There are only spoilers for Muv-Luv Extra, Unlimited and Alternative here. I took care not to mention anything for side content outside of setting.

I don’t even know how to start this. Like I mentioned in my previous, spoiler-free review, Muv-Luv Alternative is my favorite story of all time. This time, I’m making a spoiler review, written soon after my reread. This might not be the most polished essay I’ve written, but even though I do appreciate people seeing this, it is primarily for myself. I’ll try to put every single thought I’ve had about MLA and Muv-Luv as a whole into it, but of course, words aren’t enough, so there will always be more I will want to say. This will be a long one.

For the longest time, I used to not get attached to stories, especially emotionally. It’s why I played multiplayer games primarily. For basically the entirety of the 2000s and 2010s I was mostly into familiar media or adaptations of that media — Marvel, DC and Star Wars. Nothing wrong with enjoying them, of course. When looking forward to new content, I was mostly looking forward to more of the same. It was nice in a way, but lacked novelty after a while. I didn't really get emotional from media either, let alone to the extent of crying. With the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns, I started exploring more due to sheer boredom, and eventually got into anime for real after trying a few shows in 2011-2015 previously. One thing led to another, and after playing Doki Doki Literature Club and watching Steins;Gate I decided to explore more of the SciAdv series, and read Chaos;Child (at the time, Chaos;Head wasn’t on Steam and I was not aware of its existence). I never had the apprehension about the visual novel medium since I was used to reading a lot of books as a child. Experiencing C;C blew away all other narrative media I was into previously, even my beloved Spider-Man adaptations and comics, as well as the dozens/hundreds of anime I’d watched in 2020. After that I moved onto the most popular VN and VN adaptations series — Type-Moon. I read Fate/stay night and Tsukihime, and I was obsessed with it for months. I was convinced that there was barely any point in exploring the medium at that point, with nothing else really catching my eye. However, I decided that I would at least try Muv-Luv, since Alternative was the highest rated VN on VNDB, and in the top three on EGS (Japanese eroge and ADV game website), in addition to the anime adaptation of MLA being announced, and getting told to not rob myself of the experience, hence deciding to read the source trilogy. If I didn’t end up liking it, I would quit the medium.

I was honestly surprised to see the amount of hatred towards Extra online after finishing the trilogy. It might not be a masterpiece, but the humor is something I’ve always found entertaining. It is even more apparent on my reread after experiencing dozens upon dozens of other VNs where the humor is the MC being a pervert or classroom pranks. In Muv-Luv, you have the rich girl heroine trope exaggerated into being able to level the protagonist’s neighborhood and bring in 5-star chefs from around the glove on helicopters to school, as well as turning into chibis and shooting each other into the stratosphere. For some, it may have gotten repetitive, but given how I enjoyed this reread, and prior to that Altered Fable and some other side stories, I still enjoy it. The main two routes of Extra (Sumika and Meiya), the ones that were required to unlock Unlimited in 2003 (and for good reason), also have a well-executed romance drama, though I do take some issue with the side routes, which I’ve discussed in my Extra/Unlimited reread review prior to this one.

Unlimited was really crazy from beginning to end. I spent all of Extra anticipating the genre shift which never happened then, only for Takeru to suddenly walk out into a wasteland three minutes into this one. It was the last thing I expected after spending a large portion of Extra theorising that Yuuko would do some kind of experiment and they would get invaded at the end of Extra. And then Takeru gets shoved into what is another genre, as well as literally another world. The “new normal” of Muv-Luv shifts, and Extra already starts to seem like a distant dream. Takeru goes through a training arc and episodic arcs that focus on the girls, building up confidence, but by the end of it things start to feel wrong, and they announce Alternative V, making Takeru fight with the rest of humanity for survival as a fleet that only hosts a small portion of humanity on board, possibly with the heroine, who is also the mother of his child. It is an emotional gut punch due to how abruptly the ending comes — Takeru couldn’t do anything due to lack of information and maturity at the time, yet he’s giving it his all regardless. Isn’t this insane, though? Wasn’t it so long ago that we were choosing between Sumika and Meiya’s lunches? How is this even the same story? At this point we really start to miss the Extraverse and Sumika just like he does. It gets even crazier. It makes me feel bad for people who waited between 2003 and 2006 when Alternative wasn’t even certain to come out.

So, we finally get to Alternative — the true story, so to speak. After an awesome Hive invasion scene that made me shout “ENGLISH?!?!?!?!?”, and the iconic, intriguing “human brains” moment, the story adds yet another layer besides dimensional travel this time with time travel. Takeru loops back to the beginning of Unlimited with his knowledge and training and starts to retrace his steps to use the future knowledge to its fullest. One thing that really stood out about chapters 1-5 of Alternative is how it genuinely feels like a timeloop due to small changes snowballing. Yuuko takes longer to trust Takeru’s story despite Kasumi’s mind-reading due to his trained body and suspicious amount of classified knowledge, Takeru doesn’t hold back the cadet squad, but leads it this time, and Yuuko and Takeru debate which events to intervene in without losing the advantage of future knowledge, while also trying to save as many days and hours before Alternative V is implemented on Christmas Day as possible. It’s really cool seeing this after several stories, especially visual novels, having one small choice leading to another character becoming a psychopathic killer and killing the entire cast, or something. The story being a slow burn really makes it feel immersive.

The first true change is the coup d’etat that did not happen in the Unlimited timeline, due to interfering with the events of episode 9 of Unlimited. I’ll get back to this later, but this arc is one of the most controversial aspects of MLA, and for good reason. For now it will suffice to say that both the reader and Takeru are asking themselves why his first mission is fighting humans instead of the BETA, and why anyone would bother doing this when humanity is facing extinction. It is an attempt to say that nobody is strictly right or wrong (even if it is biased towards the Japanese nationalistic perspective), and humanising American and UN soldiers and not blaming them for their leaders’ choices is cool. After that ends and the XM3 trials happen, the true turning point of Muv-Luv occurs — the chomp of Jinguuji Marimo. It is a completely unexpected moment, delivered only after the reader feels completely secure about thinking that they have already finally reached the "serious part" of the story, only to have something like this happen during a typical “Muv-Luv talk”, and all the allegedly heroic resolve Takeru had goes to waste once this starts to affect the people near him. He has a truly deplorable display in front of Meiya, Kasumi and Yuuko and runs away to his world, until it starts to affect him there. After that we finally get to see the fight against the BETA.

I know it is a bad habit to start summarising the story in a review, but I feel like this way I will assemble the pieces to truly discuss it, as well as provide a refresher. In any case…

The coup arc is controversial due to Sagiri’s resemblance to Yukio Mishima from Japanese history. By essentially saying “your methods were extreme, but your motivation wasn’t, you just went about it the wrong way”, MLA understandably rubs many people the wrong way about this. However, I wouldn’t really call it “nationalism simulator 3000” because of this. Even besides the fact that Total Eclipse and other side material dials down the nationalism aspect (though is it really fair to mention that as a retroactive point when talking about MLA specifically, especially when TE sort of partially exists to ‘fix’ it?), it’s certainly nice to not have an ‘evil foreigner’ angle, which is more than I can say for a few popular VNs, anime and JRPGs, especially with downplaying Japan’s role in World War II, but I digress. Having Takeru have an outsider’s perspective is cool, since it feels like a much more relatable opinion for someone like me who has experienced life in multiple cultures. They still have him be more understanding of the nationalistic view by the end of the arc, which plays into the nationalistic undertones of the arc, as well as despite being a UN operation, having the entire squad be of Japanese descent (even though it plays into the whole “UN soldier duties vs Japanese roots” aspect). I still enjoy the arc despite its issues, especially with the tension and Takeru’s dynamic with Yuuhi, but I can definitely see where people who dislike it are coming from.

To call the XM3 trials’ chomp a turning point is an understatement. The story effectively undergoes a second genre shift through the multiple tragedies of chapter 7. All of what we thought we knew about Muv-Luv undergoes a change, and we realise that nowhere is safe, not even the Extraverse. The distant memory of Extra now comes under attack. There is truly nowhere left to run. I’ve mentioned that I cried to MLA previously, and on my original playthrough, this got the most tears out of me. From seeing Extraverse Marimo to the various tragedies, to Sumika’s memories and “Go out there and show them who’s boss, Shirogane Takeru!” as JAM PROJECT blasts into my ear, it was probably to date the most emotional I’ve gotten over media. After more than a decade of not crying over fiction, I finally started bawling. And the reason for that is due to the slow burn that MLE, MLU and early MLA were, due to how attached I’ve gotten to these characters, like I truly knew them. The end gave Takeru and me both a determination to see this tale through to the end. The reveal that Sumika is the brain from the brain room and has been under Takeru’s nose all along was shocking, despite being a bit predictable at this point. After experiencing her heavy injuries in Extra, seeing her like this and unlike her usual cheery self is painful for readers, too. By the way, Sumika being in the menu screen and marketing material this isn’t a spoiler on the Steam version’s part, she was marketed to be in this game even with the 00 Unit pink fortified suit even in its original release, such as with the game cover. Just like Muv-Luv being a mecha, this isn’t really a spoiler you should be worrying about, since âge certainly doesn’t consider it one.

And so, Takeru finally gets involved in a squad as a commissioned officer, with cast additions such as Isumi Michiru from Kimi Ga Ita Kisetsu, Hayase, Akane and Haruka from Kimi Nozomu ga Eien, Kashiwagi from Extra, as well as Kazama and Munakata (who later got added to the KimiIta remake). This must’ve been a real gift for long-time âge fans, seeing alternate versions of the characters they knew in the BETAverse. Like the BETAverse versions of the Extra heroines, the BETAverse versions of these characters are similar, yet adjusted to the setting. Isumi dies without confessing, and Mitsuki and Haruka have lost Takayuki. Seeing even further connections like this is why I’m planning to finish pre-ML âge VNs before my second trilogy reread, this time in Japanese. Back to Muv-Luv itself though, we finally get to truly fight the BETA for the first time. The reason the XM3 surprise attack and chomp were so effective was because the BETA’s appearance was hidden behind ambiguity for the story until that point. They were a threat that was always looming over the characters and in-universe populace. They are a truly terrifying force with no morals or hesitation that people might have. They aren’t even villains of the week — they are more akin to insects such as ants or bees that come in thousands or even millions. Seeing the scale increase so drastically from Extra, and even Unlimited, is a sight to behold. Now we have another new normal that is 1000+ vs 1000+ large scale battles that have multiple parties constantly moving with their own objectives, and seeing how the BETA’s response affects the entire battlefield. Following Takeru’s incredible show of determination in his Storm Vanguard moment and the plan going off the rails, Isumi’s sacrifice is an emotional scene despite for how short of a time Takeru has known her, and seeing Kashiwagi be the first person besides Marimo to get killed off from the Extra cast leaves a void in the reader’s heart.

At this point it becomes abundantly clear to never expect peace from Muv-Luv anymore, but the attack on Yokohama Base comes as a surprise regardless. This time around, the base takes major damage, and with Mitsuki’s and Haruka’s deaths, as well as the injuries of the rest of the Valkyries, the only crew that remains in fighting condition is our original gang, armed with Tsukuyomi and company’s Takemikazuchis. They too undergo a suicidal attack against the BETA, and the story wraps up.

It really is insane that this is the same story as lacrosse and various shenanigans from Extra. I constantly had to remind myself of the fact that yes, this is indeed the story, many times throughout the story. But the main reason this even works is due to it taking so long to “get good”. The reason the BETA attack during the XM3 trials is such a shock is due to how long it took for the first ‘real fight’, and the reason chapters 7 through 10 are so impactful is due to how long we spent with these characters. The contrast between the worlds and genres plays a part, too. There are some cool connections that are even more apparent while rereading, such as Alternative Takeru throwing the shoe to his Extra self, or Sumika meeting him while going home with groceries, or Sadogashima mentions and Yuuko’s quantum causality theory, but by far the most impressive part of the trilogy is how almost all the parts work as pieces of a greater picture.

The world building plays a part in that. Muv-Luv’s hard sci-fi lore explains almost everything (I mean, we don’t know how exactly they mention the causality potential of 00 Unit candidates, but whatever) and connects it to plot points through strategy, tactics, technology and history, while the soft sci-fi such as multiversal and time travel, as well as causality conducting ties to the themes and characters. It is so nice to see things be properly explained in the main work (where it’s vague or sometimes just straight up unexplained) and not just side content (where it’s actually explained). It is so refreshing to see a story with such a grounded take on mechs that don’t have beam swords and cannot fly into space not be filled with unexplained technobabble like omega particles that never get explained outside of interviews or obscure side material, with the main story mentioning rules but immediately breaking them two minutes later. You actually know what an Arrowhead-2 formation, data link or Gray-9 is. It's not just there, they actually use this stuff in the story! The XM3 is invented due to just being a logical thing to do when you have a guy who knows a way to improve TSF software. You get told several versions of a plan so that you know exactly what is happening if something doesn’t go ideally and they have to use a backup, which they told you about ahead of time. The TSFs themselves get a lot of detail in their design philosophies between countries, generations and models. In fact, TSFs being based on real life planes like the F-22 Raptor makes it even more cool. It actually makes sense why they were invented — it’s not just to look cool, you want a machine that can move three-dimensionally without crashing into a wall like a plane, but also something with more agility than a tank. Muv-Luv in general has so many things I wish other mecha had, even small things like neck braces when pilots aren't in something like Evangelion LCL or space, so that maneuvers in those mechs don't case whiplash. It is also nice to see a story where you actually have to undergo training (and we see the cast undergo training) both in Basic and with simulators before you can actually pilot a mech. It just makes sense! It makes sense why the cast don’t get into real action for so long, aside from just political reasons which are revealed later. The political and technological landscape is so developed that it is so immersive, and I can’t get enough of it. I was initially curious if I’d end up liking this, since I wasn’t into mecha for the mecha previously, but it seems I just hadn’t found my own niche at that point. Having such comparatively weak mechs with a focus on agility over durability, since additional armor wouldn’t be much help anyway in such a grounded setting definitely made me find that niche. Exposition and a lot of details to remember is a common complaint about Alternative, but that’s what makes it so compelling to me. You can’t have so much detail in strategy, tech, politics with various parties having their own complex motivations and history make consistent sense without explaining them.

The structure certainly makes this story the greatest “trust me bro, it gets good” of all time, but that’s what makes it worth it. It’s already common for VNs to have a slow, slice of life beginning as the high schooler main character gets thrown into supernatural shenanigans, but having that main character live through what is basically a detailed pre-isekai life (making it stand out among a sea of low-effort isekai novels and anime nowadays, 20+ years later), get thrown into a dystopian mecha alien invasion with humanity at the brink of extinction, witness the end of the world, and get timelooped back and experience trauma after creating another branch (route) in his original, more traditional visual novel world makes it stand out even among other acclaimed visual novels. Like I said, it’s crazy that it’s the same story as lacrosse and picking school lunches, and you think that at many points in the story. But most importantly, it gives you attachment to that old life, you genuinely start to miss Extra. Even people who didn’t like Extra can become major Muv-Luv fans and start to miss it and appreciate it more in Unlimited and Alternative, I’ve seen it happen time and time again.

The visuals are amazing even two decades later. This stuff is still more animated than the overwhelming majority of VNs there, and from the popular ones, rivalled only by the recent 2010s and 2020s Type-Moon visual novels. From moving mouths and eyes, to the crazy amount of CGs and movement, to creative uses of the limitations of the VN medium to be as dynamic as possible, Muv-Luv, especially Alternative and future entries, is extremely dynamic, and while not quite like an anime, makes you forget that it isn’t one sometimes. I even remember watching a friend livestream this and be impressed by having back sprites and seeing warm air when characters spoke and breathed outdoors during autumn and winter. But even that doesn’t compare to how dynamically TSFs and tactical maps adjust and change during fights. Very few visual novels have reached this level of constant animation, I can say that for sure after having around 90 at the time of writing this now. I also don’t really get some of the complaints about the soundtrack. Not only are Asu e no Houkou, Wings and Carry On incredible tracks by JAM PROJECT that (take this with a grain of salt, I don’t have a specific source for this) the author, Kouki, allegedly went into debt to afford, as well as funding a huge part of Alternative out of his own pocket, but you also have banger OSTs like Storm Vanguard, Briefing, War Preparation, Valkyries, Ambush Attack, Crash, etc. that have become classics to me. The aforementioned War Preparation was inspired by a track from Gunbuster (not the only case of this happening either!), and you will find many of these kinds of references to mecha, such as Takemikazuchi’s design resembling an Evangelion, Kei Ayamine/Rei Ayanami; Sumika’s, Meiya’s and some other girls’ hair designs resembling Gundam helmets, etc in its distinct hair vents-having art style. in Muv-Luv. It is inspired by so many previous works, yet puts its own spin on the genre regardless.

But a love letter to mecha though it may be, Muv-Luv is primarily a love letter to romance visual novels. That is why, despite how exaggerated the tropes are, you have the classic childhood friend, rich girl, class president tsundere, kuudere, as well as others. That is why the fact that the original has routes, and that Takeru creates a new one by interacting with the Extraverse in Alternative, and why you get progressively fewer and fewer impactful choices with each entry in the trilogy. That is why the grand revelation at the end is that Takeru, not simply alternate versions of him, loved them all. That is why the main thing about Muv-Luv is “save in the name of true love”. That is why the closest person to being a human antagonist in the story is the childhood friend who is essentially forcing her own route on the protagonist, making hers the “true route” and not letting the story end until the protagonist chooses her, then finishing the story by undoing her interference on the other routes and giving the other girls an equal playing field. In the 2020s where we have many visual novel "subversions" that actively mock the usual tropes, this treats them with love and care. Extra matters. And after all, who better to showcase the transition between privilege to having real problems than a privileged harem romcom protagonist in a visual novel, and then use his love to persevere regardless even as he is forced to grow up and witness many tragedies? I am in general a fan of “normal guy” main characters who are just ordinary people going through extraordinary circumstances, but the way that connects to the commentary on VNs and the themes is noteworthy.

As a series, Muv-Luv is just chill in general. You can basically do anything you want in any order (other than prequels for stuff you’re reading anyway) after Alternative. It’s nice to have a series without a strongly enforced reading order, where you can pick and choose what you’re interested in, with little to no amount of what I call “media homework”. You don’t get a cheap copout of having a second Takeru, since none of the other main characters are isekai protagonists. Instead, you get variety with a story that happens in Alaska, which is controlled in part by the UN, in part by the USA, and in part by the USSR, with a Japanese-American protagonist; a gritty struggle for survival in 1980s communist Germany; a post-Alternative V, G-Bombed world with very little of land and population remaining. And those are just the major side-stories, there’s a bunch of shorter ones that you might be into, both with Extra-style humour and Alternative-style serious plot.

It’s not like I think it’s perfect. The cadet suits were a good idea to phase out as the franchise went on, I still think that not all the Extra routes are made equal — Tama’s dad’s (who Takeru meets "for the first time" in Unlimited) and Sagiri’s appearances in Unlimited and Alternative, as well as Chizuru’s parental issues (this dad is barely even explored in her Extra route) aren’t really enhanced that much by reading their routes, and I think the doctor willing to throw away everything he has for a high school girl in Kei’s route and the bullying storyline in Chizuru’s don’t really contribute much. Tama’s route is fun but her confidence issues are made apparent without missing content in Unlimited and Alternative even if you don’t do her route. In Extra she has to hit a target with her bow, in Unlimited she has to hit a target with a TSF and a massive sniper rifle. Her dad (who, again, Takeru meets "for the first time" in Unlimited despite Tama's Extra route) is also there. And Mikoto doesn’t even get a proper route in the first place. Unlimited is even worse with this — I cannot expect first time readers to do every almost entirely identical route where the heroine is copy and pasted, with a bunch of unskippable autoread sequences. I will say that experienced VN readers should definitely try reading all the Extra routes, it’s just natural to want to read all the routes of a VN. But for new people or those who have had enough Extra, reading Sumika and maybe also Meiya’s route works as the bare minimum before Unlimited. Other than Sagiri’s one-minute appearance and Takeru going “huh? Anyways, moving on”, you won’t really be confused. Now, don’t get me wrong, I won’t lie and say that it doesn’t add to perhaps the main point of Muv-Luv — that being Takeru’s love(s) for the girls — and the payoffs in chapter 10, such as the heroines laying down their lives for the protagonist, but you actually don’t get any new plot-related substance added to chapters 6, for example, by knowing about Extraverse Sagiri’s love for Kei (barely talked about in Alternative) and his story with Kei’s mother in the medical field, when it comes to the coup arc and his relationship with BETAverse Kei, because what matters here is his relationship to her dad’s philosophy, and its effect on Sagiri, Kei and Yuuhi. You don’t really need to know about Tama’s archery in Extra beyond that she does archery for Unlimited and Alternative, and you meet Tama’s dad in Unlimited as if it’s for the first time anyway. We never see Chizuru’s dad on-screen, and he barely gets mentioned in Extra. While it makes the payoffs even greater, it’s not knowledge that will make or break the story for you, even though you could interpret Chizuru’s struggles in her route as foreshadowing for her future leader role, and Tama’s contrast as an archer versus her BETAverse self as a sniper and her dad caring for her, or Kei’s closed-off nature. Everything plot-related (besides Extraverse Sagiri’s one-minute appearance) that you actually need to know will be told or retold in Unlimited and Alternative. The main point of doing Extra, other than the primary two routes having the necessary information for the central plot and background, is the contrast between Takeru’s original world and what comes later. That being said, like I said in my MLE/MLU review, if you can do them all, by all means, do them — it’ll make you care even more in Alternative, that part is undeniable. The most problematic aspect is probably the “twizzlers” tentacle scene in chapter 9, though, which is arguably disrespectful towards Sumika as a character, even in the all-ages version of the story which I prefer. That scene certainly blindsides you since there is very little sexual content even in the original version of MLA.

One thing I won’t change my mind on is the structure not being to its detriment. Muv-Luv is a work of passion that is so unapologetic about its vision, so dedicated to its niche, so ambitious that I now use "this is the Alternative of X" as a way to explain how big a step up from something is in a sequel, and that to fully enjoy it, you would want to be a fan of both slice-of-life romcoms and hard sci-fi real robot mecha, and have enough patience for the “true story” and action to begin dozens of hours in. Extra gives you no taste of the future TSF vs BETA action to come. For once we have an invasion/war story that doesn’t have the calm before the storm only last the equivalent of the first half of episode 1 (at most), we actually see that peace that is later contrasted to war through the protagonist’s eyes. It is both a slice-of-life romcom and a grounded war story, as well as a love story about that love crossing all boundaries, and prevailing nonetheless. It is a story of a young adult transitioning from adolescence to true adulthood with responsibilities through character development, but does not lose his innate kindness regardless. It wasn’t even a decisive victory against the BETA either, Takeru bought the BETAverse an extra 20 years. But for just a single person, that is an incredible feat. And I don’t think the ending, which is the final most commonly criticised aspect of Muv-Luv, goes against this — the epilogue of Final Extra is the first time we are truly out of sync with Takeru in terms of knowledge and experiences. Regardless of if you think his memories and experiences are still there (at least we know from Altered Fable that the characters act more like their post-Alternative, more developed selves rather than just being their Extra selves from square one), we are shown a second, retroactive, slightly altered look at the beginning of Muv-Luv Extra. Now that we have known what war looks like, will we be able to take that peace we have come to take for granted in Extra the same way? Now that we know the blood and tears, the suffering to create this small miracle that Takeru, Sumika and all the rest went through to create this reality and give Kasumi a peaceful life, will we be able to trivialise the importance of Extra, regardless of how we felt about it at the beginning of the tale? Absolutely not, it wasn’t all for nothing, and that’s why this ending works.

I have never cried over any media before this in general (I got teary-eyed at most, but I didn't go hysterical), and I have never cried over stories this much since. I have cried even more on my reread, noticing foreshadowing and getting emotional over more character and plot moments due to better understanding. It is safe to say that Muv-Luv Alternative will not be surpassed for me as a work of fiction for a while, if ever. There are few works as ambitious and full of passion as this. I feel the same way after having experienced 89 visual novels and much more mecha and other media than my 2021 self that initially read this with around four visual novels’ worth of experience, and far less with other media that makes you appreciate this story more. At the risk of repetition and being cliched, it is also safe to say that my life is divided into pre-MLA and post-MLA. I don’t see myself getting tired of this story and world. I even started learning Japanese and exploring a variety of fiction, not judging things by their cover because of it. It just means that much to me.

I could talk about this for hours, even days. But I do have to put this review to an end somehow. So, to repeat from my spoiler-free review: Thank you, Shirogane Takeru, for your inspiring journey. Thank you, Kagami Sumika, Mitsurugi Meiya, Ayamine Kei, Tamase Miki, Sakaki Chizuru and Yashiro Kasumi, for your stories that showed both the protagonist and reader the many perspectives and lives that exist in the world. Thank you, Kouzuki Yuuko, Jinguuji Marimo and other cast members, for being reliable mentors and saying things that both Takeru and I, a university student at the time who had been lost with as to what to do with life, needed to hear. Thank you for making this story such a joy to read.

Lastly, and most importantly, thank you, âge and Yoshimune Kouki, for creating this beautiful tale of love and courage that I hold dear in my heart to this day.