@OrangePekoe: Thank you, you went into way more detail about Hagino than I ever did in my previous posts about the matter from a while back. I have a lot of respect and admiration for her and it annoys me to see several people assuming she either gimped herself or was forced by external influences not to tell exactly the story she wanted even though she clarified multiple times that she did and from how clearly her intentions came through in the series itself if you try looking at it without skewed expectations. This is the last time I'll repeat myself on this and I won't go into detail since all my old posts are still there, but while it's entirely fair to be disappointed by the story's pacing and direction for being slow, too reiterative or frustrating, saying it took a sudden turn or that it completely changed out of nowhere is ignoring its development and explicit inspiration. I'll just quote Hachimitsu Scans since they put it eloquently:

"From the very beginning, there was a certain expectation placed on Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru that the author wanted to avoid so as to tell a different kind of story than one that you would expect at first glance. I for one appreciate that Nettaigyo is not like every other generic manga out there, and that the effort Makoto Hagino put in to tell a story inspired by Masuji Ibuse's "Salamander" short story is immense, with constant allusions, symbolism, and callbacks to earlier events to tie everything together."

"Nettaigyo is far more than the sum of its parts, and tells a story more rich than what may appear on the surface without delving into the intricacies that Hagino wove through the story, and most of that cannot even be adequately appreciated without either re-reading it, or reading it all at once now that it's complete. Those are the things that make this series stand out from so many others, and even though it could have potentially been more popular had Hagino written a more conventional tale, as the old adage goes, "The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long." The mark of a good series is not in its overall popularity, but how well it tells its story, and if Hagino is guilty of anything, it's telling a good story, so this is a series I will dearly miss."

With Aria's backstory it was already clear that nothing had happened, but making Chiyo gay and then not giving Aria at least a taste seems like a wasted opportunity. To me it'd have been more fun if Aria had already been a secret lover of Chiyo; especially if Ichiko then found out later.

I wouldn't have liked that, it would've made Ichika feel like she was just a replacement for Chiyo rather than being important to Aria in her own way. Chiyo "touched Aria's heart" but ultimately couldn't convince her not to die by her hand or that of one of her descendants while I assume that Ichika will actually convince her to stop wanting to die.

Beautiful chapters, I was wondering if we'd get Chiyo's story in full and the author really delivered. Such a good series.

I wish I had the energy to rebuke some of these silly if not malicious assumptions, but it's been like talking to a wall the last few times so I'll just leave people to their own devices, unfortunate as they might be.

trapped eternally at a crossroads, imprisoned by a strange love, compelled to bear witness to the obsessions of others

nice

You could say... The two of them are pretty much like this.

^
They'll still be at that crossing in future chapters and they'll be seen on the other side of the street holding hands in the epilogue.

Holy face-melting cuteness Batman.

My thanks to the mangaka (who won't see this)

Go thank her on her twitter, she reads English messages too!

i don´t really get why people are so mad honestly, if you choose to keep reading after the official tweet and got disappointed that´s on you, it´s funny how people decide to read stuff that they know they will not enjoy
And even if we agree that the manga is in fact yuribait (wich i don´t) the author already said that you´re free to interpret their relationship the way you want, is not like they sudenly put male characters and force a relationship, is not that big of a deal

I think thought experiment might help. It usually is of great assistance to change the point of view a little, and see if your interpretation of things changes at all.

Let's do the simple smell test: Swap Koyuki's sex to male. Make "him" a handsome, but lonely marine science nerd. Konatsu stays at is.

Exactly same things happen, from start to finish. Same framing, same events, etc.

Do you think you read a romance or a friendship story?

What a silly idea. If nothing else is changed, it's still ambiguous. As if there don't exist plenty of stories like that.

last edited at Mar 28, 2021 11:22AM

By the way, considering the author seemed a bit demoralized a while ago, I'm glad she decided to keep working as a mangaka and that she has a new series in the works. I loved Nettaigyo overall and I think she has great potential for the future.

Wincest.

Poor Yamagishi, she never stood a chance.

I find it sad to see that so many people grew tired of or were disappointed by this series. I have to say, I only picked it up by the end of volume 8, so I didn't really have to wait for chapters for the greater part of the story. However, I didn't feel like it was dragging on or anything. Honestly my favourite were probably volumes 6 and 7 that dealt with Konatsu's loneliness. I don't know, maybe I just like exaggerated drama...? xD

Anyway, I thought this was a very well planned out series and I don't think it got sidetracked or lost its original goal. To me it seemed that the author had thought of how it was going to go from the beginning, and it was only the readers' expectations that made it seem otherwise. And I was actually happy that it ended this way and not with an explicit romantic relationship because that wasn't the point of the story. It was a story of loneliness and creating strong bonds with others (not only those with friends but with family members as well) and that's what's made it unique.

I agree with you and I wish people would go back and read it in one go now to see that it does flow well, but it was indeed a grind to follow monthly, especially since there'd also be break months two or three times a year, and that understandably wore some people off expectations or not.

Fine, my main hope for the ending is that they go on an aquarium date in Tokyo.

You must be really happy that it turned into reality.

I had the dumbest grin on my face.

Story progression is appreciated, but next chapter should have double the amount of sex to compensate.

They'll change the initials to LL, obviously.

To each their own, I like that it didn't simply end once the romance was resolved, not only does it give the other characters the chance to be fleshed out more, it also lets the protagonists be shown dating. And it's still related to music and the band so it's not like it moved on to something completely different.

Can't we just wait and see the last chapter as well before deciding how it'll end?

If one's opinion of the story were to drastically change based on whether the protagonists kissed or not in the final chapter, it would make that opinion pretty shallow. But I can't say I haven't seen some people hold the series to that exact warped standard, of it only being eventually worthwhile if it became explicit.

^
The 'girlship' meme was born from the official term used to describe the manga from chapter 1, and it came from 'girls + friendship'.

It's a shame how this charming tale of teenage love gets dropped half-way and veers off into a vague narrative about depression

I feel this criticism is dishonest and chooses to ignore everything in the story that doesn't fit your expectations from the beginning, including the story's entire inspiration.

last edited at Mar 2, 2021 5:58AM

Mr director, having your staff make shill 2ch threads of your own series is why you get bad karma.

It's more that her artstyle has changed again in the past few chapters, you can see it in the previous chapter as well when Konatsu tears up at the café table. It looks off because it's happening right at the end, but the author even said on twitter that she put her all into drawing the last two chapters in particular.

I just think it would be funny, obviously it would be like a slap in the face for the reader if it happened.

And then they never met each other again because the author is no homo.

Is she? https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/noshiro_curry_wo_mesiagare#22

Next chapter, Koyuki and Konatsu meet again in Tokyo a few years later and introduce each other to their respective girlfriends: the girl with the same uniform as Konatsu that Koyuki came across on the school trip, and the gloomy girl Konatsu met in class on the first day of senior year.

The earlier "hints" were all Koyuki freaking out over not knowing how to deal with having someone so close to her for the first time, i.e. the sudden hug, thinking their club activity was like a date and so on. Konatsu's behavior never changed. I won't blame anyone for having certain expectations, but saying that the story's development took a weird or sudden turn is just wrong. The story was always based on the Salamander short story, it was never going to be about a fluffy, drama-free relationship. The short story is about a pair of lonely and stubborn creatures who become trapped in a toxic and self-destructive companionship due to their inability to express their feelings. The fluffier earlier stuff in Nettaigyo reflects the time when the two haven't yet confronted the issues that would pop up from them becoming very close to each other. The drama that happens afterwards is all rooted in the author wanting to do a take on the short story where the characters are gradually able to face their issues and grow past them. I do suggest rereading the story in one go once it's over to see how everything flows. If anything I'd say the callbacks are too explicit and overdone with all the frog and salamander imagery showing up at every step of the evolving relationship and visual and discussed flashbacks even when they should already be obvious.

I wasn't expecting that to be Konatsu's decision, but thinking about it, it makes sense. They know they're not alone anymore even if they're apart, and Konatsu wants to be able to stand on her own, plus she finally found a place where she belongs and her belonging isn't only identified with Koyuki. The uniform change, being in a different class from Kaede and Yamagishi and spontaneously talking to the lonely-looking girl she saw herself in all nicely cap off her growth. I felt like the last few chapters had focused mostly on Koyuki, so I'm glad Konatsu got her due before the end.

As for said end, now I'm wondering if the final chapter takes place several years later going by the preview in volume 8. Koyuki muses about who she wants by her side in it and Konatsu essentially expresses the same thing in this chapter when she says she doesn't know if she'll be something for someone else or be Koyuki's frog, and with the talk about heading towards the future at the end of the chapter, maybe the last one might hold the answer they've come to rather than just reiterating this chapter's general feeling of wanting to move forward and be something. Either way, I'm looking forward to it. I'll be sad but also glad to have seen it through.

last edited at Feb 27, 2021 7:28PM