I really hope it doesn't end at vol. 13, since as of ch 158 (released a few days ago), many of the storylines/couples are still quite far from a conclusion, so they would either have to be insanely rushed, or left unfinished. :/

At least Ai and Chei got to the end game.

Long haired girl asks every girl she meets to become part of her harem, she doesn't ask her partner for permission, when she finally snags one her old partner doesn't like her, but when she finds out that the new girl is a fan of her cat pictures they magically fall in love and for some reason can't live without each other.

Hiruma (black haired) was legit close friends online with Nina (jealous girl) and would practically talk to her everyday. Nina already finds out early on that Hiruma's her online friend, and grew distant because she felt conflicted over her jealousy and her friendship for the same person.
So it didn't start from nothing, they already had a close friendship. And then Hiruma proceeded to continuously be kind to Nina and care about her feelings irl (like when she brought her an umbrella when Nina ran out in the rain)
Imo what's a bit awks was that Hiruma was so kind despite Nina's attitude, but I guess she's kinda easygoing and empathetic.
But yeah uhm, I guess that if you missed so much shit, I'm not surprised some parts wouldn't make sense.

They weren't friends, they didn't even know each other's name. They just talked about the cat pictures, that's not friendship and is not absolutely anything to suddenly turn into a "I cant live without you" relationship. Nina shows absolutely zero sign of actually being romantically attracted to Hiruma up until her ridiculous confession, only jealousy and dislike. And Hiruma doesn't really say anything, she just feels like a cardboard cut out with no personality. The arc doesn't even clarify whether or not Hiruma reciprocates Nina's feelings.

I mean, I have defended some mediocre stories before after they get some hate but I can't come up with anything positive to say about that arc. It's just felt like Canno is just going down the list and couldn't figure out how to do a proper poly relationship, so just threw it together and called it a day.

last edited at Aug 14, 2017 12:34AM

Oh oh oh. Are we arguing about how terrible the polyamory arc was? Because it sure was.

They really should have just been fuck buddies because there was absolutely no love portrayed between any of the three. One pair were just best friends, no romance was shown between them. Short haired girl looked like she just had a crush, we didn't even see them do anything romantic together. Seriously, where did the confessions of love at the end come from because nothing from the chapters leading up to it were romantic at all. Long haired girl asks every girl she meets to become part of her harem, she doesn't ask her partner for permission, when she finally snags one her old partner doesn't like her, but when she finds out that the new girl is a fan of her cat pictures they magically fall in love and for some reason can't live without each other. It was rushed garbage that made polyamory relationships look fickle and meaningless.

It was a waste of an arc just so Canno could check off "polyamory" off her list of types of relationships she wants to have in this series. Canno has trouble fitting a relationship between two people in a handful of chapters, her attempt to fit 3 different relationships between 3 characters all coexisting together was just a hot mess.

last edited at Aug 13, 2017 8:04PM

I had actually forgotten about that whole armored wedding dress scene, so thanks for reminding me... The Class-S parody episode and the episode with all those different versions of Papika (I'm sure glad that those apparently male versions were actually female too, that was cool) which ended in succubus Papika lying on the bed in a locked room with Cocona... I would say they should at least say "I love you," but Papika must've said that like 10 times per episode. I don't think Cocona ever said it though, so THERE, I'M RIGHT.

It's when Cocona yells out that she loves Papika is when they break away from Mimi's influence completely and don the armored wedding dresses.

I don't think PriPri and Izetta had any combat scenes in matching wedding dresses, so there's that much... I guess I'm right about those two, at least? (we'll have to see what's in store for PriPri though).

For Izetta they have a very romantic magic broom ride scene which resembles a certain magic carpet ride(without the singing). Ends with a fade out kiss.

For PriPri the princess and the lizard's whole motivation for all this spy shit is simply so that they can be together. Lizard wants to run away together to a white house in the country while Princess wants to take control of the monarchy and change the country so it doesn't matter who knows that they are together. Also a nice little scene during a mission when Princess tells Lizard that she should wear her hair down like she used to, Lizard says she hates her old self, Princess then says that it's her old self that she loves so much.

last edited at Aug 12, 2017 6:27PM

You do realise theres a middle ground between kissing every single waking moment and "oh look at this homosexual crush we'll joke about but never actually go through with lol" right?

Well seeing as how Sakura trick is no sex and no actual relationship between the main two girls other than their daily kisses there isn't much room in between those two.

Also the comparison lacks merit because on the whole you'll generally find that most of the het crushes in manga eventually happen even if its just in the epilogue, homosexual relationships rarely if ever have this luxury, they just remain jokes and shipping fuel forever.

That's just simply not true. A lot of het crushes go completely unrequited. Mathematically most crushes in harem shit goes no where. Gay relationships are no different. Some progress and some don't. You are acting like none of them progress, which is just not true.

The harem comparison is straight up not applicable because harems exist to self insert the main character into a situation with a ton of guys/girls all vying for them so the audience member can pick their best girl/boy while also not alienating any of the audience that might come from one actually picking a definitive character to pair with, most harem manga literally just exists as a quick way to get popular and most of it is utter trash.

So you are saying that harem manga is literally just het baiting? Nothing but tease with no actual end game relationship? How is it not applicable?

And no I do not get mad at every gay crush that doesnt go anywhere, I get frustrated when it becomes a trend of which it has certainly become, not nearly as bad as the good ol' bury your gays but it is starting to feel exploitive, specially since I just got off talking to my girlfriend about a bunch of kyoani shows and remembering just how many of those bait the living shit out of the audience.

Now that just doesn't make sense. If you are mad that gay crushes has become a trend then how you are you not getting mad at every time it happens? Also, you are just wrong in general. Izetta, Flip Flappers and the currently airing Princess Principal are all recent shows that progress beyond just subtextual crushes. It sounds like you want slice of life shows like New Game and GochiUsa to go from sitcom to romcom and that isn't going to happen. They have their genres and they are going to stick to them.

And the whole KyoAni thing is way overblown. What shows have they done that are queerbait except for Hibike?

Finally for this series specifically its honestly just boring writing that EVERY relationship in this series can be summed as "gay moments sometimes, never followed up on" ugh this is why K-on is one of the only CGDCT series I can honestly say was actually good and not just enjoyable (till the movie anyway which is something I personally despise)

Except Kou and Aoba's sempai/kohai relationship that is purely professional. Aoba has a purely professional relationship with almost every character, so your claim that "every" relationship is queerbaiting just seems bizarre. Every character has about 1 gay-heavy relationship with another character while their others are purely friendship/co-workers. And funny that your favorite CGDCT is k-on despite just saying how much Kyoani queerbaits.

This manga isn't a romance and it's not required to have romantic relationships in it, but I see how the treatment of the "subtext" could be frustrating, even if it is ostensibly there for comedic purposes. Definitely some teasing going on IMO no matter how you slice it, even if it's not really queerbait.

Which I guess is fine if people want to read essentially the exact same thing over and over again, but I don't think they really have any place complaining about things which aren't that.

And with that in mind, it's much easier to ignore them.

People have complained about unresolved gay subtext for ages now, it doesn't mean they want to read the same story over and over, just that they feel the relationships in the story aren't being treated entirely respectfully (YMMV on the RIn and Kou dynamic).

Cant really respond to everyone so I'll just respond to this as it better conveys what I was trying to get across.

It's incredibly frustrating being a lesbian and seeing so many queer relationships being just jokes or constantly teased and then never done anything with at all, im not asking for everything to be sakura trick but I would just like for once one of these series to actually have the brass to have it be more than just a crush because otherwise its honestly starting to feel like my sexuality is just being exploited for some quick cash.

So you get mad every time there is a gay crush? That just sounds unreasonable. You say that you don't want everything to be like Sakura Trick but when it isn't you get frustrated? And what other series are you talking about? There are quite a few series that do take the crushes beyond subtext and some that don't, just like how some series keep het crushes just that instead of going beyond with an actual relationship. Hell, most harem garbage doesn't end with an actual relationship between MC and any of the girls.

I really dont want to bring the discussion down or anything but the recent chapters have honestly kinda cemented this series as true queerbait status to me.

Like more and more in this series I'm seeing a lot of implied gay but no following through ever, just implications because that sells copies and its far worse than I've seen in any series that isnt sound euphonium so its really sticking out to me and starting to affect my enjoyment of the series immensely.

I'd actually argue its worse than sound euphonium because they actually acknowledge these as crushes and/or homosexual attraction but never do anything with it at all, just continue to tease and tease and tease.

I don't think you understand what queerbaiting is then. Having crushes but never following through is not queerbaiting. You don't call a series that has a boy liking a girl but never actually going out "relationship baiting". Queerbaiting is straight people acting gay to attract a certain demographic. Hibike is queerbaiting, Love Lab is queerbaiting. Yuru Yuri and Maid Dragon are not queerbaiting despite the lesbians never actually getting in a romantic relationship with each other.

Rin is not straight, she's just a gay girl who is having trouble confessing her feelings for her best friend. It's simply part of the story and a frequent source of comedy.

"The love affair of just the two of us"

So Princess Principal is officially yuri, right? Looks like Studio 3Hz is going for a repeat of FliFla with the surprise yuri. If you are not watching it yet I highly recommend it.

At some point they have to do a yuri game, right?

I thought they were doing a yuri game. Peco x Queen OTP.

Vivio wins a sparing match with her mom and everyone freaks the hell out.

Probably would ship Aoba and Kou too if Rin didn't exist. And now we are getting little hints that the relationship between Hifumi x Aoba will mirror that of Kou x Rin. The whole meat and potatoes that Hifumi made for Aoba with the secret ingredient being love is some pretty solid "subtext". Especially when she got irritated when Kou and Rin started eating it.

The good old Octave method of coping with your homosexuality...

Cannibal posted:

Its actually just text since the manga literally talks about Nozomi and Hime dating, and that the reason they dont is that it would make the manga even more niche.

Oh yea, there was something like that. Wasn't it just a joke and breaking the forth wall though?

Yeah, it's a fourth wall breaking moment but since it's recognized by the manga it's no longer subtext, it's just text. It shows that the author would have them date if it weren't for the possibility of alienating a portion of readers. Luckily that doesn't stop them with the yuri side couples.

Looks like it's post-Rebellion, but there are still Wraiths that both Sayaka and Homura hunt? Does not compute.

Homura mentions the wraiths when talking to Sayaka at the end of Rebellion after the world change. It's assumed that the magical girl system Madoka set up is still in affect at the end of Rebellion, meaning that the wraiths are still the bad guys that magical girls hunt instead of witches.

Its actually just text since the manga literally talks about Nozomi and Hime dating, and that the reason they dont is that it would make the manga even more niche.

No, Ange Vierge has absolutely no connection to Cross Ange. And at least two of the couples do get a very happy ending.

There are still half a season left for Centaur so we will see.

I really hope Princess Principal is going the direction I think it is.

last edited at Aug 3, 2017 10:38PM

^ I always assumed a tree house kind of thing.

This shit is just so insane that I can't help but love it. Just wished there had been more pages to flesh it out a bit more and fix the pacing.

Ange Vierge most certainly does have blown yuri. Complete with love confessions, naked soul mates, and two sisters bang each other at least twice.

Don't get me wrong i loved this chapter but honestly I hate shit like this it pisses me off and wth did they even need to do this asinine bs competition if they were just going to pick Yagami's art anyways STUPID EAGLE JUMP PRODS.Sorry ignore me just needed to vent cause the last couple chapters ticked me off so much. Other than that it broke my heart when she cried. I was like welp she just admitted defeat.

It wasn't Eagle Jump, Aoba decided to do the competition even after they told her that they are going with Kou's no matter what. She knew from the very beginning that she wasn't going to win.

Shirabe: Kiri-chan is looking up to Chris-senpai…
Kirika: You know I only have eyes for you Shirabe!
Shirabe: Kiri-chan…
Kirika: Shirabe…
Chris: Do that stuff at home!!

Yeah, MC works hard and still loses. So cliche.. /s

@Tenshi-Tension From the bonus chapter of the official manga.

last edited at Jul 27, 2017 12:05PM

Who are these peeps anyway? Are they just random people or are they from another series or something? I might be thinking of another manga, but this is the one that had an Adventure Time cameo, right? The cameoing girls look vaguely familiar, but I can't recall their names.

They are the couple from the author's NSFW yuri doujin series.

New Cameo, I really hope things will go as smoothly as these two.

Lesbian sidecouple tag when?