Okay, now why is this an in between chapter? It had the same content as all of the others, and it was just as long. It's not like this series is a serial, anyway.

Because it was a bonus chapter for the volume release. It was not part of the original serialization.

That address given for fan letters- would you have to write it in Japanese- or do you think the romanised version would get there? Just curious since he gave the english version for foreign fans- but I'm kinda surprised that would work.

The romanized version was specifically made by the author for foreign fans.
The japanese mail will handle addresses written in romaji just fine.

It seems there is a chapter missing, in the memos there are 8 girls, but we didnt see any witch like or the kokeshi doll (no the prot)

The witch was one of the teachers. She appeared in the chapter with the Medusa.
The kokeshi is the protagonist's representation of herself.

Boys have been shown since the very first volume.

I read the chapter, and it wasn't nearly as confusing as I'd feared. It has two separate but related plotlines and effectively brings the arc to a conclusion. I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here.

Concurrent plot lines are fine by themselves, but the reason I call it confusing is because of how many plot details happen entirely offscreen and are either never explained or only hinted toward in a single line of dialogue.

There are two big examples of this. The first being the entire situation with the company they're outsourcing to. I've already seen a number of people completely misunderstanding it, such as thinking that this chapter represents all the work the company ever did and that it was a mistake to ever get them involved. Because it's never mentioned that the company has been turning in models that were just fine the entire time before the shit ones came in. Nor is it made clear that there is still a portion of the work coming from them that doesn't have any problems.

The other is the whole situation between Catherine and Kou. Going from "too bad you'll have to give up finishing your design, but Hotaru is plenty capable of doing it" to just casually stating "Hotaru failed, Kou won" as if nothing happened is whiplash-inducing, for one. I get that the author wanted to have Kou coming back be a surprise, and I get that he also wanted to have Kou winning the design war be a surprise. But the end result of him tacking a surprise onto a surprise doesn't seem to be thought out beyond "this'll surprise people!" so the resulting timeline is, at best, nonsensical. Why did Kou decide to give Catherine an answer when she still had so much tine before she was required to give one? Why did she decide to do it apparently a day before she finished her design (given that she was able to finish it overnight)? Why did Catherine already have a ticket for a flight back to Japan leaving the next day prepared? Was she expecting Kou's sudden decision, as well as foreseeing what that decision would be? Why did Catherine send Kou back to Japan one day before Kou finished her design? Why did Kou even have her unfinished design at the house? She clearly wasn't planning in finishing it until Hotaru said something. Did Hotaru just stand there and watch as Kou finished the design in the bedroom they share and not think anything other than "well, I guess I lose now, better give up and not even attempt to finish my own design"? Despite having just reaffirmed her drive to work? Did Catherine, upon seeing Kou's finished work, just tell Hotaru "no reason to finish your own design anymore. You've lost"? That doesn't really fit with how she's acted toward it up til now.

The next chapter only really makes the situation more confusing by claiming that Kou can't help directly on the dodgeball game because she still has work she needs to do for Catherine. Seriously, why was she sent back to Japan when she was? And what other work? Nothing outside of the boss design was ever mentioned as being her current project.

Also notice Kou's wearing the same clothes when she arrives back at Eagle Jump as she was when she departed France. Did she step off a 12-hour flight, go through customs, take an hour-long train ride into Tokyo, then head straight to the company, not even stopping to shower and change, or even drop off her luggage?

I'm sure people can make guesses to the answers to some of those questions, but that's just it; they're only guesses. There's a distinct lack of information not only about what happened, but how and why. It was all specifically excluded for the sake of making a bigger surprise.

last edited at Mar 12, 2020 10:44PM

Look, there's just one more confusing mess of a chapter to go before things start getting back to normal and we can all stop complaining.

So, what was gone next morning: the silky or the tub of lube?

Or both? All three have implications that I don't want to think about.

The lube.

She can't see the silky to be certain it's even there, so she would have no way of knowing it had vanished.

Hah, I'd mentioned an akaname just before the chapter featuring one. I should capitalize on this precognition and/or author-inspiring power and suggest another "species". How about that youkai that demands you clean their giant foot? Or a nuckelavee (Irish centaur with no skin and poison breath)?

Didn't get it this time; next chapter features fairies

last edited at Feb 25, 2020 9:15PM

I went down a similar rabbit hole when making sure it was a correct term for the translation. It's really quite hard to find much information on them on the internet. They seem to only exist along the Scottish-English border.

A monster that eats dirt off people and things??? Japan is a weird place. I mean how are you going to scare the kiddies with that one?
(with a flashlight under my chin in a darkened room) "... and when the man woke up, he was clean from head to toe, and the bathtub was spotless!" (maniacal laugh, children scream)

Sure, Japan has really weird bases for legends.

...ignoring the Scottish ghost also appearing in this chapter, whose only feature is that it does housework when people aren't watching.

The prevailing theory is that Kou's decision to leave was made after the promotional artwork incident during development of PECO. Since one of the major reasons she gave for leaving was that the company was kind of using her, relying too heavily on her for everything instead of letting other people grow.

Hi moguTL, Just asking Is the next chapter worst chapter in the entire series you talked about? I'm just asking because it seem to be focus on Hotaru

No, it's the chapter after that, a 20-page confusing mess of a chapter that has more plot lines than it has pages. I had to read it like three times to even figure out what was even going on in it. But at the same time, it's such a train wreck of a chapter that it's kind of fascinating.

Worst chapter in the entire series coming up in two chapters. Then things slowly start getting better again. (In my opinion)

Only a few more chapters until this arc finally ends.

The current arc is actually pretty good. Outside of fucking over Momiji some more.

Do any of you remember when Aoba x Hifumi was one of the main ships?
Yeah... those are some good memories...

Aoba x Hifumi comes back later, and in a pretty big way.

Yeah, there was a mistake somewhere along the line and updated pages fixing it to "Hasshaku" will be put out.

Slenderman is pretty a good comparison, since it apparently originated from a 2ch post.

Eh, wait until this arc is over. Things improve a bit after that, storywise.

So far, at least.

In episode 8 of the anime, as the group is walking home together after the first confrontation with Kako, Nako gets a bit serious and mentions how lonely it is not having friends for such a long time.

Katsuwo had told the anime staff about this plot point, and that line was a specific reference to it.

(Source: Katsuwo on twitter.)

If seeing Nako's side of the early exchanges with Bocchi doesn't make you feel something, you should maybe get your heart checked.

I figured that would be the immediate assumption, but not quite. Not gonna go into any actual details, but

It actually starts more with her characterization getting fucked. And then the story fucks her.

I mean, you probably won't be happy with what ends up happening, but at the same time, it's kind of fascinating to watch happen in the same way a train wreck is.

(Not actually any spoilers, but marking it just in case.)

As I said before, though, after that the story goes back to being more like how it used to be.

Unless you like Momiji, in which case you might just be fucked.

(That's a bit closer to some sort of actual spoiler, so beware)

last edited at Dec 21, 2019 10:08AM

Don't worry, once this story arc is over, the series mostly goes back to normal.

I could name famous illustrators who have done work in the Japanese gaming industry all day long, but could probably count the number of Japanese game directors I know by name on one hand.

For example, I couldn't tell you off hand who directed any of the pokemon games, but I know Ken Sugimori did most of the designs. I couldn't name any of the Persona game directors, but I know the artwork was by Soejima.

Besides, they weren't even trying to sell it on Yagami's name alone. They were trying to sell it as being from the same team that made Fairies, emphasizing both Hazuki AND Yagami's names.

And if Yagami refused, they were still gonna sell it on Hazuki's name, just paired with some different famous illustrator from outside the company.

last edited at Nov 15, 2019 2:12AM

That was a big part of the author's reason, sure, but the in-character reasons given include that the company was relying too much solely on her. There were other reasons given as well, but it's also pretty clear that being forced to do the PECO art against her will caused a rift between her and the company. And that she didn't like the company treating her as a product they could sell.

It's also a pretty awful comparison to equate "this famous illustrator did a single piece of promotional artwork for a game" to "this famous game developer is personally making a new game".

The line of thinking has also already directly damaged the company, being one of the initial sparks that got Yagami to consider leaving.

You know there's really not much XX happening to girls from different species.

The japanese title uses OO (marumaru) instead of XX.
As far as I'm aware the expression OO would more or less translate to "blank". Meaning that the title would translate to "A Story About Doing blank to Girls From Different Species".
I believe translating it as XX makes it look more sexual than it actually is.
Then again I'm neither a native english speaker nor a native japanese speaker. So there is a good chance that the scanlation group knows better than me.

There's really not a standard English for a blank, undefined word outside of a blank underline, and that would look silly in a title. As would (blank).

Huh. If the japanese phrase translates to "The scales have fallen (from my eyes)," why not use that? It seems closer to the original meaning and preserves the snake pun.

I've never actually seen that phrase used in English and wasn't really sure how well its meaning would come across. I was completely unaware it even existed in English.

It's very common in English--biblical, even.

I have learned something.

Although it's apparently not common enough for anyone else working on the chapter to catch, or for anyone on any other site to have commented on.