Duly noted. Your implication that grandma’s excessive pessimism was a form of “mental illness” would likewise be “utterly rude,” except she passed away decades ago, so it won’t bother her.

I'm probably going to regret getting into this, but I feel like I should point out, you mentioned anti-depressants and while they are not prescribed exclusively for depression that did seem to be the implication in your post. Depression is as a mental disorder, so if what you meant was "excessive pessimism" and not depression, I don't think the fault lies with the person who replied to you.

Thank you for your opinion on where to place blame. I’m sure it will be very useful to someone for some reason.

Now that was a beautiful kiss. ^_^

The last page brought up a bit more trouble again, though. But I'm sure that's nothing they can't handle together.

Somebody please spell out for me what is so troubling about that last page. (I’m not quite clear what is happening in the “OW!” panel—my first thought is that she got some of Mitsuki’s black polish on her own hand and broke a nail trying to scrape it off. And further, that every little thing reminds her of her gf, distracting her from studying.)

But I could certainly be misreading it.

That looks more like blood to me, and her other nails are in a pretty horrible state as well, so she very much seems to be overworking herself and worrying too much, to the extent of destroying her own nails with nervous scratching.

Ok, I can see that reading. Aya’s nails definitely are longer on previous pages. But given that the drama in this series has hardly been tragic and is usually resolved pretty fluffily, “Aya seems anxious about studying” strikes me as a hell of a long way from “incoming divorce arc.”

"need to study harder" alone in a dark room -> cutting back on time with Mitsuki -> divorce arc/relationship crisis

Holy shit—I had a grandmother who also saw disaster looming in every little gray cloud or random stumble. But she just needed anti-depressants.

"Romance interferes with studies, throttle back on romance" occurs a lot in fiction, and sometimes in real life. Your implication that the people worrying (likely based on experience) are mentally ill is utterly rude and uncalled for.

Duly noted. Your implication that grandma’s excessive pessimism was a form of “mental illness” would likewise be “utterly rude,” except she passed away decades ago, so it won’t bother her.

last edited at May 18, 2025 4:11PM

"need to study harder" alone in a dark room -> cutting back on time with Mitsuki -> divorce arc/relationship crisis

Holy shit—I had a grandmother who also saw disaster looming in every little gray cloud or random stumble. But she just needed anti-depressants.

Now that was a beautiful kiss. ^_^

The last page brought up a bit more trouble again, though. But I'm sure that's nothing they can't handle together.

Somebody please spell out for me what is so troubling about that last page. (I’m not quite clear what is happening in the “OW!” panel—my first thought is that she got some of Mitsuki’s black polish on her own hand and broke a nail trying to scrape it off. And further, that every little thing reminds her of her gf, distracting her from studying.)

But I could certainly be misreading it.

Right, that was explicit. Wanting to be able to follow Aya to the US wasn't, though it's plausible.

Ah, right. My impression is that the Mitsuki-to-US plan is, at best, on hold. Joe's promise to follow Kanna poses the questions for the future of: when, how, and what about Mitsuki?

I've only ever seen the "going to America" trope in manga used as a way of temporarily removing characters from the plot--it's a little hard for me to imagine a manga endgame of "all the main characters transplant to the West and live happily ever after," although I'm sure it must have happened sometime, given how many manga there are.

I think Aya is studying so she can go to a school in America so she can be with Mitsuki… I think I may be wrong but I remember that being a thing….?

I don't think that was explicit. Could be another reason Aya has thrown herself at English.

It was in the previous chapter--Aya wants to learn English because it will open up the world of Western music to her, and also (real reason) she wants to fully understand Mitsuki's lyrics.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_guy_she_was_interested_in_wasnt_a_guy_at_all_ch125#3
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_guy_she_was_interested_in_wasnt_a_guy_at_all_ch125#4

last edited at May 18, 2025 7:35AM

All the Gyaru looks so cute!!!
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/big_love_from_ultra_deep_space_ch04

What a coincidence—I came here to ask: is the classic gyaru look(s) really still a thing among teenagers in Japan? It’s a ubiquitous “type” in manga, of course, but many online discussions of the trope talk about it as if it’s mostly a thing of the past in real life.

I agree that, visual trope-wise, they’re pretty much a bunch of cuties.

aww she make a cake just for her. Also I would not eat cake as breakfast

I love cake for breakfast. With tea.

I also don't think there have been weird vibes either besides that in this series she's apparently supposed to be a problem solver and is running into various problems to solve.

Did you miss that the "problem solver" role was foisted on her because she's routinely slut shamed at her workplace? Or the part where a bunch of students cornered her and accused her of all sorts of shit because someone spread rumors about her and that male teacher?

This manga seems to be about an ostensibly queer woman doing unpaid work managing the relationships of straight people at her workplace, while getting nothing but disrespect and humiliation in return. While such a premise has potential on paper, this manga does not treat this woman's situation with the weight it deserves. It does not try to spin a suspenseful, thrilling, or even a funny story out of it. And the way it's set up now, the only plot hook I can discern is that if she solves enough mysteries, the harassment will stop and everyone will love her.

In other words, this manga depicts a grossly misogynistic and hostile workplace, but instead of any indication that the story will challenge the actual problems with that, the protagonist's journey looks like it will be about doing unpaid labor "solving mysteries", for the benefit of the most deeply unsympathetic people ever, until the problem magically goes away.

It's possible that the main character's journey will instead be about growing a backbone and learning to say no, but that kind of conflicts with the mystery-solving thing (since growing a backbone means saying no to the mystery-solving crap), and shifting all of the blame on her for her mistreatment would be all kinds of gross anyway.

That’s quite a lot of dire prediction on the basis of very little textual evidence/plot development.

I'm pretty sure the main character doesn't actually know what NTR means.

Nene and the guy don’t have to be a relationship for it to be ntr.

NTR is whatever a person wants it to be.

Evidently.

In Citrus, the love between Yuzu and Mei was always the driving force behind the story, even ahead of Aihara Academy, because if it hadn't been like that, the wedding we would have had would have been Mei and the boy manager's and Mei would already be pregnant hahaha. Citrus+ covers the story of the engaged Yuzu and Mei before the wedding and after 7 volumes the romance between Yuzu and Mei has been scarce and anyone who is not blind can see that. I'm not seeing a relationship of equals. I see a Yuzu going out of her way for Mei, but I don't see it so much on Mei's side. Sometimes I see her so cold towards Yuzu that it's scary, maybe because Sabu nerfed Mei from the beginning of Citrus+. I think Yuzu's great support in Citrus+ has been Harumin and I've seen more chemistry between them than what is supposed to be the main couple. It's my personal opinion and that's what these forums are for, to give opinions, because the other option is to disappear like most of the people who commented on this forum at the beginning of Citrus+

That's exactly how I feel. I thought C+ was supposed to lead us to the marriage by showing us the proper development of the relationship between Yuzu and Mei. And hell, we haven't seen any of that. We're still at same issues that were there from the start of the original manga, every time they seem to solve a problem the next arc they're back at square 1. Someone said that peak C+ was Matsuri-Harumi and that's correct, fans have been more involved into that than whaterver is (not) happening between the 2 main characters... They don't look like a couple, or rather they look like a couple that's been married for 80 years: there's no romance whatsoever, they barely talk to each other, and they consistently like to spend less and less time together

I agree with all that, except I somehow got the impression before Citrus + started that it was actually intended to be focused on stories about the side characters. Then once it did get going, the main premise appeared to be, as you suggest, that “starting over, properly” project that Mei came up with, pretty much out of nowhere.

But the story hasn’t really been focused on much of anything—a whole clutch of side characters have either disappeared (Shirapon, the twins), or show up only randomly (Nene), or get what looks like the start of significant development that then stops cold (Harumin and Matsuri). We’ve been given new characters (Homophobe-girl and her Nene-knockoff “girlfriend” and “I’m really not too quick on the uptake” Arata), though.

The problems with the Mei-Yuzu relationship have been documented here exhaustively, and might be measured by calculating the ratio of scenes showing a proactive Mei being romantically affectionate toward Yuzu versus those in which Mei fends Yuzu off, scolds her, tells her to mind her own business, etc. (I’m sure there must be some scenes in which Mei directly initiates affection toward Yuzu, as opposed to her deigning to accept Yuzu’s advances or Mei talking about her feelings for Yuzu with a third party—I just can’t think of any offhand this morning. Maybe other readers can help me out on that.)

last edited at May 14, 2025 8:49AM

Oh? This is still going?

For certain values of “going.”

Literally three chapters ago, less than a month in-universe

Now a Yuzu aggression towards Mei do we consider it a romantic scene? That scene is toxic, it is not consented act

The only thing toxic about citrus are the comments on dynasty reader

That same image of Mei's expression in any other series would lead to 4 pages of comments on sexual assault.

last edited at May 13, 2025 2:14PM

wtf is this series about? too much hetero going on. has anyone read up ahead? is this ACTUALLY yuri with romance between two women? is it gonna end in a het ending? or is it one of those let's showcase a lot of hetero stories and show as little yuri as possible until the very last panel?

I've never read a series like that. What would be an example of one?

Now a Yuzu aggression towards Mei do we consider it a romantic scene? That scene is toxic, it is not consented act

But it is a kiss, so people who say “they don’t kiss” are (technically) liars, liars, pants on fire.

Or something.

My main problem that there is almost no romance in the serie. In the last 13 years in Citrus life how many kiss happened between Yuzu and Mei? I mean no off screen kisses of course...
I even do not remember on the last one...

The serie should focus on love, romance and drama. Not on the school, work, Arata and other background characters. One episode is ok from them time to time. But a year's worth of episodes?

I want to see why Mei love Yuzu. Really.

Literally three chapters ago, less than a month in-universe

Seriously? The ambush kiss that Mei resisted and that earned Yuzu a double slap in the face is supposed to be evidence of how romantic their relationship is?

Just get used to it, folks, and learn to love Citrus +: The 7 Habits of Successful Academic Institutional Reorganizers.

Preview:
“#1: Don’t let your romantic partner’s birthday get in the way of routine paperwork.”

Re: the TL note: no mention of why the translator would avoid the standard localization of the shishi-odoshi.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheThingThatGoesDoink

I've never seen the shishi-odoshi sound being localized as "doink" before so I'm not sure how standard it really is and how clear it would have been to the readers. I just went for a bath-related sound that could easily be extended with a ー.

I believe they maybe, possibly, potentially, have been joking~ Can't say for sure though

I'm already bad at telling when someone is joking in person let alone over text

I swear the only times I’ve ever seen it that sfx has been “doink.” Not sure which manga offhand, though. It was kind of memorable because I had no idea such things existed until I started reading manga.

last edited at May 10, 2025 3:30PM

Re: the TL note: no mention of why the translator would avoid the standard localization of the shishi-odoshi.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheThingThatGoesDoink

I am reading this for free. If she wants to have her irregular schedule, she can, and I see no problem with it.

Obviously, Saburouta can have an irregular schedule, because she certainly does have an irregular schedule.

I was just trying to clarify that, despite a great deal of speculation and generalizations about the professional travails of being a mangaka, no one has presented any authoritative evidence whatsoever as to why this series has appeared in print the way it has.

last edited at May 9, 2025 11:58AM

Only issue has been the delays but I'm not fussed about an author taking their time, especially with all the burnout

Which burnout would that be?

Mangaka in general. Health issues or related delays. Regardless of the reason, I don't begrudge authors who take their time considering the common working conditions and compensation. Plus, this is really an extra series, so I imagine she's not in a rush, and that's fine to me (and the publication seems to work with her normally).

I don't view this as a series that needs or intends regular updates. The main series is over. When a new chapter comes out, I enjoy it, then I go about things. Maybe I view things differently. I follow many independent comic artists who release things at a similar pace, and being a writer myself, I get it.

But it is the case, is it not, that, despite the various speculations that have been put forth about the possibility of health problems or author burnout, etc., we actually have no definite evidence as to why this particular series, which once appeared at least fairly regularly, started having much longer gaps between chapters, including missing chapters that had been previously announced and sometimes involving partially toned chapters or chapters with egregious editing mistakes, correct?

You're certainly correct that this series doesn't "intend" regular updates, since it has not had regular updates for quite some time. I'm not sure exactly how one would support the premise that an ongoing series consisting of discernibly incomplete narrative arcs doesn't "need" updates.

last edited at May 9, 2025 10:27AM

Only issue has been the delays but I'm not fussed about an author taking their time, especially with all the burnout

Which burnout would that be?

Arata's goal in the story is to show the change Mei has gone through thanks to Yuzu and to cement her role as the new chairwoman of Aihara

What about Mei's administrative role at the Aihara school has needed to be "cemented"? How have the nuances of that role ever been a central issue in this story, except for Mei spending exponentially more time and energy on that job than on her relationship with Yuzu?

maybe i'm wrong but i think they mean cement as in showing the actual, practical work she's doing rather than just "studying a lot and doing overtime at the student council".
Because aside from the romance itself, being the new chairwoman always was a central issue of the story since it's Mei's #1 driving force, informing nearly every decision she makes throughout the series.

So I think it makes sense Saburouta would want to expand on that aspect.

Well, in that sense, sure--in terms of how her character is presented, Mei's "business" (student council/chair of the school) has consistently taken precedence over attention to her relationship with Yuzu (as seen, for instance, in the Yuzu's-birthday fiasco). Now, for some reason, we're getting in-story narrative attention to that business.

So far Arata, with his extravagant admiration for Yuzu, seems to serve mostly to remind Mei how much Yuzu has been working to put herself in a position to help Mei achieve her goals. That just highlights the fact that Mei herself doesn't seem to have noticed that, or when she noticed, hasn't valued those efforts--in fact we've had several Mei-to-Yuzu "no need to worry about my business" scenes.

Not that any number of existing characters couldn't have played a similar role, but Saburouta seems to be committed to introducing new characters rather than servicing (in a narrative-development sense) familiar ones.

Arata's goal in the story is to show the change Mei has gone through thanks to Yuzu and to cement her role as the new chairwoman of Aihara

What about Mei's administrative role at the Aihara school has needed to be "cemented"? How have the nuances of that role ever been a central issue in this story, except for Mei spending exponentially more time and energy on that job than on her relationship with Yuzu?