I... I am honestly speechless.

Well, I think the two student council people definitely need elaboration, we got one facet of their very temporary relationship.

As they never started a relationship, I don't count them. I think it wouldn't take much to flip them though, because they are both tsunderes. Though I and a lot of other people here mentioned before that if there was a spin-off, these two would probably the best fit to have more elaboration there.

The cosplayers too, they're now long distance, that increases the complexity of what's going on by a huge amount.

I disagree. The long distance situation is temporary and they have already gotten into a position where their situation will not be shaken by such trivialities anymore (I'm exaggerating).

Ai and Maya too, I thought they had a bit of a thing, but they didn't anymore later on? (that's also the previous love triangle Canno used in her works, they had one for a bit with Chiharu for sure).

Again, I disagree. It was never implied that Ai had a thing for her. Ai is the only straight girl in the entire campus, which is kind of her role. Chiharu/Izumi was not a love triangle, because senpai was never an option. It was more like a love line (Senpai <-- Chiharu <-- Izumi) with Chiharu eventually just turning around lol

Also, I believe there's a distinct passing of time within the polyamorous relationship, it feels to me at least like a week or two

That's laughably short. There is not a single pair in this story that got together that fast except for them. Canno used a plot device to make it happen and already basically skipped the other two sides of the triangle to make it fit into one volume. And this is very much an issue caused by the polyamory itself, because having more components causes more space to be occupied and thus Canno had to dumb down all the characters and their agency. lol
But again... it worked out somehow. I doubt many authors would have fared better with those limitations.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 5:54PM

@BugDevil
I mean, "magically" is kinda weird. They already had pretty heavy emotional intimacy due to their relationship online, so suddenly this connected with the real life people (remember, an outside source had thought, from hearing about their conversations, they'd been flirting online already, so they were quite close for sure).

Online persona and real life persona are often not excessively indicative of each other. Facettes, not reflections. This case is a perfect example of that actually. I know why Canno used that plot device. It almost felt like she cheated a bit there haha

But we don't really see much of them after they've gotten together, just a few snippets of them navigating it well. You could bring that same argument against a few of the relationships, it feels to me like a lot of your problems with the polyamory are a mix of not really being a huge fan of polyamory in media in general and of problems AnoKiss has overall that you feel are amplified by the extra character and the extra complexity of the relationship. Still, I hope you understand why I love it, and why I don't think it's quite as unrealistic or as bad as many people on here make it out to be.

So you do see that the complexity is indeed an amplifier for the issues, though, yes?
I honestly don't believe that any other pairing (well except Haine and her aunt-sister, but those two were doomed from the start) faced any problems that honestly needed elaborations on or were hard to swallow. In many cases the relationships were already at the cusp of developing anyway and sometimes even already there (the final pair was a rebound after all). Honestly, most of the pairings took a longer time than people who call this rushed give them credit for. Our main pair being the best example (2 freaking years lol).

I absolutely understand why you like it. It is still rather unrealistic to me though and that will probably never change. Well, nobody asked for pure realism anyway or most of these pairings would be complete dumpster fires haha

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 5:32PM

I find it unrealistic to say that polyamory is "unnatural." It's socially ostracized and uncommon certainly, but it's not unnatural, just like gay or trans people aren't unnatural.

Oof, I didn't want to start a debate about the very nature of polyamory and if I somehow offended you with that statement - due to your personal experiences - I apologize. I did say it is unnatural for society for a reason. Not necessarily biologically.

So yeah tl;dr the arc with the 3 of them first getting together is almost literally exactly what happened with my first relationship, with myself in the position of Hiruma, and I've lated dealt with selective parts of what happened from the perspective of Asakura, so I think it's quite realistic.

I am not denying that relationships can roughly pan out that way, that's not really a huge jump of the imagination. That's also why I said it wasn't terrible. But you yourself already admitted that some parts were pretty exaggerated and extreme.

The rushedness is like, literally the biggest downside of anything in AnoKiss, and it's a problem that more than half of the relationships face, nonetheless, I still felt that what needed to happen happened.

See, the issue in this particular triangle was that the initial attraction between both sides of the equation was very forced and barely explored. Then the bridging link between the "competitors" just magically appeared and settled. "Oh I guess I love her too". It doesn't very well deal with the issues of polyamory (like the uneven distribution of attention and love). Every other pairing in AnoKiss had the innate advantage that people don't question two people getting together after overcoming some issue.
Polyamory by default is a higher difficulty and higher maintenance situation that you can't gloss over so easily if you want it to be good.

I hope you can somewhat follow my train of thought there, I think a lot about this particular trope and might be a bit too far up my own head.

@arch99
The poly trio in AnoKiss was not downright terrible, but... well it felt very rushed. Not very believable. It is rather easy for most people who love Yuri to intrinsically accept that every girl in a story is gay, no matter how unrealistic it is. But polyamory is not a very common or natural thing for our society, so people have innate barriers against it. Humans have developed into very monogamous creatures. So even more than just "But they are both girls" would come out of the average straight person's mouth, such a fluid relationship would make people even more uneasy.

The main issue lies with the way triangles are written. Characters in those situations are typically very one-sidedly in love with the one in the middle and it's pretty natural not to want to share. And if just sharing the desired was enough to count for polyamory, then harems are the most common version and nobody likes harems don't lie to me. So the most polyamor-ish approach would be that all three partners like each other, but that tends to feel extremely hamfisted in after several volumes of unabashed competition.

I guess my point is... If you want to write believable polyamory you can't write it like a love triangle. Which is why this does not seem to go that direction. But that could change.

Polyamory requires a lot of proper set-up and serious skill to execute. 99% of the time it turns out very half-assed. Then again, so do triangles, so we are in for some troublesome volumes either way. If we consider AnoKiss a dry test run... well maybe Canno has learned from it. A lot. Hopefully.

One should never categorically dismiss a good author's attempt at new things.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 4:07PM

That's what the translator spits out.

I must have skipped your post for some unfathomable reason, BugDevil.

Well... I didn't really reply to you, so that's fine? Lilliwyt and I already got a slightly more coherent version out of the Goggler. Japanese is tricky, but I guess we all know the pun now.

That aside, I said a while ago in this very thread that I found it shocking that AnoKiss didn't have a legit love triangle. The only one that was almost a love triangle turned out to be polyamory. The other two that had potential to be a love triangle never got anywhere because one was one-sided and the other were side characters that never got an actual chance or even attempted to vie for her.

The only Canno shorts I read were about a couple, not about triangles either. So what I'm getting at is that I have absolutely no idea how well she can handle this trope, let alone stretch it over an entire manga. I can scarcely imagine that she will repeat the AnoKiss formula of a dozen pairings again. Not saying it's impossible, but Canno strikes me as the type who likes to change it up every now and then.

So I'll be carefully optimistic that whatever Passing Triangle will be, it might at least be entertaining.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 3:43PM

If you take the title directly from the tweet (合格のための！やさしい三角関係入門) it says "For passing! An easy introduction to triangular relations"
So I'm pretty sure the triangle relationship was indeed part of the title's pun.

EDIT: The difference mostly comes from using the characters vs. using the romanized words.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 2:38PM

In other news, Goukaku no Tame no! Yasashii Sankaku Kankei Nyuumon starts in Dengeki Daioh on January 27. Yes, that's the actual title.

Any help on a translation of the title? Google Translate might as well be Giggle Translate.

Great, now thanks to you, I need to find out what the fuck a hilarious translation Giggle Google Translate came up with

Uhm... I literally already posted the result. What did you think "Do it for the money - Easy-to-understand" was about?
That's what the translator spits out.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 2:01PM

Thank imaginary god nobody does this then.

^My dear pope, have you never encountered the cliche of a girl cutting her finger and another character putting it in their mouth? This is basic troping 101.
That aside, you failed to read my sarcasm again.

^Taking the EA route of handling criticism I see lol

Calm your tits. Nobody is victim blaming anyone or said she is worse than the bastards who put her into this place. You are missing the point by a country mile. I really don't want to go into an essay about this topic, so let's just agree to disagree.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 4:57AM

Almost thought it was Official , but people doing fanart for it is even sweeter.

If you can't beat 'em... join 'em.

Dragging and stomping to the bedroom... damn she has it bad today!

^I fear the sun is not responsible for this one. According to Neptunia lore, the light beams are actually a species of living creatures that like covering up shameful parts. They leave the moment you cover yourself.
I say let's exterminate them all.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 4:51AM

Oh this artist does quite a few GBF artworks. They also had some AnneGrea if I remember correctly. Very cute stuff.

More like Akuma no Rider

This isn't very Fresh Money of you.

Jackets

I somehow doubt she is bleeding from a cut.

Maki wanting children with Nico? That is iPSolutely preposterous!

I think it's the players that need those goggles to make this work.

There aren't any bones in there and it can stretch several meters, so I'm pretty sure it hurts about as much as spinning your hair.