Stardust Shower!

Suito-to follows the lives of Momo and Yuzu, two women in university who spent time together secretly restaurant hopping in Fukuoka in an not-quite-strangers-but-not-quite-friends relationship. Yuzu is a slightly eccentric gourmet who's used to flying solo on her food runs, and Momo plays the part of a popular gjrl whom everyone idealizes, and releases the stress of upkeeping that role up by doing what she loves: eating heavy, savory foods!

Manga about cooking is cool and all that, but I have this real fondness of the topic of eating, especially women eating. There's just.....so Much Stuff trying to subtly (or overtly) warp one's relationship of food especially if you're pinned as woman. So it's nice to see works that are so unabashedly. "Eating rocks let's all go fucking eat something thick and filling now!!!!!!!!! " that stars girls, you know?

Eating together allows a certain kind of intimacy to bubble up, causing people to grow closer just by sharing a table and a plate. This is the heart of Suito-to, delving into how the many shared meals between the main characters begin to change their lives. So, how are meals depicted? Is it some of kind of introspective, heart-wrenching dialogue that spills out after you've finished the main course?

LOL. The thing I like about Suito-to is that is has such a simple, yet kind of otaku-like approach to eating out. I expect at least one person to suspect that this is a manga secretly designed to boost Fukuoka tourism, but it's just the mangaka's overwhelming passion for not just the cuisine, but the culture and restaurants themselves. Some may find it a little offputting that so much of the manga is spent over obsessing over delicacies and the various ways to eat them, but I find it really engaging. It's fun to see characters let down their walls as they try new things, or gush about their favorite foods and share about the best way to enjoy them, and how they become familiar with each other through their eating habits. A novice will think the eating scenes take away from the yuriful moments, but experienced himes will find that they are often one and the same.

The cast is pretty small: in addition to our main pairing, alcohol-loving Chiaki and cheerful underclassman Sakura join the outings later down the line. I would be very surprised to see anyone not end up loving all 4 of these ladies by the manga's end, they're all very charming! When it comes to "conflict", this is a pretty light manga? There's no love rivals or anything like that, but there are a few minor beats that mainly get resolved within a chapter or so. It's largely a feel-good and digestible work, so if you're looking something bright and fun, you'll definitely have a good time with the work!

I love the art for this manga. The lineart is so wispy and full of character! I love how warm the colored pieces are! And Okino really knows how to effectively use a spread for maximum impact! I know some yuri fans are a bit wary of adult yuri that's **too** cutesy-looking, but I think this one strikes a good balance of being a very stylized work while also clearly conveying that these are college-aged women with how the cast dresses themselves and move.

I think the only downside is that Suito-to clearly had more gas in the tank to run for 10, 20, potentially 50 more chapters, yet was clearly forced to end at volume 3. Not uncommon in yuri unfortunately and especially common for a Shonen Jump+ work like this. Suito-to's landing is a little rocky due to having to wrap everything up far sooner than expected, but I still enjoyed the end a lot!

For current yuri fans, if you're the type who's enjoying the Kamiina Botan anime this season but want things on the romantic side to move a little faster, I can definitely recommend it from that angle. In general, anyone who loves good eats and relaxing vibes will definitely enjoy this work! Please dig in to Suito-to, with all of your heart!

Origin Point

If you've somehow slept through Fragaria 101, you might not be aware of how people are born into this World. But Part 2 clearly illustrates a new interesting fact to this story: this form that they enter the world through is not fixed. Under certain circumstances, their form can change. We see this not only with the First Fragaria's (we're calling him FF for the rest of this post) backstory, but also the Twitter post that elaborated a little on Hangyon's backstory. It seems like strong memories/emotions seem to be the trigger. And I mean like, *really* strong, and probably felt over a long period of time (Both Hangyon and FF are impiled to be multiple generations-old. Much like you can only see observe a species evolve if you zoom Way Out rather than comparing one generation to their successors). I believe the "connection" Sanah and Badobarm describe having due to their past experiences follows the same principle: their selves being ever-so-slightly Altered by their direct contact with the SEEDs....very votaile emotions.

Because this is a element that affects all who are born from Memory, SEEDs-ifcation has the potential to happen to anyone who lives in Fragaria World, but realistically, there are only a handful of candiates that could meet the criteria. (Which would be the Knights). There's not really anything "biologically" specific about the Knights that makes them the best candidates, but their job very much invovles Big, Intense Feelings, which could be manipulated to cause it. The average citizen plays a different role regarding the SEEDs, which we'll get to later.

Propgation.

"O-oh my god. Does this mean the Knights have been.......m-m-murdering dozens of People enmasse-?" Ok Stop. It's legitmately been a while, so let me remind us all of a few things. The SEEDs naturally have the ability to multiply once it gets to a certain point in its development (as stated in N01), and the context prior is interesting (after possession of a citizen). It seems like the common citizen, who doesn't harbor strong enough feelings to SEEDs-ify on their own, can serve as a valuable tool for the SEEDs propagation by providing their own small sprinkle of unease as a source of growth for the SEEDs. In this line of thinking, it is perfectly possible for all the SEEDs we've seen so far to originate from FF. I think this scenario allows for other "strains" (as in, SEEDs who start from a different origin point) to exist for future arcs without mucking with whatever kind of closure FF will get at the end of LK. Thusly, I think the weird algmated SEEDs we've seen are those who have grown immensely from either many people's emotions (or just one's very strong emotions.)

Don't banish them (An Interpretation):

It's a very simple theory, and it goes like this.

Seeds consumes Object (person, item, emotion)

The Memories that make up the Seeds and the Memories that make up the Object begin to Meld together

Object has become part of Seeds (if the memories are particularly strong, it grows bigger)

If someone destroys said SEEDS when the process of #2 is fully complete, then banishing the SEEDs will not return the object.

Quite easy to grasp, and I'd say it would explain the phomemna that occurred in Puruth's Formation Arc episode where people who were made to disappear that are returned come back Wrong. The buliding blocks that make up their bodies and hearts has been tampered with, those memories being apart of the SEEDs now instead of themselves. (And you can argue the way Badobarm and Sanah have been altered is that a part of the SEEDs memories is now apart of them)

As things are now, to truly protect the world, and potentially save FF from his cruel fate, merely exterminating them isn't enough. Plus it doesn't stop from another person becoming the origin point of another new hive of SEEDs.

The Answer Within Shadow, and Ciel's Mission

The fact that Halritt Shadow exists at all could potentially be a good sign. We know FF's form eventually destabilized from humanoid -> something in-between -> SEEDs, but Shadow is very distinctly, a SEEDs-like creature with a humanoid form with a level of consciousness previously unseen from SEEDs. It's possible that a reversal of this process can happen. But much like the original process, you can't exactly expect a 1:1 transfer. I think everyone's pretty much in agreement that Shadow is something that came to be after the Memories of FF and certain intense Memories of Halritt melded together. So Shadow saying hes Halritt while also mysteriously having access to FF's memories don't contradict each other. Shadow is only one part of the puzzle to rid the world of the SEEDs, but its a great start. The crudest plan I could surmise if Shadow could be a way to "gather" all the SEEDs to one place, into one entity, and then purification could happen.

Speaking of, hey what's Ciel up to? Ciel is aware of the SEEDs' former identity, and at the end of the day, they are lonely little creatures. In a parallel to Shadow's existence, I think Ciel might be planning to willingly share her own memories of happiness, the feelings of overcoming a painful loneliness with the SEEDs to induce reverse-SEEDsification. Since memories literally make up the beings of this world, and we've seen what happens to people with chunks of Memory missing.......well, whatever happens next to Ciel is sure to be interesting!

The Tree