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shovellers are cool, their big old beaks are so goofy. they do look kinda like mallards and sometimes you will see mallard/shoveller hybrids even though they aren't in the same genus let alone species, because ducks.

just...thank you, kishi-sensei

aww, always love to see long-tailed tits. never heard of the all-white ones, they're super cute

all i want is for this to get a yuru camp level adaptation :)

this has been quite a ride. it's interesting, started off thinking we were going into a slightly extreme (and well done) enemies-with benefits to lovers story, which, yeah, i'm a total sucker for, but it's ended up going in a much darker but probably more interesting direction.

the one i feel worst for right now is hashimoto. kuroda's ambition might be thwarted but she's honestly well rid of them. hashimoto got a glimpse of the depths of shirakawa's psychopathy and is likely tied to her for the moment.

damn mask you dark horse you

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you know, i looked over it again and i think it's far less clear than i thought. based on the text it's completely possible that yunduo is upset because she feels like xiaoen didn't trust her or that she's been a bad friend for not supporting her or something. maybe she's even been trying to set xiaoen up with guys for years. i still think my original interpretation is probably the right one but this was an interesting lesson in how much you can bring to a text.

I really doubt the possibility of her trying to set Mu Xiaoen with guys, considering how she seemed to think of it as a burden when it came from her father. I think that with all that we've been shown so far, her being in love with Mu Xiaoen is the most plausible explanation. But we'll probably see more on this in the next chapter.

i agree, like i said i was just commenting on a different possible reading of the literal text given the conversation we'\d been having.

OK, this is purely me playing devil’s advocate (I was an early adopter of the “Yundou is into Xiaoen” theory, and still hold to it), but was there anything more explicit in this chapter to support that premise than we’ve seen before?

There certainly was more of the same—statements with implied subtext, significant expressions, meaningful framing and cuts from panel to panel, etc. Is it the quantity of suggestions/focus on Yundou’s feelings that sealed the deal for previous doubters?

they were both speaking somewhat elliptically so i wouldn't say you're wrong but at the same time i think what the author means for us to infer is much clearer now.

Just to clarify, I'm very interested in the signals that authors use to indicate indirectly what kind of story they're telling and where the story is likely to go. (Not that those signals can't be interpreted incorrectly or that the author can't change their mind over the course of telling the story.)

I've always thought, as I put it before, that "the visual text suggests that there is more to her feelings about Xiaoen than just the standard concern of a long-time best friend," and "the overall text [i.e., words + visuals] suggests that Yundou has something to say to Xiaoen that she isn’t quite saying, at least not yet."

And I throughly agree that we now have a much better idea of what it is Yundou would want to say, even though she's still not quite saying it.

you know, i looked over it again and i think it's far less clear than i thought. based on the text it's completely possible that yunduo is upset because she feels like xiaoen didn't trust her or that she's been a bad friend for not supporting her or something. maybe she's even been trying to set xiaoen up with guys for years. i still think my original interpretation is probably the right one but this was an interesting lesson in how much you can bring to a text.

OK, this is purely me playing devil’s advocate (I was an early adopter of the “Yundou is into Xiaoen” theory, and still hold to it), but was there anything more explicit in this chapter to support that premise than we’ve seen before?

There certainly was more of the same—statements with implied subtext, significant expressions, meaningful framing and cuts from panel to panel, etc. Is it the quantity of suggestions/focus on Yundou’s feelings that sealed the deal for previous doubters?

they were both speaking somewhat elliptically so i wouldn't say you're wrong but at the same time i think what the author means for us to infer is much clearer now.

yes, we definitely need fewer otome game isekais and more soulslike isekais

hero is the nurse for letting the phys ed teacher have this one

i knew the story was going this way as soon they made the archbishop homophobic. narratively it's only there to soften rose eventually siding with the fascists.

narita-kun, as always, know's what's up. for some reason reading this i was vividly reminded of how we all reacted to him when he first showed up. admittedly he was a bit of a jerk(face) to begin with but man we have come a long way

"keep the horrible status quo, it's fine as long as we recognise how bad it is and how much we exploit others. and be cool with queer people on an individual basis."

truly the priest represents liberalism.

well, good point to both of you!

as the action is picking up the politics of this story are getting much less interesting, but honestly that's a tradeoff i'm happy to make

last edited at Aug 9, 2023 6:47PM

ok someone probably asked this already but why are hibai and gina working together so closely again? like, before their interests were kinda aligned but it really doesn't seem like they are anymore?

since mayoi is a history nerd do we think she went with kaokao as a three kingdoms reference?

Wowzers, Makino’s mother is so scummy that she somehow makes Makino look like an angel by comparison. On the bright side, those two assholes are probably going to wind up dying old and alone, having destroyed their relationship with both their children, and with their company, at best, falling into the hands of some random adult they “adopted” for the sole reason of keeping their oh-so-precious company “in the family.”

Also, I initially misread “sparrows” as “swallows” in the author’s note, and was ready to express my condolences to the author. Those little monsters are aggressive when they’re nesting.

the first time it actually does say swallows!

thought i was completely missing a joke or something at the end but thankfully ayano confirms miyoshi just makes no sense

also good to know nobody else in the class is surprised it was ayano

damn, hibai is so obviously an agent that i almost think it's got to be a double bluff...and i'm just thinking in circles at this point

i've always found those series where one person transforms into a weapon for the other to use unsettling. like, sure objectification is bad but man, the idea of literal objectification is kinda horrifying to me

last edited at Jun 14, 2023 11:52PM

while it's true that it feels like this villainess setup is now even more of a cliche than the thing it's parodying, at least her identity was revealed straight away as i was a bit worried there would be a long and equally cliche misunderstanding plot. overall it was quite well done and the cross-dressing is a new wrinkle, so i'll definitely see where this goes!

I love the incredibly dense room full of spies for this Father - daughter-in-law chitchat. With the father only having been marked because the Assassination agency cannot for the life of them get documents on Rose.

i know! it was so well done, too, the cut to the awkward pause had excellent comic timing (if a comic can be said to have that)

ngl this is getting a little silly for my taste