People take a chill pill. The fact you're pissed off at the end of this chapter is a sign that the manga is good, not bad.

While it's true that being emotionally involved to the point of being quite happy or sad/angry is a sign that a work is connecting with the reader it doesn't mean that a person can't be angry and that the content is objectively bad or good.

Take for example this site, everytime there's signs of rape/sexual assault/forced stuff/(Insert any sort of non-vanilla stuff) a large of individual are quite vocal about the fact that this disgust them or makes feel uncomfortable/angry. This has nothing to do with the quality of the content, but because they dislike this particular kind of storytelling they'll boycott the content.

A girl friend I know doesn't like violence/violent content, and do not watch any TV/Movie that features some of it ( basically she watches almost nothing because LOLVIOLENCE is everywhere. Her getting angry after not being warned about violence doesn't mean the stuff is bad, she's just very anal about some things.

Back to manga, in the later part of the 60s and 70s shonen/seinen author started doing a lot of "anti-hero" stuff. Go Nagai's Devilman and spin-offs, Tezuka Osamu's Jack, Ashita no Joe, etc... Not only were stories dark, protag were anti-hero, and a lot of the times, they were downright what someone would consider an "evil" person.

Same thing happened in the shoujo world. The 70s in shoujo was a lot of VERY VERY melodramatic. It was also the start of a lot of "forbidden love" ( yuri and yaoi ) and these always ended up in tragedy. A lot of historical pieces in which the "bitch" in almost every single work was such a caricature of the archetype.

They would go to such an extent to hurt the MC ( killing family members, financial ruin, burning property etc ) that you could not help but feel so much anger. But is it good storytelling or is it merely just very crude shock value? How did they even get away with it? Most of it was the latter, this was a big experimentational period for mangaka in general branching out of what was the established "norm" in storytelling.

TL;DR You can't just say Drama is successful and good if it illicit an emotion out of you. There's good drama and then there's bad drama , which netizens have been calling it "forced drama" recently. Although this also tricky because it has evolved into an umbrella term for "all things I don't like in a story".

last edited at Aug 13, 2014 2:59AM

You people do realize there was no gender specific title when she told her about her "internet friend" so for all you know it is a woman. If she really wanted it to head in the direction of "fuck a random dude" Saburouta would have just wrote male specifics rather than keep it so anonymous (taking into account raws also didn't have gender specifics).

That or I'm reaaaaaalllly wishfully thinking.

Either way, I really want to know how Mei will deal with Matsuri after she finds all this out because I guarantee she can't possible not find out about it.

"I wish i could be as stable as Mei..."
Haha! Very funny, I could as the reader we can see things she can't but even so, I laughed.

As for the next chapter's attempted paid lay, there's more girls / women in the business and the gender was not specified, so there's a decent chance of that happening.

One cannot also exclude the potential for a set-up in which is included many men in a dark place in which no one could save her. Although this might just be my H-manga conditioned mind speaking here.

All in all not much happened in that many pages, but the sweet moment between the two leads and handholding ( lewd! ) was great. Still, it left me wanting for a lot more.

last edited at Aug 12, 2014 10:02PM

It's a fictional comical set up. No, Japan doesn't have that kind of law. Is it just me or is the IQ of dynastyreader users gradually dropping? Above comments are similar. It's a ridculous set up but it's fictional. It's meant to entertain by setting up a plot that's not realistic. Either like it or don't. Just wow. I guess this forum isn't different from other internet forums. The average IQ is quite low.

Actually, this sort of thing IS possible. Just not on the "legit" side of things. I was watching a documentary of a yakuza woman who at the age of 15, 16? was basically sold by her father ( he was a high-ranking officer that borrowed and his investments didn't pay off ) for 3 years to some other head guy and he would "forgive" her parents debt.

If your debt is owe to some very bad people that are willing to do things beyond the scope of the law, you might actually be in such troubles.

Now I'm not saying that this is the case here or in most cases in which involves this cliché plot development. But these things can happen and you see the big bad enforcers knocking down on people's door... sometimes.

This is in a shounen magazine so it isn't "yuri" yuri, and will probably be a lot of comedy. I'd advise everyone not to get their hopes up about this and not treat this too seriously.

last edited at Aug 7, 2014 7:52AM

Are we just going to ignore the fact that after all that BS they are still not together?
No?
Welp this manga is right down there with softcharm imo

Heh, what a bad story. I like how it doesn't flesh out anything every is one dimensional. And how in the hell did the Queen not destroy their country, the mother gave her daughter away especially because they couldn't afford to wage war.

All in all... cheap drama, bad characterization, bad world building.

To kill every men because of one is kinda too much.

#KillAllMen

Kind of like that one 18 year old kid here in the US a few months back who went around shooting women because he got rejected by a few. And yes, that happened IRL.

He actually never did get rejected because he was severely lacking in social skills, he thought talking to a girl for half a second meant you were establishing a relationship... His parents did nothing about their autistic child growing to be more and more delusional and closing himself to reality. In the end he just watched anime and played video games and browsed reddit/4chan and that REALLY doesn't help someone who already his plenty unhealthy mentally.

He also didn't ONLY hate women, as a matter of fact, I think he ended up killing more men in his spree IIRC.

I dislike the whole "he hates women" propaganda, because if you read his "manifesto" his videos and his general actions, his reddit posts you see that his problem is more than "he's a misogynist". His outburst was a long time coming, and was way more than what the media and people say it was. Real life people are not one dimensional, they're complex.

last edited at Aug 5, 2014 4:36PM

Well the last chapter was such a cliffhanger, things could go either way. Yamada is still pretty shy and isn't the most secure of person. We'll have to see I guess?

Also, you're not a "dirty perv" wanting to see two people who love each other engage in an loving embrace ( and all that it entails ) is not something to feel wrong about. Damn you Judeo-christian morals! Making people feel guilty about sweet vanilla.

Haha yeah I'm still so conflicted about it personally (though people might dislike tumblr it really opened my eyes to woman shaming and I'm glad I don't judge people like I used too). sweet vanilla lol dang it might be so awkward but I would love to see that sex scene. Hopefully Yamada is in love with her and not just Kases charm (just wanted like 2 eps of lipservice). Has there been any yuri where a straight girl can't go all the way? That would be so horrible I thought I read all the yuri out there but I can't think of any like that. I wish we had a main discussion board I have so much to talk about about lesbian/yuri stuff but there's no forumns anywhere where I can. I wish I had friends ;___;

Well that end was dark! Well /u/ on 4chan is the Yuri board, it's fairly slow though. Other than that, maybe someone could ask Dynasty Scans' admin/mod/*insert whatever title* if it would be alright to create something like "Official Yuri General Thread" and possibly an official Off-topic thread?

OMG I JUST SKIPPED AHEAD (not that it matters). Do any of you think that there'll be a sex scene?? While talking to my gf about it she said no way that it's too pure. But the way things are moving along????? Like we saw kasesan boobies!!! omg I couldn't even think about seeing yamada fondling her boobies but idk anymore! I want to believe there will be a sex scene cause I'm a dirty perv but idk?? what do you guys think?

Can it be like Morishima Akiko who I would think would only make pure girl stuff no sex scenes but she has a lot of sex scenes! But I don't think Takashima Hiromi has had any sex scenes in her other mangas?

Well the last chapter was such a cliffhanger, things could go either way. Yamada is still pretty shy and isn't the most secure of person. We'll have to see I guess?

Also, you're not a "dirty perv" wanting to see two people who love each other engage in an loving embrace ( and all that it entails ) is not something to feel wrong about. Damn you Judeo-christian morals! Making people feel guilty about sweet vanilla.

last edited at Jul 30, 2014 6:06PM

On the question--guy here. I have no idea why yuri isn't more popular with men (well, I guess they're afraid of "feelings" and like that, whatever). But I mean, straight guys and lesbian girls have this fundamental thing in common: We both like girls. Right? So it stands to reason that romance between girls is better than some shounen romance with some drip of a male lead getting in the way. How do more guys not see this simple obvious point?
Lovely chapter. I knew from the beginning this would be great--Takashima Hiromi's previous manga wasn't yuri, but it was so cute and sweet that it was obvious she'd be a great fit for yuri manga.

Sup PLG!
I guess it's just a matter of lack of exposure? People who know me, know that I read every demographic and genre possible, I like to think my taste is varied. But Yuri has a special place for me in the romance genre. Why?

Let's take shounen/seinen romance tropes
- Bland self-insert MC
- Ecchi Galore ( Ironically not much consensual sexy time until the very end, possibly not even showing it and just an End with 2 kids and the couple living happily ever after )
- Possibly unending harem romance
- Long series are long
- Romance might be a side thing to Slice of life or supernatural content

Shoujo Tropes :
- Dumb as brick female lead
- MISUNDERSTANDINGS ( WHOS THAT CALLING YOU !!!!!?! )
- Love triangles that drag on
- The ride never ends!

Now what I like a lot about Yuri is that
- Short and to the point ( most content is a oneshot to 3 volumes max )
- Almost always stricly about the romance, no supernatural stuff monster fighting, no school politics.
- Physical interaction is possible depending on the series

Basically Yuri can contain the fluff, the innocence, the smutty, all condensed in way less pages than usually printed het romance ( there are exceptions of course ).

TL;DR It's all about the romance ( and boobs )! What's not to like?

I have another question that's off-topic for the lesbians here. I've been thinking about this for awhile but there's no real forums I'm a part of to ask. But do you think you go faster in your relationships (like having sex faster) than a traditional straight relationship would? Since when I had my boyfriend we started dating when we were 16 and I told him to wait to have sex with me till I was 21 (he couldn't wait we broke up at 18). And when I started dating my girlfriend we got frisky a lot faster like within the first 6 months.

It's not uncommon for younger girls to avoid sex until what they consider "the right time". The only "weird" thing is that you put an arbitrary timeline ( age ) on that one instead of basing it on feelings.

Hard to gauge, statistically gay men are more promiscuous ( one gay is horny enough, now add another one! ). I am unsure about lesbians.
There's a lot of factors you have to include. Stuff like self-image, education ( religion as well ), availability, personality... The list is long.

I know it's different for every relationship and I might just be a prude. But I felt like giving to my boyfriend would make me a slut or something like listening to societies pressure but with my girlfriend I didn't worry about that at all.

That's a pretty weird thought process, my best guess is that you didn't really him? There's also the chance that as you've aged, you were more secure in your body, feelings. sexuality and didn't make a big deal out of it.

A question, do you actively tell people you're in a relationship with the girl? If you're not the stereotypical lesbian couple people might assume you're just friends and no one is going to think about it too much, zero societal pressure right there.

And I see that in yuri (well can yuri relate to real life?) that they get to bed pretty fast compared to all the wooing in het romance. So are your inhibitions less than what you would expect of a straight relationship?

Yuri has to be fast because there isn't a demand for long series, most of them are short. That's really all there is to it.

last edited at Jul 30, 2014 5:36PM

Well that guy sure got an eyeful ( and the other girl a bit further away ).

last edited at Jul 29, 2014 6:38PM

Reminds me of Love DNA XX. Males are somehow pretty much extinct, therefore women take over... only to immediately reestablish the traditional gender roles. It's like nothing changed!
I hate that.

Expected of Japan, roles in society the most important thing! You've got to give it your all to make the huge cog moving well.

Yes, reminds me of Love DNA XX. But I don't think they're reestablishing their gender role here, it's just that same sex marriage become more acceptable.

I agree with you, men are not completely extinct ( she's mad that she's selling herself to another woman, which implies they're still present ).

It's just the ratio of female to male seems disproportionate so women are pretty much everywhere.

There isn't any in the later chapters? Odd they mention that on the warning page.

Yeah I edited my post, I just skipped over it and did not notice.

I guess the het/rape may come from the fact that the black haired one is the "Queen" and the other woman is the "King". I'm guessing it's going to be her "responsibility" to get raped by faceless fat hairy aristocratic men in order to produce an heir(s).

I'm the translator for this group and let me tell you something if you don't mind spoilers.

Edit : Nevermind... I got ahead of myself! Be careful in the future, het is usually avoided by the plague here. Rape is often a lesser offence to readers of this site.

last edited at Jul 28, 2014 1:46PM

Rape and het incoming? Not sure I should get into this until I know more.

There is no Het.

Edit: Oh nevermind, I see it wasn't in the content but in the introductary page by scanlators, my mistake.

last edited at Jul 28, 2014 1:39PM

Except a lot of yaoi writers in the west at least are lesbians. I know several personally. Fans, too. And as a recent release from Morishima Akiko revealed, there are a lot of lesbian yaoi fans in Japan too.

So definitely [citation needed] on those stats of yours.

I'm not disagreeing with you on the yaoi lesbian writers, because I've noticed this as well. But it'd wager that there's a lot more ( percentage wise ) writers than they are lesbian readers. It's probably because the market for yaoi is much bigger than yuri BECAUSE of straight women buying power ( shoujo-like designs ). Of course having actual stats for this would be difficult since homosexuality in Japan is not really a subject to discuss.

On a side note I'd be really interested to know the market for Bara. Do women buy any of that? Or is that what gay men in Japan buy? I don't have much knowledge of it because western women who do scan yaoi almost completely ignore Bara. I'd assume women in Japan do the same?

The "stats" comment is about porn which you could easily google.

I don't think there's much concrete Data about something so niché as Yaoi/Yuri, and the small portion that there is, probably not easily accessible to most western readers.

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaoi_fandom There's a few things that support my claim ( I have not click links and ascertain how strong the data is ).

Edit 2 : Also, my little X is read by Y comparison was simplified to illustrate a tendency for the opposite sex to watch/read opposite same-sex content. I know that Lesbians are numerous in liking Yaoi.

Sounds logical but i don't know about that, most males i've met have no interest in yuri aside from the porn and most yuri are made by woman
Meanwhile i've met some gay dudes that has little to no interest in yaoi due to show afeminate most of the dudes look, my neighbour even got to the point that he's fine watching Gravitation because you can easily pretend that the pink haired dude is a girl, plus most yaoi are also made by woman
The fujoshi trend is much, muuuuuuch bigger than the... Whatever males liking yuri is called

Most guys don't really like yuri ( in fact they don't like romance aside panty shots and tits ALA shounen/seinen harem ) it's kind of pitiful but it's true. But when you do simple math that 50% male population and there's about 3-4% homosexuals ( now cut this in half )... At the end of the day, you're probably going to get more male readers because of sheer volume. I do also think there's more anime/manga readers that are male ( don't quote me on this, but I'm fairly sure it's still like this ). I guess this could be found via U.S. publishers.

Can't deny that fujoshi trend is way more impactful than male liking yuri. But it's also way more broader, yuri is so niché but fujoshis have a lot to read, Yaoi, BL-subtext. It's not restricted by demographic.

last edited at Jul 28, 2014 3:30AM

I am even though I hardly post here; but yeah I don't know if there's any straight girls here but I am surprised to read in some of the forums how many males like reading yuri.

I'm straight... But I definitely have some sort of phallic object between my legs.

Yuri is for straight male ( 2 pairs of breasts ) and lesbians.
Yaoi is for straight women ( 2 penises! ) and homosexual males.

You're going to see a lot of male reading yuri ( and vice-versa )because there's definitely more straight people on this planet, so the pool of potential reader is much much larger.

This mind sounds weird at first, but stats wise it's the truth. Like I've pointed out, maybe it's the sight of seeing two person that the viewer finds attractive for the price of one without making it a threesome(+) awkward experience?

This same phenomenon is true in pornography. The biggest consumers of male porn are straight women. The reverse is also true for lesbian porn, in fact, most lesbian porn is catered toward a male audience. So much so that some "lesbian porn for women" studios and such have popped to have more "women friendly" same-sex content.

More on Yaoi - These are almost all drawn by women for women. It make sense when you consider that the Uke/Seme dynamic ( which is often in highschool ) is basically a copy paste of a shoujo smut story in which male are often pushing girls onto wall and seducing them.

Just cut the shy girl's hair and give the pushy guy bigger hands and a V looking jaw and you have your typical yaoi couple!

last edited at Jul 27, 2014 11:37PM

meh! I'm too irritated with Yamada-san's insecurities to really enjoy the story.

I'd be insecure too if my only redeeming quality as a person was to be "petit and cute" and like to water plants.

Gotta hand it to Kase, it must be tough being an athlete with a rack like that.

I'm a guy but I have a few female friends who do tracks. I was sure the most important tool was the shoes, but as it turns out, for women it's right fitting sports bra.

omg, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the NSFW tag

Yeah, I was tip-toein my way into this chapter. Then boobies! Nice eye-candy but nothing too crazy happening this chapter. In fact, I'd say it's pretty uneventful. But sweet sugar is great, especially with the belgian waffles I made with my trusty waffle maker.

last edited at Jul 27, 2014 11:56AM

I'm really close to my sister and if one day, she decided to ignore me because I have something dangling between my legs, I'd be devastated.

In a situation like that, where she'd had trauma so severe that something like that happened, it's best to suck up your own ego and remember that it's not about you. And given what you describe, it would have to be extremely severe.

Not that you wouldn't be justified being unhappy, but way too many people in such situations try to make themselves start of the show.

Star* not start xD

I completely agree with what you said, this is why I did did say previously that I was unaware of the circumstances between the victim and her brother(s) post-trauma. They could of very well deserved it and made themselves to be complete fools, but I always assume someone is innocent until proven guilty.

Obviously, I'm old enough ( we have quite a big age-gap ) not to make her would-be trauma my story. But I can't say I would potentially not feel a certain feeling of betrayal if this is how I was treated after trying my best to provide support.
Ultimately I pride myself in being a "good" older brother and this situation would never happen, but you never know when someone just loses control, they can go very far into "the deep end".

Although my first emotion would totally be "I'm powerless to do anything". Which is quite a common thought for anyone dealing with family members with mental and / or physical illness ( insert any issue a person you love might have ).

On Topic: Chapter 13 was a good counter-balance to the previous chapter's darkness.

last edited at Jul 16, 2014 6:34PM

Niwa: To answer your query, my sister was molested by a teacher, from that trauma she chose to be a lesbian. Her trust in men is gone , she will not talk to men nor look at them, she has even stopped talking to our brothers and this happened seventeen years ago.

I hope they deserved to be ignored ( not being helpful, supportive to her during her ordeal ). Because, if not, I feel extremely sorry for them. To have a family member like this totally ignore you like this would not be fun. I'm really close to my sister and if one day, she decided to ignore me because I have something dangling between my legs, I'd be devastated.

This chapter... She did say "adult men" are no good for her. Does this mean shotas are A-Okay!?

last edited at Jul 16, 2014 1:19PM

Those legs on page 3... shudder

Yeah, they're thin, even by shoujo-styled art standards.

Still not as cringe worthy as "yaoi hands".

I would disagree, yaoi hands is simply really big hands. When I see these sort of limbs like page 3, the first thing that comes to mind is pictures of pictures of open mass graves of WW2 Deathcamps.

Those legs on page 3... shudder

Mayu is such a good girl. What a cliffhanger, I guess our MC is on her way to meet her old flame. I wonder how it's going to go, small talk route or "Fuck yeah, I'm sooo over you bitch".

yay!! new chap~ thanks for the upload!

and now she is stabilized... or not? xD

That extra panel, with her going "Ooh!" suggests she's still got a wandering eye for that type. But then, that only takes place what, a couple of weeks away or so? Certainly the same school year. So maybe with time she'll eventually stop with all that.

Still think Katou would have been smarter to let her go and find a more healthy relationship.

Come on now, the "wandering eye" is not something that stops.

I really want this to be yuri so my opinion might (will totally) swing that way. But I think she had tears when she told her fiance she was pregnant because she was regretting being pregnant.

Ever had a girlfriend/wife tell you "we're going to have a baby"? Tears galore, tears and add more tears. Now obviously this isn't always the case, depends on the women, how long she's known beforehand etc... But it's a pretty natural thing.

The thought of Ran inserted here might be a bit weird. I personally thought it was kind of shoehorned into the story for yuri's sake.

Although, many people I've encountered told me that when it comes to getting married and whatnot people often go through the whole "what if's" marriage blues where they think, what if I/We had done differently with XYZ partner. That's not really exclusive to relationships, there's a reason why we say "what if's" "shoulda coulda woulda".

Since I don't see how her mothers death (from earthquake) would relate to filling a void compared to marrying and having a child w/ a man instead of being with a woman for the rest of her life?

I'm not sure how the void analogy inserts itself. Maybe void needs to be filled with any strong emotions? Who knows.

I don't think it's her mother's death she wished for in particular. More like a " I wish a lot of people are suffering like I am suffering right now " kind of thought. Which an earthquake can totally do.

Continuing on with the void she feels the need to fill.

I think she just means that she can't be alone no matter what, she fears loneliness and if she can't get what she really want, she'll settle for ANYTHING. I don't think this was totally the case for many years, because she was fulfilled in her relationship with her ex-fiancé. But now that he's gone, she's still the same weak individual always in need of love and affection. Who knows what would of happened to her had she not met her friend back?

The progress she thought she had accomplished through studying and being more serious had been an illusion.

She's still the same old Keiko she always was. Which is normal, a lot can change in a person, but those deep insecurities will probably always be part of her.

As for the yuri elements we've had this chapter adding on to the rest. I can pretty much say she's bisexual, I'd go further and say she's pansexual. Ultimately she just wants someone, anyone, to never leave her.

Being sort of a loner, I can't totally relate to her. But I've seen people, especially women, who just can't feel fulfilled if they aren't in a relationship. I pity them really, not being able to satisfy yourself must be a pain.

Wait I don't get it, I thought Keiko hate her mother because her mother forced her to do abortion, but it was not, I don't see what did Keiko's mother do to make Keiko hate her that much, even "can't forgive" her, then what is the reason ?

I hate it when girls think being a virgin is embarrassing and trying to lose it just because of that.

She wasn't particularly nice to her during her childhood and more importantly the thing she can't forgive is probably the words that were exchanged during that call.

It was a bit naive of her to think after all this time where they didn't even keep much contact ( she moved to Tokyo ) her mother would be provide the much needed support in these tough times. To be fair, she wasn't in the most lucid and normal state of mind.

She said "liked" >//////<

She's been with a partner for years, was pregnant, and about to get married. Saying anything else but "liked" in this situation would of been pretty weird.

last edited at Jun 20, 2014 12:07AM

Also, the "But did I really consider that... just now" probably means she considered train suicide ( which is a common and pretty successful way of committing suicide ).

nah she might be thinking there're casualty by the quake and delighted by the tought.
probably other get miscarriaged.

Oh that makes more sense, well that's even more dark of a thought, wish harm on others. I see why she was taken aback and why she looked down on herself again for still being the same.

From the author of such classics as Japanese Preteen Suite and Nymphodelic...(I haven't actually read those I just looked at his mangaupdates page)

To be fair his art is pretty and his hentai books are above average in term of stories. Although most of it is Lolicon, CNN would have a field day.

last edited at Jun 19, 2014 7:00PM

Inb4 that's her mother.