Prediction (spoiler for the later chapters): Touko never had a miscarriage. She seduced Mayumi's fiancee, claimed to be pregnant to break him away from Mayumi, then claimed miscarriage once Mayumi had fled.

Or maybe got pregnant, then had an abortion once her purpose was served, and passed it off as miscarriage.

I agree, she was probably never pregnant to begin with. She probably lied to the guy the same way she's been lying to Mayumi, and to Rin. Since he seems like a relatively decent person (not decent enough to stop him from cheating on his fiance, but decent enough to throw his future plans away and marry the girl he got pregnant), he probably just took her word for it. She certainly seems devious enough to intentionally get herself pregnant to manipulate him, all the while planning to abort the child, but it's unlikely that it was necessary.

Here's my guess about what's going to happen: Rin is going to be confused and ambivalent about being kissed, Mayumi's going to take that poorly and decide that she's worthless and should go back to the city with her awful friend, because that's all she deserves. Then after a few weeks or months, Rin's going to come to some kind of realization and go find her and tell her she loves her. Maybe Mayumi will confront her awful friend and tell her she understands, and forgive her for some unfathomable reason. And then they'll move back to Umineko-sou and live happily ever after.

I hope I'm wrong though, it seems like that sort of thing is the default ending for romantic drama manga. I've read something like a dozen times, including twice in other Kodama Naoko series.

I want to put in my own interpretation on this one shot. I don't think the girl is really worried about them being half sisters affecting their relationship, since she makes that promise with her about going to an amusement park.

I think she felt sad at the fact that her dad never came to see her, even though they seemed to have been living in the same town. Not only that, but he started a life with another family and even raised a daughter who is not that much older than herself.

She had this wishful thinking that her dad cared about her but was never able to come see her due to some complications on his side. So when she realises the truth her expectations are shattered and she is distraugthed.

From the way story is presented, I think it's pretty clear that the major reason she's upset is that she's concerned about committing incest. Look at her reaction to finding out, specifically this page. There's so much visual emphasis on the line about how they're blood relatives. There's no mention at all of any resentment towards her father or feelings of abandonment after she finds out. Going by what the author chooses to show us, her first and only thought is worry about being related to the girl she loves. So to assume that she's just upset about her father abandoning her is reading into the text something that isn't there while ignoring what plainly is.

It's kind of funny, incest is just so often taken lightly in manga, especially in yuri manga, that it kind of ruins stories like this where the author actually takes it seriously and considers how a real person would react in such a situation. Like, after reading so many stories where the character's blood relation is used purely to add a minor spice of forbidden love, or just as a joke, my first reaction to reading this was, "so what?" and I had to actually force myself to think about how I'd feel in this situation to really get anything out of the story.

I assume it's a translation error that part when Nao says she wants to become "an actor", but can anyone confirm how it is in the original? 'Cause I can totally picture Nao as non-binary.

It's not an error. I don't know where you live, but here (in the US), "actor" is often used for both men and women. Some people insist on using actress for women and actor for men, but others consider that old-fashioned, and there's no agreement in the industry over which term is correct.

Thank you. I'm not a native speaker, and my English is an amalgamation of US and UK words, with even a bit of Scottish in the mix. But what matters is that I'm still learning and I make a few mistakes from time to time.

Different people speak English differently, and the language is constantly changing, so there are probably many native speakers too who would disagree with me about the proper usage of the word "actor". I think the choice has more to do with personal experience and style than any firm rule in the language. I just wanted to explain my reasoning.

"Also guessing that it was Haruka's play that convinced Nao to keep acting."

That's an obvious move, but Nao said there was a famous actor, it was hard to get tickets. Doesn't rule out Haruka being involved, but makes it less likely that it was a matter of a school play or something.

That appears to be an unrelated topic that she's moved on to. Like while Haruka was lost in thought, Nao started talking about a play she saw recently, and then she recounts the scene to Haruka. The tense changes between her description of the play that saved her and the next line with the writing, and then she says, "earlier I finally got a chance to see it," which seems to indicate that she's talking about a different play from the one she saw when she was in middle school. But it's kind of hard to tell what's going on here exactly.

last edited at May 4, 2020 9:16PM

This is full of clichés. But they're all my favorite clichés, so I'll probably love it.

Also what's up with "wanting to shine?" Is that a particular Japanese idiom? Because it's used in a ton of yuri or yuri-esque properties with a performance component (Love Live and Revue Starlight off the top of my head)

I don't know about Starlight Revue or Love Live, maybe they were using きらきら or something else, but in this chapter 眩しい or some variant thereof appears 5 times. It can mean different things, but I think "brilliant" and "shining" are the best equivalents, since they carry the same dual literal-metaphorical meaning in English. Think about "my time to shine", or the fact that we call impressive actors "stars". In both English and Japanese, the concept of some kind of brightness is often analogized to someone who does well in their particular field, particularly if it involves some kind of performing art.

I assume it's a translation error that part when Nao says she wants to become "an actor", but can anyone confirm how it is in the original? 'Cause I can totally picture Nao as non-binary.

It's not an error. I don't know where you live, but here (in the US), "actor" is often used for both men and women. Some people insist on using actress for women and actor for men, but others consider that old-fashioned, and there's no agreement in the industry over which term is correct.

Edit: check out the examples here https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/actor

my sister went to drama school to become an actor

If Merriam-Webster can call women actors, then I can too.

last edited at May 4, 2020 5:57PM

It was the bit about the harmonic wave that got me. However I'm not sure the liquid shoshing in a bottle couts as a harmonic wave. If I remember right, it's when you add energy at just the right moment to build the wave bigger. So unless you're somehow shaking the bottle in time with the slosh, harmonics doesn't come into it.

I'm pretty sure harmonic waves include any situation where the restoring force is proportional to the displacement, while what you're describing would be a forced harmonic wave, or some kind of resonance situation. I might've used "harmonic" incorrectly. It's been a long time since I took physics in school. Maybe I just wanted to look smart on the internet.

Yeah, a liquid doesn't just tilt like that, it should be level (I guess unless she's leaning forward and the panel's perspective is tilted).

Since you have to raise the bottle to drink, the liquid doesn't just immediately flatten out to be level. The movement causes it to slosh around for a while as a harmonic wave, with the surface tilting one way then the other, before flattening out. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

ah hahaha physics.

I mean, I guess? Anyone who's ever carried a container of water can tell you that it sloshes around when you move it. And anyone who's ever drank from a bottle can see that the fluid moves around.

Yeah, a liquid doesn't just tilt like that, it should be level (I guess unless she's leaning forward and the panel's perspective is tilted).

Since you have to raise the bottle to drink, the liquid doesn't just immediately flatten out to be level. The movement causes it to slosh around for a while as a harmonic wave, with the surface tilting one way then the other, before flattening out. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

last edited at Apr 30, 2020 10:42PM

wait do we have a yuri author who's actually lesbian? lol. and one that doesn't just do stuff on their own life??

Wait, aren't such yuri authors, like, the most common type?

Most Yuri authors are either gonna be gay women or straight men from what I’ve seen, to relatively even amounts but slightly favoring gay women these days?

Tbh it doesn’t really matter cause despite what some ppl on this site may think they won’t be able to tell the difference 95% of the time as long as the writing is decent

Age 15 really felt male to me, with the rampant panty shots and quick unmotivated 'action'. Dunno if that's the 5%, poorly written, or me being wrong.

In general, I don't think you can make assumptions about an author's sex or sexuality from their work. Kodama Naoko has drawn a lot of teen's love comics (basically shoujo manga, but with sex) and even some yaoi. If you look at literature or film or any other creative medium, there are lots of female writers writing stories from the perspective of men, male writers writing stories from the perspective of women, heterosexuals writing about homosexuals, homosexuals writing about heterosexuals, etc. It seems like there's a tendency among manga fans to project ideas from the work onto its author, which I don't see in other media. Someone can be interested in yuri as a genre without being romantically attracted to women. And at the end of the day, mangaka are professional authors. They draw manga not for their own satisfaction, but to make a living.

last edited at Apr 28, 2020 3:50AM

Ok, but what konbini just casually carries turmeric?

Apparently it's a popular hangover cure. It comes mixed into energy drinks and that sort of thing. I assume that's what she's buying, not some straight powdered turmeric.

So is she gonna spend the entire series talking about movies? While I love all these movies, I would like a good story that it ties to in order to justify it.

That was my problem with lonely cinema or whatever it's called. Whether you're interested in a movie or not, at the end of the day just reading the author going on about their favorite films is not very engaging.

Ah yes, that classic and influential spy movie from... 2011.

But you know, that's exactly how most people react when I try to tell them about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. They're usually already asleep by the time I get to the way the novel opens as if in the middle of a rather boring story an acquaintance is telling you, and nobody yet has made it to the part where I describe the subtleties of Alec Guinness's performance in the 1979 miniseries. A very realistic manga.

It seems more of a "I don't want other girls alone with my girlfriend" thing, than "I don't like strangers in my home" thing. The latter I could totally understand. although that one could be easily remedied by Rena doing home visits to clients instead of working out of their apartment.

I'm going by the totally of her statements.

In the final page of chapter 7, she says "I can't imagine it. Letting other people enter our home...?"
On page 5 of this chapter, she says, "We've never brought someone into our home before."
Then on that same page, she seems to imply that it's not that she's just worried about having strangers in and out of her house, she also would be even more anxious about having acquaintances over too. She brings up the possibility of having people in the living room and dismisses that before going onto the bedroom idea, which has her really freaking out.

So yes, the jealously does seem to be the thing that worries her most of all, but she also just doesn't want other people in her house period, whether they're strangers, guests, friends whatever.

I think what's weirdest to me is that she basically says that they've never once had guests in their apartment. It seems more and more like Yuna doesn't have any friends or acquaintances at all outside of Rena. Maybe that's the root of her anxiety.

It’s always a delight to see more of this manga!! It’s so good and they do feel like adult characters. I feel that not communicating your discomfort will cause problems down the line though :( I hope they can work it out. Rena seems accommodating enough and Yuna did just state that she was willing to change. Hoping for the best, these two are so cute

Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that the healthy, sane course of action for Yuna would be to just tell Rena that the plan makes her uncomfortable but it's something she's trying to work on. I think her decision here is a red flag and a set up for problems to come.

So, Yuna doesn't like the idea of the nail salon, because she is jealous of Rena being alone with girls in her room? That seems easy enough set up a space dedicated for Rena to do nails.

Weirdly, Yuna seems super stressed out at the idea of having anyone other than her or Rena in the house at all, regardless of where in the apartment they are other whether she knows them.

last edited at Apr 18, 2020 12:47AM

This isn't really "gay for pay". One of the characters is gay and works as lesbian prostitute. The other character is gay but works as a porn actress with men. If there was a "straight for pay" tag, then that would work, but "gay for pay" really doesn't apply to either of them.

In this time of deadly virus, the top two panels of https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/her_kiss_infectious_lust_ch13#9 made me cringe.

Lust is not the only thing that is infectious.

I had the same reaction. I'm pretty sure this chapter was drawn before the recent pandemic, so it has to be coincidence, but it's very funny to read all the same.

Just a question... will the original be translated? I couldn't find the raws so I have zero idea how it is, but I'm assuming they had a fight based on the last 3 pages...

I enjoyed this so much that I went and found the original, and you know what, they changed the title and basically nothing else.

Rereading this patiently waiting a new chapter :,(

Galette only has 4 issues per year, and Morinaga takes frequent breaks from this series. A new one finally came out, and I'm working on it.

A very nice panel. Everyone is bi, it is just a matter of time!

Are you assuming she ever liked boys? Lmao

What makes you think men even exist? They might just be a figment of Ahiko's imagination.

last edited at Mar 2, 2020 10:08PM

No idea if this has a proper name, but there certainly is a lot of catholic girls' school yuri/shoujo ai. Maria-sama ga Miteru and Strawberry Panic immediately come to mind. I believe that this style was very common in early yuri stories, to the extent that you can see a lot of modern authors referencing this formula as parody, or to deconstruct what is seen as an out-of-date and unrealistic cliche. Here are some suggestions that more-or-less fall into that category, with varying degrees of faithfulness:

Ouji-sama nante Iranai - I don't think this is a Catholic school, but it has that old-fashioned garden-of-maidens vibe, and the heavy focus on intricacies of school politics that seems so common to this genre

The Last Uniform - somewhat more comedic, but still a mostly old-fashioned story set in a girls' boarding school

Aoi Hana - I think this is a deliberate attempt to create a modern version of the genre, with more mature themes, but it mostly takes place in a Catholic girls' school

First Love Sisters - Don't remember this one that well, but I think it's basically a classic take on the genre

Fuwafuwa Futashika Yume Mitai - more modern, but it's about an all-girls school and that same sort of kouhai-sempai relationship

Gokujou Drops - Probably a lot more sex than is common to this genre (and a lot more comedic), but it's otherwise very similar

Holy Girl Paradigm - same here

A Kiss and a White Lily for Her - this one is kind of an anthology of different love stories between somewhat related characters set in a girls' boarding school

A Love Letter for the Marching Puppy - Set in some alternate history where the Imperial Japanese Army accepted women, so it's a cadet's school instead of a Catholic school, but other than that is basically 100% faithful to the genre

I imagine if you went back to yuri manga and novels from the 80s or 90s, you'd find a lot more that better meet your criteria, but I don't know much about that.

jintor posted:
Also, "There're Weird Noises Coming From the Room Next Door" looks hideous. Don't even get me started on "There Are Weird Voices Coming From the Room Next Door!"

"There Are Weird Voices Coming From the Room Next Door!" looks perfectly fine and is grammatically correct.

"There's [plural]" isn't necessarily grammatically incorrect. It's widely used and generally understood by most English speakers. It's not wrong, just less formal than "there are [plural]".

Also, there's often a lot of good reasons to use even incorrect grammar in a translation. The point of a translation is not to present perfect, polished prose. The goal is to accurately convey the meaning and spirit of the original text in a different language. If a translation with incorrect grammar accomplishes that goal, then it's simply a better translation than one with correct grammar would be.

p. 104 - "The last train ceased to exist." Is that really what she said, or is it an expression that means more like "the last train was cancelled?" Because while the former is I guess funny, it's not the kind of thing you would say that would be taken at face value (at the very least saying a joking lie like that suddenly would reveal her interest.)

She straight up said that it disappeared off the face of the earth. この世からなくなった. Akiho was desperate to come up with some excuse, and Nakano is so accommodating that she blindly accepts this obvious lie, because she was raised proper.

You’re basically right, but I think the situation is as much an artifact of serial publication as it is of authorial duplicity or crassness. If this whole story were told as continuous, an author would almost certainly still depict that moment as a “page-turning cliffhanger,” with the “crash” at the bottom of one two-page spread and the resolution on the next page to be turned over.

So since a kind of cliffhanger was in the cards anyway, I imagine making it the end of the chapter seemed like a no-brainer in terms of pacing.

I don't think that's necessarily true. Yes, serial publication encourages cliff-hangers and other narrative tricks to try to maintain engagement, but I can't help but see this as a complete waste of an opportunity.

There would have been a better cliffhanger like you said, like having the ending of the previous chapter be longer and actually end right where Jun says “wait.”

However, you should know that mangakas or their management think more about cash lol. They want people to all act out and be frantic and get em talking. Like “buy the next chapter to find out!” Or whatever. So having a fake “crash” at the end was exactly what they thought would have people freak out and talking lol.

I think when you're this obvious about it, it causes more frustration than anticipation.

last edited at Feb 17, 2020 3:07PM