Sorry for the image spam that's about to ensue, but I've wanted to do this for a while. I fell in love with the setting, the town of Nagahama in Ehime, and I took the time to find some of the landmarks that appear in the manga on google maps because I love when stories accurately reproduce settings that aren't the usual big cities everybody knows. And so, bear with me as I take you on a little sightseeing tour.

This is a view of the town from one of its neighboring hills. It's a small port town divided in half by a river, I suggest you look at it yourself in maps for a better understanding of the layout.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch01#9
This is Ehime Kenritsu High School, which you should be very familiar with. As the author said in the extras of the first volume, she chose Nagahama specifically because this high school really does have an aquarium club.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch06#2
The ferry to Aoshima, the island of cats. Speaking of which...

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch06#12
That title is in no way an exaggeration.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch07#14
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch19#28
The portside park with the ship replica that Kaede went to with Konatsu and Koyuki on separate occasions.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch09#29
It's also where the town's summer festival takes place.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch10#18
The town's shopping district where Koyuki takes Riku for walks. Also...

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch02#13
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch10#26
The store where Konatsu and Kaede met Koyuki during said walks. I may have gone too far by actually finding this.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch27_5#21
The town's train station that was seen a couple chapters ago when Konatsu's dad left.

Hope you enjoyed!

I went back to the start of the series since the flashback scene in the latest chapter ended exactly where the story began, and I find it funny how much more detailed and complex the art got, it's like Konatsu de-aged by five years while on that train ride, lol.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch28#7
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch01#6
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch01#7

I don't know, Konatsu has been pretty adamant in this chapter about wanting to talk with Koyuki about more things, including each other, and was about to suggest it before Koyuki told her to go to the window. I get the feeling she'll try to stop bottling her feelings up from now on, and that even if she doesn't want to make the move to Tokyo harder for Koyuki, she's still going to be honest and tell her she's going to miss her but she'll take it in stride, like she already did with her father in the previous chapter. The flashback could be there for contrasting purposes: she didn't tell her acquaintance at school she was leaving and lied about it, while now she's going to tell her most important person that it's fine for her to leave, showcasing her growth.

And yeah, I wasn't saying a confession would happen right now, I meant in general. I don't think this manga will fall into the usual pattern of the characters slowly realizing their feelings and struggling with them (especially the all-too-familiar drivel about them both being girls) because it would essentially be an explicitly romantic repeat of what they already went through, I feel that if it happens, it'll simply come from them continuing to grow closer like they have so far. Like, maybe they start getting a little more physical with each other without bringing too much attention to it, as opposed to early on when Koyuki made a big deal out of giving Konatsu a hug.

I popped into one of Hagino's streams when she was drawing chapter 26 and congratulated her for her hard work, she thanked me and said she does her best (in English). I consider it my shining moment, lol. Now if only they announced an official release in my country already I could start actually paying her back too.

last edited at Jul 2, 2020 5:21PM

This scene actually parallels one form chapter 25, where Honami walks to Konatsu’s place and we can see the Konatsu is looking out the window with the curtain shut.

Oh darn, I hadn't noticed. Posting for everyone to see:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch25#4
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch25#5
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch25#6

Konatsu was at the curtain but it was shut and it was raining on top of it, so the "beautiful moon" couldn't be seen in two ways, plus Koyuki went there without communicating anything first and writing a text that didn't invite discussion afterwards as opposed to how she would call her first in the latest chapter. The line "I'm such a terrible senpai..." itself was also a callback to a previous chapter when she thought she was imposing herself on Konatsu. If you really look into it there's a crazy amount of stuff like this.

I'm not sure we'll get more about Koyuki's and Konatsu's past, I think it will depend on how relevant showing specific episodes from it would be to the current situation. For instance, I don't think it's necessary to explicitly show what happened to Konatsu's mother, it can be pretty much surmised from what little we've seen and it's clear how it affected both her and her father. As for Koyuki, I don't think there was any single noteworthy event that made her into who she is, it sounds like she gradually distanced herself from others due to the pressure of being a model student (as opposed to, say, the reason why Touko in YagaKimi became one). Of course I would love to see how she came to love aquatic life and take over the aquarium club.

The frog starving itself to death is an analogy for it starving for something more in their relationship” if Koyuki is the frog and Konatsu is the salamander, then maybe she will get rejected (initially) and we will enter an arc where the emotional love turns into one that is non-platonic.

Although the series flipped the perspective of who the salamander and the frog are in the analogy with the short story when Konatsu tried to hold Koyuki back from going out with her classmates, I'd still say the roles align more to Koyuki being the salamander and Konatsu being the frog. When they finally had their heart to heart in chapter 26, Konatsu thought that she always wanted to be a frog so she could be with the salamander, that she thought that was all that connected them, but then implies there will be more to their connection from now on. The salamander is shown swimming away together with the frog at this point. I took this image and this entire scene to mean that the analogy with the short story has now been resolved with the animals finally opening up to each other, the salamander managing to leave its cave thanks to the frog and them setting off together to unknown waters.

That's why I think Konatsu wouldn't reject Koyuki's feelings at this point if she were to confess. Her dependance on Koyuki is no longer one-sided, they both expressed how they need one another. To this end, there's been a lot of set-up about the time when Koyuki will have to leave for Tokyo to start university. In the chapters where Konatsu's dad returned, she came to the realization that even though she'll feel lonely without his physical presence, distance will not break their bond and she can face her loneliness with that knowledge. Koyuki's father tells the same thing to Konatsu's in regards to their daughters' relationship once Koyuki has to leave. And Konatsu herself wrote "frog" as her career choice in this chapter. I wouldn't take that as a simple joke, she's saying she wants to be by Koyuki's side even after graduating. Maybe this could be what they'll talk about next chapter since Koyuki seemingly wants to have a proper talk about her leaving for Tokyo after graduation, and Konatsu "won't be deterred" from expressing her intention of catching up to her once she also graduates.

@Palmfire: I'll write this post under the assumption there is no veto on actual yuri from the editor or magazine and that Hagino has written the series thus far entirely on her own accord. I personally feel that the decision not to make the relationship between Konatsu and Koyuki overtly romantic so far made the bond between them stronger since their attraction to each other is based entirely on an emotional connection without the physical/lustful side of it playing a part. Of course, you have to roll with the idea that two lonely teenagers could become so close to each other without wanting to bone and I understand how some people wouldn't, but I disagree with those who called all the issues the characters went through forced or pointless drama. I think everything stemmed naturally from their insecurities and flaws and it never came down to actual forced drama, i.e. misunderstandings. They had a lot of genuine problems to work through, and they did.

As for what comes next, I'm not gonna lie and thus I'll say the latest chapter has got my hopes back up in terms of the possibility of a romantic development. It doesn't need to happen for the rest of the story to work, but I think that now that Konatsu and Koyuki have established such a deep connection through their shared loneliness and got to the point where they can be open to each other about it, it would make sense for the two of them to try and fill that void with something more than mere friendship. At the very least the author has always taken great care not even to imply that either of them could be potentially interested in someone else while there have been instances of the opposite, for example with Koyuki's mother comparing their relationship to that between her and her own husband. And while stuff like that is still within the realm of plausible deniability as to the author's intent, Koyuki's line in the latest chapter is harder to justify and it would honestly feel a bit baity if it turns out not to have a deeper meaning at all.

^
Nice catch! With how many yuri doujins she wrote, I kinda have to wonder if she's struggling to hold back with Nettaigyo, heh.

The volume 7 cover is so good.

Though for some reason Amazon has it in this weird quality where the artwork is low-res but the text is super clear.

last edited at Jun 27, 2020 8:03PM

Wow, this got lewd very suddenly.

Also more conflict means the story isn’t over yet, really hoping this isn’t the final arc, although the journey has been very satisfying so far.

https://twitter.com/haginomakoto/status/1276176640054198276

The author said here that this isn't the end yet and to keep following the series.

I feel like the momentum of the story is going back to the starting chapters, especially around the festival, where As the reader we were able to see how deeply Konatsu feels about Koyuki. Maybe next chapter we get to see explicitly how Koyuki feels about Konatsu.

Volumes 5, 6 and half of 7 were a tour-de-force in terms of giving the characters a deeper emotional understanding of their own issues and due to how long it took them to be released, I've seen several readers feel fatigued, but now should be the time to really start paying all that build-up and development off with the interactions between the two. Koyuki would certainly be able to give a more proper answer to Konatsu's question from the previous year's summer festival. Actually I wonder if there will be a chapter where they go to the festival again since summer break is coming up and Koyuki's father suggested she take a break from cram school and go have fun once in a while.

Also, anyone have an idea on what Konatsu was talking about towards the end of the chapter when she said “So we should....More Properly...”? It could be a subtle way of talking about dating, as in “we should more properly define our relationship” or something about spending more time together, but I’m really curious as to what the author is going with those lines

Follow-up to page 18 where she thought to herself they "should've talked more about a lot of other things and about each other". Find out what she meant next chapter, maybe.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch28#32
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch28#33

If I could just build a monument for these pages, I would. So sweet.

Those are some painstakingly-drawn hands by the way. A mark of a good artist.

That moon thingy... Please don't KyoAni this one.

Too late, it already looks just like Koe no Katachi.

And even so, after the storm, the flowers will still bloom into their lively forms.

This girlship is built to sail the roughest of seas.

^ Next chapter, Konatsu walks outside and notices the moon is covered by clouds.

She can't transfer just to remain close to Koyuki but the best universities are in Tokyo soooooooooooooooooooo :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) I'm just sayin' the moon IS really beautiful tonight

Oh, she's definitely going back to Tokyo after graduation like she already said last year, ideally her father will come back and find another job in the city as well. And who knows, maybe Konatsu will even go to the same oceanography university as Koyuki if she has to take over the aquarium club from now on and gets passionate about it. But it was telling that Kaede thought Konatsu might want to transfer back to Tokyo right away without even finishing high school in Ehime.

Koyuki sure has grown. Remember when she went on the field trip to Tokyo and it took her four days to decide to send Konatsu a text to ask her if she felt lonely without her (and then failed to send it due to falling asleep)? This time she called her right away upon getting her cellphone back and went to see her directly upon confirming she was home.

The "Moon is beautiful" phrase is always a confession in my book. I've seen it used soo many times in yuri subtext works that I'm sure it's just authors code for "they gay"

Natsume Soseki.

Thanks, didn't know that. I must say the author is raising my expectations then.

We finally got a glimpse of Konatsu's mom. I would assume she died when Konatsu was very young if that's the picture of her they keep around.

The "Moon is beautiful" phrase is always a confession in my book. I've seen it used soo many times in yuri subtext works that I'm sure it's just authors code for "they gay"

Could you give some examples if you remember them?

last edited at Jun 27, 2020 9:17AM

Yeah, it certainly feels like Kaede and Yamagishi see it a certain way if they think Konatsu would be willing to transfer a year before graduation just to remain close to Koyuki.

The woman at the start? That seemed to be just one of his victims.

^ I didn't get that from the chapter at all. You must have some great reading skills.

It's clearer if you go back to the previous chapters. Khara was sent by the Gika to retrieve the treasured sword and kill Aria with it, but she revealed to Ichika that her real goal was to hide the sword from them to protect Aria. Afterwards, the short-haired Gika woman with the surgical mask got introduced as a former student of Ichika's school, she spied on Aria to find out where she lived and called a little girl from Gika (probably another vampire queen like Aria?) who gave her the order to kill Aria. Then she approached Arthur and the plan was set into motion.

Damn son, that's a Dreamcast Aria was playing. Exceptional taste.

Wait I’m confused did he not send the letter? Why’d she call him a bastard what..
Anyways love how ichika took a moment before all that lmaooo

Arthur was pretending to work with the short-haired woman, kidnapped Khara and sent the letter to lure Aria in, but rather than capturing Aria like the woman's faction (the Gika) presumably wanted, he revealed himself as loyal to her and incapacitated the woman instead, likely to use her as a source of information or hostage.

last edited at Jun 24, 2020 5:20AM

I also think Rin is getting slightly ahead of herself here… Mayuki only said "I don't mind if Akira acknowledges the existence of people other than me", but Rin's conclusion is "Oh yeah, she's totally poly!"

That's not what I took away from it, I think what's more likely is that she appreciates how Mayuki is willing to keep Akira in her life even if Akira chooses someone else because she wants her to be happy.

Incoming "Wow, that book I gave my kouhai is really popular with students, isn't it?"