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fuanteinasekai · 5 years

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Okay, so! I am super busy right now, but this thing has been 90% done for ages, so I’ll go ahead and finish it now.

I mentioned in one of my metas that there’s a really big (non-spoilery) set of parallels several years ago. These parallels exist between Kitamoto’s flashback special in Volume 13, and Touko-san’s flashback special in Volume 15.

Please note that technically Touko-san’s story was published after Kitamoto’s, but chronologically, in story time, it’s earlier. Since it’s talking about emotional development, it makes more sense for me to talk about it in story time, rather than publishing time. So understand “before” and “after” in this context.

The top is a two-page spread from Touko-san’s story. The bottom is from Kitamoto’s.

I’ve selected the most relevant part of the text for transcription and translation, and bolded the parts that are most similar:

Touko

ーまるでからっぽのような　心がここにないような　ひどく遠くを見るような目を貴志くんは時々する

その目に私達はどんな風にうつっているんだろう　ーいつか　打ちとけてくれるかしら　やりたいことやわがままをー　それはまるで家族のようにいつか

Kitamoto and Nishimura

ーだから…打ちとけてきたけど時々心ここにあらずというか遠くを見るような目になるよな

そうかあ？

…そうきっぱり言われるとお前がニブすぎなのか　おれが考えすぎなのか　判断しかねるんだよなあ

まあ　夏目は都会から来てるから　いつかはこんな田舎出ていこうとは思ってるかもな

ーこんな田舎…か…

あの遠い目は

そういうことか

Touko:

—Sometimes Takashi-kun has eyes that look as if they were empty, like his heart’s not here, like he’s looking terribly far away. How are we reflected in those eyes? —I wonder if he will open up to us, someday. Doing what he wants, being self-indulgent—

[Over panel “introducing” Sensei] Someday acting like family like that…

Kitamoto and Nishimura:

Kitamoto:—So… he’s opening up, but sometimes he has eyes like his mind is elsewhere [lit. ‘without his heart being here’], or rather, like he’s looking far away.

Nishimura: Oh, yeah?

Kitamoto: …You say that so flatly, I can’t decide if you’re too dense or I’m overthinking it.

Nishimura: Well, Natsume’s from the city, so he’s probably thinking about how he wants to get away from a backwater like this, someday.

Kitamoto: —A backwater like this… huh?

Kitamoto: Those faraway eyes,

Kitamoto: [Over panel “introducing” Tanuma] is that what they mean?

[NB Kitamoto’s very last line is actually on the next page, which I didn’t scan.]

Now, things are rearranged a little and sometimes conjugated differently, but there are enough visual similarities and enough similarities in language use that this is an absolutely, 110% undeniable parallel. The bold parts are basically slightly altered variations on the same thing. You’ll note that Kitamoto changes one thing in a significant way: instead of “I wonder if he’ll open up to us” he says “he’s opening up.” I’ll get to that later, but first I want to talk about the wording a little.

There’s an interesting, extremely-lost-in-translation bit here. I’ve preserved it by adding in the literal translation in brackets, but you can’t do that in normal, non-annotated translations. Basically, Kitamoto uses the phrase “without his heart being here” which is a set expression similar to the English “there in body, not in spirit.” The Japanese word for “heart” is similar to the English in its metaphorical uses, but overlaps more with “mind.” So “without his heart being here” suggests that his mind is elsewhere, that he’s preoccupied with something else and not really aware of what he’s doing or where he is at that moment (which in this case is “hanging out with Nishimura and Kitamoto”).

Touko-san, on the other hand, has altered this phrase a bit. Since it’s no longer in the same form as the set phrase, it comes across a bit more literal: he looks as if his heart, his spirit, has left his body, as if his body were “empty.” It feels stronger, reminiscent of outright dissociation instead of being merely distant and distracted. At the same time, her wording alludes to the familiar phrase and would be recognizably related.

Second, “self-indulgent” is my translation of わがまま here. わがまま semi-literally means “one’s own way” with an implication that one is thinking purely of oneself, with no regard for others. For this reason, it often translates as “selfish” or “self-centered.” However, in this context Touko-san is clearly referring to having a level of trust and comfort, such that Natsume can express his desires openly without feeling like he has to defer to the desires of others or justify himself. So I thought the less negative “self-indulgent” was a better fit.

Third, I translated Kitamoto’s “Is that what they mean?” semi-literally because it was the only way to link it to the previous “faraway eyes” phrase in English. However, this そういうことか is a set expression in Japanese, similar to “I see.” It’s not so much that Kitamoto is questioning Nishimura’s explanation, as that he has tentatively accepted it because he can’t think of anything else (yet).

So I thought about why these parallels exist, and there are a few options. One is that it’s meant to compare Kitamoto and Touko-san. This is possible, but the ways in which they are similar (being stable sources of support and normality) are too obvious to require such a distinct parallel. Further, in this usage the parallel excludes Nishimura and Shigeru-san, which makes no sense.

The second possibility is that it’s meant to compare Tanuma and Sensei. This isn’t entirely unlikely—I wrote in my notes a long time ago that they were both “buffers” in the sense of easing Natsume’s interaction with the world. Sensei makes it easier for Natsume to interact with yōkai, and process his yōkai related trauma. Tanuma makes it easier for him to interact with humans, and helps him process his human-related trauma.

But I think the real reason for this set of parallels is to make the implications precise. Because Kitamoto and Touko-san use the same language, we know they’re talking about the same stages of emotional development. Kitamoto changing “will he open up to us?” to “he’s opening up” is key, because it means we’ve moved down the list chronologically, and from Sensei’s role to Tanuma’s. It also reinforces the subtext linking Sensei and Tanuma to their respective roles, because it introduces them using the same “subtextually related dialog in the same panel” technique, like so:

Touko thinks “Someday acting like family like that…” and in the same panel, though chronologically later, she says “Kitty?” (a.k.a Sensei)

Kitamoto thinks “Is that what they mean?” (That is: his eyes are “distant” because he wants to leave the countryside.) and in the same panel, though chronologically later, the teacher says “We have a new transfer student.” (a.k.a. Tanuma)

Since the same technique is used in both parallels, we can be reasonably certain this isn’t a misinterpretation of subtext.

So why do Sensei and Tanuma fulfill these roles? Why does Sensei help Natsume open up, and why does Tanuma make Natsume’s eyes less distant (make his heart “here”)?

I think that in buffering Natsume’s interaction with the yōkai world, Sensei gives him space to breath. Since he no longer has to be in “survival mode” 24/7, he’s able to relax at times and actually properly interact with the people who love and support him. There’s also an argument to be made that Sensei’s selfishness (e.g. his constant demands for snacks) forces Natsume to be a little selfish himself, or at least to ask for things. Hence why Sensei is associated with “opening up” and perhaps softening up his “distant eyes” somewhat.

With Tanuma, there are a lot of suggestions scattered throughout the series that Natsume originally thought of this town as a temporary resting place. That he still planned to live alone eventually, and that he had no intention of forming permanent bonds, no matter how kind the Fujiwaras—or Nishimura and Kitamoto—may be. Mostly because such a thing did not seem feasible to him when he was in constant danger, but also because he had been conditioned to think of his caretakers as glorified, reluctant innkeepers. But when Tanuma comes along, not only does he essentially start demanding emotional growth from Natsume, but he also starts treating Natsume’s continued presence as a forgone conclusion. For example, at the end of the culture fair festival, he tells Natsume that “It’ll surely go better next year.” Judging from Natsume’s reaction, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to him there would be a next year. Finally, of course, there’s Natsume’s attachment to Tanuma, which forces him to grow emotionally so he won’t lose (or hurt) his best friend.

There’s one more interesting little touch here. When Natsume admits he’s facing similar troubles as Kitamoto (who is trapped between his desire to stay with his family, and his need to leave town and go to college so he can control his future), he says “I want to stay here forever.” Instead of something like “this town” or “with the Fujiwaras,” he uses the relatively vague ここ, which is the same “here” in the expression “without his heart being here.” In this way it very subtly reinforces the implication that Tanuma grounded Natsume, and brought his heart back “here.”

As this story was published shortly after “The Other Side of the Glass,” the connection between Tanuma and Natsume’s fear of having to leave is still fresh (to the reader):

—ずっと　怖かったんだ　いつか　こんなことが起きてしまったらと　ひょっとしたら　もうここにいては—

—I have always been afraid. That someday, if something like this happened, perhaps, staying here any longer—

The “staying here any longer” is an incomplete sentence. It may mean “If I stay here any longer…” or it may be the first half of “I can’t/shouldn’t stay here anymore.”

Compare his dialog with Kitamoto at the end of Kitamoto’s special:

ずっとここにいたいんだ　きっとそれじゃだめなんだけど　もう　どこへもう行きたくないよ　ここが好きなんだ　ずっとここにいたいんだ

I want to stay here forever. I’m sure it’s hopeless but, I don’t want to go anywhere else anymore. I like it here. I want to stay here forever.

Bolded phrases are the same, merely conjugated differently. (“I want to” is handled like a conjugation in Japanese.) “Any longer” and “anymore” are contextual translations of the same word; もう has a lot of related uses, but these two are essentially the same. So there’s clearly a similarity in the way the two stories treat the issue of Natsume wanting to stay.

Ergo, Sensei is family and Tanuma is the anchor to Natsume’s heart. Canonically.

#natsume yuujinchou #natsume's book of friends #meta #tanuma kaname #Natsume Takashi #nyanko sensei

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