Yeah Beloved is gorgeous

I'm not sure I'm gonna like where this age gap thing is going, but maybe it'll surprise me.

Seriously, the last scene of the festival was extremely gay. It's funny cause I can read echii manga with straight face, and at that scene I felt embarassed about how gay it was. (not in a bad way) The hand holding was too long.
What Reina did when Shuichi ran by them was also interesting. I know she might be doing it to tease Kumiko, but what she said after "Spineless guys are no good" seemed as if she was saying "I'm not spineless like him, so I'm a better fit for Kumiko"

Yeah, it totally felt like Reina basically telling him to get away from her girl. And she looked pretty dang satisfied with herself watching him leave.

It also just felt kind of telling that Reina waits until the other girls leave before she asks Kumiko to the festival. Like as soon as they're alone they immediately act way more intimate and are more touchy-feely with each other, when Kumiko's het friends are around they don't touch.

And that final scene with the fireworks was shot 100% like any other, "Oh man I want to kiss you" romance scene. I'm going to be seriously pissed at KyoAni if they try backing out of this, because it's undeniably designed to be read as a romantic relationship at this point.

Watched episode 1 of the new season. If anything KyoAni seems to be doubling down on the gay. Like, it's really noticeable as soon as Kumiko's friends leave the atmosphere between Kumiko and Reina gets more intimate and flirty, and I don't know how you could possibly interpret the last scene as anything but a date. Shoot they've already basically progressed farther than a lot of KyoAni canon het couples.

Would be surprised if they actually come out and say "we're dating" out loud, but it's a lot more than just queerbaiting subtext at this point too.

My perception is Norae is bi, while Seola has been a closeted lesbian her whole life.
None of this was said directly in the story, but it's been quite heavily hinted, in my books at least.

That's always been my interpretation as well. No-Rae's always seemed pretty honest with herself that she's attracted to Seol-A, it's just that Seol-A is so (seemingly) obviously straight and No-Rae doesn't want to fuck up their friendship, plus she's slow to embrace relationships anyway. There was also that shot of No-Rae at the mixer, where she's getting kissed on one cheek by a girl and on the other cheek by a boy and blushing, but it's not really clear which of those kisses is making her blush. It felt like kind of a visual metaphor for her bisexuality.

Seol-A has had lots of boyfriends, but whether there's physical attraction or not, she's plainly never been emotionally invested in any of those relationships. Especially with the way she drinks, her het relationships have been pretty fucked up. Part of her development with her attraction with No-Rae has been her then mentally reviewing her old friendship back in high school and realizing that she's not just romantically attracted to No-Rae, she's always been attracted to girls. And her never really consciously understanding that is plainly part of what's been fucking her relationships with other women - just look at how weird she acts to No-Rae in the beginning, she's coming on to her super hard, while simultaneously not admitting to herself what she's doing one bit.

I do think that one thing that's easy to overlook is how deeply homophobic the society they live in is. It's not spelled out for the reader, it's just kind of an unspoken truth to their lives, they're both terrified of even floating a hint about being gay or of telling anyone. Some of that is their own personality and being afraid of rejection, but I think a big part of it is also that they're sure that if they come out as being gay or bi it won't just make things socially awkward, it could completely destroy their relationship. It's not that this isn't a queer story, it's that the characters dare not say it out loud.

last edited at Oct 7, 2016 5:43PM