ah, I must have missed that part. I got the bits where he took a whole lot of dodgy money and ran off with another woman.
Mmm, it seems as though Sakaeda is accumulating (often younger) women who are throwing themselves at him: his girlfriend, Tomoyo, her sister, Minako. (Not sure, but I didn’t read any vibes from the apartment receptionist or the coffee shop girl, but maybe I missed it).
This is (I think) a bit of 赤川 wishful thinking, but maybe it is common in other Japanese fiction.
I found this week a bit underwhelming.
(Not really a spoiler, but next week’s chapter gets more interesting…)
It’s in the part immediately before that. The daughter narrates that he even beat her 2-3 times when she tried to intervene on behalf of her mother.
Yeah, it’s getting a bit much.
Reading ahead? It looks like we’re the only actively participating members of this club, so unless there are lurkers who’d mind, we could just step up the pace.
I don’t mind. These couple of chapters (8,9,10) are very short (120-130 kindle points), but from week 11 it steps up to about 200 per chapter. @polv is also reading along and may have a preference.
Here are some options, though given there are only three of us, the chance of us getting a clear answer is not that high!
I ended up voting for the 5 day schedule, but in truth, I’m fine with any schedule that saves us a couple weeks (including schedule-free reading). I’m planning to join the next ABC that starts on March 29, and the less this club overlaps with it, the easier it’ll be to keep the pace there. Also, this book has been a pretty smooth read so far, so I think speeding up will be fun.
The ghost girl is getting creepier and creepier, I like this development.
The romance front…not so much. Ai just seems weird, clingy and one-dimensional to me. I felt zero chemistry between her and Saeda, so it came out of nowhere when he suddenly contemplated leaving Emi for her after only meeting her once.
This is the sort of chapter that captures the Death Note/Jerry Springer comparison
We have both elements in this chapter. But as you say, the Deathnote bit is more interesting.
On their first meeting Sakaeda described his palpitations and chest tightening sensations on first meeting Ai, so it wasn’t such a surprise to me. But still all a bit sudden and not very believable. (I mean, even for a fantasy horror suspense story)
Good question! The choice of ある instead of いる here relates to the nature of the subject being described.
Breakdown of the Sentence:
• でもあなたこそ – “But you, on the other hand…”
• 好きな方 – “the person you like” (方 here means “person” in a comparative sense)
• があるのよね – “exists, right?” (implying “you have someone you like, right?”)
Why ある and not いる?
Normally, when talking about the existence of people, いる is used. However, in this case, ある is used because 好きな方がある implies having a preferred person rather than their literal existence.
• ある is often used for things that are more abstract, including preferences, choices, and options.
• いる would sound unnatural here because the focus isn’t on the physical presence of a person, but rather on the concept of “having someone you like.”
Comparable Example:
• 好きな人がいる → “There is someone I like” (focusing on their existence)
• 好きな人がある → Sounds unnatural
• 好きな方がある → “You have a preferred person (that you like),” which sounds natural in this context.
This use of ある is somewhat similar to phrases like:
• 考えがある (“I have an idea”)
• 意見がある (“I have an opinion”)
In this context, 方 is read as ほう (hō).
So, 好きな方がある is pronounced as すきなほうがある.
When 方 (ほう) is used in a comparative sense, it refers to a “side” or “preference,” rather than a person directly. This aligns with why ある is used instead of いる—it’s about having a preference rather than a physical person.
It’s also possible that she’s not a ghost of a person at all, but some sort of spirit creature that takes the shape of a human girl to make people think she’s innocent and harmless, when she’s actually playfully malevolent and out for blood. I wonder if we’ll ever get any explanation or if we just have to accept her existance as it is.
Now that it’s increasingly looking like the spirit girl is twisting things so that Saeda will pay a price every time he makes her use her powers, I’m fine with her being overpowered. I just found her powers boring as long as I thought they were free. Ai, on the other hand, feels very shoe-horned into the story. Looking back on my comment from Week 6, the conversation where Tomoyo first mentions her sister already felt contrived, and now there’s this rushed love-at-first-sight thing. This kinda feels like the author is aiming for a finale where Saeda will have to chose if he wants to use the spirit girl’s power to save Tomoyo (or someone else) at the risk that she takes Ai’s life in return, and he absolutely wants the two of them in love to create extra drama.
Ok, things are clearly speeding up now. I’m glad we sped up the club, too, because the storytelling is clearly meant to sweep you along without questioning certain things too closely. I can see why people compared it to a Tarantino movie.
I enjoyed the fast-paced back and forth between the POVs in this chapter, even if it means that the individual characters don’t really get much development. I guess the chapter title already set the mood for what we can expect from this chapter and the last 4 till the end…I was almost disappointed that the policeman from chapter 11 survived, I feel like I was promised 死 but got only some broken bones . Next chapter better have some deaths, what with all the setup.
Noguchi already has a grudge against Kyouko, so he should be low-hanging fruit for the spirit girl. Maybe she can convince him to take out his ex-boss as well. Kagawa and his doctor friend also added another person to their kill list and didn’t even need any prompting. We’ll see what becomes of Emi and the seeds of a grudge against Saeda that the spirit girl tried to plant in her. And Touno finally got an excuse to get Minako without supervision…right now, that’s the POV where I can least predict what going to happen next, but there’s plenty of potential for violence.
. Next chapter better have some deaths, what with all the setup.