夏目友人帳 - Natsume’s Book of Friends: Chapter 2 Discussion

[migraine]

Replying to mitrac

@mitrac

I love that you put in so many screenshots for discussion thank you! I’m reading paper and it’s a lot more fiddly to do that

Ahh, I’m glad it helps!! I definitely do that to make it easier to reference, and also because I know how small the volumes are IRL

@mitrac

I thought that was Tuyukami talking. So he’s saying he was bigger when more people believe in him. This manga feels so much harder to me on this point than anything else I’ve ever read, most of my brain cells are trying to figure out who’s talking

Honestly, yeah. Here I think it’s the world’s smallest little part of the bubble pointing at Madara I will say that watching the anime helps with a lot of the heavy-lifting of discerning who’s saying what, if you would ever consider that at some point It’s definitely one of the things that really, really makes this manga tougher at points. Plus the more non-standard page layouts on top of it…

@mitrac

This is what I love about book clubs. I think it would have taken me longer to think about this as a theme.

!! Glad you like that! I’ve had this series marinating in my head for… probably 14 years, I think? So I’ve had a loooot of thoughts about it over time. (Which reminds me that I still need to post my chapter 3 thoughts, too.)

@mitrac

Oooh, I didn’t think of that, so the whole I’ll eat you thing could be an act

Yeah!! I really feel like Madara does at least a certain amount of fronting with the way that he acts, and it makes him interesting to think about when considering his intentions or the way he really feels about others.

[mitrac]

@migraine

how small the volumes are IRL

omg it’s so tough

@migraine

Here I think it’s the world’s smallest little part of the bubble pointing at Madara I will say that watching the anime helps with a lot of the heavy-lifting of discerning who’s saying what, if you would ever consider that at some point

This sounds so helpful, I get all sorts of stuff from your comments. I’ll have to see what platform it’s on. I’m staying somewhere for a few weeks soon that has Netflix

[mitrac]

I finished this chapter!

Summary

I didn’t notice until near the end with the close up of Tuyukami that he is wearing a mask.
One thing I don’t understand is that after Natume knows what Susugi looks like, and he wants to return his name but he can’t because they have to find him because they don’t know his name yet… so is the book of names written in a way that can’t be read?

@migraine

最近はここへ来るのもやっとだったんだ

I feel like I’ve mostly encountered やっと with the meaning of “finally,” but here it seems to be about effort/difficulty instead. That it took a lot of effort for her to even travel here to see Tsuyukami…

From this page, there was way too much imagination required. Somehow it must be possible, but it’s hard to understand how you can know what’s going on here without having seen the anime. I ended up comparing my understanding with the summary on fandom and there was a ton that I would have never gotten from those images

@migraine

Somehow this part is the part that’s making me tear up, even though I feel like it’s usually a different part that does that to me. It’s just like… the way that Natsume knows that there’s nothing more that he can do, that Tsuyukami says he’s content with this, but he still feels like he needs to say at least this one thing for his benefit… The gentle futility of it

I loved that part, too

[migraine]

Responding to mitrac

@mitrac

One thing I don’t understand is that after Natume knows what Susugi looks like, and he wants to return his name but he can’t because they have to find him because they don’t know his name yet… so is the book of names written in a way that can’t be read?

It’s because the page with Susugi’s name is stuck to Tsuyukami’s page! So while Tsuyukami’s can be read, Susugi’s can’t without ripping the paper (and harming them both).

@mitrac

Somehow it must be possible, but it’s hard to understand how you can know what’s going on here without having seen the anime.

Yeah, I think watching the anime makes everything way, way easier to parse

[mitrac]

reply to migraine

@migraine

It’s because the page with Susugi’s name is stuck to Tsuyukami’s page! So while Tsuyukami’s can be read, Susugi’s can’t without ripping the paper (and harming them both).

Oh of course thanks!

@migraine

watching the anime makes everything way, way easier to parse

I’m travelling for work soon and staying in a place with almost every steaming sub so I’ll see if I can find it there!