Ride 756: The third Inter High!!
Pag 1
1: The Inter High starting line is impartial
2: Those aiming for victory
3: Those filled to the brim
4: Those who are scared
5: Everyone who put on their number bib
6: The line calls everyone to a new path
Pag 2 / 3
1: No2, Onoda Sakamichi's last Inter High!!
Pag 4
1: “Kyushu” was once divided into nine countries, and that's why it has that name*
(NdT.: The “kyuu” in Kyushu means nine)
(Currently is divided in seven prefectures: Fukuoka, Ooita, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima)
2: It has a lot of active volcanoes, and people coexist with the harshness of nature while enjoying hot springs, geothermy, and tourism
3: Trade with the continent has been active since ancient times
4: Formerly, the distribution of goods by ships, which was the mainstream
5: Passed through the Kanmon Straits, separating Honshu and Kyushu
6: And transported to Osaka, Edo, the Japanese cities by the sea, and every corner of the country
Pag 5
1: Even today, the Kanmon Straits, which passes through Shimonoseki, and Kitakyushu City, and Moji, is the shortest route that connects the Inland Sea and the Sea of Japan, and is a key point for the shipping through sea
2: 1000 ships a day pass through the complex strait, which is 500m wide in its narrowest point
3: As for the land route
4: An highway crosses the Kanmon Strait with a huge bridge 1068m long
5: Ordinary national roads and railroads pass through specialized tunnels
6: As for bicycles and people... they use the “pedestrian bridge tunnel” at the bottom of the huge bridge
From Honshu to Kyushu, they can cross over the Kanmon Strait by walking
Pag 6
4: Waaa
We're at the bottom of the sea here?
That's right
5: So above us is the sea?
Yeah
And we can walk to Kyushu?
That's right, it's around 400m from here
Amazing....
6: There's even people with bikes
Yeah
7: Look! There's a line!
It's the prefectural border
8: One, two-
9: Yes! I landed in Kyushu!
Pag 7
1: The entrance to Kyushu is in the northernmost town, Moji, in the prefecture of Fukuoka, Kitakyushu City
Pag 8
1: This is where this year's Inter High will start
Pag 9
3: Where do I put this baggage?
Put it in the tent for now
Thank you, senpai
4: Look, The bikes are all lined up
So pretty
Pag 10
1: I took a picture
So cool
2: Two portions of Mijiko curry, please
Yessir
3: A pressure of 6.5?
Six, please
4: Do you have an allen key?
Yes
Pag 11
1: Ohhhh
2: There's so many huge buses!!
Teh!!
3: Nara
4: That one is from Miyazaki
5: Na-Nagano!!
6: And there's so many people, too, teh....!!
7: Are they participants in the race!? All of them!?
You're kidding, they look so strong!!
8: The attendance!! Is on this scale!!
So this is....
Pag 12
1: A national competition!!
2: Teh?
3: Ohh.... suddenly my knees started trembling, teh
Ho- how do I stop it, teh, Ki....
4: Kinaka-kun!!
6: Ki.....
7: “The competition is in Kyushu, so there's no way we can bring everyone along”
8: Kinaka.... kun
Pag 13
1: I'm here!!
Ah, you're here....
2: I'll be a mechanical help for the next three days
And I was entrusted to be your lucky charm
De-he.... oho, ohoho, fuhoho!!
What's that enigmatic way of laughing!!
3: Don't act like I didn't come!!
No... I just wanted to reaffirm again how grateful I am that you came, Kinaka-kun...
Ah!? That doesn't make any sense
4: It does!!
Pag 14
1: Because I really am grateful to you, Kinaka-kun!!
3: And I think this jersey is for the both of us!!
5: Don't say you're grateful so directly
It's embarrassing!!
6: Let's go to the tent!!
Yeah!!
You
7: It's your first Inter High but you're not all that nervous!!
That's somehow incredible
8: Yeah!!
After all
Pag 15
1: We have the strongest senpai!!
Pag 16
1: Ohhh
Waaa
2: It's Sohoku!!
It's Sohoku, the two-times in a row champion!!
Sohoku is in Kyushu!!
3: What a terrific aura!
Waaa
Onoda.... Naruko, Imaizumi!!
They look serious!!
Are they aiming for the championship again this year!?
Pag 17
1: They're going to get their number bibs
They're heading straight for the reception!!
Yes, all the participants are lining up in a row there
2: Oi, you're interrupting....
3: Sorry-
Ah
Soho-
Waa
Waaa-
5: -ku's...... bibs....
Pag 18
1: ….. please
2: Is he..... nervous....!? The reigning champion, Sohoku!?
Did he have a nervous aura?
Maybe the two guys behind him.... were supporting him?
3: They were supporting him, but the jersey came off
5: They're going back to their tent....
So that's Sohoku... right
7: So-so- sorry, I got nervous!!
Yeah
Right
8: La-la-la-la-la
La?
La?
Pag 19
1: I was thinking it's the last Inter High!!
3: For us
Pag 20
4: Yeah
5: That's right
6: That's right, Onoda-kun
We're third years
7: It's our third and final
8: yearly grand stage
Pag 21
1: Once this is over, we'll retire
This Inter High is our last race!!
Pag 23
1: Honestly speaking, I my heart too was pounding when we were on the ship coming here
I was really nervous
2: Naruko-kun....
3: Naruko
4: But then I thought
When we were first years and ran in the Kanagawa competition..... maybe, at the starting point in Enoshima
5: The old man, Kinjou-san, and Makishima-san, too, were as nervous as we are now
Pag 24
1: They must have been
3: But they didn't show it at all to us kouhai
4: Well, we can't afford to show it, either
5: That's why, Manager, we talked and decided to go back to our beginning!!
6: We chased and caught up with those people's back, but this time we're gonna surpass them!!
7: Huh
8: We're changing our numbers from last year!!
Pag 25
1: The old man carried number 172, so I'll take number 2!!
Hotshot will take the number Kinjou-san wore, number 1!!
Pag 26
3: And Onoda-kun....
I....
7: The number Makishima-san carried
Pag 27
1: I'll run wearing the number 3!!
130 notes
·
View notes
After finishing all available 79 chapters of Witch Hat Atelier and being trapped into the spiderweb of the story that it is, I NEED to organise my thoughts about its themes and what it's trying to portray, so here goes that attempt. Spoilers for all available chapters so far under the cut
We obviously see that there is a HUGE fight against what they're calling "principles" and "freedom." We all might have different words to assign to those things like the characters themselves do (restrictions, fundamentalism, arrogance for principles vs chaos, power hunger, blindness to consequence for freedom), but I want to focus on the perspectives that both sides are using and call it what those who are on their side call it. In short, we can SEE that neither of those sides are wrong but they are far from right as well, and all the characters are struggling against that
I think so far the way we see principles and freedom drawn to an extreme is between Easthies and that masked Brimmed Hat Iguin (the one with the giant eye covering his face(?)). I'm not sure about the latter but it's been pretty clear what happens, especially after ch. 79, when both ideals are taken to their extremes
Maybe - and i only say maybe - they might be leading towards a theme that neither can exist without the other. Principles and absolutes cannot exist without freedom, and freedom and the passion to do all it takes cannot exist without principles. How they will come to that conclusion, I don't know...especially when I don't know how they will find another outside medium (if that's where it's leading) to help balance the two
There's also obviously themes about disabilities, which I think also show that difference between principles and freedom taken to the extreme. Principles taken to the extreme say that there is no way to help those who view/see/live in the world in a different way. The theme keeps on being brought up that even though this tool they have can help, they don't because upholding the rules has become more important than protecting those they love. BUT...freedom taken to the extreme tells us that those people have to be fixed to fit the world because, well, with what they have they can, right? Or, in another sense, they don't think about the consequences and price that casting that kind of stuff can take and thus turn a blind eye to the way it COULD be properly used because of all the thinking that's needed to be led to that point
Theme of growing up is another thing that's on here. I'm not actually sure how old the kids here are (they look to be between the ages of...maybe 12 and 15?), but either way, they are growing up. And Richeh and Agott are pretty good expressions of someone who wants to keep their childhood and someone who wants to grow up. It shows us how that battle between the individual and the community is handled by each child in their own unique way. Again, it's the balance of two extremes, to learn how to see others and have compassion but also learn how to live their own life as their own person - especially when one might cause you to sacrifice the other
Honestly, so far it's doing such a good job of having this precarious balance of not showing one side as completely evil (a moment of silence for Custas who found out about that the hard and agonizing way). Yes, the kids still lean on the side of principle, but that's not a bad thing either (honestly, the new Brimmed Hat Ininia and Custas against our protagonists and Tartah, it's sure showing a fun balance between kids raised in one thing learning to see the value of the other).
And speaking of balance, I think this is what this manga is trying to question. Balance between two extremes...if it's even possible
Anyway, there's also the obvious theme of censorship. That's obviously very bad and it's not really questioned that such censorship is a bad thing - BUT...the reasons behind it are complex. Fear, goodness, evil, and courage are all mixed up in fun and different ways...so you have that as well
Something something the road to hell is paved with good intentions or however that quote goes. Something something adults vs children but also children need to trust adults and adults need to trust children and hear them out. Something something how most of the adults we see contribute in some way towards whatever negative extreme they're facing (I'm REALLY hoping we get to see some more genuinely good adults in the Brimmed Hats side, though I also think if it shows them all as evil, it will do so in a way that shows how secrecy and hiding have corrupted their ideals more than acceptance has corrupted the Pointed Hats' ideals). And something something the children - and now some of the adults - are finding themselves conflicted between two sides that are neither wholly wrong or wholly right
13 notes
·
View notes