I came here to be sad and relieved that they managed to confess to each other and I read the damn stinkiest takes I have ever seen in relation to this work

As a tip for next time, transient and ephemeral mean something that won't last for along time, "were" is the past tense, and if a character has a terminal illness they're limited time is usually significant to the story

This is a good point about the titles. I'm personally a bit more fond of the localized title, since it sums up the timeframe of the story while hinting at Kaori's fate.

Incidentally, though, I heard that the Japanese title gets dropped in the final chapter. I don't know the context, although I'd guess it's the title of the story Shizuku wrote with Kaori.

Speaking of the final chapter, I personally think that the worst- Kaori's death- has already happened, and that the story will end on a bittersweet note, with Shizuku and the others who knew Kaori grieving her but ultimately moving on with their lives.

Volume 4 just came out in English.

Speaking of volumes, there are two bonus chapters that haven't been posted on this site. I'm including a brief summary of what happens in each- there aren't any spoilers, but they help flesh out some secondary characters.

Chapter 4.5 is a bonus in Volume 1. Shiori gives Kaori the morning glory seeds, and Kaori says she'll give them to her "friend"(Shizuku, obviously) whom Shiori knows Kaori has been seeing every day. Shiori is a bit worried about Kaori, but Kaori reassures Shiori that she's having fun. Shiori decides to let Kaori spend time with her "friend," but insists that Kaori spend time with her, too.

Chapter 9.5 is the first time Ruri and Seri are shown after the flashback. Seri greets Ruri at the station, and it's mentioned in passing that the reason why they wear their uniforms is because they have club activities over the summer. Seri considers getting dinner with Ruri, but Ruri flinches when she sees that the place is a curry place, a "show don't tell" way of revealing that she's still traumatized by Shizuku's bullying (in the localization of Chapter 14, she says to Shizuku, "You made me hate something I liked," implying that curry triggers her trauma). As they walk away, they get a text from Kaori.

There are a few other bonus illustrations, such as Kaori wearing Shizuku's jacket, or the two dressed as butlers, with Kaori standing on a stool to be on level with Shizuku's head.

It's nice to see fanart for this series. I'm looking forward to the ending.

I haven't read something as confusing as the first couple of pages in a while. The narration at the start makes it unclear whether the first page is a flashback. "If it is, is the confession between pages 2 and 3? If it isn't, is page 3 an unmarked flashback? Why does Fuu-chan shout she's going to kill Fuu-chan and then herself? What uncle?" And so on. Took me four or five reads to get it straight.

The first page isn't a flashback- Haruka confessed to Fuu-chan, and after a day of Haruka avoiding Fuu-chan, Haruka came over to Fuu-chan's house.

"Uncle" is something people cry out when they want mercy.

It can be hard to tell where the arrows are going, but Haruka, the confessor, is the one who makes the murder/suicide threat.

I'm not sure whether the emotional blackmail was intended, since if a friend confesses their love and gets rejected, it's common for the friendship to never go back to normal(e.g. Sayaka and Touko). As such, while the relationship isn't exactly healthy, at least not at this point, I can sympathize with Haruka feeling on edge about the whole thing, since if she gets rejected, she'll likely lose Fuu-chan's friendship, not just the chance to go out with her.

Did she trip on her heels and broke her neck?

That thought came to my mind, too, if only because it would tie in to the heels.

Then again, car accidents (not just car-on-pedestrian, but car-on-car and car-on-object) are a common way to suddenly kill off someone in a random way, which is probably why people made memes about being hit by a truck sending you to an isekai even though it's not all that common outside of parodies of the genre.

I find it interesting that not only did the story kill off Ellie, but it also had the protagonist hook up with someone else, albeit implying that she might have had feelings for Ellie.

This definitely is a change of pace from the other series I've read on this website, in terms of subject matter, art style and tone. The art style in particular is rather surprising, not only in that it's "non-moe," but it barely even seems like manga style art.

It's a bit surprising to see cursive text in the speech bubbles, but it's also a bit difficult to read at times, such as when there's a lot of text.

Unfortunately, it's not entirely clear what the main plot will be at this point- even the provided summary, "Life of a married couple in their 20s in the suburbs of Reiwa Japan," is a bit vague. I feel as though it's their marital troubles after the husband quit his job, but I feel as though most series clearly establish the idea behind the story in the first chapter.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of the story. It's definitely not going to be lighthearted, but should still be an interesting read that shows a realistic look at married live.

I personally like the way things turned out. Shizuku confesses to Kaori and realizes that her love was requited, but isn't able to actually go see her- when you lose someone close to you at such a young age, it's always too soon. It's also sad that Ruri and Seri didn't get to see Kaori one last time.

Speaking of their relationship, I also liked the progression of it. Shizuku starts off indifferent to/annoyed by Kaori, but you can see signs that Kaori is growing on her, some more obvious than others(for example, in Chapter 5, she doesn't care whether Kaori uses her first name, but in Chapter 11, she actually asks her to do it), and becomes more of an active participant in the relationship over time.

I also like the pacing, since while some chapters are more important than others, something significant happens in almost every chapter. The fact that there's a fixed duration for the story helps you tell how close it is to the end, and the fact that it's relatively short means that there aren't all that many parts when nothing of note is happening.

I'm looking forward to the final chapter, along with the Volume 6 extras, and personally hope that one of the extras reveals what happened to Kaori and Shiori's mother. She's implied to be dead, since Kaori says in Chapter 16 that she knows what it's like to lose someone, but nothing explicit is said about what happened to her.

I've heard some people compare this with Your Lie in April, and I can certainly see the similarities (particularly a terminally ill girl named Kaori), but does it remind anyone of A Silent Voice? Both star suicidal former bullies who fall in love, but in this series, the bullying victim and the love interest are separate characters.

I'd personally have been interested in seeing more about how they became stepsisters and how their relationship is different when they're out of school.

I read through the localized manga, and I noticed a major difference between it and the fan translation on Page 12 of Chapter 13. For context, Shizuku's on the train and worrying about how her apology to Ruri will go.

In the fan translation, Shizuku thinks, "Back then, I basically just had my mom make a formal apology. I can't repeat that."
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/kimi_to_tsuzuru_utakata_ch13#11

In the localization, however, Shizuku thinks, "Back then, my parents had me apologize and promise never to do it again."

I'm curious as to which is correct, but I'm leaning toward the fan translation- you can see Mrs. Hoshikawa seems to be bowing but Shizuku appears to be standing up straight, implying that Shizuku couldn't apologize (most likely due to nerves after seeing the mother of the girl she bullied), or chose not to. It also fits with how Shizuku is determined to actually apologize this time.

I don’t know Japanese but since the official is done by Seven Seas, there's a higher chance the fan translation is more correct because it is not uncommon for the 7seas translation to be littered with mistakes or be a very, very loose translation that loses all nuance. There's several series I've read where the translation is flat out wrong and completely changes the meaning of the scene. Or sometimes you don't even need to have read the fan translation for comparison to see a speech bubble that completely doesn't make sense with the context.

That's certainly true, but I noticed a few things that were more accurate in the localization. For example, in Chapter 5 of the localization, Shizuku says she "bullied (her) friend" in the singular rather than plural in the fan translation, since Shizuku didn't bully anyone besides Ruri. At the start of Chapter 15, Seri says that she "heard (Shizuku) yell," rather than seeing Kaori collapse like she claimed to in the fan translation- the two only noticed because Ruri heard Shizuku calling Kaori's name (Seri's expression implies that she heard it, too, and that Ruri confirmed that Seri wasn't just imagining things).

last edited at Nov 21, 2023 7:06PM

I read through the localized manga, and I noticed a major difference between it and the fan translation on Page 12 of Chapter 13. For context, Shizuku's on the train and worrying about how her apology to Ruri will go.

In the fan translation, Shizuku thinks, "Back then, I basically just had my mom make a formal apology. I can't repeat that."
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/kimi_to_tsuzuru_utakata_ch13#11

In the localization, however, Shizuku thinks, "Back then, my parents had me apologize and promise never to do it again."

I'm curious as to which is correct, but I'm leaning toward the fan translation- you can see Mrs. Hoshikawa seems to be bowing but Shizuku appears to be standing up straight, implying that Shizuku couldn't apologize (most likely due to nerves after seeing the mother of the girl she bullied), or chose not to. It also fits with how Shizuku is determined to actually apologize this time.

I'm in the camp that doesn't mind the lack of physical intimacy. I've heard that love is fundamentally based in friendship, so seeing Kurumi and Ruriko grow closer, iron out some of the issues in their living arrangement and gradually fall in love was a natural development. Having a modified version of their rules as their vows is a good way to show how far they've come, and to show that the fundamental foundation of their relationship- their years-long friendship- was there all along.

I've read the manga over the last several days and enjoyed it.

Like others, I had a bad feeling when Kaori delayed responding to Shizuku's chapter.

Since there's been exactly five chapters per volume, I suspect that there will be at least one more volume, and the denouement will take at least a chapter or two.

One thing I'm a bit confused about with the new group of scanlators is the honorific usage, which seems a little inconsistent. For example, Ruri greets Shizuku with "Shizuku-chan" near the end of the chapter, but leaves off the "chan" in Chapter 27. Additionally, Shizuku seems to have dropped the "-san" from Ichihara's name despite having consistently used it until the new scanlators took over.

This was rather depressing, but it does a relatively good job of showing rather than telling, such as the implication that the brunette still loves Nakamura. It might have been nice to have more information as to why they broke up- Nakamura implies that her career in manga didn't work out(if she attends a con again, "it won't be for a major publication"), but also rejects her ex's suggestion that she could have supported them if her ex had sold more copies, so their respective mangas may not have been a factor.

For manga they have to end on a chapter that rounds out a complete volume for example, if they go over, if they're allowed to go over, they need to go over for an entire extra volume, like what happened with Dorohedoro.

I have quite a few series on my bookshelf where the last volume is notably thicker than the others because the ending chapter(s) doesn't fit neatly into a normal volume, there's no way this is a given practice.

The opposite can also be true. For example, Wotakoi has larger than usual manga volumes, both in page size and thickness, and the sixth and final one is noticeably smaller than the others because there's less in it.

Did the translator decide not to use honorifics? It sounds as though Aya briefly decided to use "-san" on Erika due to her being older than her as a result of whatever happened, but the translator decided to use the rough English equivalent instead.

The end was rather rushed. I wonder if it got cancelled, or if it's just because it's one of those manga that stop being interesting as soon as the premise wears out. In this case, there's not much that the story can do with the "Akari being a tsundere" schtick once she and Hina actually get together.

Because of this, I tend to prefer stories that can actually keep going once the main couple actually becomes a couple, since not only do they actually show the payoff, but they tend not to revolve around one gimmick.

On the one hand, I understand that it's unrealistic to expect a clean resolution to the complex issue of the refugee problem and the Church and Babylon manipulating them for their own hands.

On the other hand, the ending felt rather abrupt, as if it got cancelled. I would have liked to have seen at least one more arc dealing with the actual revolution, and providing more of a conclusive ending for at least Benika and Rose.

As an edit, what happened to Hibai and Gina? Unless I'm mistaken, we haven't seen either since the explosion.

last edited at Aug 16, 2023 3:02PM

Our perfect assassin might be getting a little bit sloppy, letting herself be so easily identified like that.

There's one particular fantasy light novel with a Catholic-esque church that's lead by a lesbian communist vampire. I need more of that in my life.

Slime?

Slime.

Someone please title drop!!

I'm referencing Tensura ("That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime"), but unfortunately I can't recommend reading it on that basis. The gay vampire goddess is pretty far into the story, not the main focus at all, and barely gets screen time (...page time?). Which is lamentable. How do you come up with that concept and not write your entire novel series about it?!

I've vaguely heard of Slime, but not that part about the church, so it surprised me that it was a small part of a well-known series, rather than a central part of an obscure one.

At this point, I'm wondering whether Gina will eventually learn that the archbishop considers her expendable (he told her about the bug but not the bomb) and if so, how she'll react. It could potentially lead to her abandoning the church, but if so, what she'll do after that is anyone's guess.

I'm confused. Is chapter 75 the ending?

I doubt it, since there's a "To Be Continued..." and it seems like too abrupt of an ending. There seems to be room for at least one or two more chapters in the volume.

^^ Mercedes' hair is lighter and a bit poofier pre-timeskip, and Byleth's hair is darker before Chapter 10 and lighter after Chapter 10, so I didn't think either one of them resembled Byleth or Mercedes.

I'm not too surprised that there ended up being drama like this. It's almost a given that in order to become an actual married couple, Ruriko and Kurumi would have to overcome a marital crisis that would make the washer-dryer argument seem tame, one that would likely force them to consider whether to go their separate ways.

I'm not saying this is an ideal way of going about it, but it seems to be standard for the genre, and a possible indicator we're in the final act.

last edited at Jul 4, 2023 11:30PM

I noticed two mistakes

Page 13: "That's your strenght."- should be "strength."

Page 16: "When I first met eve-san" - Eve's name isn't capitalized.

All in all, the ending was rather rushed, ending as soon as Eve and Emielle's conflict was resolved. It's a shame that it got cancelled.

I was hoping that this would confirm that we'd get a second season, but without the sex scene. Not having the sex scene would be a price I'd be willing to pay if it meant the second season could get an adaptation.

Touko looks odd with greenish hair in the first two pages. The dialogue seems rather stilted, although it's hard to tell whether it's naturally this way or whether it's awkwardly translated.

I wonder why they did the panels in a 2x2 grid with numbers denoting the order rather than a standard 4koma format.

I'm also looking forward to Volume 8.

Out of curiosity, how many more will there be? The Amazon.com summary of Volume 8 states that "Sorawo and Toriko's bizarre tale of exploration and survival is coming to a climax!" but I didn't see anything like "Final Volume" in the summary.