WBK CHAPTER 217 Reaction as a Chinese Malaysian fan (spoilers ahead)
Holy shoot, this is reminding me of my hometown man. I wonder if Nii-sensei ever visited Ipoh before. (Also, it does resemble a lot of the Hong Kong settings in Wong Kar Wai films, particularly Chungking Express.)
*BANGING MY DRUMS LOUDLY* SOUTHEAST ASIAN REP IS REAL, PEOPLE!!! GET YOUR CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE REP IN A JAPANESE MANGA HERE!!! (Southeast Asia has plenty of Chinese diaspora, so it makes sense why some of us understand and speak Mandarin, tho the older generations also speak other dialects like Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Teochew, etc.)
Welcome back, Suo/Sun Fei...... Looking stylish as hell! Also, first look at his kyodai. Woohoo!!!
KOREAN REP TOO!!! The Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean fans really be winning here.
Love the dynamic between Suo and his kyodai. Bacchus seems Eurasian to me (Eurasian is a term Malaysians and Singaporeans use to describe a person of both Asian and European/white descent) and Rakta is obviously Indian. Red Chanpuru does accept members from a diverse range of races and cultures. Again, I'm getting reminded of Malaysia. Also, the Chinese signboard reads 红涡徒, which translates to "red vortex disciple", but I feel like it's meant as a translation of Red Chanpuru.
Holy shoot, I recognise this place, goddammit! I've seen so many Chinese (national/private) schools in my hometown almost looking exactly like this compound. I feel like plenty of wuxia C-drama interior house designs look similar as well, but they definitely don't have cobbled stone paths through the middle of the grass field like that, so I'm making the connection closer to the Chinese school compounds I've seen before in my life.
Suo/Sun Fei acting all calm and cool with the people of Bankoku-Gai and Red Chanpuru just like he did with Bofurin. And then we get his reaction to what the trainees said...
Again, back to deflection and diversion. The implication of Red Chanpuru recruiting kids and training them up until the age of fifteen has plenty of implications that I'm sure the theorists will eat up and love to disect. Does that mean the age of maturity in Bankoku-Gai is freaking 15??? I will leave the theorists to disect this.
And there's women in Red Chanpuru too, but they are segregated from the men and boys, it seems. Do the women fight too in this gang? I desperately hope so.
Ohhh, the food symbolism is back at full force. And the town joins Red Chanpuru for dinner too! The Bofurin parallels... Will Suo actually eat?
Momijikawa arc callback?!?! Also, drawing parallels with Umemiya's backstory too. This moment is really sweet.
Holy shoot, this is giving me Furinen orphanage flashbacks. Is Bankoku-Gai similar to Makochi? Getting riddled with more and more crimes and causing more children to be orphaned? People giving up their children to Red Chanpuru to be taken care of? Red Chanpuru running as both an orphanage and a protection gang? Was this how Suo/Sun Fei got taken in? Sorry, mister cook, things won't get better until the root cause of the problem is solved.
They're speaking English here too (as noted by the translator). Again, confirming my theory that Bacchus is Eurasian, or Wasian if you prefer to call it, and he only speaks Japanese and English since it's said he's bilingual. (He also seem to resemble Tsugeura a lot, but his personality is much more toned down in comparison.) Rakta calling him a "birdbrain" is so funny, hahahaha, it's going into my vocabulary for sure. Good luck to the voice actors to pull off this many languages (especially Suo's actor, I forgot his name), whenever the anime gets to this part. 👍😁
Ooo, cliffhanger.... Nii-sensei. What secrets are you hiding from us? Suo looking at the moon again. I know you're thinking about Bofurin, you fakeass idgafer. To end the last panel with Sakura's home.... It's so ominous.
Anyway, ever since the last chapter, after looking at many theories and speculations on the nature of Red Chanpuru, I was excited and a little scared if Nii-sensei would go straight into showing the bad aspects of Chinese culture, which might evoke sinophobic sentiments from the readers. But again, Nii-sensei managed to surprise us.
I'm really happy to see representation of other Asians outside of Japanese: the Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indians and Eurasians (didn't see any Muslim/SWANA rep here tho). Everything here is reminding me of Malaysia (can't you tell I miss my country). The dominant culture in Bankokai-Gai seems very Chinese though, as evidenced by the settings and writing system, kinda like ATLA.
And the final pages gives us enough intrigue and lingering questions to fuel the fan discussions and theories. Anyway, that's all I can think up right now. Hope you like this reaction/perspective coming from a Malaysian Chinese fans.
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