Ok I also thought the incest scene was super weird and unnecessary at first but the other comments are right about it being fully intentional. This entire work could have been longer as well - it’s really making readers read between the lines (panels?) here but here’s what I’m sort of putting together: the contrast between Arisa and Nakajou is supposed to parallel Kiyomi and her mother - Arisa and Kiyomi similar not only in appearance and temperance but also their shallow values, Nakajou and the mother being similar in their more traditional yet grounded values as well as their general humility and authenticity. Going back to the incest scene that people can’t help but focus on (I mean it is the climax of the story); I agree with the other commenter that said that they saw it as Arisa’s final attempt to “win” something over him, but I don’t agree that him giving in was him “winning”. I think she was trying to prove/proved in that scene that he too was also a victim to shallow desires. By laying a hand on her, he’s accepting this (like the same commenter said, but i don’t think either of them really won in this scene), and, in a way, her (perhaps out of pity?). (It’s also worth pointing out clearly that the depiction really isn’t glamorizing incest in any way - you can tell by how it’s barely even shown and the panel itself is very dark. Definitely supposed to be symbolic rather than provoking.) Anyway, very very simply put, overall message seems to be that having shallow values and glamorizing people with shallow values is delusional and bad. But that’s boring without all the layers the mangaka intentionally created obviously.
Some more things to note are: - How his childhood was probably very bad and he was likely abused/neglected by his mother - Imagine how this manga would feel completely different if it took place through his eyes - meeting your cousin who’s basically a younger version of his dead mother - His words “Don’t let it break you” seems like his last gift to her - he doesn’t want her to turn out like his mother, and he knows that she’s just been misled and feels sorry for her - In the end, Arisa pushing over the vase might seem like it came out of nowhere but I think that was her reaching out and trying to confirm her mother’s love for her (very childish method but we knew she was immature already) which I think she had been unable to see all this time (and might explain why she gravitated so much toward a different woman to be her role model) - so this is also about the complicated relationship between a mother and her daughter
Ok I also thought the incest scene was super weird and unnecessary at first but the other comments are right about it being fully intentional. This entire work could have been longer as well - it’s really making readers read between the lines (panels?) here but here’s what I’m sort of putting together: the contrast between Arisa and Nakajou is supposed to parallel Kiyomi and her mother - Arisa and Kiyomi similar not only in appearance and temperance but also their shallow values, Nakajou and the mother being similar in their more traditional yet grounded values as well as their general humility and authenticity. Going back to the incest scene that people can’t help but focus on (I mean it is the climax of the story); I agree with the other commenter that said that they saw it as Arisa’s final attempt to “win” something over him, but I don’t agree that him giving in was him “winning”. I think she was trying to prove/proved in that scene that he too was also a victim to shallow desires. By laying a hand on her, he’s accepting this (like the same commenter said, but i don’t think either of them really won in this scene), and, in a way, her (perhaps out of pity?). (It’s also worth pointing out clearly that the depiction really isn’t glamorizing incest in any way - you can tell by how it’s barely even shown and the panel itself is very dark. Definitely supposed to be symbolic rather than provoking.) Anyway, very very simply put, overall message seems to be that having shallow values and glamorizing people with shallow values is delusional and bad. But that’s boring without all the layers the mangaka intentionally created obviously.
Some more things to note are:
- How his childhood was probably very bad and he was likely abused/neglected by his mother
- Imagine how this manga would feel completely different if it took place through his eyes - meeting your cousin who’s basically a younger version of his dead mother
- His words “Don’t let it break you” seems like his last gift to her - he doesn’t want her to turn out like his mother, and he knows that she’s just been misled and feels sorry for her
- In the end, Arisa pushing over the vase might seem like it came out of nowhere but I think that was her reaching out and trying to confirm her mother’s love for her (very childish method but we knew she was immature already) which I think she had been unable to see all this time (and might explain why she gravitated so much toward a different woman to be her role model) - so this is also about the complicated relationship between a mother and her daughter