#and kagetsu was more than willing to help him with it

[my-current-obsession]

I’m finally at the end of Engage! With only the final battle to go, I made a tier list of how I feel all the units performed IN BATTLE. Note this is NOT my feelings on them as characters or their appearance; this is how they fared for me as units. I wanted to do this BEFORE I beat the game since I’m interested to see how the stats and MVP scroll at the end differ from my perception. Check the read more for details on everyone!

Louis - he started with insane defense and he basically ALWAYS gained more upon level-up. He had over 40 by the end, and that’s without him hitting 20 and resetting his class. I arguably made a mistake in promoting him to Great Knight since he became susceptible to “break” but most physical enemies still couldn’t touch him. Granted he WAS pretty slow and vulnerable to magic, but it’s kind of silly that the BEST physical tank is the first one the game gives you.

Hortensia - she’s clearly designed to be the best healer, between her personal skill and class skill, and she fulfills that role spectacularly. Unlike most other units on this list, I would literally ALWAYS deploy her, with exceptions made for maps with tons of snipers and/or ballistae.

Yunaka - not sure if I just got blessed, but Yunaka actually has insane strength. I paired her with Lyn and watched her annihilate foes from a huge distance. And of course she’s also great with Corrin since she gets boosted avoid from terrain and her personal skill made her likely to crit. I would not be surprised if she has the most kills in my army.

Alfred - I’ve seen a lot of people complain that he’s underwhelming or even bad, and I’m not sure if they got unlucky or I was super blessed, but from start to finish he’s been one of my best units. He’s a little slow but he has the second best defense after Louis, in addition to better strength, res, and HP. He was a natural pick for Ike. He also has INCREDIBLE luck, so giving him divine pulse really helped his shaky hit rate.

Rosado - he under-performed a little initially, but quickly gained steam. I think his biggest issue was just poor build, which can be fixed with skill inheritance from Leif. Once he could wield heavier stuff without being slowed down, he was fast AND hit hard. Plus he has HUGE HP and with a forged/engraved axe, the best avoid in the team! So he’s practically unkillable.

Fogado - he never stood out much but ALWAYS performs solidly and kept surprising me as MVP in battles, so clearly he did more work than even I realized. It helps that he can attack physically OR magically with the radiant bow, and he has the stats to do good damage either way. He’s also fast enough to double most enemies and not get doubled by anything, and sturdy enough to take a few hits. Just all around a great unit!

Seadall - automatic pick for the team most of the time since he’s the dancer. He rarely saw combat and contributed little offensively, but he did his job as dancer and was fast and bulky enough to survive when attacked. That’s enough.

Pandreo - he basically immediately invalidated Jean and Framme when he joined. Maybe they got stat screwed but he was just BETTER and continued to be so. His strength isn’t worth using fists for, but he has the 3rd best magic in my army and the 2nd best res. And excluding Mauvier (since he joined so late with big stats all-around), he’s also significantly faster than every other healer except Hortensia (and that’s sad because his speed is only so-so). His personal skill is also good and helps him hit and avoid. He’s probably the best OFFENSIVE magic user, and 2nd best healer. Natural pick for Nova if you’re willing to reclass him, too, since Ivy’s poor hit makes it a bad choice for her.

Kagetsu - he joins with incredibly solid stats, and has solid growths. RIP Lapis who stands no chance statwise compared to him. I was actually using him sparingly but after I got Caladbolg (and gave it Corrin’s refine) he was the obvious choice to use it, and that bumped him up to A-team material. He’s VERY fast, virtually never misses, hits relatively hard WITH a solid chance to crit and has about 100 avoid. So he dodges most attacks and he’s bulky enough to survive a hit or two anyway.

Alcryst - overall I find Fogado more useful due to having more move and being able to attack magically, but Alcryst benefits from having great personal and class skills. He’s fast, and not too fragile, and his dex is high enough that he procs Luna (or crits) A LOT, which is great. And his damage is OFTEN boosted by his personal skill, since generally you’ll have him behind someone who is baiting attacks. I find Alcryst to be situational and not always worth using, but he’s always done great when I deploy him.

Diamant - he has great utility in that he can use powerful swords AND axes, which means he’s a candidate anytime I’m looking to use either type of unit, and he’s solid all around. He’s not the best at anything, but he’s fast and bulky and hits relatively hard. I can always count on him to do well, though he rarely does amazing.

Timerra - She’s this high JUST for her use in combination with Ike and her general defensive capability, since she takes hits better than most. She’s initially held back by her awful build either slowing her down or preventing her from using more powerful weapons, and in my case she’s overall not as good as Alfred, but she’s still a great Ike user. She has great defense, and Ike further enhances that (which also translates to more powerful Sandstorm procs!). She benefits from being the ONLY unit I have who can use the Brionac, too.

Veyle - the literal last unit to join you, but she’s solid enough to be worth it. I prefer her magical dagger to her tome, which weighs her down a lot and has shaky hit rate. But mainly her benefit is in being a dragon (which gets good bonuses from ALL rings) and her personal skill making her great supporting others. Plus the game bumps the deploy limit from 12 to 14 in story chapters following her addition, so it’s clear you’re EXPECTED to use her.

Mauvier - like Veyle, he joins late and it’s clear the game wants or expects you to use him. He actually has even better stats than her and is incredibly easy to slot in since you can use him however you want - physically, magically, as a healer, or all of the above.

Alear - started the game out PRETTY BAD, personally. She was fast, but her strength was initially garbage (I went several early levels without it) plus she was a bit fragile. But after she promoted she started getting MUCH better levels and is now one of my best units. She’s THE fastest unit and will double literally everything, and has decent strength and surprisingly good defense. Plus she’s my only real fist user now, and it helps to break or kill mages/thieves/archers.

Citrinne - I came close to benching her several times because she typically under-performed and was SO fragile, but because I really like her I kept giving her chances and putting her in whenever possible. She’s probably in the bottom 3 in terms of speed AND defense. But she has the highest magic attack by a significant margin, and I’ve found a niche that works for her - killing wyrms. For several story chapters and paralogues in a row, she consistently had JUST enough power to actually kill them BY HERSELF (and since they’re so slow she can actually double them). Ideally I’d have her using Byleth to attack from a safe distance, but even if she’s up close, she also had JUST enough HP to survive a single hit. So she’s my designated wyrm killer, and her latest few levels actually helped patch up her defense and speed a bit, making her more useful overall!

Zelkov - he and Yunaka are incredibly different stat-wise. She’s got strength and res, he has speed and defense. That said he has AWFUL strength to the point where he couldn’t damage beefier enemies anymore. And since he’s in more likely to be hit by magic (due to mystical units ignoring terrain bonuses) his low res is more dangerous than Yunaka’s low defense. However, giving him the Carnwenhan helped A LOT. Even if he can only attack once, he does significant damage with it. Plus I engraved the weapon to give him even more avoid so he’s fairly untouchable. He’s a better dodge-tank than Yunaka now, even if she beats him offensively.

Ivy - solid all around, but a little slow and has trouble hitting, which is why I typically prefer other mages. She’s great at killing armored units but otherwise the faster, more accurate mages outclass her.

Celine - decent but kind of a master of none? Her strength is notable but not high enough to actually bother having her attack physically. Instead she’s just handicapped magically and often just barely fails to kill things. She is very fast and has high luck though. Generally okay, but again, other mages are better.

Panette - has huge HP and strength and nothing else. She can hit like a truck. When I use her I like to give her Lyn so she can eviscerate a faraway enemy and gain enough speed to double everything, which is basically a guaranteed kill for her. That said before she snowballs with Lyn, she has really bad speed and is danger of being doubled by most enemies, and even though her high HP means she won’t die, her low def and res mean it will hurt a lot. Worse, her hit rate is pretty poor. She’s a high risk, high reward character IMO. Fun to use sometimes but I typically play safer.

Merrin - she was great when she first joined but she’s been underwhelming in the endgame. She’s very fast but doesn’t benefit from boosted avoid like the thieves, and she’s not very tanky. Worse, she has abysmal strength - less than 20 when she’s nearly capped her class. I love daggers and poisoning enemies but she’s too weak to reliably do so, so she only comes out occasionally.

Boucheron - he’s pretty decent but generally outclassed by other axe and/or bow users. His hit rate is a real problem and his strength isn’t awful but it’s far from great. Thankfully he can wield even the heaviest axes with relative ease and he’s fast.

Chloe - very good in the beginning but has fallen off a bit. Part of it is I often don’t want too many flyers out, especially if there are archers about. But she is pretty fragile - low def and HP and surprisingly bad res for a pegasus knight. She is very fast and doubles everything though. Even then her strength is only decent so she fails to kill a good chunk of the time. Rosado is better at avoiding AND tanking hits, so she’s mostly invalidated. But she still has niche value on maps where there’s a lot of terrain for flyers to cross or sit on that others can’t access.

Clanne - I made him a mage knight, and he kind of got the short end of the stick by virtue of being a magic user but NOT a healer. I tend to stick to 3-4 magic users and healers per map, and using him means one less healer, so I often passed him over. Plus his magic attack isn’t great. That said he is FAST and accurate. He actually almost always does well when I use him, I just struggle to justify using him a lot of the time.

Etie - not counting Vander, she was the first unit I benched, basically right after Alcryst joined. Then I took her off the bench like 3 chapters later and tried REALLY HARD to save her, but it just never quite worked. She’s fast and has good strength, but she’s got SUCH bad build that she gets weighed down tremendously and can’t actually double most things. She’s also fragile as hell. I eventually made her a thief which helped her stats A LOT but even then I ended up benching her permanently around chapter 16-ish because she was way behind the other thieves or Merrin.

Anna - I WANTED to use Anna. I TRIED to use Anna. Unfortunately I tried to use her in her base class (since I assumed that, like MOST characters, it was a decent fit...) instead of looking up her growths ahead of time and reclassing her into something better suited. She is an incredibly bad axe unit (but a busted mage, apparently). I gave up on her around chapter 16-ish as well, although I’d stopped using her a few chapters beforehand. This was just when I realized she was too far behind to POSSIBLY recover.

Jean - getting Pandreo was the beginning of the end for him. Despite being a “trainee” unit his stats were overall not impressive. I liked having chain guard healers, but he was just too fragile and also basically ONLY useful offensively against mages. I couldn’t tolerate a healer who was bad offensively AND defensively. He last saw action around chapter 18-ish.

Framme - Jean’s situation, but worse. I liked her more as a character so I tried to use her for longer than I should have, but she was statistically even WORSE than Jean and hit the bench around chapter 16-ish.

Goldmary - the last cut to my army, I benched her after chapter 23. She’s got good defense and did decently as an Ike user, but she had meh strength and literally hadn’t gained speed since she joined. So while she was fast when she joined, she was SLOW when she was benched. Plus as a primarily sword-user, her meh strength wasn’t enough to do good damage. Alfred and Timerra are better Ike users & Kagetsu, Diamant, and Alear are WAY better sword users.

Vander - he’s helpful early on, but giving him kills was just a waste of EXP. By the time he actually can gain decent EXP he’s super outclassed.

Amber - he was decent enough, but I couldn’t really justify keeping him AND Alfred and Louis, both of whom were performing better. By the time I could spend my money/resources to potentially promote or reclass him, it was too late.

Lapis - she’s helpful when you first get her, and maybe worth it if she gets several really good levels? All I know is Kagetsu immediately invalidated her. I could have made her a Hero, but by the time I turned my attention to her, I got Goldmary, who also showed her up.

Jade - I tried to use Jade after realizing that Louis could be broken, but even after investing several levels and chapters into her, she was a disappointment. When I realized that Alfred (who was barely higher leveled than her) had better defense and HP and strength than her (despite her being a GENERAL), I benched her.

Bunet - after his debut, I compared his stats to Louis and Jade, and found him lacking. He was overall worse than both of them, so he never saw use.

Saphir - her stats were decent, but not great. She was basically on par with Boucheron. Definitely not worth using both of them. Since I’d spent a lot of time on and was invested in him, I kept him and benched her.

Lindon - underwhelming and I had plenty of mages/healers I was attached to by this point, so I never used him.

[howlingmoonrise]

Thoughts on Petshop of Horrors: Wandering Ark volumes 1 & 2

(also on dreamwidth)

HOW did I manage to miss the translation of my long-awaited Papa D PSOH series?? I've been stalking it ever since I found the announcement and somehow the fact that @ruthlessnightsscans​ already put out the first two volumes completely went past my head.

Obviously I had to read it right away, sleep be damned.

this is the edited version of my brain thoughts after i managed to get two sleeps and calm down a bit or it would be a lot more incoherent

The art: the initial pages really remind me of the old art! Unfortunately it goes back to the roundness prevalent since the Shin series (which has only become even rounder with time) not long after. That art style is also a lot less dynamic than the original, I find. It's a bit of a problem on scenes that are supposed to have some tension caused by movement. This is nothing new since, like I said, Sensei has been using this art style since a good while ago. I really miss the original art though. It had a major nostalgia punch to it and a lot more feeling as well.

-- First chapter: "I am on a journey with no destination in mind" just say you're on vacation and go off I guess. 

Papa is... weirdly easy-going. I want to say it's because he's not yet mad with grief and his son being taken away and so on, but the glimpses we saw at his time in university definitely didn't paint him this soft. There's no edge to him, on this volume or the next. 

Regarding the story itself, I can't say I loved it but it’s not the worst out of all of them (there are four in total between these two volumes, and a third volume is on the way). I liked Koushun's character, but Seiyou annoyed me, especially when he presumed to know what she wanted (or perhaps he didn't presume, but decided for her what was better anyway) - something like I Shall Revive This Species So Breed In My Name Okay Bye. Note also that while Koushun was willing enough to marry (thinking she was marrying someone else but that's another point entirely), the groom himself came in chains. And then Seiyou... locks them in together? Great. Just great. Very conducive to a loving mood indeed, locking a woman with a potentially dangerous stranger who might cause her harm and telling them both to fuck (note. the. chains. you don’t put chains on someone you think is harmless; they never put any on Koushun even when she attacked Seiyou). I was afraid for her when it cut to another scene here, with the last we saw of her being pushed against a wall and being told by the groom that it seemed that he would have to make a child with her. "Rather than hate each other, I want to break that curse"? Seiyou, sweetie, that is NOT the way to make them not hate you. ((The reveal that Koushou is some sort of creature - very PSOH-y - does not help, since putting two wild animals together without them being used to each other is perhaps even more likely to them killing/harming one another.))

MAJOR little mermaid vibes on Koushun standing over a sleeping Seiyou with a knife. 

There are quite some parallels with the D species on this tale of bloodshed and revenge. The Ds could stand to learn from this, though historically they don't. "Even if you kill the third prince, the Kagetsu people are already gone. They won't return." Papa himself says that 'winning on the last available tile' is a waste of time, which really resonates with his research into reviving lost species and the issues of his own kind. A reference to the health of descendants when no new blood is introduced is also made here, which might or might not point to our D depending on where in time this Papa is from.

--

Second chapter: it's... frankly, super choppy. The story is all over the place. On the author's note, Akino herself says that it's a challenge to put the whole life of that empress in 57 pages, and I have to agree. Either it should have been cut to the REALLY relevant parts and worked on them some more, or be discarded in its entirety. It's too rushed. The whole first part was unnecessary: it could have started with her already working at the palace or being chosen as a concubine, and then made references to her previous life in her thoughts instead of wasting several pages on it when that backstory won't be going anywhere (except for some references to Hakubun whom she sees on that other actor - who dies like, two or three pages later, so that's that on that). I do like Ranji herself as a character: she's clever and quick to pick up on things. Her life is just a series of tragedies one after the other, unfortunately. 

Papa D is some sort of benevolent helper in this chapter for some reason - this pattern repeats somewhat on the next chapters, but on this one there isn't really anything to gain for him at all, other than perhaps his dubious acquaintance with one of the concubines/future empress, which wouldn't really hold much weight since he met her ?once? apart from near her death.

And then, somehow, the initial Papa D in this chapter was actually Sofu?

Sofu???? I'm calling bullshit. As far as we know - going back to Sofu's own series and flashbacks on the original PSOH, even - Sofu never had a hairstyle of that length, and out of our three known Ds (new!D excluded) he's the one least likely to help a human just because. The ark is also said to travel through space and time, so I'm saying that's Papa D and that's it. Fun aside: on this chapter, Papa says he's the "third generation", meaning that on this series he's probably the youngest existing D (and by inference our D does not exist yet).

Also, some issues with in-story continuity here: when the last emperor dies Ranji still looks fairly young and the emperor-to-be is three years old, a couple pages later she looks a lot more aged but the new emperor is still three years old. To be honest, I think the story would have been tied off much better if A-chan had some connection with Hakubun or the eunuch instead of each having their very brief, individual emotional connections to her - which, in turn, doesn't really make them memorable. The "wishes" thing was interesting, really called back to the old PSOH tradition with the mystical pets and bittersweet be-careful-what-you-wish-for endings.

--

Third chapter: I think, overall, this was probably the one I liked the best. Can't really bring myself to call it my favourite though, since none of them even begin to compare to the original PSOH chapters. I cackled at the "jawline is too sharp" dialogues and thoughts: with this art style EVERYONE has the same round jaw as every other character, and it's the furthest thing from "sharp" possible.

With this series it really seems like Sensei is giving more focus to trying to tell historically-accurate stories rather than focusing on the stories themselves, as there is a huge amount of superfluous historical information to be found in these volumes. 

The empress Elizabeth reminds me of Sofu, in truth. She won't "mind" affairs and the like (read: she will hate it but ignore them) as long as it works towards her ends. Her taking away the newly-born child is a huge parallel to Sofu regarding both Papa and D, and D and new!D. Child-snatching FTW! That being said, I actually kind of liked her, ruthless as she was: the whole reason why Sophie made it as far as crown princess was because Elizabeth valued her hard work. You don't get to hold an empire together without having a steel spine and a cunning mind (or people to do the work for you I guess, but here it doesn’t seem to be the case).

I hate that Sophie had to change even her name and religion to fit her new reality, accurate as it is to history. That sort of thing always messes me up (throwback to the Nazi/teddy bear chapter of the original PSOH series, where there was also a name/religion change for the sake of survival). Not a reflection on the author in any way, I just hate that this is something people had to go through. As something I hated that kinda does reflect on the author, though, was the ugly = terrible association with Pyotr and the maid. Sophie/Catherine is initially said to not be beautiful but she's not depicted in the same way those two are at all. 

Papa's benevolence is thankfully offset this chapter by the fact that he does have something to gain here. For some reason Ds doing things merely for the goodness of their hearts kind of rubs me the wrong way unless it's D during or post-Leon. 

Most PSOH victims clients: oh a pretty person! WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S AN ANIMAL Sophie/Catherine: a dog you say? sounds kinda hot ngl

Gotta respect how she just jumps straight into the dog affairs. The take-back of the empire was also nicely executed, and I'm always here for ladies in traditionally male clothing. 

--

Fourth chapter:

This is linked semi-directly to the third chapter by virtue of the amber room Papa D craved. Marks also the second time that Papa takes a human on board of the ark.

D, circa end of original PSOH, a single tear rolling down his cheek as he watches Leon plummet towards the earth: Humans have not earned the right to board this ark. Papa D: I'm gonna go for a joyride and take along this human and this human and this human and this human and--

Papa really gives Doctor Who vibes on the ark matter. Travelling through space and time, occasionally taking human companions? The one for this chapter - who I'm guessing might be a cameo from one of Sensei's other series, since I didn't recognize him and there was no backstory for him on the chapter - even has era-appropriate wardrobe changes (at least assuming it's the same person and not just someone who looks similar scratch that they have eyes of different colours so I guess Papa has been giving rides to delivery men now), the second of which leaving me very ??? as to WHEN he is from. 

That last Look(TM) reminds me a of Leon Orcot, between the long ponytail and the clothes resembling the ones Leon wore on the last chapter of Shin PSOH (in PSOH time, that would have happened approximately 15 years after the end of the original series, meaning that Papa was already long dead then. Unless Leon's style was just stuck in time, which is also very possible). 

It might or might not have endeared him to me for that exact reason. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Leon Orcot, and apparently also for characters that visually remind me of him. ANYWAY.

Why another Nazi-era chapter??? Sensei plz. One was already enough on the original PSOH - it wasn't anywhere near my favourites back then, either - and the fact that this one mostly followed a Nazi colonel didn't help either. Here we witness them tearing down the amber room, "reclaiming" art from all over the world, a father's heartbreaking sacrifice to “save” his daughter’s dog, and Papa D coming to meet the Nazi dude. One would expect the Ds to avoid genocidal racists given the fate of their own species, but apparently the Nazis were relevant enough for not one but TWO Ds to interact with them. Oh well. Either way, I really don't like how Papa appears to not care one way or another - when the D for the original series interacted with people he didn't like, his mask was really fairly obvious (at least for the reader). Perhaps Papa simply has a better mask. Perhaps those nuances were lost to time and round art styles. Perhaps Papa or Sensei just don't give two shits. Guess we'll never know.

EVERYONE seems to comment on the flavour of Papa's tea: it's 4 out of 4 so far for these two volumes, and in this chapter in particular it seems as if it's laced with some kind of truth serum - it seems to be Papa's version of D's (and possibly Sofu's?) incense from the original PSOH. A reference to the original PSOH's Nazi chapter is also made here, with Papa mentioning that Sofu was on friendly terms with Eva Braun: this implicates that in this time they were in closer contact (not surprising since Sofu probably hasn't stolen his still-non-existent kid yet).

The colonel seems to value art over human life - surprise surprise! - so he kills his own comrades to keep the art "safe". A stomach-turning moment comes where they find human golden teeth being kept as treasure, which Papa mentions remelting to turn into golden nuggets. Why, Papa/Sensei, why? It's in poor taste, even if you're testing the colonel the way D did with some of his clients on original PSOH.

At the very least an eerie moment comes next where Papa explains that dead creatures can be revived using DNA. "Even dead people?" Cue Papa's all-seeing stare directly into the reader's eyes (and presumably the colonel's as well) with a backdrop of an inverted black-and-white multitude of graves as he says that future is not very far. Colonel almost shits his pants, with reason when you consider the amount of people the Nazis killed off that would presumably come after them. This almost forgives the teeth comment, and it's probably the first moment in these two volumes when we see some genuine emotion on Papa's face (on this page and the next), creepy and maniac as it might be.

Colonel dude has spent the whole chapter justifying everything under "orders of the fuhrer" so far. Then comes the moment that Papa calls him out by saying that the orders were to burn his sweet dear art so that it wouldn't fall into enemy's hands, and it's here that we see how much of an hypocrite the colonel is when he doesn't want to follow those orders. Suddenly it's "treasures of mankind" (even though he's been stealing them left and right) and the fuhrer is "a fool" (even though he's been using his orders and his "greatness" as justification for everything). 

Suddenly, Papa's companion! Who the heck is that! Shoots him! This is someone whose family was killed by the colonel (directly or under his orders) or so he says; he's gripping a piece of art we don't get to see, which is presumably the reason for those deaths. Now in the future! A guy who looks a bit like that other man who shot the colonel, but who I'm not 100% sure if it is or is not the same person because the round art style makes everyone look alike Someone who is definitely not the same guy because his eye colour is different (and who's dressed in a sporty outfit with a long ponytail, which I've mentioned kinda reminds me of Leon) looks for the amber in the place the art was stored, alongside Papa. He flies on the ark (all these humans on the ark, Sofu would have a conniption!) and reminds me of Leon once more while being shouty and holding on to the main mast for dear life.

The sacrificial father mini-plot also gets resolved with the dog returning (but not the father himself) along with a picture with that family. Which is presumably the picture the other dude who shot the colonel was holding, which begs the question: how is he related to them? He doesn't look like any of them, but he did say the colonel killed his family while (presumably) holding that same picture, so hmmm. Maybe he's the dog, colour-scheme aside? But apart from the father, the rest of the family seems to have survived, so it's kind of a strange thing to say since that sort of wording usually means more than one person. Even if he is the dog (my money is on that option), it's not exactly obvious to a reader who's not looking very closely. Some loose ends there, or at least ends that don't really look like they're tied together at all.

"No matter how long winter is, spring will come." Fairly hopeful final words there, Papa D. These echo similar ones spoken by D at the end of Shin PSOH, after running from Leon once more ("someday, the season for returning will come"): perhaps both these Ds are not as pessimistic as to their future, at least at this point? Poor Papa definitely had a change of heart between his series and the ending of original PSOH, unfortunately.

--

General thoughts: Sensei hasn't quite managed to replicate the feeling of the original PSOH just yet. The storytelling feels a bit shallow and rushed, though the pacing improved from the first volume to the second. There's also very little focus on Papa himself for some reason: he's more of a background character on his own series except for the fourth chapter, which is a very strange narrative choice. In part this might also be because he doesn’t have a permanent companion to discuss/argue with like in previous iterations of the PSOH series. I wonder if the third volume will continue on this trend? I wish it’d delve a bit more into Papa, but either way it’s still nice to get some more PSOH content.

I've heard Vesca will make an appearance next volume, I'm so excited!! Out of Shin PSOH, my favourite chapters were Leon's (surprise surprise!) and the ones with Papa and Vesca on their university days. Papa definitely seemed a lot sharper there, which I miss here - I feel like Sensei has been smoothing out all their edges like with the art style lmao, and in turn it makes them feel a bit lacking since the Ds are not meant to be bland and forgiving and easy-going, at least as per their original portrayal. I've also seen sneak-peaks of Leon and D from author notes of the next volume so I can't wait at the chance to weep at the slightest panel of my son Leon.

A final shoutout to RNS for continuing the PSOH translations! I really can't thank them enough!!