I feel the month-long hiatus enhances the joke of Aya dropping Mitsuki down the stairs.

Is she tricking her though? That feels more ambiguous to me. In chapter 16 she told Asumi how she feels and that she wants to go out with her and Asumi said no. Then a few chapters later she says yes to being friends with benefits, but she asks Nanao if she's ok with that. Asumi knows Nanao's feelings.

Indeed, Nanao has already confessed to Asumi. The friends with benefits arrangement is just a response to Asumi telling Nanao she can't date her because she has to keep searching for Mai. That's why I don't see Nanao here as having done anything wrong, it's entirely on Asumi to sort things out. If next chapter she tells Nanao she must continue to go to brothels, I'm sure the latter will understand.

I feel like we might get thrown a curveball and get Alice's La Verità instead if Baiser and Leopard get incapacitated and she's left to fight Magenta on her own.

The anime is really blowing up in popularity and there's a ton of fanart being made, I hope more gets posted here in the coming days and weeks.

This week's episode just played music during the blindfold sequence, so I guess the full version would have some voice work there.

Correct, Ononaka confirmed this on his twitter.

^
Silly goose, they're canon so that the inevitable twist of the knife will be that much more painful.

Finally, this is a fun one.

The anime is glorious. What a time to be alive.

I hope more art of Liko and Dot gets posted here, it's such a cute pairing and it's become pretty popular.

Happy new year.

"I'm writing a story about time travel, what should I name the female character from the future? Hmm, "Future" has a nice ring to it" - approximately every mangaka who has ever written about time travel

And Kako means past.

^
There have been a few that were direct follow-ups such as during the whole deal with Mitsuki giving her concert ticket to the friend Aya got into a fight with. Assuming volume 2 which was recently announced contains the same amount of chapters as volume 1, there are three chapters left to go in it and thus the author might be building up to a bit of a climax with that in mind.

@V-Oblivion: I'm sure you're aware of Bandai censoring a post-finale interview where Suletta's voice actress mentioned Suletta and Miorine were married by removing that reference and stating their relationship status is up to interpretation. Now the final Blu Ray release came out and included an interview with director Kobayashi where he states twice in no uncertain terms that they're married. They also added Miorine's wedding ring to the airport scene where it was missing in the TV airing.

You're going to have to wait until the last story of this novel volume for more tangible progress in the romance aspect, which is three short stories away from now including the one that's currently being adapted. It's a long-term process since Sorawo herself has huge issues opening up to the idea of romance, but I assure you it's worth it.

What's a drama CD?

An audio-only story, either adapting the source material or original. They haven't yet announced if this one will adapt some manga chapters or if it will be made for the occasion.

I bet all the artists are ecstatic now that Bandai's idiocy has been defeated.

When will someone investigate the ties between aquarium companies and the yuri industry?

There's no need to turn this into a magazine serialization when the twitter version is already getting physical volume releases.

erm... did the story just forget the setup that the girl who the Prez killed with lightning was very likely innocent? It was hinted that the whole oil switcheroo was Seo's doing anyway, and since she is basically Skeletor now, that seems increasingly plausible.
Then why is Vice Prez allowed to go out on a moral highnote here, leaving the gym like a badass and being admired by Satsuki, whith the very obvious and easy counter of "apart from acting out of fear and a superiority complex, you guys were not infallible and did and would have continued to kill innocent people" is never used.

The ONLY point the Prez had against Satsuki was the butterfly effect thing, that Satsuki saving people is causing the high numbers of deadly accidents, and that was conjecture at best. The whole justification angle with Seo falls totally flat. If you save someone who commits evil deeds later you had no possiblity or reason to see coming, you are not at fault. As if a fire fighter who pulls out a person from a burning building who secretly is a serial killer and continues to kill afterwards is somehow at fault for that.

I mean, Satsuki just accepting fault for things and not making an effort to defend herself has been there since chapter 1 and we have narrative reasons for it, but after many chapters of making friends and receiving emotional support, the character development we get for her is her wanting to die. Frigging A+.

Only the readers and most likely Miho (from stealing Michiru's phone) know about the oil switcheroo, there's no way to hang it over prez and vice prez so far and it's entirely possible Miho will reveal it to make Seo's position even worse, in which case vice prez would have to be faced with the knowledge prez killed an innocent. Satsuki's state of mind is heavily altered from everything that's been going on and she's never been eloquent enough to effectively argue for her beliefs. Vice prez didn't get the moral high ground, Satsuki just admired her for managing to keep it together despite prez's death. If we're to believe the story is on route to replicate what we saw at the beginning of chapter 1, then Satsuki will convince herself the choices she made were sound, whether that will be just a coping mechanism or not. As for your firefighter example, you can bet many people who unknowingly save a serial killer would feel some responsibility over it. It's not a black and white matter.

^ The explosion would've happened in a matter of seconds anyway once Seo got over the surprise of the remote device still being attached. Either Miho trusted Satsuki to get out of there alive or she didn't care.

They released a really nice recap music video to set up the climax of the anime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKM9-G9xomg

Yes, it was well placed. The narrator was speaking to us then. This really feels like an ending (especially with the quote about their futures) but though I'm assuming it's not?

Don't worry, we're going into a new arc after this. It only feels conclusive because it's the last chapter of the volume.

last edited at Dec 12, 2023 6:09AM

Loved the callbacks to everyone's conflict and changes, it really feels tightly planned. And I believe this is the first time they explicitly talk about romance. The juxtaposition of that with Yuu and Umika's conversation seems very deliberate.

They went the extra mile with Yuu's song in episode 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgS4MKJfYrA

Yeah, this certainly sounds like a setup for Nanao to hire more prostitutes and ask for advice on how to get good at the benefit part of friends with benefits.