It's tough to be around someone who values and likes you.

This line hit me like a truck to the face, and perfectly captures Aikawa as a character. Good lord.

Thanks a lot for the translation!! This manga seriously deserves to get a lot more attention than it currently is, at least among the English-speaking audience (it appears to be doing quite well in Japan, thankfully).

I think people here are being too harsh on this manga. It's clearly wearing its influences on its sleeve, but what's important is execution, not originality. I think both protagonists are fun, their dynamic is very entertaining, and we're getting some hints of complexity that can be explored more later. It's also already way more sensual than Usui Shio has ever been before, so I don't think we can just assume it'll be like her past works were.

What exactly should Aya do now that her old life has been completely taken away from her?

All these are extremely relevant questions to actual people, no supernatural bullshit required,

I’m really not seeing how these two statements have any logical connection. Under what circumstances does an actual person “have their whole life taken away from them” and reunite with their schoolmates apparently 7 years younger and with their domestic situation eradicated apparently overnight?

This seems to be arguing that as long as we ignore the entire premise of the series, the issues it raises are very down-to-earth and realistic.

Add enough details and no work of fiction is applicable to real life. Probably nobody IRL had exactly the same backstory and issues as Touko from Bloom Into You, but the character's themes of loss and trying to live up to an impossible ideal are universal, or close to it. Obviously nobody IRL has ever been through exactly what Aya has. But the more general feeling of being unmoored, having no idea what to do with your life, being dependent on your loved ones and so alternately being grateful to them and feeling a certain amount of guilty resentment? Those are 100% realistic issues. I think you're approaching this story too literally.

I don’t disagree with the points you make, but judging the “morality” of the characters’ actions is ultimately subject to the extreme artificiality of the “spirited away” situation—what exactly should a person do when they or their crush or their rival disappears one day and then reappears seven years later physically unchanged and with no memory of time passing?

And you certainly could be right—that situation may in some sense have been triggered by all the characters’ wishes, but that’s basically irrelevant to judging the morality of the characters, because, at least so far, the story hasn’t shown the slightest inclination to make that premise explicit or to otherwise explore the mechanics of how the “supernatural” works here.

I kinda disagree with how you interpret the story. Yeah the literal premise is supernatural events that never happen IRL (as far as we know), but it's not like they have no analogue whatsoever to realistic situations. That is, in fact, precisely why the morality debates on this forum get so heated. Is maintaining an unrequited love for years a moral failing? How much of Koto's treatment of Aya is justified because (a) Aya legitimately does need her help and (b) Koto still has severe PTSD from Aya's disappearance? What exactly should Aya do now that her old life has been completely taken away from her? All these are extremely relevant questions to actual people, no supernatural bullshit required, and for that reason this manga is managing to call forth a lot of passion in its readership. I think that's a sign of its high quality.

I feel similar to this oneshot as I do to Haruhana Aya's serialization A Kiss for the Girl's Scars. Both this oneshot and that manga have some plot, pacing, and character issues, but the author puts a ton of heart, passion, and sincerity into each that make them compelling anyway. I honestly have a lot of optimism in Haruhana's potential, I think if she can gain experience as a writer while holding onto her clear love for the genre and the characters she writes, she might be able to create a true masterpiece someday.

I really don't get the impulse to rank these characters on some "optimal behavior" scale. The preceding conversations have done a thorough job of showing how Aya, Koto, and Erika are each in their own individual "damned if she does and damned if she doesn't" dilemma.

It seems to me that the whole point of Aya's "spirited away" time-shift (indeed, so far the only point that I can see) was to put all three of them into a "no win" situation and then see how it plays out.

I'm not interested in ranking the characters by morality, but I do think the manga is designed to prompt these sorts of discussions. It's a character drama where each of the three hurts the other two due to her own flaws and limitations, and I do think analyzing the morality of a character's actions is one way to reveal their personality and motivations.

In this case, it's particularly relevant because I still believe Aya's jump through time happened because each of the three, in her own way, wished for it. Aya wanted to escape from her shitty home situation; Erika wanted to drive a permanent stake through Koto and Aya's relationship; and Koto, as we're learning, wanted Aya to be dependent on her. What they're all learning now is something Slavoj Zizek once said, that the term for a dream becoming real is "nightmare."

If you wanted another term to use instead of "suggestive", "on the nose" is a term that means "very obvious/lacking in subtext".

Good point! That probably would be more accurate than my translation, so you can imagine her saying that instead lol.

After last chapter, I'm not so sure that she's being honest when she says she doesn't like anything or find anything cute. After all, if she didn't like anything, why would she have come out of the desert and what was that shining light she was walking towards?

If nothing else, it seems pretty clear that Takahashi likes her school uniform, given her expression while talking about it. So yeah, I agree, she's not being fully honest there.

I must express my most energic repulse to the translator's work. I mean, telling someone off while wearing cool shades should have, for quasi-religious reasons, translated as "...deal with it." The inferior line used is unaceptable.
Tsk, tsk. Kids today.

You are 100% correct and I am ashamed at my own incompetence.

last edited at Apr 25, 2024 4:09PM

god i'm so in love with this. i hope we can get at least a few volumes of it

Volume 2 is already out in Japan, which goes up to chapter 20, and it's still ongoing so we should get at least 30 (hopefully many more!). The most recently published chapter was #22.

Also this needs Philosophical tag imo, or I think it would paint a proper image for any interested potential reader. Anyway I love this, it's so eerie and profound, just fantastic.

I considered it, but I think Psychological is a more accurate descriptor; there is some social commentary, but the focus is largely on the characters' emotional states. That said, the social commentary is definitely there, so if you think a Philosophical tag is deserved please do suggest it and see what the mods think.

I'm really happy you're enjoying it so much!

in this thread we have Koto x Erika fans and Koto x Aya fans, but is anyone else an Aya x Erika fan?

I really appreciate the TL notes at the end Cogito, they're super interesting and helpful to someone learning Japanese (like myself).

I find it really interesting to see the rabbit-hole you sometimes have to go down to translate "slang".

Thank you! They're fun to write. I could probably talk for hours about translation choices since I find it fascinating. お砂糖関係/"sugary relationship" is the deepest rabbit hole I've gone down so far since I had to read through this entire Japanese article to understand it (or well, half understand it, my vocabulary isn't great and I wasn't going to look up every kanji in that article I didn't know lol), but you and @Zesc can be assured that more long TL notes are coming. :)

last edited at Apr 10, 2024 12:45PM

Neither of the artists has ever done Yuri before and the introduction of the work doesn't use the word Yur but the friendship so I wonder why is this work tagged as Yuri? Did at least one of the characters fall in love in the following chapter if not then I would suggest tagging it with subtext instead of Yuri.

The Bookwalker page does tag it as yuri, as well as romance. The Comicwalker page does not, admittedly (though it did have a "romance" tag before the website's redesign); looking at other sites that sell the volume, the tagging is actually pretty inconsistent in this regard. But the publication it's in, Comic Beam, publishes a number of yuri manga, as you can see from its page here, so I can't imagine there would be publisher pressure or anything to make it "not yuri."

In addition, I don't think it's true that neither mangaka has done yuri. The writer also did this oneshot, basically a comedy about a "yuri death game," as well as a previous series that at least on Twitter they claim to be yuri by the end (I haven't read it myself, maybe I should?).

Finally, while I understand the word "love" wasn't used, I really can't interpret Itou's reactions in chapter 2 in any other way lol. When you're having a meltdown over another girl getting close to you and thinking about how good she smells, that's not friendship. So while I do think it's kind of on the yuri/subtext borderline, there's enough there that I'm comfortable calling it yuri.

last edited at Apr 10, 2024 9:41AM

The anti-Koto people on this forum must have enjoyed this chapter lol.

To be clear, I don't hate Koto. I think her behavior is extremely understandable as someone clearly suffering from PTSD after the girl she loved suddenly disappeared (and presumably died), and that girl suddenly showing up again as a 14-year-old is literally unprecedented and would drive anyone a bit crazy. But that doesn't change the fact that she's not doing well right now and her extreme overprotectiveness and abandonment anxiety are the exact opposite of what Aya needs.

On the other hand, I really liked Aya in this chapter. Her situation is so shitty but she's trying to make the best of it and move forward. I don't know how many people in her circumstances could have done the same.

(Okay I'll admit it I'm kind of shipping Aya and Erika lol.)

This was so funny lol.

(Kanna is my favorite so far but I am intrigued by the blonde, since she seems to have been poor/malnourished as a kid.)

I understand why some people here don't like the new chapter, but while it wasn't executed the best, I think I can see where the author is going with it. The new character's goal seems to be to bring down her family's reputation by making the curse public, in retaliation for the damage the curse has done to her life. Presumably her ex-boyfriend broke up with her because of it, and/or unlike Chihaya she is 100% straight and so the curse effectively makes her unable to have a fulfilling romantic life. So I think the purpose of her character is to provide a contrast to the MCs: while they're still trying to make their relationship work, for others the curse truly is a curse.

Sometimes, I really want to know how people distinguish "subtext" from "yuri." Komichi all but confessed to Erika in a previous chapter, and they've had multiple scenes together clearly framed as romantic. If one of them were a boy, literally everyone would assume they'd end up together. I understand why years ago, when explicit lesbian context was incredibly rare, people were desperate for obviously romantic gay love to be depicted on-page. But we're far past that era now. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of ongoing yuri manga where the romantic feelings are front and center. I think it's fine to have a manga like this too where the characters are still trying to figure out exactly how they feel about each other, even if it's obvious to the audience what their feelings are.

I love Yorita Miyuki and I love these girls!

You see toxic romance all the time, but you rarely see toxic friendship. I love both these morons they are the absolute worst

Tenma is Usui Shio's first openly horny major character so she may be expanding her range with this one. Looking forward to it!

Don't get your hopes up, people. If I understand correctly the author's twitter, it's going to end next chapter.

At this point, they're probably retiring as a mangaka.

If you mean this tweet, I think it was probably a misspelling? They do say 最終話, but in their very next tweet they say 最新話 instead, and that's also what the official account uses. I guess we'll find out for sure when the next chapter releases, though.

this was so cute!!

I'm more confused why this 10 year old has anxieties about the crushing reality of society and not being good enough

Because she's an orphan in a medieval society and was likely living by herself on the streets before she got picked up by Liza

I think the whole "childhood friend" thing is a meme, however you almost always can tell who will win any sort of romantic competition and it's the first person to have a "spark" with the mc. The one time I can I think of off the top of my head where the author went out of their way to subvert that, "Domestic Girlfriend," the ending turned out to be universally reviled lol.

It's a meme taken from het harem romcoms, probably specifically Nisekoi. But yeah, most of the time it's easy to guess who'll "win." Though Ichigo 100% is another example of an ending that "subverts" the tendency you describe, and while that was controversial it was overall well-received especially in hindsight. But that's probably enough talk about het harems on the Dynasty forum lol.

To return to this manga, what I find curious is how much emphasis was put on the tomboy character -- she gets an entire spotlight chapter early on -- despite her clearly being the third wheel. She's being set up to play a major role and I'm curious to see what it is.

Apparently the voice actress Ayane Sakura left a comment on the Volume 1 physical release. 「何者でもなかった彼女たちを、この恋が変えた。良くも悪くも。」(not sure what a clean translation for the first part is, so I'll just leave the original quote).

"Love changed these girls who weren't anyone. For better or worse."

This manga is legitimately incredible, the author is absolutely nailing her unique premise and the character dynamics are both believable and extremely compelling. I love pretty much everything about it.

To add my stick to the Erika discussion: are we sure her motives are even that selfish? Whenever a character constantly claims in internal dialogue they're totally self-interested, I get suspicious (see one Sorawo Kamikoshi). While Erika might tell herself that she only cares about cheering up Koto, she has been unfailingly helpful and kind to Aya ever since the latter reappeared; she hasn't even really had a negative word to say about her, even in internal narration. As much as Aya's disappearance caused Koto to remain stuck in place for 7 years, the same thing I think happened to Erika; she's been chasing Aya's shadow this entire time, and only after meeting her again did Erika really internalize Aya was just an ordinary girl like her. Her focus on Koto masks it but I think Aya's reappearance is causing her world to shift just like it's making Koto's world shift.

Anyway though Aya is my personal favorite character right now. While she may put on the face of the bold, confident girl she used to be, in reality she is a complete mess who is (very understandably!) overwhelmed by the massive struggles she's facing and is barely holding herself together. The past her wanted to escape, and she got her wish, but as a result she's completely lost her place in the world and any obvious way to gain meaning in her life. Due to her anomalous state as a 14-year-old who is legally 21 without living relatives, she is completely dependent on Erika and Koto, neither of whom are really considering what's in her best interest (Koto due to her massive and still unaddressed trauma from Aya's disappearance, Erika because she's still prioritizing Koto and also likely is still unconsciously putting Aya on a pedestal). Hopefully she can find some real support at her new part-time job, but realistically I think the only person with both the knowledge and emotional capability to help Aya find a meaningful life path again is Erika -- but Erika would have to give up on Koto in order to essentially be Aya's surrogate mother, and that's not something she's remotely willing to do at the present time.

It's such an interesting confluence of realistically flawed characters that feels like it can only be headed for disaster, but I don't get a tragic feel from this manga, more bittersweet leaning hopeful if anything. I have no idea what the romantic endgame will be, I kinda feel like we're heading toward none of the three protagonists ending up with each other, but I think they'll all find their own happiness by the end. It'll just be a long struggle to get there.