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This came out two months ago so I'm quite late on this (and I also haven't been very active), but Inoue-sensei accepted an interview for the first time with Frau magazine and had pictures taken! The articles are linked below, I highly recommend giving it a read (I read it with a translator) as it gives us a glimpse into Inoue-sensei outside the author's notes as well as insights that we've never seen before. Summary under the cut.

[part 1] [part 2]

gil letting lizel do whatever he wants... as long as he doesn't get hurt it's fine!

made this mostly for myself bc i reread individual chapters often but sometimes i wanna see the difference between versions, or i wanna look at the illusts from the novel but since i usually read the web version idk which chapter is in which volume💔

also the early manga chapters were lowkey confusing bc they jumbled the story order a lot and the cutoff for every chapter was different from the novel version (which thankfully is mostly not the case anymore) so that's where i might've made the most mistakes lol please let me know if there are any tho!

But like

He did that. No hyperbole needed, he did that.

He got Eglantine name sworn and he himself named sworn too. If anything happened to Rozemyne, he and Eglantine would die. The only two possible zent candidates and the only ones with even a hint of knowledge of how to get the Bible and how to solve the mana crisis

(I know one fic who did something with time travel in this fandom but this here is less angst and more comedy)

Komatsu by some means in some way (probably a Back channel accident) somehow ends up in the past roughly 500 years ago , shortly after Fronze's death to a very very depressed (and suicidal) Midora that needs emotional support that Ichiryu (the only person whit both sanity and emotional intelligence other than Fronze in this family and at the only alive member whit both until he adopts Coco , and only when Coco becomes part of the family will there again be two people (we don't count Komatsu here) whit both sanity and emotional intelligence better than a rock in it again) can't provide at the moment (because of trying to deal with the human government and their bullshit) , Accacia fucking somewhere else whit the Nitro at the moment , Jiro emotional intelligence of a literal rock and Setsuno not being both close enough to Midora to properly offer comfort and also not enough emotional intelligence to be able to handle Midora in his current state .

Komatsu of course being Komatsu (whit fuck ton of emotional intelligence even if somewhat questionable sanity) offers Midora the emotional support he desperately needs along with starting the effort to make sure Midora isn't going constantly on an empty stomach (it's a tough battle he bravely faces every day)

The result of the efforts is that Midora becomes his Combo Partner (and down the line husband as they are a lot closer in age here) and Komatsu becoming Midora's emotional support chef for who he is willing to do for anything for , with Midora's motto being "What Komatsu wants Komatsu gets" and the Gourmet Corp agreeing whit (probably an actual) cult like belief , support and devotion

There are interactions with the rest of the family of course (other than Accacia for obvious reasons)

Komatsu and Ichiryu are gossip buddies and go for tea around once a month , sometimes that miss it but in exchange offer extra juice gossip (Ichiryu knows more about the Gourmet Corp inner drama than most of it's members and Komatsu know more about international politics that almost all of the best information sellers in the world) . Komatsu being the adorable innocent little gremlin he is (you do not expect me to believe that Toriko or Zebra didn't rub on him at least a little) is always more that happy to offer Ichiryu a little nudge by using food on any political rivals or enemy (not by poisoning it of course that would be disrespectful to the food but when you're considered by many , even the most religious of people as the second coming of Fronze The Chef God , you know you cook good)

Him and Jiro more than once stumble into some very strange things and situations while going on walks and hunts together and more than once questioned how they are both still alive after it . The two of them together just seem to make Komatsu's weirdness magnet powers become 100x times stronger for some unexplainable reason . It does however mean that they have some very strange and intesting stories to tell (to which young Teppei will be raised on , his favorite by far being the time they prevented a species of seasoning flamingos from becoming extinct while they were searching for a milk pear as a snack for the wild fresh White Russian and the berry fruit boar they caught, which is what in this timeline inspired him to because part of the gourmet police and help protect and revive ingredients)

Him and Setsuno do become cooking buddies and even have nicknames for each other (he calls her Setsu-chan and she calls him Ko-chan) , until The Cooking Festival comes then they become rivals ready to beat the shit out of each other with poor Zaus , Yuda and Chiyo being in the middle of it while also having their own rivalry going on on the side (it makes the festival way more interesting to watch and even more chaotic when this timeline Komatsu , Brunch , Starjun and Ootake happened whit their rivalry because of the CHAOS the will be raining on it ) [Also I can't decide what relationship between Jiro and Setsuno wound be funnier In this timeline , the options being a) they are secretly married whit Komatsu (or Fronze depending of when) being the officiator and had at least 1 child together who is Teppei's parent or b) they are in a queerplatonic relationship whit each other because they mach each other's vibes so well , because you can't tell me that the girl that was going in animal skin bikini as a fashion choice wouldn't think Jiro's hair might have been cool then and even now as a result they are bff , is probably Jiro's child godmother and Teppei will call her grandma because in his eyes she is his grandma ]

Centuries pass on until it's time for his friend (and himself to be born) and lo and behold Midora finds baby Starjun while he was going on a walk by the ocean . The adoption papers are written immediately with him and Midora as primary guardians with the rest of the family as immediate guardians if he and Midora die . Baby Starjun gets raised in a way better Gourmet Corp and regular playdates with his technically nephew cousin Teppei . Until he is about 10 and having time with Uncle Ichiryu and they and Mansun accidentally discover a everything trafficking traffic ring(like they seriously trafficked everything , you named it they trafficked it) the results of which were 5 new cousins (aka the kings and Rin) . Needless to say Ichiryu got a tongue lashing so strong King Slime thought they were under life or death danger and tried to protect him , which only made the tongue lashing even worse . After Komatsu was satisfied with Ichiryu and allowed him to rest did he see how young Zebra , Sunny and Rin were looking as if he had invented the bread , he knew from that moment on those 3 will make their new father's life miserable by trying to copy Komatsu just like how Star tries to copy Midora . Star and Toriko actually do know they are related as twin brothers , along with telling Toriko whose kids they are . Midora is delighted to be the broody middle sibling , meanwhile Jiro is having a mid(!?!?) life crisis of no longer being the middle sibling but one of the older ones .

He also adopted both this timeline version of himself by posing as a relative along with Ootake , he is also technically Branch other legal guardian so he takes him along rather regularly to the Gourmet Corp HQ(aka Midora's Castle) the result in which being Chaos . It was still somewhat manageable before Grinpach and Tommyrod appeared and became in a very short amount of time Starjun best friends and an even more chaotic influence on him , resulting in the chaos becoming even stronger .

When I’m asked to rank which heavenly king/Komatsu ship I like best, I tend to have a hard time deciding. I think it fluctuates very often. I can give a few that I tend to enjoy the most (ZebraKoma and KokoKoma) but that doesn’t mean that I think that SaniKoma or ToriKoma are in any way bad at all…

I read Shimabu’s other works - Ring and a little bit of Leader Takeshi. In both works, there is a recurring theme of the underdog main character having this main trait where their honesty and earnestness brings out the best in everyone around them and inspires them to live better. I think this context is important - Komatsu also carries this trait, as we see this occur again with him. Everyone he meets seems to regain motivation to do things they would not be willing to do, or have the courage to commit to doing, before meeting him. They have the idea, they have the potential - Komatsu gives them the confidence. The kings are aware of this strength of his and rely on it constantly throughout the series.

So what does this have to do with the kings? I love the buildup of it all. I love how Shimabu can spend chapter after chapter building up how amazing of a man each king is to the point where they’re almost inhuman - but no matter what, it always ends the same. They always get trapped in Komatsu’s orbit! They’re ready to go at his command! Isn’t Komatsu so charismatic?

We've got:

Toriko the "canon" pairing who slowly falls in love, but early on couldn't care less.

Coco the shy outcast who the minute he gets care from Komatsu is ride or die for him.

Sani is the stuck up rich girl of the group and initially looks down on Komatsu but sees his unique beauty eventually.

Zebra is just the tsundere.

And Komatsu is the harem protagonist who dumped all his stats into being nice and lucky.

Literally all the other 4 kings meet Komatsu and within, like, one day are like I would die for this man is there literally anything I can do to steal him from Toriko, meanwhile Toriko is over here like "yeah we've been working together for months at this point but it never occurred to me that you were helpful until vegetable sky"

Like dude, worst boyfriend ever. Please sir Komatsu deserves everything in the world and your brain is so dead you can't even appreciate him

Princesses are placed there against their will or with the intention of ‘keeping them safe.’ This is very different from wizards, who seek out towers to hone their sorcery in solitude.

I would like a story where a princess is placed in an abandoned tower that used to belong to a wizard, and so she spends long years learning the craft of wizardry from the scraps left behind and becomes the most powerful magic wielder the world has seen in centuries, busts out of the tower and wreaks glorious, bloody vengeance on the fools that imprisoned her. 

Princess Adina was eighteen by then, and so of a marriageable age. She had grown quite beautiful, though she was more willful than winsome, and she did not care for the notion of the tower very much at all. Their mother did her best to persuade her on the subject. After all, the queen herself had been eighteen when her own parents had sent her to live in that very same tower, to be safely tucked away until her husband could be chosen, and then ride out to claim her. A tradition going back ages and ages.