31 Ai Dream - Chikage or Akari, in the End?

Alchemical Night · 12-10-2022

Hello there,

Friends, as some may know, it's been a long since I first brought this odd, but singular and compelling series to the forum's attention and I am glad that I could do so, as well. Indeed, my past encounters with this series found here for those looking for some context (2015) http://www.process-productions.com/f...chemical+night and (2016) http://www.process-productions.com/f...hlight=chikage .

Now, given my interest has endured the years - and the creator's sometimes inconstant or circumstantial issues - it's my pleasure to bring some reviews and news of this series. Both its latest chapters and its ostensibly approaching finale.

I will divide this into two parts as to not overbear or distend for some of those here

.

In the first - indeed, in the chapters since we last encountered the jaded Chikage and her new, chemical born alter-ego in the teenage Akari - we find several significant events, though the ones that bear reporting here find that Chikage's emotional life has become much more complex. And indeed, all the more given her duality. Drawn between two friends from both sides of her nature, and with not insignificant feelings for a third friend (the man who gave her the special medicine to affect her transformations in the first place). These events and conflicts are, as said, accentuated by the news that the medicine is having a latent consequence for the older woman in that her continued use is actually making her younger, upon every reversion now.

Such things as her complexion softening, her hair longer and vital, and no longer needing her glasses are only the most cosmetic changes of this remarkable, aforementioned latency - and indeed, one that poses an existential problem for the now overmighty duality she herself has created. Younger and younger upon each reversion into the adult Chikage, it will ultimately come to be that her adult self will cease to be, leaving only the form and name of the teenage Akari. Now facing a choice between her once concurring but now conflicted lives, Chikage is faced with a dilemma between her renewed life as a corporate professional and the vibrant teenager and her eclectic stardom...

Carrying on into more considered analysis - and indeed, in keeping with the vein I tapped back then - I get the feeling from the themes and tropes stirred here that Arina Tanemura may have perused or read Jekyll & Hyde, at some point - this feeling all the stronger now as we see the latent sting of Chikage's seeming impunity when it came to her duality. The conceit of her success now jeopardized by the growing primacy of her younger alter-ego, with each transformation.

Indeed, the good old doc said it best himself - "If this were much prolonged, the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown, the power of voluntary change be forfeited, and the character of Edward Hyde become irrevocably mine. Now, however... in the beginning, the difficulty had been to throw off the body of Jekyll, it had of late gradually but decidedly transferred itself to the other side. All things therefore seemed to point to this; that I was slowly losing hold of my original self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second..."

This theme is further compounded as Chikage discovers - like Jekyll himself - that she is running low on the medicine that allows for the change. But as Jekyll needed his formula to affect the vital reversion, Chikage needs her medicine to rejuvenate into the teenage Akari. A medicine which - if she keeps using it - will leave only the teenager left. And thus no adult Chikage Deguchi to return to - be that form, or identity or life as it was known...

Chikage's personal and emotional heartstrings caught between her two selves, and their respective worlds, Arina Tanemura has promised a resolution to this remarkable story, in some way, come 2023. And what becomes of the former, eponymous 31 year old and her teen alter-ego, we can only speculate...

Thanks again,

Alchemical Night.

12-10-2022	#1
Alchemical Night Watcher Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 258	31 Ai Dream - Chikage or Akari, in the End? Hello there, Friends, as some may know, it's been a long since I first brought this odd, but singular and compelling series to the forum's attention and I am glad that I could do so, as well. Indeed, my past encounters with this series found here for those looking for some context (2015) http://www.process-productions.com/f...chemical+night and (2016) http://www.process-productions.com/f...hlight=chikage . Now, given my interest has endured the years - and the creator's sometimes inconstant or circumstantial issues - it's my pleasure to bring some reviews and news of this series. Both its latest chapters and its ostensibly approaching finale. I will divide this into two parts as to not overbear or distend for some of those here . In the first - indeed, in the chapters since we last encountered the jaded Chikage and her new, chemical born alter-ego in the teenage Akari - we find several significant events, though the ones that bear reporting here find that Chikage's emotional life has become much more complex. And indeed, all the more given her duality. Drawn between two friends from both sides of her nature, and with not insignificant feelings for a third friend (the man who gave her the special medicine to affect her transformations in the first place). These events and conflicts are, as said, accentuated by the news that the medicine is having a latent consequence for the older woman in that her continued use is actually making her younger, upon every reversion now. Such things as her complexion softening, her hair longer and vital, and no longer needing her glasses are only the most cosmetic changes of this remarkable, aforementioned latency - and indeed, one that poses an existential problem for the now overmighty duality she herself has created. Younger and younger upon each reversion into the adult Chikage, it will ultimately come to be that her adult self will cease to be, leaving only the form and name of the teenage Akari. Now facing a choice between her once concurring but now conflicted lives, Chikage is faced with a dilemma between her renewed life as a corporate professional and the vibrant teenager and her eclectic stardom... Carrying on into more considered analysis - and indeed, in keeping with the vein I tapped back then - I get the feeling from the themes and tropes stirred here that Arina Tanemura may have perused or read Jekyll & Hyde, at some point - this feeling all the stronger now as we see the latent sting of Chikage's seeming impunity when it came to her duality. The conceit of her success now jeopardized by the growing primacy of her younger alter-ego, with each transformation. Indeed, the good old doc said it best himself - "If this were much prolonged, the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown, the power of voluntary change be forfeited, and the character of Edward Hyde become irrevocably mine. Now, however... in the beginning, the difficulty had been to throw off the body of Jekyll, it had of late gradually but decidedly transferred itself to the other side. All things therefore seemed to point to this; that I was slowly losing hold of my original self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second..." This theme is further compounded as Chikage discovers - like Jekyll himself - that she is running low on the medicine that allows for the change. But as Jekyll needed his formula to affect the vital reversion, Chikage needs her medicine to rejuvenate into the teenage Akari. A medicine which - if she keeps using it - will leave only the teenager left. And thus no adult Chikage Deguchi to return to - be that form, or identity or life as it was known... Chikage's personal and emotional heartstrings caught between her two selves, and their respective worlds, Arina Tanemura has promised a resolution to this remarkable story, in some way, come 2023. And what becomes of the former, eponymous 31 year old and her teen alter-ego, we can only speculate... Thanks again, Alchemical Night.