1) Unmarried older bachelors of both genders are referred to as "grass eaters" (literally "herbivores")

Does it apply to all bachelors? I thought it covered people who were single and weren't looking for a partner?

1) Weird.

My understanding was that it's a play on carnivores being someone who's interested in "flesh" (i.e. sex). Wikipedia has a page on the topic with this line.

According to Fukasawa, herbivore men are "not without romantic relationships, but have a non-assertive, indifferent attitude toward desires of flesh". The philosopher Masahiro Morioka defines herbivore men as "kind and gentle men who, without being bound by manliness, do not pursue romantic relationships voraciously and have no aptitude for being hurt or hurting others."

So ... yeah. It seems fairly comparable to the western concepts of alpha and beta people, and it's probably about as toxic. That said, parts of the description also sound similar to chivalry, which is interesting.

I wish this was a bit longer. Maybe not a full series, but long enough to see how Misaki disrupts the old status quo and the rippling effects of that disruption.

Also, I think the First Heroine was a bit off in her assessment. It's true that extras are drawn as faceless background scenery, because they're unimportant and the audience doesn't need to differentiate them or even acknowledge their presence beyond setting the scene in a crowd. By the same token, it's problematic if side characters are drawn as faceless background pieces too often, because they're not as important and not as distinct and they'll quickly get lost in such a position.

However, there's another type of character that can be safely drawn as a faceless bit of background: A main character. Main characters have so much narrative weight that fully drawing them in a scene will almost always result in them dominating that scene, so you can draw them as a background piece to place them in the scene and mask their narrative weight. Even in that diminished position, they still exert so much influence, and should be so sufficiently important to the readers, that they don't really fade away and there's no risk of them fading from their role.

Now, when Misaki came in she completely disrupted the old pace of the manga, changed the roles of previously important characters, and generally warped the narrative with her mere presence. Does that sound like a side character to you? Because it sounds like a new main character to me. One who might be occasionally drawn into the background so the artist can show her integrating with the school and her influence on events, even when she's not directly involved.

Judging by what Megumi was saying, and how the manga was depicted, it seems like it was starting to stagnate and, maybe, lose popularity. Misaki was obviously recruited, from a completely different manga and genre, to force a change of pace, either as the beginnings of a spin-off or the co-lead of a new arc.

Huh. That puts me in mind of an interesting idea for a sequel. Maybe Ms. First actually understands Misaki's position and considers her a threat, since her own position would be significantly diminished by a new lead and change in genre. So she's trying to force Misaki into a safer role. Perhaps she's even done the same to the other girls before and it's her fault that the manga started to stagnate.

And Misaki should have an impressive set of survival skills, seeing as she has been living and scavenging in a war area for some time... she prolly can use guns, jury-rig all sort of devices, fight with improvised weapons, make a campfire and cook food on it... but, so far, she hasn't had the chance to put any of these to use... that's a side of her that should definitely be explored...

In conclusion, leaving this manga as a oneshot is a crime. I demand a series! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ

So, what I'm hearing is Misaki needs to go Full Metal Panic?

People here just hating on bisexual

I feel like I missed something? Most of the hate seemed directed towards the brother and an overly stringent conception of consent. What part related to bisexuality?

There should be bisexual on tags

I don't think it's clear that either of them is bi?

How does this happen, how do you date a person for 3 years when you don't even like him.

Some people spend their whole lives in merriages denying who they really are... At least lately people are feeling more confident to admit who they are and conquer their own self depreciating feelings

If you put aside the Yuri, it's not because you don't like someone at first that you won't grow fond of them. You never know what could happen. Maybe you thought you don't like someone but the more time you past with them, the more you like it.

Even beyond that, it's possible that you do like them, or even love them (because eros isn't the only type of love), but you just don't like them in that way. Maybe they asked you out first and you say yes because you don't want to hurt their feelings and you think your own feelings might grow over time (after all, it's a common enough trope for friendship to slowly grow into love). Maybe you didn't even realize there was a difference at first and you thought your feelings were that kind of love only to realize, over time, that your wrong.

There are a million other reasons why a gay person might get into a straight relationship. Heck, it's not even limited to gay people; strait people get into bad relationships all the time for all sorts of reasons. The way sexual minorities are treated definitely makes things worse, but I think the way romance is often presented in media is also a major factor. It's almost always either true love, and all will be right with the world after some minor struggles, or it's a complete sham and at least one of the lovers has some major moral failings. In either case, it's always bombastic and blindingly obvious by the end. Then there's the utter mess with how persistence and grand gestures are portrayed.

In short, no part of of how romance or courting is portrayed is realistic, but it's going to color people's expectations and perceptions, even if they consciously acknowledge that it's fake. The simple pervasiveness and lack of good counter examples means it's going to have a significant influence on your world view.

Very rarely are healthy ends to relationships explored, nor do we see much made of more subtle feelings or other types of love and I think that needs to change. The fact that when we do get them, they tend to work very well makes it all the more tragic.

Yup. The Official tag added an extra layer of confusion, until I noticed the series.

So we've got Astronomy Lesbians, Game Dev Lesbians, Rock Climbing Lesbians, Hot Spring Lesbians, and now Theater Lesbians. Good stuff. What will they come up with next.

I need cooking lesbians and food porn. Gimme gimme.

I'm pretty sure there's a series about that on this site. Can't remember the name though, sorry.

I'm glad this finally got finished.

Overall, I really liked Rock it, GIRL, but the entire section after the timeskip felt a bit rushed and disjointed. Like there was something with the president, but maybe not, and the person the singer went to see on their own, with the whole twister thing, and the band breaking up gets explained and resolved in the last chapter? Then there was the call back to her grandfather's music carrier?

There's definitely an interesting story in there and you can see most of the key moments, but that's also the problem: we're only getting to see those key moments. It's almost like a bullet points version of a much longer story and I really wish we had gotten that longer version.

Yeah. More Amber Teahouse, even if it's just a oneshot with some side characters.

I really loved that series, back when it was on going, and it's always been a bit disappointing that the author hasn't really done anything new since finishing it.

He was working on a new series in Comic CUNE back in 2017, but due health problems it was canceled. All the finished pages he published as doujin.

Yeah. More Amber Teahouse, even if it's just a oneshot with some side characters.

I really loved that series, back when it was on going, and it's always been a bit disappointing that the author hasn't really done anything new since finishing it.

He was working on a new series in Comic CUNE back in 2017, but due health problems it was canceled. All the finished pages he published as doujin.

Ah. That's unfortunate to hear.

Yeah. More Amber Teahouse, even if it's just a oneshot with some side characters.

I really loved that series, back when it was on going, and it's always been a bit disappointing that the author hasn't really done anything new since finishing it.

whats with the weird poses lol?

"I'm going to make Jojo poses at you until you submit?"

Just remember that the Kouhai just forced the senpai into the hotel in the first place. Funny how someone who think the other is the worst consent to a relation. The author sure didn't bother to explain how it worked. Magic i suposs. Can't appreciate it when I know how it begin.

Yeah. This one is definitely better without the prequel. Here we see Tougou complaining about her kouhai's behavior, but generally going along with it willingly and even reciprocating, quite strongly, without prompting. (For perspective, ¥10,000 is currently $92.94 usd, which sounds like a lot for a white day present, even if you're a committed couple.) I could very easily believe her resistance here is just an act or a proforma habit.

Conversely, in the first one she's literally blackmailed into having sex and we don't really see anything to suggest it was some kind of role play or false protestation. On it's own, it's bad and, taken together with this piece, casts their relationship in a much darker and more abusive light; one where she only goes along with Sayama and engages in overblown displays of reciprocity as a defense mechanism, to avoid reprisal.

I don't think that's what the author intended and, honestly, this work isn't deep enough to support that kind of story, so I'd much rather pretend the first piece isn't related and they're just a quirky couple with commitment issues.

Uh ... I'm pretty sure that was a floral pattern on page 20. Roses are floral, right?

Miho's going for the true polygamy route since this picture (and judging by those blushes, it's working)

I don't know, that might be more building rage than a blush.

I haven't gotten too far in the game, but I find it a bit hard to picture either being quite as stupid as Romeo or Juliet.

They're basically one of those overly saccharine couples that always goes in for things like matching mugs. Except they're able to take it a lot further, because they're both girls in the same grade at the same school. It's a little bit odd and it would probably be healthier if they grew out of it, but I wouldn't call it outright creepy.

The whole "This is me monopolizing her." thing was probably more about getting the other girls to back off on criticizing her friend for doing something they both enjoyed. Owning it like that pretty effectively prevents them from bringing it back to the other girl, even if it's more of a mutual choice in reality.

Finally, the confession at the end struck me more as a realization of what was actually going on the entire time, rather than a true change in the dynamic. They were basically acting as a couple, but they never really acknowledged it to each other. Hiromi going out on a limb like that pretty much confirmed it, for both girls, but she wasn't actually sure that Yuka felt the same way, so she got scared. Yuka made sure to keep up their routine and actually verbalize their feelings.

Yamada. ... You're on vacation. Your girl friend has a room to herself, Yamada. Yamada, your on vacation and your girlfriend has a private room.

Forget the fireworks, girl, arrange a sleepover.

To be clear, Yamada, that does not mean you should just sleep when you go over.

The senpai seemed like she was trying to play wing-girl throughout this chapter, but she'll need a bigger clue-by-four if she wants to make a dent in our protagonists.

Ok. Clearly I need to look up what Butterfly Soup is.

I figured it was a joke, I just wasn't sure if it was the mangaka or the translators pulling it.

I have to say, the last set of lines was definitely the best. It had the proper sting for a Shakespearean insult and there just aren't enough opportunities to use those.

Lots of dead magical girls! Ever since madoka it's never been the same, the job's a lot more dangerous than it used to be,

Since Madoka? Sailor Nothing came long before that...

So like i dont wanna be that person but i gotta remind everyone that the sailor scouts were dying left and right during Sailor Moon and the point of their bodies being simulacra was taken straight from that show too.

Madoka wasn't as strong a shift in setting as it was in framing.

I also seem to recall them usually getting better soon after (because Moon is hax and so is Saturn). At that point, I'd argue that death means something [i]very[/i] different. It's a bit like how Deadpool getting his arm chopped off would be taken very differently from the same happening to Captain America or even Doctor Strange (assuming the later couldn't just wiggle his remaining figures and get a new one).

Unless, of course, Covid-19 somehow mutates into a myth or yokai and enters gensokyo on it's own, at which point all bets are off and Reimu will probably be necessary.

TheYuriTomboy posted:

So, Utena is a switch.

Switch would imply that she enjoys being submissive in BDSM play, which has never been implied.

Right she doesn't seem to enjoy it at all... *rolls eyes*

She obviously enjoy being helpless. She's the sub there.

Doesn't Alice's power have a very strong mental effect that forces targets into the appropriate roles? At least, that seemed to be the case for 2/3rds of Tres.

Looking at the new forces of evil. I think their rank and more likely power is linked to the number of black stars in their body. Both Utena and the veteran leader have the same number of stars.
I am not sure how many stars Kiwi has but Korisu has three.

Update: I was looking at the earlier chapters where Kiwi was introduced, and she does not have any stars in the front of her body nor her back. Maybe these stars are on her shoulders or in the lower parts of her legs.

Depending on how you count them, Utena may have more, with one on each of her eyes, cheeks, and horns giving her a total of Six to the new girl's 4 on her forehead.

Wait, are they at a boarding school where having your own computer, in a four person dorm, is forbidden? That seems ... Rediculous? Insane and likely to breed contempt for the rules, in general, more than anything else?

last edited at Mar 20, 2020 8:36AM

I like how so many people in here totally missed the punchline about not judging people for their looks.

I was wondering about that.

One interpretation of her last thought is that she actually is attracted to Sakuma, which seems to be what most people on here are going with. The other is that she's laughing at Wanko's antics because if she was gay she would have made a move on Sakuma long ago and the fact that she hasn't should be solid proof that she isn't.