Is it me or there's a lot of double suicide going on? Also: Supernatural tag?
Lovers' suicides have been a common theme in Japanese media for centuries.
In Class S literature, the predecessor of the Yuri genre, female-female couples were historically fated for a tragic end, mostly (but not only) due to censorship. Typically, the more romantic the relationship, the harsher the ending. These stories were both informed by and affecting the culture at the time. During the 1910s-20s in Japan, there were high profile cases of double suicide by female-female couples that ended up sensationalized by newspapers (especially because, to oversimplify, lovers' suicides were considered the exclusive realm of male-female couples).
This podcast episode covered this topic, and is also a great intro to the origins of Class S: A Husband is Unnecessary: Yoshiya Nobuko & Japanese Girls' Culture - History is Gay #46
Huh. Does 'hiraeth' mean something in Japanese, or is the author really using Welsh, of all languages, for their title?
Kinda neat if it's the latter, ngl.
According to Wiktionary, and listed sources, hiraeth can mean:
Together with the Japanese part 「散り損ないの」(based on my beginner Japanese and Jisho) maybe the title means something like "a Hiraeth that is failing to scatter", or "the Hiraeth of failing to scatter"?
散る (chiru) is specifically associated with the falling and scattering of petals or leaves, which could be connected to the theme of death in this manga, especially death by falling from a high place. With that in mind, the title could refer to a feeling of Hiraeth that doesn't go away, or the specific type of Hiraeth caused by not being able to die. Though it's possible the title's meaning is supposed to be a mistery for now.
I welcome notes or corrections from someone who knows what they're doing (Cunningham's Law I'm counting on you)
last edited at Nov 18, 2023 1:21PM