A Time-Travelling Mystery Unravelled
Summary
Biff Tannen can relate, Taro.
Haruka: Naoki Shiina: the mysterious mangaka who turned my career upside-down.
At some point, it became my goal to surpass him.
At some point, it became my goal to surpass him.
Haruka attempts to develop a new story for her manga work, but Shinichi and the others are unimpressed by it. Amidst Haruka's work, doubles of the former two appear in front of them, claiming to be from the future.
Meanwhile, Tsubasa remembers the person who saved him from the Forest of Slumber was in a rabbit costume and Haruka reveals them to be... her arch-nemesis Naoki Shiina. With that information in mind, Tsubasa meets up with the secretive mangaka, but who exactly Naoki Shiina is may catch him, Haruka and their friends by surprise...
Tropes
- Awful Truth: Tsuyoshi attempts to ask Future!Shinichi how him and Miho are in the future. Given what we already know of Miho, Future!Shinichi deems it best that he does not tell Tsuyoshi anything.
- Bad Future:
- Shinichi initially assumes this of his counterpart: he’s rich, can actually touch money without getting burned, and writes tanka as a hobby.
- It's implied the Alternate Timeline the future selves came from is this - not only have the Donbrothers been fighting a Forever War for so long that Haruka had to use her Kibi-Points just to take a temporary vacation to pursue her manga career, outside from Haruka and Shinichi being a couple the rest of their Donbrothers do not get along well. Not to mention, their Don Murasame is more ruthless and reckless due to lacking a "Mother" figure to guide him and their Sonoza was such a horrible editor to Haruka that the mere sight of him reduces Saruhara to a ball of frothing rage.
- Brick Joke: After Haruka explains the reason her manga has two of the same character being that they’re the same person from two different points in time, Tsuyoshi chimes in that he thought they were twins. Later, when the parallel world future versions of Haruka and Shinichi appear, Tsuyoshi comes to the same assumption.
- Delayed Reaction: As Tsubasa reassures his current goal in saving Natsumi, he briefly stares at an employee wearing a fully-suited bear outfit before remembering what exactly happened in the Forest of Slumbers.
- Dramatic Unmask: During the fight between the two Murasames, Naoki's mask gets knocked off... revealing it to be another Haruka beneath.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: Taro reveals he doesn't see the point in pursuing dreams and believes it's much more important to deal with the present reality. Future!Shinichi points out this sort of thinking is a large part of why Taro couldn't understand true happiness, which he refuses to accept. He later asks Sonoi about this, and is satisfied when Sonoi admits he feels the same way regarding the matter.
- Also applies to the past and future Murasame. The latter apparently lacks a “mother” and is a lot more stoic and implacable, whereas the current one uses his Mother’s advice to fight.
- Foreshadowing: One of the plot twists Haruka has planned for her manga is for her protagonist and her future self to meet each other. Guess what happens right afterwards.
- Future Badass: Beyond being a far superior manga writer to the present Haruka, future Haruka also both is capable of using Omikoshi Phoenix and actually landing a hit on Taro.
- Future Me Scares Me: Played for Laughs. Shinichi is aghast upon learning that his future self isn't just a rich man that can handle money but has seemingly abandoned his search for wabi-sabi by pursuing tanka instead of haiku. They make up quickly enough however - Shinichi giving his future self a parting Haiku as a gift at the end of the episode.
- Ignored Epiphany: Taro finds himself unable to process Future!Saruhara pointing out his emotional shortcomings. When he duels Sonoi later and finds out he has the same confusion about why dreams matter, the two decide to ignore the topic completely and bottle such a "feeble" idea away.
- Left Hanging: Played for Laughs when Haruka realises that with “Naoki Shiina” having vanished, there is now no way for her to resolve her plagiarism accusation.
- Mirror Match: Between the past Murasame and future Murasame.
- Musicalis Interruptus: The ending music cuts off when Haruka realizes Future!Haruka has left without settling the issue of accusing her present self of plagiarism.
- My Future Self and Me: The main plot of the episode has Haruka and Shinichi meeting alternate future versions of themselves.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Downplayed given it isn't meant to de-motivate, but Future!Shinichi succinctly sums up Taro's emotional immaturity and why it's the reason he's unhappy. Taro is so shaken by it that he asks Sonoi about it during their later fight and shunts the topic away behind bravado.
- The Reveal: Tsubasa managed to escape the Forest of Slumber due to Naoki Shiina's help.
- Spanner in the Works: Future!Haruka (as Naoki Shiina) saving Tsubasa from the Forest Of Slumber is how he was able to destroy his Juto duplicate.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Extremely exaggerated when everyone in the main cast ends up clashing in the climax, breaking up into multiple conflicts over their issues.
- Future!Murasame mistakes Haruka as her future self and attacks her. Haruka fights him in self-defence, with Future!Haruka joining this fight a short while later. Present!Murasame also fights his future self due to Mother informing him the latter is an anomaly that needs to be eliminated.
- Sononi fights Inu Brother over accusing him of derailing from his "mission" of eliminating the Jūto, with Kiji Brother attempting to provide assistance for the latter.
- Future!Saru Brother goes after Sonoza for being a terrible editor-mentor for his Haruka, with Present!Saru Brother joining in after failing to mediate their conflict.
- Don Momotaro duels against Sonoi again, questioning if he has any dreams that makes him grow stronger. The latter's reply that he has no interest in such a "feeble" concept actually satisfies him.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Future!Haruka says that the Donbrothers in her future are immensely fractured, which has gotten so bad that she almost pummels Taro on-sight. Their Friendly Enemy relationship with the Noto has also soured (if it even exists in their timeline) — Future!Shinichi loses it upon spotting Sonoza, who's implied to have been a considerably-worse editor to his world's Haruka.
- Weirdness Censor: Taro doesn't react much to the Future Donbrothers. In fact, when Haruka explains how fractured the team is in the future, his response is to find it interesting.
- Wham Episode: Naoki Shiina this whole time is Haruka from the future of a parallel universe, who used her Kibi-Points to take a temporary leave from the Donbrothers to further her manga career while also having hitched herself to a future version of Shinichi. A glitch in fulfilling her request ended up sending them back to the present time, with a future Don Murasame on her tail for being an anomaly. She's also the reason Tsubasa was able to leave the Forest of Slumber, having saved him shortly after his capture.
- Wham Shot: The mysterious Naoki Shiina is revealed to be...a future Haruka!
