sucreslibrary's reviews
1109 reviews

completely understand why this has such a low reading esp b/c it seems ppl are going into this expecting something entirely different. i certainly was. but what i found is something i enjoyed much more than the initial pitch, and something i can see myself returning to on occasion. there's some lovely turns of phrase here and several paragraphs i sent on to my wife (he enjoyed them as well!). the experience felt like watching a slightly high brow erotic thriller where you're not necessarily enjoying the experience the entire time, but you're certainly feeling something, and by the end you leave feeling a little hollowed out. aka a good time!

first half is much better than the second. it is (very darkly) humorous to see the reviews on this from 2010 acting like TERFs and proponents of 2nd wave feminism have mostly died out so the book isn't "relevant". at times it feels like serano has a condescending view of nonbinary/genderqueer/etc ppl, though i do understand and agree with a lot of her frustrations as far as the "community" goes. other parts of this (like the essay "putting the feminine back into feminism") felt like an ominous look into where we currently are re: choice feminism and how things seem to have regressed significantly (see: girl math, explaining things "for the girls", etc.) and i found myself cringing through the entire essay. theres also some very prescient takes in here about trans men weaponizing their privilege in trans spaces/not being there for trans women that are sadly still very relevant today, especially in certain sections of the internet that like to kick up discourse that inevitably has transmisogyny at its core.

lots to think about and im glad i finally read this one. 

 one of the best yuri series coming out right now! a couple new characters are introduced in this volume which leads to an expansion of topics. there's a lot touched on but it doesn't feel shoved in or perfunctory - it's clear the mangaka cares about these topics and her community. lots of really sweet moments in this one as well, just overall a great volume of this series! 

there's a reason i don't pick up high school yuri anymore. the tropes involved really haven't advanced since i was reading it over a decade ago and now that i'm 30 i really just don't have the patience. i made an exception for this one because of the HoH character - I was interested to see how deafness was dealt with and if it was handled well. for the most part, i think it was fine. i don't have the same hangups with this one as i do with A Sign of Affection. it's everything else that doesnt work for me.

i really dislike the art style - the type of overly-glossy lips and extreme blush-y faces that have gotten popular in recent years are a huge turnoff for me. the manga has already set up a lot of sexual tension way too quickly (one of the things i dislike in high school yuri in general) and the characters aren't that interesting. it's obvious that saki is gay and having a hard time coping with heteronormativity, and i wish that had been explored a little more instead of simply hinted at in this volume. kanon obviously has more going on since she is the hard of hearing character but the manga takes care to show her personality and interests outside of her disability which is appreciated. unfortunately a lot of her character looks like its going to be otaku-based, and i was already getting annoyed with the few discussions that popped up because of it.

ultimately i'm glad i gave this a chance, but i will not be continuing with the series. if the art style was even a little more bearable for me i might be able to do it, or if i hadn't burned myself out on this style of yuri a decade ago, but as it is this just isn't my thing.