iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 3h

Now that you mention it, the first time we meet them ends with Mikoto chasing them off with a fake siren and police light!

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 4h

Kaname Mezaki, 45, is Enjo’s right-hand man and the executive director of Triple E. When he gets angry, his speech becomes unintelligible. Shindo is canonically charismatic, but I still have no idea how a company that organizes martial-arts events got mixed up in funding time-travel experiments.

010

STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 4h

Yoshiki Enjo, 58, runs “Enjo Emotion Entertainment,” ᴀ.ᴋ.ᴀ. “Triple E.” Triple E is a fight-broadcasting corporation, but Enjo backed Kyugo Shindo’s time-travel experiments to the tune of ¥30,000,000 (I don’t get it either). He wants that money back, and Kyugo’s daughter’s life is his collateral.

興行会社トリプルＥ代表
円城　義樹
やれやれ、俺はこれから大事な実験があるんだがな。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 4h

Hideo Tadano, 30, runs Net Leaks, an underground news site borne of his frustration with sponsor-ass-kissing mainstream media. Net Leaks is popular with the youths and may have a connection to Skeleton. Tadano is one of those dudes who claims he has nothing to say to you and then won’t shut up.

雛はスマートフォンでネットリークスのサイトを開いた。確かにネットリークスのマークと、雛の絵はよく似ている。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Napa Popaoin, 22, immigrated from Thailand. He’s a convenience store worker who fights once per month for “Muay Tokyo.” His record: 21 wins; 2 draws; 13 KO victories. He teaches Muay Thai to Ressentiment for free in his spare time. Needless to say, he too thinks Ressentiment should get a job.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Yoshio Tanaka is a houseless 82-year-old who becomes Ressentiment’s first ally as a superhero. He spends every day lounging on the same park bench and reading advanced western physics books. And even he advises Ressentiment to get a job. Also, he apparently looks younger because of his suntan.

ホームレス
田中　善雄
ワシの名は田中。困ったことがあれば、お前を呼ぶことにするよ。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I enjoyed this but it’s not noir. Where’s the concupiscence? The moral ambiguity? The chiaroscuro? This is as accurate to its name as Cop Rock. At least Cop Rock had cocaine and audacity.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

When we meet Chiriko Yamabuki (30), she’s Ressentiment’s girlfriend… until she dumps him seconds later. They’d been together five years, during which he never had a job. Meanwhile, she works as a temp. He concludes that she must have dumped him because some evil secret society brainwashed her.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It’s a marvelous picture serial, this “Mighty Morphing Powered Rangers.” This quintet of nubile youths opposes some alien named Doris Disgusto or something like that. They operate a great conveyance of metal dinosaurs. I know little about the creator, Haim Saban, save that he abhors the Mohammedans.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Joji Nonaka, 45, is Kamiya’s superior in the ESS. His rank is assistant inspector and he leads a squad. He’s a taciturn man who wears shabby suits. Since the terrorists ordered Kamiya not to tell his colleagues anything about his family’s kidnapping, Nonaka and Kamiya quickly end up at odds.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Dracula’s chef: “But I spent three days brining it. And wouldn’t covering it in masonry ruin the flavor? And isn’t it more likely that an invader will use it against you? Also, do you even eat poultry in addition to—” Dracula: “I don’t remember saying, ‘I want to suck your opinion.’”

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

What the Canaan anime calls “Borners” really sounds exactly the same as “boners.” Liang Qi is saying here she has two Borners/boners, which is on-brand with her weird murder fetish.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Junko Itoyama teaches at Midorigaoka High School and serves as faculty advisor to the science club. She has a big-sisterly way with students, which makes her popular with them. They call her “Ito-chan.” She’s disgusted by Hina’s variety-show-talent ways. The inevitable interview goes less than well.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Masato Nakayama, another member of the science club and an advanced hacker. Girls see him as refreshing and funny, but he gets easily carried away. He has coded a program that exploits security vulnerabilities, which he fully intends to misuse. He does have that Jonathan Taylor Thomas energy.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

As for the high schoolers, Shuichiro Kogure is student council president and another member of the science club alongside Mikoto and Yuri. Shuichiro has a reputation as someone sincere and reliable. Girls pine after him like they pine after…

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Gen Kuramoto, 45, is a veteran cameraman and Hina’s unwilling partner. He’s stubborn and rude but serious about craftsmanship. He refuses to call Hina by her first name until he recognizes her as a partner. She starts from nothing: he’s constantly about to pull over and kick her out of the news van.

ベテラン報道カメラマン
蔵元　源
蔵元源！俺がお前のために用意したベテランカメラマンだ。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Morito Takaido, 34, is a producer for TV Five’s news division and Hina’s boss. Although he works in news, he has produced all sorts of meretricious variety and reality programming. He considers all of them to be a kind of news show. Superficiality is the closest thing he has to a principle.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Now for supporting characters. Yurika Hojo, 28, is Hina’s senior coworker and work bully. Typical spoiled rich girl. She’s so attuned to office gossip that her internal nickname is “the Devil’s Ear.” She goes hard in the paint against rival announcers, investigating their private lives and all.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Now that I’ve gone through all the protagonists, the apparent main antagonist is “Skeleton,” leader of a band of terrorists with a plan to destroy Tokyo. His identity is obvious in context, but I haven’t met him in-game in this persona. There’s probably more to his story that I haven’t seen yet.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Kakeru Inuyama lives off his doctor father’s monthly allowances. On this, his 30th birthday, he debuts as a superhero yclept Ressentiment. He gets beat up by thugs for lecturing them, his dad cuts off his free money, he has ¥152 to his name, and his girlfriend dumps him. But maybe he can save Tokyo?

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I would assume Colonel Sulphur is more famous the smell.

“—or you will not see tomorrow’s sun rise! Consider this a vow—and be aware that Colonel Sulphur is famous for keeping vows!”

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Now that I’ve finished Canaan Sfill, I can say it’s about what one would expect. It’s mostly a pretext to shoehorn Canaan into 428: Shibuya Scramble. Nothing shocking is revealed. It’s more a slice of life of the characters. Not bad if you’re into that sort of thing.

Yun Yun pinup, with a thank-you message from the artist that I can’t read all of because of his handwriting.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Kyugo Shindo, 38, is Mikoto’s dad and a genius at quantum mechanics, as he’ll let nobody forget. He insists on being called “doctor” while working. He has taken to scams and bets to procure money for his Cylinder Lab experiments. He claims to know the future and that Shibuya will disappear at 8 PM.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Soma Kamiya, 33, is a sergeant in ESS, a police squad that prioritizes rapid response. His colleagues call him “indestructible” because he returns from the most dangerous missions. Terrorists kidnapped his family and force him to disarm a bomb and witness a bus-jacking. That’s only the beginning.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Yuri Fukase is an 18-year-old senior at Midorigaoka High School and science team member. He is the top student, academically and athletically, but he’s reserved and dour. He carries some guilt over the Lost Hole Incident, even though he’d have been a baby, that he won’t tell anyone about.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Hina Fushimi, 24, is variety-show talent who dreams of becoming an anchor for TV Five’s news show, “News Terminal,” like her father was. She gets her chance… if she can get to the bottom of some local terrorist incidents involving men in skull masks. Her first lead is a paint-smeared Betamax tape.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Mikoto Shindo is the “Girl of Fate,” destined to lead the five protagonists to their destinies. She’s a 17-year-old senior at Midorigaoka High School and head of the science club. She’s willful but charming. She manipulates others into forgiving her. She seems to be the titular Time Traveler(s).

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The biggest change to Tokyo in the 18 years since a 50-km-radius hole opened over it is the erecting of the “Space Elevator.” This electricity-generating tower stands 2000 meters high and seems to symbolize Tokyo building back better. I’m sure it’s important to the plot eventually.

Opening title screen, featuring the Space Elevator.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Time Travelers opens with a time-travel experiment in Teito University’s High-Gravity Research Institute (a.k.a. “the Cylinder Lab”). An accidental release of 9 exajoules opens a giant hole in the sky over Shibuya, which razes Tokyo. The game takes place on the 18th anniversary: April 28, 2031.

Kyugo Shindo and Shunsuke Kai try to fix their time travel experiment.

Shunsuke Kai watches as his pregnant lover Hina Fushimi disappears in the giant time travel cylinder.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

In a weird way, the rise of genAI has given me grudging respect for old-fashioned plagiarists, like when Ray Parker, Jr. ripped off that Huey Lewis song for Ghostbusters. First, Parker wrote the ripoff song himself. Second, he tried to tweak it enough to get by. Third, I hate Huey Lewis & the News.

Ray Parker, Jr. in the Ghostbusters music video.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Motifs include people who might be con artists, cops trying to save Shibuya, doppelgängers, secret societies, organized crime, and TV stars thrust into real life. Themes include the class divide, betrayal by one’s heroes, mental illness and self-destructiveness, and the ease of sliding into cruelty.

A package from "amadon dot co dot jp," clearly based on Amazon.

A terrorist kit featuring a gun (probably airsoft), a skull mask, some weird liquid, and a book titled "Terrorism 101."

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The games use footnotes called TIPS to add flavor text. Entire plot threads with off-screen events and unseen characters sometimes unfold in entirely these footnotes. On other occasions, they contain real-life knowledge related to science, anthropology, culture, etc.

文章の中に、青い文字が出てくることがある。これを『ＴＩＰＳ』と言う。ＴＩＰＳとは“情報”という意味だ。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The connections are more thematic and gameplay-related than textual. All three games involve the gradual revelation of a plot to destroy Tokyo. We see this unfold from a handful of disparate, loosely-connected perspectives. The player navigates a timeline and dialog choices to secure good endings.

性格も目的も違う主人公たちが、何者かが数時間後に起こす、ある事件から東京を救うため様々な行動をします。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I’ve been playing Time Travelers (2012), the spiritual sequel to 428: Shibuya Scramble. Machi, 428, and Time Travelers form Spike Chunsoft’s unofficial “Shibuya trilogy” of visual novels. This game’s website is still intact, so I’m starting a new thread with info therefrom: www.timetravelers.jp.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Lost Hole Incident, which razed Tokyo, took place on April 28, 2013. The rest of the game seems to take place on the 18th anniversary. Kind of weird that the writers reused this date. I think it’s because of the phonetic Shibuya connection that I mentioned a few posts ago.

010

STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Doppelgängers/twins are a motif in all three games too. So far, Mikoto Shindō has been strongly implied to be multiple characters, at least one of which is her double from a parallel world. The previous two games made clear which was which, but in this game, the player is in the dark too.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Shin Sawaki is Kamiya’s supervisor in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department… and the asshole who kidnapped Kamiya’s wife and son. It’s revealed early in this game, but this echoes some plot developments and motifs in Machi and 428 that are big spoilers in those games.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Napa Pōpaoin is a convenience store employee who is obviously Thai-coded. He has wraps on his wrists and everything. Dude is perpetually about to do some Muay Thai.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

We first see them in what looks like the Clock King’s lair. One can only imagine the sounds every hour, all those bongs and dongs.

Enjo talks to Shindo while Mezaki has a gun trained on Shindo.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Like 428 and Machi, this game has shady criminals always about to maim someone. Yoshiki Enjō represents the “Triple E Productions Company,” but he’s obviously a crime lord. Kaname Mezaki is his “executive director” who wants to kill Kyūgo Shindō. Shindō probably is scamming them. It’s hard to tell.

興行会社トルプルＥ代表
円城　義樹
やれやれ。俺はこれから大事な実験があるんだがな。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

One of the physicists who accidentally caused the Lost Hole incident was Kyūgo Shindō (Mikoto’s dad). Now he’s a main character and might be a con artist. Even so, his physics knowledge remains legitimate. He claims to have the ability to see the future… and that the world will “disappear” at 8 PM.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

428: Shibuya Scramble, true to its name, took place on April 28. Japanese has an idiosyncratic system of numeric substitution that makes “Shibuya” a possible reading of “428” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeric...). I believe Time Travelers takes place on the same date, but it’s not altogether clear yet.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

This game continues a feature implemented in 428: summaries of every hour (functionally the game’s equivalent of chapters) that has elapsed. Here’s Kamiya’s first chapter: he investigated a bomb that turned out to be fake, then he interceded in a bus hijacking and thwarted a terrorist attack.

刑事編
《１４時》
あらすじ
１４時。妻子を誘拐された刑事・神谷は、犯人の命令で渋谷にいた。交差点に少女が時限爆弾の入ったカバンを置く。爆弾はカウント０になるが爆発しない。犯人は神谷に電話で本物ならどうなるかと脅し、続いてバスジャックの手伝いを命じる。

刑事編
《１４時》
あらすじ
バスに乗った神谷。犯行グループの１人として交差点の少女が乗ってくる。雛と協力し狙いがテレビ局爆破だと突き止めた神谷は、少女の手助けもあり、テロ阻止に成功する。だが少女は神谷に銃を向け、一緒に来るよう命じるだった。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The other Canaan manga is a straight adaptation. I recognize a lot of reused dialogue and action beats. On the bright side, a lot of pages have no words outside of sound effects. I’ve always sincerely thought comics have too many words in general. Let that artist cook.

Canaan gets in a gunfight around a giant festival dragon in Shanghai.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Ressentiment’s first ally he makes in his superhero form is a houseless dude named Yoshio Tanaka. We first meet Ressentiment as two thugs beat him into paste for lecturing them about littering cigarette buts. It’s actually Tanaka, who is houseless, who suggests the superhero maybe get a job instead.

ホームレス
田中　義雄
ワシの名は田中、困ったことがあれば、お前を呼ぶことにするよ。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Time Travelers carries on the series’ tradition of footnotes that delve deep into factually-accurate science. This note is about particle acceleration experiments in physics. I’m seriously grateful AF that this game gives furigana throughout. Similar passages in Machi were a nightmare to parse.

高エネルギー物理学実験
一般的には加速器などで作られる高エネルギーの素粒子を研究するための実験を指す、加速された荷電粒子や宇宙船などの高エネルギー状態の実際は、素粒子の相互作用や性質を解明する方法として知られている。

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Yuri’s hobby is cataloguing jokes. He has 19 notebooks and counting worth in his house. Here, the background changes as he’s telling the old Yogi-Berra-ism about cutting a pizza into six slices because he can’t eat eight.

(Backdrop that says "American Joke")
ピザを注文したら店員が８枚切りにしますか？

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ressentiment is a wannabe superhero whose name evokes Yosuke Hanamura, “Captain Ressentiment” from Persona 4 Arena. I don’t know if Japanese players realize those are the only two places I’ve heard 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 in my life. Anyway, his first attempt at heroing hits some snags. See image 2 here.

Yosuke Hanamura, Captain Ressentiment, from Persona 4 Arena.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Aside from Yuri and Mikoto, two other members of the science club: Shūichirō Koguré and Masato Nakayama. Shūichirō is student council president and Masato is quite l33t for a h4Xor. Girls ogle the boy science nerds. No, really. At this school, the girls ogle the nerds. Not making this up.

Three girls peer in on the science club.

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STABbins McGee (Halloween Themed) 🇵🇸 @stabbinsmcgee.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Mikoto Shindo is part of her school’s science club alongside Yuri. Her “project” appears to be this giant metal exoskeleton called a Power Loader, which is reminiscent of Tita Russell’s Orbal Gear. I have no idea who in Japan came up with the “little girl + Aliens Work Loader” combination first.

Tita Russell in her Orbal Gear from one of the latter two Trails of Cold Steel games.

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