@Brackass no way author totally gave us all the cuteness we were promised. It's just that we also got a big boom from our secret santa.
Also, I gotta give kudos to the faces if all these people who just got dusted. Normally theyd be drawn all terrified or confused or whatever, but instead their faces are blank. Nobody has had the time to register what theyre seeing, to get oast the "wha-" stage before the blast gets them. Theyre all right under the focal point of what is basically a super-nuke.
I'm also immensely surprised to see a japanese person willfully write in something so similar to the nuclear bombings that they suffered. That'd be like a chinese slipping a tianmen square incident into their manwuas. It takes some serious balls. It isnt even like this was a generic fantasy with a big fireball explosion, this is exactly like the bombings, except its a spaceship hovering there instead of a flyby with some helicopters.
In retrospect, this entire story revolves around poor political decisions and mixed public opinions over the matter of foreigners... Which seems to draw lateral to how japan has dealt with foreign cultures throughout its history.
My bet is on the author painting a criticizing picture of the japanese' indifference to others and general xenophobia, the underhanded influences from the usa mucking things up for their own benefit, and just how inevitably terrible our politicians and political systems are in general, with all the corruption and red tape and counterproductive censorship.
Society is fucked. Our world is fucked. Nothing matters unless we choose to decide that it does matter to ourselves. Everything is spiralling out of control, we're all helplessly ignorant of key truths and confused by false narratives. But we can at least try to ride it out enjoying ourselves, holding back the existential dread. Bc cute girls be cute.