imo you're either a real couple or you're not. Clean emotional lines save future hurt.

That's certainly an opinion you can have. I'm personally committed to "clean emotional lines" myself

But I've also known any number of "not really a couple/off-and-on as a couple but always together/we prefer to leave it ambiguous/you thought we were together when we weren't but now we are," etc, couples, and the degree of hurt involved, if any, was (mostly) known only to them.

To add to that, if the couple is actually good at communicating, there will be regular reassessments of the current relationship status, with accompanying changes in emotional and behavioral commitment. Granted, communication is hard, and romance fiction is all about lack of it...

Sakuma: praises the sun first thing in the morning
Me: Ah, I see you are a woman of culture, as well.

Can we just appreciate for a moment how masterfully the right half of the first page in this chapter establishes the relationship between Takako and Yuki in just three frames? This is the first time we see the guy (or I have already forgotten about him), yet by the time he opens his mouth for the first time in this chapter, we already know roughly who he is and what his relationship with Takako is.

tfw you buy a box of liqueur chocolates knowing your significant other is a lightweight and will pass out after eating just one, leaving the rest of the box for you to devour.

As we all know, your life in Japan ends once you graduate from high school. :-(

Do we have a tag for Truck-kun, that old workhorse, delivering tragedy to us since 1900?

last edited at Jan 18, 2021 7:53AM

And it even says non-alcoholic on the bottle...

Imoko was just looking for a convenient excuse to drop the charade and let her true self shine through, pretending not to remember anything afterwards. She is really a scary woman, in an awesome way.

Also, did she murder her mother in cold blood at some point? Cause I dunno. I'd be at or about that point. Asks what I'm doing as I move sinisterly closer? "I'm having you scrapped."

Sana: "I'm having you scrapped. You are a bad influence on me."
Mom: "...well played."

The author likes animals huh

My working theory is that Neji has gotten themselves a pet hamster and is now itching to tell everyone everything they've learned about caring for it. That seems how most cat(girl) mangas come into being nowadays, anyway...

last edited at Jan 12, 2021 2:41AM

Why do I feel lie I'm gonna need to dig out my old copy of Kitaro Nishida for the next chapter...

last edited at Jan 10, 2021 12:10PM

Takahashi: Oh gosh I’m too nervous to approach any customers :/

Also Takahashi: pulls out guns who wants to get shot in the face????

Shooting people is so much simpler than conversing with them -- or at least, it's supposed to get easier after the first time. Communication is harder than violence, that's why most popular entertainment is about the former, while people actually talking out their problems with each other is so rare...

I don't think Takahashi has been a hitwoman. The Miike goons refer to her as "figurehead" and "young lady", meaning that she was more of a yakuza princess, rather than a full-time killer like Matsui. This explains her combat skills, but seeing how she tried to quit her family's lifestyle by finding honest work, I do not think that her innocence was faked at any point.

You are most likely right in all points.

I just love scenes where the helpless bystander turns out not to be so helpless. It's a sadly, criminaly underused narrative device.

Best use of this trope was in the Bad Times at the El Royale movie IMO. Still get goosebumps at the 'Miles, how many people have you killed?' scene.

last edited at Jan 6, 2021 6:44AM

Huh, her boss turned out to be a pretty decent guy

Since he was the one who got Matsui flight tickets which eventually led to them being together...I guess you might say he was the wingman?

Thing is, most bosses are pretty decent dudes to dudes who a) bring in the money (or do good services, as in this case) and b) stay loyal. Matsui did both of those things, that's why she got to retire in peace -- and serve as an aspirational example to her boss' other underlings. It's all good politics on "aniki's" part.

This kinda reminded me of Noir in some ways.
I would have preferred if the store girl didn't turn out to be an assassin. That way staying to be the innocent part of Matsui's life.
But hey, i won't complain~

In a way she still kind of is right? Both in the way of love and with the fact that despite being a hitman herself or whatever she still had that innocent smile and sweetness. So while not innocence in the way of the world and mortality/morality, still innocent? I don’t know if my point is clear or if I’m even making one tbh.

I don't think Takahashi has been a hitwoman. The Miike goons refer to her as "figurehead" and "young lady", meaning that she was more of a yakuza princess, rather than a full-time killer like Matsui. This explains her combat skills, but seeing how she tried to quit her family's lifestyle by finding honest work, I do not think that her innocence was faked at any point.

Mireille??? Is that you??????

Yeah, and the other one is Kirika.

This is the Noir fancomic that dare not speak its name.

Absolutely. The amount of Noir nostalgia in this thread pleases me.

last edited at Jan 5, 2021 4:18PM

In my head, I've heard Azurite's entire cool monologue in Shamir/Yurina Watanabe's voice. Or was that Signum/Kaori Shimizu's?..

OK, show of hands: Who do you think should voice Azurite if this gets animated?

last edited at Jan 5, 2021 3:57PM

Well, the latest chapter is one creative way for the author to admit they've got a writer's block. :D

Why is every comments the same

Because a lot of people only use the forum to express their opinions, rather than to read the others' and to engage them in conversation.

last edited at Jan 4, 2021 7:14AM

10/10 authentic cat experience, can confirm.

It'd be just like this manga to make the person supposedly in need of rescue from psycho cultists the greatest psychopath on the island...

Perhaps it was a ghosting story.

Ba-dum-tss. :D

This deserves Kodama Naoko's seal of approval.

My thoughts exactly.

But what if Minami is actually Pure Ruby, who, as an MG vet, can maintain the perfect poker face and just likes pulling Azusa's leg at school?

last edited at Dec 28, 2020 3:37PM

Indeed, on a more abstract level, it is Anise's existence that unbalances the setting, but I still contend that in Euphie's specific case, she wasn't the catalyst of her derailment from the default life path(s) that their feudal/aristocratic institutions had groomed her for. :-)

That's fair. From Euphie's perspective, the shattering of the engagement was the point where her life went off-track, but this would've happened regardless of Anise's reincarnation, so I decided to consider it part of her 'destiny', so to speak. There's no parallel worldline where the engagement wasn't broken, because the event stems from the personalities of everyone involved and is a foregone conclusion, even if Euphie can't detect it (much like how your average citizen would be much better at detecting a revolution in the making than a sheltered aristocrat, but the revolution itself would be born of sustained tension that had built up over decades). In my opinion, the point of divergence is Anise jumping in and offering Euphie a different, happier lifestyle, using her status as a temporal 'outsider' to alter the progression of events, because she has perspectives and ideas that weren't 'earned' via historical progression, but carried over from a different universe.

That would be true if it a divergence has actually happened, but at this point in the manga (haven't read the WN), Euphie is still barrelling down the "failed queen" route into obscurity. The whole point that Anise has tried to make her comprehend in this chapter is that she (Anise) wants her (Euphie) to make a conscious decision to get off those tracks and start moving in a different direction. The fact that this demand emotionally hurt Euphie shows that she is not yet ready to make that jump -- she has not reached the tipping point yet, so to speak, although I have no doubt that she will do so if Anise keeps infecting her with modern ideas.

Speaking of which, I do not think that historical development can only be "leapfrogged" by a temporal outsider, i.e. a person from a society at a later stage of the same evolutionary path (roughly Western European, in this case). As a counterexample, I point to Claude from FE3H and contend that any kind of outside perspective, if taken serious (which most of the time it isn't) can help a person or a group resolve long-standing contradictions and live a happier life.

Well, that's certainly something. The pages are updated, but you have to clear your cache or read in incognito mode before they display properly. Let's see if I can fix that

Edit: Should be fixed. Please post if anyone is having issues viewing the chapter.

Suddenly.... PLOT happens. :D But I guess it's good practice to finish a largely introspective, reflection chapter focusing on the protagonist's inner journey with an action-heavy preview of the forthcoming outer plot.

last edited at Dec 28, 2020 12:12PM

TL;DR- Anise changes Euphie's life by mere virtue of existing in a powerful position where she can assert her (decidedly atypical) will over events.

Indeed, on a more abstract level, it is Anise's existence that unbalances the setting, but I still contend that in Euphie's specific case, she wasn't the catalyst of her derailment from the default life path(s) that their feudal/aristocratic institutions had groomed her for. :-)

This series handles ambivalence pretty well- for all the emotions running high this chapter, the underlying theme is a deep, gnawing sense of uncertainty. Characters in a story, whether they're tragic or comic, have a path that they're supposed to take, defined by their circumstances and relationships, shaped by the times. But as an outsider, Anise diverts people from those paths, introducing the values of a different world to the locals. In the long-term, this might save them, but their first impression is always going to be confusion and bewilderment, and Euphie's desperate attempts to fit everything Anise says into her ideals of duty and obligation is an example of that.

While I often agree with you, Kirin, I think you are way off the mark this time. Not about uncertainty -- that much is true, but about the role Anise plays in it and specifically in Euphie's life. Euphie is, indeed, diverted from her predetermined path, but not by Anise, but by the political/marital machinations of her own fiance. I may agree that this merely set Euphie onto another predetermined path, namely, that of fading into obscurity as a dishonored would-be queen (a sad reality for many medieval noblewomen), and Anise is gently pushing her off that track at the moment because it only leads to her destruction, rather than in an effort to impose her value system onto her. The problem is that while Euphie has already realized emotionally what track she is on, she hasn't recognized it on an intellectual level, still clinging to her role as a dutiful servant of the royal family.

Also, am I the only one who found Euphie and particularly Anise's facial expressions in this chapter jarring? Not bad, just unexpected. I think they indicate the hurting both of them experience in regards to Euphie's current situation.

last edited at Dec 28, 2020 3:46AM