Yessssss. This, this, completely this. This is why it's important that before the DiverDiva concert, Rina was the one to hug Ai as she worried.

Insert "you played yourself" meme here.

Aww. Stoic Shioriko has been fun, though.

When I was saying that Misato had served for the very young Ai the same role that Ai served for Rina, I don't think this is quite what I meant.

last edited at Apr 30, 2022 6:54AM

I so purely love the mini-autoemotionconverter Rina-chan Board pin in the extra chapter — winking onstage, yes, but especially giving Kasumi the side-eye when looking at the prize box.

^ Oh, yes! I'm definitely here for post-SIFAS-S2 out-and-proud Setsuna.

Wait a sec — is Yoshiko's "Lili/Riri" little demon name for Riko supposed to be an abbreviation of Lilith?

I mean, I've long thought that "Yohane" is probably a nipponization of the Latin name "Johannes", and a reference to Dutch demonologist Johannes Wier (1515-1588, disciple of Agrippa and author of De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis — "Of the Illusions of Demons and on Spells and Poisons" — and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, a hierarchy of demons), Johannes Faust (purported author of a 1612 German grimoire, Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis), or Johannes Junius (mayor of the German town of Bamburg, who confessed to and was executed for witchcraft in 1628, but who is primarily known for a letter he wrote to his daughter, claiming innocence and describing the tortures that forced a false confession from him). Probably Wier; the Psuedomonarchia is the easiest to find, and it's been translated into many languages, often with cool illustrations.

(Neither Yohane nor Johannes are legitimate angel names, which all come from Hebrew and usually contain part of one of the names of God, ending either in -el or -iel, for "Elohim", or containing "yah" for YHVH. But we are talking about the name choices made by a Japanese girl, probably 14 or so at the time, who was picking up cheap-but-cool-looking grimoires in used book shops and doing internet searches, both probably in half-understood English.)

last edited at Apr 24, 2022 1:21AM

This was cute, between Karin's tough front, trying to look mature for Emma, and immediately afterwards asking Ai for that wakeup call.

(In the game as well, Emma always wakes Karin up. Once Lanzhu and Mia joined, she also wakes them as the other dorm residents, though Karin still gets special treatment.)

last edited at Apr 21, 2022 7:24PM

Yeah, Mia is the youngest school idol in the franchise, and usually quite vehement about not being treated like a kid.

I could see how this book, taken in isolation, could seem to be just extreme for extreme's sake. It's very much the middle installment of a trilogy. But there are still a few moments of calm that I find oddly charming, and I think it's telling that after Reiko's humiliation at the service area, she's doing everything in the car subsequently out of sheer horniness and enthusiasm.

Whew, a half-dozen "first times" joining the One Big Nijigasaki Polycule. Nice.

Well, it isn't a reference to Kaitou Kid. It is a reference — both of them are — to the broader phantom thief genre, which goes back in Japan to the Fiend With 20 Faces/Man of 20 Masks (created by Edogawa Ranpo in the 1930s, and reused by many since), and his predecessors in English and French mystery fiction like Raffles the Amateur Cracksman and Arsène Lupin (around the turn of the 20th century). There's dozens of phantom thieves in anime and manga, and they all use a lot of the same tropes; both Kaitou Kid and the Phantom Thief Eli card set are very consciously playing in that field.

Aww. Now I want Rina to have kigurumi pajamas for everybody who sleeps over, a la Yuru Yuri. (And if you count the SIFAS Daily Theatres, that includes Ruby!)

Y'know, that does make a lot of sense.

...y'know, arguably, YouChikaRiko is the point of the "Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM" PV.

Y'know, out of all the odd choices made in this book, both by the characters and by the author, I can't help but think the most peculiar is not even anything butt related, but why Hibiki decided that her little doll of Kanade needed nipples.

Love this a lot.

last edited at Aug 25, 2022 3:36AM

It's the School Idol Festival; this is presumably off-screen during the last few episodes of the anime's first season, while Yu is running around preparing venues and coordinating with the other schools and the volunteers.

(Or the corresponding timeframe in the game, but it's arguably not Yu there, which complicates things.)

...really, if Kanna is consistently living with humans — going to school with them, participating in all the same events and rites of passage as they do — it really wouldn't be odd for her self-image to grow as quickly as they do, just from experiencing life at the same speed and to the same degree.

( There is certainly a degree of voluntary shapeshifting to all of the dragons' human forms, though I don't think they've got complete control over how they look.)

My understanding was that Tohru/Elma is — I guess post-endgame is the best way to put it. That their relationship qua relationship has been sort of acknowledged, but is in abeyance for... effectively, for a human lifetime.

It's an odd statement, yeah, but I mean, she doesn't — she's shown sleeping on the sofa she's got in her room, the one Ayumu tackled her onto.

Ah, light comedy and subtle horror.

Actually, it's not all that subtle, is it? I mean, the first ends with Homura and half-Madoka surrounded by the lobotomized remnants of their friends and acquaintances, and the last in a double homicide. Fun!

Nekotofu has a number of stories that are cute and funny over deeply distressing details. (Not just the doujin work either; I dearly love "Onii-chan is Done For!" but there's some messed up elements.)

It's awfully cute, but I'm not sure about the implication that Riko is the one who carried both of them. My admittedly limited experience with women who have had children suggests a scene with a line like, "If you want another one, you can give birth this time."

The Shioriko/Ayumu page, and the subsequent page with them and Yu, I would bet take place in a — shall we say, heightened — version of the SIFAS storyline where Ayumu quits the School Idol Club after she and the player character have a fight; she hangs out a lot with Shioriko, who had not yet joined the club and was still a semi-antagonist, until they reconcile.

last edited at Mar 21, 2022 5:34AM