My Toys Part 1
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| Publisher | Square Enix | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Young GanGan Magazine | ||||||||||||
| First published | September 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Manga | Dōdō Yamazaki | ||||||||||||
Kahori, an obsessive toy collector, faces the issue of balancing her hobby with her responsibilities as an adult.
Synopsis
The story of the war between heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons continues... in the mind of Kahori Hanamura, 18-year old writer and avid Transformers collector with a healthy dose of imagination. After playing out a fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron, she's alarmed to discover there's barely any space left on her shelves for her latest purchases and imagines the characters themselves are none too happy about their cramped situation. Satoko Hanamura, Kahori's relative and editor, comes home late to find a brand new display case delivered to their living room and Kahori lining it with Decepticons, but more importantly she sees that Kahori has neither done the laundry or even started on the draft of her latest project. Kahori responds by having an Optimus Prime toy with a voice gimmick tell Satoko that "freedom is the right of all living beings", then rushes to her computer when alerted that she's won an online auction on an overseas market variation of a Transformer with slightly differently colored knees.
Satoko notices that Kahori hasn't washed for days and absolutely reeks, which she defends by saying she never leaves the house anyway so nobody will notice, but Satoko has had it with her childish attitude, reflecting that it's caused by a sheltered upbringing away from Tokyo and is only going to sabotage her future life and writing career. Dragging Kahori away to wash her herself, Satoko tells her to just cut her long hair if she's not going to be taking care of it, though Kahori insists that hairdressers cost money that could be used for toys and thanks to mail order she never has to meet other people, so it's fine. Satoko warns her that her lifestyle only works thanks to them living together, which they won't do forever—as an independent writer, Kahori will someday have to face life's problems on her own.
That night, Kahori sulks about her scolding and considers giving up on her writing career and returning to the countryside rather than being left to fend for herself in Tokyo. Even imagining Optimus Prime encouraging her does little for her self confidence, though her worrying is interrupted when her phone informs her that one auction she's following has risen to the price of 52 000 yen, beyond what she can afford to spend. This interruption causes Kahori to have a revelation as she realizes one simple, unchanging truth of the universe: if you want money for toys, you have to work! With this motivation fresh in mind, she throws out any thoughts of quitting and starts writing.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
- Toys seen in Kahori's collection include: Henkei! Sideswipe, Movie the Best Voyager Optimus Prime, Revoltech Megatron, Henkei! Ironhide, Beast Hunters Shockwave, Age of Extinction Evasion Mode Optimus Prime, Legends Ultra Magnus, Legends Springer Masterpiece Hot Rod, Movie the Best Leader Optimus Prime, Legends Fortress Maximus, United Drift, and Movie the Best Leader Megatron.
