u/Equivalent-Rain8054

Fun fact: Ryota Suzuki, Ishigami's Japanese VA also voices the brown-hair girl, Nao's boyfriend, Aki who is actually the replica of the real Aki, Shuya just like Nao who is also the replica of the real Nao, Sunao.

Source: https://x.com/fushigiyugi_bd/status/2072969847919763528/photo/1

According to Watase's comment retweet on X, she confirmed that this illustration is by Mari Kitayama, the long-time animator at Studio Pierrot who also did various illustrations for Fushigi Yuugi back in the 90s, including the Animedia magazine visual, laserdisc jacket covers and music CDs covers. https://x.com/wataseyuu_/status/2073045014612177252

The girl on the right is Kana Arima from Oshi No Ko, I brought her up because Chizuru's mum also shares the same hairstyle with Kana's iconic short hair!

Aqua's bittersweet death after dragging Hikaru along to his death in the ocean strongly reminds me of the anime 'Air' by the same creators as the masterpiece anime, Clannad, where a heroine named Misuzu, who also has blond hair and blue eyes like Aqua and is pivotal to the story which also has supernatural elements ends up dying in the final episode also near the ocean, on the beach in her hometown.

The moment when Aqua's funeral is hosted, it also gave me 'White Album 2' vibes, the anime image shown below the image for 'Air' in this post when Kana and Akane mourned his death alongside Ruby and the others regretting not getting together with him in love as a couple when they should have an opportunity to do so reminds me of Setsuna and Kazusa, the two heroines who wants to date together with the protagonist, Haruki. Haruki, a genuinely kind person trying to balance his relationship between the two of them, must contemplate a difficult decision in the love triangle to choose one of them in exchange for leaving the other betrayed and in heartrending tears, knowing they can't be together anymore, but eventually accepts it.

Imagine our beloved and adorable Miko Iino from Kaguya Sama, who we already know in spite of being a rigid rule abiding disciplinary member is actually a closet pervert, as shown by fewer cases like secretly reading 'Fifty Shapes of Love', which is the in-universe version of the erotic novel 'Fifty Shades of Grey' and misunderstanding Tsubame's inviting Ishigami to her house party, which the former assumes as having a threesome lol etc.

My headcanon suggested that she would have also seen the anime, Yosuga No Sora, which depicts those NSFW scenes, but even more infamous in the last few episodes with them or she got her hands on the eroge PC game, which the anime was adapted from and started playing to get some dopamine through watching H-scenes. 🤣🤣🤣

Kurosawa will succeed Miaka's OG VA, Kae Araki, and Chiba will succeed Tamahome's OG VA, Hikaru Midorikawa, voicing the girl and the boy destined to fall in love.

My own preference is Emeraude should be voiced by Ai Kayano (Darkness in Konosuba and Alice Zuberg in Sword Art Online) and Zagato by Yoshimasa Hosoya (Reiner Braun in Attack On Titan and Orga Itsuki in Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans)