Yeah like for most of their relationship Shimamura's definitely liked Adachi, but she's always been content to just go along with Adachi and not take any initiative herself. She was always happy when Adachi moved things along, but it was Adachi doing all the work, it wasn't really very healthy for a long-term relationship.

Her spending time with Gon was kind of her just realizing that life is fleeting, and she can't just sit back passively and wait for things to happen. She likes Adachi so she should actually pursue her, too. She wants to make Adachi happy, so she should do things to make Adachi happy.

As far as future things I'd like to see, beyond the obvious growing romantic relationship steps, I'd really like to see them start dealing with actually telling someone else. Like almost any of the other characters finding out would be really interesting. The moms were already giving off the vibe that they knew their daughters were headed off on a date, it kinda feels like they already have their suspicions about those two, so it'd be interesting to see that. Shimamura's little sister would be quite intrigued to find out that hey, girls can date other girls.

I still don't think them ending up together will happen - or that it would be good if it happened.

OTOH I also still get the strong impression that Shino is gay. I've given up hope that she'll ever get with that underclassman though, considering how rarely she shows up.

honestly how is this not yuri?

I have to assume the magazine it runs in was like "this yuri thing seems popular right now, but... we don't want it TOO gay."

Like if this is really just a story about friendship then everyone involved is acting like a lunatic.

last edited at May 19, 2020 4:40PM

Obviously the confession and everything is great.

But I think my favorite sequence was like right before that, where both of the moms are helping their daughters get all pretty for what is pretty obviously a date. Like neither mom is super motherly normally, but it seems like both of them pick up on this being an important moment for their girls, even if they won't admit it.

Like yuri is so often either all subtext, or it gets all exoticized... It's just super nice to read a sequence where it's just totally ordinary teenage romance stuff, just a couple teenagers who aren't quite official yet going on a date and having a happy time.

Also like, we're totally gonna find out at some point that their moms have been sharing notes, right?

yeup, what they said. ^

I guess it's good that OP found out about this (and here's hoping to it just being a bit of appalling trivia for more folks in the future) but that doesn't magically disqualify words and phrases from having more than one meaning. Gay panic and the "gay panic defense" are two entirely different things, and they're very very easy to understand the difference in conversation.

That's one of the things I like about Adachi and Shimamura, they feel like suuuch goddamn teenagers. They have no freaking idea wtf they're doing.

This would've been a lot better if the author had cut out about like half a dozen plot threads.

Like there's good ideas in here but it's all so messy and cluttered and nothing gets developed, it never gets any time to just do like basic character and relationship building.

An update out of nowhere!

So nice!

So, I just noticed that in Japan the novels got released on a fairly frequent schedule from 2013-2016, but then there was almost a 3 year gap before the 8th volume in 2019. Anyone knows what is up with that?

At least for part of that time the author was writing the Bloom Into You side-story novels

OH MY GOD HE REALLY IS THE SAME AUTHOR. I didn't even notice until now. That's such a perfect coincidence. Or not coincidence, match-up.

Story's continuing to move in a great direction. Shimamura's changing slowly, becoming softer. Her uncharacteristic concern and reflection on Adachi's outburst was pleasant to see. The way she mulled over that in confusion, even wondering if she did something wrong, and considering ignoring it but knowing it could bite her in the ass was glorious. Same for the softness she feels for her dogs. And that swimsuit picture - how smooth Shimamura is should be illegal.

We really need a scene of Shimamura pulling that picture back out to look at.

In a perfectly ordinary gal pal way, of course.

God at this point even nagafuji is more aware of stuff than shima is. Nagafuji!

On the other hand shima's in top "flirting without realizing she's flirting" form. Is it mean of me that I kinda want shima's mom to discover that her daughter has her friend's sexy selfies on her phone? I just need someone to call her out on this stuff!

Big thanks for the translations, rather desperate for cute gay stuff to read these days :)

So, I just noticed that in Japan the novels got released on a fairly frequent schedule from 2013-2016, but then there was almost a 3 year gap before the 8th volume in 2019. Anyone knows what is up with that?

At least for part of that time the author was writing the Bloom Into You side-story novels

Honestly the way the parents treated this makes this seem more gay than it probably is. XD Mom's whole knowing "go get your girlfriend back" vibe killed me.
Now kisuuu!! >:[

Seriously, the parents' conversations in this series are like the subtext-iest thing in the whole story.

oh man that makes me super happy, I'm going cabin fever crazy

Thanks for all you do sneikkimies, stay safe :)

When Shimamura's mom was all like, "Oh, she got you flowers, huh?" I sure got the impression of a knowingly raised eyebrow while she was talking. Shimamura might be willfully clueless but I can't see her mom not noticing the meaning.

twist ending: Adachi and Tarumi start flirting and fall in love. Years later they both laugh about that mean Shimamura girl and wonder whatever happened to her.

Yeah it'd be nice if volume 6 was very Shimamura heavy.

Minami is acting like that because unlike who was a loner and awkward socially, she was a loner but not socially awkward. Minami is acting like a bitch because the first friends she made was acting like that and she had to also act like that to not being a loner.

This is not an excuse for being a literal shitpile of a human being. People's circumstances do not excuse their shitty actions EVER. I just lost what respect I had left for you.

good lord, calm down there kiddo

YoshiMako is such a cute ship. I'm always a huge sucker for tomgirl/girly girl ships, and the two of them are the most wholesome girls in the whole cast.

Plus it's nice to have one set of characters whose development doesn't really have anything to do with Tomoko.

Shimamura, volume 19:

"Wait, you mean you LIKE ME like me?? Why didn't you ever say so?!?"

Immediately turns into a bumbling embarrassed shy girl for the rest of her life

Ever since the phone call it definitely felt like Shimamura's had a lot more stuff going on in her head than Adachi picked up on. Even when they were leaving after karaoke it seemed like Shima wanted to keep hanging out or wanted to say something, she was acting weird.

One thing I'm hoping for long term is for a little crossover in the side stories. Like it would be just delightful to have a scene of the other girls talking about just what is the deal with adachi and shinamura exactly. Or for shinamura to start noticing that her little sister is acting a lot like someone with a crush and what her reaction to that would be.

Sheesh, and here I was eagerly waiting for a big reveal Shinamura chapter so we can finally find out what she's been going through, and instead we get nothing. Like yeah OK so we get Adachi yelling about loving Shinamura, but Adachi's finally come to terms with having a crush on Shinamura like, 8 times now! I even complained about that LAST time we had an ending like that, lol.

It's tough too cuz Adachi is just so in her own head in this chapter that like while she definitely notices that Shimamura is acting weird and different, she can't really put anything together or figure out why exactly. Like I think we can all agree that Shima wasn't putting her face in that random fan because she didn't care about naked Adachi! But Adachi had no clue.

At any rate, good job Adachi on reconfirming what you said before, instead of just wussing out and settling for a return to the status quo.

oh also that Shimamura was self-conscious enough about changing with Adachi that she wore her swimsuit under her clothes to the mall, back from the mall, and then to the pool. Way back in volume 2 when she first went swimming at the pool she brought her swimsuit with her in her bag.