God I love this series so fucking much <3 "Can I not listen to this?" is such a good line!!

To me this chapter reinforces the idea that, for Xingyuan, Tianli did have confused feelings, which were partially responsible for this mess--especially when she's framed as a kind of foil to Xiaoen, a romantic partner. I'd even say it was her, back then. She was already Xingyuan's confidant but wanted to be more, though she didn't know what more meant. She's still unsure of why she was and still is so concerned with Xingyuan's company. She knows her feelings for Xingyuan are unique compared to her feelings for others, yet can't fully put it together. It's unfortunate for her.

She's one step down a path of self discovery she would have needed to do years ago, back in middle school, for her to have had a chance. Even now she either can't or refuses to name the flavor of feeling she has. She channeled it into spiteful jealousy back then and it's permanently corrupted.
That feels like it's a high demand for a child, especially a potentially queer child, except Xianyuan did it at that age, so Tianli was always doomed due to her inability to meet that pace.

I think you can read it either way.

Biggest evidence that sister is just in love with the GF and wants her for herself is the way she curls her fingers upwards in the earlier part of the teasing dialogue, to prepare for handholding.

But the last page does really read to me as bitter about the relationship. But it doesn't make sense for her to be this bitter when she's already making out with the girl she likes. That makes me think it could be about the brother.

To be fair, I'd be bitter if the girl I want is dating my brother. Could want more than sneaky makeout sessions.

This is exactly how I read it. Obviously she's not actually thinking they should break up for the sake of her brother, if that was her interest she'd be talking to him instead. She wants more than a fling behind someone else's back, she wants the girlfriend to be her girlfriend. She's like Fuuko in "My Girlfriend's Not Here Today". :)

last edited at Mar 4, 2024 5:35AM

The only way glasses girl is a brocon is if she's a particularly cursed manifestation of a bisexual, "I like girls and my older brother". I'm going to assume this is not the case, for the sake of the bisexuals lol. What's definitely undeniable is how into the girlfriend she is. She's initiating that kiss. If she actually hated the girlfriend and wanted her to go away and leave her alone with her brother, in what way would her actions here make sense? The body language makes it clear the talk about the brother is just teasing from the girlfriend and "stop cheating on him and just leave him for me already" from the glasses girl.
This is simply a good old fashioned story of a girl cucking her onii-san by stealing his girl. :)

last edited at Mar 2, 2024 10:11PM

I'm guessing chapter 35 is scheduled for some heavy redraws for the volume release to make this actually fit lol. The only elements that point to her being physically sick are the wobble and falling asleep in the car, and those are way too low key. Also heat stroke is pretty recognizable in other people, how did nobody in the group notice she was doing bad? I have no idea what the original intention was but this feels like it's absolutely a backpedal to me lol. And if next chapter starts with Hinoka waking up from this dreaming this chapter that would actually wrap around to making it hilarious

Presumably the implication is that glasses girl is mad that hot girl is dating her brother instead of dating her.

The main thing supporting in the text right now is Natori doing dokidoki for both Diana and Lapis (obviously with the latter having far more emphasis). I just think that kind of unexpected plot development would go in line with the story's recurring theme of their lives being divergent from the otome game in surprising ways. Additionally, given all the emphasis on her and her feelings, her ending up as a third wheel would retroactively feel like a harem manga trope character, a pretty girl who falls for the mc without it going anywhere because that's just what pretty girls with a third place prominence in the plot do.

Clearly the answer is that Komachi has falsely attributed the deaths to being caused by herself,

Honestly, it's REALLY weird if they aren't. If they aren't this girl is at the center of the world's weirdest chain of coincidences ever. The story makes WAY more sense of Komachi really is causing the deaths through some kind of curse. Her backstory is no longer contrived and the sheer number of deaths that have also almost happened at the school will also make sense.

Maybe she's cursed to follow a path that puts her near death, possibly as the result of her seeing it even, much like how Satsuki puts herself in the way of death constantly due to knowing it might happen nearby. It's not like any of the deaths around either of them are in any way inexplicable, not even the over the top Final Destination deaths of Walk In Death that convince most witnesses that they HAVE to be deliberate somehow with how specific and unlikely they are.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IS NOT AKEBI https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1020370
Doesn't say yuri but it has vibes

It's funny that there's multiple comments like "you can tell this manga is for MEN because the FAN SERVICE". Not entirely sure what here counts as fan service other than her acting over the top cute, lol. Is it just that she's generally attractive? Cuz shoujo and josei manga is full of sexy women, women love women actually. This could 100% be a josei manga completely unchanged.

Clearly the answer is that Komachi has falsely attributed the deaths to being caused by herself, because Satsuki has been able to prevent them. All they need to do is stick together.
I've liked these two chapters, although I'm not totally sure how it gels with what we've seen so far, especially with going along with Seo. Guess we'll find out next chapter. I'm dreading it TBH, the author put themselves in such a bind with her retroactive heel turn and it's hard to imagine getting out of it. Maybe they'll surprise me in a very good way lol.
Also, really glad the author didn't give us some reason for Komachi's association with death like they attempted in Walk In Death, "Tokiko was stillborn and then saved, but that's made her need to absorb life from others" was cheesy af.

last edited at Mar 1, 2024 3:23PM

As an aside, I don't get why so many people want a poly ending, I feel like that would cheapen the themes of the series and feel like a cheap copout.

Because that's a reasonable interpretation of the whole "Diana is in love with Natori" part of the story. It's not shown as especially unhealthy (despite some jealousy) and doesn't really progresses the story, which could work as well without romantic feelings. It also refuses to actually address it (confession, rejection), hinting that the continued existence of this stalemate is important.

I mean, anyone who has read manga before can probably realize that the real point of that was to have a cute girl fall for the MC for no reason, to have multiple women fighting over Natori, the OL. Which is stupid and degrading, classic anime and manga trope. Construing this as a setup for a poly ending gives a broader, more mature meaning to that part of the story, with only a moderate amount of stretching the interpretation of the characters by viewing the affection between Lapis ans Diana as romantic and assuming the characters would be okay with it.

The idea that Diana's crush is meant to be seen as unhealthy and one-sided, and that she doesn't have a chance to have Natori fall for her because of it, is interesting (making Diana a flawed and mistaken ally instead of a love interest), but it's not the vibes the writing gives. Diana scenes don't send the message "her attitude is unhealthy and she's doomed", to the point that we actually have to draw parallels with Lapis to view Diana as not having a chance. So again, back to the previous paragraph.

TL;DR: because that interpretation is more satisfying that the harem romcom vibes the Natori / Lapis / Diana triangle give.

I agree with all this. Natori, Diana, and Lapis all seem to genuinely like and even be attracted to each other, with the possible exception of Diana's feelings towards Lapis, except Diana would absolutely go along with a polycule if it meant she could be with Natori. Sure, they might not seem overtly poly inclined up front, but who is? It's not a common character trait to be expressed ahead of time by characters, especially ones who aren't older and with a bunch of relationship experience. This series has already had a running theme of the true inner selves of both Lapis and Diana to be dramatically different from how Natori expected them to be based on how she viewed them as a member of the audience, so our standard expectations of them as readers for them to behave in "normal" expected ways are already compromised by the text.
And the alternative, of Diana just being a third wheel who is doomed from the start in her surprising love that Natori didn't see coming? That would be a pretty awful character arc for her TBH. She pulled a knife on the prince and has repeatedly acted with reckless determination on her feelings for Natori, so for her to end up a jilted ex or turning on a dime to meekly give up would both be disappointing and depressing.

last edited at Mar 1, 2024 8:09AM

Honoka and Elisha’s kiss being off screen pains me so, but seing Ayano and Miyoshi kiss was great.

They've kissed onscreen before already, although at the time a Honoka tried to play it as accidental lol

We're not shown enough to know for sure, but what we do see is only the emperor doing her empress, not the other way around. And considering the very title of the series, I'm pretty sure the emperor is still managing to keep her wife in the dark, as ridiculous as it may seem. :D

She continues to address the emperor as "he" even in her thoughts. She definitely remains unaware. Presumably, she assumes there are concealed issues "down there" that she can compensate for with her hands. She's "right," in a really roundabout way, which makes the emperor's reactions funny.

I don't know if we would trust gendered pronouns as authoritative in translations: they come up in English way more often than Japanese, so I wouldn't be surprised if the same applies in Chinese. I remember with Mihoyo games there's been multiple translation errors over the years where they inserted gendered pronouns where none were specified before, and ended up guessing incorrectly.

last edited at Feb 29, 2024 2:24PM

Well dang, that is probably the most erotic thing I've ever seen published in a Chinese comic lol. I wonder if this chapter was originally only on twitter instead of Bilibili, I've seen other Chinese comics do that like Here U Are and I think Bai Lijin Among Mortals (not totally sure where that series had its "extras" published) but nothing quite that.... sensual. Certainly nothing with that much unambiguous discussion of what they're doing mid-scene lol.

Enna feels like a Sal Jiang character

Oh God this is so accurate it hurts lol. Now I'm expecting this conflict to result in her fighting with the fire princess in a sexually tinged manner.

My main thing about arioto I didn't like was the child predator bartender lady. Same reason I don't like wataten.

Alisha and Honoka have had such a cute arc with Honoka coming out of her shell and opening up to Alisha's affections. Honoka started as the class Sadako and ended creating my single favorite chapter in the entire series:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/virgins_empire_ch224
And Elisha has gone from a crude loudmouth who can't express what she wants and have it taken seriously and earnestly, to someone who is smooth and fluent and very skilled at making Honoka really feel what she's saying.
Also now that I think about it they're really similar to Kiana x Mei from Honkai Impact, down to being a brash white girl x quiet Japanese girl relationship, so no wonder I love it lol

It's just harder for me to believe that Tianli would deliberately do such a terrible thing to Xiangyuan if she was in love with her, and hadn't even been explicitly rejected, and then stayed friends with the bullies that helped drive her love away. She definitely had some sort of monopolizing desire for Xiangyuan but it was one where she fully thought the ship has already sailed. This makes the study abroad scholarship especially seem like a very important motivator imo.

Ian has had multiple scenes of acting insecure and being dramatic, so it makes perfect sense for Ed to feel like he dodged a bullet by not telling Ian "hey in my memory I just mistook another man for you" lol. It would have put him in the doghouse. These are long term established characters who have been in the comic for literally almost a decade. We know who they are: a loving couple made up of a loyal seme and a dramatic uke. There's no way in hell Ed would be cheating.

I think Aya said onii-san simply because Mitsuki was in her shop clerk getup that initially fooled Aya. She was reminiscing about how awkward she was back then compared to Kanna and Joe.

My guess is more that Aya doesn't think of herself as gay and, at least on a physical level, is more atracted to Mitsuki's casual look, so when she thinks about her in a romantic way, she tends to revert back to thinking of her in the context of "Onii-san", or at least that part of her persona, even though she now knows Mitsuki is "Onii-san" and she likes her for more than just her looks. So, in this chapter, while she was watching the adults flirt, she thought it would be nice if she could do the same with Mitsuki, but when asked she absentmindedly blurted out the wrong name, because that was the context she was thinking in.

I definitely don't think this is true. Aya is certainly attracted to the more butch elements of Mitsuki but that doesn't make one straight. I don't think Aya has any illusions about Mitsuki, she just referred to "onii-san" because she was reminiscing about when they didn't really know each other. She doesn't even seem to be dwelling on it like Mitsuki is, based on the phone call, so I bet the answer to Mitsuki's question of "does Aya still see us as different people" will be an emphatic "No, of course not!"

Do we have any idea why Xingyuan’s family are considered “celebrities,” and the father is regarded negatively by the public?

By the sounds of it, they were very rich and influential for the town they lived in. I don't know if we ever learned what the family business was but it was enough for people to fully believe that if Xiangyuan got that study abroad slot it's because her dad basically gave it to her, regardless of the official rules.

Oh My God poor Xiangyuan didn't know the extent of Tianli's involvement with the bullying. She probably assumed Tianli was a fellow victim or something, she left school almost immediately after that and skipped town. It's possible Tianli showing up on town is actually the first time they've talked since before Tianli outed her, even. And Tianli for her part has been feeling guilty but not understanding why. She clearly hasn't grown up. She wants Xiangyuan to tell her she's okay but has no idea that that requires her taking actions to show she knows what happened was wrong and her role in it was wrong. And Xianyuan assumed Tianli had done all that off screen: this was her best friend, someone who kept her secret for years (right up until she didn't). Surely Tianli was a fellow victim of circumstance, right? Nope, she's still in the group chat with the bullies. She's learned nothing, she hasn't actually changed anymore then the rest of them have: "we're adults now so our childhood actions shouldn't matter anymore, right?" That indicates she doesn't regret what she did, she only regrets the consequences of it. No wonder finding out that hit poor Xiangyuan like getting punched in the gut. I'm glad Xiaoen noticed the reaction even though Xiangyuan attempted to hide it, because for her part she thinks being an adult is acting above the actions of children, even if it means ignoring her still unhealed wounds that Tianli just freshly opened once more.
Goddamn, what a powerful chapter.

Yay I got what I wanted from the next chapter after how that last one ended, I'm so happy :D

After thinking about it for a while, the thing that feels particularly wrong in the chapter is not even Tsukashi getting stunned by the kiss (although that is stupid and goes on for way too long) but rather Hinoka just also being silent?? Tsukashi's reaction is so extreme you'd think Hinoka would at least ask her if she's alright, or ask her to continue what she was saying, even to apologize for the kiss considering the apparently negative reaction. But nah she just goes along with Tsukashi's ridiculous over the top act for some reason, saying nothing but "s-sure" the entire chapter. She actually says even less than Hinoka does.

Based on what I'm seeing in this first chapter, this is a pretty pure dom/sub story. People who are into that will like it, people who aren't won't.

There's the surface level plot of "oh I want to get one over on her so she realizes she isn't so perfect and can have equal relationships with others" but the whole bets thing is just an excuse for them to do romantic DS stuff, both in and out of universe. I assume eventually Wakaba will realize "Hey wait a minute, I keep agreeing to bets that inevitably end with this hot girl ordering me around and making me kiss her and stuff, and that makes me feel good, what could this possibly mean?"

Anyway, I like the way they position the characters, with Komaki above Wakaba, wrapping her legs around her possessively. It was also a good choice to have Komaki be taller and fuller figured. I don't expect this to be an especially clever or original story, but they're getting the core appeal stuff right.

Did you read in rice to get that idea about the plot? like this ain’t the first time we got this kind of weird plot in romance were we have the biggest cunt act like that and we are supposed to think “she has feelings so she is gonna humiliate her out of love”

this is FAR from BDSM! this is the Japanese weirdo concept of “bullying out of love”

I think you're approaching this all wrong. It's normal to think “oh this is unrealistic, it would be impractical or immoral or unhealthy or toxic to do this in real life” when you see something like this, but if you want to enjoy this kind of media you have to be able to turn that part of your brain off. You have to enjoy this kind of thing on a completely libidinal, illogical level. You have to ignore your logical brain and go with your gut: “do i find this kind of interaction enjoyable or intriguing?” For a lot of people the answer will be no. That's fine. Different strokes for different folks. That's why we have tags on this website. This one's for the freaks (and frankly it's pretty light so far).

I always felt weird about people complaining about 50 shades of gray. They'd roast it for having a shitty plot or being an unrealistic unhealthy depiction of BDSM as if the target audience had any reason to give a shit about that. The middle aged women who read that crap just cared if they found it hot. Enjoyment of low-brow edgy romance fiction is a totally id-based thing, you don't need cerebral moralistic concerns.

I hate the idea that every piece of media has to be some kind of moral instruction manual for how to live your life. Like yeah, if I emulated the actions of these fictional cartoon characters it would go horribly for everyone involved, but who cares. I just want to see a toxic relationship in a comic book and go “oh that's freaky I like that” and if you can't relate, that's just a difference in taste isn't it?

TLDR: DLDR

I don't even think you need to turn your brain off (and in the case of the person you're replying to I don't think they need that advice lol), more just abstract the level from which you're looking at the story.
It seems very likely to me that for this manga you're not supposed to be looking at these characters and judging them as people on moral standards (almost no media is written for the audience to morally judge it, just like Chick tracts and garbage like that basically lol), but rather feeling these characters as bundles of emotion and conflict and desire. Of course Komaki looks like a haughty bitch, we're not seeing any sort of "objective" portrayal of a character, we're seeing her through Wakaba's subjective perspective, tinted by her emotions.