A Fairytale of the Human and Inhuman
Oct. 22nd, 2021 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
i_wish_to_remain_nameless I got volume 10 of The Girl from the Other Side today. It was very good but dang this series is grim. Remember when this was a fluffy slice of life about a girl and her goatdad that only occasionally delved into horrifically depressing territory? Ah, those were the days.
On the bright side, I feel like we've got the potential some pretty good catharsis going on here. The series seems to be heading into it's endgame now and I'm honestly pretty stoked to see how this turns out even if the ending is a sad one. Maybe even especially if the ending's sad though personally I'm hoping we can still get something bittersweet.
This volume certainly casts the series tagline about being a fairytale of the human and the inhuman in a new light. Turns out we were wrong about which was which.
Weirdly enough, I'm not actually that surprised by this development. I've been suspicious of Shiva for quite some time. For one thing she's named after the Hindu god of destruction which is kind of ominous. More concrete suspicious things about Shiva was her ability to be an asymptomatic carrier of the curse and the fact that she was apparently abandoned, not once but twice. I think around volume four or five I wondered if she was like an unusually human looking outsider or something. That wasn't quite right it turns out but it's closer to the truth than I expected.
I feel bad for Albert. It seems like he was a pretty kind-hearted person back when he was human and didn't deserve any of the shit he went through. Also it might just be me but I feel like Shiva looks a lot like the child he had with his wife. I wonder if that means anything.
I feel kind of bad for Shiva too, or whatever she is now. She clearly enjoyed her stolen humanity very much and her "remnants" seem to feel super guilty about what she did to teacher. Also that omake of her and Teacher having a snowball fight was very rude to my poor heart.
I think one of the biggest strengths of this series (besides the art which makes amazing use of light and shadow) is how well it sells the bond between Shiva and Teacher. The slice of life chapters at the beginning of the series are important because they show us how much these characters care for each other. This means we really root for them to be reunited when they are separated and hope against hope that despite the cruelty of their world they can somehow find happiness.
Or that's how it makes me feel at least.
I recommend this series if you like crying at comics and/or have ever wondered what Yotsuba&! would be like if it took place in a grimdark fantasy setting.
On the bright side, I feel like we've got the potential some pretty good catharsis going on here. The series seems to be heading into it's endgame now and I'm honestly pretty stoked to see how this turns out even if the ending is a sad one. Maybe even especially if the ending's sad though personally I'm hoping we can still get something bittersweet.
This volume certainly casts the series tagline about being a fairytale of the human and the inhuman in a new light. Turns out we were wrong about which was which.
Weirdly enough, I'm not actually that surprised by this development. I've been suspicious of Shiva for quite some time. For one thing she's named after the Hindu god of destruction which is kind of ominous. More concrete suspicious things about Shiva was her ability to be an asymptomatic carrier of the curse and the fact that she was apparently abandoned, not once but twice. I think around volume four or five I wondered if she was like an unusually human looking outsider or something. That wasn't quite right it turns out but it's closer to the truth than I expected.
I feel bad for Albert. It seems like he was a pretty kind-hearted person back when he was human and didn't deserve any of the shit he went through. Also it might just be me but I feel like Shiva looks a lot like the child he had with his wife. I wonder if that means anything.
I feel kind of bad for Shiva too, or whatever she is now. She clearly enjoyed her stolen humanity very much and her "remnants" seem to feel super guilty about what she did to teacher. Also that omake of her and Teacher having a snowball fight was very rude to my poor heart.
I think one of the biggest strengths of this series (besides the art which makes amazing use of light and shadow) is how well it sells the bond between Shiva and Teacher. The slice of life chapters at the beginning of the series are important because they show us how much these characters care for each other. This means we really root for them to be reunited when they are separated and hope against hope that despite the cruelty of their world they can somehow find happiness.
Or that's how it makes me feel at least.
I recommend this series if you like crying at comics and/or have ever wondered what Yotsuba&! would be like if it took place in a grimdark fantasy setting.
