@Yasako what did you learn that's so cursed? If they are twins irl and in a relationship, that's fine IMO. Or is there actually more to it than that?

last edited at Sep 10, 2023 6:10AM

Love the nuttiness of this opening, can't wait to see where this goes! Hope it ends in wincest poly~

i'm down with this, hilarious setup. can already see Momo being the "i have to keep an eye on them, lest they land themselves in jail or smth" girlfriend to the two absolute gremlins

That would be the perfect outcome ^^

the fact so many of you are excusing fucking incest is insane to me, like what?? the story would've been fine WITHOUT the incest, you can still have crazy x crazy if both were obsessive to each other why include incest

I'm not just excusing incest, I'm encouraging it!

Oooh, our heroine has arrived! I like her vibes so far, but I'm nervous that it could be an act, given what we know about her game-self, and that bit of maybe foreshadowing of "she seems like a decent sort, right?" Like, our demon lord going full demon lord from being shunned would be one thing, but a betrayal could be the thing that really sets her on that path in the end.
On the other hand, if this gal is genuine, that could also lead to some interesting dynamics. The prince, though... Yeesh.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA This chapter was so good, this manga continues to knock it out of the park every time. I love how we both got more insight into Lapis's thinking, and backstory on Natori. Plus, given the coded message that was passed along, it seems Lapis's plans will present her with an important choice soon, that whatever the specifics may be, I feel may wind up being a defining one, even if the consequences (bad or good) don't fully come to roost until later down the line. Whatever the original decision there may have been, I feel like by this point, the other may be taken.

But no seriously teenage Natori was cute AF, and while this is unlikely, I also kinda wanna see more of that basketball girl in some way.

last edited at Aug 4, 2023 4:01PM

I'm really loving this so far!

This was great xD
Thank you, scanlation team!

YESS, explanation to her, rather confusing, reasonings !! It was inevitable on such a good story though. Imo it was understandable before the whole Chinatsu and the company story, but confusing 'cause it just felt like something was missing and they went a long way here.

Instead of clearing the table of all the bullshit, she just keeps adding more bullshit to the table

Just adding what I think to what Vankomycin said: and isn't that human-like as shit? I share the same feeling of also liking the "HEA" endings 'cause it really is a great feeling of relief and payoff, but I'm -also- here for how romance can ACTUALLY happen irl, with the concept that the most realistic story we could get is the one that sometimes things makes no sense, and the most unrealistic stories are the ones where everything falls into place like a glove right away.
Romance, love, human connections are simply... not simple, Hiroko is going through her shit, doing things to deal with her own shit and ofc it didn't feel like clean waters exactly because, probably, her mindset is: I really, really love and cherish this amazing person who also treats me well, but this same person basically sacrificed something for me to succeed. Now there's this really new, very interesting and daring person wanting to interact with me in a way that could pretty much destroy what the other person sacrificed for. She even said in the last page "I'll make sure this chance will not go to waste". So I understand why there's shit on top of shit 'cause honestly, if I was in her shoes, I'd be confused as hell on what to do now too...

Personally, when a story has these many rocks on its path, if the ending end up to be "Happily ever after", the feeling of happiness and relief I'm gonna get for these characters to finally be happy after so many battles is far bigger than stories like Can't Defy the Lonely Girl, where the main couple had tense situations, but not as tense and as complex as Hiroko and Ayaka's. (It did have the potential, but I at least felt like Kashikaze wanted to water down things?)
But if it ends and they're not together I'm personally also ok with it... romance doesn't always works. If I wanna see pairings have their HEA at the end I'll just.. read another story.

Very very well-put, I was going to say as much myself, but you beat me to it and probably better than I would have ^^;

Nooooo!

(Though it would be hilarious (If unlikely) if the author went back to Records Of Linyao after this for a while... Then left it on a big moment and came back to this... and so on and so forth)

But for real though, what a chapter. I feel like I should go reread it all now to have everything fresh in my mind.

"I don't care" cares a lot
Personally I dig the classmates.

A few pages back, someone compared this series to Liberty, and Hiroko to Liz. I, having not read Liberty, decided to go check it ouf, if it was something interesting like this where one of the leads was a complicated character, unilaterally disliked by the audience like Hiroko...

And to whoever made that comparison, I would urge you to reread Liberty yourself, because dear goodness are they two very, very different animals. I guess an argument could be made that they share a lack of communication skills and that hurting the other lead girl, but at least from what I've read so far in Liberty, they diverge in most other regards. Hiroko's trying to keep herself safe, and doesn't realize how badly this affects Ayaka, and once she realizes what's going on apologizes and is trying to be considerate of both their needs. Liz is overreactionary and abusive, and in regards to how her behavior may affect Maki, doesn't seem to particularly care. The narrative (by way of our lesbian bar greek chorus) is still critical of Hiroko's flaws, while (again at least as far as I've read) with Liz is uh, decidedly not.

Oh man, I'd love to talk with you about your Harumin takes but don't want to get off topic more!

I guess to keep it brief, (since I'm already a bit off-topic here) she seemed respectful of and on the same wavelength with Yuzu in a way Mei and Matsuri were not. And I do remember the bad vibes Mei initially gave me subsiding after a while, but it never really managed to sell me on her having any chemistry with Yuzu. I'm not even opposed to the incest angle, it was just the actual writing of their dynamic that turned me off and never managed to win me back. So yeah, I'm with Nene to this day XD

Anyway, back on topic...

If Risa had given her time and space before suggesting a relationship, maybe it could have worked out better, but this outcome just makes sense to me given her characterization thus far.

Yeah, I can imagine her mental state though. She lost Ayaka's affection to Hiroko, now they're "broken up" and here's Risa's chance. But what if she waits too long and Ayaka falls for someone else? Back to unrequited love again? She must have been under a lot of romantic stress. Then, they're finally dating and Risa must have noticed Ayaka's relative apathy and lack of closeness. That's just difficult stuff and she couldn't have been in the best state when she went for the aggressive kiss. I don't blame her either. I don't blame any of the 3 really.

Mmmm, yeah, when you put it that way, that does make sense. When I first read this chapter, Ayaka's continued listlessness during the date scenes kinda escaped my notice, (since I thought it was like, Risa's imaginings during her confessing, not actual events across a minor timeskip until a page or two later) so the aggressive face felt kinda more relevant to Risa's own fed-up vibes these past few chapters than in response to that. But going back and looking again, it does come across a bit better now.

I just hope all three of them wind up happy, whatever the outcome. Perhaps we'll get to see more of CEO lady?

Also you're thoughts about the 3 women and how we all view them are interesting, as well. Hiroko's issues feel the most real (to me, and maybe you as well?). Maybe that's part of why you might find it easier to relate to her problems? There's more that could be said about your ideas. Appreciated.

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. The worries about being outed, if Ayaka is just a straight girl who gets all touchy-feely without meaning it, (having been on the receiving end of that one myself, I could relate to that one) and the age gap and chain-of-command ranking all feel like very reasonable concerns to have.

Though I will admit that like, my perception of the other two may be a bit clouded by personal hangups. I tend to be pretty sensitive to like, romantic pushiness for some reason, and there's a hair-thin line between "pushy but acceptable" and "too much, bad vibes," the exact criteria of which is kind of a mystery even to me. Like I said, Ayaka kinda hit up against this line in some of the earlier chapters, but I think the context of Hiroko's pure density helped kinda make it come off better than it otherwise might have; and for some reason Toukou's sketchier moments in Bloom Into You (mainly the sports festival thing) that some others objected to, also didn't really come across as badly to me? But then there's the aforementioned example of Mei and Matsuri who definitely set off some alarm bells. Plus probably a dozen other manga on here, where I've commented on one of the leads giving me bad vibes by being too forward, while most other readers have been perfectly fine with them? (And back on the flipside, Kaede from Assault Lily was a surprise to me, for not giving me any bad vibes despite being very forward with the lead Riri.) So idk.

last edited at Jun 18, 2023 10:42PM

I feel like the characters in this series have realistic motivations and hang ups.

Citation needed

"I'm her boss and she still has her whole life ahead of her. I'm sure she'll find someone better than a woman 13 years her senior."

You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

If this is facetious, lmao excellent. If you were serious here... Moving the goalposts much?

Damn everyone who left an Ayaka x Risa comment must be reeling right now lol

This was definitely done in a "let's do it to say we did it" type way rather than giving it much effort. I've been cheering for Risa but pushing Ayaka to date her was a weird move (even if she said she wouldn't play nice, doesn't mean she has to go 0 to 100).

I talked about it in an earlier comment about Risa but she seemed a bit desperate. She knew how Ayaka felt and this uneasiness seemed to be building up behind the scenes throughout the last few chapters. She was growing really envious and starting to escalate, finally culminating in her outburst with Hiroko. So I agree it was aggressive but I didn't see it as sudden (with earlier comments as evidence of that); rather it felt to me like she was at her last straw, knew Ayaka's feelings, and wanted to snatch a chance with her. It's sad that it doesn't work out for her though.

Yeah, that was kinda my vibe too. I don't wanna be too harsh on the Risa supporters, (I have similar feelings on Harumin from Citrus being a better option than Mei and will always stand by that) but I honestly think in this case she's kinda proving to not be great (romantically) for Ayaka either. I understand the desperation and that there's no real malice on her part, but like, coming in so hot basically right after a heartbreak would feel like a really scummy move in even just slightly different circumstances.

As it is, I could see, like, as soon as she suggested dating, that she was royally shooting herself in the foot by not giving Ayaka the time to move on first. The timeskip from that right to their own breakup was a bit unexpected, thought that would last another chapter or so, but honestly I don't mind it being paced like this since it isn't wasting our time on what was very clearly a doomed endeavor. If Risa had given her time and space before suggesting a relationship, maybe it could have worked out better, but this approach and the inevitable outcome thereof just makes sense to me given her characterization thus far.

In general, I feel like there's some sort of weird values dissonance at play here between me and most of the commenters, because I was made a little uncomfortable by Risa's level of aggression, and if I'm being perfectly honest, Ayaka's own forcefulness towards Hiroko during some of the earlier chapters, while being much more sympathetic to Hiroko's denial, deflections, and now her turning down. She very obviously needs to grow and become more comfortable with who she is in order to be able to treat Ayaka right, and she recognizes that, but I still get her a lot more than the pushiness (justified/necessary or not) of the other two.

last edited at Jun 18, 2023 3:56AM

At last, we have contact! Michi's gonna have a lot harder time playing off Aizawa-san now, hehehe

Maybe a hot take

A freezing cold take, given that most everybody in this thread but me agrees with you.

Count me in. It's 2 against the world lol.

Me three. I think Hiroko's being a pretty big idiot, sure, but I can understand where she's coming from.

This seems really intriguing; can't wait to see where this goes ^^

But we don't need mind reading powers to see what the real treasure is.

To see why kids love cinnamon toast crunch?

In case anyone didn't notice during Natori's inner dialogue, but those are fox ears, not cat ears.

Which only makes it better.

Indeed! Kinda looking forward to seeing how they factor into things going forward.

I'm starting to doubt whether she was actually a womanizer.

My running assumption is that that's just as much of a false reputation as Ayaka's, yeah.

Oh boy, two cakes!

But seriously, I can't get enough of villainess yuri, there's certainly not enough of it, so I'm more than fine with the generic opening. As others have said, chapter 2 is probably where we'll get the proper indicators of the direction this will be taking. But it definitely seems fun so far. Can't wait to see these two bounce off each other.

Finally caught up on this one, and I really loved it! Super sweet conclusion ^^

Remembered and reread this, and I really hope we get more of it soon.

So the thing about all this is, I could enjoy the story if I could treat it like something along the lines of science fiction--like, what's happening to her is very weird, but it's kind of just a thing that happens. But there's something fundamentally . . . I don't know how to put this. It's internally consistent, but that internal consistency doesn't point to just some kind of supernatural phenomenon, it points to AGENCY. Like, it seems the story is definitely pointing to the notion that some kind of consciousness is involved.

But . . . OK, so suspending disbelief in some weird time loop thing is one thing. Suspending disbelief that some malign, incredibly powerful intelligence has decided to consistently, labour intensively mess with the life of a random toddler for years on end apparently just because . . . I can't do it. It just SCREAMS at me constantly that the story is entirely shaped around the desired effect. I lose connection to the very suffering I'm supposed to be empathizing with.

I'm not picking up the vibe that like, there is necessarily consciousness involved? Like, that's how she put it, but it came across to me as theorizing. Also, where did it say that it was like, picking the worst days for her specifically? Like, the general situation for her, of experiencing all of these versions of the same day and remembering them all, is definitely really bad on her, but like, the specific version that gets chosen seems to be random. Just that in the case of the cat, the last day was the one that went through, whereas the whole thing with the parents basically abandoning her probably repeated through the same events a few times, since this was like, a multi-day plan they had, not a one-off random decision constrained to a specific day.

last edited at May 22, 2023 7:01AM

I remember seeing something that was just like, the first chapter at the time? And it had something to do with like, a girl who had some sort of weird psionic power? But the way it was kinda shown was really unusual and subtle. And then I think the chapter ended with another gal with similar powers showing up? But my memory of the whole thing is pretty fuzzy, so I feel like I may be getting some details wrong.

EDIT: I found it after all, it was a bit further back than I thought. The Story Of Unforgettable Witch, for the record

last edited at May 22, 2023 6:03AM

This continues to be interesting and very fun.

Well, at least this one in particular should be much easier to handle, if the victims are eager to do the thing that will cure them. Might need to keep those energy refills coming fast, though.

It's kind of a shame that I genuinely like the main girls' dynamic so much, but I'm just getting bored to tears reading this because it's very pointedly not the main focus. That plus the glamorization of retail and luxury fashion just kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth. First couple chapters seemed to be setting up much more of an evenhanded culture clash, but yeah, think I'm gonna have to drop this here. Wasted potential. :/

This is super cute!

I liked the longer hair, just personally speaking, and am not a fan of the like, "changing self just to fit crush's tastes" trope, but I have to admit Ema pulls off the futch look well too. On its own, pretty alright, but I'd like to see more of them