I think where people are getting confused is the distinction between sadism and S&M. While sadism is, by definition, taking pleasure at the suffering of others, that is NOT the entire definition of sadism in an S&M relationship. S&M relationships are about mutual respect, and that is clear if you read a manga like The Real Her, where the budding sadist, Yuuka, realizes that she only gets pleasure from giving Moe pain when Moe /wants/ to feel pain (ie. when Moe wants to be yelled at or stepped on), and NOT when she's forcing that pain on Moe when she doesn't want it (ie. when she crushes her mp3 player). On the other side, while Moe is trying to draw out the sadist in Yuuka, she still says all the time that they need to find compromise so they're /both/ happy. Both parties have to be into it in order for it to be a healthy S&M relationship, and I'm glad The Real Her is drawing attention to that.

This manga, however... hoo boy. I think it's safe to call Esumi a sadist, but in the original sense of the word, not the S&M sense. She's constantly bullying and groping and ogling the captain, forcing her to do things and calling her fat, while the captain protests /constantly/. Literally, almost every sentence out of her mouth is trying to refuse her or say no. It's entirely lacking consent. There may be mutual attraction between them, and I'm sure it will grow over time, but just because two people love each other doesn't mean they are magically incapable of being abusive.

If you must call their relationship S&M, you gotta at least admit that it's not healthy. If you enjoy or are turned on by characters like that, that's perfectly fine, since it's just a goofy manga, but please don't try to justify abusive behaviour as "healthy" or "fine", don't tell other people that they shouldn't feel uncomfortable with it, and for the love of Madoka, don't carry that kind of behaviour into your real relationships, unless you are positive that you AND your partner(s) are into it.

Healthy S&M relationships are based on respect, dignity and choice; and Esumi is not letting the captain have /any/ of those.

Amen!

As someone who read the raws, plenty of sweet moments to come.

Sweet, hope the bullying does not overshadow it.

Well, its still going to be a theme for this work, but I also don't really see it as bullying as much as just teasing.

As far as I can see it, MC doesn't mind it one bit. She still wants the "sadist" in the club despite the complaints, and also she is free to just kick her out or leave at any time. Maybe she has a bit of masochist in her, even, and everything just seems consensual enough to me. (It will even be more clear 10 chapters in)

You guys need to light up a bit.

When teasing goes too far, it ends up being bullying. And all those cries of "Stop it you jerk!" don't mean anything? It doesn't look consensual at all to me. Even if she can kick her out any time, she may not have a backbone and doesn't have the courage to kick out her only club member. She also might have a bit of masochist in her, but I still think it's bullying if it brings the captain to tears and she doesn't look like she enjoys it at all.

I understand that in the future chapters, this will probably change and the captain eventually sees through the jerky and horrible treatment and looks at it as a form of affection, but it will always leave a weird taste in my mouth. There just isn't enough mutual respect in this relationship for me to be 100% behind it.

I like the captain and I even laughed reading the first chapter back then but when Sol pointed out that it was bullying, I felt regret, the same kind when you're joking with friends and then making fun of one of them and continue because everyone is laughing but then you realize THAT friend is not laughing... Well, that kind of regretful feeling.

So I went direct to the forum with the second chapter before reading it, to see if there will be more or worse... And it will be and also sweet moments too, I could continue reading it but what Lorisor said was valid, I agree with this:

C)(And the Worst to me) Exists in a world where their mistreatment (Or I should say being forced into the role of M as if there's only S or M) is treated as normal and or is overlooked, and or is because they actually unconsciously love it with NO indication whatsoever.

Yes! That is exactly how it looks like to me. Where it may be "friendly teasing" but it isn't very friendly if the one being teased isn't having fun herself. I also agree with Lorisor. I have nothing against S&M stories (I LOVE The Real Her), but I really don't like it when the Masochist ends up forgiving the Sadist because she loves the S so much that she can forgive the mistreatment, but she never really showed she enjoyed being a masochist. This is seen in Gokujou Drops. That manga still kinda leaves a terrible taste in my mouth even though the two main characters mutually love each other a lot. The happy end doesn't just erase all the previous chapters of forced slavery and mistreatment....

last edited at Jun 20, 2014 12:06AM

Agh after two chapters, a little too much bullying for my tastes....but I will keep on reading. Hoping to see sweeter moments between them.

You at the second season yet? They start laying it on thick, if you ask me.

They lay it on so thick that it feels out of place and forced...I know it's fanservice since they saw how popular the pairing is, but man I think they need to calm it down a little...(nothing against Nico/Maki personally).

Back on topic of the doujin, this was a great one and as always the ending is great XD. I kinda thought it was creepy/hilarious how it looked like A-Rise was watching them sex it up from the posters lol.

Aw sleep over!

............this is implying their mother was nice to them at one point........no.

I see this as the childhood they would have if their mother wasn't screwed up and everything was fine and dandy :D

MeiSaku! MeiSaku! If you don't want that sugar masterpiece Sakuya, I'll gladly take it from you :D

I can't ever imagine myself doing something as perverted as level 7.

Sigh why do I torture myself so. It was getting so gooood ;_;

Just reread the series again for like the 4th time

Victor is so cute. Best character haha. The uncle was also really sweet.

I thought the ending was reaaaallly abrupt. I know there wasn't really a storyline, but the last chapter just seemed like any other regular chapter. I had a "that's it?" moment when I got there.

Wow a lot of feels for the latest story arc....

Is there a continuation? I want moar :D

I want to be so pretty that I barf sparkles.

Doesn't matter if she loved a guy before. She can still like girls.....Bisexuality anyone???

Just cancel the rest of it and make it about Pika and Naomi.

I wholly second this.

Yessss. After 19 chapters, I still don't feel any sympathy towards Maki or Youko. They're both really bland compared to Pika and Naomi too.

Ahahaha. The best XD

The bondage couple is really growing on me.

Haha epic ending. I had a feeling that was going to happen while he was ranting though.

Although I definitely didn't expect all that stuff to have been so recent. I too thought it was back like during her early college years. At least 2 years ago or something.

last edited at May 15, 2014 8:52PM

guh need more reimu x yukari

Ugh these two...I can't. I love this series so much. I'm also ecstatic that it's still ongoing even though they got together. I am looking forward to seeing their relationship develop more!

LOL @ the ending with Cirno

Wtf. Haha everything just came out of nowhere...Me thinks there should be a Wtf am I reading tag, even though it was definitely more tame than a lot of the stuff under the Wtf tag, but it got a lot of wtfs from me XD.

Art was nice though and I'm always up for more MariAli.

i guess I'm the only one who didn't get it. I mean I get that they put a picture there but what was the joke

There isn't any special joke, but that picture was from a failed attempt at restoring an art piece at a church. You can check out the story here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/22/octogenarians-hilarious-f_n_1821389.html

It's an unfortunate, but hilarious story.

Credits page is the best.

Somehow, I don't really enjoy the pace of this manga.
On one hand, it's slow in that we learn nothing new for 20 chapters.
On other hand, it's fast in that we already have some people eliminated...
Feels somewhat weird. Both too slow and rushed. But not right.

I agree with you. The pacing of this manga is really weird. It was super slow in the beginning then bam bam bam, so many characters that you start to like, are now gone.

To all the people complaining about the quality of the translation, it really isn't all that bad. I appreciate the work the scanlator put into this :)

I honestly think that even with a different scanlator, the pacing and atmosphere of the manga will still be the same. I don't think the faults of the manga have anything to do with the scanlations.

Comparing it with the anime (to ep 3 so far), I feel like the anime does handle the pacing a bit better. I've noticed they added in a few scenes and changed a few scenes to drag out the attempted murder and made it feel more natural. On the other hand, I liked the original manga sequence better. I felt like it was more suspenseful than the anime version.