Houseki No Kuni Chapter 102 Thoughts: A Pleasant Surprise
Hello everyone! I hope April has been kind to you. I can’t believe that the month is already almost over. Time is still going by way too quickly. Maybe I feel that way because I’m “old.”
Anyways, I just finished reading chapter 102 and once again, I’m baffled by Ms. Haruko Ichikawa’s abilities to put more twists in her stories. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten so used to anything good happening in this story ending with more heartache and tragedy, I was ready for that to happen once again because of how the last chapter ended.
Thankfully, it appears that didn’t happen this time. Though I’ll admit, I’m still skeptical.
I honestly (for real this time) don’t have much to add for this meta post, but I still want to share my thoughts. This was a nice chapter with a pleasant surprise in the forms of new members of Phos’s found family!
Spoilers below! And as always, feel free to share your thoughts! I love reading them.
Eye’s Real Identity Revealed
First thing I have to say: Great job to everyone who correctly guessed the identity of the eyeball! It’s Adamant’s long lost “brother!”
And he’s a goofy little guy!
That was the biggest surprise for me. You’d think that the being that helped end humanity would have a dark personality and be thrilled at the thought of wiping out the little rocks because they are linked to humanity too. But no! He seems to be enjoying life. Neat! Their interactions with Phos and the little rocks was interesting, including how they described humans. I mean, after everything that happened, can’t say I blame them.
I don’t have much else to say about them. Again, great job to everyone who was able to figure out who it is! I’m glad I was wrong with my old prediction. I wonder how their interaction with Phos will go in the following chapters.
Speaking of interactions... let’s briefly talk about Phos’s last lines.
Phos’s Final Quest
I’m not surprised by Phos's request. Though it could have been nice for Phos to live out their existence amongst their growing found family of little sentient pebbles, goofy eyeball creatures, and other beings yet to be discovered. However, it’s been reiterated many times that for Phos, so long as they exist, they will suffer in some manner. And even though I think they were happy with the pebbles, Phos wants to truly be free from their existence. To completely erase it. And I think that’s completely fine. Sure, it’s sad to think about, but it’s understandable and I’m here for it.
Besides... the last few chapters seem to indicate that Phos feels like they’ve done what they’ve needed to do in this new world. Maybe Phos’s finally established their true end goal. After beating to the tune of someone else’s drum and being driven by their own unquenchable desire for unrealized goals, Phos now has a goal that is truly theirs and theirs alone. And if that’s how Phos wants to end their story, I hope the goofy eyeball will be able to help them.
Inching Closer To The End
I don’t have any predictions at this point and I think I’ll be holding off making any prediction for a while. Like I said before, Ms. Ichikawa has a knack for taking the story in unpredictable directions. Whether these story twists translate to good story telling is still up for debate, but I’m saving my final judgement for the end of the story. With that being said...yeah. Though I’m not super invested in Houseki no Kuni as I was a few years ago, I’m excited and sad to see how this will end. Because it’s clearly coming to an end soon. How it’ll end? No clue.
