@Zormau Butch is still popular to my knowledge, just from my understanding Norahash is a trans woman that's relating to the character via a headcanon that the character is also trans. So describing Bocchi as Butch in art such as this might be better for some people, and describing her as Trans might be better for others. Basically the classic saying of the mileage will vary depending on the person, and everyone's interpretation is valid.

I think some artists like to draw Bocchi as a tall and shy bottom to a short and assertive top Nijika. I wonder who started that trend with this series, but I know that's a very popular lesbian couple dynamic in the art scene in general. It's also interesting how that happens with fan art, since I believe canonically they're about the same height, but with fan creations body size tends to vary a lot for most series.

Also while I view the characters as cis personally I say more power to you with how you're interpreting them in a way that you relate to Norahash.

There is exactly one time where the series has brought up sexual orientation so far:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/whispering_you_a_love_song_ch28#23

I do agree that ignoring it almost-entirely-but-not-quite feels a little off. There's this one time Yori thinks about it when it comes off as silly considering every single relationship involving the people close to her including herself is homosexual, and there's Miki being the token straight character which I found funny earlier on in the series, but now that she's been brought into the fray of all the lesbian relationships herself it feels like that detail of her character is something the author didn't really think through and is being carried over just to avoid contradicting it.

I once read a definition of yuri as "lesbian themes without lesbian identity," and I feel like that's very apt for a lot of yuri works, particularly "fluffier" ones. It's a little less common these days, but it's still around.

There are Yuri manga that do go into lesbian identity, though there are a good amount of straight forward romance stories, along with escapism. Which can be fine in theory? There's room for both hard hitting series that delve into identity, the complications of it, the difficult feelings, and for series that are just to the point romance that focus on two characters being in love and that's the point. I don't think it's good to simply dismiss any and all fluffier romance as not real lesbian media, or gay media as well for Yaoi, so fourth. Maybe that's a controversial opinion though.

There's a manga that goes into lesbian identity that I love, the author celebrates pride and pushes for IRL acceptance in Japan, and the message I really appreciate from the series/author is that a person should enjoy whatever LGBTQ media they want and what matters at the end of the day is pushing for acceptance in real life. Not just accepting LGBTQ in stories, but also in real life, that's what actually matters. You can enjoy Yuri/WLW/GL, live action lesbian movies, gay movies, fluffy, serious, tragic, anything and that's fine. Just make sure you're also involved with achieving and celebrating better rights and acceptance in real life for real people as well.

God, this series consistently has the worst comment sections.

Yeah I shouldn't be spamming the comment section with my bitching. It doesn't give me any satisfaction and nobody wants to read that crap. I'll try to stop.

I thought it was alright. Seemed tame. What else is discussion supposed to be? It's on topic, there's effort, it's fine. I would rather we avoided this angle with Miki but it's here to stay so I'm not planning on discussing it much.

Part of a discussion will be people voicing how they like and/or dislike a work. I see a lot of hate for Whispering on Dynasty and I don't really have much to add at this point. I enjoy the manga for the most part still and don't really want to debate or argue.

With this conversation in particular, I think I'm generally of similar mind as some other posts here,

Rainbow8:

It seems a world where no one cares about orientation. No one bats an eye at girls dating girls.

&

Goggled Anon:

It's simply because it's not what the series wants to focus on. It's first and foremost a story about love and its various forms.

It's fine if that doesn't work for some and they aren't enjoying the manga. I'm still mostly enjoying it as I said, so I'm just going to keep on reading, and right now I'm hoping for more cute date chapters in the near future.

For years I was all-in on the HajiMomo train, even after the Kyou death reveal, but just last week I read "The Summer You Were There" and I cried and cried and it's one of the greatest manga I've ever read and now I got traumatic PTSD and I'm not so sure if I want HajiMomo to just go out immediately. It doesn't feel so "right" anymore.

And when Miki was all like "I love Aya-senpai, but not romantically" I was like "I've heard this damn story before already with Himari -> Yori and Aki -> Shiho, they both fall in love for real, so just go out with Aya-senpai already, you'll get over your Nee-chan and fall in love with Aya-senpai for real before you know it"

No we need someone to play (whisper) a love song first. That's the name of the game and I'm wondering if we'll find some creative way of doing that here too. The first two were very different. I don't think Aya senpai plays music though so who knows, maybe Miki or Momo does something. Gotta keep music involved somehow.

Instrument training arc commences

Ride wife, good life

Cat gets smooches

Someone has been busy

Great <3

Sometimes you gotta go the extra mile for a kiss

Loved the story, art, characters and their dynamic, thanks for the translation!

I'd say the sex isn't filler so much as it's just not for you,

I just meant that it feels like filler (to me personally due to being ace), which is implied by context.

I don't think you can actually call a part of an original story "filler", can you? I mean, I usually see that term when an adaptation is deliberately deviating from the original series (e.g. in order to make time for the original series to catch up). But if there's a part of an original story that you don't like or feel is unnecessary, that's not filler, that's just a bit you don't like.

I understood the context of you being Ace, that's why I also said "which is entirely fair and very valid". In my experience people commonly call everything filler that they're personally not into, and filler in that regard can be a bit over used in online discussions in my opinion. Since even if a person is not into something in a story it can be an important part of the narrative. Which again you being Ace and not interested in that type of material is entirely understandable.

Since I think works like this, and works like Asumi, are both equally important even though they have opposite audiences. Getting more asexual and related LGBTQ media is important, just as LGBTQ media that embraces sex is also important. Having different forms of expression for different people and embracing all walks of life is valuable.

Never said anything different from that.

I know, and I wasn't trying to argue or anything like that, only stating my own views.

I think we're on the same page of the most part? I also apologize if I came off as rude at all, as that wasn't my intent. I was only wanting to share my thoughts that both Ace works like this, and sexual works like Asumi, are both very valid forms of story telling. Since both works came up in the conversation. I hope we're on friendly terms though, and if I need to clear up anything I will. Otherwise I wish you well and maybe we'll converse again in the future on another story discussion.

Sadness

^I just heard, sad news :(

Rest in peace

These boobs need to be arrested

Worth, 0 regrets

^I understand enjoying the art how you want, however that feels a bit over aggressive towards the ship the artist likes...

last edited at Aug 19, 2024 11:10PM

Music Video (Edit: Oop was a little slow on the response haha)

They appear in that music video, there's male and female versions. I might be wrong but I think they're supposed to be her "Jail Birds", which is the name she uses for her fans. So she's making out with her lady fans in this art if I'm understanding correctly.

last edited at Aug 18, 2024 7:21PM

Having children exhibit adult interests at a very young age is usually a ... troubling sign.

In what way, specifically?

I think they might be implying that there could be abuse, but sometimes people hit puberty early.

^I think that's a good way to explain the art, and yeah with an adaption getting to hear the music will be really nice as well

^Yeah distancing one's self from social media as a creator is very smart. Also in general it's good to not let social media hold too much power over how a person thinks, as it's a mess and more.

^Fair yeah and that's basically what I was gathering from this and a friend I mentioned it to, that the author isn't dismissing or saying no to the Marcille and Falin ship, like some authors do. More so that her response is along the lines of saying that's not what she was focused on writing, but people can enjoy their head-canons. Which is fine, her response sounds entirely reasonable. Especially since the story is a pretty contained adventure that's focused on a friendly and familial feeling dynamic with the party members, along with exploring themes of life and death, aging, so fourth. That's where a lot of the heart of her writing with Dungeon Meshi is I think.

I don't think people that enjoy the shipping should get mad at her, and I don't think people should weaponize her words to be anti-shipping either. Generally so many sides of any situation are so busy focused on slinging mud, it turns into a whole headache. Live and let live is a good saying for this kind of situation in my opinion.

Hmm interesting. I mean the series is explicitly not romantic so I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't have any intent on writing the characters in a romantic way. If she's open to people doing what they want with shipping that's cool, and more than enough for me. Since shipping is something that can be fun, but I think some folks take it too seriously, so I wouldn't be surprised if people got mad about that...even though the series is again explicitly not romantic.

Ultimately people shouldn't expect the author to confirm their own interpretations. Especially with how I saw Twitter defining the anime in ways that makes Dungeon Meshi very different than it actually is. I've seen people from the outside looking in, where they expected the anime to be entirely different due to the fandom's intense focus on head-canon.

Nice to see more fan works for the series, thanks for the translation!

^I've never heard anything like that, so I'd appreciate some kind of source. I was playing off of the comment made by "BigBowlOfSauerkraut" about it being a deleted scene, by saying oh yeah it's definitely canon, because I enjoy the ship. Regardless of canon or not, I enjoy the ship, so my comment was joking around in a I wish it was canon kind of way.