As episode 5/6 approach, which should cover volume 3, I want to mention the name of Yori's "love song", Sunny Spot.

At first blush, it reminded me of the OP of the yuri visual novel Hakuisei Aijou Izonshou (Nurse Love Addiction), Sunny Place. Would recommend, by the way.

Then my pun senses started to tingle. What's "sunny spot" in Japanese? Hidamari, like in Hidamari Sketch. You can probably see where this is going. While we never see Himari's name rendered in kanji (I don't have all the raws so I can't say for sure though), but the hi could be read as 日 meaning "day, or sun, or sunshine".

Again, I don't have the raws, so I don't know if in the original manga Yori used the english "Sunny Spot" or the Japanese "Hidamari". "Sunny Spot" could maybe pass off as a sneaky Himari pun, but if Yori used "Hidamari", she might as well have been beating Himari over the head with a giant pink dildo from how obvious it is. EDIT: the anime used the english "Sunny Spot".

It goes without saying that they have to nail that song.

last edited at May 11, 2024 2:25PM

EP5 was GREAT! It captivated me throughout the whole thing, the animations were good 99% of the time too, my only complaint would be at the scene where YoriHima are walking back together, specifically the parts where they are actually walking and not standing still. But I seriously didn't mind it at all compared to EP3.

I also thought they adapted this episode differently than the rest, where we have a couple of completely original scenes, it's great as a manga reader since you may see something entirely new. They also removed some things just like the other episodes until now - such as Aki's small dialogue at the start as she is leaving the room; she doesn't tell Himari to keep it a secret, or the Momoka scene after she "meets" Yori for the first time, she doesn't talk about how she recognizes Yori, etc.

The SSGIRLS scene with Himari was just too adorable, I was smiling the whole way through, talk about some inner healing for me. But I disliked how they adapted the part where Himari grabbed onto her own chest, I wish her expression was more like in the manga. The still images of AkiYori in that scene also disappointed me a bit, one of them is among my favorite pages in the whole manga (the first one) - Yori looks so handsome, but in the anime, I didn't find her as beautiful. I actually thought Aki was the handsome one in that frame, attaching images for comparison's sake.

This is the manga drawing I was talking about, in regards to being one of my favorites. Look at how handsome Yori looks in it, and Aki in the anime.

I think it's the eyes in the manga, it delivers a harsher feeling IMO. Plus, you can see her hand on her chest still.

BUT! It's alright. The voice acting, the colors, the background imagery, the animation, THE BACKGROUND MUSIC! I don't see people talking about the BGM at all. I loved it in that AkiYori scene above, and other tracks are so cute as well. The track that plays when YoriHima are walking back, or the track that starts playing when Aki is introducing Himari to the SSGIRLS, or when Shiho is describing the SSGIRLS at the end, or when Himari tells Yori that they can go together to the date, and, and... it's all perfect. I really hope they release those tracks later on.

And I'm already getting used to Shiho's voice, too. Anyway, it's already starting to get too long and I could seriously talk even more about this EP. I'm completely normal about it and I can't WAIT for the next one!

https://imgur.com/a/q1YTPNn Chapter 49 raws

At first I was like "OH YEAH MIKI-CHAN AND WIND CLUB SENPAI"

Then I was like "BEST GIRL YORI... BUT THIS ISN'T HER CHAPTER"

Then I was like "YURITIME! BIG CONFESSION!"

Then I was like "Uh-oh... aren't the other girls jumping the gun, bursting in before Miki gave her real reply?"

Then I was like "AAAAHHHHHH MORE DRAMA!!!"

Then I was like "AYO? IS MIKI IN LOVE WITH SHIHO???? NAHHH IS SHE GENUINELY A SISCON LIKE WE ALL SUSPECTED????"

Anyways... YagaKimi may have been finely engineered/crafted, introspective, even subversive... but I don't think it really made my simple monkey brain as happy as YoriHima does.

last edited at May 18, 2024 9:53PM

Time for some incest

Anyways... YagaKimi may have been finely engineered/crafted, introspective, even subversive... but I don't think it really made my simple monkey brain as happy as YoriHima does.

If I think of these characters not as imaginary human beings with plausible psychologies in a more-or-less realistic storyworld but more like counters in a game of love/friendship/heartbreak and confess/accept/reject, it becomes a lot more fun.

Like, "Ooh! They just played the siscon/incest card! Let's go!"

I kinda groaned at the developments in the new chapter because ONCE AGAIN Aki is at the center of the new drama (can someone give her a break lol), but as long as it doesn't drag on as long as the previous arc, I can roll with this being a fun lil side arc.

last edited at May 20, 2024 4:59PM

I kinda groaned at the developments in the new chapter because ONCE AGAIN Aki is at the center of the new drama (can someone give her a break lol), but as long as it doesn't drag on as long as the previous arc, I can roll with this being a fun lil side arc.

I'll wait and see. It's an ambiguous ending, so there's not much to worry about or speculate about until the next chapter clarifies the direction. But if it does turn out as you say, I'll agree unless the execution makes up for it.

last edited at May 20, 2024 12:17PM

Anyways... YagaKimi may have been finely engineered/crafted, introspective, even subversive... but I don't think it really made my simple monkey brain as happy as YoriHima does.

If I think of these characters not as imaginary human beings with plausible psychologies in a more-or-less realistic storyworld but more like counters in a game of love/friendship/heartbreak and confess/accept/reject, it becomes a lot more fun.

Like, "Ooh! They just played the siscon/incest card! Let's go!"

I thought about this yesterday. They clearly aren't real or realistic people (I considered using the term "hyperreal" because I want to call them "better than real" but I don't think the definition of that properly fits this situation), they're basically cartoon characters, and not in the whole "anime ARE just cartoons anyway" sense, but more that they're ludicrously caricatured characters. More akin to building blocks (like Legos) of behaviors and tropes. If you've spent too much time on TVTropes like me, you'll know "Tropes Are Tools" and that you can kind of see tropes everywhere. But with a series like this, it's more opaque and obvious.

Anyways... YagaKimi may have been finely engineered/crafted, introspective, even subversive... but I don't think it really made my simple monkey brain as happy as YoriHima does.

If I think of these characters not as imaginary human beings with plausible psychologies in a more-or-less realistic storyworld but more like counters in a game of love/friendship/heartbreak and confess/accept/reject, it becomes a lot more fun.

Like, "Ooh! They just played the siscon/incest card! Let's go!"

I thought about this yesterday. They clearly aren't real or realistic people (I considered using the term "hyperreal" because I want to call them "better than real" but I don't think the definition of that properly fits this situation), they're basically cartoon characters, and not in the whole "anime ARE just cartoons anyway" sense, but more that they're ludicrously caricatured characters. More akin to building blocks (like Legos) of behaviors and tropes. If you've spent too much time on TVTropes like me, you'll know "Tropes Are Tools" and that you can kind of see tropes everywhere. But with a series like this, it's more opaque and obvious.

I think everyone spends too much time on TVtropes nowadays. Not really a fan of that site or others like it.

last edited at May 20, 2024 1:18PM

Anyways... YagaKimi may have been finely engineered/crafted, introspective, even subversive... but I don't think it really made my simple monkey brain as happy as YoriHima does.

If I think of these characters not as imaginary human beings with plausible psychologies in a more-or-less realistic storyworld but more like counters in a game of love/friendship/heartbreak and confess/accept/reject, it becomes a lot more fun.

Like, "Ooh! They just played the siscon/incest card! Let's go!"

I thought about this yesterday. They clearly aren't real or realistic people (I considered using the term "hyperreal" because I want to call them "better than real" but I don't think the definition of that properly fits this situation), they're basically cartoon characters, and not in the whole "anime ARE just cartoons anyway" sense, but more that they're ludicrously caricatured characters. More akin to building blocks (like Legos) of behaviors and tropes. If you've spent too much time on TVTropes like me, you'll know "Tropes Are Tools" and that you can kind of see tropes everywhere. But with a series like this, it's more opaque and obvious.

I think everyone spends too much time on TVtropes nowadays. Not really a fan of that site or others like it.

TVtropes isn't a good website IMO. There's various problems with it. Even just on the surface it makes people view most everything as it's tropes and nothing more, a very cynical outlook where they seek to rip something into pieces while viewing it in the most reductionist manner possible.

Also I've seen people criticize YagiKami, saying it had weird elements, and so fourth. So I don't think it's this black and white situation where Whispering is just trashy junkfood and YagiKami is this god like flawless piece of media. I don't know, just seems too cynical and putting one thing on a pedestal out of favoritism for me. As I've said on some YagiKami art where this was brought up, I might enjoy Whispering a little more but I enjoy both series and I rather not make it into some comparison game myself. I genuinely enjoy this manga for what it is, and I also enjoy YagiKami for what it is.

Edit: That said though, we'll see how the future of the manga goes. I'm not a fan of the siscon spoiler element people are mentioning for this series, I never thought of that as being something that would come up here. I genuinely do think at least up until now there's been some fantastic character moments in this series, that have been fueled by scenes of great character communication, that make the relationships feel good to me.

last edited at May 20, 2024 3:49PM

no...no...sasakoi, you were so good please don't do this, you can still back out of it

This isn't super surprising to me, we always knew Miki was a bit of a siscon, the question is just whether it really extends into the romantic as well, or not. She could very well just be the "regular" kind of siscon who idolizes her sister and wants more/all of her attention, in a familial way.

Either way though i expected this development, Miki's laserfocus on her sister had to come up either way if she's to get a gf herself

Thanks for the chapter! Also lol that group jumped the gun in their congratulations smh

I'll wait to see how this turns out before making any concrete judgements I think

This development is comedy gold (and I say this with love)

Ummm... I don't like where this is going to be honest. Like please be something else, please. At least the “incest” plot in Citrus they are half sisters that didn't grow up together or were raised by their parents, they were strangers, Mei and Yuzu's parents relationship is weird, not the point. Here, in sasakoi if they are going that pat is blood related incest, it's gonna ruin this story for me.

Adding I was expecting a messy story with HajimexMomoka and being in love with the girlfriend of your deceased sister.... please no incestplot.

This development is comedy gold (and I say this with love)

• If Miki is in love with Shiho, what a tirefire that would be. Another car crash to Shiho's collection.

• If Miki is in love with Aki, well, that's incest, but I don't really mind a bit of love between sisters, so I don't think that would be quite as crazy from a comedy/drama perspective.

• The most boring and fairly unlikely outcome is that Miki is not in love with anyone at all, or is actually in love with Ayaka-senpai and is just mad Aki and the other girls kind of jumped the gun on that confession there. I'd also lump "Miki is genuinely straight or asexual" into this boring category as well.

• The fourth option and true wildcard is that Miki is in love with another established character, and that could go any which way.

Ummm... I don't like where this is going to be honest. Like please be something else, please. At least the “incest” plot in Citrus they are half sisters that didn't grow up together or were raised by their parents, they were strangers, Mei and Yuzu's parents relationship is weird, not the point. Here, in sasakoi if they are going that pat is blood related incest, it's gonna ruin this story for me.

Adding I was expecting a messy story with HajimexMomoka and being in love with the girlfriend of your deceased sister.... please no incestplot.

Who knows? We might get a "they're not blood-related" plot twist here as well.

last edited at May 20, 2024 4:18PM

Haha, now this will be a fun arc, we thought Shiho was controversial, but this might break a few

This development is comedy gold (and I say this with love)

• If Miki is in love with Shiho, what a tirefire that would be. Another car crash to Shiho's collection.

• If Miki is in love with Aki, well, that's incest, but I don't really mind a bit of love between sisters, so I don't think that would be quite as crazy from a comedy/drama perspective.

• The most boring and fairly unlikely outcome is that Miki is not in love with anyone at all, or is actually in love with Ayaka-senpai and is just mad Aki and the other girls kind of jumped the gun on that confession there. I'd also lump "Miki is genuinely straight or asexual" into this boring category as well.

• The fourth option and true wildcard is that Miki is in love with another established character, and that could go any which way.

Ummm... I don't like where this is going to be honest. Like please be something else, please. At least the “incest” plot in Citrus they are half sisters that didn't grow up together or were raised by their parents, they were strangers, Mei and Yuzu's parents relationship is weird, not the point. Here, in sasakoi if they are going that pat is blood related incest, it's gonna ruin this story for me.

Adding I was expecting a messy story with HajimexMomoka and being in love with the girlfriend of your deceased sister.... please no incestplot.

Who knows? We might get a "they're not blood-related" plot twist here as well.

It's 100% She is in love with her sister, she was gushing over her when she was first introduced

wtf...?

The last page is missing a text bubble. It's supposed to say:

"Nee-chan...you idiot...I want you to be my mama."

I KNEW SHE WAS A SISCON

Well, that was certainly unexpected (at least to me).
If it weren't for the fact that it's her own sister we are talking about, I would have no doubt that the last few pages imply that she likes Aki.
If we rule that out (I certainly hope that's the case), a second option would be that she has a crush on Shiho (Edit: I have just read the chapter in English and now this seems very unlikely), which would also be pretty strange since I don't remember seeing them interact or even Miki mentioning her (I'm sure she did, but nothing relevant). Still, I wouldn't dislike it, to be honest.

A third option would be some trauma related to her old boyfriend (which she mentioned to Hima at the beginning of the series). Although, being a manga where men basically don't exist, I doubt the author wants to put too much emphasis on anything related to him. Maybe Miki lied, and she never even had a boyfriend to begin with? Maybe it's just that she feels more lonely and "left behind" now that Aki has found a partner?

Another option would be that the author came out with this out of nowhere to extend the series, of course.

In any case, I hope Shiho plays an active role again in this Arc, helping Aki with whatever problem Miki is facing.

Edit 2: In the anime, they replaced the mention of Miki's boyfriend with a "partner" instead. Interesting.

This isn't super surprising to me, we always knew Miki was a bit of a siscon

Huh, I don't think I ever suspected that. Maybe I should reread the first chapters.

last edited at May 20, 2024 6:43PM

Well, that was certainly unexpected (at least to me).
If it weren't for the fact that it's her own sister we are talking about, I would have no doubt that the last few pages imply that she likes Aki.
If we rule that out (I certainly hope that's the case), a second option would be that she has a crush on Shiho, which would also be pretty strange since I don't remember seeing them interact or even Miki mentioning her (I'm sure she did, but nothing relevant). Still, I wouldn't dislike it, to be honest.

A third option would be some trauma related to her old boyfriend (which she mentioned to Hima at the beginning of the series). Although, being a manga where men basically don't exist, I doubt the author wants to put too much emphasis on anything related to him. Maybe Miki lied, and she never even had a boyfriend to begin with? Maybe it's just that she feels more lonely and "left behind" now that Aki has found a partner?

Another option would be that the author came out with this out of nowhere to extend the series, of course.

In any case, I hope Shiho plays an active role again in this Arc, helping Aki with whatever problem Miki is facing.

This isn't super surprising to me, we always knew Miki was a bit of a siscon

Huh, I don't think I ever suspected that. Maybe I should reread the first chapters.

Yeah I always thought she was only fond of her sister, as a sister. Not a siscon, so I didn't see this coming myself.

Ummm... I don't like where this is going to be honest. Like please be something else, please. At least the “incest” plot in Citrus they are half sisters that didn't grow up together or were raised by their parents, they were strangers, Mei and Yuzu's parents relationship is weird, not the point. Here, in sasakoi if they are going that pat is blood related incest, it's gonna ruin this story for me.

Adding I was expecting a messy story with HajimexMomoka and being in love with the girlfriend of your deceased sister.... please no incestplot.

I think in Ctirus they're step-sisters, half-sisters they would be blood related still. Half-sibling means your parent had a kid with another person, so they're half related to you, but still a sibling all the same. Step-sibling is when your parent remarries and they have kids already. Which is the case in Citrus if I remember correctly, where Citrus being controversial for the "incest" is really an almost non existent factor, due to them not being blood relations and dating almost as soon as their parents married, they didn't grow up together or anything. It's basically a way for Citrus to be "taboo" and have the characters live together.

Edit 2: In the anime, they replaced the mention of Miki's boyfriend with a "partner" instead. Interesting.

It's at 6:50 of episode 3 if anyone wants to check. Himari uses the term "koibito", which to my knowledge is gender neutral and often translated as "lover". Miki talking about it also sounds gender neutral...but somebody who actually understands Japanese should verify my amateur understanding.

Really it'd be best to look at the manga raws to see what's said there.

Ummm... I don't like where this is going to be honest. Like please be something else, please. At least the “incest” plot in Citrus they are half sisters that didn't grow up together or were raised by their parents, they were strangers, Mei and Yuzu's parents relationship is weird, not the point. Here, in sasakoi if they are going that pat is blood related incest, it's gonna ruin this story for me.

Adding I was expecting a messy story with HajimexMomoka and being in love with the girlfriend of your deceased sister.... please no incestplot.

I think in Ctirus they're step-sisters, half-sisters they would be blood related still. Half-sibling means your parent had a kid with another person, so they're half related to you, but still a sibling all the same. Step-sibling is when your parent remarries and they have kids already. Which is the case in Citrus if I remember correctly, where Citrus being controversial for the "incest" is really an almost non existent factor, due to them not being blood relations and dating almost as soon as their parents married, they didn't grow up together or anything. It's basically a way for Citrus to be "taboo" and have the characters live together.

Yeah, step sisters, english is not my first language and forgot the correct term. And exactly, you expressed my exact point of view with better words.