What a disaster :(

Well, I just read the whole manga today while waiting for today's episode, and I really enjoyed it!

So, the side couples... are they actually couples yet?

Mari/Kaori: Kaori is all over Mari, and Aki joked about Kao marrying into wealthy, and we have an extra where they're in bedclothes together. OTOH Kaori's idea for a song was about a one-sided crush

Momoka/Hajime: my first exposure was in the anime, which seemed to set up Momoka liking Hajime. But now I know that Momoka had loved Kyou, Haji's sister, which would make romance a bit weird, vs. being unified by shared loss. OTOH, a recent chapter (no link saved) had them standing in an angled chest-to-chest pose that would be weird if you're not dating (or actively doing a partner dance.)

I get the feeling they know there's 0 way for there to be a season 2 at this point, so they're trying to have their cake and eat it by putting some of the series as a manga special on Youtube, while using the anime to rush to the end of the Shiho arc. Which just doesn't work in my opinion, as the anime feels like a rushed mess that ultimately doesn't do justice to any of the material / any of the couples. Especially with YoriHima being thrown under the bus by the anime.

It's a typical manga pusher product with lowest possible budget, regardless how enthusiastic staff and performers are. You stuff in as much of the story in as possible, so you can get more people trapped by the manga continuation, and hope for the best in terms of sales boost.

Pushers almost never get a second season or full adaptation.

last edited at Jun 30, 2024 3:40AM

I get the feeling they know there's 0 way for there to be a season 2 at this point, so they're trying to have their cake and eat it by putting some of the series as a manga special on Youtube, while using the anime to rush to the end of the Shiho arc. Which just doesn't work in my opinion, as the anime feels like a rushed mess that ultimately doesn't do justice to any of the material / any of the couples. Especially with YoriHima being thrown under the bus by the anime.

It's a typical manga pusher product with lowest possible budget, regardless how enthusiastic staff and performers are. You stuff in as much of the story in as possible, so you can get more people trapped by the manga continuation, and hope for the best in terms of sales boost.

Pushers almost never get a second season or full adaptation.

I think it varies because there's a fair amount of anime that adapt what they can of the source material. Where it's an okay or even good but incomplete adaption. In my experience this level of rushing a series isn't very common, combined with all the various other problems. This and Unnamed Memory (as I was discussing with DrJamesFox previously) are I think the biggest rush jobs on anime this season, and maybe even this year so far.

Part of my issue is this doesn't even sell people on wanting to buy the manga from what I've seen. If this adapted what it could and then left on the note of to see the conclusion of Shiho's arc buy the manga!, I would have been fine with that as long as it handled the material it did adapt properly. The manner in which the anime butchered it's adaption of the manga is completely crazy to me, and frankly bizarre even when comparing it to other adaptions with issues. I also say they realized there was 0 chance of another season because of how much the behind the scenes sound like a complete mess, again more so than usual.

This whole situation is also interesting to me in contrast, because Yagakimi's anime adapted what it could, didn't completely rush it, and even though the season ends in a somewhat awkward place it's still a generally beloved adaption. All people really want with it is a season 2 from what I know. With Whispering I think we could have been in a similar spot with the adaption, but sadly instead of a season 2 we need a complete adaption reboot.

I'm willing to bet they'll also skip the scene of Himari and butler Yori kissing at the school festival and we'll be left with nothing more than kisses on the cheek in the anime despite this being one of the rare series where an adaptation could've got further than that.

I feel like an ideal adaptation of this would be to just go up to the end of volume 3, spending a little more focus on adapting that material while working in some details from later volumes and filling the rest with original content. Alas, animes are a committee-driven thing and since this is a music-themed series, the records company involved likely played a part in pushing for the anime to cover both arcs so they could promote more of their artists.
The fact we get next to zero KaoMari moments stings just as much.

last edited at Jun 30, 2024 6:12AM

I'm willing to bet they'll also skip the scene of Himari and butler Yori kissing at the school festival and we'll be left with nothing more than kisses on the cheek in the anime despite this being one of the rare series where an adaptation could've got further than that.

Yeah this is part of what I find frustrating. This could very well be an adaption that doesn't adapt the full on kisses from the manga, and we need more kisses in Yuri works as it is...not less.

I feel like an ideal adaptation of this would be to just go up to the end of volume 3, spending a little more focus on adapting that material while working in some details from later volumes and filling the rest with original content. Alas, animes are a committee-driven thing and since this is a music-themed series, the records company involved likely played a part in pushing for the anime to cover both arcs so they could promote more of their artists.
The fact we get next to zero KaoMari moments stings just as much.

I'd also be fine with your suggestion for the handling of the adaption and material. That's an interesting thought about the record company side of things as well, sounds possible.

Before, I didn't understand why many people said this series was Yukino and Yui following the yuri route, but when I watched the ED, I understood. Even the studio misunderstood it (or intentionally drew like those two characters for PR purposes), so it's understandable that those who haven't seen this manga think so. Showing 2 pictures of Yori and Himari in the first 10 seconds of the ED to people who haven't seen this series, I'm sure everyone will say it's Yukino and Yui.

Who ?

Google suggests it's probably these two from "My Teen Romantic Comedy"

Yeah, you can see in these two photos cut from the ED, Yori and Himari are quite similar to the two in those image. A Google Lens search also turns up results for Yukino and Yui as well

Some positive announcements for the series. 1 million in circulation and a 20 page Aki/Shiho special edition booklet/chapter with the volume 10 release on the 29th (digital). Two new covers, one for each couple as well. Looking forward to that. I wonder if the new chapter will be current to the Miki stuff or it's own separate event like a date.

last edited at Jul 5, 2024 9:34AM

Some positive announcements for the series. 1 million in circulation and a 20 page Aki/Shiho special edition booklet/chapter with the volume 10 release on the 29th (digital). Two new covers, one for each couple as well. Looking forward to that. I wonder if the new chapter will be current to the Miki stuff or it's own separate event like a date.

That's good to know, thanks

Some character thoughts:

Shiho: can you imagine going on vacation with her? She seems the type to plan for 26 [sic] hours of activity in a day. An attack dog approach to having fun. Then again, the glimpses of her in SSGirls did seem calmer; maybe dating Aki will mellow her out. That said, good luck to Aki: Shiho seems likely to be stuck at 100% in whatever she does, and emotionally volatile to boot. I won't accuse her of random mood swings, but hypersensitive to little things like "you looked at Asanagi for 0.1 seconds too long". I hope I'm wrong, but the greatest enemy of Shiho's happiness has been and will always be Shiho.

Himari: So while I was thinking about Shiho, I had the thought that Hima is similar in a way. This seems odd as they're very different: Hima lack's Shiho's sarcasm, bitterness, competitiveness, and self-destructive qualities, and it seems odd to call Hima an attack dog. Hima's a sweet little cutie. But she's also direct, maybe even more so than Shiho. Hima wants something, Hima goes for something. Hima wants to say something, Hima says something, with only an explicit "SECRET desu" filter to stop her. Heck, sometimes she even blurts out inner thoughts. She dithered about her relationship with Yori because she was genuinely unsure what she felt. The moment she decided, she pushed her way through to confess in front of an entire stage audience, if Aki hadn't stepped in to shoo them outside. Action follows clear intent without any pause to gather courage or think about what society thinks. Nina Iseri would give two pinkies up in approval.

If Himari ever decides she actively wants sex, rather than being willing to let it happen ("I'm even wearing cute underwear just in case"), Yori's getting ravished next chance they get, and Hima will probably make the chance.

It was just recently that shoujo decided to take a more wholesome approach to romance ie sonó bisque doll, shikimori is not just cute, tonikaku kawaii, the dangers in my heart etc

I know that the above quote was posted literally a year ago, but I just saw it, and it cracked me up that every example listed here of a "more wholesome" shoujo romance is in fact a shounen romcom / romance.

A big part of the split I see in responses to this story come down to how tolerant people are of melodrama and shoujo tropes. Messy feelings, acting out, wanting things that are bad for us, refusing to let go of doomed feelings – these are all shoujo tendencies, especially when deployed in a melodrama. I'm not going to say that shoujo is all vibes and feeling and shounen is about realism, because it's not true and leads to fruitless argument. One thing I do think is true is that shoujo fans enjoy mess / interpersonal melodrama / toxicity more than shounen fans, and it's interesting to see that play out in this comment section.

I'll lay down my marker here and say that while I think that Takeshima Eku is a ferociously talented artist, I have yet to see a story or character drama from her that I find compelling. That said, when I look at her paneling, her character designs, the flow of interactions between characters, and the tropes she deploys in the interest of writing drama, she neatly splits the difference between shounen and shoujo. It's pretty striking, and the only other mangakas I can think of that follow that pattern even a little are other women primarily publishing in shounen manga, like Shinichi Fukuda with My Dress-Up Darling. It's interesting to see the ways in which putting your story in a yuri magazine frees you up to tell it in an unconventional way (even when the story itself is deeply, deeply conventional).

Also, whether she planned to or not, she did manage to innovate a bit by stealthing some toxic yuri into what started as a super fluffy coming of age story / yuri romance. At the very least, it was good at starting fights!

(I'm not gonna comment on the recent developments with the anime because I predicted it was gonna be a trainwreck and I take no pleasure from being right.)

I'll lay down my marker here and say that while I think that Takeshima Eku is a ferociously talented artist, I have yet to see a story or character drama from her that I find compelling.

100% agree with you. Honestly I might not still be reading this if the art was just average. Shiho is fun enough to keep me entertained but there's only so much one character can do alone. But Shiho gets an assist from the art, which is incredible enough to compell me to keep reading.

I think one of the biggest problems with the "incest arc" is how little we saw of the girl who confessed to Miki. Are we supposed to root for or even care at all about a girl we briefly saw twice? How many readers even recall her name at this point?

In a vacuum I don't mind the idea of an "incest arc". But what does annoy me about Miki looking inward to grapple with what are potentially incestuous feelings is that self-reflection would be better spent examining her sexuality.
She was previously in love with a boy so you'd think she or someone else would spare a thought to what role gender plays in attraction for her.
But no...we gotta focus on her loving her sister instead.

last edited at Jul 11, 2024 11:10PM

The so-called "incest arc" has barely started.

I'm expecting more of a "siscon" arc, Miki being a bit obsessive/jealous of her sister's attention but not actually masturbating to thoughts of her, and the drama being about getting Miki to grow up and let go.

Given that this story is set in the gayest school in the history of Japan / the story's insistence in pairing off every character who shows up in more than one panel, I think you're probably right that it's going to be the Yuri Hime version of My Sister's Best Friend, My Lover. I mean, Miki seems pretty aware already that remaining hung up on her sister is not doing her any good, and also that Swimming-senpai is a nice girl (and also that Himari's situation at the beginning and hers are very much in parallel). This story seems only moderately more committed to its melodrama than Anemone Is In Heat. It seems like Miki + Girl Who Is Also In This Story are going to be a thing before too long.

Just for clarification in chapter ordering, chapter 49 is included with vol10 too.
We'll also have the vol10 special edition booklet translated soon, as well as the comic anthology over the coming weeks, so look forward to those.

Wingmom down for the lewd.

Just for clarification in chapter ordering, chapter 49 is included with vol10 too.
We'll also have the vol10 special edition booklet translated soon, as well as the comic anthology over the coming weeks, so look forward to those.

Awesome. This was sweet and the mom is lovely. Can't wait for the AkiShiho Booklet chapter. It hadn't considered you'd do the anthology as well, so that also great. Chapter 49 being part of volume 10 makes sense, since the two .5 chapters this volume were really short and probably didn't count towards the typical 5 chapter per volume pattern.

last edited at Aug 1, 2024 11:38AM

Best mom. :D

Lmfaoooooooooooooooo
Not only did she get her gf's mother's approval of the relationship, she even got the approval to boink.
Let's goooooooooo

Mom is way too lenient :)

Mom really said gex.

We pseudo-incest now? smh either commit to the incest tag or don't lol

Or at least, I don't think Takeshima-sensei is going to pull out the "NOT BLOOD-RELATED" card... unless the tagger knows something I don't?

Tag has been removed, I see.

Also, I don't have a habit of paying attention to the chapter titles, so just noticed various patterns there.