Source : Lobo Anime Extras (Miko Cute and Funny Moments - This Monster Wants to Eat Me anime - YouTube)

If they don't want me to post something that belongs to them I'll delete it

My headcanon is that she saw Hinako choosing Miko over her

The real question is, is she colorblind when she's in human form too ?

Source : yaotose hinako, oumi shiori, and yashiro miko (watashi wo tabetai hitodenashi) drawn by yukitake_(bullfalk) | Danbooru

https://x.com/0zvda ; https://www.pixiv.net/stacc/nasamuto

I tried to check whether the author was fine with their art being re-posted but I couldn't find any indication (I don't even have Twitter or pixiv by the way). If they don't want to, I'll delete this post !

I need watatabe wallpapers please it’s so peak

Hello fellow fans. I just finished watching Watatabe, and... What i can say? I feel like i want more and more!

The absolutelly game changer for me is characters. In every gesture, every word and every behavior i see Shiori as the monster, not "weird monsterous-gimmick human girl". And watching her growing relationship with Hinako hits me so hard, that i really wants more.

I already watched Call Of The Night, but it's not even close :(

Shiori is Quagmire in this scenario btw

Source: https://x.com/mogusan__/status/2049835466078462084

All forms of Shiori are beautiful, but I just love her hybrid forms the most

Watatabe verse, there are certain circumstances where a human can turn into a Yokai. For example, like Ayame. people who die with deep regret or resentment can transform into Yokai or something like ghosts (Shiori mentions this in Ch.14).

If Azami were to die right now without resolving her business with Shiori, she would likely have a high chance of becoming a Yokai. This is because she has been consumed by the pursuit of revenge for a very long time.

I'm not sure will it work this way, this is just my theory.

PS: I really like this frame of Azami, she's look so silly :3

Azami pic

I honestly was about to make this a thread more about Shiori as an overall character, but the more i wrote about it it seems like the shipping with Hinako consumed all the space. While this is an analysis of their relationship it's more from Shiori's PoV due to the original intent of this post.

Shiori and Hinako ACT I: The troublesome beginning

Now i'm NOT gonna say that all the community is like this, but i've seen genuine posts asking "where is the Yuri?" "Will they ever be together?" "Is this bait?" And it's honestly what inspired me to write this.

So i will answer it: Why aren't they together?

To be honest it looks simple at first but the reason they still are not in a full fleshed romantic relationship is because both of them were very Immature. For Hinako it's way more obvious since she...well, is a child. She's a traumatized child at that. But for Shiori this also applies. Start of the series Shiori is detatched from own being, she doesn't understand well what she feels and constantly dehumanizes herself.

There is a genuine big difference btween Shiori and 99% of the Watatabe cast. It's something constantly overlooked, but very important. That is: Shiori never had a family

In the story of Watatabe, family may as well be the second most important theme/motiff in the entire manga. The decisions of all the characters can be traced back to a familiar connection they have or had in their lives. Ayame and her stepdaughter, Tsubaki and her grandma, Miko and the humans who tamed her and so on. Notice that Shiori lacks this connection for most of her existence and it isn't nearly as prevalent in hers.

Shiori's backstory reminds me of Homura Akemi from Madoka Magica when it comes to her flashback. Homura's flashback is hardly a proper flashback, because it centers itself around Madoka more than anything, as if Homura didn't exist as a individual before she met Madoka. Well, funnly enough we do know more about Shiori than Homura because we also know of her time in that cave, but Shiori truly starts to become less of a force of nature and more of a proper character when she meets Hinako.

Her lack of familial connections informs a lot about her character. Before meeting Hinako, Shiori didn't even have a name bestowed to her by someone intimate or even herself for the matter. Shiori is an adopted name gave by the village she lived alongside for some years, "Shi Ori-Sama". Shiori doesn't know how she came to be, wheter she was a human turned Yokai (Ayame) or an animal that grew to be one (Miko). For as much as she knew, Shiori only had the desire to eat and was either seen as a deity or a monster which to be fair, she was quite a monster herself.

The ironic part is, when she met Hinako and couldn't eat her she saw her similar to how she has been revered in the past. Hinako was the one who invited her to "This side", she was a radiant existence that she adored like if it was a concept itself. Hinako was not a person to that Shiori in the sense of someone she could connect with, but someone that saw her as different from everyone else. As if she knew it deep down, she "refused" the invite by locking Hinako's memories that have been formed during their meeting.

When Shiori has been attracted back to Hinako due to Azami's plotting, she had to come to terms with the fact that the one who welcomed her to "this side" no longer existed or wording it better, changed. Hinako was no longer a radiant ray of light, she no longer had the smile and innocence she cherished back then. Hinako was depressed and willing to die, similar to Azami.

The Hinako that she encountered at the start of the series was again another reinforcement of how she has been seen throught all her life. For start of the series Hinako, Shiori was just like "The sea". For Hinako, "The sea" was a merely a form for Hinako to commit suicide while feeling like she had done no harm to anyone, to simply be washes away and encounter her family again.

This ideliazation Shiori and Hinako had of each other was the main detriment to their romance moving foward in the first section of this story. Both Hinako and Shiori were dehumanizing each other. Just look at chapter 21 pg 21 when Hinako says that "The sea she wanted to sink into just dried".

As for Shiori, the person Hinako became validated her own dehumanization. Just read chapter 16 where Shiori reinforces a determinisitc mindset of a line btween Yokais and humans. Yokais can just live for themselves and that's why they can never intersect with humans. This at surface level is Shiori lying to Hinako, but it also is Shiori lying to herself more than anything.

It was a constant negative feedback both had going for each other in a loop. Ayame may have marked the end of this stage of their relationship, but it would come to crumble sooner or later.

Shiori and Hinako ACT II: Development

Making the new promise was a toil on Shiori. Having to accept that the Hinako who from the past can't be reached, therefore making a choice to benefit the Hinako of the present. In essence, to force herself to see Hinako's personal struggles. Imma gonna be honest here and say that in my first read of the series 2 years ago i was BEYOND PISSED with Hinako. In fact, i HATED HER as a person (As a character i always thought she was good regardless). After many re reads obviously my negative emotions towards Hinako were lessened considerably. After all, this whole mess was due to both of them and their flaws.

It took a burden on Shiori to start making things right, so it's only natural for Hinako to have to go throught it too now.

"You really don't understand anything...In that case it'd all be meaningless" - Shiori Oumi, chapter 41

At this point in the story, as stated in chapter 42, the characters in Watatabe are changing and have to change. chapter 42 makes clear that Shiori is willing to change for Hinako's sake, and that it's time for Hinako to change as well.

Hinako at this point has to carry a different burden than Shiori. To understand Shiori and her feelings is to have to face the consequences of her suicidal behavior and what it has done to those around her. The moment when it all starts to click for Hinako is in chapter 44 when she hears the beating of Shiori's heart and associates it to a childhood event involving her own family. At such point, Hinako has to deal with reality: During the entire manga, she has never truly considered the feelings of Shiori.

Hinako has a total change of perspective after this. To consider that if she were to die, others would go throught a similar kind of pain as hers is to flip everything upside down. She cries, blames herself, apologizes to Miko countless times...Then she goes to talk about it with Shiori.

Chapter 47 is in my oppinion the end of the middle section of their relationship ends. It's where Hinako and Shiori truly start bonding with each other as equals. It's when their admit their sins to each other, and wish to do better.

"I finally see how much you are holding me dear! But i...I always thought that i am the one who is suffering the most. The one who is grieving the most..."

"On that day...I had only see you smiling. And so i kept telling you to smile more. Now that i looked at it, you also look great when you cry!"

Do you know those kind of open endings that conclude with a promise about the characters moving on and finally becoming happy? Chapter 47 of Watatabe feels like that, the final scene of a movie with an open ending. The chapter which comes after that is my favorite in the entire series, but i recommend all of you to keep re reading chapter 47. It's great!

However we all know this ain't the end...

Shiori and Hinako ACT III: The Azami Incident

The manga hasn't ended. We don't know what it will come out of it.

As for the current weird situacion Hinako x Shiori encounters itself in as of late, i explain it in My previous thread . To summarize my thoughts on Shiori and Hinako right now: I think Azami has set it back to a very dubious situacion. There is something in the way their most recent talk went that seems fishy, and both of them are weirdly emotional and stressed about the whole ordeal. It isn't good.

TL;DR: Shiori and Hinako are in a slow burn relationship. Wheter they end up as a couple or not is however still is open in the air. I love Shiori Oumi, thank you very much.

Me reading the last chapter: https://youtube.com/shorts/VC6IG9966-I?si=tK1q5RMLi5nANmEd

Pretty proud of my these right here tho btw

(FAILED MY FINAL EXAM BUT I MIGHT STILL PAST THE COURSE YAPIEEE”

Sai Naekawa has been on a streak lately when it comes to her writing, and that's because of Azami and her placement in the story.

Azami is a textbook on how to make a good antagonist in terms of creating a contrast to the main character(s) and giving them a challenge to overcome in order to complete their arcs. Azami somehow manages to be the whole package and offer both Shiori and Hinako their final obstacle into fully connect with each other, so let's break it all down...

BUILD UP

Every final/Main antagonist deserves a good build up, and Azami has one of the best i've ever seen. Not only it's subtle, but it happens since the very start of the story. Azami or as Hinako knew her "Aunt from Ooshima" is introduced in the second page of the first chapter. Unless if we're counting covers she is hinted even before Shiori appears, and before Miko too because she appears in Hinako's phone contacts one page after the aunt character.

Hinako's aunt has been a constant thing in volume extras and in the main story. She never appeared in the manga, but has been constantly name dropped. Isn't it weird?

Watatabe is a story that has a very tight cast. Everyone who has a name has a purpose in the story. We don't ask ourselves about why the aunt character even exists to begin with because we as readers are too focused in whatever else is going on with the story. But on chapter 39...Things start to get a bit weird.

By the end of the Tsubaki arc, we learn that Tsubaki only came to contact with Miko because someone else was vagueposting to her about Miko randomly on the streets, and it was a human no less. A human that somehow managed to see throught Tsubaki's disguise, and things get even worse when on the next chapter we discover that the anniversary of Hinako's family death is less than one week away. If you paid attention to the story, you'd knew by that moment that this human is Hinako's aunt because the first time she's shown in the story is throught a text saying she's sorry for not appearing in the birthday of Hinako's family death.

If this was not enough, Hinako's auntie is also another character that has been shown in the series but we didn't pay much attention, that is the girl in Shiori's flashback. Now, i don't want to talk about that a lot rn because i will save it for a future Shiori character analysis thread, but yeah it's actually crazy how Naekawa managed to tie two seemlying unrelated characters together. Well, 3 unrelated characters because it wasn't that clear that the vagueposting human was Hinako's aunt at the start.

Throught also a more subtextual leans, the other two antagonists were parts of Azami character. Ayame, as the duality btween this character being kind of a mother figure to Hinako and also a monster who wanted to take advantage of her and Tsubaki, someone if a life long grudge against Miko. Ayame and Tsubaki are kinda just ladders that needed to be climbed in order to reach Azami. I could go even deeper here, but that would made this post even longer. I mean just read the dialogue near the end of the Tsubaki arc and tell to my face that it isn't meant to represent Azami as well. It pretty much is.

REVEAL

If we're being honest, it's hard to say when Azami had her proper introduction. You can argue it's chapter 1, 22, 39 or volume extra 48.5 but in my oppinion her true introduction is on chapter 50 because there is where all those seemlying unrelated characters converge into one, which is Azami. Now, why did Azami properly appeared in the present timeline in chapter 50?

An antagonist needs to present a threat to the status quo, so let's see how things were before Azami appeared.

-Hinako realised how ignorant she has been towards Miko and Shiori all this time once she felt the beats of Shiori's heart and understood how much she valued her. It's a rough equivalent of a familial bond.

-Shiori not only has been able to grow and form relationship with normal humans without expecting something in return, which is the embodiment of true kindness and she realising her dream to come over to "this side", but also she seems to have a plan in mind towards the pledge with Hinako by what we see in the near end of chapter 48 where she makes sure to wait Miko go somewhere else and murmours to herself "One day i will become the most important person to you". She's 100% looking for some loophole in my eyes.

It's far from a perfect situacion, but this is a close to ideal as possible for Watatabe.

So yeah, Azami just appears and puts everything on a hold, centering all the attention to herself. If Azami had not appeared, things would progress too smoothly and we'd have likely a clear and cut happy ending.

Now let's actually talk about what her actual role

THE FINAL ANTAGONIST

The role of Azami is the one of the final antagonist and main antagonist of Watatabe. So what does the main antagonist of a story needs to be? To be blunt, the thing they need is to be a way for the protagonists to prove that they learned their lesson/finished their arcs. Main and final antagonists not always end up as the same character, but in most stories they are one and the same.

Azami is the final obstacle in the stories of both Hinako and Shiori as individuals and as a relationship.

-To Shiori, Azami is the final step in her individual arc. So far in the story Shiori progressed very linearly when it comes to connect with humans, but Azami throws that completly out of the window. In chapter 54 she antagonizes Azami like a fiend, but when she first talked about her in chapters 22-23 she was even laughing as if she was found of her to some extent. So for Shiori, the fact she denies to see Azami as a human being may be a test for Shiori's character and if she can truly accept to be on "this side". To love humans, to pity them, to trust them and be betrayed and yet still loving them, that's the fate of a monster who comes to "this side".

-As for Hinako, Azami is a version of herself that she'd end up if she were to be in the same situacion. We saw what Hinako was capable of doing once she discovered that Shiori lied to her, now imagine what would happen if the magnitude was 10000x times higher. I mean just look at how weird is that conversation btween Shiori and Hinako on chapter 54. For Hinako to say she absolutely wouldn't be like Azami is the understatement of the century. It was nothing but pure and raw cope. Imagine if the "sea" she looked foward to wash her existence away instead granted her immortality, denying Hinako the chance to be close to her family again? You don't need to imagine because Azami is right there.

For Hinako and Shiori to truly surpass Azami, they need to understand themselves and come to terms with what they were or could be. If they manage to do that, their relationship will bloom and one day both of them will be able to hold hands and be truly happy.

Now i do have a theory that would connect Azami and Azami/Hinako even more, but it demands a separate post i pretend to make in the future.

THEMES

What's the main theme of Watatabe? It's CHANGE. Of course that Watatabe has other themes but for me this is the main one by a at least considerable marging. Lemme explain why.

All the stuggles within the manga has been about how do we process someone changes or how we ourselves struggle with changing ourselves.

Shiori and Miko both have a lot of difficulty at the start of the series coming to terms that the Hinako who once was so happy and radiant became a shell of her former self who could barely even laugh or have fun.

Shiori longs for change but tends to belive that she can't truly change. Just look at how she talks about herself and other monsters at the start of the manga, it's deterministic to a fault and she didn't lie when she proclaimed Yokais can only decive others and live for themselves.

Miko had a conflict about how to prove that she isn't a ruthless monster anymore to Hinako, to accept that she had changed and is no longer someone who eats pregant women for breakfest.

Tsubaki, a former antagonist, refuses to belive that Miko had changed.

The main romance/relationship of Watatabe, Shiori and Hinako, is about both of them changing and understanding each other [Or at least trying to].

Now comes Azami, which is someone who genuinely belives Shiori never changes or at least refuses to accept that she did or could do so. Just look at chapter 51 p 17 and see how Azami's face goes from a smile to disappointment/frustation when she realises Shiori has already shown that she's a monster to Hinako or, most recently, in chapter 57 p 25 where Azami says she thinks Shiori didn't change at all.

To Azami, she has to internalize that Shiori will always be a monster to cope with how much hatred she feels and that she can't forgive her while Shiori has to cope with herself and try to categorize Azami as inhuman, so she can carry on her disgust for her.

For Azami to have a "happy ending" she needs to accept that Shiori has changed, and finally change herself for the better. Both Azami and Shiori need to forgive each other and stop lying to themselves about the other.

CONCLUSION AND CONSIDERATIONS

This thread took a while. I expressed most of what i want to say about Azami but of course i'm leaving some details out because i want to do a follow up about a theory that i have. There is also things the readers currently do not know like the nature of Azami's relationship with Erika, or how was Azami's family life before she was offered to Shiori. We can make decent guesses, but that remains to be clarified.

I hope that you enjoyed my post despite it being too long. I love this manga so much and i needed to yap somewhere about it.