Though speaking of Citrus, the manga isnt particularly ecchi, it has a Lot more Focus on angst and drama so its a bit wierd that it ended Up in that position

Sorry for late reply, but yeah thinking about it that's true. I guess it's more in how the series presents itself with enticing pictures of beautiful girls. On the other hand there is Bloom in to You which presents itself as a serious rom/drama series, but when you actually read it's full of pictures of cute girls kissing. I snicker a bit at how that ended up in such a position while Sakura Trick is viewed as low brow.

I think that's a weird takeaway from Bloom Into You. The amount of cute girls kissing in Bloom Into You as a percentage of the story or of chapters is a lot less than the drama or romance of the series.

If she's back in the present, does that mean we're approaching the end of the manga? It's a bit sudden.

drop this because it's pro bullying

In this manga, the author clearly writes bullying as something so horrible and wrong that the bully continues to punish herself to this day and she is never truly forgiven, not even by herself.

That is exactly my problem, bullies in real life never feel this kind of remorse, on the contrary they continue to live in a natural way and in the worst case they are happy and successful people who trampled on the lives of many just to feel better. The manga makes it look like they are really sensitive people, which they are not. Anyone can feel remorse for their bad actions, that being part of the plot so that we feel sorry for a character who was a bullie is pro-bullying.

Besides the other comments which reacted to this, I think you're ignoring two important things.

1) "Bully" is not a category of person that is the same across all age groups, social classes, genders, etc. People bully, and people are different. There are certainly bullies who do not feel this kind of remorse, and there are those that do. This manga depicts one particular person who bullied someone and felt remorse. It's not a statement on all bullies everywhere.

2) They were kids. Really young kids. I give a lot of leeway to kids for doing stupid things and then growing and learning from their mistakes. Fifth graders in Japan have an average age of 10. I don't think I would take any 10 year old's personality as their final personality or take it as a given that how they act at 10 is how they will act for the rest of their lives. I think it's silly to assume that.

I find myself slightly disappointed by the appearance of the typical summer festival trope, feels a bit oversaturated to me at this point, but I'm still dying to see how it goes xD

I tend to think of it like the US equivalent of prom. Every high school movie or tv show has a prom. Every manga has a summer festival, even the isekais.

runrin posted:

is this the start of the first kiss at the festival arc? hope so

Hopefully and not a "The truth is I Lo- FIREWORKS

And then go back to the status quo, pretending we had character development but virtually nothing changes.... hmmm to negative?

We're in the Reiwa era, that shit better not be happening. Every character needs to be able to pull a Nino from the Quintuplets manga and just power through that.

Huh, I thought kissing her neck until her mind melted was enough of a tell, but apparently mouth to mouth kisses are needed for these idiots.

That scene at the beach made my stomach drop. I felt fucking awful, which means it's good writing.

I think Sachi and Ruki getting together is a bit rushed, and we really don't see the love that Sachi feels for Ruki, so that part also feels underwritten, but I don't mind the development or the conclusion. Some relationships have struggles and then they get to a good place. Ultimately it's up to the people in the relationship to decide whether or not they want to stay together after one of them has fucked up.

What I really don't get is why either of those two girls is still friends with Remi. Like, I kind of think that should be one of the conditions for them being together is not to hang out with Remi. Asuna having sex with Meru while Fue knows about it is one thing. Remi having sex with whoever is also fine. But Remi specifically targeting Sachi because she knows it will hurt Ruki is so fucked up. And then she has the gall to throw it in Ruki's face in a way she knows will hurt her. Like, she's evil. She's a sociopath. It's not okay.

It's a real treat and joy to read this.

last edited at Jan 30, 2022 9:34PM

Okay, I get angst.. but what I don't get is this kinda premise..
Are there really people out there who like hanging out with mopey depressants like this MC, like no offense to her, but in my experience, you just become a drain on anyone that tries to get to know you or help you.
I don't get it, don't normal people just wanna be around normal people.. where's the interest. Admittedly I am only a few chapters in. Our ("love interest?") Kaori has her own experience that influences her reasons for being drawn to the MC, if so then perhaps I can understand.. but like I see this story premise often and I can always feel for the MC because its not a good place to be but like seriously, who wants to hang out with these people seriously and even if you want to, is it feasible.. being realistic? Idk, I feel like it really makes it hard to buy into these stories without turning my brain off a bit.

Anyone else feel what I am trying to say here or am I just sounding nutty? Perhaps this another case of me thinking too deep into it. I might be missing something here, probably idk.

I think human diversity covers any type of attraction or interest. I don't want to spoil you with later chapters, but there are lots of reasons why this could be the case.

Kaori was interested by something other than Shizuku's isolation.
Kaori is truly touched by the writing.
Kaori is also broken and broken people tend to attract each other.
Kaori's physical attraction overrode her reluctance to be with someone like Shizuku.

People get together for all kinds of reasons. I feel like your comment just says that you wouldn't want to hang out with Shizuku, which is totally fine. But it's not unrealistic for someone to, and that someone happens to be Kaori.

Fair enough I suppose. Reading further I can now see the motivations and sympathies a bit more. I sometimes do this thing where I judge something after one chapter and then, have to row back and admit I may have jumped the gun. I never learn really. XD

Haha, I think we all do that. It can be a struggle to hold off making judgements, especially if it's a long time in between chapters. It's why I prefer to read finished works overall, but I'm here reading this month to month and suffering so I can't even keep to that.

Okay, I get angst.. but what I don't get is this kinda premise..
Are there really people out there who like hanging out with mopey depressants like this MC, like no offense to her, but in my experience, you just become a drain on anyone that tries to get to know you or help you.
I don't get it, don't normal people just wanna be around normal people.. where's the interest. Admittedly I am only a few chapters in. Our ("love interest?") Kaori has her own experience that influences her reasons for being drawn to the MC, if so then perhaps I can understand.. but like I see this story premise often and I can always feel for the MC because its not a good place to be but like seriously, who wants to hang out with these people seriously and even if you want to, is it feasible.. being realistic? Idk, I feel like it really makes it hard to buy into these stories without turning my brain off a bit.

Anyone else feel what I am trying to say here or am I just sounding nutty? Perhaps this another case of me thinking too deep into it. I might be missing something here, probably idk.

I think human diversity covers any type of attraction or interest. I don't want to spoil you with later chapters, but there are lots of reasons why this could be the case.

Kaori was interested by something other than Shizuku's isolation.
Kaori is truly touched by the writing.
Kaori is also broken and broken people tend to attract each other.
Kaori's physical attraction overrode her reluctance to be with someone like Shizuku.

People get together for all kinds of reasons. I feel like your comment just says that you wouldn't want to hang out with Shizuku, which is totally fine. But it's not unrealistic for someone to, and that someone happens to be Kaori.

last edited at Jan 26, 2022 4:38PM

So I read up to CH 102 of the Chinese novel but I actually never went back to check how the watersports section turned out and I'm glad to see there were no accidents. Apparently Elsa's supposed to have brown hair but I like that they made it red in this version.

Can confirm this does not turn kinky nor does Yvonne awaken a secret S. Very wholesome

Are you reading machine translations or is there somewhere where 100 chapters have been translated? I can only see 5 here.

No there's none translated up to that far :(. I'm reading it since I can understand Mandarin

Man, the Bulgarian I know is totally useless for this. I'm jealous.

So I read up to CH 102 of the Chinese novel but I actually never went back to check how the watersports section turned out and I'm glad to see there were no accidents. Apparently Elsa's supposed to have brown hair but I like that they made it red in this version.

Can confirm this does not turn kinky nor does Yvonne awaken a secret S. Very wholesome

Are you reading machine translations or is there somewhere where 100 chapters have been translated? I can only see 5 here.

Ahh, Yuina is my favorite. I like the clever girls best. People are saying she's a top, and she probably is, but I think more importantly she's got a little S in her. She's been leading Wakana by the nose since she found out about Sora and Ayaka. I hope they're happy.

Chapter 16 is out on MD. I spent pretty much the whole chapter crying. This is a really beautiful manga. Whatever way it ends I'm just happy to have been here for it.

As for "Age gap" we're very far from a Itou Hachi.

Minami is 18 and Iori is 28. There's a gap, but the plot is about how the couples are "mismatched" and still work somehow. That's what Mikanuji wants to write about. Not about "dangerous" relationships.

Notwithstanding Japanese laws about drinking, they are both adults and a 10 years gap isn't anything to frown about. There a plenty of "legal" couples with such a gap or more and nobody will cry foul.

And as for their sex drive, it goes back and forth. There has been instances where Minami was the one initiating, so she does have a sex drive. Iori is maybe more crude about it, but that's part of her characterization.

Imo, the recurrent abuse is more problematic than their libido.

I totally agree. The age gap might be a problem, but the frequent and casual violence of the characters is so much worse. There are plenty of manga and anime that have casual violence. Like, I don't really take any of that seriously in say One Piece. But in a story that in its first few chapters was showing us that Minami is being abused, both by her family and Shizuku, Iori casually hitting her, but especially hitting her when she's angry about something, just comes off as really lacking in awareness.

Honestly, if it weren't for the gaming couple I probably wouldn't be reading this anymore.

Unlike some commenters, I really liked the drama in the middle. I liked how it took them a while to get past their loneliness, and that it wasn't easy opening up to someone, even if they were close. In fact, it made it all the harder. But I lowered my opinion of it because of the ending. Whatever one may say about the author tells the story they want to tell, it's still disappointing that this was all yuri-bait. The beginning and even middle chapters are so clear on the type of feelings these two have for each other, and the whole salamander and frog thing they emphasize at the end is too, and yet the ending just doesn't do much with it. It still keeps it as subtext, which seems pointless at the end of the story. Why? What does it add to the story by keeping it up in the air? I know there are some stories that like to keep things up to audience interpretation, and I can respect that to some extent, but too many authors also use this as a way to not make decisions and as a form of cowardice. Some stories may be elevated by it, but some are not, and this is the latter. There is nothing gained by keeping it vague, it just felt like an underwritten ending.

Which is not to say I didn't like it. I'm glad I read it, and I did really like it. But the ending has definitely soured me a little on it. I don't really want to be interpreting it as something I want. I want the story to be told. If they aren't in love and are just friends, then tell me that story. If they are in love and want to be in a relationship, then tell me that story. That's it kept vague at the end is just....annoying. And especially so because what came before was so great.

I'm not sure why people thought this would be poly? It's been very clear it's a love triangle for awhile now. Not once did the story feel like it was ever going in that route outside of the one scene, which was dropped and forgotten about.

I'm not sure I agree with that. Besides the teacher scene setting it up as an option, which why would that be placed like that otherwise, the scene of Rinna developing a small arrow for Sayo after their accidental kiss is also pretty suggestive. Again, it doesn't make much sense to have that there if it were a simple love triangle.

That's fine. For me, an excellent writer can make just about anything convincing, but judging by the evidence here on Dynasty that's very hard to do well--such poly endings as there are tend usually to seem rushed or imposed on the story rather than occurring organically.

I don't quite get how these days every garden-variety love triangle seems to bring out a bunch of poly shippers, no matter how tenuous the narrative possibility might be (I'm not saying that about this one--I need to do a re-read to remember the overall flow of the relationships here).

(As long as poly includes harem) I'd argue that most love triangles are primed for poly endings. So poly shippers coming into them makes perfect sense.

Like, you have multiple characters who are romantically involved with each other all of whom are usually treated as equals by the narrative. Which leads the poly route to feel like a very natural progression, no?

Are you defining love triangle as everyone being interested in each other, or any type of love triangle? If two people are interested in the same person, that doesn't imply poly route to me. Most stories also assume monogamy is what the characters want, so most stories don't usually imply that everyone will get involved.

I guess it depends on the story, but most of the times it feels like jealousy and wanting to monopolize a lover feels anathema to a poly route. I also just don't buy into any harems. Poly I get, but wish fulfillment isekais with harem endings seem silly and with underwritten characters.

Ok, I did a quick skim through the manga. It's obvious that the poly route seems like what it's all heading to, and also obvious that we zoomed through the last two chapters. At the same time, the manga never got a chance to resolve the big issue with Rinna, which is that she falls in love so easily. Sayo is only in love with Mei. Rinna forms little loves just on getting compliments and formed a little love from the accidental kiss with Sayo. That to me points to her infatuation with Mei, rather than her love of Mei. It feels like a teenager's feelings. Whereas, Sayo has been in love with Mei for a long time, and understands what it means to sacrifice her feelings to make Mei feel good about where they are. Even when Mei takes her on a date, it still takes Mei asking Sayo to be more selfish for anything to happen. And despite not being interested in love, there is a point where Mei wants to go out with Sayo just so that she won't lose her. Like these two really, really want to be with each other, whatever the circumstances. Rinna doesn't quite fit into that.

To put it another way, Sayo and Mei would wind up together regardless of their living situation, whereas if Rinna wasn't Mei's roommate, then they probably wouldn't.

Of course, that might just mean that Rinna's development arc would have come later if the manga had kept going, but if it's getting axed now, then Sayo is the only one that makes sense.

I don't think Rinna's feeling was the typical teenager. She was cleary in love with Mei. She cried after taking the decision to sacrifice her love for Mei's sake since Mei wasnt sure whether to take the 3p route or choose one of them. See that Mei almost takes the decision of not choosing one cause she knew that it means that either Sayo or Rinna was gonna get a heart breaking. Sure Sayo is more than obvious that she loves Mei and is the closest one for being childhood friends. I think Sayo was gonna be first step, Rinna the second one, and last would be Sayo and Rinna for the 3p route. Take in consideration that the author never add any kind of rivalry between Sayo and Rinna since the 3 of them get along together. In my opinion the accidental kiss was let's say the start of their love development that was gonna take place later. I think the author just decided to get rid of this manga with this ending and focus on the other 2~3 manga the author is working on. The author already announced chapter 15 is the last one so yea most likely kinda axed.

Why wouldn't Rinna be the feelings of a typical teenager? She starts to fall for Mei because Mei is cute. And that's still the case for a while. She says she also fell in love with Mei's personality later on, but the initial infatuation was only because Mei was her type. That's exactly like a teenager.

Rinna crying and letting Mei go for Sayo has nothing to do with anything except recognizing how Mei feels for Sayo, and it's not the first time either. When Mei asked Sayo out, and when Sayo admitted she wouldn't do anything about it, Rinna wanted to help them get together. This isn't a manga with a lot of conflict, all of the characters are essentially "good girls" so I wouldn't expect a jealous response anyway. Rinna is a good girl, so she wants her friends to be happy.

Ok, I did a quick skim through the manga. It's obvious that the poly route seems like what it's all heading to, and also obvious that we zoomed through the last two chapters. At the same time, the manga never got a chance to resolve the big issue with Rinna, which is that she falls in love so easily. Sayo is only in love with Mei. Rinna forms little loves just on getting compliments and formed a little love from the accidental kiss with Sayo. That to me points to her infatuation with Mei, rather than her love of Mei. It feels like a teenager's feelings. Whereas, Sayo has been in love with Mei for a long time, and understands what it means to sacrifice her feelings to make Mei feel good about where they are. Even when Mei takes her on a date, it still takes Mei asking Sayo to be more selfish for anything to happen. And despite not being interested in love, there is a point where Mei wants to go out with Sayo just so that she won't lose her. Like these two really, really want to be with each other, whatever the circumstances. Rinna doesn't quite fit into that.

To put it another way, Sayo and Mei would wind up together regardless of their living situation, whereas if Rinna wasn't Mei's roommate, then they probably wouldn't.

Of course, that might just mean that Rinna's development arc would have come later if the manga had kept going, but if it's getting axed now, then Sayo is the only one that makes sense.

last edited at Jan 13, 2022 3:54PM

Sucks to hear it’s ending last chapter, was an enjoyable series. I really can’t stand how quickly we end series after the will they won’t they aspect is over, there’s so much more interesting takes to be told about a couple once they start going out and exploring that.

It also feels really sudden, I’m more sure if the creator just didn’t have a solid ending planned out or if this was a sudden ending for them as well, chapter 14 felt like we speed ran Mei’s decision. I’ll be curious to see how we wrap up Rinna’s storyline now.

Wish we could’ve gotten more time with mei and Sayo as a couple…

We need some of that Reiwa energy to bless more yuri manga, because I totally agree with you. A lot of the best parts are seeing how couples learn to deal with each other, and how they get past the initial infatuation.

unless it was ending next chapter.

Maybe? I think that's what this tweet from the artist is saying

https://twitter.com/nanaji_774/status/1479363570110722052

I can't read Japanese, and all google translate is telling me is that the author wants people to read it. Nothing about it ending.

last edited at Jan 12, 2022 9:06PM

Whether we get a poly route or not, I really, really like Sayo's character and I'm happy she gets a win. Rinna is nice, especially this chapter, but I like how Sayo's love comes from more than just a physical attraction. It's nice to see someone so caring get their happiness.

If this keeps going for more volumes, then the arrows will probably come back in a new form. I'd be surprised if they were just dropped forever now, unless it was ending next chapter.

Coming back every couple months to a manga you don't like just to point out you still don't like it sounds like trolling to me.

Depends on the manga. I think that's half the audience for Kanokari. That's obviously a very different manga and very different audience to this, so I agree there is no point doing it here.