I mean, this one seems a little unclear to me? You could interpret it as "Mask groped Kaoru and Kaoru is thinking about it later in the bath" but it also feels like it could be read as "Kaoru fell asleep in the bath and had a smutty dream about Mask."

But I mean, that could just be my brain struggling with the 180 this ship did a few installments ago.

The "best friend" line surprised me, but it didn't ring that weird once I thought about it. I mean, Kase thinks more like a typical guy athlete than like a modern ordinary person of either gender, let alone like a typical Japanese young woman. For her, spending time with someone and running a lot of races with them = friends. Doesn't matter if they've never said a meaningful word to each other, what's that got to do with friendship?

Well, not only that, they also live together, occupy the same space throughout both days and nights, and contrary to what you're saying here, actually have shared some meaningful conversations, and taken care of each other? That's why Fukami fell for Kase in the first place, it's not that weird that some of that sense of closeness would develop both ways.

I mean, I was surprised that Kase considers her a best friend, because I was surprised Kase thought of herself as having a best friend, since she seems so independent, (and Yamada-focused,) but if she has one, it would definitely be Fukami.

That line actually made this whole arc make...a little more sense to me, from Kase's perspective? I still think basically every decision she's made throughout was objectively the wrong move, but it makes more sense if she's trying to preserve what she considers a close friendship that seems like it's in jeopardy.

And that attitude in turn explains why she considers this person a friend and yet had never before considered telling her anything much about herself . . . to her, that's kind of irrelevant. What makes them friends is that they spend time trying to run faster than each other. And to be fair, that in doing so they sort of passively absorb a sense of the other person's character. Communicating facts with words isn't really part of the deal.

I do think the fact that Kase has considered Fukami her personal rival almost since they met has a lot of bearing on it as well. Kase is the kind of person that respects and admires the people she competes with.

I kinda want to re-read this series with hindsight now, actually.

last edited at Dec 12, 2023 11:46PM

Very nice. ^_^

Kase-san sure had some harsh things to say about Kase-san. :P

For the briefest moment, I considered that maybe, just maybe, when Kase blew off the obvious romantic confession as "Oh, she just means as friends!" that she might have been doing so intentionally to try and let her down easy.

(...A thing which never works, just in case anyone here thinks it does...)

But nope. She is actually that stupid. I mean I guess that's not surprising per se, but still?

I'm surprised at the strength of the some of the reactions to the 'smoking' chapter.

I lost my mom to those death-sticks. They don't upset me as much as those other commenters, but I get why some people might react that way.

Seri's relationship insecurity feels a little more melancholy than Sakurako's.

Yeah, Kasumi and Sakurako just haven't put a label on it because they don't feel a need to. They love and cherish each other and that's mostly enough. (though Sakurako has a little bit of buried frustration.)

Seri and Shouko definitely seem more like the traditional definition of "useless lesbians." Just straight up afraid to advance and risk losing what they have.

A wild EX appears!

Nanao be the best bwb material right there. Love how these two balls of horny and anxiety still communicate clearly and LOOK AT NANAO TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER!!! She's so precious, Asumi better add her to the wivies harem when the series end TvT

Thing is, she took no for an answer when nobody actually said "No". Or implied it in any way, really.

(Still, better to take a no when none is offered than to ignore a no when it is, I suppose. Still humorous, though.)

Sorry, can someone explain how she's lying when she's just asking questions, both times

It's more an issue of general dishonesty. She's been given a secret to keep, and she has a tell when she's trying to put up a front.

She's just opening a nail salon... imagine if she was opening a massage parlor, now that would warrant some drama

I mean, are you talking about a massage parlor, or a "massage parlor"?

I think I am getting more and more confused because it seems to me that both series are on different time line.

Me too. Like, Saori and Shizuku are dating now? Since when?

They're not dating, Shizuku's just acknowledged her own feelings for Saori. This is probably why Saori is asking about confessions, either she's thinking of confessing, or she's recognized that Shizuku has caught actual feelings and is expecting one. But they're not official, so Saori says "I'm not dating anybody" and describes the planned shrine visit as being "with a friend."

What is with the distribution of Denny's restaurants? Is there some sort of gang war centered around Denny's we don't know about? Was Akiba Maid Wars actually about yoshoku diners?

Restaurant chains typically branch out regionally, because they all have to share distribution networks. They get supplies and ingredients from the same place so you want them close enough to keep them easy and cheap to supply while spread out enough that they don't compete with themselves.

It also helps to have them close enough that managers and staff can support other locations if something goes wrong and one is left understaffed.

last edited at Nov 26, 2023 3:23AM

I hope Yori will find out someday that Aki loved her. This is just unfair.

Why? If Aki can get over her feelings and go back to being friends, telling Yori does absolutely nothing positive for either of them, and could legitimately eff up their friendship and their relationships with others.

Also, Shiho really is the main character now huh. Not that I'm complaining, she made this manga interesting.

Yeah, I disagree with a lot of the negative sentiments about Shiho in this thread. I've enjoyed this arc and I think Shiho is interesting. But I'm often kind of a sucker for "bitchy girl that turns out to be nice but traumatized."

Cute, but why does she always end up on her left?

She doesn't always, but she always does on the train, and often elsewhere.

Sakura gets on the train first, and she seems to like grabbing an end seat, probably because she doesn't want to be pinned in by strangers on both sides. Takamine always comes and sits next to her. She's probably sitting in the same spot, too, since she's trying to make herself easy for Takamine to find. It could be that it became sort of habit to arrange themselves that way, or it could just be coincidence. Either way, Sakura noticed that Takamine is usually on her right, so she put her cute hairpin on that side, because she wants her to notice and compliment her.

We got ourselves a love triangle fam

Possibly, even probably, though it's also possible that she's just sad that she feels like her friendship is being replaced. There's no real indication that her feelings are necessarily romantic.

The death threats caught me off guard, i lmao'd hard (writing death threats to authors almost never is okay though realistically)

... Almost?

Yeah I also take issue with this word!

Jesus "Game Console" is the most precious thing I can't even aaaaaaaaaaa

It is just entirely too little too late at this point. To be hyperbolic, like negotiating Hitler down from 6 Million to 5 and getting the Nobel peace price ready.

You're aware that it's only been a few months since Shiho left the band and the most recent chapter, right?

Moreover....Could we...not? compare the bitchy singer we don't like to Hitler and the Holocaust?

Even acknowledging that you're being hyperbolic, the fact that your mind even went there makes me question how rational you could possibly be about the topic.

WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS

They might be? The Doc clearly is, and seatbelts in back seats are usually just waist belts, and we don't have a clear view of the waists of the girls in the back seat.

it's not that i hate characters like kamiya, they just happen a lot for how improbable and specific they are. the super self-aware, late in the game sudden appearance of an extra character who is emotionally aware enough to see through everyone, appears to be trying to drive a wedge between the oblivious couple-to-be, but it actually makes them take a step closer. the kamiya then has a moment of bitterness at her defeat, but also is mature and collected enough to give one or both of them a deliberate nudge or two, gives her blessing to the union, and completely breaks off her own pursuit. it's just kind of a convenient deus ex machina-type device that feels a little odd for a romance set in a school where the whole premise is that nobody is fully that emotionally self aware yet. it feels like an alien intrusion into the story, but it's hardly a usual part of romance for like, a strong rival to show up and actually kind of make it LESS complicated, yk?

it hits a bit fairytale for me somehow. like, kamiya almost realises or just knows she's not the main character. when have you ever met a teenager who knew they weren't the main character?

Look, the point of a "deus ex machina" is that an improbable or even impossible event, something that could only be engineered by the gods, swoops in and solves an unsolvable problem. It is what it is because it's vanishing unlikely.

This? This is literally a thing that happens. I know people that have done this. I've nearly been this It's a common trope in fiction because it's plausible.

Sure, there are also lots of people who can't take a hint and keep trying, and there's people who keep pushing and worm their way in between the other two, and there's even people who, despite knowing they don't have a chance, actively sabotage the couple out of spite. But the existence of those situations don't make this implausible, certainly not on the level of "deus ex machina".

Why can't those two already have sex?!

But they've had sex already...

Is this a handholding joke?

I think this manga's progression is suffering from its success.

She had to add the "angst about the future" arc to prolong the story, because since she has a hit on her hands, she wants to keep it going as long as she can, which is understandable.

When you have nearly a million followers on twitter for just ONE series, you don't want to conclude it just yet, because there's no guarantee the next series will have the same success and she'll fall back in anonymity.

This is her blessing, but also her curse.

I get that it's pretty normal to speculate about the motivation of the author in various circumstances, but sometimes I feel like people are way too keen to jump to "This work takes a creative decision I wouldn't have taken, therefore it must be the case that the author was motivated by some external pressure, because clearly someone who made a thing that I started to like wouldn't go on to make a thing that I like less, unless there were some such pressure."

A series can't just have a disappointing ending, it was "rushed" because it was "axed". An author can't just be lingering on a storyline because it's interesting to them or because it's the story they want to tell, they're "prolonging the story" because "they're afraid of falling into anonymity" Like, maybe the author just has different taste than you do? It's one thing if there's some kind of indication that they're unsatisfied with the work, but with something like this, you're basically just writing fanfiction about the author's motivations.

last edited at Oct 24, 2023 12:06AM

Mitsuki could have an entire harem of girls if she ever managed to harness her accidental rizz powers.

Pretty sure she's practically there now.

Are they not gonna go to uni first? In which case it'll probably be dorms-

Probably is a bit strong. I don't think the proportion of university students in dorms reaches 50%.

That's gonna vary depending on where you go and what country you're in. I'm pretty sure in Japan some schools literally require all freshmen to start out in the dorms.

What? I can't comment what I want to comment? Ignore me because I'm a nobody who just want to whine about my feelings. If you're just so rational about things then ignore petty people with petty comments like me. As simple as that. No need to emphasize that all reading material here has to satisfy my emotional needs. I'm just a karen stating my feelings. That's it.

You can say whatever you want to say, and people are also free to have opinions about it.

So much going on in this chapter, it's even more confusing than usual... So we learn that Mitsuki is not good at studying, or at least worse at it than even Aya. Aya is self-conscious as usual, and then the twins and even her mom confuse Mitsuki for a guy, as well. Haven't they already met her? If not, it's still strange, since Mitsuki does not even present herself as particularly masculine here, apart from wearing a shirt (which isn't all that gender-specific, anyway, I think?). Also, we have a undercurrent of Mitsuki getting lost in thought every time the graduation exam is brought up, and by Aya's reaction, I assume it has something to do with her decision of whether to move the States or not. Lots to untangle...

The twins have met her, but they're little kids who can barely talk, and they don't really understand concepts like "boyfriend", and they've already associated that term with Mitsuki, so that's what they call her. They're literally just greeting her out of familiarity and it's the only way they know to refer to her. Note how Mitsuki pals around with them once they come up with her, they're all familiar, she's just taking it in stride.

Mom doesn't know Mitsuki, so she mistakes her for a boy, partly because of Mitsuki's androgynous style, but also because her kids just ran into the room yelling BOYFRIEND BOYFRIEND! but then the little ones recount that Aya said she was "an Onee-chan".

Why is it here? Putting aside all the genre-tag business which may or not turn out the way you think it will, this story is here because it’s a fun story with cute characters, unusual and evocative art, and sweet interactions among the cast.

Not every story is designed to meet your individual emotional needs. It’s possible to just read a story for what’s actually on the page and not obsess about what other people say about it.

What Blastaar said.

Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of manga on here that are categorized as het, bi, yuri crush, subtext, etc etc. The suggestion that "why is it even here" like, actively ignores that Dynasty is not, nor has it ever been as long as I've been here, just for romantic yuri genre stories.