American, not a sports fan, "You'd end up in the third-string." was strange to me, too.

Sorry for the confusion, but the original was also a sports idiom, 三軍扱い (the third army treatment), which is baseball related in Japan and is exactly the same thing.

Think of it as being the backup of a backup.

And remember they were both in the same volley team.

Probably not all Japanese know the idiom, so I guess you can think of it as being the same as them.

last edited at Mar 13, 2024 4:37PM

Sorry for the confusion, but the original was also a sports idiom, 三軍扱い (the third army treatment), which is baseball related in Japan and is exactly the same thing.

Think of it as being the backup of a backup.

And remember they were both in the same volley team.

Probably not all Japanese know the idiom, so I guess you can think of it as being the same as them.

Yeah, it made sense given their sports backgrounds. That's how she would talk. Didn't see any issue with it, especially since the context makes it clear what's being discussed anyway.

last edited at Mar 13, 2024 5:03PM

I know this is clearly supposed to be a love triangle... But it's so unbalanced that the love triangle tag almost feels misleading

I know this is clearly supposed to be a love triangle... But it's so unbalanced that the love triangle tag almost feels misleading

Honestly, I'm not sure the point is the love triangle, given how unbalanced it is. I think it's a coming of age story that's about how friends (and relationships) change over time.

When you look at it from that angle, the author signaling very obviously who is going to end up together isn't harmful to the story.

I just love these two and their dynamic. It's fluffy :)

Still pretty normal so far, even if this girl has recognized the other from the moment they met. It is kind of strange that nobody has been given a name yet.

"You'd end up in the third-string." Is that a British thing? I've never heard the expression, though I can guess the meaning from the context and the picture.

First-to-third strings are sports jargon since circa 19th century, based on a more literal medieval saying about spare bow strings. Doesn't appear to be limited to a single country's English.

For social standing, it'd be sports jargon leaking through sportsmen and sport fans into colloquial use, and may be of limited spread outside their circles (not into sports myself, I don't remember encountering it before either), but it also isn't a recent fad or specifically British: urban dictionary (crude language warning), urban dictionary again, reddit examples

Thanks for providing the links, and to everyone else who explained this. I now understand that the reason I do not understand this expression is that I spend all the time I could be playing sports instead reading yuri manga.

Well, maybe. I hate team sports and yet am quite aware of the expression; I thought it was pretty common and I'm surprised to see so many people who aren't aware of it. Mind you, I'm old. Maybe it has gotten less common in recent years.

These girls are really fast to fall deeply in love I think

Remember everyone, a triangle is a shape formed by two points, which share a direct connection, and a third, unconnected, point that's wondering why it's all alone.