That, and also she does have a reason to lie: to mess with Kashiwai Mizuki.

It's been made plain and obvious since they started interacting that Tsuzuki loves to mess with Mizuki's mind.

Well, now that the blonde girl openly admitted to being in a poly relationship my opinion of her changed for the better. I can respect honest people even if I don't agree with them. She's cool now. I'll just read this with a "their all consenting adults" attitude and see where this goes. I bet the m.c. gonna find a way to make me dislike her tho.

That, and also she does have a reason to lie: to mess with Kashiwai Mizuki.

It's been made plain and obvious since they started interacting that Tsuzuki loves to mess with Mizuki's mind.

"Yes, yes, it's just what you think: skank, maneater, homewrecker, that's all me! Now bring your fiancé to me so I can do my thing on him, huhu!" That was glorious. XD Kashiwai was holding up okay until that one did her in.

Jae posted:

If the yuri is ever properly established, I'd like to see the "het" tag replaced with the "bisexual" tag tbh.

We treat these tags additively, so the Het tag would remain but the Bisexual tag would be added. If that's the case, that is. It's possible nobody here is actually bi at all, very hard to say where this story is going. We'll see!

That's fair, especially since from the guy partners' perspectives, it would still be het on their end of the relationship. I just had a small kneejerk reaction because of all the "bihet" nonsense I've been exposed to on other sites. ^^'

Glad to see it's not cheating, she still seems like kind of a jerk regardless and this manga just still isn't my cup of tea though, I'm just really not into these edgy yuri, if this even is a yuri.

Adult Life, Drama, Het, Polyamory, Yuri,

Did I just find the bisexual tag combo?

hoo boy, just reading the comments here really raises warning flags aplenty that this series'll be some sort of unholy emotional masochism tango combined with cheating and raw stupidity.

i'm gonna nope the foch out of here. abandons thread

Sabruness posted:

hoo boy, just reading the comments here really raises warning flags aplenty that this series'll be some sort of unholy emotional masochism tango combined with cheating and raw stupidity.

i'm gonna nope the foch out of here. abandons thread

Coward.

I don't know why but I feel a bit anxious everytime I see a new chapter. Still, I'm now interested in the two women individually and I want to see what happens next. Plus, I've always said I wanted to see a serious look at a poly relationship in yuri, so I'm invested in that as well.

Woah....well that chapter should help clear the misgivings that a lot of commenters were having about the poly relationship. Now we can move forward with developing the relationship between the two FMCs. AND DRAMA INCOMING!!!! (I'm sure....)

Well everyone can finally put down their cheating pitchforks now lol.

It seems to me that Fukunaga has something like a cuckold fetish? Overall looks like a healthy poly relationship to me and the reason why Tsuzuki gave off bad vibes was because she's already on edge from the train encounter and tired of being judged for her way of life.

Really loving this series so far and eagerly looking forward to seeing how the two mcs affect each other's lives.

So, there was no cheating and no lies.

But I'm sure some people will find some reasons to hate on Tsuzuki anyway.

I don’t get fukunaga, is he like into being jealous? Is that what his lil section was about. Fun to see a polyamorous relationship that like takes turns? Also nice to see she too is unsure about what’s happening

last edited at Mar 25, 2022 4:49PM

yeah after chapter two had the poly reveal and especially with chapter 3, it is starting to look like you should hold off on building a fully formed opinion on these characters as of yet. For now it just seems like a healthy poly relationship though of course given the drama tag I'd certainly expect to see drama going forward.

But overall it looks like this series will be giving us interesting drama at least.

I liked her background story and how there’s no lies in her relationships. I’m really hoping the black haired girl doesn’t end up acting pathetic and begging her to be with her only. I would much more enjoy it if she continues to make the blondie feel “irritated” until she experiences jealousy first hand for the first time.

The immaculate posted:

I don’t get fukunaga, is he like into being jealous? Is that what his lil section was about. Fun to see a polyamorous relationship that like takes turns? Also nice to see she too is unsure about what’s happening

Looks like Fukunaga gets his kick out of his own jealousy, because it's a strong emotion to him. Must give him a strong rush or something. To each their own.

Fukunaga has an NTR fetish. He gets a kick out of seeing his loved one with someone else. That's interesting.

I gotta give Akiyama some credit here. Other authors usually have characters who are initially averse to polyamory relationships because they're understandably jealous when they see their loved ones with someone else, but they eventually have a "change of heart" and get into polyamory anyway. Manga written by Canno come to mind. That's super unrealistic imo. I don't think feelings like jealousy can change that easily. Humans simply don't work that way. I think people like Tsuzuki who simply don't feel jealousy at all, are more likely to find happiness in polyamory relationships. And maybe people with an NTR fetish like Fukunaga. lol

So yeah, so far so good. Let's hope Akiyama won't screw this up. I think whatever happens between Tsuzuki and Mizuki will make or break it. Like, Mizuki seems to have a thing for Tsuzuki but definitely doesn't dig the polyamory stuff. Are we gonna have to swallow the unrealistic and dreaded "change of heart" here too? I sure hope not.

last edited at Mar 25, 2022 5:26PM

Aaaand the classic Akiyama Churn™ manifests. I had a feeling it'd show up soon, because in Octave as well, nothing was ever simple, no issues so facile as to be dispelled by a simple change of space or attitude. There's always this creeping, encroaching tension between the eagerness of people to forgive, forget, adjust or compromise on the one hand, and on the other what AH seems to view as the fundamental capriciousness of human nature. The principal characters here, much like in Octave, seem obsessed with deferral, with emotional displacement, with a suspicion equal parts terrified and obsessive that there's a Something Out There that might make them happier than they are now, some secret key that they haven't yet found, eternally cooking up golden pasts, hopeful futures or alternative presents to distract them from the growing emptiness of the now, from this gnawing dissatisfaction that they can never shake for long. The momentum of the narrative is the hunger of characters for that Something, the force of that obsession, which shall inevitably be disappointed when it is attained, only to spur a new one, a new phantom from a body that never was that must be verified or exorcised.

Here and in Octave, Akiyama excellently captures the anxiety of ennui, the terror that at 20-something, you've might already peaked and there is nothing ahead but a cavalcade of greying days that blur into each other like the smoke from a million cars on the streets of a shitty town you'll never get to leave. Akiyama's drama is her skill in the construction of the threat of a looming anticlimax, in her insightful portrayal of the lengths that people will go to, both in order to feel and, vitally, to stop feeling. Both here and in Octave, there seem to be no saviors, no Manic Pixie Dream People to bear all your burdens- if you happen to be a queer person grappling with depression and profound alienation by every segment of society in the orifices of a soulless urban hellscape, asks Akiyama, why on earth would you expect someone similar to you, someone who perfectly understands how you feel, to be any less fucked up after suffering the same things?

In lieu of dreams, paradise or solutions, the only solace offered to her characters is to stop thinking, to pull for one seconds their minds free of this churning, yawning abyss of unease. They try to drown themselves in jobs, hobbies, relationships and, most prominently, in sex- the petit-mort in Octave is no amusing euphemism, because it's the only thing that blanks out the jagged, grayscale oppressiveness of Tokyo, letting Yukino and Setsuko melt into each other in seas of blankness, so close that they feel like the same person, returned, if only for a moment, to some manner of primordial Platonic unity, before the ugly edges of Personality arise from orgasmic hazes and plunge them back into the damnation of individuality- a similar sentiment to Tsuzuki's desperation to dispel the irritation that seems to haunt her even in the seeming freedom of her open arrangement. Wedding rings, antique books, blooming flowers, daily planners- frantically, people try to ward off the nothingness with symbols, with bookings, with values. But it presses inward, and all they can do is keep running into ever shifting sets of arms, in webs of bodies with nothing to stand on. Akiyama's worlds are so very raw, so very earnestly, unpretentiously bare... I love them.

Kazu-kun posted:

You're missing the point. The story was shit not because Yukino was an asshole and got scot free. That's not what I meant.

You sure?

The problem with the writing is the Akiyama did mean for Yukino to get character growth but he didn't provide the heavy-lifting for that to feel earned. That's why having a character face the consequences of their actions is important. It's not a matter of morality. It's a matter of narrative internal logic. If a character doesn't face the consequence of their actions, the narrative can't justify their personal growth properly. And that's what happened with Yukino. Her character growth at the end feel forced rather than a logical consequence of her character journey.

Kazu-kun posted:

Most people who liked Octave didn't understand it either, since the only translation available was pretty bad.

I read it in Japanese and personally, I thought it was trash. It was the story of a very narcissistic person whose idea of what she deserved clashed with reality, resulting in her being self-absorbed and selfish. That's not a bad premise in and of itself. The problem is Yukino never faced the consequences of her actions. For example, when she cheated, she was forgiven right away because Setsuko blamed herself. We can argue whether Setsuko was to blame or not, but it doesn't change the fact Yukino got away scot free. And it's exactly because of that reason that she didn't grow as person until the very end. When the author tried to sell us on the idea that Yukino had finally grown the fuck up, it ended up feeling forced and unearned.

Sounds to me her being a asshole who wasn't punished is your main problem

Not exactly. Like I said, the problem is not the moral issue of Yukino getting scot free. The problem is the lack of internal logic due to lack of consequences. It might seem like it's all the same to you, but it's not. And that's all I'm gonna say about Octave on this thread.

last edited at Mar 25, 2022 5:36PM

So, there was no cheating and no lies.

But I'm sure some people will find some reasons to hate on Tsuzuki anyway.

Of course, some people just like judging

So far, it's meh. Really.

Aaaand the classic Akiyama Churn™ manifests. I had a feeling it'd show up soon, because in Octave as well, nothing was ever simple, no issues so facile as to be dispelled by a simple change of space or attitude. There's always this creeping, encroaching tension between the eagerness of people to forgive, forget, adjust or compromise on the one hand, and on the other what AH seems to view as the fundamental capriciousness of human nature. The principal characters here, much like in Octave, seem obsessed with deferral, with emotional displacement, with a suspicion equal parts terrified and obsessive that there's a Something Out There that might make them happier than they are now, some secret key that they haven't yet found, eternally cooking up golden pasts, hopeful futures or alternative presents to distract them from the growing emptiness of the now, from this gnawing dissatisfaction that they can never shake for long. The momentum of the narrative is the hunger of characters for that Something, the force of that obsession, which shall inevitably be disappointed when it is attained, only to spur a new one, a new phantom from a body that never was that must be verified or exorcised.

Here and in Octave, Akiyama excellently captures the anxiety of ennui, the terror that at 20-something, you've might already peaked and there is nothing ahead but a cavalcade of greying days that blur into each other like the smoke from a million cars on the streets of a shitty town you'll never get to leave. Akiyama's drama is her skill in the construction of the threat of a looming anticlimax, in her insightful portrayal of the lengths that people will go to, both in order to feel and, vitally, to stop feeling. Both here and in Octave, there seem to be no saviors, no Manic Pixie Dream People to bear all your burdens- if you happen to be a queer person grappling with depression and profound alienation by every segment of society in the orifices of a soulless urban hellscape, asks Akiyama, why on earth would you expect someone similar to you, someone who perfectly understands how you feel, to be any less fucked up after suffering the same things?

In lieu of dreams, paradise or solutions, the only solace offered to her characters is to stop thinking, to pull for one seconds their minds free of this churning, yawning abyss of unease. They try to drown themselves in jobs, hobbies, relationships and, most prominently, in sex- the petit-mort in Octave is no amusing euphemism, because it's the only thing that blanks out the jagged, grayscale oppressiveness of Tokyo, letting Yukino and Setsuko melt into each other in seas of blankness, so close that they feel like the same person, returned, if only for a moment, to some manner of primordial Platonic unity, before the ugly edges of Personality arise from orgasmic hazes and plunge them back into the damnation of individuality- a similar sentiment to Tsuzuki's desperation to dispel the irritation that seems to haunt her even in the seeming freedom of her open arrangement. Wedding rings, antique books, blooming flowers, daily planners- frantically, people try to ward off the nothingness with symbols, with bookings, with values. But it presses inward, and all they can do is keep running into ever shifting sets of arms, in webs of bodies with nothing to stand on. Akiyama's worlds are so very raw, so very earnestly, unpretentiously bare... I love them.

That was gorgeous, although to be honest I never felt Octave was quite as dire and bleak as that. I mean, that stuff was there, but I didn't feel like it was all that was there. While there might never have been the dramatic Finding Of The Ultimate Thing, it did seem to me there was a gradual recognition by the characters, or maybe less recognition than having it sink in from experiencing it, that there could be good in ordinary everyday stuff and care.

Wasn't expecting the polyamory, but this really caught my eye.

Rehashed, sorry for the impromptu QC, but you might want to review the usage of pronouns as subjects vs as objects. It was a bit egregious this time around (basically just don't use "me" or "him" at the start of a sentence or "I" or "she" at the end)

last edited at Mar 25, 2022 6:33PM

Really hoping for a perspective from the guys. The current progression is delicious.