This is more an English language question I suppose than about the translation - not sure, but in the 3rd pannel of page 15, Marie says 'You don't sleep in this bed much do you Mel?'
To which Mel nods and says 'Yes. I sleep in masters bed.'

Shouldn't when answering something negative like this, you agree with a negative too?
Example:-
If someone said to me 'You don't like carrots do you?' I'd shake my head and say
'No, they are revolting'

Answering with a positive, even if it was 'yes i hate them' seems to boil down to saying 'yes I don't' - which sounds silly.

So it seems Mel should of shook her head and said No, I sleep in my masters bed?

In general, there's ambiguity in answering negative questions in English. I think answering this one with "No" would be more common (maybe far more common), but the "Yes" is allowed. In Japanese, negative questions are confirmed with "Yes", and so the lines on the page show Mel nodding. Thus I had to use "Yes" or else contradict the art.

Though looking at it now, I could've reworded that to be something like "Mel, you barely use this bed, don't you?" and then the "Yes" might sound more natural. Sometimes the awkwardness of a line doesn't occur to me while I'm working on it.

On a side note, I think this scene is further evidence for my belief that Marie's "special like" is for Mel. She very quickly realized that Mel doesn't sleep in her own bed, whereas Fran didn't notice until it was pointed out to her. Maybe she was just curious, especially after Mel told her she loves her master. But still, I have this feeling that she loves Mel rather than Stella.

last edited at Sep 11, 2018 2:32PM

You're being too absolute. Demanding sex is rape only if the other party is under duress or compelled to accept the demand. For example, telling someone "have sex with me or leave" would still be cruel, or rude, or gross, but if someone says that to, say, a stranger on the street, or an acquaintance visiting their apartment—a person who knows they can simply refuse, walk away, and never interact again if they so choose—I don't see how anyone could see that as equivalent to rape. Under those circumstances, if someone agrees, then they are voluntarily consenting.

When it comes to this manga, I think people can reasonably disagree over whether Keiko is under duress in this situation. On the one hand Asumi has every right to decide who lives in her apartment, and Keiko is free to leave. On the other hand, for all we know she's threatening to kick Keiko out into the night to sleep on the streets.

Kohai said "she was fired again" and can't hold a job" if that happened to people on this side I don't know how many of them would have stayed cheerful, looking for the next job. Everyone gets depressed sometimes, and wants to quit the things they aren't good at. It would be nice if she found something she is good at and then make money off it, but not everyone finds that thing early in their life. She definitely has to get herself together but I feel more compassion towards her instead of looking down on her.

You really missed the point of those first couple pages. She was fired because she slept late, skipped work, and couldn't be bothered to learn the most basic skills necessary to do her job. If you can't use a copy machine, it's not because it's a difficult task that not everyone is good at, it's because you don't give a shit. When asked about it, she lied and deflected, never acknowledging her faults.

This character was presented not as someone who couldn't work, but as someone who simple didn't care even to try, who spent her whole life relying on the goodwill of others, getting her way through manipulation and lying if necessary. If there is some deeper cause for her behavior, then it's not even hinted at in the story. And we even get a look at the author's opinion, and she says this character is trash. So whatever reason you might ascribe to her lifestyle, it's purely fanfic, not a legitimate interpretation of the text—both the work itself and the author are saying that she's just lazy and selfish.

When it comes to the real world, I agree with you. Lots of people find themselves unable to function, for one reason or another. And I would never call those people worthless. Even for someone who behaves like Keiko, that's overly harsh. But within the story, it's clear that Asumi's judgement is justified.

I think it's more of an issue of embarassment and arousal. If she kisses, she starts wanting sex desperately. If she's already going down on somebody, she's kind of past that hurdle.

I guess that makes sense. Plus, being unable to stand up isn't so much an issue if you're already on your knees....

Random cheating/polyamory out of nowhere is one of the things you just have to accept when reading Kurogane Ken.

Also, what makes you think Tae's trying to get a boyfriend? She's never said anything that would indicate that. The reason she refuses to kiss was made clear in chapter 3, where she got so turned on just from her lips brushing Jimiko's that she couldn't stand up (though that does bring up the question of why she's fine performing cunnilingus if her lips are really that sensitive...).

I think she's worthless not because she can't get a job, but because she refuses to get a job and just spends her time drinking by herself in her friend's apartment, who she's mooching off of.

From a legal standpoint, I'm not sure if what she did could constitute rape (at least where I live). "Duress" and "threat of retaliation" are defined such that it has to be threat of bodily harm, false imprisonment, abuse of official power, or something like that. I think gaining consent by threatening to do something you have every legal right of doing ("Have sex with me or leave") wouldn't constitute rape under the law here, but I'm not sure. Discussions like this always make me curious about the specifics of the law. In any case, the rape issue is really hypothetical. If Sempai decides that she consented and was acting voluntarily, then the issue is moot.

But all that aside, I thought this was story funny, and kind of sweet, in a weird twisted way, since it ended happily for everyone. I really liked Asumi's thoughts at the end. To me, that's kind of the core of Kodama Naoko's works: this idea that love isn't some choice we make, and it doesn't makes sense. We fall in love with people for mysterious reasons, and then that love drives us to act in irrational ways.

Also, since I think this came out in 2013, I wonder if she's satisfied yet with the garbage characters she's written since then....

Okay, that actually makes a lot of sense. Still maybe it'd have been good if we saw Kurokawa with her friends at least a little bit before they dumped her? It seems like most of the time she's just been by herself, so even if we're told that she's very insecure about lacking a clique (which she does think about quite a bit), it still lacks some impact, since she appears to be fine by herself. But maybe that's also the point, she doesn't realize she's fine by herself....

I don't see the couple in Cocytus as having much hope at all. Shiina betrayed Kuroneko and then took advantage of her. Her fear of being bullied and her guilt about what she did stand between her and any real relationship with Kuroneko.

Maybe there's a possibility for things to improve from where it leaves off, but my reading of Cocytus is that Shiina will never overcome her cowardice and never move past her betrayal. I think that's the message of the ending, with Kuroneko being honest and open, and Shiina standing there unable to say a thing.

I completely disagree. The author spends a whole chapter showing how upset Kurokawa is when her friends leave, and them leaving is a driving event in Kurokawa and Fujishiro's relationship. But as a reader, it just feels empty and stupid, because I was never once shown that Kurokawa cared at all about her friends until they left her alone.

Giving us some indication of how Kurokawa relates to her friends is absolutely necessary to getting the reader to care when they leave.

Chidori's "neither of us has a boyfriend, but..." line is just her saying, "We don't have 'boyfriends' per se, but we are each other's 'girlfriend'" in response to a question about boyfriends. There's zero implication that Chidori thinks that one of them having a boyfriend would be acceptable. Her feeling sad over some boy Nanoha might have liked 3 years ago is pretty good indication that she wouldn't be okay at all with Nanoha having a boyfriend.

And I tend to be pretty sympathetic to how slowly their relationship develops. I remember my first relationship in high school. We were super awkward around each other and barely did anything couple-like for months. These two started dating around the beginning of April, and it's probably some time in June now, so it really hasn't been that long. For some people it just takes time.

Also, we can see inside these characters' heads, and it's very clear that much of their awkwardness comes from their embarrassment over their intense attraction to each other.

Also, Master's friend seems to be more pedo than Master.

That's because Stella is Itou Hachi.

Yep
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/hana_ni_arashi_ch01#8

Even on that page they're presented with two different height gaps. The measurement shows the top of Chidori's head going up to Nanoha's mouth, but the next panel shows Chidori barely reaching Nanoha's shoulder.

I think the author hasn't been very concerned with maintaining consistency.

last edited at Sep 7, 2018 8:07AM

Excuse me and hello, this is my first post, and I’m needing some help understanding something in chapter 50, page 89. Sumika and her father just finished a life-changing conversation, then her father gets up with some (grasping for the right word) distress, and goes over to the family’s shrine to ring a bell. What is the cultural significance of that? Is (ring the bell) that part of Buddhist/Shinto (I’m not good at discerning between the two philosophies) symbolism or is that pertaining to Japanese culture?

Household shrines generally honor dead family members. He goes to the shrine because he's thinking about Sumi's dead mother. I don't think there's any special significance other than that. Maybe he wants to tell her about what's going on, maybe he's uncertain about what to do, maybe the way Sumi is acting just reminds him of her.

We live in a civilized society. Normal people don't go around kicking and punching other people, even if they're assholes. In fact, responding to assholes by kicking/punching them is a great way to get yourself in jail, most places.

Neither Yuu nor Emi even told the guy "fuck off" or "go away" or communicated in any way that they wanted him to leave. Emi just ran in and knocked him to the ground. If you use violence as your first resort rather than as your last, then you are not a balanced person, not fit to live in a civilized society. That rapid escalation to violence, in addition to her own obsessive behavior, clearly indicates that she's unhinged.

Edit: I should clarify. I don't think she's completely off the deep end, I just mean that there's something not quite right about her. Apparently she only has one friend in the world, and the closest thing to a friend she has besides Yuu are the men she seduces to keep them away from her. That's just not a healthy way to go through life, and it seems to have taken its toll on her.

last edited at Sep 6, 2018 9:22AM

I wouldn't mind if this goes the same way as in the oneshot. It was a nice story, and a realistic depiction of how most relationships go—they end. Not many manga cover that ground, or what happens next. Do they stay friends? Do they drift apart? Do they fight? Do they drunkenly fuck again, cheating on their current girlfriends, ruining their friendship, and feel terrible about themselves?

If the characters are interesting, then their lives can carry a series, regardless of the course of any central romance.

I'd call Emi "crazy". She's obsessive, manipulative, and explosively violent.

But I like that kind of character, that's what makes this manga fun to read.

Maybe I'm seeing ill-will that doesn't exist. If so, I apologize.

I don't really have a dog in this fight, and I understand you have some history. But I have to tell you that what you are doing is making an ass of yourself. You're using a matter that doesn't involve you as an excuse to pick a fight.

I myself do the same thing on a fairly regular basis, so I'm generally good at recognizing when someone else does it. At the risk of doing it now, here's some advice from a quarrelsome idiot: just lay off.

Well, that sounds like a better solution for everyone involved.

What do you mean by "that?"

Presumably the kind who demands faster releases, since it was brought up just above.

Also I need to say that I didn't expect a really fast answer when the last coment was a year ago xD

I happened to see this near the top of the list of forum threads, and since I can't resist a chance to complain I immediately clicked on it. :P

Hopefully you'll enjoy it more than I did. I'll probably reread it myself when it comes out in English.

I really like the second tome, the end was soooo cute ♥♥ but is the end really that that bad? D:!

No detailed spoilers, just my complaints:
I personally found most of volume 3 really irritating. The original conflicts from volume 1 and 2 are wrapped up in chapters 11-13, and then from 14 on it's pretty much garbage. A new conflict appears out of nowhere. It's a very cliche plot twist that I've seen many romance series use as an ending. It doesn't work here at all. There's no build up whatsoever, and it requires the characters to act completely irrationally. It's so disconnected from everything that came before that I have to imagine that the author was told "You've got 3 chapters, and then it's done" shortly after chapter 13 was published. Worth buying volume 3 to see chapters 11-13, and just to finish it. But overall a very disappointing ending to a really nice series.

last edited at Sep 4, 2018 2:39PM

This presentation of cliques is so heavy-handed as to be ridiculous. It's actually kind of hard to read, that's how bad this chapter was.

When Nanaki's group kicked her out, it felt more reasonable. Her friends had been introduced beforehand. They had existing relationships. They were mostly a monolithic block, and barely had cliches for personalities, but this was the bare minimum necessary to make the audience care about the conflict. When she gets in a fight with her friends and they start ignoring her, it does feel like it matters.

When the same thing happens to Kurokawa, her friends barely even have their own faces or names. We don't know anything about them. There are no scenes of Kurokawa in conversation with her friends. They don't have individual personalities. There's zero sense that a relationship exists. So when her functionally imaginary friends decide to stop talking to her due to some bullshit excuse, how am I supposed to care about it?

last edited at Sep 3, 2018 10:34AM

I don't think she's gonna kill Kurumi. The chapter cut like that deliberately to tease us, but there's no reason for Shiiko to kill Kurumi. Shiiko doesn't care about dying, and certainly isn't willing to kill someone to save her own skin. Plus it wouldn't even work like that. If she killed Kurumi then the other girls would have nothing to do with her. Even if Kurumi asked Shiiko to kill her, she still wouldn't be using a shovel to do it.

Since Shiiko is holding the shovel, that probably means they're going outside. Maybe they're trying to see if Shiiko can carry Kurumi and still run away form the zombies? Maybe they're going to test if Kurumi can walk among the zombies without them attacking her, like she did at the university that one time? Whatever it is, I think Kurumi is trying to come up with a way where she doesn't have to be a burden on the other girls, and she asked Shiiko to help her.

I guess it is a thing that artists have the hots for loli half beast girls in this world's setting?

I think Itou Hachi just took "write what you know" a little too literally. When I first read that "I'm simply using young bodies in the midst of transformation as a motif to capture the purity that girls hold" line, my thought was, "I bet Itou Hachi is really used to defending herself with a line like this."

In my imagination, she's having a bit of fun at her own expense with this character who dresses up little girls with animal ears to draw pictures of them.