Japanese Reading Report: 25 May 2025
彼氏彼女の事情
Another week without much anime. Despite how little I watched, the main episodes of the week were really good. Episodes 12 and 13 featured a side-story about Tsubasa, a short-tempered and vertically challenged girl who was introduced as a bit of a joke early on. Tsubasa's mini arc was about her dad's relationship with a new woman. She grew up as a single child to a single parent so she's very protective of him. At first she rejects the new woman but, after meeting the woman's own son and growing closer to him, she grows and is able to accept new people into her life. I think those episodes were my favourites of the show so far. I mentioned last week that the music sharing so much DNA with Evangelion is an interesting choice, but it really hit home in the episodes this week, particularly during the depressing moments.
花の鎖
I decided to read this book for two reasons: First, it was already on my
ereader and I wanted to pivot to my ereader for my next book to
prepare for travel; and second, after finishing 母性 I figured I might
have a bit of a comprehension buff if I read another 湊かなえ book. I
suppose both of those reasons paid off, though it took a little
while to get up to speed anyway.
The first chapter of the book was fairly straight forward. A woman
called Rika who worked at an English language school recently lost
her job when the school went out of business. She was raised by her
grandmother who is now sick in the hospital, and both of her parents
died when she was little. Fairly straight forward.
Then I started chapter two and I got so confused. "Wait, why
is this person saying the MC is married?", "What happened to her
grandmother?"
As it turns out, similar to 母性, this story is not about one character,
it's about a handful of characters connected by a few common landmarks.
Importantly there are a flower shop and sweets shop both local to the
various women who each seem to have their own drama to overcome. I imagine
their stories will come together in some way, but it really left me
confused before I figured out what was happening.
I'm up to the second chapter and the story has returned to Rika. She
seems to have a little romance kindling with the flower shop clerk, a
childhood friend of hers.