This is a serious strip. it's not cute girls doing cute things. it's SERIOUSLY cute girls doing SERIOUSLY cute things!
There are obvious pairs that cause the least hurt feelings, IMO.
e.g., Rin/Kou, Aoba/Hifumi, Nene/Umiko, Momo/Naru
and of the spares, you can pair Yun and Hajime.
I would say pair Christine and Shizuka, but that would be 100% for the latter woman's benefit. Not sure how the thing with their classmate and Momo will play out though.
Me too. I like the character herself quite well, but it’s her role as the quirky sun around which the cute little planets orbit that I really want to see again.
I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Kou, considering we went through the trouble of seeing her first days in France. She and Rin have to visit eachother sooner or later, at the very least.
After this trip they absolutely going to do a new project. But what could it be. Fairy Story 4? (Shouldn’t be because Yagami absent) Continuation of PECO (which is possible) or a complete new project from scratch. What do you guys think?
Biggest mistake I think the author has made. It's just not the same without her around.
It was for story reasons, though, and I much prefer the author feel they have the freedom to evolve the story instead of falling into the ever-so-common manga trap of not wanting to change anything about the formula for fear of losing popularity, leading to things starting to stagnate.
It was for story reasons, though, and I much prefer the author feel they have the freedom to evolve the story instead of falling into the ever-so-common manga trap of not wanting to change anything about the formula for fear of losing popularity, leading to things starting to stagnate.
Personally it just feels like a subtraction than an evolution. I just feel like they could have had Kou go to a different developer in Japan so that the other characters can change as the work environment shifts but Kou could still show up and hang out from time to time. Would have liked to see her interact more with Momo and Naru before her derpature. And of course it cut the potential yuri content in half.
It's still been barely any time since she left, so it's tough to say what the author has in store. Maybe her being constantly present would have somehow impeded what he wanted to focus on next. Maybe her still being casually around would have subverted what he wanted to tell with her leaving.
People leave companies and never come back all the time, after all, and maybe he wanted to show the experience of the ones left behind, and how they deal with losing a close colleague, a role model, an instructor. There's already been a bit of that with Momiji seeking out Hotaru; that's something she wouldn't have been likely to do if Yagami was still around for her to learn from.
So I wouldn't be so quick to label it entirely subtractive. It would only be subtractive if the characters are static and unchanging, which has never been the case in New Game.
I have never been a fan of the idea that just because a classmate graduates, moves away or a colleague gets a different job that they all of the sudden cut ties with the characters left behind. It's a trope I personally am not fond of and is probably why I'm just not enjoying it happening to Kou despite it having an actual realistic reason, moving to a different continent.
Until I see where the author is going I can't help but feel it being a subtraction, especially on the yuri front, and when we do finally see the story unfold it's going to be hard not to think of what if Kou had been present the whole time.
My theory has always been that Kou needed to be gone, at least temporarily, to make room for one of the other characters—I assumed Aoba—to come to the fore (at least in terms of character development, if not necessarily in the official company hierarchy). But so far it seems to be the usual meandering herd of cuteness.
As others have suggested, maybe the next game project will show what the larger plan, if any, might be.
You can not be a fan of it all you like, but it's a real thing that really happens all the time, and it makes perfect sense in this situation, even if she hadn't moved to a different continent. Every character outside of Rin had a purely business relationship with Yagami, so it seems perfectly normal that Rin's the only one she'd keep in contact with. Even if she'd stayed local, it seems unlikely she'd actually meet up with anyone outside of work. Especially with how much of a workaholic she is. And because she never did that even when they worked together.
And I wouldn't be so quick to judge the plot, as it's still in the interval. The next part of the plot hasn't even started yet. It's entirely possible that the next part will be something that could never have even happened if Yagami had been around.
