I know all these lectures about how the author means for us to take the events of the story are kindly meant, but they're totally irrelevant to how readers respond to the story.

That's rich coming from the guy fighting a Room for Two crusade for the last year. :p

That's because I'm taking it the way the author means.

I'm not fighting for the series (it does that on its own); I'm just laughing at idiots.

NIce chapter, I like when these two have their tender moments, Iori is really thirsty.

thanks for translating

I know all these lectures about how the author means for us to take the events of the story are kindly meant, but they're totally irrelevant to how readers respond to the story.

The irony of this coming from someone who routinely argues that authorial intent trumps audience interpretation pretty much every time anyone else isn't jiving with the author's intent is pretty ridiculous. I guess authorial intent only takes priority over interpretations that aren't yours.

last edited at May 4, 2020 9:24AM

I know all these lectures about how the author means for us to take the events of the story are kindly meant, but they're totally irrelevant to how readers respond to the story.

The irony of this coming from someone who routinely argues that authorial intent trumps audience interpretation pretty much every time anyone else isn't jiving with the author's intent is pretty ridiculous. I guess authorial intent only takes priority over interpretations that aren't yours.

You have so consistently missed any of my points about authorial intention (including this one) that you have fully convinced me that I am unable to make those points comprehensible to you. But I'll try anyway because what the fuck:

It's completely possible for an author to have an intention that doesn't work on readers the way they want it to work. That's quite different from readers making up a new story in their heads and projecting it onto the story on the page.

Nice chapter

Drunk Iori is really cute.

Yeah, I’m starting to lean on the side that the shit we saw a couple chapters ago was a hard misplay by the author accidentally portraying something completely different than they meant to. IMO it was definitely bad enough to mark my rating of the manga and I think it pulls the tone in a weird, serious/critical direction that makes me slightly uncertain where the boundary is between dark, fucked up moments and more lighthearted slapstick.

This latest chapter (35) could be interpreted as Iori breaking her girlfriend’s boundaries in a pretty serious way, especially by people whose trust in the author and character was broken by a previous chapter, or it could Minami trying to balance her job and professionalism with her girlfriend being cute and horny in her workplace, and coming to a humorous and spicy balance of the two in a way that shows a little example of how being with a partner can make your life flow in unexpected directions.

Really a shame that the author fucked this up so hard and ruined a lot of people’s enjoyment of a work that relies on some small subtleties and knowledge of their relationship for its effect.

Yeah I just ignore that one chapter and just mark it under terrible chapters. Just obviously an author who used to using slapstick and not knowing its potential implication.

(chapter 36

Wow, really interesting to see Iori interacting with the editor, I guess I really thought that story would be totally separate from the rest but I’m glad to see a tie-in. Also, I love how Iori’s just like “stop being a useless lesbian and tell her” and that pushes editor-chan forward a little bit. It’s kinda cool to see characters from these three almost-seperate stories supporting and influencing each other.

THE PLOTLINES HAVE CONVERGED...

Everyone is Yuri

last edited at May 5, 2020 3:06AM

suddenly something slightly makes sense

good, I like this new couple

The girl writing the mangaka probably doesn't realize she's into her is what I'm thinking.

Just caught up...this is a weird series. I like it but its weird how oddly violent it is

Im just going to categorize the abuse as nightmares/self harm because otherwise chapters 1-15 is an AU.

honestly, after the abuse, id just rather see anyone OTHER than the main couple. they tend to be far more interesting anyways. the main couple part of the story cant decide on whether it wants to be serious with the abuse or not.

last edited at May 5, 2020 6:31PM

It won't be serious, Mikanuji has made a mistake and will probably not bring up the subject anymore. Gosh, can we get over the subject . Like, we have 2 others couples to speak of and other dynamics. Just skip the chapter of Iri/Minami or drop the manga if you don't like it anymore. I don't mean you can talk about it but after 5/6 pages of the same thing said over and over, it's becoming a bit tiring.

last edited at May 5, 2020 8:26PM

Yeah, Minami really needs those Japanese trope bandages to cover those Japanese trope...gashes...Iori caused with her...Japanese trope gashing...hits? I mean, those bandages are medically necessary and are not at all a manga/anime trope. They are meant to be taken very literally and seriously, why I myself have hit my head on a low doorframe and immediately a huge flesh-colored, bulbous, hairless protuberance appeared, and get this, it already had a bandage on it! Good thing I’ve watched a lot of anime because I knew that it would be gone completely by the time the next scene rolled around. But it was serious! Very serious.

Yeah, Minami really needs those Japanese trope bandages to cover those Japanese trope...gashes...Iori caused with her...Japanese trope gashing...hits? I mean, those bandages are medically necessary and are not at all a manga/anime trope. They are meant to be taken very literally and seriously, why I myself have hit my head on a low doorframe and immediately a huge flesh-colored, bulbous, hairless protuberance appeared, and get this, it already had a bandage on it! Good thing I’ve watched a lot of anime because I knew that it would be gone completely by the time the next scene rolled around. But it was serious! Very serious.

I can't tell where your sarcasm is pointing, tbh.

You know how sometimes an author will write the afterword using their own characters as stand-ins? It took me most of chapter 28 and 29 to figure out that
a) Those aren't Mikanuji and their editor
b) Those aren't Iori and Minami either
And then just as I started telling Iori and Rara apart, the author introduced Rara's identical looking coworker.

Well, as long as they're all cute, really.

honestly, after the abuse, id just rather see anyone OTHER than the main couple. they tend to be far more interesting anyways. the main couple part of the story cant decide on whether it wants to be serious with the abuse or not.

Yeah, right. That other side couple for example, with the little sister obsessed with her older sister, who considers her love interest on the same level as a pet dog; and her love interest, who is so fucked up she pierced her childhood friends ears for sadistic pleasure - aside from beating her up way more often than Iori ever did - and only goes along with little sis now because she's physically capable of beating her.

But at least the enabling otaku relationship is so perfectly healthy.

Thank god people are never hypocritical; it'd be very embarrassing reading all the comments without a hint of self-awareness.

Bullshit snarking about “Japanese trope bandages” aside, are there any other examples of non-fantasy manga series that attempt to incorporate both comedic violence and dead-serious horrifying domestic abuse?

I can't believe DV is being discussed about this story. It's clearly just a comedy thing.

Bullshit snarking about “Japanese trope bandages” aside, are there any other examples of non-fantasy manga series that attempt to incorporate both comedic violence and dead-serious horrifying domestic abuse?

If you want to take a work of illustrated fiction literally, have at it. But then you’ll also have to accept that there are literally people floating over other character’s heads during flashbacks. Or that time is being represented in real time and flashbacks must happen after the time they’re being remembered by characters. Or that word balloons actually exist in this world and everyone communicates by reading each other’s word balloons.

You can’t pick and choose which literary and artistic devices you want to take literally and those you don’t just to make some non-point about a very serious real-world issue.

Have you ever read Hunter X Hunter? Children are beaten up by adults for both comedic and “serious” violence. For example, Bisky slaps Killua around to “smack some sense into him” and leaves him with facial swelling that disappears moments later. In the NGL arc, a Chimera ant abducts two children and feeds them to the Chimera Queen alive. Gon gets the holy crap kicked out of him by adults repeatedly during fights. And he’s 11 years old at the beginning of the story. But using your logic, it’s essentially a story about child abuse. And instead of going on to grow into surpassing his father as an elite hunter, the story should have ended in chapter 2 with CPS arriving and placing Gon into foster care. Because hey, there was some slapstick violence and because there is also serious violence that means all violence must be interpreted literally. Or else the author is making light of child abuse. Or something.

last edited at May 6, 2020 10:10AM by

In the NGL arc, a Chimera ant abducts two children and feeds them to the Chimera Queen alive.

Nice work on the “non-fantasy” example.