Assuming this isn't shown through Mei's vibrantly tinted goggles, and actually did happen as portrayed, this does make me think that we will see the past flame come back at some point. I mean, if her behavior toward Mei wasn't confusing messages and mixed signals epitomized then I do not know what would be.

I think calling past-flame’s actions “mixed signals” confuses the issue a bit. Sure, those are all yuri-story tropes, but except for the conventions of the yuri genre, they could well have just been the flame being friendly. Yuri goggles aren’t needed for the actions to have happened exactly that way; we just need a gay recipient in order to turn them into a lesbian crush.

Just for clarity's sake, my comment was less about the reader's yuri goggles (tidbit: at first I wrote yugi goggles and the thought amuses me greatly) and more about Mei's goggles - what I meant was that if what was shown in the flashback is seen through Mei's eyes and in how she interpreted the girl's behavior, then it makes sense that Mei didn't know and didn't have a way of knowing to separate friendly and flirty, which is how she is now.

On the other hand, if what was shown in the flashback was the 'objective' way events unfolded, and how the girl actually acted toward Mei, then I definitely think it can be said that the girl was incredibly flirty at the very least, where the "mixed signals" part becomes relevant, and I would say most definitely in love with Mei at least to some degree, which is why it makes me think she might come back.

IOW, we have no idea at this point how one-sided the feelings between Mei and Past Flame may have been. As the very title tells us, Mei’s basic trait is that she’s confused about signals from others and about her own feelings.

Again, for clarity's sake, I agree with this, and so did my original comment on that. I do hope that the story delves a bit deeper into Mei's dynamic with her past flame even if she doesn't come back.

In any case, chapter 9 was all sorts of great. I don't really get why some commenters have a problem with Riri's naivete, in my eyes it just makes her current awakening all the more interesting and amusing, also kinda hot not gonna lie, and it makes a lot of room for her character development. And Karin being an aware and willing "combatant," for lack of a better word, is also great. I'm a fan of proactive love interests, and especially those who aren't shy about physicality.

last edited at Jul 18, 2022 6:32AM

Assuming this isn't shown through Mei's vibrantly tinted goggles, and actually did happen as portrayed, this does make me think that we will see the past flame come back at some point. I mean, if her behavior toward Mei wasn't confusing messages and mixed signals epitomized then I do not know what would be. I don't know that in that scenario she'd be the endgame, and honestly, I wouldn't want it to be the case either way, but I do feel that the setup is there at the very least.

Other than that, I'm dying to know how exactly they got into this (hot) mess. Mei has some "woe is me" energy that amuses me thoroughly. Honestly I'm a bit envious.

Nah, the sixth sense is seeing dead people...

Part of me really wants this twist.

Terrific chapter. I love Ruri, and I'm glad that all four idol-buddies seem to be good people. Also some interesting seeds of progress that I'm looking forward to seeing unfold.

Meanwhile, I don't think Asako is at that point yet. She clearly really cares about Miyako, but it's more of a protective and affection kind of caring, rather than romantic...

Especially considering her motherly nature was a major breakpoint in her previous relationship and something that does still gnaw at her, as seen briefly in chapter 8. It'll take some time for her to bounce back from that and also bridge her motherly affection toward Miyako and any potential romantic affection she might have, which by the way also has its seeds planted thanks to her prime weakness - looks.

I also love the way Ruri and Hatomori bounced off one another and their fully synched reactions, I feel like they'll get along very well, or to put it simply:

Hatomori x Ruri

Yes, please.

last edited at Jul 2, 2022 1:12PM

honestly, they’re so touchy feely that if this was a comedy oneshot I’d expect the punchline to be Yuzu being like “I thought we were already dating.”

I honestly still feel that this is how it'll go, at least partly.

In any case, the story's adorable, and I'm having fun. Looking forward to what comes next. Also, I definitely agree that it seems like something's up with the friend, but it might also just seem like it. Would be one hell of a twist, though, if Minami and Hinori get together in the end.

"Hmm?" absolutely loved that panel. Hope she connects the dots quickly and gets her good end. Man, the fluff is out of this world. Mashiro and Nagisa are so adorable together, I adore them.

last edited at Jun 27, 2022 2:35PM

That was a lot of things, but I can't say I'm not entertained. In particular, how Nadeshiko interpreted everything in a sex-related manner amused me greatly. There also seem to be some actual developments, so that's kinda neat. But yeah I'm not gonna pretend like the entire thing is wasn't just the author drawing what they want to, and honestly, that in itself is something I approve of.

A lot of chaos in this chapter, but I'm a big fan of letting all the girls interact with one another. Kaoru's declaration of war was hilarious, especially considering how sweet and soft-spoken the target is, and Minato's day was pretty much maderuined, as she will most probably be unreasonably turned on for the rest of it.

I am really looking forward to the sleepover(?) chapter. I'll be fully honest, I very much hope it goes into NSFW territory with that (let's say Asumi-chan style), but other than that I'm also looking forward to seeing how Karin's schtick unravels, and I expect her to be slightly more out there than the others.

As an aside, part of me really wants to refer to the girls by their theme/schtick, but I'm not sure that it works particularly well, so yeah.

I stand firm by the notion that Meguru is unabashedly horny-on-main. Girl wanted to see some skin, no two ways about it, and some skin was most definitely seen. She's still radiating some sort of seductiveness and allure very strongly, which may or may not be proving rather effective on me.

Hayafuji feeling that she's walking on a tightrope is something I deeply resonate with and I hope that she gets over that sooner rather than later. Shit sucks, really.

I also agree with the comment about Hayafuji's fashion sense. Big fan of the outfit choices. The art style in general is legitimately fantastic throughout.

I am loving Nanao and how she has no idea what is going on. I wonder if she will find out about the service and try it out. I am also assuming she will do a joint deal with Asumi one day.

She's going to assume that Asumi is the prostitute, and try to hire her after several pages of working up the courage to ask. Just you watch.

Yeah, it's pretty clearly being set up this way. I imagine it'll happen in the next 2 or 3 chapters, but maybe even as early as next chapter.

The only thing against this, and it's actually pretty big, is that Nanao knows Asumi is 'losing' money rather than 'gaining' any, so I'd say it'd be much more probable that she's a customer rather than a worker in Nanao's mind. Otherwise, I'm also not against this idea.

I legitimately expected the two would kiss this episode. The romantic/sexual tension between the two is palpable - Michiru was very obviously jealous and it was pretty cute. Love how it all unfolded, ended up being very sweet all around, the little thing with the names in particular.

Dancing is like sex.

I'm taking this comment as a half-joke, but the series has been very deliberate in its subtle parallel of partnership/relationship and dancing/sex. I mean, as subtle as a kick in the groin would be, really, but still. It makes me wonder whether the series would touch on actual romantic relationships and/or sex.

In any case, I feel that this series is flying a bit under the radar, but is consistently entertaining. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

As an aside, I almost expected Shion to ask her partner for her Millennium item, and the thought still tickles me funny.

This chapter was amazing. Nanao is such a goddamn mess I absolutely adore her. I really hope she gets some payoff in the end, hell not just getting some, some actual payoff wouldn't be bad either. And I'm not exactly sure why but the lewds were really hot this chapter. Like really. Good lord.

Okay hear me out: imagine Nao discovers the brothel service Asumi is using, and she decides to try it out to see why Asumi likes it so much, and then boom, her first sex worker is Mai.

Cue sexual hijinks and set up for a thruple end game

Yes.

at that point she'd be the brothel's #1 vip customer...

Not exactly related but reminded me that I've seen several ideas where Asumi joins and/or somehow takes over the entire thing and/or scores herself a harem of beauties that swoon over her and I'm not entirely against these ideas.

As one last aside on that topic, thanks for the replies to my questions about supporting authors and such from before. Sadly it seems that Amazon.jp doesn't ship here, and I try to avoid digital stuff precisely because it's not physical, so I'll just make do with what's available. Getting me the licensed copies was part of the plan all along anyway.

last edited at Jun 8, 2022 5:54AM

This series is great but I keep thinking, what was the chance for Seiran to survive if she just told Mimi to heal her...

Yes, probably. At the same time, I feel it's perfectly in character and makes sense that she wouldn't. It feels, for lack of a better term, perfectly appropriate, that it was exactly like her to act as she did. The whole way in which the story unfolded feels very fitting and right, for lack of better terms. Besides, I feel that nothing else would've had the same impact.

In any case, this series hits in a manner very few, if any, ever have. It's so hard to read at times, but I can never resist reading it, I constantly find myself drawn to it, it's just so good. I agree with the fellow above, this is going to kill me at some point.

I'm a big fan of the feel-good vibe and positivity of this story. I also love the misdirection(s), it really felt to me like Ruri was giving the stink-eye when she glanced at Miyako and might be stirring something up, but nope. Unless it was all part of a plan to have Hatomori killed.

Now I'm not saying 'Swap⇔Swap' would've been better had their method of switching bodies been like this one's, but...
In any case, this could be many things and go in many ways. I'm not too thrilled, to be honest, but I'll hop on for the ride, for the time being.

My general feeling about these two chapters can be summed up with this.

I was mostly correct with my guesstimation earlier. Though the story didn't delve too deep into Aki's background, and I kinda really like that. The only thing not getting an answer was the whole full moon thing, and I'm still expecting this to be addressed. I also like how the swift resolution came about. Sakaki looked like she was ready to give Aki a good smack, which I can understand. I'd have liked to see them learn that they're talking about the princess.

After that, it was just pure sweetness, and Momo going even further on the attack and being paralleled as a beast gave me a good laugh. I absolutely love Momo going "I'm a princess, it's cool!" This is how you abuse your authority properly... I think... In any case, Aki kissing Momo at the end there simply made me happy. This is great. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what comes next.

As I said...

Yeah, very similar to the music industry, then. It's a shame, really. Still, since we don't know know the whole truth, I'd like to remain at least somewhat optimistic.

Would buying domestic releases be required to buy in Japan, or is ordering through Amazon.jp or whatever enough?

Also sorry for pestering and the off-topic nonsense.

last edited at May 22, 2022 4:16AM

My guess is that Mikami-san is planning to make Nao become the next secretary.

Yeah. I'm pretty much expecting the first panel of the next chapter to have her go "... and come work under president Amano!"

I'm okay with this development, especially if the bait goes the way I expect it to. Props to Ms. Secretary on the initiative, too.

Eeeeeh, I wouldn’t want a secretary with no experience as a CEO/president of a large company. It’s tough work and requires a lot of time management and organization. Not something you just throw somebody into. Not to mention if it’s someone your involved with. I’m hoping she’s asking her to quit so Amano can ask her out properly.

I mean, in real life, absolutely. But in-universe Amano was shown to easily handle the job of a thousand people, or some exaggeration like that, and with no secretary in sight as well. Her only issue was shown to be motivation and/or I guess loneliness, so two issues, both of which are wholly fulfilled by the hopeful new hire. She'd be more of a constant mood +100 buff to the already capable president than an actual secretary. At least that's how it clicked in my head.

That said the bait has not unfolded beat-for-beat the way I expected it to, so we'll see where things go. Kind of stretching it here, I'll be honest.

For the record, I wouldn't mind if it unfolded the way you'd hoped either.

...most of the time author doesn't get even 1% share from money you're spending and only few things will actually "support the author" and translate into direct profit for them.

So how does one support an author, then? Aside from the more "direct" ways like pixiv, fanbox, or whatever Patreon-adjacent model out there that I assume would be "best."

I also genuinely wonder, I mean, I don't think we really know whether buying the release actually does support the author unless by chance someone from any publisher lurks around here and would like to share some of the deets with us. The thing is that I don't necessarily think that you're wrong, sadly, since music distribution/music labels, for instance, are infamous for very much working like this, and the whole thing is often very unfair to artists (I'd even say predatory, in a way), but I'd like to be a bit more optimistic, I guess. Also on more than a monetary level. I'd assume (and hope) authors can see how well their work does in the west or just in general and I'd personally like to consider purchasing either a localized version or the "original" one as having shown support.

In any case, I'm very excited by the announcement. Also surprised. I personally wouldn't want the fan translation to stop (and would offer assistance if needed and I have the ability to), but it's more than understandable if it does.

last edited at May 21, 2022 4:02PM

Big sis gives major "I need an adult?" "I am an adult." vibe and I find it very amusing. Also weirdly hot. Also did she just throw in "it's no wonder Yuu [would] like you" and it went completely under the radar?

The way I'm reading the whole "good girl" thing is that it probably feels like she's being reduced to only being that, like nothing else about her stands out, which should be objectively incorrect in-universe but still something that happens and would explain her apparent lack of confidence. Looking forward to seeing things develop further.

This is legit one of the series that I'm simultaneously most looking forward to seeing updated while only remembering of its existence when it does, paradoxically enough. Something about the character designs just oozes passion, affection, and warmth in a way that really hits different.

last edited at May 18, 2022 6:42PM

My guess is that Mikami-san is planning to make Nao become the next secretary.

Yeah. I'm pretty much expecting the first panel of the next chapter to have her go "... and come work under president Amano!"

I'm okay with this development, especially if the bait goes the way I expect it to. Props to Ms. Secretary on the initiative, too.

last edited at May 16, 2022 4:40AM

But most of the comments are people bickering about rock and metal... :/

I'm not seeing any bickering, really. Mainly folks sharing their favorite sounds out of Japan. Love seeing folks being passionate about rock/metal, and also seeing a lot of names I've not encountered myself. I don't know that I'll ever have the time to check them all out, unfortunately, especially with literally hundreds of other albums I'd like to spin at some point in my life.

Stuff I do know about is Galneryus which were mentioned previously but I'd like to mention them again since they're pretty much the flagship of Japanese power metal, Desecravity, Intestine Baalism, Kyojin Daigyakusatsu, I cannot believe I forgot Ningen Isu... hm... been a while since I have heard any new Japanese music, really. I'll also recommend guitar player Masaaki Kishibe to any fan of fingerstyle guitar, one of the absolute best. I also know that neoclassical/shred/virtuoso rock/metal has been big in Japan to varying degrees for a good while, Michael Angelo Batio and Marty Friedman I specifically recall being huge over there.

To be completely honest, let me go on a little bit of a tangent myself: Japanese music in all forms is very uniquely flavored, to say the least, and there are a lot of acts with a lot of personality, for better or worse, and even the approach to (more) mainstream music writing can at sometimes be baffling to me, my greatest example would be what I believe is the opening theme for Release the Spyce, pretty awesome show by the way, which is a preppy-happy pop/rock tune (with uncharacteristically animated drum work,) that at some point bursts into a double-kick line and then into a goddamn blast beat, and it fucking works, for some reason! I find it incredibly interesting how the outside-the-box music structuring and composition are compared to western pop music's songwriting.

But one of the reasons that my musical sphere of influence doesn't reach Japanese music as much nowadays is that it is an absolute urethral needle to properly tag and catalog, which is something very important to me. By tag and catalog, I mean having the proper name of the band, proper name of their releases, proper track order, etc., and exactly because of the aforementioned unique flavor, there are a lot of bands with randomly capitalized names, completely nonsensical names, or names with goddamn emojis in them and it can be absolute goddamn ass to track and tag, especially if you're using something like Last.fm like I am, and on top of it all, there aren't many discography lists that are consistent in the information shown and stuff. It's a lot more prominent in pop music than in rock or metal - I'm a big fan of Yanagi Nagi (or Nagi Yanagi, however you'd prefer,) for instance, and the various listings of her discography, their inconsistencies, and lack of anything 'official' have made it very hard for me to track it and tag it properly throughout the years. Rant end. Goddamn, it feels good to get this out of my system.

last edited at May 10, 2022 8:33AM

The extra was so sweet! Love me some good fluff. Poor Mai, that was pretty much a murder attempt, the strawberries thing, in particular, good lord. Almost seems premeditated, or it would've seemed if I didn't know better. Asumi is a natural-born ladykiller, yet she knows not of the power she possesses, and it amuses me endlessly.

I also love the extra details for the other cast members. I find it impressive, in the sense that it's evidence to the thought put behind them, and I always appreciate that. That, and it also implies them returning at some point, to which I say absolutely please and thank you.

As somewhat of an aside, I'm also of the opinion that the story hadn't forgotten about Mai. Asumi has definitely gotten sidetracked, but be it consciously or through unquenchable lust, she's still doing what she set out to do originally and will get there eventually. Regardless and in any case, I'm a big fan of everything the story's shown thus far, and do not mind the sidetracking and related shenanigans.

last edited at May 10, 2022 8:34AM

I know that DragonForce is quite big in Japan

Amusingly, to my knowledge, metal is pretty big in Japan in general and the scene is very lively, and power metal specifically is relatively mainstream, I think. In a way, I think I wouldn't be surprised if DragonForce would be considered more widespread than Foo Fighters or Nirvana.

In any case, I'm a big fan of everything this story has shown so far, and hopefully, it keeps with it. Loving the uncle/niece designs in particular.

last edited at May 8, 2022 2:39PM

Page (000)45, the girl went for the... is it called second-hand kiss? I blanked the fuck out right now. In any case, girl went for it without a shred of hesitation. Makes me think a few things:

One thought is what I'd say is the more obvious idea that the girl legitimately harbors feelings for her actual sister with said sister being either departed or living but unreachable. Perhaps said sister had already rejected her or had gotten married, plenty of options, but the girl's now seeking to fill the void with the conveniently placed pretty office lady.

Another thought is that the girl was, from the start, interested in the pretty office lady who was very implicitly (read: as implicit as a mega car crash) into her and decided due to whatever reasons to get close to her through this contract thingy. Admittedly much more of a reach as a theory, and would need a bit more extra work to make actual sense, but the way two chapters had paralleled Hayafuji with the other woman in Meguru's flashbacks gives me that vibe. Also the kiss thing, you don't just do that out of nowhere. Said woman, in this line of thought, would either be an unreachable sister or a past love/past partner/past contractee, which is where I think this theory would be leaning toward.

I don't yet have an opinion or a thought regarding the awfully convenient housing situation. I don't necessarily feel that Meguru would have enough power to have an active part in it, but we also don't know much about her at all. I do think that there's a method to the madness and that this isn't just lazy and convenient writing, with evidence for that being the mentioned parallels between the two women in Meguru's life.

(edit) I also don't know how to exactly explain this, but there's something about the little details of Meguru's behavior that radiates a not exactly sexual, but intimate and seductive aura, at least in little sister mode. Some of the panels have a very peculiar tension to them that isn't exactly sexual in nature, but much closer to it than anything else. Admittedly I'm definitely reading too deep into things at this point and this is a shot in the dark, but there are visible differences in the nuance(s) that legitimately interest me, and I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing the series develop and how these come into play from this point.

In either case, what I think the plan here is to have Hayafuji and Meguru develop an actual bond through the whole contract sister thing, and most probably develop into romance, and that the story would overall be on the more lighthearted side of things, but not without its fair share of turbulence. Honestly, I'd say I'm in for the ride either case, so yeah.

last edited at May 1, 2022 8:58AM

I'm hoping that the next chapter starts with Yuzu answering something along the lines of "Nah, I ain't into that shit," then bumping into Minami on the way out and starting to literally sparkle, obvious signs of solid camaraderie between the two.

Jokes aside, I actually am expecting Yuzu to already have realized her own feelings and to be the one with their hands on the reins, for lack of a better term. Actually, the one steering the ship would probably be better, but yeah, I'm expecting this sort of dynamic, with Minami the one who just realized and will be a bumbling mess henceforth and Yuzu, whose reaction would probably be "did you really figure it out just now?" I'm probably going to love this one. I mean... the game was rigged from the start, really.

last edited at Apr 30, 2022 7:01AM