@mogu

Page 3; panel 5, page 4; panel 6, and page 5; panel 6: I don't necessarily think that ALL of those are meant to lead up to them living together being a surprise to US, the readers, I think most of the later ones are just meant to be hints and surprises for the CHARACTERS in the story only (which is necessary, because even if it's obvious to us, it's obviously not obvious to the characters). It's not like, say, having Catherine having remembered to tell Kou that a new girl would be moving in ahead of time would make the story better. Totally agree with you when it comes to the contrivedness and all the repeated "fate" comments in the chapter though.

"P5 Panel 2 GAAAAAY"
For this one I agree with you.

"P8 Pane l3 Again, GAAAAAY"
For this one I do not. Remembering Hotaru's face because she thinks she's pretty cute, and taking an interest in Hotaru because she's a friend of Aoba, are two very different things.

"P6 Panel 1 Why does she have a room that was used for homestay and then suddenly wasn't? Did she just randomly decide to opt out of the homestay program immediately after Hotaru left? And leave that room empty for 10 months?"

Sure, I don't see why not. Seems entirely plausible to me. And then maybe after that, this time around, Catherine is lending Hotaru the room not for homestay as a student, but simply because she's going to work for her now.

"Panel 3 Someone with no experience who hasn't even finished school is being placed on the same level as an extremely famous veteran with nearly 10 years of industry experience."

Hotaru's raw artistic skills being on an entirely different level from Aoba is something that has been pointed out repeatedly in the story by multiple characters, including Aoba and Nene. Thus, it's not unlikely that she's even better than Kou. Maybe not in terms of ideas or work speed, but in terms of pure, raw artistic talent, maybe. That being the case, Catherine probably saw some of her work, realized her skills and potential, and decided she wanted her. Certainly, Hotaru doesn't have Kou's experience at all. Experience isn't everything though. Natural talent matters. People being upstaged by other people with less experience, but more talent, is something that happens all the time in the worklife.

SEVEN
MONTHS
DEAR GOD

I kind of wish Tokunou-sensei could treat the story a little more loosely so he could play around more with interesting new characters, but on the other hand I guess they should do whatever they're comfortable with.
Also, those volume bonus strips were so cute, haha

My doubt about the homestay program was more why did it suddenly end with Hotaru, and then arbitrarily leave the room completely vacant for nearly a year before Yagami suddenly decided to inquire. Catherine would have had no reason to just stop accepting students.

And you can defend Hotaru's skill all you like, but I'm still going to say that they are not, as presented in the story, in any way believable.

LOL, Yagami got LINEzoned)

About @mogu 's remarks:
In ch.65 you can see that her place is pretty big, so it isn't unusual to keep a free room, and also in homestay program you always can say that you only allow one person to board with you so your place won't be crowded. Also, Hotaru was an exchange student and she could be already a part-timer at Blue Rose at the time (we never knew it), so Catherine could have recruited her already in the past and leave a room for her at her request (she even leave a few things there).
Saying that Hotaru doesn't have an experience is the same as saying there are butterflies at the Moon. Business experience - yes, of course, experience as an artist - are you squiddin' me? Also, Hotaru's specialty is analog medium (we had a chapter about it already), and Kou's is digital medium, so Catherine really literally bought herself a good left and right arm from Japan. She also had a remark about her team practices in the same ch.65.

That doesn't mean, of course, that the rest of the chapter is cliche ASF.

Spoiler

@Midoriha @WillLi It cannot be called a nepotism in any way because Hotaru is nobody for Blue Rose. She doesn't have (and never had) any connection or relation to neither Eagle Jump nor Blue Rose, unless Catherine interviewed her during her stay as a student (and I guess she is, it would be extremely stupid NOT to try to have talented people like Hotaru in your team), so she is just another employee being recruited. And Kou was just literally bought from Eagle Jump as a valuable resource. Nepotism is when you had your brother as your CEO, your niece as your head of the sales department and your childhood friend as your main accountant regardless of that they are a plumber, a beautician and a taxi driver, respectively.

It's just the world is small, and so is the author's nonexistent "creativity". =_=

I feel like this is the only manga I've read in which introducing new characters besides the original cast was a huge mistake. The author has no idea how to balance the screentime and character interactions of them, and he basically admits it in the credits of volume 8.

AoKou confirmed.

Well ... I guess ... just seeing cute girls doing cute thing make me feel happy ... I am a simple man ...

Last 2 pages are cute~

I want more Effects Team-chan.

@Midoriha it's not really confirmed nepotism yet. <.< We don't even know how big Blue Rose is nor do we even know what positions Kou and Hotaru have. Catherine said her "right hand and left hand" but that doesn't mean they have a high position, that could just mean they're like her go to people. Also if Hotaru gets something like second in command of character design, that's still not Nepotism, cause she's qualified for that, she doesn't need to have worked on making a game to be good at that or even better than the people there. (Especially if the game is going to fall into the design style of her specialty) If she's the best suited for the job, even if she hasn't been with the company for a while it's not nepotism, it's just putting the best person forward.

So even Hotaru is gonna be ahead of Aoba now ? I like her as a character and all but come on ! The whole initial cast is getting pushed aside more and more.

This is the real nepotism here everyone.
People who hated Nene back when Umiko hired her, and sided with Tsubame when they were fighting, must be getting an aneurysm right now.

Seems very convenient that they meet randomly and stay in the same house.

that horror game gag, i know how it feel.... and it's on VR

THEY FINALLY MET!!!!

Thanks for finishing Vol 8! I know it was hard to deal with their choices of plot hahaha... aahh but now comes vol 9 I saw the raws Spoiler

Lol unnamed Special Effects character seems more fun than the planning team.

Normally, this would be the part where you worry about Rin and Kou's 'relationship' with Hotaru there, "connected by fate". Very drama heavy.
But this isn't that type of story, thankfully.

very nice

Noice

Truly a small world indeed