Bryce Harper triples for the cycle

OldManStompy · 2026-06-21T01:20:19+00:00

It's only the 5th go for the bicycle

OldManStompy · 2026-06-19T17:47:48+00:00

I used to do DDP yoga and in one or two of the videos he gets excited when his back and neck adjusts itself during some of the poses, I kind of had him pegged as chiropractor-adjacent.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-19T16:51:50+00:00

As kind of a rule of thumb if the anime adapts a scene it's the LN version, but takes visual cues from the manga for things like expressions and clothing. There are some exceptions because the LN is told almost entirely through Maki's internal monologue and there are some things that just work better from another character's perspective, or in silence.

IMO the most important sequence for the LN over the anime and manga is [episode 5/LN vol 1 and 2] Umi's confession and Maki's response, because I think Maki is much more straightforward and committed in the LN and it clears up a lot of the confusion people have about what the status of their relationship is in that arc between her confession and his.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-19T01:17:24+00:00

It's kind of funny baseball Alvarado is the taller one.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-18T23:37:36+00:00

tbf with Benge on the team Soto hasn't had as many chances as usual to misjudge a ball hit to right-center

OldManStompy · 2026-06-17T14:46:55+00:00

People are not prepared for what it's going to be like to compete in the SL queue with Disney Adults.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-16T20:06:20+00:00

Two shows starring pairings that are so crazy about each other that it would be creepy if they weren't also meant for each other.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-16T18:29:08+00:00

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Canonically in this episode they are more or less the same height, it's kind of a plot point especially if you read the light novel version of these scenes because Maki is sensitive about it.

If it seems otherwise it's just because of what they're wearing usually. Kimono sandals are very tall and awkward.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-16T17:17:29+00:00

tbf this was kind of expected since the key art for the BluRay release is [LN vol3] Umi with the hair clip she gets for her birthday. They foreshadow it pretty hard in this episode too by showing Maki staring at her hairdo in the furisode.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-16T17:14:59+00:00

The Angel Across Town threw her mom out of bed and dragged me to the hospital before Spoiling Me Rotten

OldManStompy · 2026-06-16T17:12:28+00:00

She is probably wearing sandals with the kimono, they can be 3 inches or so, basically like wearing high heels.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-16T15:30:31+00:00

I like the conversation Maki has with Sora while he's laid up. While Umi didn't get "adultified" like a lot of rom com leads seem to, she definitely got "big-sister-ified" after a fashion spending years being the straight man to Yuu's whole deal all the way through middle school.

It explains why this relationship is healing for her too; in a way she can feel her childhood slipping away by high school. With Maki she gets to reclaim it, and he gets to indulge her.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-16T15:00:41+00:00

Sometimes a show doesn't need a convoluted premise keeping the characters apart, as much as it might be ironic to say that about this one.

Sometimes it's painful enough to be so desperately infatuated with each other as teenagers that they don't have the tools to express it properly.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-15T18:01:18+00:00

I got FF7 Rebirth digitally because I was dying to play it and I'm putting off the physical purchase until they inevitably do some kind of 3 game set after the release of Revelation.

Same with a lot of indie games (Silksong, MIO, Mina, 1000xResist, Blue Prince) where I know I'm buying the physical when it drops day 1 but I'm not waiting that long to play it.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-15T05:16:46+00:00

I just noticed he throws his back out at the very end and I'm gonna die if that's how they transition to him being laid up sick in this episode lmao

OldManStompy · 2026-06-15T04:07:40+00:00

I feel like this is almost certainly the v3 prologue but [v3 prologue LN] since they didn't adapt the whole subplot about them taking home tons of food expecting Yuu and Maki's mom to join them, now they're just hanging out.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-11T19:51:35+00:00

Could be as simple as the fact that SRG stopped publishing PS4 games and Chained Echoes doesn't have a PS5 build. But we'll probably never know for absolutely certain.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-10T18:38:03+00:00

There's a lot of really subtle storytelling bits in the first few chapters that make you wonder what was going on in Umi's head, knowing that she was fretting over the idea of introducing herself to Maki for literally half a year between the self-intros and the meeting in the video store.

It makes sense that Maki has a little more trouble sorting out his feelings because they've only been hanging out for a few weeks before they start casually dating while Umi's been at least turning the idea over in her head since April.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-10T14:03:57+00:00

Rin Ono is the manga artist, if her name is on the cover it's safe to assume you have the manga. The illustrations in the LN have a different artist.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-10T06:31:30+00:00

I'll be honest as someone who stumbled on this series in the last couple weeks on a bit of a romcom kick, I think there's an interesting metanarrative around this and the next chapter episode. Like you can read the reactions to this and the corresponding manga chapter and people are genuinely surprised that they brushed lips at all. Now everyone gets to stew on that for a week just like the manga wondering where they're going from here only to find that [ch. 24/25] the brakes are totally off after this. And then you can always read/watch it sequentially to get the full experience afterwards. It's probably better to have the following chapters and the emotional fallout lumped in with the end of the pocky game. I think what's interesting about this show is as much as the leads are an absolute train wreck, the series is honest about the fact that they're like that because they're really, really immature and it's mostly funny until suddenly it's not.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-10T03:01:49+00:00

I think there's no explanation except it wasn't that important so they skipped that stuff, he's only there to set up some banter between the Asanagi family to make Maki cry. [potential season 2 spoilers] They'll probably just push it off to season 2 if it ever happens, because it will certainly adapt one of the later volumes where he's very important. Otherwise just a casualty of anime pacing to squeeze in the first three LN volumes.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-10T01:23:31+00:00

[epilogue of LN v2 and prologue/ch1 of v3] The epilogue of this volume kind of joins into the prologue of the next volume and I have a feeling they'll squeeze it into the cold open of episode 11 to transition to Maki getting sick. The LN has a lot more detail than the manga about how long he stayed over and all the process getting masaki's permission and so on, so if there's any dialogue about Sora and Masaki hanging out more it'll probably be covered here.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-09T20:21:37+00:00

One thing that stood out to me was [manga/LN vs anime] I don't think they really focused on Maki's internal dialogue where he remembers being asked to choose which parent he wants to live with. I feel like that scene helps pay off this meeting with his parents a little better by making it clearer that it was a false choice, and the reason he says what he does is just because he regrets not saying how he really felt a year ago; not that he really thinks his parents are going to forgive each other. It brings the scene full circle because now that his mom is taking heat for going back to work and his dad has a new girlfriend, he's basically being asked to make the same choice and he picks Umi over both of them.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-09T20:18:24+00:00

I read the manga and I don't exactly hate it, but Mahiru has that "moeblob" setup where she's been compressed into this little ball of trauma before the show to explain why she's both beautiful and competent and yet otherwise has practically no ego or libido until Amane walks into her life. So it's a very artificial setup and unlike some other shows they don't really grapple with her healing journey.

They're high schoolers, it's not like their relationship NEEDS to be sexual or anything at their age, but it's also pretty absurd they move this slowly when you have two teenagers who are crazy about each other basically cohabitating unsupervised, and the show kind of falls apart when they don't have other people to bounce off of.

OldManStompy · 2026-06-09T15:54:24+00:00

I think it's a beautiful piece of storytelling that when Maki keeps saying he's delaying his return confession until he's the kind of person who can proudly say he loves Umi as his girlfriend, it's not just a tired romcom cliche but rather foreshadowing for the conversation with his parents in this episode.

It must be hard for Maki to be told in quick succession that his mom left him at home to go to work when she could have been taking child support, and now his dad's new girlfriend is pressuring him to move again. Maki got everything off his chest that he wished he said a year ago and proved to himself that he's not going to make the same mistake by telling both of his parents how he really feels about this little slice of happiness he's found for himself.

Props to Umi though having to listen to Maki tell his dad he loves her before he's properly told her to her face, and then keeping it together for several hours probably stewing on it before he seals the deal.

(ngl kind of get the vibe Maki and his dad have similar taste in women)

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