What a way to end. I’m gonna have to reread this all together before I can get my thoughts sorted about it tbh.

I think I'll do just that, for now I can only say that I'm extremely grateful with this manga and hachimitsu scans, the previous chapter was already all I wanted and I was happy so this ending is like a bonus for me, and nice touch about Kaede, after all, her character development highlight was her sister, so that's giving a closure too.

Would be great if we get bonus stuff with the volume release but for now good bye Tropical fish! And thank you.

i don´t really get why people are so mad honestly, if you choose to keep reading after the official tweet and got disappointed that´s on you, it´s funny how people decide to read stuff that they know they will not enjoy
And even if we agree that the manga is in fact yuribait (wich i don´t) the author already said that you´re free to interpret their relationship the way you want, is not like they sudenly put male characters and force a relationship, is not that big of a deal

I think thought experiment might help. It usually is of great assistance to change the point of view a little, and see if your interpretation of things changes at all.

Let's do the simple smell test: Swap Koyuki's sex to male. Make "him" a handsome, but lonely marine science nerd. Konatsu stays at is.

Exactly same things happen, from start to finish. Same framing, same events, etc.

Do you think you read a romance or a friendship story?

last edited at Mar 28, 2021 11:11AM

Let's do the simple smell test: Swap Koyuki's sex to male. Make "him" a handsome, but lonely marine science nerd. Konatsu stays at is.

Exactly same things happen, from start to finish. Same framing, same events, etc.

Don't be silly. They don't let boys into aquariums.

Let's do the simple smell test: Swap Koyuki's sex to male. Make "him" a handsome, but lonely marine science nerd. Konatsu stays at is.

Exactly same things happen, from start to finish. Same framing, same events, etc.

Don't be silly. They don't let boys into aquariums.

Don't be homophobic now, GA. :)

I have to give it to the author. Even title is perfect mixture of subtext and vagueness. I did some digging to make sure and from what I can tell the word 焦がれる can mean both "yearning for something strongly" or "falling in love strongly". It expresses a incredibly strong desire of longing for something and which meaning applies depends on context. You could yearn for your old home, or new job, but also could fall head over heels in love with somebody or something. In case of Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru both fits since it could be just as easily translated as "A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow " as well as "A Tropical Fish Falls in Love with Snow ". So which meaning makes more sense is left up for interpretation.

i don´t really get why people are so mad honestly, if you choose to keep reading after the official tweet and got disappointed that´s on you, it´s funny how people decide to read stuff that they know they will not enjoy
And even if we agree that the manga is in fact yuribait (wich i don´t) the author already said that you´re free to interpret their relationship the way you want, is not like they sudenly put male characters and force a relationship, is not that big of a deal

I think thought experiment might help. It usually is of great assistance to change the point of view a little, and see if your interpretation of things changes at all.

Let's do the simple smell test: Swap Koyuki's sex to male. Make "him" a handsome, but lonely marine science nerd. Konatsu stays at is.

Exactly same things happen, from start to finish. Same framing, same events, etc.

Do you think you read a romance or a friendship story?

What a silly idea. If nothing else is changed, it's still ambiguous. As if there don't exist plenty of stories like that.

last edited at Mar 28, 2021 11:22AM

All I know is that, this could've been a classic.

could've

Keyword

All I know is that, this could've been a classic.

As far as I'm considered, it is.

All my not lizard feels!! I really liked the ending. Salamanders will have a different meaning from now on to me.

Awww no kiss, well this was a nice piece of subtext. I would had liked to see more actual yuri, I didn't know about the tweet or anything, I understand one can interpret the story as one wants, I prefer more defined stuff, but the art was nice so I kept reading.

I wish it would confirm their feelings for each other, but this was an amazing series. I’m glad it got such a good ending.

Setting aside my dismay at the non-yuri ending, this series was amazing and I am so glad I got to experience this. My thanks to the mangaka (who won't see this) and to the translaters (AKA the real MVPs).

My thanks to the mangaka (who won't see this)

Go thank her on her twitter, she reads English messages too!

All I know is that, this could've been a classic.

Oh it is a classic.

Like Stretch.

So sad to think of what this manga could've been. The opening chapters had the making of an utter classic, and then it just utterly derailed. I could feel the bitter, painful unenjoyableness in finishing this series. These last pages felt soulless.

We all know they were supposed to have feelings for each other, but that wasn't explored at all. The story unnaturally twisted itself into pretzels to avoid the obvious truth. It was truly weird, like the really old stories of the before-LGBT times that know they're stories about sexuality but try to normalize it in a heteronormative world. It was so cloistered.

This felt like a couple steps back. I'm saddened because I knew this chapter was coming--where they meet in Tokyo again, but even still they can't express how important they are to each other. Like something beautiful snuffed out in the womb.

This awkward fish-salamander talk is excruciating, I want to cry at how closeted this series got.

8/10. Good but not great.

Did they finally pulled the trigger? And it took ONLY 34 chapters? Well, we finally have some confirmation on Konatsu-chan and Koyuki's friendship status, personally speaking I never doubted for a sec. Also, Makoto-sensei waited 34 chapters to introduce this story's most interesting character, Saya-sama is gonna be missed, hugely. on a more serious note, this could have been a great story, apart from that stupid drama that never made a lick of sense, development and character-wise, I mean what you trying to hide, sensei, they're friends as heck, anyway, I like Makoto-sensei, but I'm sure as hell not be following her next story, especially after that little preview.

Did they finally pulled the trigger? And it took ONLY 34 chapters? Well, we finally have some confirmation on Konatsu-chan and Koyuki's friendship status, personally speaking I never doubted for a sec. Also, Makoto-sensei waited 34 chapters to introduce this story's most interesting character, Saya-sama is gonna be missed, hugely. on a more serious note, this could have been a great story, apart from that stupid drama that never made a lick of sense, development and character-wise, I mean what you trying to hide, sensei, they're friends as heck, anyway, I like Makoto-sensei, but I'm sure as hell not be following her next story, especially after that little preview.

Well, I'll be following which depends on how the story goes.
Though, I will be trashing it right in 1st chapter if I found it perfectly predictable.

This manga used to has good pacing in the first half, Not sure what happened in 2nd half with the characters exaggerating these dramas and angst for 2-3 volumes.
welp, one of this year greatest disappointment and pretty much predictable right after author say "it's not yuri".

I have to admit that the constant unrelatable angst in the middle pretty much killed my enthusiasm for this one, and it ended about how I expected. Oh well.

Did they finally pulled the trigger? And it took ONLY 34 chapters? Well, we finally have some confirmation on Konatsu-chan and Koyuki's friendship status, personally speaking I never doubted for a sec. Also, Makoto-sensei waited 34 chapters to introduce this story's most interesting character, Saya-sama is gonna be missed, hugely. on a more serious note, this could have been a great story, apart from that stupid drama that never made a lick of sense, development and character-wise, I mean what you trying to hide, sensei, they're friends as heck, anyway, I like Makoto-sensei, but I'm sure as hell not be following her next story, especially after that little preview.

Well, I'll be following which depends on how the story goes.
Though, I will be trashing it right in 1st chapter if I found it perfectly predictable.

This manga used to has good pacing in the first half, Not sure what happened in 2nd half with the characters exaggerating these dramas and angst for 2-3 volumes.
welp, one of this year greatest disappointment and pretty much predictable right after author say "it's not yuri".

Guessing it had to do with the manga actually being used to advertise the small town where it was based, like another commentor predicted a while back. Can’t be too gay o4 you’ll scare off tourists

last edited at Mar 28, 2021 10:15PM

Did they finally pulled the trigger? And it took ONLY 34 chapters? Well, we finally have some confirmation on Konatsu-chan and Koyuki's friendship status, personally speaking I never doubted for a sec. Also, Makoto-sensei waited 34 chapters to introduce this story's most interesting character, Saya-sama is gonna be missed, hugely. on a more serious note, this could have been a great story, apart from that stupid drama that never made a lick of sense, development and character-wise, I mean what you trying to hide, sensei, they're friends as heck, anyway, I like Makoto-sensei, but I'm sure as hell not be following her next story, especially after that little preview.

Well, I'll be following which depends on how the story goes.
Though, I will be trashing it right in 1st chapter if I found it perfectly predictable.

This manga used to has good pacing in the first half, Not sure what happened in 2nd half with the characters exaggerating these dramas and angst for 2-3 volumes.
welp, one of this year greatest disappointment and pretty much predictable right after author say "it's not yuri".

I think part of why it feels like the second half has odd pacing is something along the lines of it seeming like they got told to tone down the subtext at some point thereabouts.
Gotta admit the whole little brother falling in love around the same time just made it feel even more gritting for me.
All that "these girls are oozing so much gay, how can you call it subtext" in the first half, and then in the second half it's all "oh yeah, subtext at best" kind of feelings really did not make it satisfying to read the second half.
I'm just repeating myself, but it really really feels like they got told to tone it down harshly in the second half.

Guessing it had to do with the manga actually being used to advertise the small town where it was based, like another commentor predicted a while back. Can’t be too gay o4 you’ll scare off tourists

Well yes, Hanigare was used to promote Nagahama tourism, high school's campaign (this won an award), and mentioned in local NHK twice or thrice. The town is literally nowhere in Japan, so the people might be not as open minded about homosexual relationship as people that comes from, let's say, Tokyo. Imagine if you find out that someone used your town as a setting of a story that might upset you...

Also, Hanigare always put Nagahama High School Aquarium Club in every chapter as Information Aid, and I don't think they'd be happy if they're helping a blatant gay manga.

Hagino-sensei only wrote the gayest thing possible without upsetting those people.

#SUBTEXT

I am going insane. Kiss already.

I have descended into just full-on frothing blood.

For all the potential reasons for this ending it's just frustrating and disappointing. It feels just full of loose ends. Incapable of paying off on its own dramatic hooks. I really enjoyed those dramatic hooks, and I didn't really entirely expect it to get past subtext, but... we could've gotten more than this.

I used to love this manga in its first few chapters, then it boiled down into aaaaangst, then lost all the yuri magic. Meh ending.