Call Me by Your Name... Raw!

I'm starting to hate Hirose, a lot, she thinks she is supposed to be better because she liked volleyball fist but then when someone is better without much effort she resent that person, she didn't like the sport, she like the sense of superiority it gives to her and the audacity to like Takamine, what the hell is wrong with her? the self-importance is huge.

It's like some people can't read anything without having to pick a girl to hate... I mean, Hirose, of all characters? lol

Ah, this is the scene from the volume 3 cover!

As funny as the surprise switch to De:Lphinus was, I didn't expect the chapter to be satisfying, but now I want to see more of them too. Odoro Dorothy just does not miss, each chapter is such a treat.

is having that big an age gap in an idol group a thing? I don't really pay attention to them much but I would expect a 16yo and a 22yo to be in different groups based on starting so far apart if nothing else.

The typical gap between the senior and the youngest member (in Korean idol groups at least) is usually 4 years or less. But 6 years is not unheard of, that's the gap in e.g. LOONA.

I assume that the larger the management company, the more trainees, which means more trainees in the same age cohort, and a smaller gap between members in the same group. Blockberry Creative, which managed LOONA before their departure, is a subsidiary of a larger conglomerate, but they are a small operation, as their only managed group was LOONA between 2016 and 2022.

So are we in agreement that Joe and Kanna were a bi4bi type relationship? cuz that's not a heterosexual couple I don't care what anyone says

On one hand, I don't recall any instance of those two being attracted to their own gender. On the other hand, I find the idea that anyone with alt fashion style must be LGBT because cishet people allegedly have no taste in fashion pretty funny, so what the heck, why not.

I'm confused.... Is her father permanently stuck as a woman? Or are her parents just making out all the time so it's always the case? Because they said there's no precedent for someone becoming stuck but the story seems to imply her father is unable to become a man again.

It was weird that he didn't want to go to parents day at Chihaya's school because he was a woman at the time... Like... If the curse lasts 24hours max can't you just NOT kiss your wife for a day?

Maybe he wants to stay permanently as a woman now, so a kiss a day keeps the dick away¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I suggest reading the speech bubble again:

"To change forever from just a kiss? Currently there's been no precedent for that."

Meaning "just a kiss" is not enough for a permanent change. The permanent change happened, it's just not yet explained how.

Another clue is on pg 28:

"I knew what the risks were. With the Shishizaki curse. Being with Chisaki. And I married her anyway. But when it actually happened, I didn't really understand what I was getting into. I was really concerned with what my children might think."

The "but when it actually happened" bit refers to the permanent change.

last edited at Nov 30, 2023 11:48PM

At the age of 20, Suu-chan has a lower risk of developing a nicotine dependence than if she was a teenager, so I'm only slightly worried about her.

I was 21 when I smoked cigarettes for the first time, and for a few months I smoked about once a day, but I never got hooked. I was involved with a certain crowd at the time, and I saw it as a bonding activity with the girls I hung out with.

Bad bitch fumbled :(

The missing family member can wait - it's time for a love hotel date!

I didn't translate the title because of the several underlying meanings that would have been lost in translation and also the grammar is weird and probably made up. So after mulling over it for a while, I gave up.

損なう can also mean something about a missed chance to do something. So, maybe, both characters mourn their failure to "scatter" (splat).

散る is also a metaphor for dying a noble death.

Hiraeth being a feeling of nostalgia for a place you can never return to (or even ever went to), so the whole title evokes a complicated feeling.

Thank you for your notes! Yeah, I can see how the meaning of a noble death could be relevant (due to suicide historically being seen as "honorable" in some situations). I quite like the messiness of this title.

I ended up looking for other words with the same suffix, and found 死に損ない / 死に損なう (shinizokonai / shinisokonau). These meanings (e.g. a failed suicide, or survival by narrow chance) feel relevant here. Still, I don't want to flatten the possible meanings too much; the "scattering" might have a deeper meaning beyond the "splat".

last edited at Nov 18, 2023 10:22PM

Is it me or there's a lot of double suicide going on? Also: Supernatural tag?

Lovers' suicides have been a common theme in Japanese media for centuries.

In Class S literature, the predecessor of the Yuri genre, female-female couples were historically fated for a tragic end, mostly (but not only) due to censorship. Typically, the more romantic the relationship, the harsher the ending. These stories were both informed by and affecting the culture at the time. During the 1910s-20s in Japan, there were high profile cases of double suicide by female-female couples that ended up sensationalized by newspapers (especially because, to oversimplify, lovers' suicides were considered the exclusive realm of male-female couples).

This podcast episode covered this topic, and is also a great intro to the origins of Class S: A Husband is Unnecessary: Yoshiya Nobuko & Japanese Girls' Culture - History is Gay #46

Huh. Does 'hiraeth' mean something in Japanese, or is the author really using Welsh, of all languages, for their title?

Kinda neat if it's the latter, ngl.

According to Wiktionary, and listed sources, hiraeth can mean:

• nostalgia, homesickness

• a deep longing or yearning for something or someone (including the departed)

• a deep regret

Together with the Japanese part 「散り損ないの」(based on my beginner Japanese and Jisho) maybe the title means something like "a Hiraeth that is failing to scatter", or "the Hiraeth of failing to scatter"?

散る (chiru) is specifically associated with the falling and scattering of petals or leaves, which could be connected to the theme of death in this manga, especially death by falling from a high place. With that in mind, the title could refer to a feeling of Hiraeth that doesn't go away, or the specific type of Hiraeth caused by not being able to die. Though it's possible the title's meaning is supposed to be a mistery for now.

I welcome notes or corrections from someone who knows what they're doing (Cunningham's Law I'm counting on you)

last edited at Nov 18, 2023 1:21PM

The art is delightful, but what a strange way to play this story. So far it's like Rei is Elmer Fudd and Ami is Bugs Bunny, constantly yanking the rug out from under Rei to reveal an aching chasm beneath. Rei winds up to receive love, and gets hit in the face with a mallet or has her feelings blown up with dynamite every time.

The youth of the characters is handled very strangely, as well. They look extremely young, but they act increasingly sophisticated. And when they get dressed up to do out, they sort of present as adults. I think by the end of this third chapter it seems clear enough that Ami isn't some quirky girl who doesn't understand her feelings, but she is rather a straight-up sociopath. She tells Rei point-blank she prioritizes her own well-being above everyone else's, and tells Rei she enjoys tormenting her, because she enjoys seeing all the emotions Rei produces flit over her face as a result. She describes feeling not much of anything for Rei, and every time Rei decides it's better to give up (at least once in each chapter so far, unless I'm mistaken), Ami starts splitting hairs over how she words things, does whatever she thinks she needs to do, whatever little doling out of "affection" will keep Rei coming back for more.

I appreciate the earnestness of Rei a lot, and that, combined with the art, has kept me reading so far––that, and knowing it's not very long. But gosh, the emotional cruelty is not what I'm ever here for. It reminds me quite a bit of The Feelings We All Must Endure––which I gradually came around to appreciating quite a lot? So maybe I'll come around on this one, too. The author isn't making it hard to hate Ami, though.

You explained the strange feeling of the manga really well. I would have said Charlie Brown and Lucy, but Looney Toones works too (except of course each gag cycle takes much longer than both examples).

Michi's profile is low-key concerning... maybe it's just because she's been too busy dealing with ghosts, but it's like the girl has been living her life on auto-pilot. Detached from earthly existence.

Dorothy-sensei keeps drawing Seta more and more feminine lol. Maybe the shocking twist ending of the series is that Aizawa will eventually possess his body and trans it to her liking. The world's first afab trans woman idol.

When I saw that pin-up of him in the skirt, I just thought it was a random guy. It's classic Seta that for a hot minute I forgot he had been in the manga at all

last edited at Nov 13, 2023 12:17AM

damn a Nanatsu Fuji work where they’re both adult women… we got an SSR here

They are role playing as school girls, so it's still on brand

Should this really have the romance tag?

I was wondering the same thing.
Ami doesn't seem to love Rei at all.

Yeah, so far this is cringe comedy with one joke: Rei gets her hopes up and they get thoroughly crushed. With an art style like Hino-san no Baka or in 4koma format, I wouldn't find it weird at all. Instead, we get these soft, detailed drawings, which makes for a confusing vibe. The fact that the joke is so drawn out each time doesn't help either.

Who supplied the family with high quality wine though? And I thought Hinata's family lived in the sticks, not in a skyscraper

Taki is eternally whipped

The sexual tension that carried over from the last chapter, and then Lapis shamelessly flirting with Natori in front of other people... Nekotaro's vision is paying off handsomely. But while Lapis is more than satisfied with basking in Natori's presence, Natori has a different idea of what it means to cherish, as Natori now clearly wants to find a way for her mistress to live, so there's juicy conflict brewing between them already.

Jealous Xiong is cute

I didn't read the latest chapter yet, I found that for this series it works best if I look at comments first because they're always a better read anyway... but this time they seem very tame and for the most part not focused on what's happening in the chapter so I'm going to guess it's boring :P

The school festival arc is over, so of course the last two chapters have been more calm. The same level of melodrama is probably not coming back for a little while at least.

Honestly, this chapter did go a fair ways to making the Mizuku/nurse couple compelling to me, which I had not really thought was possible beforehand, so good job author lol.

I think it's because they basically did not have a dynamic beyond student & nurse / forbidden love before that chapter. Like they actually held a conversation about something this time, instead of the usual pining and drama.

It does make the teacher come off as even more of a weirdo now. "I'd like for there to not be a wall between students and teachers." The irony of that speech is palpable... Still, I guess I prefer weird over boring.

last edited at Oct 26, 2023 5:28PM

"Over 50,000 copies sold! (including digital)"
Well, that's disappointing.

Maybe you misunderstood? That's over 50,000 for volume 8, in Japan so far (not translated yet). "Whisper" is generally one of the best selling, if not still the best selling, current yuri manga. If it were disappointing, they wouldn't highlight it.

Yeah, if it's for one volume it's not bad. Still, Yuru Yuri is getting around 100K or more for one volume :/

Just for some perspective: Yuru Yuri is the best selling series in the history of Comic Yuri Hime, and also the only series in the magazine whose anime adaptation got more than one TV season. It's a tall order for any other Yuri Hime title to outsell that, even on a per volume basis.

last edited at Oct 22, 2023 7:54PM

The scientific term for this phenomenon is called a "blep" (when a cat, after grooming itself, forgets to put its tongue away)

last edited at Oct 22, 2023 6:05PM

Her grandpa said that the fake crystal ball would display random images of people she knows. That's what makes it odd that it showed only Kaye. Hopefully she can recognize this as a clue that she has some kind of a connection to her.

last edited at Oct 22, 2023 11:50AM

The fact that You're Under Arrest was name dropped convinced me that this comic might belong in the "girls with guns" subgenre that was popular in 90s manga and anime. Though this is almost entirely a mystery plot, with no action spectacle, so the main similarity is that the protagonist is a young woman who is involved with law enforcement, and that she is "boobily breasting" even in her work clothes. The fact that the femme fatale type villain is actually the protagonist's girlfriend is a very welcome addition, obviously.

Yeah that was a really cool way to do a NSFW scene. Also unusually explicit for a manhua that isn't actually adult. Usually they're either depicting actual sex (extremely explicit) or barely even depicting kissing (sometimes even censoring it). There's pretty rarely an in-between like this.

Are there really any Chinese webtoons that depict full lesbian sex scenes?

I agree on the flower imagery, it was quite nice. In general I really appreciate that every other chapter includes a bit of romantic/sexual intimacy.