Sekitou Elegy

Reading the manga Sekitou Elegy. Makes me cringe once in a while, but overall it’s pretty good. I enjoy these semi-realistic manga where protagonists don’t quite know what they want from life but find ways to build their own happiness. I almost start to think having some simple job and hanging out with (work) friends might have its own charm.

Continuing the manga Sekitou Elegy. It’s okay but slow paced. For 15 volume long series I’d prefer something more hooking. I thought this is a bit weird around the 10th volume — there is quite a bit of development for alternate love interests for Chiiko and Satoshi, but those characters have no other “ends” in sight. I mean that if the main pairing goes as expected, those extras will probably fall quite flat, leaving one wonder if they were needed in the first place.

I would like to read a kind of story where the main couple breaks up eventually, something like having learned truths about themselves through the relationship. I think one ideal I had about stories I would like to write is that there are really no “BAD ENDs” if you take the perspective of the character rather than the audience. For audience a bad end is a conclusion of the story, but for the character his own life doesn’t end there. I want to see what happens after that, when the character is forced to try again, maybe something completely different. It’s of course a challenge for flow of the story to flip the table halfway through, that’s why the big changes usually happen either in the end or beginning of the story.

Reading more Sekitou Elegy. Yesterday I wondered about the meaning of the two “extra” characters if the main couple is going to stay together anyway, but I now realized that development of the extras allows for this final conflict around unfaithfulness in which they play a role. Their function is likely not in the ending, but in this climax of the story. Actually it’s kind of obvious when considering how the story might have been built.

This manga reminds one not to put women on a pedestal. Satoshi could have learned are thing or two from reading the Stoics.

I like this trope where things return to the place where everything started, here to the part-time work as traffic guide/guard.

I’m not a fan of this manga’s art, but I like the clothes Chiiko wears. Sweaters, loose pants and the like. I suppose she just dresses like guys do.

Two volumes left, not enough time to read both but not tired enough to sleep either.

Reading more Sekitou Elegy. This Chiiko’s roadtrip feels comfy. I think the one good think about having your own vehicle and a license is to be able to go anywhere in the country, but I suppose it’s best if you actually have people to visit.

Satoshi and Yuusaku biking together to meet Chiiko is nice.

Finished the manga now. The ending was pretty nice. Took me off guard to see “Truck-kun” appear in the last chapter. In the end, I think the manga was still too long. Yuusaku and Kubo, “the extras”, had a role to play but it wasn’t that big relative to the setup time. The drama in this manga wasn’t especially great. I liked how Satoshi’s work life remained doubtful even in the end, returning to the same part time job as in the beginning. I think that helped emphasize the development of the relationship.