clear skies

I love that the main characters (Toki and Remi) are adults that are 39. I love the fact that they have remained friends despite being actual polar opposites, and despite their current situations (Remi being a widow with a teenage daughter, Toki being divorced because he is infertile).

I like the fact that we reminisce their friendship through flashbacks, because there's actually a third person in those that is no longer in their present, a person that they both loved very much, whom happens to be Tadashi, Remi's husband and Toki's high school best friend. It's very tragic.

Remi's daughter, Ruri, also has her issues, sure. But I think it's also fun watching her POV of the "drama" going around her mom and the "divorced ojii-san" that was like a substitute paternal figure to her. But she, being a teenager, she doesn't want to reconcile with that fact, because Toki is... Toki, the "noisy best friend of my mom that kept coming over and over until he married away".

There's stuff about loneliness, and how both Remi and Toki hide it very well, until they don't. They are like... symbiotic in some ways. Remi appreciates him as a close friend despite everything, but Toki is so... attached to Remi since they were kids, that he sees it difficult to deattach to her and her family. Something about close friendships between a girl and a boy, and how, despite everything, they didn't take another step. In fact, we don't... really know (yet) how, if even that "love" even seemed to exist beyond a platonic/familiar one.

I like Toki's childish and emotional and too smug and too "pathetic" persona. But, like other "pathetic" men that Ikuemi has created and has given them a sorta main role (see Kiyotake in Torch Song Ecology), he also has a reason of why he is, and why we see so much introspection about that. That's mostly why we don't have like a... specific answer (yet) if he ever saw Remi beyond a friend (or a sister), and most of his attachments issues come from as a result of them growing up together and promises he made to Tadashi before he passed away -and Tadashi also grew up alone, so, think about that. He seems to be going through issues of belonging somewhere, and reaching stuff where he doesn't even know if he even belongs there those days.

There's lots about grief here. Promises made, the passage of time, and distancing each other. And memories, and reminiscing stuff they no longer seemed to remember and the like.

Remi goes through typical "should I be dating nowadays? I'm happy where I am right now" especially because she still respects Tadashi's memory and such. "She is a mom of a teenager, entering her 40s" and stuff. And has to deal with a friend that she pretty much knows has been there since they were kids, but it's also going through his own grief (or, maybe grief that never ended, as it just keeps adding up) and such. Losing your best friend from childhood that has been there all the time, for them get married, then a few years later down the line getting divorced because turns out them being "infertile" is a dealbreaker, and such.

I feel it interesting how it touches Toki's infertility, and how it somewhat keeps coming up. As in, Toki has some issues (and we don't know yet about how was his marriage, yet) about belonging and attachment stuff, and I suppose that, as well "coming back to your hometown after being married (to a rich family, by the way), and getting divorced due to problems in your own body, at almost 40" might seem like a "loser" story about the expectations of a man in a patriarchal society. And yet, his parents don't seem to take it as an issue whatsoever. And yet, he takes his infertility as personal as well, especially since he took care of Ruri a lot when she was still a kid - a daughter that wasn't his own. Perhaps he wanted to have a family of his own, but "fate" dictated he couldn't have that, either. It's enough if he sees himself with pitiness.

There's lots of stuff about loneliness, tbh... (Ruri also goes through it because, she is her mother's daughter, after all - Remi doesn't have many friends and at 40, they all also have their own families and lives -, eventually getting a friend of her own whom partly reminds me a tiny little bit like a certain secondary character in Principal, btw... but I'm sort of glad? it isn't going that way?)

And I want to keep seeing how this story keeps going. From what I can tell in previous blurbs of the Cocohana's serialization, it looks like it is going to touch stuff about Toki's marriage in the past, so, that would be... fun...)

I don't know if talking about the TL here would grant me some kind of favor recommendation wise. I recognize the (pen?)name of the translator (they have worked in stuff like Kindergarten Wars, for Manga Plus), and it's neat, delgihtful even (with some minuscule human errors, lol... but rushed jobs, I think apply here as well). The only thing that I don't understand what happened is why "died" is censored in some (later) scenes?

Like, this is a series that has "grief" all over it due to the loss of a loved one. Why censoring "died" for stuff like might be off-putting jokes, you know? It's because it is rated as for "teens"? Then this shouldn't have been rated for "teens", for starters (let's not start about it's a series which main protagonists are entering their 40s, and some things are not 100% relatable for teens that are younger than 16)? It's soooo weird.

After the whole thing about piracy (especially in Latam territories) that was prevalent a few months ago in Twitter, this could have been considered a big step in the right direction (although this was probably planned from much earlier). Except that... not truly? Considering that this is exactly what I, as a manga reader and consumer, have been fearing for a while - the dependence on LLM/AI translations coming from different companies that Shueisha hired to translate MANY of these series, diminishing the work of actual industry professionals, just to bring a product in a quick way to the public.

(In a tbf situation, some of these are already existing translations from local editions everywhere, so the logistics are like negotiating with local publishers and "lend" their translations... but in some cases, due to licenses expiration from over 20 years ago -a la Kodocha or Akuma de Sourou, that haven't been relicensed sine the early 2000s- this is not possible :/)

And, I'm tired, scoob.

They mention in the website that "they hired actual professionals, and zero AI was involved in the translations", but this has a huge asterisk, because they DO have hired companies (a la what they actually do in Mangaplus, so that's a precedent, for sure) that are actually tech companies and in their judgement, they would be using LLM tech to actually do the work itself. It's sad when I see actual human names of PEOPLE I do recognize in the field (make it local, or even a bit more internationally, or even ppl that have done stuff for Mangaplus, specifically) in some series, while in others they are all hidden behind "Blue Horizons", "fitto Japan" and such . Like, I know companies do what companies do, and I know a certain percentage of the consumers wouldn't care, but I do care because many of these stuff is weirdly translated (not even the titles save themselves, lol), and I see many complaints from other parts of the world. I don't think this is specifically a "skill issue" (in regards to, "well, you could read x in English"), but it also tells how a company don't really care for you as a consumer... they just want you to consume, regardless.

I would say that "Manga Million" as a name is gimicky (and cringe, and corny), but it's marketable. But the website is... it could have been better.

In English, right now, there's over 380 titles available... but what I see in Spanish is POOR in comparison (and I was told, "81 is only for the European Spanish, because Latam -both separated in Mexico and Argentina, because local publishers for each, for example, have less than 60 EACH, SO...). Not to mention that, I dunno EXACTLY what are Shueisha's plans for this for what is the next year as a "free" platform, because that's the catch (it's a finite, temporary project, so I don't think this will last over a year), they might provide more chapters (probably, they have a "recent uploads" section), because the samples are too small and confusing... 1,000,000 pages translated is too specific for a gimmick (esp, when series differ between 20 pages and 40~60 pages chapters, depending on their original magazines)

In fact, the titles selection is also kind of... weird. I MEAN, sure, "another way to read OP" is definitely an incentive and a choice, but there's an incredible absence of more classic, heavy shoujo hitters, if you feel me?

I was making al ist of what they have of shoujosei, and the numbers kept adding, to the point that I feel they were blending to each other (some stuff do feel pretty generic, I'm sorry, but that's the way it is). I did recognize some of my favorite authors and some beloved ones, but the selection of their titles feels a little... off, in some cases. I would understand inclusion of stuff like Nana, but not the other Yazawa series, or stuff like Aozora Yell (yet no Tamahoshi? Suteki na Kareshi? High School Debut, at least?) from Kawahara?, and there's Cocohana, Cookie... classic Betsuma stuff (from the 80s, late 70s), and classic 90s Ribon stuff that have never been licensed or relicensed (in the case of Kodocha)... but some of these are also divided in weird halves, so "40 chapters" is actually "20 chapters" for some reason. There's VERY new stuff, and it's neat? since many of these COULD have been picked by Mangaplus if they weren't cowards . And I also feel a huge disservice to authors that, so little of their work has been released in English or any other language (Ikuemi, for example - only ONE of these is translated by an actual person with a name)... and this is HOW they are doing this? And small samples of chapters... so you have to be wise in what you are picking, as well, because you are going to get hooked... yet we don't know if they are EVEN going to keep uploading more chapters (some understandably are easily and widely available elsewhere, and they are pretty recognizable names, so I SUPPOSE the incentive is "if you want to keep reading buy this from your local publisher, etc").

And, again, some of the selection is weird. I would picked Morimoto's Gokusen (or Koudaite no Hitobito or Ashi-Girl -considering there are a few historical seinen/josei series here) instead of Dekawanko (which is ACTUALLY incomplete, btw), because Gokusen AT LEAST has a fanbase due to the drama. I also noticed an obvious absence of Toriyama's works, but I was given the explanation of stuff that has to go through his estate these days...

I should be looking at this in the positive way? PERHAPS. But also, like... I feel slightly disappointed as well.

At the same time, I feel like this is also testing waters, and see what stuff that Mangaplus DOES NOT HAVE gains more views so they publish it for their subscription incentives and the like.