elysia's books

elysia introduction to momcon! very much its favourite manga until it discovered momcon

the setup is that there's a student somewhere who runs into a girl who is treated like a weapon and she takes care of her and falls in love!!!

it's really adorable and involves a lot of caretaking. it's really just momcon in disguise imo. one of the characters is very aloof and silly and doesn't really understand how anything works!! but that's super okay cus she's being taken caren of.

it hasn't read much of it because its very scared it will end tragically

fan translation it read kinda sucks and very happy there is a offical translation

official version is called "My half of you"

this one is just actual momcon!! and probably elysia's favourite yuri

This one r3eally loves how the characters are built up and developed. They're complex and multifaceted and we get to see them grow and change over the story as they learn new things about themselves. All the characters feel relatively strong, too, even the supporting cast. It doesn't feel. tropey!

the main characters in part 1, I'd argue, are Asuka, Ayako, and Akira in the Morii family. Asuka is Ayako's daughter, and Akira is Ayako's aunt in-law. Junii and Miyuki are childhood friends of Asuka, and act as supporting characters.

Asuka loves her mother, and the story takes place around a time when she's finally pushing herself to talk about that and acknowledge those feelings, especially after becoming jealous of her late father and Akira's relationship with mom. She backpedals part ways through the story, realising it might be very onesided, and that she loves her mother too much to force anything onto her. Asuka is very worried about exploitng her position as a daughter to make her mom fawn over her, therefore making any potential relationship disingenous and incomplete. She really wants to learn how to move past her role as a daughter, and her goal is to become capable of seeing the other sides of her mother that she hasn't previously gotten to see. As a result, much of Asuka's story is learning to evolve her views on her mother and discovering how to love someone in a more nuanced and complete way, and it's really nice seeing her grow as a person and learn from her mistakes. At the beginning, her affection clearly starts as limited in scope, limited to how her mother has taken care of her in the past, and it evolves through the story to be about loving her mother as a complete person with their own challenges and self doubts.

What Asuka doesn't realise is that Ayako has also repressed emotions like these, and Asuka becoming more forward about her feelings for Ayako has made it impossible to repress them anymore. Ayako is in heavy denial about it, and much of her story is about learning to acknowledge those feelings even exist. She desperately wants to never admit she has those feelings and thoughts for Asuka, and lies to herself that things never changed, to convince herself she doesn't have to acknowledge her emotions. She's won't let herself even acknowledge they exist! She tells herself she's just looking out for her daughter, tells herself it's normal for a parent to struggle "letting go" when their kid becomes of age, etc.. Akira reads this in Ayako almost immediately (very much a situation where someone says the solution to their problems without even realising it, but is obvious to others). Akira begins teasing Asuka and Ayako over this, pushing them to take this more seriously than they are. In the middle of the story, this pushes Ayako to sleep and kiss her daughter, which she justifies to herself as being to "suffice" her daughter's wants, without ever "giving into her". Ayako frames it as a fight with herself and stopping the "bad parts" of herself from coming through, and that it'll be okay as long as she keeps a hold on herself. The end of part 1 has Ayako finally give in, after facing the reality that her daughter may not actually be hers, and becoming jealous of a college friend of Asuka's. "Don't touch her, she's my... what came after that?" goes through her head. Part 1 concludes with an awkward taxi home where Asuka is realising her mother's sudden affection for her may just be her misunderstanding and getting her hopes up for nothing, and is very self critical, before realising that Ayako's body langauge is also very bashful. Asuka feels guilty for making her mother feel guilty, and gives her a kiss, and instead of pushing her away, Ayako tongue kisses Asuka back, repeatedly, without needing to be asked. She says she loves Asuka, and then hides in her room all night.

Akira is a much less important character in the story but I'd still consider her to be very important. She seems to be very affectionate for Ayako as well, and is in the same industry as her. As aunts and nieces often are when they're close in age, they act as siblings to each other. Akira teases a lot of things out from Ayako and pushes her to be more honest with herself in a way only a sibling could, and she does so in a kind of playful way. She's kinda sad that Ayako has only ever loved her daughter, but she sees where the wind is blowing and decides to shift her affection to be supportive of wherever Ayako goes. Akira also acts as Asuka's second parent in many ways, being her babysitter when she was younger and often being the only other adult in her house when growing up. Asuka seems to have enjoyed Akira presence until she realised that she had kissed her mom, and for most of the story considers Akira her "enemy". The two do reconcile throughout the story, teaching Asuka an important lesson in the process.

The characters feel realisitic in a way that feels really uncommon in romance manga, especially when it's in a genre that could otherwise be dominated by fetish and uninteresting story lines. I was really worried that a lot of side characters would derail the story to tropify the characters and remove their depth to make the story more paletteable, as so often happens with these kinds of stories. I was worried that Akira would come in and end up being Ayako's actual true love, and remove all the layers of subtext previously established. Same with Junii and Miyuki for Asuka. Instead, the supporting characters add to the existing plot and strengthen it in a way I really appreciate it. Junii gives Asuka a perspective she didn't previously have, that really could only come from him, for example, and their subplot doesn't feel over emphasised in the story.

I appreciate all the effort that went into building the characters and the commitment to seeing it through. The realisation that Ayako is probably demiromantic and that her marriage really was onesided was really powerful in particular, and also felt realistic.

The story feels largely about the characters rather than the core ideas. Developing each character and their relationship with each other, rather than trying to meet the ideal of "momcon story" or something like that. it's very genuine and down to earth!

despite the story being from 2015, there hasn't yet been a part 2, which would presumably be about a proper relationship between Asuka and Ayako. Instead, the author has decided to redraw part 1's chapters first, and have them be officially translated. Tyskarr, in 2024, they announced they weren't receiving fantia payments for some reason anymore, and have struggled releasing english versions. I think the story is still being worked on, though. I really just want this to be finished and published and to see where it goes next.

I think an important part of the story being very realisitic is that it resonates a lot with people with similar experiences. My mother is very much like Ayako towards me, and the story helped me recontextualise and better understand my mother's perspectives, and I know others have had similar cases as well.

It thinks if it were to have one major critiscm is that part 1 kinda ends on a clinghanger, after all. Like, all the main character arcs are tied up in the last couple pages, but it feels like there's still some romantic tension between Asuka and Ayako, about how things will unfold. It would've been really nice to see some kind of closing heart to heart between the two, to see where each of them stood on mutual love. See them open up to each other about their emotions they've hidden from the other, how everything has made each other feel, comfort each other and remind each other it will be okay. Beyond that, i think it felt like a complete story in part 1. kinda sad there was less fluff and was always a little uncomfortable with how much time was spent on the side characters, knowing that the more time the author spends on the side characters, the less and less likely it is they'll have finished the main story. in the end, they did finish it (at least part 1), and it didn't feel rushed, and it was nicely self contained. but it would've been nice to see more private interactions between the protagonists, especially after Ayako finally comes to terms with herself.

it's still really adorable and fluffy in it's own kind of way! i guess. just. very slow burning (which obv i apppreciate in other ways)

really like the author in general and wish there series would be serialised and printed! or have any kind of physical things associated with them. that are accessible to elysia specifically

please let me know if there is any merch at all or any good news about part 1 getting released in whole or part 2 coming into existence.

also, an addendum to comments i've read online about it.

it's really weird how basically anything that isn't entirely mainstreamed gets called cursed in manga, and how things are critised for not following expected tropes. It's strange, because isn't reading a manga as a westerner inherently a niche thing in the first place? It would be weird if someone read it only to read the same stories they've seen elsewhere a million times? right?

it sometimes feels like some people are compensating for their own insecurities about themselves and choosing to bash other things as a result. like, i've seen people disregard the really good writing of this story a lot just to denounce it as pandering or something ! which is frustrating. or the reverse situation of people critqueing it for being too serious and not adaquetly satisfying the "requisite kink" even though this is obviouosly a romance story and not an ecchi one. It's weird! especially when I see how mainstream media with incesteous relationships are nowhere near as heavily panned as it is in niche circles like this? very strange

personally, the only properly weird manga I've read has been Terumina

same author as 1x½ ! also still momcon!

this one feels like it has less of a story than My Half of You. It is much fluffier and almost a comedy in comparison to 1x½. Overall much more lighthearted.

I've also only read the pre-serialisation fan translation. I've looked into reading the official one, but the whole fantia no longer accepting payment thing has me worried...

I like this manga too and reading it has made it apparent that I think this is my favourite manga author, but it also feels a lot cheaper from a writing perspective. more consumable and less challenging for the reader, less complex. I still like it a lot, but it really doesn't carry the same weight to me that 1x½ does.

saw a comment on this online that said that "i think the author themselves might be a momcon at this point" and it's like. Yeah..? feel like that's half of everything they've written!

the premise of this story starts of a lot more forward. 1x½ kinda starts timid and shy about the idea of momcon whereas Yuru Oyako cold opens with it as a established dynamic already, and more of the story is about becoming comfortable and engaging with that

we've read some of this and it is really happy it's cute and sweet and fun.

it has really sweet relationship between the main characters and their families, and the drawings are really expressive and exciting.

we think the name is really misleading and isn't really accurate. from we've read it also seems to be really ace and we like that a lot. it's accessible and fun and not scary.

we read this because we heard it had a similar setup as green tea bitch.

it is also really cute and we we think we like it less. we definitely like green tea bitch and just think we like adachi to shimamura.

we come across a lot of art of it online which is surprising becausue we don't really have the connections to make that happen, so it's interesting that it happens so much!

I can't say no to the Lonely Girl is about a star student bonding with a school truant, in order to get her to attend and do her studies.

The lonely girl starts off as really just knowing star student! but eventually makes other friends and feels more confident and complete

really really wholesome and cute

lesbian visual novel.

reading it is helping us with disassociation, and we can see ourselves in may character a lot and learn about ourselves through that. being asked by someone who cares about us to share our art can make us uncomfortable. we like how they talk. they have words to say and to navigate. they have words and ideas they want to say so they say them 😭

romance in general is really hard for us to read because it makes us feel so much and it takes a lot of spoons. being able to see ourselves and learn about us is really strong 😭😭

may doesn't have ability to see theirselves impacting world around them in any way.

"youre crazy" "you like me"

we don't fully like may as a character and how they communicate but reading was good for usu overall to recognise ourselves and who we want to be and what we want. we're good and incredibly sweet

we and our loved ones are most important inherently. also we dont like august

loving life and ourselves and the people around us

we're perfect, and we love our partner

same content warnings for this description as the visual novel itself.

short trans lesbian visual novel, here! [itch.io]

we align with these characters so much, they feel so us. they are really easy to compare and contrast with things we'd do or want in similar situations the characters are in.

the way toppy people have spoken to us while having sex in the past has always really felt like they were doing play or made us think they were unexpectedly mean. reading this made us acknowledge that we think this way, and that it's probably not true. when tops say they think we're hot we should believe them and assume they are saying it because it's important to them, and we should also try to remember that cute girls are not mean to us because they are topping us, because that is play!!! :)

we think that we are sweet and adorable and are usually short and direct and younger lesbian but we felt more similar to the older indirect taller lesbian in this story. they seemed really anxious and timid about sharing things and got really excited when the small lesbian created a environment where sharing was invited. big lesbian also had extreme and overwhelming abandonment and self doubt stuff (thinking reason they would be abandoned is because they're bad and that intimate person was just pretending to like them so they could leave as easily as possible), which we feel a lot (we think it was healthy to see it from outside perspective! we got to reflect on those feelings and what they meant).

we think because we felt similar to both of the characters in the story, it made it really significant to us, and made their words and communication feel very real to us. we could understand it really well!

the main reason we read sapphic things is to help us learn about ourselves socially and in order to process our own feelings and help us understand our identities. we think this visual novel is really really good for us because of that! we love it.

we also love how the author writes. they talk about so many good!!! things,

gosh, it's so good,
the way the author establishes scenarioes is so amazing and we dont understand how good it is! it seems like it's really hard to write this well. it's so good.

we love that its core idea is intimacy!!! the novel (realising we've been calling it a visual novel this entire time even though it was ONLY text)

for us, intimacy is extremely important for our health and relationships. if we dont have a intimate connection with someone than we struggle feeling comfortable calling them our friend (theres lots to this!!! feelings are complicated!!!! but this is in general). we love loving so much, we love closeness and intimacy, it's so good we love it so much we love it much. having a general theme being intimacy is so good

eeeek! we must be so cute to others. we still feel insecure and struggle thinking about how others perceive us but but i bet everyone thinks we're adorable and they're probably so right. we're so lesbian we love girlsm somuch

it's cute and i like it :3

uh umm it's pretty short (we thimk we read it in one hour maybe less 😌uwu) and we think that's good it ends at a really really good point to end but also it's so cute and good and is so so good for our brain that we think it would also be good if it kept going on. maybe we can continue it on in our lives!!! eeeee 😊😊!!

okay now that im all grounded (not disassociated) and gay, i think it's time i eat a snack. 😌

we're so happy we read this and want to share it with everyone!!!! website is SO good

omg the kde desktop manager shows where windows are on each desktop in real time.

🥰

not yuri manga but i still need to talk about this fucking thing

this is a surrealist manga about... train lines? It's hard to say.

Elysia used to be really into surrealist art and appreciates the commitment the story has to it. We stopped reading it when it became too unsettling, though.

Like i definitely like it but its also absolutely very strange!

"welcome to teeth station. they;re multiplying. please be careful when getting off at Teeth"