I don't know why, but the translator notes, at the very end, giving the suggestion to resize if you're reading on Dynasty are really funny to me.

Like, I'm just imagining someone absolutely struggling to read it then getting to that at the end and being like

I thought the suggestion was cute, but this really is funny XD

Also, very cute one-shot. It's a bit funny that, not only had she drawn the roommate as a shy, gay-panicking mess, but also herself as confident and assertive... I wonder if the roommate realized this (I bet she did and decided to correct things lol).

Well, I guess it's good to dream, Xiu Yang!

last edited at Oct 7, 2021 4:39PM

Third.
Chapter 20 had an... interesting cover. Either Kase has four fingers, or she is making a quite bold, for this manga at least, hand gesture.... Though, I suppose hurling your backpack at someone's face is a bit bolder lol

She's holding the flower with her index and middle fingers, you can see the tip of the former peek out behind the title on the left of it a bit

Ohhhh I never realised the flower wasn't part of the background!

Thanks for this, it just seemed so weird and out-of-place with the image I had of Kase (and the manga) XD
It may sound a bit funny, but her throwing a bag at another person seemed a lot more normal than her doing that lol

I just reread and caught up with this today and there are four things I'd like to say:

First.
Isn't Kase clearly a lesbian? Or, at the very least, she is obviously attracted to women in general. (This is an answer to an equally funny and baffling discussion that had taken place after chapter 19? I think)

Second.
Is it bad that I liked jealous Kase...?
Or, rather, I liked her face when she was jealous XD
I mean, look at this, isn't she pretty hot??
Actually, the author's artstyle has improved a lot over time. College Yamada is prettier and college Kase is hotter.

In all seriousness, though, it's good that we're finally moving on from that jealousy arc, Kase was getting way too possessive...

Third.
Chapter 20 had an... interesting cover. Either Kase has four fingers, or she is making a quite bold, for this manga at least, hand gesture.... Though, I suppose hurling your backpack at someone's face is a bit bolder lol

Fourth.
Of course we ship the roommate with the rival! I've been shipping them since chapter 11 XD
I really like the roommate by the way, she's cute. I feel like she reminds me of a character in another manga, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

Since I read the raw, I want to point out something that is not spoilers but my thoughts about the November issue.
1. How hard is it for Nanase to invite Yuni to sit in the gym in order to be around her during practice? Yuni attends no club and participates no sports.
2. How hard is it for Nanase to tell everyone that Yuni is a fan and friend of hers.
3. How hard is it for Nanase POSSIBLY POKE AROUND to create a volleyball team manager job for Yuni, which makes her legit to hang around all the time.

Yuni wouldn't really be satisfied with any of that though, would she...? She doesn't want to watch Nanase practice, she wants to spend time with her, right? At least that's what I would think.
The question is, why is Nanase in a relationship if she wants to focus on her club and she's not ready to even spend time with Yuni in public?

This series treats its tropes like it’s the horror genre. I mean, “Please don’t tell—I’ll do anything”? Seriously? Has this person never watched TV, gone to the movies, or read a book?

Well, to be fair, she was shocked and scared about being her secrets being discovered, making rational decisions is rather hard for her at that time.

I mean, it does sound cliché, but the "fight, flight or freeze" response is very much real.

Oh please, I seriously haven't heard of anyone saying something like that ever in any circumstance in real life.
Then again, I haven't really talked to people who had creepy stalkers blackmailing them, so there's that....

This series really is kind of frustrating to read, simply because everyone acts freaking stupid?! (or are a creepo lol). And why does Yuni buy any of Fuuko's sh*t?

I was joking about dropping it last time, but now I'm seriously thinking about it.

This sounds bad but most of us agree that even if it doesn't end as yuri, it's an enjoyable series with really good moments... BUT if it turns out that any of the two or both get boyfriends after all, I would probably drop it hahaha, it would feel out of place to me after all this time and teasing.

I don't think I would mind Nozomi getting a boyfriend much... but Shino is, like, hella gay, it would just be weird lol

Even if it was Nozomi though, I would only be fine with it if it was at the ending, or if it wasn't a main point of focus in the story (which seems unlikely, given how awkward it would be to introduce someone like that to her former husband's sister...). This is a story about these two and their relationship; even if it doesn't go yuri, I wouldn't want to see it shift from that.

last edited at Oct 6, 2021 3:15PM

I just knew she would leave the aisle and it would make Kanon anxious when she came back! I mean, of course it would!

Do people really separate to pay for things like this? Usually if I’m with a friend and they go to buy something I’ll stand with them to chat, even if I’m not buying anything. If it was a family member maybe but not a friend

Even though I understand what you mean, there have definitely been times when I was just looking around, while my friend was at the counter (or the other way around), so it's not really such an outlandish or manga-only incident XD

But Saki could have been paying a bit more attention to whether Kanon had finished her purchase (and definitely not leaving), since Kanon would have a hard time spotting her in the midst of a crowd.

Okay, I've been pondering this for a while, and I have to ask: why is the dark skin tag an exception to the normal tagging rules?
If you look at any other tag related to appearance, like animal ears or glasses, it says that these tags shouldn't be added to every single picture of a character that normally has those attributes. Makes sense.
So why is every post with a character with dark skin tagged that?

Because dark skin is precious and needs to be accessible for everyone to see!

...Please ignore this.

To be honest, I'd rather have all pictures (even those with animal ears/glasses) tagged with the corresponding tags, because there are a lot of shows/games with characters that have such characteristics and I can't really look them up because I'm not familiar with them. But I also understand why they wouldn't be tagged, so idk

is chapter 101 a reupload? i’ve read it before but i almost exclusively use dynasty for all my manga reads…

I don't think it had been uploaded here before, but perhaps you read it when Serenata posted the link to mangadex?

Okay so

It's been about a month since my first post and now I've come back for Adolescence of Utena. And I can honestly say, I understand this statement completely:

I hated the movie after the first watch though...

But before I get to why, let's talk about the important stuff:

1. Where did all my SLAPPING go?! Jokes aside, I was genuinely surprised lol

2. The new HAIRCUTS. I just. I couldn't get over it for half the movie lol. I mean, okay, Utena's short cut was cool and all (especially in profile –gosh, her profile was greattt...!), but I feel like long hair was better for her. And don't even let me get started on Himemiya! I admit that having loose hair matched this Anthy better... But. Where did my gorgeous lush curls go??? Disappointing.

3. Utena's voice was as awesome as ever hehe. But I kinda felt like she didn't really have that many lines...? Then again, she was a freaking car (?!) for almost 15 minutes of the movie.... At least I got to hear her scream "Himemiya...!" again, so I'm contented.

   ---

Now, on to what actually put me off about this movie (besides the hairstyles):

Well, it had some pretty weird stuff in there right? Like all these scenes with the End of the World (in the car)...? Or that scientist dude and his secret crypt...? Idk, I didn't really get them.

It's a bit funny that I said this before about the series, I guess I just didn't know what was awaiting me in the movie. This movie reached Madoka Magica Rebellion levels of weirdness –just without any explanation at the end lol

I don't know if it was supposed to be symbolism or whatever, but I honestly feel like the only thing I actually understood from all that was those few lines at the end about how they would "venture into a world without roads...", or something. I don't know if I'm just stupid, and it definitely seemed as though the director had fun with this movie... but it just seemed like nonsense to me.

Also, something that really bothered me was the fact that it seemed to take many things for granted (as though it expected the viewer to have watched the original series), but at the same time it was far removed from that original plotline, so it ended up feeling as if nothing was actually explained.

Things were happening out of nowhere and the relationships between most of the main cast were never really shown. Touga's role, for example. Or the student council being friends with the main leads, without having been through any of what happened in the series. Anthy's change was also surprising, though I wouldn't say it wasn't fitting; it kinda felt like we were seeing the Anthy from the later episodes of the series (only without as gorgeous hair). However, her relationship with Utena felt a bit rushed, simply because there wasn't enough time for any kind of built-up to it. The whole film was so focused on all the surrealistic stuff, that it never got around to building any kind of plot.

Even though I was supposed to already be familiar with the story and characters, I felt estranged while watching it. I guess I'll stick to the series if I ever decide to rewatch it.

TL;DR: I was pissed off about the new hair, basically. Aaaand I didn't get what was going on. And the writer didn't seem to care to explain? lol

P.S. The one thing that this movie certainly did right was removing Nanami. That was a good call. Oh, and it was incredibly GAY.

last edited at Oct 4, 2021 5:13AM

^ Kind of irrelevant to this but I was immensely disappointed by the ending of Sora & Haena. I mean, it was never my favourite series, but somehow that was one of the most annoying timeskips I've ever read in yuri. (You already kinda spoiled this, but since it's not a Sora&Haena discussion I thought it better to cover it, idk)

I actually liked this one, I wasn't really expecting anything else with how it had been going so far. Though I can understand why people may find it frustrating.

Thanks for reminding me to check on Sora & Haena, it was getting on my nerves, the waiting..but I will check it now...ok I checked, I liked the end, it does make sense with the absurd amount of time Sora and readers were waiting for Haena to use her brain and go back lol

Plus there will be side stories and steamy times, or so the Twitter of the author implied, I don't speak Korean but it has images :P

I do plan to read the side stories and stuff if they get translated, but I don't like the fact that I need to rely on those to get something more of an actual ending. The timeskip reunion or whatever on the last episode not only felt out-of-nowhere, but it also didn't really add anything...? Like, okay, they live together now, but I could have easily imagined that to be the case? And Taeram became successful overseas I guess, but we basically already knew she would? We still don't even know if their friends are aware that they're dating...? Idk, it was like we spent all that time waiting for Haena's brain to function and then it just went, okayIcamebackIlikeyoutheend.Ohandwelivetogethernow. Okay. I kinda felt like I had been wasting my ink to unlock all those chapters on tapas... hahaha

(Much like many people here feel like this was a waste of time lol)

On the contrary, I really felt like the timeskip here did add to the story and I don't think it was rushed, even if the nature of their relationship is still kind of foggy. I really understand why some people were left feeling unsatisfied, but everything was resolved before the timeskip (well, except whether they got together or not lol, but I don't think that was an issue the author ever planned to resolve...) and the timeskip wasn't just used to clumsily end a story that the author didn't know how to end. And because their relationship was so loosely identified, showing that they live together is important and not something I would have otherwise ever assumed. I really liked how it went back to what connected them from the very beginning (kinda reminded me of Yoru to Umi, but that was a whole different dynamic). Though the truth is that I generally enjoy these kinds of ambiguous relationships in yuri, so it might just be me XD

last edited at Oct 2, 2021 10:02AM

^ Kind of irrelevant to this but I was immensely disappointed by the ending of Sora & Haena. I mean, it was never my favourite series, but somehow that was one of the most annoying timeskips I've ever read in yuri. (You already kinda spoiled this, but since it's not a Sora&Haena discussion I thought it better to cover it, idk)

I actually liked this one, I wasn't really expecting anything else with how it had been going so far. Though I can understand why people may find it frustrating.

^^^^^ Oh my god! I did not want to know that... I guess the artist should be excused then... But yikes

Also @none lol

Also I don't like them. I really dislike those ears.

Yeah, I'd say that was pretty obvious lol

I do agree, though, that it's silly to add animal ears just for the sake of it. I do sometimes find them to be very cute, but unless they have some purpose in the story (like, there is actually a reason for them to exist and the character being half-human –or whatever they are– is actually relevant to the plot) then it's plain unnecessary.

I will also state my dislike for the combination of human and animal ears, not only because it looks disturbing, but also because it really gives the impression that the animal ears were unneeded and were only added for extra cuteness.

I hadn't noticed when I first saw the picture, but now that I saw the four ears I find them absolutely creepy...! It's just disturbing, why would they have two pairs of ears?! (I am not making an inside joke, btw, I'm genuinely disturbed)

Though I'd say that in this particular picture the animal ears kinda do look like they could be cosplay props, so I'll just imagine that XD

last edited at Sep 30, 2021 8:12PM

This is the perfect example of a series that didn’t need there to be an explicit confirmation of romantic feelings and still works perfectly. I think people have gotten used to modern yuri of the last 5-ish years that deal with actual romantic relationships, and I’m really glad we have more of that now, but for most of its history yuri hasn’t been a one-to-one equivalent with "lesbianism." I read yuri because I like seeing stories that explore intimacy between girls, a quality of which is oftentimes its ambiguity and uncertain nature.

This series accomplished exactly what it set out to do and it did so beautifully. I don’t feel any sense of disappointment. I don’t begrudge people for wanting something specific from the manga they read, but I feel like you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. I think a lot of readers would benefit from learning to appreciate different kinds of stories.

This captures my feelings perfectly, I couldn't have said it this well myself. To me this story is not only incredibly yuri, but also incredibly well-written, and this ending fits the tone of the whole series perfectly.

In regards to whether it should be tagged as yuri though, I'm not entirely sure; because, for the purposes of the site, the application of the term yuri is limited somewhat, and it might cause new readers to have different expectations. However, they do live together, so there's that...?

What frustrates me a bit about this tagging system is that you can't really tell what type of subtext it will be, without reading the series first. Like, there is this type of story, which actually explores a relationship that is genuine and intimate, and then there's also the love-live type of subtext, which is fanservice more than anything else. I generally avoid series tagged as subtext, because I don't like the second type, but to me this is yuri, and I might have missed it if it was tagged as subtext....

last edited at Sep 30, 2021 4:42PM

Wow.
Just.

WOW.

I was not expecting that!
This was such an amazing chapter!!! It really did just keep getting better and better with each page!

I thought I'd read something light-hearted before going to sleep but this was not a good idea. I just keep going

GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

(in my head)
It was just so exciting! I went and hyper-enthusiastically brushed my teeth, but I still couldn't vent off the excitement so I came to write this lol

I just can't. Everything about this was perfect! Such great balance of hotness and cuteness! The almost complete absence of anything related to BL was so surprising but welcome! (even though I don't actually mind it most of the time). I'm glad we didn't miss Ai's gushing, though (only the theme had shifted somewhat....) lol

Also, Misumi actually making such a grand statement... Can't wait for the next chapter!

Edit: I wanted to add that Ai's face at the bottom panel here was so great! It's kind of like she started all strong and assertive, only to realize how outrageous(?) this was and falter half-way through... This mix of determination and shyness/awkwardness was awesome!

last edited at Sep 29, 2021 9:12PM

Is it okay if I talk about the anime here? I haven't actually read the manga at all, but it feels like a waste to create a new discussion for a single post (about an anime that came out thirty years ago, no less).

Well, whatever

My biggest complaint about this series was the fact that it was very melodramatic at times.

And the animation definitely didn't help with this at all... I wasn't actually expecting much more from an anime that came out in 1991... but the *pretty obvious* attempts of the director to reduce the number of frames needed (along with the oftentimes over-the-top voice acting), actually made this funny to watch sometimes. (Though, my tendency to make fun of overly dramatic plotlines might have a little something to do with this...)

There were some strong moments too, though. I particularly liked that scene in episode 29, where Kaoru moved to abolish the Sorority —it was such an intense and exciting moment! And having Rei join in, and seeing Miya-sama's face of utter betrayal was just so fun and satisfying!
(I had to keep the sarcastic Miya-sama out of the spoiler cover).

Also related to this incident was another scene which I (surprisingly) really liked, that being the scene in episode 32, where Fukiko sees a dream, in which all of the academy's girls are coming at her, armed, while she's playing that dramatic piano piece...! And Rei pointing the barrel right at her... And hitting the final shot! Idk, I found this scene cool for some reason.

Since I'm talking about this, I should also mension how great that piano piece was. It fitted the scenes it was played in very well, but it also fitted their relationship: stormy, dramatic, and sorrowful. To which I should add, though, I felt like I never truly understood their relationship. But I'm okay with that.

I also would like to talk about Saint-Juste-sama. First things first. She was a bit nuts unstable. It's a bit ironic how for half the show I was expecting her to die, but then I had kind of forgotten about it by the time we reached the episode where she actually did die. I'd also like to complain about the direction of that scene, because I couldn't help but laugh at how she fell over the edge.... Also, I found it a bit weird how people talked, after her death, about how Rei was free, when she had been chained to her sister that whole time?! She wasn't really free; the only time she had actually been free was those few days right before her death, when she finally found the strength to live her own life.

What I found most curious about this series was how strongly it reflected the idea that girls having romantic feelings towards one anoher is normal in all girls' schools. It's interesting how none of the girls' feelings were seen as real love, even when it was explicitly mentioned that they had fallen in love. Things like Nanako thinking how she, too, would one day fall in love like Kaoru and Henmi, or Fukiko saying that Rei never got the chance to fall in love for real (though this might be an accurate statement...). It is clear that all these romantic feelings were treated as merely temporary and real love would be that towards a man.
These ideas seem so obnoxious to me that it actually kind of sparked my interest to seek more of these type of stories... lol

---

TL;DR: Umm...the animation/direction was sometimes funny, it was often melodramatic, the piano piece was cool, Miya-sama can go to hell and Saint-Juste-sama...! (*read in Nanako's voice*) was nuts. I mean unstable. A tiny bit.
Also, the whole show carried the idea that love between high-school girls isn't actually love, and they will all fall in love and get married with a man some day... Which I actually found intriguing, but I'll probably get back to this matter on another post in the future.

When I think about it more, the flower on Hikari's head symbolizes a brain illness. She kept her feelings to herself just so she wouldn't burden her sensei because it was worsening. She was bedridden and couldn't go to school. Sensei visited her and couldn't help but to confess anyway, and witnessed Hikari's last breath.

Those plants growing underneath those bandages Sensei was wearing were probably due to self-harm. She wanted to join Hikari so badly but waited until graduation. It was quite fishy because she knew when she would die after one of the students said she was retiring that year because Hikari didn't, which means she planned it all out. She ended her own life just to be with Hikari.

And now, they're together.

I actually didn't stop to think that everything could be a metaphor and not just fairy tale fantasy tragedy
This really opened my eyes

Murasakino always makes such thought provoking works

I got the impression the feelings Sensei felt were akin to guilt. She never really fell in love, yet Hikari loved her so much she wished herself into becoming flowers, just so Sensei would love her back. Sensei felt a strong need to join Hikari, and fulfill the girl's final desire.

But Sensei went to visit her even before finding out about her wish, didn't she?
To me her feelings read as love; or perhaps it was something between love and guilt. The way I saw it, she couldn't tell it was love, because she had been told that if she ever fell in love, she would immediately know, which wasn't the case for her.
In the end Sensei calls Hikari an idiot, presumably because she went and became a flower wishing that would earn Sensei's love. And she calls herself an idiot for following her. Hikari made that wish out of love, and the way this scene played out makes me feel that Sensei also followed her out of love.

Either way, I do believe that there was more to this story than the surface, just like You Are My Angela. What it made me think was how a person may wish to change in order to win another's love, without realising that the change is actually harmful to themselves. The interpretation of her having a fatal illness is definitely very on point, but somehow I want to tie it back to how this was her own wish and can't seem to quite grasp it. Maybe she had thought that she'd be able to get her attention if she were sick...?
Then again, perhaps there were more than one ideas put into this.

Anyway, very interesting story, and I'll definitely come back to it at some point.

last edited at Sep 25, 2021 7:59PM

i love how this story is just about how many yuri archetypes can fit into one chapter

YES! And that was honestly the main reason I found this so entertaining. I don't know if I'll really continue with this though, harem stories aren't really for me...

Regardless, I'm with the people that say that every girl will turn out not to be actually interested in her (or at least not serious about her). But if I had to root for one I'd say the roommate, just because she's weird as hell XD

Well, damn...

Although on the other hand, her turn to cry now.

I don't care about the moving out as long as they keep contact and we don't have a timeskip ending where they run into each other on the street randomly 10 years later, grab coffee and we're left with an open ended ending.

I see your grabbing a coffee timeskip and I'll raise by a '5 cm per second' barely missed each other ending.

Hey, don't just throw spoilers around like that!
Sigh... I know it came out, like, a decade ago, but I was planning on watching that....

"Of course I'd miss you, You!" Heh
...Sorry

101 not exactly like my expectation the story will advance... at this point i think this manga is not yuri or shojou ai but family drama.

What were you expecting? For them to profess their undying love for each other, or something?? Lol

Jokes aside, I don't think this manga was ever marketed as yuri... It's just that the author teases us a bit too much... XD
However, I don't think this chapter was any different in tone regarding this matter...? And I still think that Shino has a crush on Nozomi (most of the time). You will not convince me otherwise any time soon! Hahaha

^ WHAT?!
I was thinking about how this hadn't updated in a while just yesterday, I'll go check it out right now! Thanks for the info!

I don't really like mangadex tho.... Well, whatever, I'll just reread it when it's updated here XD

last edited at Sep 21, 2021 6:31PM

It does sound like prism. If it really is what you were looking for, I regret to inform you that it never ended...

But in this case it might be it really IS a no-brainer--does turning into a vampire make you an idiot like they all are? That'd be a serious drawback.

Does Ichika really have much to lose in that department though?? Lol