Started reading the Strange Houses manga and it's an utter delight. Gonna pause while I wait for more English translations to release (and Strange Buildings to come out in march) but it is my greatest hope that the following exchange (or something similar) happens midway through it:
Kurihara: This is getting us nowhere. Let's take a break and have some dinner.
Uketsu: Good idea.
[Midway through dinner.]
Uketsu: It's no use. I can't stop thinking about blueprints. Help me get my mind off of this, do you know any good stories?
Kurihara: Hmmm... well actually I do have this one from a while back.
Blank page reading: [And then Kurihara proceeded to recount the entirety of Strange Pictures.]
You seen how some very talented artists are drawing cute girls on wplace.live all around the world, and some even in the oceans or bodies of water.
I actually wanted to join in, but also had the idea of doing Pin-Ups of my girl OCs, and placing them in the countries that inspired them around the world.
So I had to do my main OC/Mascot, plus her sister & step-sister first.
The Royal Dracora Sisters!
Arrow Xiang Long
Ember Lijuan Long
Nikki Azami Inari-Long
Located west of Kurihara Japan in the Oda Dam.
feel free to check it out on Wplace if you want.
Characters & Art = Belong to Me @spdy4
I never thought the topic of Komugi’s previous owner would actually be a part of the plot. I would just assume that Komugi has been abandoned as a reason why Komugi is so loyal and devoted to Iroha, but there’s something more behind the scenes…yet it also doesn’t explain too much.
Komugi’s previous owner Kurihara had to be sent to a senior care facility, so Komugi was taken to a shelter. She escaped her cage and ran off, got hurt and then met Iroha in the rain. However, Komugi doesn’t remember any of it. That’s what’s bothering me. It’s only been two years since Komugi lived with the Inukais. Dogs are good at remembering things, but it does seem a little odd that Komugi just completely forgot about Kurihara completely. She doesn’t even remember her old name. It makes me wonder if something happened during the time frame of her escaping the shelter to her being found by Iroha that caused her memories to be erased? We don’t even have an answer to what had hurt her that day. Given the preview for the next episode, it makes me wonder if Gaou has something to do with it.
It’s a little unusual to have Iroha and Komugi focus so late into the story, but it’s welcomed. Iroha has been getting some focus lately with her romance plot with Satoru. Iroha focus had been in the earlier episodes with how she became a Precure because she wanted to protect Komugi. Though, it’s really nice that it’s brought up now and that Iroha cannot abide to the promise she made to Yoko. After everything that has happened since Komugi came into her life, Iroha doesn’t want to part with her beloved dog. It makes sense. She’s a loving person and I do like that she’s being selfish about this because she found and raised Komugi. I get her. I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to give my dogs back to their previous owners or to a new one. I love them so much.
Kurihara seems like a sweet man in general. I do wonder why the episode didn’t conclude with Iroha and Komugi promising to let Kurihara see Komugi every once in a while. It sucks that he lost Komugi, formerly named Marron. Given she escaped the shelter, it seemed that Komugi was trying to look for her previous owner, but then met Iroha.
The part with Torame chasing the sloat was cute, but I do wonder how the heck he found the egg. Did he always have it with it? It just magically appeared into his hand. Now that we’re almost at the forty-episode mark, I do wonder just how many more eggs are left.
Also, there was a sneak peek of human Niko at the end, watching over the group with a smile. Niko, since when can you do that? We’re almost at the 40-episode mark and you’re gonna be the fifth Precure? Is she going to be a Precure? Maybe she just has a human form but is still a supporting role as Goddess of Niko Garden? So many theories surrounding this unicorn… What are your thoughts?
So I was trying to figure out how many pages Ch. 1-3 of Sleepless Domain has, but I wound up reading a little of Ch. 4 and I noticed something. Something I had long forgotten...
Robes (détails) de Gareth Pugh (2007), Tao Kurihara pour Comme des Garçons (2008) et Rodarte (2008) à l'exposition “Gothic: Dark Glamour" présentée par le Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) en ligne sur Google Arts & Culture, avril 2020.
