Ayakashi Triangle

According to the story, Matsuri being female in identity means becoming a Shrinking Violet who instantly falls for Soga, so if his behavior remains largely intact as it does in the finale, he’s likely still treated as male in identity.

I’m actually the one who put Heteronormative Crusader in Kanade’s folder. I’m just not sure how much of it is genuine homophobia, and how much is simply a consequence of wanting Matsuri back in his natural form.

Edited by KOman on Oct 10th 2023 at 10:58:30 AM

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Matsuri was literally hypnotized to "forget everything and think he's a girl". Matsuri acting like a comically-exaggerated stereotype doesn't tell us very much. Extrapolating that Matsuri needs an almost unrecognizable personality shift to be "female identifying" is just silly. For a while, there was a Matsuri that was purely-female in some vague metaphysical sense, but "she" did not act notably different than Matsuri had before.

Often in fiction, gender identity must be inferred, because the story won't acknowledge the concept explicitly. Matsuri has literally "identified as" both male and female, and also denied either, changing arbitrarily. When that character comfortably volunteers to "be a girl (i.e. become anatomically-female)" for multiple years, it's hard to safely assume they're purely masculine-identifying.

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I'm fairly certain Kanade was acting on her own preferences for Matsuri's gender, based on her own memories of Iyo's husband and experiences before making "Suzu Kanade" a new personality. That's not necessarily homophobic, but it's definitely quite selfish.

Frankly, it's a relief that Kanade decided growing up with Matsuri while secretly having many lifetimes of memories made her inappropriate as a romantic partner. Her vibe seems like a mother who tries to limit her daughter's love life to what she can vicariously enjoy.

Well, Matsuri’s discomfort with the Gender Bender has always been more with the gender roles (changing and bathing with other girls, wearing panties, not feeling like he can date Suzu) than the actual sex change (which only ever seemed to intrigue him), so I suppose becoming more comfortable with those roles could be seen that way.

Edited by KOman on Oct 10th 2023 at 9:13:47 AM

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Matsuri was always way too cavalier about the idea of being stuck for good to actually be that hung up on it for one reason or another.

But Matsuri is also, in many ways, a complete idiot, so it took a long time for that to be a conscious opinion.

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I think Matsuri will not really think about what is what and let Suzu decide what Matsuri is to be.

Its annoying the series ends like this though, there is still a lot of comedy to be had and doesn't really feel a heck of a lot like an ending so much as the first boss no one cared about...

Yeah it's the typical romcom issue on ending at the couple becoming an item, followed by an epilogue chapter some months later if you're lucky.

Secret Signature

I'd gotten used to a Distant Finale showing who ended up with who, so it did seem a bit imcomplete.

Matsuri and Suzu have only just started dating, and Yayo might start something with Soga.

Edited by KOman on Oct 14th 2023 at 4:22:37 AM

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Mmmm. I think it's a pretty good ending for what it is, though? The main conflict that drove the story is actually resolved (in as much as Matsuri could make a more permanent decision whenever) and they're together, but it's open enough that it could be revisited at any point if desired. Rather than a massive cavalcade of 'resolve every single open plot point ASAP and close of the setting for good in a way that is final but also unsatisfying'.

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But every time Suzu liked some gender-specific thing about Matsuri, she either kept it to herself or regretted putting her thumb on the scale. It was only after Matsuri was explicitly open to eventually dating in either form that Suzu suggested learning the jutsu to enhance their sex life—which Shirogane refuses to accommodate anyway.

It's not quite typical for the couple to learn they love each other at the mid-point, avoid "officially" dating for arbitrary reasons, and still have them do lots of sexual things together. Which makes delaying the hook-up a bit less painful, but even more pointless. Matsuri could have decided to date Suzu and stay a girl for the rest of high school much earlier without any negative effect on the story.

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I liked the ending for letting Matsuri and Suzu be girlfriends and taking the stance that it's fine if Matsuri stayed a girl, both things the series was evasive about. Which is very qualified praise akin to "The ending was about something, whereas everything before was about as little as possible."

After far a Distant Finale, I'm only even curious about Matsuri's adult life if it involves being a woman at least part of the time, something the author probably doesn't want to get into. Regardless, the story has not set up any definitive direction for Matsuri and Suzu's life, much less anyone else.

Edited by thatother1dude on Oct 15th 2023 at 11:57:31 AM

The big reason why I liked the Love Hina and Uzaki-chan manga, it went from Will They or Won't They? to ‘They Do now what’s next? Is this going to work?’ Answers so many questions while also keeping old ones going.

This should of switched over to a Slice of Like for a bit while building a new problem.

The last collected volume had Reo x Leo and an afterward by Yabuki. He mentions some stuff about the manga's development, like how Garaku, Shirogane, and Rochka were hold overs from his first story pitch. He has some ideas for continuing Ayakashi Triangle (he considers the ayakashi medium storyline finished, so we'd get more of the supporting cast, and possibly learn about Matsuri's father), but has no idea if that will happen. Yabuki also vaguely implied he'd rather go back to being artists to a writers—apparently even for an AyaTri continuation.

Also, we got another of those motion comics made from color manga panels (including ones way past the anime), this time a music video for the anime's opening song.

Edited by thatother1dude on Dec 10th 2023 at 11:15:42 AM

It would be nice to have a low stakes story. And anything else would probably have to be lower stakes, since Matsuri's gone for "shove decision making to graduation" and the whole Ayakashi Medium thing is done.

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