wait was this hinted at before or am i just dense (or just didnt read careful enough) realising they are ace/demi/whatever only now in the last chapter

For Hinako it was shown right in the first chapter actually, with the way she feels repulsed by physical contact with the guy. And there are multiple other instances throughout where she questions the depth of her own feelings towards Asahi bc the thought of being physically intimate makes her uneasy.

Welp, that was abrupt. But I guess you can't really continue a romance arc once both parties unlock the "Communicating Like Sensible Adults" perk in the skill tree. :D

Such a lovely ending. ^_^

And little sister is making plans. :D

ig I wasn't the target to the story because tbh it kind of dissapointed me that they won't have physycal touch but well tbh as someone that isn't ace/aro I really enjoyed how they just connected emotionally and that was just enough

Welp, that was abrupt. But I guess you can't really continue a romance arc once both parties unlock the "Communicating Like Sensible Adults" perk in the skill tree. :D

Haha well I at least would have liked to see the continuation of the romance with them being a couple now. Activities and dates as a couple. They can continue communication and romance at the same time I think.

we stan the ace lesbian queens

Such a lovely story! I liked how they both have different ways of love from average people and the story respected that. In manga a trope is to stop after a confession and kiss but the sensual touch was hinted at from the beginning and in how much the protags both struggled to figure out if it was love without wanting that. As well as with that one man who got teased for not finding a date and Hinako standing up for him saying theres more to life. Maybe there will be an epilogue but this story fit it's ending i think even if it was the typical they finally communicate shtick.

That was boring.

WOOO YEAAAH LET'S GOOO

"I cried as I walked, with a doughnut in hand. Traveling down that same lonely, moonlit path... but this time, with her by my side."

I love every single thing about this outro line. I do not know how accurately it corresponds to the original text, but I feel like it could not have been phrased any better.

Thus falls the curtain on what is one of my favorite stories of all time. Incredibly heartwarming and butterflies inducing, and also Subaru's future plans gave some amusement.

My opinion on the series as a whole is, as said, this is one of my favorite stories. Be it the fluff or the more emotionally charged stuff, there was always something that resonated with me on the deepest levels in this series. Even in this chapter, Hinako questioning, "Can I really just be me...?" brought tears to my eyes. Hinako is one of the characters who resonated with me both the most and on the deepest of levels and seeing her develop throughout the series has been incredibly satisfying and particularly heartfelt to me. I'm incredibly sad to see this series go, but also incredibly glad to have read it and witnessed the way it developed.

I'm not without reservations, though. While I do not think the ending was abrupt, nor do I believe this is a case of the axe, I definitely think there was more room to develop. For instance, and that is solely based on my personal reading of the character, many of Hinako's questions, qualms, and aversions are matters of definitions and dosages. She mentioned "kissing, affection..." as things she is averse to (or incapable of), things I took as physical intimacy as a general concept, but holding hands with Asahi is one of her favorite things, and what is it if not a sign of affection and a form of physical intimacy? I guess it is also the ultimate sin, but that is a matter for another time. Point is, I quite simply really wanted the series to keep going, and I feel like there could be a lot of absolutely fantastic moments and developments to be had with those two characters, just like there have been from start to finish.

But I do feel like stressing that I'm more than content with how events unfurled and how the series ended. Once again, I'm sad to see it go but incredibly glad to have read it. Another comment above mentioned an idea of a continuation with the two as a couple, and I'd be absolutely ecstatic to see this as well. Please. Pretty please. In the meantime, I'm waiting till 'round February so I can get myself volumes 3 and 4, and I'm legit considering getting the series in its native esoteric moon rune form.

Also, thank you to the folks who have worked on translating this series. It isn't much, but do know that your efforts are appreciated.

last edited at Dec 8, 2022 6:43AM

wait was this hinted at before or am i just dense (or just didnt read careful enough) realising they are ace/demi/whatever only now in the last chapter

For Hinako it was shown right in the first chapter actually, with the way she feels repulsed by physical contact with the guy. And there are multiple other instances throughout where she questions the depth of her own feelings towards Asahi bc the thought of being physically intimate makes her uneasy.

Yeah, but that first chapter could also be interpreted as her being gay and her repulsion being a consequence of compulsory heterosexuality. It's ambiguous, until the end I guess.

So the story ends with ... Hinako and Asahi becoming besties

Yay!

Really, I thought Hinako's reluctance to be intimate with that guy in the beginning was because she was gay, not because she dislikes intimacy in general. What a weird resolution to an otherwise OK romantic story.

Well, another one done and dusted, I guess.

Bro lots of people on Dynasty hates aces seems like. Everytime they appear it's always a trainwreck in the comments. Empathy isn't in abundance around here I guess.

I'm ace myself, and I'm not usually the type of person to care about "representation", but I have to admit seeing an actual ace couple is pretty neat since most ace characters tend to also be aro by default, at least from what I've seen.

Same , personally I remember really few ace characters or honestly normally I only care about the story itself hahaha, the ones I did catch were mostly aroace, like the author thinks sexual = affection and that always looked strange to me.
So tho I dont like to label myself; Im aroace if we are talking about now, and could understand the characters emotions about not being a "normal" lover, really liked how it was resolved~

Bro lots of people on Dynasty hates aces seems like. Everytime they appear it's always a trainwreck in the comments. Empathy isn't in abundance around here I guess.

More like hate imo, I think it can give a "no resolution" feeling? Im aroace so I dont see it that way, but people I know when they see stories like these, they tend to expect for a "romatic story with a sweet kiss closing the relationship" (me too just in case, I really like stories like that but I understand this ending too and I like it); since (in a really cruel way to say it) for them it was like if there is not kiss is just all a "game".

Again that is how I interprete that reactions, so not to think bad~

Bro lots of people on Dynasty hates aces seems like. Everytime they appear it's always a trainwreck in the comments. Empathy isn't in abundance around here I guess.

More like hate imo, I think it can give a "no resolution" feeling? Im aroace so I dont see it that way, but people I know when they see stories like these, they tend to expect for a "romatic story with a sweet kiss closing the relationship" (me too just in case, I really like stories like that but I understand this ending too and I like it); since (in a really cruel way to say it) for them it was like if there is not kiss is just all a "game".

Again that is how I interprete that reactions, so not to think bad~
No I think everyone’s just hornee. I’m the least ace person but I really like seeing this kinda relationship play out it’s refreshing and sweet for a yuri story.

Bro lots of people on Dynasty hates aces seems like. Everytime they appear it's always a trainwreck in the comments. Empathy isn't in abundance around here I guess.

More like hate imo, I think it can give a "no resolution" feeling? Im aroace so I dont see it that way, but people I know when they see stories like these, they tend to expect for a "romatic story with a sweet kiss closing the relationship" (me too just in case, I really like stories like that but I understand this ending too and I like it); since (in a really cruel way to say it) for them it was like if there is not kiss is just all a "game".

No I think everyone’s just hornee. I’m the least ace person but I really like seeing this kinda relationship play out it’s refreshing and sweet for a yuri story.

Predictably shit ending unfortunately, oh well, at least it ain't the 2000s/early 2010s anymore - we have plenty of choice nowadays so it's hard to be too cut up about this.

Adding on to some of the discussion here, the few asexual people I've casually known absolutely still kiss and show each other romantic affection, I think even they'd call the ending in the manga as "super best friends" and not lovers. "asexual" != "aromantic".

last edited at Dec 8, 2022 9:46AM

So the story ends with ... Hinako and Asahi becoming besties

Yay!

Really, I thought Hinako's reluctance to be intimate with that guy in the beginning was because she was gay, not because she dislikes intimacy in general. What a weird resolution to an otherwise OK romantic story.

Well, another one done and dusted, I guess.

they are a couple now, how the hell did you interpret it otherwise??

Bro lots of people on Dynasty hates aces seems like. Everytime they appear it's always a trainwreck in the comments. Empathy isn't in abundance around here I guess.

I think responses would be much different if the story didn't take such a subtle route with it, which isn't to say I find that a bad thing. I'm going to enjoy re-reading this now knowing the resolution seems to be an ace couple, but upon first read rather than having no empathy perhaps it's that people like me empathized according to our own experiences first and foremost. Which is natural, but leads to anticipating something that didn't come. Ideally I would love to see 1 to 3 chapters more going into their new dynamic, as the abrupt end really does this relationship development no favors, specifically for readers to empathize better with something they may find unfamiliar. Sorry to ramble, I'm just making a case for it not being outright hate against aces.

Personally I'm happy with the ending, aside from it feeling too quick. I'm always a sucker for a story of two people bettering each other's lives regardless of the relationship type.

So the story ends with ... Hinako and Asahi becoming besties

The ace/demi erasure is strong with the comments lol. I'm not ace myself, but I would say having romantic feelings for another person hardly makes you platonic besties.

Also, this is kinda the whole point of this series-- both Hinako and Asahi were learning about themselves throughout and they were constantly asking themselves if the lack of sexual/physical intimacy desires meant they were lacking in the ability of loving someone. The fact that the resolution is that they both were able to come to terms in accepting themselves and wholeheartedly be able to say that they love one another is actually quite sweet. They did hold each other's hands in the last chapter, so it's likely they just have very very little desires in the physical (read: sexual) sense.

Also as an aside, everyone's level of intimacy is different. Not every ending to romance needs the main leads to bang/shag each other for there to be a sense of completion, no matter what the media formula tells us.

[completely off topic, but @Aunt_Rhody, is that dahyun in your pfp by any chance??]

last edited at Dec 8, 2022 9:53AM

It’s been a fairly recent development that authors have been intentionally creating ace (or aroace) characters at all. What was much more common were lead characters reacting against comphet by claiming “they don’t understand love at all,” feeling abnormal, etc., then discovering that they had feelings about a same-sex partner, i.e., discovering their own lesbianism, with kissing/physical intimacy as the standard yuri-genre narrative endgame.

Yuri has been a romance genre, full stop, and authors are still in the process of exploring how to incorporate non-romantic and/or non-sexual emotional connections into a romance genre and discovering how audiences react to such characters.

So, sure, some readers have reacted negatively to the mere presence of ace characters, but it’s much more common that stories with ace characters have confused readers about what kind of stories they are going to turn out to be.

I think Crescent Moon and Doughnuts is kind of a breakthrough in showing an OTP ending up in a deep and mutually satisfying emotional connection without one or both characters having a “lesbian conversion experience.” (I mean, there have been such stories before, but this one seems like it uses the yuri story template for ace characters as if it’s just a standard genre variant.)

It’s been a fairly recent development that authors have been intentionally creating ace (or aroace) characters at all. What was much more common were lead characters reacting against comphet by claiming “they don’t understand love at all,” feeling abnormal, etc., then discovering that they had feelings about a same-sex partner, i.e., discovering their own lesbianism, with kissing/physical intimacy as the standard yuri-genre narrative endgame.

So, sure, some readers have reacted negatively to the mere presence of ace characters, but it’s much more common that stories with ace characters have confused readers about what kind of stories they are going to turn out to be.

You make a great point-- I guess I've gotten used to the trend, and admittedly, I was pretty tired with the comphet plotline now that I've moved on from that phase in my own life. I completely understand how this ending could seem lackluster if you expected the usual formula of confusion, slow realization, anticipatory build up, and some obstacles to propel in to the final grandiose climax of confession and love.

[completely off topic, but @Aunt_Rhody, is that dahyun in your pfp by any chance??]

yep, the one and only queen dubu <3 I saw someone say "just like a doughnut" in another comment and I chuckled

last edited at Dec 8, 2022 10:07AM

ending feels rushed and awkward and includes what seem to be genuine arcs turned into distracting asides. gotta say i shipped little sister and friend but that too was rushed.

overall this was a great series that feels a little axed over the last 3 chapters.

ace lesbians are valid.