^ Reading the above made me think of Edelgard from FE3H, even though Edelgard is pretty much the opposite of Dorothy in her relationship to organized religion. Maybe it's because she is also the kind of person who makes others bend around her instead of adapting to them? In both cases, it's due to a combination of overwhelming charisma, belief in one's own right, and force of will.

last edited at Nov 22, 2020 1:14AM

Thank you, too, for you have just inspired me to do a Marxist reading of about half of the '90s JRPGs. :D

TV Tropes notes that the Corrupt Church trope is particularly prevalent in JRPGs, and since I'm not that knowledgeable with Japanese print media (outside of yuri genre), I went through the video game examples and discovered that there are almost no major examples of this trope listed prior to 1994 (when Breath of Fire II, EarthBound, and Lunar: Eternal Blue were released). The only earlier example I've spotted was Shin Megami Tensei in 1992, which may be the ur one in gaming... though I readily admit that there may be a strong selection bias in play here (again, I am less-than-informed about early console gaming, but I've always had the impression that the SNES era was the first time that Japanese home consoles had the storage capacity for majorly story-driven games).

While researching the topic, I've also come across a paper that links negative portrayal of centralized religions in Japanese media to the Aum Shinrikyo attacks of 1995. While the timeline clearly indicates that this was not the origin of the trope, I suspect that Aum's negative image did bleed into every form of organized religion in Japanese popular consciousness.

last edited at Nov 21, 2020 9:23AM

So, just out of curiosity: Just how old is "Church is Evil" trope in Japanese media, and where exactly did it originate?

It's as old as time itself. And it's not just Japanese media. It's one of the best tropes in all of fiction, because it's so true to life.

While it is tempting to claim that the perception of organized religion as a social ill is "as old as time", I am more inclined to think that it originated during the Enlightenment, specifically in the radical Protestant environment of the notoriously anti-papist England and certain German states.

So, just out of curiosity: Just how old is "Church is Evil" trope in Japanese media, and where exactly did it originate?

[snip]

TL;DR- Part of it is just good old-fashioned religious scepticism that you commonly find in modern stories, where anyone who's super-devoted to any kind of faith is assumed to be kooky; part of it is Japan's weird love for European aesthetics versus their disdain for European society; and part of it is just because it lets you simultaneously set up and invert a status quo without actually needing to do much worldbuilding, since you've already established the three-act structure of your story's evolution- Act One, the church rules, Act Two, the church is revealed to be bad, Act Three, we take down the church and build something new.

First of all, thanks for the comprehensive summation. Secondly, while everything you say is sound, it still does not explain the very initial premise: "Act One, the church rules". AFAIK there was no period in European history where the Catholic church has been the sole hegemonic power like it is often depicted in Japanese media. The Papal States may have been this in theory, but the Pope's power has primarily been diplomatic and spiritual and was, most of the time, contended by the Holy Roman Emperors, French kings, and/or Constantinople. More pertinently, there has never been a theocratic regime in Japan or China (caesaropapist, maybe, but not theocratic), and the Papal States ceased to exist the same year that Cmdr. Perry arrived in Japan. So how and when did the Japanese media creators make the leap to "the Catholic Church is the World State" trope?

To be fair, Christianity was very aggressive up until the 19th century in converting every foreign country. Religion was a tool for political and economic control. Building catholic schools was never innocent. The Japanese rulers of the time understood it clearly and they used force to quell these foreign influences. Can't blame them really. Buddhism and Shintoism already were tools they mastered. They didn't need another tool in their land, wielded by foreign countries.

That's all true, but there is still a leap from "subversive foreign ideology" to "a fanatical theocracy that somehow rules the world". I am interested in that transition and when it occurred.

last edited at Nov 21, 2020 6:12AM

the spoons thing is just a useful metaphor to explain some of the ways metal illness affects one's day-to-day life. i use it when talking to people who have a hard time understanding what depression/anxiety means for me personally.

neeko being exhausted for days after doing something so intense is something that i experience too.

While the term has primarily been used in the mental illness context, I think it applies more broadly, too. Because consciousness is a biological process, it makes sense that the same rules of exhaustion apply to the brain as to muscles: both can get exhausted after using them for long enough. It's just that for people with mental illness, this limit is much more apparent, just like a person with an arm injury will not be able to carry heavy stuff very far. Then again, a bodily injury is often obvious to an outside observer, while mental illness is not, and furthermore, things like maintaining focus for prolonged periods of time is taken for granted by those who've never suffered from mental illness.

TL;DR: Everyone has a limited number of spoons to give, but only people living with mental illness have to ration them in day-to-day life.

Darned ninjas cutting onions. T__T

So, just out of curiosity: Just how old is "Church is Evil" trope in Japanese media, and where exactly did it originate?

neeko used up all her spoons...

Ah, so that is what it's called. I read about the general idea of rationing energy in Kahneman's book, where he talks about the limited pool of attention/focus we all have, but he doesn't attach a name to it. I am guessing Miserandino's work wasn't academic enough for him to cite...

"energy rationing" is already a name

Yea, but it's more of an economics term.

last edited at Nov 19, 2020 7:32AM

neeko used up all her spoons...

Ah, so that is what it's called. I read about the general idea of rationing energy in Kahneman's book, where he talks about the limited pool of attention/focus we all have, but he doesn't attach a name to it. I am guessing Miserandino's work wasn't academic enough for him to cite...

last edited at Nov 19, 2020 5:19AM

And damn that lots of hugging. I duuno why but that looked really erotic.

Because eroticism is all about intimate contact, particularly in unusual configurations. E.g. on page 20, Kozuka presses the Landlady's shoulder into her chest -- because it's not something you ever do with strangers, the unusualness of the position enhances the feeling of intimacy (speaking from personal experience). Same goes for the ear-rubbing later on, while on page 24, they actually lock eyes at an extremely close distance -- which is one of the most intimate kinds of contact you can make with another person, even though they're not physically touching.

All-in-all, this chapter is an amazingly elaborate depiction of intense non-sexual intimacy.

last edited at Nov 8, 2020 8:39AM

Biiiiiiig exposition dump. Not that I mind, since it shows that the author's put some decent thought into the mechanics of the magic in the series, all of which shall presumably be put into practice as the adventure continues. So many series that revolve around supposed geniuses fail to explain why a particular character is smart, and just make everyone else dumb in comparison. The fact that this series establishes its lead as a scholar in a particular field and actually lays out the fundamentals of her study instead of having her conveniently know the solution to future problems is commendable. It also lends the isekai element some legitimate weight and consequence rather than just shoving it in as a token trope. Good show, I say. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Another thing I like here is that the exposition is delayed until after it becomes relevant for the first time. In most fantasy mangas, such "crucial" setting details are rather ham-fistedly front-loaded, while the one dedicates three whole chapters to setting up the characters first, before expositing their world.

Isn't Satou supposed to be a repeat customer (or something like that)? I agree that the reason Satou left was because she didn't like Cocoa trying too hard, but I'm not sure if that's because it was Satou's first time. Not sure what's up with her.

Yeah, she's a regular. I misread Cocoa's first time as Satou's first time, sorry. Though now I'm wondering why they set her up with a client who's got way more experience than her. I wonder if they wanted Cocoa to be out of her element and get confused so she can understand that the job's not all fun and games. The people running the service seem too kind for a trial by fire, but it's a fairly common trope, so we'll have to wait and see.

My theory is that Satou is kind of a secret test for new employees? Like how she tries to get Cocoa to loan her money to see if she remembers her training, and then hands her a bag with a faulty strap to see how she handles a malfunction. The fact that she called dibs on Cocoa moments from when she went live is also sus, as if she had insider information from the boss. Not sure if her leaving suddenly means that Cocoa failed or passed the test, though.

last edited at Nov 6, 2020 3:57AM

Guys, I thought that Satou-san was on the right, do I have to read it again

That's what bugs me about this story the most. On the first panel here, Satou's desk is clearly on the right-hand side from Wakamoto. Even if the title is a pun on Satou's given name, the inconsistency bugs me. :-/

my first thought when reading the title was "Comrade Satou-san?!"

Ditto, but then I checked the tags and Communism wasn't on it. :-(

last edited at Nov 2, 2020 6:45AM

I'm confused. I thought the black hair was behind all this.

But why is black hair's hand injured? Is it because of the curse or was the black hair got injured by one of the the victim by accident?

If you look at the black-haired girl's wrist at the end, you can see that the bandages are falling off. I think this is supposed to signify that she is faking her injury and that she is actually the one behind all the misfortune. And the reason she's doing all this is so that she can have her friend all to herself.

Or maybe she got hurt while setting up whatever misfortune befell the girl who lend Yuuka that eraser?

Definitely needs that yandere tag.

But that would spoil the mystery... Granted, it's not a huge mystery, but in a short work like this, I'd say it's a spoiler.

^ Wow, didn't expect such an articulate reply on this forum. I don't really have anything to retort or to add to the above. Thank you.

last edited at Oct 27, 2020 11:11AM

What is it with anime villains and the Hobbesean ideal of our state of nature? I mean, it's like every other bad guy in action anime is motivated by nothing more than "true nature of man is evil, and so society is just a thin layer over it, so let's strip it away with magic and turn everyone evil", completely oblivious to the fact that antisocial behavior only emerges when it is imposed upon from above. I mean, it's a good Aesop, but it's also kind of a "Baby's First Villain Motivation" here -- when you cannot come up with an interesting villain, make them spout Hobbes instead. :-\

last edited at Oct 27, 2020 7:04AM

Last three pages feels like the author suddenly recalled (s)he was supposed to actually make yuri but all the other chapters were already printed...

I didn't get that impression, mainly because the Anna -> Reina -> Yui triangle has been there pretty much the start (and hasn't really been resolved by the ending). The yuri is very light in this series, but its amount is nonetheless consistent.

BRUH, Why?
Why are there so many series that just end when the shit is getting good. There's so much more they could've done.

Because original premises don't sell. Here, have a dozen more blushing schoolgirls going "Eh, but we are both girls?!" instead.

I'm pretty sure that's a universal fact. It's one of Sappho's Three Laws of Gayness:

1- For a yuri manga's frame of reference, a lesbian protagonist shall either stay in the closet or drift around looking for cute girls at a constant pace, unless acted upon by another lesbian force.

2- For a yuri manga's frame of reference, the overall gayness of the plot G is equal to the uselessness U of all the lesbians involved multipled by the thirst T that they accumulate over the story: G= u t

3: When one lesbian attempts to flirt with another, the second lesbian displays a level of gayness that is inversely proportional to the length of the first lesbian's hair, until their hands end up equal and opposite each other.

Has this been published yet, or is it from a preprint?

Conjures a gun, really, but the girl did always seem like a rather pragmatic sort owo

I suppose her actual power is more like matter creation, considering the giant syringe. And being able to spontaneously generate medical supplies would be an amazing power to have, in terms of life saving potential.

But 'has gun' just seemed like a more amusing way to phrase it. :p

I wonder if "has shot-gun" would be more appropriate for her specialty.

...I'll show myself out.

I wonder if becoming Claire's maid was even an option in the original game? Because it seems so specific to Rei's particular interests that I don't see why it would be present in a plot focused entirely on dating the princely trio.

last edited at Oct 18, 2020 4:32AM

And for her neutral special, she wields a G U N

Channeling Teana Lanster like a baws. :-)

Shiina's mom is too real. :-(

But other than that, chapter 69 (nice) is actually quite informative about game design. It discusses all four of the main progression methods in games: skill, grind, luck, and pay.

I'm still reading, and it's good to see it return. :-)

That is a surprising lack of blood for what seems to be a pretty deep chest wound.

That katana is probably magic or some such.

This needs to be serialized.

And then probably axed after one volume without a proper resolution...