Nice; we hardly ever see fanart for this series.

I personally didn't think the parts I brought up spoiled anything significant, which is why I decided not to spoiler-tag them.

I rented it on Renta and read through the entire series. I'll share my thoughts on it while keeping spoilers to a minimum.

Like some other people, I think that it could have been longer, even if it covered the same period of time that the series did (there's a month-long timeskip between Chapter 3 and 4, so the series can't be much more than a few months long). Covering the series in more depth would help to give more time to explore the various subplots, like Shiina's past relationship, in more depth.

The series has some interesting and depressing tidbits about same-sex couples in Japan- not only can they not get married, but they're often barred from visiting each other in the hospital and renting apartments together. The latter is interesting, because one would think two unmarried individuals of the same sex rooming together would raise fewer eyebrows than two unmarried people of opposite sexes.

The cast is relatively small, but most of the characters besides the main couple seem rather underdeveloped.

All in all, my opinion is that this is a good idea that could have gone on longer.

Renta has an interesting model that allows people to rent rather than buy manga, but the yuri genre selection is rather disappointing- there's only 19 titles, and this is the only one I've heard of.

last edited at Apr 13, 2022 9:33AM by OrangePekoe

Btw, guys, this is licensed on Renta! so buy the thing there if you wanna support the author

I'm glad this is releasing slowly to encourage people to rent it and support it. Link in quote above.

I just rented the rest of the series for $4. Was interesting to see it play out. Wish it was 12 chapters instead of 6, but I'm satisfied.

I took a look at it on Renta, and may rent the chapters that haven't come out yet..

The localization seems decent thus far, but I find it a bit odd that they switched to having the two main characters using first names on each other. I wonder if it'll cause problems later if Takagai and Shiina switch to first names.

The story was lackluster, and events tended to happen because the plot demanded it.

The characters weren't all that interesting, and the secondary club members were basically there to fill space.

The ending felt like a copout, although I'm not really surprised. While I was hoping for a more bittersweet ending in which Nanasawa comes to terms with not getting together with Seto, it's fairly obvious that the story was going this direction since the older Nanasawa confessed.

That said, it had its moments, so I'd call it a guilty pleasure.

I still think the 'Depressing as fuck' tag is all wrong.
And the 'Aaaaaangst' tag is borderline.
There's a difference between a real depressing story, like something denouncing social evils like abject poverty or racial discrimination, and an 'Awwwwwww poor bay-bee!' kind of story where you just want to hug the lead character to make everything better.

Relatively mundane things can be rather depressing too, especially if they're realistic and easy relatable. The idea of continued failures degrading one's self-worth and empowering one's inner critic is something many people, myself included, have had to deal with, so it's not hard to see why Neeko turned out the way she did.

Considering what happened in the interview, it's not hard to imagine that the company could end up being verbally abusive to Neeko, or that Neeko's current mental state would cause her to crash and burn shortly after taking the job, so maybe it's for the best that she didn't.

I mean you’re not supposed to go “yay incest!” They’re villains.

Maybe they are, but you're apparently meant to sympathize with their love for each other, as well as the fact that they've been forced to take part in the plot.

As for "the Aurousseau family," I wonder if there are any known members of the family besides Lambert and Lene who would also have been executed if the king thought the whole family deserved to die for the siblings' actions.

last edited at Mar 20, 2022 3:00PM

While I liked this version gradually developing Yukiko and Konomi's relationship, I personally preferred the simpler relationship dynamics of the original, so I'm starting to wish that this version had gone in a direction more similar to the original.

Can't believe after 7 years, it's actually over

Me neither. I lost interest in Ribbon Warrior at some point along the line(I think after Centipede vs. Duck Team), and only noticed it again after it popped up as a Featured Series.

Oof I'm very very confused of their relationship, what exactly is this relationship? Like, they are not girlfriends or are they? What the fck is going on?

From what I can gather, Makino knows Reina is a lesbian, but their parents don't know(and probably won't approve), which is why Reina passes her girlfriend off as a boy and becomes terrified when Makino openly discusses her "boyfriend's" gender.

Does anyone know how many volumes of the series have been released in the original Japanese? I thought Volume 8 was near the end of the series, but apparently not.

Volume 9 went on sale in November (so we are currently only one volume behind), and the series is still being published. The English release date is set for May, but it wouldn't surprised me to see it being delayed two or three months, unfortunately.

It's hard to tell how much longer the series will continue, but I just hope the author can finish it at her/his own pace. I find her/his work to be absolutely fantastic, and it would be a shame (and really anticlimactic) to have a rushed ending of any kind. I'm glad Kodansha has licensed this series and Whisper Me a Love Song.

Thanks for the answer. Since the series is only up to the summer, I suspect that it will continue until the holiday season in-universe, since Liebe probably has a big holiday event planned there, and it may lead to something romantic between Hime and Mitsuki, as well as possibly Kanoko and Sumika.

I'm also glad that the series got licensed, especially since the translator dropped it after only two chapters and it's no longer on this site. The story only really gets going at the end of the first volume, so it's nice to be able to buy the first volume and have the relatively slow-paced beginning end with a payoff in the form of a twist at the end of the first volume.

Hiyama, sweety…honey. She is STRAIGHT. Please move on, there is no hope with this one.

Most people feign straight until they get a little wet

That maybe true, but All evidence, so far, points to the fact hat Hyama is barking up the wrong tree. In fact if this was a trial, it take the jury less then 10 minutes to return the virtdict that Kimura is straight as an arrow.

Only if they haven't been presented all the evidence we've been shown.

Quite right. Pending further evidence, I’m sticking with my theory that Kimura is failing to drag Hyama into her planned shoujo manga and is slowly being absorbed into Hyama’s yuri story.

Because of the power of love.

My yuri goggles wants that to true, but my inner yuri sceptic tells me this is just a gag comic that will just be discontinued when the writer gets bored of the joke. Man my inner yuri sceptic is a real downer. Lol.

As amusing as the premise is, I personally hope that there's some actual romantic development between Hiyama and Kimura.

To anyone that kept up with this, does anything happen with Sumika and Kanoko beyond just friendship or no?

At this point, it's too early to tell.

Kanoko and Sumika become schwestern in Volume 4, but Kanoko still seems to have her unrequited and unconfessed crush on Hime(resulting in jealousy-induced hostility toward Mitsuki). That said, in Volume 8, Kanoko does get Mitsuki to be honest with Hime, thereby convincing Hime not to quit Liebe. As a result, both Hime and Mitsuki accept that Hime doesn't return Mitsuki's feelings(although there are more than a few hints that Hime is starting to fall for Mitsuki, even if she doesn't understand it yet).

Volume 9's cover shows Sumika and Kanoko, so perhaps we'll get another arc about them now that the latest Hime/Mitsuki arc has concluded.

Does anyone know how many volumes of the series have been released in the original Japanese? I thought Volume 8 was near the end of the series, but apparently not.

I think one of the most palatable ways to handle a couple with power imbalance is for the person with the least power to be the most gung-ho about the relationship while the one with the power is more adverse to the idea.

I guess it shows that their power wasn't misused to manipulate the other person.

That's true, and it's probably why, in most teacher-student romances I've read, the student is the one asking the teacher out.

I love age gap, but responsible student x useless adult teacher has been overdone and feels bland

In all fairness, having an age gap romance in which the younger party is relatively mature and the older party is relatively immature helps mitigate some of the power imbalance issues in the romance, although there's still the fact that this is also a student-teacher romance, which has its own issues.

That last panel has to be intentional... The M is upside down indeed. :D

"WcDonalds" is a fairly common way for anime and manga to include McDonalds without violating trademarks.

I'm curious to see what the results of Ai's competition at work are. I wonder if they're being saved for the next chapter because the outcome could be more significant than Nagisa's slight improvement in his grades.

In the "distracted boyfriend" meme, the girl the boyfriend's looking at is in the foreground, the boyfriend is in the center and the girlfriend's on the right. Granted, the perspective's turned to focus on the couple, but the girlfriend playing the role of the boyfriend isn't turning as much, and the other girlfriend doesn't seem as angry.

The manga's been released in English on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Believe-Slept-You-Vol-ebook/dp/B09NMYWW72/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=even+if+it+was+just+once%2C+i+regret+it+manga&qid=1643164297&sprefix=even+if+it+was+%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-3

I might check it out, but I'm not at all fond of the title("I Can't Believe I Slept With You!); it reduces the impact of the "title drop" just before Ritsuka confesses to Chiyo. I only realized it was the same series because of the synopsis on the back and the characters on the front.

last edited at Jan 26, 2022 10:59PM

There's only one thing you need to understand about boku. Don't watch the anime

Unrelated but I lost my virginity while watching that anime, and this is 100% not a joke.

What anime are we talking about? I searched and found a dozen with boku in their names.

I personally think of Bokurano, the title of which means "Ours" in Japanese.

As for the pronouns, "Atashi" is a cute and feminine pronoun mainly used by girls, an abbreviated form of the somewhat more formal "Watashi." "Boku" is a somewhat polite personal pronoun used by males, usually young or teenage boys, or by tomboyish girls. "Ore" is a rough and rather informal first person pronoun that is used almost exclusively by guys- the only girls who tend use it are either very rude or pretending to be guys.

With that in mind, we know Teruko uses "Atashi," but what does Doujima Taiga use- "Ore"?

The second and final volume of the anthology came out today. I liked it better than the first one, especially since a couple of the stories take place between Chapter 44 and 45 of the main series, and one of them was done by Nakatani herself.

I wasn't all that interested in Ano for most of my first playthrough, but I warmed up to her after I learned that she could see(but not hear) the kindred spirits late in the game, and played some of her POV scenes. I still prefer the Yuna/Hina ship, and while a Yuna/Ano ending might be nice, I'm not sure how they could incorporate it given the Daily Planner system lets you jump around between scenes.

It's nice to see fanart of this VN after playing through it recently. I wish there was an easier way to reset all the scenes you've unlocked and start the game from scratch for a fresh playthrough.

As for your question, yes, it's worth playing. There's a good variety of couples in the VN(although one is a teacher-student romance if you're not into that) making it a nice slice of life style VN.

(laugh) This is the only manga I have ever read where I started reading a chapter, thought I'd hit a time skip, and then realized it was actually a flashback.

Also holy shit, way to blow up the status quo. These girls don't do anything by half measures, do they?

Exactly what happened with me. I clicked on Chapter 20 without noticing Chapter 19, and then saw it start up with the reveal from the previous chapter.

I personally find that a threesome between Sasaki, Nanasawa and Seto is a bit of a copout, since it doesn't let Sasaki come to terms with Seto not returning her feelings. That said, it might be interesting seeing Sasaki actively competing with her younger self for the girl they both like.

The fact that Nagisa's father specifically warns him that he'll have to move out if anything happens with "that woman"*- the phrasing is vague enough that Nagisa doesn't get it but the implication is clearly that he's talking about Nagisa falling in love with Ai- seems to imply that the story will eventually take a romantic turn, that Nagisa's father will find out about Nagisa and Ai being a couple, and that Nagisa and Ai will have to deal with the consequences. While I'm not a fan of that potential plot development, I have to admit that a part of me is interested in seeing how things play out if Nagisa's dad finds out that his son and sister-in-law are romantically involved.

*Incidentally, I wonder if his use of the rather rude term "that woman" seems to imply that he doesn't like Ai very much, maybe because Nagisa's staying with her rather than his father and stepmother.

Indeed, it does seem like Nagisa's father doesn't like Ai too much, even though he's the one who initially left his son to her...

As a precision, Nagisa's father didn't use one of the harshest way to talk about Ai, i.e. he didn't say "yatsu" or something like that, he said "ano josei", but still, he didn't even address her as, i dunno, "his wife's sister" or "Ai" or anything...

As for the fact that we're getting this warning from him as a story element, I'm wondering if we must take it as a Chekov's gun, or if this plot element will be dropped, which isn't impossible with manga, deadlines and axes.

Excited for the next chapters!

Generally, in fiction, any time someone gets pre-emptively warned not to do something and they don't completely understand the warning, they tend to do the thing they're not supposed to do.

Nagisa's father uses "-san" on his own wife when talking about her with Nagisa, so it seems rather noticeable that he doesn't use a similar level of courtesy on his sister-in-law, even if he isn't quite as rude as I first thought.

The fact that Nagisa's father specifically warns him that he'll have to move out if anything happens with "that woman"*- the phrasing is vague enough that Nagisa doesn't get it but the implication is clearly that he's talking about Nagisa falling in love with Ai- seems to imply that the story will eventually take a romantic turn, that Nagisa's father will find out about Nagisa and Ai being a couple, and that Nagisa and Ai will have to deal with the consequences. While I'm not a fan of that potential plot development, I have to admit that a part of me is interested in seeing how things play out if Nagisa's dad finds out that his son and sister-in-law are romantically involved.

*Incidentally, I wonder if his use of the rather rude term "that woman" seems to imply that he doesn't like Ai very much, maybe because Nagisa's staying with her rather than his father and stepmother.

last edited at Dec 7, 2021 4:35PM