I'm a little bit impressed by how evil that one doctor is. She really commits to it! Everything she does is evil, even when there's no apparent benefit of it.

And then "Well, yep, got punched. Makes sense. I was super evil for a few years there."

I like her; I want her to have her own story.

last edited at Oct 31, 2018 7:12PM

It's actually really poignant and creepy that she's been impersonating her sister for weeks in school and everyone just ignores it. I wish they'd played that note more.

And yeah, that nurse is a weird extra character, the kind that would solely exist to get paired up with someone. Right now I'm thinking Rikako/Chitose and Ayaka/nurse.

Nothing gay is ever going to happen, is it?

Eh, at least that one girl vibes off Hina from Kindred Spirits.

Ploy is a great character, because she's what happens when a writer dreams up a Depraved Amoral Bisexual trope and then decides they want her to be an actual sympathetic character. Also because just LOOK at that gorgeous hair!

I legit don't understand what happened in the last few pages but after skimming the discussion here I'm kind of afraid to ask about it.

It says this is drama, but that reveal played like pure screwball comedy to me.

These chicks have better communication than 95% of the couples in the True Love Forever stories on this site.

Odd pairing, gotta say. It's no Sakura/Aoi, Himiko/Tenko, or Ibuki/whole world

So... it's a serious psychological case study with a trite and offensive sit-com-style premise? Bizarre.

I feel like this explains the Bright and Cheery Amnesiac (and Yamada, from Kase-san, among others), where this weird ambivalence towards sex both drives the entire plot and is held up as some kind of goal.

It's like, For chrissake, just fuck your girlfriend.

This comment doesn't make any sense. For starters Kase and Yamada have had sex, plus the series is still ongoing, so how is that an end goal? Maybe if you're talking about the first part of the series, but I'm talking about the series as a whole.

Yamada's "innocence" is ludicrous. It's not just that she doesn't know the first thing about sex; she acts like she has no idea what it is. She's baffled and surprised every time they go further than holding hands. Kase's physical attraction to her is blatant, but she doesn't seem like she can really wrap her head around it.

The fact that this goes on so long (past the point, as you mention, that they've ACTUALLY HAD SEX) is just bewildering.

And this isn't like insecurity on the part of Yamada; it's this weird ambivalence where the manga portrays a sexual relationship, but one of the participants is simultaneously an innocent ingenue. Yamada barely seems to know they're in an exclusive, sexual relationship... which is kind of the source of the current conflict between them, right? That's why Kase-san is so insecure?

Also with Bright and Cheery Amnesia they literally state early on that they've had sex numerous times in the past, then the amnesia happened and they're rebuilding their relationship back to the spot where they're comfortable having sex again, plus the idea there is that their rolls have somewhat reversed. Which is in my opinion a really fun dynamic between them.

Every other panel of that manga is about how sexy they find each other. It should take one conversation to get Amnesiac to the point where she can have sex; she's portrayed as a super-horndog. But again, the manga presents her inability to grasp the possibility of literal sex as some kind of weird, adorable innocence.

I understand we live in a day and age where many people are convinced that sex is the most in important part of a relationship, if you're not having sex right now something is wrong with you, that's what someone's friends might say or the pop culture media they're consuming with the likes of music and tv.

This doesn't enormously have anything to do with what I'm saying. This isn't about a couple that doesn't happen to prioritize sex; this is about manga writers wanting to show a sexy relationship, but also to idealize some kind of sweet, innocent purity.

I feel like this explains the Bright and Cheery Amnesiac (and Yamada, from Kase-san, among others), where this weird ambivalence towards sex both drives the entire plot and is held up as some kind of goal.

It's like, For chrissake, just fuck your girlfriend.

.......why don't they just fuck?

It's weird, I've definitely been confused by manga before, but not only did I not find this confusing at all, it wouldn't occur to me that anyone would. It's interesting how some people get jarred out of a narrative by things that other people don't even notice.

Anyway, as for this story, the characters are okay. Akane is charming. The sex scene is pretty cute. I'm a little mystified about why Naomi is the main character's cousin, when first of all that's not relevant to the story at all and second of all they're clearly going to have sex.

You guys are still totally missing my point. It being a girl doesn't make it not creepy. It's creepy regardless of gender. It's fine to have no issues with it because it's a lighthearted work of fiction. Just don't try and hide behind poorly thought out double standards is all.

"It's fine to not care because it's fiction, but don't try to use fiction as an excuse for your double standards."

Ok. If that's the case let's call out all the yuri incest on the site, as incest is totally wrong because of inbreeding if it was het. Let's also call out all the age gap stories, as if the older character was a guy it would totally be creepy and nobody wants that. How about those yuri harems? If you replaced the mc with a dude woah, not ok anymore. Student - teacher pairs? Those are no good since we don't want that in real life either.

Plenty of people don't like to read about yuri teacher-student romances or harems or adult-kid stories.

No one's telling you that you can't enjoy it. Let people say this manga is squickier and more bewildering than it is funny if they think it is.

Okay, these creeps are just getting less and less charming with every chapter.

Yeah, I really have to agree...

I think you 2 are maybe the only people who find them anything like creepy. And if they are creepy you probably find most of the mochi-verse creepy - even though I'd of thought that impossible. Do you find kittens and puppies creepy?

Mochi already draws humans that look like puppies anyway.

Okay, these creeps are just getting less and less charming with every chapter.

"It'd hurt more with a guy. I'm being gentle. You should be grateful."

Jesus christ.

I think the chapter is meant to just highlight the differences between the US and Japan, not to necessarily serve as a photographically realistic portrayal of their visit. It might not be believable that NO ONE told that couple their kids will be worse off raised by gay parents, but I definitely believe that the authors were surprised about how rarely that happens in the US compared to what they're used to.

I also think there might be a little translation thing, because I feel like "won't you be worried the kid will be worse off?" might mean something inherently different in Japan than in the US.

Why do I really enjoy this series? I barely know what is ever going on, and I can't tell any of Kuroko's million little girlfriends apart, but it's awesome somehow.

I'm willing to hold my nose for a minor teacher/student thing if the rest of the story is good enough (hi, Kindred Spirits on the Roof!), so this doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the manga or anything. But I am skeezed out by the way that being gay and getting statutory raped by a teacher are compared as just two ways to not be normal.

Oh well, hello, old friend Mr. "Statutory rape and gayness are just the same thing really, just two different ways of being unorthodox!" I didn't miss you.

On another note, rooting for Kuro to be the real final love interest, here.

Actually, what was it Ploy was going to say on page 19 that freaked out Ice? Was she going to give the surprise away? Didn't really get that part.

Yeah uh huh Mew and Donut yeah SO ARE PLOY AND ICE BANGING OR WHAT

Blessing of family and friends, yes. They prooooooobably end up together, yeah. But there's STILL the "our precious youth drifts away in the summer breeze and let us cherish these beautiful memories of our high school days" nonsense.

Uh, no, Kazama moves away temporarily to be with her grandmother who doesn't have much time left. They are still a couple with the blessings of their family, they just have a small long distance relationship for the time being.

You're right, I forgot about the grandmother thing.

But there's loads of "I won't be able to hold your hand anymore!" and "I didn't cherish our pure high school love!" There's this weird bittersweetness and ambiguity and open-endedness to it. We know what almost certainly is supposed to happen in the future, but it's tinged with this sadness. I mean, it didn't do what some yuri manga do and outright say "She kept her wonderful memories in her heart and cherished them forever even after she married a man and had a normal life," and there's nothing but the idea they WILL end up together, but it's playing on the same kinds of emotional beats.

last edited at May 26, 2017 1:09AM

What? At the end of Sasameki Koto they're a couple with the blessings of their friends and families. How is that ambiguous?

It ends with them going to different schools and Sumika crying because she's graduating and becoming an adult and not able to be physically close to Kazama anymore.

Blessing of family and friends, yes. They prooooooobably end up together, yeah. But there's STILL the "our precious youth drifts away in the summer breeze and let us cherish these beautiful memories of our high school days" nonsense.

last edited at May 25, 2017 11:49PM