This chapter crossed a line for me, I just felt grossed out by the MC blackmailing her sister for being gay. Really disgusting, and it makes me question the author's views of homosexuality, if they think it's easily exploitable or what.

Why would the author perceiving something that is in many cases a sad fact of life be concerning? I don't like the idea of homosexuality being scandalous among family, it's actually a rather foreign concept to me and not something I had to deal with (or rather: felt that it'd have been an issue with my family). Others have very different experiences (see the positive resonance to Making Progress on Yuri Before the Deadline for instance). In far too many families it makes sense for it to be so easily exploitable because the expected consequences of coming out are downright terrifying.

You being grossed out by the MC blackmailing her sister for being gay is a perfectly normal reaction. It is gross, and she's setting herself up for a terrible train crash even moreso than before. Her sister could have been an ally, now she's turning her into an enemy. I'm convinced she'll have a very rough awakening eventually.

last edited at Feb 19, 2022 3:52PM

I'd say she's always been scummy, not so much to the detriment of others (her parents don't suffer because she keeps misappropriating their money), but rather to her own detriment (she's been constantly digging her own grave). She's been a disingenuous, irresponsible slob. Now she's kinda dragging her sister into it. She'd never have ratted her out in the first place, but we know that she's opportunistic and takes every chance to get an advantage. You could say she's acting like a drug addict.

ngl, her face when she heard her sister say "Anything" got me good.

last edited at Feb 19, 2022 3:30PM

Oh please give us another chapter~~!!! I get that feeling all too well- is it “really” yaoi if one sees the other as a cute “girl” and not a guy?

Not sure if we wanna open that can of worms, but I'm game.

I could go either way:
Their foreshadowed/implied "future relationship", if manga things happen and they get together, would be yaoi because they're, for all we know, just crossdressing (cis) guys.
Since initial affection is generally based on appearance (and thus in part gender performance) and they both appeared (and performed) feminine, their "attraction" would, as of the end of this oneshot, be het – at least in their views, seeing as they think the other person was a girl.

As someone above said: It's quite gender, and I take that to mean complicated.

last edited at Feb 11, 2022 10:35PM

The raws vary in quality for some reason, unfortunately.

120% worth it.

... wait ... so she's reading a yuri novel about ... and yet somehow failing utterly to pick up on ...

Good lord, this woman may have achieved a new level of density heretofore unknown.

Blown right past neutron star and arrived at black hole.

I cannot help but admire Hinako's earnest wish for death.

I can. Get a grip, girl. Your parents would want you to live. You've got a friend who would give her tails to help you live. You'll never forget your family, you'll always mourn them, but there's plenty worth living for and your family would want you to find it.

When you’re in the hole like she is, that’s only going to come off as platitudes, unfortunately. Convincing someone in that headspace of a nebulous “something” worth staying miserable for is a hard sell

And yet that is exactly what proper psychotherapy does. If only such a thing existed in the magical land of Japan...

Yep, but it takes a lot of time, effort, dedication and usually a good social structure around the patient. And no-so-uncommonly psychotropic drugs.
I don't think Hinako has anyone who'd even be able to put her on that path. Shiori probably isn't versed in (contemporary) human culture enough to know that such a thing exists, and I'm not sure if Miko would actually be willing to do that. Other than that she seems to have no one.

I cannot help but admire Hinako's earnest wish for death. Even if she loves Miko (as much as someone who doesn't have a desire to form meaningful relationships with other people does) now that she can rationalize Miko won't be too sad about her dying, she can die without feeling guilty when the time comes.

If you think about it that's throwing quite a wrench into Shiori's plan of making her want to live...

My favourite types of WataHito chapters are ones that remind you how Hinako is more fucked up than the monsters who want to eat her. Kinda makes you wonder at an alternate interpretation of the title wherein Hinako, in her aberrant, ephemeral approach to life and love, is the 'monster' who wants to 'eat' Shiori by consuming her every thought, by becoming an existence into whom Shiori is utterly subsumed. If Shiori stops seeing Hinako as inferior, as short-lived prey, a mere dinner party's duration in her eternal life, then she gives Hinako power over herself. If she dreads Hinako dying, considering her presence as indispensable, wanting to delay her demise, then she'll be facing the only thing in the universe more mighty than even her titanic self- death, the absolute void, deeper even than the seas she calls home. Hinako, by becoming a creature of death, shall take up the position of the alien, of the other, and Shiori, in wanting to prevent this, shall become human, familiar in her tragedy. And if Hinako does die, and if Shiori cares enough to never forget her, to never get over it, then she'll have been 'eaten' by Hinako, a part of herself ripped off and swallowed into the abyss where Hinako has retreated, where she can never go unless she relinquishes her very nature. Regardless of how likely or unlikely this ending might be, if Shiori lets herself be infected by the fear of it, if she even entertains that possibility, it shall be the beginning of her consumption, the pain of teeth sinking into her immortal flesh. Personally, I can't wait.

On the one hand: Can I have some what you've been smoking?
On the other hand: Damn, that is a really cool interpretation and would be a really neat and, IMO, perfectly feasible subversion of the story so far :D

I don't know what made my heart flutter more. Evie acting like a totally cute girly girl, or Elsa swooning over it.

Definitely Elsa for me. Her having fun was infectious.

literally 1984

Come on, removing content you have no right to because the creator/owner asked you is now 1984?

$100 bucks on Hino asking Koguma if she's wearing panties under her yukata, or if she's being traditional about it.

No one's gonna take you up on that, it'd be a sure loss.
That's definitely going to happen :D

Most of the story happens at school so all theyd need is a private corner of the festival area, a manga staple, to have a good confession ground

I'm gonna be a bit difficult and say "but that'd still put too great an emphasis on the environment being special in its own right instead of them". The "special places" and "special circumstances" that had major developments I can recall in this series were special because they were the other's room/house.
I may be afraid of the fireworks being too distracting, "The truth is I Lo- FIREWORKS" happening, as Serenata so nicely mentioned, or them downplaying it as "getting swept up in the moment" afterwards.

last edited at Feb 1, 2022 7:31PM

This series thrives on the most private and intimate of moments with just the two of them.

except when Omi is watching lol

Omichi and mom are literally the only other two "characters" we've seen, so I guess my point stands?

Besides, Omi-chapters are mostly comedy IIRC and not particularly development-driven.

Really, I can't imagine a kiss at the festival that would fit with my idea of the story. After the festival is entirely different. I could see any number of things happening afterwards, but not while they're in public and in Yukatas. This series thrives on the most private and intimate of moments with just the two of them.

Things did get quite awkward, huh.

I know that the festival and fireworks are kinda an incredibly cliché romantic opportunity, but I think that'd be too obvious. Still, a date's a date and who knows how it's gonna turn out...

That title could not be any less specific considering the author.

Still not convinced that we need more recurring characters than Maho and Usagi, but at least it's still hella weird

Good, good.
Let the gay flow through you!

It's so nice for this to make another appearance, looking forward to more of it.
I'm kinda surprised how incredibly cute I found them being super awkward in this chapter, that stuff does tend to annoy me.

Also I'm still saying that they didn't do the deed off screen.

I was wrong, I repent. It is enthusiastically creeping into omorashi territory.

Thanks for making me google that term.
Am I weird if the part of the Wikipedia article on it that weirded me out the most (by far) is the fact that some countries like New Zealand (used as an example) have banned "creating, trading, distributing (e.g., making available on one's web page) anything promoting or supporting 'the use of urine or excrement in association with degrading or dehumanising conduct or sexual conduct' [as] a felony punishable by up to ten years in jail"?

I mean, come on, it's just a bit of wee-wee!

last edited at Jan 18, 2022 7:50PM

Where does this series want to go? 90% Slice of Life I guess?
Not sure if it'll manage to string me along perpetually, but at least for now it's entertaining.

last edited at Jan 18, 2022 7:20PM

"I'll control your bodily functions and I also want you to sit on me."
Weird dynamic, but kinky nonetheless.

There isn’t much that can be done about local obscenity laws other than a campaign of morally justified terrorist bombings.

Surely there must be a more efficient way to do things...

In that way, it's completely different from the reality of that sort of relationship, which is why it works so well in a fictional context. There's also no victim, no real abuse is being committed or perpetuated

So in your mind, you are liking to see in 2D, the same situation and same acts that in reality would be unfathomably sadistic and horrible ?

This is literally close to the very first thing ever said about fiction in the history of criticism--Plato thought it was a major problem that (for example) people laugh at drunkards on stage who they would find shameful and disgusting in real life.

Then Aristotle pointed out that working things out in the imagination is not the same as performing them in real life, and that people enjoying a play were not advocating killing their fathers, marrying their mothers, and then gouging their eyes in shame.

Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff in classical philosophers going at it and poking holes into each other (metaphorically... mostly)
While the "Catharsis Theory" (which Aristotle was apparently partial to) has been proven false repeatedly in regard to fiction (i.e. Releasing violent impulses in video games doesn't diminish your propensity for real life violence, as an example), that doesn't mean that the opposite is necessarily true. There's another important mechanism to consider.

The modern term would be "Stimulus Discrimination", which describes how the same basic stimulus will, based on context, elicit different reactions from people. SD, however, can be a learned ability and vary by person.

I recall a German case study where a "naïve" person who had never played a first person shooter game was subjected to a rather graphic (if by today's standard horribly outdated) scene from a rather violent and explicit FPS. (I think it was an early 2000s title, maybe even late '90s).
MRI imaging showed that the "naïve" participant's brain reacted to the game footage the same way as it reacted to scenes featuring real life violence. Thus the participant showed no stimulus discrimination.
They repeated the experiment with an ESports participant with thousands of hours spent in the game in question and others like it. He showed hardly any reaction to the game footage (same as when playing) but showed basically the same reaction to real life violent footage as the "naïve" participant. This participant thus demonstrated a high degree of stimulus discrimination.

Make of that what you will, I don't really want to suss it out much more right now :D

last edited at Jan 15, 2022 9:59PM

Making out with Elsa is a great way of stopping her from using the restroom for 30 minutes

• take her to an empty bathroom where you can be alone
• pin her to the wall with a kabedon
• "you were talking a big game about being my destined soulmate just earlier ms dorothy. are you really ready for everything that entails"
• make out with her
• it starts getting really hot and heated
• slip your hand down her skirt and start teasing her
• finger her
• she squirts
• task failed
• oh no

I like the way you think.