And so we have reached the end of our wonderful journey, masterfully drawn by the amazing Minetaro Mochizuki. This is also the group's first completed project so... yay us!
What Mochi did in this manga is fantastic, although the pacing could be called slow, each chapter had enough "meat" on it that it didn't
feel slow. This manga wasn't about the events that took place in a chapter but about the characters and how they reacted to the small things that occur in day to day life, every clenched fist, every sad look, every hesitant movement... they all carried immense emotional weight. I think covering up Shigeji with a beard was a brilliant decision, he feels very reserved and yet he's such a stoic and powerful character, his stubbornness is worthy of respect from the very beginning because of how he carried himself. Ultimately, the main theme of the story is "empathy" and it's so wonderfully executed, every character in the series has an arc and every single one of those arcs are about empathy and then there's the fact that, when a character remembers something you usually see things through their eyes and don't get the objective truth but their subjective view of the situation. You see characters like Yokohama being a bit pushy at the start and because he has that hilarious fat-snake-like face your instincts tell you that he's an asshole but... what does he really want to do? help. Even Shigeji's childhood friend, Toku, your immediate reaction to him(especially because he has a resting bitch face) is to hate him for being too strict but... we forget, the fire was huge an Shigeji wasn't the only one to lose things in it, Toku just wants to provide for his family and when you're overwhelmed... sometimes you lose sight of things. And so his character arc ends with him empathizing with Shigeji and the boy and looking the other way.
I think the characters appearing in this manga are all insanely
likeable. Ritsu is... simply put, she's a jewel. At times she's so strong it's like nothing can topple her, other times she's so vulnerable, almost like you want to shelter her from the light summer breeze. A silly little 20 year old girl that just wanted to help some kids that have suffered enough. Her insecurities are cute and her stubbornness is admirable. Masaru is a dependable and loyal friend, Yuko and Yokohama just want to help, Mr Fukuda is... a big creepy, but he's a good and honorable man. The fact that he's such a rabid shipper and wants Shigeji to marry his daughter is... actually kind of noble. He doesn't want his daughter to marry a wealthy man, he recognizes that Shigeji is a smart, capable and honest man, and he only wants what's best for his daughter. Kuro is a dolt but he's funny and... everyone's been in his shoes, overrating your ability and thinking you deserve more only to find out that you were young and wrong... can you step on your pride and apologize? sometimes, an apology is all you need.
And the children were an absolute delight, wish we had more of them... from Wednesday and Eggplanthead always being hilarious, to Romeo aka Kikuji being hilariously misunderstood.
I guess this is as good of a time as any to remind everyone that there was a live action movie adaptation of the novel in 1962, you might find it under the name of "A Carpenter and Children". The novel, to my knowledge, has not been translated outside of Japan but this is a good way to see what changes Mochizuki made to the story, aside from transporting it to the present day. There was also a live action 5 episode drama on tv a few years back... it was also adapted into a stage play... This is actually a very famous and highly regarded classical story in Japan. The movie is worth a watch, if anything, this is the closest you'll get to experiencing the original Shugoro Yamamoto story and it's a pretty nice movie.
Okay, enough rambling. Here are the goods:
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
And the batch releases
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Also, a little poll:
https://www.strawpoll.me/20152566
And, well... we hope you enjoy the other Minetaro Mochizuki project we're working on, Tokyo Kaido. Some of us in the group even prefer it to Chiisakobe. But before that, I suppose this is a good time to remind everyone of the interview with Mochi from a few years back that we translated
here
And I hope you enjoy all our future releases, including our other current project, Wet Moon, from the dastardly brilliant mind of Atsushi Kaneko.
Mari is just sooo adorkable.
Tokyo Kaido Ch. 7
Snitches get stitches
Wet Moon Ch. 7
