apparently FGO moves it's anniversary to irl events like this when they are somewhat close to the anniversary so people suspect Magia Record will too

Ah I see. From a gameplay perspective I wouldn't mind then, since that's more time to build up pity. From an emotional fulfillment angle, my MR otp can't arrive any sooner. Also I'm getting impatient having so many rolls waiting around and no good 4* memoria + few nat 4* magical girls.

considering how her Valentine's story turned out

Who wrote that one? Was it Doroinu again? But yeah it was nice to see Homura getting some time off in her MSS at least. When I saw she was going on a shopping date with Madoka, I was surprised since it was a mood whiplash from Rebellion, the last the series showed us of Homura before MR. She accepts the possibility of being hated by everyone, even Madoka, in that movie sooo. There being a place for her in MR is cathartic.

Thanks Nezchan.

^ Might be a good idea to spoiler / black bar that.

I feel like it's meant to be disorienting at the beginning, since we are suddenly jumping into a random point of her life. After page 10/11 though, it's clear what's going on, that she's walking room to room examining her fate.

For supposedly contradicting itself, I interpreted that as dramatic irony. Her official ability is "manipulation of fate". What that means is never expanded on in any official works so it's been left up to fan interpretation. So here, in the first half of this story, Remilia's power to manipulate fate is depicted as being powerless, passive, only allowing her to manipulate the order in which she views her fate happening. The dramatic white text against black background provides a sense of contrast and the text leading up to it on page 15 pits her supposed ability to manipulate fate against her helplessness. Which is why at the very end, the definition of her ability to manipulate fate is flipped, now highlighting that she does have control and the ability to live in the present.

Again because all we know is that she has the power to manipulate fate plus her few appearances in the manga serializations, whether she has any conscious control over it is up to fan interpretation.

HAHAHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I don't even feel like being mad, I'm just so amused. This really is a story Between Reader-Rage and Cliffhangers.

Uh, their excretions are disturbing me. Looks like glue from how solidly white they are. I guess it would be hot otherwise.

They sort of are on Holy form crack.

I really wonder why they released Holy Alina in NA already, she hasn't even come up in the story and I have no idea how Holy Alina comes to be. I guess they haven't minded releasing characters that are spoilers to people who haven't played through the respective story lines. Like to be fair, with Holy Mami, I thought she was just a Christmas reskin, but once I got to the corresponding chapters it did ruin my anticipation of the resolution of Mami's disappearance.

Nice artwork. And classic headless Mami-san on pg 5.

I want to say it really isn't lucky for Homura given how much she suffers, but I'm sure a portion of Homura might think that when she needs to stave off despair.

!!! Exciting. Although the announcement doesn't make it clear what the Last Magia is. Is it just the complete story of chapter 10? A special gameplay part of chapter 10? Separate event?

Last Magia is an event version of episode 5 of Chapter 10

I figured based on JP spoilers. Well I'm glad they didn't explain anything in the announcements, so nothing's spoiled. As it is I know almost nothing, so looking forward to it.

since it ruined Homura's summer vacation

Being Hameru is suffering. Memes aside, somehow it makes perfect sense Homura got chosen to be the unfortunate magical girl who got caught up in something so dark even in the MR-verse.

Nah it's quite likely that IrohaYachiyo and the other anniversary stuff will be coming out on the Aniplex Fest, which is July 4-5.

Why would they wait that long? To promote MR more? I don't know how big Aniplex is, but if they did do anything for it, I'd prefer if they gave it its own separate thing. I mean the more big events they do, like anniversary + other things, instead of combining two events, the more profit to them I would think. Guess we've got two weeks to know what'll happen.

This is so cute. It's also awesome to a translation, at least for the Twitter strips, be officially approved by the creator.

The new event, day 2, during the first branching event, HAHAHAHAHA. They used the battle music from the Tart event for Yachiyo's "dead serious" announcement that she'd be taking on the mightiest spicy curry challenge. I had been listening to that music on repeat recently so I recognized it right away. I'm so amused.

OH BOY!

That's it, they announced Chapter 10 and Last Magia! it is finally time!

Also the fact we are getting Last Magia on the day of anniversary all but confirms YachIro is gonna drop like it's hot on that day, as per everyone's expectations.

!!! Exciting. Although the announcement doesn't make it clear what the Last Magia is. Is it just the complete story of chapter 10? A special gameplay part of chapter 10? Separate event?

I don't have enough saved up to guarantee getting YachIro even if spooked, but here's to hoping RNG will be favorable. Will also be extremely disappointed if it turns out not to be them, but that seems unlikely give they went to the effort of making sure the associated story episode was released in time.

Played through some of the event story. They could easily introduce twists, but right now it's shaping up to be a boring if pleasing beach vacation. Doroinu really spoiled us with their past two events. It is interesting to return to a presumably pre-chapter 6 time. Rena being tsun the entire time is a bonus.

Okay the first bad ending is an absolute joke. Just depends if all of them will be like that. One weird thing though is that the bad ending screen background is still ominous. Blood splattered on sunflowers.

last edited at Jun 2, 2020 7:35AM

@Reirin It's a crackship. Well people who know their respective MSS / events maybe could add some tenuous connection between the two, but it's a crackship.

Very pretty sparkles.

She can find the little one cute in a maternal way. Little Maya is ridiculously cute.

But yes those AUs, very interesting. I wonder what the point of including them is.

I think the points is that Author want to show us that Adachi and Shimamura are meant to be together even if they didn't meet at the Gym's Second Floor or even if Adachi stayed the same.

Yeah I get that, but why is what I don't get. Even if it's fluff, it still jarringly expands the reader's awareness that there isn't just one story but multiple that could have occurred. Why would Iruma do that? Because it also implicitly says that out of all the stories there could have been, this is the one that he's chosen to focus on. So why? That seems important. Add on to that the otherworldliness of Yashiro and there's weird background plot threads coming into existence.

last edited at May 31, 2020 7:57PM

While it's true that "adults" are expected to act mature, it ignores the fact, that contrary to common believe, just because you're certain age, that doesn't mean you're mature.

I am not at all denying that perspective, which is why I spoke of what is expected of an adult, and not what an adult is, but if anything I feel that this argument strengthens my main point, if you can't reliably expect that an adult will be mature enough to handle certain situations, why would you expect a child, who is still dealing with puberty and thus has more volatile emotions, who has fewer life experiences to draw from, and so on, to be able to handle any of that?

Mm what Nevri said was basically the gist of what I was frustrated wasn't being acknowledged in some other discussions.

If there are younger people, let's say adolescents, who can/can't handle some emotional situations well, my worldview is that there will most likely be almost the same proportion of older people with the same emotional (im)maturity. Why? Because those younger people grow up and it's not like a switch flicks at age 25 so that they will become mature, however that is defined in their particular society. Of course it's true that the longer people live the more experiences they gain, and it could be assumed that for the most part those experiences or even the expectation of increased maturity push people to "grow up". But the reverse is true too. Sometimes those experiences stunt people's emotional maturity instead.

Because of some of the stuff I do, I talk to a wide age range of people from the surrounding areas, people I am complete strangers with and with vastly different backgrounds. If there's one thing I've unscientifically found from those interactions, it's that age has much less to do with maturity than baseline personality, societal upbringing/expectations, and experiences influencing either of the former. I would say the same applies for things like puberty and hormones. Emotional maturity is taught or learned after all, despite biological characteristics that might incline towards the opposite.

Tl;dr: Age is a crappy stand-in for emotional maturity.

Anyone planning on rolling on Swimsuit Iroha during the next event?

Nah, I'm waiting for anniversary.

On topic of next event, is its story anything to be excited over?

Alina has a fleshed-out character in events and side stories, but that's about the only place you'll see that side of her. She's in full psycho mode pretty much 100% of the time in the main plot.

She's a nice character. I haven't read her MSS or events, but I find even her main story appearances fascinating. When she declared that witches were beautiful, I thought, "Ah now there's even a character in-universe who gets it." And with how she apparently acts around Karin, only in fiction could you create something like that.

Aw cute. Though not anything like the actual event.

Very interesting choice to expand on these other potentials, instead of focusing on just the development of the confession aftermath. I think I'm pretty inured to early statements of love; I didn't feel much when it happened here. Thought it was nice of course, but not inherently so.

But yes those AUs, very interesting. I wonder what the point of including them is. Completely unexpected narrative path to make. But it does deepen their relationship, so that it can be seen that it's not a fluke but something closer to destiny.

What I appreciated the most was the simple scene of Adachi grappling with the realization that she and Shima are dating now. Quite realistic. Especially when most stories end at the confession. But then there's the next morning when the excitement has worn off, and what are things like then? Good to explore.

It was just me making a joke, with how consistently so far(even if only two) every meguca outside the original 5 who seem to have a connection with Mami has white hair, not anything canon or anything.

Lmao I see.

if we are speaking on average, a 25 year old will be able to handle stressful situations far better than a 15 year old, plus the point that the 15 year old is still developing, physically and mentally, and how that much stress realistically could harm their development rather severely, and how people approach things from that angle.

I will concede on average that is true/makes sense. It just bothers me when I've seen some discussions where people seem to be saying that because megucas = 18 or younger they are automatically more immature. Conversely suggesting that "adults" couldn't react the same way. So more black and white instead of, you know, a spectrum of experiences/personalities with significant overlap.

Too bad about Kanae though. After seeing a decent amount of fanart of her and Mifuyu I think they'd make a cute couple.

I like the idea of Kanae/Mifuyu if only so Mifuyu gets out of the AliKarin and IroYachi ships. So for a reason that basic, I would ship that.

Comiket 89, so published a few years ago. Not the most recent but it's something AliMari. Thanks for scanlating this!

Well it's a nice fluff work. Their canon personalities are more abrasive, which the author tried to explain away during the PCB scenes and skipped over completely for IN. They bicker way more than as it's presented here.

I really like how this work distorts the panels, adding in frame-breaking images or little background designs that accentuate the atmosphere.

Okay some general "facts" can be made about what's going on. Why or how those things happen are ridiculously unclear though.

Facts: Seki masturbates here (pointing this out because I completely missed it at first). She also sleeps with Kagerou on page 13. If there is any point at which Sekibanki's narrative becomes unreliable, it is after page 15. Wakasagihime somehow ends up in a situation where a group of humans are attacking her with very sharp weapons. Sekibanki thinks she killed Waka, when Waka is still alive (?) but heavily injured.

Other random observations that are interesting but don't know how to make sense of:
i. Hand reaching for the book on the title page could be anybody given the author draws all the characters with sharpened nails. Otherwise I would have said Kagerou's most likely. It could be Waka, because Seki's sleeves are always darker/black for the most part.
ii. A specific (white?) flower in page 9's background drops its petal. Probably cherry blossoms.
iii. No deeper meaning, I just went wtf when I realized there's cum on Seki's inner thighs here. Really showing her as depraved/tainted.
iv. Page 15's vines were strange, because the "thorns" are rounded. So not the typical rose vine. Might be budding cherry blossom branches? shrug
v. Bare branches on page 16 and leaves falling off. Could be to depict the season. Bell crickets are mentioned there too. Animal Crossing wiki says they come out during autumn lmao, but couldn't find any other sources.
vi. Eirin wrote nothing down? Or are those blank spaces for another session.
vii. Impossible to tell if Seki's thought at the bottom of page 18 is only to herself, said out loud, or trustworthy. It is jarring though, because I thought her story recounting was over.

Most interesting possibility to consider for me: The medicine Seki says she got from Eirin are dream pills. That's the medicine Eirin is canonically known to give after all.
a. They are butterfly dream pills (good dreams).
b. They are nightmare dream pills.

A could be true if Eirin is genuinely trying to help Seki. Doesn't seem to be working though if that's the case.

If B is true, then Seki's nightmares begin on page 14 in line with the abundance of pills appearing in the background. She thinks the resulting events happened because of her when they in fact weren't.

There's lots of ways to twist the narrative, since it's intentionally confusing. I'll go with the one I believe in the most cause describing all of them would take too long.

Seki is not at fault. Her guilt for not being able to protect Waka from the outside world, the goal she'd attempted for so long plus her prior self-hatred, leads her to break and take all responsibility ("your mind is just trying to deal with the exhaustion"). Eirin wonders when "[Seki] will open her eyes" ie. realize the truth/wake up from her nightmares. Even though she says there's no forgiveness, Eirin explicitly suggests otherwise, even appealing to the wounded Wakasagihime.

Now that I've written all of that out, you know what, that makes for a surprisingly simple explanation lol.

Food for thought addendum: Eirin calls Waka sleeping beauty. The nice implication is that Seki is still her knight. The not great implication is that there is an "evil" out there. Even though there's no given motive, it's possible Kagerou actually was "evil" and carried out what Seki dreams of/remembers. Or it could be Eirin. This would support the medicine being nightmare pills theory.

Mami and Nagisa were always meant to be a more familial bond though, it's what their names are supposed to be working off of when put together, Mami and Bebe >>> "mommy" and "baby".

Though there IS a joke to be made there about how Mami likes white hair...

Doesn't stop people from having shipped them. XD Though after seeing Nagisa's event, her having a better mother does seem appropriate.

Mami likes white hair? I've never heard of that before, that's interesting.

That said, I don't fully blame them, the weight behind meguca life is immense for kids like them to handle

I always wonder, is there really that much of a difference between kids and adults? I see that being said a lot in Madoka series discussions. Like that kids are less mature, adults aren't as immature, etc. type of statements.

Ah, the art style was so different I don't think I could have recognized them without the tag.

It was really nice but it left me wondering one thing... why did they not just cheat with magic at the end...? I am not saying anything fancy, but Sayuki's main issue was just being unable to memorize her lines, why did they not just read the script to her through telepathy during the recordings? it would've been extremely easy and while I would've understood not wanting to cheat in a normal situation, when Sayuki was pushed into a corner they were completely justified to do so...

Were they all already contracted? Don't own any of the three so have no context.

As a side note, we have gotten info on the next JP event, and while we haven't got the full art for this one memoria yet... are they finally going to do it? are we finally going to get someone interested in Mami? it took almost 10 years, but Mami might finally be getting a girlfriend, goddamn... it is just a thumbnail but I am so weirdly excited for this... I don't even like Mami that much...

Well, she does have Bebe/Nagisa from Rebellion. Not so sure about MR Nagisa.

I didn't realize this was posted here. It was a great read with crisp drawings. Nice how it genuinely adds on to what is known of the characters.