Well all the pedo stuff aside, I feel like the fans have kinda lost it. All semblance of plot and worthwhile topics have been blown away by a cavalcade of pure thirst. At this point just by reading the comments one might think this was no better than incest porn. Sheesh.

I wonder if the author just wanted to fulfill sick fantasies or actually didn't realize what this would cause.

I think the author probably wanted to create a story where this situation was plausible (as opposed to a hentai-level, “Hey mom, I want you— let’s fuck”), then work through the implications fairly carefully.

To me the jury’s still out on whether the author will successfully pull it off rather than copping out with a “moral” ending or descending into ero-nonsense (the multiple flashbacks in particular make it hard for me to get a firm handle on the overall trajectory of the series).

But the latest chapter, and especially the panel of a poor Asuka shell-shocked by her mom’s inadvertent (probably) dom behavior, was simultaneously hilarious and touching. It’s scenes like that one that make me hopeful for an effective “I know it’s wrong but I don’t wanna be right” ending.

I was ready for nothing to happen...then nothing did happen, but THEN we got a forehead kiss! That's good enough for me!

Glad to hear someone say it—that was adorable, and (to me) well worth the wait.

Since when do people date versions of themselves?

This is just a Thing I’ve Noticed About Life, but actually a lot of first loves/relationships that I’ve known are people dating versions of themselves. Which makes sense—as you first become adult-ish, you look to the world for validation of who you are.

Later on you realize that you can be a lot better off with someone who has complementary personal qualities and strengths rather than the same ones. It’s still got to be someone who’s similar enough to understand you, of course.

(I don’t actually see Harumin and Sayaka being so fundamentally similar, though.)

I'd be infinitely amused if Koguma woke up next chapter and it'd turn out that Hina after all wasn't able to resist and had done unspeakable lewd things(tm) to her in her sleep.

"Unspeakable lewd things"

Like what?

All of them, naturally. The chapter would begin with a panel of Koguma contently waking up, then zooming out, showing that she's somehow undressed and has bite and rope marks all over her body, before further zooming out to show her room with sex toys and camera/sound recording equipments and various other costumes and props strewn about. Then a panel of a satisfied Hina coming back fresh from a shower, only wearing a towel.

Then Koguma does her usual "Hina-sana baka!" thing and everyone has a good chuckle about it.

This does ignore the central premise of the series— Koguma always gives her consent to what Hino does. Koguma might very well end up in kink-ville, but it will be because she wants to.

last edited at Jul 8, 2019 9:03AM

I beg to disagree, it shows how much Hino-san cares about Koguma and it shows even deeper how much Koguma trusts Hino.

Both of those things have already been made abundantly clear, we really didn't need to be told again.

To quote King Lear: O, reason not the need!

Remember back when every new chapter had pages and pages of comments about how creepy and uncomfortable and non-consensual this series is?

Those were the days . . .

Well, the author toned it down, obviously.

Well, “creepy” and “uncomfortable” are subjective emotional reactions, so whatever, but the story has always been sweet (this chapter ranks up there with the series-defining Chapter 10) and never non-consensual.

Remember back when every new chapter had pages and pages of comments about how creepy and uncomfortable and non-consensual this series is?

Those were the days . . .

You all have fun with your imaginary ships, but we all know that it’s incredibly unlikely that this story will waste any time or energy Pairing the Spares.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PairTheSpares

Yeah, tell that to Midori and Manaka.
Or at least their most hardline shippers, like BugDevil and (to a lesser extent) myself.

They’re more of a side couple, though, not a last-minute shipping roundup. I’d even say a Doujima/Akari hookup would be side-couple, since it’s been lightly foreshadowed.

Anyway, Sayaka’s clearly going to crash the cafe couple and snag the owner . . .

You all have fun with your imaginary ships, but we all know that it’s incredibly unlikely that this story will waste any time or energy Pairing the Spares.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PairTheSpares

Someone please make a doujin of BugDevil's idea.

Finally someone acknowledged me for my brilliant ideas. Especially that one. You know the one.
...what idea did I have again?

You’re quoting me, BV.

I think mistaking one of us for the other might be insulting, but I’m not entirely sure to which one.

I'm not nearly as green as you. And you are not nearly as smug as me.
I think we could benefit from learning from each other. ┐(´∀｀)┌

“Green”?

Next chapter: time-skip 10 years. Touko is a district educational administrator assigned to investigate charges of lesbians sexually abusing students at the high school where Yuu is the beloved “tough-but-fair” PE teacher.

Someone please make a doujin of BugDevil's idea.

You’re quoting me, BV.

I think mistaking one of us for the other might be insulting, but I’m not entirely sure to which one.

I think the premises of schoolgirl yuri in particular militate against extensive denouement or follow-on development insofar as it often depicts “first-love” (or “first- real -love,” or “first rebound love,” etc.), so the traditional adult romance “they settled down and lived happily ever after” ending just doesn’t suit the age bracket very well—an ending with the OTP implicitly finding happiness in the foreseeable immediate future seems much more plausible and appropriate.

Next chapter: time-skip 10 years. Touko is a district educational administrator assigned to investigate charges of lesbians sexually abusing students at the high school where Yuu is the beloved “tough-but-fair” PE teacher.

Oddly enough, this is one of those rare moments where it's actually a relevant comparison, even though I think it's not quite right. Citrus+ is a spinoff, rather than a denouement in a self-contained story, so to me that's a similar but different thing.

Matching up the Citrus franchise with YagaKimi in terms of story structure is very hard to do because the two mangaka are stylistically exact opposites—one extraordinarily focused, methodical, and controlled, the other one . . . conspicuously not so.

In terms of storytelling, YagaKimi has always been more like a traditional prose novel or theatrical drama than contemporary manga or anime. It’s been extremely methodical in developing its scenes and characters—there have been no major plot swerves, no characters suddenly introduced to pump up the conflict, no sudden shifts in tone, etc., and while there have been some slight plot digressions (the cafe couple and Sayaka, Koyomi’s interludes), even those relate fairly directly to the main plot.

The strength of the series has always been in its finely controlled execution rather than its sheer emotional intensity or its inventiveness in terms of plot. (The play was a great example—we knew what it what going to be like, and it was presented to us in full. Sayaka’s confession was another sequence that was in the cards from near the start and that we were eventually given in a fully developed and beautifully crafted series of scenes, even though the outcome was never really in doubt.)

That doesn’t mean that the storytelling was always predictable (I thought both Yuu’s confession and her pre-play rooftop scene with Touko played out in some unexpected ways), but expecting this series to execute its story like an average manga was always a bad bet.

When the central conflict of a story is resolved, for some unfathomable reason there’s less conflict.

Color me shocked.

I see no reason for sarcasm. Either the story should've ended leaving the rest to specials, doujins etc. Or another conflict introduced. It probably is difficult, albeit not impossible, to add and resolve a conflict within one volume without disrupting the consistency of the rest of the story. Probably a relatively good example that comes to mind is Toradora. But it felt more consistent throughout the whole journey too, or at least that's how I remembered it. Anyway, there might still be some drama hiding behind the cuteness of the last couple of chapters - let's see what the author has in store for us. I do hope the last volume isn't gonna be fanservice only.

This shows a total imposition of a false premise onto traditional story structure—as Nezchan said: “denouement.” Where the entire story showed the tightening of a knot of conflict, the post-conflict section of a story shows its unwinding (that’s what the word “denouement” means). Touko and Yuu being happy together has been the implicit or latent outcome of the story along.

Calling anything except more jacked-up conflict “fanservice” or “doujins” demonstrates how parochial some readers can be about narrative.

Well, I suppose the fangirl meeting this super-sexy seductive authoress could kinda be a self-insert scenario that'd be somewhat comparable to what fanfiction likes to do, and since we know so little about the authoress - just those snippets - it could easily be a character from a wider-work where she plays an entirely different role ...

So. But I don't think that's particularly different from many other manga.

Lol but any manga is never original or different. They are all derivatives of something

The pool of genuinely original stories was already exhausted approximately around the Bronze Age, anyway.

The point of the post was, I believe, not about the story’s relative originality, but “there’s not much that makes this more like fanfic than like regular manga.”

last edited at Jul 5, 2019 7:10AM

In the end, her sister really did...
Bloom into Yuu...

. . . golf clap . . .

Nicely done.

last edited at Jul 5, 2019 12:49AM

I think they ^^ are pointing the difference in fan reactions

The church says you're damned if you read about incest, and that's wrong; some people say you a pedo if you read about lolis, and that's wrong too

But the fans of this story who read it in Spanish, they make fun of the church by saying that yeah, they are okay with being damned, incest is the best, yay for damnation... while the fans of loli manga never make fun of moral watchdogs by saying that yeah, they are pedos and proud of it, fuck the FBI, bring in the lolis, go pedos ftw..... the ones react with humour while the others don't, and that would be the diff
EDIT: sorry if it's not too clear, I wrote in a hurry

Ah, I see. I stopped making fun of the Church and just started despising them when they outed themselves as a child-abuse syndicate. (My own high school principal was accused, and I’m not surprised.) So moralizing about sex from a Catholic POV gets nowhere with me.

Blastaar posted:

When the central conflict of a story is resolved, for some unfathomable reason there’s less conflict.

Color me shocked.

Yeah, it needs more drama.

Like, Touko graduating and getting an offer to study acting in America.

Secret long-time fiancé from a rich family, or nothing.

A bigger twist will be that Touko's sister is not dead and comeback.

Why not both? Zombie apocalypse makes just as much sense as half the suggestions here.

Zombie Touko’s sister is the fiancé. Drama and a yuri wedding.

A zombie incest yuri wedding—try and “meh” THAT one.

last edited at Jul 4, 2019 4:47PM

Blastaar posted:

When the central conflict of a story is resolved, for some unfathomable reason there’s less conflict.

Color me shocked.

Yeah, it needs more drama.

Like, Touko graduating and getting an offer to study acting in America.

Secret long-time fiancé from a rich family, or nothing.

When the central conflict of a story is resolved, for some unfathomable reason there’s less conflict.

Color me shocked.

Eh, every time there is a loli manga there's an endless amount of FBI jokes, which is essentially the same as the implication that a surprise Spanish Inquisition will get you ...

XD yeah but there's something missing ... the part where they say 'the FBI will get me but I don't care, I'm still gonna perv on these tender lolis cuz I'm a BIG PEDO hyuk hyuk hyuk!'

I can't recall anyone writing that before ... we shy away from going that far, dun we?

Yes, because most people know that, despite the Catholic Church, reading about things isn’t the same as doing those things or supporting those things being done in real life.

I dunno why but it felt like it's a comedy. I couldn't stop giggling as I read it.

Because sex is funny.

Heads up, no new chapter this month.

(https://twitter.com/93choco/status/1146262153969754113)

Blastaar Is Feeling Sad.

^Not a bad idea, but it wouldn't work without disregarding some of the dialogue which undeniably establishes that this takes place after the sports festival while Touko is still in the student council, which she would not be anymore the next year.

Work with me here—it would totally work as couples cosplay. (“Senpai, remember that time in the equipment room? What did you really want to do?”)

If I had a dime for every yuri couple to request their old school uniforms in the bedroom . . .