#aidairo when i get you!!!!

[kermitbread]

a moment of respite

[mari-lair]

Hey love your analysis. People like you make this series so great by appreciating the complexness of the story and characters.

I had a quick question regarding your last post about H’s attachment to N and K.

The line at the end “his love is selfish and doomed to fail” do you mean that because his love was initially rooted because H liked the company of N and K that his love will hurt them because of H messy morals and self sabotage that stem from his lack of self value or fail as in his love for them is not substantial not “real” because of it originated from H’s selfishness?

I think H’s love and compassion for the two, himself, and the value of life will make or break the ending if it’s a happy one. N and K have their own personal growth also tie to the series ending. It is too soon to predict the series ending but with this arc I can see N’s character grow to understand about the fragility and preciousness of human life seeing her friends die or getting close to. So hopefully we can see these insights in H’s and K’s characters too.

Thank you, happy you enjoy my analysis! I had to go search up the post you're talking about cause I hadn't done a big analysis about Hanako in 2 years.

I am 90% sure you mean this one though, which ends with this:

I would do some changes on how I formated the whole analysis but my main opinion didn't change in these two years: His love is selfish and doomed. HOWEVER I didn't meant to imply being selfish is the reason his love is doomed.

The reason I believe that his love (which is definitively genuine btw, he is haunted by this love, he becomes irrational and vulnerable and confused and so so fond of Nene and Kou) is selfish and destructive is because of *points at the whole analysis*

But the reason I believe the love is doomed and can't last is because he is dead. It doesn't matter if he start loving himself and figure a way to express his love without being harmful (to himself or others) because he was doomed from the start. What is the best case scenario here? He does the impossible and Nene lifepan is cured without hurting anyone in the process! But then what...? He is 13 forever, stuck in the school forever, while kou and nene will keep growing old, they'll become adults, he will remain hanako. He can lose them by simply being unchanging by nature, and he knows that.

Hanako's life is already over, he can't build a new life, he can't grow with his human buddies and learn/change the same way a human can. Everyone's development will decide how his love will end though. Maybe it can be a happy, bittersweet thing, maybe he will become another school wonder full of even more regrets and no idea how to process his regrets. It's indeed too early to know how the manga will end, specially now that changing the timeline is a thing??

(not that changing timelines make it less doomed, if Amane never dies he would be too old by the time he met Nene and Kou to be their buddy)

[rottenstrawberrigirl]

HELP I WAS NOT MENTALLY PREPARED FOR THIS CHAPTER NOT AT ALL

[daikonghost143]

Tbhk 120 is going to make me violently unwell

[lumina-649]

One of the cutest aspects about the direction of Yashiro's character in the newer chapters is how much she's openly simping for Hanako. We even get a glimpse into how Yashiro actually views him.

In the beginning, Yashiro was dead-set on only getting with the hottest of hot guys---the whole prince charming type. In fact, this is why she was obsessed with Teru for quite a bit.

But as of chapter you-know-who, there's very clearly a distinction between how the series/other people portray and see Hanako versus how Yashiro views him.

Throughout all the bullcrap these two go through, Yashiro realizes she can't keep her feelings buried anymore (though, I don't see why you would when you literally fight your way through this world's version of hell just to get to this dude, but I digress) and goes all in with acknowledging she wants nothing more than to be with Hanako.

Heck, even when her former crush, Nakahara was (creepily) hitting on her (actually, he was harassing her), she wanted nothing to do with him because Nakahara wasn't Hanako. It literally takes her a few seconds for her to even remember who he is because that's how insignificant he is in comparison to the one and only toilet ghost.

As she runs away from him due to his downright creeptitude (which ironically enough, smartly shows that he wouldn't have even made a good partner anyway so it was actually a good thing he rejected her), she reflects on how she DID want to confess to someone, but it wasn't to him---it was---say it with me: HANAKO--

And the best part from her reflecting on how she wanted to confess to him, it goes back to that part where he was with her in the stage where they'd be holding the performance for the Wizard of Oz. See how the series objectively portrays him versus how Yashiro sees him?

Yashiro is no longer concerned with any prince charming because in her eyes, Hanako IS exactly THAT. From what she originally saw as this snarky boy in a hat, she now sees him as the most handsome because of who he is and what they've both been through together.

He looks more attractive to her because of the fact she recognizes the bond she has with him and wants nothing more than to delve deeper into it.

As messy as these two are, I will say this: AidaIro are MASTERS at subtext and tugging my heart strings.

[nsfandomdump]

Drops 2 of the most devastating chapters in a row and calls them "Happiness" istg AidaIro when I GET YOU—

[mywifeismothman]

THIS IS KILLING ME.

I picked up tbhk in 2021 thinking it was a silly monster of the week style supernatural comedy. Oh my god, how AidaIro has tricked me. I should have turned back before I got too invested, but tbhk is a part of me now, I think I’d die without it.

IVE BEEN SOBBING FOR THE PAST TEN MINUTES AT MIDNIGHT OVER CHAPTER 120!

Spoiler warning for chapter 120 (read it if you haven’t already and suffer with me):

After chapter 119, this world’s Kou and Mitsuba were basically killed in the red house, once again proving that those two can literally never be happy. When Kou said he’d die for Mitsuba in that one chapter, I don’t think this is what he meant.

But when he says he can’t help them go back, I can’t figure out if he’s talking about Mitsuba or the fact that he’s stuck in the red house. Probably both, as he says something later which implies he’s talking about Mitsuba.

Mostly the red house though, as shown in these panels. Which hit me really hard for some reason.

I started sobbing when I saw these panels though,

Just look at his face, there’s something about the shading and detail in his face which captivates you. Watching the one character who is so fixated on trying to have everyone live die was so heart wrenching.

The parallel between this panel and chapter 118 is killing me. In that chapter, Mitsuba and Kou talk about their bad dreams, ones of the old world where Mitsuba is dead. They don’t want to accept that any of those dreams could be real, promising to each other to live their lives to the fullest, only accepting the dreams as real if they failed to forget.

In this chapter, Mitsuba and Kou were never able to live a life where they could ignore those dreams, almost immediately getting killed. So to Kou, he now had to accept those dreams, with their new reality becoming the bad dream he tells Nene to forget.

This panel also killed me.

He’s clearly talking about Mitsuba, who else could he be talking about. Again showing just how much he means to him. Again, it reminds me of the chapter where Kou talks about dying for Mitsuba, showing that he’ll always be there for him, even in death.

I also want to just talk about poor Nene, look at this panel:

This is the second time that one of her only living friends has had some connection with death, but this is the first time one has straight up disappeared before her eyes. This whole ark has Nene being tormented by death and loss and I hate it.

I wanna touch on Teru quickly. I’ve never loved characters with his type of personality before, but I think this ark has completely changed my mind about him. First, there was that face he made talking about his mother being alive, and then him being forced to exorcise his own brother. Which must have been devastating to Teru, considering that his whole motive is to protect his family, the two he has left. I think this is some of the most emotional we’ve seen in Teru. And I’m crying again

I spent like 30 minutes at midnight typing this out because once again AidaIro has delivered a heartbreaking chapter, and I need to talk about it.

Oh my god, I was so busy crying yesterday I didn’t realize his and Mitsuba’s corpses were in the well.

[nanabansama]

Lantern Flower

I was rereading the new chapter again and I just realized this new little neko-chan introduces himself alongside some flowers! Hanakotoba is always one of my favorite parts of the series to discuss, so naturally I just had to make a post about this...

As you can tell by the title, this is the lantern flower (鬼灯). While they aren't shown in color in the manga panel, these flowers are known for their bright, red-orange bulbs that resemble paper lanterns.

The meanings for this flower are both plentiful and fun! First, the positive meanings are as follows: "natural beauty" and "peace of mind." While not every single flower meaning is likely considered or intended when AidaIro incorporates flowers into their work, I wonder if this is a clue that Tsukasa enjoys his new life as a toy cat?

I also want to mention that this flower is used in Obon celebrations! Obon is a festival to honor the dead wherein spirits that have passed on will briefly return to the mortal realm to visit their families and former homes. These flowers are then planted or decorated around a home so that the spirit can easily find their way back. By the way, the kanji used in the Japanese word for lantern flower, 鬼灯, can also be translated as "ghost light"!

Now, onto the darker meanings... "Deception"; "Lie"; "Tempt me"; "Lead me on"; "Infidelity"

These are... extremely concerning?! Not that I'm saying there's any infidelity going on here, but why are so many of these implying the cat might not be telling the truth...? What exactly could he be lying about, then? Is he actually the Clock Keepers' handservant and the resident mouser, or is he someone more important? What does he know...??

If I had to guess the reason AidaIro chose this flower for the cat, I think the "deception" meaning is likely the main one. Not to mention the cat is closing his eyes when he says this--a common (albeit not reliable) sign that someone is lying. Hmm, suspicious...

Of course, I can't neglect to mention that the reason lantern flowers are associated with "deception" is because of their extremely large calyx, AKA the thing that gives it its lantern shape. Calling it a flower is actually somewhat erroneous, since the flower itself has already wilted long before the lantern flower takes on its characteristic appearance. It takes on this shape to protect the seeds of the wilted flowers until it's the seed's time to fall.

Now, if we wanted to interpret this negative meaning as positively as we possibly can, we could interpret the usage of the lantern flower to mean that the cat is simply not what it seems, and that if you peeled back its shell you would find something familiar underneath. I'm actually totally fine with this interpretation, as I find it really hard to imagine the cat is pulling wool over anyone's eyes when he keeps getting tricked by Ninja Yashiro Nene and seems really keen to get away from her. That said, it's always best to stay on our toes! Now stop me before I can explain why the flower is associated with "infidelity"...

Oh, and I wanted to mention that lantern flowers have shown up at least one other time in the series as well! Take a look:

You can see them in the lower right corner by Amane's bum!

There's likely no deep connection between these two images, but I am glad to see these flowers again. Especially since I didn't appreciate them and all their many meanings the first time I saw them with Amane. Hmm...! Now why were they drawn with Amane, I wonder...?

[redcamellia13]

Mitsukou Analysis: Red House Arc

Okay. God, I was not excited for this arc…

*motivational (platonic) KouNene*

Honestly, when I first read this scene I was quite surprised.

Isn’t it sort of odd Kou isn’t super affected by Mitsuba or even Hanako’s disappearance?

Yashiro became a veritable shell of herself, and Akane fell into depression, so to have Kou as his usual smiling self was quite shocking to see.

Woah, woah, can… can we back up a bit Kou? That’s twice now you’ve shown signs of contemplation of killing yourself for your ghost boy friend. (In my opinion, it should be ghost boyfriend, but ya know.)

Wow, so he’s actually considering this. I assumed Kou knew he probably couldn’t die back in the picture perfect world, since it’s supposed to be picture perfect, but he’s genuinely thinking about it.

So. At this point in time, Kou doesn’t know “whether the old Mitsuba is really gone.”

Well, Kou, for better or for worse that’s about to change. Which brings us to the next point of interest:

Right here. Kou has realized, for the first time in (Hanako or Tsukasa’s, I can’t remember) words, “the Mitsuba Sousuke that lived and died in this world is not here anymore.”

I think some subconscious part of Kou’s brain really believed Sousuke was still out there somewhere, and because he only met him very briefly as a human, and still quite shortly as a ghost, he never really processed the fact Sousuke had family that cared about him.

This is divulging into more theory territory than analysis, but why did Sousuke have a picture of the Red House?

His connections with it are nonexistent, and even No. 3 doesn’t know it exists, and is only associated with it because of his relationship with Amane Yugi/Hanako.

This is mostly just context for what’s about to happen next. Aidairo has made it crystal clear the house appeals to your desires.

Ah yes, so of course Mitsuba shows up immediately afterwards, almost as if Aidairo are implying when you say “think of your greatest desires,” Kou’s brain immediately thinks of Mitsuba.

Another interesting thing about these panels, and also the main reason I added it is that this is the first time we’ve seen Kou’s desire to be needed, and be needed specifically by Mitsuba.

“I can’t go on without you Minamoto-Kun. You’re all I have.”

This is saying Kou wants Mitsuba to rely on him and only him, a fact that was already well-established, but confirmation is always nice.

Perhaps this is pulling from Kou’s desires of Hanako being “a run of the mill evil spirit” so he would be easy to exorcise.

However, I believe this is more pulling from Kou’s… suicidal tendencies, and wanting to be with Mitsuba on the other shore.

It might actually be a combo of both.

Actually, this got me thinking for a while. Do Kou and Mitsuba trust each other? Kou certainly doesn’t think so, but do we have examples of them showing mutual trust?

Welp, guys, thats another ding on the “are they a healthy relationship” perspective.

“You know you wanted me to say that.”

My sleep deprived brain cannot even begin to pick out why the hell Mitsuba would say that, but let’s try.

I have a vague feeling it’s because Kou wants Mitsuba to know that he wishes for Mitsuba to know he needs him to need Kou… but why?

Like I said, I am on not a lot of sleep and a lot of caffeine, so I can’t really say. I might come back later with new ideas, but for now this is what you get. (Sorry!)

Kou wants closure from Mitsuba’s death, which is understandable. However, Kou, you might wanna organize your priorities, because a solution for Yashiro’s lifespan isn’t even present, while Mitsuba comes up twice?

*ahem ahem*

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Wow. Real smooth Aidairo. Stopping Kou right before we get an answer as to why Mitsuba (both!) is there, while not being an actual desire.

Yes, I updated my oneshot book- all entries below <3

[thelunarfairy]

The painful love

Nene's dream is to be loved by someone, because she was always mistreated by boys…. she gave up her life, "her marriage" to save her best friend, and she will give up all of that if she is by Hanako's side , these are all just details, it's not about marriage, it's about her loving him.

He's a ghost, he can't get married, he can't have children, he can't grow old with her, he can't even leave school, she won't be able to introduce him to her parents, she won't be able to meet his family, no one can see him . All Nene has is the great love she feels for him, and what wins over Hanako most is her desire to stay.

One of the forms of love, regardless of whether it is friendship or romance, is for someone to "stay" for you. Someone chooses to be by your side, even with your story, your past, your hurts and flaws. Nene stood by him, even when no one else did, and this contrasts greatly with his relationship with Tsukasa.

Tsukasa wants to leave, yes, to save Hanako, but Hanako doesn't want to be saved, he wants to be forgiven, he wants to be loved, he wants the people he loves to stay. So, when Nene went after him on the far shore, even though he scolded her, he couldn't hold back any longer. Because she did all that because she wanted to be with him, when not even the person he loves most, Tsukasa, had decided to leave.

She is the only person who wants to stay by his side without thinking twice, no matter what she has to do, she will be there. Even now, even going back in time, she still remembers him, remembers the desire she had to see him in the audience watching her in the play.

It's ironic, because Nene wanted a handsome boy for everyone to see, she wanted to use the boys as a trophy, not to show off, but to show the boys who were mean to her that someone can love her, even with this "flaw." "superficial and futile.

But in the end she fell in love with a ghost, the ordinary boy who is not popular, who no one can see. That was something I loved about the construction of the story, how Aidairo didn't give Nene what she wanted, but what she needed.

To be loved by the boy who finds her "flaw" attractive, to be loved by the boy who protects her, who listens to her, who is there for her. Being loved by the imperfect boy who has his own story and who makes mistakes, who is not the prettiest guy in the class, but who truly loves, no matter how much he tries to hide it, no matter how mysterious he is.

He is afraid that she will find out about him, because he doesn't want her to leave, almost like a silent request "please don't go.." Hanako is a boy who seems to have been abandoned a lot, maybe it only happened to Tsukasa, but even Let it just be him, Tsukasa is the love of his life, not in a romantic way, but he is the person he loves most, and he is gone.

The love between these two is tragic, but true, seeing how the two complement each other, even with the "flaws" and mistakes they make. It's an intense, true love, a continuous struggle between being together or separated by destiny.

Yes, destiny, it is he who is manipulating everything, their destiny is not to be together, but they are fighting against it, even if they have to break the world.

And, I hope, they break the world together with Tsukasa. Because he loves Amane, because he didn't want to leave him, but he had to, it was the only option, because he loves Amane so much that he wants him to live and be happy, even without him.

But for Amane, there is no happiness without Tsukasa, and now, there is no happiness without Nene either.

[miimo96]

BONUS Thoughts on Chapter 120 of TBHK

Here is EVERYTHING I noticed in Chapter 120 of TBHK

Let's get the bandaid off right now, since it's pretty obvious that whatever Teru saw down that well was probably Kou and Mitsuba's bodies, do you think this is what aidairo was trying to foreshadow when they made this panel 2 chapters ago? Because if so, THAT IS EVIL ^^;

Secondly, I didn't even notice this until now but when kou asks yashiro to reset the timeline, you clearly see that his hand is see through, signifying that the while the Kou we see IS IN FACT the real kou, it's really just his spirit looming in the Red house, meaning that he was already Dead when she saw him 😢

Finally I don't know about you, but to me this felt VERY familiar to what happened in the severance arc, did anyone else get the EXACT same vibes from this scene at the end of this chapter, because I can't be the only one right? Anyway if this doesn't prove to you that aidairo LOVES reusing old panels and Scenarios for recent Chapters to foreshadow things, then I don't know what does because just LOOK AT IT! It is clearly the same exact scenario 😭😭😭 anyway that's everything I noticed, but whaddya think?

[mari-lair]

hello ! i love your fics and analysis! I was wondering which tbhk ships you think will become endgame?

Anon I have the most white bread of answers but since you asked-

1 - Hananene.

Nene starts the manga by wanting a date. It doesn't matter with who, any hot guy will do. She has many infatuations but isn't in love with anyone, she just want to be loved.

Nene has a lot of small character developments in different areas throughout the manga, but her strongest and most consistent change is her increasing love for Hanako and her acceptance of it.

She is still a girl with a ton of emotions, and she finds hot people attractive BUT now she want Hanako and only Hanako. She rejects everyone she used to have a crush on, there is no doki doki's when she gets the attention of pretty people cause they aren't the boys she wants attention from anymore.

Even Teru doesn't compare to Hanako. She went on a 'date' with him and felt more excited about bragging than the actual 'date'

AND SHE DID NOT BRAG when hanako got back, she just wanted to enjoy that he's back.

I don't even know why I am going so in dept on the couple stablished since chapter 1 but since i'm already rambling: Despite everything crazy going on in the festival NENE'S BIGGEST FOCUS WAS TO CONFESS TO HANAKO. That's something she thinks more about than her own death, like girl- Hanako is her whole world. She will not get a romance with another person.

There is the question of "Will Nene survive?"

If she doesn't, she'll disappear and have no boyfriend but I bet she'll be thinking about Hanako in her death. If she finds a way to become a supernatural in a very wild narrative choice she will be able to stay with hanako in their cursed eternity forever.

In the case she lives and Hanako gets exorcised she won't move on. Aidairo loves tragedies and obsessive love, so I can't see her approaching crushes with the same whimsy after her love dies. And Aidairo would likely preffer to make her suffer in her grief and longing than give her a rebound with some random guy, cause it sure won't be Kou.

2 - Mitsukou

My personal preferences aside, it is clear they are written to have romantic implications. Kou will either die with Mitsuba (As shown in the new timeline), and stay with him in death.

Or live to have an intense homoerotic 'friendship' with him.

He legit can't get mitsuba off his head, he thinks about him more than anything during the manga and he has A LOT of problems to think about.

I can't personally picture an explicit confession but we had a lot of equivalents already. It would be weird for Aidairo to send them to the aquarium, make Kou obsessed with mitsuba (and vise verse), show that they are 'very very close' in this new timeline, keep drawing them star-struck by each other and so on without romance in the head.

Kou is also never able to put his feelings into words, like, bro that's suspicious as hell.

They always get matching art with all the couples in Aidairo's twitter arts too.

That's not queerbaiting, they may not be explicit but by the lord they are not subtle at all, there is never a single "oh Mitsuba is like a brother to me" moment, they don't undo any of the gay implications we see, they double down on it.

Kou may be bi but it sure isn't the Nene route that Aidairo is playing.

3 - Aoikane

Akane has loved Aoi since he was a little kid. Waaaaaaay before he got a clock keeper contract.

He saw that Aoi cared so much about his opinion that she'd break out of her cold persona and burst into tears at the idea of being hated, and he locked in for life.

They are the codependent childhood friends troupe, the "I know you better than anyone" troupe, the "you are a part of my life I can't live without" troupe and they both love each other from the very start of the manga, not showing romantic interest in anyone else.

Nothing has made Akane change his mind about being with Aoi. Not being stabbed, not being rejected many times, not facing how bad aoi is at deling with her issues head on. He'll do anything for her time and time again.

in Akane's own words:

They had many build ups and a whole arc dedicated to their developments with each other (which is a lot considering they aren't main characters and Aoi usually get no focus in this manga.)

Narratively, it wouldn't make any sense to dedicate so many chapters pointing out how much they mean to each other and slowly working through their issues only to slap another ship at the end.

And is not like Aidairo said "They had their arc let's never talk about them again!", the author went out of her way to say "Even in a world where Aoi is in an arranged marriage, she still loves Akane"

They aren't subtle.

From the matching names, to the way they both crumble when they are separated from one another and keep thinking about marriage, they are very devoted. They have already explicitly confessed to the audience that they are in love with each other.

They'll either stay together forever or they'll die together.

[kermitbread]

aidairo when i get you aidairo

[makshu]

Ok. There's something going on and I need to talk about it.

We've all seen that AidaIro is posting new art every day, and on the 18th there will be a new chapter.

But I noticed something, all these arts are about the last arc and are telling the story of it again.

Let me show you

The first one we had was on chapter 111, which shows Yashiro. Everything is normal, but behind her we can see typical theater spotlights, it could just be something mundane or reference her school play rehearsals. Well we started with this.

So we have this art of 12y Tsukasa. Referencing when Yashiro and Mitsuba ended up in the past and found 12y Tsukasa talking to them. He said a rumor about the big clock that further opened the theme of this arc, really an omen for everything.

This art by Sakura is worth mentioning, as she is part of the broadcast gang. She is behind everything, and theories about her being the god or something powerful are increasing more and more. It's worth mentioning that she wished something for Tsukasa, everything he's doing is because of her (because of Amane too, but he has a bond with Sakura). Sakura is an extremely important piece in this puzzle.

Let the fun begin! Next in the series we have Mitsuba and Kou enjoying their time at the festival. Eating and playing together. We were informed, the festival has started.

More moments at the festival. This scene happened in the manga, it is the beginning of the festival that we see. Hanako and Yashiro in the haunted house made by Kou's class. Until that moment everything was normal (or so we thought).

This one is curious. We only see seal Tsukasa in this arc after the plan is initiated. But I believe he was also out there enjoying his last moments. And you can tell that it's really Tsukasa and not the creature. Well, now we're getting close.

Ohhh look what we have here! President and vice-president enjoying the festival as well, despite their work they still managed to find some time to have fun. Natsuhiko had already confronted Akane earlier and Teru had already discovered the black crane, they were probably already alert for anything suspicious. But, everything's still normal.

We return to Sakura, now in her maid outfit. We also have Natsuhiko's first appearance in these arts. This was possibly before or during the festival, but following the chronological line it must have been during. Note that until then this was the only art that did not have a black border (I will talk about this later). Moving on to the next...

From here things started to get serious. The plan had begun. This moment happens in chapter 105. Blood had started to spread throughout the auditorium and Hanako noticed that something was wrong. We are just a few steps away from entering No.1 boundary.

And finally we have today's art. The revelation of the immortal human, Natsuhiko. Breaking the timeline, in this art we go back to chapter 104, where Natsuhiko spreads his blood across the clock, thus executing the plan to go after the last yorishiros.

And these were all the arts released so far, the arts that reference the arc in this case. They all seem to be retelling the story of the Festival arc. Now why? Why would AidaIro be recapping the last arc?

We know that the past has changed and everything has a chance of being different from what we know. We go back to the beginning of the festival, where nothing had happened yet. Therefore, none of these events had happened, if everything really changed, the arts are telling an alternative version of history, the version we know.

Moving from analysis to theory... did you notice that almost all arts have a black border? Black borders are used to indicate flashbacks, the past in JSHK. Now, why would they be using this artifice? Assuming the present has changed, this would be the past. But not a past like something that happened years ago, but a past that no longer exists, in the sense of what it was before this current one. That's why the black borders, indicating that this would be the past.

What breaks this theory is Sakura's art in her maid outfit, as it doesn't have a black border. Maybe the borders are part of the new AidaIro style and are something made to style the arts, or actually have a connection to something. Well, that part is just a crazy theory.

But what do you think of this analysis? The images seem to be telling the arc of the festival all over again, and for what reason? Maybe we'll find out on the 18th, when chapter 112 comes out.

[musicalmoritz]

I talk a lot about characters being exclusively gay or lesbian on here, so I wanted to switch things up for once and talk about some tbhk characters who are most likely bi

Starting off with the most obvious and undeniably most bi-coded character in tbhk (can we even call it coding anymore?? the subtext has become text), we have my boy Kou!! His main love interest is Mitsuba, and in addition to the other characters teasing Kou about his feelings, the two of them have gone on a date together. While it’s true Kou offhandedly said it’s “not a date” (outside of a speech bubble even), AidaIro would not have labeled it that way if they didn’t want people to interpret it as such. They’re also often drawn very romantically together and…c’mon, their story doesn’t make a lot of sense if they’re just friends (in comparison to other male friendships in tbhk like Hanako and Kou or Teru and Akane that DO make sense platonically)

Kou also had a huge crush on Nene for the majority of the manga, and may still like her (he no longer gets flustered when people suggest that he likes her so imo it’s up to interpretation whether or not his feelings have changed). His feelings for Mitsuba don’t discredit his feelings for Nene or vice versa, so it’s safe to assume this man swings both ways. He frequently blushes around Nene and, as aforementioned, used to get very flustered whenever someone teased him about his crush. I believe in the pilot of tbhk he also confessed to her

So as we’ve established, Kou checks off both bi boxes. But what about Nene herself?

Nene’s main love interest is Hanako, but other than that she’s shown to be very boy crazy. She swoons over every man she meets, and dedicates herself to her crushes even when she doesn’t really know them. The sky is blue, the sun rises in the morning, and Nene wants a boyfriend

…Or a girlfriend? If you can’t call what Nene felt towards Sakura a crush, then I don’t know what you would call it. She blushed around her, called her a babe, compared her to a doll, emphasized her beauty, and got so distracted spending time with her that she forgot to stay on guard. This is how Nene acts around all her crushes, dazed and a little stupid. I also think it says a lot that she still seemed awfully friendly with Hanako when he got turned into a girl in ASHK. At the very least I’d say Nene is bi-curious

I bet you can’t tell which Aoi this is about lol. I theoretically could call out Aoi but I feel like it would be slightly more of a reach with her so for now I’m sticking with Akane. His main love interest is Aoi- hell, his whole word is Aoi. He worships the ground she walks on, and their character development is reliant on one another. I fully believe Akane would feel the same way about Aoi if she were a man; it’s not about her gender, it’s about who she is as a person. But that’s only speculation so let’s look at the facts

In the Confession Tree chapter, Akane fell in love with and started dating Lemon. Now, this is purely up to interpretation, but I don’t think a love potion would have the power to change someone’s sexuality, at least not something like the Confession Tree. It’s perfectly fine to disagree with that statement, but my takeaway here was that Lemon and Akane would both be fine with dating men (I would’ve put Lemon on this list but I don’t think he’s shown any interest in women, I do hc him as pan tho)

And lastly, we have Natsuhiko, who would love Sakura regardless of their gender…and who apparently is fine with changing their own gender at the drop of a hat?? Does he have something he wants to tell us??

I could have included more characters, but I wanted to stay semi-realistic here. A lot of people also bring up Hanako flirting with Kou when he got turned into a girl, and I will say he acts very flirty with Kou in general, but I have a hard time deciphering whether they’re just joking the way friends do or if there’s some level of seriousness to it lol. I interpreted it as a friend thing but I’m open to hearing different opinions, I usually headcanon Hanako as bi anyway

I also mentioned Aoi but again, I can’t tell if the way she sometimes gets a little too close to Nene is just girls being girls or if it’s girls liking girls. And I don’t rly count Mei falling in love with her in HKOM as evidence because Aoi didn’t like her back, although it’s reasonable to assume they started dating since they were mentioned to hang out a lot after that. But Aoi/Aoi is still a thing in HKOM so…I don’t know. She could like both ofc (that’s kind of the whole point here) but I didn’t see enough of her liking Mei to come to a definitive conclusion. Aoi definitely gives me sapphic vibes but I didn’t feel like there was enough evidence to put her on the list so for now I’ll leave her as an honorable mention. Then there’s Teru’s weird thing with the Aois but I don’t think anyone can decipher what’s going on there

In conclusion, bi rights

[sillyyuserr]

Chapter 117 analysis (WE’RE SO BACK) obviously spoilers for chapter 117 and chapter 114

i cooked with this one trust

Everyones looking for them yadayadayada terukane

Yk im pretty sure this is meant to be lore heavy but LOOK AT THEM

I don’t know how to word this correctly but since chapter 115/116 between akane and teru there seems to have been something that happened in which they stopped being freaky?? 😭 like ykwim hold on

in chapter 114 this happened

completely ruined almost everything they had, but in the span of a few days, shit still going on, they havent had their deserved break yet like they got on chapter 96-97 and somehow in the midst of all this teru’s forgiven(?) him and just moved on?? Really not sure but based on what we know ab the red house the next chapter may answer some of our questions

Also, this is so little i didn’t see it the first time reading but teru goes to the drink machine thing to get one and mixes like 4 of the sodas,

takes one sip decides its shit and switches with akane’s already half drunken out of tea. Indirect kiss guys wait

Also this is JUST like the date they all went on when aoi was gone. Again, aoi is gone here too 😭 my girl getting left out of everything is acc crazy

She comes in later tho and finally gets caught up for the first time in forever MAN aidairo must hate her😭

But also

We find out mitsuba and kou are going there TOO so for the first time i think ever we have the whole gang in one spot 🤥 alot of firsts this chapter smh

ALSO an honorable mention to this i saved best for last

Sir stay away from my children

ok but fr i have no fucking clue what to say ab this cus this is either ‘teehee im right ur wrong!!~~♡’ type shit which he does alot, or genuinely like what we all think it is, which considering outside context may, in fact make it make sense trust let me explain

teru says shit like this ALL THE TIME its kind of his ACTUAL personality aside from his fake shit, like the way he is only around akane and sometimes kou (at least what we’re shown) so you’d think he’s used to this, but his initial reaction is more of a ‘um. what.’

ALSO— backround MATTERS, the backround in this one, is pure black, which is only shown during stuff LIKE THIS (important stuff) example:

Black background either means its dark, or its something important, something meant to be remembered, or something like that (probably)

and that panel had a BLACK BACKROUND

Why is this important you may be asking, it has a black backround— so it must be, right? If this was a silly little ‘teehee you can’t do this im better than youuu!!!~~♡’ then it probably wouldnt even have a half panel it’d be another one of the mini panels, but it not only had a whole panel for just this, a black background ;blocking LITERALLY EVERYTHING OUT ASIDE FROM THIS AND WHAT HE’S SAID, but also, pay attention the contents of what he said.

(a different translation, this one is easier to read)

‘you are not in any position to oppose me, are you, aoi? ♡’ could mean, A LOT OF THINGS so i’ll put them in a bulletin here because any of them make for an interesting path we may be taking on ‘this’ reality😭😓

Number 1: he could be impliying, and or reminding akane, that he’s still engaged to aoi, and that if akane still thinks they shouldnt change this reality, he should reconsider, CONSIDERING he is engaged to aoi, as aforementioned. (Most likely this one)

Number 2: the power dynamic, yes akane is a school mystery with the ability to control time itself but also, teru is an exorcist, a skilled one at that— and could probably easily overpower akane in a 1v1 (lowk hyped to see this happen pls let them fight) teru may be poking fun, or reminding akane, that teru is in fact powerful, more than he seems to keep fresh on his mind — them having SO MUCH to do

Number 3: maybe instead he just felt like teasing akane and i wasted time+space for nothing and was looking way too into it (this is supposed to be the terukane option😪)

Never once has he used this before??? Obviously you cant talk in symbols but the heart kind of implies the user of this symbol is talking in a playful/slightly flirtatious tone, hence, the reaction:

Okay okay point is i think teru is still madly in love with him

WAAAHHHH just look at him pooks who else does he do this with smhh 😓 NO ONE

which i think may be PARTIALLY true but also not entirely because mayb im just a tweaker

Me when i when i ehen you whrn you when

This may make no sense at all, or alot of sense man idk its 3:12am i go back to school in like 2 weeks i am not ready for sophomore year gn

terukane will be real one day trust🤍🤍