"These girls are characters in a story! They can't be your friends! It's pointless to like them!"

"You're saying she should dump her lover and date her bestie? Sorry, mate, she can't hear you: she's made of pixels!"

"Wow, thanks for denouncing all his crimes, loud and clear! Too bad you'll never be able to drag him to your tribunal and judge him, coz he's not human, he's a character!"

"Oh so you love whatshername? You're crazy about her? Well I got news for you: she's not a real woman! She'll never love you back! Hah! Hah!"

These are all quotes from the "Woop-woop! Toxic!" guy, right?

Going by what we've been shown so far, in the first 5 chapters, I suggest this title for the English version of this manga:

"Being helpless, incompetent and totally useless is irresistible — The Manga!"

u3u

And she wants to somehow make amends. This matters a lot, by my book. I hate the notion that when you grow up and become an adult you have to forget all the things that happened before because it was just unimportant children silliness. You know, like those assholes were saying in the chat? Thx god Tianli doesn't think like that.

I agree with you and I'm extremely glad that the author is making a point of conscientiously and resolutely rebuke that moronic notion. You find a lot (in comics or films or tv shows) characters who have been hurt or bullied when they were kids and still carry the scars as adults, and everyone tells them "What, you're still sore about that? You pathetic loser. It was just children's games. Get over it. Grow up." It makes me so mad. It's basic textbook stuff that repressing childhood traumas wrecks you as an adult and takes you straight to the divan of a psychiatrist.

Everybody already assumed the childhood friend is doomed. I would like to see a twist the friend winning for once.

Sometimes the childhood friend character wins... but I don't think it will be the case here because tomboy girl bombed it. Any chance she could have had was destroyed the moment she firmly stuck herself into the other girl's friendzone.

She could have done, oh, so many many things. But she did squat zilch. Even worse, when the other girl said she wanted to fall in love with someone else, tb girl was like: "All right, I'll support you!" Ten seconds later, that's exactly what happens: the other girl falls for someone else at first sight... and tb girl is like: "Oh no, my life is ruined!" Wtf, dude?

last edited at Feb 11, 2024 11:50PM

Sweet.

I guess for people who only understand English there's no easy way to know about Sado island. For those who speak French and like French-Belgian BD it's different: the main characters of Le Vent des dieux were all warriors from Sado, and the first story arc (at least a third of the 16 volumes) had Sado as the setting.
From what this manga shows, it doesn't seem to have changed much since medieval times.

I read some time ago a novel where two sleazy guys went into a bar for drinks. The place was empty except for a pretty girl behind the counter. They had a few glasses and then refused to pay; instead, they started coming on to her, saying "Guys like us don't pay with money, we pay with love! It's fine, right?"

Then the owner arrived and said it was 100% fine because he loved fucking boys like them in the ass! The owner was a muscular giant who looked like a heavyweight boxer. The other two put some bills on the counter and left very quickly.

She made a sick person cook for her. :‑< That's not sweet or lovely at all.
I'm sure her temperature went up after all that work.

"Made"--lol.

That's a new world record in the Dynasty-forum "imaginary toxic behavior" Olympics.

And that's this week's installment of metard theatre. Thank you, metard.

An “infinity mirror” post, with name-calling—nice work.

You're getting a bit paranoid, aren't you, dear?
Girl was fine having a sick person cook for her while she watched. Nitpicking on words won't change that.
Denouncing vague forum-wide conspiracies and lapping up the victim role? All signs that you need to take a vacation.

RandomFanZ, thanks for the fanfic! It's so rare to find them in this forum...

In a way, the girls in your "do not opine" folder are the most interesting as their options are still open... for instance, Nao and Onibi had many cute and sexy encounters, but now Nao is falling for Hibiki? And if something happens with them, where would that leave Midoriri?

The deal with Nao is this: become a little close with a girl => use her for masturbation. I wouldn't say she's "falling" for anyone; more like she's horny all the time, lol.

Identifying such a visceral reaction bla bla bla

Tldr, you're boring af.
If one day you find something to say about VE, maybe then we'll read.

I also hate men, Ed and Ian just get a pass for being cute gay 2d guys. If only all men were cute and gay and 2d, the world would be a much better place

Amen to that, pal. We are on the same wavelength.

Seems like a weirdly short chapter? 24?

This is the end of volume 3, that's why it comes with a few extras.

Among those extras are the first four pages of volume 4!

That's the reason the chapter seemed short: it's just the first pages.

So now we get a disaster chapter where she pretends to know how to cook? With a bonus content of our maid being a natural at it and picking things up in an instant.

Or, alternatively, as ACM1PT suggested before, they'll both end up in a ditch. XD
(Yeah I looked up Matthew 15:14 hihihi)

The more I think about this, the more it seems you're right.

Imagine this irl. You start going out with some girl and you think it's going well. One day she takes you to a gambling den run by a Mexican cartel and she makes a bet with the gangsters: they will play a game, and if she wins she'll get a lot of drug for free. But if she loses, she forfeits her girlfriend: you. The gangsters will take you to Ciudad Juárez and you'll be a crack whore for the rest of your life. The gangsters agree. You try to run away but they stop you, and that girl tells you: "Don't fret, pet, there's no way I'm gonna lose! And hey, even if I lose, you'll be safe: I won't let them hurt you! So don't throw a fit and stay put while I gamble."

It's like a story from a horror movie. The bitch's boasting has zero credibility—if she cared about you she wouldn't have started this in the first place. In the case of Yomotsuka, it's even more true: when the yakuza girl started hitting Toudou and gave her a thorough beating, she just stood there and stared; and after it was over she went to Toudou, who was lying on the ground, and told her to stand up and try again to do something entertaining. Completely indifferent to Toudou's pain. Compare to Rin, who, when she saw R hurt Toudou, immediately decided to avenge her. Actually, never mind avenging anything: Yomotsuka couldn't even be bothered to compete. She really is trash.

Toudou has problems controlling her raging hormones.

She doesn't hide anymore that she's big time into hot babes. Spacecadette and Valentine are right: the title is one big fat lie by now. :P Every time a hot enough girl comes on to Toudou, she melts and lets her have her way; and this usually lands her into hot water because these babes are more often than not toxic people like Yomotsuka. Toudou needs to learn to control her lust for this kind of women. I'm sure it'll be easier now that she's finding mutual love with Rin.

last edited at Jul 4, 2023 12:21AM

There are scores of mangas where an underage girl who is an early bloomer and looks like a stunning sexbomb falls for an adult man and decides to seduce him. Not hentai mangas, shoujo mangas. Cute mangas for little girls who are expected to identify themselves with the ten-year-old heroine. And there's always a happy end, of course, otherwise the readers wouldn't be satisfied. The plots change a lot, but some key points are always there, like the heroine slowly wearing down the male lead's resistance with her sexiness, and the climactic moment where the male lead comes to the realization that he loves the heroine and age doesn't matter. In one story, the climax came in the middle of the wedding of the male lead with another woman. The heroine crashed the ceremony (The Graduate much?) and made him realize that she was the only one for him, so he dumped his bride and chose the ten-year-old.

I remember a few of those, from the time I was into shoujo manga magazines. "Mc is in grade school but looks like a 20-year-old babe" is a classic plot device. And then there's all the stories where the mc is a little kid who finds a magic gimmick that turns her into a grown-up woman; that's a classic too. And when these girls realize their looks can trick adults into believing they're sexy beauties of college age, what do they do? No hesitation: they go get themselves an adult boyfriend!! A guy in 3rd year high school, or a university student, or even a sarariman. Lmao, these poor guys never stand a chance: by the end of the manga, when the truth is revealed, they're heads over heels for the loli and don't care anymore about her real age. And in the final page they celebrate with a k-i-s-s. <3 I think some of these stories have been translated, I'm sure I read in English the one where the 12-year-old mc stops a wedding and steals the groom.

You know... in my opinion, making a character like Mai suddenly act like she doesn't understand love and romance is silly, never mind whether there was retcon or not. All these magazines for grade schoolers aged 9 to 12 have one big theme: LOVE. All the stories are about romantic experiences. Falling in love with a boy (older or not), becoming close to him, confessing, dating, that's what you buy in these mags. (Some series like OneeJoshi pretend it's the same thing even in periodicals for younger girls, not sure if it's artistic license or not.) It's unthinkable that Mai doesn't get the idea of falling in love and going out with someone. Yuki and her two gal pals are much more realistic characters from that angle.

Wtf are you talking about, these stories are mainly written by men for men and not directed at little girls.

Those "cute" shoujo mangas you are talking about are directed at adolescent girls and young adult women. The age gap also isn't as ridiculous as in this one, the heroines are often 14 upwards years old.

Dude... I'm speechless. How can someone be so ignorant of a subject and yet pretend they're knowledgeable about it? This isn't a debate club. You get your kicks from talking random bs and trying to trick others?
I assume you never were subscribed to shoujo manga magazines and have no clue what kind of stories they publish. That's fine. Nobody can be expected to have universal knowledge. But then, when somebody teaches you about this stuff you know zilch about, show some respect; don't be rude to people who are educating you.

last edited at Jul 7, 2023 11:26PM

Yeah, this was a fun premise, and I'll keep reading, but I feel the plot has gone off the rails, such as they were.

I've been feeling the same way for a while. I like the mcs but the storyline feels like it doesn't much care for making sense.

Hitomi and Azuma fell through a plothole and it sucks.

I feel you. :(

First chapters Mai is a completely different character from final arc Mai.

From a precocious seductive vamp who used her feminine wiles to drive Tae crazy to a 'Huh? What's love? Huh?' stock tot.

But otoh it definitely has, uh, other utility. (cough cough)

It's kind of depressing reading other people using it for that. I can't. My brain just shuts it down with silly excuses like "Wow bitch ur cringe" or "Don't you feel bad about this weird voyeuristic activity" or "Just get a damn girlfriend already idiot" when I start getting into it. Smh. So jealous of you all for having normal thoughts about it.

You never used erotic fiction (novels, comics, films) or porn for, you know, that? I guess it means your turnons are just other stuff.

She looks exactly like a woman dressed up in a prince's outfit.

Strange. To me, she seemed taller and with a more masculine body shape.
For now, and while waiting for clarification in further chapters, I'm on the side of those who think she used body alteration magic.

It would in fact be a very original premise for a yuri manga, an almost unheard of development that I'd love to see: a main character who can turn herself into a real man, a strapping ikemen with a male body, a d*ck and everything. Now that is something that would make her girlfriend sexually confused as all hell, lmao.

Either that, or she would squee in delight: "YAAAY!!! I hit the bisexual jackpot!!!!!!"

She can alter her body shape without changing her gender.

Nitpicking: it's Murasaki Shikibu, not Shibuki.

Excuse me for this naive question, but... these girls are Kyou and Mion, right?
Who the eff is Daisy??

I asked myself the same question.

Perhaps Kyouko and Mion will live happily ever after—but at some point, after their marriage, they will adopt a doggie named Daisy who will later die and this explains the title?

You'd rather kill a puppy than have some school thots mess up their romance? You evil fiend! Have you no heart?

On another note, I don't get Meguru's calculations. Why was 14.10 the perfect time? What was she expecting to happen with Toki?

Well, Toki was supposed to have a shift outside with the sign, and that timetable was showing 14-16 so it makes sense - it was the earliest time when Meguru was in the cafe and Toki wasn't. 10 minutes of wiggle room just so they don't meet at the door or something :P

Hey that makes sense! I was asking myself the same question as well.
I think you're right. Poor Meguru, her idea was good but luck wasn't on her side.
The best-laid plans of mice and men and yuri protagonists...

Silly Natori! You and Lapis are adults!

When you're an adult and you can't sleep, you don't drink hot milk!

You drink tequila until you pass out. Sheesh.

luinthoron posted:

...wait, how did I manage to miss chapter 4?

Wait, what was that about the moon? ^_^

Tsukiko means "moon child" ^_^

Also, one Natsume Sōseki had a thing or two to say about the beauty of the Moon and what you could convey by alluding to it.

Just thought I'd mention it. ^_~