So after all this time of Matsuri fawning over Shiori the resolution is ... that they'll eventually become roomies.

Yeah, that was the grand finale I was hoping for. Good grief.

How can I be tearing up simply from learning someone's name jfc

It’s a beautiful ending for a beautiful story, thanks for translating this wonderful story.

It seems to me that the “they’re just going to be roommates—there’s no yuri” reading of this ending really is kind of a kneejerk reaction that doesn’t take into account the series as a whole or the various ways the characters have been developed.

This isn’t a couple of “will they or won’t they?” schoolgirls being given an ambiguous ending—Miss Sunflower has been portrayed as an intensely private, indeed repressed, person who previously has had extreme difficulty opening up to the people around her or expressing affection, and her invitation to Matsuri really is the equivalent of an open confession.

Furthermore, while the series has been quite open about its depiction of romantic love (or at least romantic attraction), mostly focusing on the figure of the first Miss Sunflower, it has never come near including any suggestion of physical intimacy of a sexual nature at all (in fact, even a kiss between Matsuri and Miss Sunflower would be totally out of character for the way this series has worked).

So sure, there’s some theoretical ambiguity as to whether Miss Sunflower and Matsuri will ever “do the deed in the dark of night,” but it’s absolutely clear that the two of them will be together for the rest of their lives because they love each other.

last edited at Oct 30, 2022 3:40PM

End of an era.
Thank you so much to the scanlators.

It has been an amazing ride.
I am so glad I found this gem.
Thank you everyone involved in translating this work.
The ending was really nice, we didn't get a kiss or anything like that, but that is fine. We got something better.
Shiori san actually wants Matsuri to move in with her.
That says it all.
Also, I didn't think we were going to get Miss Sunflower's real name, how wrong I was.

(If anybody else is looking for the "Vol. 12" reference:
chapter 98 (illustrations on p. 158), is what you're looking for.)

Wow- i got all emotional on finishing this series- i've been reading of for so long- like half my life! I kinda can't believe it's over!

It was a wonderful series - and ended more or less how I thought it would- but even more satisfying! I expected Matsuri would start working there- but I DIDNT guess we'd Miss sunflowers name, or that Shiori would invite Matsuri to live with her once she graduated!

Thats such a huge deal for miss sunflower- I can't see it as anything but a life long commitment between the 2- wether it develops romantically or not - tho i also can't see it NOT going toward romance, however slowly- just give it 2-5 more years :)

Many thanks indeed to all the people involed over the years for bringing us this.

last edited at Oct 30, 2022 7:50PM

I CRIED WHEN I SAW THIS CHAPTER ON THE FRONT PAGE AND NOW I’M CRYING EVEN HARDER T_T

this series was just amazing. shiori is an absolute goddess. Such a beautiful name. this was just absolutely sublime.

Thank you to everyone whose effort kept this long series translated for the past decade, right to the end

Thank you to everyone whose effort kept this long series translated for the past decade, right to the end

Ditto

It has been a wonderful series, really loved reading it.

thank you for the wonderful series. I love the idea that they are going to be a roommate in the future like we all know where this is going( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I'm happy we finally got to know her real name. aaaawwww shiori san.

Just to add some context for the ending for the people that don't think this is yuri or any hard confirmaton.

Bear in mind that this series started in 2009; a period where hand holding is ACTUALLY lewd as much as people like to meme on it today. I remember reading like 90% of the stuff on this website back in highschool and any kind of romantic intimacy and or even confirmation of a romantic relationship was pretty rare. Any kind of kissing had lots of sex in it and was basically hentai. Yuri series/ doujinshi was either hentai or very teasy with the typical blushing and nothing more. The in between or what I like to think is the sweetspot, that is very common today was extremely rare.

Referencing a post from another series
Some guy mentioned in the comments section that I will quote "If both parties request to share a room, the declaration itself is equivalent to a 'confession'" with a link to this official tweet

No idea if it's true or not, I'm not Japanese nor do I understand the social culture that well, nor do I even speak or understand but I'll just take their word for it.

It's a relic from the past from a period completely different compared today. I actually stopped reading around chapter 30 or so because it rarely had any updates, so I decided to wait until it was completed (or at least caught up) and boy did I wait a while.... Thank you to all the scanlators that picked this series up!

I never cried on a happy ending this much. This series is part of my childhood, I am thankful to kawaii scans and gouma den for picking up himawari-san. I'll keep coming back to this, that's for sure. I just fell in love with all the characters and story. I even cried when Matsuri called Himawari-san by her real name. It will always be one of my favorite manga.

^ I agree - tho not my childhood- im too old for that - but i was in my 20's when i started reading it- so 'young'-ish, and by now, in my early 50's, i'd class as 'old'-ish lol.

Miss Sunflower and Matsuri are 2 of my all time fav yuri characters and the wonderful art and 'feel' of the manga are unique.

The sadness hit me again when I saw my email notification from Dynasty for miss sunflower 107 [end].. that I wont get any more :(

p.s I always thought if we ever found out miss sunflowers real name it would seem odd and not fit her- but Shiori actually suits her very well imo. We have never heard her surname right? (I know kuroizato is her brothers pen name not surname).

p.p.s I wonder what Kanji Shiori uses? Im gona guess its the one that can be read as 'bookmark'.

last edited at Oct 30, 2022 8:10PM

Blastaar posted:

It seems to me that the “they’re just going to be roommates—there’s no yuri” reading of this ending really is kind of a kneejerk reaction that doesn’t take into account the series as a whole or the various ways the characters have been developed.

This isn’t a couple of “will they or won’t they?” schoolgirls being given an ambiguous ending—Miss Sunflower has been portrayed as an intensely private, indeed repressed, person who previously has had extreme difficulty opening up to the people around her or expressing affection, and her invitation to Matsuri really is the equivalent of an open confession.

Furthermore, while the series has been quite open about its depiction of romantic love (or at least romantic attraction), mostly focusing on the figure of the first Miss Sunflower, it has never come near including any suggestion of physical intimacy of a sexual nature at all (in fact, even a kiss between Matsuri and Miss Sunflower would be totally out of character for the way this series has worked).

It was pointed out to me today that the series never really has the two of them interacting in overtly couple-y ways (holding hands, head pats, bed-sharing, etc.). I can sympathise with that perspective, and I personally would have loved the series even more if it had shown some of those things*. This wouldn't seem too distant from where the series is at already - with its many references (both from characters and the text in general) to the nature of their relationship. But, that's about as far as I would like.

The story was beautiful as it was told, and I'm quite glad there weren't any late attempts to discuss sexuality or have either of them musing about the nature of their feelings. It's disappointing to read folks suggesting the series was about "nothing" or "had no progress", but different readers will look for different content, so I suppose the diversity of opinion makes sense.

*What I really want in hindsight is a final volume end card of them cheerfully talking while lying in bed. Which would have dodged being too overtly physical while still being very cute...

^I dont see how one could claim it was about nothing and had no progress lol- unless you were lazer focused on just 100% confirmed to be romantic/sexual yuri and ignored all the rest. There was HUGE amounts of progress. and it was about TONS of things. I feel sorry for people who have such a narrow focus - or want to bend everything to fit their focus and consider anything outside that a failiure. Even such a beautiful sotry as this one, where matsuri's love rescues Shiori- and she fully returns it.

I must say, this feeling of having to say goodbye to a series I've followed for so many years will never stop being so painful to me. I've had to do it many times now, and it's such a bittersweet thing.

I'm too fried from work today to leave any significant thoughts, so I'll just say it was a lovely ending, and Himawari-san's real name is wonderful. I legitimately didn't expect for us to learn it, so I'm glad that we got to.

Thank you one last time to everyone who made this series possible. It will always be dear to my heart and one that I will revisit many times as the years go on.

last edited at Oct 30, 2022 10:01PM

The end of an era. Smooth story from start to finish. If I imagined “Sasameki Koto” being double length, this would be it. You can get emotionally attached to the characters with a manga this long… which is why I haven’t read all the chapters since updates were kinda slow.

Looking forward to mangaka’s next endeavor. May it take an oblique angled path away from her fine work she just finished—strike a bold path to attract new readers!

That was wonderful. Great at humor, great at drama. From everything I saw, I think it was the best and only work that depicted developing feelings between a teenager and an adult in a non grooming way. I was hoping twenty five twenty two would do that too, but it didn't. Thank you to everyone involved in the translation/edition of this. So was 'Sunflower' a real nickname or they just used so we could identify the characters??

The journey is ended after over 10 years. Thank you everyone at Himawari Bookery. I will come to visit everytime :(((

So like even without a kiss or grand confession this the gayest shit imaginable and has been the entire way through.

Bro they are just roommate!!! I know best friends that are like Matsuri and Shiori supposed “couple” and they do have boyfriends, nothing about living with an bestfriend as roommate screams “gayest shit imaginable”

last edited at Oct 30, 2022 11:27PM

Bedtime story every night. Matsuri would love that.

So like even without a kiss or grand confession this the gayest shit imaginable and has been the entire way through.

Bro they are just roommate!!! I know best friends that are like Matsuri and Shiori supposed “couple” and they do have boyfriends, nothing about living with an bestfriend as roommate screams “gayest shit imaginable”

Anecdotes about people you happen to know are not evidence for interpreting this story. There is absolutely nothing in the text of this series that suggests that they will ever get “boyfriends” and a massive amount of textual evidence that suggests they will not.