Second Round Houseki no Kuni vs. Totsukuni no Shoujo

[Marmalade]

Houseki no Kuni Haruko Ichikawa		Totsukuni no Shoujo Nakabe

 

[Erinyes]

Before anything else, i want to say im so sad to have to be facing you, asa-chan, Houseki no kuni is a manga i love (yes, i still have to catch up lol but i think that uncounsciously im afraid to see depressing stuff and keep procrastinating ) I wont be lying to members who are going to vote, Hnk is an amazing manga and i enjoyed a lot its anime adaptation, and recommend anyone to go and watch it. That said, i nominated TnS, i do love both mangas, but Totsukuni no Shojo, is very special to me, i dont know, i really love it, it is definitely in my current top 3. I will try to do my best to convince you how great it is, if i fail, i wont be sad to fall facing Hnk, Whatever results will be i highly encourage people to check both Tns & HnK.​

And knowing your great taste asa-chan, i hope you ll be picking this someday (only 40 chaps out so far ) !​

Best luck @Asako ​

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Shiva : "-You re already there, as you can see we are busy, we are preparing a nice meal for you ! while you re waiting, please enjoy this litlle 10 min Ova of my story !"​

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Please , watch the Ova by studio WIT, its only 10 min, its really beautiful, its quite artsy, but you ll figure the premises of the manga. I will talk maybe about some of the content, please watch it, its not a vid from me, its a legit Ova released some months ago, thanks in advance !

 

[Asako]

Introduction


Welcome to houseki no kuni, a world where humans went poof after meteors devastated the earth, then evolved into three species Lunarians, Gems and Admirabilis

Spoiler: explanation by phos how gems were born

the story about gems that are each assigned a role to help or fighting off these lunarians that want to abduct them and destroy them to use them as decorative but is that really is the case
we follow the journey of Phosphophyllite or simply phos for short the youngest useless gem in the 28 gems active in pursuing his quest of finding a purpose for his friend cinnabar and himself
this is a story about change, in hopes of bringing a better future for everyone no matter the obstacles

how the manga was born

The reason this series came to be is when the author ichikawa while studying in a buddsim school wonder
"Why are the gems not allowed to ascend in Buddhism and their only purpose is to be decoration for the pleasure of everything else ? Why is paradise made out of gems but they not allowed to have salvation like each and other things ?"

Spoiler

So you bet this series have a lot of Buddhism reference and bring light to this religion but not only that but it also drive deep into a lot of psychological problems like depression, self- inferiority, self-loathing, insanity, identity problems, obsession and more…

Spoiler

Characters

Im going to mention this now but the gems are androgynous looking, taking on both female and male characteristics with the bottom being female (hips, legs etc) and the male being the top (chest shoulders etc ) so you may see me change form he to she unconsciously when I write

Now lets talk about our lovely bubbly phos, he starts just as a child, naive and ignorant about this world, lazy about his responsibly and rather dumb

slowly he changes after he finally found a goal in his life, to find a better job for cinnabar, the person who was more useless than him as she was not only useless but mostly dangerous to all living things because of their poison after all she cinnabar a toxic gem
Her job is literally just a way to isolate her form all the other gems

The gems here in this manga take on taking on not only naming of real life gems but also the characteristics with the best example being cinnabar and phos with cinnabar being brittle gem of hardness of only 2

Phosphophyllite an extremely rare gem that is beautiful but useless and have no use in life form how brittle it is as its of a hardness of only 3.5, have no use in real life and the manga, because of their clumsiness and laziness.

And yet phos struggles for a better future and move on in hopes of finding a better future and ending this static life of being useless

Ichikawa managed to take on their real life aesthetics while excelling at making each and every character unique with their own struggles

Fun fact ichikawa once tried crystallization at home for reference


One of the things I really love about houseki no kuni is unlike other mangas where it based on big moments, houseki no kuni build on smaller moments that develops the characters, at first you wont think much about it till you see the effect later on

Its based on well paced meaningful small development that when you looks back you think "how did we get here ?"
“why did I start all this?”
This manga show the effect of time and how scary can changes be especially if you lose yourself with the flow and your original goal becomes muddier and how unwanted curiosity can bring a lot of harm than good…..but also how unwanting to fix the issues and being static can bring long term harm and a lot of mental problems with it
So what is the right solution ? do you move forwards to the future and hope for the best no matter the harm that may happen or do you stay in your little world fearing the unknown?

Houseki no kuni shows that as much as the world is great what really makes a good story is its characters and how the author handle it, without them there be nothing

To be continue

I hope you all support HnK AND that you guys now are curious to read it

Spoiler

 

[Erinyes]

A story full of sadness

Menu

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Aperitif ->here

Starter ->here

Some refreshment

[...]
He didn´t know what it was to be black
´Til they gave him his change
But didn´t want to touch his hand
To even the toughest among us
That would be too much
Isn´t it just enough
How hard it is to live
Isn´t it hard enough
Just to make it through a day
[...]

~Sade- the Immigrant



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Quoting this song, not just because Sade is one of my all fave singer, but because i found some pointss so relevant and some parallels between the lyrics and Totsukuni no Shojo's story. No wonder, because in the end, TnS is about differences and tolerance topic. And some parts of the lyrics reflects so well some aspects of the story. especially the "touching hands" parts.​

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Main course

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As said earlier, its a bout a curse, a wall (people who lives inside and outside the wall) a pure child and Sensei, a creature (former human that get cursed) regarded as a monster and who cares deeply for her. They share a peaceful life together despite being different. This time, i’ll focus specifically on two aspects i find very significant in the series.​

Identity/names :

Except Shiva, whose name is actually the name of a goddess despite the pursuers calls her “it”, no other character has a name (hints are given in the latest chapters about Sensei past (but sadly at the moment we will get to know his name, he will soon start to disappear) neither people nor places are named, people are named so far by their titles or their function (Teacher, Father, Outsiders...), even the grandmother has no name, and this means a lot as a symbol. Unnamed character is something to be widely found in tales/fables narrative. as a symbol, it can refer also to the unknown/unidentified (place or time for instance) or something or someone that has no identity or that has been deprived from it or someone or something being denied of its/his existence (cf in hxh, yeah, sorry i have this bad habit to draw parrallels and to look for analogies everytime i read or watch something and this is not the only one, but i will try to refrain. Meruem has been always called by his title not his name, he grew and got some interesting development at the moment he got his name, the analogy is interesting considering Meruem can be relatable to Sensei, and komugi is somehow similar to Shiva, as mentioned in the previous round, both are embodying innocence and a kind of superiority shiva has a goddess name, komugi a god skill in Gungi ).​

It's interesting to note that the fact that nor the place , nor the time are idenified, makes the story universal, can happen at any place at any moment of the History.​

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Shiva refered as "it", by her pursuers, that inicates they dont value her as human.

Politics/religious setting

The insiders built a wall to avoid being cursed by the outsiders., if someone is cursed in some place, they and everyone living in the same place are executed to avoid the curse. Shiva for some reasons is not affected by the curse but can infect other people, or at least its believed so, at the early stage of the story, she will definitely get cursed later. Religion seems to play a part important in the TnS society characters are often seen praying. Beliefs are connected to political and sounds reminiscent of witch-hunt and persecutions.​

Religious/beliefs setting exemple,

Spoiler

Persecutions : people from outside are regarded as pariahs

Spoiler

characters seen praying

Spoiler

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Art (character design)

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Compared to usual manga art that focus more on exaggerated features to convey emotions like big eyes or specific signs like this. Totsukuni art looks more like a western children book or fairy tale. more like this style. That gives more impact to the fairy tale style of narration.

usual manga style features

Spoiler

Totsukuni rely too on facial expressions but not in the same way than usually in manga, character features are not deformed, character postures backgrounds, nature are all contributing to convey feelings. Like here :

Pain disarray expressed by the character postures, there s a lot of focus on hands. It's symbolical, since hands are the tools af deeds/actions (therefore mistakes ) they re also the organs of touch, and of contact, its symbolical too considering that in TnS world, to put it simply, physical contacts between outsiders and insider are forbidden/taboo.

Spoiler

Hidden face for sadness or fear or blushing for joy or happiness. its hard to see sometimes Sensei epressions, but we can guess, due to postures and eyes, but Shiva's expressions and reactions are just the ones you can realistically expect from a child of her age (around 7 years)

Spoiler

Close-ups for other various emotions like fear or pain.

Spoiler

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Theres a lot more to talk about characters and symbols, also i d like to talk about the art (landscape and nature etc.) but will save that to next time if TnS makes it next round.

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[Asako]

so i was plannning on leaving this on next round but the more i thought about it the more i think it fits more here considering how much i talked about change in the first campaign

in Japanese culture there an art that involves repairing broken pottery with gold platinum called Kintsugi or also called kintsukuroi

the philosophy behind it is to embrace imperfection, it's also a way to highlight any event that may happen in life and the change
for artists it's a way to a analyse the idea of loss and improvement through destruction and repair or rebirth

and this comes back to phos and the fact that after being broken so many times and losing pieces of himself he now full of gold platinum, it represents what phos went though to get there and the loss that happened
not only that but now the gold platinum became one and the same with phos being reborn in a new light

Spoiler

i also need to say this but the art in this manga is gorgeous, well not in the sense where it super detailed like berserk or gunnm but in the sense where it elegant and the way ichikawa use her techniques, i will go in details about what i mean in the next campaign if i do pass but here some pannels

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