Ren really is a shitty person. Like she's leading Chitose on she says "Oh well I turned down her confession" yet on this date she didn't reiterate that and then even told her she could rent her again.

And then she has Mizuki who she can't stand but also enjoys being around how she can feel both at the same time is beyond me tbh. And now she shows up while you're on a rental date with the exact same girl she should have turned down in the first place.

Ren is a garbage human being.

One person's trash is another person's treasure!
At this point Ren could turn out to be a serial killer and I'd still root for her, her internal life is so layered and interesting.
Supporting women's rights and supporting women's wrong, especially when they're hot, messy, and intelligent \o/

Tongue-piercing girl endgame PLEASE

LMAO
these comments are darker than the manga
Funny as heck too.

it's funny to read the comments because there are clearly two separate interpretations that don't seem to mesh well together, the first is the literal "how are these women going to survive looking like children" and the second is the allegorical "wholesome ending for people who grew up too fast". I read the second one. I wonder if people who had childhoods where they "grew up too fast" tend to read the second one.

I think that's a great point!
Honestly, I got a bit set off by being accused of transphobia and told to read weird obscure creepypastas, so thaaaat's a signal that it's time for me step out.

Enjoy the discussion, y'all.

Plenty of bollocks here that I won't even quote.

Magical Girl-ing here is pretty clearly a stand-in for the (not always, but dominantly) female experience of having a caretaking role thrust upon you and being expected to selflessly fulfill it until you're such a burnt-out husk you can't even imagine doing anything else. Childhood is the stage where you're still find yourself, and the regression here therefore representative of an opportunity to define yourself anew after being denied an identity for so long.

And even if we pretend theme and allegory don't exist or matter, I still fail to see how anything done here is creepy. They are, after all, not the sort of men in urgent need of castration. By that same logic I could pull out a mirror and ask you what sort of perverted looser consumes magical girl media well into adulthood; that's kinda sus, init?

Stop trying to read secret depravity into something moving and absolutely wholesome. Go write some "[Childhood hero] is actually in purgatory" creepypastas instead or smth.

If they HAD been trans, it would have been heartwarming. Fighting for humanity for decades so they could have the body they were meant to have?
That's heartbreaking, and touching, and bittersweetly sad.

But roleplaying as kids?
If this was an allegory for trans-hood, it was a bad one, cause it's dipping into an area of fiction that IS commonly presented as uncanny.
Benjamin Button. Marvel comic book villains like Topher and Abigail from the Runaways (sorry, that's a deep cut). A villain in the book "The Rook" (won't name because it's a spoiler and that's a great read).

Also, this still is an issue that isn't resolved: Makoto CHOSE to hide her real identity, and used her once-in-a-lifetime wish to become a child to spend time with Sayakawa. Without consulting her, without knowing her, without even having the kind of relationship where Sayakawa would tell Makoto she was retiring. They were not close. Makoto approached Sayakawa under false pretences, and DID NOT TELL HER the life-changing decision she made, just to possibly maybe get close to Sayakawa, and thus the underlying intense pressure behind their interactions.
Sayakawa CHOSE to become a child, under the (incorrect) assumption that this girl that was visiting her was a normal girl, putting a HUGE burden of responsibility and TIME on this random child: that is a lifetime's worth of obligation. Haunting.
It did work out.

But, and this is definitely my personal bias at this point: I think there would have been a beauty and a grace in their aging together, and meeting as adults, rather than reverting and trying to go back and experiencing a second, false childhood.

Hear me out
Health and physical well being? Definitely.
Fame? Absolutely.
A support network of appreciative friends and family? They deserve it.
Financial security and a pension and vacations to the Bahamas whenever they want? You go girl.

Pretending to be children and playing with other kids while actually being 30+ and probably suffering from PTSD from extreme, messed up magical girl stuff?
Ehhhhh
Ehhhhhh

Uhhh this was a bit creepy.
Both women regenerated into children, without even asking the other person if they wanted that?
Sawayaka didn't even know Makoto's real name. Makoto was obsessed with Sayakawa, but they weren't even close enough for Sayakawa to tell her she was retiring.

Now a woman in 20's and a woman in her 30's are pretending to be children and playing in a park.
Which is
uhhhhhhhhh
Not super comfortable.

I don't know. If this was supposed to be wholesome and self-actualizing for them, it really missed the mark for me.

The NTR and uncomfortable SA threat isn’t something I expected from this series…it felt more Sword Art Online v_v

Agreed. The "gonna make her my concubine!" really felt jarring, and out of nowhere.

Chapter 26 feels like it's in a different storyline.
Hane never was as overt as to call Junna her first love, right? And the even if it's a time skip, either forward or backward, the way Junna is acting all blushy and shy again (seemingly genuinely, not as an act) feels out of sync with her Dark Souls-parry against Hane's fireworks confession.
It almost feels like there were two pitches for the storyline, and the author decided to write both??

I like that Ai lied, and said she was thinking about stargazing instead of her ex.
lmao
Is that weird?
But I feel like that was the healthiest, realest thing. Sharing how she's lingering over her ex won't solve anything. It'll just hurt her girlfriend. Sometimes (a lot of times) a person doesn't need to share everything they're feeling in the moment. Like they don't need to discuss EVERYTHING with their partner. Sometimes, I think swallowing regret, "grass is greener on the other side" feelings is the most adult thing to do.
It's not very happy. More bittersweet. But not opening fresh wounds can be an act of kindness.

Working with people is hard.
Working with kids is REALLY hard.
It kindaaaaa feels like Ms. Shiratori isn't cut out to be a teacher. She could have the best design skills in the world, and great at explaining things, but if she doesn't know how to step back and have perspective, sh may just end up burning out and ultimately causing herself, and her students unnecessary turmoil. . .

I don’t really understand why people get so defensive or maybe judgmental is the better word when their invitation gets turned down. If girly doesn’t like going to gatherings, that’s on her. ¯\ (ツ) /¯

I feel like that's pretty common.
Like when someone invites me out, they're taking a risk and putting themselves out there. If I turn their invite down, it can feel like I'm rejecting them as a person.
Not very logical maybe, but very human. I can see how it would turn people off.

Her best friend and boyfriend pulled that horrible crap on her, and SHE has to move away?

No wonder she doesn't want to have, or connect with anything/one every again. T-T

. . . HOW DID THEY HAVE SEX SO FAST
XD

hot though. :peace sign:

Holy shit
Ren really is surrounded by pain-in-the-ass women LOL

It really is like Taylor Tomlinson (comedian) said: you're either in the "I have a good-personality" group or the "I'm a model" group.

. . . this is like a cry for help via penciled high school girls /o\

That being said, I remember being a kid and thinking stuff like this. It would be in the middle of the night, and I would suddenly imagine what would happen to me if my parents died, and would burst into tears.

Woof. Thank God that stopped. Sometimes, being a kid is no fun at all.

holy crap a kid is missing and she's STILL making it all about her
Mitsuki is failing the girlfriend test harder than a teenager at the DMV

@ the title: SAME

I don't really see the point of this manga.
It's not advocating for lesbians.
It's not advocating for trans women.
It REALLY doesn't seem written by someone who is queer, or even has close queer friends.
So the way I'm reading this is it's written for straight people, by a straight person, who just picked up a random-ass premise for shock value, and the mangaka has neither the artistic nor writing chops to pull it off.

Personally, not offended by it. It just seems. . . Dunno. Very hollow and very schlocky.

I must say, when they said "Would you do ANYTHING? Just sign here!" I was expecting SIGNIFICANTLY more selling of souls to infernal powers.

Same!

I do think the reveal was hastened due to the obvious axe, and that's a fair criticism, but there's a few points I'd like to clarify.

Like, just because something is made up of small things (and they're not THAT small, since they can be seen with the naked eye) doesn't mean it can turn into different colors/textures, move super fast, swap bodies instantly, or impersonate multiple humans perfectly. Is Mr. N even transforming? Or is it swapping skinsuits?

1. The idea is probably that the bugs can re-form themselves into whatever shape they wish, hence why Niehara can instantly transform.

2. Probably what happens is that the bugs all disperse so you can't see them, then re-gather at a different location, thus giving the illusion of teleportation.

3. Niehara does not swap bodies or impersonate multiple humans. It appears that Niehara basically created a brand-new monster to puppet Hiraizumi's corpse, but they are not the same being. Hence why Niehara calls the Hiraizumi monster "my subordinate," and why Itou was able to poison the latter to death (it's safe to say that the poison wouldn't have worked on a mass of bugs).

Mr. N can stop Takahashi from transforming into a worm.

Again, it's not fully explained, but it seems that by preventing Takahashi from moving by blanketing her with bugs, she can no longer transform.

Mr. N can gain/lose mass with zero visual indicators.

Again, presumably some percentage of the bugs just go away when this happens

The more I think about it, it feels like the author is deliberately setting up falsse flags, and that makes the "hive-mind bug swarm" reveal feel unfair. Like signaling left, but driving right, and going "voila".

Again, I agree the axe made the reveal overly hasty. But for what it's worth, someone here did guess it in advance. So it wasn't totally out of left field.

Responding to this in order:
1.) I can definitely see the bugs transforming but then it's like what the heck. Why does Mr. N even need to be a bug swarm in the first place? Seems a bit redundant, and too many powers.
2.) I just kind of don't like how there's NO indicator of this. While this can be conjectured, all we see in the actual manga is Panel 1 Mr. N here --> Panel 2 Mr. N there. No smoke trail or anything, until finally Ch. 27, when Mr. N dissipates to escape Itou's hold.
3.) Mr. N swaps between male teacher, gyaru, and classmate Ooki.

I'm not saying that Mr. N's true form wasn't sign-posted at all. Like you said, someone did predict it.
But I think it was signposted badly, and "bug swarm" is doing too much to explain too many different abilities, and Mr. N, imo, is a Swiss army knife with just too many functions. Which doesn't feel as cool. . .
If a villain can do everything, it no longer feels like anything.

I think it would be more satisfying if the facade had gradually failed over time and we saw more inconsistencies in their act, instead of Itou's brain growing proportionally bigger to the speed with which the story needs to end and figuring everything out suddenly.

Haha Itou's power is just becoming super duper smart when she needs to be.
Imagining Itou so brainy, her brain out wrinkles Mojo Jojo's.

I don't know why but I don't like the "collection of bugs" reveal for Mr. N.
Like, just because something is made up of small things (and they're not THAT small, since they can be seen with the naked eye) doesn't mean it can turn into different colors/textures, move super fast, swap bodies instantly, or impersonate multiple humans perfectly. Is Mr. N even transforming? Or is it swapping skinsuits?

That being said, I know this is kind of unfair when I'm giving "huge worm can fit inside a high school girl skinsuit and take over her life" a free pass.

I think what it really comes down to, is it doesn't feel cool to me. So this is all just personal bias lol.

I think it could be good if we got more information about how it works, but it can be dissatisfying to have that dropped on us suddenly. We can assume that the individual bugs are also super powered monster bugs, at least relative to other bugs.

If they're very fast and strong bugs, they could, for instance, break off, set up a tea set using smaller groups, and then rejoin the main body.

Edit: I tried to look up what the strongest insect is. It appears to be the dung beetle, able to lift about 2/3 of an ounce or .04 pounds:

https://insecthive.com/the-strongest-insect-in-the-world-it-can-lift-1000-times-its-body-weight-post-1-3152/

I think we can grant that a monster bug is at least this strong, even if it lacks the size and exoskeleton of the dung beetle. It is, after all, no ordinary bug. 100 monster bugs therefore can lift 4 pounds, enabling them to comfortably carry a filled teacup.

Meanwhile, the tiger beetle can run 5.6 mph:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_beetle

I will suggest a monster bug can move at least this fast, regardless of its appearance. The monster bug will also need no time needed to accelerate or decelerate, ie, it can immediately go from stationary to 5.6mph and then immediately go back to stationary.

Therefore 1000 monster bugs can instantly prepare a tea set while appearing to teleport and shape shift.

I respect the research!
I think honestly, what it comes down to is a gut feeling of: I don't really like this. So everything following this is a justification of that feeling lmao.
a.) If Mr. N is a (basically nanomachine) shapeshifter, why does it need to pour bugs into Hiraizumi? It can just copy the girl's shape, right? Shapeshifter ≠ corpse puppeteer.
b.) If Mr. N is NOT a shapeshifter, but instead, a corpse puppeteer, how can it instantly swap bodies? It really is instant: one panel to the next. Plus, Mr. N's body was cremated, so it should no longer be usable.
c.) Too many superpowers: Mr. N can TELEPORT. Moving fast, sure. But it goes from the ground to the streetlamp in a blink (Ch. 16). Mr. N can stop Takahashi from transforming into a worm. Mr. N can puppet corpses. Mr. N can perfectly copy people's personalities. Mr. N can gain/lose mass with zero visual indicators. Mr. N's hive-components are super small and fast, but they're not INVISIBLE small, and using them as psychokinesis-substitutes (making lots of tea instantly) feels kind of, well. cheap.

Hmm. The more I think about it, it feels like the author is deliberately setting up false flags, and that makes the "hive-mind bug swarm" reveal feel unfair. Like signaling left, but driving right, and going "voila".

On a more positive note, seems like there's a bug-theme for the monsters and I am super onboard for that because bugs are basically superpowered aliens.

HOLY GUACAMOLE that extended afterword 0_0

I don't know why but I don't like the "collection of bugs" reveal for Mr. N.
Like, just because something is made up of small things (and they're not THAT small, since they can be seen with the naked eye) doesn't mean it can turn into different colors/textures, move super fast, swap bodies instantly, or impersonate multiple humans perfectly. Is Mr. N even transforming? Or is it swapping skinsuits?

That being said, I know this is kind of unfair when I'm giving "huge worm can fit inside a high school girl skinsuit and take over her life" a free pass.

I think what it really comes down to, is it doesn't feel cool to me. So this is all just personal bias lol.