And if memory serves she pretty much clued in on the whole ShizukaxMio business ages ago which doesn't seem to particularly bother her; neither, if memory serves, has she done anything noteworthy to get in the way thereof beyond her usual near ritualised flirting with the former.

Tolerably sure that ain't exactly textbook pathological narcissist behaviour...

I would argue that she simply doesn't view Mio as an actual barrier between her and Shizuka because as far as she's concerned she's the most important and desirable person in any space she occupies so of course Shizuka will continue to be available to her, extraneous romantic entanglements or no. Viewing Mio as a rival would be less narcissistic than dismissing her out of hand.

last edited at Aug 10, 2019 6:29PM

Kase-san barely remembers her and couldn't care less.

Same.

It is not actually terribly uncommon for emotional abusers to use self-harm as a means to control their victims through guilt.

That's fairly strong language to use about a character whose major (and only actual) malfunction appears to be an inability to grasp that her idea of "love" has some compatibility issues with most other peoples'.

And the fact that her love does not touch anything at all, how will she react? will she become more humble to try to approach her? in any case we see that missbouchan is a great shy person even with her friends, a big weak point by playing denial on her own emotions on reality?
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/virgins_empire_ch128#12

I really hope this is the start of a character arc for Kaoru where she does some major self-reflection and not an arc where she just wears Mask-senpai down through persistently ignoring her clearly expressed boundaries.

It is not actually terribly uncommon for emotional abusers to use self-harm as a means to control their victims through guilt.

That's fairly strong language to use about a character whose major (and only actual) malfunction appears to be an inability to grasp that her idea of "love" has some compatibility issues with most other peoples'.

She's pretty consistently manipulative and wholly unconcerned with the emotional well being of her partners and "If you break up with me I'll kill myself" is a textbook red flag that your partner is emotionally abusive. Starving yourself until the girl you cheated on takes you back out of guilt is pretty heinous. She doesn't fail to grasp that her partners expect monogamy she just doesn't care about their feelings.

I think Kaoru's going to be even more in love now, nobody usually holds her head and she's really into miss bouchan ^^

Well if nothing else she apparently took the hard pass better than the last time she got that from someone she's seriously into (adding a few years of age ought not have hurt her sense of perspective either). Or at least I'd imagine we'd have had some indication in the Honoka and Shizuka chapters since then if she'd gone terminally depressive again.

I mean my interpretation is that her entire depressive episode was largely a manipulative ploy to guilt trip Shizuka into taking her back which isn't something that would work with someone who couldn't care less about her outside of her relationship to their friend. I expect she's going to double down because she's a narcissist who can't conceptualize not being desired.

Given she was effectively starving herself to death or as close as makes no real difference without medical intervention that'd be quite some method acting.

It is not actually terribly uncommon for emotional abusers to use self-harm as a means to control their victims through guilt.

I think Kaoru's going to be even more in love now, nobody usually holds her head and she's really into miss bouchan ^^

Well if nothing else she apparently took the hard pass better than the last time she got that from someone she's seriously into (adding a few years of age ought not have hurt her sense of perspective either). Or at least I'd imagine we'd have had some indication in the Honoka and Shizuka chapters since then if she'd gone terminally depressive again.

I mean my interpretation is that her entire depressive episode was largely a manipulative ploy to guilt trip Shizuka into taking her back which isn't something that would work with someone who couldn't care less about her outside of her relationship to their friend. I expect she's going to double down because she's a narcissist who can't conceptualize not being desired.

Kaoru at last got the slap in the face she deserved.

Nearly as satisfying of a payoff as the ferris wheel kiss tbh.

At first I didn't liked Midori because she saw Haru as a replacement of Tsugumi, but know I love her and how she's more mature and mother-like.
I wonder if she will tell Haru that she loved her mother in a romantic way and how Haru will react to it.

Really? Because reading Chapter 6, the pages 31, 32 and 33 make me think the exact opposite.

It is not hard at all to get the impression that Midori is subconsciously using Haru as the ultimate keepsake of Tsugumi's memory. I don't think that's the intention here but it's not an unreasonable way to read the situation.

I'm actually hoping this doesn't take a romantic turn at this point.

If I could unwatch Elfen Lied I would.

Oh jeez, I thought I had gotten used to Miyako being gross but this chapter was rough.

Motives of Izumi are not yet clear to me, but it looks like she is using her chance to act, finally.

Not clear ? Do you need glasses ? Izumi want Nanaki for her alone and can't stand Nanaki love Kanade and straight lie to her. No it's not normal for friends to act like that with each others.I think that, more than Nanaki former friends, Izumi don't want Nanaki to change or move on too much from her. Nanaki is right to be afraid, Izumi act a liite bit creepy.

None of the things she described to Izumi are really inherently romantic like those are all sentiments that could occur in a platonic context. I'm not sure about Izumi's motives but it's possible she's just deeply closeted and in denial and is telling Nanaki the same things she tells herself about the same feelings.

That was pretty much what I expected out of the ending: status quo is god.

The point of this entire chapter could have just as easily been made in like 2 pages at most. This manga takes too long to express the simplest of ideas.

True fact: Human meat is awful.
Sharks just attack and bite, it is very rare one shark to eat a human because the taste is terrible.

Apparently we taste like veal according to cannibals.

There's also a difference between cuddling and groping but you seem to think they're at least comparable so maybe you do have something to learn. Cuddling is generally to be expected when sleeping with a romantic partner. Groping is not.

Like I said, always something to be learned from hair-splitting know-it-alls.

Kinda concerned if you think the difference between cuddling and straight up grabbing your partner's crotch is splitting hairs.

Wait, are people saying that when a couple is living together and sleeping together there’s something wrong with fondling a lover in their sleep?

That seems like a basic feature.

Depends on the people involved. I think most couples that are at a Living Together stage aren't gonna say boo if their partner cops a feel when they're sleeping. It's taking it beyond that that CAN be questionable for some. Me personally if I'm in a stable relationship I am not gonna give a single frick-frack if my girl wants to touch while I'm snoozing. But if it's enough that it wakes me up, gotta be prepared for me to say "yeah, no, I'm sleeping here, go take a cold shower" if it ends up being how I feel about it in the moment, lol....

Well, yeah, no means no.

But sleeping with a lover is inherently a hands-on experience . . .

there's a very clear difference between just cuddling and going, uh, all-out with it.
being in a relationship with someone is NEVER an all-purpose unlimited consent card in any context. yeah it's going to vary from person to person; if they're fine with it then they're fine with it, but that consent does need to be established.

Golly. Thanks so much for informing me that there’s a difference between fondling and penetrative sex.

A lifetime’s worth of intimate relationships, and there’s still something to learn from the experts.

There's also a difference between cuddling and groping but you seem to think they're at least comparable so maybe you do have something to learn. Cuddling is generally to be expected when sleeping with a romantic partner. Groping is not.

The new sub-genre of onee-loli: oni-loli.

I dig this but I hope the blackmail part doesn't feature in every chapter because it takes a lot of the fun out of it.

God, I'm not sure what it is about her but she's seriously creeping me out.

Why do people wear makeup? For myself, it’s because it fills me with confidence. I don’t care about other people’s opinions. Much of the species could take a long walk off a short pier for all I care. I wear makeup for myself, for me and no-one else. When I put it on I feel confident in myself. I take pride in my appearance.

Have you considered why that is because that feeling doesn't exist in a vacuum. Like perhaps the inescapable propaganda surrounding the makeup industry has affected your ability to feel confident with your bare face as is the case with many women. And even if that isn't the case just because you like this oppressive societal more that demands women invest inordinate amounts of time and money into this endeavour doesn't make it not an oppressive societal more that is ultimately harmful to women. Like for every woman who uses makeup as a means of self-expression there's a women who basically has an anxiety disorder concerning the idea of people perceiving her real face because it's been hammered into her since childhood that her real face is unacceptable. Let's not pretend the choice to wear makeup is one made without immense pressure pushing women in favour of it, the beauty industry is a billion dollar juggernaut bent on making every woman feel insecure and inadequate so they can sell them products that will fix the flaws they made up to sell them products to fix.

It's funny how people will make these big lengthy expositions espousing why others choose to wear make up when ultimately the answer is quite simple. They want to look better, how ever that might be defined. Everyone has their own individual secondary reasons but it all comes down to people altering their appearance because they feel it looks better than when they don't.

It's the same reason people wear nice clothes, put on perfume, or do their hair etc.

I suppose you can pretend complex sociological issues are simple if you ignore all of the complexities of them. It's intellectually lazy in the extreme but whatever floats your boat I guess.

This manga keeps asking me to empathize with people who treat other people like crap and that's just not something I'm gonna do. Also, this whole "befriending my sister as my cross-dressing alter-ego" scenario is way too absurd to be in a non-gag series that is allegedly trying to make a cogent point about gender issues.

All of these except chapter 1 are great. Chapter 1 is just annoying to read.

I really hope this series is gonna continue its pretty delightful trend of bait-and-switch drama where it ramps up the tension and then promptly punctures it with a gag. It'll be a lot less interesting if it succumbs to actually taking itself seriously.

Yeaaah, that ain't gonna happen. This is a comedy after all. One that has been making fun of every single trope in the genre. If it goes over-the-top serious then even that is a parody I assume~

I've seen parodies forget that they're supposed to be parodies and start taking themselves way too seriously before but yeah I'm hopeful that won't be the case here.

X is honestly kind of boring when she's being menacing and competent. The useless loser that gets bullied by her subordinates thing she had going on before was a lot more entertaining.

I liked her bumbling side a lot too. Though I'm not entirely convinced that she is competent yet. She just knows a lot of stuff and seems to be having fun, but clearly she still lacks any control over her subordinates (flees as soon as Honey comes and complains that all her Generals are weirdoes).

I really hope this series is gonna continue its pretty delightful trend of bait-and-switch drama where it ramps up the tension and then promptly punctures it with a gag. It'll be a lot less interesting if it succumbs to actually taking itself seriously.