Kiyora Kanaru Miyajima cover

Edited: I found the correct furigana for the oyster restaurant so I'm changing the way I write it in the translations. The old reading was just my best guess. :P  The problem with names of things in kanji is that you can sort of read them how you want to, and the "correct" reading is the one used by the owner or creator.

So I'm reading through a manga I bought in Miyajima because, hey, more fun than a textbook! And I thought it would be a good motivator to post my progress on the blog and explain what's going on in the story.

I have no idea if an English version even exists. I've literally never seen this book anywhere else besides the gift shop on top of Mt. Misen on the island itself. In fact I'm pretty sure this book was created just to stick a bunch of Miyajima trivia in a paranormal high school romance. So if you're a fan of shoujou and sightseeing...this is the book for you?

With no further ado, here are the front and back covers:

題名 title

きよらかなる宮島

Kiyora Kanaru Miyajima

宮島初の本格的な恋愛マンガ誕生

The birth of Miyajima’s first genuine love manga!

きよらの恋の行方は？

What is the outcome of Kiyora’s love?

宮島の見どころ

満載コラム付き

Highlights of Miyajima

A full column included!

Text in manga image

お。。。んがくん？

O…nga kun?

立ち入り禁止の大杓子

The off-limits giant rice paddle

み。。。

Mi...

 

Text on back cover

世界中から多くの観客が ねる広島県廿日市市の"宮島”。宮島にある、紅葉まんじゅう屋“もみじ姫”の一人娘“きよら”は、同じくみやじまにすむ牡蠣料理屋“火鬼八”の息子"恩賀”に密かに思いを寄せている。きよらが恩賀との距離が縮まらずモヤモヤしていると、カラス天狗や弥山を守る三鬼、嚴島神社に祀られている三姫たちからあどばいすが。一途な思いを寄せるきよらの恋の行方は？

Miyajima: The city in Hatsukaiichi, Hiroshima prefecture where many travelers come from around the world. Kiyora, the only daughter of a momiji manju shop, has feelings for the son of the oyster restaurant (Kakiya), Onga, who also lives in Miyajima. As Kiyora is depressed over the distance between her and Onga, the crow spirit and the three demons that guard Misen, and the three princes enshrined in Itsukushima shrine give her advice. What will become of single-minded Kiyora’s love?

 

My notes: 

On the title: I asked my Japanese speaking friends, and it seems like Kanaru is most likely a character's name. The implied meaning is "Kiyora loves Kanaru." I'll have to wait and see if someone called that shows up...Manga and anime don't usually pronounce extra characters in the title. (For example, xxxHolic is just "Holic.") So I'm just calling the book "Kiyora Kanaru Miyajima."

Kiyora is a fairly standard name, but Onga is very unusual. I'm thinking that there might be some secret meaning or family history behind the name.

Momiji Manjuu (cakes shaped like maple leaves) and Kaki (oyster) are both famous foods from Miyajima. 

And finally: This is me by the giant rice paddle. (With カキ氷.) I, of course, did not climb over the fence. 

恩賀くん、一体何をやってるの？禁止だよ！Onga-kun, what on earth are you doing? It's prohibited!

Thoughts on Rewatching Magic Knight Rayearth

So I'm just rewatching the first season of one of the first animes I enjoyed, Clamp's Magic Knight Rayearth. I've never seen Sailor Moon, so this was my introduction to magical girl with sword anime. I just wish I had seen this one a few years earlier, for example at 13 or 14 because I think I would have really enjoyed seeing three girls saving a world and kicking butt on-screen.

My thoughts on the first episode are as follows:

The three main girls all sound pretty different. Fuu, for example, sounds like no 14-year-old girl ever sounded ever except when giving a speech about humanitarian issues in front of a large audience of adults. She refers to herself by "watakushi" instead of "watashi" which sounds very formal.

Hikaru, by contrast, sounds very childish compared to the other two. She almost sounds masculine. (I think she used ~nda instead of ~ndesu.) And Umi is the most bratty and self-centered of the three. I can't think of particular phrases she uses now, but her voice is very whiny.

Another character we meet is Clef, and he refers to the three girls as "o-mae" or "o-mae-tachi," which surprised me at first because it's talking down to your conversation partner. I think this is just to show that although Clef is drawn to be kind of a dwarf, he is actually an adult talking to children who he's trying to guide. On the whole, he's puts up with a lot from the three main characters, and he only gets a little ticked at Umi once in a while.

It's a gutsy move by the story writers to have this character taken out by the main bad guy at the end of the episode. Because there's obviously a lot of work in this character design and character personality. It's a corny anime, but there is real danger in this world. So far the three girls haven't even come to a consensus that they want to help the land of Cephiro. Fuu and Hikaru get right on board, but Umi is more skeptical. I'm kind of on Umi's side.

Another character we meet is Alcyone. It's very hard to take her seriously in the outfit she wears. Her voice is very soft and feminine, which I think is supposed to hide the crazy underneath.

All the villain characters are hiding behind these waterfalls in a huge cave, while Zagato, the main baddy stands in the center. I wonder if all the minions have any facilities back there. Do they have any furniture? Or do they just have to stand around waiting for Zagato to ask them to do something? The architecture doesn't work at all. But it looks cool.

You very rarely see Zagato's arms in this series, as I remember. But you do see them once in this episode when he casts a spell. His costume is pretty huge, with a bunch of robes and cloaks and a wacky headdress. But I think that sort of fits the character. He doesn't move around a lot in this series; he just sort of sends out his minions to do shit for him. So he's more the quietly menacing villain.

The word "kehai" was used in this episode. It was translated as something like "the sign of my presence." That was useful for me because I had to learn that word for the N2, but I find it hard to use in a sentence.

I am interested to see the characters introduced in the upcoming episodes. So I will keep noting anything interesting about the plot or the Japanese language version.

Faith and Works

Okay, so the whole faith and works thing really doesn't work for me. This has got to be the biggest holes in the Christian religion (of which there are a LOT).

To me, it seems like a system designed to produce the maximum amount of self-loathing and the minimum amount of security.

Here's the deal. Humans can't earn God's favor. And pride is bad. So you're sort of required to do virtuous stuff, but you can't ever think you get any brownie points for doing it. How do people reconcile the idea that Christians are supposed to be light in a dark world? Doing good stuff is somehow intrinsic to your status as a group member, but in no way enables you to earn your status as a group member. Nor does doing good stuff allow you to level up within the group.

People usually tell me, "No, no, no! We don't earn forgiveness by doing good stuff! It's because we are forgiven that we really want to do good stuff."

Which is a terrible answer. And makes me want to throw things.

Imagine it this way: You're a Christian and people are pressuring you to do shit you don't want. And you ask, Is this really necessary to be a Good Christian? And they just smile and say knowingly, "Now, now, we don't do good works to earn God's favor. It's because we have the Holy Spirit that we are empowered to do good  works!"

And you get a sinking feeling because now they're not just accusing you of being a shitty Christian anymore. They're saying you'd better go check up on your own salvation because based on your behavior (it's not like anyone can see your faith) you're not acting Christian enough. Do you reeeeaaally have the Holy Spirit?????? Are you sure?

Works being some kind of spontaneous superpower Christians have to have is the ultimate manipulation technique. Because they're not just required but intrinsically linked to salvation, you can always call someone's immortal fate into question. And because there's no set list, you can never be sure you're really doing enough. Unlimited playground for assholes to judge and guilt trip.

This morning as I was just walking around, this random thought hit me. The whole faith and works thing is so stupid, how would I defend it if I was trying to? I imagined myself as a cool, paternal character from Madeleine L'Engle, trying to give advice to a young questioning teenager such as Vicky Austin. First I would say, she's absolutely right. That's a sick dilemma. Because it it.

Then it hit me: What if the whole point of faith and works is that you're not supposed to judge other people and call their salvation into question if they don't do what you want?

What if the line between outsider and insider is so nebulous and constantly-shifting is because it's not our freakin' problem?

What if the reason that's there's  no set formula for the Christian life is because God doesn't want us to fail? What if he just wants us to do the best we can each day?

And the whole thing about being spontaneously inspired to do good stuff. What if good stuff just actually is Good? What if kindness and compassion and helping the helpless are intrinsic parts of the human condition? If we like Jesus, shouldn't we care about what he cared about?

My wise, cool Madeleine L'Engle character would say that works are important simply because humans are acting beings. We're not plants that exist simply in a state of being. We define ourselves and others much more by what we do than what we're born to. (Which is kind of a post-enlightenment way of thinking but I'm just going to run with it.)

So next time anyone brings up the whole faith and works thing, I'm still going to roll my eyes. But not in the "You're a sicko who hates humans!" kind of way. In the "You're a sicko who hates humans and you're also waaaaaay over-thinking it" kind of way.

Thoughts on New Moon

For some reason with all the drama going on in my life and all the other stuff I need to get done, I decided to reread Twlight: New Moon. New Moon is my favorite book of the series. It has lots of  Jacob, not so much Edward, and you see the Volturi for the first time, which is exciting.

Reading the book again, I noticed that there actually is some good writing. Meyer really manages to convey the pain of going through a break up--especially your first one, especially when it was also your first true love. I didn't date at all in high school or college, but since the last time I've read New Moon and now, I've gone through a break up with my true love, and let me tell you, it's hard enough in your 20s when even at the worst moments there's a little voice in your head saying, "You're fucking awesome. And you're still fucking awesome even if the only person you've ever loved just doesn't find you interesting anymore." When you're a teenager, you don't know that.

So I began reading this book as the story of someone who had her first love, mostly based on hormones and inexplicable attraction rather than long term compatibility. And like many relationships it falls apart when the guy loses interest and the fundamental issues rear their ugly head. Of course, because this is fantasy, we readers can guess that Edward is just as torn up about the breakup as Bella is, and he's only leaving her so she can have the chance to live a normal life.

Which, you know, actually still really fucking hurts. Because when you're in love you're like, "Fuck normal life. Fuck convenience. Being with this person is enough to make up for everything else." But then one day one person can wake up and go, "Nah. Normal life is more important." Even if it was supposedly for Bella's good, it still wasn't what she wanted.

Next Bella goes through a lot of pain over the next few months, because the person she built her life around is gone, and she's living in the same place with all the same old memories but not the person she shared them with. That's rough. Edward was a huge part of her life in Forks. For her, Forks almost is Edward. Which is both why she wants to stay and why it's so painful for her there.

However, sooner or later Bella breaks the pattern of only seeing old scenes and being reminded of Edward, and she meets someone new: Jacob. She starts developing new interests and new routines she didn't have before. At least in the moment, she feels better. But the pain still comes back when she's alone.

The weird thing is that reading this book as an adult, I can see that Bella/Jacob is a much better pairing than Bella/Edward. Edward and Bella spend most of their time talking about their love, because it seems like they just don't have anything else in common to talk about. Okay, maybe they both like books. But even the Romeo and Juliet movie just reminds them of their own romance. On the other hand, Jacob and Bella have their own little in-jokes (who's older), their projects, their shared childhood.

I'm not sure whether Jacob integrates better into Bella's social circle. He does at least agree to go to a movie with everyone, which Edward never does. And Jacob's dad gets along pretty well with Bella's dad, although I can't really call the Cullen family unfriendly when they're mostly concerned about Jasper biting someone. So I'm not going to go with a hard "Edward isolates Bella" line, but I feel like the werewolf has fewer social issues than the vampire.

Other good points about Team Jacob is that it feels more like a relationship between equals. Jacob repairs the motorcycles, but Bella makes the plan and provides the funds. Bella initiates plans with Jacob. She thinks hard about what she does and doesn't want from their relationship and tells him honestly. He also is honest with her and understanding about her feelings. Whereas with Edward Bella was just sucked into a relationship with no will of her own, with Jacob she's acting on her own will.

Instead of considering it impossible for Jacob to love her, Bella just knows that he does, even though she can't give him everything he's hoping for. Instead of doubting him, she's secure in him.

Overall, the story feels like a slow de-tox from a very intense relationship, and the beginning of a healthier one. But of course, with any addiction there is also extinction burst. Every time Bella is happy with Jacob, her depression comes back doubly strong to make her pay for it later. The more she's drawn to Jacob, the more conflicted she gets.

Eventually Bella and Edward are thrown back together by the Plot Monster and de-tox switches into full relapse. The heightened emotions of seeing each other again and realizing they both still have feelings for each other are just too strong. Now they are more strongly tied before, because if they ever think of breaking up, the question is not "It would hurt so much. How could we stand it?" but "We tried. It didn't work. It's not an option."

But I can't really fault the story for ending on a relapse because this is also a true-to-life ending, although it's a sadder one. I would like Bella to move on, but I know how hard that is to do. I remember meeting up with my ex to see a movie once and just feeling so right hugging him again. Like this was how things were truly meant to be. Then we saw the movie and ended up having a huge fight after because he found out I had hooked up with someone after he dumped me. Yeah. Not exactly true love.

On the other hand, reading the book encouraged me not to be afraid to move on. Look at the good relationship unfolding right in front of you instead of idealizing the past. Sometimes you get lightning instant attraction, and sometimes you get, "Damn, why do I keep liking you more and more?" and both are real.