Ushimitsu Gao - Vol. 1 Ch. 4

[MangaDex]

 

[Speederzdk]

As passive and non-affectionate as the husband is, she doesn’t really deserve him. She has just as many communication problems if not more than he does.

He’s quite self-aware. He knows he hasn’t be satisfying her. He knows HE is the problem but he’s unsure how to fix it. But he also knows when she’s acting weird, so he obviously pays attention to her.

Her though? The only really good thing she did was deny having an affair with a living person. That’s about it. The moment it wasn’t a real living person, so that it’s not a “true affair”, she immediately went on with it. No qualms at all. She’s much more alike with her friend, hence all the changes to her she acts (same changes the friend described).The only difference is that the ghost is feeding on her energy.

 

[reutermo]

Thanks for that translation!

Have anyone heard of this getting a physical release? Either in Japanese or English.

 

[SilverExp]

As passive and non-affectionate as the husband is, she doesn’t really deserve him. She has just as many communication problems if not more than he does.

He’s quite self-aware. He knows he hasn’t be satisfying her. He knows HE is the problem but he’s unsure how to fix it. But he also knows when she’s acting weird, so he obviously pays attention to her.

Her though? The only really good thing she did was deny having an affair with a living person. That’s about it. The moment it wasn’t a real living person, so that it’s not a “true affair”, she immediately went on with it. No qualms at all. She’s much more alike with her friend, hence all the changes to her she acts (same changes the friend described).The only difference is that the ghost is feeding on her energy.

As always, there's never an excuse to cheat. Parting ways is always an option if you can't properly communicate with your partner.

People just find cheating exciting, one of the grossest aspects of humanity.

 

[Kushikime]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Fugutron]

Should have gotten this guy instead.

 

[beggarSoChan2020l2r3]

Vampire =/= ghost thought

Should have gotten this guy instead.

 

[Weoooo]

As passive and non-affectionate as the husband is, she doesn’t really deserve him. She has just as many communication problems if not more than he does.

He’s quite self-aware. He knows he hasn’t be satisfying her. He knows HE is the problem but he’s unsure how to fix it. But he also knows when she’s acting weird, so he obviously pays attention to her.

Her though? The only really good thing she did was deny having an affair with a living person. That’s about it. The moment it wasn’t a real living person, so that it’s not a “true affair”, she immediately went on with it. No qualms at all. She’s much more alike with her friend, hence all the changes to her she acts (same changes the friend described).The only difference is that the ghost is feeding on her energy.

I mean, I'm pretty sure she's not supposed to be a character you think is a good person. Just one that you may understand the motivations of. Her husband won't listen to her when she talked about what she wants, and he's gone all day and then comes home, eats, and sleeps facing away from her. Now she's having sex with a sexy ghost man. A freaky ghost. Sleeping in her bed. A freaky ghost man. She's lonely and feels unloved, and the ghost man makes her feel desirable again. Makes sense. All plusses, no drawbacks! It's not even cheating, he's fukken dead dude(even though it is and also the ghost is literally killing her and is starting to get angry at her husband and might start killing him, too)

But he is an interesting character. Because he could be worse than he is, and obviously could be better than he is. He doesn't understand his wife's desires, doesn't believe her most important quality, and is standoffish and largely unresponsive to her. It's been established that she's tried to explain how she wants to feel more loved, that she's tried to explain that she's not satisfied, and he brushes those concerns off. But we learned that he brushes them off because he feels he's doing the best he can.

Interestingly, she calls him a 'husband who lacks confidence,' an insight into the true reason he's so standoffish. She knows, too, that he's trying his best. But since he's clearly unable to listen to her or pay attention to what she wants, because he's scared to know because he feels he can't do it, he's set himself up to fail.

He is, too, paying attention to her. Understands that she's acting different. Feels like she's looking forward to the night more, even if he doesn't do anything. Notices she's becoming gaunt. We see, in this chapter, he may have started to believe her about ghosts, something he didn't before. Instead of fucking talking to her about it, though, he hired an exorcist.

Cause while he's a failure of a husband who's basically just paying her to keep the house intact, he's an understandable failure of a husband. We know why he's standoffish, we know why he isn't intimate, we know that he is paying attention to her but just doesn't communicate his concerns in any way other than vague accusations in the morning before he leaves. We know he's aware of his failures, we know he knows his wife isn't happy, we know she's talked to him about it. But he honest to god thinks he's doing the best he can. His inability to understand that what she wants is intimacy and emotional closeness doesn't come from a sense of superiority, but a sense of inferiority. He ignores criticism not because he thinks he's doing fine already, but because he thinks he literally can't do any better.

He's convinced she's unhappy because he's not a fuck machine who dumps 3 loads into her every night. When she's unhappy because he barely touches her, falls asleep facing away from her, and when they do have sex, he gets straight to plowing instead of, you know, touching her or holding her or doing ANYTHING other than pumpin' up his jams. He thinks he's gotta be able to plow all night long when all she wants is for him to hold her when they sleep.

 

[kanoreads]

Not sure I can handle another full chapter of this one, but I'm still really intrigued by the premise here. I'm curious why the ghost seemed surprised she'd regained vitality yet not particularly bothered that she did. I also want to know why this couple is even married when they're getting along so badly. Was it an arranged marriage? Why does it seem like they have nothing in common when they talk?

I like how little pieces of the story are revealed at a time. The husband's POV showing she looks practically corpse-like herself. How seemingly casual he is about her sensitivity to spiritual stuff. (Who takes ghosts that lightly?!) The way the wife is so terrified of being seen as anything other than perfect or 'good' that she refuses to communicate and does her best to repress her feelings. (Except to the ghost, who she can communicate perfectly with via telepathy, apparently.)

I'm not sure the husband's redeemable. Even when his wife looks like she's dying, he suspects her of having an affair (instead of, I don't know, having become some kind of addict?) and is shameless about telling her he hired a PI and that he got scolded for doubting her, like she should feel bad about it??? Then he follows up with hiring an exorcist/medium without saying a word to her about it???? Listen, this lady has some serious problems, but the husband is not a nice dude at all.

I keep wondering where this story's actually going, so have another theory: One could see the ghost as a metaphor for, say, gaming. If you obsess over a fictional boyfriend in some kind of otome game to escape your ultra boring real-life relationship, you might feel a little happier, but will it solve your problems? Not really.
(edit to clarify: nothing wrong with playing otome games!)

 

[AnacondaHL]

this is why there is the ESH option to those Am I The Asshole posts:

Everyone Sucks Here