That was delightful. Just the right amount of sexy old school occult and romance.

Even deeper than that, though, I would suggest not trying to label places like Dynasty as one group's or the other's. It's quite counterproductive to argue against groups and you should focus on the opinions instead.

I generally agree with that practice, for casual arguments among friends anyway. But in that post I was responding to the claim that "transphobia does not happen here," itself a response to a trans confession of feeling unwelcome. The point I wanted to get at was that even if that skeptic personally challenges any explicit transphobia on the site, there is still a larger context to why someone might feel rejection and sometimes disgust even from allies (most notably so in clashes around futa). I labeled that feeling as being in a cis space because I wanted to emphasize how cis norms become seen as natural to yuri and certainly not political, while outside perspective can be freely treated as those of a political agenda or alien culture. That said, I like Dynasty's community and agree that identity politics are not necessary to draw upon for every dispute, but then again, sometimes you're not arguing with friends.

last edited at Apr 23, 2017 7:44PM

I guess it could just be a translation issue or maybe its just more of this manga's peculiar style of subtext.

last edited at Apr 24, 2017 3:47AM

nformal surveys show roughly equal representation of men and women in the community, and ironically, from my observations over the years, cis men are more interested in cute, fluffy stuff while cis women are more interested in porn and realistic(ish) drama (I haven't seen enough explicit discussion of the topic to have developed a generalization for trans interests).

Those are some interesting surveys. Thanks for sharing, and you're right, I was wrong to generalize a universal hegemony of fluffy sweetness. I think that mostly came from seeing a noisy minority of people celebrate loudly every time they read something by particular artists on the site that lacks angste, drama, and bi tags - but you're right that there are many who prefer sexy drama. I regret the careless insults directed at fluff as a genre, and hope we one day see more fluff trans manga on the site.

I'm earnestly curious about whether the "many" you've mentioned is an observed shared impression of Dynasty or an extension of your own opinion.

Fluff aspersions aside, I stand by the rest of the argument, and I claim the "many" as mostly just anyone who's argued on this thread and the other recent thread that dynasty and most other hosts are primarily cis-queer spaces - so I dunno, maybe the 'many' is 3 other people at least, and the rest of the 'many' is an extension of my optimistic imagination

last edited at Apr 23, 2017 3:17PM

TBF it's clearly more about how she acts rather than appearances. The girl pretty much does the full course of "chivalrous & considerate charming gentleman" 24/7 after all...

That's fair. And I agree that Kasumi's chivalry is the most clear marker of her prince status. But her body type and appearance are still a strong part of the construction of her desirability as a prince, particularly in the narration's emphasis of Kasumi's feminine body as that of a "handsome beauty" and Kyouko's clear appreciation of Kasumi in her girly clothes versus less girly school uniforms. The girly clothes and stereotypical feminine body being quietly and straightforwardly accepted as appropriate for a handsome, lady killing prince is subversive compared to typical treatment of the lady killing prince trope.

I wasn't referring to her critique, but specifically to the Story A formula, quote: "There is a girl, she likes another girl. The other girl likes her. They like each other. The end." This is basically the plot of this manga, no?

Yup. But I would note that Friedman does continue, after that playful quote, to write an entire essay elaborating on what she considered the Story A formula, beyond just the jokey summary of "2 girls fall in love. The end."

The violent one is called Shiromuchi, but if you were looking for cute, you're also going to get a side helping of abuse.

Thinking about it, a lot of tomboy characters are played that way in yuri. The latest chapter of Comprehensive Tovarisch is an example. This series is one of the few in which the oblivious main character's femininity is the source of her "girl magnet" powers.

I'm a sucker for sexy tomboys but the prince trope can get a little tired. But I do like how the writing subverts the normal body type for princes and pushes hard for Kasumi's femininity to be read as that of a handsome prince - even if I would much prefer a yuri queen who is above the petty concerns of princes and princesses.

last edited at Apr 21, 2017 9:38PM

I was avoiding dynasty for awhile all-together because I thought this was a manga site for queer cis women and it was best for me to not invade their space. After some of the latest forum happens, I feel like I was pretty spot on in the end.

While Dynasty Forum does indeed have moments of transphobia, such users are almost always shot down rather quickly, by both Staff, and other users. Besides, how transphobic can the Forum be, when the most active moderating staff member is trans herself. Most flame wars that do erupt mainly revolve around futanari. Namely, can some cases of Futa be also considered Transgender, and are Futa works also Yuri. Site has its policy on those questions, but there is a population of users who do not agree with said policy, so we get an occasional skirmish over particular works. But transphobia as such, and telling trans people to leave, or something, no, that does not happen here. And on the off-chance it does, users involved get penalised rather quickly.

Nez and many others are great at standing up to hateful shit on dynasty. But I mean, its not like the politics of yuri as a genre and community just disappear when you stand up to the few assholes silly enough to articulate the general expectation of everything being centered on the cis experience. A relative minority of yuri even has characters written by the author to be explicitly lesbian, but we still identify with and bring lesbian perspectives into our enjoyment of the genre. In comparison, disrupt cis-readings of bodies and bring trans perspectives (or god forbid, politics) into yuri, especially one not written to be explicitly trans, and people will come down on you like a ton of bricks. The popular dissatisfaction with appearances of penises, bisexuality, any "male" bodies at all, and privileging of fluffy, pure cis-GL all relates to why many perceive dynasty as a primarily cis-lesbian space - even if its users do not usually articulate that norm and expectation.

last edited at Apr 21, 2017 8:43PM

After reading Erica Friedman's article on the "Story A", I can't help seeing it in every yuri manga I read. Even this one, despite its settings, is a classic Story A with an almost-classic girl-prince...

I was curious enough to google the "Story A" and I liked the critique of yuri tropes, which seemed to boil down to 1) lack of clear lesbian identities/awareness and 2) yuri as transient and not expected to last in context of real work/family/life. But for those reasons, I don't think Friedman would consider "Now Loading" a classic "Story A" since Sakurazuki Kaori has an unambiguously "gay heart" and the story also explicitly engages with making an adult relationship work despite job/life pressures.

last edited at Apr 21, 2017 7:51PM

But your potential is hereditary. The very way your brain works at a biological level (synaptic connections and such) is influenced by your genes. So it makes sense to look for a "smart" father, or mother.

There's also the fact that we have a very loose grasp - if one at all - on measuring, identifying, or even understanding intelligence.

Yeah, and as far as I'm aware, the only studies purporting to significantly link intelligence and genetics are all relying on IQ tests. So, best case scenario, you can buy yourself a sperm that will grow up to be good at taking IQ tests, but thats about it. I guess it depends on how invested you are in the social capital of being good at one specific intelligence test with a history of critiques of racial and class bias.

last edited at Apr 21, 2017 12:58AM

So many good tricks from Eli. But the greatest trick Eli ever pulled was convincing the world that Eli didn't exist because she was dead from murder fish.

The cuteness of the title alone is enough to keep drawing me back to this one. I'm hoping for Kyouko to foolishly teach her how handsome she is, and then bear terrified witness to the birth of an unstoppable player, the foretold yuri queen. But I will also settle for a volume of cute subtext 4koma gags.

Telling other trans women they're shitty compared to "real" women, particularly telling that to women on this site who have already been super open about their struggles with self-loathing from internalized transphobia, is both vicious and super boring. I wish you could have contented yourself with just critiquing Futa, albeit a terf's critique of futa, and left out the tedious judgment of trans women for not hating themselves enough. Ugh, this was a bad call Cryssoberyl.

last edited at Apr 20, 2017 5:13AM

Yeah, nothing I'm saying should be taken as invalidating your personal identity, but I also want to note that your characterization of the "inherent" trans experience matches pretty closely to 1960s-1990s discourse on transsexuality. And the rise of transgender terminology in the mid to late 1990s was primarily a response to and rejection of the medicalizing and "passing" - centric emphasis of that earlier discourse. So for a lot of trans folks, the declaration that pre-op and post-op are still important distinctions comes across as both outdated and a willful erasure of their contemporary transgender experiences.

last edited at Apr 20, 2017 5:25AM

I think ignoring the fact that Transwoman Pre-OP x Ciswoman remains physically still hetero undermines the whole problem that comes with being a Transwoman.

I respect your personal identification with the "trapped in the wrong body" experience of gender identity, but your concern that the problems of trans women are being undermined by lesbians who fail to sufficiently dis-identify with their penis comes across as being based entirely on the offensive, even if well intended, idea of a single, authentic biological female body.

That was a fun read, and the perfect balance of sweetness and peanut flavored teasing.

Highlight for me was the authors note at the end. I always enjoy reading what the creator(s) have to say.

Yeah, that was neat! I went back and re-read everything in the collection after that and it was really nice to see how she felt about each one-shot. Good shit, even though I do like her more flawed protagonists in other stuff best.

last edited at Apr 19, 2017 4:07AM

Shame its over. I always looked forward to this one, regardless of its flaws. And even though the ending was a tad underwhelming, I'm going to enjoy snacking on those sweet extra 4komas.

I don-t remember the girl that was with Kuro in the bonus chapter

Coincidentally enough, it's the same girl she hooked up with in the first bonus chapter.

Let's call her Bonus Chapter-chan.

Micchan I assume was her name...

I can see how you could get that impression, but if you read the chapter more closely, she's definitely called Bonus Chapter-chan

Thank you for translating this! I somehow overlooked this one until now, and its such a good series. I also identify strongly with Shinobu's practical choice in bath towel pillow. In my experience, towel pillows are both functional and highly convenient, but paring them with bath towel blanket is a mistake that inevitably leads to deep, deep sadness.

I'd like to recommend it to some of my friends that rarely watch anime, but there are two big problems with it that are preventing me from doing that... namely Lucoa and Saikawa...

Yeah, I feel you on that. Lucoa is problematic, and a deal breaker for my friend who cherishes her carefully cultivated image of sophisticated anime consumption. But any friend who questions the purity of Saikawa's innocent(ish) yuri is a fundamentally bad person, and they deserve to be punished with a recommendation for grave of the fireflies instead.

Why does this have the Transgender and Futanari tag? It can be either Transgender or Futanari?

Simple Answer: It seems likely that the author considers this futanari. But on dynasty that tag is associated with porn and fetish representations of women with penises, and is super stigmatized and not considered yuri. The transgender tag is mostly associated with works around actively transitioning characters, but can also be used as an umbrella tag for any character with a sex/genitalia/gender configuration that is different from cis-gender norms and expectations. So its tagged futanari because it came from a futa author, but also tagged transgender because its not fetishizing or making porn out of women with penises and therefore there was no reason for it to not exist under the umbrella of transgender or to be considered yuri.

Long Answer: See entire thread

Happy Birthday! And I'm pretty sure that cursed, severe ass groping is a vital part of any basic self-care routine.

How was it? I remember liking the manga, but feeling unsatisfied by the ending at the time. Does the LN add anything?

Yuri camp is the best camp. I mean, its not particularly yuri, but the dogs are top tier.