Something behind the scenes like what? Personal stuff? Social stuff? Sumiko has over 500k followers because of her recent work. I understand Japan is conservative when it comes to LGBTQ issues, but hopefully not to the point where she needs to go into hiding?

You don’t need to worry about that, really.

Women in general are more at risk for random violence than queers.
There’s a sharp generational cutoff of people being prejudiced, and even then it’s stuff like marriage. That unfortunately has wide-reaching tendrils that undermine other rights (domestic violence, housing…), but going into hiding? Nah. Not these days.
Not even ten years ago (when I lived there)!
People point, whisper and stare at things that are different, there. Super awkward.

Progressive*, queer manga is in the top five on Pixiv Comics a lot of the time, regardless of gender reading it. it makes two lists for the two most common. Annoying, but relevant here, because it’s not just fujoshi reading BL, or old-school yuri being popular. It’s fukaboku and “Josou Offline Meeting” being huge.
These artists are FINE. They’re making a living being wholesome about queerness.

You can relax.

Totally understandable to be anxious. It’s rough out there these days.

*not to say there isn’t horribly regressive stuff getting popular. A lot of …un-wholesome stuff gets published. Manga is a free-for-all.
I’m just saying that there’s no outcry and there’s a career for people who write queer-positive stories.

‘A New Semester of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ means we’ll have 18 more chapters of the girls not communicating properly before they become “very close friends”??????

If that's how you feel about it you are welcome to that, but from my perspective I think anyone should be allowed to lie about their gender, or rather than say lie, I don't think anyone has a right to demand to know your gender.

It's not a question of "rights." Mitsuki has obviously not committed a literal crime. What she's done is (a) deliberately misled another person (b) in a way she knew, or should've known, would cause them great pain if they found out (as we saw happen in this very chapter) (c) purely in order to preserve this pseudo-friendship pseudo-romance thing she had going on with her. What precise information Aya had a "right" to know about is irrelevant. Mitsuki hurt her. She did a mean thing. She should apologize! (And I'm sure she will.) And that's all I have to say about this.

If you take it upon yourself to make assumptions about me and cause yourself some emotional, mental, or other harm by doing so, it is not my obligation to apologize for your self-harm caused by your assumptions. It is not a "mean thing" done to others by not correcting their assumptions. Especially if you don't know if you'll be safe if you do so. The only person responsible for the thoughts and assumptions you come up with in your head is you. So the only person who needs to apologize for making assumptions is the one who made them, not the one they were made about.

This is ridiculous. Everybody makes assumptions constantly in everyday life and we require them to function. When I go to McDonald's, I assume the guy behind the register wearing a uniform is the cashier and is gonna take my order, nobody in the history of ever has asked that guy, "Hey sorry, are you the cashier?"

Sorry to say but 99% of the time assuming someone's gender works fine IRL and people do it constantly. Even if someone isn't gender conforming, they must be aware of this. Even the term non-binary in it implies the existence of the binary. Mitsuki is not wrong because she's not disclosing her gender, she's wrong because she knows that Oosawa thinks that she's a dude and is deliberately letting her keep thinking that she is one for her own benefit.

Phew. I thought this was closed as of the last few chapters, but since it's still ongoing, I need to say what's on my mind.

The issue here is not that Mitsuki has not disclosed her gender. It's that Mitsuki has not disclosed that the "two" people Aya knows are actually just one person. At-school Mitsuki is basically spying on Aya under a different identity. Whether she started doing it intentionally or whether it's because of Aya's assumptions is beside the point. She has concealed not her gender, but her identity so that she can interact with Aya as two different people. (whether she originally interacted with Aya at school or not is beside the point, she is listening in on conversations that aren't as vague as Aya thinks they are because Mitsuki has insider information.)

Looks like next time they'll actually talk.

Hmmm. Maybe?
Or, maybe Aya is just going to take her opportunity to get to know Mitsuki better without letting on that she knows she is also the "oniisan" she knows outside of school.

The last few lines starting with “it’s not like I can do anything about it…” who’s saying it? Aya? Mitsuki? Both of them?

Looks like next time they'll actually talk.

Hmmm. Maybe?
Or, maybe Aya is just going to take her opportunity to get to know Mitsuki better without letting on that she knows she is also the "oniisan" she knows outside of school.

I kinda want to see that happen… like Aya slowly reveals that she knows Mitsuki and Onii-San are one and the same…but the “what the heck am I doing?” Made me think she’s tired of avoiding/holding back from Mitsuki

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 10:33AM

i cant wait till next sunday to arrive TToTT

Looking forward to the series ending in chapter 20 with understanding smiles and abundant levels of (future, not shown) friendship.

Looking forward to the series ending in chapter 20 with understanding smiles and abundant levels of (future, not shown) friendship.

Don't jinx it plsss, i need at least 50 more chapters of that sweet, delicious gay panic (and subsequent flirting and being an adorable idiot couple)

kingtiger posted:

The last few lines starting with “it’s not like I can do anything about it…” who’s saying it? Aya? Mitsuki? Both of them?

It's Mitsuki. It's a repeat of of her ealier thought, with a "and yet..." added.

Considering the title and their thoughts, I'm assuming a certain girl spent the whole summer like 'fuck, am I gay?'

Looking forward to the series ending in chapter 20 with understanding smiles and abundant levels of (future, not shown) friendship.

Don't jinx it plsss, i need at least 50 more chapters of that sweet, delicious gay panic (and subsequent flirting and being an adorable idiot couple)

I'm personally hoping that the manga is about a third of the way through. I'd like to see them talk things through, develop a friendship and eventually become lovers. Ending in Chapter 20 isn't nearly long enough to resolve this current situation, considering how short the chapters are.

I'm also on the side that believes that Mitsuki had no obligation to tell Aya. Perhaps she should if they were to become closer, but as it stands now, they're merely classmates who happen to be acquainted by chance outside of school, so there's no need to be anything more than that if Mitsuki doesn't want to be. Since Aya didn't make her feelings clear, nor did she even let on that she knows Mitsuki is the record store clerk, Mitsuki has no way of knowing what's going on in Aya''s head.

I’m gonna say meh on that.. there are tons of instances where people, even young people get interested in something from a begone era… Like jazz or classical or ska… plus for the last 5-10 year’s you’d see teens in the us wearing “vintage” themed tshirts spattered with Beatles, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC logos… also the ironic part of this in connection to grunge retro is grunge and a lot of the music of the first half of the 90s was filled with retro throwbacks.. grunge is just punk mixed with 70s heavy rock like Black Sabbath, Blue cheer and Death, then when grunge died you had a swing fad followed by a 2nd ska revival and then you had the whole Brit pop thing which was again rooted in 60s and 70s stuff.. also.. aerosmith was huge at that time…. My guess because of the retro love mixed in the current bands of that time like the black crows and G&R (who sound like aerosmith most of the time anyway).. things cycle around over and over again..

I agree.

I'm not sure if I said this before, but it seems like an odd objection given that clearly the MANGAKA is interested enough in that kind of music to put people who like it in their story, and the MANGAKA seems to be exactly the kind of person it's been objected it's implausible that they could be into that music. In short, if the mangaka can like it, so could the characters--so not only is it plausible, we have an actual real-world example.

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 1:24PM

Considering the title and their thoughts, I'm assuming a certain girl spent the whole summer like 'fuck, am I gay?'

No? She spent the whole summer fuming and avoiding Mitsuki who she was mad and upset with.
THAT is the only thing I got clearly. And Now it seems she's had enough of being mad and wants to get over it- presumably to just friendship at first.

The title is just refering to she knows mitsuki is that boy- but she didnt bring it up and neither did mitsuki

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 2:31PM

Also! We Got Blink 182 and Red Hot chilli Pepers this time around!

Kind of a weird chapter, feels like there's a page of transition missing

^ I agree.

Considering the title and their thoughts, I'm assuming a certain girl spent the whole summer like 'fuck, am I gay?'

Both did, probably.

Kind of a weird chapter, feels like there's a page of transition missing

Downsides of being a twitter short

Ugh, enough of The Discourse. I want more aesthetic talk and critical analysis on the level of Green777's take on Jerkbag (which was excellent and literally the original reason I made this account). There's already so much damn drama in the story itself—drama hogs, are you not engorged??

Here, more meat for you (anything to get you to shut up and stop inserting your own social hang ups with others' genders in someone else's story):

1. You have a time machine. You've been sent back to the early 2000s. Do you warn Muse that they're going to turn their 2022 album into a NFT, or....do you just....take the shot?

2. Why hasn't anyone created fan art of our lovely, two, young lesbians in other genre styles?? I want to see death metal aus, disco aus, math rock, anythiiiiing!!

3. Why the frick hasn't Phoenix released an album in so long?! Also, where y'all get new music from? Birp! on yt has been my interest lately.

4. Praise be our art and aesthetics goddess, Agu. (This is not a topic of debate.)

5. Why didn't Smashing Pumpkins get back together with D'Arcy instead of Billy?? Like damn, he's been transphobe trash for a while.

6. Freebie. Hit us with a new-to-you song you just found this week. I found this today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGkemcoNcJ0

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 2:51PM by

Love this series to pieces, but the small uploads are very frustrating/ annoying. I’d rather wait longer and have a full chapter uploaded

Sadistic-Demon posted:

Love this series to pieces, but the small uploads are very frustrating/ annoying. I’d rather wait longer and have a full chapter uploaded

I mean that's entirely up to you, you can come back monthly and have "enough" content, you just need to control yourself.

1. You have a time machine. You've been sent back to the early 2000s. Do you warn Muse that they're going to turn their 2022 album into a NFT, or....do you just....take the shot?

I would try to warn the world about NFTs, and about Donald Trump becoming president, and about the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series, but no one would believe me as all these things would sound too ridiculous to be true. So, to hell with it, let's go back to 1936 and try killing Hitler instead.

Love this series to pieces, but the small uploads are very frustrating/ annoying. I’d rather wait longer and have a full chapter uploaded

Honestly, we should be happy that we do get 4 pages of this quality and polish p much every week. That's a lot of work.

And in five years, they will become ROOMMATES!

I didn't understand the first couple of bubbles on the first page. Who's speaking about who, in what context?
Do I read correctly from those that Aya didn't talk to Mitsuki at all throughout the vacation (ch.19 p2) but she kept meeting/talking to Onii-san? Otherwise this doesn't compute with me at all. I meah how else would Aya holler about not wanting to go to school tomorrow?

last edited at Sep 4, 2022 3:45PM

Kind of a weird chapter, feels like there's a page of transition missing

Page? Felt more like an entire chapter was missing