This is actually one of the best use cases of LLM.

No, it’s quite simply not. At all.

LLM is an entirely statistical model. To the degree that it strings words together in an order that makes some sort of sense, it’s ONLY because those words are statistically likely to be strung together in that order.

Japanese is an extremely imprecise and contextual language, particularly in its written form. Most kanji have multiple meanings, and often even a notably wide range of meanings, so a purely statistical model is already handicapped in any attempt to translate the intended meaning to another language. And Japanese creative writing, and manga especially, depends heavily on deliberately unusual uses of specific kanji to convey subtle bits of background information, moods, attitudes, hidden meanings or the like, or just as wordplay - puns, alliteration and the like.

And LLMs have no way to recognize any of that nuance. All they can do is regurgitate the most statistically likely string of words.

That will likely provide tolerable results with something that’s written simply and straightforwardly, but as soon as it gets to any of the countless manga that rely on unusual kanji readings and wordplay to convey nuance, it’s going to utterly and completely fail, since it has and can have no actual understanding of the author’s intent, so no basis on which to choose the correct reading of the kanji. All it can do is regurgitate the most statistically likely one, which in those sorts of cases is the one that’s absolutely guaranteed to be wrong.

It was pretty much doomed from the start.

The things that I most liked about it were that the romance was notably gentle, warm and slow-paced, as Hiragi and Taiyou slowly came to recognize their own feelings, and that the romance was just one aspect of the broader focus on Hiragi coming out of her shell and making friends, and her newfound friends learning how to work around her deafness.

I’m not sure if readers necessarily prefer trainwrecks full of contrived drama (the comment sections of those manga indicate otherwise), but for whatever reason, the publishers apparently think they do. So it was pretty much guaranteed from the start that this was going to end up prematurely axed.

I wonder if what we’re seeing with the last few chapters here is the mangaka basically saying, “Fuck it - you want some stupid contrived drama? Here’s some stupid contrived drama.”

I find it sort of oddly refreshing that it’s all so cut and dried - Hanabi is utterly loathsome and Yukishiro is a veritable goddess.

My reaction exactly.

I can’t imagine that it was anything malicious - if anything, just judging by their current interactions, it was something kind and even possibly intimate. But there’s that still mysterious past looming over everything…

Aah… that was a great chapter.

Even though Tani and Suzuki seem like a comfy old couple compared to the rest, they still have their trials. And Taira appears to be right on the verge of figuring things out (if he can just fight his way out of his own head for a moment). And Nishi and Yamada are positively radiant, and Nishi herself has never looked more comfortable, or more beautiful.

I keep forgetting how awesome this manga is, then a new chapter will arrive and I’ll be reminded all over again.

Awesome clarification - thanks.

Looks to be pretty standard cute girls doing cute things. Between the art style and the setting, it most made me think of GochiUsa with a bit of Kin-iro Mosaic thrown in.

Though that word “lily” leaps right out, since that’s almost certainly a ham-handed localization of “yuri.”

I guess we’ll find out eventually…

I really like that this is so stubbornly wholesome when it could so easily not be.

And the first chapter went up yesterday, and…

It’s almost as if this author has set out to investigate all the different ways to do an ecchi dumpster fire.

There was even a moment in this chapter when it briefly seemed that it might be headed that way, but of course nothing came of it.

On another note - I started wondering what would happen if, now that Saotome has a skirt on, the author did an upskirt shot of him. Would he have that same lower body that every single girl in the series inexplicably shares?

I can’t tell if she’s a romantic or a realist either.

I’m thinking there’s a key to Chokki-chan’s appeal there. Somehow her world is both fantastical and mundane.

She’s not a chuunibyou - it’s not that she fantasizes about a fantastical life. It’s more that she recognizes her very mundane life for what it is, but sees wonder in it anyway.

There might be an existentialist lesson to be drawn there…

Good for them.

This is pretty much exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to see when they announced that it was ending - the two of them setting out to live happily ever after.

And the goldfish were a great touch.

It’s doubly a shame too, not just because I liked the series, but because a rushed ending, which is pretty much always a bad thing anyway, is just that much worse with a manga that was as slow and gentle as this one.

Ah.

I just found out why this series made such a sharp detour into sich an ugly, contrived drama - it got axed. There are only three chapters left.

So presumably the author decided they couldn’t just let things continue to coast and let Hiragi and Taiyou continue to slowly grow to recognize their feelings for each other, and instead a confession was going to have to be forced.

It’s doubly a shame too, since it could’ve been done pretty well.

Having Reona step in to handle the beatdown is actually a pretty good idea, since she’s been shown to be at worst only barely short of Kazuhana in ability, and she’s been so eager for an opportunity to prove herself, so it’s pretty much a perfect chance for her. And with a bit of narrative framing, that could’ve been made satisfying. But instead it just came out of nowhere.

And yeah - it really looked like they were setting up an opportunity for the stuco prez to shine, then just missed it entirely.

There’s another unfortunate missed opportunity in the chapter too, and again it seems as if the author went out of his way to introduce it, then just didn’t do anything with it - Kazuhana’s mom showing up just in time to hear those guys say the dojo is a yakuza front. There then should’ve been a scene of her confronting them. That would’ve been the final indignity - even getting dominated by, or better yet getting their asses whooped by, Kazuhana’s mom.

Broadly, I wonder what the deal is with this manga. It’s not just that it’s gotten lazy, which would almost be better. Instead it’s almost as if the author is trying and is setting up something interesting, then suddenly switches to lazy right at the last moment. Instead of just not going anywhere, it looks for all the world like it’s going to… then doesn’t.

I assume so, and I thought it was pretty funny in a meta sense, since it’s such a little and sort of vague thing, but to any long-time fan of the series, it’s as blatant as a boxed announcement saying, “And tune in next chapter for fanservice!”

This manga is so far gone that it was actually sort of a relief rhat this chapter was only mediocre, since that means that it could’ve been much worse.

On the other hand though, the credits page was epic! I’m still laughing to myself.

Glad to hear that.

I could’ve seen it going the other way too - manga means not western - which would’ve been disappointing but would narrowly make sense.

And yeah - left-to-right always trips me up too.

And with a dash of Made in Abyss too.

This mangaka did an earlier series called Kyoukai Senjou no Limbo that was very good but sort of flew under the radar and ended up prematurely axed. This one thankfully got enough interest to keep going.

He has an unusual talent for blending fluff and drama, so the story is sort of alternately cute and harrowing, and neatly balanced. And there are a bunch of intriguing mysteries surrounding this world and Yakone’s place in it that have slowly been revealed.

I actually thought the series was winding down over the last few months - there have been some momentous events and answers to some very central questions - but with this most recent chapter, it looks more like it’s going to instead go into another entire arc. Which is fine by me.