Because it matches the setting??? They're in a southern island of Japan. Asian people, including Japanese people, can vary skin tone extremely heavily based on sun exposure. There's also genetics at play as the southern islanders have a lot of Ryukyu blood in them which results in naturally darker skin tone even when not tanned. It's used to indicate whether someone is "country girl" or "city girl" as well in Japanese fiction.

Bitch i ain't complaining about that, It's just really rare to see dark skinned characters in Japanese media, and when it's done, it usually turns out to be just a tan girl, it's just too much of a common occurrence, that's what makes me lose my shit, not whether it makes sense story wise or whatever the fuck u sayin

lmao i love it.

and yes now let's all suffer in peace as we wait for an even shorter chapter lol

Was the idea that these two couldn't define their relationship, or declined to do so, ever brought up before the extra chapter? The narration in the extra chapter feels kind weird, not because I believe that there has to be a clear line between platonic and romantic relationships, but because it sounds like the narrator doesn't know that LGBT people exist

no in an earlier chapter ito asks sumika what she meant when she said she liked her and sumika was like, does it have to be defined?

2 people. mutually and monogamously in love. kissing and apparently doin' the do on the regs. living with each other for years. huh... what kind of relationship could they possibly have? how curious... OH, oh, oh, I know! figured it out, guys.

they're just really good friends

LMAO i was thinking same thing at end lmao so stupid

"Publish and be damned!"

Not really replying to this comment specifically, just wanted to mention that I have been following Yuri stories for about 10, maybe 13 years at least at this point. There was a time, when I used to lurk all the comment sections and Yuri forums (whatever that even was, haha). Back then, it seemed like there wasn't any yuri manga for which The Purple Library Guy hadn't commented or participated in the discussion in some sort of meaningful, insightful manner. You were everywhere! Nowadays, I usually just read the stories and rarely venture to comment sections (I don't have nearly as much time as I used to, sadly). For whatever reason I decided to check this one and I was pleasantly surprised to see the same avatar and username I remember from like 10 years ago. Sounds silly but it brought back a bunch of memories of that time. As far as I am concerned, you sir, are as much a staple of the genre as the yuri itself, and would like to thank you for some of the insight and recommendations that my younger self undoubtedly got from you.

you know what's funny? i actually used to see his posts on manga fox waaaaaaay back in the day when that was the first online manga reader i came across. then i found here and later saw a post of his and was like wow small world XD he had the same name and avatar pic there too! lol

last edited at Jul 5, 2021 5:09AM

Retired idol and mangaka is probably the two most popular statuses for manga characters lol

Still enjoyed this one a lot

you know what would be a cool job and would make an interesting manga, a yuri with a firefighter lol. i feel like there's so much potential for stories based solely on their occupation alone. so tired of idols/ol's/and manga related jobs

last edited at Jul 3, 2021 8:18PM

gosh…
to be sort of(!) spoiler-free about it, i think the subtext really only starts to make sense on the second time you read this. when people start to read, they see this gorgeously drawn art and absolutely nothing that would even suggest a more pessimistic outlook… so we become disappointed and think we’ve “wasted time” on this series… when to someone who’s already read through once, it isn’t.
some stories are just better off reading without that optimistic(?) “oh this is definitely going to end how i think it will because that’s what makes me happy” type… i guess what i’m trying to say is people tend to expect so much from a series that knowing how something ends may completely ruin their experience despite not being able to fully enjoy details that the author puts in… sort of like ignoring the roadside scenery when you take a ride somewhere…
personally, to enjoy this series while thinking of how the characters perceive situations and to appreciate how, again, absolutely breathtaking and subtle the art is… its what i think most people should focus on instead of how they want the ending to go.

People go into this expecting more because it's tagged yuri. This honestly should have subtext instead, and you'd see very different comments.

tbh the absolute ZERO sense of internet safety on that girl triggers me more than anything else in this story. ok like her gf is depressingly repressed but on the opposite end of the spectrum she is literally livetweeting her entire inner monologue like a zoomer james joyce. have some discretion................................................ fuuko said imma give you a wake-up call free of charge you're welcome. you want anything else with that? juice? handholding? a whole nother gf? call me.

Ooohhh my goooooodneeesss yes. Her constant tweeting was agonizing to read. Doesn't matter if story was good, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people live through their phones like that, so probably won't be reading rest.

i miss reading this lol.

lol she's okay with touching and possible rape, but kissing is where she draws the line? this just got really stupid. why couldn't they have a nice fluffy confession and connection like the other pair XD wtf lol

XD why am i not surprised these two ended up on here lol

Uh, no, I'm pretty sure Kuro's issues have been rearing their ugly head quite frequently throughout the series - she's just bottled it all in like it's well established she's been doing all her life. (Tolerably certain her venting at the understandably startled Izumi is the first instance ever of her actually saying them out loud to anybody as far as we're told.) Nanaki concretely and unequivocally confessing was simply the point where things came to a head and the lid blew off.

Say what you will about the quality of the writing on the whole but anyone who's shocked, shocked by Kuro's sudden but inevitable meltdown really hasn't been paying attention. It's more or less the emotional crisis the series has been building towards from the get go.

seconded. in a way i feel bad for her, because no one other than her older friend was really helping, especially nanaki. this whole time nanaki has been confirming kuro's low self worth by the fact that nanaki keeps having her change herself, showing repeatedly nothing about her was good enough. i said from the start she looked JUST FINE the way she was, but here's her unacknowledged crush basically saying NOW that your eye brows are fixed you're cute. NOW that you're in these clothes i picked you're cute. i really don't think any of that would have helped with self worth issues, and instead compound them. even if she felt happy about it happening, you still can't help feel like, i really suck i couldn't do any of this myself or my styles suck or something along those lines.

amg finaalllllllyyyyyyyyyyy!! chapter 10 was like the worst cliffhanger ever to go such a long time in between releases hahaha thanks for finishing this chapter translators!!

Erm so normally I'd be fine with rape in a story, it's just one of the things that is a part of life and adds drama. But i am NOT okay with them saying that the victims eventually enjoy it. Yes this is fiction, but saying that is giving validation to ppl looking for it. And to me that's not okay. This is definitely one I'll be giving a pass lol.

I feel like it's not so much suggesting the victims eventually enjoy it so much as the perpetrator feels powerful by forcing the victim's body to react to erotic sensation against their will. It's not that the victims are enjoying it; it's that they are specifically not enjoying it but cum anyways because of uncontrolled physiological response to stimulation. It's another part of the power trip, basically. I don't think that scene is especially validating so much as it is one pervert tempting another with their perspective, but I understand it being an uncomfortable read you're free to dislike.

Personally I found this story fascinating; it definitely a has a bit overmuch text (especially those spam filled backgrounds early on) but I think a lot of people here are exaggerating when they say it's unclear, I think it sets an even pace and establishes the running scenario of Aya's amateur prostitution business, as well as today's special customer theme. It's also most quite certainly futa, and it doesn't have to draw undue attention to that for it to be true? It also doesn't really have any bearing on the themes, either.

Something a lot of people are missing getting caught up in the morality of the semi-non-consensual-consent rape play, (which I think is definitely a contentious issue on its own, though the story at least attempts to show it as such with how apologetic she is, the pay bonus, and the uncertainty of the memory suppression), is how the demonkind reacts afterwards? I think the real value in the story here lies in digging into that examining of an underlying kink being the only way she has to experience true sexual pleasure, but having the forethought to experiment in (relative) safety and morality to know for sure, and then have the confidence and informed knowledge to decide to consciously abstain. The difference between her and the criminal lies in her self control and her consideration of other people over selfish singular pleasure.

I think it's certainly possible that there's a world in which she still gets her satisfaction more ethically with BDSM play and other similar arrangements, but she's also realized that she's able to derive similar satisfaction from other things in life and opening a sweets business; and given the choice she'd rather abstain from getting used to something that's hurtful to others; which is something of a statement about personal discipline, self determination, and deciding what pleasure means to you as an individual.

More of a sexual philosophy think-piece than erotica, here, and even-handed enough that it stands out to me as a memorable work.

"enjoy" was probably the wrong word to use. while i can't speak for everyone, because i'm sure it's a different experience for each, i can say from my own personal experience that you don't just suddenly start feeling sexual pleasure from an encounter like this. without arousal the female body does not create lubrication, and it is very painful with the friction. which makes it like a self fulfilling prophesy. the more painful and unpleasurable it is, the drier and more painful it gets.

anyways i went back and read the whole thing, stopped first time after they started talking about it. saw the demon had gone around asking ppl about it and concluded it is painful, so it does help make the first impression more the viewpoint of a criminal. and i actually didn't have a problem with the rape play with the prostitute. since they had consensual agreement before hand i agree it's not really rape. still don't think i'll read any other chapters. the thought of this being a "prostitute solving everyone's problems with sex" seems silly lol. that and i don't much care for the mc.

Erm so normally I'd be fine with rape in a story, it's just one of the things that is a part of life and adds drama. But i am NOT okay with them saying that the victims eventually enjoy it. Yes this is fiction, but saying that is giving validation to ppl looking for it. And to me that's not okay. This is definitely one I'll be giving a pass lol.

man seeing a snake bra would be kinda hot lol. better than cheetah prints.

i feel like...japanese don't know how to properly kiss. that was a ton of slobber lmao

i actually thought the plot twist was quite clever lol, because they DID give hints about it in the beginning. and what made it so great is the hints were there, but no one even gave it a possibility. that's what i consider great writing. and it really pulled you in at the end like WHAT??? lol. i've read sooooo many books and mangas etc, that i can usually see "plot twists" from like a mile away, but this one got me XD

at least there's no handholding, that's taking things too far

the christians were right...it's contagious!!

ABO themes sure are taking off lol. idk if i really like it, but takemiya jin is hard to pass up.

idk how ppl read this and keep assuming she didn't know she was attracted to her friend. she literally says she knew since middle school. you guys are reading this completely wrong. she never did anything because she thought it would be unrequited this whole time. so she dated boys instead. which can mean a whole bunch of things. but no where does it state she didn't ENJOY being with all those men. they just weren't who she was in love with. ppl, even straight cis' try to do that all the time, this is nothing lgbqt unique, only it probably comes up more often for obvious reasons. And even if things are so much easier now, it's easy to forget that it really wasn't that long ago where things were much different. i'm only 35 and i grew up without knowing lgbqt was a thing until i heard about it in middle school, from word of mouth, and it was not in a good light. shit being able to brows the internet was still a baby thing when i was in highschool, and not something we would think to go to to learn about lgbqt. and the only kind of media i ever saw it show up in was shit like mariasama ga miteiru, which i actually read as a scripted translation, cause you could still barely see scanlations on the web. THIS IS WHY "omg i never realized til 10 years later i was gay" STORIES STILL EXIST BECAUSE IT STILL EXISTED FOR PROMINENT MANGA ARTISTS.

Nice boat

I'm trying to figure out how much time passed in her self isolation. My first thought was she holed up to redo her manuscript but multiple deadlines implies other work and a long period. She still graduated so she couldn't have missed that much school (but I don't really know how school works in Japan) and graduation was at the end so it's like a year at the very most? You can definitely lose that much weight in a year, though shorter time period might not be as realistic, I lost about 5/6 pounds a week when I had health problems and couldn't eat for six weeks and that was at almost total starvation.

Funny enough when I was starving the weight did not come off my body equally. By the end after dropping 40-50 pounds seemingly none of it had come out of my chest so my breasts were the same size but on a much thinner frame, so that part got a chuckle out of me.

i'm pretty sure japan has required min amount of hours in the class to graduate so no way she woulda missed a whole year and still made it. i can see half a year MAYBE.

Is it normal to talk about girls like that at the workplace? seems so weird and would definitely result in a HR call

In hyper-sexist Japan, yes. In fact that would be considered light. Just a part of learning to accept that anime and manga derive from an extremely un-civilized, chauvinistic culture.

i wouldn't say uncivilized, deff a very patriarchal society though. japan has both good and bad points, just the same as every other country. i do believe equal rights over there is starting to pick up more steam though, and i wish them the best luck to get that to happen. it's honestly imo one of the worst countries about pushing things they don't like under the rug. their new motto for their current era makes me want to hope they will have some good changes coming.

Each of the stories with these characters published/animated is like alternate universes using the same characters. It's not really a sequel/prequel, but just using the same case in a completely new setting and story. (I'm just happy this one doesn't have mecha in it.)

YET lmao

ngl I kind of feel relieved to know she's not dying like I initially thought would happen lol anyway, thanks for the update!

lmao ikr, i totally thought it was something way more serious

Okay I'm way more invested in this than I thought I'd be. It's pretty good! Yea the boobs and fan service is kiiiinda distracting, sure, but the story and characters are surprisingly compelling! It kinda feels to me like some YA novel I'd have read in highschool lol

I especially love how, since its ENTIRELY from Chikane's point of view, there's always that inkling of fear that its all an act from Himeko. That she knew she'd lose so she's trying to seduce Chikane, and it's working. That's my biggest fear here, cause the bubbly wholesome parts are so much it'd DESTROY me if they were all for naught.

Also I really love this part.

In the sacred mountain legend has it that there is at the center of the island, a small island in the sea of Mount Miwa, seals the evil Japan, far away from the God Oomikami mainland

in case you didn't know, this is like their what, 4th reincarnation they have made now? there is also an anime. anime is amazing <3 and slightly less crazy than these manga are lol. idk if it's just seeing it "live" so to speak to make it that way.
one of the mangas i just stopped reading it got so wtf, even my love for these 2 couldn't beat that craziness lol. i will always come back for them though every time they are brought to life again lol. and as for their shitty luck it literally says they are only born specifically for this, so no luck on reincarnating during peaceful times. when they are ready to really put this manga in the grave, they should end it with them breaking the cycle lol.

last edited at Apr 10, 2021 4:26AM