"Real people don't spend most of their waking hours painstakingly psychoanalyzing every freakin word and microgesture that comes from someone they care about."

Many real people do, especially when insecure, either due to a relationship not forming yet, or something bad having happened later.

Good news, everyone!

48-page chapter this month: https://twitter.com/haginomakoto/status/1317683057688629249

And since Hagino posted a drawing of the frog and salamander plushies in the tweet, it appears the speculation about the drawer was correct so tififs, you can give yourself a pat on your back.

last edited at Oct 18, 2020 4:05PM

Good news, everyone!

48-page chapter this month: https://twitter.com/haginomakoto/status/1317683057688629249

And since Hagino posted a drawing of the frog and salamander plushies in the tweet, it appears the speculation about the drawer was correct so tififs, you can give yourself a pat on your back.

She also recommended re-reading volumes two and 3, so I wonder if this means we’re returning to the era of gay panic aquarium animals. All in all, super hyped for whatever’s next.

last edited at Oct 18, 2020 6:05PM

Inevitable speculation time: the main event of volumes 2 and 3 specifically was the summer festival where they watched the fireworks and Konatsu felt hurt for the first time by being unable to fully understand and communicate with Koyuki. I think there will be a callback to it during this sleepover while they're lighting up the fireworks Kaede brought them and this time they realize they have a deeper understanding of each other, maybe Koyuki even goes back and rethinks her botched answer about their first meeting (https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch09#15).

the main event of volumes 2 and 3 specifically was the summer festival where they watched the fireworks and Konatsu felt hurt for the first time by being unable to fully understand and communicate with Koyuki.

I re-read those two volumes and this was basically the biggest thing I noticed. The majority was the two of them getting closer, but essentially not close enough:

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch11#23
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch11#24

(she's referring to the fireworks festival)

There's also Konatsu going on about how much she likes Honami, but in the same chapter, she realizes that they still are emotionally distant with one another

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch11#13

Here's Konatsu fangirling for a few panels.

This could be attributed to the fact that Koyuki is the first person that she's allowed herself to get close too, so she most likely isn't used to how close a friendship is; to her, Just talking to Honami on the beach was enough for her to call her a friend in Ch 1, but at the same time, she acknowledges that there's so much more in a friendship than talking and being comfortable around another person. Konatsu seems to have a surface level understanding of friendship, and maybe next chapter we will see some more growth there (although the past 5 chapters have been all growth)

On Honami's end, she's almost the complete opposite. Although she was in the same situation of loneliness and isolation as Konatsu, while Konatsu's loneliness (regarding friendships) came from her own actions (Her constantly concerned with "fitting in" and not telling her classmates that she was leaving, not being on a first name basis with anyone at her old school) Koyuki's loneliness comes from how others treat her (She wants to be herself, but feels like she can't in contrast to choosing not to). In volumes 2 and 3 Honami exerts possessiveness and jealousy in her interactions with Konatsu (literally the plot of chapter 7 was Honami feeling depressed over Konatsu allegedly choosing Kaede over her to go to the festival with). In chapter 10, what used to be her daily routine seems unbearable without Konatsu. In Honami's case, she seems to just want more and more of Konatsu (something that never really goes away).

Maybe in the next chapter will see the fireworks festival addressed, along with them discussing the actual nature of their relationship,, something highly probable as they can compare their closeness with the closeness of their mutual friend/shipper, Kaede.

Man, I usually save these long analysis for after a chapter comes out, but I just couldn't help myself.

Inevitable speculation time: the main event of volumes 2 and 3 specifically was the summer festival where they watched the fireworks and Konatsu felt hurt for the first time by being unable to fully understand and communicate with Koyuki. I think there will be a callback to it during this sleepover while they're lighting up the fireworks Kaede brought them and this time they realize they have a deeper understanding of each other, maybe Koyuki even goes back and rethinks her botched answer about their first meeting (https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch09#15).

Yeah a callback to the question Koyuki couldn't answer at the festival makes the most sense, thematically and in that it's the one event that spans both volumes Hagino asked people to review, lol

$20 says that this long, boring, drawn out melodrama will get a very similar ending to My Unrequited Love.

Excuse me, but this is My Requited Girlship.

$20 says that this long, boring, drawn out melodrama will get a very similar ending to My Unrequited Love.

It takes actual talent to make an ending like MUL’s lol.

Quick rundown? In spoiler tags I guess.

Quick rundown? In spoiler tags I guess.

MC spends the whole manga in love with her sister in law, sister in law doesn’t return feelings, sister in law has 20 chapters on her development, making the MC irrelevant, Sister in law divorces husband, manga ends with MC living with sister in law with ex-husband in the same apartment building, where the nature of their relationship remains ambiguous. Ig it would also be good to mention that there were THREE timeskips in the last chapter and the pacing was straight trash.

Here’s a rundown of the whole manga. Tbh I tried to defend it by talking about character development at one point, but side characters, and even the MC get dropped off the face of the Earth like they never even existed in the first place and were just plot devices the whole time .-.

Wew. Yeah, I can't even imagine an ending that would be comparable here.

Wew. Yeah, I can't even imagine an ending that would be comparable here.

I think I might have one:

Koyuki gets with Kaede and Konatsu gets together with aquarium boy. Hot and thoughtful dads get together at the end And then two timeskips later Koyuki and Konatsu talk and they both go “you weren’t even my BEST friend, I just spoke to you to get closer to my crush” That would be pretty comparable imo lol.

The only thing MUL and this series have in common is that both are attempting slow-burn story arcs.

The major difference is that this one is succeeding while the other one fizzled out like plastic wrap falling on a hot stove.

Hot and thoughtful dads get together at the end

This would salvage it.

last edited at Oct 21, 2020 9:17PM

Even if it did end like MUL, this author would still write a more satisfying ending.

https://mangadex.org/title/22955/nettaigyo-wa-yuki-ni-kogareru

Yuri tag on mangadex?? For what reason?

https://mangadex.org/title/22955/nettaigyo-wa-yuki-ni-kogareru

Yuri tag on mangadex?? For what reason?

None

So that yet more people will get the wrong impression and be disappointed, I guess.

So that yet more people will get the wrong impression and be disappointed, I guess.

I literally had to check to see if they consolidated the yuri and shoujo-ai tags... this really does seem like it was changed for no reason

One girl says to another "The full moon is beautiful" = yuri.

That's just science. (Erotastronomy, to be specific.)

I don't have an issue with people feeling like some of the content in the manga feels like bait, that line from Koyuki is probably the most blatant example. It's just that I've seen some people on mangadex complaining about the series not being yuri because they were led to believe so by the tags, as even before this change, I think it had the shoujo ai tag. That's being misled and it in turn leads to not giving the manga a fair chance because you go into it expecting something else.

I don't have an issue with people feeling like some of the content in the manga feels like bait, that line from Koyuki is probably the most blatant example. It's just that I've seen some people on mangadex complaining about the series not being yuri because they were led to believe so by the tags, as even before this change, I think it had the shoujo ai tag. That's being misled and it in turn leads to not giving the manga a fair chance because you go into it expecting something else.

Yeah, now the comments are going to be filled with how they were baited instead of commentary on the plot after next weeks chapter... unless the taggers know something we don’t.

The “moon is beautiful” thing really hurt a bit, though since she was imitating Konatsu’s dad, maybe she said it in a way that made it obviously a joke? Kinda like she says “Suprise!” In English in 28.2, a callback to Konatsu’s dad in 27.1 (I only found this out by looking at the raws)

I don't have an issue with people feeling like some of the content in the manga feels like bait, that line from Koyuki is probably the most blatant example. It's just that I've seen some people on mangadex complaining about the series not being yuri because they were led to believe so by the tags, as even before this change, I think it had the shoujo ai tag. That's being misled and it in turn leads to not giving the manga a fair chance because you go into it expecting something else.

Yeah, now the comments are going to be filled with how they were baited instead of commentary on the plot after next weeks chapter... unless the taggers know something we don’t.

The “moon is beautiful” thing really hurt a bit, though since she was imitating Konatsu’s dad, maybe she said it in a way that made it obviously a joke? Kinda like she says “Suprise!” In English in 28.2, a callback to Konatsu’s dad in 27.1 (I only found this out by looking at the raws)

OK, so unprotected hand-to-hand contact means nothing?

Pfft, kids these days, what with their "Netflix and chill," and their "friends with benefits," and whatnot . . .

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch28_5#16

I don't have an issue with people feeling like some of the content in the manga feels like bait, that line from Koyuki is probably the most blatant example. It's just that I've seen some people on mangadex complaining about the series not being yuri because they were led to believe so by the tags, as even before this change, I think it had the shoujo ai tag. That's being misled and it in turn leads to not giving the manga a fair chance because you go into it expecting something else.

Yeah, I definitely feel like this is one of those series that is actively ruined if you go into it with any grand expectations of progress or shows of affection or just simple, clear-cut character arcs in general. Nettaigyo is muddy, jumbled-up, messy, ambiguous and frequently self-contradictory and unsure, because it portrays a pair of girls who have absolutely no idea about what they're trying to be or achieve.

It's one of the most pronounced cases of emotive storytelling I've seen in a manga, where extensive amounts of space are devoted to exploring minute changes in emotional states and attitudes, to the point where it feels more like an observation diary for neurotic girls who simultaneously overthink and overfeel everything. The swing between rationalisations and indescribable moods, the comfort and terror of banal conversations, the stagnancy of routine life versus the terror of marching time, and that aching, bizarre dilemma of wanting to change whilst dreading new things- Nettaigyo depicts all of these with painstaking detail.

The issue is that emotions are often fleeting, immediate things that sweep you up in moments, and the best uses of emotive storytelling in manga often feature the creation of these moments through strategic plotting, pacing and structure- think of a standard confession scene, which builds anticipation into a giddy cocktail of emotions and brings the plot to an emotional climax, often to the point where there's this one panel that confirms acception/rejection and seals the deal.

Nettaigyo doesn't do this- it focuses more on emotions as overarching moods that mix and blend into atmospheres, requiring both readers and characters to 'read the room'. If you're not receptive to these subtle, shifting moods and can't instantly empathize with the characters, you'll simply be left peering at a theatre of nonsense and mixed messages. Therefore, the best way to read Nettaigyo is to binge it, so you can understand the mood as it evolves from chapter to chapter, empathising with the wordless, indefinable longing that our leads feel for each other, struggling to vocalise and define their own feelings across the massive distances of a cordial relationship that might or might not change at the drop of a hat.

If you read the manga as it releases in monthly installments, you'll disconnect from the plot and the mood, and wonder what the 'point' of each chapter is, looking for concrete signs of 'progress' in order to confirm that the time you've put into reading this series is worth it. Of course, this is a flaw in the manga's storytelling, because writers have to take into account the durations and gaps involved in their release schedules and structure their plots accordingly. I'm not saying that Nettaigyo becomes a masterpiece if you read it at a stretch- if anything, the sense of the plot stagnating even as you plow through dozens of chapters can be immensely depressing. But it rarely feels like filler, because the author genuinely puts so much emotion into every chapter- not easily understandable emotions, but genuine ones all the same.

All in all, this manga feels like it's written by someone in an emotional state similar to the protagonists- entirely unsure of what they want to do or achieve, contemplating potential routes without taking more than a step in any direction, dithering and introspecting over the smallest things and running off on random tangents. It reminds me of shows or movies I've seen that were made by people who were explicitly grappling with anxiety or depression whilst working on their projects, and poured those feelings into their work, creating stories that weren't coherent or neat in any sense, but felt raw and genuine regardless. Ultimately, you can't stick labels on Nettaigyo, because it's about a pair of girls who're terrified of labeling anything, written by an author who seemingly dislikes confining themselves to categorisations and genre tags like 'Yuri'. It'd be much more at home in a bookstore with nothing to speak for it but the title and cover art, as opposed to manga websites that compulsively tag everything to give readers some semblance of order amidst a sea of titles. Whether you think this a failing on Nettaigyo's part to compete with better titles, or whether you simply think it's a victim of an industry obsessed with demographics and classification is, like everything else about the series, a matter of deeply subjective opinion.