I get the feeling that there is more to their relationship than we've seen so far. The protagonist claims that she wants revenge and has been preparing to kill her for years, but she also seems to be weirdly attached to Obsidian, for reasons as of yet unknown to us readers. She says "you're always like that", which would imply that they know each other, have spent time together, more than just those two scenes we've seen. I think she cares for Obsidian, but was betrayed by her, which is why her actions don't always match her words and why her attacks never lead to anything.

I do get what you mean though. I definitely expected this to be more serious when it started. And I do think it would've probably benefited from it.

I think the premise and character dynamics were interesting, even if not anything revolutionary. However, the execution could have been a bit of better. There were a few pages that seemed disjointed to me.

Kozakura to Sorawo: I wish I could be your anchor to this side.

This is basically a love confession and Sorawo has zero reaction to it lol

I didn't read that as a romantic confession necessarily. I thought it was more in a motherly(?) sense. Besides, I thought it referred to both her and Toriko. To me it read as: I wish I could be the one you both would want to return to, but I know you are that person to one another, so you need something else to to keep you in this world.

Yeah, I saw it the same. In that same conversation she was talking about how focused both Sorawo and Toriko are to the otherside and how necessary it is for them both to find and maintain a connection to the real world. I don't know about motherly, but definitely friendly, since she's close to both of them. A really nice gesture. It's also a reasonable worry considering how reckless and driven Sorawo and Toriko can be.

Yeah, I was on the fence about motherly. I just see her acting as sort of a protector towards them? She often seems to consider them as two kids she needs to look out for and she's the voice of reason in the group. Which Sorawo and Toriko definitely need. I'm honestly surprised these two are still alive.

Kozakura to Sorawo: I wish I could be your anchor to this side.

This is basically a love confession and Sorawo has zero reaction to it lol

I didn't read that as a romantic confession necessarily. I thought it was more in a motherly(?) sense. Besides, I thought it referred to both her and Toriko. To me it read as: I wish I could be the one you both would want to return to, but I know you are that person to one another, so you need something else to to keep you in this world.

Now I'm thinking it's possible that she is projecting the feelings she had for Satsuki as well? They did work together after all, but she didn't manage to keep her there. So she wishes to help them avoid the same fate?

That being said, I do love to think of Kozakura as having a bit of a crush on Sorawo. And Gabinomicon makes a good point about her and Toriko's tastes aligning...

last edited at Jun 9, 2024 5:54PM

Every time a scene like the one in this chapter happens, I'm immediately reminded of that commenter that said once that Sorawo x Kozakura must be the author's guilty pleasure.

Mine too, honestly.
I'm sure if Otherside Picnic was more popular, there would be fanart of these two.

Toriko's astonished face when she saw them was funny. There were some great expressions in this chapter, overall. Angry Toriko is always such a blessing, I absolutely love her. And her awkwardly trying to ask Sorawo to stay over was incredibly cute. Watching Sorawo trying to come up with excuses and then realizing that she made a mistake and can't back out was fun as well.

last edited at Jun 3, 2024 11:15AM

Wish it would get back to Evie bullying Elsa¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Those were the days...

I think the world building in this story is... not its strongest point. I'm having a hard time following the plot, but I haven't enjoyed it as much lately to take the time to reread it. Glad to see I wasn't the only one who had no idea who this Olivia was, at least.

I don't understand why people always comment on the "her eyelashes are so long" line. Well, I do, because it is literally in every yuri manga out there... but there is a reason it is. Who doesn't like beautiful eyelashes?

I wish there would be mentions of eyebrows as well, though. In all the lesbian media I've consumed, Japanese and western, I may have come across a comment on eyebrows once. People don't appreciate eyebrows as much as they should, honestly —my real life friends included.

I think if you're going to make a pottery scene you should commit to the disgusting dirty hands.

I know this has very little to do with the story, but I always get so happy when I read this and see a protagonist working as an engineer. It's cool.

"But there is also still something akin to "love" at the root of her obsession.

Edit: I find yuri with characters who feel strong, obsessive versions of "love" to be compelling. Take for example the character in my avatar who did nothing wrong.

Agreed.
Also, (im)patiently waiting for this movie.

Is Wakaba just completely stupid? I don't understand why she doesn't get it, when Umezono basically spelled out her feelings to her in this chapter. Whether she should accept those feelings is another story, but acknowledging them shouldn't be that difficult. Umezono already gave her answer as to why she treats Wakaba like this, so Wakaba still thinking that she must hate her seems incredibly stupid to me.

I thought this line was a bit funny. Like an arm is absurd, but your dignity is a completely normal boundary XD

just because you are AOK with garbage behavior from others as a form of “love” cuz that’s what Ume did to wakaba, that DOES NOT translate to actually LOVE for fuck sakes! THAT is way Wakaba SAYS that ain’t “love” it’s like you LOT chose TO IGNORE what Wakaba said she doesn’t believe Ume is actually in love with her cuz who in hell DOES THAT TO THEIR LOVED ONE!!!

Wakaba doesn’t consider this garbage toxic and twisted form of obsession as “love” as any sane human being should DO!

do you get it now? just because YOU and others accepted this type of toxic behavior as “love” doesn’t mean is actualy valid for Wakaba!

Wow okay, this sure is a passionate response, certainly not what I was expecting when I wrote this.

I never said that Umezono loves her, did I? I said that she made her feelings clear and "whether Wakaba should accept those feelings is another story". I think you should try to focus on what people are actually saying and not what you think they're saying, before aggressively responding to them like this. And maybe don't start accusing people of being okay with abusive behaviour just because of a comment on a silly manga?

(To clarify: I would call Umezono's feelings an obsession rather than love. That being said, I can understand why people may use the word "love", and there is no reason to attack commenters either way.)

last edited at May 22, 2024 3:18PM

Is Wakaba just completely stupid? I don't understand why she doesn't get it, when Umezono basically spelled out her feelings to her in this chapter. Whether she should accept those feelings is another story, but acknowledging them shouldn't be that difficult. Umezono already gave her answer as to why she treats Wakaba like this, so Wakaba still thinking that she must hate her seems incredibly stupid to me.

I thought this line was a bit funny. Like an arm is absurd, but your dignity is a completely normal boundary XD

I absolutely love this series. It has a quietness to it that I don't encounter often, even among slice-of-life stories. The characters are adorable, but still believable as people, contrary to a lot of comedy and cgdct series. And the art is very pretty as well.

Format-wise, I think it would work pretty well as a set of super-short minute-long episodes like I'm Kodama Kawashiri, especially if they kept the manga's color scheme and used highly stylized (maybe rotoscoped low framerate?) animation.

That's cool and all, but does anyone actually care for these minute-long episodes series? (I would totally watch it tho)

I picked the manga up on a whim last week and was blown away. I just had to have more, so I grabbed the novels and read all those too. I was shocked how quickly and deeply the series resonated with me. I feel like I've been walking around with a hole in my heart ever since catching up. Can't wait for the next volume.

Wait, all this happened within a week?

Glad to see more people notice this work, though.

Thank you for explaining. Or rather for confirmation, I assumed something like that.

This is interesting and cute. I think I might know how this story will go. But it does not matter. And I can be wrong too.

I also feel like I can tell where this is going, well a part of it, at least. I'm interested in seeing whether the weird and invasive mind reading will be addressed.

I am so excited for this arc! It's definitely one of my favourites. (I almost want to say my favourite, but I'm sure I'm forgetting other equally incredible parts of the story at the moment). I absolutely love the creepiness, to me it was one of the most terrifyingly intense arcs in the novels. And I'm happy to see that the manga absolutely delivers, once again.

Watching the Otherside creep into Sorawo's mind and take advantage of the vulnerabilities that she normally conceals, even from herself, is both horrifying and, in a —perhaps twisted— way, sort of satisfying. Sorawo has buried all this past trauma, not even recognising it for what it is, so it takes a supernatural event for her to show how much it truly affects her.

Not gonna say more, because I don't want to spoil things for people who haven't read the novels. Just, the built-up of this arc was amazing and I'm looking forward to reading it once again.

Not reversal

I honestly have never [interacted with] a human person and gone "Wow, she's just like a cat." Or "He reminds me of a puppy!" But I see this all the time in manga. Maybe all these manga characters have more imagination than me...

Why does your own statement have editorial brackets?

Because it wasn't my own statement. I modified what a previous commenter said.

Perhaps it's a cultural thing.

Japan is indeed passionate about it. More recently, they mapped personality types - especially that of your partner - to animals (a cat person, a dog-like boyfriend, etc.), and before that there was categorizing facial features specifically (e.g. dog-faced). Telling somebody they're like a certain animal can also just mean they're cute.

Worldwide, you can compare somebody's behaviour to that of some animal (mad as a hornet, a dog in the manger. lazy as a bear, eat or look like a pig), be given a pet name after a shared trait or vague resemblance (puppy, tiger, chipmunk, conejito, chaton, Mausebär), offend by calling somebody an animal that has negative traits associated with it (in English you can even verb animals: chicken, rat, leech, ape, bug...), and notice similarities between pets and their owners.

I think it's a bit much to claim that it happens "worldwide", unless you've actually studied on this?

The reason I specifically used "pet" rather than "animal" in my comment was because in my country I've only heard of people being compared to animals in a derogatory way (pig, chicken etc.), as you and others mentioned. If I heard someone talking about dog or cat energy I'd think they've probably been influenced by US (or Japanese) media.

Also, it does seem like animal comparisons in English are usually more particular. It’s not “you’re just like a dog,” but something like, “you’re as loyal as a dog.” We note the feature we want to highlight first to avoid accidentally making any unflattering remarks.

To me "you're as loyal as a dog" also seems insulting lol. It would sound to me like they're calling me a blindly obedient. I'm not sure if it's personal or cultural in this case, but, for the record, most of my family agreed.

last edited at Mar 25, 2024 9:39AM

I honestly have never looked at a human person and gone "Wow, she's just like a cat." Or "He reminds me of a puppy!" But I see this all the time in manga. Maybe all these manga characters have more imagination than me...

really? ive been called a puppy half my life lol

Yeah, its typically an energy and personality thing.

I honestly have never [interacted with] a human person and gone "Wow, she's just like a cat." Or "He reminds me of a puppy!" But I see this all the time in manga. Maybe all these manga characters have more imagination than me...

Perhaps it's a cultural thing. Personally, I've never heard anyone compare a person with pets in my life.

That's why many series that continue after the main romantic plot concludes often have additional dramatic focuses running alongside the romance [...]

Yes. And, unfortunately, oftentimes they fail and the story feels very weak after they get together compared to before. I understand wanting to see more of the couple's life together, but personally, I don't care about seeing random side characters or external drama that appears out of nowhere, just so that the author can prolong a story that seems to have already reached its conclusion.

That can happen too, but I meant series that aren't strictly romance. Mage and Demon Queen for example. It doesn't randomly introduce new dramatic elements--those elements were always part of the story and always part of the focus. Another example: My Food Looks Very Cute, or even Vampeerz. It's not that those series introduce random drama after the couples get together, it's that they were always dealing with more than just romance and the audience always understood and was interested in that; so satisfying the romance plot doesn't satisfy all the other plots being developed. This way the author can get the main couple together without worrying about losing readers or losing narrative momentum.

You're right, I misread a part of what you wrote and thought you were referring to series that introduce different dramatic elements after the romance has concluded in the part that I quoted. I agree when it comes to series where the romance was a subplot (though I have to say I didn't really like the last season of Mage and Demon Queen, but that's another story). What I was trying to say was that in series like this one, where getting together is the whole story, it often feels forced when they try to continue it afterwards, even if they shift the focus to other characters or new problems they have to face (so it was more in answer to the OP rather than you, I guess).

That's why many series that continue after the main romantic plot concludes often have additional dramatic focuses running alongside the romance [...]

Yes. And, unfortunately, oftentimes they fail and the story feels very weak after they get together compared to before. I understand wanting to see more of the couple's life together, but personally, I don't care about seeing random side characters or external drama that appears out of nowhere, just so that the author can prolong a story that seems to have already reached its conclusion.

The soda analysis is slightly longer in the novel. Wakaba wants to compromise and suggests a blend that would taste good but it's rejected because Komaki specifically wants to ruin her food. She also wonders if it means Komaki wants to be what she eats.

Interesting. Now it totally makes sense, probably.

I will agree with the person who commented that this story seems to be taking itself a bit too seriously for something with such a ridiculous premise.

I've been trying to figure out why their faces in profile sometimes seem a bit weird in this comic, kind of like ancient Greek drawings. And I've finally realized; it's their eyelashes. They're often drawn facing towards the back of the head instead of extending forward. It resembles the way eyelashes look from a front rather than a profile view.

That being said, I love this development. And I also absolutely adore when artists completely omit the mouth line, the way Shen looks in the third panel here. It's so cute.