Magabanashi: Ghost Stories Spreading on Social Media - Vol. 2 Ch. 20 - The Dream of Rokumonsen

[MangaDex]

 

[SMAXZO]

Later he meets his frend who told him about the blog:
"YOU IDIOT! I THOUGHT WHEN YOU SAID SUPER WOKE, YOU MEANT HE WAS EXTREMELY FAR LEFT..NOT WOKE UP FROM A DREAM!"

 

[soidish]

 

[Arexty]

Some of the better horror stories are those that blur the line between natural and supernatural.
This is one of those, thanks for the TL.

 

[EchoGirl]

Some of the better horror stories are those that blur the line between natural and supernatural.
This is one of those, thanks for the TL.

“Something-something humanity /nature are the real monsters”

Did not expect to see “woke” in a manga what’s the JP phrase for that unless they literally used katakana (i feel
Like I’ve seen a variation of SJWs/keyboard warriors for a vocaloid tl once lol)

“Sorry for calling late” I mean unless it’s a landline only wouldn’t it be better to just text them?

 

[Spiraphobia]

“Something-something humanity /nature are the real monsters”

Did not expect to see “woke” in a manga what’s the JP phrase for that unless they literally used katakana (i feel
Like I’ve seen a variation of SJWs/keyboard warriors for a vocaloid tl once lol)

“Sorry for calling late” I mean unless it’s a landline only wouldn’t it be better to just text them?

The original phrase was 意識高い系 - it’s kind of a sarcastic term for someone who tries to act socially conscious or ambitious, but often comes off as performative or pretentious. "Woke" isn’t a perfect match, but I used it intentionally to hit that tone for an English-speaking audience, even knowing it can lean more political than the JP implied.

Using "highly/socially conscious" is just so awkward in that dialogue - for me anyway.

 

[Vainfire]

I don't think "Woke" is the right word to use for this context, I was really expecting something different throughout most of the story. I almost thought that it was maybe a translation for "awake" or "dream", because it did end up being a dream journal... Seeing the TL's explanation, I think the closest analogue we have here in English would honestly be a site like Linkedin.

Okay, all that being said, it's a solid story about keeping a dream journal. Blurring the lines between dreams and reality is a good bit and taking advantage of a popular modern practice to do it is especially good. Using a blog especially introduces some other elements (social alienation from the posts being read by others) that you couldn't have done with a diary. I liked how the "friend that always helps him" is never shown, though is possibly the unknown figure helping him up the hill in the main character's first dream. If that is the case, the exhortation to lean more on this possibly corrupting figure by the MC is a bad call.

 

[libermn]

Kinda felt bad for the dream diary guy. He probably suffered from mental illness and nobody give him a proper help and support.

 

[sssr]

The original phrase was 意識高い系 - it’s kind of a sarcastic term for someone who tries to act socially conscious or ambitious, but often comes off as performative or pretentious. "Woke" isn’t a perfect match, but I used it intentionally to hit that tone for an English-speaking audience, even knowing it can lean more political than the JP implied.

Using "highly/socially conscious" is just so awkward in that dialogue - for me anyway.

That isn't the original context. This term is used to describe people who try to depict their day-to-day (or social) life "artistically" or "spiritually" but comes off as forced or pretentious. The way this was explained to me once is to imagine someone trying to write about themselves like Mishima Yukio or Natsume Soseki but just fails at it. I think the closest English term would be "gonzo" as it was originally meant when Hunter Thompson coined it.

 

[strawberrywarrior]

I don't think "woke" carries enough similar meaning, since its connotations are more political or related to social activism. The blog posts read more pompous than anything, but I also can't think of a casual slang way to refer to that. Maybe more corpo speak? The posts do sound like someone trying to one-up their colleagues on LinkedIn.

Really interesting use of the technology and juxtaposition here! Posting dreams (which are usually private or considered uninteresting) on a public blog that seems to be trying to impress its audience, a technology meant to form connections being the cause of misunderstanding and isolation, and the friend dismissing the poor guy because of his dream posting all while taking his own dream about him too seriously.

Also, I got curious about the 'bimo' mentioned in one of the dream blog posts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimoism

 

[EchoGirl]

The original phrase was 意識高い系 - it’s kind of a sarcastic term for someone who tries to act socially conscious or ambitious, but often comes off as performative or pretentious. "Woke" isn’t a perfect match, but I used it intentionally to hit that tone for an English-speaking audience, even knowing it can lean more political than the JP implied.

Using "highly/socially conscious" is just so awkward in that dialogue - for me anyway.

Interesting, i've heard of 'slacktivist' too but yeah

 

[Ryanweebowo]

Welp the quality dropped pretty fast...

 

[solamente]

I don't think "Woke" is the right word to use for this context, I was really expecting something different throughout most of the story. I almost thought that it was maybe a translation for "awake" or "dream", because it did end up being a dream journal... Seeing the TL's explanation, I think the closest analogue we have here in English would honestly be a site like Linkedin.

Okay, all that being said, it's a solid story about keeping a dream journal. Blurring the lines between dreams and reality is a good bit and taking advantage of a popular modern practice to do it is especially good. Using a blog especially introduces some other elements (social alienation from the posts being read by others) that you couldn't have done with a diary. I liked how the "friend that always helps him" is never shown, though is possibly the unknown figure helping him up the hill in the main character's first dream. If that is the case, the exhortation to lean more on this possibly corrupting figure by the MC is a bad call.

its the funniest possible translation and therefore good imo, gotta admit it did throw me for a loop tho

 

[solamente]

I gotta say, there are two other "modern horror social media story" serials I'm reading and they don't suck per se, but they end up looking clownish in comparison to this one. I don't know how much is artistic license, but the execution here is just top notch unsettling in the same way Otherside Picnic sometimes was, if anyone also reads that

 

[schwnt]

Looks like the friend is haunted by some kind of mimic

 

[welcome2atlantis]

Young and hopeful > got stressed out at work > became schizophrenic > whole life crumbled down.
Yep. Happens quite often nowadays.