Mietemasu yo! Aizawa-san - Vol. 4 Ch. 23 - Lying Mii-chan and Broken Maa-chan

[Dingo777]

I'm curious where this "Christmas is a family holiday in Japan" coming from? It always has been some sort of date night (romantic or not) in every pieces of media that came out of Japan for a long time.

Never ever ever trust foreign media to accurately portray what life in that country is like

 

[sebaasdf]

Yeah it is my fault for reading this at 1:30 AM

 

[Saon]

Hoo-boy.

First, thank you for the chapter.

Second; not sure how long I can take of the angst that manga keeps stretching every chapter. I guess there were some clues given this chapter. Is the fifth member that haven't made it into the band perished and got rid of Aizawa as a ghost because of a grudge, but since Aizawa is now a ghost she possesses the remaining members of the audition group to continue her petty "revenge", like what is even happening anymore.

 

[Colonel-Picquart]

Aizawa was pretty scary this chapter, it seems like she's lost control again and scared herself and I hope Michi notices that! Though how much longer she can keep up this Mieruko-chan act of 'I do not perceive you' is really questionable

 

[emmadrew]

The big takeaway of course is confirmation there was a 5th member of De:Lphinus. There's been subtle hints beyond Masaki plain asking where the 5th girl went, Delphinus being a 5 star constellation for example. And the Sailor Moon theory (each member follows the same naming pattern as the 5 main sailor senshi: Tsuki/moon, Ai/love, Hi/fire, Ki/tree, Mizu/water is missing. Dorothy being a massive Sailor Moon fangirl and referencing this way back with Kidou Ange wearing a Jupiter shirt.) So 5-chan is almost certainly Mizu-something.

Maybe this is a huge stretch, especially given that there are other things which seem to strongly go against Michi being 5-chan, but Michi kinda sounds like it could be a corruption of Mizu-something. Mizu-san -> mi-chan -> micchi -> michi. I swear to god I've read something where one of the characters had the nickname (first character of their name)-cchi, but maybe I'm tripping.

Another thing I noticed is that on page 14, you can see each original member of the group with a star overlayed on them with Aizawa as the second from the right. On page 15, all the charecters but Aizawa disapear but there are still five stars and Aizawa is still second from the right. In the panel on page 15, Aizawa is looking down sadly on the center star, which on page 14, represented the missing member. IDK if this really has any greater meaning but I still think it's a nice attention to detail.

 

[akaikem]

Reserving fast food is kinda wild.

 

[WhereTheYuriAt]

Damn Michi, you're bein' kind of a jerk this chapter.

- Bails on her bishie dad and makes him spend Christmas all alone (she did it to hang out with a gyaru though, so I get this one).

- Lets a girl lick cream off her face in front of her ghost girlfriend (but the girl doing the licking is a gyaru, so actually this is super understandable).

- Tells Masaki that there's a cat and that she can see the cat but there's actually not a cat and then she ditches the cat-less Masaki to go hang out with her manga-reading ghost girlfriend (and Masaki is a gyaru so this is just totally unforgivable).

I never would've guessed that our gloomy protagonist was such a heartless girl.

Some in-depth analysis of the kind I care about (because gyaru).

 

[weleasewodger]

Kentucky fried colonel for Christmas. Damn Nippon, thats about the strangest thing I've learned about you😂

Michi-chan and her strange athleticism with an affinity for dance huh. Well I see where this is going

 

[ngkn92]

I don't know where it's going, but I like it.

 

[MathMols]

Tbh I do kinda hope Aizawa kills that girl… Since she was introduced all she has been is annoying af and a sexual assaulter, I just want her gone already…

 

[Yuri_Enjoyer_Deluxe]

What typa Junji Ito craftery is this?!?!?!

Harrowing. That is not my idol gang. I wonder if the group is immensely cursed since thaf death. Seems fitting after all.

 

[Orangechrisy]

When you realize DeLphi isn't 1/4 dead, it's 2.5/5 dead.

Relatively subdued volume finale but not unusual given the manga's settling into a long run. Only so many times you can reinvent the rules without stealing twists from the endgame. And this volume was said to be more laid back before we take a steep turn next time.

The big takeaway of course is confirmation there was a 5th member of De:Lphinus. There's been subtle hints beyond Masaki plain asking where the 5th girl went, Delphinus being a 5 star constellation for example. And the Sailor Moon theory (each member follows the same naming pattern as the 5 main sailor senshi: Tsuki/moon, Ai/love, Hi/fire, Ki/tree, Mizu/water is missing. Dorothy being a massive Sailor Moon fangirl and referencing this way back with Kidou Ange wearing a Jupiter shirt.) So 5-chan is almost certainly Mizu-something.

Unless there's an insane twist in the works 5-chan is the ghost haunting DeLphi. Which raises questions. Why was her death even quieter than Aizawa's? Tear never referenced it aside from potentially at the start of ch18, where she may have linked herself to it ("I should know better than anyone [something supernatural is happening]" coupled with a panel of her standing in blood(?)). But she's been trying to deny DeLphi's haunted for a while now, so it makes sense she'd bury it. If so though, why isn't 5-chan targeting her? Why Aizawa and then Ange? Why does she need Aizawa to be fully dead? Why does she need to possess Ange to do it? It's not like Aizawa needs possession to get things done. Why is 5-chan seemingly bound to DeLphi when we know Aizawa has some pretty strict and unique rules binding her to school? And if Karasuma is investigating the source of this mess, why isn't she going after DeLphi? It's just a hunch but I don't think 5-chan is the final boss here.

There's a lot less insight on Masaki than I expected but it was a very humanizing chapter for her nonetheless. And now we get the fun implication Aizawa could accidentally kill her the same way 5-chan is killing Ange. That's a fairly deliberate transition from Masaki coughing to Ange coughing. This also seemingly confirms 5-chan did not die of ghostly illness, otherwise Tear would have mentioned it back when she said that's how Aizawa died. And finally we have wild ghosts returning (after 2 volumes post-exorcism) which means a return to the spooky stuff.

And now for the chapter title.
Lying Mii-kun and Broken Maa-chan is a light novel series by Hitoma Iruma, the author of Adachi and Shimamura. I only read the first volume so it's hard to tell exactly what connection Dorothy is drawing here. Far from the first time an Aizawa chapter title has referenced another work, and there's always meaning to it. To sum up Mii-kun and Maa-chan's relationship (spoilers for volume 1):

Spoiler: Lying Mii-kun and Broken Maa-chan vol1 spoilers

'Mii-kun' and Maa-chan were victims of a kidnapping when they were kids. The kidnapper forced Maa-chan to murder her own parents, traumatizing her and permanently derailing her memories and sense of reason. 'Mii-kun' is not the real Mii-kun, but the son of the kidnapper who was victimized as well. Maa-chan mentally replaced the real Mii-kun with him as a coping mechanism. 'Mii-kun' has his own trauma including being a pathological liar (even to himself) incapable of accepting the word love after his mother died protecting him during the kidnapping. The two were separated for a while, but after reuniting Maa-chan is utterly obsessed with 'Mii-kun', immediately treating him like they're a married couple which 'Mii-kun' passively goes along with. Maa-chan also has dark tendencies like kidnapping children herself, and 'Mii-kun' is driven by a desire to protect her and set everything right.

It's kind of a classic of the yandere genre, with a complex protagonist and melancholic monologues like Iruma's known for. Again, I'm no expert on it. And I can only guess what Michi or Masaki's deal is. But there's connections in that summary which should jump out at you.
So are we getting a yandere arc out of Masaki? Is there more than meets the eye to her infatuation with Michi? Or is she just ghost sick and the title extends no further than the events this chapter? Who knows!

Hopefully (hopefully) the manga doesn't go on another 2 month hiatus like the other volumes. Volume 1's happened because Dorothy was graduating college, 2's came because she missed deadlines, 3 had no excuse given. But she's hired an assistant now so maybe I'll see you again next month.

• It's a little suspicious how fast Honda jumped on Masaki coughing. Does Masaki have a history of illness?
• The promise Ange refers to was in chapter 14 when she reassured Tear DeLphi wouldn't give up.
• With Michi getting interrupted asking about what Aizawa was like in life it's looking increasingly like there's an answer we need to hear there.
• Michi continues her deduction streak of being horribly wrong about everything.
• "I never thought about who I want to be with for Christmas. Oh anyway, how's Aizawa-san?" is like a colorblindness test for subtext.
• Enter the Michi/Aizawa/Masaki/Honda poly route.

Wow there is so much that I miss when reading it, thank you for doing these deep dives

 

[Ichigo69]

I'm curious where this "Christmas is a family holiday in Japan" coming from? It always has been some sort of date night (romantic or not) in every pieces of media that came out of Japan for a long time.

It’s not hard to see where the confusion could begin. Look at all the Christmas movies that come out of the West each year. As many of them focus on romantic love between couples as on whole families. It’s easier to make a story that focuses on two people than between four, five, of six.

Japan just took the movie-makers at their word.

Next part spoiler'd b/c of tl;dr....

Spoiler: History of Japanese Christmas

The oldest Christmas celebration to be held in Japan is believed to have been held by Jesuit missionary, Cosme de Trace, who preached in Japan with legendary Christian proselytizer Francis Xavier. Cosme held a celebration in what is now Yamaguchi Prefecture as far back as 1552.

Around 1560, 100 newly minted Japanese Christians gathered in Kyoto to celebrate 降誕祭 (koutandai), which is a word meaning “festival of the birth of a great saint” and is an early Japanese word to refer to Christmas.

Intriguingly, from 1568, there exists a note by Jesuit Priest Luis Frois that reads “Nobunaga Oda and Hisahide Matsunaga held a ceasefire for Christmas.” Many historians take this as an indication that there were Christmas celebrations being held all around the place in Japan at the time.

Unfortunately, Cosme and his Christian crew were unable to effectively push their religion when Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa banned Christianity, on pain of death, in 1612.

Tokugawa didn’t manage to wholly eradicate the Christian faith though, with a group of Christians in Amakusa and other places, quite literally “keeping the faith” across several centuries. They are known in Japan as the “kakure kurisuchan”, translated as “Christians-in-Hiding”.

But, not surprisingly, it is not recorded whether Christmas was celebrated during this time whatsoever, let alone what was on the dinner menu if it was.

This period also became the time where Japan cut itself off from the rest of the world. Allowing no foreigners in, and no Japanese out, it was the time of the “sakoku” or “locked nation”.

They did allow a couple of small trading outposts at the more far-flung extremes, such as Dejima in Nagasaki. It is reported that the foreign barbarians who congregated in this area celebrated some kind of “winter solstice festival”.

Bearing in mind that December 25 is actually based on Romanic and later Germanic winter solstice festivals of “yule ”, it sounds like the out-of-towners non-Japanese were hosting Christmas bashes on the sly.

Fast forward to the Meiji era, the period after Admiral Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay in 1853, stood next to a smoking cannon, and politely asked the Japanese to open up their country to trade with his friendly, and powerful, nation of America.

In 1873, the decree outlawing the practice of the Christian religion was lifted and the Christians-In-Hiding inside Japan breathed a sigh of relief two and a half centuries coming.

The iconic Meiji-ya foreign import goods store, which opened in 1885 in Ginza, began selling Christmas paraphernalia. Christmas started to catch on with the common people, or at least those curious about all things barbarian.

But it is believed that Christmas cheer did not really spread in earnest until the Showa era.

Up until WWII, there were national holidays for both the Emperor’s birthday and the death of the past Emperor. When Emperor Taisho passed away on December 25, 1926, the date became a national holiday.

December 25 remained a holiday until the passing of a broader law on national holidays came into effect in 1948. This meant that Japan had, by coincidence, a holiday for Christmas for a couple of decades in the early 20th century without really even knowing it.

By this time. though, special Christmas menu items were beginning to be offered at cafes and coffee shops in Tokyo. Shop staff began donning various pieces of Christmas clothing.

When Japan entered WWII, it became not so cool to celebrate all things Western.

Not-so-cool as in the use of English was banned. Western-style festivals were roundly discouraged. Interestingly, there do exist pictures of Christmas trees, and some Christmas items in Japan during this time. It seems that Christmas even found a way to live in wartime Japan.

If nothing else, this would suggest that certain Christmas traditions had become pretty well ingrained by this time.

Showing some similarities with how Christmas is celebrated in many European countries, Christmas Eve is the main event in Japan. But, in contrast to European Christmas Eves, Japanese traditions for Christmas Eve are closer to a Valentine’s Day style events, with people seeing it as a time for couples to make romance.

This idea of Christmas being something that couples celebrate more than families can be seen, and may have been strengthened by, the 1982 hit song “koijin ga Santa Claus”

which somewhat translates as “Santa Claus Is My Lover“.

Kentucky fried colonel for Christmas. Damn Nippon, thats about the strangest thing I've learned about you😂

Here's the story about that:
Kentucky Fried Chicken is pretty good at coming up with innovative marketing campaigns to get people to scoff more poultry. Somehow, in the space of half a century, they seem to have convinced the Japanese people that eating Southern deep-fried chicken is akin to an age-old Western religious tradition. This has to be one of the KFC Worldwide Marketing Team's greatest promotional coups.

The Japanese KFC Eating tradition even has its own quasi-religious mythological story that goes with it. In this origin story, the character most closely resembling baby-Jesus is one Takeshi Okawara. Apparently, the idea of the “Christmas Party Bucket” materialized to him in a dream. The concept had been bubbling in his subconscious since hearing a couple of foreigners in Japan pining for their beloved Christmas turkey.

Whether it was the Buddha or God who appeared to Takeshi in 1970 in his nocturnal vision and whispered in his ear the good news revelation of the Fried chicken, is not known.

What is known is that by 1974 KFC Japan was launching massive marketing campaigns that seemed to strangely, perhaps divinely, strike a chord in the Japanese national psyche. It was as if a huge latent desire for crispy tori had been awakened within them.

Today, this slumbering desire has been fully sated with Japanese queuing up outside the fast-food chain’s many establishments in the festive season. Or booking their meals months in advance to avoid disappointment.

And while KFCs in North America are quietly adjusting their rosters so that they have the least manpower required to service the minimal demand for chicken wings in the festive season, Japanese KFCs are jacking up their prices and doling out the Christmas buckets by the millions. Indeed, the company claims that more than half of the country’s population eats there once a month during the holidays.

The KFC Christmas menu typically includes fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, and chocolate chip cookies.

 

[758627]

tl;dr

Nice infodump but I'm just confused by this sudden claim "Christmas is a family holiday in Japan". Like you said, because of the misunderstanding and/or pushing from corporations (commercial holiday and all that) it always has been a date night ever since. Family was never really a focus from the beginning (probably because they (JP) already have a traditional "family holiday" - New Year Day). Even if the whole "couple night" getting looser every year, it was just more "friends getting together" and never "family gathering". Which makes that claim rather bizarre.

 

[Ichigo69]

Nice infodump but I'm just confused by this sudden claim "Christmas is a family holiday in Japan". Like you said, because of the misunderstanding and/or pushing from corporations (commercial holiday and all that) it always has been a date night ever since. Family was never really a focus from the beginning (probably because they (JP) already have a traditional "family holiday" - New Year Day). Even if the whole "couple night" getting looser every year, it was just more "friends getting together" and never "family gathering". Which makes that claim rather bizarre.

I'm wondering if they were actually meaning Christmas is a couples holiday. After all.... Our (the West) Christmas and New Years are completely opposite from that in Japan... After all... Christmas is about couples in Japan, and about families in the West. Then, while the West is busy partying it up on New Year’s Eve, Japan is quietly going to the Shinto (or Buddhist) shrine with their family. So yeah... Now that you mention it... I'm really not sure WHAT they were talking about......

 

[yanderecoverl]

Another suspense, I don't think Aizawa-san can take anymore cheating with her gf with somebody having their way with her

 

[hanapino]

Some pieces are connecting while others are being created. It’s getting good!!!