^ ^^^ ^^^^ etc
The canon romance is simple but so unconventional and choppy that it's trouble to explain without buzzwords. I'm judging from when I read the LNs and WN early releases to about~ where the anime probably currently is if not further. A while~ ago. The weird romance was super memorable.

Maomao is aroace or very close to it depending on the version. She respects but doesn't relate to romance except as a means to an end, which is central to the Sherlockian Great pharmacy-romance Detective power fantasy and romantic power fantasy of being pursued and immune from wooing by Jinshi the idealized supportive (het) partner. A lot of it isn't power fantasy for her mentality but power playing to a core audience presumed to be mostly allosexual het cis women in danger of falling in love. The romance parts that Maomao quits actively avoiding tend to be receiving gifts or femdom (mild BDSM as time goes on) as Jinshi worships her and she establishes boundaries in a way she finds satisfying. It's very unconventional because her aromantic and neurodivergent traits empower her socially and are contrasted with the risky romances of neurotypicals in the royal harem, brothel, and geopolitics. Maomao doesn't come off as superior or inferior so much as an outsider view on power dynamics within a fairly patriarchal China.

The catcat x not-eunuch romance is also crammed in after the web drafts! Sometimes it feels forced in but not too out of character. The WN draft has distinctly aroace Maomao with little to no titillating moments between the pharmacy detective stories. Her disinterest and hyperfixations are clearly explained by her upbringing and lifelong mentality (her whole bloodline screams neurodivergent). Fanservice and extra connective tissue with Jinshi is added into that for the LN releases, thus into the ongoing manga and anime. So her own romance is often out of place with her contemplating others romances, but even at its most forced and character-redefining moments it sort of respects how (nearly?) aroace romance can occur as a negotiation of boundaries. In this case femdom with a person who is devoted to finding a path through the cat-themed-phramacist's thorns. Even so, she doesn't pine over Jinshi in a traditionally romantic way, and pregnancy is just another science experiment she wants to conduct on herself someday. I don't recall the mangas forcing more romantic reactions but the mainstream anime might leave more doth-protest-too-much moments to interpretation.

last edited at Jun 18, 2025 2:48AM

I think the series logic is overly convenient, to the point it's fairytale magic, so I don't mind. Why judge little moments (flick with 100kg force, documentation) when the title (of Hanako or the story) has no obvious justification? Femme Fatale isn't equivalent to "popular girl". Staff wouldn't know she'd have Nanase acting like a spouse in under a week. Assuming the series is going to have this goober come off as far more suave from her determined blundering, it's hard to believe staff wouldn't know she's capable of being a femme fatale. Nanase's Affectionist seemed less of a stretch and more learnable, and her found family task is a lower bar, but when the line was crossed? Instantly she's fitting the title as a territorial partner (lover/sister/wife/mother unclear) of a new family. It was drastic, but in-character. Lesbian fairy tale logic and I love it. Especially for small things, I'm just going to assume all the religion in the plot means divine inspiration led staff to trust it's rare for determined students to fail their role.

Honestly I'm surprised there aren't more people with roles that don't match their self-image thus far. Ran being this frail, even considering a week of studying burnout, lacks the impact of how the main couple changed. Her assigned name was a bit more old-fashioned so I was assuming her background would fit her serious facial expressions (delinquent or punk) more than her smarts. Hopefully there's some other reversal involved.

(Now to see if Ran is more like a crush the femme fatale spurns or more like a kid the affectionist adopts :P ... No, Ran's definitely in need of parental oversight.)

last edited at Jun 1, 2025 8:24PM

These are two conscious people, so to me this is Cheating and something like revenge horror.

Partly because of the well-worn science fiction and folklore magic, I don't think this is very contrived compared to needlessly edgy mental corruption yuri. None of the implications were squandered in a tragic reversal of the machine protagonist's own objectification and narrow world. Romantic betrayal and a broken pact with an inhuman sort of spirit mesh well together. Neither person is suffering, both are dehumanized, pathetic, and squandered potential.

I really liked this layered cautionary tale.

Softcore handholding

I don't care for the opening much, but Usui Shio is exceptional so I'll trust this. I look forward to how the author writes leads who may not be ace or demisexual.

Just let us be with you a little more. I know we keep making it harder for you. I'm sorry.

Interesting that mini-Michi said "us" and "we" referring to herself and the star seals placed all over. And apologized. That sends a mixed message on whether she's more of a conscious spirit or more of a spell construct with the seals. Since she has emotions, I guess she could be a construct made of Michi's memories.

Gyaru-chan isn't hiding a thing, so I'll be annoyed if Almelia is too stupid to figure out the gist of what's happening. This isn't enough of a comedy for that level of idiot plot.

I feel a bit bad for Kaye falling for a taken woman, after losing her first girlfriend in a natural disaster. Ada's not even expecting to see Lan for 5 years or so. What a shame, Ada and Kaye are apparently each-other's type and can't help flirting.

Until that last text bubble, I thought they were good friends. (This being a romance) they could be roommates traveling. The platonic friendship was so pure and supportive, whether or not the bestie is starting to signal interest.

For being a story of bitter failure, I found this sweet and heartwarming. The focal relationship is the bedrock trust and not the romantic gamble.

last edited at Feb 23, 2024 10:26PM

How does Yui keep her captive though? Nightmare version is Makoto can be frozen like the world and cannot scream. Best case, most likely case, is the door has a lock. Yui's science is OP. Even if Makoto escapes, Yui can drag her back.

I'm not sure how dark this manga was, since the end was so unreasonable it felt like a joke.

Take this skeptically but Isuzu's hairlick is drawn so sharply and consistently this chapter, and her incisor when she scowls, I'm starting to doubt she's fully human. The comparison with Hinata in c36 p21 says it all. Isuzu's hair spike is always there, and her pointy fang when she scowls, makes her resemble the ogre characters much more than the human characters. And her ogre-level strongman ancestor has a version with a non-human biodad, so it's not breaking from the false-history worldbuilding. If so grandpa could be more racist than sexist about which traits disqualify her from being a warrior. Finding out you're more diverse while grappling with racism is less of a feelgood plot but would have a more interesting family dynamic. I'm leaning a bit over 50% she's technically an ogre girl, take a shot if I'm right.

It's also grandpa's fault she was put off and forgot to order more mint liquer. Bad human.

last edited at Feb 23, 2024 3:03PM

So, a cannibal yuri with SCP tropes? I like all the little mysteries that were set up. Hopefully this threads the needle between adorable and some of the disturbing premises. For starters, why EF appears to have been maimed and decapitated before being disposed of here.

This was a delicious volume, thank you translators! There was a surprising amount of progress, and a shortage of daily life. Coming up, an arc to make Aju interesting and a ponytail swordsman (probably joining the party sorta).

"...About all the absurd things I've missed. About all the things I don't understand that have hurt people. No matter how trivial it is, I don't want to overlook anything ever again..." Okay we'll hold you to it Naori. "I don't want to overlook anything. But this is..." Yes! Hinata is so into you. (I don't have much confidence in Naori aside from combat bartending.)

Hato and Ruri have such a healing dynamic. Oof, my heart... Their thought processes are aligning again...

I expected a twist, so the straightforward end felt like stumbling into a pothole. Maybe Nald Nobuzo's idea was cut down. The friend really was just a car salesman? Why that job? She had no ties to this case, other than happening to know some professional drivers and car thieves. If she was the assassin, or got in too deep as a middleman, it would make more sense than the clean-cut romance ending. Instead of one story we got a 3/4 baked investigation and 1/4 baked yuri love interest with unimportant connections.

The art by Color-LES was nice! Mage and Demon Queen has much improved art, and is very stylish, but I'm a sucker for the cool look.

last edited at Dec 21, 2023 8:23PM

From afar it's almost elegant, and up close... Definitely comedy.

“You can’t fool Chizuru”? About Mitsuki? Who is connected with a record store (Chizuru went to), and had an angsty mix-up with Aya about a pair of concert tickets, and has a cool style? Chizuru still seems to be fooled about the two highly-compatible music geeks and their respective crushes.

I wish “fool” had a wider connotation in that closing sentence, considering Chizuru has plenty of clues now. It’d be a clumsy spot for exposition though.

I hope this series of cursed ships continues.

There's now exactly 777 Pages of pictures. It's not lucky or anything, I just like noticing numbers.

The sentences "They're yuri", "It's yuri", "She is yuri to X" are such a nonsense and mostly put aside the use of the word lesbian in yuri manga, come on lesbian it's not an insult, and lesbian relationships.

The problem shows up with how we can't know if Mika was making a statement at the time about the terms yuri (fiction) versus real (lesbian) sapphic romance, rather than a statement about yuri versus doubt that relationships between women can be romantic. Reading this chapter I realized that Yoshioka would have learned a lot about her sexuality through online sources outside of yuri fiction and otaku culture, so realistically her self-perception would gravitate more to the term lesbian and less to the marketable "yuri" through which Fuyu learned about her own sexuality.

If I'm understanding right, Mika was in love with Fuyu when Fuyu was working up to a confession, but Mika hadn't labelled her own feelings yet? So Mika's mistake was she rejected the idea of romance with other girls because she really did believe it only happened in stories, and took offense because a "yuri" fiction label or an assumption that romance is present would devalue what she considered a close friendship? Though Fuyu seemed pretty open about being a yuri fan she wasn't mentioning it directly when she was working up to confess, so I get the impression Mika hadn't come to terms with her own feelings at that point. Eventually Mika realized that Fuyu was distancing herself because of "the kicker", probably even that Fuyu interpreted it as rejecting her and not just demeaning her genre. If not while the two were growing apart in middle school, Mika respected her own feelings by the time she sent a text at the exact moment the mythic lovers supposedly meet on Tanabata earlier on. That's a bit tragic.

If Mika already knew her feelings were romantic (lesbian), and answered Fuyu while making assumptions about Fuyu's connection with yuri (imaginary), and still let the relationship crumble, the development is more of a forced misunderstanding.

Author, Yasaka: Pages of color art of longing gazes and an image of mutual gentle touches.
Also Author, Yasaka: "If you're wondering... Yuzu's probably just thinking about what's for dinner"

I think volume 1 extras is word of god; Yuzu rarely if ever thinks gay thoughts up to that point. The art can't be mined for scraps of meaning other than we know she has a deep emotional bond with Minami and little introspection early on. It was the likely case, but still a bit of a shame. She might gradually become aware without it being telegraphed to the reader, in those little moments facing away from POV after big moments, but overall she's still unrealistically dense.

Just caught up. I agree the underclassman rival plot is too sudden, too contrived, and I have low hopes for the second festival date especially if that's what pushes Yuzu. It seems within this author's ability to subvert or complicate the situation, like for Minami to negotiate out of the festival date to another time where it's a more relatable sexuality-testing date, or a situation that doesn't visibly affect Yuzu's possessiveness and Minami is the one to break... but I won't bet on it. Even Minami being outed this arc is too optimistic. No, either Yuzu will get worked up from an overdone situation or Yuzu will simply uncomfortably face away from the POV for another fist clench or a "that was scary!" interjection that won't matter a chapter later.

last edited at Sep 17, 2023 7:04PM

Happy mother's day, Kanna.

We need more Suletta athletta art. She's been shown doing running workouts like that silly jog. Like real combat pilots, the girl is definitely a fighter jock.

This gorgeous sequence capped off such dark visuals in the ED, for both of them, that I think it's as foreboding as it is heartwarming. That entire ED is just going to get more bittersweet over the course of the season.

last edited at Apr 15, 2023 7:57PM

I expected a lot worse from the chapter tags and first chapters, but Pieta turned out to be a masterpiece. The lack of a romance tag fits, since the relationship of the characters isn't repeatedly proven to the audience, but the leads develop a very deep and dependent bond that includes and surpasses romance. Suicide, self-harm, and the toxic risks of codependency as a defense mechanism was called out as dangerous, without seeming idealistic or like the leads for sure had red flags for their relationship. I do wish we had seen slightly more of why Sahoko was attracted to Rio, beyond the flow of events and magnetism. Overall, this was beautiful and neither overly light nor overly challenging.

Not specifically autism or the like, but this story touched on the idea of being neurologically divergent. Often greatly different thinking or functioning or sensitivities than a person with more average psychology. The (heartwarming) doc couple's talk of neurodivergent people, or some subset, being evolved beings fragile to current society definitely sounds like certain medical professionals I've heard poetically thinking. That's complicated. Realism aside, the idea that there's a supernatural force related to their shared divergence pulling the protagonists together so they protect each other was a actually satisfying at that point, rather than saccharine or patronizing.

Edit: And I submitted just after the above poster also noted the neurodivergent aspect in a different way! I suppose that's the influence of being the featured series on the main page in 2023. And I was so surprised no prior comments noted it! The English term is late-90s but the paradigm seems to be spreading faster recently.

last edited at Mar 16, 2023 8:07PM