This girl is my half.
(genetically and romantically)

The title too, I think, is self-explanatory. We have 1 (a whole, the mother) x 1/2 (half of that whole, the daughter). This story can literally be titled Mother x Daughter.

last edited at Dec 17, 2019 5:35AM

If you're in heat and you don't know it clap your hands

This. I've been waiting for this since Yuzumori-san left a hole in my heart. Thanks, I can now go back to my state of loliness.

last edited at May 21, 2018 6:03PM

My comment had nothing to do with what the point of romance stories is. I was praising how the character's love was presented.

You literally just contradicted yourself. Romance stories are about presenting the characters love. Here we have little enough to just tag it as subtext instead of yuri.

That may be what you personally enjoy in romance, but ultimately the genre is about showing romantic love. How intimately the story delves into the characters' private moments is at the author's total discretion. For instance it's very common to leave the characters' having sex up to the reader's imagination.

It's not romantic love if there is no sexual acts. It would instead be platonic love by definition.

I mean if that's what you got out of the ending it's fine to interpret it that way. I think their love is on the right track personally. Even though Yuzumori is growing and changing in looks and personality over time, Mimika still loves her. That counts for more than any kiss.

No, it doesn't since it leaves too many questions that the reader is forced to interpret and make up their own stories, which is not the point of reading a story written by someone else. What do you think a plothole is?

Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion about what defines "romance" and how it has to be portrayed, which ultimately is left to the author's sensibility, but you make it sound like "romantic love" necessarily implies explicit sexual acts. Personally, that's what I'd define as "sensual love" which, I'm sure you know, is not only different from "platonic love", but also from love as it represented in "erotica" or "pornography" narrative.

See how two characters go from not knowing each other (or being friends) to confessing each other's feelings is romance and what defines a love story (Yuzumori-san fits this definition perfectly). Any further physical manifestation of love and sexual desire is only functional to the story if the author thinks it so. (and this comes from somebody who wanted them kissing every chapter)

Also, I'm sure themusicman500 knows what a plothole is, which is different from a story that leaves an open ending.

last edited at Mar 27, 2018 4:46AM

Hopefully, Ejima Eri won't come up with something that involves a time skip. What I like about this story is how well she plays with what can be done and whatnot, and the cuteness that comes out of Mimika and Yuzumori's interaction because of their age and the self-imposed restrictions. If she suddenly jumps to a time where everything is acceptable, "Yuzumori-san" won't be different from most of age-gap stories.

edited: (unless, of course, next chapter is the final chapter)

last edited at Mar 21, 2018 5:29AM

ANW, I don't feel too bad about this since the author played the lolicon card as "Mimika likes Kaede because her personality, not because she is a lil kid".

This aspect of the story kind of bugs me, since it's used to imply that Mimika will always like her on that basis.

But do you have the same personality as when you were 9? I sure don't. People change, and pretty rapidly around that age. Puberty has huge and often unexpected effects on how a person thinks and views the world, and Kaede isn't even close to that point yet. If she likes Kaede's personality (which kind of contradicts the whole "love at first sight" thing at the start) then wow, she's gonna be unhappy when that personality inevitably changes in the next few years.

I think that, since it's Mimika speaking, she believes that she will always like Yuzumori. The story itself has nothing to do with what Mimika believes, it doesn't imply that things will work out in a way that Yuzumori won't change, or Mimika's feelings for her won't change, for the matter. Yuzumori character may evolve to a point where she's a different person. Mimika may or may not like her then. Or, Yuzumori will grow up like everybody, and like everybody there will be a part of her that remains "her", despite developing a different "persona".
IMO that's what Mimika refers to when she says that she will always like her, that essence that makes you "you", despite your age, despite how life shapes you. Yet, Mimika's still an inexperienced child herself, and she has all the reasons to speak the way she does.

last edited at Jan 30, 2018 1:23PM

Soon, the day will come when Yuzumori convinces Mimika that she's not a child anymore. And, when that happens...

Plot twist: Mimika's father is the Chief of police so, all good all good

I just noticed that, compared to the raws on Yawaraka Spirits, Yuzumori's thought's missing in the lower left hand corner of page 14

Nobody is concerned with the fact that Yuzumori is probably still wet after the rain downpour? And she must smell like ramen, too...wet and smelly, what to do, Mimika?

last edited at Jan 25, 2018 7:00PM

The other reason is that Ririka's bullshit reason for Mimika to stay away was actually true—Yuzumori got closer to her classmates and started to make friends. I actually really liked that bit, since it plays up the inherent contradiction in this series. On the one hand, it's a story about a romance between a 10 year-old girl and a high school student, but it also has to acknowledge that, pure-hearted though it might be, such a relationship is generally unhealthy and detrimental.

no, it wasn't. Chapter 7 has Yuzumori explain that she plays with kids in class sometimes but doesn't think it's any fun. That happened before they were together, and Mimika conveniently forgot that the whole conversation even happened. Absolutely nothing has changed.

Not quite. Mimika didn't forget anything, she asked Yuzumori if something's changed with her classmates, to which she received no answer because Yuzumori's defense (the pillow suggests that) was already up to protect her wobbly heart against any suffering. Mimika accepted as true Ririha's words which were "I'm trying to befriend her again, but she says she has something else to do after school." What Mimika deduces by Ririha's words and Yuzumori's behavior is that Yuzumori doesn't want to spend time with them now because she has her in her life, not because she finds them boring (I'm not excluding the possibility that she's forgotten that, but right now she seems more concerned with her role in Yuzumori's lack-of-friends life).

Besides, something changed in Yuzumori at the end of this arch. The new chapter tells just that, that throughout her friendship with Mimika, she hasn't been quite honest about her feelings, fearing that she might get hurt because human beings do just that. My impression following her thoughts was that, as schuyguy hints, she realized that when people aren't honest about their feelings or their true self, they inevitably fall apart and it's an interesting parallelism if you consider that Ririha experienced just that, Yuzumori walking away from her because she found her fake persona boring. Yuzumori's beaming face toward the end of the new chapter makes me believe that we're gonna see a different "her". (She's been mostly phlegmatic around Mimika, maybe she was holding something - herself - back?) Hopefully, Mimika can survive the new her.

last edited at Jan 17, 2018 11:33AM

I really did hope for a third kiss. First cheek, then lower on the nose, then lips.

There are more than three kisses, though. Look at the onomatopeia around them (page 14). Yuzumori's literally assaulting Mimika's face. At first, I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get a kiss on the lips, but the more I look at it (like the detail of Yuzumori's hooded eyes) the more intense their emotions feel. I suppose Mimika will be the one to start that first kiss.

last edited at Jan 15, 2018 4:45PM

Except in chapter 7 has nothing to do with any of it. Just Yuzumori saying she finds other kids boring. That doesn't come close to explaining why she would forgive Ririha so easily. And no, it wouldn't split anything. At any point the author could have shown Yuzumori remembering her past friends while alone in her home.

According to your words, you'd consider "good writing" Ejima Eri drawing down a couple of pages with a flashback or some considerations from Yuzumori on her relationship with a certain Ririha. But, by revealing Yuzumori's past with her friends as an introduction to this arc, the author would've been "telling" us all the information we needed at one time. Instead, we've been given everything to draw "hypothetical, but not far from the truth" conclusions chapter after chapter.

Ejima introduced Yuzumori's and Ririha's story in a subtle way that goes back to chapter 7:

Mimika, "Don't you go and play with your friends?"
Yuzumori, "Ah, sometimes. But it's never much fun playing with other kids from my class."

This is important because it's the first hint of Ririha's existence. No name, no backstory, just a vague image of Yuzumori having friends that she doesn't consider fun.

Hell, after Ririha threatened her we should have at least gotten Yuzumori's thoughts on Ririha.

Quoting Yuzumori, "I don't think it's worth getting too worked up over it while knowing nothing of it". She says it herself, no need to worry. We were (kinda) concerned about the implications of Ririha's kabedon, but Yuzumori, the first person who should be worried, was only quite surprised by that. (Because she never once deemed Ririha somebody capable of threatening anybody.)

And thanks for getting me to reread chapter 7, drives home my point further. Why does Mimika believe Yuzumori stop hanging out with her really good friends over her when she knows that Yuzumori doesn't like hanging out with other kids to begin with?

Whilst at first she didn't think of herself as the reason why Yuzumori's no friends, she does now that one of Yuzumori's friends tells her that they've been trying to reach out to her, but Yuzumori says she has something to do after school. When Mimika asks Yuzumori that, what she gets back proves her that Yuzumori's indeed putting their time together above everything else, even a second chance to friendship.

Yes it does, without it this whole arc falls apart. Ririha's and Yuzumori's actions look insane without knowing their past history. The line about knowing the true Ririha comes out of absolutely no where and acts like we are supposed to be moved. It especially makes no sense since Ririha has not been hiding a damn thing, she's pretty open to her close friends about how much of a bitch she is.

I don't think Ririha's speech moved anybody. At this point, she's exposed too much of herself (defending Yuzumori from bully-Shiori after threatening her) that the only way to save her pride is confessing that she is the mastermind behind their separation. The only thing that was missing having come so far was an answer to all the "why's" instilled in us drop by drop since the day Ririha glared at Yuzumori.

Since we know the true Ririha and she threatened Yuzumori, we were led to believe that that was the personality by which Yuzumori knew her too. Ejima did a really good job in giving us the impression that Ririha was a natural born bitch, taking us exactly where she wanted, where we'd assume that Yuzumori knew her by her "true" personality too, and thus not really the kind of company she'd like to be around.
Ririha's dangerous, Yuzumori knows it, then, why is she not concerned with her? We needed an explanation that made sense with everything else, with Ririha's blushes and Yuzumori's easiness around her even after the threat. I believe we got our answer.

When I say that it's too early to call it bad writing since this is an on-going story, I do that because each chapter brings up new knowledge that allows you to give a meaning to parts that you didn't find relevant before, that didn't make sense if taken out of the bigger picture, but those are all parts that Ejima's placed there with a precise intention.

Edit: I'm really sorry about the previous length of this, guys. I'm stopping it here (the arguing).

last edited at Dec 21, 2017 4:41AM

Is this rule good in Yuzumori-san? Well... What would be the mystery of why Ririha does what she does if we already know what it is?

I'm not against the rule itself, just when it's used like an absolute truth, making readers feel entitled to review author's stories using their "show, don't tell" knowledge only, without differentiating its applications. That said, you're right and your example fits the situation.

We didn't know what Ririha's conflict with Yuzumori was, just that it affected Yuzumori and Mimika's storyline. Ejima Eri shows us that Ririha's a conflict (and she stays true to that in everything she does, that girl is the epitome of conflict), but she (Ejima) never once "tells" what that is. When Ririha confesses, what's happening is Ejima "showing" a character "telling". And it works, it respects the rule in a way that the author never interrupts her "showing" of the events at hand (and she never did since the beginning of the manga). Ejima never "tells" that Ririha's telling her motivations behind her behavior, she shows that. Instead, a flashback that'd make us "see" what Yuzumori and Ririha's relationship was like before would change the structure of the story, which is depicted as a linear timeline, and it'd remove the "subjective" element of Ririha's story. That's why Ririha "tells".

I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear here, but what I'm trying to say is that the author is not telling anything, she's always showing what's going on in the lives of the characters, whether is two of them sitting on a bench (why nobody complained when Shiori "told" Yuzumori how hers and Mimika's friendship was like back when they were little?), whether is one of them telling her own past and how she feels about it (why would Ejima use a flashback now?). Ejima is always showing, and nowhere is written that characters can't tell stories.

last edited at Dec 18, 2017 8:14PM

But, in my opinion, Yuzumori-san is not "bad writing" (this is subjective).

I don't know how subjective it actually us. Characters are just acting out without reason. Ririha is just spilling everything with literally no trigger for it. And now Yuzumori's forgiveness of her is completely unsubstantial since we have not seen them being friends at any point. There is no show here, only tell. The characters are telling a story within the story that we have no connection to as an audience and we are expected to accept it all. If anything, it's boring and pointless. We don't learn anything new and there is no character progression in the end.

Those "triggers" you say are not there go as far as chapter 7 goes. Yuzumori's "forgiveness" (if you want to call it this way) is completely understandable if you consider how she regarded Ririha in the past. Ririha's "telling" couldn't possibly be shown since the story here is set at a present time and any representation of it would split the narrative level. And "Show, don't tell" is just a rule. Whilst rules must be known, they need to be declined to each case, and this case doesn't require a showing of Yuzumori and Ririha's past together.

A deeper, retroactive reading will help you see why Ejima Eri makes the choices she makes. I do that (double questioning my opinions) when I think something is wrong - because I feel like my expectations were betrayed, because I didn't see something coming - so that I won't end up accusing the author of "bad writing" just because I'm the one at fault of "bad reading".

last edited at Dec 18, 2017 11:47AM

That look in Mimika's eyes...no "Kodama" will work for her this time

last edited at Dec 17, 2017 4:32PM

You say that Yuzumori doesn't know that Ririha told Mimika that they are friends.

That's what I said. Period. Meaning that there's no statement from Mimika that's anyway close to her telling Yuzumori "Ririha told me you're friends". What you quote, "this is the first time that I met your friends" and "you should've let me know that you have such good friends" are the words of a girl (Mimika) who speaks without directly mentioning that she and Ririha ever discussed about anything involving friendship. Instead, those are the words of a girl (always Mimika) who's been listening to a broken-hearted somebody telling her their own version of a story, assuming that said version is true and watching three girl "friends" playing together. Mimika never once doubts Ririha's words, and the fact that Yuzumori gets along with Isuzu and Ririha is as good as any evidence that what Ririha told her before Yuzumori's arrival is true. They are friends. That's what Mimika accepts as true, that's her new insight on Yuzumori's relationship with the two guests.

You say that Yuzumori doesn't know that Ririha told Mimika that they're friends but Mimika clearly says that.

Mimika says that Yuzumori has friends, yes, but she doesn't say that Ririha told her that. What I said is that there's no trace of Ririha's name, no hint to them ever talking, no mentioning to the fact that it was Ririha who told Mimika that Yuzumori has friends in chapter 23. Yuzumori never gets to hear Ririha's name out of Mimika's lips, she doesn't know that Mimika and Ririha ever "talked". That's what I said. I never said that Mimika doesn't tell Yuzumori that she and Ririha aren't friends - that's rather explicit in what you quoted and it'd be hard for anybody to miss it - but Mimika never mentions her little chat with Ririha which is the main reason behind her statement "such great friends", aka "friends that care about you and want to be with you while I'm taking you away from your childhood".

What are you talking about?

This feels like we're sitting at the same table after previously agreeing that we would be playing a card game, but we both show up with different decks (ie, Uno and French playing cards). You play your game with the deck you have and your own logic, I do the same with mine, but it's fruitless to keep it going because there's no match so peace and, have a nice day!

No, it's not. Mamika's and Yuzumori actions have shown that it has jump the shark on shitty writing. The moment the author decided to go the cliche route of adding in Ririha to start trouble instead of further exploring the original themes is the moment is became a shit show.

The point is that, we've just assumed that this was going to be an ane-loli story and that was it, that the groundbreaking theme would be having a little girl ending up with the older girl "without major drama", or in a very soft dramatic way, with little troubles every now and then and a general light-hearted feeling.

As deep as a puddle. We know that Yuzumori knows that Ririha threatened to take everything she holds dear away from her.

We readers associate that to Mimika. Does Yuzumori know that Mimika is her "dearest" thing? She never thought explicitly of Mimika in that way, she doesn't know what to think of her feelings yet, just that they scare her.

She knows that Ririha told Mamika that her and Yuzumori were such great friends.

Where Mimika tells Yuzumori that Ririha told her they're good friends? Mimika doesn't mention anything of what Ririha said. She just uses the new insight provided by Ririha's story as she speak to Yuzumori. On the other side, look at the scene before Mimika's eyes: three girls playing together. Her first thought is that it feels natural for them to be like that. Yuzumori is at fault here too, because she gets along with Isuzu and Ririha, sending a very specific message to Mimika, "they are my friends" (but, to a reader, she may be doing that because she doesn't want to make a fuss out of Ririha's and Isuzu presence there, not when they are still there). If Mimika had just mentioned Ririha's name when she told her that she should spend more time with her friends, then Yuzumori would have seen through Ririha's lies. But Mimika doesn't, so Yuzumori doesn't know.

She knows these lies and yet says nothing.

She doesn't know + bad heartbreaking + feeling humiliated = she leaves.

It's true that sometimes authors are forced to change the course of a story for different reasons, but I wouldn't accuse Ejima Eri of not knowing what she's doing with her characters.

The only thing that I feel like criticizing is that Mimika could've come up with something like, "since I want you to have the childhood any child should have, what about you spend some time with your friends and then some with me?" As a matter of fact, Mimika thinks that things could've gone differently the following chapter, "but it's too late". It looks like a safe escape from any accusation readers could've moved against the author about the break-up. But I don't mind really.

last edited at Nov 29, 2017 1:09PM

That's just such a cop out. If you can explain character stupidity with "emotions" then Prometheus would be lauded as a masterpiece. Smart characters acting moronic for convenient drama creation is just cringe inducing. Especially here, these are not split decisions in the heat of the moment. These are thought out conclusions where the characters just completely blanked on recent past events that would have shown them how stupid they are acting.

Cannibal, don't read the story with your filter, your knowledge and lack of it - and by that I mean the scarce information we all of have (on Ririha's reasons, ie). If you do that, you'll see that it's not as simple as you put it. Even Yuzumori stated that she would not be concerned with Ririha's threat (ch.19). From what we know, Yuzumori said she hasn't been thinking about Mimika, which was kinda to be expected considering her past. When she left Mimika's house, she was heartbroken but showed none of her feelings. Instead, she concluded "reasonably" (aka since-I-went-through-this-in-my-past) that it was to be expected. I understand that some things may have no sense whatsoever if I think of what I know, but what do the characters know? And in what measure their feelings influence their reason? In what measure my feelings influence mine? (...that's deep!)

If you are going to whisk away shitty writing with something as vague as "selfishness" then that's your own prerogative.

Hi, can you please expound on why do you consider this a "shitty writing"? I'm genuinely curious.

Characters acting out of character, like a smart and mature child all the sudden acting moronic and ignorant. Or invoking tropes in the worst of ways, such as Mamika breaking up over Yuzumori not having friends without actually talking to her about the issue. Or characters getting weirdly specific amnesia and forgetting past events, such as Yuzumori not remembering Ririha confronting her in the bathroom and directly threatening her. Weird that she didn't remember that after Mamika broke up with her after talking with Ririha. You'd think she would be a little curious as to what Ririha told her.

But no, let's just forget all that because typical melodrama beats out an interesting almost-realistic look at a lolicon and her gay relationship.

Okay, I see you but, as Komugi pointed out, it's early to be calling this a "shitty writing".

Being this an on-going story, stating that Yuzumori is acting OOC when we don't know to what degree and in what direction her character will evolve yet, not until we reach the very end of the manga at least, is a discourse that can only be applied to fanfictions, not to original works.
That being said, look at the bigger picture, or the one we know so far. Fourteen chapters in we've assumed this is the story of a teenager dealing with her feelings for her "light of my life, fire of my loins": we get to know Mimika, we get to see what her thoughts are, we catch glimpses of her life with Yuzumori. Then, when Mimika leaves for her school trip, we are left with Yuzumori. The change of pov itself should make us suspicious that this isn't just the story of a girl in love with a younger girl.
We follow Yuzumori for a chapter and, in the same manner we've learned that Mimika has Shiori in her life, we see that somebody else is crossing theirs with Yuzumori's. Ririha is introduced just like that, as somebody who passes by and holds a "grudge" toward our "main character".
Next chapter, we're back on the couple going through their daily life, but we're aware now that somebody else might have their own story to tell. At this point, take a look at our protagonists: they've reached a dead end. They've grown closer (true), Mimika's kinda tamed her urges, Yuzumori looks for physical contact, but none of them is doing anything to start another chapter in their life (Yuzumori doesn't seem to be aware of the nature of her feelings, she just wants to be with Mimika while Mimika's fine with how things are). Basically, what started as a story where us readers' many goal was to see if the two of them would end up together and how they would cope with their age difference has evolved into something different. Once Mimika's feelings are accepted by Yuzumori and that "first step" of their journey is behind them, they just do stuff. There's no real progression. Not until somebody set things in motion again. Ririha does just that (if we focus on Yuzumori and Mimika's relationship). Yet, characters don't only exist in function of main characters: they have their own story to tell too, a purpose. If Ririha was just a flat character, then that would be "bad writing", and it would damage the story more than any trope. Sure, what drives Ririha isn't clear NOW, but it's useless to say that it will, as we will get all the answers we want on Yuzumori's past (for example).

I like having the chance - despite it comes with big frustration - of guessing what's going on with everyone and how the characters' different storylines are connected, but I'd never call it "bad writing" just because something looks "off" in an on-going story.

If you are going to whisk away shitty writing with something as vague as "selfishness" then that's your own prerogative.

Hi, can you please expound on why do you consider this a "shitty writing"? I'm genuinely curious.

Some people (and exspecially kids), when they really want a thing, they will do anything that seems like a good plan, until they realize they have fucked it up.

That's true!

I'm sympathetic to Ririha. I'm not justifying her actions, but imagine having a crush on somebody and feeling helpless because you don't know what to do with that, or how to get their attention. Then, you find out the girl you like is happy with somebody else. Some people would react by slipping away and trying to get over their "love". Ririha has her own (fascinating, IMO) way to deal with it.

First
Rob what you hold dear, so you won't have anything and become mine
Second
She annoyed because Yuzumori are not lonely so she can't approach her
Now
My assummtion, she thought that's another lover of Yuzumori, the kind that abuses her

First and Second: my thoughts exactly.
Now:
I think Ririha just acted impulsively when she saw Yuzumori crying because somebody's bullying her. I doubt she had any rational thought like assuming Shiori was "another lover" of hers.

...looks to me that Ririha does have a big soft spot for Yuzu. Anybody? BTW, I feel bad for Shiori. Loli can hurt.

I've been hoping to see this on Dynasty. It's the sweetest anthology, and one (me) can never get enough of onee-loli manga.