I can see why people are disappointed it was pretty much the same ending as the anime, but I did think the anime's ending was pretty good so I have no complaints ig.

Narratively we'd been building to Sato's death the moment she decided to kill her friend; that Shio seems to be going down a similar path is bleak, but i find it kind of cathartic too. Sometimes trauma just changes you, and frankly there was just no genuinely "good person" role model in Shio's life, so this makes sense. NGL I may have been hoping for the happy ending bc I love the characters, but at the same time I appreciate that the writer didn't chicken out and just give us an unrealistically happy end, choosing instead to give us a finale that was coherent with what came before.

Yeah, Mei's passivity is really hurting the series at this point, I feel. I was a big defender of the "breakup through letter" move Mei pulled, because I felt it was both deeply in-line with Mei's character (yes, even her character growth) and also I'm a sucker for well-done angst lol. The tradeoff here, being, of course, that since Mei finally makes a move/her own decision with regards to ending their relationship (previously, I think, it was always Yuzu "calling the shots" and Mei more or less passively following her lead), then Mei has to win Yuzu back by making a move to repair their relationship. That Mei's been absent for so long takes away from the impact of her actually DOING shit (even if it was a breakup) and makes it seem like she returns to her previous passivity, which seems regressive.

And while I understand and appreciate following Yuzu's perspective, seeing and empathizing with the realism of how she gets over the breakup, again, the idea that we're just going to resort to a "Yuzu rallies friends, woos Mei back" is so fucking old lmao. I initially felt that Yuzu and Mei had made breakthroughs in their characterizations through the breakup, so for them to circle back to "passive" Mei and "will do anything to win back Mei" Yuzu is frustrating.

Whatever. At least Harumin and Matsuri remain fairly compelling as characters and a potential ship. Go HaruMatsu, I guess.

As much as I want Mei to be the one to come clean and fix things, Yuzu has to confront her first and prompt her to let out her real feelings. Yuzu is the only one who can break Mei's "resolve" whatever that means... To take responsibility for her grandfather's school since she is capable of it, and has anyone ever thought that maybe she does give an actual damn about taking over it instead of letting it crumble down. I think she'd feel sad about it closing down or letting someone else take over. She wants to be proud of accomplishing what her father couldn't. If she's doing it out of her own will like she indeed states, that's something utterly different than her acting out of "noble idiocy."

Noble idiocy and doing it out of her own will aren't mutually exclusive tho. She could genuinely want the school to be hers and be a noble idiot who thinks letting Yuzu go is her best shot at the school.

I really REALLY don't want Yuzu to be the one who triggers Mei's true feelings tbh. Yuzu has done enough. Almost every major step forward in their relationship (that i can recall offhand anyway) has been Yuzu's initiative AND now that Yuzu's heartbroken AF cos of Mei seeing her run after Mei again would make me pretty frustrated. Mei needs to grovel and make up for this, she should be the one chasing Yuzu for once.

Plus, with the time skip we've we've established Yuzu has resigned herself to the breakup. If she were gonna chase Mei it would've been right after the letter, makes no sense to have it after the timeskip. I think it's more likely that either (1) as we get closer to the wedding Mei realizes she's miserable and decides to fix things or (2) Yuzu/Mei's friends see how miserable Yuzu still is over this and go and talk to Mei/the fiance sees how miserable Mei is and talks to her about going for the future they each want for themselves, which pushes her to be braver and stand up to gramps.

I'm just not following you. How is any of that suppose to make me sympathetic to Mei crushing Yuzus heart? I have said that excusing her actions being that of a selfish teen doesn't make any of it better in my eyes. She played with someone for her own self satisfaction when she knew the entire time what was going to happen. Getting caught up in the moment isnt an excuse, especially when after turning Yuzu down she went on the aggression after Matsuri entered the scene.

I also want to make a correction. Mei didn't want to always take over the school. She spent the last 5 years taking care of everything in hope that her father would return and take it over. Only after he told her he wasn't returning did she finally choose to do it herself. And he didn't necessarily abandon her, he offered for her to come with him but she refuses and stayed behind. Not exactly what you should do with a small child but he did give her a choice.

He gave a primary school kid a choice. How on earth was she supposed to make a good decision for herself at such a young age? She loved both the school and her father. Her train of thought was most likely: "if dad is gone, who will take care of the school?" and therefore chose to stay. You may say she's independent and mature, but she's really just a young girl in the end who can actually make really rash decisions.
I don't think you can ever sympathise with a girl that has probably never smiled or experienced or love since before her father left her because OBVIOUSLY only Yuzu is hurt here, so I'll stop trying.

Adding on to that, it's not just about the school, it's also about her family. The choice was, "come with me and turn your back on THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY, or stay with our family and be cut off from me". In what UNIVERSE is that an appropriate choice to give a kid? No one should be forced to choose between their family. And she clearly loves her grandfather very dearly too, she's made that incredibly clear in her devotion. Shou's choices throughout are incredibly self-centered and it's no wonder Mei is highkey damaged because of it.

The time skip was stupid though, but for that SU is to blame not Mei.

As I mentioned in another post, I think the use of the time skip was pretty smart (even if it's an easy narrative tool). The betrayal the audience felt with it is akin to the betrayal Yuzu might have felt when she read the letter (which was an easy break-up tool). It's a bit meta, but it makes the intent of the author even more powerful and bring the audience closer to Yuzu's suffering.

I thought the chapter was great lol. I was surprised everyone was so offended with this chapter cos I thought the crafting of the writing (and the angst kek) definitely upgraded a ton in this chapter. That said, I felt the time skip was oddly lowkey? I didn't even notice there was a time skip until I read the comments here.

She was kind of living in the present, not thinking about the future, like Yuzu.

I agree, I think Mei was just indulging herself in Yuzu's love because, well, it was hard not to. She was selfish on this one, because she wanted to be happy for a brief moment.

I do think Yuri Queen has a point in stating out Mei's lies by omission were shitty af though. And I feel like this goes for all her rich friends (Eyebrows, even Harumin tbh)?? Like did they all just think she already knew and they were just having a fling?? But it doesn't feel like it?? IDK. The onus was definitely on Mei to make sure things were clear between them, but I'm absolutely baffled that NONE of them thought it was worth bringing up to their friend.

last edited at Feb 22, 2018 11:45PM

Is anyone in here happy that we'e actually going to
I actually think Mei lied to Yuzu when she said that she decided it for herself because she doesn't want Yuzu to go after her.

Sorry to butt in, but perhaps she believes what she wrote since she (probably) hate herself, so she doesn't deserve to be with Yuzu and prefer to inherit the school; then can it be considered a lie? If Mei thinks she doesn't deserve Yuzu, then no matter how hurt she would be, she'll try to let Yuzu go and separate herself from her step-sister.

I actually really want inheriting the school to BE a genuine wish of Mei's. Not a "remnant of her past desires"/"she hates herself" thing but she's genuinely ambitious and wants to do a good job running the school. It would be particularly delicious angst - Yuzu was the one pushing Mei to figure out what she really wanted for herself so she could really fight for it, whoops, turns out Yuzu's encouragement drove her to realize she really wanted that inheritance, even if it means hurting Yuzu. It's as if Yuzu retrospectively, unknowingly shot herself in the foot and it's both hilariously ironic and tragic to me.

That said, I want Mei to basically get both the girl and the career, so that's probably what's driving my hope that she wants the school for real.

Regardless, I still want Mei to chase after Yuzu this time.

I wonder if it'll happen... I think Yuzu is way too much in love with Mei to ever giving her the cold shoulder. My bet is that the very second Mei says "I love you" or something similar, Yuzu will throw herself in Mei's arms. Perhaps I'm wrong though. What needs to be done for Mei is to accept her own desires and sort out her goals. Maybe after that, Mei will try to pursue Yuzu if the latter ever decided to erase Mei from her life.

I think Mei needs to chase after Yuzu lmao. As much as I'm part of Mei's rah rah team, bij has basically traumatized poor Yuzu lol. She should do some (lots) of grovelling before she's forgiven.

last edited at Feb 20, 2018 2:07PM

Flip it around and you notice that Mei is misunderstood, she loves Yuzu, you cannot deny that she does

Yes, you can. Shou left the school and his family to live the life that he wanted. Mei can't even leave the shitty school to be with the girl she loves, only explanation is that she never actually loved her in the first place.

Yes, because humans never have conflicting feelings and motivations. Humans never want multiple, different things that are sometimes diagonally opposed to each other. Humans are simple, uncomplicated creatures that only ever operate with one single motivation in mind. And obviously, love is the most important motivation of all. Therefore, if you are not prepared to drop your own family (whom you love) and all other dreams you might have (like running the academy) like hot potatoes the moment love enters the picture, then the only possible explanation is that it was not love in the first place. You nailed it. As usual.

Let's not forget that Shou leaving the school is arguably what triggered this whole process, throwing Mei under the bus in the first place. Mei is positioned to understand the burdens of responsibility, moreso because she was fucked over by her dad ignoring his, and likely saw how her gramps was affected by Shou leaving too. Maybe this is an East/West perspective thing, but I have a lot of sympathy for Mei's almost tragic dedication to duty and filial piety. It's easy to say Mei should just choose love and fuck all, but from an Asian perspective that's fucking irresponsible and careless (i.e Shou), and lbr she quite literally hasn't reached that at this point in the story anyway, and its pretty understandable why.

One way or another, even if the marriage was decided by Mei or their tradition, Udagawa-san can still back out if he feels like it (if he's the fiancé). I didn't think there's a possibility of Citrus going over them being high schoolers but now I kinda want to see how this would be laid out.

I don't think it matters if fiance backs out. The point is its an ingrained tradition - this fiance backs out, no worries, Gramps has got 3 more waiting in the wings! It's probably part of why I enjoy the fiance subplot a lot more than most people around here do lol, because imo it forces character progression. First fiance was a copout because dude was just a creepy sexual harasser, but by bringing in 2nd fiance it confirms the only way to break this cycle is if MEI herself takes action and wants to break the cycle. Clearly, we're not there yet, but I'm looking forward to how it shakes out

last edited at Feb 19, 2018 2:21PM

Man, i did not like Hikari at all. Maho might be a dunderhead but at least she means well; Hikari's straight manipulative and spiteful. Ai deserves better. Liked the Miyako/Ai reveal too, their relationship actually seems the most interesting and mature.

Everyone's hopped up mad about the new fiance development, but honestly it seems (1) pretty realistic and (2) not really a retread of old material, given that the old fiance was way back at the start when they just met. Not only are they different people now, but their relationship is definitely in a very different place which offers new ground to cover. Making no assumptions first since we haven't actually confirmed his existence, but if there is a fiance I'm fairly confident saburouta won't play out the exact same story beats twice so im looking forward to seeing how the arguably more mature and understanding yuzu/The braver mei handle this one. I can see why people might be irritated since it, on the surface, it does look like "just" a plot retread.

Low-key best part of the episode was Matsuro being so upset tho. She's usually screws around so much it's nice to see she was genuinely invested in seeing yuzumei be happy together.

last edited at Oct 25, 2017 9:12AM

WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUU-

My god, that whole chapter was horribly tense. IDK if I'm just over-invested in the characters at this point, but that was pretty awesome. It's not even over yet (that disembodied arm lmao) but it feels like a lot of story threads all built up to this chapter in a pretty satisfying way. It was interesting to see that glimpse of Taiyou in the beginning; I know he's technically a creeper obsessed with a little kid, but in a lot of ways that's very similar to what Sato herself is doing, and that he's concerned for Shouko makes me wonder if he's not too far gone (i.e, the teacher) and maybe there's some way to make him not-creeper again lmao (also, did I miss something? How did Taiyou know that Shouko was going to Sato's house?)

Regarding the final "twist"; I don't think that's the same apartment Shio and Sato live in together. There seems to be an emphasis on how "this apartment" is "definitely" the place we've seen as Sato's home in previous chapters; Shouko mentions this is where she came and knocked on the door, and Teacher mentions following her back to the building repeatedly but (1) no one ever opened the door when Shouko knocked IIRC, the "someone" she sensed inside may not have been Shio (i.e she didn't knock on the door of the apartment Shio and Sato share) and (2) Teacher's shown watching Sato outside, he may not have followed her in, and therefore would not have seen exactly which apartment she got into.

Either a swap took place at one point (which explains why we haven't really seen Sato's apartment this volume, as another user mentioned; Sato moved Shio out of the apartment listed under her records to another apartment in the same building and had her aunt/whoever the disembodied hand belongs to move in as a precaution) or we've been seeing 2 different apartments all along, the one that's listed under her records (and therefore the one Teacher reported to the police) and whose door Shouko knocked on, and another one with the blood/which Sato and Shio actually live in.

Well, fuck. I knew Shouko was looking to good to be true; now author's probably gonna cull her too.

That said, I suspect the ending of the story weighs really heavily on Shouko and how Sato reacts to this. Shouko's emotions/motived towards Sato's are probably the most genuine/purest of any other character beyond the feelings between Shio/Sato themselves (it's even possible Shouko's emotions for Sato's exceed Shio's for Sato's in genuineness, if only because IMO the author has left us fairly shrouded regarding Shio's true feelings, so we never really know what Shio's thinking). If Sato can manage to hurt Shouko to protect her secret then she essentially becomes indefensible to me, because there's no line she won't cross. At least everyone else she threatened ostensibly posed a threat themselves, whereas Shouko hasn't expressed anything beyond wanting to help Sato any way she can. If Sato hurts Shouko now it's going to lead us down a path where she keeps pushing that edge as far as she can, giving us some irredeemable, rocks-fall-down ending.

TL;DR DON'T HURT SHOUKO FFS. I WANT THAT HAPPY ENDING.
Sighs.

I like Asahi and it's pretty clear his backstory is meant to be sympathetic and sad, but goddamn, that huge grin on his face when he realized his dad was dead was terrifying.

Citrus and GF are totally overrated, but I stil got attached and enjoy them. Being mainstream shouldn't mean people can't like them :X
And omg lmao I can't stand Lily Love. Aside from the cute moments here and there, it's an absolute bore.

it doesn't force-feed you drama

Please.
Nothing substantial happens besides drama (i dont remember anything else, it was probs slice of life ish or something)
The ex-girlfriend jumping in and trying to stay over?
The ex girlfriend's psycho kidnapping ex boyfriend?
Mew getting accepted to study abroad?
Ice confessing to Donut and Donut kissing Ice?
(The homophobic father is technically drama too, but that's the most legit thing. The presentation of it could be better, but it's a very real issue and tackling it is a solid plot point)

Please.
You could have suggested something so much better.
A lot of series have flaws ofc, and well, you like what you like, I won't hold it against you, but I find it rather cringe that the series you praised does the same thing you hate on Citrus for.
Citrus and GF at least have a smoother flow/pacing, to their drama.

At least with "Lily love" The drama move's along very smoothly, Where with Citrus It's like "LOOK ! THIS GIRL WHO WE'VE NEVER INTRODUCED BEFORE IN THIS SERIES WANTS TO BREAK UP MEI & YUZU ! FEAR FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIP ! LOOK, MEI'S ANGRY AT HER DAD FOR LEAVING HER AT A YOUNG AGE ! FEAR FOR MEI & YUZU'S RELATIONSHIP ! LOOK, YUZU & HER FRIEND BOTH HAVE MEI AS THEIR LOVE INTEREST ! FEAR FOR YUZU & MEI'S RELATIONSHIP ! LOOK, YUZU IS GOING TO RUN AGAINST MEI AS PRESIDENT ! FEAR FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIP !" It gets old after a while.

HAHAHA
Please.

LOOK ! THIS GIRL WHO WE'VE NEVER INTRODUCED BEFORE IN THIS SERIES WANTS TO BREAK UP MEI & YUZU ! FEAR FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIP !

Ploy.

LOOK, MEI'S ANGRY AT HER DAD FOR LEAVING HER AT A YOUNG AGE ! FEAR FOR MEI & YUZU'S RELATIONSHIP !

Well nothing wrong with that actually, it's part of Mei's background. Besides, Mew has a worse relationship with her father

LOOK, YUZU & HER FRIEND BOTH HAVE MEI AS THEIR LOVE INTEREST ! FEAR FOR YUZU & MEI'S RELATIONSHIP !

Ice.
Tbh, if Mew knew, if the author doesn't actually brush off Donut's 'unsubtlety' under the rug, that would really damage their trust for each other

LOOK, YUZU IS GOING TO RUN AGAINST MEI AS PRESIDENT ! FEAR FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIP !

As opposed to studying abroad and not telling your girlfriend you even applied?

I legit shook my head at every dramatic plot point in LLove, nothing about it was smooth. If Citrus can be summed up with "A NEW CHALLENGER HAS ARRIVED", everything that happened in LL was "DUN DUN DUN BULLSHIT DETECTED".

I think the reason why people felt the rivals were getting "repetitive" was cos the last one (Sara? Is that her name?) was barely developed as a character, she was just around to pine for Mei and wasn't fleshed out at all.

You more or less knew about the kind of person she was in the first part of her arc, but I think she was pretty fleshed out when you consider the whole arc. She was kind, brave (in love), considerate and selfless. Easily the nicest character in Citrus, a pure soul.

Late reply on my part, soz. I suppose I felt like "pure soul" doesn't make for great character exploration/depth, especially when the extent of her role was just "obstacle". It's not like Sara has any true moral dilemma to wrestle with as a "pure soul" (which is perhaps the only thing that interests me about these sort of characters) , and there was precious little exploration into why she was that way (versus the glimpses we got into Momokino's long history and mutual-ish reliance with Mei that developed into obsession and possessiveness, etc). The moment they established that she was that nice, the rest of the arc felt like a drag, because there was no real tension, since I know there's no way she won't step aside for YuzuMei, so I wondered why we were even wasting time with her character. I guess I just wasn't remotely invested in her (as opposed to Matsuri who I like, and Momokino who entertains me), and it felt pretty draggy and lame to get another generic obstacle character that was 100% guaranteed to not make much of a difference.

So Yuri Project has dropped the series, is there anyone to continue? Everything I've found so far is of rather sad quality...

I've been reading from Manga Fox while I wait for my local bookstore to stock up on hardcopies. It's adequate, I guess?

last edited at Oct 29, 2016 12:53PM by Nezchan

Ngl tho there were a lot of "rivals" (Momokino, Matsuri, Sara), for both Yuzu and Mei but I didn't mind, just cus it's a cliche doesn't make it bad :O I quite enjoyed Matsuri's arc
Besides, in Lily Love, you have Ploy and Ice, that's still 2, and if you, SF, like it, that's fine too. Idc about LL, you dont care about Citrus, that's fine, but it's just plain being in denial if you shit on Citrus for x things, and praise LL, but like, they're the same cliches? What I've come to understand is that we both respectably prefer one series' execution of those plot points better than the other, which is ofc, fine

Lyendith, even if yuri is not as popular of a genre, it can still have stuff that are like, popular within its own fandom ofc. "Mainstream yuri" sounds like an oxymore but like, even within something niche, within the fandom, there can be more overrated things

I think the reason why people felt the rivals were getting "repetitive" was cos the last one (Sara? Is that her name?) was barely developed as a character, she was just around to pine for Mei and wasn't fleshed out at all. Matsuri's deviousness and Momokino's (kind of obsessive) knowledge of Mei's history + her previous acquaintance with Mei made them seem a lot more distinctive as characters (and seem like actual challenges), so it didn't feel repetitive.

I guess the baseline is that author needs to stop rushing through storylines and develop whatever is on hand more.

Citrus and GF are totally overrated, but I stil got attached and enjoy them. Being mainstream shouldn't mean people can't like them :X
And omg lmao I can't stand Lily Love. Aside from the cute moments here and there, it's an absolute bore.

it doesn't force-feed you drama

Please.
Nothing substantial happens besides drama (i dont remember anything else, it was probs slice of life ish or something)
The ex-girlfriend jumping in and trying to stay over?
The ex girlfriend's psycho kidnapping ex boyfriend?
Mew getting accepted to study abroad?
Ice confessing to Donut and Donut kissing Ice?
(The homophobic father is technically drama too, but that's the most legit thing. The presentation of it could be better, but it's a very real issue and tackling it is a solid plot point)

Please.
You could have suggested something so much better.
A lot of series have flaws ofc, and well, you like what you like, I won't hold it against you, but I find it rather cringe that the series you praised does the same thing you hate on Citrus for.
Citrus and GF at least have a smoother flow/pacing, to their drama.

At least with "Lily love" The drama move's along very smoothly, Where with Citrus It's like "LOOK ! THIS GIRL WHO WE'VE NEVER INTRODUCED BEFORE IN THIS SERIES WANTS TO BREAK UP MEI & YUZU ! FEAR FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIP ! LOOK, MEI'S ANGRY AT HER DAD FOR LEAVING HER AT A YOUNG AGE ! FEAR FOR MEI & YUZU'S RELATIONSHIP ! LOOK, YUZU & HER FRIEND BOTH HAVE MEI AS THEIR LOVE INTEREST ! FEAR FOR YUZU & MEI'S RELATIONSHIP ! LOOK, YUZU IS GOING TO RUN AGAINST MEI AS PRESIDENT ! FEAR FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIP !" It gets old after a while.

Whaaaaaaa? I can completely understand feeling that Citrus's drama gets old after a while, because a lot of it is just repeated and a little underdeveloped love triangles but it's are more natural than the schtick Lily Love pulls out. The whole "ex-boyfriend is a crazy guy trying to kidnap people! Oh no, wait, he's not that bad, let's give him a hug" was just fking weird, came out of nowhere, and, frankly, kinda creepy. Sure, the drama moves along, but that's because they pull the craziest and stupidest plot lines out of nowhere, and that does not make for good drama at all.

It's frustrating that the female friend was all "Haruto's a mess right now, you gotta go help him ASAP!" Yeah, Minato and Haruto are old friends so I get being concerned despite the circumstances, and if that was all I would be fine. But I am incredibly uncomfortable with the "it's your fault he's like this/you guys fell out!" undertone. Really, what did Minato do wrong? So she doesn't have feelings for Haruto/likes someone else - that doesn't make the situation "her fault". If Haruto is too weak to deal with the situation in any way besides drinking (it's not like he's the only guy jn the history of forever to be rejected), that's his problem and Minato has nothing to be guilty about.

So that felt like a complete cop-out, although it does make more sense than her suddenly feeling guilty over, y'know, potentially having beaten someone to death and left the remains in a creepy ass locked room (what about the stench?? Or did she dispose of the body? I don't recall...)

Also, ARGH! Can we have a chapter in which Best Friend is NOT in danger or within the vicinity of all the crazy eyes???

I'm getting increasingly wary of Hida. There's obviously something going on behind close doors (it doesn't seem full out nuts like Sato or creeper boy, just kind of not as happy as she usually looks), and I'm not entirely sure whether her vehement defence/liking for Sato is just a normal best friends thing, or if there's something deeper behind it. If there is, she could well be the only fucked up person Sato didn't decipher almost immediately, which could be interesting (maybe Hida's like the final boss/antagonist or something? I sure hope not).

So I'm guessing Sato was just quoting things her aunt used to say to her on Page 67, what with the creepy "you're perfect the way you are" and "I alone will always love you" spiel, which, yeah suggests aunt was a pedophile who majorly fucked Sato's ideation of love, hence her warped mindset right now. Not exactly out of the box, but I think it's even more frightening how Sato doesn't just live by her aunt's "ideals" now, she's actively espousing them to other people, which is even more toxic.

Seeing Sato's reaction to creepy fangirl was a real treat; it's fascinating to see how Sato subverts expectations. She almost never resorts to violence, and as we've seen from her interactions (with the manager, the teacher and now fangirl) she's not only very hard to rattle, but she can cut right through all the illusions and see what really makes people tick (it also semi explains why she might've survived/gone unnoticed for so long despite apparently having killed, or at least maimed, a bunch of people).

Really crossing my fingers and hoping innocent friend remains innocent and unhurt, she's literally the only unfucked-up person left in this entire series and is honestly a breath of fresh air in that respect. I need SOMEONE whom I'm not constantly suspicious of in this series!

thank god sato chan killed them because the world doesnt need more of them.

I don't know if she did, but I don't think she did

Fairly sure she didn't. Interesting thing about Sato is that she seems dangerous and kinda unhinged but we've never seen her kill anyone. And it seems she generally doesn't resort to violence unless pressured (re: how she dealt with the manager woman and creepy teacher)

Thank god nothing happened to Shio. Honestly, Sato probably isn't entirely trustworthy with regards to her but seeing that kid in the proximity of creepy-ass Taiyou nearly drove my heartrate through the roof.

Is it too much to hope Sato changes? Desperately hoping for a happy ending for them tbh.

It's a hopeful end, and the comments here puzzle me. I think people are seriously underselling Shiina as a character. Understandable, since Kuroneko is quite a remarkable one herself. Remember though that it was Shiina who first kissed and came onto Kuroneko, and then again, was the one who was irresistibly drawn back to her. For all that people keep remarking on Shiina's fear of social consequences, she made quite a few bold and reckless moves out of raw fascination with Kuroneko.

In addition to that, she's actually quite an introspective girl who clearly sees her own hypocrisy, and understands and feels guilty about her own role and responsibility in what's taken place. In short, there's not a chance that she won't cling tightly to Kuroneko, regardless of the consequences. The ending and future of these characters together is clear.

That said, I'm honestly more sold on Shiima than Kuroneko. While I understand why the latter is so striking, she's honestly rather selfish too, or at the very least incredibly careless towards other people; there's a suggestion that Kuroneko chooses to go against the current, which suggests that she is at the very least aware of social norms and how other people think things "should" be, and hence she should be able to at least see that Shiima isn't at the moment capable of living as openly as Kuroneko herself. But she entirely disregards Shiima's own doubts and hesitancy in favour of openly talking about their serial encounter, which IMO is quite unfair to Shiima herself, since Kuroneko is just doing whatever she wants without considering the possible hurt Shiima might undergo, hence I can understand why Shiima freezes up and doesn't stand up for Kuroneko at that point.

I don't think the ending is quite as clear-cut either. That said, still an incredibly nuanced and well-written piece. This is definitely going on my favourites!

that photo álbum
she knew about her father
loves music too

Calling it now: she's her bastard half-sister. That's why her parents got divorced.

Wouldn't this mean, like, incest? Knowingly perpetuated on Asami's part to boot? I mean, that'll make her kind of bonkers IMO. Also, shit got melo damn fast if that's the case lol.