Oh, now Yuzu gets it? I said last chapter that the only way Yuzu would realize that Minami was in love with her was for her to console Minami after an awful heartbreak, only for an irate Yuzu to eventually demand the name of the person who broke Minami's heart and get the answer "Makita Yuzu."

This entire manga has thoroughly and completely established that no matter how many times Minami would tell Yuzu that she loves her, Yuzu would misunderstand some way. It doesn't matter how much of a stretch it is, Yuzu is that stuck in denial that she's living in her own reality. A reality that nothing Minami did would break her out of.

So not only did this one chapter somehow magically get through to Yuzu, her only reaction was happiness rather than shame or regret at what she's done. Alright fine, Yuzu is absurdly emotionally blind and Minami actually loving her is technically her dream so I suppose I'll forgive her for that.

Nope, Minami rightfully demands to know why Yuzu was rejecting her up until now and Yuzu's response is to blow it off with reference to the time she got "rejected" by elementary school Minami. No realization on Yuzu's part that she just subject Minami to the heartbreak she supposedly felt back then, not a lick of shame or regret. Just a little embarrassment as she deflects her failings onto Minami.

I said this last chapter and I'll say it again. Minami deserves far better than Yuzu. She should go out with someone that actually loves her, rather than Yuzu who claims to love her but doesn't actually care about her.

Look I understand this sounds harsh, but I do feel it's deserved. I've defended other neutron star protagonists/love interests before cause they usually have something about them that shows they actually care about the person they are blind towards. Yuzu on the other hand would look better if she was simply sadistic, instead of the practical sociopathy we got.

last edited at Jan 30, 2025 1:08PM

Ah yes, just what the world needs. Another generic isekai adaption with the same shitty setup as every single one of them; including slavery 5 minutes into the story. Sigh.

To be fair, pets are a normal mechanic in MMOs, and a support main would likely have a single strong pet for solo play. That said, the mechanic is definitely sketch in an isakai situation where they clearly are sapient now.

Especially since his first instict was to fully remove his panties to confirm that he was really there. You'd think that part would have tipped him off

The MC is already cute in such a way they genuinely look like a high-level MMO account, something I really can't say about any of the other generic MMO isakai protagonists. Being a bit of a ditz just made them better.

Overall, this is pretty close to my ideal isakai story. You still have the power fantasy of a high-level character, without it being an overwhelming "they can do anything" that removes all tension. Pair that with the personality of an actual support main -- completely fed up with bullshit and practically sadistic to their teammates with a minor hint of a god complex from their own immortality -- and you have a winner.

Okay, I'll admit I read this somewhat back when it was being put out by a different translator.

And this is why you don't burn soft power for a simple show of force. You merely loose your "allies" and piss away what power you do have.

Oh, it’s such a good thing that saying “I’m in love with someone” to the actual person you’re in love with can’t possibly be misunderstood by the person you’re saying it to, because if they were secretly in love with you they might think that you meant someone else who is not them and then they would feel bad but would probably still decide that they needed to support you in your love for someone else even though they would be secretly heartbroken.

And we wouldn’t want that to happen.

Honestly, I think that's the point, as Yuzu is so far up her own neurosis that the only thing that will get through to her is a heartbroken best friend confiding on her. Minami has tried confessing and got flat-out rejected. Hard. In such a way that could not be mistaken.

That said, Minami does deeply value her friendship with Yuzu, so after an entire day together where she knows she wasn't hiding her heartbreak, Minami does what she would have done with any other issue: talk with her best friend about it. The fact that Yuzu was the one to reject her is completely irrelevant here, Minami never wanted her love for Yuzu to damage their preexisting friendship, so Minami is seeking support while stripping away the context of the romance.

Maybe Minami will mention that the person she was in love with was Yuzu. Maybe she won't, or will only do so reluctantly if Yuzu jumps to conclusions about who Minami was in love with. Regardless, from Minami's perspective Yuzu doesn't need to know that she's the cause of the heartbreak. She just needs to know that Minami is heartbroken after asking someone lose to her out, and getting rejected.

That said, I do somewhat hope that Yuzu gets really upset at the implication that someone close to Minami left her heartbroken like this, and demands to know who just so she can give her a piece of her mind.

I'm sorry, but I'm rooting for Kamiya now. Yuzu rejected her, simple as that. She didn't even have the justification Tsukushi did (Our Yuri Started With Me Getting Rejected in a Dream) of being a neurotic mess operating on no sleep and suffering from heat exhaustion. Maybe seeing her best friend date another girl would get her out of whatever funk she is in because right now Minami is too good for her.

Also, wow. I know that both this manga and Rejected in a Dream are often compared cause of similar premises and serialization dates, but comparing Tsukushi and Yuzu is just so damning for Yuzu. Both series pulled the "actually the romance is mutual" twist with volume 2, however, Yuzu only became a worse character because of it. For comparison, Tsukushi -- the character literally defined by her fear of rejection -- gave off a more ambiguous "rejection" for the climax. And this was after getting no sleep from anxiety over her confession, general loopiness from heat exhaustion, and having her entire train of thought obliterated through a kiss. A reaction that bloody broke Hinoka, until Tsukushi cleared it up the next day.

Yuzu, you blew it. You rejected your best friend so thoroughly that Minami's friends were thoroughly convinced she was about to commit suicide. Now as painful as it is to tell a clearly demisexual character this, Minami just go out with your cute kohai. She at least loves you back.

A cute tomboy hothead in jeans, chest bindings and a leather jacket?
IS IT MY BIRTHDAY ALREADY!?

(Also those chest bindings are putting in WORK.)

I mean, she is a BONDAGE general.

Yeah, if anything the handmaiden just gave Yu Dingdang the perfect excuse to completely shut down the Empress Dowager's game here with that last stunt. She was clearly acting strange before this, with both herself and Ming Wei clearly speaking as such.

Thus obviously, this whole incident was an assassination attempt on Ming Wei's life, and any actions Yu Dingdang or the Emperor take here are merely them defending the princess. The handmaiden was obviously a saboteur, initially trying to sully Ming Wei's reputation through the deliberate leakage of confidential and/or false (it doesn't actually matter here) information, and when that plan failed decided to attack her target directly.

Seriously, for an all-powerful villainous power behind the throne, the Empress Dowager is really not bringing her best here. Maybe she underestimates Yu Dingdang that much?

last edited at Jun 10, 2024 11:52AM

Heck, putting miso inside a thermos just makes sense. You don't even need to remove the lid as you would for soup if it's a coffee/tea thermos; miso is thin enough. I mean sure putting soup in one of those long thermoses is a bit unusual, but not that remarkably so. It keeps the soup nice and warm without having to reheat it, then you just pour it into a bowl when you have your lunch.

I'm wondering if the love potion only works on the people you already have romantic feelings for, or alternatively could reasonably have feelings for.

Also our idiot protagonist apparently has more to her than just being a lying scumbag.

... fifty love interests? the hell kind of VN is this?

anyway, I'm hyped that they finally, finally, managed to open up about their feelings. I was worried a VS window would pop up between them right before they kissed or something.

Speaking of, the the aftereffects of the succubus blood will wear off eventually, right? How is the VS going to adapt to things going so far off its rails?

A gatcha game with a budget on par with Genshin, apparently. Also likely a word count to put Arknights and Girls' Frontline to shame.

last edited at Dec 12, 2022 6:17AM

To be fair to Yvonne with everyone mentioning how long it took her, she did almost unwillingly murder Elsa a few times. If you really think about it, the stabbing incident on the beach is incredibly traumatic. Her hesitancy makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, there's a reason why I never considered Yvonne to be particularly dense. Sure she has her moments, like her complete inability to recognize Elsa was describing her in what she wants in a future suiter, but overall her main holdup is her inability to acknowledge her feelings for Elsa. Anytime Elsa said she was in love with her or did something that made her affection undeniable, Yvonne would immediately justify it away and forget that it happened. Any time she started to feel romantically attracted to Elsa, she'd bottle up those emotions and deny their existence.

The stabbing incident is what really traumatized her though. Prior to that, while she was still denying her feelings such denials were gradually becoming weaker and weaker over time. However, the stabbing incident and the subsequent realization that the Villanous Systems would just keep escalating until it forces her to kill Elsa absolutely terrified her. Her mind mentally paired accepting those feelings with Elsa getting hurt So she doubled down on the denials.

Elsa had to be kept safe -- because Yvonne genuinely loves her and can not bear the thought of her being hurt -- and as long as Elsa is near her, she's in danger. Nothing else mattered, no matter what Elsa said or Yvonne's feelings on the matter, Elsa's safety came first. As you can imagine, this line of thinking REALLY messed Yvonne up.

This downward spiral basically continued until the Villainous System itself changed. Suddenly, Yvonne's entire mentality breaks down, as her being close to Elsa no longer seems to be an inherent danger to her. After that, she's mostly coasting by on inertia, no longer concerned that her presence is an immediate danger to Elsa, yet still paranoid and overprotective of her. She's basically denying her feelings out of habit, rather than from her mental coping, thus leading to some of the rather comedic moments we've had as of late.

Only for us to get to the Love Potion, and thus here we are.

Yeah, I'll be honest. The only reason I could get through this story was because the main character is clearly a terrible person, so the schadenfreude of the whole situation was fine for a one-shot. It's also clearly mocking the whole isakai premise, not that that means much these days. Overall, short of this literally turning into a hentai, I can't see this not turning into a dumpster fire by the end of a second chapter.

Oh, if you're wondering why I said the main character is a terrible person, if a person from modern times shows any reaction to a slave trader other than disgust, confusion, or denial that is concerning. If they are enthusiastic or try to make a deal with a slave trader, they are a disgusting monster. No exceptions.

^ Wait a minute, I have been seeing this as a parody all along. I'm curious as to why you guys don't think so.

The series feels like it's playing too many of the tropes straight to be a good parody. A good parody requires both a love or the source and a willingness to poke fun at the source material.

While I can tell the author is writhing this from a place of love, at times certain tropes feel almost sacred and beyond criticism.Some tropes are played straight for the sake of playing them straight, without adding anything to the original trope. Many common tropes are merely lampshaded, no letting reality ensue or looking at what a trope like this would actually imply.

That said, a whole lot of this manga reads like its trying to be a parody, only just missing the mark. Watanabe kinda rockets past being a relatable otaku and ends up being just a terrible person. It's a fun comparison to the popular "villainous" MC's, as the girl actually is as manipulative and selfish as they often are supposed to be. Yoshioka basically steals the show as the eventual protagonist, as readers kinds stop caring about Watanabe's current obsession and instead are rooting for Yoshioka to ruin the plans just enough to make progress with her crush.

If I had to pick a singular problem, it's that the whole setting feels too close to Watanabe's perfect, vanilla yuri paradise, even when we aren't seeing things from her perspective.

One cold easily get confused about who is doing the bullying here... :D

Please Don't Bully Me, Miss Heroine!

To be fair, several of the manga with similar themes that came out after this one did had far worse issues. (Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku comes to mind with its really bad ending). At worst, I'd say Sazanami Cherry had an ignorant author or a bad translation. Personally, I'd say it was both with most of the fault being on the translation; the strange pronoun usage and constant use of the word "trap" to me feels more like a fault with the translator being bad.