Forum › Posts by Blastaar

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joined Jul 29, 2017

It should also be mentioned that people "disappear" all the time in Japan. About 100.000 person per year are signaled as "missing". Most of them are found or come back later, but some just "evaporate".

It's called "Jouhatsu" (a term meaning "evaporation"). It can be for a lot of reasons, for family reasons, for tax reasons, for debt reasons, a woman evaporating with her child, leaving the husband for DV reason (or others), suicide, etc...

The laws about privacy are really strong in Japan, so as long as no crime has been committed, police will be extremely reluctant to investigate.

So, I think there's nothing surprising about Aya's situation regarding the authorities for a Japanese reader. She disappeared, she's back, she's 21, no crime has been reported. Everyone moves on. It's not the police's problem.

That’s certainly true in general—the classic 1967 Japanese pseudo-documentary A Man Vanishes is about that very phenomenon. But most such cases are, as you suggest, men leaving their families, whole families running away from loansharks, or other grown people escaping bad situations like oppressive jobs, etc.

But as we saw, this was a missing middle-schooler who sparked a police search, one who has now returned physically unchanged and with (essentially) amnesia. Even given the cultural concept of jouhatsu, the specific situation would seem to warrant rather more than a “Huh, that’s weird. Well, welcome back!” reaction.

I'm honestly curious if they'll even address the disappearance with any kind of specifics, or if they'll just hand wave it away. Magical Realism is a decently popular genre in Japan, and the more I read this the more I feel it sort of fits into that genre?

No one (other than Koto I guess, but even then it feels more rooted in the effect the disappearance had on her, ie. her separation anxiety.) seems to be that pressed about the 'how' of her disappearance just yet. They're all just like, "Yeah, okay."

No, I think you're probably (who knows what will actually happen?) quite right about that--manga can be pretty casual about bizarre "what if?" premises that just set up whatever dynamic they're going for.

I don't really think it's a flaw in this story or anything--more like a humorously weird aspect of the situation. It's kinda fun to imagine, for instance, Aya and [whoever she ends up with] chatting with new friends who ask, "So, when did you two first get together?" and them saying, "Well, it's a funny story . . ."

last edited at Mar 7, 2024 1:02PM

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

The newest chapter isn’t quite up here, but it’s not a spoiler to say that, despite the drama trappings of false public accusations and the horror-movie mom, at its heart this is extravagantly gorgeous romantic fluff, and I can’t get enough of it.

As with lots of other yuri modes, I wouldn’t want every story to be like this, but I’m very glad this one is.

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

In literary terms, “realism” can mean a lot of different things; at its simplest it points to the lack of speculative or supernatural elements that alter the known human relation to the physical world.

But it’s also true that “realism” is used to denote the depiction of plausible or “typical” human behavior and causality (sometimes “unrealistically” so—outlandish coincidences do happen in real life that would be criticized as unrealistic in a fiction. But they don’t happen all the time.)

It’s been argued that “realism” is best understood as a relational or comparative term rather than an absolute one—if asked which animation is more realistic, The Simpsons or SpongeBob SquarePants, most people immediately say it’s The Simpsons, while recognizing that neither of them correspond to reality in any ultimate sense.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

It should also be mentioned that people "disappear" all the time in Japan. About 100.000 person per year are signaled as "missing". Most of them are found or come back later, but some just "evaporate".

It's called "Jouhatsu" (a term meaning "evaporation"). It can be for a lot of reasons, for family reasons, for tax reasons, for debt reasons, a woman evaporating with her child, leaving the husband for DV reason (or others), suicide, etc...

The laws about privacy are really strong in Japan, so as long as no crime has been committed, police will be extremely reluctant to investigate.

So, I think there's nothing surprising about Aya's situation regarding the authorities for a Japanese reader. She disappeared, she's back, she's 21, no crime has been reported. Everyone moves on. It's not the police's problem.

That’s certainly true in general—the classic 1967 Japanese pseudo-documentary A Man Vanishes is about that very phenomenon. But most such cases are, as you suggest, men leaving their families, whole families running away from loansharks, or other grown people escaping bad situations like oppressive jobs, etc.

But as we saw, this was a missing middle-schooler who sparked a police search, one who has now returned physically unchanged and with (essentially) amnesia. Even given the cultural concept of jouhatsu, the specific situation would seem to warrant rather more than a “Huh, that’s weird. Well, welcome back!” reaction.

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

And compensation for what?

I guess he's trying to pay her to give up on her girlfriend? Kinda like Getting Picked Up by my Boss's Daughter.

It’s the other way around—he wants her to pay some kind of compensation as a penalty for what used to be (and in some places still is) called “alienation of affection.”

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/divorce/alienation-of-affection/#:~:text=Alienation%20of%20affection%20occurs%20when,give%20rise%20to%20this%20tort.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

This story can easily have a biphobia subplot. Yuna dumping Kiku for a man.

I’m not seeing how “Yuna dumped Kiku for a man.” Although any breakup can be painful, breaking up with someone because you find that you can’t love them the way they deserve to be loved is a perfectly reasonable and humane thing to do.

Nothing here suggests that Yuna’s problem was with Kiku’s gender.

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

It's just harder for me to believe that Tianli would deliberately do such a terrible thing to Xiangyuan if she was in love with her, and hadn't even been explicitly rejected, and then stayed friends with the bullies that helped drive her love away. She definitely had some sort of monopolizing desire for Xiangyuan but it was one where she fully thought the ship has already sailed. This makes the study abroad scholarship especially seem like a very important motivator imo.

She might not have even been thinking about it as outing her, she might have been thinking of it as trying to chase Wang away from her. But even if that's not the case, when somebody is hurt, they lash out, and sometimes in the moment children (and I mean, that's the thing, they were children) don't understand the consequences of what they're doing.

Although it hasn’t been referenced again since it was first said, it still seems relevant that when Xiangyuan first outed herself to Tianli, she told her, “it’s not that big a secret.” That would have helped Tianli rationalize her action as not being “such a terrible thing,” whatever its ultimate motivation.

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

Do we have any idea why Xingyuan’s family are considered “celebrities,” and the father is regarded negatively by the public?

last edited at Feb 25, 2024 7:43PM

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joined Jul 29, 2017

It's nice to see Mitsuki looking adorable/hot even when it's not through Aya's POV.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

Agreed that this seems to constitute a rather shocking level of self-insight for our shy, androgynously charismatic little stud-muffin.

“You’re being nice to me” isn’t quite as on-point as “you like me” would have been, but—baby steps.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

The series really should be called "Hime-Chan needs a therapist and medication"

While it’s not uncommon in Western fiction for characters to be in therapy or on meds, and there are an abundance of characters in manga with conditions like anxiety disorders, etc., I can’t recall too many manga series where psychologically troubled characters were in therapy/took medication for “regular” mental health care (as opposed to psychopathic monsters or institutionalized serial killers or characters like that).

At the least it seems to be a narrative trope (like the “no parents = no home complications” thing). I’ve gotten pushback in these forums in the past about avoiding seeking professional mental health care except in dire emergencies being an actual Japanese cultural trait (even though there are plenty of pieces online stating just that).

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joined Jul 29, 2017

Someone's gotten meaningful character development in my sexytimes emotional trainwreck!

I demand to see the manager!

Manager: is there a problem?

You’re all out of light D/S sexytimes, dammit! And I had a coupon!

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

"not serious enough" eh? Even he friend saw through your bullshit Xiaoen....
Could just be to protect herself. Maybe just to "act mature".
Or there might be some hidden meaning to it but... I sure didn't enjoy that.

A lot of you seem to have forgotten the last convo Xiaoen and Xingyuan had on the subject. Xiaoen said in very clear terms that she only wanted a summer fling!

The problem was that Xingyuan couldn't stay longer than a month or two; after that she would leave and be gone for good—she was going to go to college and stuff. Xiaoen said that it was fine bcs she was ok with a short romance and some fun sex that would last only a few weeks and then be over. (She even seemed proud of herself as if this way of thinking seemed really super adultlike and mature to her!) Xingyuan gave her an ambiguous answer iirc and Xiaoen said she would keep pushing to persuade Xingyuan to have a fun and meaningless summer fling.

And this is what Xiaoen meant when she said she was not serious about Xingyuan! Her "official" position is that she only wants a short affair and Xingyuan's not gonna make her call an u-haul.

Sure, all that’s a given, but my original question stands: short-term or long-term, what does Xiaoen achieve by saying that to a person she sees as—and who she is treating as—a potential immediate rival?

last edited at Feb 20, 2024 12:12AM

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joined Jul 29, 2017

Someone's gotten meaningful character development in my sexytimes emotional trainwreck!

I demand to see the manager!

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

"I'm . . . not serious enough about her." Not my favorite line.

I know that Xiaoen is often gleefully full of crap (much of the dialogue this time either is about that or demonstrates that), but I'm not sure what minimizing her interest in Xingyuan accomplishes here.

She's lying to herself because she's afraid of getting hurt if/when Xingyuan leaves the village. Methinks.

That's plausible--there's certainly denial all over the place in this one. It just seemed a bit odd for her to be saying that to Tianlii, who she was treating as a rival.

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

"I'm . . . not serious enough about her." Not my favorite line.

I know that Xiaoen is often gleefully full of crap (much of the dialogue this time either is about that or demonstrates that), but I'm not sure what minimizing her interest in Xingyuan accomplishes here. And I know that the MCs have been doing a dance around the matter of how "serious" their relationship is, or should be.

Maybe I just expected Xiaoen to send a "hands off my girl!" message, and instead this felt like she was selling out her own feelings. But a bit of a disappointment to me.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

C’mon, folks—give Tsukushi a little time to process here. We already know that she takes a bit longer to emotionally process than the average person.

She’ll catch on eventually—like the next Ice Age, maybe.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

“I’m not interested in being a dom.”

Noooooo, that’s perfectly obvious, dear. You’re simply being accommodating. Because you just can’t help being a people-pleaser.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

Nice story, but the title should be “The Thing That Binds You And Me.”

English speakers have been conditioned to shy away from the use of “me” in compounds like this, but it’s easy to figure out the correct pronoun form simply by dropping the other term.

For example, “My mom and ____ went to the mall.” Unless they’re Tarzan of the Apes, a native speaker would never say, “Me went to the mall.” It’s “My mom and I.”

Same here. Unless the person is a Rastafarian, they wouldn’t say, “The thing that binds I.”

Still, a very nice story.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

It needs to be mentioned that the editor in charge of "How To Break a Triangle", Kusunoki Tatsuya, was also in charge of "Bloom Into You".

If you see similarities in some developments, it may not be an accident.

One thing both series have in common is an implausible (or in this case, so far unexplained supernatural) premise that takes a very distant back seat to character development. (I've always said that YagaKimi's "I'll fall in love with you basically at first sight because you can't fall in love with me" set-up was borderline preposterous, yet it led to one of the best-told stories I have ever read in any medium.)

This series theoretically could turn into a Qualia the Purple-type "Erika Transforms Into a Cosmos-Spanning Mage Altering Fundamental Aspects of Reality Via Tanabata Wishes" story.

But I suspect not.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

So what exactly should Erika do? Just disappear?

Yes :)

This is a joke, of course, but I do believe that Erika is being a hypocrite. I really hope she won't be endgame, regardless of whether the other two stay together or not.

I guess technically it’s “hypocrisy” whenever you profess some publicly approved or benign attitude that you don’t really believe, but a lot of times that just amounts to being a participating member of society, like when an athlete says, “good luck!” to a rival before a competition, or you say, “Have a good day” to someone when you don’t particularly care what kind of day they have. The important thing about a possible charge of “hypocrisy” is that you don’t then do anything to make that person’s day worse.

Whatever her interior feelings, at this point Erika is not actively (or even passively) doing anything to hinder the Aya/Koto relationship. As the above question implies, there’s literally nothing she can do in order to be a “better person.”

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

Well, nothing bad so far in their past, but something must have happened to cause this rift between them. Maybe Tianli's crush fell for Xingyuan instead?

I thought Xingyuan’s “You don’t have to take it [the secret of her sexual preference] that seriously” line was notable. It suggests that Tianli later outs her for some reason but perhaps without anticipating what the full consequences turn out to be.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

This chapter made me re-read the whole series from the beginning. (I had entirely forgotten that early faux-confession scene on the park bench.) So many excellent touches, including the wonderful helpers: as others have mentioned, Hinoka’s all-star ally Mom, Sara and Yuu (who seem like a real couple in their own right, not just a plot device to help the MCs), and even Sara’s sister Rumi acting as wingwoman to the wingwomen.

The story also seems much less repetitive when read all at once rather in 5-page chunks—you can see more of the (incremental, to be sure) progress being made rather than just focusing on the sometimes frustrating chapter-ending blocks/cliffhangers.

And yes, props to the scanlators for posting these last 3 chapters all at once rather than having us wait over the course of several weeks to get this lovely payoff. Thanks, and well-played, folks.

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joined Jul 29, 2017

It would be great if the manga got back to their relationship instead of all this musician angst drama. There's still hope, I guess.

????

This has always been about their relationship. Aya just married Koga, fer cryin’ out loud.

Blastaar
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joined Jul 29, 2017

Maybe one day the Dynasty forums will learn that ambiguity and incompleteness have been extremely common themes in Japanese art for millennia.

That doesn't mean they have to like it! lol

Sure, but at least they shouldn't act like it's a result of authorial mistake. The ambiguity is clearly The Point.

Obviously, for a number of readers explicitly depicted yuri, ratified by kisses and/or other physical intimacy, preferably naked, is the One and Only Point, and anything else is an offense against, well, something . . .the universe, themselves, the grand and ancient bylaws of yuri, or something.

I personally wouldn’t want all yuri to be like this, but I’m very glad some stories are like this.