Yofukashi no Uta - Vol. 20 Ch. 199 - A Fascinating Tale. You Should Become a Writer.

[SpunkyDragon]

Why does this feel like its setting up a sequel series?

Man, at this point I will settle for anything as long as I can see him and Nazuna together 😭💔

 

[vmman]

Based Ornatos Violeta fan

luv u too my little bifaninha do caralho <3
I actally saw them live this Queima Das Fitas do Porto in May AND they played this!

 

[Fallenstreet01]

Poor Miss Detective, sounds like she got dysentery in Vietnam.

 

[1986ctcel]

1) Kou's goal was to make up with Mahiru, not save him per se; he also wants to make sure Kiku isn't "deceiving him and making him miserable" (ch. 111, p. 5-6). He makes up with Mahiru, learning that it was his decision to help Kiku and that Kiku's intentions were to die herself rather than kill Mahiru to prove sometihng.

Which was him butting into something that wasn't really his business.

Why does it even matter that Kou "made up with him" when he's still dead as a doornail and was never in danger in the first place (before he killed himself)? The author didn't even have anyone else learn about his death because Kou lied to Akira so there was no impact outside of "Kou (and Nazuna) gets a look at Vampire-Human romance gone wrong".

He can still enjoy the night, especially when he can temporarily become a vampire at will-- but it should be noted that Kou's notions of "the night" and vampires as expressed in the beginning of the narrative were naïve, and that his original goal was formulated when he was at his lowest; that's why Akira wants to support him despite finding the prospect of becoming a vampire foolish (ch. 106, p. 6-7), because she values the fact that he's this motivated and happy to do something. Meanwhile, Hatsuka tells him that all vampires do is "live normally". Nazuna tells him that being a vampire is boring, and that all she does is figure out how to kill time. Later in the narrative, she's literally dreaming about being a human student like Kou. We learn that Haru considered a vampire to not even be truly alive, and both her and Kiku sought to become human. Becoming a vampire would confine Kou into the night, despite him seeking a freedom he attributed to it. As things are, with Kou not struggling in his normal life and being able to prance in the night as a vampire shifter, he's possibly the freest third-year middle school student in the world.

Everything the vampires complain about is something that also applies to a lot of humans who lack friend groups or are stuck being unemployed so it just makes them sound whiny rather than people with actual problems "oooooooh (relative) immortality and superpowers are sooooooo horrible, I would be glad to be a powerless mortal who can die of old age or disease.", especially when there are also vampires who are satisfied with their current existence.

You're also ignoring the big issue that Kou didn't choose not to become a full vampire, Nazuna forced him to do it by leaving until after the 1 year time limit passed. The author took the choice and agency away from the protagonist who still seemed to want to become a Vampire at that point.

If the story was going to end with a sappy "Kou can temporarily screw around at night like as a vampire before going back to his normal satisfying everyday life because living an ordinary life is awesome and anyone that thinks otherwise is just naive or immature" message then removing the chance for Kou to choose to remain human rather than have it taken away from him is a massive strike against the author and their writing.

It's not the resolution, though. It's part of the falling action/resolution, but it isn't the entire phase.

There is literally only a single 16-17 page chapter left, what possible resolution do you think can even happen that would even be remotely satisfying and wouldn't make the sudden separation seemingly pointless?

 

[Eighty-six]

Which was him butting into something that wasn't really his business.

Him making up with Mahiru was in fact his business. Whether or not his friend was being made miserable by someone else was also his business. Whether that friend wants to become a vampire isn't exactly his business, but even Mahiru was concerned about Kou's aspiration early on in the story after they encountered the vampire in the school.

Why does it even matter that Kou "made up with him" when he's still dead as a doornail and was never in danger in the first place (before he killed himself)?

Putting aside that Kou didn't expect for Mahiru to die, do human relationships cease to matter when one of the people in them dies?

Everything the vampires complain about is something that also applies to a lot of humans who lack friend groups or are stuck being unemployed so it just makes them sound whiny rather than people with actual problems

"oooooooh (relative) immortality and superpowers are sooooooo horrible, I would be glad to be a powerless mortal who can die of old age or disease.", especially when there are also vampires who are satisfied with their current existence.

The very things you give as examples of vampire complaints aren't applicable to any kind of human being. It reads like you can't bring yourself to sympathize with characters who are fed up with lives they feel are stagnant.

You're also ignoring the big issue that Kou didn't choose not to become a full vampire, Nazuna forced him to do it by leaving until after the 1 year time limit passed.

That's incorrect. Kou and Nazuna both came to this decision, however reluctantly, because of the uncertainty of fully vampirizing him given Nazuna's having come to love him. Given the vampiric instincts to not suck the blood of candidates you love along with the rumors surrounding such an act, along with Kiku and Mahiru's deaths, Nazuna attempting to vampirize Kou would-- as far as they know-- be them taking a gamble on whether either one of them would die.

If the story was going to end with a sappy "Kou can temporarily screw around at night like as a vampire before going back to his normal satisfying everyday life because living an ordinary life is awesome and anyone that thinks otherwise is just naive or immature" message then removing the chance for Kou to choose to remain human rather than have it taken away from him is a massive strike against the author and their writing.

You've been insisting that "living an ordinary life is awesome" has been the message the mangaka is angling for despite no evidence for this being the case. It's certainly contrary to the foundation of the narrative. Kou doesn't start the story fed up with his normal life-- he starts the story lacking the means to understand and build persistent connections with other people, and being fed up with them as a result. He's completed his character arc by having learned to do those things, and accordingly rekindling his past relationships while endeavoring to maintain the new ones he made throughout the narrative.

---

Unrelated: I meant to respond to this one in a post I'm still formulating, but since I'm responding to you now...

Did you say the ending of Naruto and Bleach were works of art because "millions of Japanese fans loved the series and the authors won a bunch of awards" as well?

It definitely calls into question what's being seen or unseen, by whom, and why. Can't say much about Bleach except that its image was rehabilitated immensely among American weebs by the adaptation of the "Thousand Year Blood War" arc, but I know for sure that there's a widespread fundamental misunderstanding of what Naruto is principally about, despite it being bluntly spelled out in its very first chapter.

 

[rendcranel]

Give me a happy ending kotoyama sensei🥲🥲

 

[MathMols]

This is one of the series that are a 10/10 until the ending where the ending is so trash its gonna end up as a 5/10 series…

 

[PeakPooPerformance]

As much as I read and enjoy romances, this is the only time where I'm happy the two of them (seemingly), didn't get together. If anything I think the story is better off with this bittersweet ending. Maybe some sort of friendship in the future would be cool. But this story felt way more like a coming of age, personal growth story of a 14 year old middle schooler. Let me repeat that last bit, 14 YEAR OLD LOST MIDDLE SCHOOL KID, undergoes personal growth and understanding himself and others better through his adventures with a vampire. Makes new friends along the way, falls in love for the first time and is able to spend it with the person he love's for a limited time before undergoing heartache.

Now he's back at school, made a bunch of new friends a long the way, gotten wiser/mature and has a cool ass career potential set up for him, while still having his half vampire powers. If anything her leaving, allowed him to detach and focus more on himself, which is better for him in the long run. I wouldn't mind a open ending or some other bittersweet one. I'd like it if there was a time skip to him in his early twenties, him and her finally are able to meet again.

So far this is the only time where I'm cool with the MC and girl not getting together. I enjoyed the it regardless. Maybe if he wasn't a LOST 14 YEAR OLD MIDDLE SCHOOL KID, maybe i'd have a stronger desire of them two getting together at the end. At the same time it really helps to hold hope for the future and appreciate the journey and growth.

Edit: Man that last train ride with them did get me tearing up though, that last date together was a perfect balance of happy, cute and incredibly sad at the same time. Her leaving so quickly before he could blurt out a word broke my heart.

 

[Eighty-six]

There is one, which is why I bring up the possibility, and that is kotoyama's habit of framing the story as a mystery.

Kotoyama exclusively frames the characters in the story as mysteries to be explored. All the examples you cited incidentally demonstrate that, since they're about characters and not so much "the world" or "vampire biology/ontology". For example, when Kyouko introduces the concept of "vampire weakness objects", Kou and company aren't moved in any way to understand the mechanism behind that concept, but rather to find and destroy such objects-- and it's in seeking this that they have to investigate and/or listen to the pasts of the people they're trying to so help.

In fact, "the world" is vaguely defined, in that despite it being clear that they live in a contemporary Japan, most of Kou's surroundings (e.g. the town he's in, the school he goes to) are both vaguely defined and defined ad hoc. Vampire biology and ontology, on the other hand, is poorly defined-- and intentionally, on the part of the mangaka-- because the vampires and vampire hunter responsible for framing those details are also characterized as poorly understanding those details, have reason to poorly understand those details, and have little means to advance their knowledge that either contradicts their priorities, their characters, or their demonstrated means of acquiring knowledge.

Vampire biology and ontology (as well as rumors resultant from them) weren't meant to be Chekhov's guns, in my estimation, since they were all utilized and/or explained. It's not that they're mysteries-- it's that they're poorly and sometimes unsatisfyingly understood by the characters, and there's no provided way for them to ameliorate that ignorance in the context of the main narrative, their characters, and whatever's to be disambiguated in the first place.

Speaking for myself, I desired disambiguation on especially the rumor that premised Kou and Nazuna's separation, but it's very consistent with the characters that the truth remains unknown (if they tried, they'd be risking their lives-- ironic, given their love for each other). This is on top of the fact that it's not left unconfirmed for the sake of being left unconfirmed. I'm not terribly averse to explanatory omake or sequel series, but it feels like such a sentiment is more concerned with tying up loose lore ends in what was preeminently a character driven story that is very capable of being tied up in the upcoming final chapter.

*Even though it's not hastily established, there's the feeling as if Kotoyama understood that there needed to be a concrete cause for a (probably temporary) separation of protagonist and heroine she was already set on doing.

So far this is the only time where I'm cool with the MC and girl not getting together. I enjoyed the it regardless. Maybe if he wasn't a LOST 14 YEAR OLD MIDDLE SCHOOL KID, maybe i'd have a stronger desire of them two getting together at the end.

You've read these two mack on each other on multiple occasions for nearly 200 chapters, including the previous one. Accepting the onee/shota** was the admission fee, especially when it's the catalyst and primary vehicle for his character growth.

See, me, I was thinking that-- if literally nothing else, and there is a lot at hand that I've already discussed in multiple posts-- if he actually got fully vamprized, he'd be vertically challenged for the rest of his un-life. So it's good that this resolved in a way where he can finish his quest to scratch average height and not end up like Haruka.

**I call it that, but Nazuna is as short and as mature as Kou despite her age, the latter of which being a major boon in the development of their romance (well, that, and she's a vampire, so she's somewhat beyond human standards in the first place). On this front, I've made a few considerations about how there's this seemingly unintentional but still remarkable contrast between how Nazuna and Kiku pursue relationships with their (middle school boy) vampire candidates that comes off as a "right way/wrong way" to do age gap romance, even if Kiku was fundamentally a really old menhera.

 

[CanerieRoe]

shes in a 14 year old body??? and yes its romance manga/ anime we want happy endings. i hate ppl like this

I don’t actually have a moral issue with the age gap, I just find it funny, though my point stands that even though this story has romance in it and explores a lot of ideas pertaining to romance, it’s not really a “love story” (a story about two people falling in love and getting together in the end) and it never really has been

Ultimately the age gap is kind of the price of admission, and it’s honestly one of the least weird parts of the story

 

[RigobertoParedes]

All girls school? Damn, she going for the lesbo route.

 

[Maficks]

As much as I read and enjoy romances, this is the only time where I'm happy the two of them (seemingly), didn't get together. If anything I think the story is better off with this bittersweet ending. Maybe some sort of friendship in the future would be cool. But this story felt way more like a coming of age, personal growth story of a 14 year old middle schooler. Let me repeat that last bit, 14 YEAR OLD LOST MIDDLE SCHOOL KID, undergoes personal growth and understanding himself and others better through his adventures with a vampire. Makes new friends along the way, falls in love for the first time and is able to spend it with the person he love's for a limited time before undergoing heartache.

Now he's back at school, made a bunch of new friends a long the way, gotten wiser/mature and has a cool ass career potential set up for him, while still having his half vampire powers. If anything her leaving, allowed him to detach and focus more on himself, which is better for him in the long run. I wouldn't mind a open ending or some other bittersweet one. I'd like it if there was a time skip to him in his early twenties, him and her finally are able to meet again.

So far this is the only time where I'm cool with the MC and girl not getting together. I enjoyed the it regardless. Maybe if he wasn't a LOST 14 YEAR OLD MIDDLE SCHOOL KID, maybe i'd have a stronger desire of them two getting together at the end. At the same time it really helps to hold hope for the future and appreciate the journey and growth.

Edit: Man that last train ride with them did get me tearing up though, that last date together was a perfect balance of happy, cute and incredibly sad at the same time. Her leaving so quickly before he could blurt out a word broke my heart.

why do so many americans and europeans gets so touchy and white knighty about edgy themes? no fucking matters he's middleschooler, everyone has to be him with her in bag, furthermore she doesn't went far from being same kid at all.

 

[Twomato]

At page 9 the Vietnamese vampire standing on the middle finger lookin like that brain dude from Berserk

 

[Marxofcain]

"For too long has everything divine been utilized,
And all the heavenly powers, the kindly ones, thrown away,
Consumed for kicks by thankless,
Cunning men, who, when the exalted

One works in their fields, think they
Know the daylight and the Thunderer,
And their telescope might see them all and
Count and name all the stars in heaven;

But the Father covers our eyes with holy
Night so we might remain.
He loves no wildness! Our expanding
power will never force heaven."
- Friedrich Hölderlin