I'm thinking about Pohi bending the rules to cover for Terra despite not being unhappy with her own marriage. Unlike Eda and Diode's mother, she's not the type I would expect to be an ally, and yet... Maybe from the relative security and autonomy of her position, one where her husband is convinced of her loyalty, she can act on her intuitions as a fellow woman and decompa, as well as some of the values she may have carried with her from her home clan.

Just one sentence from this part that might need clarification:

and whether Terra really was discussing boarding a man’s boat after barely a week later despite no prior connection

"after barely a week later": "after" and "later" provide the same meaning. I suggest removing "after", adding a comma after "week", and adding "with him" to the end. It would go: "and whether Terra really was discussing boarding a man’s boat barely a week later [i.e. her split from Diode], despite no prior connection with him"

last edited at May 29, 2025 1:45PM

It's kind of cute to see this kind of casual and self-indulgent short story from the creator of that somber Taisho era yuri

I'm normally not a huge fan of the extremely pushy/stalker type of love interest but I trust Battan to make it interesting. Definitely looking forward to more!

[And from a different comment]

But on the other, she's just so grossly unprofessional that i can't believe she didn't get reported to company
I legit feel so uncomfortable in the way "how this girl even allow to act like this on the job, this is professional setting"

Well yeah, pushy and stalkerish is an understatement. This woman isn't just creepy or a 'red flag'; there are actual man-eating monsters in yuri series (WataTabe, Futsuu to Bakemono) that are better at posing as 'normal' humans than she is. The double page spread in particular is so weird it would feel at home in a horror series.

She's also different from the typical yandere in that she shows little to no deference to the object of her obsession or seeks her approval at all. She's convinced of her own superiority and invincibility, assured in her ability to win over the main character through sheer force, like a classic vampire.

It doesn't count as our first kiss because we're both girls but at the same time we can't show the photos of us kissing to anyone

The creepy lady reminds me of an old school vampire. Very cool

This was a satisfactory ending :)

Edit: wanted to see a non-angsty kiss tho

Yeah it's the ending I wanted basically. Maybe the volume 2 extras show a bit more flirting?

I feel so bad for Toriko but her expressions in this chapter are kind of hot

I'm not saying the chapter was handled well, but I don't think Aya was doing malicious rape. They're basically a couple of 16 year olds re-inventing power-exchange BDSM with no guidance and not enough communication. Aya thinks she's "bought" Marika (CNC) and they have no safeword.

Well, I'm not that invested in calling it that (notice how I've avoided the word so far). My criticism has been about how the scene interacts with the surrounding narrative, so I'm not here to prosecute Aya Fuwa.

Also, not to be too woke or anything, but wouldn't "malicious rape" imply the existence of "benign rape"? I assume you just meant Aya was not acting out of malice, which is fair enough, but that is quite the unfortunate phrasing...

Ch 8 is why that's a bad idea. Fortunately Marika ends up more into it than hurt, but it could have turned out very badly.

I don't think chapter 8 shows it to be a bad idea. Marika would have to be affected in some way, or the story would have to comment on it in some other way, in order to say something about it. ...Not that I would fault a lesbian bodice ripper (shout-out to Me-A Scans for planting "lesbian bodice ripper" in my brain) romcom for not being didactic about the dangers of bodice ripping.

last edited at May 22, 2025 5:58PM

The main character is cute, sure, but the personality mangaka seem to give male characters by default is about as pleasant to me as nails being scraped on blackboard. I mean the male classmate that insists on yelling on every panel, not the crossdressing kid, obviously.

last edited at May 22, 2025 4:57PM

Okay, after rereading a bit, I think I understand the crux of my issue with chapter 8. Marika is feeling really vulnerable in that chapter because she had just seen Aya with another girl, while she's growing more conscious of her own feelings. She meets with Aya anyway, but for the first time she makes it clear that she's not in the mood for the usual stuff.

So I feel like this could have been the time where Aya backs off for once, and asks if Marika is okay. An awkward moment where Marika can't tell her anything without losing their bet then could have been followed by the encounter with Asta and so on. The explanation about Aya's relationship with Asta and Marika figuring out that Aya likes her happens in chapter 9 anyway, so I think their first time as a couple in chapter 10 could have had a bigger impact if their usual routine had been interrupted in chapter 8, leaving the girls and the reader hanging. If Aya, who had liked Marika for a long time, had shown a bit more sensitivity when it mattered.

An alternative is that chapter 8 proceeds the same, but then after the encounter with Asta, Marika could be a little bit more visibly hurt. I mean, right after she convinced herself that it was actually fine that Aya had her way with her as usual despite Marika feeling insecure and clearly saying she wasn't in the mood, a girl shows up calling herself Aya's sex friend. It makes sense that she still won't admit why exactly it hurts to see Aya with someone else, but not even a little choked up, no almost-cry?

Well, people can disagree, and maybe Teren Mikami knows something I don't. I do stand by my take that this plot point was not treated with enough weight, given that while yes, Marika technically protests through all of their previous encounters, the way she refuses in chapter 8 is more serious, so the end result feels like the narrative taking a brief dip into noncon at least.

last edited at May 21, 2025 7:22PM

With the hindsight of a year or two, that one part feels even more surreal. Most of volumes 1-2 conjure a pretty straight-forward smutty romance with a dubcon and "straight girl" conversion theme, but then... The reader is probably not supposed to think anything of what happened in chapter 8-9, and were it a random one-shot I wouldn't either, but the speed at which the story moves on and switches gear to romance and coming-of-age fluff turns it into an elephant in the room for me. I know I'm supposed to forget about it, but... I mean, it's right there.

This is not meant to be criticism exactly, I'm just processing. I find the decision to interrupt the lighthearted lesbian smut with unambiguous sex crimes, only to sweep them under the rug expeditiously, fascinating. It's exactly because the rest of the story is so cute that that part sticks out so much to me. Rather than 'unrealistic' its very randomness makes it feel more 'realistic', even though Teren Mikami, agent of chaos that they are, probably just thought it would be funny.

Ch 8, the 'rape' scene? I think it's mostly confusingly (poorly?) written. It's not just that the story moves past it or forgets about; right in that scene Marika switches from "no" to "let me pleasure you". And then right afterwards they're cuddling and Marika is asking "what do you really think of me?"

Rape, or Marika playing hard to get, or existing consensual non-consent? Aya probably thought it was the second or third. And even Marika's own thoughts don't really clarify her feelings: "if you really hate it that much, just push her away and go home."

In my limited experience with noncon smut, the receiving character's enjoyment of being subjected to non-consensual sex is not a bug but a feature a lot of the time. But what is depicted is still, you know, sexual activity without consent, which is why this kind of thing normally bumps up the darkness level of any long-form story. A random porn oneshot with the standard "no means yes" package has less need to concern itself with continuity or tone, but these girls started out having sex under some form of consensual agreement, then arrived at "no means yes", and finally went back to consensual sex again. It's not that I think Marika 'should' have been traumatized, but there is room between that and a total lack of any serious reflection. (Aya started stripping Marika and fingering her when the latter was having doubts about Aya's intentions. Aya kind of steamrolled her there, much more so than any time before.)

The reason why I also included chapter 9 in the surreal-sex-crime-whiplash is because that's where Marika, the protagonist, finds out that Aya and at least one other girl was sexually exploited by the owner of the lesbian bar where Aya works at. She even reacts with "that's... that's illegal". The story then swiftly turns up the fluff and moves on from this plot point as well like a funny anecdote.

This following up of the sudden, relatively dark plot points with fluffy sweet romance in ch. 10 and after, creates that strange and disorienting effect I mentioned. And yet, I'm not willing to write off the whole series because Mikami's writing has a charm to it, and the central relationship is otherwise pretty easy to like. I'm conflicted, hence the paragraphs.

Also this bartender owns a establishment that serves alcohol, allows minors where she can easily prey on said minors and has several beds set up where she lets said minors have sex in, this shit just gets worse the more I think about it lmao

Yeah, I wonder what Teren Mikami was cooking there. It's such a cheeky movement, and it's dropped in with little to no buildup or resolution.

last edited at May 21, 2025 5:53PM

With the hindsight of a year or two, that one part feels even more surreal. Most of volumes 1-2 conjure a pretty straight-forward smutty romance with a dubcon and "straight girl" conversion theme, but then... The reader is probably not supposed to think anything of what happened in chapter 8-9, and were it a random one-shot I wouldn't either, but the speed at which the story moves on and switches gear to romance and coming-of-age fluff turns it into an elephant in the room for me. I know I'm supposed to forget about it, but... I mean, it's right there.

This is not meant to be criticism exactly, I'm just processing. I find the decision to interrupt the lighthearted lesbian smut with unambiguous sex crimes, only to sweep them under the rug expeditiously, fascinating. It's exactly because the rest of the story is so cute that that part sticks out so much to me. Rather than 'unrealistic' its very randomness makes it feel more 'realistic', even though Teren Mikami, agent of chaos that they are, probably just thought it would be funny.

Fuyou is looking really bleak and I wonder if it's even worse for the girls who are not pseudo-royalty. As much as I hate Meika, the thought that she will probably be stuck there alone soon is still kind of a downer.

last edited at May 18, 2025 4:34PM

For me it's been a surprise that the characters are allowed to be 'bad people' because the art style is so cute. But after re-calibrating my expectations the anime has been quite fun and provides a nice balance to the much more upbeat Rock Lady that also comes out on Thursdays.

last edited at May 18, 2025 3:10PM

It doesn't take much for Luluna to reach into the cookie jar after all. Deeply concerning. Will continue to monitor the situation

It's now Yuni's turn to sit in the cuck chair

Leg girl Suletta

"Sweet mother, I cannot weave. Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl."

The Sappho quote that became literal in chapter 6.

last edited at May 17, 2025 11:13AM

Maybe this sex magic thing is the real reason why it's standard for the saint and the princess to get married

Maybe but they're apparently the only ones ever with the deficiency that one can't cast spells and the other doesn't have magic :P Or maybe their records just suck.

I was just thinking the energy exchange could be useful even without any deficiencies

also don't think there have been weird vibes either besides that in this series she's apparently supposed to be a problem solver and is running into various problems to solve.

Did you miss that the "problem solver" role was foisted on her because she's routinely slut shamed at her workplace? Or the part where a bunch of students cornered her and accused her of all sorts of shit because someone spread rumors about her and that male teacher?

This manga seems to be about an ostensibly queer woman forced to manage the relationships of straight people at her workplace, while getting nothing but disrespect and humiliation in return. That is a pretty fucked up situation, and while it would be a premise brimming with potential on paper, this manga does not seem to treat it with any weight.

In other words, this manga depicts a grossly misogynistic and hostile workplace, but with the tone of a slice-of-life series. You really don't think that's weird?

It’s been 3 chapters. That's a lot to say so early into a series and I don't really agree. I'd hope this series doesn't get the same odd treatment "Boys Gilding the Lily Shall Die!?" got here. People can get very hostile very quickly, even for otherwise very good and very popular yuri series. Give it and the author a little bit of grace.

Well, you said you sensed no weird vibes, and in response I tried to put it into words what I find strange about the series so far. And I know that plot twists are a thing, but making some inferences about what the series will be about is not a knee-jerk reaction if we're already 85 pages in. If I'm wrong and the series eventually manages to develop some stakes and tension, crack one decent joke, cough up a single character that acts like a human being, and at least nominally gesture at the actual issues with this environment, I will be humbled but happy. But for now, personally, I get the vibe of an entirely pointless humiliation ritual of a female teacher.

I wasn't sarcastic: I really do invite people to point out potential foreshadowing of some kind of reckoning to look forward to. To identify any hint that this miserable quest will pay off in a non-sexist way. ("She finally grows a spine" is a hollow payoff if the story does not reckon with the misogyny.) I think it's reasonable to hope for something like this halfway through the first volume, given that this series is not adapted from a novel and has a relatively simple premise. In most other manga I would take a few pages of problematic lesbianism at the end of each chapter as a good sign, but the rest of the story here is so mind numbingly Mari-Okada-core that yuri crumbs are not enough to make up for it.

I don't see where you got the idea that mystery solving will be a major focus of this. Aside from the mystery "how do I get rid of these allegations/rumors without exposing my girlfriend".

Mystery-solving was meant to be a catch-all for the protagonist handing out love advice to students, resolving conflicts between students/teachers, and fighting the slut-shaming and other allegations people throw at her.

man... I kind of hate how extremely motivated the arguments that this series will somehow turn out straight are.

What is actually unfair is that even the slightest concern about the intentions of a series is received as an attack on the very character of the author. Hell, I haven't even mentioned a potential het endgame in a while, I have been mostly talking about misogyny in my last few posts. I would not be running my mouth so much if I was just "afraid of het" or whatever. I didn't think I would have to clarify this, but the way people treat the main character at this school would be uncomfortable to witness even if she was straight and uninvolved with that female teacher. The main thing that her being queer changes is that the manga was uploaded here and I learned about it.

Anyway, I'm shutting up now. May the future chapters bring some answers.

last edited at May 15, 2025 6:03PM

I also don't think there have been weird vibes either besides that in this series she's apparently supposed to be a problem solver and is running into various problems to solve.

Did you miss that the "problem solver" role was foisted on her because she's routinely slut shamed at her workplace? Or the part where a bunch of students cornered her and accused her of all sorts of shit because someone spread rumors about her and that male teacher?

This manga seems to be about an ostensibly queer woman doing unpaid work managing the relationships of straight people at her workplace, while getting nothing but disrespect and humiliation in return. While such a premise has potential on paper, this manga does not treat this woman's situation with the weight it deserves. It does not try to spin a suspenseful, thrilling, or even a funny story out of it. And the way it's set up now, the only plot hook I can discern is that if she solves enough mysteries, the harassment will stop and everyone will love her.

In other words, this manga depicts a grossly misogynistic and hostile workplace, but instead of any indication that the story will challenge the actual problems with that, the protagonist's journey looks like it will be about doing unpaid labor "solving mysteries", for the benefit of the most deeply unsympathetic people ever, until the problem magically goes away.

It's possible that the main character's journey will instead be about growing a backbone and learning to say no, but that kind of conflicts with the mystery-solving thing (since growing a backbone means saying no to the mystery-solving crap), and shifting all of the blame on her for her mistreatment would be all kinds of gross anyway.

last edited at May 15, 2025 3:11PM

"We already know it's mutual" she says... I guess Yarai might also say "I love you" without adding "supposedly"

last edited at May 14, 2025 11:58AM

Personally I think the tone of the series is weirdly uncomfortable and off putting at the moment [...]

Good, that means it's working as intended. (in my view)

I invite any of you guys to explain what the reader is intended to take away from all the extremely banal straggotry the main character keeps enduring, with literally no narrative pushback so far, beyond "lol that's crazy" or "hear me out guys".

last edited at May 14, 2025 10:09AM

The cover looks more like "possible rape attempt" than like romance.

The series is uncomfortable. MC is a punching bag at school and in a likely toxic (but yuri) relationship at home.

Something can be pure yuri and still very uncomfortable. (Detached Relationship. Various "no, she does end up dead" yuri.)

Wouldn't the choice of cover image be even more absurd for a supposed yuri manga if it depicted the female main character being straight up assaulted by a character of ambiguous gender?

This creator decided that the audience's first impression with this story should be the female main character being pushed on the floor by a character of unclear gender. I don't think it's unreasonable to make inferences based on this (in combination with the overwhelming presence of heterosexuality others and I have pointed out before), e.g. that F/F is at the very least not going to be the principal relationship type in this story.

A Detached Relationship is a disturbing read, but if you look at discussions about it, nobody questions whether it's yuri or not. Of course lesbian media can be weird/gross/disturbing/toxic/etc., but if you actually interact with that kind of content, the general pattern is that mistreatment by female characters is presented as hot, fun, or at least interesting, while mistreatment by male characters (if that sort of thing is depicted at all) is presented as something that just kind of sucks. F/F relationships and dynamics are 'prioritized' over heterosexuality, even when said F/F relationships and dynamics are unhealthy/unethical. When lesbian media depicts the encroachment of heterosexuality on the female protagonist, it tends to treat it as a bad thing, not as neutral or "wow isn't that just crazy".

I'm not saying that the main character here is necessarily heading for a straight endgame. But the vibes are deeply unusual (in a way that has nothing to do with "toxic yuri") and I don't find the main character serving as a punching bag to straight people novel or interesting; I don't see any indication that it's in service of anything other than indulging a straight audience.

last edited at May 14, 2025 9:40AM

Maybe this sex magic thing is the real reason why it's standard for the saint and the princess to get married

In a previous chapter (I think either 1st or 2nd?) Luliam said she wanted to fulfill a promise to someone. I wonder if the figure at the end of this chapter (very likely also the enemy that appeared in last chapter and throughout this chapter) might be that someone.

Yes, in chapter 1 the princess told Nana that she must become queen so she can fulfill and old promise, but she didn't get to finish the story because of the magic surge. But I don't think the hooded figure is the recipient of the promise because they thought Princess Luliam was the saint.