The point is that all the other characters are also young and immature, and yet they're able to work through their various stuff without being an aggressively troublesome drama queen like Shiho.

While that's fantastic, in my opinion it's pretty unrealistic compared to Shiho's behavior, which despite being a bit extreme at times, feels more like a real teenage character.

This will probably have a very negative impact on Aki's performance, so I wouldn't be surprised if Laureley wins the competition in part thanks to that (there's also to considerate the promise Shiho made to Hima if her band were to win: That she would listen to any single request she have).

Chapter 55: My Sumika x nene heart… I knew it was near impossible for these two to get together, so what a crazy whirlwind of emotions this chapter and volume has been. Lots of “what ifs” and “could it be”, some moments got me jumping out of my seat. I absolutely adore and have been rooting for these 2 characters, their past, their interactions, so it was honestly a beautiful but sad chapter :( “thank you for ending this love with me” omg my heart T_T part of me still wishes they would end up together but alas… this painful closure was needed for them. it’ll probably take a while for me to get over them, any fellow sumika x nene shippers out there to cry with together? Haha, it now made sense why nene always felt a little apprehensive / had to kind of mentally prep herself before approaching sumika, the sweat drops or deep sigh etc. Great chapter though!

Both Sumika and Nene (this one in particular) have grown on me a lot with these last few volumes, so I was also hoping that the two would end up together somehow, but Chapter 55 feels to me like a definitive closure for any possibility of that happening in the future. But who knows, maybe Youko's bad deeds and Kanoko's complicity will end up bringing them together. I doubt it, as Kanoko will probably fall in love with Sumika at some point, and it's hard for me to think that the former won't have her happy ending.

Waiting for the next chapter will be tough. I know I shouldn't, but I'm so tempted to take a look at the first few pages of Chapter 56...

last edited at Feb 12, 2023 6:41PM

Chapter 55: What a beautiful, cathartic chapter for both Sumika and Nene. I love their relationship, and I hope the latter can find happiness now that she has completely moved on from her past loves. Other than that, having to wait to find out what Youko sent to Nene will be tough. It's impressive how the manga has gradually gone from the innocent, light-hearted comedy that it was in its beginnings to what it has become. And I think it's fantastic.

last edited at Feb 11, 2023 9:13PM

But I find myself not caring about it cause it was written in such a messy way that it just does not interest me. It's my opinion.

Its monthly release doesn't help, that's for sure. The experience improves by reading all the chapters in a row, at least in my opinion. This Arc is almost 20 chapters long so far, after all.

I think most people voicing their dissatisfaction about this manga (me included) have issue precisely with the fact that they made this conflict so central :P I would be completely fine with wrapping it up after like 15-20 chapters with a simple ending, but the manga suffers from its own success. Someone even brought out a Goku comparison earlier, which is very apt, because this conflict does feel like it goes on for like 20 chapters. At this point I feel like no matter how they resolve it, it's probably going to be disappointing.

That's a valid criticism. It probably wasn't the best decision to make an Arc longer than the rest of the series combined...

Such heresy. Couple life romance stories are the best yuri, unless you don't like yuri stories about actual relationships. Which is fine. Personal preferences and all that.

I like stories to have a balance. And for the record, Himari and Yori started to date more than 20 chapters ago. And since then there have been quite a few of those "couple life" moments you mention.

last edited at Jan 24, 2023 9:31PM

Btw can't deny the lonely girl is a proper story, a story doesn't need to have drama or angst, it really comes to personal preferences, some people enjoy more calm and fluffy slice of life type of stories and some prefer drama and angst, claiming that your preferences is the only way to tell a "proper" story is objectively not true and dumb

The irony is that the author actually tried to put drama into the story. It's just that they didn't know how to do it correctly (remember about Sora's mother? Yeah...) and decided to move on with a different approach for the second part of the series, until they couldn't prolonged any longer. I can assure you that most of its readers can't even remember what happened in the vast majority of the last 15 or 20 chapters, other than "they were cute together". Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but that should tell you something.

Although everyone has different preferences, two key elements when it comes to telling a story are the conflicts and its resolutions, both things in which Whisper me a Love Song seems objectively superior to me. Can't Defy the Lonely Girl was popular not because of its storytelling, but because is escapism at its finest.

last edited at Jan 21, 2023 2:32PM

I couldn't care less about the shiho/aki stuff

I think you should, as their conflict is the most important part of the manga. Without it, there wouldn't be a story to tell in the first place. I mean, having Himari and Yori going into endless dates and doing cute stuff everyday with little to no drama at all (something like I Can't Defy the Lonely Girl) is probably what a lot of people here wants. Fortunately, this author wants something more sustancious for their series.

Very cute chapter we haven't got much of them two together as much as we deserve it was nice seeing them actually get some alone time.

This idea that "Himari and Yori spend little time together" is a complete misconception and I don't understand why so many people repeat it over and over again. Just reread the last 10 chapters or so and see for yourself. Again, I think the problem here is that you guys want a manga dedicated only to those two characters, rather than a proper story.

last edited at Jan 21, 2023 12:30PM

No offense, but I think that's just your victim complex talking. In my experience, if there's something that the vast majority of the anime community like, that is Yuri/Shoujo Ai. I'm not sure why would you believe otherwise.

Definitely not, we probably just had different experiences with the vast majority of the Anime community then, what I saw the most were comments on social media like Facebook and Youtube with hate against Yuri, every post on popular Anime socials are flooded with comments like that, we probably didn't experienced the same interaction with the mainstream community

That's fair. I was mostly talking about the comments I often read on Reddit about the genre as a whole, which are almost always positive. But that's just my personal experience.

Is there anyone else here who thought "they look just like the girls from Oregairu" when they saw the main couple? Because comments everywhere are making this comparison now that the anime was announced and I feel like the odd one out because I never thought that while reading the manga.

Yeah I've seen people making jokes but there are also a bunch of weebs throwing hate at it now saying that it's a "Oreigaru rip-off" as if Anime designs were the most original thing ever, really sad and unfortunate that this is happening but I guess it's common for the mainstream Anime community try to invent excuses to hate anything that is Yuri

No offense, but I think that's just your victim complex talking. In my experience, if there's something that the vast majority of the anime community like, that is Yuri/Shoujo Ai. I'm not sure why would you believe otherwise.

It's gonna be great! I just hope people behave and don't ruin it for newcomers like "yeah is cute now but later it's gets baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad !! all hope is lost! run while you can!!" or something.

I'm more concerned with the adaptation itself. I was expecting this manga to have the best studio of the three series that are going to receive an anime (Yuri is My Job! and Villainess being the other two), as Whisper me a Love Song is probably the best selling manga in the magazine right now. But then again, the Yuri genre still has a small audience in Japan.

last edited at Jan 13, 2023 10:14AM

Chapter 53:
I love this kind of chapters. Back at the beginning of Volume 9 I never would have expected that the shift in focus from Hime/Yano to the rest of the group would be so beneficial to the series, but the author definitely knows what they are doing. Nene in particular has been an incredibly pleasant surprise. I love her character and her introspective moments as much as I hate Youko and her manipulations.

I don't see any realistic chance of Nene and Sumika ending up together after everything that happened, unfortunately. It's to be expected that Kanoko will start to have feelings for her at some point during their fake relationship, although her current self is far from deserving someone like Sumika.

last edited at Dec 31, 2022 10:13AM

One interesting thing I noticed in the localized Volume 10 is that unlike the scanlations, in which Nene sounds as though she wants to cut ties with Yoko, in the localization, Nene wants to figure out why Yoko cut ties with her. The localization's version makes more sense and explains why Nene fell prey toko's manipulations

I asked the fan translator about it, and after reviewing the sentence from the last page of Chapter 48 they told me that their interpretation is: "Nene did consider her relationship with Youko to be over at that point, and she wanted to meet up with her just to ask why things ended the way they did."

Its sales are really strong, so it was expected that it would have an adaptation at some point. Still, excellent news.

And pretty incredible to think that the magazine will have three announcements of adaptations in just a couple of months.

I'm glad you're liking it. I hope you keep reading and tell us your impressions once you've caught up.

Hylarn posted:

But my God, I hope the climax isn't with Manaria

I'd expect them to do the entire Kingdom arc?

I think "I won't say goodbye" could be a good end for a 12 episode anime, that's 20 manga episodes

I'd say it's highly unlikely that only the first novel will be adapted.

Why? It took four manga volumes to cover Volume 1, and Volume 2 is a bit longer. If they tried to cover both volumes it would be a super rushed anime. People seem to forget that A) The volumes of this LN are pretty big and B) The very dry and "straight to the point" writing style means there is more story to adapt in 10 pages here than in 10 pages of your usual LN.

The average number of novels adapted in a season is three, maybe even four (you can search for examples). That would be impossible here, since the third novel is the beginning of a completely different Arc, but I'd say that it would the right decision to adapt the two novels completely, since the chances of a second season are very low.

Hylarn posted:

But my God, I hope the climax isn't with Manaria

I'd expect them to do the entire Kingdom arc?

I think "I won't say goodbye" could be a good end for a 12 episode anime, that's 20 manga episodes

I'd say it's highly unlikely that only the first novel will be adapted.

last edited at Dec 13, 2022 10:28AM

Shiho is definitely the best part of this manga so far and the only one that keep me from dropping it.

I don't think I would have dropped it, but she's definitely the most interesting character in this manga. From her first appearance, I always liked the rol of a disruptive factor she played and continues to play in an otherwise much more predictable and formulaic story.

I hope she and Aki ends up together.

Shiho's probably the hottest girl of this manga

Right? It's not even close.

The localization of Volume 10 recently came out. For those who are interested, the localizers use the term "lesbian," as well as "gay" once when Nene asks Sumika why she's hostile toward Yoko. On the other hand, in Chapter 50, Hime says to Kanoko, "If you have been avoiding Yano because she developed a crush on someone of the same sex."

I was skimming through Volume 10 and this part of Chapter 51 caught my attention, when Kanoko asks Sumika to start dating:

Fan translation: "Please go out with me. Please become my lover, and end your hate for romance."

Official: "Please go out with me. Please be my girlfriend... So I can stop hating romance."

she's still way too selfish and refuses to simply talk with Aki without acting like a freaking maniac who speaks over the others.

Aki deserves to know the real reason why she left the band, but I think it would be unfair to treat it as a matter of selfishness on Shiho's part and nothing more. It's not like it's easy to tell a friend you're in love with her knowing it's unrequited love. It's childish, of course, but I can empathize with Shiho's intention to cut the bond and move on. At least it's healthier than their current relationship.

Anyway, Those last few pages made me feel that maybe not only is the climax of this Arc approaching, but that the end of the series may be closer than we thought. The sales of the manga are great, so if that's really the case, then it's just because the author want it that way.

Is it just me, or is it delicously ironic that Shiho left the first place she was valued for her serious attitude regarding music because of petty love drama that went on entirely in her own head, instead of something serious?

It's not in her head. She has just witnessed how her first crush is deeply in love with another person on the same day that she was going to confess her feelings to her. It sounds serious enough to me.

And it's not like she did a big fuss or anything. She just broke the letter and went home. In fact, she didn't quit right away, but after Aki made a comment about her singing (although she was probably waiting to have some excuse like that one and use it to left the band).

Even if she's now aware that Yori is with someone other than Aki, part of what really upsets Shiho is that she isn't first.
A huge part of her motivation is the idea that she has to be the best and the real lesson she needs to accept is learning how to be happy regardless of whether she's first, or the best, or whatever.

You're absolutely right about this, and I'm sure it's going to be a problem when/if Aki and Shiho start dating in the future.

Both Aki and Shiho are not able to move on because they are still holding those one sided feelings. I think Aki should confess her feelings to Yori and get a proper rejection from Yori. Same goes for Shiho. If possible after getting to know their feelings and finally be able to breathe, hopefully they start getting along well and why not? Start dating cause I wanna see them together in the end.

I think only Shiho hasn't been able to move on from her unrequited love.

And Yori will learn the truth about Aki's feelings at some point, but because Shiho will be (directly or indirectly) the one responsible for that happening.

Poor Shiho. Yes, she is childish, selfish and some of her actions can't be justified, but I totally sympathize with her.

This just got... extremely confusing. I thought shiho was in love with hima or something.

Your confusion is understandable, since the characters are constantly blushing at each other, but the author hinted many times that Shiho was in love with Aki, and it was basically confirmed in the latest Extras.

I think the meaning of the term "Yuri bait" should change as time goes by. In the year 2022, I completely understand if some people say that a series like Lycoris Recoil is bait. To use that term only for when the protagonists end up in a heterosexual relationship would be setting the bar way too low.

Thanks for the information. Now that I think about it, since Amazon doesn't have a cover for Volume 11, and the description includes the generic summary of the series, the Japanese volume hasn't necessarily come out yet. In fact, the June release date is probably tentative, and it could very well be pushed back.

Volume 11 will come out on November 17 in Japan.