Kemono Jihen - Vol. 10 Ch. 37 - Demon

[dmr11]

@lionfromnorth

What about replacing them with lab-grown meat? There's no reason why human meat can't be synthesized when the technology improves enough.

 

[Alhazred23]

If Kemono who are classified as "demon" clans are either obligatory or preferential predators of Humanity then the Life Calculus seems like it would be the key to any sort of peaceful detente (which is probably why Inugami was looking for it.) It is an item that is specifically designed to subvert the, "everyone is part of the food chain, so all that matters is how high up you are," logic that the manga seems to run on.

Incidentally, we seem to be on a roll of Kemono clans either getting off unscathed or being annihilated down to one or two surviving members. I wonder who gets to survive among the Oni. I feel like it's probably the big guy at least, though i am less sure about the doctor; her smile seems pretty similar to Inari's, " I'm going to eat you in a minute so let's all play nice now," smile.

 

[nobaka]

a chapter without kon is a dagger in my heart

@dmr11
probably about the 'taste'

most kemono don't NEED human meat, some just really prefer it iirc, and having the food that pretty much all kemono really want (and that maybe some NEED) is pretty powerful.

the problem with lab-grown meat is also how it's grown. It's slow and it tastes weird because it's never used and has odd chemical balances. (it's a topic relevant to my field, so I try to keep current on it)

Honestly the main reason people aren't used for livestock isn't moral/ethical, it's biological. If it worked, by now we'd have been doing it for so long it wouldn't seem weird to most of the world. Humans are a neophyte species, meaning they stay small and weak (lit. 'baby-like') longer than other animals. The cows most commonly bred for food are full grown in about 2 years, fully mature around 4, so in around 3 years you get a 1600-2400lb (~730-1100kg) animal. In the same amount of time, a human generally reaches around 40lb (~18kg). Factor in the amount of time and money needed to feed (in terms of proper nutrients) and shelter a human without them getting sick (humans are comparatively the most physically fragile mammal on the planet excluding maybe bats) as well as socialization (humans are social animals, but not pack animals, so panic easily, which affects health), and it's really a worthless venture.

Even if you double, or maybe even triple the weight of a child, like they're talking about (not actual numbers, they don't specify), it's still an incredibly costly venture. Not only for the financial cost of raising the human livestock, but also of hiding the venture from the rest of the (human) world.

tl;dr
the technology exists now, it's just really shitty and the product isn't very good.

@yarnnnn
'cheated' means killing. Whether as cutting people up and leaving them glued together in a way that they'll die or just not fixing them all. Altho apparently cutting them up and gluing them together is not preferred, it's a powerful persuasive tool.

 

[Mami]

This manga continues to be the embodiment of "there's a lot to unpack here so let's just throw away the whole suitcase".

Also despite how crass she is the girl seems to have a bit of a moral code. Or to the very least she understands her boyfriend is a psycho and wants to put him in a situation where he can "Co exist" with others.

 

[Alhazred23]

@Mami I wouldn't be so sure that's the case. Hinata knows that Robara murdering as he likes will get them in trouble, but this doesn't necessarily mean that she thinks it's wrong. Their ask from Inari is a little world of their own that "accepts" Robara, which probably means a place where he can go wild whenever he's got the itch and nobody will bat an eye. From what we've seen, that's a lot of murder she'd be fine with for her boyfriend's happiness.

 

[BalrogDeMorgoth]

@nobaka It's outright said that there are Kemono who need humans meat so there isn't really a 'maybe', Kemono eat each others a lot too though it seems to be implied it happens less since they have factories like this one but it's not really a taboo since they are different species after all, Inugami even compare it to an eco system IIRC.

Anyway i hope they slaughter those two nutjobs.

 

[nobaka]

@BalrogDeMorgoth
my bad, i thought i said that most don't NEED it (but some do) but a lot prefer it

they probably won't kill them, eliminating characters doesn't seem to be a real trend in this series. At least not yet. maybe after whatever this manga's namek will be

 

[Sparrowhawk]

 

[BalrogDeMorgoth]

@nobaka Yeah, he said all of them could eat it but most don't need it, i just wanted to say it was sure there were kemono who 100% needed it.

There has been a few death though, like the spider boy's uncle and the snake village.

 

[Alhazred23]

@BalrogDeMorgoth Also the Yuki Onna village, most of the staff at the Ogreham plant, lots of Tokyo police officers, anyone those mosquito kemono targeted and quite possibly whatever clan Inari got her first calculus from. Named central or secondary characters don't die off much, but the wholesale slaughter of nameless mooks and innocents is definitely on the table.

 

[dmr11]

@nobaka

The technology currently exists yes, but keep in mind that it's still fairly new and it's given that the product wouldn't be perfect. But eventually with enough development it'll improve enough for the product to taste the same as the real/natural thing.

 

[Monky]

Damn this manga goes HARD

 

[Tamerlane]

I'm a Halo, Fallout, and Warhammer 40k fan. At this point, I have become so desenstized to this kind of shit that I just accept it. Mass Rape? Murder? Genocide? Using humans as chattel for a perpetual war machine where they're meat shields and are in ever-present danger of death? Seen it before. Oh god I'm a sociopath, aren't I?

There's also the horrible philsophical possibility that

Spoiler

they've been bred so specifically for this purpose and have been modified to such an extent that they may no-longer be considered "human" in some sense of the word and would be unlikely to function within human society as people normally would.

But also, there are definitely fictional settings where the mass consumption of humans is not only normal but kinda mandatory. In Warhammer 40k, the citizens of Necromunda eat Corpse Starch because the population is so astronomically large that more people die in a given amount of time than food can be grown to sustain those people. You also have Soylent Green, which is a horror Sci-fi story about a world so burdened by overpopulation, overexpended resources, and such a significant class divide between the rich and poor that in order to feed their population, they have to eat people. Alternatively, cannibalism is not uncommon in our own history, with small-scale examples including the Donner Party or the survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, and large-scale examples including the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the Mesoamerican empires. Even Thomas Swift joked that eating babies was more practical given the state of Ireland during his time. What I'm trying to say here is that there is definitely ways cannibalism can be justified for humans, and if it's this kind of scenario, where it's artifically produced humans with short lifespans expressly made for non-human consumption to minimize potential harm done to uninvolved humans, it may just be a necessary evil.
@lionfromnorth

Also on an unrelated note, Iwao seems nice, if you forget the whole "being the lead scientists in what is essentially Abe's Odyssey" thing.

 

[AZ09XO]

Bruh. Killing kids goes waaaaaaaaaaaay past the line for me. Beat the shit outta 'em, Ogre-san!

 

[Alhazred23]

I wonder, if Robara's "cut and paste" schtick is a specialist application of the kitsune transformation ability then what happens to all of the people he's glued back together again if/when he dies? We've already seen transformed objects revert back to normal upon close examination like the fake calculus the farting fox gave to Akira. As noted previously, named antagonists seems to have unusual staying power in this so Robara is unlikely to die anytime soon, but its still a worrying thought.

 

[nhatanh]

@Alhazred23 volume 8's extra mentioned the difference between transformation and illusion: the former actually transforms something into something else, while the later only makes the affected perceive reality differently. The fake calculus was not transformation but his illusion ability at work.

Robara's gluing ability is just too fucking tangible to be a specialist illusion ability though, it'd be interesting if he and Hinata actually were another species of kemono and only worked under Inari to realize their ideal world. That is to say Akagi's illusions sometimes looked strangely tangible too, like when the orochi kid was lifted up by his illusory fox.

 

[Alhazred23]

@nhatanh I wasn't sure about the fake calculus since technically it could have been either, but I think that Akagi was actually using both illusion and transformation abilities in the serpent town; i.e. he was transforming pebbles and things into fox statues, which he then used as anchors for his illusions. Tanuki are noted for being especially good at transformation, with Inugami being able to turn his hand into a gun, but kitsune can do it too. The fox servant holding up the kid was probably a transformation as well, in addition to Akagi becoming Kaede's eye. Inugami said that foxes could specialize in either illusions or fire but it seems to me like if Robara really is a kitsune then he has to be specialized in transformation of objects.

Edit: though really, the whole "specialist" thing sounds like an excuse to give the antagonists crazy, unique powers rather then all of them just having generic kitsune abilities. One thing I do wonder about the kitsune though is why they seem to universally have an almost cartoonishly distorted and evil cast to their fox features when their human transformation breaks, like, "Christ, that doesn't look like any fox I've ever seen!"

 

[daywithoutgames]

well , at least this kemono manga is better than the trashy "the promised neverland" .

 

[NoTofu]

Eh that Megijima guy is a hypocrite, comparing it to livestock production is unfair because those humans that are bred in that facility can still communicate and are sentient, telling her that you always love them is nothing but lies and a sad attempt at trying to lower your own guilt.

 

[Alex-dono-sama]

wtf