I think this is just unfortunate. It’s a slow burn that likely got cancelled, leaving it feeling like 80% of the story is missing. Can’t really talk shit, I just sympathize with the mangaka.

I found that intensely sad. (I also buy it, she does seem like the type of person people would just ghost. They probably think she doesn’t care, and she probably didn’t until everyone was gone)

Should remember that the writer was originally into literature, and it seems like she is diverting her ambition to write original novels into writing fan fiction. Something like this would barely count as subversion in literature. The audience wouldn’t be upset about it at all. I doubt she did it maliciously. I reckon she just thought it was an interesting plot structure and wasn’t prepared for how tag-obsessed and fixated on “products-as-advertised” the doujin/fanfic community is.

(Personally I think excessive tag-brain is quite bad and leads people to think of stories as mere collections of tropes and the act of writing as arranging those tropes in a novel order. The way some people talk about this stuff in fan spaces bums me out a lot—like books and comics are just delivery mechanisms for the tags they want to read. But that’s neither here nor there.)

(Speaking of tags, it does seem a little strange that this is marked as subtext even though it reads as straightforward romance, at least to me. Is this just not tagged as GL on the raw source?)

last edited at Feb 17, 2026 7:42AM

Put a bunch of different names of cities in a hat and everyone pick one out and move there. None of these characters should ever speak to each other ever again.

Alright so obviously she swiped right because she looked like Moon-san but I’m now willing to putting money on it being revealed that she went to Japan specifically to find her.

last edited at Jan 30, 2026 9:26PM

funny that the mangaka's response to the question of "are they dating" was basically "look at the cover of the magazine. what's it called"

So it is a time skip spin off

also known in enthusiast circles as a "sequel"

The adults aren’t being portrayed as old here, they’re just being portrayed as adults. They remember being teens when they see the gay kids.

I was not expecting Miyako to admit her feelings to herself. And I guess she’s picked up that Asako is gay. This is fun.

The way this was presented I'm not 100% sure I'm right... but I think there was nothing to "pick up" because she was straight up told that in chapter 5. At least that's how I interpret things from this page onward:
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/maitsuki_niwatsuki_ooyatsuki_ch05#14

I thought “sucker for looks” was ambiguous enough that Miyako might not have realized it meant Asako is gay. But obviously she did.

I was not expecting Miyako to admit her feelings to herself. And I guess she’s picked up that Asako is gay. This is fun.

“Halfie” is a really interesting way of translating “hafu.” It does a good job of making the reader go “hooo wow that’s not great” even when the speaker thinks it’s fine.

childhood friends with just a right amount of angst, a touching reunion and All I Want For Christmas is You with a kiss in the end????
This oneshot is fucking perfection, I will fight anyone who disagrees.

It’s like the platonic form of a satisfying yuri (or even romance) one shot

last edited at Jul 23, 2022 6:27PM

It’s also possible that Aya is so into Mitsuki that she’ll immediately get over the fact that she’s a girl and roll right into “oh my god the fact that she’s so reserved in class is precious info, she’s even cuter than I thought”

Loved this one. Gimme a nice warm story like this any day. You got the tinge of sadness and regret, and use it to make the reunion really hit? Good stuff.

This debate is a couple pages old but do y’all really believe that being a fujoshi precludes a woman from being gay? That is hard to believe, because in real life many closeted gay women initially gravitate to BL because it’s a “safe” way to explore the idea of same-sex love. I literally know multiple (cis) gay women who will readily admit to having done this

last edited at Jul 20, 2022 5:25PM

Imo Aya already “knows” what’s going on. When she finally realizes Mitsuki’s true identity she’ll be like “well on some level I figured it out.” Or “I can’t deny the signs were there all along” or whatever

last edited at Jul 20, 2022 5:29PM

Lmao I had a moment where I thought “hold on is this the same mangaka who wrote the watamote H-doujin ‘Emily’” and sure enough

I like Kaoru and Mayoi as a pair because they make great foils for each other. Kaoru is a player but I think Mayoi is the first person she's actually felt something real for. Because of that she's starting to develop a real sense of empathy. Mayoi is anxious and self-absorbed. Her opinion of herself is both too low and too high, basically what Orson Welles called "the Charlie Chaplin disease." Kaoru is a straight talker and isn't afraid to just tell Mayoi to knock it off, and shake her out of her rut.

TBH I was kind of falling off this manga before this pairing debuted, and I'm more invested than ever now.

Doctor_Hoot posted:

It's a slightly unusual relationship, but I think Miyako would be disappointed to learn that Asako doesn't consider her a friend. But I do understand that Asako has some insecurities that make her wary of getting too attached...

Your landlord isn't "a friend", even if you have a good relationship with them.

Well, that’s true IRL. But isn’t the grandma technically the actual landlord? She’s more like a super. Despite not doing any of the maintenance. I guess you could see her as her grandma’s tenant and she’s subletting to the main character

Doctor_Hoot posted:

It's a slightly unusual relationship, but I think Miyako would be disappointed to learn that Asako doesn't consider her a friend. But I do understand that Asako has some insecurities that make her wary of getting too attached...

Your landlord isn't "a friend", even if you have a good relationship with them.

Well, that’s true IRL. But isn’t the grandma technically the actual landlord? She’s more like a super. Despite not doing any of the maintenance. I guess you could see her as her grandma’s tenant and she’s subletting to the main character

Looks like the manga is more successful than they expected and they were like “oh shit we need to add a second premise to keep this thing goin”

If I were Misumi’s parents I would freak out

I'm glad that the mom is essentially an out queer woman. Even though her son doesn't know. He's pretty good natured though, I think he'd be really supportive