Jesus, slut shaming on Dynasty? What's wrong with you guys? All is fair in love, there's a reason that's a saying... As far as I'm concerned, this manga doesn't have any real villains, just characters with really common flaws. It's pretty believable.

If these people were people I knew, I don't think I'd have much to say. Nobody has done anything terrible. They're doing what they know best, I can't blame Kyou because hell if Kurumi ever saw her as anything so it's no surprise she's not confessed and is bitter, I can't blame Kurumi because from the beginning she knew she was the rebound, I can't blame Nika who is struggling with old feelings and new feelings as a teenager, I can't blame Jun who is thinking about college and the future and also worried about his childhood friend.

And that's why I like this, I have my own favorite (Kurumi) but I can't see any character as being a real villain.

In most countries homosexuality is neither accepted nor legal. Considering how heteronormative most societies are, how rarely the topic comes up in real life or fiction and that being open about it can often give you more troubles than it's worth, so you might live your entire life never encountering it, not realizing you're gay and instead assuming there's something wrong with you doesn't sound that unresonable.

Although typically one would also be attracted to women, whether one realizes it or not, so that is something set-ups like this completely ignore. No matter how heteronormative or whatever society is, hormones are hormones. So an unaware lesbian woman never having felt any attraction to another woman in over 20 years is at the very least unlikely. That person still can feel like they are broken or wrong, but many yuri stories act like the woman in question never even felt anything for either sex until that fateful moment.

It makes more sense depending on how low one's sex drive is of course. But typically they start feeling it hard the moment the realization strikes like some kind of limiter is being released. The magic of yuri manga lol

The article posted upthread about a person who realized she was gay because of Kitty Pryde explains a lot in that regard, and also explains a lot of tropes... Definitely I can now see how a woman in particular could fool themselves in that way. Super friendship, right, like Nanoha and Fate! That totally has nothing to do with not being straight!

BTW, thanks to all the people who responded to my post. I do appreciate it, it's interesting to see how this goes.

My own experience is a bit of a funhouse mirror in a way, a lot of people thought I was gay when I was younger though I am straight. There's a lot more story I could tell there, but anyway, the poisonous part of rigid social expectations goes out pretty far. Even of you're straight you have to be the right type of straight... It's a lot of bullshit. People telling you what to think and how to be when it's all based on what they like, what they want... It's so tiresome and dumb.

I don't think there's a chance for Kaoru to end up with any girl. Now that would be a bad move imo, because the author has strayed away from adding any hints of her sexuality not being straight all throughout the story.
The story is about exploring the feelings of unrequited love. And we can see that not only from Uta, but basically from all of the important characters here. Reiichi, Kaoru and possibly Risako.
That's why the diverge from Uta's pov to Kaoru and her back-story now is not bad writing or loss of focus. The main "character" here is Unrequited Love itself.

Right now I think you're right (Kaoru shows no clear signs of being bi or gay, so far the only directly romantic thing from her is her relationship with Reiichi). If speculation about it is true this is a true hell triangle, with Reiichi being in love with Risako who loves Kaoru who loves Reiichi, with Uta pining away on the side. Which would be 4 people spending all their love for no return, and tripping all over each other (and likely sabotaging each other) in the process.

Which is pretty depressing to think about. I do hope some light shows up at the end of this tunnel soonish, but I suspect it would be a train if it did.

Don't feel bad, guy. It's not your fault or hers. You're both victims of society's expectations. I'm really liking this trend of sympathetic male characters in yuri works. It feels like the genre is moving on from a major point of contention (at least for me).

More like he is victim of the guy in Yuri syndrom. No matter how much of a saint they are, the manga is about two girls getting together.

Well, I'm still reading Ojisama Nante Iranai which has a token straight couple. So there is always that option.

Raws for chapter 29 are out here https://m.imgur.com/a/dQC4iit

No one's getting out happy with this one, are they? The pieces are coming together here. I was not on the "Risako is secretly gay for Kaoru" team but this definitely suggests it. Too bad she's such a piece of work.

Is this a common thing? I can actually relate to the girls that know they are gay from childhood more, my own preference was something I knew from childhood. I guess some people don't figure it out right away? I can understand outright denial but just not realizing is a bit odd.

Still, looks cute, I have high hopes for this.

Hino is thinking of Kogu and doesn't realize she can deal the fatal blow by wearing one of the outfits...

What’s with this epidemic of anime high schoolers living alone

In this case, I don't think it's supposed to be treated as normal. It's weird and I think the teacher knew about it which is what led to this whole situation.

She's pregnant so she probably feels like she's locked in and can't do anything about it at this point, even if she wants to leave because she fucking hates her life now. Japan isn't exactly big on abortions. This one instance of cheating with the only person who ever cared about her is meant to be the last moment of happiness she'll feel, before she punishes herself by marrying someone she doesn't give a shit about, and raising a kid she didn't want.

On the contrary, Japan is pretty big on abortions... It's not talked about, but they happen pretty frequently. You have to have a man with you to sign for it (or had to for a long time, not sure if still true), but the usual way around that is to find a friend or something to do it (this was the beginning plot point for a manga I read, I can't remember, the main character gets talked into going to a clinic to sign though it's someone else's kid). For a long time, the pill was not available in Japan either, but it is around now though not that popular or well known compared to the west. So yeah, lots of abortion. Nobody talks about it.

Well, we'll see what happens but I have to agree with other posters, Maki has made her play. She has put it out there, thrown the line, and Midori has to choose to take it or continue doing what she's doing. I mean, if you tell them pretty much, "fuck your fiance, run away with me to a beach town somewhere" you can't be much more assertive than that without crossing over the line into kidnapping territory. That's already stepping all over the "friendship" line, that along with the kiss... This is already pretty far into affair territory, even if they haven't done more than kiss.

This is kinda like a weird reflection of "Like a Spring Storm", both have the marriage thing but one is before and one is after, one has pregnancy and one doesn't, one is fluffy and one is straight angst.

My feeling is that Jun probably was right from the first - he doesn't love Nika as a lover but as a childhood friend. He does love her in that way, which is why he can't stop meddling or worrying, but if he wanted her as a lover they could figure something out. It's not like they don't have lots of choices - unless he's moving overseas it's almost trivial logistically. I mean really, Japan is big but you can also move within your own country pretty easily, and there are shinkansen lines up and down most of the country. Unless you are going to Okinawa or Hokkaido, you can get around.

He's just not that into her. I wish Kurumi had pressed that point as I have no doubt Kurumi is serious. We don't have a view of what exactly went down in their meeting either, but it's clear she didn't press him.

Honestly I wish she had, if you're going to stick your neck into it be clear about it. He's not for real, he might have some wavering feelings but he would be useless for Nika. People like that, I just want to tell them to fuck off. If he thinks a relationship is impossible because he's moving for University that just means he thinks studies are more important, which is fine, but be real about it and don't fuck around.

venom posted:

"hmm my daughter has major depressive disorder and chronic anxiety, I know let's trick her to work at a shop that I know is going to be incredibly busy, during a heatwave." 10/10 parenting right there

I hope nothing bad happens, because I'll be so freaking mad if I see the mother with the surprise pikachu face when her daughter pass out or pukes in the middle of the chaos

Totally this. She almost was working from home at one point and it was going well. It only fell apart because she realized she'd been fooled and Imoko covered for her, but really she basically was working. Retail is high stress and fast paced. Neeko might be able to do it but throwing her in the deep end is a really bad idea. You have to learn how to deal with a rush even if you're good at what you do. I worked at Starbucks for a couple years and it was damn hard sometimes. Morning rush hour never was easy and only our training and good management kept us - me and my coworkers - together.

Mom and Imoko and insane if they think this is a good idea. She could work in a game store, she likes games and could do a good job, but during a rush??? Really???

ONCE YOU PAY $60+ EVERYTHING IN THE GAME BECOMES FREE

It sounds stupid but it's sound. You pay for something once and have it, which means you know the price. Microtransactions pretty much destroy this. It's easy for this money to end up being quite a bit more. I have subscriptions to a few streaming services and pay to read manga on a Japanese site (it's like 30-50 yen per episode). You can bet I have paid multiples of $60. I am not disputing the value - I pay because I think it's worth it - but I also can't tell you exactly how much it comes out to without looking at a bank statement. I definitely don't really know exactly my spending on manga, between a couple apps and so on, but it's more than I spend on games.

Honestly I consider games super cheap. A $60 console game usually is at least 40 and often 80 or more hours of entertainment. Skyrim has sucked up countless hours of my life. You can go back and play an old game too and usually repeat the experience, if the game is the right type. I won't touch mobile games partly because I know it could easily become a huge money sink and I don't want to touch that - also why I didn't buy fallout 76, it required a subscription to PSN IIRC and that turned out to be the least of it.

If you think the cliff hangers hurt now, wait till you realize that we're only 2 chapters behind the raws and the magazine it's in is quarterly.

I actually buy the magazine online (on Kindle, though I read on my phone mostly). This series and one other (nobody has translated it, Sorairo Melancholic) always get read first and I am always waiting for the next issue and checking to see if it's out yet like a month early.

I'm don't think men are actually bad at yuri. I just feel all of their characters are second hand interpretations of lesbians. I know this is a bit unfair, but as a straight cis man I know it's true.

Actually I agree. It's hard to put it in words, but there is definitely a different feel to actually yuri by yuri as opposed to the second hand version. I think there are a lot of nuances, especially in realistic stories, that are really handled better by people with experience... And a lot of times they draw more varied women.

I guess I just wanted to defend the men who manage to actually seem to get it? There are definitely plenty of bad yuri stories written by people who don't know what they're writing about. Perhaps I'm just sensitive as a cis man myself.

Cute, but isn't Inue Ayu breaking some unwriten manga artist rule to never depict themselves accurately in their manga. Manga writers seem to always depict themselves as characters like cats or bunnies, or at least as caricatures, in their afterwards.

It is always nice to learn that a yuri writer is a yuri girl herself. Not just a straight girl writing yuri just for the pay check, or worse yet, a guy.

We know a lot are female, and actually Morishima Akiko wrote an autobiographical manga about her problems with ADHD if I remember correctly. Somehow everyone missed that it exists, probably because we only pay attention to her yuri works.

That said, I'm not going to knock anything by Akihito Yoshitomi even if he's a guy.

There's no guarantee bond between girls? What kind of line is that? Love doesn't know gender. Girls can marry each other just like boys can. Also not liking the sepia tone of this.

It's as though people can't see that marriages end in divorce, or become loveless and exist in form only, or that nothing is guaranteed in this life. Hell, it's short as hell too. A decade only seems like a long time if you're 20 years old.

Even the marriage thing, the legal recognition is really not the most important part of it (don't get me wrong here, gay marriage is a matter of human rights to me). If you're formally married but you could care less for each other, how is that more special than a loving relationship?

Heck, as far as I'm concerned, even if it ends, having a serious relationship that lasts a good ten years is a pretty good run. Almost nothing in my life has had that sort of stability since I grew up.

Just take what you got while you can, and make it as real as you can.

Sketch pads let you use better writing tools and are less messy than whiteboards. My mom is disabled and can no longer speak well. We used a white board for a while which worked well when she could use it as an assist to speaking. Thing is, degenerative PSP ruins muscle control, and her writing also became worse. I bought a sketchpad and some fine tip pens and markers for it so her writing wouldn't smudge together as much. Thanks to that, I can still have a sort of conversation with her.

If you're worried about paper, well, there are worse ways to use it.

Honestly, even within the context of a girl's relationship, is it really normal to kiss on the lips? I know some people can take that lightly but really? What if you're French kissing? I would call that pretty gay. Admittedly, sleeping with someone and not wanting to screw is a little unusual, but still it's early in their relationship, it's still developing.

I admit I feel a little protective of Kurumi. I wish all these nattering Nancys and the jerk childhood friend(s) would go fuck off and let her and Nikaido have fun. From a story perspective you have to have obstacles but honestly I just want Kurumi to be happy.

The heart stone. The victorian dress rental plase. The historical Western house. Nanoho, and Chitori's class must be at the same plase that Akko confessed to Mariko in Girlfriends

I thought it was in Negima too, but I think I might be wrong! I wonder if the girlfriends connection is a coincidence or intentional. I don't think there are any direct references with panels or staging or the like, but the confessions might say otherwise

School groups tend to visit the same places. If you ever go to Japan and visit any famous tourist place at the time when school groups are out, you will find a LOT of them. I just returned from a trip to Japan and I saw them in Dotonbori, at Hiroshima castle, on Miyajima, basically at all the well known places. I have never been to Nagasaki but I am sure if I went I would see school groups at exactly this place.

I think it's an easy sell? They could go to Kyoto and do the shrine next to Kiyomizu-dera (which I'm pretty sure has shown up in some anime and manga), but I guess Nagasaki is becoming more in? Kyoto is so badly overtouristed now... In any case, having a romantic spot on a school trip is a trope, and realistically it's actually very common for many schools to go to the same spots.

At this point, I think everyone - or at least someone in the club - has got to have figured it out. What would be hilarious is if at the end of the series there were POV chapters from everyone else of when they figured it out. Surely Mai isn't the only one to catch them, and they're so damn obvious. Especially this arc!

"We'll stop by my favorite donut shop, and then..."

I sure hope the rest is "...go home and screw like crazed weasels"

Bruuuuhhh so when she went on how “they all like guys” she was worried she wouldn’t find a girl who likes other girls? SHE JUST WENT TO A LITERAL GAY PRIDE PARADE THERES GOTTA BE A LESBIAN OR TWO SOMEWHERE, unless im reading all this wrong but honestly thats the ghist i get from it

That's what is kinda the issue, she had given up because society's expectations + past experience was that it wouldn't work, she went to the parade and saw that the magical reality she had hoped for COULD exist in this world, but she would have to open herself to it... Despite believing that was impossible, and other girls only liked guys.

I mean, if you wanna smash clams you gotta admit you prefer seafood to sausage first. And you gotta be willing to risk telling other people. She could barely admit it to herself, and her crushes were all straight or at least she never found out if they would swing her way.

PS:
Where does Adashima takes place again? Not in Nagoya right, because they had to ride a train for 20 min to get there.

Gifu or somewhere between Nagoya and Gifu. Gifu Castle is mentioned in the story later on I think.

A lot of the most popular nowadays (like, those that sell a lot) feel like they'll never be true yuri ... like Demon Girl next door, manaria friends, Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita! or new game, they just push it to the limit like in case they have to make excuses laters... Even yuru yuri and That girl who likes boobs.

It's cannonical that Momo is in love with Shamiko in Demon Girl Next Door, but I'm not sure how or when the author will develop it into something physical.

I'm just glad yuri is a thing. My first yuri was Marimite, which did a lot of dancing around and implying compared to modern shows. That and Utena.