I had just assumed that it was very rare for masters to want to take their beastkin outside of the country, so they didn’t think to check. Now that Master and Mel ran off they might start being more careful though.

Also, this isn't exactly a police state. It'd be pretty difficult to enforce any kind of strict restrictions on freedom of movement in a turn of the century setting.

Even though it was short, I really liked it. Endings still make me feel empty inside.
Colette... ;_;

I had just assumed that it was very rare for masters to want to take their beastkin outside of the country, so they didn’t think to check. Now that Master and Mel ran off they might start being more careful though.

Also, this isn't exactly a police state. It'd be pretty difficult to enforce any kind of strict restrictions on freedom of movement in a turn of the century setting.

You'd be surprised. Remarkably harsh travel controls can be implemented already with Medieval technology, as demonstrated by eg. the Tokugawa bakufu and some of the Chinese dynasties (starting with the Qin) - it's just a matter of state organisation and seeing a reason to invest the required effort. And Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal has a pretty impressive study of the kind of dragnet that can be created with basically just telephones and card indexes; the story's set in the Sixties but the tools employed by the authorities date to the "Long Nineteenth Century".

I had just assumed that it was very rare for masters to want to take their beastkin outside of the country, so they didn’t think to check. Now that Master and Mel ran off they might start being more careful though.

Also, this isn't exactly a police state. It'd be pretty difficult to enforce any kind of strict restrictions on freedom of movement in a turn of the century setting.

You'd be surprised. Remarkably harsh travel controls can be implemented already with Medieval technology, as demonstrated by eg. the Tokugawa bakufu and some of the Chinese dynasties (starting with the Qin) - it's just a matter of state organisation and seeing a reason to invest the required effort. And Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal has a pretty impressive study of the kind of dragnet that can be created with basically just telephones and card indexes; the story's set in the Sixties but the tools employed by the authorities date to the "Long Nineteenth Century".

All true, but for all the apparent new "evidence" we've been given about the legal status of beastkin, we still don't know very much about the specific laws and practices of this storyworld and how they do or don't fit together.

• Masters traveling with beastkin within the country is completely normal--we've seen Stella and Master both do it.

• There's some kind of status regarding Mel's collar and an ID number, but few of the other beastkin wear anything resembling Mel's bondage/slave/pet collar, which she wore before being taken in by Master.

• There's an illegal beastkin slave trade, the specific reasons for which (sex? perverse collections? ransom? pelts?) being left to our imaginations, and the authorities in general seem to be on the lookout for the welfare of beastkin.

• Romantic relationships between humans and beastkin are frowned upon, but whether they're actually illegal, and whether the objections are to interspecies miscegenation, to (possibly) unavoidable pedophilia with the never-fully-maturing beastkin, or to inequality of social status, or some combination thereof, is never made clear.

The ending implies that there's some sort of "Transporting Beastkin Across International Borders for Immoral Purposes" issue, but its nature and extent is, once again, left to our imaginations.

Ah, well, like Marie and Collette, I just want the people, etc. I care about to be happy together.

Ya, files under "seeing a reason to invest in the required effort". Apparently the authorities here, well, don't, at least beyond the fairly nominal. (I'm a tad skeptical of the degree to which the authorities actually care about the critters, though, given that the supervision of beastkin-master relations is apparently entirely down to "social controls" and self-reporting - and Mel presumably isn't the only specimen alarmingly fuzzy about the relevant laws to boot.)

Damn that panel of the house in ch13, it looks damn fkin great. It feels so good to see a yuri manga with such a background art like this one.

^Because most of it is doujins or self published - we don't get that many yuri manga paid to be made for a magazine etc, where a really good artist is gonna put in the kind of time and effort needed for great backgrounds.

Also, story wise, the background art is often superfluous - or does not need to be detailed. It just looks a lot better when it is:) Thus it is often skipped or minimized for time/effort reasons.

last edited at Dec 19, 2018 7:55PM

elevown posted:

^Because most of it is doujins or self published - we don't get that many yuri manga paid to be made for a magazine etc, where a really good artist is gonna put in the kind of time and effort needed for great backgrounds.

Also, story wise, the background art is often superfluous - or does not need to be detailed. It just looks a lot better when it is:) Thus it is often skipped or minimized for time/effort reasons.

I feel like it ironically could be actually reverse, especially when weekly published. When you're self published you don't really have a schedule and can put as much time and effort as you want, polishing everything. On the other hand when you're a "proper" mangaka and have schedules and such, it often is hard to find enough time/motivation to put as much effort, so in fact skipping stuff like that is usually first thing you're going to do. It's a fact, most magazines don't give a fuck about how you envisioned your story to look and only care about releasing profitable new chapters. The Shounen Jump is the best example of how even very talented artists over time are worked to death. It is just not realistic to keep a very detailed, polished art-style when you need to make weekly releases. At some point you will start to make compromises and adapt quicker ways to draw stuff. The best example from top of my head is Kubo who was pretty much genius in term of drawing, but over time, he stopped giving a fuck and he basically stopped drawing backgrounds altogether. Also his art-style become much more simplified and "shoune-like" when before it was much more detailed and distinctive. Sure, you can hire assistants, but their job is more of doing the repetitive, annoying stuff and at best copying you, so unless they are at the same lvl at you, they really can't help with quality of manga. Other example is Kishimoto, at first he gave Naruto very detailed googles, but he immediately realized they are way too hard and complicate to draw over and over, so he quickly changed them to very simple village headband.

Sure there are also monthly releases etc. so they have a bit more of free room, but still, unless you're very good and efficient at your drawing, there is no way you can keep up putting very detailed, impressive work time after time. That is probably the main reason, why most mangas are not that impressive art wise, especially since as you said, at best it only make them look better, most of the time you don't really need it to express core emotions or plot of the story.

TL;DR: Being published doesn't automatically means your art is better than self-published and even if your art is very good, it can actually take much more effort to show it off, when you're published.

Either way, Itou is amazing artist regardless.

last edited at Dec 19, 2018 8:24PM

The ending was so bittersweet that I'm having mixed emotionsss AAGGHH...
Master and Mel finally got what they want and Marie's acceptance and letting go was sweet but sad. I must admit though, the kidnapping chapter somewhat disturbed me and wasn't expecting something as dark as that to be in the author's work. But I enjoyed it nonetheless as it gave an air of realism to the setting.

On to the bitter part of the ending - no it wasn't Marie's letting go, but rather the leaving of Colette behind which I'll argue, is the BEST PART OF THE ENDING!! That part was just so beautiful to me, a stark contrast between the aforementioned bitterness and sweetness, that something had to be left behind in order to move on forward. Just as Colette said, "Choosing something means giving something up", is probably a life lesson that people fail to realize or just don't want to admit. The presentation was just perfect. I was expecting actually a happy ending where they just live happily ever after in the manor but no. I applaud the author for giving us this ending which is actually more fulfilling so to speak. I probably sound ridiculous saying all these things, having learned something profound... in a yuri manga... about an adult lady... and her young beast girl but that's just how I felt and I neeeeeeeeeeed an outlet for these emotions so cut me some slack - I was really surprised that this is already over hahaha.

Anyway, if you've read this far, thanks.

Last thoughts
It has been a while since I've read the previous volumes but wasn't Master adopted into this family? She wasn't blood related to the owners and such but why did she say that Colette was watching over the manor when she was born implying that the Master was actually born there? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong or it was a different manga, I'm not sure anymore.

It has been a while, I'm not sure if I just can't remember it from the previous chapter, but what was the Master's first name?

Last thoughts
It has been a while since I've read the previous volumes but wasn't Master adopted into this family? She wasn't blood related to the owners and such but why did she say that Colette was watching over the manor when she was born implying that the Master was actually born there? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong or it was a different manga, I'm not sure anymore.

I noticed this too. My only guess is that Master meant it literally. For instance: Colette has been watching over the manor for 35 years, and Master was born 33 years ago. Not 100% sure but I think there is no implication in the original Japanese that Master was born into the manor.

It has been a while, I'm not sure if I just can't remember it from the previous chapter, but what was the Master's first name?

She has no name. When in the final page Master says she'll ask Mel to call her by name, this is a joke where the author is acknowledging that no one ever called Master by name throughout the whole series.

last edited at Dec 29, 2018 1:09AM

Last thoughts
It has been a while since I've read the previous volumes but wasn't Master adopted into this family? She wasn't blood related to the owners and such but why did she say that Colette was watching over the manor when she was born implying that the Master was actually born there? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong or it was a different manga, I'm not sure anymore.

I noticed this too. My only guess is that Master meant it literally. For instance: Colette has been watching over the manor for 35 years, and Master was born 33 years ago. Not 100% sure but I think there is no implication in the original Japanese that Master was born into the manor.

Ah so it was just to put things into perspective I guess.

It has been a while, I'm not sure if I just can't remember it from the previous chapter, but what was the Master's first name?

She has no name. When in the final page Master says she'll ask Mel to call her by name, this is a joke where the author is acknowledging that no one ever called Master by name throughout the whole series.

Ohhh It was a joke, or maybe just to emphasize how important Mel is to her by being one of the first people she actually asks to call her by name.

last edited at Dec 29, 2018 1:44PM

NightRequiem posted:

She has no name. When in the final page Master says she'll ask Mel to call her by name, this is a joke where the author is acknowledging that no one ever called Master by name throughout the whole series.

Ohhh It was a joke, or maybe just to emphasize how important Mel is to her by being one of the first people she actually asks to call her by name.

Considering Mel ends up not calling her her name because she is too embarrassed so we never learn it, Itou was trolling us from the start.

last edited at Dec 29, 2018 1:45PM

Apparently Itou is still doing some Master-Mel comics.

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/76155621

Would be nice if someone translates this.

Apparently Itou is still doing some Master-Mel comics.

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/76155621

Would be nice if someone translates this.

Those are samples for a book she's selling. Looks like there's another one out too:
https://ec.toranoana.shop/tora/ec/item/040030559028/
https://ec.toranoana.shop/tora/ec/item/040030755610/

I'm a whole 18 year old male college freshman and this made me shed a few tears at the end.

what happened TO THE BIRD

I'm a whole 18 year old male college freshman and this made me shed a few tears at the end.

20 and yes same. Drama yuri like this gets me going so much

I think that was a pretty good ending

last edited at Jul 16, 2020 2:59PM

I think that was a pretty good ending

I agree with you but i feel like they could have like another volume or something but i loved the ending regardless. At the end of it I was left in tears for how emotional it was it made me feel like this really happened and it hit me in the feels REAL hard with this. I loved. 1000000000/10

This is so cute, I'm so inlove with this. Everyone in here is cute, It really was so fun reading this! I'm so glad i read this!

last edited at Apr 14, 2021 1:50AM

honestly it made me cry, i was listening to lover is a day by CUCO during the depart and i just couldn't hold it in

what happened TO THE BIRD

also im pretty sure they died, if the birds were wild caught and freed in the same region theyll have a higher chance in survival

I know I'm late but I got to say this. I have read this story over and over again. Every single time its a joy to read. Its sad this series ended so quickly but it was a amazing one for its short time. I will probably enjoy the next read as well. Thanks for the fantastic story.