This manga's narrative is amazing but weirdly told. "I love you but because your own love is so much like hate I want to destroy this relationship" is genius but something's wrong with the narration...

Butchess when their femme doesn't feel pretty

And thus, Xin Xin beheld the power extroverted bi women can have on autistic lesbians.

last edited at May 5, 2024 9:03AM

reminds me of kiss and a white lily kinda

I sense a bit of "Can't Degy the Lonely Girl" as well

God, those "false sexual harassment allegations" plotlines really piss me off... How often in media are they framed as something that is only lies? 99% of the time, which does not in any way reflect the real life percentage. I genuinely feel like this kind of things contributes to survivors not being believed in the real world.

So Erika wished Aya would come back, just so her and Koto would properly fall apart, so she could properly have Koto for herself without the lingering regrets?

I still don't know what this story is aiming for, but this feels like a very raw deal for Aya.

To be fair, who could have expected actual time travel to happen? In a way, it was also a wish to have her best friend she longs for to get closure.
But now... yeah, Erika is jealous of Aya and feels like she's living in her shadow. But what can Koto even do? I agree that Aya has been dealt poor cards by the gods. I don't know how this story's gonna conclude...

Guess who's going to work ~crying~

Did anyone else notice that Yuni litterally has no friends? Fuuko has this deal made about her being alone and stand-offish but Yuni litterally has no one either. Of course Yuni is lonely without Nanase : she has no friends to palliate her boredom with, just anonymous Twitter followers. Girl, of course you're lonely in your relationship, she has a healthy social life and you don't!

AHHHH I love this series so much!!! Such a well-realised mess!

i will say as someone who haphazardly accepted my guy best friend's confession out of pressure(?) it is a super uncomfortable position. i really relate to eri. i understand shes not a good person but in the spur of the moment you can't really think about it rationally.

that being said im excited for fuyuki and senpai arc

Out of pressure ? If you were pressed to accept their confession you shouldn't go out with them, even when the pressure came from you. If they're really your friend they will understand you and back off and if don't they don't... they're not your friend. And you should distance yourself from them.

? Yeah I think they are saying it wasn't a reasonable decision. Social pressure is an extremely powerful kind of pressure, especially when you're younger, and pressure for a heterosexual normative relationship is anchored in society.
That's why even though Eri's not being a good friend to Fuyuki and Kyou, I can't say that she's just a bad person. I mean we are reading a manga by someone who does explore those complicated relationship aspects, let's be nuanced and go with the story that is being told instead of trying to optimise them by wanting all their decisions to be the most rational in that situation, something none of us always do.

Husky voiced athletic short-haired women hmu

FINALLY HIROKO IS ACTING LIKE AN ADULT!!! As soon as she got put in her place by Risa, she gave Ayaka a straightforward answer that she cannot be with her even if she wanted, and I don't think it's just because of homophobic backlash. I think she's seriously considering the lack of maturity between Ayaka and her, as well as her own immaturity in relationships. Hiroko is such a well-done character, I wanna shake and slap her but this is done so well it has made me a fan of Sal Jiang's work in a way that Black & White didn't.

Sal Jiang is really good at creating flawed characters and Hiroko might be the best that she's ever done in that category. She is all about appearance, whether it's hers or Ayaka's, she's a two-faced liar and her game is so bad. Risa's assessment is perfectly correct. It makes you root for Ayaka to wise up.

The only cross-dressing that would make sense here is if the princess is a trans girl : no matter how much you have changed physically and grown your hair, if you don't come out, sometimes people will straight up not connect the dots. I doubt this manga will be going down this road though.

Or she's just cross dressing because men are respected more than women in that sort of environment (sexism was/is a pretty big thing), so she prefers that the outside world sees her as a male. And she's potentially a lesbian, and the easiest way to get women to come with her in that sort of time period and culture would be to make them think she's a guy at first. Nothing to do with them being trans or whatever

Sorry I didn't express myself well. I meant the only way the cross-dressing would work on others, because she looks nothing like a guy while cross-dressed as the prince.

I definitely like the art and rivals to lovers is a proven concept~

The only cross-dressing that would make sense here is if the princess is a trans girl : no matter how much you have changed physically and grown your hair, if you don't come out, sometimes people will straight up not connect the dots. I doubt this manga will be going down this road though.

I hope they never get together, just to make everyone mad

Also, I have a problem with the girlfriend asking her to quit her job so they can hang out more. Like wtf?! That's VERY selfish and controlling. I get wanting to not be an assassin but to ask your s.o. to quit their job for you to hang out more??... wth. (Also, she's a student so she must be busy herself =/.)

I personally think this is genius in the story for her to be a high schooler. This makes her naivete and optimistism make sense as she's still a teen and the closeness with her dad make sense. But more importantly... this is a grown-ass woman dating a high schooler, getting her romance and only reciprocal (unlike with the priest) human interaction from a teenager. This signals the tragedy and creepiness of the character : even if no one had to die, the "desired" outcome would be a fully adult woman who's deeply traumatised and alone consuming a relationship with a teenage girl, which is messed up!

I don't know why everyone were being such Negative Nancys when this first came out! Splendid artwork, fun characters, a galaxy of great little romances, daww moments aplently, a sprinkle of drama, and Shiramine and Kurosawa as the nucleus of the series are wonderful! One of the greatest on this site!

I'm still at chapter 51 but until now, every time I see a chapter about her and Kana I just immediately think "God, this is disgusting". It's not ilegal, but she still creeps me the FUCK out...

WE'VE STRAIGHT UP CROSSED INTO ILLEGALITY THIS CHAPTER!

Reika's biggest problem, and the problem of a lot of adults getting into relationships with high schoolers, is immaturity and not wanting to be perceived as immature.
And when you're told you're immature, what is the best way to feel mature? Hang around those less mature than you, get into a relationship with someone inherently less mature than you. Reika got to feel like the provider, like she brought Yurika to maturity. But she was an irresponsible adult, who persevered with a vulnerable teenager who felt alone in her gayness. There was no world in which these kinds of relationships can work : they are based on imbalance and leave difficult to heal wounds.
Minamo is right to hate her, Reika is scummy. What I really like is that Yurika can't do it herself yet. I was worried when the fact that her ex was an adult hot brought up, but it was handled with a hell of a lot of care, and that's pretty amazing in my opinion.

I honestly like that we're seeing the backstory for those two. Not because it will excuse anything that they have done, but so we can see how someone can become careless about the sanctity of life, as they are confronted with the paragon of life preservation no matter the cost, Satsuki. They might not be great characters but they are great as foils and as part of the series' larger themes.

Hayama has been acting in the exact same cartoonishly ridiculous way since Ch1, not sure how people are just now finding a problem with it after reading 18 chapters of the same schtick again and again lol

It's hard to explain but since the serialisation, it feels less cartoonish. The "It looks like bullying but is her ridiculous way of showing feelings" before serialisation became harassment that remind me of real life scummy people (mostly guys but some women). Maybe I find the pacing less impactful than the shorter chapters and so I don't find it funny so I'm more critical, it may be that. But it feels different.

Hmmmmm, there's a lack of heterocompulsivity guiding the lead's actions, some kind of positivity towards the love interest, and reasonable feelings and actions from the main interest.
At this point, this just genuinely feel like romantic harassment from Himaya. It'd be hard to make that transition from disinterest and fear to some kinds of feelings believable.

Liberta is proof you can exude the greatest top energy in the world and still like to bottom too.

This manga is so damn messy, I love it!
Yuni is evidently someone who struggles with being seen, being heard and, I don't mean this in a bad way, feels a lack of attention in her life.
She uses social media to cope with that and her GF, for understandable and personal reasons, doesn't want their relationship to go public and lacks commitment to it. She lacks validation and attention, at a time in her life that's really difficult for a LGBT teen.
Then Fuuko appears, and she is exactly what Yuni needs in the short term but not in the long one, what she wants and what she fears : a constant source of devotion, attention, and commitment. And what's brilliant about Fuuko's character is that she also provides the other edge of that sword : depersonalisation, obsession, and lovebombing.
Fuuko was right : she put more into that slap, that response to manipulation and the attention one has to go through to pull it off, than either of the kisses, because those feelings were undivided, raw, with nothing else in her mind but response to attentive and manipulative Fuuko.
Fuuko's a monkey's paw wish : what you need (attention) in a way that will destroy you (manipulation). Incredible.
This is going to be a miserable trainwreck, but such an enjoyable one!! Thank you so much to the team for their work!