Haikei, Arishi Hi ni Saku Hanatachi e - Vol. 4 Ch. 18.1

[MangaDex]

 

[Beltaro]

Give the raws a like.
I retract my previous assessment. Fuck Yurika, all my homies hate Yurika. Only Aoyama deserves a happy ending here.

I was pretty spot-on with this description however:

These snapshots could all be sweeter in another context but they have a deeper purpose: these are the moments Aoyama smoldered over for 6 years. She flips through them like old photographs as the rest fades away, an idyllic trauma she can't move past. Aoyama's been trapped in the memory of something she couldn't emotionally grasp.

Sayori's arc led us to believe no matter how toxic, the pair could see eye to eye. Yamabe's arc led us to believe no matter how unlikely, the pair could reach a happy ending. But like the boxcutter, Igarashi may have twisted the rules again. This is not an arc headed for mutual healing. This is Aoyama facing disillusionment and the most painful truth.

It's ultimately a positive influence on their romance, on the romances of the 2 settled pairs too. If there's only one theme to this manga it's that. Class S was born from a painful time in history, but that pain paved the way to happiness. Yuri is the celebration of what Class S laid the groundwork for. By paying respects you take the good with the bad, exploring degrees of bittersweet to downright toxic before ultimately finding that brighter path together.

And while I'll cross out the "togethers" in this case I still hold to this being the core theme of the manga. To skip to my closing argument: there's a powerful inversion at play here. Yurika conspicuously represents lilies/yuri itself. Yet she fetishizes romance while acting as a proponent of the worst of Class S, wielding a system that once acted as limited liberation for the repressed to now repress emotional attachment and discard her partner once she's done.

Meanwhile Kasumi represents a perfected Class S relationship. One that shows all signs of lasting where the yuri one fell apart. Aoyama reconsiders her judgment that it was "kiddy shit," now seeing it as harmonious and mutually fulfilling. Do I think Igarashi is arguing we need to reject yuri and return to sisters? Not at all, and the tell lies in Aoyama exploring different types of lilies. Ones with gentler, less harmful fragrances.

It's undeniable Kasumi and Haruyo's relationship has outgrown the limitations of Class S. While they still shelter within their roleplay, they share a happy romance that's already discussed leaving sistership behind once they're ready. And as Aoyama wants to see what's real, part of me hopes that means reconciling with Kasumi. I don't think she can overcome this without opening up, maybe taking comfort in her letter's legacy leaving behind a more inspiring love.

Despite the lack of overt imagery it's horribly uncomfortable watching Aoyama come to terms with her abuse. Punctuated by that page of middle school Aoyama longing for what Kasumi has, what could have been in a better life. Giving a sense of the innocence she lost; one little memory unearthed and an avalanche of trauma coming down.

And while less immediately heavy, that revelation comes with the admission she trampled over Kasumi's feelings. Unlike the other arcs that happened outside our protagonists' knowledge, this one broke containment. Kasumi was personally affected and regularly interacts with Aoyama at the library. She owes Kasumi an apology. An apology that would come with some degree of explanation and maybe continued confiding over the secrets they share. I'm not sure where the overarching story goes from here - tracing older letters? Following new branches? Getting Yurika arrested? But Aoyama seems set to potentially play a larger role than Sayori or Yamabe have. Who knows, maybe Kasumi needs a friend exposed to trauma to begin addressing her own buried pain.

I can't end without dedicating a section commenting on the imagery.

• The ghostly outline superimposed over a dead flower, symbolizing Aoyama's idyllic memory overwriting the death of her romance.
• The tattered white fabric billowing over the lily dimension, its texture indistinguishable between ribbon and lily and described as the paleness of death. So absurdly evocative despite coming from nowhere. I have no doubt Igarashi always based the white ribbons of the school uniform on lilies, waiting for a scene like this.
• A collage of the past bordered and blocked by simple abstract flowers, constructing a neat narrative of something much darker.
• Once again being consumed by a lily and one of its petals reaching where it really shouldn't.
• As Aoyama tears her memories apart we're given 3 panels of a lily dying like her romanticized love, leaving only its pistil as the flowers wilt away. This is followed by 3 panels of Yurika unfolding, leaving petals waiting open like a mouth around the stem and ovary. My reading of it at least, as tucked into the TL note, is a very symbolic admission Yurika was only ever interested in using Aoyama for sex. Now I admit I'm no flower doctor and that could be something else, say a newborn flower. But those don't look like closed petals; it too closely resembles the wilting flower of the previous page.
• The field of lilies Aoyama now stands on is dead, petals collapsed at her feet. All that's left before her is a barred frame containing one of the same flowers from her romanticized collage.

I touched on some more abstract metaphor in the TL note. As a flower uses its petals to lure in small animals to carry on its legacy, Yurika used the promise of romance to lure in a young girl to ultimately carry on the darker legacy of Class S.
Igarashi's really going all-out with the artistic abstractions and depictions of Aoyama's inner workings.

And so to close I'll translate some of Igarashi's comments this chapter:

I've always thought flowers are are a little grotesque. I do like them regardless and find them beautiful too, but from certain angles they look like monsters. I was glad to focus on that rawness to them this chapter.
In middle school I bought a photo book of flowers and the close-up pages of pistils and stamens freaked me out. "Are flowers actually gross...?" That might have been the core memory that started all this. And yet it might be why I like flowers so much.

I remember thinking, "Yuri is a genre about lilies, so you better learn all about lilies or else! It's a matter of courtesy!!" I drove myself crazy for a while reading books on lilies.
Once upon a time I drew a doujinshi themed around the language of flowers. But I found myself thinking, "Flower language is so useful to the point it makes it hard to look at the flowers themselves." So I write Arisaku without looking up anything to do with flower meanings in advance.* Flower language is a language and that makes it overpowering to writing. That language begins influencing the entire work. It's too invincible of a weapon.
(tl note: Igarashi does look up the flower meanings after an arc is completed. As a personal note, I consider the language of flowers to be cold reading. It's mostly generic sentiments or themes that can be applied to anything. Symbolism always finds a way to apply to works with profound meaning. Not to say they don't feel special when adorning a finished story, but letting symbolism be the foundation of a story can severely limit where you take it.)

During Yamabe's arc such outlandish compositions and psychological surrealism felt unfitting, so I held off. But letting it all surge back out during Aoyama's arc has been thrilling. These things just don't suit Yamabe. Please never become someone who feels at home with these things. I'm begging you. You don't belong on this side.
(tl note: As Yamabe's arc was calmly melancholic and Yamabe herself a very logically minded architecture student, Igarashi restricted the page composition to geometric and stable boxes with little to no deviations until Mia broke through to Yamabe, represented by a diagonal break in the page as she grabbed Yamabe across the desk.)

Q: Why was a middle schooler buying a photo book of flowers?
A: Well a shoujo mangaka has to be able to draw flowers! That's why I bought it, to copy from the real thing.
...Maybe I can still be one someday!? A shoujo mangaka!!?!?? It's not too late for me, is it!!!???

(I might need to go back and adjust Yurika's dialogue but page 13 is showing Yurika always had her annoying speech habits. It's another thing Aoyama glossed over.)

 

[Amerine]

Yurika's gonna have to be put in the device, I'm afraid.

Don't forget to like the raws

 

[EdgeGod]

Thanks for the translation!

 

[Attqqqq]

Starting to think that this senpai may not have actually been a very good senpai

 

[zairaner]

Art this good feels almost illegal to look at.

 

[YVESMlNAJ]

Igarashi Sensei has got to be one of the best mangakas

 

[Attqqqq]

Also, Thanks for the translation and explanation

You can really tell when the translator actually likes the manga, or is just looking for a vehicle to plug their Patreon. Many such cases

 

[UdenEmpati]

Blending the imagery of lilies with the neckties/ribbons, or of flowers and ribbons as a whole, is the level of symbolism that sets manga apart as a medium for storytelling.

It's one thing to make the allusion, to wax poetic & philosophical about the metaphor of yuri-centric elements as they pertain to the genre and to the specific story being told; to visually depict it--literally, even in abstract forms like we see throughout this first half chapter, elevates this to actual art.

To layer the meanings of lilies having more than one form, one iteration, and for love itself to carry myriad depictions across the gamut of healthy and violent and profane and sacred, and also to play that into memory of trauma itself, and how our very minds and hearts can betray us in an effort to protect us from that which hurt us most in the past, feels like it almost shouldn't be possible.
Aoyama unraveling her memories and the reality of what was done to her, as surely as peeling the petals from the pistil or the ribbon that binds her limbs and throat, revealing the truth of what Yukari subjected her to, and overlaying that on a gigantic metaphor of the lily itself and what it actually means to her....I could go on and on, but it's storytelling at its finest.



I truly hope Aoyama finds her peace, but more than anything I am afraid for her. She's taken a real blow, having her past stripped out from under her and she's in emotional freefall under the weight of all of this revelation. The one bright spot, is that she has a connection to Kasumi--the one girl who wouldn't turn her back on someone who is actually hurting, as intimately familiar as she is with pain. If Aoyama comes to her pleading for forgiveness and help, I can't imagine Kasumi wouldn't put herself in danger to make the attempt.
And the stakes are potentially dire. Yukari is a teacher now, and carries authority over the rest of them in a substantial and very real way. There's no definitive proof, that we've seen, that Aoyama can point to that pins blame on Yukari for what she subjected Aoyama to when they were both students, and so it almost feels like she could get off scot-free, in a "legal consequences" sense at this point.
But more than that...Aoyama needs a safe space with safe people to process her trauma and her grief and her pain. Kasumi and Haruyo are almost outlandishly perfect for this--they've had Sayori to contend with, and survived that ordeal coming out stronger together. They've found a great space within their own situation, and have grown closer together than ever, building one another up. So I do not doubt that they can't help Aoyama in some capacity.
The only issue, is whether Aoyama is at the point where she seeks healing and a path forward and beyond her past, or if she will remain rooted, requiring closure with Yukari in order to put all of this to rest. What that looks like....well, we already have the Boxcutter for reference as to where Igarashi-sensei is willing to go in the physicality sense.

It's an interesting twist though on the concepts of Class S and Yuri, as @Beltaro said. I do think this builds upon what little I know of the foundational work and ideas, inverting some aspects and putting a mirror up to others, to show how even as the evolution of the original premise into its more-free form can still lead to a perversion of the ideal. Not every person seeks harmony and loving security; monsters still lurk in the world, intent on only their own pleasures and aspirations. Aoyama has been a victim of that very reality, but the light still exists: Kasumi, in all her imperfect and yet still-expanding capacity to show a better way forward, isn't out of her reach.

There is yet time to plant a new garden, to find new flowers with sweeter, more gentle and nurturing fragrance.

 

[NilnisNilneef]

All right, never mind, I was assuming Aoyama was also invested in the sexual aspect of the relationship but it's looking more like it was incidental if not traumatic. And Yurika was just a gaslighting creep. She can exposit her backstory and then evaporate.

I retract my previous assessment. Fuck Yurika, all my homies hate Yurika. Only Aoyama deserves a happy ending here.

Seconded.

 

[yoorie19]

This manga should have its own corner in an art museum.

 

[rkbrillantes]

Of course I want to comment on how beautiful and descriptive our mangaka's visuals are and the visual storytelling. You can almost understand the context without the dialogue.

I really feel bad for Aoyama. She doesnt see why Kasumi is so happy and turned envious and bitter.

EDIT: I will add that I am still hopeful that Aoyama arc will have a fairly happy ending where she finds comfort in someone else as she lets go of what happened to her with Yurika.

Thanks for the chapter, its always a feast for the eyes when seeing this updated.

 

[Percy_]

Annnnd bomb of realization has been dropped. I think the panel that hits for me is the view of younger Aoyama talking with present Kasumi, saying how she never called senpai Onee-sama, which in turn is her figuring out they never were in an S relationship. Can't wait for the next chap and I hope Aoyama gets her justice somehow.
Thank you for the translations!

 

[flowsthead]

I'm still curious about Yurika's statement that she wanted Aoyama from the previous chapter. Yurika mentioned that she was in a Class S relationship before with a senpai, which has implications of a cycle of abuse, but there's another possibility too. What if Yurika's senpai was just playing a game, but Yurika is actually gay? It certainly doesn't remove any of her abuse towards Aoyama, but it would make sense in Yurika feeling unfulfilled by Class S, feeling like her feelings were being discounted by the game.

That's obviously just speculation, and I'm not against the idea that Yurika is just a narcissist abuser, but at the moment it feels a little too simple for this manga.

 

[DJNebulous]

Certainly puts a greater emphasis on the question of whether Yurika specifically became a teacher to maintain predatory behaviorism. She avoided the typical route of using the letters specifically because she didn't want the emotional connection aspect.

I would agree that it's less a commentary on the chastity of Class S versus the modern relationship explorations of Yuri but rather a statement in regards to sex without love.

 

[Kanade0021]

Hmm , I guess yurika senpai only after is her body not her heart?

 

[asbyth]

these last few chapters are kinda making me sick. really heavy material. wow igarashi is an insanely good author

 

[noobplant]

A lily stripped of its petals, all that remains is pure predatory lust. Incredible symbolism.

Yurika needs to be put on a list.

 

[Ichigo69]

Don't forget to like the raws

Okay, I'm kinda ashamed at myself as I've never done this before, so I wanted to start. However, I went to the raws page and I can't find anywhere to "Like" them. Do I have to log in in order to see the "like" button? Is it "subscribing" to the manga that counts as a "like"? I'm kinda lost here (btw, I'm fairly okay-ish with Japanese but I just can't find it anywhere)...

 

[onedumninja]

It really was a parasitic relationship. There was nothing but take by yurika. Yurika, at minimum age for the timeline would be 17, raped aoyama who was at maximum 12. Not just once. For an entire school year.

Now here is where I speculate. Did yurika want to be a teacher before she began raping aoyama or only after?

This is important to know because if it was after, there's a very high chance she came back to her old HUNTING ground (a school) for more than just "encouraging" the continuation of class s. She probably came back to find more victims. Afterall, Yurika is presented as a flower with no petals in this chapter. She's not about the fluff, her only real goal is the sex. And she doesn't care if the flower she preys on isn't even a teenager yet (12).

Important questions I have rn:

What happened to yurika's first class s partner, her older sister? She mentioned having done class s with an older sister before doing class s with aoyama right?

Is yurika's older sister also a teacher? 0_0

Is yurika a former victim turned perpetrator? Cycle of abuse type of situation. Or was she always like this?

What was the age difference between yurika and her older sister?

Regardless, they need to lock yurika's ass up and that's before we even find out if I'm right about her motives for a career in teaching!

I hope aoyama can take yurika down before there are any more victims T_T