Greatly thanks for all feedback and supports. According to increasing doubts or suggestions in Miku's dream school and lines in ch 89, WandererC has written some answers for these precious comments in one articles. It's recommend to read it on
Google doc with figures, or the following lines with text only.
Original lines in zhTW: https://m.gamer.com.tw/home/creationDetail.php?sn=4822531
2020-06-20 11:16
Q&A for Chapter 117, Miku no Hanayome (MnH)
By WandererC
I'm surprised the major feedback focused on "Miku is going to Tokyo University," so I started this thread to reveal the details and to answer the major questions.
In this thread, I'll mention the following three questions:
1. The importance of how Miku knows Fuu's goal.
2. Adding some dialogues if possible.
3. Does Miku still occupy so many panels in proportion for the following chapters?
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1. The importance of how Miku knows Fuu's goal:
Since when did Miku know the dream school of Fuutarou is Tokyo University?
Why does the story never mention he is going to Tokyo Uni.?
Don't the quints know that in ch 120 of Negi's?
Why is there no clue or plot for it if it's very important? (Don't make her be his girl like the way Negi did to Yotsuba)
Why should Miku change her dream school if it's not important at all?
I didn't expect this issue to become a question before. I do expect we'll discuss the jumping penguin in ch 98, so I prepared some lines for it. However, the focus is "why the script didn't mention Fuu is going to Tokyo Uni."
It really surprised me. Let's see how Negi did in ch 120 for this (p7-8):
(Adapted from /a/nonymous, 5tobun sc/a/ns and #dropouts)
What's the reply from the quints when they heard Fuu is going to Tokyo Uni.?
"We knew that already."
Not to mention the quints, even I knew that already. Let's revise the background settings of Fuutarou:
(1) A huge amount of debt in his family.
(2) He studies hard to improve the bottom line of his family.
(3) He ranked number 3 among all senior high school students in Japan (and he got potential to get the top place).
By matching all above conditions, it would be easy to understand why he decided to study in the top university in the capital of Japan. Maybe I took that as granted too much, so we didn't attempt to address his dream school again. In fact, I'm not sure what I ought to address .
Let's close our eyes and imagine this for a while. Fuu was standing in the middle, his sis and dad are in his left, and Miku stands to his right. His mind reads "no, I can't stay with Miku for my sis."
(We do discuss whether to let Fuu study culinary school with Miku, but that doesn't work with the overall background settings.)
When Fuu was struggling between his family and Miku, she noticed his pain, and she told him she would go to Tokyo with him, and Fuu was deeply touched with tears.
Oh my, that's not a hero by any means.
Miku decided and told Fuu about studying culinary school and Tokyo Uni. in MnH on her own, when Fuu didn't participate in her decision at all. We remain the consistency of the roles, and decrease the burden in Fuu's mind.
We could draw Miku's mind for sure, like she is aware of his dilemmas, she sympathizes with him, and she shares Fuu's burden from making decisions, etc.
Doesn't it become a Romantic-Tragedy rather than a Romantic-Comedy? A woman gave up her dream for a man?
No. That's not something we want. We want to present that Miku becomes a better woman by love, and that's what she is as always. We hope her charm can be radiated as much as possible.
(What's more for Asians, graduating in universities is far more favorable than in culinary schools for their career.)
In the previous stories in MnH, we wrote the story with Miku heading to study in the University.
From her "I'll stay with you forever" and "as long as you're with me, I can do anything" in p6-7, ch 115.
And her "I'm not giving up on studying or cooking, nor on staying with Fuutarou either" as a declaration in p3, ch 116.
Plus, she put her thoughts in previous chapters into actual actions in ch 117. Her new goal was " to enroll in the University of Tokyo." This arc doesn't end yet, and we have more story to tell in this.
Even though the last few chapters were mainly about the relationship with her sisters, so we rarely mention her thoughts. Nevertheless, Miku acts the way she thinks without pretending, so her lines were matching what's in her mind. We let her goal be spoken for by herself in ch 116, "studying, cooking and Fuu. All of the above." It's positive and clear, and it's not to sacrifice something to exchange for another. So we didn't plan to draw her hesitations, wonders, confusions or strugglings in changing her dream school. Instead, we make that frankly, determined and as open as the day by saying that way.
True, it's difficult to do that, but we are in love with Miku as her fans. We will give her what she wants by all means, and our objectives are making her have "all of the above," including all connections among her sisters.
Even though it seems no one mention this yet, but I would like to address this in advance:
The ending I want to give Miku is the utmost fantastic happily forever one, and anything related to the unfortunate will be removed by my hands. There is a proverb in our culture, "poor husbands and wives are miserable for everything." Fuu's family is poor and in debt, I won't let a guy with no balance in his account marry Miku. So his poverty was the first thing I put in the top priorities to deal with in the story. Considering with his background setting, he might become a medical doctor or a lawyer. No matter which title he would have, his wife socializes with him in most cases. If Miku is entering the social circle of the upper world, won't she feel stressful if she only has a diploma from high school?
(TL note: culinary schools only have private certificates or licenses after graduation in Japan which has not too much help in one's career. JP students in proficiency schools like culinary schools are often doing it for a hobby. People who consider getting a job by studying will major in universities.)
Those schools are not being regarded as "schools" in Japan, they are merely professional gram "schools." They have no diploma after graduation, and they're not even a career school. I won't allow anyone to mock her education background for her life.
Besides, the culinary schools take two years to graduate, and it takes seven years for a medical bachelor. If Miku studies culinary schools, she would work at least five years for Fuu's enrollment fees and daily life after she graduates. We saw too much news like that in here, the boy broke his girl after he became a doctor by blaming her education background. In addition to this, we're going to draw the story when they visit the Nakano grandpa in three years. If Fuu still depends on Miku's money for his living, won't that be a shame for the couple?
Negi should need more research before making Miku studying culinary school!!
2. Adding some dialogues if possible.
We'll add Fuu's reaction when he knows Miku changed her dream school to Tokyo University.
By the way, for the readability in stories, the scripts among chapters are not followed by a line sequence, but are collected together for their relevance. There are some overlapping parts in ch 116 and 117 so far, and the hair style of Nino implies the time order of the story.
3. Does Miku still occupy so many panels in proportion for the following chapters?
Several non consecutive chapters will be Fuu's round.