Editing Hikaru ga Chikyuu ni Itakoro:Translator's Afterword (section)

====Volume 8 – Hanachirusato====

...What is a culture festival? Is it edible?

Cliche aside, this volume looks into Koremitsu’s issues of a lack of social circle. I mean, looking at Ryuji Takasu, you’ll think that the culture festival is some elixir for one mistaken as a delinquent all the time, which in this case, turns out right. But enough with that for now.

This is the second of the three volumes looking into the friendship between Honoka and Michiru, the first being volume 5, and the last bring volume 10. In this particular volume, it looks at the conflicted emotions Honoka had between her infatuation for Koremitsu and her desire to see Michiru do well...which of course end up as a melee a trois at the end of the volume. While volume 5 looks at the issues Michiru had, this volume looks at the issues Honoka has, get conflicted feelings.

Koremitsu was all mentally checked out, like ‘right, I’m just going to chill out on the rooftop and have&nbsp;Hikaru yap all day, sighs’. It is certain that this will make a terribly boring story, and a very depressing one to boot, which Koremitsu would like to do. In a sense, he really had to thank his harem for involving him in so much stuff, though I think Asa-chan abusing her authority like Suharto was an unintentional black comedy on her part. (Well, it’s like declaring to the school that she has tamed the wild dog)

I would say Shioriko is the smartest character in this series, based on her comments about Koremitsu being a herbivore and going around shouting ‘I’ll protect you!’ She’s the most savvy of them all, an apt shout out to Lady Murasaki’s sarcastic comment at Genji when the latter went out to adopt another little girl, hoping to turn the girl into another wife. It’s scary how smart and sexually aware she is...I suppose many a lolicon had a nosebleed when she whipped out that photo of her in a school swimsuit. Hikaru definitely would be torn between scolding her and raping her.

Honoka’s rattled. You can feel it. First we have Aoi-chan getting the jump by holding Koremitsu’s hand (good job, girl), and now we have Michiru bring overtly aggressive in getting Koremitsu involved (and to seed discord). For all her self-professed love expert antics, it is a painful experience she would learn from. In a sense, her predicament is like Koremitsu’s; while Honoka was worried if she should betray Michiru’s hopes and gun for Koremitsu herself, Koremitsu himself was wondering if he should feast on Aoi-chan while ignoring Hikaru. It’s obvious at this point that if Koremitsu is to choose Aoi, Hikaru will haunt him for the rest of his life. Luckily for Honoka, Michiru won’t be haunting anyone in this story.

This volume confirmed it for me that Aoi would not be chosen in the end. Even after Hikaru’s death, Koremitsu chooses to abide by the Bro code of not to be with Aoi. He at the very least did have thoughts about it, especially when Shioriko mentioned it. (That guilty look). It hurts for Aoi, but I do applaud the girl for continuing to pursue Koremitsu even after the eavesdropping. (Girl can be an amazing ninja given how she just had to eavesdrop on Asa-chan twice without the latter knowing.)

Michiru is the plain girl heroine (and the biggest pain later on). I did expect her to be the heroine of a volume somewhere from the moment she mentioned that Koremitsu was at Hikaru’s funeral (I attribute my tendencies to pick up subtleties from reading too many volumes of the Kindaichi series back in the day). Of course, bring a heroine, this obviously means that Hikaru owes her something. But what happens if nobody knows exactly what the promise is?

...ah whatever, it’ll just end up being a date anyway.

While Honoka chose to resolve her issues by running away until she was actually prodded by Michiru, I do like how Koremitsu was kept busy the entire time to actually think about his harem. Guy finally puts his ‘delinquent king’ moniker to good use by commanding his troops as Balalaika would be proud of...

In all seriousness, Koremitsu being put in a leadership position really changed him. While he was never one for subtlety, he was still a lone ranger till this point, and while Hikaru told him off with regards to the girls’ feelings, the same can be said for Koremitsu’s interactions with anything. He used to live for himself, but now that he’s in charge, he’ll have to take care of others, just as he did with the girls.

However, I’ll say that both Koremitsu and Michiru were lucky that their classmates came to help them, because it could have really turned out different. Koremitsu could have ended up as jaded as Michiru was, for as we all know, being school leaders is usually a thankless job. This is a naive, happy ending, but I don’t fault the author here.

The main theme I feel about this volume is that one has to be honesty with his feelings, based on what Honoka was going through. When the flowers scatter (chiru), all there is left is the bare truth. Certainly, while Michiru had her issues sorted (for now), all that was left was for the girls to convey their feelings. Asa-chan obviously didn’t get the note because she’s just coming up with excuses to be with Koremitsu, which is cute in its own sense.

When Honoka first delivered her confession, I had a feeling that Aoi would follow next, given her amazing tendency to eavesdrop. BGM for this scene? Jaws. It gets better when Yu announces her return...though you-know-who returns to make an appearance as antagonist...