Loved this when I read the raw during my "let's read every Arai Sumiko work" phase a while ago, super happy to see it getting translated. These two are probably my favorite pair of Arai protagonists. Falling in love despite (but also because of) being so different it's almost (but not quite) impossible to see the relationship working out has a very strong appeal to me and I wish we saw it more often.

If this is Katakura Ako's idea of what "pure love" is, I worry about her lol.

Seriously though, it's an interesting one. Two women (old friends?) chasing after the other's memory through sex are finally able to fall out of love when they actually fuck each other. Well, as Saki says, prostitution is often a form of therapy. Despite the melancholy tone I do read the ending as hopeful, even for Izumi.

This chapter was really good. We get to see why Houjou exists, to demonstrate both Tae and Mai's growth since volume 1. (And also for the hilarity of the antagonist making the entirely valid point that it's weird for an adult to become friends with a 5th grader.)

Anyway. Were it not for Houjou, Tae -- or more realistically Mai let's be real -- could bullshit a story about her being Mai's aunt or something. With her there it becomes more complicated, but I'm sure she doesn't want the teacher to know why she's hanging around at school at night either.

By the way, Houjou's "you [presumably adults] are all the same" line, along with the fact that she is definitely the one playing the piano by herself, fooling around with anatomical models, and looking inside students' desks at night, strongly imply that she has severe family issues and is extremely lonely. I am curious why she latched onto Mai specifically, though. Maybe as a child who looks like an adult, she's a "safe" replacement for the actual adults in her life who are neglecting her?

Finally got around to reading through this manga for the first time, and it is legitimately excellent. It exists in perhaps my favorite genre of fiction, utterly ridiculous premise that's taken completely seriously and explored with full sincerity. That a character like Kiwi, who would be a one-note joke character in most manga, is given enough attention and development to become my favorite is just one example of this.

I do understand why people don't like the Shio-chans, and they definitely could've been introduced better, but I understand their purpose. I actually don't think it's because the mangaka wanted to end at volume 7 but was "forced" to keep going due to popularity; I suspect it's the reverse -- the mangaka doesn't know in advance how many volumes they'll be able to write, so they had to set up the previous arc as potentially being the final one, and when they got enough sales to keep going they were able to extend the series further. It is the nature of shonen manga to extend themselves by introducing new enemies, and this series is a (very unique) shonen manga at the end of the day.

To the author's credit, we saw a similar dynamic with the Lord arc (who received very similar complaints to the Shio-chans at the time), and while Lord is certainly a less compelling antagonist than Tres Magia that arc did ultimately contribute to the manga both in terms of character development and increased thematic depth. The author has earned enough faith from me that I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here too. Plus Berserga has the best character design in the entire manga and it's not close.

Edit: Chapter 40 confirms that Utena/Kiwi/Sayo (aka dom/switch/sub) is endgame

last edited at Aug 24, 2022 8:56PM

Kaori was a homophobe for years, including at least one year after Lina confessed to her -- check out her college friend group. She hurt Lina deeply. Yes, she repented it later (and got a better group of friends), I don't hate her, but it wasn't just a single mistake. As I suggested before, the entire point of miracles is that people don't deserve them.

This is a pretty unique oneshot precisely because we never get to see inside Mayu's head. There are actually ways to interpret her character to make her at least somewhat sympathetic -- for instance, it seems to me that she thought Emi wasn't invested in their relationship, which is why she never understood just how much pain she caused her until the end. But because this oneshot is locked so securely in Emi's PoV and ends right as they're about to have their first real conversation, the reader is encouraged to view Mayu precisely as Emi does, which makes the hate for her unsurprising.

Just because Kosuzume says writing the manga "feels like just a hobby" doesn't actually make it one; it is, in fact, a full-time job with deadlines and everything. I understand being put off when people focus on the author instead of the manga but this backlash is going to some pretty strange places.

As far as the Kei/Nico relationship, we kind of get their back story starting from this page. Seems pretty clear it was mutual. In the other hand, Nico is such a player!

ThanksI I'd forgotten about that scene. Though on rereading it, it seems to suggest Kei was still dating Nico when he knocked up Michiru, which is rather fucked up but does add complexity to a character who otherwise is spoken of in pretty glowing terms.

Ahh, Nico...honestly he strikes me as bisexual but homoromantic. I wonder if he'll end up with his theater buddy who's shown up a few times.

I kinda wanted Kureha to remain hostile to Shizuki a bit longer since I really enjoy the "one-sided rivalry leads to love" premise, but it is more realistic that she'd mellow out after actually interacting with the object of her envy and resentment.

I'm really enjoying how the author is using the fantasy elements to spice up and make deeper typical romance tropes. For example, as Temp says above, the "your eyes are beautiful" scene becomes a lot more meaningful since Kureha's eyes both represent her own clan and herself (the fire within them being her clan's birthright but also her own unique ability) and the gemstones which both form the basis of Shizuki's clan power and are literally consumed by them. The world building has been pretty heavy in this manga but as long as it continues to be used to provide context and nuance to the characters I think it's totally justified and often pretty fascinating.

I'm also, of course, very much enjoying Temp's commentary lol.

I honestly don't mind the pacing of this manhua. It's nice to see an "enemies to lovers" plot that spends the time to (a) establish very good reasons why they dislike each other and (b) doesn't just immediately paper it over with a "they were nice to me one time, now I'm in love" thing. I get the slow burn being annoying if you're looking for romance, but as a (more or less) realistic character drama it's already very fun imo.

Anyway, Luoluo is definitely the victim here; her life was ruined and Song Li and her manager are (so far) showing little to no remorse about it. At least she's getting paid a lot of money now, but even so, I highly doubt she fully understands just what will happen to her when she's nationally known as "Song Li's girlfriend."

Am I the ONLY person who has fell in love with Rinarina?

Most of us have fallen in love with the author I think

I really do wonder how Kei and Michiru got together in the first place. Maybe he just wanted a beard/pressure into having children? A one night stand?

My impression is that Kei was bi, like Nico, Michiru, and Maya. (Though technically I don't think we've ever seen confirmation that Kei returned Nico's romantic feelings, though he obviously cared a lot about him.) I think they legitimately fell in love with each other; as evidenced by Nico too, Kei's type seems to have been immature people he can take care of, lol.

last edited at Aug 5, 2022 5:26PM

Michiru is about to face a turning point in her character development. She's been slowly building up her skills, confidence, and emotional maturity throughout the manga (represented in this chapter by the bread making), but the weight of all her responsibilities is also crushing her. It's understandable, since she's basically learning to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life. But I think she's learned to love herself just enough that she won't fall back into her old habits. Next chapter should be great!

Yatosaki Haru is kind of hit-or-miss for me, but this was an absolute hit. Despite the limited number of pages, I was fully drawn in to the class rep's worldview.

Surely I'm not the only one that doesn't trust this Reika chick right? After her comment about not wanting to meet in a busy place she's def hiding something.

She's hiding that she's an adult hanging out with/dating a high schooler lol. I don't think she has any malicious intentions per se, but this relationship was never going to work out and Reika should've ended it before it got to this point.

As for Himawari, we've barely seen her so it's hard to speculate. It could be jealousy or possessiveness, but it could also be something like "You said you loved me, but you fell in love with this other person immediately so did you ever even love me in the first place?" I can see being annoyed by that even if you don't return the other person's feelings.

Anyway, this continues to be possibly my favorite ongoing manga; it's so good at portraying the rough edges of human relationships, how even people who care each other don't really understand each other, how you can never truly communicate what you really want to -- but also how, despite that, our relationships are the most valuable things we have. It deserves a much higher readership than it's getting, but I suppose it does take a while to get into.

I wonder what the point of a character like Houjou is.

Hard to say without seeing how this arc will end up, but if I had to guess, it's to force a change in Mai and Tae's relationship. I enjoyed the first half of this volume, especially the birthday present, but the basic dynamic between them (Mai enjoys teasing Tae without reflecting on why, while Tae gets embarrassed but holds fast to strong boundaries due to the age gap) hasn't really changed since like chapter 3. Now, with the introduction of Houjou, it's already been demonstrated that Tae is the first person Mai turns to when she's feeling down, and it looks like she'll soon force Tae to face the age gap issue head-on in a way she's been managing to avoid doing up to now.

Now I do think Houjou could've been introduced better, she's certainly not a very entertaining character at the moment aside from when she's being Draco Malfoy, but I think the concept behind her character does make sense. We'll just have to see if the mangaka sticks the landing.

last edited at Aug 3, 2022 11:10PM

I'm surprised this is an... intermission chapter? What would you call a .5 chapter?

The meaning of the ".5" depends on the manga. In this case, it signifies that it's the "second half" of chapter 7. So it's not an intermission chapter at all.

I mentioned this on Reddit too, but one thing I particularly like about this series is how much specificity there is to the characters, especially Minami and Yuzu. Not only is Minami extremely proactive for a romcom protagonist, but the manga goes out of its way to showcase her weird quirks like how she doesn't realize how popular she is and how she's such a nerd she tries to understand love by reading a bunch of textbooks. Yuzu has less focus but just establishing that she has a life and interests of her own goes a long way toward making her a real person and not an idealized moe girl. I think this is why I find it so entertaining despite the relatively generic premise.

I find it notable that the bully's traditional two underlings are actually quite chill and friendly.

While I agree with some other posters that a sad ending would've been more in keeping with this oneshot's melancholy mood and theme of regret over past mistakes, in Sal Jiang's defense I think that's actually the point. The ending is explicitly framed as a (literally Christmas) miracle, and the entire idea of a miracle is that it's a radical rupture of the "ordinary" course of events: in this case, giving Kaori the happy ending she does not really deserve.

last edited at Jul 27, 2022 3:13AM

This is an old work, so who knows if it'll be seen, but maybe future me will return and find out. What does this really mean? Does Kiriko want to leave Ren? Or is she really happy that Ren wants to stay? Are they actually together, or does they're together forever mean "as friends"? I hope someone will know the answer

The "thread"/Ren's hair is a metaphor for Kiriko's feelings for her. I think Kiriko is conflicted; she doesn't want to leave Ren, but at the same time she can't stand being around her unrequited love. Perhaps she forced herself on Ren in order to drive her away, even, except it didn't work. So the oneshot ends with Kiriko unable to give up her hopeless love.