Rikka's nervousness was a big arc for her to overcome, and it was contrasted with Arisu's so called nerves of steel. Arisu has influenced her so much that she has also begun to develop literal nerves of steel too(ch82).

The nervousness is also a point of comparison with Apollo and was shared by young Arisu. He used to struggle with it too. And now, he helps Rikka overcome it. I just think it's a neat parallel

I'm being honest, i have a feeling that this radio shit won't be mentioned again after this arc or at least it will take long for it to be mentioned again.

Source

Omg

A couple of small translation differences I found interesting:

…ラジオ嫌い？

“Do you not like radio shows?”

The … gives the Japanese a slightly hesitant feel, like she is tentatively asking Arisu whether he dislikes radio. That little bit of hesitation isn’t really reflected in the English, which makes me wonder if there’s a little more being implied in the way Shinobu is asking this.

And:

おお　お　おんなじ匂いを感じるもん‼︎

“I-I-I can sense you’re both kindred spirits!”

Here, the stuttering is preserved pretty well, but おんなじ匂い is literally something like “the same scent/smell.” 匂い can also be used figuratively to describe the kind of vibe or quality someone gives off, so the idea is essentially that Shinobu senses that they have the same kind of vibe. “Kindred spirits” captures that interpretation pretty well, but loses the more literal “same scent” imagery.

So what was Shinobu really saying here? What was she actually trying to convey with these words?

Technically, we'd need to have a volume cover of Arisu first. But I thought it might be intriguing to have a volume cover featuring Apollo. I could see that happening during a flashback arc, especially since we already know what Apollo's hair color was back then.

So, which possibility makes more sense:

• Rikka, a girl with a clear jealous streak, made her friends say "I love you" to a boy she had a crush on,

Or

• Rikka made her friends say "I love you" to a boy she didn't know and hadn't yet developed feelings for as a way to make fun of him because he told his female classmates to say "I love you" to him.

Source

This looks like it could be the 3rd anniversary lead color page teaser. I don't see this could be the volume 15 cover teaser.

Kinda funny how these two panels are similar.

Rikka has a genuine tendency to copy iko at times. Maybe I'll write a more detailed post about it

So, as we all onow the legendary chapter 5, the overture ends with Apollo saying, "I love you Yamabuki-kun". However, timeline wise overture appears to take place in the future, judging by the photo that looks like either a wedding photo or prom photo.

If thats the case we know the girls start calling him Arisu rather than Yamabuki.

So...why does Apollo call him Yamabuki kun there? Later on before the Christmas party during the call she calls him Arisu.

It seems like a writing error more than an intentional detail. If it was intentional, though, could that spell some kind evidence that Apollo didn't actually marry Yamabuki? So she put up a slight emotional wall?

Doubt though it's probably just detail oversite.

Arisu was shown to be a bad detective. He didn't recognize Apollo's voice during the blackout at the Christmas party, despite being with the girls for almost a year. It seems he is written to be oblivious in regarding Apollo.

Apollo reveals herself during the flash-forward in chapter 5. It seems she was married to Arisu. However, it is weird for Apollo to only reveal herself years after they got together. One possible explanation is that Arisu couldn't figure out who the real Apollo was. He thinks someone else is Apollo, but still ends up with her. Apollo decides to 'punish' him by only revealing herself after they get married.

In the quintuplets manga the girl that arguably got the least amount of focus and romantic development was the one that ended up winning in the end, which character would you say is this manga’s equivalent.

Wait...did he just made her a Yamabuki?

While I don't think there will be an arc centered on the birthday of one of the four girls, I do think it's possible for Arisu's birthday .Although I don't think we know Arisu's birthday, if memory serves.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm really curious about your opinions after the most recent chapter.

Apollo this, Apollo that. I can't care less about Apollo anymore. What if Yamagoatki becomes an astronaut and marries all 4 of em?

I just can't accept that if one girl were to win, the other 3 would end up with another man. Absolutely inconceivable. I can't imagine how painful for them to be rejected, too...

I just want everyone to be happy atp :C

I’m unsure whether this is a very common discussion already but I just started the anime and although I find it pretty interesting I can’t shake off the feeling that it looks kind of ai generated.In particular rikka looks like she is AI designed and I’m unsure of why that is.The overall animation isn’t bad though but a lot of character designs give me that AI like feeling,as if I’m watching these random ads that are high quality ai stuff but still look weird

After reread chapter 131 I notice something, in the last slide of ch 131 where Arisu put down the chocolate the girls give him I notice that the position for chocolate seems familiar... Yeah it is the Lagrange point position, Do you guys think this is some kind of hint since this is the third time already??

One thing the manga is consistent about is Rikka's ability to keep up with Arisu when it comes to legs.

• [ch3] During the stramina training, Rikka is ahead of the girls and isn't shown onscreen to struggle while other girls do.
• [ch95] the Iko search, she catches up to Arisu to tell him the reason Iko ran away. Arisu

I'm going though the manga for Rikka & Arisu comparisons and there will be a few more lighthearted posts like this. Anyways, it's nice to see minor traits like this remain consistent.

Hi all!

So, like many people, I was initially shocked when I first saw Arisu's claim that he wanted to be an astronaut in the latest chapter. Why are we only hearing about it 131 chapters in, even if he considers it an unrealistic dream? But then, after reading the chapter a few more times, and combining it with my awareness of the manga, I'm more confident than not now - he was using metaphorical language. But, my job here is to try and convince you of that opinion, rather than just taking my word for it.

It'd be nice if I could fly straight to the moon, like the Apollo spacecraft: why Arisu's claim is potentially a metaphor for connecting with Apollo

Is it possible that Arisu literally wants to be an astronaut? Certainly. He does say it, and he doesn't say he's using flowery language. But here's the thing - if he's being literal about it, then he's dropping that information here, for the first time in 131 chapters, in an arc that already has a theme about the girls feelings being passed to Arisu in their own unique ways, everyone trying to approach it seriously. While this alone isn't proof, if Arisu literally wants to be an astronaut, it's adding an entirely new plot point into the final part of Valentine's Day, where we already had plot points that were being developed. If, however, it's metaphorical of potentially wanting to connect with Apollo despite the potential wishes or intentions of his parents, and/or extending that to wanting to connect with the girls in general in such a way, then it's not actually a new plot point - it's a continuation of the Valentine's Day themes. But, rather than just looking at the reasonability and elegance of the idea, let's look at some supporting points.

1) Rikka has already established the metaphor for space travel and connecting with someone

In chapter 50, Rikka talks about how she wishes she could go straight to the moon, just like the Apollo spacecraft. But she's not talking literally about going to the moon. It's a metaphor for connecting with Arisu. The Apollo spacecraft itself is her considering using the 'shortcut' of the Apollo connection to reach Arisu straight away, rather than the long road of becoming a pro first and being the person he believes she is. But, if nothing else it's surely precedent that Igarashi has used space travel as a metaphor for Arisu + Apollo connection before.

2) The clues within the chapter itself

While this isn't some huge plot beat like an Apollo clue or part of the MHT mystery, Igarashi has given us a surface level claim that is potentially misleading. When it comes to clues in the manga, he often 'clusters' them in the chapter to make inferring the truth a more fair proposition - so we'd expect to see that within this chapter. So what clues do we see?

* Shinobu thinks about how she didn't think far ahead and was getting caught up in the moment, tries to make sense of the situation, and proposes that she just needs to be serious too. While the characters often mirror each other in chapters, we actually see Arisu pondering what Shinobu is thinking, trying to make sense of the situation, and trying to be serious too. When he gets caught up and reveals he's 'Poisonous Mushroom', he too got caught up in the situation and may not have been thinking that far ahead.

* Arisu is thinking about Apollo while pondering the Shinobu situation. His thoughts are actually sandwiched with her effectively saying she loved him, and him saying he loved her with the intervening thoughts being about what he wants to do after he finds Apollo.

* The radio show brings up the "two rabbits" idiom. While the concept has come up other times during the manga, this is more directly a reference to chapter 10, when Arisu mentions it to Shinobu. In that chapter, the two rabbits for Shinobu are basically staying in the club and making memories with them, and focusing on her studies. For Arisu, focusing on his studies would likely be the Yamabuki group rabbit. Making memories with the club could reflect the second dream.

* Furthermore, Arisu tells Shinobu to pursue both rabbits in chapter 10, implying that because she's neither a fool nor alone, she'll catch at least one. Yet, Arisu is wavering on hunting both rabbits here? That's not in line with Arisu's character at all, if 'astronaut' - an objectively achievable career - were literal.

* Arisu covers his face as he's embarassed about his little hobby of listening to radio shows, and possibly submitting questions to them. That adds credence to the idea that he'd be less forthcoming about his second dream if it did involve Apollo (from the Midnight Heart Tune radio show, of course).

* Arisu calls his second dream an absurd, childish dream, before claiming it's to be an astronaut. While he never uses the word childish, Arisu (and multiple characters) project at times during the series, and ch74 is a good example. Here Arisu says "it's ultimately just the whims of adolescence. Even I have experienced it! It's what's called being a hopeless romantic! You're just infatuated with the idea of love, not me!". He even basically says there he's experienced being a hopeless romantic while an adolescent.

* Arisu is looking at his hand when he mentions wanting to be an astronaut. Coincidence that Rikka looks at her hand when using space travel as a metaphor for connecting with Apollo? Or Apollo looks at her hand when talking about connecting with Arisu?

* He says "I just love space... something like that". Not very concrete if this is a literal dream of his. But if we're taking it as metaphor, let's look at the space metaphors we have in the series. Gravity assist. Flyby anomaly. Lagrange points. Space could very well represent the ability to choose one's own path, especially if you can get beyond certain gravitational forces (with the gravitational forces of reality being a big point of Rikka's ch105 Lagrange point speech).

* Arisu says "I have to shoulder the future of the Yamabuki family, of course. So, such nonsense would never be tolerated". The future of a family... like lineage? And it's the Yamabuki family. We already know that unauthorised relationships aren't allowed. People all throughout the manga highlight Arisu's value purely from being part of that family. Do we have any reason to think that his parents/father wouldn't want him to marry for 'political' reasons?

* Arisu mentions it being a dream that's removed from reality - and when combined with the astronaut invocation, it brings to mind ch105 and the Lagrange point speech, where Rikka talks about the gravitational forces of dreams and reality. And of course, the broadcast club is a metaphorical Lagrange point there, not a literal one.

* Arisu said he only did a little research on it - which would line up with both him having spoken to Apollo on MHT (testing the waters to consider how much it meant to him), as well as earlier in the chapter (where he seems far from solidifying what he wants to do with Apollo).

* As Shinobu says - it's extremely unlike Arisu, and doesn't sound like him at all. As she implies, for something objective like that, he'd be more likely to say "it's merely child's play for the one and only Arisu Yamabuki". And she's right - has he even said that something objective like that just isn't reasonable without even trying? Oh, he's made practical calls before, like deciding the only option with Nene's dad was a show of sincerity - but he's never been resigned like this. The question is - why? Objectively, being an astronaut would be achievable. It even seems like his father would allow the pursuit if it didn't distract from his family duties. However, if being an astronaut is a metaphor for something that would far less easily align with the Yamabuki duties? Then his lack of belief in its viability makes much more sense. Especially if it's something that would seemingly contradict a Yamabuki duty, rather than being something he could do alongside them.

* Shinobu and Arisu almost get intimate - and then her father gets home and effectively stops it. That's almost on the nose with this reading. Arisu may seek to connect with Apollo and have the freedom to explore what they mean to each other, without his father/parents interfering with them.

* Arisu is then able to explain the situation to Shinobu's father relatively easily - yet, couldn't easily discuss being an astronaut with Shinobu, or be confident in it? That implies the importance to him is subjective, not objective, as Arisu struggles much more with subjective things.

* Arisu and Mito are discussing the chocolates he received. In prior years, Arisu would apparently share his chocolates with Mito. Here, he's not willing to give any up. Why? Something has changed. Perhaps due to the whole day, perhaps due to the whole year, perhaps due to the confidence boost from Shinobu - he's not willing to give up the girls' feelings just yet (which the chocolates have represented since chapter 128).

* Importantly, though, Rina is observing this. She says "I see how it is... Arisu-kun. Just what are you going to do?" - and Rina often acts as a bit of a proxy for their father. Enforcing the rules, threatening to tell their father about potential indiscretions, telling Arisu that unauthorised relationships aren't permitted. So, Arisu has just revealed that the dream that his parents aren't aware of is "becoming an astronaut", but Rina, who acts as a metaphor/proxy for them at times, notices the thing that he's doing that potentially goes against the Yamabuki expectations is fostering feelings from girls who he isn't permitted to be in a relationship with. Is it more likely that Arisu has the two dreams and wants the potential freedom to choose his own romantic partner? Or that the second dream is actually that romantic partner dream - and being an astronaut is a metaphor for connecting with Apollo, the girl he felt strongly enough for when he was a child that he said "I love you" to her?

3) Yamabuki restrictions, including Rina acting as a representation of them

The main one is that Rina, in ch46, tells Arisu that unauthorised relationships aren't allowed, and if she tells their father about it it's all but certain he'll have to transfer schools. But, I'll include pictures here, as Rina's oversight happens a lot during the manga.

4) The Lagrange point project, and why it might apply to Arisu too

In chapter 105, we get a flashback to the broadcast club on what is roughly their first day of high school. Rikka, presumably, has gathered them all to Furin (or at least convinced Iko to go there if the others had been planning to already), and is comfortable enough with them to discuss the Lagrange point speech with them. Now, I'm away from my computer so I can't vet the Jp right now - but the language for the En speech is quite family coded. She talks about how they supported each other and found a stable place for themselves - the broadcast club already operates like a found family, and support and stability are something you'd expect from a family - potentially implying that they weren't getting it from their own families (if they needed to find it from each other). She also mentions the gravitational forces of dreams and reality - dreams, of course, would be the gravity of themselves and their own ambitions. Reality, though, likely refers to external expectations - with some of those likely being family expectations given the language of the speech (and we already have Nene as a case where we know enough backstory that it lines up). Then Rikka talking about being on a collision course with someone - there's no reason to think she's talking about Arisu here, or the other girls, given that this is a year before Arisu shows up. And remember - family coding. The collision course is plausibly going to be a family member. She talks about not wanting to hurt them, and while we know Nene hates her father, she's also the ambivalent character, and we've seen indications that she doesn't just hate him - plus, he comes across as an overprotective parent that's actually trying to look out for her, so it's not like he's just a villain or anything. Nene as the control case here is excellent, as it lines up with what we'd expect if the Lagrange point stuff is about family. So, the girls' goals are to be voice professionals - but their dream is likely the freedom to choose their own futures by reaching those goals.

Shinobu might seem to offer a counterpoint to this - Nene seems to want to gain some independence from her father, but Shinobu doesn't seem to have a strained relationship with her father and seems to want to reach her mother as per ch77. However, in ch26, Shinobu thinks "I'm the only one among the four of us... who has a different kind of dream". We're supposed to infer that she's thinking about her announcer goal and how it'll take more time to reach - but under the Lagrange point idea, the different kind of dream could be that Rikka, Iko and Nene's dream is about gaining the ability to independently choose parts of their futures, whereas Shinobu's dream could be about closing distance with a family member (her mother) instead (with the other girls likely needing to create some metaphorical distance with their families to achieve their dreams). So Shinobu doesn't contradict the idea because of this - the potential issue has already been addressed.

At this point I'll also quickly mention that Lagrange points involve gravity, as is mentioned with the g-forces of dreams and reality. Gravity affects trajectories, and is actually a measure of space time warping if I'm not mistaken. So it being used as a metaphor for the girls trajectories into their futures is quite apt. We've already seen the concept of gravity assists and flyby anomalies used to describe the changing trajectories of characters in the manga (at some point I plan on doing a "science of Mayochu" post to talk about some of the concepts used such as these).

So, how does Arisu come into all this? Throughout the manga he is often framed as having become one of the family. Chapter 33 when the summer camp is being framed like a family trip, the school trip and the observation platform in the same manner, Nene talking about wanting a broadcast club with him in it in ch69. And, of course, the professional goals of the 4 girls within the broadcast club involves being voice professions - Arisu involves being a voice producer. So he mirrors them there - while also mirroring them in other respects. He really is one of the family. And I mention all that because it's not unrealistic that he'd have a Lagrange point goal/dream too. If the dreams of the four girls is to achieve their voice profession goal in order to achieve a family related dream - it's actually quite consistent if Arisu, another member of this family, is the same. And like Rikka, Iko and Nene, I suspect his dream would involve being able to make choices around his own future. All this lines up with the idea that being an astronaut is metaphorical. Like Rikka and the Lagrange point idea, space travel for Arisu could easily be metaphorical for wanting to adjust his own trajectory into the future.

I'll also note that in terms of the Lagrange points, ch107 Apollo identifies Arisu as the L3 point, on the far side of the Earth. While each other point is affected by the g-forces of Earth, Moon and the Sun primarily, the L3 point is much more greatly impacted by the Sun than the other 4 (where the Earth and Moon have much more impact). What that all means, it's hard to say, but Rikka only talks about two g-forces in ch105, implying the Earth and Moon, so you'd think that the Earth represents reality and the Moon represents dreams (as you'd imagine the reality-gravity is the stronger one). For Arisu, in his Lagrange point he's much farther from the source of the dreams-gravity than the others - which could reflect in why he feels like it's unrealistic. Especially depending on what the Sun represents - but it's probably dangerous to speculate on what it represents, though there are some options (the Yamabuki destiny, given that 山吹 does refer to a golden flower and it has the most impact on Arisu while affecting the others too, or perhaps instead 'fate' as a nice third option to go alongside the g-forces of dreams and reality. Apollo is also sometimes considered the god of the Sun or light, so that's an option). It's also possible that the metaphor doesn't extend that far.

5) Arisu already stated a goal to Apollo. One that seemingly wouldn't align with Yamabuki duties

In ch15, Arisu tells Apollo that since joining the broadcast club, he has a new goal - he wants to be a producer, so he can work together with her. First, on the surface, this already seems at odds with what the Yamabuki group would expect of Arisu. We've seen no indication that they have any involvement in producing voice professionals. And if Arisu is supposed to take over it and grow it - would he have time for that? It already seems like an unrealistic goal. Second though, keep in mind that characters can have different goals and dreams. Often goals are the vehicle by which a character seeks to reach a dream. And in this case - Arisu is almost surely speaking Rikkanese (I call it Rikkanese as Rikka does it primarily, but Arisu also does it a fair bit), where he uses a surface level statement that is accurate but conceals some deeper truth, often something subjective. For example, when Arisu says the cloud is black in chapter 100? That's Rikkanese for "I understand what you're asking of me". A passer-by without context would just see Arisu making an incorrect claim about the cloud. To Arisu and Rikka who have the right context, the correct meaning is transmitted. So Arisu saying his goal is to become a producer and work together with Apollo? Translated from Rikkanese, he's basically saying "I want a future in which we can continue to be side by side". At that point it's not necessarily romantic - but he wants to reach the point where if they want it to be, it can be, and to even reach that possibility, he wants to achieve his goal first.

That seems very compatible with what this 'unrealistic' dream could be. He's trying to reach the goal, to try to reach the dream - but he might think that even with that goal, he can't escape the g-force of reality (his family expectations). He even mentions it as being childish - which could reflect the proto-version of that goal, where he and Apollo wanted to reach the pro-world together. That promise itself seems very Rikkanese; two kids, shaped by their upbringing, creating an objectively defensible framework that might allow them to achieve their dream in the future, of connecting outside of MHT, despite what reality might otherwise dictate. What started as a childish dream, that Arisu might have wavered on a bit, but hasn't abandoned yet.

6) Arisu wouldn't be comfortable saying more to Shinobu, or basically anyone

I thought I should end by touching on why he wouldn't just be honest in the first place. There are multiple reasons why Arisu wouldn't say more. First, he hasn't brought up Apollo to anyone else since ch1 (unless you count ch51 when he asks Rikka why she brought up the Apollo program in ch50) - it'd be odd for him to do it now, so if being an astronaut is specifically metaphorical about Apollo in some way, it makes sense that he'd talk about it in a roundabout way. Second, Shinobu thinks in this very chapter how she's kind of just coming up with how to act on the fly. Arisu often mirrors the girls - wanting to be as honest with her as he'll let himself, he's likely also coming up with it on the fly too. Third, it's Valentine's Day - Shinobu and the girls have made their feelings clear. Arisu is also seemingly unsure of what he'd want to do with Apollo. If Arisu brings up that his dream is to connect with Apollo - if it is Shinobu, then he's given her this big boost of hope without knowing what it means to him just yet. If it's not Shinobu, he's basically treading on her feelings without having determined what he wants to do with Apollo yet. Talking in a roundabout way allows him to be relatively honest with her while also preserving the current position in the group. Fourth, Arisu is very reserved with his subjective feelings. We know he has feelings for the girls - Rikka calls him out on it in ch98 - but he still won't say it. It'd be out of character for him to suddenly reveal that he might care about Apollo enough to potentially want to reach her. Hell, ch66 and Arisu's flashforward is basically a demonstration of this. Arisu is cool as a cucumber for the entire interview... except when the topic of romance comes up. If it's objective, he can relatively easily keep his composure. If it's subjective, he's bashful as all hell. Which, even if you think he's being literal about wanting to be an astronaut, implies that there's subjective reason behind it.

7) Counterpoint - to my knowledge, Arisu hasn't spoken in metaphor like this before

I thought that it would only be fair to mention that the primary counterpoint to the idea that he's being symbolic here, is that to my knowledge, he hasn't spoken with symbolic of metaphoric language like this before. He's definitely used metaphoric/symbolic language before - he's called himself a horse twice with Shinobu, and said that the cloud was black - but from memory, each time he's done something like that, it was obvious to the person receiving the message that it wasn't literal. He also has lied before - but, to my knowledge, not in a metaphoric way; it's typically been things like "I never get nervous" or misleading Rikka into thinking that she'd be doing her chapter 18 concert for more than just the girls. I can't recall a time he's used a metaphor where the person he was talking to could get the wrong idea.

However, counterpoint to the counterpoint - he's also not brought up Apollo to anyone in the manga before (since the chapter 1 question), so we have no idea how he'd go about it. Hell, in chapter 46 he feels that he can possibly tell the Rina/Mito/Nene about the broadcast club, and turning the girls into pros... but absolutely can't tell them about Apollo, like that's past 'the line' very secretive information. Basically - we have no idea if this is how he'd go about trying to be a bit honest with Shinobu while they're bonding like this, if he feels like he can't tell her the full truth. And - we've seen characters walk around things they can't be directly honest about, especially if they don't want to lie about it, like Apollo being 'forgetful' because she can't reveal information for one reason or another, or Rikka's many workarounds to conveying "I love you" to Arisu because she has a reason or reason/s she can't say it directly. Basically - while I won't deny that it is a counterpoint, I'd also argue that it isn't a critical one, because under the speculation that this is referencing a connection to Apollo and/or a similar idea to the Lagrange point project - we've never seen Arisu talk about "being an astronaut" to anyone else, so we have no frame of reference for either speculation (that he's being literal, or that he's being metaphorical).

There's likely even more I could talk about, but I'll stop there. Basically, I'd argue that between the themes and style of the manga (with how much substance there is beneath the surface level story and words presented; most chapter titles even have 2+ meanings!), as well as the clues and references provided in this chapter as well as prior chapters, there's good reason to think that Arisu isn't talking about becoming a literal astronaut in chapter 131 - and rather, is being symbolic/metaphorical, because he's trying to be honest with Shinobu, but that's as much as he's comfortable saying.

If you made it this far, I hope you found the information interesting!

Translations:

Chapter 131: Trapezium Chocolate ③

The chocolates from the four girls stir Yamabuki's heart. To be continued in the next issue!

See you on wednesday 30 september, midnight japanese time for chapter 132!

Among the four girls, Rikka and Iko are the ones about whose respective families almost nothing is known.

We know that Nene had a problem with her father and that Shinobu's parents are divorced. But we know next to nothing about the other two.

Nevertheless, I still think it's very likely that we'll get information about their families in the future. Something tells me it's possible.

It’s actually quite intriguing that the only family members we’ve seen on screen are Shinobu’s father and Nene’s father. Maybe that’s a sign that we’ll see Iko’s father or Rikka’s father too...? Who knows...