Akane-banashi - Ch. 206 - God of Death
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"It goes where it will... and only... takes."
forever ago, Shiguma drilled into Akane that her lived experiences would inform her storytelling, and back when Akane was learning Fetching Tea from Urara, the big conclusion she hit was that the stories she performed would grow and change with her, and I feel like this was a prime example of Akane internalizing those ideas. She could only represent a capricious Death like this because she's witnessed it herself, this is a story that only this Akane could tell Right Now and that's super cool to see
for a while I thought that she might use this story to show gratitude to Death, but finally reaching the end of this performance made me realize that gratitude is built into the next story she has to master to grasp Shiguma's Art, Shibahama. Maybe I'm reading too far into things, but it almost feels like this is a sort of healing journey for Akane? Her Shinigami presents the idea that life is inherently unfair, but Shibahama is about a man being blessed by a loved one watching out for him and eventually being rewarded for bettering himself. Akane's got plenty of love in her life but it still feels like Death had been hanging over her for so long, so now that she's starting to have fun with rakugo again it feels like she's primed and ready to embody all that love again and create a special Shibahama performance like what her dad was aiming for years ago. Hell, in Shibahama the main character only receives his fortune after 3 years of hard work... feels a lil familiar lol
rambling aside, what a sick performance start to finish. The choice of the sneeze ending is especially fun for how it still fits with Akane's exploration of the craftsman style and letting the audience interpretation carry weight, since you could see it as one last joke or one last instance of cruelty forced upon the main character
and of course, the art is still killing it, those last two double-page spreads are stellar
forever ago, Shiguma drilled into Akane that her lived experiences would inform her storytelling, and back when Akane was learning Fetching Tea from Urara, the big conclusion she hit was that the stories she performed would grow and change with her, and I feel like this was a prime example of Akane internalizing those ideas. She could only represent a capricious Death like this because she's witnessed it herself, this is a story that only this Akane could tell Right Now and that's super cool to see
for a while I thought that she might use this story to show gratitude to Death, but finally reaching the end of this performance made me realize that gratitude is built into the next story she has to master to grasp Shiguma's Art, Shibahama. Maybe I'm reading too far into things, but it almost feels like this is a sort of healing journey for Akane? Her Shinigami presents the idea that life is inherently unfair, but Shibahama is about a man being blessed by a loved one watching out for him and eventually being rewarded for bettering himself. Akane's got plenty of love in her life but it still feels like Death had been hanging over her for so long, so now that she's starting to have fun with rakugo again it feels like she's primed and ready to embody all that love again and create a special Shibahama performance like what her dad was aiming for years ago. Hell, in Shibahama the main character only receives his fortune after 3 years of hard work... feels a lil familiar lol
rambling aside, what a sick performance start to finish. The choice of the sneeze ending is especially fun for how it still fits with Akane's exploration of the craftsman style and letting the audience interpretation carry weight, since you could see it as one last joke or one last instance of cruelty forced upon the main character
and of course, the art is still killing it, those last two double-page spreads are stellar
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Very interesting. Something I have seen different between how the "fundamental" life forces work between the "West" and the "East" is how they understand "gods."
Gods for the East have always seem like anthropomorphizations of emotions of these forces, while the forces themselves are represented as rules, laws, or even objects that represents these rules and laws. Gods obey the laws and rules, they are the things that enact the wills of these laws and rules. In here, the candles represent these rules. A candle represents the lifetime of someone, and a God of Death follows the rules of these candles and take the lives of the people who have been ordained by higher laws to die.
In the West, while God reigns supreme and decides what is to happen. There's a sub aspect of this, where in reality, God is basically the operation of the universe itself, that's the experience we have of the world, while we consciously attribute these aspects to God. This is why we have representations of death as the Angels of Death, who enact the will of God. But the most popular, in fact, align with our cultural experience of death as: Death, the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper is in fact Death itself, the actual force taken form. What rules does Death follow to enact its will? Well, that would be itself. Death is itself. And so, Death does not look externally, and in fact, does not decide what is to happen. It's more like how we stand up from our desk and grab a bite of food from the fridge. In truth, there's an aspect of a "force" that's moving us, but when you see it as a subconcious thought of "I need to eat" and so you simply enact your own subconscious will to eat, that's analogous to Death. When Death comes for your soul, it does it because "it is hungry" and so Death simply walks off to get a snack. He's not eating us per se, but his will is his own and it following its own clock. "Why did you come for me? Why me, why now?" "It is simply your time." There's noting that tells Death how or why, this is a simple truth to Death and as hunger and thirst are to us. Why did we stand up to eat? Why eat, why now? It is simply time for it, that's what feeling hungry means.
And so, while Akane seems to have taken inspiration in the West, to see Death as simply this force that enacts its will and needs to eat. She still is telling a story that is East-centered, culturally speaking. What are the candles for, to the Grim Reaper? Nothing, merely a platitude. The sneeze was there to show that, but in the West, the lighting of the candle would have been nothing. Death would have congratulated you for fighting against fate, for that is who we are and what is what we should do. Then promptly take our soul, the candle would have fallen and gone out in a puddle of water after rolling into it. The candle is just symbolic that your life was over, not the excuse to take your life. Death would have take your soul regardless of whether the candle had snuffed our or not. And maybe, maybe... maybe the coldest ending would have been you staring soullessly at the dim dancing flame of the lit candle. "It was simply your time."
Gods for the East have always seem like anthropomorphizations of emotions of these forces, while the forces themselves are represented as rules, laws, or even objects that represents these rules and laws. Gods obey the laws and rules, they are the things that enact the wills of these laws and rules. In here, the candles represent these rules. A candle represents the lifetime of someone, and a God of Death follows the rules of these candles and take the lives of the people who have been ordained by higher laws to die.
In the West, while God reigns supreme and decides what is to happen. There's a sub aspect of this, where in reality, God is basically the operation of the universe itself, that's the experience we have of the world, while we consciously attribute these aspects to God. This is why we have representations of death as the Angels of Death, who enact the will of God. But the most popular, in fact, align with our cultural experience of death as: Death, the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper is in fact Death itself, the actual force taken form. What rules does Death follow to enact its will? Well, that would be itself. Death is itself. And so, Death does not look externally, and in fact, does not decide what is to happen. It's more like how we stand up from our desk and grab a bite of food from the fridge. In truth, there's an aspect of a "force" that's moving us, but when you see it as a subconcious thought of "I need to eat" and so you simply enact your own subconscious will to eat, that's analogous to Death. When Death comes for your soul, it does it because "it is hungry" and so Death simply walks off to get a snack. He's not eating us per se, but his will is his own and it following its own clock. "Why did you come for me? Why me, why now?" "It is simply your time." There's noting that tells Death how or why, this is a simple truth to Death and as hunger and thirst are to us. Why did we stand up to eat? Why eat, why now? It is simply time for it, that's what feeling hungry means.
And so, while Akane seems to have taken inspiration in the West, to see Death as simply this force that enacts its will and needs to eat. She still is telling a story that is East-centered, culturally speaking. What are the candles for, to the Grim Reaper? Nothing, merely a platitude. The sneeze was there to show that, but in the West, the lighting of the candle would have been nothing. Death would have congratulated you for fighting against fate, for that is who we are and what is what we should do. Then promptly take our soul, the candle would have fallen and gone out in a puddle of water after rolling into it. The candle is just symbolic that your life was over, not the excuse to take your life. Death would have take your soul regardless of whether the candle had snuffed our or not. And maybe, maybe... maybe the coldest ending would have been you staring soullessly at the dim dancing flame of the lit candle. "It was simply your time."
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i have a mixed feeling from seeing Issho's smile. truly the best antagonist
