Contradictory lines: "she knew nothing of the fifteen years between her birth and the beginning of the main story nor did she regain her memories until late in." but "She had spent more than ten years constantly surrounded by servants,"

There's no contradiction. She doesn't know what happened in the game for "her" ie. the villainess before the start of the main story. She also did not regain her past life memories until she was 13. The game knowledge + memories of two lives she personally lived just all have to be separated out.

After her isekai, she experienced and remembered her isekai life like someone normally would (minus that one year when her future self was actually possessing her child self), as is actually referenced in multiple ways, such as when she talks about her parents and Garth and the whole childhood arc.

last edited at Oct 16, 2024 8:07AM

Few more notes.

What is Koma "turning her eyes away from": her own feelings, Yura, Yura's injuries, Yura's pain, ??? (every time she smiles, it's others who point that out, never herself)

Bandaged vs unbandaged significance?

The sea: Both a herald of change and Koma's feelings toward Yura which she won't admit, as they would break the normal. Not just her normal, but also the normal. This feels most evident in the scene with the girls from Yura' school, where Koma comes closest to actually doing something on Yura's behalf and "dirtying her hands", as the sea rises, and she wonders why she would even consider it when she doesn't want things to change.

Ooohh, I think I like that interpretation of the sea a whole lot more than my initial takeaway from the previous upload.

Would recommend forgetting the previous version and then reading this version with an open mind. It captures far more of the nuances that were originally present in the raw and would probably overturn every conclusion obtained from reading the first version. For example, this version is not tagged "tragedy".

last edited at Sep 13, 2024 8:20PM

I've been really overthinking, so some working ideas.

Yura with bandages, "bruised and battered": Not pure sadism but Koma's desire to passively look over Yura in an innocent, klutzy form while she's reliant on Koma, without having to take into account the possibility of Koma hurting

Bullying?: Verdict is still out on whether bullying is happening and/or how bad it is, but I would say that it probably is to some degree, in a badmouthing way at the minimum. Potential escalation timeline (in terms of how "undeniable" the proof of bullying is), from 536-39 showcasing Yura's reluctance to talk about school (but possibly just due to not fitting in well), to 543 being a potential push or similar that'd cause a fall onto her face (or just her falling by herself, as happened exactly on 535, and would also mean that she directly lied in 546, which seems unlikely) to 557 with the girls talking about her (clear exclusion), and last, 564 with a wound on her neck that couldn't have been caused by a fall (though also not a common area to target unless the hypothetical bullies were really violent).

The end of the world/the change: Yura's independence and demanding more of Koma, which ends Koma's world as she knows it. Yura, interestingly, is who brings the idea up, after which it's immediately shot down by Koma, but Yura states that she still believes in it. Also an extra layer of Koma continuously denialing the possibility of it, even right before it happens.

The sea: Both a herald of change and Koma's feelings toward Yura which she won't admit, as they would break the normal. Not just her normal, but also the normal. This feels most evident in the scene with the girls from Yura' school, where Koma comes closest to actually doing something on Yura's behalf and "dirtying her hands", as the sea rises, and she wonders why she would even consider it when she doesn't want things to change.

Coward: Koma's inability to join Yura in leaving that world behind and embracing the sea. She couldn't say that having Yura by her side was also all she could ever ask for.

Tl;dr, Rev Girl Utena with more passive, useless lesbian? Still feel like too many pieces don't fully fall into place.

So does anyone know if the “X and Y / Sitting in a tree” teasing rhyme is also used in China, or is that a localization of something else?

Neither. The raw used the English phrase.

Question for the translator: are you going to continue translating the series despite the other translator posting the rest of the chapters to Mangadex? Or was this a chapter that was already in progress when the other translation started posting chapters and you decided you might as well finish it?

We will complete the series no matter how many other groups might show up because we care about quality unlike some people.

Reuploaded without any longstrip splicing. Probably what the artist would have intended for.

The current ch21 and one of the ch20 versions on Mangadex was not done by us. We accidentally uploaded ch20 too early on both sites a few days ago and took it down for more edits. Our edited ch20 version was uploaded just now. Apologies for the confusion and enjoy the chapter.

last edited at Jul 17, 2024 12:54PM

I'd also ask a question I've had for a bit. Is there a reason TLs of Chinese or Korean series seem to have longer breaks or irregular uploads compared to manga series? No matter who is doing the TL, It feels like there's always a gap that I don't see with manga and I've never asked why that is before.

For baihe (Chinese yuri) series, it's because there's a grand total of two consistent groups that actually share a lot of members who are spread thin. More good CN TL, CLRD, and TS are always welcome to help.

Glorious, and I'm so glad that the scanlation is now finished too.

The nihilistic conclusion that all magical girls will inevitably become witches comes on a little strong when both the main series and MR go to lengths to explore all the ways that can be avoided, but if running with that scenario, then Iroha and Yachiyo are just making the most out of a bad situation. They both get to die in the manner of their choosing, while gaining some value out of their lives leading up to that death. Win win. :)

My personal favorite of the works in this anthology. It's beautifully layered, with blends of multiple different timepoints, many different thematic interpretations, and one of the types of yuri that I love the best: an unstated but undeniable longing that drives one to take formerly unimaginable actions.

A few thoughts I've had on the more murky aspects of this chapter, without having read the novella that it was adapted from. Speculation abound.
- The line "I dreamed of petals landing in the pond" in the context of its original poem has a second part that goes (vulgarly) something like "alas, spring half past, yet [I am] far from home". The line as a whole has the connotations of time passing as well as either missing home or missing someone who has yet to come home. In the context of this chapter, using a poem line that's about "dreaming" could also imply that it's from Mari's perspective, as the soil god says that everything which happened may feel like a dream to her.
- The sambar deer spirit, a "water deer", represents clean water, pure, unsullied water. There's a sense that this is what Mari is trying to hold onto, to the point that she becomes water herself.
- She can't stop change from happening though, as is alluded to throughout. Their city alone has gone through multiple rounds of restructuring, the sambar deer gets closer to the city than it should (as all animals do when their natural habitats are destroyed. the Formosan sambar deer, coincidentally, was once near extinction due to habitat loss and hunting), and even the local Taiwanese gods have become displaced by the foreign Shinto gods.
- Mari's deepest wish is purposefully not stated, though of course, I would believe that her wish was to stay with Hezhou forever, in an unchanging bubble. The fact that this can't happen, as her wish was reversed with the antler's return to the deer, potentially means two main things. One, she just has to suck up leaving Hezhou and marrying the guy her parents probably betrothed her to. Or two, even if the world isn't perfect and she can't remain "pure", there must still be a way to adapt as the rest of their world has, and as Hezhou clearly wishes for her too.

last edited at May 2, 2024 1:08PM

"He is her fiancée."

Fiancée = feminine, wife to be
Fiancé = masculine, husband to be

Whoops. Didn't see this until now either. Thanks for pointing that out.

Whatever I expected from this series, mentioning Itou Hachi by name wasn't it. :D

My job is done. The reference was understood. XD

Biggest surprise in this chapter for me is how young-looking Michi treated Michi like a different person with the "you" and "we're". There's ways to explain it, like how people might talk to an inner self in second or even third person, but that's a stretch. Keeping things simple, it seems that younger-looking Michi might be a completely separate entity separated in time or identity. The power that Sayaka transferred seems to have kept her around for longer, when she had been fading before, so she's not gone yet.

This chapter left more questions than answers. Typical lol. But hey, the kiss is exciting, because that's got to shake up Michiru and Aizawa's relationship significantly.

Magia Record in the year of our lord 2024. Amazing. Thank you TFO and Oak.

Thank you for your passion, Blamey. You choose impeccable series and do excellent work on them.

Having been exposed to Stardust Telepath first through the anime and then reading all of the manga from the beginning, I just have to say it really is an amazing story in both formats (the anime was an extremely faithful adaptation). It's heartfelt, with such good pacing and really relatable character moments around the passion of having a dream and the pain of failure or the lack thereof of a clear dream. It's immediately jumped to being one of my favorite stories of all time in terms of impact and long term impression that it'll leave on me, and I'm really excited to see how the rest of the story goes.

The gay frames and very deep, special connection that each pair has with their respective other half are great too!!! I don't expect a kiss in any way, as there's (unfortunately) enough wriggle room to leave it as textual but no physical confirmation yuri or subtextual yuri, but those foreheadpathy moments have been pretty suggestive from the start.

And build a harem of the world's finest women.

NO ! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Yes.

Enjoyable with a nice twist. I do quite enjoy yuri with two fucked-up women who are perfect for and far too obsessed with each other. Ryouko is a good actor but Minako sees right through it, having been privy to her "'ugly sides". The only question is why Minako disappeared for ten years, which is probably simply because she felt like it or even perhaps she was actively being cruel, given that she knew Ryouko gets lonely. This is assuming that Ryouko's feeling of her being wrapped around Minako's finger is something that Minako does with any degree of active intent, which it may or may not be. I would assume Ryouko didn't reach out, started getting antsy waiting, found her fiancee, and asked for the "favor", thus succeeding in drawing Minako back.

Wow their future looks as bright as a house on fire. Love it.

I really like this. I wish the ending had been just a little stronger. Like one or two more pages of content. It was a little abrupt.

To be honest, I don't understand idol, streamer, vtuber, etc. culture in the slightest. Precisely because, it feels too fake. A love of a character transposed onto a real person, the selling and consumption of both real and exaggerated qualities.

But what did resonate a lot about this story was the cycle of fervor and then forgetting, on both sides even. The rant was both beautifully written and beautifully translated. When I saw the walls of text in the bubbles, I immediately thought "this is going to be good". Her bitterness is raw, and to cap it off, we never learn her actual name. She's just LPE-chan the whole time. But it seems like that's what she wants. To be remembered and genuinely loved to some extent no matter what character is needed for that purpose.

It makes me wonder if I have been guilty at least once of that offense she mentions. Probably at least a little...

But yeah, good story.

Also if someone's suicidal and in imminent threat of attempting to kill themselves, don't ride an hour to reach their residence while their means of killing themselves is right there, call the police lmao.

There's no way, after spending this much time together, going to classes, and all this other stuff, that Elsa doesn't recognise the name "Smollet" when she starts going to the school?

The use of "Lady Smollett" out loud around Elsa was a translation mistake and it will be changed/noted in future chapters. Originally, no one uses any part of Yvonne's name when referring to her. They always refer to her by a generic title. For example Linda always calls her "my lady" and the others call her something like "the young lady". So Elsa doesn't know her first name or what family she's from.

Apologies for the confusion.

last edited at Jul 3, 2023 4:03PM

Sunrise Arrow, thank you!

And I'm so excited Demon Girl is back in serialization. Hopefully with Ito-sensei in good enough health to keep it that way.

Those are extras not a sequel. She's explictly said there are no plans for a sequel at the moment.

The author is definitely depressed but that's not much of a stretch to deduce.

Really ? I always wonder how anyone can make assumptions about the author's life based on what they wrote. I know very happy and balanced people that write fucked up things and vice versa.

Simply because you can only write about what you know.

And it's impossible to know anything that you haven't experienced.

Authors who try to write about things they haven't personally experienced, there's a touch of inauthenticity about it. It's hard to escape autobiography.

Yes, impossible to know anything that one hasn't personally experienced, which is how it's impossible to write about anything outside the bounds of real life or to ever empathize with and reliably recreate experiences that are not one's own.

Come on, fiction is fiction. Sometimes creators can only draw from their own personal experiences, and much more frequently a story is born of pieces of personal inspiration that a reader might never have guessed at, material gathered from other people, general research/life knowledge, genre conventions, and straight up making things up.

Once, people kept asking this yuri artist if a particular series came from personal experience. She said no. And then she said "people ask if I made the story based on personal experience for every one of my [distinctly different] series. XD"

last edited at May 14, 2023 7:58PM

Huh. I thought everyone in the town with those eyes must be under the mermaid's sway, but guess it's not that simple. Ichika must have willingly given herself over. I reread ch1 and belatedly noticed that Nina's eyes change too half-way. Pg22 they're still pure-black, then she talks about wanting to meet the mermaid, and by her next appearance on pg28, her eyes have changed.

It seems this will be significantly more metaphorical than literal.

Also the cat being blind, an eye-focused condition, probably says something too lol.

last edited at May 14, 2023 5:10PM