That one roommate girl drinking from a straw at the beginning of chapter 2 kinda looks like an oversized toddler compared to the others lol

I'm now thinking of a Love Bullet/TGSWINWAGAA crossover fan story where Narita & Koharu are in competition to get the shot on Koga & Aya ... Unfortunately I can neither write nor draw.

Narita, having spent all his time playing cupid for others and not pursuing romance for himself, falls in an open manhole one day only to wake up with Chiyo leaning over him, possibly making a Cyberpunk reference as she hands him a gun

The weirdest thing about the censored kiss is ... didn't they already kiss? Like, ch. 15 even had a sex scene, so I guess the censors are as inconsistent as always when it comes to their demand?

...or these two are so hot, yet dense that fusion occured upon contact.

I'm pretty sure there's not typically specific demands being made, it's more like getting demonetized on Youtube where the moderation is just all over the place and kind of random and people develop quasi-superstitions for how you avoid it. And there's homophobes who brigade queer creators, making the rules de facto much more commonly enforced for them.
The one time I've heard of really specific censorship demands was the author of Mage and Demon Queen talking about her experiences publishing on webtoons dot com (a South Korean owned English publication website), where she'd submit comics and get rejected for publication with the editors going "this joke is too racy! You can't swear so much! You can see a bit too much butt!" While that's crystal clear and relatively consistent sort of, it also sounded aggravating far beyond acceptable levels to the author.

last edited at Oct 2, 2024 7:20AM

I think Riri saying things like "kissing is for after marriage" is gonna be a hard limit on any progress between her and Mei until she proactively crosses that distance herself, so I'm not gonna get my hopes up for her lol. Does Riri even know it's possible for two women to be together? Because I don't know how you could have a worldview where all intimate contact is only after marriage and be aware of queer topics like. At all. Especially in a country without gay marriage.

Basically, "What stupid site is the comic running in"?

(Or "is the artist that bad at drawing kisses?")

It's just bizarrely something common with Chinese romance comics for some reason. I think it's gotta be some bizarre policy of bilibili comics that spread as a standard or something like that? Sometimes the author posts the unaltered image somewhere else like twitter, sometimes the scanlators redraw it, sometimes you just get it like the Chinese fans get it.

I figure the error on the toy has something to do with her breaking that law.
For all we know, maybe future Kako made the law after she inadvertently screwed something up.

That's plausible, they didn't say what kind of important genius she was in the future but maybe she invented time travel (by borrowing it from the future lol) and set up the rules for it.

It seems to me that she has spent a long time cultivating a poor understanding of boundaries in Io, who she has had access to since she was 14, to allow her to control her and get close to her in ways that are not safe, healthy, or appropriate.

There's nothing saying Hase has been Io's manager since she was 14. Io just said Hase has been with her since she was a teenager, and in context Hase clearly didn't act like she does now for that whole time, since if she did the events of one year ago when Misa and Io first met would have been way less likely to happen and definitely couldn't have happened without major consequences. It seems like Hase has specifically been acting up way more since that night where Misa convinced Io not to take her call after hours, because it's only after that that Io learns for the first time that Hase has access to her apartment and is surprised that Hase is going to drive her to work instead of letting her go in on her own terms.

There's seriously nothing in this manga to indicate Hase shaped Io into who she is on any level except possibly professionally.
I do wonder what the term in the raws translated as teenager was. I'm pretty sure "JK," the slang term for high school girls, tends to get translated that way? But I don't know what other possibilities that might indicate more specificity could be there.

last edited at Oct 1, 2024 5:37AM

This chapter made Riri seem less likely to be a winner, given that even as Mei is thinking of her "sexually" she's still mostly thinking about Maria. It's actually interesting how clearly the author has established the obstacles for why Mei isn't picking anyone yet for each other character... except really Minato, who's mostly seems to participate in everything out of liking the competition rather than wanting to date Mei but otherwise doesn't have much of a reason for Mei not to go for her. Minato and Kaoru feel kinda tied for last place right now, given how little Mei things of them and how much they seem more interested in playing together than dating Mei. Karin's in second place quite a bit behind Maria, and Riri's just stuck in the middle being passive but sexy as hell.

I actually felt like this chapter made the solution to the "mystery" really obvious: she eventually goes to the future with Mirai and Nozomi. Mirai's got a strict legal time limit on how long she can stay in the past: her own birth. So if this couple reaches a point where they want to stay together past that, it's back to the future for them :P

One detail that has struck me upon re-reading: isn't it always Io who comes to see Misa, and never the other way around? On the other hand, Hase just invites herself into Io's private room every time she feels like it.

Yes, Misa has told Io to come over, like in chapter 6, but all of their meetings require Io's active participation to happen. And speaking of going over to Misa's place, I noticed that in chapter 2 is all messy, with Misa saying it's only a place to sleep and eat, but by chapter 7 she's got it cleaned up and even has nice plants. She's clearly put in work off screen to make that space comfortable for Io to join her in. It's adorable.

I feel compelled to write something about why it's such a big deal to me that Io is clearly portrayed as naturally a submissive lesbian, rather than being groomed into being one: The origin of the word "grooming" in this context was coined to describe pedophiles training children to take precocious interest in sexual acts and relationships, normalizing behavior far younger than they'd otherwise engage in it. The far right jumped on this and twisted it, using "grooming" to describe children being given access to queer media or exposed to queer role models and thus coming out as gay or trans themselves as an act of self-realization. This disgusting association is why so many people (like myself) have fully abandoned the term and use other phrasing to describe the actions of child predators. Neither of these definitions of the term apply to Io, which is important. Io's sexuality is not a corrupted version of her natural state, not something imposed upon her. It's a completely healthy aspect of her, as shown in the downright wholesome relationship she has with Misa. Io is a submissive gay woman, not because of abuse or trauma or deliberate sculpting of her sexual interests or personality, but because that's just who Io naturally is, and that's a perfectly okay kind of person to be.
This is important because there is a LOT of stigma around being queer, around being into BDSM, and just around being a woman with particularly strong sexual interests in general. Io's at a specific nexus of traits that make characters like her almost ALWAYS portrayed as unhealthy victims corrupted into that state. This contributes to a whole lot of shame in the real people who share some or all of those three traits, which is obviously fucked up and really bad. I've talked to fellow lesbians who've been pushed so far by this shame that they feel an impulse to suspect their perfectly normal non-abusive parents of having done SOMETHING that they just don't remember, since they've got these interests that are almost exclusively shown as the result of sexual abuse in the media. I've seen so, so, so many people absolutely terrified of their own sexuality because they have fantasies about being a dom and they're convinced they'll hurt people if they don't bury those feelings. Flowerchild portraying Io and Misa as being perfectly healthy and happy together is a really positive thing that can help real people reading this feel so much better about themselves.

last edited at Sep 30, 2024 4:09AM

Solid solid chapter. One panel that caught my attention was Io pausing after being made to promise she won't see Misa again. On one hand of course she still wants to see Misa, but on the other hand Io likes being ordered around and going with those orders, so naturally Io promises.

Of course in the past scenes Io said that she would like to be ordered around by Misa specifically, but I can see it being extended to the manager as well.

I really don't think Io would have agreed with what Hase demanded of her just because "she likes to be ordered around," since who is giving the orders obviously matters to her: she explicitly considered hooking up with other lesbians and then ran away at the last second, as described in chapter 2. Hase just has extreme control over Io's life and career, the endorsement of her parents,, access to her home, and is physically threatening on top of all that. I'm pretty sure Io obeyed out of fear, not because she's playing along as a sub.
To be clear: while Io did not get "groomed" into becoming who she is now (a state that is in no way portrayed by the author as a bad thing to be, which is very important! Io's personally and sexual tastes are not that of a victim, just a sub!), this behavior in the present from Hase is absolutely abusive. That was a scene of sexual assault, not Io being tempted to cheat on/leave behind Misa.

last edited at Sep 30, 2024 3:38AM

I really don't think "groomer" has a useful place in analyzing this story (or most any story there's pretty much always better terms that don't have the disgusting political baggage that we could use). The story is pretty clear that while Hase has possibly been harboring these feelings for some time, she's been content with the access being the manager gives her until recently, when she noticed the changes to Io thanks to Misa. Remember that Io didn't even know Hase had a key to her apartment until two chapters ago. Io has not developed into what Hase wanted her to be or trained her to be, but she's taking advantage of the situation for sure.
Also worth mentioning again that Io is not a child. She's old enough to drink, and she's mature enough to know what she wants and pursue it with emotional honesty and clarity. She lacks power in this situation not because of her age, immaturity, or naivety, but because Hase is full control of Io's career. She's not a child being exploited, she's functionally an employee being exploited.

She did groom her tho, Io said that she has been working with Hase san since she was a teenager (up to 14) and stated that she has always been this controlling, but didn't got sexual till now that someone else got a taste first

That's not what grooming means. There is absolutely zero reason to think Hase has influenced Io's sexuality or development in any way. Also, Io only got her big break shortly after she first met Misa and before that was just one girl among many at a talent agency. There's no way Hase had a 1:1 relationship with her or much direct control over her back then, seeing as she could get away with going to a lesbian hookup club, getting drunk and staying out all night with a one night stand. She was just one of many aspiring actors Hase managed as part of the agency. She just has not had the space to influence Io in any way more than the typical abusive management of any person at a talent agency. What Io likely meant by that line is that Hase's always seemed like a controlling person, not that Hase has been in control of her life this whole time. The meeting in the chapter one flashback wouldn't make sense otherwise, and there's no justification for Io to have such management before her becoming famous.
There's also no reason to assume she's been attempting to work in showbiz since she was as young as 14, not when her breakout roll happened when she was over 20. That's way too long to fail and not give up. She hasn't expressed any sort of passion for acting or showbiz, it feels like a default to her since it's the industry her parents work in, so she probably defaulted to it when she was done with school. I'd assume Io lived with her parents and went to high school normally and only started working after graduation at 17.

I really don't think "groomer" has a useful place in analyzing this story (or most any story there's pretty much always better terms that don't have the disgusting political baggage that we could use). The story is pretty clear that while Hase has possibly been harboring these feelings for some time, she's been content with the access being the manager gives her until recently, when she noticed the changes to Io thanks to Misa. Remember that Io didn't even know Hase had a key to her apartment until two chapters ago. Io has not developed into what Hase wanted her to be or trained her to be, but she's taking advantage of the situation for sure.
Also worth mentioning again that Io is not a child. She's old enough to drink, and she's mature enough to know what she wants and pursue it with emotional honesty and clarity. She lacks power in this situation not because of her age, immaturity, or naivety, but because Hase is full control of Io's career. She's not a child being exploited, she's functionally an employee being exploited.

last edited at Sep 29, 2024 6:32PM

Sensei sure is going pretty far in the ''this is the special kind of love'' now, without outright saying it quite yet, at this point at least. Narita goes so far as to call himself a cupid and the whole prom trope is deep in romantic symbolisism. The cynic in me is starting to have a real hard time believing we're going to get the rug pulled from under us in the yuri department at the end :P

Is this even a question? Like the chapter just before this one was explicitly about Aya talking about Mitsuki in romantic terms and her friend Chiharu realizing that's who she's been talking about. Even before that there was the chapter where Aya told Mitsuki to her face that all her feelings for "onii-san" apply to her. Imo there's absolutely zero ambiguity that Aya is full on in romantic gay love.

sees Psycho Pass mentioned Weirdly enough I never though of Psycho Pass as either action no female-lead. Does it even have a singular protagonist, besides perhaps the Sybil System?

Akane is the most commonly recurring main character of the Psychopass series, as mentioned by Fluffycow. Sybil is definitely NOT a protagonist, it's the antagonist lmao. Dunno how you could get the impression it's anything else. The whole mystery of the first season is "How come our fascist crime computer declares panicking women to be worthy of death but serial killers completely faultless?"

last edited at Sep 29, 2024 4:42PM

I hope everyone can see the difference between CNC and true non-consent :)

As a fan of CNC it pleases me to no end to see an author set up the pillars of CNC and Dom-Sub RP so well to strikingly, visually compare them to how real abuse forms and plays out.
It's peak.

I think the author is definitely working with this kind of contrast and doing it well, yeah. Like, one of the big obvious differences is that Misa's control of Io was willingly given to her by Io, whereas Hase's control comes from Io's parents, and while the author doesn't explicitly point that out again this chapter they made sure to have Hase mention the famous parents as part of Io's supposed value, which cues us to remember that she works for them, not Io. Even Hase's access to Io's home is something given to her by the parents without Io even knowing about it until suddenly finding Hase in her bedroom looming over her.

I also love the detail that Misa immediately communicated what's going on to Io, who also immediately confronted Hase about it. These are adults dedicated to being open and up front with each other, even as Hase falsely labels Io as a child.

Misa is definitely worth more to her job than her job is worth to her, I doubt Hase could possibly scare her by making a scene in there when Misa makes that place so much money with her image. What Hase could do to rattle Misa is threaten Io in some way or claim terrible outcomes of their association, which is what I'm expecting to be her plan here.

LycoReco is definitely moe type, those girls are like 15 and absolutely cut from the standard "cute girl" cloth. I feel you can very directly contrast it with Psycho Pass, which is also an action anime series primarily lead by female characters, except they're adults in a much less cute art style (especially after the first season). Psycho Pass even has some canon lesbians.

It feels so strange to me to hear Love Bullet being framed primarily for its action, because that's such a small percent of the actual content and definitely isn't the primary focus? It's well done every time it comes up but it's always there to serve the emotional story rather than them having action frequently and finding story excuses for more action. And in general selling a comic based on "action" feels like it would be pitching to a very immature audience who wouldn't appreciate the deep emotional content, especially stories where you do not get the simple most desirable outcome like Koharu ending to with her childhood friend because of her death and then needing to assign that same friend a new lover. Shounen type audiences seem to really struggle with feeling frustrated at that kind of denial in a story, because they're used to getting what they want in entertainment media targeting them, rather than stories about the complex emotions when you don't get what you want.

last edited at Sep 28, 2024 8:50PM

The only couple in this series I dislike is Mariri x Mayuyu, they're just way too childish and simple to keep my attention. There's no texture there.

I'm so glad we saved this manga! It would've been a huge loss if it were to be axed... Thank you all for your work to those who aided in promoting and boosting vol. 1's sales!

The author managed to sell enough copies! I’m so happy for her, now we can continue enjoying this great series!

The author sells enough copies, now we can continue enjoying this great series!

Please note that there's been no indication of a reprint (which would mean all the volumes sold out) from the author yet, so there's no confirmation that the series is out of the woods yet. We can't celebrate too early, especially after we found out that the publisher did have a bunch of books sitting in their their warehouse following the first out of stock notices on online retailers - they only just connected that stock to the online retailers two days ago.

It'll be important to support the series while the author's doing her promotions on Twitter! So please consider supporting the manga if you've been enjoying the scanlations and want the story to continue! Our Buying Guide is here: https://bit.ly/lovebullet

Has Comic Flapper started to play ball yet with promoting Love Bullet? Or even just retweeted any of the promos from the author? Cuz so far I'm glad for the outpouring of love for the series but feel bitter that it's resulting in these bastards getting paid for work they've refused to do.

Being trans isn't so much about "switching" from one gender to another, but more about not being the one you were assigned at birth. Kazuki was afab but is not actually a woman, thus trans applies as far as definitions go.

Huh, I always had it the other way around: trans (in its stem form) meaning "across" implying that, say, a transfemale identifies as female nomatter if amab, intersex, etc. and vice-versa. Do "trans" and "cis" even apply to non-gender dual identities? Does my GNC behind now really has to start the "might I be trans?" thing again? Gee, thanks.

Here's my heuristic for this: Do you want people to look at you and assume your assigned gender at birth based on your appearance and then act based on that assumption? Do you want to be perceived as and treated as the gender marker they assumed for you as a newborn? Then you're cis. If not, you're under the broad umbrella of "trans," which in this case simply means "not cis" rather than having any particular meaning of being "across" or "opposite" (these terms are older than our more modern understandings so you shouldn't rely on the specific definitions of prefixes imo, just like with "bisexual").

last edited at Sep 27, 2024 3:07PM

Lady just outed herself as a customer of teenage girl prostitutes before a whole big crowd of people, huh....

This is certainly a much more direct title than the last transmasc manga I saw on here, "To Strip The Flesh". I really liked that one, it was very raw and cathartic.

To each his own. That title is a no-go.
Not the story: the actual title.

I really liked it since it conveyed the feeling of body dysphoria of the protagonist in a very strong undeniable way, but I can see how that can be too strong in conveying such an unpleasant emotion for some people. Of course I wouldn't recommend those people read the manga either in that case, especially since there's overt scenes of the guy dreaming of being butchered to remove his unwanted body aspects. It's a very confrontational manga, and helped me grasp the feelings of someone who would hate the parts of themselves that I personally love for myself.

last edited at Sep 27, 2024 2:03AM