You guys have such low expectations and are happy with anything. I feel jealous :P No way I am spending $ on One though, glad it can be found for free.

To be honest, this last chapter was ok for me since I decided to just accept that the high storytelling quality of the main series+Paradise was an exception never to be seen again, and now the series is just common stereotypes, canned dialogues and "because the author said so" till the end. It's a pity also because Do Won is such a well-drawn character, she is so beautiful and yet reduced to extreme Mary Sue behaviour even after her only cool scene of defending Seju.

My conclusion is indeed the writing used to be so good probably due to the Team GJ writer suffering from depression. Never has emotional suffering been better utilized, clearly.

last edited at Jul 27, 2019 11:41AM

What can I say?
Never change, BugDevil. Sparing with you about irrelevant manga minutia is always a treat ;)

It was written like a genuine love story, 2 people who have seen each other at their worst. So in that sense it's better than most.

That's not how love stories are written. That is one factor of a story, but not its entire sum and NTR did not even manage to get that part right. Yuma didn't do anything and has no "worst" moment. She is exactly the same bland flat character from start to finish. Unless you mean her obliviousness is her "worst" in which case, I think everyone sees her at her worst all the time.

As for Fujiwara, he was literally an abuser. Those also exist in droves. I actually wish his character had been more explored, but maybe it would have turned the story even darker.

So yeah these types of people exist, and it doesn't even take a lot of effort to find them. Go to a club every weekend, pick up one girl every time; In my experience you will draw a Hotaru-type out of the dance floor at least 20% of the time lol

You once again make the mistake of equating "They exist in real life" to "good writing". Those are not linked. NTR isn't a dark story in the first place... it's wannabe melodramatic and edgy, but not dark. The worst thing that happened is that... uh... I guess cheating? But not really cheating actually.
I mean it is kind of revolting that Hotaru throws herself at random guys to drown out her stupidity, but it's not dark.

Look, we aren't talking about your hook-ups here, we are talking about actual relationships and love. How you can possibly even compare the two, I have no idea. Even worse that you think you can gauge a person's character like that after one night.

Anyway, Kodama likes writing about trashy people, but she often forgets to also add a story that utilizes those characters. It's like a teenager who has to let out their angst in fanfics every now and then and doesn't care about the end result as long as they could give way to that urge.

Well let’s agree to disagree then. In my opinion although the situations in NTR were played up for the drama, which happens in almost every manga out there, the situations are totally believable including Yuma’s obliviousness. Maybe you don’t think it’s believable and simply disregard it as “trash” because you haven’t seen anything similar.

So I mentioned real life simply because if something happens in real life, in my opinion even if it seems contrived in writing, it takes guts for an author to show it as it is even when it doesn’t seem like a good story to write. To show that a lot of people are dumb, selfish, passive aggressive, and do stuff just to make others squirm.

As you mentioned, readers didn’t like that Yuma the main character was so dumb (or as Hotaru suggested, she was oblivious out of convenience) and that Hotaru was such a horrible cunning person. Which is why most of the comments on the NTR thread, if you go look, are about taking pity on the nice guy, and why ”Yuma and Hotaru are such bitches”. Needless to say, despite the torrent of complaints about the characters being awful people, from page 1 to the last in the thread, apparently lots of people continued reading including I am assuming yourself LOL

Any explanations I have seen you give about why the story is bad, are pretty obviously just rationalization on the fact that you disliked the characters because you can’t relate to them and doesn’t find taking their perspective interesting.
Which is fair enough, but in terms of actual storytelling quality, I cannot see why the story is any worse than most of the manga on this site. It has beginning, middle, and a satisfying if a bit rushed ending, with most stuff explained and good suspense. Heck, it even has some makeout scenes and the characters even have sex (!). Kodama literally delivered all the goods lol It is just not a cute fluffy story.

last edited at Jul 26, 2019 9:07AM

She got rejected, she needs to erase this girl from her contacts and move on lol

We aren't talking about your personal life here. :P

Ah shit, here we go again.

BugDevil wants me to bite the provocation but I will spare y’all this time lol

I still think Uta’s resolution to move on is the only good thing that has happened in the series so far. She took the rejection like a champ. Kaoru doesn’t deserve her feelings, at least not yet.

last edited at Jul 26, 2019 8:32AM

Another complete course reversal by having Kaoru become effectively proactive by like, doing something.
One can always hope.

But ultimately she had to do something, she can't realistically pull a Mei and does nothing all manga long, waiting for Uta to be her white knight and save her. I want Kaoru to at least confront Reiichi on the cheating.

Just watch. The Mei syndrome is real and in my opinion 50/50 that’s what we are gonna see here.

Literally what the story of this series has become: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8e3BpCbmzU

lol Macysan and I are always agreeing. But yeah what she said ^

Hotaru is a person who genuinely loves Yuma, because shitty people full of problems can also fall in love. Yuma actually accepts that by the end of the story. She knows Hotaru is cunning and passive-aggressive af ("garbage" as Kodama herself said), and yet after knowing all of her, decides to stick with her. It was written like a genuine love story, 2 people who have seen each other at their worst. So in that sense it's better than most.

As for Fujiwara, he was literally an abuser. Those also exist in droves. I actually wish his character had been more explored, but maybe it would have turned the story even darker.

So yeah these types of people exist, and it doesn't even take a lot of effort to find them. Go to a club every weekend, pick up one girl every time; In my experience you will draw a Hotaru-type out of the dance floor at least 20% of the time lol

last edited at Jul 25, 2019 10:46PM

So what signals do you think this text is clearly sending about what outcomes in terms of plot or character are in the category of “probable/highly likely”?

I cannot predict an outcome, but I can at least sieve out unlikely scenarios. There is of course nothing speaking against the possibility that after severe shock (perhaps of a stressful confrontation with Reiichi + his ex) Kaoru might break down mentally in unexpected ways...

Like turning into a Raging Lesbian perhaps? lmao

^ This is an extremely weird take on personal responsibility—Uta is doing what by most reasonable standards she should have done long ago: taking herself out of an emotionally painful, no-win situation and trying to move on with her life.

Rather than “running away” from a problem that she has the power to resolve, Uta is making a mature choice—one that is considerably more mature than many of the choices made by the supposed “adults” in the story.

Having confessed and been rejected, Uta has no responsibility to ensure that “Kaoru will be ok.” If anyone has that responsibility, it’s her husband—lol.

Dont make me disagree with you...
While Lilliwyt's claim of Uta "running away" is weirdly put, I think you are also looking at the situation too one-sidedly. Accepting the rejection and trying to get herself out of the emotionally painful situation are obviously the mature and optimal choices, but the way Uta goes about it is not. Running towards her monster-mom will hurt her more. Abandoning Kaoru will hurt her as well.

This is very unlike you to say things like "She doesnt owe her lol". First of all whether Kaoru rejects her feelings or not, they are family and Uta deeply cares about Kaoru. Her brother and Kaoru have been taking care of her for a long time and pretending that she would have no sense of responsibility for them is straight up callous.

She got rejected, she needs to erase this girl from her contacts and move on lol

Wow after months of silence this thread is alive again. For what reasons, I do not know lol It seems impossible to catch up now

last edited at Jul 25, 2019 9:52PM

In all honesty when are Uta and the neko girl getting together, the only reason why I can think the author would be showing her so much is because they are actually endgame. Kaoru prolly gonna commit suicide, seriously.

last edited at Jul 24, 2019 8:25PM

Logged in just to defend Kodama, the Lesbian Manga Jesus lol

Kodama is authentic, unlike most authors out there. You know what to expect with her, and it's definitely not PC. Again unlike most authors she shows that her characters experience love with mixed feelings, like self-hate, jealousy, envy, selfishness etc. Which is, in fact, a very realistic take on how most of us experience love and being loved, even if (hopefully) not to the same degree present in her stories.

As for NTR, I'm not sure what all the hate is. I can only imagine a lot of readers in this forum are male and got triggered by a guy being "cheated on". Which by the way, the situation of 2 people fighting for the same girl and one of them using underhanded tactics to get her is so common lol Yuma's reaction of extreme obliviousness combined with acting on her feelings without realizing what it means, again, one of the very common forms of coming out. Just because it's played up for the drama, doesn't mean it's not one of the most realistic stories out there in terms of the theme and how it's handled.

They need to stop repeating scenes, because it would be hard to make her seem happier than in that boat with Sumin (and it wasn't a dream?). I hope in this case the ending is that she finally leaves Korea to study in the U.S. as she always wanted. With Do Won, probably.

last edited at Jul 17, 2019 11:03PM

I think in this case there is an objective answer about storytelling quality tbh. Which can be answered by whether if anyone reads One as a stand-alone piece of work, what its rating would be in comparison to other stories by the same author, including Paradise, and even other manhwa of same genre. If not for those with an intense desire to see Seju happy, carried over from the main story, who would be reading One standalone and legitimately thinking it’s good? That’s why I said it is more like fan fiction, appealing only to a very particular subset of the original audience of WDTFS.

But yes, at the end of the day it’s all about what we personally enjoy after all. :) However since this is a manga discussion forum, that’s why I feel free to analyze and be critical of the story elements at a more technical level, even with my amateur perspective.

So to be clear: I don’t mean to point out to anyone what they should like or not. At the same time, yes stories can be evaluated in a somewhat objective way. As an example, I like movies like Pacific Rim personally more because they are mindless fun, but cannot deny another robot-themed story like Evangelion is objectively better in terms of storytelling.

I don't think the writing has been dumbed down to cater to teenage readers on Kakao. It still has the same style as the main story: the hidden meanings behind the characters' words and their actions, the foreshadowing, the complicated drama elements, etc. The only thing Team Gaji can't do is make the sex scenes more explicit, which is a damn shame since the series started off as a steamy adult drama.

I still feel as though if the author was gonna write a story with Seju being the main character, it should have been more of a sequel series with 50 chapters or more, showing her meeting new people and dealing with life without Sumin. But atlas, it is what it is. At any rate, I expect by the time One has ended, there will be a proper closure that leaves nothing to doubt. Seju will arguably get the happiest ending after all the suffering she had to endure throughout her life. She will have a family, friends and finally a soulmate.

Gotta admit when One does finally end, I don't think I'll be that eager and interested in reading the other side stories. Neither Dawoon or Sangmi particularly stand out. As for Sumin and Sungji side story in Will, not sure what's there left to tell about this couple. They will probably have a couple of conflicts just for the drama before finally making up and marrying each other at last. I could be proven wrong though.

I definitely ain’t losing my time with WDTFS once One is over, since as Macy-san said outdoing the original story is nearly impossible so they are bound to disappoint even more than One. But will be waiting for a continuation of or another story with similar style to Pet’s Aesthetics.

I don't think the writing has been dumbed down to cater to teenage readers on Kakao. It still has the same style as the main story: the hidden meanings behind the characters' words and their actions, the foreshadowing, the complicated drama elements, etc. The only thing Team Gaji can't do is make the sex scenes more explicit, which is a damn shame since the series started off as a steamy adult drama.

Hidden meanings? Please, remove the fan glasses, they are blurring your vision :P What you have here is the most stereotypical K-drama style story possible, poorly written no less, and conveniently so to force a pre-planned outcome no matter how unlikely. You are looking for meaning and complications where there isn’t any, but I’d say just go and have fun with it lol

Compared with other manhwa/manga of same romantic style, if you take One on its own it’s already fairly weak. But if you compare with the main story and Paradise it’s almost like the original writer got replaced by a 12 year old fan fiction writer.

I still feel as though if the author was gonna write a story with Seju being the main character, it should have been more of a sequel series with 50 chapters or more, showing her meeting new people and dealing with life without Sumin. But atlas, it is what it is. At any rate, I expect by the time One has ended, there will be a proper closure that leaves nothing to doubt. Seju will arguably get the happiest ending after all the suffering she had to endure throughout her life. She will have a family, friends and finally a soulmate.

Gotta admit when One does finally end, I don't think I'll be that eager and interested in reading the other side stories. Neither Dawoon or Sangmi particularly stand out. As for Sumin and Sungji side story in Will, not sure what's there left to tell about this couple. They will probably have a couple of conflicts just for the drama before finally making up and marrying each other at last. I could be proven wrong though.

last edited at Jul 17, 2019 8:03AM

I would say there is no point in thinking about the actual plot very hard. I know I seem pessimistic for saying this but I even feel like the writer of the story is not the same anymore, or cannot write in the same way anymore due to editorial requirements from Kakao (target demographic being teens, etc).

Like, the storytelling style has completely changed from the main story and One, while between those 2, it was very consistent. It is now fairly shallow and lost the subtlety it used to have so I don’t think most of these plot points (or shall I say, “gaping holes”) will be touched on.

Mind you, one of the reasons why I was 100% satisfied with the open ending of One, of Seju simply taking off and leaving everything behind, and was very concerned when I came to know they were going to make a series with her as main character, is because I could already tell writing a decent, believable story that shows a person like Seju healing after 107 chapters of pining over Sumin and family conflicts would be extremely difficult. A kind of quality death wish, a hanging by plot suicide lol

The situation is parallel to when Citrus reached chapter 36 and I got upset: I was literally like, there is no way this writer, with these abilities, will be able to bring this story knot to a satisfying conclusion.

As Britney would say in the infamous “Oops I did it again”: Oh you shouldn’t have

last edited at Jul 16, 2019 7:25PM

To be fair Touko is different from the usual bitchy/cold competitive protagonist. She is super nice.

I think an interesting comparison, at least in terms of Touko's character, can be made with Notes From the Garden of Lilies, where you also have a super-class-prez who's hiding another side of herself, albeit for different reasons.

That, I think, is an example of a solidly good, perhaps even very good, series within the familiar high-school setting that still doesn't come close to the level of YagaKimi (the art is not nearly as sophisticated, for one thing, and it definitely could have used more chapters for development and denouement).

But still worth reading, IMO (especially if you're interested in a Touko-type with a touch of the friendly sadist).

Blastaar, you have a library of Yuri manga in your mind. Seriously impressed.

To be fair Touko is different from the usual bitchy/cold competitive protagonist. She is super nice.

Ok, that makes sense then if you are comparing to other manga couples, since it’s always so dramatic.

I think they are special, in the sense that they had to go through much soul searching to accept to be together. While my experience is that a significant number of couples barely know each other’s fragile points even after a long time together, since the relationship doesn’t require this degree of letting their guards down in order to perpetuate itself.

Was it really a surprise someone from Seju's brothers killed her mom? It was pretty obvious, since they hated Seju and her mom so much. Also being greedy af and not wanting to share their fortune. It couldn't have been Seju's dad or her brother.
The only mystery is still whether that particular brother had an affair with Seju's mom, since there was a scene of him remembering her in season 1. Some people would also theorize that he is actually her dad, but I think that's less possible.

I don't think Dowon will die either.

Season 3 with Dowon's past and her evil ex, while Dowon gets healed by dating Seju. Season 4 that ex moving on with someone new

Not really a huge surprise but still, its not something that anyone in their sane mind would want it to happen. Like god dammit, havent this poor girl suffered more than enough already? How much longer does the author intends to shit all over her?

There is another way of looking at this, which is, for Seju’s mental health issues it’s actually better that her mom got murdered than that her mom abandoned her by committing suicide. She can now just be angry and get revenge if she wants to, being secure about herself, rather than be begging for love due to feeling like the abandoned bastard child. It’s like rewriting her own story in her head. Selfish but true.

Presumably that was the symbolic meaning of her spitting out the “leftover love” glove.

I must say it’s kinda dumb that she never investigated about her mom independently though. She already know her siblings are criminals. Also she is still on friendly terms with Saehyun despite the fact he tortured Sumin lol What gives?

Both her parents are gone, her first love left her for good after tormenting her for 10 years, twice someone made an attempt on her life. Now she finds out the truth her mother was actually murdered and Won got injured in order to save her. What's next? She gets kidnapped, tortured and raped? O_o

Anyway, don't think Saehyun was Ahn Chahee lover or even crazy that his actually Seju's real father. I believe he simply admires her as a mother figure since she looked after him when he was young and stayed at the hotel.

If Seju’s brother is also her father that’s truly the nail in the coffin.

Seju can get the award “Being X is Suffering”, previously awarded to Homura from Madoka.

Octave?

I thought matsuri_wins was asking specifically about ongoing series in progress, but yes, that’s a series anyone interested in the yuri genre should know.

In terms of authors, I’d also say, from most to least fluffy:

• Anything by Morinaga Milk (except the weird floating penis and rapey demon ones)

• Takemiya Jin (although the sequencing and interconnections of her series can get confusing)

• And if you really want to stay away from fluffy and can take your drama understated and minimalist: Kiriko Nananan.

And to bring this back to the forum topic: I still think that within its rather broad niche of first-love schoolgirl yuri there’s not much that comes close to the mixture of character chemistry, tightly controlled writing, and consistency of execution of YagaKimi.

YagaKimi gave me mixed feelings throughout because I was reading it with my usual “drama junkie” expectations, but I must say it has completely won me over at this point. Last chapter specially was fantastic. I always get kind of frustrated that stories would end right when the couple solves their primary conflict, so I am glad there is an aftermath.

last edited at Jul 16, 2019 10:38AM

Thanks! I guess I am gonna try Kase-san first. :)