Lot to unpack in this chapter. First off, the title is almost identical to that of chapter 12. In that case, Konatsu was trying not to be dependent on Koyuki as she wanted to prove herself to have become a fully-fledged member of the aquarium club able to help her out, in a display of selflessness. This time, she has become the president of the club and not being dependent means taking on the burden that was Koyuki's by herself (if not a larger one since there are more junior club members compared to when she was the only one). As opposed to the previous time, Kaede and then Konatsu herself put into question whether this selflessness is ideal or if she should be more selfish and dependent. The other club members almost certainly won't factor in significantly to easing Konatsu's troubles like she did Koyuki's, so I think this is setting up a reversal where Koyuki herself will come in and help Konatsu out with the club, whether on her own accord or prodded by her.
Then, the matter of the summer festival callback (which I totally called, yay). Back then, not only did Koyuki not have a good answer as to why she called out to Konatsu on her first day at school, she couldn't even understand why she'd ask that, while Konatsu was discouraged by their first meeting not being special to Koyuki as it was to herself. Now, Konatsu realized there didn't need to be a deep reason in the first place and that Koyuki calling out to her in the spur of the moment and appearing in her life to ease her loneliness is what truly matters. As for Koyuki, she finally gained the understanding of why she was asked that question and that their meeting was indeed special because Konatsu also saved her from being lonely.
This leads into two of my favorite pages: https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch30#33 https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch30#34 They stand in direct contrast to this scene from the festival: https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/nettaigyo_wa_yuki_ni_kogareru_ch09#28 Back then, their distance made it so that Konatsu felt too awkward to look at Koyuki and when the latter noticed, she averted her eyes. This time, it's Koyuki who keeps staring at her and smiles upon being noticed, bringing the previous year's fireworks scene full circle.
On to the frog in the room. Konatsu notices the plushie and realizes through Koyuki's later words that she must've figured out the reference she made to the Salamander short story and accepted Konatsu's wish of being the frog to her salamander. Of course, there is already a ton of baggage here with how the metaphor has been applied and twisted throughout the series, but above all else I'd like to recall the elements that have hinted at this version of the story going a different way from the short story itself. On Koyuki's side, when she figured the reference out, she outright changed the story's ambiguous ending by adding "I wish we could always be together.", something she proceeded to be embarassed about and that even led her to not giving Konatsu the frog plushie like she intended. Konatsu has been struggling with her career aspiration after high school and wrote "frog" on the survey. Like Koyuki did with her original ending, she erased what she wrote as she thought it wasn't something she could do. Then the author slammed us over the head with how this version of the short story ends with the salamander and the frog finding a way out and staying together by outright drawing the whole thing. I think it will all lead to Konatsu and Koyuki eventually finding the courage to tell each other they wish they could always be together as girlshipfriends and to make their inevitable separation only temporary.
Last but not least, god fucking dammit, the art is beautiful. It seriously deserves props for how far it's gotten since the early chapters, made particularly apparent by the several flashbacks in this one. I want to bury my face in Konatsu's hair.
last edited at Oct 27, 2020 9:39PM
