#and that's obviously not gonna get him far with v1 lol

[cherubchoirs]

Hey, odd question, but how do you think Gabriel and V1 would fight something together? I feel like neither of them would be experinced in team combat, but I like to think that they would find a way to be in sync.

no worries bc i've 100% thought about this hhhfghdfg

i think they would definitely need to do a lot of practice because i also think they likely work alone and don't have the experience/programming to know how to coordinate. plus i believe they approach fights in a very different manner - gabriel is incredibly well honed, his style trained and polished to perfection, and while he can adapt well to adjust his methods, he has a way that he does things that's served him for thousands of years. he has strategies that he customizes to his opponents, his movements are all elegant and thought-through yet are second nature to him, and the art of it is only broken when he loses his composure to become overwhelmingly fast and brutal (happens quite rarely, since few opponents can work him up). v1, on the other hand, is much more chaotic and doesn't necessarily have a fighting "style" - i like to imagine that when it faces a new opponent, it can be quite odd and clumsy for the first minute or so because that's its learning time. it tries to parry too slow or too fast, it uses the wrong weapons, it tracks movements a bit poorly when attempting to aim precise shots (or ricochots), and it's dodging a LOT. however, after this window it's devoured all the information it needs and has broken the enemy down to data sets, ones it uses to form the most effective strategy against that opponent. so the way it fights varies hugely, although it of course has some consistencies since it needs to take itself into account. all that to say that not only are they both not set up to work with others, they have vastly different ways of approaching combat that could easily do more harm than good if they tried going in without practice.

that said, i think they would work great together as a pair once they understood the other. there's definitely bickering over whose way is better but honestly neither of them have the capacity to change how they operate SO they need to learn to work with it instead (not that either of them could ever get the other to change their mind lol) to their advantage, v1 knows gabriel's style inside and out while gabriel is very aware of v1's "lag" time and the staples of its combat. it's worked out quickly that gabriel leads since that gives v1 the buffer time it needs (although that rarely, if ever, means that it hangs back but instead that gabe needs to cover it) but once v1 finds its footing, there's a great synergy to their combat - they are both highly mobile fighters, they both have a lot of flourish in their tactics, and i really think their sizes come into play with v1 fully embracing using gabe for a quick high ground or being launched by him lol (also including a lot of teleporting to drop the wild little beast right on some husk's head). they weave in and around each other, each making nice set ups for the other to finish, gabriel throwing his weapons directly at v1 so it can parry them at the perfect angle; alternatively, v1 will often electrify gabe's projectiles. in addition, it makes crowd control or large arenas a much smoother experience, the two of them splitting up to tackle half and half without needing to worry that the other can't handle it. i think they do pick up a couple of combat quirks from each other, the way other couples might start to talk like one another - they both emulate without even knowing it, but i think sometimes their partner catches it and it makes them feel. a whole lot.

BUT even at their best, i doubt they can ever fully avoid stepping on each other's toes occasionally - v1 definitely runs right into gabe's axes while there's no way gabe hasn't been in the radius of an explosion lol he's a lot more fussed about it than v1 is, thinking he can always do better and trying to figure out what he did wrong, while v1 usually brushes it off since it regularly friendly fires itself anyway

[onewomancitadel]

Story of the Seasons (Fall)

iressent submitted the following post (my response below):

   One day, as they settled down to an outdoor feast on a balmy evening, the wizard felt a sudden chill. He noticed a delicate young woman standing under an apple tree. He watched with bemusement as Winter, Spring, and Summer ran toward her, joining hands and dancing around the tree. Her features were similar to those of her sisters, but she was wearing orange.

   The wizard stayed by the table until the women beckoned him to join them. Before he could ask, the new arrival introduced herself.

   "My name is Fall. I am resting on a long journey. Who are you?“

   "Me?” the wizard asked. “I am but an old hermit-”

   "Hermits do not invite people into their home or share their food,“ Fall pointed out. “Hermits don’t celebrate all summer long.”

   "That is a fair point. However, I have lived in these woods alone for a long time, with no one to love and nothing to my name. Your sisters have brought me new life.“

   Fall opened her arms wide. "But sir, do you not see? You have so much already.”

   As the four maidens and the wizard enjoyed a meal together, he realized that Fall was right.

So, I’m going to stop the story there. I know I didn’t write down the whole story this time, but I got the Fall part down since it relates to Cinder. So, I’m gonna say my piece.

but she was wearing orange

Cinder’s consistent color so far in all her outfits is orange/gold/red, so I’m hoping that’s her true colors in her “herself” outfit, when she’s redeemed if you understand. It has her own colors, one of which is also the Fall Maiden’s color.

Before he could ask, the new arrival introduced herself.

Kinda like how she introduced herself at the Fall of Beacon where Amber was.

“Me?” the wizard asked. “I am but an old hermit-”

Obviously, this is referencing Ozma being a wizard but pretending to be someone else, such as a headmaster of Beacon or a guy with a really refined mustache in another reincarnation lol

Fall opened her arms wide. “But sir, do you not see? You have so much already.”

Now, this is something Cinder will learn eventually. When, is a completely different matter. It would work during any time, the beginning, middle, or end of her redemption arc. It could either pop off her redemption arc, or her getting mentally better during her redemption arc, or solidifying her redemption with this realization.

In Ozpin’s final notes of the morals of the Story of the Seasons, he said for Fall,

And finally, be thankful for what you have and show your gratitude.

I’m going to say a little on the second part, “and show your gratitude” basically confirms that Cinder’ll be showing her gratitude by helping them.

That’s about it for the Fall Maiden in the Story of the Seasons. What are your thoughts on it?

______________________________________________________

Oh yeah, I have a LOT of thoughts on it. Thank you for sending me an ask/submission about it!!

I agree with everything you’ve written, especially the structure of greeting and the dismissal of being ‘just an old hermit’. There is one point you picked up on I’d like to expand a little, which is Cinder’s ‘true colour’. It kind of goes without saying colour is a big deal in RWBY cuz like, the colour of your soul, alchemical stages, all of that. Cinder’s Aura is orange and obviously the Fall Maiden is too in this story, but I think her secondary colour is blue (and possibly purple) for the following reasons: it’s complementary to orange, as well as yellow (depending on the model you use); it’s on her pin, which has migrated closer and closer to her heart (the significance of it yet is unclear, though chronologically she got it sometime between fifteen and when we first see her in V1); and, um, you’ll closely notice this tinfoilling relies upon Jaune’s similarly bizarre colour scheme (I guess he does have that rainbow thing goes on with his emblem, and his flower imagery is the crocus, which is from the Iris family, Iris means rainbow in Greek and was also the personified goddess of the rainbow) which is like blue but also orange but also YELLOW and then white and gold and also tin at one point and black, just like Cinder is red orange yellow gold black maybe blue purple? and then also as a girl she was black red yellow white, which is all of team RWBY’s colours and the alchemical stages the show follows. So like. Go figure. Cinder’s colours make sense to me in relation to Jaune, but putting aside Knightfall, I would still write up orange and blue. Also, orange and blue is a type of shorthand for a morality beyond black and white, with complex sides to each issue.

I should honestly just separately write an expanded post on this, but like, yes I think this story makes it clear Cinder’s colour is orange which she’s fastidiously denied, and that’s a major part of her character. I think when she embraces being the Fall Maiden as guardian it will be clear what her colour is, anyway.

Also I’m just gonna quote Lyndy Abraham’s Dictionary of Alchemy:

so yeah in my elementary understanding of alchemy, Cinder is a big deal. and also, Jaune’s control of the mercurial waters of Aura (see that Aura & water post I wrote lol) and fire.. hmm! I’m not sure if this helps us with the colour problem, I think it explains her all black outfit in V6-8 though - this isn’t actually her having completely spurned redemption (like some people say) but her most challenging and important hour (which is why Emerald finally left her and Salem, and though Mercury has 'committed himself’ more, he’s with Tyrian, the stand-in abusive parental figure).

I also think it’s interesting that Salem is in 'control’ of the fire which will help perfect the world, who is also the carrier of the generational wound (Salem/Ozma) and one who also helped inflict subsequent wounds.

On the note of redemption arc: well, I know redemption arc is accepted nomenclature, and so I go with that, but I think a redemption arc is a type of character metamorphosis, and for her to basically give up hunting the Maidens (for Salem or for herself) I think she does have to come to this realisation. I also think Cinder is probably going to be the character that pulls the 'fully realised Maiden’ moment like we saw a little bit of with Fria, and it will be totally epic and I’ll drop trou immediately. So yeah. I think it all kind of goes hand in hand (and also similarly to Ruby, what’s really stopping Cinder is spiritual growth as opposed to victory in strength (LOL, how about that SALEM).

But I can’t say what the show is going to do or how long it’ll take them to get there. I think there are certain things which need to happen (Mercury saved, for instance) in a certain order, but your guess is as good as mine for when they save Cinder in earnest beginning to work with the rest of them. Since Fall is the last Maiden to arrive, I think it will be late in the game, but we’re already seeing the parts put in place for Cinder’s turncoat. And honestly, I have a feeling a lot of redemption arc 'tropes’ are going to be played with her and she’s probably going to spurn it a few times.

RWBY hasn’t played out so many types of 'redemption arcs’ already to not save their all for Cinder (their villain protagonist), which may, presumably, set up some type of compassionate confrontation with Salem.

That’s why I can see Raven coming through soon to help, because I think hers will come before Cinder’s (and Raven has kind of 'mothered’ Cinder before, I think her example will in part structurally inspire Cinder’s).

That also fits the Maiden cycle, and also, Spring’s lesson also fits Raven, which misstrashchan has already written about. So, there is absolutely good reason to speculate this way.

Also, on the gratitude point: I think that will be a choice Cinder does entirely of her own volition,

Thanks again for your post!! So much fun to reply to.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Ao no Flag v1

Since I just imported this, and the next chapter should be translated in a day or two, I figured I may as well write up my thoughts on the first volume. I was gonna reread it to refresh my memory, but I didn’t get around to it, so I might be forgetting some things.

This isn’t really, like, a professional review, or anything, just my ramble-y thoughts.

TL;DR: This is both adorable and kinda heart-breaking and I love it. This hits basically all the right notes for me. It’s also a shounen rom-com/drama that has actual major LGBT characters so that’s pretty great! Seriously you guys read this manga. It’s already really great.

More under the cut.

Before I say anything else, let me just say that Taichi, Kuze, and Touma are my new fictional children and I adore them with all my heart. I’m basically a complete sucker for main character trios like this. Which is part of why I also enjoy stuff like Pandora Hearts and The Promised Neverland so much. We haven’t seen a lot of Masumi yet but once we do, I’ll probably love her too.

Also for the record I call her Masumi because ‘Itachi’ is way too confusing in a manga that has a protagonist called Taichi, lol.

Anyway, this manga is just great. I have a huge soft spot for this genre as a whole, but even then this one just speaks to me deeply. I haven’t even read anything else by this guy but I already like his style. This hits a really nice balance between drama and comedy and romance that not a lot of things hit.

Normally I tend to not care for the main m/f ships in these sorts of manga, but oh man I already love Taichi and Kuze’s entire dynamic. They’re such sweet, pure children and I just want them to be happy. They both feel like, well, actual teenagers who are still trying to figure out how feelings and relationships work. It’s really endearing. I especially love how determined and earnest Kuze is about her crush on Touma. But I also love how Taichi is just a bit of a mess who doesn’t really know how to reach out to people properly. They’re great. Also, I love the fact that they’re both super short. I was not at all prepared for the part where Taichi sees her from afar and is like ‘wow she’s really tiny’ and then he walks up to her and he’s like ‘jesus christ we’re basically the same height’. That was hilarious.

But of course, I can’t help but feel weirdly guilty about liking them together because that just gets us into the whole Touma thing. Oh boy. Touma, my sweet wonderful gay child, I feel so bad for you and all the drama I see in your future. I’m basically bracing myself right from the start for him to go through all sorts of angst in the future. It’s gonna be rough. Obviously I also ship him and Taichi together, but that’s probably not gonna work out, which kinda breaks my heart a bit.

Seriously though I just love Touma so much, he’s amazing. And I can’t stress enough how meaningful it is to have a major character like him in this sort of manga. It’s not like it’s never happened before [I think Love and Lies has a similar set-up??? Not sure. And then there’s other cases like Makoto from Fuuka and whatnot]. But it’s still important! It always warms my heart to see stuff like this happening more and more. I especially appreciate how Touma as a character, and his crush on Taichi, is already being set up as a surprising pivotal part of the whole story. It’s at least this major time-bomb being set up that’s gonna affect so many things. But I mean, it plays a huge part in his entire dynamic with Taichi, and I can only imagine how it’ll shake that up once Taichi finds out. It’s already setting up a whole lot of dramatic irony with how Taichi’s hung up on how Touma comes across as being ‘perfect’ and completely disconnected from him as a person, which is obviously not quite the case. There’s also a whole lot of dramatic irony going on as well with the fact that Kuze’s whole ‘I have a chance with Touma so I’m gonna pursue him’ attitude is just set up to fail now. And her whole plan to date him is already a pretty big part of the story, so once the other shoe drops then things are gonna change up massively. Especially since Taichi at this point is mostly bonding with her in terms of basically being her wingman. And, of course, it looks like Masumi knows about Touma being gay [and vice versa, I suppose], so if they’re gonna start their own little friendship then that’ll be a part of it.

I dunno how to put it, it’s just interesting to me that Touma’s sexuality isn’t just a joke, or a really minor thing off to the side, but a genuinely important part of the story that’s gonna shake things up massively once the other shoe drops. I like it.

I also appreciate that he’s designed as being conventionally masculine, and in a way that’s not done in a joke-y, exaggerated way for comedy. I feel like a lot of characters like Touma in shonen manga get depicted as one extreme or another, so it’s really cool to see how “normal” [for lack of a better word, I guess] he’s portrayed thus far. It’s just nice to see a gay teenage boy being written as an actual human being and not a stereotype. Obviously there’s a bit of contrast going on with how his outer persona doesn’t really match what he’s going through internally, but it’s more of a dramatic thing than a comedic thing, if that makes sense. In general the aspect of him being seemingly perfect and super popular and put-together but secretly having his own insecurities and struggles is really compelling.

Which is why I really liked that one scene with the tomato plant, which was also probably the scene that convinced me that he was indeed gay, and that the author was going to handle it well. I just love the delicacy of the writing in that scene, especially in hindsight. It’s a wonderful depiction of the kind of moment where you see someone’s mask drop a little and you get a glimpse at who they are inside, but you don’t know enough about them to know what’s going on. It was also a nice scene to help establish why Kuze’s so into him.

I’m also excited to see more of his brother and his brother’s wife [though I guess we technically haven’t seen his brother in person yet at all, I think]. They seem cool. There’s not much to say about them yet, but I do find it a bit amusing how it kinda feels like his brother’s wife was designed to fit Touma’s made-up ‘type’. It makes her feel like a bit of a red herring to make people think he was telling the truth, even though that got almost immediately shot down. But at the same time I don’t remember the story ever, like, going out of it’s way to be all wink wink nudge nudge about it, which I appreciate. It really works as a twist on the reader’s assumptions. I saw a fair few people elsewhere assume that Touma had a crush on her, so I have a feeling that was the author’s intention.

Basically Touma is just my child and I want to hold and protect him. I hope he gets his own happy ending by the time this wraps up, one way or another. He deserves it. I could live with him just being happily single by the end, even if that’d obviously be the depressing option. Even if it’d be bittersweet in it’s own way, it’d be nice to hypothetically see him decide to move on, and end up with an entirely different guy. I feel like manga aimed at teenagers in general tend to act like your first crush is, like, the only person you’re ever gonna have feelings for in your entire life and if it doesn’t work out then WELP SUCKS TO BE YOU, so it’d be neat to see this sorta manga make it clear that even if you have unrequited feelings for someone it’s not the end of the world, and you can move on and find someone else to love in the future. We’ll see.

Mostly I just really hope that this doesn’t end with Touma and Masumi hooking up as some sorta weird consolation prize. In general it’d feel too neat and easy if the main four can get paired up into convenient pairs like that, and I feel like Touma’s whole deal would just be more . . . compelling, I suppose, if he’s exclusively gay, and not bi. I mean, him being exclusively gay would also really drive a wedge in Kuze’s whole plan of action, like I said above, and that definitely seems like what’s being set up. So yeah.

I don’t really have a whole lot to say about Masumi since she hasn’t had a lot of screen-time, but we’ll obviously see more of her now so that’s nice. Obviously I also really appreciate the fact that she seems to be a lesbian, even if her feelings also probably won’t work out in the end. It kinda surprised me how, uh, vicious she got with Taichi, but I like that she apologized afterward in her own awkward way. That’s nice. I hope she gets to become part of the main gang.

I really REALLY love the entire scene between them on the roof-top at the end of the volume. That was great. I actually got vaguely spoiled about it in advance but I didn’t know the full context of it so the scene still surprised me when I read it. I wasn’t expecting them but to all but spell out that both of them are gay by the end of the first volume. They even had to do the dramatic ‘scene goes silent right when important thing is said’ trope right when Masumi probably literally spelled out that Touma’s gay. I really wasn’t expecting how goddamn dramatic it was. Like wow. You could basically feel the tension going on between them. I wasn’t expecting to see Touma be absolutely terrified by the idea that Masumi might have outed him without his consent. That kinda tore at my heart. I feel you so much, Touma, I really do. Thankfully she didn’t, so that’s nice. I’m glad she’s agreeing to keep it a secret for him.

I also love and adore how she pretty much laid out exactly what I’d been thinking, and immediately spelled out the fact that he was lying about his ‘type’, and that the only truthful part was the black hair bit. I’m so glad that got called out by the end of this volume instead of being dragged out unnecessarily. It was pretty dang obvious, at least. Although it does make me wonder exactly how Masumi ‘figured it out’. She doesn’t seem to be close to him as a person, and his crush is mostly obvious to us as the reader. So I wonder if maybe she’s been observing him for a while, and has been piecing it together.

It’s pretty interesting to look back over the entire volume now that it’s over. I mean, it was fairly obvious from early on that Touma is gay, but still, it’s REALLY obvious now. There’s a lot of parts that pretty overtly lay it out. The part in chapter four, I think, where we get the flashback to him and Taichi as kids, and we see the actual moment where Touma lied about his type, it’s SUPER obvious what’s going on. What with him basing his preferred type directly off of Taichi’s height [with an extra amount added], the dramatic close-up of him staring at Taichi when he talks about liking black hair, him immediately turning away afterward and rattling off some other traits to throw him off the trail, etc etc. And other than that you have stuff like the tomato plant scene and so on. There’s also the fact that the cover of volume one is of the main trio standing in a triangle with Kuze looking at Touma, and Touma looking at Taichi, and the insert page thing at the start of the volume is of them making a triangle with their fingers. It’s not exactly subtle, lol.

Anyway, I guess I should talk about predictions and stuff for what’ll happen next, now that we’re right about to get into v2. I guess I don’t have a lot to say other than what I said about how once Taichi and Kuze figure out what’s going on, it’s gonna REALLY shake up their relationship with Touma. Which will be interesting to see. But I feel like it’ll take a while to happen. Other than that . . . well, obviously I want to see more of Masumi, and I hope that Touma’s brother and his brother’s wife end up being recurring side characters. That’d be neat. I’m also wondering if the baseball element might get more important later. It looks like the author’s mostly done sports manga in the past, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes more of a big thing to the story.

Oh yeah, and everyone should read the bonus pages that recently got translated, that came with the first volume. They contain a really short preview for v2, which is already hinting at a whole lot of angst and drama. There’s not really a lot to it as a preview, but one kinda surprising thing about it is that it looks like Taichi is notably taller. Like, a few inches taller. I kinda wasn’t expecting that, but I guess it makes sense. You can also kinda see it on v2���s cover, a bit. We also got a glimpse at what seems to be a new character in the last panel of it. Not sure what her deal is but she looks upset about . . . something, lol.

Also the bonus pages contain a short bonus chapter about how Taichi and Touma first met and I swear to god it’s the cutest thing in the world. I probably should have expected that they first met and bonded over their battle pencils. But seriously, holy shit, little schoolboy Touma blushing and talking excitedly about how Taichi is the coolest person he’s ever met is just! so! ADORABLE! AAAH! I wonder what bonus things the other volumes will contain.

I’m glad that the scanlators have access to the digital raws for the rest of the series now, so we don’t have to wait until each volume comes out for them to translate it. I’m really excited to see chapter six come out in a day or two. It’ll suck when we catch up and have to deal with the two-week release schedule this has in Japan. Oh well.

[I dunno where to fit this, but as a side note, I LOVE how the volume covers for this series look, thus far. Now that we’ve seen the first two. They’re all so beautiful and delicate and sorta watercolour-y. It’s not a style you see often in manga volume covers. But I love it. Honestly like 10% of my reason for importing this series is because I love how the volumes look. I’m kinda superficial like that, lol. The aesthetic this series has in general is really nice]

And yeah as I said at the start of this, I just ordered the first volume of this today from CDJapan. I made a post a while ago about how I was going to import every volume of this if it followed through with the LGBT representation, so I’m sticking to my word on that. This is gonna be the first Japanese volume of manga I’ll own, so that’ll be neat! I’m not really interested in importing a lot of stuff in general, so for the most part I’m sticking to importing different types of manga with good LGBT rep in them, since I’m passionate about this sorta thing. I just want to financially support these types of manga in whatever way I can. Which is also why I’ve started importing Shimanami Tasogare, which is basically one of the best LGBT manga out there. Also manga is just way easier and cheaper to buy/import than something like, say, anime. Sure I’d love to import the Japanese blu-rays of Yuri on Ice but holy shit I do not have the money for that. Even getting the English release of that is gonna be tight. But yeah it really doesn’t cost me a lot to import manga like this so I figured I may as well. It’s gonna take ages for it to get here, but that’s fine.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Dreamin’ Sun v2

So after three weeks of waiting, my replacement copy of this arrived after the first one got here damaged, and now I can finally talk about this!

I’m still not entirely sure if I’ll end up having enough to say about each volume to make a post about each one but thus far it’s working out, and this isn’t going to be very long or anything.

Thoughts under the cut.

This continues to be the exact sort of fluffy shoujo I’ve been needing in my life. It’s great. It’s not necessarily as emotionally heavy as Orange, but it doesn’t need to be.

I still have no idea how to organize these posts since they’re not exactly reviews and I tend to write them like a day after I’ve read the volume my memory is a bit fuzzy, but we’ll see how things go.

I feel like a lot of people might REALLY dislike Shimana as a protagonist, but I actually really like her. I said this before, I think, but I still stand by it. We’re pretty different as individuals, but I relate to her more than I expected.

The whole sub-plot of her getting a make-over to try and impress Asahi really worked for me, which I kinda didn’t expect. Probably because the story was self-aware of how relatively pointless it all was. It thankfully didn’t indulge much at all in the trope-y ways that most media handles characters getting make-overs. Although I still really liked seeing Zen get all flustered over it. It was cheesy as fuck but I have a huge soft spot for Zen in general lol. I’ll get to him later.

I really like how Shimana’s whole crush on Asahi is being handled, and the whole theme of how there’s still value in putting yourself out there and taking risks even if you know you might fail, and that it’s still good to get your feelings across to someone even if you know it won’t work out.

It’s also still really nice how open all of these characters are with each other, at least compared to most shojo manga I’ve read. It’s part of why I like Shimana as a protagonist so much. She’s really open about her feelings and her insecurities.

Her whole date with Asahi was really cute, but also pretty bittersweet. I appreciate that he didn’t have a really overblown reaction to her makeover [it worked with Zen but it wouldn’t have worked with him], and that he made it clear that he thinks she’s cute either way. And in general it was nice seeing Shimana be happy and relaxed. Though that got pretty upturned by the start of the whole courtroom drama sub-plot. I obviously knew that the legal system was a theme in this manga from v1, but it still kinda surprised me to get a whole sub-plot about that sorta thing here. It makes sense, though. Before I get into my thoughts on it though, I should also say that I like how Shimana was able to recognize that Asahi wasn’t as happy as he was letting on. She’s a bit more perceptive of that sort of thing than a lot of other protagonists I’ve seen. It really helps defuse some potential misunderstandings.

Onto the whole legal drama sub-plot that takes up most of the volume, I gotta say, does this sorta stuff actually happen in Japan because holy fuck that was messed up. This girl gets forced to move to America with her family and marry some dude just because her dad accidentally hit him with his car??? The dude refuses treatment just so he can force this girl’s family to care for him???? The fuck????? And she sure didn’t seem fucking happy about it. It was all way more depressing than I expected from this sort of thing. The whole ‘Asahi and Manami both like each other but they think it’s unrequited’ thing wasn’t exactly groundbreakingly original but it was handled well and contrasted neatly with Shimana’s progression throughout the volume and what she learned about the importance of emotional honesty.

The whole thing also made me respect Asahi even more, with how much he wanted to help Manami. It also helped flesh him out even more in general, especially since we got a deeper look into his own emotional dishonesty. I like that Shimana was able to convince him to see her off, even though the whole thing was super bittersweet in general. And on that general note, I like that Shimana got up the courage to reach out to Manami and hear her side of things. In general it’s really nice that she didn’t write her off as being ‘a rival in love’, and actually wanted to know what she was feeling.

I wonder if we’re ever gonna hear from Manami again or if she’s, like . . . gone for good now. That’d be kinda harsh.

And then we get to Shimana’s confession scene to Asahi, which I was not expecting. But it makes sense, what with the whole theme of this volume. It probably wasn’t exactly the most, uh, appropriate time for her to bring up her feelings, but it’s good that she got them off her chest. And that there wasn’t any miscommunication. I like that she made a point to say that she wasn’t confessing to try and get him to date her, but just to get her feelings across. And that Asahi took it so well. Seeing him talk about how he respects her for being more confident and open than he is was really nice. Obviously her feelings weren’t returned, at least not then, but still.

I still hope they end up together. I said it before, but I’m basically the most vanilla person out there in terms of how I like my romances, so I just kinda love their entire relationship and I want things to work out for them. I’m not completely sure if I expect it to be the big end-game ship though, at least because in this sort of manga I feel like the protagonist’s first crush is set up to fail. And the fact that she confessed so early also might be a red flag in this sense. But we’ll see. Now that her feelings are out in the open and Manami’s out of the equation, I really wonder where things between them are even going to go now. I’m kinda worried that with this much progression early on, the story might get dragged out pretty soon. Who knows. At least since this is just ten volumes long it won’t get quite to Fruits Basket levels of bloating/padding.

After that I guess we had some set-up for drama in the next volume, with the whole chapter of Shimana begrudgingly inviting her school friends to her house and things going, uh, horribly wrong. This is another part in particular where some people might get really annoyed at Shimana, but I could totally feel for her. It was pretty obvious that she just felt left out and isolated, when all the attention was being directed away from her. It’s still kinda petty, yeah, but considering that Shimana started the story out running away from home because she felt neglected, it’s fitting for her character. And of course she pretty much knew the entire time how petty she was being, and as soon as she left she immediately felt bad, but knew how awkward it’d be if she just turned right back around.

I kinda avoided talking about Zen and Taiga since they weren’t incredibly important in this volume and it would have been a nightmare to try and remember all of their scenes and how the timeline worked out, so I’m just gonna talk about them here.

Zen is still amazing and adorable and more or less my exact sort of tsundere, but yeah I ain’t gonna deny that he says some awful shit to Shimana, which is one of the main reasons why I don’t ship them. Thankfully she at least knows how to fling his shit right back at him. He definitely feels a lot more . . . trope-y thus far than everyone else, but it’s fine. It works for him. Though it’s always a bit weird to me when characters like him have the whole ‘what is this??? feeling in my chest????? when I look at a cute person??????’ thing. It’s kinda weird. It at least makes enough sense, in that he’s always been vocally in denial about being into her, but still. He’s a bit of a perpetual fuck-up in general, like how badly he handled the whole ‘comfort Shimana after she gets rejected’ thing, but I still love him anyway.

I’m liking Taiga way more than I expected to. Part of it’s probably that I’m comparing him a lot in my head to Shigure from Fruits Basket and oh man does he win that contest, lol. In general I sometimes find myself comparing this manga to Fruits Basket, partly because there are some superficial similarities with the set-up, and partly because Fruits Basket is one of the few shojo I’ve actually read. So I may end up vaguely spoiling that manga sometimes, but I’ll try not to. But I’ll at least say that Shigure and Taiga are REALLY similar characters at first glance, but I’m so glad that Taiga is turning out to be a way better person. He works really well as a father figure, of sorts, who has enough flaws and issues to not be too perfect. I also like how he’s supporting all three of the main characters, in different ways.

He feels like he’s probably the current biggest source of mystery and story set-up right now. I hope there’s enough content there to keep the manga in general from feeling a bit devoid of story. I’m curious to see how the whole deal with his personal connection to the law industry, and by association his family, will unfold in the long run. I also feel like there’s more to his whole relationship with Miku than we know thus far, but I dunno what. She did say that they met through his job so it’s probably something law-related.

Also, the whole deal near the end with him being like ‘I’m fine with girls, but I don’t like *women*’ was kinda . . . weird, and I hope it makes more sense by the end. Thankfully I think we’re intended to find it a bit weird, since Shimana doesn’t get it either. I’m not sure exactly what he meant by it.

Whenever this sort of ~mystery~ is set up about a male character ‘not liking women’, it always makes me wish that the big reveal could just be that he’s gay, but it’s always something like ‘his girlfriend broke up with him and now he hates all women’ or whatever. I’m not really saying this as a genuine criticism or insult, but I’m definitely not expecting him to be gay, as much as I’d be happy if he was. Shojo manga isn’t much better than shonen manga when it comes to this sort of thing, and I don’t want to get my hopes up.

I kinda wish I had stuff to say about Miku but I really don’t thus far. I imagine we’ll learn more about her and her history with Taiga later, but right now she’s not super important. But I do love how she’s trying to be such a big sister figure for Shimana. It’s really cute.

I don’t really have many predictions or anything for the next volume, but I sure hope Zen can redeem some of his shittiness by handling this whole situation right, with him going out to bring Shimana out home. I’m also really excited to finally meet his brother. [I still think it’s kinda . . . weird that we literally got told about the unintroduced characters and when they’ll appear, though. It’s odd. And it’s making me wonder what’s gonna be the deal with the girl who won’t appear until volume eight. That seems pretty late to introduce a new character]