What a blast from the past! Many thanks to the translators for picking this up again. :-)

I was just mentally putting this in my “yuri webtoons I like that got dropped by scanlators” list yesterday. Delighted to see it back!

Erika was hoping that the reversal of the trauma trigger would reverse the trauma and Koto would come to her senses finally, realize she isn't actually interested in dating a child, and be open to Erika at long last. Koto instead has regressed, or seemingly maybe WANTS to regress?

It’s kind of a chilling moment in the previous chapter when that regression is made literal after Aya asks about the seven missing years and Koto replies, “You don’t need to know. Let’s just be together like we were in those days,” and they’re both depicted in their middle school uniforms, not in a flashback but in the present day.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/how_to_break_a_triangle_ch15#20

Koto’s explanation for her refusal to tell Aya what she did while Aya was gone is actually rather nuts: “What am I supposed to say? ‘I wanted to forget how lonely I felt after you were gone . . . So I dated a bunch of people . . .’?”

Well, yeah, that would seem to be a pretty explicable thing to have done when your first love suddenly disappears, apparently forever, and there would be no reason for Aya to hold it against her. But Koto says, “I don’t want her to know . . .this side of me.”

This series certainly has explored new frontiers in “not a solid foundation for a relationship going forward.”

Does she actually, seriously think she can just date Koto now and everything will be okay?

My guess is that she knows that “now” is still currently off the table. But Erika has always been playing a very long game in regard to her feelings for Koto—she turned her down when Koto brought up the possibility of the two of them dating after Aya had gone missing, because she knew Koto needed to somehow resolve her feelings about Aya first.

From Erika’s point of view, Koto trying and apparently failing with Aya is a necessary precondition for the two of them getting together, however long it might take for that to happen.

(I think that Koto is actually too deeply damaged for a relationship with Erika to ever be feasible, but that’s my read of Erika’s thinking.)

last edited at Nov 4, 2024 9:49PM

Erika dropping truths onto Koto that she does not want to hear, even if she has an ulterior motive.

Also, really happy that the Mystery subplot has finally been picked up again.

Oh yeah, Erika is Ms. Ulterior Motive all over the place here. I pretty much admire her in that she's really not being underhanded about it and is actually giving decent advice to both Aya and Koto.

But her interior thoughts show that "Operation Get With Koto, Eventually" is still very much a go.

Yeah, we really didn't get much new information in this chapter except those last few pages, and then pow!

Kumagaya: "So, Aya, you just kind of have that 'has been spirited away' look about you." lol

And here's me thinking that I had made my peace with the whole, "JFC, Aya was spirited away for seven years and now she's suddenly back but nobody seems freaked out that she was spirited away for seven years (except Koto, and for her it was more the "no Aya" part and not the "spirited away and now back" part) so what the f*cking f*ck!?!" issue.

But now apparently it's back on the table.

"By the way... why did things even get awkward between us in the first place?"

Honestly great question because I also don't know

Chapter 100: Koga invited her new admirers/kouhai to come hang out at the record store, which made Aya radically insecure about her “specialness” to Koga, and then Koga reacted to Aya’s confusion and general acting weird-ness.

Wait, didn’t we think Freckle-chan was going to invite Koga to the prom?

Although I try to stay out of the plot-prediction business*, I find it hard to believe that the story is going the “no prom at all” route after going to the trouble of setting it up. Maybe a “leave the producer’s party early and hit the prom together” twist.

*Because the pay is so low even when you get it completely right.

Slightly divergent from this topic is the question of whether there ought to be a Prince tag, since that is a pretty common yuri trope. Often one of my favorites, too, as in Morinaga Milk’s Secret of the Princess, which has two of them.

Although that might raise the further question (as I suggested above) of the possible Reluctant Prince tag—I just happened across another example in the series Prince Prince by Aoto Hibiki—not to mention potential confusion with stories that contain kings, queens, and, you know, princes.

I'm happy you think this manga fits in a little cozy corner here :)

Absolutely. This makes a nice companion piece to Season of Alabaster—some of the same character types, but very different protagonists and an overall different feel.

By all means, please keep your eyes peeled for more manga series with smoking hot onee-chan nude models.

Now I’m racking my brain trying to remember which romance manga had a major “guy looks for lost hairpin in the snow” sequence.

And then trying to remember if those are the only two “lost hairpin” scenes I’ve read, or is it an actual trope I’ve seen other times?

A condition called love.

Bingo. Thank you!

Thanks for this, Daphie. The story is nothing really remarkable, but you always do good work, and it’s solid enough for adding a little variety to the Dynasty offerings.

But in the afterword, shouldn’t it be “Kamio-sensei blowing everyone else away with her,” etc.?

We’re not quite at the “Kamio-sensei blowing everyone” part of the festivities, I suspect, if indeed we ever get there.

I don't get why you don't just rename the whole tag Butch and be done with it. I really don't see the point in differentiating it. Tomboy in general is kind of derogatory imo, it implies their masculinity is just a childish trait they'll grow out of. It's also not a word I think I've ever seen used on someone over the age of like, 13? So it feels very immature to me. Just say butch, it's so much easier.

However it may feel to you, there can be a significant difference between women who present as “butch” and those who present as “tomboys.” And I’ve commonly seen “tomboy” applied to grown women, often by themselves.

A “butch” tag would be especially inappropriate for the quite common yuri trope of the girl who physically is boyish (often dressing as a “prince” type) but who secretly is attracted to cute things or to girly fashion.

Gah, these two are so cute I can’t even. And as people here have been saying, the supporting characters are really top-notch.

While in the broadest sense I’m a standard yuri reader hoping for relationship “progress,” I love the atmosphere and the character interactions in this series so much that I’m fine with the story taking as long as the author wants to take. (But I am always greedy for more chapters.)

Once more looks like there'll be no new Citrus+ chapter in October, either https://www.ichijinsha.co.jp/yurihime/next/

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up, what is going on with Citrus' publication?

That seems to be the big question. Some people have speculated about the author’s health, but as far as anyone can tell that is indeed completely speculation. Saburouta does seem to be doing some Citrus-related work, like for the collected volumes. But new chapters of Citrus+ have been very few and far between and with (at least in my opinion) not a great deal of focus in the plot or characterization, and sometimes with the art obviously not completely finished.

If anyone knows more I would certainly be interested to hear it.

Kinda get the feeling that their friends would be okay with them dating each other, so the whole secrecy thing is starting to just feel arbitrary.

They know.

Told ya 6 years ago.

Wait...

Six years for this?

“This” as opposed to what? The series was never going to end with a NSFW scene.

As the “it’s a secret from everyone” tagline told us over and over, the reveal to the friends was always going to be the big moment. Although there’s one more chapter, so theoretically we might get to see Nanoha and Chidori push the beds together in their new love nest.

As opposed to the blandest shit I've ever skipped through.

So the "six years" was just figurative, then? I knew what it was from the start, and have enjoyed it. I don't know why anyone would think it would turn into something else. Different strokes . . .

that is like ignoring context to pretend you were right or something, we have many mangas were we were 100% they were gonna end up together only to be a wet fart of an ending, like please spare me the idea that 40 chapters was enough of an indication were i got stories that you couldn’t say they were NOT IN LOVE with one another only for the author to pull the we are best fewnds, so yeah thank got we got 80 chapters to reach this conclusion, should i thank the gay gods it paid off instead of going 130 without anything changing? YAP I’m gonna make an offering to the Yuri Goddess and thank her :3

YOU might have many manga that you thought they were gonna end up together and were wrong, but not me. Maybe I just know how to read better or something lol? To date my one and only failed prediction of canon gay is Lycoris Recoil, and I'm pretty sure that's only because the show got censored (and the light novel follow-ups written by the same author corrected that and made them textually gay).

don't claim victory before the match's over fella.

[SNIP]

But also this "match" IS over. Akebi's Sailor Uniform is gay. The gay Sailor Uniform ship has sailed. I did predict it four years ago before it happened but it's already happened by now, Komichi explicitly said she is in love with Erika. That's why the "subtext" tag on this manga got replaced with a "yuri" tag!

We probably need to cut the “yuri skeptic/pessimist” community a bit of a break—they clearly still suffer from a lot of past trauma (although I’m not sure we can say the same of the “yuri tag police” aka the “on-panel fisting or it’s just subtext” crowd).

My own personal counter-example was Nettaigyo, which had to work far harder to NOT end up as explicit yuri than it would have done to just go with its own well-established flow—when you have to back off from an “isn’t the moon beautiful?” scene, you’re doing Olympic-level back-pedaling.

I totally agree on this one, though—the mutual blush-sex scenes alone approach NSFW levels.

I just noticed that in the previous chapter when Tachibana and Shiki are studying English, Tachibana asked to review the present-perfect tense. I thought that was a nice touch, since present-perfect is an aspect of English grammar (one not found in Japanese, as I understand it) that often gives scanlators a bit of trouble--you'll see, "This is the first time I come here" rather than "This is the first time I've come here."

Oh my...I wonder what they're gonna do.

Well, for one thing, there’s a good chance Erika will wash her feet.

Because this artist and feet.

last edited at Oct 20, 2024 12:42PM

“We aren’t going to be able to do our love scene on stage in front of the whole school, so let’s do it by ourselves in Erika’s room in the middle of the night.”

Works for me.

Kinda get the feeling that their friends would be okay with them dating each other, so the whole secrecy thing is starting to just feel arbitrary.

They know.

Told ya 6 years ago.

Wait...

Six years for this?

“This” as opposed to what? The series was never going to end with a NSFW scene.

As the “it’s a secret from everyone” tagline told us over and over, the reveal to the friends was always going to be the big moment. Although there’s one more chapter, so theoretically we might get to see Nanoha and Chidori push the beds together in their new love nest.

Impromptu first dates are the best.

Now I’m racking my brain trying to remember which romance manga had a major “guy looks for lost hairpin in the snow” sequence.

And then trying to remember if those are the only two “lost hairpin” scenes I’ve read, or is it an actual trope I’ve seen other times?

Misa has some weird mutated feet.

Realistic-looking feet are not exactly in the draftsmanship wheelhouse of a lot of mangaka.

Dogs, either.

Slow burn manga is slow.

Wow, Chinese lesbians are all impossibly gorgeous—who knew?