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wow! wow wow wow! lucky me that i finally get the shumugi shuffle event ive been begging for. i made quite a few gifs to honor the occasion (mostly of tsumugi, cue shock).

so far i havent found anyone translating the story or song and my japanese is total ass so i can really only speculate off of the announcement blurb for now, but im very excited! the story is apparently about shu stumbling across tsumugi in a cafe he enjoys visiting, only for the pair to learn the cafe is having financial troubles and will have to close. with the (questionable) "help" of yuuta, tsukasa, and koga they find a way to save the cafe (assumedly through singing, dancing, and dressing like royal d&d starbucks baristas).

overall, a very cute idea for an event! the song (heart aid cafe) is very fun, though i was hoping for jazz... well, what im really hoping for is some classic shumugi bullshit. as ive mentioned previously, i have a vested interest in the nightmare of shumugi, more exactly i view it like your average romcom/drama--think love, simon, except instead of an "i love you" and kiss at the top of a ferris wheel its like the ferris wheel crashing and burning (ie. the war).

i dont really see them as ever having a real romantic relationship, i more just enjoy them in theory as previously described. though, i do hope for a bit more playful frenemies and i really hope the new story leans into that, especially as its been established in the (fairly ass and trash) main story where in shinsekai its addressed that shu is slowly recovering and accepting what happened and isnt as angry at tsumugi as he used to be. this is probably something i should get into more detail later, so let me get back to the actual shuffle event for now.

the outfits are my favorite part of the superficials, i like how it matches with tsumugis wonder game outfit (view: the giant splash to the right). i also just love tsumugi in green, most of his stories where he experiences some sort of growth have him dressed in green (as well as green, just, being switch's unit color which i have some soapboxing to do about that). i need to reread both book fair & easter night before i say anything on them, so put a pin in those and ill talk about a few others and maybe return to those two at a later date. ill also probably expand on my thoughts about each of the below stories later on, since i just wanna get the quick tldr out of the way to explain why i am praying begging hoping that the new story includes some growth as well.

- wonder game: starting to accept that natsume does love him (i guess platonically, if you want to read it wrong) and that he is a valuable and wanted member of switch. realizing true future happiness in switch with natsume and sora.
- element: (remember my soapbox?) the creation of switch, which i probably shouldve listed before wonder game but i already made the below graphic. switch was created for both tsumugi and natsume to build something new and hopeful after the war, for tsumugi to repent and natsume to watch over it. it represents a whole new outlook for tsumugi in the form of an ugly as fuck outfit which, does somewhat get better, but was just awful for all of ! era.
- next door: re: wonder game, a story dedicated to tsumugi's happiness as well as him realizing he cant keep focusing on the future (which gets expanded on in soras focus event, magic lantern). him realizing that he can be happy without doing what his mom did, what she expects him to do, its really wonderful. i think id rather expand on it more on its own later on though so lets move on.
- tri-lights: re: re: wonder game, this is a bit of a stretch since its not the main accent color, but the entire story is about tsumugi finally, finally embracing his spot in switch. he also reveals that the name for switch was originally intended to "switch" natsumes mentality from the pessimism of the war and lying to natsume telling him it was "s(ports) witch", which is honestly stupid as hell, but adorable that thats the only way natsume wouldve accepted the name. and then sora joining changing the meaning from all of that to "switching from reality to fantasy" ie. the s stand for sora... i dont think this makes very much sense, but tldr: tsumugi embracing switch in full is very dear to me.



obviously this doesnt account for stories like pleiades, where he is not in green but experiences immense growth, but that doesnt fit into my conspiracy board of tsumugi greenery now does it? anyways, i expect shumugi growth this story and if i dont get it ill write it myself.