04-03-17 Our arrangement is over

[Abraxas]

[Spidrift]

On paper and being exceedingly clinical, sure, her therapeutic ideas have merit. But her lack of experience, poor empathy with her 'patient', and mixing her own psychological issues/goals into how she interacts with her 'patients' remove her 'genius' qualification for me.

I thought that "genius" was rather obvious hyperbole. But anyway, this is a wacky comedy about sex-crazed idiots; motives will always be tainted, and methods will always be insane. Judging by results is all we can do.

If at the end of the comic, it is meant that every character has (at least) one permanent significant other/partner and Kiley & Matt happen to be a pair off, ok. Makes sense to me.

That assumption is, of course, no more than an assumption. Giz and Dave tend to stick to very stock plot tropes about 65% of the time, and dance merrily on their graves the other 35%. We just have to wait and see.

I think there are a few ships in this comic that have gained traction partially because some characters alter their dynamics when they're together.

So far as I can see, a ship only gains traction if it runs aground.

(Careful with those metaphors, Eugene.)

When Zii and Gary are together (especially in cafes for some reason) Gary becomes less of a put-upon buttmonkey and more a fully realized character who displays a certain degree of wit and charm (and by extension relatability). And for her part Zii becomes less of a musically oriented nymphomaniac and more of a helpful, playful big sister (not that we really want to use the words 'sister' and 'Zii' in the same sentence given current circumstances)

True that. I guess that Gary triggers Zii's maternal instinct (oops, metaphors getting worse), while being one of the few people in the comic to whom Gary can actually talk as an adult. (Peggy is another, but she keeps confusing the issue by pushing stuff up his bottom. It's a shame that the idea of Jung as Gary's confidant never gelled; Gary might have developed as less of an aggravating dork if we'd seen more of that side of him.) So they become almost grown-ups when they're together.

And Sanda and Didi...Didi never comes off as less of a 'lustful Amazonian Goddess learning how to be human' and more of an actual human being than she does when she interacts with Sandra.

That ship has definitely sailed, though. Paris, modelling career, et cetera.

And my hopes for a resolution of this particular story: Zii approaches Kiley for help with her sexual issues (That is to say dealing with her escalating sexual frustration and eventually her fear of commitment)

That's a rather subtle set of issues to unleash Kiley on, though. She tends to tackle big, brash comedy problems like Yuki's psychosis, Gary's virginity, or DiDi's anorgasmia. Zii would have to be sat down on a couch and talked to. That may be insufficiently funny.

(Though I used to imagine Kiley dealing with Ruby's problems, which I reckoned was a bad idea, plot-wise, because she could probably sort most of that stuff out in four panels of brisk conversation. But Ruby's dealt with half of it for herself anyway now.)

[True_Avery]

I don't really read yuri... anything, so I wouldn't know, but is tall girl - petite girl unpopular for a pairing or something?

So as someone who ingests a frankly unhealthy, gluttonous amount of yuri on a regular basis (I read it for the articles) I can definitely answer with... kinda?

It depends on the fanbase. Dynasty Scans, for example, has a very femme/femme readership that sits more on the side of moe yuri opposed to josei yuri. Femme/Femme moe yuri is the most popular and caters to men and women (largely men), sticking to a same height, same body type, same girly femme style for each girl - unless a doujin that specifically calls for it, moe yuri has everyone at eye level.

On the inverse, you have the genre that is made for the classy, the refined, the well read and literate, the upper class true believers that partake like one would sip a wine: josei yuri. This rarely has moe style art, opting for more realistic art with shading and deeper expression. These stories often, but not always, take place in adulthood out of high school and focus on typically more realistic problems. The pairings also tend to reflect real life more; while moe yuri is almost exclusively femme/femme, josei tends to be femme/[masculine/butch/tall] or a bit more rarely, butch/butch. Height differences are seen more to exaggerate these archetypes, with tall/short couplings being a lot more common as well as long/short hair, lipstick/butch, etc. Difference in body types like one more muscular or bigger than the other is also more common.

While these fanbases of these genre can and do intermingle, you'll find josei fans tend to tolerate the moe half while the moe half tends to actively dislike the josei side. I've seen some frankly dumb shit come out of moe yuri fans mouths, particularly in many of their disgust with muscles, short hair, tall, or masculine looking girls -- these people often get schooled by josei fans who point out that while playing to some lesbian stereotypes, it is far closer to how real life works than the femme/femme dreamland moe lives in. Suffice to say, it is pretty easy to tell that a lot of moe yuri fans are either not women, or are not queer to any practical degree. But, since the moe fans make up the vast majority of yuri fans, you'll often come across a vocal distaste of tall/short and other similar mixes - not to say I'm a huge fan of the stereotyping josei can fall into, and the rather limited palette of femme/butch, but you prolly see my point.

In short, most yuri fans want Yuru Yuri seeping rotting gutter garbage trash. True angelic human beings with the tastes befitting gods grew up with Haruka x Michiru as their OTP for life.

Fight me Yuru Yuri fans

[Maechris]

In short, most yuri fans want Yuru Yuri seeping rotting gutter garbage trash. True angelic human beings with the tastes befitting gods grew up with Haruka x Michiru as their OTP for life.

Fight me Yuru Yuri fans

I'm convinced of your opinion being objective now

(...josei yuri. (...) These stories often, but not always, take place in adulthood out of high school and focus on typically more realistic problems. The pairings also tend to reflect real life more; while moe yuri is almost exclusively femme/femme, josei tends to be femme/[masculine/butch/tall] or a bit more rarely, butch/butch. Height differences are seen more to exaggerate these archetypes, with tall/short couplings being a lot more common as well as long/short hair, lipstick/butch, etc. Difference in body types like one more muscular or bigger than the other is also more common.

While these fanbases of these genre can and do intermingle, you'll find josei fans tend to tolerate the moe half while the moe half tends to actively dislike the josei side. I've seen some frankly dumb shit come out of moe yuri fans mouths, particularly in many of their disgust with muscles, short hair, tall, or masculine looking girls -- these people often get schooled by josei fans who point out that while playing to some lesbian stereotypes, it is far closer to how real life works than the femme/femme dreamland moe lives in.

Is that the same 'Josei' as the one used to describe manga demographic (Shoujo - young/teenage girls, Josei - young adult/adult women?) or is it meant to mean something different in that case? Because it'd definitely explain the 'realism' of it. I prefer reading Josei (just not specifically yuri) and Seinen stuff to shonen/shoujo myself most of the time, though Seinen carries the risk of being reduced to a pornfest (then again, shonen does that with 'innocent fanservice' at times, too).

And my hopes for a resolution of this particular story: Zii approaches Kiley for help with her sexual issues (That is to say dealing with her escalating sexual frustration and eventually her fear of commitment)

That's a rather subtle set of issues to unleash Kiley on, though. She tends to tackle big, brash comedy problems like Yuki's psychosis, Gary's virginity, or DiDi's anorgasmia. Zii would have to be sat down on a couch and talked to. That may be insufficiently funny.

I am also afraid that Zii will have to deal with her issues mostly otherwise, or during a short 'serious period' of the comic. This is because inability to commit and lack of impulse control aren't often recognized as actual 'issues' anymore.

[Spidrift]

I suspect that Zii's problems will end up being resolved de facto rather than by anyone analysing them and working out a solution intellectually, the way that Kiley does. Zii fears commitment, but she'll overcome her fears and commit to somebody (my bet being on Gary and Yuki); Zii is feeling sexually frustrated, but she'll find a relationship that gets her rocks off frequently and energetically enough; Zii has impulse control problems, but she'll eventually just calm the hell down a bit once her life is sorted out enough.

You know, the way that most real people solve most of their problems most of the time. It might leave therapists feeling in danger of being put out of work, but there are enough actual loons with really wacky problems in the Ma3 universe that they really don't have much to worry about.

[wiseguy]

so...........looks like Didi has issues with slang and what is to her uncommon figurative speech and even popular sayings and in this particular case

the { she is saying "it's not you, it's me" } phrase she heard it as "she is saying it's not you, it's me" or in correct terms, Didi heard it as "she said she is not you, she is her"

[Dorgengoa]

This is getting really gay, and I'm tempted to use the R-word. There are rules against that, though, I'm assuming.

[robot_new_york]

I don't really read yuri... anything, so I wouldn't know, but is tall girl - petite girl unpopular for a pairing or something?

So as someone who ingests a frankly unhealthy, gluttonous amount of yuri on a regular basis (I read it for the articles) I can definitely answer with... kinda?

It depends on the fanbase. Dynasty Scans, for example, has a very femme/femme readership that sits more on the side of moe yuri opposed to josei yuri. Femme/Femme moe yuri is the most popular and caters to men and women (largely men), sticking to a same height, same body type, same girly femme style for each girl - unless a doujin that specifically calls for it, moe yuri has everyone at eye level.

On the inverse, you have the genre that is made for the classy, the refined, the well read and literate, the upper class true believers that partake like one would sip a wine: josei yuri. This rarely has moe style art, opting for more realistic art with shading and deeper expression. These stories often, but not always, take place in adulthood out of high school and focus on typically more realistic problems. The pairings also tend to reflect real life more; while moe yuri is almost exclusively femme/femme, josei tends to be femme/[masculine/butch/tall] or a bit more rarely, butch/butch. Height differences are seen more to exaggerate these archetypes, with tall/short couplings being a lot more common as well as long/short hair, lipstick/butch, etc. Difference in body types like one more muscular or bigger than the other is also more common.

While these fanbases of these genre can and do intermingle, you'll find josei fans tend to tolerate the moe half while the moe half tends to actively dislike the josei side. I've seen some frankly dumb shit come out of moe yuri fans mouths, particularly in many of their disgust with muscles, short hair, tall, or masculine looking girls -- these people often get schooled by josei fans who point out that while playing to some lesbian stereotypes, it is far closer to how real life works than the femme/femme dreamland moe lives in. Suffice to say, it is pretty easy to tell that a lot of moe yuri fans are either not women, or are not queer to any practical degree. But, since the moe fans make up the vast majority of yuri fans, you'll often come across a vocal distaste of tall/short and other similar mixes - not to say I'm a huge fan of the stereotyping josei can fall into, and the rather limited palette of femme/butch, but you prolly see my point.

In short, most yuri fans want Yuru Yuri seeping rotting gutter garbage trash. True angelic human beings with the tastes befitting gods grew up with Haruka x Michiru as their OTP for life.

Fight me Yuru Yuri fans

Great post. Sadly, the Didi/Kiley relationship is just one of the grande misunderstandings (most popular ma3 plot device) and is thus not enticing in the least. In any way. It started good though, the misunderstanding was funny



back in 2014. But since then I've only had the feeling of Kiley desperately wanting to leave and somehow not being able to communicate this to Didi. She ended up deceiving her for forever and NOW she somehow used wrestling, Didi's hobby, to get out? LAME and WEAK

[True_Avery]

Yeah, this storyline is less yuri and more like an extended showing of how far the definition of "therapy" can be stretched before the line between turns into a singularity.

Is that the same 'Josei' as the one used to describe manga demographic (Shoujo - young/teenage girls, Josei - young adult/adult women?) or is it meant to mean something different in that case? Because it'd definitely explain the 'realism' of it. I prefer reading Josei (just not specifically yuri) and Seinen stuff to shonen/shoujo myself most of the time, though Seinen carries the risk of being reduced to a pornfest (then again, shonen does that with 'innocent fanservice' at times, too).

Yep, spot on. Josei in both cases means aimed at young adult / adult women. I didn't mention Shoujo yuri, but Shoujo yuri is a curious case of sitting inbetween - it goes with the shoujo artstyle, and really loves its sexytime scenes that are "PG" with flowers (namely lillies, the namesake of yuri), and while often in high school they tend to have actual drama and stakes.

Seinen yuri does exist and I would certainly never admit to anyone here that I love it because that would be weird and I am not weird. It has a lot of blood, violence, fighting, sex, and typical over the top crazy seinen stuff. A good example would be Murcielago which is fuuuuucked uuuuup and certainly is not something I have any familiarity with at all. *cough*

"Shounen" yuri is the absolute rarest, and totally my fix I never get to scratch that itch for. Since yuri as an entire subgenre is so small and makes so little money, they all have to be romance focused but a few rare ones act a lot more Bleach/Naruto-y with long fight stories and super powers and such. Nearly every one of these series I've followed gets canceled around 10 or so chapters in, but they can be a fun aside.

And yes, you are correct that sex plays a pretty big part in a lot of Josei/seinen, but that can be attributed to the dime story romantic wife stories at the checkout counter principle. Women love their softcore, dramatic sex. And by women I obviously don't mean me for sure, not all at, lets just move the goalpost over and say someone like worldshaking00.

Yes. Don't look at my signature.

[Spidrift]

Yeah, this storyline is less yuri and more like an extended showing of how far the definition of "therapy" can be stretched before the line between turns into a singularity.

It's evidently Mangled Metaphor Sunday. I now have to imagine something being stretched until the line between two things becomes a singularity.

Don can doubtless handle this better than I can, but I can imagine a line being stretched until it goes "sprung!" And contracts into a gravitational point source. Or maybe anything that approaches the line simply becomes mathematically indeterminable. Or perhaps the line is a graph, and is actually stretched laterally at one point until its value approaches infinity...

[True_Avery]

It gets so stretched out that it can only be determined to have area by two dimensional math as the holographic universal principles of three-dimensional mathematics breaks down in the line between Newtonian physics and quantum mechanics. Falling into the realm of quantum string, each piece of the string becomes so thin that each piece of the line is merely the potential for another line to exist, creating a string that can only exist because the possibility of it existing as a string is possible. Having stretched so quickly, its mass becomes effectively infinite and collapses the universes into it, and each section of the string absorbs infinity, stretching forever and overlapping, and within these overlaps of dimensional space our three dimensional hologram is birthed into existence until the unstoppable inevitability of this strings possibility repeats the process forever, and never, as the possibility of both becomes simultaneous.

That is how thin the definition of the word "therapy" is being stretched.

[MoonshadowDark]

You know, I'm not sure what possibility is sadder: That DiDI really is that stupid, or that she's in denial of Kiley breaking up with her.

And on the other side, Kiley has an unpleasant moment of clarity. The landing is always harsh.

She's not in denial. I don't think she has ever been dumped before.

[Lokitsu]

so...........looks like Didi has issues with slang and what is to her uncommon figurative speech and even popular sayings and in this particular case

the { she is saying "it's not you, it's me" } phrase she heard it as "she is saying it's not you, it's me" or in correct terms, Didi heard it as "she said she is not you, she is her"

That's been a running joke with DiDi since the comic's beginning. I occasionally wonder if she's Carrot's daughter transplanted from Discworld.

[worldshaking00]

...like worldshaking00.

Hey now, T_A. The first part of fixing a problem is admitting you have a problem. I don't see a problem with you, and I don't have one either.

I also have no where near your level of knowledge of Yuri manga/anime - Haruka & Michiru, Utena & Anthy, and some of the more bizarre happenstances to Cutey Honey are about my total. But as you mentioned H & M already, here's a little something to repay you for enlightening me. Best part of the SS movie

[Balancer]

That's been a running joke with DiDi since the comic's beginning. I occasionally wonder if she's Carrot's daughter transplanted from Discworld.

In the words of the late Sir Terry “Colon thought Carrot was simple. Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was.
Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid.”