Motoka no Shokudou - Vol. 1 Ch. 8

[MangaDex]

 

[Wnf]

two people alone in a black hole, i wonder what the new legends about the sirens will be.

 

[Kellizer-Levvit]

This might just be the only time in history where a manga referenced a Western work where the former didn't feature incest but the latter did.

 

[cromat]

@kellizer-levvit can you explain?

also i didn't really get this chapter. what happened after?

 

[Kellizer-Levvit]

@cromat On page 8, you can see the words "Time Enough for Love" on the side of the ship. This is a reference to a sci-fi novel by famous author Robert Heinlein, which is split into several smaller stories, all relating to incest. The joke is that incest is so common in manga but (relatively) rare in Western fiction, at least more recent stuff, so it's funny to see a manga mention a book by an American author that deals with incest when this Japanese story doesn't, rather than the other way around.

Also the plot is just that the dude was on a ship ten years ago which fell into the black hole but the captain helped everyone else escape while she got stuck inside it because time stops inside the hole. So now he snuck onto another ship to go back in and find her because he lovers her more than anything else in the universe. But because we don't see the part-timer until the last few pages and then someone talks about how this story of a lover going back into the black hole to be with his beloved for all eternity was from 100 years ago, it again suggests, as previous chapters have, that Motoka is somehow immortal because she was there serving that dude 100 years ago.

 

[cromat]

@kellizer-levvit so the "siren's song" from the beginning isn't really space creatures right? its the captain asking the computer to play her a song (near the end of the chapter) which comes out of the black hole

 

[Kellizer-Levvit]

@cromat Correct. Also of note is that the allusions to the goddess symbolized by the pomegranate is Persephone, who in Greek myth was abducted by Hades, lord of the underworld, to be his wife. She was later freed, but because she had eaten some underworld pomegranates, she was forced to spend the winter months with him in the underworld, which is clearly meant to parallel how the captain is trapped in the black hole, i.e. the underworld and now the lover has come to be with her as well.

 

[m4ng4]

@Kellizer-Levvit Though the chapter was relatively understandable, but thanks for the extra info like the comparison, author, and the myths.