"Big O! It's Showtime!"

After failing, and being old, he decides to end it all, and likely take Ken with him.

Again, the Bible does not teach geocentricity. The Roman Church was and is corrupt. Note in this chapter that the one being tortured mentions indulgences -- a way to "buy your way into Heaven" by giving money to the Roman Church. God will not honor that. He wants faith in the meritorious life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, not obedience to a bunch of thugs who have take taken over the reins of "the Church." Truly it was not much different than the Jewish leaders who persecuted Jesus, who relied on the Romans to be their thugs.

In general, being ethical leads to happiness.

A positive approach to marriage and communication versus a negative approach.

This is just part of what goes on when a person is somewhat famous. The need to control the image of the famous one affects the revenues of those that employ him/her. Ichikawa should say little, and tell them to "pound sand." Let Yamada have as much of a private life as possible, and maybe, Yamada & Ichikawa can enjoy it together.

The words of the inquisitor were right at one point, though wrong on geocentricity. The words of the Bible should be believed over that of Greek and Roman philosophers, who truly knew nothing. Philosophy is like a dog chasing its tail. It never goes anywhere. Never reveals truth. Just lives in perpetual cynicism. The one who made Heaven and Earth knows everything, and reveals enough of the truth that we should trust him, and gave His Son to die that the sins of those who trust in Him will be forgiven, and will receive eternal life.

If you study Church History, you will learn that the Church made a lot of errors that obscured the truths of the Bible. 1) Restoring the Levitical Priesthood. 2) Saying Marriage is a lesser state, and denying it to Church officeholders. 3) Transubstantiation. 4) Geocentricity. 5) Restricting the Bible to Latin. 6) Works being meritorious for salvation. 7) Purgatory. 8) Aristotelian Philosophy. 9) Letting Tradition impair the clarity of the Bible. 10) The Papacy, because our one true High Priest is Jesus, who brooks no competitors. Competitors are Antichrist. 11) And there is much more... this manga is right to criticize the Church with respect to geocentricity. Nonetheless the Bible is true, and the Church was wrong to ignore it.

Just as an aside, the Bible never taught geocentricity. It did deal with appearances, as we still do today with the words "sunrise" and "sunset." And it had phrases that were poetic, "The world is firmly established. It can not be moved." (1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 96:10, and Psalm 104:5) But still God sent earthquakes at various points, so it was not positing an Earth that never moves. Earth can be the center of God's attention, because mankind is there, without it being the center of the cosmos (however such a thing could be defined).

The Medieval Roman Church had many teachings that did not align with Scripture, which eventually got corrected by the Reformation. Some of them were accidental, like geocentricity. Others were more malign, like saying you are saved by the good works that you do, rather than by the grace of God manifesting through your faith in Jesus Christ, with his perfect life and sacrificial death.

One more note: beauty isn't a criterion for truth. Geocentricity looks like a bunch of Spirograph drawings, which are indeed beautiful. Heliocentricity is beautiful in its simplicity, and explanatory ability. But is this a theological issue? No, it was a human interpretation and control issue for the Roman Church, which was hyper-controlling and hypocritical (consider the scandalous lives of the Popes).

I think it helps the story to learn that she wasn't always so cute.

Well, Ken's name has some ability to protect him in some circles.

Tomatoes in Italian cuisine date back to the 1600s, when they arrived from America. They got pasta from the Arabs in the 19th century. Italian cooking is not a monolith; they have dishes that do not require tomatoes or pasta. So don't worry for our friends here, they should do fine.

But, Kuroiwa has not yet decided whether he is going to abandon being a monk or not. It's not a likely a popular end to the story, but a possible end is that he gets sick of all these pesty girls, and decides to be a monk. Personally, I think that would be a fun ending, leaving all the girls high and dry. None of them are that great, looking at their personalities.... And to all men everywhere, the personality of a woman is the most likely thing to survive over decades, so if you want a happy life, pick the woman with a good personality, rather than the pretty or sexy one. Beauty fades, and the willingness for sex does also, unless she has a good personality. You should want a woman who will support you under all normal conditions.

He loves her. She loves him. The happy ending is coming soon.

Well, that was short, but if we were getting potato gratin, we might have been in a hurry to get t eat it.

This is the sort of talk you would hear when Chinastu will win. I could be wrong.

Nagumo does not want vengeance to consume him, and thus he wants his teacher to be his "Jiminy Cricket." (Conscience: ancient reference from the old folks... "I'm no fool, no siree, I'm going to live to be 103. I know what's good for you and me, and I'm no fool.") -- Recalled from a movie I saw 55+ years ago...

She has wanted the marriage to be a marriage, but they haven't consummated the marriage yet. Am I wrong? (I read enough manga, that I sometimes lose track of details on individual manga.) He is an "innocent" guy who thinks his marriage is just an economic partnership. He may not even think about sex. His manager may think about sex, and that may be the turning point for this manga.

As the wife, she is properly jealous, as another woman has taken notice of her husband. In my own life as a husband and a businessman (38 years), I have never spent time with another woman out of public sight. My wife deserves that loyalty.

I think it is likely that this plot device will frighten him, and push him back to his wife, and the relationship gets consummated, and normalizes.

What not load the bases, and face the sixth hitter in the lineup? Or just fight the fourth batter? You can get out of the inning with no runs scored.

Taiki has overcome competitors. So must Chinatsu, who has gained some strength by watching Taiki. This isn't just a romance manga, but a sports manga also -- unusual in that it has more than one sport, with one team sport, and a mostly individual sport, though you can do doubles in badminton. These chapters are not a waste of time.

I was only making a general statement about the girls in such manga. Yes, Rintaro is aiming to be a pâtissier. I am not talking about the men; they don't hand over chocolate on White Day.