Well thats a new song to go listen too

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.

I'd quibble with that. Aya still thinks of Misuki as "my crush."

I'm thinking that Aya may be more pan than lesbian or bi.

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

You and me both—I literally envisioned Koga’s “motivation button” that way as soon as I saw the title.

I love that she's getting so comfortable around the other girls. It just makes me happy that she's getting more friends.

“You can’t fool Chizuru”? About Mitsuki? Who is connected with a record store (Chizuru went to), and had an angsty mix-up with Aya about a pair of concert tickets, and has a cool style? Chizuru still seems to be fooled about the two highly-compatible music geeks and their respective crushes.

I wish “fool” had a wider connotation in that closing sentence, considering Chizuru has plenty of clues now. It’d be a clumsy spot for exposition though.

Okay I absolutely love this manga, the art is top tier, the characters are super charming and it just brings me so much joy every time it updates, but I do gotta admit the pacing could use some work. Maybe it is because of the chapter length? It feels a bit stale lately, I just think it is because there haven’t been any new developments between the main two and I don’t mean just romantically but in general. I’d love to see the author explore the relationship between the two mains on a deeper level and how the possibility of Mitsuki moving overseas might affect them. I’d also love to see more of Mitsuki’s thoughts and feelings, I feel like we’ve only been getting Aya’s input lately. But then again, I still really enjoy the series regardless

While someone could force a straight reading onto this like some kind of disgusting hetero

Dude, please. No prejudice here. If you are unable to maintain a polite discussion it ends here.

Hmm Koga having undiagnosed autism as she can only care about her hyper fixations tracks pretty well actually

With regards to the straight vs butch crush thing, one thing I’ll say is that you don’t have to know that person isn’t a man to be attracted to them—often it’s something about the way they move, and act, and inhabit space, that’s sort of instinctually alluring. You can pick up and respond to things about someone’s gender without consciously recognize them.

For example, I have a few strictly lesbian acquaintances IRL who have been really confused and kind of distressed about being attracted to specific men, only for those “men” to later turn out to be trans women. And for my own part, if you show me a picture of a butch, 9 times out of 10 I won’t really feel anything—but if you put us in the same physical space, ho boy do I have a reaction. It’s about the energy, their voice, the way they move and talk—that’s what I respond to.

So it makes total sense to me that Aya is picking up stuff like that from Mitsuki. Consciously she might think, she’s so cool and handsome, what else can she be but a man? But the v i b e s are like “ohhhh wow this person is so attractive.” And then that leaves you with, “I guess I’m just attracted to this one specific man.”

I’m not sure if I’m expressing myself in a way that makes sense, but I hope that gets my point across. I find the premise of Aya’s attraction very plausible. I just wish they’d make some progress…

For example, I have a few strictly lesbian acquaintances IRL who have been really confused and kind of distressed about being attracted to specific men, only for those “men” to later turn out to be trans women.

This seems really common. Basically all the trans lesbians I know irl, if they had relationships before coming out, it was with "straight" or "bi" women who later settled on being lesbians. And quite a few of the lesbians I know have experiences with "guys" who were secretly eggs lol.
I think it's a similar phenomon as a close group of "normal" friends in school where everyone thinks everyone else is straight and then one person comes out of the closet and suddenly "oh wow we were all queers of some sort huh!" It's why I find yuri comics where basically everyone is some sort of gay as more realistic feeling than when it's two queers floating alone in the hostile waters of heterosexuality. It happens, for sure, but it's just less relatable to me compared to the former scenario lol.

Feeling guilty about accepting help, even though it's freely given... yeah, I know that one.

Being loved and cared for when you don’t expect to be loved or cared for is painful too.

Good job!

For example, I have a few strictly lesbian acquaintances IRL who have been really confused and kind of distressed about being attracted to specific men, only for those “men” to later turn out to be trans women.

Back in highschool, I dated an outspoken lesbian who rather bluntly told me that she wanted to date me as an experiment to see if she was bi... She was the first person IRL that I came out to as a transwoman.

We eventually broke up because I was in no mental state to be a relationship (cyclical anxiety and depression is not a fun time) and I was also realizing that I'm ace, so uh... compatibility issues. But we remained really good friends. In hindsight, I really needed an assertive extroverted friend to drag me around to things I wanted to do, but was too afraid or defeatist to do. She knew just how hard to push.

...I lost contact with her after highschool when she shipped out with the national guard. One of the biggest regrets of my life.

Yep. I knew she would do that. It was the logical way to go, given her music memory. Associate equations with music.

Wonder what her playlist is going to be??

Wonder what her playlist is going to be??

I wonder if it'll be full of love songs~

Okay, so I'm guessing that "Song 1" is just the first song but...

Song 4, Babymetal
Song 3, Stone Sour
Song 2, Blur
Song 1, ??? ... is there one? If not someone should make it happen lol

Okay, so I'm guessing that "Song 1" is just the first song but...

Song 4, Babymetal
Song 3, Stone Sour
Song 2, Blur
Song 1, ??? ... is there one? If not someone should make it happen lol

I don't think she is writing down a playlist... I think she had a sudden inspiration to write her own songs and that she was writing the first one. That's why we are seeing her back from the last panel, writing down stuff on paper.

Okay, so I'm guessing that "Song 1" is just the first song but...

Song 4, Babymetal
Song 3, Stone Sour
Song 2, Blur
Song 1, ??? ... is there one? If not someone should make it happen lol

I don't think she is writing down a playlist... I think she had a sudden inspiration to write her own songs and that she was writing the first one. That's why we are seeing her back from the last panel, writing down stuff on paper.

Cool idea, and I actually hope you are right. It would be awesome if she wrote her own songs.

Though I still think that it's a playlist ("These are the songs I want to listen to") - guess we'll have to wait until next week to find out.

Wonder what her playlist is going to be??

I wonder if it'll be full of love songs~

I think math rock would be more appropriate, given the situation.

Wonder what her playlist is going to be??

I wonder if it'll be full of love songs~

I think math rock would be more appropriate, given the situation.

I'm having trouble imagining Koga listening to math rock, but then again, that might be my own bias against it speaking up. I've tried listening to it again and again, but it just sounds over-produced and surface-y. Hard to put into words....like, it sounds like if a genius composer like Stewart Copeland just threw together a tune in an afternoon for an insurance commercial for some quick chump change and a pack of cigs?? Maybe?

For those interested, her POP UP Shop merch is just now available for online sales (and for international fans via Buyee) on PARCO's website. https://online.parco.jp/shop/c/cs028695/

I saw that there wasn't an update today and immediately got worried something happened to Sumiko sensei or the translators OTL spoiled by these weekly uploads for real.
Hope y'all are having a good one, can't wait to be back!

lol, i hope she's studying and not songwriting XD