Make fun of it if you will Blastaar, but I'm not gonna pretend I won't lap it up every damn time without fail.

I kid because I love. A yuri reader who can’t take adorable dolts is in the wrong business.

Make fun of it if you will Blastaar, but I'm not gonna pretend I won't lap it up every damn time without fail.

I kid because I love. A yuri reader who can’t take adorable dolts is in the wrong business.

I often joke that we don't need a useless lesbians tag because we already have yuri. So yeah, that just comes with the territory.

Ugh gross Kiki stop trying to be close to Shion she dumped you into the gutter without any warning and didn't give a damn what happened to you. I don't care if she doesn't know she did it because she was starting to feel stuff towards Kiki she thought she shouldn't. I've not liked Shion from the start and that isn't going to change. And Kiki needs to realize that, I was quite happy she just ran off and didn't let Kiki dry her hair. Kiki needs to realize that Shion is avoiding her as much as she can even if she thinks it's for other seasons.

Hopefully with Toribami finally opening up to Kiki in the next chapter we can get some progress and this brings them closer together. Either that or she's going to see Kiki being nice to Shion and get angry again. They dropped the whole line about Kiki being jealous because she's happy around other people so clearly Kiki does feel something for her. So hopefully the talk helps and by the end of this training camp they're Tango is the most beautiful tango every danced in more ways than one <3.

last edited at Aug 21, 2022 10:30AM

The hate Shion gets here is just further proof that there's no greater sin a fictional character can commit than being mean to the protagonist. I personally think she's the most interesting character in the manga right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing dancing go from being merely an artificial replacement for a real, honest connection with Kiki to something Shion loves for its own sake, as something she can excel at and finally gain self-confidence from.

As for this chapter, the main line I found notable was Michiru saying the purpose of dance is to show off the follower. This might suggest that the real reason she hates being called "cute" is that it gives her a kind of hypervisibility; it causes people to ignore who she actually is and what she's actually doing and focus entirely on her superficial qualities -- "She looks like the actress Yukihana"; "I want to go out with her". For an anime/manga industry and even wider culture that fetishizes "cuteness" especially for girls and women, this is a very unique and even somewhat subversive character trait, and her philosophical clash with Kiki who wants nothing more than this hypervisibility should end up embodying the core themes of the manga.

God Danmit, Michiru... not this again! did we really need to build tension for a whole chapter again for unspoken worries?

I feel like Kiki has that urge to take care of others... Not just Michiru but everyone in class including her "ex"

The hate Shion gets here is just further proof that there's no greater sin a fictional character can commit than being mean to the protagonist.

Stipulating that this is all speculation about other people’s ultimately unknowable motivations, my impression is for that significant segment of those readers for whom deciding who is right/who is wrong, who is a good person/who is bad (and often “if wrong, then bad”) is a primary goal, one of the biggest sins is a character actually hurting someone else (yes, usually the protagonist) along with a failure to communicate, i.e., not explaining their actions, expecting the other character to know things without saying them, etc.

That attitude tends to gloss over things like the difficulty of even articulating to oneself the reasons for hurtful actions, and the interior and exterior barriers to being forthright (“but we’re both girls” isn’t just a Dynasty meme), not to mention out-of-text reasons like character epiphanies/revelations working best as climactic story beats.

Tl;dr: People who say “So-and-so should have just directly said X” forget that in real life it’s hard to have hard conversations, and that in stories universal optimal communication means that a lot of stories just go away.

last edited at Oct 25, 2022 10:06AM

Another thing to keep in mind is that these are literal children. They're not going be incredibly emotionally intelligent or reasonable, especially when it comes to crushes and emotions that many of them are probably feeling for the very first time. I'm not surprised Shion can't handle being physically close to Kiki, just as I'm not surprised that Kiki doesn't get why, and is still trying to reach out and be close to her friend in ways that they used to be.

Okay, so hear me out—idea for a manga:

There are these two girls, both of them cute, and they’re young—high school-age, say. And something brings them together—club, shared interest, whatever. And as they get closer they have emotions, lots and lots of emotions.

But here’s the kicker—they’re both lesbians in love with each other, but they don’t realize it!

So, possibilities there, maybe?

Too far out, man. Nobody'll ever try it.

Make fun of it if you will Blastaar, but I'm not gonna pretend I won't lap it up every damn time without fail.

I kid because I love. A yuri reader who can’t take adorable dolts is in the wrong business.

I often joke that we don't need a useless lesbians tag because we already have yuri. So yeah, that just comes with the territory.

This entire exchange is golden, thank you for the laughs.

In any case, I like the way things are going. Really wish this would update more frequently.

I don't think that any of the characters here is really abhorrent by any measure. Shion's a dum-dum, a dum-dum in love, at that, but not malicious, and I don't think she deserves hate as much as she really deserves the consequences of her actions and a decent wake-up call. Mona is a real sweetheart, and I like her a lot both as a character and as what seems to me like an actual potential love interest for Shion, and I'm all up for that.

I'm really looking forward to learning about what troubles Michiru. Part of me thinks that it relates to the specific name mentioned in those comments, but it doesn't seem too likely, probably something along the lines of what was/is bothering Kiki, with what it seems like she should be and not what she actually is.

Okay, so hear me out—idea for a manga:

There are these two girls, both of them cute, and they’re young—high school-age, say. And something brings them together—club, shared interest, whatever. And as they get closer they have emotions, lots and lots of emotions.

But here’s the kicker—they’re both lesbians in love with each other, but they don’t realize it!

So, possibilities there, maybe?

Too far out, man. Nobody'll ever try it.

Sigh. Maybe someday.

Seriously, in regard to a comment above, I think the most important thing about schoolgirl yuri is that the characters aren’t children, at least not totally. They’re at that in-between stage where they start making choices for themselves (like being a leader or a follower in a dance pair) and exploring and developing their own identities. Surely their youth does explain and often excuse their emotional confusion and missteps, but their choices can have substantive consequences while they still have room to recover from (some) mistakes. (That’s just a qualification of the previous point, not at all a counter-argument.)

Me just living for the 1 - 2 panels Mona shows up in every chapter

Seriously, in regard to a comment above, I think the most important thing about schoolgirl yuri is that the characters aren’t children, at least not totally. They’re at that in-between stage where they start making choices for themselves (like being a leader or a follower in a dance pair) and exploring and developing their own identities. Surely their youth does explain and often excuse their emotional confusion and missteps, but their choices can have substantive consequences while they still have room to recover from (some) mistakes. (That’s just a qualification of the previous point, not at all a counter-argument.)

Oh, absolutely! I didn't meant to downplay the importance or realness of their feelings, more that they just last experience and perspective.

Me just living for the 1 - 2 panels Mona shows up in every chapter

Likewise. They could detour into three or four full chapters of "Mona is tired of your nonsense" and I'd be thrilled.

KIki is such a mom friend

I give up, because apparently the artist has no clue about these dances. I lost interest at this point and I do not plan to continue reading. This is 21st century and if you are writing a manga concerning social dances of late 19 and early 20 century, you better explain every single dance in the manga; not just make up stuff (like how you feel), or you better study different kinds of Waltz.

"Pretending"

"Pretend"
Yeah, sure.

A plan.

Well that felt out of nowhere, but good for her

This is pretty weird, it feels like it threw out all subtlety out the window, while not making it too satisfying for the readers either :P I'm sure pretending will go well as it always does

last edited at Sep 21, 2022 8:36AM

Hopefully the pretending won't stop there.

I can't wait to hear Kiki's explanation for how this will help them dance

OMG is it finally happening!? I mean no wonder she hates to be called cute she almost got snatched by a fuckin Pedo and then it was being used as an excuse on why she had to work harder to be careful like big yikes. Kinda sad that Kiki couldn't tell her anything while on the beach but at the same time I think it was smart because she needed to just listen to the story and be there for her as it's probably the first time that she's ever told anyone why she hates being called cute etc.

That ending uh... So I assume it's going to go so well that they're gonna keep "pretending" and this is going to get them so close that kiki is gonna catch real feelings right? Though I think she already does kinda have those feelings she just doesn't know how to express/put it in words not so much love but she does like Michiru and this prending stuff is just going to open her eyes on that.

Yeah I hope this works out, right now it's all really awkward,.. Poor Michiru is dealing with trauma, it's really sad, I would've been lost of words too.

Shion still infuriates me, "Hey Mona, we have to dance!"
Why?: I don't know
How?: I don't know
Are you motivated?: Not really

So she wants to prove something she has no knowledge about, and she's determined to do it but not determined to dance, but at least she knew that hurting Kiki in the process was necessary.

It's like
Step 1: ????
Step 2: Leave Kiki on her own without explanation
Step 3: Find a random girl to replace her
Step 4: ????
step 5: ??????
Step 6: Dance?
Step 7: ?????
Step 8: Profit!

Yeah I hope this works out, right now it's all really awkward,.. Poor Michiru is dealing with trauma, it's really sad, I would've been lost of words too.

Shion still infuriates me, "Hey Mona, we have to dance!"
Why?: I don't know
How?: I don't know
Are you motivated?: Not really

So she wants to prove something she has no knowledge about, and she's determined to do it but not determined to dance, but at least she knew that hurting Kiki in the process was necessary.

It's like
Step 1: ????
Step 2: Leave Kiki on her own without explanation
Step 3: Find a random girl to replace her
Step 4: ????
step 5: ??????
Step 6: Dance?
Step 7: ?????
Step 8: Profit!

A lot of people seem to defend Shion but I'm 100% with you on this her thought process and logic is so stupid. Especially because they've all but established she does have feelings for Kiki and the whole throwing her away when she does just doesn't make sense at all. And the more this series focuses on her it annoys me even more because she can't explain anything. She always has an excuse or just gives a basic I don't know kind of answer. Either way MichiruxKiki starts next chapter and as always the best friend doesn't win so sorry about your damn luck Shion.