Arranged marriage are only okay if they're gay.

There, I said what everyone's really thinking.

Everyone keeps calling Yuni and Fuuko toxic, but you know, as someone who really empathizes with Yuni, I think Fuuko is really likeable!

It was as glorious as I hoped.

I love Adachi.

Oh man we're getting closer to that mental breakdown from adachi

This comment is frightening

Comments with a menacing aura. It's definitely a significant point in the novel. I'm curious how they'll draw the absolute wall of text Adachi spews at Shimamura

Isn't it like seven pages long? Could probably dedicate a whole manga volume to it.

I don't read LNs but 7 PAGES!? What even is that, Cioccolata beatdown?

Not even just 7 pages, but 7 pages of uninterrupted pure monologue from Adachi as she spills her spaghetti all over the floor.

Painting her feelings as something like that of a fan and her idol isn't right either. The author uses the word 恋心. It's pretty unambiguously romantic, and her actions clearly indicate she's interested in dating, not just admiring from a distance. It's not the fever induced delusion of the readers when the uncle is written to even read it this way.

The question is whether it will stay that way once she finds out the truth, or if we'll go the "My feelings of like are different because we are girls" route. I'll echo the sentiment earlier that usually when authors start waxing poetic about the definition of yuri or if their work is something more complicated than that, it's usually not a good sign. But given that the author seems to actually draw gay stuff and isn't Ryukishi trying to make Higurashi Gou seem super deep, I'll reserve my thoughts until the end.

last edited at Jun 28, 2022 11:11AM

Hello? I said "in real life". In real life, lots of people are heterosexual you know. Not especially attracted to the same sex, but rather by the opposite sex. They are more numerous than you think.

The reason you're getting pushback on what you said is because the entire reason people "in real life" might react that way by automatically writing romance out of the picture in their mind once they find out they're the same sex is precisely because of heteronormative bullshit.

"Why can't you two just be good friends?" "Are you sure you two aren't just really good friends?"

That's the exact kind of bullshit I and my partner had to put up with repeatedly growing up because yeah, that's the "correct" way to react when you get extremely close to someone of the same sex.

Even the reverse for Aya: she's into guys until she magically gets into girls because plot.

Sexuality is unironically not so cut-and-dry.

My parents still console themselves that I might magically turn heterosexual someday because my preference and primary interest outside of my partner is in the opposite sex.

last edited at May 30, 2022 4:18PM

What do you mean, the near constant panty shots is unironically one of the best things about this story.

Itoha and Hime are inexperienced with relationships, but are surprisingly great at moving their relationship forward.
They're completely naive with in regards to sex and romance but constantly end up exploring it because of doujinshi.
The artstyle is cutesy and innocent, but every scene has fanservice and pantyshots.

It all feeds into the gap moe of this manga! Can you say masterpiece?

last edited at Nov 1, 2021 5:16PM

Of course not. I'm glad too, I love your posts.

Aw, shucks. I didn't think my posts were special or frequent enough to be noticed like that - I'm flattered. Assuming that wasn't sarcasm, which if it was, I totally knew that.

As for the new chapter. Yeah, I think I'm done. I gave it a fair shot, but it's just... meh. To blogpost for a bit, my rationale for trying this series was hoping that it'd avoid the usual cliches when it comes to writing dudes, since the guy is clearly meant to be like a "pet cat" or something to her. Which I don't really have a problem with, I mean, I fucking eat up Itou Hachi, so it'd be hypocritical to say anything about that. But two scenes in this chapter just made me done:

1. When he snatched the sketchbook from Morikawa's hand - especially the sharp look in his eyes when he asked what she was doing.
2. When he pulled Morikawa along and she thought "he's strong because he's a boy after all."

Like 99% of the times when they write guys, why do they always gotta write something about how "but they're still a MAN and loving BUT STILL DANGEROUS" no matter what the actual power dynamic between the two characters are like. Sometimes you have the most crossdressingest feminineist literal shota character ever drawn and he still has to go I am man if his romantic partner is female.

I can already picture the inevitable scene later when Morikawa gets in trouble with some shit guys come in harassing her at her job or wherever and catboy shows up unexpectedly and scares them off with his man energy. It drives me up a goddamn wall because I love the art, and Morikawa is super cute. Kinda reminds me of how I always like shoujo artstyles, and how shoujo manga heroines are super cute. Except they're always with a dude like this.

In other words, fukkin shoot me.dead. Oh well.

last edited at Oct 12, 2021 10:52PM

He licks her tears

I tried to give it an honest shot, and overworked/discriminated OL stories like this are usually right up my alley, but why do guys always have to do stupid ikemen shit like that in het and BL manga all the time. Someone just shoot me dead already.

(hope posting this isn't against the rules lmao)

last edited at Oct 12, 2021 10:54AM

Okay, look.

Yeah, the comic is implausible. Absurd, even. People aren't wrong for pointing this out, and if it takes you out of the story, that's a legitimate POV.

It's also true that it's just a comedic manga, and it's okay to not take it too seriously. Both of these things are valid perspectives based on personal preference and opinion about what kind of stories you like to read. It's okay to want stories to have some grounding in reality, it's also okay to like stories that are batshit insane.

The thing I can't countenance are the people in this topic who are like "Oh, no, this is plausible, you guys, some girls just hit puberty a little early!"

Citation needed, motherf---ers. ;p Yeah, some girls hit puberty early. They might be a little taller than average. And have a relatively buxom figure. They might even plausibly pass for a short teenager.

They're still children. They're not 170 freaking cm tall with tits bigger than their head. This premise has no grounding in reality. It's okay if you like that, but don't get so defensive about it that you ignore reality. This girl is like 20cm above the top of the range of what is considered normal for her age. That's not an early bloomer, that's gigantism.

She wasn't quite that tall (closer to 160cm) but I had a student once that yeah, looked old enough to be a college student with a, very - very well developed body, let's say. She was in fact 12 years old at the time. To be honest, I don't think the physical qualities are stretching imagination that far, what's more implausible is her suave ladykiller personality. That, is something I've never seen before in real life from even an adult, much less an elementary schooler.

To me, that last hug felt a lot like a goodbye to their old feelings. A proper closure of an old chapter in good terms. So this development is not at all unreasonable.

Yes, that's exactly what it is, and that's my problem with it? They still hold those feelings, so the only reason they're saying goodbye is solely because of circumstance. That doesn't really contradict anything I said above.

It'd be one thing if they already moved on at some point before this naturally, but they obviously did not.

last edited at Aug 26, 2021 4:58AM

I'm gonna go against the grain and say I really didn't like this development, and I really like everything else about this series.

It just feels really... off? when it sounds like the literal only reason Sara and Wakana aren't together is because it's inconvenient because of an existing relationship now - they evidently still both love each other and haven't outgrown those feelings, and Sara literally asking to hold Wakana close, implying it in a lover's sense but following it with Wakana's "this is it and we can never do this again" just drives that feeling in further.

If anything, it all just feels like kind of a forced arc to have an excuse for Yuina and Wakana to get together but I'd rather they have just... gotten together without all this needless angst then. Hell, even if they wanted to do this, I'd rather Sara just literally be straight even because it would feel more natural than this development.

last edited at Aug 26, 2021 4:31AM

"Go straight home from school" seems a common rule; Mei brings it up a lot in Citrus. "No part-time jobs" is another one.

It's weird, same country that lets 5 year olds go to the grocery store on their own gets uptight about high schoolers.

Schools where the students wear uniforms worry what the students will do outside while wearing the uniforms. While wearing the uniforms, their actions can be traced back to the school. This isn't just for the Japanese.
However, in this case, the students don't wear the uniforms for working, so, to me, it's kinda abusive.

Considering it's the schools that decide to use uniforms in the first place, it's their responsibility to deal with both the good and the bad of it, not offload that responsibility to literal children by restricting innocuous activities. Both are abusive.

I don't usually like blogposting, but I wanted to share this - mostly because it transformed my opinion of this story from "This is fun and quirky story, not bad" to "This story has left me a sobbing mess, someone help me."

I read it a few days ago mind you, but only today, after saying something out loud that was practically line-by-line right out of the story, did I realize how similar my feelings are to Lappi's. Not as a plush of course, but being ace and in a relationship with someone for a very long time now but never feeling adequate or worthy enough to be their partner. I realized that even the witch at the start - telling Megu that her love is nothing but self deception - echoes the same doubts that have plagued my mind for a decade now.

I don't wanna start spilling my own guts all over the place, but I encourage anyone who's grappled with feelings like that to read it through those lens, because it really is something special to me now.

last edited at Aug 18, 2021 6:44AM

Kirin posted:

MadoHomu is... complicated- in Urobuchi's words, "I don't think it is that special -- a really strong friendship turns into a lovelike-relationship without the sexual attraction, in their case." Whether this is Urobuchi trying to make a valiant effort to represent homoromantic women or just him being physically unable to utter the word 'love' without adding in fifteen caveats is upto readers to decide.

I heard he really just mean they're canon. Apparently in third movie they originally planned to blatantly state Homura was in love with Madoka, but felt it'd be too direct and people would be offended they treat them like idiots, so they changed it to be a little more subtle, which if you watched movie imo is still pretty blatant. Homura straight says the reason she was able to pull Madoka back from godhood was because of her intense love, if that isn't straight confirmation, I'm not sure what is. Jokes on them that despite them thinking it was so obvious they had to tone it down a bit, most fans think there's nothing more than strong friendship between them and subtext at best. tl;dr: MadoHomu is canon and you can't convince me otherwise.

Ah yes. My favorite quote from the Rebellion:

Homura: "Something you can't understand, Incubator. It is the pinnacle of all human emotion. More passionate than hope, and far deeper than despair...

It's friendship!"

Then Kyubey slapped his own face with his ear flap. Classic scene.

last edited at Nov 29, 2020 8:49AM

Reminds me a lot of Shinozaki and I love it

Pripara is one of the best goddamn series ever to air in the history of television.

Although, with the ridiculous number of isekai out there, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a "The Summoned Hero is a violent abusive b*stard !" in the next few years.

Ha ha.
If only you knew.
LN isekai protagonist are scum.

laughs in Konosuba

Not that I like Kazuma, but he's hardly even close to the worst.
A lot of protagonists are written with what I can only guess is the desire to subjugate and take revenge on every woman that has supposedly wronged the author. Kinda like Tazune, except written in a way where you're expected to sympathize or identify with him.

last edited at Apr 19, 2020 1:02AM

Although, with the ridiculous number of isekai out there, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a "The Summoned Hero is a violent abusive b*stard !" in the next few years.

Ha ha.
If only you knew.
LN isekai protagonist are scum.

Am I the only one who does see Haruko and Midori as friends, but not lovers?

Like, Midori is constantly grieving about Haruko's mom. I have a feeling that is they went any deeper, Midori would be all like "Your mother wasn't like that", or "Your mother wouldn't do that". Midori would be seeing Tsugumi through Haruko's prism.

I so hope I make sense

yes, you're the only one, which is why a handful posts above you assert the exact same thing.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I actually bothered to read the last few pages and I just want to say that using the legality of whatshisface's actions to justify whether or not he qualifies as abusive in a moral sense is silly.

You can find a court of law that would probably side with Tazune even after he smacked her across the face after all!

Hey, those two talking in Spanish ^ have a novel theory: that Tonoike could likely be gay, a repressed homo, and that's why he's so cold and indifferent towards all women, even the ones he dates and shags.

Hope not, he'd literally just be that one guy in Netsuzou.

About the "incel" terminology thing--this chapter did not reveal that Tazune is "really" an incel--it shows that he once was in the situation that a lot of men who describe themselves as incels believe they are in. Having gotten laid, and with the reasonable prospect of getting laid in the future, he is by definition NOT an incel.

What he is now is a version of a pick-up artist (PUA).

Incels share with PUAs an unbelievably shitty ideology about women and gender relations; it's just that PUAs believe they are successful at exploiting that ideology for their own sexual/ego gratification while incels believe they are (for cultural, economic, and/or personal reasons) disqualified from exploiting that ideology, and they are bitterly resentful about it.

In a way incels and PUAs are two sides of the same misogynistic coin, but they aren't equivalents (and each would certainly hate being mistaken for the other).

That's why I called him a previously-incel turned probable-cheating wifebeater. He had a similar situation to them before, now he's different!

last edited at Feb 25, 2020 5:46PM

Eh, I wouldn't call any of this a "good reason" for being a jerk, but the girls picking on him were -also- being bullying little shits. It's not like they were just not interested in him, they were cruel and belittling. It's showing the cycle of abuse. If you treat someone like shit, there's a good chance they end up passing that abuse on to someone else. It doesn't excuse his behavior, but his later behavior doesn't justify their cruelty either.

Nobody said anything about that. You could keep passing the puck along even, hypothesizing that maybe those girls had problems from others, who also were abused or bullied by another, and so on. Who knows!

He's still walking human garbage, nevertheless, and escalated things to an even more severe level than his aggressors ever did. And not only that, but an enemy of yuri! So like, he should just die.

Well if this was supposed to be a learning lesson, then what I got out of it was:
If the person has been a jerk, there might have been a good reason for it, but that doesn’t mean you should let that person keep being a jerk to you.
Doing that will only make your situation worse.

"good reason"
he's got the backstory of a literal actual ex-incel with reasoning that borders dangerously close on their thought processes to boot.

last edited at Feb 25, 2020 3:27AM

Not much to think about. Pedophiles and misogynistic wife beater husbands are both bad. Stop trying to bait arguments.

Excuse me, I'm doing nothing of the sort! It was a curious observation to me, nothing more. After all, most everyone seems to know where they stand already.

last edited at Feb 24, 2020 10:52PM