#I don't actually ship Iroha with anyone romantically

[leviadraws]

Hey levi, just wanted to ask, what's your thoughts on Syobai x Iroha (especially with what happened to them at ending and Omake), what do you think of their dynamics?

Syobai is that realy tired uncle who's unwillingly become the guardian of a 20 year old gremlin. They're the kind of really terrible family that I'd expect to see a sitcom about. I'm not gonna lie I was so expecting them to have been split up by the omake and Syobai is just like "Oh no! …Anyway-" /lh

I did write some thoughts on the omake here.

I had a headcanon before the omake episode was released that Syobai tried to ditch Iroha at every opportunity, like not telling her he was leaving or locking her in buildings but her divine luck keeps saving her unknowingly and so she just turns up again sopping wet, covered in trash, thinking that Syobai just forgot.

So it's been however long of this back and forth and Syobai just gives up, he has a niece now, who Yuuki made him promise he wouldn't get killed and like Hell is he gonna get on the wrong side of that demi-God after what happened on the bridge.

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch.52 thoughts

[Toss a Coin to Your Cipher Soldier]

(Contents: thematic analyses - fairness/friendship, predictions)

"If you let yourself become bound to strange rules, you're basically enslaving yourself." What is this, Undead Unluck?

This was a good showing for Yosaimura, who continues to be easily in my top 5 for this series. I've always been a huge fan of Nisio Isin's mental gymnastics, and this series' running theme of malicious compliance is a particularly fun display of it. Much like Iroha used Anonymity's methods against her by basically saying "well if she got to once, then so do I," Yosaimura literally turns Hakanage's logic on its head by saying "if you're going to say that cheating is fair, then I'm going to play so fair"

Anonymity points out that this is likely only something that Yosaimura even thought to do because she saw Iroha do that during the CLP election, which also reinforces the running theme of growth through interpersonal exposure. Iroha learned how to twist technicalities in his favor from Anonymity, and Yosaimura learned how to do that from Iroha. Everyone's learning something from each other, and apparently that's a quality that only Class A has been able to cultivate

We haven't really learned much about the other classes, but I definitely would believe that everyone else is a lot more...either extremely collectivist to the point of everyone losing their sense of identity (Class E who follow Kubinashi blindly and Class F who are required to hide their faces) or overly individualistic to the point that they can't form connections to each other (Class B's wild sense of expression and Class C's psychic children who have never been depicted interacting). I guess that comes with the territory for the School of Subterfuge, doesn't it?

I'm also always a sucker for character interactions that hinge on trust. Someone trusting their friend to understand a crazy plan, to not hurt them in a wild stunt, or trusting their enemy to behave in a certain way because that's what they've always hated/respected about them; being close enough to someone to rely on them, even if what you're relying on is their unreliability, is so romantic. If you didn't think that Yosaimura and Anonymity were a great ship before, Yosaimura telling her that she trusts her to do something dangerous has to at least help change your mind

For as much of a rapport as they've developed though, it really seems like there's going to be a point where everything falls apart. The fact that everyone's approaching a convergence and we've now completely eliminated Classes D and F suggests that neither of them are going to be the major enemy once we actually reach the bottom of the dungeon, so unless Kubinashi or Yonakiuguisu are bigger threats than they appear, the final conflict is almost assuredly going to be between Class A members. If I had to guess, it's going to come down to the CLP candidates again, but this time it'll be colored by how well everyone has gotten to know each other versus their actions being based on their initial, surface-level impressions of each other

Themes of friendship aside, I feel like the thing that Nisio Isin wants me to take away from this chapter is that cryptocurrency is bad. I don't really get how crypto works (or the economy for that matter), but even I can understand that if a new currency is introduced that is inherently "worth" more than the entire world economy, that's going to cause some issues. Even if we assume that it's worth the exact same amount, doubling the world's money in an instant would theoretically tank the value of all of the world's money, assuming that anyone actually recognizes the value of that currency. I guess the question for me is why anyone would, but again, I don't know how crypto works

If nothing else, it also does raise a good question of how Iroha's plan can actually work - if the value of Morgue is based on the presence of wars, how would he be able to use it to stop wars? If you give someone war-money to stop wars, then the money you paid them is inherently worth less upon receipt because there's less war, right? The best I could see is giving one nation a ton of Morgue and telling everyone else "you know how you can tank that nation's economy? End your wars, their money will become worthless." Honestly, with Nisio at the helm, I won't be too shocked if that's even remotely close

Now that everyone is getting pretty close, I do hope that things will become a bit less episodic soon. Seeing so many different characters in so many different locations is fun, but it's starting to feel kind of..disconnected, I'd say. It's like nothing anyone is doing is having any impact on anyone else, so seeing everyone reunite should help it feel like these stories have consequences outside of floor they occur on

Beyond that, what I'm really looking forward to is seeing how people outside of the dungeon are fairing. Hakanage got knocked out a little too easily; much like Zakuroguchi who I predict is secretly pulling strings from the sidelines, I'm willing to bet that Hakanage is going to do something shady now that no eyes are on her

Until next time

[just-a-simple-otaku]

Why would anyone ship Yachiyo with Iroha? Not only is she underage, we already have Mifuyu. The thing is shipping pedophilic ships is not only gross and harmful, but it also normalizes pedophilia, real-world pedophiles use them to groom real-world minors. If you like their chemistry just enjoy them as a brotp, don't ship them romantically.

First in Japan both Iroha and Yachiyo are underage since you’re an adult at 20. Currently they are both teenagers. It’s not pedophilic. None of them are kids. Kids a prepubescent, a 15 yo is post-puberty. A pedophilic ship would be between a kid and an adult, and neither of them are that. They are both teens.

And I highly doubt that a ship with fictional characters from an anime will have any consequences on the real world. Care about actual kids being abused rather than policying people’s ships. And anyway I ship Mifuyu with Alina so...