Onii-chan Is Done For! - Vol. 4 Ch. 40 - Mahiro and an Important Secret (Part 2)

[Kuri_Something]

Thanks for the chappy!

 

[Sophodot]

I suddenly feel like I would have liked this manga better if Nayutan was the main character instead. He/She embraces the new identity, does her research, it would have been more interesting to follow her rehabilitation. Mahiro isn't compelling as a NEET. He claims that he played eroge but seems barely aware of the tropes, and squanders so many opportunities to have fun by breaking or manipulating them.

 

[extralie]

@Sophodot Meh, I prefer Mahiro. Also, having being accepting of his situation from the start will be boring and will got old very fast.

 

[PunniZ]

Tenkawa Nayuta sounds more like a boy name, and naturally calling him Onii chan, maybe he was a young boy?

 

[gomba]

@manabi:

Of course that would mean Mahiro was a guinea pig...

...isn't that the whole plot?

@Sophodot: Let's put aside the fact that the whole point of this manga is that the protagonist is changed agains their will and they fight a futile war against settling into their new personality (which means that a.) if Nayutan was the MC then they would behave like Mahiro, or b.) you would prefer to read a different manga instead, cause if the MC would be that accepting, then it wouldn't be this manga.)
Mahiro is getting into the acceptance phase, as they tend to forget more and more about their past habits and starts to enjoy living as a girl. If Nayutan is in a similar situation (which is likely but not a given fact yet) is simply just in a later phase, and we don't know if they got through the same denial/anger/bargaining phases, and if they did, was it even worse than Mahiro's. Their polite seeming acceptance might also be a façade that could come from their social awkwardness - Nayutan being so happy they made a friend implies that they are a social recluse yearning for friends and connections, which means they could have learned to hide their own feelings to try to appeal to others.

Tl;dr: Having Nayutan being the main character might either not change the manga at all, or might actually be a different manga (imagine saying "I would prefer Star Wars if the main character would be Jean-Luc Picard..." - that wouldn't be Star Wars anymore)

 

[manabi]

@PunniZ I think the Onii-chan was simply because Mahiro is a young girl at the moment, but she knows he's really an older guy mentally. Older than both of their current bodies. Plus she wanted to tease him a bit.

 

[MidnighTea]

We can't necessarily rush to conclusions that Nayuta was a boy. It's probably more likely than not, given the strong reveal-foreshadowing that they might be an adult too and that "boku". We simply don't know her story one way or the other. I will say that if there WERE a spinoff manga of some kind detailing Nayuta's own journey I would enjoy it. I wouldn't call for it to replace Mahiro's, I'm not sure why we couldn't just have both. It is a very good sign though that it's even being brought up or discussed though. That probably means Nayuta is a very natural addition to the cast or something we didn't even know we wanted.

At the very least this manga was sorta slipping into losing its TSF flavor. Not entirely to its detriment, it was still a cute story about girls being girls. Still, Nayuta brought the flavor back to the forefront. That's awesome. Nekotoufu seems to know what they're doing, even if they have a decidedly odd incontinence fetish.

 

[Candymon]

Assistant took the drug too?

 

[imhikarucat]

Ono, Mihari doesn't know? monkaS

 

[TimeVolt]

I have a sneaking suspicion that nayuta has taken the drug, and due to her referring to both mahiro and mihari as onii and onee respectively (which is used when talking too older brothers and sisters or brother and sister-like people respectively), i think they're going to be younger than both of them. Of course, that doesn't say a lot... Also it might just be a combination of them adapting to their new body and knowing the original ages and genders of both of them.
Edit: wait, i just read the bottom text at the credits page, and that would make sense, but i still dont think that is the case, eh, we'll find out next month maybe

 

[MidnighTea]

My theories!

First theory: I believe Nayuta is indeed the same as Mahiro. But the main difference is that she pretty much jumped straight into the role and intends to stay there. A chance to be her true emotional age and maybe even have friends finally. Hence why she'd perceive Mahiro, still internally an adult male, as older than her. Thus using "onii-san". Because she's mostly now a normal middleschool girl. Mostly. Not just that "boku", but on the second page of this chapter she does a "hayaya" surprised sound. That's usually Mahiro's verbal tic, which is more noticeable in the audio drama. I think that's a subtle hint of them being the same at their core. Incidentally when Mahiro asks Nayuta if she's an adult herself, she looks away uncomfortably. That's actually a hardwired human reaction -- if someone doesn't want to tell the truth they will reflexively look away. If I'm right about Nayuta wanting to throw her old self away it would make a LOT of sense she'd react that way.

Second theory: I think Nayuta might not be working with Mihari OR Mihari's senpai but possibly someone connected to both. Maybe a rival of Mihari or something who wants dibs on the eventual patent and accolades. That sort of cutthroat thing is actually pretty common in the academic world. Sending Nayuta in to mingle with Mahiro could be a way to "crib" data from Mihari's project. This is wild speculation on my part though. But it's the only reason I could think of that Mihari wouldn't know about Nayuta already -- I can't imagine her senpai wouldn't tell her that Mahiro's going to the same school as her own little project. For one thing that could contaminate their experiment, complicating eventual joint paper for publication. But perhaps Nayuta's onee-san doesn't care about that. (or her paper even entirely hinges on contaminating it to get data) But now I'm speculating on top of speculating. Moving on.

Third theory: I'm pretty sure Nayuta's ambiguity is pretty intentional writing. Notice in the extras that we're supposed to not know if that's a frog or bear hairpin in her hair. Curious!

 

[Anomander]

The plot thickens. Or as they author would probably say, urine for a surprise... 😑

...I'll get my coat.

 

[AncientWatcher]

So, Nayutan is either a boy who got genderbent, or a girl who had their age altered. Interesting development.

 

[igalico]

What is the meaning of that -n ending like in Nayutan, Mahiron?

 

[MidnighTea]

@igalico The "-n" sound added to a name to make it a nickname is considered cute. It's most often seen with names that end in an "i" since a word ending in "i" feels kind of harsh on a Japanese tongue. So Kaori becomes "Kaorin", Yukari becomes "Yukarin" etc. -- wouldn't be surprised if we see a classmate or friend of Mihari call her "Miharin".

But like with Nayuta, it can be attached to any name. Being really taken aback by their name being made extra cute might be itself a hint. Nayuta is a feminine but unisex name, incidentally, adding to the ambiguity. (incidentally "-tan" itself has extremely saccharine cutesy connotations, when used in place of "-chan", meant to evoke a child mispronouncing the latter)

 

[TheKuudereDude]

I am both proud and ashamed that I can perfectly see the raws of Mahiro's cutesy talk

 

[mtallmen_184]

This is getting out of hand. Now, there are two of them!

 

[Tonikill1]

The biggest mystery of all