26 replies to this topic

[major_shiznick]

Let's get try to get the discussion out of the comments. It's sloppy and hard to follow.

Akari's route ended nicely, but I'm excited for the beginning of the Hatori route. She's got this weird firm shyness about her that I find really appealing. Okay, I guess I'm a sucker for short hair, too .

I can't quite piece together the role of the Futurology blog and who's running it. Clearly, Miri or Dad have some involvement, but I dunno. I'd like to hear people's off-the-wall theories.

[ralius]

Chapter 9 page 25

got me... and got me good <3

Edited by ralius, 12 December 2012 - 07:21 AM.

[ven0m_1357]

the main plot point is shrouded in mystery so it is very interesting. Indeed, Hatori's character is very appealing. She's so moe. haha. I hope Miri gets her own arc. For now, it looks like an omnibus style narrative but I get this feeling it's all going to converge at some point in the future. We'll see. Nice katawa shoujo avatar btw.

[major_shiznick]

Yay, replies!

I remember starting this series and thinking it was kind of "meh", but after the time reset and the weird deviations in certain details between this route and the Akari route, I'm pretty intrigued. The story is definitely not just resetting and retelling itself over with a new girl; there's something tying it all together with the blog, Miri, and Dad. I don't really care about lolis as a character type, but I'm sure there's going to be a Miri Route of some sort. I'm predicting it to be the last one, where most of the secrets and mechanisms of the plot emerge.

Nice katawa shoujo avatar btw.

Why, thank you.

[ven0m_1357]

Geeez. When is the next one coming out.

[major_shiznick]

Geeez. When is the next one coming out.

Excellent question!

Project leader over at VIS has been super-busy with his life, but work is being done, I assure you. Chapter 10 should be almost done, and 11 shouldn't have too much more to do. I am also close to finishing the translation of 12 (and let me just say... WOAH). Don't worry, as long as there are staff willing to work on BKR, work will be done on it.

Edited by major_shiznick, 18 September 2012 - 02:25 PM.

[ven0m_1357]

Great. Chapter 10 just came in. I'm looking forward to the next one. Haha. Don't spoil anything for me please.

So you translate for BKR. THanks for the hard work.

[Wakuseino]

So. In the interests of making random theories and guessing, here I go:

Miri "route" is probably going to be the last. Well yes, that's obvious now, but. This route is really setting things up so that there are starting to lead into it. Now then, let's see...

First, let's see. Miri probably isn't directly behind the thing, since she was just as confused as he was when she found out about the site. This means that she's probably unaware of the full implications. Figuring out how she's connected is probably going to be a key thing. Then again, it's also possible she just found out at the end of Chapter 8.

Next: "It's over. Reset?". To me, this seems to imply that there's a specific goal in mind behind the loops. Figuring out what one's trying to accomplish is probably also going to be a key factor. Also, I am saying right here: The objective is not in fact to get the main character with a girl. Or at least, it doesn't seem that way to me.

Third: Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like the dream he had of him falling was in the same location of Miri and the father's conversation in the previous dream. As such, I'm going to go and say they're connected.

Fourth: The system seems to be seriously bugging out this time. The date is distinctly obscured this time, while it wasn't last time. Rather, last time all the dates were labelled as x's, and we had to assume that it was giving an accurate date, while this time everything's visible except for the year, which is seems to be impossible to read as multiple years seem to be written on top of each other. This could either be intentional or an effect of the loop, and the implications are vastly different between the two, so this is another key factor. Chances are high that the years listed are going to be important, so trying to figure out what years are listed is probably going to be important, though it's... probably impossible. Still, it looks like one has a third digit of 5 or 9, and one of them has a fourth digit of 3. And according to the newspaper, the father died in 2003, so I'm going to make a guess that that's one of the years.

There's probably more, but those are the ones off the top of my head. There's probably enough to make some theories about it, but my own theories are so insane I can't justify them at all. I think they might be built on those little bits of information, but... I have no idea.

[major_shiznick]

Sadly, I can't respond too much for risk of spoiling by accident, but it's super-cool to see you're putting serious thought into the plot! Some of your points I can answer:

Second point: Totally agree about the point of the manga. +1000 to the author & illustrator for making this more than just a stupid "get girl, rinse, repeat" galge-manga.
Third point: Yes, I'm pretty sure it's the same "end of time" location. It sure looks about the same.
Fourth point: A gold star to you for paying attention to the dates and the details of the text! This is most definitely intentional, but just what does it mean...?

It's worth saying again that I'm glad some people are keeping with this for the plot and not just the ecchi. I really encourage you and other folks to post theories if you have them.

[ven0m_1357]

wow. what a development. I knew miri was gonna get her own arc but I didn't expect it to turn out like that. Plus, it's starting to get really confusing in a good way. looking forward to the next chapter.

[elektron00]

^: You speak the truth. Only the imouto route can save him.

[ello]

My theory after reading the 14 chapters so far is:

Spoiler

that in the "original timeline" (which leads to the future in which Ritsu and Ayako/Fumiko in chap. 14 are) Miri disappeared or died (like in chap. 10 or in 13 hinted by Fumiko) and Fumiko came from the future to prevent that and bring the "best route for future Ritsu and herself" like Ritsu said (chap.14).

Now there is one thing bugging me; in chap 14 when Ritsu said that "this route is not the best one" , Fumiko looked like she started to cry. That leads me to think that Fumiko is related by blood to either Ritsu or Miri (maybe daughter, cause she kinda reminds me of Miri, or not might just be similar art) and that she is actually quite happy with her life with Ritsu in the future and she actually doesnt want to change the past, cause she might lose this future with Ritsu if Miri is there (maybe she might not even be born).

Regarding the matter with Ritsus and Miris father; I think that the guy from end of chap. 10 is their actual father and that he really died in that timeline. The person that Ritsu and Miri think to be their father working overseas could be future Ritsu coming back in time (just looked like future Ritsu when he was on tv). And the reason why only the two think that their father aka future Ritsu is alive might be, cause they are both "abnormalities" in the repeating time or somewhat.

Last thing is the Futurology; I dont think that neither Ritsu nor Miri nor their future selfs created it, cause Miri was surprised when she first saw it and like I previously said I think she doesnt exist in the future. Of course it isnt Ritsu either; and in chap. 14 future Ritsu said that he doesnt understand the actions of "Ritsu". I think its because in his timeline there wasnt the futurology yet and now that he is observing past Ritsu acting according to the futurelogy he doesnt understand his past self (that means he doesnt know of its existence).
I also think that the one responsible for futurology is the one who set up the soysauce in chap. 4 to bring Ritsu on the Akari route (because of the soysauce Ritsu came to tie up Akarai like that.). Ritsu said that he wouldnt tie up the soysauce so slopply so it cant be him from another time, who tied the soysauce; of course he could have said that because he was annoyed and takes pride only in his own bondage; but the soysauce could still be from the Hatori route though in chap. 10 he didnt tie up her soysauce but still possible.

Edited by JidanC., 07 January 2013 - 07:56 PM.

[major_shiznick]

For what it's worth, StayFrostyX's interpretation (in the comments - copypasta'd below) is also my own, and it's the interpretation I've been using to guide the translation. At the very least, it's the interpretation that makes the most sense to me. I kind of think that some of the earlier chapters may have misleading language due to me not always being able predict the author's intentions. I'm sorry about that

From StayFrostyX:

Spoiler

Fumiko is Bungo combined with the absorbed Miri from A. Fumiko can only exist if Miri is absorbed into Bungo, so if Miri is saved then Fumiko could no longer exist.

The problem is that Bungo is making B possible, and yet Bungo is the source of Miri's disappearance so Fumiko's creation is where A and B split. As such, there can only be a single possible route to save Miri since saving her would instantly sever the connection between A and B forever.

In the end, three general possibilities exist:

Spoiler

1) They save Miri. Space-times A and B continue on their respective paths. Space-time A has Fumiko and B has Miri.

2) They save Miri. Space-time B overwrites A. Space-time A and Fumiko become as if they never existed and B moves on with Miri.

3) They cannot save Miri. Many possible reactions exist depending on the events that occur in B. These include but are not limited to: Space-times A and B continue on their respective paths both with Fumiko and without Miri. Space-Time B is deleted forever by Ritsu from A. Space-times A and B cancel each other out. Reality implodes and existence ceases. Etc, etc.

Edited by major_shiznick, 26 February 2013 - 04:30 PM.

[Arlo]

Yes - that seems to be the fundamental conflict that's being set up - in order to save Miri, Fumiko has to be "undone." And, not surprisingly, Fumiko is mostly opposed to that idea. Though it should be noted that she was impressed and apparently a bit softened by past-Ritsu's response to the apple tree analogy - his insistence that he'd value the thing that he raised no matter what, even after it served its purpose.

I would suspect that Ritsu's goal is going to become (and might already be, in the case of the future-Ritsu) somehow fixing everything - saving Miri without losing Fumiko - and possibly saving their dad as well (I suspected early on that the mysterious force behind all of this was a future Ritsu, but there is apparently a real dad character, and it would appear that he really is dead, or at least is in the current timeline. We haven't seen yet how significant that is or what, if anything, it has to do with the torus events).

There's really no telling where this is going to go, and that's a lot of the charm, but that's the way my thinking about it is going at the moment.

[Mild Fracas]

Quantum Theory is A-OK in my book so long as you can put a good story behind it. I call it "Frosty's Theory of Quantum Plot Development"!

Anywho, I'm glad my thoughts seemed to be on the mark(at least for now). There are three general types of manga that i consider to be "good manga". One is the type where at the end of the chapter you can totally tell how the next chapter is going to turn out, then you read it and you totally didn't see "THAT" coming! The second is the type of manga that has a plot where no matter how much you guess and how much info you have you'll never be able to figure out what will happen next. They are IMO the most difficult to create successfully and not annoy or put the reader off. The last type is the type that is cliche, unoriginal, and has no complexity whatsoever... but it still makes you want to read more because it's just so damn exciting!

This manga is the second type i mentioned. I especially love the way it starts out making you think "oh, so it's one of those hopeless-guy-gets-girl-way-out-of-his-league things, huh?" Then at the end of chapter 8 suddenly it's "......... wat? o_o"

I could try to guess how it will pan out but honestly at this point anything is possible. As such, i demand more chapters?

[Arlo]

That's exactly the way I was with it too. It was pleasantly ecchi and sort of amusing and Miri's a particularly cute tsundere imouto, and there are these little bits and pieces of mystery around the edges, but that's probably just there to............. wait a minute - what the hell was THAT? Did the whole story just start over again? But it's different this time, but.... what the hell?

And yeah - it's just been a rollercoaster ever since. I can see a few general directions in which it seems logical that it would go - like Ritsu trying to save both Miri and Fumiko - but I honestly don't have the foggiest idea where it's going. And that's not even close to what I expected when I started reading it. Which is great.

Also: I reread it the other night and noted something that I should've noted before - Bungo - the friend character in the first route - is Dad. Or vice versa. Or both. Or they're both the computer. Or something like that.

[Nerdsinc]

Such a good manga so far... It's kinda rushing towards the end though... I hope it gets some sort of spiritual sequel to it...

[Knight K]

the series was awesome, the plot was really interesting and how they use each of the characters in the different routes was very clever, but the end it was kind of "meh", i think maybe because they were trying to ended so fast, but i hope the author can make another series as good as this one

[major_shiznick]

So basically, Ritsu was sucked into BUNGO and the result is that he exists in all the timelines simultaneously. Do I wish the mechanisms of the story were described better? Yeah, but we still have decent information on a lot of the important things.

 

We know that adult Ritsu is the author of the blog (at least we're pretty sure). He wrote it probably to try to steer young Ritsu down the right path to save Miri, which he did successfully (kind of). The way he did it was by teaching Ritsu about love. Each early route was an failure individually, but each taught Ritsu something new that helped him in the "correct" route (Fumiko, a.k.a. computer Miri clone). Akari taught him to be forward and compassionate. Hatori taught him to be more discerning. Fumiko taught him the truth of his situation. 

 

Unexplained "wtf" stuff:

 

What's the difference between Ayako and Fumiko? (Yes, I've double- and triple-checked the raws and it's not an error)

What's the purpose of the "End of Time" place in earlier chapters? Is it just a dreamworld version of future Miri's lab?

[Nerdsinc]

So basically, Ritsu was sucked into BUNGO and the result is that he exists in all the timelines simultaneously. Do I wish the mechanisms of the story were described better? Yeah, but we still have decent information on a lot of the important things.

 

We know that adult Ritsu is the author of the blog (at least we're pretty sure). He wrote it probably to try to steer young Ritsu down the right path to save Miri, which he did successfully (kind of). The way he did it was by teaching Ritsu about love. Each early route was an failure individually, but each taught Ritsu something new that helped him in the "correct" route (Fumiko, a.k.a. computer Miri clone). Akari taught him to be forward and compassionate. Hatori taught him to be more discerning. Fumiko taught him the truth of his situation. 

 

Unexplained "wtf" stuff:

 

What's the difference between Ayako and Fumiko? (Yes, I've double- and triple-checked the raws and it's not an error)

What's the purpose of the "End of Time" place in earlier chapters? Is it just a dreamworld version of future Miri's lab?

 

 

This. Sukaji needs to write a sequel before I murder something.

 

It's clear that Fumiko has to die and the "guiding Ritsu" universe deleted regardless of what happens...

 

Ending Timeline X: Ritsu is absorbed and Miri is still trying to find out how to unabsorb him. We don't know what happens to Fumiko (maybe she's alive?). It is assumed that the unabsorbication is impossible though as it breaks some rules in Quantum whatever...

 

Ending Timeline Y: Ritsu is found lying there in his adult form. His past mind seems to have overwritten his adult one. We assume that him and Miri are alive at the expense of Fumiko.

 

Ending Timeline Z: Universe restart? It is heavily implied that Ritsu remembers things that happened "from the past". Miri is implied to also remember stuff OR Miri is actually Fumiko in this timeline (possible).

 

 

Your interpretation of the time sequences is something completely new to me and it has given me a new understanding of everything. Thankyou <3

 

ON A SIDE NOTE, this is completely my theory but I think that in timeline Z Fumiko is alive and writing the blog as a means of remembering/communicating/idkshe'sacomputer with Ritsu.

 

This was such a bittersweet ending though...

 

 

As for the "end of time" things, I'm going to just assume that they are either the dreams of Ritsu or maybe another timeline. Maybe there is a timeline where both Ritsu and Miri/Fumiko are in the computer? Or maybe the "end of time" thingos are just a metaphor for something that happened? I mean

Edited by Nerdsinc, 05 May 2013 - 10:33 PM.