Ballad: Namonaki Koi no Uta (2009)
At present day, a boy named Shinichi (Akashi Takei) struggles in life as he is bullied in school and his parents are always arguing at home. He loves reading history as it's his way of escaping reality and often prays at a nearby ancient tree for courage to be strong in life.
One day, he discovers a hidden scroll buried beneath the tree and finds himself transported back in time to Sengoku Jidai, where he met the fearsome Samurai, Matabe (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and the fiery princess, Renheme (Yui Aragaki), whom he serves.
Shinichi is surprised to see the princess to be the same person he often dreams of and Matabe is mystified by Shinichi's arrival which saved him from an assassination attempt, believed to be the work of a rival Daimyo, Ohkura (Takao Osawa).
Shinichi later learns that Ohkura wanted to marry Renheme but she refuses as her heart is already with Matabe. Both Matabe and Renheme are torn between their love for each other and their duty to their province, which they have both sworn to protect.
As Shinichi is caught up in the inevitable war, figuring out his purpose in being sent to this timeline, he gets close to both Renheme and Matabe, and the people around them, he learns what it truly means to be courageous, to not run away and face life boldly.
This was a pleasant find, as I have been intrigued by "time travel" shows where the lead travels to the past to escape the present but only to learn about life, like Samurai Sensei, Ashi Girl, Junihitoe wo Kita Akuma, Iine! Hikaru Genji-kun, Edomoiselle and Honnoji Hotel.
It's an uplifting and inspiring film, which also pulls your heartstrings.
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[summary] Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu Chapter 21-1 and 21-2
Last weekend I checked here and on reddit, and I found no summary for Chapter 21 even though 21-4 was uploaded a month ago so I thought I should do a quick one before the next update. Turns out typing these up takes way more time than I thought so I could only manage 2 chapter parts with my limited free time. Will finish the rest as soon as I can.
Chapter 21 will be the last chapter of Volume 4 which means once the tankoubon release is approaching (December 4th) they're going to pull off its chapters.
22-1 is already up as of this week. Chapter 22 will be uploaded biweekly, but Chapter 23 and onward will have regular weekly updates. (The numbers in the original tweet are typos, they got corrected later.)
Before I get to Chapter 21 because this is relevant: in 20-4 when ‘Hikaru’ visits Yoshiki at night (the last few pages of Chapter 20) we briefly see Hikaru’s POV. The bright light in the middle of Yoshiki’s chest is his soul/spirit, as Hikaru sees it.
Tweet caption: By the way, this is what the light is.
Image text: Yoshiki’s soul… It’s pretty.
(This is more or less unrelated to Chapter 21, but in 20-1 when Kurebayashi-san mentions kegare [impurity] Yoshiki recalls the time when ‘Hikaru’ mentioned the same before they checked out what Yoshiki’s sister found in the bathroom in Chapter 11.)
I checked the existing scans to see how certain terms/names were translated.
21-1
Yoshiki is squatting down in front of two gravestones: one marked, one unmarked. The marked grave is the smaller one and it reads “Caw-son” [the pet bird from Chapter 11] the unmarked grave is the bigger one. There’s an unopened pack of a cream-filled roll in front of the unmarked grave. Yoshiki touches the gravestone with an apology: he apologizes that he couldn’t do more than this because as long as “he” [fake Hikaru] is there, no one’s going to grieve [real Hikaru.] But because ‘Hikaru’ exists, no one will forget the real Hikaru, and Yoshiki feels happy about this, and he finds this feeling “the scariest.”
‘Hikaru’ arrives and says that ages ago he and Yoshiki used to play here [in the old shed] a lot. He points to a handmade Super Mario stage.
Sitting next to each other, ‘Hikaru’ asks Yoshiki how he’s different from real Hikaru. Yoshiki says the two of them are totally different. Real Hikaru was better at reading the mood, more mature, he was hard to understand. He was even more of a brat, he lied, and he had a surprisingly cunning side as well. And he’s never coming back, so. Different.
‘Hikaru’ asks if Yoshiki loved the real Hikaru, and instead of replying, a shocked Yoshiki asks why ‘Hikaru’ is asking this. ‘Hikaru’ tells him it’s because some time ago [Chapter 4] Yoshiki averted his gaze when he was looking at Hikaru’s body. Yoshiki says he doesn’t want to answer the question.
When Yoshiki grabs ‘Hikaru's’ shirt he says he no longer feels anything when he’s looking at ‘Hikaru’s’ body. Then he says it’s fine that ‘Hikaru’ doesn’t understand these feelings. ‘Hikaru’ agrees that it’s true that he doesn’t have “these kinds of feelings” and that he’s fundamentally different from humans. Then Yoshiki says it’s fine for ‘Hikaru’ to not become a human, and that actually he shouldn’t become something like a human.
The last 2 pages are Yoshiki’s thoughts: Yoshiki believes he and ‘Hikaru’ are entirely different beings so it’s not like they’re able to fully understand each other. So that’s why ‘Hikaru’ doesn’t need to do anything other than just being here and not killing people. Instead of forcing ‘Hikaru’ to become like a human, if there’s a place where ‘Hikaru’ could live freely like himself… Yoshiki would do anything for this.
21-2
Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ summarize what they’ve learned so far from Matsuura-san in the library, Hikaru’s grandpa, and Kurebayashi-san, while Yoshiki takes notes.
When they’re done, Yoshiki wonders if ‘Hikaru’ is really a god. ‘Hikaru’ says he’s not, he was just called a “god.” ‘Hikaru’ wonders if the kegare [impurities] that gathered in the mountain spread out because he didn’t stay on the mountain, and that maybe he should go back. But Yoshiki says ‘Hikaru’ finally found a place where he belongs so don’t. Kurebayashi-san said she’ll help and Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ can find a way together. ‘Hikaru’ agrees. Then Yoshiki remembers that 2 days ago ‘Hikaru’ visited him at night, and ‘Hikaru’ reveals that his memories of it are fuzzy, but he probably did visit Yoshiki. ‘Hikaru’ wonders why he did that.
Scene switch to the Takeda family residence. Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ want to talk to old man Takeda about what Matsuura-san told them in the library. The daughter-in-law opens the door, surprised to see ‘Hikaru’ because it’s rare for anyone from the Indou family to show up, and she wonders what’s up. Yoshiki tells her they want to ask “old man Takeda” about something they need for a school project, but the daughter-in-law is having none of it. Then ‘Hikaru’ remembers Kurebayashi-san telling them if they run into any trouble just mention her name (because “even a housewife like [her] has a few favors to call in”) which works: the name jogs the daughter-in-law’s memory and she remembers her father-in law looking for a person named Kurebayashi, and she tells Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ to wait a bit.
[Summaries of 21-3 and 21-4 coming soon]
Notes
I didn’t translate kegare myself because I’m firmly on the “it’s rarely a good idea to translate cross-cultural religious concepts” side of the translation theory debate (best relevant example: “sin”)
Kegare and tatari (from "malevolent god") in the online Encyclopedia of Shinto (in English)
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Hara: oh, kusakabe, to think that you came to me for help shows how much you've matured. You know what else shows you've matured? Your withered face.
Kusakabe: now I know why I referred to you and me as suicide squad, I already wanna kill myself
Hara: why don't you wait a week, you'll probably die of old age
Kusakabe: the only way I'm going to die is if you touch me with one of your bony fingers and drag me across the river styx, you reaper.
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"By the way, here's a scrapped design for Kusakabe-san's birthday art. I thought, "wait, haven't I drawn this pose recently...?". I did, with a certain bearded teacher. - [Nakamura]"
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Okamoto-sensei x Commissioner Sakurada, Minako x (Naru & Hikaru) in "Minako's Catastrophic Discovery"
Naru and Hikaru were holding down Minako's arms to prevent her from clawing out her eyes. Apparently she wasn't ready to walk in on her substitute maternal figures in flagrante delicto.
The chaos compels.
If you want to write one of these, please just link me
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Oops
As usual, that afternoon the two youngsters were sitting opposite each other in front of the goban and discussing their game at the Young Lions tournament. And also as usual, their discussion was full of a lot of debate.
Hikaru just thought to himself, "I really want to have his ability of controlling the game, but before that…"
"In Hokuto Cup you lacked experience in the first round and became late to surpass the opponent's territory. I hope that was the last time you did that," Akira just said honestly.
"But it was also your first in an international competition," said Hikaru, "and you won them all."
"But I've accompanied my father at international competitions a few times," Akira explained, "and I'm used to feel the pressure there." Maybe that's one of the reason they have different ability. Hikaru want to have more experience like his rival.
"Speaking of your dad, Toya, is he home yet?" Hikaru asked.
"I thought he'd meet Morishita sensei today to discuss an interesting amateur event," Akira replied, "and I think they'll be here in a moment."
"What!?" Hikaru said in shock. He was worried that Morishita sensei would see him here playing with Akira. "Is… Morishita sensei…"
"Shindo," a voice interrupted. The owner of the voice was none other than the person he was worried about being there.
"Sen… sensei!?"
"What are you doing here?" Asked Morishita sensei who sounded different to Hikaru, as if interrogating him on his previous statement, "didn't you say Toya is your rival??"
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