I don't know much at all about how it's seen in the context of manga.

Negatively, because of the copyright infringement issues. Using images for reference (which in the case of "Prism" Shou admitted to doing, but the final verdict was that he went beyond this) is fine, but actual tracing of the images (blatantly copying it, sometimes by actually tracing the lines) infringes on copyright of the material used (hence why "Prism" was cancelled).

Just to be clear, it is not a taboo method or anything, and it is actually often used for things such as landscapes and scenery in general. But when an artist uses it for characters, it is mostly viewed as crossing the line.

Tracing is when an artist takes an image (real life picture or another mango work), and then just copies it so blatantly they might as well have just placed their paper over the original picture and traced its lines. Of course, some things are altered, face, hair, that sort of thing. For example:
https://twitpic.com/9nyy0t
https://twitpic.com/9nys74
https://twitpic.com/9nxzxy

Nice rare pairing, I like it~ Remi looks predatory~~

This was a really cute little update. Lol, when I saw this was updated my initial reaction was fear this chapter would be about the girls.

So she kissed a girl without dumping her boyfriend
Stop writing bi girls as sluts

I think she did break off with him before the kiss. Granted, it is sort of implied, rather than explicitly shown, but I think it is a pretty safe bet.

last edited at Feb 18, 2018 3:43PM

What is this cute thing, lol. I squealed when she gave her a kiss on the cheek, that smug, confident look afterwards was adorbs as hell.

Also, life-senpai!

Flip it around and you notice that Mei is misunderstood, she loves Yuzu, you cannot deny that she does

Yes, you can. Shou left the school and his family to live the life that he wanted. Mei can't even leave the shitty school to be with the girl she loves, only explanation is that she never actually loved her in the first place.

Yes, because humans never have conflicting feelings and motivations. Humans never want multiple, different things that are sometimes diagonally opposed to each other. Humans are simple, uncomplicated creatures that only ever operate with one single motivation in mind. And obviously, love is the most important motivation of all. Therefore, if you are not prepared to drop your own family (whom you love) and all other dreams you might have (like running the academy) like hot potatoes the moment love enters the picture, then the only possible explanation is that it was not love in the first place. You nailed it. As usual.

Your comment remember me, the only reason she has to do this is because of her father, she has to do all this shit because her dad decided to do his thing and let a teenage girl have to shoulder everything. Regardless of if he loves her that is a giant dick move.

Yep. This. Very much this. For all the murderous hate I saw directed against the grandfather, people seem to give Shou a free pass. He deserted his own duties, and people seem to actually like that, but they never take the bigger picture into account. Not to get into the practical obligations families such as Aiharas have to their employees, and in this case students as well, because we covered that at length in previous thread pages, but suffice to say Shou's choice impacted a lot of people beyond just himself. Most importantly, his own daughter, who is in this predicament solely because of him. Also, his very existence is proof enough the grandfather is not that bad as people paint him to be, if he was, then Shou would never be allowed to leave, and this conflict would not exist. Still, Shou gets like, zero negative feelings as far as I have seen. He is an adult travelling the world in a philosophical search for himself, while his teenage daughter is left to pick up the duties he abandoned. Oh, and yeah, his leaving left Mei even more emotionally broken. That too seems to have been forgotten.

last edited at Feb 17, 2018 3:46PM

And read it now. Yep, it hurts, but I really can not say I am surprised. This is very Mei-like. I also do not think this is bad writing, since it has pretty clear internal consistency.

Fipse
"Inheriting the academy became something I wanted to do of my own will." That being said, as Klice stated, we already discussed at length what Mei's social position entails, but of all that we covered I would want to bring one possible explanation as to why the marriage.
Female heiresses inheriting the business in lack of male heirs is nothing unheard of in Japan, however, Mei is not just a woman, she is also very young. How many CEOs do you know who are just fresh out of high school? Her fiance is older, from a prestigious family himself, a second son (so he will not be bogged down by running that business), and has management experience. The grandfather specifically selected him because he has an unimposing, gentle character, and he would serve as practical help for Mei, while the union alone would put business partners, boards and parents of students at ease, since they would know a high schooler is not running the academy unchecked.

I know I might sound boring bringing this up again, but you really can not have a lesbian who is dating her step-sister openly as the charwoman of a prestigious girls' academy. For one, gay and Japan. Two, step-sibling relationships are viewed as actual incest by many people, and are generally not socially acceptable (even outside Japan, even if heterosexual). I mean, name me one prestigious school anywhere in the world, east or west, that is run by an openly gay person. Let alone a gay person who is in a relationship with their own same-sex step-sibling. It is stupid, and it is not something I am fond of, but such is the world at present.

Mei basically has three choices, choose family and duty over Yuzu (as she seemingly did here), choose Yuzu openly (in which case her dream of running the academy is finished), or try to compromise (somehow convince the boards, any potential investors, and the parents of students that someone as young as her is up to the task, break off the engagement and come clean to grandfather she does not wish to marry; then she would be able to be with Yuzu, provided they keep the relationship a secret from the general public).

Fipse
The marriage was not mentioned, as far as I am aware of.

Edit: Never mind, lol, I did not see it was posted in the meantime. I thought we were still discussing raws, and no one said anything about the marriage there.

last edited at Feb 17, 2018 2:49PM

With those vacant looks in their eyes this appears quite terrifying...

Am I the only one who's not surprised?
Mei has been iffy on the relationship from the very beginning, and clearly was still loyal to the grandfather. Sadly, this was kind of inevitable.

I don't think this is a way of skipping the story arc. It's an unfortunate development WITHIN the story arc.

Not (really) surprised, still hurt a bit to see it happening. I mean it seemed obvious from the past chapters that the school and responsibilities is what Mei put first and foremost since the start of the story, so it seems "logical" for her to go down that route. I guess the point of the arc is either somebody (her Dad, Yuzu's mum?) or Mei herself making Mei realising that this may not be the best route for her after all.

Yeah, basically this. Mei has been torn between her responsibilities towards the school and her feelings for Yuzu precisely because both matter to her a great deal, but all of a sudden people are behaving as though the choice she made here makes no sense, which is just not true. The readers wanted them together, so that is an out-of-universe preferred choice, but from Mei's perspective both options make sense in their own ways, and to be perfectly honest, given her social position, her choosing family and duty (at least initially) is in my opinion more believable, and in line with what we are given of Mei's character so far. Choosing her feelings over everything else is not very Mei-like, and would seem more like escapism fulfilment for the benefit of the readers.

This series had some problems with writing, most memorably the monster-of-the-week style of earlier chapters, and later the arranged marriage popping up again (marriage itself made sense, but not mentioning it for 8 volumes did not). This chapter does not sound like bad writing, though to actually know this, I first need to read it in English. Besides, this is not the last chapter. My guess is that Klice is right, this will serve to make Mei realise Yuzu is more important to her.

Saburouta and Kodama Aoko are the worst things to happen to the yuri genre.

Not that tastes differ and some of us like their works. Nope, they are just the worst. Killed the genre, if you ask me. At least spell their names correctly. You missed Ejima from your usual list, by the by.

Always loving her work, as manipulative or selfish her characters can be.

I think I love her stories specifically because of the characters being like that. It's more interesting for me when love stories, and fictional relationships in general, involve different kinds of complicated and negative emotions and thoughts between the characters.

I noticed I tend to like Kodama's works more when she doesn't try to make us feel sorry for her (often) bad characters. "It doesn't suit [her]". That's probably why I liked this one: the characters are not what you would exactly call 'good people', but it's not framed in a "oh poor things" sort of way. Instead they accept that - they almost embrace it-, and love each other more for it. Is it 100% healthy? Probably not. Is it a good way to write a oneshot? Heck yes.

Yep, that is also one of the reasons I am a sucker for her works, she has a thing for bad-ish, often manipulative girls who do not strive to change, and are mostly aware of their own flaws. She even said in one of her afterwords how this is basically her preference.

As for this work, it was really nice, liked it a lot. And no worries, main character, it is obvious even to the blind that Mutsuki likes you back.

last edited at Feb 16, 2018 2:54PM

I thought that "being deeply in love with your mom" thing was the very reason psychiatry even exists. :-)

Touche.

The author seems determined not to show me what happened with the fangirl. At this rate it will take like, 20 chapters. It even utilised a time-skip just to avoid the issue. All that dramatic buildup, and now this. Aftermath, glasses, time-skip, and now pre-ordering games. I mean, do not get me wrong, these are all cute and I like them, plus, it seems obvious those who predicted the drama period would be short were in the right, but I still very much want to see it. This pacing is actually pretty horrible, since the drama angle was consistently being built up for like, three or four chapters.

Nah, I get that, Blastaar, but you usually go to therapy for more than just having unrequited feelings, which is all there is here (in the hypothetical situation the original poster presented). The daughter is not shown to be obsessed with the mother, she is not stalking her, perving on her, forcing herself on her (that one kiss she was, though, but it genuinely seems to be a one-time offence, which she does not seem to want to repeat), she does not appear to be autodestructive, she is not engaging in risque behaviour or substance abuse. Unrequited crushes are common, and people get over them fairly well all the time, even when they are crushing on someone they are forced to be with on a daily basis (in this case family, but otherwise it could be classmates, work colleagues, and such).

I just fail to see what merits therapy here, at this point. I guess that could change, depending on what the daughter does in the future (and of course, disregarding the story itself, which seems to lead towards the mother reciprocating the feelings), but at this precise point in time, it would be preemptive therapy at best, and I am not fond of that idea in general.

I mean, I am not an idiot, I get why some people would seek therapy here, and it is solely because of whom she fell in love with, but for me personally, that is a crappy reason.

A hypothetical question (to all readers): if you are Ayako, assuming you don't want to corrupt your daughter, would you rather send her away to a boarding school, or not send her away and instead seek therapy together? The former probably risks that Asuka engages in self-destructive behavior and might even completely lose it, the latter risks your own safety and reputation. Or just what would you do in general?

(Maybe this question has already been asked, but if not, I'm curious. Call it morbid curiosity.)

I am basically of the same opinion as Pyoro on this, I would choose neither of the offered options. Instead, I would talk to her, explain I do not see her that way, give her space, distance (but not to the point of isolating myself from her), perhaps encourage her to spend more time with friends her own age.

To be honest, I find your proposed measures weird. As Pyoro said, the daughter has not really shown any behaviour that would require therapy, she does not look like she will go off the deep end even with the prospect of her mother not returning her feelings. She looks sad when she has her "seen only as a daughter" moment, but I do not see any signs she will do something alarming in this emotional state. Sending her away or sending her to therapy for having romantic feelings seems needlessly cruel, and reminds of a not so long ago time when parents were considering similar options for the simple fact their kid was gay, for example.

Yuzumori dies

Nope.

Relevant.

Now that I look at it, this last unrelated bit belatedly convinced me it would actually be somewhat in character for Yuzu to keep it a secret for Mei's sake. I mean, she never told her best friend about it, even though there would be no actual harmful consequences for Mei if she did so.

last edited at Feb 4, 2018 9:30AM

Edit : i cannot imagine Mei taking the school as it is and maintaining the toxic rules there (toxic from an individualistic point of you), with all these girls attending it to be perfect heir to their family and being engaged in marriage without love. And at the same time, being with Yuzu. Or, the only way for her to be the school headmistress and living with Yuzu would be to revolution the school. I wonder if it's possible in regard to Japanese social conventions even in a fictional world.

Depends what you mean by "living with Yuzu". If you mean they live together, but keep the nature of their relationship a secret, then yes, it could work.
Although, in that case, I imagine any innovations in how the school operates would be born out of Yuzu's influence, rather than Mei herself. When you come down to it, Mei is not really presented as all that welcoming to new things, especially if said things go against the established order. I think the differences in classes go deeper than mere disparity in wealth, people are the way they are (regardless if we talk about higher or lower classes) in large part due to their environment. Their families, upbringing, education, ideas they are exposed to and taught about, etc.. It is the same reason behind rural populations being stereotypically more conservative than urban ones, and such. People who break free from this (like Mei's father) are still mostly exceptions. I do not think Mei will suddenly become a revolutionary just because her girlfriend is one. Being a perfect heiress is something Mei genuinely aspires to, I doubt she would go as far as try to dismantle that notion.
Besides, if she did implement such changes, my guess is the upper class parents would just stop sending their daughters to the Aihara academy, so it is not like she could actually be successful in this.

If, however, you mean they actually openly display their relationship, then the answer is simple, no, that would not be possible. Dating your own step-sibling is generally heavily frowned upon even if it is a heterosexual relationship, and not just by the upper classes. Many equate it to actual incest. Being a lesbian, dating your own step-sister, and being at the head of a prestigious upper class academy for girls? That would literally be a death sentence for the school, their enrolment would plummet to zero in a heartbeat. Even in the western world, such a thing would be heavily frowned upon (regardless of the progress of liberalism, because we are talking about upper classes, and upper classes in general tend to side more with conservative lines of thinking), but in Japan? There would probably not be a single family who would send their daughter there. At the end of the day, parents have the right to send their children to any school they choose, you can not force them to pick this specific one.

As for Yuzu, regarding keeping their relationship secret. Some here have said how Yuzu would never consent to be Mei's mistress (in the scenario where Mei goes through with the marriage, but keeps it as a mere formality), and I agree with this, I can not imagine Yuzu ever doing so. But what about Mei just remaining unmarried and keeping her lesbian relationship a secret? How probable do you see this to be, from the perspective of Yuzu going along with it?
I mean, on the one hand, Yuzu is a remarkably open person, and her envisioning a marriage with Mei certainly seems to imply she wants them to be open about it.
On the other hand, she has been keeping it a secret throughout the manga, and she actually got seriously worried when she thought Shirapon-senpai figured them out. Would it really be so out of character for her to agree to keep their relationship a secret, especially if it would enable Mei to not abandon her life's goal? What do you think about this?

Unrelated, but lol, I completely forgot to comment about it the previous chapter. Momokino really does know about Mei and Yuzu being lovers. I remember that chapter when Matsuri had her outburst in front of Momokino and Shirapon-senpai, and I was "woa, woa, wait a minute, Shirapon knows, but Momokino does not, why did she not react in any way upon hearing it??". It was never shown how or when Momokino found out. I guess the only one now who is still in the dark about it is Harumin.

last edited at Feb 4, 2018 9:13AM

Rest in peace, MMA mango, you looked so promising in the beginning, but I can not take you seriously any more.

I only have one word : lol.

Technically, those are three words.

This was awesome all around, and that credits page, lmfao! "Let's hug!!"
Also, am I the only one who does not like the bloopers? Turning it all into a staged joke is just crap, for me.