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| Tbh, it's Yoshiki's natural way of responding to Hikaru's presence in his life even though he know it's not him anymore. No doubt Yoshiki is hurting inside about the reality. Just seeing some of their time together in the past shows how close they were. This episode really highlights the importance of their relationship imo, defines both characters. Felt like this was watching an emotional mini movie again. |
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| Oh they turned the gay repression and doomed yaoi up to the MAX this week wow another very well directed episode and we’re at a turning point in this story. Yoshiki’d finally fully come to terms with this not being his Hikaru, but it’s the only one he’s got and he’ll have to make do with him lol. Might be a brat, but he’s Yoshiki’s brat. Noticing Yoshiki has a stomach/chest fetish for Hikaru, we all seen the way he looked sleeping Hikaru up and down lmao. It really must’ve felt like torture for Yoshiki seeing someone that looks just like Hikaru, but you know it’s not them. Especially given he never properly told the real Hikaru how he feels. So Everytime he sees our new boy, it’s like a knife going through his heart and the regret is eating at him. The direction illustrating just how much pain Yoshiki was in and him eventually snapping on Hikaru in the classroom was so good! Only issue I have there is, it’s probably not a good idea snapping on a supernatural entity who can kill and replace people 😭 More sexual symbolism with Hikaru “coming” in Yoshiki there in the classroom and showing what I presume to be the entity’s original memories? I’m sure he’s got some sort of gut wrenching backstory and honestly he feels like a little kid that’s lost and just desperate for acceptance, which again goes back to this series’ theme of sexual repression. He finally found someone he can talk to and be with in Yoshiki, but he feels horrible knowing he’s essentially stolen Yoshiki’s best friend away from him. At least they made up at the end! Such a cute ending, but I wonder what the “company” will do next. Now that our leads are on the same page, I imagine we’ll start getting into some conflict. Also a little confused by the convo with the lady Yoshiki had. So, from what I understand, she had a similar situation with an entity replacing someone? Or did I misunderstand that |
Marinate1016Jul 19, 2025 1:01 PM
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| This ep makes me emotional :"< yoshiki really said "I can fix him" at the end lol |
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| Every episode so far has been so good. This episode felt like an emotional one to me. The relationship between them is really important and it's what sticks them together. It really shows how much Hikaru cares about Yoshiki and without him, he can't do anything. Yoshiki is acting in a way that I could completely understand, I wouldn't know what to do if my friend turned out to be some huge mass of something. 5/5 |
| He feels inherently evil, fuck nanuki sama |
| You gotta give it to Yoshiki, he invents a whole new way to be delusional about 'Hikaru' every single episode. Props for creativity. 5 stages of grief but it's just denial, different kind of denial, yet different kind of denial, another kind of denial--- |
| Half-expected Yoshiki to be stiffling a laugh when he turned away after "Hikaru" pulled a goofy face. That parfait is the real monster of this story, sheesh. |
| The ending song playing during the last scene was very emotional. Lyrics that caught my eye when the translation for the song first dropped were "Goodbye, It doesn't have to be you, just as long as the warmth of your hands doesn't change". It made me think of this moment, where Yoshiki grabs Hikaru's hand. I used to think that it was just to comfort Hikaru, because he was crying. But now I'm starting to think maybe it was also to comfort himself? There is no way for him to pretend that this entity is the same as the original Hikaru anymore. But that is the one thing that is the same as it was before. |
FireSalamanderJul 19, 2025 11:35 AM
Reply to FireSalamander
The ending song playing during the last scene was very emotional. Lyrics that caught my eye when the translation for the song first dropped were "Goodbye, It doesn't have to be you, just as long as the warmth of your hands doesn't change". It made me think of this moment, where Yoshiki grabs Hikaru's hand. I used to think that it was just to comfort Hikaru, because he was crying. But now I'm starting to think maybe it was also to comfort himself? There is no way for him to pretend that this entity is the same as the original Hikaru anymore. But that is the one thing that is the same as it was before.
| @FireSalamander The song is called “you are my monster” i think too like…oh my god……..I love you TOOBOE Anyways for my opinion this episode is kino, otherwise known as peak. It’s been a while since I have fallen in love with a piece of media!! As a non-manga reader, im so happy they are doing so good with the adaptation! |
| way to depreciate the apparent feelings Yoshiki had for real Hikaru, this is ridiculous |
| Yoshiki is like "I can't keep treating you like you're the old Hikaru," and my first thought was "then treat him as the eldritch horror that he is" which technically leaves Yoshiki with multiple options |
| doomed yaoi ftw 💔💔💔 |
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| Nope, he can't be fixed! Btw, I was literally under the impression that Hikaru might have actually killed his mom, and was just making things up whenever he was name dropping his mother in any conversation. Though I'm glad he hasn't gone that far, yet. Also hey, good for the two no one was in the school when "I'm a monster but I can be loved" session was underway. I really wanted to be mad on Yoshiki in the end, but the episode distracted me with its well thought direction. Really, it's the best part of the show, and is only getting better too. |
| THIS IS PEAAAKKKKK🙏🙏☝️☝️‼️‼️ |
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| It really looks like this story could flourish into 3-4 seasons easily. I won’t be satisfied with only one season |
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| Yeah it's nice Yoshiki finaly decided to confront it and things got dicey as you'd expect but now that Nonuki sama is mixed with Hikaru his emotions are mixed with it so it can't hurt Yoshiki. Also as I suspected there were other instances of people getting replaced. |
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| Nah that scene in the classroom was crazy as hell 💀 |
| People on MAL refuse to actually enjoy watching anime. Your taste in anime isn't a personality trait. Take me back to the days before MAL became infested with Twitter's favorite buzzwords. |
| This anime is insane..insanely gay |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
| This is the gay agenda materialised, as in loving a guy who is literally a monster and believing you can fix him but only hurting yourself in the process. |
 Conflict between men will be impossible, only when mankind is reduced to one person or less. |
| great episode today it was more about feelings... |
| if you hated this episode/chapter, just watch/read something else... 100k on IG (https://www.instagram.com/otakuweek?igsh=em5kY3Q4NTVtNXlh) Discord (https://discord.gg/vbZrk64uH7) for anime links / news / recom etc |
| Ahhh, another amazing episode that had me all tensed up throughout all 23 minutes. This anime is doing a great job at making you feel unconfortable, uneasy and suspicious at everything. And the direction of the scenes is just incredible. Look at the conversation between Yoshiki and that lady from the last 2 episodes, the different shots, the contrast between their talk/feelings with the cafe they were, incredible. Talking about that, we get to know that Lady reached out to Yoshiki, to help him in this situation, since she also went through the same, with her husband. However, she doesn't really give us much details, she just said it seemed her husband, but it gave their son a wound that would never heal (I wonder if it's a physical or a psycological wound). I suppose we are getting more from her in the next episodes, since she actually appears quite a lot in the opening. This episode really focused on giving us more info about the characters. We also get to finally see Hikaru (Monster) leaving in his house, we also get to see his mother, and we discover that his dad actually died shortly after the moment from the flashback of the beginning of the episode (so while Hikaru and Yoshiki were kids). Interestingly, Hikaru's father died in the same mountain, around the same time in the year, as Hikaru, which might really suggest that they both died of the same cause (maybe some ritual or pact that went wrong?). What surprised me the most in this episode was the characterization of this Monster Hikaru. That scene with it and Yoshiki at the school was really intense, and you end up worrying about Yoshiki's safety, but by the end of the episode, I ended up feeling sorry for Monster Hikaru, as it just seemed lonely, and regreted being violent with Yoshiki, since it really just wants to be with Yoshiki, as it said, it doesn't care about who Yoshiki talks to or does, Monster Hikaru just doesn't want Yoshiki to hate it. Like, we all know how creepy it is, with how it just possessing a body from a deceased person, how it's implied it was the cause of the death from the old lady of episode 1 (although I'm having my doubts now), and how it literally said in the 1st episode it would kill Yoshiki if he just didn't continue living his life with "Hikaru" as normal. Like, wow, they really made me feel bad for it, and they gave it actual human feelings. Now I just wonder if it's really theirs or just Hikaru's feelings. We got that weird flashbacks too, to that woman with a baby, not really sure what that is, maybe it's related with the origin of Monster Hikaru? I don't know, it was giving me Attack on Titan vibes. But I have to say the saddest part of the episode was right at the beginning, when Monster Hikaru thanked Yoshiki for being there with him, just chillin', and Yoshiki asked why he said that out of nowhere, and it just replied that it wanted Yoshiki to know it's true feelings, and then Yoshiki just thinks "I should have done the same", implying he should have confessed to Hikaru his true feelings while he was still alive :( This episode really shows how Yoshiki is moving on from Denial, and it's starting to assimilate that Hikaru is dead. Even if by the end he may be swayed again by the temptation of using this Monster Hikaru as a replacement, even the way Yoshiki is treating it is already different. Once again, this episode with the symbolism, this episode is with the withering of Sunflowers, that are linked to Hikaru, since his house used to have them. It does seem to indicate that Yoshiki is assimilating Hikaru's death, but I'm not sure if that's only it. On a side note, I found it really funny when the anime had like 2 seconds of CGI students, when they were showing the school, because it was just so random, I didn't notice its use anywhere else, and the CGI was decent, but I don't know, it was just so random, and only for 2 seconds, that I just found it funny, without taking anything away from the episode! This anime is by far my favorite this season (from the ones I'm watching)! I love how they always find a way to surprise us. This time around, the episode ended up on a much different note than the other 2, with a more dramatic tone, and focusing on the characterization of Monster Hikaru, while the other 2 episodes ended on a creppier note. Can't wait for the next episode! Do we really need to wait a whole week to get it? |
| Boring ass episode. Literally fell asleep half way of it. Probably not enough stupid metaphors of sunflowers dying. The first 2 episodes were fantastic. This was slow, repetitive and stupidly boring using flashbacks just to introduce Hikaru's dad that's also dead already (pointless in my opinion) |
Reply to snackingBear
I LOVE the presentation of this episode, with an emphasis on sunflower symbolizing Yoshiki’s feeling for Hikaru, which transforms at the end of this episode.
Yoshiki’s hidden love for Hikaru was untold but demonstrated through his view point. However as the episode progresses, Yoshiki recognizes that ‘Hikaru’ isn’t a replacement for the original Hikaru and that he must sees them as separate entity.
At the end of the episode, his devotion to Hikaru transforms into commitment to ‘educate’ the current ‘Hikaru’ who carries the original Hikaru’s memory and still learns to navigate his feeling as (almost) a new born child. The withered sunflower represents a shift in this relationship - that Yoshiki will no longer see Hikaru through ‘Hikaru’ to carry this (romantic) feeling forward. They are now forming a different type of bond.
Overall, 10/10 for the execution for this episode🥺🫡
Yoshiki’s hidden love for Hikaru was untold but demonstrated through his view point. However as the episode progresses, Yoshiki recognizes that ‘Hikaru’ isn’t a replacement for the original Hikaru and that he must sees them as separate entity.
At the end of the episode, his devotion to Hikaru transforms into commitment to ‘educate’ the current ‘Hikaru’ who carries the original Hikaru’s memory and still learns to navigate his feeling as (almost) a new born child. The withered sunflower represents a shift in this relationship - that Yoshiki will no longer see Hikaru through ‘Hikaru’ to carry this (romantic) feeling forward. They are now forming a different type of bond.
Overall, 10/10 for the execution for this episode🥺🫡
| @snackingBear snackingBear said: Yoshiki’s hidden love for Hikaru was untold but demonstrated through his view point. However as the episode progresses, Yoshiki recognizes that ‘Hikaru’ isn’t a replacement for the original Hikaru and that he must sees them as separate entity. At the end of the episode, his devotion to Hikaru transforms into commitment to ‘educate’ the current ‘Hikaru’ who carries the original Hikaru’s memory and still learns to navigate his feeling as (almost) a new born child. The withered sunflower represents a shift in this relationship - that Yoshiki will no longer see Hikaru through ‘Hikaru’ to carry this (romantic) feeling forward. They are now forming a different type of bond. That's a really great way to expose what happened this episode, thank you! It really seems that Yoshiki's relationship with "Monster Hikaru" is turning into a different direction from now on, and not particularly cut ties with it. Yoshiki comparing it to a child really seems to spot on, with how it reacted to the possibility of Yoshiki hating it and left it. Also, their classmates also said Hikaru seemed like he was clinging into Yoshiki like he was Hiraku's father or something, which just ties to this whole idea. |
| Amazing episode once again. Everyones comments are great for this episode lol. I really do enjoy how each episode is so different from each other in terms of vibe. The suspense in this episode was fueled by the characters emotions rather than the supernatural aspects of the previous episode. Love this story, and I really enjoyed watching this episode despite knowing exactly what happens next since ive read the manga. The animation is fantastic, and its one of my favorite styles. |
Inexplicable said: way to depreciate the apparent feelings Yoshiki had for real Hikaru, this is ridiculous how so? sorry, i dont rlly understand what youre referring to |
| misato > asuka > rei |
| So Yoshiki is gonna start seeing this Hikaru as a new person instead of a replacement for his Hikaru, very interesting direction we got here, not sure if I can say it’s a good or a bad thing for Yoshiki tho lol. Like it’s good because now he can kinda move on from his inner conflict of treating Hikaru like he’s the original, but it’s bad because now he’s gonna start getting closer to this thing wearing Hikaru’s face, and we’ve already heard that “mixing” with ghosts and whatnot isn’t what you want. And you wanna know what’s tough, I don’t know what the right play here is lol, on one hand I feel for Hikaru because he acts like an actual person and feels feelings like one, like he was distraught over Yoshiki possibly hating him, but on the other hand I don’t think getting too close to the possibly evil entity is a good idea, a big part of me doesn’t trust Hikaru no matter how genuine he seems. But hey, it’s all those reasons above that are a part of why I love this show so far, so I’m not complaining that it’s making me think lol. Also, wow that classroom scene was wild, not quite as foul as the body horror scene but having Hikaru fill Yoshiki with his ectoplasm, or whatever the hell that was, is pretty extreme too, thankfully Yoshiki didn’t meet his end there. We also got some new lore drops regarding Hikaru’s dad and what happened with Kurebayashi’s husband, both are upsetting situations, but Hikaru’s dad seemed like a good dad and at least Kurebayashi seems to be doing better these days, I just don’t know how much longer she’s got left since Hikaru saw one of the messages she went Yoshiki, my first thought after that happened was “welp, she’s cooked” lol. |
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