When the manga you’re obsessed with has no visible fanbase and enough chapter translations so you gotta translate it through the “Google lens” camera option from Arabic to English:
Older Sophul in the manga?? (+ the unintentional mini essay I wrote about them)
Friendly reminder to all of you (the 10 Sophul fans out there) that there are actually 2 manga versions of THAT ch22 scene (so spoilers for that ahead).
I do NOT see anyone talk about this so I will talk about it.
First there’s the one that we actually got in the manga:
And then there is this from Hamaguri’s twt:
+ notes edit: mini(?) essay on the differences between these 2 variations bc I am totally normal:
this unofficial version of the scene does not show a background or any dramatic lighting. it also does not have as large a range in brushes/shading techniques like the manga does (for the brushes I specifically mean the ‘Oh god there is a miracle in front of me’ panels).
in the 2013 TRUTH version of the play, there was no scene where sophie and ul were hiding in the chapel. I have not seen the other versions as they are not subbed, but if they are also like this maybe it explains the lack of background in the unofficial manga scene.
there are also differences in storyboarding etc that also contribute to the higher level of intensity in the official manga version: for example, the hug is given a full 2/3 of the page with 0 background in official version, while the original scene rendition’s hug has only 1/3ish of the page AND it overlaps other panels. so it feels like a sort of transition from one panel to another in the older one, but in the official it’s a whole new page, you don’t see it coming, more of a panel meant to catch you by surprise, it’s given more space on the page because it’s a bigger deal.
but I’ll get into that in a minute.
both versions have their differences in characterization, paneling, and feel, and I think that’s what’s so good about them both. in this essay I will 🙏
let’s start with the protagonist of all time (literally, as per the series chronology 💔). Firstly I do NOT fw his haircut in the first rendition. he wouldn’t be the same without his fuckass signature jellyfish cut.
Secondly, take for example, the panel when Ul grabs him to hug him. I think older sophie’s expressions seem more horrified, whereas in the official manga he just looks utterly stunned. poor boy :(
I like older sophie’s expressions in this scene more though, I can’t place why. but regardless, it does make more sense for younger sophie to be stunned rather than scared/disturbed in the official version. here’s why: ul seems to be characterized a little bit differently in these versions. not sure if it’s intentional or not but here’s how I see it.
in the second set of panels, where older Ul is saying ‘Could it be.. are you TRUMP?’, his irises are left unshaded and are somewhat bigger than in the manga. in the official, younger ul’s eyes are wider/shaped different while the irises appear smaller + are shaded. these changes from the original to the official contribute better to the feeling that he’s tweaking I think. and there’s more to that.
older ul’s vibes in that specific panel, because of the way it’s drawn, feel like he’s looking at sophie like this because he’s already found in sophie what he wants.
or at least that is how it feels to me, especially when you compare to the manga version, where there is more dramatic lighting, no colored-in background, younger ul is tearing up, the inner ends of his eyebrows are tilted steeper. younger ul’s face (eyebrows and mouth especially) is drawn to actually look more like he’s asking a question. meanwhile, nothing of older ul’s mouth is visible except for his teeth and the corners of his mouth are angled in some kind of smile. it all gives the vibe that he is looking at/talking to sophie differently in the different versions.
almost like in the official, younger ul is less certain of everything than older ul is.
it’s like official manga Ul is searching in sophie for what he wants (as opposed to contest rendition Ul’s look of having found it in Sophie already). he is unsure and trying to convince himself/confirm somehow that it’s there. this difference in how ul might be feeling differently in these two versions can also be seen through the hug.
in the older drawn scene, the movement of ul going in to hug Sophie comes off a lot more natural/slow-occurring (even if still unexpected). ^ see my comments on the storyboard/paneling changes in the third paragraph.
my interpretation is that younger ul’s hug is more sudden because he is more desperate/insecure about his idea, and he has a need to feel like it’s true, so he acts very unpredictably + immediately to try and confirm it.
so this bit of the older version, while less sudden, is better like this than it would have been if their expressions matched their manga counterparts. it’s like older ul already knows what’s in front of him, he’s fully accepted it even while he asks, so he doesn’t need to hug sophie quite as abruptly, he’s not desperate to find some kind of proof for anything.
^^ I’d like to think maybe they knew each other for longer in this version of the scene because they’re older, even though I know that’s 99% likely not the case.
extra note because I forgot to target the body language earlier: younger ul is hugging sophie with his face right in sophie’s shoulder, and older ul is hugging sophie with his head past sophie’s shoulder. they’re both postured the same (I think?) while hugging. older ul would probably be hugging like that because he’s taller than older sophie. but they’re the same height when younger so for the manga it looks like ul is specifically hugging sophie like he’s trying to hold onto him.
but because of all these changes from the first time the scene was drawn, the manga version is much more intense than this trial/unofficial version and now we have the masterpiece that is the manga. it’s likely that the decisions for these changes were not all intentional, and maybe i’m reading a little too much into it but it’s TRUMP & I have the Theme of Sophie and Ul looped on spotify rn so what else can I do .. all these differences are so good to me I fuck with them heavy 💜
honestly wasn’t even planning to yap about everything I found til I was about to press the post button and went ‘wait’ and started noticing. so if all this sounds like bullshit it probably is. oopsies.
but. no one talks about these sophul pictures and I think we should change that 💔
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