Best flirting ever.

Yup, just two perverts playing with each other.

What does the Geba in Gebarangers mean tho?

Just typed ゲバレ into google and it came up with Che Guevara, who was indeed a Marxist revolutionary, so I guess the correct name would be "Guevaranger". (I'll let Urbs decide if they want to bother fixing it or not).

What does the Geba in Gebarangers mean tho?

Geba or "ゲバ" is the Japanese term for political violence.

I must admit, I didn't expect this particular rabbit hole to go this deep.

Takemiya Jin doing a yuri zombie series... I need this in my life.

Yup, inject it right into my veins.

Saonji: ships everyone else
Everyone else: ships Saonji with Tachibana

The irony is delightful.

Tachibana: just wants to write entertaining romance

How exactly do these two still have their powers if magical girls aren't supposed to be able to be in love and have powers?

The only explanation would be that the magic is heteronormative...

Or that the whole no-love thing is a lie to keep the girls "pure" for marketing reasons, like the whole "no relationships" clause in idol contracts. In fact, the magical girl genre is very often used as a metaphor to explore the ugly parts of the idol business.

last edited at Apr 27, 2021 1:28PM

useless lesbian being useless :///

What is useless about not trying to date the girl you are convinienced is straight?

I Swear, so many people have forgotten what useless lesbian even means

So, this chapter has used the term explicitly -- was it a correct usage or another misapplication?

For me that doesn't quite work since I like world building but have never written stories. So I've made a couple magic systems that I classify based on how many rules they have.

My "definition" is actually a simplified explanation given by Brandon Sanderson in his online lectures, and he never precisely correlates the number of rules with system hardness, instead zooming in on their narrative functions. :-)

last edited at Apr 26, 2021 8:50AM

Hard and soft magic systems are more of a scale than a binary and I'd say this meets somewhere in the middle

I'd say that rather than a binary or a scale, hard and soft magic systems are the difference between narrative functions of magic in the story: a hard MS is a tool for characters to clear obstacles and to resolve conflict, while a soft MS is a chaotic impulse that introduces a sense of wonder, of "what's going to happen next?" to the story. From this point of view (and without having read the WN), the magic system in this manga is neither hard, nor soft so far, but mostly just another attribute to characterize the protagonists by their affinities to different elements. Neither Rei, nor Claire utilize magic to advance their respective story arcs in any significant capacity (as they would if it truly were a hard MS), but neither is it a major source of new plot points (like a soft MS would).

I guess my point is that rather than sitting between hard and soft MS, this story's magic is neither in equal measure, as it could have been removed altogether without affecting the essential plot lines very much (again, with the caveats "so far" and "I haven't read the WN").

last edited at Apr 26, 2021 3:58AM

Urgh, athletic people with social skills are the worst.

That arrow is so huge...

It's gonna need its own postal code soon.

I look forward to Kfufu's de-indoctrination. Grats to Spirits, she's just adopted a side kick. (Maybe.)

Looks like the amalareiks die when their indoctrination is broken, so...

My impression was that they are all already dead, with the indoctrination keeping parts of them operational in order to advance Stigma's master plan.

Gap moe occasionally cures uselessness, noted.

But hey, on the bright side, this arc is finally ending! :-)

After this they had lots of you know what.

As long as it's not hand-holding, it's fine.

Being trilingual, I regularly find myself randomly thinking in one of my three languages, depending on which one I actually spoke last and which audience I imagine telling whatever I am currently thinking to.

Did they just nonchalantly cross the line? Sudden beautiful relationship progression

I am guess that switching bodies is one hell of an icebreaker.

Wow! Hats off to the writing in this manga!

In case you blinked and missed it, Azul in this chapter explains Utena's power, her faults, her own weakness, while also looking baddass and taking names.

• We learned that Utena's power is literally a warped form of "Love"
• We also learned that Utena's love is one sided, she cannot accept love she can only give. This also reframes the title: - " Looking up to Magical Girls", as Utena feels herself beneath them.
• And finally we learned that in their previous fight Azul only accepted Utena's "love", and could not return it, that's why she ended up in that state.

Funnily enough the key to beating Utena seems to be loving her back?!

That's brilliant, actually. Now I ship Utena x Azul even more...

I thought I was done with this story ... then Tres Magia reemerged from the shadows, and suddenly this story became much more interesting. Azul and Baiser's dynamic is incredible, and they certainly have much more in common than Loco and Baiser, I'm sorry everyone, I'm officially a Azul x Baiser stan.

I think that Tres Magia make for much better antagonists to Utena/Basier because of the personal connection she has with them. I was afraid that the Evil Magical Girl Team (whatever they were called) was the first sign that the series has turned into a Monster of the Week fare, but it turned out to be just a time out that Azul needed to process her defeats and to turn her apparent weaknesses into a strength. I am glad to have been wrong about the direction of the story and should have given the author more benefit of the doubt.

Best case scenario: Noel leaves. Our heroines, including wolf girl, are left to pick up the pieces and go on a few dozen chapters of adventure before confronting Noel and her goons.

I'll do you one better: Noel kills the Pope, Dorothy ascends to the throne and directs all Church resources to hunt her down, but Maria goes rogue and joins Noel, learning the vampires' side of the story. Oh, and Shannon becomes the new Papess' bodyguard, escalating her rivalry with Maria.

last edited at Apr 21, 2021 1:35AM

This oneshot had some serious April Fools' energy to it, had to double-check my calendar... but nope, seems official to me. :D

last edited at Apr 20, 2021 8:15AM

We need a good series set in a cozy lesbian bar like that. Have each chapter feature a short story with a new couple while the owner and bartender share an overarching story. Gimme gimme.

https://dynasty-scans.com/series/chatting_at_the_amber_teahouse

You are welcome. :-)

The Kuudere archetype soothes my soul.

really weird chapter overall

My thoughts exactly. It's been so long that I have forgotten who this Koyuki even was. When was she previously introduced, anyway?

Is it normal to talk about girls like that at the workplace? seems so weird and would definitely result in a HR call

From what I've about Japanese office culture, the whole purpose of the Office lady "job" is to find a man, marry him, and quit before she is 25. So the men thusly discussing their female colleagues are simply evaluating their job performance, in a twisted way.

last edited at Apr 10, 2021 4:23PM

The fact that Azurite is fucking ripped always manages to take by surprise when is shown.

No kidding. Beneath the adorkable exterior, Azurite is packing the physique of a professional kickboxer. Seriously, does this girl work out like 6 hours a day while marathoning anime or something?

I can't recall: has it ever been shown if her civilian persona is similarly ripped? If not, it may be just a part of her transformation, given how all blues appear to specialize in close-quarters combat.