I don't know why some people felt like the (implied) suicide came out of nowhere. I won't say I wasn't surprised, but Tomo committing suicide seems to me a very plausible, reasonable development. I mean, did she seem happy to anyone else? Looking for a purpose, unable to get close to anyone, tinges of (somewhat justified) self-hatred, overthinker, unhealthy habits . . . seems like a classic candidate for suicide, actually.
And at the same time, I can see why someone might get obsessed by her. The cool self-reliance, the almost unconscious style, the clearly impressive intellect . . . in many ways, objectively she's a horrible person, but there's this strong "What if?" that says there's an amazing person there if only she'd stop stifling it, if only she could be saved from the shit (much of it self-inflicted) that's crippling her . . . people do get obsessed with that kind of person. So it's kind of realistic.

Overall, although this was both a sad and depressing story, I thought it was very well done and I didn't find it repugnant. This is a good one. Unlike (spits on ground ritually) "The feelings we all must endure" which I did find repugnant, and which I actually thought had some serious flaws in execution as well.

I must say Amano Shuninta is, if nothing else, an exciting writer. You never know if you're going to get happy or sad, cynical or relatively pure, and it's hard to even be sure if quality-wise you're going to get excellent or crap. But that does mean that when you start reading one of her works you can't readily predict what's going to happen.

It's funny how different we see things but how similar at the same time. Namely with Feelings since you think it horrid and I think it wonderful.

Like you, I don't think the suicide came out of nowhere. I just feel as though there was something lacking in execution. Again, it makes sense by skeleton, but something's missing. I can't claim to know what, since my genre of expertise in writing is different (fictional film). Of course there are intersections, but not enough for me to fairly pinpoint what.

I suppose if I were to draw any conclusions from Shuninta's last two works and their respective receptions is that your judgment on her works differ depending on what lens you view them through. I will stand by that I think objectively this is inferior to Feelings, but if you color bias into the viewing glass then that that would not longer mean much anyway.

Itou Hachi. One of my absolute favorites of all time now.

I was skeptical since some of his works recently seemed too thin plot-wise, but this just blew that out of the water. Using his amazing art style and not even in the sub-genre where he works best (animal people).

All of my...actually all of everyone's yes.

So I guess I'm the only one rooting for Harumin and Matsuri..

Totally all in that club. Saburouta is just juggling the option with the vice pres as well because Harumin also works well with her.

I would also like to know why it's so difficult, can someone explain it please?

Well, I've failed my psychology exam so I'm no expert, but I assume it's the same mechanism which allowed for monarchies and the like; people viewed the king as someone inherently superior to themselves because of his status as The King. Because they are better than us, we believe them to be perfect (this because I believe most people are at all times have both a superiority and inferiority complex; they are better than I am, but I am awesome so they must be perfect.). This same mechanism I think applies to all who we admire; we think that they are better than us and thus they must be infallible.

We don't like it when something we thought infallible defies are illusions. See; French revolution, English Civil War etc...

I think. Maybe.

It's called cognitive dissonance and it's very uncomfortable.

Psyc knowledge coming in unannounced.

If Nya is saying cog diss is why it's difficult for us to see the two sides of Shou, she is correct. It's why I had issues at first about the whole deal. But ya know, I am both an avid supporter of gay marriage and a devoted Catholic and I (after a bit of thinking, mind you) was able to reconcile the two rather nicely. So, there are plenty of ways to have seemingly repulsively contrasted aspects to your personality while at the same time not having cognitive dissonance about it.

The term for putting people who have an upper-edge in experience/credibility in a subject varies depending on the situation, but in general that whole concept in scarily accurate. You were partially correct about all people having both an inferiority and superiority complex (boiling what those terms are standing for in this situation down to those two respective terms is quasi-incorrect and unfair, but the idea is the same and would just be arguing semantics at that point). And when people are shown that their leaders and pedestaled people are actually not all that hot, they revolt in some way. It involves more than just cog diss at that point (depending on your psychological belief field, your prognosis changes), but the ideas are all still there.

His other work are all classic hentai, sometimes two very close girl does things with each other but it's all about friendly/sisterly sex to help guys jerk off (during or preceding a threesome with the boyfriend)
No bait so no switch

My brain still cannot compute how such a genius writer like him ended up getting stuck with that. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for hentai, but we don't exactly read it for the story. Mostly.

As I've said before, there may have been a time that Shou drew loli "just to pay the bills," but it's something he very clearly enjoys and carries a good deal of prestige doing. Like the vast majority of porn artists, he didn't "get stuck" doing it, he chose to do it. I'll stop myself there.

On a side note, I died laughing at "sisterly sex."

That...actually makes a lot of sense. Thank you, I didn't think of it from that perspective.

Ooooooo how so many people here are gonna backpedal SO FAST when the next chapter's scan is released.

Not commenting further on that.

I thought the light-haired girl guarding the door was Aika...am I wrong?

Also I have mixed feelings about Shouko seeming to forgive Akki so easily at the end. I mean she basically stabbed in the eye and pushed around about a misunderstanding. It's good Shouko accepts and loves Akki so readily and can forgive her as soon as the misunderstanding is cleared up but...well I don't know how healthy the relationship can actually get if Akki remains so untrusting and jealous.

You seem to forget that both are like that, it just so happened this time that Akki got jealous.

If you look back it's always Akki initiating though. I think Shouko just is always ready to retaliate. If Akki never got jealous, the fights would never happen.

If it weren't for the whole thing about Tomo being a pimp, the abrupt end might even have worked. I can think a lot of different possibilities for "darken" Tomo's character without resorting to the underworld.

Moreover, in some way, I even expect the last pages (the "comeback" of Tomo). If it had been really her (like "hohoho! I had to fake my death but I'm back because, after all, I was only a damn tsundere who failed to be honest with herself" or something xD), the whole bit about her darkness would even have sense.

But ... um ... nope. As things just happen in the end don't fit for me. A pity, because there was no history of Shuninta disappointed me so far.

Gosh that very accurately puts thing in perspective.

The issue is that this story fell to the same trap I used to criticize Yui_7 for. It works brilliantly on paper: Tomo depressed about where her life has fallen to and couldn't care less anymore about it, but then in walks amazing Ai who sticks by her beyond all else with an amazing soliloquy about love, and she breaks from the guilt and can't handle it. But upon execution, we get this.

Normally Shuninta is brilliant at endings and how to craft together some neat outlooks. I think the thought and the concept is there...just not put together quite right. Kinda like Frankenstein's monster. Calling it a trainwreck is too far since I think if Tomo had pulled that sneaky shit and ran away to be with Ai and leave her old life behind we wouldn't be complaining right now. We would be (mostly) celebrating it, assuming Shuninta put that together well. I think Amano knew that and wanted to switch things up with a more atypical tragic ending to emphasize the loneliness and pain dynamic with Ai and Tomo, but there was a bit too much of a foreign substance injected into it (the suicide kinda felt like the easy way out in terms of plot, but not the right way).

Amano. Girl. You let me down.

And many here know how much I love her and believe in her. I think this is her trying too hard. I firmly believe and stick behind my thinking Feelings We Must Endure was a great and realistic introspection. But...well...this was just too much with too little development. Good story, almost atrocious ending.

I get why she wanted tragedy. I understand. But everything after Tomo leaving seems a bit melodramatic and overly romantic. Ai loved Tomo and continued to do so knowing her bad parts, but based on everything we've gotten of Tomo, she clearly should have been shaken by Ai's soliloquy about love.

Maybe Shuninta's gone through a rough patch romance-wise lately? Interesting where this serious and sour outtake on things have come from.

last edited at May 24, 2015 2:09PM

I thought the light-haired girl guarding the door was Aika...am I wrong?

Also I have mixed feelings about Shouko seeming to forgive Akki so easily at the end. I mean she basically stabbed in the eye and pushed around about a misunderstanding. It's good Shouko accepts and loves Akki so readily and can forgive her as soon as the misunderstanding is cleared up but...well I don't know how healthy the relationship can actually get if Akki remains so untrusting and jealous.

So now maybe Nina will finally herself stop trying to get Sara with her "fated one" and start becoming her "fated one".

Also if you dont want ch16 spoilers, don't go on Tumblr yuri blogs. One very kind and devoted person translated a critical section of ch16 and it's been everywhere.

Oh my dear lord. That picture on p15 probably healed my soul a little bit.

I think the deal with Mira is that people who categorize doujins and what not into a binary "porn" and "not porn" have issue with it because it sits right in an awkward gray area. There is plenty of story but it also has some intensely hot and well-done sex scenes that are...well meant for people to get off too.

The big issue is that some of her stuff (Earth Girls) is far more plot and others (this and her oneshots) are far more porn.

This one I'm interested in because I see Moe starting to veer down a path where she doesn't care about herself anymore. I think I know what will happen...I'm just curious as to how we get there.

I think...Mikage might be the best person to Suwako. I dunno. Everyone always ends up breaking up with her, and my best guess as the only reason she has a husband because he was rash and proposed like 3 weeks into their relationship or something. Although, he definitely has to know that she fools around a lot, and he still keeps her.

Suwako went under some intense shit during her life. She's a good person but she doesn't know how to cherish someone yet. Mikage is a good person and knows how to cherish someone a little TOO well.

His other work are all classic hentai, sometimes two very close girl does things with each other but it's all about friendly/sisterly sex to help guys jerk off (during or preceding a threesome with the boyfriend)
No bait so no switch

My brain still cannot compute how such a genius writer like him ended up getting stuck with that. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for hentai, but we don't exactly read it for the story. Mostly.

Calling it now, het ending on Yuri Kuma.

Sure Morishima's done all sorts of gay stuff, and she's never done a bait-and-switch het ending or really any sort of twist ending. But she's never done a story like this one before, so how can we trust that she won't? After all, the more that she teases us with yuri bears, the more likely it is that it'll just turn into one big harem story with Life Sexy.

You are so goddamn lucky I'm back home from college or my roommate would flip multiple shits at me again.

I NEED to read something new!

You might as well give up on like, literature in general then. There's only so much things you can write.

If humans disliked something because its been done before, we would be sol in terms of entertainment. So eventually he/she'll wanna read something like this again.

I know Spanish. Unfortunately that's not a language these things get made in.

Plus I frequent Tumblr and pixiv so is not I who hadnt gotten a serving in a while, its just here.

@FuBucky first lol at the name; second, I feel the same way. I just feel that some new DD should come in the second season and that should be her main ship. But that's my own dream.

@candy760othernumbers I'm always down for a serving, no matter what form.

I don't care if the male stays for all 5 volumes, this charming, beautiful, cliche of a yuri is just what I like.

Hard to call it cliche since a male is, indeed, present.

I get where the hate for that comes from, but it just seems so baseless. Like, if the story still ends up girl x girl, a good, real guy present makes it so much better. It makes it even more real. Everyone has their own preference, which I get, but I don't think it would be either incorrect or rude of me to call attention to the possibility of it being ill-conceived.

Cliche because it takes place in a high school setting and girl A falls for girl B but is unable to express herself. The story isn't deviating much from the usual yuri formula, but it's still very good. I'm really enjoying it

Agreed.

Heavily subtextual. There's a girl who seems to be head over heels for the MC and the MC is very interested and curious about the girl. Plus, it's based off a legit novel, not like a manga or LN, so the chance of it happening goes up.

It's not the focus, but its there and it definitely is emphasized.

Hold the eff up. I'm currently on episode 3 and I think it's super awesomely gay so far (meaning no offense), but someone is CONFIRMED to like the MC?

No one confirmed, sorry. Just seems to be head over heels at this point.

the LN has het confirmed but the anime and LN has some differences like reina's hair flip and reina talking to kumiko in ep 6 which wasn't in the LN. in the LN, reina confesses to taki sensei but he just brushes it off as a joke and it's confirmed that kumiko ends up getting a bf in the future which may be shuuichi?

but keep in mind that anime ≠ LN/manga in many cases. and this anime is produced by KyoAni so there's bound to be lots of subtext since they've produced animes like Free! and K-On!. let's just pray to Godoka that reina x kumiko are canon.

There are plenty of hints toward Reina liking Taki-sensei...but is it really confirmed Kumiko gets a bf? There's only been 3 volumes, and we've chugged through along pretty quickly in the show without a legitimate guy in sight. I know there are Shuuichi shippers b/c childhood friend but I just see no chemistry.

It's KyoAni, and they love subtext. I just see, at least right now, that Kumiko and Reina would be objectively best together, yuri goggles off and everything. She has no connection to any other guys and the only possibility, Shuuichi, is basically the same status as Aoi but with a penis.

ANYWAY you can reply to this, but any further and this discussion would probs need its own forum.

last edited at May 19, 2015 2:01AM

Is it just me or the last few days have people been overreacting towards Stretch almost as much as they do with Citrus? There's still very clear development going on. Them actually getting in a relationship this soon would feel kinda rushed anyways. It seems rather unlikely that they'll be in a relationship for awhile realistically. Until some of their personal problems are taken care of at the very least.

Angst. People suck at handling angst. Look at any simulpub'd anything and people get angsty over the angsty characters doing angsty things and respond in angsty ways (typically salty rage). Stretch has more an aura of angst lately (although not enough to warrant a tag)...enough that it caused this reaction.

Shou has handled this magnificently, and I think he will continue to do so. If the two do end up together, it will definitely one of the best canon ships we've come across in a long time.

There's no such thing as Tamako Love Story.
But Euphonium is super freaking gay for real though!

Is it..? Like overly yuri, or just subtexty?

Heavily subtextual. There's a girl who seems to be head over heels for the MC and the MC is very interested and curious about the girl. Plus, it's based off a legit novel, not like a manga or LN, so the chance of it happening goes up.

It's not the focus, but its there and it definitely is emphasized.