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skyhopedango · 1 year ago

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Loulou*di - Dying Matter lyrics translation

Because I couldn't help myself. :D;; After all, this is most definitely Rui's twisted love song for Ageha. Also, I wish my English was better so I could find a way to translate "souretsu no hate made"/"until your funeral procession ends" in a way that befits just how amazingly OTT grandiose and dramatic it is. *cries* (Of course it is, though, it riffs on Ageha's own words and the imagery he uses.) I tried to keep some of the melodrama, though, but it's difficult in this particular format.

(Disclaimer: English is not my first language, neither is Japanese, this is a quick & dirty translation I did in like 15 minutes. Japanese original follows the translation.)

Dying Matter

when the day you cease to be yourself comes I'll watch over your ruin I'll stay by your side, whatever happens until your funeral procession ends

an unrestrained, bewitched love a flower, beautifully withering away

I wish you would stay but the end is sure to come and I can't go back anymore to the life I had without you (please stay as you are)

when the day you cease to be yourself comes I'll watch over your ruin I'll stay by your side, whatever happens until your funeral procession ends

I don't mind whatever you say - this is me my offering to you, until the end

even the abuse you deal sounds like medicine to me because I want to feel the same pain as you do that's how much I love you (please stay as you are)

when the day you cease to be yourself comes I'll watch over your ruin I'll stay by your side, whatever happens until your funeral procession ends

when you sing my weary heart quietly melts away your tears have always resonated with my broken soul if I could I would make all your wishes come true I love you I love you I love you

I hope that one day you'll understand my unchained feelings for you that my only reason to live is to give my whole self to you

when the day you cease to be yourself comes I'll watch over your ruin I'll stay by your side, whatever happens until your funeral procession ends

---

あなたがあなたでなくなるその日が来ても滅びゆく姿を私は何があっても見届けるため葬列の果てまで

誰にも止められない魅せられた愛散りそうな花も美しい

きえないでと願っていてもいつかは訪れるあなたなしのその過去にはもう戻れないから (そのままでいて)

あなたがあなたでなくなるその日が来ても滅びゆく姿を私は何があっても見届けるため葬列の果てまで

何を言われてもいいこれが私終わりの日まで捧げたい

受け取るものが痛みでも薬の音になる同じ痛みを受け取りたいほど愛してるから (そのままでいて)

あなたがあなたでなくなるその日が来ても滅びゆく姿を私は何があっても見届けるため葬列の果てまで

あなたが歌えば私の疲れた心がいつの間にか消えたあなたの涙が私の壊れた心といつも響き合ったあなたの望みがもし��出来るなら私が叶えたらいいな愛してる愛してる愛してるから

いつかあなたに届いてくれるといいな止められるはずのない想いがすべてを捧げ続けるために生きるから

あなたがあなたでなくなるその日が来ても滅びゆく姿を私は何があっても見届けるため葬列の果てまで

#hanadoll #hanadoll*#loulou*di #louloudi #karasuma ageha #hinagi rui #dying matter #translation

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skyhopedango · 1 year ago

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Loulou*di - Think of Me: ARK

So, I finally had time to properly listen to this, and...

"Are you guys going to die soon? I mean, since you're here..."

...

cries and cries and cries and cries

...

For fuck's sake, this story... 😭This is going to break my heart and dance on the pieces, right? I mean, my heart is already breaking for these three assholes who are ultimately the products of an infinitely sick and corrupt system built on preying on vulnerable people, treating them as products, exploiting them until the last drop of their blood, without a regard to their mental and physical well-being, and then discarding them without further ado.

Also, let me get out of character for a moment (because usually I really don't do or support this, I mean these are fictional characters), but that one fangirl... "fangirl"... SHE CAN JUST GO TO HELL. Seriously girl! Sure, being a fan of an artist doesn't mean you must love everything they put out, doesn't mean you have to stick with them and be a fan of them for the rest of your life, but this? And for such a shitty, stupid reason? If the art, the music is still good, then...

....but that's just the thing with idols, right? :/ As an idol, you're not there to sell music, you're not there to sell art or even a message. You're not there to express yourself and your art. You're there to sell a fantasy. That's the entire reason you've been picked and trained and given a carefully built-up image, to sell a certain kind of fantasy to cater to a certain kind of target demographic. And once that fantasy stops working for whatever reason, once that target demographic decides they don't want what you sell anymore, well - you're not needed anymore. You're not irreplaceable any more than

well

any more than a flower that blooms and wilts and then is discarded.

...

Remember the time when the publisher decided to decouple the HanaDoll* songs from the drama CDs, that is, decided to sell the songs separately as well as part of the drama, saying that they're doing this because the story is going to become pretty hardcore and not for everyone, so they're giving people a chance to just listen to the songs without getting the story? I was kind of rolling my eye at that, thinking it was just a thinly veiled excuse to drive sales. And y'know, in case of Anthos*... it may be so. But for Loulou*di... their story has already been hardcore from the get-go, but it's becoming just really, really sad, tragic and even bitter and upsetting in a way that Anthos* (the "poster boys" for the franchise) is clearly not going to ever get, and I can totally see some people going "I'm not into this, just give me the pretty songs."

(By the way, Anthos*'s story not being nearly as tragic and also deeply meta re: idols and even 2.5D idol franchises is just so bitterly ironic... and it's got to be on purpose, but if it's not, it's still an unintentional stroke of genius.)

.......and looking at the teaser for NOTHING after this...

............this is going to get really, really sad, isn't it.

...Please writers, please, just... spirit these guys away into an alternate universe where they all survive and make a small indie band and just perform to people who appreciate them and not some kind of fantasy that never existed in the first place.

I mean, Ageha would probably hate that. :D;;

But still.

#hanadoll #hanadoll*#loulou*di #louloudi #karasuma ageha #hinagi rui #sakurai toki

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skyhopedango · 2 years ago

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I know, I know, but "Growing Nightmare"...? :D;; Where is it growing? How much bigger can it get??! Just a moment of happiness or at least peace is all I'm asking for these poor guys. Just a moment of it. orz

Also, I'm watching all the Anthos* Twitter/etc. stuff going "yay anime!" and whatnot, and like yeah, I'm happy for them but I can't help just placing it in universe, with Loulou*di watching it as well, and just seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeething. XDD (Well, Ageha and Toki seething. Rui, as we know, doesn't give a damn. I guess he'll finally remember all the Anthos* members?) I wish I had it in me to write a fanfic or draw fanart of it...

#hanadoll #hanadoll*#louloudi #loulou*di

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skyhopedango · 2 years ago

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But also...

I can just imagine Ageha's rage that Anthos* is getting an anime sooner than Loulou*di. Just the pure, self-righteous rage. :D Teacups and Rui's bones will be broken.

(Poor, poor Ageha. Knowing what's behind all of his... thing, it's really just so sad.)

#hanadoll*#hanadoll #karasuma ageha #louloudi

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skyhopedango · 2 years ago

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WHAT WHAT WHAT

So like... like...

Here I am, just minding my own business, being in a somewhat better place mentally in these past couple months (despite my world getting increasingly worse ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ), considering slowly getting back to fandoms and reactivating my social media and stuff*... especially after having an AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH moment over Loulou*di's Dying Matter**

...and then I open Twitter, and the HanaDoll* account comes at me like

....WHAT

I'm so worried! I really really don't want this franchise to get one of those really cheaply made idol animes, like the TsukiPro show... but I don't think they have the funds of even UtaPri, let alone Idolish7 or something... Also this franchise has such an amazingly well thought-out visual design, it would really really suck to see it not being done justice in an anime, but I can't imagine it having the sort of money to make it happen... Oh well, we'll see.

Anyway, though, it says the anime will be adapting Season 1, which is I guess a safe way to go? It's a good introduction to the HanaDoll* world. Honestly, though, I would have preferred more manga over an anime. S2 would make a great manga, especially with Loulou*di and the sheer intensity of their... *gestures wildly* their everything. Maybe, if the anime makes any decent business, they'll restart the manga.

...

....

So anyway, I guess I'm back? :D

I thought I'd just sit down and write a post like "the world still sucks, and it sucks more and more with each moment, and I'm still feeling low-key anxious, but I guess I'm doing better, enough to have been able to sob my heart out over Think Of Me: Mono anyway,*** so let's just slowly ease back... also maybe write something about Mono because yeah that should totally be written about..."

Instead it's

"OH MY GOD HanaDoll* is getting an anime WHAT"

I guess that's how my life rolls! :D;;

orz

*If anyone happened to have read this far - I apologize to anyone who have written to me or messaged me! I turned off app notifications on all my social media, but left email notifications on Tumblr, and got none, so I was like okay, so it's peace and quiet... except as I found out a week ago, my email client at one point decided to deliver all my Tumblr notification emails right into my junk folder. 😩And since that folder is set to be emptied in every five days... yeah, I basically missed everything. So I'm very sorry if you wrote to me and I didn't reply!

**I haven't had the opportunity to listen to the Think Of Me: Ark drama yet, but of course I did listen to the songs, and look,

1. I don't need to have listened to the drama to assume that Dying Matter is a Rui song, and

2. I guess this is basically canon confirmation that Rui is in love with Ageha? not that it hadn't been obvious so far but here they just flat out say it, not even in English or whatever like in Butterfly Knife, just flat out 愛してる、愛してる、愛してる/"I love you, I love you, I love you";

3. anyway that aside, tell me this is not going where the song implies it's going dear god Ageha, Rui, no, never mind poor Toki, also

4. 葬列の果てまで/"till end of your funeral procession" is just an absolutely amazing line, just... chef's kiss. This is Loulou*di, guys, they're not satisfied with the cheap dramatics of "until the end" or "beyond the grave" or whatever, no, it's "till the end of your funeral procession" because why be OK with a mere ten if you can turn it up to eleven. (Also, the visuals and implications it evokes are amazing. Hama Takeshi keeps doing it with this band, damn that man.)

***Dear god, Toki and Kaoru, My poor, poor Toki and Kaoru. Just... damn. That whole scene of them together. Oh god. Poor Toki. Poor Kaoru. Someone please help these boys.

#i'm back i guess #hanadoll #hanadoll*#still don't know how to tag this franchise #louloudi #loulou*di #anthos #think of me #this world man

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skyhopedango · 3 years ago

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I'm not okay

I'm getting better, little by little, but it's taking a while.

This Tumblr is my little corner where I shamelessly wallow in my often repressed otaku side, so I try to keep real life out of here as much as possible, but basically: the war in Ukraine, a country I live right next to; people being fucking idiots about it; my country taking a turn into complete fascist, Putinist authoritarianism; my currency tanking and inflation soaring. The world, including my present and whatever future I might have, seem bleak and hopeless and I don't know what to do about it.

So I'm doing the unhealthy thing and repressing it all.

That, however, means that my walls are up so high and so strong that at least for the time being I simply can't deal with anything I might have strong emotional reactions to, and that includes silly things like entertainment. I'm in the kind of escapist mode where I can only handle things as far removed from my reality and my emotions as possible - like, I'd been planning to check out Spy x Family, only to find that the pseudo Central European setting was simply too much for me, hit too close to home. Loulou*di's Pensée? Bought it, sure, but I couldn't even bring myself to listen to the songs. I just can't, not now.

Ridiculous, but here I am.

I'll manage, eventually. Time doesn't stop, after all, no matter what happens the sun will rise again and again and again for the next few hundred million years. Gotta deal with it.

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skyhopedango · 3 years ago

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so there’s a war going on in my neighborhood and I’m a bit distracted

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skyhopedango · 3 years ago

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INCOMPLICA:I/F ~es~

So, I did this recap of “es” because damn, was it a plot heavy episode! Better have it at hand for later, and I’m sure it’s going to be relevant for the Loulou*di finale as well. On that note, timeline-wise this episode directly follows Loulou*di's second episode, Idéal, and contains numerous references to things that happened in it. My rambling recap of Idéal is here - if anyone is reading this, I really advise you to listen to that as well, it’s not only relevant to this story but also really really really good.

Also, since the flowers come up quite often in this episode, this might be of interest, too.

Okay, so on with the long… long… recap.

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM HERE!

A2-6:

Flashback: the day of Chise's accident. Chise is being cute with Lihito, and then CRASH!

Present: we are in a room at the Amagiri med center... but surprise! It's not Chise, it's Kaoru. Kaoru requested a medical checkup, and to his surprise the doctor who supervised it is none other than his personal physician from his pre-Amagiri life! Rather than delegating the job to the Amagiri team he came to do it himself, aww. The result of the exam: Kaoru is perfectly fine. Even he himself admits that feels better and more energized than ever before in his life. It's just that there's this strange thing - he's always so hungry, and lately he's been getting bouts of thirst, too. So he feels uneasy, and also guilty to worry about such things despite being perfectly fine, while Chise has had that accident. The doctor kindly tells him that he shouldn't feel guilty over feeling uneasy, not with his medical history; but also he shouldn't feel guilty for feeling fine! He should embrace his good health!

Before departing the doctor also gives him a present: voice message from his parents. After all, the doc says, as his personal physician Kaoru's mental health is also his personal responsibility. Aww! He even reassures Kaoru that while he must share the results of the medical examination with the production med team, the rest is between him and Kaoru only. What a nice person.

..........and we all knew this was too good to be true, right?

The moment the doctor steps out of the room the Amagiri med team comes up to him and turns out that his name is Dr Toudou, and he confirms that just as the others had suspected Kaoru's flower is nearing full bloom, and his body is too weak to catch up. Oh sure, it's sooner than expected, but Kaoru has always been sickly and weak so irregularities are no surprise. Problem is, they have no data as to what to expect from now on, they can only hope that it's going to be OK. (”Otherwise what was the point of involving my patient and my son?”) They decide to just go along with what seems to be necessary for now, which includes appropriate nutrition, and fortifying long-term memory... because oh yes, full bloom tends to induce memory problems. It's probably too early for starting water treatment though, actually the doc would rather avoid doing it in Kaoru's case, anyway. Lest Kaoru remembers things he really shouldn't.

...

HOLY CRAP WHAT THE EVERLOVING

OK, let's break this down.

So yes, this is Dr Toudou, as in Toudou Lihito's father, as in one of the key persons in the HanaDoll* project (which is how Lihito got involved in it, as we learned in season one). And him having been Kaoru's personal, ostensibly not Amagiri-related doctor all along means that they had their eyes on Kaoru way before he applied for the HanaDoll* project.

And here I naively thought that Kaoru's appetite was just a throwaway joke. Nope, haha, far from it - it's the result of his flower developing faster than anyone had expected, and it's taking a toll on his body which is not strong enough to keep up.

Memory problems?!

Wait, what had happened that Kaoru shouldn't remember??!

And also, hey, just a side note - you know who else is having an amazing time right now with being in/around full bloom? Oh nobody really, just AGEHA AND TOKI.

Oh man, this is bad, this is so bad.

Back to the story, while leaving after the examination Kaoru runs into Setsuna. Apparently they haven't seen each other for a while, since Anthos* group activities have been suspended after Chise's accident, and Setsuna lives in the med center, not in the dorm. So, Kaoru invites Setsuna to come and visit Chise someday.

Meanwhile in the dorm, Mahiro and Haruta arrive home after the variety show taping (as told in Idéal). Haruta, pretty deflated, goes to his room right away, but Mahiro seems fine... seems fine.

A2-7:

Ryouga is asking Mahiro about the recording. How was it? Eh, rocky but fine. Did you get to talk to Loulou*di? Uh... yes. A little. (omg Yamashita Seiichirou's delivery of this line :D That pure, palpable discomfort in his voice.) Turns out that Mahiro has been putting on a brave face at the studio, but actually he's fairly shaken as well. He feels like Ageha had a weird focus on him, like he had it in for him for some reason? Mahiro doesn't know what to make of Ageha's behavior, and he's actually pretty upset about it. (But seriously, listen to the scene in Idéal, it’s amazing.)

Mahiro also gives Ryouga a quick rundown of what happened between Haruta and Toki, and also what Haruta told him about his and Toki's background. He mentions how Toki seems to have been completely transformed since his time in the orphanage, including being cured of his disability. Ryouga immediately understands that it was his flower's effect, and Mahiro is basically like "okay, so let's talk about what you know about wtf is going on here, because I know you know and I want to know too." Ryouga gives in and starts talking, but at that point they hear Kaoru coming home so they agree to postpone the talk. Mahiro makes Ryouga promise that he wouldn't weasel out of it, and Ryouga is like okay okay, BY THE WAY, hey, so like, how about we also talk about... other things?! not just how shady our owners are?! Like, let's talk about Chihiro! We promised to talk more about him!

(Oh Ryouga. After this episode I'm not surprised that he's the one to guest star on Loulou*di's Pensée, I'm sure he and Rui have a lot of really uncomfortable things to talk about.)

So The Talk is postponed, in exchange we learn that Lihito, far from being fine, has been holing himself up in Chise's room, beating himself up about the accident.

The next morning Kaoru is listening to his parents’ voice message. A standard thing, really: hi Kaoru, we hope you're doing well, we've been watching all your appearances and listening to your songs, you're awesome, we're so proud of you, keep up the good work! that sort of stuff. As he prepares for the day Mahiro also wakes up and after a few words he's kind of like "Y’know Kaoru, lately you're so... pretty." "...eh?" "OMG THAT CAME OUT WEIRD" right, facepalm, but basically Mahiro has been noticing Kaoru being more charismatic lately. More mature, more pretty... (like blooming? orz)

Kaoru tells Mahiro that yes, the doctor told him that this is the flower developing as it should. Mahiro is like aww, it must be the flower reacting to Kaoru's hard work (oh my poor, poor children, you have no idea). They do this little dance of praising each other, and they share a really sweet friendship moment. Haruta drops by on his way to the common room, and they're being all cute together when suddenly - CRASH!

A2-8:

That CRASH! turns out to have been Setsuna coming to visit Chise, Lihito being really really upset about it, and breaking the... potted plant? bush...? that Setsuna brought as a present. Right on.

Lihito fucks off into his and Ryouga's room where he fumes some more to Ryouga before calming down and admitting that he knows he's overreacting and taking out his own feelings of guilt on Setsuna who probably doesn't have any bad intentions. Regardless, though, while he and Ryouga agree that Setsuna has no reason to harm either Lihito or Chise, the man is just weird all around. He keeps disappearing during practice, he lives in a separate place, who even knows what he's up to? Maybe he wasn’t the actual culprit, but...

Who are you doubting? asks Lihito. Amagiri Production, says Ryouga. Obviously.

But before they can continue, Chise shows up, wondering about the ruckus downstairs, and Ryouga takes the opportunity to leave Chise and Lihito alone. As Chise approaches Lihito he loses his balance, Lihito catches him, and now, looking and feeling him up close, Chise finally realizes what Lihito had been hiding all along (from him, anyway, because it had been fairly obvious to us since season one): that Lihito is actually Chise's older brother.

STOP! Time to take a detour.

So, we learn Chise's backstory in season 1 episode 2 "Boxed". Long story short, there's a reason for Chise's immense insecurity and fear of rejection that manifests in his need to become a loveable idol. You see, he used to have an older brother, but as their family was really poor they had to put one of the brothers up for adoption. Chise was, at the time, a "weird kid": due to an accident he had a scar on his face, and he grew his hair long to hide it, ruining his eyesight as a result; and as he didn't understand that other people didn't have synesthesia like he does, he kept saying things that others thought weird and scary. So he was not only bullied all throughout his childhood, when it came to the adoption, nobody wanted him... so they took his brother. And Chise never stopped feeling guilty about that, and also feeling unliked and unwanted in general. He basically got into the HanaDoll* project because the pamphlet said the flower would change his appearance. Just so, after he had the flower implanted his scar disappeared, his hair color changed, and so on. Chise now feels like he can finally crawl out under the crushing weight of his insecurities; that he can become Chise, the bright, glamorous idol, leaving the gloomy, unloveable Shourai Chitose in the past. So he's happy the way he he is now - he just doesn't understand why Lihito is always so scared around him.

Okay, back to the present.

Well - connect the dots. Lihito has known the truth all along; and he's been eaten alive by his feelings of guilt and regret about the past; and since the accident he's been also feeling guilty for being the reason that Chise got hurt again. And Chise... for his part, Chise has spent all this time putting on a persona (ha! title dropping his solo song), trying to re-create himself from scratch, creating someone who he thinks is worthy of love, while being obsessed with rejecting his unloved, unwanted self.

And so we have now what is probably the most openly sentimental scene in the whole franchise so far. I really love Komada Wataru's acting here, how Chise sounds so different from the affectation he usually puts on, how it's clear that the mask is off, this is his real, vulnerable, scarred self that he is facing now as much as he is facing Lihito. He even tells Lihito not to call him "Chise" but "Chitose", his real name - so that maybe now that this important piece of the puzzle is in place Chise can finally start accepting, and perhaps truly loving himself. And really, I could write a book about Chise and his specific way of being broken, but this is already getting too long.

But also, as with Kaoru's scene in the beginning - we know this is too good to be true, right? Because while Lihito and Chise opening up and finding each other is sweet and all, we also know that these are exactly the kind of bonds and feelings that Amagiri Prod. would exploit. This hasn't been confirmed so far, but it's hard not to see some patterns here, and not seeing certain pairs being set up - re: Haruta and Toki, Rui and Ageha... now Chise and Lihito.

A2-9:

While Lihito and Chise are having their moment upstairs, Mahiro is helping Setsuna clean up the mess Lihito made. Setsuna wonders if the plant is dead now, but Mahiro assures him that it's still alive, it just needs to be planted into some earth again. He decides to plant it in the garden, which they do. As they talk, it turns out that Setsuna brought the potted plant because he read that you must bring a present when you visit a sick person, but he owned nothing to give - so he grabbed this plant that he liked from outside the examination room, and brought that. This is just so Setsuna. :D

On a whim Mahiro asks Setsuna if he knows Loulou*di. Oh yes, Setsuna says, he does - he knows Rui and Ageha from training school. Mahiro starts asking if Setsuna knows what Ageha's problem is with him, but then thinks better of it. And good thing he does because Ryouga shows up... man, a lot of interruptions in this episode!

Ryouga invites them to breakfast, and we find out that Setsuna is still on a pill diet. You see, when the Anthos* guys moved to the dorm after having been implanted with the flower seeds, all they were given for food was pills. They still take them, but by now they can also have normal food. Setsuna though, is getting by on pills only, and he not only doesn't find it strange, he apparently doesn't really know what "normal" food is. Heeee...

Meanwhile, Haruta and Kaoru are wrapping up a variety show taping, and on Haruta's invitation they decide to grab some food themselves. Haruta kind of pours his heart out to Kaoru, about what happened the day before, about how hurt he feels about it. (Kaoru tries to rationalize it - maybe Toki just didn't want people to know he came from an orphanage? As we know, Haruta came out about it in public in season one.) Haruta also wonders about just what happened to Toki, re: his past disability that appears to have been cured. Is this the flower's effect? Yep, Kaoru says, it has to be: it was the same for him as well. Haruta is all "wow, the flower is amazing, isn't it", and Kaoru is obviously not convinced, but keeps it to himself.

A2-10:

Mahiro and Ryouga see Setsuna off, and on the way back they talk about Setsuna a bit, but then Mahiro changes the topic.

So hey, Mahiro says, I've been wondering about what you told me before - that is, before they postponed The Talk, Ryouga mentioned that in his civilian life he used to work at a pharmaceutical company (how?? isn't he like, only 26?? anyway) that had Amagiri Prod as a client; and they were developing a certain drug. Annnnnd here's where the third bomb of the episode drops.

So, the pharmaceutical company that Ryouga worked at, and Amagiri Prod. were doing joint research on developing a new drug that stimulates the growth of the flower, making it bloom even faster. Oh yes, and it's not, in fact, state approved, oops. Actually, the reason Ryouga's flower bloomed so fast was because he took that exact same drug - to get inside the company, Ryouga had approached Amagiri offering to be a test subject for the drug. Mahiro freaks out - OMG YOU COULD HAVE DIED, WHAT THE HELL MAN, and Ryouga basically admits to having risked his life to find out what happened to Chihiro. Mahiro is angry as hell. Ryouga promises him that he'll never do anything like that ever again, after all, he wouldn't leave Mahiro behind. Here shippers, some more food for you. :D

(Also, as a small side-bomb: Mahiro admits that he doesn't think that Chihiro committed suicide. Duh!)

Back in the dorm the other members find a beaming Chise, and a Lihito who is like he had been replaced with a doppelganger with a completely opposite personality. (They behave for all the world like they just released two season’s worth of sexual tension. :D Chise even secretly thanks Ryouga for giving them the opportunity to be alone together, like come onnn :DDD) Chise wouldn’t mind telling the day’s revelations to the others, but Lihito is like “not yet!” The guys banter for a while, until they notice that Kaoru is missing.

Kaoru is in his room in the dark, listening to his parents’ voice message.

His dad... his mom... his sister...

Mahiro comes by and notices that something is wrong, but Kaoru kicks him out, saying he’s tired and wants to retire for the day.

Kaoru replays the message.

This is wrong. This is not the voice of his father and his mother.

Who are these people?

Or… is it he who is wrong?

But if he is…

Then who is he...?

AAAAAAAAAHHHHH THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO SETSUNA RIGHT?! THEY MADE HIM TAKE THAT DRUG AND THAT FUCKED HIM UP OH SHIT

(I still kind of wish he was a humanoid flower though orz)

AND NOW IT’S HAPPENING TO KAORU OH SHIT OH SHIT

Ahem, so as I said: damn, what a plot-heavy episode! To sum up the key points:

Chise and Lihito are officially confirmed as brothers, but that’s the least of it, really...

Amagiri Prod. is involved in shady medicine, have developed a shady drug to further enhance their idols, used Ryouga as a human experiment=test subject (one that signed up for it voluntarily, but stil), and Setsuna is probably what happens when it works... his flower did bloom fast, except as a side effect he lost his memory and sense of self, becoming an empty shell of a person, almost a literal “doll”.

Kaoru is fucked.

And here’s where I humbly offer my alternate translation to the “es” tagline (the official translation perhaps doesn’t quite get the message across).

As a piece of the puzzle fits in place, another comes loose.

If the past had been different... If this future was real...

Everyone has their own “es”.

You can live in a perfect world, as long as you don’t notice the cracks.

Those who want something will be saved. Those who doubt something will despair.

This is the HanaDoll Project.

#anthos #anthos*#hanadoll #hanadoll*

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