Hourou Musuko Chapter 123 Discussion

i loved the ending and the story so much. it had this realistic touch to it and it made me empathize with the feelings of the characters. seeing them grow up makes me feel melancholic but im happy for shuu-kun and all of them as well. it's nice that he has someone like anna who loves him wholeheartedly.





was definitely a good read during quarantine

Takatsuki's story ended pretty abruptly and kind of lame. I just wanted to see girl Nitori and Anna together...

The story is rather tragic for Takatsuki. I was a major shipper from the first chapter onwards. I found this fic by searching for the 'unrequited love becomes requited' tag on Mangaupdates, so I went in hoping and expected from that tag that Takatsuki and Nitori would get together. I was apparently trolled. That ended in a surprising unrequited love for her.

She also still have gender identity issues, and it is implied by her weight loss and angst that she has an eating disorder.

It has been made clear that Anna and Nitori had their first together so the ship seems to be dead.



The odd thing is that on pg27 of this chapter, Takatsuki seems to be wearing a bridal veil and Nitori seems to be wearing a white suit. Does this mean they get together in the end?

Wow, I finally finished reading this. What a ride.



Overall, I liked the ending, but would've loved to see more on every single front. The final chapter crammed the ending for all characters - all characters that we've seen grow up from elementary school kids to the adults that they are now - in one chapter.



Before going to the meat of the ending, I want to talk about the side characters for a bit. It was a bit sad that since they went to different schools, we saw less of Sasa-chan and Chi-chan. They were very fun to see back in elementary and middle school. They were also very kind to our main characters.



I really love the development of Saorin too. She went from a very hostile and socially awkward person to this beautiful (although she has always been beautiful I think) very kind person who cares deeply about her friends. She at times seemed ambivalent about Sasa-chan's feelings of friendship towards her, but now in the end here we can see her threatening Sasaki-kun with death if he made Sasa-chan cry lmao



I still don't really like her boyfriend, and I'm not really sure if that guy is still her boyfriend with Doi asking her out.



Doi is also a character that I used to really hate but grew to be somewhat fond of by the end of the manga. He's matured a lot, that's for sure. And somehow he's become an actual friend to Shuu.



And finally the main part. I really like that Shuu and Anna ended up together. I knew for sure that when Anna x Shuu first appeared that they wouldn't last because Takatsuki was a main character, but I'm glad I was wrong. Anna is probably my favourite character in this entire manga. Her love for Shuu is very beautiful and I'm very happy that throughout everything they stayed together and their relationship grew deeper. They went from Anna seeing him as a little sister to being true lovers. But would've loved to see more of their relationship in the future, as adults. Like some have said in this forum, maybe a scene of them in bed together after doing it to confirm what we've all been confused about (whether they've done it or not), or a scene of adult them just together on a day out, holding hands. Or maybe even them living together. Would've really loved to see that, but alas it shall never be. But I don't want to be ungrateful. I'm thanking my lucky stars that they ended up together, one of if not my most favourite couple in all of anime and manga ^^ Callback to that cute scene when they shared that first scene. One of the cutest I've ever seen oh my goodness.



Kind of wish that Shuu didn't hold Takatsuki's hand there, seeing as he has Anna. Just a small issue.



lolcatinti said:
It feels like these characters are real people I've come to know but now won't meet again because they moved or something, and I wish them well in the rest of their lives.



I couldn't have said it better myself. I will greatly miss all the characters in this manga, especially our leads. I too feel like they're real people, more than just characters on a page. But it's sad that we'll never see them again nor hear more of their stories beyond what we've seen. And that makes me very sad. I hope everyone lives happy lives.



I enjoyed the anime, but I didn't expect to love the manga. I will greatly miss reading this nuanced and complex story that doesn't follow typical stereotypes or story development. It's not a story with a clear ending, but rather what we're seeing is the life story of these characters. There's no end goal. And that's what's beautiful about it. I can't express how sad I am that the story is ended. Loved it. 8/10.



Goodbye, Hourou Musuko! Goodbye, Shuu, Anna, Takatsuki, Saori, Sasa-chan, Chi-chan, Mako, Maho, Seya, and everyone else! Hope everyone can have a good life beyond the story.

I'm really disappointed in the ending for many reasons.

From the point that Nitori had to stop presenting as female at that job to the end of the manga, I just felt super bad for her. Until the last scenes with Anna and the book. aaaaaaaaaaaa so good ;u;



I feel bad for Takatsuki, but I appreciated everything about the ending.



Also, I think Chiba having a boyfriend not in their social circle was just important to her character growth, in that it was a way for her to realize she could find happiness in different ways. His actual character didn't matter much, but because it wasn't another of their close friends that she ended up going with, it steered clear of drama.



The whole thing where she admits that she wouldn't be able to just be happy for Takatsuki in the opposite scenario and then was shocked that she was able to seem happy was basically why he got lucky lol. But he also explored a different avenue of expression in how he cross-dressed for fun without dysphoria, so I think he was a cool character, too.

Vanisher said:
I liked how it ended for Nitori, but I'm really disappointed with Takatsuki development.

I still don't get what was the point of having Saori date the church idiot, it served no purpose at all. I think the lack of purpose is the point, since their lives aren't meant to be seen as a narrative in a sense. Think of it more as a biography, than an actual story. Seeing as when it comes to life, you're just going through the motions, it makes sense that every outcome won't have a point.



I will have to rewrite my review for this series now that I've completed it, but I certainly did enjoy it. I suppose the proverbial nail in the coffin would be when they started going to high school and the story couldn't follow all the different characters as once. It made things muddled, but allowed for greater development of Nitori. I find Takatsuki story something of a bittersweet ending, but not unexpected as that's where the story was naturally moving toward.

I'm glad Nitori and Anna didn't give up on each other.




Cutest scene ever.



Still I think author-san had better write some extra chapters about Takatsuki. S/he could have been developed better than that.