Futsuu to Bakemono - Vol. 3 Ch. 23

[MangaDex]

 

[Cogito3]

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm curious to hear what people think Itou means by "blasphemous," and why Takahashi seems to have forgotten her earlier usage of it.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I also like the parallels in how she used 'blasphemous', both in chapter 6 and here.

Both are when Itou was rejecting some "common-sense" concept from Takahashi:

• the first was about how to get along better with people, and Takahashi's answer was "being nice", but with the caveat that it was in pursuit of being useful to a person, because people are inherently self-interested and thus would be more amicable & friendly if you "make yourself valuable". Itou, for her part, rejected that pattern of behavior, and though she couldn't quite articulate it in the moment, she called it "exhausting" and that such thoughts felt "blasphemous" when you're trying to be with someone.
  
  
• the second, this chapter, is Takahashi again telling Itou to just let Fake Yoru do whatever they like, for the sake of appearances and the comfort of Ooki and Yoru's family--even if it means letting them be lied to. And once again, Itou rejects that, calling it the same word.

Which, in my interpretation, reads as Itou (knowingly or otherwise) striking at the heart of authenticity in relationships, something that she has apparently internalized in some respect. She yearns for normality in human connection and interaction, seeking guidance from a monster pretending to be just like her--but she rejects anything that would cheapen a bond between herself and someone else, or allow it to be transactional or exploitative, or a case of "turning a blind eye for the sake of empty harmony". And in that sense, Itou herself apparently has things to teach Takahashi, and Takahashi is now actively listening to her where she was much more detached and uncaring earlier on in their relationship.

A neat little parallel for Itou, and for her relationship with Takahashi, and for Takahashi, in how they've grown and solidified throughout the series.

Also - "blasphemous" is a hell of a term to use in this context for these interactions, but I think it's correct, and appropriate.

Both because it fits the sort of person Itou is--someone profoundly not-normal, but still deeply true to herself and her perspectives and beliefs (even if she can't really define them in the moment), would understandably use language and terminology that would feel either archaic, or perhaps simply "beyond" what a Normal Person would consider appropriate; but also because "blasphemous" itself doesn't only mean direct contempt of a god or deity, but of anything held sacred. And Itou absolutely holds friendship sacred, and though she craves some nebulous iteration of "Normality" for herself so as to be more successful at making friends, she's also profoundly aware that there is a significance to friendship, and to bonds between people (even monsters) that demands a truth and a level of respect that, in their absence, would render such things profane and insulting to the people involved.
Just my expansion on the term itself, because it's an interesting one to have twice in a series in these contexts and from a character as unique as Itou.


Thanks for the TL, as always.

 

[Serenata]

Flashback to my dark past where I used the word machiavellian (actually I wrote maquiavélico) casually .
But seriously this situation is really messed up, and I'm glad that at least one person gets to cry for her because her other friends and family can not... But that might change soon.

 

[onedumninja]

Was there a logic to how monsters choose their camo or is it just the easiest prey close by?

I'm sure there are lots of awful people they can replace which could even be a good thing (felony criminals and such).

My point is that the monsters could serve a positive purpose in society (still debatable tho) but they don't. They kill children like it's nothing. They seem (all the monsters we've seen) to have no remorse whatsoever. Humans are just a pair of jeans to pick from a pile.

I don't see any viable path to coexistence here and I'm rooting for our mc to kill Mr. N and the new one asap. Only the death penalty would suffice for beings that kill without remorse.

That said, Ito will have to either make an exception for her friend here or kill her eventually as the friend states. It wouldn't be the first time a human has strong beliefs but breaks them for a specific person(s).

Perhaps there is a compromise they could agree to. Monster friend only replaces people who "deserve" it. What qualifies is up to ito and her friend.

 

[WhiteRabbitBR]

Thx for the cap

 

[Resound]

aigh they gonna kill the copy? and this manga better not end up itou becoming a monster hunter

 

[Prismatic-chan]

for those who may not have caught onto the last lines in this chapter:
she went from ''i'm going to eat you eventually'' to ''you will have to kill me eventually''.
why is this important?
she basically confessed having feelings for Itou-san.

 

[louloute0203]

for those who may not have caught onto the last lines in this chapter:
she went from ''i'm going to eat you eventually'' to ''you will have to kill me eventually''.
why is this important?
she basically confessed having feelings for Itou-san.

I think the meaning was more to highlight Itou's blind spot about herself? Because while Itou's declare that she can't accept the idea that someone is cosplaying as a replacement of the actual person, but that's exactly what Takahashi is doing. She was planning to do it to Itou. By Itou's own principles, Takahashi should be someone she can't accept either.

 

[solamente]

so many different ways of illustrating the same eyes on the same face. I just noticed this. there's so much variety

 

[Cosmism]

You can't recall something that you haven't memorized in the first place. A lot of information passes through our short-term memory and never makes it into long term memory. One of the factors that affect encoding is the perceived importance of a stimulus. Takahashi doesn't remember Itou using the word "blasphemous" because Itou didn't matter all that much to her at that time.

tldr: they're closer now; yuri shall be achieved. (when? well, eh...?)

 

[Cosmism]

Thanks for the TL, as always.

If it isn't my favorite essay writer! Hullo! I've been seeing you around a lot lately.

 

[MsW0lf]

I think it’s less that “it’s the first time you’ve said the word” and more “it’s the first time you've used that word in this context”. Takahashi is trying to get Itou to understand that Takahashi and N are not really any different from each other in the great scheme of things. How is N’s actions with Hiraizumi any different from Takahashi’s? Is it only because Itou has formed a relationship to Hiraizumi? Does that mean that Takahashi’s previous inhabitant was less than Hiraizumi? Because if N’s actions are blasphemous, and he should be destroyed, then Takahashi should be destroyed as well because her actions were no different, regardless of the context of whether one was suicidal or near death or what have you.

If it is the piloting of a body and deceiving those who care for it that is the blasphemous act, the context of the puppeting is meaningless.

 

[Lunkli]

For a second there, I forgot that his plan was to kill people to gather bodies for his monster friends.

 

[UdenEmpati]

I think it’s less that “it’s the first time you’ve said the word” and more “it’s the first time you've used that word in this context”. Takahashi is trying to get Itou to understand that Takahashi and N are not really any different from each other in the great scheme of things. How is N’s actions with Hiraizumi any different from Takahashi’s? Is it only because Itou has formed a relationship to Hiraizumi? Does that mean that Takahashi’s previous inhabitant was less than Hiraizumi? Because if N’s actions are blasphemous, and he should be destroyed, then Takahashi should be destroyed as well because her actions were no different, regardless of the context of whether one was suicidal or near death or what have you.

If it is the piloting of a body and deceiving those who care for it that is the blasphemous act, the context of the puppeting is meaningless.

what's interesting to me is that there's cold logic to Takahashi's thought process here, given that she's inhuman just like N is.

But I have to wonder whether Itou doesn't see it that way, by virtue of the bonds she specifically has formed with Takahashi, and the sum experience she's internalized where Takahashi has been a friend, confidante, ally, and yuri-panion (meta call). She doesn't have that with N or the new monster wearing Yoru's skin. And at this point, whose interpretation of the "good" and the "evil" thing is correct, or should be considered correct?
Does Itou's feelings about Takahashi have weight? Do our feelings as readers of this story, and our meta-knowledge of the characters' various positions and roles within the narrative, have weight?

And why should credence be given to some over others, if at all?



Which I think circles back to the heart of the matter of both times Itou used "blasphemous". Because both times, it was Itou rejecting the cold logic that Takahashi was imparting to her, on the basis that the emotional tax she would suffer in following that advice and how she felt it wasn't right or correct or sound to remove some innate part of herself in order to "fit into" the sort of mindset required for such dispassionate thought and behavior.
There's a real irrationality in wanting to destroy the monster taking over the body of a former friend/classmate, when you're the only one who knows they've been killed and puppeteered. Takahashi is absolutely right: Yoru's friends and family would be devastated if she suddenly were truly dead. But Itou can't let the monster go on living Yoru's lie, because to do so would be a rejection of her memory of Yoru. There's a humanistic element to not wanting Yoru being desecrated like that.
Just like "being kind to others means being transactional with others" was Takahashi's advice for how to better make friends, and yet Itou felt that doing so would be lying to herself and to those she wanted to get closer to. It's rational, or pragmatic, to think about friendships as "give and take" and to reduce it to unfeeling calculus and rates of exchange, but you lose something very human in the process (call it your heart, or soul, or whatever works best).



Apply the irrationality of not wanting to remove the human heart from the equation that Itou has embodied twice now, and I suspect she would find a way to similarly rationalize to herself why Takahashi needn't die, like she desires N & Fake Yoru to die, solely because of the emotional bonds she's built between them (at least from Itou's side, but I'd argue from both).
And I suspect that is where Itou can teach Takahashi, for once.

 

[UberNomad]

Is it only because Itou has formed a relationship to Hiraizumi?

I think there's also a difference in their approaches to indiscriminate killing of people.

 

[MsW0lf]

I think there's also a difference in their approaches to indiscriminate killing of people.

But is there? Sure, when she took Takahashi’s body she didn’t just kill indiscriminately, but that doesn’t mean she hadn’t before or (disregarding Itou’s influence) wouldn’t do so after.

 

[NissanFairLadyZ32]

BLASPHEMOUS!? EL PENITENTE??? MILAGRE????????

 

[MakiKawaii6969]

Thank you for the translation!

 

[the_Bear_from_Bearcave]

But is there? Sure, when she took Takahashi’s body she didn’t just kill indiscriminately, but that doesn’t mean she hadn’t before or (disregarding Itou’s influence) wouldn’t do so after.

Sure, but it also means that her current situation is different , because if she didn't kill the girl she's "wearing" now, then she didn't take away anything from her. Itou doesn't know what happened or not before, so she has no reason to have strong opinion on it, unless they start discussing Takahashi's past in future chapters, and she doesn't have any reason to be angry about stuff that might or might not happen in the future.

Itou is reacting to her own feelings about the current situation she witnesses, not about some general principle, since that's how her mind works - it doesn't seem to work on philosophical or ideological wordviews, but on how strongly she feels about something, whether normalcy, friendship, or mourning. If Takahashi doesn't do anything that feels "wrong" right now, it's not surprising Itou doesn't care.