Well this is quite the interesting ship that I never considered. Mostly because they're both so utterly research obsessed to the point of romance never crossing their minds.
But throw in some chemical fumes that enhance the mood and Ruan Mei might see Herta as an opportunity to Propagate

^LMAO but Bocchi has already mastered that technique!

last edited at Sep 27, 2024 10:15PM

^Is the artist's other works untranslated or just not posted to dynasty?

^Naw if you approached her from the front you wouldn't catch her at all...because she'd run away! :P

I found Shuukura fascinating because of its unique and disturbing concept, where a character buys his classmate every week. This raises profound questions about the nature of human relationships and about power dynamics. The mixture between the absurd and the real creates a disturbing atmosphere that captivates, even if some aspects of the story are morally difficult to digest. I would like to know what others think about the way these themes are approached.

Your use of "disturbing atmosphere" and "morally difficult to digest" doesn't at all fit the way I see Shuukura.

Just like Angela AKA Sierra, I don't see the 5000 yen as anything other than an excuse for them to spend time together. It doesn't create any actual power dynamics because of both the rules they establish and because all of Miyagi's orders are created with the consideration that Sendai can leave if she doesn't want to follow an order.
That's why Miyagi often issues such innocuous orders...because she really just wants to spend time together and is afraid of going too far and ruining that.

Being able to get both their POVs shows us they constantly think about what the other is thinking and try to avoid taking actions the other will dislike. This makes the atmosphere far from "disturbing" and actually closer to "cute"...in a way. They want to get closer to each other but go about it so cautiously (and clumsily) because they don't want to displease the other or do something that will change their relationship too much (because the unknown is scary).
There's this erratic method of slowly progressing their relationship as they navigate around potential pitfalls (both real and imaginary) that makes this work so compelling to me. It often turns what might otherwise be a mundane interaction into something that feels meaningful. And the author does a masterful job of consistently stringing us along with these types of interactions.

last edited at Sep 27, 2024 9:57PM

Why's Kita giving a peace sign before the flash like she's streaming or something? Is this a meme that I haven't seen?

This happened in Hawaii around the time of the last episode of the anime. Can't convince me otherwise.

Kita caught her Bocchi by surprise.

Madoka got into her mom's whiskey and last night got a bit out of hand.

Calm down Firefly. Good thing Stelle's keeping her gloves on to keep this from getting too lewd.

Third one is clearly not Homu. No way she'd ever have eyes for anyone other than Madoka.

We're being flooded with Yuki x Mayu propaganda...and it's all adorable.

Amawashi Chapter 81: https://amawashigroup.wordpress.com/2024/09/27/part-81-sendai-san-is-selfish-i

Miyagi's abandonment are probably the biggest single issue in their relationship. Even still in the current JP chapters. They're slowly accumulating ways to ease Miyagi's fear of being abandoned but it's still causing Miyagi to hold back on intimacy at times.
But that's not something that can be easily overcome. Even one day when they both have rings on their fingers (I can dream), Miyagi will probably still grapple with fears that Sendai will come to grow bored of being married to her.

last edited at Sep 27, 2024 12:24PM

Ok, so on page 19 when she says "I don't think so" I'm confused at what she's responding to? I can only guess it was initially her saying no before changing her mind after Adachi's questions, but it doesn't really seem to me like that's what it is?

I think she was responding to her own thoughts? This part is confusing to me too. Maybe it's finally time to read the Light Novel...

Yeah I'm pretty sure it's responding to her own thoughts, and it doesn't look like Adachi even heard it based on what she says right after.

That cracked me up. Textbook Adachi.

Enby manga let's goooooooo!

Transphobic comments will not be tolerated, period.
I am more than happy to jettison any human trash who wants to test this.

And this is why I love this little corner of the internet.

Me too. It's nice being part of an inclusive space where bigotry is not tolerated. And on occasions when a hateful comment isn't taken care of by an admin, you can be sure other posters will show up to lay the smack down on the bigot. That unfortunately is not the norm on most of Reddit and Mangadex, which are the other places I frequently comment.

It's great having media like this that shows the experiences of someone with gender dysphoria. Media like this helps others empathize with their plight and makes those experiences feel less "alien" and more relatable. Intolerance and ignorance go hand in hand and it's these types of work that can help improve both, even if just by a little.

^Is the meme that Amiya is a donkey? Because that's what I read in anime discussion thread comments back when I watched a few episodes while it was airing.

Regardless, I'm not really intrigued on this plot, I think focusing on Ayaka would pull me in more because she is cute and a disaster. To me it feels like AyaMiki will be the end of this part anyway, so all the melodrama feels pointless, basically a filler.

HajiMomo would be far more interesting IMO since there is a lot of potential (angst) from Momoka dating the sister of her dead lover.

Also a bit disappointed that Shiho didn't show up still.

Wow...are you in my brain? This is all exactly how I feel right now except you kept it brief instead of ranting and raving for a couple of paragraphs like I tend to do. :P

I'll probably just start speedreading upcoming chapters for this arc because all this AyaMiki drama feels so pointless and uninteresting. Unless they pivot into HajiMomo, which would definitely grab my attention again.

last edited at Sep 26, 2024 8:30AM

Not really sure any of those factors matter when there's no indication of incest being part of this story from the name, description, and 95% of its content lol. It's just thrown in here suddenly as something of a pseudo-tragic backstory? And it's definitely not presented as spicy.
This isn't about self inserting either, but rather empathy: understanding what the feelings of the character feel like. Wanting to date someone you've grown up with under the same roof is an extremely alien emotion from my perspective, but it's frequently presented as not alien at all, but instead something familiar and understandable. And that is what I don't understand lol.

If we're specifically and only talking about this story I'll agree that it's not well introduced or handled. I should have also said that sometimes incest is included as a dramatic element in media, something shocking that adds an extra layer of complication to the relationships.

Between this and Sasakoi, I'm pretty burnt out on unnecessary incest added just to create tension and drama. But Fluffycow is tired of reading my rants about Sasakoi so I'll leave it at that. :P

At the same time these two manga are fumbling about with incest, Contract Sisters is tackling incest with a much defter hand. It's one of the main themes of the story and not just a distraction. It results in serious consequences for the characters involved and is not just a source of cheap drama.
And the reader can find Contract Sisters compelling while continuing to feel that incest is an alien emotion that's very difficult to empathize with.

And before I forget, Happy Birthday to Miyagi Shiori.

Here's a really cute picture of the two of them. I tried posting it myself but couldn't figure that shit out.

https://x.com/komerice_lo/status/1838636208345485701?t=7YXhaaMC-ZDyLQjLUC4WZw&s=19

Cute! Great job capturing Miyagi's grumpiness.

Formatting for in-comment pictures is: ! [](IMAGE DIRECT URL LINK HERE)
But no space between ! and [

last edited at Sep 25, 2024 4:54PM

Two pieces of official art from the next LN volume that was posted on reddit.com/r/yuri_manga:

We were just talking about "Erotic Demon" Sendai and now here she is in color!

last edited at Sep 25, 2024 2:27PM

Sometimes I wonder if they truly expect the audience to be able to empathize being in love with your sister. I at least am fully incapable of that. I've got a big sister, I've got a little sister, I've got a step sister, and I've got childhood friends as close as sisters, and absolutely none of them are remotely on the table for considering attraction. Even as a sexual minority there's still hundreds of millions of fish in the sea so there's not even any temptation, it's a concept that never would have occurred to me to think about without it happening in fiction. I could sorta get it in VC Andrews's "Flowers in the Attic" since they were locked up together and didn't see literally any other people, but that's not the case here or in the vast majority of cases, so why? Does the author just think it's a universal emotion we can relate to or what?

Sometimes it feels more nefarious than that. Sometimes I wonder if there are yuri authors who think "I'm writing about taboo anyway, so why not?" And the potential for that has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Oh wow that's a sad, but unfortunately plausible way of looking at it.
I'd prefer to think of it as a "popular trope" thrown in to increase reader engagement
"Popular trope" in quotes because I don't understand why it's popular. I understand the step-sibling romance trope is popular because it's a easy way to get the love interests living together before they're dating.

last edited at Sep 25, 2024 12:29PM

Ch. 80 is another top tier chapter. Sendai ruminating on the desire for ownership that's motivating Miyagi to give her that necklace is followed by our favorite Shuukura pastime: Gay Chicken!

Sendai lost this one though. Pretty sure Sendai ended things where she did because she was miffed about Miyagi shortchanging her on the kiss. Sendai's "You're so stingy, Miyagi" was left unsaid.

I feel like it's been a while since we've had any gay chicken in the recent JP chapters. Hoping that changes soon, and I'm optimistic the festival date might lead to some.

I don't know if the other MTL chapters are like this, but it just seems... more unreadable than I expected. Like I said, I can overlook grammar inconsistencies and awkward wording, but it's so jarring when there's dialogue or passages that straight up don't make sense. I don't know how you guys managed to read so much of it. To me, I just feel like all I'm getting from it is, "oh, they kissed in chapter 34," or, "oh, Miyagi gave her a necklace in chapter 79," but nothing more.

Welcome to the MTL experience! I've long said I'm not reading the MTL nearly as much as I'm "interpreting" the MTL.

To further shock you, the text you've selected is actually better written than most of the MTL. This one probably had a quick editing pass to fix the most egregious errors, but most of the chapters seem to be just copy/pasted without any changes. Even super easy to correct stuff like misgendered pronouns are left intact.
ChatGPT does a better job than Google Translate, but it seems to be only at the level of "MTL with a bit of editing" to eliminate obvious mistakes.

Yay! You're at Chapter 80 now! https://amawashigroup.wordpress.com/2024/09/25/part-80-what-i-want-to-do-with-miyagi-and-what-miyagi-wants-to-do-iv/

Really been on a roll lately!

last edited at Sep 25, 2024 10:21AM

I'm just here to find out what the author is planning in the end

I hope it completely derails and they introduce something crazy, like an alien invasion.

Great. Now, I'll be disappointed if that doesn't happen. Thanks.

Madoka help me, I haven't made an image meme like that in probably a decade.

last edited at Sep 25, 2024 10:12AM

How do I add a picture?

There's a dropdown menu in the upper-right when you click on your username. Click "upload request".

A user with upload privileges will upload a page worth of new images every few days. There will usually be no more than 2 pics uploaded for any given pairing.

last edited at Sep 25, 2024 10:05AM