A Comic Redraw Of One Of My Favorite Moominvalley Strips. I Love Them Sm ;-;

Kinda criminal that he has a transformation power-up that color coordinates any outfit as a side effect, and the anime just… keeps him in bleached jorts.

Chuuya is so done with him😭🙏. Why would Dazai ask that help😭😭.

I love hiw Dazai is just watching him with fascinated void eyes. Who on earth is so fascinated about their frenemy and partner befriending a bird😭🙏

The dark truth of the Clock Keepers - Theory

I will be talking about how there's much more to the Clock Keepers and how they are an active danger to everyone else, and and an even more terrible threat than even the pit god, at that.

For an introduction, Akane agrees: The biggest threat to the students are the Clock Keepers. But it's a much bigger threat that anyone would expect.

This arc is about the Clock Keepers changing the timeline that we know of into a new one, everything has gone wrong and Nene is the only one left.

But it would seem it goes much deeper than that. After all, the timeline we know of isn't even the original one.

For starters, Akane explains that while there are some who are able to regain their memories of the 'Old World', they would be rewritten with memories of the 'New World'. It's specific for 3 days due to the Festival being 3 days long, an event where the timeflow becomes unstable.

During the Festival Season of 1968, Yugi Amane attempts to get the clock moving so he can manipulate time, and Hanako states that he HAD to get it moving until the end of the School Festival, but he can't remember anything about the clock.

Sounds familiar?

To get to the point, Yugi Amane of 1968 had the memories of a 'previous world', and tried to fix the clock so he can go back. But he failed to do so, and, as a result, forgot everything about the clock.

Until Chapter 124, this is also seemingly supported by Teru and Akane.

Even if they may not be aware, their impressions are right. It's extremely unlikely that this is the first time the Clock Keepers altered time, like playing 'God'.

But now, it's even further confirmed by Chapter 124.

The past has indeed been changed several times. But why do so many people have to suffer in this way, have their souls cut and forever bound to the Boundary, some even going crazy as a result. In a way, it sounds like something the pit god would do, isn't it?

But *why* would the Clock Keepers do that? There's an easy answer. They need to bend the rules. At first glance, the Clock Keepers seem overpowered, unbeatable. They can seemingly turn back time on a whim with no repercussions- But we know for a fact that's not true.

After all, Shijima herself states it. Each Boundary of the School Mystery is bound by rules. Mysteries can't just do whatever they like- There are rules they have to respect. Especially when it comes to such an overpowered ability like messing with time, there has to be a major weakness or price to pay for it, a drawback that Kako discovered how to circumvent. Such an overpowered ability, unregulated? No way.

After all, it's not only the Clock Keepers' servants that are clockwork dolls, they themselves are also clockwork dolls.

Kako cutting up souls everytime the past is changed is not a coincidence. It's so he can have someone else pay for the price of altering time.

Wouldn't that be why Kako decided to travel to 1968, to the time he would find a 12 year old who is so desperate to turn back time?

After all, it's so much easier to find a human willing to pay the price in your stead. Especially if it's a child motivated by desperation. For every timeline change, someone has to sacrifice something. But Kako had found an easier way: Just sacrifice someone else.

Some are able to accept reality as it is and just dutifully abide by the Clock Keepers' rules as their masters, like the cat, and some don't and end up crazy, like the broken doll. Whether from the past, future or another world, they're all the same- They all used to be humans.

This cruel practice is so Kako is freely able to play 'God' without worrying about the rules every mystery has to abide to, and it's even solidified by the victims who can't recall the circumstances themselves. It's a practice that, if revealed, exposes the Clock Keepers' limits.

Why do you think Kako had asked Akane to stay alive until they wake up? Because if all else failed, the Clock Keepers would be able to exchange Akane's soul to turn back time once more. It's literally Akane that's a safety net, not just the Yorishiro.

Wouldn't that also explain why the position of the Clock Keeper of the Present is vacant and only filled by humans?

Why was that position vacant until they found Akane, a boy who similarly wanted the power to control time? The "Clock Keeper of the Present" is simply a disposable asset.

But now, Kako messed up big time. He used time as his playground to attempt to get rid of an actual God, one who now is aware of the danger the Clock poses.

The consequences for this will be lethal for the Clock Keepers, ones who treat time and lives so lightly, and karmic retribution will come swiftly.

As final words, it would seem that Nene finding the truth behind the dolls behind finding Kako is done on purpose so she cannot fall in the Clock Keepers' trap and play her cards right.

Kako will not be able to get away with treating this world as his personal playground.

bonney normally speaks very coarsely- she usually uses omae as her ‘you’ pronoun, which is uncommonly rude and aggressive for women and is normally only used by men. however, when she addresses luffy-as-nika for the first time directly, to say “i’ve been searching for you,” she switches over to anta for ‘you’, which is still informal but far less confrontational.

and then when luffy is just completely not getting it in the next line (“huh? we’ve been together this whole time!”) bonney instantly snaps back to using omae again for her subsequent lines. respect gained -> lost speedrun INSTANT

a lengthy breakdown of why ch. 878 is one of the best luffy moments in the entire series (to me)

question: favorite luffy moment?

oooomg it would have to be the scene in ch. 878 immediately after pedro's death--when luffy 1) snaps the crew out of their grief because they're in danger, 2) comes up with an extremely efficient escape plan for his crew 3) comes up with an extremely efficient plan to deal with katakuri 4) snaps the crew out of their grief again 5) gets the crew to execute their escape 6) executes his own plan (+ bonus moment in 880/881 because it's technically the "end" of this scene).

this whole moment on the ship is the Captain Of The Straw Hat Pirates moment for me. hang on, i'm gonna include manga caps because i dont think ive ever talked about the way the dialogue is set up in this scene before and im stealing this opportunity lmao

like, we almost never see luffy really engage with his role as captain and leader in a traditional sense--yes, he's captain, but in most arcs he fits the "The Big Guy" role more than the leader, and often the broader captain-ish duties fall to other characters (e.g. planning and executing strategy outside of battle, mostly). like, half of the entire joke in both dressrosa and wano is that luffy doesn't plan (even though we, the readers, know that he does) and yet in WCI he not only showcases his skills as a leader but does so flawlessly.

(for context, "The Big Guy" is basically the trope of like... the most powerful person, the one you know is always going to win/solve any problem by the end of it--the character who's going to fight the biggest bad in a story and who often can't deal with "little" problems within a story because it would undermine the internal logic of a story's power-scaling. i have many thoughts on The Big Guy and i think one piece is one of the few series that does it well, along with spyxfamily re: yor... but i digress.)

so here's where i think the "moment" starts in ch. 878. for a refresher, in ch. 877 luffy+co reach the sunny, fine chopper/brook encased in candy, katakuri attacks, big mom attacks, the sunny gets stuck in candy, and then pedro sacrifices himself. at this point in time, luffy+co have been on the ship for all of a few seconds--in 877, nami is trying to set up a coup de burst and explain how it works to jinbei at the same time, luffy is holding off katakuri, but nothing is really happening. when pedro sacrifices himself no one knows what his plan is so they don't have time to incorporate it into their escape strategy (which is basically nonexistent at this point). then--wham! pedro is down, the candy breaks, and there's a split-second of decision time that luffy jumps on, which brings us to 878

everyone is shocked and grieving, their tentative set-up is completely derailed, and luffy immediately takes charge--starting with "can we fly, nami?!"

he addresses nami as the navigator/in charge of the physical ship itself a this point (+ she set up the coup de burst in 877), then addresses the crew as a whole in "let's set sail, people!!"--like, the way this is phrased sets him apart slightly as someone with the authority to speak to the group as a whole; he's getting everyone's attention. then his declaration!!! "if we waste this moment... then we throw away his sacrifice!!"

he's completely taking charge of the situation and focusing on getting the rest of the crew to safety. it is his job as captain to look out for the whole, so he doesn't waste a second--which is so incredible, because we know luffy is emotional, that's his whole thing. he's incredibly emotionally-driven and emotionally-intelligent, but during this entire scene he is being emotionally driven to protect his crew, which in turn gives time for his (often-overlooked) intelligence and pragmatism to shine.

once he has everyone's attention as a group, he goes back to addressing crew members individually--which i think is really important because that's, like, literally what you do in a crisis when you're taking charge. you get everyone on the same page, then you single people out so no one feels lost or unmoored--everyone has something to do, everyone feels included in the solution in some way.

in these two pages alone, he addresses nami, chopper, and brook individually, and then jinbei responds (so he's also participating individually). i think the fact that carrot is excluded here also kind of supports this whole thing, because carrot isn't technically a straw hat--luffy isn't her captain, even though she's under his protection at this point. here, he's ordering his crew in his capacity as a leader.

and then, of course, there's the moment:

yes, he's talking to katakuri here, but he's also on the sunny's deck screaming--and his address to the crew doesn't have a distinct "end point" from a dialogue perspective, he just gets cut off when katakuri attacks carrot. here, i think he's declaring this as much to katakuri as the straw hats themselves. i think the "end" of this whole scene in 880/881 when he reassures the crew (after holding the fucking mirror shards in his mouth--god this whole scene is just so good) that everything will be fine supports this, too, because that feels like the end of the crew address to me. but i'll get there.

now that he has the crew on track to execute their own escape (by giving them step by step orders to do so, basically), he tackles the katakuri problem. at this point, he's already figured out what to do, because he's gearing up for the elephant gun grip that he uses to pull katakuri into the mirror world, and he doesn't tell anyone else his plan because it's his responsibility as captain to take care of the crew (as opposed to just his responsibility as The Big Guy to take out the strongest enemy, which--if we were just adhering to The Big Guy trope, i think he would have shouted his plan along with everything else. basically authority [no one needs to know my plan because it's my responsibility to handle it and i know i will] vs. equality [im the strongest but we're all in this together so here's what im going to do], and he's authority.)

then we get another crew address, this time starting individually then talking to the group. they see the shadow--they realize pedro has died but perospero has survived--nami is seconds from absolutely spiraling again (just look at that panel of her, oh my god). further proof that luffy is the most emotionally intelligent character in the entire series, luffy immediately redirects everyone's attention a second time, focusing them away from their grief again and onto their own escape again.

since this is, like, a second wave of grief/horror, he starts with the individual address--snapping everyone out of it directly because a whole-crew address might not cut it and he needs to include carrot, here.

then mid-address, he grabs brulee and starts executing his katakuri takedown plan. his focus here is entirely on keeping his crew safe in the most efficient way possible, and in two pages we get: assessing the situation (grief 2) -> solving the immediate problem (the escape plan starts to derail, everyone needs to snap back out of it) -> solving the next problem (katakuri) -> inspiring them to carry on because he's about to leave.

(seriously. i cannot overstate how great the brulee grab mid-dialogue is in the broader context of this scene. seriously.)

(also, the way the group -> individual -> individual -> group address works in this whole scene feels like such a beautiful closed dialogue loop... even on a structural level it's designed to have the biggest possible impact. love u oda.)

then, of course, we have the culmination of this whole thing--the mirror smash. with ruthless efficiency, he not only isolates the biggest immediate threat (katakuri) but also the character who poses the biggest danger to the crew's escape--brulee. all three of them have been completely separated from his crew, and now he can both keep an eye on brulee and the mirrors (which is most of 880/881), the "intelligence" part of the plan, and confront katakuri directly, the "battle" part of the plan.

also, the decision to isolate katakuri works both ways here--he's not only protecting the crew from katakuri as an enemy, but he's also protecting the crew from their fight. we see in subsequent chapters that the katakuri fight absolutely decimates the mirror world. if they were to face off anywhere near the sunny, people would get hurt. if katakuri were to escape, not only could he harm the crew but luffy would have to give chase and bring the fight back to katakuri, wherever he ends up (attacking the crew). i fully believe the decision to isolate brulee shows that he's aware of this--their fight has to stay in the mirror world, because the only way he'll win is by operating at full power and his full power is destructive.

also--this moment is just really cool, okay? it's so, so cool.

honorable mention to the rest of this "scene" as it's continued in the next few chapters, specifically the way this whole thing culminates--luffy holding the last mirror shards in his mouth to make sure he can communicate his final reassurances to the crew without the risk of those shards falling into enemy hands.

to me, this is as solidly and completely an "i'm the captain of this ship!" moment as the declaration itself, and every time i think about it for more than 0.2 seconds i start to go crazy. but. it it technically a different "moment" (and is also extremely self-explanatory) so i won't go into it here.

also, side note because this didn't fit anywhere--i think this scene not only stands on its own as one of luffy's most badass moments but also works as a really amazing example of his character growth--particularly compared to scenes like the usopp fight in water 7 (different scenario technically because usopp isn't an enemy, but it is one of the premier moments when he struggles with the burden of being captain).

anyway, sorry this got stupid long *jazz hands*

"I love you." // "I hate you so much..."

OK SO CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE WHOLE EYES BEING IMPORTANT TO THE CHARACTERS THING. because this chapter had a whole lot of that. ohhh boy it had a lot!!!!! it did!!!!!

FIRSTLY. akutagawa. for a while, his eyes have been pitch-black. last chapter, they regained their light, as he remembered atsushi. and then they're pitch-black again in this chapter-- as the person who brought light to them, to akutagawa himself, is gone.

SECONDLY. dazai. as he tells akutagawa he can "certainly" give him a reason to live, at the same time, he himself looks like he has no reason to live, as if he's not living at all. his eyes are dark and dead. pitch-blacm just as akutagawa's were at the start of the manga, and this chapter, but with none of the determination or bite akutagawa has. just emptiness.

THIRDLY. (child) akutagawa. his eyes aren't empty, nor pitch-black at first. they're dark, with light within. he has not been shown light, nor has he been pushed into the shadows. they become purely fully of light when dazai claims he can give akutagawa a reason to live.

his eyes turn his signature pitch-black with his time in the mafia. he was not given a reason to live. he was given fear, pain, emptiness, and desensitivity to brutality. the chance of light and goodness in his eyes from when he was a child is erased by the port mafia-- by dazai.

his eyes become like dazai's dark, lifeless ones as dazai trains him. any chance at light, or goodness, or happiness, or true life is sapped from him and replaced with violence, abuse, the mafia, dazai, dazai, dazai!

atsushi is what brings akutagawa that light. and when atsushi is gone, the light is gone.

"the light in somebody's eyes" is a phrase meant to refer to someone's spark of life. their reason to live. akutagawa says that killing atsushi "became [his] sole motivation." but when atsushi dies, that takes the light out of his eyes. his reason to live vanishes along with atsushi.

atsushi is akutagawa's reason to live, isn't he?

sorry im obsessed with the saiki brothers just being normal silly brothers while also being the most insane and abnormal pair of siblings of all time

"ha! this time, kusuo, i'll finally destroy- are you wearing my sweater?"

"... no."

"GIVE ME MY SWEATER BACK? WHEN DID YOU EVEN TAKE IT-?"

-

"kusuo, can you dye my hair?"

"im not touching your greasy stem student hair."

-

"i left cheesecake in the fridge earlier, do you-"

"i ate it."

"i will end you."

➤ [ Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun:  Chapter 6.5 ]

A short translation of an extra collaboration comic published with Chapter 6 in the GFantasy magazine, featuring two other series “The Morose Mononokean” and “A Vampire Called God.” Available to read on Mangadex as well!

i just realized today why their ship is called thousand sunny 😭