| Start Date | Chapter | Start Page |
Page Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 21 | ジョバンニの切符 | 151 | 4 |
| コノハナ桜 | 155 | 28 | |
| もうひとつのスピカ | 183 | 6 |
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A little bit of a chonkier reading this week, with three chapters to read, though two of them are quite short (and is anyone actually reading the もうひとつのスピカ chapters anyway?)
The title of the short flashback chapter is another reference to Night on the Galactic Railroad.
The bulk of the reading is the middle chapter, which is also the second of the two completely unrelated short stories in this series. The two main characters in this chapter almost have the same names as the main characters of “Sentimental”, the story we read back in volume four, the main difference being is that that Kasumi’s family name was Tsushima rather than Suzuki. How these two stories relate to each other, or if they’re even intended, I haven’t the foggiest idea. How these stories are meant to be related enough to the series to be included in the tankobon, I haven’t the foggiest idea either.
Page 159, the text on the board is the first line of the poem 春曉 (“Spring Morning”) by eighth-century Chinese poet Meng Haoran, considered the best known Tang dynasty poem. The reading for this line used in Japanese is しゅんみん あかつき を おぼえず, typically rendered in English as “In spring, one sleeps a sleep that knows no dawn”. (Teacher’s assertion that the line is read the same as her name is presumably a joke at her expense.)
This chapter has real Five Centimetres Per Second vibes…
Shoulda read this もうひとつのスピカ chapter last week. Would have been perfect timing.
Page 186, this book shown here is presumably the original pilot episode of Twin Spica, 2015年の打ち上げ花火, but for some reason transplanted to 1990. Maybe the earliest draft was always set in 1990, I dunno.
Page 188, アポロ. (Side note, for some odd reason, the name of this product was rendered “Uproll” in Singapore rather than “Apollo”. It was apparently modelled on the Apollo Command Module, though.)
Thanks that was helpful. I spent a while looking at ジョバンニ before getting what it meant (Giovanni)
Glad it wasn’t just me! Kept waiting for it to connect but never got there. Boy in the classroom, good at art, sakura - familiar themes but not part of our main story! Liked the ending and that panel on page 180 though.
I do but I do skim read them a wee bit.
Straight on to volume ten!