Those two awkward dorks continue to be adorable together.

Fear not--the on-panel fisting can only be a couple of chapters away.

A pox upon your house plant! I was eating a handful of wasabi peas and busted up laughing hard enough to blast a bunch of them up into my sinuses.

The idea is that people who find that a series isn't for them choose to leave after a certain point, because consuming entertainment that doesn't entertain you is rather counterproductive, unless you're getting paid to write a critique or have legitimate criticisms about why something is problematic

While it's a nice idea and broadly true, I think if you look hard enough you'll find active thought leaders with reasonably substantial followings in just about any significant fandom. I recently watched She-Ra and found it to be a satisfying if imperfect show. While gleaning around for content, YouTube was sure to recommend me multiple accounts that have made - and are still making, for a show that ended in May - dozens of videos worth of negative content for it. The type that makes you stop and wonder, why is this person investing their time in a show that's clearly not for them, and why is their audience doing the same? RWBY and Korra also seem to be good examples of this from the outside.

The apt term for this sort of bizarre behavior is "a throbbing hate boner." There are some people that just get off on hating random things for some reason.

last edited at Dec 29, 2020 4:05AM

Oh, Tsukimizu. I love how their metaphors are so hilariously on the nose that they circle back into being esoteric and abstract. Reminds me of Utena and the iconic crimson sexmobile. The town's pretty interesting- at first glance, it seems like a heaven where thoughts influence reality, on second thought, it seems like a hell where your subconscious engineers endless new ordeals, and a third try makes you wonder if it's just purgatory for those that couldn't get anything of value done and wonder what the point of it all is. In the end, you realize that it's all of these things and also none of them, so very abstract and personal and bizarre and incomprehensible that the sum total of all the weirdos cancels out individual absurdity. And so, we loop back to inhabiting an obscure, sleepy local town, as large or small as the distance you're willing to walk to grab the groceries while debating Schopenhauer with your girlfriend.

Well put. This is one of the most succinct descriptions I've seen of Tsukimizu's work that still manages to capture the essence and feel of it.

She's one of my favorite artists. Tsukimizu has a very rare gift for capturing and conveying the surreal absurdity of everyday ordinariness.

By creating exaggerated caricatures of what is so strange, beautiful and ugly about our normal day to day existences, most artists end up losing that sense of hum drum ordinariness that is an essential part of our experience as human beings. Tsukimizu's work stands out precisely because it does not, despite how intensely surreal it is.

last edited at Dec 15, 2020 10:40PM

Finishing work at eight pm is already grossly overtime...

Not in Japan. It's common to finish work there at 9 or even 10PM. They're trying to fix the problem, but "company loyalty" is deeply rooted in their society, so it's gonna take time.

Hmmm, I didn't realize the Japanese work day starts at noon. Neat.

In all seriousness, this is looking to be a promising story.

last edited at Dec 14, 2020 1:38AM

Awww, its over but nice ending might go back an read it from the beginning.

Slow burn manga read much better that way, rather than on a weekly or monthly basis. It's definitely true of this one.

It's neat to see a love story with an asexual character in it. It's quite the rarity. This manga was comfy and fun, and I'm going to miss it.

Though I don't think Alpha ate. It was part of why she could stay in business with almost no customers, she didn't need much. These are some Ridiculously Human (or Canine) Robots.

Alpha ate, but her energy efficiency and the fact she doesn't need to thermoregulate made her require far less food than a normal human, and you are correct in that was part of the reason she could get by with so few customers. She even had a quirk, if I remember correctly, that she was something of a vegetarian which was unusual for robots.

oh shit

Indeed.

The is all feeling kinda rushed. I don't like it, cause I want more!

Yes, it looks like they’re going from “we have several volumes” to “shit I better wrap everything up this volume.

I’m devastated. This was my favorite ongoing manga. I will be so sad if it’s not allowed the development and time it deserves.

For now, I’m just praying that they decided to pick up the pace for this short section, but it feels way faster than anything we’ve previously gotten. Chapters feel shorter too. Gaaah, I’m so worried!

I don't want to jinx it, but its pretty obvious the pacing has picked up quite a bit. I wish the damn manga industry would respect their artists a little bit and give them a minimum of 10 chapters worth of warning before the axe falls.

It's usually pretty obvious the moment the news drops on the mangaka. Reading through a series you can pretty much point to the exact chapter the author found out. What's so messed up is how often I see the mad scramble begin like 3 chapters from the series end. Outside of some episodic slice of life 4 komas, how is a creator expected to pen an even half way decent ending to a series in 3 or 4 chapters? Sometimes the manga isn't even to the mid point of it's current story arc let alone the over arching plot as a whole.

When you read a series like Bloom into You that was finished on the author's own prerogative and at their own pace, then compare it to a well written series that gets axed on crazy short notice, the difference is like night and day. I've seen multiple series that I was reading go from like a solid 8 or 9 down to a 6 or 7 thanks to horribly forced endings.

I'm not certain with this series yet, but if its getting the axe soon it should be very evident next chapter.

last edited at Oct 30, 2020 3:24AM

Definitely a mixed bag. The relationship itself was cute enough, but it did feature two pretty crappy tropes, those being the "lesbian sex doesn't count" and the "homophobes are just closeted" tropes.

Although it certainly is a cliché and a stereo type, as is often the case with these gross over generalizations, there is some truth beneath it. I can't say I've seen it much with women, but in my own personal experience I have seen quite a bit of the male variant of this stereo type of guys who are rabidly homophobic often having latent homosexual tendencies.

In my experience it often tends to be the individuals that come out of left field with it during seemingly innocuous situations and who make a big public fuss about it. It's almost like they are trying to shout out to the world "I'm not gay" when everyone else is just going about there usual activities with little or no trigger event apparent. I have known three people like this. Two acquaintances and one lifelong friend. The acquaintances I bumped into years later and they were out of the closet and the life long friend is now in his 40s, never dated and still rabidly homophobic and lets just say he really should take some precautions with erasing his browser history etc. if he is going to let others use his computer. I really do feel sorry for him, although that goes away pretty quickly once he starts ranting. He is also racist against Latinos and has the last name of Sanchez... Yeah.

And I don't even understand why she didn't file a missing person notice to the police.

"My father is missing. I don't have any money to pay the rent, the utilities or the groceries, but who cares? I will just live here with my cat until something happens, like Yakuzas selling my organs, or a lesbian debt-collector invading my privacy, or whatever..."

This was my other thought about stories like this. Where's she getting money for groceries, rent or mortgage, utilities, etc? I don't know any child who wouldn't go straight to someone, even just a family friend, if their parent(s) suddenly disappeared. Then, to compound it, if this girl was living alone somehow, and knew her father had been in debt and ran away because of it, why the hell would she even open the door unless she knew who it was? Just way too unbelievable.

It depends a lot on the family situation of those involved. In a regular household going to a relative or the cops would be something a child would do once they realized something serious was up which would probably be a day or two at most.

Then again, not all households are "normal." I have had quite a bit of personal experience with broken families where the parental figures are completely strung out, useless and or abusive and in cases like that I could definitely see a kid never bothering to contact the authorities or relatives. Unlike most people these kids have actual experience with what happens when you call the cops and I assure you it doesn't bring a knight in shining armor to your rescue. In situations like that you learn very quickly that no matter what crime you are the victim of, you NEVER call the cops. At best no good comes of it and worst you and or your loved ones end up beaten and or in prison.

Seriously, I once made the mistake of calling for an ambulance in a poor neighborhood near the edge of the ghetto because my epileptic friend had been convulsing on the floor for about 5 minutes strait with a complex partial seizure and no signs of it abating. He was too big to carry to the ER and although I was wise enough to know better than to ever call the cops for any reason, I mistakenly believed it would be safe to call 911 for medical assistance.

My friend was still spasming on the floor, but after 5 minutes of talking him down and telling him help was on the way he was at least calmer and no longer shrieking incoherent gibberish. Then some asshole kicked in the front door and pointed a gun in my face while screaming self contradicting orders to not move and to drop what was in my hands.

I asked the 911 operator who had insisted I remain on the phone with her this whole time what I should do and she was freaking out, screaming I should do what he says. So now my convulsing friend is back to yelling gibberish about his rank and file like he back in Kuwait as some kind of prisoner of war, and I have to deal with two dangerous incoherent jackasses who just broke down the front door and shoved a gun my face.

To make a long story short after about another 5 minutes of trying to deescalate the two mentally deficient cops who kicked in the door while my friend continued to convulse on the floor, two fire department first responders finally came in and basically forcibly dragged the cops off. This whole time the two violent morons kept going on and on about how my "buddy is on the meth and I've seen this a thousand times before" and then when it finally started to dawn on them they might have fucked up they started trying to threaten me by asking "Is that your car parked outside, is it insured and registered?" This entire time my friend is on the floor in an acute medical crisis fighting for his life. After the firemen had removed the two cops, the crew from the ambulance which had been parked out front waiting for the go ahead was finally let in to take my poor incoherent friend to the ER to get treatment.

Anyway, I seem to have gone off on a tangent. My point is simply that her not calling the cops is hardly unusual behavior if she lives in a broken household with a deadbeat dad.

This girl's dad appears to be of the useless neglectful variety and she doesn't seem to have any other close family to go to, so her not involving the authorities isn't that surprising although where her money comes from is another another issue all together.

last edited at Sep 11, 2020 9:33PM

A little bird told me that there are actual lesbians out there that denigrate those among us here who apply top/bottom labels to lesbians such as Kanda and Ookuma, considering such people to be "morons". Apparently these women are somehow arrogant enough to believe that they can speak on behalf of the entire lesbian community around the world without conducting anything remotely qualifiable as a statistically valid survey.

By that same token those who like to label people as "tops" or "bottoms" are just as arrogant to assume they also speak for the entire gay community.

As a rule of thumb if you want to label yourself "top" or "bottom" and somebody gives you shit for it, they can go screw themselves, but conversely if you try to label somebody else with those terms and they find it offensive then you're the one that needs to shut the Hell up.

It's a bit like the crux of the whole transgender debate. It comes down to simple manners that you should not refer to someone in a manner they find derogatory unless it is your intent to spit in their face at which point you shouldn't be surprised when things go terribly wrong afterwards.

last edited at Sep 3, 2020 10:55PM

As a trans woman, this ending feels unsatisfying.
They didn't need to make her so much bigger than the cis girls, Japanese people are not that disportional....
Welp, another one to not recommend.
Go read Wondering Son if you want a good transgender story, hell Girl meets Girl is leaps and bounds better.....

After reading all that your primary complaint is that Akira, who is physically male, happens to be taller than her biologically female counterparts?

Although perhaps being a westerner has skewed your perspective, just because Asians tend to be smaller in stature than Caucasians doesn't mean that there is no physical sexual dimorphism in Asian people when it comes to height. In fact if you look at the stature ratio between males and females in Japan vs the United States they are either exactly the same or there is a slightly greater difference in height between men and women in Japan depending on which study you look at.

Not that this was some great work of literature or anything, but I think people are just completely missing the point with this story. For starters Akira is not the main character. Secondly, this was not a romance manga so much as it was a preachy coming of age story for various lgbt minorities.

Akira's story arc was learning to be comfortable with who she is. In the end we see she is happily single and no longer defining herself by what others think. She has made piece with her inner femininity and has a job that reflects that. She has outgrown her codependent tendencies and the need to have others reaffirm her self image. She is simply a happy single girl doing what she loves.

Not surprised. It was terrible up until the very end. Dunno why I kept reading.

As the old saying goes, you are what you eat.

Trans women aren't male

And your point is? At what point did I ever suggest Akira's gender was not female? Notice the pronouns I used were "her" and "she" not "him" and "he." Are you referring to my statement about Akira being biologically male? Are you perhaps confusing the difference between "gender" and "sex?" The terms are similar but not the same. Gender is a psychological state of being, sex is a physical and biological state of being. Akira is physically male, but her gender is female.

last edited at Aug 18, 2020 8:11PM

As a trans woman, this ending feels unsatisfying.
They didn't need to make her so much bigger than the cis girls, Japanese people are not that disportional....
Welp, another one to not recommend.
Go read Wondering Son if you want a good transgender story, hell Girl meets Girl is leaps and bounds better.....

After reading all that your primary complaint is that Akira, who is physically male, happens to be taller than her biologically female counterparts?

Although perhaps being a westerner has skewed your perspective, just because Asians tend to be smaller in stature than Caucasians doesn't mean that there is no physical sexual dimorphism in Asian people when it comes to height. In fact if you look at the stature ratio between males and females in Japan vs the United States they are either exactly the same or there is a slightly greater difference in height between men and women in Japan depending on which study you look at.

Not that this was some great work of literature or anything, but I think some people are just completely missing the point with this story. For starters Akira is not the main character. Secondly, this was not a romance manga so much as it was a preachy coming of age story for various lgbt minorities.

Akira's story arc was learning to be comfortable with who she is. In the end we see she is happily single and no longer defining herself by what others think. She has made piece with her inner femininity and has a job that reflects that. She has outgrown her codependent tendencies and the need to have others reaffirm her self image. She is simply a happy single girl doing what she loves.

Not surprised. It was terrible up until the very end. Dunno why I kept reading.

As the old saying goes, you are what you eat.

last edited at Aug 18, 2020 7:58PM

It's nice to see a budding friendship sprout into new love.

I didn't even read it. Just flipped through it. I was like "okay".

Honestly, I don't know what is the target readership.

My guess is this one's more aimed at hetero males?

That hole digging metaphor has become quite deep.

Some of the jokes seem to be not treating being lesbian as a valid thing. I'm cautious.

Many in Japan hold the belief that schoolgirl lesbianism is a phase or a sort of "play-romance" that they will get over when they grow up. As a result, gay stuff is often played for comedy

This is a yuri comedy manga where like 3/4 of the main cast seems to be gay... so yeah, there is probably going to be some comedy revolving around gay stuff. I may be going out on a limb here, but there may also be some lesbian romance stuff as well.

I had a major hunch Hikari x Moe would actually never happen. They gave me the vibes that they would eventually end up with men. But still, there was this tiny, tiny hope that maybe they'd end up together...the author royally destroyed that. Well, press F for Moe. Eagerly waiting for the next chapter to see the author fuck up Miyu x Nozomi too.

A word of advice: Don't write a Yuri manga if you are going to give the couple a het ending. Just, do the community a favour, and fuck off. Please. Go indulge yourself in writing purely het crap.

Your mistake was assuming this was a yuri manga. Just because a romance manga has one or more yuri couples in it doesn't mean every couple in it is gay. I mean we knew both these characters were either strait or at most bi from the very start, I don't see how people are screaming bloody murder that this was some sort of crazy unforeseeable ending. Without a TON more development first there was no real way to make these two a believable couple living happily ever after.

How rushed this ending definitely sucked but that isn't on the author but rather the publisher.

Rushed ending aside this was a solid manga. I wish it had been given enough time to end on its own terms.

last edited at Jul 9, 2020 4:54AM

could of done without the attempted rape scene tbh. Why no foiled rape attempt tag?

Forced hand holding ≠ rape.

If you think that is what rape is like you have one Hell of an ugly reality check coming.

On a different note, I can't wait to see Nikaidou perform some improvised dentistry on this asshole with her fists and the concrete wall.

last edited at Jul 6, 2020 6:20AM

Ah yes another manga when the conflict resolves and the series ends, fucking hell can the authors not write anything past that? Such a shame...

Unless it is some super famous mangaka that regularly shits gold for the publishers they rarely get to end a series on their own terms They usually get two or three chapters of warning before the ax falls regardless of if its enough time to end the story in a somewhat satisfactory manner. Consider us lucky that we even had most of the conflict resolved. It is a very rare manga that is given enough warning to end properly and then provide some sort of epilogue.afterwards.

FINALLY a premise that's long overdue (this and yuri isekai's). Can't wait to read more.

There are a few yuri isekai out there but they are relatively rare. The best one I've read is Otherside Picnic.

Neat, they turned it into a manga. It's rare to see decent yuri novels, but the one this one's based on is fun.

I figure this is as good a place to ask as any. So does anyone have some suggestions for good yuri novels? Preferable stuff that isn't just plain romance.

I wish I could forget Qualia the Purple. That is the only manga that has ever truly fucked with my head.

Try reading Otherside Picnic. That one messed up my head a bit.

https://twitter.com/YuriIchigoScans/status/1272136338393796608

Series ends in two chapters.

Ouch, with the way the mangaka was pacing everything its VERY clear they are being forced to end it prematurely.