I think this manga's progression is suffering from its success.

She had to add the "angst about the future" arc to prolong the story, because since she has a hit on her hands, she wants to keep it going as long as she can, which is understandable.

When you have nearly a million followers on twitter for just ONE series, you don't want to conclude it just yet, because there's no guarantee the next series will have the same success and she'll fall back in anonymity.

This is her blessing, but also her curse.

I find it funny that people read chapters like this and complain "it's too short, this isn't a gag manga."
It ... basically is.
People seem to want the manga to spell everything out to them, but that's not the vibe of this story, it's more of a feeling and some kind of (emotional or funny) punchline.

That's maybe where people are getting so hung up on the romance of it all, too. This is not some linear progression of a relationship, it's basically a series of snapshots of their lives.

It's interesting me to me that there are debates with the relationship of the two main characters, when a few side images very well near the start fairly strongly suggested that it's a given they got together.

I get it, for those that want to see some serious development with the relationship, but there's more to an actual relationship than leaping from point A to point Z. Plus, plenty of other stories have a lot of these moments too. It's just that these are more seemingly accentuated due to the smaller uploads.

I don't want to redo an argument I already had in this thread dozens of pages ago, but in that interview Arai basically said the Japanese equivalent of "I don't write yuri, I write wlw." This was then taken out of context by people who hyper-focused on the one word without knowing the history and implications the term 'yuri' has in Japanese that it doesn't in English. Regardless, Arai's Twitter profile literally says "I like love between women," and everything that she has ever written without exception contains explicitly sapphic protagonists. I don't think it's hard to guess where this comic will end up.

Also, I don't understand what you mean by "sexually confusing friendship." Like, if a man and a woman have a "sexually confusing friendship," we just call that "sexual tension." I don't see the utility in yuri fans holding a F/F relationship to such a higher standard than a het relationship before we accept it as legitimate.

Have you ever looked up a trope called "stupid sexy Flanders"? Basically, it's a thing, usually in comedy, where a character feels inexplicably attracted to someone outside of their normal orientation. These relationships don't usually end up going anywhere, even when played serious. The name comes from a scene in the Simpsons where Homer Simpson is bothered by his strange sexual attraction to Ned Flanders

While I don't, personally, think Aya and Mitsuki are straight, I was mostly pointing out why it is not unreasonable for people to feel like this story wasn't going down the yuri route if they don't know the author's previous career. Stories have done the "straight the whole time" thing before

Predictive lamenting is a hell of a drug.

Have you ever looked up a trope called "stupid sexy Flanders"? Basically, it's a thing, usually in comedy, where a character feels inexplicably attracted to someone outside of their normal orientation. These relationships don't usually end up going anywhere, even when played serious. The name comes from a scene in the Simpsons where Homer Simpson is bothered by his strange sexual attraction to Ned Flanders

While I don't, personally, think Aya and Mitsuki are straight, I was mostly pointing out why it is not unreasonable for people to feel like this story wasn't going down the yuri route if they don't know the author's previous career. Stories have done the "straight the whole time" thing before

Except we have zero indication that either Mitsuki or Aya is straight, unlike say Homer who is married to a woman. The sole male character (aside from Mitsuki's uncle) is never presented as a romantic option and in fact supports the yuri ship. Furthermore, them being attracted to each other is not a one-off joke like the "Stupid Sexy Flanders" scene but is a consistent theme running through the whole manga.

I understand that a lot of yuri fans feel a certain paranoia; there's often this constant fear that the characters will be revealed as "just friends" and "actually straight all along" unless there's some sort of extremely obviously explicit indication otherwise. We even saw this with G-Witch, another show people often accused of being "subtext" and "bait" despite Suletta and Miorine getting literally, non-metaphorically engaged to be married in episode 1. While I don't think this fear is grounded in reality -- the last time this happened was, what, Amanchu over 6 years ago? -- and often causes people to dismiss slow burns and ambiguous feelings as valid ways to depict sapphic relationships at all, I recognize that it's coming from a place of real pain. But that doesn't excuse this website from using the subtext tag when they should very well know Arai Sumiko's history.

Like if her English is so good how is her world history so bad?

I would assume her English is so good because of all the music she listens to, which has little to do with learning history.

No Yuri tag anymore huh? .....
That's.... Insane if anyone reads this to think is not..........

I think the Subtext tag over Yuri is much more appropriate, because putting aside guessing and wishful thinking, there's no evidence that says it is. In fact, there's more that prove otherwise.

Nothing says that Aya like girls. She had a crush on Mitsuki long before she learned that Mitsuki was a girl, so Aya clearly is attracted to the male form. When she found out, she felt betrayed, even though she didn't knew the reason of the deception. That's because she was interested in a romantic relationship, yet, the fact alone that Mitsuki was a girl was a deal breaker. Whenever someone thinks that Mitsuki is her boyfriend, she dismisses simply by saying that its a girl, because that alone is enough.

"Oh, but the blushing!". The fact that Aya knows that Mitsuki is a girl, doesn't change that she still looks like a hot guy. Her brain knows that she is a girl, but her eyes see a hot guy. It's like watching a horror movie. We know its fake, but our eyes see otherwise, so we feel afraid anyway.

About Mitsuki... we have no idea what she's into. No posters nor magazines or anything that indicates what she is attracted to. The times that she looks hot are completely unintentional, she's not trying to seduce anyone.

Romance ended the moment Aya found out that Mitsuki is a girl. Now its a story about two girls bonding over music.

The amount of explicit sapphic pining and implicit queerness seems to qualify what’s going on between them as “text” more than anything. If you’re going to call what has been shown to be Aya’s conscious attraction to Mitsuki’s butch masculinity “straight” or “confused”, I genuinely don’t know what to tell you.

last edited at Oct 24, 2023 12:21AM

I think this manga's progression is suffering from its success.

She had to add the "angst about the future" arc to prolong the story, because since she has a hit on her hands, she wants to keep it going as long as she can, which is understandable.

When you have nearly a million followers on twitter for just ONE series, you don't want to conclude it just yet, because there's no guarantee the next series will have the same success and she'll fall back in anonymity.

This is her blessing, but also her curse.

I get that it's pretty normal to speculate about the motivation of the author in various circumstances, but sometimes I feel like people are way too keen to jump to "This work takes a creative decision I wouldn't have taken, therefore it must be the case that the author was motivated by some external pressure, because clearly someone who made a thing that I started to like wouldn't go on to make a thing that I like less, unless there were some such pressure."

A series can't just have a disappointing ending, it was "rushed" because it was "axed". An author can't just be lingering on a storyline because it's interesting to them or because it's the story they want to tell, they're "prolonging the story" because "they're afraid of falling into anonymity" Like, maybe the author just has different taste than you do? It's one thing if there's some kind of indication that they're unsatisfied with the work, but with something like this, you're basically just writing fanfiction about the author's motivations.

last edited at Oct 24, 2023 12:06AM

"Oh, but the blushing!". The fact that Aya knows that Mitsuki is a girl, doesn't change that she still looks like a hot guy. Her brain knows that she is a girl, but her eyes see a hot guy. It's like watching a horror movie. We know its fake, but our eyes see otherwise, so we feel afraid anyway.

Once you start pulling out the "being attracted to a girl doesn't make you not straight as long as that girl is kinda androgynous" take, I think that's a sign that it isn't subtext after all. Everything else you describe is standard romantic tropes (a misunderstanding leads to a feeling of betrayal and estrangement before a dramatic gesture reconciles the leads; the tsundere character insists that the other lead is "not by boy/girlfriend").

About Mitsuki... we have no idea what she's into. No posters nor magazines or anything that indicates what she is attracted to. The times that she looks hot are completely unintentional, she's not trying to seduce anyone.

Mitsuki deliberately flirts with Aya in chapter three.

I just realize that without the glasses she is a chick magnet.

This is her blessing, but also her curse.

I heard this as the quote from the gloriously crappy adventures of cuthbert and dante.

From what I remember, Chizuru nor Mao have seeing Koga in her "outside mode" right? So unless they do a group study in school (dk, a library or so), this could be a chance to that to happen~~ Interesting

last edited at Oct 24, 2023 10:44PM

"Aya is straight because she misunderstood Koga for a guy" is a hilarious take. She has literally the exact same discovery of her sexuality as the "shelter girl" from "Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl": "Oh I've never been attracted to a single guy my whole life, never even found them remotely interesting, but oh! There's this one specific guy I like, I finally found my type I guess! ... Oh my type is 'butch woman' and I am a homosexual. I get it now."

It frankly feels both incredibly rude to butch women to say other women liking them are just straight, and rude to Aya to assume she's too stupid to know what she likes. Remember when Koga came out to her at the school festival, just to say "let's be friends" and Aya was clearly crestfallen because that's not what she was hoping to hear? Despite knowing for quite a while who Koga was?

Yes, we have the Yuri tag back. Many thanks to the admins/mods.

It frankly feels both incredibly rude to butch women to say other women liking them are just straight

And I agree with you, butch women and men are different things. But Aya didn't think that Mitsuki were a butch woman. She thought she was a man. When she realized that she is a girl she stopped considering a relationship, nothing changed about Mitsuki appearance or behavior. CH62 and Aya still deny she being her boyfriend to others by saying that she is a girl to people that thinks that Mitsuki is man. Mistake that she did, and many others do too.

and rude to Aya to assume she's too stupid to know what she likes.

I make no assumptions, I analise the story and create arguments based on evidence the story provides. Also, is not possible to be rude to a fictional character.

Please, don't call people rude. That's not an argument. Attack the argument not the person.

last edited at Oct 25, 2023 3:44PM

And I agree with you, butch women and men are different things. But Aya didn't think that Mitsuki were a butch woman. She thought she was a man. When she realized that she is a girl she stopped considering a relationship, nothing changed about Mitsuki appearance or behavior.

Well, in one sense it's true that Aya stopped considering a relationship because she hasn't come to terms with her sexuality. But I think it's absurd to suggest she's no longer attracted to Mitsuki. She constantly blushes and gets flustered around her, in practically every chapter. She got extremely jealous and insecure when Kanna showed up, and is visibly relieved after being told Kanna isn't Mitsuki's ex. She hesitates to call Mitsuki a "friend". And this isn't even mentioning the flash-forward where they're living together. I could go on, but you get the idea. She may not explicitly think to herself "I'm in love with Mitsuki," but there's every indication that she is in love, and almost no indication that her feelings are just platonic.

CH62 and Aya still deny she being her boyfriend to others by saying that she is a girl to people that thinks that Mitsuki is man. Mistake that she did, and many others do too.

"Someone tells the two leads they look like a couple and the leads loudly deny it while blushing" is one of the most common romcom cliches there is. If anything, it's further evidence that their relationship is romantic.

When she realized that she is a girl she stopped considering a relationship, nothing changed about Mitsuki appearance or behavior.

Uhhhh when exactly did this happen?? I'm pretty sure it did not happen lol. Aya got mad at Koga for a while for sharing her secret with that guy and not her, but there's zero indication she ever dropped a romantic interest in Koga, because Aya was not attracted to some conceptual fake "male form" she imagined, she was and is attracted to Koga, who remains the same sexy butch she's always been.

By the way, it's worth remembering there's absolutely nothing particularly masculine about the reasons Aya was first attracted to Koga:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_guy_she_was_interested_in_wasnt_a_guy_at_all_ch01#2

last edited at Oct 25, 2023 10:46PM

she really do know the wae to her crush's heart, well through her music playlist it is. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I just can't read the words "motivation button" without remembering this. :D

Aya got mad at Koga for a while for sharing her secret with that guy and not her

No. She got mad at Mitsuki because she found the playlist she sent to "Onii-san" on her phone. However, she thought it wasn't worth getting mad at that because she found someone who shared her passion for music. She found other reasons to be close to Mitsuki.

By the way, it's worth remembering there's absolutely nothing particularly masculine about the reasons Aya was first attracted to Koga

Don't really matter why she was attracted. She was attracted from the very beginning, even before exchanging a single word with "him", while she thought she was a guy.

The song in question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmXOyJTnsbE

Aya got mad at Koga for a while for sharing her secret with that guy and not her

No. She got mad at Mitsuki because she found the playlist she sent to "Onii-san" on her phone. However, she thought it wasn't worth getting mad at that because she found someone who shared her passion for music. She found other reasons to be close to Mitsuki.

You're definitely misremembering lol. Finding the playlist is what confirmed to Aya that Mitsuki was the record shop clerk she'd been talking to, but she had suspicions building up to that point where she noticed similarities, specifically features Mitsuki has that she found attractive about "onii-san", such as in chapters 14 and 17. She discovered the playlist in chapter 18 and is overwhelmed by the revelation, but is back to smiling at Mitsuki being really cool for her in chapter 19. She's only mad after she overhears Mitsuki and that guy talking specifically about this secret in chapter 21, thinking "why can you tell it to that guy and not me?"

While someone could force a straight reading onto this like some kind of disgusting hetero, that doesn't mean anyone else has to go along with it and treat that reading as valid, lol. Especially not when the continuing story has made it clear Aya still likes her, the extras showing they'll eventually be together in the future, and the artist's twitter media tab being 100% sapphic content.