After a nice, short nap, we get to meet Tsurubami Fukurou! 

——

Medaka has her stratagem in order: she will meet Tsurubami Fukurou through her eventual takeover of the Kurokami family. Her next step is to assemble her allies. It’s been a while since we saw Kumagawa and Zenkichi since they were taken out by Iihiko; but with chapter 168, we’re treated to a dream-like chapter where the two are able to address their own hesitations about the current state of affairs. We’re also treated to a short return of Zenkichi’s mother who helps bring them back to health with her psycho-surgery. It wasn’t a terribly exciting chapter by any means, but it did allow for some developments in both Kumagawa and Zenkichi. Kumagawa in particular goes back to the classroom afterlife to meet a recorded message of Anshin’in, which resulted in a few hilarious gags. The most important development of this, though, are the two gifts she left him: one of which is to complete and fix his All-Fiction minus ability while the other is left as a surprise for both him and the audience to find out later.

Zenkichi’s dream-adventure serves as a flashback to the events that led him to becoming friends with Shiranui. At first he believes he’s going through deja-vu until he realizes that he’s actually reliving the events of the past. We’ve already gone through these sequence of events, but now Zenkichi is able to analyze the situation with the knowledge of what his past encounters lead to. There’s a point when he questions his past actions, like what if he didn’t pick up the eraser and simply ignored her? Would that have altered the chain of events that had led to the current state of affairs? Eventually, Zenkichi understands that if it wasn’t through him, Shiranui would find a way to Medaka through someone else and that he had nothing to lose by reliving these events with the conviction that the two of them are truly friends and that he wasn’t just a job for her.

The two do eventually regain consciousness only to be met by Medaka with her plan on defeating Iihiko. Both are set in their convictions to win and now they’re off to find Tsurubami Fukurou. With all of them looking to develop styles to combat Iihiko, there’s a lot to look forward to. I don’t believe the series will spend any chapters on them training, but the eventual meeting between the two parties in a facility that holds great meaning for the trio is something to look forward to. 

GO Rating: 3/5

Just one more chapter until we meet Tsurubami Fukurou?

[MangaReader]