I don't know what to tag this one but it probably should be tagged something.
Igarashi has been giddy over this chapter on Bluesky. Weeks of wanting to see reactions, announcing the chapter with jokes like "Sorry I kept you waiting for this," "Thank you for having faith in me all this time," "Dominant is like a curse that hangs over every manga I make. I love it forever."
Igarashi's previous manga, Dominant, (untranslated) was a very dark romance with a few infamous scenes involving a hammer and a guitar. Now the box-cutter joins their ranks in Japanese fan memes. I'll cover Dominant more later when I translate Igarashi's crossover art for the two, but Japanese fans have been waiting for the other shoe to drop while Igarashi teased whether AriSaku would reach that level of crazy. Dominant was innocent too, until the twist ending of volume 1. And now we're here at the twist ending of volume 2.
Chapter 10 opens with hesitant ambiguity (waiting to be heavily re-contextualized). Sayori is a total unknown. Kasumi is hoping for answers to questions she hasn't quite figured out yet. The reader is on-guard towards Sayori hurting their relationship. But she quickly becomes an ally with the reveal of Ono-senpai. The reader and Kasumi's goals are likely opposed here: Kasumi wants reassurance this relationship hasn't gone too far and she can back away from her feelings for Haruyo. We (surely) want escalation. For Kasumi's relationship to become unavoidably romantic, for the senpais' relationship to lead by example and show us how far AriSaku is willing to go.
Knowing the reader, Sayori's flashback slowly teases how explicit her relationship with Mizuki was, only hinting at how they've kissed and done more (Igarashi pointed out on page 22 how deliberately Mizuki is touching Sayori's breast while Sayori begins to slip Mizuki's skirt down). We hang on every page as a promise of future developments, just as much as it discomforts Kasumi. Then the ending dumps a bucket of menhera ice water on us.
You now see how far AriSaku is willing to go.
This chapter is a crushing realization for Sayori, Kasumi, and the reader that this isn't playing around — serious feelings are involved. Serious feelings that come with serious, unavoidable consequences. Sayori is trapped in her confusing and likely still toxic relationship with Mizuki. Kasumi is trapped with her suffocating love for Haruyo clashing with her buried trauma and self-loathing. We're trapped with a maniac mangaka.
It's a fitting end to an early volume. Volume 1 reinvented itself with Haruyo's reveal, 2 with Mizuki's. AriSaku keeps growing, changing, drawing in a wider world to the initial fantasy that brings with it both beautiful and disturbing realities that have been lurking beneath the surface.
I for one am excited. But hey I loved Dominant.
So now we're completely caught up. Going forward I plan to translate half chapters as they release, every 2 weeks. I somewhat regret not doing that with the first half of 10. You missed weeks of thinking Ono-senpai was the sweetest thing before this dropped.
The manga is so strongly partitioned in halves it might be part of why developments feel fast paced. Technically you could call this chapter 18 and 19, not 10. Elements aren't introduced and resolved in a single chapter but 2 paired together, if I were updating as it came out. Of course, if you read it with the volume it would still be one single chapter. But then you'd have 5 in one go.
It's interesting how much the format affects the experience. And scanlation can be its own unique format mixing elements from both. It's something I've been thinking about, and whether translating half-chapters means there'll be new comments saying the story's pacing slowed down even though the content hasn't really changed.
Dayflower at least has been adapted to manga and translated. You can read it here.
.jpg?1606117669)
