Sign me up for this one, looks promising. Too early to comment on the finer details of cheating and whatnot, since not much is really shown in this chapter, this was more the setting of a stage without any of the details yet. Also, I am of the opinion that the Cheating tag would ruin the obviously intended punch with the twist at the end. Bisexual tag is more debatable in this sense, but for now I am content to wait for more chapters before any such decision is made.

But from Aoi Hana and some of his other works, I don't think the author suddenly switches things around for the hell of it.

Her. But yeah, I pretty much agree with everything you wrote about "Aoi Hana".

Not to mention that the entire translation (not done using Google translate) is available on /u/, so this effort was not only... perplexing in its motivation, but also completely pointless as someone else already did it, and more properly than this.

last edited at Jun 2, 2019 10:22AM

YES!!! Kurumi yuri!! Finally! I can die happy now. :D

Apologies for a slight off-topic derailment.

Elves, in Tolkienverse, are all immortal (unless they are killed).

Actually, they can not be killed. Humans (and other mortals) can be killed, in which case their souls leave the Arda (the world where Middle-earth is located) and no one knows what becomes of them.

Elves, on the other hand, merely have their corporeal forms destroyed, while their souls go to the Halls of Mandos, an actual physical place in Valinor. There, they are judged, and can be given a new body. Finrod Felagund, for example, is specifically mentioned to be once again walking through the meadows of Valinor with his father, even though Finrod was "killed" by Sauron in Beleriand. Another example is Glorfindel, who had his first body destroyed in a duel with one of the Balrogs, was given a new one, and actually returned to Middle-earth (the only "killed" elf to have ever been given such an opportunity, they usually stay in Valinor once given a new physical form).
Of course, if the elf in question did some bad things, their souls will stay in the Halls of Mandos for as long as Námo, the Vala in charge, deems fit. Fëanor will never ever leave them, I reckon.

If Vampires really existed, they should cover the earth, since biting someone is supposed to turn them.

That is actually one of the weaknesses of Stoker's original Dracula, since he had no limitations in this regard. He could have amassed an army of the undead, and since his motivation was to conquer England, it always seemed like a glaring oversight on the part of the author that Dracula's only turning was poor Lucy, plus a failed attempt with Mina.

A good solution is found in "Fevre Dream", a regrettably often overlooked title from none other than George R.R. Martin. Vampires in this novel are more a separate species, rather than undead creatures, so they can not turn anyone. They can live for thousands upon thousands of years, and although it is hinted they can die of natural causes, it happens so rarely it is not worth mentioning. The reasons why they have not overpopulated the Earth are actually discussed in the story. For one thing, they can reproduce only with each other. Secondly, they almost completely lack the sexual drive, it is something that stirs only very rarely. Thirdly, their females tend to die horribly when bearing children.

last edited at May 19, 2019 4:42PM

Death-by-sunlight is an explicit invention of the 20th century, and it came from movies rather than books.

Pretty sure that was added to the vampire canon by Nosferatu (1922), wasn't it?

Yep. The movie was an adaptation of Stoker's "Dracula", but differed greatly from the source material, one of the differences being that sunlight could now destroy a vampire.

Alice Cheshire posted:

Pyoro posted:

Also, why don't these vampire manga never have proper vampires? Walking around in daylight? Eating?! Come on ...

I don't recall about eating but in Carmilla, which predates Dracula by 20 years, the eponymous vampire can handle sunlight just fine, she merely doesn't like it. And from what I recall, crosses and religious imagery were much the same. (And religious hymns hurt her ears but didn't actually harm her.)

From what I know original Dracula wasn't affected by sunlight as well. It was something that was added later.

Death-by-sunlight is an explicit invention of the 20th century, and it came from movies rather than books.

She did have a chance to satisfy those who want a guaranteed yuri-couple ending, and she definitely passed. But why she passed and what the implications of that are still remains to be seen.

She passed that right at the start. This was advertised as "girls friendship" from the get-go, but it seems no one bothered to check the scanlator's webpage, where this was clearly stated for over a year now. Back when people genuinely complained about the subtext tag and demanded the yuri tag added (and even sent tag requests to that end, repeatedly), this fact was brought up, but it seems no one payed it the slightest attention, and is now yet again becoming an issue, due to that tweet.

While the romantic interpretation of their relationship requires very little (or basically nothing) in the way of mental gymnastics, I very much doubt the ending will go beyond what was already established here. Basically, a really, really close and emotionally deep friendship that can be viewed as romantic with minimal effort from the audience (but which never outright states as much).

OOF! Hurts deliciously, sadistic author-san~

"Then put on some clothes", said while wearing only an apron, by the looks of it.

Instead, I meant that historically it has been documented that women were often "trained" on what to do in the bedroom--for after they were married--by other women, although I believe typically that was done for higher-ranking noblewomen by women of a lower caste.

I was speaking to that matter specifically as my previous sentence directly referenced what was going on with our protagonist and Mio.

Aha, my apologies then, I read it as a general statement on the entire concept presented in this series (though, you could have made it slightly more obvious in your original post).

And you are correct, while it was not an institutionalised procedure, chambermaids, or, more commonly, ladies-in-waiting (themselves of noble birth), would sometimes provide these "training" sessions (though not to the extent shown in this series). Also, most of it revolved not around pleasure for either party, but successful impregnation. In fact, when a couple of high enough status showed problems in having children, physicians and various other "experts" would sometimes sit in on their intercourse to see where the problem is (desperate attempts to have Carlos II of Spain produce offspring come to mind), because lack of heirs led to wars in those days.

Thank you for your permission. I shall cherish it forever.

As opposed to actually providing examples. Which would not be a problem, if you wanted to, I am sure.

Like, someone before also went down this fantasy lane, to the point they proposed things depicted in this series will see a "comeback" in Europe, of all places, because they disliked the result of recent elections in certain countries. Could any of you actually seriously provide any examples? It would be a much better argument than mere smugness.

@saizon: It is more probable this was from when the series originally went on a hiatus, before anyone knew about Ssamba's condition.

last edited at Apr 22, 2019 12:11PM

I mean, some people here confound me.

"Although it probably can't technically be called a shoujo ai/yuri manga, there's a lot of subtext, so you don't even need to put on your yuri goggles for this one. It's just basically a very cute story about two girls who find solace in their loneliness with each other, and from the beginning, it's been billed as a "girl-ship story", short for girls friendship."

Quoting from the scanlators' webpage, which was linked almost a year ago in this thread, precisely to address the hordes of people who were complaining about the subtext tag back then. I mean, I know that in the meantime the entire "subtext" thing has become something of a joke, but I am still under the impression some here took that Dynasty specific joke and expected the author to be in on it, pulling a full yuri reveal at the end.

But I get it must be very difficult to make this particular relationship veer toward eroticism in a way that won't make the readers (too much) disturbed.

TBH given the very premise of the story anyone inclined to feel queasy about the prospect of hot daughter-on-mom action should have headed for the door already by the end of the third chapter at the latest.

Quoted for truth because the first poster is obviously one of those who missed their exit point. I especially like that "too much" part, implying that average readers of this clearly tagged, multi-chapters story about incest will be disturbed by default. I was under the impression people usually read things they are into. I guess there are some who are not into it and are reading it to deliberately make themselves queasy, but I somehow doubt they form any meaningful percentage here.

Shoujo ai is made up term by westerners, because they needed a way to market SFW and NSFW yuri and needed a clear distinction.

And yet despite this supposed distinction, most yuri manga are either tagged both, or just yuri even when it's SFW. Talk about useless

Eh, that's because Shoujo Ai -isn't- really a term made up by westerners. It's a term used in japan, but it just refers to the girl's love genre in general, as does Yuri. They're just synonyms. There is no real distinction in how the japanese industry uses the terms, from what I've seen.

I would actually like to see you produce these instances that you supposedly saw, of the Japanese manga and anime industry using the term shoujo ai.

"The only one I can rely on is..." I knew it would be Hirose, lmao! Best grill! Bless this chapter! Keep the friendship rolling~

Nez
This page has me thinking she probably was fooling around with others. "Well, what does the past matter, anyway? You're the only one in my heart now." Granted, it is not an explicit confirmation, hence my phrasing that the ending "kind of hints towards it".

The people here never cease to amaze me with such blinding selectiveness when interpreting these two characters. I agree Chiharu probably was/is a player, and the rumours probably were true, the ending kind of hints towards it. Was it scummy what she did? Absolutely. But Asami is just as bad, if not worse. She worked hard, and presumably long to get Chiharu to date her, she had deliberately engineered a relationship with someone whom she hated, with the intent of leaving them from the get-go. She then quit her job and moved away to complete her plan. I see people here saying that "she did the right thing", and that she had to quit her job because Chiharu was working at the same company. Like, are you people serious? She could have just dumped her without uprooting herself from everything else, which is what a normal person would do. In fact, a normal person would not deliberately date someone they loathe just to dump them and thus get a revenge for a failed high school romance from seven years ago to begin with. Compared with that, a cheating player like Chiharu looks positively mundane.

last edited at Mar 24, 2019 11:23AM

Bloody hell, I did not even realise it was Mochi until after reading the doujin and only then looking at the author's name... Also, bloody hell, you can not end it there... I need more of this...

Edit: Ah... not the artist... well, in the future this will make me read those pesky little things on the front cover that I usually skip...

last edited at Mar 22, 2019 6:44PM

I think they did not have a proper, formal relationship though? Blond and tomboy and ,I dunno, but wasn't tomboy with that girl ONLY cos she felt she didn't "fit in well as a woman" or something like that? Still, 10/10 wouldn't read again ,but no reason to hate on it either.

I'm pretty sure they did have a formal relationship. On page 4, Kyouko says that they're dating.

She indeed says that, but the full sentence is "since I started dating you, you're the only one", as in, she is the only one she has sex with, which is an odd thing to say to someone with whom you are in a formal relationship, since that is usually taken for granted and sounds rather suspicious to bring up in the first place. I would wager the word "dating" was used in a far looser meaning here, simply indicating they were seeing each other.

To be perfectly honest, I am kind of puzzled why people see their relationship as a serious one, apart from this one word (which was used in a sentence that as a whole does not really point towards a romantic relationship) and the tears at the end, we have no evidence whatsoever they were anything more than sex friends. Their critical lack of communication (on both ends, not just Seo's, as I detailed in my first post in this thread) also points towards this being more of a casual thing.

Hurts so good~ ;_;

Hmm, one other thing that has me convinced it was just casual sex is the "since I started dating you, you're the only one" line. Like, is that really something lovers in a committed, non-open relationship say to each other? Of course not, that is taken for granted, and not brought up precisely to avoid raising any suspicions, justified or not. "Oh, I am totally not having sex with anyone else." "Sweet!" Like, wha...

I also realised I forgot to actually bring up this page, the part where she literally says: "It's fine if there's another man. That's not it. What if Kyouko's faking it with me?"
Like, her priorities are kind of skewed, if you look at it as a romantic relationship, as opposed to just casual fling that she rushed into because it soothed her deep insecurities.

Also also, I forgot to say I actually liked this one. No happy feels, but I tend to not look for that to begin with.

Mitsuko's irrational mistrust of Kyouko and general misogyny backfire on her. She succumbed to her insecurity and now she has what the other women wanted, but what she wants is forever lost to her.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe it's just a story about bad things happening to bad people.

I actually disagree, both with the "irrational mistrust" and the "what she wants is forever lost to her".

I think it was pretty obvious that Kyouko was cheating on her. Yamada was badly shaken by those rumours, kind of hard to see it as "oh no, the girl who just flirted occasionally with me at work has slept with another guy".

Kyouko gives off the "would sleep with anything that moves" vibe, something about that "I just think, 'let's do this!'" and her general flirtatiousness. Though, I am not saying flirting with people equals being promiscuous or unfaithful, just that this particular case gave me that feel, but since the one-shot is not from her perspective, this is pretty open to interpretation.

As for the "what she wants" part (as in, what Seo wants)...

I interpreted their relationship as casual sex. That is the feel I got out of it. A casual relationship that Seo fucked up, and Kyouko later realised it meant something to her. One thing that goes along with this interpretation is the implication at the end that Seo stopped seeing Kyouko after getting together with Yamada, and apparently Kyouko never attempted to talk to her. I mean, if your girlfriend suddenly stopped seeing you, and you even work at the same company, would you not try to talk to her, see what the problem is? On top of that, Seo did not even try to break up with Kyouko, she just slept with a guy and then broke contact with the other woman. Neither of them behaved as though they had relationship problems, neither of them behaved as though they even had a relationship.

I think the reason Seo got attached to Kyouko might be because she was literally the first person to accept her, to not ridicule her looks, to show her kindness instead of scathing remarks. I find it interesting that what finally drove Seo over the edge was not the "cheating" aspect, but her insecurity over whether Kyouko was faking pleasure with her. Notice how we never see Kyouko pleasuring Seo, it is always the other way around. Just look at Seo's facial expressions, how she obviously relishes in bringing pleasure to the other girl, how confident and proud of herself she looks. And then, that is exactly the aspect of their "relationship" she started doubting, in the end she was convinced Kyouko was "faking it", and that was what drove her into despair. Note that she sleeps with Kyouko after hearing the rumours, and the only thing that is on her mind during the sex is "is she faking it", not "my girlfriend is cheating on me".

Irony is that I think Kyouko is the only one who got hurt in the end. I genuinely think Seo was not actually in love with the other woman, she just got high on the power of bringing pleasure to another person, after her previous partners plainly told her she brought none to them. The moment she started thinking Kyouko was faking it, she proceeded to abandon ship as fast as she could. Kyouko's obvious sadness at the end, on the other hand, is a pretty good indicator she realised this meant something to her.

On a side note, Seo in general seems to have... gotten a really bad message out of all this. Here she seems to conclude that a girl will always respond with enthusiasm, even when faking it, so that is what she probably thinks under "the role of a woman", backed up by this scene, where I can not help but think she kept "moaning cutely" because he was asking her does it feel good. Given the previous scene with Seo asking Kyouko did she like it, Kyouko enthusiastically giving an affirmative answer, and Seo then dismissing it as faking, I think this scene mirrors that one, with Seo basically resigning herself to "fuck it, it is all fake" kind of thinking.

Or maybe I am reading too much into it.

^ Uranus and Neptune are a pairing?! Wha...

As for this image... the bust size, especially Mako's, is kind of making it hard for me to see them as, well, themselves...

In yuri, the important thing is the mental aspects of a relationship, more so than carnal desires.

lolwut https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/citrus_ch02#8

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/yurikas_campus_life_ch09#10