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In Moetan, Nijihara Ink gains the ability to transform into a magical girl
called Pastel Ink through the powers of Arcs, a magician turned into a duck.
She uses this ability so that she can help Nao (who she has a crush on) learn
English without getting embarrassed.

Does Nao ever realize that Pastel Ink is just Ink? In the first episode it's
implied that he might have already realized, as he asks Ink to translate
something to the effect of "Magical girls look the same after they transform"
but that very well could have just been them breaking the fourth wall for
comedic purposes.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-28T03:54:27.267
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2014-12-20T09:46:50.717
2014-12-20T09:46:50.717
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question
moetan
Does Nao ever realize that Pastel Ink is Ink?


By the end of the series, this is still unclear, perhaps deliberately, but the
evidence points a bit towards Nao having realized.

After episode 10, Ink can no longer transform into Pastel Ink, but she decides
to cosplay (poorly) as Pastel Ink anyway in episodes 11 and 12 and help Nao
with his studies. Mio, who had not seen Pastel Ink before this, immediately
recognized her as Ink. However, when Nao sees Ink wearing this outfit, he
first calls her "Ink" but then immediately changes it to "Pastel Ink-sensei",
the same way he called her before. Mio is annoyed by her brother's apparent
cluelessness at this. However, given the context of the scene, it's also quite
possible that this change was out of consideration for Ink.

Furthermore, at the end of episode 12 (the last episode to have _this_ Nao and
Ink), Nao also says ambiguous lines to Ink, to the effect of "I haven't seen
Pastel Ink since then, but I'm sure if I ever needed her help she would show
up again." Given that he was talking to Ink, this could be an acknowledgement
that he knows Ink was Pastel Ink in a way that remains ambiguous. He could
still just be clueless, but the way this statement is phrased, it _seems_ like
he's thanking her in a way that doesn't give away the fact that he knows she
is Pastel Ink. Nao's actions in all of these scenes are of a slightly
different character than his interactions with Ink and Pastel Ink in the first
10 episodes.

Exactly when he realized is difficult to determine. There is one scene earlier
in the series in which he sees Pastel Ink and has a vision of Ink. There are
also several scenes between the two in which he _seems_ like he's going to say
something important, but backs out at the last moment and says something
relatively trivial. At any of these points, it's possible that Nao is actually
aware that the two are the same, but it's also possibly just a running gag
that he is clueless.

With that said, there's nothing in the series which explicitly refutes the
idea that Nao is just incredibly clueless and never realized even after
episodes 11 and 12. But at the very least, it seems like a reasonable
interpretation that by episodes 11 and 12, Nao is aware that Pastel Ink is
Ink, and that he's only playing along to avoid upsetting her. There
unfortunately just doesn't seem to be any more definitive statement that can
be made based on canon sources here.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-20T09:46:29.593
16925
2014-12-20T09:46:29.593
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answer