Hello Guys and Gals! Sorry for the delay, but we're finally here. Saike's final chapter! I can say very plainly that I'm not an emotional person by nature, but this finale was very satisfying and I admit it, I was moved! Now you might be wondering "Well, besides the obvious Saike bias you've had for almost two years, why does this series get a special writeup for the final chapter when every other finale has had to share coverage with whatever else was going on in that issue?" I could counter with "It's my blog, sooooo" but I won't. I'll explain that and more at the end. For now, let us time dive one more time. (Matashitemo!) as we say farewell to Saike and his friends.
The final chapter is called "Bonds". Seems simple enough. Though interesting --Saike has never really been about "bonds" in the traditional sense that you'd expect from shounen manga. Rather than seeking them, or even creating them, Saike has hung it's hat on bonds being more a product of bettering yourself. It's like many old sayings have quipped in several different ways that can be summed up simply as --you attract people with your actions, your words --the person you are. There's a reason why one's friends often reflect one's personality and beliefs, after all! Though getting back to the title --Saike at least to me has always felt like a manga where self improvement through one's own means was the message of the work, so seeing Fukuchi name the finale "bonds" is intriguing to me, but not entirely out there.
Mikan has become the artist she dreamed of since the start of the series, opening her own exhibit at 18 years old in that whole "youth is amazing" way that shounen manga so embrace (and I love them for it.) Her gallery is full of paintings of Saike and is named the "hero" series of which there are 15 works in total. The one on the page on the right above this is volume one's cover, and I can barely make out volume 14's cover on the left page --but featured prominently is artwork we haven't seen before --and considering it's #15 in Mikan's gallery (and Saike's final volume will be 15) I'm almost positive Fukuchi's giving us a not-very-subtle-wink-and-nod towards what the next volume cover will be. I look forward to seeing it in color (and if I'm right of course!) Though back to the series proper --Mikan is taking an interview at the time, and the reporter asks what kind of thoughts did she have when painting the "hero" series?
Mikan describes a childhood friend --gentle, awkward, the type to blend into a scene...a boy who suddenly became a hero one day. Though his heroism (to her) was nothing grand, nothing fancy --the small kind of heroism that anyone has within them. A heroism that comes from no more than stretching out one's hand to another. Although she makes it sound simple, she admits that it's really the hardest thing to do. What he taught her is that anyone can indeed be a hero all it takes is just a little bit of courage. Now this sounds more in line with what I'm used to from Saike the series --not to say that this lesson is one completely unrelated to what the series had been building up to until this point. No, rather it's a natural end point. One that Fukuchi never really belabored in the story itself --rather he let the characters do the talking through their actions and motivations.
It wouldn't be much of a finale without Saike's two other besties there would it? Ana and Hizu come to the exhibit, and I'm so glad that even after three years (and a month) they're still the same people we've grown to love over these four years. While often times in fiction we fixate on wanting characters to be drastically different at the end of the work than they were when we first met them, I often find that misleading. I mean, consider it --are we really that much different personality wise than we were as children? While yes with both ourselves and characters we've come to enjoy seeing, there's a wish, a hope that they'll learn from their experiences and become better (or worse, depending on the work), I do believe that for the most part what we want isn't a completely new personality, just one who learns from it's mistakes, it's successes and most of all encounters. I'd really love to see how much more Ana and Hizu had matured, but sadly there just isn't enough time for that. Still, Hizu cracking jokes about Ana's height (or lack there of), the aforementioned being sensitive to them, and Mikan just doing her best to keep up with their antics is enough to bring a smile to my face for the last time. Though wait, where's the master of ceremonies himself?
This might be a tiny bit self indulgent, and it does somewhat fly in the face of what I said about Fukuchi not belaboring the point, but when it's done this effectively, I can't help but give the guy a pass. So Saike pretty much calls everyone when he's five minutes away from Mikan's exhibit and says he's on his way. While heading there, he sees two children playing, and one falls down. Saike then has a conversation with himself (not in that way, but...well let me try to explain.) Saike as a middle schooler would have immediately rushed in to help though now that his ability is gone, he can't anyway --though he still comments if he could go back he'd help that kid out before they fell. The Saike of now says that it's fine if they don't help everyone. He's been thinking about it over the last three years --is it really possible to return to the exact same time and place even with his ability? Is temporarily giving someone a better life than what they have now really a good thing? Though he knows that repeating and changing fate is wrong, he admits he'd still do it all over again if he had to live in a world without knowing Hizu, Ana and Mikan.
So what then is left? Bonds. Maybe one can't do life over again, but they can certainly start anew from past mistakes as long as there's an outstretched hand and the bid to help. Saike then repeats his question from 140 chapters ago --"Do you have a dream"? Though rather than revealing his own, or even going through a run-down like he did four years past, Saike doesn't qualify, or quantify any single dream or aspiration. Rather he says that if at any time when pursuing that dream, you lose your way or stumble, just take a look back and there you'll find......the way that Japanese sentence structure works, leaving a thought hanging isn't unusual as the listener is assumed to know what the speaker is referring to. In this case obviously the artwork reflects what Fukuchi means to say --and I think it ties into what the chapter (and it's title) means.
And with that, Saike Matashitemo ends, it's message that bonds and one's sense of self are intrinsically connected. While it's true you can make friends or find friends, keeping them is all a matter of the self. Not being selfish (not entirely, anyway), but reaching that hand out and of course accepting an outstretched hand. Saike represents --to me a maturation of Fukuchi's writing. I feel like Anagle Mole was striving towards that as well, but due to it's unfortunate circumstances couldn't quite reach the level it wanted. Saike had a purpose, and in it's ending successfully conveyed it. Not to say that Fukuchi's previous works were meaningless. Not at all. Saike is the ending point of years of drawing manga, and developing a "voice". With five series under his belt, Fukuchi's been at this long enough to eke out his own unique niche in the manga world, and I'm glad to say that Saike definitely bears his signature of being fun, while being relevant...serving characters with a purpose and a plot with a goal. The bond that we shared with Saike over the last four years feels that much more real because of it, and I really will miss covering it in the blog. On that note --I should reveal that it really is thanks to Saike that the blog exists at all. Heck, Saike has personally enriched my life in a special way too --and I'm not just talking about with the lessons it taught. Though I'll keep that to myself. It wouldn't do for me to cough up all of my personal matters here --objective narrator and such. Though yes, what started as translating Saike for fun and spoiling others on social media turned into the blog itself. I think I can say without exaggeration that if Saike hadn't come along when it had I might not be here with you all! Of course it's thanks to Fukuchi himself that I was even interested in Saike so he deserves my heartfelt thanks. You all do. As mentioned in the features section of Issue 4/5, he's hard at work on another serial and you know for sure I'll be covering it here. Until then, thanks for reading, and may you treasure your bonds.
Comments
Post a Comment