[Kealym]

Originally Posted by Judoh

Half the readers did, and the other half tried to deny it because it had to do with shkanon.

Thing is, Sakutarou was never presented as being a normal human boy, living his little ol' normal human life. He was CLEARLY an extrapolation of Maria's imagination, and the occasional indulgence from those who recognized that. If, say, Sakutarou were shown as being enrolled in school, but only ... maybe, the teacher and Maria's best friend ever responded to his dialogue, it'd hld a bit more weight as a parallel. Not denying that a parallel exists, but it's a pretty "eh" one.

Originally Posted by GreyZone

whoops. Yes a fatal mistake from me xD actually i ment Ushiromiya Battler is Ushiromiya Asumu's son.
but at the same time I wanted to write "Ushiromiya Asumu is Ushiromiya Battler's mother".... and then... well i mixed them up xD

Y'know what I just realized, Battler's proposition that he was the MF19YAO used Rudolf's curious hints as a clue. So in End, Battler's alternate solution is this weird mish-mash where he's actually the baby Natsuhi rejected ... but ended up being raised as Rudolf's child, and Rudolf KNOWS all this, and has to tell Battler at some point, oh my goodness it's weird.

Originally Posted by GreyZone

My problem is, if we take everything with Ikuko=RandomStranger, it would play out like that:

"Boom, Rokkenjima exploded, only survivors: Eva, Battler. Eva waits in Kuwardorion and is found later, while Battler escaped by boat. He reaches land looks for some kind of civilization and then just randomly gets hit by a car and gets amnesia. Then 'coincidently' the driver of that car, instead of calling the police and ambulance, just 'finds him cute and wants to take him home' and actually does just that. Then she creates a new identity for Battler and makes money from his Rokkenjima forgeries".

Well not exactly. We're told that Battler's memory problems are from when he was drowning for a time, in the sea. The car accident, assuming there was one, caused his immobility for a time, which naturally returned, AND Ikuko is said to not be the one who hit him. She seemed to have called that doctor the first night, or even the morning after, because at that point she hadn't even introduced herself to Tohya, and she doesn't exactly live in a large city. Though I agree the decision to keep it "off the books" is extremely sketchy.

Also, it's Tohya who creates his new identity, since he's apparently incapable of "being" Battler ever again. Ikuko just named him

I would also mention that your Ikuko=Yasu scenario still pretty much amounts to an amnesiac Battler being kidnapped and used as a creative cash cow. And is counter to how we're told that he actually was highly against ever getting that operation.

Also, I think people put too much stock in the fact that Yukari described Ikuko as feeling very youthful and un-aging. After all, she was ALSO described as "far older than me", and Yukari is at least 38 when they meet. Hell, in 1986, Ikuko had that extreme little reaction to thinking Battler saying she looked 18. I don't find it hard to think she just aged really well ("it wasn't because she was good with makeup or dressed like a younger woman") and had a certain jubilance you mught not expect from a woman her age.