Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House - Vol. 30 Ch. 327 - Final Chapter: Time to Eat!

[matatabi]

thank you so much. that was a good ride. will feel lost after the end of this heartwarming manga, but everything should be ended.

 

[Midoriha]

I'm not gonna lie, all this massive Kenta focus right at the finish line continues to be utterly baffling and in my opinion made the finale lose a lot of steam. And if you'd like me to be honest, the Kenta bits were by far and wide the weakest of the manga.
It's not even a males le bad thing, because onii-san was super based, Kenta was just boring and his plotline not engaging at all.
The ending is okay, compared to the average ending nowadays it is a masterpiece, but could have and should have been a lot better.

 

[pearhi]

Thank you for all your work over these years, and to all the scanlation teams that took this on. I cannot believe I've been following this since I was in school and now I've been in the workforce for 3 years...
I hope Kiyo, Sumire, and Kenta will all be together forever... No, I know they will be. 😊

 

[SuperOniichan]

I KNEW IT! Kenta ends up with Kiyo. Like no way Sumire would be allowed to have a boyfriend or husband without backing out from being geisha and being geisha is everything for her. Oh boy, that girl having big heartbreak. She knows the rule and brace it gracefully.

My only disappointment in this story how author just make Kenta give up baseball and be a chef. Yeah, well, it's a good story and a good ride.

Maybe, but it still confuses me that the penultimate chapter depicts Kenta and Suu blushing each other and if you pay attention, in the quick montage during Suu's dance in the finale, she is sitting across from him at the table...or was that a flashback?

thank you so much for your fabulous and continued work on the manga

It's just too bad it became like 50% kenta for so long with the most generic HardWorker story that we've all seen a thousand times over taking us away from the much more unique maiko world. I really can't believe how the last 2 volumes in particular were so much about him

I'm not gonna lie, all this massive Kenta focus right at the finish line continues to be utterly baffling and in my opinion made the finale lose a lot of steam. And if you'd like me to be honest, the Kenta bits were by far and wide the weakest of the manga.
It's not even a males le bad thing, because onii-san was super based, Kenta was just boring and his plotline not engaging at all.
The ending is okay, compared to the average ending nowadays it is a masterpiece, but could have and should have been a lot better.

Things could have definitely been more coherent if the author had integrated him deeper into the Kiyo and Suu arcs, but it seems like she had to keep him out of it for too long to avoid angering the people who were only reading it for the girls. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why she had to finish his arc separately from the two of them. This is very reminiscent of the Hibike anime, where attempts to bring Shuichi back only irritated yuri fans even more because reducing his time in the first season made him lose all his depth.

Basically, it's a vicious circle. The author reduces the male character's time for the sake of a specific audience, but in the end it makes them even angrier, because after the time reduction, maintaining focus on the male characters seems even more irritating to them.

 

[susu19]

🥹🥹🥹👏
Thank you for the translation!!

 

[supug]

Thank you so much for completing the series. truly one of the comfiest manga I've ever read

 

[Elki]

This is something that has ALWAYS bothered me in the back of my mind, but the chapters are so short that I would just forget. Everyone has growth but Kiyo stays the same. I get she's Su and Kenta's "rock" but she's a person (character) too and deserves growth of some sort. It was fine in the beginning when it was just a typical slice of life story where time doesn't really exist and we repeat the same events over and over again for all of eternity. But once you start getting into continuity, and character development territory, all characters, especially one who is your main, deserve & should have some development.
I would've loved to see Kiyo grow (physically too) into her own person. Her relationship with Su is special to me, and her connection to her doesn't have to be erased even if Kiyo has more personality outside of her.

Not only did she never get any kind of character growth, but she barely got any kind of character at all in the first place. The only things we know about her is that she's nice and likes cooking. She has no inner world, no inner thoughts, no desire, no further likes nor dislikes.

But to be fair to the author, it was the correct choice to leave the romance hanging there. Involving her in any kind of romantic plot was doomed to fail. There was no way to get her to accept or reject Kenta's feelings without her becoming an actual character out of nowhere. It would have been incredibly jarring.

I'm being very critical but this has been a real issue for me since the early chapters. I find this characterisation choice (or lack thereof) very confusing.

 

[SuperOniichan]

Not only did she never get any kind of character growth, but she barely got any kind of character at all in the first place. The only things we know about her is that she's nice and likes cooking. She has no inner world, no inner thoughts, no desire, no further likes nor dislikes.

But to be fair to the author, it was the correct choice to leave the romance hanging there. Involving her in any kind of romantic plot was doomed to fail. There was no way to get her to accept or reject Kenta's feelings without her becoming an actual character out of nowhere. It would have been incredibly jarring.

I'm being very critical but this has been a real issue for me since the early chapters. I find this characterisation choice (or lack thereof) very confusing.

Perhaps the author really did see her as a protagonist through whom we see this world, so she was more of our POV than a fully independent character in that sense. In particular, we always watched any characters' interactions with her through her perspective, even if we didn't get to look into her head. That's why I also still find it hard to believe that the ending promotes Kiyo as Kenta's partner, rather than Suu.

Although if you want, you could also explain it by the fact that she's the very first in the Kiyo - Suu - Kenta character arcs sequence and so we see the not so much of her personal experiences after the first part of the story.

 

[justanothermanganerd]

I feel like kiyo's perceived lack of growth is just more that she didn't speak much. Like what growth are we supposed to have seen from kenta as a character? He went from a Hard Working baseball kid to a Hard Working chef and he likes kiyo. Okay and in his mind he proposed to kiyo. No real change in his character at any point just changed from baseball to cooking. With such short chapters it just doesn't promote much growth. Even watching Suumire's entire time as a maiko she never really changed appreciably. She was always the best student and continued to be the best student. She never really even had any doubt or anything. Beyond following the geisha path at most we can say she came to terms with her crush on kenta. Glasses probably "grew" the most. But end of the day I didn't read this for a deep plot that much just really the comfy atmosphere and characters.

 

[SuperOniichan]

I feel like kiyo's perceived lack of growth is just more that she didn't speak much. Like what growth are we supposed to have seen from kenta as a character? He went from a Hard Working baseball kid to a Hard Working chef and he likes kiyo. Okay and in his mind he proposed to kiyo. No real change in his character at any point just changed from baseball to cooking. With such short chapters it just doesn't promote much growth. Even watching Suumire's entire time as a maiko she never really changed appreciably. She was always the best student and continued to be the best student. She never really even had any doubt or anything. Beyond following the geisha path at most we can say she came to terms with her crush on kenta. Glasses probably "grew" the most. But end of the day I didn't read this for a deep plot that much just really the comfy atmosphere and characters.

Well, people think Kenta and Suu grew up because we had the opportunity to closely observe the development of their lives and how these experiences affected their personal thoughts and emotions. Whereas we just didn't have the opportunity to even really know what Kiyo was thinking. Like, maybe she dreamed of becoming a pro gamer and somewhere behind the scenes she was worried about not being able to become first in the Counter Strike championship. We would simply never have known about it. But seriously, I think judging by the ending, Kiyo reached her "destination" early on when she was able to become a cook at the manor and do what she loves first with Suu and then Kenta. Even in the last art, we can see her pouring tea for Suu. That is, she actually grew already at the very beginning, if that so matter.

 

[BaconPal]

Thank you so much for all the chapters, truly. Since the very start, it's been a lovely 7 years with those three.

 

[Wakipai]

This is acceptable, those double spreads were divine. I just wish I could've gone longer

 

[ksen]

Thanks very much for the translation. Now I'm hungry

 

[zokoi19]

thanks for completing this great series!! Personally I understand what is being implied in these last few chapters (Kenta/Kiyo get together while Suu-chan ends in heart break)

but as a poly-supporter I say fuck that and the three of them will always forever be together!!!

also I can't believe that this series is not being sold in my country ((
praying/manifesting that some publisher would buy the rights for this, I need this series in paper-form!!!

 

[Alsomebutnot]

WE DIDN'T GET THE YURI ENDING BUT THAT'S FINE. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING AFTER ALL THIS TIME.

 

[Wachtail]

Thanks a bunch for translating this amazing manga!
It was fucking incredible all the way through!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Can't say I'm not disappointed, beside the open ending which isn't too much of a problem i feel like Kiyo for being the titular character got the short end of the stick, both Kenta and Sumire both accomplished their goal or are working toward one whereas Kiyo really had none so what is she meant to eternally work for as the Maiko cook ? I just hate how she really didn't had much to do despite being the main character, it feels kind of mean spirited like she failed her first goal of becoming a Maiko and that's that, Kenta wanted to become a baseball player it didn't work out but he found something else, it doesn't feel like Kiyo had any real opportunity to explore others stuff and has resigned herself to her lot.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I KNEW IT! Kenta ends up with Kiyo. Like no way Sumire would be allowed to have a boyfriend or husband without backing out from being geisha and being geisha is everything for her. Oh boy, that girl having big heartbreak. She knows the rule and brace it gracefully.

My only disappointment in this story how author just make Kenta give up baseball and be a chef. Yeah, well, it's a good story and a good ride.

What's really annoying to me is that early on in the story there was kind of an implications that Kiyo might move from the maiko house to become a chef herself but seem like this was dropped or that was never the intention, I just find it out how she's actually the one talented cook, the main character and yet she doesn't really have any goal, I refuse to believe she just see herself working forever for the maiko like she has no other prospects as much as she like Sumire.

 

[mihaha269]

Thank you for the translations! It was a beautiful journey.

 

[SuperOniichan]

Can't say I'm not disappointed, beside the open ending which isn't too much of a problem i feel like Kiyo for being the titular character got the short end of the stick, both Kenta and Sumire both accomplished their goal or are working toward one whereas Kiyo really had none so what is she meant to eternally work for as the Maiko cook ? I just hate how she really didn't had much to do despite being the main character, it feels kind of mean spirited like she failed her first goal of becoming a Maiko and that's that, Kenta wanted to become a baseball player it didn't work out but he found something else, it doesn't feel like Kiyo had any real opportunity to explore others stuff and has resigned herself to her lot.

In a way, yes, it seems like the last volume implies that cooking and feeding her friends delicious food is the height of happiness and final destination for the Kiyo path. At least for now.