I can totally get why she's doing what she's doing, and why it's getting to her . . . but at the same time, I dunno how to put this . . . If you don't know what kind of person your dad was, if he never bothered to be near enough to your life to make an impression on you, then he was just this older man you hardly knew. So does it really matter what he was like?

That seems to be where Asa's headed, but she's 16, and her dad sort of seemed to be hiding in plain sight when he was alive, so I think it's understandable that it would take her a while to figure it out. There's a difference between somebody being absent because they're gone and somebody being absent because they were never really there, and I don't think that's easy to sort out when you're dealing with both kinds at the same time, and it's one of your parents. Also she's clearly making progress because she's framing things more in terms of who she is rather than who her father was now.

This chapter had a particularly Takako Shimamura flavor. That conversation between the coworkers could have come straight out of Koiiji or Musume no Iede.

Fuuka picks a leaf off Asahi and smiles.
Asahi picks a sticker off Hinako and smiles.
They smile the same smile.
That's what your smile looks like, Asahi.

What are the belts that Aki is wearing around her body called?

It's the same kind of harness that a plainclothes security agent / police officer would use for a shoulder holster for a gun or combat knife concealed under a jacket, so my guess is that it's a Rule of Cool stylization of Aki's butler uniform meant to make her look more badass.

This is on some transcendental plane beyond the Realm of Useless Lesbians. Asahi and Hinako are both hella confused, but Hinako at least seems to have figured part of what she wants out. Big credit to Fuuka for actually making a move, although it's arguably way too late to do what she wants it to (or, at least, I hope it's too late, because I am Team Hinako here).

This promises to be absolutely wrenching for everybody involved. Maybe even Subaru, if she's as into Fuuka as the story hints she is.

Ouch.

The storytelling in this is maddeningly indirect and elliptical and that's why I love it so much. I think.

It seems as if the various translators work very hard never to use strong verbs (especially “drink”) properly.

To be fair, this particular corner of English is a nightmare for native speakers, much less folks coming to it as a second (or more) language.

This is FINALLY out in print in Japanese, or at least the first half or so is:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4065238722

Haven't gotten it yet to find out if there's any new content in the print edition. But I will! Still one of my favorite manga in, like, ever.

The first volume of this is out in print in Japan It was too cheap to not buy immediately so I'll have it soon.

You know, they say that if a lie is not told, it cannot become yuri.

I want a 9-volume series about these two. Yukio doing explicitly feminist OL romance is entirely my thing.

She does her best.

Brutal.

I was thinking this a little with the last chapter, but it's hard not to notice how little the story has given about Aki's past at this point. We know that she's not originally from this kingdom, that she's got scars all over her upper body, and she's unafraid to put herself into harm's way to protect someone else. My guess is that she's exiled royalty (or at least a knight) from the wolfa kingdom. Both because this story is leaning hard on traditional romance tropes and that's the cleanest route to a good end without having to worry about the disparity in their relative social statuses.

oh noooooooo

how is this a Takemiya Jin story

too pure

+1. But we just need to read the manga (and many mangas in general) with suspension of disbelief. Maybe just forget about the past 2-3 chapters and focus on the ending.
But yeah if that was real life their relationship would end up really toxic, especially if they had strong feelings for each other.

Although it won't go this route, it could follow the path of The Feelings We All Must Endure and realistically depict how fucked up and desperate everybody is while still giving some of them them what they want. Having Fujishiro realize that the object of her affections is a mentally ill yandere and start a relationship with her anyway because she wants it so bad, and having Kurokawa agree to enter a relationship with somebody even with her coconut all jumbled up, with Miki shooting everybody black looks in the background, would really piss off about half the commenters here. I, at least, would be entertained.

I really violently disliked The Feelings We All Must Endure the first time I read it, but it's since become an all-time favorite. It's a great example of how stylized, heightened depiction of emotions in melodrama can wrap around into capturing very real feelings and situations in a raw and direct way.

last edited at Jun 9, 2021 9:07PM

Everything else aside, I love the super jealous best friend carrying an ill-concealed torch who refuses to get over it and just stays a massive fucking bitch throughout the whole story. Miki here, Kyou in Philia to Eros… there are others I'm forgetting. Maybe because I lack the courage to stay in my feelings so confrontationally. Miki isn't interested with being friends with Kurokawa – she's not particularly interested in being friends with the person Nanaki has become, even – she's just pissed off and distraught and super messy.

This story has turned into a collection of loosely-linked melodrama set pieces, but it's still pretty entertaining to read and I still like the art.

Does it not count as yuri if one side is pushing as hard as she can and the other is just not having it? Aya is giving it her best shot and Tsukiko has a wall around herself thicker than the glass they use for whale shark tanks. This story is frustrating to read, but that's mostly because it feels so true to life. My life, at least.

I appreciate the way that the florid profusion of stylistic tics is used to tell the story. Simple, unambiguous interactions are shown from far away; the more ambivalent conversations between Aya and Tsukiko are shown up close and detailed, even though faces are guarded and hard to read. The amount of unnecessary decoration crowds out the speech bubbles and the human figures, especially when the story is wandering through the murk of Tsukiko's feelings about Aya / the world. The look is reminiscent of Ikoku Nikki even if the telling of the story is much more linear. The water imagery reminds me of Nettaigyo even while the characters are more like something out of one of Shuninta Amano's less silly stories. It's not perfect, but it's a lot more interesting than the vast majority of schoolgirl yuri stories.

This may be pretty tame by Ayane's standards, but it is still extremely horny. Her doujins are the best – she obviously takes her magical girl shows very seriously and really pays attention to the details of the story and the worldbuilding. I like her bossy and direct version of Cocona a lot.

anyone know the sauce for the character in the credits image page?

It's the sequel to Makikomi by Ayane, which hasn't been translated yet, which is really too bad, because it's incredibly sweet (and also, as is often the case with Ayane, hella raunchy).

See also (last panel).

Both of them are mentally ill.

Rena's got a job she hates and is doing what she can to keep herself entertained, but how do you see Sanae as being anything other than a nice lady who recently figured something out about her own sexuality?

It's funny, this kind of reminded me of ODD TAXI a bit, for the [potentially major ODD TAXI spoiler] way in which Rena occasionally lets slip that she sees the customers as fruits and vegetables and everybody else is bemused.Odokawa on ODD TAXI is probably the only person who sees the other characters as animals, based on how people react to his characterizations.

I also liked that Rena saw Sanae as a pear at first and then later comments on her shampoo having a faint pear scent, and the implication that she's perceptive, in her own oddball way. Again, like Odokawa in ODD TAXI, with his nearly preternatural skill to recognize people.

Going by the color plates here, should Oni x Mountain Goddess be moved to this anthology's page?

It feels very in character that Rena's phone screen is totally jacked and stays that way (see the first story in this anthology).

The setting feels like some kind of purgatory or bardo to me as well. I just roll with stories like this until they decide to give me more information about what's going on (or not). Something about what the inventor sister says in this chapter makes me think of the contrast between causes (a strong tendency in Western philosophy) and conditions (a strong tendency in Eastern philosophy). One sees an endless chain of cause and effect, and the other sees a set of overlapping phenomena that appear, disappear, and recur while being sufficient unto themselves. This setting seems more defined by the latter than the former. Which makes sense to me because that's also the way that Girls' Last Tour felt as well.

I also don't think that there's meant to be a direct correspondence between any of the characters in this and the one-shot. I don't get the sense that narrative rigor is really this author's thing. But I'm content to just go with the flow and see where it goes. It helps that this is a beautiful comic, poetic and surreal, created by someone with enough confidence to let things develop at their own pace.

Morinaga's bullshit at full steam. 100% guaranteed in all her manga.

Rarely is Rumiko Takihashi's influence on Morinaga so obvious. This is classic screwball manga technique at work. More than anybody else working in yuri that I'm aware of, Morinaga is really indebted to classic romcom manga tropes. This could basically work as a B-line in Maison Ikkoku and have the same beats and character interactions.