What's gayer, being a lesbian, or whatever the fuck Honami and Koyuki have going on?

Futaribeya.

last edited at Mar 28, 2021 7:42AM

I find it sad to see that so many people grew tired of or were disappointed by this series. I have to say, I only picked it up by the end of volume 8, so I didn't really have to wait for chapters for the greater part of the story. However, I didn't feel like it was dragging on or anything. Honestly my favourite were probably volumes 6 and 7 that dealt with Konatsu's loneliness. I don't know, maybe I just like exaggerated drama...? xD

Anyway, I thought this was a very well planned out series and I don't think it got sidetracked or lost its original goal. To me it seemed that the author had thought of how it was going to go from the beginning, and it was only the readers' expectations that made it seem otherwise. And I was actually happy that it ended this way and not with an explicit romantic relationship because that wasn't the point of the story. It was a story of loneliness and creating strong bonds with others (not only those with friends but with family members as well) and that's what's made it unique.

I agree with you and I wish people would go back and read it in one go now to see that it does flow well, but it was indeed a grind to follow monthly, especially since there'd also be break months two or three times a year, and that understandably wore some people off expectations or not.

I held an opinion that it wasn't as bad to follow the middle part when I read it in one go, but even then, when I look back on it, that kind of 'drama' in that kind of pacing is still unforgivable. The month-long waits made the series a lot more excruciating to follow, but the story itself was already becoming shoddy regardless.

last edited at Mar 28, 2021 7:26AM

I'm firmly on the camp that likes the relationship depicted here. Tonally, it's definitely in that ambiguous zone between platonic and romantic relationships, and I really want more stuff like that handled well. More or less, I think the series handled it well. There were some issues, but it remained very potent throughout the series. And the best part is, if you wanted them to be a romantic pair by the end, you can very easily interpret their relationship as eventually becoming that. There's a lot going for it. I prefer the ambiguous route, so I'm satisfied with their relationship.

I'm not with everything else. The series had a great start with a lot of possibilities, but towards the end, it just deflated and became an absolute slog and pain to get through. It felt like a hollow version of the story I'd been reading in the previous chapters. That's not even just because they're not a romantic relationship or something, I don't think I would have had a problem with that when all is said and done. Rather, it's because it was just so frustratingly glacial and more importantly, so goddamn avoidable. I don't want miscommunications to disappear in yuri, if handled well, they can enhance the realism and the immersion of the story. Handling them well is being careful with your doses. The author decided to just wantonly and carelessly dump it all at once, and even if I can believe a situation like that can exist in real life, as a story, it is ungodly boring and plain terrible to read through. The worst part is, I thought it had a good point to make. I thought a situation like that would have made the series a lot better. But taken to a ridiculous extreme? It only becomes just that, a ridiculous extreme. And to me at least, wasted potential feels worse than a series that had little to none in the first place.

The final act fixed things a bit, but a middle act that bad has already done its damage, and something of that scale is irreperable past a certain point, which the series definitely ran a mile beyond from.

It was still a good series. I still enjoyed it. But I can't help but leave it feeling like it could've been something a lot more.

I'll follow Hagino's next series just to see if it piques my interest, but even then, I don't think she's gained much good faith from me with this series. Enough for me to want to at least have some passing interest in her next work, but not enough that I can say I'm actually interested in her next work or follow her regularly. Again, I still enjoyed it, but it could've been a lot better.

last edited at Mar 28, 2021 7:29AM

I'm not really sure why these 'gay or noy gay' arguments are still going on. Well, I know the reason, I just don't understand why some still think this dead, already skeleton horse is still worthy of being kicked. This read to me as a relationship that sits firmly in the ambiguous area between platonic and romantic love. If you want romantic love, that's fine, there are other series out there, but this kind of approach to yuri isn't any less potent than gayest series out there. It's like Futaribeya except not explicitly romantic.

I welcome series like these that are explicitly ambiguous. They're not just gay-baiting, but they're also not locked in to the outdated, binary way of looking at relationships as either just platonic or romantic. It's evidently just as potent regardless. People are still invested in this relationship to this degree even now.

I do agree that the series kind of lost me around the halfway mark. It was a slog to go through. I got its point, and it was a good point, but it could have done that in half the length.

last edited at Mar 15, 2021 3:51AM