597 replies to this topic

[anfunatohi]

I'd like to think it as she's just way too exhausted from pushing herself to meet Haruto but the idea of Yuzuki being pregnant is more interesting.

I may not be the only one who thought of Seo-sensei's other work, Suzuka, when I read the possibility of her carrying a baby.

And if she is really pregnant, The finale couldn't be that far... (Here comes "Daiki!")

On another note, I never expected Adachi to have that reason why she was asking for Haruto to sleep with her. The lady loves her job.

 

I'm also wondering about Rin telling Yuzuki to let Haruto be the one to pay a visit as a "tell-him-to-come-over-so-I-can-screw-with-him-since-it's-been-awhile" sort of thing.

Edited by anfunatohi, 01 December 2013 - 03:26 PM.

[svines85]

I'm sure we'll find out soon enough about the possible "pregnancy" angle, but personally I kind of doubt it'll be that. If nothing else we've been shown they're pretty responsible as a couple, so, yeah, I'd think that extended to "family planning" as being a pretty serious thing for them.

 

Let's face it, "surprises" don't really happen when people take responsible precautions. I'm not saying "100% sure" or anything ........... but well, the reliability of  "prevention" methods are sure waaaay on up there.

[Comadrin]

Yeah, seriously.  The "pregnant while still doing birth control precautions" schtick is overused in manga.  I could see it happening with DCF (Dear Childhood Friend) as he's the type who would think you could put the used item through the dishwasher and use it again.  

[puzzledwire]

Maybe Rin sabotaged the protection if she happened across them one of the times she was at his house.

[svines85]

Maybe Rin sabotaged the protection if she happened across them one of the times she was at his house.

Huh...well, she is an evil little thing..........though I don't know if it would fit in with her plans  

[svines85]

So yeah, just stress. The author sure did go out of his way to put a young couple into about as stressful situation as they could possible be in, didn't he? Who thinks Haruto needs to get a new job closer to home?

 

And while we're at it, who would have thought twice about taking the job he did in the first place?

[Comadrin]

Well, he's a Japanese male, trying to make it in one of the world's most demanding job markets.  I think Seo is pointing out the pains and futility of the "Have a corporate job, or live in the slums" mentality of Japan's business world.  Of course, the US isn't much better.  I'm quite happy to work for a small firm, about 3-4 days a week (I have a retirement), rather than work "on salary" for a large organization, as many of my friends do.  Sure, they get a pretty decent salary, but end up working about sixty hours a week, and in some cases taking work home with them and doing it at night and on the weekends.  This tends to lead to bad eating habits, bad sleep habits, and a general loss of health.  I used to get angry with my fellow Americans for not studying professions like engineering when in college.  Then I found out how professionals get used up and tossed to the curb by corporate America.  It ain't pretty.  Of course, they can get a job in the public sector, and never have to work again in their lives.  It's a nasty scenario.

[svines85]

Spoiler

Well, he's a Japanese male, trying to make it in one of the world's most demanding job markets.  I think Seo is pointing out the pains and futility of the "Have a corporate job, or live in the slums" mentality of Japan's business world.  Of course, the US isn't much better.  I'm quite happy to work for a small firm, about 3-4 days a week (I have a retirement), rather than work "on salary" for a large organization, as many of my friends do.  Sure, they get a pretty decent salary, but end up working about sixty hours a week, and in some cases taking work home with them and doing it at night and on the weekends.  This tends to lead to bad eating habits, bad sleep habits, and a general loss of health.  I used to get angry with my fellow Americans for not studying professions like engineering when in college.  Then I found out how professionals get used up and tossed to the curb by corporate America.  It ain't pretty.  Of course, they can get a job in the public sector, and never have to work again in their lives.  It's a nasty scenario.

True, there's certainly more than one way to see it and there may well be some cultural aspects involved which my reasoning might not necessarily take into account.

 

I guess in my view some of this has seemed a little contrived and aimed more at suiting the author's needs as opposed to making perfect sense though.  At least in my experience,  a person, newly graduated from college or not, wouldn't jump at the first job offer and move (what, multiple hundreds of miles?) away from his beloved, leaving one urban area for a different one when you could bide your time working some more temporary job (Haruto's convenience store stint comes to mind) while continuing to pursue employ a little closer to home (and the old lady of course).  

 

But it is what it is, it's how the author chose to write things and that's fine. 

[anfunatohi]

So yeah, just stress. The author sure did go out of his way to put a young couple into about as stressful situation as they could possible be in, didn't he? Who thinks Haruto needs to get a new job closer to home?

 

 

We can probably see him making a difficult decision soon in regards to that. Who knows, the "restaurant dream" may not be far off.

Though it's gonna look awkward of having him ditch a job he wanted(in this case, more like "he needed") for both Yuzuki and his future...

 

And, damn! At Rin's fury that is. When she was concerned at Yuzuki's state.

[inzaratha]

I never really thought that his job was a good one or an appropriate one, and by that I mean one that is suited for his training and talents, and the fact that it was so far away made it even less so.   They would bring home more money living together sharing expenses and not having to pay for travel.    Of course I never went corporate myself and found it to be a turn off, but I don't make anywhere near as much as many of my peers because of my job choice, it's not horrible but it aint great but I'm not a guy nor a Japanese guy. 

[burucchi]

I'd say it does have to do with the expectations that surround men as being the 'head of the house', especially in a country like Japan. He loves Yuzuki, and it was obvious that both were starting to think about reaching 'the next level'. Actually starting a family, getting married and all that. However, Haruto probably felt pressured into finding "a real" job as opposed to what he had, and he probably feels, especially considering his line about his pride as a man, that doing this was the easiest way to support Yuzuki and their dreams together. Also, let's not forget that he had just witnessed his best male friend become a father, as well as hitting it off into a presumably good enough job, so surely all that ends up taking a toll on him when deciding about moving to Kochi and leaving Yuzuki.

 

Anyway, I was expecting pregnant Yuzuki, but this setup was also very interesting. Things seemed to be going well before, so I guess I didn't think much about it, but Yuzuki's worried "What should I do?" line definitely made me think about the real situation they're in. Regarding Yuzuki herself, she obviously misses Haruto way too much, and has been making some absurd efforts to be together with him. I appreciate that in her, and I understand that it must be quite hard to be separated after spending a whole year under the same roof. However, and this is totally in-character for Yuzuki who has always been a little pushy (reason why I like her), she's unconsciously putting more and more pressure on Haruto. I mean, if you think about it, if it wasn't for Yuzuki's efforts, there is no guarantee that Haruto would ever have found the time to go see her, which would probably have meant that both of them would not have met for a considerable amount of time.

 

On the other hand, it's tough because I can't just fault Haruto, either. Corporate world is what it is, and he's just playing by the rules in order to keep his job, a job he got while probably thinking of what would be best for him AND Yuzuki. In this chapter, once again, we had him putting his work ahead of her, and I guess Seo's just slowly building up to a point where Haruto will have to make a choice. Here, again, I think he's definitely making a good job at showing that, under normal circumstances, Haruto will obviously let go of his work to keep Yuzuki. He doesn't seem to particularly love it or anything, and I guess that's where Adachi's character comes into the play. He's been looking at her as a role model of sorts, but it seems he still hasn't realized that they're different in that she truly loves what she does, whereas I don't feel any 'passion' for it from him.

 

Anyway, it was a painful read because I could see how both were full of doubts and hurting, which isn't something I appreciate 'cause I took a real liking to these two characters as a couple. On the other hand, though, I'd say Seo is definitely doing some good writing here and, if all goes as planned, we could see Haruto once again maturing quite a bit from this experience. He's turned down a job before out of pride that I still can't quite get over it, and the comment about how he "sucked at life" stuck with me to this day. But maybe all of this needed to happen for him to clear up some misconceptions about how things work out there.

[Comadrin]

Burucchi,

 

Very well thought out and well expressed post.  If you're on the money with this (and I think you are), Seo seems to really be maturing as a story teller in the way he's having his characters mature.  I'm looking forward to where this arc is going.

[burucchi]

Let us hope so! And completely unrelated, but I gotta confess I do think it's quite funny how you're one of the people who comments here on this manga more often, Comadrin, and actually posts interesting stuff as opposed to all the trolling that goes on in the main page. I always read your posts when we post new MIX chapters, so it always seems funny that you seem to enjoy this series just as much as I do, while still being a big Adachi (Mitsuru) fan, too!

 

Anyhow, on topic, yeah, I do hope Seo is taking steps to reach this sort of outcome from this little arc. I wasn't a very big fan of the 'job hunting' part, because Nagato never really 'clicked' with me and to this day I still can't find much point in her character, which is completely the opposite of how I feel about Adachi's one. Kimimachi is a weird series, because Seo has done so many different things with it, but I don't think any of them ended up being bad or pointless. A lot of the time I see people giving flak to the 'slice of life chapters', but I still have very fond memories of a lot of them and one thing's certain -- at least personally I feel that it worked amazingly well into just showing how much Haruto and Yuzuki work well together, and all the time spent with those characters is surely going to make whatever comes next up in their next 'stage' of this process of growing up even more significant. Plus, despite the occasional shounen trope here and there, when I look back at it all it's easy to see how much Haruto and Yuzuki have changed over time. Especially if you compare how the original Hiroshima arc started, with Haruto being quite childish, and how it ended, with their first relationship coming to a sudden end, and Yuzuki's actions at the time, it all fits quite nicely. I can only hope Seo keeps on doing a good job with it, because it's definitely a series I cherish so far, and wish some other people would look at it without the prejudice that seemed to have originated from misconceptions around the infamous Asuka break-up.

[bane_ecf]

True, there's certainly more than one way to see it and there may well be some cultural aspects involved which my reasoning might not necessarily take into account.

I guess in my view some of this has seemed a little contrived and aimed more at suiting the author's needs as opposed to making perfect sense though. At least in my experience, a person, newly graduated from college or not, wouldn't jump at the first job offer and move (what, multiple hundreds of miles?) away from his beloved, leaving one urban area for a different one when you could bide your time working some more temporary job (Haruto's convenience store stint comes to mind) while continuing to pursue employ a little closer to home (and the old lady of course).

Remember, it may have been Haruto's first job offer, but it was also his only offer and late in the job hunting season at that. If he were not to find a job in this job hunting season, he would likely have to try again next year, for which he will be at a significant resume disadvantage against new graduates. Newly graduating college students understand this and accept the fact that significant sacrifice is needed in order to cling to a corporate job - in fact it's expected of from new employees as a show of loyalty to the company. (Japanese companies in turn have historically rewarded employee loyalty by guaranteed lifetime employment as long as the company didn't go under. Layoffs were unheard of until the 90's, and are still pretty rare in this day and age.)

Another thing to remember is that Haruto accepted the job, then was placed at a location. He accepted the job knowing that it was possible to be sent off to a remote location, so to refuse the assignment and quit would probably result in de-facto blacklisting within the corporate world.

Edited by bane_ecf, 10 December 2013 - 05:44 AM.

[Comadrin]

Remember, it may have been Haruto's first job offer, but it was also his only offer and late in the job hunting season at that. If he were not to find a job in this job hunting season, he would likely have to try again next year, for which he will be at a significant resume disadvantage against new graduates. Newly graduating college students understand this and accept the fact that significant sacrifice is needed in order to cling to a corporate job - in fact it's expected of from new employees as a show of loyalty to the company. (Japanese companies in turn have historically rewarded employee loyalty by guaranteed lifetime employment as long as the company didn't go under. Layoffs were unheard of until the 90's, and are still pretty rare in this day and age.)

Another thing to remember is that Haruto accepted the job, then was placed at a location. He accepted the job knowing that it was possible to be sent off to a remote location, so to refuse the assignment and quit would probably result in de-facto blacklisting within the corporate world.

 

What he said.  As I understand it, it's been that way for quite some time.  Company job or live on the fringe of society.

[Comadrin]

Burucchi,

 

I was a real fan-boy of the "job-hunting arc."  It advanced the story, regarding Haruto's character, and made some important (in my opinion) social commentary about the ethos and practices in the corporate world.  Nagato was an extremely earnest and increasingly desperate girl from a country town.  She was quite intelligent (the only person from her hometown to get into a prestigious university) and extremely dedicated (the most horrible thing she could think of was to disappoint her family and friends).  She was also very naive.  Her dedication made her serious about her goals (and the expectation of others) to the point of being positively grim.  She was so caught up in studying and planning strategies with her "job-hunting circle" that she lost sight of everything else.  Then she runs into Haruto, who seems a kind of "Simple Simon" type of person to her grim, job hunting self.  He basically bursts into her life like Babar the Elephant showing up in a John Grisham legal thriller.  After his epic rescue of her in the karaoke parlor (I loved how he whipped out with his name and University to the corporate douchebag) , she takes some stock in herself, is honest and straightforward in her next interview, and gets her "dream job."  

 

Not really realistic (passionate, empathetic journalists rarely make it in our corporate media world), but it's a good "sincere, earnest girl makes good" kind of scenario (I'm a real sucker for that kind of thing).  I think Seo sensei is telling us that integrity can win out in the end, regardless of the self-seeking, dirtbag scum that permeate the corporate world.  A nice hopeful message for the youth of Japan (Seo's primary audience) and a nice, hopeful message for us in the western world.  I just wish things like this happened far more often than they actually do.

[burucchi]

So uh, anyone knows if 256 actually got published this week? Not really complaining, cause I know how hard it is to keep things on schedule (lol), but RHS has been pretty much flawless with getting it out on the weekend/monday, so it left me wondering whether they're just running late or if the author took a break or something like that.

 

And yes, this is me being too curious about the developments after how last week's chapter ended, haha. Also, Comadrin, I actually never looked at Nagato that way. Certainly changes my view a bit about that small arc. Should revisit one of these days :V

Edited by burucchi, 18 December 2013 - 12:12 PM.

[svines85]

So uh, anyone knows if 256 actually got published this week? Not really complaining, cause I know how hard it is to keep things on schedule (lol), but RHS has been pretty much flawless with getting it out on the weekend/monday, so it left me wondering whether they're just running late or if the author took a break or something like that.

 

And yes, this is me being too curious about the developments after how last week's chapter ended, haha. Also, Comadrin, I actually never looked at Nagato that way. Certainly changes my view a bit about that small arc. Should revisit one of these days :V

I don't know if it was or not. Though I do know that Crunchyroll, who's doing a "simulpub" on this title, doesn't have a new chapter (yet, at least) either. 

 

http://www.crunchyroll.com/comics/manga/a-town-where-you-live/volumes

[burucchi]

I see! I can't check CR because apparently they don't publish it here (yet, hopefully). Still, if it's usually up there and now it isn't, I guess there are high chances of it just not having come out this week. What a shame! 255 was so interesting, I've been looking forward to see how Seo is gonna keep the ball rolling now. Oh well, just another few days of waiting.

[svines85]

I see! I can't check CR because apparently they don't publish it here (yet, hopefully). Still, if it's usually up there and now it isn't, I guess there are high chances of it just not having come out this week. What a shame! 255 was so interesting, I've been looking forward to see how Seo is gonna keep the ball rolling now. Oh well, just another few days of waiting.

You can't see it where you are,  I see, what a bummer. It does happen for some reason (licensing/copyrights whatever), I remember JManga was exactly the same way. 

 

But no, I don't use the Crunchroll manga site stuff either actually, I just happened to remember that KnIM was one of the handful of titles they were doing so I thought I'd give it a look since you asked. I'd guess CR usually gets them pretty quickly but I don't really know. It might just be there's more work involved in the new chapter too........maybe more dialogue, more cleaning to accommodate the English...........that's accounting for it being delayed.