#talking about sasamori again

[mistandbluemoon]

why is he so prettyy

[cherryxsubs]

REAL⇔FAKE 2nd Stage Episode 1 Summary

Image source:  REAL⇔FAKE 2nd Stage Official Website

CAST: (L→R) Matsumura Ryuunosuke as Umehara Reijirou Ino Hiroki as Uno Kouki Wada Masanari as Sena Masayuki Someya Toshiyuki as Moriya Hidetoshi Aramaki Yoshihiko as Makino Nagisa Ueda Keisuke as Ikuta Yuusuke Aoi Shouta as Akane Sato Ryuji as Suzuki Kakeru Sasamori Hiroki as Inamori Mizuki

Summary under the cut. I may have gotten some things wrong, we’ll find out when MiaMaw releases their subs ^^;;

Prologue: In a room somewhere, Nagisa is on the floor, with his hands, arms, and feet tightly bound. Someone approaches him.

OP: RUMOR by Stellar CROWNS with Akane

---

Setting: Stellar CROWNS [SC] house

-cute banter between the bois

-Reijirou turns on the TV and tells them to quiet down. It's some kind of PR event featuring Akane. Everyone gathered around and watched.

-Akane announces that he is taking over as president of Queen Records [QR].

-SC are to take a break from activities due to Rin studying abroad

-He also introduces QR's new unit "ASTRA RING" [AR] (members: Uno Kouki, Inamori Mizuki) who are to be Strellar CROWNS's rival. Furthermore, in commemoration for their debut, AR would have a joint concert with SC

-=Rings by ASTRA RING=- (this song is kinda boppin)

-All SC members are surprised by this final announcement more so Yuusuke and Nagisa (btw since when did Kakeru call Nagisa 'Nagi-chan'??? that's so cute wth)

-Nagisa tells them that Uno, Inamori, Yuusuke, and himself were once in the group Fyrklöver (referenced in Season 1)

---

Setting: ASTRA RING photoshoot, a few days later(?) (presumably a studio inside QR building)

-Kakeru, Yuusuke, and Masayuki enters the studio to confront Akane about the joint live event

-He just tells them that he plans on making ASTRA RING top artists. Masayuki asks "What about Stellar CROWNS?" but Akane doesn't answer and leaves. Kakeru runs out to follow him.

-Tension rises among the remaining four (Kouki, Mizuki, Masa, Yuusuke) but mainly because of Kouki attacking Yuusuke.

-Someone enters the room to dissipate the argument before it got physical. It's Fyrklöver's former producer, Kamishiro-san. He says that Akane hired him to be ASTRA RING's manager.

-Masayuki asks about what happened with Fyrklöver but Yuusuke says he's not ready to talk about it. Masa leaves it at that and they returned to their own studio for an interview.

-Kakeru catches up with Akane but even after pressing him, Akane still won't explain anything. He leaves, and Kakeru follows him again.

-=outside QR building=-

-It looks like Kakeru lost Akane. Then, two men approached him identifying themselves as police. They told him that he is under suspicion of drug use.

-=back to the studio with Masa and Yuusuke and the interviewers, who are all waiting for Kakeru=-

-An article broke out on the internet accusing Masayuki of abuse of power towards his juniors in his high school soccer club, allegedly beating them up and making them do unfair punishments.

-Masayuki is put on the spot while the interviewer badgers him with questions, when a bigger news broke out. Cut to the scene of the media crowding around the police car where Kakeru is being forced into

Akane scene

---

Setting: two days later, SC house, dining area

Kakeru tested negative in the drug test but was still held in police custody for one day (yesterday) after punching a policeman

Nagisa proposed to have a public apology to reassure their fans but Masa rejected it since he didn't do anything wrong. He said he never punched his juniors, pointedly throwing a glance at Kakeru.

That wasn't lost on Kakeru and soon they were out of their chairs and at each other's throats while Reijirou calmed them down.

Just then, Nagisa read something on his phone and turned on the TV, where Yuusuke's 'dark past' is being revealed. He allegedly brought alcohol to school and smoked on campus which led to his suspension and grade repitition. This made him a famous delinquent in his hometown.

Kakeru turned off the TV and they discussed why this happening and who was behind this. Masayuki started doubting Akane and Kakeru immediately rejected the idea. The two of them started arguing again but Yuusuke shut them up and told Nagisa to follow him outside.

-=outside the house, Nagisa and Yuusuke=-

Seems like the two of them think that Astra Ring's debut and the sudden spread of false rumors have a connection.

Yuusuke said it can't be helped if the two (Kouki and Mizuki) have a grudge against him since he quit in the middle of their prep for Fyrklover's first live event.

Flashback: Yuusuke apologizes to Kouki and Mizuki for quitting the group and everyone is sad and upset. (he quit because of his poor health)

Nagisa wondered how much Akane knew. He said it's not that he's doubting Akane, but he only wanted to make sure.

Masayuki is shown nearby, probably heard some of their convo

---

Masayuki was about to head out when he sees Kakeru. Kakeru still firmly believes that Akane has nothing to do with any of this. Masa says he doesn't want to doubt Akane too, so he's going to look into it himself. Then he tells Kakeru to look after Yuusuke since they were former classmates

---

Moriya's office

He's looking at some documents when Masayuki enters. He hurriedly puts them away in an envelope.

Masayuki asks for Moriya's help in investigating the false rumors. Moriya reminds him that he's a freelance director, not a detective. To this, Masayuki tells him he knows that Moriya helped Akane in filing the lawsuit

Then he grabs the envelope from Moriya's hands and takes out the documents. His suspicions were right, it was information regarding Nagisa (and Fyrklovers?). Moriya takes it back away from him.

Masayuki presses him but Moriya denies every accusation. Finally he says, "I can't tell you anything right now" and asks Masayuki to leave.

---

QR Building, night

Nagisa visits Akane's office but the room is dark and Akane is nowhere to be seen. On the table, he sees a document inside an envelope labeled "Investigation Report". He just started reading through it when someone ??? him from behind (I have no idea what happened there, it's like someone grabbed his neck and he fainted)

---

somewhere inside QR building?

Akane is on the phone with Moriya. Seems like he reported what happened earlier with Masayuki. Akane doesn’t seem bothered as long as Moriya didn’t tell Masayuki anything.

Nagisa wakes up and realizes he's on the floor with his hands and feet are bound. He struggles to free himself while calling out for help. Akane approached him and just stood there. He asks Akane to free him. Akane shook his head. Akane's phone rings, and tells Nagisa to behave himself while he's gone. As he turns to leave he says, "No matter how loud you scream, no one will hear you."

---

End of Episode 1

[worldtriggereview]

Chapters 129-132

I wanted to talk about Yomi’s side effect so much, I made a whole separate post about it!

Kitora showing off some of the character development but also general maturity that comes with age in being able to calmly analyze the situation here, whereas Kuroe doesn’t recognize why she got hurt, and was going to rush back in with Skanda

I haven’t really talked about Sasamori yet, but he’s got some interesting potential! Other characters have noted that he seems calmer and more collected since the large scale invasion when Kazama kept him from rushing in to try and save Suwa, and he also held off best against Hyuse (in chapters after this one oops) of the B rank attackers that fought him. All of Suwa squad has gotten at least a little bit of attention, which makes me curious to see what Ashihara does with them in the future!

Ashihara uses copy and paste :3

Nasu didn’t need to do this fancy bullet work, she’s just showing off her viper skills at this point, and avenging Kumagai, of course

Kikuchihara once again coming in clutch with his side effect! I think Border might rely on him the most after Jin lmao

Two things to note here, one we see the Miwa squad pincer attack again here, and two, slime stops lead bullet

Ashihara expanding upon the character development he set up for Miwa really nicely in my opinion. I’ve always been a little annoyed by revenge type characters who are just blindly obsessive about it with no nuance, when it feels like there’s a lot of different ways to explore revenge as a concept/theme without being shallow and boring, and I think Miwa as a character is a really good example of that. Early on in the series, he’s forced to rethink his world view, and now we can see the results of that. He’s no longer thinking of neighbors as a monopoly, but as separate nations, so he’s realized there’s more nuance to the world than he’d previously believed. I’m hoping Ashihara expands upon this and gives him more character development in the future, although, I suspect that’s what the expedition will be for. Also, Koskera definitely has an idea of who it is. Probably Aftokrar.

That’s a pretty fuckin long distance! No wonder Fujin’s a black trigger.

I find this comment about using people pretty interesting. We don’t know a whole lot about Tsukimi personally, other than the fact that she’s a pretty veteran operator and Tachikawa’s childhood friend, but I have a feeling we’ll learn more about her in the future :) There’s too much set up not to, after all

RIP Kazama, everyone always assumes he’s a child