i've grown a sort of attachment to the before the coffee gets cold series by kawaguchi toshikazu and have read every book in the series, which naturally also includes this book, which released in around may of this year. while it's not the most life-changing work out there, i'd say i've definitely enjoyed the stories of all the different characters we meet throughout the series.

it's been a while since i've read the books before this one so i can't really compare, but it's quite intruiging the different ways the book explores the reasons people will travel in time to meet someone. i think it shows a hint of the complexity of humans and it's enough to make you wonder under what circumstances you'd go even with all the restricting rules.

i liked the slow development of characters and it seems like kazu is getting a bit more attention in the story now. however i do feel like the cafe employees' stories could be fleshed out a bit further, especially how seeing people time travel has affected them. but even without it i don't feel like it's a bad read overall.

another thing i've noticed is that the stories tend to repeat information. it could be just to refresh the memory, especially for those who take long breaks between reading, but when you're reading two or three stories in one go it does become quite glaring. honestly just a minor nitpick also, it's not too in your face anyway.

these were just my quick thoughts, in summary it's a good wind-down, chill read. 7.8/10

okay so despite my sliiiight misgivings about the first book, nettle in this duology(?) i actually like this one a fair bit more. there are times where i still thought there were pacing issues but those were far less glaring now, and stuff here is done a little more satisfactorily imo.

it's told in the perspective of a half-human-faery ilsette, so a different character than in the first book, but nettle does come into the second book as a supporting character i guess. it's not too bad.

on the topic of half human and half faery, i actually like the effects this has on ilsette in the story, not just meaning she basically gets discriminated against. okay maybe most of the challenges stem from being discriminated against but hear me out. ilsette being half human allows her to blend into the moorland court's humans and even win the queen's favour since she has a soft spot for humans. this then goes on to allow ilsette to extract information out of the queen (albeit a little unfairly). her being half faery while being in the realm where transformations are a big no-no also presents a challenge as ilsette cannot rely on transforming into a bird like she can at home. and even then, transforming wears her out greatly because of her mixed blood.

i also really liked how the narrative switches between ilsette's and her sister lyla's pov to show how she is dealing with the owl king by telling him tales of birds. the really neat thing here is that the stories often have relevance to what's currently happening either to her and the owl king or to ilsette. i especially enjoyed when she finally tells him about ilsette - of whom she's been keeping as a secret from him - through a story about herself and her sister. very nice

other than that i dont have a lot of comments, mainly because thats all i remember to say. im too lazy snoresnore

okay but if i had a gripe with anything in this book it'd be the names of the places/realms. i've only mentioned one of them so far - moorland court - and it's actually the best one in this book, which isn't saying much when you consider that there is a Diamond River and Shadow Mountains. i sobbed because it reminded me of how i used to write when i was ten .. sorry not sorry ..

ahemm anyways it's a nice read i'd give it maybe 4/5 arbitrary numbers included

as of writing this i have yet to finish the book (i think only ~50 pages left) but i have a LOT of thoughts on this. warning for a full list of criticisms if u like/enjoyed this book or something

first of all i love the cover, the lettering and illustrations are just gorgeous. the shiny red accents throughout just look so good against the blue. it really brings out the two moons red stars concept so well. speaking of the two moons, i was truly intrigued by the idea bcos im a big sucker for "weird" astronomical features in fiction (i mean, jupiter has a bajillion moons so it's not all that weird, but imagine if earth had multiple moons instead. wacky)

i am sort of disappointed that the two moons thing wasn't really mentioned much throughout the book, but there's not much to do with it when your book's plot doesn't revolve around it, so im willing to forgive it. however im not too sure on the worldbuilding in this book, alot of it more or less depended on the existing faerie lore that the author assumes the audience already knows about. but im just nitpicking here.

one thing that i'll just take a moment to be annoying about is the use of punctuation. more specifically the lack of semicolon use where there should've been. YES i know we don't know what the hell to do with semicolons 90% of the time, (and this review alone could've used some in places that needed it, but this is a casual media log. im not boutta bust out the weird formal-writing-looking punctuation all of a sudden) but still!! this book is most likely aimed at teenage audiences who dont give any fucks about semicolons, but just let me gripe a bit about how weird and error-y it makes some sentences sound sometimes. okay lets move on.

lets not move on. i have more to say about the writing itself. this only comes up maybe one or two times max as far as i can remember, but there are also issues with referencing in the sentence?? off the top of my head theres this one sentence that references a "they [verb verb yadda]" but for the life of me i couldn't figure out what this "they" was referring to. im sure this wasn't a one off thing but i might be wrong

the most egregious thing in here by far is the character writing. im boutta have some hot opinions here so tread carefully.. or not

anyways. i personally just don't feel that attached to the characters. i don't like the love triangle(?) (love v more like) but i dont really know what to say about it. its almost unnecessary i think. nettle and conor could've been normal friends i feel? and ellion could've just fallen deep enough that he'd be willing to help nettle complete her tasks, but who am i to say. i just dont like the sudden character change from emo tsundere shadow faery to suddenly "omg i love ur hair and ur dress and whatever ur so beautiful"*, it just doesn't seem like there was enough buildup to warrant that. *note: wild exaggeration. it wasn't all that sudden but again i feel like it wasn't that natural anyway. maybe im just a slow burn person, who the hell knows

im gonna be real with you here i dont like nettle for the decisions she makes in this book. she's aware from her grandmother's tales of the faeries' love for trickery and the fact that making a deal with any one of them is basically signing away your life forever, but she still accepts one anyway with little to no hesitation. the worst part? she struck a deal with the KING. the freaking king of faeries. oh my god

i mean. you go girl if you think you can strike a deal with the king and get away with it. which she kinda does anyway because of something special to do with her bending the rules of the faery world, but again i haven't finished the book so maybe something happens at the end that just blows all my critiques to dust.

she finds her way through the tasks mostly by trading sherbet candies for information and items with this hobgoblin called gammi, who conor repeatedly warns about not to trust, but at this point i think we got the idea that nettle isn't one to really listen to other people's advice, so here we go. i just wish there was more of a challenge to get what she wanted instead of just giving literal sweets to faery creatures, but i guess it's supposed to be made up for when she actually visits scary creatures' lairs to bargain for help? orsomething? i feel like the pacing is a bit iffy when it comes to that.its almost laughably easy how nettle gets what she needs when facing creatures that are supposed to be feared, to the point that their encounters don't last for maybe more than 5 or so pages. but whatever

my thoughts are sorta all over the place and might not be the best analysis but it's just what i was thinking while i was reading it. the other characters are kind of boring to me and the king is lame around the love of his life but what can i say. i remember i had a lot more to say but i kinda forgot what they were about. maybe my standards are too high but oh well. i dont usually rate books but overall maybe a 3/5 or worse, i'm definitely not coming back to this again. im so done with faery stories

sikee i actually bought the other book (im not sure if this is a duology) but when i tell you i judge books by their covers im not lying. if the covers were some generic stock photo of flowers and swords i would not have bought both books at all but i digress. hopefully the second one is better? or maybe i will dnf it after not wanting to take any more of this shit ever?

ok i finished it i admit it wasnt that bad but i think the pacing could do better. the plot twist wasn't too bad, i really cant tell you whether it was ingenious or what because i remember thinking the mother had some importance in the story but i forgot what my guesses were so welp

its cool i guess, the ending. it sort of explains all the main character rule bending in a way that im quite satisfied with. retrospectively it's a natural conclusion with the knowledge of changelings and all that but personally i never guessed that nettle was a faery herself.

there could definitely be a better analysis on this book but a first read of anything isn't gonna give me what i need to do that, but nevertheless i don't think the ending is half bad. again, the whole story seemed like it was anxious to get to the next scene too fast, especially towards the end, and im still not all that convinced by the character writing and dynamics, but i'd say it's still something to read i guess. maybe a 3.7/5 stars o(￣▽￣)ｄ

i finally got all 3 japanese volumes at kinokuniya!! i'll probably do all my reviews for each individual volume under this one section, but maybe i'll separate them with better styling and dropdowns and all that when i bother to do css and stuff one day (●ˇ∀ˇ●)

anyways this section will be volume 1 and volume 1 only. i haven't read the other volumes yet, but so far i really like the artstyle :3c i think it suits how the game looks as well, it looks all nice and colourful at first until you get to the horror parts. i really like how the mangaka draws hands LMAO

i can't really speak on the panelling or whatever manga techniques but it's pretty easy to read, both in the flow of dialogue and panels as well as the language itself. as i've mentioned i got these in japanese to motivate myself to do more reading in the language, so i'm pleased that the language they use here is quite simple! there were still kanji i had to look up the meanings for but that's just my level issue lmao

i do have some criticisms but it's mainly due to the limitations of the manga format. the only one that's not because of that is sometimes the poses can get a bit stiff, especially for "action" types like running, throwing, etc. it's def something u can get better at though, and it's not too big of a deal, so i can forgive it. i am still on the first volume anyway..

on to my other thoughts. for those who aren't aware, omori was initially a graphic novel! apparently omocat decided that the best format for the audience to experience omori was through gameplay, and so they made it into one (source trust me bro i read this somewhere but i forgot where). while it can be said that the manga is a sort of homage(? idk words) to the original omori graphic novel, it's very easily understandable why it ultimately became a game instead. the horror aspect is just so much better when you're personally experiencing it firsthand, and the game gives you a sort of freedom in exploring that you just simply cannot get reading chapters in a linear manner. the easiest way to illustrate this is the way that the manga cements the story into the sunny route, which is essentially the good and canon ending. of course, you wouldn't expect it to go to the bad route, but it's an example of something you don't discover unless you play the game and pick the bad route.

it's unfortunate, but inevitable. if anything, the manga might encourage people to play the game if they enjoyed reading it enough, but i presume that most of the manga's sales would be from existing fans of the game, like me.. but i digress

i haven't read enough horror manga to comment on how effectively the manga portrays the tension and anxiety, and again this is only the first volume, so maybe i need to wait till the later ones. i don't expect the manga to go on for very long unless it decides to go with the hikikomori route or something somehow, only because i feel like the pacing is way faster than in game. again, possibly manga limitations and actually keeping readers engaged

thats about it ^o^ stay tuned for vol 2!!!!!! and 3!!!!!!! apparently 4 is scheduled for august this year but who knows when i can get my hands on it. but you can stay tuned for that as well. just smash that like button or something

ok i finished watching but its like 11:30pm rn i rlly need to go to sleep

hi its tomorrow heres my thoughts abt it

first of all i've watched a lot of space movies (i think.. i rlly cant remember since most of them was when i was really young) but this one really stands out because there's actually an alien appearance and ahh fuck the spaceship design is SO GOOD oh my god i was like absolutely awestruck

but first the actual alien design. i can see how their concept might've been inspired by spiders, and not just from the body and legs of rocky. we're told that rocky can make literally anything and we see him manipulating what i thought looked like threads into models. basically spider 3d printing lmao

it also makes that one scene where they build the model of the planets (i forgot if it was the solar system or the whole galaxy) and as it hangs from behind rocky you can't deny it looks like a spiderweb. i do wonder what the designers were trying to communicated by selecting spiders as an inspiration. if they did. if they didnt oh well thats just what i saw and its pretty interesting

im far from done with rocky as an eridian and im gonna yap the whole way through about this alien species because i can. im so in love with the idea that their language is very pitch/tonal and uses clicks and vibrations. okay i know all sounds are vibrations but ykwim. the tonal part still stands. to us it sounds like music and i just think it's so cute. not me copying the sounds rocky made during their first few encounters. i'm also fascinated by the eridians' names. in the movie it's shown with a comedic effect to emphasise the sheer length of it compared to dr grace's name in their language (which was like, 2 notes) but i was just thinking about how it's almost like a small snippet of a longer musical piece. it makes me wonder if they have a form of music that is fundamentally different to us or maybe they just speak really long sentences. maybe they have poetry. maybe they think human language is music and their idea of music has fewer pitch or tonal changes lmao

dont get me started on how this musical language translates to their SPACESHIP as well oh me oh my i might faint over the how excited i got when i realised the whole spaceship was made out of these thread thingies that vibrate and make sound. it just makes the ship look so fucking cool and ughghghgh (grasping at words) (failing)

it just makes me wonder if this is the eridian equivalent to a robot voiceover on the intercoms lmao

to talk about rocky as a character.. i might tear up hes so cute (might be considered really macho or something to other eridians, but idk) and i REALLY like the parts where he's actually contributing ideas and stuff; it was really cool to see rocky work with dr grace towards their shared-but-separate missions. im not saying rocky is supposed to be dumb or whatever, im not sure how to put it but i was apprehensive of the idea of introducing rocky speaking really broken english because it reminded me of a lot of shows i cannot name because i dont remember any that actually have human and non-human counterparts lmao. i just get that sense that it's always the non-human companion that's portrayed as slightly dumber, but i might be hallucinating this ever happening in any of the shows i might've watched. in that case you can ignore me.

anyhow, as i was digressing i mentioned broken english. i understand that this was obviously a result of directly translating from the eridian language so i was very pleased to find that we could extract an idea of their grammar/sentence structure. for example, when rocky asks a question, it's always translated to end with the literal word "question?". and later, influenced by dr grace, rocky ends a statement with "statement". this might be just the simple switching of words in english but i really wonder if it could mean this wording wouldn't necessarily follow the grammar of the eridian language. i say this because japanese does a similar thing with questions by ending them with the particle か ka (while not always). constructing statements in japanese obviously doesn't require any "statement" at the end of them, so ending them with the literal word "statement" would be really weird, wouldn't it?

i also wanna talk about the very first thumbs up dr grace gives rocky, way before they set up the translator. i dont think a lot of us would think much of this scene, but once we understand that the thumbs up doesn't inherently mean anything, good or bad or neutral, it makes more sense when you see the split second realisation on dr grace's face when he comes to the same conclusion. many of our gestures are essentially social constructs; some of which are shown in the movie leave rocky very confused, another one of them being the hug. stuff like using a heart to represent love also wouldn't get through an alien (not that this was ever attempted in the movie) but you get what i mean. i've watched videos on how we'd communicate with aliens, and it's a tougher challenge than just a language barrier, because our fundamental understandings of the universe might be completely different, and it fascinates me to no end.

what i love the most about space movies (and outer space, in general) is that it allows me to think about how fucking small we are in this universe. 11 light years to travel to a star isn't 11 years to us, its 11 years to something travelling at the speed of light. and of course because spaceships and aliens are cool as fuck

you'll notice i didn't talk lots about anything that isn't the alien or the alien spaceship and while it's a shame i only have one braincell to work on this at a time and if i really tried to say everything i wanted to say about the movie it would become an hours-long analysis of every single scene in the movie and i know you and i don't want that for the sake of our sanity.

i wanted to title this entry "fist my bump" and while i cant say for sure that this is them slipping a slightly age-inappropriate joke into a kids show i really cant see what else it could be either. my site is inappropriate for all ages including 186+ yr old eridians but if anyone came across the entry before they watched the movie i wouldn't want to spoil that golden joke for them via the subtitle

i initially wanted to annotate this book on my second read but i kind of forgot about that when i started so this will be just a very brief post-read thoughts thing

contrary to what i may have written for the subtitle above i did think i gained a little more understanding of the events that occured than when i first read it, but that may be just me forgetting some parts

first off i just need to point out how beautiful the writing in this book is. i know the book is a major turnoff point for a lot of people because of it but i personally LOVE IT ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

also rereading this book made me realise that maybe my writing style (primarily in the short snippets i wrote in october 2025) was very heavily influenced by it (among other similar styles i've come across online), but i probably didn't realise it at the time because i bought this book around april 2025. nevertheless if i didn't like it i would not have absorbed it into my own writing lol

i also love love love time travel stories. the ones i've consumed so far (e.g. takopi's original sin) have played with the idea in ways that bring me immense delight every time they reveal the method they use to affect the current timeline's events.

my favourite part in the book (which was a really tough pick) is probably when red absorbs blue and later (or earlier, if you consider the time travelling part), blue absorbs red. it's one of many exchanges they've had throughout the book and it's by far, for lack of a better term that comes to mind, the most visceral one they trade. i also like the foreshadowing when blue mentions quite early in the book that she's met red before, meaning red has always been in blue from the start till the end. so i guess that means when red absorbs blue, she absorbed herself in the process as well? it reminds me of the message in the message in the message red wrote that ultimately killed blue. oh sweet love

it also ends with "this is how we win" and its just such a nice conclusion for the title of the book.. im thinking about what it might suggest to say that they've "won the war". they did mention how they wouldn't let either the agency nor the garden win, so i think they meant that they, red and blue (quote, "you and me"), will win the war against their former factions?

anyhow, it's definitely one of my favourite books by how incredible the prose and the series of events is written. the imagery is a big inspiration for my own writing its just sooo yums

i first watched boukyaku battery in approx nov 2024 so i decided to rewatch it now, and apparently season 2 is coming in 2027 so im really excited about that :3c

i don't really have to talk about the animation because we all know mappa always goes above and beyond with the animation, but i have to appreciate the work their animators are doing. im not too sure on the situation now but last i heard (which was years ago) their pay and overworking situation is. ..concerning. nevertheless

now what i really want to go into is the character writing & dynamic. so this is more on the writing side, but i have a section talking about a small symbolism/metaphor i picked up later on

kaname as a character is just so .. ah how do i put it. paike is funny alright if yall think its cringe or tasteless just go to teitoku and be friends with kokuto /lh

in all seriousness i REALLY like how the characters in boukyaku battery are written. they're all really unique and you can see it. kaname's double personality thing is i think a really unique instance just because of how extreme the two ends are, and the only complaint i have about it is that i cannot take wise general kaname kei seriously when in the back of my head i can hear him doing his one liner. (i jokingly call this serious version of kaname "i-kei-men" as a pun for "ikemen" for "handsome guy" in japanese lol.) mamo was such a good pick as his voice actor (and the obvious one, too) and the way he delivers every line !!!! thank you mamo

yama-chan's deadpan retorts are also SO hilarious it just adds that extra punch to kaname's stupidity. especially with kaji yuki as his voice actor ..!! it's just the right balance of emotion & the lack thereof. i really dont know how else to put it. absolute masterpiece i love you too kaji yall r so cool

i also want to bring up the ona (original net animation) that was premiered in october 2020. i couldn't find the original video on the official jump youtube channel but i did end up finding a recording (albeit in rather poor quality) on a mamoru miyano facebook fan club post, thanks to my internet sleuth skills... not really. anyways. i gave it a short watch to compare differences with the official anime and i think that kaji yuki was the better pick for yamada's voice actor. fukuyama is a great voice actor but i don't think his voice helps bring the same impact to the punchlines as kaji's voice does lol. i much prefer his more "emotional" roles, such as koro-sensei from assassination classroom. but no hate obviously !! i love seiyuu <3

i might go back to this entry to add more thoughts, especially about todo's and chihaya's backstories, but i dont have much time rn so we'll get to the metaphor thing i wanted to talk about !! there's this one scene (i forgot which episode, but it's the one where kaname switches back to wise general kaname kei) where haru-chan and i-kei-men are by the shore in the evening and kaname's telling him about like. baseball and how hes gonna be greatest pitcher with him around yadda yadda. it's not explicitly mentioned or even shown anywhere that implies this is a dream but it would make sense for it to be one. i would think this is a sort of visual representation of haru-chan's subconcious, where the serious kaname is always guiding him when it comes to baseball. it's sort of bittersweet actually. in the same scene (not sure if its in the same episode??) there's also a brief shot of two sets of footsteps by the shore and the water comes in and wipes away the left set of footsteps, which i think is SUCH a genius move omg. props to the directing here (i don't think it was in the manga, but soz if wrong. i haven't read the earlier chapters, but it just seems to me this wouldn't be something usually in a manga iykwim) and also kind of 2 me for my interpretation LOL but i think this is a metaphor for kaname's memory being wiped. since there is no more wise general to guide haru-chan anymore it's almost like. in due time haru-chan's footsteps along the shore will just be his own. do u get me lol (edit 19 june 2026: AND THEREFORE he will have to find a way to navigate baseball by himself!! well not literally all by himself since he's got cool friends and kaname obvs but metaphorically he wont have kaname's footsteps to follow anymore. i cant remember if there's anything else in the show that can support my point since it's been a while but symbolism wise we could interpret it that way)

i jsut love analysing symbolism like these. gives so much more meaning to the story and characters that you simply don't get from narration or dialogue. im so glad i learnt this skill from my igcse english classes, thank you english teacher x

i'm currently trying to start reading the manga again from where i left off last time (~ch50) but i might lowkey just wait for season 2 to catch up on the chapters i forgot about lmao. i really love the mangaka's style and you can sometimes see the purposeful uhh "handdrawn-ness" in the animation, which also sells the comedy even more. i love this series so much give me more ..!! frankly idk too much about baseball but this is a really fun watch/read. definitely not for completely clueless people like me to learn baseball basics but i think i got more or less the idea after a few episodes. but yeah. would definitely recommend it, the comedy + writing is so good. im still like mentally 10 so i think the unko jokes r kinda funny too

okay so i dont know why it took me watching halfway thru the movie to figure out it was based on beauty and the beast but we got that now

was recommended this show by a housemate and so we watched it together! it was Not what i was expecting at all in a good way

i thought the entire show was animated in 3d when it first released so i was very pleasantly surprised to find out they did use both 2d and 3d animatiom! i really love how they use 3d for the virtual world and 2d for the real one. makes me wonder what this might say about what suzu thinks of the real world vs virtual, but i like to overanalyse things lol. most simple answer is the avatars in "u" are way easier to animate considering the designs. ehich i LOVE btw, theres so much variety i want to scream and take inspiration from every single one of the.

narrative wise was a little disorienting at times, but i more or less understood what was going on mostly. i feel like this specific style of anime movies like your name, suzume, etc. have relatively mote vague storylines that you sometimes have to rewatch a few times to understand ,but i think thats what makes them special.

dont get me started on the soundtrack btw. the first song we are introduced to is such a banger even though i kinda forgot how it goes already

gonna xonclude by saying this was a really pleasant surprise. i really did not expect the "ghibli-type"(?) style especially contrasted with the 3d animation. its such a unique decision, as well as the take on beauty and the beast as well. the virtual avatar designs 100/10, im eating that up lol

it's been a while since we had a full 24 episode season, bless studio bones for that. when they announced the anime adaptation and the studio that was gonna handle it i was a little concerned because of bones' ahem.. infamous work on adaptations like heroaca and bungo stray dogs. (to clarify, the adaptation wasnt downright dogshit or anything, but several questionable decisions we made in the production of those adaptations, to say the least. HOWEVER i will also have to point out the amazing work they did adapting mob psycho 100, so plz dont attack me orz) but regardless, they did a stellar job this time (episode 21 my beloved, thank you paledusk for making such banger music for this awesome anime)

right so enough about animation. just a warning for manga spoilers since im supposed 2 be talking about the anime here but. its relevant lol. i have read the manga before the anime first aired so nothing too surprising, but i was in a bit of a shock last night after watching last few seconds of the final episode. after the ending they did the reveal with tamsy for like. 10 seconds. anime only watchers have Gotta be so confused because i know id be if i was one. it just shows tamsy's alter ego(?) identity looking at amo through her prison bars and then cuts to a shot of his lower face (presumably to highlight his lip piercing, which is probably the one feature that would tip people off as to this being tamsy, seeing as his "alter" doesn't have the same updo as the "original" tamsy) and scoff-smirking, basically hinting to tamsy's antagonist role that would be revealed later in the manga. it's not a scene in the manga, but of course was added in a way to end of the anime, if u get what i mean. but the thing is i dont think they even revealed his "alter" this early on in the manga. to say the least i was in shock after that scene lol.

i just love gachiakuta so damn much. its what heavily influenced my artstyle, but art aside the character design and writing is indescribable. tamsy as an antagonist and outright villain is something i never expected. i really love his character design so much and i joke a lot that it was "such a waste of character design" because of his betrayal, but of course i'm not discounting the fact that he's such a well written character. from my personal experience i just haven't seen a lot of villains/antagonists that are just Pure Evil, and while i hold much ire for what he did to amo, i have to appreciate his character writing. i don't like antagonists who are antagonists because they're annoying and won't stop trying to get in the way of the protagonists just for the sake of it, so it's really satisfying to finally truly hate a character because of the truly evil things they've done. of course we don't quite know what tamsy's goal is even as of now in the manga, but im really hoping for some sick and twisted stuff. just a little.

on to the music. please tell me why they got such banger artists to do the opening and ending songs because i would Never have gotten into paledusk without gachiakuta's first opening. which makes me a very new paledusk fan, yes, but im already like chin deep into the paledusk abyss. i just think they capture the absolute chaos - one of the things that makes gachiakuta really stand out as a manga - in the characters, whether that be in personality or facial expression or even their vital instruments. i live for that.

anyways. time to catch up on the new gachiakuta chapters. that's it for now :3

stuff might not make sense if you haven't watched the show yet, but im not bouta tell u what to do. do people even read media logs of shows they haven't watched??? anyways a lot of this is talking about the later episodes (5 & 6) soo ya

okay so first off, i just want to admire the voice acting. i love and appreciate the art of voice acting in any show, of course, but in takopi's, it really sold the atmosphere. especially in the scene in episode 5 (i think) where marina's mother snaps and tries to attack marina, the way her mother's frenzied shouting and the sheer terror and panic in marina's pleas combine in the most overwhelming way absolutely captures the feeling you're supposed to feel if you were in this type of situation. what i'm trying to say is, good voice acting immerses you in the show, but great voice acting forces you to feel the emotions the character is going through. can u tell why i love voice acting so much. thank you seiyuu and all the work that you do 🙏

plot time. when i put two and two together and realised that episode 5 was before takopi met shizuka, and that takopi was supposed to be helping marina.. i was just. stunned. what.......

it's remarkable. i'm not someone who can piece clues together to predict how the plot is going to turn out, but i don't think this twist is something anyone would realistically come to this conclusion. i haven't seen this plot structure anywhere (though i don't think i've watched enough shows to actually be qualified to judge. BUT it's not a conventional storytelling method, i know that much)

it's definitely depressing, especially seeing chappy - the only one shizuka could turn to, to feel safe - getting taken away, like everything else in her life: a proper childhood, parents, school life. you can show depressing shit all you want but when you involve Good Boy Chappy ?!?!?!?!?! life is not worth living any more. (ahem)

jokes (or not) aside, in the last episode there's a parallel in the scene where shizuka holds baby chappy vs takopi. when the scene where she was holding takopi came up i'd already suspected takopi was somehow going to leave her like how chappy did, whether intentional or not.

i'm not smart nor hardworking enough to analyse every character, but throughout the show i just kept thinking about takopi: naive, dumb but kind, whose actions might be in everyone's best interests, but without the context of how humans and human societies work, takopi ends up harming the people they (idk prns) try to reach a hand out to. it's scary, almost. like when they deduce that going back in time and killing shizuka was the answer to marina's troubles, the simplicity and straightforwardness of it is almost horrifying. it's the utter ignorance that takopi holds that results in such a direct solution. takopi simply did not - could not, maybe - comprehend consequences. they just wanted to help in that moment, and so that, among many other instances, was the cause of their morally questionable acts.

now that i think about it, it's sort of an extreme version of what azuma was telling takopi. people have two sides. a bad person can do good things. shizuka could gloss over homicide but still offer bread to takopi. and it ties into what junya told azuma as well - no one is ever perfect.

i was so convinced it was going to be a bad ending. everything was going so wrong, but through takopi's last sacrifice, everything was set right again. in the end, takopi didn't have to do anything. or rather, i think it seems that they didn't have to do anything. in a way the experiences marina and shizuka had with takopi in the timelines that we go through sort of indirectly nudges the "real" timeline in the right direction.

which brings us to the elephant in the room - what was the most important rule takopi broke? i thought about it a lot during the show and was expecting them to reveal it to us, but.. ah, that might've been too wishful. though i like it when things are left to the reader/viewer's interpretation, so i'll give my thoughts on it here, even if it isn't really anything conclusive.

the answer i came to was something about people's happiness - takopi being a happian and all - about how maybe a happian shouldn't use a happy gadget to try and make someone happy?? it's not really solid but i thought it more or less made sense. we also see how using time travel over and over again seemed to make everything worse, almost. ehh im a bit lost here lol. anyway

i think there could be a deeper meaning to the show, but without going back and analysing every episode i don't think i'm capable of that right now lol. there could be lots of symbolism i didn't catch, but that definitely needs a second or third watch for me to string together.

all in all, it was a very good watch. i silent cried a lot. what a rollercoaster. im SO GLAD chappy is all well and good in the final timeline omg. we won

(4stars) so overall its really solid ,its cool seeing how furukura is such an integral part of the konbini that everything from sound cues of customers to the workings of the store shes so familiar with

theres something special about that

i try not to label but out of curiousity i wonder if furukura’s behaviour is due to the fact that she may be neurodivergent??

while there’s absolutely no necessity to put a term for her personality i do think it could tell us about how society, which they talk about alot, treats these kinds of people who deviate from the conventional

i really like the take on this, especially that one line where manager 8 “downgraded [furukura] from a konbini worker to a female of the human species” it really does seem like that doesn’t it when suddenly all your personality, your traits, what makes you, *you* is stripped away as soon as there’s talk about normal society things like getting a job/married.

i might not really have that much a say in matters like these because obviously… i dont have a job.. nor am married yet.. unless....

anyways. as strange or weird or a jerk as shiraha is i really think hes important to showing how theres an implication that as if youre not so “normal” yourself, if you get married to someone who *is* “normal” and has a “normal” job, life, etc. its “all good”

overall this is a really surreal kind of piece in that you kinda see the ordinary world, society (as ordinary as you can get), etc. through the lens of someone who doesn’t conform to the ordinary. i think its really heartwarming that despite everything, despite the fact that furukura is constantly being outed as the “outsider” behind her back, she can find her place in convenience stores. even if society wouldn’t accept her, she knows that the simple konbini will

but anyways. i didnt give it full stars because this isnt really a piece that id really enjoy on normal days (there goes that word again) but it was a fun one to pick up for a quick read. there were sometimes where the translation made the prose a bit stiff but i wont say too much on that ,they did a really great job on it otherwise. i really want to read this in japanese to see how it comes across in the original language it was written in, but to find this in japanese and to slowly crawl through it might take some time. i feel like it could be good practice though, so i’ll try to keep an eye out if i do remember when i go to japan. it might be a little weird to specifically go to japanese book stores though...

(20 jan '26) analysis coming soon when i decide to reread this book again, but i just did recently so maybe not so soon. i REALLY love this book but both times i read it i didn't do a proper analysis like how i like to do and instead i was participating in harvey chen fanclub. while i cant guarantee i'll even write something for this one day you can count on the fact that this book is so good i am so gonna reread it once i forget most of it in like a year's time lmao

(5stars) (5 sept '24) i wanted to give it 4 stars for some unresolved things that were unfortunately to my broken heart were not addressed 💔 but fuck i love space things so much i couldnt bear to so heres 5 stars

anyways i realised after reading that they never ever brought up the big 3x bigger than mariana trench hole in the sea ever again??!?!?!?!?!??!?! (woes) (verbosity)

im sorry but i was so excited when they said it was bigger deeper than mariana trench or whatever when i finished i thought i was too stupid to understand like did it not come into play or something so i looked it up but yea some people said it nevevr did ok

but still im biased towards space things so maybe 4.5 stars

and when i read the end i thought nereus reached a parallel universe or something with a planet that looked just like earth lmaoaoao but no turns out they just jumped back in time

people online have reviewed it and said they werent a fan of bringing such a fictional plot point into something like this and i cant say i dont agree

i was kinda excited to see what happened or something … i thought they died or shit lmao

(they did technically but still)

anyways fire book satisfied with this

(06/08) just finished rereading and wuick note to say I GET THE ENDONG NOW its supposed to represent the cicularity or whatever of life

(08/08) ok so my actual analysis or whatever. if u can call it that

so basically this book talks alot abt the origins of life with the archaea and algae or whatever. i need to do more research on those things but just here 2 kill time

ok so there’s also alot abt ovals, elliptical stuff like datura. datura’s name in this case as im writing and reading seems to me to be a representation of hallucination…….?????????????? so when it disappears later on its like. oh were we just mad

no im stupid it says "Due to their effects and symptoms, *Datura* species have occasionally been used not only as poisons, but also as hallucinogens by various groups throughout history." NOT the same thing. ok next

i really cant find anything that might be relevant abt the name datura ok fine

so anyways

theres alot of symbolism? with circularity of life. im just gonna get to the point here

basically they time travel. evidently as the when k tries to manually get coords they mention the stars “looking younger”. so theyve gone back into the past

and they reentry in earth where its just a big ocean, so im assumming its like. wayy before life was a thing on there

so leigh and co land on the earth, and the algae dropped out of their packets causing the whole thing to proliferate

so they’re the start of life in this “parallel universe”

(ok parellel universe isnt exactly accurate here but yk what im getting at)

so what im getting at is maybe its a loop, suggesting that life didnt start on earth per se, rather earth just had the capabilityy of sustaining life, while “aliens” (basicaly leigh and algae) bring lilfe to earth

it might not very satisfying because then u have the paradox of “where did this (life) all start? where did life actually start” but hey this is the first time im actually making a real analysis here cut me some slack dont expect tme to address every issue

so yea circularity of life. there might be some otherevidednce that points to this symbolism but um. i might just be making this from shit man idk

oh ok so i reread my last “review”

i lied abt sum stuff i mostly read reviews from others before i realised what i felt was missing was the trench thing

okay so that first, yea i wonder if it was just there to bring up the algae……. maybe unearth “the origin of life” from the deepest ever trench or whatever

seeing as leigh is a marine biologist or whatever id assume this would be of more significance but nah anyways i got too distracted by the space stuff the first time so

okay the other thing, i mentioned i thought they went to some parallel universe

i also got the time travel thing from peoples reviews sure but let me work on my this interpretation

so yea i did mention paraelle universe again in this one

i wonder if its like. propagating/propelling life forward thru different universes.

ok im just bullshitting

the tother thing i was kinda um. eh abt was the helena perspective part

but anyways im just salty abt being wrenched away from space. ok bye this is still not the best review ever

review pending..

review pending..

review pending..

review pending..

review pending..

review pending..