SHOSHIMIN Anime REVIEW

Double meanings in furigana in Mission 1 and Twilight's idea of self

Inspired by this post by @yumeka-sxf.

I've been rereading the manga with @xxscarletxrosexx and @mossshrooms (join us here at ep 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), which means a collective effort of extreme close reading. For my part, I try to bring the original jp version and the translated tw version into the discussion, and guess what? Endo has been sneaking many details into furigana, and I think these details set the tone of Twilight as a character.

Marked alongside with kanji, furigana is normally used as the phonetic notation of the kanji. However, especially in mangas, at times furigana are used to show the true meaning/ double meaning of the characters' words instead of showing the pronunciation of the kanji.

It all starts when, for the first time, Twilight thinks about his codename Tasogare, or rather, the other meaning of Tasogare. The furigana/pronunciation notation is normal here, but the kanji or the word is not Twilight. It is "who is this".

Now, the word, or the kanji, for Twilight (Tasogare) is 黄昏. The word Twilight 黃昏 is said to be derived from the phrase "who is this 誰そ彼" - as it's getting dark at twilight, it's difficult to recognise faces. It's fitting, because disguise is his specialty. Even without disguise, spies should "become" the role they play during their missions:

In English, the line is simply translated into "I abandoned my identity when I became Twilight." I suppose a more literal translation could be: "I abandoned my name and my face [to become] this 'whoever that is'." He will become whoever the mission requires him to be. His codename thus becomes part of his reasonings why he has to carry out his mission.

There is an irony in identifying himself as "who is this", or "whoever this is", because that indicates a lack of self-identification, especially when this scene happens right after he suppresses his emotions to undertake such an unreasonable, almost impossible, task. Why is that so? Because he's been emphasising on the fact that he has abandoned the sense of self since day 1 he became a spy. The sense of self is symbolised by his face, his name (the train scene as shown before), his ID card, and his "desire and determination" 執着 to get married and to live in ordinary bliss (the late night alleyway scene as shown below).

This is the first time he identifies himself as Tasogare, and at the same time he creates a distance from this identity, Twilight, as he skips right to 誰そ彼 ("who is this") instead of calling himself 黃昏 (Twilight). There seemingly is an identity - Twilight 黃昏, but without the sense of self - "who is this" 誰そ彼.

In the next scene in which he identifies himself as Tasogare, another double meaning appears:

This time it's slightly more straightforward. The furigana of 黃昏 is not "tasogare たそがれ" - it is "ore オレ", meaning "I".

A mental loop is thus created with the help of the double-meanings largely indicated by furigana - I am a spy. -> A spy is whoever the mission requires him to be (in short, "who is this"). -> "Who is this" is Twilight. -> Twilight is me.

And that is why this panel, also shared by yumeko, is important.

When he says 子ども (children), in furigana it reads as じぷん/自分 (self). He breaks the mental loop as Anya reminds him of himself as a child. Himself before becoming a spy. His goals when he decided to become a spy. We see a glimpse of [redacted], the self he thought he had already thrown away together with his name, his face, and his hopes and dreams.

This resurfacing of his sense of "self" seemingly sparks new flames of passion towards his work as a spy, which would slowly lead him to rediscover what his "mission" really is. However, his internal conflicts would also start brewing. He talked about having thrown away his desire and determination to get married and start a family along with his self in order to become a spy. He has been rediscovering this long lost/repressed self, including these hopes and desires.

In no way I'm trying to fault the translator(s) - I think the English translating team has been doing a good job in localisation in a limited time. Inevitably, there will be, as scarlet likes to say, cultural discount, especially due to Japan's high context culture. Endo is a diligent author, and this also shows in his word choices. It is surprising to see that many details he has included right from the start, and it does show that he goes back to them from time to time.

PS. There are two more details about "Agent Twilight". When the higher-ups are having a meeting to see whom they could assign the mission to, Westalis is still Westalis in katakana.

In the newspaper which Twilight reads on the train, the furigana for Westalis is "our country" わがくに. The English translation for the whole sentence is "Thanks to you, the minister has survived another day, to the great benefit of Westalis." At the end of the day, no matter how much they emphasise on their intention in "keeping peace", this is still an information warfare, and Westalis has to be benefited from his work. "Our side" has to win. (Duh.)

Twilight, however, did not even react to this. There is an irony in how they call him 黄昏くん, just for him to respond (internally) with switching the codename 黄昏 to 誰そ彼 when he caves in and accepts the mission for the sake of "peace" and "the people's lives". There is a subtle sense of disagreement or even disobedience hidden under the act of compliance right from Chapter 1.

Anyway, happy sxf update this Sunday. If you are interested, join us to reread the manga. ...Bye. (Runs in the inability to end posts.)

“Certainly Humans are Sinfully Stupid, but What’s wrong with that?”

Summary: I will be dividing this essay into two main parts to address what Dazai had said in this panel to Dazai-sensei’s writing. Then, in one short part I will attempt to connect some of what I had said back to BSD Dazai as a theory.

A/N: Basically take it as me rambling about my favorite bsd dazai panel and some of my personal take on dazai works which escalated and turned out much longer than I originally imagined…  (by that I mean this became 6k+ words) Also just my contribution to Dazai’s birthday <3 Also note that use of Chinese is present in this, since it’s much easier to find translated works of Dazai in this language, but if I do quote it, I will attempt to translate it

Warnings: Mentions of suicide, (if you’re uncomfortable with it) religious wording, spoilers to some of Dazai’s stories (works discussed [in relatively more detail]: No Longer Human, Otogizoshi, Blue Bamboo, Thinking of Zenzo, 正義與微笑, 思考的蘆葦)

Keep reading

More in depth analysis about the Spy x Family Manga Cover Chairs and Bonus Artworks (Or me just overthinking Endo’s decisions in everything and as always long post, please bear with me)

So I wanted to talk about something that I noticed about the various designer chairs that is featured on all manga covers.

Endo did say that he thought about how each chair matches the personality of the character, regarding it’s style, design or the color.

But I like to talk about something different about the chairs-it’s size or the seating capacity and how it reflects the characters relationship with others or their views about relationships. Also, I’m going to share something significant about the comedic bonus arts that also feature the chairs.

This focus mainly about Loid, Yor and Anya‘s Chair (including Fiona’s Chair) and the bonus illustrations that came with it.

Volume 1-Loid’s Chair: Le Corbusier LC2

There are two versions of this chair in the manga/anime, the love seat and the one seater. Loid is seated in the one seater chair in this cover, it means no one can sit there with him that reflects how reluctant he was in letting other people in his life. He wasn’t open for relationships (You can notice that those who are like him, intelligence assets; Franky, Fiona, Handler all sit in one seating capacity chair).

The bonus artwork was Anya sitting on the chair copying his pose. She’s the most fitting person to be in this seat because she can see through Loid’s mind, she basically knows who he really is and she likes him for that. Anya was fond of spies and she was excited about being part of his mission.

Volume 2-Anya’s Chair: Marshmallow Sofa

Anya’s chair has a large seating capacity and she was sitting at the middle, waiting for the empty spots on her both sides to be occupied. This depicts Anya’s anticipation for forming relationship with other people, about her wanting parents, a family, to be there for her.

The bonus artwork was drunk Yor lying face flat on Anya’s chair. This artwork, for me, reflects Yor’s unwavering affection for Anya and Anya’s appreciation of Yor. Even drunk, she’s determined to protect her, as if she was her real daughter as seen during the castle chapter. She is fond of Anya.

Volume 3-Yor’s Chair: La Chaise (Featuring Fiona’s Heart Cone Chair)

This is the chair I wanted to talk about and I have to use Fiona’s Chair for this analysis for Endo said that Fiona is designed to be Yor’s contrast and we can clearly see it in their chairs.

The seating capacity of Yor and Fiona’s chair greatly differ. Yor’s chair was big, Endo pointed how it didn’t even fit the cover, and even though Fiona’s chair is big too, she’s the only person who could sit in it. Other people can fit Yor’s chair but not with Fiona. I analyze this as Yor being open to genuine relationships and selfless while Fiona being closed off and selfish.

We know Yor’s motivation for being an assassin was for Yuri, for the sake of other people, and what is Fiona’s motivation? Clearly it was mainly for Twilight to marry her, love her and it was evidently show with all that stuff hiding behind her chair. I’m sure she experienced a lot of traumatic stuff that led to her being a spy but I don’t see other praise worthy and selfless motivations from her that was aside Twilight’s affection. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an interesting character and she isn't a bad person but I’m not really a fan of her personality just like I don’t like Yuri’s obsession with her sister.

In Yor however, she has nothing under or behind her chair. Just that blood that wasn’t even behind or below her chair. She wasn’t faking anything about her personality. It’s true that she accepted her marriage to preserve her assassin job but she genuinely wanted to marry Loid because he was the one who acknowledged her selflessness and that was enough for her to completely entrust her life to him. She welcomed Loid and Anya to her life because her longing for a companion to share her life with is as big as the size of her chair.

The bonus art in Volume 3 was Loid sitting on her chair. Despite the comedic set up of these illustrations, I think the people who tend to sit on the chair on the bonus arts were the ones who gets the person on the cover the most.

That is why Anya is in Loid’s (Because she can read his mind) Why Yor is in Anya's (Because Yor lost her parents at a young age too and she knows how to care for Anya because she did that to Yuri) and why Loid is in Yor’s chair (Because Loid understood her self sacrifice because he too, is the same as her) Also why Anya and Bond are in the bonus of Volume 4 because the two of them get each other, being both experimented on.

I also have some analysis about Volume 5-12 and the bonus artworks as well, but I might post them in another time since I haven't seen the translated bonus artworks in Becky and Emile and Ewen's Volumes.

But let me know if this analysis makes sense to you.

It is 2024 I am once again asking for a tsubasa reservoir chronicle anime remake

I have responsibilities like self torment and isolation

Everything aside, the current state of bsd manga is absolutely hilarious from the point of view of Akutagawa specifically. You have no idea who you are or where you came from, only that you must guard those people you don't know against the evil spirits™. You get your ass handed to you by said evil spirits™ in the span of one chapter. You are currently alternating between getting punched, thrown, impaled, hung by the head, and stabbed. There is a guy next to you experiencing ten mental breakdowns all at once. The other guy you are supposed to fight against is half blabbering metaphysics nonsense, half talking about how much he loved spending time with another guy. You have been alive for a total of maybe two hours

so if the cat (that has the twins eyes!!!!) is amane or something this can still stand (delusional)

GUYS, what if in the next chapter (123) there's other of those time fluctuations and yashiro is able to interact with the amane that's fixing the clock without time traveling and that gives her the info she needs so she doesn't jump with so little clues of what changed in the past

the walk home

SHINRAN & SOUKOKU PARALLELS

i'm sorry. the first time i rewatched the first episode of dcmk after reading bsd (more than 2 years ago) i came to the realization of why i like skk so much (maybe) and i really need to share my thoughts.

FIRST: the super intelligent character and the martial artist

both shinichi and dazai are characters that are incredibly smart and chuuya with ran are recognized because of their fight abilities.

but let's not forget that ran and chuuya both are smart as well, they can definitely solve things on their own when they need to, but are often mischaracterized as dumb

SECOND: love at first sight vs. hate at first sight (i'm crying)

THIRD: the one that goes away

extra: womanizer guy

extra hc: just like shinichi fell in love first sight and ran noticed she was in love with him in the ny trip, i hc skk with dazai falling in love first and chuuya realising his feelings when dazai defects lol