This is as much a series as it is an anthology - future chapters will feature other couples, even if many of the characters are recurring in some role or another.

If anyone has limited art of this series (Comic Zin had something back then, I think) or knows where to buy some, let me know :)

Not a fan of this one.

I always roll my eyes whenever yuri manga characters praise having pale skin but this one made me feel kind of gross

I always roll my eyes whenever yuri manga characters praise having pale skin but this one made me feel kind of gross

Makes you think of race rather than class?

I'll hold out on this series but I couldn't read past the first couple of pages, hopefully future chapters have less icky feeling topics. Man, I've made it through some tough stuff on classism and hate for the poor while reading translated novels, but having it be the whole entire topic is just too much for me.

whew the colorism is certainly more intense than usual and the rest of the story and the characters are kinda thin

like none of the characters finding basically jailing a young woman for tanning notably bad or cruel is

you guys read this story too literally I think, pretty sure that the overexposing to sun after a sheltered upbringing here is a metaphor

I always roll my eyes whenever yuri manga characters praise having pale skin but this one made me feel kind of gross

Makes you think of race rather than class?

Not race in particular, but the blatant colorism. Though needless to say, readers of color would have ample reason to be uncomfortable with that aspect.

its more the "grrr that white pale skin thats gotta be under the black skin make me horny ggrr" that's wack and gross and makes me ill.

Interesting. I'm definitely signing-up for more!
Thanks for the translation!

Tsubomi? Wow, that's a name I haven't seen in a while.

do burnt and tan have different words/connotations in Japanese?

That was really cool. I’m excited for this series; Tsubomi was always my favorite anthology.

Also, jesus christ people this had nothing to do with racism or classism. The word “black” referring to skin was translated a bit overly literally; it just means “very tanned” in Japanese.

Yea the way i read this was that the issue wasnt that she was just "tanned" or "dark-skinned" (although im sure an upper class traditionalist family would see that as an issue) but rather that she has an unhealthy obsession with tanning and is ruining her skin and endangering her health for it (what with her being uninterested in skin care to alleviate some of those issues).

last edited at Oct 16, 2022 4:44AM

I was definitely put off at first, because yeah, this story wreaks of colorism. But once you get to the kid way the story clears up that’s it’s not that she’s obsessed with tanning, a normal thing someone has the right to choose, she is specifically burning her skin repeatedly, which gives you cancer. But even with that, the colorism is still there.

way to miss the point, gang.

it's a great little story about testing boundaries, the risks and rewards of desire, being something you aren't for the sake of love.

notice that at no point does the ojou sama express regret for how she looks, only that she may have hurt someone she cares for

The way this chapter ends, with Keika staying in her room being portrayed as a bad thing, is implicitly critical of the characters' attitudes at the start. The umbrella at the end demonstrates that she's developing a healthy attitude toward the sun, going outside without destroying her skin and risking cancer. And yeah, as Iski123 says I don't think this is meant to be taken super literally.

Thanks for the chapter! It was interesting, and I'm looking forward to future ones.

im not taking it literally as "black" but there is the colorism there. that theres gap "lust" between pale white and dark tan, christ.

I always roll my eyes whenever yuri manga characters praise having pale skin but this one made me feel kind of gross

Makes you think of race rather than class?

Not race in particular, but the blatant colorism. Though needless to say, readers of color would have ample reason to be uncomfortable with that aspect.

but she is naturally white, so of course it feels disturbing to see her skin literally ruined because of the higher chance of cancer and other skin problems this could be causing her. it's the same when you see a black haired women bleach her hair white.

It has to be willful misinterpretation at this point to just evade the comments on colorism and examples therein.

No one suggested it was about racism.
No one is talking about the "she's black" translation.
The comparison of the freedom to tan and the freedom to venture beyond her childhood birdcage is not lost on anyone.
The fact that she's burning her skin in detriment to her health is right there in the text; no one is missing this and this chapter still exhibits colorism regardless.

Even saying this I'm sure someone will still say "you're taking it too literally" or "you're missing the point" as if interpretation of the story's message is at all related to the complaints.

last edited at Oct 17, 2022 12:17AM

It's absolutely true that the protagonist exhibits colorism. What is much less clear is whether the story approves of her colorism. In the climax, Keika follows the protagonist's request to stay indoors (== get pale skin) as an apology, but the narrative equates this with death. So I think the most natural interpretation is that the protagonist's colorism is analogized to Keika's controlling parents and ultimately portrayed as a bad thing.

Even if you disagree with my interpretation, I don't think it's fair to say the chapter as a whole is colorist just because the protagonist is (at first, she arguably gives it up at the end).

There is an air of colorism just inherent to this story. In a lot of Asian countries there is a lot of colorism just baked into society (though the forms differ quite a bit between different Asian cultures). Even the comments by the other characters in the story why around seem very similar to how I've seen colorism being enforced societally in a different Asian culture. People will say it is for your health and maybe they are concerned about that as well, but will also say "health" because it is more societally acceptable to say those sorts of health comments. However their solutions do not make sense if you only look at it as a concern about her health [see pages 8-9 to see that the mc identified her own motivations related to what she sees as beautiful, but hides it under health comments]. In this case the colorist solutions of those around Keika, like to completely isolate from the sun, are stopping her from having a more healthy relationship with sun exposure. And in the end, she looks out for her own health by taking an umbrella with her, something that wasn't a solution to those around her because it would still involve her skin getting darker.

There's just some inherent shame and shaming of getting darker skin, that's from colorism. Though this story does seem to use colorism as more of a metaphor. It has clearly harmed Keika, keeping her isolated from the world, and I would argue that has harmed her more than any damage from the sun.

It's absolutely true that the protagonist exhibits colorism. What is much less clear is whether the story approves of her colorism. In the climax, Keika follows the protagonist's request to stay indoors (== get pale skin) as an apology, but the narrative equates this with death. So I think the most natural interpretation is that the protagonist's colorism is analogized to Keika's controlling parents and ultimately portrayed as a bad thing.

I also read the story as not portraying colorism as a positive belief.

However the colorism still does make me uncomfortable, mainly because I read it being used more as a metaphor the story uses rather than a rather pervasive and oppressive ideology. This leaves a bad aftertaste when colorism isn't a topic well discussed in media.

This one is sh*t water straight out the toilet. Why are these subhumans so obsessed about skin color that they’d essentially confine the said person they are ogling?

yeah im out of this one... definitely uncomfortable

I can't help but laugh at how awkward this was to read. "The black skin is disgusting, the white skin is beautiful" this is the type of thing that could only be written in japan