Omg these two chapter went right to my heart(´Д` ) ughhh i hope she comes back soon!!

As a shipper, I'm happy with the focus of Aoba x Kou in this arc's ending. That massive hug aside, also on how their relationship works both way: Aoba's admiration toward Kou, and Kou's need to improve further to match Aoba's expectation. This development just further enforce Kou and Aoba dynamic to be the main central spine of this franchise.

And I don't know if they used the same term in Japanese. But the fact that Kou asked Rin to continually "watch" over her. While both Kou and Aoba promised to watch over each other, may indicate that they have a more rounding mutual relationship. A bit far-stretched, but I will take whatever shipping material the author hinted at right now

The goodbye was sad. But on positive side, now they no longer work in the same company so there is no conflict of interest for Kou to date either Aoba or Rin later.

last edited at Sep 25, 2017 7:10AM

Regardless of their conversation in chapter 63, the author tends to do something, idk, more emotional between Kou and Aoba rather than Kou and Rin.

Well, it's mostly because Aoba is the main character, so of course it makes sense to see more of how it affects her. Kou is the one that made her decides what she will do for the rest of her life, after all. That's pretty big influence on somebody's life. So I don't mind, I'm just disappointed there isn't the same kind of interaction between Rin and Kou.

Now I can see what the guy on reddit said about not having real interaction between Kou and Rin. That said, this series never really had this heavy drama feeling, even when the situation was distressful (Kou's struggle of having all her work rejected, Aoba's realisation of how much she still has to go and now Rin learning Kou's derparture), it still manages to keep a light-hearted tone along the way.

However, we do have some pretty Rin x Kou, the fact the Kou finally tells Rin directly band before everyone else. And we do have Rin crying over Kou's departure and asking her to stay by her side forever; and we have Kou basically saying yes and asking Rin to take of her forever so she can go on her life with a smile. It's a bit sad, but I think it's the closest thing we'll have to confession. (I still hope for more and a proper confession as an endgame or whatever)

I would have loved to see Rin get even more emotional and crying, begging Kou to stay with her, but it was never the tone of the series and making her capable of keeping her emotions in check (almost), helped contrast with the immaturity of Aoba and made her scene even more impactful. And we don't know what happened with Rin and Kou off screen, perhaps there were even more crying moments involved!

But yeah, it's still Aoba's story, somehow? It's natural to see more of how it affects her, it was sweet. On a last note, it's cool it's realistic and all, but I don't want to feel that in my escape stories :(

P.S. No to Aoba x Kou, stop tearing Rin's heart further apart! And Aoba already has Hifumin.

last edited at Sep 25, 2017 7:02AM

"A few years"

Guess it is a drop then. This series without Kou will get bland with all its drama.

Agreed, also that scene with Kou/Rin wasn't even really overt subtext, it just felt like a lot of nothing in comparison to Aoba's scene.
Now im not asking for Nanofate levels of subtext......but im totally asking for that, if you're not gonna confirm it at least give me something.

P.S. No to Aoba x Kou, stop tearing Rin's heart further apart! And Aoba already has Hifumin.

I will never give up on Aocchi X Hifumin!
even for now (*sniff) is Aoba X Kou all over the place.

P.S. What do you guys think their next game will be like? I curious.

Ive said multiple times that the author has explicitly stated that Kou is not ever going to leave the series. She will continue making appearances.

This is as much a permanent goodbye to her character as it was for Nene when her initial debug job ended.

And I don't know if they used the same term in Japanese. But the fact that Kou asked Rin to continually "watch" over her. While both Kou and Aoba promised to watch over each other, may indicate that they have a more rounding mutual relationship. A bit far-stretched, but I will take whatever shipping material the author hinted at right now

Kou and Aoba said they'd watch each other, not watch over each other. As in track each other's careers.

Man i dunno why i never checked this series out before cause it's fricken amazing. I thought how Kou left the company was really realistic and i loved her reasons for it.

Seems like everyone is talking bout the ships, but i thought that the Rin x Kou scene was done well. I think they're at that level where they just understand each other and they don't need the dramatic goodbye scene that Aoba needs with Rin. Their scene felt very personal in the familial/wife sorta way versus Aoba's scene is purely senpai/kouhai.

I can't help but think Kou going overseas is for the best for both Aoba and Rin, honestly. Aoba's character arc needed to advance and the work on the next game would have involved a lot of rehashing of the same conflicts if Kou had stayed.

And Rin... she's in her mid-20s and has been in love with Kou for what, eight years now? And for whatever reason she had no plans to ever voice her feelings even though Kou is more oblivious than a harem lead. It's a brutal way to shake the status quo, but I kind of feel like it had to happen. It's painful as hell, though.
Ideally, I'd like Rin's feelings to be handled in a serious way over the next arc and not, say, by reducing her to a background character who gets one running gag about being depressed and/or jealous. I'm not holding my breath, however. But it was heartwarming that Hazuki's first reaction upon hearing the news wasn't panic at the thought of losing her most famous employee, but worry for Rin.

Rin and Kou had stuff happen off screen so if there was a hug, then we did not get to see it. I hope the anime rectifies this.

Oh woah woah, don't drop this series just because Kou is going off. Just like any characters she will still be making appearance, in France.
You can't expect every chapter of the manga to feature all the main characters after all, and seeing how this author is able to do character building for each main, I believe he won't drop Kou like any other manga does.

Changing the subject, it was nice to see Aoba and Momo finally get on the same page, now Momo's hero-worship of Kou has taken a long-overdue dent. This should make the next game arc fun (I hope).

Ive said multiple times that the author has explicitly stated that Kou is not ever going to leave the series. She will continue making appearances.

This is as much a permanent goodbye to her character as it was for Nene when her initial debug job ended.

Well her showing up for 4 panels every 4 chapters is not exactly great, especially because I want to see her interact with the "real" cast and not some side-side characters.

Excuse me over here, i just want to cry in the corner while Kou and Rin dont even have a proper hug and the fact that the author is siding to the Aoba x Kou ship.

I'm here with my sinking ship

how is kou telling rin the news first and making her promise to wait for her the author going with aoba x kou?

Asking Rin to wait for her is asking a lot while at the same time giving her basically nothing, as she always has. All Kou did was lip service. She never walks the walk. Everything is still about her and how is she expecting Rin to wait "a couple of years"? It's either oblivious or brazenfaced. Kou really isn't girlfriend material and it would be good if Rin found someone more deserving of her.

Man, that sounded rather bitter. Up till now I had liked Kou as a character, but this is a bit much to chalk up to her being dense. You just don't do that. I think I'll get some Nene and Umiko nendoroids when they are released.

The only thing that is good about ko is going to france is that when she come again she will do the Greeting of france like hotaru

Why France tho ? We are not very known for our great games now that infogram is past and Ubisoft is mostly in Montreal .

We have arkanes studio but it’s not really kou’s line of works. Unless she want to character design the next dishonored to have a really different experience than the jrpgs

Typical French spitting on their own stuff! :3

Well, Ubisoft's still a big thing in France and (some) Japanese love France, so why not. In addition to that, I'd say infogram is mostly known for bad games from what I heard here and there. But we made Dishonored and Styx, and other nice stuff. Don't sell ourselves short so quickly!

Changing the subject, it was nice to see Aoba and Momo finally get on the same page, now Momo's hero-worship of Kou has taken a long-overdue dent. This should make the next game arc fun (I hope).

The moment where Momo finds out about Aoba's history is one of my favorites in the entire series and what originally made me start liking her character.

Excuse me over here, i just want to cry in the corner while Kou and Rin dont even have a proper hug and the fact that the author is siding to the Aoba x Kou ship.

I'm here with my sinking ship

how is kou telling rin the news first and making her promise to wait for her the author going with aoba x kou?

Asking Rin to wait for her is asking a lot while at the same time giving her basically nothing, as she always has. All Kou did was lip service. She never walks the walk. Everything is still about her and how is she expecting Rin to wait "a couple of years"? It's either oblivious or brazenfaced. Kou really isn't girlfriend material and it would be good if Rin found someone more deserving of her.

Man, that sounded rather bitter. Up till now I had liked Kou as a character, but this is a bit much to chalk up to her being dense. You just don't do that. I think I'll get some Nene and Umiko nendoroids when they are released.

I completely agree with you tbh, but I've been souring on Kou for a while, someone please bring on the angst doujins about Rin realising Kou isnt good for her and starting to look for new love.

...

Rin is REALLY a jerk

...

I hope she doesn't works at Ubi soft because she will learn NOTHING from making assasin's creed games over and over

Rin? Don't you mean Kou?

Assassin's Creed games are made in Canada.
I could imagine Kou working in a game like "Child of Light" but that was also made in Canada.

Why France tho ? We are not very known for our great games now that infogram is past and Ubisoft is mostly in Montreal .

We have arkanes studio but it’s not really kou’s line of works. Unless she want to character design the next dishonored to have a really different experience than the jrpgs

That was the big question. Why France?
Speaking of Art, sure, like Hotaru going there to study Art. But Video Games? Infogrames is past and most Ubi Games are made in Canada. Maybe a new Rayman?

last edited at Sep 25, 2017 1:20PM

I honestly don't get the point of the whole Rin + Kou thing now. It really doesn't amount to any more than pointlessly tormenting one extremely nice character, and after a while, it's not even interesting. It's a good series and anime on balance, but that part of it is just annoying. It reminds me a lot of Stretch. It's a huge weakness and I wish they'd never put it in there to begin with.

Also, with Hifumi and Hazuki, and probably others, being fully aware of Rin's feelings, that was "bait" that she'd make progress and then they "switched" it to absolutely nothing.

last edited at Sep 25, 2017 1:32PM

Why France tho ? We are not very known for our great games now that infogram is past and Ubisoft is mostly in Montreal .

We have arkanes studio but it’s not really kou’s line of works. Unless she want to character design the next dishonored to have a really different experience than the jrpgs

That was the big question. Why France?

Tokunou spent New Year's in France last year and tweeted about visiting a bunch of places. I think he wanted to write about his characters visiting a country he likes and there's no deeper meaning. I haven't read past what's been translated though, so I could be wrong.

Re French Video Games: first of all you have a lot of indie studios, but second of all, Kou the Heartbreaking Jerk is probably on to something: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/how-france-became-a-world-leader-in-video-games/ But as someone who studied a little art in Paris, I agree that art is more understandable from first-glance viewpoint, as it's taken very seriously in an old-fashioned way - the way that Hayao Miyazaki wishes the next generations of animators would do it.

last edited at Sep 25, 2017 1:38PM

I honestly don't get the point of the whole Rin + Kou thing now.

I take your point (Rin is a sweet character, and Kou isn't like anyone else in the cast), but I think it may just be the manga keeping its plot options open. Kou does need to leave in order to clear the decks for Aoba's development (otherwise Aoba just stays stuck in the middle of the hierarchy). Kou hugging Aoba doesn't imply any specific narrative developments the way an overt confession from either Kou or Rin at this point would have done.

I agree that Kou's continual obliviousness to Rin's feelings is frustrating, but then, pretty much everyone at the airport farewell agrees that Kou can be a frustrating person to deal with.

last edited at Sep 25, 2017 1:54PM

Typical French spitting on their own stuff! :3

Well, Ubisoft's still a big thing in France and (some) Japanese love France, so why not. In addition to that, I'd say infogram is mostly known for bad games from what I heard here and there. But we made Dishonored and Styx, and other nice stuff. Don't sell ourselves short so quickly!

Infogram’s games were not bad. They were totally sadisticaly hard but they were still greats megadrives games. It’s just that game on 32bits were hard as hell.

But we don’t have really great studios anymore, lot of indies like Marion diabolito said, but in term of big AAA games we are just not there anymore. I worked for a small indie startup after school, but as it didn’t work out and closed I was given the choices to either leave France to continue working on video games, work at very small companies, or at Ubisoft French branch.

But I can understand that for Japanese , France look foreign enough to drive the point of “she is going to work far away” home.