girlswhokiss posted:

You may not identify as trans but you are included in it because of your relation to society, and I'm not going to force you to call yourself that because it is a personal preference, and I myself do not use a certain label that does apply to me because it makes me very uncomfortable, but when we are analyzing our relation to society, that's what you'd fall under because you are not cis.

Love being portrayed as the evil mean one in a discussion for clearly seeing someone treating transness as something inherently bad that's forced on a character by people who relate to them!

I never said being trans was bad. Don't distort my thoughts.Trans people are very fine people, I don't have any problem with them.

I just object to put people in little boxes they never asked to be put into.

Some people are averse to the word "trans", it's true. These people should be educated of course, but applying the term to those who didn't ask for it may make them a target.

And I think in a chapter of this very manga, the author made it clear that being labeled was harrowing to Ren.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/pale_blue_green_color_saudade_ch04#12

And if this manga is a bit autobiographical, you can feel the pain of the author when they're told what they should be. A man, a woman, a trans. I'm not even sure they want to identify as non-binary.

last edited at May 21, 2026 5:28AM

FluffyCow posted:

As someone that identifies in a non-binary leaning and generally gender flexible way I don't personally identify as trans. For my own person I don't want other people to apply terms to me that I don't identify as. There are of course non-binary people that do identify as trans, and I think this character could go either way. That said I want to be supportive of anyone that does identify as trans or otherwise, and I think everyone relating to this series is valid.

People on Dynasty seem to think differently and will call you trans, whether you like it or not.

Lilification posted:

"You're free to think they're trans, but if you express that I'm going to argue with you and be a pedant about it"

I'm going to exercise my right to free speech, yes.

girlswhokiss posted:

Non-binary is trans. What makes someone trans is if they aren't cis, no matter if they're 'binary' or 'non-binary', and it's pretty clear Ren is not a cis woman. I don't understand this reluctance to call a clearly trans character what they are, trans.

"Non-binary is an identity embraced by some people who do not identify exclusively as a man or a woman. Non-binary people may identify as being both a man and a woman, somewhere in between or as falling completely outside of these categories. While many also identify as transgender, not all non-binary people do."

https://www.hrc.org/resources/transgender-and-non-binary-faq

As long as the character (or the author) doesn't clarify, it's unknown.

Forcing a label on them they don't identify as is rude.You're free to think they're trans, but the tag/label shouldn't set it in stone.

last edited at May 21, 2026 4:31AM

Still not convinced Ren is trans.

They obviously hate their female features (since it seems they're wearing a binder) and speak in a male pattern (boku), which would point to them wishing to be a man. But according to previous chapters, and what I read ahead, they're feeling stuck in the middle and frustrated by society forcing them into one or the other, so I think they're more non-binary.

I'd hold up on the trans tag until we reach the relevant chapters.

ninryu posted:

Chapter 1?? It's not a oneshot???

No. Chapter 2 is up on Pixiv.

Giftnova posted:

At no moment has any character explicitly raised any questions about liking someone of the same gender. Only about being different.

A distinction without a difference. To be queer is to be different/the other. Not every message has to be as subtle as a car crash to be understood.

But being different isn't being queer.

Different taste in music, in clothes, in language, in skin color...

At no moment has any character explicitly raised any questions about liking someone of the same gender. Only about being different. Mitsuki not wanting to wear skirts in elementary and conform, Aya liking western music. Which are metaphors of gayness, but it's kept implied, not stated.

It can be something some people wish for ("who/what you love doesn't matter and society shouldn't notice or care") or something some people feel incensed about ("it's burying the gay/the difference").

In the end, whether Sumiko is burying the gay or normalizing it is up to the readers.

Also, Mitsuki presents as clearly masc, which explains the remarks about them being a "straight couple". not my take

flowsthead posted:

flowsthead posted:

And yeah it mentions Aya has never been interested in boys, which in a heterosexual society that implies being a lesbian.

Do ace girls have the right to exist in your book?

I feel like you're being argumentative on purpose. In a story with romance between two girls that is both emotional and physical, not being interested in boys implies lesbian. Nowhere did anything I say have anything to do with ace people.

The society in the manga is irrelevant: we have no idea what is their stance on homosexuality because the author deliberately avoided broaching the topic.

Also, it's interesting to say that Aya was "always a lesbian", when she thought at the start of the manga that Mitsuki was an older boy and was interested in HIM as a boy. That Mitsuki turned out to be a girl didn't play a role in her attraction. Just "ONII-SAN's cool and HE likes the music I like". She never doubted it was a guy before knowing the truth.

Reminder: Mitsuki was wearing a mask, obscuring her facial features, so it's a stretch to say that Aya has somehow subconsciously guessed that it was a girl with her innate lesbian 6th sense.

In the end, people in the green world may have preferences, but in-universe it's a non-issue, because the author avoided making it one. It's just vaguely alluded through metaphors that apply to OUR world.

Don't misunderstand: I don't think they're a hetero couple They're a same-sex couple, no doubt about it. It's just that the manga deliberately avoids confronting directly any sensitive topic, which is both very Japanese and very frustrating.

last edited at May 17, 2026 1:24PM

flowsthead posted:

And yeah it mentions Aya has never been interested in boys, which in a heterosexual society that implies being a lesbian.

Do ace girls have the right to exist in your book?

flowsthead posted:

It has become my belief that in the green world of Sumiko, homosexuality or heterosexuality don't really exist as concepts.

It has NEVER been mentioned that Mitsuki or Aya are lesbians, or that two girls being together is something odd or to feel guilty about. Aya has never been upset or conflicted that Mitsuki turned out to be a girl, only that she had lied to her.

Sumiko has carefully avoided dipping into the topic of homosexuality. Their classmates have been surprised when Aya and Mitsuki said they were dating, but weirdly, the taste in music was an heavier topic than homosexuality (!)

There was no real "gay panic", just "crush panic" that happens all the time in manga to characters attracted to each other.

Homosexuality is the elephant in the room for the readers, but it's like it doesn't exist in-universe.

So the relationship between Aya and Mitsuki, as written by Sumiko, isn't queer or straight.

It's a relationship, period. With its ups and downs as we can see in this arc.

I'm not sure I agree with this, but I do get what you're saying. I think it's noteworthy that most people assume heterosexuality still, like with Aya's mom and her friends. And the manga has tons of queer metaphor in the idea of not fitting in with others both in appearance and with music.

It's hard to tell Mitsuki's sexuality, but from their character bios in 9.1 it's a pretty strong implication that Aya is a lesbian.

And I would argue that normalizing being queer is in itself a queer story. And Sumiko herself identifies it as a queer story in interviews such as this one: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2025-06-04/rockin-out-with-sumiko-arai-the-guy-she-was-interested-in-wasnt-a-guy-at-all-manga-creator/.223419

There are also early parts of the manga that I feel are a little ambiguous as to whether Aya is dealing with the fact that she fell for a girl. Like in chapter 27 right after the first time Mitsuki plays a song for her, Aya is like "huh so we're just friends" and immediately gets flustered by Mitsuki which to me reads as "omg I'm so gay for her". And Mitsuki's mini arc of feeling jealous of "onii-chan" feels like a subtle way to approach the "you only liked me when you thought I was a boy" aspect to it.

I mean, I'll just say it's arguable. I'm not saying my perspective is true, just this is how I read the manga.

All the awkward moments can be slated to "teens having a crush". Gender has never been an issue in term of relationship. Just in term of misunderstanding.

True, the metaphors are there, of course. In first place is the music as a "I have different tastes than the other girls/I don't like mainstream music like I'm supposed to". But it stays at the level of metaphors. Homosexuality or homophobia are never really present. Only their ghosts.

As for the implication that Aya is a lesbian, it just mentions that she has never really been interested in boys. But it doesn't mean she has ever been interested in girls either.

Mitsuki is butch coded. Aya is femme coded. But they're not "lesbians" in the "real world" sense. Which is why so many people see them not as a lesbian couple, but as a typical straight couple with a twist.

Imagine Mitsuki comes out as trans. Then the yuri tag flies out the window. It was never yuri.

It has become my belief that in the green world of Sumiko, homosexuality or heterosexuality don't really exist as concepts.

It has NEVER been mentioned that Mitsuki or Aya are lesbians, or that two girls being together is something odd or to feel guilty about. Aya has never been upset or conflicted that Mitsuki turned out to be a girl, only that she had lied to her.

Sumiko has carefully avoided dipping into the topic of homosexuality. Their classmates have been surprised when Aya and Mitsuki said they were dating, but weirdly, the taste in music was an heavier topic than homosexuality (!)

There was no real "gay panic", just "crush panic" that happens all the time in manga to characters attracted to each other.

Homosexuality is the elephant in the room for the readers, but it's like it doesn't exist in-universe.

So the relationship between Aya and Mitsuki, as written by Sumiko, isn't queer or straight.

It's a relationship, period. With its ups and downs as we can see in this arc.

Blastaar posted:

This is the straightest gay romance I've ever read, damn.

What exactly does this mean?

That Mitsuki being a woman has become basically irrelevant.

I hope we'll not see here the usual string of people complaining about the direction of the manga that say every week that they're dropping it.

Every week, it's an endless stream of people commenting on "oh, it's disjointed", "oh, it's not that good anymore",

Some people suddenly got disinterested once the main couple got together and they sure are vocal about it.

"Why do I have to go through this?" echoes the line she said at the beginning of the chapter. So it's a mirror of her situation with Sadako. She kept rejecting Sadako's attempts at friendship and then went and got scared of her, even though Sadako didn't do anything wrong (she got attacked by Mone first). She just judged on appearances and prejudice. She did to Sadako exactly what Yoshi did to her.

So, I hope this will lead to Sadako and Hanako mending their relationship.

Also, this series was sold from the beginning as an action series, not as a romance. People should stop complaining because the characters aren't immediately feeling romantic attraction.

The problem with this manga isn't so much pacing than the irregular schedule.

last edited at Apr 25, 2026 9:34AM

I didn't get the point, but okay.

axcelon posted:

PEDO ALERT WEEWOO WEEWOO

So when the boy is interested in the teacher, suddenly she's a pedo?

I don't think she has any romantic, or even sexual, interest in him. She's probably going to play and try to break him out of envy.

I'm afraid this genius is going to be eaten and then spit out.

In private, Mitsuki calls Aya, "Aya-san" and Aya calls her Mitsuki

When talking about each other with other people, they still use "Oosawa-san" and "Koga-san".

That subtext tag is barely hanging on.

My guess : drinking the water from the lake gives pseudo-mermaid features to people, like the eyes. It doesn't extend their life. Some of them react stronger than others and get more mermaid features, like teeth, craving for flesh, scales and they become "houkos", that Chitose takes care of, some way or other.

What's in the water should be the blood of the real mermaid, that's been sunk and trapped centuries ago at the bottom of the lake, and that's the "mermaid disease", or curse the townspeople have, with a difference in degree (houkos are still rare). They pay for their sin of trying to kill the mermaid (we don't know if the mermaid really ate someone).

Concerning Chitose, it's possible that she actually ate, a long time ago, some of the flesh of the mermaid instead of just drinking water. Which led her to become mostly immortal and be closer to a mermaid than other people, but still an "incomplete" mermaid, utterly lonely.

deltahalo241 posted:

The visual at the end of te giant Chitose is kind of funny, I wonder if that's literal or just some imagery meant to convey something (Perhaps that Chitose is the biggest fish in the pond so to speak)

This is not Chitose.

If my undestanding is right, this is THE mermaid. The real one, who was sunk at the bottom of the lake in the first chapter. The storm set her free. After all, she's immortal.

last edited at Apr 3, 2026 4:58PM

Well, it's actually a more than a year old doujin.

Takemiya Jin never ceased to be active on the doujin scene. Just no serialization.

Her twitter is mostly furry yuri doujins at the moment (wolf girls?)

The tags are there to filter what you don't want to read. If you hate lolicon just blacklist it and don't come complaining in the comments. This tells more about you than about the work.

Drawings have no birth date and hence no age.

last edited at Mar 28, 2026 4:50AM