It seems both Gabinomicom and I both thought this was what was going on with the poster referring to her as "Natsume".

To be fair to us, even if it isn't technically wrong it's strange to write up a whole thing calling a character by a name that's only been mentioned once rather than the one used every other time, lol. Like, Sorawo definitely has a last name mentioned at some point in Otherside Picnic? But I can't remember it and if you wrote an analysis of that series exclusively calling her by that name I'd think that was wrong.

Something that stuck out to me is how willing Kozakura was to have that conversation with Sorawo. It speaks to both the incredibly relaxing effect of a hot bath of course, but also her continued opening up emotionally to Sorawo and Toriko, Sorawo especially. She really cares and it's so sweet :)

Also lol @ "Naked or not, Toriko's beauty always makes me feel confused, so I just have to act the same as always." Sorawo continues edging ever closer to that big gay revelation

Damn I would have fired that bitch than and there.
I really don't like that they always just let everything escalate until it's to late. But in the end thats what abusive relationships are.

That manager was implied to have a relationship with Io's parents, and they approve of her. It would be really hard for Io to get out from under her on her own, especially without abandoning her job. Maybe if she can document the manager crossing lines in an undeniable way, but I doubt she'd feel like her feelings or opinions would be enough to get rid of the manager.

Lapis makes such wonderful smug faces

Natsume totally bumped into her on purpose. They should just break up.

I've seen her called Natsume a few times here and on Mangadex. Is there a joke I'm missing?

If you're reading a lot of different manga in parallel it can be easy to mix up names, I think. And when one person in the thread is confidently wrong, other people will start copying them assuming that person remembered correctly lol

last edited at Sep 21, 2024 8:53AM

Wait, April as in 3/4 of a year from now? Why the hell would they sit on this for so long, that's like novel-length translation times. We might all be dead by then, who wants to wait all the way until April

Also this series is really good. :)

Dunno why everyone's so hard against this one, I kinda liked it lol. Angsty, of course, but teenagers are angsty. It's their default state. This story uses that angst to set up an interesting premise with the obvious solution that they'll realize how dumb their internal monologues sound as they age and become a much more healthy couple

Yuni certainly hasn't done anything worth "suffering," her crime's about on the same level as "trolling the comment thread of a manga you're not reading because you hate the theme", I'd say.

Any updates on this series, did something happen to the author or scanlators?

Oh damn, I really didn't see that final moment coming. Nanase's going dark now, huh? I'm wondering now how much that huge bruise on Yuni's leg was actually accidental, after seeing her throw her friend into the wall hard enough to knock her hairpin loose. Yuni was stopped wide out in the open when Nanase ran into her and there's no good excuse for why she did, except that Yuni in that moment was very obviously staring at Fuuko. I'd previously thought that Nanase wasn't bad, just a bad girlfriend for Yuni specifically. Now I'm not so sure.

Edit: double checked last chapter, Yuni wasn't even standing out of place when Nanase hit her. She was exactly where she was supposed to be, and Nanase should have been running in a different lane, since judging by the hair of the girl who told Yuni to get ready, Yuni and Nanase are on different teams. there's no reasonable way for Yuni looking at Fuuko to lead to a collision. I think it's actually possible Nanase kneed Yuni's leg on purpose in anger over seeing her checking out Fuuko, possibly not expecting the result to be so bad, since she seems genuinely surprised/worried in the immediate aftermath.

Not buying it and I'll eat my shoe if this turns out to be the case. Because:

1. I don't feel this is the type of manga that will make one of the characters abusive. It would immediately cast Nanase as a villain when the author has so far made all the characters simply "flawed".
2. The author would have hinted more about it than what we've seen. This work is a lot of things, but "subtle" is rarely one of them. Not that being straightforward is a bad thing. (Or I suppose "gayforward" in this case :P)

Edit: Looking at the most recent chapter, I think the author is using the crash as symbolism for how Nanase treats Yuni in general (not paying enough attention to her and being oblivious to how she's feeling in general), with how Fuuko called her out directly on it with "Aren't you way too oblivious to what's in front of you? You're really not paying any attention to Yuni-chan at all, are you?"

2nd Edit: The "oblivious" comment can also be read as Fuuko taunting Nanase that she was oblivious when Yuni had previously been cheating on her and is now oblivious that Yuni is cheating on her again.

I would have entirely agreed with you before that scene of Nanase slamming her friend into the wall, sending enough force through her head to knock loose her hairpin. That's a pretty clear demonstration of her having anger and control issues imo. She's much more angry than she admits to herself, she's becoming more impulsive, and she's not great at moderating her strength instead of going all out.

Well another major element effecting my opinion is I simply want you to be wrong.

I'd be quite disappointed if this went the violence/abuse route because I'd just rather this story not go that dark.

I hope Nanase will apologize for her angry outburst because that was obviously out of line and she should immediately realize that.

I would also like this day to be a wakeup call for her rather than her passing a point of no return.

Oh damn, I really didn't see that final moment coming. Nanase's going dark now, huh? I'm wondering now how much that huge bruise on Yuni's leg was actually accidental, after seeing her throw her friend into the wall hard enough to knock her hairpin loose. Yuni was stopped wide out in the open when Nanase ran into her and there's no good excuse for why she did, except that Yuni in that moment was very obviously staring at Fuuko. I'd previously thought that Nanase wasn't bad, just a bad girlfriend for Yuni specifically. Now I'm not so sure.

Edit: double checked last chapter, Yuni wasn't even standing out of place when Nanase hit her. She was exactly where she was supposed to be, and Nanase should have been running in a different lane, since judging by the hair of the girl who told Yuni to get ready, Yuni and Nanase are on different teams. there's no reasonable way for Yuni looking at Fuuko to lead to a collision. I think it's actually possible Nanase kneed Yuni's leg on purpose in anger over seeing her checking out Fuuko, possibly not expecting the result to be so bad, since she seems genuinely surprised/worried in the immediate aftermath.

Not buying it and I'll eat my shoe if this turns out to be the case. Because:

1. I don't feel this is the type of manga that will make one of the characters abusive. It would immediately cast Nanase as a villain when the author has so far made all the characters simply "flawed".
2. The author would have hinted more about it than what we've seen. This work is a lot of things, but "subtle" is rarely one of them. Not that being straightforward is a bad thing. (Or I suppose "gayforward" in this case :P)

Edit: Looking at the most recent chapter, I think the author is using the crash as symbolism for how Nanase treats Yuni in general (not paying enough attention to her and being oblivious to how she's feeling in general), with how Fuuko called her out directly on it with "Aren't you way too oblivious to what's in front of you? You're really not paying any attention to Yuni-chan at all, are you?"

2nd Edit: The "oblivious" comment can also be read as Fuuko taunting Nanase that she was oblivious when Yuni had previously been cheating on her and is now oblivious that Yuni is cheating on her again.

I would have entirely agreed with you before that scene of Nanase slamming her friend into the wall, sending enough force through her head to knock loose her hairpin. That's a pretty clear demonstration of her having anger and control issues imo. She's much more angry than she admits to herself, she's becoming more impulsive, and she's not great at moderating her strength instead of going all out.

Basically every arc of this manga between SDM and Byakuren's temple could have been skipped and nothing would really be lost. ZUN seems to have belatedly given up on writing this as a mystery, which is for the best and also why did it take him three years to realize "oh I'm really falling short of this goal"

I wonder if there's any irl Japanese musicians publishing on Bandcamp.

A decent number. Really wish it were more; Bandcamp makes it so much easier to get things than stupid booth et al.

Any recommendations? I only tend to find Japanese artists on spotify or youtube

Oh damn, I really didn't see that final moment coming. Nanase's going dark now, huh? I'm wondering now how much that huge bruise on Yuni's leg was actually accidental, after seeing her throw her friend into the wall hard enough to knock her hairpin loose. Yuni was stopped wide out in the open when Nanase ran into her and there's no good excuse for why she did, except that Yuni in that moment was very obviously staring at Fuuko. I'd previously thought that Nanase wasn't bad, just a bad girlfriend for Yuni specifically. Now I'm not so sure.

Edit: double checked last chapter, Yuni wasn't even standing out of place when Nanase hit her. She was exactly where she was supposed to be, and Nanase should have been running in a different lane, since judging by the hair of the girl who told Yuni to get ready, Yuni and Nanase are on different teams. there's no reasonable way for Yuni looking at Fuuko to lead to a collision. I think it's actually possible Nanase kneed Yuni's leg on purpose in anger over seeing her checking out Fuuko, possibly not expecting the result to be so bad, since she seems genuinely surprised/worried in the immediate aftermath.

last edited at Sep 19, 2024 3:09PM

Wow I love this manga and am in agony that I found it before it was completed so I have to wait for it to come out bimonthly. Kon's journey of self realization and self acceptance feels so real and cathartic to me. I love her <3

When did people become such edgelords so detached from reality that they have started thinking trainwreck stories are even remotely realistic? Hell, CGDCT stories are significantly more realistic. What the fuck.

Swear to god manhwa is rotting people's brains

People really think trainwrecks don't happen in real life? They happen every day in America lol.
No but seriously just everyone should probably stop talking about realism and say what they actually mean: "I find this believable/relatable". Every single Kodama Naoko manga is "realistic" in that the setting reflects real life and the plot could plausibly actually happen to somebody somewhere. Certainly more realistic than your average manga with the "404: Men Not Found" tag, such as a large portion of "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" manga. Are Kodama Naoko manga relatable? That's entirely subjective depending on the reader. I personally for sure find the example linked earlier, "A Lying Bride's Case For Same Sex Marriage," to be far more relatable than any CGDCT series I've ever seen.

There's a lot of people I'm seeing saying they're buying the volume that I'm seeing, although almost all in English, not Japanese. I wonder if there's a reason this concept works better for us in the West lol

I'd imagine the generation thing has some impact ala seniority in weighing the voice of someone for how collective decisions are made, how town things are managed, etc. Xiaoen being the manager of Peach Town's peach farms means she has basically the most prominent job in town, especially since their mayor is a cat. Her generational status probably played a role in that.

last edited at Sep 18, 2024 1:17PM

That "generations" terminology came up again in this chapter with Xiaoen telling a much older woman that "they're part of the same generation, right"? https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/my_dear_lass_ch61#3

Never got an explanation for it when I made a comment about it a few months ago:

Ok so I've been confused about "grand-aunt" stuff ever since one of the early chapters when Mu Xiaoen said she was "2 generations older" than Xingyuan.

Specifically from this chapter there's this speech bubble from little bro:

Mu Xiaoen's the town's grand-aunt, so based on generational order, you all should be calling me grand-uncle

It makes so little sense to me that it might as well still be in untranslated Chinese. Could anyone lend me helping hand?

I'd appreciate it very much if someone could shed light on this for me.

Xiaoen was adopted by a very old couple, thus technically putting her in much higher generation than she'd normally be compared to her peers, and Xiaoyang is giving himself that same status as her brother. Like if the town founders were the first generation and youngest generation furthest down the line are the seventh, Xiaoen's parents are fourth generation, making her technically fifth generation, equal to some people in town who already have grandkids. That's how I understood it at least. I don't actually know if there are from measuring from some founding family or what, and it's obviously not that practically important of a topic given all the new people moving into town. It's mostly just like a minor detail that's technically supposed to inform manners and how people are addressed, but isn't really practical or enforced beyond being like a bit of trivia, thus why the old woman laughs at Xiaoyang claiming to be the same generation instead of feeling like he's being disrespectful or anything.

last edited at Sep 18, 2024 12:45PM

That page for some reason makes me imagine her going "I'm not touching you" while hovering her hands over Io just to mess with her

I wonder if there's any irl Japanese musicians publishing on Bandcamp. Also looking at the details of this chapter, it's kind of strange with that house and that family photo that Hime goes to the same probably relatively low class public school as Mitsuki and Aya. I wonder if maybe her family had a fall from grace that she's trying to redeem or something.

Asking a lesbian who's famous for marching exclusively by the beat of her own drum to try to force cisheteronormativity on a child. Yeah this "mom" sure knows Xiaoen, huh. Not only did they give her away but clearly those bio parents don't even check in with her real parents, or they'd know this is like the exact opposite of the kind of thing Xiaoen would go along with. After this flashback we're gonna see her encouraging Xiaoyang to be even more queer lol

Isn't the "Triangle" here the Summer Triangle (Vega, Altair and Deneb), which related to the Tanabata mythology? And take this with a grain of salt, I think our trio's names give us hints about their role in the story

So you're saying this manga is going to end up with our main characters going into space and shattering the stars? :O

To be clear: this manga isn't necessarily homophobic. Bko's personality is, however, cut and pasted from a classic homophobic stereotype. If you treat this manga as a total vacuum you could just look at her as a particularly bad villain character but like cultural context exists unfortunately. It's hard for me to take her at face value when I've seen her in dozens of shitty old books that I've read for research.
I regret using the term legal loli, it does fit the character (the term is distinct from just "loli," all those defenses you pointed out are the "legal" part) but it feels gross to talk about tbh.

PS: you should probably look into what "projecting" actually means instead of throwing it around so thoughtlessly. >_> I'm pretty used to seeing fandom spaces use psychological terms in inappropriate ways when targeting characters and it's like kind of annoying but I'm not gonna go shake my finger at everyone calling a relationship "codependant" (a term describing people enabling destructive behavior like drug abuse in a loved one in order to keep the person in their life) because the couple relies on each other. But when your target is a person (like me) instead of a character that's a lot harder to wave away. You probably shouldn't use psychological terms at strangers even if the term hypothetically applies, it's just rude and presumptive.

last edited at Sep 16, 2024 11:20PM

This manga has one single positive quality that makes it worth looking at: the fashion. The story is literally nothing, the characters are tolerable at best, the art is kinda neat in a couple moments but mostly forgettable. But that fashion, whew! I think it's possible the entire story is just an excuse to draw new experimental outfits, even. At one point Kawaguchi wears something that's like half fursuit and half business casual, lmao.

Wow, first time in a while that I've come across a homophobic "psycho lesbian" archetype in the wild like this. I judge the author hard for how two dimensionally awful they wrote Bko. She's a character straight (heh) out of one of those cheap paperback lesbian-sploitation erotic novels from the 1970s. A good wholesome girl gets baited and/or coerced into getting trapped by an evil psycho lesbian and it's saved by a nice wholesome Christian man who's definitely not abusive or controlling, unlike those mean lesbians! This author has of course innovated on this formula by replacing the hero with a legal loli. ...yay, I guess.