"It is mostly my fault though."

Oh honey. Why are you gaslighting yourself.

Seriously what is it with this trend in manga, victimized women blaming the themselves?

It's especially jarring in this situation since the actual guilty party is clearly aware that it's her who was in the wrong and immediately declares it to be her fault and apologizes for acting like a scumbag.

And then the victim just, ignores all of that and immediately starts blaming herself? Which doesn't say great things about her mental wellbeing.

I sometimes imagine manga as a really cutthroat movie production with a shitty director. It doesnt matter that you cant get along with your co-star and the script is shitty. We dont have much time before this thing gets axed. We gotta get this romance rolling. Whether you like it or not.

Isn't self guilt common in these kinds of situation in real life though?

Usually not on the first date. And depends on what you are "guilty" of. Insensitive jokes, maybe. Prying questions, maybe.This situation, definitely not. At least not without a severe lack of judgement.

I was more meaning that people in real life feel guilty even if it they are not to blame at all. Even though we as the reader know they're not at fault, its realistic for them to feel self guilt.

That guy is like Cloud Strife in the Tifa - Aerith meme

Warning: Manga character manifesting non-optimal behavior; do not attempt at home.

Bahaha, so much this. Do we need warnings that everything we read is fiction and only a bare-bones representation of reality, not actual messy reality in all of its complexity?
I thought just by engaging in a story in the first place, we'd already agreed to this "it's not real, take everything with a grain of salt" contract.

Don't get me wrong, it's good - great, even - to discuss morality as it relates to real life - we should absolutely talk about how fiction isn't an excuse for acting a certain way.
But we should also be clear that a story isn't going to show the nuance of everything, it's just going to show what it's telling the story about. Is this story about an abusive relationship? No. We can talk and be thoughtful about these things, though, without hating on the story.

If it was hardcore on questionable things and pretending that they aren't wrong, then I'd understand the outrage, but being so angry about things that are just basically hyperbole is something I just don't get.

Takagai really is a bit inconsiderate. She asked a straight woman to go out with her, now she needs to take responsibility. Shiina never had sex with a woman before, it's normal that she wants to find out if it works for her or not ASAP because if it doesn't then they are both wasting their time.

Ryouji had already appeared in ch4. Only now I noticed.

Ryouji had already appeared in ch4. Only now I noticed.

I don't know why people are being so aggressive towards him. I have read the 6th chapter though.

I don't know why people are being so aggressive towards him. I have read the 6th chapter though.

He's a male in a yuri, and not an obviously harmless brother or wingman, in fact is set up as a potential disturber of the yuri romance.

I don't know why people are being so aggressive towards him. I have read the 6th chapter though.

He's a male in a yuri, and not an obviously harmless brother or wingman, in fact is set up as a potential disturber of the yuri romance.

Considering they mention he's married and his wife had a child, he seems pretty harmless to me.

I mean he's the shitty ex who left her, but yeah doubtful he's there to disturb much when there's one chapter left to go

I don't know why people are being so aggressive towards him. I have read the 6th chapter though.

He's a male in a yuri, and not an obviously harmless brother or wingman, in fact is set up as a potential disturber of the yuri romance.

Considering they mention he's married and his wife had a child, he seems pretty harmless to me.

. . . Except the child was concieved while he was dating her which clearly shows he isn't above cheating, which is also a strike against him.

Jesus, people, this isn't "Oooh, Men bad yuri good," literally everything we know about this guy is red flags.

Maybe it turns out to be a misunderstanding, but right now there is every reason to expect that he's a scumbag who's gonna toy with Shiina's feelings. At the very least he's a reminder of her defining trauma.

I don't know why people are being so aggressive towards him. I have read the 6th chapter though.

He's a male in a yuri, and not an obviously harmless brother or wingman, in fact is set up as a potential disturber of the yuri romance.

Considering they mention he's married and his wife had a child, he seems pretty harmless to me.

. . . Except the child was concieved while he was dating her which clearly shows he isn't above cheating, which is also a strike against him.

You're reading assumptions made by other office workers as fact. This is an example of why gossip can be damaging.

Jesus, people, this isn't "Oooh, Men bad yuri good," literally everything we know about this guy is red flags.

I don't think we've seen enough of their love life together apart from what could be considered office gossip to really make assumptions of red flags. Like sure they had some issues but the manga plays it off to me as not anyones fault and is pretty vague about the wole thing.

By the way, if i quote something from the official translation but from the chapters already released is that considered a spoiler?

last edited at Jul 21, 2022 5:39PM

Tbf i have read the official translation so my viewpoint is going to be a little skewed.

So what you guys think about this manga?

– "No! We can't!"
– "Why not? We're both well-experienced adult women, we've known each other for a year, and we have been going out for a month! Why the hell not?"
– "Your fingernails are too long and you're going to hurt my cunny!!!"
– "..."

Yeah, I like how that whole scene played out.

I quite like this so far, but to be honest I do think the time limit does hurt it. I know we all joke and moan and complain endlessly (and with good reason) about manga that take forever to get to their plot/relationship developments and drag things out too much, but on the flipside, this definitely feels too rushed to me. One moment we're processing a confession and worrying about stringing her along, the next we're dating and dealing with jealousy, then we're worrying about sex and consent and deadlines, and then we have the whole hospital thing and the bad ex showing up. It's all a whirlwind, and I feel like it's ultimately to the detriment of the relationship. Still looking forward to seeing how this concludes, but I really wish it had been given more time and space to grow.

I'm a woman and if someone that I'm dating do something like that, if she is a woman, obviously I have enough strength to stop her in the act (not in the case if senpai is a man), what we can see is that Takagai is worried about what is happened with Shiina, it doesn't look like Takagai is scared about what Shiina will do next, it's obvious that she knows she can stop her if she wants

I think the issue isn't about whether or not she could stop her if she needed to - it's that she shouldn't need to worry about that in the first place, and that kind of thing is inherently going to put some level of strain on the relationship.

Unlike some, I'm not going to comdemn the manga for depicting this kind of messiness, and honestly real life relationships aren't always gonna be perfect either. I do get the impression this is being taken seriously, even if the manga's rushedness works against exploring the implications as thoroughly as I would like.

Warning: Manga character manifesting non-optimal behavior; do not attempt at home.

Bahaha, so much this. Do we need warnings that everything we read is fiction and only a bare-bones representation of reality, not actual messy reality in all of its complexity?
I thought just by engaging in a story in the first place, we'd already agreed to this "it's not real, take everything with a grain of salt" contract.

Don't get me wrong, it's good - great, even - to discuss morality as it relates to real life - we should absolutely talk about how fiction isn't an excuse for acting a certain way.
But we should also be clear that a story isn't going to show the nuance of everything, it's just going to show what it's telling the story about. Is this story about an abusive relationship? No. We can talk and be thoughtful about these things, though, without hating on the story.

If it was hardcore on questionable things and pretending that they aren't wrong, then I'd understand the outrage, but being so angry about things that are just basically hyperbole is something I just don't get.

Seconding all of this,

last edited at Jul 25, 2022 6:20AM

This is definitely going too fast and seeing them be so dumb hurts my soul but otherwise this is pretty nice, I can't complain too much with age gap office lady yuri. Also, having the coworker guy just be a genuinely good guy was nice to see! The drama with the ex returns to the yuri classic of "all men are evil," however

Hopefully people noticed that there was a time skip of about a month in between chapters 3 and 4.

Kind of lame. 6 chapters isn't a lot to work with, and it's not like this didn't have cute moments, but ultimately this felt really forgettable.

The existential angst in Japanese lgbt stuff over the lack of rights always really depresses me. I really hope the Japanese government fix that shit soon. Although I doubt it will happen.

I was hoping it would be a bit longer, but I'm not dissatisfied with this ending. Admittedly, I'm glad the returning ex didn't lead to long, drawn out drama.

... I do still wish we got a bit more time with them.

Whoa, that got surprisingly real at the last moment. Still don't see that too often with yuri stories.

Well, it was fun enough overall. Obviously not the greatest thing ever but no real complaints from my side.

surpsingly realistic ending. kinda shows how the only thing anti-lgbt laws do, is make educated people leave the country and those that can't suffer

Honestly really loved this story and the final chapter. There was a lot of great communication between the two of them in the end, thinking about the future, and being positive about their next step together. Thanks a ton for the translation!

The credits page sums up my feelings pretty well.

The existential angst in Japanese lgbt stuff over the lack of rights always really depresses me. I really hope the Japanese government fix that shit soon. Although I doubt it will happen.

Governments usually don't change jack of their own accord (not for the better, anyway). The only way for laws to change is for the people to demand it so loudly that the political elites have no choice but to do so if they want to get reelected. And for that to happen, a lot of gradual change in attitudes and societal expectations must occur through education and activism first.

last edited at Aug 23, 2022 8:12AM

That was both wholesome, sweet and surprisingly realistic. You can tell the author really wanted to make a point with it all, even though 6 chapters means everything had to be quite rushed. Still, as a lesbian and someone who had to fight for her rights her whole adult life, it's always nice to see the actual issues getting tackled in fiction. Nice work, author-san ^_^

last edited at Aug 23, 2022 8:39AM