More like $9.25 nowadays, but yeah, oof.

I haven't checked the value of the japanese Yen in probably over ten years. I guess time and fluctuating exchange rates makes fools of us all. lol. (Okay that joke was not really lol material. More like a shake your head in annoyance thing. but if I wrote syhia you would probably not get it.)

last edited at Jan 4, 2020 5:45AM

Summoning a demon who bannishes your classmates to hell. So is that like a week's detention?

last edited at Jan 4, 2020 1:48AM

Only 10 dollars a month for allowance!? She needs to unionize.

If you can't understand the rules to Twister, from a description, then you shouldn't be playing games. I mean isn't there really only two rules 1. Spin the spinner. 2. plase the body part on the color as shown on the spinner. We're not talking the rules to checkers here.

Hehe, modern kids. I'm reminded of the story of a young boy who was presented with a paper book for the first time in his life (he had never touched one of those before, all he knew was cellphones and e-readers) and, after opening it, started pressing his finger against the first page, rubbing it up and down, again and again. After some time, getting no reaction from the page, the boy declared in frustration that the paper book was malfunctioning or broken.

Perhaps Mai-chan, avid cellphone gamer that she is, was mystified by the idea of a game played on a huge paper board on the ground?

That's right up their with the story my comp-sci prof told us about the guy who called tech support complaining that his computer just stopped working. The tech person ran through the basic trouble shooting. When the tech asked the guy is the computer plugged in, the guy responded hold on I'll need to get a flashlight. The power is out, and it's dark back there.

It would give me a glimpse into how women see men.

Yeah well then it's the same things for mens writing yuris. Why womens can write BL and nobody bat an eye but if a man write a yuri, it's not ok ? It's contradictory.

Well I obviously already have a good idea how men see women.

Did you ask every mens on earth ? Did you make a survey ? Because not evey man see woman the same way.

Yeah we have secret meetings in the school gym every other Tuesday. The next meeting will be about those stupid jewelry commercials making us feel like we need to spend our life savings to keep our women happy. It's my turn to bring the snacks.

It would give me a glimpse into how women see men.

Yeah well then it's the same things for mens writing yuris. Why womens can write BL and nobody bat an eye but if a man write a yuri, it's not ok ? It's contradictory.

Well I obviously already have a good idea how men see women. Look bottom line I'm interested in women not men. That is why I read lesbian stories not straight ones. But hey to each their own. I not saying men can't write good yuri. I just saying all things considered, I would rather read the story written by an actual lesbian.

last edited at Dec 29, 2019 6:13PM

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.

Well, considering a lot of BL stories are written by women (and some really good ones, even), I wouldn't say it's impossible for a cis guy to write good yuri, even without first hand experience. The problem is finding a guy that can write about les/bi women without resorting to stereotypes.

I'm not into BL, but strangly enough if I were to read it, I would read a woman writer. It would give me a glimpse into how women see men. Plus I think women write BL for the same reason I read yuri, A connection to a world we want to know but can't ever really understand.

Man, the real act of kindness from her girlfriend is letting her publish this. I would be WAY too embarrassed to let my significant other publish an entire manga basically about me.

If I were Inui Ayu I would worry that the manga might end up causing friction between her and her girlfriend. After all she is publishing private moments for the world to see.

If you can't understand the rules to Twister, from a description, then you shouldn't be playing games. I mean isn't there really only two rules 1. Spin the spinner. 2. plase the body part on the color as shown on the spinner. We're not talking the rules to checkers here.

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.

She actually has a cute autobiographical one shot on this site. It's about her and a few of the other yuri manga artist going to a strip club.

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.

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.

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.

last edited at Dec 28, 2019 4:25PM

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

Maybe it's an omage to Girlfriends, or maybe both works are using a place known for both school trips and romance as a back drop. I mean no one would wonder if a love confession in Paris, or Venice was a reference to another story.

Nagi gave her rotten ex boyfriend ten thousand dollars, even though she was the one with the notebook full of his dirty little secrets? Someone needs to explain to her how blackmail works.

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 just want to take a moment and talk about Nanoho, and Chitori's friends. I mean the couple have been dating for an entire year, right under their noses, and they still don't suspect a thing. I get that the same sex thing might have thrown them off the scent for a while. But you would think at least one of them would have gotten suspicious about how close the pair has grown.
For a while I thought that maybe they knew, and were just letting Nanoho and Chitori tell them in their own time, but now it's obvious they're clueless.

(...) "right" and "wrong" get weighed in the scales of justice by readers acting like Grand Inquisitors.

More often than not, both parties are partly right and partly wrong. (...)

To hear some readers you'd think we're the judge and jury in some kind of moral small-claims court.

Yes but it's fun to discuss about who did what wrong and getting insights from different people. People have different views and discussing these different views can help you gain more insight and look at it from a perspective you hadn't yet. Isn't part of the point of fiction so you can think about it and weigh different options? It's fun to scrutinize chatacters, to judge them, to weigh them up against each other, to think about what happened. Who's to blame? What are they thinking? Questions questions? It's fun, I don't see what's wrong with people having "moral small-claims" discussions.
I'm surprised a lover-of-discusson such as yourself doesn't agree to that.

I take your point, but a lot of such discussions are the very ones that often deteriorate into forum squabbling when readers abstract the issues from the specific narrative context and impose their personal real-life priorities and values onto them.

One of the more benign forms is when it becomes excoriating imaginary people for not making better choices, when the whole point is that the characters learn to make those better choices by suffering the consequences of their not-so-great ones. (Or in the alternative, readers chastising authors, whose fundamental business is creating and resolving fictional conflict, for introducing conflict into their stories.)

That is a lesson I wish I learned a while ago. I would have saved a lot of wasted time and effort.

To return to the story at hand, I think the brilliant thing about this arc is that the apologies (the "penalty" paid for the claims that readers seem to be so concerned about) are just a false resolution--both Nanoha and Chidori are well aware that what they really need to do is to talk honestly with one another.

Stories with a man beating his woman, are horrible tales of abuse. Stories with a woman beating her man, comedy gold. Especially in manga and anime.

Because the underlying assumption that girls are too weak to actually hurt guys physically
Which is not exactly a positive interpretation for girls either.

The relative uncommon nature of it adds to that.

Agreed.

I think it's like that for a lot of people. Men are seen as inherently more perverse/dangerous than women... and really that's not so much the case.

Perverse? Perhaps not more perverse. More dangerous?

Well, we don't exactly see a lot of female mass killers or husband beaters in comparison to the reverse now do we lmao.

Women tend to be more subtle and "under the radar" with what they do, coupled with what is generally a societal accord that women aren't capable, that makes it easier to get away with stuff... but it is definitely a problem. Also female domestic abuse is just woefully underreported and sadly still more widely accepted as somehow okay. But I digress from the greater discussion at hand, which is that lolicon stuff can be pretty questionable at times.

Stories with a man beating his woman, are horrible tales of abuse. Stories with a woman beating her man, comedy gold. Especially in manga and anime.

last edited at Dec 12, 2019 9:23PM

It's weird. I think if a man had wrote this, I'd be disgusted. I might not even have finished it. However, I'm okay with the story, because a woman wrote it.

I think it's like that for a lot of people. Men are seen as inherently more perverse/dangerous than women... and really that's not so much the case. And even knowing that I personally still tend to follow that thought process myself until I literally force myself to stop and rethink.

Still I'd feel a lot less like a pervert rooting for the couple if the girl would have been just a touch older. 13 or 14 would have been good.

I'm 40, almost all yuri I find is based on high school age or young adults... I feel kinda gross and perverted a lot because my age gap is so big. No age gap moe for me, sigh.

I'm getting long in the tooth myself, and I'm fine with lesbian STORIES about young love. I think it's cute and innocent, and fun to read. Even age gap is fine if the girl is not too young, say at least 16, and a willing participant.
However, when the character age gets to 10 or below, that gets uncomfortable because my niece is in that age, and I hate to think of ANYBOBY thinking of her like that.

It's weird. I think if a man had wrote this, I'd be disgusted. I might not even have finished it. However, I'm okay with the story, because a woman wrote it. Still I'd feel a lot less like a pervert rooting for the couple if the girl would have been just a touch older. 13 or 14 would have been good.

last edited at Dec 12, 2019 3:24AM

There is just something about the shy awkwardness, that is just so cute. It's so completely innocent, but still suggestive. The first stirrings of sexual attraction.

Well, I think they've always been attracted to each other (the flashback pages are from chapter 3 for example), and Nanoha did think to herself that Chidori "looked super sexy" in her bathing suit in chapter 40. That said, I believe this is the first time they've been shown explicitly thinking about sex, even if it was accidental.

That's it. Up until now Chidori and Nanoho's physical attraction seems to have been abstract. A vague notion. I believe this is the moment where physical attraction starts to turn sexual. Our girls are growing up. (wiping away a little tear)

There is just something about the shy awkwardness, that is just so cute. It's so completely innocent, but still suggestive. The first stirrings of sexual attraction.

That was so sweet I , might get cavities.

I've heard similar theories before. Mostly that branding wise women as witches and heretics is the catholic church's way of limiting women's power in society. although the part about it being a capitalist and nationalist sceme, is new to me.

Problem is that witch hunts were afaik more prominent in protestant societies. And they were never that big and bad. Yes women died but it was not like a Continent wide frenzy and plan to limit womens rights.

I guess You're right. The guy who wrote the The Hammer of Witches in 1487, the book that laid out how to deal with witchcraft, was a discredited Catholic, but the inquisition condemned the book as unethical and illegal. Man the shit must have been rough to be condemned by the inquisition.
Besides I find the Rye fungus theory much more plausible.

last edited at Dec 8, 2019 10:54AM

I've also heard theories that link major historical witch burnings with ourbreaks of a fungus that infects the rye plant. It causes many symptoms when ingested, like convulsions and dilutions, giving the appearance of being "bewitched". It could be what Kujira ment by "In the 17th century, humans were haunted by events beyond their comprehension".

last edited at Dec 8, 2019 6:23AM

Hm...I like the art and the characters are cute, but the story seems a bit pointless to me. Why take revenge if the people who burned witches lived hundreds of years ago?

According to some feminist scholars, the European witch hunts were a symptom and a manifestation of the new capitalist and nationalist societal order's drive to re-subjugate women and to confine them to the homemaker role that was viewed by this new order as necessary to support the man as bread-winner. (Of course, history showed that this idea fell apart as soon as the demands of the growing industry forced women (and children) to work alongside men, but even then, they were still expected to pull a double shift at work and as homemakers.) Anyway, this subjugation was carried out using terror tactics, such as public executions of the most educated and thus powerful women of society, referred as "wise women" or "witches", and when they ran out of those, they continued with random girls until European women were effectively beaten into silence and submission (for a while, at least).

With this in mind, it would be interesting to see if the "revenge" the teachers speak of in this manga is actually aimed at upending the modern nation-states and the global capitalist elite, both of whom ended up profiting the most from witch-burning. The fact that the witches' surreptitious survival is explicitly linked to them entering the service of future nation states gives me some hope, but then again, I don't really expect a Japanese manga artist to express a radical left agenda in a story about magical lesbians.

The theory sounds like a very...creative interpretation of history.

I've heard similar theories before. Mostly that branding wise women as witches and heretics is the catholic church's way of limiting women's power in society. although the part about it being a capitalist and nationalist sceme, is new to me.