Also this needs Philosophical tag imo, or I think it would paint a proper image for any interested potential reader. Anyway I love this, it's so eerie and profound, just fantastic.

I considered it, but I think Psychological is a more accurate descriptor; there is some social commentary, but the focus is largely on the characters' emotional states. That said, the social commentary is definitely there, so if you think a Philosophical tag is deserved please do suggest it and see what the mods think.

I'm really happy you're enjoying it so much!

in this thread we have Koto x Erika fans and Koto x Aya fans, but is anyone else an Aya x Erika fan?

I really appreciate the TL notes at the end Cogito, they're super interesting and helpful to someone learning Japanese (like myself).

I find it really interesting to see the rabbit-hole you sometimes have to go down to translate "slang".

Thank you! They're fun to write. I could probably talk for hours about translation choices since I find it fascinating. お砂糖関係/"sugary relationship" is the deepest rabbit hole I've gone down so far since I had to read through this entire Japanese article to understand it (or well, half understand it, my vocabulary isn't great and I wasn't going to look up every kanji in that article I didn't know lol), but you and @Zesc can be assured that more long TL notes are coming. :)

last edited at Apr 10, 2024 12:45PM

Neither of the artists has ever done Yuri before and the introduction of the work doesn't use the word Yur but the friendship so I wonder why is this work tagged as Yuri? Did at least one of the characters fall in love in the following chapter if not then I would suggest tagging it with subtext instead of Yuri.

The Bookwalker page does tag it as yuri, as well as romance. The Comicwalker page does not, admittedly (though it did have a "romance" tag before the website's redesign); looking at other sites that sell the volume, the tagging is actually pretty inconsistent in this regard. But the publication it's in, Comic Beam, publishes a number of yuri manga, as you can see from its page here, so I can't imagine there would be publisher pressure or anything to make it "not yuri."

In addition, I don't think it's true that neither mangaka has done yuri. The writer also did this oneshot, basically a comedy about a "yuri death game," as well as a previous series that at least on Twitter they claim to be yuri by the end (I haven't read it myself, maybe I should?).

Finally, while I understand the word "love" wasn't used, I really can't interpret Itou's reactions in chapter 2 in any other way lol. When you're having a meltdown over another girl getting close to you and thinking about how good she smells, that's not friendship. So while I do think it's kind of on the yuri/subtext borderline, there's enough there that I'm comfortable calling it yuri.

last edited at Apr 10, 2024 9:41AM

The anti-Koto people on this forum must have enjoyed this chapter lol.

To be clear, I don't hate Koto. I think her behavior is extremely understandable as someone clearly suffering from PTSD after the girl she loved suddenly disappeared (and presumably died), and that girl suddenly showing up again as a 14-year-old is literally unprecedented and would drive anyone a bit crazy. But that doesn't change the fact that she's not doing well right now and her extreme overprotectiveness and abandonment anxiety are the exact opposite of what Aya needs.

On the other hand, I really liked Aya in this chapter. Her situation is so shitty but she's trying to make the best of it and move forward. I don't know how many people in her circumstances could have done the same.

(Okay I'll admit it I'm kind of shipping Aya and Erika lol.)

This was so funny lol.

(Kanna is my favorite so far but I am intrigued by the blonde, since she seems to have been poor/malnourished as a kid.)

I understand why some people here don't like the new chapter, but while it wasn't executed the best, I think I can see where the author is going with it. The new character's goal seems to be to bring down her family's reputation by making the curse public, in retaliation for the damage the curse has done to her life. Presumably her ex-boyfriend broke up with her because of it, and/or unlike Chihaya she is 100% straight and so the curse effectively makes her unable to have a fulfilling romantic life. So I think the purpose of her character is to provide a contrast to the MCs: while they're still trying to make their relationship work, for others the curse truly is a curse.

Sometimes, I really want to know how people distinguish "subtext" from "yuri." Komichi all but confessed to Erika in a previous chapter, and they've had multiple scenes together clearly framed as romantic. If one of them were a boy, literally everyone would assume they'd end up together. I understand why years ago, when explicit lesbian context was incredibly rare, people were desperate for obviously romantic gay love to be depicted on-page. But we're far past that era now. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of ongoing yuri manga where the romantic feelings are front and center. I think it's fine to have a manga like this too where the characters are still trying to figure out exactly how they feel about each other, even if it's obvious to the audience what their feelings are.

I love Yorita Miyuki and I love these girls!

You see toxic romance all the time, but you rarely see toxic friendship. I love both these morons they are the absolute worst

Tenma is Usui Shio's first openly horny major character so she may be expanding her range with this one. Looking forward to it!

Don't get your hopes up, people. If I understand correctly the author's twitter, it's going to end next chapter.

At this point, they're probably retiring as a mangaka.

If you mean this tweet, I think it was probably a misspelling? They do say 最終話, but in their very next tweet they say 最新話 instead, and that's also what the official account uses. I guess we'll find out for sure when the next chapter releases, though.

this was so cute!!

I'm more confused why this 10 year old has anxieties about the crushing reality of society and not being good enough

Because she's an orphan in a medieval society and was likely living by herself on the streets before she got picked up by Liza

I think the whole "childhood friend" thing is a meme, however you almost always can tell who will win any sort of romantic competition and it's the first person to have a "spark" with the mc. The one time I can I think of off the top of my head where the author went out of their way to subvert that, "Domestic Girlfriend," the ending turned out to be universally reviled lol.

It's a meme taken from het harem romcoms, probably specifically Nisekoi. But yeah, most of the time it's easy to guess who'll "win." Though Ichigo 100% is another example of an ending that "subverts" the tendency you describe, and while that was controversial it was overall well-received especially in hindsight. But that's probably enough talk about het harems on the Dynasty forum lol.

To return to this manga, what I find curious is how much emphasis was put on the tomboy character -- she gets an entire spotlight chapter early on -- despite her clearly being the third wheel. She's being set up to play a major role and I'm curious to see what it is.

Apparently the voice actress Ayane Sakura left a comment on the Volume 1 physical release. 「何者でもなかった彼女たちを、この恋が変えた。良くも悪くも。」(not sure what a clean translation for the first part is, so I'll just leave the original quote).

"Love changed these girls who weren't anyone. For better or worse."

This manga is legitimately incredible, the author is absolutely nailing her unique premise and the character dynamics are both believable and extremely compelling. I love pretty much everything about it.

To add my stick to the Erika discussion: are we sure her motives are even that selfish? Whenever a character constantly claims in internal dialogue they're totally self-interested, I get suspicious (see one Sorawo Kamikoshi). While Erika might tell herself that she only cares about cheering up Koto, she has been unfailingly helpful and kind to Aya ever since the latter reappeared; she hasn't even really had a negative word to say about her, even in internal narration. As much as Aya's disappearance caused Koto to remain stuck in place for 7 years, the same thing I think happened to Erika; she's been chasing Aya's shadow this entire time, and only after meeting her again did Erika really internalize Aya was just an ordinary girl like her. Her focus on Koto masks it but I think Aya's reappearance is causing her world to shift just like it's making Koto's world shift.

Anyway though Aya is my personal favorite character right now. While she may put on the face of the bold, confident girl she used to be, in reality she is a complete mess who is (very understandably!) overwhelmed by the massive struggles she's facing and is barely holding herself together. The past her wanted to escape, and she got her wish, but as a result she's completely lost her place in the world and any obvious way to gain meaning in her life. Due to her anomalous state as a 14-year-old who is legally 21 without living relatives, she is completely dependent on Erika and Koto, neither of whom are really considering what's in her best interest (Koto due to her massive and still unaddressed trauma from Aya's disappearance, Erika because she's still prioritizing Koto and also likely is still unconsciously putting Aya on a pedestal). Hopefully she can find some real support at her new part-time job, but realistically I think the only person with both the knowledge and emotional capability to help Aya find a meaningful life path again is Erika -- but Erika would have to give up on Koto in order to essentially be Aya's surrogate mother, and that's not something she's remotely willing to do at the present time.

It's such an interesting confluence of realistically flawed characters that feels like it can only be headed for disaster, but I don't get a tragic feel from this manga, more bittersweet leaning hopeful if anything. I have no idea what the romantic endgame will be, I kinda feel like we're heading toward none of the three protagonists ending up with each other, but I think they'll all find their own happiness by the end. It'll just be a long struggle to get there.

i haven't watched this anime but this doujin is really hot

I liked this chapter, it was nice and low-key. I'll be curious to see if the short-haired girl ends up as anything more than a third wheel.

this twist utterly blindsided me, but i love it. 10/10 the mangaka is a legit genius

In this pace, they will bang before divorced

God I hope so, isn't that why we're all here

(Great chapter! I could've used a trigger warning for the job search scenes though that was extremely painful.)

What stands out to me about this chapter is the protagonist, who was portrayed as pretty selfish/judgmental (albeit understandably) until the very end. Her being somewhat flawed more than anything makes me interested in this manhua. Well that and the Bisexual tag but that's more a personal interest thing lol.

Amazing! Thank you thank you! I don't actually know anything about Gundam. Not that shocked that MadoHomo is #1. I always say it's a cousin to the really great Qualia the Purple,.Also Love Live! is two main couples, the RinPana side couple and a bunch of pairings that don;t make the cut (though Umi Eli has some mileage).

I definitely recommend watching Witch From Mercury; you don't need to know anything about Gundam to enjoy it, and it's a great show. I was also pretty surprised by the popularity of Umi/Eli, but I admit I don't know much about the Love Live fandom (I just watched the anime lol).

Edit: And you're welcome! Honestly it was pretty fun to do. I made a Reddit post about my results too, in case you're interested.

last edited at Feb 2, 2024 1:13AM

Okay, it didn't end up being as hard as I thought it might be. Here you go!

Here's the Google Collab notebook I wrote my code in, though fair warning it's not organized at all lol.

A few things that jump out at me: the images chart seems to be overall newer than the chapters chart, which I guess isn't surprising. I didn't expect SuleMio to be #1 on images but I am happy at that result; same with Nanoha/Fate topping the chapters chart (though it should be noted I tracked individual chapters with that, including oneshots).

Cute oneshot. Congrats on your first translation, Nerina!