While I wouldn't rule out a three way relationship given the author's drawn exactly that multiple times, including on the very first page of the series, I don't think you should count a single blush as evidence of love in basically any case, not just this one. A person's face can flush for a lot of reasons, like stress and anger for example.
And I don't think Fuuko thinks of Yuni as a kid, she just saw her past love as a mother and thought "I want to be like that, but without the being tied to a man part". It's an immature, incomplete line of thinking but then she is a child after all. My estimation of how Fuuko sees Yuni would instead be to see her as a princess in a tower, someone for her to win as the hero of her own fairy tale like her books.

last edited at Aug 12, 2024 9:39AM

Having the same glasses prescription means it's fate. Lensmates = soulmates

I don't think we're approaching the ending of the series but we are near where Volume 3 will probably stop

That's "fungus", the book's title is "Snow White of the Caterpillar Fungus". We learn the full title of the book later because it comes up repeatedly.

It looks fine to me. It's Komaki's left hand, reaching up to pinch Wakaba's cheek, which was directly above Komaki's face. The hand in the 2nd panel is the left hand with its fingers pointed to the ceiling, as she's lifting it up from the floor to above her head to reach Wakaba's level. In the 3rd panel Komaki turns her left hand with its fingers pointed horizontally and thumb pointed down towards the floor to line up with the side of Wakaba's face leaning over her, as seen on the previous page, so she can pinch her cheek. The pinch is why Wakaba is pulled back in the 4th panel.
The only real problem with this series of panels imo is the perspective of the 3rd panel, since it's showing Komaki's perspective but not at the right angle to match her line of sight, and that's disorienting. Wakaba there should be coming in from the top-right of the panel instead.

last edited at Aug 10, 2024 6:37PM

I'm pretty sure that's not a mistake, just a weird angle. Wakaba's facing directly down, we're looking up at her, and the hand is coming into the panel horizontally aligned with her rather than above her.

That was cute. Upside down kissing is fun :)

Senpai's advice to spend easy money fast isn't particularly "bad" advice, just "poor" advice. It's a very common rule of thumb among people who live in poverty or formerly did. Don't try saving up because eventually something will steal that money from you, invest it as soon as you can in improving your life or making yourself happy instead.

There's probably still a fire exit but it would set off an alarm if opened. That's pretty standard design.
Also this is going in fun directions :)

This reminds me of that diver couple at the Olympics. Some people were like "no no you can't just assume they're a couple based on them hugging in celebration" and then more and more and more photos came out of them together establishing a pretty damn clear and extremely darn cute pattern

Fwiw it does seem plausibsinglele to me that Aya would've gone back to Koto quickly without Erika's intervention. We can see from this chapter she doesn't even really view Koto's actions as abusive. And she still depends on Koto for housing and other expenses; she can't stay with Erika forever.

If Erika refused to help her then that's plausible for what would have happened simply out of a need for a place to sleep, although I could see Aya stubbornly refusing and instead using her part time job money to sleep in a manga cafe or something. Most people, even 14 year olds, don't respond well to someone demanding they give up all their aspirations and let themselves be locked away from the world.

I think l have to make it clear.
Tbh, I don't even care a bit if it turns out Erika being a villain ( l don't think she is as of now). Nor do l have interest in painting her as one.
I like analyzing character's intention behind their actions. Why they are doing this？What goal do they try to achieve？
It's an enjoyment when the story is written in a realistic style (except time traveling and the cause of it. That's the part l don't want to discuss).

You can disagree with me and express your own opinions, which might convince me (or not). I don't get the point of accusing someone hating certain character while they did explain why they are viewing things this way.

It's like this: if you and I both read a scene of Erika thinking "I'm such a piece of shit" and I go "poor Erika, she has such a poor self image, because she's obviously a good person based on her actions" and you go "that piece of shit Erika has an accurate self image, so all her actions probably have secret bad intentions," we're both making choices, informed by the context of the story and our personalities and experiences. And in such a situation where people have essentially opposite readings of the same text, is it not understandable that people might wonder why you read Erika unsympathetically compared to those who read her sympathetically?

I don't think I've seen anything concrete in the story or discussion that points to Erika deserving to be seen in such a negative light except her own thoughts where she feels guilty for hoping for a happiness that would come at the expense of her friend. And I'd point to that guilt as itself evidence of her being good: she doesn't embrace that desire, she's repeatedly shown resisting it and feeling terrible for even having the passing thought. And I think having a selfish thought and feeling bad about it and not acting on it is a pretty normal relatable thing, personally.

I'm very much of the opinion that there's no such thing as a good MTL of any sort of art. Even if it turns out perfectly the best it can achieve is merely "gets the facts across". That's fine if you're using it to translate a sign or instructions or other dry direct form of text but anything artistic, anything vague, anything where tone matters, it's shit. You might as well just be reading a synopsis of the plot.

Nobody is advocating for MTL or defending it as "good" though? But sometimes it's the only option.

I was responding to this said in the post before mine

Dynasty, on the other hand, has a quality standard for manga that aren't MTL translations, so people are more likely to have a negative view of it, even if the quality of the finished product is very good.

I don't think there can be a manga translation whose finished product is "very good" if it's a machine translation.

last edited at Aug 7, 2024 6:14AM

I'm very much of the opinion that there's no such thing as a good MTL of any sort of art. Even if it turns out perfectly the best it can achieve is merely "gets the facts across". That's fine if you're using it to translate a sign or instructions or other dry direct form of text but anything artistic, anything vague, anything where tone matters, it's shit. You might as well just be reading a synopsis of the plot.

This latest chapter was certainly interesting. And bold for a Bilibili comic lol

I just noticed on the last page, Mitsuki's pants are too long for her. Wonder if they're Joe's old uniform from when he was in school or something lol

never knew i wanted lesbian kaiji. praise be to itsuki kuro

You just described Kakegurui Twin, that already exists. It's even got an anime adaptation.

last edited at Aug 5, 2024 3:34AM

I'm mostly out of deep thoughts about this manga for now, except one last thing: looking at chapter 1 again I noticed that on page 21, Koto's answer to Aya's question "where is that place," perfectly describes where Aya went. A chaotic, confusing city where nobody knows her and she can start over with a clean slate.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_guy_she_was_interested_in_wasnt_a_guy_at_all_ch96#2
Aya is confused. It hurt itself in its confusion.

Also, maybe I’m off the mark here, but I wonder if the reason for Mitsuki’s sudden change has less to do with a sudden surge of self-confidence, and more to do with wanting to become the “guy” Aya was interested in.

They addressed that recently, with Mitsuki getting jealous of "onii-san," thinking Aya saw that persona as different, and Aya specifically telling her "you and 'onii-san' are the same person" with a beaming smile.
That jealousy btw is probably the most smoke we've seen so far indicating Mitsuki's potential romantic feelings for Aya, and it's a damn strong hint.

I don't think that Aya's desire for lasting love is in conflict with her desire for freedom, she can want to escape her life and also want a girlfriend by her side at the same time. And it's the "side" part specifically that's important because Koto's current form of love isn't side by side or even leading Koto but picking her up and carrying her. What Koto is giving Aya is not a relationship of equal free peers, it's a relationship that's practically owner and property. So there's no irony here because this obviously wasn't the kind of relationship Aya wanted.

last edited at Aug 4, 2024 12:44PM

One of the very rare "this person is so hot" nosebleeds in Japanese media that feels totally plausible lol. This act REALLY feels like it's a major change for the both of them, huh?

I wasn't upset, I just closed the thread as soon as I saw spoilers and went "oh well I guess that's why it's a lonely thread lol". I can't take part in the discussion if the discussion is based on stuff I can't read without abandoning quality standards, and I doubt this is that rare of a stance, especially on Dynasty (which feels particularly hostile to MTL compared to a place like the Mangadex forums)

Well I'm glad my thread didn't upset you.
And it's not a rare stance...hell it's my stance on TL but Shuukura is the one exception.
There would be no exceptions if it hadn't ensnared me very early on despite the MTL.

Your topic's fine, just niche. I'm not mad, just filtered lol.

I wasn't upset, I just closed the thread as soon as I saw spoilers and went "oh well I guess that's why it's a lonely thread lol". I can't take part in the discussion if the discussion is based on stuff I can't read without abandoning quality standards, and I doubt this is that rare of a stance, especially on Dynasty (which feels particularly hostile to MTL compared to a place like the Mangadex forums)

last edited at Aug 4, 2024 9:55AM

Really？You seriously think Koto would just do nothing and let Aya break up with her？Wow, that version of Koto would have moved on seven years ago.

I can see Koto on her knees apologizes to Aya and promise she won't treat her like a kid again. She would let her do whatever she wants. Aya forgives her and agree to come home.

I cannot imagine Aya just putting up with this situation when freedom is so important to her. It was like her ENTIRE thing back before disappearing, how much she wanted the freedom to get away from her shitty grandfather and a life controlled by others, and one of the major elements back then of Koto and Aya's relationship was Koto at least claiming to be willing to follow Aya's lead and run away with her. Even after suddenly jumping seven years in the future and losing all her support structures, Aya's responded with remarkable flexibility to forge a path to full adult independence despite everything against her. And yet her loving girlfriend has not only changed physically on her but is behaving in the opposite way of how she did when they fell in love, trying to control Aya's entire life instead of following her lead to freedom. Regardless of what Koto might say in an apology or what promises she'd make, right now Koto's fundamental desires for Aya are completely incompatible with Aya's desires for herself.

To the defenders of Erika: can you give a reasonable explanation as to why she didn't say anything to Aya about Koto's state of mind evolution during the past seven years? Aside from "she has no obligation to".

She saw first hand Koto sinking into obsession, but when Aya comes back, not only does she let a 14yo live with someone she knows is unstable in relation to Aya, but she withholds this information (and others) and let Aya deal with Koto on her own, while waiting for their relationship to crumble. Granted, she feels guilty, but she still does it.

So, it's really easy to make Erika the villain here, because of what she possibly did on the Tanabata day and because she's passive aggressive towards Aya. Koto has her faults, but Erika is literally playing on these faults to break them up.

Early on telling Aya about Koto directly is a very difficult, easily misconstrued conversation, and Aya could easily have just reacted defensively and cut it off. Later, their relationship seemed to be okay, especially with Aya studying and building a new life. And then it all crashed down so Erika indirectly finally pointed Aya in the direction of that.

And I still don't see how Erika could be interpreted as trying to break them up. When Aya fled Koto's apartment and came to Erika, Koto's actions were so bad with that breaking up was the likely default condition. She could have pulled a Luigi and won by doing nothing, just comforted Aya with a platitude and let things play out. Instead she gave Aya advice that has led her to seemingly become more understanding of Koto.

I think it's worth pointing out that Erika hasn't even thought "I want them to break up," what she was hoping for was specific: that their relationship would run its course and Koto would get over what happened with Aya, realizing that seven years later they're both different people and not actually meant for each other. A sudden dramatic breakup thanks to Koto self-sabotaging is not the "healing and moving forward" Erika was hoping for. They need to reach a point where they mutually agree "let's just be friends" for the happy ending Erika wants lol.

Not even gonna bother addressing the person thinking Koto wasn't being abusive in that moment, I think Aya running away from her is enough to say that that's how she read the situation, even if she did water it down in summarizing it later with Erika.

last edited at Aug 4, 2024 2:39AM