Holy shit this is some bad discourse. I would rather go back to talking about whether it’s realistic for teen girls to like Aerosmith

I’m gonna say meh on that.. there are tons of instances where people, even young people get interested in something from a begone era… Like jazz or classical or ska… plus for the last 5-10 year’s you’d see teens in the us wearing “vintage” themed tshirts spattered with Beatles, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC logos… also the ironic part of this in connection to grunge retro is grunge and a lot of the music of the first half of the 90s was filled with retro throwbacks.. grunge is just punk mixed with 70s heavy rock like Black Sabbath, Blue cheer and Death, then when grunge died you had a swing fad followed by a 2nd ska revival and then you had the whole Brit pop thing which was again rooted in 60s and 70s stuff.. also.. aerosmith was huge at that time…. My guess because of the retro love mixed in the current bands of that time like the black crows and G&R (who sound like aerosmith most of the time anyway).. things cycle around over and over again..

last edited at Aug 31, 2022 8:25PM

Holy shit this is some bad discourse. I would rather go back to talking about whether it’s realistic for teen girls to like Aerosmith

Partly depends on the parents I guess. Now I'm not a girl myself, but I know that my wife largely has similar music preferences as I do and those were shaped in no small part by our parents, who listened to Pink Floyd, CCR, Yes, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath and the like. Then again, we both had Goth tendencies in high school (we definitely were (not) among the popular crowd...), so our taste in music was quite far removed from the mainstream anyway. And also, those weren't exactly the bands we usually listened to, those were a bit less dated at the time (though we eventually both came around to Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Boston, CCR and many others).

One's sex is really only relevant to their sexual partners. Anyone else doesn't need to know.

In the process of getting closer and building up some trust between them, one would expect some basic personal information to be revealed, but they're really not in a very close relationship yet. Mitsuki hasn't asked Aya for anything sexual that would require informed consent.

Call back to Chapter 1 :D

My heart can't take it
I hope they will at least be friends (╥﹏╥)

chapter 19 page 4: every husband ever can relate

im sobbing, shaking, throwing up, snot coming out of my nose, panicking, pissing myself alot, dancing in a bad way and jumping in fear

If that's how you feel about it you are welcome to that, but from my perspective I think anyone should be allowed to lie about their gender, or rather than say lie, I don't think anyone has a right to demand to know your gender.

It's not a question of "rights." Mitsuki has obviously not committed a literal crime. What she's done is (a) deliberately misled another person (b) in a way she knew, or should've known, would cause them great pain if they found out (as we saw happen in this very chapter) (c) purely in order to preserve this pseudo-friendship pseudo-romance thing she had going on with her. What precise information Aya had a "right" to know about is irrelevant. Mitsuki hurt her. She did a mean thing. She should apologize! (And I'm sure she will.) And that's all I have to say about this.

If you take it upon yourself to make assumptions about me and cause yourself some emotional, mental, or other harm by doing so, it is not my obligation to apologize for your self-harm caused by your assumptions. It is not a "mean thing" done to others by not correcting their assumptions. Especially if you don't know if you'll be safe if you do so. The only person responsible for the thoughts and assumptions you come up with in your head is you. So the only person who needs to apologize for making assumptions is the one who made them, not the one they were made about.

This is ridiculous. Everybody makes assumptions constantly in everyday life and we require them to function. When I go to McDonald's, I assume the guy behind the register wearing a uniform is the cashier and is gonna take my order, nobody in the history of ever has asked that guy, "Hey sorry, are you the cashier?"

Sorry to say but 99% of the time assuming someone's gender works fine IRL and people do it constantly. Even if someone isn't gender conforming, they must be aware of this. Even the term non-binary in it implies the existence of the binary. Mitsuki is not wrong because she's not disclosing her gender, she's wrong because she knows that Oosawa thinks that she's a dude and is deliberately letting her keep thinking that she is one for her own benefit.

damn how much time passed between chapter 18 and 19

did a whole summer pass between the chapters, they're preparing for the same event as they were in the last chapter though right

damn how much time passed between chapter 18 and 19

did a whole summer pass between the chapters, they're preparing for the same event as they were in the last chapter though right

Japanese schools have three semesters, separated by vacations.
Summer vacation comes after 1st semester, and usually covers the 40-odd days from July 20 to August 31.
Chapter 17 happened on the last day before summer vacation, and then they come to school on another day in summer vacation for preparing the festival in chapter 18.
I think the time span from chapter 18 to 19 is no longer than one month? Since they already have a checklist for their after party program in chapter 18, it looks like it was not their first meeting in summer vacation.

Aya is getting closer to the ''acceptance'' part of her grief process, it's only normal that she needed some time to get there. I hope she does start seeing Mitsuki as her own awesome person now, who's both her beloved ''onii-san'' in essence but also someone who can become a more tangible relationship in her life than some idealized person could ever be.

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 9:07AM

That kinda sounded like she was over being mad about it- I dont think she WANTS to be mad any more- and is probably about to tell Mitsuki she knows?

I hope so- I want them to put this behind them and start on the 'friends' bit- I'm curious how they will interact, both at school and at the record shop now the misunderstanding is gone.

Looks like next time they'll actually talk.

Ooohh it's actually going better than I had feared! Now, Mitsuki, is your turn to face your fears! after all, the fact that you didn't tell her from the start was because you had a wrong image of her, but you should know by now she isn't like that.

I'm also in the side that thinks that, she really didn't have obligation to tell her right away, we all want our safe space, our places to be ourselves and not being bothered by school or anyone AND on top of that, for a while it was just employee and customer service, but then Aya fell in love all on her own.

When they exchanged phones, it was a perfect opportunity to come clear... But fear and insecurities were in the way, we're talking about someone who mastered the ways of invisibility in class.

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 9:36AM

all the parallels, i can't </3 please let this ending be at least bittersweet

Something behind the scenes like what? Personal stuff? Social stuff? Sumiko has over 500k followers because of her recent work. I understand Japan is conservative when it comes to LGBTQ issues, but hopefully not to the point where she needs to go into hiding?

You don’t need to worry about that, really.

Women in general are more at risk for random violence than queers.
There’s a sharp generational cutoff of people being prejudiced, and even then it’s stuff like marriage. That unfortunately has wide-reaching tendrils that undermine other rights (domestic violence, housing…), but going into hiding? Nah. Not these days.
Not even ten years ago (when I lived there)!
People point, whisper and stare at things that are different, there. Super awkward.

Progressive*, queer manga is in the top five on Pixiv Comics a lot of the time, regardless of gender reading it. it makes two lists for the two most common. Annoying, but relevant here, because it’s not just fujoshi reading BL, or old-school yuri being popular. It’s fukaboku and “Josou Offline Meeting” being huge.
These artists are FINE. They’re making a living being wholesome about queerness.

You can relax.

Totally understandable to be anxious. It’s rough out there these days.

*not to say there isn’t horribly regressive stuff getting popular. A lot of …un-wholesome stuff gets published. Manga is a free-for-all.
I’m just saying that there’s no outcry and there’s a career for people who write queer-positive stories.

‘A New Semester of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ means we’ll have 18 more chapters of the girls not communicating properly before they become “very close friends”??????

If that's how you feel about it you are welcome to that, but from my perspective I think anyone should be allowed to lie about their gender, or rather than say lie, I don't think anyone has a right to demand to know your gender.

It's not a question of "rights." Mitsuki has obviously not committed a literal crime. What she's done is (a) deliberately misled another person (b) in a way she knew, or should've known, would cause them great pain if they found out (as we saw happen in this very chapter) (c) purely in order to preserve this pseudo-friendship pseudo-romance thing she had going on with her. What precise information Aya had a "right" to know about is irrelevant. Mitsuki hurt her. She did a mean thing. She should apologize! (And I'm sure she will.) And that's all I have to say about this.

If you take it upon yourself to make assumptions about me and cause yourself some emotional, mental, or other harm by doing so, it is not my obligation to apologize for your self-harm caused by your assumptions. It is not a "mean thing" done to others by not correcting their assumptions. Especially if you don't know if you'll be safe if you do so. The only person responsible for the thoughts and assumptions you come up with in your head is you. So the only person who needs to apologize for making assumptions is the one who made them, not the one they were made about.

This is ridiculous. Everybody makes assumptions constantly in everyday life and we require them to function. When I go to McDonald's, I assume the guy behind the register wearing a uniform is the cashier and is gonna take my order, nobody in the history of ever has asked that guy, "Hey sorry, are you the cashier?"

Sorry to say but 99% of the time assuming someone's gender works fine IRL and people do it constantly. Even if someone isn't gender conforming, they must be aware of this. Even the term non-binary in it implies the existence of the binary. Mitsuki is not wrong because she's not disclosing her gender, she's wrong because she knows that Oosawa thinks that she's a dude and is deliberately letting her keep thinking that she is one for her own benefit.

Phew. I thought this was closed as of the last few chapters, but since it's still ongoing, I need to say what's on my mind.

The issue here is not that Mitsuki has not disclosed her gender. It's that Mitsuki has not disclosed that the "two" people Aya knows are actually just one person. At-school Mitsuki is basically spying on Aya under a different identity. Whether she started doing it intentionally or whether it's because of Aya's assumptions is beside the point. She has concealed not her gender, but her identity so that she can interact with Aya as two different people. (whether she originally interacted with Aya at school or not is beside the point, she is listening in on conversations that aren't as vague as Aya thinks they are because Mitsuki has insider information.)

Looks like next time they'll actually talk.

Hmmm. Maybe?
Or, maybe Aya is just going to take her opportunity to get to know Mitsuki better without letting on that she knows she is also the "oniisan" she knows outside of school.

The last few lines starting with “it’s not like I can do anything about it…” who’s saying it? Aya? Mitsuki? Both of them?

Looks like next time they'll actually talk.

Hmmm. Maybe?
Or, maybe Aya is just going to take her opportunity to get to know Mitsuki better without letting on that she knows she is also the "oniisan" she knows outside of school.

I kinda want to see that happen… like Aya slowly reveals that she knows Mitsuki and Onii-San are one and the same…but the “what the heck am I doing?” Made me think she’s tired of avoiding/holding back from Mitsuki

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 10:33AM

i cant wait till next sunday to arrive TToTT

Looking forward to the series ending in chapter 20 with understanding smiles and abundant levels of (future, not shown) friendship.

Looking forward to the series ending in chapter 20 with understanding smiles and abundant levels of (future, not shown) friendship.

Don't jinx it plsss, i need at least 50 more chapters of that sweet, delicious gay panic (and subsequent flirting and being an adorable idiot couple)

kingtiger posted:

The last few lines starting with “it’s not like I can do anything about it…” who’s saying it? Aya? Mitsuki? Both of them?

It's Mitsuki. It's a repeat of of her ealier thought, with a "and yet..." added.