Hi I'm Cyerce! You can also call me Cece or C if you'd like. I'm a Black queer thing in my 20s. Horror lover, toxic yaoi enjoyer, marine biology enthusiast. This is a multifandom and personal blog, I'll be talking about any manga/anime/media that I'm enjoying. Expect analysis, fics and occasional sea slug posting. Mostly TSHD at the moment
Some things I love:
The Summer Hikaru Died
Madoka Magica
Land of the Lustrous
Shinsekai Yori
Parayste: The Maxim
Shiki
Tomie
Perfect Blue
Gunslinger Girl
This page will have/interact with NSFW and dark content. Please mind your own boundaries and disengage if that makes you uncomfortable 💙
18+ only, naturally
I block bigots, minors, and anyone who's absence makes my experience better
Fandom really needs to get behind queerplatonic realtionships "omg when the characters have a connection so intense that you can't explain if it's romantic or platonic but they're genuinely insane about eachother and there is no existing word for it" what you're thinking of is a queerplatonic relationship.
"are they friends or lovers? I don't know but they're literally intertwined and are so important to eachother" did interpreting their relationship as queerplatonic kill your grandma or something
Yessss theory confirmed! I'd expected as much since last year that Illegitimates' function was basically to be psychopomps, facilitating the passage of souls between the worlds, and that 'Hikaru's' chest was a portal to the other world. People much smarter than me have already put together all the evidence for this, so I'm not going to do it here. Do read this excellent post. But I'm feeling very vindicated.
I wonder what that means about the Illegitimate's wish granting abilities? Are they completely circumstantial, or are they meant to actually facilitate the passage of souls? By giving people the means to realize their desires, the intention may be to make it easier for them to pass. Given the mostly disastrous results of the wishes, I could see it going either way. Either the wishes tend to be granted in ways that go badly because the Illegitimate's wish granting power is just happenstance, or that the wishes are supposed to be an actual function of the Illegitimate realizing it's purpose, but it's just too alien an existence to grant them in the way that humans desire.
A slightly darker interpretation is that wishes are an attempt to barter for souls, and that the disaster is more deliberate. But given that the Illegitimates don't seem to have a natural capacity for higher reasoning, I doubt anything that malicious is happening.
Very excited for the next chapter, I'm wondering if Hikaru will get trapped trying to free the souls, and if Yoshiki will need to sacrifice some part of himself to get 'Hikaru' back. I'm thinking eyes or his head, and then for Hikaru to heal him using part of himself. I've always expected a sort of death and resurrection for Yoshiki to be a logical outcome of the story, but I wonder what the specifics will be. As Yoshiki has grown to love and understand 'Hikaru', he becomes less human. Especially with the way that Mokomokuren has stayed committed to not defanging Hikaru, it would make sense that Yoshiki is the one that transforms.
Also I'm adding this panel to my TSHD spot the yonic symbol chart
In 『弔いはいつか』 ("When will the funeral come?"), one of the short story extras that are exclusive to the original Japanese edition of the novel (in the second volume to be more exact), Yoshiki is reading at the library while waiting for 'Hikaru' to finish his soccer club activities, and he comes across a part that's describing how elephants mourn their companions. That triggers his grief and he stops reading. He also ditches the original plan and, after informing 'Hikaru' with a message that he's heading out home, he leaves for the cemetery.
At the cemetery, Yoshiki visits the family grave of the Indous. The whole scene serves as an introduction to the makeshift grave scene from the manga, it's pretty good and a brief summary won't make it justice. 😅 But among other things, Yoshiki reflects on how Hikaru would be buried there with the other Indous had things gone differently. Ironically, he also brings up Kouhei being there, which we now know is untrue.
Yoshiki thinks about how, according to Buddhism, the temporary state between death and rebirth can last as long as fourty-nine days. Since it's been significantly well past that timeframe, and since no one has mourned Hikaru or conducted any of the rites, Yoshiki worries about the whereabouts of Hikaru's soul and fears that, without a proper ceremony, Hikaru might have not been allowed to be reincarnated at all. For further context on that from the first site I grabbed in English:
Buddhist beliefs about death are deeply rooted in karma and rebirth. According to Buddhist teachings, when a person dies, their soul enters an intermediate state before being reborn. The first 7 days after death are considered particularly important because this is when the soul is believed to undergo judgment and transition.
Families conduct rituals, prayers, and offerings to ensure the deceased accumulates positive karma, increasing their chances of a favorable rebirth.
(Quoted from here)
The first 7th day after the passing of a fellow Buddhist is particularly significant, as it is believed that the spirit of the departed returns home on this day. According to belief, when Buddhist believers pass away, they may not immediately realize it, and their spirits may linger in the earthly realm.
During this period, it is customary to illuminate the house to guide the spirit of the departed back home. However, it is advisable for you and your family to sleep during the 7th night to avoid encountering the spirit of the deceased. This precaution is taken to prevent any attachment that may cause the spirit to linger and not transition peacefully to the next realm.
Upon passing away, individuals enter an intermediate state between their previous and forthcoming lives. This transitional phase can span up to 49 days, during which families engage in prayer rituals to provide solace to the departed soul as it awaits rebirth.
Moreover, these prayers serve the purpose of aiding the deceased on their journey towards a new existence. They also serve as a demonstration of filial piety and respect from mourning descendants towards their departed elders.
(Quoted from here)
Granted, the novel version was published long before MMR's post about depicting Hikaru, and it's not canon to the manga version: she's brought up before that she doesn't have control over everything that's done in the TSHD adaptations, so they shouldn't be used for theorizing what'll happen in the manga. But it's good food for thought nonetheless, particularly after this:
Having re-read this, I can say I still aren't on board with Hikaru reappearing in any way, but I wonder if there's going to be a narrative focus in Hikaru's soul having been trapped in limbo for six months rather than on providing a sort of cookie-cutter farewell with Yoshiki. Only MMR knows, and all I can make is speculations, so for now, goodbye to this post. See you in June to see how much you aged like milk.
So... Is Hikaru's soul going to be stuck in the hole, with all the other ones? He was not an offering in the strict sense, so he shouldn't be, but that mention of Yoshiki's soul is too suspicious and you never know with this manga.
Is there a chance that 'Hikaru' is going to reincarnate him in front of Yoshiki, to finally put an end to things? We have… an estimated of roughly four chapters left (we just finished Chapter 48) to know.
I have alluded to this in past posts and reblogs, but since I have yet to stumble upon anything that is trying to shed light into ‘Hikaru’s real identity while specifically addressing this possibility, I figured it’s as much of a good time as any to write it myself now that we are about to start the last volume of the story.
My theory is that these type of scenes serve a larger purpose beyond foreshadowing ‘Hikaru’ being what took the place of the false god Nounuki: they also hint at how the creature that has taken over Hikaru’s body is one of the ‘gods’ from the other side responsible for rebirthing souls into the world of the living.
It is possible that these speculations of mine will neither be proven right or disproven, and that the monster’s nature is left deliberately ambiguous. It is that type of story after all. But I dare say that, much like many of the Company’s details won’t be revealed but the story has been drawn with them in mind, everything surrounding ‘Hikaru’ has also been drawn following this base premise, or at least a similar one. And I feel that this origin is clear despite, or maybe because, the amnesiac nature of ‘Hikaru’.
(An amnesia that, incidentally, we still don’t know the reason of and what exactly went wrong. There’s some people who’ve theorized there’s a conflict between wishes, but either way that is not the point of this post)
And, honestly? Once you work with the premise of Otoshigo being these Gods from the other side, a lot of the puzzle pieces about why the monster acts or thinks like this or like that, questions that have until now only been answered by “just because”, fall rightly into place.
True body / Real self.
“I’m... no impurity. At least, I don’t think I am. I’m somethin’ else entirely.” (Chapter 20)
“For you, it’s like... yer outside the cycle of rebirth. Yer more incomprehensible, y’know?” (Chapter 20)
“You’re a being that came to be regarded as ‘Nounuki-sama’ at some point. An abnormal entity. In the same way that you took on Hikaru Indou’s identity, you took the place of a god that shouldn’t exist.” (Chapter 27)
“Something from the other side. A reality-warping, immortal and unknowable thing that exists beyond human logic.” (Chapter 27)
To recapitulate, ‘Hikaru’ exists outside of the cycle of rebirth or samsara, in a state neither alive nor dead, presumably because he possesses no soul (Chapter 32). He’s an immortal entity that’s existed since perhaps forever: the “couple of centuries old” reference is, ultimately, an approximation based on the period during which he was discovered by the Indou ancestor in Nisayama.
I won’t delve in this for long, since other people have spoken about it already besides me, but it’s safe to say by now that ‘Hikaru’s real form is the above circular shape that’s been seen a couple of times. And that form is evoked by the bhavachakra or Wheel of Life, which is a visual representation of the cycle of rebirth.
“You could say that. Y’see, the world of the dead overlaps with ours, so they’re right beside us. An’ every now an’ then, people an’ things from the other side end up over here due to little distortions. The spirits of the dead and people’s lingerin’ emotions pool and mix together in that other world before bein’ reborn back in this world. It’s what we call the never-ending cycle of life and death.” (Chapter 15)
This isn’t the only time the presence of Buddhism is felt in TSHD. I have posted about Buddhism in it before. It is much like the concept of kegare is borrowed from Shinto.
This scene right here? This is ‘Hikaru’ recalling his ancient past, long before he assumed the identity of Hikaru, and long before he fell into this side and took the place of Nounuki, and those thoughts getting mixed with the present.
Yen Press translated 廻転 as “turning”, but I wonder if perhaps something like “rotating” would convey it better. Either way, this is ‘Hikaru’ remembering his constant spinning when he reincarnated souls. Within the manga, he functions analogously to Yama, the Lord of Death and Monster of Impermanence that’s holding and turning the Wheel of Life, a creature that looks frightening but that the concept of ‘evil’ does not actually apply to.
Lightning rod / “Come here”.
“That thing tried to stick to ya, so I smashed it up and put it inside me. Ahh, I guess I sucked it up? Or slurped it up? Somethin’ like that...” (Chapter 3)
‘Hikaru’ does not specifically attract impurities, like Rie says (Chapter 20). Rather, he draws in souls. Souls that cross into the other side are subsequently attracted by the Otoshigo that dwell there. Since impurities were once souls (Chapter 29), they too are affected. ‘Hikaru’s necessity to lure souls toward himself is simply an expression of his fundamental duty (or primal or basic instinct, however you might want to call it). This is also why ‘Hikaru’ can call out to them, as seen during Chapter 3, when he diverts the attention of the impurity latching onto Yoshiki to himself. It’s also why he tries calling out to Yoshiki with a very intelligible “Come here” in Chapter 24.
Fascination and prioritization of souls / Doesn’t understand life and death.
“Life”. Bein’ dead, bein’ alive... Is there really that big a difference? Is bein’ alive really more important? I ain’t got no “life”, though... The way I see it, there ain’t much difference between bein’ dead or alive. Death ain’t that scary. It’s just changin’ forms, y’know?” (Chapter 15)
“What is life? Dyin’ doesn’t mean ya disappear from this world. All that happens is the shape of yer soul changes. It’s not like it’s goin’ anywhere. Yer born and ya die, but yer soul don’t really go away. It’s always by yer side.” (Chapter 16)
“Actually, souls are even more important than the rest. Say the body is like a boat that carries your soul around. Then the difference between bein’ dead or alive is whether or not yer in the boat, get it?” (Chapter 29)
The conflict presented following the incident with Asako appears at resemble the classic trope of a monster not understanding humanity... at first glance. Why does this specific monster fail to comprehend this nuance despite having lived among humans for six months, using the memories of a teenager greatly shaped by grief, from his father’s death up to his very last moments?
According to Buddhism, death is not the end and is not something to be scared of. ‘Hikaru’ doesn’t understand that death is a sad thing, and sees the “soul” as what matters rather than the physical “vessel”, because that’s in his programming so to speak. His existence revolved around continually circling souls and placing them into new vessels (or “boats”). It’s not all that surprising that he does not see anything wrong in killing someone who is threatening to expose him, like he did with Matsuura. That soul will eventually be transferred into another new vessel. In his eyes, it isn’t like he’s harming that soul, so he isn’t destroying what’s actually important. It all aligns with his intrinsic (former) role in the other side.
Likewise, the reason why ‘Hikaru’ likes souls, and his extensive knowledge of them despite his amnesia, is because of how tied they are to his former “job” (or again “instinct”: I don’t really mind how it’s called and the word given to it isn’t really the point).
Instinct of “taking things inside yourself”.
“Maybe yer instinctively interferin’ with Tsujinaka-kun like some weakened animal goin’ berserk.” “All ‘cos I’m weak now? Well... Either way, eventually, I’m gonna lose to that “instinct” and take Yoshiki’s soul...” “I reckon that’s yer… nature.” (Chapter 25)
It’s not sexual, according to the bonus comics. It is decidedly not like eating either, according to ‘Hikaru’ (Chapter 29). This makes sense as to why: “I exist because my purpose is to circle souls, I take them inside me and clean them before I put them back in new forms” does not have a direct equivalent to any human instinct or desire. Doing that feels good according to ‘Hikaru’, but that’s all. ‘Hikaru’ does not need to eat souls to exist. He’s not an animal. He’s not even alive.
When ‘Hikaru’ is disoriented or upset, he reverts to his primal instinct to seize souls and put them inside himself, since that is something that makes him feel better… and that obviously means death for a human. Instability and confusion are the primary drivers behind all of his attempted attacks on Yoshiki: the first time at school (Chapter 7), the one during nighttime at the Tsujinaka’s house following splitting himself and experiencing pain (Chapter 20), at the hospital after Tanaka cuts his head and real form (Chapter 22), and later at the school again (Chapter 24). The fact that ‘Hikaru’ always describes Yoshiki’s soul as particularly pretty (Chapter 15) when all souls shine differently (Chapter 29) probably plays a part, in addition to the attachment cultivated over six months of affection.
It’s likely that ‘Hikaru’s insides can function as a sort of door between realms, therefore enabling him to reintegrate reincarnated souls into the human world. This would explain his words about his insides constantly feeling cold and empty. Since he has trouble recollecting his memories from before becoming ‘Hikaru’, he doesn’t know where what he puts inside himself actually goes (Chapter 29). My guess is that, now that he’s in the human world, those impurities just get thrown back into the other side.
Lost purpose / ‘Lost Children’
“I ‘member wanderin’ through the mountains for some time... Was like that for a good long while, just not feelin’ anything. I was pretty much like a machine on autopilot all that time.” (Chapter 2)
“’Lonely’… So is this what ya call bein’ lonely? Have I always been lonely, then?” (Chapter 7)
“I don’t really know what I am. Before I became like this, I don’t even think I had emotions. I just had this vague sense that I didn’t belong nowhere. It was like I’d lost my purpose.” (Chapter 16)
“At first, I thought I’d just kill ya if ya found me out. But for some reason, I didn’t wanna do that. And in the end, you accepted me, didn’cha? That was the first time I felt like I was needed. And I thought it might be all right to stay here. That’s what I’d been missing all along. For whatever reason, you became the place where I belong. And for me, that’s incredibly important.” (Chapter 16)
“For the longest time, I felt like I’d lost my purpose, and that’s why I like bein’ needed. Might be why I tried grantin’ the real Hikaru’s wish too.” (Chapter 33)
‘Hikaru’s sense of aimlessness while he remained on the mountain can easily be chalked up to him losing his raison d'être of circling souls after he accidentally fell into the human side. Nisayama is not his birthplace, and gobbling up impurities was close to but never his original purpose, rather something that he resorted to do to calm himself by fulfilling this innate compulsion.
In this same vein, ‘Hikaru’s ability to warp reality and physics at will to grant anyone’s wish derives from his authority over rebirth and dominion across realms. Likewise, in a symbolic sense, I do not think that it’s a mere coincidence that his wishes have been related to death (Hichi-san, Original Hikaru), although he can technically grant anything with... various questionable degrees of success.
落とし子 (Otoshigo) can be rendered into English as offspring or spawns. Yen Press opted to call them Illegitimates, which I normally use for easiness of communication, but personally I preferred the fan-translation of Lost [Fallen/Dropped/Descended] Children. It’s a name given by the Company, and I think a fitting one for a creature they only discovered (and captured) after it fell into this world.
“Lacked a personality”, “lacked feelings”, “lacked a will”. A non-living being simply in charge of reincarnation doesn’t need those things. Of course, it would be cruel to simply tell him “Go back to where you came from” like Maki said in Chapter 22, now that he does have all those things. But I’d dare say that ‘Hikaru’s fascination with life is also tied, even if symbolically, to having been an immortal who could never experience it before. He was in charge of moving souls through the reincarnation process, but he never got to touch life himself. This is the first time he can actually know what being alive really is like, so it is not a surprise that he enjoys it so much, including doing things he has no innate need to do.
That one very suspicious comic.
Few days before serialization started, MMR posted this comic with no further explanation than the caption メモ: a note, something to remember. And I find the trailing “Even after I die?” pretty damning, for all the reasons above.
I’m sure there are more points I could add, but this post is already too long and I am running out of energy to keep writing. I get the feeling this could be better organized as well, but whatever. My point is made, either way.
"(…) there’s a conflict between wishes [that's the culprit behind 'Hikaru's memory loss]"
"(…) the creature that has taken over Hikaru’s body is one of the ‘gods’ from the other side responsible for rebirthing souls into the world of the living (…)"
Let me slide this here, now that the latest chapter is available in BookWalker in English.
It’s likely that ‘Hikaru’s insides can function as a sort of door between realms, therefore enabling him to reintegrate reincarnated souls into the human world. (...). My guess is that, now that he’s in the human world, those impurities just get thrown back into the other side.
My theory is that these type of scenes (...) hint at how the creature that has taken over Hikaru’s body is one of the ‘gods’ from the other side responsible for rebirthing souls into the world of the living.
(...) ‘Hikaru’ remembering (...) when he reincarnated souls. Within the manga, he functions analogously to Yama, the Lord of Death and Monster of Impermanence that’s holding and turning the Wheel of Life.
Still not over this scene and just this chapter in general...
TW: The Summer Hikaru Died Chapter 48.3
I'm not surprised at all that these were her first words to "Hikaru." Especially with her unresolved grief over how her husband disappeared and was later declared deceased, with no clue where he is. She has every right to at least know what happened to her son. Where is Hikaru?
I couldn't fathom the sheer amount of grief, shock, pain, and loneliness that fell on her in just the span of a few hours. Cause she lost her husband and, unknowingly, her son soon after, her immediate family was gone, and she is facing this deity that took over her son's body. That is a lot to process in a short amount of time.
Yet, here she is, hugging "Hikaru" and accepting him as her "son" as well, even when she barely has any clue what kind of kid he was. Momma Yuki, the strong, lovely being that you are.
Mama Yuki, Grief and Love (TSHD 48.3 spoilers below the cut)
TL: "The one who felt the most difference between Hikaru and 'Hikaru' the most was her mother Yuki, who lived with them. To her, they must have seemed like completely different people"
She really did know from the beginning. Of course. I'm so curious about what the process was like for her. The logical assumption would be trauma and/or brain damage so I'd assume that would be what'd come first. But there's also a chance that she knew enough about the Indou's history and Nonouki-sama to think something supernatural happened to him. If not a possession, then it'd be reasonable to assume it was a curse of some sort.
Even though the information is passed down to the men, I think that the women of the Indou family likely know more than people assume they do. They have a shrine full of heads in their backyard and a husband that went on a pilgrimages to the forbidden mountain on a regular basis. They couldn't have been completely clueless. Even before getting married into the family, they'd know about the social stigma surrounding the Indous. Especially knowing that Yuki turned Kouhei down 11 whopping times. I have to wonder what made her give in. There's social pressure and just wearing her down, but it could have been her learning about the curse.
I have to wonder what she was thinking. Her son disappeared on the same cursed mountain her husband visited and came back with a different personality and cognitive capacity. What was the journey it took her to get to this point? How did she move from "my son has experienced trauma" to "my son is a different person"? To "my son has been entirely replaced by something that may have even killed him, but I love him anyway"? Did she think that Hikaru was ever coming back, or that he was gone in the same way her husband was? Losing both your spouse and child with no real closure or answers. I can't imagine the depth of her grief.
And to hold that quietly for months? Without sharing that with anyone, not even 'Hikaru' himself? Absolutely devastating. And above all, to open her heart to 'Hikaru' regardless of her own grief? What an incredibly resilient, incredibly loving woman.
I love the phrase that "grief is love with nowhere to go", (also everyone go read Grief is Love by Marisa Renee Lee) because I feel that philosophy informs so much of this story's unique relationship with grief.
Grief as an enduring expression of love, not something that is antithetical to it. That healing isn't just about moving on in the sense that a person you lost becomes less of your life, but that you can intentionally acknowledge all the spaces that their absence leaves in your life, and view that feeling of emptiness as the place that your love for that person used to be expressed. Grief as a transformative process, both for the mourner and the person they mourned. As we hold space for our own grief, the person we loved takes on a new form. We understand that emptiness as a place for our love, and our deceased get a new life in our memories. They continue to exist in all the spaces that we feel their absence. Walking along with our grief creates capacity for more love.
The manga shows through Yoshiki and 'Hikaru's' relationship that's it's possible to mourn and embrace new love at the same time, but Yuki and 'Hikaru' make that clear in an entirely unique, freshly devastating way because she had no answers. Every day she had to feel his absence. And yet, every day she had a new child to love. Her love for 'Hikaru' was an active, deliberate decision that was not made as a rejection of her grief, but as part of the loving process inherent to it. Through understanding and caring for 'Hikaru', she got to express and process her own grief for her son. Every forgotten memory or different preference or awkward expression maps out the shape of her son's absence, and a space for her love. In 'Hikaru' she found both the emptiness where her son used to be and a new well to pour her love into. The first woman to love an Illegitimate as her own child, and the first Illegitimate to know the love of a mother, transforming herself as 'Hikaru' too is transformed.
(Tangent : It's absolutely hilarious that 'Hikaru' is reading picture books. Like I know that he did in the library scene but I assumed he just thought they would deliver the morals he was curious about more succinctly. If he actually has the reading comprehension of a child that's fucking great, actually. Like that's probably not literally the case. It's more likely the whole novelty of having a consciousness, cognition, sapience, capacity for reasoning, actual eyes that can read situation and him just needing to adjust than actually struggling to comprehend. But it'd be way funnier if he was born straight up illiterate.)
“you’re not immune to propaganda” applies to you too
Yes, it absolutely does!
Propaganda is baked into our daily reality so seamlessly and thoroughly that it mostly feels like common sense.
It's why we defend brands like they're old friends.
It's why we discuss celebrities we've never met and who don't know we exist as if we know their hearts, defending or condemning them based on how talented their publicists are.
It's why we confuse relatability for trustworthiness
It's why we mistake emotional resonance for moral principles.
It's why we think our opinions are purely self-generated despite being nudged by countless carefully curated narratives which have more (and more subtle) ways of reaching us than at any time in human history.
It's why we treat people's lives, public policy, and geopolitical matters like team sports.
It's why we need to constantly interrogate our own assumptions, habitually subjecting them to fact checking, methodical scrutiny, and cynicism.
It's why we need media literacy and media ecology to be taught to kids of all ages.
It's why everyone should read Orwell, Huxley, Neil Postman, and Marshal McLuhan.
It's why we should all study logic, rhetoric, and ethics - so we can understand and apply moral reasoning based on principles.
The point isn't whether or not we're affected by propaganda, because we all are.
The point is whether or not we know we're affected...which ironically is the exact blind spot that makes people think they're immune.
The moment you assume you're above that influence? That's when it's working best.
That's why, Anon, the post you're responding to didn't say "you are not immune to propoganda."
It said:
If you think you're immune to propaganda, that means the propaganda is working.
<< The one who felt the difference between Hikaru and “Hikaru” the most was their mother, Yuki, who lived with them. To her, they must’ve seemed like almost completely different people. >>
So every year, my aquarium does a captive lobster hatchery project (hence all the loblings). The reason we’re doing it is because in the wild, loblings only have a 1 in 25,000 chance of surviving their larval phase. They’re plankton as babies and everything eats them. Additionally, as the Gulf of Maine warms, they are having even lower survival rates because the blooms of copepods they feed on as babies are happening earlier in the year, and they’re missing it.
Obviously, the goal of this experiment is to grow the lobsters until they’re big enough to settle to the seabed and then release them, because they have a much higher likelihood of surviving to adulthood when they’re able to hide. Ideally, captive lobster hatcheries can boost the wild population and keep things stable, so we don’t have a major crash in a decade or two.
The first year we tried this was pretty bad. We had a lot of eggs, but very few babies. It turned out that the CO2 levels in the building spiked as more guests visited throughout the summer, and that settled into the water and threw off the pH and caused a chemical reaction that prevented a lot of the eggs from hatching. I think we ended up releasing three baby lobsters (which is still better than their wild survival rate but not great).
The second year was a little better. We added a de-gasser to the aquarium and got a ton of larval lobsters, but right as they were settling to the bottom we had a disease outbreak that killed most of them. We ended up releasing four babies at the end of the season.
But this year? Oh boy. We have so many lobsters that we had to release the first round early (usually we wait till September or October so guests can see them). We just released a total of FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE baby lobsters, and we still have over a hundred who haven’t settled to the bottom yet. I genuinely don’t even have words to explain how cool this is. OVER FIVE HUNDRED. We just added hundreds of lobsters to the wild population that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.
