This is so cute so far! I did laugh though when she said the rifle was going to have more recoil than the pistol. It's actually the opposite. The heavier the gun the less felt recoil. I went out shooting with my dad one day and did just fine shooting his ar for awhile but as soon as I shot his pistol I had to go sit down for awhile because my body ached so much. When shooting a small gun you have a chance of it flying out of your hand if your not expecting it because the recoil is so strong.

The rifle love bullet could just be a lot bigger/more powerful than the pistol love bullet.

I do wonder why they have such a variety of guns. In chapter 0 Koharu even discarded her pistol for a rifle in order to make that 2-hit shot, and the idea of penetration there sort of makes sense, except then what's the love uzi and love grenade launcher for??

last edited at Sep 27, 2024 1:33AM

There's been a running theme so far of people underestimating women and assuming they're "stupid" ala the title, so I'm guessing that's what's happening here. This driver thinks they're too stupid to realize what he's doing and he's sure gonna be surprised because of it

I wonder if Usui Shio would feel proud that their manga is getting compared to a masterpiece like "Is My Hobby Weird"

Not really sure any of those factors matter when there's no indication of incest being part of this story from the name, description, and 95% of its content lol. It's just thrown in here suddenly as something of a pseudo-tragic backstory? And it's definitely not presented as spicy.
This isn't about self inserting either, but rather empathy: understanding what the feelings of the character feel like. Wanting to date someone you've grown up with under the same roof is an extremely alien emotion from my perspective, but it's frequently presented as not alien at all, but instead something familiar and understandable. And that is what I don't understand lol.

Y'all are thinking about this too deeply. Take it as "entertainment first, education third" and accept the fact that it's gonna be riddled with half-truths, exaggerations and portrayals of very unusual things as normal. That's gonna be the only way to keep your sanity.

Except this manga is very specifically trying to be accurate?
I still think the most likely explanation for the name Rachel going unremarked upon is Christian ignorance, though. Even in the present day with the Internet and pop culture Jewish representation and all I once overheard a group of gentiles trying to decide whether or not the name "Jacob" was Jewish or not. They eventually came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't lol.

Sometimes I wonder if they truly expect the audience to be able to empathize being in love with your sister. I at least am fully incapable of that. I've got a big sister, I've got a little sister, I've got a step sister, and I've got childhood friends as close as sisters, and absolutely none of them are remotely on the table for considering attraction. Even as a sexual minority there's still hundreds of millions of fish in the sea so there's not even any temptation, it's a concept that never would have occurred to me to think about without it happening in fiction. I could sorta get it in VC Andrews's "Flowers in the Attic" since they were locked up together and didn't see literally any other people, but that's not the case here or in the vast majority of cases, so why? Does the author just think it's a universal emotion we can relate to or what?

Sometimes it feels more nefarious than that. Sometimes it feels as though there are yuri authors who think "I'm writing about taboo/"abnormal" subjects anyway, so why not?" And the potential for that has always rubbed me the wrong way. Then when I hear the way certain authors talk about their series it also puts me off from time to time.

I do sometimes get the impression that for some Japanese authors trying to be progressive, they somehow ended up including incest in a "love is love!" mentality, like how "I Love the Villainess" has that straight incest couple that gets married and runs away together.

But even then, consider when Miley Cyrus changed from doing Disney things to more sexually provocative things.

Io just had her Miley Cyrus moment this chapter with the magazine cover. And no, given heteronormativity, I genuinely don't think it would be a scandal for Io to be perceived as having a friend who works as a hostess, unless they were documented clearly acting as more than friends. Even if asked Io could tell a half lie based on the reason why she friend went to the lesbian sex club in the first chapter: "my acting senpais recommended I look at a diverse range of people and jobs and performances to learn from, and that's how I ended up meeting Misa-san. I've learned a lot from her!"

Sometimes I wonder if they truly expect the audience to be able to empathize being in love with your sister. I at least am fully incapable of that. I've got a big sister, I've got a little sister, I've got a step sister, and I've got childhood friends as close as sisters, and absolutely none of them are remotely on the table for considering attraction. Even as a sexual minority there's still hundreds of millions of fish in the sea so there's not even any temptation, it's a concept that never would have occurred to me to think about without it happening in fiction. I could sorta get it in VC Andrews's "Flowers in the Attic" since they were locked up together and didn't see literally any other people, but that's not the case here or in the vast majority of cases, so why? Does the author just think it's a universal emotion we can relate to or what?

last edited at Sep 25, 2024 11:55AM

Where are there easily missable scary details in the background in Aizawa-san?

her "love" is obsession, and yandere are difficult to portray as mentally healthy. (Whether they are being romanticized as love interests is a different story...)

It's unfortunate how romance stories with unique concepts like this often use the yandere aspect as something romantic, almost as if they are romanticizing mental illness. I find it very unrealistic and off-putting when reading romance stories like this. It’s clear Usui is trying a new angle, but Azuki’s mental maturity, from her time as a student to now as an adult, shows she needs professional help. I don't mean to sound rude.
Also I find it funny how most of us were so enthusiastic and excited for Usui's new series in the first chapter, and now we're all just concerned about the character's mental state. :D

As Dr James pointed out this is very much not being "romanticized", Azuki's obsession is being framed as an obstacle for her to overcome. Approx. 0% chance this is the story of her being rewarded for keeping that candle burning by getting a HEA with the plushie fucker.

Xiao-chen deserves an award if she pulls this off. Official wingwoman of the year.

I think it's an idea that Misa just considered and then rejected. Due to Io's celebrity status they can't really get away with any real scenario where people look at her specifically, lest she be recognized. I'd imagine that's why Misa said it'd be tough.

Honestly the thing that stuck out to me the most as being "this is a surface level look at Medieval Europe" is that the MC's name is Rachel but everyone treats her relatively normally. At that time, it would have been a VERY Jewish name and the only reason I can think of why a Christian would have it is her parents or grandparents converting. And even then, the name should totally be cited as part of why the villagers are suspicious of her, but it's not mentioned.

There's times and places where Jews were tolerated in Europe

Except for a few very specific cities, the black plague was not such a time. Like was mentioned earlier, survivors were looking for scapegoats and Jewish people were the targets almost unilaterally

This story is supposed to be set after the plague ended, right? Might be why there aren't any locals to recognize Rachel as a predominantly Jewish name...

Honestly the thing that stuck out to me the most as being "this is a surface level look at Medieval Europe" is that the MC's name is Rachel but everyone treats her relatively normally. At that time, it would have been a VERY Jewish name and the only reason I can think of why a Christian would have it is her parents or grandparents converting. And even then, the name should totally be cited as part of why the villagers are suspicious of her, but it's not mentioned.

There's times and places where Jews were tolerated in Europe, and they were pretty much always seen as "better than pagan at least" as far as I know. It certainly wasn't nonstop pogroms, although I don't know where 1350s Holy Roman Empire fell on the tolerance scale. But assuming Jews are tolerated as long as they provide a community service is probably the default in more times and places than not for historical Europe. Rachel seems to have found a niche for herself that's clearly beneficial to the local lord in some way and she couldn't do much better than that to secure a place here. The villagers are very unlikely to rise up and burn her without the local authorities instigating it.

Edit: given the state of education and cultural spread it's also entirely possible that while a Jewish person would recognize Rachel as a Jewish name, that specific cultural association would be completely lost on Christian peasants.

last edited at Sep 22, 2024 6:52PM

I am so incredibly bothered by her taking scones out of the oven stacked on top of each other like that, instead of them lined up on a baking sheet. if you actually tried baking them like that they'd fuse together and probably cook weird

It was also reported on here: https://comicbook.com/anime/news/love-bullet-manga-cancellation-fan-campaign/

I'm almost impressed with how poorly this is written, and yet still can convince people to read it and link it to others apparently lmao. "Following a recent story dubbed Love Bullet from creator Inee, the yuri manga has seen the manga artist imploring fans for support in the face of possible cancelation." is such an incredibly bad sentence, very difficult to accept that a human supposedly wrote it.

Sorawo's definitely some flavor of neurodivergent, but it's almost impossible to pick out clear categories when she's got so much shit going on in her head. Like, this is someone who was fully ready, as a child, to murder her own family to escape what they were putting her through, and has so badly maladapted to living through that that she genuinely doesn't even recognize that story as upsetting when she tells it to other people. I find that part of her particularly relatable tbh, I definitely had moments as a young adult, before I'd properly started to deal with things, where a friend would ask me a casual question about my childhood, I'd answer as if it's no big deal, and they'd look at me with horror like I just told them a graphic war story.

I know this manga is supposed to be really.. really messed up.
The MC isn't the good person we know.
She hooked up with anyone in the bar, and even forced it on someone (Io) who were 'unconscious' when she took her to the hotel.
Still, this is weird...
Somehow..I wonder why
I can't hate MC at all.. Is it really because she's pretty that I can't hate her?

a) She didn't force anything on Io by taking her to the hotel, she just didn't have explicit permission to continue after Io fell asleep
b) she received that permission after the fact
c) until b happened, Masa felt really guilty about it.

That's a pretty good combo of things to successfully have a protagonist do something morally very dubious while getting the audience on board, I think. The framing makes it a moment of human weakness, of someone listening to the devil on her shoulder rather than her sense of morality, rather than a moment of a character victimizing another. The devil on her shoulder clearly had a hunch that she could do this and it be accepted for it, based on what she'd seen of Io so far, and it turned out to be correct.

Ch. 102, last panel: Here's your answer.
https://youtu.be/WPkhh5JytYE?t=14

wow, did not expect to see a Grace Jones reference on the yuri forums today lol. She's so cool though so I applaud it

Lol has Aya finally come out of the closet? XD

Entirely by accident, yes lmao. So deep in her feelings she didn't even stop to think about how obvious she's being, staring directly at Mitsuki while exactly describing the scene in front of her while talking about her crush.

I wonder if Chiziru's gonna be like "...why the fuck did you hide this from me, did you think I'd be a homophobe??" It'd be a very zoomer thing for her to do, and I've certainly seen it happen irl. This assumption that "well obviously Aya would be out to me if she were talking about a girl" might explain why Chiziru took until now to notice, despite it being pretty goddamn blatant even before now. Like "there's no way 'onii-san' is anybody I know because surely my BFF Aya would just tell me if it was".

Thanks for the recs, I look forward to trying them all :)

Well this comment section certainly was an unpleasant trauma dump slash ableist screed collection. It's so strange too, the most mild melodrama in other series inspires commenters to call it unrealistic, and yet here a very cartoonishly foolish yandere inspired a bunch of people to go "yeah this is an accurate portrayal of real women with mental illnesses".
Not to say the manga itself is bad: the events are an exaggerated extreme to convey the desperate clinging emotions the characters have for each other. Their actions are unrealistic in the same way the body language of an actor in a stage play is unrealistic, they're waving far beyond what they'd normally do so that you can get the picture despite your distance from them. You definitely should not go around saying "yeah this demonstrates why you shouldn't date theater people they really wave their arms around in crazy ways and speak in very loud projected voices".

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.