Japanese Reading Report: 08 June 2025

ラーゼフォン

I started watching this series upon a (sort of) recommendation of a friend from a few months ago. It takes some influence from Evangelion. The main character, Ayato, learns that his peaceful life is a lie. He's destined (sort of) to pilot a super powerful robot that hatches out of an egg, RahXephon. There's an interesting use of "inside" and "outside" of the Tokyo of the show. Haruka, a character who you could call the Misato-type, is pretty interesting too. She's kind of a mess and you really get the feeling like she's failing to be a surrogate mum for Ayato. I liked the scene where she comes "home" and is greeted by Ayato, mirroring a similar scene in Evangelion.

The music is also really good.

花の鎖

One more week, one more chapter completed. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get much done due to some strict deadlines for school. This week Rika finally met with K, however it didn't go as she planned, and he refused her request for money.

In Satsuki's story we learn more about Satsuki and Kimiko's backstory. In particular there was a revelation that their mutual crush died when they were still young, and the last time they spent time together was a hike up the nearby mountain to mourn him. Now as an adult, Satsuki is preparing to see Kimiko and hike the mountain again.

ロマンシング・サガ２

I decided to play this on recommendation of someone in an online community I belong to.

There isn't much of a story so far, but there have been some interesting ideas set up. The story as I understand it is basically: back in the day seven heroes purged the world of evil and then disappeared. Mankind sort of chilled for a few generations, figuring that if anything bad happened again the heroes would come back. Later on when monsters did show up again it turns out they're being headed by the seven former heroes who are now mysteriously evil. I hope there is some depth to it, but I can't be sure that there will be.