Chapter 57
I have no idea what's going on anymore. We're reaching levels of melodrama I didn't think were possible. I'm just waiting for Geouido to twirl her mustache and reveal she is Yano long thought dead twin who is pregnant from having sex with Nene. This Kanoko subplot is killing some of my love of the series.

It feels a little contrived at this point but i don't think the whole deal about Goeidou is all that mysterious or complex. Barring any future reveals how it looks to me is that Goeidou is a hedonistic manipulator who gets a kick out of making ppl dance to her tune despite or exactly bc it goes contrary to their own feelings/wishes. And she seems to have pegged Sumika as her favorite target bc she's such a polar opposite to her "play hard, care less" attitude when it comes to "love"/relationships. That's why she keeps preying on the issues of ppl close to her like Nene or Kanoko.

Oh I get it, I was being facetious about not knowing what's going on. I just hate this characterization as it feels like it's simplifying her character as just "the villain". I was hoping for more shading.

The phrase "down bad" was invented for that last page.

Up to this point I have enjoyed this series. But chapter 32 crossed a lot of lines. Rape in a story is not exactly the best plot device, but in certain situations can be used effectively. This, however, isn't it. This is creepy, violent, and extremely off-putting. Even worse is the fact that given the way the author writes, they are almost certainly going to try to play this off as some lighthearted prank. That's completely insulting and callous towards victims of actual rape, and if does happen, I will lose every ounce of respect, and will probably drop this author and series.

This is not a serious series. This is porn. It’s obviously been porn from the start and as such each chapter has always prioritized pushing kinks over any sort of story or characterization. And, like it or not, a big beautiful woman trying to hunt you down to have her way with you is a kink a lot of people have as evidenced by comments here and other places.

Sure, but that doesn't mean people have to like any and all decisions a story takes.

Chapter 57
I have no idea what's going on anymore. We're reaching levels of melodrama I didn't think were possible. I'm just waiting for Geouido to twirl her mustache and reveal she is Yano long thought dead twin who is pregnant from having sex with Nene. This Kanoko subplot is killing some of my love of the series.

.....A+. Would read again.

Oh, this is actually a pretty cute comic. Youzi really needs to tell Ren that she's going to marry her mom, though.

(Me being me, I don't mind if Chen comes too... (⁠~⁠‾⁠▿⁠‾⁠)⁠~ )

She knows cause of Chapter 15. I think the implication of the following chapters is that Ren is into the idea.

With the little xs for eyes, her heart is dead too lol.

The ending is a bit disappointing. Not necessarily the events, but the speed of the events. I wish this part had been elongated by a few chapters. Good manga overall, though.

Natori is so cluelessly gay it's adorable. Diana seems well aware of herself, and I'm not sure about Lapis.

The title of the chapter made me think that Mitsuki would finally start catching feelings too, but I guess it meant a literal spring.

Obviously we're not going to agree on this, but I do think your analogies here are not particularly fair. A name is much more personal and important than a greeting. You really don't see any difference between saying a character's name correctly and how someone says good morning? Names are usually pretty important in many stories. And I've absolutely seen films where a person saying someone's name correctly is a part of the plot. Which doesn't imply anything about this manga, but it will just be a character detail, but I do feel like you're being dismissive too early.

People use nicknames, pet names, suffixes and other such things to alter how they address someone all the time. It personalizes interactions, but unless a name has story significance it is simply not an important matter.
Your entire conceit here is that it matters because it somehow shows a lack of interest or investment from Diana, as she doesn't care about Natori's corrections, but that just appears so basic that I cannot help but call it as I see it... overanalyses.
Not that I am a stranger to such myself.

A name by itself might no have story significance, but different people using different names for the same person usually does. Not always, but often. Also, yeah, if in real life someone was corrected on a pronunciation and did nothing about it, it would seem rude to me. I don't really see an issue there.

Also, unrelated, but "I just tried to perhaps broaden your perspective" is incredibly condescending. You don't know me or my perspective from reading a couple of comments I've made here. Let's not go there please.

That is your opinion. I phrased it completely neutrally actually, in fact to avoid you feeling attacked.
Maybe such a defensive reaction shows a cetain dissonance between how we perceive things, but it is obvious to me that none of us can see the full picture of things at all times, especially when locked on a very particular detail like this. You may not have been aware the Natori and Natalie are pronounced nearly the same in Japanese. Or some outside input could have allowed you to change your perspective.

That is what broadening one's horizons is. It is unfortunate that you consider it a condescending concept.

Ok so I'm not reading the Japanese, but someone in the comments on page 9 said this:

ナタリー na-ta-rii vs ナトリ na-to-ri
Not the same pronunciation, the last two syllables are different

I don't know what it looks like in the raws, but if it's coming up in the translation it must be different enough.

Lastly, sure, broadening one's horizon by looking at outside perspectives is nice, but when you put yourself in the position of broadening someone's horizon explicitly, unless you're literally their teacher, it comes off as condescending. It's one thing to display information from another perspective, it's another to tell someone explicitly that you're going to broaden their horizon with your perspective. There's a lot of assumptions there that depend on you knowing more than me and being more correct, which inevitably come off as condescending.

last edited at Mar 31, 2023 1:12PM

Probably I am focusing on it a little too much, but if the translation is giving us this contrast then it must be an important contrast, especially since Natori herself has tried to correct Diana and others before and Lapis never needed correcting. It could just be a sign of the level of education between the two potential love interests, but I do think since it gets focus then it probably also represents something about the relationships, otherwise there wouldn't be a difference at all.

I mean, you're basically asking me to ignore a consistent story element, which is odd to me. Why would it be there if it wasn't important? It's like the difference between the suitor that gets roses and the suitor that gets sunflowers knowing they're the love interests favorite flowers. Chekov's love details.

One character saying "G'morning" while another says "Good morning" can tell you on a surface level that one is more casual than the other. In this scenario you are determining that a character using "G'morning" will lose a love triangle romance because they are not using the proper wording.

Sometimes little details are little details that exist to be little details. It was already mentioned above, but it seems the author simply wanted to show a difference in education and status with this. A fairly standard way of characterisation with no especially deeper meaning in regards to every other plot point, let alone the blossoming romance. You cannot compare flower language, a matter that is build on deeper meaning and metaphors, to a simple character trait.

Though I want to end this by saying that you are free to interpret whatever you want into any aspect of a story. That is how we process art and storytelling. So I'm not telling you to stop anything, I just tried to perhaps broaden your perspective. Especially because Natori has stopped correcting her already and just accepted it.
It appears to me that it matters more to you than the actual characters.

Obviously we're not going to agree on this, but I do think your analogies here are not particularly fair. A name is much more personal and important than a greeting. You really don't see any difference between saying a character's name correctly and how someone says good morning? Names are usually pretty important in many stories. And I've absolutely seen films where a person saying someone's name correctly is a part of the plot. Which doesn't imply anything about this manga, but it will just be a character detail, but I do feel like you're being dismissive too early.

Also, unrelated, but "I just tried to perhaps broaden your perspective" is incredibly condescending. You don't know me or my perspective from reading a couple of comments I've made here. Let's not go there please.

I think the prince immediately getting Natori's name right while Diana still fails to makes Diana seem even less likely to be successful in a love triangle.

Your obsssesion with the name matter is honestly baffling. Is this perhaps supposed to be a running gag of yours?
In case it is not: Natori and Natalie are pronounced almost the same in Japanese. That is the entire joke. Natalie would be a more understandable name in a Western style fantasy world. If you want to go any deeper than that you can call it a nickname or a character quirk and be done with it.
This is the least important, relevant or significant part of their entire chemistry, so perhaps it would be foolhardy to hinge the entire relationship on it, wouldn't you agree?

Probably I am focusing on it a little too much, but if the translation is giving us this contrast then it must be an important contrast, especially since Natori herself has tried to correct Diana and others before and Lapis never needed correcting. It could just be a sign of the level of education between the two potential love interests, but I do think since it gets focus then it probably also represents something about the relationships, otherwise there wouldn't be a difference at all.

I mean, you're basically asking me to ignore a consistent story element, which is odd to me. Why would it be there if it wasn't important? It's like the difference between the suitor that gets roses and the suitor that gets sunflowers knowing they're the love interests favorite flowers. Chekov's love details.

I think the prince immediately getting Natori's name right while Diana still fails to makes Diana seem even less likely to be successful in a love triangle.

I've been thinking about the art, since I'm never sure if I love it or not, but I think I finally figured out what I do love about it. The body language just looks great in this art style. It's got this casual fluidity that really works for our two main characters. They way they flow into each other feels really natural and emphasizes their chemistry really well. The transition from sitting next to each other to holding each other and almost kissing works really well because of that.

Yeah it looks like there's gonna be an anime. There's no way it isn't massively toned down, though. Honestly I have a hard time believing it will hold a candle to the manga. Too many people would whinge about it. Still, I guess we'll see.

Pretty certain people on social media will take issue with the series regardless. The main character is an outlandish sadist villain and that's not going to go over well. I'm just gonna do my best to keep my head down and avoid the drama the best I can..

You forget the biggest "problem". Most of the cast are suposs to be middle schoolers.

I'm not sure why problem is in quotes here. It is a problem. Like, I enjoy reading this, but I would never recommend this even to people that I know like manga. It's just a lot, and I don't think it's unreasonable to give this the side-eye. Plus, the Netflix Cuties controversy wasn't that long ago. The BDSM stuff is whatever, the ages of the characters feels like not only a huge barrier to entry, but a huge problem if this gets more widely known.

Oh. Now I'm not sure if the fist clenching in ch.9 is about the beach or the interruption. Interesting. That's clever story telling.

I find it more annoying than anything. Regardless of the reason, I thought we'd finally get a Yuzu-perspective chapter. This chapter felt pretty pointless.

Damn, just found out about this. What a huge bummer. Sugar and Salt is one of my favorite works.

Was this removed?

I still feel like at a basic level, Diana seems nice but not particularly interested in Natori herself considering she gets her name wrong constantly. Lapis is paying attention to Natori closely, and that makes for a better relationship.

Natalie is one of their names, so I think Diana is just doing what nearly everyone is with Natori. I would just say that Lapis needs Natori much more than Diana ever could.

If it was one of her names she wouldn't be correcting people about it.

I still feel like at a basic level, Diana seems nice but not particularly interested in Natori herself considering she gets her name wrong constantly. Lapis is paying attention to Natori closely, and that makes for a better relationship.

I don't think I'll ever stop enjoying how much of an idiot Ichika is.

Also wooo Yurika admitted she liked Minamo! Even though Minamo told her she wants to be with her... I don't think Minamo really knows what she actually wants and if it's that kind of relationship or just wants to keep her close.

She might not be able to put words to it, but it's hard to interpret chapter 33 in a different way, especially page 10.
"But, now I'll be thinking of you every day."
"That would be better for you."

Even if Minamo hasn't totally realized it, that's pretty much a confession.

My guess, Bun likes Mahiro, who is straight and is the one getting married, and Kiko likes Bun and is using Mahiro to make Bun jealous.

Delinquent x Prez is the obvious draw since it bookends the chapter, but I'm digging the vibe of the bottom of page 36 to page 37. Drama club girl + headphones girl? Hopefully it's those two, some of the intended couples are hard to tell. That kind of slow mo with the scent and the casual way they wave at each other just feels really comfy. I like that energy a lot.

I can't tell if I should be pleased or not. Answered my request in the first chapter, but in an incomplete way. I want more of these two!