Am I the only one who thinks it is highly possible nothing is gonna come of this? That it will likely stay vague, they will be bff, and nothing will be resolved?

Pessimism...is the only way.

It doesn't make Ran any less gay, though.

SO MUCH YURI SUBTEXT. waaaaaaaaah.

last edited at Oct 16, 2014 11:00AM

So Ran officially declares she swings that way. Oh my god.

Gotta love how after months of speculation about drama on Ran's life we finelly get confirmation on her dad being dead and yet, everyone is freaking out about Ran being really REALLY gay :P

Gotta love how after months of speculation about drama on Ran's life we finelly get confirmation on her dad being dead and yet, everyone is freaking out about Ran being really REALLY gay :P

Priorities !

but saying she doesn't want to be popular among guys (in particular) really begs the question (so you want to be popular with girls, then?).

The thing is, the Japanese bubble doesn't say a thing about boys or girls. Literally she's talking about being popular but doesn't specify if it's among boys or girls. Boys are of course heavily implied by the context, but it's not there in the original wording. So we're dealing with the translator's interpretation here, which is quite inevitable due-to Japanese being such a context-dependent language.
It's similar to the cherry popping from the previous chapter, where Ran literally said that she was happy she took one of senpai's firsts. Yes, cherry popping can mean that too, but it also has a sexual subtext, which seemingly is not present or is not that obvious at least in the original Japanese phrase. On the other hand, I'm so far from fluency in Japanese that I can only rely on common dictionaries, while in slang this subtext might actually also be present.
So maybe it's the translator being too optimistic for the sake of a more natural English or due-to yuri coggles, or maybe it's just me lacking in the Japanese department (which is probably more realistic).

And I wonder how Keiko will react now. The author made an amazing job: in the last chapters, they practically confessed to each other, indirectly, but still. First, Ran on Christmas apparently overheard Keiko on the balcony. And now it's Keiko overhearing Ran.

last edited at Oct 16, 2014 12:57PM

whatever happens...RAN IS STILL THE CUTEST

I hope for Ran to turn all them men down

It wouldn't be the first time, remember the group date where she started talking cadavers and scared them all away?

lol she wasn't even trying to scare them away, she was just being herself

I hope for Ran to turn all them men down

It wouldn't be the first time, remember the group date where she started talking cadavers and scared them all away?

lol she wasn't even trying to scare them away, she was just being herself

Mmm, I wonder how much of that was deliberate, though. Ran's silly, but she's not stupid.

Nice

Everyone is expecting the yuri that will never come...

Quiet your tongue, or have it removed.

last edited at Oct 16, 2014 6:04PM

Ugh. I'm not liking Ran's childhood friends so much. They seem like jerks.

Throughout this story, I don't think we've seen Keiko and Ran get into a huge fight or disagreement yet. Neither has there been a great moment of difficulty to shake up their lives a bit (beyond flashbacks). You know, the kind of hurdle that really puts a relationship to the test. Maybe it won't happen(or maybe it already happened several chapters ago and I forgot), but I'm still expecting it to occur some time in the future. We still don't know the full details on Keiko's relationship with her mom. Also, did Keiko ever tell Ran about her break up in the past? How much do the two really know about each other at this point in the story?

Throughout this story, I don't think we've seen Keiko and Ran get into a huge fight or disagreement yet. Neither has there been a great moment of difficulty to shake up their lives a bit (beyond flashbacks). You know, the kind of hurdle that really puts a relationship to the test. Maybe it won't happen(or maybe it already happened several chapters ago and I forgot), but I'm still expecting it to occur some time in the future. We still don't know the full details on Keiko's relationship with her mom. Also, did Keiko ever tell Ran about her break up in the past? How much do the two really know about each other at this point in the story?

Pretty sure Ran knows a lot about Keiko, considering the situation where they first reunited, Ran calling her to see if she's alright when the earthquake warning happened and how she didn't said a thing when she found Keiko crying alone in the room

just wanted to say somehing,keiko is the only one seeing stretching in the latest chapters.i liked that cause i see her as someone that disregard this kind of stuff but the same way that she started she continued .hope it is to show that she is trying to keep a conection with ran.cause she seems to not realy care for conections

(first post)

last edited at Oct 16, 2014 8:26PM

Pretty sure Ran knows a lot about Keiko, considering the situation where they first reunited, Ran calling her to see if she's alright when the earthquake warning happened and how she didn't said a thing when she found Keiko crying alone in the room

I thought Ran was calling her mother, not Keiko.

Everyone is expecting the yuri that will never come...

N'taytay, dark cloud of unjoy, someone salt you up or are you always this negative?

better yet, lemme ask this... how do you know the yuri will never come? I mean, it's not like you have advanced copies of each chapter before they are released, or do you? how about this... between you and me, you're really Shou-san or are you just channelling Shou-san? no..no...no... I know what it is! you have special psychic powers and have foreseen the lack of Yuri. So really, you're helping all of us by letting us down easy so we won't be disappointed because you have had visions by channeling Shou-san with the advanced copies that have yet to be released for the Yuri that may or may not come to fruition. Right? Come on, you can tell us.

So... lemme ask again, how do you know the yuri will never come?

EDIT: I'm just ribbing you, but I am curious why you're so confident the outcome will contain no yuri. Care to share?

last edited at Oct 16, 2014 11:54PM

Everyone is expecting the yuri that will never come…

Ran can be totally gay even without any Yuri happening =D

Everyone is expecting the yuri that will never come…

Ran can be totally gay even without any Yuri happening =D

More like Ran IS totally gay though.

Everyone is expecting the yuri that will never come…

Ran can be totally gay even without any Yuri happening =D

Exactly! And I'd still be happy with that, because at least you'd actually have a queer character in a category inundated with high school girls and their (probably short-lived) crushes. There's a severe dearth of adult LGBT characters in yuri, which is partly why I appreciate series like "Ohana Holoholo" and Nishi UKO, Amano Shuninta and Takemiya Jin's works (though Jin's characters aren't always adults, they definitely come off as being more LGBT than the pure-love-yuri type). If "Stretch" was added to that very short list, it'd be really awesome.

Edit: added Shuninta to the list. I can't believe I forgot her! I knew I was missing something. Thanks, Underachiever007- you're no underachiever after all!

last edited at Oct 17, 2014 5:10PM

Everyone is expecting the yuri that will never come…

Ran can be totally gay even without any Yuri happening =D

Exactly! And I'd still be happy with that, because at least you'd actually have a queer character in a category inundated with high school girls and their (probably short-lived) crushes. There's a severe dearth of adult LGBT characters in yuri, which is partly why I appreciate series like "Ohana Holoholo" and Nishi UKO and Takemiya Jin's works (though Jin's characters aren't always adults, they definitely come off as being more LGBT than the pure-love-yuri type). If "Stretch" was added to that very short list, it'd be really awesome.

as these Yuri/Shoujo Ai themed publications get folded into the more mainstream outlets, do you think we'll see more or less adult LGBT characters? Also, do you think we'll be inundated with "flavor of the month" serials and one shots and/or see more releases that get watered down to the point they should not be considered subtext? I ask this question in particular because on this reader, Stretch has considerable popularity, and I'm curious if its success could be seen as a template that is copied by other mangaka.

Quiet a few Shuninta books have adult lesbians as well.

:-) tho I wish her characters were older. heck, I wish all the mangaka would write more stories where the characters were not high school/collage aged. I'd love to see their perspective on older adult lesbians.

btw, I realize there is already a thread that covers this topic. if needed, I'll repost this question there.

last edited at Oct 17, 2014 9:16AM

as these Yuri/Shoujo Ai themed publications get folded into the more mainstream outlets, do you think we'll see more or less adult LGBT characters? Also, do you think we'll be inundated with "flavor of the month" serials and one shots and/or see more releases that get watered down to the point they should not be considered subtext? I ask this question in particular because on this reader, Stretch has considerable popularity, and I'm curious if its success could be seen as a template that is copied by other mangaka.

I'd wait for the story to give a definite answer regarding the characters' sexuality before thinking about this "template" getting popularity, because so far, there's no actual proof that any of them are lesbian, and ever since Lemonade, I tend to be extra wary... :/

:-) tho I wish her characters were older. heck, I wish all the mangaka would write more stories where the characters were not high school/collage aged. I'd love to see their perspective on older adult lesbians.

Even more college stuff would be step in the right direction. Get out of the girls' schools, into a setting where it's a bit tougher to find a partner and it's a bit more than a crush!

Hints, hints everywhere! It could be bait as well, which is most likely. But as long as it's still in the box, I'll just call it hints. I like the cat alive after all ;p