"Honestly, anyone who didn't go to Picca Land for the anniversary celebration really missed out!"
"Totally! It was such a great experience!"
"And the stuff they revealed at the stage shows was seriously amazing!"
"Can't wait for the dueling platform to be finished! I'm super interested in a card game with projection like that!"
"That's probably still a year off, though, right?"
"Yeah, maybe. But the best part had to be the reveal of the new Ultraman, Gaia!"
"Agreed! I'm so curious about Gaia Ultraman now!"
After Picca's anniversary celebration, online forums were buzzing with excitement. Picca's topics dominated the trending searches with hashtags like "Picca Anniversary," "Gaia Ultraman," and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" holding top spots. The attention was so intense that many trending celebrities couldn't stand seeing Picca's popularity overshadow their own.
While the celebrities grumbled, fans couldn't be more excited, especially about the new Gaia Ultraman. The promotional poster shown at the anniversary event featured Gaia standing back-to-back with another Ultraman figure.
Could this be an alternate form of Gaia? Many fans thought of previous Ultramen like Tiga and Dyna, who each had multiple forms, but the poster's mystery silhouette hinted at something different. In past promotions, Tiga and Dyna's transformations were never hidden like this.
Plus, the figure's silhouette looked a bit different from Gaia's, as if it might be an entirely new Ultraman! Could this mean there would be two Ultramen this time? A double feature?
Or maybe Gaia was like the mighty tree basking in sunlight, while this other Ultraman was the hidden roots underground?
A third in the Ultraman legacy? The idea was a joke, of course, but still—it added to the thrill.
Picca's promotion was working like a charm! The suspense created by the new Ultraman and the mystery character on stage fueled the excitement for the upcoming Gaia Ultraman series. This curiosity would no doubt drive ratings once Gaia Ultraman premiered!
"This is definitely a fantastic story—no surprise, it's another one by the Porter."
Right then, Daniel closed the latest issue of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai. The manga had progressed to the "Koga Arc."
After confessing to Shima, the main character Sakuta suddenly found himself caught up in Koga's case of "puberty syndrome." He was stuck in a loop, reliving the same day over and over, and he could only break the cycle once Koga felt satisfied with that day's events.
In the story, Sakuta's confession to Shima on June 27th is interrupted by Koga's "puberty syndrome," and he's forced to keep reliving the day. Koga keeps running simulations, rolling dice to replay the same day, with each version showing her bonding with Sakuta more. After many tries, they make peace, and Koga overcomes her syndrome. Finally, Sakuta wakes up once more on June 27th, and he and Shima officially start dating.
At first, when Daniel saw that Sakuta and Koga were pretending to be a couple, he thought the story would fall into the usual romance traps. Like having the main character's feelings get muddled, dragging things out, or having Sakuta halfheartedly entertain Koga while still pursuing Shima.
He'd seen too many stories like that—where a character's indecisiveness made things stale. Daniel was worried Bunny Girl Senpai might fall into the same rut.
But Sakuta surprised him.
"No matter how many times Koga resets the day, my feelings won't change."
"Lies don't become real, and real things don't become lies."
Hearing him say this, Koga gripped her uniform tightly, as if she were trying to hold something back.
"…What if I roll the dice a hundred more times?" Koga muttered, her voice barely carrying over the ocean breeze.
"Yes, even if you did."
"…What if it's a thousand?"
Her voice trembled.
"It wouldn't matter."
"What about ten thousand?"
"Even if it were a billion times, my feelings wouldn't change. I like Shima. Just as your feelings don't change no matter how many times you reset, neither do mine. Isn't that right?"
Once Sakuta understood Koga's romantic interest, he drew a clear line with her, leaving no room for misinterpretation, with no lingering doubts or second thoughts. He stayed devoted to Shima and didn't waver.
His commitment to Shima's love was steadfast.
Koga's guilt over getting in the way of Sakuta's relationship caused her to loop the day over and over, bearing the burden alone. By the end, her arc concluded with the other students welcoming her back into their group.
It was a perfect ending.
Daniel was delighted by Sakuta's character.
The manga's dialogue was also unique—clever without being crude. For instance, when Shima asked if Sakuta was hiding something, he casually replied, "Honestly, I've been staring at your feet this whole time. My heart's racing."
The story was full of these sly, witty remarks, but they never felt out of place. It felt natural, without cheap laughs or forced humor.
The manga also portrayed the subtle loneliness of youth really well. You could feel it in the struggles of Shima, Koga, and even Sakuta's younger sister—they each carried their own pain because of "puberty syndrome."
And yet, instead of forcing sad, tear-jerking scenes, each character quietly tried to keep things normal on the surface.
"But that girl who looked like a middle-schooler at the end—who is she? The next case of 'puberty syndrome'?"
Daniel remembered the girl in the manga's recent rainy scene, holding an umbrella and watching a cat, filling him with curiosity.
He recalled the surprise on Sakuta's face when he heard her say his name—his expression almost like he couldn't believe it, as if she was someone he knew from the past.
Could they know each other? Yet from the girl's behavior, it didn't seem that way.
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