We get a huge dose of (badly needed) Mikan service in what might be the final bonus chapter for this series.
The chapter opens up with Rito bathing after a day of doing chores and yard work. He reflects on how, during the previous three days, his daily bath was invaded by a naked Momo on each occasion. Would this day be four in a row?
This time it’s Mikan, who enters under the pretense of “hey, we used to do this when we were like five, so it’s chill right?”
It doesn’t take long before Mikan blurts out her real motivation, which is to effectively ‘cock-block’ Momo from invading Rito’s bath yet again. Mikan’s reasoning is that if she’s in there, it would deter Momo from entering, which may or may not be sound logic.
In the meantime, she puts on quite the show for Rito, who’s body language indicates that he’s fighting a losing battle against an impending erection.
There are so many well thought out characters in this ecchi masterpiece, but Mikan is the one I enjoy seeing the most. Most of the characters have been getting naked for over a hundred chapters now, but Mikan started very conservatively and has been slowly showing more and more as the manga has gone along. It’s usually the characters you see the least of that you want to see the most of once things have gone on for a while.
She’s an interesting character. Though Momo will always be my favorite, Mikan is mature beyond her years and also possesses the sharpest mind of any character in the series. For a long time, she was above the fray of all the harem madness, observing with a cynic’s eye. Personality wise, her mature and ambivalent demeanor compares to a character like Lisa from the Simpsons… Mikan is pretty much the anti-imouto.
It’s been fun to watch the gradual personality change for Mikan over the series, from strictly platonic to the embodiment of female jealousy. Maybe it’s because it happens so slowly, but Mikan’s decent into a corrupted state feels oddly believable.
Mikan has been showing signs of jealousy throughout the Darkness manga, maybe a bit bummed out that all the girls around her are having fun in Rito’s harem, but she is forbidden by society to join them.
Mikan’s body isn’t the only thing in full view in this chapter, her jealousy and competitiveness regarding the other girls is put out in the open as well. To recap, she enters Rito’s bath and playfully seduces him for the purpose of getting a step ahead of Momo, then asks about Haruna and Kotegawa as if to gauge their progress with Rito.
Then Mikan mentions the harem idea and…
… a startled Rito jumps up out of the bath.
Now this particular frame is open to interpretation, but to me it seems to imply that Rito’s erect dick sort of slaps Mikan’s face on the way up and even appears to leave a wet spot behind which she rubs off.
At the very least, Mikan gets a pretty good long look at Rito’s dong and blushes quite a lot.
Mikan touches the wet spot on her face with an odd hand gesture. Live long and prosper?
source: CXC scans
The last line by Mikan is yet again open to interpretation. “It’s thanks to me” could either be referring to the trouble she caused, or because of the implied chubby that her brother achieved after seeing so much of her naked body. Her look of satisfaction would seem to hint at the latter, but can’t say for sure.
At any rate, this was a really fun chapter that continues to show the evolution of Mikan’s character.
While real life incest is obviously disgusting, unethical and undesirable- manga has a knack for pulling stuff off that wouldn’t jive in real life. Mikan’s gradual entry into Rito’s harem could have easily been upsetting to readers, but the way it’s been handled over the years has almost made her feel like just one of the girls at this point.
The bonus chapters are shown in a separate publication from the main manga and ubruptly went on ‘hiatus’ after this edition was published. It is not known when, or even if, the bonus chapters will return or why they stopped making them. But if this is intended as the final chapter of the To Love-Ru Darkness side stories, then I’d say it left off on about as much of a high note as possible.
