When the Calm Ends - Oneshot
- Thread starter MangaDex
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I really liked this story. But I translated it because I feel like I need someone to explain to me all the themes and symbolism like I'm a dumb babby who can't read.
Idk maybe I just mistranslated.
Pointing out one easy to miss detail: throughout the story, Yura is wearing a black turtleneck under her clothes regardless of the weather. She only doesn't wear it when they board the train, where we can see some hints of severe scarring. This is also what the "someone looked under her clothes" is about.
Idk maybe I just mistranslated.
Pointing out one easy to miss detail: throughout the story, Yura is wearing a black turtleneck under her clothes regardless of the weather. She only doesn't wear it when they board the train, where we can see some hints of severe scarring. This is also what the "someone looked under her clothes" is about.
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I'd say it's a story that requires a lot of digesting and maybe a day or two away from it to think through the different meanings. The obvious metaphor is end of the world = end of life, with the sea also representing being swept away by mortality. But whose? Is it the bullied girl, or her friend? What really was their relationship? Was the friend's love of the bandaged girl because she felt responsible for her? Because she caused some of them herself? Was she actually meeting her friend all this time, or was it a figment of her imagination brought on by abandoning her friend in a time of need, and the end of the world was her inexorable creeping sense of guilt?
Lots of potentially dark paths to explore, and I'm not entirely certain I want to do so
Thank you for bringing it to the, er, light
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I'm pretty sure the bullied girl was saying she is gonna kill herself in a year. When she says let's go to the sea, she was probably asking for help in the most obvious way. Well now, not sure if she is gonna kill herself as it ended in a cliffhanger.
The other girl is also "drowning" in guilt as well.
Well, that's what I figured out from the story.
The other girl is also "drowning" in guilt as well.
Well, that's what I figured out from the story.
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When Yura finally gathered the courage to say what was happening to her and it seemed like she was asking for help... Only for Koma to inadvertently shut her down with "Nobody's gonna care about it"... The look on Yura's face... The shock, the heartbreak, the acceptance...
"Global apocalypse"
This remind me a year or so ago a certain group of people keep REEE'ing about the world gonna end with global submersing in 12 months or something.
It'd would be funny if the big reveal about all those bandages/drama are just because she took a quite spartan MMA class
This remind me a year or so ago a certain group of people keep REEE'ing about the world gonna end with global submersing in 12 months or something.
It'd would be funny if the big reveal about all those bandages/drama are just because she took a quite spartan MMA class
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Thank you for the translation! This story is awesome, its a oneshot but as deep as the sea.
The way I see it:
Its the end of the world that these two know of.
The world they know so far: bandage girl always leaning towards twintail. Very dependent, but at the same time she never talk about her problems, only smiling and say everything's fine.
Whilst twintail, seemingly doesnt care but actually care because she's also dependent on bandage girl. Being needed by bandage girl may feel good for twintail. She doesnt want bandage girl to talk about her problems (being too close emotionally) but also doesnt want her not-needing her.
The train is the thing that separate their world and ends it. The bandage girl finally able to open up and accepted her situation. And by courageously taking the train on her own, she ends her dependency to twintail. It looks like bandage girl saves herself from the sea by taking the train. She's moving on.
Twintail on the other hand, doesnt go on to the train, separating herself from bandage girl. Twintail choose to stay stuck in their world that she know. Imo, twintail is the one who killed herself (drowned by the sea) because she actually doesnt want bandage girl to leave her...twintail is not needed anymore. She loves seeing all those bandage on bandage girl. When bandage girl talks about it, its like ripping it off.
Anyway, sorry for a very long opinion lol. I just see it that way. A very interesting story tho, I love this very much.
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You need to re-read the last part again. They were already on the train. Yura got off at the beach, but Koma stayed on.
The story was definitely alluding to a tragic ending.
This is what I got out of it, but I don't think that first sentence was the initial intent. It felt like she made that the "deadline" as time went on.
The bullying was only implied, unfortunately. When those two girls passed by and said those things, that can be implied it was bullying, but it was done in a way that it's not definitive. Either way, it's safe for us to assume.
There's also the part where the author showed young Koma pulling Yura along vs. present Koma brushing off Yura's problems.
This is definitely one of those oneshots that'll need a lot of time to digest.
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It only doesn't have a supernatural tag cause I didn't add one haha. So that interpretation isn't invalid.felt like shes reminiscing from the line "one year from today", but this also felt like it is the present but it doesnt have supernatural tag.
seeing Yura deeply reminded me of Toe's グッドバイ
The "Nobody's gonna care about it" is more like "those people who showed up unexpectedly will probably lose interest soon" (implying lose interest in bullying, I think) which I had a hard time coming up with a natural translation. I'm gonna change the line since it looks like it's causing some confusion.When Yura finally gathered the courage to say what was happening to her and it seemed like she was asking for help... Only for Koma to inadvertently shut her down with "Nobody's gonna care about it"... The look on Yura's face... The shock, the heartbreak, the acceptance...
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peak
Holy shit...
well....
idk what to say.
edit: ok so I just need to comment on this after leaving one on MU but in a place where someone might actually discuss it more.
Notice how when you go back to the first pages, they weren't at the beach. I was confused cos we saw the rising tide, I thought this took place in the future where sea levels were high enough to reach a park
Nope. This is Koma and Yura at a normal park, the rising tide is in Koma's head.
Yura desires death...but Koma is already feeling the pressure, as if she'll drown one day.
While reading this series you feel as though Koma doesn't care about Yura, that she wants things to stay the same in her chill life. When in actuality what she desires is, if not an easing of the rising pressure, then at least that things don't get worse! Cos she's suffocating, she's burning out, she cares for Yura but if a time comes that Yura leans on her any more than she is already, she doesn't think she can take it. And that's not her fault...yes ideally she should choose another method to help, call or tell someone, tell Yura to transfer to her school, etc...but she's a kid, man.
Caregiver Burnout is a big thing. And the inexperienced are so susceptible.
So when Yura (implicitly, your take away may be different) wants Koma to be there when she commits suicide, Koma can't and tries, for the first time, amidst the now drowning pressure, to ask her almost directly to not do it....but it's at just the wrong moment as the door closes (literally). And Yura may literally drown, but so is Koma figuratively with what's just happened.
well....
idk what to say.
edit: ok so I just need to comment on this after leaving one on MU but in a place where someone might actually discuss it more.
Notice how when you go back to the first pages, they weren't at the beach. I was confused cos we saw the rising tide, I thought this took place in the future where sea levels were high enough to reach a park
Nope. This is Koma and Yura at a normal park, the rising tide is in Koma's head.
Yura desires death...but Koma is already feeling the pressure, as if she'll drown one day.
While reading this series you feel as though Koma doesn't care about Yura, that she wants things to stay the same in her chill life. When in actuality what she desires is, if not an easing of the rising pressure, then at least that things don't get worse! Cos she's suffocating, she's burning out, she cares for Yura but if a time comes that Yura leans on her any more than she is already, she doesn't think she can take it. And that's not her fault...yes ideally she should choose another method to help, call or tell someone, tell Yura to transfer to her school, etc...but she's a kid, man.
Caregiver Burnout is a big thing. And the inexperienced are so susceptible.
So when Yura (implicitly, your take away may be different) wants Koma to be there when she commits suicide, Koma can't and tries, for the first time, amidst the now drowning pressure, to ask her almost directly to not do it....but it's at just the wrong moment as the door closes (literally). And Yura may literally drown, but so is Koma figuratively with what's just happened.
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I don't think brushing off her problems is entirely accurate..I think she just couldn't handle the mental load and knew she couldn't handle it. The (figurative) tide kept rising. So even though she cared for her friend and knew things weren't fine, she was dreading being confided in.
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What I got from it is that Koma doesn't want anything to change, including Yura's wounds. She wants her to keep getting hurt because that's a part of the Yura she knows, but at the same time she doesn't want to ask why or what's wrong with her because actually talking about it will change their relationship, it will put her in a position where she will need to take responsibility or do something about it. But she simply wants to meet her every thursday, see her new scrapes and bandages, talk about nothing and go for ice cream. In a way, she fears that if Yura stops getting new wounds, she won't need her anymore. She knows exactly what's happening with Yura, but she denies reality because again, she doesn't want any change. Even if it means wishing for her friend to keep getting abused and hurt. She wishes for it.
When Yura finally decides to talk to her, albeit in a roundabout (though still obvious for the reader and even more for Koma who already knows everything) she just fools herself by taking the lightest interpretation possible:
"She doesn't get along with her class -> she's an introvert so it's expected" when Yura was trying to say she was bullied.
"Someone peeked under her clothes -> a pervert flipped her skirt" when Yura was probably talking about how someone forcefully looked at her scars.
"I want everything to end -> she's talking about the fake end of the world article again" when she was talking about her suicidal thoughts.
And when thinking back on this conversation, she just grinned at the fact that Yura had confided in her and her alone. That she was the one Yura chose to rely on. She's glad, above all, that Yura still completely depends on her, and only her.
Koma is a disgusting coward and Yura clearly knows, probably since the beginning. She knows her situation is obvious to anyone who looks at her, she knows Koma must know too. She test the waters several times to see if Koma will speak up, but every time Koma plays dumb and pretends to take her words at face value, which only serves to confirm Yura's suspicions about Koma not giving a single shit.
The ending was either Yura's plan for a double suicide or a final cry for help where she would confess to everything happening to her directly in a way that Koma couldn't ignore anymore. But she had already ruined their relationship completely by saying she knows Koma doesn't care and looks down on her, effectively exposing Koma for what she is, showing her that playing dumb won't work anymore, and has never worked before. Once at that point there was no going back, but Koma still desperately tried to return things to how they were with her "Let's go home", to pretend nothing happened so they can keep things going unchanged. But Yura was alread on the other side. Koma refuses to acknowledge her, yet again, and the door closes separating them forever.
The sea rising is pictured every time Koma feels anxious that anything might change: when she's wondering how Yura will react at her touching her face and wishes for her to say "it's nothing" as usual, when Yura finally tries to speak to her about her issues (rising even higher after the conversation is done), when the bullies are talking about Yura and the sea covers her feet. This point in particular is important because when she thinks "get out of here already" she doesn't want them to stop because their words are hurting Yura, she's thinking that if they keep talking and mention the bullying directly she won't be able to deny reality anymore, or they might prompt Yura into opening up to her about it, which is the one thing she doesn't want. She doesn't want to hear anything, because that would imply a change in their relationship.
So the seas rise every time anything off-script happens in their weekly meetings that might force her into actually doing something for Yura. The sea first cover her completely when she finally sees Yura without her turtleneck, seeing the deep scars on her skin, and she finally drowns in it when Yura snaps at her for what she really is: a coward.
I think the sea represents her overwhelming guilt she's been trying to brush off for years by pretending everything is fine and Yura is just a klutz who gets hurt on her own, knowingly fooling herself because she knows there's no way the wounds on her face are accidental.
When the consequences of her actions come crashing down, she drowns in her own guilt.
When Yura finally decides to talk to her, albeit in a roundabout (though still obvious for the reader and even more for Koma who already knows everything) she just fools herself by taking the lightest interpretation possible:
"She doesn't get along with her class -> she's an introvert so it's expected" when Yura was trying to say she was bullied.
"Someone peeked under her clothes -> a pervert flipped her skirt" when Yura was probably talking about how someone forcefully looked at her scars.
"I want everything to end -> she's talking about the fake end of the world article again" when she was talking about her suicidal thoughts.
And when thinking back on this conversation, she just grinned at the fact that Yura had confided in her and her alone. That she was the one Yura chose to rely on. She's glad, above all, that Yura still completely depends on her, and only her.
Koma is a disgusting coward and Yura clearly knows, probably since the beginning. She knows her situation is obvious to anyone who looks at her, she knows Koma must know too. She test the waters several times to see if Koma will speak up, but every time Koma plays dumb and pretends to take her words at face value, which only serves to confirm Yura's suspicions about Koma not giving a single shit.
The ending was either Yura's plan for a double suicide or a final cry for help where she would confess to everything happening to her directly in a way that Koma couldn't ignore anymore. But she had already ruined their relationship completely by saying she knows Koma doesn't care and looks down on her, effectively exposing Koma for what she is, showing her that playing dumb won't work anymore, and has never worked before. Once at that point there was no going back, but Koma still desperately tried to return things to how they were with her "Let's go home", to pretend nothing happened so they can keep things going unchanged. But Yura was alread on the other side. Koma refuses to acknowledge her, yet again, and the door closes separating them forever.
The sea rising is pictured every time Koma feels anxious that anything might change: when she's wondering how Yura will react at her touching her face and wishes for her to say "it's nothing" as usual, when Yura finally tries to speak to her about her issues (rising even higher after the conversation is done), when the bullies are talking about Yura and the sea covers her feet. This point in particular is important because when she thinks "get out of here already" she doesn't want them to stop because their words are hurting Yura, she's thinking that if they keep talking and mention the bullying directly she won't be able to deny reality anymore, or they might prompt Yura into opening up to her about it, which is the one thing she doesn't want. She doesn't want to hear anything, because that would imply a change in their relationship.
So the seas rise every time anything off-script happens in their weekly meetings that might force her into actually doing something for Yura. The sea first cover her completely when she finally sees Yura without her turtleneck, seeing the deep scars on her skin, and she finally drowns in it when Yura snaps at her for what she really is: a coward.
I think the sea represents her overwhelming guilt she's been trying to brush off for years by pretending everything is fine and Yura is just a klutz who gets hurt on her own, knowingly fooling herself because she knows there's no way the wounds on her face are accidental.
When the consequences of her actions come crashing down, she drowns in her own guilt.
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