People are calling this "messed up" and "a complex" because this isn't a healthy relationship. If it's not obvious enough on the first readthrough, "Only one person in the world was 'family' to me" appears smack dab in the middle of the page where she falls in love. As I said, this is right as she finds something permanent; the story makes a point of taking everything else away and "A Love Smeared In Ashes" shows us just how much abuse she'll take without complaint, with her only "snapping" out of pure possessiveness.
Thanks for the reply.
I want to ask, what do you mean by "Only one person in the world was 'family' to me" appears smack dab in the middle of the page where she falls in love. As I said, this is right as she finds something permanent; the story makes a point of taking everything else away..." I do not understand.
If I may guess, I think the overall argument you've presented is that it is unhealthy because Sunako is willing to take shit from Yasuko and is possessive. I agree that possessiveness is bad. However we only see a bit of that in like 1 scene so I don't think it's enough. If a few moments of jealously are enough to make a relationship, "messed up", the majority of yuri on this site would be "messed up".
As for taking shit, I first want to mention that some siblings will give each other a lot of crap all the time. In this case, I believe Yasuko was an ass to Sunako because she felt insecure. I do not think there is malicious intent and it is implied that this behavior is coming to an end.
Sunako taking Yasuko's shit, is most likely because she's more resilient. After getting stabbed in the gut, a paper cut will probably go unnoticed. So I don't think it is taking abuse without complaint so much as not noticing relatively minor transgressions. I mean, siblings can be jerks to each other yet ultimately, the amount of harm they truly cause is minor. While it is not good that she is more open to being hurt than normal, it is not an aspect of the relation but rather her own mentality that probably needs some adjustment, and it does not mean she is okay with taking serious abuse.
Sunako has a troubled past yes. She's not a normal ass person with the same tolerance as a normal ass person. However there is no evidence that Sunako is okay with full force abuse either. If Yasuko turned into Sunako's mom, I don't think Sunako would be okay with that. She fell in love with someone who was nice to her, and didn't really care too much about the minor belligerence. I think it is quite close minded to call a relationship as "messed up" and call it a "complex" because it has its share of problems.
Again, I would like some clarification on the first part of your explanation.
Now, the author clearly presents it as a sugary-sweet explanation of what set Sunako's heart aflutter. However, this isn't some sort of death-of-the-author analysis that's going on: we're not seeing blue curtains and reading endless amounts of imagery into them. What we're doing is quite literally looking at it literally, looking at the pieces the author presents us with and figuring out how they fit together, which isn't as happy as the story presents itself as. (I will float the idea, however, that the story is deliberately multilayered and what we're seeing on further analysis was put there intentionally)
I see it as a presentation of how a sweet relationship between two flawed individuals begins. As you say, it really isn't a happy tale and I think that's the point. It is a sad one full of hope.
last edited at Oct 14, 2016 2:07AM