Yotsukoto - Vol. 2 Ch. 26

[OldAaliyah]

Kinda of a anticlimax, I wasnt expecting anything big, giving the nature of the manga, but everything felt soo abrupt and rushed, was this axed?

 

[Forikorder]

@JCVocke even if her parents didnt set the fire blaming a small child who called for help WITHOUT KNOWING HER WORDS FORCE COMPULSION is being ridiculous

 

[Borderline]

Wait, what the heck?

You can't just wrap ending like this?
This feels like an axe where they put a lot of thing in 1 chapter. It isn't usual.

I guess they really know how much powerful of 'magic word'. So, they can't do much further to be more exciting?

I guess my favorite of her work is still with 'Sekai Maou, World of demon lord' after all.

 

[littleoni]

Not to be rude, but get the chapter proofread, please. Incorrect usage of "your" the first time it shows up (should be "you're"), and there is a typo later I can't pinpoint from memory.

 

[Lolque]

Def feels like it got axed. Felt like there was setup for a lot more worldbuilding.

 

[Romariel]

Seems axed but wrapped up pretty well. Thanks for finishing this series Kredim.

 

[InfiniteVerisimilitude]

Thanks for the translation. Nice little series.

 

[Anomander]

Hmm yes, feels like it got the axe. I did say back in chapter 21 how the author seemed suddenly in a hurry to wrap things up, and unfortunately it looks like I was right.

 

[Bente_Koini]

Shame it ended so abruptly, probably got the axe. Or the mangaka just wasn't that good at storytelling... The art style was really nice though, would have liked to see more.

 

[Heap]

Was worried it would end hurriedly and was shocked but not surprised to see the END tag on this chapter

 

[Alice_Cheshire]

@JCVocke

This ending was extremely underwhelming and, honestly, kinda destroyed my interest in this Manga by its insistence on making Yotsuki completely blameless for anything.

The lead up to this end was actually really interesting, bringing up how powerful Yotsuki's magic was and how it can be extremely dangerous if she doesn't learn to control it. It points towards a bunch of bad things she has done sub-consciously with her magic that have had major impacts on the world around her. It puts forward that she killed not only her parents but her teacher through her magic. It's an actually interesting moral question of how much responsibility can a child truly have, and does having massive magical power require imposing more responsibility on a child. How much can they be expected to really do and should they carry guilt for their actions forward?

And then in these past 2 chapters it just goes "Nah, she did nothing wrong" with both of these.

The Teacher 'died' because of her own interference and explicitly states that she can't blame others for her own actions. This isn't Yotsuki's fault and even if it was Yotsuki revives her anyways so whatever.

Her Parents died because they set the fire to begin with. The father explicitly declares he is at fault for everything and declares he 'failed as a father' while the mother just gets to say 'I'm sorry' even though in the flashback she was right there with him but whatever. Either way, this is no longer Yotsuki's fault.

It just seems adamantly resistant to making the MC actually confront any personal failures. Even the 'Flaw' of Yotsuki is basically just 'no one else loved her so she closed herself off' which again, is more of a flaw of the people around her. She 'learns to accept herself' but there's nothing actually bad that she did that she needs to live with going forward.

Yotsuki has no truly self-caused faults or failures. That's fine for just a random adventure story where the focus is more on the wonder of the world they are exploring, but you can't have a Dramatic Story with a Personal Journey centered on Personal Growth when the Protagonist has no faults.

Coco remains the superior Cute Girl Learning Magic.

Man, these are some real hot takes.

A very young child who doesn't really understand that she has magical powers that can compel people to do what she tells them, let alone has any real control over said powers, cannot possibly be held responsible for her instinct to call out to her parents when in danger. The father was quite explicitly the one at fault here. It's his actions that resulted in people dying and he set out with the intent for someone to die.

As for the teacher, how is that possibly Yotsuki's fault? You seem to be under this weird impression that she should have known that following her teacher's plan and going with said teacher's friend's idea would end up killing her. Something she couldn't possibly have known.

Literally the only thing that could possibly be considered Yotsuki's fault is her trying to disappear except even that is completely understandable considering the shit she's been through.

 

[JCVocke]

@Alice_Cheshire;
Yeah that's my point. The problem with this Manga is that none of the bad events that happened in Yotsuki's past are her Fault. That it is unreasonable to blame her for them. That's the Problem with the story that leads to the ending being completely underwhelming.

My point was explicitly that "Yotsuki has no truly self-caused faults or failures." That's why I even said some of the exact things you said. I agree, her Parents are at fault for their deaths because they started the fire. I said exactly that; "Her Parents died because they set the fire to begin with." Same thing with her teacher; "The Teacher 'died' because of her own interference and explicitly states that she can't blame others for her own actions." Those three lines are all taken directly from the post you quoted.

I never said this was a problem of the story trying to 'Treat' Yotsuki as if she had done nothing wrong, the problem is that she Literally Did Nothing Wrong which, as I said, is fine for just a random adventure romp to take in a world, or if there's external threats to defeat, but it doesn't work when you want to try to have some big character development moment, which is what this Manga tries to do at the end. Characters who you want to have develop need to have Personal Flaws that lead to Failings that they can then struggle against. Yotsuki has neither, and that's the Problem. She's perfectly good, and thus cannot grow, and the Manga's attempt to give her a big Character Growth Moment at the end falls flat because of this.

The solution to this is not to just arbitrarily blame Yotsuki for the events as they transpired, it's to Change the Events so that now she is actually at Fault for them or that they in some way stem from a failure or flaw of hers that she can then grow past over the course of the story.

That's why I name dropped Coco from "Witch Hat Atelier" at the end of my post. Because the major big terrible thing that happens to Coco at the start of that Manga and which thrusts her into her new life of Magic is Entirely and Solely Her Fault and stems directly from her Fundamental Flaw.

Spoiler

She broke away from her Mother and Wandered off and got the spellbook from the shady Brimhat. She convinced her Mom to let Qifrey use their shop to repair the carriage, with her explicitly doing this because she wants to see him use magic. She directly and intentionally defied Qifrey's commands multiple times and saw him draw magic. She then started drawing unknown magic from the book, and even after confirming it worked she didn't stop even though she realized it was dangerous after she conjured a Literal Fireball. And ultimately her continuing to draw magic she knew wasn't safe for her to draw resulted in her mother being petrified.

At every step of the way not only is it Coco's fault, despite her youth as even as young as she is she can still consciously recognize and comment on how what she is doing is either wrong or dangerous, but it demonstrates the core Personal Flaw that she has. Namely that she has a Boundless Thirst for Knowledge and doesn't care about the Risks of getting it. This is her central flaw (and the central flaw of the entire story, setting, the Brimhats, witches in general, etc), and it's been the cause of a bunch of the major problems and challenges the group has run into. It caused her to chase the Brimhat that got her and the other three apprentices trapped in a maze with a Dragon. It got her to take Agete's Dare and take on the Dada Mountains challenge way before she should have. It caused her to run and warp to the Tower Of Books which got Qifrey Attacked. Multiple times throughout the story she's had momentary lapses where she's like "Man, if only I could learn some FORBIDDEN MAGIC to use!" before she catches herself and resolves to do things a better way.

And it's why her not going to the Tower when Qifrey left her on the giant book is a more awesome moment than anything this Manga can muster. Not only because she saves her Teacher from a Giant Sea Serpent which is already really damn cool, but because she Sacrifices her own desires and manages to conquer a bit of her own failings. She grows as a person and a character from this event.

Coco can have amazing moments of bravery, cleverness, and personal growth because she has shortcomings she can struggle against in addition to the world having actual major external threats arrayed against her. Yotsuki has nothing like that because the Manga refuses to give her a personal failure that she is truly at fault for or even any opportunity for a failure. She has no Flaws, She has no Foes, and thus She has no Future.

That's why "Witch Hat Atelier" is brilliant and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. And it's why I spent the first few minutes as I read your message and my post trying to remember who the fuck 'Yotsuki' was.

Because the day after I read the last chapter of Yotsukato I forgot about it entirely.

And that is the most Absolutely Damning thing you can ever say about a Work of Art.