Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? - Ch. 188

[MangaDex]

 

[KZO]

Love how jealous Chino got, probably one of the most interesting April fools settings so far, even though is one of the rare ones in which seemingly there wasn't traveling between worlds this time. Either way, good to have a final encounter with Chino's mom.

 

[Aile]

Can't wait for more lore drop about Saki-chan and everything related to supernatural, and everyone is so cute on their witch outfit.

 

[ciera]

Thanks for the scanlation

 

[MasterR17]

I hope next month is graduation or revealing the mystery about Saki and grandpa chino

 

[Yoshida_Ch]

A magic academy final exam being a boxing match would be funny

 

[Amogh24]

We really are so close to the end. This was like an April fools plot they don't want to discard because the series won't have another April edition.

 

[Caliverneil]

the end is near

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Berta545]

So an april fools chapter that actually adds to what the characters know and not only makes them look inside for answers. Pretty nice.
Tho the best for me is still the End of the world rabbits in the haunted house arc, maybe because of everything else that happened in those chapters

 

[Moonbunne]

The realization that this has an end is sending me into full Bocchi spasm mode

 

[Erbakhan]

It's about to end huh... Man...

Thanks for the chapter

 

[P_U_T_T_Y]

Thanks for the chapter. The tying up loose ends and providing some clarity with Saki and Cocoa's next destination in the City really gives the nearing the end vibes, but honestly I'm happy to see the greater focus on the main 5 girls the story started with. I'm eager to see how the talk between Cocoa and Chino goes on the next chapter.

I kinda get what another commenter mentioned on last month's chapter with the newer characters (Fuyu, Natsume, Elu) kinda pulling away time for the main ones since on this and the previous chapter a lot more insight than usual to the main characters was shown without them showing up. Though thinking about it the presence of the newer characters also helps point to aspects of the main characters that have changed through out the story (i.e. Chino feeling jealous when it comes to Cocoa's interaction with other characters, bits of Cocoa's personality rubbing off on other characters).

 

[Dudewheresmymecha1]

I'd somehow forgotten that these parallel-world stories were an April Fool's tradition! It seemed like we were due for one, and I can mark that off of my Gochi-Usa "Bingo card", but now it seems like it should have been obvious this was on the way.

Blink and you'll miss it, but halfway through the chapter Syaro whacks Cocoa on the bottom with her wand - it wouldn't be the first time we've seen something like that between those two, but of course it's far more common for those sorts of scenes between Syaro, Rize, and/or Chiya (between all three at the same time, a little more often than not!)

And speaking of that, @KZO mentions Chino gets a little jealous, but that's not all - Rize also gets a little jealous of Chino over riding double on her broom with Cocoa. We've seen something like that a couple times before from Rize, but mostly in the later chapters, that is, mostly after Yura became a regular character - Rize in the earlier chapters seems to have been far too stoic to have expressed jealousy in front of her friends like that!

This was mostly a Cocoa-centered chapter, but there was some room for the girls to highlight how much they've all grown since first meeting Cocoa, where Rize points out Chino telling jokes, and Chino (smiling!) remarks that Rize is the one who has mellowed out... Syaro and Chiya take the opportunity to tease each other for either being "more brazen than ever" or "more short-tempered than ever", but in truth these two characters are also more mature, expressive, and confident in this sort of banter than they would have been when we first met them.

Over all, I'm still surprised how quickly these final(?) chapters are being wrapped up - there are thing that I expected to unfold gradually over longer story lines that have been wrapped up in the last three chapters alone, and it feels like what I expected to be most of another year of storytelling might actually play out in a few short, final chapters. The only major storyline I can think of to play out before the girls say their goodbyes and follow their separate paths for a time, would be exams and graduation for Syaro and Chiya, and this chapter seems to set that up as the subject of the next chapter. Maybe also resolve anything left open about Megu and Maya's futures, but, at this rate, this main story might easily be wrapped up in 5 chapters, or even fewer? (I think exam results, graduation and goodbyes could be wrapped up in 3 chapters if Koi wanted to do so, though that feels a bit rushed!)

 

[Dudewheresmymecha1]

Thanks for the chapter. The tying up loose ends and providing some clarity with Saki and Cocoa's next destination in the City really gives the nearing the end vibes, but honestly I'm happy to see the greater focus on the main 5 girls the story started with. I'm eager to see how the talk between Cocoa and Chino goes on the next chapter.

I kinda get what another commenter mentioned on last month's chapter with the newer characters (Fuyu, Natsume, Elu) kinda pulling away time for the main ones since on this and the previous chapter a lot more insight than usual to the main characters was shown without them showing up. Though thinking about it the presence of the newer characters also helps point to aspects of the main characters that have changed through out the story (i.e. Chino feeling jealous when it comes to Cocoa's interaction with other characters, bits of Cocoa's personality rubbing off on other characters).

Yeah, I've been enjoying the newer characters, but I really I think the last few chapters of the story are most appropriately focused on the original five characters - or, more precisely, on Cocoa and Chino, who are effectively the two main characters of the story, with Chino being the primary character with the most growing/"blooming" to do!

I really don't think the newer characters (particularly "the Bright-Bunny Group") are likely to play a bigger part in the upcoming chapters, than saying their thank-yous and good-byes to their senpais (and the readers). There might be a little room left for some closure for a few things that have been left unsaid between Syaro and Rize, Syaro and Chiya, and Megu and Maya, but nothing, I think, that couldn't be said in a couple panels of dialogue in between graduation and final good-byes. The Bright-Bunny characters, by design, in particular seem like their main story arcs were resolved fairly quickly, thanks to the influence of the original characters (Cocoa's "magic"), and have little left to explore at this point beyond underscoring the positive influence the main characters have had over them!

 

[Lieselotte2501]

Thanks for the chapter. The tying up loose ends and providing some clarity with Saki and Cocoa's next destination in the City really gives the nearing the end vibes, but honestly I'm happy to see the greater focus on the main 5 girls the story started with. I'm eager to see how the talk between Cocoa and Chino goes on the next chapter.

I kinda get what another commenter mentioned on last month's chapter with the newer characters (Fuyu, Natsume, Elu) kinda pulling away time for the main ones since on this and the previous chapter a lot more insight than usual to the main characters was shown without them showing up. Though thinking about it the presence of the newer characters also helps point to aspects of the main characters that have changed through out the story (i.e. Chino feeling jealous when it comes to Cocoa's interaction with other characters, bits of Cocoa's personality rubbing off on other characters).

There’s nothing wrong with adding new characters, and many of them have distinctive and memorable designs. The problem is that Is the Order a Rabbit? is, at its core, a four-panel manga with very limited storytelling space. Under those constraints, it is simply impossible for the author to properly develop a cast of more than a dozen characters at the same time. As a result, many chapters end up feeling fragmented and unfocused, constantly shifting between different characters and ideas without giving any of them enough room to breathe.

To make matters worse, the author often glosses over important developments such as character growth and the evolution of interpersonal relationships, while devoting a disproportionate amount of page space to standalone episodes that contribute little to the development of the main cast. These issues are especially noticeable in Volumes 9–11 and in the Halloween arc of Volume 13.

By contrast, the author of Yuru Yuri handled this issue far more effectively by developing newer characters in spin-offs rather than having them compete for space in the main series. This allowed the core cast to remain the focus while still giving the newcomers room to grow.

 

[DVO19]

Banger chapter as always

 

[Dudewheresmymecha1]

...By contrast, the author of Yuru Yuri handled this issue far more effectively by developing newer characters in spin-offs rather than having them compete for space in the main series. This allowed the core cast to remain the focus while still giving the newcomers room to grow.

I don't necessarily think you're wrong that there might have been a benefit to relegating new characters to a spinoff, BUT to be fair about Yuru Yuri and its spinoff, that manga is a very different animal from Is the Order a Rabbit?

On one hand, Yuru Yuri's core manga really has almost no character development or continuity beyond any bare minimum demanded for the "rule of funny", and on the other, I'd argue that what makes the spinoff work is that it has a very different tone and storytelling style from Yuru Yuri's more satirical/parodic "slapstick" or (more or less) "Manzai" driven humor, with Oomuro-ke's stories approaching the humorous elements a little more lightly and taking a little more time to get there, while focusing a little more on more traditional slice-of-life character interaction: combining the two storytelling styles into one manga would have had quite a jarring effect for the audience, and might have been pretty difficult for Yuru-Yuri's writers to keep up with as well.

It's a little difficult to find a similar situation in Is the Order a Rabbit? For all of the characters here, we're looking at a similar storytelling style, time is passing in the story from Cocoa's arrival up to her graduation, characters change and grow over the course of the story, and we're not quite looking at either a straightforward slice-of-life thing, nor a traditional slapstick/manzai thing, though there are a few elements of both here and there in this manga. And, the characters' stories here are enmeshed a lot more closely together.

On the gripping hand, there's very little interaction between the casts of Yuru Yuri and Oomuro-ke: Sakurako and Himawari are the main point of crossover between the two mangas, and they don't appear often in either one, and we really seem to see a different side of those two in one comic versus the other. That's a very different situation from the one that has developed in this manga, where the characters are connected together in many different ways, spend chapters playing off of each other in new ways, and so on.

Now, where I do think a noticeable difference in storytelling taking place within this manga is for things like the "April Fools' Day" alternate-world chapters, and the occassional Christmas or Halloween episode, or Cocoa's visits at home with her mom and sister, or - notably - the "Hotel Cats" series of chapters the girls spend in the city, where three of the four newest characters were introduced. I can see an alternate world where the "Hotel Cats" chapters might have been treated as a spinoff, with the new characters continuing on in the city, while the original cast return to the main "Half-Timbered Town" setting to complete their stories normally. The tricky part of this spin-off approach would be the way the characters' stories have woven so closely together: a spinoff treatment would work more smoothly and naturally if the characters go their separate ways instead, aside from occastional special episodes (kind of like the way Cocoa's mom and sister aren't cast regulars, but instead only show up in Cocoa's holidays back home!) Character development for both sets of characters would need to be handled a little differently - it's "tricky", but manageable - I think this manga's writer(s) can manage it if they wanted to. (They don't seem to have wanted to, and it's a good question of whether the result would be an improvement or not, but the point stands, I think: it could have been done.)


One final point on Yuru Yuri is, man, do that manga and its spinoff seem to have been moving slowly over the last year, in terms of new chapters and their English translations! Yuru Yuri itself finally seems to have resumed new translations, but the spinoff seems to be dead in the water, without any new material in a while, and a backlog on the translations. The writers/artists seem to have their attention divided between the two without being able to produce both at the same pace, while the translaters do not seem to have the time for both, or at least as much interest in doing one as the othr. Honestly, I'd hate to see Is the Order a Rabbit? and a hypothetical spinoff for it in the same situation! Mileage may vary, though, for those who might not care about that, because being able to filter characters they don't like off to a spinoff they never read, as long as the part they are interested in is maintained, and that's fair enough, but it's not the entire audience!

 

[Lieselotte2501]

I don't necessarily think you're wrong that there might have been a benefit to relegating new characters to a spinoff, BUT to be fair about Yuru Yuri and its spinoff, that manga is a very different animal from Is the Order a Rabbit?

On one hand, Yuru Yuri's core manga really has almost no character development or continuity beyond any bare minimum demanded for the "rule of funny", and on the other, I'd argue that what makes the spinoff work is that it has a very different tone and storytelling style from Yuru Yuri's more satirical/parodic "slapstick" or (more or less) "Manzai" driven humor, with Oomuro-ke's stories approaching the humorous elements a little more lightly and taking a little more time to get there, while focusing a little more on more traditional slice-of-life character interaction: combining the two storytelling styles into one manga would have had quite a jarring effect for the audience, and might have been pretty difficult for Yuru-Yuri's writers to keep up with as well.

It's a little difficult to find a similar situation in Is the Order a Rabbit? For all of the characters here, we're looking at a similar storytelling style, time is passing in the story from Cocoa's arrival up to her graduation, characters change and grow over the course of the story, and we're not quite looking at either a straightforward slice-of-life thing, nor a traditional slapstick/manzai thing, though there are a few elements of both here and there in this manga. And, the characters' stories here are enmeshed a lot more closely together.

On the gripping hand, there's very little interaction between the casts of Yuru Yuri and Oomuro-ke: Sakurako and Himawari are the main point of crossover between the two mangas, and they don't appear often in either one, and we really seem to see a different side of those two in one comic versus the other. That's a very different situation from the one that has developed in this manga, where the characters are connected together in many different ways, spend chapters playing off of each other in new ways, and so on.

Now, where I do think a noticeable difference in storytelling taking place within this manga is for things like the "April Fools' Day" alternate-world chapters, and the occassional Christmas or Halloween episode, or Cocoa's visits at home with her mom and sister, or - notably - the "Hotel Cats" series of chapters the girls spend in the city, where three of the four newest characters were introduced. I can see an alternate world where the "Hotel Cats" chapters might have been treated as a spinoff, with the new characters continuing on in the city, while the original cast return to the main "Half-Timbered Town" setting to complete their stories normally. The tricky part of this spin-off approach would be the way the characters' stories have woven so closely together: a spinoff treatment would work more smoothly and naturally if the characters go their separate ways instead, aside from occastional special episodes (kind of like the way Cocoa's mom and sister aren't cast regulars, but instead only show up in Cocoa's holidays back home!) Character development for both sets of characters would need to be handled a little differently - it's "tricky", but manageable - I think this manga's writer(s) can manage it if they wanted to. (They don't seem to have wanted to, and it's a good question of whether the result would be an improvement or not, but the point stands, I think: it could have been done.)


One final point on Yuru Yuri is, man, do that manga and its spinoff seem to have been moving slowly over the last year, in terms of new chapters and their English translations! Yuru Yuri itself finally seems to have resumed new translations, but the spinoff seems to be dead in the water, without any new material in a while, and a backlog on the translations. The writers/artists seem to have their attention divided between the two without being able to produce both at the same pace, while the translaters do not seem to have the time for both, or at least as much interest in doing one as the othr. Honestly, I'd hate to see Is the Order a Rabbit? and a hypothetical spinoff for it in the same situation! Mileage may vary, though, for those who might not care about that, because being able to filter characters they don't like off to a spinoff they never read, as long as the part they are interested in is maintained, and that's fair enough, but it's not the entire audience!

I think we're talking about two different issues here. I only brought up the spinoff example to illustrate that there are other ways to expand a cast. My main criticism is that Gochiusa is fundamentally a four-panel manga with very limited narrative space. By trying to develop eleven major characters within those constraints, the story ends up spreading its focus too thin. As a result, many characters never receive the depth they deserve.

From a storytelling perspective, the manga spent roughly half a year on the Halloween arc, while major milestones related to the characters' growth—such as Cocoa's future after graduation being resolved in less than half a page and with almost no buildup or foreshadowing (Interestingly, the period when the long Halloween arc was being serialized was also when the official account on X experienced a noticeable drop in engagement.). Likewise, after Episode 9 of Season 3, Chiya and Syaro's development went largely unexplored for a long time, to the point that someone in last month's discussion didn't even know what Syaro's dream was. The same applies to Chino's relationship with Maya and Megu, which saw very little direct interaction for a long period, up until just before Christmas. Those are the kinds of issues I'm referring to.

Oveerall,The recent chapter have been very impressive, and it seems that the author has become aware of this issue, as the number of characters appearing has been reduced, allowing the story to be explored in greater depth.