Happy Monday everybody! With a new Monday comes a new general thread. Feel free to tell us about what you have been reading, ask about something you want to read, or try to find some recommendations to read next.
Like normal, please be careful with spoilers. I wrote a guide about spoilers in case you need a refresher on how to handle them (also linked in the sidebar).
This was me all last week.
That chapter is about how far I got with my first dive into the series and it is where I realized that the author must have done their homework or knew somebody that was visually impaired personally. In my conversations with patients, the trend toward more self-checkouts specifically (and touchscreen interfaces generally) was brought up a lot. Many of them will have some kind of audio option that you can enable, but that is often done so either by an on-screen button (not helpful), or by finding a tiny little headphone jack to plug into (difficult). Additionally, without an attendant (or a helpful fellow shopper) to call out when another customer finishes, they have no way of knowing when they can proceed to the checkout.
One of the reasons I connected with the series so much is because, like Morio, after I spoke with patients like that, my perspective on what were previously mundane things around me changed a lot. On the subway system for the city I work in, it is a running joke that the speakers announcing stops never work right and the sound is just jumbled. After a decade of joking about it with friends, I came to realize after my patient interviews, that those speakers serve an incredibly important role to people that can’t look out the window of the subway car and see all the signs to figure out which stop the train is at. Instead, they essentially have to memorize the number of stops they need to ride for, and then count as they go (or rely on the goodwill of others to answer if asked).
It’s just really well done and has a lot of attention to details like that.
And…
After I posted that last one, I ended up going back to it anyway, and am currently on chapter 23, so just wrapped up Morio and Yukiko’s first “date.” They were predictably adorkable.
Onee-chan is awesome. I already love the depth of her character. She was easily my favorite part of those chapters.
I really enjoyed the details surrounding the clerk at the clothing store. That was unexpected, and sweet.
The thing about touchscreens was a revelation. I generally dislike them already, but I had never stopped to think that to a vision-impaired person, they’re completely and entirely useless - not just less than optimal but utterly useless.
Broadly, the manga is indeed impressive. I especially like that it’s sort of unfocused. There are obvious things that are central to the story, but it doesn’t feel like it’s a forced narrative. It’s more like a broad “slice-of-life,” and the things that are notably important just organically are. Even Morio’s and Yukiko’s budding romance isn’t really the focus - it’s just a particularly significant thing that’s happening, alongside a bunch of other things, all of which are interesting or touching or funny or whatever.
This kind of thing happens a lot. A background or side character is suddenly very fleshed out and you care about their little story. Occasionally, I felt this missed, like some character I just didn’t care that much about, but it was usually really well done. Also, sometimes these characters will pop back up in the story randomly and it is fun.
Indeed, I related to her a lot through this. At the risk of being too personal, my wife is unable to drive due to a medical condition, so I sympathized a lot with Onee-chan and how she felt like she had to restructure a lot of her life around Yukiko’s needs. It felt just like how I have to constantly take both mine and my wife’s schedules into account before committing to anything and it is what drove me to seek out a new job that I can more flexibly split time between working from home vs. working in the lab back when we moved out of the city (where public transit was a thing).
Yeah, the actual relationship part is often just so casual and develops so naturally, that it doesn’t feel like the focus most of the time. To me, it felt like an instance in which two people in a friend group start dating but never really mention it to anybody, it just kind of becomes clear from the way they act.
Hope you enjoy the ride!
Taking a break… I’m currently on chapter 62.
Onee-chan meeting Shishio was so perfect, but then there’s the slowly unfolding complications there. I just read the bit where Shishio tells her the whole truth, and it was very good. Though I’m not sure how I feel about all of that. I sort of want to cheer them on, since they’re obviously good for each other, but at the same time…
Sora-chan is terrific. I didn’t expect someone who’s even more stubborn than Yukiko.
Yukiko testing temperature with her lips…
Hachiko was a revelation. It took a while early on before it was even clearly indicated that she’s a girl. And it’s sort of amusing that it then played through her whole jealousy issue with Yukiko and then them coming to terms, and as far as I can tell, Morio is still oblivious. And she was beautiful in a dress. And we got to see the clothing shop clerk again.
Good stuff…