The astronaut who fell in love with a mermaid

At the end of the first season's credits, we see Hanako sinking into the dark sea, while he throws Nene in fish form into the clouds.

As if to represent that he is doomed to be trapped in the sea (a metaphor to also represent that he fell in love with a mermaid) and that Nene is the one who should reach the stars (a complement to the metaphor of the mermaid who fell in love with the stars).

Nene lives in the stars, theoretically far from the water, while Amane drowns in the deepest ocean.

As if they loved each other so much that they were trapped in it. She is the fish who got lost in the stars that Amane loves so much, and he is the astronaut who drowned in the ocean, where the mermaid he loved "lived".

the category is dance or die

Amane's/Hanako's memory loss

We know that Amane/Hanako doesn't remember some parts of his past, the most notable being the reason he was fixing the clock.

However, there are some other things that he doesn't remember. And those things are... his encounters with Nene when she traveled to the past.

Yet, at the same time, he subconsciously recalls them.

We found a new version of Amane

Similar hair, appearance that reminds him a bit, the twelve-year-old version.

I would say we could have a small multiverse here. If we have two Tsukasas, theoretically speaking, the boy at school and the cat, then we would have two Amanes, the teacher and this doll.

Tsukasa was already condemned by the clock keepers to become a "piece" of the clock, so he would be the cat.

But, if Amane, the old Hanako, is the teacher, then the 12-year-old Amane, the one who tried to change the past was caught by the clock keepers at some point.

Tsukasa asking if Amane wants him to stay or not can lead us to the dilemma, does Amane really want to take this risk to save Tsukasa?

The Hanako of the present not remembering this makes complete sense. A way for him not to do it again, or to have that same goal.

Would the doll asking for help be something in Tsukasa's or Amane's nature? Tsukasa has never cared about his own life or what happens to him, or even if he is trapped somewhere. He finds a way out on his own.

But what about Amane?

Hmm……

I say it could be the twelve-year-old Amane because he was the first one to try to change the clock and he ended up getting punished for it.

I need to think about it more, but this doll really reminds me of Amane…

The twelve-year-old Amane is mentioned in the art for the chapter introducing the new reality. Which means he'll probably show up.

Interesting… I wonder how many times the twins tried to change the past.

This is just a theory, but the melancholic way the doll talks and his "hair" caught my attention and made me think about the possibility.

Between the Lines

In the last episode, Tsukasa gets an extra line, not present in the manga, where he mentions that:

Not with the exact same words, but the mention here is quite clear. During Tsukasa's speech, we see Hanako's knife highlighted.

If we consider the hypothetical situation, at first Shijima says that in order for them to leave that reality, it was necessary for Amane and Mitsuba to be killed.

Something similar to

Seeing Tsukasa mention that Amane did a good job, as he wished Nene would do, we can imagine that the older brother may have felt obligated to kill Tsukasa.

As a real agreement about "the nightmare ending" for it to end, he needs to kill Tsukasa, the thing inside him, without fail.

It's interesting that Tsukasa mentioned this at that exact moment, as well as the knife being displayed as a clue lost between the words.

It doesn't mean that this is directly related to Mei or her ability (although her death is also conditional on the death or life of the Yugi twins, she was alive in the current reality), but it could be linked to some real situation between the twins.

What if this was like a preview?

Amane and Tsukasa would be trapped in that house and the only way for him and his family to escape would be to kill the boy, specifically the thing inside him. There would be no other condition besides that.

Just like Kou and Nene's dilemma, in order to return to reality, they would have to kill Amane and Mitsuba.

And as we saw, the rules could be broken, there was another option. Something similar to the context of the twins. Although Tsukasa did in fact die, he didn't disappear, he stuck to Hanako until Amane found another way to save his younger brother.

Leaving Tsukasa trapped (as well as Nene) in the boundary until he finds a solution.

Perhaps Tsukasa could be mentioning this, as Amane did his "job" well, killing him.

Or, it could just be a dramatization of a scene from the anime.

It's interesting to think about this, because it makes you wonder about the real situation of Tsukasa's death, if it was something Amane did because he wanted to save his brother from the entity, or if it was something Tsukasa expected Amane to do, to the point of perhaps causing his own death.

The twin paradox.

If Tsukasa hadn't found out that Amane would kill him, he wouldn't have insisted on going back to see how he would be killed, and upon returning, perhaps he purposefully did relevant actions that made Amane make the decision to kill him.

Don't take any of this seriously, it's just a brief analysis.

Picture perfect Amane and Tsukasa coloring 🌆⭐