This is actually something I have pondered for a while. I think Niki and Mizusaba could get along pretty well in the kitchen, y'know. They're used to working with other chefs professionally. But the types of restaurants they've worked in are considerably different. Niki is at the ES staff cafeteria (maybe a rotating set menu) and Cafe Cinnamon (a seemingly more upscale cafe with a changing seasonal menu). Niki also has a role in designing the menu, so it's possible he is something of a head chef at Cinnamon. Mizusaba works at a family-owned restaurant in Okinawa that seems to be geared towards tourists. There could be regular menu changes, but I don't believe anything has implied that, nor that Mizusaba has any role in deciding what's on the menu. Different atmospheres, different clientele, different roles. So, I do wonder how that would affect their different views on cooking as a trade. Unfortunately, there's only so much I can say about Mizusaba's relationship to food and cooking that do not become backstory spoilers. So, as a general matter, I think Mizusaba and Niki would have a friendly relationship. But, I feel like they wouldn't become close. Cooking is the main thing they have to bond over, and although that's obviously very important to both of them, I can see the conversation fizzling out when Niki realizes Mizusaba's interests actually primarily lie elsewhere.

Ibuki Rewritten's story doesn't really have a single clean message. The writing touches on a lot of topics having to do with things such as ethnicity, diasporic identities, indigeneity, class, imperialism, history, family, and more. I'd prefer if people were able to read it and have different takeaways based on what resonates with them. I don't want to make readers feel like they should be searching for a particular "lesson" going in, if you know what I mean. If you mean what I want to convey literally with the project itself, I hope it's something that can inspire more interest in the people and places it is about. I wanted to make the characters as human as possible. I would be happy if even the most ideologically heavy character could be understood as a person. And, to that effect, I hope the project communicates that the themes the story handles—and that Enstars handles—are not abstract political questions, but lived experiences.

Yes, but it's a lot more specific and is not written as an easy, reassuring story about finding acceptance. I think Ibuki's sense of displacement in canon is vague and, honestly, a bit generic within storytelling about diaspora. I personally don't find it touching. From my perspective, as a mixed and Indigenous person who was born in Japan before I moved to America as a child and has had struggles with Japaneseness my whole life, it feels very... Artificial? Impersonal? Like how this sort of lived experience is understood by outsiders? At the very least, it's a very convenient narrative for Wajin to consume and feel sympathetic towards. It does not challenge them at all. In fact, I think it's very flattering to Wajin. If anyone else of a similar background wants to chime in, I'm curious to see how they feel about Ibuki's writing in this regard.