1. Matsuri is criminally adorable.
2. Present-day scanlation groups would never dare to release 8 pages of manga with 13 pages of "junk" attached afterwards, but I treasure these ephemera. That's a sweet two decades old time capsule.

^ No idea about Kid Icarus lore, but greek mythology gorgons actually have Basilisks for hair - that's where the petrification comes from.

I knew I needed this in my life and now I have finally found it.

I've seen several stories that romanticize continuing to hold a candle for an unrequited crush/someone who rejected them/ex-lover even though it would have been healthier for the character to move on long ago. Oftentimes the character is shown to be incapable of falling in love with someone else, which is depicted as "honorable" or "pure", and the character is eventually rewarded for their loyalty with their long-held love eventually being reciprocated.

Far more rare are stories where a character is shown to move on from this past love to find something new, which seems to be where this story is heading.

But those characters should all have come to terms with they're doing instead of going "gosh, I hope nobody finds out I'm saving myself for marriage with my one true love". Not that being outside of the norm is a priori bad (see Remu), but she clearly understands that something is wrong. Or in other words: her "love" is obsession, and yandere are difficult to portray as mentally healthy. (Whether they are being romanticized as love interests is a different story...)

But it's clear that Usui is treating Azuki's obsession as alarming and off-putting with these types of depictions:
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7 years is a long time when you're transitioning into early adulthood and going through so many life changes. Continuing to obsess over a relationship from high school isn't just creepy, but shows she failed to mature emotionally during such an important period of growth.

I don't know how you could realistically portray her as anything but off-putting and alarming. At this point it's not about what she's into, but the way she decided to engage with it.

Remu, on the other hand, actually seems perfectly normal. Sure, she has an objectophilia fetish and tries to hide it from her public persona (as most people with fetishes do), but the way she blooms up when realizing she is not alone and that there are opportunities to make her fantasies reality is almost wholesome. Or rather:

And the doll fucker is somehow the least deranged

Preach.

Chapter 5 and the 5th time I'm reading all from the start just to remember who is who. Maybe that's just a me-problem, but a quick recap at the beginning of each chapter would've been nice. Guess I'll drop this until I can read everything in one go.

Like a dream. And that's not just a compliment but also the way this lets emotion take over, always at the brink of becoming a nightmare just has a certain ... surreal feeling to it.

This is timeless.

Load, damn image ... this can't be the end already.

Asphyxiation

This anthology would have been more accurately called "Old men monologue for a bit and then do for the MCwhat she can't do herself".

1. Story was okay, I guess? The tacked-on Isekai thing is more jarring than a twist and could've been left out at no expense.
2. I think I have to defend this one. While yuri, it's not meant to be read as that. It's clearly a vent fic. (Unnamed MC protecting "Shelphie Purpleice" should have been a dead giveaway, also Kudos for perfectly capturing the fanfic schlock with that name.) It's got the vibe of somebody writing a self-insert fanfic just to ridicule stuff she hates, and as such is pretty satisfying.
3. I'm not even against the polygamy ending as that is probably the only way for them to be officially together in that setting. But didn't the prince hate the heroine? How can you mischaracterise somebody whose only established trait was sparkling? And aren't photographs anachronistic?
4. Beautiful art, much adorbs. Then the ending happened. The insistence on the term "friendship" should have tipped me off.
5. Err... what? Halfway through we just leave the heroine and shift focus towards scheming? The latter half wouldn't even have needed the former to work.

Not a good anthology, looks like somebody missed the memo it was supposed to be girl x girl. However, I mentally spliced the look and setup of the 4th story with the ending of the 2nd and that would make for an enjoyable read.

Thanks for the update Komrade! On the note of being offended about Han as in Han-Chinese, I do wonder what the chinese stance on this would be.

Only 20% of height differences are accountable to nutrition, the rest is genetic; both countries grew by 4 cm over the last century which might be due to better nutrition.

^ eh, I must mildly disagree here. There is the whole Yuzu x Julia setup in Arc-V which happened before the series dove head-first into a fractal of self-sabotage. Reminder: Katsumi Ono was simultaneously working on Symphogay during that time, and Fujiaki Asari wrote on Citrus, Madoka Magica and Valkyrie Drive. That was pretty gay given how subdued even het romance is in that shonen-shaped game commercial. (I'd argue probably even gayer than Jaden x Jessie.) There was hope, before it became an incoherent mess.

As for the game itself: there is a time around the release of Traptrix when Konami glanced at Vanguard, Force of Will, WiXoss, and so on, noticed "Waifus = Money" and started churning out female-only and moé archetypes. Those naturally lend themselves to shipping, yet only after the unprecedented success of Sky Striker did they begin adding more yuri undertones (Mayakashi/Shiranui, Live/Evil Twin, Exosister, Labrynth, Mikanko, et cetera).

:( I would have loved to see something animated by Veebu. Is there anywhere to report broken images?

^ Incomplete as this is still an ongoing series (if you can't wait for the next episode of your anime week, try waiting for the next booster set in a quarter year) but here the story so far:

As children, Astellar and Elzette lived together with their friends in a coven of witches in the White Forest, a place rumoured to contain a dark secret (probably the witches). One day, they follow an whisper to an apple, where they encounter an entity named Diabell (who is an Illusion type, contrasting the others being Spellcaster types) and all hell breaks lose.

Then a timeskip happens. An adult Diabellstar the Black Witch is searching for some suspiciously friend-shaped artifacts known as the "Sinful Spoils". She has a bounty on her head and goes on all sorts of wacky shonen adventures (including adopting a cute human rights violation of a pet) until she is confronted by Diabellze the Original Sinkeeper.

...and that's where we're left as of now. It looks like there will be more on their friends Rucia and Silvy, whose powered-up forms Rciela and Silvera have become not just Sinful Spoils themselves, but also something far worse.

Anyhow: is there yuri? I definitely ship Astellar and Elzette, but it looks like as adults there is a lot of trauma they need to work through first. Apparently through angry sex.

last edited at Sep 18, 2024 12:37PM

"It's Not My Fault That I'm Popular"

Seeing only the top part at first, my brain auto-completed this to yuri ventriloquy. Blursed.

I was considering requesting a bunch of Amiya x W the other day. So who ever is responsible for this, I tip my hat(s) to your impeccable taste.

There was no reason to leave, we don't bite around here (unless you're into it...)

They actually correctly linked the image the first time around: inspecting the suspicious empty line in the original comment revealed an img-tag, i.e. a note telling the browser "please look up this image and place it here".

The issue here is that the image wouldn't load for either of two reasons: 1) the website won't give it out, or 2) the browser wouldn't even try to fetch it. The former is what happens with Discord images, for example - the server detects you're not visiting the way you're supposed to and refuses to give you the image (this is still the nicer thing they could do). The other one is a security measure by the browser to prevent malicious things to load. In my case, Firefox (and its forks) are configured by default to block unsafe domains, with pbs.twimg.com having lapsed into insecure status due to gross mismanagement.

Is this Hatesex? No, seriously, is it? After my beloved White Forest flashback I'm not so sure on their relationship anymore.

Ah, I was already afraid this batch wouldn't get us any contorversy.
Personally, I don't see Sakuya as top, but am open to exploring that dynamic.

Those 9 chapters were over way too soon; finally somebody put the manic back in manic pixie dream girl. Also detailed TNs, I like that very much.

According to manga, just about half the Japanese lesbians have their sexual awakening with their private tutor (usually teaching piano).

Ah, so that's why lesbians usually have short finger nails. For playing piano!

^ 3/3 people would recommend a brainwashed three-way. Can't argue with that.

^ Being what it is, the first game allows you to bully the stereotypical nerd into coming to school with a gun in one ending
Though I haven't played the re-up yet.