#mizuha's dad

[kodanshamanga]

NEW Kodansha Print:

💖Anyway I'm Falling in Love with You Vol 1💖 By @mitsuiharuka

🎂Mizuha’s seventeenth birthday is the pits. Her dad forgot the senpai she likes isn’t interested, and her social calendar is getting cleared out by a mysterious virus.

[diseaseriddencube]

i FORGOT MIZUHA'S REACTION TO HER DAD KILLING HIMSELF IN FRONT OF HER 😭😭 i know you're suicidal but like,,, "that's not fair" GIRL

[bestbonnist]

So Izumi doesn't trust Mizuha's dad as far as she can throw him but he (apparently) did love her and continues to do so. And it looks like Mizuha's dad's knocker is fond of Izumi's knocker but Izumi's knocker tearfully declared that it was in love with Mizuha's dad before tripping and dying. This is a soap opera.

[bestbonnist]

YEAH now we know what his deal is. It was always so weird how Mizuha was like "this creep came up to me today" and her dad went "so you're in love with them right?" I thought it was meant to show that he's not really paying attention to her, but in actuality not only was he not paying attention to what his daughter was saying, he's ALSO part of the Defense Corps.

fnae chapter 141.5 spoilers

MOTHERFUCKER

Keep reading

[fumetsu-no-anata-e]

These chapters kind of went like opposites for me. Starting with 126.1, titled “The One Who is Gone”, we go through the morning after Mizuha killed her mother. The first setting is with Mizuha and Fushi in their little temple place, seems like Mizuha dreamt up her situation, only to find out it actually happened. She still seems very emotionally burdened by it, but all that goes away when she sees Fushi?Mizuha freaks out when Fushi suggests bringing back her mom, clearly opposing her feeling right after she woke up. Mizuha cant bring up a logical reason as to why Fushi shouldnt bring her mom back yet so she begs him not to. The Hayase obsession is alive and well, even though deep down Mizuha wants her mom back, she realizes that if her life goes back to normal she cant be close to Fushi.Rest of the chapter is showing how crazy it is living with our beloved cast of characters, unsurprisingly. Great to see everyone together.126.2 I feel is when we hit the next stage of this arc. Apparently Mizuha’s mom is alive and acts like nothing extraordinary has happened. Except for the fact that she apologizes to Mizuha for controlling her, so that was weird. Mizuha picking up her dad’s phone call in the first place shows that she wants to have a foot in both worlds. I bet you she wouldn’t have taken the call if Fushi was there with her.Now this new boy at the end is very interesting. It’s clear he doesnt have a traditional family and might be part of some orphanage type arrangement. Or maybe he just wants candy. Anyways, I like his design and he’ll probably be one of those silent, introverted types. All in all, pretty happy with the direction this is going. I hope Ooima Sensei can show us how well she balances different story arcs, if thats what it comes to. via /r/FumetsuNoAnataE

[recentanimenews]

HenSuki – 12 (Fin) – After Much Deliberation…

Keiki wakes up from a nightmare (in which he takes his new wife Sayuki out for a walk, like a dog) to find Mizuha in his bed, reiterating her love for him, kissing him, and essentially urging him to choose her among all his choices. Needless to say, she comes on too strong, and ends up pushing Keiki right out of the damn house.

He ignores Mizuha’s many calls and instead gets in touch with Shouma and Koharu, to tell him his situation and ask for a place to crash. Alas, Shouma’s house is full and he won’t allow Keiki to stay at Koharu’s. He also encounters Mao, fresh off a BL-writing all-nighter, who has bean cakes and milk at the ready for the hungry Keiki.

Mao only lends more evidence for her case as Best Girl by supporting Keiki without judging, while having her own thing going on separate from him. She may not be aware of Mizuha’s romantic love for him, and assumes they had a sibling spat, but she knows in the end the two of them will be fine. She even gets an accidental indirect kiss in!

The episode then widens into an extended montage with both Mizuha and Keiki attempting to text their feelings, but not actually sending any messages to each other. Keiki also called his dad, who confirmed that Mizuha was adopted, and Keiki warmly and immediately welcomed her into the family. It seems very odd he’d forget this.

In any case, even a single day away from home proves too much for Keiki, as he only just manages to get in the front door after getting caught in the rain before passing out, cold and feverish. Mizuha puts aside their present issue and takes care of her brother.

Mizuha calls Sayuki, who rushes to Keiki’s side and jumps in his bed to warm him. Sayuki also texts Yuika, reporting their boy is “defenseless,” but they ultimately can’t put their competition on hold long enough to calm down, so Mizuha kicks them both out so Keiki can get better in peace.

Keiki wakes up in the middle of the night, his condition improved, and once again walks in on a naked Mizuha in the bathroom. They stay on either side of the door trying to talk this thing out, and Mizuha mentions that her love for him began on that day when he welcomed her (which again, he forgot) and only grew from there. She lost her family in an accident, but gained a new one.

Still, Keiki had never viewed Mizuha as anything other than his little sister, and even though things will never quite be the same whether he accepts or rejects her love, he decides to remain that caring brother going forward. It’s a safe, sensible chocie that’s true to the character he’s been thus far.

That being said, he can’t weasel his way out of granting the command of the winner of the confession contest, and Mizuha wants him to be her boyfriend for a day. She concedes that going from brother to permanent boyfriend isn’t like flipping a switch, but seems determined to gradually change his mind.

It doesn’t help her case when he finds out her phone is full of selfies of her in various stages of undress. Turns out she’s a full-on exhibitionist! Looks like “normal” for Keiki was, is, and will always involve attracting women with particular tastes. A girl bereft of said tastes probably isn’t in the cards for him. Might as well go for Mao!

By: sesameacrylic

[ridiasfangirlings]

Kimi no na waAU: Yata as Taiki and Fushimi as Mizuha :D

The timing of this worked out well because I hadn’t seen the moviewhen I got this ask but reached it in the backlog just a week after Ifinally did XD So Fushimi is this sullen lonely kid who lives in atiny town out in the countryside.  His older step-brother Munakata isthe town mayor and loves to dote on Fushimi but rarely has time dueto his official duties so Fushimi instead lives with his olderstep-sister Awashima and works with her in the village shrine.Fushimi’s biological dad was a total asshole and because of thatFushimi’s largely isolated and disliked at school, his only friendsAkiyama and Hidaka try to cheer him up a bit but half the timeFushimi doesn’t really want to talk to them either. Then one day hewakes up from a dream he can’t quite remember and stumbles out of hisroom for breakfast, only to find Awashima looking at him oddly andasking if he’s ‘back to normal’ today. Fushimi glares at her and sayshe has no idea what she’s talking about, Awashima looks at him inconcern but just tells him to make sure he gets some rest becausethey have an important ritual to perform tonight.

Once he gets to school things don’t make any more sense, Hidaka andAkiyama are both concerned about him and asking if he’s feeling allright while most of the other kids keep giving him weird looks.Hidaka nervously tells Fushimi that he was acting really offyesterday, he yelled at a bunch of people and caused all kinds ofscenes and they were afraid he’d gotten some kind of weird braindamage. Fushimi blows that off and wonders why everyone else isacting like something strange happened yesterday, but then findshimself confused as well when he starts looking through his schoolnotes and sees that someone took some really shitty notes in hisnotebook, like what idiot tried to do that math formula. There’s alsosomething scrawled on one of the pages in messy writing : ’who areyou?’ Fushimi tries to put it out of his mind that night as hegoes to perform a ritual at the shrine, it involves doing fancy knifetricks and maybe like pouring his blood into something. Some of hisclassmates catch him at it and start mocking him, like look at thebeautiful shrine maiden, and Fushimi has to stop himself from justthrowing a knife at them and being done with it. Afterward he’swalking home alone and mutters to himself about how much he hatesthis town, and how he’d rather live in some big city like Tokyo whereat least he’d have decent wi-fi.

He wakes up the next morning totally confused in a room that isn’this, he’s barely sat up when the bedroom door opens and two smallkids come running inside begging 'big brother Misaki’ to make thembreakfast. Fushimi gets irritated and chases the kids out and that’swhen he sees his reflection in the mirror: or rather, the reflectionof a short, red-haired kid that Fushimi’s never seen before. He sitsthere staring at himself like what the fuck and glances outside thewindow to see the big city spiraling outside. He’s trying to figureout logically how this happened when a fiery red-haired woman slamsthe door open to scold 'Misaki’ for scaring his siblings and to tellhim that if he’s late for school again he’s going to get his buttwhipped. Fushimi is very sullen and grumpy about this treatment andpouts his way through breakfast, trying to pick out the vegetables asthe woman who is apparently the mother of the kid he’s switchedbodies with tells him he has to eat healthy.

Eventually Fushimi heads off to school and finds himself kinda takenwith all the scenery around him. He’s less than thrilled with'Misaki’s’ hoodlum friends, like Kamamoto immediately throws an armaround Fushimi’s shoulders and is very lucky Fushimi didn’t have aknife on him. After school though they take him to the arcade andFushimi finds himself totally wrapped up in playing games to thepoint he almost doesn’t hear 'Misaki’s’ cell phone going off. He endsup having to reluctantly drag himself to Misaki’s series of part timejobs but even that could be worse, Misaki works as a waiter at thisbar and Fushimi ends up being helped out of a situation at one pointby this guy named Mikoto who from what Fushimi can tell by looking atMisaki’s phone is someone that Misaki is kinda obsessed with.Fushimi’s less than impressed and ends up leaving a scathingsarcastic note on the phone before going to bed.

The next morning Yata Misaki wakes up trying to remember that weirddream he had when his siblings poke their heads in the room andquietly ask if he’s normal today. Yata’s all confused as to whythey’re acting that way and then he finds himself remembering thatweird dream where he was in the body of some skinny nerd. He checkshis phone diary and suddenly gets pissed off because some assholenamed Saruhiko left a shitty note there. Yata’s all pissed but thenmaybe when he goes to work Mikoto actually says something to him,Yata looks up to Mikoto and has been trying to get his attention forweeks so this is like the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

From there Fushimi and Yata start switching bodies every so often andthey realize that it really isn’t a dream or anything. They try toset some ground rules for the whole thing; Fushimi’s number one rulefor Yata in his body is 'no vegetables,’ Yata insists that Fushiminot skip out on his jobs and don’t be an asshole to his friends,Fushimi follows neither of those rules. They also leave each othernotes about what happened so they can go about their normal liveseasier, Yata wakes up one day with the word 'Idiot’ written in markeron his forehead and next time retaliates so Fushimi wakes up with'asshole’ written across his nose. They start arguing with each othervia scribbling on their own bodies, Yata thinks that Saruhiko’s ajerk and Fushimi thinks that Misaki’s an idiot but they also start tofind themselves striking up a weird sort of rapport. Everything isgoing well until one day Yata switches to Fushimi’s body on the daythat Awashima takes him to visit this stone in the woods to place anoffering to their god, Yata wakes up abruptly in the middle of thedream and then never switches with Fushimi again.

Yata tries to tell himself that he’s not worried, like it’s not as ifhe and Saruhiko are friends or anything, but he can’t stop thinkingabout it and eventually decides he just needs to find Saruhiko’s townand meet him face to face. Except what he finds out is that threeyears ago the town was destroyed in a freak accident when a meteorhit, Fushimi’s name is listed among the dead. Yata’s totallyheartbroken without even really knowing why and he finds himselfslowly having trouble remembering why he’s there or what name he waslooking for. In desperation he hikes to where the stone in the woodsis and finds the blood that Yata-in-Fushimi’s-body placed inside anddrinks it, not having any idea what else to do. He wakes up back inthe past in Fushimi’s body and is determined to save the entire townno matter how many people he has to yell at and beat up to do it.Fushimi meanwhile wakes up staring at the destroyed remains of histown and part of him starts to laugh a bit because he hated thatplace but then he finds this lump in his throat and begins runningaway from the scene without even realizing it. He and Yata end up atthe same spot during twilight and are finally able to talk with eachother in a face to face way, Yata suddenly remembers a time threeyears ago when some skinny nerd ran into him on the train, called himby his first name, and then clicked his tongue and left when Yatashowed no sign of understanding.

Yata tells Fushimi that he needs to survive so that they can meetagain in the future and writes his name on Fushimi’s hand so he won’tforget, before Fushimi can reciprocate the moment ends and they’reboth back in their original bodies. Fushimi uses his status as MayorMunakata’s favorite to evacuate the town and everyone is saved, butboth he and Yata forget each other. They both know something ismissing though and eventually years later they end up passing eachother on the streets. Fushimi’s head is down but he looks up suddenlyand turns as Yata passes by, Yata turns at the same time and theireyes meet. Fushimi immediately looks away, clicking his tongue as hestarts to walk off but Yata yells after him, saying he thinks they’vemet. Fushimi takes two more steps, not intending to get involved withany strangers, but something compels him to stop and turn to meetYata’s eyes as he nods his head slightly in agreement. Yata gives himthe biggest brightest smile and they both ask for each other’s namein perfect unison.

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 153.3

Yeah so this was borderline incomprehensible the first time I read it, but I did my best so now I have a pretty good understanding of what was going on. I swear this manga is actively chasing off its readers. I will be splitting this post into sections based on everyone's confusion: (1) general notes, (2) what the fuck happened, (3) why did this happen, and (4) analysis.

General notes:

Someone commits suicide this chapter. They shoots themselves in the mouth. If you haven't read the chapter yet and this is a trigger for you then now's the chance to mentally prepare yourself or read a summary instead. Additionally, I'll be discussing it with less gravity than I should be later in this post, so this is also a warning for that.

The “-shi” honorific doesn't come up in anime/manga very often so some of you might not have seen it before. It’s basically just a polite but uncommon way to refer to someone, and in addition it's stereotypically used by otaku. This matches up with my impression of Senba. It might be that he’s addressing Tonari like that instead of as “Tonari-senpai” because he knows that she’s an adult.

Mizuha really nicely summarized the main conflict between her and Fushi. Their relationship was initially symbiotic, with both of them selfishly using the other for their own reasons. But it gradually became imbalanced, with Fushi becoming aware that their attempts to help her were doing more harm than good, and Mizuha being encouraged to demand perfection of her surroundings. Then, they split up, and Fushi decided that they should never do anything for themselves ever again (this is a bit of hyperbole, but you know... not that much) while Mizuha learned that she should get what she wants even if it hurts other people, and furthermore hurting other people is actually a bonus. Short-term, Mizuha is winning/Fushi is losing, while the long-term conseqences of their decisions remain to be seen.

Mizuha doesn't give a rat's ass about her dad. Her reaction to his death and to Izumi's knocker almost dying are completely different. I mean... Mizuha's goal has always been to please Izumi first and foremost, and even if Izumi never said anything she definitely picked up on the tension between Izumi and her dad, and distanced herself from him as a more subtle way of making Izumi happy. I do think Mizuha cares about him, she's just used to sidelining him that she does even when Izumi isn't around to praise her for it.

What the fuck happened:

First part of the chapter is pretty straightforward. We find out that the girls are trapped in the school with a collection of baby knockers that can spit out an unknown liquid—presumably transportation for the knockers. Tonari can't leave because knocker-possessed flowers are swarming outside. I would like to know what kind of flowers they are because Ooima is prone to using plant symbolism on occasion and it would be nice to know what I'm looking at. Next, the gang starts breaking up and Mizuha gives an evil villain monologue to Fushi.

What Mizuha's getting at below is that if Fushi had insisted that Gugu stay in Yanome, then he would have been able to stop the fake-Fushi in its tracks with his fire breathing. I didn't get how Fushi throwing a tantrum would make this situation any better until now, but there you go.

This is where things get weird. I didn't connect the dots until after going through it again a few times, but Fushi is right in front of Mizuha's dad when he shoots himself, so as she's speaking and getting lost in her own euphoria, they've seen him show up with his gun. Ooima decided to obscure Mizuha's dad when he first appeared and the shooting itself, so we can only see Fushi's reaction to the shot, the sound effect of the bullet, and his falling body on the next page. Harder to follow than some other techniques she's used to hide stuff until the moment where it'll have the most impact (like Tonari's arrow in Chapter 153.1, for example, or Fuuna following Fushi and the others around as a ghost), and I want to say that it at least gets the job done, but I'm not sure it does.

I'm not finished with Mizuha's dad yet though! Because I didn't even fucking notice that he blew his brains out before I started writing this. The angle... his sudden appearance... I thought he shot the back of his head and I was going to claim that it was a knocker that did it because that's not physically possible. So his dead body enters and exits and the readers have barely registered what just happened.

Then everything goes to shit. Fushi wanted to save Mizuha's dad because he's a human person, so they jumped after him almost immediately and made the building because they needed a way to get themselves back out. It's not like they can fly, or have roots attached at the top that they can use to lift themselves back up. So: building. They turned into Sander, by the way, because he's a doctor and might be able to save Mizuha's dad. He's already dead, but Fushi doesn't know that.

I have no clue what destroyed the knocker cages: it's too powerful to be the handgun, and Sander doesn't have any firearms on his person. This is another example of Ooima withholding information that will be brought up again later.

This was also formatted in a way that makes it very difficult to process. Mizuha was previously holding on to Izumi's knocker and preventing it from going after her dad, but after hearing its declaration of love her grip loosens, and it slips and falls. Mizuha reaches out to save it, and it's unclear if she fell intentionally or also slipped, but she lost her footing while Ooima was drawing a close up of her left eye. But we don't realize what's happened until Yuuki's suddenly catching Mizuha on the next page, which makes it feel like there was a gap in time, or we missed something.

Why did this happen:

I'm going to argue that there was actually a reason that everything went down this way and that the second half of the chapter was intentionally disjointed to reflect Mizuha's psyche as everything came crashing down around her. I admit, when the ground split open in the last chapter and monitors started descending from the ceiling I thought "this is so fucking ugly" because Ooima kept adding more random shit and although it didn't require rereading to understand what was going on, it was still cluttered and hostile.

But think of it this way: on the surface, Mizuha is—not calm, but confident. She's convinced that her choice to become the Defense Corps.' new leader was right. She's engorged on her selfishness and the suffering of everyone around her. Her thinking is as it always was, in black and white, reflected by the initial simplicity of the knockers' lair: bare-bones metal plating twisted into a throne, a carpet, a table, and nothing else.

As the scene continues, however, we see that not everything is as it appears. The spectacle is to distract from the reality of the situation—that Mizuha is barely keeping it together and needs to keep hurting people in order to feel happy. This is unsustainable, she needs to keep bringing in new toys to play with, but it doesn't change the fact that she's trapped underground and every new thing that comes in is eating into her already limited space. This sort of works as a metaphor for Mizuha ceding control of her body to the left hand, because like... she agreed to collaborate with it so it could help her, but now she's being pushed out, or something. Not that I have solid evidence that this is the left hand's goal, other than its attempt to isolate Mizuha from Izumi, Fushi, Hanna, and anyone besides the Defense Corps. that could lend her a hand, but I think whether it interferes in Mizuha's choice to take Hanna's hand or not will give us a definitive answer.

Anyways. This hidden chamber that took centuries to build was demolished in six pages because some guy killed himself. Dominoes of coincidences—that there was a hole in the floor, that the knockers chose a carpet with slippery fabric, that Mizuha's father wanted to die, that Izumi's knocker was genuinely in love with him, that Fushi happened to be trapped down there—lined up and toppled the Defense Corps. plans before anyone had even registered what was going on. This isn't really an issue for the knockers—they're tenacious. They'll just keep popping up like cockroaches.

Mizuha, unfortunately, is not a cockroach. Like when Fuuna confronted her in Chapter 145.2, she can act assured on the surface, but if the slightest thing goes wrong she'll lose her composure. This makes sense for her character, because she demands perfection and from everyone and everything, plus she's just straight up emotionally unstable. And, looking at this space as a representation of her mind again—it makes sense that one random thing (her dad) slightly out of place would wreck everything, because her faith—in herself, in others, in chance: you name it—is just that shallow.

That's about it, the only other thing is, it's kind of fucky that Mizuha almost died tripping on the red carpet that leads up to her throne.

Analysis:

Hanna pleads with Mizuha to return to her true self because she doesn’t want to see her friend like this, and Mizuha's response effectively proves that she didn’t hear a single thing Hanna was saying. This immediately assuming the worst of others comes from Mizuha's mistaken belief that everyone is as bad as she is: mistaken in that no one else around her is that bad, and she herself isn't (wasn't) that bad either. Even in this chapter, she still tried to keep Izumi's knocker from doing something reckless, and risked her safety to rescue it.

This chapter continuously beats up Mizuha's belief that everyone is bad: first with Hanna, then with the gang "breaking up," as Mizuha put it. Her comment comes off as especially obtuse, because, again, she's ignoring what's actually going on—that Nagisa and Kasabe felt they should repay someone who protected them, while Fuuna wanted to protect her family and friends, and Saki was so affected by Tana's death that she couldn't put herself together. Putting them in a dangerous situation revealed that they're motivated by qualities like responsibility and love, but Mizuha, being Mizuha, only sees their conflict and not the motivation behind it.

The sole exception to Mizuha's rule is Izumi's knocker, who "proved" its love during the confrontation with Fushi in Chapter 150.2. In this chapter, it becomes overemotional trying to save its husband, resulting in a tussle with Mizuha and a fall to its death. A conflict motivated by love like the girls at school, but now framed in a way that Mizuha can understand. Like Izumi's knocker reached out to save her dad, Mizuha reaches out to save someone she loves. She begins to fall, like Izumi's knocker fell. And Yuuki catches her. The implications that this is an act of love are not lost on her, but Mizuha has already decided that her friends don't care about her at all, and she has to be right. She has her pride after all.

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 151.3

I was going to bully Mizuha’s dad for being a shit parent, but I just realized he was the one who left the picture of Mizuha and Izumi in her birthday album. I understand that he was probably being watched and couldn't do anything besides slip Fushi a photo, so I'll hold off for now. He's just a shit person and husband, not a shit parent :)

The way Mizuha's dad turned to the side, dramatically said his final line, and left reminded me of the last time we saw Izumi. Although his and Izumi's parenting styles are at odds, he also ended up lying as a way of showing his love for Mizuha and leaving her in Fushi's care.

Bon’s been acting as Yuuki and Fushi’s brakes. It works with Yuuki because his mind is easily changed, and it worked with Fushi because they don’t want him to think of them as a warmonger. When he’s gone, they make decisions based on desires that are their own, not anyone else’s, and the end result is they’ve been pushing a lot harder to go see Mizuha than they would if he was around.

These past two chapters, Tonari’s been curious and a little concerned about what Fushi’s doing. Now they've gone from showing up late to skipping school to go find Mizuha (who is DANGEROUS) and help Yuuki confess to her. I think it’s likely that she’s following them. I mean, she’s done it before. The only problem is, apart from her experience killing the previous era’s knockers and her apparent willingness to kill actual people, she’s not as capable in her child form. Actually, if she just started stabbing, Fushi would get upset and the two of them would start arguing in the middle of the enemy’s hideout, which is a whole different problem.

Fushi, for their part, is overconfident. They have a way to immobilize the knockers without killing them, yes, but they won’t be able to move as quickly as they can above ground (because metal interferes with their powers). They also have four kids who have no idea how fight, and who haven’t consented to Fushi killing and resurrecting them as they see fit. They said they’d “send everyone back the second it looks dangerous” but if they really think a bunch of middle school students are going to turn around and leave when they say so, they’ve got a big storm coming. Of course, Yuuki and Hanna will be incredibly useful for convincing Mizuha to come back to school, but that’s assuming they can reach her. And even if they do... every chapter, Yuuki triggers more and more death flags, and with every new decision he and Fushi make, his death creeps closer and closer. If they reach Mizuha, she might just kill Yuuki herself.

With the idea that they’re entering into a maze city, it feels like Fushi and the others are heading into a new phase of the story as they step inside. The change in atmosphere is palpable.

[bestbonnist]

Rough translation of 159.2, by me

For some of the stuff here, I changed the phrasing to convey the meaning better in English, and sometimes I went with a more literal version. It just kind of depended on the vibe I was feeling at the moment. Also, I put any translation notes I had in parentheses. I hope this helps while we wait for the official translation to come out.

Recap: With the battle over, they return on the road to peace.

Izumi: Welcome back, Mizuha.

Izumi: How was school?

Mizuha: Good. My friends and I talked a lot.

Mizuha: How about you, mom (she uses "okaa-san" instead of her usual "mama")? You went to see grampa, right?

Izumi: Yes... it doesn't look like he was stabbed in a bad spot, but we have to wait and see.

Mizuha: I see. That's good.

Mizuha: ...

Mizuha: ... Can you forgive him already?

Mizuha: Grampa, for what he did...

Izumi: No...

Izumi: But...

Izumi: Though I don't know how many years it'll take, I'll try to forgive him.

Dad: Huh? The wall's changed? Mizuha?

Dad: Did you get a certificate?

Mizuha: Yep.

Mizuha: I want to hang the

Mizuha: proof of your love right here.

Mizuha: Ah!

Mizuha: Look! Papa, mama!

Mizuha: Isn't the moon really big today!?

Dad: Wah, it really is.

Izumi: Well, Mizuha?

Izumi: How do you feel right now?

Mizuha: Mmmm—so-so?

Mizuha: Fuu (this is a laughing noise)!

Izumi: I see.

Izumi: Then you're doing a great job.

Sumika: Welcome back, Satoru!

Sumika: What took ya so long?

Sumika: It's morning ya know!!

Fushi: I was there, so it should be fine.

Fushi: Aw, I'm late for school.

Sumika: Don't fuck with me. I'm gonna keep reporting ya, got it?

Fushi: Oh, right. Satoru.

Fushi: Thanks for taking care of Yuuki. I was glad to see he was his usual happy self yesterday.

Satoru: ?

Satoru: What are you talking about?

Fushi: Um. I'm talking about whether you got rid of the knocker Yuuki swallowed or not...

Fushi: You got rid of it, or at least I thought you did.

Satoru: Ah, that's what you meant—

Satoru: I decided not to.

Tamaki: What are you doing? Vice president.

Yuuki: I'm checking if anything strange is going on in the city.

Suzuhiko: I've finished the rough draft for this month's "Occult Research Magazine" (gonna be honest I have no clue what the fuck this says. This is just my best approximation).

Yuuki: Good work. That was quick.

Suzuhiko: Is it really alright?

Suzuhiko: To write about this kind of thing.

Yuuki: Yeah.

I'll reblog with the second half in a few hours... maybe a few days. If you couldn't tell I've been having some trouble motivating myself to post on Tumblr as of late.

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 151.2

I thought I was going to have to translate this chapter myself. I did translate this chapter myself, I just didn't finish typesetting it before the official translation was uploaded to free manga sites. The most disturbing part is that there's virtually no difference between the translation of someone who took Japanese on Duolingo for less than a year and a professional (talking about my revised version, not the rough translation that I posted on Tumblr). Moving on.

I finally remembered why Izumi's recordings reminded me of Fushi. Because Fushi used to write everything down, in case a knocker took one of their forms. This behavior never affected their relationships, since they didn't document everything as frequently as Izumi, and the people who they were in danger of forgetting were dead anyway. But—they can understand her fear.

The last time Mizuha made a gift it was for someone else. She sewed a feather onto a hairband and gave it to Hanna. Now she's stitching up one of Fushi's bodies.

The close up shot of the thread made it look like a rope, and the chair she's sitting on looks like a throne. That's one reference to the sixteenth volume cover and one to the fifth, and one more to the eleventh if you count the way she's supporting Fushi's body in her lap.

Good of Fushi to apply the results of their character development to this situation. I found it really funny that they said that and then had to eat their words two panels later because they don't know what the hell they're talking about. Their goal is to remind Mizuha that there are people who care about her, and after that? Nothing. It's not a question of what Mizuha wants, it's just that they'd prefer to stay away. In my opinion, this is fine. Even if it's painful for Mizuha, at this point it's better for both of them if they just stop interacting. They're also making the bold assumption that what Mizuha's doing isn't anything destructive which, as we saw earlier, isn't true.

I think Mizuha's dad is approaching Fushi of his own volition for a few reasons. (1) He's alone. The left hand knows that fucking with Fushi is a really bad idea. They would be able to restrain Mizuha's father easily, and him disappearing would be inconvenient. If the left hand sent him, it would have at least told someone more dispensable to go with him. (2) The left hand wouldn't change its plans and send someone to get Fushi early just because of a gift. At this point, a photo album alone won't do much to dent Mizuha's resolve, so the left hand would be more likely to lean back and watch Fushi walk into their grave. (3) Mizuha's dad does care about her, though whether that runs deeper than his loyalty to the Defense Corps. remains to be seen. He may have decided that their plan isn't worth the risk.

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 141.2

Izumi backstory! IZUMI BACKSTORY!!

OK before I begin analyzing the actual content in this chapter, I'd like to discuss why Fushi is so lenient with Izumi in particular despite having talked to her only once for two seconds. This could be explained by Fushi's tendency to view all humans as fundamentally good, or their wish that Mizuha has a happy life surrounded by supportive people, but I think an exchange from Chapter 125.2 leans towards a different interpretation. After Mizuha shares how Izumi lied about where she got the new hairband, Fushi says this:

Mizuha quickly shuts them down, but when they take Izumi's side it implies that they relate more to her than they do to Mizuha. They later prove that they personally believe this is a reasonable decision when they hide the fact that the world isn't peaceful from their friends later in the manga.

I thought Satoru left in the previous chapter, but no, he's really been dragged to a fast food place at 12:00 A.M. Sumika must be having a fit. He hasn't really done much since he appeared in the previous chapter, but before they disperse for the night he'll probably have something to say.

Yuuki is really, really pushing to do what Hirotoshi did. It suits his optimistic personality but "making Mizuha want to live again" isn't possible. I've said this before, I'll say it again: Mimori was put in a position where she was forced to say she wanted to live, or else someone would die. That's not a choice, and it's not the "living for herself" that Hirotoshi said he wanted her to do. Mizuha and Mimori both lived for the sake of their mothers instead of themselves, and it didn't turn out well. Replacing one botched relationship with another won't change a thing, as Fushi has successfully proven. The relationship between Mimori and Miyabi never developed at all, we were given context and then Mimori was stuffed back into her old life with no elaboration.

The flashback of Fushi's talk with the Left Hand from Izumi's perspective is intriguing, because I think it's from the moment when Fushi was talking with Mizuha, when she asked them to love her and for a hug. Izumi saw that and realized that (1) her daughter has a desperate need for comfort and affection and (2) said need comes from the absence of those things from her family. That's when she had her big revelation, processed it quietly, and then continued to follow Mizuha until the confrontation in the rain where she decided that Mizuha was too far gone to bother saving.

And so we get Izumi's backstory. Fucking FINALLY. So first thing is that she's talented but unable to connect with others just like Mizuha is, but while Mizuha never stops trying to make friends, Izumi doesn't bother being cordial with her classmates. They're both very aware of their pride and look to others to accept it. Izumi's latched onto Mizuha as the only one who can affirm her, and Mizuha's done the same with Fushi.

A little bit of lore surrounding the knockers and Hayase's descendants is sprinkled into the story: "everyone says they were mankind's enemy" means that most people believe that the knockers, at one point, existed, unlike Fushi who's considered a legend or maybe an exaggeration of a real person. The Left Hand has been elevated to a position of power within the Defense Corps. too. Instead of something kept around to serve Hayase's descendants it's now considered holy. Interestingly, the focus of the Defense Corps. also seems to have shifted from Fushi to Hayase. Kahaku has not been completely erased from the narrative like I thought he was, but the way Izumi's dad describes things it sounds like the Left Hand was the one defending Renryrr side by side with Fushi with Kahaku tagging along, when in reality the Left Hand was an impediment. His phrasing also implies that the Left Hand going to Paradise was a chosen ascension to a higher plane of existence instead of Kahaku's effort to destroy it for good that it desperately tried to avoid.

As we see how Mizuha was initially raised, it looks like there was a healthy separation between her and Izumi unlike what they had before she died. Mizuha enjoyed trying lots of different things but it doesn't look like she was particularly skilled at any of them, she was putting her all into it and Izumi was proud of that.

I've been wondering why Izumi ended up marrying a white guy. Visually, it adds contrast to a character who hasn't really done anything other than exist in the background. At first I thought it was to add to the distance between Mizuha and her peers: most of them are of the same ethnicity while she is not. But as I began inferring more about Izumi I also thought she chose to marry someone as far removed from the Defense Corps.—a cult that hasn't garnered enough influence to spread outside Yanome—as she thought possible, which was apparently not far enough. Either this man was raised in Yanome but lied about it, or is a foreigner who moved to Japan, meaning the Defense Corps. got him hooked really quickly, or they do reach outside of Yanome and Izumi never knew.

Although Izumi's husband insists he didn't marry her solely on her dad's orders, his first move after she finds out is to take advantage of Mizuha's distress to get Izumi to back down. Maybe he really does love them, but preserving his position in their family matters more to him than their happiness.

So now we understand a lot more about who Izumi is as a person, and even if the next chapter doesn't finish this flashback we can still infer what happens next. Izumi and Mizuha were quite similar when they were younger. But the key difference, and what caused Izumi to raise Mizuha in the way she did, was her stubbornness. She needs Mizuha to be the proof that she's in the right, which she thinks will give her hope to live, by having Mizuha follow in her footsteps and succeed where she failed. Anything else would be akin to admitting defeat, and Izumi will not. If Mizuha's running into a brick wall, she shouldn't change direction: she just needs to push harder.

The final panel where Izumi's clinging on to Mizuha mirrors the one where her father grabbed onto her in their cluttered house on an earlier page. I think that says enough on its own.

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 142.1

I think this was a really good chapter. It pulled a lot of minor details together into a big picture while simultaneously introducing the start of more tiny plot points that will eventually become important. I'll go ahead and talk about the things I noticed, but if someone makes a connection that I missed I'd really like to hear it.

Izumi underwent an image change between this chapter and the previous one. The geometric haircut is a fresh, modern look, and sets her further at odds with the Defense Corps. Ooima usually goes for realism with her art, but some of the hairstyles in FnAe are a bit exaggerated and have special meaning (Hayase and her successors have jagged, uneven bangs; Tonari's sticks up and out in a way that matches her comical facade; Bon's is like That). As a part of her character design, it makes her look harsh and underscores the the sharper aspects of her personality, which, as we see in this chapter, return with a vengeance after she motivates herself to live with Mizuha.

Izumi doesn't get on with the other moms of Mizuha's ballet class, and there's no mention of any friends she may or may not have currently either. When she overhears them talking about musicals, she turns right around and asks Mizuha to audition for one, further emphasizing that comparing herself with others and then doing better is a coping mechanism that she's relied on since she was a child. She thinks she's starting over, but really she's just gone right back to the beginning.

Izumi's forgetfulness has been here the entire damn time:

Since Izumi's knocker is the one that practices leniency, it was likely the one who told Mizuha it was OK to take a break. When Izumi was confronted with having done something she would never normally do, coupled with the reappearance of her father, she freaked out. Regardless of the circumstances, her inconsistency was probably another source of stress for Mizuha, and as we see when Izumi grabs onto her before she gets into her grandfather's truck, it can be frightening too.

I really really want to know what Mizuha's dad's deal is. From his behavior, he either knows everything about the Defense Corps. or next to nothing. He doesn't mention knockers at all when he talks to Izumi, despite that being a very conclusion to draw, if he knows anything about knockers. Izumi just agreed to visit the home of the father she despises, that's incredibly out of character and very suspicous. But if he knows what the Left Hand's plan is, then of course he wouldn't bring up any possibility of knockers. He would be deliberately gaslighting her. He's definitely lied to her in the past, but I honestly don't think he's smart enough for that.

From the bits Izumi overhears of the conversation between her dad and the Left Hand, more things about the Defense Corps. can be inferred. First, the Left Hand probably had some way of knowing or ensuring that Fushi would return within Mizuha's lifetime. Maybe it's the same sense that allows knockers to locate Fushi, but stronger because the Left Hand was around them and Hayase's successors for longer. Second, it's not just idiot people who worship the Left Hand. Knockers also think it's the literal best. They changed their whole plan for it and I want to know why they're so devoted. Finally, a piece of its plan has been revealed. Instead of bringing all humans to Paradise (read: killing them), the knockers are now bringing paradise to the humans. And killing the ones who get in the way. The Left Hand thinks there's something better about a living body than its experience outside of one, and I guess it managed to convince its friends.

So directly after Izumi decides that she must do something, there's a long timeskip during which she does nothing. This also happened in the previous chapter, where she explained that she had no choice but to stay with the Defense Corps. as a child, but continues delivering sermons as a young adult and is shown to be cautious but eager to please her mom with no intention of leaving. By the end of the chapter, she's also decided to continue as a ghost instead of changing her course of action. Alternatively, it's possible that something actually happened during that period. The only thing I can think of is Izumi discovering new information about the Defense Corps. and the like, which would then be on her computer.

The next plot point has been set up: Bon instructs Fushi to get the key to Mizuha’s house from Mizuha herself. It’ll be interesting to see if they actually obey or if they try to sneak in. It’s Bon’s orders vs. their own desires. They’ll probably bring Yuuki with them, since he’s more tech savvy than they are. If Mizuha supervises them, she’ll also see the photos of herself and Izumi, and Fushi might use this as an opportunity to shove Izumi’s love for her down her throat. Which is definitely super helpful. The password to the computer, 0406, or April 6th, is Mizuha’s birthday.

Probably the most important thing in this whole chapter is Izumi’s final line. She really likes to make the last page dramatic. The first part “Don’t do anything out of character” shoves one of Fushi’s biggest flaws in their face. They need to save everyone because it makes them feel better about themselves, and that desperation’s started to interfere with their ability to judge the situation with the knockers impartially. The Defense Corps. think of Fushi as inhuman, practically a god, as pure as an angel and as selfless as a saint. This is the Fushi that Izumi grew up reading about. She recognizes that the Defense Corps.’ version of Fushi aligns with what Fushi believes they should be, and when she warns them not to act out of character she’s reminding them that if they’re chosen to play the hero, they should stick to it. Unfortunately, Bon does what he’s always does and waters it down for Fushi, so they don’t get to hear this.

Second part: “If I wanted that, I’d already be begging you to do so.” As has been hammered in time and time again, Izumi is stubborn as fuck. That stubbornness is the root of why her relationship with Mizuha soured and why she got killed. I’d go as far as to call it a fatal flaw. In death, she’s realized how harmful that stubbornness was for her family and herself, but she hasn’t dropped it. She’s still refusing to show her real feelings, and instead Bon colors the picture in for Fushi and the others. Although she says she would beg, she would never beg. Even if she wants to return to being Mizuha’s mother, she won’t change her stubbornness because, shockingly, she’s too damn stubborn. She’d rather insist on continuing to be a ghost instead of doing anything.