Terra thought some gay thoughts, pulled out a shotgun, and upgraded the close relationship of roommates to the even closer relationship of accomplices.

Volume 2 of the manga came out on the 6th, we've updated the QR code link in the credits in case you'd like to support Tanaka-sensei. The next chapter is due to release on Jan 17. And in case you're following the novels in Japanese, the 4th and final volume in the series will be releasing on Jan 22.

I love this chapter so much! Something really cute about her being unable to sleep (nice fish pillow detail) due to thinking hard about how it's possible to be gay and immediately getting to action with no hesitation! Sorry Gendo clan, but she's already claimed that girl.
We're finally getting some real tension and action, so hopefully there isn't a delay again because I really want to see how this part will play out in the manga. I did think that the trackers would have a more.. spacey design, Outer Wilds style, but practical and functional but anyway we got some fun Terra running and rolling shots so I'm happy.

The art has also come a long way since the first chapter, and honestly his style has only gotten more charming. That page art(?) for this and the previous chapter were seriously adorable.
also, Horse. Truly a scary creature.

Terra thought some gay thoughts, pulled out a shotgun, and upgraded the close relationship of roommates to the even closer relationship of accomplices.

LMAO.

Dam whipping out a gun like that, gives me a warm fuzzy American feeling on top of the hots for a woman defending her wife.

Their base ship is called Idaho, so I guess it was only a matter of time for a gun to pop up!

Of all the characters, I sure wasn't expecting Terra to be the one to be packing a shotgun, but let's go!

Congratulations to Terra for realize that lesbian couples are a thing!

Congratulations to Terra for realize that lesbian couples are a thing!

It does beg the question: What exactly happened in the past that seemingly erased their existence and installed a strict patriarchy?

Terra reminds me of Milly Thompson from Trigun in the best possible way, and the reveal that she's packing heat brings them even closer together in vibes. I love it.

Also, horse!

Congratulations to Terra for realize that lesbian couples are a thing!

It does beg the question: What exactly happened in the past that seemingly erased their existence and installed a strict patriarchy?

I'm hoping the story gets more into it, but I'm not sure there needs to be a single event for things to get this way. It's been three centuries since the Circs arrived at FBB, and there are a couple of points that suggest the strict patriarchy is the result of steady backsliding over generations.

One factor is probably the relatively limited population, since the clans are only about 20,000 strong (and probably smaller in the past). There are going to be the same small town pressures towards conformity in play, and the severe isolation only strengthens that power. Given that the Circs were highly multicultural to begin with, gender/sexual minorities would probably be the most visibly non-conforming parties, and be among the first nail in need of a hammer.

Chief Xeon also says some stuff hinting that gender relations are generally constructed to facilitate population/capital growth. This might be related to the Circs' resource curse, in that any AMC clay obtained beyond meeting the Circs' needs is a valuable export. This economic structure would incentivize overdevelopment of the fishing industry, while other sectors of the economy become underinvested. In a lot of places, this gives industrial representatives a lot of power, and their response to obtaining that power is to crack down on civil liberties, education, and public funding to make it difficult to organize opposition.

At Endeavor clan, this structure seems to have evolved to a point where it has semi-independently invented something resembling Umberto Eco's description of an ur-fascist ideology. Xeon's monologue in chapter 8 explicitly touches on that since it mentions will-to-power, the cult of motherhood, and a subtle disdain towards cultural production over economic production.

At any rate, a necessary component of generating productive labor worldview is compelling women to bear children, and to do so requires reducing/stripping them of their agency to refuse. This structure is definitely baked into the twister/decompa dynamic — comphet only, strict gendered division of labor, framing it nominally as a partnership but making the Twister the voice of authority, and loosely treating women/decomping as an irrational force to be controlled. Given fishing is a prestige job among the Circs, it is likely that this worldview filters down to the rest of society as an ideal to emulate.

Both of these factors alone would probably gravitate towards a cisheteronormative worldview over a few generations, regardless of how progressive the initial founders may have been. Whatever upheaval scrambled the Idaho's fan media repository and resulted in the collapse/destruction of eight clans probably just accelerated (or marked accelerations of) those trends.

Sorry to make this post even longer, but a couple of extra tidbits from the novel's prologue (it's good, read it!) but the fact that Magiri essentially performed a lovers' suicide, followed by the implication her subordinate Sivi Endeavor (a woman) subsequently received credit for Eda and Magiri's accomplishments under the less obviously gendered name C.B. probably speaks to how lesbianism might have been viewed following that event. The fact that Magiri and Eda also led a revolution against more conservative/less visionary leadership likely further complicates things.

The prologue also notes that the Circ society has been in a state of cultural stagnation/economic recession since the invention of the pillar boat shortly after Magiri's death. This probably has to do with the resource curse mentioned above, the lack of incentive for further innovation once basic needs are easily met, and an extremely strong desire to maintain social stability. Circs are often described as "unimaginative", and Terra's active imagination is treated as really freaky by everyone around her (including Diode, at first).

At any rate, the setting sucks as a place to live. Back when we first started scanlating this, I recall coming across some Ogawa tweets about feminist theory he had been reading back when developing the series, and I'm really impressed by how seamlessly he seems to have integrated it into the work.

last edited at Dec 26, 2024 11:28AM