Yuu, who is essentially gentle, kind, patient, has lots of self-control, & above all, mature.

All true, and yet I would argue that Yuu has a fair amount of growing up to do as well. Being someone who "always does what anyone asks" is not an entirely positive thing. Maybe it's that seeing herself that way, as she does, allows her to deflect ownership of her own decisions and then lament that other people aren't being "fair." Even before she meets Touko she claims that she was "manipulated" by her homeroom teacher into checking out the student council when he simply made a suggestion, to which she had responded with some interest (a fact which she then admits).

Yet another thing that keeps me, as a reader, a bit off balance with this story is that we can't always trust Yuu's inner thoughts. It's extremely common in yuri manga to have scenes where characters aren't being forthright about something, then as they walk away or in the next scene we hear what they're really thinking; those thoughts are usually presented as the real deal. But, especially in the earlier sections, Yuu often will think things that we can tell aren't true, at least not completely. She'll say things like, "I'm just being soft-hearted," or "anyone would have done what I did," or "she's not being fair," when we can see that she's not exactly lying, but is basically spinning her own decisions to herself.

So I think there's some blooming to be done (and in fact is well under way) from Yuu's end as well as Touko's.

This can go into angsty drama, or a heartfelt open romance, and anything in between.

Totally agree with this, and that may partly be where the reader unease comes from. The title seems to promise that the characters will end up together, but for long stretches it's hard to see exactly how they can ever get there. Touko has always needed to do something, and now she's clearly being positioned to do that something, but exactly what she'll end up doing I have hopes but no real idea.

(I'll give $50 for someone to break into Koyomi's house and get us an advance look at that revised play script.)

last edited at Jul 29, 2017 2:47PM

I'd argue the relationship has always been a trainwreck since it was founded on being one sided and the fact that Touko stubbornly pretends to be a version of her sister that never existed in the first place.

You're right that it's always potentially been a train wreck, but I'd save that label for when the final damage actually occurs (assuming it does). That initial set-up ("Let me love you even if you don't love me") certainly is weird and unsettling but not so obviously toxic; it's the shift to "I can love you only if you don't love me" that's the real dysfunctional move. At the start both Touko and Yuu in their own ways are emotionally locked down and static, and the "love without being loved" dynamic could be seen as emotional practice by two beginners. But by demanding that Yuu stay that way, Touko is insisting that Yuu put herself in the same straitjacket she's in. It's no accident that Yuu realizes this with that train roaring past in the background.

last edited at Jul 29, 2017 1:49PM

The recurring trains definitely add to the story's oddly unsettling subtext. As the feelings of the protagonists get more aligned, it looks like their relationship could be getting less emotionally fraught, but there's also the possibility of an impending trainwreck (at least figuratively if not literally).