Seagull: Ashima, the dark-hair sister? She wasn't that bad, considering circumstances. "Terrible personality" is the MC's 'friend', the one the MC was getting away from. Tall glass of utter toxicity there.

Well, like I said, there's levels to it. Ashima's personality is totally understandable given her circumstances, but she does have a tendency to intersocial manipulation; same with Hana from Married My Junior, though Hana truly doesn't do anything wrong. My point though is that you can classify them as "tame" versions of a character archetype that also includes Meiko from World Without Freedom and Hotaru from NTR Trap. The MC's "friend" from Seagull, on the other hand was not depicted as remotely sympathetic so she doesn't belong to this character archetype of Kodama's, she's just a villain.

Honestly i missed Naoko Kodama, so it's a pleasure to see her again for better or worst.

God damn I WANT MORE!!!!

Interesting timing for me, I basically just finished Naoko Kodama's body of work that's been translated into English, barring the one shots. I was happy with most of what, even if the EYES of the two main characters are drawn exactly the same, so you know which woman will be the "morally dubious" one. Just something I picked up on.. Anyway thanks for the translation and I'm looking forward to more!

This is gonna undo all the therapy I had so far

Spicy! Looking forward to see where this goes. My guesses are all over the place.

Not sure what to make of the gynecology exam. "Nothing out of place" and "Phew" suggests everything is okay, but what Gotou says elsewhere suggests she can't have kids. Though maybe that's they haven't been able to have kids and the problem is with the husband, or they're just biologically incompatible.

She's said "I can never be the kind of wife you want me to be", which raises questions. She seems very good at being a docile housewife, unless she's doing that for the MC but not the husband. So what does he want? Maybe she found she hates sex with men?

woooo, go get her gotou-san!

Not sure what to make of the gynecology exam. "Nothing out of place" and "Phew" suggests everything is okay, but what Gotou says elsewhere suggests she can't have kids.

There are tons of possible reasons a woman could be infertile, if thats the case with her.

the only good thing from this author is reading the comments here every so often! i do wander way does the author loves to write garbage humans and NTR so much, the only thing i think is because it’s fiction so/or the author might have an fetish for garbage women.

So her girlfriend of several years dumped her and married a guy right away? I am always quite confused when I read that kind of storyline in a manga, do people in Japan really get married that sudden?

2 main theories:
1) infertility (either gotou or husband) -> nuclear family dream shattered -> fight -> need to freeload coz ain't got no money -> hey this lesbian who crushed on me should be safe right
2) infertility made Gotou realise tradwife is not the path she wants anymore -> yolo -> gae

i do wonder why does the author loves to write garbage humans and NTR so much

Oh, she was DEFINITELY burned by some garbage women in the past. Hates herself for liking them too. Of course liking fucked-up women so much, you start wondering if you're the problem

Love that "fwump" of a lesbian being pushed down by a presumably straight woman. Also (unfortunately), love the juiciness of the self-hating thoughts that come from the tension of being gay in a heteronormative society.

So her girlfriend of several years dumped her and married a guy right away? I am always quite confused when I read that kind of storyline in a manga, do people in Japan really get married that sudden?

This is only a personal anecdote, but when I was living in Japan I knew a woman who suddenly dumped her boyfriend of several years and immediately got married to another man. I was pretty shocked.

2 main theories:
1) infertility (either gotou or husband) -> nuclear family dream shattered -> fight -> need to freeload coz ain't got no money -> hey this lesbian who crushed on me should be safe right
2) infertility made Gotou realise tradwife is not the path she wants anymore -> yolo -> gae

i do wonder why does the author loves to write garbage humans and NTR so much

Oh, she was DEFINITELY burned by some garbage women in the past. Hates herself for liking them too. Of course liking fucked-up women so much, you start wondering if you're the problem

Psychoanalyzing the author is kinda iffy behavior, Kodama herself in her volume end notes has written about why she loves writing complex troubled and trouble making women. You don't need to guess it's about some secret dark past, and I have no idea where this present tense self loathing is supposed to be. Especially in this current manga, which is pretty explicitly political. If she's loathing anything here it's her government, not herself lol.

People gotta let go of their preconceptions about the author. This manga is significantly different -- and imo better -- than any of her previous serializations. I'm really enjoying it so far and I highly encourage even people who dislike Kodama Naoko's previous work to give it a chance.

Seagull Villa is personally in my top five greatest of all time yuri manga list, so it's gonna take a bit more than two good chapters for this to dethrone it. But what we've seen so far from those two chapters has indeed been very promising. Let's hope this one eventually also has gay moms raising a kid because I love that kind of thing lol. Given the political nature of the manga premise and the fact that gay adoption and IVF are even further restricted over gay marriage in Japan, there's very good odds it'll come up, too.

last edited at Dec 31, 2023 9:01AM

So far, I'm liking the pace.

I'm sorry that last page has me rolling on the floor. Obviously it's meant to be dramatic, but the imagery is so straightforward that it's transformed into being funny.

Still, excellent chapter. The first chapter hooked me, I've been looking forward to this all month and it delivered.

Lez goooo

So her girlfriend of several years dumped her and married a guy right away? I am always quite confused when I read that kind of storyline in a manga, do people in Japan really get married that sudden?

There's also weird cultural issues around lesbianism that might relate. It's looked on as not a 'real' relationship, too

2 main theories:
1) infertility (either gotou or husband) -> nuclear family dream shattered -> fight -> need to freeload coz ain't got no money -> hey this lesbian who crushed on me should be safe right
2) infertility made Gotou realise tradwife is not the path she wants anymore -> yolo -> gae

i do wonder why does the author loves to write garbage humans and NTR so much

Oh, she was DEFINITELY burned by some garbage women in the past. Hates herself for liking them too. Of course liking fucked-up women so much, you start wondering if you're the problem

I have no idea where this present tense self loathing is supposed to be. Especially in this current manga, which is pretty explicitly political. If she's loathing anything here it's her government, not herself lol.

Political is the personal, Gabi. I suspect we may be talking about the same thing.

People gotta let go of their preconceptions about the author. This manga is significantly different -- and imo better -- than any of her previous serializations. I'm really enjoying it so far and I highly encourage even people who dislike Kodama Naoko's previous work to give it a chance.

Agreed, so far this is really compelling, and so much more grounded than anything else I've read from her so far, besides maybe the marrying my female best friend manga.

I read in someone's blog that the cliffhanger in the final page of this chapter is the first in a series of cliffhangers that will end every chapter from now on. One chapter's end will make you anguished, another will make you furious, another will make you pull your hair in exasperation, and so on and so forth.
I was wondering cause I can't remember, is it something Kodama likes to do a lot?

So her girlfriend of several years dumped her and married a guy right away? I am always quite confused when I read that kind of storyline in a manga, do people in Japan really get married that sudden?

It's hard to explain properly without touching up on the culture in places with a lot of influences from East Asian cultures. There's a lot of implied expectation for people to get married and have kids; "fulfill your filial piety".
The way marriage is seen is less of a "two people in love getting tied" and is more "two families becoming intertwined" sort of thing. So for some people, going along with the family's decision OR deciding for themselves that this other person is better for various reasons that may either involve the family that they are about to build or their relatives is a higher priority than picking the partner you already have/had.

I mean, those "marriage interviews" (I don't know if that's the right English term for it) are still very common and, unless you're using a matchmaking service, families tend to look for people that they either already have some sort of connection to or people who will bring better connections/opportunities for their family or their would be descendants.
Not saying that there's anything inherently right or wrong with the system, just that there are people who prefer to go along with that instead of going through the trouble of finding a partner themselves not knowing if things would even work out.
It's a whole thing really. It works for some and doesn't for others. Usually, the people involved pretty much decide very early on in those talks if they will get married or not.

I read in someone's blog that the cliffhanger in the final page of this chapter is the first in a series of cliffhangers that will end every chapter from now on. One chapter's end will make you anguished, another will make you furious, another will make you pull your hair in exasperation, and so on and so forth.

Ah, yes. The good ol' Kodama Naoko experience.

I’ve read most of Kodama’s work and this one seems to be quite mature so far. It seems the MCs, even the designated bitch, are not shitty people just for fun, they actually have real problems at hand that may cause them to do bad things (cheating ofc) in the next chapters.

Just hoping it's not "I'm infertile so it doesn't matter who I fall in love with" or something weird like that