Given the nature of this chapter I didn’t want to put a credits page at the end. But this is the halfway point for the book! There’s one fair-length chapter, one short one and the 60-page feature story at the end. The next one is the book version of Water Colored and you can find the doujin version on this site. Given what’s left it might be a month or so before you see more. Thank you for your patience.

If you like what you’ve read so far please consider buying a copy on bookwalker (title:琥珀の貴方) or even getting a physical copy on CDJapan. I have one and it’s very nice quality. Miso has been on Pixiv since around 2017 and has had stories in magazines but this is her first major book, which could make or break her career.

Lastly, it was fun to take the main characters replies, which were pretty dorky, and make them even more dorky (“wow, heels sure are useful!”) I like to imagine that’s what charmed Ellie that one night.

last edited at Jan 11, 2024 11:12PM

This is my favorite of the three I’ve done for this book so far. Usually vague feelings are hard to handle and end up feeling weird or unsatisfying. But in this case it feels real to me. What do you say about the passing of an acquaintance/community member/girl you went on a quasi-date with once? How do you feel? Incredible sadness might not match well but neither does an absolute lack of emotion.

I also like that the story illustrates how things and people stick with us even if our time with them is brief. Ellie’s heels are on the main character’s mind even before the reveal, and I have a good feeling she’ll be remembering Ellie years and years from now.

It’s really hard to sun up but I really like that it’s partially about community and missed connections and the weird way life shakes out. There’s no indication the main character is into Ellie in that way (and not indication otherwise either) but clearly she was a person of interest. A fixture in the community. Moving on to the other, this is less present in the story but, personally, this makes me think of what ifs. Looking back and seeing a different life that you missed out on. “What if I had done this?” “What if I had gotten with that person?” “What if I had stopped that?” It’s not really super on the surface but it gives me the same weird feeling.

In the end life is strange and hard. Unexpected terrible things happen to those we know without knowing. People make lifetime impressions in a single night. An item becomes inextricably tied to someone. And all that’s left is to go on and deal with what comes, externally and internally.

I'm a bit confused. In the third panel, who really is saying the words when the speech bubbles get dark? When talking about getting rid of Takeda?

It’s Kakizaki. Honestly this chapter had a bit of issue with clarity. I tried to remedy some of it but yeah.

Is anyone else seeing broken images for the latest chapter?

Skip the dot underscore files, they're Mac metadata. Probably from the scanlator using native zipping that doesn't give the user an option to exclude them. The actual images are without "._"

edit: For the scanlator: third-party dedicated archiving programs should have an option called something like "exclude resource forks" that will take care of it.

Thanks for the heads up!

Is anyone else seeing broken images for the latest chapter?

It wasn’t showing originally but it looks like it resolved itself?

So I went back to the original and I don't know ... somehow this one feels more sanitized? I prefered the "grittier" (for lack of a better word) art style to this. Overall I somehow got me the feeling of watching the hollywood version of a biography versus actually reading the biography.

@meadows: I noticed that the detail of other Rike getting murdered is a lot less subtle here (partly due to the text fade); is this due to a quirk of word order in the translation or reflective of intetional changes?

It’s a translation quirk, I would say.

me reading this: oh. oh shit. OH SHIT.

guess i'll go read the earlier version?

The main thing that changed is that my translation is just a bit different and the art style is different. I think the text itself is pretty much the same.

me reading this: oh. oh shit. OH SHIT.

guess i'll go read the earlier version?

The main thing that changed is that my translation is just a bit different and the art style is different. I think the text itself is pretty much the same.

Oh looks like someone got it moved to here. Thanks so much, whoever did that!

Thanks to you for your hard work!

E. Vigée Le Brun: if you look at the stories' index you'll notice that two of them have been in the reader for a couple of years already, Blouse and Fuzzy Arcadia! You can find links in the RfA page.

Oh I never noticed this! I thought I double checked here but I suppose I overlooked it. If someone could have that map here as the fifth chapter I’d be forever thankful!

I suppose that means I’m almost done. The last chapter is a bother little two page thing. But more than anything I’m just happy to see more stories involving these two.

Hi! I don’t know about the routing but The Girls Blouse came out first as a doujin and was put on the original Girls’ Arcadia anthology page when it was done by Yuri Project. I opted to skip it to not have duplicate entries.

Edit: Oh looks like someone got it moved to here. Thanks so much, whoever did that!

last edited at Oct 20, 2023 10:52PM

Just a question:
In the original she was named Kida, but in this one she's named Honda?

Nope. Just my poor eyesight, lol. Sorry! I’ll get that fixed. Thanks for pointing that out.

last edited at Oct 17, 2023 1:10PM

I’ll post here what I posted elsewhere.

This was published back in August of this year, and when I read it I immediately fell in love with it.

I liked U-Temo’s stuff to begin with, but the way that this dealt with a topic not often shown in manga in a measured and real way, really stuck with me.

I think that’s what draws me to their stuff in the first place. I love Still Not Normal in that it shows not relationships happen in a snap, or follow the supposedly set steps. It reminded me of stuff I’ve gone through and people I know. Sometimes stuff slowly changes. Sometimes that’s just how it works.

Which I feel is the thing here. Sometimes that’s just how it shakes out. No one did anything terrible or was lacking. But feelings changed. Or circumstances (money, work, etc.) changed. And you have to part ways. I’ve been in both types of situation and this manga is a combo of the two.

The woman leaving has been unable to break through and the money has dried up. But on top of that, the feelings that were there, maybe spurred on my manga dreams or dampened by hardship, have changed. It’s a relationship at its natural end.

To prolong it further would just cause suffering or stress. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. I know what it’s like to know something is not working but still feel regret or guilt. Not even out of love! But just… because. And still, even if you recognize all this, it doesn’t make it easy, it’s still hard to part. I even think the woman leaving is pushing feelings deep underground, given some of her expressions. But theres lots of ways to interpret it, maybe.

It’s a bit of a tough one, but this sortof thing also happens every hour of every day. And I guess that’s what I like about U-Temo’s stuff. Is that it feels real, that it addresses all sorts of experience. I see this and sadly go “ah, yeah.” But in a strange way it makes me feel seen, more alive, more human, and for that I’m a fan of this short oneshot.