Not just that, she's an unreliable narrator for narrating any feeling. A lot of the time she seems trustworthy but then even for basic stuff like fear, her ability to describe the degree of feelings or any sort of nuance is very shaky. For example, she describes the beach at the end of the world in a way that sounds relatively "standard" for Otherside encounters, but they ended up so traumatized that they stayed in Okinawa until they stopped having very literal PTSD attacks. She explicitly claims to have no real problem with shooting threats that look and act completely like real humans, and then goes on to have nightmares about them for a week.

My favorite subtle thing about this story is the Otherside appearing whenever Sorawo starts to get intense feelings. There's the Otherside appearing the moment Toriko drops the bombshell in this chapter, but there's stuff like wandering into the interstitial space when Toriko leaves, or attacked by a Self-blinding monster right after wondering whether she told Toriko about her history, or having the ghosts of her dad and grandma appear right after she has an emotional moment about her future with Toriko. The Otherside seems very much related to Sorawo's terror at encountering normal parts of life she doesn't have a script for. It's almost like she's generally un-selfaware, with anti-cult mode being a comforting state where she's purely acting in self-preservation, and Otherside mode being slammed with too much information about herself at once. Cringe is also a form of continuous attachment.

The mannequins here are a nice symbolic thing. What better to complement the feeling of your body being objectified than a tool to sell clothes. What better way to highlight being kinda okay with Toriko being the one to ogle her than contrasting her against a faceless crowd doing the same?

Not just that, she's an unreliable narrator for narrating any feeling. A lot of the time she seems trustworthy but then even for basic stuff like fear, her ability to describe the degree of feelings or any sort of nuance is very shaky. For example, she describes the beach at the end of the world in a way that sounds relatively "standard" for Otherside encounters, but they ended up so traumatized that they stayed in Okinawa until they stopped having very literal PTSD attacks. She explicitly claims to have no real problem with shooting threats that look and act completely like real humans, and then goes on to have nightmares about them for a week.

My favorite subtle thing about this story is the Otherside appearing whenever Sorawo starts to get intense feelings. There's the Otherside appearing the moment Toriko drops the bombshell in this chapter, but there's stuff like wandering into the interstitial space when Toriko leaves, or attacked by a Self-blinding monster right after wondering whether she told Toriko about her history, or having the ghosts of her dad and grandma appear right after she has an emotional moment about her future with Toriko. The Otherside seems very much related to Sorawo's terror at encountering normal parts of life she doesn't have a script for. It's almost like she's generally un-selfaware, with anti-cult mode being a comforting state where she's purely acting in self-preservation, and Otherside mode being slammed with too much information about herself at once. Cringe is also a form of continuous attachment.

The mannequins here are a nice symbolic thing. What better to complement the feeling of your body being objectified than a tool to sell clothes. What better way to highlight being kinda okay with Toriko being the one to ogle her than contrasting her against a faceless crowd doing the same?

The mannequins also highlight the distance Sorawo feels towards most people who aren't Toriko. :) especially for young neurodivergent people with other shit going on like queerness and trauma, meeting another person who is on the same level as you can feel like finally meeting someone who's the same species compared to the alienation of every other "normal" human. Same with moments like representatives of humans in the "interstitial" space talking unintelligible nonsense compared to Sorawo and Toriko being able to communicate and understand each other.
The timing of the mannequins appearing here lines up not just with Sorawo feeling intense feelings, but also Sorawo and Toriko getting close to being on the same wavelength wrt being gay for each other, unlike all the heteros around them. I think it's worth noting they never see a mannequin Kozakura here :P

last edited at Nov 8, 2024 5:12AM

Creepy mannequins are one of those things that just gets to me. It's the whole Weeping ANgel effect with how they move when you're not looking. Ugh.

Don't blink.

Sorawo's game of Extreme Gay Chicken is catching up to her.

Another chapter showing Sorawo's love (and lust--we didn't miss her accepting how weak she'd be seeing Toriko naked). She's slowly understanding and accepting the feelings that are already there, just in her own way. And there was also ghosts and stuff.

last edited at Nov 21, 2024 1:43PM

I've waited for so long. The next chapters are what the Yuri tag is made for.

Sorawo's game of Extreme Gay Chicken is catching up to her.

I was being heavily reminded of Miyagi and Sendai in 5000 Yen... and "gay chicken" is a perfect term there too.

This chapter was sooo good. I love Sorawo at first selectively remembering the conversation from the hot spring with her dialog box covering her face and selectively missing the most important thing she said, only for her to go back a couple pages later and realize "oh shit yeah I told her I love her didn't I. It's my fault she's acting different now". And then to go even further and realize the problem is entirely with her reactions to Toriko, not Toriko's treatment of her. Love to see that growth and reflection!!

... And now to not address that bath conversation again for half a hundred chapters, I imagine.

Not this time.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/otherside_picnic_ch75#21 Panel 1: I always like smug Sorawo. (But it was a really good idea.)

Are we not gonna talk about Toriko wanting to zip their sleeping bags together???

The sleeping bags, the shared bathing proposals, Toriko smiling happily when Sorawo stubbornly refuses to bring anyone else besides the two of them to the Otherside, etc. Toriko knows pretty much exactly where Sorawo is at thanks to that bath conversation (and stuff like Sorawo trying and only partially succeeding at not looking at Toriko's body), and knows she needs little pushes and reminders to keep moving forward lol. Toriko's basically the very best kind of partner someone like Sorawo could hope for thanks to her ability to read Sorawo's expressions and intentions, and her earnest desire for healthy love between the two of them, and it's so satisfying seeing that dynamic at play.

last edited at Nov 23, 2024 2:32AM

Hand-holding: Check