The Entertainment News 2019 Edition Issue #25

The Entertainment News 2019 Edition Issue #25 - Manga Extra

Sunday, 23 June 2019 arrow_back_ios arrow_forward_ios

I told you I'll be back for another one of these.

So yeah, I'm back for one of these, and yes, I've decided to do these at my own pace. Coming up will be a larger series than this and that one will need some tracing in terms of which chapter did I leave off from when I last read online a year ago, but this one is easy. It's Kawai Makoto-sensei's latest work which recently concluded, and is titled "This love is illegal." just for international audience, even though we know that is not the REAL title haha let's talk about it

WHAT AND WHY

What, should be obvious from above title. "Amaetai no Hi wa Soba ni Ite." is a story about living in a world with androids. You know, not those that power the majority of smartphones (okay joke's over lol), but those beings which are engineered to behave like humans, living with humans. Among them is android Hinageshi (female btw) serving solo-living-away-from-home newbie author Kaede (male btw) and here's a secret: the android likes the human. In many ways than other, that is illegal (thus the alternative title) and the android will be wiped off its memories if discovered being involved in any sort of romance with a human, even infatuation, I guess. So yeah, don't guess what happened. I'll talk about the final Volume 3 right here, right now! Yeah, prepare for spoilers, by the way.

漫画 Amaetai no Hi wa Soba ni Ite.

To give a good summary of this series, Volume 1 gave us the happy days, Volume 2 gave us a warning, and Volume 3 gave us realisation and confrontation. Firstly, Hinageshi was living a great life with Kaede, the one guy who possibly has no feelings whatsoever to the android, is being well taken care of by her, to say the least. And they say she is bad at everything according to her qualification tests. That aside, she notices her love for the man is growing, and so did Kaede's social circle, from his childhood friend and crush Azuki to his manager and editor Tsukushi to Azuki's friend Momo... all of them had their troubles and joys with android. Then, came in the declaration from a letter sent to her house: she has been discovered to have romantic feelings for a human. Hinageshi at this point can either (1) sign the statement which will probably get her arrested but more importantly get her abolished on her current job, or (2) bear the consequences which is the, you know, wipe memory thing. Confronted also by the one who reported her, Karin - an android herself - decides to convince her to do so as not doing so will eventually reach a bad ending. You know, the time where the authorities get to you and everyone is going to cry. Better to start early, yes? But no, it's more than that. Azuki and Momo both know such is not a statement for freedom to love, as with many questions, consider the ethicality in romance between androids and humans. This became a huge impact at the end of Volume 2 after what seems to be a kid winning an award in the novel author awards which Kaede attended and the manager shocked to see what she saw: the android she praised of her skills when she was a kid.

Things get real escalated in the final volume (as with all final volumes) as the resolution of Hinageshi's fate is shown in two prime examples: What happens after an android is wiped off its memories, and what happens when you have to get wiped, and in the process too. Firstly, the manager Tsukushi recalls her past with Tanpopo the android (probably a reference to ~~the character popular with kids~~ the dandelion) as she praised on her work and thinks she can do it big and popular with her creativity. The thing is, she will not be recognised due to the current discrimination of androids as servants instead of free thinkers. And also, due to inevitably violating the love rule as Tanpopo slowly opens up to Tsukushi, ends up being dealt with and yes, today her can barely remember what happened. The thing seems to be, that once an android gets wiped, their memories disappear of course, but their will and personality still remain, so the urge to still do something is still there, to say the least. Today, she is led by a human owner who is "releasing novels" under her own name to prevent the android from being ostracised, but hey, look what happened to her. Tanpopo can barely remember anything, although she can still remember the passion that will continue to drive her to write. Good on you man, sucks to be Tsukushi though. Her childhood memories washed away as fast as yours. Next up, Karin gets her own taste of reality. She was arrested by the authorities not because of her current human owner, but because of what she did in the past. She might be the stereotypical case where human loves android (and probably vice versa) and the human suggests for them to elope and so on, even pursued by authorities. Karin did take the advice, but also wises up to notice that this will do both of them no good (we'll see this feeling come back later) so Karin decides to leave the human behind and start anew. Too bad you can't escape the eyes of the law, for the human probably covered for her for the longest time available while she escapes to stay under another shelter, now has to admit all she has done before she gets wiped off her memories. This time, it's not a joke. Momo was saddened without words, and we know who will be up next.

Hinageshi was up next not because the government knew about her infatuation, no, but Karin submitted her case to the authorities, so... thanks for not ratting her out during your interview, you idiot. Anyways, it was an eventuality, so Hinageshi moved away from her temporary owner Momo to go back to her old place to meet up with Kaede once again. They confess their feelings for each other, and all is well. That is, until the van pulls up at their doorstep. Kaede was unable to do anything despite saying he will do anything to stop her from being arrested, and Hinageshi felt that implicating the human will do none of them good (reference above), so she left without a struggle, promising to come back someday. That day... might not even happen. However, when she confessed and was being readied to be zapped off her memories... [SPOILER ALERT AHEAD] the machine did not work. She did not get wiped off her memories. Many were confused as to what happened, but despite the many attempts, she can still remember why she cried before she was put under the bed. Many say this might be a miracle due to her strong bonds and relationships with the people around her, but maybe this is a good exception. This spurred plenty of argument as to the fate of Hinageshi as Kaede tries to release a book talking about such a reality, the little knowledge he possesses. And for the next decade (geez) experiments were done on her (had to make this joke, but they didn't consider sex an option? lol) (you know, the never-ending orgasm kind haha) until eventually, 12 years after being arrested by the authorities, she was released. Yeah. They gave up, literally. I mean, what are you going to do about it? So yeah, they can't stop her now, as she recovers and finds back the time she had with Kaede, now already 12 years older in his late 20s, has been waiting for her patiently to return. Aw, Makoto-sensei, at least you didn't let me down by wiping her off, good on you.

All in all, a wonderful series to read. The dialogues may be long since it wasn't translated so I had a hard time reading it but also, it's important to convey the feelings of all the characters since this isn't an action show, so I'll forgive that. The artwork is fantastic, it's the very reason why I'm into Makoto-sensei's works after Anime "Koufuku Graffiti". Now years in after missing her first artbook from a year ago, I show her my support by reading her latest work which probably won't gain much attention as much as I would like, but this was a lovely story. Maybe compare this to Senko-san, but sadder and better plot twist haha. Finally, I like this series, Makoto-sensei, I wished this was translated to give your work full justice, but I think I'll just read this again and again to improve my vocabulary and also appreciate your artwork. Everyone in this story is so beautiful, I now truly regret not buying your artbook back then.

THE PACKAGE

I'll keep this short since whatever is above is really long already (sorry for that tbh), but yeah, because I missed the first two so I won't comment, for the last volume I chose to get one of the special gifts which - honestly it's my own fetish - is a special illustration of the characters in glasses. Yeah, thanks Makoto-sensei. I feel satisfied looking at Hinageshi with glasses already. Also, Azuki-chan in glasses? Man, why isn't she my childhood friend haha

So yeah, that will be it. I don't really intend to go all the way and explain the first two volumes (this is quite a short story btw) (maybe make this into an Anime movie someday?) and I think I did mention this story before here (this way please) so I guess I won't talk more about it then. This is just a closure to an interesting read I'd like to share, and maybe images will appear for the main part eventually, then maybe I'll revise this post again. But until then, I wish more could read this story as much as androids probably is a topic of discussion in the fictional world for many works, but still. If written differently everything will feel unique, at least to me. Ok bye