#FURUDATE SHOULD HAVE GIVEN US MORE ON HER

[kimbapisnotsushi]

RIP to anyone at mujinazaka who shits on kuzuri michiko bc they WILL have the entire mujinazaka vbc after their ass NO exceptions absolutely nobody disrespects kuzuri michiko and gets away with it be prepared to have your shit rocked all the way across japan DICKWAD

[animatedrapture]

"𝖐𝖎𝖘𝖘 𝖒𝖊 𝖘𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖑𝖞" — suna rintarou ;

𝖘𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖞: suna rintarō is so much more than his bored eyes, the blunt between his lips, and his tendency to slack off—luckily, you're one of the very few people who know this; especially after he comes home to you sullen after finding out he didn't make it to the olympic players.

𝖙𝖆𝖌𝖘: female reader. fluff—established relationship. angst if you squint. comfort. mention of drug use. like, one swear word.

𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖈𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖙: 2k

𝖛𝖎𝖔𝖑𝖊𝖙'𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖊: in lieu of the influx of toxic stoner!suna content, i offer you a piece of appreciation towards him and all that he is. i was meaning to post this in my new blog but i thought there's so much of you here who would appreciate and need this more. written on a whim at 1AM and didn't proofread so for any errors, gomen. repost because tumblr tagging hates me. cross posted on ao3 under the same username. original post here. this was written before we got information that he actually made it to the olympic team. furudate really told me to stfu, huh?

It's you who find out first that there is truly so much more to Suna Rintarō than his expressionless exterior, sleepy eyes, and bored gaze towards even the most ridiculous situations. It's when his self assured stance dwindled as he walked towards you once upon a time, introducing himself first before asking you for your number.

"My number?" You echoed his request, trying your best not to gawk at his attractive features and six foot two stature towering over you so easily; making you feel oh so small. (Which is funny, given that you were already standing straight on your heels.)

"If you don't mind, 's cool if you say no," he replies, tearing his gaze from you as if he was actually anxious you'd say no.

It's funny, really. It's not every day a famous pro-athlete known for both his good looks and skills walk up to you, asking for your number and actually considering you'd say no to him and his pretty features—in fact, nevermind that he was pretty, it was more the fact that he wasn't so full of himself to actually think you wouldn't say no.

That's what makes you nod your head; your heart already beating right out of your chest as he gives you a lazy grin and his phone to press your number in. When you're done, you hand it back to him and you mentally pat yourself at the back for not visibly trembling.

"Y/N?" He reads your name from the contact information, and good God, did your name sound so beautiful coming out of his mouth. He doesn't wait for your reply anymore, looking back at you from his phone, the lazy smile still across his lips as if he knew it was a heart killer.

"Thanks, I'll text you later," is the last thing he said before he walked away from you.

It didn't take long for you to fall in love with someone like Suna Rintarō—underneath his detached personality also lied someone who was truly passionate with the things he set his mind to, gave his time to. Like you or volleyball or the video game he's been waiting to release for a whole month—it only had to be something or someone who was special enough, then, he would give it his all.

The smoke that filled his lungs occasionally did nothing to lessen your own intoxication of Suna Rintarō and his passions—because every exhale, his dark green eyes would meet yours and oh so easily, he offers you that same lazy smile yet one that was dripping with affection.

"Should you even be smoking that, Rintarō?" You had questioned him before, about the second time you've seen him put the rolled blunt in between his soft lips, inhaling it.

"It's a once in a while kinda thing, you don't actually think I'd sacrifice my career for this don'tcha?" He grins at you, amusement flooding his usually bored eyes — now glazed over with the effects of the weed—from the way he gazes at you with an eyebrow raised.

It's when you realize that Suna Rintarō was independent and knew what he was doing—did what he did with full awareness, full control, full flexibility. It's as if who he was in court was who he was in person as well.

"You're really interesting, y'know that Rin?" You had mumbled against his chest once before, it was at the first few months of dating—he had one of his arms around you with you cuddled on his side, watching a movie from his couch.

"Yeah?"

"I mean—you've always been so good at what you do, huh? But you still work for it."

"What makes you say that?" You can feel him looking down on face against his chest.

"C'mon, don't be silly. You were scouted at middle school and you only got better as you grew up!" You say, finally moving your head to meet his gaze.

But all you get is a flick on your forehead and his low chuckle, "'s not that deep, y/n," he answers.

But you already knew better.

Suna isn't one for words, and no matter how much you insist that he was beyond the description of words, he only rolls his narrowed eyes at you. You find out Suna Rintarō, your boyfriend, was a huge inspiration during your sixth month together when you finally met his little sister.

It's hard to say it wasn't amusing how snarky she was, just as he was to his friends whom you've met a few times before—Atsumu and Osamu Miya, you remember. She's quick with her tongue, easily retorting back to her brother's comments.

"Are you sure you didn't just pay Y/N-san to be your girlfriend, nii-san?"

"Nah, you still jealous I came out prettier than you?" Suna bites back, a teasing grin plastered across his face. His sister only scoffs, looking back at you.

"You can tell me if he blackmailed you to come here!" She attempts to whisper. You're not sure whether you should be worried or continue to laugh, but you do neither as you choke on the drink you were sipping on right as she told you this.

"Shit, Y/N," Suna curses as you cough, your throat burning at the drink's intrusion, but Suna's quick to rub soothingly against your back as he offers you his water, his eyes glazed over in panic.

"You okay?" He asks when you stopped coughing, and you nod in response—throat remaining slightly sore. Suna lets out an aggravated groan, "Be careful next time," he manages to scold you, but oddly enough, his words remain saccharine.

There's something about the way that his little sister doesn't seem the least bit surprised with his reaction that somehow lets you know that perhaps, Suna Rintarō might just be quite the caring brother behind closed doors.

After that, it was when Suna excused himself to take a call from his manager, leaving you with his sister.

"Hey, nee-san, promise you'll take care of Rin-nii? You won't break his heart, will you?" His sister asks, eyes gleaming with something akin to hope, expectation, wonder. It easily takes you by surprise.

"Don't you worry, I'll promise I'll take care of him, promise I won't break his heart," your voice easily softens, nodding. His little sister's gaze remains on you, as if she's assessing you and as if she would easily tell whether or not you meant the words that came out of your mouth.

It makes you hold a breath until she nods slowly, smiling at you lightly just as Suna comes walking back, eyebrows raised, knowing he must've missed something.

"Whatcha girls talkin' bout?" He asked as he slipped back on his seat beside you.

"None of your business, obviously," his sister quickly answers.

They're truly quite similar, it's enough to make you smile and get through meeting his little sister until both of you dropped her off back to the train station.

"What'd she tell you?" Suna nudged you after seeing her train leave.

"Nothing, Rin," you answered with a wide smile, leaning up to place a chaste kiss against his lips—yet just as you pull away, one of his hands has found its way behind your neck, pulling you back to him.

You never thought a kiss could feel so loving before—but it really seemed as if Suna Rintarō had a knack for proving you wrong, over and over again.

It was the day that the Olympic team was announced when you see so much more of Suna Rintarō. Quick like the blink of an eye, or lightning that leaves the thunder chasing it; Suna felt the exhaustion, the pressure, the burnt-out feeling that's been repressed in the back of his head. It comes to him, crashing down like boulders not just on his shoulders but weighing down every part of his body.

Did he lack somewhere? He wonders. Where did that lacking end and start? What could have he done? Was it training, where he spent most of his time now? Suna had end up seeing you less and less since the drafting of olympic players started and you've been nothing but patient.

What was he supposed to tell you? After all the time it has stolen away from you—that he didn't make it?

When he opened the door to your shared apartment, he doesn't look up at you with a relieved sigh as he usually would—he avoids you gaze entirely, he avoids your observing eyes from the couch you sat on, watching him slowly shrug his shoes off.

"I'm just gonn—" he started, about to make an excuse to avoid looking at you.

"Prepared your bath, Rin. C'mon," Suna hears you say but it doesn't sink in his head, watching you take his hand, leading him to the bathroom.

Suna remains silent as he looks down on the bath you prepared for him, warm and inviting.

"Meet me in the kitchen when you're done, okay?" He hears you say, followed by the echo of your footsteps walking away.

You easily understand that Suna Rintarō was more than his talents, his efforts, and every little thing about him when you feel his large arms wrapped around you, his broad chest pressed against your back and his face buried on the crook of your neck. His fresh scent right out of the shower engulfing you and invading your senses, flooding you with him.

"'m sorry, bunny," he mumbles.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Ri—"

"It's odd, thought I'd pull it off, thought it'd be nothin' if I didn't make it. Don't know why I'm so upset right now," he continues, cutting you off, "Been so patient for me too, bunny. Thought I'd be nice to make you proud, ya know?"

Your sigh comes out sharp from the heavy feeling from your chest, not knowing what to do to make him feel better—like he did with you, always knowing his way around your low moments.

You wriggle out of his arms, making him grumble until you fully face him. He looks back at you with a small frown, eyebrows furrowed, watching your expression.

"I'm always proud of you, Rin. Olympic player or not, you make me so proud," you speak softly, your hands cupping each side of his face.

"Don't even get why it matters to me this much, it's just—" it was your turn to cut him off, tipping your toes to press a lingering kiss against his lips. Suna smiles against your lips, carrying you to sit on the kitchen counter like he always did—knowing you always would have to tip on your toes to reach him.

Soon, the lingering kiss turns slow and passionate—lips softly grazing the other, and it feels more like pouring the heavy weight of love out of your chest and into the other. A kiss so loving, so reassuring, so passionate—the kind that easily takes your breath away and makes your mind go blank. When Suna pulls away, he rests his forehead against yours, breathing heavily. You smile at him because it's all you can do when your heart feels like it's going to leap out of your throat just to offer itself to him entirely—and Suna smiles back at you, pecking your lips before wrapping his arms around you again, resting his chin on your shoulder.

You run your fingers through his hair, hoping it would help soothe him, and then you say, "I promise that you'll make it next year, Rin. I'll be with you now, and I'll still be with you then."

It only makes him hold you tighter, closer to him, "I love you, Y/N."

"I love you, Rintarō. You deserve the world and all the stars in the galaxy."

"'s too bad there's nothin' more I need than you, then."

That's what Suna tells you—Suna, who was smoke in his lungs, dumb videos of the twins to blackmail them with, little mistakes, bored eyes, and lazy attitude. The same Suna who was slow kisses, passion, and genuine smiles reserved for you—the same Suna who gave his passions his all, the same Suna who held you securely in his arms every night, the same Suna his little sister admired. Most of all, the same Suna Rintarō you loved with every beat of your heart, every fibre of your being.

📞 violet is calling... all content featured belongs to ©️ animatedrapture. do not plagiarize, repost, or modify.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep11

*Rika voice* we poppin’ the BIGGEST bottles next week when we successfully tear apart fate and reclaim our happy ending! :)

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

I think we can all agree that there’s no way in hell this is going to go as smoothly as this episode wants us to think it will, when we still have 13 episodes left to go before this all ends, lol.

Obviously this won’t play out exactly the same as Minagoroshi, but even Minagoroshi ended with everyone getting brutally murdered because they didn’t actually manage to achieve the proper win condition, so going into this type of scenario was never really a good sign anyway.

And yeah on that note, this episode takes a hard swerve into full on Minagoroshi mode, which I figured might happen, but not in such a 1:1 way. But the fact that it’s suddenly lining up so much with that arc just makes me even more suspicious that we’re being given a false sense of hope.

Obviously the bottom line is that one way or another, this isn’t Minagoroshi, it’s Tataridamashi, and the overall situation is distinctly different. Like how Ooishi is on bad terms with Keiichi this time around, unlike in Minagoroshi, so they’re probably going to have a much harder time getting the large-scale protesting done if he decides not to help them. Which might also lead to the Sonozaki family refusing to help them either.

I also get the feeling that even if Keiichi has been successfully convinced by his dream to not murder Teppei, it still feels like both Rena and Shion are on the brink of going off the deep end, and if their attempts to handle the situation via peaceful protesting gets shut down by the cops this time, that might push them over the edge.

And even though I have mixed feelings about the ‘Satoko culprit theory’, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the big twist of this arc will be that Teppei already got murdered off-screen by Satoko before anyone else could get to him, and she’s been lying about it.

Specifically I don’t like the idea of her being some kind of villain who’s intentionally and maliciously lying about being abused to get away with murder, but I think it’d make a lot of sense if we find out that Satoko did something like accidentally overdose Teppei with his medication, or push him down a flight of stairs in an abrupt fit of her syndrome, and then afterward she might enter the stage we saw in Tatarigoroshi where she straight up hallucinates that he’s still alive. So even if he’s dead, she might not be intentionally lying about it.

I can at least imagine a scenario where the gang [or at least part of the gang] gets fed up once and for all and breaks into Teppei’s house to murder him, but they find his corpse instead. And in a Tatarigoroshi type of way, maybe Satoko will see them and assume that they’re the ones that killed him, and everything will go to shit.

Then there’s also the whole separate question of what’s going on with Takano and Tomitake, and the statue in the Saiguden, and so on. We should at least get some more clues about that stuff before the question arcs end.

This episode is also making me even more confused about how much Rika actually knows about what’s going on, and what arcs she actually remembers. She seems to directly quote Keiichi from Minagoroshi in this episode [I think], but even in the VN they stated that she completely forgot what happened in that arc, and Hanyuu had to tell her about it later.

But her being more active in this episode and thinking that they actually have a shot at winning this is kinda just making it even more strange that she hasn’t said or done anything about the Takano situation. Especially since the entire deal with Minagoroshi in the first place was that they assumed dealing with Teppei in a timeline where neither Rena or Shion go L5 was enough to get a happy ending, but then Takano came around and killed everyone. So the fact that she seems to have basically the exact same mentality she had in Minagoroshi after Keiichi convinced her she could change fate makes it feel like she’s in the exact same position of thinking that Takano isn’t important.

And then there’s the fact that in ep2 she talks about ‘knowing who kills Furude Rika’ and how they all achieved their happy ending, so really there’s just a lot of conflicting information going on here, lol. I honestly can’t tell if it’s intentional, or if it’s literally just weird writing and Rika is acting ‘out of character’ because having her immediately reveal the Takano situation would spoil new fans.

I can’t exactly deny that it might just be a weird writing issue that we shouldn’t think much about, but I think it’s more interesting to try and think about what it could mean if this apparent contradiction in Rika’s level of knowledge and her actions in Gou thus far is actually intentional and meaningful.

I haven’t entirely ironed out my theory about this yet, but my current idea is that the whole meta-structure of Gou is that it’s basically a series of fictional stories created by Rika and Featherine together after the events of Matsuribayashi, and the Rika we see in Gou is effectively just a fictional character in this story who doesn’t actually align fully with Rika from the VN.

Specifically I think that Gou’s whole story is basically written from the premise of being a what-if fanfiction of sorts, where the Rika we see in Gou is more or less based on Rika’s character as of the end of Meakashi, or maybe Tsumihoroboshi. So she starts off in Gou at the point where she’s already figured out the basic rules of the gameboard, but doesn’t actually know about Takano, and also hasn’t experienced in any timelines where they successfully deal with Teppei, and she maybe also hasn’t seen any of her friends start to remember past timelines yet.

And I think the way they might explain what we see Rika say in ep2 of Gou is that Tataridamashi is actually the first arc chronologically in Gou, and it might with a deceptively happy ending where everyone on paper gets their happy ending, and everyone even survives long enough for Rika to go to high-school, but then she winds up dead there, and it’s after that point that Rika wakes up in ep2.

I don’t even necessarily think this would be incompatible with the idea of this arc going off the deep end and going in a more tragic direction. Maybe Teppei does end up dying one way or another, but everyone else survives, not even Satoko goes L5, and Teppei’s murder gets successfully covered up and everyone just goes back to living their lives. And because of whatever’s clearly been changed behind the scenes with Takano, the GHD never happens, so everyone just assumes they managed to achieve their happy ending by killing Teppei. But then Rika ends up dying a few years later in high-school anyway, in a way that ties into whatever the actual mystery of Gou is that all the characters are missing. At the very least I think teenage Satoko is gonna end up being the one to kill teenage Rika, and I could easily see that happening in a timeline where Teppei dies and she doesn’t immediately go off the deep end, but still has psychological scarring that nobody is fully aware of or properly deals with. So maybe she ends up becoming secretly resentful of Rika and all of her friends, blaming them for what happened, and she winds up killing Rika because of it.

I think this would actually pretty neatly explain the apparent contradiction of Rika talking about ‘knowing who killed her’ and ‘getting her happy ending’, while coming across like she genuinely doesn’t understand what’s actually going on. Her wording to Hanyuu in ep2 was always intentionally vague, but instead of just being about hiding the truth from new fans, maybe it was a multi-layered twist where what she’s talking about is totally different to what VN readers assume she means. Maybe the happy ending she meant was Tataridamashi, with everyone killing Teppei, and the person who kills her is Satoko.

She did act like she knows who kills her in *every* timeline, but if Rika in this arc is effectively pre-Minagoroshi, and this ends with a version of events where Takano never kills anyone and the GHD never happens, and it’s Satoko who kills Rika, that might lead Rika to falsely assume that her death in at least most of the timelines is just a result of Satoko going L5 and killing her.

Gou’s whole deal seems to be based on the idea that Rika is acting on false information, so I think it’d make sense if we find out that the truth she talked so confidently about knowing in ep2 was totally misleading.

One thing I’ve also been considering that might support this is that we see what at least seems to be teenage Satoko in the OP, but given that they’re going to change the show’s subtitle for the second half, they might change the OP too, which would imply that we’ll see teenage Satoko before this arc ends. Which makes me think that there’ll be some kind of timeskip epilogue at the end of the arc, and it’d be pretty likely at that point for that to be the big pivotal thing that happened with Rika as a teenager.

It’d also just flow better for new fans if the timeskip stuff with them in high-school takes place after one of Gou’s arcs, rather than Matsuribayashi, since that’d be kinda confusing and make new fans feel like they’re missing out on vital information.

Either way, like most people I think most of Gou’s central mystery is going to revolve around Satoko, and I think ultimately it’s gonna boil down to the question of what it would truly take to ‘solve’ all of her personal problems, and whether or not just getting rid of Teppei would be enough. For one thing, I imagine this arc will also still leave Satoshi’s whereabouts completely up in the air, which is another bit of unresolved trauma for Satoko.

More broadly than that, though, I feel like the Gou gameboard is Featherine’s way of giving her own perspective on the original story of Higurashi, and being like ‘if I take control of the story and introduce a new element to get rid of Takano before she does anything, does that automatically mean that everyone will get their happy ending, or is it more complicated than that?’. And I think this arc might be the best representation of that, where everything seemingly goes well for everyone, and Takano seems to never do anything evil, but everything still goes to shit anyway because of the various issues that the main characters still have even if Takano is dealt with.

I’m not sure exactly what new elements Featherine could bring to the board, and how it could lead to Takano being dealt with in every arc, but it probably has to do with what Takano found in the Saiguden, and also the fact that Featherine herself literally appears in the Saiguden in the OP.

I won’t get into super explicit details about Umineko here, but I think that Umineko Ep5 gives a pretty good example of how a new author can take control of a gameboard and insert a new ‘piece’ in order to achieve some new goal.

Anyway, once we get into the second half, I think the next arc will basically just be a version of Meakashi that acts as Watadamashi’s answer arc. We’ll probably spend about three episodes on Shion and Satoshi’s whole backstory from Meakashi [mixed with some of the flashbacks from Matsuribayashi], and then the arc will end with showing Shion and Mion’s perspective on Watadamashi, which I don’t think would take very long if they just focus on showing what they were doing in some of the important scenes. And some of it still might be left a little intentionally ambiguous.

Then I think that either whether they label it as it’s own arc or just treat it as part of one big final arc, we’ll get around three episodes that show Onidamashi from Rena’s POV, which would basically serve as a substitute for Tsumihoroboshi, and we’ll finally get an explicit reveal of how Keiichi hallucinated part of their fight scene. It might play out in the exact same way, but I could also see it seeming like a 1:1 retelling of Onidamashi at first, that then diverts at the last minute by having Keiichi remember the truth of what really happened in Onidamashi after he invites Rena into his house, in time for him to talk her down from killing him. Then after that I think we’ll basically get Gou’s take on Matsuribayashi, where everyone properly tackles the real issues and mysteries going on, to achieve a proper happy ending.

I’m not really confident about a lot of this, but I think it all more or less makes sense, especially since I’ve been thinking for a while that Gou will probably end up being much more of a remake than a full on sequel.

And then in the final episode we might get a glimpse at the ‘outside world’ where Rika/Bern is going over Featherine’s manuscript version of Gou, to help explain the whole framing device.

Also, I’m still wondering if Lambda is gonna play into Gou’s story at all, going by how we’re more or less already dealing with Bern, and Featherine has shown up in the OP and will presumably come into play later on. It’d feel a bit weird to have those two show up but not Lambda.

I feel like it’d be much harder to provide context for her whole deal compared to those two, though, but if Gou is effectively a fictional story in-universe, then she doesn’t necessarily need to follow the same logic she did in the VN. She was technically already present [but unmentioned] in the VN as being the witch who provided Takano with her blessing of certainty, so maybe she’s going to do the same for Satoko here instead [and maybe her not providing Takano with her blessing within the context of Gou is part of how Featherine is ‘dealing with her’]. Maybe a post-Tataridamashi Satoko ends up making a deal with Lambda as a result of her years of unresolved trauma and whatnot. Maybe she wants to go back in time to stop herself [or her friends] from killing Teppei, and Lambda agrees to provide her with the power to turn back time.

And along those lines, I’m also wondering if that might be part of why the Saiguden statue’s hand is undamaged in Gou. We’ve seen how Satoko thinks that she got cursed when she did that, and that it caused everything in her life to go to shit, so maybe she specifically wants to go back in time to prevent that incident from happening. And like I’ve also theorized, maybe the statue is undamaged in the first two Gou arcs because they happen chronologically after this one, and start from the premise of Satoko avoiding that incident.

Anyway, this is a whole lot of wild speculation that might not turn out to be true at all, lol. For one thing, even though I think teenage Satoko will show up in this arc because she’s in the OP, I’m not sure if or even how Featherine might appear in this arc, and that might really take things in a whole new direction I can’t predict.

[innovativestruggles]

TsukiYachi speculations, thoughts and theories based on canonical evidence

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG LONG POST!

So I wanna share my thoughts with everyone - especially ya’ll TsukiYachi lovers (notably @mimi-cee-hq​) whoever that’s left (and clearly I should be working but doing this cause I apparently like to procrastinate)

Canonical Evidence

I want to reinforce the point here. When I write about character analysis and speculations, I base things on canonical evidence - that is - based on what I see and interpret from the manga and anime. I usually prefer to use manga as that is the ultimate canon but seeing as the anime is quite loyal to the manga, I’ll be using it too. Of course, this is all interpretation base (and maybe biased) which is why I will put forward evidence that I see so it helps people see where and how I got to my conclusion (instead of looking like I just made something up). Teehee.

So....HAPPY READING!

Manga Vs. Anime

I only recently started the anime and reading the manga (yes yes I am aware I am late to the party but I’m FASHIONABLY LATE) and it is amazing how loyal the anime is to the manga (so far) but I have noticed a few discrepancies. And because this is a TsukiYachi post I am going to focus on this. 

The anime unfortunately toned down some of the interactions between Tsukki and Yachi, which is a huge shame - BUT it does make up for some parts by extrapolating and adding more cute details that was not seen in the manga. So I suppose there are elements of balance, although the details the anime omitted was important as it gave off more interesting vibes. 

For example; this interaction below was downplayed in the anime. Yachi only talked of Tsukki’s liveliness and the flustered “he usually acts so cool” was left out. So sad, I would have totally liked to see a flustered Yachi talking about Tsukki <33

AND THIS ONE BELOW! THE MOST DISAPPOINTING OF THEM ALL! I was sooooooooo sad when the anime left this specific part out where Tsukki and Yachi were sitting next to each other. In the anime, Yachi was somewhere on the other side holding plates or something. LIKE SERIOUSLY? When manga panels are drawn, they usually draw who they would like to emphasise in the centre or draw them bigger. LOOK AT TSUKKI AND YACHI BEING THE CETNRE OF ATTENTION! LOOK AT HOW BIG THEY’VE BEEN DRAWN!! LOOK AT THEM SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER. 

STUPID EFFING ANIME HOW DARE YOU DENY US TSUKIYACHI FANS OF THIS!!! *rant rant rant*

Anyways, one thing I did like about the anime was them extrapolating this scene. Teehee. Look at Tsukki just staring at Yachi even whilst Yamaguchi was talking. And then Tsukki continues to talk to Yachi as if Yama didn’t say anything at all. This scene was so adorable <33

So moving on

Interactions

I gotta agree with everyone here and the obvious is that the interactions between Tsukki and Yachi are minimal. It is so sad but you know, Tsukki is a side character and Yachi is like a side side character so I do understand why their interactions would have very little screen/page time. In saying that, whenever they do have their interaction, or when one talks of the other, it was rather significant. This was most notable in the Shiratorizawa arc. Let me explain;

Yachi is extremely caring of all her teammates and her interactions lie predominantly with Kiyoko and the four first year boys. Of the four, Hinata would be the one she interacts with most. I suppose this is because Hinata is the main protagonist so he gets thorough interaction moments with all characters. It is a given. 

Kageyama’s interaction with Yachi was second in terms of screen/page time but I believe the vast majority of the time, it was together with Hinata (ones that are significant anyways). 

Then there is Yamaguchi, who so adorably thinks she is cute. I am still unsure whether he actually likes her (maybe a little crush?). But I reckon Nishinoya likes Kiyoko more than Yamaguchi likes Yachi LOL. So it might just be a tiny crush, I don’t know. Anyways, YamaYachi have very little screen time as well and their direct and indirect interactions don’t particularly stand out to me. I mean, they do have their little fluff moments but nothing significant in terms of development.

Now we have Tsukki. In terms of screen/page time, Yachi and Tsukki, like I said earlier, have minimal interactions - but I mean this in a direct interaction kind of way. What I noticed were their indirect interactions! I’ll explain more later.

I went into watching Haikyuu with a very neutral standpoint and my TsukiYachi shipping did not start until quite some time later (most notable during the Shiratorizawa arc).

Shiratorizawa Arc

Tsukki underwent a major character development during the Shiratorizawa arc so this was a time where he shone the brightest. During this arc, Yachi had some of the biggest screen/page time - it was so awesome! 

Aside from when Yachi was first introduced, we never really got to see much of her, but her screen/page time appeared a lot more during this arc. It so happens that this very arc was the most important for Tsukki. Three major things I noted from this arc,

1. Akiteru’s presence

2. Akiteru and Yachi’s interactions (direct and indirect)

3. Yachi’s commentary of Tsukki

Akiteru’s Presence

Akiteru, we all know, was Tsukki’s biggest influence when it comes to his ideas around volleyball, so naturally his presence there during Tsukki’s major development would be significant.

Akiteru and Yachi’s Interactions

These two have an absurd amount of interactions during this arc. Have a look below!

This was only a handful of times! There were so many more I couldn’t possibly add them all to this post! They only just met that day yet they talked so much to each other! And it wasn’t just all about Tsukki, it was about the game in general and I just love the friendly interactions between them. Like the most important person to Tsukki was interacting so much with Yachi <33 My heart...

Furudate could have made Akiteru interact the same way with any of the other three on the stand i.e. Saeko, Takinoue or Shimada but he made the focus on him and Yachi. And to have Yachi closely interact so much (and on a deep level regarding Tsukki) with someone so close to Tsukki, I thought this was so adorable!

Yachi’s commentary of Tsukki

Then we see Yachi’s commentary. FML don’t get me started on this. I don’t tend to be too observant with these kinds of things but I remember when I was watching this arc for the first time, the amount of times Yachi made some sort of comment about Tsukki was pretty much the only time she had screen time (aside from when Akiteru was talking to her). 

I don’t know whether Furudate was being deliberate with this (he probably was), but anyone on the team could give the same comments as Yachi regarding Tsukki! They probably know his play a lot better as well, but then the audience were given scenes of Yachi commenting on Tsukki instead. ALSO, NOT JUST ANY COMMENTS, they were quite deep-seated ones too. Yachi was just so observant of him and she watches him so closely it was so sweet. She seems to know his state of mind really well <333333

So have a look at some of her comments

Of course there was the one panel earlier when she was talking about how lively Tsukki appeared. I won’t duplicate it. I really can’t help but notice how much she talked about Tsukki during this arc, and they were all mostly directed towards Akiteru as well! HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT? I gotta reinforce this but talking so deeply about someone to the most important family member of that person is so.....HNNNGGGG!! It was no wonder Akiteru was so surprised that Tsukki may have other friends other than Yamaguchi. Teehee. 

Also note that Yachi has not spoken about Kageyama or Yamaguchi (or even Kiyoko) in such a deep manner. She has done so bits and pieces toward Hinata, but tbh not as much as this arc here re; Tsukki.

Below are some Yachi reactions specifically towards Tsukki spiking (first two images) and blocking (last two images) - I had to put these in cause it’s soooo cute!

Something extra for thoughts. I really love the below panel. Something about Yachi speaking of this was so sweet and tender. As if she truly knew exactly how much pain he was in. AAAAAHHHHHHH T____T My gorgeous babies.

Also this one below as well, which occurred earlier in the manga. I just love how Yachi looks out for everyone but she finds Tsukki just that much more challenging to decipher. It just makes it so great when she was able to tell the differing emotions from Tsukki later on in the series... even though he was so apathetic most of the time...

Finally this image below which I already posted above but would like to say a bit more about. So this scene occurred right after Karasuno beat Shiratorizawa. I just love it how with all the emphasis between Yachi and Tsukki during the entire arc, it was so beautifully wrapped up with them sitting next to each other <333

Extra Side Story

Right I ain’t gonna leave this one out. This panel below just goes to show that there was something going on here. Whether I have overanalysed it or not, on face value, it just seems a bit too different for me. What I mean is that Tsukki is a very apathetic, standoff-ish kinda person. If he is not being aloof, he is making some sort of snide and snarky remarks about someone. So Tsukki literally going out of his way to try and say something nice, to make Yachi feel better about her body and then getting a bit miffed because it didn’t get through the way he wanted, was very, very out of character for him. Which is why I just feel like he may have a soft spot for Yachi. Or maybe he is nicer to girls? Though I haven’t seen him saying anything remotely encouraging to Kiyoko.

Then I thought of what he said. As I mentioned in some other post (I posted heaps I don’t even remember where now lmao). “There are definitely people who like smaller girls...” If the translation was done correctly from Japanese to English (I can vouch for this as I can read a bit of Japanese), then the word ‘definitely’ he used was rather brazen. It just means he knows with 100% accuracy that there are people out there who likes smaller girls... And it’s normally a reference to the person speaking because they obviously know that they like the person hehehe.

Okay almost done with my thesis.

Star References

Yo this one is so fluff I fucking love it. I already made brief comments about this in some of my other posts and replies and Mimi (@mimi-cee-hq​) has done an amazing job writing two mini fics on this for me (ILY MY TSUKIYACHI SOUL HAS BEEN FED). See Matching Stars and the sequel A Blue Star! Thank you Mimi you’re a legend <33

So I started watching it a little closer in the anime (and manga), and Tsukki really favours his star shirts a whole damn lot (like the whole moon and star reference probably re; play on his name). Yachi on the other hand favours her star hair ties, blue ones she wears as manager and black ones during school times. I mean come on! Subtle references much? Either I am overanalysing this way too much and Furudate was half asleep when he designed these accessories or he truly be putting in some sneaky TsukiYachi references <333

P. S. Couple accessories that reference each other in subtle ways are common in Japan.

Concluding Thoughts (this honestly feels like an essay fml)

So these are my evidence for this pairing so far. I may have overanalysed this and Furudate could be like “wtf this person be taking this whole thing out of context that was not what I intended” OR “yeah man she totally nailed it right on the spot. I’m surprised she could pick this up so well” HAHAHA. 

Either way, this was my interpretation based on what I saw/read. As a long time manga reader, I know that manga artists portray characters and place emphasis on certain things in differing ways because the audience reading and seeing a drawing is different to them watching something. It’s a lot more difficult to portray your point across to readers than watchers. So that’s why when I read manga, parts such as drawing things bigger, more detailed and at the centre signifies more emphasis, as well as having certain characters together in panels.

At first glance, I actually thought this pairing would be like a crack pairing because there was no absolute way there could be anything remotely romantic about this ship. But the more I watched and read, the more I realised that this pairing does have some sort of potential. I mean, just because of all the direct and indirect interactions I wrote about them here, it does not automatically mean that there would be a romantic development. What I’m trying to show is that there is a lot more to this pairing than just thinking of them as a crack ship, b/c there are developments for these two. Furudate seems to make it so that these two know each other a lot more than what the audience is being given. Do I even make any sense? LOL

Feel free to refute every single thing I wrote here. I love a good debate. As long as you can back it up with evidence and keep things civil that is. It would be so nice if Yachi ends up with Tsukki but yeah who knows. I’d rather her end up with no one if she doesn’t get together with Tuskki (but that’s my personal opinion). Leaving things to interpretation can be a good thing.

BONUS

LMAO YACHI! HAHAHA! But I just love it how Furudate drew her close to Tsukki again <33 T___T so beautiful. And Tsukki in his giant star shirt...what’s new? lololol

BONUS BONUS

Nervous Yachi awaiting results of Tsukki’s injury. AHHHHHHHH LOOK HOW ADORABLE SHE IS! LOOK AT HER! I can’t make GIF but if you go and watch this scene she is literally shifting nervously on the spot. My precious gorgeous girl waiting for her man. I can’t, I just can’t ....

That’s all folks!

EDIT: I made a Part 2! Read it here

[tarhalindur]

Assorted Thoughts on Higurashi Gou

(Spoilers galore, so hiding everything under the cut.)

1) To modify the old Madoka meme for another fitting character:

“I, Furude Rika, enter the timeline.

Keiichi: Went to funeral with parents.

Tomitake: Disappeared.

Rena: L5′d

I am forcibly ejected from the timeline.”

2) My snap reaction to the nurse who’s “treating” Keiichi at the end of the episode: Hmm, I should probably double-check whether that could be the same nurse that shows up in Yakusamashi-hen.

Hmm.

HMMMMM.

Imma go with “yes”.  (I think we can safely assume that the appearance of the nurse is her actual appearance, since K1 has no reason to hallucinate that)

Which would mean Tokyo is very likely still involved, natch.  (The fun questions, of course, are “how long was the hospital scene after Rika and Satoko died?”, the closely related “did the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster go off offscreen?” and “did the Yamainu pack up the clinic in Tatarigoroshi-hen/Minagoroshi-hen?”, and “did the syringe that nurse gave Keiichi contain good old H173?”  I’m putting my quatloos on the answer to “was that H173?″ being yes, for the record - right spot for it to be played straight/wrong spot for that bluff, especially given that the only group who have reason to catch on are the rewatchers and rewatchers will remember Watanagashi-hen’s ending.)

3) Speaking of Tokyo, an important note, especially since Ryukishi07 did in fact go with the obvious primary culprit in OG Higurashi: the obvious primary culprit in Gou is Nomura, at least at the mortal level.  She’s known to have pulled the strings in OG, there’s an obvious motive for her to be involved more directly (i.e, if Miyo refused to be her patsy this time around), IIRC the Yamainu and Banken were shown in Matsuribayashi-hen to be ultimately loyal to her, and given her OG character design the appearance of the one unknown character we see in the Gou OP is consistent with being a younger Nomura.  (It might also be consistent with younger Miyo, and Miyo is admittedly the second option here on “rob a train, wait two days, rob it again” grounds.  But I have my doubts.)

(On a meta level... well, as everyone and their mom has noted, that’s fucking Featherine in the OP (I may or may not be laughing about certain possibilities WRT this because [REDACTED]), my snap reaction to that shot of Rika’s eyes in aforementioned OP was “that sure feels Seacats too” even before I ran across someone noting that it was strikingly similar to the manga description of a Witch’s awakening in Umineko, and the full OP lyrics are, uh, HMMM-worthy.  Wouldn’t be shocked if Nomura is a Featherine piece here.  And now I’m definitely laughing because I’ve had a certain alternate reading of “Feel the Bern” keeping popping into my head ever since Bernie started using that slogan and, well, 2020 being 2020...)

(Ah, yes, me: successfully dodging most Umineko spoilers involving the events at Rokkenjima mansion but getting THOROUGHLY spoiled about the meta level.  Probably didn’t help that When They Cry in general and Umineko in particular are probably second only to Death Note in “gateways for anime fans to get into forum Mafia/Werewolf”, especially when *somebody* had that one “oh good heavens, just look at the time” avatar *coughLLDcough*.)

4) On a lighter note, standing verdict on the new OP: Catchy, but more generic than either DEEN OP (especially S1, which holds up extremely well).  Actually reminds me more than a little of a couple of Raildex OPs (poster children for “catchy but not much enduring value”).

[connan-l]

Ramshackle

Fandom: Higurashi: When They Cry

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Relationship: Rika Furude/Satoko Houjou

Summary: A sudden and unexpected power outage leads Rika and Satoko to have a heartfelt conversation. And to think about maybe renovating their house, too.

Content Warnings: Some mentions of violence/gore/injuries/blood and of Rika’s previous deaths, mild panic attacks and references to traumas and Satoko’s past child abuse, but despite the archive warning there's nothing truly graphic.

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Link on Archive of Our Own

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Notes: Rika and Satoko are very important to me, so I’ve been wanting to write something about them since forever and finally there it is!

It’s just a small thing and it’s been a while since I’ve read the VN so there are probably a lot of details I forgot, but oh well.

Spoilers for the seventh arc Minagoroshi/Massacre Chapter!

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Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing; only a dark, deep blackness. The light had been there with her until a few seconds ago, and then it had vanished, in the snap of a finger. Was that a power outage? Odd. There wasn’t any storm outside, or rain, or snow. Not like it’d snow in summer anyway.

(When had it been since the last time she had seen snow? She couldn’t remember.)

She slowly rose up from the couch where she had been reading up until now, then narrowed her eyes to try to make them adapt to the dark. After a few seconds, she managed to distinguish some shapes, some vague forms among the darkness, but it was still hard to make out what exactly was in front of her or where she was. Tracing her fingers on the wall, she slowly walked forward, being careful not to stumble on anything. There was only one moment this kind of power outage happened, and it was shortly before they came after her. But that couldn’t be it. It was just at the start of the month, it wouldn’t make any sense for them to come right now. Unless… something had changed?

Anxiety started to grab her stomach and compress her lungs. She didn’t like that. She never liked the dark, or the silence, because they were always unpredictable in those situations, and she hated the unpredictable. Funnily enough, given usually she was spending her entire time on the lookout for the slightest abnormal little details in her endless identical routines — but when she was herself in danger, it was different.

Her hands started to tremble, and then her arms and legs. Her throat and stomach tightened. Her breathing got rougher, harder. That wasn’t good. She needed to stay concentrated. To focus. But focus on what? She couldn’t see anything, and aside her own footsteps, she couldn’t hear anything either.

Suddenly, she felt one of her feet get trapped into something, and before she could even realize what was going on she lost her balance and fell on the ground. The pain was immediate; thankfully, her arms had amortized the shock, but the soreness of the fall was still very striking. How strange that such a superficial thing could still hurt her this much, after all the severe injuries she had endured and all the blood she had shed before. But maybe it was a good sign she could still feel hurt like that. If she could feel pain even now, then that meant she was still alive.

(Still human.)

It took some time for her to regain her spirits, then she turned around to see her foot had gotten stuck in a board. To be more exact, the board had broken, and her foot had gotten through it. It shouldn’t be all that surprising. Their house was pretty old, and she had noticed it needed some renovations a long time ago already. It had just been the last thing on her list of priorities, and furthermore, until now it had never posed any problems. Maybe something had changed in this world, after all.

She tried to free her foot from the hole, but it seemed to have gotten seriously stuck. On top of that, the broken board was in the way, which complicated even more the matter. Quickly starting to get frustrated, she got agitated and twitched relentlessly her leg. Her skin got scratched and bloodied in the process, but at this point she didn’t care. She just wanted to get out — she wanted the light to come back, the sound to returns, the uneasiness grabbing her to go away. But none of that became reality, so instead, her anxiety kept on growing further and further, to the point where even breathing started to get difficult for her.

She knew, subconsciously, that she needed to calm down and think about the situation with a cool head, but her constricted stomach and her excessive pounding heart in her chest wouldn’t let her. She just felt trapped and wanted a way out. Any way out. The darkness around her started to dance, as if some strange shapes had surrounded her, and it only added to her panic.

Until, that was, a soft light broke out in the room.

“Rika?”

A familiar voice called out to her. She raised her head, and the first thing she saw was a blinding light — way too dazzling for her eyes who had been used to the dark since then. Then, slowly, she distinguished in front of her the silhouette of a young girl with short blonde hair and plum eyes, holding a small flashlight. She didn’t need to actually see her to know who it was, though.

There had always only been one person who could bring her light.

“So you were there! I was looking for you all around the house, I was so worried! Geez, can you believe that power outage? It’s not even raining outside! It’s ridiculous… Wha— wait, Rika? Are you okay?”

Satoko stopped in the middle of her garland of complaints when she truly realized that her best friend was lying on the ground, her leg stuck in the ground.

“Oh my God! Rika, what happened? Oh God, your leg’s bleeding!”

“I’m fine—” Rika tried to say, but she couldn’t even utter more than this that Satoko was already kneeling next to her, a worried frown on her face.

“Ugh, it’s not fine at all!” She replied while grimacing. “You have such an ugly wound, it must really hurt!”

“Ah, I—”

“Wait, don’t move.”

Satoko grabbed the small flashlight in her mouth, rummaged through her satchel at her hip and took out what looked like a little hammer. With this, she started to work with the broken board, and as she had always been infinitely more nifty and gifted than Rika could ever hope to be, she managed to free her foot in only a handful of minutes.

“There!” Satoko exclaimed, proudly, before looking at her friend’s fresh wound near her ankle. “Ew, that look even worse from up close… Ah, wait, Rika? What are you doing?”

The blue-haired girl didn’t wait any more and as soon as she was free she stood up, leaning on the wall for support while doing so. Her leg hurt whenever she’d put the slightest pressure on it. She was still trembling. Her stomach was tied in a knot. She felt like throwing up.

(She hated it. She hated everything.)

“Hey, Rika! You can’t stand up yet!”

“I’m fine,” Rika just repeated, but of course Satoko was stubborn and there was no way she would take that as a sufficient answer.

“As if! We need to take care of that wound. Stay here, I’ll come back right away with bandages.”

“I don’t need that, I can walk.”

Her voice was raspy, dry — talking and breathing was harrowing, like a struggle on its own. What she had said wasn’t entirely a lie, though — she could walk, but it would be pretty painful. However, she refused to let herself be that helpless any more seconds. Not in the darkness, not in the silence, not in front of Satoko.

“God, now’s not the time to play tough! It’ll take only a minute—”

“I said I was fine!”

Rika yelled and glared, finally lashing out her pent-up frustration and uneasiness. She was almost panting, almost coughing, her flabby legs actively fighting to not crumple on the ground. Satoko flinched at her outburst, but she did her best to regain her composure and reached towards her friend.

“Come on, Rika, it’s not—”

“Don’t touch me!”

Before Satoko’s hand could even brush her, Rika slapped it away and screamed.

“D-Don’t you dare to touch me! Can’t you understand when I tell you something? Why are you always so stupidly stubborn? Why do you never do as I told you to? This is the reason you and the others keep on dying! Because you never, never listen to me and do as I tell you to!”

The other girl instantly shrunk back and put her arms in from of her face instinctively, looking at Rika with wide, fearful eyes. As if she was expecting her to hit her. To hurt her. And even with her whole body still shaking and her throat choking up and her breathing hard, Rika felt a sinking feeling upon realizing this.

She knew she shouldn’t have done that. She should have known better. She knew Satoko better than anyone — maybe even better than her own brother — and she knew all the abuse she had been through, all the traumas she still bore inside her. And she knew that every screams or abrupt motions could be as painful to her as an actual kick. She knew that she, all of people, shouldn’t act like that. She was Satoko’s only ally — her partner in crime, her best friend, her only family left. She swore, a long, long time ago, that she would always be there for her and protect her against anything — even if the whole world were to turn against her, she would forever stay by Satoko’s side.

That’s why she shouldn’t let that side of herself slip up through to anybody, and certainly not to Satoko. She should always be the cute, smiling, happy Rika to her friends, to her. The Rika everyone loved. The gloomy, alcoholic cynical girl (woman?) who’s head was full of death and blood and scars, she only reserved it to Hanyuu and to the moon.

(No one wanted that Rika, not even herself.)

She knew that. She knew that. But…

But for some reason, her logic and reason had disappeared at the same time the board had broken, and she couldn’t manage to retrieve them.

“You… You… All of you…! A-All of you are just fools! Incapable fools! If you like to die and ruin your lives that badly, then go for it! But leave me out of that!”

With each of her shouts, Satoko’s face decayed, and with it Rika’s heart — but still, she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop. She was—

(“See? You’re not even able to protect the one you love from yourself,” whispered the dark, cackling witch in her head. “Poor, poor child. Look how scared she looks. You really are a horrible person, huh?”)

She had the sensation her head was going to explode.

Maybe it would be better if her head did explode.

Yes, let it explode, let it cover the floor with brain parts and blood. Wouldn’t be the first time this happen, right? Or would it? She couldn’t recall.

Let her sleep, for once and for all, for all eternity.

And with some luck, this time she even wouldn’t wake up once again with Hanyuu’s sad face in front of her eyes.

This time, she would just sleep forever, just slowly disappear, disintegrate, in the infinity of the universe…

“Rika! Watch out…!”

Rika suddenly returned to reality — she felt that, for a moment, she had spaced out, as if she hadn’t been in her house but somewhere else — but as soon as she did, she noticed she had stepped back, and that Satoko was looking at her with a distressed expression, and before she could even understand why—

—she felt her foot once again get stuck into something, and pass through the wooden floor. Except this time, it was not just one board that had broken, but a bunch of them — making her entire body follow her leg. She next saw a cloud of brown smoke and dust, then felt a vivid pain — a lot more intense than earlier. Her mind was hazy, and she coughed and coughed. For some time, she couldn’t understand what had happened. She even wondered if maybe some god had listened to her wish for once and had killed her…

“Rika! Rika…!”

But then Satoko’s worried face bent over her, and she realized that the other girl wouldn’t still be with her if she truly was dead.

“Rika, are you okay? Please, Rika, answer me! Are you okay?”

Satoko spoke really quickly in a shrilling voice — as she tended to do whenever she was deeply anxious — and wiggled her flashlight in front of her friend who was lying on the floor, her arms and long hair all scattered around her. Rika noticed Satoko was squatting a few meters away on top of her, and that’s when she slowly realized the situation: the floor had likely broken down, and she had fallen in a hole under the house. It wasn’t a very deep pit, but the fall had still been quite painful to her back, and her wound at her foot stung quite a bit as a result.

“Rika!” Satoko called again, her voice noticeably upset, which made Rika realize she should answer to her.

“I’m—”

—tired.

“—fine.”

Upon hearing her best friend’s small, hoarse voice, Satoko relaxed and let out a long sigh.

“Okay,” she said softly. “Okay… So… uh, c-can you move? N-No, wait, don’t move, I’m coming! I’ll come with you in a second, okay? D-Don’t move!”

All while talking fastly, Satoko stood up and started to go down in the newly-formed hole. It wasn’t a profound cavity at all, and for someone as nimble as Satoko it wouldn’t be difficult to climb down, but Rika still thought it was pretty reckless of her. Still, she didn’t say anything. She didn’t feel like opening her mouth. Or moving. Even blinking felt like hard work. So she just stayed on the ground, stretched out in that hole, while looking at her friend coming at her.

As expected, Satoko rejoined her in only two minutes, and she quickly kneeled at her side, branding her flashlight at Rika, like a funny mimicking of their situation earlier.

“Are you hurting anyway? I mean, aside from your foot, of course— Maybe your back? It seemed you fell on your back pretty hard, so it must hurt, right? Okay, I’ll, uh, I’ll look at it, okay? So if it hurts, you tell me, okay?”

Rika stayed completely silent as Satoko began to inspect her with her small light. She very carefully touched Rika’s hips, barely brushing them, as if she was afraid to break anything. For quite a moment, no one talked. If she closed her eyes and focused, Rika could almost hear the cries of the cicadas outside.

“Why do I even bother…?”

This was a whisper. She had finally stopped screaming, but her body was still trembling and her spirits still felt in pieces, as if she was about to shatter.

“Huh?”

“Why do I even try to save you…? There’s no point… Why…? I just… I’m just… so tired…”

Satoko looked over at her, expecting something more, an explanation maybe. But Rika still said nothing. She didn’t even looked at her friend, instead staring at the ceiling — that familiar ceiling, with the exact same cracks and exact same spider webs. She had memorized every one of them by now, even she had never meant to.

“You’ve never wanted to go live in the main house?”

Satoko jumped, surprised by Rika’s abrupt change of subject. “Th-The main house…?” She repeated.

“Next to the Furude shrine. Where I used to live with my parents before…”

“A-Ah…”

“That place where we live… is pretty pitiful. It’s old, and small, and even starting to collapse. It’s such a decrepit house.” She smirked. “Nah, it’s not even a house. A shack. It’s a stupid shack. Even my mother used to complain about it back then. Yeah, I forgot a lot of things, but this I remember… for some reason…”

“Rika…?”

“But the Furude residence is quite big. If we lived here… we’d be a lot more comfortable…”

Satoko removed her hands from Rika’s hips, and she stayed silent for a few seconds.

“Well, um, yeah, probably,” she said hesitantly. “But isn’t that… what we decided at the start? That it’d be better to live here rather than in the main house, because it’d feel too awkward to be in such a big house just with the two of us… Furthermore…” Satoko paused. Winced. Looked away. “You… didn’t want it to remind you of your parents… right?”

Yes, that had been what Rika had told her back then. But it wasn’t really true, not entirely. Sure, the part about it being more suited for the two of them to live in a smaller place than in the large Furude residence was true. But concerning her parents? Honestly, Rika hadn’t thought about them since a long time ago. Maybe it had been the case, the very first time she proposed to Satoko to live together, but… she couldn’t recall. Now, as cold as it might sound, she didn’t care much about them anymore. They were already dead, in her heart and in every world. No, her principal reason for choosing to go live in that shack was because… she thought Satoko would feel more at ease in here than in the residence. She knew she’d feel nervous and out of place in such a huge familial house, and that she could never bring herself to see this as her ‘home.’ And more than anything, Rika had always wanted to give Satoko that — a home. Where she’d feel safe and happy. Where she’d want to return to. However… she noticed now she had never even asked Satoko what she thought about it. As usual, she had just assumed things about her friend without even questioning it.

(For as much as she was saying she wanted to make Satoko happy more than anyone else, she was still a pretty self-centered person, wasn’t she?)

“That’s true,” Rika added. “But if you had the choice. Would you like to go live in the main house?”

Satoko frowned a little, and she seemed to genuinely consider the question. But after a while, she shook her head. “No… I don’t think so… It’s true that this house is a bit… well, like you said, it’s small and a bit… tatty, but… it’s more cozy? And I… prefer that. But, to be honest…”

“Hmm…?”

Satoko looked away. She seemed to be reluctant, and… blushing?

“T-To be honest… I think… the place doesn’t really matter. I’d be able to live anywhere, as long as… as long as you’re with me.”

Rika blinked, surprised, and while Satoko’s cheeks were still a bit red, she flashed her a small, genuine smile.

“If Rika is here with me, then no matter where we are I’ll always feel at home.”

Rika’s mind blanked for a while. Surely, that was something she could have guessed by herself. She knew for years — decades — that Satoko liked her a lot, obviously — but hearing her saying something like this was still… a shock.

“D-Does that sounds stupid?” Satoko asked, suddenly embarrassed.

“No! Not at all, it’s…”

Rika sighed.

“It’s not… stupid at all. It’s… I… I actually… feel the same…”

“Eh? Really?”

Rika took a big inspiration, then covered her eyes with her arms as she felt tears coming up.

“I’m an idiot,” she blurted out.

“Wh-What? What now?”

“I’m sorry. I’m such a big, huge idiot.”

Why? She had asked herself earlier. Why did she even bother?

That was why. That was because she couldn’t give up on this. It was painful. It was horrible. She still wished to die and stay die more than once.

But in the end, she couldn’t give up on her life. She couldn’t give up on her friends. She couldn’t give up on her.

She couldn’t give up on her home.

“I’m sorry, Satoko… I’m so sorry…”

“Wh-Why are you apologizing?”

“I’m sorry… for being such a bad friend… I’m sorry for yelling at you… and snapping at you… and for everything else…”

This time she really had to struggle to not burst into tears, and she couldn’t even refrain a few sobs from escaping her. For quite a while, nothing moved and no sounds was made in the hole aside from the few occasional muffled sobs of Rika. Then finally, after some time, she heard a rustling of fabric. Two little, warm arms encircled her. Embracing her. Tightly.

“I… I’m not sure what’s going on with you, Rika,” Satoko confessed, her voice unusually soft and tender. “Sometimes, it’s as if… I don’t know you at all. As if you’re a completely different person. And… A-And I admit, that really… scares me.”

Rika closed her eyes. Of course, she couldn’t tell her there was, in fact, a completely different Rika Satoko knew nothing about. An old drunk Rika with a black heart who spent her nights sipping wine in company of a dead goddess, her thoughts full of morbidity and bitterness.

“I’m… not sure what happened earlier… I’m not sure what you apologize for… but, I…” Satoko gulped. “You’re not an idiot or a bad friend. You’re my best friend… No, you’re more than that. You’re my home, remember? So, I… don’t want you to talk about yourself like that. Ever again. Okay?”

Rika thought this was quite ironic coming from Satoko, as she was usually the one who kept being self-deprecating and beat herself down, not matter what anyone would say to her. But she felt too exhausted to call her out on that. Instead, she buried her head into Satoko’s neck, circling her waist, trying to take in her heat, her strength, her kindness.

“C-Can we… stay here?” She murmured, her voice muffled in Satoko’s clothing. “Just for… a little while…”

The other girl chuckled. “Sure. We’ll have to clean up everything afterwards, though… but that can be afterwards.”

Satoko gently ran her hand in her long, dark hair, while Rika just closed her eyes. And even in that hole, in the middle of these rubbles and remains, right now she just felt safe and complete.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 11/28/17

It’s a cornucopia of briefs!

Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 6 | By Yuji Terjima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Training camp continues, and the coach has arranged for some practice games right afterwards, the better to gauge how well the first years play when exhausted. For Furuya, the answer is initially “not well,” but he never loses his determination, and once he swallows his pride and asks Miyuki for advice, finally internalizes the truth that, at Seido, he’s got teammates who are going to back him up, even if the batter does manage to get a hit. Eijun’s fun and everything, but Furuya is not your typical shounen protagonist, and I’m pleased that he’s getting his share of attention. I also liked that the boys hang out some with varsity teammates we’ve barely glimpsed, and we learn how awesome the captain is. I am already relishing the thought of future marathon rereads of this series. It’s a keeper for sure. – Michelle Smith

Cells at Work!, Vol. 5 | By Akane Shimizu | Kodansha Comics – Once again, Red Blood Cell is absent from this volume except a brief cameo. This allows us to focus our attention on the ‘normal cell’ from prior volumes, who still has a tendency to do dumb things on impulse. Fortunately, the cute adorable bacteria he’s harboring in his room are the GOOD kind of bacteria. Unfortunately, his attempt to get them to where they can do good is thwarted by a host of crises from which White Blood Cell and company must rescue him, most notably the return of Cancer Cell, who brings back the ethical ambiguity to the series as he asks essentially “are the needs of the many less important than the needs of the one?” The one being the body. This was a lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 3 | By Ryoko Kui| Yen Press – The cast expands a bit in this third volume. We see one of our team’s old comrades, who left them due to actually wanting to get paid, and the complicated relationship she has with them, particularly Marcille, and it’s made clear she’s not a bad guy—everyone has their own needs and drives. As for Marcille, we also get a flashback to her school days, which shows how she met Laios’ sister (still being digested by a dragon, if you recall), which is rather cute. And of course more ridiculously gross yet amusing monster recipes. And plenty of humor, as it turns out tentacles can be peeled sort of like bananas. Still good, though I’d like to get the sister rescued or declare her dead. – Sean Gaffney

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vol. 6 | By Tsunami Umino | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – It was inevitable that Mikuri and Hiramasa would discover that they are in love with each other, but I am still kind of surprised that it actually happened. It’s lovely to see him grinning like a doofus at the office after an evening of fooling around, but I appreciate that the transition into a real marriage isn’t exactly going to be smooth. Mikuri is worried, for example, that she’ll be expected to do the same amount of work for free, while Hiramasa worries about his waning sex drive. Somehow I doubt we’ll ever see the latter issue addressed Everyone’s Getting Married! I also really enjoyed the scenes where Mikuri’s aunt and Kazami get to know each other better—I wholeheartedly approve of them hooking up! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 17 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – And so our heroes pull it off, and get to advance, while Aoba Johsai has to suffer an ignominious defeat. This is done in the best possible shonen way, with lots of noble tears and resolve to get even stronger. The cliches don’t FEEL like cliches—the author is adept at making this feel fresh even when you know where every plot beat is going to be. And so it’s on to the finals, and I suspect this game may drag on a while, as it’s a best 3-sets-of-5 game. Their opponent is Shiratorizawa, who I’m sure we’ll find out more about as we move on, but who clearly have one player who’s REALLY good, and the volume ends with our heroes down by quite a bit. I think they’ll come back, though. Just a hunch. – Sean Gaffney

Hana & Hina After School, Vol. 3 | By Milk Morinaga | Seven Seas – This turns out to be the final volume, and honestly you get the sense it was cut a bit short—the last half feels rushed. Of course, considering all we were getting before that was a slow-burning pile of angst, it might be best that it got the push. Morinaga Milk has always been better at fluffy than angsty, so it comes as something of a relief when our two heroines finally get over the whole “is it just me? Did she mean it when she said she’s not that way?” drama and get together (in all respects—as with previous MM titles, there’s a brief, not-that-explicit sex scene here). In the end, this was a cute read, but I’ve seen better yuri from this author. – Sean Gaffney

Horimiya, Vol. 9 | By Hero and Daisuke Hagiwara | Yen Press – Horimiya has always tried to be at least slightly more realistic than a lot of romance manga, and thus watching Yuki’s ongoing angst regarding her lies and deceit and how it’s impacting other people is particularly painful. I’m not really all that sure I want her to win here, even though the alternative will also suck. On the bright side, Hori and Morimiya are doing better than ever, and as Hori is forced to think about her future—something which she seemed to have given not a single thought to—but she realizes here that no matter what she does, she wants to be with Miyamura. This leads to a sort of adorable reverse proposal, which fits the general characterization. Still good, but I hope it’s wrapping up soon. – Sean Gaffney

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 5 | By Hirohiko Araki | Viz Media And so, finally, JoJo’s has run up against my ability to get 500+ words out of each volume. Yes, this is the first volume to get a Brief rather than a full review, and I put the blame entirely on the rambling Road To Cairo plot that Araki has chosen to use this time around. Individual moments are as striking as ever—I felt the killer baby was more interesting as a killer within dreams than in the real world, and the surprise non-death of a character feels a bit cheap. But JoJo’s still has its bizarre visuals and grotesque violence, and as long as it keeps that up it should stay interesting, even if Jotaru continues to be the dullest Jo we’ve had to date. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 4 | By Canno | Yen Press – Most sports manga fail to show the heroes moving on to a professional career, with a few exceptions like Captain Tsubasa. In reality, a lot of sports careers end just the way we see Mizuki’s end here—she comes close to the Nationals, but doesn’t make it, and realizes that this is it, she has to stop doing track and decide on an actual career. There’s also her relationship with Moe, which may actually be hindering her for a spell—it’s gotten to the point where she forgets running was fun—but eventually proves stronger than both thought, and we get a proposal (of sorts) and a kiss. This is a bit stronger than Hana & Hina, even if it’s just as fluffy, and I’m pleased to see it continue. – Sean Gaffney

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, Vol. 7 | By Koyuki and Mamare Touno | Yen Press – The comedy is kept to a minimum here, as we get the more dramatic parts of the third and fourth novel, intermixed with how it’s affecting the West Wind Brigade. Kawara’s on the cover, and we get a bit more insight into her character—basically, she’s an instinctual fighter but a bit of an idiot who got into the game because she wanted to be a shonen hero, and the West Wind Brigade was the only one that would take her in. It does also show off her strengths as well, though. That said, easily the most interesting part is the ending, where we get a surprise appearance by a seemingly insane Nureha, who’s met by a battle-crazy Soujiro. I want to see how this battle turns out. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 10 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – I appreciate that Horikoshi is willing to let Bakugo be a completely unlikable jerk, driven by rage and jealousy and every single negative emotion, and yet still show that he realizes the difference between good and evil—that he’s decided that he wants to be a HERO rather than a villain, even if that means going against what comes more naturally. It’s a terrific scene that really made me like him. On the flip side, the disguises used to infiltrate Evil HQ are hilarious, particularly Deku and Momo. The humor is needed, as this is something of a grim arc, especially with the arrival of a Bigger Bad towards the end. This volume shows off everything that has made this the hot new Jump title. – Sean Gaffney

Nisekoi: False Love, Vol. 24 | By Naoshi Komi | Viz Media – Even though it’s obvious Onodera’s going to lose, give credit to the author for not making it easy. She and Raku have really developed a close relationship, and even if it’s not romantic I hope they can stay friends. More to the point, the fact that Onodera is willing to help Raku track down Chitoge by FLYING TO AMERICA with him (because Chitoge has, like many tsundere heroines in denial, literally run halfway across the Earth to escape her love issues) shows off her truly ridiculous kindness. There’s the last popularity poll in this book, and Chitoge and Onodera are separated by barely 100 votes. That’s impressive for a harem title. In any case, it wraps up next time, so keep reading. – Sean Gaffney

One Piece, Vol. 84 | By Eiichiro Oda | VIZ Media – It’s been a while since we had a volume that focused on further sad backstory for one of the Straw Hat crew, but that’s what we get here, with many hard-to-read scenes about Sanji’s abuse at the hands of his family, intercut with a silly fight in which Luffy defeats a bunch of cracker soldiers by eating them. Because Big Mom is threatening to kill Chef Zeff if he doesn’t comply, Sanji is forced to both insult and attack Luffy in an attempt to get him to abort the rescue, but of course this doesn’t work. In addition to this riveting drama, there’s also the question of whether Pudding (Sanji’s seemingly sympathetic bride-to-be) can actually be trusted, more information about the ponegliffs (yay!), and a glimpse at the unintended consequences of toppling Doflamingo. Plus, Brook actually gets something important to do! This series is still excellent. – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

[ohmythatoikawaboy]

I’ve been laughing at this cover picture for about 12 hours, isn’t it amazing?

The first time I saw this picture, my reaction was the following: “Haha, Hinata versus a salesman, that’s good. That’s an interesting fanart. And look at that hair, so combed... But it kinda looks like Osamu’s hair? Wait. THAT’S OSAMU. WAIT. IT ISN’T FANART.” 

I legit thought it was fanart because IT IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE THAT WE GET TO SEE THIS KIND OF METAPHOR IN CANON. I will talk about this later (my final degree project was about metaphors so get ready for some good shit).

IS THIS A REFERENCE?

Now, Haikyuu isn’t known for having overt references to other shows, but I like to find potential references in any case. And the title helps as well.

When I see this picture, it reminds me of two things: the first one is Pokemon, and the second one is Yu-Gi-Oh. The point here is: this is a challenge. I’m not very acquainted with Yu-Gi-Oh so I’ll focus on my area of expertise: Pokemon.

Businessman Osamu wants to fight!

(Continues under the Read More cut.)

(Now I wonder what kind of Pokemon team he would have, but that’s a different story and this post will already be long enough.)

I assume the majority of people have played Pokemon, but if you haven’t: yes, Businessman is a trainer class. There are actual businesspeople challenging you to fights because the protagonist decides it’s a good idea to get inside buildings where people are actually working. Or are they? Because all those businesspeople are idle as hell every time they challenge me.

But if you ask me, I’d love a Pokemon AU in which Osamu is a businessman during the day, and a member of the Elite 4 at night.

AN INTERESTING METAPHOR

We saw in the previous chapter that Hinata lost a battle on the net against Osamu because Hinata turned out to have less physical power than Osamu. Kinoshita’s internal monologue was also related to this: talking about the lack of experience that Karasuno has, compared to a team as seasoned as Inarizaki. “They are not college students, or working adults, or aliens” BUT “we are not the same as high schoolers; they’ve put more effort into it and have more experience than me”.

So, Furudate is now using that information in the form of a beautiful metaphor for this cover. And oh, I love it.

Remember that both Hinata and Osamu are the same age: sixteen. Yet, one is presented as a businessman, while the other is a preschooler.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, since I’m not Japanese and I’m not an expert in Japanese culture. But I’ve done my research after I came across the word “shakaijin”: a working adult, but with the connotation of being a full member of society. That’s the word Kinoshita used in the previous chapter (”they are not working adults”), and as far as I know, that word tends to have a connotation in Japan that only a person who works a full time job is considered to be a first-class citizen. I don’t know to what extent this mentality is spread in Japan, but I find this concept interesting if we want to apply it to this particular picture.

This isn’t just about Osamu being depicted as a worker. He is depicted as a first-class citizen, as opposed to Hinata, a preschooler. Hinata doesn’t even get the comfort of being the high-school student he is currently: he is shown as the (in theory) lowest rank in society, a kid who is not even old enough to decide anything by himself. At least that’s how I interpret this picture, because it makes the contrast even sharper.

Both figures get a shadow in this picture, but only one (Osamu’s) threatens to hide Hinata. Osamu looks bigger, towering in front of Hinata, but Hinata isn’t afraid and instead confronts Osamu openly.

It’s a simple, yet so effective picture, and it summarizes what we’ve seen so far in this match: the huge difference in skill between one team and the other, and the fears and doubts that are weighing down some members of Karasuno.

BUT IS IT AS SERIOUS AS I MAKE IT SOUND?

Of course not. I mean, I’ve been laughing at this picture for hours, and I know I’m not the only one who found it at least partially comical.

Let me make a list of things I find hilarious, surreal, or both:

-As a friend pointed out, Hinata is holding a recorder. That’s his weapon. It’s surreal. But, at the same time, it could be an effective weapon: that shit never sounds good. I dare you to find me a recorder that has a decent sound (well, I bet someone could find a Youtube video, but I mean... we’ve all been students and played the recorder and even I, a talented student, could never make sense of that instrument of the devil).

-There is a fox in Osamu’s card. It’s just a detail but I find it so cute and I had to mention it. The rest of the card, though... HE’S A SALESMAN. IN A COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT. HE’S THE JOB AU MADE CANON. WHAT IF THAT’S WHAT HE WANTS TO BECOME? AND WHY IS A BUSINESSMAN FIGHTING A KID? COME ONNNNNN.

-Osamu’s hair is so neatly combed, considering how much of a mess it usually is, and it took me a bit to actually recognize him. It’s logical for him to comb his hair, given that he’s a salesman now, but ISN’T IT HILARIOUS THAT HE STILL HAS THAT STYLISH UNDERCUT? THAT HAIRSTYLE IS DEFINITELY THE LEAST BUSINESSMAN-LIKE THING EVER.

FURUDATE VS. ELE: A PERSONAL ATTACK

I left the most personal stuff for the end, but I mean: I suspected Furudate spies me on a regular basis because it isn’t normal that they keep on giving me the stuff I like.

BUT THIS IS A PERSONAL ATTACK. FURUDATE TOOK EVERYTHING THAT COULD POTENTIALLY DRIVE ME TO A HEART ATTACK AND MADE IT CANON.

“What do you mean Ele had a heart attack a few months ago because I decided to give Oikawa glasses for the silliest reason ever and everyone liked it but Ele really liked it?” One of the things I love from Haikyuu is that Furudate likes to destroy clichés and give their characters realistic details. And they are fond of glasses, actually. Aside from the (not so) typical glasses character (Tsukishima) and the glasses sensei (Takeda), we have a gorgeous manager who, surprise! Wears glasses! And she’s still considered beautiful! And she doesn’t need to take them off! And nobody makes a big deal out of her wearing glasses!

We get to see more characters with glasses throughout the series, until we got the big surprise: Oikawa appearing with glasses for no apparent reason. And everybody liked it. I am of the opinion that he looks at least as handsome with glasses as he is without them. So I think I can safely say that this fandom ended up having a thing for glasses thanks to Furudate having a thing for glasses. In fact, I like to imagine my faves, those who haven’t appeared with glasses in canon, wearing them.

But if there was one character I wasn’t expecting to see with glasses, that was Osamu. Wow, that was a nice surprise.

The personal attack doesn’t end there, though. I have mentioned a few times that I really, really, reaaaaaaally wanted to see Osamu in a suit. His school uniform would do. I mean, suits are amazing. I love to see everyone in a suit. Everyone. I did, in fact, draw Osamu in a school uniform a few weeks ago (he looks gorgeous, btw). So once I got over the fact that Osamu was wearing glasses in canon, even if it’s for a cover, I realized he was also wearing: a suit.

BOOM.

Now, it’s my time to pray so the anime adaptation includes this scene at some point. I mean, remember that time when Oikawa appeared as a Roman general? That was a nice metaphor, wasn’t it? Please include this metaphor at some point in the anime. Please, please, PLEASE.

TOO LONG; DIDN’T READ

I love Osamu Miya and I’m pleased with this cover but Furudate is definitely trying to kill me so maybe I should call my ambulance friends, just in case.

[guesscapades-umineko-blog]

A familiar face comes to lend a hand in ????...

(For what it’s worth, I couldn’t find a better picture for a friendly face-off, but everyone loves Princess Bride, right?)

Oh, and just in case, we’re going to invoke Begin Spoilers for Higurashi

In this short segment, Beatrice, recently corporeal from the previous tea party, talks to another witch who may be familiar to players of Higurashi, Frederica Bernkastel. They briefly go into a bout of head-to-head compliments, with a bit of an undertone of competition to who can be the more witchy (so to speak).

After trading a few sidehanded courtesies, Beatrice temporarily retires. Bernkastel talks directly to what seems to be the player, suggesting that this first chapter has shown us one playthrough of the game. She compares it to trying to learn the rules of chess by watching several games: You can guess at some of the rules, but you’d have to compare multiple games to get a true sense. With that thought, she sends the player off to find for themselves what the rules of this game are.

So, Ms. Bernkastel is a bit of an enigma in the the plot of Higurashi. Several of the pre- and post-chapter poems are composed by her. Her name is itself a play on Rika’s name (Furude Rika = Frederica, where Bernkastel is one of her favorite wines). However, the implication through several parts of the media is that Frederica isn’t Rika herself. One interpretation is that she’s the “echo” of Rika’s lives throughout the multiple timelines of Higurashi. In fact, even in this short segment in her character description, she’s described as the “Witch of the Fragments”, which was terminology used in Higurashi.

Speaking of the character descriptions, new buttons have appeared: “Resurrect” and “Execute”. If you click on a character, you can then click on this button to apparently kill them or, well, the opposite. I should say you can try to execute them, but instead it displays a taunting message saying, in essence, “good luck, buddy.”

There is this fragment placed in there which is interesting:

However, there does exist just one way to kill me. You hold that method in the palm of your hand. Though I doubt one as mediocre as you could ever pull it off.

This is barely worth a SPECULATION START, but I’ll go with it for now

Given that at least Frederica refers to us, the player, directly, I wonder if this phrase indicates that there’s something for us to do to kill her. Might this be the first When They Cry game with a decision (either obvious, or secret)? I’m hoping so, but I have no idea.

Anyway, onward into Chapter 2!

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 6/19/17

Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 4 | By Yuji Terajima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – This volume might’ve set a record for “number of times Michelle got verklempt due to sports manga.” Eijun’s skills continue to improve, but moreso his character does, as he realizes that taciturn catcher Chris has really been looking out for his best interests all along. Eijun becomes determined to pay him back by showing him some improvement before he graduates, practically forgetting that two junior varsity players have the opportunity to move up in his desire to express his gratitude to his teammate. Sniff! And then Chris, who has missed a year of play due to injury, gets the chance to show how terrific he’s been all this time. Meanwhile, his former varsity teammates are all pulling for him to rejoin them for their final summer season. Did I mention sniff? Great stuff! – Michelle Smith

Black Clover, Vol. 7 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – This is another of those transition volumes we see so often in Shonen Jump, wrapping up the last plot, taking out a supposed traitor (who merely seems to have been corrupt), and going to the beach to show off some fanservice. We also get a few new characters, the best of whom is Kahono, who may be too good to be true somewhere down the line, but for now seems to be just what Noelle needs to finally get past the baggage of her past. The rest of the team gets to fight a bevy of enemies, either winning easily or losing just as easily. This is a team of fighters, but so far Asta and Noelle are the only important ones. Still quite readable, though, and I look forward to seeing how the fights end next time around. – Sean Gaffney

Chihayafuru, Vol. 3 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – I love Chihayafuru so much that each time a volume ends I feel legitimately bereft. In this volume, Chihaya and Taichi manage to recruit a couple of new members to their karuta club, giving them a sufficient number to receive official club status. Taichi is really the star of this volume, helping to bring on one of the new players, as well as moderating Chihaya when, in her earnest desire to help everyone become strong, she nearly works them past the point of exhaustion. And then it’s time for the Tokyo qualifiers for the high school karuta championship, and he once again proves to be the pillar of the team. I think Chihaya’s begun to see him in a new light, too. Anyway, all of the tournament stuff is fascinating and it ends on a most excruciating cliffhanger. Worse, there’s no release date for volume four yet! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 12 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Most of this volume is dedicated to a battle against a team with a very, very tall guy, which has its obvious advantages in volleyball that get put to good use here to try to crush our heroes, particularly Hinata. Of course, we’ve spent a couple of volumes now seeing Karasuno improving itself more and more, and so it should come as no surprise to find David taking down Goliath by the end of this match. The team is beginning to feel in sync, Kageyama is feeling (gasp!) happy and confident again, and even Tsukishima continues to try to improve himself and put said improvement in practice. As with most sports manga, you enjoy seeing the obvious growth and development laid out in excruciating detail. We get that here. – Sean Gaffney

The High School Life of a Fudanshi, Vol. 1 | By Atami Michinoku | Seven Seas – I was already a bit wary of this series, not being familiar with the anime and wondering how many of the jokes would be variations on “no homo.” (Not as many as I thought, but still too many.) But making the series a 4-koma is absolutely the wrong decision for what it wants to be, as the gags just aren’t funny enough in that format and the characters need more development. I liked the relationship between Sakaguchi and his fellow BL enthusiast Nishihara, as their fandom talk reminded me of fandom talk I have seen. But it wasn’t really enough of a draw to keep turning the pages. The author has mostly done Gintama BL smut before this, and this seems to be a dip in the waters of non-smut. 65%, Must Try Harder. – Sean Gaffney

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 24 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – The underworld arc ends here, and it’s as epic and exciting as you’d expect. The real teary drama is in the second half of the book, though, as Nanami realizes she can’t keep being Shrine God if she’s going to be with a human Tomoe. So she runs herself ragged trying to prepare for a future she hadn’t given much thought to so as not to turn out the way her father did. Mizuki, meanwhile, is simply unable to accept that Nanami is going to get old, die, and leave him behind, and has a truly in-character hissy fit that ends up not taking as long as I thought it would. Possibly as the next volume is the last one. I’ve really loved this series as it’s gained depth, and will be incredibly sad to see it end. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 11-12 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | VIZ Media – Seirin has reached the final four of the Tokyo Winter Cup qualifiers, from which two teams will emerge to represent Tokyo at the Winter Cup. Kuroko debuts his nifty new “vanishing drive” move, which helps his team overcome a deficit and tie up the game with Shutoku. Next, they face Kirisaki Daiichi, a team that employs dirty tricks to win. It was in a game against them that Kiyoshi suffered his injury, and once the first years are informed of this, they’re fired up for payback. Kiyoshi really is front and center (no pun intended) this volume, as we learn about the formation of the basketball club the year before and his past with Hyuga, though I confess I most loved seeing Kuroko get to be not just mad but kind of a badass. Even better, we don’t end on a cliffhanger for once! – Michelle Smith

Red Riding Hood and the Big Sad Wolf, Vol. 1 | By Hachoujou Arata | Seven Seas – Like the Fudanshi release I discussed earlier, this has a lot of 4-komas in it, though it intersperses it with longer stories. It’s another one of those anthropomorphic personification titles, as we meet a Red Riding Hood who loves to burn things down and the straight-man wolf whom she sets her sights on. As the title goes on, we see a bunch of new characters, all various varieties of crazy. If you enjoy sadistic grins and seeing a cute guy cry, this may be the series for you. I would not recommend it, though, for the simple reasons that I didn’t like anyone in it. Usually I say with first volumes to wait on that one clearly unlikeable character. But when they’re all like that… I’m not going to wait. – Sean Gaffney

Species Domain, Vol. 2 | By Shunsuke Noro | Seven Seas – This was still very enjoyable—there are some characters I disliked in it, but they were clearly signposted as being deliberately awful, and felt bad later. Moreover, we’re finding that it’s not only Kazamori who is having confidence issues about her lack of obvious supernatural traits—Hanei is an angel who can’t fly, which causes her a more subdued amount of stress. The main focus of the book continues to be humor, and while not as funny as the first book I find it very good. More importantly, as we get to know the cast better they’re bonding as friends, which is the most important thing in titles like this. Species Domain won’t knock any socks off, but it’s a solid and fun title. Good art, too. – Sean Gaffney

By: Michelle Smith

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 5/22/17

Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 3 | By Yuji Terajima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Although the first years finally manage to score in their game against the upperclassmen, victory eludes them. Still, Eijun’s ability to fire up his teammates does not go unnoticed and his performance on the mound sees him promoted to the Junior Varsity squad. He’s not satisfied with the catcher he’s paired up with for practice, though. After attending the first game of the Kanto Tournament and seeing how much better a pitcher Furuya is, he accuses the morose catcher (Chris) of having given up on getting to Varsity, something he will never do. And then after he learns how completely wrong he was, he actually humbles himself and starts seriously trying to learn about baseball. Sniff! Our little shounen hothead is growing up! – Michelle Smith

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 2 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – I am probably liking this a lot more than I should, really. I am far too old to really be drawn in by teen angst, and there’s a lot of soap opera-ish stuff happening here. But I’m a sucker for untrained singers who make up for the lack of training through passion, mostly as it’s the sort of thing that in real life always sounds awful—but on the printed page it’s fine. Nino and Yuzu are drawn to each other in both healthy and unhealthy ways, and when we finally meet Momo again, he’s being just as unhealthy. These are three kids who have hit their teenage years with a whump, and drama is the watchword. But I dunno, something about the writing and characters makes me like this a lot. We’ll see how long it lasts. – Sean Gaffney

Bloom into You, Vol. 2 | By Nakatani Nio | Seven Seas – For parts of this volume, Bloom into You feels like a fairly standard yuri manga. There’s the part where a fellow student council member happens to see Touko and Yuu smooching, and the part where the vice-president clearly thinks she’s the only one Touko needs by her side. But towards the end of the volume, it veers once more into darker and more fascinating territory, as we learn that Touko is so driven to appear perfect due to family pressure to live on in the place of her amazing older sister who died seven years ago. She can’t bear for anyone to love either the real or the fake her, which is why she’s chosen Yuu, who ends up swearing never to fall in love with her even though she privately wishes she could. It’s nice to be reminded what turmoil lurks beneath the pleasant surface! – Michelle Smith

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vol. 2 | By Tsunami Umino | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – While there is still a lot of goofy charm in this title, mostly due to Mikuri’s imagination (we get a Les Miz takeoff here, as well as an enka number and some cheerleading chibis), the reality of the arrangement she’s entered into with Hiramasa is starting to fall apart at the seams. It’s really hard to pretend to be married, as there’s a lot of little details you can miss. Plus there’s also house-hunting (but do they really need one?), dental cavities (yes, she really does need a filling but what kind?), and Hiramasa’s growing feelings, which are… not really mirrored all that much by Mikuri, who sometimes seems almost asexual. We’ll see how well the marriage holds up in volume three, as there’s a nasty cliffhanger here. – Sean Gaffney

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Vol. 2 | By Nagabe | Seven Seas – The Girl from the Other Side loses just a teensy bit of its luster in this volume by actually trying to provide, or at least hint at, some answers. When Teacher catches an Outsider touching Shiva, he protects her valiantly, over her own protestations. Later, though, they seek out the creature again because it had hinted that it knew the whereabouts of Shiva’s aunt. It doesn’t, but leads them to a giant lake where Teacher encounters a mysterious hole in the ground and hears the Outsiders’ perspective on why the humans are the source of the curse. He doesn’t know what to believe, and meanwhile examines Shiva daily for symptoms. Then those odious humans get involved again and another volume ends with Shiva in peril. This time, Teacher’s seemingly not in a position to protect her. Still bringing the love, sorrow, and loneliness! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 11 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – This volume consists of Karasuno High’s team failing over and over again, trying things that don’t quite work, and getting pissed off with each other. But that’s as it should be, because you can’t stay static if you want to make it to the next level. The author does a very good job of showing a team that’s on the cusp of being great, if they can just pull everything together. And we’re beginning to see it… but it’s not quite there. And this being training camp, they can get advice from other teams, showing off super secret special moves that allow Hinata and company to add new talents to their repertoire. The goal here is to combine volleyball talent and instinct with intelligence. I wonder what will happen next. – Sean Gaffney

Interviews with Monster Girls, Vol. 4 | By Petos | Kodansha Comics – The whole point of this series is to see Takahashi-sensei interact with his demi students and see how they tick, and a lot of this happens outside of the classroom, so the reader may be forgiven for thinking that there are only demis in the school. But there’s lot of normal kids as well, and the charge comes down that Takahashi is not paying enough attention to them. While this is true in a sense, it’s also true that the demis do need more attention than the other students in various ways. What’s more, the “normal” students realize that treating the demis as if they’re just normal students as well may not be the best way to go. The metaphor for disabilities doesn’t always work, but this is still interesting for monster girl fans. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 8 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – While Midoriya is the star of this series, it’s very much an ensemble show, and this volume gives us a chance to see the entire class show off their smarts—or not in some cases. Sometimes you have to get over jealousy and dislike, sometimes you need to regain the confidence you once lost, and sometimes you’ve got to rely on your instincts (as well as being in denial about your feelings for the hero). But of course Midoriya is the star, and so a lot of the back half of the volume goes to him, as he’s accosted by Shigaraki, who’s ironically even scarier when he takes the severed hand off his face. In the meantime, more training, more horrible situations designed to make a hero stronger. Also, Mineta is the worst, y’all. – Sean Gaffney

My Neighbor Seki, Vol. 9 | By Takuma Morishige | Vertical Comics – Seki is down to twice a year, but this is still a good solid volume, relying very much on the core plot of My Neighbor Seki—what is he doing this time, and how will Yoroi react? As with volume eight, there seem to be more examples of Seki’s games rebounding on him rather than making trouble for Youko. The best chapters see him working with transparent glue, taking the bear family for a helicopter ride gone horribly wrong, and getting so caught up in roleplaying that he loses himself in the role (twice). Best of all, Yoroi ends up at a sweets shop where Mrs. Seki works, and has to hide the increasingly desperate artwork apologizing for her son’s antics, showing that such tactics do run in the family. – Sean Gaffney

Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Vol. 3 | By Akiko Higashimura | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – This volume made me seriously consider giving up on Tokyo Tarareba Girls. Not because it is bad, but because the three main characters keep making such awful decisions. Koyuki finds out that her married boyfriend lied about being separated from his wife and failed to mention he had kids, but forgives him. Kaori knows she’s not even the only woman on the side for her ex, but she still comes when he calls. They’re both so desperate for someone to be nice to them that they’ll accept something that isn’t real. It’s so depressing! And then there’s Rinko, who botches a big assignment and makes a total lush of herself and UGH. They’re all making their own problems worse and it’s hard to watch. That said, I get creepy vibes from Rinko’s new boyfriend, so will at least have to check out volume four to see what his deal is. – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 11/12/18

Chihayafuru, Vol. 12 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – The Mizusawa karuta team returns to the national tournament and this time (so far), they do not have to forfeit on account of Chihaya falling ill. It’s a battle to keep her focused, however, since she’s convinced Arata is present (she’s right), but they end up prevailing in their first two matches. The first is against a team of Japanese-born foreigners who love the game as honestly as anyone, despite their looks, and the second is against a team of quiz-bowl champs who are ostensibly using karuta as a memory aid but who secretly love it, too. It may not be the most exciting volume out there, but it’s solid and takes us a little bit closer to a reunion with Arata. I look forward to volume thirteen! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 29 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – I realize that any sports manga is going to involve its protagonist getting better at their chosen sport, but with Haikyu!! that is somehow more rewarding than most. I think part of it is that, instead of acting on pure athletic instinct, Hinata is actually really thinking now and others are picking up on that, even critical people like Tsukishima and Kageyama. I loved that Hinata was able to mimic a particularly bothersome blocker he’d faced in the past as well as executive a passable emergency set and that he was really keen to have a chance to play defense, whereas before he was obsessed with scoring. I also nearly cried when Yamaguchi nailed a service ace. So, in short, I am a major sports manga fangirl and this volume was my jam. – Michelle Smith

Idol Dreams, Vol. 5 | By Arina Tanemura | Viz Media – Even if she’s not doing anything about the fact that she’s masquerading as a 15-year-old and having boys fall for her, Chikage still does quite a bit right in this volume. First of all, she helps Tokita to move on from her (even if she’s not aware he’s moving on) and reconcile with his girlfriend, whose own lack of self-worth in school has led to her making bad choices now that she’s blossomed into womanhood. I was impressed that the two worked it out, and really felt Chikage did a great job. On the idol front, she also wins by putting on the better “performance,” even if she’s not necessarily the better or more talented idol. Still expecting a train wreck, but at least it’s been put off a bit. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 5 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – There’s some great comedy here, involving things like telling fortunes, gutting a fish in class (in which Fujiwara shows she simply cannot avoid trying to help Shirogane, even as it goes as badly as she expects), and such. But for once, the best parts of Kaguya-sama are about the drama, as it’s summer vacation, and Kaguya’s strict father is not letting her go see the fireworks with her friends. The solution to this, and the emotional roller coaster that follows, is fantastic, even if Shirogane looks back on it later and is hideously embarrassed. More to the point, you realize that once these two idiots finally get together (which isn’t going to happen for a long time), they’ll be a terrific couple. – Sean Gaffney

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 4 | By Afro | Yen Press – At long last, the entire group is camping together, including the club, Rin and Saitou, and their new teacher/advisor, who is the drunken camper we saw last time—and she takes the opportunity to get drunk again. There’s lots of interesting camping talk, including discussing Saitou’s expensive sleeping bag and the different kinds of grills that you can use. For the most part, though, this volume is about showing Rin that it can be just as fun to camp with friends as it can be to camp alone, and drag her out of her shell. It’s mind, to be fair, mostly as Rin is not solitary because of any trauma—she just likes being by herself. But honestly, if you’re going to hang with Nadeshiko, you’re going to have to get used to people. Cute as heck. – Sean Gaffney

Little Witch Academia, Vol. 2 | By Trigger, Yoh Yoshinari and Keisuke Sato | JY – This is an adaptation of a very cartoon-ish anime, and it’s appropriate that the art style is very cartoonish and exaggerated—my favorite example of which is when Akko charging ahead literally breaks Andrew’s word balloon warning her not to. Andrew is introduced here, speaking of which, and he’s your classic British boyfriend type, though given what I’ve heard about Akko and Diana, he may be out of luck here. For the most part we continue to watch Akko Potter trying to succeed at magic school, and she’s having a lot less luck than Harry did—her grades are so bad she can’t even attend the banquets. Will she turn things around? This is marketed to kids, but all ages should love it. – Sean Gaffney

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, Vol. 10 | By Koyuki and Mamare Touno | Yen Press – Last time I wondered if this was the spinoff’s final arc, and it’s pretty clear that it is. It’s one big fight scene this time around, and things are going very badly for our heroes, though they’re trying their hardest. We continue to filter things through Soujirou—both why he loves gaming and doing what he does, and also why he has so many girls fall in love with him. The eventual solution they come up with, to seemingly drive the monster crazy by information overload, is a clever one, though it’s not clear whether or not it worked. This series started out as a somewhat lighthearted (sometimes TOO light hearted) comedy, but it’s gotten more action oriented at the climax. – Sean Gaffney

Teasing Master Takagi-san, Vol. 2 | By Soichiro Yamamoto | Yen Press – The end of this volume features what seems to have been the pilot for the series, and I’m glad it was included, as it shows off how much it was improved to make it the sweet and amusing series it is today. Takagi’s eyes being “evil” makes her teasing seem more mean-spirited, especially given Nishikata is more of a schmuck here. Nishikata works best when he’s sort of that Charlie Brown “this time I’ll kick the football” sort of guy. Likewise, Takagi’s teasing works best because you absolutely get the love that she has for him, and that she does see him as a great guy—who’s simply really fun to tease and to watch reaction faces of. This series makes me feel warm and fuzzy. – Sean Gaffney

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, Vol. 2 | By Fujita | Kodansha Comics – Despite the subtitle of the series, I rather easily fell in love with the first omnibus volume of Wotakoi. The manga was funny and charming with adult characters who, to me, were immediately endearing. The second omnibus continues the trend of the first while introducing a new character, Ko, who manages to be both heartbreakingly and heartwarmingly socially awkward and anxious. Ko is paired with Naoya, but it remains to be seen whether their relationship will evolve into a romantic one. I suspect that at some point it may—after all, Wotakoi is at least in part a romantic comedy—but then again they could simply be destined to be close friends. The emphasis that Wotakoi places on friendship is actually one of the things about the series that I find particularly appealing. In fact, while arguably little romantic progress is made in the second omnibus, friendships are strengthened. – Ash Brown

By: Ash Brown