Ai no Shoudo - Oneshot
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TL;DR: it is (probably) an allegory about the avarice and vanity of treating a living planet as a resource.
Well, I do not actually know what Yoshida-sensei intended to tell us with this story, but I have a feeling that the story has to be read as a fable. If so, we must consider the story elements as abstract symbols rather than concrete entities.
Now that I revisited the story to remember what I read (LOL), let me start my exercise of madness. As I mentioned, I think this is a fable, thus the animals (or alien rabbits) are there to teach some moral lesson. In a fable, everything is a symbol, thus the story elements should not be seen by their concrete, dictionary meaning. They should be understood through their metaphorical signification. Because of that, fables tend to be very short, otherwise, it gets too complex and confusing.
Well, I do not actually know what Yoshida-sensei intended to tell us with this story, but I have a feeling that the story has to be read as a fable. If so, we must consider the story elements as abstract symbols rather than concrete entities.
Three alien rabbits (a nameless father, and two sons) live on a planet that needs oxygen to survive. The father invades planets to extract all the oxygen and take it to their home planet. Once they start running out of oxygen again, they start pillaging another planet. This particular time, they are invading Earth. The father regularly goes to Earth to deploy oxygen extraction machines and heist artifacts, while the children stay at home. The boys, Oberu (older) and Aruru (younger) seem to be very close and very distinct: Oberu is quiet and contemplative, while Aruru is joyful and carefree.
One day, the father brings a gift for both of them: sushi bento for Aruru, and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers for Oberu. Aruru is intrigued by Oberu’s gift since he sees no purpose in things that are not food or toys. As time passes, Oberu becomes less active and prefers spending his time looking at the painting than playing with Aruru. Aruru worries about his brother and pleads with his father to not bring any more paintings. In an effort to lift Oberu’s spirit, Aruru secretly takes Oberu to Earth so they can see a sunflower field.
Unknown to Aruru, Oberu’s wish was not to “see” the sunflowers or the Earth. Oberu’s actual desire was to “live” with the sunflowers and the Earth that existed in his painting. Aruru’s appeals to his brother to give up the idea of living on Earth, which would eventually die without the oxygen their father is extracting. Oberu states that neither Aruru nor their father would understand him, so he says goodbye, and leaves forever. Aruru then falls in despair as he realizes he will not be seeing his brother ever again. He is found by a human soldier who rips his ear with a gunshot, so he shouts that now that he lost an ear like Van Gogh, Oberu should come back to him. In the end, Aruru hallucinates in the midst of the sunflower field and realizes that he and his father only valued their own kind and planet, whereas Oberu valued the planet and the life they were robbing. Filled with regret, Aruru understands that he was not truly concerned for his brother but was in fact afraid of his own loneliness. The story ends with Aruru understanding that Oberu’s happiness lies with all living beings, whereas his happiness lies with being with his family. But now, it is too late.
One day, the father brings a gift for both of them: sushi bento for Aruru, and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers for Oberu. Aruru is intrigued by Oberu’s gift since he sees no purpose in things that are not food or toys. As time passes, Oberu becomes less active and prefers spending his time looking at the painting than playing with Aruru. Aruru worries about his brother and pleads with his father to not bring any more paintings. In an effort to lift Oberu’s spirit, Aruru secretly takes Oberu to Earth so they can see a sunflower field.
Unknown to Aruru, Oberu’s wish was not to “see” the sunflowers or the Earth. Oberu’s actual desire was to “live” with the sunflowers and the Earth that existed in his painting. Aruru’s appeals to his brother to give up the idea of living on Earth, which would eventually die without the oxygen their father is extracting. Oberu states that neither Aruru nor their father would understand him, so he says goodbye, and leaves forever. Aruru then falls in despair as he realizes he will not be seeing his brother ever again. He is found by a human soldier who rips his ear with a gunshot, so he shouts that now that he lost an ear like Van Gogh, Oberu should come back to him. In the end, Aruru hallucinates in the midst of the sunflower field and realizes that he and his father only valued their own kind and planet, whereas Oberu valued the planet and the life they were robbing. Filled with regret, Aruru understands that he was not truly concerned for his brother but was in fact afraid of his own loneliness. The story ends with Aruru understanding that Oberu’s happiness lies with all living beings, whereas his happiness lies with being with his family. But now, it is too late.
Now that I revisited the story to remember what I read (LOL), let me start my exercise of madness. As I mentioned, I think this is a fable, thus the animals (or alien rabbits) are there to teach some moral lesson. In a fable, everything is a symbol, thus the story elements should not be seen by their concrete, dictionary meaning. They should be understood through their metaphorical signification. Because of that, fables tend to be very short, otherwise, it gets too complex and confusing.
In Japanese folklore, there are tales of rabbits living on the moon, hence the alien rabbits. They see themselves as superior to all other life forms and thus see no wrongdoing in killing Earth. We know very little about the rabbits. We do not know how many rabbits are there, but we are led to believe that there are only the three of them. We can infer that they are able to survive on Earth but choose not to. The father seems like an unquestionable force that the boys cannot fight, and they follow him despite their own will – whether they are aware of that or not.
That being said, the story focuses on the two brothers. The younger one is content with the status quo and pays no heed to the demise of Earth. As long as he is living with his father and brother, he is happy. Nothing else matters to him. On the other hand, his older brother seems to be discontent with something we are unaware of. His only source of satisfaction – or relief – is a painting his father looted from Earth: Van Gogh’s Sunflower (most likely the 4th version).
As you probably know, Van Gogh experienced an enormous amount of suffering throughout his life and used art to express the sadness and loneliness he could not put into words. It seems fitting to choose him as Oberu’s avatar. Oberu does not actually says what he feels. He only states that he (i) would rather live on the dying planet Earth than with his family that (ii) do not understand him. We peer into Oberu’s feelings through Aruru’s despair. You know the famous Nietzsche quote “if you stare at the abyss, the abyss stares back at you”? Something along those lines, not exactly, but closely, or not. As Aruru tries to understand his brother’s feelings, he realizes his own. Oberu longed for all the life and beauty his family was robbing, whereas Aruru longed for Oberu’s attention. In the end, both brothers were lonely all the time.
We do not know the true end of the story. Did their father look for Oberu and found him? Did Oberu die with the Earth? Did Aruru return to their planet? Why am putting so much effort into a commentary in MangaDex? It is all a mystery.
Anyhow, we now have to look at what the symbol of the dying Earth means. This may be a reference to colonialism, a common practice throughout human history. One could say that “all countries were guilty of colonialism at is sometime in their history”, and that is indeed true. We cannot, however, ignore that the most recent and probably most relevant example was the Age of Discovery, when Europeans invaded America (the continent), Africa and Asia to exploit natural resources. The scale of that event was unprecedented. As a South American, I am not well-versed in African or Asian history so I will not comment much on them due to my own ignorance, sorry. What I can tell is that in America, the Portuguese, Spanish, French and English invaders annihilated several people and their culture. I understand that some people may find this upsetting because it is “something that happened ages ago”, but in reality, it is still a very recent trauma and the scars it left on people have not healed yet. You just have to look at Canada’s Residential Schools that have been in the media recently. The last facility was closed in 1997, only 26 years ago (as of 2023). Brazil just declared an emergency over the death of their first nations. Well, enough of that, you got the idea, assuming that someone is reading this. I mean, we could continue talking about this if you consider the billionaires out there planning to colonize Mars, but enough is enough.
Now, if you ask me “why would a mangaka draw such a thing?” it may be because they felt some very negative emotion towards the current world’s state. As I said, all the author said was the story of three rabbits killing Earth. Everything else was my own exercise of madness. If you got here and are mad at me because I am wrong, that is on you! I never said I was right. Anyway, the feelings the author sent through this story reached me and, for what is worth it, I am glad and thankful for that. You see, the silver lining is that the rabbits probably had the technology and the capability to coexist with Earth, just like we, as humanity, can coexist with Earth so we wished to. Now we need more humans and fewer alien rabbits. And why did I write such a long essay? Well, it seemed to me that not even the scanlator had an idea what this story was about, and since I might have one explanation, I thought “eh, why not”? And here we are.
That being said, the story focuses on the two brothers. The younger one is content with the status quo and pays no heed to the demise of Earth. As long as he is living with his father and brother, he is happy. Nothing else matters to him. On the other hand, his older brother seems to be discontent with something we are unaware of. His only source of satisfaction – or relief – is a painting his father looted from Earth: Van Gogh’s Sunflower (most likely the 4th version).
As you probably know, Van Gogh experienced an enormous amount of suffering throughout his life and used art to express the sadness and loneliness he could not put into words. It seems fitting to choose him as Oberu’s avatar. Oberu does not actually says what he feels. He only states that he (i) would rather live on the dying planet Earth than with his family that (ii) do not understand him. We peer into Oberu’s feelings through Aruru’s despair. You know the famous Nietzsche quote “if you stare at the abyss, the abyss stares back at you”? Something along those lines, not exactly, but closely, or not. As Aruru tries to understand his brother’s feelings, he realizes his own. Oberu longed for all the life and beauty his family was robbing, whereas Aruru longed for Oberu’s attention. In the end, both brothers were lonely all the time.
We do not know the true end of the story. Did their father look for Oberu and found him? Did Oberu die with the Earth? Did Aruru return to their planet? Why am putting so much effort into a commentary in MangaDex? It is all a mystery.
Anyhow, we now have to look at what the symbol of the dying Earth means. This may be a reference to colonialism, a common practice throughout human history. One could say that “all countries were guilty of colonialism at is sometime in their history”, and that is indeed true. We cannot, however, ignore that the most recent and probably most relevant example was the Age of Discovery, when Europeans invaded America (the continent), Africa and Asia to exploit natural resources. The scale of that event was unprecedented. As a South American, I am not well-versed in African or Asian history so I will not comment much on them due to my own ignorance, sorry. What I can tell is that in America, the Portuguese, Spanish, French and English invaders annihilated several people and their culture. I understand that some people may find this upsetting because it is “something that happened ages ago”, but in reality, it is still a very recent trauma and the scars it left on people have not healed yet. You just have to look at Canada’s Residential Schools that have been in the media recently. The last facility was closed in 1997, only 26 years ago (as of 2023). Brazil just declared an emergency over the death of their first nations. Well, enough of that, you got the idea, assuming that someone is reading this. I mean, we could continue talking about this if you consider the billionaires out there planning to colonize Mars, but enough is enough.
Now, if you ask me “why would a mangaka draw such a thing?” it may be because they felt some very negative emotion towards the current world’s state. As I said, all the author said was the story of three rabbits killing Earth. Everything else was my own exercise of madness. If you got here and are mad at me because I am wrong, that is on you! I never said I was right. Anyway, the feelings the author sent through this story reached me and, for what is worth it, I am glad and thankful for that. You see, the silver lining is that the rabbits probably had the technology and the capability to coexist with Earth, just like we, as humanity, can coexist with Earth so we wished to. Now we need more humans and fewer alien rabbits. And why did I write such a long essay? Well, it seemed to me that not even the scanlator had an idea what this story was about, and since I might have one explanation, I thought “eh, why not”? And here we are.
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@ donlanthirion //
thank you so much for this essay - it was a really enjoyable read, and it opened my eyes to the story of this manga, you were right, i scanlated the damn thing yet didn't have a clue.
unfortunately i took this one at face value - oberu was depressed, with no outlet to help him, and ururu pretended to care, but only ultimately cared for his own feelings over anything else.
i will state that there is probably some context(?) or deeper commentary lost in translation, but i am just one shitty translater trying her best lol
i'll definitely share your thoughts with those i shared this manga with. yoshida is certainly an interesting mangaka, and i want to share their works as best as i can.
for someone to care about a manga i tried my best to share really does motivate me. thank you （；´д｀）ゞ
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