I had always thought "aphonia" was used for times when you can't speak because of a sore throat... and so, when I read M-Girl had aphonia, I was like: "Oh goodie, if it's just that, it's no big deal -- gargling warm honeywater will solve the problem!"

Then a friend told me the real meaning of the word aphonia. Doh.

Ah, yes.

The moment you feel everything's hit rock bottom, and all you can do is cry, wishing for someone to come and rescue you... your knight appears.

It never gets old.

I don't know if this is wholesome or smutty

What, the smut in chapter 1 wasn't conclusive enough for you?

Well, I'll agree that it was classy smut, tho.

Nah, I'd bet my left arm that the guy is just scum. He is a guy that stands in the way of yuri so death is all he deserves.

^ This. Yes.

I mean, we can see objective things he's done in regards to being controlling, suspicious and callous that illustrate he's a shitty guy without needing to factor in Maki's bias for Midori.

Constant verbal abuse, asking for servile obedience, making her pregnant against her will... I don't care if it was the norm in Japan's past, no woman should have to put up with this kind of crap nowadays.

Wooow... bunny sandwich looks oishii...

to others: i see my name in a lot of posts, but i'm gonna bail on this one and let nez handle it. my opinions and desires are my own, not as a person who worked on this comic, just as myself.

I'm sorry if we made you feel uncomfortable. That's exactly the opposite of what we were trying to do... at least, those of us who argued that we shouldn't turn this thread into a debate on racism.

I just want you to know that, even if a small vocal minority hates on the works of Lovecraft and on Tanabe's adaptation, the vast majority of the readers here love this manga to bits -- and love you too for all the work you poured on it.

Thanks again to the whole scanlator team! We're not worthy.

Nezchan, fair point, but when the people from the team who worked hard to bring this manga to us specifically ask us to talk about the manga itself and not start a debate on issues like real-life racism ― well, actually, I don't know what's your usual take on this, but... my own gut feeling is that it would be good etiquette to honor their wishes. Maybe it's just me...

I'll be honest, there's not too much else that can be discussed here.

Oh, oh, as for me, I would LOVE to discuss in depth and detail how this story (and all the other lovecraftian manga by Tanabe Gou) compares to Alan Moore's lovecraftian trilogy of Courtyard/Neonomicon/Providence!

Then again, I'm a total Alan Moore otaku... so perhaps others wouldn't share my enthusiasm? Lol.

also, i do think generalj is correct. lovecraft was paranoid and probably mentally ill. i believe a lot of his prejudice comes from an intense distrust for people, and that manifested as racism. even still he's probably above average for his day.

I'd like to add this: whatever his beliefs, he kept them private, as something to be meditated upon in solitude or talked about with friends, and never bothered anyone trying to promote them. He never discriminated against any person, never took a public stance in politics or religion, never endorsed a party or a church or a candidate, and I'm more or less certain that his only work where he speaks about contemporary social issues is a short story were he denounces the evils of alcohol and defends the Prohibition Act.

Trying to find coded racist messages in his Cthulhu cycle is a pointless endeavor. Those messages exist only in the eye of the beholder, not in the texts.

I motion that we stop talking about this now. Everything has been said already, no need to go on.

but seriously whens chapter 2 comin

probably about a month. even with all of us working on it, its still pretty grueling. so much redraw ;;

You have our utmost gratitude for all your hard work.

This is so beautiful. You can feel the deep love the mangaka has for the original work. The same feeling I get from Alan Moore's lovecraftian series (Courtyard/Neonomicon/Providence), which are as well a splendid example of how to adapt Lovecraft to comic format.

Thanks to everyone who worked on the scanlation!

@Beefaroni and @Kinnikufan, I couldn't agree more.

This book has made me a giant fan of Yatosaki Haru. I knew her only for her short doujins, I had no idea she could do SO WELL with a longer story! I'm really impressed.

I hope we'll get more Mao and Kana and Satou and Miki in future books. Those girls need their happy endings...

Wishing a happy new year while bringing gifts of Kodama Naoko manga is the best way.

Thank you, scanlators, you wonderful people, you!

I'm Definitely not getting off this ride.

Our drunk college student however, is definitely getting off on this ride.

When I see this scene...

I realize that this manga should totally have been called "Her Elder Sister Has a Crush on Her, But She Doesn't Mind."

The author-san kinda screwed up an obvious storyline there. Yup.

gosh this is so goooood <333
I also want her to hold her right now! <3

Lol, who doesn't?

The reason this gets less comments and attention is you can't just drop a 'this is so cute omfg' type comment. This story delivers quite well in all the important areas and more than anything doesn't seem to bait us with drama which also feeds into the lack of comments.

Its an all around wonderful story and I really hope we get to see it through to the end.

Yess indeed

Me three.

I find the current arc, Mizuki dealing with feelings of irrational jealousy, absolutely passionating. This sort of careful psychological exploration of one's own negative emotions is something you rarely find in a manga series.

(Even more so as her jealousy really is irrational and unwarranted... because I'm 90% sure that Honoka-chan is plain vanilla straight, lol.)

I thought food binges were for the times you're depressed?

It's the first time I see it done out of exhilaration, lol.

Exhilaration? When was that?

Chiaki told Harumi (in an indirect way) that she loves her for herself, not just for her boobs, and Harumi was so happy she ate a ton of sweets to celebrate. Now she's plump and squishy all over.

I thought food binges were for the times you're depressed?

It's the first time I see it done out of exhilaration, lol.

wait what's the "defeat"? is it that Shiratori convinced Tora that she is enough because she still loves her above all the others that confessed to her?

I'm lost as well

I thought it was clear.

Tora made a courageous decision to break up with her gf.

She made that decision because she realized there was an abyss between them in terms of success, competence, accomplishments, etc. (The other girl is a winner at everything, while Tora panics even at the idea of going to a konbini to shop for groceries.)

However, when she courageously told Shiratori that she was better off without the dead weight that Tora was and that they should break up, Shiratori refused and explained (in a typically Japanese indirect way, more implying than saying) that she loved and needed Tora.

Thus Tora's attempt at "being brave" and "doing the right thing" was soundly defeated.

You also have to keep in mind his situation is pretty goddamned frustrating. His mom dragged them both back to live at home and is insisting they should just ignore what happened. He knows his wife is going through a serious identity crisis. I think he suspects that she's gay. From his perspective, he may not want it to be true, but a lot of things about their relationship are probably adding up in his mind. The laid-back nature of it, the way they're more like best friends than lovers, the way she does't really seem to cherish their wedding rings. So when her sister starts on "how could she do this?" I think he wants her to understand that it's more complicated than she's assuming it is.

That's the best analysis of Wataru's reasons I've read so far. Well done!

By the way, I dunno if anyone mentioned this before, but Kaede's reaction to Wataru's attitude was hilarious. She totally thought he was into NETORARE!

"So his wife is cheating on him, and he's all relaxed and smiley? And he has already met the guy who cuckolded him!? And he's now pushing me to go see that guy!? Like, he wants to parade his wife's lover or something!!?
I can't believe it, omg Wataru, I'd never thought you'd have a NTR fetish!!!"

If you can't understand the rules to Twister, from a description, then you shouldn't be playing games. I mean isn't there really only two rules 1. Spin the spinner. 2. plase the body part on the color as shown on the spinner. We're not talking the rules to checkers here.

Hehe, modern kids. I'm reminded of the story of a young boy who was presented with a paper book for the first time in his life (he had never touched one of those before, all he knew was cellphones and e-readers) and, after opening it, started pressing his finger against the first page, rubbing it up and down, again and again. After some time, getting no reaction from the page, the boy declared in frustration that the paper book was malfunctioning or broken.

Perhaps Mai-chan, avid cellphone gamer that she is, was mystified by the idea of a game played on a huge paper board on the ground?

Tank girls, huh? Figures. Look at that pair of cannons.

Reboot? What happened to the older series?

Apparently the magazine it was running in went full ecchi/lewd, so she had to start it again somewhere else.

Aah so that's why. I wondered what was going on...

After the confession - she first tried to convince herself it was a prank, then when Asuka confirmed it, she held together long enough to be supportive. But after Asuka was in bed with the fever we saw that she was actually pretty freaked out. They managed to avoid talking about it until they ended up in bed together again. Even the kissing "compromise" seemed like an attempt to bury it and normalise things - she was taken aback by Asuka's enthusiasm & intensity, and subtly punished her by not waking her up, then was flustered by the smooth "goodbye kiss" the next morning.

Oh, nice analysis! You have a good eye for noticing those subtle details.