This chapter is really cute, but something is bugging me. I'm really enjoying this series, yet I can't seem to see the supposed subtext no matter how hard I look. All I manage to see is two sisters bonding in a very sisterly, non-subtexty, and non-yuri way. Am I look for the subtext in the wrong place?

This chapter literally starts with Ayari getting blushy and excited about her date with Sachi the next day. Aquarium dates are also a super common trope in romantic manga.

It's true that there's nothing explicitly romantic about their interactions, but that's why it's subtext rather than just being called Yuri.

Eri also sure likes Sachi an awful lot. Again, nothing explicitly romantic, but she put a lot of effort into that valentines chocolate back when.

Chapter 6 seems to be linked in the wrong order with regard to the next/previous chapter links. 3 links to 6, 6 links to 4. Sorry if this isn't the place to point out errors like that, but I don't know where else to do it.

well someone likes netorare

Nah, fuck that take. Right in the ear.

Here's why I hate that: It suggests that this story is all about Wataru. Like his feelings of jealousy and frustration are more important than Akari's loneliness or Ayano's guilt and uncertainty.

It isn't just about him. It's about all of them, and trying to figure out how to deal with the situation they've found themselves in.

Whores. And a cheating whore. Fuck off.

Yes, by all means—please do take your advice.

Second.

I think the hottest scene of the whole manga was this without a doubt (first panel)

I C wut U did thar.

Nakatani has stated she won't be doing another yuru series in the future

F

From what I've heard, for Nakatani, the "non-yuri stories" category also includes the " stories that include yuri, but yuri isn't the main focus of those stories" category.

This is pretty common in general. A lot of writers and artists in Japan seem to think of Yuri as a specific romance-centric genre, not just anything that happens to have girls that like girls in it.

And on that note, it's clear that Yuu is getting close to being done with college, possibly quicker than Touko because of Touko concentrating more on acting than classes, since she's going to job fairs. (I liked the little dig that Sayaka got in on Touko about whether she was keeping up with her studies.)

That was a little thing I was wondering about--both the question and Touko's hesitation in answering.

(It's not like Sayaka to have Touko at a loss in regard to academics, so, as you say, she apparently has expanded her horizons beyond book learning.)

Well,Japan is a little more casual about university than in the west. There, High school is more of a grinder, and college is more laid back. Pair that with her career, it's not that surprising that Touko isn't focusing on academics as much. Still, she gets a little defensive with Sayaka, showing she still takes some pride and motivation from at least making progress toward her degree, even if it's not the priority it was in high school.

I mostly just took it as her not stressing out over being perfect anymore.

really disappointed by the lack of development of sayaka, we didn't even saw her girlfriend, it's like she's no more than a side character now.

She was never more than a side character.

Well, outside of the spinoff. ;p

How much of a time skip was this chapter? One year or two years?

2 years

No. (Almost) 4 years have happened. The story started in 2015, you can corroborate this by looking at the few calendars that appear through the series. By chapter 44, it was either end of December or the first days of 2016. The career seminars that Yuu mentioned don't happen in the first year of college in Japan. Yuu is at least in her second year, which should happen in 2019. It could be 2020 too, but that's too further. Making the story start in 2015 and end in 2019 both in-universe and in real life seems very Nakatani-like in my opinion. Oh, and the month should be October, since the Cultural Festival is taking place.

This. Yuu is a first year in high school for the duration of the manga, and high school in japan is three years. I didn't know the bit about the career seminars, but that's a good catch.

Yagakimi still hasn’t totally ended since it’s still has short story compilation as a part of Yagakimi Curtain Call Project... soon.

This announcement and the artbook one are the only ones that don't have the Yagakimi title in them. Of course the artbook will obviously have ygkm illustrations, but I don't think all the book will be about it. It's only stated as "Nakatani's artbook, title undecided yet" , same with the short stories. Given that all the other annoucements including the artbook will feature yagakimi, I do think one of the short stories will be about yagakimi, but all the others won't. I may be wrong and maybe none of the stories will be about it, though.

There's just one announcement I want, and that's a second season of the anime. ;p

Really nice manga :) I need to read it all the way through tho- its been ages since I read the early chapters. Thanks to the translators for all their hard work over the years :)

p.s

I never got round to watching the anime for this- is it worth watching? I mean how many chapters does it cover? it can't get much resolved or end in a very satisfying place in so few episodes I'd think?

It's great, very faithful to the original. It cuts off after the aquarium date, about halfway through. If they never do another season, the ending spot is...meh, but there's about the perfect amount left to do another season, so maybe they'll finish up.

Okay, so, now that it's here, a few things I particularly enjoyed:

The rings, obviously, are great.

Natsuki is so cool looking. I love that she and Yuu play the bean-bag toss together.

Akari drinking out of Doujima's soda and Natsuki and Koyomi teasing them is great.

The hand-holding back at the back of the gym, shades of the Stuco election photo.

Flashback montage: If they make a second season of the anime, this is going to break me. I got teary as it is.

The cafe has employees now!

The return to the stream is also a nice last stop for the series.

so soon they'll be entering their married- I mean adult career part of their lives.

But they've been married for a long time now.

Theyre are? U sure?

Since Chapter 1, yeah.

BV posted:

KueKyuuQ posted:

imotou

It's imouto.

...I shall burn in the pits of hell for making that unforgivable typo.

It's typou.

arougato

It's oregano

Oureganou*

What did I create!?

Nobody knows.

Noubody knous.

Auh, yes. Excouse me

(writes a 5 paragraph post on how this whole exchange is great)

(also shouldn't Kuro and Uta address how weird it is two lesbians became best friends just by coincidence?)

This isn't all that weird. People seek like-minded friends, and a lot of times unconciously that can lead people to seek out, if not people who share their sexuality, at least people who seem less likely to judge it. As a consequence, people with atypical sexual preferences often gravitate toward each other. A lot of my friends are gay or bi, and I wasn't particularly looking to make that happen.

Sorry, not even close. The near-certainty of Reiichi cheating appeared in Chapter 10; it has yet to be confirmed in Chapter 26. And it’s not just slowness—Chapter 14 ends with a cliffhanger of Uta in the process of confessing to Kaoru; we get what happened next spoiler: not much in a flashback in Chapter 17.

I don't think the cheating needs confirmation, personally, it's freaking obvious. But I wish something would happen because of i-(most recent chapter) I wish something ELSE would happen because of it.

And the side chapters with the friends seem to appear at random, with little reference to whatever’s happening (or not happening) in the main story.

So no, complaints about the pace are about both the tempo of progress and the structuring of the presentation of events, not about the need to resolve the plot.

At this point it’s not entirely clear what the plot even is.

(Next time: Kuro and Miyabi argue about kitchen organization!)

I only agree about the friends story being a drag. If you removed them, the pacing for me is good. Just because the cheating hasn't progressed doesn't mean it's slow. Because this is a character based story, and not a plot based. Ever since then, there was a lot of character changing.

Agreed. If the friend's plot had a closer thematic tie to the main narrative, or if it had taught Uta some kind of lesson about her relationship with Kaoru, it even could've served the story. It just drags things out, as it is. It feels like it's just there to assure us that no, Chloe is not Uta's romance safety net.

It feels like I made a mental note a while back that there seemed to be a lot of guilt over Something Bad that was keeping them all together, but I could be mixing it up with another manga (I have gotten this one and "My Brother's Wife"

I don't think this happened here, you're probably mixing them up. It was only hinted that Uta has issues with her parents, but not that they stay together because of guilt.

No, that's not that far off. It's suggested that Reiichi's mother was found either legally or ethically responsible for the death of Kaoru's mother, which is probably why Reiichi relented to her romantic pursuit despite being into Risako. It's more like they -got- together because of guilt than they're staying together because of guilt. (although guilt informs a lot of Reiichi's character at this point, because he clearly still cares about Kaoru even though he's cheating on her.

This latest chapter just....Uhhhhgh. Kids can be great, but this is not a good reason to have one, and I can't imagine this fixing their problems. It isn't unrealistic, but it is super depressing. I'm hoping things develop in another direction before this really goes anywhere.

That's a swell one. Lovely. :)

And finally Sayaka suffers no more hehe.

Who knows? I think she still has lingering feelings. Or she would have told Touko without thinking too much about it

Not necessarily. Japanese culture is pretty uptight. It's also possible that Touko might gush if Sayaka told her, and she felt embarassed about that. There's a lot of possible reasons for it. Regardless, I'm pretty sure what they meant by "suffers no more" was just that she has a girlfriend.

So this was really cute. End of an era. I imagine we'll get one more bonus chapter in the last tank. I expect either Sayaka's girlfriend, or maybe something with Riko and Miyako. (I can think of a lot of possibilities, but those seem the most likely to me) Although it's also possible that rather than that, we might just get one of those character breakdown type things.

last edited at Sep 28, 2019 5:03AM

Nice work, Heavensrun—you’ve burnished every phrase and artfully lit every inference so they shine on Igarashi in the most flattering light possible, and beyond.

However, the stark cruelty of the phrase, “Nothing, of course,” and the gratuitous “ex-girlfriend” alleged joke will need further perfuming to fully eradicate the persistent scent of corruption.

I would also recommend some sleight of hand to convince the audience that the phrase “I made a mistake” actually is “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

But you’re utterly convincing that Igarashi is not simply evil, and that Chidori was merely collateral damage in her sempai’s personal little psychodrama.

It helps if you imagine "Nothing, of course" as being spoken with a sort of broken hopelessness rather than a casual dismissiveness. I think the ex-girlfriend comment was a tone-deaf flirt because she doesn't realize how much she hurt Chidori. That also helps with the thing you mentioned after that!

But being serious for a moment, I'm not suggesting for a second that Igarashi wasn't dumb and hurtful. She's definitely on the insensitive side, and her careless words seriously hurt Chidori. She doesn't seem to realize how much she hurt her, either. While I think both her attempts to get back together were sincere, I don't think she really appreciates how much she hurt Chidori in the first place.

But that's what makes me like her as a tragic character. She made a mistake for kinda sympathetic reasons, hurt someone she honestly adored, and is heartbroken that she destroyed her relationship with her first actual love. (I'm pretty sure nothing from that paragraph is spin, either, that's objectively what the text tells us.) And...I just really feel like if this story had been framed differently, people would have a totally different read on her.

Imagine this entire manga reframed from her perspective: (forewarning, this part is DEFINITELY spin. I make no apologies. ;p )

(Also, my first take of this I got carried away on, and it basically turned into a lengthy outline for an Igarashi fanfic. When I realized it was huge, I decided that would be pretty obnoxious, so here is a more concise summary while the longer version goes into a text file on my computer that I'll probably never open again. Fkin ADHD.)

Igarashi is the protagonist of a manga. She has a boyfriend that she's dating because they were friends and everybody seemed to expect them to get together. She meets a new Kouhai and falls for her pretty hard. They flirt for awhile, she neglects her boyfriend because she's super into this girl. She confesses, the girl likes her back.

Boyfriend shows up at school, so she leaves to pull him away before Chidori sees. (but she does) She breaks up with the boyfriend and tells him the truth about Chidori. He gets pissed off and says some nasty stuff about girls not being able to date girls and stuff. It's really traumatic for her because he's one of her oldest friends. Next day the breakup with Chidori happens. Igarashi echoes something Boyfriend-kun said in his fit (about two girls not being able to have anything between them) And Chidori bolts. Igarashi sobs quietly after she leaves.

Next is an arc where Igarashi is...not exactly following Chidori, but watching from afar whenever she gets a chance. Chidori's dealing, moving on, being happy with her friends, cutting her hair. A rival appears, but Igarashi isn't aware of it. Eventually, because their families are close, Igarashi and Boyfriend-kun end up stuck together at a social gathering, and he apologizes. He says he lashed out because he was hurt and he wants to go back to being friends and it's okay if she has a girlfriend and he was undeniably wrong. This little bit of acceptance gives her the courage to try again, so, since valentines is coming up, she pours herself into making chocolate, intend on winning her girl back and being with her. But Chidori is getting awful close to this new girl that got introduced pretty soon after the breakup.

So like, I'm not saying that's how it went, but it's a way that it could have gone, it doesn't contradict anything, and can any of you guys honestly say that if the story was framed like that the fans wouldn't be rooting for Igarashi to win Chidori back and be telling this Nanoha bitch to piss off and get away from bae? ;p

(Yes, that really was the concise version)

I know it would also totally be possible, also without contradictions, to write another version of this that makes her out to be a pretty self-centered brat (though nothing near the malicious player some people assumed she was at first) But that's my point. I can't see the reason in summoning so much vitriol towards something so uncertain.

last edited at Sep 28, 2019 4:41AM

She wasn't serious. Having feelings for someone and thinking that she could act on it, but when the reality comes she goes "lol I was just messing with you" is different.

You've got the order of events backwards. She had feelings for her, got scared and ran away, and then steeled her will and came back with a serious attempt. There is nothing in the text or subtext that suggests she was anything other than resolved and serious from Valentine's on.

I didn't say otherwise, my point is different than Igarashi having no feelings. I knew she had even before this chapter, the point is how she acts about them.
There is no proof that if Chidori reciprocated her feelings and they started dating, that she wouldn't revert to her old ways too. Well since this is a story I guess everything can solve itself easily. But realistically Igarashi is a bit of manipulative as a person, and that isn't related to her gay panic but it's a part of her character.

I'm pretty sure she will get her happy ending here though.

What "old ways"? You mean where she was exceptionally touchy and affectionate? Because that's the only way they ever were before they "broke up". I don't see any evidence of her -being- manipulative, that's an assumption a bunch of people made when they thought she was a player. That was blown out of the water as soon as we got a confirmation from her internal monologue that she meant what she said. If you mean flirting with Chidori while not telling her she has a boyfriend that she doesn't really love, I don't think that qualifies as enough of a scheme to qualify as a character trait.

You could maybe argue that the ex-girlfriend line is a little sly, if it is indeed intended to draw out the nature of Nanoha's relationship with Chidori, but it could also just be a tone-deaf joke intended to tease Chidori. It seems pretty obvious to me that Igarashi doesn't get how much she hurt Chidori. if I was going to ascribe character flaw to her, I'd say insensitivity is more on-point than manipulativeness. (If she is manipulative, she's really bad at it.)

She wasn't serious. Having feelings for someone and thinking that she could act on it, but when the reality comes she goes "lol I was just messing with you" is different.

You've got the order of events backwards. She had feelings for her, got scared and ran away, and then steeled her will and came back with a serious attempt. There is nothing in the text or subtext that suggests she was anything other than resolved and serious from Valentine's on.

Quick fact / chronology checking...

Igarashi had a "he tells me he loves me" boyfriend
then met Chidori and thought she's cute
Chidori liked her too

No. She only started dating the guy after she told Chidori she loved her. It was her way of putting distance between them. That's the meaning of the "I did nothing wrong" line.

I disagree on the same grounds Blastaar goes over. The first page is entirely about her feelings toward her boyfriend. She went out with him because they got along and she thought it was normal. She thought to herself that it's okay that she doesn't feel anything special towards him, it's fine going with the flow. This is framed as before she met Chidori.

((She still thought of Chidori as someone to tease (first), have fun and show affection to (second and third...), so... her definition of "not just as friends" relationship is still rather twisted. Maybe she never intented a loud and proud 2-girls-in-love relationship... but then, I wonder why she even threw the "ex-girlfriend" out there...))

Pretty much what was being said a few pages back. The ex-girlfriend line was probably 1 part poorly executed flirting, one part feeling out Nanoha's relationship with Chidori.

As the translator, I want to tell you that you really, really shouldn't read so much into the specific wording of a translation. Maybe some kind of genius could recreate the original with such fidelity as to justify that kind of word-by-word analysis, but I certainly can't, at least not consistently (by the way, in the original it goes "tease", "tease(affectionately)", then "have fun").

In any case, all three verbs here are kind of ambiguous. Just the "tease" could mean anything from playing a prank on someone to hitting on them. But that's not really important, because that line doesn't tell us Igarashi's true feelings. The context tells us what she really meant. Look at her reaction on the next page: she was seriously trying to ask Chidori out.

She met Chidori, developed a crush on her, told her she loved her, then started dating her childhood friend and ignoring Chidori out of fear when Chidori reciprocated her feelings. Chidori confronted her, and she responded with "But we're both girls". Months later, right before Igarashi graduated, she changed her mind/realized her mistake and sent Chidori chocolates to try to rekindle their relationship. Chidori rejected her. Now she came back to school to try a second time.

It's not explicitly stated, but I think we can assume that the boyfriend is out of the picture, and probably has been since before Valentine's Day. Otherwise, Igarashi wouldn't have been sitting around in a classroom waiting for her kouhai to respond, she'd be on a date.

I agree with most of this, except for the fact that I'm certain they were dating before she fell for Chidori. She just didn't mention him and he was never around because girl's school. I do think the boyfriend's absence is conspicuous, and from the way she's talking about him in this chapter, I would bet she broke up with him before the valentine's gambit.

Also, on the "not just friends" chocolate, keep in mind in Japan there is a tradition of giving chocolates to club members and friends. They call it "giri-choco" (giri=obligatory, in this context) This is contrasted by "Honmei-choco" (heartfelt) which is what you give a romantic interest. The note was to convey that no, this was not just a gesture as her club sempai, it was a real romantic gesture of reconciliation.

"...[Chidori's] heartfelt feelings..."

Yeah, the fact that Chidori returned her feelings sincerely is what scared her, because if it's just a one-sided girl crush and Chidori's just playing along for fun, that's one thing, but if they're sharing a mutual confession, that's scarier. She responded to it badly, not gonna argue against that, but I don't see why this line is so terrible.

"....just wanted to tease her, to have some fun....."

"...and show her my affection."

That's kind of an important part. She's talking about her return and her behavior with Nanoha. She came back to show that she has real feelings for Chidori and was hoping to reconcile.

"...to think she'd hate me that much..."

She doesn't know how much what she said shook Chidori or how much it stressed her out. Remember, she didn't see all the agonizing and worrying that the author showed us.

HEY, IGGY!!! SELF-REFLECTION IS NOT YOUR STRONGEST SUIT!!!
*curses under her breath*

Yeah, I know, I was advocating for Igarashi's POV or some sort of explanation from her side... I guess, "be careful what you wish for"? Or, is it "yay, we got official confirmation she's a self-centered closet-gay"? Or was this still too short and superficial to make proper judgement? ((That tear, tho... it has feelings...))

Do.NOT.fuck.with.Nanoha’s.Chidori.

And vice versa.

....Now I kinda hope Igarashi will return someday so Nanoha can resume from where Igarashi took the wind out of her sails and NanohaSmash™ her....

You mean the scene where Igarashi gracefully stepped down from the confrontation as soon as she realized Chidori had moved on, and even lied to try and cut off any further drama between the happy couple? ;p

Ah, being biased towards kyoot widdle Chidori, and with the last happy kiss-chapter, this chapter came too soon for me to be more open-minded for Igarashi's case...

That's okay, I'm here to fight on her behalf. ;p

*found on Igarashi's i-pod*

(Okay that's quality meme use tho)

So I read this, and came here feeling pretty vindicated, since this pretty much disconfirms that every nasty thing people were saying about Igarashi and matches my charitable interpretation almost exactly...And here is almost everybody continuing to paint her in the worst possible light they can stretch their interpretations to fit.

I mean, this is pretty much exactly what I had suggested. She was dating the boyfriend because it's what you're supposed to do, she fell hard for Chidori, she got scared by the idea of being gay together, she regretted it and tried to seriously get together at valentines, was heartbroken when Chidori rejected her, came back hoping to win her back, is heartbroken again but left gracefully when she realized Chidori has someone new. No schemes, no trying to manipulate Chidori for her own ego, no plans to return to steal her away or attempts to manipulate her emotions or gaslight her or any of that. No intent to decieve, no keeping Chidori as a side piece to distract from her real relationship, none of it. All of the nasty negative interpretations were wrong.

This is literally the most positive possible version of all the scenarios that came out of all that discussion, and almost nobody is reconsidering their vitriol?

Yeah, she should've told Chidori she had a boyfriend. She could have tried being a little braver about her feelings. She was a bit insensitive to not realize how much she'd hurt Chidori. They're kids! Kids mess up!

Well fine, screw you guys. ;p I'm an Igarashi fan now. I'm digging trenches and setting up flamethrowers. Just remember YOU ALL DID THIS. ;p

last edited at Sep 28, 2019 1:11AM

Tevin posted:

I was hoping Mio would break up with her...

Not realistic. She had a huge emotional investment in sempai. You don't write that kind of investment off just because of a single instance of "feeling betrayed".

Or it would mean her feelings were that shallow.

Yes and no. I mean, emotional investment is a double-edged sword. It can strengthen your resolve, but it can also make betrayals that much worse. And giving up on something doesn't have to mean your feelings were shallow, sometimes it just means you can't deal or don't believe things will work. I think this scene could have easily gone either way, realistically, just depending on how the conversation went and who did what.

Nope, hated it. At least the part after Shizuka returned to the room and Mio caved. Shizuka's tears were a dead giveaway, she started breaking down when Mio basically shoved the truth into her face. And she can not face that truth. The fact she is not even remotely over Kaoru (who, incidentally, seems to be falling genuinely in love with someone else), making Mio the last straw keeping her afloat.

She can not come to terms with Kaoru possibly finding something more than a casual fling with another girl, and she can not bear the possibility of simultaneously losing her cheap coping mechanism, which is what Mio essentially is, as far as I see it. If this ends badly, Mio will have only herself to blame.

I have mixed feelings about this development, personally. On one hand, they hadn't actually committed to a relationship before, so it isn't like Shizuka -cheated- or tried to cheat. They hadn't set boundaries or made a real commitment. And I get the sense that Shizuka genuinely cares about Mio, but she was still hung up on Kaoru. So I could see this as a "scared straight" event? Like she has been faced with the fact that if she has to commit to Mio to deserve her, and she has now, so....That could be fine. On the other hand, she still has to confront her feelings for Kaoru and let go of her for this to really feel honest.

that polyamory came out of no where and lasted 4 pages..

Right

The whole ending was so rushed

I don't disagree that it feels rushed, but I disagree that it came out of nowhere. I had a feeling that it was where these characters wanted to be, but there's a strong bias against it from most people, so I didn't expect the author to actually go there.

I'm honestly a little impressed.