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Link #41 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
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Link #48 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
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So much character-driven drama.
Keeping real gay romance out of the fake gay romance cafe isn't unreasonable - unrequited passions, misunderstandings and lovers' quarrels could cause problems. Real love is more important than a part-time job, however, and it's easy to remember that Maria-sama, the model for Liebe Girls Academy, was not a story about real lesbians but a sexless, even bloodless platonic ideal of female friendship. Flip-Flappers skewered it with their 'salutations syndrome' episode. This the pretty and comfortable homo-romantic ideal the girls are pushing to their customers in a country where real gays are denied their right, and the inevitable conflict with their real natures of sex, self-determination and gay love, are the natural core of this story. I'm not confident even the manga is going to take it as far as it could be taken, but it's certainly a story with potential. It would be easy to suspect Sumika of secretly envying the purple and white-haired girls who 'graduated' from fake love to real love, with every right to leave the cafe they had outgrown. However; Spoiler for speculative spoiler:
Ep9 was a wonderful picture of an individual girl without social skills, which a great many humans lack, motivated by perfectly human needs and desires that a 'well-adjusted' society utterly fails to acknowledge or understand. It doesn't take unusual insight to understand that a girl may not feel celebratory over another cishet giving up her career to sleep with a man and make babies, cheered for her obedience to the same society that stifles Kanoko's gay existence - or simply doesn't care enough about the event to make a banner. In fact, the students' groupthink doesn't dare to imagine an alternative to their heteronormative celebration; telling someone to do a task without considering their motivation or giving them a chance to refuse isn't good social skills, it's bad management and poor humanity. Since Don Quixote and Oscar Wilde it has been possible for individuals to be right and the segment of society that voted for Trump, Brexit and Goblin Slayer to be obscenely wrong. Kanoko could have dealt with the situation better, but it isn't her choice to be weak, emotionally or physically, and it would have taken exceptional, not normal, strength to oppose the pressure of the group or try to explain what such people show no capacity to understand. Normal strength would have made an excuse and passed the buck, as the students did to her. Breaking the sign again wasn't the best solution for Kanoko, but it was a fair consequence of the students absolute failure to understand or accept her. Which is the failure of the society that dares to call Kanako deficient when it lacks the will or ability to help her. While it might have made for an impressive psychological horror and social critique if Kanako had ended up stabbing the rest of the cast, I'm content that this isn't that sort of story; by making some effort to understand Kanako, Sumika should be able to guide her off the yandere path. Hopefully towards the more positive representation of explicit yuri that this story still has a surprising need of. |
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Link #50 | |
Kana Hanazawa ♥
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: France
Age: 36
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Thankfully, Sumika and Nene's friendship wasn't ruined.
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Link #52 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
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While Sumika's angst could have been resolved by any basic workplace policy on professional boundaries, and we now have two negative stereotypes among three out lesbians, Nene's speech at the end set matters straight brilliantly. Although Sumika making friends with Kanoko isn't such a concern as getting her off the yandere path before she explodes, if not by stabbing everyone, certainly by wrecking the cafe with a public outburst. It would be sensible to remove her from the cafe, except that she wouldn't be willing to leave. Kanoko is right that Yano needs a firm talk on professional boundaries as well; her relationship with Hime is presented as healthier, but their suggestive working environment, in point of cold fact, makes it just as susceptible to confusion and risky for the salon as Nene and Gotou's. It is not only predatory lesbian stereotypes who fall out of love, in the real world. Despite flaws, still a tense, emotional and very well expressed drama.
Even if getting dumped is part of love, Nene must be unhappier than she'll admit, and unhappy to work in the cafe of sisterly love that Gotou spoiled for her. It's also a significant problem that the lily-white fairytale of love between soulmates the cafe is selling has no concept of painful one-sided breakups or moving on from the same. Gotou ought to represent real-world relationships and should certainly have been more than a predatory gay stereotype. |
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Link #53 |
Kana Hanazawa ♥
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: France
Age: 36
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Funny that Sumika quickly noticed Kanoko was in love with Hime but was completely clueless about Yano. I'm rather happy with the way things were resolved for the time being. Sumika won't interfere, but she'll be there if Kanoko needs to talk or a shoulder to cry on. She really feels like a dependable senpai/big sister.
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Link #54 |
is this so?
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Gradius Home World
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episode 11:
enjoyed the staircase scene between Sumika and Kanoko. Probably a lot less stress now in cafe interactions. wow, the cafe received that many votes from patrons. Mai is getting a lot of profits. lol
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Link #56 |
Classic Yandere
Join Date: Jun 2008
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I wasn't really sure what to make of this series at first but in the end I'm going to miss this show. I ended up picking up the manga, there's a fair amount of spicy drama going forward though I guess its good to end the anime on a lighthearted note. Probably a 7.5/10 overall.
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Link #57 |
Kana Hanazawa ♥
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: France
Age: 36
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It was refreshing to see a light-hearted episode, especially one that heavily focused on Yano's massive boobs. I have no doubt Hime envies Yano's figure, but it's also pretty obvious the main reason she covered her up is because she didn't want people to look at her that way.
Loved that the show ended with Hime and Yano playing the piano. Like every actual yuri show ever, it will never get a S2 so it was a nice note to end it on.
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Link #59 |
Senior Member
![]() Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: USA
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It was a lot of melodrama but at least made for some entertainment. The Yano arc seemed to stop suddenly immediately after things were clarified but I would've liked some resolution, but all we got was the last episode where she was kind of still halfway a bitch. I wonder if Goeido ever comes back in the source material.
7/10
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Tags |
romance, yuri |
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