Not to mention the wacky romantic hijinx of a crew of lesbian high school girls who hang out at the apartment one of them lives in alone above the cafe where a couple of them work.

The “don’t know what the author intends” is a function of the incredibly muddled storytelling.

The series was not like this at the beginning, though. It started out pretty strong, and had a clear and concise theme, a girl with one-sided feelings for her sister-in-law. But along the way it started to lose its focus, and it muddled things to the point where it looks like it will need a further 30 chapters at the very least to resolve anything. Focusing on the side characters too much, adding unnecessary plotlines (to the point the original one pretty much vanished), I do not think the author is making a "slow burn" out of it, I think the author simply has no, or almost no idea where to take this, and is aimlessly drifting. I would be very surprised if these chapters are actually planned in advance.

I for one thinks the story is quite well made in which the main conflict does not happen in a bubble with the characters. The characters involved are/are still quite dependent on others. Uta is still a child and still relies on adults for many parts of her life, mainly her brother, her parents/mom and Kaoru primarily because of her age. Kaoru on the other hand is also dependent on the people around her, but not because of financial or parental reasons but because of her personality type that makes her have to rely on the inputs of people around her to have a sense of self or urgency.

An interesting thing here is that they are both mutually dependent on each other. Uta is decisive and shows initiative, shown in the previous chapters where she started to compute her savings and also confessed to AND confronted Kaoru to find a response to her feelings. Kaoru though shows the opposite of this, relying more on her friends and focusing on the hapiness and keeping a state of agreement between the people she loves. Kaoru acts upon her wishes INDIRECTLY, always second guessing herself and does not assert her true thoughts and feelings well (as evidenced in this chapter where she didn't pry when Risako opened her doubt, did not directly answer Uta's confession at first) and is inclined making compromises instead of acting to her will (most seen in the part where she supported Uta leaving as to make them 'a family' again despite the family background).

The first part of the story focuses more on Uta, she has a clear goal and the initiative to do so and had done so. She had friends that accept her for how she is and friends who she can trust with her issues. This part we're in focuses on Kaoru, where she keeps making compromises and is watching them fall apart. This may be in part with her situation, she seems to be the 'baby' of the friend group (referenced as to how they come up with answers and things for her to do whenever she shares a problem and their patronizing attitude of her) and also a big factor to Uta and her brother's parents falling apart as stated in earlier chapters.

To this I agree that the story seems to be aimlessly wandering for now, but it is in a way that is true to Kaoru's character. Kaoru seems like the type of person who would need a very direct stimulus to get her to decide for herself, and as Uta already passed the baton of her feelings to Kaoru (the story now instead of 'girl with one-sided feelings for her sister-in-law' to 'woman reacting to one sided feelings of her husband's younger sister') we have to wait for what she does and what happens next in the story.

That was a long post, but yes, I think this is how the story is unraveling to be. Kaoru being somewhat a parallel to the girl who fell in love with the nurse and is now using promiscuity to fill her heart. The story could have well went another way, perhaps excluding the parts of the other people in their lives to make it a lot less muddled, but the muddiness of all the other people getting a say on what their life should be gives it that weird twist that appears some people love and some people hate from what I get from this forum. The characters are very context bound, I tell you guys that, and it seems to me this story will be more about the ride than the destination.

The series was not like this at the beginning, though. It started out pretty strong, and had a clear and concise theme, a girl with one-sided feelings for her sister-in-law. But along the way it started to lose its focus, and it muddled things to the point where it looks like it will need a further 30 chapters at the very least to resolve anything. Focusing on the side characters too much, adding unnecessary plotlines (to the point the original one pretty much vanished), I do not think the author is making a "slow burn" out of it, I think the author simply has no, or almost no idea where to take this, and is aimlessly drifting. I would be very surprised if these chapters are actually planned in advance.

Well for one, Uta's situation is much less interesting than anything else going on, so I'm glad the series branched out. But I think the thing is, the story was NEVER just about Uta. The first volume goes out of its way to present her idealized concept of Kaoru, and the second volume immediately plays against that. Someone mentioned it earlier, but it's really true: The Uta/Reiichi/Kaoru story actually has really good pacing and is completely coherent if you read it all at once. And, the Risako deal absolutely is being treated consistently, as a mystery being set up to pay off somehow. We're meant to see it from Kaoru's point of view: There's a million clues Reiichi and Risako are fucking, but nothing so blatant that we know for sure. With the info we're given, we can speculate that Kaoru is wrong, but she doesn't come off as paranoid. (Personally, I think it's building to a reveal where Reiichi has benign intentions towards her after all, but that's just one of several possibilities that's being set up.)
The way the chapters are coming out really hurts this manga. I don't really see a lot of chaos and contradictions in the plotting, when I go back.

I think the problem is, people got it into their heads that Uta was the main character, and the story was about her crush on Kaoru, and so anything that doesn't focus directly on that is a useless tangent. But I kinda don't think that's true. Uta and Kaoru are supposed to be contrasts, and they're both co-protagonists. Uta speaks up, Kaoru won't, and we're examining the consequences.

Now, the whole Kuro thing I just don't get and I can't defend. I honestly think there must be some cultural thing I don't understand about her character, because she doesn't fit into any psychological boxes I'm familiar with. Without any way to grok her, I cannot thematically connect any of her shit with the rest of the story.

Also, uh... WHO IS THAT CHICK who lives in her apartment? I CAN thematically connect her to Kaoru and Uta's deal, but I still don't know how anyone knows her.

I think the ones frustrated with the story are mostly because there is no yuri payoff and it's likely there won't be.

The Kuro parts definitely feel like they're in another story/universe.
But besides that, the main characters here are all very well developed and interesting. Plus the mystery around Risako and what actually is going on with Reiichi.
I just think people have to read this without expecting any yuri, but more like a story about complicated issues and dynamics between the characters.
And this is what makes this story special. It's not the classic "safe" unrequited love story where the mc actually gets together with their love interest in the end, but the possibility of actual unreturned feelings is real.
It's just like when you know a character won't actually die, so the emotional impact it has on you is not strong. Seems like here the author has the guts to actually follow through that- a non ideal but realistic ending. We need some of this in manga too.

last edited at Nov 16, 2019 8:48PM

It definitely is being realistic. Kaoru is acting exactly like you would expect of her, really, that's how her character is. The lies from Risako this time are doing the opposite of reassuring her, the thing is she knows they're lies and can't pretend so easily now.

I was hoping she would accuse Reiichi but it figures she would go passive-aggressive. He would just deny it anyway. Definitely Uta leaving has unblocked the situation, in a sense she was playing "we can stay together (and I can ignore the lies) because of the kid!" But now that doesn't really work.

I'm not sure how it's going to happen, Reiichi and Kaoru both tend to avoid conflict, but this is just the first little blow-up. My impression (from watching other people) is that most divorces don't happen in a day, there is a period of arguing and lies being exposed in the case of cheating that goes on for months to years.

Well, now to wait another seeming eternity for the next step, probably going to Uta for a bit. If you read it all at once, the plot is actually going pretty fast, but because it's a serial it seems really slow.

thanks for your thoughts on this. Because it goes so slow, i always forget what happened. I also think it is realistic. Kaoru is a mess. But her world crumbles and she desperetaly wants to hold on. As you said, it might be a process. I really need to reread this series sometime.

I think the ones frustrated with the story are mostly because there is no yuri payoff and it's likely there won't be.

The Kuro parts definitely feel like they're in another story/universe.
But besides that, the main characters here are all very well developed and interesting. Plus the mystery around Risako and what actually is going on with Reiichi.
I just think people have to read this without expecting any yuri, but more like a story about complicated issues and dynamics between the characters.
And this is what makes this story special. It's not the classic "safe" unrequited love story where the mc actually gets together with their love interest in the end, but the possibility of actual unreturned feelings is real.
It's just like when you know a character won't actually die, so the emotional impact it has on you is not strong. Seems like here the author has the guts to actually follow through that- a non ideal but realistic ending. We need some of this in manga too.

The Story is not called "My unrequited Love" for no reason. But who knows, at least it is interesting, you can't easily predict what will happen and it does not just follow the same formula. I hope it's going to be an open end.

Maybe Risako is unhappy as well. She might actually want Reiichi, but can't have him, because he's married. Maybe everybody's love is unrequited in the end...

last edited at Nov 16, 2019 8:54PM

Is this manga any good? I remember reading the first few chapters, but don't really know how far. I stopped keeping up with it because, I thought there was too much focus on side characters, and thought that everyone was pretty unlikeable especially the crush Kaoru. is that her name? So, should I give it another go, or was I wise to stop.

I think the ones frustrated with the story are mostly because there is no yuri payoff and it's likely there won't be.

You really need to stop projecting opinions onto other people--you're not a mindreader. I for one don't particularly care about a "yuri payoff." I just think that this is a series that once had a lot of potential for developing an interesting story that has been fumbled in the execution. As several people have noted previously, the series in general suffers from a notable lack of focus.

I disagree that the characters (with the possible exception of Uta) have been "well-developed." Characters behave erratically, information is withheld from readers for no reason, important scenes are chopped up almost randomly (like Uta's "cliffhanger" confession that only got replayed several chapters later in a flashback), and plot lines get picked up and dropped with little or no discernible rationale.

If this were just poorly done in general, it would be easy to ignore. But for me the frustration comes from its occasional flashes of interesting development that just remind us of that initial promise, holding out a glimmer of hope that it might someday recall what it was supposed to be about.

I disagree that the characters (with the possible exception of Uta) have been "well-developed." Characters behave erratically, information is withheld from readers for no reason, important scenes are chopped up almost randomly (like Uta's "cliffhanger" confession that only got replayed several chapters later in a flashback), and plot lines get picked up and dropped with little or no discernible rationale.

This just isn't true. Kaoru is extremely well-developed (her character is what's keeping me interested), the pacing of scenes is pretty traditional and normal for manga, and I haven't seen any plot lines get dropped... what are you referring to?

If you, personally, don't like Kaoru, then of course you're going to dislike this manga: she's one of the two main characters! But this isn't the story going off into unfocused chaos, just because you'd prefer it to be about a different character than it's about.

I disagree that the characters (with the possible exception of Uta) have been "well-developed." Characters behave erratically, information is withheld from readers for no reason, important scenes are chopped up almost randomly (like Uta's "cliffhanger" confession that only got replayed several chapters later in a flashback), and plot lines get picked up and dropped with little or no discernible rationale.

This just isn't true. Kaoru is extremely well-developed (her character is what's keeping me interested), the pacing of scenes is pretty traditional and normal for manga, and I haven't seen any plot lines get dropped... what are you referring to?

My attitude has nothing to do with anything as puerile as “liking” the character of Kaoru—it has to do with the way the mangaka has constructed the story.

You’re obviously reading a series I’m not. Enjoy it.

last edited at Nov 16, 2019 10:33PM

god this manga really hit me like a truck i wanna scream and kinda cry
i'm trying to have faith in uta/kaoru give me this ending please

last edited at Nov 16, 2019 10:55PM

Karou is sad all the time right now and it's killing me.

Dat ch27 credits page tho... I was kind of hoping it was going that way lol

Lol! I was definitely getting those kinda vibes from that panel though and the 2 panels following that xD So the credit page was win!

There are lot of approaches to story telling, like painting has realism, impressionism etc, ultimately even plot is optional.

I enjoy reading this, it is among my favourite manga, and I get a feeling of happy anticipation whenever I get a notification for a new chapter, so I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that the author is doing something right.

It isn't obvious where things are going, but I don't feel like the lack of plot direction is a particular problem. I don't really have the background to get in to technical literary criticism (I opted out of English in school at the earliest opportunity), but I think what sets this story apart is the emotion. The emotional "images" in this story are incredibly vivid, Uta's painful unrequited yearning, Kaoru's empty aimlessness, and the little moments of contentment they find together. Even the "side stories" add depth and detail to the thoughts and emotion of the two main characters (remember mostly they are stories that Uta is observing or being told that she is reflecting on to understand her own feelings), and get the reader thinking about the nature of love and relationships.

I do agree with some of the other posts noting that serialisation isn't the best way to read this story, since reading a number of chapters in a burst is much better to build an emotional "flow", but I guess that is just a good excuse for regular re-reading ;)

Anyone else disturbed by how many readers find Risako gaslighting Kaoru to be romantic?

Her friend was looking to her for reassurance, and she lied to her, waited until she was vulnerable, then implied she was paranoid and guilted her into apologizing.

Anyone else disturbed by how many readers find Risako gaslighting Kaoru to be romantic?

Her friend was looking to her for reassurance, and she lied to her, waited until she was vulnerable, then implied she was paranoid and guilted her into apologizing.

I mean, it's obviously not romantic if she is actually having sex with Kaoru's husband. But we don't know that's why she was with him and why she lied. That scene was so deliberately odd, with Risako bringing up the issue, then getting bizarrely flirty, then looking surprised when Kaoru dropped it, it's hard to know what's going on until Risako gets her own chapter.

I think the ones frustrated with the story are mostly because there is no yuri payoff and it's likely there won't be.

You really need to stop projecting opinions onto other people--you're not a mindreader. I for one don't particularly care about a "yuri payoff." I just think that this is a series that once had a lot of potential for developing an interesting story that has been fumbled in the execution. As several people have noted previously, the series in general suffers from a notable lack of focus.

I said I "think". No need to get defensive as I wasn't talking about you or anyone in particular.
I fail to see how the series has suddenly changed from the beginning to now. To me it has been consistent since the start.

I disagree that the characters (with the possible exception of Uta) have been "well-developed." Characters behave erratically, information is withheld from readers for no reason, important scenes are chopped up almost randomly (like Uta's "cliffhanger" confession that only got replayed several chapters later in a flashback), and plot lines get picked up and dropped with little or no discernible rationale.

If this were just poorly done in general, it would be easy to ignore. But for me the frustration comes from its occasional flashes of interesting development that just remind us of that initial promise, holding out a glimmer of hope that it might someday recall what it was supposed to be about.

You are talking very vaguely. Like you're not mentioning what is that the story is lacking right now. What glimpses of hope you're referring to?

This manga is such a slow burn. When I stop and read this whole thing from start to finish when it ends, I bet I'll love it, but until then, I'll just keep trucking along waiting for somebody to explode

So those who think that reichii and risako don't cheat towards kaoru then why reii lie to kaoru by telling her that he is prolonging his work and he sleeps or during this time there? at the hotel? at the Hospital he is on a phone call with risako and he blames himself by saying "but what are you doing!", that risako says she has never seen again since her marriage....
If they don't cheat then they lie to her shamefully and why?
There is clearly a hidden objective at risako but we don't really know what else.

I feel like this cheating angle has been prolonged way too much to not have any other significance than just Reiichi cheating.

Also regarding Risako. She may very well be in love with Reiichi and cheating, but on the other hand her words this chapter don't add up with this angle much.
When she was asked about her love life she had nothing to talk about. Instead she avoided the issue and said she was in love with her job. But then admitted she didn't like being single.
We also learn from their friends that men hit on her often.
So my question is, even if she was in love with Reiichi, why wouldn't she at least try dating someone, since she doesn't like being single and also knows Reiichi is married and not available in the way she wants to?
Also we know Reiichi liked her in highschool and not Kaoru. So why did she break up with him in the first place?
If her love for Reiichi was this strong as for her to meet him in secret now and not even try to move on and date someone else, then I find it hard to believe she would break up with him for Kaoru's sake in the first place.

do something gay already! please~

Yes it is the biggest mystery of this manga for the moment, risako has been introduced very early with small distinctive appearances... she pleases men but says that she is not more interested in it than her... it seems that she slows down her love life for a reason, for kaoru? why? This story has been going on since high school and maybe reicchi is just a bridge between kaoru and risako, especially for the latter.
Personally I see the manga evolving on the evolutions of kaoru and uta each on their own, how they will solve their respective problems and find some kind of peace. For the moment we are on kaoru but the author will do the same thing with uta.
Once all this is over, they will find each other again, not necessarily for love but to find each other soothed about their family problems.

So like when exactly will Kaoru reach that point of rock bottom?

I feel like this cheating angle has been prolonged way too much to not have any other significance than just Reiichi cheating.

Also regarding Risako. She may very well be in love with Reiichi and cheating, but on the other hand her words this chapter don't add up with this angle much.
When she was asked about her love life she had nothing to talk about. Instead she avoided the issue and said she was in love with her job. But then admitted she didn't like being single.
We also learn from their friends that men hit on her often.
So my question is, even if she was in love with Reiichi, why wouldn't she at least try dating someone, since she doesn't like being single and also knows Reiichi is married and not available in the way she wants to?
Also we know Reiichi liked her in highschool and not Kaoru. So why did she break up with him in the first place?
If her love for Reiichi was this strong as for her to meet him in secret now and not even try to move on and date someone else, then I find it hard to believe she would break up with him for Kaoru's sake in the first place.

The questions in your post are good examples of what I see as less-than-satisfactory execution of this story. Where some see a "slow burn" or "unpredictable plot," I see a muddled and erratic focus. We learned very early on that Reiichi first liked Risako and not Kaoru; how the situation got from there to the narrative present was one of the central questions posed by the series.

But except for the fact that Reiichi and Uta's mother had something to do with Kaoru's mother's death (and so MAYBE there was some element of guilt in his marrying Kaoru--it seems likely, but it's never actually stated), although we've seen a good deal of these characters, we haven't actually come any closer to understanding their true relationships; in fact, it's less clear than ever.

Those are just a fraction of the issues and questions raised by this story that either haven't been addressed or that have been given erratic, inconclusive, or contradictory attention. For an almost random instance, there was going to be something about R & U's father (remember the phone call that interrupted Kaoru's half-hearted attempt to confront Reiichi?), but that never went anywhere. (The father contacted Reiichi for the first time ever and insisted on seeing him, because . . .?)

It would be one thing if all these underlying relationships started out being vaguely defined and then were slowly revealed to us in detail, but as the many questions people keep posing indicate, we actually haven't been given very much real development. And when we were given concrete information about the past of these characters, it wasn't done via subtle revelations, it was the mom bursting in pretty much from nowhere with a bunch of direct exposition, and then leaving again.

"Character development" means two different, but related, things:

• Something done by the author to reveal who a character is and what they are like. Kaoru has received a fair amount of this sort of attention--she's passive, conflict-avoidant, and insecure.

• Something that happens within the story to a character to change who they are and how they act. Uta certainly has undergone development in this sense.

Kaoru, on the other hand, says in Chapter 13, "I have to stop pretending that everything is all right." In the latest chapter (i.e., 14 chapters later), she says, "I want to keep believing the words of those I care about," indicating that she hasn't really changed since then. She goes on to say, "But just one more step and I won't be able to do that anymore." Kaoru has been about to act to make a change in her life a number of times, but she has very rarely actually done it so far, and she has passed up several opportunities to do so. (Clarifying Uta's feelings for her was one exception, and in that case Uta really didn't give her much choice.)

None of this even touches on the list of "apparent cliffhangers that went bust" or the "we interrupt this domestic melodrama to bring you another episode of the Schoolgirl Yuri Club After-School Special."

The "glimmer of hope" I mentioned previously is that, because the plot apparently can veer in any direction at all, it's theoretically possible that the story might suddenly start focusing on what it seemed to be about in the beginning. After all, anything could happen.

So like when exactly will Kaoru reach that point of rock bottom?

I'm thinking about the next suspicion she'll have, like for example reicchi going on a business trip a little too long or something like that or she really intends to ask reicchi for explanations or risako.
She's mentally preparing to act. Kaoru has always needed to think before acting.

So like when exactly will Kaoru reach that point of rock bottom?

I'm thinking about the next suspicion she'll have, like for example reicchi going on a business trip a little too long or something like that or she really intends to ask reicchi for explanations or risako.
She's mentally preparing to act. Kaoru has always needed to think before acting.

When do you see Kaoru as actually acting? I mean this seriously--I can much more easily remember occasions where she decides that she's going to act and then doesn't, or she starts to ask important questions but allows herself to be deflected by the answers.

None of this even touches on the list of "apparent cliffhangers that went bust" or the "we interrupt this domestic melodrama to bring you another episode of the Schoolgirl Yuri Club After-School Special."

Not sure if you're referring to the secondary characters here like Kuro. I agree on that. But this chapter wasn't about her, so I don't think this is relevant right now.

Regarding the cheating not being explained, that's just how a story works. Leaving some mysteries throughout a story is better than explaining them fast. That's a good writing actually. Don't serve everything on the reader's plate right away.
And it's also good because the "cheating" showcastes Kaoru's character. It would be different if it didn't serve any purpose and was only used to prolong the story.
But that's not the case, because it has pushed Kaoru's inner conflicts to come out and help her grow in the process. It is a plot device that is intertwined with character development.

Also pretty sure we will see more about Uta's family situation when we change to Uta's perspective again.
It would be bad writing if the story ended and these things you've mentioned were left without an answer. The story is still ongoing.