#but. minami’s debut is one thing b u t when does bae love and 1% come in??? the?? aaa??????

[deus-ex-mona]

ok ngl i think there’s way too much overthinking when it comes to the hw’s gen 3 timeline (esp when it comes to hiyori’s story, bc let’s face it: it’s gloriously messy)

and so, my spicin’ hot, incredibly dumb take is: there are 2 separate ‘verses of hiyori’s story. 1: a princely love interest au with asuka in the novels, and 2: the canon story with nagisa

‘verse 1: let hiyori have her prince, please!!

the novel ‘verse is fairly straightforward, i’d say, with nonfantasy (nonfan) leading smoothly into heroine ikusei keikaku (heroiku), especially since ascana + maeda were established as cameo characters in nonfan. and heroiku even has an mv!!! so that should be how the canon story is supposed to go, right?

‘verse 2: oh but, the mvs say… what?????

fast forward to the dark ages (read: the [redacted] anime), and the timeline has become ✨a hot mess✨. asuka was booted from the plot (along with his fellow streamer idol bf), nagisa has been slotted in as hiyori’s love interest(?) for a grand total of, what, 30 minutes of total screentime, only to be never seen again, and yujiro’s police encounter has been revealed to be because… he (aged 15) snuck into a bar to rescue his younger brother???? but, no, this isn’t about yujiro. let’s put him aside for a sec.

anyways, with nagisa’s (honestly objectively forced) introduction into the main gen 3 plot, there came a new pair of songs to the love series lineup: heroine wa heikin ika. (heroika) and suki na ko ni usotsuita. (sukiuso).

first off, heroika: the plot of heroika mainly draws from the [redacted] anime, from the second half of ep 6 all the way to the end of ep 7, along with a small background exposition of nghy’s middle school life (in hiyori’s pov, nagisa’s a well-liked hero who even has a fanclub, and she’s just a background character in comparison… but, wait, everyone seems to think that they’re dating?? why???? there’s no way!!!!!!), so there seems to be kind of an assumption that the viewer has seen the episodes in question, as hiyori doesn’t touch on her makeover at all.

but the main point of it is that hiyori doesn’t know what it means to be in love, which is. y’know. pretty different from her attitude towards love in heroiku.

and next: sukiuso: sukiuso is the complementary song to heroika, giving exposition to background events in heroika (the “your skirt didn’t suit you” scene from nghy’s childhood, the mention of hiyori’s makeover, the reason for nagisa’s tokyo visit, the confession that hiyori was having a crisis™️ over in heroika) amidst nagisa’s whipped fawning over hiyori for 3 minutes and 47 seconds.

put heroika and sukiuso together, and you basically have 80% of the picture about the good parts in eps 6-7. there’s less lxl involvement ofc, but this isn’t about them.

and, following the [redacted] anime’s lead, heroine tarumono! (herotaru)’s plot comes in rather easily after nagisa’s return to izumo. chizuchan puts up pictures of hiyori’s lxl-given makeover for the asuka confession nagisa meet and greet, chizuchan and hiyori duke it out in the halls, then they make up, and now they’re closer than ever. yay for friendship!

[i assume heroine to idol (heroidol) happens somewhere around here in an unspecified time, in which hiyori realises just how charming idols like lxl are, probably after working with them for quite a while. fly high, hiyori… i hope you don’t see their repaint dance…]

and so, hard cut to a year later, in kimi wo kawaikusaseta no wa doko no doitsu (kimikawaii) we see hiyori, as a second year, return home to izumo! she’s looking cuter than ever, and now it’s nagisa’s turn to have a crisis™️ about what in the world happened in the time they were apart.

but, either way, as of the time of this post, heroine no hero is coming out soon™️, and from the title and jacket illustration, hiyori, our all-loving heroine, has finally realised her feelings for nagisa in their uni arc!!!! huge win!!!! nghy for life!!!!!!!

but wait, you say, two songs have been forgotten!!!

and to that, well~~~~~~

koiiro ni sake: the creators have mentioned multiple times in supplementary media (magazine interviews, ymk’s fanbox) that hiyori and yujiro were never meant to be a couple. they’re just a pair of gen 3 students that appeared to indicate that a new gen was about to begin. that’s all. koiiro is not, and never has been, evidence for yhy canon.

heroiku: this. this is pretty much the song that throws all of the timeline theories into disarray, from ascana’s appearance, to the possibility of 2 lxl makeovers, to hiyori’s longing to fall in love with a prince that just… turned into genuine confusion about what it means to love.

and to that, this is where you need to prepare the pitfall traps as i say… heroiku… is the theme song for ‘verse 1: the au novel ‘verse with asuka. granted, it has nothing to do with the current main timeline, but it’s a fun little song that gave us hiyori content when we needed it the most (back when all we had was the nonfan novel and mv). it’s hiyori’s very first solo song, her second trio song with her 2 besties (for the 4th special ed), and it showed us how she landed the unfortunate job as lxl’s manager.

so, all in all, i think hiyori’s story song/mv-wise goes:

[1st verse of heroiku (becoming the manager of lxl)] -> [helping out in the filming of the nonfan mv (not actually seen in-mv)] -> [heroika/sukiuso] -> [herotaru] -> [sunny party (and probably heroidol)] -> [kimikawaii] -> [herohero]

…or so i think. it’s pretty choppy, but it makes more sense (to me) than hiyori going from “can i become a heroine if i fall in love with a dashing prince?” to “hahshdjshsjajsjajsjsja w h a t is love??? tell me julieta~~~” in just a matter of weeks/months…

i know the thought that they released an au before the canon story is pretty weird, but… these are the same people who came up with ultimate puu, so… y’know~~~ stuff gets weird around ‘ere~~~~~

but i dunno for sure~~~~ the hw timeline has always been weird, between novels, anime adaptations, and even within the mvs (even sometime within the same mv) themselves~~~

just look at the summer session mv for instance. gen 1 has always been the most straightforward gen, and the summer session mv has. like. 3 timelines going on all at once (nacchan saying that haruki returned to japan [when he only left after they graduated], mochiaka fireworks confession [???], and the harucouple scenes seeming to take place while they were in high school [as seen in the harucouple anime]). also, the summer session novel takes place 2 years after they graduated, so there’s now a 4th summer session timeline thrown in. cheers!!!! and that’s not even counting the summer session 2021 novel, which has both flashbacks and flashforwards! yay!!!!

…and so i genuinely think it’s best to just roll with the most recent official media as they come. no need to overthink anything; just sit back, relax, and enjoy the nghy~~~~

that’s all. thank you for reading this unnecessarily long essay (if you did), and goodbye~~~~~~