It's a meh ending for me. Rio's one sided love didn't make sense other than pity her. Rio should have been a good friend and that's it. She didn't even appear in the end but anyway... Yuriko and Matoi just ended in a womance no more no less.

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 10:59PM

It generally felt like they kept making the perfect choices for each other, which is fine, but it doesn't make a very compelling narrative.

Exactly, and that seems to be what a good chunk of readers basically want, or at least are happy enough to get—smooth sailing with thoughtful, considerate, well-intentioned characters making ethically responsible choices for themselves and for others.

That’s a wonderful world to imagine, but not very fertile ground for storytelling. As I said, this almost felt like an experimental trial run for stories with both MCs being aro-ace, and therefore with neither of them being positioned as troublesome, out of line, or just wrong in how they were feeling and acting. Such conflict as there was consisted of the MCs confronting their own feelings, then doing what was best for the other person.

i don't know, i get a feeling like watching a Dog Fight where 2 dogs get thrown in a pit together and forced to fight in which one of them wants to fight but the other one keep running away. Then in the middle of the fight another dog get throwing in and it wants to fight too but neither of the others dog want to fight that dog but instead they keep the "chasing- fleeing" status going while the third dog watching them in sorrow. And in the end, the first 2 dogs which one of them still have the spirit to fight but can't because whether it start chasing the other dog that dog will start running away so they stop the chasing-fleeing situation and sitting next to each other awkwardly while the third dog magically disappear???
Yeah... all in all, it sucks.

last edited at Apr 29, 2022 10:35PM

As an ace woman who has been in Matoi's shoes I feel called the fuck out lol. I thought it was interesting that Yuriko was willing to try and sleep with Matoi (at least that's how I read it) as a show of like. Letting her know how much she meant to her.

I'm glad that author stuck to the bit of "yeah, Yuriko IS aro/ace actually" because it's not a group that gets represented a lot. I'm surprised they didn't end up living together, but I suppose it works as a shorthand of "even years later they still aren't romantically together"

Oh my god, they were not roommates. They were neighbours.

what a disappointing ending

Aro/ace spec person here. I'll say that having romantic feelings for a person but no sexual feelings can be quite different than allo folk might expect. It's obviously different for each person but for me it's easy enough to just enjoy a close friendship without any expectations of romance down the line. I have a crush on a friend and they have a crush on me but for various reason we decided to just say friends. I still talk to them daily, share my feelings, say I love them (in a platonic sense), and just generally enjoy being around them. Those romantic feelings still exist but with such a strong friendship I just don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. That's just me though and I'm generally quite happy with the ending, even though it felt quite rushed.

I'll also say, the whole living separately was likely just the author using it as short hand for them not being in a romantic relationship. If they both lived in the same place it'd be a bit harder to convey in what ended up being 1 panel. That's not even to get into some people just might like a lot of personal space that can't be provided with just having separate rooms.

I feel bad about being this disapppointed because I'm aware that it's just another perspective on an aspect of life and I'm just not the target audience. But with that said I think that this work is very badly tagged, it almost shouldn't be tagged as "Yuri" and at the very least be tagged as "Asexual"

I enjoy

As a wise bald man once said:

"What a shitshow"

Not bad. While it may have been lacking in conflict, it seems the author wanted there to be a story like this to exist in the world: a story about people of varying kinds of sexualities respecting each other's identity and not using it as a tool for drama/a tragedy where all characters had well intentions. From this work, I read a desire for wanting people to coexist with each other without wanting so much from another person - something they cannot possibly give you.

That said, Rio did get done pretty dirty. I mean is that seriously what her last appearance will be? A possibly jealous/wounded expression followed by an exit to right, never to be seen again?

last edited at Apr 30, 2022 2:32PM

The ending definitely fits the bill of >> and have it end with not much explaining about certain aspects.

One wonders what happened to Rio...

Lackluster, had this not been tagged Yuri it would've never been read

last edited at Apr 30, 2022 12:25AM

i don't know, i get a feeling like watching a Dog Fight where 2 dogs get thrown in a pit together and forced to fight in which one of them wants to fight but the other one keep running away. Then in the middle of the fight another dog get throwing in and it wants to fight too but neither of the others dog want to fight that dog but instead they keep the "chasing- fleeing" status going while the third dog watching them in sorrow. And in the end, the first 2 dogs which one of them still have the spirit to fight but can't because whether it start chasing the other dog that dog will start running away so they stop the chasing-fleeing situation and sitting next to each other awkwardly while the third dog magically disappear???
Yeah... all in all, it sucks.

I....I don't really get why you had to make this a metaphor for dog fights. Like, the point of metaphors is to draw a comparison to a more common, relatable situation to help someone understand your abstract idea.

In what messed up world do weird dog fights make ace romance less abstract?

As an Ace possibly Aro person the ending felt lackluster to me, but i also don't know it could have been made better.

i don't know, i get a feeling like watching a Dog Fight where 2 dogs get thrown in a pit together and forced to fight in which one of them wants to fight but the other one keep running away. Then in the middle of the fight another dog get throwing in and it wants to fight too but neither of the others dog want to fight that dog but instead they keep the "chasing- fleeing" status going while the third dog watching them in sorrow. And in the end, the first 2 dogs which one of them still have the spirit to fight but can't because whether it start chasing the other dog that dog will start running away so they stop the chasing-fleeing situation and sitting next to each other awkwardly while the third dog magically disappear???
Yeah... all in all, it sucks.

I....I don't really get why you had to make this a metaphor for dog fights. Like, the point of metaphors is to draw a comparison to a more common, relatable situation to help someone understand your abstract idea.

In what messed up world do weird dog fights make ace romance less abstract?

LOL, ikr? I guess it’s “the kind of romance where there isn’t any romance is like a dogfight where there isn’t a fight,” but isn’t that metaphorical situation above just a real non-romance, only with dogs?

I can foresee the whole Dynasty tagging system coming crashing down around us . . .

I don't think the romance tag needs to go (I did at first but not anymore). There's plenty of romance in the series between different characters. Sure, it may not be all reciprocated but many mainstream series with only one-sided feelings are still categorized as romance. Imo a series that focuses on characters' romantic feelings warrants a romance tag whether or not those feelings are reciprocated.

Lol maybe a womance tag?

last edited at Apr 30, 2022 1:25AM

This ending feels unsatisfying.

I actually liked that the annoying kouhai and younger sister ended up marrying each other (patting myself on the back for predicting that). But since I though the story was about Yuriko developing romantic feeling for Matoi, the way things ended with them being close but still not living together feels weird.

I think it would have been fine if Yuriko at least thought she was romantically interested in Matoi and later discovered it wasn't the case, but it just seemed like she had done some self-reflection we didn't get to see.

Interesting attempt, weak dismount IMO.

Rio's narrative purpose might have been to provide an alternative for Matoi to turn down.

Bit of a weird ride, with audio sampling and AI lecture and very precious imouto along the way.

I think I found a better way to describe how I feel about this. The whole time it's like watching a fuse burn, hoping that at the end we're going to get some exciting bang to end off the series. But by the time it gets to the end and you think the firework's gonna pop off into the air, it gives off one measly poot and flops onto the ground.

Which is probably my fault for hoping something would happen, honestly. Maybe I got my own hopes up that even after some of the awkward pacing and the almost stagnant lack of conflict that there'd be something at the end.

The most disappointing part is that Rio could've been great as a source of something, but instead we just see "oh that's the girl matoi is in love with" and then she completely fucking evaporates from the plot. There was pretty much no reason for her to see them or say anything because nothing came of it.

Now THIS feels like a classic. Old-school art, a tamped-down relationship that doesn't end in dating, and a time-skip. Recent series have been so warm I forgot what it felt like to read one that ends tepidly.

Overall, I think it was pretty alright.

Glad I didn’t read this based on comments and the last chapter. Yes, there are such relationships IRL, but it doesn’t have the literary payoff for readership (they’re not even ROOMMATES! God what a let down). Good luck getting this picked up for publishing stateside.

This manga deserves the “non-binary” tag as the relationship went no-where by choice.

what the fuck

^ +1!

So in the end they don't even live together? Bah

Lackluster, had this not been tagged Yuri it would've never been read