SN Seasons

Yours for an Hour

Meeting at the amusement park and dates. As explained by this post, the CD drama may or may not come with tokuten depending on where you get it. One of these contains an extra scene set at an amusement park, to which there is a translation here. How would you turn their casual encounter into something that seems like a date?

Domestic life. The other tokuten described by the poster has phrases in English and Japanese that sound very mundane, like “Good morning” and “Goodnight.” I don’t know about you but that’s already giving me certain ideas. I can imagine them finding it difficult to part from each other, or having a “morning after” scene.

Reincarnation and crossover with NARUTO. So we know that Aki Tsukikage is 26-year-old entrepreneur who runs a number of companies, while Haru Hinomoto is 21-year-old who volunteers (?) as a handyman. In the script preview we can see the former has earned the nickname of "ice prince” while latter is described as “a ball of sunshine.” One is quiet and the other never seems to shut up. Being adults in the modern world however, their first encounter goes very differently than in the manga. You could see them as Naruto and Sasuke’s latest reincarnations. In this life, Naruto (Haru) is still an orphan, who despite facing adversity, “remains bright and positive”; instead Sasuke (Aki), is an “uncommunicative and distant” person that does not show himself to others, but “hidden beneath, has a fragile sensitive heart.” How do they relate? Combining their past life with the present is also a fun idea.

Aesthetics and the fanfiction the drama is based on. This can be pretty useful if you’re an artist and like using written material to inspire your work. You could even write your own spin-off if it left you aching for more, or create an aesthetic for the characters! I personally like the idea of finding stock images that match with one’s vision of the story and characters (see this example). Just remember to keep a note of your references, so we can credit them.

Their names. The Chinese character of Aki’s name (”autumn”) is constituted by the radicals grain + fire. This is because the Ancient Chinese burned the fields to kill the locust eggs in autumn [x]. The Chinese character of Haru’s name (“spring”) is constituted by sun/day and the remnant conglomerate consisting of the character for “plants” and the phonetic character meaning “sprout” [x]. So knowing that Aki references fire, and Haru references plants, we can play with the idea of how “fire” can protect “plants” from calamity. It’s also somewhat fitting in reference to the manga considering that Naruto’s hobby is watering plants and Sasuke’s chakra has affinity towards the fire nature, which is strong against wind, but weak towards water. (Of course there is also the “Will of Fire,” but that’s more of a spiritual legacy set in contrast with the “Curse of Hatred.”)

N • S in relation to the spring and autumn seasons

Okay, so this one is pretty tricky, but what I’ve learned is that you can just really go with your instinct on this one. The aspects of spring and autumn are highly representive, and knowing that they can easily become symbolic of how the characters feel, especially in writing. Let’s pretend Sasuke came back from a mission at the end of summer, only to find that Naruto was not there. The more time goes on, the more nature reflects how Sasuke feels. Only when Naruto comes back is it finally spring (both metaphorically and literally, lol).

Now if we think of some of the things that have to do with these seasons, we can also see if they have any other meanings in the manga, like say “leaves.” Here we already have numerous examples: “dancing leaves” refers to Konoha and its people, “a new leaf” refers to Naruto in Chapter 137, where the leaves (villagers) are connected to the light, or shadow of fire (hokage) illuminating the village (where the leaves dance and the fire burns). Whichever season we choose, we can find various references in the manga. Just brainstorming like this can give you an idea; I for example just thought of how Naruto could be like a new leaf in spring, while Sasuke a dry, broken leaf in autumn.

When it comes to drawing, things get a lot easier, especially since the Japanese use a lot of seasonal imagery in their art. But what about the language? Let’s see an example:

haru 春

spring; springtime

New Year

prime (of one's life, etc.)

adolescence; puberty

sexuality

Due to all the meanings ”spring” can take in Japanese, we know that we can use some of them as legitimate references if we’re clever enough. If we decided to write a story that’s set during the period of the New Year (which is traditionally in spring) we could associate Naruto (spring) with a number of elements that contrast him with Sasuke (autumn). Spring, as we know, is the season where growth begins, and by being with Naruto, Sasuke grows as a person, so the seasons can symbolize this transition. In autumn leaves fall, but they do this to survive harsh weather conditions, so Sasuke needs to learn that he can live again. All in all it references both spring and autumn very nicely, using elements from Japanese culture.