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THE SUMMER HIKARU DIED: Episode 6 FULL LENGTH Reaction! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-08-24 13:00:04
Edited:
2026-10-18 03:11:47
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Content

*SPARKLING HEADPHONE WARNINGS* Yoshiki believes that the "Hikaru" in his life now can be well-adjusted -- but one of their friends Asako, w

*SPARKLING HEADPHONE WARNINGS*

Yoshiki believes that the "Hikaru" in his life now can be well-adjusted -- but one of their friends Asako, who has shown to be slightly clairvoyant, may just be a little too keen of an eye or ear for her own good -- and that trust in "Hikaru" is going to be put to the test! Will Yoshiki be able to forgive "Hikaru" for what's about to happen next? And what does that mean for their relationship? Let's Find Out!

LINK TO REACTION: https://pixeldrain.com/u/DT1WqPpM

Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!

Files

Romania Black - THE SUMMER HIKARU DIED: Episode 6 Reaction! ASAKO?!

LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/7GHtUFUNEP6rv7F29C8vAk **SPARKLING HEADPHONE WARNINGS** Yoshiki believes that the "Hikaru" in his life now can be well-adjusted -- but one of their friends Asako, who has shown to be slightly clairvoyant, may just be a little too keen of an eye or ear for her own good -- and that trust in "Hikaru" is going to be put to the test! Will Yoshiki be able to forgive "Hikaru" for what's about to happen next? And what does that mean for their relationship? Let's Find Out! Thank you for watching with me and for all the support! #romaniablack #ThesummerHikaruDied #summerhikarudied #hikarugashindanatsu Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RomaniaBlack My Anime: https://myanimelist.net/profile/RomaniaBlack Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/RomaniaBlack You can mail me a letter or anything (except food, please) at this address: Romania Black PO Box 768 Harrisburg, IL 62946 USA

Comments

Generation Wumbo

If I remember correctly, the Swamp Man thought experiment was actually Mokumoku Ren's initial inspiration for series. They thought of it in high school and then put the pilot chapter up online after graduating before it got picked up for publication. Personally, I have mostly heard about Swamp Man in the context of the age old question of whether people die whenever they use a Star Trek transporter. Hikaru's surname Indou means Mourning Temple which presumably means that little temple by his house is the literal Indou which I find slightly funny. Yoshiki's on the other hand is the fairly boring Tsujinaka which means Mid-Crossing or something along those lines although I guess we could take that in a more spiritual sense for the story's sake. On the face of it though, it fits in with many common Japanese surnames like Tanaka (Mid-Field) or Yamanaka (Mid-Mountain) while Hikaru's is goth as hell. I like that when Hikaru is directly accused of killing Matsuura, he just shuts up and looks a bit like a guilty dog that knocked over a trash can. I get the feeling he wanted to deny it, but he just promised he wouldn't lie.

green_ear_bunny

I thought the same thing about Yoshiki and Hikaru's dads.... I'm glad you mentioned it as well, because until now I thought my "shipping brain" was just going crazy as usual.

Sulyeri

I'm so happy that you like Asako. She is my favourite character in this series, too. Generally from my perspective this whole story can be took as a metaphore of homosexuality, comphet, homophobia etc - literally anything you could take from this story and analyze it in a way that relate to the lgbt people and their struggles. A lot of people also take Hikarus change from a human to the monster Hikaru as a metaphor of coming out or coming to the realisation you are gay and being okay with himself. Or something similar. But what I want to talk about with it is the scene between Hikaru and Asako. It's probably my favourite scene in the whole story. When I was reading it in the manga for the first time I had to stop for a moment and think about it because in some way it hit to close to home. As a lgbt+ person (not hetero nor cisgender) who is also from rather small city and whose family is mostly catholic (I also live in highly catholic and homophobic country, though its not US) for most of my life I had to hide in some way not being hetero and/or cis to some people, and by it I meant neighbors, or part of my family, or coworkers etc for my own comfort and safety. And there was always this fear, this feeling of discomfort, this heavines in a stomach and the head spinning when someone was asking wrong questions or was to close to the truth when they shouldn't be. There was this cold sweat. And this moment whhen Asako asked Hikaru about who he is, showing that she knows he is not the original Hikaru but there is something more, when Hikaru looks at her, shows some panic, like she knows? does she know? what should I do now? Should I deny? Should I say yes? What are going to be consequences of it? Am I going to be in trouble? Is person x related to me is going to be in trouble? What are intention of person asking? I especially like how this scene is drew in manga because I instantly know that yeah, this is EXACTLY what I felt a lot of times already. It is this exact feeling, this exact fear, this exact danger of being outed. That scene is very important for me because I really do feel represented. And I do not even say as being represented as being not heteronormative, but my exact FEELINGS about it being represented, constand danger I feel in being represented in this one scene. Of course there are a lot more scenes that represent struggles of lgbt+ people in this series, but this one is extra important and extra real for me. And it's hard, because I know a lot of cishet people who read The Summer Hikaru Died and just... didn't get it at all. Didn't get this scene, did not know how crazily scary it can be. That one question can put you in a situation that is not coming back from. Romania Black after 6th episode of TSHD - wait... do I smell old men yaoi??? I think that would be very funny if Yoshiki would inherit not only his ridiculous eyebrows and being depressed after his father but also being The Gay(TM) and having a concrete preference to the type of person (Indo's men) lmao. No matter if Yoshikis dad liked Hikarus dad romantically or not, it's still sad that he visibly liked his companionship more than his own kids, and even showing this in front of his son like that.

Moominkomet

As far as the dads are concerned, I’m buying what your selling! 😅 So the idea of the Ship of Theseus comes up again! It came up in Land of the Lustrous and I’m sure it’s been brought up before in other manga that aren’t coming to my mind. Of course it’s been a point of pondering concerning the transporter in Star Trek. So, the body is Hikaru but there is a totally different being inhabiting Hikaru. So, it’s not quite the same as the thought experiment. I kind of think it’s more like…. Gulp…. The Moonlight Boy and Griffith. 😇😈🤮. You have a vessel made available due to its dying , then inhabited by a god. I also have to point out that the boy is not totally eliminated… he does have a presence, just not a strong one. Anyway, I think it’s more similar to this example. However, OG Hikaru’s essence (I don’t know what to call it) is totally absent. You bring up a good point as to where his soul went. Good question. So, the idea of life and death being the same to Hikaru is understandable. What is life to a god? Yoshiki is trying to teach him how important life is because humans are fragile. It’s such a hard lesson to teach a non human entity. What a task! So what makes us human? Hell, philosophers and religious authorities have tried to pin meanings on to this idea of “human” for as long as we have had language and a society. Throughout my history of commentary on this site, I’ve mentioned how I think about it. One aspect of being human is to express our humanity as a positive force in another’s life. Empathy with others builds a feeling of belonging and a community in which can benefit others lives for the better. I think Hikaru needs to learn to put himself in others shoes. He may like cosplaying as a human, until he can master empathy and human frailty, he will continue to miss the point. “he has a pretty soul”, the way he says this, like Yoshiki is a snack. Both meanings….. I wrote a big long thing about souls…. Then I erased it because it was getting a bit too personal. I may bring it up later because it may pertain to something else later on….. but a more thought out idea on it…. No spoilers! Great episode! I know I didn’t talk about Asako. I loved her backstory and her abilities and her trusting nature. Even if she hears scary things, she looks for the good in them. I like that. Well, another long week till the next episode! At the time of writing this, I think we have 4 more episodes! I’m sooooo curious as to how this season will end up!

Rose Jennison

It’s kinda wild coming off Apothecary Diaries S2 and coming here because these two series use their insect analogies very differently 😅 Your discussion of different types of death reminds me of a quote I heard once. It went something along the lines of “you die twice. The first is when you stop breathing, the second is when someone says your name for the very last time”. So, physical death vs the ‘death’ of being forgotten. Hikaru’s situation is complicated in that lens, because he’s definitely physically dead. But is the entity stopping the second death by giving people more memories of Hikaru? Or is he speeding that death up by ‘replacing’ memories of the real Hikaru with memories of the entity? 🤔 I like your theory about Hikaru and the entity fusing. It’s even sort of supported due to how Asako describes Hikaru. She said his voice only sounded off to her sometimes. But if it was only the entity in there, shouldn’t he sound off ALL the time? Well, I guess we’ll find out as the story goes on. Thanks so much for the video and discussion!

rinth 🌌

I really enjoy the exploration of philosophy in this episode! The good ol' ship of theasus! I guess I kind of view "Hikaru" as like a branch that grew off the trunk of the tree that was the original Hikaru. He's made of the same stuff, has the same base behaviours, pretty much came pre-packaged. But is still a fundamentally separate growth that you could cut off and raise separately. But who knows, though? This series has surprised me so many times so far in only a couple of episodes! I'm excited to find out. I find it so fascinating how "Hikaru" defines life; he knows he's gonna be sad if Yoshiki is not around to have ice cream - so he at least understands(?) it on that level (kinda). I think it seems it's almost like he understands Yoshiki as a three-dimensional existence, which makes him "special", but everyone else is just paper dolls/set dressing because he hasn't invested the time into personally bonding them, maybe(?). "Hikaru" seems specifically clueless about how to be human from a moralistic standpoint and seems to lack a Theory of Mind to some degree. He reminds me of a dog that misbehaves, and knows that it did something wrong, but can't comprehend why or how it is wrong, just that it's not allowed and people react negatively when the dog does that particular action. This is all just my speculation, though. The end of this episode really does make me wonder if we were like "Hikaru" and could actually see the cycle of life, death and rebirth as Asako's grandma and "Hikaru" described, and it was just a fundamental fact of our everyday lives.. I wonder how, as humans, we would approach the concept of death and grief. What would it change about us? Would we see it like "Hikaru"? Trying to put "Hikaru's" perspective into words using the bug imagery the show loves, I think "Hikaru" views life and death the same as a caterpillar emerging as a butterfly; the existence of the caterpillar *as* a caterpillar "dies" when it becomes a butterfly (aka becoming a soul free of the human form), but it is still the same creature. That's the best way as a regular human (not a Lovecraftian monster) that I can understand it 😅 Although, as Yoshiki did point out, "Hikaru" is contradictory to his own ideology (which is pretty human-like, funnily enough). "Hikaru" seems to view people as souls, with Yoshiki’s soul being particularly beautiful to him 🥺 Our poor eldritch horror must be feeling pretty confused by this whole ordeal (back under the faithful security blanket! 🥺) turns out being a human is difficult! It was nice seeing them having a fun time in the first half of the episode. The mix of slice of life and horror is so well done in the direction so far! (I definitely got that vibe with Hikaru and Yoshiki's fathers as well, especially Yoshiki's father, and I'm so glad im not the only one who seems to have picked up on it 😅). I love Asako, and I'm glad she lived and avoided getting thrown up on by poor Yoshiki! I also think Asako likes Yuki! I think it's either a one-sided affection (that is very much a common experience and a contrast to Yoshiki and Hikaru) or it's heteronormativity and Yuki just doing what she thinks she's supposed to do, like you explained! Either way, Asako is in my top 3 💚 love her. Yoshiki MLM and Asako WLW solidarity! Thank you for your reaction and discussion! I'm so excited for the ride this anime is gonna take us all on! (Holding back from reading the manga even though I want to read ahead so badly)

romaniablack

We see the vision! :D Thank you for the comment!

romaniablack

That is so cool about the Swamp Man theory! I love that…and the fact that it leads to a Star Trek episode! 😛Thank you for that info and the info on Hikaru’s surname! Oohhhh, and the fact that Hikaru acts like a guilty dog because he said he wouldn’t lie – that’s a great point to note! Thank you for that and the comment!

romaniablack

Asako is such a wonderful character; I love her! It’s WAY too soon to be making assumptions about the series overall themes (we’re only halfway through and I like to wait until the end to talk that sort of thing) but I can see what you mean! I agree with your sentiments so far! Thank you for sharing your story, here; it’s sad you had that fear associated with your identity and whether you would be accepted or not; I cannot imagine. It’s so interesting because Yoshiki has gone through the same fears as Hikaru from what we’ve in the flashbacks; it would be great to see Hikaru and Yoshiki have a conversation about this sort of thing and we’ll see if we get that later! But thank you for sharing this story because the manga and anime is so important for sharing scenes and moments like this and the emotions tied to these scenes represented as they are. Hahahaha, when I got a whiff of Old Man Yaoi, I ran with it! I am a little hesitant to be all on board with the “like father like son” motif because his dad isn’t the best representation of that for reasons like you said! Thank you for the comment!!

romaniablack

Right?! These two series coming together is WILD! But I’m 100% here for it! That quotation! YES! I have heard that too and I think that applies so well! I couldn’t remember it verbatim, so I’m glad you brought it up! Thank you for noting that! That’s definitely something to bring up in the future! Yeah, I wouldn’t be opposed to the entity fusing with Hikaru but it won’t be…completely HIkaru, will it? I’m so curious what this series will do and I can’t wait to find out! Thank you for the comment and kind words!

romaniablack

Hahaha, we’ll see what we get with the dads, eh? The Ship of Theseus - YESSSS, Land of the Lustrous; I’m so glad you brought that up! AND OOHHHHH YOU WENT THERE! XD I would…like to think it’s more LOTL than Berserk, but you’re so right and I’m just going to shudder for the next twenty minutes. I will be curious as we move further to see “Where” OGHikaru’s soul is - if it’s still in there somewhere or if he’s moved on. I’m glad that Hikaru talks about what he thinks about death and life in this episode! And yeah, what a task Yoshiki has taken on for himself. And yeah, Yoshiki trying to dig into the age old question, eh? And I agree 100% on your take with what Hikaru needs to do next! I meannnn, Hikaru thinking Yoshiki is a snack is on many levels! ;) Ahh, thank you for not spoiling, but when the time is right, I would love to hear your thoughts on it - more to come, of course! 😀 Asako is such a great character and I love the way they described her character and did her backstory. Yessss, a long week to wait, but it will be worthy it! I’m curious, too! Thank you for the comment and kind words, as always!

romaniablack

Yessss, philosophical fun this week, right?! That’s a really cool view of Hikaru in your comment! It’s a cool concept; I like it and can’t wait to see what else we get with his character! I also think it’s innocent and yet somehow…pure and simple? How he views life! He definitely has like a “dog” mentality with understanding morality as well vs. behavior and reactions from his “master,” which calling Yoshiki that is INSANE hahaha! That’s a great point about how “Hikaru” and the grandmother see the cycle of life! It’s cool how you describe it as a butterfly emerging - that definitely makes sense! But yeah, Hikaru is confused - “Humaning” is hard and often contradictory! I did appreciate we got some fun moments throughout before Asako and THE DRAMA with her and Hikaru! I feel for Yoshiki who is worried about his friend and them being in danger! I do 100% believe Asako likes Yuki but I’m not sure what Yuki’s feelings are in all this - I hope we get more as we go through the series! Thank you so much for your kind words and the comment! It’s going to be a fun ride and I understand the holding back from reading the manga all too well! 😀