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lilac-melody · 26 days ago

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Making sense of Suzumi Hiyori's Story

OKAY SO. I've been reading a ton of comments on JPTwt and also the comment section of Hiyori's new single, and a complaint I've seen a lot is how her story doesn't make any sense.

So I want to try to untangle all of the threads of her story and make it more cohesive.

As such, there will be spoilers for the HeroineDev novel, and I'll be going over hers and Nagisa's MVs too.

I will be ignoring the anime version of multiple chapters and such because even the timeline on some make absolutely no sense at all. I will elaborate further below.

Here we go~

First of all, we all know the beginning of Hiyori's story. She grew up in Izumo City, and was friends with Nagisa since childhood. She was invited to do track at Sakuragaoka, and since there was no track at the high schools there, she agreed. She arrives in Tokyo, finds out that she needs to work part time to live, and ends up getting her job as LIPxLIP's manager, where she forms a bond with them, and they end up requesting she stays since they're all friends now.

We on the same page? Good.

So HeroineDev starts off with the Sports Day festival, which is typically held in late summer, which matches up with where Nonfantasy ends, with LIPxLIP's summer live.

(In the anime, the sports fes is like, what, episode 8? 9? AFTER the romance and everything, not to mention everything was all botched, so for simplicity sake, we'll just go off of the novels and MVs, since HeroHei and SukiUso are about Hiyori and Nagisa's arcs anyway)

Hiyori, after attending a live show with LIPxLIP (Ft4) ends up meeting Asuka, and immediately develops a crush on him after he helps her up.

Afterwards, Hiyori just can't stop thinking about the handsome, kind guy, and heads to a book store one day, where she ends up finding him. Coincidentally, he works there!

So she thinks it must be fate! She wants to be a heroine so badly, and if she gets this wonderful prince, then she can become a heroine!

So, she begins to visit the bookstore more often as an excuse to see him. He helps her find books, and she reads them, which develops really nicely.

She even reads her horoscopes and carries around things as silly as maracas in hopes of getting good luck in the love department.

Which, of course, leads to Aizou and Yujiro finding Hiyori carrying such things around and, of course, they begin to tease her, wondering why she would be holding them in public. Of course, they end up taking her away to a karaoke room for privacy so they can get her to spill the tea.

She ends up admitting she's fallen in love, and after they tease her, she refuses to give up.

Thus, later on, at work, she tries to write a love letter to Asuka, which, upon seeing her atrocious spelling and grammar, Aizou makes her rewrite the letter over and over again, until he and Yujiro are satisfied.

Of course, being so exhausted, Hiyori ends up forgetting to write her name on the letter, and after giving it to Asuka's manager to give to him, she realizes this, which causes LxL to make fun of her and laugh, until she ends up crying because she felt so stupid.

They feel bad for making her cry, and hear her out on how much she really likes this guy, and agree to help her. They promise "To deliver Cinderella to her prince". (I think it's important here that this is what they said, and I'll go more into detail on that later).

Which...she fails at. Again.

So they decide to dress her up, finding staff to get her costumes and...well, no dice.

SO they take her to the mall to get all gussied up to confess to this mystery bookstore guy! They wish her luck, much to her gracious joy, and they watch as she meets up with him.

Only....

It's Asuka! Their rival!

They stop her from confessing, and chaos erupts, with even Kanata joining in because why not, ig? After hearing police sirens, though, Hiyori grabs Yujiro (who had been arrested once before, thus she was worried the cops were after him), and hightails it out of there. Kanata and Aizou run off too, and poor Asuka is left standing there in confusion. (He's the only good guy, really...)

Hiyori's makeover is now a mess, and her heels are uncomfy, so she kicks them off and Yujiro apologizes for ruining her confession, and she decides to try it again, more as herself than as the gussied up version of herself. No heels, hair a mess, just...her.

Asuka lets her down gently, explaining he's trying to become an idol with Kanata and catch up with LxL, and Hiyori promises to be a fan, and the two separate.

But she was rejected. So of course, she's crying now.

Her makeover is ruined, she was rejected, and she's alone now. Crying her eyes out.

Only...she's not alone. Yujiro was waiting for her, sees her crying, and comforts her...in a very Yujiro-esque way, and walks her home. Because right now, all she needed was a friend, and Yujiro knows this. He saw her deflate and try to hold her head up high to confess to Asuka. And he knew that Asuka was trying to be an idol, so he likely suspected she would get rejected.

Not to mention, Yujiro's more kind than he lets on anyway, he wouldn't abandon her like that.

Anyway, a bit of time passes, and Hiyori's still trying to get over what happened. She's getting over it, but she's still upset, you know? But she continues on anyway. And even after rescuing Yujiro from getting injured, making up with him, and all that, she never feels like a heroine.

She admits she was reckless (after a long, drawn out fight), and just wants to be friends again.

There's a timeskip after this, so this will be where Nagisa comes in from the MVs. The anime pretty much has the full story, while the MVs are shortened versions of it.

Just to note, while I will be going over what happens in canon, I'll be changing the reasonings for things to fit the narrative and make it make sense.

Hiyori has healed from what happened, and is moving on, continuing on as LxL's manager in training. One day, she gets a call from her childhood friend, Nagisa, about him coming to Tokyo so they can see Ft4 together.

Given Ft4 aren't actually idols, and how popular they are, it isn't unbelievable that they have multiple concerts within a few months of each other.

Hiyori is a bit nervous, since Nagisa is...well, Nagisa, and she remembers what he once said when they were like 4 what he said about her looking weird in dresses. Despite being over what happened with Asuka, this stings more than ever.

She still doesn't feel like a heroine, after all. So she avoids the topic of dressing up for the concert, fearing that Nagisa was right. And clearly, the incident with Asuka proves he was right.

Eventually, Aizou and Yujiro catch Hiyori admiring the cute clothes and, in their confusion, they make her fess up what's wrong. So she admits the truth.

How Nagisa told her when they were tiny that she looked weird in dresses. And then she admits to them:

"With...what happened with Kaido-kun...I feel like Nagisa was right. I don't want to dress up anymore. I wanted to feel like a heroine, but I never will now."

This whole thing is hitting her really hard, and her depression would make much more sense, since she's feeling worse about herself than before, since she got rejected.

But Aizou and Yujiro know that with some cleaning up, Hiyori can look cute!

Before, they called her Cinderella going to her prince, and now this time, now that they have the full picture, they promise that she'll be a heroine for reals.

Cue shopping montage 2.0.

But this time, they try a different outfit, because duh. They go back to the old hairstyle Hiyori used, though, since it was really cute on her!

So they meet up with Nagisa, who disapproves of them right off the bat. The two then realize that Nagisa seems to harbor a crush on Hiyori.

Well, after everything that went down before, and knowing what Nagisa has said to her before, you can't blame LxL for getting protective.

The three find a moment to speak alone, of course...

Where Yujiro and Aizou want to ensure they're right, and make sure that Nagisa had good intentions with their friend. She's been through a bit much with Asuka, and her self esteem had taken a plummet, so forgive them for wanting to make sure this is the right guy, you know?

After insulting Hiyori left and right to Nagisa's face, Nagisa finally stands up for Hiyori in anger, and lets it slip that, yes, he loves her.

Now satisfied, the two silently give their blessing. They believe now that Hiyori was in good hands, and decide to support Nagisa in his romantic endeavours.

They still tag along to the Ft4 concert, though, to make sure Hiyori was okay.

But she's fine! More than fine! Ft4 is as amazing as before, and Nagisa is infodumping so much about them!

After the concert, seeing as how Hiyori was totally happy, LxL leave them alone.

Nagisa ends up making dinner at Hiyori's for her, and notes how happy she was.

Hiyori admits that LxL has helped her a lot, not giving details, but explaining how they were there at her low point, and she really appreciates them as friends.

Nagisa is jealous, though, and has to admit something...

He tells her that back then, as kids, he just thought she was too cute, and...well...he likes her.

hiyori.exe processing? hiyori.exe processing!

As she's silent, slowly trying to catch up with what he said, he excuses himself and leaves, embarrassed and not wanting to push her for an answer.

Hiyori finally processes what he said and is in a total daze. She does research, she can't focus on anything...she can't even sleep!

After all, being confessed to is different from pining and confessing to someone else. She isn't sure how to take being on the receiving end of a confession! She even finds herself wondering... "does Kaido-kun ever feel this way..?"

She ends up meeting up with her friends at a little restaurant to get their advice.

She doesn't ever fully give them the story of what happened with Asuka, fearing that they would be in disbelief that she confessed to someone so popular trying to become an idol. She just admits that she's been rejected before, and that after the rejection, she ended up going back to formalities with him. Instead of referring to him as his first name, she went back to his surname and an honorific.

She admits she's worried about doing this with Nagisa too, and it may ruin their friendship.

Of course, her friends wholly encourage her to follow her heart and that he was likely worried too.

After she leaves, Hiyori thinks back to her own failed confession with Asuka, and recalls how he said that he wanted to be an idol, and that was more important to him than anything.

She thinks more about his response, how it wasn't really a "no", just...he can't right now.

This leads her to think about her own life. How she has a job as an idol manager, how she has track, and school work, and she wants to hang out with her friends who she sees everyday at school..! And Nagisa...lives so, so far away.

So she catches up with him, and rejects him, telling him she doesn't have the time for a relationship, she has too much to focus on.

And Nagisa...totally understands.

Their friendship isn't ruined!

Hiyori then feels the need to add that his confession made her finally feel like a heroine.

She thinks about how Asuka, the protagonist of his own life, must have felt this way, and she now understands his feelings. That, plus the fact someone as charming as Nagisa liking her, finally makes her feel better. Truly better.

Nagisa, however, gently messes her hair up, and tells her wholeheartedly:

"You are a heroine, Hiyori. To me, ya always have been."

Which makes Hiyori melt a little.

Of course, she chooses to go back to her usual clothes now, and things return to normal.

Of course, LxL are shocked that she rejected Nagisa, but they back off, seeing her admit that she's happy to dress up here and there, but she's also happy to remain how she is. Because now? She feels like a heroine.

LxL decide to tease her a little, a bit about Nagisa, and making couple jokes, but they ease up. They're happy that she feels more confident about herself. (and no, I will not accept them saying she won't be a heroine anymore if she's not dressed up. Goodbye anime lxl!)

Circling back to the HeroineDev novel, by now, it's New Years, and she invites LxL to head out with her, since she's grateful for all the help. The epilogue of the novel continues as normal, with Hiyori realizing that with these two, she'll be okay.

Shortly after is the Izumo Tour, where Hiyori shows off her hometown. The Vomic goes as normal.

Months go by, and now they're all in their second year of high school, and Hiyori still thinks about what Nagisa has said. Slowly, her love meter is going up from this, and she's more aware of him now. (Just like Yamako, Gom, and Shito said!)

One day, Hiyori returns to Izumo, ready to visit her family and friends, and Nagisa is the one who picks her up from the train station, and is surprised to see her dressed up.

After all, she has more confidence in herself, so why not?

She spends time with friends, family, eats more of Nagisa's cooking (she supports his dream of being a chef, after all), and while in Izumo, she trains for the track nationals, and Nagisa runs alongside her, which makes her happy.

Though the whole time, Nagisa's been worried that Hiyori's pulling away from him. He would never push her to like him back or date him, of course, but...still. Hiyori is the girl he loves.

Hiyori remains focused on her training and relaxing, until it was time to go back to Tokyo.

Nagisa makes her promise that she won't contact him until she gets her results in, and goes quiet as Hiyori begins to take her leave.

It may be at this moment that Hiyori realizes that Nagisa's been quieter than normal, and, thinking back to him calling her a heroine, and how he was supporting her right now, she gives him one last little genuine wave, giving him a big smile.

And of course, Hiyori does end up contacting him when she wins first place.

The two are overjoyed. Nagisa's so proud of her, and Hiyori, for her part, feels more and more like a heroine. She won. She has Nagisa congratulating her wholeheartedly. Everything's fine!

Except...

Aizou and Yujiro join in on their call tauntingly, much to Hiyori's annoyance once when address Nagisa.

After all, to Aizou and Yujiro, it's only a matter of time before Nagisa and Hiyori get together.

To Hiyori, they're just being nuisances.

And to Nagisa, they're being pests. (He really does hate them despite likely really caring for them, huh lmao)

After this, the "what next" is unknown.

However, we do get the hint that Nagisa and Hiyori are attending the same university...

Initially, I assumed that Hiyori was late to class, but now that the cover for Hiyori's new solo dropped, I have another theory...

It's possible that Hiyori and Nagisa were going to meet up. Did Nagisa finally ask her out on a proper date? Or something along those lines?

Hiyori's changed out of her tracksuit, and Nagisa is in the exact same outfit as above.

I'm sure when Heroine's Hero drops, we'll get the "how" they came to this stage, but we can see clearly that they've gotten much closer now.

So...that's what I think Hiyori's story is.

It's possible to connect Asuka's arc to Nagisa's arc, a few things just needed to be adjusted. Timing, and reasoning.

Instead of Hiyori simply just being all depressed over what Nagisa said to her as children, she could be hurting still from what happened with Asuka as well. After all, she never concluded that she was a heroine there.

When Aizou and Yujiro agree to help her, it's because they know she can be cute, and they hate how her self esteem got worse. When they test Nagisa, it could be because they're worried that Hiyori will get hurt again. After all, their help last time ended up not helping at all. The whole time, they're trying to be good friends.

Hiyori could use Asuka as inspiration to gently reject Nagisa, finally understanding what he means when he says he's putting his dream ahead of everything else. After all, she has a lot going on, so it's not fair to add a long distance relationship to that.

I'm not saying her coming up with that is invalid, but I feel like since she sees Asuka as princely, that when she uses the same reasoning, it would help make her feel like a heroine.

It's not just Nagisa's confession that helped her, it's the fact that she fully understands Asuka's position now, and she can fully move on from what happened and gain more confidence in herself.

Hiyori uses her experience with Asuka and grows from that, and she earns her happily ever after.

I look forward to how Nagisa and Hiyori get together.

Now that this post exists, hopefully, any and all future MVs with these two will make more sense~!

#suzumi hiyori #shiranami nagisa #shibasaki aizou #someya yuujirou #lipxlip #honeyworks #haniwa #confession executive committee #heroine tarumono/heroines run the show #kaido asuka #ascana #nagihiyo #I stuck to as close to canon as physically possible I hope this was an enjoyable read #and hopefully this makes sense enough to consider everything canon and less...sloppy!

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