So Hwayeon isn't a lesbian(?), she just super possessive huh

She's bi and apparently previously unaware that is a thing.

I bow out gracefully. For the record I never thought that women were not into sex, or that they didn't get turned on. Honestly I don't know what I thought. I guess I see us guys getting worked up over T&A and feel like we were objectifing women in some small way, and thought lesbians would be more respectful some how. However I know straight women drool over guy parts (As gross as that seems to me. lol). So it would logically follow that women that are into the ladies, would do the same, to all of those cute females.
So I raise a glass to all of us, who see that girl, with the nice rack, on the subway, and think I hope she brushes those against me, and say "party on dudes, and dudets".

That line of thinking "lesbians are more respectful" because I didn't think they sexualized others is, mm~ problematic mindset. You make it sound like it's bad to be sexual beings. It's not. Women aren't creeped out by men who have urges. Most of us have them regardless of our sex, gender and orientation. Appreciating someone doesn't automatically mean you're objectifying them, and even if you are, the key thing is how you TREAT that person. That's where the problems comes from.

A person thinking someone is hot doesn't mean you have access them, right?

taps chin Who do I think is really hot...I'll go with my childhood crush, Lucy Liu. I objectified her up and down. But that didn't stop me from realizing she's a human being with boundaries and feelings. And if, I had ever encountered her, didn't mean I had access to her simply because she was there, because she was a public figure.

Point taken.

I mean, to be fair, I get it. The image that society cultivates about what a woman is supposed to be is pervasive and insidious in it's influence over our prejudices. Women aren't "supposed" to be horny. That's a "guy thing." Women are "better" that way because sexuality is bad. I've been influenced by this mindset in the past, even though I didn't necessarily actively believe it. It's like sexism background radiation.

Even if you don't actively think those things are true, you still grew up in a society that acts like they are. So you pick up bad assumptions without meaning any ill will. It's frustrating when you trip over your own biases, especially if you are actively trying to be better.

It's not the emotional excitement. I believe that easily. It's the sexual excitement that I can't see. For instance, Mei getting flustered that Sensei's chest was so close, or being totally stoked about seeing boobs, just seems something thrown in as fan service for us guys.

Ah yes a lesbian being turned on by seeing her hot teacher's chest in a yuri manga is not her being turned on it's just fanservice for men!

Just want to point out the character really getting preoccupied with seeing boobs in this chapter was actually the teach herself. It got a little obscured in the convo about women's sexuality.

A cliffhanger? In Miss Sunflower??? What devilry is this?

Guys, since you're so busy trying to make sense of the plot where the woman time traveled because she masturbated on a playground rocking horse I'll spell it out for you why it ended like this: if senpai had remembered the stuff from the manga that would imply that the MC essentially killed and overwrote her past self (who was a major character in this story) when she returned to the present. Making the ending a different timeline (or maybe her original timeline Back To The Future'd) loosely effected by the one she was in sidesteps that bit of existential horror. Does it make much sense? Of course not. It didn't make sense how she time traveled in the first place. But it was done in service of making the ending happier, which was the whole point.

Honestly this is why the author should have said "When she shows up in the future, her own younger self grown up is still there as a seperate person, and somehow original flavor future Seto is also there and they have a 4 way and live happily ever after" then flipped everyone off while cackling and walking into the sunset.

Yeah, the one thing we know about Hana is that she has zero patience for Chiaki's BS, she'll cut right through it if the latter even tries to run away from this :P

True, but Chiaki is much more athletic. If she goes full gay panic and literally runs away, I doubt Hana could stop her.

Depends on how far Chiaki can go on an empty tank of boobs.

Strong point.

(Full Gay Panic would be a pretty funny name for a series, come to think.)

Yeah, the one thing we know about Hana is that she has zero patience for Chiaki's BS, she'll cut right through it if the latter even tries to run away from this :P

True, but Chiaki is much more athletic. If she goes full gay panic and literally runs away, I doubt Hana could stop her.

I'm surprised to find myself being That Person, but there are at least 1.5 idiots in that room--are we sure there's no backing down from this somehow?

I get the feeling there isn't, but looking at the two principals involved . . .

The most likely possibility would be one or both of them getting too excited to participate in the groping.

I mean basically they might feel like any activity of the sort will basically spiral into full-blown sex, so in fear of taking that step Chiaki will retreat (possibly literally) and then find the life draining out of her because she is physically incapable of surviving without Hana boobs.

The mom and auntie Ren definitely come across as exes, it seems like they on relatively good terms though which is nice.

I think that should be the case, yeah. Taking the elements we have and filling in the gaps with the simplest possible explanations in a Ockham's razor-y kind of way, I end up with something like this:

1) Mom and auntie Ren were lovers in college.
2) Mom dumped auntie Ren because, y'know, the usual reasons: "Gotta stop playing around, gotta grow up, gotta do my filial duty, gotta marry and have children!"
3) Mom married some guy and had Youzi. Then she divorced him because she's a lesbian and having to put out for him sucked big time and she couldn't take it anymore.
4) Mom became a famous actress, Ren became a famous singer.
5) They meet again (partly thanks to Youzi) and Ren finds out that mom is living alone and raising her kid by herself... and that she often sings to Youzi the secret love song she and Ren wrote together while in college.

Present time, Youzi suspects that mom and auntie Ren still love each other but are silly & useless about it. Maybe mom also feels guilty for hurting Ren before and feels she doesn't deserve to get her back.

This are my best guesses given the evidence we have.

Speculating based on likely scenarios is well and good, but keep in mind occam's razor applies to real world explanations, not necessarily fictional ones.

When analyzing stories, it's usually a better bet to go with that which provides the most satisfying drama, but it depends heavily on author preference. The simplest explanation is often NOT the correct one.

Another possibility is that Ren left Mom because her early career didn't actually allow for her to have a girlfriend. Idols in Japan and Korea are encouraged to stay away from romance, I don't know if China is different in that respect. They may also have just split up because of their careers. It's also possible that Mom wanted to have a kid, not just out of obligation or heteronormative paradigms. She seems to genuinely cherish her daughter, and artificial insemination is looked down on in some asian cultures. (again, I don't know enough about China specifically on this issue)

YEEEEESSS!!! FINALLY!! IT'S BEEN YEARS!!!

Holy shit, and KASUMI was the one who went for it?! The first real kiss?! YOU GO GIRL!!!

Haaaaaa...that is something I was genuinely not expecting.

(siiiiiigh) Every time they kiss, there's somebody here in the forum going OMG THEY KISSED!

They kissed a long time ago. There have been several at this point.

(Edit: This is the first time we got a splash page, though, IIRC)

last edited at Apr 3, 2022 3:48PM

What saved senpai from that distracted biker (?) in the original timeline?

She probably got hit and still lost the phone. Maybe she was laid up for a while and that slowed her progress in acting in school. Then she was really too busy for romance, trying to catch up.

Also, since there are shout-outs to "Back to the Future," well, the first thing that happened to Marty McFly was pushing his father out of the way of a car that would have hit him (causing him to meet his mother in a love-potential way), getting hit himself and having his mother fall for him, so maybe some guy would have saved her.

Actually, the scene itself provides the context clues. In the scene Seto is leaning against the wall next to the door as she talks on the phone. Nanasawa decides to walk by and get a closer look at her, and in the next panel Seto has stepped forward and is walking.

She could've seen Nanasawa approaching out of the corner of her eye, thought she was moving toward the door of the cafe, and stepped forward to move out of her way, the phone call distracting her from noticing the approaching bike.

In other words, in the original timeline, she just stayed where she was for a few seconds longer and was never in the path of the careless driver.

(I mean the real reason is that the author probably didn't think about it, just like they didn't ask themselves how Nanasawa has working cell service in the past.)

Maybe it's just me, but those reactions from both the mom and Ren on pages 3 and 4 don't seem to me like "friend I haven't seen in a while suddenly shows up" but rather "just met a person I used to be close to, and I'm no longer sure what our relationship is."

Those glances and pauses just... I don't know... they give me the impression of two people who used to be together, who then separated on good terms but still haven't seen each other in a while, who now met each other unexpectedly and aren't sure how they should treat each other.

Yes, this exactly. It speaks to a complicated history. And the song is clearly special to them both in a way that suggests deep feelings.

I wouldn't put Chen and Ren at the same level here. Ren is just a friend that Youzi ships with her mom but Chen actually seems really close with the mom. Besides, Chen's the one that shows up in all the promo pictures.

I think the -exact- opposite. The dynamic between Chen and Mom seems pretty platonic. Like in Chapter 4 she's joking around and teasing her about how gay she comes across, but the compromising position at the end is actually a misunderstanding. They work together, they have chemistry, and they ham it up on camera for fanservice, but they're just friends.

Contrast with what we've learned about her history with Ren. They dreamed about performing together back in college, (Oh my god THEY WERE ROOMMATES,) they wrote songs together, and they're both clearly still hanging on to that history after not seeing each other for years. (She taught their song to her daughter, who recognized Ren playing it years after the fact, which is the event that drew them back together. That's some pretty powerful rom-com meet-cute energy there)

They're also clearly flashing back to their history together when they're singing on stage together. The romantic overtones are pretty strong there.

It's kind of weird how both moms had children at a young age with completely nameless and faceless men who were never heard from or seen afterwards . It feels like there's some world building factors in the story that the author just never felt like giving. Not that it really matters to the plot obviously, I just find it a bit strange. It's like Tomoyo's mom from Cardcaptor Sakura having had a husband at some point all the while being very obviously not interested in men in any way, shape or form :P Like, how did THAT happen ?

Given the setting and their social status, probably arranged marriages. (and the dads probably died in the war as well.)

last edited at Mar 25, 2022 12:01PM

Auntie is a bit of a hypocrite with the whole eavesdropping thing, huh. Among other things.

Eavesdropping on superiors in a military is a different indiscretion from eavesdropping on cadets.

Eavesdropping on superiors can lead to the spread of classified intel.

(I mean, I'm not saying she's justified in eavesdropping, or that she was being honest when she criticized her daughter, I'm just pointing out they're not exactly the same.)

last edited at Mar 25, 2022 11:56AM

She didn't gather any apples on her final walk. That was all flashback. Heath was just looking fondly at the tree as she remembered her and Lily's first meeting.

Yeah, you're right, I was kind of operating on fumes at that point. Hadn't slept. (sleep disorders suck, BTW.)

YESSSSSSSSSS Threesome but it was more like a 2vs1, probably for the best considering all xD so basically we got everything we wanted ... Except for one thing, their friends are FUCKING HOT TOO! but looks like the mangaka isn't gonna do anything with them, which is sad.

I wouldn't take it as gospel, but a lot of tankouban end up with side character focused extra chapters. So I wouldn't write it off entirely.

Btw when she proposed the threesome, there's 2 stuffy dolls that look like a microphone and a camera, Is too late to make theories but it was sus af lol

Yeah, I can see it. They're pointed straight at the bed, too. Definitely sus.

Honestly, nothing can top this chapter now.

Nanasawa topped this chapter.

Twice!

Honestly, given the degree of "ah fuck it" in the time travel mechanics of this manga, I give 50/50 odds Nanasawa gets to the future, meets her sempai girlfriend on a date, and then the two of them bump into original timeline divorcee Seto, who somehow still exists, and the last panel is a comical freeze out on the Setos fleeing Nanasawa's unstoppable libido.

God, this wrecked me. The realization that we've had a big time skip, then the farewell to Iris because she knows what's coming, then she's walking home gathering apples like the first chapter and drops one and it rolls down like the first chapter and oh god she buried Lily where they met and then she collapses on her grave and the rings come out like her missing arm is reaching for Lily and then she dies, right there, right then. And there are flowers on the grave which means Iris still comes to visit, which means Iris is going to find her aaaaaaaaa

Excuse me, I just have to go crawl into a blanket and sob for 4 hours.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/beauty_and_the_beast_girl_ch50_1

So there's a mini-Heath, next to Marie's kid?

So did they have a kid? Or two? Or were they heath and Lily from flashbacks?

That's baby Heath and Azalea (Lily's mom) from the flashback story.

It's interesting if you think about this from the other side. Neeko went into this interview thinking it was her one last chance at getting a job, with her self-esteem already driven into the ground and depression taking hold.

These guys went into this interview thinking this was a technicality and they'd already decided they were going to hire her. They're bored and uninterested because it doesn't really matter and yeah, why the hell DO we need so many people for this phase? The guy says she should move because the commute is hell, He probably thinks he's giving her good advice and broadcasting that she's got the job. She took it as an unreasonable demand that she has to capitulate to in order to keep the possibility of getting hired.

They don't see how abusive they're being, because they aren't thinking of this event as being meaningful in any way, but to her, this is the key to all of her self worth and her entire future, so they just crushed her without even realizing it.

That is a very optimistic take on the situation, and while it would be nice if you were right about this, seeing how we only experience the interview through Neeko's filter, the one guy possibly giving good advice does not negate them deriding her motivation and skills before that.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying they aren't being assholes. Just....I dunno. Thinking about it that way makes you consider the ways thoughtless words can cause real harm. Just something to consider, I think.

It's interesting if you think about this from the other side. Neeko went into this interview thinking it was her one last chance at getting a job, with her self-esteem already driven into the ground and depression taking hold.

These guys went into this interview thinking this was a technicality and they'd already decided they were going to hire her. They're bored and uninterested because it doesn't really matter and yeah, why the hell DO we need so many people for this phase? The guy says she should move because the commute is hell, He probably thinks he's giving her good advice and broadcasting that she's got the job. She took it as an unreasonable demand that she has to capitulate to in order to keep the possibility of getting hired.

They don't see how abusive they're being, because they aren't thinking of this event as being meaningful in any way, but to her, this is the key to all of her self worth and her entire future, so they just crushed her without even realizing it.

oh nice, more chapters :o looking forward to more nani and mai moments, maybe finally a kiss!

Um....There are a couple of kisses already? You might have missed some chapters. They're basically married by the end.

Anyway...

So this is super cute. I'd missed it before, and based on the latest chapter, I thought it was going to be one of those comics with a recurring theme (bugs) where nothing really changes between the characters, but this plot actually clips pretty well and damned if I didn't shed some tears along the way.