Well, that ended better than I expected. I kind of expected her to get her heart broken, but it seems like Touko is pretty serious about her. A happy ending to a short, sweet story.

Lesbian Japanese couple living next door to a gay single father in LA and getting married. Gotta love this!

Really looking forward to that epilogue. This was pretty profoundly good.

Kotooka is slowly growing feelings for Tsukasa, but doesn't act on them because she wants everyone to remain friends.

No Kotooka DOES have feelings for Tsukasa, it's the main reason she was trying to push her towards dude bro. Because if she's taken she won't have to/won't be able to act on her feelings for her.

I got the impression that, at first, she was pushing Tsukasa into this to keep all her friends normal because she knew that Tsukasa liked Nadeshiko. If she could make Tsukasa 'normal' then the friendship between the three would continue. Maybe different interpretations?

It was pretty heavily implied in the first chapter that Kotooka was in love with Tsukasa, and it's even more confirmed in this one, so I'm pretty sure that the other person's interpretation is correct in this case. Yeah, she does want to make them all "normal," but that's not really the main reason.

Yes, it was implied that she had feelings for Tsukasa in the first chapter and this chapter totally confirmed it. (Working so hard to make cream puffs because they were Tsukasa's favorite, etc... Probably also the thing that will tip off Nadeshiko to Kotooka's feelings, though she might not understand why she continues to go out with any guy who asks her out. Then again, it may make her understand why she is so indiscriminate about guys... She doesn't care about them at all and is trying to compensate for the love she knows she shouldn't/can't have.)

I think that this manga is someone of a deeper, more serious treatment of same sex relationships as they are currently seen in Japan than most yuri manga. Something it has in common with Milk Morinaga's Girl Friends and a few others, though there is certainly a healthy dose of silly to go along with the serious here. But the three girl's opinions of the realistic future chances of their same sex loves fit very much with a culture that doesn't talk about, or acknowledge, the legitimacy of such relationships and treats them, at best, as a "phase" that you will grow out of once you become an adult.

Contrast that with Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto), which I dearly love and think has one of the most positive and affirming messages of any yuri manga. However, in that story, the issue is exactly what the first poster was thinking. Sumi is afraid that, if she makes her feelings known she will lose her best friend. (In addition to the fact that she feels that she is totally NOT Ushio's type and therefore she could never fall for her.)

Unlike that story, in this one and Girl Friends, a large part of the reticence of at least Kotooka and Mari is the concept that their feelings are wrong and won't be accepted by society, even if they would be accepted by the other person. Hence Kotooka is pushing Tsukasa to accept the guy's confession so she will no longer have the option to act on her feelings and maybe these "unnatural urges", as she has been socialized to perceive them, will fade away.

That is a stark contrast to much modern western lesbian fiction, where the only characters that have that type of problem are ones from extreme religious backgrounds.

last edited at Nov 21, 2016 2:12PM

Wow! Just... WOW! That chapter was freakin' amazing! Possibly one of the best chapters of manga I've read in a long while. Kotooka is, in essence, a tortured soul. She perceives the pattern of everything. Has known for a long time that the girl she fell for longs for another. Suspected that the feelings might be mutual only to discover that the girl her crush is crushing on actually has a thing for her. All the while feeling that relationships like theirs would never work in the long run because in their society nobody ever talks about same-sex relationships openly, particularly between women. (There is a reason Yuri Kuma Arashi used "The Invisible Storm" as an analogy for the exclusion of lesbians from Japanese society. It is possible to be marginalized simply by being entirely ignored. Young women who don't know that it is alright to feel the way they do end up like Kotooka, confused and, sometimes promiscuous with men because they think that is what they need to do to get along. Others allow their parents to push them into arranged marriages. When the culture simply doesn't acknowledge the existence of your sexual preference as a group, or considers it a "phase" to be grown out of, it is just as bad as being actively discriminated against.)

pg 10, "I wonder if you have you some spare time later?" (second "you" needs to be deleted)

Well, that is a matter of interpretation... It is a valid way of speaking in certain dialects. Just effect a southern belle accent when saying the line and it sounds fine. Alternately, use Y'all have some spare time...

I knew it I saw this somewhere.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4758075557

Hmmm... the title there is: ゆたさんはままならない! which is Yuta-san wa mamanaranai! Which seems to roughly translate to: Yuta-san will not be left!

So... what's the deal with the "Song about a piece of Junk" title?

"Yuta-san will not be left!" seems pretty descriptive and accurate. (Maybe Yuta-san cannot be shaken. Yuta-san cannot be avoided.)

last edited at Nov 17, 2016 2:12PM

I like! They have good chemistry!

You know, I got the distinct feeling that Washio was actually showing a little bit of potential feelings for Shiatori in this one... Some of her reactions seemed to suggest that. I could be wrong, but I think there could be a change happening in her feelings, which could lead to a nice harmony with Kotooka falling for the twin brother.

I think it is pretty clear that Katooka is in love with Tsukasa and doesn't think she can do anything about it so she has decided to have meaningless relationships. The one that I'm not sure about is the guy who confessed to Tsukasa. I can't figure out if he likes her or her brother...

I would bet that the guy has seen Subaru cross dressing and fell in love with him and then investigated and thought that it was his sister. (Or Subaru told him he was his sister.)

I'm glad that I'm not going crazy and I had read the first chapter before... I look forward to the rest of the series. I hope the translations come fast knowing there are already three or four volumes out there. :) So far it is pretty good. A true triangle! (Would be wonderful for a poly ending...)

Bi-phobic stories are sad...

Chapter 8: Wait... a happy one again? WOW!

I wouldn't mind seeing Yuu's face if she saw Sayaka and Touko walking along holding hands like that... Somehow I think she would not look happy...

I am so amazed, and happy, that Seven Seas has taken the bold step of licensing this off beat, well written, heartfelt, and painfully honest story. I feel like I will have to buy it to support both the author and Seven Seas for doing something so out of the ordinary!

ch 25.5, pg 7, "We're Sunday evening" (I think that's "We've Sunday evening"?)

We're Sunday evening and, well, we've made some fine progress. => We are currently Sunday evening, and we did pretty good

"We're" to "we've" changes the meaning of the sentence. I guess it'd depend on the original text, if she was commenting on their current point in the week, or how much time they have left to cram

Actually, they're both wrong. They're missing a word. "We're to Sunday evening" or "We've reached Sunday evening" would both work. "It's Sunday evening" would be best.

a junior in high school dating a seventh grader? um

Well, what makes it not as weird to me is the fact that the younger one seems much more mature for her age and the older one seems to be the less dominant, more shy type.

The fact that it's a work of fiction makes it okay. Plus freshmen dated seniors when I was in HS, and this age gap doesn't seem that much bigger (junior high goes through 9th grade in Japan).

Exactly! My father was three years older than my mother and they met when he was a senior in high school (on a blind date, and my mother knew that he was the man she would marry... Love at first sight... Though she broke up with him before she went to college so she could have fun at college, then went back to collect him when she was ready. Yep... he was totally eating out of the palm of her hand... all their lives really... They were quite sweet in retrospect, but the making out in the kitchen was kind of embarrassing when I was younger. LOL)

And I dated a girl three years younger than me when I was a senior... (Then another one that summer after we broke up.) Just because the protagonist happens to be a Junior instead of a senior doesn't make the age gap worse. They are still three years apart and there isn't that much of a difference between 14 and 15.

The younger girl would be 14, BTW, unless her birthday is late in the school year, and the protagonist would be 17.

That was one of the sweetest things I've read in a long time... :)

I could have sworn she was already confessed to in the original one-shot by Mado-chan... It seemed to imply that they kissed at the end, on camera... that would suggest that she got it then, right? I wish that the author would have rewritten the first chapter for the serialization if it was going to go into this level of obliviousness to Mado-chan's feelings! (I could have sworn that Yagi felt that way about Mado-chan as well... But now that she is this flustered by another girl giving her this much attention, I'm not so sure.)

(I suppose there could have been a rewrite that didn't get translated? I hope?)

OK, chapter 6 is cute as hell!

This is really good so far! I wonder if it is child abuse or bullying...

EDIT: BTW, according to the translators, the age of consent in the area where the story takes place is actually 14, so there is nothing illegal in this in case anybody had any qualms about that... Not that the Dr. doesn't have issues with it anyway...

last edited at Oct 7, 2016 5:27PM

I thin k we have confirmation that Yuu is NOT asexual! Aromantic, possibly. Demiromantic. Very likely. Not asexual! I am pretty sure she is fooling herself right now about her heart not racing....

I also think that she was feeling something else during the course of the day when she saw how close Touko was to the captain of the girl's basketball team. I believe that would be JEALOUSY. That would indicate something other than her "lack" of feelings that she keeps profession, despite her inability to initiate a kiss at the end of the chapter.

Why are everyone so goddamn set on Maiko being a bitch? LMAO!

If she's a decent person I will be pleasantly surprised and take back my initial negativity! I have become far too used to the "oh here comes a love triangle! SURPRISE this new girl is awful, so you still cheer on the main pairing!"

It's why I really, reeeeally don't enjoy it when they bring in an ex-girlfriend, or a new girl with a crush, as they are usually outright terrible and its just nothing new

She is, at the very least, not high on Hina's hit list of people she wants to see, since Hina got seriously upset when Hana brought up ever being told her name, so I expect it will at least mean drama.

This whole series is just a bit too depressing... Realistic probably, especially for the culture it came out of, but depressing...

Wow... that's a bit rough. I'm glad she didn't actually die... But it looks like Sensei has her own issues still...