Unfortunately this isn't really one for me to take on - what does it even mean for glasses to be fetishized? do some people love just normal stories with glasses girls? etc. - but I'll note it down and expect it'll come up behind closed doors in a few months' time.

Please don't. Girls with glasses is what keep me going on.

YES! MORE ALLIES!

...Not that I would care of course lol

Do you know of any artists here on Dynasty that use watercolours (or their works have a watercolour-look to them), like some of the pictures by Moyu Marginal?
I'd really like to see more of those. Even single images are fine :)

https://dynasty-scans.com/images/8254
https://dynasty-scans.com/images/6919
https://dynasty-scans.com/images/14896
https://dynasty-scans.com/images/11048
https://dynasty-scans.com/images/13317

Thanks a lot!

Do you know of any artists here on Dynasty that use watercolours (or their works have a watercolour-look to them), like some of the pictures by Moyu Marginal?
I'd really like to see more of those. Even single images are fine :)

I realize it's probably supposed to represent some sort of incoherent sound, but given that there are actual characters in there I'd really like to know if there's some semblance of meaning we can get out of what Sorawo read.

If you look closely, the text she reads is some sort of pattern. So even if the characters characters themselves have a meaning, I doubt the text itself is even readable.

It feels a bit weird to be writing here when the last post was also mine, but.... I just have to share my thoughts about volume 6 somewhere!

Since I also started my last comment with that:
First of all, this book had a sufficient. Amount. Of. KOZAKURA.

Also, I could say that Kozakura had a more meaningful role in this volume. This is more of an answer to this (very interesting) review of volume 5, which fairly pointed out that Kozakura had kind of been reduced to the comedic relief character. While I couldn't completely disagree with that, I felt that the real cause of this wasn't so much that Miyazawa had forgotten how to write her, but mostly the fact that the story itself seemed to have lost some of its the original intensity and leaned more towards the romance side.

And that brings me to my next point, which was what made this volume so enjoyable and definitely one of my favourite of the series:
This book was intense.
And not only because of the scary visual imagery, but also because of the new and intriguing clues it presented as to how the Otherside might work. Reading the last couple of volumes (and especially vol. 5) I kinda missed the way they used to discuss and theorise about the mechanisms of the Otherside. And that's exactly what this volume brought. I think the last time I was so spooked while reading this series was in File 14 (mannequins are creepy), or even way back in File 8. And the last time I was so intrigued by the Otherside itself might have been the very first discussion between Kozakura and Sorawo in the first novel.

This volume really brought back the sci-fi and horror elements that volume 5 somewhat lacked, reminding me that what made this series a favourite of mine was largely the concept of the Otherside itself and the creepy scenes that made me too scared to cross the house's corridor at night and Kozakura. Yuri is only one part of what makes this series enjoyable and I'm glad to see that Miyazawa hasn't forgotten that.

do some people love just normal stories with glasses girls?

OF COURSE THEY DO?!

...Or so I've heard, anyway
Definitely not talking about myself here

Did we just get a pretty good chapter? Never had I imagined that the time would really come... Lol
Anyway, this was quite nicely done.

On an unrelated note, I finally realised what it is I don't like about the artstyle (apart from the fact that the hair and eyes resemble the usually more simplistic anime artstyles): it's too grey! Even Chikane's hair —which is... dark blue? black? don't remember exactly— isn't drawn as black, but rather as a gradated grey. I wish there was more pure black in the designs and backgrounds... I feel like the higher contrast would make it look more sharp and interesting, especially in battle scenes, like the one we got here.

last edited at Nov 22, 2021 11:49AM

I liked this chapter.
I've been wanting to see more of the other characters (yes, even Nene's idiotic rambling lol). Hopefully this means we'll get a Harumin chapter next, cause Harumin is the best <3
(I wonder if adding a heart is too much....)

Nice, they even managed to properly illustrate how the colored version hair colors never match what you expect them to be, dammit

Lol so true
I think my main problem with this is that I never actually imagine any unnatural colours. Like, I've pictured them with a beautiful brown shade and then they suddenly have blue hair or green or whatever

Oh, and also when authors leave light brown hair white, like they did here.
Um... No...? this is for blonde...? (is what I think XD)

last edited at Nov 16, 2021 7:37AM

Dropping the series btw. Good run, but I just don't have time to give consistent updates. Sorry! Hopefully someone can give it what it deserves.

Ahh I'm a bit sad to hear that, I was looking forward to seeing how this one would play out...
But thanks for your work so far! (and thanks for informing us, so I won't be waiting in vain hahaha)

I hope someone will pick this up again in the future :)

Why are you people surprised??
I was seriously confused as to why it wasn't tagged BDSM when I started it lol

I mean, it has "collar" in the title!

Well, I guess the tag will probably be added soon XD

^ I don't understand, what more do you need than a gay couple who is accepted by friends and relatives to let go of the "heteronormative undercurrent" accusation? The only thing I see that could perhaps justify such a claim about the manga's premise is the part about Kurumi writing about gay marriage.
However, considering that gay marriage supposedly got legalised only 4 years earlier, it really is something new and exciting, so I don't think that writing about it is that weird. Plus, the whole manga (and I would suppose her column as well) seems more focused on the "friend" rather than the "female" part of the title. It's about two friends gradually getting closer until they both realise that they are in love with each other and enter an actual loving marriage.

"Being open about not actually loving the person" tells nothing about heteronormativity, it's only because they got married as friends. You could have the same premise with a het couple and it would still be as weird as it is now (if you find this premise weird, that is).

does signing some papers and wearing rings actually, really make them any different than roommates? Legally, yes, but in any other sense, I don't see how anything changed.

Agreed.
And this is exactly what the whole manga is about! We just saw Ruriko finally expressing (sort of...) that she is not satisfied with how things are in the last chapter. It's not as if the manga is telling us, yes, this is how same-sex marriage is like. Quite the opposite, actually.

The one thing with which I wholeheartedly agree is that I'd like it to continue after they get together, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

P.S. I was gonna write "until they both realise that they are in love with the other", but then I was reminded of all the other yuri manga I've read and reconsidered lol

As it stands though up to chapter 37 this was a good read.

I liked it better without chapter 38 too, tbh. Even though it was a bit rushed with all those timeskips, I kinda liked the open ending better. Plus, I was one of the people that had interpreted it as a non-romantic ending, so them getting together wasn't really something I wanted to see. Don't get me wrong, I did want them to get together initially, but with how the series ended, it just didn't seem right anymore. It felt as though the author just went and added that one chapter to show the ending they had in mind (or the ending the readers wanted to see, as you said) while skipping everything that should have happened in between.

Up until ch. 36 Kaoru had repeatedly stated that she couldn't reciprocate Uta's feelings. So adding a chapter where she drunkenly confesses her love to her felt like fanfiction more than anything... (And, unless I'm mistaken, ch. 38 was published separately to the magazine serialisation, which makes my fanfic impression even stronger lol)

with this weird heteronormative undercurrent under the entire premise

What's this weird heteronormative undercurrent you are referring to??
It has never once been implied that the issues these two are having with their relationship have anything to do with heteronormativity. They're just too timid (or useless) to express their feelings to each other.

This story definitely touched upon a number of themes, but I feel like it is better read as an exploration of these characters, the situations they had to face and the motives behind their actions, rather than a story built around a message that the author wanted to send across.

In my experience, writers and artists very rarely start out to teach a moral or (except for overtly political works) to make a specific comment on society. In cases like this, it’s much more likely to start out with an image of a younger naive girl looking adoringly at an older girl wreathed in smoke, and then when thinking about it some more, the author “discovering” that the older girl sometimes orders black coffee to look cool but thinks it’s too bitter, and so on.

Obviously, I’m not saying that this explicitly happened here, just that artists tend to start with pieces of material that seem promising, not with messages they want convey.

I don't really know what artists usually do. I've definitely come across works that felt as though they were written with a specific idea in mind, though I, too, would agree that most of the time artists are probably just looking for interesting material.
My pointing it out here was because I felt that the person I was answering to was too focused on a very specific theme of the story, while overlooking other parts.

It's nice to read a story where grownup people deal with grownup problems and everything isn't laid out neatly and schematically. The plot of this is different from Run Away With Me, Girl, but the themes are the same – the way that compulsory heterosexuality deforms queer love, and the way that it leads queer people away from their authentic selves by concealing that there are other alternatives available to them than falling in love with a member of the opposite sex, getting married, and starting a family. I think the way in which heterosexuality exists in this story makes its message more, not less, queer [...]

Even though it's definitely a theme that this story touches upon, I can't not point out the fact that heteronormarivity was only partly the cause of Nacchan leaving Kyouko. While it may have been her coworkers' gossip that lead to her giving a chance to Ryunosuke, her decision to leave Kyouko had more to do with her own insecurities. Perhaps she first started feeling dejected because of her coworkers comments about her being a part-timer, but the truth of the matter is, she felt inferior to Kyouko. And her choosing Ryunosuke was because she felt more confident with him; not only because that would be considered "normal", but also because she didn't find him so incredibly radiant, as she did Kyouko. So I don't think that this was a problem that you could simply blame compulsory heterosexuality for.

This story definitely touched upon a number of themes, but I feel like it is better read as an exploration of these characters, the situations they had to face and the motives behind their actions, rather than a story built around a message that the author wanted to send across.

last edited at Nov 11, 2021 10:22AM

This needs a series, just so I can see more of these eyebrows.
Thick eyebrows are THE. BEST.

The lighting confused me so much, it was hilarious.
I was staring at this for at least thirty seconds, trying to figure out what was going on with the brunette's floating head lol (I was seeing the shadow on her chest as hair).
It took me so long to locate her shoulder and connect it to the head... XD

last edited at Nov 6, 2021 11:29AM

@Zormau I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood.
Nice picture, I like how Yuu is holding Touko's hand. And more biting is always welcome.

last edited at Nov 6, 2021 11:00AM

I really like the way this artist draws hands.
And bodies in general, they look very lean, yes.

I like to imagine that Maria paints her nails herself hehe
But considering that every vampire that has appeared in the story so far seems to have black nails, I guess it's rather unlikely :(
Though, it couuuuld be a timeless vampire fashion thing. With paint that lasts for two hundred years in a coffin.
It's possible :D

Also, can we talk about the characters interacting through the speech bubbles? It's the most adorable thing!
Like this precious wolfy burying her face into Qinyu's bubble aaahhhh~
Cute.

I like Maria when she's acting kind of suspicious or mistrustful... I don't even know why, I just really like that. So it's a bit unfortunate that the whole vampire hunting issue was kind of swept under the carpet.....
Can we have more mistrustful Maria, please? Thank you kindly.
(Her recent encounter with the witches and the conversation with Qinyu afterwards —around chapter 70, I think?— were good steps towards that goal. Now we just need more.)

last edited at Nov 2, 2021 4:23PM

Chapters 14 to 16 completely exhausted my good will with this series, that was really, really stupid.

Okay it regained it.

Exactly what I felt while reading this lol
Well, I'd never say they completely exhausted my good will, but they came close

last edited at Nov 1, 2021 3:42PM

Also lol at Gugu just passing it along without realizing, rip

It kinda annoyed me tbh. Has she suddenly become a fool now that she knows Xingxing returns her feelings?

Your gf gives you candy with a tender smile, and you immediately assume the candy is a sweet present for the cool and hunky boy who sits next to you? Like wtf?

I think she just assumed the candy was also a present to the boy from the other girl, and that Yanxing was simply passing it along like before. Honestly, supposing she were paying more attention to class, rather than the gift exchanges, I don't find it that surprising.

It was still sad though. But also funny XD

^ I don't know about a series, but the premise reminded me of this one-shot:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/water_coloured

And no we are not interested in some sleazy stupid porn. We just wanted romance and love!

The mere mention of porn in a discussion of citrus is the most interesting thing that could have happened here, really

^ Indeed.
Though, surprisingly, I did find all the rest of the old anime I mentioned with high resolution.
I guess my expectations got too high...