why use QPQ instead of telling people you're dating/partners/married? It feels like an just extension of conflating romantic and sexual

People love inventing labels and terms even though it's redundant, sometimes they do so thinking it's special. Take pan and bi as an example. Pansexual is basically bisexual by definition but they reject the latter for some reason. Or demisexual and sapiosexual, which is not an orientation because both straight and LGB people can have this affinity. The former towards emotional connection while the latter, intellectual connection. Everybody has their own unique mix of preference towards people, relationship, and things. New labels aren't necessary for all of these.

First of all, you're literally wrong about the pan and bi thing. Also, you don't get to decide what labels are redundant and which aren't. If someone made a new term for themself bc all the other existing ones didn't feel quite right, then that's all the reason and justification they need to do so.
Maybe stop spouting nonsense if you don't know what you're talking about, you're embarrassing yourself.

You know what, Matoi should really get together with the other girl and turn biker girl to a sugar mommy or something.

lol I was kind of thinking about how something like that would work. Matoi and Rio could have a mutually-reciprocated romance, while Matoi and Yuriko are also together in an almost poly-like arrangement. I don't think it's very likely, since Matoi doesn't really seem interested in Rio at all, but it would certainly be an amusing way to tie everything together with a neat little bow. :P

edit:

People love inventing labels and terms even though it's redundant, sometimes they do so thinking it's special. Take pan and bi as an example. Pansexual is basically bisexual by definition but they reject the latter for some reason. Or demisexual and sapiosexual, which is not an orientation because both straight and LGB people can have this affinity. The former towards emotional connection while the latter, intellectual connection. Everybody has their own unique mix of preference towards people, relationship, and things. New labels aren't necessary for all of these.

Wow, what a stunning display of ignorance and narrow-mindedness. Pray tell, what labels do you consider necessary, and what is it that justifies them so greatly?

last edited at Apr 28, 2022 6:37PM

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō, aka Yokohama Shopping Log, is a beautiful introspective iyashikei series that I've been trying to get uploaded here on Dynasty for years. Romance is not the primary focus of the story, but it does feature an atypical yuri relationship and is well worth a look if you enjoyed Qualia the Purple. To this day it remains one of my all-time favorite manga even after reading hundreds of different series.

YKK is wonderful. There is something incredibly calm about it, but in no way boring.

Think it used to be up here (hence the pairing tag etc.), but has been gone for a while. Really happy to see that it has been licensed though, as it is much too good to just be forgotten.

Well. I also feel sorry for Rio tho we know Yuri and Matoi will eventually end up together. If the last page it's a time skip, I would really want to see Rio with someone else so that we can know she was able to move one rather that being forever alone. And well I guess this last chapter we will see what yuri and matoi are doing, maybe they started going out and are now living together

why use QPQ instead of telling people you're dating/partners/married? It feels like an just extension of conflating romantic and sexual

People love inventing labels and terms even though it's redundant, sometimes they do so thinking it's special. Take pan and bi as an example. Pansexual is basically bisexual by definition but they reject the latter for some reason. Or demisexual and sapiosexual, which is not an orientation because both straight and LGB people can have this affinity. The former towards emotional connection while the latter, intellectual connection. Everybody has their own unique mix of preference towards people, relationship, and things. New labels aren't necessary for all of these.

First of all, you're literally wrong about the pan and bi thing. Also, you don't get to decide what labels are redundant and which aren't. If someone made a new term for themself bc all the other existing ones didn't feel quite right, then that's all the reason and justification they need to do so.
Maybe stop spouting nonsense if you don't know what you're talking about, you're embarrassing yourself.

No, EVERYONE gets to decide for themselves what labels are redundant and which aren't. Words mean slightly different things to different people, and each of us gets to decide for ourselves what those words mean to us. This is especially true when people start minting new words. You can't get angry if you mint a new term and other people are slow to pick it up or simply disregard it as something that isn't useful to them.

At the same time, people should try to respect others' feelings which includes not attacking those things that others personally hold dear. If somebody is all hung up on their sexual identity and they decide to describe themselves using terms you find odd or superfluous it's a dick move to attack those words in their presence since it is akin to attacking them personally. Also, in a lot of cases, some of the terminology that people take issue with has become widely adopted by the mainstream which means you will come off as ignorant if you go around claiming widely utilized terms are nonsense.

why use QPQ instead of telling people you're dating/partners/married? It feels like an just extension of conflating romantic and sexual

People love inventing labels and terms even though it's redundant, sometimes they do so thinking it's special. Take pan and bi as an example. Pansexual is basically bisexual by definition but they reject the latter for some reason. Or demisexual and sapiosexual, which is not an orientation because both straight and LGB people can have this affinity. The former towards emotional connection while the latter, intellectual connection. Everybody has their own unique mix of preference towards people, relationship, and things. New labels aren't necessary for all of these.

First of all, you're literally wrong about the pan and bi thing. Also, you don't get to decide what labels are redundant and which aren't. If someone made a new term for themself bc all the other existing ones didn't feel quite right, then that's all the reason and justification they need to do so.
Maybe stop spouting nonsense if you don't know what you're talking about, you're embarrassing yourself.

No, EVERYONE gets to decide for themselves what labels are redundant and which aren't. Words mean slightly different things to different people, and each of us gets to decide for ourselves what those words mean to us. This is especially true when people start minting new words. You can't get angry if you mint a new term and other people are slow to pick it up or simply disregard it as something that isn't useful to them.

At the same time, people should try to respect others' feelings which includes not attacking those things that others personally hold dear. If somebody is all hung up on their sexual identity and they decide to describe themselves using terms you find odd or superfluous it's a dick move to attack those words in their presence since it is akin to attacking them personally. Also, in a lot of cases, some of the terminology that people take issue with has become widely adopted by the mainstream which means you will come off as ignorant if you go around claiming widely utilized terms are nonsense.

I understand where you're coming from here, but I don't think anyone is saying you're not allowed to decide on what matters to yourself. Only that you're not allowed to decide for others.

Claiming people are just making a word up to feel special is hateful bullshit that should never be tolerated, no matter what one's own thoughts on the matter are.

Damn it, why did they have to add Rio in this story, I really like her and I want her to be the one who ends up with Matoi. At least give her a nice gf or something, she deserves it.

Petition to remove the romance and yuri tags, and replace them with a yuri crush tag. The story ended up being a Big Friendship™ where one of the 2 has a one-sided crush on the other and it leads nowhere because they never end up dating (one of them is literally not even interested in romance!) and end up becoming super friends forever. That ain't yuri.

what the fuck

This was great, I liked it a lot. Unflinching from its core premise, and the message from the author at the end about why they made this resonates with me. Stories like this aren't told, and they should be!

Though how the hell did the sister get with that guy???? That's a story that needs to be told too.... or maybe not, honestly, I'd probably find it annoying lol

Whether this manga should have the yuri tag is a BIG debate but I think romance should absolutely be removed.

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 4:59PM

Petition to remove the romance and yuri tags, and replace them with a yuri crush tag. The story ended up being a Big Friendship™ where one of the 2 has a one-sided crush on the other and it leads nowhere because they never end up dating (one of them is literally not even interested in romance!) and end up becoming super friends forever. That ain't yuri.

I agree. I really enjoyed the story (though I'm sad Rio just disappeared...) but it's definitely not a yuri romance. They don't even end up living together which just... really made me sad for Matoi. The end was pretty deflating. They time-skipped 6 years and were in the exact same place. Definitely glad to see some aro/ace representation but ahhh I just feel like there was a lot of unfulfilled potential.
I think maybe the yuri tag is fine but romance should definitely be removed.

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 5:03PM

well, it was not a bad read but i can't say i really enjoyed it, quite flat all along.
The art was good so if the author make a yuri one day i'll read it for sure.

wow...and it's over. honestly I'm sad, I really enjoyed this manga and it stuck true to its core the whole way through.

I really look forward to whatever they do next!

So the younger sister ends up dating that one guy from the store? Didn’t they only have like one interaction that we’ve seen? Didn’t he like yuriko for a little while too? This can’t really be categorized as romance either since it’s more yuri crush than anything maybe even subtext or just have the yuri tag without the romance. Rio and the other two girls that were a couple seem to have just….. disappeared I guess? Ultimately her one sided crush on yuriko continued with them just being in the same place they were at already just neighbors. I’m surprised she still seems to like her and rio actually did like her so they could have maybe gotten together instead of teasing us that they MAY be living together then to find out they aren’t. I’m not really sure how I feel about the ending either

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 5:47PM

I think both yuri and romance are still appropriate for this series. It's a story about a romantic relationship between two women. Aro people can be in relationships just fine, it's all about finding a comfortable distance. This ending makes perfect sense for this series.

Nice and calm, I like it. The sister and gas station guy were unexpected, but maybe they're just both similarly airheaded?

That was a fantastic manga and the author's note at the end was one of the absolute best I've ever read!

As for the chorus of "That ain't yuri" comments. Why the heck not? It's about a loving, committed relationship between two women. In the final chapter, it is clear that Matoi is still very much in love with Yuriko, but also still hyper-aware of the fact that Yuriko isn't one who feels that type of emotional connection, though she loves Matoi in her own way. Neither of them have any interest in a sexual relationship and would be uncomfortable sleeping together because of that. One might think that sharing a two-bedroom apartment would be less expensive, but that would also involve renting it together as adults and inviting other people, like their landlord, to butt their noses into their relationship and make assumptions about them. Living next door to each other means that they are close and can rely on each other for support without the baggage related to living together in a society that doesn't recognize same-sex relationships, let alone same-sex platonic partnerships, as valid. It was also made clear that they share household tasks since they discussed stopping by to pick up some cleaning cloths on the way home and the other one mentioned that they had just stocked up on them last week. So they share cleaning supplies and, most likely, food and other necessities.

There was one point in the final chapter where I thought Matoi's hyper-awareness about Yuriko's aro-ace status was getting in the way of her appreciating how dedicated to "being with" her Yuriko is. When they were returning to Tokyo and she made the comment that, as a friend, she didn't really need to go all the way out to the countryside for the wedding and Yuriko responded with, "Huh? I thought I counted as family!" This, and the conversation Yuriko had with Matoi's mother, made it clear that Yuriko and the rest of Matoi's family perceive her as being in a "partner" like relationship with Matoi, despite the fact that they don't "date". (Though it certainly sounded like they were arranging one at the end of the manga...)

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 5:29PM

Though how the hell did the sister get with that guy???? That's a story that needs to be told too.... or maybe not, honestly, I'd probably find it annoying lol

Lol true, I don't think I really want to see that either.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this story. In the end they remain close friends it seems? (Could something like this be considered QPR or not? I seriously have no idea XD)

I liked this bit of dialogue:

"Since you're a friend..."
"Huh? I thought I counted as family!"
"Well, who knows?"

It was cute. And, well, if they don't really know themselves I guess it's pointless for me to try to put a name to their relationship haha

The Romance tag definitely needs to go, though I'd keep Yuri.

Edit:

I think both yuri and romance are still appropriate for this series. It's a story about a romantic relationship between two women. Aro people can be in relationships just fine, it's all about finding a comfortable distance. This ending makes perfect sense for this series.

It is not a romantic relationship though. Even if an aromantic person can be in a romantic relationship, as you say, neither of the two see their relationship as romantic.

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 5:34PM

Everything else aside, I'm missing some sort of closure for Rio. She just kinda vanished after seeing the two together, never to be seen again :/

I would second that the romance tag should be pulled. Since both leads are ace and at least one is described as aromantic, it feels like misrepresentation to call this story a romance. The only characters interested in romance are secondary characters at best, and none of their romances are central to the plot.

It's not bad for what it is but I feel PROFOUNDLY ripped off

I think I'm the only one who doesn't care much about the ending (I don't find it surprising after the author explicitly dropped "asexual" in first chapter and then reinforced it in the character bios or whatever)...

... but the fact that the author just straight up demolished a house in the second to last chapter for no apparent reason other than moving the plot drives me nuts - did I miss something really obvious before, like did they mention somewhere that demolition is planned? Also, that wasn't even necessary for the plot to move, Yuriko could have just decided to move to Tokyo because she wanted to spend more time with Matoi.
I know it's kinda stupid to hyperfixate on a detail like that but it makes absolutely no sense to me. She didn't even sell the house, it just got fucking demolished, what the hell, why. They even alluded to moving back in the last chapter, well guess what, you could have done it but you demolished your house.
Did I mention yet the house got demolished? Yeah I'm out.

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 5:45PM

I’d be interested to hear from ace/aroace readers if they resonated with this story or were pleased with the ending. I can’t help but feel a little unsatisfied, but I’m pretty distinctly neither aro nor ace, so it might just be a disconnect along those lines

Massive "meh" from me as it is 20 chapters too long.

Can somebody take a look at my nose? I think I broke it when I crashed into that wall labeled "END". I don't mind the time skip and the "friends without benefits" relationship. But, I feel like 1 more volume could've helped, with the loose ties and pacing into a less jarring ending. Maybe, sprinkle some hints towards the sister's and the coworker's marriage and give Rio some closure, as well. I'm not even entirely sure what Matoi's job is, after all that time focusing on what she wants to do for a living.

Rio really got bonked by the mangaka. The coworker's last appearance, pre-time skip, kind of mirrored hers. Seeing the girl they liked going off with someone more special than themselves. But, at least the guy got to be with someone by his actual last appearance.

Maybe the author's setting up for a Rio spinoff?