Definitely a squee worthy chapter.

That sounds like a thorough misreading of one or both of these two manga.

Yeah seriously. Crescent Moons had a definitive they're together. They just are Ace. Which makes sense to the characters.

This one is very less Ace.

At the very least, Ruriko seems sexually interested in Kurumi. Not sure about Kurumi's interest in Ruriko but it does seem to be building up over time, so it's probably a traditional slow-burn romance story.

Have to say I missed it being ace...

I'm ace, and I missed it being ace.

I was freaking out within the first chapter, sending my friend screenshots. LOOK AT THIS! THIS IS TOO RELATABLE! I DID NOT SIGN UP TO READ YURI MANGA TO BE PERSONALLY CALLED OUT!

And then I really did not expect the author to make the ace stuff a major theme she would double down on. I think it’s interesting to have characters who never use any explicit labels for themselves. That’s a major contrast from Voice, Lilies, Wear Wind. It’s kind of nice, I think.

Label usage is incredibly rare in Eastern stories in general. The amount of Yuri stories where the word 'lesbian' is used is likely under 20%.

Voice, Lillies, Wear Wind was very abnormal in actually using the label.

Have to say I missed it being ace, perhaps re-reading will help me catch hints.

There's definitely lots of hints about being ace, even as early as the second chapter. The problem is that coming to identify as ace and coming to identify as a non-ace lesbian when the person only has experience with men is something that looks very similar at first.

After all, when you have only had sexual experiences with men but aren't attracted to them (and didn't realize this yourself), it is easy to be unsure of your interest in sex at all. Some people on that path will discover they are ace, and some will discover that they just weren't dating people they were really attracted to. (And neither outcome is wrong or bad, obviously!)

It doesn't help that past experience has generally taught Yuri readers that if characters have a story arc like this, 98% of the time the outcome in manga is "repressed-but-sexual lesbian". The asexual outcome for this type of arc in stories (particularly Eastern stories) is very rare (which isn't fair).

So it was hard to see which direction the ending would go, by I don't think the author did anything wrong here. Not going ridiculously out of the way to signal this outcome is breaking trends within their genre, but they were trends that deserved to get broken. So even if this wasn't the outcome I selfishly wished for, I can be happy that a group that is often forgotten is not forgotten this time.

last edited at Dec 11, 2022 4:20AM

I think this ending is good. I don't even really think it's that abrupt, honestly.

I am personally into reading these stories for Yuri romance. However, I found a lot of parts of the story (self-loathing, having to wear a mask, having to disappoint parents, having a fragile friendship on the verge of being more) very relatable despite not being ace.

If the story was a lot shallower, I don't think I would have been as charitable about the ending, but that wasn't the case.

Honestly, if you just ignore the speech bubbles for the last few pages then you already have an ending that beats several other Yuri romances (because some end after first kiss and a couple end even before that).

Yeah, this chapter changed my perspective on "Mom"'s motivations too. Before this, I thought based on her fiancee suggestion that her goal was to try to make Nadeshiko more human by having her experience love.

But here, she is suggesting that human morality is wrong, and that Nadeshiko should push back against it. I mean, if Akane wanted purely a sex partner, that would be fine. However, Akane seems to want more than that. In fact, Akane is usually against having sex and wants to hang out (though the manga plays this off as "not being honest with herself" - dubious consent is popular). Apparently, "Mom" suggested the fiancee thing as a way for Nadeshiko to justify them living together (and make Akane and others feel like sex is part of their relationship). Maybe my 'human morality' is in the way here, but that's significantly less wholesome than I had hoped.

So why is she pretending to be engaged? I figure the normal strat for that is to avoid having people hit on you. Was coworker the kinda person who wouldn't take no for an answer?

It can also be used to just escape the constant stream of "Why are you still single?" "Do you want me to introduce you to this person I know?" and similar questions.

Less common though.

The credits page was incredible; I don't know if I've laughed that hard in a while.

the sex arc in Tadokoro killed the series so hard that Tatsubon concluded it's best to start from scratch

I thought that arc was fine, but the author didn't really build any plotlines extending past it.

To be fair though, that's one of the many ways to end a romance story. Some end at a confession (the worst!), some end at a kiss, and some end at high school graduation. I'm always an advocate of "the more, the better" but ending on sex is at least better than most of the alternatives.

Also, just a guess, but knowing rich people tropes in Japanese stories, I wonder if Sakurako had to go study overseas or something.

Does anyone know NSFW titles about girls who have been secretly horny for each other finally having sex?

Bad Thinking Diary has this premise and is ridiculously popular right now (on some aggregators, it has become the most popular Yuri title by like a factor of 5). Fan translations are on MangaDex, and the official translation is available through Lezhin Comics.

https://mangadex.org/title/3ed82c63-c018-4f6a-a5ff-d5a71a08d5dc/bad-thinking-diary
https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/bad_thinking_diary

I was really surprised by the trope break at the end of the episode. When Ritsu's friend pushed her at Makoto and she blushed, I expected Kyouko to get ridiculously jealous or depressed.

Instead, she goes back home and blames herself for stalking her GF, resolving to wait and do things properly. Honestly I think that's one of the most shocking developments I've seen in a romance story like this.

Man I really wonder when and how this manga is gonna end, because in chapter 29 they are adding three new girls, and I think that there is a lot of characters in the story right now, that maybe the author doesn't give enough time to give a proper conclusion to all of them.

Seeing as many girls seem to have gone MIA after the author got bored and went for a new plotline, I guess we just have to accept that this manga is an episodic serial made of loosely connected parts. :/

The author talks about their philosophy for this series in the Volume 1 extras. They intend it to be loosely connecting chains of lovers culminating finally in one couple who are fully devoted to only each other.

This latest chapter gives us some more insight on Tsubame. Earlier in the story, we saw her with some pills and I assumed maybe a psychological issue she was treating due to her obsessive nature, but it seems like it is some kind of physical (and potentially terminal? that is maybe what she's hinting at) condition. Best case scenario it is just something that will stop her from being able to dance and not actually terminal.

Also, she has the 'rich yet still shitty jet-setting parents' trope, which explains how she seems to just do whatever she wants with no oversight.

Maybe I'm weird but I really enjoyed this. I did spoil the ending for myself ahead of time so I knew the pairings in the end, maybe that's why.

I'm usually a Yuri person, and this is the first het romance manga I've ever enjoyed.

The internal monologues try to be profound, but for me at least, it just isn't hitting that stride.

Oh well, the art is fantastic and the plot is good.

this will involve futanari, won't it?

I mean, that seems to be the implication, since it says Class A is Sperm Donors and at least two of the Class A folks we've seen so far look very feminine.

Yeah, an anime would have potential here. I think it'd be even better as a 60 or 90 minute OVA though, actually. There isn't -that- much plot, and the cast is pretty small, so it works in that format.

Cool idea and a nice metaphor.

Only really works for ostracism though - bullies would not be deterred.

I usually don't like Yuri comedy very much, but this story makes me laugh so hard. It's just fantastic for that aspect.

last edited at Oct 19, 2022 5:00PM

Time to add Chihomi -> Sango to the giant love polygon that is this series.

I'm never sure how pronoun usage works in translation, but I did notice the translation made sure that Yurika never used pronouns when talking about Reika while Chihomi kept mentioning boyfriends. Not that she couldn't be bi, of course, but the contrast made me think that her jealousy might not be romantic.

In Chinese/Korean/Japanese, it is extremely easy to talk about people without using their gender. It's one of the factors that makes accurate translation very difficult, especially for machines. If you have a paragraph where people are almost always defined using pronouns and you want to translate that to English, you have to have a good grasp of all surrounding story context to get the right gendered pronouns in the translation.

So. I get jealous and depressed when I see this girl talking to someone who might conceivably represent a potential romantic interest. She makes my heart pound and makes me get all blushy. I love being around her. I can't stop thinking about her. But I worry that I can't give her this "love" thing that I just don't experience!

. . . um . . . Should I tell her or will you?

Yeah, Asahi is getting too caught up on words. I like how Fuuka calls her out on it near the end of the chapter. Asahi's afraid because she thinks what she experiences isn't what other people experience and doesn't know how to determine whether or not that is true. As an autistic person, I understand that a lot. It's something I've spent a lot of time thinking about.

The conclusion I came to is something like this: ultimately, words are what we make them, and one person can never know if their sensation or feeling is exactly equivalent to another person's. You define yourself and your feelings as best as you can at the time, and if those definitions have to change for you as your understanding evolves or as your feelings themselves change, then so be it. That's a risk you take, not just in love but in life itself.

last edited at Oct 11, 2022 6:37PM

This is good so far. Looks like a relatively typical K drama setup, but the art is gorgeous and the translation is good.

K drama? This is manhua from China, unless I'm horribly mistaken.

Huh, my mistake. That's surprising. I've read tons of manhua and manhwa at this point, and I'm usually able to tell them apart. The initial premise is so stereotypically Korean ("hot new leader in my office work environment is secretly into me") I just assumed this had to be a manhwa. Though, I guess Straight Girl Trap is a manhua example of the premise (with multiple discussions on sexuality, a rarity in any Asian story).

On a second read, the art has way more of a manhua feel to it, especially the hair. Reminds me of Romance of the Stars or Goddess of Jealousy (but without the stylized comedic parts).

last edited at Oct 10, 2022 11:36PM

@Gellydog: that was fantastic. I had tears in my eyes by the end I was laughing so hard.

This is good so far. Looks like a relatively typical K drama setup, but the art is gorgeous and the translation is good.

Its been a long while since i last read, but when was Hinako and Fuuka a thing?

ya I am really confused by Hinako saying she loves Fuuka i really don't remember anything like that being in the story.

Love come in diferents way/form
The "love" she felt for fuuka is not a romantic one, more like a friendship/family one to me

Even with that, it's still bizarre. They've met exactly twice before this. Hinako is a person who hates using the word "love", and yet she thinks "I love them both" here.

Maybe it is reflective of her newfound ability to use love-related terminology more, but even that is strange. Maybe we'll get more about her weird use of terms in future chapters, idk. (Or I wonder if the official translation will differ here.)

Anyway, at the beginning of the series it seems like Hinako is aromantic and asexual. Now, it seems like Hinako may be romantically into Asahi while Asahi is romantically and sexually into Hinako. But it still isn't completely clear; Hinako might be sexually into Asahi too. I suspect the last few chapters will clarify that.