Apparently the mangaka has come out and said that there is no gay.

Which breaks my heart, because that takes this series from "two introverted loners find love and discover themselves" to "two autistic fuckheads struggle with basic human communication."

This level of pining and drama and anxiety just doesn't make sense to me without a romantic element. I couldn't get enough of this series when the first vol was being released, but now I'm pretty close to dropping it...

The author has not said there's no gay, she said she doesn't consider it yuri.

But 'yuri' doesn't have to mean 'gay stuff, it's frequently used more to refer to just the romance genre of fluffy cute girls crushing on each other stuff. It can still be hella gay but not be yuri.

I wonder if Shimamura broke what's-her-face's heart, or if it was the other way around...

I got the impression the other girl was never that invested in their friendship, at least compared to shimamura. Guess we'll see though.

Things that were great this chapter:

Adachi nearly melting down out of embarrassment at asking Shima about valentine's.
Adachi nearly melting down out of joy at Shimamura calling her hair style cute
Adachi trying to give Shimamura a "you make me a better person!" speech like, right outside their classroom, and inevitably failing
Adachi getting so wound up in her little romantic fantasies with Shimamura that she can't even muster up her normal "it's not like I have a crush on her tho" narration.
The inevitable coming punchline of Adachi getting handcrafted chocolates from Shimamura and being like, "Oh god, anything but more chocolate"

Now please author, some dang Shimamura development already please

last edited at Sep 17, 2019 2:43PM

Something I like about this series is how very, very teenage they are, especially Adachi. Like lots of yuri series (or really just anime in general) is all about teenagers acting the way teenagers want to think they act, like little mini-adults. Adachi and Shimamura are just kinda figuring everything out as they go along. And not just how they feel about each other, but just like, how to flirt, how to date, how to express themselves. And they regularly screw it up too and just act weird and awkward and self-conscious. It's very endearing.

I feel like Asuka is subtly feeling rejected.

Like from her perspective she's got a crush on this girl, flirts with her, kinda gets mixed signals back, never quite clear if Tomoko's into girls or not. They're gradually getting closer, and they hang out a lot more, but also it's always for school stuff, like studying or the college tour, they never just hang out to hang out. Asuka keeps trying to come up with more excuses to spend time together, and Tomoko seems into it, but then also keeps inviting her other friends along - or her friends will invite Tomoko to just hang out casually, and Tomoko never invites Asuka along.

None of this is really Tomoko being uninterested, she's just A) socially awkward, and B) has low self esteem and it never even occurs to her that Asuka might be hitting on her.

This has especially been coming to a head regarding Yuu. Tomoko's always at her gayest around Yuu, and Asuka's definitely picked up on that, and is feeling curious/jealous of Yuu. And now they're finally going to meet at the study camp, which should be real interesting.

last edited at Sep 9, 2019 5:06PM

Onibi's character design is seriously so good, like god damn girl

Onoda's new friend is really changing her for the better. She had been gradually loosening up on her own, but she's really breaking out of her shell now.

Yeah, I really like her development. She's happier when they're together sure, but she's just nicer and more optimistic all the time now, without it feeling like that newfound happiness purely depends on Honoka's positive feedback.

And of course it's nice too because Onoda's always been lowkey one of the gayest of any of the girls, she just never had anyone to be gay with before.

Chie x Ai are technically in the closet because they're nervous about their classmates response...

But they're not in the closet very well, basically anyone who pays attention knows the two of them are dating.

Unfortunately we don't know yet if it's going to be like a proper series, or just a one-shot or something like that. Hopefully we'll get a full season series

Koshiba is like, "So, you're gay, right?"
No, no, I'm definitely not gay!
OK, do you want to go out with me though?
blush, fidget ... Yeah, OK
... To the grocery store?

last edited at Aug 27, 2019 12:19PM

MC might be in denial, but Koshiba definitely seems like she's not buying it. There's a lot of elements I like here, but yeah, it does feel kind of weirdly paced. Too many scenes that just stop without internal logic. The art is nice though, hopefully the writing will improve as it goes on.

Man Shimamura's like the world champion of realizing what Adachi means, what the very gay connotations of that are, and then veering hard into HAHA NO JUST KIDDING WE'RE JUST FRIENDS THO!!! Like, goddamn. And yet she still soooorta acknowledges it?

Also poor Adachi seems like she's thinking this is finally like becoming official, all while Shimamura is busy not thinking about exactly that.

I hope this'll be the book where Shimamura finally starts getting a clue, because right now our poor girl Adachi is just doin' all the damn work here.

I have to say, the way Shimamura's mind wanders during her conversations with Adachi kinda bug me a little, from a writing standpoint.

Like obv Shimamura's half clueless and half hella in denial, but usually you still get a pretty good sense that yes, she's interested in Adachi, she's just afraid of where her thoughts will take her if she thinks about it too much, so she avoids the topic.

But then like with this chapter she just seems, like, genuinely uninterested? Or at least genuinely super clueless. Which just kinda makes her seem uncaring, when we know how obsessed Adachi is over her.

Don't get me wrong, super looking forward to seeing that development, but I hope the author realizes they need to step up the Shimamura side of things.

Haha, that was pretty adorable, better than I was expecting. It soo nailed that awkward teenage vibe of like super wanting to date someone, while also having no idea wtf you're doing, and being terrified of doing it wrong. Also dealing with that very Japanese fear of standing out.

And yeah, Adachi definitely seemed like she was missing some signals, looking forward to Shimamura's pov.

Koshiba: don't laugh at me I want to make a cute stuffed animal

MC: (weird internal monologue) kiss
Koshiba: wtf

This is legit their first real conversation right, like if Koshiba does something that isn't pushing her away and thinking she's a creepy weirdo then I don't have high hopes for the rest hahaha

Well they apparently knew each other in middle school, but drifted apart (or were never that close in the first place?)

MC definitely seemed to already be nursing a crush on her for a while. And that supposed boyfriend was definitely fictional.

This is going to hurt, isn't it?

Author stated that it's gonna be bittersweet and also explicitly said that it's an adolescence, not yuri. Besides I can't vouch much for the author since the only thing he's made was a het harem manga.

Ugh. That's literally the opposite of yuri. That's anti-yuri. That shit shouldn't even be allowed on this site.

It really kind of depends. Some folks say "it's not yuri" and mean "it's not gay."

But then other mangaka will say "it's not yuri" and mean like, it's not just cute fluffy stuff, that it actually IS about being gay.

Same as talking about adolescence, sometimes they mean "it's just a phase lol" and sometimes it's "gay coming of age story."

Not even the Japanese agree on WTF "yuri" actually means.

The fact that you're worried about people finding out about your plan to give a Christmas present to your friend, and then getting "the wrong idea", definitely makes me get "the wrong idea".

Isn't gifting someone outside of like family or very close friends on Christmas (aside from kids) typically kinda viewed as a more romance-y thing there? I don't mean exclusively romance-y, just, "stereotypical romance-y vibe" sorta thing? I know it's overplayed AF in most anime/manga, and obviously in this one we have Adachi who is clearly having a difficult time convincing herself that it's NOT weird for friends and it's NOT romantic, etc. But I'm not Japanese so I don't know the real truth of it.

All I know for sure is that it's pretty traditional to have fried chicken for dinner.

Which makes me wanna say that Adachi should just Leeroy Jenkins the whole thing, cuz worst case scenario, at least she'd have chicken. /horribly unfunny doubly nerdy joke

Yeah, between adults Christmas is seen as more of a couples holiday than anything else. Like Japan went in for the romantic Christmas songs and left out all the Jesus and family stuff. It's not like you -can't- go out with friends that day, but like, all the advertising is gonna be about romance and couples.

It is very Shimamura to be all, "Well, obviously we're just going as friends, nobody could possibly think otherwise, everyone knows friends can totally hang out on christmas, not a big deal... Also I better not tell anyone else."

I think Adachi is definitely only a little taller than average, cuz she never really thinks about height herself. It's Shimamura who's short, she's the one who's always dwelling on people's heights.

Yeah, this chapter felt a little unnecessary. Kinda funny, but doesn't really tell us anything we couldn't already infer.

I am enjoying the sidecouples though.

Thanks again to our speedy translators!

last edited at Jul 22, 2019 9:37PM

Asuka is starting to become the "lovestruck character who can't get the one they want" in the fandom now, when I bet if she even were to straight out confess in the manga she would be just fine hahaha

In the manga it feels like she's definitely gay for Tomoko, but not sure if Tomoko's actually gay herself / is interested.

Plus now Asuka's finding out about Yuu, Tomoko's BFF, so she might be wondering if Tomoko secretly already has a girlfriend or crush or some other reason why Tomoko's not returning her interest, even if she is gay.

All of which has really less to do with Tomoko's straightness, than the fact that Tomoko holds Asuka up on such a pedestal that it never occurs to her that Asuka might actually be flirting with her. Like anyone else, Tomoko's mind goes right to it, but Asuka is too obviously wonderful to ever be into her / be into girls.

Poor Adachi is simultaneously stuck between "Hahaha we're just friends because it's not like I'm gay!! Romantic friendships are still no homo!" and "Fuuuuck meeee, I have a crush on my straight best friend, I'm such an idiot."

I've said this before, but I really like how the novel takes the like normally super-fluffy, yuri standard girl meets girl friendship/romance, but then makes it feel more realistic and modern by never really pretending that these girls aren't super gay for each other. Like if you just went off the plot summary it would feel pretty standard, but half of these chapters are just the girls' internal monologues working through figuring out they're gay and how they feel about that and each other.

The way I read this chapter, to me it seems Adachi knows she has a crush on Shima. What she had issues with this time is that sometimes she loses sight of the fact that to her knowledge she's just a friend to Shima at this point. Or maybe I read it wrong, I'm not sure. This isn't to say she isn't confused about the whole thing, but I don't think she's in denial about the existence of the crush, at least?

I also find the characters mostly authentic in the way you said, but so far I'm not convinced that there's an intentional theme of queer identity. So far, hasn't the explicit question of queer identity been mostly avoided (as it is pretty standard for yuri)? Though I can recall moments that imply that this is at the back of her mind, such as the repeated "I'm not like that" disclaimers in previous chapters, and wondering why she doesn't feel the same way about her other two friends who are also girls as she does about Shima.

It might come to the forefront later, but it's not like it would stop being "good yuri" even if it never did. There's a lot of yuri that can feel relatable without explicitly dealing with queer identity. (I suspect if this weren't true, there wouldn't be such a huge LGBTQ+ contingent in the readership here.)

I mean Adachi is definitely mostly just focusing on her feelings for Shimamura, but there's also been a few times when she thinks of the implications beyond that too. I'm too lazy to go find the chapter right now, but there's that one scene where she's thinking about how her being Like That would be tough on her parents or whatever, that very Japanese sort of homophobia. There's been a few other lines like that too. And then there was Shimamura's story about what is clearly her first little girl crush back in the day.

It never really dwells on it, but I feel like there's enough there to at least reassure me that the author thinks of them as definitely gay, and not just like, a cute phase or only attracted just to this one special person. Which is enough for me, especially since right now the two of them are still trying to be honest about their feelings for each other, so it's a bit much to expect them to already be looking at like, the bigger picture of what that crush means to their identities.

Poor Adachi is simultaneously stuck between "Hahaha we're just friends because it's not like I'm gay!! Romantic friendships are still no homo!" and "Fuuuuck meeee, I have a crush on my straight best friend, I'm such an idiot."

I've said this before, but I really like how the novel takes the like normally super-fluffy, yuri standard girl meets girl friendship/romance, but then makes it feel more realistic and modern by never really pretending that these girls aren't super gay for each other. Like if you just went off the plot summary it would feel pretty standard, but half of these chapters are just the girls' internal monologues working through figuring out they're gay and how they feel about that and each other.

If only Asuka was direct with Tomoko, she'd say yes in an instant

Poor girl is dropping as many hints as she can, she's sure doing a lot better than any of the other girls.

It's not her fault Tomoko's self esteem is so low that it's just literally never occurred to her that hottie Asuka might be hitting on her.

I guess I just don't like thinking of Shimamura as clueless or uninterested, since that's such an anime/manga cliche that exists only to draw things out longer.

Whereas with this series I feel like the writing is doing a good job of characterizing Shimamura as being in denial, and having reasons for it. She's not just an idiot.

Hm...I want to like it, but this manga always has this "enough playing around, time to find a husband" vibe for me. At least with most pairs.

On the contrary, it plays with the trope I think.

It's like the characters are lying to themselves by talking about boyfriends and husbands, and the readers know it

And anyway, I doubt we will see them grow up into adults.

Or they will become like the girls in Maka-Maka from the same author.

I think the author does a good job of having a mix of relationships.

Some are just friendships
Some of them are definitely just the like class-s intense friendships / preparing for eventual heterosexuality stuff.
Others are more like sexual exploration, but maybe not romantic
And then you got some just full-on gay romance, too.

I think that's an interesting approach to the yuri/class-s "it's a girl's school, so everybody's gay for now" setting.

I don't think it cheapens actual homosexuality, it just recognizes that there's a variety of experiences. Like the class tacitly understands that Ai and Chie's relationship is serious in a way many of the others are not.

Or then there's stuff like chapter 104, where Ayano would plainly be OK with dating Miyoshi for real, but Miyoshi just seems to think of it all as just playing around.