#and no I didn't miss the not-so-subtle allegory of takano's hat near the end

[uebermacht]

Ok, so Minagoroshi was... quite a lot longer than I expected; and for the longest time I wondered how a chapter with a name like that was the most hopeful and optimistic of all of them so far. But then, the final chapters hit.

Up until then, we left mysteries and curses behind us and finally tackled the real enemy: social norms and the public administrative bodies! And the cast splendidly managed to shatter all the obstacles that have been making the other stories so miserable.

That and the chapters length were the reasons why the ending kinda caught me by surprise, because by then I was sure it would be a two-parter with Matsuribayashi and end at the festival, but no, it needed to give you a final punch to the gut while going down.

But what else is there to say, the cat's finally out of the bag and the majority of mysteries are explained in this one. A lot came together as I theorized, but it was still surprising and ironic to see that a lot of the crazed characters delusions of the former chapters actually turned out to be true, but not in the ways we thought.

For the climax: even though I found the character who turned out to be the villain to be suspicious before, her reveal was far more extreme than I imagined. Her motives are, frankly, very bizarre and severely unhinged, almost cartoonishly so, if it wasn't for the really depressing consequences.

Sure, a lot of the reveal and the main casts actions where kinda corny, but I learned from several other stories that even the silliest and most cliche things become immensely powerful and emotionally impactful if you trudge through enough depression and despair beforehand.

And finally, some thoughts on the whole thing with Rika and the addition/reveal of Hanyuu: I suspected some time loop shenanigans for the longest time, since there is little to no other possible in-universe explanation for the narrative structure of the stories.

I personally don't mind it much, but I have to wonder how Hanyuu was received when the story originally came out. Somehow I can imagine that some people might not have been too happy about it, that's how it usually turns out with the inclusion/confirmation of supernatural elements in mystery-centric stories... but oh well.

With this, all the puzzle pieces are on the table and I guess the final chapter will try to piece them all together to a (hopefully) satisfying ending, I'm looking forward to it.