Not sure how to feel about this one, I dunno something about it felt unsatisfying? It's hard to put into words but I feel it didn't hit quite as hard as it should have done given the subject matter.

The story was lacking in specifics. It’s hard to relate to the characters because their struggles are only vaguely hinted at and not explored as much as they should have been.

jumping off a cliff info jaged rocks and water is NOT something you easily come back from wtf LOL

The ending really made me go "thank God".

look at all those heart-wrecking tags

edit: This sort of feels like that Japanese movie Mirrored Mind, where two girls look for someone to die with so they won’t be alone. They both decide to do it by the beach so the waves can take them, but the difference is that in the movie one of them dies and the other survives.

last edited at Jan 10, 2026 6:20PM

The last two pages seem like they were added just to end on a positive note. Just before Mai sounded like she was addressing someone who died, and then it turns out Saki's been in the hospital for three months? Talk about a cop out...

Saki lived because, after a lifetime of never making a decision for herself, Mai called out for help.

a little less depressing than this author's other one shot

Is that technically a twist ending?

Loved this. Really good, moody art, great use of blacks and hatching. Love the story.

The dynamic between Saki and Mai is so interesting. Saki finds Mai on her birthday, buckling under the weight of an empty life where she has never chosen herself. Saki immediately sees a kindred spirit and decides that they'll die together. Saki is desperately lonely, and misery loves company. Plus she's scared of going alone. Meanwhile Mai seems stunned by this surreal situation, drawn in by Saki. Saki seems to see her in a way others don't, but only offers her one solution to her problems - death - which is not totally unappealing to Mai, but she definitely seems uncertain at the same time. Saki is using Mai as a way to unload her feelings, and definitely projecting onto her, even trying to get Mai to validate her worldview. Saki wants Mai to be someone totally alone in this world like her, someone she can be everything to. When Yuri's call breaks that illusion, she snaps, questioning whether Mai, with her friend and her spotless arms, will even really die with her. When she strangles Mai, we see the shadowy eyes and hands of others' expectations and wants that have always haunted Mai - Saki is not so different from them, after all. Mai pushes her off and Saki is horrified to realize what she's doing isn't so different from how her father treated her. She decides to die on her own rather than pulling Mai down with her.

Mai definitely had feelings has complicated unrequited feelings for her married friend, too, which adds to that feeling that she's always let others dictate her life and let happiness slip away. However much Yuri does care for her, there will always be that unspoken distance between them. I like that Mai doesn't go with Yuri and her husband, instead having a moment of self-affirmation, choosing life, just for herself and the ocean. It seems at first like she might be talking to Saki, but of course then we find out Saki is alive.

I was surprised by the ending, but I don't think I dislike it. There's something strikingly bittersweet about it: after all Saki said about how choosing death was finally choosing her own freedom, Mai takes that choice from her. It almost feels like revenge - Saki found Mai and tried to drag her down into death with her, now Mai in turn keeps Saki from escaping life. It's definitely care, maybe even love, but there's a fun little edge of selfish attachment to it. Saki's quality of life probably isn't great either, if she's still in the hospital and in pain three months later - but then, looking at that fall, it's amazing she survived at all, so you can only imagine how fucked up she was right after. Mai knows how much it hurts, on multiple levels, but she won't let Saki go. That's her finally making a selfish choice.

Small visual things I really liked: Mai's little forced half-smiles. The marks still somehow left on her throat from when Saki strangled her, that moment imprinted into her skin forever. The grimy darkness of the cityscape and the mysterious shadows of nature. Love those shadowy eyes and hands, too.

The last two pages seem like they were added just to end on a positive note. Just before Mai sounded like she was addressing someone who died, and then it turns out Saki's been in the hospital for three months? Talk about a cop out...

I had the same feeling. The story would have been better if it had stopped there.
Not that I want the other MC to die, but it feels odd to stop at that point.

Isn't the theme in the end that we're all shackled by others, but you can make those shackles yours and that's beautiful?

Saki wants to give up and die because she's put shackles on herself and her other shackles are from people who've left her life. You can't control those ones. Mai puts a new one on her and promises understanding and patience with it.

I feel like the story would be missing something without that last scene, but also the last scene isn't fully explored or foreshadowed so it's difficult for it to connect the way it should, maybe. For me, it hit really hard. "This sucks and it hurts." "I know." That's a really common exchange for me, and I've been on either side.

If you've ever cried and screamed at those around you: "Stop forcing me to live! Just let me die already!" it ought to resonate

Also, I think their backstories are vague on purpose so the reader can project. The main characterization is via their roles as foils; the rest is somewhat irrelevant.

last edited at Jan 10, 2026 7:32PM

jumping off a cliff info jaged rocks and water is NOT something you easily come back from wtf LOL

I actually don't think it's strange in the slightest, because you'd be amazed at how bad of an idea jumping off of tall things is. You can jump off a 15-story building and still survive depending on what you land on and how, though you're liable to wish you hadn't. In that vein, I'm not so sure Saki came back "easily". Her right leg should be visible in that shot, yet it isn't, which leads me to believe her right leg isn't.

jumping off a cliff info jaged rocks and water is NOT something you easily come back from wtf LOL

I actually don't think it's strange in the slightest, because you'd be amazed at how bad of an idea jumping off of tall things is. You can jump off a 15-story building and still survive depending on what you land on and how, though you're liable to wish you hadn't. In that vein, I'm not so sure Saki came back "easily". Her right leg should be visible in that shot, yet it isn't, which leads me to believe her right leg isn't.

I know someone who fell into a ravine from about that height and had to get helicopter air-lifted. He was making thumbs ups at the rescue team and mostly got off with some broken bones. Granted that's not a sea cliff, but sometimes you just don't die. Even though sometimes it's so easy to lol

I'm not sure what exactly was going on between Yuri and Mai at the end.

last edited at Jan 10, 2026 7:49PM

wow futari wa precure splash star is a lot darker than i remembered

The story has some messy elements and the ending could have been set up a bit better, but I do genuinely think it's important that she survived. I believe a core message of the story is that life is hard but we keep living in spite of that.

Also reminds me that Gordon Ramsay fell off a cliff and lived, I think he also got another serious injury and survived. I have my share of scars and so on as well, life often hits hard.

I'm not sure what exactly was going on between Yuri and Mai at the end.

I can make a guess: Mai was in love with Yuri, but because she was a "Good Girl" who did whatever was expected of her,,she never did anything about it. Yuri seems like the same way. Her marriage seems a bit distant and her husband isn't even seen. It may have been an arranged marriage and she went along with it because a girl her age should be married.

The pregnancy seems to be unplanned, but after discussing it with her family, Yuri decided to continue and keep the child.
This story has a very life sucks, buy a helmet vibe. Sometimes you really do need that one person to tell you that they're glad you're alive. That's what Mai needed and by her reaching out to Yuri, she has a chance to give that to Saki as well.

jumping off a cliff info jaged rocks and water is NOT something you easily come back from wtf LOL

Don't make me quote Ellen Ripley on you, no you dont.

I don’t think anything special was happening between Mai and Yuri. You can be suicidal and still have good friends, but the thing is that those friends have their own lives and you feel alienated, telling them how you feel feels weird, you start avoiding them, etc. Yuri may have noticed something but still didn’t ask. I think it’s a scene to show you that no matter how good your friends are a barrier can and will exist but is it still something that should define your connection with others or measure how much they care about you?
She doesn’t go with Yuri, but she is still happy to hear “I’m glad you are here Mai”
Mai asked about the pregnancy because of what Saki said about being brought into the world thank to whim of two adults.

last edited at Jan 11, 2026 12:11AM

I'm not sure what exactly was going on between Yuri and Mai at the end.

I can make a guess: Mai was in love with Yuri, but because she was a "Good Girl" who did whatever was expected of her,,she never did anything about it. Yuri seems like the same way. Her marriage seems a bit distant and her husband isn't even seen. It may have been an arranged marriage and she went along with it because a girl her age should be married.

The pregnancy seems to be unplanned, but after discussing it with her family, Yuri decided to continue and keep the child.
This story has a very life sucks, buy a helmet vibe. Sometimes you really do need that one person to tell you that they're glad you're alive. That's what Mai needed and by her reaching out to Yuri, she has a chance to give that to Saki as well.

I was thinking most of that but it was too ambiguous for me to be sure. Although I'm not sure where you got that the pregnancy was an accident.

last edited at Jan 11, 2026 1:48AM

wow futari wa precure splash star is a lot darker than i remembered

HAHAHAHAHAHA

OH YM GOD I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE TO BE TLED I hope its good wait

Man that was great
Thanks for the TL!

Maybe im just a pessimist but I find it hard to see a world where Saki doesn't just attempt again as soon as she gains the ability to, especially considering she has to deal with the associated cost and whatever legal consequences she'd face