I'm confused over the honorific "Nee". I understand the honorific "-Chan" and "San". But "Nee" needs to be explained to me. No, I didn't mean, Ni!, I meant -Nee.
I'm asking this because although the subjects studied by the characters reflect college level topics, thus indicating they are older than age of consent, they're physically drawn as much younger. I'd like know if the manga published over there revealed character's age as younger than it seems in current translation?
Thats why I'm asking about -Nee honorific. It's a small detail left out by translation team that shows their true age when a little bit of editing allowed the manga to avoid the "loli"-tag.
Hmmm, I've had to put a bit of thought into the issue of age. To be honest, when I first read this I assumed Rise was in high school and Kuyou was in elementary school. But I was just judging by appearance. Here's my current thought process:
Rise might be in high school, or she might have recently graduated. She attends a 予備校 or yobiko, which is an intensive university exam prep school. Some are all-day programs aimed at "ronin", high school graduates who failed to get into university and want to prepare for a second attempt, and some are after-school programs for current high school students. Since we see her wear a high school uniform so often, I'm leaning towards her being in high school, but that's mainly just a guess.
The meaning of the "nee" ending plays a bit of role in determining how old Kuyou is. In general it's used for someone who fits the role of an older sister. Plus it's a term of familiarity, so people can use it however it suits them, especially in manga. From that alone, you can't really tell their exact relationship. Maybe they're ten years apart, maybe a year. However, that term of address plus the way Rise treats Kuyou and the way Kuyou acts and speaks gives me the impression she's a few years younger.
What about the books? Maybe they're the author's attempt to misdirect about age (don't know why he'd bother, considering the crap that get's published). Maybe these are subjects covered by university entrance exams. Maybe I'm interpreting all the other clues wrong and these girls are in their 20s. All I know is I've spent way too much time going back and re-reading this series for hints, researching different types of exam schools, double-checking every line, all searching for the answer to "How old are the girls in this porn manga?" I hate leaving a question unanswered, even the really meaningless ones. In the end, I'm basically back where I started, and all I've realized is that I really just don't want to know.
Edit:
I think you both read too much into this.
Now that makes three of us.
last edited at May 3, 2019 12:06AM