if Yuzu is ever to have a healthy relationship Mei is not the one for her.

This slips from talking about the story as it exists into berating an imaginary person. We know these two clowns are going to be together eventually; we just don't how the story is going to get there. There are any number of yuri stories which end tragically with two people locked into a destructive relationship; if you think this is one of them, you've been reading a different manga than I have.

I'm not berating Mei, as a character she is what makes Citrus interesting after all :P I don't see her as neither angel nor devil. But she isn't a healthy character, never has been and in order to turn her into one this series would have to be many more volumes long lol And I'm not saying the relationship is destructive; but simply that unless the manga author transforms Mei's personality completely, there is no way people will get the equal, warm, ultimately satisfying relationship they are dreaming of as the end for this story.

They will be together sure, but I doubt the unequal dynamics would go away. I mean, as much as they are cute together, what I have been reading is a story in which Yuzu has been sexually assaulted at first, then given mixed signals, put down numerous times, told to shut up/silenced with kisses, and even saying "I love you" is a one-sided thing lol Heck the ring too, Mei didn't want to put it in Yuzu's finger. I hope it's obvious this is not what a healthy relationship looks like.

If Mei acts by herself without any wild pursuit from Yuzu it will be surprising and very cool. For me it will be this manga setting itself apart from the genre (and I'm including all romantic shoujo manga here). Still my bet is totally on Yuzu pursuing/rescuing her one last time and Mei just saying yes and tagging along, because the reassurance of "Yuzu will never leave me and will fight any obstacles to be with me" is what she presumably craves here.

Ok so when I said "shit test", I didn't mean shitty test lol I meant an actual "shit test", meaning a group of contradicting actions with the (usually subconscious, as definitely is Mei's case) motivation to get a genuine and spontaneous emotional reaction out of the person being tested, in order to assess their character/intentions as a person in general and towards the tester. It has nothing to do with being a "bad person" and everything to do with feeling insecure. The more insecure the person, usually the more they tend to shit test their partners even if they don't mean to, because the more they need all sorts of reassurance.

An insecure teenager with abandonment issues like Mei would do that even more, since she isn't even very verbal in the first place about her feelings (because her family is all into repressing them) and has been known for acting out rather than consciously and calmly discussing about what she wants, needs or fears. As shown by the fact that she literally sexually assaulted Yuzu on the regular as (presumably) a way of venting her initial growing emotions towards her, or the whole push-pull behaviour to get Yuzu to decide whether she wanted to date her or be stepsisters only. She is an emotional train-wreck of a person who has been improving thanks to Yuzu...but pretty far from normal teen behaviour I think, nobody just heals quickly like that from a lifetime of problematic family history.

So yes, the letter is an SOS call in my opinion too, only of the shit test variety lol Because if this was all about being dutiful to her family, she wouldn't need to take off from Yuzu's life and declare her love so strongly at the same time. She isn't dumb, she could just downplay the whole thing as a high school crush or whatever, which by the way would help Yuzu to forget her faster. But because she fears being abandoned and expects abandonment from people she loves whenever sh*t hits the fan, she abandons Yuzu first instead. In other words: if Yuzu is ever to have a healthy relationship Mei is not the one for her.

Seriously, the "letter is a test" seems absurd. Mei wouldn't do that. She's indeed in love but convinced herself she made a good choice.
Seriously, why Yuzu should have to prove once again she has a backbone, the girl is broken after all she did? If it's that, Mei would be more pitiful than in volume 4 and 3 when she did test Yuzu and wanted her to pursue her. And I don't think it was intended like that. Mei's note is final for her, hence the sayonara ending it. Not a twisted way to call Yuzu back, especially seeing how she totally cut herself from school and from any chance to be meet by Yuzu before the wedding.

So I think there are 2 ways the whole story of Citrus can be interpreted (well as much as it can, given it's a soap opera plot lol). In both ways the only characters that matter are Mei and Yuzu, especially Mei, and the others are there as support and that's all.

The first one is the whole "duty vs personal fulfillment". In this case the story is about Mei letting go of her strict/duty-bound ways and living more authentically, and Yuzu is the person helping her do that through her love. From what I read in previous posts this is the most common interpretation. If that's what the manga author also wants as the "moral of the story", then the solution to the engagement problem will most likely be Mei choosing to be with Yuzu out of her own will rather than Yuzu going after her (maybe with support from other characters). So, "carving her own path". Anything other than that would make no sense in the context of what the author is trying to send as a message.

The other one is that the story is about Mei overcoming her fear of being vulnerable and abandoned by people she loves, by turning Yuzu into the person who will always love her and be there for her. I say "turning Yuzu" because Mei was the one starting this whole thing and the story can very well be read as a sequence of shit tests from Mei towards Yuzu. As Yuzu "passes" the tests, matures and they become closer and closer, Mei drops her defenses and heals. In this 2nd interpretation, the letter is basically the ultimate shit test and the "correct solution" is actually for Yuzu to go after her one last time and show that she wants to be with Mei for the long run as adults, rather than as high school crush.

The Manager can't inherit anything, as he is not from the same family unless he marries Mei. Actually after re-reading some key manga chapters, I confirmed Mei is really 100% head over heels over Yuzu, the girl can't even sleep when Yuzu is late to arrive home and is super possessive/jealous even towards friends like Harumin for no good reason. The possibility this series will end with her marrying some dude is slim...The "Dear Yuzu" letter amounts to a shit test from her to see if Yuzu has a backbone lol

I think there would be nothing to prevent them from being a couple and it would likely be drama-less in comparison to YuzuMei. I mean, Harumin is the only down to earth person in the entire series, she deserves an award for tolerating all these crazy people around her xD If I was the manga author I'd just launch a parallel comedy series with Matsuri and Harumin as main characters and leave all the emo stuff behind.

lol ok I agree with you here actually, I don't know where people got the other ships from. It's not because 2 characters interact that there's something other than friendship going on between them. But it seems to me MatsurixHarumin is being treated differently by the manga author and even in the anime OP. So I don't know...

Why is it that you don't like it? I suppose Matsuri has manipulative tendencies, but so does Mei and yet people are OK with shipping a nice girl like Yuzu with her...I'd actually say Matsuri has evolved past her problematic behaviours much faster than Mei has, and she shows concern for her friends much more openly while Mei shows concern for...Yuzu I guess at times, and no one else? Anyways I'd say the possibility that the story would have even side characters get together faster than the MC's is hilarious and so sad at the same time...

Completely changing topics: I mentioned that it seems Matsuri and Harumin will become a couple. My question is, is it possible they are already a couple but since the story is mostly under Yuzu's perspective, we don't know that yet? Reason being, Matsuri actually tells Nene pretty nonchalantly that Harumin only sees Yuzu as a friend, and that Harumin is her girlfriend in a very "no big deal" manner. Although Matsuri has pretty questionable behaviour, lying has never been one of them...in fact she has the opposite problem, "no filter" (to the point everything she has said is prophetic, like her evaluation of Mei as a "pawn being used by others" shortly after meeting her). Harumin is not seen protesting about Matsuri and her sharing rooms during the Summer trip either and is often worried about her. I vaguely remember also that Matsuri calls Yuzu from Harumin's phone? And now she is in the same school, which yes could be because of friendship reasons but pretty suspicious considering everything else.

From Mei's personality and actions she is the "low self-esteem but sensitive and crazy deep feelings" type, and throughout the series it's pretty clear to me that she thinks she is doing Yuzu a favour by not involving her in the mess of her family and responsibilities. Besides, that would be the typical Asian line of thought (not being a burden to others, etc). I would think Yuzu understands what's going on actually, rather than imagining Mei doesn't love her -- after all Mei confessed all her love in the letter. The question is more whether Yuzu herself has enough self-esteem and maturity to believe she would be more important to Mei than her career/family in order to go and try to convince her of it...or whether Mei can conclude on her own that she deserves to be happy and that Yuzu wants her THAT much. But for Mei to conclude that, it's likely she would need to see some bold moves on Yuzu's part that show Yuzu is in for the long haul and not only suffering from severe infatuation. TL;DR: either their love will turn into mature fully committed love or it will remain a forgettable crush, and they have a short time to decide before this marriage goes down, while most couples would have more time lol

@AozTkM: thanks! Luckily I don't need condolences, as my gf and I managed to be together. It was a long uphill battle but sharing life with her every day makes it all worth it. The "Dear Yuzu" letter and subsequent family-related circus happened a few years ago :-)

last edited at Feb 26, 2018 9:50AM

With few exceptions, I used to not like yuri manga because a lot of it strikes me as too unrealistic. Either unrealistic because of the setting (like Strawberry Panic and other "the world has never been homophobic" or "everybody is gay" kind of scenario) or because of the characters (super saccharine girls that can do no wrong). Netsuzou Trap changed that for me, I know many people don't like it because of the cheating aspect but it's frighteningly realistic, which I guess is why it makes people so uncomfortable lol

Then I decided to read Citrus...what I have to say is that Citrus seems to be this really odd in-between where it has realistic vibes but the way the story is written is so damn weird that you cannot help but wonder if you are supposed to take any of it seriously. So actually no, I don't really think my "realistic ending" will fly in the end. I am fully expecting Yuzu to crash the wedding and last scene to be Mei and Yuzu running away to live and be gay in Canada or something.

last edited at Feb 25, 2018 8:29PM

Citrus is not realistic so it's OK, a solution will be found. But in real life there would never be a short-term solution to their situation except if they literally took off together and never looked back, which is unrealistic given they are both teenagers. What would likely happen is for Mei to tell Gramps and her dad she doesn't wish to be in an arranged marriage and wishes to marry for love in the future (I bet the dad would be supportive, and the Gramps would have to suck it up). Keep the relationship secret from the family and once they are financially independent then take off/do whatever they want, which likely would mean Mei being "forever single" as chairman of the academy and Yuzu accepting to be in a "don't ask don't tell" kind of lifestyle as far as Mei's career goes (even if friends and family know about it). That's not so bad, I mean actors and other famous people used to do that all the time and still doing it. Besides, Yuzu did say she wanted to be a housewife :P

last edited at Feb 25, 2018 6:41PM

The characters can end up happy, but still not with each other lol A lot of people would be happy with a Yuzu x Harumin ending at this point I bet, given how much Mei seems to be disliked. It's unlikely but would be the ultimate twist.

Yo first time posting here, made the account because I recently read the whole Citrus manga so far and felt impacted by chapter 36, as something similar happened between my girlfriend and I years ago (except in our case I’m more similar to Mei in personality and she is more similar to Yuzu, but she was the one sending me the “Dear Yuzu” letter once sh*t hit the fan with her strict family).

I feel all the hatred towards Mei is uncalled for, even though upon first reading chapter 36 I also had a very gut level emotional reaction of disliking the way she did things. But that was just my immature side talking, that empathizes with Yuzu and would like life to be simple when it’s actually not. The author of this manga sure knows how to deliver the point, she made us feel exactly like Yuzu did which I believe was precisely her intention (in addition to being an easy way of moving on to the next, likely more serious phase of the story).

My analysis of Mei’s actions is the following.

Mei never gave any demonstration of actually liking the life of managing the academy. I mean, she doesn't show any love or enjoyment for it even after she affirms it's her own decision. I don't think it really is, she just believes so because she is still a kid: she is actually doing it completely out of duty and as a "good kid" would, because she has only ever been loved conditionally and in her mind, in order to have value and be loved she must follow these obligations. If she truly loved it and was looking forward to doing this her whole life, she would behave like most people who are really into their work, and show joy in her life and in her interactions with people.

But she doesn't! It means that just like her dad, she is only doing it out of a sense of obligation and not because it's her passion in life. If she chooses the path of passionless duty, she is never going to feel fulfilled and would likely crash her own life down the road with a divorce too and god knows what else, recreating the cycle of divorce and unhappiness with her own children, maybe abandoning them like Shou did.

Regardless, in the end, the story is about duty vs personal fulfilment, rather than a conflict between career and love. It is about whether Mei can handle the uncertainty of going for a path forged by herself rather than laid down for her (as Mitsuko explains in a previous chapter when she applauded Yuzu). The main challenge though, is that Mei is an extremely insecure and needy person and in my opinion has been obsessed about Yuzu from the very beginning, precisely because subconsciously her mind knows Yuzu is the gatekeeper, the person who has the type of psychological freedom she craves so much.

In terms of how to solve this whole issue, in my opinion if Yuzu doesn’t do something concrete to demonstrate that she is willing to be together with Mei permanently as an adult and through thick and thin, Mei will just go ahead with the marriage. Reason being, Mei doesn’t believe Yuzu loves her enough (as an adult rather than just a crush) or has enough maturity to face the uphill battle of fighting the family and society, even though she clearly would like for her to be able to: which is why she was trying to make Yuzu be more open about their relationship to their friends, and encouraging her to not worry so much about societal opinions.

And who can blame her for thinking that Yuzu would not be up to the task of supporting her as a reliable adult partner? During the story, it becomes clearer and clearer that Mei’s love for Yuzu was never “puppy love”, it’s adult love, but Yuzu is still a kid. Yuzu starts out as a reckless teenager and the process of her becoming more mature is still ongoing. She has been unable to lead Mei to have sex with her because she is still not ready for it (psychologically), even though Mei has given indication she has been wanting to do it since pretty much day 1. Because Mei has a more passive and accommodating personality, she wants/needs Yuzu to lead, and so far Yuzu is a very confusing leader to say the least.

My opinion on how the story will go: I feel Harumin, who has been a mystery so far in what is her real purpose in the story, will finally stop being neutral. Either she will push Yuzu to take action, or talk to Mei, possibly instigated by Matsuri. I doubt Matsuri will actually take action herself because she is very smart and knows Yuzu and Mei would likely not listen to her, given she is not seen by others as a reasonable person. But Harumin is, so she is the best bet here. Another possibility, even more dramatic but leading to unpredictable consequences, is that Harumin liked Yuzu all along and decides to do something about it. However, I find that less likely because I am under the impression Matsuri and her will become a couple.