Webcomic / Pusonicomi

Ni-Communication~

Pusonicomi^note The name is wordplay on the Japanese pronunciations of the letter "P", "SO", and "2", the latter of which can be read as "ni" is an online Japanese Gag Series web comic based on Sega's hit Online Action RPG game Phantasy Star Online 2 and illustrated by Pekeko. It was initially released in January 2018 and was produced through January 2020 for 100 comics, with new comics published weekly (during scheduled maintenance for PSO2). An English subbed version of the comic began running in 2021 on the Global version's official website as PSO2Comi.

Unlike the previous adaptations of the game, two of which were canon and all of which took themselves (and PSO2) seriously, Pusonicomi takes a gag manga twist on the series. The webcomic follows the misadventures of PSO2 player Mitarashi and her friends as they Quest together, hang out, and just generally have a good time online.

In December 2018, it was announced that the series would be receiving an anime adaptation aptly titled "Anime Pusonicomi", which premiered in January 2019. It is also released weekly through the game's official YouTube channel, with episode being roughly 3 1/2 minutes in length adapting two comics per episode. This was later followed up by a second season called "Anime Pusonicomi Okawari", which premiered on April 7th, 2020. The animated series was briefly revived in May 2021 with two double-length episodes themed around Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis ahead of the update's June 2021 release.

After the webcomic's end, the series was promptly followed up by a Spiritual Successor called Mani Mani ☆ ARKS, which is very similar in cast design and structure.

In June 2021, it was announced that a new season of comics will be produced to coincide with the release of Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. Titled Pusonicomi NGS, the new season continues the adventures of the cast in New Genesis and the world of Halpha.

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Pusonicomi contains examples of:

• 10-Minute Retirement: The 99th comic has Mitarashi "graduating" from the game, as she is too busy to spend time playing, and Tetra bids her a heartfelt farewell. The 100th comic has Mitarashi returning to the game after her absence, and is warmly greeted by all of her friends... until Tetra realizes that it's only been three days.
• Alternate Character Reading: The "ni" in the title refers to the "2" in "PSO2", but uses the kanji "煮" from the word "nimono", hence the hot pot logo.
• Ambiguously Bi: Although Tetra and Mitrarashi are male and female in real life respectively, Mitarashi is the one seen being a pervert most often, at one point giving herself massively increased breasts after a Salon visit and occasionally making lewd remarks and Imagine Spots toward Tetra's character. She is also seen having romantic fantasies about Dolche, who is a female CAST.
• Anachronic Order: The web anime adapts the comics out of publication order, except for particular arcs like the Phantasy Star Sympathy/Thanksgiving 2019 arc.
• As You Know: Many comics have a small "Pusoni Memo" text box off to the side, which explains a game mechanic that is the subject of the comic or a miscellaneous PSO2 detail. In the anime, these are introduced by a brief cut-in slide that is narrated by the characters.
• Ascended Extra: The Team Master in the comics is a simple one-off character who appears for literally one panel. The web anime gives him a slightly expanded role with an original scenario featuring him and Ichika.
• Author Avatar: During the comics that promote upcoming real-life releases, the artist talks to the readers directly via Tetra and Mitarashi's characters with alternate names.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In NGS #02, Mitarashi notices her Mag's Active Sonar activating and goes to find what it's directing her to. However, during the trip, an Emergency Trial marker pops up on her screen, and she immediately changes course and runs toward it much to her Mag's distress.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • One comic has Mitarashi and Makino talking about their favorite characters from the game while on a Featured Quest. Mitarashi proceeds to talk about Xierra, Matoi and Io and why she likes them... then opens her Present Box and suddenly exclaims "I KNEW HANS IS THE BEST!" upon seeing a Bonus Key Tokyo (Gold).
  • A comic follows an attractive high-school girl wearing a yellow striped scrunchie in Makino's color as she goes to have lunch at Sweets Paradise. In the next comic, she arrives home to her grandmother's house; she sees her grandmother has logged into PSO2 again... as Makino!
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Zect's only reaction to Mitarashi congratulating him on getting Gilles Weihen (14★ Jet Boots) is a decidedly nonplussed "Uh, yeah".
• Call-Back:
  • In NGS #05, Zekt reunites with the newbie player he tutored back in #15, who mentions the punchline of that comic (about Mags being powered by small animal brains). The punchline this time has them invoking Fridge Horror when they think about what powers the giant-sized Region Mags.
  • Zekt and Ichika skipping the cutscenes in #70 is referenced in NGS #07, when they are shocked to discover from their Team Master that players arrive on Halpha via the pod on the island you start at during the first minute of the game.
• The Cameo: The comic that promotes the release of the first manga compilation has Nagisa and Emilia in the background.
• Color-Coded Characters: In one comic, Tetra is greeted by Zect, Mitarashi, and Dolce wearing reindeer suits. In this comic, each character is identified by the color suit they're wearing, compared to most normal comics which only have one colored panel.
• Covert Pervert: Mitarashi is the actual female of the pair, but tends to be the one that reacts more to Weight Woe with a sudden Fanservice Pack, and then looks up the skirt of Tetra's outdated Friend Partner avatar when she finds out about it by accident.
• Crack is Cheaper: In #97, Mitarashi, Tetra and Ichika are discussing what in-game items they'd like for Christmas. Mitarashi's choice is the Sid Strid Weapon Camo, whose going price tag is promptly revealed to be 400,000,000 Meseta. Tetra and Ichika aren't amused.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In NGS #03, Ichika and Mitarashi are hanging out in Central City when a random player logs in nearby and attempts to Photon Dash by Stepping, jumping, then dashing. Both of them immediately point out that they're a PSO2 player still using the Step Jump command, and Ichika states that he's also still doing it.
• Early-Bird Cameo: NGS SP #01 shows off some in-game footage of New Genesis content that was not present in the beta versions of the game that were publicly released to players or shown in prior video footage, such as number decals on the gates in Central City, a Tower in Central Aeilo, an expanded Double Saber moveset, and Tetra and Mitarashi playing in the river near the giant tree that was blocked off in the beta version.
• Fanservice Pack: In #02, Tetra insists on taking Mitarashi to the Salon. When they both come out, Tetra finds that Mitarashi has increased her bust size by a substantial amount.
• Food Porn: One comic has Tetra crafting a Jerky from the Campship's Cuisine Shop. Upon hearing Tetra's description of Jerky, Mitarashi tells Tetra a delectable description of a bowl of ramen, complete with a relevant image. Tetra quickly suspects that Mitarashi is eating while playing.
• G.I.R.L.:
  • Both Tetra and Mitarashi believe that the other is some middle-aged dude on the other side of the screen. Tetra plays it straight, but he is a male college student instead of some old guy. Mitarashi subverts it, as her character is played by a 20-something woman. This causes complications when Mitarashi invites Tetra to meet up in real life at the Phantasy Star Online festival; Tetra suspects there is a slim chance that Mitarashi is actually a woman and if that ended up being true, it would be incredibly awkward for her to find out that Tetra's player is a guy in real life.
  • Both Ichika and Makino invert it; Ichika is a male Deuman played by a middle school girl with a case of Chuunibyou, while Makino is a male Newman played by an elderly woman.
  • Dolce also subverts it, as she is a female CAST played by a high school girl. Although she at one point lies to Makino about her identity, successfully tricking her grandmother into believing that Dolce is actually the local convenience store manager.
  • In one comic, Tetra and Mitarashi are suddenly asked about their preference in fragrances by Nekonomiya, a random party member who joined them. Tetra is taken aback by the question since he believes that the "girl" is actually a guy.
    • Nekonomiya in general is very much "Shrodinger's GIRL", as she has shown knowledge of stereotypical women's topics like makeup and fashion, yet is also privy to things a player might do to mask their real gender, such as using a voice-changing app for voice chat.
• Good-Times Montage: #06 has Tetra and Mitarashi sitting down and reminiscing about their days as PSO2 newbies. This eventually segues into flashbacks of Mitarashi's "experiences" with past Phantasy Star games, such as waiting for your TP to recharge in Phantasy Star Online and losing all equipped items and Meseta upon death in Portable.
• Irony: The topic (and title) of Okawari #1 is "stealth marketing", despite the fact that the characters are advertising their product about as blatantly as they possibly could.
• Line-of-Sight Name: it turns out at least three of the main characters named their avatars this way. Mitarashi was eating Mitarashi dango when she created her avatar, Tetra's tetrapod plush arrived as she was creating hers, and Makino just used his family name.
• Lucky Charms Title: true to form, two characters' avatar names follow this convention: the Chuunibyou §Ichika§ and the hardcore player Magical Robot★Zect.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: In-universe, Zekt, Ichika, and Mitarashi are guilty of not caring about the game's plot and just skipping through it because there's a reward waiting for them. This gets played for humor whenever someone actually mentions the story of the game.
• Player Archetypes: Referenced in a comic where Tetra and Zect's PSO2 playstyles are compared to each other, echoing the two common types of real PSO2 players. Tetra is the archetypal "casual" player, who plays on a "my pace" basis, mostly plays Emergency Quests with randoms, and just chats or takes screenshots the rest of the time. Zect is the archetypal "hardcore" player, who does organized Advance Quest and Emergency Quest runs with his Alliance, does all of his Featured Quests, and knows zilch about the game's story.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • In the very first comic, Mitarashi is seen praying at the shrine for 14★ drops. When the comic was adapted to anime a year later, this specific line was changed into "15★ drops" due to the 15★ rarity tier having been released prior to the episode.
  • The concert event that was originally featured in the comic was changed to focus around the Phantasy Star Thanksgiving 2019 event instead, as it was occurring at the time that the anime premiered. Some panels were changed accordingly to fit the new theme of the event.
• Product Placement: The first half of the first episode of Okawari is basically an ad for the Episode Oracle DVDs/BDs.
• Regional Bonus: For reasons unknown, Global's translated version of the comic features all panels fully colored, while the Japanese version only features coloring on specific panels. The Japanese site eventually released the full-color versions in batches.
• Shout-Out: In Okawari's adaptation of #82, Mitarashi is seen playing IDOLA: Phantasy Star Saga, Like a Dragon Online, and watching Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle simultaneously.
• Super Mode: #23 discusses the Dark Blast transformation ability, which allows you to assign certain Lobby Actions to it to use as a "transformation sequence". Ichika, being the Chuunibyou he is, imagines himself with a mecha anime-esque transformation action, complete with a Battle Aura.
• Tempting Fate: In #57, Zect and Mitarashi discuss the auto-pickup feature, where drops of a certain rarity or higher are automatically sent to your storage instead of dropping on the field. Zect says that he keeps it turned off because he prefers the excitement of seeing rare drops on the field. Later on, Zect is in XH Forest Exploration when he gets a 13★ drop notification. He rushes over to the box to pick it up... then promptly gets booted from the game due to scheduled maintenance.
• The Unreveal: Zect's real identity is never shown, though it's implied that he's middle-aged, given that he has a steady job like Mitarashi as well as a son. The one time he appears in real life, he shows up in full-body cosplay of his own character.

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