Japanese Reading Report: 01 June 2025
Another pretty pathetic week. I am so close to being done with my final university assessments for the semester so they've taken priority, naturally. I also achieved my first 1CCs in some shoot 'em up games this week , which probably didn't contribute positively to my overall input time. Ah well, they're fun.
彼氏彼女の事情
Last week I really gassed up the Tsubasa episodes. I'm
sad to report that she basically transforms into a background
prop for the rest of the season, however it was still quite
a strong final push. The story refocused on Miyazawa and Arima's
relationship and put a big focus on Arima's self-doubt and
anxiety. Episode 18 was extremely strong. It places the viewer
firmly inside Arima's head. We see how he sees Miyazawa, and we
hear his desires and also his anxieties directly to the end
of the episode. Episode 18 paired well with the final arc
of the season where Arima's internal struggle reaches a boiling
point and Miyazawa becomes more aware of it.
Ultimately I really enjoyed this show. I wonder how much my
experience would differ if the soundtrack wasn't so iconic, but
it is and there's no point worrying about hypotheticals. There were
about four (maybe five?) episodes which were basically just recap
and I would know to skip on a rewatch, but the rest of them were
really good.
花の鎖
This week I finished the second chapter for each storyline and
also the third chapter for Rika's story. So far the vague
connections between each story have developed slowly. When I
reflect on each of the characters — Rika, Miyuki, and Satsuki —
I still basically feel like they are living in their own stories
in their own timelines of events. A mysterious character called
"K" sort of came up in two separate stories, but in one of the
stories it seems like the "mystery of K" was not a mystery at all.
Anyway, once again I feel like the most interesting story to
remark on is Rika's. She is playing detective trying to lure K
out of "hiding" and she used her grandmother's illness as a
tool to gain K's attention. She wonders if K could have been her
grandmother's secret lover, or maybe her mother's secret lover,
but her grandmother insists they extends their kindness to Rika's
family because of a kindness they received years ago.
A male visitor comes to see Rika's grandmother on the day before
Rika is expecting to meet K and she wonders if he is K,
but before she has a chance to interrogate him further he leaves.
Rika's grandmother's surgery is going to be costly and she wants
to ask for help soon, so hopefully next chapter she'll have a chance
to meet K for real.
Miyuki's story is sort of about mountain climbing and sort of about
her relationship with her husband, Kazuya. There is a sort of
mysterious guy they expect to meet near the top of the mountain
— a man called Kasai Michio. There's another character called
Kouichi in the story as well. Basically it seems like everyone
who isn't one of the three main women in these stories starts their
name with a K, so I guess everyone is suspicious.
Satsuki's story is also kind of strange. Her story sort of spans
two eras: her young-adult and not-as-young-adult lives. When she was
younger it seems like her best friend (Kimiko, another K) liked the
same guy as her, and
they had a falling out over it. Now her friend is asking her for help
but she still feels bitter about how her life turned out. Now the
guy from her past is asking for help on behalf of her friend. They
arranged to spend some time in a nearby shopping district, but the
main point of conflict was Satsuki's insistence that they don't go
to a particular store, because it's where her mother works.
So yeah, not really sure where everything is going yet, and I may
be misremembering some details, but the moment-to-moment reading is
pretty smooth and enjoyable.