First of all, I just want to say that it feels so good to be back! Just like our boy ‘Hikaru’, 101 Militia Gaming has come back the same but different and is now The Pixel Parlor! We can’t wait to share the exciting things we have planned for the near future with you guys.

That being said, we know why you’re here: we NEED to discuss this white-haired himbo with quite the horrifying, deadly secret. Of course, we are talking about ‘Hikaru’ from The Summer Hikaru Died.

Alright, alright, I know you’ve probably seen one or a million of those creative edits from the manga and the new Netflix anime that dropped in July of this year on your FYP or Reels. It seems like it just appeared out of nowhere with a wildly passionate fan base, but what’s it about, exactly? Well, you’ve come to the right place! I am extremely fortunate to be able to say that I have been following this manga for years, and it’s been exciting to watch it become the success it deserves to be.

The Summer Hikaru Died follows Yoshiki and Hikaru, childhood best friends who grew up practically inseparable in a tiny rural village in Japan and are now going through the motions of life as typical high schoolers during a hot summer where strange things seem to be happening frequently around them. As it turns out, there is very little pertaining to typical when it comes to these two. Yoshiki is a seventeen-year-old struggling with both his identity and the pressure of how the people in his village perceive him and his family to be. Oh, and he also discovered that his best friend died six months previously and has been possessed by a terrifying Eldritch being with a hunger for both human souls and ice cream. Yeah, that would probably cause me to crash out, too.

And ‘Hikaru’. Whew, where do I even begin? So, without spoiling too much in the event that you are new to this story, the OG Hikaru was a silly little dumbass with a talent for sports and being charismatic. Even Yoshiki once described him as being “like the main character of a manga”, which is ironic and pretty amusing, considering. During the dead of winter, Hikaru was tasked to climb the mountain outside of the village on special family duty… except, well, he didn’t come back.

For a full week, Hikaru was missing. The adult men in the village went to search for him during the harsh winter weather, but he couldn’t be found. All seemed lost when he suddenly just reappeared as if nothing had happened.

And it did seem as though nothing happened, as far as what most of the villagers and the kids at school could tell. Hikaru behaved as normally as he usually did. Life went on for six whole months. Until Yoshiki finally asked the question he had been wondering for half a year: who are you?

And so began a strange and emotionally-traumatizing relationship between a mortal and a beast masquerading and puppeting the body of his closest confidant. This manga and the anime adaptation does an absolutely incredible job at illustrating the internal conflicts seen from both Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’s’ perspectives, all while staying true to what life looks like in rural Japan and bringing the small details of this existence to the centerpoint and making it into part of the story itself. The sounds of the cicadas, the buzzing of the flourescent lights, the hum of aged refrigeration motors struggling against the summer heat. The story isn’t just told through the action of the characters but also by the background, and I find this to be almost as fascinating as the main storyline.

That being said, does ‘Hikaru’ deserve his bad rap? Well, let’s look at some facts. He is an unknowable entity of no distinct age. He has no human perception of the difference between life and death, comparing it to being all the same to him. His only reasoning for not killing Yoshiki is simply because of the love he feels for him borrowed from the OG Hikaru’s memories and previous emotions, which he has been able to expand on himself since becoming ‘Hikaru’ and becoming attracted to his soul and apparent kindness. He has killed at least one known person since becoming ‘Hikaru’, and he lacks the human reasoning to understand wrong and right at what taking that life meant aside from keeping his secret or benefiting him in some way.

He acts impulsively, to the point that he is sometimes unaware of the potential dangers. Case in point his attachment to Yoshiki. While he doesn’t want to kill him and will go as far as weakening himself to reduce the possibility of hurting him, he is still naive in understanding the fragility of a human body and psyche. This has caused Yoshiki a lot of pain, physically and mentally, on several occasions. And while Yoshiki initially compared ‘Hikaru’ to a dumb, lonely kid, it is proving to be more than just a challenge in teaching Hikaru right from wrong, especially when he lacks critical human understanding and empathy.

So, yeah, he definitely deserves a bad rap, to a degree. He killed before and will likely kill again, but that is simply part of his nature. He is actively in the midst of learning more about humanity and attempting to understand human morality. Doesn’t actually excuse anything done before, however… should he really be faulted for doing the thing that makes him what he is?

As you have probably guessed, I will be writing much more content when it comes to this incredible story! But what do YOU think, does ‘Hikaru’ deserve a bad rap? Keep the convo going in the comments, and don’t forget to share this article across your socials to keep the discussion alive! ✨️