#That’s what he was doing while Yoshiki was putting ‘hikaru’s head back on and getting his ass sent to the hospital

[honorthysalad]

I hope from now on Tanaka has the most slapstick shit with his glasses. Some real Velma type shit.

[honorthysalad]

I feel like the intention was to show some kind of growth on Yoshiki’s part— like as if he was just used to this now but like, having him not react anymore is the opposite of interesting. Yoshiki already barely reacted to ghosts; now he just doesn’t care.

And like he should care. If not for himself, then for other people. Maki and Kaoru both just attacked by ghosts- maki by a dude who was clearly possessed. Whenever we see maki, he’s basically the same but now he’s got the sling and we straight up haven’t seen Kaoru since.

But he doesn’t care because of Yoshiki’s second issue, he can easily ignore other people by just distracting himself with the research project now. The research project is the easiest way to skip around an emotional scene. ‘No time for that. We’ve got to go to the library and uh…. Read the dictionary for twenty panels.’

This research project was supposed to show Yoshiki’s proactivity, that this is him taking control of the plot, but it’s also just… boring. Like someone kick Yoshiki out of the driver seat before he has us looking at a Kubitachi stamp collection because ‘Hikaru’ won’t. ‘Hikaru’ has been successfully cowed into utter submission. Before he’d take steps around Yoshiki’s meandering if he thought it was necessary, but now, he’s playing ‘what would Yoshiki do?’ And the answer is ‘nothing at all.’ It’d be funny if it wasn’t so aggravating.

I’m hoping, and this is just a hope, that they’ll bring Asako into the main group and she hasn’t been cowed by ‘Hikaru’ attacking her because Asako has always shown more proactivity than the other boys. She has a reason to want to solve the ghost problem, an attachment (Yuuki), and doesn’t need to have the whole thing explained to her for her to understand what’s going on. She’s usually pretty good at getting Yoshiki to do things, like in ch3 with walking maki home and ch7 in having Yoshiki apologize. Hopefully she’ll push us towards more doing things with the information we’ve learned, except I’m not sure what we could do with it because it’s pretty useless…

Hgsn volume 4 and 5’s scary moments feel completely pointless which is a wild thing to think about with a horror story

Think about it, what impact has any of the recent attacks had on Yoshiki and “Hikaru”? There is 0 reflection on any of the attacks. With their personalities in the first 3 volumes you’d think Yoshiki would start depending on “Hikaru” even more as he starts realising that no where is safe from impurities and that “Hikaru” would get even more obsessed with Yoshiki and be terrified to let him out of sight. But this never comes up. The village getting worse is seen as this hypothetical that’ll happen if they don’t figure things out and not as something that is already happening.

Their lack of reaction makes them feel out of character

[maleyanderecafe]

Heyooo! Was wanting to get into the summer Hikari died and wanted to ask a trusted source... is there a male yan here? Thankiess!

Hiii Flaaaine! I kind of made my friend send me this ask because I really like the story of The Summer Hikaru Died, but I was a bit on the fence whether he could really be considered a yandere. Still, the story is masterfully made horror and has actually won a couple of awards so I'd highly recommend that people read it.

The story starts out with Yoshiki and Hikaru eating icicles during the summer. As the two of them talk and kid around, Yoshiki becomes paler and paler. He reveals that the Hikaru sitting next to him is not at all his friend from before, only an imitation, to which the "creature" Hikaru starts breaking. He seems to have planed to kill Yoshiki if he found out but something inside him refuses, and thus begs Yoshiki not to tell anyone. Despite knowing that this Hikaru is a fake, and something that is not human, he accepts this new Hikaru. We also see flashbacks of the original Hikaru, who unlike the imposter who is rather happy and cheerful most of the time, was a lot more mischievous and bratty. We see the last moments of this Hikaru as he is, seemingly taken by the creature that is now the current Hikaru after making some sort of deal. As they walk home, an old woman screams at them about a legend in this town, the body snatcher and is later taken by an unknown entity. At school, the kids in Yoshiki and Hikaru's school all dare each other to go into the cursed forest soon after hearing someone was decapitated nearby. When they do go there, Yoshiki sees something deep in the forest. Hikaru ends up defending him, apparently "crushing the being and putting it inside himself" and saves Yoshiki, covering for what they saw by saying someone nearly shot him. The next day, Hikaru asks Yoshiki if he'd like to stick his hand inside him, to which Yoshiki seems to agree out of curiosity. His body actually splits leaving a cut of inky blackness as Yoshiki sticks his hand into the void. Hikaru seems to enjoy this, stating that he's gaining satisfaction, the way you'd feel when your head is patted, and even pranks Yoshiki a bit. Yoshiki on the other hand seems rather unsettled by this, stating that it feels like he wants to go further but is afraid to, even feeling embarrassed. While going to the store to buy some food, he is greeted by a housewife, who seems to understand the trouble he's in. She seems to be able to tell that he's been entangled with the body snatcher and warns him that he should break away from him lest he can't go back. She even shares her own story about her husband who had died and then came back thanks to the body snatcher. This seems to have struck Yoshiki quite harshly, so much so that when Hikaru tries to make him feel better, he pushes him away, which seems to greatly affect Hikaru. He states that he can't let him go, and that he's not sure if these are his or the original Hikaru's feelings, eventually bursting with the inky darkness that was within him. This darkness consumes Yoshiki, and we get to see Hikaru's clinginess towards him as well as some scenes that the creature saw before becoming Hikaru. Hikaru apologizes after he realizes what he's done and doesn't appear the next day.

Yoshiki seems greatly disturbed at what's happened, especially since he knows that he's just using this Hikaru as a replacement for the real one. He ends up going back to Hikaru's place and the two of them make up, with Hikaru apologizing, stating he didn't want Yoshiki to throw him away and that he apologizes for basically pretending to be Hikaru. Yoshiki apologizes as well and decides despite the housewife's warnings that he will stay with him. The two of them and Yoshiki's sister go to a summer festival together and we learn there that Hikaru cannot pass through the shrine arch as he is being repelled. We also see that Yoshiki views this Hikaru as very childlike as compared to the original. We get a flashback seeig that Yoshiki actually went out in the storm the day that Hikaru disappeared and found Hikaru's remains, but ultimately was brought back with a fever by some unknown force. Upon waking up, he sees that Hikaru is fine, which is why he knew that the Hikaru he sees now is fake. He feels extremely saddened by this, crying as he misses the original Hikaru. We get another flashback to before the original Hikaru died and his seemingly deal with the thing that eventually replaces him. Yoshiki attempts to stick his hand into Hikaru's void, though feels pleasure and fear from what he feels, recoiling back and berating Hikaru for trying to suck him in. Yoshiki's sister nearly gets attacked by what seems like a hair based spirit, which leads to both of them investigating it. Hikaru initially goes in to take on the spirit, though when it starts taking too long, Yoshiki attempts to as well, which leads to some hallucination both from his own doubts as well as an event with the original Hikaru in his past after touching Hikaru's void. He ends up fighting Hikaru in the bathtub as he fights off this hallucination.

We get a bit of setup with a strange person who comes to town to seemingly investigate the body snatcher, as well as one of the abilities of one of Yoshiki's classmates, who can "see" where certain spirits are. After he hangs out a bunch with his friends, the classmate, Asako actually confronts Hikaru, asking who he is. We see that Asako can actually hear where spirts are, though she doesn't know quite what they are. Yoshiki comes to find that Asako has passed out near Hikaru and Hikaru explains to him that he basically showed Asako the "void" that he showed Yoshiki. Yoshiki initially believes that Asako has died, and panics, though Hikaru seems nonchalant about it, stating that death isn't really anything special to him. Asako does wake up and explains her "power" believing that Hikaru seems to be possessed by something. Yoshiki ignores Hikaru even after, which leads to Hikaru contemplating about life and how much he cares about Yoshiki, seeing a great light in him. The next day, Yoshiki invites him to skip school with him and the two of them hang out for a bit, going to movies and whatnot. In the end, Yoshiki attempts to stab Hikaru to kill him, though it ultimately fails, with Yoshiki revealing he wanted to give him a last great day before he dies. With this, Hikaru ends up giving a piece of him to Yoshiki before healing himself back to normal, with Yoshiki promising to try to find out more about who he is (likely the bodysnatcher, as Hikaru himself states). After going around town talking to the older folks, we learn a lot about various disappearances and strange events that have happened in the town related to the lore of the body snatcher. Hikaru and Yoshiki go to the library and find out about the body shaped pieces of land that surround their town, as well as a story from the librarian which talks more about the various disappearances, curses and others from possibly the body snatcher. While walking, Yoshiki ends up bumping into the strange person who seems to recognize that he is associated with the body snatcher. Some more strange appearances happen, with a man who runs into the school grounds only to kill himself along with a spirit that nearly is able to attack Yoshiki at a restaurant, only to be saved by the housewife.

She ends up bringing the two boys back home and while she knows that Hikaru is likely the body snatcher, ends up taking care of the two until at least Hikaru wakes up again, before asking them about their plans, stating that people will likely die, with Yoshiki and Hikaru stating that they will try to stop that from happening. They end up going to an old man who was referenced by the librarian to seek more information, but as the conversation goes on, he becomes more deranged, with Hikaru stating that he's already been corrupted. The man gets possessed and nearly hurts the two only for the strange man to come in and save them. After making the man pass out, the strange man actually chops off Hikaru's head, causing his void to spill out. Frantically, Yoshiki is able to attach back Hikaru's head. The last couple of chapters has Hikaru waking up and Yoshiki starting to connect the pieces of evidence the two has found with the memory he saw when he was in the void.

The story itself has a sort of dread and caution to it, especially when it comes to Yoshiki. Despite knowing that his friend is dead and that there is a being that is replacing him, he can't help but want to keep him around, both as a way to sort of continue to talk to Hikaru as if nothing had happened, but also because he sees this kind of naivety in this new form. Yet at the same time, this being isn't human, it doesn't understand love or romance, doesn't understand the consequence of death, and doesn't even know why he stopped from killing Yoshiki. The insides of Hikaru are supposed to be drawn like the veins in plants, kind of showing the sort of weird uncanniness that comes from it, and that being exposed to it for too long can cause problems, like with Asako who has seemed to have lost some of her hearing after her encounter. And while Hikaru suspects that he is the body snatcher, he also doesn't seem sure about it, making us believe that he could be something else entirely. What is the void that Hikaru has anyways? Why does it affect humans in such a way and what happens when you are fully sucked into it?

Hikaru is sort of strange because he cannot feel or understand love, romantic or otherwise. That's kind of a problem when you talk about yanderes since the core of their being is very reliant on love, romantic or otherwise. But Hikaru has this strange dependence on Yoshiki. He himself doesn't know why but suspects it's the feelings from the original Hikaru that makes him feel this way. He's clingy and dependent, not wanting to anger Yoshiki, not even feeling betrayed when Yoshiki attempts to kill him, and most of all will do anything for him that he asks. These sound like the traits of a yandere, but it's hard to understand why he does it and that's what kind of confuses me about this. It is pretty fascinating though because it is possible that he gained all of this from the original Hikaru who might have had a crush on Yoshiki, but even in flashbacks, we don't see the original Hikaru seem to have these types of feelings, even seeming to bicker with Hikaru a lot. It's hard to say as a lot of these flashbacks are either from Yoshiki's point of view or the new Hikaru's vague memories. If it's not because of that, then it makes me unsure exactly what Hikaru's attachments are to Yoshiki, since he seems to have no problems when it seemed that Asako died yet cried and begged for Yoshiki's forgiveness afterwards.

It is genuinely hard to say since the series has yet to end. It's possible that we eventually will see what makes Hikaru so attached to Yoshiki and that he might end up being more possessive than we thought, but until then it's just a possible thought.