Ikoku Nikki - Vol. 6 Ch. 27 - page.27

[MangaDex]

 

[Iceblade20]

Is this like three different story points interwoven into one. I'm confused?

 

[bunny]

Are the pages in the right order?

edit: nvm I'm dumb

 

[Darklight99]

A very unconventional chapter, I liked it. And everything worked out, I thought Makio would snap again.

 

[MintyJulep]

@Iceblade20

I think 4 if you count the end, but yup. It's the overlapping of three different visits.

 

[areticentreader]

I think the pages are in the right order, and I think the chapter was meant to feel super chaotic? especially after last chapter. so it feels like the author just wanted to show that life kinda keeps going maybe? like Asa managed to stop water from flowing for a moment before it came rushing back in (I'm sorry idk how to explain it)

 

[JKTV]

So this is how makeup feels eh

How messy

 

[Lililily]

I feel like I understand a lot of things but also dont understand a lot of things from this chapter

But somehow Lil prince quote comes to mind

What is essential is invisible to the eyes

 

[sssr]

This chapter is seen from Asa's POV, so it's basically a compilation of memories relevant to her of each visit. She's taking similar themes that came up in each visit and weaving them into something she wants to learn from the visitors. It's also a continuation of Asa's troubles from the last three or four chapters where she'd started worrying that she doesn't really have anything she wants to do in life that she's actually good at. It's also a distillation of the choices Makio made in life to become the person she is today. So in essence Asa is evaluating whether she wants to be Makio.

 

[FandomRatGuy]

this is so freaking good <3

 

[Pyoro]

This is so good at breaking up conventional storytelling in meaningful ways.

... also, that's some damn progressive views for a Japanese story that those characters have. Particularly regarding motherhood and jobs. That's super rare to see ... in fact I'm not sure I can remember any other manga that directly brings that up ^^;

 

[Glimmung]

@pyoro Yep directly addressed the whole get pregnant and then sacrifice everything for your child thing Japan expects. I think that has been one of the undercurrents throughout this whole story. Every mother save Makio and Minori’s had motherhood destroy their aspirations.

 

[Nixnaw]

I really like the fragmented way of storytelling. It gives us the sense of Asa trying to piece her thoughts together.

@Pyoro @Glimmung It's also my first time seeing a manga address the burden of motherhood in this way as well. Having to quit their job and even Emiri's mother mentioned she hasn't been called by her name for a long time a few chapters ago.

 

[starlightcitypro]

I have to give the author credit. This was extremely difficult to pull off and make it coherent and yet they did.

 

[nameless_incognito]

Jesus Christ, it's like reading stoned Aaron Sorkin script. Fuck you Yamashita.

this was extremely difficult to pull off and make it coherent and yet they did.

...not. It feels like it ended up being overly obfuscatory by accident. It's not the first time she'd set out to make a narratively complicated construct (not experimental, because similar things had been tried already), but the writing here never had failed as miserably as did in this chapter. Happens in serialized works, but to pretend that it's something more than it is simply because you're in awe of the title as a whole is just silly. It's not a novel, a oneshot, or even a limited series, and because storytelling process is being stretched in time, open to many revisions and quite likely lacking a definitive ending point, it will have many uneven moments.

edit: inb4 "read something more your speed" as it will happen with confused, butthurt fanbase.

 

[useless]

This is really great.

 

[Laparoscopic]

@ssr I’m reminded once again that I’m essentially a surface-reader; I read this chapter a dozen times and never picked up that it was Asa’s POV. But it makes more sense like that. Thank goodness I’ve got y’all to explain these things to me 😛.

 

[-Toast-]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that had kind of a hard time parsing this chapter. I feel like the author could have done a bit more to emphasize the divide between the different memories. I think that was what they were going with for with the spacing of the panels. Maybe they could have done something like switch between different fill tones in the gutters, or space the panels out a bit more. As it stands, it doesn't scan very well.

 

[ehoba]

This chapter has little mistranslations.
pp.5: "You don't need to thank her"
pp.16: Kasamachi wanted his mother to say something. He suddenly remembered that she actually said "I think you're great". She subtly put her anger into words at that moment. Again, that part contains the first person pronoun "mother". The direct translation is "your mother thinks you're great." The point is the postpositional particle "wa". It implies "(Your father pays no respect to your job/my old job but) I think you're great."
Anyway, Kasamachi's father is an asshole

 

[Glimmung]

I don’t get people having a hard time parsing this, there are literally different people in each memory with no overlap at all. At the start of every transition Emiri, the author, or Kasamachi is present in the panel to prevent any ambiguity.