#zaenaris

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"Hikaru" hugging Yoshiki's pillow🤲🥹

He just wanted Yoshiki's attention🥹

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Anyway, I love how an agent of chaos Tanaka is

He just arrives at Takeda's house, randomly drops the bomb, and tells him something very plot relevant and traumatic for all Kubitachi's lore as it was nothing

Nonuki-sama never existed, the ritual was useless and the villagers in the past killed people for nothing

And he laugh offering exactly 0 explanations to this traumuatized man lol

Then he follows "Hikaru" and Yoshiki, and enjoys their fight/resolution/confession from afar. He just like us fr, he was enjoying his show (tbh, joking asides, I loved the decision of the anime not to let him interfere between yoshikaru and let them resolve alone the matter, the narration gave them more agency in the anime)

So yeah, at the same he

did absolutely nothing

traumatized an old man

gave us very important plot relevant info

enjoyed the teenage drama

What an unbothered king 👑

[zaenaris]

"The Summer Hikaru Died" is a masterpiece of adaptation. Period.

I'm not kidding, I watched quite a few anime adaptation in my life and HikaNatsu anime season 1 is probably the best adaptation I've ever seen.

First of all, having the author Mokumokuren working on the anime surely helped a lot and it shows, but you can feel that the staff really poured their heart in this show (go watch on YT The making of TSHD to see the love behind this work)

Even if I read the manga and, in theory, I always perfectly knew where the story was going, the anime always managed to surprise me in positive! The staff was able to be true to the source material, adapting it in the right way for television/a different media. So they changed the order of a few events (like introducing Tanaka immediately), especially in the last episodes, they added the whole choir subplot that at first looked like a fanny recurring gag, but in thee end turned out to be plot relevant and. was linked to episode 7 when Yoshiki stabs "Hikaru".

And then again, it reappears in the last episode. "Hikaru" is clearly moved by its lyrics

They added original scenes along the whole seasong and everything looked so good.

Episode 12 was just amazing, but before screaming and shouting about the beauty of it, the only negative thing i noticed it's they probably didn't have much time bc the first part has many stills and shots from afar with very few animation(maybe they'll fix in in the dvd/blu ray) but I understand, everyone must be tired after a basically flawless season and they obviously wanted to focus on the last part of the episode. That said, the first part was drawn and directed beautifully anyway

That said, they never lost track of everything that happened in the season, the choir, the parallel in the ending in general (also in ep 12 they used real life shots for the train, landscape and villages) and. in particular where OG Hikaru made Yoshiki laugh as he always did, but "Hikaru" was never successfull untile episode 12, where he finally manages to (and the narration doesn't want you to miss it)

In general we had many parallelism and throw-backs to what we saw earlier in the season and I really loved that

i love how they changed the orders after "Hikaru" understands he has problems controlling himself and attacks Yoshiki, but in the anime they gave the aftermath of the attack more imho even more importance, where the logical conclusion for "Hikaru" was that he had to leave.

The whole conclusion of the episode is in part original,but in the sense that, the conclusion is the same (Yoshiki hasa breakdown where he can't allow "Hikaru" to leave, and "Hikaru" stays) and while it's very emotional in the manga, imho the anime, having changed the way we arrive here, having added part from volume 6 when Yoshiki thinks to himself as a "monster" bc he's gay and he know he can't belong in the village... gave the story more impact.

... And this moment here hurts so much.... Also they way they fight just like when they were in the bathtub and Yoshiki was possessed and though about the fight he and OG Hikaru had as children

And then the beautiful confirmation that "Hikaru" is not a substitute

and "Hikaru" doesn't want to leave either, he just wants Yoshiki's safety and happiness!

What I love about Mokumokuren and their writing is that, as they stays on the side of the "monster" (figurative or literal), therefore if any other story between a human and a monster, the monster would have left for the "greater good" of the human, here the narration via Yoshiki does not allow that

In any other context that would have been the wrong choice, but not here! Here staying with the monster (for the human/Yoshiki) and for "Hikaru" allowing himself to follow his desire to stay in the human world, is narratively the right thing! (Mokumokuren even drawn a little extra with various "bad endings" about that lol)

And this is important bc, as we know, Mokumokuren sides with the monsters, that way the literal monster "Hikaru" can stay with his favourite human, and Yoshiki feels he can finally be himself, free from the judgement and pressure he has in the village. Yoshiki wants to save "Hikaru" because he became his home, his safe place, if "Hikaru" is safe, then so is Yoshiki. And Yoshiki. thinks to be selfish, but (in the manga, later in volume six) "Hikaru" assures him that, even if the case, he doesn't care.

The whole internal monologue of Yoshiki happens in a slighy different moment and context in the manga after they met again with Tanaka, but you know what? I think I prefer the anime adaptation, even if I'm curious to see how they will adapt that part in the next season (which is confirmed, btw, yay!)

And I think I prefer it because it leads to that beautiful "I'm with you","It's you and me"

The love between these 2 characters is amazing

I loved how the anime at the begin of the episode shows us how "Hikaru" is conflicted, the little scene where he plays with the "master x master" characters, almost as if he's preparing to say farewell to Yoshiki, the way he arrives late at school and says "goodbye" to the places as school that were important to him

For the whole episode, "Hikaru" prepared himself to say goodbye to Yoshiki and go back to the mountain for, what he believes, is Yoshiki's good. He understands he can be dangerous for Yoshiki, even unintentionally

This moment here just kills me because it is so painfully clear that "Hikaru" wants to stay, but he wants Yoshiki's happiness more, so he's ready to be the classical her and to do what we talked about earlier, what in another story would have been "the right thing" in order to protect the human rules and life.

And it's right here that Yoshiki gets mad at "Hikaru's" plan to leave, bc he knows why he's doing it and he doesn't want that

Now i understand why the production said in one of the "making of TSHD" on Youtube that everyone agreed on Kobayashi Chiaki as Yoshiki's voice actor after hearing him acting this last part of the episode

Even if he has problems to distinguish human feelings and emotions (but how can wee blame him? These stuff are difficult even for us humans), he grew up so much and learnt his own desires, his own preference, his own feelings for Yoshiki, something that maybe it's impossible to define, bc "Hikaru" himself is an impossible entity , and yet, the emotions are there anyway

And to be honest, the whole original part where Yoshiki just falls on his knees, begging "Hikaru" to stay, it's just poetic cinema

How am I supposed to work, as a person, after all this beauty?

The parallel to episode 3, where it's "Hikaru" begging Yoshiki not to hate him after their "mixing", is something I love

The adoration and desperation, first in "Hikaru" 's eyes, here is matched by Yoshiki's actions.

And how could "Hikaru" even think to say "no" to this Yoshiki?

But he can always teases him a little, as a treat and throw back 🖤

[zaenaris]

"The Summer Tsujinaka-kun had various mental breakdowns" Written and directer by Tanaka-san

[zaenaris]

Official art of Yoshiki's new haircut by Mokumokuren

Don't touch me, I'm so emotional🥹❤️🤧

Yoshiki's long bangs have been a recurring theme since the beginning of the story, it was a way to be both rebellious to the status quo where everyone always told him to just cut it, and a way to hide himself.

Now the extra chapter from volume 1 is more relevant than ever (let's not focus on "Hikaru'"'s hand-on-Yoshiki's-leg for a second and let's focus on the dialogue)

But it was true it was getting difficult for him to see (deep down he was happy when "Hikaru" gave him the cat hairclip, "Hikaru" is just so cute and thoughful. I want to see "Hikaru"'s reaction to Yoshiki's new hairstyle🥹)

So now Yoshiki deciding too cut his hair is huge, it means he's not afraid to face the world, he is what he is and it's okay , he has nothing to hide!

I know that the Important Haircut is a trope as old as times, cutting hair many times symbolizes exactly what we see, growth, change, nothing new here, but I love to see Yoshiki getting so much more confident in himself.

I loved his cute emo-coded bangs, ngl, he was so cute🥹 but I appreciate what this means for him and his development. And the fact it was Satoko, his mom, cutting his hair, is like a reconciliation between the 2 of them,considering that until a few chapters ago, it was almost like Yoshiki refused to see his mom and the narrative shoowed it...never showing her face. Satoko has always been supportive of her children and even if she is an hairstylist, never forced Yoshiki to cut his hair when he decided he wanted it longer, so she making sure he was really ok with that.

Again, cutting hair to symbolize growth is nothing new in media literature, but nevertheless, I loved this moment.

I'm so proud of my sweet boy Yoshiki 🥹

Farewell Yoshiki's bangs, you will be missed, but it was for the plot and the character development!

Bonus bc the Tsujinaka siblings are precious

[zaenaris]

I love how good everyone look in the Zozotown collab, especially Yoshiki. His outfit reminds me of this other official art, it's probably the key chain (I have no idea where this art comes from, but I love his outfit).

I feel once he'll be finally able to move in Tokyo he'll be more into fashion, I mean...

...my boy cannot be really that indifferent to fashion if he wants to look all nice to see "Hikaru" again and he thinks, with a bit of resignation, that his best outfit is his school uniform, on which he had 0 agency on, since it's literally a standard for every student.

From a volume 2 extra, it seems to me that he's kind of sad/resigned that he can't really wear nothing nice since it's useless being stylish in the middle of the nowhere in the countryside (and I can't blame him, especially when in the village everyone is quick to criticize everyone for everything and we know Yoshiki suffers from that)

My boy Yoshiki will be so happy to experiment with fashion when he'll be in Tokyo and "Hikaru" will be so supportive. Viceversa is also valid, "Hikaru" imho will have to unlearn to hate himself (he's really in a bad place rn, physically and psychologically) and he will find his own self, like he is already realizing (the beach scenes, when for the first time it's not Yoshiki telling him how different he his from Hikaru, but it's "Hikaru" himself pointing out their differences)

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Ok this is amazing, because it is an anime only scene and I love. it. In the manga the scene stops where Asako sees them after "Hikaru" came to sense before hurting Yoshiki, we don't see what happens after because the scene changes and the next time when yoshikaru interact, in the manga, is when they visit the Indou family temple.

I love the choice of the anime to change a little the order of the events, imho it's a great adaptation choice bc it allowed to introduce important characters like Tanaka from ep.1 and it allowed the story to have an equally fluid, if not better, flow and, in this case, it allowed to add this part where we can start to see how "Hikaru" is growing distressed about his situation.

Yoshiki is fine, genuinely fine with what happened, he just want to be with this entity at all costs, but "Hikaru" is starting to realize he doesn't know himself, what his instincts are, but he realizes he can be dangerous to Yoshiki and even if, as he said to Rie, he doesn't really gets human emotion (my sweet little eldritch summer entity, humans are difficult to understand for humans too, don't put yourself down, you've been on this Earth in this form fo 6-7 months, you're doing fine🤲 )

Paralleling the part where "Hikaru" grabbed. Yoshiki's arm and left the mark, now it's Yoshiki's that grabs "Hikaru"trying to reassure him that, it's okay, Yoshinki is literally on his knees, dear Lord, I know it was an intentional choice!

Hikaru later goes to Rie, trying to understand better the implication of mixing and it it can be dangerous for Yoshiki. It's here he says that he struggles to understand human, but he knows he just wants Yoshiki to be safe and happy.

And it's here, for the first time, he says he maybe should go back to the mountain, even if they don't know if this will solve the problem (won't spoil the rest since it's a manga spoiler)

But he's just so sad, he thinks it's the right thing to do to protect Yoshiki, but it's so clear he doesn't want to leave and he doesn not want to be alone, without Yoshiki

Yoshiki himself said him this beautiful thing, he doesn't need to be human

The theme of belonging, is also explained by Toshinori this same. episode, "Hikaru" is desperate to belong somewhere (just like Yoshiki is, that's why we wants lo leave the village, he knows he won't be welcomed anymore, if he's true to himself)

Don't really want to spoil for anime only but (spoilers under cut) we already saw from ep.11 how Yoshiki immediately freaks out when "Hikaru" leaves, all distressed. Since in the manga the order is different, I wonder what will happen after that and how they will re-connect to continue the story

Little bonus: I love how the anime empathizes this part of the manga (chapter 23) where "Hikaru" is reading various fairy tales/children books

It is important because in the short story added as an extra in volume 5 talks exactly about this: "HIkaru" doesn't understand humans, so reads illustrated books and fairy tales to try to understand but Yoshiki says he doen't like the "Beauty andthe Beast" look-alike fairy tale "Hikaru" is reading, becausee. it's never from the POV of the monster

And it ends in a very cute and hopeful way where both sides, human and "moster", Yoshiki and"Hikaru" wants to learn more about the other🖤

[zaenaris]

In the end, Indous fatal flow is to love too much

The Indous' sin was the fact that the young ancestor, head of the family, wanted to have his beloved wife back at all costs, even sacrifying everyone else in the village. But, as we know it didn't end up well. A classic case of "Be Careful What You Wish For", a cautionary tale of what should not be done.

The Indou Ancestor was a sort of Anti-hero, in a sense. You can't really blame him to want the love of his life back, but on the other side, he was ready to give the Mountain God all the heads he though the God wanted, he didn't care about anyone else, besides his family; doing so, he doomed first the village, and unwillingly his wife Hichi-san since she came back but suffered before dying again, and later his family/descendants, to atone for his single sin of wanting his wife back

Hikaru instead, is a very selfless character, differently from his ancestor. When he's dying, he didn't wish to live, he's afraid to fail his Daddy, having failed the ritual, he doesn't want his Mom, that already lost his husband to suffer again, he doesn't want anyone to suffer. In particular, he doesn't want to leave Yoshiki alone and when he sees the entity that will become "Hikaru", (for a lack of better term, in order to avoid manga spoilers), his wish is for someone to stay with Yoshiki...

When something bad happened on Nisayama (the cursed mountain) is because "the entity" is moved by people that loves too much and by its instinct to grant wished

Now this part is up to speculation, but I think the "entity"/"Hikaru" is really moved by these strong emotions even if, especially in the past, he didn't understand that, especially since we know that "Hikaru"'s instinct is to fill up the void inside him, that's why he's so attracted by souls, and to Yoshiki's soul in particular, that he finds so pretty

So yeah, in the end, it's always about love...