this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
7 points (100.0% liked)

Manga

640 readers
18 users here now

This community is for discussions related to manga.

Rules

Post Tags

Post tags are optional, but are recommended since some frontends can use them to categorize posts. Some recommended post tags:

Related communities

founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] wjs018@ani.social 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I really liked Gorou reaching up from the depths to exact his revenge on Hikaru. It actually mirrors some of the visuals from the anime's season 1 ED in which Aqua is plunged into water and is held down by red threads:

After it is all said and done though, Hikaru has not really lived up to the villainous figure that we have imagined for a large chunk of this series from Aqua's POV. I guess there is some symmetry with Ai there if you think about it.

When Aqua/Gorou got to know Ai in real life and then even more closely as he investigated her after her death, it turned out that she was just a talented person, but still a person at the end of the day. He had initially built her up inside his head as this unapproachable prodigy, but that was shattered after Akane was able to channel Ai so well in the dating show, causing Aqua's perception of Ai to start to come back down to earth. Similarly with Hikaru, he is built up as some kind of supervillain inside Aqua's head. However, the reality is that Hikaru is just a dude with an unhealthy worldview and obsession with Ai.

Edit: looking back through the chapter now, the full page spread is eerily similar to the season 1 ED. Compare the spread to the screenshot I grabbed above. It almost has to be intentional.

[โ€“] mo_lave@reddthat.com 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

I'm sure Aka's involved with the ED in some way. The whole chapter is Mephisto in manga form.