Temp's musings on cannibalism and feeding provoked my curiosity. Some other man eating yokai with mouth and/or childbirth fetishes:

Ōmukade: giant centipede yokai that can be defeated by weapons coated in human saliva

Jikininki: An impious priest or monk cursed after death to feed on humans or human corpses. A pregnant woman that outsmarts a Jikininki will give birth to a Jijinki, a kind of ghost.

Nure-onna: Sea serpent with a woman's head, capable of shape-shifting. Nure-onna carry a bundle shaped like a swaddled child, which they hand to strangers that offer to relieve her of the burden. But upon trying to return the child, the stranger discovers it has transformed into a heavy stone, trapping them. The Nure-onna will feed upon them, or they will disappear and a Ushi-Oni (the Nure-onna's "offspring") will appear to consume them in her place.

And the yokai in this chapter is "futakuchi onna"

https://yokai.fandom.com/wiki/Futakuchi-Onna

And the yokai in this chapter is "futakuchi onna"

https://yokai.fandom.com/wiki/Futakuchi-Onna

Thank you Matoboo, now we can see that she can see her ear clearly and the holes for piercings too

Mitsuki also used the line "have you been looking forward to it that much?“ in Chapter 2 when talking to Aya in the CD store.

And when she originally said it, it put Aya into a swoon. One page after resolving to clear up Aya's confusion about her identity and gender.

I like Kaoru and Mayoi as a pair because they make great foils for each other. Kaoru is a player but I think Mayoi is the first person she's actually felt something real for. Because of that she's starting to develop a real sense of empathy. Mayoi is anxious and self-absorbed. Her opinion of herself is both too low and too high, basically what Orson Welles called "the Charlie Chaplin disease." Kaoru is a straight talker and isn't afraid to just tell Mayoi to knock it off, and shake her out of her rut.

It can also be called the "Franz Kafka Syndrome". Kafka was a gifted writer who thought everything he wrote was trash. He burned most of his stories after he wrote them, and it was only because his mother and some of his friends convinced him to give them two of his notebooks with his work that there is any trace of his talent.

The ending translation note isn't quite correct. Hiragana is derived from the cursive form of kanji, traditionally a form used primarily by Japanese women due to inequalities in education in earlier historical periods. So it is strongly associated with femininity.

Glasses refers to the "Spring" Asterism of Arcturus, Spica and Denebola. Japanese planetariums tend to refer to Arcturus and Spica as "Spring Couple Stars".

Also the most common modern popular name for Spica is Shinjuboshi (真珠星) meaning "Pearl Star".

last edited at May 31, 2022 5:50AM

Ok guys, here's a page on the Three Greatest Ghost Stories of Japan (Okiku, Oiwa and Otsuya):

https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/japans-three-great-ghost-stories

last edited at Apr 12, 2022 10:30AM

Also pretty sure this is connected to this too: https://dynasty-scans.com/anthologies/servant_x_queen

Not sure how, cuz we never get the full translation of that series.

It is the same world. And the reason the servant is buying the aphrodisiac is

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/paradise_of_nightmare_series_servant_x_queen#45

i don´t know why i get "pandora in the crimson shell" vibes from this manga, btw someone knows what happened to that one?
'

Looks like its ongoing. It is licensed by Seven Seas according to Wikipedia, so take that for what it's worth.

Oh jeez, a soul-crushing job. She shoulda taken it and toughen up just like everyone else.

Absolutely. Along with the 70 to 80 hour work weeks, mandatory overtime, the total sacrifice of her personal life, and being the target of opportunity for the self-cathartic bullying and condescension of her senpai. The only difference between this and prison is that you don't get a salary in prison, but you do get a predetermined sentence, which might make prison more psychologically bearable than this job. Actually Neeko could have just robbed a bank and she still would have ended with more personal dignity than if she jaken this shithole job.

last edited at Mar 21, 2022 11:23PM

Wait did they just try chapter 1 again?

Read the last page. They're releasing the volume version, which contains both the webcomic and magazine versions. Chapter 11 is Chapter 1 from the magazine version. The difference is that the webcomic concentrates on humor, and the magazine version actually has plot development.

Here's another kind of (giant) Japanese mermaid local to the waters near Ehime Prefecture (the setting of this manga): https://yokai.com/akugyo/

Other relevant sea yokai:
https://yokai.com/nureonago/
https://yokai.com/isoonna/
https://yokai.com/nureonna/
https://yokai.com/ushioni/

last edited at Feb 28, 2022 10:22PM

Japanese "mermaid", definitely not a cutie:

https://yokai.fandom.com/wiki/Ningyo

last edited at Feb 28, 2022 7:53PM

BAM! I guess Stan's been busy the past year or so.

The Real Ending: Mizuki and Nana longed to escape this narrow and oppressive world, to fulfill their desire for each other and for the right to write as much bad love poetry to each other as permissible under international law. But a virtual world is no place to escape into, and the more they pondered the existence of the machine, the more they realized that it was probably just a sex fantasy simulator for Mizuki's grandfather. So they turned off the machine and decided to elope to Canada (where Nana had family), and to raise funds they would sell the machine to the highest bidder. The next day Mark Zuckerberg appeared at Mizuki's house, waving Bitcoin and foaming at the mouth. The sight of the machine drove him into an orgasmic frenzy that was registered on seismographs three prefectures away. And that was how girls left him, driving away in an Uber with millions in crypto and their luggage and passports, while Zuckerberg was weeping and yelling incoherent statements about the "metaverse" and "his company was now more overpriced and overrated than Apple." They are now attending university in Toronto, are working to obtain Canadian citizenship, and plan to get married after graduation.

Obsession by Calvin Klein

For the record: Ibbi-sin, King of Ur, was captured by the Elamites in 1940 BC. So Aria is right around 4000 years old.

The 2020’s so far have been the decade for lesbian sex worker manga. I don’t know what the hell is happening to cause this, but we have had sooooooo many new series and one shots centered on sex work in the last year and a half.

It's because of the mass entry of women into the Japanese work force. Prostitution fantasies are basically about no-strings sexual attraction and/or find that perfect mate (prostitute with heart of gold trope). Throw in the fact that sex work and lesbianism are still considered to be the exclusive realm of social outcasts and outsiders (and therefore complementary), plus the novelty of the greater freedom that comes from not being tied to one's home/spouse/relatives thanks to gainful employment, the undesirability of most male coworkers due to their unreconstructed attitudes about gender roles and sexual entitlement, and the fact that Covid-19 lockdowns have disrupted Japan's part-time work culture (forcing some women to take up sex work to compensate for extended unemployment), and there you have it.

I think at this point manga and LN titles will begin to resemble random clickbait headlines.

"Schrodinger's Cat! Is it alive or is it dead? Find out how my lolicon roommate taught me a lifehack to resolve this dilemma."

"Stranded in the supermarket checkout line!!! How I fell in love with the girl that held up the line for 2 hours while she decided which flavor of gum was color coordinated with her lipstick."

Oh my God I could've sworn Utsugi and Kaname were the same character.

Jesus, literally everything about the twins is so difficult to keep track of. Suddenly I can't recall which sister is living which life with which people @_@

And I still have no idea why one of them hates the other so much! She's been waaay too mean for it to be something as dumb and simple as "You're better than me so I hate you" when the nicer twin is so openly friendly all the time, being so mean over just that would go beyond just pettiness.

The problem is that their individual personality is a moody loner. And nothing drives a moody loner crazy than being in close proximity to another moody loner. Eventually they'll reconcile, but only after they begin to establish their individual lives independently of each other. And I think that is what Tsubaki realized on the last page: that separation between her and Hiiragi is inevitable.

It's funny that Azusa complains about being a Blue. But some of the other colors might have their own. The aforementioned Gem Orpiment is a Yellow named after a toxic Arsenic mineral. And there's also the red minerals Cinnabar (Mercury) and Realgar (Arsenic again).How's that for angst?

Pink minerals: Kunzite (1), Morganite (2), Rhodochrosite, Rhodolite (3), Rhodonite (4).

(1) Name used by a Sailor Moon character, in this case one of the Shitennou, the four generals of Queen Beryl. Was killed by Sailor Moon in first series finale.
(2) Name of a Steven Universe character. Fusion of Ruby and Pearl. An Unknown Gem shown in flashback.
(3): Pink Pyrope (Garnet)
(4): Name of a Steven Universe character. Another (recurring) Ruby and Pearl fusion.

Celestine: Strontium Sulfate. This mineral is pale blue.
Iolite (AKA gem form Cordierite): Magnesium Iron Aluminum Cyclosilicate. Iolite actually comes from the Greek word for violet (deep blue). AKA "water sapphire" or "Viking's Compass."
Linarite: Copper Lead Sulfate Hydroxide. A somewhat rare mineral.
Azurite: Copper Carbonate Hydroxide.

I don't think you guys are quite grasping the gist of Kanade's perception of her relative position to Nanaki. It's not that she has some deep seated psychological trauma that gives her fatal self doubt: as far as I've seen she's rather ordinary. Rather the problem is that she idealizes Nanaki too much, to the point of perfection. She treats her like an angelic figure in a Renaissance painting, seated at the right hand of the Almighty with her face covered in a halo, while a Cherubim passes the mashed potatoes to her. When she tells her that she doesn't deserve her, she's telling her she belongs on an art gallery wall to be similarly idolized by a worshipful throng. And she lacks the selfishness to seize that portrait for herself, as she's too much of a conformist. Defusing this situation will take every gram of Nanaki's tact and empathy to resolve.

last edited at Mar 6, 2021 8:11AM