Tan Tailan is based. Can we get a spin-off about her instead?

Yesssssss. Also very handsome. I am in favor.

She definitely has the aesthetics and personality I like. Definitely need more Tan Tailan. And she needs to get her own girlfriend too.

Well, that was fast. :D Just one chapter of her introduction, Tan is already putting moves on the Empress' chaperone... and it's working, by all appearances.

Dunno how it will end but I'm greatly enjoying the closeness Lapis and Diana are showing now. Far cry from the frustrating earlier chapters where they were both obsessing over Natori.

Diana has always been a Lapis simp/admirer though, and Lapis has always been nice to her. It's just that Lapis' niceness towards Diana seemed fake and calculated before, while now it's slowly becoming more genuine (or at least seems that way)

My read is that Natori's presence gradually makes Lapis rediscover her humanity and a general capacity to have genuine relationships. Thus, while Lapis makes it very clear to Diana that Natori is romantically off-limits to her, she has no problem with Diana's friendship with both of them.

Latest chapter: Too much office politics, not enough Hatesex. >__>

The title of this manga caught my eye due to it using the same Welsh concept in the title as this one:
https://mangadex.org/manga/dbb977c7-c4c2-4c53-b01a-accb76b62e9a/hiraeth-wa-tabiji-no-hate
I wouldn't be surprised if it's a direct line of inspiration, given they're both about suicidal lesbians meeting a tall dark handsome stranger who is also seeking death, although in the case of Kamatani Yuhki's manga instead of a love interest it's an adult mentor. Kamatani's manga also has less of an edgy dark feel to it by comparison, despite the subject matter, there's a beauty to it's mournful emotions, compared to the stark misery this manga is portraying so far.

I have followed up on your recommendation and binge-read the whole thing in an evening. Now I have a lot of complicated feelings about that manga that I don't know where to discuss, since the MD forum is a ghost town. :-(

Tan Tailan is based. Can we get a spin-off about her instead?

IIRC Li Zhixu started out deliberately distancing herself from Tang Chao, but it seems she now just as deliberately tries to close that distance, doesn't it?

I really hope this isnt gonna try to pull a "maybe they had a point all along, killing (or trying to) all those misbehaving kids" lmao

Ditto. I can sympathize with the Vice Prez's grief, but regardless of her justifications of his actions, her boss was still a serial murderer. And Satsuki should really put some points into her social skills, so she at least have a retort ready in such a situation apart from "Killing is wrong!" or just glaring silently at her critics.

Granted, I’m not sure if such measures were necessary here, but it is a major family secret, so the paranoia and least makes sense from a story perspective. My question is what exactly they were planning to do if he failed the test. Like, were they planning on to give him a second cup of tea? He already thinks you poisoned the first cup, so why would he accept any other drinks?

He'll forget everything in the last 72 hours so i doubt his consent matters, they could probably just pin him down and force it down his throat.

A reasonable assumption. Which makes the denouement of the scene feel all the weirder, as Chihaya's old folks didn't even see it necessary to apologize.

I like the overall trajectory of the story so far, but the secret test of character with the amnesia tea was a bit off-putting. Why some people seem to think that emotional manipulation is a better gauge of character than open and honest communication is beyond me.

Looking forward to reading what qualities of masculinity Hodaka (particularly in respect to his relationship) values in himself so highly, he is willing to abandon his male body for them.

Trans people don't exist in gender bender stories lol

I genuinely wonder if these writers ever consider like, the fact that trans people exist. They at least acknowledged that gay people exist here cause they went "if a woman kisses someone of the opposite sex", so I guess gay women in her family don't gotta put up with any bullshit. But I've never seen them really acknowledge trans people existing in any real way, even though a LOT of gender bender media feels like wish fulfillment by trans people who are very deep in the closet.

I am pretty sure that this page was pretty unambiguous about the fact that Chihaya had assumed her father was a trans woman until recently. Even if it did not turn out to be the case, it seems to me that the "these writers" have considered and acknowledged the existence of trans folks. The fact that they chose not to write a story about trans characters was their creative decision to make.

last edited at Nov 30, 2023 5:12AM

Well, unless the curse manifested to isekai-ed Yvonne as the game villain system (remember that?).

This is what I think has happened. IIRC Yvonne has not received any messages from the villainess system since her trip to the past began, implying that it does not yet exist or is not attached to her at the current point in the timeline.

"What if maids... but one-shot?" -- Zanka, probably

last edited at Nov 28, 2023 4:39AM

The black and red VFX on the curse "chains" in this chapter are the same as on the Villainess System's UI. Coincidence?

last edited at Nov 27, 2023 2:54AM

Corruption of the innocent at full display. :-) Still, props to Mai for clearly communicating her needs to her GF, even if that did take a bunch of prompting.

Poor Kirika. Not only does she have some really toxic ideas (like "I have to put in constant effort to be lovable"), but she is getting teased by her sempai crush all the while!

On the one hand, she has started on her path to ruining her health. On the other, she got closer to her Age gap crush. So... win?

Random filler arc/OVA bait. At least it was only 2 chapters.

I was gonna skip reading the filler chapters but honestly it was pretty entertaining.

I never skip the filler chapters, because they serve as a valuable palate cleanser for the longer, plot-heavy story arcs focusing on Vena's manipulations. Heavy scenes like Baiser going berserk hit so much harder when you know the characters involved all have preciously light-hearted sides to them.

So she did sleep with her for free. :-) I swear, we need a tag for stories that are the opposite of what their title says: this, I Won't Let Mistress Suck My Blood, Sorry, I am Not Into Yuri...

I love how the dialogues are just like from some Slice of life manga. All about friendship etc., staying purely "subtext"...only they also all have hot sex as best friends.

subtext but also hot sex tag when?

Uh, I don't really see any subtext there... They're just very good friends. :^)

subsex

Huh, isn't that just BDSM?

Opinion: Bypassing the Leopard boss fight by giving away the fairy was a better twist than Alice's unskippable TPK at the end.

Fromsoft alright

"Heed my words: I am Michiko, blade of Leopard..."

last edited at Nov 21, 2023 7:40AM

So she did sleep with her for free. :-) I swear, we need a tag for stories that are the opposite of what their title says: this, I Won't Let Mistress Suck My Blood, Sorry, I am Not Into Yuri...

I love how the dialogues are just like from some Slice of life manga. All about friendship etc., staying purely "subtext"...only they also all have hot sex as best friends.

subtext but also hot sex tag when?

Uh, I don't really see any subtext there... They're just very good friends. :^)

last edited at Nov 21, 2023 7:20AM

The seamless flashbacks of the young uncle are one of the best things in this manga.

I don't know how many times I've said it, but Natsume deserves so much better, damn. She's doing everything she can to keep up with her own interests and be a good girlfriend to Yuni.

When the series started out, I didn't think much of Natsume, because she did neglect Yuni for her club, as well as being quietly ashamed of their relationship, actively hiding it from others. But this chapter turned my opinion of her around, since she has been shown fully capable of learning from her mistakes and striving to do better. She is also quite a bit bolder now, kissing Yuni in public -- granted, it was off the main street, but someone could still see and out them. Natsume has grown from her misfortune and became a better person.

Yuni, on the other hand...

"I guess they just couldn't fly today."

I must confess, the writing of the story really has me feeling the dread and the rush when they stepped out on that ledge. This is beautifully written and tragically sad, but a wonderful read so far.

Yeah, the scene was wonderfully emotive. And the fact that it happened at the end of chapter 1, before the story and main characters were actually established, meant that it could have really gone in all manner of ways.

DIdn't though they would go all the way. That's a twist i didn't see coming.Also what can i say. Otome is a bitch who find a simpletonin Kazura and Kazura is an idiot who can't see she was getting played like a damn fiddle. So already on a great start in terms of characters. Don't know enough of Yoshiba to judge her.

Saw some folks riffing on Kazura, but I do not think this is fair. Kazura is a mentally ill person with a terminally deficient sense of self (and likely a history of trauma), so how she feels about herself is entirely dependent on how others treat her. That is why she goes into debt to gain Otome's approval (or "love" as she calls it), and then jumps off the roof to gain Kinka's. She has never experienced unconditional love, and the moment she is rejected (by Otome and then by her mom), the emotional pain immediately overwhelms her, so she spends more effort running from this pain than pursuing what she wants from life. It is best seen in the scene where she first calms down and decides against going through with her suicide, then receives Otome's call that instantly overloads her emotional pain sensors again and causes her to agree to Kinka's plan.

It's way too early to read this much into the text, but I think all of the above are the symptoms of an untreated quiet borderline disorder. Which would explain why she ended up with a narcissist like Otome -- borderline sufferers very often do, as the two disorders basically enable and reinforce each other. If she is, indeed, on the borderline spectrum, then a relationship with a non-narcissist, while no replacement for a proper therapy (DBT), may help her heal. We don't know yet why Kinka was suicidal, but by the way she gracefully backs out before Otome's call, it seems she has a more secure sense of self, at least.

PS: If anyone needs a palate cleanser after this chapter, I recommend Chandelier and Rooftop Miracle.

last edited at Nov 16, 2023 3:47AM

What's up with Yodokawa and assertive younger women doggedly pursuing traumatized older ones? :3

That flashback was what social scientists call "an oof". But now we know where Nan's self-image issues come from, and the neglectful+abusive parent with a string of failed relationships theory turned out be true.

Also, the fact that it was followed up by super-deformed gift-buying hijinx gave me a bit of a whiplash.

“from the master of NTR Yuri” what a title to own haha

You cannot blame Kodama Naoko for not owning her brand. :-)