Also: I especially like it when Toshio mentions about Seishin in his chapters, even when Seishin's nowhere in them. I didn't get as much of that luxury from Seishin's end thus far. Thread Reply to this Thread Hide 6 comments Show 6 comments no subject sinnesspiel 2013-12-21 02:15 am (UTC)(link) Now we, too, can diagnose a vampire epidemic! Thanks, Science!
Really? I thought we'd had more of that from Seishin. He thought about Toshio when remembering the circumstances of Megumi's death before his second meeting with Sunako, and also thought on the way Hiroko regarded him at the services. Thread Reply to this Thread from start Parent Thread Hide 5 comments Show 5 comments 8D (Anonymous) 2013-12-21 09:31 am (UTC)(link) Because you said that, I decided to do some investigation. In case I was forgetting something too.
2.4: when Seishin goes to the bookstore and finds medical books, thinking 'that must be Toshio's order'
8.3: which you mentioned. But it feels to me that Seishin's blaming Toshio, thinking 'if only Toshio hadn't made such mistake...' or along the line of. And when Seishin makes a conclusion that the Shimizus are blaming Toshio from what they tell Seishin, it doesn't seem to me that he's particularly empathizing with Toshio, he's only making a conclusion in an indifferent way: 'oh, they're blaming Toshio'. (well, though maybe that's just how it seems at the outside because Seishin's intentionally putting on an air of indifference because he's at the service at the moment)
So far, Seishin usually thinks of Toshio with some sort of annoyance and it kinda puts me off. While Toshio usually thinks of Seishin in a rather fond way, well, it does seem to me like that.
1.4: it's Toshio's first chapter and he already mentions Seishin. (Though yes, I think that's only to tell us readers that this is Ozaki Toshio, Seishin's osananajimi)
2.1.5: 'he's an idealist you know.' but yes, this doesn't actually count.
3.5 We could count it, even though it's not shown from Seishin's side. The fact that he calls the doctor rather than the police, even if the doctor is the secondary town ruler along with him, seems rather personal, especially given that he's decidedly too flustered to think straight as a town leader.
4.2 I'd say it counts. He's not thinking about the temple and its incense as a place/smell of worship, he's thinking about how he was there a lot and got used to it as a kid; childhood temple time was clearly Seishin time.
2.2.1 Not sure if it counts as unprompted. The temple owns the entire northern mountain and it sounds like there was a major landslide (or an explosion). Nobody else is going to go there, they said. Telling the property owner seems about in line with Officer Takami going to warn the Kirishikis about the landslides: common decency for anyone with a sense of duty.
This leaves us at 2:1 in favor of Seishin, but also consider that we have more Seishin chapters than Toshio chapters (5:4 ratio) and a lot more introspective chapters from Seishin, whereas most of the doc's are him doing something to move the plot, thinking about the plot, etc.
Seishin usually shows annoyance towards Toshio in the 'prompted' scenes, or if Toshio's present in them. For example, the 'Toshio knows Seishin will resent it if he goes through all the trouble of buying the magazine which has Seishin's essay in it and puts it in the hospital's waiting room' scene and in the one I translated back then from the second volume, about Seishin feeling a bit annoyed (I suppose? It said bitter smile though) when Toshio visits the temple and then they have the shiki discussion in Seishin's room, saying 'this room is the same as usual I see!' They still kinda puts me off. Is it possible to feel annoyed about your crush so often? But Seishin and Toshio resemble a couple who've been married for a long time more than teenagers or newlyweds whose feelings are still raw and burning. (?)
I'm rather curious about what would become of Shiki if Toshio's the one being protagonist because we'd have more direct access to his thoughts. Will it be as enjoyable to me though, I wonder.
Ahh I also remember the scene when Toshio first directly meets Chizuru in the novel. It's much different from the manga and anime; Chizuru sneaking into Toshio's room when he's already resting for the night and at first Toshio is all 'Seishin?' but even Seishin is not that sneaky (at least he'd tap at the window and ask for permission (well I believe it's what he means by not being that sneaky, but some parts of the passage are still making me confused))
I have the word document of two-monster volumes edition, so I can copy-paste if I wish to ask about something!~ yay Thread Reply to this Thread from start Parent Thread Hide 2 comments Show 2 comments no subject sinnesspiel 2013-12-25 02:48 pm (UTC)(link) Forced/bitter/wry smile is used a lot in this series. In that particular case with Seishin it was because of the topic, you know, fatal epidemic and all. I also got the feeling Seishin was actually more comfortable with the room that hadn't changed than he was annoyed; worst he felt there, I thought when reading, was the guilt about it being downstairs now because Takae hates him. Otherwise, I agree, Seishin does seem to be exasperated with Toshio a decent amount of the time. As for your question as to whether you can be so annoyed with your crush so often, there's a phrase that goes: "The more you love someone, the more you want to kill them." ...Ironically Sunako will say something along those lines to Seishin next time they meet, but it's not quite the same thing. Sometimes people who annoy you just annoy you and you don't love them at all... I just happen to favor pairs with high tension and annoyance factors. But most pairs I like are also not canon, as negative emotions are really a pretty poor relaitonship foundation... even if they are interesting. Thread Reply to this Thread from start Parent Thread Hide 1 comment Show 1 comment 8D (Anonymous) 2013-12-25 11:12 pm (UTC)(link) I don't think it's possible that Seishin hates Toshio without even an ounce of affection though, as Toshio is pretty much the only person he actively seeks the company of since they were children. Like Toshio about him, Seishin also understands a lot about Toshio and I think the exasperation are only limited to trivial things? He feels annoyed because Toshio does something which he knows will annoy him, pretty much the only person he uses a little bit of sarcasm with ('he isn't from the parish families, not that I know all of the kids of the parish either'). Him showing annoyance when he knows Toshio is intentionally (but jokingly) picking on him, now that I think about it, I think that's understandable. I don't think Seishin has shown annoyance when Toshio is being serious, even when he yells at him when he's all distressed with the epidemic because Seishin gets that he's distressed.
The same goes to Toshio. Toshio may find some aspects of him unacceptable, makes him all but yell at him, but they never bring him to actually dislike Seishin. (I think? Waiting for later translations from you) If he were to go by his personal feelings, he won't hunt Seishin down even when he actively sides with the Shiki (implied in the novel!car scene). ((Considering how people usually act, these aspects of them tell so much I think. Romantic or not, I think they must really like each other. But that's kinda no news.)) Thread Reply to this Thread from start Parent