Well, um. Pity that's over, I could read Morishima Akiko forever, whether there's any plot in particular or not. Sensei and Mari are always interesting, and the main couple are cute and sweet and I'll be honest, I love to look at both of them.

They canceled the... Drama ?

They canceled the... Drama ?

The ol bait and switch. You thought there was going to be drama but NO! Mari is irresistible to Ran, and is also very open with her so everything works out right away, AH-HA!

Ran-sensei has full of drama, she broke up because the Mari’s little sister found out their relationship? Then sulking for something she decided or just playing hard to get thinking that Mari will woo her again. Such a childish way for an adult.

last edited at Sep 3, 2021 3:40AM

Lost track of where I was so I decided to reread it from the start. I was originally gonna restart from Motto but then decided to reread the original first. I'll restart this one tomorrow.

Yeah, finished it now.

Ran-sensei has full of drama, she broke up because the Mari’s little sister found out their relationship? Then sulking for something she decided or just playing hard to get thinking that Mari will woo her again. Such a childish way for an adult.

damn are we reading the same manga??? what childish are you talking about??? you can’t really apply your way of doing relationships unless it’s clearly something objective like toxic parts of their relationship, but what happen here is something else for them to figure out.

h3x posted:

That was some big downgrade. Did previous series and 1 year of dating not happen? Why the first chapter is about "you will surely get a boyfriend" and "but we are both girls"? That was pretty disappointing for first chapter of sequel.

Yae (as usual) is just insecure and jealous of Chitose.

I get that Yae is a worrywart, but Hanjuku Joshi was all about coming to realization liking girls is fine and trusting each other. I'd buy it if Yae was worrying Chitose will be popular with girls, but her worrying she will find a boyfriend, because 2 girls dating won't last, just seems out of character. And to add insult to injury the first thing in the chapter is saying they dated for a year. If after all that happened in prequel and dating for a year Yae is still worrying Chitose will randomly break up with her over some boy she is well aware, Chitose is not attracted to, then their relationship is really weak. I thought their love for each other was stronger than that.

She is going to be in an all boys school after all! And the chapter ended with them declaring that they prefer girl's body and flattering each other.

Don't get me wrong, the whole premise of the chapter and argument at the end was funny. What was bothering me was it felt like it was at the expense of all the development they made previously. In any other manga those cliches wouldn't bother me, but Hanjuku Joshi already dealt with them, and in pretty unique way on top of that, so seeing it doing just what every other yuri manga there is doing felt like a big downgrade to me. Sure they got it over in 1 chapter, but imo it should never happen in the first place as they already get over it in prequel. I kinda feel it is for new readers to quickly establish their characters and thoughts in first chapter without having to read prequel (which is not uncommon practice, but depending on way it is done, I'm not fan of), but in this case for people who read prequel it felt really out of place.

Nezchan posted:

I think what's bugging me about this, to the extent that anything is, is that it's way more fluffy so far than the original. The first Hanjuku Joshi had a lot under the surface about self-discovery, navigating your first serious relationship and, to some degree, grappling with the idea that being a lesbian is okay. So far, this one doesn't seem to have much of any of that.

Hanjuku Joshi was pretty fluffy on its own. And they dealt with a lot of those heavy stuff in prequel so it is understandable it would open on more fluffy note. There are still things to explore, especially since now they dated for long period of time, but again, the way first chapter started gives you worries. Had author run out of idea and will just check all the cliches out of the list or they will try to create a interesting narrative again like in prequel. I wouldn't mind it just being pure fluff as long as character will feel like the same characters I grow to love. I'm hoping the series will pick up it's strengths again in next chapters.

First of all I would say it was in character for Yae to be worried. Also Chitose never pronounced that she "was able to fall so deeply in love because Yae is a woman". Another thing is that Chitose had never much contract to boys, she was her whole life in girls schools and was never in contract with boys as she stated in the Prequel.

Youko is still a shitty person.

Or just a teenager who discovers themself.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. Fuck Youko. You can try to fluff it up as much as you want, but at the end of the day she was two-timing, and stringing along both her partners. Of course, since it's a yuri story, the guy is easily cast aside, even though he did nothing wrong and seemed to be a faithful and caring boyfriend. Pretty shitty storytelling IMO.

I don't think so. It was pretty realistic.
A teenager whose in love with two ppl, which one of them is from the same sex, ofc she's confused and don't know what to do, especially in Japanese society.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. Fuck Youko. You can try to fluff it up as much as you want, but at the end of the day she was two-timing, and stringing along both her partners. Of course, since it's a yuri story, the guy is easily cast aside, even though he did nothing wrong and seemed to be a faithful and caring boyfriend. Pretty shitty storytelling IMO.

I don't think so. It was pretty realistic.
A teenager whose in love with two ppl, which one of them is from the same sex, ofc she's confused and don't know what to do, especially in Japanese society.

You don’t understand—characters are either good or bad. Characters who are ambiguous, ambivalent, or who display mixtures of what appear to be good and bad traits are just bad characters in disguise.

As a rule, stories should avoid ever including bad characters. Sometimes there may be a reason for a story to include a bad character, but in that case the most important thing is that bad characters must shown to be punished, severely, or else readers will be taught that being bad is OK. Which is wrong.

And there is absolutely no excuse for any character of any age to ever be “confused”—all they have to do is read the Dynasty forums to learn exactly what they should and shouldn’t do.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. Fuck Youko. You can try to fluff it up as much as you want, but at the end of the day she was two-timing, and stringing along both her partners. Of course, since it's a yuri story, the guy is easily cast aside, even though he did nothing wrong and seemed to be a faithful and caring boyfriend. Pretty shitty storytelling IMO.

I don't think so. It was pretty realistic.
A teenager whose in love with two ppl, which one of them is from the same sex, ofc she's confused and don't know what to do, especially in Japanese society.

You don’t understand—characters are either good or bad. Characters who are ambiguous, ambivalent, or who display mixtures of what appear to be good and bad traits are just bad characters in disguise.

As a rule, stories should avoid ever including bad characters. Sometimes there may be a reason for a story to include a bad character, but in that case the most important thing is that bad characters must shown to be punished, severely, or else readers will be taught that being bad is OK. Which is wrong.

And there is absolutely no excuse for any character of any age to ever be “confused”—all they have to do is read the Dynasty forums to learn exactly what they should and shouldn’t do.

Well said!
But it's too late for evil Youko to read Dynasty forums :(
She can't be redeemed.

last edited at Jul 31, 2022 10:26AM

h3x posted:

That was some big downgrade. Did previous series and 1 year of dating not happen? Why the first chapter is about "you will surely get a boyfriend" and "but we are both girls"? That was pretty disappointing for first chapter of sequel.

Yae (as usual) is just insecure and jealous of Chitose.

I get that Yae is a worrywart, but Hanjuku Joshi was all about coming to realization liking girls is fine and trusting each other. I'd buy it if Yae was worrying Chitose will be popular with girls, but her worrying she will find a boyfriend, because 2 girls dating won't last, just seems out of character. And to add insult to injury the first thing in the chapter is saying they dated for a year. If after all that happened in prequel and dating for a year Yae is still worrying Chitose will randomly break up with her over some boy she is well aware, Chitose is not attracted to, then their relationship is really weak. I thought their love for each other was stronger than that.

She is going to be in an all boys school after all! And the chapter ended with them declaring that they prefer girl's body and flattering each other.

Don't get me wrong, the whole premise of the chapter and argument at the end was funny. What was bothering me was it felt like it was at the expense of all the development they made previously. In any other manga those cliches wouldn't bother me, but Hanjuku Joshi already dealt with them, and in pretty unique way on top of that, so seeing it doing just what every other yuri manga there is doing felt like a big downgrade to me. Sure they got it over in 1 chapter, but imo it should never happen in the first place as they already get over it in prequel. I kinda feel it is for new readers to quickly establish their characters and thoughts in first chapter without having to read prequel (which is not uncommon practice, but depending on way it is done, I'm not fan of), but in this case for people who read prequel it felt really out of place.

Nezchan posted:

I think what's bugging me about this, to the extent that anything is, is that it's way more fluffy so far than the original. The first Hanjuku Joshi had a lot under the surface about self-discovery, navigating your first serious relationship and, to some degree, grappling with the idea that being a lesbian is okay. So far, this one doesn't seem to have much of any of that.

Hanjuku Joshi was pretty fluffy on its own. And they dealt with a lot of those heavy stuff in prequel so it is understandable it would open on more fluffy note. There are still things to explore, especially since now they dated for long period of time, but again, the way first chapter started gives you worries. Had author run out of idea and will just check all the cliches out of the list or they will try to create a interesting narrative again like in prequel. I wouldn't mind it just being pure fluff as long as character will feel like the same characters I grow to love. I'm hoping the series will pick up it's strengths again in next chapters.

First of all I would say it was in character for Yae to be worried. Also Chitose never pronounced that she "was able to fall so deeply in love because Yae is a woman". Another thing is that Chitose had never much contract to boys, she was her whole life in girls schools and was never in contract with boys as she stated in the Prequel.

you literally IGNORED what everyone said

I said it before, and I'll say it again. Fuck Youko. You can try to fluff it up as much as you want, but at the end of the day she was two-timing, and stringing along both her partners. Of course, since it's a yuri story, the guy is easily cast aside, even though he did nothing wrong and seemed to be a faithful and caring boyfriend. Pretty shitty storytelling IMO.

I don't think so. It was pretty realistic.
A teenager whose in love with two ppl, which one of them is from the same sex, ofc she's confused and don't know what to do, especially in Japanese society.

You don’t understand—characters are either good or bad. Characters who are ambiguous, ambivalent, or who display mixtures of what appear to be good and bad traits are just bad characters in disguise.

As a rule, stories should avoid ever including bad characters. Sometimes there may be a reason for a story to include a bad character, but in that case the most important thing is that bad characters must shown to be punished, severely, or else readers will be taught that being bad is OK. Which is wrong.

And there is absolutely no excuse for any character of any age to ever be “confused”—all they have to do is read the Dynasty forums to learn exactly what they should and shouldn’t do.

i never saw some one DEFENDING cheating and brush it off like it’s nothing with the pathetic excuse of “age” and “confusion” even THO Ayu KNOWS SHE IS TWO TIMING!!! so you really shot yourself in the foot with the attempt of making an excuse for Youko being an shite person, like if Ayu know that is wrong! WAY is Youko being god damn excused when SHE KNOWS she is intentionaly hurting her for her selfish reasons? and has NO REMORSE when she is with her boyfriend!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! AND TO TOP IT OFF! how god damn MANY DAYS of CHEATING does she need to do to figure out??

man your REALLY stretching the pathetic excuse of cheating, Also how long does some one cheat for it to not fall under your excuse of her character? like one time i can excuse of being tooo young to know it in the moment, BUT AFTER? for DAYS?

last edited at Apr 2, 2024 11:28PM

The comments thread here is more dramatic than the manga itself lmao.

I think there's a couple reasons I enjoyed this more than most people seemed to. First, I didn't love the original manga. It's cute and fun, but overall one of Morishima's weaker works imo. So my expectations for the sequel were a lot lower than many other people here's were. I do think it's probably a bit worse than the original overall but not significantly so.

Second, it does a pretty interesting thing where the characters are heavily flawed, but not in a malicious way. Ironically I think if it had been malicious people might have had an easier time connecting with them. But Youko, for example, doesn't hurt her boyfriend or Ayumi because she enjoys seeing them suffer, or even because she's selfish really. She's more thoughtless, and doesn't appear to truly understand how her actions impact other people.

This is actually very in line with her characterization in the first series. Not only did she reject Yae, but she went out of her way to encourage Yae to date boys instead. I think she legitimately didn't understand how doing this hurt Yae enough that Yae cut off contact with her until they coincidentally met again. Similarly, I think she legitimately didn't understand how her two-timing was hurting Ayumi and her boyfriend, not because she's dumb necessarily, but because she's a teenager who has yet to truly internalize that other people are different from her.

And that is, after all, the main theme of this manga titled "soft-boiled girls." All these girls are still immature, even Ran, still learning about other people and relationships and how to live as an adult human being. They make mistakes, sometimes very significant mistakes, because they're all heavily blinkered by their own worldviews and personalities. But at the end of the day, they're able to forgive each other because they love each other. While I can't call any of Morishima's writing "realistic," this is a very real and raw theme that contrasts interestingly with the extremely light and fluffy tone.

I just wish we got more of a sense of why these girls love each other beyond enjoying fucking each other. Oh well. That part has never been Morishima's strong suit, lol.