I may be rambling here, this manga is starting to fascinate me. Before, we had some hints that the world was a simulation. Some obvious, like the constant changing of the landscape and laws; Others however, were more subtle: the bible, the ultimate book of creation and order; No longer human, the existentialist crisis of modernity, and thus spoke Zarathustra the book for everyone and no one: a comedy, embrace and criticism to existence itself.
Shijima, in chapter 10 pg. 8 she says " I don't really mind not waking up either, though... Majime-chan is always bothering me, sis is always forcing me to help her, and school is always so tiresome...compared to all that, this dreams...almost like the closet...it's calming" She'll rather drift through her cherished delusion, that being her alienation, rather than facing the truth of the matter: she's lonely, depressed and desperate for friends (after all, if she really wants to be alone, then is she concerned to go back to the closet on ch. 07 pg. 2?).
In chapter 17, they go watch a movie. Which movie is it? The Truman Show, the tale of a man realizing he lives in a predetermined life watched by millions where all his friends are no more than actors, except for the lady, brave enough to tell him the truth: the only one that has truly shown any resemblance of real feelings towards him. Shijima's sister, a person tired of a society which alienates her and forces her turn down any resemblance of freedom: an actor in a hollow show. She is determined to meld this world into the will of the oppressed, like her, liker sister, so they can never feel ostracized again. Ms. Mogawa is a good example of this: a girl that melds into her role to the point that it eats up her soul. After all, in chapter 20 pg. 16: "I stopped making these because I thought a teacher shouldn't be..."; but what stays repressed cannot be put down forever "...But that was why I ended up trying to open a large hole, wasn't it?". Shimija's has had to face the same destiny as Mogawa; However, the realization and chatarsis that made her able to understand her emptiness came after an act of extremes, that being attempting suicide. If Mogawa dug a hole literally, Shimija's sister will dig a hole to reality, and this will have consequences.
the authority of order (gardener and the bible), the cowards lost on the meaningless of everyday modern life or shut ins that rationalize their alienation (shijima) and the fight against reality itself and choose nonsense above sense and disorder against order (shijima's sister and zarathustra); But at what cost? is it really worth it to dig the world a hole so we can fill it with the wishes of the lost or oppressed, if all we really needed was a friend or a loved one to fill ourselves up with life again? We often think in grand schemes, but perhaps the only thing that we needed was a friend all along, like Majime-chan. Maybe life, at the end, in its slices of boredom, in its everydayness, it's not so bad if we have someone to talk nonsense with.
(btw fun fact: in chapter 23 pg 6, the book girl is reading La Chambre Claire, a book about the philosophy and nature of photography and the effects it has on the spectator)
Very interesting analysis. I don't have much to add, except that this manga reminds me of the "post-existence" artwork of Aleksandra Waliszewska, and correspondingly, an undercurrent of ennui and general dissatisfaction with life seems to run through the entire manga, as you implied with the "fight against reality itself".
