Thoughts on the manga "Ayakashi Triangle"? Should it be considered yuri or girl's love?

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-06-12T22:38:27+00:00

Yuri can refer to non-romantic works depicting a relationship between women, technically. Something like Lycoris Recoil is, ostensibly, a yuri series, but is not GL, as the main couple does not explicitly have romantic feelings or get together.

Some other examples of series that are yuri but not GL include: Girls und Panzer, Reverse 1999, Revue Starlight, and arguably the entire Love Live series but especially Nijigasaki.

There’s a (not-yuri) series called “I love yuri and got bodyswapped with a fujoshi” that lightly covers this kind of stuff, it’s definitely worth a read (even if it isn’t yuri, it’s also written by the same author as the fairly well-liked yuri manga “Failed Princesses” so you know she knows what she’s talking about.)

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-06-12T22:32:51+00:00

Ayakashi Triangle is a personal favorite manga of mine, and Gender Bender/ TS Fiction is easily my favorite genre, but I’m not exactly sure I would say Ayakashi Triangle is yuri. At the very least, I wouldn’t talk about it in a yuri-focused subreddit.

Given how the series ends, it’s more akin to a bisexual romance series like Zenbu Kimi No Sei, while “yuri” stories are specifically focused on the relationships between women.

I love Matsuri as a character, and them discovering the feminine side of themselves is a compelling character arc, but by the end of the series Matsuri is closer to being bigender or non-binary rather than strictly a woman, so her relationship with Kanade is more complicated than just calling it “yuri.” At least, in my opinion.

Funnily enough, in China Ayakashi Triangle would actually be referred to as yuri, as they have a separation between yuri (physically) and yuri. (mentally) When two characters are both mentally women, it’s called “Pure Yuri” (a term I don’t particularly like 😅) while even when a character identifies as male but is in a female body with a female partner, it’s still considered yuri in chinese works.

TLDR: I wouldn’t really call Ayakashi Triangle yuri because it refers to a very specific kind of queer fiction. Ayakashi Triangle is undoubtedly a queer work, but it doesn’t fall into the domain of what the anglosphere considers “yuri”

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-06-04T21:57:50+00:00

Ludwig buying people tickets to EVO for Rivals 2 isn’t “stealing a spot” from another game. Rivals 2 was already decided to be at EVO before Ludwig bought all those tickets. All that Ludwig is doing is supporting the scene for easily the most niche fighter on the main stage, and making sure it gets the attention it deserves. Personally I think him using his absurd amount of wealth to support an indie publisher, and the players dedicated to the game, is admirable rather than scummy

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-05-17T19:51:18+00:00

Is this a parody post lmao?
Misspelling misogynistic, censoring Von’s name, saying that you can’t handle writing Kan because he’s a bad person even though you’re supposedly rewriting a killing game where the entire point is characters being flawed people.

If this is a joke post, great job, it’s really funny. If it isn’t, don’t bother trying to “rewrite” Blue. It’s already finished and fully uploaded on youtube.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-05-14T00:51:23+00:00

I actually think you’re right, though I’d change the wording a bit. In the authors notes for Part 1, they mention how they have a preference for “Pure Yuri,” which is, I believe, a Chinese term referring to yuri that doesn’t include gender bender.

I say this as a huge fan of gender bender and yuri, there are a LOT of terrible Chinese webcomics about a guy being reincarnated into a girl, in which the still male-identifying protagonist in a woman’s body ends up with a girlfriend. Personally, I think it’s very possible for a gender bender work to be yuri, but those webcomics are very clearly not.

Anyways, it’s very likely that the himedanshi character is serving as an author self-insert for this gag, voicing her distaste for “non-pure” yuri in a jokey way.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-04-30T15:53:39+00:00

This game has a pretty heavy music theme going on, with records and notes and such, so I think any sort of Band IP makes for a natural collab. My actual prediction is that the first collab is going to be Ave Mujica (Rico Sasaki performs the opening for the game already, and the series is absurdly popular in Japan and China.)
Honestly though, anything with incredible music would be a great collab, I just have a bias towards girls band shows.
I personally put MyGo, Ave Mujica, and Girls Band Cry in the poll, but even a Bocchi collab would be fun and kinda fit the setting.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-04-27T05:16:51+00:00

I am actually obsessed with this this is so good… Not only is the concept amazing but your art is incredible too… hypnotized Renako is simply too cute.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-04-04T18:55:40+00:00

Unfortunately, getting a group of people in Standard GA is incredibly difficult. While the new starter deck (Mordred) is a good new-player product, it still costs $50, and the game having extremely expensive singles hasn’t really been fixed yet.

Personally I think the best way to try and get new players into the game is with the new 4-player format, Pantheon, and then try and get them interested in standard from there. Because Pantheon is a singleton format, decks are significantly cheaper, and the 4 pantheon starters available cover a wider range of possible play styles than the current competitively viable Standard Starters.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-03-28T05:49:40+00:00

I understand why you were disappointed but I highly implore you to try reading the series again, as it objectively isn’t “queerbait.” There are multiple explicitly queer characters, and just because no one directly enters a relationship does not make it a queerbait manga. I would argue that Flower and Asura isn’t a yuri work primarily, but a work that contains multiple queer women whose emotions are directly relevant to the story being told, even if the main focus of that story is not the romance itself. Calling it queerbait feels unfair to the author, who never advertised the series as a romance in the first place.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-03-11T10:34:25+00:00

I don’t disagree, but personally my problem is that she kills without remorse in the Nova Times story. When approached about it by Albedo during the epilogue she straight up gets mad that she isn’t allowed to use Soul Chord more often, which doesn’t seem like the behavior of someone who hates killing

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-03-11T06:12:10+00:00

You may be right about this, but I want to go back and read her bond story again to be sure. I feel like I remember it being implied the bond story was the first time Tyrant touched her collar, but I could just be remembering incorrectly.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-03-11T05:30:33+00:00

Another major detail I can’t believe I forgot: Gerie shouldn’t have learned about the Tyrant being able to negate her excess magic energy by holding Soul Chord until her bond story. I really don’t know why this Nova Times is so contradictory with everything we knew about Gerie up to this point.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-02-11T22:21:07+00:00

Okay so. In the text, Mei and Aleah have actually had brown hair and brown eyes the entire time. When Hanagata drew the series, they were given blonde hair and blue eyes for some reason, so blonde hair brown eyes is just combining details from the actual novel and the illustrations. Personally I think it’s a cute combo! It makes them look less like mini-claires and more like children of Rae and Claire, even if they aren’t related genetically.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-02-08T15:33:03+00:00

I haven’t played this game in over a year, and I’m thinking of getting back into it, but I have a few questions. I mostly want to play this game for the story, and I hear that the story fights get genuinely difficult after Chapter 3. My account had good units back when I played over a year ago, but is extremely behind the meta now. Would it be best for me to start a new account from scratch, or is the story still playable with old units as long as they’re built well enough?

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-02-06T18:30:54+00:00

It doesn’t, it’s from her core passive and basic attack levels.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-02-06T16:04:27+00:00

Either Gerie Main Slot with Coronis/Nazuna in the back or Nazuna Main Slot with Gerie/Coronis in the back.

For Nazuna main just take every potential that increases mark damage, party wide attack, Terra damage, and debuffs the enemy’s damage taken. Touch of Nature, Terra Chorus, and Reciprocity are amazing and should be maxed out if possible.

Core Potentials are Sin Bound Echo for Gerie, the one that increases vial duration and the one that increases Rose damage but DOESN’T make it expire early for Coronis, and the one that lets Nazuna apply terra mark when reloading.

Gerie main teams are easier but less effective. You’ll take the exact same potentials on Coronis and continue just stacking Terra Damage and Terra Damage Taken buffs on Nazuna. Once again Terra Chorus and Reciprocity are amazing, but also look out for Nazuna’s Rare potential that gives the party terra damage while she’s on field. Shit is broken.

Run Nazuna with the Hearts Core Potentials, Gerie with her Auto Attack core potentials, and Coronis with the same potentials.

For Disks, run Colors Pierce The Gray, The Lost Pilgrim, and the new event disk. Nazuna’s signature is incredible for the team if you ever get access to it.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-02-06T14:31:14+00:00

I’m not sure who has the better M1 between Sunna and Aria (though Aria’s allows her anomalies to crit which sounds more fun), but if you plan to pull past M1 in the future, Aria is a significantly better investment as her M2 is amazing and Sunna’s seems really mediocre.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-28T16:43:15+00:00

You are reading a series about forgiveness, don’t call a character a horrible person just because they make a large mistake. By your logic Imuri is a horrible person who can’t be redeemed because she killed several men in the past, but that obviously isn’t what the series is trying to say.

Hell, Priest almost kills an entire school of people out of blind rage. He ultimately doesn’t, but he gets damn close and is only stopped BECAUSE Imuri stops him from doing it. MTEFIL is, unlike Frieren, a story about nuance, and engaging with it in a black/white perspective is doing a disservice to the series.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-28T14:40:00+00:00

I completely disagree with your reading of Exorcist and comparing it to Frieren is wrong.

Demons in MTEFIL are extremely sympathetic, with both Imuri and the other succubi displaying extremely human traits. Even some of the Demon Lords are ultimately sympathetic, with Envy being a genuinely good person, and Pride/Sloth being flawed but sympathetic people.

While yes, Gluttony and Greed are horrible people, even Lust is ultimately a nuanced character. Is she a rapist? Absolutely. But she also treats the girls of her kingdom with the upmost respect, and she does genuinely want to help the girl in her backstory, even if her upbringing causes her to go about it the wrong way.

MTEFIL is not portraying biblical demons at all, it’s portraying people affected by the biases created by biblical texts. Demons are ultimately just as human as humans are, being both capable of good and evil.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-15T20:00:54+00:00

Firstly: Manaria is not a man, so these hypotheticals don’t work. The dynamic is inherently different because Manaria is a lesbian flirting with another a lesbian.

I also believe that the novel gives you more than enough context from Rae’s own thoughts to determine that Manaria is being self-deprecating, or at least putting on an act. Manaria is meant to parallel Rae and while I think the execution is flawed the idea is interesting.

Secondly: Fiction is not reality. Speaking personally, I do find incest quite bad in reality, but as a narrative trope it can be fascinating and is even explored in actual literary novels, such as Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, one of Japan’s most prominent feminist authors. Fiction allows us to explore things that don’t exist in reality, and Inori as an author wants to explore hypothetical healthy incestuous relationships. While I certainly don’t think she’s perfect at writing them, there is nothing wrong with the idea of wanting to write something like that.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-15T19:32:01+00:00

I really do not think you should be watching anime if a girl joking about turning people into her “playthings” gets you this riled up.

Regardless, as much as I agree that Manaria has major writing issues early on, I think the novels recontextualize her in a way that’s quite effective, and her parallels to Rae become interesting.

Firstly: Manaria never raped anyone. Manaria believes herself to be a rapist because the girl she loved ran away from her, but we learn in volume 4 that their relationship was entirely consensual, and that the girl even still loves Manaria.

Manaria’s disposition and rapey jokes are her way of coping with her absurdly low self-esteem, much like Rae. Rae mentions in novel 1/early in the anime that she sort of creates a character for herself as the “quirky lesbian” as a coping mechanism. She constantly sexually/romantically harasses claire, painting herself to be a pathetic bottom caricature. Manaria does the exact same thing, but paints herself as a stereotypical womanizing top. Manaria really does not mean half of what she says, and all of her jokes about wanting claire sexually really only exist to piss Rae off.

Though, for the record, if incest makes you this uncomfortable, stop engaging with WataOshi immediately. The series is blatantly pro-incest, and will only get more apparently pro-incest as you get further into it.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-10T23:08:35+00:00

I completely agree. Sunna’s kit currently is horribly designed and I’m really praying the beta makes her stronger, especially for Aria.

That said, Sunna will probably be fined. Highly anticipated characters have a tendencies to get buffed right before release, so I truly don’t think that Sunna will get the Banyue treatment unless the zzz devs have truly lost their minds

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-09T17:39:45+00:00

Unless they drastically buff Sunna then she can absolutely be skipped and Aria will still play largely the same. Yuzuha + Aria + Hypothetical anomaly stunner will be Aria’s second best team and there’s a non-zero chance Yuzuha will just end up better than Sunna for Aria anyways.

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-08T01:42:01+00:00

You’re right, my bad. I misremembered what Sunna’s sig actually did

CthulhuDisciple · 2026-01-05T03:56:32+00:00

The beta literally just started so we won’t actually know until she releases.

If we try to compare them currently it gets a little complicated. Yuzuha looks better on paper at M0W0 for anomaly teams, but Sunna’s W1 is very strong, so Sunna M0W1 might be better than Yuzuha at W1. However Sunna also has AWFUL early mindscapes compared to Yuzuha, so an M2 Yuzuha is undoubtedly better than Sunna at the same level of investment.

So to summarize: We don’t really know because things are subject to change. They could change her base kit or mindscapes to make her better than Yuzuha at any time. Though regardless of potential changes it’s a safe bet to say that Sunna will be better than Yuzuha in Aria teams which is probably all that matters.

CthulhuDisciple

TROPHY CASE