This is a fantastic culmination of what has happened so far - great cyclic storytelling from Canno. Although I also missed Yukina and Towako; all other characters Yurine is close to make cameo appearances other than them.

I was so impatient for this to come out that I had my sister translate the French version panel by panel. Seeing it in action really makes you appreciate the time and effort that goes into scanlation, so thank you.

On a related note, this chapter has convinced me that Asuka and Mikaze are going to break up. I don't think that a single chapter is enough time to get them back together in a way that validates both of their feelings well enough to make the audience understand their reasoning behind it. Unless Canno is going to continue their story into the next volume, I guess we will either have an ending relationship (in stark contrast to the blossoming one between Ayaka and Yurine), or a war-torn bloodbath as seen with the 6th volume.

By the way, in the ranking board, I wonder how many noticed who was in 6th and 10th place. X) That's one more reason for Hikari to hate Nagisa. <=D

I remember Nagisa complaining somewhere that she gets better marks... found it! Over here.

Speaking of the ranking boards, I'm waiting for Canno to introduce Ooki Mifuyu - the girl who is always in the top ten, but obviously never number one - into the main story. I don't think Canno will, but if yes, I wonder what she's like; and how it must feel to never be better than #3 at the moment.

Now this is interesting. They make sense in their respective contexts: Towako can only see beauty when there is stasis (eternity), while Yukina sees beauty where she makes it (moment); and then we have Haine who surpasses Aika, being from the same family/same plant and all.

But what about this one?

Asuka - Asuka (pseudo) ; Mikaze - Hagidzuki (pseudo) > Kachoufuugetsu (flower, bird, wind, moon), "the traditional themes of natural beauty in Japanese aesthetics."

At first I had assumed this:

For the rest, we have Sakurada Asuka and Hagimoto Mikaze, "sakura" being the cherry blossom (obviously) and "hagi" being the Japanese clover.

and looked for any sort of folklore or story or allusions in which cherry blossom and clover opposed each other.

But now I realise that, from volume 6 onwards, it seems that there's a trend of the names taking on much more metaphorical meanings than they previously were. Take the whole morning/day/night interplay of the polyamory trio, for instance. Amane and Nina are the opposites at first, and have Ryou come between them; comparatively, Nina and Ryou's online handles are opposites of each other (midnight and midday, respectively).

Cue volume 7's "bluer than blue, bluer than you" thing between Aika and Haine; volume 8 fully plays tiger against dragon with Hikari and Nagisa, even bringing in a huge rivalry between the characters to complete the metaphor.

But where does that leave us now, with the "traditional themes of natural beauty in Japanese aesthetics"? Are we regressing back to the "just opposites" feeling of previous volumes, or is it indicating deeper meaning, truly putting the "meta" in "metaphor"? This is getting me hyped for the next chapter!

Chizumi Fan, Lyendith, thank you both for all the research! Very much appreciated.

I hadn't even considered the consequences of Mizuki graduating, other than that she wouldn't be there. Now that you mention it, I can definitely see how alone Ayaka would truly be - and how dangerous that is at this stage, certainly for the development of her relationship with Yurine. With only her love interest left as someone to confide in, we loop back to the possibility that the two of them will become awkward and stilted around each other rather than confronting their feelings head-on (as usual), which is either good (more volumes as we explore this hurdle in their relationship) or bad (just when we'd gotten into the budding romantic feelings, the whole thing becomes unresolved sexual tension instead), depending on your viewpoint.

Back to the other point: the opposite theme naming thing Canno has going on for her partnering characters makes it very clear who was/is supposed to be together in the long run, other than Moe and Mizuki, of course. She mentioned somewhere that she'd made their names up before starting on AnoKiss.

I was actually going to ask about that. With Ayaka and Yurine we have Shiramine and Kurosawa (white and black), Ai and Chiharu are Uehara and Kusa kabe (up and down), and with some research I assume Sawa and Itsuki are I tou and Nishikawa (east and west), the polyamory trio is Asakura, Yuunagi and Hiruma (morning, evening and daytime), and Hikari and Nagisa become the legendary tiger and dragon rivalry with Torayama and Tatsumi.

Where does that leave the rest of the side pairings, name-wise? Yukina and Towako, Haine and Aika, and Mikaze and Asuka - do you know where their opposites lie?

I don't think this can last for much longer, unless Canno starts focusing much more on side couples after this volume… or continues Ayaka and Yurine's story long after they officially hook up, like Citrus did. Which I would be all for. But this series is rapidly approaching volume 10, which is already a lot for a yuri manga.

I half agree, and half disagree on this point. Now that we've finally concluded the "I must beat you for reasons even I don't quite understand" and "it- it's not like I'm in love with you or anything!" arcs (the ends of both were explored in volume 5, but only really finished off now, in my opinion), Canno has a number of ways forward with both the AyaYuri relationship and the manga as a whole:

1. Worst case scenario: finish it off within another 1-2 volumes. Unless Canno wants to do the exploration of their romance through another year (yes, please!), this series could end (a bit abruptly) with a big confession and the general happily ever after. Or, even worse, the ambiguous "where do we go from here?"

2. Devolve the whole plot into something reminiscent of a shoujo manga. Just because we as the readers are well-aware of their feelings for each other hardly means that they are; Yurine wants to become someone worthy of Ayaka, who, in turn, might still be under the impression that Yurine is only a "serial kisser" rather than actually interested in her. As I'm typing this, this option becomes less and less likely, mostly because of the events in chapter 40. But maybe Canno will put a different spin on it.

3. Loads and loads more side-characters. Alternatively, continuations of the stories of the side characters. I think just about everyone here would like some more MoeMizuki content, especially since they're graduating soon. I feel that this would probably be detrimental to the storyline, though, since it hinges so heavily on the two main characters (contrary to popular belief).

4. Another 10 volumes, because who doesn't want that?

I must admit, I don't quite see the end yet. With an average of only 2 chapters per volume dedicated to the developing AyaYuri relationship, I'm counting on at least another 3 (if not more) volumes after the current Asuka and Mikaze one to finish the story off properly.

On a very random side-note: I'm actually sort of hoping that we see Sumire paired off with someone other than Ayaka, who, let's face it, is madly in love with her sister. Chances of this are zero to none, of course, unless she somehow entered Seiran for high school. (I just re-read her chapters, and it might be possible, but is rather improbable).

Also, I really like that Ai hasn't been paired off with anyone. Mainstream media nowadays always seems to have the "token gay/not-straight/non-conforming/other, please describe:" character; here, Ai is the inversion. Although, for all we know, she's as into girls as the rest of Seiran, the only school that's more yuritopia than the original was.

It's Izumi (and Chiharu behind her). I'm always surprised at how much trouble some people have remembering the couples, honestly. >.> Speaking of the chart, we can update it I guess? Or is it too early yet?

More like not early enough!

Now I wonder how the end of this arc will connect to the end of the Mikaze/Asuka arc (if they do connect). There are some parallels there − on one side two girls who used to date but feel like they might not be made for each other, on the other two girls who realize they are made for each other but are still afraid to take that next step.

This is what I'm wondering about. The only real connecting point between the two couples is the interaction between Ayaka and Mikaze in the library, discussing the special people in their lives. This seems more like a chance encounter attachment to the main story than any proper connection to one of the characters, much like the polyamory arc (where we have Amane appearing to Izumi out of the blue), so unless there is some deeper connecting point I'm missing, the Mikaze-Asuka arc is going to be a fairly lonely out-of-left-field affair.

While I'm pretty sure Canno will come up with some awesome way to get them back together, I'm kind of rooting for a break-up between them. Not because it would change things up a bit, or because of the overwhelming antagonism towards Asuka (which is certainly reasonable), but because after reading and re-reading their chapters together, I've come to the conclusion that Mikaze and Asuka have no chemistry together. Romantic or otherwise.

Side notes: I have come to love Canno’s mildly perverse (because of the series title) piling on of that rose imagery around the Ayaka/Yurine relationship. Has anybody in this series ever actually gotten a white lily, and if not, will they ever? Or is the yuri all going to be the non-botanical kind?

Ayaka gave Yurine a bouquet of white lilies for her birthday way back in volume 1 - but I think that's been it.

That's actually really cool that you remember that (or you are super-dedicated and re-read it all. Either way, colour me impressed!) I was only thinking back as far as the flower-giving fad they had back in volume 6, and no-one was handing over lilies (white or otherwise) over there.

On a little bit of a side note, I can't decide if this is supposed to be an indication of the love-hate relationship between Ayaka and Yurine, or simply something Canno didn't give too much thought to (really doubtful, but possible), but both of them have given/have wanted to give the other white flowers... which just happen to be associated with funerals, of all things. Ayaka gives Yurine white lilies here and Yurine ponders giving Ayaka white roses here.

Coincidence?