On the subject of trainwrecks, tragedies, and supposed "garbage" endings - I usually try to avoid tragedies. Personal preference. This one has been so good and so consistently compelling, even knowing how it will most probably end and not being ready for it, I'm still here for the ride. I'm not going to lie, huge part of me hopes for the ass-pull of the century, and judging by the writing in the series so far, I actually believe that given enough time the author could make something that would be more compelling than gathering all of the dragon balls, but even if it doesn't, nothing takes away from how good of a story it is, plain and simple.

In any case, this chapter had a bit of fluff in it, but then hit with the sucker punch near the end, holy crap. I was tempted to joke about Kaori now shipping her sister with Shizuku and the series ends with them being together somehow, but I don't have it in me to do anything more than this lame attempt. Goddamnit.

yeah it certainly is a mark of a good tragedy that you sit there knowing that it won't end well but you still can't help but care for the characters and want for them to gain a good ending even when you know it won't happen.

Yeah, I keep telling myself: "Maybe she just needs better medical care and gets moved to a foreign hospital, and that's why it was their 'last summer' together!"

Farm director? So she basically runs this place, huh. Didn't expect that

Yeah no kidding. Seems like there was another picture on the same row of the poster, but her section had 'corporate responsibilities' listed.

I really liked the comments here.

I wish Yuri Love Slave was on Dynasty just so I could read the comments for that. That one is really off the wall.

I think this manga reminds me of that one because this one has a large "this is a self-insert fantasy for lonely lesbians" feeling, and Yuri Love Slave is the ultimate self-insert fantasy.

last edited at Sep 10, 2022 10:23PM

The "Let's put the tits and ass away..." line had me in stitches. That was gold!

anyone else getting serious psychological horror vibes coming off chapters 18 and 19? like... you felt that right??

Yeah, a little, but my recent reading has consisted of: Saviour, Kill Me Now, I'm More Dangerous Than You, and Fatal Possession.

Basically, not everything is a ridiculously fucked up manhua plot.

I mean whether or not she is neurodivergent, she's living with her parents at 27, deeply weird, fairly lazy, and never dated, which is so ridiculously relatable for me, lol!

Anyone got a good theory on why she suddenly retreated after retrieving the cake? Basically, what is the "what a shame" x 3 about?

It almost seemed related to the use of the word "lass".

last edited at Sep 5, 2022 7:16AM

Man, I'm not looking forward to the seemingly inevitable conclusion of this where Kashiwagi eventually realizes that she won't be able to fit into this poly relationship and thus has ruined everything she had for ultimately nothing

Well there's two potential paths:
1. Kashiwai lowers her expectations and accepts (at least for now) to be one of Tsuzuki's lovers.
2. Kashiwai realizes she can't be in a monogamous relationship with Tsuzuki and is heartbroken. However, she reset her way out of a marriage she seemingly wasn't very attached to and now knows she likes women, so she has a lot better options for future relationships.

Or I guess the third path: messily oscillating between those two options, causing unhappiness and hurt for all.

This manga shows off the thought process for "the MC is triggered by a bad topic, has to switch mental gears, adopt a fake smile, and soldier on through the conversation while trying to find an exit" better than anything I've ever seen, even in novels. It is so relatable for me. Being trans, there's several topics that would I never want to think about, nevermind talk about, but sometimes conversations go there anyway, and the kind of mental agony of it is something you rarely see expressed in fiction, especially this well.

I trust Awa-kun. I mean to him Kahiwai is in love with a woman who’s getting married. And is planning her wedding. Assumedly he doesn’t know about the polyamory or that the feelings are returned so he just sees his coworker in a difficult and probably heartbreaking position. I mean it’s none of his business but still, I can see that there’s (probably) care there.

Also sheesh I know Kashiwai is new to this but I hope she’s not gonna get mad that she’s not suddenly Tsuzukis no.1 priority

I think this chapter made it pretty obvious (at least to me) that Kashiwai wants monogamy (upset over ring, unwillingness to work around Tsuzuki's existing partners, etc). She's just a monogamous person who was in a "this is the best thing I've got" relationship, and Tsuzuki entering the picture was a shocking lesbian/bisexual revelation that she wants all to herself. Kashiwai calling off her own wedding was a result of her interest in monogamy.

last edited at Sep 3, 2022 8:50AM

I really liked this one. Nice one-shot with a good bit of angst and then a positive resolution.

I really love how this manga tackles so many different issues with a more realistic lens than most fiction.

I chipped in some to help support the author as well.

last edited at Aug 22, 2022 3:48PM

I would be willing to accept a straight-but-friends ending, but them dating would be 100x better.

So few good manga for us the Bi !!!

There's a lot of manhwa and manhua with bisexual characters, even ones that aren't in villain roles. Love triangles are a common theme with bisexual protagonists, though, but it isn't like lesbians don't have their own tropes in fiction (lesbians often get pulled out of relationships they have forced themselves to accept, as an example).

One manhwa with a bisexual protagonist that I enjoy is The Third Party. It is stereotypically Korean (i.e. expect corporate espionage, betrayals, etc - all the staples of K dramas), but I don't mind that. It is a refreshing change of pace from the dozenth high school manga.

On that note, I think there's a few reasons that bisexuality is rare in manga:
1. Because manga tends to feature teenagers more often than not, who are extremely unsure of their sexuality to begin with.
2. Eastern fiction in general tries to avoid labeling sexuality.
3. You often just don't have enough information to determine a character's sexuality. These types of stories are about just tiny snippets of our characters' lives focused around a relationship or two. We only get the information the author wants us to have (which as point 2 addresses is rarely sexuality).

As an example of that, let's look at say... Akko, from the classic manga Girl Friends. She is probably bi or pan, as she shows interest in men before showing interest in Mari. However, she never uses those terms, so how we do know that she wasn't just presenting heteronormative behaviors and is actually a lesbian? We don't. In fact, the word 'gay' comes up once in the entire 34 chapters (and is the only LGBTQ+ label that does), when Mari stutters and says she isn't gay (ironic considering from what we know of her character, she is).

On an unrelated note, this manga is fairly similar to another manga about a backpacker who came home every once in a while to her 'friend' who had feelings for her. I forget the name of that one. It was a originally a 1-shot but it got a couple follow-ups, and the entire set of them was published in an anthology.

Edit: https://sevenseasentertainment.com/series/the-conditions-of-paradise/

last edited at Aug 18, 2022 2:54PM

can someone please tell me, is manhwa always so long in all the ways?? loooooong plot development is a thing or something?

No genre has absolutes enough to say 'always', but, yes, usually the plot and especially the romance is very long and drawn out.

Baili Jin Among Mortals is a good example of an exception, where the main couple gets together pretty quickly (only like 40 chapters).

The most frustrating thing about manhwa is how the authors often censor any kissing between same-sex characters out of fear that it could become an issue.

last edited at Aug 3, 2022 7:50AM

I really like this story because it reminds me so much more of what life is actually like for a closeted teen lesbian.

Having an MC that is sure of their own sexuality as a teenager but isn't open about it is very unusual in manga.

I also like that the little sister can sense that something is slightly different than normal about Saki's interest in Kanon but doesn't have enough life experience to make the "is a lesbian and is in love with her" guess.

I don't know why but this series gives me such weird feeling of anxiety while reading, does anyone else feel like that?

I think for me it really is how un even the Saki and Kanon dynamic feels. Saki seems so afraid or self conscious of her feelings, and is trying desperately to not show them while also just trying to be genuine with kanon. It feels like she’s walking on eggshells in most scenes, or that she’s always anxious

Idk how much of this is just my personal read, but it just feels like Saki is stressed constantly, or on the edge of having a nervous breakdown. It might be my feelings toward the artwork, Saki just always lookin stressed out to me at the end of some of these chapters lol

No, I also get this impression. She's constantly tense or acting restrained. This is what Rinne is picking up on as being unusual. I think it's a combination of:
A. wanting to put her best foot forward for a girl she's interested in
B. restraining herself from showing her true feelings
C. trying to be respectful of Kanon and her hearing problems
D. wanting to be a good friend

Obviously some of those desires are conflicting.

last edited at Aug 3, 2022 7:21AM

Kaori tightens her grip on her phone when Shizuku mentions a book coming out next month...

Kaori doesn't think she'll be alive then, does she?

This is also why she sets up Shizuku to meet her little sister.

last edited at Aug 3, 2022 1:58AM

The author couldn't possibly spell out the ending any harder, given that each chapter that worldbuilds has a different part of the foreshadowing that leads to a somewhat obvious conclusion.

That said, it really doesn't bother me. I'm looking forward to it. So I guess they did it well.

I like it, a lot. So I’m sensitive, I’m sorry, but I don’t like angst. I seem to be in the minority. Also, I still like it. Maybe I’m confused.

Angst sucks, and it makes you feel bad. However, it increases the positive emotions generated at the resolution of it by a strong amount.

I guess you could say angst is like a simulant.

There are some people who prefer the pure fluff stories, which are just about kissy couples with lots of handholding and no domestic conflict... but I've found my emotional state to be particularly susceptible to angst. Stories with some low points make the high points feel that much higher.

Hah, I think Yurika's mom has figured out that she has a crush on Minamo.

This is actually pretty great, especially for fanfiction.

Kurumi had a bit of character growth in this chapter (17) at the end when she realizes that the "still be friends after break-up" part was entirely for herself.

She isn't willing to fully reciprocate Ruriko's feelings but wants to keep their relationship special anyway. Perhaps realizing this will be a catalyst for change.

This is published on Twitter, but is there a good way to give the author money?

Big <3 for rescue cats!

I felt the first book of the LN was pretty weak too. The characters weren't given enough time to breathe and it just jumps between plot points from the train onwards in a kind of lurching way.

Thankfully, books 2 through 4 were far better paced -and- fixed the "future Akari feels like a Deus Ex Machina" problem.

If anyone else here read book 1, thought "this feels rushed and kind of bleh", I recommend checking out the second book.

The high level of moral ambiguity leading to frequent shifting of alliances makes book 2+ (manga ch 13+) feel like Fullmetal Alchemist in more ways than one.

last edited at Jun 5, 2022 9:35AM

"It'd be weird if someone didn't have someone they liked"

No you blue haired jerk, that's not weird. I know this isn't a manga about asexuality, but that's really annoying to read lol

weird/abnormal/not normal =/= bad

Being incapable of romantic love is, from practically every perspective, certainly not normal - whether you equate being not normal to bad is on you.

These terms and feelings ('weird', 'normal', 'abnormal', 'disorder', and even things like 'disease') are kind of a mess in our society, even if you ignore LGBTQ+ concerns.

Even if we view "normalness" in a completely objective way using statistics, where do we put the line? Basically, the first problem lies in that 'normal' is a binary metric in a lexical sense. This means any debate over 'normal' vs 'abnormal' requires both parties to constantly define the terms and thresholds involved, as well as their rationale for using those thresholds (ideally backed by broad studies of word perception for a given population).

And this isn't even touching on the second, arguably larger problem: that some of these words have a connotation that is negative (sometimes very negative) even if the denotation does not suggest that.

Like if a small child (female) came up to you and asked if them liking girls made them weird, you would probably say "no" out of hand. This is because you know that the answer this child is looking for is about acceptance, not about statistics.

For a non-LGBT example, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) uses the term 'disorder'. This term means 'contrary to the order of things'. From a purely denotational perspective, not only is this accurate, but it is probably also an accurate description of the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum. It is fairly easy to argue from a purely statistical perspective that being a lesbian is a 'disorder' and 'abnormal'.

Obviously, nobody reasonable would use that language to describe LGBTQ+ people because of the extremely negative connotation (especially on 'disorder'). On a related note, there has been increasing pushback against using the term 'disorder' in both ASD and DSD (Disorders of Sexual Development - a clinical umbrella term for most intersex conditions) for this exact reason. The latter is often called Differences in Sexual Development now as a result.

I don't know other languages very well so I'm not sure how much of this is an English problem and how much of it is just a "humans associate frequency with correctness" problem (we tend to view rare things as bad). Some of it is also a "medical terminology adapted as self-identification terminology" issue.

I'm not sure how to fix any of it either. Even if we switch the terms out for ones that have cleaner connotations (which does make sense), if the problem is really just human nature, then we'll just have the same problem 50-100 years from now. To use the DSD example, a century from now 'differences' may seem as offensive to us as 'disorders' is now. I guess that's a problem for future generations, though.

/Weird(probably)SideRant

last edited at Jun 2, 2022 1:17AM