#even Hokuto said she wanted to be a housewife

[noa-ciharu]

Broke: Kamui and Seishirou crossing parts and fighting over Subaru

Woke: Kamui and Seishirou crossing parts and fighting over who's supreme malewife

[ayameyumesaki]

Tokyo Babylon - CLAMP Premium Collection - Commentary Part 6

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Finally, we've come to the last chapter of volume 2 and I must say, as someone who learned Japanese AND ever lived in Japan, this chapter is the chapter I can relate the most. And of course, a display of Miss Sumeragi Hokuto's characterization in one whole chapter.

Without further ado, let's start!

Like usual, this one will be quite long as well, haha. Anyway if someone noticed, the chapter was written in 1991!

So, we started the chapter by Hokuto walking at night. I want to ask why she was on the road when she is only 16 but then again, she probably was on her way home from Seishiro's vet clinic and that's the only way to explain why she was there.

Other girl being catcalled by boys: shivered in fear, running away directly Hokuto, who is born in wealthy Sumeragi family: Are you government worker? Do you have a public housing? Grave? Property accumulation savings? If you don't have it then just dream to even catcalling me.

Honestly Hokuto you are so funny and I'm so sorry to those men. But she isn't wrong; with her family status, Hokuto should marry a conglomerate instead (thus, her dream to become a proper housewife).

Hokuto, sensing a girl in danger: My justice sense is tingling so let's beat those men.

That aside, actually, they used katakana for the words the woman said (even after this panel, though not every words). I take it that she probably spoke Japanese but didn't sound like a native, thus they differentiate the typing. I will talk about this more once the girl talked more.

A display of Hokuto's strength. Pretty nice. That face kick is amazing. Sumeragi family taught her well and I'm so proud of her.

The two then ran away and escaped the scene and they hid in the alley. Hokuto asked the girl whether she is fine or not, and the girl nodded. She then said they will bother pretty girl at night like that. Since she didn't respond the her, Hokuto then asked.

Hokuto: Can you speak... The girl: I know Japanese.

Here, you can see her panel in kanji, hiragana and katakana. All of them mixed into one line. This is like a little hell on Earth for anyone who learned Japanese but isn't skilled yet at reading katakana ;;

Anyway, the two were found out by the corpse and they ran away again. They went to a park and rested there. Hokuto bought the girl a drink and they talked.

The girl then asked, why Hokuto helped her, an outsider (gaijin). I would like to use word "foreigner" here, but maybe I should explain the difference between gaijin and gaikokujin first.

Gaijin (外人) and gaikokujin (外国人) are used to describe who isn't Japanese people, means foreigner. However, Japan is a country who doesn't engage with other countries for so long (around 300 years I think?), and there is also stuff with World War. Their lack of engagement with other countries for a long period created a mindset that Japanese people and other people are different, thus, even after World War II, Japanese people didn't accept foreigners kindly. Gaijin is a term used to describe those who aren't Japanese people and this has a rude connotation. This term is used until economic bubble ended, I think? Nowadays they didn't use it anymore and mostly use gaikokujin.

Thus, the girl explained that she is a gaijin and it's probably strange for her to be helped by a Japanese girl like Hokuto, but Hokuto told her that she didn't know from what country she comes from, but since she belongs to a country, there is nothing like gaijin (or outsider). This means Hokuto thinks of word gaijin as its literal meaning, not the meaning the stereotype we are talking earlier.

Then the girl asked again why Hokuto never asked her about anything, and Hokuto said that she can't do anything about it even though she asked. She then said what she said is important to her and in her best interest. If she asked her, then it is rude on her side. Still, if she wants to talk, if she thinks it's better to talk when she happened to talk with someone else rather than not talking at all, then it's a different story.

This line is different than the translation I read, and for me, the line in Japanese is much kinder than the one in translation. Hokuto is pretty wise, and her lines in original text are wiser. I think Hokuto here said I won't push you to talk since I don't have the right to make you talk, but if you want to talk, I will listen to you earnestly. The translation was probably toned down that kindness, but it still had similar nuance and probably adapted to the country it targeted to.

Then the girl began to tell her story. She is working at a shop and that shop is called kyabakura (or hostess club) in Japanese. She is from a country across the sea, she has seven people in her family, her father is sick and her mother couldn't support her family alone, so she came to Tokyo to work. In her country, there are more people who need works than the number of work provided, thus she came to Tokyo. But she can't speak Japanese and when she was sitting in front of Shinjuku Station because she was hungry, someone called her and that's how she came in contact with her current job.

Then Hokuto asked how she became fluent in Japanese (because honestly, her Japanese is actually pretty good despite the mix between hiragana, kanji and katakana) and she said the guests taught her. Hokuto was glad that the guests taught her standard Japanese.

She then continued by saying that there are guests who are kind, but many are scary ones. She thinks she will be fine and will work hard as long as she got paid. But she said she is afraid of police.

Well, she came to Japan illegally and if she was found out, she will be deported back to her country. And realization hits---Hokuto you just kicked a cop's face LOL There is a raid in her club so she ran away, but she got caught. She knew that she should abide the rule and she is doing a wrong thing, but if she didn't earn money, then her family can't live.

She then talked about how Tokyo is a strange country, as long as she has money, she can have everything. But there are things that she could get in her country, but she couldn't get it here.

She said the first thing is friends. She said she and her friends were poor, but when she decided to go to Japan, everyone cried for her. But if she died in Tokyo, she believes no one will cry for her...

And the second one is "smile", the title of this chapter. She then explained that in her country, if she smiled, her mother and friends will smile as well and feel happy. Now she must smile, but no one will see her smile inside that dark room.

The the girl said, "When I come to Japan, I thought that as long as I can understand the words, I can overcome the wall between people. That's why I'm working hard studying. I'm studying hard so I can understand Japanese people."

The girl: But no matter how good my Japanese becomes, we, gaijin, will never understand Japanese people's heart. Even though we understand Japanese, I can't get friends or smile.

Oh no my heart is just broken for her...

Then the police caught up to them and Hokuto decided that she won't run away alone. Thus she decided to face them.

And she displayed the wealth of Sumeragi Family along with her own strength in the same time. While I cried for the lipstick she used as her writing (cries), this is the same person who told us that she can't use onmyojutsu. Well, since onmyoji dealt with spirits, Hokuto who can't see spirits probably wasn't qualified, but she could use spells as well and kicked asses. Way to go girl!

The two ran away and they went to the city again in ease, now they knocked down the police that targeted them. The girl asked why Hokuto helped her after she told her that it's her fault and those are police.

Hokuto: It's because I want to be your friend. You probably thought it's a bother to me, but I want to be friends with you. Of course working along with police is a civilian's duty, but when it comes to friends, it's different matter.

Hokuto and her beautiful mind ;;

The girl told her that she is a gaijin and Hokuto told her that there's nothing like gaijin. Then the girl said she works in kyabakura,

Hokuto: In this world, the hardest job is service industry. Nurses, teachers, idols, singers too. All services. If you don't understand how hard it is, then you aren't qualified to live.

Honestly I want to say "you don't have the right to live" at the bold line above, since in Japanese, the line gives that harsh nuance. I think Hokuto could say something that harsh when it comes to service industry is because she saw how devoted Subaru to his job that it costs him his time to study at school. And Subaru's work as an exorcist is one of service industries---he came here and there and always busy. Thus Hokuto understands how hard it must be for her as well, since she has an example right next to her.

The girl asked if Hokuto took a pity on her, but Hokuto said it's rude if she pitied her when she just heard a bit of her long living years. Her life is her own.

Hokuto: Don't differentiate people by giving them titles like Japanese people or outsiders. You and I are the same human.

Hokuto then asked whether the girl is interested in her or not, and she said she does, then they cleared the first step. Then she will be her first friend in this Tokyo.

Since the girl cried, Hokuto told her to smile. She then explained that since she will be busy with her work, Hokuto will be worried for her. She will be worried if someone will bully her, or whether she feels afraid, or if she is crying. But if she remembers that her friend is always smiling, then it will ease her worry.

So she smiled.

Honestly, her smile is so pretty. Oh my.

And they ended the chapter with them introducing themselves to each other with a hug! The chapter ends!

Overall, this chapter is pretty well written and showed Hokuto's characterization very well. I will talk several points that I haven't talk above (since I'm too focused on the writings and Hokuto ;;).

First thing first, this chapter's message is the one Hokuto said close to the end, that "don't label someone with titles, since we are all the same human". This is coming from CLAMP who wrote this in 1991, and foreigners coming to Japan isn't as massive as it did now, so most of the time, people's image about foreigners are still a bit close-minded; at least that's how I studied. I was like, wow, CLAMP really wrote Tokyo Babylon to go against all the common senses Japanese people have at the time, and I can't stop awe-ing this series even more. The more I read about the stories, the more I was fascinated by how they were this brave to pick their own contemporary society issues and even tell their own opinion regarding that topic.

Second is, I understand the girl's feelings. Japanese people not being kind, or treating foreigners differently if they don't understand Japanese still happened. This is my own experience; at that time, I was saddened by something pretty personal and I went to convenience store to buy something. I went out of the queue line for a second (like really, maybe 3 seconds) to get a drink from the nearby fridge, and the line changed (because the ones behind me moved forward). I went back to the queue but an old man behind me thought I cut the line, so he was kinda mad and raised his voice on me. At first, I didn't know he was talking to me, and it was until he told me "don't you know Japanese!?" in higher tone made me snapped as well, so with me being down and such thing happened, I told him "I know!" and told him that I was queueing before the ones in front of me before. The ones in front of me testified my words and since I was kind of pissed off, I told the old man to move forward and after that he apologized to me. I felt bad for him now I'm sorry. The point is, you can see he knew I'm a foreigner and when he raised his voice about me not knowing Japanese, it's just pissed me off. Other than this, since I spoke better than my friends, I probably only had that one issue, yet my friends who started studying the language Japan was treated differently from me and it showed clearly in many occassions.

This issue is important since Japan right now is trying to hire more foreigners to their country. I realized that despite their condition, people with such mind would still exist, and like that panel when the girl was caught by the police (people ignoring her since it's not their business), it will be difficult to create an environment suitable for foreigners if they don't socialize it better. Of course, many are opened up, and one of them are the people I was working with before, and I was grateful that I can learn how Japanese people was, all the good and bad, that I can relate to this chapter.

Third is, Hokuto is right. People really differentiate people by labeling them even when we are same human. This is another personal experience, but the business I was working in right now is Japanese language education provider in my country. We have some partnership with Japanese company as well. One thing I remembered the most was someone in important position in the place I worked told me that, Japanese people is under us and we shouldn't be afraid of them. I remembered it clearly since it was our first meeting, and the first thing that comes into my mind was I realized that human who is treating another human as something else does exist. I was like thrown back to reality, and this chapter told me that no matter what job you are doing, no matter what nationality you have, in the end, you are a human and all humanity traits are exist within you. That my belief isn't wrong, and we should treat human the same. Yes I'm looking at you Seishiro.

Last but not least, I love how we are shown Hokuto's mindset early. She is pretty mature with her thoughts despite her childish behavior sometimes, and her views about the world around her is pretty, but not naive like her brother. She acknowledged that she did wrong as well for going against police, but she is caring and wanting to help someone in distress, thus she chose to help the girl. In this part, Hokuto is similar to her twin and I was moved by how similar they are in this volume---Subaru acknowledging he is different from the people around him, and he decided to embrace it so he can help Mitsuki going back to reality, while Hokuto acknowledging her making mistake for going against police, but she stay true to her grounds and helped the girl so she can live.

Thus, this ends my commentary for second volume! I'm waiting for the third and fourth volume to arrive, thus let's meet on the next part!