Kou x Rin is canon and nobody can tell me otherwise. I will even fite the author with a plastic sword

If a lot of people loved each other, the world would be a better place to live

World record for most consecutive chokes and heartbreaks goes to...

last edited at Oct 6, 2018 8:21AM

YuriWhale has this interesting ability to make lesbian sex look like it involves penetration even when there is no futa or strap-on involved. Also holy shit.

Just give her a sample of it right here in the classroom. Just to be certain she gets the point.

Where's the biting tag? Those lips don't lie

Loli Mario on Bowsette's lap is stirring something deep inside me. It is probably disturbed.

Damp

Someone took the "eating you out" line a bit too literally

^I give it 10 seconds tops

Episode 1 was good. Aside from some questionable POV shots, the whole thing was really beauitful and well done. I especially liked some of the eye-transitions and subtle motions they put in.
Still have to get used to Yuu's voice though. Her voice actress is great, but she sounds too cute/innocent to be honest. I always imagined Yuu with more of an edge or slightly deeper voice.

I think they made good choices with voice actresses for Yuu, Touko, and Sayaka.

I find that Yuu is rather innocent with her view of love that starts as reliant on shojo-manga. And in how she is timid with her emotions and a bit submissive to others. Sayak's voice has just a touch of mostly controlled ego with the subtle "Hime" voice. And Touko's matches her use of pleasantries.

I'm not sure which questionable POV shots you mean

Hm, that is a bit superficial I'd say. Yuu is actually rather sarcastic and exasperated with Touko's shenanigans a lot of the time, so she really needs to have a more blunt vocal approach once she snaps out of her "adoring kohai" phase from the first chapter. Thus far it worked, but I'm thinking of the bigger picture here.

Did you not notice these out of place Point-of-view shots? They felt stiff, almost like you were looking through a camera. As you should be keenly aware, humans actually don't see things like that. Our eyes don't move that statically.

We always knew this relationship was messed up. The only reason it worked more or less was because Yuu is someone who lets herself get taken advantage of easily. If she was even a tiny bit more selfish this would have broken apart around chapter 3. lol

Messed up has such a negative and "crazy" connotation to it so i disagree there and that Yuu is letting herself be taken advantage of. Touko certainly is taking advantage of Yuu's feelings and kindness, at least to start though not maliciously, but Yuu has also been a willing and enabling participant. I see it as more that both are not certain of their emotions, uncertain how to interact healthfully with each other, and are having to take the time to learn of each other and of themselves before being able to move forward properly. Certainly they are having their troubles, their relationships hasn't been the best, but they have helped each other.

I do agree that Yuu is a bit selfless, but if she had a better understanding of love then I don't think she would have enabled Touko for so long. The stories theme, blooming, is an act of coming into one's full self. I used to think that "Bloom into You" meant the buildup of the relationships, but I think now that "Bloom into You" means possibly that mostly it is Touko and Yuu talking to themselves. They are blooming into their own full selves.

It's not the best relationship ever, but when are they ever? They do genuinely love each other, even if mistaken, and are not trying not wanting to hurt one another.

It is negative. The way Yuu suffered for the second half of the manga was anything but healthy and good. And Touko most certainly was messed up from the start, the way she hated herself and wanted to be someone else. The way she wanted to love someone who couldn't love her back, because she hates herself. Those are all far from healthy relationship conditions.
Look at this from an objective perspective. What is Touko actually doing? She is using a girl that she thinks cannot and will not ever love her - that she actually forces to promise not to love her - , asking her to be together with her, let herself be kissed and touched. To stay with her in a way that couples do, to relief her frustrations on her. That is the pinnacle of taking advantage of someone's kindness/sense of duty. That is most definitely a "crazy" situation.

You didn't really refute me though... Yuu does let herself get taken advantage of. You still admitted it.

We have to accept that their relationship wasn't healthy until now, but that doesn't mean it was bad overall. After all both acted out of love. And Yuu did manage to fix Touko, only because they were so close. Though it may have been a shackled kind of relationship, they did enjoy the time they spent with each other. Touko never intended to hurt Yuu, even if she was callous without realizing. It's an attest to good writing that something so twisted can feel so genuine, really.

last edited at Oct 6, 2018 5:42AM

Why not add the Subtext tag to the chapters that are subtext at best and Yuri when it becomes full-blown Yuri?

Or just replace both with Shoujo Ai, then people can't complain about it not being Yuri.

Any legit Yuri fandom will not tag things Shoujo Ai. That's just embarrassing and sad.

I never understood the discussion anyway.
The first chapter alone had like tons of handholding, Sakurako basically getting wet when seeing Kasumi the first time, getting matching couple mugs with hearts while thinking about being newlyweds, sleeping in the same bed with Sakurako being too nervous to sleep. Not to mention the illustrations at the end of the chapters.

If that only counts as Subtext, 50% of the stuff with the Yuri tag here might as well get replaced with Super Het.

That is something I also wondered about. I've read several things tagged "Yuri" on this site that had very slow starts with several chapters of not even implied romance. What makes this one different? I guess nobody even knows anymore.

Love knows no rules or common sense.

Alas, neither do salty forumers.
Which is the main problem.

Touché~

I'm not sure it's the right interpretation of "M".

If I recall correctly, the protagonists just hover on the brink of a sexual relationship (including "just the tip"), but never actually do it. In the end, they acknowledge they love each other (so the reciprocation is a requisite), but they decide to go their separate way because suffering (as "M"asochists) is more important to them than being together.

So, they will live their life separately, marry, have children, etc... all the while knowing they will never ever see their "true" love again and that they are with someone else.

At the time I read it I found it depressing, but a nice psychological twist.

This is a oneshot about extreme masochism (with nice drawings by Katsua), not the same type of relationship than Bloom Into You.

There is a difference between masochism and a mental defect... Pretty sure those two characters are suffering the latter.
What a horrible story. =w=

Well yeah, it's oficially tagged yuri, I have no idea what happened here. Which will make it all the more satisfying when the Subtext tag finally gets unquestionably proven wrong.

I think there was some sort of community drama around some series regarding "THIS ISN'T REALLY YURI WHY IS IT LABELED YURI WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! FIX IT FIX IT YOU LIED TO ME!!!!!11!1!one!" etc. So now things that aren't outright stated to be romantic right in the beginning get labeled subtext, and once the label is there not even hardcore yuri sex will convince the mods to change it.

Deja vu! I've seen this hardcore yuri sex line before~
That aside, yeah, that is a shame. But I once again refer to my previous suggestion. Just add the Yuri tag anyway.
Maybe Subtext and Yuri can truly coexist as well as an unlikely pairing of lovers like Kasumi and Sakurako can. Love knows no rules or common sense.

Now I'm really worried about the coming anime. Hope they get it right. :/

Episode 1 was good. Aside from some questionable POV shots, the whole thing was really beauitful and well done. I especially liked some of the eye-transitions and subtle motions they put in.
Still have to get used to Yuu's voice though. Her voice actress is great, but she sounds too cute/innocent to be honest. I always imagined Yuu with more of an edge or slightly deeper voice.

last edited at Oct 5, 2018 4:37PM

We always knew this relationship was messed up. The only reason it worked more or less was because Yuu is someone who lets herself get taken advantage of easily. If she was even a tiny bit more selfish this would have broken apart around chapter 3. lol

Sorry, but this once I must say you are just plain wrong. You created an arbitrary condition for the kisses to "count" yourself, which was by no means displayed by the story itself.

You're totally over-reading what I'm saying--the word "counts" seems to have been taken as having some sort of regulatory meaning I care nothing about.

All I'm saying is that, as at one point in Girl Friends, "kisses" and "feelings" in this story have yet to align and be mutually understood the same way by both parties.

And when that happens--champagne and fireworks.

Uhuh... Except you were rather specifically focused on the kissing, which makes your point moot, as explained above.
But alas, I won't pressure you over something as banal as phrasing. If you want to twist it this way then fine. Let's hope their feelings align sooner rather than later.

last edited at Oct 5, 2018 10:42AM

Drunkenness just makes people more honest. Meaning that's what she really wanted anyway.
I guess it depends on where they go from there. Playing that off isn't as easy as it seems and will probably have an effect in the long run.

I know, but the subtext tag makes no sense in the first place, so every excuse to keep it a little longer is welcome, I guess.
Especially because I read the raw (as far as my Japanese skills allow me to), which is officially tagged yuri, and more or less know what's all to come in the future.

Well yeah, it's oficially tagged yuri, I have no idea what happened here. Which will make it all the more satisfying when the Subtext tag finally gets unquestionably proven wrong.

last edited at Oct 5, 2018 11:13AM

I like how Futaribeya aand Hanigare are probably within the top 5 of most gayest manga in this site and yet they're just 'subtext' xD

If what I saw from chapter 27 spoilers is true, this might change very soon. We are almost there friends!

Probably not because there's the convenience excuse of Sakurako being drunk while it happens. Personally, I'm more looking forward to ch. 29 anyway.

Drunkenness just makes people more honest. Meaning that's what she really wanted anyway.
I guess it depends on where they go from there. Playing that off isn't as easy as it seems and will probably have an effect in the long run.

@MarqFJA87 Wow, that sounds pretty neat. Honestly, the author should have just committed to returning them to normal after halfway through the manga. It would definitely have been refreshing (not that I read it in years).

^^I guess anyone can choose to jump into the ice water naked if they want to, but at least you shouldn't be surprised that most people consider that rather insane. At the very least the UK isn't awfully cold compared to most other northern hemisphere countries lol

last edited at Oct 5, 2018 7:57AM

Not so much a “metaphor” as a mark or a symptom of the bizarre asymmetry of the initial setup—Touko takes the kisses “seriously, ” but they must NOT be returned with the same emotional weight with which they are given. Her request at the sports festival for Yuu to initiate a kiss was, as they both realized when the time came, asking for something outside of the current boundaries of their agreed-upon relationship.

The similarity is basically that the kisses in both stories (up to a certain point) did not “count” in the sense that the kisses were understood differently, and often inaccurately, by the two people involved.

The next time Yuu and Touko kiss when they both know they want to and they both know the other one wants to because they love each other will be the first such kiss.

Sorry, but this once I must say you are just plain wrong. You created an arbitrary condition for the kisses to "count" yourself, which was by no means displayed by the story itself. Whether Yuu was in love with Touko or not, the kisses were always serious from Touko's side at the very least. There was no difference in understanding there. It was clear cut that she wanted to kiss Yuu, because she loved her.

Yuu subconsciously realized that if she were to actively kiss Touko she would be unable to close her eyes from her true feelings anymore. She took Touko's kisses very seriously and had to resist what they were causing in her heart.
Touko on the other hand was disappointed, because she truly did want Yuu to kiss her, showing that she didn't believe it overstepped their boundaries (which is more connected to her unintentionally cruel negligence of Yuu's feelings).

I simply don't see your point. Girl Friends kisses did not "count" because both parties did not understand what they were doing and what it meant, unclear about the others or their own feelings. They literally used excuses to make them not count.
There is no such pretext in YagaKimi. Kisses are not misunderstood, feelings are. And even that one-sidedly by Touko to be perfectly honest.

Pacing my friend. Girl Friends took 6 chapters to even get slightly beyond pure friendship. There was quite a bit of build-up just to reach subtext.
Density of actual developements and events is just not comparable. YagaKimi reached the first confession in more or less chapter 1 and the first kiss in chapter 2 lol

And by five volumes the primary conflicts were all resolved and they were in a happy, committed relationship and I believe had banged? It's been awhile since I read it.

You can also argue as to whether the confession and kiss in the first few chapters really represent that much development when the other character didn't get the courage to vocalize -her- feelings until Chapter 34. :p

My point is, at some stage we have to average things out and look at the overall trend. For SCIENCE.

Yeah well, the conflict in Girl Friends was thinly veiled all along. It all was hinging on hesitation and an arbitrary misunderstanding on Mari's side. It was obvious that all issues would be resolved the moment they had one real talk.
That is why misunderstanding based drama is cheap in my eyes.

What makes Girl Friends a slower burn are the little to no challenges or realizations before the big confrontation. YagaKimi is slow itself, but there is always a goal and a hurdle to consider. Realizations are made fairly consistently and alter the course of the story, while not losing the overall goal. Yuu's confession had nothing to do with courage and all with an inability to contain her feelings anymore... as well as her pain.

And just to be clear, I adore Girl Friends. A slow burn is by no means a sign of bad writing. The development is being taken seriously and the heartache felt quite real (albeit forced due to the aforementioned misunderstandings).

So I guess my point remains: You can't even compare the density of the two, so the amount of volumes is irrelevant. YagaKimi was always more focused.

That along with the “those earlier kisses don’t count because reasons” trope that the two stories share, of course.

Unless this is a metaphor for their "relationship" not counting, I think you might be reading a different manga. The kisses were never said to not count. Touko takes them quite seriously and Yuu simply plays the exasperated receiver that isn't swayed by them. She never once says or implies that she thinks the kisses don't mean anything or don't count. In fact her not being able to be the initiator until her confession was because they actually meant something.

last edited at Oct 4, 2018 1:29PM

^You already condescendingly said you expect people not to get it on the previous page tho lol
And AnimeSavesMe did get it. A simple 'yes' would have been enough, but whatever.