I don’t understand the mentality of someone who reads a harem series and doesn’t want it to end with a polycule.
Do they just enjoy watching half the characters get their hearts broken or something? I’m genuinely curious what they get out of it.
(Obviously not everything has to be polyam, but it’s really underrepresented in media, so I’d like to see more of it and harem series are pretty much halfway there already so,)

That's not how people like that think.

Harem members are there for fanservice, but they aren't considered real characters unless they're the alpha-mate, or their closest competitor.

So their feelings can't really be hurt either. The harem is just treated as a window dressing for a more standard love triangle setup.

last edited at Jul 4, 2022 6:04AM

These two are like pure embodiment of "idiot couple" trope.

Ep 13 was when Aoi just plain came out, and every other character was like "Umu, umu. Girl, you're so gay for Eve". Eve just can't stop herself from teasing Aoi at all, she thinks she has it "under control" but she's falling for her too. Whole thing was cute and funny.

11 more episodes are listed for next year, so fun isn't over yet.

Vincent, that indeed was pretty close to truth.

Also, the seminal yuri novel, "Two Virgins in the Attic" was also published as early as 1919. This novel dared to suggest that two women could go on in a relationship even after high school... And the author (Nobuko Yoshiya) herself did too. She lived together with her lov... "friend" for a long time.

Utako seems like someone who can't stay in one place for more then a little bit at a time. Even if she does show up a few times a year Akira would be dumb to get into an actual relationship with her unless she's gonna turn into a nomad herself. This is gonna be an interesting story as it more seems like Utako just wants to have "fun" with her and then dip out after a few weeks again.

Isn't the actual context of Utako quite the opposite?

Utako is absolutely smitten by Akiko. Heck, she's coming back again and again to her specifically despite being a travelling type and bringing more "boyfriend repellent" charms for Akiko and is rather annoyed it hasn't worked so far. She's pining out of sight on the balcony.

There is no indication she'd just want some light fun with her. If that was the case, she'd just seduce her on the spot, or maybe just ask for a threesome... She wouldn't have any real skin on the game. Being rejected would be little bit annoying, but that's about it.

last edited at Jun 23, 2022 6:01PM

"What exactly are we--Nozomi-san and I?" Shino, we've been asking the same thing for 40 chapters, if not 109. Questioning that relationship is like falling down a rabbit hole (you are here).

And "At any rate, if we always stay like this, things might get difficult." Always? Difficult? The sister-like relationship seems fine, it doesn't seem like it will hold back Nozomi. That sentence doesn't make sense without it being either overly embarrassed or intentional subtext. Maybe the publication will take a different angle, but at this point if the story doesn't follow through on the subtext it's a plot hole.

The way it works here is that Shino questions her relationships towards other people, but she never, ever properly questions who Shino is and nails it down. By lacking self-understanding, she also ends up lacking tools to define what her relationships are. You can't measure a true distance between two people, if you can't even find one of the measuring points.

At this point, just about all other characters probably know who Shino is better than she does.

A brave move on part of the author, considering it's otherwise a fluffy age gap thing. Entire process of Shiina winding herself up way too horny, insecure and desperate was rather decently portrayed. Instead of leaning into "contextualess psycho lesbian" trope, it was by someone who is pretty regular and just loses their mind for a day.

Does need a good follow-up, though. We'll see.

last edited at Jun 15, 2022 5:02AM

The kiss activated something in my heart, the feeling of wanting happiness. Like for a moment I suddenly understand how it feel for cheating people, knowing cheating is bad but can’t resist it. Raw feeling, I guess. I just want to see the girls living together, having kids and wipe off all the drama

Having kids and wiping drama... What... No, no, absolutely no. Does not compute.

Having kids causes more drama. Lots, and lots of it. :)

last edited at Jun 3, 2022 11:49PM

Sounds like a great title for a new yuri isekai.

"Step-siblings can get married."

... what?

Japan has a law like that for sake of business succession.

What usually happens is the guy who marries into a business family becomes a family member at the same time they are getting married, as adopted son of that family. Business adoption.

Sometimes readers complain that yuri manga plots are unrealistic. Syah right, they make me lmao a lot. Next to shounen manga's romantic comedies, most yuri series read like Dostoyevsky. Even the ones who are self-satisfaction fantasies and not to be taken seriously.

Worst two things about your average garbage rom-com with male protagonist are:

1) He's really average or below average looking man with little to no redeeming qualities.

And yet for some reason every woman within 10 kilometers wants him, and is willing to go incredibly degrading lengths to make that happen, regardless of what their characterization should be, based on their age / education level / general personality.

It's way worse than reverse of this is in shoujo, there the worst problem is that all men are "perfect", more like gods than real people.

2) Harem aspect. Women may compete for a guy, but most of the time it stays unnaturally civil, and often even the most jealous woman will end up being happy to share with other competitors, even though none of them is getting any real satisfaction or attention from him. Nobody ever walks away from the competition either in anger after feeling rejected. They all stay in the plot, and sometimes are still after this nobody even when he managed to force himself to "choose one".

Yuri harems are rare, and usually lampoon the concept or make it seem more plausible. Like "She Gets Girls Every Day", where the protagonist is incredibly attractive and sweet girl, who arguably really could charm every non-straight woman she meets.

last edited at Apr 21, 2022 5:05AM

The name of this series seems to say that these brides are "indifferent", which is the main meaning of iberis flower in "flower language".

To be sure, they do seem to be that way. One is just coasting along to marriage while playing around, and another one doesn't really want to marry, but can't come up with a reason not to either.

Kind of thing that easily turns into a real nightmare swamp.

And here it is…really sad ending, it’s quite something to see how both of them got worse in real time. It’s crazy to the think the true catalyst to this downward spiral was Airi and her obsession with how she was perceived at school, it’s genuinely pretty sad to see her so co dependent.

Airi and her narcissistic personality disorder was handled pretty well, even to the very end. She just wants not to lose her public image and being forced to face herself and possible scorn of others. it's driving her crazy and she wants to control something, anything.

Everything is centered around her, even as she asks to be killed so she can be "eternal". She didn't really consider what would happen to Hinako afterwards.

Last delusion of Hinako as she freezes to death is just so sad. She is talking to the Airi she wanted to love, but didn't quite exist. That it happens at little children's playground is just icing on the cake.

last edited at Feb 24, 2022 11:13PM

I love these sorts of very detailed panels. It can tell you a lot with absolutely no dialogue or even further context.

Girl in forefront seems to have engagement ring on her left hand (you can just barely see it in the mirror). She seems confident from her back, but actually blushing, little bit insecure and maidenly in the mirror.

The other woman seems to be calling her to come and talk with her. She's striking slightly provocative pose, angling and displaying her beautiful leg suggestively. I can kind of feel her rate of movement and mannerisms just from this still image. Like slowly pulling out her purse and pretending to be searching for a cigarette lighter, so the other woman would come and offer her some light.

In other manga they said Japan had legalised same-sex marriage. Is that true or just their fantasy?

Yes. It is indeed fantasy at the moment. Things are changing, and there's a lot of grass-roots support, but the government is super conservative. Just few months ago, LDP's politicians were spouting hateful anti-LGBT rhetoric straight to media. For example, indicating that only good citizens are those who breed, or that "equality has gone too far"... So yeah...

Recently, there was a court case that decided this limitation to marriage in Article 24 is unconstitutional, as it goes against Article 14 of the same document. However, regardless of that, lawmakers have to actually take this issue to the table and change the Constitution. Which is far easier said than done, because Constitution also has things relating to status of the Defense Forces.

last edited at Jan 25, 2022 4:27AM

This kind of reminds me of "A Summer's End", a really lovely yuri visual novel set in 1980's Hong Kong, with two adult main characters:

https://yuriempire.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/a-summers-end-hong-kong-1986-yuri-visual-novel-announced/

This is likely the very best pseudo-realistic yuri romance SoL there is, and a couple who actually has both the personal chemistry and work-related reasons to stay together.

Just for those reasons alone, it's a gem.

Then you can also add to that some very nice art that feels soft and pleasant to eyes.

last edited at Dec 18, 2021 2:47PM

Mai-chan is definitely in love with Tae. I have faith in Mai-chan. If nothing else, they can sneak off on trips where no one will know the age difference.

I think the cops would just arrest Mai for sexually harassing a minor, and "lying" about her age. Until they get back to the station and have a serious mental breakdown out of absurdity of her age vs her outwardly maturity.

last edited at Dec 15, 2021 8:30PM

I love this (´;︵;`) and it's so tiring how mangaka's put unnecessary stuffs like stuffs in kakegurui or mieruko-chan and some other ecchi stuff. And how they think that if a girl gets sexually harassed they're gonna get all flustered and shy ¯_ಠ_ಠ_/¯ and don't even get me started by how literal middle school girls/CHILDREN is sooooooo sexualized in social media.

Is that even a surprise, when actual parents ship their 3-year olds with their neighbors kid and have done so for ages, well before social media was a thing? Dress them up as "ladies" and "gentlemen", and arrange dances and all that. It's kind of like they're playing some sort of creepy Barbie and Ken doll game.

last edited at Dec 10, 2021 4:52AM

This is genuinely one of the best pieces of yuri I've ever read and we are only 3 chapters in. I am genuinely loosing my mind this is everything I've ever wanted in a yuri

I always cringe a bit when I see manga kind of making fun of poor work culture in Japan. Many authors seem to have given up themselves and ended up as nihilistic wrecks who can't even portray it as it is. That humor feels so painful to read. Like Miss Kobayashi and her weekly "death march" at her software company.

Here we actually have a honest portrayal of the emotional mess you can end up, just because you weren't picked from a large group of people to run in the rat wheel. That's something that can definitely be appreciated.

Also, this artist seems to be really good at portraying emotions and movement. Lots of interesting faces, poses and viewpoints. Light and shadow also being effectively used for moods, like how the girl who could not find a job was unraveling panel by panel, like she was just a ball of yarn being torn apart by society.

I hope this new lady can be a good addition to the cast. We have two kind of neurotic main characters, so someone bit more laid back would be welcome.

Here's a real world version of a Japanese worker who had enough of the rat race, and decided to move to live at abandoned country-side school that is located in a rather mountainous part of Japan, and is also hosting a little cafe for anyone traveling in the area:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i2Ndgrgcu8

Since reading ch2 and ch3 most of my anxiety has calmed down. To put my fears to words, I was so scared of their savings running out, not having food, and what insurance they'll have if someone gets sick or injured. I'm not familiar with how healthcare is in japan, but where I am it's tied to your job. Given its tone, i doubt such things will be addressed so I'm sure I have nothing to be afraid of.

Japan has universal healthcare. It's just that like bus and train companies, many hospitals operate as private businesses that are heavily regulated by the government and not allowed to run over citizens rights and price gouge as they want, like in places where bribing government for policy is practically legal and expected.

Not really seeing poly here, nor harem. Just a love chain.

i do not like lgbt shit because it´s a political movement but same sex atraction it´s a normal thing for humans

That sort of position is untenable. I kind of feel bit sick I even have to make this post, to be honest.

You see, the reason LGBT exists as a group and concept is because these people were constantly put down, misunderstood, targeted, harassed and generally treated as sub-human with less or no rights under the law. I've seen and experienced some of it myself, but was thankfully born late enough to avoid the worst horrors. People finally banded together, and endlessly fought and educated the public just to even get them to see us as normal people, who are also worthy of normal human rights and protections that every citizen should have.

All you need to do is to go back in the good old 1950's in United States, and you'll find out that some people were taken to mental institutions through law enforcement, and those people were then lobotomized! That was one of the legal "cures" for homosexuality at that time.

You also had people running in panic out of public swimming pools, if they heard there might be a homosexual person in there, because of various scares like homosexuality being contagious through any kind of personal contact, or that people got "actively recruited to be gay/bi" (thanks a bunch for that, Anita Bryant), or bit later, you had the AIDS scare that Ronald Reagan was more than happy to use as a political bludgeon and stoke up the fear from his bully pulpit.

Fired from your job because you're gay? Check.

No adoption, because you're not straight? Check.

Children and right to meet them taken away in divorce, just because you're not straight? Check.

No loans or building permits, because homosexual? Even as late as 1980-2015, statistically you were 73% more likely to be denied a house loan as a same sex couple. Check!

Police literally raiding your business (bar or whever else), because there might be gays or something in there, and beating up and arresting people just because they were born? This eventually lead to events of Stonewall. Check!

No talking about anything except straight people in school by teachers or students (no promo homo legislation), or you'll be thrown out / fired! Check! This list just goes on and on and on.

So unfortunately, it is those other "normal people" with religiously or personally inspired, bigoted beliefs who turned this into a political issue by using force, coercion and outright abuse. Many of these things were also things women had to fight for. Financial independence was hardly automatically granted to women, and in many countries it took ages to let them even have things like their own savings accounts at bank, without approval of a male relative or male spouse.

last edited at Dec 2, 2021 1:07AM

Freudian slap...

is yuri here as slow as the title goes?
is there any real yuri at all?
or just good old touchy-feely just good friends subtext?

Eiko and the Teach are like epitome of yuri, with a blazing hot mutual attraction. I honestly think that especially the anime version of the scene where Eiko helps Enami to get back in her home, is one of the gayest things ever, and manga has multiple scenes like that.

Slow Start! has at least 5 homosexual women (none of them have shown any interest towards men/boys who do exist in this universe, so that's the context right now).

Eiko, the chick magnet. Enami, a teacher who is gay for Eiko and Eiko is as gay for her. Tamate, who is very epitome of a frantic comedic disaster lesbian. Cute little Kamuri, who loves Eiko, but Eiko loves her more as a little sister. Sachi, who is Eiko's biggest fan girl. Main character Hana is kind of more concerned about her life in general, and doesn't think too much about romantic things.