One thing I didn't really like about the new translation is the use of Japanese honorifics in a Korean comic. Like, totally out of place...

OG used the Korean translation, which used "-ssi" (pretty similar to "-san" like the Japanese version uses). Toeto had translated it as "Miss Swallow" which isn't inaccurate per se more that it conveys an old-fashioned sense to it which didn't really fit the modern tone. I am told that they later drop all honorifics, too, so there's really no way to properly localize it in a way that would maintain the original's meaning without having some random TL Note saying "PS, they dropped honorifics so pretend that they're more intimate and lovey-dovey" so we kept it the same

Couldn't you just use the Korean honorifics and then drop them when they drop them in the story?

Second, it doesn't matter what her intention was, what matters is that she made the other person uncomfortable and that needs to stop. Remember guys, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".

A reminder that romance stories are not Human Resources Guides to Optimal Social Behavior.

If we got rid of every romance story that started off with one half of the MC pair getting flustered by the actions of the other, we'd have . . . a lot fewer romance stories.

Eh? A lot of romances depict pretty toxic behaviors and that's not a good thing. That said, there's a large difference between pointing out and discussing those behaviors and saying that you can't write a romance with them or even trying to disqualify a story as a romance.

Case in point, I think the way Seungha is treating Swallow is awful and no one should take it as a good template for romantic behavior. At the same time, her not being a particularly good person makes the story more interesting. Sure, I may be rooting for Swallow to slam the door in her face and find someone else, or at least dress her down enough to make her reevaluate and regret her behavior, but either way I'm still interested in where this story is going.

Also, the issue isn't so much that Swallow's getting "flustered" as she seems deeply uncomfortable with Seungha's behavior and presence, despite finding her physically attractive.

last edited at Feb 7, 2022 4:27PM

Evie: Elsa?! What are you doing here?
Elasa: You said I could be with my destined soul mate if I made it through another year. It's been a year, so now I'm here!
Ev: Huh. I wonder who it could be.
El: Evie. ...
Ev: Oh, by the way, have you read this novel? It's about a lady who falls in love with a maid and the two run away to be together.
El: EVIE... Why?

You'd think those girls would have learned not to trigger Hiyama's yandere tendencies by now.

It's a bit unfortunate her actual girlfriends didn't show up more.

Swallow dying of embarrassment due to remembering past Swallow is both incredibly well done and uncomfortably relatable.

this should be called "red flag: a chapter". Never before have I seen a 2d fictional character so utterly uncomfortable with something like this.

You know, although she hasn't done anything substantially wrong in the present timeline, it still feels like bullying to me. Like, she's clearly trying to make her uncomfortable and take away control of the situation from her.

Please, say it louder for the one in the back.

Unfortunately I don't see how something can be concentrating this exclusively on a pair of characters and not plan to have them together. But I'd rather see the light-haired one's face mashed in, to be honest.

You and I are so in tune right now. I would honestly rather see the black-haired girl get together with anyone else but that short girl.

Edit:

Oh my Gosh everything about this is so perfect, the sexual tension, the teasing, the caressing on her breasts, the blushing. This artist knows how to make some good food.

no wtf. That's the face of someone seeing their bully again and dying inside. The caressing on the breasts is literally an invasion of privacy, I would even go so far and say it was sexual harassment. Also that's not blushing because of shyness/embarrassment, that black-haired girl was panicking.

Welp, it wouldn't be Dynasty without something even as innocuous as this becoming the subject of controversy...

That said, she's just teasing her, "Bullying" her in the Takagi-san sense (i.e. two lovers engaged in cute foreplay). Chaeyeon took it as bullying, as a child, but I doubt Seungha ever intended that. She just always found her expressions of embarrassment to be cute. In a way, her being reunited with her after around 14 years, she wanted to see if she'd make the same cute expressions if she teased her, again.

As for Chaeyeon, though, all she remembers of Sengua is "That boy who used to bully me when I was little...the one I was actually sad about getting transferred" but she still isn't sure if it's the same person (not until a couple more chapters) so it's not like she's panicking over seeing her bully, again; she's simply trying to figure out who she is but that teasing is implying to her that it's the "boy" who used to tease her, as a child.

Also, the discomfort she feels is simply embarrassment but it should be obvious it's because she feels aroused by her. It's pretty clear lesbian flirting/subtext and her inner gay is emerging to it. It's the classic "unabashed gay" X "shy/awkward gay" couple.

I can't agree with that.

Throughout this chapter Chaeyeon's expressions are a sharp contrast to Sengua's; while the later mostly consists of rounded shapes, with her eyebrows slanted upwards at the center and the corners of her lips quirked upwards, Sengua's expression consists of sharp lines, downwards tilted eyebrows, and the corners of her mouth often quirked down. A similar pattern extends to the lighting, where Chaeyeon's face is brightly lit, while Sengua's eyes are almost always shaded, to some extent, including one full page panel that actually has the downward slashes and dark shading used to signal extreme distress in anime.

Overall, Sengua seems to shift between various states of shock, confusion, and distress. She almost glaring at Chaeyeon in most panels. Sengua might find her attractive, but that's not why her face is turning red.

Also, it's worth noting that she's not normally a "shy/awkward gay". Part of what kicked this chain of ... teasing ... off was Sengua thinking Chaeyeon wasn't comfortable acting intimate with another woman and assuring her she does it quite often.

There are a lot of interesting details in this piece, like the girl in the back having freckles and wearing a Chinese dress, when everyone else is in western clothes, and the girl in the front heavily blushing in the mirror.

This chapter felt a lot more villainous, in large part because Magenta's reactions were relatively normal, unlike Azul who enjoys it and Sulpher who fights back. It was basically just Baiser and Leopard abusing a kid.

I have rarely seen art that was so aggressively intent on invading my personal space. It has more close-ups than an Indian soap opera. While it does wonders in giving me very distinct impressions of the women's emotions, it also destroys the pacing. It has been two chapters and yet I felt like barely anything happened at all.

This one will be worth it at the very least for the art, but I would love if there was a little more substance.

To be fair, that's because both chapters have only covered a small part of a single photoshoot, so very little time has passed.

Is there a reason she hasn't just told Evie about the system yet? I mean, if you can't actually see it, it's a weird claim to hear, but is it any weirder than the tsundere thing she has going on or some of the tasks she's been given?

This was cute, but the scene with the makeup really bothered me, probably more than it reasonably should. It feels like she's telling the OL to just paper over the signs of her problems, so she'll present a more pleasant outward appearance for others, without really caring about or addressing the underlying causes; a bit like a guy telling a girl to smile because it makes her look pretty.

Obviously, in this case, it was just one interaction in a string of interactions and there's no real way a random high school girl could do anything to meaningfully help an unrelated adult working at a black company, so maybe it was more about helping the OL feel good about herself despite the sleep deprivation.

I don't know. Something about the way things were worded just rubs me the wrong way.

I can't not see Ami and Rei in this.

Why do we need to anthropomorphize Queen Tyr'ahnee she already looks good enough as it is.

So she fits the art style?

Ortlinde is fun to tease and Vinci is a known troll?

Sakurako has the otome isekai 3d asset bedroom

I was about to comment on how barren her bedroom looked. It's almost like a hotel room, but with even less in it. She doesn't have anything like a writing desk, entertainment (aside from the one book on her bedside table), art. It doesn't feel like a room someone would live in, let alone a wealthy person in the modern world.

Well, the sentient car theory just became a bust.

I seem to have missed this theory. What about a sentient car?

Page 2 is highly relatable. There have been plenty of times when I've had the best idea in the history of ever, only to find it's completely vanished by the time I get somewhere where I could write it down. :/

I feel like I've seen that picture of the two of them together on the last page somwehre before... hmm...

USB dictaphones are awesome for this. You can hang em off a keychain, and whenever you have a thought or idea, just click it on and record a note. Only real issue is you look weird muttering to yourself :P

Is there a reason to get a standalone dictaphone over just using a smartphone app?

Hiyama confesses to the protagonist nearly every chapter, even going as far to say she's not into the boy and yet kimura still has the audacity to keep saying "I can't believe this completely straight girl is after my crush".

That's not what she said.

Her mental narrative is about how she is unworthy/inadequate to stand next to the protagonist. She holds Hiyama up as someone who, at least outwardly, has the attributes she thinks she needs to have before she can confess, and the other girls' comments merely reminded her of that discrepancy. That Hiyama herself doesn't have any interest in the protagonist is completely irrelevant, because this is a self-esteem/self-image issue, not a confusion over who's in a relationship with who.

I played Genshin, briefly, on launch and I can say the gacha definitely hurts it, whether or not you can progress without it. Good weapons are locked behind the gacha, but the game needs to give you loot, so you get piles of worthless garbage and duplicates. Characters are locked behind the Gacha, so there's a good chance you won't be able to play with the characters you want to, but so are character abilities, which makes everything feel very static and repetitive, even as you're levelling up.

If it was a full priced game, with properly paced unlocks, I'd definitely recommend it. As is, I'd recommend staying away.

Kiana posted:

What the heck is that supposed to mean?

I'm wondering the same. Feels like there's something lost in translation.

I think it's pretty clear though?

The "lies" will be revealed later probably, but what she means is that inside a tale, things must be true. There's no need to lie.

Something like, the flower fairies mentioned in Ch5 are kissing, but she pretends, inside the story, that it's not because they are in love, but because of some made up reason. Or whatever awakens isn't love. Or something like that.

So, she's lying.

And Mizuki can probably detect the lies, because she knows what Nana has in mind. That novel is probably a projection.

That or the message/theme behind the story is a lie that the author doesn't believe and that insincerity comes through to the reader.

Why is the title on Dynasty different from the title on the third page?

This series is starting to remind me of The Real Her.

Clearly her "mistake" was writing her own name first. Although I can see the logic in this having much less impact on Elsa's reputation than doing it the other way around.

I was about to point out, there's an interesting discrepancy between the manga and novel. In the novel, she writes "Elsa ❤ Yvonne", while here she writes "Yvonne loves Elsa". The former allows some ambiguity as to who wrote it, especially if the translator also translated the ordering of the English version. In particular, it allows the other students to assume that Elsa is the one going overboard with a weird crush. This ordering, however, makes it clear that Yvonne wrote it.

Interestingly, the novel ordering also makes it clear why Yvonne would want to avoid dragging someone else in, since putting their name first invariably opens them up to ridicule. Conversely, if Elsa's name were first, it would be fairly easy to keep the bullying targeted at her by making it look like she's chasing after someone who's "clearly" out of her league. Somewhat ironically, that probably would have worked with Yvonne, given her status at the start of the story, so she actively chose the least damaging combination, for Elsa, at her own expense.

Gee, I wonder why Elsa thinks Yvonne really loves her. ...

On a completely unrelated topic, I also have a new (highly unlikely) theory for why the story isn't going the way Yvonne remembers:

What if the original version was a Yuri light novel, not a hetero gacha game. The reason the version Yvonne is familiar with doesn't include that route is because the publisher pushed the author into making it a more profitable gacha game, and the original love interest got exiled to the hinterlands as a result. The System, then, is trying to enforce the Publisher's vision, not the original story.

Then again, Elsa does say "Aren't you in this situation because of me?", in both version, so it might be that they're both from the 'real' world and Elsa recognized the villain acting completely out of character and put 2 and 2 together.

really like the part where the author uses Yvonne as a mouthpiece to rag on exploitative gacha games and how you should spend your money on excellent indie games instead haha.

But yeah this is a great translation and it goes a lot more in depth about Yvonne's thought processes and how the world generally work in regards to the system and everything, it'll be fun to read this alongside the manga if the novel translation is continued of course

Given the number of times I've seen people complain about how there are no good games anymore, and studios are only putting out repetitive and exploitative garbage, because they're only looking at AAA titles, I can definitely relate to her sentiment.

Half-dwarf teacher is absolutely adorable, and I love her giant glasses… but she was directly touching the lenses when she adjusted them! She was straight up gripping them nearly in the middle of the lens! Maybe they’re special magical smudge-proof lenses…?

Well, they certainly seem to be floating there without ear pieces.

Given 3.5, I feel like there needs to be a discussion about having a wider circle of friends and a support network that consists of more than just one person, regardless of how much you like them. Fortunately, I don't think Saki's going to leave it at that.