So shion says that he's been practicing kissing for when nezumi comes back and its also a joke but also its not. Because even if he hasnt been practicing kissing he has been practicing. Hes practiced his lying his acting his living life alone he has been practicing it all. And thats something to note. Youve gotten better at running away at lying at acting at living nezumi always compliments shion on the work he's put in and the progress he's made but that was all practice he did alongside shion. And now theyre older and theyve been separated and nezumi compliments shion again but this time its not something he was there for. Asano said for the q&a that that line was just marking shions maturity. Not the maturity to say an embarrassing joke with a straight face, but the maturity to live alone and grow and receive a compliment from nezumi for a skill he didnt need help in cultivating for himself. He's grown more independent.
those below are all opinions and theories so please be respectful!!!
1. Hirano is PROBABLY aroace or demiromantic
this is one of my favorite arguments so I'll start right away!!
I've been rereading the spin off and I've noticed some things i guess I hadn't noticed before.
why do i think hirano is aroace?
because he's just uninterested. like, if kagi hadn't brought everything up, would he have ever even thought about a possible relationship?
he's not interested in relationships, he's probably never felt anything for anyone or we wouldn't be where we are right now (aka, waiting for him to realize). it's not clear if he dislikes the idea of a relationship tho, he seems pretty flexible but not too comfortable about it. like he's starting not to mind him and kagi acting like a couple but it wasn't like this before.
why demiromantic?
well, I don't think he's into a specific gender. he said he never thought about dating a guy but he still isn't against the idea of possibly dating one. what I'm saying is that he's probably into people he has a bond with, he tends to develop deeper feelings for people he's close with and it has nothing to do with gender or physical attraction. he never made any comment, never had a thought about kagi's appearance and he specifically likes his personality and the person he is (he likes him as a person. oh the memories😭). it actually makes more sense to me for him to be catching feelings now that his bond with kagi has gotten deeper because he knows him better, he feels closer to him in a certain way and that's absolutely great.
OR i just thought about it while writing this but i think he'll just stay unlabeled and I'd love that. unlabeled king!!! 🗣️🗣️
2. Kagiura might not be bi
i think he just was suspiciously not interested in his girlfriend during his middle school days. like he himself compared his lap pillow thing with his ex girlfriend to the one with Hirano and he had a face that said "nah, this is completely different" like, dude, did you even like her? 😭
we haven't seen enough of his past so honestly I wouldn't say he's gay but i seriously doubt he's bi, idk😞
3. i forgot
had this in my drafts for a long time and i forgot to post it so now idk what i was planning to write here, enjoy😭🙏🏻
those below are all opinions and theories so please be respectful!!!
1. Hirano is PROBABLY aroace or demiromantic
this is one of my favorite arguments so I'll start right away!!
I've been rereading the spin off and I've noticed some things i guess I hadn't noticed before.
why do i think hirano is aroace?
because he's just uninterested. like, if kagi hadn't brought everything up, would he have ever even thought about a possible relationship?
he's not interested in relationships, he's probably never felt anything for anyone or we wouldn't be where we are right now (aka, waiting for him to realize). it's not clear if he dislikes the idea of a relationship tho, he seems pretty flexible but not too comfortable about it. like he's starting not to mind him and kagi acting like a couple but it wasn't like this before.
why demiromantic?
well, I don't think he's into a specific gender. he said he never thought about dating a guy but he still isn't against the idea of possibly dating one. what I'm saying is that he's probably into people he has a bond with, he tends to develop deeper feelings for people he's close with and it has nothing to do with gender or physical attraction. he never made any comment, never had a thought about kagi's appearance and he specifically likes his personality and the person he is (he likes him as a person. oh the memories😭). it actually makes more sense to me for him to be catching feelings now that his bond with kagi has gotten deeper because he knows him better, he feels closer to him in a certain way and that's absolutely great.
OR i just thought about it while writing this but i think he'll just stay unlabeled and I'd love that. unlabeled king!!! 🗣️🗣️
2. Kagiura might not be bi
i think he just was suspiciously not interested in his girlfriend during his middle school days. like he himself compared his lap pillow thing with his ex girlfriend to the one with Hirano and he had a face that said "nah, this is completely different" like, dude, did you even like her? 😭
we haven't seen enough of his past so honestly I wouldn't say he's gay but i seriously doubt he's bi, idk😞
3. i forgot
had this in my drafts for a long time and i forgot to post it so now idk what i was planning to write here, enjoy😭🙏🏻
(This post contains spoilers for the ending of An Observation Log of a Self-Proclaimed Villainess)
I'm absolutely in love with the anime adaptation of this story, and the ED really sold it.
This story comes off as a really silly and therefore shallow and brainless story -- and technically it really is, it's not complicated and you're not supposed to have to wrack your brains reading it -- but honestly I think this story has one of the best and strongest writing in this genre. Its themes and premises are consistent from start to end: Cecil's intelligence, overcompetence and apathy; the comedic tone of the whole story; Bertia's earnestness. There is nothing contrived about the plots' developments because it was all there from the start. Cecil was always an apathetic sociopath and we are consistently told that from the very start. There was always a very real possibility of him being a monster. (And really, he was one, just one that chooses not to act like it.) The characters' motivations all made sense because the foundations were all laid from their very first introduction.
And back to the ED -- the ED makes it abundantly clear that the staff adapting this story are very clear about the circular way in which each character fits into another. They really do grasp Cecil's entire character development in that one ED.
The way Bertia entered his cold, emotionless world and painted it with vibrant colours.
The way Cecil was captivated by Bertia and centred his world around her.
The way Bertia's colours dyed him so thoroughly that the cold, dark colours of his own world has now turned into a whole other colour, a whole new undertone. (Seriously, go back to the first screenshot - the scene with Cecil by himself has cool undertones, but every scene afterwards has warm undertones. How crazy is that? The staff really used every trick they could to convey everything they could.)
And of course the beautiful vocals that convey the fact that this whole story is really about Cecil's slow burn love and yearning. It's so soft and gentle and filled with bone-deep longing.
I love this story so much because the writing is so strong that the rewatch value is insane. It's so nice watching Cecil's slow descent into love and realising just how important and all-encompassing it is. It's so nice appreciating in hindsight how genuinely sociopathic Cecil was and how right Bertia was to worry about it -- and also how beautiful it is that things worked out. Because Bertia loved Cecil and everyone in the world so dearly that she captured Cecil's attention, and then love. And because Cecil loved Bertia so much, that he changed so much for her -- both consciously as he manipulated the world around him, and unconsciously as he himself changed.
This story is so, so narratively satisfying. And the ED really brought out all the narrative elements of it that may not have been so clear on the first read, when we (and Cecil) didn't know how much he quietly loved Bertia and how important and groundbreaking that truly was.
Yes yes yes aaaah I think this adaption gained my heart immediately the moment they decided to start the first episode with a scene a Cecil all bored bc he already understands everything that teacher was trying to teach him and then have that transition to Bertia telling him the first think he doesn't understand at all in all his life.
And that ending it's just beautiful, really good showing his character arc
SPOILER FOR THE SEQUEL
I think that one of the things I like about his character development the most is that he actually never stops being a potential monster, even in the sequel you can see just how monstrous he can be when this prince Ramtak (I think this is how it's written(?) proposes him to divorce Bertia, like he came out of that meeting looking so terrifying that in the manga his face isn't even shown once he is no longer seen by the prince.
But once he remembers just how empathetic Bertia is to the queen on that kingdom he actively chooses not to do the worst he could do to that guy bc that would make Bertia heartbroken and he just cherishes her too much to allow himself to permit that.
Sometimes I wonder how actually genuine would have been Cecil's connection to the original heroine since she has a light spirit and he wouldn't know that without Bertias knowledge of the game, like sometimes I think about it and since he compared it to bring a drug addict I can't stop feeling the original prince Cecil route as a kind of drugging the potential psychopath so he doesn't start s war and it feels kind of sad in a way
To be honest I hadn't like the opening of Ep 1 because I had really liked how the manga did it -- I really liked how snappy and hilariously wild it was for the manga to start with Bertia's declaration and Cecil immediately going "Hm, yeah, I have no clue what she's talking about." I think the manga's opening would've been great for getting people hooked on the story.
But in hindsight, the adaptation's change was made with love, so whatever. Cecil's character and world prior to meeting Bertia is important to establish. I just wish it was possible for it to be a catchier hook, because as is it kind of makes Cecil seem like your typical stuck up ML lol. Unfortunately I think it's just not possible to do that in an interesting way, because the whole point is that his world was dull before he met Bertia. Oh well. I miss the catchy hook, but as an old fan the ED makes up for it to me.
I fully agree with what you said about Heroina basically being a way to keep Cecil sedated. It's really tragic, but you can also see why Bertia so desperately wanted Cecil to end up with Cecil. She doesn't put two and two together and realise that it was just brainwashing, so to her that is genuinely the only way for Cecil to be as happy as he can be. (It's also cute that she lets out a Freudian slip that she doesn't want the reverse harem ending to happen -- the heroine will get together with her oshi and only her oshi, thank you very much!!)
This story makes me feel very warm and emotional even though it's first and foremost a comedy, because it's about Cecil getting to feel such warmth himself when in literally any other life he wouldn't have been able to experience it 🥹I really like that Cecil is genuinely a potential sociopath from start to end, like what you said. You have yanderes, who are normal people about everything except their loved ones, and then you have Cecil, who is calculatively detached and deranged about everybody except for Bertia. It's so hard to come across a character like Cecil, I don't even know if there's a trope name for characters like him.
Mmmm I get your point, the manga start it's a really catchy hook, but I'm just really attached to his background since, as you said, is really hard to come across a character who is so genuinely sociopathic from beginning to end except for just one aspect of his life (Bertia), like it is a really important detail to state that he is just really bored of life bc for him he just gets it at first glance
Also I think it's really interesting that aspect of Bertia, bc it ins like with heronia (the reincarnated) that she views this world and specially Cecil as just a character that must abide to a script no matter what, she just cares so profoundly for Cecil and knows this game so much by hearth that she convinced herself since the moment she realized she was in the game that she had to get Cecil to his happy ending without realizing what made that happy ending a happy one
Like she sacrifices herself so easily and was probably really convinced from her previous life that someone being happy with just her being by their side was impossible that she isn't able to connect the points that maybe the "happy ending" of Cecil with the heroine was just him being sedated for q bigger good since he isn't someone that guides himself by morals or what's good or bad
The beautiful part about this story is that it's precisely because Bertia loves Cecil so much + is not very smart, that (1) she is so thoroughly convinced of the need for her plan, and (2) she is exactly the kind of person that Cecil needed in his life 🫶 It's so beautiful when the thing that caused the problem in the first place is love, and is also ultimately what solves it in the end 🫶
(This post contains spoilers for the ending of An Observation Log of a Self-Proclaimed Villainess)
I'm absolutely in love with the anime adaptation of this story, and the ED really sold it.
This story comes off as a really silly and therefore shallow and brainless story -- and technically it really is, it's not complicated and you're not supposed to have to wrack your brains reading it -- but honestly I think this story has one of the best and strongest writing in this genre. Its themes and premises are consistent from start to end: Cecil's intelligence, overcompetence and apathy; the comedic tone of the whole story; Bertia's earnestness. There is nothing contrived about the plots' developments because it was all there from the start. Cecil was always an apathetic sociopath and we are consistently told that from the very start. There was always a very real possibility of him being a monster. (And really, he was one, just one that chooses not to act like it.) The characters' motivations all made sense because the foundations were all laid from their very first introduction.
And back to the ED -- the ED makes it abundantly clear that the staff adapting this story are very clear about the circular way in which each character fits into another. They really do grasp Cecil's entire character development in that one ED.
The way Bertia entered his cold, emotionless world and painted it with vibrant colours.
The way Cecil was captivated by Bertia and centred his world around her.
The way Bertia's colours dyed him so thoroughly that the cold, dark colours of his own world has now turned into a whole other colour, a whole new undertone. (Seriously, go back to the first screenshot - the scene with Cecil by himself has cool undertones, but every scene afterwards has warm undertones. How crazy is that? The staff really used every trick they could to convey everything they could.)
And of course the beautiful vocals that convey the fact that this whole story is really about Cecil's slow burn love and yearning. It's so soft and gentle and filled with bone-deep longing.
I love this story so much because the writing is so strong that the rewatch value is insane. It's so nice watching Cecil's slow descent into love and realising just how important and all-encompassing it is. It's so nice appreciating in hindsight how genuinely sociopathic Cecil was and how right Bertia was to worry about it -- and also how beautiful it is that things worked out. Because Bertia loved Cecil and everyone in the world so dearly that she captured Cecil's attention, and then love. And because Cecil loved Bertia so much, that he changed so much for her -- both consciously as he manipulated the world around him, and unconsciously as he himself changed.
This story is so, so narratively satisfying. And the ED really brought out all the narrative elements of it that may not have been so clear on the first read, when we (and Cecil) didn't know how much he quietly loved Bertia and how important and groundbreaking that truly was.
Yes yes yes aaaah I think this adaption gained my heart immediately the moment they decided to start the first episode with a scene a Cecil all bored bc he already understands everything that teacher was trying to teach him and then have that transition to Bertia telling him the first think he doesn't understand at all in all his life.
And that ending it's just beautiful, really good showing his character arc
SPOILER FOR THE SEQUEL
I think that one of the things I like about his character development the most is that he actually never stops being a potential monster, even in the sequel you can see just how monstrous he can be when this prince Ramtak (I think this is how it's written(?) proposes him to divorce Bertia, like he came out of that meeting looking so terrifying that in the manga his face isn't even shown once he is no longer seen by the prince.
But once he remembers just how empathetic Bertia is to the queen on that kingdom he actively chooses not to do the worst he could do to that guy bc that would make Bertia heartbroken and he just cherishes her too much to allow himself to permit that.
Sometimes I wonder how actually genuine would have been Cecil's connection to the original heroine since she has a light spirit and he wouldn't know that without Bertias knowledge of the game, like sometimes I think about it and since he compared it to bring a drug addict I can't stop feeling the original prince Cecil route as a kind of drugging the potential psychopath so he doesn't start s war and it feels kind of sad in a way
To be honest I hadn't like the opening of Ep 1 because I had really liked how the manga did it -- I really liked how snappy and hilariously wild it was for the manga to start with Bertia's declaration and Cecil immediately going "Hm, yeah, I have no clue what she's talking about." I think the manga's opening would've been great for getting people hooked on the story.
But in hindsight, the adaptation's change was made with love, so whatever. Cecil's character and world prior to meeting Bertia is important to establish. I just wish it was possible for it to be a catchier hook, because as is it kind of makes Cecil seem like your typical stuck up ML lol. Unfortunately I think it's just not possible to do that in an interesting way, because the whole point is that his world was dull before he met Bertia. Oh well. I miss the catchy hook, but as an old fan the ED makes up for it to me.
I fully agree with what you said about Heroina basically being a way to keep Cecil sedated. It's really tragic, but you can also see why Bertia so desperately wanted Cecil to end up with Cecil. She doesn't put two and two together and realise that it was just brainwashing, so to her that is genuinely the only way for Cecil to be as happy as he can be. (It's also cute that she lets out a Freudian slip that she doesn't want the reverse harem ending to happen -- the heroine will get together with her oshi and only her oshi, thank you very much!!)
This story makes me feel very warm and emotional even though it's first and foremost a comedy, because it's about Cecil getting to feel such warmth himself when in literally any other life he wouldn't have been able to experience it 🥹I really like that Cecil is genuinely a potential sociopath from start to end, like what you said. You have yanderes, who are normal people about everything except their loved ones, and then you have Cecil, who is calculatively detached and deranged about everybody except for Bertia. It's so hard to come across a character like Cecil, I don't even know if there's a trope name for characters like him.
Mmmm I get your point, the manga start it's a really catchy hook, but I'm just really attached to his background since, as you said, is really hard to come across a character who is so genuinely sociopathic from beginning to end except for just one aspect of his life (Bertia), like it is a really important detail to state that he is just really bored of life bc for him he just gets it at first glance
Also I think it's really interesting that aspect of Bertia, bc it ins like with heronia (the reincarnated) that she views this world and specially Cecil as just a character that must abide to a script no matter what, she just cares so profoundly for Cecil and knows this game so much by hearth that she convinced herself since the moment she realized she was in the game that she had to get Cecil to his happy ending without realizing what made that happy ending a happy one
Like she sacrifices herself so easily and was probably really convinced from her previous life that someone being happy with just her being by their side was impossible that she isn't able to connect the points that maybe the "happy ending" of Cecil with the heroine was just him being sedated for q bigger good since he isn't someone that guides himself by morals or what's good or bad
(This post contains spoilers for the ending of An Observation Log of a Self-Proclaimed Villainess)
I'm absolutely in love with the anime adaptation of this story, and the ED really sold it.
This story comes off as a really silly and therefore shallow and brainless story -- and technically it really is, it's not complicated and you're not supposed to have to wrack your brains reading it -- but honestly I think this story has one of the best and strongest writing in this genre. Its themes and premises are consistent from start to end: Cecil's intelligence, overcompetence and apathy; the comedic tone of the whole story; Bertia's earnestness. There is nothing contrived about the plots' developments because it was all there from the start. Cecil was always an apathetic sociopath and we are consistently told that from the very start. There was always a very real possibility of him being a monster. (And really, he was one, just one that chooses not to act like it.) The characters' motivations all made sense because the foundations were all laid from their very first introduction.
And back to the ED -- the ED makes it abundantly clear that the staff adapting this story are very clear about the circular way in which each character fits into another. They really do grasp Cecil's entire character development in that one ED.
The way Bertia entered his cold, emotionless world and painted it with vibrant colours.
The way Cecil was captivated by Bertia and centred his world around her.
The way Bertia's colours dyed him so thoroughly that the cold, dark colours of his own world has now turned into a whole other colour, a whole new undertone. (Seriously, go back to the first screenshot - the scene with Cecil by himself has cool undertones, but every scene afterwards has warm undertones. How crazy is that? The staff really used every trick they could to convey everything they could.)
And of course the beautiful vocals that convey the fact that this whole story is really about Cecil's slow burn love and yearning. It's so soft and gentle and filled with bone-deep longing.
I love this story so much because the writing is so strong that the rewatch value is insane. It's so nice watching Cecil's slow descent into love and realising just how important and all-encompassing it is. It's so nice appreciating in hindsight how genuinely sociopathic Cecil was and how right Bertia was to worry about it -- and also how beautiful it is that things worked out. Because Bertia loved Cecil and everyone in the world so dearly that she captured Cecil's attention, and then love. And because Cecil loved Bertia so much, that he changed so much for her -- both consciously as he manipulated the world around him, and unconsciously as he himself changed.
This story is so, so narratively satisfying. And the ED really brought out all the narrative elements of it that may not have been so clear on the first read, when we (and Cecil) didn't know how much he quietly loved Bertia and how important and groundbreaking that truly was.
Yes yes yes aaaah I think this adaption gained my heart immediately the moment they decided to start the first episode with a scene a Cecil all bored bc he already understands everything that teacher was trying to teach him and then have that transition to Bertia telling him the first think he doesn't understand at all in all his life.
And that ending it's just beautiful, really good showing his character arc
SPOILER FOR THE SEQUEL
I think that one of the things I like about his character development the most is that he actually never stops being a potential monster, even in the sequel you can see just how monstrous he can be when this prince Ramtak (I think this is how it's written(?) proposes him to divorce Bertia, like he came out of that meeting looking so terrifying that in the manga his face isn't even shown once he is no longer seen by the prince.
But once he remembers just how empathetic Bertia is to the queen on that kingdom he actively chooses not to do the worst he could do to that guy bc that would make Bertia heartbroken and he just cherishes her too much to allow himself to permit that.
Sometimes I wonder how actually genuine would have been Cecil's connection to the original heroine since she has a light spirit and he wouldn't know that without Bertias knowledge of the game, like sometimes I think about it and since he compared it to bring a drug addict I can't stop feeling the original prince Cecil route as a kind of drugging the potential psychopath so he doesn't start s war and it feels kind of sad in a way
You don't know how happy I am that the observation log of my fiancee is finally out like, this adaption it's making me so fucking happy
I think I fell in love the moment they start the episode by introducing q context to what kind of person Cecil is and then transition directly to him meeting Bertia and her telling him that she's the villainess of his story, I just fell in love right there and then how they did the scene of Bertia deciding that she will try her best to be a noble, strong and beautiful villainess different to the game Bertia... *Chef kiss
I can't wait for them to adapt the rest, specially want to see the moment Cecil starts calling her Tia
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