The only thought stuck in my mind since preview images dropped - Chika going dark (Rin's color), Rin going blonde (Chika's color). WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR THEM?! IS IT STILL POSSIBLE?! IS THAT HOW THIS NEW MAYALESS UNIVERSE IS MEANT TO BE?! EVERYONE IS HAPPY BUT AKIRA?!?!?!?!?!
We've got a list of names this time that suspiciously looks like the names of the upside down house residents View attachment 3049590View attachment 3049462
So I am trying to see if I can match up who is who in the drawing we had before (forgot which event this was I saved it a long time ago sorry). This provides absolutely nothing additional to understanding what upside down house means so it's just for the mind exercises.
The only recognizable one is girl No.2 with the lavender hair, DOUBT (who has a high chance of being Yuko according to Lavender); the pink hair girl was once mentioned. No info regarding their identities was revealed. Notably of course, the name Yuko isn't on there so I am going to assume that it's an alias of one of them)
Scenario one with its two big assumptions (that can easily be incorrect):
- The total number of the residents is 5 girls plus 1 Papa, and no more
- Entity No.6 is Balaam, Papa, and the sole male on the list (if I have to guess it would be Yuu, Akira's father, who constantly monologued about god in Nothing is Beautiful)
Since none of the first three girls have pink or lavender element in their appearance, this means Kyoko and Ai should be the girls with lavender and pink hair. And since Kyoko herself cannot be the lavender girl, Kyoko by process of elimination is the pink hair girl (despite her name being in khaki-ish brown color text). And consequently Ai, also by process of elimination, is the lavender girl aka DOUBT. By assigning the rest according to hair colors, this leads to:
1. Saki
2. Ai == DOUBT == Yuko
3. Kyoko
4. Miu
5. Reina (probably dead in the boiler room, being X out like that)
6. Papa == Balaam
However, this would lead to a conclusion where Ai == DOUBT == Yuko, but from An Excerpt From a Waterlogged Journal they sound like two separated people. Also, Saki's hair color isn't that brown (but I am very very bad at colors).
So...Scenario two with its othertwo big assumptions (that can still easily be incorrect):
- The total number of the residents is 5 girls plus 1 Papa, and no more
- Balaam is still a female, and Papa is a symbol of authority figure instead of hinting gender
This will open Entity No.6 back to the table, and also the chance to assign Kyoko to girl No.1 due to her name color, and also the hair color of Nodoka (kind of). This leads to:
1. Kyoko
2. DOUBT = Yuko, and consequently, Balaam the prophet
3. Ai (since none of the trio fits here)
4. Miu
5. Reina
6. Saki (I decidedly put her here because she is one of those lore characters that can be heavily censored by LiL standard)
See if anyone also wants to play match with their own premises in an uncomfortable setting
I must have miss construed who had the lavender hair in the lavender event. I read the " Strands of lavender-colored hair, decorating the spaces between the words" line and for some reason thought it was her hair dangling down onto the pages. But now I think it makes more sense the way you have it.
Scenario 2 probably fits better. Although I'm not sure about who Balaam is as they are a male character. (But I guess that might not matter). Also its probably not a coincidence that Balaam's story takes place in chapters 22,23,24 of the book of numbers. (Yasu mentions 22,23 and 24. Plus there is all the terminal 23 stuff).
I think it might be possible there are 7 people in the house. I'm sure the number 7 was mentioned at some Point ill have to try find it (I think it was something about 7 hands?). Also there is a whole thing about making 7 altars in Balaam's story.
I guess to break it down we have 9 names/monikers total that we know are in the "upside down house"(I think Tsurumi and Kanon were just a joke/reference to something).
-Saki
-Miu
-Reina
-Kyoko
-Ai
-Yuu
-Yuko
-Balaam
-DOUBT
We get rid of DOUBT and Balaam as they will have regular names as well. You end up with 7 people.
Then I guess the only options for Balaam are Yuu or Yuko. And we think Yuko is DOUBT.
Unless Yuko is a nickname. Then we are back to 6 and Yuu is probably Balaam and my insane conspiracy theory linking of number 7 is pointless. (I have some other thoughts about who Yuko and DOUBT are if its 6 people but I cant seem to put it to writing in a coherent way so I'm giving up and leaving you with this mess)
This is why I believe we're heading to another world where everyone's happier, at least prima facie.
Chika is no longer subjected to the immense emotional pain her mother's death caused; effect: no longer bleaches her hair (as she did to resemble her mother and immerse herself in old memories [was this why she bleached her hair? Did she explain in detail any of this? I no longer remember.].)
Ami has a complete paradigm shift, no longer obsesses over her uncle, and likely developed healthy coping mechanisms; effect: cut her hair.
Futaba is slimmer and no longer has body dysmorphia; effect: she doesn't wear stripes; instead, she wears more revealing & comfortable clothing.
Sana is no longer super-shy; effect: not afraid to show her beautiful face, thus the new hairdo. Likely gregarious.
Rin once said Otoha was her "ideal" in coolness (might've misremembered). She's now more decisive and confident (hopefully won't take shit from Otoha any longer, that's if they haven't broken up yet in that world); effect: seems more expressive with her clothing and hair. "Chika-Otoha" syncretic design. Looks extremely hot as well.
Molly... can't say much for now, but I think she's cuter. I like her hair (presumably she doesn't have low self-esteem now, too); effect: became cuter. Already liked her quite a bit. Depending on her new personality, she might shoot up in my eyes.
Uta, no idea. Neutral; effect: no idea. Possibly more down-to-earth.
Kirin, likely a healthier mindset regarding relationships and social interactions; effect: what we saw.
Otoha is less self-obsessed and preoccupied with being "distinguished" or similar. Has been humbled when Rin became hotter than her (she already was) and is now a bit more lowkey. Much more chill and doesn't flip the fuck out when composing or writing lyrics or whatever; effect: muted palette, "normal" hair.
Doubtlessly, none of this will be the case. But it was a fun little write-up, for me at least. Sweet, sweet day off.
EDIT:
Noriko and Yasu have been posted while I was writing this.
Yasu is no longer a zealot and now interacts as a normal human being; effect: more expressive and fashion-oriented.
Noriko, hopefully, is less obsessed with Akira; effect: personally not a fan of the changes. They aren't that bad, though.
Building on what you've been suggesting -- Ayane's vomiting during the reset wasn't just being overwhelmed with the horror of what she was experiencing. It was the realization that this is what she had asked for, or was at least the price of getting what she asked for. If she managed to sway the powers that be to reshape the world for her benefit, there had to be a price, and maybe what happened to Ami was part of it.
Because this kind of drastic change to the status quo requires a sacrifice.
And Ayane, being the eternal optimist she is, probably wanted a world that didn't just deliver Sensei to her and her alone on a silver platter, she'd also want her friends to be happy, and very likely even her enemies.
She'd go back and let Kirin win that science fair so Kirin could have a moment to shine for a change.
She'd make sure her roomate still had a brother.
She'd make sure Ami still had a mother -- and possibly a father -- so that she wouldn't become obsessed with sensei
She'd make sure that Futaba is comfortable in her own body.
This is the, at least initially, the good place. The place where Rin isn't cutting, the place where Otoha is proud to be gay (because that new look is %100 lesbian hotness), the place where Chika doesn't have to dye her hair in a desperate attempt to stay close to a dead parent.
It's going to be so wholesome.
And it's all going to go terribly, terribly wrong.
Imagine how fucked up was Maya, if this is the difference. BTW I doubt on Ayaneverse because things intended to be much darker that they were and Ayaneverse seems bringhter than Mayaverse from my perception
Building on what you've been suggesting -- Ayane's vomiting during the reset wasn't just being overwhelmed with the horror of what she was experiencing. It was the realization that this is what she had asked for, or was at least the price of getting what she asked for. If she managed to sway the powers that be to reshape the world for her benefit, there had to be a price, and maybe what happened to Ami was part of it.
Can you please tell more of context? Last substantional info about this possibility was when Yasu offered it to Ayane before 5th reset, but it might be reasonal if Himawary can also make this offering. The more i think than better it sounds
Upd: Haven't preious world sound more like Amiworld? It would explain a lot, including murdered Ami and Maya's implications about Ami's reaction to reset-related information. In this case, new world might surprisingly be Mayaworld for symmetry reasons. Also, Maya going postal after hearing about resets is hillarious
Ayaneverse.
I buy the idea. You know why?
Do you guys remember the second Matrix movie?
The Architect admits to Neo that the initial versions of The Matrix were actually an utopia.
Everybody was meant to be happy, everybody could have what they wanted.
And everytime it went wrong. Because people were unable to accept this "reality".
Its gonna happen here. Ayane with all her good intentions, made everybody jave a happy life. And at some point all the girls are gonna be unstable AF doubthing things are even real.
Building on what you've been suggesting -- Ayane's vomiting during the reset wasn't just being overwhelmed with the horror of what she was experiencing. It was the realization that this is what she had asked for, or was at least the price of getting what she asked for. If she managed to sway the powers that be to reshape the world for her benefit, there had to be a price, and maybe what happened to Ami was part of it.
Because this kind of drastic change to the status quo requires a sacrifice.
And Ayane, being the eternal optimist she is, probably wanted a world that didn't just deliver Sensei to her and her alone on a silver platter, she'd also want her friends to be happy, and very likely even her enemies.
She'd go back and let Kirin win that science fair so Kirin could have a moment to shine for a change.
She'd make sure her roomate still had a brother.
She'd make sure Ami still had a mother -- and possibly a father -- so that she wouldn't become obsessed with sensei
She'd make sure that Futaba is comfortable in her own body.
This is the, at least initially, the good place. The place where Rin isn't cutting, the place where Otoha is proud to be gay (because that new look is %100 lesbian hotness), the place where Chika doesn't have to dye her hair in a desperate attempt to stay close to a dead parent.
It's going to be so wholesome.
And it's all going to go terribly, terribly wrong.
I kind of had a problem with the whole event.
Nah, i guess problem doesn't really fit but right now, i can't come up with a better term.
First of all, i did have to laugh when Ayane emptied the content of her stomach into her hands.
I don't know if that was Sel's intention, but the text alone (the puking stuff), was just hilarious.
It just dimnished the impact of (presumably) Ami's death.
There's something else. The possibility, that Himawari was involved in that event.
She already felt bad about taking "her mother's" shape.
So if she really was involved in setting up Ami's (fake) death, while knowing what impact it might have on her mother, i wonder how serious it must have been, that she was "ok" to do that.
I agree with people here, that the updated girls seem more lively.
Like better versions of their prior selfes. Like, at leat most of them seem to be in a better mental state. Though, that might just be my subjective impression.
But we all know that there is "The Dark Route" ahead of us.
Do we really get a prolonged time of majorly, "everything goes right now"?
Or is Sel just setting up the stage for a major impact?
Giving his audience a short period of "almost everything feels nice and comfy", to brutally hammer it all down?
She is fat by Asian standards. The only reason why she doesn't seem fat is because most of the time the camera points at her face and her face has perfect form.
You also have to consider her body when compared to her other classmates.
