The Elusive Samurai Season 2 ED: Japanese Fans React to the Hinatazaka46 Collab — "I Know Nothing About Anime, But Is This Song Riding a Divine Wind?"

▶Scroll while you watch

Japanese fan reactions (excerpted from 578)

• Came here from Elusive Samurai — number one on the hype chart? That's an insane level of popularity.

  逃げ若からきたが、ハイプ1位って人気エグいな

  — @kontenakuwaneeka_baseball77 likes

• Congrats on number one on the hype ranking! Yoko's voice is so beautiful.

  ハイプランキング１位おめでとう！ よーこちゃんの声がとても美しい

  — @ゆーき091144 likes

• It's a great song on its own terms, and it still fits Elusive Samurai perfectly. That's impressive.

  曲としてめっちゃ良いのに逃げ若にピッタリあってるのすごい

  — @工藤-kr78 likes

• A god-tier song I've had on infinite repeat on Spotify since it dropped. Thank you, Elusive Samurai season 2.

  公開から一生Spotifyで回してる神曲 逃げ若2期ありがとう

  — @斗稀-t7q52 likes

• 2:38 — going sightseeing in Kamakura is so on-brand, and they even worked in Elusive Samurai elements. Legend.

  2:38 鎌倉観光してて推せる　逃げ若要素も入れてくれる神

  — @みずいろインキ58 likes

• Great song, and the anime's fun too — I want more people to find both!

  いい曲だし、アニメも面白いしもっと見つかって欲しい！

  — @ヒーター-t2a37 likes

• I love these guerrilla moments where idols get to sing a song with a completely different concept from their own group's.

  こういうアイドルが自分のグループとは特色が違ったコンセプトの曲歌うゲリライベント大好き

  — @rU_rA-061 likes

• Nothing but gratitude that they cast these three.

  3人を起用してくれて感謝しかない

  — @9nine大好きコバ52 likes

• Getting another ED from Bocchi Boromaru would have been enough on its own, and then Hinatazaka's voices are in it too — this is such cute pop, I'm so happy!!!!! So cute!!

  またぼっちぼろまるさんでedを聞けるだけで嬉しいのに、日向坂さんの歌声まで入ってくれてほんとめちゃかわPOPで嬉しいです！！！！！かわいい！！

  — @hijj_NGS42 likes

• To be able to take in this much of Nao's healing properties in one go — Boromaru is too much of an inventor.

  こんなに菜緒さんの声の癒し成分を 摂取出来るなんて ぼろまるさん発明家過ぎる

  — @nerogatto493963 likes

• Kosaka's voice is genuinely healing 😊

  小坂さんの声は本当に癒し😊

  — @mbamaru116864 likes

• Nao's voice has this natural transparency to it.

  菜緒ちゃんの声、天性の透明感なんだよな

  — @ヌスーP-s9w53 likes

• Yoko's voice is so addictive~

  陽子の声が癖になる〜

  — @かほりん降臨-n1r50 likes

• Kahorin's voice is cute but has this core of steel to it, I love it ♡♡

  かほりんの声かわいいのに芯があるかんじしてめっちゃすき♡♡

  — @しおれもん20234 likes

• The three of them have completely different vocal timbres and they harmonise so well it makes my chest tighten.

  3人の全然違う声質があまりにも調和してて胸がギュッとなる

  — @にじゴリ56 likes

• All three of them have real character in their voices and their vocals. So good.

  3人とも声とボーカルのキャラが立っててすごくいい

  — @ragamuffin9838 likes

• Each of their voices' individuality is used so well, and it comes out so cute! My ears are happy!

  3人の声の個性がめっちゃ活かされてて、めっちゃ可愛くなってる！耳が幸せ！

  — @ningensikaku28 likes

• Blue: Nao Kosaka (Kosakana) Green: Yoko Shogenji (Yoko) Red: Kaho Fujishima (Kahorin)

  青:小坂菜緒(こさかな) 緑:正源司陽子(よーこ) 赤:藤嶌果歩(かほりん)

  — @ten-pre51 likes

• So glad they colour-coded it by who's singing which part!!

  歌唱パートごとに色分けしてくれるの嬉しい！！

  — @mkt642935 likes

• Using the colour of the lyrics to show whose part it is — genius!

  『歌詞の色』で誰のパートか分かるようになってるの天才！

  — @marco-cameko7 likes

• I'm getting something close to last year's AiScReam from this. I really hope this song blows up more this year....

  去年のAiScReamに近い何かを感じる 今年この曲もっと流行らないかな....

  — @corn_supe45 likes

• It's got a Pop'n Music feel to it. Makes you want to hear it again and again.

  ポップンミュージック感あるね 何度も聞きたくなる

  — @nexus405427 likes

• It's not that long is bad — a pop and lovely song like this hits harder at around three minutes! Bocchi is the best!

  長いからダメじゃなくて、こういうポップでラブリーな曲は３分ぐらいがインパクトあってよき！ぼっちさん最高！

  — @なまらチョス23 likes

• The cute animation and the beautiful vocals leave me completely full!

  可愛いアニメと綺麗な歌声に、めちゃくちゃ満たされる!

  — @ColdBrewJasmine33 likes

• Apparently they've already learned the choreography, so I'm expecting them to perform it somewhere soon.

  既に振り入れもしてるらしいから 近いうちにどこかで披露してくれると期待

  — @SelfSecurityGuard31 likes

• I can already hear the crowd chant for the chorus 😊 I want to do that call at a live show 😊😊

  サビの部分のコールが、既に思い浮かぶ😊　ライブでコールしたいなぁえが😊😊

  — @yamaken614827 likes

• Being liked by girls this cute — I'm so damn jealous.

  こんなかわいい女の子たちに好かれるのクソ羨ましい

  — @ふじ-coto473325 likes

What song is this?

"Romantic ga Hoshii Nara," the ending theme for The Elusive Samurai Season 2, by Bocchi Boromaru featuring three Hinatazaka46 members: Nao Kosaka, Yoko Shogenji and Kaho Fujishima.

Why are people who don't watch anime in the comments?

The Hinatazaka46 collab brought idol fans in, and the song charted — commenters mention it hitting number one on the hype ranking, and the top comment is from someone who says outright they know nothing about anime. Anime viewers arriving from the series are reacting to how big the song already is.

Does the music video connect to the anime itself?

Yes — commenters point to the 2:38 mark, where the MV goes sightseeing around Kamakura and works in Elusive Samurai elements, and others praise how well a bright pop song fits the series despite the tonal gap.

• #japanese fans
  57 likes

  AnimeYouTube

  Summer 2026 Anime: Japanese Fans Run the Three-Episode Rule — "I Almost Skipped Jaadugar Over the Art Style"

  A Japanese critique channel ran its "three-episode drop tournament" for Summer 2026 — which shows survived episode three, which got cut — and across 245 comments the top one (57 likes) is a small masterclass on why Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia keeps topping these lists: episodes 1–2 dub the Mongolian dialogue because Sitara can't understand it, and from episode 3, once she can, it switches to Japanese. That kind of noticing runs through the whole thread. Commenters describe getting chills when Sitara's face settles into a resolved smile mid-conversation in episode 3 — "the moment a girl became the witch who would throw Mongolia into chaos" — and several admit they nearly skipped the show entirely because the soft art style read as a kids' history primer. Draw This, Then Die! gets the same defense ("a perfect example of why you don't judge by the art or the title"), Reiwa no Dara-san is praised for actually committing to horror under the gags, and Hell Mode keeps pulling people back to binge season one. The drops are just as specific — one viewer got motion sick and quit a heavy-knight isekai two episodes in — and the thread ends on the most self-aware complaint about seasonal anime you'll read this year.

  245 comments7/29/26, 8:15 AM
• #japanese fans
  668 likes

  AnimeYouTube

  Ghost in the Shell: Japanese Fans Say Oshii's Film Is the Outlier — "Not 'Having Seen' Oshii's Version. Having Seen ONLY It."

  The new manga-faithful Ghost in the Shell anime has Japanese fans re-litigating Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film, and across 569 comments on one reaction compilation the most-liked take (668 likes) is about tone: "I love how the manga has this 'the world's a dump, but let's live in it with a smile' energy." The recurring argument is a full inversion of the take most Western fans grew up with. Commenters keep pointing out that it's Oshii's film — not the 2026 series — that departs from Masamune Shirow's manga, and that the film only became the default because it landed first and turned into a cult classic. They line it up next to Kiki's Delivery Service, Patlabor and Urusei Yatsura as a recurring Japanese-adaptation pattern, argue over whether Motoko pulling goofy gag faces is a betrayal or the actual character, and one commenter frames the split as Buddhist (Oshii: life is suffering, seek enlightenment) versus Shinto (Shirow: take the good and the filth together and just live). Not everyone is picking a side — several say they love both and are simply delighted to get two versions — and the thread closes on a joke that only this franchise could land.

  569 comments7/29/26, 8:10 AM
• #japanese fans
  1,062 likes

  AnimeYouTube

  One Piece Chapter 1189: Japanese Fans React — "He'll Die Anyway, Let's Go Home"

  On One Piece Chapter 1189, Japanese fans piled into a reaction video about Imu pinning Luffy to a tree with a giant blade — out of 768 comments, the top one (701 likes) needed just one line to nail the mood: "If I leave him like this, he'll die eventually anyway... let's go home." From there the thread turns into a running joke about how nobody, in the story or in the comments, actually seems worried — one heavily-liked comment (1,062 likes) points out that while the captain is dying, his crewmates are casually off to the side trying to melt a giant block of ice. Others dig into how carefully Imu is avoiding an actual killing blow, joking that Imu is basically being puppeted by Eiichiro Oda into showing mercy, and debating whether this series has ever had real stakes at all. It closes on a much sillier note — a fan question about the pinned tree that even Oda's own reader Q&A column probably wouldn't take seriously.

  768 comments7/29/26, 12:20 AM
• 

  ColumnAnime

  I Read Both Comment Sections Every Night. Yours Is Louder.

  I split every night between two rooms. The English comment section and the Japanese one. Same anime, same game, sometimes the exact same video, and the air changes the moment I walk through the door. You already know your room. What you probably haven't seen is ours, because for once the language lock is working against you. So let me show you around both.

  7/27/26, 10:00 AM