Ura Baito: Toubou Kinshi - Vol. 5 Ch. 50 - Beach House Staff ③

[MangaDex]

 

[VegaObscura]

this one had some very strong wtf energy. wish i understood it.

 

[1412]

As usual it's very hard to understand

 

[cromat]

I remember reading some raw interpretations

The gist of it is that the great being of the ocean can manipulate people's perceptions.

That's why the tourists in chapter 1 and the girls in chapter 3 sees the coral infested people as normal.

The girls as soon as they go into the proximity of the ocean, was already "manipulated". That's why they thought iguchi san was okay. Being manipulated is basically submitting to the great one.

His daughter was swept away and came back as a coralman. Thats why the policeman said I'm glad ur daughters back. But oguchi saw the truth and knew that wasn't the case, and kept resisisting the great ones influence, and saw things as they were.

He was so stubborn and strong willed that he actually managed to make the great one recreate his daughter in order to get him to submit. What a Chad

 

[cromat]

There's also some Christian imagery where iguchi was the only one coraled in the Christ position to a cross

 

[farranpoison]

Finally, it's back!

Man, not even the girls this time could escape the influence of whatever horror was in the sea. But they didn't get killed so... I guess things turned out ok?

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapters.

 

[77BLc9JwJGpLVARkamJx]

Awww fuck, I thought he avoided turning coral. Pretty nice "wtf there is no escape afterall" story.

 

[ForTheJerusalem]

I'm a tree now, kek.

 

[MamaPanther]

Yay, it's back <3 ! Ura Baito is pretty much the only horror manga that genuinely manages to creep me out on a regular basis... Between this arc and the aquarium, I'm definitely not going near the ocean again any time soon.

I feel like I only really understood this one on a surface level, but I also feel like that was the point. The Great One is a being above us, who adjusts our perceptions for its own unknowable reasons. Why does it kill people and make everyone else believe things are fine? Who knows; it's the ocean. Who can understand the ocean's will? It's just... Better to accept the way things are, and that everything is happening for a benevolent reason.

Because at the very least, it'll kill you if you can't accept that. And isn't it just better for everyone... To accept that your daughter is back? That's a kind thing that has been done, is it not? That it's not quite true... That's a minor thing, no?

(It's kind of ironic that this case, which has some of the most horrifying implications yet, is also one of the ones where they were at their safest. After all, they had no resistance to this thing's influence, and thus there was no reason to hurt them; the pay really was just because it was hard to find employees for an ordinary job this time. Usually, they're at least at risk of becoming collateral damage - but this time, it's easy to just tweak their thoughts to convince them that everything is fine. Kind of like the sleep study case, but without the risk of opening the door.)

 

[cromat]

Yay, it's back <3 ! Ura Baito is pretty much the only horror manga that genuinely manages to creep me out on a regular basis... Between this arc and the aquarium, I'm definitely not going near the ocean again any time soon.

I feel like I only really understood this one on a surface level, but I also feel like that was the point. The Great One is a being above us, who adjusts our perceptions for its own unknowable reasons. Why does it kill people and make everyone else believe things are fine? Who knows; it's the ocean. Who can understand the ocean's will? It's just... Better to accept the way things are, and that everything is happening for a benevolent reason.

Because at the very least, it'll kill you if you can't accept that. And isn't it just better for everyone... To accept that your daughter is back? That's a kind thing that has been done, is it not? That it's not quite true... That's a minor thing, no?

(It's kind of ironic that this case, which has some of the most horrifying implications yet, is also one of the ones where they were at their safest. After all, they had no resistance to this thing's influence, and thus there was no reason to hurt them; the pay really was just because it was hard to find employees for an ordinary job this time. Usually, they're at least at risk of becoming collateral damage - but this time, it's easy to just tweak their thoughts to convince them that everything is fine. Kind of like the sleep study case, but without the risk of opening the door.)

I don't think the great one killed him because he didn't accept it.

So the gist of the influence is that if you are under it's influence, you see the dead coral corpses as alive.

His love for his daughter made him unable to accept the "fake" created by the great one, and in turn he could not submit to it.


The great one at the end, did make him submit. But not through making him believe his dead daughter was alive, but through making him believe he himself was alive, when in fact he had already been coralfied.

So he was killed not for not submitting, but because it was the only way to make him submit. By thinking he was alive when he was actually a coralfied corpse.

The other coralfied corpses, did not think they themselves were alive. Only the others under the influence thought that.

But his perseverance and love for his daughter forced the great one to actually bend and recreate and revive his daughter in order to get him to submit. Which was his end goal in the first place: to see his daughter again.

He traded his life for his daughters. And that's why at the end he's coralfied surrounded by leaves, in the crucifixion pose.

 

[MamaPanther]

I don't think the great one killed him because he didn't accept it.

So the gist of the influence is that if you are under it's influence, you see the dead coral corpses as alive.

His love for his daughter made him unable to accept the "fake" created by the great one, and in turn he could not submit to it.


The great one at the end, did make him submit. But not through making him believe his dead daughter was alive, but through making him believe he himself was alive, when in fact he had already been coralfied.

So he was killed not for not submitting, but because it was the only way to make him submit. By thinking he was alive when he was actually a coralfied corpse.

The other coralfied corpses, did not think they themselves were alive. Only the others under the influence thought that.

But his perseverance and love for his daughter forced the great one to actually bend and recreate and revive his daughter in order to get him to submit. Which was his end goal in the first place: to see his daughter again.

He traded his life for his daughters. And that's why at the end he's coralfied surrounded by leaves, in the crucifixion pose.

Mmm, I think this goes a bit beyond what I speaking of. The crux of the matter is that Eguchi's refusal to "accept" that "Miyuki was back" was why the Great One paid attention to him at all, no? Being resistant to its influence was what started this, and thus ultimately why he died; had his perceptions been altered as easily as everyone else's, things would have ended when Miyuki first died. Everything else is just the "how" of it.

Though to speak to the ending, I'm not convinced that's actually Miyuki at the end - not unless she was a hardcore cultist in life, at least. The look on her face when she asserts she just wanted to see "whether he really gave in or not" indicates to me a level of ill-will that would not normally be directed at one's parent; it feels more likely to me that it was the Great One's influence at work. It may have created a person that looked like her for this (thus, real and not a hallucination, as he asked) - but it wasn't Miyuki, at least not as Eguchi would have recognized her. At most, a Miyuki hollowed out and filled with its will, to get metaphorical with it.

 

[cromat]

Mmm, I think this goes a bit beyond what I speaking of. The crux of the matter is that Eguchi's refusal to "accept" that "Miyuki was back" was why the Great One paid attention to him at all, no? Being resistant to its influence was what started this, and thus ultimately why he died; had his perceptions been altered as easily as everyone else's, things would have ended when Miyuki first died. Everything else is just the "how" of it.

Though to speak to the ending, I'm not convinced that's actually Miyuki at the end - not unless she was a hardcore cultist in life, at least. The look on her face when she asserts she just wanted to see "whether he really gave in or not" indicates to me a level of ill-will that would not normally be directed at one's parent; it feels more likely to me that it was the Great One's influence at work. It may have created a person that looked like her for this (thus, real and not a hallucination, as he asked) - but it wasn't Miyuki, at least not as Eguchi would have recognized her. At most, a Miyuki hollowed out and filled with its will, to get metaphorical with it.

Yeah no doubt it's not exactly the same miyuki. How can she be the same one if she's seen all that shit? But as she said, she's not an illusion , but the real thing brought back by the great one, albeit who has been irrevocably changed by what she has seen learned and experienced.

And there's no reason for the great one or miyuki to lie about this because lying to someone you literally consider to be a lower life form, is unbecoming of a god. That's why she was also straight forward in telling him that the great one didn't save him

And yeah, there is some illwill. This fukn insect forced the great one to give a shit and actively kill him off (all the other coralfied people died due to accidents in the sea) while also reviving his daughter before he would submit.


But there is also some respect, just like how you'd have some respect for a possum who refuses to be caught and could only be done so by digging out your entire yard.

And that's why he's the only coralfied corpse that is beautiful, and reminiscent of jesus

 

[zawarudo]

excellent discussions above and i would like to mention page 7 where miyuki waxes philosophical about not-dagon/cthulhu. seems like the great being was indeed impressed by eguchi's fortitude. that final silhouette of it overlooking the (dreamscape?) beach where eguchi and miyuki were talking was amazing.

 

[7goat]

The stories are getting weirder and weirder, in the sense that I've no idea what's happening. I'm glad the comments section is here to help explain things.

 

[beep_repair]

Yeah no doubt it's not exactly the same miyuki. How can she be the same one if she's seen all that shit? But as she said, she's not an illusion , but the real thing brought back by the great one, albeit who has been irrevocably changed by what she has seen learned and experienced.

And there's no reason for the great one or miyuki to lie about this because lying to someone you literally consider to be a lower life form, is unbecoming of a god. That's why she was also straight forward in telling him that the great one didn't save him

And yeah, there is some illwill. This fukn insect forced the great one to give a shit and actively kill him off (all the other coralfied people died due to accidents in the sea) while also reviving his daughter before he would submit.


But there is also some respect, just like how you'd have some respect for a possum who refuses to be caught and could only be done so by digging out your entire yard.

And that's why he's the only coralfied corpse that is beautiful, and reminiscent of jesus

I don't think Miyuki was returned to life.

Iguchi is swallowed whole by the Great Being and seems to drown. While drowning, or perhaps after death, he has a vision in which he meets his daughter upon a tiny sandbar island. They chat, and while Iguchi seems to be at peace, he never submits to the Great Being.

The next day, back in the real world, Iguchi's barnacle-encrusted corpse returns from the sea (perhaps washed ashore or just found there). Under the influence of the Great Being, everyone mistakes the corpse for the living Iguchi and fails to understand that he has died. Miyuki is nowhere to be seen.

 

[friendly]

Whew. I truly like the horror of the idea of something like this- something so huge and massive- caring so much about whether or not a single man can give into the ritual pattern it keeps presenting. That two page spread of him so small against the massive blackness... the hyper-read face of his daughter when it turns Bad. The look of the sea growth... wough.

I enjoy how much this series has to do with the idea of local 'god' kind of figures. All of the cases seem to line up with very japan specific 'urban legend' kind of subjects, I notice. Local gods of mountain and sea, shady insular towns where they kill sacrifices for luck, ghosts carried on radio waves after killing themselves on the towers, ghost marriages...

Woven together with a truly compelling through line with these two girls and their 'grey job' as the reason for seeing it all.

 

[LupusVir]

Here's my interpretation of this.

First, the great being is not something that encompasses all of the ocean. Rather, it only has dominion over this particular region. After all, elsewhere in the world, people are able to be on the beach at night. His daughter's philosophical thinking that some being must be influencing the collective conscientiousness of humanity was just an idea she had before she was taken, he was remembering something she said.

It most likely is eldritch in origin, though. The mutated fish, the coralification, the mind manipulation, "the Great Being", kind of all just feels very eldritchy to me.

For some reason, this entity takes people from the beach here and kills them, coralifies them, and washes the body back on shore. This process seems to happen quickly. That guy was looking for his friend who presumably had just wandered off a few minutes before, and he was already back and coralified.

Also for some reason, the entity makes everyone believe that the person is back and not dead. Why it does these things is completely unknown.

Obviously, the entity was pissed when this guy resisted the mind manipulation and continued to believe his daughter was dead. Everyone must submit.

I believe it did remake his daughter (didn't bring her back), though of course a version of her that would do its bidding. It used her to lure him to the ocean, and to speak to him through her.

Obviously he's dead at the end. However, what I'm not sure of is when he died. He gets pulled into the water, feels like he's drowning. He hears his daughter's voice telling him to say she's back. He does so. The next day he appears fine. The next night he goes back to talk to his daughter again. He asks her why she saved him (presumably from drowning the night before), and she replies that she didn't save him. She just wanted to make sure that he gave in.

So did she not save him, meaning that he died the night before, and that day was the great being making him (and others) believe that he was alive, thus making sure he gave in by truly making him submit? Or did she not save him, meaning that he was still going to die in the end, and she just wanted to watch how he acted the next day to make sure he gave in? And then killed him?

A weird one, for sure. Coralified corpses are incredibly creepy.

 

[silverpetricof]

Thank you for the translation (very interesting interpretations all around).

 

[Vainfire]

I do love the persistent throughlines. This series has a lot to say about gods... from the divinity of the mountains that feasts on human flesh, and cares not for whether you are a worshipper. To the god of the well, who would just as soon kill the ones who sacrifice to it. To the god of the school, who exists for no reason in particular. To the god in the aquarium, who uses kindness as a lure, to the god of this story, who cares only about if it can exert its influence over everyone it meets. I have... somewhat yet to put the pieces together into a coherent thesis, but if I had to give one right now, I would say this: "God is great. Don't think you understand it. God is truly unknowable."

Cthulhu has a 20 Charisma score, kids.