Either they murder the living fuck out of him, or the "maybe badass online friend" comes to save the day.
Thanks for the translation!

There's been a running theme so far of people underestimating women and assuming they're "stupid" ala the title, so I'm guessing that's what's happening here. This driver thinks they're too stupid to realize what he's doing and he's sure gonna be surprised because of it

I am still trying to figure out how serious vs. how comedic this story wants to be. Granted, three chapters are too short to establish that baseline yet...

was one of the scariest experiences of my dad's life.

Coming from a person who has literally fought in a war, that's quite unsettling.

last edited at Sep 26, 2024 5:32AM

was one of the scariest experiences of my dad's life.

Coming from a person who has literally fought in a war, that's quite unsettling.

Yeah and I should say it was one of several experiences over there where we he really thought he was going to die. Just not a good time all around, and surviving various scary situations that have stayed with him his whole life.

The 'girls with guns' genre went out of fashion in the 2010s, and girls-only/yuri action series adopted moeblob character designs. So I'm glad that some of the old school energy might be coming back to this microgenre, with LycoReco and Maid War leading the charge in anime.

This series is not really an action vehicle, but for me at least it pushes many of the same buttons as 'girls with guns', since it's a roadtrip adventure about two lady outlaws. It's a rare treat that both women are grown adults, with really cool character designs.

Outside of the Yuri genre F/F shipping material can be scarce it manga/andme, especially if you want adult/mature characters or non-blobby character designs. Most of these require digging through material that is otherwise full of boring male characters, and is really hetero (the median shoujosei) or misogynistic (the typical shonen action). To contrast, the genres that make F/F shipping the easiest and least stressful, almost exclusively traffic in innocent moeblobs who are high school aged (2.5D idol/band franchises) or younger (magical girl). (Since Symphogear ended that sort of action-fanservice show is dead too.)

Well, that's also part of why I find Stupid Woman 26:00 refreshing. A very shippable pair of female characters, who are not only not innocent moeblobs but instead a pair of fugitive husband-slayers over 30... And I don't have to tolerate an obnoxious male protagonist/romantic lead, or risk getting addicted to a gacha game? Even if it's just manga and not anime, it almost sounds too good to be true.

The 'girls with guns' genre went out of fashion in the 2010s, and girls-only/yuri action series adopted moeblob character designs. So I'm glad that some of the old school energy might be coming back to this microgenre, with LycoReco and Maid War leading the charge in anime.

This series is not really an action vehicle, but for me at least it pushes many of the same buttons as 'girls with guns', since it's a roadtrip adventure about two lady outlaws. It's a rare treat that both women are grown adults, with really cool character designs.

Outside of the Yuri genre F/F shipping material can be scarce it manga/andme, especially if you want adult/mature characters or non-blobby character designs. Most of these require digging through material that is otherwise full of boring male characters, and is really hetero (the median shoujosei) or misogynistic (the typical shonen action). To contrast, the genres that make F/F shipping the easiest and least stressful, almost exclusively traffic in innocent moeblobs who are high school aged (2.5D idol/band franchises) or younger (magical girl). (Since Symphogear ended that sort of action-fanservice show is dead too.)

Well, that's also part of why I find Stupid Woman 26:00 refreshing. A very shippable pair of female characters, who are not only not innocent moeblobs but instead a pair of fugitive husband-slayers over 30... And I don't have to tolerate an obnoxious male protagonist/romantic lead, or risk getting addicted to a gacha game? Even if it's just manga and not anime, it almost sounds too good to be true.

Well one of the most notable pre-2010 "girls with guns" series is Gunslinger Girl, and to me the girls in that are very moe looking. LycoReco gets called moe depending on who you ask. The MC of Akiba Maid War is a very cutesy teenager that I'd say is moe. Moe isn't mutually exclusive with violence and brutality. So I guess a person's millage will vary, and I don't personally use the term "moeblob" because to me it's always been a term that people who hate moe will use to insult every art style and character they despise. Which I don't personally hate moe or young characters in media, so to me series like this are great, series with moe characters / younger characters are also great. I just don't really have that much hate in me, and for me there's many amazing F/F ships in anime and manga. Plus I think there's a good selection of Yuri manga with adult characters and great art/designs lately. Though I don't think we'll agree and that's fine, I do hope there's more anime and manga in the future that you enjoy overall including the shipping for.

LycoReco is definitely moe type, those girls are like 15 and absolutely cut from the standard "cute girl" cloth. I feel you can very directly contrast it with Psycho Pass, which is also an action anime series primarily lead by female characters, except they're adults in a much less cute art style (especially after the first season). Psycho Pass even has some canon lesbians.

Psycho Pass even has some canon lesbians.

They're great. If only Psycho Pass didn't have so many writing issues and weird problems, at least imo, I couldn't get very far past season 1 unfortunately.

in a much less cute art style

Yeah Psycho Pass is pretty gritty visually, though funnily I'd say the leading woman of at least season 1, Akane Tsunemori, is moe looking lol

Err...
The grin on the driver's face..
Not a good sign , right?
Will they be all right?

sees Psycho Pass mentioned Weirdly enough I never though of Psycho Pass as either action no female-lead. Does it even have a singular protagonist, besides perhaps the Sybil System?

Hmm, to me the problem Doctor_Hoot blames on "moeblobs" lies less in the art style (Happy Sugar Life and Lobotomy Corporation both have very cutesy and adorbs character designs, yet they're not known for wholesomeness) and more in the way the characters are written. What irked me the most about LycoReco is best told by the tags of this doujin: Guns and explosions Wholesome. It's just massive mood backlash of stories trying to give cute yuri fluff and badass gun-fu action at the same time. Which just does not work out pacing-wise.

(A good example I haven't seen mentioned would be Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, which cuts between scenes of literal war crimes being committed to fan service-y maid cosplay to a rather realistic depiction of PTSD to a mandatory swimsuit scene. And yes, it's yuri, very in fact.)

I believe "adult/mature" characters for shipping material are generally scarce wherever you look (bar some josei dramas maybe) because manga has just this weird focus on youth everywhere — I can't think of many mature M/M ships either outside of Bara, and my understanding of het waifu (or rarer husbando) chasers is that nobody there wants Catherinettes either. And of course you can have moé mature characters as FluffyCow mentioned, just like how you can have non-moé schoolgirls. I get the feeling Manhwa aren't as fixated on young characters.

Ergo, I wouldn't blame moé for a decline in good action yuri; if anything it's a correlated symptom of a wider industry-level shift towards increasingly self-referential and marketable media. Compare and contrast with the development Mecha as a genre went through, nowadays only dragging on thanks to a few unkillable IPs.

Anyway, back to this series: I don't just appreciate the characters' age, but also how neither of them seems to be written around any of the ubiquitous stereotypes (except "dork", of course).

sees Psycho Pass mentioned Weirdly enough I never though of Psycho Pass as either action no female-lead. Does it even have a singular protagonist, besides perhaps the Sybil System?

Hmm, to me the problem Doctor_Hoot blames on "moeblobs" lies less in the art style (Happy Sugar Life and Lobotomy Corporation both have very cutesy and adorbs character designs, yet they're not known for wholesomeness) and more in the way the characters are written. What irked me the most about LycoReco is best told by the tags of this doujin: Guns and explosions Wholesome. It's just massive mood backlash of stories trying to give cute yuri fluff and badass gun-fu action at the same time. Which just does not work out pacing-wise.

(A good example I haven't seen mentioned would be Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, which cuts between scenes of literal war crimes being committed to fan service-y maid cosplay to a rather realistic depiction of PTSD to a mandatory swimsuit scene. And yes, it's yuri, very in fact.)

I believe "adult/mature" characters for shipping material are generally scarce wherever you look (bar some josei dramas maybe) because manga has just this weird focus on youth everywhere — I can't think of many mature M/M ships either outside of Bara, and my understanding of het waifu (or rarer husbando) chasers is that nobody there wants Catherinettes either. And of course you can have moé mature characters as FluffyCow mentioned, just like how you can have non-moé schoolgirls. I get the feeling Manhwa aren't as fixated on young characters.

Ergo, I wouldn't blame moé for a decline in good action yuri; if anything it's a correlated symptom of a wider industry-level shift towards increasingly self-referential and marketable media. Compare and contrast with the development Mecha as a genre went through, nowadays only dragging on thanks to a few unkillable IPs.

Anyway, back to this series: I don't just appreciate the characters' age, but also how neither of them seems to be written around any of the ubiquitous stereotypes (except "dork", of course).

I should say that I'm a huge fan of LycoReco myself, I know some people don't care for it and fair enough if you're not a fan, it's definitely not a perfect series. However I do sincerely enjoy it and love the series, the main duo are one of my favorite ships.

Also I think youth in general is popular for humans. Growing old is scary, and you have a lot of classic stories focusing around concepts of youth and chasing after it. Adventures focusing around the Fountain Of Youth, horror stories around Elizabeth Bathory bathing in the blood of virgins, so on and so fourth. Japan has a lot of problems with overwork from my understanding, which even leads to some isekai being started via death from overwork. Which I think extends globally in general, there's a lot of struggles with economy, stressful politics, work. Being young and not having so many worries is definitely appealing to many, and nostalgia is also powerful for many.

For me I'm often able to find a good mix of both maturity and youth with anime and manga. I watch and read a lot of things across many genres, and I've found that even stories focusing on young characters can explore themes of growing up in mature and interesting ways. I haven't seen all of the anime but from what I've watched of "March Comes In Like A Lion" that's a good example of that. As for Yuri I just finished watching some anime focused on adult women that I found very easy to ship together. They weren't super serious but they were enjoyable watches, and I think that's fine. Not every adult character series has to be super serious. For me adult life is already hard and complicated, it's nice to see media with adult characters that enjoy life, that's part of why I really loved Pokémon Concierge haha

With anime and manga there's of course things that I don't love but I do have such love for both overall, and I could probably ramble about it for days, so I'll just say tides are always shifting and I think we'll get some more action series in the future with fun W/W ships. Especially with how there's often hidden gems to be found in my experience at least.

Err...
The grin on the driver's face..
Not a good sign , right?
Will they be all right?

I've never been into Watchmen but I think this saying is from it, "I'm Not Locked in Here With You, You're Locked in Here With Me". Where our driver appears to be a creep, but I don't think he realizes that he's messing with the wrong duo. Where I think they're (hopefully) going to kick his ass.

sees Psycho Pass mentioned Weirdly enough I never though of Psycho Pass as either action no female-lead. Does it even have a singular protagonist, besides perhaps the Sybil System?

Akane is the most commonly recurring main character of the Psychopass series, as mentioned by Fluffycow. Sybil is definitely NOT a protagonist, it's the antagonist lmao. Dunno how you could get the impression it's anything else. The whole mystery of the first season is "How come our fascist crime computer declares panicking women to be worthy of death but serial killers completely faultless?"

last edited at Sep 29, 2024 4:42PM

sees Psycho Pass mentioned Weirdly enough I never though of Psycho Pass as either action no female-lead. Does it even have a singular protagonist, besides perhaps the Sybil System?

Akane is the most commonly recurring main character of the Psychopass series, as mentioned by Fluffycow. Sybil is definitely NOT a protagonist, it's the antagonist lmao. Dunno how you could get the impression it's anything else. The whole mystery of the first season is "How come our fascist crime computer declares panicking women to be worthy of death but serial killers completely faultless?"

Yeah Sybil is the worst lol

Akane is the most commonly recurring main character of the Psychopass series, as mentioned by Fluffycow. Sybil is definitely NOT a protagonist, it's the antagonist lmao. Dunno how you could get the impression it's anything else.

"Protagonist" is not a judgmental term, but simply describes the person playing "the first part" (both in importance and sequence). Villain protagonists are a thing, y'know. And one could reasonably argue that Akane isn't the Season 1 protagonist, but Shinya (the same way Watson is the viewpoint character, but Holmes is the protagonist). Yet generally I'd go with the label "Ensemble cast" due to the many pieces involved in Sybil's game.

I should say that I'm a huge fan of LycoReco myself, I know some people don't care for it and fair enough if you're not a fan, it's definitely not a perfect series. However I do sincerely enjoy it and love the series, the main duo are one of my favorite ships.

Personally, I like the many cute LycoReco doujins over the anime. The café half was solid and could stand on its own. The clandestine paramilitary half is something I try to ignore exists. However, I'm now wondering ... what is the chance that the near-future Japan of LycoReco is actually the past of the Psycho-Pass one? Sybil canonically had AI predecessor systems, and the whole portrayal of the population as docile, ignorant and best steered through extrajudicial executions resonates in both works. (I guess this is better followed up on in the Cafe thread though.)

Also I think youth in general is popular for humans. Growing old is scary, and you have a lot of classic stories focusing around concepts of youth and chasing after it. [...] Japan has a lot of problems with overwork from my understanding, which even leads to some isekai being started via death from overwork. Which I think extends globally in general, there's a lot of struggles with economy, stressful politics, work. Being young and not having so many worries is definitely appealing to many, and nostalgia is also powerful for many.

For me I'm often able to find a good mix of both maturity and youth with anime and manga. I watch and read a lot of things across many genres, and I've found that even stories focusing on young characters can explore themes of growing up in mature and interesting ways.

Are you sure about the "anime" part? I have the feeling that this decade's anime overwhelmingly has casts that would count towards the Young Adult genre in the west. (The absence of western YA animation is a topic for another day.) Looking through the upcoming anime season for series with main characters/cast past their twenties yields me Uzumaki (Junji Ito horror adaption), 365 Days to the Wedding (actual romance!) as well as Neko ni Tensei shita Ojisan and Hyakushou Kizoku (both Comedy), plus two "old man rediscovers joy in live through daughter-like figure he mentors" stories. That's from over 60 anime airing. (Admittedly, there's hardly and Josei or Seinen amongst them. Not sure if my source is biased or that's the direction the industry goes.)

It's honestly kind of sad, because that means we get no stories of "real adults" (= anyone older than me) having any character growth. Do you lose the right to have dreams when you turn 30? It really says a lot about societal expectations dictating the remainder of your life. Thankfully manga and other literature cover those age spans, although fan work is of course shaped by its source material.

Maybe I should clarify some things. I'm not a moe or a teenager "hater". I was talking about mature in the most literal sense: "like an adult". I was griping about having a hard time finding pairs of female characters that (1) aren't magical girls, idols, or generally innocent angels, (2) are main characters and (3) have material for shipping. This is not a hard standard, there are magical girl and band girl ships that I love. The yuri in Psycho Pass is great too (even if we barely see those ladies). I'm just thirsty for more spice and variety. I'm bitter because female characters that look, sound, and behave like those in Chainsaw Man, JJK, AoT, whatever, are so rare in yuri-friendly anime. I know why that is, but the heart wants what it wants.

I mentioned girls-only action anime because conflict, high stakes, and violence - that's like the hot sauce of yuri. A girls-only action anime can facilitate yuri and shipping very well even with character designs on the moe end of the spectrum, but it's still an improvement when the characters have more adult-like proportions.

This series is so far very light on on-screen violence, but it does have some stakes. The two main characters are both women, with a really fun dynamic, and -I'm not sure how else to put it- they look hot in an adult way. The main reason why them being 30 matters is the high school reunion with husband killing plot; otherwise I would still like their designs even if they were college students. I was just trying to explain why I have a soft spot for this kind of pairing, and it was hard to do without referencing other stuff.

last edited at Sep 29, 2024 8:15PM

Are you sure about the "anime" part? I have the feeling that this decade's anime overwhelmingly has casts that would count towards the Young Adult genre in the west. (The absence of western YA animation is a topic for another day.) Looking through the upcoming anime season for series with main characters/cast past their twenties yields me Uzumaki (Junji Ito horror adaption), 365 Days to the Wedding (actual romance!) as well as Neko ni Tensei shita Ojisan and Hyakushou Kizoku (both Comedy), plus two "old man rediscovers joy in live through daughter-like figure he mentors" stories. That's from over 60 anime airing. (Admittedly, there's hardly and Josei or Seinen amongst them. Not sure if my source is biased or that's the direction the industry goes.)

It's honestly kind of sad, because that means we get no stories of "real adults" (= anyone older than me) having any character growth. Do you lose the right to have dreams when you turn 30? It really says a lot about societal expectations dictating the remainder of your life. Thankfully manga and other literature cover those age spans, although fan work is of course shaped by its source material.

I'm seeing more anime with adults than that in the schedule, but yeah there are a good number of series with younger characters. Personally I don't have a problem with it as I always find a variety of things to watch across the board, adult characters are fun, young characters are fun.

As for 30+ characters, yeah we could do with some more of those in anime, there's some great ones in manga. I wouldn't exactly say 30+ is a real adult though, as some 30+ people are more childish than people in their 20s, there's a lot of nuance to it and so fourth. What exactly is a real adult, and how people define being an adult. Lots of opinions there.

Maybe I should clarify some things. I'm not a moe or a teenager "hater". I was talking about mature in the most literal sense: "like an adult". I was griping about having a hard time finding pairs of female characters that (1) aren't magical girls, idols, or generally innocent angels, (2) are main characters and (3) have material for shipping. This is not a hard standard, there are magical girl and band girl ships that I love. The yuri in Psycho Pass is great too (even if we barely see those ladies). I'm just thirsty for more spice and variety. I'm bitter because female characters that look, sound, and behave like those in Chainsaw Man, JJK, AoT, whatever, are so rare in yuri-friendly anime. I know why that is, but the heart wants what it wants.

I mentioned girls-only action anime because conflict, high stakes, and violence - that's like the hot sauce of yuri. A girls-only action anime can facilitate yuri and shipping very well even with character designs on the moe end of the spectrum, but it's still an improvement when the characters have more adult-like proportions.

This series is so far very light on on-screen violence, but it does have some stakes. The two main characters are both women, with a really fun dynamic, and -I'm not sure how else to put it- they look hot in an adult way. The main reason why them being 30 matters is the high school reunion with husband killing plot; otherwise I would still like their designs even if they were college students. I was just trying to explain why I have a soft spot for this kind of pairing, and it was hard to do without referencing other stuff.

I think part of it is that we're different people with different preferences. Which is fine. I do love action like you're talking about, but slice of life is my favorite genre. I enjoy a variety of characters and styles. So that's part of why I probably find ships easily. I definitely won't say no to getting more action focused series in the future though.
|
Responding to this whole conversation in general with this next comment:
|
There are things I'd like to see more of in anime and manga, but I'm currently not bitter. I genuinely love a lot of anime and manga. I'm enjoying a lot of things we're getting right now, I'm also very excited for upcoming series in the future. The happiness anime and manga brings to my life is something I really need as I'm dealing with a lot of difficult problems in my life. That's all I can really say, other people might have a lot of negative feelings towards anime and manga in general, but I can't take that on. I'm just going to keep enjoying what I like, and I hope everyone here finds more media that brings them happiness. With that in mind I think we should focus the conversation back on this manga, which I'm loving and I'm eagerly awaiting new chapters for.

We are so back!!

really weird reading this seeing a mix of vietnamese and english together, maybe cuz I'm a vietnamese...

nice, she regained a bit of autonomy and i like that, she's tired of the other woman -whatever her name is- treating her like a useless person just as her dead husband did, so i liked what she did there

This guy also seems kind of shady lol

but I'm used to some characters with eyes closed only opening them after they've revealed some villainous plan

Vietnam in my favorite illegal manga site? Bookmarked.

Good for Yuri, expressing her autonomy, getting away with both choking a guy and acting explicitly against Atsuko's opinion for what they should do. Atsuko responding positively to this instead of getting mad at her is probably very good for their relationship too :)

As a Vietnamese, I afraid that what you will experience from vietnam's taxi. They will try to drive in circle to increase the fare, some even overcharge and more than often refuse to drop you in the correct spot if they just don't feel like it. It not a racist thing since this also happened alot to the local.
My advice to someone that want to travel in vietnam, please install grab or be they are vietnamese uber it safer since there are many reviews and certification that drivers must have in order to drive the the app and ofcourse you will always know what you will pay.
Side note: tip is not mandatory since all the fee is included in the price but if the server is right, feel free to tip them, I assure you that will made their day.