Sorry about not bringing this up in the Yuri threads as well, this basically started as me saying “I have purchased 花物語 and will be reading it imminently because I like seeing the how trends in literature develop” in my study log, and then a few people chimed in that they were also interested in reading it Because class S is (as seen here) both hard to define and many things that are “Class S”, even ones that are heavily influenced by it, are definitely also firmly in the yuri camp, maybe it would have been better to organize this as an informal club for that particular book
I have no idea what if any of the differences for 若草物語 are. I assume they are all mostly the same. Those on natively all seem to be children books. I don’t think the English original is strictly considered a children book. I never read it, but I watched the world master piece anime adaptations (and a live action adaptation). Those are some of my favorite anime.
I… Actually don’t enjoy the class s tropes (Catholic school, souer system, gokigenyo). And 花物語 seems too difficult for me to enjoy. Though I’m a little interested in the historical aspect to see where those tropes come from. Apparently the English translation is titled Yellow Rose. I might try that.
This was the other reason I didn’t necessarily want to bring it up to the yuri club What pieces of it have worked their way into yuri more broadly have kind of a divisive reputation (especially the “romantic friendships” that never become actual relationships, the yearning that can never be fulfilled for x y or z reasons)
For what it’s worth on the difficulty side, based on the bit of reading that ルナ did and my own test read, we both think it’s pretty heavily over graded at L38. I’d put it more like L32/33, and since it’s a short story collection it’s not like you need to keep track of anything over the course of the whole book. If a story ends up being way harder randomly, not a huge deal if you miss it
Feel free to do that anyway, if it doesn’t win the vote (tho I’m hoping it does, personally).
That said I really wanted a space where all this stuff could be together in one place, and I could talk to other ppl who are into these things as well. So while it’s been a bit stressful figuring out how to organize and define things, I’m glad I decided to do it as is.
The exact thing I love about it (I have a thing for “more than friends, less than lovers” in general tho)
I think I feel conflicted about it.
I do like platonic close friendships and best friends to lovers tropes. But then there are cases where it feels like it should have been a romantic/sexual relationship and the only reason it isn’t is to fit with a trope. There are also ways to make it toxic if it seems like not everyone is on the same boat about the nature of the relationship.
I guess it also depends on whether we bring more friendship into romance (great) or more romance into friendship (eh). I think it’s great if characters actually know each other and are close, instead of blushing when they see each other from across the school yard. But if you bring jealousy and unrealistic idealization into platonic relationships I’m less of a fan.
Totally fair, everyone’s got their preferences.… Also sometimes things are just poorly written
Any particular examples? I’m wondering if どうしたら幼馴染の彼女になれますか!? | L23 is gonna turn out like this (I’d hope not, given the title, but…)
I think for me there’s a difference btwn stuff in the Class-S vein where like you know ahead of time that’s probably gonna be the case, vs a story where you’re just left scratching your head
Sounds fun (I hear わたゆり calling )
I think I would agree with that, unless it’s used to craft something more interesting (わたゆり again comes to mind). But it’s hard to respond without knowing what exactly you have in mind
It does not. It starts out with the protagonist clearly wanting a romantic relationship in the first volume.
I suppose it could be fun if done well and intentionally!
There are cases where I “ship” them for more and kind of like the relationship they have, but also feel frustrated and sometimes wish there were more (I suppose some of the times there could be more in the future and it’s just slow burn). ヤマノススメ is like that for me (I’ve only watched the anime and don’t know how they develop in the manga).
Then in 響け！ユーフォーニウム (again, anime only) I like Kumiko and Reina as (“just”) best friends, but feel a little annoyed that the anime made them look kind of gay at times. Especially because I initially wasn’t sure how to take it.
I do have a class s inspired work in mind I don’t want to mention for spoiler reasons. But it involves a character that was in a (horrible) relationship and after that ended stuck around as a “best friend” .
But I also don’t particularly like this worship and intense adoration of characters that you see in some high school anime/manga from both sexes both in Yuri and non-yuri works. I also don’t think Catholicism is cool. Like, to the extent that I like わたゆり and 百合オタ it’s despite the tropes they parody, not because of them.
I do think at some point I took a look at マリアがみてる and decided it’s not for me without ever having tried it. Maybe I’m wrong about that.
I misunderstood you then. What I had in mind here was (spoiler unless you’re totally caught up) both of them clearly want a relationship, and 2 chapters ago the shorter MC rejected a confession, in the most unbelievable scenario possible (seemingly just for the trope), and now we’re suddenly at the final chapter
Ohhh I totally get that then. Tho some series (most MangaTime KR) I expect that will happen from the outset.
I couldn’t get into the show (it seems great, just not an enjoyable setting for me), but it’s quite infamous for that now. Can definitely understand the frustration.
Any chance you could PM? I probably wanna read it
Ahhh that’s just something inherited then (since the historical Class-S stuff was set there bc it reflected the times). One thing I find interesting with the modern stuff is that the religious portion is largely there as a trapping. I avoided マリア様がみてる for a while bc I was worried the religious institution setting would be unpleasant for me, but even there it is mostly relegated to a symbolic or functional role. (Tho not treated irreverently)
Based on what you’ve said so far, I’d be surprised if マリみて was your thing (わたゆり is definitely a direct response to it btw). Also it makes a really bad first impression (not unlike わたゆり), but gets better as it goes.
Alright, voting time! Refer to the nominations post for notes, or feel free to ask about anything, if you need more info. Poll auto-closes Dec 23 0:00 UTC, so vote before then. Up to 5 votes per person.
I’m kinda wondering what to do about series… Potentially:
For VNs: just the 1st one, and if people want to continue, it can continue as an offshoot?
For Manga: for short series (< 5 vols?) read all, otherwise read vol 1, and optionally continue as offshoot?
For novels: just vol 1, and optional continue as offshoot? (certainly for something long like マリみて we’re not committing to the whole thing!!
But alternately, we could just assume the whole thing, and then if ppl don’t wanna continue, they just don’t continue… by way of comparison: FLOWERS vol 1 is about 11-13 hrs playtime (not accounting for reading speed, lookups, etc)… Any of the manga series here can be finished in less time than it will take to get through FLOWERS vol 1… so maybe it makes sense to also commit to the whole thing for the manga?
In a sense it’s sorta moot, but for things like “when to hold the next vote” it kinda makes a difference in figuring out when… or do we just go w/ the flow? Anyone have thoughts/preference?
Oh wow. You did end up adding little women. Not sure how relevant it really is. I was thinking of nominating it in another BC, but then I realized those were light novel BCs. Maybe the children’s book club would’ve worked.
I see you also added Little Princess. In this case I want to mention Little Lilly Princess. It’s an English language Yuri VN. I think it’s pretty good. One of the best written VNs I’ve read in terms of prose, simply because a lot is taken straight from the book.
Relevant enough for Wikipedia to mention it as a prominent influence, at least. That said, I was actually considering removing my vote for it, bc I’m not sure whether it’s the best first choice. I noticed you added a vote for it & 花物語. Are you planning to participate if one of them wins?
I won’t add Little Lily Princess to the list in any case, since it’s English-only, but cool to know about.
I think so. It was said that it’s a story collection, so the investment doesn’t seem too high. I’m not sure yet if I should try English or Japanese, though.
@javerend@Marifly@Naphthalene - are any of you considering voting? Everyone else who marked yes/maybe already voted. So I was thinking of closing the vote early (and getting on with the tie breaking), but didn’t want to close prematurely, in case you did want to vote
Also I’d really love it if someone broke the tie, cuz I’m super torn on which to vote for, in a tiebreaker round
Just means you were 2nd to vote, after my comment (it had been tied for days). So it seems I successfully encouraged ppl to break the tie, and… form a new one
I’m happy for the increased participation anyway, and I’ll leave it open for the time being.
In any case it likely solves my personal problem for what to vote for in a tiebreaker round, since I (probably) won’t have my top choices pitted against each other now
Because class S is (as seen here) both hard to define and many things that are “Class S”, even ones that are heavily influenced by it, are definitely also firmly in the yuri camp, maybe it would have been better to organize this as an informal club for that particular book
(I have a thing for “more than friends, less than lovers” in general tho)
)
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I would leave the poll up until it’s official end time just in case.