Sand Chronicles 10
Posted: April 11, 2011 Filed under: Sand Chronicles 1 Comment »Hinako Ashihara – Viz – 2011 – 10 volumes
I completely forgot I hadn’t read the last volume of this series. The main story ended in volume 8, so this was just more supplementary material, this time looking at the life of Ann and Daigo. Mostly Daigo.
After I started reading it, I remembered why I was reluctant to pick up more. As much as I liked Sand Chronicles, I began to get frustrated with Ann later on. She just couldn’t be happy. It’s not something I can relate to, so I was frustrated when the combination of life dumping on her and her bad decisions, turning away from happiness, began to culminate into something ugly at the climax of the series. I like drama, but this series was a little depressing and unrelenting, with few happy moments to lighten things up. At least for me.
This story… reminded me a lot of what I didn’t like about this admittedly wonderful series. It was about Daigo’s life as a grade school teacher. He draws a lot of inspiration from one of his former teachers, and he goes so far as to bring her back into his life when their paths happen to cross again. Ann is happy for Daigo, since he finds he’s on uncertain ground with a lot of his current students, and this teacher’s advice really helps him. But later, Ann finds out from a gossipy neighbor that the teacher is lying about her personal life, and the source of much of her life’s inspiration. The fact that she is a teacher, and lying, becomes an ugly truth that casts the worth of all her good advice into doubt.
I was pretty appalled by this. The issue is the type of personal detail that… is really nobody’s business. The type of thing that you would ignore out of politeness if you found out the truth. And it has no bearing whatsoever on the advice the teacher’s given Daigo, in the past and present, but it’s a major crisis of faith for both Daigo and Ann. That the smooth sailing of the story is significantly rocked by something like this is, again, one of the problems I have. The characters just… love to look for reasons why they can’t be happy.
Obviously, this short story does have a happy end, and there’s a lot of awesome moments, too, the type of things that make this series worth reading. The series has a big emphasis on making memories and holding onto happiness, both in the past and present (but again, I take issue with the fact that the reasoning seems to be that you do this because you can’t be happy all the time). The story begins with Daigo opening a time capsule he made in grade school along with Fuji and others from the series, and there’s a lot of discussions and flashbacks about what they found in it. There’s also a lot of flashbacks to Daigo’s grade school days as his students do things that remind him of Fuji and himself. He goes to great lengths to do events like mochi pounding, star gazing, and other activities that the students genuinely enjoy, and the students themselves have a lot of small conflicts and inner turmoil that’s resolved by Daigo and other events. There’s lots of cute little moments that do a good job of reflecting regular, every day fleeting glimpses into life, and it’s a wonderful little story because of that. I just wish the drama wasn’t over something so petty and irrelevant.
This series is a definite classic, it’s just one that didn’t sit right with me. It’s the type of thing I’m still happy to recommend though, because it is very good shoujo, and I liked these side stories in the last two volumes a lot. The whole series is full of little moments that resonate true to life, as opposed to the slightly more comedic dramas I prefer. And at ten volumes, it’s not too much of a time or money investment.
Thanks for your reviews on Sand Chronicles, it’s been fun to read another viewpoint on the official English releases. I wanted to share with you my thoughts about Anne’s despondent mood. I know you mentioned that it could be frustrating when Anne would dip into those self-destructive phases. Rather than face her problems (big or small) head-on, she would wallow in self-pity or struggle with unresolvable situations from the past. It’s to the point the reader might want to pick her up by her tiny frame, give her a good shake and say “Snap out of it and make up with Daigo already!”. But I’m on the other side of the fence, I’m a LOT like Anne — and a lot like her mother, who is at the root of their whole personality shortfalls. I personally feel that Ashihara was actually trying to give a subtle prod into a very deep (maybe even controversial?) theme — I think she was trying to convey that both Anne and her mother suffered from depression.
Though the manga never outright says it, since the first few volumes (and especially with Anne’s mother’s story in Vol 9) I could sense and see the pattern of this condition. Both Anne and her mother dwell on their past decisions and relationships with such great weight that it takes an unfairly large toll on their present state. Socially, they are a bit more insecure and self-conscious than most, and certainly are non-confrontational. They’d rather take the hit than demand for an equal resolution (e.g., when Anne broke up with Daigo the first time because she didn’t want him to ‘suffer’ with her). Anne has a hard time saying ‘no’, which is why she becomes so confused and attracted to Fuji, and even winds up with a jackass fiance like in Vol 7(?). Daigo shares some similarities, but overall I found he was a lot more secure in his decisions. He could move on in life, make friendships, pursue his career etc. without becoming overwhelmed with sadness about the things that didn’t work out as planned. Anne and her mother simply aren’t able to cope when their relationships fall away from the expectations they might have had. They break down, blame themselves, and somehow justify all the wrong things. Anne’s mother couldn’t tolerate the idea of people gossiping about her. She was not made of the material to stick up for herself. If she suffered from something like depression to major depression, falling into these ‘down’ states was a result of both her experience and a chemical shortcoming in the brain. Unable to ‘pick herself up’, Anne’s mother suffers the worst possible outcome to escape the pain — suicide. As for Anne, I see her as quite the strong heroine… because if she theoretically has a depression as severe as the one her mother suffered, she uses her mother’s experience to step above and beyond that state. She learns to forgive her and love herself. With Daigo, instead of saying “Dont’ bother with me, I’m messed up and I’m not worth it”, she becomes a woman who can say “I know I have my weaknesses, but you help me feel stronger. I will grow to overcome them with you”.
I agree too, I like We Were There a bit better, and they are so much alike!! But yes, sadly, where We Were There shines that extra bit… it now falls short because it hasn’t finished :( I hope it does soon!