She gives off goof vibes and she even kinda ships them.

Maybe now but that don't give good vibes neither she ship them.

Is this the point where a philosophycal conversation starts about the meaning of "to ship", until a mod inevitably shuts that convo down?

I don't think that's necessary. There's literally a wiki-definition of shipping.
And, yeah. No. Mai doesn't "ship" them. She very much ships herself with Nanoha, whom she's obsessed with. She maaaaay project herself into Chidori at times (upcoming) and get therefore flustered about anything even remotely charming or anything with a possible romantic- or double-entendre-read Nanoha does (to or with Chidori). And even if she kinda likes Chidori or thinks she's cute at times, that's not necessarily a sign of her shipping those two (yet). But there's a chance that her devotion for Nanoha changes from "I want her, even if she's already happy with someone else" to "I want her to be happy, even if that's with someone else", and evolve into her eventually shipping them... But thus far that's not the case.

I would agree on her being a bit more on the goofy side of the spectrum, tho... Which may be an indicator by the author for the audience to not see her as a source of upcoming heavy drama... which apparently (or judging by the discussions) did not translate too well?

last edited at Dec 7, 2019 7:29PM

Yeah, I think most of the uproar comes from assuming that this Mai story is Igarashi 2.0.
And, her introduction and her whole "Nanoha is dating (another) girl, so I totally have a chance with her" logic did certainly give off bad vibes...

But, plot-wise? She's been active and around our love-birds now for ...I think even more chapters Igarashi had. Yet, all she effectively "did" was push Chidori to try and get to know her beloved better.
...so far, this has been the worst she could come up with.

As for Chidori's jealousy... I think, one can be "jealous" (or miffed about) a beloved spending less time with oneself and more time with a third party instead, without being jealous in the sense of having resentful feelings for said third party.
But it seems to me, that Chidori makes the best of the situation and spends her few time with Nanoha more productively (going over to her home) as well as finding ways to fasten their relationship even during the off-hours (writing love-letters).

So yeah, I think what many of us thought when Mai realized Chidori "doesn't care": Chidori trusts Nanoha. (And has no reason not to do so.)

last edited at Dec 7, 2019 12:32PM

There’s 78 chapters and the latest one has a fascinating development. It seems that another girl has a crush on high af chan and she’s completely oblivious to it since she’s obsessing over Nanoha and Chidori

First of Law Of Yuridynamics, Conservation of Uselessness, confirmed.

Well, for now the chapters are adorable. If Mai's (for now) just here to give our main couple the push to get to know each other better (other than the biblical sense), then I'm all in for it :P

Aside, Mai noticed "it looks like the others still haven't noticed" - which makes me appreciate that this does not go against my theory of them already knowing but playing dumb or not caring (in any bad way). I mean, they hardly even react to Nanoha being all flustered after pulling something out of Chidori's hair :P ...So, yeah, I'll stick to that theory until the contrary is proven.

last edited at Dec 7, 2019 7:43AM

I'd say it's all of the above.
She's annoyed of Himawari's indecisiveness, which is hurting Yori.
She's worried for Yori, who can't do anything about the situation herself, and whom she just had to council and console.
She's desperately in love to at least try to get herself into the conversation, even in this rounabout way, at least being honest with herself this way, saying it out loud for once - kinda a relief in its own way.
She's very aware of Yori's strong feelings for Himawari, so she wouldn't say it to Yori directly, to not cause more conflict for her.
She wants Yori to be happy (can't stand to see her down), even if that's with someone else.
She may even be a tiny bit selfish and hopeful that if Himawari withdraws, she would get a chance herself (at some point). Yet, she can justify that selfishness to herself for pushing Himawari to make up her mind / realize her feelings by being presented with a rival.
She's also actively forcing the decision on Himawari, who made her move first - who actually made a move - to help resolve Yori's uneasyness, even if that means she has to give up before really getting a chance. She herself is "not making the choice". She gets Himawari to do it... (That's arguably a bit of cowardice on her part, for knowing her own low chances with Yori, probably not getting anything out of it - but also fair, as in figuratively placing the ball in Himawari's court after confronting her like that.)

It's a sort of all or nothing. But she knows her chances are low to begin with. Because even if Himawari steps out, Yori doesn't feel for her that way. And on top of that, Yori would be seriously crushed. So the "all" in a way is more about ending this state of limbo for Yori (so, hopefully, Himawari stops Aki right there and realizes she wants Yori to herself), so Yori would be happy... Or, to (if Himawari decides her feelings aren't enough) at least free Yori from the painful suspense, get hurt once big time, but eventually be able to move on (with still only a very low chance for Yori's feelings for Aki to change into something more romantic). Maybe it's rather an "all for nothing" kinda situation... :'(

...but I might be wrong .-. (am I giving the character too much credit? I feel, she's depicted as very observant and caring... and at least in regards to Yori rather selfless...)

last edited at Dec 3, 2019 2:37PM

*giggles* I just stumbled across this link . Do what you want with that ^_-

That aside, I'ld recommend not getting all explosive by the sudden appearance of a trope or what seems to be a cause for drama in this story:
Inoue-san turned out rather anti-climatic (thus far), although it was seemingly planned for meticulously since the very start of the series.
Now, this character appears out of nowhere...
This is may be a second attempt of the same; maybe Kovachi learned some and now knows better where to go with this - or not and this much less planned for occurance will lurk a little and then deflate as quickly as the former, with very little consequences.

I for my part am happy to see Chidori in heat. See Nanoha taking the lead and taking care of her troubled girlfriend. See them experience new facetts of emotions, now that their relationship-status evolved. I'm even glad to see their friends getting more panel-time (as it allows me to build on my theory that they already know and are just toying with the couple and their reactions - muahaha~).
And I am happy to know we have a busy translator-team that puts some effort into catching up wiith the releases - so we can enjoy these chapter-boost for as long as they last.

I am also happy to see, that even in manga-reality different hair-styles can either totally benefit someone or ...well, totally not benefit someone. Heck, I am even thankfull Kovachi doesn't shy away from showing characters having had different styles in their past, whereas other mangaka use hairstyle to replace character-design and pretend someone had the same style from birth to old-age, just so the audience would recognize them...

...I don't like it. But actually in a good way. Proves that I feel invested in the characters...
'cept the new girl. Weird logic. Just because a guy likes girls doesn't mean he'd like any girl - same with girls liking girls. She gives of desperate stalker vibes... But I guess, giving a fluff story some action is a little bit of a task for Kovachi...

Also, thank you schuyguy for making it even more interesting with that ambigous hint XD (no, really, now I am thinking of all the possible scenarios while anxiously waiting for the next chapters :P)

..and tying those two thoughts together, with Mai's logic put into practice: Chidori's senpai and Nanoha's kouhai would make a wonderful pairing!

last edited at Dec 1, 2019 7:50PM

^Couldn't agree more~
Any excuse to re-read the series for the billionth time is very much welcome ^.^v
(Not that a pretext was required to keep doing that... >.>)

looks like its time for me to buy the translated books.

...I presented myself with the first four volumes last christmas... So, maybe put the by now first 5 down on your wishlist?

Seems, vol. 6 (or rather, vol. 1 of Yamada to Kase-san / Kase-san and Yamada) won't be available until mid-february... hnn... well, I guess, it's gonna be a very early easter gift then...
((As an aside, I bet the english titles and over-all cover designs, on top of the original labeling, make it hard for casual buyers to identify what's new and what's what and such... Like, this not being a re-release but the continuation... Not sure about Japanese, but my guess would be that western people would generally be confused how this direct continuation would restart the numbering, while the cover-design and "Kase-and..." titles remained the same...))

last edited at Dec 1, 2019 7:00PM

...okay, so the Seven Seas published translation of that page reads as following:

Yamada: If you leave too, then I...
Yamada: I dunno, if I can make it by myself next year.

Mikawacchi: You'll be fine.
Mikawacchi: I mean, we've been doing this kind of thing for a while!

Mikawacchi: Did you forget?
Mikawacchi: "We only became friends in tenth grade. Three years ago we haven't even met yet. We've done this a million times since elementary school. You'll be fine.

Yamada ("voice-over"): Right...
Yamada (thought): I guess so.
Yamada ("voice-over"): Did I feel like this in Junior High, too?

---- soo, yeah, the bold and cursive was that way in the book.
I think, that translation makes it a little much clearer, but I understood it that way in the translation we have here (which is interesting because the "we hadn't seen each other in three years" tells a different narrative - maybe my non-native-english brain just skipped it for not making much sense in the given context and rewired the wordstring to a wholy different sentence that coincidentally matched the other translation / original intent? ...weird. But I swear, I always read that to mean this):

The context is them starting a new school year, enrolling in the next higher school / at university at that; everything new, new people, loosing some old friends, new schedules, new surroundings, all that jazz.
Yamada is scared of that, her insecure gold-fish-memory-self can only think of the past three years, where she had Mikawacchi to fall back on.
But Mikawacchi reminds her (paraphrasing) "Kid, this is not the first time. We [not together but, both you and me] have been doing this rodeo [getting into a new school year, feeling a little lost, finding new friends] since elementary, since [each] our first day of school. It keeps repeating once per year. It's nothing new. You managed, even before meeting me. You will manage again. It'll be fine."

...in short, this is a translation-thingy at best. It was not meant to imply they have known each other since elementary. They became friends in the first year of High School. No contradiction here.

Phew.

last edited at Dec 1, 2019 3:53PM

...can you remember the chapter or event surrounding Mikawacchi (or anyone) claiming she and Yamada had been friends since elementary?
Because, I could not remember that, just flipped quickly through the earlier series (did not regret, may have flipped some pages much slower than others / aka may have gotten a little distracted from my intended mission here and there XD), but could not find any such statement...?

[...] and can do gay things more often.

O.O You mean... like handholding !!?! :O

In case you don't want to browse the entire discussion, here's what Kase's attitude boils down to
a) She's overbearing, inappropriate and disrespectful to Yamada and the latter being her own person.
b) She's just fully aware of Yamada's lack of social skills, her inability to say "no" (esp. to strangers) and unawareness of others, esp. those nasty males - which all of three may or may not lead her into hilarious potentially dangerous situations (case and point: the apron situation), so she's rightfully (?) protective of Yamada, trying to steer her away from unnecessary trouble as best as possible..
c) everything Blastaar said.

That said, they both make mistakes, act at times inappropriate and are still trying to figure things out - and that they "hardly see each other for 5 minutes a week" (a very true point IMO), doesn't help the matter.

Also, welcome to the world of Kase-san.
Do yourself a favour and BUY the manga if it's available in your country (or get the english versions from amazon).
Or at least check this out, which is from the released manga vol.5 / some later included pages from the first series' chapter 24 , between the online pages 13 and 14...

last edited at Dec 1, 2019 6:45AM

^ just looking at Yamada in a bikini (in particular her cleavage) showed her brain was way down in the gutter, so actual physical contact might... well, kill her. Heart-attack, spontanous dehydration, sudden brain-death - take your pick. But's she'd be a happy corpse...
...it's quite honestly a miracle to me how Kase survived their first time. But chances her body mistook making out with Yamada as mouth-to-mouth breathing and chest-compressions and somehow managed to survive...

As an aside: the kids need more smexy times, so Kase can vent some steam every once in a while and not get horny-old-geezer'y everytime Yamada's neck flashes. ...here's to hoping sleeping under one roof will offer an opportunity~

If I was Yamada, I would still be pissed at Kase.
Didn't like the way she said sorry and stuffs, she was right to be mad. Aff! C'mon!

...for random half-naked strangers getting all horny over Kase while she's doing her work, and her senpai (and boss in this case) enabling those customers' behaviour?
Not to mention, Kase was just about to complain about this (among many other things) to Inoue when things escalated (and Inoue quite literally selling her out).

If anything, if Yamada was more aware of herself and their issues and arguments, she could now give Kase a speech about not being able to say "no" and the troubles that gets one in... Because all Kase did or rather didn't do (yet) was to tell the girls to act more respectful to her and her actual job-description (or any polite and customer-friendly form of gtfo)..

I'd honestly be disappointed if it wasn't to be revealed the other girls
a) already know about them dating
b) were intentionally playing oblivious because it was so much more fun to see them squirm
and c) were having a betting-pool between them about when the other two finally came out.

With the most memorable earlier instances of Kase making a "Yamada-like face", from the top of my head...
...Kase getting insta-horny over Yamada in an apron
...Kase unexpectedly hearing Yamada's voice on the phone
...tense Kase for the first time alone in Yamada's apartment, like 3 minutes before they went all oo-lala
...it just makes me wonder, what kind of birthday present came to Kase's mind there.

(yes, yes, Kase made plenty other funny/cute faces :P )

Firs:, I've always thought the males were depicted that way as if from our protagonist(s)'s point of view... Be it Yamada's more superficial recognition of them due to her social awkwardness or the yuri-girls being so yuri, they hardly recognize boys around them.

Second: ...although I can see how some of the chapters since college have been treading around the same (or previous) things, I still love the girls' dynamics and how they are portrait as "normal" girls, who have differing interests and educational paths, different social backgrounds and circles, trying to make things work while their horizon keeps expanding - and sometimes they stumble, since they barely had any real relationship time before this point. They love another, deeply (and sometimes obsessively), but it's a reality that they still hardly know one another.
Where many other manga end with the happy rainbows of becoming an item, with an unknown future, and critically so many obstacles still ahead of them, this continuation feels like a good change from what's basically a trope (maybe it really is one, too lazy to check). Maybe a few others have done it before, and maybe narratively they've done it "better" (or in a more eventfull and less slice-of-lifey / less fluffy manner), but personally I appreciate the low drama and gradual (albeit very slow) evolvement of the characters, their changing circumstances and their reactions, even if that means to re-hash old arguments. The latter IMO is a good depiction of (part of) a relationship in progress - because it's not uncommon, that emotions or concepts a couple has already dealt with and presumably moved on from in the past come up again in other circumstances, with new or changed viewpoints and feelings, or old ones that now have a different context. It's not big-scale drama. But it stll entertains (me) and one may or may not relate.
...yet, certainly, it would be nice if there was a little less of the re-hashing and a tad more focus on them actively trying to spend more time together (even failed attempts of such, because sometimes life can make that difficult) / get to know each another, and how they'd react to that..

Nanoha's realization, that all the things they've done before, was just "stuff that even friends can do" actually had me laughing. That was weirdly meta XD

Nanoha: Sorry, I just spilled a little.
Me: Nope, not yet girl.
Nanoha: *squeezes herself next to Chidori, full-body-contact*
Me: ...now you did. >.>

These two really do suck at communicating.

...I think, that's an established fact by now. But I do love Kase trying to evolve by doing the first step (and leaning all over the table to position herself in Yamada's view), reading Yamada, not coming to wrong conclusions but the proper ones in a timely manner and adressing the issue.

Another detail, it seems Kase was just about to text Yamada when she walked up to the other group.

..so, yeah, I think, Kase finally learned a widdle lesson and is actually evolving her own relationship-communication skills. Slowly, but steadily.

What can we expect for the next chapter? The girls sneaking out at night to meet up for some handholding ?

im still wondering what shishimaru is depending on her name since theyve all been dubbed as the zoo

NEKOzaki = cat
KUMAkura = bear
USAGIda = bunny
BENGIN = penguin
SHISHImaru = lion

Aaaaaaand: Yamada.
...

._.

Funfact: Kobayashi ranks 9 of most common japanese surnames and Yamada comes in 12th place.

last edited at Nov 24, 2019 1:02PM

Can someone please break down the characters and their names and place in the story? I am having an incredibly difficult time of keeping up with not only the pacing of this thing, but also who each character is. I've read every chapter, but still can't make heads or tails of who everyone is.

Lemme give it a try:
In order of appearance...

Yamada Mikoto
- "Miko Club" member; recently transfered to this school; speaks in Kansai-dialect; rather shy and insecure, but energetic once she warms up; likes Nekozaki, very much so...
- dark (brown) hair; in school-uniform with braided hair (one tail) and glasses; in miko attire with two (only sligthly wavey) pigtails down her back, wore her hair untied on her first day at school (when she met Nekozaki)..
- nicknamed "Mi-chan"

Nekozaki Ren
- student council secretary; cool, serious and collected with others, save some angry outburts and deadly glares; soft and gentle with Mikoto; loves Mikoto and is aware of it; roommate with Kobayashi Tsubaki; has pollen-allergy.
- bright (sandy colored) hair; pigtail on left side and long bangs on her right.
- I think the others (Airi in particular) randomly started calling her "Nyan-nyan"... prolly a play on Neko-zaki.

Kobayashi Tsubaki
- studen council president; wears her emotions on her sleeves; takes rules serious but also has good humor about infrictions; is roommate with and cares about Nekozaki, but as a friend; prolly the only one not coupled.
- medium-dark slightly ragged hair; tied up at her neck with a black ribbon.

Bengin Ritsu
- character-wise may be the tomboy of the series; "Showa Ballads Record Club" member; roommate with Shishimaru Airi, a bit mischievous and rather outgoing.
- all but her (black) bangs are bleached (blonde? I need more colored artwok!); long hair, each side a strand of hair falls over her shoulder to the front; tends to wear some kind of collar.
- doesn't like being called by her last name, Shishimaru does it anyway.

Shishimaru Airi
- on surface level more collected than Bengin Ritsu; quite stubborn and good at mind-games; roommate with Bengin Ritsu - they fight a lot but we know the saying...
- (depending on panel) chin-/shoulder-long straight medium-dark hair.
- occassionally called "Maru-chan".

Kumakura Takuya
- frail and sickly girl but with lots of enthusiasm; "Tokyo Fashion Club" member; "childhood friends" with Usagida (they are lovers); very concerned about showing PDA at school.
- long, blonde hair; usually has black ribbon in her hair (like a maid?).
- Usagida calls her "Takkun", others may call her "Kuma-san".

Usagida Yozora
- "shut-in club" member; enjoys her sleeping bag; lacks confidence; in relationship with Kumakura Takuya, very devoted to her.
- beneath her sleeping-bag, she's very pretty; chin-/neck-long wavey not entirely bright hair.
- ...Airi nicknamed her "Yoru-chan", I think? "Yo-chan" is used more frequently, tho.

I hope that helps. (And I feel your confusion: I actually asked out loud "..and who's this again?" only to realize it was Kobayashi (student council prez) who randomly jumped in to confiscate Shishimaru and Bengin's money.)

...why am I so late to find these?
Arata Iri, the mangaka I did not know I needed in my life.

I've always had the impression that ultimately the author knew where they wanted to go with the story.

...if only she better knew how to get there.
Unless, this is REALLY planned out well and all the detours eventually accumulate into the most awesomest of storybeats. (But I don't quite see that coming as of yet. Color me pleasantly surprised if that happens, tho.)

For now, I'm just glad the story is moving forward (in the linear sense). I was really close to dropping it...
...but, whee~! My head's still spinning from all the hand-holding :O

A few test-dabbles, followed by nice introduction-chapters, style looks good, interesting premise, blushing girls and a yuri-tag...

Sold.

Driver be like

XD Kept thinking the same thing. Gotta admit, that took me a bit out of the scene...

Driver: "They see me roooollin--- wait, did the brooding lady just ask her daughter about having a relationship with another girl? She said 'Miyuki-chan', right? So, her daughter's gay? She's taking that rather well. And she wants to know about it? Yeah, me too... wait, don't want details?! C'mon, Lady, don't say that! Nuuu, now the girl's deflecting! ...huh? Things got quiet back there. *peeks in rear-mirror* ...wait, why are both of them blushing now? Hey, keep going girls, I'm not here, it's a magic-car, driving itself-- oh, they really don't notice me... Are they really mother and daughter? ...are they holding hands?! Geez, they both do look hot and bothered, don't they? Hn, maybe I take a detour here... Get on the highway and circle back around the city. Let's see where this goes. BEST DRIVE EVER!"

*stares blankly at chapter title*
..
...I can't believe we actually made it O.O

There's something usually preventing me from dropping a story, but between the ...art.. and barely moving story, flashbacks that stretch out and hardly add anything new (what could have been told in far less pages), character introductions that yet have to lead somewhere, as as of now most of them had like zero impact (e.g.Rui, Jun and their mother / Ayako's co-worker - not like we got much out of Akira but a potential "rival") to the main characters or main- or subplot, and really not much going for this series but the initial premise... I am really close to giving up.
I could argue that at least there's an attempt made to give the mother and daughter some psychological depth, but then again I can't help but feel they are treading without evolution since forever (so, the flashbacks imo did more harm than good in regards to that) as well the characterisations are either stereotypes afterall or inconsistent for the sake of dragging the story on - and in some instances certainly not realistic inconsistencies (e.g. Ayako's amnesia for having cravings for her daughter in the flashbacks, but having been caught totally unaware by it in the earlier presented present)...

This potential guilty-pleasure story turned into a chore of sorts.
It really bugs me to drop a story... but... well, maybe I'll give it another chapter or two ._.

...and yeah, there's that:

1 x ½ ch13.6:+a
Am I looking at a math formula? lol