bros its almost over....

at least we got sayaka's spin off to look forward to
hopefully she wont pull off a thirstyaka

Just saw this. We really getting a Sayaka spin off? That would be awesome.

There's a novel series with two volumes out about Sayaka going through college I think. While it's not by Nakatani herself she does have some say and probably supervises it, so it's probably canon and probably good.

Also to anyone who expected another flash of (unnecessary) drama: Have you read a different series than I? It was perfectly clear to me that we're on the home stretch and there wouldn't be any silly drama anymore, it just would not have fit with how the story had been progressing so far and how problems were dealt with throughout.

self-employed translator here (not from Japanese though), cannot attest the translation accuracy but for sure Kusoshop translation looks more informal, easier for English-born readers/speakers to understand, more relatable to them that is, 4s seems to translate word by word which is not wrong since they're simply following the original text

I think you meant the opposite. I personally preferred Kusoshop on this chapter because it follows more what the characters are actually saying.

"Here I go" lol

Yeah, that's the thing with translation. Your mileage WILL vary.
I've come to prefer a more liberal, domesticating translation that takes the essence of what the characters are saying and translates it to sound as natural in the target language as possible.
Neither of the translations of this series that I've seen, the official Kadokawa release, Kusoshop's and 4s', quite did it for me. Only the English dub of the anime really did it for me.
That's why I've edited this chapter's translation to my liking, based on the very rough initial translation and the decent Kusoshop one. Just to have it read the way I want it to.

Also I'm kinda afraid we'll have the whole "top vs bottom" discussion all over again, and it's gonna get messy again.

We (especially BugDevil and I) need to see how Midori and Manaka are going.

That's certainly on the "nice to have" list, but that list also contains a few other potential and realized couples.

Edit/Addendum: Also I wouldn't mind seeing how Touko, Sayaka and to an extent also the others ended up academically by the end of the school year. Did Sayaka come out on top at least there?

last edited at Sep 1, 2019 5:17PM

Any last chapter predictions? I have no idea since we don't know how many pages it will have yet. The only thing I am fairly certain is that we will see some pages about their future life, living together and enjoying domestic life like they wished for.

The way the story has been going makes me think that the series is going to end more with a sort of "we'll see what the future holds for us", instead of us actually seeing it.
I really hope it's going to have their families (or at the very least Rei) finding out about their relationships. I'm also hoping for some closure with the other characters (Sayaka, Koyomi, Akari, etc).

I agree. We've seen plenty of "this would be a nice future" scenes, but I don't think we'll see a "this is what the future actually held for us".

If we don't get some sort of coming out to friends and/or family I will be extremely surprised, and a bit disappointed, to be honest. Considering the way things have been developing in this story from the get-go, I'm sure it'll happen.

Other than that, I there's really nothing I need from the conclusion anymore.

Due to how Nakatani constructed the characters and narrative I can't really hold any character's flaws against them. Sure, all central characters have flaws that they could and should overcome, but we're shown exactly why these flaws are there, how they came to be.

Yes, Touko was being very selfish in her "love" initially, because that was what she felt she needed, because she felt that it was all she deserved. To me, her self-loathing was her major flaw, and she could not have overcome that one by herself. She needed someone like Yuu, who got to know her hidden side and accepted that. She would never have shown this side to someone who she honestly thought cared enough to pass judgement over her. Her self-esteem is still rather low, I'd say, considering her factual abilities and competence.

The side she showed the world was not, however, lovable by itself. Likeable, sure, but I don't think you can earnestly love someone who seems flawless. You can have a crush on someone like that, sure, but loving means knowing full-well a person's flaws, and then embracing the flaws you can and then negotiating those you can't.

Having a crush is not love. Love begins when the crush is over. Yuu never had a crush on Touko, but over time got to love her. Touko had a crush on Yuu, for rather awkward reasons, but got over that, too, and eventually embraced all of her.

last edited at Sep 1, 2019 3:26PM

Oh kudos to translator-san. It was a long post and the only thing that seemed to register here in
me brain is you make translations your project. Awesome. It made me excited. More people should translate Yuri stuff >haha.

Thanks for indulging me.

Not really translating, though, just editing and rephrasing lots and lots of things. Unfortunately my Japanese is next to nonexistent, so I can't translate directly. Drawing on translations by others (several, if possible) may let me provide more variety in the Versions we get, but there won't be more translated works. Not for the time being. Maybe I'll eventually be confident enough to translate for myself, but damn, Kanji is kinda rough to learn.

Also that feeling when you write a long post, and after you publish it you see that the discussion's gotten really hostile in the background...

I'm curious to see what 4s do with this chapter. Kusoshop's already been a huge step up from the initial rough translation.

last edited at Aug 30, 2019 1:23AM

Soooooooooooooooooooo...
(looooooong post)
After lurking in the forum since the anime adaptation of the first half finished, and avidly reading every released chapter at least twice in various release formats and buying all the releases our gracious overlords at the publishing house in question have put forward...
I've finally decided to chip in on the conversation and created an account, because there's just so, so much I would like to say about this series, and I don't want my wife to be the only one to whom I can drone on about it.

Also, those were two horribly long sentences, but I really felt like doing that. I think it captures my current mood. I feel talkative. All my points are to be regarded as my own opinions, based on my limited knowledge of the respective subjects and genres. Please don't burn me at the stake. I also Won't be talking much yuri, because it's not something I focus on.

Bloom into You has been one hell of a ride for me. I saw great potential from the very first episode. Yeah, I'm from the anime side of things and don't usually read manga. To commit one more sin, I almost universally prefer English dubs, but then again, I'm German, so it's not my native language either and even the worst current English dubs are still leagues above most German dubs.
Once the season was over, YagaKimi instantly became my favourite anime of all time, despite being far from a completed story at the time. It did what I like best in anime, and did it better than pretty much any other show I've watched. Interpersonal relationships, displayed in a realistic manner, with no unnecessary and over-the-top drama.

Blastaar has repeatedly voiced my thoughts to perfection: What would happen next was usually rather predictable, because Nakatani was very thorough, methodical and consequent in her storytelling. All actors in the story behaved in a genuine fashion, consistent with their characterization, no one was unnecessarily duplicitous or capricious.

Most importantly I absolutely loved how directly points of conflict were addressed in a timely fashion. The characters didn't drag the lingering conflicts out, but did the smart thing and talked about their problems. They tried to understand the other by talking to them about the issues rather than letting it explode eventually.. WHAT A F*CKING NOVEL CONCEPT, RIGHT? (at least in anime at large, probably also novel in manga)

I have to slightly caveat my assessment of this not being a thing in anime: I confess that I've neither watched Clannad (and After Story) nor KareKano, so I am probably missing two milestones in that regard.

The next thing I absolutely loved was that they outright skipped the chase. It's been done to death, and until some show does it better than Toradora I'll be only moderately interested in it. Chapter/Episode one, boom, confession scene.
Chapter two, boom, first kiss. Sure, "it's complicated", but at least the "will they won't they" doesn't drag out as usual, with the characters being weirdly unaware of their feelings.
In YagaKimi it makes sense that they're unsure about their feelings, because the insecurities are strictly and plausibly based in their characters. Watching Touko and Yuu explore their feelings and what they really are to one another was truly marvelous.

The probably most important point that captured me was Yuu's confusion and realizarion what love meant for her. Simply because it wasn't all that different for me. Sure, I'd had crushes before I met my wife, but on her, I never had a crush . Like Yuu, I wanted a relationship, and was open to trying it with her. I've ben choosing to stay with her for over eleven years now. To me, it is kind of a religious thing in the original sense, if we assume the re-eligere - choosing repeatedly - etymology. Thus I found myself with the widest of grins whenever Yuu was unsure what she was feeling, because I was absolutely sure this was how she experienced love.

My wife and I don't ever use the word "love" for what we have, referring to each other kinda like "this one is mine, and I like that one". I'm making an exception to explain my personal connection to this series. It's nice to see a parallel here as well, although for us it's mostly that we found the phrase to have been overused so we no longer put much stock in the word.

Another thing that amazed me about Bloom into You is how the fact that romance always has a physical component: simple contact, kisses, cuddling and more. It was not ignored, and repeatedly touched on in the series. This latest chapter took it to its logical, and well deserved, conclusion, with passionate, loving sex.
I'm always baffled at the inane treatment of physicality in romantic media. It's either fanservice for comic relief, which can be fine occasionally, treated as too taboo to seriously engage with, or just played up for a cheap sex scene. Emphasis on the cheap. What we got was pretty darn amazing, because it can also be done right, and if the author pulls it off, it's marvelous.

I'll commit another sin here and say that this was probably the best thing about Sword Art Online, the mere fact that the main couple got together by the halfway point and actually got to be intimate with one another. I mean, they friggin CUDDLED! IN BED! PROBABLY IN THEIR BIRTHDAY SUITS! Say what you will about SAO as a whole, but the scenes in the house at the lake, save for Yui IMO, were amazing. I've also seen it done to near perfection in Anne Bishop's "Black Jewels" series of fantasy novels, which were a lot heavier on the sexual and erotic side of things, while never neglecting the emotional aspect of romance. That series is also probably my favourite piece of fiction ever.

Bloom into You isn't far off that mark, and given its context as a high school romance, it's pretty much as good as it can be without being hentai. To me, the most important ingredient to an amazing sex scene is the relationship of the characters. It can be expressed as internal monologue, as done here, or in the way they interact during sex. Communication is key, after all. Honestly I'd probably preferred if we'd gotten to partake in more of their interaction during their first time, but I don't think that could have been done within the confines of published manga that isn't "adults only". That rating probably varies a lot depending on what country you're in, though. "Futari Ecchi" is 16+ in Germany, after all, despite really being almost more than softcore hentai with an educational twist. (I just realized that it's listed as an ongoing series since 1997... sweet Jesus...) There's also the issue of limited time and space to tell the story, and I think the pages we had in #44 were used exceptionally well.

Chipping in on the old issue of Yuu top and Touko Powerbottom: I agree with the notion that, while fun, it's silly to assign roles to the characters based on our outside knowledge.
I'd like to differentiate the roles according to my perception. I'm normally top. That's just the way it is. My wife rarely actively takes charge. Part of that is because I'm the man, and I need to do most of the moving. But it's also because, while she gets utterly carried away in bed, I could probably solve complex linguistic problems during sex because I stay present and clear-minded. Thus I have the awareness and self-control to use my empathy to provide as much pleasure as possible to my partner. I love doing that, reading her reactions and doing exactly what's most effective, given the current state. Sure, it's nice if she takes charge once in a blue moon, but I mostly take pride in being able to really please her in all the right ways.
Thus I'd say that being "top" can also be a form of submission. Your partner's pleasure is the focus, you're not too worried about getting what you want yourself, that'll come naturally. What's important is providing the best possible experience for the partner, and that is your job as a top.

Have I mentioned how much I love this series?

I've recently started working as a translator/editor (English-German), and I've made it a personal project to create my own English edit of YagaKimi, more closely aligned with what Marissa Lenti did to the script of the English anime dub. I omit honorifics and rephrase several things from existing translations to be the way I'd want it to be. It's a matter of preference, and I happen to like it that way.

last edited at Aug 29, 2019 6:11PM