Mietemasu yo! Aizawa-san - Ch. 36 - Occult

[MangaDex]

 

[Beltaro]

Volume 6 is out! If you want it physically, or digitally here's Kobo or Bookwalker.
Like the raws too, if you can.

Mildly bad news.
After the widespread PHP vulnerability, KimiComi (like many Japanese readers) can no longer be accessed by foreigners without a VPN. If you want to like the raws I'm directing you to NicoNico instead. Unfortunate, as KimiComi is the publisher's site which sends a stronger signal.
And like many manga, economic issues have hit Aizawa-san. Volumes will no longer have color inner illustrations. It could be much worse, which is why it's important to support the manga if you can.

I'm running slow or Dorothy's running fast and ch37 is out as well. It's difficult separating my thoughts, so I'll be a bit disjointed, since these 2 close out Tear's flashback arc. And (as it becomes clearer every chapter) the NeoTear shipping arc. We're all on board.

Karasuma casually dropping some important hints in quick succession:

• She only approached DeLphi while looking into Honami. And Honami was part of checking on Michi. Karasuma seems to have known very little about Honami's haunting & death. That must have been all Michi handling it, and Karasuma's connection only goes so far as being strangely related to Michi.
• As we saw in ch13 Karasuma 'failed Michi in the past.' That's as vague as anything else in this manga (thank you Tear for calling out the vagueposter queen) but now we get the slightest clarification it directly dealt with Mini Michi. I did think Karasuma recognized Mini Michi, despite not recognizing the AAA star. But this puts things in a stranger light where her decision to spare Honami hinged entirely on Mini Michi's arrival.
• So what is Mini Michi? We just don't know. She's not a ghost at least. But if I'm making a wild guess, she has more to do with Michi's mother than Michi herself. Kurotori Sou is going to factor into the story at some point. Karasuma might be linked to her given a tenuous connection between her moon pendulum, a star pendulum, and the same symbols over Sou's shrine. There's a little secret community of spiritualists in town, some of which are dynastic like Sayaka, and that leaves room for Sou to have both had powers like Michi and had close ties to Karasuma. And if Sou is a major player, Dorothy has already said all the major characters have been introduced with Nagi. What better way to sneak Sou in than a red herring resembling her daughter? I don't place much faith in this theory. But I've said that before only for a few theories to become increasingly likely, so I might as well add another notch to the conspiracy corkboard. And if Sou is an antagonist, Mini Michi has actually been a major obstacle to Michi as much as she's helped.
• Anyway! The 3rd hint: Tear herself isn't haunted. Maybe that's as simple as no spirit being attached to her at the moment, but it tracks with Nagi only hurting Ange and Non. For unexplained reasons Tear has been spared any direct damage, despite suffering heavily as a bystander.

What do these hints tell us? I'unno. So much for the "answer section" of the manga. Karasuma's still keeping her secrets close to chest and nothing in Tear's life gets to make sense anymore. But they're important pieces to a puzzle we lost the illustration for. We know vaguely where they fit but we're just going to have to wait on that full picture. And that's the fun of a good mystery.

I can't get enough of the bittersweetness surrounding Nagi. The fear that, as much as DeLphi loves her, she hates them enough to want them dead. I don't want to believe it either but the threat is there. Enough to make Tear suspect it and force the conversation away. There's so much left to learn about Nagi, and maybe we have her right here for questioning?

Another confusing detail: Tear's search for Ange didn't work. It's safe to pin significance on this - it's some kind of spiritual jamming that only the AAA star narrowly broke through. Two powerful forces with a mind of their own at play, one we can't even begin to outline. What is covering for Nagi?
(AAA star looking an awful lot like an MA again. Sayaka wrote it backwards like she thinks Aizawa tops. Stupid Sayaka-senpai.)

Very minor detail but Tear's mother was wearing a pale yellow dress the day she committed suicide. Yellow is Honami's color. A dash of tragic theming there? Back in ch12's discussion, Perfect Yellow, I touched on how yellow is a delicate and temperamental color. It's associated with brightness and hope, like sunshine. But also decay, of bruises and rotting flesh. It's the caution sign. In The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman it signifies a family and mind falling apart from better days, in the King in Yellow by Chambers it is both regal and grotesque. It comes up a lot in horror, and psychologically yellow is a tough color to get right. The wrong shade of it, the wrong lighting even, can turn something pretty into something repulsive. I don't know how conscious Dorothy was of this but it's perfectly emblematic for Honami's frightfully unknowable nature.

'Sayaka-senpai snuck into school to do some stuff.' Maybe it's less funny if you can't follow along, but I love Dorothy's pathetic recaps that poke fun at how hard the manga can be to follow or describe. Chapter 36 is, in fact, the start of volume 7. Normally I'd speculate more on what that means for the rest of the volume; past volumes were constructed like standalone episodes and set up most of the volume's plot points in that first chapter.

But, as the story's grown, that structure has slipped away from Dorothy. This Tear flashback was meant to end in chapter 35, yet kept going since Dorothy needed to give it more space. Ch33-34, the rise and fall of DeLphi, were originally one long chapter. The story is taking on a life of its own and I understand Dorothy's anxiety over not knowing how long that will take to tell in full. But the quality of these chapters keeps rising. Effortlessly bringing background characters into main character roles, re-contextualizing not just the story but the tone of the manga in this turning point, and a seismic shift waiting in Michi becoming an active protagonist. I loved this little flashback and I'm just as excited for it to be over.

 

[EllenBaker123]

"Violence is never the answer" Choke slams her

 

[Kirakirafox]

"Violence is never the answer" Choke slams her

She was simply giving a demonstration of why it isn't the answer!

 

[WaterlilyFlower]

Glasses Tear? Welp, that's volume six purchased.

Silliness aside, I still love how Dorothy-sensei goes from silly to serious seemingly effortlessly. How she draws Karasuma in this chapter compared to how she's previously been depicted is another good example of this.

Thanks for the translation :>

 

[Yuri_Enjoyer_Deluxe]

You and me both girl. I stopped making sense of things ages ago when the Idol shit started...

Seriously how does this mf keep up 🥲

 

[apinkfrog]

Volume 6 is out! If you want it physically, or digitally here's Kobo or Bookwalker.
Like the raws too, if you can.

Mildly bad news.
After the widespread PHP vulnerability, KimiComi (like many Japanese readers) can no longer be accessed by foreigners without a VPN. If you want to like the raws I'm directing you to NicoNico instead. Unfortunate, as KimiComi is the publisher's site which sends a stronger signal.
And like many manga, economic issues have hit Aizawa-san. Volumes will no longer have color inner illustrations. It could be much worse, which is why it's important to support the manga if you can.

I'm running slow or Dorothy's running fast and ch37 is out as well. It's difficult separating my thoughts, so I'll be a bit disjointed, since these 2 close out Tear's flashback arc. And (as it becomes clearer every chapter) the NeoTear shipping arc. We're all on board.

Karasuma casually dropping some important hints in quick succession:

• She only approached DeLphi while looking into Honami. And Honami was part of checking on Michi. Karasuma seems to have known very little about Honami's haunting & death. That must have been all Michi handling it, and Karasuma's connection only goes so far as being strangely related to Michi.
• As we saw in ch13 Karasuma 'failed Michi in the past.' That's as vague as anything else in this manga (thank you Tear for calling out the vagueposter queen) but now we get the slightest clarification it directly dealt with Mini Michi. I did think Karasuma recognized Mini Michi, despite not recognizing the AAA star. But this puts things in a stranger light where her decision to spare Honami hinged entirely on Mini Michi's arrival.
• So what is Mini Michi? We just don't know. She's not a ghost at least. But if I'm making a wild guess, she has more to do with Michi's mother than Michi herself. Kurotori Sou is going to factor into the story at some point. Karasuma might be linked to her given a tenuous connection between her moon pendulum, a star pendulum, and the same symbols over Sou's shrine. There's a little secret community of spiritualists in town, some of which are dynastic like Sayaka, and that leaves room for Sou to have both had powers like Michi and had close ties to Karasuma. And if Sou is a major player, Dorothy has already said all the major characters have been introduced with Nagi. What better way to sneak Sou in than a red herring resembling her daughter? I don't place much faith in this theory. But I've said that before only for a few theories to become increasingly likely, so I might as well add another notch to the conspiracy corkboard. And if Sou is an antagonist, Mini Michi has actually been a major obstacle to Michi as much as she's helped.
• Anyway! The 3rd hint: Tear herself isn't haunted. Maybe that's as simple as no spirit being attached to her at the moment, but it tracks with Nagi only hurting Ange and Non. For unexplained reasons Tear has been spared any direct damage, despite suffering heavily as a bystander.

What do these hints tell us? I'unno. So much for the "answer section" of the manga. Karasuma's still keeping her secrets close to chest and nothing in Tear's life gets to make sense anymore. But they're important pieces to a puzzle we lost the illustration for. We know vaguely where they fit but we're just going to have to wait on that full picture. And that's the fun of a good mystery.

I can't get enough of the bittersweetness surrounding Nagi. The fear that, as much as DeLphi loves her, she hates them enough to want them dead. I don't want to believe it either but the threat is there. Enough to make Tear suspect it and force the conversation away. There's so much left to learn about Nagi, and maybe we have her right here for questioning?

Another confusing detail: Tear's search for Ange didn't work. It's safe to pin significance on this - it's some kind of spiritual jamming that only the AAA star narrowly broke through. Two powerful forces with a mind of their own at play, one we can't even begin to outline. What is covering for Nagi?
(AAA star looking an awful lot like an MA again. Sayaka wrote it backwards like she thinks Aizawa tops. Stupid Sayaka-senpai.)

Very minor detail but Tear's mother was wearing a pale yellow dress the day she committed suicide. Yellow is Honami's color. A dash of tragic theming there? Back in ch12's discussion, Perfect Yellow, I touched on how yellow is a delicate and temperamental color. It's associated with brightness and hope, like sunshine. But also decay, of bruises and rotting flesh. It's the caution sign. In The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman it signifies a family and mind falling apart from better days, in the King in Yellow by Chambers it is both regal and grotesque. It comes up a lot in horror, and psychologically yellow is a tough color to get right. The wrong shade of it, the wrong lighting even, can turn something pretty into something repulsive. I don't know how conscious Dorothy was of this but it's perfectly emblematic for Honami's frightfully unknowable nature.

'Sayaka-senpai snuck into school to do some stuff.' Maybe it's less funny if you can't follow along, but I love Dorothy's pathetic recaps that poke fun at how hard the manga can be to follow or describe. Chapter 36 is, in fact, the start of volume 7. Normally I'd speculate more on what that means for the rest of the volume; past volumes were constructed like standalone episodes and set up most of the volume's plot points in that first chapter.

But, as the story's grown, that structure has slipped away from Dorothy. This Tear flashback was meant to end in chapter 35, yet kept going since Dorothy needed to give it more space. Ch33-34, the rise and fall of DeLphi, were originally one long chapter. The story is taking on a life of its own and I understand Dorothy's anxiety over not knowing how long that will take to tell in full. But the quality of these chapters keeps rising. Effortlessly bringing background characters into main character roles, re-contextualizing not just the story but the tone of the manga in this turning point, and a seismic shift waiting in Michi becoming an active protagonist. I loved this little flashback and I'm just as excited for it to be over.

Thank you for your work. We absolutely should support the authors.
Times are tough… but we should try to keep the things we like alive.

Really appreciate you caring about it, I really do.

 

[zanonyn]

"Violence is never the answer!"

This is less believable coming from a Cleric who multi-classed with Muscle Wizard and is suspected of using INT as a dump stat. Ganbare Tear-sama.

 

[irwen]

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Sekraan]

You and me both girl. I stopped making sense of things ages ago when the Idol shit started...

Seriously how does this mf keep up 🥲

This series definitely seems like it's more easily digested as a binge.

I agree on the idol group dynamics confusing things. The scenes at school have been the most enjoyable and I can connect with all the characters.

The non-deceased idols were kind of peripheral earlier on and consequently I'm not as invested in them as characters. This arc could help solve that, at which point I'll go back and reread.

 

[emmadrew]

Glasses Tear is so cute! I'm liking this ship more and more each chapter

Thank you for the TL!

 

[zairaner]

You and me both girl. I stopped making sense of things ages ago when the Idol shit started...

Seriously how does this mf keep up 🥲

I wanted to think "it isn't really that hard", but then I remembered that I was thinking "wait who is this?" here this chapter:

oops.

Also I kinda forget we already saw sayaka "meeting" ange. I guess the question now is what happens to ange in between the end of getting violenced by karasuma and michi meeting tear/sayaka/karasuma in chapter 32, did they ut her back into the hospital.

 

[kaptenkeren]

I thought Karasuma will doing a drop kick in page 22. Lol

 

[Amerine]

God damn, I just got all 6 volumes for a little over £10 on bookwalker

 

[MsW0lf]

At least it doesn’t seem to be Tear’s mother or her suicide that is to blame for any of this. And if anything it might be an answer to how she’s been spared: her mother is obviously watching over her.

 

[irrelevance90]

I wonder if Tear's mother was protecting her from all the haunting this whole time. Nagi's silhouette popping up when Karasuma mentioned "grudges" might factor in later as to why ghost Nagi moved from one Delphi's member to another (with the apparent exception of Tear-sama). Mini-Michi and Michi herself still have so many unanswered questions about their origin - I think Mini-Michi is a representation of Michi's ability to deal with ghost and she must have helped Honami somehow after Nagi passed away, but the haunting was so strong that Michi ended up losing her own memory in the process.

 

[shemper]

Thank you for your work!

 

[demon_slayer69420]

i feel safe when karasuma shows up in a scary situation.

 

[Jybu]

hehe the tone is soo funny sometimes lool