I’m not sure if a pair of MCs who are physically intimate (and professionally competent to boot) ever qualify as an Idiot Couple, but if so . . .

To answer your question, I don't see her forcing her to stay for sure, but I can imagine her breaking down if Aya had to leave/wanted to leave. I honestly don't see her as manipulative, or with bad intention. I just see her as an empty shell and being super dull.

I respect your opinions.
However, I also can't convince myself that she is as innocent as you said.
I can't just pretend chapter 4 doesn't exist.
What Koto did towards a 14yo kid is really horrible. That's the main reason why I have a second thought about Koto's every behavior.

You keep saying this, but can you please spell out exactly what Koto said that was so horrible?

If it was the business about being sure Aya loved the present-day Koto, you seem to be putting an extremely nasty reading on those statements that are potentially plausible, but at this point by no means the only way to understand what Koto meant.

last edited at Mar 13, 2024 7:54PM

I'm mostly talking about the use of evidence. So far we have been shown almost nothing of Koto's interior present-day thoughts, in contrast to both Aya and Erika, where we're given substantial sequences of what they're thinking and feeling about the overall situation. (The extensive thoughts that appear as captions rather than in thought balloons are especially important for understanding those characters and their current state of mind and motivations. But we get very little of that from Koto's POV.)

Sure, there may be some potentially problematic issues for the future that we can infer from Koto's speech and actions--her inability to move on from initially losing Aya, her neediness in the present, etc. But the argument was that Koto is a "yandere manipulator" (or trickster) who has now suddenly changed from when Aya first returned, and I simply don't see any evidence for that.

Well, l think l already gave some "evidence". Looks like l have to explain further so you could understand why l see her this way.

Chapter 3 :
She choosed to stay at hometown while continually refused to see Aya. That's really weird enough to lead me to think if she's waiting something to happen.
She even took some days off from college for this. In chapter 5, her friends asked her whether her business at home be settled.

Chapter 4 :
While Koto can just bring her home without saying those horrible words. Likes she's saying goodbye and breaking up with a kid who literally has no one left except her and Erika. If I was in Aya's situation, I would fucking panic and cry on the spot.
It turns out that was just an act to make Aya confess to her.
How can't that not be manipulative?
Even before holding her hands, Koto felt the need to say "you were so keen on ignoring my first confession".
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU is my first thought. After reading chapter 8.5, things get more clear. Koto just also wanted to get some revenge for Aya refusing to respond her first confession SEVEN YEARS AGO.

Chapter 7 :
You can't buy a smart phone for a teenager just for her to find a part-time job and then tell her to quit after she really found one. It shows you actually don't want her to work but for some reasons you still acted like you support her decision.
So if Koto does persuade Aya to resign the next chapter, like "you don't have to force yourself to work" etc.
My assumption would be proved.

As I suggested, your powers of mind-reading are obviously far superior to mine.

And Koto saying, “I’m not so sure you need to commit so fast” is not even close to being the same as Koto “telling her to quit her job.” Whatever happens in future chapters, a distorted reading like that is the opposite of anything even remotely resembling “evidence.”

Do you think Koto wouldn't "suggest" Aya to quit the job?

I don't know what Koto would or wouldn't do about that--I'm not a mind-reader or a fortune teller.

It's not like I hate your opinions just because you disagreed with me.
The next chapter might reveal this. Whether my assumption is right or wrong, we'll see.

I'm mostly talking about the use of evidence. So far we have been shown almost nothing of Koto's interior present-day thoughts, in contrast to both Aya and Erika, where we're given substantial sequences of what they're thinking and feeling about the overall situation. (The extensive thoughts that appear as captions rather than in thought balloons are especially important for understanding those characters and their current state of mind and motivations. But we get very little of that from Koto's POV.)

Sure, there may be some potentially problematic issues for the future that we can infer from Koto's speech and actions--her inability to move on from initially losing Aya, her neediness in the present, etc. But the argument was that Koto is a "yandere manipulator" (or trickster) who has now suddenly changed from when Aya first returned, and I simply don't see any evidence for that.

last edited at Mar 12, 2024 1:08PM

Except Aya now has a part-time job.

That just proves things are not going well as
Koto's plan.

This assumes that Koto actually has a plan for Aya to fail, an assertion for which you have presented zero evidence except for a very ambiguous, almost blank expression on this page:

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/how_to_break_a_triangle_ch07#22

This whole post seems to be a lot of (at best) weakly justified inferences about Koto’s motivations.

Right, you just choose to forget she fucking pull a long face after Aya got a job interview invited by Kumagaya in chapter 7.

That alleged "long face" could just as well be a reaction to Aya using the phrase "another kid around my age," which makes Koto worried about the distance between the two of them.

Do you think Koto wouldn't "suggest" Aya to quit the job?

I don't know what Koto would or wouldn't do about that--I'm not a mind-reader or a fortune teller.

chapter 7：bought her a smartphone and let her find a part-time job as her wish. Knowing there's no possibility she would get hired. By doing this, Aya will acknowledge she can't live without her now.)

Except Aya now has a part-time job.

This whole post seems to be a lot of (at best) weakly justified inferences about Koto’s motivations.

I kinda can’t wait to see what Erika is going to do next Tanabata.

I really don't think Mitsuki is that dense, she's just got major self esteem issues. Remember what she thought the fallout would be if she told Aya who she was at the beginning of the comic? She's been slowly coming out of her shell but you can tell from how she reacted to Aya saying Mitsuki should publicize her song that she still thinks very negatively, especially when she's imagining how other people will react to her.

The point is that "density" = signals are being sent that she's not receiving or that she's misinterpreting, whatever the underlying psychological reason.

last edited at Mar 11, 2024 9:23PM

So I rest my case: it's not that abnormal that there was not any more ruckus or inquiries about her coming back, given the cultural background of Japan and their reluctance to infringe on privacy of people. She's an adult, case closed.

I'm so glad there are people like you and Gabinomicon who get it.
There's a crowd out there who don't get it at all. Even tho we explained it so many times.

Sure, we get that this is a story based on magic where everyone just ignores the magic. No need to congratulate yourself about it.

Lol well that's certainly not what I was talking about. I was just baffled by people arguing over if she's 14 or if she's 21 when the fact that she's both depending on the context is basically the whole plot of the manga right now.

Sorry I misunderstood--the "why wasn't there more of an inquiry?" issue is what the person you quoted was discussing.

I think you're right--the "14 but also 21" situation is simply what the author was trying to set up, and the how of it, and the wider response to how it happened, are (currently) of negligible interest to them.

So I rest my case: it's not that abnormal that there was not any more ruckus or inquiries about her coming back, given the cultural background of Japan and their reluctance to infringe on privacy of people. She's an adult, case closed.

I'm so glad there are people like you and Gabinomicon who get it.
There's a crowd out there who don't get it at all. Even tho we explained it so many times.

Sure, we get that this is a story based on magic where everyone just ignores the magic. No need to congratulate yourself about it.

Not to mention that Koga is so dense that even if Aya took out a billboard that said, “I, Aya, have romantic feelings toward Mitsuki. Also, FYI, two girls can have sex, and I want to have it with her,” Mitsuki would find a way to think it meant something else.

"Are those song lyrics? They sound sick! Can I use them in my next song?"

Lol--exactly.

With Mitsuki then turned away hunched over her guitar and Aya spluttering and pointing at the billboard in the background. (But I adore them both.)

last edited at Mar 11, 2024 9:59AM

Dunno why people are thinking Aya does not realize what her feelings for Mitsuki are, the "Can I think Koga-san likes me? No, no way, way, no way, but still" on page 4 pretty unambiguously conveys she's thrilled at the idea of Mitsuki liking her romantically and is trying not to get her hopes up while still being very excited at the thought regardless. Aya knows what she's feeling and what she wants, lol. She'd kinda given up on Mitsuki liking her back after the big romantic rock performance that climaxed with "will you be my friend" but now she's over the moon at the thought that things might move in that direction instead of continuing platonically.
If anyone doesn't fully realize what she's feeling yet, it's Mitsuki. But we're getting some major hints of evolution from her now :3

People have just had bad experiences with manga in the past. What seems obviously the case has sometimes not mattered, so some probably want really explicit confirmation before getting their hopes up.

I would say that in my case at least it’s far less about the fear of yuri-baiting than it is the fact that this series requires a lot of inferences about exactly what the characters are feeling at any given time and what they understand about their own feelings and the feelings of others—the whole series is based on a pretty big (and fairly extended) misunderstanding, after all.

Not to mention that Koga is so dense that even if Aya took out a billboard that said, “I, Aya, have romantic feelings toward Mitsuki. Also, FYI, two girls can have sex, and I want to have it with her,” Mitsuki would find a way to think it meant something else.

For saying herself that she is not fit to be asked about love questions, Chizuru is very perceptive and gives good advice with actual explanations about why she thinks that way. You have won my respect, girl!

Seriously—two instances of solid, well-founded love advice there.

Now I want to see Aya giving Koga head pats.

OMG, is it possible that Aya likes Koga? I don’t mean as just a friend, but that she like likes her?

(Lol, the real question is whether Aya herself realizes that she like likes Koga.)

It should also be mentioned that people "disappear" all the time in Japan. About 100.000 person per year are signaled as "missing". Most of them are found or come back later, but some just "evaporate".

It's called "Jouhatsu" (a term meaning "evaporation"). It can be for a lot of reasons, for family reasons, for tax reasons, for debt reasons, a woman evaporating with her child, leaving the husband for DV reason (or others), suicide, etc...

The laws about privacy are really strong in Japan, so as long as no crime has been committed, police will be extremely reluctant to investigate.

So, I think there's nothing surprising about Aya's situation regarding the authorities for a Japanese reader. She disappeared, she's back, she's 21, no crime has been reported. Everyone moves on. It's not the police's problem.

That’s certainly true in general—the classic 1967 Japanese pseudo-documentary A Man Vanishes is about that very phenomenon. But most such cases are, as you suggest, men leaving their families, whole families running away from loansharks, or other grown people escaping bad situations like oppressive jobs, etc.

But as we saw, this was a missing middle-schooler who sparked a police search, one who has now returned physically unchanged and with (essentially) amnesia. Even given the cultural concept of jouhatsu, the specific situation would seem to warrant rather more than a “Huh, that’s weird. Well, welcome back!” reaction.

I'm honestly curious if they'll even address the disappearance with any kind of specifics, or if they'll just hand wave it away. Magical Realism is a decently popular genre in Japan, and the more I read this the more I feel it sort of fits into that genre?

No one (other than Koto I guess, but even then it feels more rooted in the effect the disappearance had on her, ie. her separation anxiety.) seems to be that pressed about the 'how' of her disappearance just yet. They're all just like, "Yeah, okay."

No, I think you're probably (who knows what will actually happen?) quite right about that--manga can be pretty casual about bizarre "what if?" premises that just set up whatever dynamic they're going for.

I don't really think it's a flaw in this story or anything--more like a humorously weird aspect of the situation. It's kinda fun to imagine, for instance, Aya and [whoever she ends up with] chatting with new friends who ask, "So, when did you two first get together?" and them saying, "Well, it's a funny story . . ."

last edited at Mar 7, 2024 1:02PM

The newest chapter isn’t quite up here, but it’s not a spoiler to say that, despite the drama trappings of false public accusations and the horror-movie mom, at its heart this is extravagantly gorgeous romantic fluff, and I can’t get enough of it.

As with lots of other yuri modes, I wouldn’t want every story to be like this, but I’m very glad this one is.

In literary terms, “realism” can mean a lot of different things; at its simplest it points to the lack of speculative or supernatural elements that alter the known human relation to the physical world.

But it’s also true that “realism” is used to denote the depiction of plausible or “typical” human behavior and causality (sometimes “unrealistically” so—outlandish coincidences do happen in real life that would be criticized as unrealistic in a fiction. But they don’t happen all the time.)

It’s been argued that “realism” is best understood as a relational or comparative term rather than an absolute one—if asked which animation is more realistic, The Simpsons or SpongeBob SquarePants, most people immediately say it’s The Simpsons, while recognizing that neither of them correspond to reality in any ultimate sense.

It should also be mentioned that people "disappear" all the time in Japan. About 100.000 person per year are signaled as "missing". Most of them are found or come back later, but some just "evaporate".

It's called "Jouhatsu" (a term meaning "evaporation"). It can be for a lot of reasons, for family reasons, for tax reasons, for debt reasons, a woman evaporating with her child, leaving the husband for DV reason (or others), suicide, etc...

The laws about privacy are really strong in Japan, so as long as no crime has been committed, police will be extremely reluctant to investigate.

So, I think there's nothing surprising about Aya's situation regarding the authorities for a Japanese reader. She disappeared, she's back, she's 21, no crime has been reported. Everyone moves on. It's not the police's problem.

That’s certainly true in general—the classic 1967 Japanese pseudo-documentary A Man Vanishes is about that very phenomenon. But most such cases are, as you suggest, men leaving their families, whole families running away from loansharks, or other grown people escaping bad situations like oppressive jobs, etc.

But as we saw, this was a missing middle-schooler who sparked a police search, one who has now returned physically unchanged and with (essentially) amnesia. Even given the cultural concept of jouhatsu, the specific situation would seem to warrant rather more than a “Huh, that’s weird. Well, welcome back!” reaction.

And compensation for what?

I guess he's trying to pay her to give up on her girlfriend? Kinda like Getting Picked Up by my Boss's Daughter.

It’s the other way around—he wants her to pay some kind of compensation as a penalty for what used to be (and in some places still is) called “alienation of affection.”

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/divorce/alienation-of-affection/#:~:text=Alienation%20of%20affection%20occurs%20when,give%20rise%20to%20this%20tort.

This story can easily have a biphobia subplot. Yuna dumping Kiku for a man.

I’m not seeing how “Yuna dumped Kiku for a man.” Although any breakup can be painful, breaking up with someone because you find that you can’t love them the way they deserve to be loved is a perfectly reasonable and humane thing to do.

Nothing here suggests that Yuna’s problem was with Kiku’s gender.

It's just harder for me to believe that Tianli would deliberately do such a terrible thing to Xiangyuan if she was in love with her, and hadn't even been explicitly rejected, and then stayed friends with the bullies that helped drive her love away. She definitely had some sort of monopolizing desire for Xiangyuan but it was one where she fully thought the ship has already sailed. This makes the study abroad scholarship especially seem like a very important motivator imo.

She might not have even been thinking about it as outing her, she might have been thinking of it as trying to chase Wang away from her. But even if that's not the case, when somebody is hurt, they lash out, and sometimes in the moment children (and I mean, that's the thing, they were children) don't understand the consequences of what they're doing.

Although it hasn’t been referenced again since it was first said, it still seems relevant that when Xiangyuan first outed herself to Tianli, she told her, “it’s not that big a secret.” That would have helped Tianli rationalize her action as not being “such a terrible thing,” whatever its ultimate motivation.

Do we have any idea why Xingyuan’s family are considered “celebrities,” and the father is regarded negatively by the public?

last edited at Feb 25, 2024 7:43PM

It's nice to see Mitsuki looking adorable/hot even when it's not through Aya's POV.

Agreed that this seems to constitute a rather shocking level of self-insight for our shy, androgynously charismatic little stud-muffin.

“You’re being nice to me” isn’t quite as on-point as “you like me” would have been, but—baby steps.

The series really should be called "Hime-Chan needs a therapist and medication"

While it’s not uncommon in Western fiction for characters to be in therapy or on meds, and there are an abundance of characters in manga with conditions like anxiety disorders, etc., I can’t recall too many manga series where psychologically troubled characters were in therapy/took medication for “regular” mental health care (as opposed to psychopathic monsters or institutionalized serial killers or characters like that).

At the least it seems to be a narrative trope (like the “no parents = no home complications” thing). I’ve gotten pushback in these forums in the past about avoiding seeking professional mental health care except in dire emergencies being an actual Japanese cultural trait (even though there are plenty of pieces online stating just that).