#hgsn spoilers

[renyaia]

the defeat

[ladycrimsonandblack]

He's wrapped up from head to toe in an eldritch facsimile of his dead best friend, and his only thought is that it's not so bad. Imagine the horrifying realization that the monster could kill you, and you wouldn't even resist, because you're too far gone. You wouldn't mind if he killed you. His touch doesn't feel wrong at all.

[honorthysalad]

[snalsupremacy]

3 weeks to mentally prepare myself

[takeshitakyuuto]

Mokmok Sensei back at it again with another banger illustration

Original tweet

[abductsanxiety]

[sebdoeswords]

Wacky little thought, but what if this movie had an actual impact on 'Hikaru's feelings for Yoshiki and how he acts towards him?

He's so upset at the plight of this woman who gets treated by her husband as if she's completely replacable, and he goes on to fully dedicate himself to Yoshiki, shaping himself, learning human morals and mannerisms, making extreme sacrifices for and letting himself be hurt by him both mentally and physically. Choosing Yoshiki time and time again. The complete opposite of the man in the movie.

This idea first came to me because of the "you're a demon in the flesh" line. It seems just a bit too pointed to be meaningless.

[entertext]

HGSN 26-2

Chapter (Japanese)

(Please hit the green thumbs up at the end of the chapter on the Japanese site to show the author some support)

Rough translation by me

P1

(sfx: train clacking over tracks)

Yoshiki: (It'll take a little under two hours on the Tanshou Line from Kibougayama Station, huh?...)

Yoshiki: (I haven't been to the ocean since elementary school...)

Hikaru: Whoaaa!! Coooool!!

Hikaru: What's that!? There's a building that looks like a butt!

Yoshiki: You sure are carefree...

P2

(sfx: train clacking over tracks)

Yoshiki: That reminds me...a while back...

P3

Yoshiki: I had to go to the Mikasa family's place on an errand

(Mom: Take them this as thanks for Kaoru's yukata)

Yoshiki: So I went to the shrine

Yoshiki: Then, at the torii gate...

(sfx: BZZT)

Hikaru: Huh? Why?....

Yoshiki: Dunno...After that, I was able to go inside like normal...

P4

Hikaru: ("Mixed up"...)

Yoshiki: *sighs* Enough about that, let's talk about something else. There's still more than an hour left to go.

Hikaru: Something else to talk about...I don't really have anything

Hikaru: Just stuff like the time when for some reason your room was so packed to the brim with the ghosts of old men that it made me laugh...

(sfx: train clacking over tracks)

Yoshiki: You're kidding me right?

P5

(sfx: stepping on sand)

P6

(sfx: waves)

P7

Yoshiki: Even considering it's evening, there are really few people here...Maybe everyone's gone to the new beach instead.

Hikaru: Whoa, so cool!

Hikaru: It's HUGE! The ocean's amazing!

(sfx: waves)

Hikaru: Yaaaaay!

Hikaru: Shoes, shoes...

(sfx: waves)

P8

(sfx: waves)

Yoshiki: Hey! Come over here!

(sfx: waves)

P9

Hikaru: The ocean's great!!

(sfx: waves)

Hikaru: Hahaha!

(sfx: waves)

Hikaru: Woo-hoo!!

(sfx: ker-splash)

(sfx: waves)

P10

Hikaru: Hah

Hikaru: Ha

(sfx: water sloshing)

(sfx: waves)

(sfx: water sloshing)

(sfx: waves)

P11

Yoshiki: Hey, your pants are gonna get wet

(sfx: waves)

Hikaru: You know, when I went into the hall, I also remembered what happened when I went into Hikaru's body

(sfx: water sloshing)

P12

Hikaru: When Hikaru was dying, he wished for things like "if only no one had to be sad" and "I don't want Yoshiki to be left alone"

Hikaru: Because I granted his wishes, things ended up this way

Yoshiki: Hikaru's...

Hikaru: ...but sorry

Hikaru: I probably won't be able to fulfill those wishes

Hikaru: I'm...going to go back to the mountain

P13

Yoshiki: ... Huh?

Hikaru: The time I attacked you recently? That was probably my true nature coming out.

Hikaru: In order to fill up the empty parts of myself, I have a desire for souls

Hikaru: It probably doesn't make sense to a human, right? I've also only just realized it myself

Hikaru: I think I was always that kind of being.

Hikaru: I've killed a lot of people too, and I might kill someone again in the future.

Hikaru: But I don't want to kill you, Yoshiki

Yoshiki: H-hold...on...a sec...! What?

P14

Hikaru: If I go back to the mountain, even if the real problem isn't solved

Hikaru: At least it'll be peaceful for the time you're alive

Yoshiki: N-no way. You can't. What have we...been searching so hard for...all this time...!

Hikaru: The monster will go away, you'll be able to accept Hikaru's death

Hikaru: And look forward, living on as a human. Happily ever after. That's for the best.

Yoshiki: You..! You want to stay, don't you!? Are you stupid!?

Yoshiki: Enough!

(sfx: splash splash)

Yoshiki: This kind of thing...isn't something you have to learn to do!!

P15

Yoshiki: Be more shameless, the way you've always been...

Hikaru: You know, Hikaru...he liked watermelon, but I like ice cream pops the best. And my favorite kind's not Gachigachi-kun but Papicco instead. I'm probably the one that likes cats.

Hikaru: And movies, too. There hasn't been a single movie I thought was boring. Hikaru hated studying, but I like it. Well, not that I'm any good at it though, haha.

P16

Yoshiki: Stop it

Yoshiki: Stop...

Hikaru: You know, I...really had a lot of fun being with you.

Hikaru: Maybe to you, I was just a replacement for Hikaru, but you gave someone like me so much. I love you, Yoshiki

Hikaru: These feelings might not be romantic and they might not be friendship. But, they're definitely my feelings.

Hikaru: Not Hikaru's, but the monster's. Mine.

P17

Yoshiki: No...

Hikaru: Yoshiki

Hikaru: Thank you for everything

Yoshiki: YOU'RE WRONG!

P18

Yoshiki: You're not a replacement for Hikaru!!!

(sfx: splash splash)

Yoshiki: I don't think of you as Hikaru anymore!

Hikaru: We don't have any other solution...so I've got no choice...

Yoshiki: You've just given up! Don't you dare push stuff like "looking forward" onto me...not now, after everything...

Yoshiki: What's so "happily ever after" about that...!?

Yoshiki: Bullshit...!!!!

P19

P20

Hikaru: Even I...

??: Even if you go back to the mountain, it won't do any good.

P21

Tanaka: 'Cause you see, 'Hikaru'-kun

P22

Tanaka: You aren't Nounuki-sama

P23

Tanaka: Thinking if you sacrifice something, something else will be saved...

Tanaka: You're under some wild misconceptions

==

[beeslippers]

Chapter 22

Original Tweet by Moku

[clovernment]

please read the summer hikaru died and then come talk to me about it

[softpillspng]

ignore the tt logo i forgot to save it before i posted it😰

[ladycrimsonandblack]

the more we learn about the original hikaru, the more i'm surprised at how fake he was. we're introduced to him as a sporty, vaguely popular teen from yoshiki's memories, and at first you think that's all there is to him. he went into the woods, and died looking at a funny tree, thus starting up the plot for yoshiki and 'hikaru'.

but then you learn that he's a liar. that he never cried and could be careless and a little cruel, and that he hid behind a joke and a smile. that he was fully capable of keeping secrets from his best friend, and seemingly felt no issue with it. his dad confessed to murdering and dismembering people for an empty tradition, and hikaru never mentioned a word of that to anyone for more than a year. he was ready to continue the tradition himself.

compare that to 'hikaru' who is, if anything, painfully honest with yoshiki, who doesn't know how to lie or how to act. yes, he kills people, but he's a monster; that's what monsters do.

hikaru, on the other hand, was painfully human and fully ready to shoulder the indou sins on his shoulders. the narrative gradually obliterates the first impression you get of him; the hikaru you learn about in the first chapter is not the same as hikaru from chapter 25, and the difference is... considerable.

the more we read, the more everything is reframed, and i love it.

[honorthysalad]

there's definitely something to how Yoshiki says Hikaru was like a character in a manga. A character- something designed to fill a specific role in a story while appealing to the widest amount of people as possible. Not only does this explain exactly what Yoshiki liked about Hikaru, it kind of just emphasizes that Hikaru wasn't real. The version he showed everybody, a boy who never cried, who had no real worries- that wasn't real, and yoshiki went and fell in love with it because he wanted it to be real; he wanted a life like that to be possible, but it's simply not. And as a metaphor for coming out and being queer, 'hikaru' is the real one: the one with doubts, desires, and emotions.

[snalsupremacy]

hgsn is peak horror because it understands no monster will ever be scarier than living in a small rural town. Yoshiki lost his best friend and he has to pretend to not know. "Hikaru" has to pretend he's a human. Asako has to pretend she can't hear disturbing things. Rie has to pretend she isn't affected by all her trauma. And the village elders, who are supposed to be caring to the well-being of the village, really only want to maintain the status quo, even when the Indou tradition isn't solving the problem. At first I thought the queer themes in hgsn disappeared after volume 3 but I realize now that while the tension of Yoshiki being in love with Hikaru is gone, the story never stopped being queer. Maybe not literally, but on its core, hgsn is about people hiding things in order to fit in

[autumn-may]

Worlds most normal teenager

[notachair]

EYE CHECK ✅️

HAIR CHECK ✅️

DOOR CHECK ✅️

Idk it feels pretty confirmed by now