Ura Baito: Toubou Kinshi - Vol. 2 Ch. 24 - Aquarium Staff ③

[MangaDex]

 

[77BLc9JwJGpLVARkamJx]

Fish hivemind spooky ghost? Aquarium was on an evil spot? 2mysterious4me

 

[OrichalonHades]

my guess its a deep/fathomless one kind of scenario. Something from the depths of the ocean.

 

[cromat]

so whats this monster doing? the emphasis on the ball lure wish would imply the humans are being lured just to be eaten.

so its probably not a motherly entity, its just eating people. could either be otherworldly or just terrestrial fish monster

 

[Sonaldo]

so whats this monster doing? the emphasis on the ball lure wish would imply the humans are being lured just to be eaten.

so its probably not a motherly entity, its just eating people. could either be otherworldly or just terrestrial fish monster

I love it when horror fiction doesn't explain shit and leave it to the viewers to make their own conclusion.

 

[farranpoison]

The emphasis on the lure does indeed seem to mean that the entity isn't some motherly entity but it's luring people to itself to eat. Makes sense when we have both the male staff member and the office worker lady both seem to be strongly attracted to the entity only to be eaten by fish at the end.

However the final pages where the guy wonders how fish see humans seems to also imply that this entity is some kind of collective hive mind of fish/sea life that is hunting humans.

 

[silverpetricof]

Thank you for the translation.

 

[beep_repair]

"And all the fishes were hollow, my dear, and all of them swam at me."

 

[LupusVir]

The emphasis on the lure does indeed seem to mean that the entity isn't some motherly entity but it's luring people to itself to eat. Makes sense when we have both the male staff member and the office worker lady both seem to be strongly attracted to the entity only to be eaten by fish at the end.

However the final pages where the guy wonders how fish see humans seems to also imply that this entity is some kind of collective hive mind of fish/sea life that is hunting humans.

The thing for me is that it wasn't a separate entity eating the victims, it was a bunch of (seemingly) normal fish.
Which makes me think that it is a hive mind entity of these fish, but not necessarily of all fish.
Although the guy did say that the entity was too big to fit inside the aquarium, that she wasn't of this world. That implies eldritch horror, in which case she really may have influence over all sea life and even inhabit it.

This reminds me of Shadow Over Innsmouth by Lovecraft.

 

[friendly]

Hough. The big weird hollow eye of the fish got to me, I don't mind saying. And the hint at the 'mother' being a kind of lure is really good. Lures like that are used by ambush predators, you know? The type that sit and wait for their prey to come to them.

Then it's too late, after that.

As for the dad... so he's not. Dead...? That's worrying.

 

[LupusVir]

The thing for me is that it wasn't a separate entity eating the victims, it was a bunch of (seemingly) normal fish.
Which makes me think that it is a hive mind entity of these fish, but not necessarily of all fish.
Although the guy did say that the entity was too big to fit inside the aquarium, that she wasn't of this world. That implies eldritch horror, in which case she really may have influence over all sea life and even inhabit it.

This reminds me of Shadow Over Innsmouth by Lovecraft.

Rereading, I realize that nothing that guy says can be trusted, so the parts about her being not of this world and too big to fit in the aquarium are probably bullshit that was fed to him alongside the motherly entity stuff. It's all part of the persona that the entity creates in order to lure people.

So I'm thinking this is just some local entity that lives in the aquarium and eats people, not an eldritch horror. May or may not be a hive mind of the aquarium fish. Its influence almost certainly doesn't extend to fish outside of the aquarium.

 

[RegalLimerick]

Goddamn, that zoom-out panel...

 

[Vainfire]

A very Freudian kind of story. The "water of the womb" and the "desire to return" are two theories of his which are borne out in this story in extremely literal terms. I like the author's take on it: that the desire to return to the womb is ultimately a fantasy, and a dangerous one at that. Succumb to it and you end up just being food for the fishies. That isn't to say that there are good reasons for escapism: we all saw the office lady's complaints, being overworked and sexually harassed... Compare and contrast with the clinical trial story, where we see a similar perception of reality: sour, but ultimately better than a death-dream. Actually, I should write a post one of these issues about the persistent theme of dreams and how the manga uses them.

I know this is Japanese, but this perception of life reminds me somewhat of Confucianism: life is sour. Not bitter like in Buddhism, nor sweet like in Daoism. Life is sour: flawed, and a little rotten, but ultimately you have to eat it.

 

[friendly]

Daidai..... is the strongest.