On another I just had a thought for more drama, won't Mashiro get into major trouble if her agency finds out she is dating Makino?
Since isn't advised that prostitutes don't date a former client.

She could easily reply to that with "she saved my life"

Yea, somehow, I don't think that's gonna fly with her employers. :-)

The old gay for pay tag would have been perfect here.

She is not, though? Fujii thinks that this is what's going on, but Togou is just too pure, anhedonic, and/or alexithymic to think beyond "happy face gives warm fuzzies".

last edited at May 12, 2024 1:50PM

So Serina seems to have quite a bit of competence navigating other people's hangups and relationships, but she appears to be completely blind to any relationship directly involving herself. I know her denseness is purely for comedy, but even Evie from BBMV would have noticed Amelia's violent fits of jealousy by now. :-)

I think Ch.2, Pg. 8. She's just head empty, full steam ahead, powered by pure gyaru energy at all times. It's not that she's dense, it's just that she never stops to consider things and she doesn't let silly things like social status, societal expectations, or reality impinge on her plans.

I'd agree that she never stops to consider things, but on the other hand, she is very adept at going with the flow. She just doesn't consider herself to be part of the flow, as well, so she fails to notice that she is the cause of Amelia's jealousy.

BBMV?

B(P)lease Bully Me (Miss) Villainess?

Looks like they screwed up the acronym but Evie is the protagonist of that manhwa.

Yeah, that's the one I meant. Sorry for messing up the acronym, it was late in my timezone. :'D

I'm not friends with you because you're the emperor.

Tantai Lan being based AF again.

Also, I can't recall: is this the first unequivocal confirmation that Tantai Lan has known about the emperor's gender all along? I mean, it was obvious that she did, but this is the first time it was mentioned in plaintext between them, isn't it?

So Serina seems to have quite a bit of competence navigating other people's hangups and relationships, but she appears to be completely blind to any relationship directly involving herself. I know her denseness is purely for comedy, but even Evie from BBMV would have noticed Amelia's violent fits of jealousy by now. :-)

Shen is raising a loyal subordinate, without even being that aware of how much that's worth in the world of corporate backstabbing.

Estella will have to muster every bit of her heroine powers to make sure this Idiot couple stays together without dying and/or killing.

It looks like they are in a prison of some sort, with the human lead even having an inmate number of her clothes. But wth do the other inmates refer to their guard robots as their property?

last edited at May 8, 2024 6:31AM

Rereading it recently it struck me just how political this comic is, after learning about South Korean feminism and patriarchy thanks to the stupid witch hunts for crypto-feminists that were making news.

Indeed. I am not sure if what Haegu does can count as activism, but she is very deliberate about minimizing harm to fellow women and is particularly vicious towards male abusers of all sorts. The fact that the society she operates in is a target-rich environment for her is a message in itself.

I could also see an outcome where the prosecutor saves the day somehow? I love her and her development and want to see her get closer and closer to Haegu, so that could be my bias speaking lol.

Mina Park is adorkable. From what I understood, she and Haegu were basically growing up like sisters and forgot all about it? From Mina's flashbacks, it looked like she had spent a lot of time with Haegu's parents and Haegu's mom in particular had inspired her to become a prosecutor. She doesn't recognize Haegu anymore at all, however, but keeps thinking about her mom whenever she sees her. I assume she believes that Haegu was assassinated along with her parents, since she dropped off the grid back then.

last edited at May 7, 2024 7:38AM

I'm not sure if mashiro is serious or if she is trying to play toxic mother

But Makino clearly won't accept it, no matter what

Nah. I think she got what the mother was going for, and in a way likely sees this as an opportunity to further herself towards her own dream goal. Circumstances might seem a little cryptic, but this could be seen as a "win, win, win" for the three of them.

My only issue with this is that I really wish it to be a "win, win, lose" in this case (for Makino, Mashiro, and Toxic Mom, respectively). :-)

That moment when you have resigned yourself to a life of pain, and suddenly the only person who gets you decides to share the burden with you, against all odds.

What's with the light and dark thingy, I still don't really understand a single thing about the King's reason to do this except he's just being extremely homophobic and don't want his daughter marry another woman lol

I think he is more of a generalized bigot. The fact that his daughter chose a woman to marry is not so a problem for him as a piece of evidence that the "witch" has been seducing his daughter with her "darkness". It's not just that it is against heteronormativity, it is also a form of miscegenation, since light and dark magic is something you are born with, like the color of your skin. So yeah, not (just) a homophobe, a bigot all around.

Since when does falling in love need a reason?

Yea, I somehow don't think Aya quite realizes what she has blurted out right there. :-)

"What is this? What are you doing, my daughter?"
"Succeeding you... father."

At this point, the only thing driving this whole subplot is the irrational deference the Japanese culture expects towards old folks. Mashiro has nothing to prove here -- and certainly not to the shithead who's been the actual bad influence on Makino her entire life.

last edited at May 1, 2024 6:39PM

Actually... does that formula really work like that?
Or is the heart shape an artistic liberty?
I'm not good at math, so I have no clue. Somebody good at math tell me.

It does work like that

You can even do it in Desmos if you convert it into its closed form first: \sqrt{1-x^{2}}+x^{\frac{2}{3}} and -\sqrt{1-x^{2}}+x^{\frac{2}{3}}.

The implicit firm works in desmos, as well.

Huh, didn't know it had that function, thank you. :-)

Rereading this after seven years, I cannot help but recognize a lot of BPD symptoms in Rio, which would makes it the most sympathetic portrayal of BPD in Japanese media that I've seen so far... Kind of amazing, actually, for a story that was written in the late '90s.

Also, this seems to be the only manga in existence that has a psychotherapist who is actually being useful.

last edited at May 1, 2024 6:23PM

Chloe is so down bad for her boss, it's almost painful.

Also, what are the odds that Korn's first potion was just colored water, and the Mistress just needed a verbal push in the right direction?

Rather than dispelling the sensory sharing, extend it to the Mistress and Young Lady. That's the real ticket.

The Borg, but all they do is gay sex.

Ah, the future, truly.

So she's shocked that someone cares enough to notice her struggle and her first thought is to lash out because she's being given a thoughtful gift? I get that she's traumatized but even this is a bit out there.

IMO it is a believable reaction for someone who has spent too much time surviving on her own. When someone unexpectedly shows kindness to her, she feels a) fear because she is not used to people treating her like that and therefore expects duplicity from anyone who does and b) gratitude, because the gift is thoughtful and appropriate, but that emotion is unfamiliar to her, so rather than allow herself to feel it, she drowns it out by rash words and actions. This is a maladaptive defense mechanism -- she even recognizes as she does it that this is not what she wanted to say to Konno, but she cannot stop, since it's automatic. Good thing Konno seems to understand what is happening and doesn't take it personally.

last edited at May 1, 2024 3:41PM

As a maths major, let me tell you that the pickup line "What is your favorite prime number?" is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. Most of the time, it doesn't work at all, but if does, it does.

What's even more amazing is that the candy seller actually made the molecule-shaped candies!

A traditional Japanese craftsman does not back down from a challenge!

The heart formula was "cringe" but so cute man jaja

Actually... does that formula really work like that?
Or is the heart shape an artistic liberty?
I'm not good at math, so I have no clue. Somebody good at math tell me.

It does work like that

You can even do it in Desmos if you convert it into its closed form first: \sqrt{1-x^{2}}+x^{\frac{2}{3}} and -\sqrt{1-x^{2}}+x^{\frac{2}{3}}. You have to do it in two lines to get both halves of the heart (upper and lower) because square root function is messy like that. ±\sqrt{1-x^{2}} is basically the formula of a unit circle in the Cartesian plane, and x^2/3 is a cube root of x squared, which produces a pretty V/bird shape (you can achieve similar results with |x| or anything with a cusp, really). A linear combination of the bird shape with the individual upper and lower semicircles is what creates the heart shape. It is not a particularly complicated formula, but its implicit form is very clever.

last edited at May 1, 2024 8:18AM

The story was pretty good right up until page 20, at which point it got completely incomprehensible. My interpretation is that the bathroom explosion killed Katsumata and fatally wounded Anno, who hallucinates the last six pages as she is bleeding out on the floor.

last edited at May 1, 2024 7:51AM

I just hope that Mashiro has already reported the ongoing home invasion to the police. :-) Stalking charges can be appended at later point.

last edited at May 1, 2024 7:41AM

Kako's got nerves of steel. Extreme levels of chill.

I'd say she is just already dead inside (read: is a working adult, despite still going to school), but she shows glimpses of humanity that make me wonder.

Welp, someone has her priorities well-sorted.

At this point, the Emperor needs to acknowledge that she's accidentally married her greatest court asset and come clean with her about everything.

last edited at Apr 28, 2024 3:58PM