[Original]

––Ms. HAYAMI, you’ve already seen a pre-screening, what did you think?

HAYAMI It was really intense, from beginning to end. First and foremost is moves really fast! (lol) The TV series moved pretty fast too, especially in the action scenes, but it’s even faster now. I saw the movie first thing in the morning, but it immediately blew away any feeling of drowsiness I had (lol).

––And Wako has a Galactic Pretty Boy costume now.

HAYAMI Yeah. Actually, I saw the design for the first time when we were recording for the radio show. I was there with Miyano (Mamoru) and we both exclaimed, “W-Wako!” when we saw it (lol). During the TV series we were always surrounded by other characters who had sexy components (lol), while Wako was always sort of simple in contrast, she almost had a boyish feel to her…. So when I saw her Galactic Pretty Boy costume, I thought, “this really brings out her feminine side!”

––After playing Wako again in the movie, what sort of impression do you have of her now?

HAYAMI She’s sorta broken free of the story so far, I think she’s pretty different from how she was in the TV series. I think Wako has an image of a lively, spirited girl. Especially in the beginning, but as the story progresses the circumstances around her change, she learns how Sugata feels about her and she gradually grows. Like, her heart has grown a few sizes or something. The movie in particular has a lot of scenes of Wako worrying, crying, and in pain. I think those scenes are really important to her character.

––Ms. Hayami, were there any scenes that left a particular impression on you personally?

HAYAMI The new parts for sure. And then in the middle with Wako’s new song.

––It’s quite a lovely song, isn’t it.

HAYAMI It’s really refreshing! (lol) It’s the kind of song that just makes you want to go to Hawaii or Paris or some place like that. Like, where the morning breeze comes through an open window, making lace curtains flutter about (lol). I think both the melody and lyrics reflect both Wako’s sparkling personality and her honest, straight-forward nature. You’ll have goosebumps throughout the whole movie, but please pay special attention to her song.

Special Interview 03
Fukuyama Jun (Sugata)

[Original]

––You saw the film, so what did you think of it?

FUKUYAMA I thought it was a rather dense piece. During the screening I felt kind of exhausted* just looking at the screen, I guess you could say. Once it sucks you in the time goes by in a flash and you don’t even notice it. I think it’s a film that won’t betray the audience’s feelings. I hate to brag, but I think it was really interesting.

{*er, in a good way, I couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it, like, it’s jam-packed with stuff?}

––Mr. Fukuyama, which scenes caught your attention?

FUKUYAMA I think the part that completely drew me in was Mizuno and Marino’s story. That’s the point where, even as part of the TV series, the atmosphere is pretty different, and in the movie now, I think the way it was compiled, at least personally I found it very impressive… It felt like it pulled me right into the screen. While there’s certainly a wide variety of imagery [in the film], from Mizuno’s story on, it really sucks you in.

––You really can feel the drama of it in that part.

FUKUYAMA And, I really love the rapid-fire editing of the battle scenes in the beginning. Personally, it has a sort of, “don’t sweat the small stuff” type feel to it, and I really love it (lol). With Japanese animation, we always try to cover every little detail, but what’s really important is the overall shape of things. You can tell how much care was put into everything with Takuto, Wako and Sugata at the center along with the four Maidens’ stories at the center. There are playful sections-–and serious ones, like the Mizuno scenes I mentioned before, and there’s a clear contrast between them. All two and a half hours of it are just filled to the brim, it really made me think, “wow.”

––Alright then, lastly, why don’t you tell us about some scenes to look out for!

FUKUYAMA There are all sorts of little tidbits crammed into even the musical scenes, I think it’s a film where you can really dig into the corners and layers and keep finding things. For those unfamiliar with Star Driver, it’ll be pure fun. And for those already acquainted with the story, I think it’ll be the kind of movie that’ll make you want to go rewatch them both and compare. Oh and pay special attention to the characters’ clothes! Especially the new clothes Takuto wears in the new parts, with the Star Driver logo on the chest. I wonder, is that going to end up becoming a piece of merchandise? (lol) {Oh FukuJun, u so silly}

年間、何冊ぐらいの本を読むのか。これは自分にとって、一緒に仕事をする人に対する指標となることが多い。

— 幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) January 21, 2013

“How many books do you read a year?” That question tells me a lot about the people I’m working with.

「脚本家になりたい」という若い人と話をしたことがある。「面白い本を教えて」と聞いた。きっとマニアックなラノベのタイトルを教えてもらえる、と思っていた。でも彼は「僕は本を読まないんです」と答えた。とても驚いた。

— 幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) January 21, 2013

Once, I was chatting with a young person who, “wants to be a screenwriter.” So I asked, “Any interesting book recommendations?” I was sure I was going to get a litany of popular light novel titles. But, he just responded, “I don’t read books.” I was shocked.

僕自身は「本を読む」という行為にコンプレックスがある。なぜなら中学生の同級生に「年間200冊読む」という人がいたからだ。僕は彼のことを軽蔑していた。「読む本の数に意味なんかない」と思っていたからだ。大学生のとき、ふとしたきっかけで「ある本」を手に取った。（つづく）

— 幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) January 21, 2013

I’ve got something of a complex about the act of “reading books.” Because when I was in middle school, one of my classmates claimed to have read “200 books in a year.” I couldn’t stand him. I always believed, “the number of books you read is meaningless.” When I was in college, “a certain book” fell into my hands. (ctd.)

その本は衝撃的な内容だった。自分のそれまでの価値観を変えた。そして、かつての中学生の同級生がそのタイトルの本を当時読んでいたことを思い出した。冷や汗が出た。大学生の自分の衝撃を、彼は中学で既に体験していたのか？彼と交流がない今、そのことに意味があったかどうかわからない。（つづく）

— 幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) January 21, 2013

This book had some shocking contents. It changed the values I’d held up until then. And then I remembered, that that kid back in middle school had read it back then. I broke out into a cold sweat. He’d already experienced the same shock I’d just felt from it as a college student, in middle school? I have no contact with him now, so I have no idea if that’s significant at all. (ctd.)

だが、自分の「知る」「知らなければ」という焦りは、そのことから始まっていると思う。

— 幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) January 21, 2013

But, I think this all stems from my impatience [to learn things I "wanted to] know” and [those I felt I] “must know.”

そんな簡単に自分の人生を変える本を知ることはできないし、巡り会えないのです。だから焦るわけです。ネットにはこの情報は落ちてないからね。。。

— 幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) January 21, 2013

There was no way I could have just known that that book would change my life, I happened upon it. And thus my impatience. That sort of information was nowhere to be found on the internet…

やはり「声優になりたいです」という若い人に会ったとき「最近、読んだ面白い本はなに？」と聞いたら、「本はあまり読みません」とのことだった。驚いた。演技する、という行為は「台詞やト書きの解釈力」を必要とすると思う。本を読むって大事だと思う。朗読すると、その人の解釈力がわかるから。

— 幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) January 21, 2013

And so, when I met a young person who, “wanted to be a voice actor,” and I asked, “Have you read any interesting books lately?” I got the response, “I don’t really read books.” It shocked me. I think being able to “interpret dialogue and stage directions” are critical skills for an actor. I think reading books is so important. Because when someone reads aloud, you’re getting their interpretation of the piece.

Special Interview 01

Miyano Mamoru (Tsunashi Takuto)

––Since you’ve just recently seen a preview screening of the film, could you give us your frank impression of it?

MIYANO I was really overwhelmed. It was so entertaining, and I got to see Star Driver again in movie form. To me, it’s kind of like [looking back on] my ‘youth.’ Like I really put my ‘youth’ in this series.

––So, Takuto himself aside, you put your ‘youth’ into it when you were playing him, huh.

MIYANO It was so dazzling I could barely make Takuto out (lol). During the climax, Wako has this line, “Maybe Takuto’s first phase is making everyone smile,” I think it’s something like that. Takuto worries and gets down in his own way, but everything about him just sparkles. He’s always honest and frank and never dwells on the past. I really felt that aspect of him in this film. Especially in the final scene, I was watching Takuto and I just started to tear up. Takuto’s radiance touched me and made my heart tremble, the tears just spilled out. I think it’s very powerful.

––We get a glimpse of Takuto a little more grown up in the new cuts.

MIYANO Getting to see a new side of everyone really made my heart pound. Like, “Wow! They’re in Shinjuku!” (lol). And that final scene is really impressive. It’s like, their story will still continue from here. When I thought, “They’ll carve out another, new story,” it made me want to meet Takuto and the others again. {I think it’s really cute how Miyano uses 会う re: Takuto}

––So, you’re interested in where Takuto and the others are headed from here on?

MIYANO In the last episode, [Takuto] said, “We’ll see a different, but even more amazing sky,” [there's always] that ‘sky.’ Takuto’s lines that give voice to his convictions––like his “I can see it,” line and so on, I think those lines carry a really important message for us even in our regular lives. You can’t use magic to make your dreams come true, but you can cut open your own future if you hold those dreams tight and work toward them. It’s kind of a testament to that. I think that ‘sky’ that appears in the end is the embodiment of that positive energy.

––So, finally, please give a message to everyone eagerly waiting to see the movie.

MIYANO There are all sorts of things I want you to watch for, but ultimately, it’s “entertainment.” It’s a movie that’ll make you laugh and cry and feel refreshed when you finish watching it. So, everyone, don’t miss it. I think we should enjoy our ‘youth’ together. Let’s sing out our youths together!

Ikuni tweeted the following yesterday:

みんなまだ気がついてない？RT @lvdctv: 某アレのリアクションが皆無で大変に心配になっているのだけど、それは明日以降なのかな？（ ・(ｪ)・ ）—
幾原邦彦 (@ikuni_noise) August 10, 2012

@ikuni_noise: Has no one noticed yet? RT @lvdctv: I’m really concerned about how everyone’s going to react to “that,” but I guess we won’t know until tomorrow? （ ・(ｪ)・ ）

(Note: @lvdctv is Penguindrum’s producer.)

Turns out, a mysterious URL was included on one of the postcards in the goods pack the Penguindrum team is selling at Comiket right now: http://www.penguinbear.com/

This is all that’s on the site at the moment:

It’s pretty similar to the early Penguindrum splash sites. The text reads, “Find it without getting mixed up in that transparent/invisible storm.” Transparent/Invisible being one of those keywords from the show.

So what is Penguinbear? Your guess is as good as mine. This chunk of that one event report from shortly after the show ended might be relevant though:

One audience member asked: “Do you have any desire to remake Penguindrum with the same cast of characters, but completely gag or completely serious? What would it be about?”

(Personally, I took this as a question about whether there were any plans to produce a parallel story continuation type thing, lol)

Ikuhara: “I do.”
Audience: Zawa… zawa…
Ikuhara: “As far as what it’d be about….. that’s a secret *smirk*.”
Audience: WOAH

(Doesn’t it seem like a very Ikuhara-esq way to hint at a sequel? lol I think {the meat of} both the question and the answer was flying under the radar. The director’s a real entertainer.)

[EDIT] Koizumi just acknowledged the site through an RT. No one else on staff has mentioned it overtly yet. [EDIT2] Lol, he just undid it. I guess he wasn’t supposed to do that, haha.

This month the focus is on the “Lewd” side. Again, it’s a continuation of the True/Harem end from the original game (more general info here). The system for this section of the FD is the same as the original––you select the characters on the mansion map to trigger events/etc.

Ichinose’s blurb:

The Space-case Gardener: Ichinose Touya

The person in charge of the estate’s gardens. A not particularly expressive young man.

Tomoaki wants to see Ichinose embarrassed, so…
Since Ichinose has no issues being naked, Tomoaki’s solution to satiating his burning desire to harass him is, “put something on instead of taking it all off.”  How does Ichinose react upon looking at himself in the mirror after he’s been outfitted in a wig, lovely women’s lingerie and carefully applied makeup…? We didn’t get to see Ichinose crossdress in the original, but now we can!

CG text: “That’s not… Ichinose…!” {note: this is almost certainly Ichinose talking}

Sakuma’s blurb:

The Perfect Butler: Sakuma Kyouichi

An elite butler in charge of all the other servants in the estate. He has an earnest and obedient personality.

He’s making unreasonable requests of Sakuma to alleviate his built-up stress!?
Tomoaki’s started his fantasy life as master, but he’s been so busy every day it’s really stressing him out. On this rare holiday, Tomoaki takes the opportunity to relax by testing the limits of his butlers’ obedience. This time he makes the unreasonable request of Sakuma, “lick my armpit!” Naturally, the ever obedient Sakuma complies…

CG text: Absolute obedience to the master!?

Don’t feel like translating the interview with Tomoaki (yeah that’s actually the VA’s name, can’t be bothered to remember how to read his fake ass name) about the single right now, but I should note that the ‘cosplay’ he’s wearing in the recording session shots is apparently from Togo Mito himself, lol. (I’m like seriously convinced that Togo Mito is just mad gay for Maeno Tomoaki at this point.)

Lastly we have an interview with (and by, lol) Togo Mito about the “Lewd” side of the fandisk

Mr. Togo Mito does the customary self-interview for us. {I guess B’s Log can’t be assed to even provide their own questions? lol} This time, it’s about the “Lewd Side”:

Togo (T from here on): It sure has gotten warm again. It’s such a lovely day outside, but I almost never go outside, so that’s me, Togo Mito.

Mito (M from here on): But we do go out for walks sometimes, right? Togo Mito here too.

T: So, everyone, the Hadaka Shitsuji fandisk has been greenlit! This time we’ll be talking about the “Lewd” side.

M: In the “Lewd” side, the main character has overcome all sorts of bumps in the road to acquire the mansion and become the master for real! So in that sense, it’s a continuation of the “Naked Butler” end. So, I guess we’ll go from there.

T: Well, the “Lewd” side is after you get with the lewd butlers, so naturally it’s in that same vein.

M: In other words, Tomoaki’s gonna run amok doing whatever he wants again, like the brat he is.

T: ‘Brat’ almost makes it sound cute though.

M: The original took place over a month, but this time it’s just one week.

T: Yeah, I hear a lot of people saying, “huh, isn’t that a little short?” But, this one week in the life of the master, is less a sequence of events taking us, bit by bit, to some distant future and more a single piece of time plucked out of that lifestyle.

M: So it’s more a matter of density then. I mean, Tomoaki’s always been kind of off from the beginning (lol), so he lives like ridiculous things are totally normal. But, wait? Doesn’t that mean there’s only one ending? Well that’s not fun at all.

T: Oh no. Even if that’s the case, there are multiple ending. Please look forward to controlling Tomoaki’s life as master just a bit (?). {that (?) is in the original}

M: There are so many endings I still want to make. About as many as the original had.

T: I don’t know about that yet, but I don’t want the concentration of the story to pale in comparison to the original.

M: Well it is the ‘lewd side’ so it better be lewd!

T: There should be lots of types of scenes that weren’t in the original.

M: Are they gonna use the aphrodisiac this time?

T: Oui.

M: Are the side-characters going to show up?

T: Oui. It is a fan disk after all, so I’d like to use as many characters from the original as I can. So far in the “Lewd Side,” Sayaka and Saki {Toudou’s brother} are set to appear throughout the whole story.

M: So, are there going to be any [scenes] with more than three people involved? {this is super vague but I’m guessing this question and it’s answer are hinting at a… uh… six?-some  lol}

T: Oui. Since all the butlers living together like usual, naturally everyone should get along (lol).

M: Is it true that there are going to be new characters?

T: Oui.

M: Even though it’s a fan disk? (lol) You’re really going to have new characters?

T: It’s not like fan disks have a set format, so I just figured I should do whatever I want with it (lol).

T & M: And with that, please cheer me on as I diligently work away at the Hadaka Shitsuji fan disk!

And that’s about it. They do a segment like this almost every month (spoilers: B’s-log’s contents are like 90% the same month-to-month) with 2 new CGs each time from what I understand. Still no release date, but that’s to be expected. My guess is they might try announcing an eta at the Hadaka Shitsuji Festival thing in November.

The previously announced Hadaka Shitsuji Fandisk (more like sequel) has an official site up finally.

The contents of the site are pretty much identical to the initial announcement in B’s Log a while ago, but here’s what it says anyway:

Take it all off!

A tale of an outrageously cruel master and masochistic butlers.

The protagonist, Tomoaki Maeda is a totally normal college student.
When he was really hurting for cash, he jumped at the opportunity to take a strange job as a ‘substitute master.’

Spending every day in a luxurious mansion, indulging in the good life while ordering butlers around.
And once Tomoaki gets used to it all, his orders take an unthinkable turn…

Anyway,

––To everyone who loves Hadaka Shitsuji,
In response to your passionate cheers, we’ve decided to make a fandisk!

It’ll be one volume that won’t pale in comparison to the original in terms of density:
Take it all off again and enjoy your lascivious life the Master on the “Yarashitsuji” Side {pun: lewd+butler} or, indulge in the nice and sweet, “Yasashitsuji” Side {pun: nice + butler} in which the master and former butler’s relationship does a 180.

Naturally, the protagonist (the master) is exclusively seme!

*It is possible to clear the game without having played the original Hadaka Shitsuji.
However, it’s probably more fun if you’ve played the original first.

What are the Yarashitsuji  and Yasashitsuji sides?

The master is in perfect form once again!
“Yarashitsuji” Side 

Somehow, Tomoaki’s become the master for real. Perhaps you could call it progress, because he spends his days performing his duties in a most dignified manner.

Amidst his busy schedule, he finally gets a well earned week off.
How and with whom will he spend it?

A return to the do-anything-and-everything-you-want master’s life!!

A sweeeeet? life with a former butler
“Yasashitsuji” Side

When his job as substitute master was over, he thought he’d return to his former life, but the time he spent as master changed both their destinies dramatically. A bitter-sweet ‘what if’ future scenario between the former master and one of his former butlers who are in a more-than-friends-but-not-quite-lovers relationship.

A sequel to each of the “love” endings.
Includes: “Sakuma Chapter” “Ichinose Chapter” “Komine Chapter” “Arisato Chapter” and the “Toudou Chapter.”

There’s nothing new in the character profiles. Release date is still TBA!

Anyway, I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with the WP blog. I’m kind of tempted to leave it alone as an archive and start fresh with a new blog on my server, but I haven’t made a decision yet. I’m not sure how much I’d be posting anyway.

As far as projects go, here’s what’s up:

• Penguindrum Novels: dropped because I’m too lazy to do it and other people are working on it (and doing a better job than me anyway).
• Leftover Star Driver Interviews: Really low priority, but I wanna do them eventually just for completion’s sake even though I’m pretty sure there’s nothing terribly shocking in any of the remaining material. There’s still been no word about the movie since that one-sentence leak ages ago btw.
• Schell Bullet: On hold while I work on Hadaka Shitsuji. I’ve got a lot of extra free time right now, so I might start on it again so I can switch between the two projects for some variety, but idk. I’m pretty sure it’s significantly shorter than Hadaka Shitsuji though.
• Hadaka Shitsuji: This is my primary project right now. I just broke 50% this week (this includes all of Sakuma, Mizoguchi and Sayaka’s routes along with most of Arisato’s) and I’m getting back up to speed after taking about a month off. The project’s up on TLWiki so if you’re impatient you can read the raw script files.

So yeah, that’s where stuff is at right now. Maybe I’ll try to blog more too, idk.

First off, this took a long time because 1) me and my friend, who was the primary TL on this, both have jobs and other lol fansubbing obligations and 2) everyone talks really fucking weird. For example:

Mitsunari? That fucker loves making up words because actual Japanese isn’t angry enough to convey his RAGE. We were considering smashing together English words to reflect this, but most of our solutions were too stupid sounding to work at all (ex. “zanmetsu” yeah that’s not actually a word, it’s “decapitate” smashed into “destroy” -– I almost made it “decapistroy”).

His other tic is that he likes to use passive imperatives. No that’s not a typo PASSIVE IMPERATIVES (morelike passive aggressive amirite). So shit like ordering people, not to “die” but to “BE KILLED.”

I’m sure some of you hate how we rendered Masamune in the translation, but in our most humble opinions, no one has quite captured just how fucking obnoxious he is in English. Even his voice actor thinks he’s an obnoxious little shit (at the VA greeting event before the movie premier we went to, Nakai said something to the effect of “I feel kind of bad for Mitsunari. He’s just honestly trying to avenge his lord and then THIS FUCKER crashes in, spouting English left and right and generally being totally disrespectful!”).

Also, any Engrish errors (“Long time know see!”) were present in the script included with the Bluray. We left them intact because, quite frankly, Masamune is an idiot.

Other things:

You may have noticed that we translated the nicknames (Gyobu, Kingo, etc). They’re pretty much all plays on obscure Chinese court titles or similar things. I don’t remember specifics on all of them, but we tried to pick things that made sense and sounded reasonably like a nickname instead of a long string of words.

Mitsunari’s nicknames “The Minister of Misfortune” and “The King of Misfortune” are the same sort of thing. The longer title includes a play on how you read the kanji for Mitsunari. We went with “misfortune” over some variant on “evil” because idk, Mitsunari just comes off more pathetic than evil.

What else… Oh yeah, so this fucking movie has some lines/scenes that are so utterly incomprehensible that a lot of native Japanese people had no fucking clue what was going on in them. I found a lengthy post on one of those ask-people-questions sites in which one person asked for an explanation of that scene with Mitsunari and Otani in front of the Hideyoshi statue because Otani’s using metaphors + old timey Japanese, and in return got a 7 paragraph response from someone claiming to have seen the movie 6 times.

For some lines we decided to ignore whatever was literally being said in favor of cribbing lines from the US release of Basara 3 (see: some attack names, Oichi’s song and Keiji’s Basara phrase, though I made some tweaks to Oichi’s song to reflect what happens later). We sorta just picked and chose based on our own preferences for lines (basically if the Japanese was stupid we went with the English localization), so it’s not really a consistency thing.

And lastly (for now at least), when they re-kill Nobunaga at the end, he utters half of his historical final words: zehi mo nashi––which is just fancy old timey Japanese for everyone’s favorite “shikata ga nai.”

I think my friend and I should really get together and write some posts about actual history vs. Basara, because while Basara’s obviously completely ridiculous and not really attempting to be historically accurate pretty much ever, there are some interesting little nods to ~actual history~ that are pretty interesting.

1 絆・冠葉 – Bonds: Kanba
2 絆・チェイス – Bonds: Chase
3 やだなにこれ – Ew, What IS That?
4 恋のプレリュード – Prelude to Love
5 多蕗さんだらけの乙女ゲーム (オーディオドラマ) – The Totally Tabuki Dating Sim (Audio Drama)
6 乙女がタタッタ! – The Girl is TA-TA-TA! {I think this is a pun, tatatta as a SFX and past tense 叩く “to hit/abuse”}
7 妄想ワルツ – Delusional Waltz
8 衝撃の真実 (カーたんとラッちゃん) – Reality Bomb (Ottie and Kappie)
9 ピングミッション・リターンズ – Penguin Mission: Returns

Upcoming Episode titles

Station 18: So Just Be There For Me / だから私のためにいてほしい
Director & Storyboard: Yamauchi Shigeyasu – AD: Nishii Terumi & Baba Mitsuko
Nishii: I’m doing some of the key animation for episode 18 and it reminded me that Penguindrum has some actiony parts…Yamauchi Shigeyasu is directing episode 18, so I think it’ll be a pretty unique episode. Please look forward to it.

Station 19: My Soulmate / 私の運命の人
Director & Storyboard: Gotoh Keiji – AD: Gotoh Keiji, Ishii Kumi

Station 20: Thank You For Picking Me / 選んでくれてありがとう
Director & Storyboard: Hayashi Akemi – AD: TBA

Station 21: The Door of Fate That We Choose / 僕たちが選ぶ運命のドア
Director: Yamazaki Mitsue – Storyboard: Ikuni, Yamazaki Mitsue, Furukawa Tomohiro – AD: TBA

Station 22: Beautiful Coffin / 美しい棺
Staff (other than script): TBA

脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出・絵コンテ/山内重保　作画監督/西位輝実、馬場充子

第19話　私の運命の人
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出・絵コンテ/後藤圭二　作画監督/後藤圭二、石井久美

第20話　選んでくれてありがとう
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出・絵コンテ/林明美

第21話　僕たちが選ぶ運命のドア
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出/山崎みつえ　絵コンテ/幾原邦彦、山崎みつえ、古川知宏

第22話　美しい棺
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世

Digest version:

Ok, so a summary of what we’ve learned so far from the spoilers:

About Tabuki and Yuri’s relationship:
They’re both using each other, but Yuri seems to have thought she was the only one doing the using. She gets mad when she finds out.
Tabuki: “In the end, we’re nothing but a fake family. We’re just using each other.”
It’s been mentioned vaguely a couple times that they separate at some point, but I don’t know the context.

About Tabuki’s backstory:
• Tabuki played piano and he worked really hard at it
• His mother was one of those crazy parents who thinks you’re worthless unless you’re the best
• At some point she gives him a couple of birds because “Human friends will only interfere with your piano.”
• She gets remarried and Tabuki gets a younger step brother who happens to be a musical genius
• Even after he finally gets first place, his little brother has already far out paced him and his mother stops loving him
• He gives up the piano{I think, I might be reading this wrong} . And then his mother lovingly says “If only you hadn’t been injured.”{note: no one has mentioned what caused the injury yet afaik, it seems that the injury to his hand is part of the reason he sucks as piano though}
• But, those kind words were meaningless and Tabuki ends up in the Child Broiler

About Tabuki in the Child Broiler:
Tabuki gets sent to the Child Broiler. It seems like it’s a place where unwanted children go {I got the impression from the discussion that it’s probably a place like the Hole in the Sky Annex}.
The children in the Broiler are going to be turned into “transparent beings” by the adults that work there. This appears to happen by dropping the children off a conveyer belt into fire.
Tabuki seems to have his pet birds with him in the Broiler and when he’s going to be turned into a “transparent being” the only thing he can think of is letting the birds, at least, escape.{from what I understand they do but Tabuki’s basically fucked himself in the process}
Momoka appears somewhere in the middle of this and grabs Tabuki’s hand to prevent him from falling into the fire, the adults burn her hand to get her to let go but she doesn’t.
Tabuki then wakes up outside with the Child Broiler building off in the distance.

About… things that probably happen next week:
It seems that for whatever reason, Tabuki decides to take revenge against the Takakuras for Momoka’s death. He kidnaps Himari and uses her to press Kanba for information about Kenzan’s whereabouts. He threatens to throw Himari from a gondola {now this might be an elevator car actually, because lol engrish, but idk how the fuck you’d throw someone from an elevator, so take it however you want}, but Kanba genuinely doesn’t seem to know anything.

Himari just wants the punishment to end.
“The Takakura family has no choice but to be embraced by hatred and anger.”
“I always felt that someday, we’d be punished like this.”
“And if that’s our inevitable fate, please find a way to punish me instead of Kanba and Shoma.”
“Oh god, please just end it all already.”
“To spare Kan and Sho from punishment, I will shoulder it all myself.”
“My life has been long enough. I had a happy life. So I want Kanba to live his own life.” and she tries to jump {to kill herself}, and even though Kanba is wrecking both his body and soul, he shouts, “But I /want/ to live for your sake!”

Then Tabuki goes, “Ringo, don’t end up like me.”

About Ringo and Shoma:
“I have to be stronger too. No matter how unfair it might seem, if this is our fate, then I have to accept it and become stronger. I dried my tears on my sleeve and stopped lying to myself. I’m never going to run away again, not from fate and not from Oginome.”

MSC stuff:
• Kanba gets jealous when he thinks Himari’s making a sweater for Sanetoshi but it turns out she’s making sweaters for Kanba and Shoma.
• Sanetoshi’s medicine seems like it needs to be administered regularly within a certain timeframe.
• Masako gets a new gun (maybe).

—

Raw post TLs:

• Apparently the medicine Sanetoshi’s giving Himari has to be readministered within a certain time period or it puts the patient’s life in danger?
When Tabuki kidnapped Himari, there was a sense or urgency about whether she’d get her evening dose in time.
• When Tabuki has Himari hostage, he calls out Kanba and seems to be pressing him for details regarding Kenzan’s whereabouts.
Even though Tabuki threatens to drop Himari from the gondola{I’m gonna guess there’s ferris wheel shenanigans involved here} as he interrogates Kanba, Kanba genuinely doesn’t seem to know where his father is.
• The weapon Masako uses is described as a “repurposed gattling gun”
Is she upgrading to that smaller gun she had in the first opening? Or is she going to keep using the sling shot in the anime?
• The birds in the first opening with Tabuki are probably gifts his mother gave him because, “human friends will only interfere with your piano.”
Even in the Child Broiler he had a bird cage, and when he was in peril of grave bodily harm, the only thing he could think of was letting at least the birds escape, but the cage was rusted shut and would not open. Tabuki nearly plunged into the flames at the end of the conveyer belt to soften the metal with the heat and open the cage before jumping off.
• Then from out of nowhere, Tabuki’s classmate Momoka appears in the Child Broiler with him and suggests that they escape.
She desperately tries to hold onto Tabuki’s hand after he fell into the fire from the conveyer belt.
Even after “adults” in work clothes burned Momoka’s hand, she didn’t let go and when Tabuki suddenly came to, they had escaped.

Ok, so someone started asking about whether this means the Child Broiler is a concrete/real place and someone else responded with some information compiled from people who got the book yesterday. From what I understand the quotes are quotes from the book:

“When I came to and opened my eyes, I was sitting here, but I have no recollection of how I got here.” That sort of thing. It’s not really clear whether it’s a dream world or a near-death experience related to suicide? or something.

Tabuki wakes up in the Child Broiler sitting on the floor, clutching his knees––> Momoka appears “We should go home!”
–>”But I have home to go back to. I’m worthless because I can’t play piano.” they argue for a while
–>Some adults appear in jumpsuits, “Alright everyone, we’re going to turn you all into transparent* beings now!” {* Seito Sakakibara reference most likely}
“It’s nothing to be scared of, you’re just going to never amount to anything!”
–>The floor starts to move like a conveyer belt. At the edge is a sharp drop and the children fall into the fire one by one.
–>Momoka grabs Tabuki’s hand to prevent him from falling –> the adults burn Momoka’s hand to try to make her let go
–>[Tabuki?] thinks he/they are falling but the next minute he wakes up and opens his eyes to see the blue sky above him and the Child Broiler building off in the distance

Later, the reason Momoka falls in love with Tabuki:
While [Tabuki] practices frantically in the music room even though he thinks his little brother is much better than him,
[Momoka says] “I could see the music glistening as it spilled out of the classroom window and into the hall and the garden. It was incredibly beautiful.”
“It doesn’t matter if your hand can’t play anymore, because what I heard was your heart.”
Or something like that.

Hey, how ’bout an out of context page.

The guy who posted it said “I’m sure the shipper faggots will love this”

Penguin 1 and 3 rolled around and crashed into each other, then they sat motionless, dumbfounded.

“But why!” She shouted at no one in particular. My stomach was boiling. “I don’t want anything [special]. Just, like normal.” I couldn’t hold back my tears as Oginome clung to my back. My back felt warm and her tears were soaking through my clothes. I could smell her scent.

“I’m not like that. There’s no way I could ever hate you guys!”

The powerful warmth of the arms wrapping around me from behind melted my heart just a little.

“I don’t think sad things or happy things are pointless. If it’s fate, surely they all have meaning. Accepting that has given me strength. So–” Even though I’d rejected her so strongly, Oginome said that to me. “So, don’t cry.”

I have to be stronger too. No matter how unfair it might seem, if this is our fate, then I have to accept it and become stronger. I dried my tears on my sleeve and stopped lying to myself. I’m never going to run away again, not from fate and not from Oginome.

About Yuri and Tabuki:

Yuri is using Tabuki and doesn’t love him, but when she finds out that Tabuki is using her too she gets mad, lololol

“In the end, we’re nothing but a fake family. We’re just using each other.”
[Tabuki] says, so maybe they’re trying to contrast “real” families.

[Himari] when she’s kidnapped by Tabuki [thinks/says]:
“The Takakura family has no choice but to be embraced by hatred and anger.”
“I always felt that someday, we’d be punished like this.”
“And if that’s our inevitable fate, please find a way to punish me instead of Kanba and Shoma.”
“Oh god, please just end it all already.”

A related chunk:

It was so sad when Himari prayed to god, “To spare Kan and Sho from punishment, I will shoulder it all myself.”
And then she says, “My life has been long enough. I had a happy life. So I want Kanba to live his own life.” as she tries to jump {to kill herself}, and even though Kanba is wrecking both his body and soul, he shouts, “But I /want/ to live for your sake!”

Related to ^:

Himari is saved.
Kanba shouts to Himari, “I /want/ to live for your sake!”
Tabuki: “Ringo, don’t end up like me.”

Ok, found a log of the previous thread (I missed the last 300 posts) and I was right that’s where most of the basic details came out.

About Tabuki:

• Tabuki played piano and he worked really hard at it
• His mother was one of those crazy parents who thinks you’re worthless unless you’re the best
• She gets remarried and Tabuki gets a younger step brother who happens to be a musical genius
• Even after he finally gets first place, his little brother has already far out paced him and his mother stops loving him
• He gives up the piano{I think, I might be reading this wrong} . And then his mother lovingly says “If only you hadn’t been injured.”
• But, those kind words were meaningless and Tabuki ends up in the Child Broiler

Found another piece:
We’re getting another Survival Strategy next week:

Kanba asks the Princess of the Crystal if the Penguin Drum is the diary and she responds “That’s classified”
And that if they neglect the Penguin Drum, “Someone in your family will be punished severely.”
“You two/all will cause harm to befall the one you care about most.” She says.

A little bit about Himari:

So, after Himari finishes the scarves she starts on a sweater. It seems like it’s for Sanetoshi and Kanba gets mad.
Even though it was an intentional mislead, it totally got me.
Anyway, Himari secretly reveals to Ringo that she’s knitting sweaters for Kanba and Shoma.

—–

On a tangent that I’ll probably make a proper post about later, here’s the letter Sakakibara wrote that “transparent being” thing probably comes from:

I happened to turn on the TV just before heading out earlier and I saw a news caster misread my name as “Onibara.”

Misreading a person’s name is an act of extreme derision. The letters written on the page aren’t some sort of code or riddle or ateji, it is my pure, unadulterated, truth. I had that name from the second I came into existence and what I wanted to do was already determined. But, regretfully, I have no nationality. Up until now, no one called me by my name. If I had remained me since I was born, I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to do something like leaving a severed head at the middle school gate.

When I thought to try it, I managed to enjoy being a murderer without anyone noticing. The reason I explicitly attracted the attention of society was that, I am now and always will be a transparent* being and at the very least I would like to be recognized as a real human even if only in the midst of your collective imagination. And at the same time, I don’t want you to forget my revenge against the society which created compulsory education, that compulsory education which produced a transparent being such as myself.
{*透明 means transparent both literally and in the sense of “transparent government” it has undertones of purity and lucidity, I suspect he means it primarily in the literal sense}

However, if it was simply revenge, I would have simply dropped the heavy load burdening me thus far and accomplished nothing.

Thus, I tried to consult with the only other transparent being in the world like myself.

When I did, he [said], “If you want to get revenge that has merit and is not pitiable, you should combine the murder that was your hobby, your raison d’etre, and your objective and enjoy your revenge as a game, you should transform your hobby from murder to revenge. I think, if you do that, you’ll create a new world just for yourself where you have nothing to gain and nothing to lose, no more and no less.”

I tried acting in line with what he said and started the murder game.

But, I still don’t know why I like to kill. I can’t really say anything but that it’s something I was born with. I am only released from this habitual hatred and am at peace when I am killing. Only the pain of others can soothe my pain.

Final comments

I think you’ll more or less understand the text written on this page, but I have more of an obsession with my own existence than your average person. Therefore, I cannot tolerate the misreading of my name and the defiling of my very existence. From what I’ve surmised of the police’s current actions, no matter how I look at it, even though it bothers me to the core, I don’t think they’re misrepresenting me on purpose. They’re not trying to crush my existence are they?

I’ve bet my life on this game. If I’m caught, I’ll probably be hung. So, while I won’t ask the police to bet their lives too, I want them to come after me with more rage and tenacity. From here on, if you misread my name one more time, or do something similarly apathetic, in one week I’ll smash three vegetables {tl note: vegetables means people}. You’ve made a grave mistake if you think I’m some young criminal who can only kill children.

––I posess the ability to kill a single human twice––

P.S. In case the letter I put in the head’s mouth is rendered illegible by rain or something else, I’ve included a copy of its contents with this letter.