at this point I'm pretty sure it's all in Haruki's head, since she's slowly wrapping up everything about Sakura in her life (visiting her parents after so long, tidying up her work corner, finishing the diary), or that's how I see it at least

That's the most logical conclusion, but I can't shake the feeling that now that TWO people have seen Sakura out of the corner of their eye there's something more going on. Yes, it could just be the moment of reminiscence bringing up memories, especially since both were locations they all were together with Sakura. I'm still feeling that something being off. I can't tell what, but it's more than just ghost vs delusion.

When anyone reminisces about someone else, they kind of see that person flash by. Especially if they're talking to someone else that also knew that person.

There's nothing in this story to indicate that supernatural would play a serious role. At most, you'll have some kind of ambiguity at the end, as to whether she's a spirit that came to give her beloved a push on her back, or just a long internal process that is finally approaching its end.

Also, that possibly can't be the most interesting thing to think about this series? It's such a trivial thing to focus on, when you have something so characterization-rich as this on the platter.

last edited at Jul 25, 2023 10:56AM

I'm bit surprised girlfriend footsies are so rare in yuri. I can't remember last time I saw it, to be honest.

"Persona's biggest flaw is its terminal heterosexuality, wish it was possible to do something like this in P5"

It's sort of worse. Both Ann's and Yusuke's personal stories contain queer coding in some ways, but it's either a joke (Yusuke) or nothing is done with it after her backstory scenes are over (Ann). Oh, and that stupid "predator okama" scene, that was apparently edited later. That thing would have been at home in some gross 1970's slap-stick comedy.

Persona franchise has gotten kind of worse about these things over the years, not better. P2 was legit for its time, P3 Portable was bland, P4 just had some gay panic and Kanji (who is bit of an oddball character) and P5 is what it is.

Japan also suffers from producers and editors being way too calculating immediately when they think a product might be commercially successful, which kills their stories in some ways.

Heard many people say 2023 is a "year of yuri", but the delivery is often deliberately bad. So much self-censorship. Magical Revolution is more like it should be, characters being open about what and who they like and having physical intimacy like two people who like each other would have, but vast majority of productions set their sights way lower and just reducing quality of their product for romance parts of their story, sometimes radically to a point where you just go "wtf?" and consequently lose suspension of disbelief.

last edited at Jul 16, 2023 9:48PM

Yuri detective at work, I see.

I can't blame her for getting to that conclusion, because at least it looks like there's a lot of sexual tension between those two.

last edited at Jul 6, 2023 3:59PM

I'm never going to understand how you're supposed to do that trick where you tie a knot on a cherry stem with your tongue. I've only seen it done in manga. I'm thinking it has to be a Japanese urban legend.

No, it's a real trick. There are articles and YT videos if you want to try it. Apparently some guy managed to tie 14 knots a minute for Guiness record. Sounds whacky fast, but ok.

Well, that certainly was a rough moment.

Author has to handle the next few chapters carefully, because I was left with the feeling there simply was not enough story and background context to justify Ruriko just smashing Kurumi across her face in panic, even if she was coming on her while drunk.

This is despite the setup of Ruriko feeling jealous, possessive and inadequate in this chapter and also previously, from time to time. Maybe there's more to it that we haven't yet seen.

Kurumi is such a weirdo. >_<

She can furiously fondle breasts, including nipples, and bite or give hickeys, but even just asking for a kiss is soooo hard.

I think the relationship was handled kind of poorly where it comes to actual romance.

Not because Suletta and Miorine aren't cool characters or they don't have any chemistry, they are and I kind of liked quite a few of the cast. But where is the sexual tension between them during the series? Not only that, but it's more like guys hitting on Suletta and her being vaguely interested that comes to mind. OG yuri like Sailor Moon, or reboot of She-Ra did this a lot better. Hell, even RWBY managed to do decent job with it after ages of finger-twiddling.

Honestly, if I didn't understand what the writers are intending you to take from it, I'd just call it a platonic relationship coming through arranged marriage (duel stuff is a twisted version of that).

last edited at Jul 4, 2023 5:21AM

And speaking of writing, is anyone else wondering if this manga's entire plot is AI-created or something? It doesn't feel like a parody at this point, and there's a sort of odd disconnectedness to it all.

AI actually creates much more detailed plots if you ask it.

For fun, try asking Bing Chat for a plot synopsis, but do not use word "yuri". Instead just say "romance between two women in Japanese [location] setting". Why? Because for some reason word definitions of Bing are whacky. As it pulls training data from a lot of sources it is afraid of the word "yuri", because in some internet pages you see claims where "yuri is associated with sexual relationships" and so forth.

I'm enjoying the cuteness, but also waiting for what kind of mess time travel and/or reincarnation will do to a story this time.

I think other readers are calling it correctly, this new character broke the implied faux-Victorian age story context. Confusing.

I know its not a very complex story so far, but its nice to see a series that not only doesnt use all the standard tropes to stretch the process as long as possible, but activity subverts some of the more annoying tropes. Just the fact that the two characters clealry stated what they were feeling with no contrived misunderstandings or sudden Interruptions that cut the conversation short is such a goddamn breathe of fresh air.

It's definitely a loving parody of high-school yuri at this point. Everything is either over the top whacky, or straightforward when you'd expect more convoluted things to happen.

the Mai from the beginning of the manga, after hearing the "I luv u too" from Tae, would have taken Tae into her arms and kissed the living daylights out of her!

I really don't see that happening. Even when she was less concerned about the results of her actions, that would have been a step too far. A hug, yes. Maybe a kiss on the cheek. Possibly a very chaste one on the lips if she was in the right mindset, but the situation really wasn't suitable for that. But "kissing the living daylights out of her"? No way.

I have also seen absolutely nothing in this series that would in any way constitute a retcon; nothing of what has happened has been in any way changed by the later chapters.

I agree with all of the above. More practically, from a Japanese cultural then legal standpoint, when Mai turns 13, Tae can give her a kiss on her birthday. She can't make a habit of it or make out/snog. But they can't do "lewd acts" at all until Mai is 18. So we're talking a year-and-a-half until their first kiss. And then another 5 years before they can be fully together. By that point, women getting married should be commonplace. And Mai's mother will have had almost 7 years to get used to it to the degree she will.

Speaking of that, age of consent law was changed in Japan couple weeks ago. It's now universal 16, across the board.

Also, grooming and seducing someone who is younger than 16 is now a crime, it didn't really used to be under federal law (local laws were a different issue).

Definition of rape was broadened, before it had to include physical forcing against a victim who openly messaged they do not want it. Rape conviction was hard to land, even in cases where context of the situation indicated it was one. Now Japanese law follows western interpretations more closely, putting more responsibility to anyone who is taking initiative.

Lot better than the ancient laws from 1907. Big reason why this happened was a bunch of horrible rape cases leading to acquittal of a clear-cut rapist because of technicalities, like panel "doubting that victim was actually trying to resist being raped by her father" and such. This caused a citizen movement in 2019, and now the legal battle finally bore fruit.

last edited at Jun 29, 2023 8:27AM

Thundere and Wheesekai protagonist.

"^ Because the Gundam series is such a prestigious, iconic franchise, in short. It's going to be a pretty big symbolic step forward if they show an on screen same-sex kiss/marriage in it."

Kojiro, previous series Iron-Blooded Orphans already ended up with two of the female main characters married and living together. Including normal sex life, because In their case it was originally a MFF poly relationship, but the pilot perished in final battle.

That leaves something like on-screen kiss. Which while nice, isn't really historical. Plus it will get censored the duck out in a lot of countries, so the production company might not even bother making a scene like that because it has to be chopped off.

I'm not expecting anything, especially after Birdie Wing. If we get something nice, fine.

last edited at Jun 27, 2023 7:58PM

Kojiro, what do you mean with historic?

Funny to see such a crazy gag manga to turn out into a cute rom-com.

That said, I'd like to see some yuri couple rom-com's anyway, so many series are so focused on how people start dating and nothing much else. You could easily just keep going with these two.

Ayaka is being very inconsiderate and pushy. Public confessions are kind of awful because they put societal pressure onto the receiver and involve bystanders in drama.
She could come out by herself to prove her point but now rumours are going to affect Hiroko, so she went and landed her in the hot water.
Besides, does she think that Ayaka would immediately get together with her if her baggage was gotten rid of? We know that yes, that is probably the case, but for her it is not certain.

yeah I agree to be honest... I'm not sure I like this development, it's so over the top... I hope it backfires lol...

People should not like or dislike developments, for most part, as long as it is contextually correct. If it fits the character, no matter how crazy or gross, it's good. If it doesn't fit the character, then there has to be a really good in-story reason for it.

I think this is just really fitting for Ayaka's personality. Ayaka is exactly that impulsive, brash go-getter girl who goes for what she wants deep inside, damn the personal consequences. If you really wanted to analyze her a bit like she was a "real person", she'd be one of those numerous people with mild undiagnosed ADHD. She has tons of character cues like that, starting from the way her apartment looks like, how she's either detached or in manic or panic mode all the time, or how she's hyper-focused on Hiroko, even beyond a typical crush.

last edited at Jun 23, 2023 4:23PM

Ayaka was even more sassy that I though. Shots fired across the office...

I get in line here, too. I really love flawed characters. It just means they have to work through their shit as the story goes. In the real world, there are so many people out there who are not ready for a relationship (in fact, I think most of us aren't) and it is always a lot of work, so fictional characters figuring their stuff out is just so interesting and rewarding for me to see.

Lot of romantic fiction makes the greatest break from reality in that in fiction, it is often hard to start a relationship but seemingly easy to keep it going (happy ever after babying), while in reality it's usually easy to get into a relationship (at least if you're hot or cute) and very hard to keep it going for more than 2 years.

last edited at Jun 21, 2023 12:32PM

Haruka: I know Confufufu.

Can I make a "Toki wa kita!" joke now? No? Ok... I show myself out of the airplane midflight.

To be honest, that scene should just have ended with Yuria carrying Okabe to bedroom.

Oh how the turns have tabled

She was a complete train wreck,with everyone seeing right through her.

Her heart hasn't failed quite yet,but its' getting there.

Bet last chapter is just her ending up in ICU

IF ONLY.

She should've keeled over as soon as that ring slipped on.

Oh well.

Ah, the classic dieworse ending.

A more charitable interpretation is that Chinatsu was indeed a genuinely talented, important asset to the company, and when she resigned suddenly the leadership investigated. And when they discovered that it was caused by a baseless rumor from jealous colleagues, they were "encouraged" to follow her out the door. But because this is Japanese office culture, nobody just flat out said "stop spreading stupid rumors you ding-dongs."

Yeah they said she was still in contact with the boss while she was away. She must have spilled the beans and reported him. Everyone in the office seemed to know it was him afterwards.

Yes, it's pretty rare to get directly sacked, unless there is a crime and police get involved. Company image is ridiculously important.

But your bosses can make workplace feel like hell anyway. Either they stuff your desk permanently with menial work in such amounts you never want to see a piece of paper ever again, or they throw you into a broom closet and tell you it is your new "office", now stay there and shut up for the rest of your "career".

last edited at Jun 19, 2023 6:45PM