified if they don't love their husbands. Now before someone grabs me by the throat, please understand that you can love a person without being lovers. I mean... I love my mother, my sister and a few close friends and would put my life on the line for them, but that doesn't mean I want to hit the sack with them.

Still... this situation is... less than optimal to say the least.

I imagine it depends if they're all in an open relationship or not. Although the ending makes it seem like they're probably hiding their relationship anyway.

I lack anything near a "social life" that I took the time to read every comment. XD I get the public's point, but then I don't. I found the story to be quite light in a sense. Nothing pulled me in and yet nothing pushed me out. It was cute and subtle, but the masses seem to think some great conspiracy is going on. If anything it's just a mere artistic representation of a realistic point of view and nothing to have a whale over. Bittersweet still contains the sweet, right?

... but really.. what's up with people hating on men? they're not "evil", geez. Sometimes when I read some comments on this site i think that some people would make them all disappear form earth if they had the chance to do so.

Haha, I see the same thing. Not all men are bad just like not all women are good. To dislike or even go as far as to hate (StrongWord!) just because of their gender is a rather big prejudice. Peace & Love! ;p

Have a look at the World Values Survey. Just throw the name into Google, they’re easy to find. Go to Data & Documentation -> Online Analysis. Look up some of the cultural factors in Japanese society, in particular when it comes to marriage and LGBT acceptance. Marriage does not always represent an “oh we’re so in love” feel-good scenario, but is often a much more functional element; not necessarily a commitment to another person, but seen as part of one’s duty to society. In such a setting, it is culturally perfectly acceptable that a marriage fulfils a purely formal role – love and intimacy are not required. The Japan Times even has an article titled “Sexlessness wrecks marriages, threatens nation’s future”, including a study showing that the Japanese have the least sex in the world by a fair margin. Factor a lack of social acceptance of LGBT people into that and you have a recipe for exactly the sort of situation Amano shows here.

So why do I feel it important that such Doujins exist? Because, if the only representation is one of happy schoolgirl lesbians living in a fully accepting society, then we will never see the societal changes that are necessary. One of the elements that made, for instance, Prism so gripping is the scene where the girls are suddenly confronted by discrimination. This echoes the experience of many in real life, and not always is there someone fully accepting to save the day. Can a manga change that? Amano’s story will not singlehandedly change the world, but it may open the eyes of some people in Japan and abroad to the situations that many find themselves in today. Maybe the very indignation that people are displaying can cause them to think that a more open and accepting society is something to strive for. At least that’s my positive takeaway from this one.

+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 thank you so much for the "World Values Survey" resource, that is a truly awesome thing, definitely provides a lot of insight. and everything else you said is pretty much hitting the nail on the head too ^_^

*edit: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp

last edited at Aug 22, 2014 9:45AM

at first i was like.. Oh okay, they must be living together.. both separated..
at the end.. Uhmmmmm.... (processing) what the!?! they're neighbors.. both married.. poor husbands (ʃ_⌣̀ )/||

{ i'll just think the husbands are into each other too } LOL

Amano Shuninta never fails to show the reality of life. I'm always buying his manga whenever I can buy it.
Regarding the story, yes it depicts the current situation in Japan where people consider 'Marriage' as a duty and they have to fulfil this because the nation needs more children. The story shows how LGBT some people there cope with this. Unfortunately, sometimes this situation also happens in other countries.

The problem i have with this is......yuri fans dont need to know this, we already know about this BS and convincing us about the horrors of these situations does nothing because again we already knew this, i would rather aim this at the non yuri fans in the anime fanbase, dont know how you would do that but i would.

Going from manga, so probably wildly inaccurate by definition, there seems to be a lot of historical baggage in Japan that leads to a lot of marriages being more similar to business arrangements than what most of us would consider healthy marriages in the west. Which, if even partially accurate, leads to situations like this, "visiting marriages", the famed low birth rate, and so forth.

Going from manga, so probably wildly inaccurate by definition, there seems to be a lot of historical baggage in Japan that leads to a lot of marriages being more similar to business arrangements than what most of us would consider healthy marriages in the west. Which, if even partially accurate, leads to situations like this, "visiting marriages", the famed low birth rate, and so forth.

You're pretty much right. Contrary to the idealized Japan envisioned by Japanophiles, real Japan is very traditionalist and collectivist, making them very conformist in turn. Basically, you act like everyone else (or like everyone else expects someone in your position to act) or else you'll be shunned. So people get married just to fulfill people's expectations of them. This traditionalism also means their society doesn't adapt or absorb new ideas or concepts very quickly. This is believed by many to be the cause of Japan's “lost decade” in the 1990s and is the reason Japan has one of the lowest standings in terms of women's rights and LGBTQ rights out of any 1st world country in the world, because to elevate women and gays to a level of equality would require more change than their society feels it could handle. Well that and anyone advocating for women's rights or queer rights would be accused of selfishness, because they would be advocating for the rights of someone outside the “main group” i.e. the Japanese people as whole and that goes against their collectivist ideology. This means that people in these minorities often have to find different ways to represent or protect themselves from their societies discrimination. This means things like “beards” were a couple pretend to fall in love and get married to cover for the fact one or both partners is/are secretly gay are pretty common in Japan, were in the west these kinda things still happen but are much rarer, as homosexuality is much more accepted there. Yes even the notoriously homophobic conservative regions of the US of A are probably more accepting to homosexuality than Japan (and Japan is still more accepting of queer peoples than South Korea, were homosexuality and transsexualism are still classified as mental disorders. Actually Asian nations in general are very discriminating against homosexuals, with the exceptions of Israel, Nepal and Taiwan)
Simply put, its likely these two women are married to men solely to cover their own homosexuality and that they only ever had sexual relations with their husbands for the purpose of producing children and little else. This is Japanese tradition again, which believes marriage and children are a women's ultimate goal in life (why yes Japanese society is very sexist and male dominated, why do ask?) so having kids would be necessary for these women to maintain their “cover”.

The problem i have with this is......yuri fans dont need to know this, we already know about this BS and convincing us about the horrors of these situations does nothing because again we already knew this, i would rather aim this at the non yuri fans in the anime fanbase, dont know how you would do that but i would.

+1 that's what I thought

W-what? Wait I wasn't ready.

Good story, and I don't understand the whining. These two women have fallen in love and are making the best of their situation. It's not a perfect happiness, but happiness almost never is. The important thing is that they're together and sharing their lives as best they can.

last edited at Aug 23, 2014 1:35AM

You're pretty much right. Contrary to the idealized Japan envisioned by Japanophiles, real Japan is very traditionalist and collectivist, making them very conformist in turn.

I agree with your posts, but another thing you forgot to mention is change isn't just slow because perception takes a while to shift on issues, but because of their atrocious and unwieldy bureaucracy. Now, this isn't unique to Japan at all, most government are actually really bad at paper pushing an acceptable rate but Japan just takes on to another level. It happened several times in which the public opinion was in favour or heavily in favour of something but the change took years to materialize itself because the bill took years to go through proper channels.

So a lot of things we take for granted that we are protected against or for is not properly implemented into law as of yet. Heck, Japan doesn't have any laws regulating surrogacy... For a country with a huge problem with births, you'd think they would approve of anything that makes people have babies in any way shape or form.

http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/2014/06/japan-considers-conflicting-surrogacy-laws/

You're pretty much right. Contrary to the idealized Japan envisioned by Japanophiles, real Japan is very traditionalist and collectivist, making them very conformist in turn.

I agree with your posts, but another thing you forgot to mention is change isn't just slow because perception takes a while to shift on issues, but because of their atrocious and unwieldy bureaucracy. Now, this isn't unique to Japan at all, most government are actually really bad at paper pushing an acceptable rate but Japan just takes on to another level. It happened several times in which the public opinion was in favour or heavily in favour of something but the change took years to materialize itself because the bill took years to go through proper channels.

So a lot of things we take for granted that we are protected against or for is not properly implemented into law as of yet. Heck, Japan doesn't have any laws regulating surrogacy... For a country with a huge problem with births, you'd think they would approve of anything that makes people have babies in any way shape or form.

http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/2014/06/japan-considers-conflicting-surrogacy-laws/

Thanks, I'm sorry I didn't mention that.
I've never actually heard this before; my only real knowledge on the Japanese government is their stance on war and the military (they claim to renounce war but operate a "Self Defence Force" with one of the largest military budgets in the world) and the fact they have no policy regarding Freedom of Information, leading to a rather opaque government.
Oh and their denial of Japan's many, many, MANY War Crimes.

Is it bad that reading the phrase "Japanese surrogacy: Still painful" and then looking at the crying baby made giggle a little?

last edited at Aug 23, 2014 6:57AM