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I’m reading along
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this chapter yet
@Naphthalene You mentioned last week you were looking forward to Aika’s promotion exam… that’s it, unfortunately. The anime version of this chapter shows Aika’s exam in a short montage behind the opening credits of the episode, but yeah, it’s not in the manga at all.
But yeah, finally the big day.
As I’ve mentioned before, this is the part of the manga where I watched the anime version long before I read the manga, and… I honestly think I prefer the anime version of this. Maybe I just read too fast, but the manga version just feels… rushed. The anime pads out the story quite a bit - for starters, Akari goes out for a row the night before the test, unable to sleep, and runs into Akatsuki and Woody. The morning of the planned day, it’s pouring with rain, so Alicia suggest postponing, but Akari isn’t having any of it. In the afternoon the sun comes out, and they have the test, which is largely as shown here, except there’s a lot more interactions between Akari and people she’s met along the way - which is kind of Akari’s forte, so it’s a little sad they leave them out here.
Also, the anime version has them in winter uniforms, probably so that they didn’t have to work out how that cool-looking yet somewhat absurd manacle on the summer gloves is supposed to come off.
Well, I’m a bit disappointed, but at the same time I expected 灯里’s test to be in the last chapter, so I’m happy at the same time. The version of the test from the anime sounds better indeed. There were some character cameo, but she didn’t interact with them at all…
I liked this chapter a lot, though. And she got a really nice nickname 遙かなる蒼/aquamarine
Literally everything I'm writing is a spoiler so I'm just going to do it this way
The moment came, the moment came, ahhhh!
Did I get emotional? Yes
They’re all Primas now, I’m so proud of them :')
Having not seen the anime, I really liked this chapter and the way it was done felt just right to me. The anime version sounds nice, too, just a different vibe. Since there wasn’t a lot of other filler, the manga version of the exam felt like a special moment between just Akari and Alicia, which I liked. I also kind of liked that the manga put the focus on Akari’s last challenge - I think it fit perfectly with the theme and vibe of the last few chapters, like “even though everything’s changing and you might not have people physically with you, you’ll always have the memories and what you’ve learned from those people to give you strength.”
I do hope we’ll see all our other friends and acquaintances one last time before the end of the series though. I feel like that could be coming, like we might get those last interaction moments in one of the remaining chapters, but it’ll be a shame if we don’t, since I do feel like Akari’s interactions and friendships are a big part of her character.
So I was kind of expecting this chapter to be like this after the previous two.
I don’t know if these kanji are covered in WK but I’m not familiar with them and can’t read them without proper furigana. Can anyone provide a reading? Does it just mean aquamarine?
Wow, everyone responded 6-7 days ago and I’m just reading the chapter now. I also felt like it was rushed, but it was still nice.
Also, 碧 is like the greatest color ever. I’m disappointed there’s not really a perfect word for dark turquoise / teal in Japanese. Closest I’ve found is 青緑・青緑色, or now I guess 碧 (or 碧色 if you wanna get real fancy).
Anyway, regarding the chapter, I really like Akari’s name.
