Tomoko being comfortable enough around Asuka to be her usual gross idiot self is just as much character development as her learning to interact with anyone else like a semi-normal human being.

@BugDevil Rivals that are just the other PC as an NPC don't really count

Ugh Iruru's design is why this manga is firmly a guilty pleasure for me because jeez is it grossly uncomfortable.

They are normal animals...drawn as humans. I think. @.@

I don't think so, it was ambiguous in the first one but here the humans directly respond to what is being said by the animal girls as if they actually knew what they are saying which would imply that it's not artistic personification but actually the in-universe case.

They're adorable and all, but this feels like a nekopara situation...are they like second class citizens? Humanoid pets? It's weird!

I'm just gonna gloss over the larger implications of the setting and go with seeing it as an adoptive children dynamic because I have a feeling the author didn't actually put much thought into the societal ramifications of domesticated animal kemonomimi as sapient humanoid species.

Well this clears up the "actual animal people or metaphorically personified animals" dilemma and it is also very cute and good.

majere posted:

I'm thinking Akira is gonna be into guys and the newest accident boi is gonna be a love interest for her. And while Akira is gushing over boys Hime comes to realize she's into girls but won't be able to get together with Akira and angst ensues (until she finally gets together with Yukka later down the line).

That sounds both probable and also like something I have zero interest in reading.

Why? Because the transgender character isn't the protagonist, but a support character of the lesbian one?

Because there are roughly 3 stories about sapphic trans women and I'm really hoping this would be a new one and if it isn't I'll be too busy being disappointed about that to enjoy it regardless.

I'm thinking Akira is gonna be into guys and the newest accident boi is gonna be a love interest for her. And while Akira is gushing over boys Hime comes to realize she's into girls but won't be able to get together with Akira and angst ensues (until she finally gets together with Yukka later down the line).

That sounds both probable and also like something I have zero interest in reading.

Finding out Penny existed and then 30 seconds later finding out she only existed to be a sunny, sympathetic character they could kill off for shock value is quite possibly the fasted I've ever gained and then completely lost interest in a franchise.

I don't really trust this manga it gives me a weird and uncomfortable feeling especially with the amount of mistreatment it seems to expect trans people to placidly accept. Like no shit "not understanding isn't in and of itself wrong" but that was never the issue, the issue is people arrogantly assuming their incomplete understanding is the natural order of things and mistreating anyone who deviates.

Properly tag your angsty garbage please.

Penny's death didn't make much sense and seems largely just like a cheap ploy for shock value because A) being dismembered shouldn't be anything more than inconvenient for a robot designed specifically for combat and B) magnetic shielding exists and you'd think it would be employed to protect the "brain" hardware of your incredibly sophisticated and important state of the art robot so she didn't get murdered by a stray magnet..

^ I highly recommend never visiting nhentai. Any and all doujinshi tagged bdsm is closer to rape, and a lot of them actually are rape. And actually, I think there are more doujins tagged 'rape' than there are tagged 'bdsm' in general, so that's neat.

Personally, I've become kinda... idk used to it? As awful as that sounds. But I highly appreciate this artist and any dubious consent is easily ignored in favor of the cute ass art and appreciated nipple related fetishes.

Like, I'm not shocked by it but I'm also not getting off to it because I find it gross not sexy. I can't enjoy BDSM without clear consent even moreso than vanilla stuff.

Both made mistakes, both realized they made mistakes, and they both learned from this experience.

Stop acting like their mistakes are equal.

There is a huge difference between Kase not updating Yamada on every thing she does in college when Yamada made it a point in high school to avoid over associating herself with Kase's club life and Yamada choosing to go to a mixer despite Kase being very up front about how that makes her feel.

Y'all act like Yamada went to pick up dudes and not to support her friend who didn't want to go alone. Like nothing in this situation is a betrayal of Kase and the fact that she feels jealous about it is understandable but not reasonable. Kase being concerned for Yamada's safety is a reasonable response due to her (kind of absurd at this point) naivete but being mad at Yamada for simply being in the presence of men she has no interest in because she wanted to look out for her friend is just unfair. Like, if you don't trust your partner to be faithful to you and they've given you no reason to mistrust them then it means you need to work on your insecurities it doesn't mean they need to stop doing perfectly harmless things that trigger those insecurities.

Yeah this is bad BDSM and it's more uncomfortable than anything. Borders more on rape than BDSM tbh.

Oh look Kodama Naoko is here to peddle gross stereotypes about bi women. Again.

Oh gosh.

I highly doubt Kase-sans behavior is supposed to be "possessive".

Death of the author, and all that. What it's supposed to be and how it comes across are two different things.

It comes across as a cute, fluffy yuri story with mild drama. I do not see Kase-san "possessive" at all. Please remember that her girlfriend goes with a stranger (to Kase) to a fucking mixer (its not like this is a harmless social gathering) with college boys who will definitely try to get her into their bed.

Please remember Kase is her girlfriend not her mom and she is not 15. She does not get to dictate who her girlfriend associates with and she does not get to forbid her from doing things because she is her equal not her guardian. The issue is not Kase having concerns about the situation it is about her handling those concerns in quite possibly the least respectful way possible and treating Yamada like a child instead of like an equal partner in their relationship. Instead of discussing her concerns with Yamada and reaching a compromise they could both agree on she first tried to simply forbid Yamada from going and then when that failed showed up without any warning and physically dragged her away. That's not an appropriate way to treat your partner.

^
Like I said, moral judgments are a dime a dozen--you see mistreatment, I see a rescue. Kase knew Yamada probably didn't know what she was getting into, and she was right.

Kase was pretty transparent about her motivation being jealousy rather than fear for Yamada's safety. Like her actions, demeanor, and words all make it clear that she was there to jealously guard her girlfriend from rival suitors not to protect her from predators.

As if those things are mutually exclusive rather than two sides of the same coin.

It is in fact possible to accompany your girlfriend to a social gathering as support without being a big sulky, jealous baby who pitches a fit the moment a guy talks to her. Like, there's a version of this scenario where Kase isn't being super uncool and disrespectful of Yamada's autonomy but this is not it.

^
Like I said, moral judgments are a dime a dozen--you see mistreatment, I see a rescue. Kase knew Yamada probably didn't know what she was getting into, and she was right.

Kase was pretty transparent about her motivation being jealousy rather than fear for Yamada's safety. Like her actions, demeanor, and words all make it clear that she was there to jealously guard her girlfriend from rival suitors not to protect her from predators.

I thought Kase was being overly-controlling early on in this arc, but not particularly in this sequence.

One of the charming things about this series is the enormous distance between the way each of them sees the other one and the way they perceive themselves: to Yamada, Kase is the coolest and most together person in the universe; Kase sees herself more like her senpai did--as kind of a goofy airhead whose main positive point is her athletic ability. Kase sees Yamada as the most desirable being in the universe who could have any partner she wanted; Yamada sees herself as hopelessly childish and naive.

So their affection for each other comes with a big helping of insecurity. That could certainly turn toxic, and it has led to such misunderstanding as they have had. I'm sure someone can go through this arc making moral judgments that one or the other was in the wrong at this point or that, but insofar as there is a flaw in their relationship, this is it--not that Kase is excessively controlling or that Yamada is too unaware to know how Kase would react to her going to a mixer, but that at some level they each think they're not quite good enough for the other.

EDIT: Or put another way, they each can't quite believe their own good fortune that someone so amazing is in love with them.

Kase showing up out of the blue at a social gathering Yamada attended against her wishes and then attempting to physically drag her out is pretty yikes regardless of motivation. It doesn't matter how insecure you are you don't treat your partner like that. Like, her thinking that's an acceptable way to treat Yamada is also a flaw in their relationship.

last edited at Feb 21, 2019 3:38PM

Yeah, Kase made me pretty uncomfortable throughout this arc. Her treatment of Yamada bordered on controlling. Like, by her own admission this whole display was less about concern for Yamada's safety and more about fear that she would "escape" from Kase which is kinda a red flag.

The meddling third character is a hallowed tradition dating back at least as far as Citrus. It seems necessary to keep your manga published. To be fair romance is not really romance without rivals. Also, people reading ahead in the raws please spoiler the spoilers.

I'm not sure if you're being facetious here or not but I have read literally hundreds of romance stories without rivals.

Yeah, Anzu was giving off pretty hard chaser vibes from the get go and here we are. Also the whole "laugh it off" thing rubs me the wrong way real bad because it's exactly what the majority always tells minorities they're mistreating to get them to just put up with that mistreatment. Get mad, fight for your rights and basic human dignity its the only way you'll keep either.

it is true though, ignoring that fact is like ignoring the whole struggle of trans people.

I fail to see how intersex persons existing is even tangentially dismissive of trans persons, especially since one does not preclude the other.

i was trying to say the opposite actually XD I was refuring to that there are only x and y cromosons and dismising thoughs is kinda like saying being gay is a choice

I have no clue what you even mean by this but to clarify I wasn't saying human sex determination involved chromosomes besides X and Y I was disputing the idea that XX and XY are the only possible arrangements of them because it's patently false and there are numerous other possible arrangements. Dismantling the idea of the gender and sex binaries does nothing but help trans people.