Imo, the problem with using both tags is in fact the fetishistic nature of this genre (big boobs, big cocks, big libido, lots of fluids... Although I suppose even the fact a character has both sets of genitals counts as fetishistic). I see little reason not to use the Yuri tag because of a penis otherwise. Unless you're a transphobe, but then your opinion shouldn't matter in the first place.

Then again, Yuri can be fetishistic too, so I can't say how much that holds up. Also I have read some futa (some of the only I bother remembering) in Love Live doujins that was handled very tastefully. It wasn't fetishistic at all and actually rather tame. Something that would be too vanilla even for het porn I suppose. Realism is rare in the genre I think, but it can work.

Talking about the topic of transsexuality and body conformism is... complicated. But although I find your attitude admirable, there is absolutely a relevance for context. Yes, technically a woman can have a penis if it is a trans woman. Technically. But as I pointed out, futanari and transsexuality are not the same. The only valid comparison is a real life hermaphrodite with both sex organs, which is so beyond rare that it is nearly considered a miracle. Hermaphrodites are not really women. Though by the few cases I know, they generally are allowed to choose their official sex in real life at least. It's a fringe case that makes classification very hard.

Point is, when you tag something you want to be aware of what the audience expects. On a trans story you will have the Trans tag on top of the Yuri tag if it is a trans woman loving another woman. Though on a mental level most may agree that a trans woman is a woman, it doesnt mean physical rejection will disappear. Much like the majority (not all of course) of lesbians tend to avoid dating trans women, so will many also not want to see sex with a trans woman. So the tags are in conjunction, because they both apply and inform/warn.

But with futanari, there is an inherent understanding that the futanari is not a woman, but can be treated like one. It is optional though and there is disagreement that cannot be objectively nailed down like you can with trans. To make it really clear why this doesn't work is this: If futanari by default are considered women, then you would not have to tag it Futanari. Yuri on its own would be more than enough to describe a futanari x female work at its most basic. I dont think you will find a single person who agrees with that, at least in the yuri community.

Until you happen to need to build an ancient greek ship, that is.

It might be easier to build a modern sailing boat to be frank!

last edited at Jan 26, 2022 1:25PM

(yes I know this essay long post will put doubt on that haha)

It really did...

Hahaha. As a professional overthinker I can invest myself in matters that I do not have all that much contact with. One time I fell into the rabbit hole of ancient Greek ship making, knowledge so useless it may as well reduce my overall intelligence. But now I can write an essay about penteconters and why they are really versatile ships.

Also I do read some futanari content on occasion, so I naturally do have an interest. Otherwise I wouldn't even have joined the discussion.

Oh my... after seeing that "debate" I understand why this thread kept popping up for the last few days. I almost believed there was some interesting discussion about the tag, but alas.

Then I want to share something more constructtive. Although Futanari is not a tag I engage with overly much (yes I know this essay long post will put doubt on that haha), I do occasionally find it an inoffensive addition to some scenarios.

I think what we first need to establish here is that the tag is exceptionally malleable. It can be adjusted to an artist's preferences to a much larger degree than most other fetish tags and I think that is one of its strengths. While the original concept is 100% a hermaphrodite woman with both sexual organs, I have witnessed endless varieties by now (even scenarios with a strongly enlarged clitoris being equated to futanari). It has come to the point where the tags even try to acommodate such things, at least on more in-depth pornographc sites.

The most standard futanari would be, of course, a woman with a penis above her vagina (optional testicles are just another sub-variety). She is 100% a woman, only with an additional body part. This is no different from a woman with a third arm or an extra eye... it is not pretty to look at, but she is a woman nontheless. There is the addition of perhaps some male hormonal imbalance that causes the kind of fetishistic scenarios people associate with the genre, but in essence this is just a woman anyway. I have seen good arguments being made that a standard futanari dating/sleeping with a woman (futanari x female) is in essence still a lesbian experience, but I can also see why this seems unacceptable to many (lesbians or otherwise). The separation of the tags makes sense, because while both opinions exist, the ones being harmed more by mixing the tags are those who are with the more relevant audience (Yuri). Someone who is into Futanari content surely can just be satisfied with that tag on its own and won't be bothered if it contains more yuri than futa, but the very notion that something is tagged yuri and reveals futanari all of a sudden can be... traumatic to some.

I think what we all can agree on is that Futanari x male (or the reverse) is neither Yuri nor BL. While I have seen the sentiment that reading futanari x male makes a male reader "gay", I don't believe this is something with any serious backing. Ultimately it is in essence just Het.

The second most common type of Futanari would be the one that has become more popular lately, unfortunately, in my opinion. The futanari that only has the male sex organ. This is the reason why there has been a strong misconception about Futanari being equatable to Transsexual lately. Many sites combat this by making a distinction between Futanari and Shemale (a tag that also gets conflated with trans too much, but uh, small victories). Ultimately this variation on futanari goes against the original intent of the tag, but it is not completely wrong, as hermaphroditism does not automatically mean two primary sexual features of both sexes. Having breasts and female anatomy (secondary sexual features) with male genitalia in itself is hermaphroditism. But transsexuality is not hermaprhoditism. So stories about transsexuals in the middle of physical transition are not Futanari in concept.

On the topic on why futanari can appeal to lesbians: As I pointed out in the first section, many can argue that futanari x female is lesbian in concept. In fact it is entirely possible to completely ignore the male organ and only focus on the female one (though then it would be questionable why this is even a futanari story). Quite a few doujins and the like even start out with a completely born female gaining the extra body part through magic, science or being just very horny. In those cases it is even more understandable why this is just a lesbian experience to many people.
If we alter our perspective slightly, a futanari is essentially a woman with a strap-on... made of muscle tissue. The other aspect that is both of interest and contentious is of course the ability of producing semen. A futanari can give a woman something that many lesbians dream of being able to... a child. So if we combine all these factors we have what is essentially still a woman, who uses a strap-on (something most lesbians can relate to) and has the ability to get her partner pregnant. This is ultimately wish fulfillment, which is what sexual fantasies tend to thrive on. Is it messy? Is it perhaps a bit too heteronormative? Absolutely. But there is no need to treat fetish fantasies like real life desires.

On the topic of how futanari can be implemented organically into fiction outside of porn: In many fantasy stories there are hermaphrodite races. It is not uncommon at all, though it is generally not the focus (unless it is a porn game or a eroge). If the race is strongly humanoid (elf, fairy etc.) this is basically the same as human futanari. There are also "all female" tribe/nation/country scenarios where the concept is more implied or assumed. When this biological aspect is left as background information it can be rather unobtrusive. Until one of the women gets pregnant with her female partner, but well, that is not a bad thing for stories that span generations. Lesbians in long-term fantasy usually face the issue with not having progeny (outside of adoption).

Uhm... so yeah. This was my dissertation on a fetish tag. I will be here all week.

last edited at Jan 26, 2022 10:31AM

This story truly is predictable in its horny wish fulfillment, but I almost respect it for that.
It is also admirable that it did not default to Seto being bottom for the older Nanasawa and top for the younger. The moment she actually was sure what she wants she did not hesitate any longer. It is good that we were made aware early on that all three of these girls are libido machines, so they can justify Seto doing double the amount of girlfriend duty in a day.

This triangle has been portrayed this way for a while now. Mostly because Fauna has admitted to having interest in both of them and not feeling jealous about it.

^The trope of giving weak denial to shameful acts is a Japanese matter in general. It is seen as proper for a woman to not show that she is into lewd acts. Therefore it is just expected in porn that the woman gives lipservice about being ashamed until "pleasure overtakes her and makes her honest". It is less rapey and just deeply sexist in origin. This has become so ingrained of course that it happens in Yuri just as much.

This time let us look at one high production value VN, one moeblob VN and one fetish VN.

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Perfect Gold

Synopsis: Audrey Clary, heiress and LeFay Academy's brightest alchemy student, is about to have her first and worst detention experience of all time. It's bad enough that she has to stay in detention during Sunflower Day—it's even worse that she's stuck in detention with the one and only Marion LaRue, the self-proclaimed “Chaotic Fireball Legend” of LeFay Academy.

Marion LaRue is not having a fun day at all. What was meant to be a harmless little fire turned into an explosion that has her stuck in detention, missing out on one of the rare opportunities for her to enjoy life outside the academy. And of course she just had to be stuck with Audrey Clary, of all the high class LeFay students she could be in detention with.

Determined to not miss out on the long-awaited festival, Audrey and Marion begrudgingly work together to escape detention and find their way to the festival. As they explore the city and celebrate the Sunflower Festival together, an old friendship is rekindled, and new feelings begin to bloom.

Duration? Short (ca. 5 hours)

Gameplay? A choice based visual novel with a railroaded plot. Your choices merely affect the ending and otherwise deviate the scenes slightly where they are made. The plot shifts between the present events and the past often and does so on top of switching perspectives between Marion and Audrey. The game has beautiful semi-animated CGs, lots of polish in its sprites, HUD and transitions. It is fully voice acted and generally exudes production quality.

Yuri? Absolutely. The central focus lies on Marion and Audrey’s complicated relationship that used to be so very different just a year ago. The two have romantic chemistry and sexual tension for days and despite their current bad blood, this always shines through. All you want is for them to get back together and stop being useless lesbians, but alas, that is the point. Despite their awkward first love, when they start flirting it makes everything feel tingly all over.

Audrey is such a top, have you SEEN her pants, holy shit, she is just the most posh lesbian with a heart of gold gaaah, the icy-cold way she said “That is something we will never agree on” when Marion said boys aren’t so bad ohohoh

Ahem. Their interactions are cute, but their potential relationship is challenged by their society and standing in many ways and it does get addressed without hesitation that same-sex love is not an easy path to take, on top of their inherent issues with their school life and future prospects. The world building in this game is very strong as well, but never overshadows the central themes and romance one bit.

Version? There is only one version of Perfect Gold, so no need to compare.

Sexual content? None.

Recommended? Yes by all means, if you have any interest in Yuri, read it! The story-telling device of consistent time-jumps may be hampering the experience a bit to some, but this is the gold standard (pun fully intended) of Yuri Visual Novels from outside Japan. It is available on Steam.

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Lilycle Rainbow Stage!!!

Synopsis:

Yuno loves Tamaki’s smile, and wants her to witness her dreams coming true.... though having not seen much of Tamaki lately, Yuno’s been feeling somewhat down. She depends on Saeka a lot, and since the latter always comforts her in times of need, Yuno can feels as though she can talk about her problems without a care in the world.

Tamaki wishes with all her might that she could keep watching over Yuno, who’s always been number one in her heart... but the circumstances around her are changing, little by little. It's not only one girl she has to keep watch over now, after all. Saeka has always been dependable and supportive, and Tamaki's has begun to feel confused...

“Sigh... Looks like she always needs someone by her side too...”

Saeka still has a crush on Yuno, but has been enraptured by Tamaki's aura, and finds that she can’t leave her alone. Recently, she's been mulling over whether or not she wants to try and change the way she is...

As they chat, grow closer, become jealous, get embarrassed, and laugh...

The crisscrossing emotions of these three girls allow this warm yet slightly bitter story to unfold…

That… is the MangaGamer synopsis. Now let me give you my synopsis instead:
A bunch of girls really do love each other that way, because they are special to each other and only they can make each other feel that way, because it really is love and she is so cute, really cute, she is the only one who makes her feel that way about being cute, so it definitely is love that she feels only for that special girl and nobody else.

Duration? Long (18-25 hours). Highly depends on whether you let the voice lines finish.

Gameplay? Lilycle can perhaps most aptly be compared to Kindred Spirits on the Roof from my previous recommendation post. The player selects events from a calendar and progresses the individual couples’ relationships by doing so. There are common events that are about the friendship groups of girls from the North and South high schools either respectively or intermingled. Sometimes events in past months will be unlocked after playing a later one, but it is rare.

The game features a handful of events with choices. As far as I can tell only the choices in May actually matter to unlocking any content, but with the nature of this game it is completely possible to just replay an event and pick the other option and still unlock everything. The game permanently records selected choices, unlocks and whether you read an event, so it is only accumulative, not subtractive in any way.

All couples have one straightforward “route” with the exception of the central main trio, who can have any combination of relationships with each other depending on what choices you made to unlock routes (again, it is accumulative so you can experience all three routes simultaneously, even though they are mutually exclusive in-universe).

The game is fully voice acted and features a strong and memorable moe-up-the-butt artstyle and the presentation is equally colorful and cutesy. The sprites aren’t anything to write home about (outside of the blinking feature). There are quite a few CGs and also some occasional cut-in arts that really give the game some life. The calendar is also really appealing and easy to navigate. But I must say… those big dead fish eyes are unnerving and never quite seem to align with where they are supposed to look.

Yuri? My slightly tongue-in cheek synopsis says it all. The girls are gay, they are gay for each other and everything revolves around the teeth-rottingly sweet love they share.

WARNING: There is an incest couple in this story. You can ignore all their romantic events if that is not to your taste.

Version? There is only one version, but the VN is based on a drama CD series that laid a lot of groundwork for the established couples, so it may be worth checking those out if you can find a translation.

Sexual content? None. Insane amounts of handholding, though.

Recommended? If you like moe art, lots of couples and more sweet tender love than you can handle, this is for you. Available on Steam and MangaGamer.

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Lucy Got Problems

Synopsis: Lucy, a greenhorn succubus spy, arrives in the elven forest... and soon realizes she has no idea why. What was her mission, actually?! The only thing that's clear – her superior, Priestess Tiamat, will be really mad if she'll get back empty-handed! Lucy has to figure something out real quick, or she'll never know how her mistresses' panties look like. And she'll probably be fed to the sinister astral squids...
Find your way around and get along with the forest dwellers using Lucy's well-developed personality and exceptional internal qualities.
Do the impossible, touch the untouchable and have fun, of course!

Duration? Short (5-7 hous). Highly dependent on how close you want to get to 100% lines read.

Gameplay? Lucy Got Problems is a choice based Visual Novel and I have never meant this more literally. The game has a fairly short plot overall, but the variety of choices and outcomes is immense. There is a “Read Text” percentage in the menus and I confess that I could not make it past 98% despite trying absolutely every combination I could think of. This was after seeing every ending, event and content in the game mind you. That’s how much variation in dialogue or descriptions can exist even between events you did play. The branching trees and conditions are frankly absurd in some cases. Getting certain endings requires discipline or trial and error.

Outside of the choices, there is a predestined narrative trajectory that can only be avoided by bad ends, but that is just how the plot is set up. Though you technically end up in “the same place”, it is with a very different outlook and journey. You can affect the lives of the forest dwellers a lot, even if Lucy’s own fate is rather binary.

At its core this story is a light-hearted romp as the synopsis probably already conveyed. The game mostly doesn’t take itself too seriously and has fun with its absurd scenarios. There are plenty of CGs and some very… stylized art (read: fetish fuel).

Yuri? I have no qualms with calling this what it is: A fetish game. It is reminiscent of so many ero-trap this-or-that stories. While Lucy is very overtly a lesbian succubus (her entire goal in life is to see her mistress Tiamat’s panties (the demon priestess with an all-female harem by the way)) and the forest is filled to the brim with gay elf girls and witches, there is still plenty of non-yuri sexual content as well that involves the environment. The typical slime play, sentient vine rape and the, blegh sigh… p0n0s fish swarms. How much of that someone can handle varies, so that’s why this game is in the “Majorly Yuri Content” category.

Don’t get me wrong though, there are several straightforward lesbian sex scenes and they are decent for what they are. But for some reason it feels like they are hidden behind more complicated choice trees than everything else… That being said, when the game deigns to actually invest itself in the plot and characters the emotions can actually get really genuine.

Do it for Tiamat. Do it for her. She is worth it.

Version? There is only one version of Lucy Got Problems, so there is no need to compare. The uncensored sexual content is hidden behind free 18+ DLC on Steam though.

Sexual content? Yes, get the 18+ patch if necessary. There is no point in playing this without it. I already elaborated on the type of content to expect in the Yuri section. The Steam version has an honest-to-god achievement for turning the censorship on and off.

Recommended? If you want something funny, yet somehow intriguing and don’t mind obscenely fetishized content, then this could be to your liking. I enjoyed it more for the humor than the porn, that’s for sure. Except Tiamat. Do it for her. Be loyal, you incompetent succubus!
The game is available on Steam, MangaGamer and JAST USA.

To be fair, that's because both chapters have only covered a small part of a single photoshoot, so very little time has passed.

Why yes, that would be the pacing issue I was refering to.

I have rarely seen art that was so aggressively intent on invading my personal space. It has more close-ups than an Indian soap opera. While it does wonders in giving me very distinct impressions of the women's emotions, it also destroys the pacing. It has been two chapters and yet I felt like barely anything happened at all.

This one will be worth it at the very least for the art, but I would love if there was a little more substance.

last edited at Jan 23, 2022 4:05PM

Eco friendly strap-on.

^"Look they are kissing! What dorks!"

last edited at Jan 22, 2022 10:51AM

The most amazing part is how she already gave her pointless CPR before the makeout session.

The best Eeveelutions with the best tag. Truly the pinncale of Pokemon to human transformations.

Thumb rings are one of the worst ideas if you want to have a semi-decent use of your hand. But the picture is absolutely gorgeous.

Maybe your pride is not worth upsetting your emotionally fragile nearly suicidal girlfriend. There is a time and a place for everything, even being a tsundere.

Dealing with sexism one common sense lecture at a time.

Hmm, I've been interested in playing Aoishiro for a while, but heard it is a bit bloated. I wonder if there is anybody who played it before and can recommend it to me? The sheer amount of routes and bad endings seems daunting, but also intriguing.

Speaking of double packs there's also Yukkuri Panic Escalation from jast... its a 2000s reboot of the yuri chapter from the 1980s Cream Lemon hentai OVA series. It includes both a Qix game (for that 1980s gameplay) version and a VN version. There's not exactly much to it but the original OVA was groundbreaking for 1984.

Very well, I have added them. I haven't played this kind of puzzle game in a long time and it seems rather cumbersome, so the full on Visual Novel version is probably preferable. As is blatantly obvious from my initial list, I do not play pure porn games much. So if someone asks about their appeal I will leave that to others.

last edited at Jan 21, 2022 9:00AM

I don't see Wanting Wings & Faraway Feathers (bundle from MangaGamer) or Curse of Kudan (also MG) on your list.

And if yandere is your thing Suteki na Kanojo no Tsukurikata is a pretty short good time.

As mentioned in my introduction, the list (for now) only contained games I myself played. I have not read any of the ones you listed here, that's why they are absent. I will add them now. Going by their synopsis and tags I assume they are full on yuri focused experiences?

If you have played them and have anything in particular to say about them it would be very helpful, as I can naturally not give a recommendation for works I don't know.

last edited at Jan 20, 2022 7:12AM

I'm not sure how I'll survive until Hiver comes out this year (well, if it comes out this year, because no one can guarantee that; on one hand, the established release pattern indicates that JAST USA might make an announcement between April and June, and release the novel itself between July and late August; but on the other, with an ongoing pandemic their release schedule might be affected so much that it will change completely). The only thing that is currently saving me from the all-consuming anxiety about the finale of the series is a fact that my perfectly accurate and scientifically substantiated hypotheses and theories about the actual secret behind the final mystery of the academy and Mayuri's fate are telling me that everything will be...well, at least somewhat daijoubu.

I indeed pray that this pattern will be kept intact. I may consider myself lucky to have read all three chapters relatively recently without having to wait. Hiver potentially coming out this year is a great boon as I cannot even imagine how peiople must have felt when they read Printemps right as it was released years ago.
As for the prediction, well, I cannot say. All I know and this is a spoiler within this spoiler field, is that I saw a picture of Mayuri and Suoh's sprites on the same screen, with Mayuri wearing the distinct winter uniform. So whatever truly transpired, it is all but a given that she will at least return to the school somehow.

Ah, thank you for invitation. I have a whole bunch of thoughts on the series which I want to pour out in some form, so I would really like to write a thorough recommendation. But writing long posts/texts in English can be a bit too draining to me, and I've been kinda low on energy lately, so I won't promise that I will do it in the near future. This comment on Reddit is the only substantial thing that I've managed to force out of myself, lol.

I wouldn't pressure you into writing a full-fledged essay of a review. Even just some simple thoughts like you gave in this thread would be appreciated. It would be wonderful if we could garner more interest for the series in any way. While I could write my own recommendation, I fear I have far too many other VNs to do it for and if I see someone who can wholeheartedly vouch for one of them in my stead it makes me happy.

On a side note, I would like to recommend a great review of Automne that I've found just yesterday. It perfectly incapsulates a lot of my own feelings.

That review is... passionate to say the least.

Is this all-girls school actually a typical yuri garden or are the girls far more normal human beings than they seem?

A good question. On one hand, when we first see Fujiyama and her Onee-sama meet, they look quite like an example of the former - although likely through Fuyu's yuri goggles. On the other hand, she has no problem inviting the other two to join their tea party, so there may well be nothing more to it.

...and then there's of course the third option of both being correct and Fujiyama just not quite yet understanding what she's gotten into either. :D

To be fair, having a tea party at a rose house is such an unfathomably well-to-do Ojou-sama trope in itself that it would support the yuri garden idea regardless of who is invited.
What tipped me off to the idea that this is only a surface impression is that the fine lady who suggested the tea party still promised to go french fry eating another time like it was not unusual.

Even if inded all the girls at this academy turn out to be raging lesbians as it were, my concern is more with how much of the Marimite veil can be drawn aside and what hides behind it.

last edited at Jan 19, 2022 5:25PM

Ah yes, the old country girls don't understand the finances of cityfolk chestnut. It did seem rather fishy to me that she can afford all this as an author. But when it comes to manga the exceptional can be sold all too easily as the standard. Even as we trade the setting of an unbelievably successful author with a rich CEO's daughter it seems about equally extreme.

This manga is very intent on pushing for the greatest contrast possible between the two main characters. Age, finances, family situation, maturity, education, success, life skills, interests. They all are far apart. The question is whether there are simply commonalities that are not immediately apparent (like homosexuality) or whether it is a more traditional story of pulling each other into unfamiliar territory to become more complete as people.

Myaa-san is the true driving force of this plot without any screentime. Truly remarkable.

This story is directly challenging the established yuri convention of women in love with women who are very carefully made not gay, and all the effort that typically goes into avoiding any societal commentary. Call it escapist fantasy, call it squeamish, I’ve been getting pretty frustrated with Japanese yuri lately because of how it feels like there’s this layer of film separating it from reality. A lot of the Chinese and Korean modern-setting yuri has this more grounded sense of reality and verisimilitude, because the gay women are fucking gay, whether they’re on lesbian internet communities, have read shit like Citrus and make references to it, talk about the dangers of falling for straight girls, or literally just use the word lesbian at all, ever, at any point in their series.

As I brought it up in the first place I can only say that this is exactly my perspective on the matter as well. While there are notable exceptions that have a more grounded view of lesbianism in Japan, they still tend to pull their punches or keep things focused on just one issue at a time.
Something I need to point out, however, is that labels are hugely unpopular in Japan, even within the LGBT community. At least the more straightfoward type of the West. Of course you could make a very strong case for cause and effect being reversed here... no labels due to negative reaction to labels is an all too common development. Only does it seem to have been more culturally persistent in Japan to the point where even the involved parties keep it to a minimum within their own ranks. While naturally a lesbian bar will have many women who can tell you exactly what they prefer, it is still more than common for such women to not seek out those communities in the first place. As expected of a society where even the interactions between the opposite sex are kept to an awkward minimum.

Nearly all Japanese yuri series I’ve read on this site seem to exist in a world where there is zero queer community, zero place for self-identification as someone who is attracted to women—where all the trappings of a heteronormative society exist, like comparing one’s love interest to boys or a presented scarcity of female/female couples, or where characters start out unaware that women can even be together. You know who doesn’t do that? Still Sick, So do you want to go out or…?, and Even if it was just once, and do you know what else they have in common? They fucking slap, first off, but also they are innovative and soulful, and I still think about them months or years after I’ve been reading them.

Though I have my own misgivings with "So do you want to go out or...?", I can see your point about the level of acknowledgement that all those series deal with (though "Even if it was just once I regret it" being on the more superficial side on that topic). All I want to ask is to also understand that different series go for different things. It is disappointing how few series actually delve into the nitty-gritty of homosexual life in such a place, but many of the tropes you mentioned also attempt to deal with ignorance and bigotry in their own way. Often enough the isolation of being completely disconnected from homosexual communities or even proper education on the topic at all is the most painful reality. And for those people who may find themselves in such a lot or spend a considerable chunk of their lives in it, the wish fulfillment of a world where this can be the case and a yuri protagonist still finds unconditional happiness is a rewarding experience.

Alas, it is usually simply a side-effect of the author themselves having no experience with the topic, so perhaps I give too much credit.

I’m hype as fuck for this manga, and if you’re not, that’s cool, but I’m not hearing it when people start talking this “clichéd” shit like it’s not brave as hell for the artist to defy genre conventions so starkly and bring up real societal ills that seemingly nobody else will speak to.

Brave? Perhaps not. Subvertive and intriguing? For sure. Though after three chapters it is hard to gauge how much of this manga will truly focus on that aspect in particular. I believe the author used these matters to ground the setting and characters, but the real meat of it may be in different areas.

last edited at Jan 19, 2022 5:59PM

Never meet your heroes. A sports fan should not join a sports team. Professionals don't use what they sell.
Could it be any of these reasons she thinks the way she does? Unlikely. She is probably just a voyeur. She likes to watch.

Regardless of her motivations, I very much like the idea of the clash between Class-S inspired cliche Yuri and what is ostensibly Shounen Yuri. The gyaru is drawn in a distinctly different artstyle that is more fanservice leaning just like Shounen Yuri, which is really clever.

For now I'd like to see whether the gyaru is actually gay and how much the protagonist is actually projecting. Is this all-girls school actually a typical yuri garden or are the girls far more normal human beings than they seem? The gyaru is a good source of reality being injected into a secluded world.

last edited at Jan 19, 2022 4:23PM

I suspect the one-sided energy will soon find a path of least resistance. A seuqel from the opposite perspective would be a charming idea, I believe. Train encounters can be rather fascinating.

After re-readig FLOWERS, specifically Printemps and Été, for the second time, I'm finally finished with Automne.

Let me put it this way in a relatively concise manner.

Printemps had crushed my soul into tiny shards and ripped my heart into thousands of bloody shreds.
Ete had made my soul whole again and mended my heart almost completely, even if some of the remaining scars were still aching.
...And Automne did those things multiple times over the course of 30 hours of me reading it.

What a masterpiece. Shimizu Hatsumi had absolutely outdid herself, and went above and beyond with deep, nuanced characterizations and painfully intimate introspections. I bow down in pure awe.

PSA: Even if the humankind and all of its' legacy will fall due to all-out nuclear war or massive CME hitting the Earth...Chidorika must be protected no matter the cost. One cannot, in good conscience, objectively and logically prove that there's anything more worthy of preserving in the observable universe.

Honestly, one of the most emotionally big moments for me was something as small as Erika encouraging Yuzu before the choir recital (while probably reminiscing about her very own special performance). It was as if she was talking directly to me, so deeply I was engrossed in Yuzuriha's inner world. It felt like an astonishingly intense surge of warmth, a blindingly powerful wave of bliss and exaltation was shivering through my whole body at this moment, with the aftershock that had been lingering for a few minutes. Sounds a bit much, probably, but I don't know how else to put those sensations into words without relying on dramatics. I myself was genuinely taken aback by sheer rawness of this experience.

Honestly, what the actual fuck is this game as a whole even.

Yes, someone who has experienced the bliss and pain of the FLOWERS series! I am so glad to see someone who appreciates these outstanding works! Hiver cannnot come soon enough, so we may finally be rid of the eternal cliffhanger of Printemps~

EriChido/Chidorika (honestly the order seems neary irrelevant for these two, they are on equal footing) is the wholesome and perfect relationship in a drama series that you would not expect to last, but shockingly (and to my great delight) they stick around for the other chapters and are a stable and gratifying presence that tells us, yes, relationships can work out and don't require immense sacrifices all the time (looking at you Yuzuriha).

This may be entirely shameless on my part, but I created a thread specifically for Yuri Visual Novel recommendations. I listed the FLOWERS series, naturally, but if you would take the time to write a proper recommendation for them I would be infinitely grateful. Do not worry about structure or anything, just your own words would be more than enough. Though please do not feel obliged to indulge me.
https://dynasty-scans.com/forum/topics/19616-yuri-visual-novel-recommendation-thread

That is not the the Epilogue I read on Mangadex. The one I read was a lot longer and involved far more kissing.
Or was that an original doujin drawn by the actual author? I can't rightly remember.

Regardless a very cute ending to the series. More kissing is always welcome.

last edited at Jan 18, 2022 12:50AM