It's really kind of odd how the beginning presents itself all, "Yeah, all the magic stuff is just in the VR game," before we discover that all the "pets" — Yuuno, Arf, Zafira — can talk, and then Arf is changing into her human form, and the physical Chivits have antigravity, and I'm not even mentioning the shenanigans in Innocents.

I guess the Takamachi ninja abilities on display already verge on magic to start with (Nanoha's spoon stunt requires rather silly "compressed air" anime physics, and Kyouya and Miyuki pull off some stuff in Triangle Hearts that's not physically possible), but it's still a bit of a jar.

Oh, the utter shade — "Yeah, your thoughts always show on your face, but fortunately you're always talking to Nico and Rin, the least observant people alive."

Not to be a buzzkill, but I feel compelled to note that chemical glowsticks (as opposed to the battery-powered sort) actually have a glass capsule inside the plastic sheathing. It's that breaking that lets the chemicals mix, starting the reaction and the glowing. Further, the sorts of chemicals that give you that kind of bright, glowing reaction aren't really compatible with being mixed into personal lubricants. (Check the Wikipedia page for "glow stick" for the unpleasant details.)

There do exist commercial glow-in-the-dark lubes, but that's the anemic sort of glow that needs to be charged in bright light immediately beforehand — and even that depends on you being comfortable with slathering your bits with zinc sulfide that's been doped with copper.

When I made the comment about Yu not getting to play house, I had no idea that less than a month later would arrive Mia's second song, "Toy Doll", in which she invites "Baby" (which is what she calls Ayumu's childhood friend) to do just that.

I feel like the only proper response at the end of that conversation is, "I didn't say I didn't like it."

... the nun AU is just Sister Act, isn't it?

English really does have a number of idioms based on slandering other cultures/ethnicities. For the Low Countries, there's "going Dutch" and "Dutch treat" (= "splitting the cost", presumably as a dig at perceived stinginess), as well as "Dutch courage" (=false courage because you're drunk), and then there's the "Dutch wife"; meanwhile, the French in the English imagination are supposed to be lascivious, giving rise to terms like "French postcard" (=porn), "French letter" (=condom), "French measles" (=syphilis), and "French kisses". "Welsh rabbit" is a bread-and-cheese dish, mocking Wales for being poor, and all this isn't even mentioning the words and phrases that are actual slurs against Jews, the Roma, African-Americans, and Native Americans.

Adorable.

Quite nice (modulo that weird fingering virginity beat in the middle), but I can't help but picture Mito going up to check on them, accidentally overhearing the goings-on, and thinking, "I know I said to say something to her, but..."

Awwwwwww.

Ai is me here.

Kitaku seems to treat each of their stories as its own world, but the milleu of the single-pagers seems to blend together to treat the club as one big polycule. (Cf. the ones in NIJIGASAKI RAKUGAKI BOOK with various assorted pairs, threesomes, and foursomes.)

Awwww! Love this.

Yay for chef-hat Sasuke apron! Also adorable story.

I like how Karin tries, as a last gasp defense, to use the "mom" line — which Emma just blows right through. Very nice.

I think it's less "transforming toys" and more "transforming superhero toys" — more of a Kamen Rider or Super Sentai prop pack. Unless, I suppose, if the gun she has in panel 2 turns into a robot, like the original Megatron.

Poor Yu, doesn't even get to play house.

EDIT: Forgot that I'd meant to link to a Daily Theatre episode in which something similar happened.

last edited at Jan 3, 2022 5:09PM

It's all about love, though, in the way Setsuna knows how to express or accept it. Ayumu likes to cook for people, so her cooking (and apparently specifically her rolled eggs) Setsuna sees as an expression of love. In the other example, she really wants to discuss the books with the others — that's the gift she gets — but I'd wager she also thinks the girls will like the series too, and that's her expression of love to them (and for the books, tbh).

Edit: It strikes me as important, in this context, that the Tapestry comic specifically calls out those rolled eggs as something Ayumu learned to make for her childhood friend, starting in elementary school.

last edited at Oct 20, 2021 12:53PM

The closest I've seen to Niji ship children is the oft-repeated observation that Setsuna and Kasumi are two different clones of/variations on Nico.

That said, I'm gonna start the rumor right here that Ayumu is RinPana's daughter, and Yuu is the daughter of You's cousin Tsuki and Nico's little sister Cocoro.

I'm not sure that the Haru-chan in The Meaning Behind the Bouquet is supposed to be Konoe Haruka — but if it is, it's less surprising than using, say, Kaoruko or Ai's "big sister", since Haruka and Kanata predate Nijigasaki and SIFAS. They were both N girls in the SIF game.

(Kanata, Emma, and Shizuku were the winners of a fan election to join when the Perfect Dream Project, which became SIFAS and the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, was announced; I believe that in-world, they were all recruited by Setsuna and transferred from their N card schools to Nijigasaki, though the anime dropped that aspect. Haruka got pulled along in the meta, though just as in her SIF profile, she's still at Shinonome High.)

last edited at Aug 5, 2021 7:54PM

Anything with little kid versions of μ's is adorable, and HonoKotoUmi is adorable, so this is mathematically (adorable) ².

Nico's reactions are brilliant. "That has to be... the best game I've ever heard of." More PrintempsXNico, please.

Actually, now I think of it, can we have a lily whiteXNico book, too?

It is a little odd how hard the anime went for pairing the girls up.

I love this series, but man, Yu, shaming your sex worker isn't cool, even if she is your childhood friend.

Man, I want more Taisho!YoshiMaru, now.

That was pretty terrific. I particularly liked the bit with Maki explaining the full contents of her letter. "I need you to understand, Nico, just how needy and messed up I am." Great stuff.