BISITA: Officials from Chikujo Town, Japan, visit Guam for a sister school partnership with Jose L.G. Rios Middle School. Photo courtesy of the Guam Visitors Bureau WELCOME: Students from Jose L.G. Rios Middle School perform the Bendision in CHamoru and Japanese to welcome officials from Chikujo Town, Japan, in a sister school signing ceremony. Photo courtesy of the Guam Visitors Bureau SIGNING: Jose L.G. Rios Middle School signs sister school momorandums of understanding with Shiida Junior High School and Truiki Junior High School from Chikujo Town, Japan. Photo courtesy of the Guam Visitors Bureau After a brief hiatus, a partnership between Jose Rios Middle School and two middle schools in Japan has been rekindled with the celebration of the signing of a sister school agreement. The Guam Visitors Bureau announced in a press release issued Friday that officials from Chikujo Town in Japan's Fukuoka Prefecture visited Guam to sign the sister school agreements between Jose Rios Middle School and Chikujo Town's Tsuiki Junior High School and Shiida Junior High School. “All were welcomed by Jose Rios Middle School students, who performed the Bendision to open up the signing ceremony. The mayors, principals and board of education officials from both Guam and Japan gave remarks and warm thanks to the students and all involved in resuming their sister school partnership,” GVB said in the release. “The Shiida Junior High School gave a presentation on their cornerstones of learning and future advancements and invited JRMS students to visit their schools in Chikujo Town, which is in the prefecture of Fukuoka. The three principals signed official memorandums of understanding before exchanging cultural gifts as tokens of appreciation and fellowship,” GVB added. The signing event was the start of a future of sharing of cultures between schools, according to GVB. “Sister school relationships are formed between schools of different cities or countries to encourage understanding of different cultures, languages, learning styles and develop global relationships,” GVB said in the release. This, however, isn’t the first time a sister school relationship has been formed between Guam and Japan. “Guam schools have developed many sister school relationships with Japan over the years, but some have been disrupted due to the pandemic. The most recent sister school signing was in December 2023 between Okayama Higashi Commercial High School and Guam's Southern High School,” GVB said in the release. “Sister school partnerships benefit students and their communities in both countries. Students become globally aware and can directly communicate and share with students from another country. They also become self-aware and take pride in their schools and their culture. These partnerships not only further develop educational programs but also help Guam to maintain a presence in Japan,” acting GVB President and CEO Gerry Perez said. GVB said it was integral to bringing the sister school agreement to fruition. “In October 2024, Shigeo Kawano and his wife, Yoko, from Keio Academy, contacted GVB to begin a student exchange program. GVB provided information for JRMS and the mayor of Piti, leading to the sister school partnerships,” GVB said. The delegation from Japan included Hisami Arakawa, mayor of Chikujo Town; Fumio Shiota, chair for the town of Chikujo; Hiromi Kubo, superintendent at the Chikujo Town Board of Education; Kentaro Hamada, deputy director of the CT Board of Education; Hirofumi Shimazu, principal of CT Shiida Junior High School; Kazuhiro Izumi, principal of CT Tsuiki Junior High School; Shigeo Kawano, president and CEO of Keio Academy; and Yoko Kawano, director and manager of Keio Academy, according to GVB. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Poll results are published every Monday in The Guam Daily Post. Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Despite the significant contribution of circumferential shortening to the global ventricular function, data are scarce concerning its prognostic value on long-term mortality. Accordingly, our study aimed to assess both left (LV) and right ventricular (RV) global longitudinal (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) using three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) to determine their prognostic importance. The impaired values of both LV and RV GCS are associated with long-term all-cause mortality, emphasizing the importance of assessing biventricular circumferential mechanics. Reduced RV GCS is associated with significantly increased risk of mortality even if LV GLS is preserved. Volume 10 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1082725 Introduction: Despite the significant contribution of circumferential shortening to the global ventricular function data are scarce concerning its prognostic value on long-term mortality our study aimed to assess both left (LV) and right ventricular (RV) global longitudinal (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) using three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) to determine their prognostic importance Methods: Three hundred fifty-seven patients with a wide variety of left-sided cardiac diseases were retrospectively identified (64 ± 15 years 70% males) who underwent clinically indicated 3DE To determine the prognostic power of the different patterns of biventricular mechanics we divided the patient population into four groups Group 1 consisted of patients with both LV GLS and RV GCS above the respective median values; Group 2 was defined as patients with LV GLS below the median while RV GCS above the median patients had LV GLS values above the median Group 4 was defined as patients with both LV GLS and RV GCS below the median Patients were followed up for a median of 41 months The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality Results: Fifty-five patients (15%) met the primary endpoint p < 0.001) and RV GCS (1.115 [1.068–1.164] p < 0.001) were associated with increased risk of death by univariable Cox regression Patients with both LV GLS and RV GCS below the median (Group 4) had a more than 5-fold increased risk of death compared with those in Group 1 (5.089 [2.399–10.793] p < 0.001) and more than 3.5-fold compared with those in Group 2 (3.565 [1.256–10.122] there was no significant difference in mortality between Group 3 (with LV GLS above the median) and Group 4 but being categorized into Group 3 versus Group 1 still held a more than 3-fold risk (3.099 [1.284–7.484] Discussion: The impaired values of both LV and RV GCS are associated with long-term all-cause mortality emphasizing the importance of assessing biventricular circumferential mechanics Reduced RV GCS is associated with significantly increased risk of mortality even if LV GLS is preserved Besides longitudinal shortening, also circumferential deformation contributes significantly to the ventricular pump function (4, 5) global ventricular function is the resultant of these two distinct but interconnected deformation components Despite the unequivocal importance of circumferential shortening in biventricular function The advantages of three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) over conventional echocardiography opens the door for a more thorough understanding and quantification of the ventricular structure and function including the measurement of the circumferential strain of both the LV and the RV Although the detailed assessment of RV function is commonly neglected in left-sided heart diseases, it has been proved that patients who develop RV dysfunction are more symptomatic and carry a higher risk for long-term adverse outcomes than those who do not (6). Importantly, the prognostic value of RV function was also found to be independent of LV function in these patients (7) the detailed assessment of the RV mechanics has increasing importance in identifying patients at risk for developing right heart failure and subsequent adverse outcomes we aimed to assess LV and RV GLS and GCS using 3DE to determine their prognostic relevance Clinically and hemodynamically stable patients with an established diagnosis of left-sided cardiac disease were identified from the previously published RVENet dataset [https://rvenet.github.io/dataset/] which comprises of individuals underwent clinically indicated 2D and 3D transthoracic echocardiography at our Center between November 2013 and March 2021 Exclusion criteria were 1) suspicion or presence of any primary right-sided cardiac disease at the first report or during the review process of the previously acquired datasets and 2) suboptimal LV and RV 3D dataset image quality for the respective 3D analysis and laboratory parameters) were retrieved from the electronic clinical records Obtaining written informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of the analysis Our study protocol follows the Declaration of Helsinki and it was approved by the Semmelweis University Regional and Institutional Committee of Science and Research Ethics (approval No meaning that less negative values refer to more impaired ventricular function The patients were followed up for a maximum of 6 years date of death) was obtained from Hungary's National Health Insurance Database The primary endpoint of our study was all-cause mortality Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (v22 Continuous variables are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD) whereas categorical variables were reported as frequencies and percentages After verifying the normal distribution of variables using the Shapiro-Wilk test the clinical and echocardiographic characteristics were compared with unpaired Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test for continuous variables and Chi-squared or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables Multiple group comparisons (>2) were performed using ANOVA (with Tukey post-hoc test) or Kruskal-Wallis test (with Dunn post-hoc test) and χ2 or Fisher exact test we identified factors associated with all-cause mortality Targeting a maximum of 1 covariate per 10 events we built several sequential multivariable Cox proportional hazards models we constructed a baseline model including only clinical and laboratory parameters we added different LV and RV functional parameters to the model the constructed multivariable models were compared based on Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) to determine which one is the best fit for our data Collinearity was tested using the variance inflation factor (excessive if variance inflation factor >3) Survival of the subgroups was visualized via Kaplan-Meier curves and compared using log-rank tests Cox proportional hazards models were used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) between the groups Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to investigate the discriminative power of 2D and 3D echocardiographic parameters with regards to the primary endpoint Metrics having more than 10% of missing values were not included in these analyses Intraobserver and interobserver variability were also tested: the first reader repeated the analysis in a randomly chosen subset of patients (n = 15) blinded to previous results A second reader also analyzed this patient subset in a blinded fashion Intraclass correlation coefficient values were calculated A two-sided P-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant Seventy-nine patients (22%) were investigated to evaluate aortic stenosis severity (moderate or severe) Twenty-five patients (7%) with a history of atrial fibrillation were referred for evaluation before a potential catheter ablation The most frequently observed comorbidities were hypertension (73%) Patients who died were older, had a higher prevalence of coronary artery disease and atrial fibrillation, and more frequently underwent ICD implantation in their medical history. Importantly, these patients had higher serum creatinine values than those who survived (Table 1) 2D echocardiographic parameters are summarized in Supplementary Table 1 conventional morphological parameters of the LV and the RV did not differentiate between patients who died vs were more impaired in those patients who died The right atrial size was larger in those patients who died along with a more impaired RV longitudinal function (TAPSE 3DE parameters are summarized in Table 2 Patients who died had larger LV and RV volumes along with a more impaired systolic function In terms of longitudinal and circumferential biventricular strains both LV and RV GLS and GCS were more impaired in patients who died including left (LV) and right ventricular (RV) functional parameters by multivariable Cox regression analysis based on Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) (A) Depicts different models with only clinical characteristics (Step I) and 3D LV mechanical parameters added one by one (Step II) adding LV global longitudinal strain (GLS) to the model resulted in the lowest (best) AIC value (B) Shows the added value of 3D RV mechanical parameters (Step III) adding RV global circumferential strain (GCS) to the previously established model in Step II (clinical characteristics and LV GLS) resulted in the best fit to our data as confirmed by the lowest AIC value Independent predictors of all-cause mortality identified using multivariable cox regression was identified as the best among the evaluated models we created four subgroups based on the median values of LV GLS and RV GCS (−15.9 and −17.9% patients had both LV GLS and RV GCS above the median both LV GLS and RV GCS were below the median Group 2 patients had LV GLS values below the median while RV GCS above the median Group 3 had patients with LV GLS above the median and RV GCS below the median 19 (15%) were evaluated before atrial fibrillation ablation 6 (11%) were evaluated before atrial fibrillation ablation Group 4 was composed of 125 patients and had 78 (62%) HFrEF patients Based on the respective median values of left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV GLS −15.9%) and right ventricular global circumferential strain (RV GCS The survival of the four groups is visualized on Kaplan-Meier curves and the log-rank test was performed for comparison The 3DE parameters of the four groups are demonstrated in Supplementary Table 11 Beyond the aforementioned significant chamber dilation and biventricular functional impairment seen in Group 4 patients Group 3 patients had the lowest LV Mi with a preserved average LV and RV EF (60 ± 5 and 49 ± 6% Intraclass correlation coefficient values were lower but still acceptable for RV GCS compared with RVEF and RV GLS (Supplementary Table 12) Three-dimensional schematic models depict representative cases of different biventricular mechanical patterns in patients from the respective groups The four groups were divided based on the median values of left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV GLS Upward arrows represent strain values better than the median (more negative) downward arrows represent strain values worse than the median (less negative) Light green mesh – left ventricular end-diastolic volume; dark green surface – left ventricular end-systolic volume; green arrow – LV longitudinal shortening (GLS); light blue mesh – right ventricular end-diastolic volume; dark blue surface – right ventricular end-systolic volume; blue arrow – RV circumferential shortening (GCS) a single acquisition (and the same cardiac cycle) can be used to calculate both GCS and GLS; thus it may overcome the limitations of 2D-based calculations This complex interplay underpins that practically every disease process may have consequences on both sides of the interventricular septum with potential importance in terms of diagnosis and outcomes Our results add another layer to the evidence about the importance of RV non-longitudinal shortening from a diagnostic and a prognostic point of view As a previously neglected marker of ventricular systolic performance circumferential deformation may be able to describe a novel aspect of RV systolic function with established prognostic value universal biomarker of the status of the entire cardiopulmonary system as it overpowers conventional echocardiographic metrics and is associated with adverse clinical outcomes not just in “classical” right-heart diseases The exact pathophysiological processes (ventricular interdependence etc.) that result in the deterioration of circumferential shortening and the potential usefulness of RV GCS for screening purposes remain to be investigated 3DE-based quantifications are not the gold standard; nevertheless the software packages are well-validated clinically and against cardiac MRI Calculating RV circumferential strain is quite a novel approach; therefore due to the lack of cause-specific mortality data we could not investigate the association between the 3DE-derived parameters and cardiac death The event number has limited the number of covariates in the multivariate models the validity of our results should be tested in prospective outcome studies in different clinical scenarios Biventricular circumferential shortening holds important prognostic value to adverse clinical outcomes RV GCS is a powerful and independent predictor of all-cause mortality in patients with left-sided cardiac disease Our study highlights the clinical value of 3DE-derived parameters of myocardial mechanics The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The studies involving human participants were reviewed and the study was approved by the Semmelweis University Regional and Institutional Committee of Science and Research Ethics (approval no Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements and BM reviewed and approved the manuscript and ÁS performed statistical analysis All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version MTol was supported by the EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00009 project RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00003 has been implemented with the support provided by the European Union This project was also supported by a grant from the National Research Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) of Hungary (FK 142573 to AKov) and AKov report personal fees from Argus Cognitive The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1082725/full#supplementary-material Prognostic value of right ventricular strains using novel three-dimensional analytical software in patients with cardiac disease Prognostic implications of global LV dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of global longitudinal strain and ejection fraction The prognostic value of right ventricular strain and mechanical dispersion on mortality in patients with normal left ventricle function Importance of nonlongitudinal motion components in right ventricular function: three-dimensional echocardiographic study in healthy volunteers Geometry as a confounder when assessing ventricular systolic function: comparison between ejection fraction and strain Evaluation and management of right-sided heart failure: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Relative prognostic importance of left and right ventricular ejection fraction in patients with cardiac diseases Recommendations for cardiac chamber quantification by echocardiography in adults: an update from the American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Partitioning the right ventricle into 15 segments and decomposing its motion using 3D echocardiography-based models: the updated ReVISION method Right ventricular mechanical pattern in patients undergoing mitral valve surgery: a predictor of post-operative dysfunction left ventricular mass and FGF-23 on myocardial mechanics in end-stage renal disease: a three-dimensional speckle tracking study Prognostic value of global left ventricular strain for conservatively treated patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis Right ventricular architecture responsible for mechanical performance: unifying role of ventricular septum Quantification of the relative contribution of the different right ventricular wall motion components to right ventricular ejection fraction: the ReVISION method Imaging right-left ventricular interactions PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar right ventricular-pulmonary artery coupling and heart failure risk in 4 US communities: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study Association of right ventricular functional parameters with adverse cardiopulmonary outcomes - a meta-analysis Longitudinal and transverse right ventricular function in pulmonary hypertension: cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging study from the ASPIRE registry Two-dimensional strain and strain rate imaging of the right ventricle in adult patients before and after percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects Marked changes in right ventricular contractile pattern after cardiothoracic surgery: implications for post-surgical assessment of right ventricular function Contraction patterns of the right ventricle associated with different degrees of left ventricular systolic dysfunction Keywords: speckle tracking echocardiography Merkely B and Kovács A (2023) There is more than just longitudinal strain: Prognostic significance of biventricular circumferential mechanics Received: 28 October 2022; Accepted: 30 January 2023; Published: 16 February 2023 Copyright © 2023 Tolvaj, Fábián, Tokodi, Lakatos, Assabiny, Ladányi, Shiida, Ferencz, Schwertner, Veres, Kosztin, Szijártó, Sax, Merkely and Kovács. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Attila Kovács, YXR0aWxhLmtvdmFjc0BtZWQuc2VtbWVsd2Vpcy11bml2Lmh1 †These authors have contributed equally to this work Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Iruma-kun season 2 episode 14, “Everyone’s Playmates,” is released. So after finally getting into the park last week, the competition heats up Each group tries their best to have the most fun this episode brings the party and doesn’t let up One of my favorites of the season for sure we get to see everything this show has to offer combined with some of the most fun you can get from an anime In Iruma-kun episode 14 there is so much that happens in this episode I would be here for days to describe it The ‘Good’ is the time the kids have in their respective groups interacting with the ‘Walter Staff’ we see a cute moment of Ameri and Claire as 2 members of the dress shop custom-fit Clara Their moment was brief but it was precious to see and Clara looked stunning.For the boys though we get absolute chaos for each of them Kalego’s group is struggling to get their teacher to have fun and are falling far behind in the competition Though luckily two shady guys come to liven things up and as it so happens they are Walter Staff too They get the boys to play some games and forget about their struggles Iruma’s group seems to be having the most fun and takes the lead in the compeition it’s Iruma’s first time in an amusement park and is simply having a blast no matter what he does where a creepy guy tries to lead him into a dark corner a slightly less creepy white-haired lady named Shiida comes to Iruma’s rescue she’s actually a Walter staff member too.She’s actually in fact super nice just really awkward – and their interactions were probably my second favorite part of the episode but makes the concerted effort to take Iruma under her wing Her brunt personality and his genuine nature are perfect compliments for each other Together they make this episode the greatness that it is Now the only reason Iruma and Shiida’s cute wholesome moments aren’t my favorite part of Iruma-Kun Season Episode 14 he will only face competition for the best eyes in Anime from Vivy and Gojo.In conclusion: another great episode to watch no matter what you’re into Iruma-kun season 2 episode 14 remains a must-watch for Summer 2021 and the end of this week’s episode alludes to a drastic change in the story As always, if you liked Iruma-kun episode 14, vote for this episode in our weekly poll here!All images are via the Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 2 Episode 14 stream on Crunchyroll Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 2 Official website©西修（秋田書店)／NHK・NEP Wellness is said to be a state of complete physical mental and social wellbeing – not merely an absence of disease Shiida – a wellness and traditional centre – has been opened the occurrence of COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to be deliberate and conscious about ones’ health and wellness which aims at being one of the premier traditional therapy centres in Accra is taking a contemporary and holistic approach to health management by offering combination of massage and wellness treatments; nutrition; reflexology facial and body anti-aging treatments; an upscale ultra-chic ultra-comfortable spa; traditional /Ayurveda therapies; weight-loss programmes; rejuvenation and relaxation massages; body detoxification and more with the finest linen and equipment “We will meet the needs of our clients through a unique combination of traditional herbs and products which make the Shiida experience extra rewarding As the demand for health products continue to grow and our population ages centres likes this will aid the health sector so that the hospitals are not inundated with preventable ailments,” said Maxine Menson-Chief Executive Officer Deputy Minister for Health Tina Mensah lauded the initiative adding that Shiida Wellness Centre will aid the country’s efforts in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); and ensure health and wellbeing for all including a bold commitment to end the epidemics of AIDS malaria and other communicable diseases by 2030 It also aims to achieve universal health coverage and provide access to safe and effective medicines and vaccines for all Mensah said the private health sector is offering many opportunities to improve access to and coverage of service which are crucial in the achievement of SDG 3 the private health care providers play an important role in the health system of many low-income and middle-income countries easing some of the pressure on governments to provide health care services for all citizens She explained that traditional and alternative medicine refers to all the different forms of health practices and products outside the mainstream conventional medicine and it is known to be the oldest form of healthcare practice found in almost every country around the world integration of ‘proven’ traditional and alternative practices with national health systems has been advocated to improve primary care access and health outcomes through increasing the availability of services as an additional point of contact the Ministry of Health introduced Traditional and Alternative Medicine into the mainstream health care system in eleven selected hospitals across the country This strategy was to ensure that services rendered by Traditional and Alternative practitioners are offered in a safe respectful and effective manner according to the policies and regulations of Ghana and international conventions Due to the crucial role of Traditional and Alternative Medicine Ghana has established a Traditional and Alternative Medicine Directorate at Ministry of Health to coordinate the activities of policy initiation and implementation The Ministry of Health is therefore extremely grateful and proud of what Maxine Menson and her team have established and will do everything to ensure that the necessary environment is created for the sustenance of this wellness centre,” she said Log in to leave a comment so it would make sense that Walter Park would have its seamier side – and that in the Netherworld all of those stories would turn out to be true We already got a taste of that last week with the revelation that the entirety of the Happiest Place Under Earth is fueled by the mana of criminals so now it's time for the not-so-surprising revelation that the evil extends above the prison as well at least in part because Kiriwo and his pals would need to have aboveground allies to pull off their plan And what better place to hide than in plain sight but there's still the sense that this episode is only masquerading as happy-go-lucky almost everyone; Kalego's doom cloud aura is taking a toll on his group) but we already know that trouble is brewing just below the surface That means that even the most apparently perky “playmates” (as the Walter Park staff style themselves) should be looked on with suspicion because there's something dark about this supposedly happy place Certainly the fact that it was created as a way to help the Demon King cope with his evil cycle isn't a great sign but there's something highly suspect about the too-perky attitudes of everyone who works there It's like all of the people who are later revealed to be Fingers are simply trying too hard to fit the Walter Park image The most obvious are clearly the two barkers Jazz But there's something off about the two at the clothing store as well – the way their lines are delivered feels more fake than you'd expect but that feels like more of a misdirect to make us not notice Wetoto especially since Shiida's not likely to stick with the Fingers once things get going it's great that the usual silliness still remains at least until the Fingers drop dragon eggs on the park in the first step of their plan I will never get tired of Kalego looking furious in his bunny ears and flowers but Asmodeus' constant barrage of grandparent-style picture taking is also amazing and I even kind of love the way Ronove just stands there gyrating his pelvis for no reason all the time but that doesn't mean we can't still have fun along the way One of the things I enjoy about Mairimashita obviously) is that it can get agreeably weird For a show as genuinely nice as this one is most of the time that occasional foray into the bizarre makes a nice contrast Another key element in its success is the depth of the cast a common feature in many great anime comedies Even if a character you love doesn’t appear for a few weeks there are plenty of good ones to fill the gap Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t wish we’d see more of Ali-san because he (and Miki-san) are pretty superb This was indeed a very quirky episode as last week’s suggested it might be There’s just a hint of razor-wire satire in this depiction of Walter Park – the degree to which the employees are expected to be programmed and “on” all the time (also true at USJ These include the employees at the dress-up shop where Clara is playing mermaid and the bros at the carnival shooting game where poor Team Kallego tries desperately to up their fun factor It even applies to seemingly random passers-by in the park’s bad neighborhood It does seem pretty clear that they’re the same group so presumably someone associated with the production asked for a correction The girl who finds and rescues Iruma in Kararagi Street is Shiida who talks in a halting voice and seems quite socially awkward This interaction is extremely sweet in fact – a reminder that for all Iruma’s life has turned for the better he still has no mother figure in his life and that he’s still young enough for that to really matter to him From the petting zoo to the ferris wheel the two bond and Shiida keeps saying Iruma should go to the lost children’s center (again – he’s fourteen) there’s more to Shiida than it seems… Was Shiida simply acting in her cover as an employee or was her protection of Iruma part of a larger plan This is interesting in that we once again have a seemingly kind person (like Kirio) that’s bonded with Iruma-kun turn out to be a baddie And there seems no question that Six Fingers is basically a terrorist organization – vibing as an almost Taliban-like movement since they clearly feel demons have become too gentrified and softened by the modern world It’s going to be interesting to see how the series ties all this together – we’re seemingly headed into one of those stretches where Mairimashita One other note: Agares-kun finally takes off his mask – or rather Ronove takes is off for him, and much to his horror it’s revealed that Agares is a major bishounen whose glow outshines his own This is especially hilarious because Agares has absolutely no interest in dazzling anyone with his beauty he just wants them to shut up so he can sleep – which kind of makes Ronove his Kryptonite since he never shuts up they’re each other’s worst enemies and Agares has no interest whatsoever in why… I really enjoy your timely MaIruma reviews You can easily lose sight of it because of his extreme competence Not having parents after having awful parents has to leave some pretty big insecurities And I never actually thought his gender was supposed to be ambiguous though I suppose that wouldn’t matter if he was the motherly type someone asked the mangaka about Opera’s gender and the reply was “Opera’s gender is Opera” haha so some people in the community call them “nyan-binary” Well the manga translated the group name as Six Finger so it might has to do with the anime translation group try to keep it consistence with the manga It’s been a while since I read ahead in the raws but I believe the Six Fingers were referred to in the manga literally as that (シックスフィンガーズ) in katakana so it’s not purely a translation mismatch or anything Whoops meant furigana (the katakana next to the kanji and hiragana) Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Please consider becoming an LiA patron through one of the methods below