It's not "VS".

It's a X, meaning it's a ship.

Aya's the perceptive one, ie, she can read the mood.
Mitsuki's the oblivious one, who can't read the mood.

My interpretation of this chapter is that Aya looked at the relationship of Joe and Kanna, thought it was nice they could talk so freely and made a parallel with her own relationship with "Onii-san", obviously wishing it would be the same.

And she blurted it out to Mitsuki, forgetting for a moment that Mitsuki=Onii-san. When she realized, she ran away, but it flew over Mitsuki's head completely.

last edited at Feb 18, 2024 2:58PM

It's not "VS".

It's a X, meaning it's a ship.

Aya's the perceptive one, ie, she can read the mood.
Mitsuki's the oblivious one, who can't read the mood.

My interpretation of this chapter is that Aya looked at the relationship of Joe and Kanna, thought it was nice they could talk so freely and made a parallel with her own relationship with "Onii-san", obviously wishing it would be the same.

And she blurted it out to Mitsuki, forgetting for a moment that Mitsuki=Onii-san. When she realized, she ran away, but it flew over Mitsuki's head completely.

Yes, that's pretty much my take as well.

It's not "VS".

It's a X, meaning it's a ship.

Aya's the perceptive one, ie, she can read the mood.
Mitsuki's the oblivious one, who can't read the mood.

My interpretation of this chapter is that Aya looked at the relationship of Joe and Kanna, thought it was nice they could talk so freely and made a parallel with her own relationship with "Onii-san", obviously wishing it would be the same.

And she blurted it out to Mitsuki, forgetting for a moment that Mitsuki=Onii-san. When she realized, she ran away, but it flew over Mitsuki's head completely.

This. The only thing I would add is that Joe and Kanna are not just talking so freely but being obviously intimate and at ease. Kanna can flirt with Joe without feeling self-conscious. Whereas Aya often struggles to look at Mitsuki without feeling self-conscious.

It's not "VS".

It's a X, meaning it's a ship.

Aya's the perceptive one, ie, she can read the mood.
Mitsuki's the oblivious one, who can't read the mood.

My interpretation of this chapter is that Aya looked at the relationship of Joe and Kanna, thought it was nice they could talk so freely and made a parallel with her own relationship with "Onii-san", obviously wishing it would be the same.

And she blurted it out to Mitsuki, forgetting for a moment that Mitsuki=Onii-san. When she realized, she ran away, but it flew over Mitsuki's head completely.

This. The only thing I would add is that Joe and Kanna are not just talking so freely but being obviously intimate and at ease. Kanna can flirt with Joe without feeling self-conscious. Whereas Aya often struggles to look at Mitsuki without feeling self-conscious.

The perks of being an adult who had a decade or more to figure out her feelings and relationships. Aya will get there, too, I believe in her.

you guys are amazing. thx!

I am once again asking you to just fucking confess.

I don't even think Aya forgot Mitsuki was "onii-san," she just got embarrassed and self conscious using that name for the first time in a long time due to all the baggage it comes with (Aya's feeling stupid for not recognizing Mitiski, guilt at misgendering her, embarrassment at realizing she was gushing to her friends about someone who was sitting right there the whole time, etc).
I would be thrilled if this leads to a real conversion about gender between them, actually. Mitsuki is clearly very butch at minimum, but how does she feel about identifying as a woman in general? I'd love to know.

last edited at Feb 19, 2024 7:45PM

I would be thrilled if this leads to a real conversion about gender between them, actually. Mitsuki is clearly very butch at minimum, but how does she feel about identifying as a woman in general? I'd love to know.

I think it'a less that she's butch and more that she is somewhat oblivious to social expectations and just finds a more masculine style of clothing comfortable without thinking too deeply about it. I don't think she has ever had any noticable objection to dressing feminine beyond "oh, yeah, I don't have very many skirts, do I...? It probably wouldn't look good on me anyways."

I would be thrilled if this leads to a real conversion about gender between them, actually. Mitsuki is clearly very butch at minimum, but how does she feel about identifying as a woman in general? I'd love to know.

I think it'a less that she's butch and more that she is somewhat oblivious to social expectations and just finds a more masculine style of clothing comfortable without thinking too deeply about it. I don't think she has ever had any noticable objection to dressing feminine beyond "oh, yeah, I don't have very many skirts, do I...? It probably wouldn't look good on me anyways."

In her character bio (chapter 9.1) Mitsuki swears to never again wear a skirt once she graduates high school and can thus leave her uniform behind. In the flashback to her childhood in Rhythm B when a friend tries to get her to wear a skirt, her immediate reaction is "urgh...", trying to deflect, and then outright refusing when the friend doesn't let up. She thinks about how she doesn't have any skirts and doesn't want any. She absolutely has a deliberate concept of what she feels comfortable in and how she wants to present to the world, she's not accidentally dressing boyish because that's what happened to be in the closet lol.
This doesn't necessarily mean she's trans or anything of course, but combining that style of personal presentation with being a gay woman = butch, that's just basic math :P

I feel like her style is more "punk girl" than boyish personally. I never got the impression that she was making an effort to look like a boy, just that she thought a sort of cool/baggy look suited her better. If that means butch to you, okay, but I feel like there's a fine distinction to be found there

She's not specifically "trying to look like a boy," and yet her fashion choices matter far more to her than merely what she thinks looks good on her. Go back and read Rhythm B. Her clothing is tied into her identity. She does not think "I won't dress in an unflattering way," she thinks "I won't lie to myself". Hey perspective is a fundamentally queer one, not simply one about what clothes she thinks looks best. If it was just that then she'd be open to trying out other things even if just once, like her former friend wanted her to. If it was just that she wouldn't have "swore to never wear a skirt again after high school" as one of her defining features in her bio.

After rereading Rhythm B, at the very least we can say Koga dislikes skirts (maybe femine clothing in general but it's not clear), doesn't have a strong instinct to "go along to get along," and is somewhat uncaring of the potential social fallout of her decisions. I don't know if I'd say she thinks of it as part of her identity, though she does acknowledge that it makes her "different." It still feels to me that it's less of a conscious effort and more that she doesn't like to compromise on what makes her feel comfortable

It still feels to me that it's less of a conscious effort and more that she doesn't like to compromise on what makes her feel comfortable

Lol what is this distinction supposed to be? She's conscious of how she best feels presenting herself, is conscious of the pressure to conform, and is consciously making a choice to refuse that pressure. Obviously it's all conscious, she's gone to the effort of getting all those piercings, even a tattoo (something very rare in Japan), and her outfits are clearly well thought out. It's not like she's just laying around in sweats and t shirts. She's not just avoiding stuff she doesn't like, like skirts, but actively pursuing the stuff she does, the stuff that lead to Aya first reading her as an "onii-san".

Pop Store Up online is up, 6 hours passed already and it's out of stock hahaha glad is going well but omg that this is intense hahaha

I'm not sure I understand the conversation on the last page of the latest chapter.

Why is Aya-chan suddenly trying to bug out? Are her remarks just meant to say something like "I find you much more intimidating to talk to in your punk appearance"?

Mitsuki's clothing choices so far seem tied to cool music (specifically, middle-aged geezer music) being her life, similarly to her uncle. Andro clothes are cool, black color is cool, rings and piercings are cool, uncle's tattoos are cool, etc. The bio also states that "she's just a girl who loves music".

Aya's feeling stupid for not recognizing Mitiski, guilt at misgendering her, embarrassment at realizing she was gushing to her friends about someone who was sitting right there the whole time, etc

It's on Mitsuki for not clearing up the misunderstanding in time (she wanted to but didn't due to the fear of standing out in any way at school and accidental flirting) and then intentionally pretending to be onii-san because Aya became her music friend and Mitsuki's self-worth was too low to consider somebody wanting to be friends with a "gloomy loner" like her. Aya got angry with her for that.

Everybody else also reads Mitsuki's masked andro look as male (probably due to some cultural expectation that girls will be cute and wear girly stuff, and not being able to go by her face), so she wouldn't feel stupid for it (she has to correct her family on that, too). And while she noticed similarities between Mitsuki and onii-san after interacting with both, she "knew" they're different people and by then Mitsuki was actively hiding they're the same person (you usually don't go suspecting your classmates of leading a double life).

If she's not embarrassed over the explicit issue of talking about her oshi to her oshi, the earlier thoughts about couples and acting like a girlfriend may have thrown her back to confused gay panic whenever Mitsuki is being handsome.

It's nice to see Mitsuki finally questioning her relationship with Aya. It's frustrating to only have 4 pages everytime but well, let's see where it leads!

Attention attention, this is not a drill! Mitsuki's having her first lesbian moment of "ugh why does she have to like "guy" me, why can't she like girl me instead"!

Aaah!

clutching my heart!

Agreed that this seems to constitute a rather shocking level of self-insight for our shy, androgynously charismatic little stud-muffin.

“You’re being nice to me” isn’t quite as on-point as “you like me” would have been, but—baby steps.

Yeah, this does feel like a pretty significant moment, one that can't NOT trigger an important discussion between these two about the very nature of their relationship. I'm real curious to see how the author will handle this, especially with the 4-5 page format.

The love triangle no one expected

This looks like Takemiya but I don't remember this. Where is it from?

last edited at Feb 25, 2024 11:26AM

Btw, while the second volume is supposed to be released on the 27th, it was already being sold everywhere this weekend in Japan, so I got my copy. A few new colored pages this time but no new chapter, I was a bit disappointed. But overall the same attention to detail as in the first volume, this is a really nice paper edition!