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Hiwatari Saki - Global Garden, vol. 01-08 (Chi. trans.) (spoilers)
No one is going to read this post, are they? And I so want to talk about all the spoilery bits!
Series-destroying spoilers
I think I cried buckets at the ending. Buckets! I was so worried about Hikaru, even though I was fairly sure the series would have a happy ending. But I was afraid Hiwatari was going to do something squicky like displace Ruika's love for Hikaru onto Robin (ewwwwww) thanks to the clone-ness. And I was afraid for most of the series that Haruhi/Lyle would end up becoming the hero, just because I am still unsure if Hiwatari's ideas about relationships and heroes corresponds with mine, especially after reading PSME. (Seriously though! I was scared of both potential pedophilia and villain-turned-hero!)
I do not completely buy Lyle's about-face, but I will take what I can get. And I am really glad Sissy got a happy ending, because I liked her, even though she was working for the wrong side.
The evil scientist half-brother is totally Jezebel Disraeli, only with less organs and brains in jars and more pills.
I am... still trying to decide what I think about the mystical pregnancies. I rather like the one that resulted in Ruika's birth, the notion that she doesn't belong to any particular person, the gender-flipping of the child of the virginal conception. And I mostly do like the solution to Hikaru's death, that Robin gets to be reborn, but it also takes away a little from what I loved best about the three of them, that they were a chosen family, not a genetic one (well, that they knew of). On the other hand, I do like that they are still a chosen family; Ruika gets to choose who her child will be, and Robin gets to agree before it happens. And of course I can't help but compare it with all the other mystical pregnancies on US TV, although I like that this one is not forced on Ruika, that the mother, not the child, is the savior of humanity, and that Ruika chooses it as a way to preserve not just one life, but two.
There's also a lot I wanted to think about regarding birth and life, how Ruika's fertility is tied in with the world tree and the salvation of earth. The way Hiwatari and Ruika tied it in to her decision to accept being female annoyed me a little, as it felt a bit like "Only if you are female can you bear life." And there's something in there about conception within a womb via trees/gardens/seeds/growing green things vs. conception within a womb via cloned sperm, hard science against soft nature, and I dislike how that fairly straightforwardly falls within gender lines.
And yet. I keep poking at it because I do find the ending powerful, because I do love Ruika as a goddess of growing things even as she's a lost, hurt girl, I love the juxtaposition of healing yourself with healing others and the world and the way that that healing is clearly validated not only by the women in the series, but by everyone save the villains, and how even most of the villains are only trying to reach out and have someone by their side.
And oh, the way Hiwatari managed to tie everything together at the end! How Ruika becomes Urd on her quest to find a way to save Hikaru, the repeated imagery of her slit wrist and the blood, the way she is Skuld in her vision, hurt and reaching out, but the way she is only Skuld because that's how the evil doctor (I forgot his name) dressed her, she is Skuld the reflected image of herself.
Other things I liked: the explicit acknowledgement that Hikaru was nudging Ruika to become Ruika again not just because Skuld is female, and that if Ruika had truly wanted to become a guy, he would have been totally okay with that. It was that she was doing it for her mother instead of herself that was the problem. I also like that Ruika is still uncomfortable with many of the trappings of femininity, that she doesn't miraculously get a makeover and grow breasts and that's that.
I am still so sad about the death of Ruika's mother, even though I know Hiwatari was doing it to make Hikaru's resurrection all the more affecting and impossible-seeming. The freak accident nature of it still feels too freak-accident-y.
Series-destroying spoilers
I think I cried buckets at the ending. Buckets! I was so worried about Hikaru, even though I was fairly sure the series would have a happy ending. But I was afraid Hiwatari was going to do something squicky like displace Ruika's love for Hikaru onto Robin (ewwwwww) thanks to the clone-ness. And I was afraid for most of the series that Haruhi/Lyle would end up becoming the hero, just because I am still unsure if Hiwatari's ideas about relationships and heroes corresponds with mine, especially after reading PSME. (Seriously though! I was scared of both potential pedophilia and villain-turned-hero!)
I do not completely buy Lyle's about-face, but I will take what I can get. And I am really glad Sissy got a happy ending, because I liked her, even though she was working for the wrong side.
The evil scientist half-brother is totally Jezebel Disraeli, only with less organs and brains in jars and more pills.
I am... still trying to decide what I think about the mystical pregnancies. I rather like the one that resulted in Ruika's birth, the notion that she doesn't belong to any particular person, the gender-flipping of the child of the virginal conception. And I mostly do like the solution to Hikaru's death, that Robin gets to be reborn, but it also takes away a little from what I loved best about the three of them, that they were a chosen family, not a genetic one (well, that they knew of). On the other hand, I do like that they are still a chosen family; Ruika gets to choose who her child will be, and Robin gets to agree before it happens. And of course I can't help but compare it with all the other mystical pregnancies on US TV, although I like that this one is not forced on Ruika, that the mother, not the child, is the savior of humanity, and that Ruika chooses it as a way to preserve not just one life, but two.
There's also a lot I wanted to think about regarding birth and life, how Ruika's fertility is tied in with the world tree and the salvation of earth. The way Hiwatari and Ruika tied it in to her decision to accept being female annoyed me a little, as it felt a bit like "Only if you are female can you bear life." And there's something in there about conception within a womb via trees/gardens/seeds/growing green things vs. conception within a womb via cloned sperm, hard science against soft nature, and I dislike how that fairly straightforwardly falls within gender lines.
And yet. I keep poking at it because I do find the ending powerful, because I do love Ruika as a goddess of growing things even as she's a lost, hurt girl, I love the juxtaposition of healing yourself with healing others and the world and the way that that healing is clearly validated not only by the women in the series, but by everyone save the villains, and how even most of the villains are only trying to reach out and have someone by their side.
And oh, the way Hiwatari managed to tie everything together at the end! How Ruika becomes Urd on her quest to find a way to save Hikaru, the repeated imagery of her slit wrist and the blood, the way she is Skuld in her vision, hurt and reaching out, but the way she is only Skuld because that's how the evil doctor (I forgot his name) dressed her, she is Skuld the reflected image of herself.
Other things I liked: the explicit acknowledgement that Hikaru was nudging Ruika to become Ruika again not just because Skuld is female, and that if Ruika had truly wanted to become a guy, he would have been totally okay with that. It was that she was doing it for her mother instead of herself that was the problem. I also like that Ruika is still uncomfortable with many of the trappings of femininity, that she doesn't miraculously get a makeover and grow breasts and that's that.
I am still so sad about the death of Ruika's mother, even though I know Hiwatari was doing it to make Hikaru's resurrection all the more affecting and impossible-seeming. The freak accident nature of it still feels too freak-accident-y.
no subject
Slack, however, only stretches so far.
---L.