Speaking as a TV Tropes editor, don't use the Ho Yay pages. They're a desolate mixture of validity and nonsense.

Also, this might get me lynched, but, considering the narrative arc and how the drama went, there's no real way the Hibake anime could've avoided what happened with Reina. Her character in the novels is so tied to her crush on Taki that excising it would've basically left her without a purpose in the plot. Oh, and Kumiko didn't end up with Shuichi in the anime (and I've heard that only happened in the novels due to editorial interference anyway).

Yeah I don't really blame KyoAni for how Eupho turned out given what I've read of the books. But the books are simply bad - not because Reina has a crush on Taki but because she never realizes what a shallow and unhealthy fixation she has on him, and because nobody else ever bothers to tell her, and because the books actively set up Kumiko and Reina's relationship using language any half-way decent writer would know most readers would take as romantic (for god's sake this is a book series that features Kumiko idly fantasizing about nibbling on Reina's ear, even aside from the multiple times they tell each other they love each other - Eupho goes way way way beyond the sort of subtext you'd see in a K-On or even a Love Live) and then have Kumiko abruptly drop any such interest in Reina without even acknowledging that she's done so. This isn't even entirely a shipping thing - any time a story spends a ton of time going "HEY LOOK AT THIS THING IT'S SUPER IMPORTANT INVEST YOUR EMOTIONAL ENERGY IN THIS" and then botches the ending, and then doesn't even acknowledge that it does so, it's going to get a lot of pushback. Imagine if, after spending the backend of one movie and the front end of another agonizing over how he doesn't want to fight Darth Vader, his father, Luke had simply iced the motherfucker in the middle of the third movie, shrugged, and gone on with his life as though the whole thing had never bothered him at all. That's ridiculous, right? And even if you could twist amd torture your understanding of the characters into a place where this halfway makes sense, it's still not a particularly resonant story, right? It's also the equivalent of how Euphonium's author handles a critical character relationship. Even if she had some asshole producer sitting over her shoulder demanding that Kumiko or Reina end up with a boy at the end of the day, there were a thousand better ways to handle it than what she came up with, including simply not constantly framing Kumiko and Reina romantically/sexually to begin with.

last edited at Aug 14, 2017 6:16PM

"You don't need to force yourself to drink it STRAIGHT."
What did she mean by this?

Drinking it black, I'm pretty sure.

You can start comparing New Game to Euphonium when Aoba starts going out with a boy she previously barely spoke to, Hifumi starts pining after Eagle Jump's much older male CEO, they both stop talking to each other, and the Mangaka gives some interviews talking about how Aoba and Hifumi were "closer than romance" and then extolling the romantic virtues of Generic Childhood Friend #40

Same goes for Flip Flappers

We're talking about a show in which the two female leads repeatedly declare their love for each other and ultimately defeat the protaganist's evil, disapproving mother with the power of their love, complete with armored wedding dresses, right?

I mean they don't kiss, sure, but I'd say that probably has more to do with the writers not wanting to have a couple of 13 year olds get too physical with eachother, and if you need an on-screen kiss to count a romance as "real" then you're going to find that a whole lot of straight romance fails to meet that bar just as well.

last edited at Aug 12, 2017 1:43PM

From 2 adults seemingly living together and taking a bath together... Not your average "friendship" so they're at least couple.

I'd personally argue girls taking a bath together in manga/anime is practically a trope at this point, it's nothing out of the ordinary nor does it make them a couple and since this is New Game, I'm not convinced there will ever be an actual couple.

....Are you sure you're on the right website mate

I just had an epiphany:

Kou Yagami=KY

Anyone care to explain the joke?

Also I'm happy for the new girlfriends

Can this even be considered subtext now?

Only in the strictest "why don't they kiss" sense. For all practical purposes I'm pretty sure Rin being in love with Kou is as canon as Oreki being in love with Chitanda in Hyouka at this point.

Dang, I thought for a moment there that Hyouka had yuri in it, but, alas, I looked up Oreki and he's a dude. Still a solid anime from what I hear though, so I'll probably watch it at some point.

It's fantastic. Probably KyoAni's strongest adaptation.

But yeah, I only brought it up to point out that when you think about it, needing someone to turn to the camera and say "I love you" is a bar a lot of stuff we usually think of as romances doesn't actually clear. So there's no real reason to hold what amounts to a (very good) side romance to that standard here.

last edited at Jul 10, 2017 7:34PM

Can this even be considered subtext now?

Only in the strictest "why don't they kiss" sense. For all practical purposes I'm pretty sure Rin being in love with Kou is as canon as Oreki being in love with Chitanda in Hyouka at this point.

I mean I don't want to spoil the end of volume 6 but I really want to spoil the end of volume 6.

Do it