I hope we will get more of this one day. It's so good -

Me too. The author does have a collection of little side stories featuring these characters on her pixiv, but it's nothing like an actual continuation of the story. Most of them are one-page shorts, and she published them before even the second chapter. Can't find any updates for this story since July of 2021.

Kodama Naoko has the best afterwords in the business.

last edited at Mar 31, 2024 8:13PM

Finally finished this one, what a nice story. I really liked the ending. I was thinking it was about how Mitsuki recognized Nanami couldn't love her the way she wanted to be loved and so she moved on. But the way their eyes met and both their smiles on those last pages changed the meaning for me. At the end, Mitsuki loves her current girlfriend, but she still loves Nanami as well. Regardless, she's happy about the way things turned out, because she ended up getting the kind of relationship she wanted.

I think it's very deliberate that Mitsuki's ambivalent about having a wedding herself until she admits that she wants to marry Tsuzuki, and that's what triggers her to reevaluate their relationship. She didn't break up with Nanami because she didn't feel like her love was reciprocated, but because she realized she wanted to be in a monogamous relationship, and Nanmi couldn't provide that for her. She wouldn't be happy being with a married woman, and she also wanted Nanmi to be happy, so stepping aside was her way of showing her love for Nanami, but also her way of caring for herself.

My interpretation is that the author is saying it's fairly common for someone to be in love with multiple people at the same time, but for most jealousy or personal preference make it more natural to be in a romantic relationship with just one person at a time. And I think that's probably true. There are people like Nanami and her husband who are fine with their partner having other relationships, or people who can be in one relationship with more than two people. But most of us prefer to choose one of the people we love and stick with them, or to at least break up with them before moving onto somebody else.

I think I ultimately prefer Octave over this, but they're both excellent, Akiyama Haru is a very interesting author.

I really like how Mao is being so obviously compared to a tomcat. Even their positioning on page 4 reflects the way cats mate haha.

This is a prequel to Cotton Candy.

Not that it really matters, but I’m unclear how these quizzes generate their answers.

For some of the questions it seems like (in US school-test terms) a fill-in-the-blanks test, like the “lint off the shoulder” one, but for others the quiz itself seems to be generating the answers, which may or may not fit the person answering.

I was very confused while translating this. I remember seeing silly personality quizzes that used to be popular on facebook or whatever, but I don't think they worked like the ones in this chapter. So I looked up some real examples in Japanese, and there are multiple kinds. Just from the top hits on google, this one is like the "who's behind you" one where it gives you some questions about walking in a forest and then reinterprets your answers to be about your love life or whatever.

This one is a series of multiple-choice questions where depending on which choice you go with, it spits out some nonsense. "You move to a new place and start a new life, who do you contact first?" If you go with 1: your father, then apparently it means that you like equal relationships and don't like to be pampered by your lover. I assume that the first question in this chapter was that kind, since it seems to have generated answers for them.

last edited at Dec 17, 2022 3:09PM

Why was she peeved, she is 2nd, so the answer being "two" is great news for her.

Does she know she's second? I can't remember if Chidori ever told her about her previous love.

IIRC she never did tell Nanoha about it.

Chapters 45 and 46, we had a minor dilemma with Igarashi; culminating in Nanhona boldly declaring herself "[Chidori's] current girlfriend." In 47, Nanoha also recalls that Chidori had a cute gift bag on the Valentine's before they started dating and deduced it was for Igarashi. She may not know the specifics of what went down with Igarashi, but she does know that there's some kind of history.

Yeah. On this page Chidori basically comes out and tells Nanoha that she was in love with Igarashi.

I think they get annoyed in this chapter just because it's a little awkward reminder.

some cute stuff owo
even though some words did sting abit as a transbian

You know, I didn't even think about that when reading it, but now that I do, I totally see what you mean.

I guess one way to look at it is that these are the words that these characters needed to hear, not some broad truth for everyone. Makes me wonder if the author ever thought about transwomen though.

I was actually hoping someone could clarify asexuality for me as I am a sexual person,

The prefix 'a-' can mean "on, in, at", "in such state or condition", "in the manner of", or "not or without" depending on conext. Therefore, the word asexual can mean to be without or to not have sex or to be in the state or condition of sex. Asexuality can be no sex and can be having sex.

However, if one derives some form of fulfillment from sex, isn't that just being sexual regardless of importance and or prevalence or rate of occurrence?

I would have to assume that asexuality is ultimately defined by a state of absence of sex that is innately sustained without any desire for sex and any derived fulfillment from sex. Rather, an asexual person may have sex, or otherwise be exposed to sex, but they won't miss or desire sex after a time of not having it and or when never having had sex?

Not asexual, but I do know how to use google:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuality

I read a lot of novels, mostly fantasy and sci-fi, often with gay characters. Recently I found the Alpennia series by Heather Rose Jones, and it was just so good I couldn't put it down. The conceit is that it's sort of a Regency Romance type story, except lesbian, and with a little bit of magic. The first one is about a young bourgeois woman just at the age of seeking suitors who unexpectedly inherits a large fortune, which comes with a trained swordswoman who isn't what she seems. The two of them navigate the complex social mores of their society, study the philosophy and practice of religious miracles, get involved in a political conspiracy, and of course fall in love. The sequels continue to follow the original characters while adding in new people to explore different types of relationships and different perspectives on this society.

Unfortunately, I read it too fast, and the author hasn't even announced the release date for the next book. I've been desperately seeking stories like this one, but haven't found any quite as good. Anyone else read this series? Or know of anything like it?

Super cute chapter!

Maybe it's because i'm reading at 3 AM, but I feel like I missed something on the bottom right panels of this page. Like there was some sort of realization.

Initially, my head went that: there were some doodles/important/compromising info in the books that Minami may have seen. But then it never came to that point. So what do you folks think the reason is she went from normal sipping face to sweaty O_O face?

I couldn't figure that out either. I kept looking for something in that particular panel to cause the reaction, but I guess it's just her delayed reaction to this girl bursting in and calling her "Naa-tan"?

Huh... Whenever I see the angst tag I expect something far worse.

I WAS THINKING THE EXACT SAME THING I was on page 16 thinking "Well, only 2 pages left, either one of them ends up with a man, with another woman, leaves the country or dies" neither of that happens

So, the reason I tagged it with angst is because to me, hiding in your room thinking about how much you hate yourself seems to fit the definition pretty well haha.

My favorite part of this story is the way it's almost like O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi", where a man pawns his watch to buy a lovely hair brush for his wife, who cuts off and sells her hair to buy a watch chain for her husband, and both are very pleased by their gifts even though they no longer have any use for them.

We've seen some hints of her past family life, and it looks like Yuna's had this issue with poor self image and feelings of inadequacy for a long time. Though it seems to have gotten worse over the course of the manga.

For me her "you're an adult, pull yourself together" routine before answering the phone was super relatable haha.

What a sweet story.

Is it just my browser? It jumps from page 1 to 10, then back to 3-9 at the end.
Love her work!

Ah! Sorry, I think that's my fault. This website doesn't understand how numbers work (even Windows doesn't require leading zeroes for alphanumeric order!). I manually fixed it the first time I uploaded but I forgot to re-order the chapter when after I updated it to fix an error. It should be in the right order now.

First book was amazing but i am struggling a little in the second since Gideon seems to be gone?. I know i should just stick with it.

edit: Don't click on the spoiler box till finishing the first book.

I won't spoil anything, I'll just say I felt the same way when I started the second book, but I came to really enjoy the direction the author took the story, and ended up liking the second one even better than the first.

I don't mind grim and gore too much, but does it lean heavily into the horror...? I could barely even get through Otherside Picnic sometimes...

It's almost more horror-themed than actually horrifying, it never scared me but it did occasionally make me cry a little (I laughed much more often though). There's some tension, and a lot of gore, but it's nothing like some of the books I've read that made it hard for me to sleep afterwards. I've not watched or read Otherside Picnic, so I can't really compare it.

Nona the Ninth, the third book in this series, was just released and it was amazing. It's kind of hard to describe this series since each book is much different than the last, and any notes about books 2 and 3 will horribly spoil book 1, but it's mainly about space necromancers and their sworn swords(wo)men. Many of them are lesbians, and in general the series is very queer. It's got silly lighthearted jokes, romance, and also people getting horribly murdered. There are spooky skeletons and flesh monstrosities, soul transference and body swapping, and in general just a lot of cool and weird shit. Gideon and Harrowhark are the main characters and are both delightful, but there are tons of interesting side characters too. Also, just look at this fucking cover. Skeleton face paint and aviator sunglasses, bones flying everywhere, just delightful:

If this is Katakura Ako's idea of what "pure love" is, I worry about her lol.

Seriously though, it's an interesting one. Two women (old friends?) chasing after the other's memory through sex are finally able to fall out of love when they actually fuck each other. Well, as Saki says, prostitution is often a form of therapy. Despite the melancholy tone I do read the ending as hopeful, even for Izumi.

Fall out of love sounds kinda sad, more like “get closure”

I don't know if I'd really call it "closure" to be honest, that implies a more neat and tidy ending than I get from this oneshot. Even at the end "Miya" and "Izumi" weren't being honest with each other, not even using the other's real name, despite them both clearly understanding what was going on at that point. (Not to mention Miya/Kanade very deliberately cuts contact with Izumi completely.) To put it another way, I think they're both just beginning to move on, they still have a long way to go. As Temp says, what saves this oneshot from being completely depressing isn't either of them; it's Saki who demonstrates that a real relationship can be built on the ruins of heartbreak.

I'd say it's a little more hopeful than that. For one thing, the title is a clue, since in the most popular version of Snow White, she's cursed in enchanted slumber and awakens with a kiss. Kanade was sleepwalking through life, but after "kissing" Izumi, she's able to wake up and move on.

Also, there are hints that Saki engineered this whole thing. It seems that she realized who Izumi was and convinced her to request a threesome, I guess as a way to help Kanade. Judging by her reactions, it looks like she wasn't sure how Kanade would react and didn't know who she would end up choosing.

I don't see Kanade using her stage name as her being "dishonest", rather it seems like after that first kiss she retreated into her role as a professional as a way to deal with her emotions. She still told Izumi the truth when she asked why she became a sex worker.

I think the author is pretty clear that this is a happy ending for Kanade and Saki. They've been lovers for a while now, but it looks like they were stuck in a holding pattern, unable to move forward. Taking eachother's hands, and then quitting their jobs together is a pretty clear sign that they're now able to move on.

I do agree with you that the ending is not particularly hopeful for Izumi. She doesn't seem to take closure from the experience, and that's where the rest of the title plays in. In the Disney movie, Snow White is awakened by "true love's kiss", and marries the prince. In this version, the prince kisses Snow White, she wakes up, and then runs away with her actual lover, never to be seen again.

Are the pages in the wrong order? Miya goes from short hair to long hair to short hair to long hair again?

There are two timelines. In the present, "Miya" and "Saki" are in a relationship and end up servicing Omiya, Miya's first love. During this time, Miya keeps thinking back to how she became a sex worker and met Saki. She had short hair in the past, and she has long hair in the present.

Wow, I thought that story was silly, but fun, and kind of sweet, with a really goofy ending. But I guess everyone else who read it got really mad for some reason. Stories about crazy people in love can be fun. Isn't that the whole point of the Yandere tag?

I totally get Kawai's frustration here. If a goddamn percussion player was giving me shit about missing notes, I'd be pissed too. Nobody else can understand the pain of being a wind player. Those fine muscles around the lips take constant practice to maintain. Think you can just skip a couple day's practice like it's no big deal? Too bad, can't hit those high notes anymore, and your endurance is shot too. Have fun in your two hour rehearsal when you're in pain by the 60 minute mark.

This was a pretty good story. It's interesting that he was having trouble committing until after that confrontation with his father. His first instinct was to just keep lying to him until he was dead, but that line, "I just want you to be happy," seemed to make Chiaki reconsider. I know in the real world lots of people do have to keep lying to their families, or just completely cut them off, so it's nice that this story had a happy ending where his father accepted him.

pretty much exaggerated psychological thriller but quite fun to read. got hooked into this.
but was this axed tho? i feel like there could be more into this. there are a lot of plot holes too like how they never introduced who this person is, and that i wished there's more to Akane not being an Innocent Devil but a 'God'.
Miyori being a shotacon is quite uncomfortable and the story's overall kinda confusing, but hey i like it. :)

Yeah, it was cancelled early. The author talked about it on his blog, it wan't doing well and they gave him notice that he had 4 issues left to wrap things up. That's probably why the ending feels rushed. But also I think this was always going to be kind of confusing since structurally, it's a bit of mess. Plus my frankly embarrassing translation probably didn't help.

Wow, that was really something special. What a great series.