To me, one of the reasons Usui Shio's works have not been "like everything else I read", is a lot about the way they present the story, the way they construct and develop the characters and the plotline and the depth in them, and other nuances in their style and writing, and I really want to see these qualities that I adored in both "Donuts" and in "Marriage" (this is a terrible shortening lol) in a more, for lack of a better term, "traditional" romance story.

I basically feel the same way, a large part of why I like this author is the general pacing, character interactions, certain sense of humour etc. This would still all work regardless if Doughnuts ended with a passionate kiss at the end or not (and considering the story it's as valid of a choice as what actually happened, at least in my opinion), but I really wouldn't mind if this time things go a bit more spicy.

... and they already are! Looking forward to whatever's next.

hehehe this chapter got me giggling like a little girl- it's so cute! ^_^

I can't fathom folks showing up to a new work from one of vanishingly few mangaka (or published authors in general) repping committed aro/ace relationships to say "gosh, I hope this one is more like everything else I read!"

I think pigeonholing Shio as an "aro/ace author" is kind of reductive in and of itself. For starters, in my opinion Crescent Moon and Doughnuts is her only real aro/ace story. Trying Out Marriage is most certainly a slow burn, but I did not get the impression the heroines didn't want a physical relationship by the end. It just took a very long time for them to work out their feelings. It's true this story story is a bit more "traditional" (school setting, the characters have a much more standard view on physical contact etc), but it still has the kind of writing that makes Shio unique.

In any case, I really liked this chapter. Probably my favorite so far.

I think Usui Shio's works are interesting because they sort of break down traditional romantic narratives, instead putting the characters into a strong relationship or situation that would normally come after the romance, and then seeing how they kind of work backwards from there to a confession/relationship. "Doughnuts" definitely reads as aro/ace of some shade, while "Marriage" kind of starts at the traditional "end" of a courtship and then has them grow into what that might actually mean for them.

Oh right, that's true though!
I just realize that Usui sensei's work would depict in a manner where two characters would first establish a relationship, like girlfriend or wives.
Then from there, they will start progressing their relationship into 'girlfriend' or 'wives'.

Like instead of the usual crush-confession, Usui sensei quickly establish the two as a main couple.

last edited at Aug 10, 2024 10:40PM

Oh right, that's true though!
I just realize that Usui sensei's work would depict in a manner where two characters would first establish a relationship, like girlfriend or wives.
Then from there, they will start progressing their relationship into 'girlfriend' or 'wives'.

Like instead of the usual crush-confession, Usui sensei quickly establish the two as a main couple.

Yeah I think part of what's interesting about her recent work (and why the setups happen as they do; "marriage," "girlfriend") is she focuses a lot on how relationships are sustained and tended to, rather than just how to get into relationships. That's the consistent focus shared by all her stories so far. "Ok, we're technically together...now what?" is basically the question of these stories.

last edited at Aug 10, 2024 11:08PM

I can't fathom folks showing up to a new work from one of vanishingly few mangaka (or published authors in general) repping committed aro/ace relationships to say "gosh, I hope this one is more like everything else I read!"

I think pigeonholing Shio as an "aro/ace author" is kind of reductive in and of itself. For starters, in my opinion Crescent Moon and Doughnuts is her only real aro/ace story. Trying Out Marriage is most certainly a slow burn, but I did not get the impression the heroines didn't want a physical relationship by the end. It just took a very long time for them to work out their feelings. It's true this story story is a bit more "traditional" (school setting, the characters have a much more standard view on physical contact etc), but it still has the kind of writing that makes Shio unique.

In any case, I really liked this chapter. Probably my favorite so far.

I agree. The protagonists in each series are fundamentally different from each other in many ways- their age, their personalities, their life experience and their relationships with each other- so it thus isn't necessarily to assume that just because Hinako and Asahi are asexual that Kurumi and Ruriko or Asako and Nagi are. For example, Hinako desperately wanted to be "normal" at first, including feeling attracted to her partner, while Kurumi wasn't uninterested in romance per se, but didn't think anyone would put up with her.

It's interesting to see more about Asako's feelings about her sister. She sounds rather bitter when recalling her sister apparently choosing her lover over Asako and the other people close to her, but at the same time, she still seems to want to understand why her sister did what she did. I hope we can eventually see Asako's sister's perspective, since it's likely that Asako is missing some key information.

Incidentally, I notice that Usui is using the black borders to denote flashbacks in this series(which is typical of manga), rather than scenes at night like in her other series. I was a bit confused when I saw the black backgrounds in the other two series, and thought the night scenes were flashbacks at first.

Yay kissy!

What the heck chapter 5 was so cute WHAT THE HECK

Yachiyo is one of us!

Yachiyo is one of us!

Yep!

No one actually does the "my friend has a problem" thing in real life, right?

No one actually does the "my friend has a problem" thing in real life, right?

I say it occasionally but I only when It's actually about a friend, and when I do nobody ever doubts that it is xD
But i don't know (of) anybody who's tried to disguise their own problem as someone else's like that, personally~

No one actually does the "my friend has a problem" thing in real life, right?

I say it occasionally but I only when It's actually about a friend, and when I do nobody ever doubts that it is xD
But i don't know (of) anybody who's tried to disguise their own problem as someone else's like that, personally~

That was hilarious, using manga tropes. That sleuthing shows she really has paid attention to the President and sincerely wants to help her. But also. . . Yeah non of that was advice but she sure was happy lol that skipping down the hall.

No one actually does the "my friend has a problem" thing in real life, right?

Some friends (friends really) have done that occasionally, especially when it's something kind of embarrassing, but at some point in the conversation they admit they are talking about themselves rather than the imaginary friend they were making up lol

If I'm reading this right, Asako gave up on finding the hairpin because she had been frustrated with her sister and the hairpin has not proved to be useful as a good luck charm in catching up to her. But the lost hairpin was an opportunity for Nagi to show that she cares, so maybe it worked after all?

Now I’m racking my brain trying to remember which romance manga had a major “guy looks for lost hairpin in the snow” sequence.

And then trying to remember if those are the only two “lost hairpin” scenes I’ve read, or is it an actual trope I’ve seen other times?

Now I’m racking my brain trying to remember which romance manga had a major “guy looks for lost hairpin in the snow” sequence.

And then trying to remember if those are the only two “lost hairpin” scenes I’ve read, or is it an actual trope I’ve seen other times?

Guy? Could you be thinking of BokuYaba? Ichikawa looks through the snow for a charm(?) that Yamada loses and they eventually find it hanging from a tree branch IIRC.

For yuri, I feel like that happened in a longer running series. A Room For Two or Hana ni Arashi? I may be way off the mark though.

last edited at Oct 26, 2024 2:47PM

Now I’m racking my brain trying to remember which romance manga had a major “guy looks for lost hairpin in the snow” sequence.

And then trying to remember if those are the only two “lost hairpin” scenes I’ve read, or is it an actual trope I’ve seen other times?

A condition called love.

Now I’m racking my brain trying to remember which romance manga had a major “guy looks for lost hairpin in the snow” sequence.

And then trying to remember if those are the only two “lost hairpin” scenes I’ve read, or is it an actual trope I’ve seen other times?

A condition called love.

Bingo. Thank you!

I can't fathom folks showing up to a new work from one of vanishingly few mangaka (or published authors in general) repping committed aro/ace relationships to say "gosh, I hope this one is more like everything else I read!"

I understand what you're saying and why, and in no way am I trying to dismiss or belittle your point, but I'd like to offer a perspective on this. To me, one of the reasons Usui Shio's works have not been "like everything else I read", is a lot about the way they present the story, the way they construct and develop the characters and the plotline and the depth in them, and other nuances in their style and writing, and I really want to see these qualities that I adored in both "Donuts" and in "Marriage" (this is a terrible shortening lol) in a more, for lack of a better term, "traditional" romance story. In other words, I'll share that the reason Donuts, in particular, resonated so deeply with me wasn't the (a)romantic aspect of it, if that makes any sense lol. Like, different people are looking for different things, and there's nothing wrong with that.

As another example, I feel similarly about Fukaumi Kon - "Haru and Midori" is one of my favorite manga of all time, and a large part of it was the author's character-building and the atmosphere/vibe/pacing. Seeing those aspects that I really, really like in their writing play out in "A Love Yet to Bloom" which has a wholly different flavor has been an absolute joy.

Also, I saw a few comments that mentioned it'd be boring or disappointing if despite everything, Asako "overcomes" her being ace, and again I understand what they mean, but to me, it isn't "overcoming", since Asako, in particular, is genuinely going through a pretty serious introspective process, which would be the shaping of her character, and regardless of what she realizes she is at the end of it, so long as the execution is good enough, and I have a lot of trust in the author, it'll feel appropriate. I really do hope whoever reads this gets what I'm saying here lol.

In any case, about chapter 5 itself, I really like how things are going. I find that the questions Asako asks herself are genuinely interesting and really important and I'm looking forward to seeing her making sense of her own world. Also big fan of the two's dynamic, it feels a lot more fluid and organic than in many other stories I've read. I hope that Asako has a chance to talk to her sister at some point if nothing else because it's kinda weird to me that she'd cut her off just because she "ran away" with someone.

I totally agree with this. Portraying characters as functionally ace isn't actually remotely rare, even beyond all the G rated Yuri out there, there's a lot of stories about women written by people who have a mindset that either women are inherently functionally asexual, or that there's something fundamentally wrong or exploitative or uncomfortable depicting women as being sexual (I still judge the author of She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat knowing their previous work before that chaste as hell manga was an extremely horny BL. That BL was good imo but the gender gap is just so ridiculously stereotypical). You can search "pure yuri" and find an endless trove of functionally ace yuri manga.
The thing that made Doughnuts special for me is that the asexuality was actually named, making it a very deliberate exploration of that rather than an implicit or embarrassed or accidental portrayal. That manga has a care and delicacy in portraying the character's feelings as an actual identity rather than just the circumstances, and THAT is rare and special imo. This is why I'm also liking "Our Love is Disgusting" by the same author. It's not about What they're portraying that makes them special imo, it's the How.

(PS the author of She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat declared the characters to be demi on twitter this year iirc, but that kinda feels like a 'dumbledore was gay' moment to me given that they said it so late and in a place so abstracted from the actual text of the manga. Especially since there's an explicitly asexual lesbian character in the manga already serving as a queer senpai to the MCs and so there's no excuse for this demi identity to not be in the text itself)

I see no reason why we can't do both! Hold hands while kissing. Crisis averted. Don't pat me on the back too hard.

Both of Shio's new series have been a lot of fun and varied.

It's not about "What" they're portraying that makes them special imo, it's the "How."

That's a good line and an accurate one. Plus they only released a few series before. They're not defined as an author until they have a larger library (which we're watching grow now). What defines her is her skill not a particular subject.

last edited at Nov 7, 2024 7:18AM

This was a highly enjoyable chapter. The parents being supportive of their daughter warmed my heart, and it's so nice to see two characters who know they're awesome and aren't afraid to admit it.

"Yeah, I know I look super cute." "Yeah, this plan should be perfect because I'm the one who made it."

Maybe that confidence is a veneer over some uncertainty, but you know what? I like seeing the positivity.

I think this may be the first series I've seen where the ever-ubiquitous pick-up artists, that always seem to show up in romance manga, were women.

I also loved Nagi's reaction, basically being like "Oh well, of course I'm getting hit on because I'm so awesome. What can you do" and the trope subversion with her dad being supportive was really sweet too.

I see we’re locked in on the “player is actually a bottom” path