One of her tweets is something like "I wish they taught us early that being gay is normal." Suggests that the bad lessons of the old era are still looming up, which causes her to constantly crush on straight girls and refuse to commit to queer girls. But, her friend is refusing to go along with it, and she's trying to help her break the pattern.

I think the problem with Sweet Blue Flowers was that it had the very Japanese and very yuri "everything must be delicate and unstated and mysterious or it ruins the true innocent beauty of their pure love!" but then it also wanted to be frank and honest, so it talked about sex and had out gay characters. It's really jarring and frustrating to reach the end and not even be able to tell for sure if Ah-chan is into girls, but two pages earlier the kids were joking with their lesbian schoolteacher's girlfriend about their wedding.

I don't think she's bi. I think she's gay and closeted.

Have to praise the author for pacing this chapter so well. The teacher comes off as sweet and friendly and innocent, but not annoyingly so. But we don't really get into her head. And that's exactly what the waitress likes about her, which makes us really see the final twist from her perspective. (Translators have to be credited here, too.)

Confused and a little intrigued about the title.

Pretty good writing, but oh man this pairing is creepy and awful for a kabillion reasons. This would be a wonderful little manga if it was the main character becoming a mom to Haru.

Kazuki knows she's gay, right? Even if she isn't super happy about it? Didn't we have a whole thing about that?

So why on earth is she doing that hoary "what is this strange feeling in my chest?!" thing? Kid, you're bigger than that.

I do appreciate this chapter's specific but relateable experience: Becoming friends with the annoying person because you dislike how mean everyone else is to them and you start to see their good parts. I have been there.

Aki is one of my favorite characters in all yuri media. Rigid and mature and totally knowing what she wants, but also super open-minded and game for things and unafraid of judgment. I always thought it was a nice moment how she, the most grown-up character, is the only one of the current students to be like, "I am a lesbian who likes girls."

Okay, okay. I admit it. I laughed at the dad drawing manga thing.

Woulda been funnier if the confession had actually been in the dad's shitty 4-koma, though.

Wait, she has borderline personality disorder? Has that been established?

Oh, I wish this story was about the maid. The maid is so much the opposite of the main characters, she JUMPS TO THE CONCLUSION that someone is confessing their love to her!

Okay, big step back, total story rewrite: The manga is now about the misadvantures of a rich girl who never gets it when her best friend tries to confess to her, and simultaneously her maid, who ALWAYS thinks people are trying to confess to her.

Here's my theory. The author likes writing about characters who need better communication, but the author ALSO thinks that horrible thing where it's more 'yuri' and romantic and delicate beautiful if everything goes unspoken and ambiguous.

This is a good combination for an extremely unsatisfying story.

Yeah, I think girl C went to talk to A and B, and each of them just yammered on and on about how awesome the other one was.

A and B have crushes on one another but think they're competing with one another over C. C sees the truth.

Does the other woman even know the protagonist considers them to be dating? Is she even into women?

If I was her, I wouldn't be so upset the lady is spending all her time at work, but rather trying to balance my gratitude with my fear of upsetting this chick who's been into me for years... and who I completely depend on to live.

This manga is weird. I really like the characters (especially the four idiots and the idiot tanned girl), and I love the art, but I have a really hard time telling anyone apart.

Uh, no, it is reasonable not to have your partner get drunk at a party meant to hook people up. Yamada can hang out with her friend, just like Kase encouraged. She shouldn't hang out with her friend at a party where the entire goal is to drink and hook up with strangers. That's fucking insane.

The reasonable thing would be to trust your partner won't cheat on you, like a grown-up. "There are boys" and "there is alcohol" does not mean sex with boys naturally happens.

Again, I'm talking 'real life.' IN THE MANGA, again, Yamada is psychologically eleven years old and probably would get cornered and assaulted if there's a bottle of beer in the same room as her. In the context of the story, Kase was totally right.

My point is: It is creepy as all hell that the author wrote it this way. Yamada's innocence and weirdness about both sex and gayness are played up way past the point it's believable or interesting. She is completely, utterly unable to take care of herself. This justifies Kase's actions! It doesn't keep from making the whole thing creepy.

The author's main problem here, I think, is that they want to tackle some degree of psychological depth, but at the same time, they want to have their adorable, frivolous Kase-san story... and it doesn't work. The balance is way off. It's always gonna lead to jarring happy endings that don't make much sense.

And I still feel like the author has some really weird attitudes getting smuggled in. Like, all the adult aspects of the relationship (like drinking with friends) or sex or telling people you have a girlfriend... they're somehow bad and... ruin Yamada's pure innocence or something, I dunno, it's weird.

I think one big issue here is people who see Kaoru/Uta as The Main Couple. I'm not sure the author is really going for a Main Couple kind of thing; this isn't really a romance. It's more about the themes than anything else.

THIS ^ gives us all the information we need to know that Yamada knew EXACTLY what she was going to: A MIXER! She read the ad for it where it said it was: "A party for those looking for love" and looked dispirited and thought "A mixer,,,?"

So, yeah... Yamada knew she was going to an event for singles to hook up with other singles. So I really don't understand everyone who is saying that Yamada didn't do anything wrong.

Because, in real life, it'd be an unreasonable request. Yamada can hang out with her friends, including among guys that might hit on her, and including among people who are drinking. Especially if they say it's to form relationships with people who aren't their partner... which are healthy, and which partners should encourage.

In the context of the manga, Kase was right, because Yamada is eight years old and clearly can't take care of herself. But the squicky part is that she's written that way.

People are saying Kaoru hasn't gotten development?

This is very strange to me. She's gotten more development than anyone else.

Seeing her do things is not the same as “development.” She has been consistently passive, obtuse (“So when you say you “like” me after building up to it by talking about your unrequited love, does that mean . . .?”), and conflict-avoidant (allowing her single attempt to confront Reiichi to be deflected by a weak excuse).

...why doesn't this count as development? Her tendency is to slap a band-aid on a problem, usually by feigning ignorance. This is an extremely unhelpful strategy, and she knows it, but she's also kind of given up.

She's pretty clearly depressed, but she's been rewarded by like everyone she knows (including by both Reiichi AND Uta) for being the cute, charming, cheerful airhead. She hoped that 'love' would like magically cause someone to understand her, and she has no idea what to do when that didn't happen.

And Uta tries HARDEST to understand her, because she's worked on "I mustn't idealize her just because I have a crush on her!" Which Kaoru really appreciates and is scared to lose.

This sure looks like development to me.

People are saying Kaoru hasn't gotten development?

This is very strange to me. She's gotten more development than anyone else.

What on earth is wrong with these girls at the mixer? "Oh, hey, it's a woman with huge breasts who's dressed like Agent Scully. CLEARLY that means it's a man!"

I'm with you on that one. Kase-san was wearing a skirt for pete's sake. It's like saying these girls are so desperate for a guy they'll throw themselves at anyone who's remotely masculine.

Not sure, what you're getting at. The girls were taken in by Kase's handsome face :P

A million eyerolls. I mean, you're right. But the author is incorrect that this is remotely plausible. If you want Kase to look like a guy, then DRAW HER BUTCHED UP. They just want they cute chick with huge boobs, and they want the supposedly hilarious scene where people mistake her for a dude, both at once.

1) Let's not forget, we're talking about Japan, in public no less. It's a far too complex topic to get into detail here, but half-blind Hana assuming Kase's gender being male for being close with Yamada at a mixer, is simply her judging by default.

Well, yeah. This is not really set in stone, though? Fewer and fewer people in Japan are baffled by this sort of thing as time goes on, and giving Yamada a worldly friend would be good for the plot. Just someone to go, "Oh for chrissake, Yamada, this isn't a big deal."

The worst part is, we're not even supposed to be at all sad that Yamada's making this friend but apparently has to keep her relationship a secret.

But I'd argue, that it's not Yamada not knowing what sex is (by now), but having had sex didn't suddenly cure her from being shy, self-conscious, insecure and overthinking. It's her remaining in-character. IMO there is a learning curve, however.

Looks like a learning mesa, to me. She's not coming across as shy; she's coming across as an idiot who can't learn anything and can't survive for five seconds on her own. The ingenue trope is not rare, but Yamada stands out. She acts, literally, like an eleven year-old.

And... this is a bit hard to put into words, but I sometimes get the vibe from a yuri work that the author kinda totally endorses Japan's weirdness about gayness (this is not to say other cultures aren't weird about it too). It seems like this one is actually a fan of Yamada's insufferable "Oh my goodness gracious I could never have.... sex! Oh me oh my!" attitude. Like we aren't supposed to question it or think it's bad for her. (Or, we're supposed to get off on seeing Kase penetrating that innocence, pun not intended, which is creepy for its own reasons.)

No matter what, it's obvious that this author just really wants their cutesy Kase-cuddles, but at the same time, they want some kind of drama and conflict. And that just isn't working. The different reader interpretations to this chapter are mostly to blame on this.

I do think it's important for the Kase-defenders to understand that most people aren't necessarily against her showing up. They're against the story being written in such a way where she HAS TO show up.

What on earth is wrong with these girls at the mixer? "Oh, hey, it's a woman with huge breasts who's dressed like Agent Scully. CLEARLY that means it's a man!"

This manga treats 'innocence' really, really weirdly. It's seems, like, literally unthinkable for the author that Yamada's friend just assumed Yamada had picked up a girl to go home with. It's somehow more plausible that she'd perceive an obvious girl as a boy.

I think the very weird innocence themes (which have been an issue from the beginning: Yamada acts like she doesn't know what sex is even after they've had sex) is part of why people are squicked out by this chapter.

They have sex.

“Now we can draw a sex scene for our manga!”

I would get on board if this manga gets totally batshit and they have a relationship and get married and adopt children and all the while one of them totally believes it's all just so they know how to draw similar scenes in their manga.

A long time ago, Saturday Night Live was having a really bad season. Like... 1996 or something? And one episode, George Foreman was the host, and there was a sketch were a guy would drink some potion and turn into the Hulk (played by Foreman). And he'd rage all around, "Hulk hate desk!" and he'd smash the desk. And then he'd turn back into the scientist.

And that happened again, "Grarg, Hulk hate chair!" and he smashes chair. And again, "Hulk hate wall!" and he kicks the wall in. And then the last time it happened, he went, "Hulk... Hulk hate sketch! Hulk want to talk to writers!"

And these schlubby, poorly dressed dudes walk out, and Foreman yells at them: "Hulk seen show! Every sketch, one joke! Same joke, over and over! Not funny!" And he rages at them and then the sketch ends.

That sketch is my response to this manga.

Sun Jing was already president of lesbians, but now I want her to be president of the world, too.

Roger Ebert had something he called "the idiot plot," which is a plot of a story that would be resolved in three seconds if everyone involved wasn't an idiot.

Huh, subplot where Human Twilight Sparkle wants to move things in the direction of a three-way came outta nowhere.