Hoping for the season 2 of the story,

Watched the stage play. It was great. Wonder if Nakatani-sensei had heavy input in the stage play too, just like with the anime?

Sayaka is the best character for me. I will buy light novel Yagakimi to know more about Sayaka's story later. Hope they release Yagakimi spin-off manga about Sayaka also

I finally commited myself to finish reading it today from where the anime left off. I'm sad its finished, but I'm satisfied. Its storytelling and character progression was truely wonderful

oh god how the hell has it been a YEAR already since the last chapter??? it felt like it was just yesterday that I was reading it (＠_＠) oh well, happy anniversary

...why was i feel like there's supposed to be more updates after chapter 39 and chapter 45?? >﹏< ugh... did i miss something, somehow?

Murasaki_Yuki posted:

...why was i feel like there's supposed to be more updates after chapter 39 and chapter 45?? >﹏< ugh... did i miss something, somehow?

4s didn't translate extras yet apparently. Other group did, they're on mangadex.

Question, does the majority of this series take place before or after the main couple is together?

Question, does the majority of this series take place before or after the main couple is together?

Before
they only get together in the final volume

Question, does the majority of this series take place before or after the main couple is together?

Before
they only get together in the final volume

Gotcha, thanks for the reply!

Question, does the majority of this series take place before or after the main couple is together?

Before
they only get together in the final volume

Gotcha, thanks for the reply!

I'd disagree with DY4Y's assessment.
If you mean "Is this story about one chasing after the other?" then no, it's not. They skip the chase entirely, basically become a thing very early on and then spend about 40 chapters figuring out if they really are together, what that means, what they mean to each other, who they are and how they fit together. The good stuff, basically.

The present Yuu got from Touko is a 'SEGA TOYS HOMESTAR Lite Planetarium', still available at certain shopping sites. (-: Enjoy like I do :-)

The third volume of Regarding Sayaka Saeki just came out. It was a good read, but it's a bit sad to know that the story of Bloom Into You is finally over. I personally hope we get a second season of the anime to show the latter half of the manga, and possibly an OVA for Regarding Sayaka Saeki.

The third volume of Regarding Sayaka Saeki just came out. It was a good read, but it's a bit sad to know that the story of Bloom Into You is finally over. I personally hope we get a second season of the anime to show the latter half of the manga, and possibly an OVA for Regarding Sayaka Saeki.

I really need to get around to reading the rest of the novels, but knowing how this particular relationship ends makes it so damn hard to get through the first volume's second chapter...

This manga is such trash.
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.
.
.
.
.
On serious note. I know it's such ancient reply but whatever.

Blastaar posted:

I don't mind reading stories for that too, but this specific premise I read so many times, I'm currently sick off it and prefer to look for different kinds of stories.

Wait, the "I can love you only because you can't love me" premise? Because that's the only thing that does seem unusual to me.

Or something else?

No, I meant the set up of "Character with tragic pasts gets healed with power of MC's love." I know it was mistranslation, but I honestly got really hyped up when at first they implied that Yuu is asexual and Nanami will be trying to make her fall in love with her. It felt like it had so much potential and possibilities. It just felt like very unique set up for slow burn romance. But then it turned out to be "I'm damaged so I'll love you, but you're not allowed to love me back." and Nanami had all this dark past that Yuu had to help her overcome. That's like romance stories 101. I read dozens of that. That's what I mean that the story was generic. And of course childhood friend that was initially introduced and seemed to be really just friends with Nanami, later turned out to be in love with her, but decided to keep it a secret. Gee, where did I see that one before??? Seriously I'd pay for story where childhood friend turns out to not have secret feelings for MC/Love Interest. So again, it is well written and all that and I agree that you can retold the same story many times and still make it feel fresh, but this specific set up "MC falls for someone with dark past that they need help overcoming before they can be together" is so incredibly common trope, I'm just sick of it.

OrangePekoe posted:

Hi Nevri!

Hi Peko!

last edited at Dec 23, 2020 7:23PM

This manga is such trash.
.
.
.
.
.
.
On serious note. I know it's such ancient reply but whatever.

Blastaar posted:

I don't mind reading stories for that too, but this specific premise I read so many times, I'm currently sick off it and prefer to look for different kinds of stories.

Wait, the "I can love you only because you can't love me" premise? Because that's the only thing that does seem unusual to me.

Or something else?

No, I meant the set up of "Character with tragic pasts gets healed with power of MC's love." I know it was mistranslation, but I honestly got really hyped up when at first they implied that Yuu is asexual and Nanami will be trying to make her fall in love with her. It felt like it had so much potential and possibilities. It just felt like very unique set up for slow burn romance. But then it turned out to be "I'm damaged so I'll love you, but you're not allowed to love me back." and Nanami had all this dark past that Yuu had to help her overcome. That's like romance stories 101. I read dozens of that. That's what I mean that the story was generic. And of course childhood friend that was initially introduced and seemed to be really just friends with Nanami, later turned out to be in love with her, but decided to keep it a secret. Gee, where did I see that one before??? Seriously I'd pay for story where childhood friend turns out to not have secret feelings for MC/Love Interest. So again, it is well written and all that and I agree that you can retold the same story many times and still make it feel fresh, but this specific set up "MC falls for someone with dark past that they need help overcoming before they can be together" is so incredibly common trope, I'm just sick of it.

OrangePekoe posted:

Hi Nevri!

Hi Peko!

I'll admit that the "love interest with a tragic past" trope is fairly common, but Touko's desire to become her sister, and how even her success worsens her own self-loathing was handled fairly well. The revelation that Mio might not have been a perfect honors student forces Touko to question herself, and effectively ties into the theme of how people are perceived versus how they really are. This is a bit of a basic description of Touko's issues, which have been discussed in more detail on this forum, but it goes to show that Touko's backsotry is deeper than you think.

I'm also not sure who this "childhood friend" you're talking about is.
*Sayaka is the only character besides Yuu who's in love with Touko, but she's not a childhood friend; she and Touko met at the start of high school.
*Ichigaya has known Touko since she was young, when he came over with Mio and the rest of the student council, but as far as he's concerned, she's just his late friend's younger sister, and their relationship more or less starts from a blank slate when he coaches her and the student council for the play.
*In Regarding Sayaka Saeki, Sayaka meets a former classmate of Touko's, who tells Sayaka about how Touko used to be much different than she is now- shy, a mediocre student and very unathletic. There's nothing that indicates that this nameless student spoke to Touko in high school, much less developed feelings for her.

awesome ending. beautiful story.

^ Well, I’m obviously not going to talk you into liking it, nor do I have any particular interest in doing so.

I also know that a number of readers seem to have a vested interest in stories containing asexual, aromantic, etc. characters, while I personally don’t find such stories inherently interesting myself.

I do note that with popular culture narratives in general it’s always possible to paraphrase the tropes in a given story at a high enough level of abstraction as to make anything sound like the same old thing.

If any reader rejects a certain trope or set of tropes, there’s no gainsaying that—you like what you like. As for me, I like tropes generally—the interest for me is what the author does with them.

(By the way, as a factual matter—and as noted in the post above—*Bloom Into You* contains no “childhood friend” trope for Touko—as the text makes explicitly clear, Sayaka first met Touko at the opening ceremony at their first-year high-school opening ceremony, so Sayaka has known Touko exactly one year longer than Yuu has.)

last edited at Dec 23, 2020 7:53PM

i miss them sm

It certainly did look at first like Yuu could be asexual or aromantic, and that would have been a more original direction, but it's not what we got. (Though the quiet guy on the council, Maki? might be, without the drama.)

So I finally got around to reading the Saeki Sayaka novels, and I have thoughts, so I'm gonna put them here because I don't really have anywhere else to do so. I'm assuming spoiler bars aren't necessary, so if you want to be surprised, don't read this.

So These were a pretty good read. It felt like an authentic window into the same setting as the original manga, the characters felt consistent with their true selves. The first two volumes were difficult to get through, knowing what happens with both relationships. The relationship with Yuzuki felt way, way too real for me. I've lived that, and it hurts. The second volume was kind of the same way, reading about Sayaka falling deeper in love with Touko and kind of figuring out her deal, but knowing she just never quite reaches her.

Initially I thought the structure of the second volume was a bit odd. While the first volume is very linear, the second volume starts off with a series of vignettes that are interspersed through the events of the manga- some new events, some existing events told from Sayaka's perspective, but not much by way of structure, just...filling in some gaps. This section definitely assumes you have read the manga. The second part then jumps back to how Sayaka first got into the situation we found her at in the beginning of the manga. I thought this was an odd choice, but maybe it was so that new readers wouldn't actively ship Sayaka and Touko? Although man, it's hard not to, even knowing how all that ends.

There is a TON of Manaka x Midori shipping bait in the second and third volume. I mean geez. I thought of certain persons on this discussion forum repeatedly while reading all of it.

The third volume was also a pretty good read. Haru definitely feels different from anybody else we've met in the setting. As much as people have joked about her resembling Yuu, physically, They are extremely different. If I was going to compare her to anyone, I'd probably put her more in line with Akari or Natsuki. I laughed my ass off the first time she invited Sayaka over and started broadcasting her sexual preferences. "Here, Senpai, Take this rainbow colored glass. Look at it. See the pretty rainbow? Note how it's rainbow colored please. I'M GAY OKAY" I also appreciated Sayaka's sharp grandma. She knew what was up well before Sayaka did, and it was very amusing. i was hoping we'd get a coming out scene at some point, just so that Grandma could just respond with "Oh, dearie. We know. We've always known."

Ultimately it was very gratifying to finally see Sayaka find happiness, and after two volumes of watching her pursue dead-end relationships, seeing her being pursued for once was nice. The unexpected appearance of swimming-pool girl in the last volume was also a fun moment. I felt bad for her when Sayaka bolts in V1 so it was nice to see that it was still a positive memory for her.

last edited at Jan 17, 2021 11:33PM

That was absolutely amazing... Wow... I am genuinely short of words right now.

Anyone else spend the entirety of chapter 44 saying "holy shit" over and over and over, though?

The third volume was also a pretty good read. Haru definitely feels different from anybody else we've met in the setting. As much as people have joked about her resembling Yuu, physically, They are extremely different. If I was going to compare her to anyone, I'd probably put her more in line with Akari or Natsuki. I laughed my ass off the first time she invited Sayaka over and started broadcasting her sexual preferences. "Here, Senpai, Take this rainbow colored glass. Look at it. See the pretty rainbow? Note how it's rainbow colored please. I'M GAY OKAY" I also appreciated Sayaka's sharp grandma. She knew what was up well before Sayaka did, and it was very amusing. i was hoping we'd get a coming out scene at some point, just so that Grandma could just respond with "Oh, dearie. We know. We've always known."

Ultimately it was very gratifying to finally see Sayaka find happiness, and after two volumes of watching her pursue dead-end relationships, seeing her being pursued for once was nice. The unexpected appearance of swimming-pool girl in the last volume was also a fun moment. I felt bad for her when Sayaka bolts in V1 so it was nice to see that it was still a positive memory for her.

In my opinion the light novels should be required reading for anyone who’s read the manga. It was so immensely cathartic to see Sayaka’s arc completed throughout the trilogy, and for her to finally get that happy end she so desperately deserves.

Also I totally ship Manaka and Midori, if I had more motivation I’d write a fanfic about them.

I finally finished reading this. I dropped it with along with Citrus because I got annoyed with both stories but having finished reading them now, I would say I like this one. It totally redeemed itself.

Also, I am a Sayaka. T_T

I believe in Sayaka's supremacy.