Reminder #556 of how much we need a movie of them being an actual couple. Heck, I'd take a single 20 minute OVA at this point. Please santa, I've been good all year, just give me this one gift :¨(

Unfortunately, Sunrise is stubornly sticking to their guns with the whole "their relationship is open to interpretation, I swear". So it doesn't seem likely

God, I miss them so much

Should this really be tagged as Yuri and those pairings? None of the relationships that drive this story are explicitly romantic in nature. You could, at most, argue for a "subtext" tag, but even that would be stretching it a little.

Why you should not apply Machiavelli to your budding high school romance, part 43.

What? It worked! Indeed, the results were far better than planned! Originally they were only trying for a defensive delaying action, but what they got was the whole enchilada!

when machiavelli himself ended up tortured, arrested and exiled, you can tell how effective his teachings were

Machiavelli wasn't a social climber and didn't crave power or riches; all he wanted was to be an able adviser to his prince. He was like Zhuge Liang and all the other great ministers in Chinese history, who worked their asses off for the benefit of another man (the autocratic ruler) while getting little or no benefit for themselves—and often ended up tortured, arrested, exiled or dead because their unwavering loyalty didn't allow them to engage in flattery or indulge their lord's vices.

The Italian princelings of his time didn't pay much attention to Machiavelli's theories but other people in Europe listened. Like Ferdinand II of Aragon and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to name only a couple.

what I meant to say is that scheming is very effective for digging yourself a giant hole, like for our dear protags in this story

Also, if you spend your whole life working for someone who executes people for fun, you’re probably next, no?

Machiavelli would probably agree. What most people fail to realize is that "The Prince" is essentially Machiavelli's attempt to get hired by the Medici after they took over the Florence and he got ousted from his political position there.

His earlier literary work is a lot more biased towards republican systems of government.

last edited at May 6, 2023 11:48PM

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Hahahaha! This is the perfect climax for this clusterfuck of zany and incompetent schemes.

Kimura really has become the greatest Romance character.

The normal progression after that kind of misunderstanding would be multiple chapters of gratuitous and overstretched drama as characters refuse to communicate with each other.

Kimura on he other hand, just goes for it.

last edited at May 5, 2023 3:53AM

"There is a girl you love and who loves you back ? Too bad, go spread your legs for this guy you never met."

I hate and despise this. Way to ruin a manga that had managed to make everything nice so far.

At this point, this will leave a sour taste on the whole story, no matter how the rest of the characters fare. Unless they pull a royal divorce or something similar, but I'm not getting my hopes up, there's basically zero chance of that happening.

Why would you want the royals to have a divorce? Even if the origin of their relationship is kind of fucked up, with both of them being forced to marry a complete stranger due to their stations, they actually managed to build a genuinely loving relationship from that.

The fact that the queen was forced to break up her relationship with the tailor was a tragedy, but wishing to have her current relationship crumble yet again seems counterproductive to me. That would just be yet another tragedy and wouldn't actually "fix" anything.

Oof... I feel bad for the dressmaker. The queen didn't even let her go afterwards, and just kept her as a hanger-on. It's great that you're happy with how things turned out, queen, but damn. Feels bad.

I'm pretty sure that the queen wouldn't force her to stay if she actually wanted to leave. That's not the kind of vibe their current relationship gives. More of a friendly exes situation, where they broke up but remained close friends.

last edited at Jan 25, 2023 7:36PM

I love that you can see the ouline of her abs through the shirt. Girl is jacked.

Mom's notion that her daughter could be heterosexual lasted for, oh, maybe two panels tops?

Her heteronormative culture made that her thoughtless assumption to her daughter talking about romance. But, since it's her daughter and she knows her, the moment she put a minute or so of actual thought into it she realized it could only be one person.

That's how it read to me at least.

last edited at Jan 19, 2023 7:13PM

Hah, I just realized that this is shortly before the Selfie Incident. You can't say she didn't try to follow her moms advice!

While it's kind of interesting, and very cute, seeing earlier chapters from Hinoka's perspective I hope it won't take long to reach the "present" of the story. I want the plot to move forward dammit.

Lol. I'm the kind of person that randomly takes off their socks when they get uncomfortable, but even I have never managed to do that while walking. That's some pro-level shit. I guess we know how they ended in the middle of the kitchen last time.

last edited at Jan 9, 2023 8:35AM

Kimura: I always get worried when I see Hiyama and Mizushima having good chemistry, and it's a great relief to her them say that they are just friends. Surely, that can only mean that I'm in love with Mizushima. There is no other possible conclusion.
Random guy starts flirting with Hiyama
Kimura:*starts to hyperventilate in pure panic*

Wait. Wait a goddamn moment. Since when exactly has this been goign on? Is it possible that, from the start, Kimura thought she was in love with Mizushima because of this kind of heteronormative thinking? That would be freaking hilarious.

Edit:HMM. Having reread from the start that doesn't seem to be the case. New headcanon, Kimura is an unaware Bi disaster in love with both of them.

Well, while not exactly like this, she did admire Hiyama quite early on. But because of how forward Hiyama is, she's probably become more aware of her in a different light.

In particular, she seemed to transition when Hiyama told her she's the person most suited to be by her side. She seems really conscious of Hiyama now and I like how she's considering that she might be jealous of Mizushima.

Ironically, despite some problematic moments when Hiyama agressive personality and Kimura's meekness end up with a situation in wich Kimura feels forced to do something (in fairness to Hiyama, that is never her intention, but Kimura is aparently too shy and insecure to actually tell anything to Hiyama when she is making her uncomfortabe), this is actually a pretty realistic depiction of a possible romance.

A lot of people don't give their significant others a second glance until they learn that person is interested, at wich point they become a lot more aware of them. It's pretty common.

last edited at Jan 9, 2023 8:34AM

Kimura: I always get worried when I see Hiyama and Mizushima having good chemistry, and it's a great relief to her them say that they are just friends. Surely, that can only mean that I'm in love with Mizushima. There is no other possible conclusion.
Random guy starts flirting with Hiyama
Kimura:*starts to hyperventilate in pure panic*

Wait. Wait a goddamn moment. Since when exactly has this been goign on? Is it possible that, from the start, Kimura thought she was in love with Mizushima because of this kind of heteronormative thinking? That would be freaking hilarious.

Edit:Hmm. Having reread from the start that doesn't seem to be the case. New headcanon, Kimura is an unaware Bi disaster in love with both of them.

last edited at Jan 9, 2023 6:12AM

I'm pretty sure the "subtext" tag is not really appropriate for this series.

Saturnalia-style role reversal. How apropiate for this date.

I have moderate hopes that the next episode will bring some possitive romantic development, or at least heal the damage that miscommunication caused between the two. Since they delayed a week and now it will be aired on Christmas.

For those that don't know, Japanese Christmas is primarily considered a romantic holiday. So, I'm hopping that will somewhat influence what the writers would want for the episode.

last edited at Dec 20, 2022 2:22AM

Oooh, the OG (or should I say Prime?) ClairexRei scenario. Nice, I hadn't seen art of those two before.
I'm not sure if they should or shouldn't have their own separate tags from the protagonist Rei and Claire

The Utena Position.

^ It's heavily implied during some moments of the second season that Atra had started to be romantically atracted to Kudelia as well. With things like Atra gifting her a bracelet identical to the ones she and Mikazuki wear, and the wording she use in several ocasions when she references their relationship. It's almost all subtext and implication however, wich makes it open to interpretation.

I tend to think that they are, because I simply do not see what other reason thay could have to legally marry otherwise. Kudelia is massively rich and politicaly powerful, she would be perfectly capable of helping Atra raise her kid without needing to marry her. But it is very much a "Well, we're not outright saying that they are gay wink,wink" situation.

Kinda how Striker's never outright said NanoFate was a thing, except a bit less obvious this time.

last edited at Nov 21, 2022 5:58PM

The intimacy…! The casual hand that reaches out with an earbud….! The shimmering energy of undisclosed love…!

tbf, not waiting for the obvious "sure, go ahead" and reaching over with an earbud (as long as you have clean ears I guess) to share music with a friend, while discussing music, is not that intimate imo. Then again, I live in a middle eastern country and my last time hanging out with people of my own free will was back in the army.

Keep in mind the cultural context. This is written by a japanese person, so casual physical contact is more of a big deal.

^^ Literally the closest thing to anti-yuri in this episode is if you really squint while looking at Suletta searching for Elan. Like, I've seen people insisting that this is proof that Suletta is hetero and into Elan, but come on. The girl's new friend didn't show up to fulfill a promise, dropped from the face of the earth and was impossible to communicate with for days, of course she's gonna be worried about him and want to know what happened.

On the other hand, we have Miorine, who inmediately jumped to save Aerial and begged her father -who she hates with the strength of a thousands suns- for help, just because she cares about Suletta.

last edited at Nov 20, 2022 10:15AM

^^ Oh you sweet summer child. It's a gundam show, going full war drama is inevitable. Let us just hope they get to be a couple, and perhaps a somewhat happy and not too bittersweet an ending.

^^ The show has not gotten any gayer, althought the relationship between the leads has gotten a lot closer and casual, it's in a platonic way thus far. It started very "we're only interacting because of the bullshit groom/bride neither of us really wants", but by now we see them actually getting along and habging out and helping each other just cause they're friends. It's all very slow-burn on the relationship side, basically.

Honestly, I prefer this to a rushed "suddenly they are both in love with a virtual stranger" development, but it remains to see how things go when things go romantic.

That said, it doesn't look like they will go ina "suddenly hetero" direction either. Elan-4 was the closest thing to a realistic hetero romantic option, and the poor dude was "decommisioned" so quickly by his corporate masters that the whole thing could be considered straightbait.

Le petite mort