Waiting For Vol 18 - Blog Posts

I'll be satisfied as long as I see the Royal Wedding...

But, yeah. Takabayashi-sensei left us with a pretty bad cliffhanger because it makes you too curious and you want to tie all the loose ends. It's sad that she had to scrap such a wonderful ending because, even though it is sad and dark, it was a brilliant idea. And, I was already looking forward to the dark side of MaruMa that T-sensei slowly kept on adding- like the whole Seisakoku arc, the whole Darco arc. And how can we forget that face off between Yuuri and Wolfram! The way their relationship progresses. Conrart's choices and Shinou's interventions.

That cliffhanger just goes to show the complexities of Wolfram's character even more. Yuuri is starting to somewhat merge with his Ue-sama side (sort of? do I remember it correctly?).

Shinou just makes me question whether he is a good guy? or bad guy? or just a psychotic guy cause he stayed in his little dimension for so long? idk. And how will Murata react to Shinou's involvement?

There are so many of these aspects, and I feel that a darker tone to these is more interesting. MaruMa is not just a gag novel. It is a lot more than that. Takabayashi sensei has created a wonderful, mind boggling world with such interesting and unique characters.

It's a shame she had to scrap that idea- a lot of it was also due to the anime using the 'going to Earth' aspect of it, I'm not blaming anyone here(Sensei you don't have to care about those things, please follow what you want!)- but I hope she'd come up with an even better one.

Till then, I have to thank all the people involved for all the 17 vols of the novel, the doujinshis, the short stories, the drama cds and all the other things MaruMa related.

P.S: We need a readaptation of the novels as an anime, and this time more properly. I don't know what people have against Wolf to morph his character to how he is portrayed in the anime- and Yuuri, and everyone else. Their character developments are completely disregarded and just their initial ones are kept.

Anyway, I feel like I talked a lot. This event was truly amazing and I enjoyed it a lot- even though I couldn't contribute much to it.

Let's keep loving MaruMa like this!

20th Anniversary MA Event - Fourth Week Activity From November 23 to November 30 Tuesday - Theories about the future of the plot in the novels

Hello everyone,

First I apologize because this post is really delayed, my attempt at scheduling something beforehand failed miserably.

Today I encourage you to share your theories about the future of the novels! Please go crazy if you want, anything you may want to write about this is welcome. Do art too if that’s your cup of tea~

I would also like to feature an old discussion where @marumafan talks about this topic here. She has really awesome posts about the series in general so you can dig a little bit more in her blog too if you want.

And I’ll share my personal view under the cut at the end of the post as my entry for today ^^

Remember to tag your posts with #MAnniversary 2020 and #MA Event This is the link to the main post

Don’t hesitate to keep sharing your art and fics tagging the event even if this week theme is different.

Keep reading

All we can do now is to pray that our words reach her and she starts writing!!

Takabayashi-sensei please continue to write!! That last cliffhanger is just too bewitching to leave it hanging like that!!

A little maruma update

There’s been a few updates in the maruma scene.

PERFUMES

Maruma official retweeted links to buy Yuuri, Conrad, and Wolfram perfumes (Japan only). https://twitter.com/maruma_official

Takabayashi sensei only posted : I’m late, and retwitted the ads: https://twitter.com/TakabayashiTomo

(Takabayashi sensei’s tweets are private, but if you follow she’ll approve after a while… don’t know how long it takes now, when she was less active it was a few weeks)

NEWS AND NOVEL RELATED

But the most interesting by far was GEG’s who said:

https://twitter.com/rikka2020/status/1171272123991511040

I have a feeling something really nice is coming this fall. (prediction)

And then she followed up with:

https://twitter.com/rikka2020/status/1171280827461693440

Just in case, I wanted to say that there are no plans to release a new novel in Beans Bunko. Why? Why is it something different? I’m the one who’s the saddest about that. Damn you T. T. who lives over a river*. (I’ll send her a message)

(*)I guess it means on a cloud or something.. not sure. T.T. means Takabayashi Tomo.

I was literally screaming of joy when I had read the taisetsuna hito part in the novels!! It's so wonderful to see Yuuri casually doing that and not realising his feelings!!

The ending of this Vol. was marvellous! A beautiful cliffhanger wonderfully written (even though I am dying for the next Vol.).

I hope Takabayashi-sensei picks up her pen again and starts writing what she wishes to.

Yuuram in Novel 17

The last of the main novels, what a ride!  Previous posts:  1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16

——————————————————————

Novel 17. ch.2 - You can feel Wolf regretting everything already-

This time, it’s Wolfram who interrupts Shinou’s question. With his back straightened and his fingers crossed on the table, he’s not staring at Anissina, who asked the question, but at the forefront of the room.

All that’s there is the empty Maou’s throne.

“Just as His Majesty Shinou said, I, as the Key, personally sank ‘Inferno on the Tundra’ into the sea as per His Majesty Shinou’s instructions. Not only did Yuuri wish for that, I myself would prefer to keep it away from the country to prevent getting involved. As for this Box out of the four, we don’t have to worry about it until it shows up again.”

Standing on both sides, Günter and Gisela nod in agreement.

Shinou smiles as though towards a cute student, and then says to Wolfram,

—————————————————————— Novel 17. ch.2 - callouses-

He raises his thin right hand, covering his face with the well-defined joints. There are fading callouses between his fingers. The positions of those callouses are different from those of Conrad’s, Gwen’s, and Wolfram’s.

—————————————————————— Novel 17. ch.7 - Just look at the words Yuuri uses, omg!-

“He fell from the tree, and I don’t know what happened to him after that, but I shot him. I have no doubts about my own skills, I only release an arrow when I’m sure of hitting bullseye. If he wasn’t wearing those clothes, if that child wasn’t wearing the Shimaron uniform, there’s no way I would have killed him! If he wasn’t wearing an adult’s army uniform, if he wasn’t aiming an arrow at us, I wouldn’t have shot him either! But the reality remains, and it can’t be changed… I did kill a child who wasn’t a soldier!”

Those words hurt me deep inside my heart. In an instant, I felt a pain similar as getting burned. Because I had an experience like that, in which I nearly lost my important person just because he was wearing someone else’s clothes.

(So here Yuuri uses the words taisetsuna hito, “my important person”. Yes, it can mean ‘any important person’ but in the maruma series it means 'that’ important person. When talking about Josak, Gwen and others he always says taisetsuna nakama, important friend)

—————————————————————— Novel 17. ch.10 - Yuuri’s description of Wolfram convincing people.-

Wolfram… Mn—I don’t know. For all I know, he would use his angelic, adorable looks. If it was a woman who has low resistance towards pretty boys, she would probably be conquered in an instant. No, if he also shows a proud and passionate side, anyone would be convinced by him, and agree with him.

But I have no such weapons. And yet, this is still my job.

—————————————————————— Novel 17. ch.10 -Quick, save me from the jealous wrath!-

“—Quick, help me think of how we’re going to explain this to Wolfram. That guy would surely say, ‘If you didn’t go back to Earth, what did you do?’ and scold me. He’d even ask, ‘What did you and Murata do? Who’s Darco? Is it a man!?’. Because only in that regard, he doesn’t trust me. Ahh, this time we can finally go back to Shin Makoku! We can go back, right?”

—————————————————————— Novel 17. ch.11 - Aaaaand Shinou’s a little shit -

“Crap, I nearly forgot. I’m here to ask if you want to welcome them together, you can almost see the ship now, y’know. That’s the ship your beloved His Majesty Yuuri is on… Isn’t that right, Lord von Bielefeld?”

His fingers grab a lock of Wolfram’s hair, sliding it down Wolfram’s jaw,

“You’re not foolish enough to speak of this matter. Isn’t that right? You know what will happen to His Majesty Yuuri if you reveal it.”

Wolfram frowns slightly, light wrinkles appearing on his brow. Recently, people keep saying he looks like his oldest brother.

“If it’s for your family or that most important person, you’ll do anything. You’ve always been like that.”

“There’s no need to talk to me about that.”

Wolfram pulls the fingers on his left cheek away, maintaining the minimum level of politeness so as to not be considered impudent, “I understand reason.”

The Box wasn’t thrown away, but kept in the Shinou Shrine instead. But he won’t tell Yuuri that, and he can’t.

(….)

Shinou harrumphs twice happily, raising the corners of his beautiful lips into a slight smile. Wolfram turns away without waiting for a reply, walking away without looking at his expression.

I need to go welcome Yuuri. And I need to get rid of this emotion before I can comfort his weariness from the trip back.

At the very least, I can’t let it show on the surface.    

What a nice and carefree thing it is, To be able to live without any secrets.

—————————————————————— It’s lovely to see so much yuuram in the novels. I was quite surprised to see taisetsuna hito in regards to Wolf, I didn’t see it the first time I read it.

As is I was hyped for Novel 18 after finishing Novel 17 with its various cliffhangers and plot twists!! Now I know what might take place and that it is dark and it involves my dear Wolf and YuuRam moments as well!!! My heart cannot take it!! Please Takabayashi-sensei update!!!!

I hope she writes before I turn into a skeleton while waiting for it.... I'll become like Kohhi and go haunt her then...

Whats your personal analysis summary/ any thoughts of the last novel 17

Hello anon!

Sorry for the late reply. What are my personal thoughts on novel 17? I’ll try my best:

Novel 17 -summary & opinions

Let me itemize the main points:

1) Shinou: Shinou gets out of the pouch thing, by borrowing maryoku, meaning that he doesn’t have it himself. He then has Anissina work for him, to keep him in the physical world with a sort of battery (underwear), so that he doesn’t have to be borrowing strength from Ulrike constantly. This gives him freedom of movement. At the end of the novel he will threat Wolfram to work for him, making sure he won’t say anything to Yuuri, he also threatens him saying: You’d do anything for the person you love and your family right? You’ve always been like this. Making it clear they’re not safe if Wolfram doesn’t agree to his terms. Assessment: Shinou’s an ass.2) Water box: In novel 17, the guys find out about the water box in Darco.  At the end of the novel Yuuri will touch his box. We already know from stories after novel 17 (e.g Do you want an exorcism?), that touching the box has affected him and given him yet another personality. Only Wolfram, who was in close proximity to his box, knows how Yuuri felt, however it doesn’t seem like they can share notes, based on Shinou getting in the way? Yuuri was saved by Conrad because everyone else in the room was being electrocuted. Assessment: Water box is gonna be a problem, or is it?3) Ranatan: The Prison warden who looks and talks just like Yuuri’s mom. She said that she wanted to ‘become one with the box’ to stop it. But I always wondered…  weren’t the boxes not supposed to be reactive to regular people? Here’s what the novel said:Her mind was slowly corrupted, and the sense of responsibility she had towards anything sinful, lost out to her own desire for the Box. In the end, she even considered merging her destiny with the Box. If she’d gone on like that, it really would have led her, to be destroyed with it.Why did she want the box so much? Why was she getting destroyed? Didn’t the guys at Big Shimaron had a box for a long time and it was just in storage? I know, the fire box responded to Alazon’s plead and brought Saralegui back to life, but Alazon was powerful and had houryoku and was in an enchanted tunnel… what did Ranatan have? So I’ve talked about this in the past, it has been made pretty clear in the novels that half-mazoku, half humans, don’t really possess maryoku (not even Conrad, and he’s a direct descendant from Shinou). The other thing is that Murata says “the keys” have to be bound to a soul and to a particular bloodline. Why would Yuuri have the water key if he’s not a Wincott?  So, he must be. So who’s the Wincott? Yuuri’s dad? Or his mom, that looks like Ranatan who was corrupted by the box? My personal opinion is that there’s something fishy here. I think Ranatan might have been a half-key, and that’s why the box corrupted her. (The Wincotts were human at some point remember? They ruled Caloria until they ‘went crazy’ and were kicked out). Assessment: I think her character introduction had a purpose.4) Kinan and Hawk-eye:  This novel closes one of the mysteries of maurma. Why did Kinan shoot Wolfram in novel 9!? It is explained that Kinan was promised the body of his older brother who allegedly died at war 20 years ago in Big Shimaron. However! It is discovered here, that his brother is Hawkeye, alive in Darco, and Conrad pretty much reunited them at the prison (the ‘reunion’ hasn’t taken place yet, but will, now that both of them are in the prison). Assessment: Explanation completed.5) Conrad goes back home: Well, final-fucking-ly! What is going on with this dude!? Wasn’t he planting seeds in Shimaron? Now he’s back? I feel he should have ‘been back’ after Seisa. His explanation of ‘needing to grow seeds of democracy? Anti-monarchy? Who knows what in Shimaron didn’t happen at all cuz he ended up in the prison right after Seisa. I’m just glad he’s back, but what was he even doing? Are we supposed to take the info in the ura cd at face value? Did Shinou scare him after giving him the arm? I don’t know, but I would like a proper explanation for his constantly irrational behavior, and we haven’t gotten one besides the ‘Takabayashi-sensei hates him and doesn’t want him around’. I’m sure there are many ways one could explain what he did, the drama cd explanation was good. Can we get that in writing? Assessment: We still don’t understand anything about this boy.6) Fanfanis a baddie: Not confirmed but he seems to be looking for the boxes. Cherie’s relationship may not last long. Assessment: Future enemy?7) Royal Couple: “ Those words hurt me deeply inside my heart, a pain as though I was burnt in an instant. Because I had an experience like that, in which I nearly lost my most important person, just because he was wearing someone else’s clothes. “And this is what Yuuri thinks when Hawkeye tells him about what he had done. Yuuri used the ‘most important person’ line, which we all know what that means in this novel, to refer to Wolfram. Assessment: Royal couple ftw!Finally the afterword: Takabayashi sensei says that the next novel will be darker and with emphasis on Wolfram. A drama cd with canon info that came out after novel 17, mentions that Wolfram will be aloof and sneaking out for fire box/Shinou purposes in the middle of the night, while Yuuri has no clue and thinks he’s cheating. Murata and Josak seem to be onto the fact that something’s off and will be investigating. As we know, Shinou threatened Wolfram with hurting Yuuri and his family if he says something, so he won’t be talking. It looks like novel 18 will be awesome…. that’s if …it ever gets written.