Uhhhh… that’s a blow…

Enjoyed that. Presents something to think about. Also loved the connection between the opening, ending and it's themes. Felt like reading flash fiction. I'm becoming a fan of this author.

last edited at Jan 11, 2024 7:07PM

Damn. I appreciate the emotional sentiment of this manga. The way people who might have been nothing more than acquaintances can have an effect on your life and find their way into your thoughts through little things that remind you of them.

I still think about old classmates who have passed whenever I see something that reminds me of them, wondering what they might be getting up to if they were still around.

Now what I need is a spinoff from Ellie's perspective after being isekai'd.

Huh. That leaves me a vague feeling... As in page 5, "that's such a loss", but without the grief that more dramatic approaches to loss in stories usually.

That's... kinda nice ?

I feel like the tags don’t prepare me for the sadness I felt reading that

Welp, now I'm sad :(

Did she trip on her heels and broke her neck?

Damn. I appreciate the emotional sentiment of this manga. The way people who might have been nothing more than acquaintances can have an effect on your life and find their way into your thoughts through little things that remind you of them.

I still think about old classmates who have passed whenever I see something that reminds me of them, wondering what they might be getting up to if they were still around.

Exactly. Makes you think about those memories that linger from really small things.

last edited at Jan 11, 2024 10:25PM

I feel like the tags don’t prepare me for the sadness I felt reading that

Ikr hits right in the feels :‑<

Did she trip on her heels and broke her neck?

That thought came to my mind, too, if only because it would tie in to the heels.

Then again, car accidents (not just car-on-pedestrian, but car-on-car and car-on-object) are a common way to suddenly kill off someone in a random way, which is probably why people made memes about being hit by a truck sending you to an isekai even though it's not all that common outside of parodies of the genre.

I find it interesting that not only did the story kill off Ellie, but it also had the protagonist hook up with someone else, albeit implying that she might have had feelings for Ellie.

brooooo what that went from 0 to 100 real quick loooool (insert skull emoji here)

This is my favorite of the three I’ve done for this book so far. Usually vague feelings are hard to handle and end up feeling weird or unsatisfying. But in this case it feels real to me. What do you say about the passing of an acquaintance/community member/girl you went on a quasi-date with once? How do you feel? Incredible sadness might not match well but neither does an absolute lack of emotion.

I also like that the story illustrates how things and people stick with us even if our time with them is brief. Ellie’s heels are on the main character’s mind even before the reveal, and I have a good feeling she’ll be remembering Ellie years and years from now.

It’s really hard to sun up but I really like that it’s partially about community and missed connections and the weird way life shakes out. There’s no indication the main character is into Ellie in that way (and not indication otherwise either) but clearly she was a person of interest. A fixture in the community. Moving on to the other, this is less present in the story but, personally, this makes me think of what ifs. Looking back and seeing a different life that you missed out on. “What if I had done this?” “What if I had gotten with that person?” “What if I had stopped that?” It’s not really super on the surface but it gives me the same weird feeling.

In the end life is strange and hard. Unexpected terrible things happen to those we know without knowing. People make lifetime impressions in a single night. An item becomes inextricably tied to someone. And all that’s left is to go on and deal with what comes, externally and internally.

Given the nature of this chapter I didn’t want to put a credits page at the end. But this is the halfway point for the book! There’s one fair-length chapter, one short one and the 60-page feature story at the end. The next one is the book version of Water Colored and you can find the doujin version on this site. Given what’s left it might be a month or so before you see more. Thank you for your patience.

If you like what you’ve read so far please consider buying a copy on bookwalker (title:琥珀の貴方) or even getting a physical copy on CDJapan. I have one and it’s very nice quality. Miso has been on Pixiv since around 2017 and has had stories in magazines but this is her first major book, which could make or break her career.

Lastly, it was fun to take the main characters replies, which were pretty dorky, and make them even more dorky (“wow, heels sure are useful!”) I like to imagine that’s what charmed Ellie that one night.

last edited at Jan 11, 2024 11:12PM

Oof.....

btw she died lmao

btw she died lmao

that was hilarious no cap, 0 build up lol oh you looking for jane? yeah she's dead bro :/

That was pretty abrupt huh..

Then again, car accidents (not just car-on-pedestrian, but car-on-car and car-on-object) are a common way to suddenly kill off someone in a random way, which is probably why people made memes about being hit by a truck sending you to an isekai even though it's not all that common outside of parodies of the genre.

If a young adult in the US dies, the three most likely causes are (1) accidental drug overdose, (2) fatal accident (mostly cars), or (3) suicide.

If you need your young adult character to die, without being a drug user, cars are in fact the most likely cause of death.

I expect Japan is similar, though maybe suicide beats cars, I dunno.

btw she died lmao

that was hilarious no cap, 0 build up lol oh you looking for jane? yeah she's dead bro :/

I seriously laughed out loud.

btw she died lmao

that was hilarious no cap, 0 build up lol oh you looking for jane? yeah she's dead bro :/

I seriously laughed out loud.

which makes the one shot kinda meh, not something to even remotely make me feel something

*Ellie died on the way back to her home planet

I like the idea behind this oneshot, but the reveal of Ellie's death was underwhelming.

I have a hard time thinking about this story outside of the context of the book it released in.

Knowing this was released together with Chandelier (which also deals with loss from a different angle) by the same author certainly makes for a contrast. Even though I'm unsure whether it's positive or negative.

The MC is mourning not so much what was, but what could have been. An interesting concept, but not nearly as emotionally intense as (the original) Chandelier or as twisted as Their Paradise. I am interested to see if all the stories in the collection form some kind of conceptual album.

This was awesome...
People who wanted it to hit harder or something ought to go find something that isn't a five page oneshot LOL