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Sekcoya
Liberty discussion 14 Jun 06:09
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

Oof... one of the biggest problems (aside from everything else) is that the chapters are too short, and every one of them has to end on a cliffhanger. So each chapter is just the plot spazzing out for a bit and then suddenly lurching forward to the next big scandalizing event.
Though, it's actually hard for me to hate any of the characters in this manga because they're just too ridiculous now for me to get emotionally invested in them. If only there weren't the emotionally abusive aspect, it might fall into the "so bad it's funny" camp. Though I do find myself chuckling while reading every new release, so... maybe that counts for something?

Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

They actually both sound like they married out of obligation, really. Secretly a gay man?

Yeah, I'm reading the "forgetting rings" theme as symbolizing adultery on both sides. The "we worried about the same kinds of things" line in Ayano's flashback feels like it might be a hint that they were both closeted homosexuals when they got engaged.

I'm getting the same feeling too, maybe not that he's gay necessarily, but that at the very least he married her more out of an obligation and friendly fondness than out of love.

Oh dayum! Kinda feel like this a better version of Netsuzou TRap (I realy enjoyed Netsuzou TRap, hate me if you want) but a more realistic adult version. 'Shit... I wanna see you too' how I feel about the next chapter

Pretty much everything is better than Netsuzou TRap so that's rather poor accomplishment.
I just wished authors would actually try a little to make stories about female adults without need to always portray bisexual as cheaters, especially when their partners are good guys who they hurt with their actions, make the guy a villain, or is it so hard to make a bisexual woman who was with guys and girls but actually doesn't hurt her current husband to be with a woman but is single? The combo of bisexual cheating is pretty much given as adult females go.
And it rather shows author's lack of originality about the issue which is a bit poor move from Shimura side.

I also get really frustrated by the "cheating bisexual" trope, but I'm not sure that the wife is actually bisexual. Nothing she says makes it sound like she was in love with the guy, more like "I like him enough as a person to enjoy our conversations and to be able to live in the same house with him", which is something I can say about plenty of my guy friends (not that I'd ever marry them, lol). Seems a lot more like a closeted lesbian who married out of societal pressure based on what we've seen so far. Of course, I could be wrong. Either way, looking forward to finding out! Similar premises have been done many times, but so has every other premise in the book. What matters is how it's executed, and so far I'm loving the execution.

All other things aside, can I just say how much I love Shimura's art? I love the expressions her characters make so, so much.

Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

You got to love it, when women objectify other women. lol.

Man, are lesbians really that into boobs? I guess I always pictured lesbians' physical attraction, to other girls, more abstract, and sophisticated, than men's.

Can't speak for others of course, but for me it's kind of both. There's definitely things that are more abstract, and her having a nice body is less important to me than warmth, curiosity, and a cute face when it comes to me being attracted to her. On the other hand, boobs are still amazing (though I can't say I'd approach someone for her boobs alone). IMO, there's nothing that sophisticated about us compared to guys who like women.

Sekcoya
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

Dang, I'm not even that much of a NicoMaki fan, but this was a great read. It's a well-drawn portrayal of a cute, loving relationship between two reasonable people. What more can one ask from a romantic doujinshi?

Sekcoya
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

I can never get enough of these two. Also, I think the last line could be a reference to the chorus of Garasu no Hanazono, "in love with being in love." That was a nice touch.

Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

Not exactly satisfying, but the honesty of the characters was really refreshing. They seemed to get each other well, even if they weren't really suited to each other in the end.

Sekcoya
Touma-kun discussion 23 May 01:54
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

Whoever put the Communism tag on this, thank you, you have made my day. On a side note, my nose is full of soda now.

Sekcoya
Touma-kun discussion 23 May 01:52
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

Okay, this is as far as my suspension of disbelief goes.

Touma-kun doesn't have any redeeming quality that'd make her attractive or charismatic.

I dont care what the characters of the story think, because that's not how you analyse a work. Of course the characters are going to believe this narrative the author cooked up. But us? We have no reason to believe Touma-kun is in any way charismatic or has some quality that makes girls stick to her like flies. To top it off, she's dumb and an airhead, she doesn't seem to have been built for this story. Rather, it feels like the author wanted to make a female harem story, and decided to make of the protagonist an air headed woman that's too oblivious or dense to notice anybody else's feelings, so that she doesn't really have to deal with any sort of conflict or anything interesting. Hell, she feels almost inhuman or alien-like.

Manga is a visual medium, so those things above wouldn't be too bad if Touma-kun was at least framed in a way that made sense. I mean, c'mon, shoujo manga has spent decades honing the art of making a character look charming just using a screentone. But there's so little effort put into this manga, that Touma-kun is not even portrayed in an appealing way.

To give an example, it's like if you had a Death Note kinda story, and instead of having Light do smart stuff, you got to hear people tell you that Light is "really really smart, you guys". It'd feel like a cheap trick, and you wouldn't really believe that he was smart after a while, just that the author wanted to make a smart character and failed due to their lack of talent.

Tbh I tend to like the "woman playboy" trope. It's a nice "power fantasy" of sorts, but it usually works because the woman in question has some sort of outstanding quality or embodies some sort of "irresistible" trope, making their seductive aspects believable . Here, the author has given me no reason to believe in their premise. (And even if people like Touma-kun may exist in real life, it doesn't work for a story. The idea that a person can be seductive just because she exists is pretty weak, and it doesn't really match up with the way people generally think about partner selection, attraction or sex. It's like a story whose sole gist is that bad people get great luck in life, it doesn't go with people's narratives and ideas about how the world works, as wrong as they might be)

The only possible twist that could make me like this story going forward is one in which Touma-kun to be revealed to be an alien or supernatural being of sorts that is trying to mate with as many women as possible for reasons.

Gotta agree with you here. I kept going because it was Shuninta, but honestly this manga is just... boring for me. And I will read basically anything with the tomboy tag on it. Touma-kun just isn't interesting, and reading about a bunch of girls who fall for her and then never get what they want is kind of... I mean, what is supposed to be the appeal of this story? The fact that Touma is genuine and confident is cute, but her lack of regard for anybody's feelings just messes that up. Being an airhead and trying to understand people but sometimes getting it wrong can be endearing, but being an airhead and just not even trying is boring. This isn't romantic, or funny, or cute, and it's not particularly deep or even angsty. Like Touma-kun herself, this manga just feels like it's made of air.
I really hope the twist you suggested happens though, that would honestly be perfect.

Sekcoya
Liberty discussion 23 May 01:37
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

Uggghhhhh this manga was so good and sexy at first, what happened?

I mean, it's obvious what happened, but like... why would the author choose to take this path? It's not original, it works to make Liz infinitely less likeable and interesting (which sucks because she was so cool at first), and it destroys any chemistry they might've had up until this point. The chapter endings suck too. Like, the point of having an episodic format is that something gets resolved each episode. Yeah, we learned why Liz is being a bitch, but nothing about the actual, present situation changed. That's just really annoying for any reader. I'll keep going because it started out good, but dang.

Sekcoya
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

Okay this is going exactly where I expected it to. And that's not a good thing. While I'm not shocked, I'm not going to hide my disappointment and disgust. There's no question that woman's a rapist. And this author is condoning this behavior as acceptable as a romantic relationship. I understand the draw of loli and age gap manga. While I'm not big on loli I've enjoyed various age gap stories like My Dear Teacher (I refuse to use the Engrish title). Such stories didn't involve watching a grown adult grooming a child and outright tossing her into bed and raping her. This one goes beyond the pale. Keep in mind, I'm cool with the story being here and being available for everyone to read. I'm sure there are some people who're enjoying it. But I'm thoroughly disgusted with it.

COMPLETELY agree with this. And as other people have already pointed out, the fact that the girl's reaction is similar to how one might actually react after an experience like this is just... really fucking creepy. When Kousaka whisked her into the house like that, I could feel the tension rising up until that point, and then my heart just sank when I realized that it really was going to happen like this.
Romance manga is fantasy, which makes it possible to portray something that ordinarily rarely works (like a relationship with a large age gap) in a way that's sweet or sexy. But choosing to use that fantasy instead to excuse what was obviously rape is just incredibly messed up. I'm definitely not coming back to this.

Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

It is incredible and kind of hilarious how the "straight" girl can be in that much denial about her actual sexuality, yet it doesn't surprise me given societal pressures. Their dynamic is interesting and funny, can't wait for the next chapter!

Sekcoya
Hitsugi%20icon
joined May 23, 2018

How is this still tagged as yuri?

Because Jun exists.

(To the original commenter: This isn't directed at you specifically- this is a question I think a lot of people have asked, so I am just offering my view in general, not trying to call anyone out or start an argument.)

Jun is a big part of it, but I do think there's more to the yuri than that. One of the reasons HxB has always been one of my favorite manga is because its way of handling girls who love girls is so unorthodox. When interviewed, Hayashiya said she doesn't even think about creating "yuri". Since she was young, "yuri and gay have just existed within her like air". To me, that's a pretty good description for how HxB does things. At its core it's not a romance, so it never establishes a romantic mood. At the same time, it portrays lesbian sexual desire through characters like Jun and Hayate, obvious crushes between young women, and a couple who can only be described as life partners (Kaicho and Miyamoto). The shinyuu system is an obvious parallel to marriage. The crushes tend to develop a lot over time, even though it's subtle, and although those crushes aren't the main plot points, they heavily influence the characters' actions. It doesn't get brought into the spotlight, but I've come to love that over the years. Hayashiya incorporates all of this into her stories by treating this love between women as though it's the most normal thing in the world, to the point where we see the kind of slapstick you would normally only see in comedic situations between heterosexual couples. When characters comment "that's gross" when Jun or Hayate say something sexual, imagine Jun and Hayate as guys and tell me that they wouldn't get the exact same response. Having lesbian attraction, both sexual and romantic, be subjected to the same standards as heterosexual attraction is really refreshing, for me at least.

Long story short, I think you're right that HxB isn't exactly yuri. It's just really really gay, and as a lesbian, I love the fact that HxB allows so many girls who like girls to exist outside of a romance setting, because we do exist outside of our relationships. But since Dynasty doesn't really have a tag that can describe that, the closest we can get is the yuri tag. And I think it's really important that the gay aspects of this manga be expressed through that tag, because they are an important part of it.