Is Hanako really a witch or something??? I'm very curious.

Half blooded, perhaps?

The Great Manga Detective (GMD) and his Deadbeat Assistant (DA) are discussing the case of "How to Break a Triangle":

DA: So you still think Erica is the guilty party responsible for Aya's disappearance?
GMD: Absolutely! When deciphering fictional cases like these, motive is paramount over evidence. Erica has all of the motive among the three friends. She an obsessive loner with no social skills.
DA: But what was the means?
GMD: I dunno. But it probably wasn't magic or yokai. Maybe Erica's grandfather was an eccentric scientist who dabbled in suspended animation, and invented a stasis capsule.
DA: That's pretty contrived as well! Literal plot device!
GMD: But I have to confess something. Something that has been bothering me for awhile....
DA: What's that?
GMD: I think we have misunderstood Miss Erica's motive.
DA: We have?
GMD: Absolutely. In the conversation between Erica and Aya (and the flashback) a few chapters back, Erica accused Aya of keeping her relationship with Koto secret. But the tone of the question, and indeed the person she was asking were off. If Erica was accusing anyone of keeping a relationship secret (which is suspicious anyway) it would have been Koto. It's not a question you would pose to someone Erica would have considered an outsider or an Intruder, since she and Koto had been friends previous to meeting Aya.
DA: OK.
GMD: So that's when I realized that if Erica's motive was jealousy towards Aya over Koto, which is what we've assumed, then the whole plot makes no sense.
DA: It doesn't?
GMD: Think about it. If Erica wanted Aya out of the picture, then why not just KILL her? Then stage her disappearance or make it look an adult pervert offed her. If she had the resourcefulness to keep Aya to herself for seven years, it would have been much easier to commit murder than go through all of the trouble of kidnapping and keeping her alive, which leads to a messy denouement anyway.
DA: A dead end really. So what's her real motive.
GMD: A really twisted plot development. Erica LOVES Aya, not Koto.
DA: WHAT?! But we assumed...
GMD: Again, think about it! Aya has no family anymore. Her mom's probably dead, and her grandparents are definitely dead. If Erica put her on ice for seven years, the time gap would destroy all of her peer relationships, especially with Koto. She's now exactly the kind of person who nobody would notice being in distress or duress. Predators like Erica are opportunistic, going for easy prey. Plus the theme of this manga is letting go of the past and evolving forward. If Erica is fixated on a fourteen year old girl, whose youth she can preserve despite the march of time, then she is even more of a twisted monster than we've assumed.
DA: Where the story is at now, Aya is staying in Erica's apartment, after breaking the leg of the triangle that keeps her connected with the wider world..... She's in danger.

Chapter 7 fan animation (set to the drama cd):

https://x.com/MickellPickell/status/1842225667288817856?t=Mek63fCe77-6lv2BFY_8dQ&s=19

last edited at Oct 4, 2024 4:44PM

I don't know if these were previously posted, but these are fan animations set to the drama CD

https://x.com/MickellPickell/status/1838223490882982361?t=zUrmryDa0afWh4Xs1T60Ow&s=19

https://x.com/MickellPickell/status/1838601787550716151?t=vpahf5WRLSvvyeAQxsw9Uw&s=19

Fun fact: The Earth's moon has no magnetic field because its metal core has long since cooled down and stopped spinning. As far as we know, magnetic fields have no tangible effect on human reproduction (gravitational fields, on the other hand... let's just say it's hard to have sex when your entire continent is flooded by high tides). And even if the Moon's orbit suddenly began to decay at the stated rate (ca. 384.4 km/year), it would have hit the Roche limit and disintegrated into an asteroid ring around Earth 38 years before the manga even took place.

I am sorry to all the catgirls who died when I brought real physics into a fantasy manga, but I am supremely peeved by sloppy worldbuiding from an author pitched to me as a "fantasy genius".

Another fun fact: The moon's orbital decay would increase the Earth's rotational velocity. This would increase average wind speeds to hurricane force. So everyone still died in a decidedly less romantic fashion.But this manga only blows in a metaphorical manner.

last edited at Aug 30, 2024 3:50AM

This is hella toxic but my eyes can't look away. The fact that they put the "beware bears" sign themselves makes sense (p31), there probably aren't any bears, but I wonder if it's actually going to play a role in the future.

They're on Hokkaido (northernmost big island), and there are big Brown Bears (Grizzlies in the USA) present in the local wilderness.

In case anyone is wondering.....

The author used the rl island of Kami-Shima (Aichi Prefecture) as their inspiration. The island and their newrby part of thr mainland has rocks going back to the Devonian Period (419 to 359 MYA), and perhaps the best fossil record going back to that period. It's also a region well known for shell middens created by the prehistoric Jomon people (basically a huge garbage pile of discarded mollusc shells). Kami-Shima was settled for fish processing, and features a large shrine at its summit.

So that’s how it ends? Everyone sad and miserable? Damn man.

Hey, no murder so that’s a positive right?

Of course not. Because it's the PARTY'S perogative to determine if children are allowed to live or die. The little girl is unregistered because she was born in prison. If a child isn't registered with the local CCP authorities, that child doesn't exist legally. She can't go to school, see a doctor, have legal housing, or get a proper job. This is the consequence of China's now defunct One Child Policy. Now she is an only child, but it costs a lotta RMB to register her ex post facto, because of fines for hiding the child's birth from the authorities, and there's the fact that the parents are paroled criminals which will result in more fines. Plus a few hands may need to be greased as the paperwork makes its way up the chimney, because at any point someone can object to the application. Mom and dad are scum, but they live in a pitiless totalitarian society that treats its chattels like a disposable resource, and being scum is sometimes the only way to survive being thrown out.

Remember there is no mass morality (traditional thought) because the Revolution did away with that. And if there is no mass morality, it follows there is no mass immorality. So the individual members of the proletariat should follow the Party's example and look out only for themselves. Mom and Dad are only doing what the Party has dictated, wallowing in the soulless hedonism emanating from a debauched leadership.

This is Hell on Earth.

Do not think of this as a psychological story. Do not ask what personal motivations drive these characters. This is a sociological story, just one anecdote in a country full of ruthless and vengeful selfishness.

What you're seeing in this story is the consequence of the Cultural Revolution (1965 to 1976). Long context short, Chinese leader Mao Tsetung was facing a Rebellion among the Chinese Communist Politbouro for the rather trivial act of killing sixty million Chinese people by engineering the greatest famine in human history. Rather than go meekly into retirement, Mao (with assistance from the head of the People's Liberation Army) started a countercoup that enlisted China's Post-Revolution generation who were mostly idealistic youths that were dedicated to Mao's desire to finish the Revolution's goals.

These youths formed a militia called the Red Guards, and they targeted older Chinese in traditional positions of authority (professions, community leaders, religious figures, university professors) by denouncing them for so called revanchism. Most of the accusers were employees or students of the accused, and in many cases they were relatives or neighbors. The accused were tortured and dragged into public denunciation meetings to be humiliated for their alleged crimes, destroying their reputations before neighbors and colleagues. Most of those denounced lost their jobs and livelihoods, and were packed off to prison. Some of the humiliated committed suicide. And many died from execution or further rough treatment in Chinese prisons.

Mao's campaign effectively crippled his adversaries, since millions of their loyal cadres were arrested and imprisoned, and much of China came under the de facto control of the Red Guards. But the CR also destroyed Chinese society. Because of the unprecedented mobilization of youth against traditional authority, and the insidious way that the Red Guards were recruited, brainwashed, and weaponized, basic societal trust was completely destroyed. Many people found that it was easier to preemptively accuse or denounce relatives, neighbors, and colleagues to save their own reputations and positions, adding a permanent bias of betrayal to the proceedings.

Chinese youth of this period, both the victims and the perpetrators, were taught that nobody could be trusted, and that you should only look after yourself. Love is an illusion, camaraderie is a lie, and solidarity only exists as an ephemeral mob mentality for mutual enrichment. Everybody cheats everybody else, and if your not trying to win then you're a fool. This attitude permeates every layer of Chinese society, particularly the Communist Party. The cheating girlfriend is only exhibiting this ethical selfishness, having learned it from her peers and elders in a conspiratorial manner.

That's just how China is now. And it could take a century or more for the country to return to its traditions and to regain it's moral grounding.

last edited at Jul 22, 2024 11:51AM

In case you're wondering.... the band whose name Aya is mangling is the Australian group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

I'm wondering if it's a wish granting spirit. Not to try and claim it's benevolent, but Aunt went looking for Trilobites, and maybe it made trilobites that died not long after. Idk, spitballing, we don't know how long Aunt was going back to that spot so it may either make no sense they dried in a short amount of time or make perfect sense if it's been over a week.

I don't think it made anything. This monster seems to be very good at manipulating the perceptions of its victims or intended prey. More likely those "trilobites" are just dead bugs, but the monster uses its influence to make them appear that way to an earnest fossil hunter. Gaslighting is a classic sexual predator behavior, after all.

Gem symbolism, huh? Garnets are semi-precious stones that until quite recently were never known to come in a blue color. The blue garnets that do exist are only known from one source in Tanzania, and are very expensive stones. Unlike most garnets which consist of a single mineral, blue garnets are made of umbalite, a mix of two garnet minerals (Equal amounts Pyrope and Spessartite). Umbalite is also known as Malaila (pronounced Malaya), a Swahili word meaning "outcast" or "outside of the family", owing to its atypical properties. Umbalite can change in color from deep blue to bright green, depending upon the intensity of illumination its viewed under. (Reading from the Internet)

Edit: In Japanese there are no separate words for blue and green colors. "Midori" can refer to both colors, and any other word (like the names of the two main characters) are merely "gradient neighbors" or variations of shade and color pitch.

last edited at Dec 28, 2023 1:50AM

The cocktail Naori makes in this chapter ("Caribbean Creole") is actually called a Bee's Kiss here in the USA (place of origin). This is a beverage of rum, cream, and honey simple syrup shaken together. This shouldn't be confused with the actual Creole cocktail, which is a stirred drink of whisky, sweet vermouth, and amer picon.

True Fact: I Love Rock n' Roll was originally written and performed in 1975 by the Arrows, a British band. The Joan Jett version is a cover from 1981.

Listen.....

Billy Corgan wrote Tonight, Tonight for two reasons. As a homage to his favorite band (Cheap Trick) and as an encouragement letter to himself after surviving a nightmare childhood. Corgan's father was a talented professional musician, and also a mentally unstable petty criminal and deadbeat. His mom was divorced from dad and wasn't a major presence, and his stepmother was (allegedly) physically and emotionally abusive to him and his brothers. Corgan eventually taught himself how to play the guitar, and got the hell out of there to become a musician.

Boring bio data aside, the choice of THIS song for this chapter has to be deliberate. Suddenly it recasts some otherwise inexplicable aspects of Mitsuki's life:

-Why is she living with her uncle, of all people?
-When Kanna invited her uncle to live with her in the USA, he declined because he wouldn't leave Mitsuki behind. That implies that he isn't her legal guardian, and if he left she would either be placed in a state orphanage or worse.
-When Kanna reappears years later, she is trying to entice Mitsuki to move to the States upon her graduation, is it because she's offering a fresh start with an entire ocean between the girl and her problematic past?
-The Mangaka shows some understanding of US immigration policies, and familiarity with the H2B visa.

This manga has a lot of references to rebirth, reincarnation or resurrection. In western societies both the black lotus and black rose can symbolize death, but also rebirth. And the name Renna means "rebirth" in Latin.

Also this isn't a yuri series (at least not yet): Kyoko refers to Renna as a "little pink bud," or pink rose. In the language of flowers a.pink rose symbolizes gratitude, admiration and filial love between friends or family members.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau

...a slide? Seriously? The next manga I read on here with a love hotel in it is probably going to have, I don't know, bumper cars or something.

Also, how many of Japan's trains really stop running late at night? I thought public transit was king there, and the NYC subway, which in all other situations is a 19th century relic that struggles to approach even bare-minimum adequacy, still runs nearly 24/7.

According to their website trains only run between 5 AM and 12 midnight.

I also think it's fairly safe to assume that rather than a full-on dream, Michi was projected into the real-life classroom, and actually talked to Aizawa.

EXTREMELY intrigued by this theory. I am supportive of this (also noting the fact that it was dark outside when they talked too)

Like other readers, I think there’re a Lot of mysteries yet to be solved so far. From the seemingly trivial question “who hid kasumi’s hair clip?” to the central theme “why is aizawa seemingly obssessive with michi?” to the grand finale “what is aizawa’s cause of death?”

I like the fact that the manga keeps it lighthearted despite all these questions.

1) Korotori Michi subconsciously hid Honda-san's hairpin. This was purposely done.
2) Honamin is obsessed with Michi because the latter is protecting her.
3) Honamin's death was faked by her family under extreme duress.
4) This manga has been lighthearted, but there is a major threat to Aizawa Honami's safety.

last edited at Jan 21, 2023 8:22AM

I think the flowers Little Michi gave Aizawa-san anemones. What's up with all these anemones in yuri manga lately...

Purple Anemones represent protection from evil... which is what a normal pentagram also represents.

How can one bundle of anxiety possibily handle two extroverted yanderes.

Handfuls of Xanax?

https://mangadex.org/title/4bdc1694-0055-46e6-ad8b-2ba1e59f6f74/ears

Lewd ear cleaning.

Meanwhile I'm just here admiring that nice VW bus on page 7. Looks like the 21 window model.

Chekov's Gun.

omg blessed you translator and the translator group for the fast release of updates.TvT. thank you soooooo much.

daym tae yar the true legend among all the lolicon I've seen, but she haven't still yet get the mother's approval welp atleast her courage is still admirable.lol

Unfortunately with this chapter we've caught up with the raws, and releases will go back to a normal pace.

I smell ORGY (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)

Having seen the raws.... the body count is a little less than that.