I'm about a fourth of the way through the novel, to where Rei is more or less forced into commitment despite her fear and quiet despair over the prospect of loving without reciprocation. The novel is actually a very powerful literary achievement. It's literature. It's not only yuri as entertainment, it is about yuri and the courage it takes to love in a hostile world. All the fun stuff is just icing.

Be warned, if you're reading the official release, apparently certain paragraphs which delved deeper into Rei's thoughts and explored her behavior in more detail, adding important depth to her character, were removed during the editing phase for Heaven only knows what reason.

I wonder about those paragraphs. I get why they were cut (a Japanese cultural phenomenon that seems hella offensive or confusing to western readers was cut and so was a paragraph that went along with it which happened to show that Rei's behavior is a coping mechanism), but I wouldn't be surprised if this crucial detail isn't in the manga adaptation either. And while I adore this series to bits, from the Xenogears to the romance to the intrigue, literature it ain't. Your canonical works of "high fiction" or "literary fiction," which is what people consider literature over your churned out fiction, use imagery, heavy symbolism, figurative language, patterns, and metaphors at least. In the manga world, this would be Our Dreams at Dusk. Your average novel has exposition, clearly distinguished narrators, intentional staging, descriptions of actions and events, and frequent character introspection. Light novels are more like scripts for a play with all of that cut out in favor of dialogue and light exposition (though this varies a bit depending on the author).

That the whole reasoning for how Rei approaches Claire being a nihilistic response to her own experiences as a lesbian in the 21st century is off-handedly mentioned once and can be totally removed from the story with an accidental omission underscores that. Which does not diminish how awesome this work is as a light novel that is openly queer. When contextualized, you can see where it breaks away from other light novels

What is this "cultural phenomenon" you speak of? Thats sounds really interesting, could you give me some information on it? If its offensive that's fine, different culturals have elements that can seem offensive or strange to our culture, but I would still like to learn about them.

Never seen a bell sound be written as "bing bong" but okay

This is cute until Neji will decide to tell us about the lifespan of a hamster

...maybe vampire hamster? :{

Can anyone read what Shamiko crossed out on her survey where she wrote "powerful enough to lift up my s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ nemesis who weighs around 57 kg?"

Your entire argument is undermined by two major flaws:

1. It assumes that every story has to reflect the author's real experiences, biases, tastes, beliefs, etc. That's utter bullshit. By that logic, I should be a scat-loving pedophile because I've written draft notes for stories involving copious amounts of scat and adult-minor sexual relations, yet I have absolutely zero interest in engaging in any of those acts nor do I espouse the desire for people to engage in them IRL. And even if you don't want to take me at your word, you haven't actually provided any proof of your far-fetched claim to begin with, or at least cited some sort of consensus/majority opinion among literary experts on the subject as a source.

2. You overlook that storywriters often write stories to explore fantastical worlds where things that could never happen in reality (whether because they're literally impossible as far as scientific understanding is concerned, or because of societal taboos being too strong, or because they come with too much negative issues/consequences for anyone to attempt) can and do happen. In the case of stories with themes of underage sexuality, that would be exploring if underage sexuality can happen without any of the psychological/physical trauma and other issues that come hand in hand with it IRL.

Your argument is very weak. For one, you use yourself as a supporting example, something nobody could verify unless they knew you personally. For all I know, you are a scat loving pedophile, and the fact that you admit to writing stories containing those themes seems to support that. I said this in another reply, but authors can write characters with flaws they don't have, thats fine. The problem is when those flaws are depicted as positive attributes. Also, I dont think op was ignoring the fact that people write stories with taboo themes to explore them while avoiding consequences, I think they acknowledge that and are saying it isn't good. A healthy individual and healthy society should not want nor except a story where pedophilia occurs in a way that highlights the sexuality (adjective not noun) of a child, with zero consequences. In addition, when this is distributed publicly, it can serve as an outlet. You don't need evidence to know that a middle schooler having sex with an adult women will be viewed by predatory eyes.

last edited at Mar 6, 2021 4:58PM

also yall are writing a lot of words and i'm not reading any of them. i'm just gonna say "concept of a university student having a physical relationship with a middle schooler is super yikes and would turn me off of the series" and move on

I agree whole heartedly, the only reason I replied is because the only two counter arguments I saw were strawman, and that is one of my greatest pet peeves. My own opinion lies somewhere in between, but the subject of my two other comments was solely a critique of the debate practices used, not about the actual topic being discussed. I know that's off topic, but so is the entire conversation.

I know porn contributes to rape and incest and sex trafficking.

No, you believe that. I really doubt you have good evidence to justify 'know'. Increased porn availability correlates with declining rape rates.

You are strawmaning~~. Yes, this claim is false, but pornographic websites have created a great cover for these things. Also, this claims wasn't the main subject of the comment, and your hesitancy to address that shows a lack of any quality counter point.

JK Rowling is not an example of every author. I'm just going to leave this here and call it a day. I know a conversation between you and me will go nowhere, so have a good day/night. I wish you the best.

You, my friend, are straw manning. Op gave Rowling as an example, not an archetype. Also, yes, writers can write bad characters with flaws they don't have, but when those flaws are shown in a positive light, they can be used as an outlet for flawed people, and a reason to not work on themselves. (Now, I've never seen Sunny in Philadelphia, I am just going to use misogyny as a stand in for pedophilia, as a metaphor.) When misogynists watch misogynistic characters shown in a positive, or even neutral light, they can think that society will except then, and continue being misogynistic. When a young adult with little life experience, heavily influenced by they're media outlets, watches these misogynistic characters shown in said light, they also believe it is accepted by society, and maybe adopt some of those misogynistic values as their own. The same can be said about pedophilia. Maybe not everyone who reads a story of a middle school girl falling in love with an adult women will become a pedophile, but pedophiles can surely access this and think that their disorder is okay and accepted by society.

I'm honestly not really sure what your argument is, as your rebutles have been either strawmen or mysdirects, but you seem to be coming from a week background in debate. Also, never start a counter argument with "Don't reply to me," because you can't refute someone argument and expect then to quietly accept it. If you didn't want a back and forth to start, don't reply in the first place. Now, I'm not saying I agree with everything op has said, but some of it is undoubtedly hard to deny. And it seems you agree, as evidenced by your counters.

Also, this entire argument seems off topic, as no pedohpilic actions nor positive displays have aken place. While positive displays of pedohpilia in media is harmful, and Japan's masked acceptance of this is a problem, that has not been shown and seems unlikely. So feel free to reply, but know that this conversation is off topic.

last edited at Mar 6, 2021 6:47AM

Foreign toilets scare me. I already have a hard time going in any place other than my home, but a toilet in another country seems impossible, much less a squat toilet. I get winded going up my stairs too much, how am I supposed to hold a squat while going through an entire bathroom cycle?

Can we take a moment to highlight the floating drink on the final page of that chapter

That's not a floating drink, though.

It's 4:09 am and this exchange fucking broke me

Well the whole sweat licking thing is kinda gross ngl.
But its cute anyways

At least it's not watersports

last edited at Feb 15, 2021 8:45PM

Watanare's more rapey cousin is finally here, huh.

Can someone link me to the light novel? I'd like to give it a read

https://meatbuntranslation.blogspot.com/2020/09/prologue.html

Thanks a bunch

To be frank, I think I need to reread the whole thing in order to understand what's happening in the story.

Happens to me every new chapter

Can someone link me to the light novel? I'd like to give it a read

That's sexual harassment.

Is this your first romance manga?

last edited at Feb 9, 2021 5:38AM

No new chapter for a while, huh? Am I out of the loop?

JK-chan's getting a book version on Feb 26 under the name "JK to Tomodachi no Okan" with 42 pages of redraws and new content, but the downside is that the web series will apparently come to an end on Feb 21.
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/87321307

What do you think the chances it gets translated are?

I'm talking about the foxtail plant. What are you talking about?

The toy Sae bought for Nora. Why would we be taking about the plant? Sae got her a toy fox tail, which seems to be some fake fur made to look like a tiny fox tail, not the actual plant.

What uh...what did she do to the foxtail...? I thought she just chewed on it a lot so it was her salavia making it wet, but the "peculiar scent" thing makes me think she...peed on it? I'm confused

She probably just chewed on it, but more importantly, foxtails can be dangerous for animals, so don't give one to an actual cat anyway.

I know the foxtail plant can burrow into the animals skin and cause infection, but what's the danger of a clump of fur shaped like a fox tail?

What uh...what did she do to the foxtail...? I thought she just chewed on it a lot so it was her salavia making it wet, but the "peculiar scent" thing makes me think she...peed on it? I'm confused

Kara's phone background is Vivi sleeping!

I wish the chapters were organized in volumes like most dynasty books are, makes it easier to look at and give useful information.

Sigh, conflicted feelings on this. In any case, I'd still like to read this, but the instructions are kind of confusing to me, can anyone link the actual page I need to go to to pay?

I don't dont know if I'm interpreting this the wrong way, but the vibe I got is that the light haired girl likes the black haired one (forgot their names) but the black haired one dosent know it, and strictly does it for business. Im thinking about like those two girls from Lily Marble, Hikari and Moe, if anyone has read that, where there playing a gay couple but one of them is actually in love.

last edited at Nov 21, 2020 1:12PM

Did Chibi get a gender swap? I always thought it was a guy, and I could've sworn they used male pronouns before this chapter. Was it a translation error or something the author did. Also, I am positively in love with this series and want more, is the translation all up to date, or can I buy more?