Hi! Same anon here! Don't worry I barely sent the ask like a day ago :P
Thank you for giving such a detailed answer! I gotta say, I never considered the Ds to be akin to plants (I did think of them being the chinese equivalent to kamis tho, I think the term was xia?) but I can see what you mean by that, maybe like trees? I like the idea of sentient sacred trees taking on human forms, wouldn’t it be cool if the "real" Tsuki-hime was one of their kind?
In a less serious note, when I read the plant part, my dumb ass brain started to think about Trigun, and Vash as a plant being in his universe with completely opposed ideology to the Ds, the one of unwavering love and faith in humanity despite most humans in Trigun being far worse than any of the literal evil ones in PSOH, and what would happen if they ever met :'D
Also, do you have any theories on why our D was sick and apparently needed a transplant of some sort? Personally I always thought that he may have been born "flawed" either due to their kind's equivalent to genetic degradation on their biology, or alternatively a literal manifestation of the ideals conflict between Sofu D and Papa D? Both?
Sorry if I ask too many questions, I had no idea PSOH had a surviving fandom until the 7seas announcement!!
huh. you know. i was fairly sure the term kami had been mentioned in at least one of the translations but i just checked the last two chapters in both and apparently not? though the el dorado chapter seems to confirm the meaning if not the name when it mentions the touch of a "dying god" and accepts d's blood, at a minimum; i'm not sure if the japanese original text uses the word "kami" either, but it's possible.
anyway, i've been kind of going with the assumption that they're something similar to that - not exactly gods in the western divinity sense, but more like beings of the land. i probably absorbed the term kami in regards to the Ds from fandom, but now that you mention it, it doesn't make all that much sense since he's chinese. the term in question in chinese seems to be "shen" (written with the same character) but it doesn't appear to be an exact equivalent in terms of meaning. i'll have to look more into it!
yeah the plant thing for me comes from several occasions generally associated with d and life/death (as mentioned before, the gattolotto extra, d entering a state of despair, d's blood turning into rare plants when he's running from vesca, d being taken over by plants when falling into despair, the plant core of the papasplosion) and also from the hilarity of leon only ever getting anywhere with a lady if they're plants (as per the flowers and the detective extras) and d lowkey also being one and following this trend 😂 though that latter bit is more the shipper goggles than anything lmfao
BUT!!! MORE IMPORTANTLY!!!! *rubs hands together* you fool! you just activated my trap card when it comes to talking about d's illness and all issues surrounding it! i love discussing this topic and poking fun at the tokyopop translation and putting up a murderboard full of red string for theories!
okay so the first thing you need to know is that the tokyopop translation took some. liberties. and is not entirely accurate. they seem to paint papa as far more of a villain and sofu as far more of a saint than they are, for one, and an important implication about d's health kinda goes in the wrong direction based on this. as such, if you only read the tp translation, you may be caught off-guard by some of what i'll say below.
once again under the cut because i'm a rambler!
things we know about d's illness:
needs sugar to keep from getting faint/dizzy
extremely low endurance at times (which makes leon think that he might have a heart condition) that either triggers or is triggered by his illness, as per the dragon chapter
may or may not be related to his eye (either as a symptom or a cause)
some sort of pain attack is involved? in the donor chapter we see him hover his hand in front of his throat, though it might be while it's in motion to go elsewhere, such as his heart (the dragon chapter has both the highlights near the throat, but the hand placed by his heart/lungs)
papa mentions to the pseudo-sister that d's body was "born incomplete" - whether this is true, he thought it was true (more on this below), or it was a simplification for her sake (as she had the mentality of a child) is not clear
d apparently is lacking several things, or they are in the process of failing (also as per the donor chapter). THAT BEING SAID, there is an interesting point here
needs sugar to keep from getting faint/dizzy
may or may not be associated with his eye
some sort of pain attack is involved? in the donor chapter we see him hover his hand in front of his throat
the illness has been present for at least several years, presumably for as long as d can remember (though not necessarily from birth; more on this later)
papa has been studying and trying to cure this illness also for years
after d drinks a "medicine" processed from the orangutan hybrid's body the symptoms seem to stop - i'm pointing this out as more of a curiosity thing, because on other occasions d couldn't as much as eat fish flakes without some ominous remarks about his bloodlust almost awakening again or something of the sort (you'll excuse me if i don't go looking for this particular quote right now)
papa mentions to the pseudo-sister that d's body was "born incomplete" - whether this is true, he thought it was true (more on this below), or it was a simplification for her sake (as she had the mentality of a child) is not clear
d's body had several things apparently lacking or in the process of failing (also as per the donor chapter). THAT BEING SAID, there is an interesting point here
this post from one of tumblr user @chaikat's psoh liveblogging japanese translation notes (several of which you'll see me mention at other times in this post because the info in there is just THAT crunchy) points out the following:
When Nue Erh says she’ll give D what he lacks, the part where she says “my eyes” in the eng version is actually specifically “this eye” in the jp version.
keep this quote in mind for a bit!
and now, back to the revelations of the final chapters!
aka, the panels that give me fucking brainworms:
uh??? hello??? one could understand that endless asexual reproduction of the same being through centuries would eventually result in mutations, and in fact it was under this assumption that i laboured when i first read psoh, but this conversation points to a different cause entirely, originating from sofu's interference.
doesn't help that the tokyopop version is wildly different, too:
tokyopop's version doesn't seem have anything to do with either d's illness or eye whatsoever, alas 😬 and considering several of their past instances of mistranslations and ad-libbing on this manga, i'm far less likely to believe their version of events.
another detail i didn't notice on my first go-arounds: the fact that the first words sofu d says in response to papa's accusation imply that the undertaking of q-chan's form took a sacrifice, and that this is related to d's eye. it took me this other translation notes liveblog post to realize that the two things were connected, since there's an entire other page with side-comments in the middle breaking up the dialogue flow.
ANOTHER most excellent thing that chaikat's commentary brings up and that i haven't seen on either translation is that sofu specifically mentions using the eye, or the term yorishiro:
(small text above Grandpa D): I borrowed one eye for the yorishiro.
i cannot claim to be even remotely close to an expert on shintoism, so here's a quote from wikipedia (which might or might not be correct) regarding yorishiro:
Yorishiro were conceived to attract the kami and then give them a physical space to occupy to make them accessible to human beings for ceremonies
i'm not sure if sofu d used it as this exact purpose, or if there's any sort of tradition in manga to lend it a slightly different meaning (jshk for example uses it as an artifact that stores the powers of the being connected to it, and something similar to this would make some sense to me here since he's shifting into a different form and putting his powers/presence away). either way, sofu has definitely used at least a portion of d's body for his own purposes without consent, so we cannot discard him using more.
*puts tinfoil hat on* it is at this point i bring up our precious orangutan sister's words again! she's listing the things she was made to replace in d's body, with the specificity of one singular eye. coincidence? i think not! i'm not entirely sure i agree that she means the left eye as considered in chaikat's post, but as an exercise let's think up the motivations for both possibilities:
replacing the left eye (purple, papa's colour): implies that the eye that was interfered with by sofu has bypassed the illness, and d's original one remains imperfect and bound to deteriorate; implies also that papa/sister know that the right eye is not a concern when it comes to d's health situation, which does track with papa's later accusation
replacing the right eye (gold, sofu's colour): implies that something is wrong with that eye, in ways that go far beyond the bounds of d's illness, since the original one would be okay to leave as-is; since papa is aware that the gold eye was caused by sofu, it would make sense to want to replace it due to both his resentment for sofu and concern for d
it is also worth mentioning that sofu never seems to have devoted any time to trying to cure d's illness, unlike papa (who was deemed incapable of raising a child by sofu, which may or may not be true), and that his reaction to the death of both his son and stray animals in a forest fire is to not even blink twice.
sofu having removed d from papa's care, mixed with d having mismatched eyes as a child under sofu's care, and the fact that we don't really see a mention of q-chan being around at that time make me poke interestedly at sofu d - because even if you buy that he *checks notes* only traded his grandson's eye to turn into a tiny cute creature in order to keep an eye (heh) on him, that doesn't really... track with the timeline of when he actually left d alone and had cause to become q-chan? which makes me wonder what sofu's actual use for the eye was, since he presumably had it since d was around-ish maybe five years old. (remember me saying "for as long as d can remember, though not necessarily from birth"? yeah.)
does this mean that he caused the illness? probably not, but fun to think about in connection to everything else! especially because the main point i'd expect d to ask when papa mentions the mutations/changes resulting from the inumerous replications of the d line would be his ?now-cured? illness, but what he does actually ask about is his eyes, despite papa and sofu - supposedly perfect clones - also having eyes that differ from the other (papa's being purple, sofu's being gold). one would think the illness would be the priority, but no! unless the two things are connected, and-- *continues to add red string to the murderboard*
anyway this is the theory i find the most fun to play with!
slightly less unhinged ones would probably be just. you know. normal replication mutations and genetic degeneration and stuff? or if you go with the tokyopop translations and i remember correctly, there are some implications that papa experimented on d before sofu took him away, but take that with a grain of salt. another thing that comes to mind is also the alice/daughter chapter, where after several generations the resulting rabbits were killed by the sugar and stuff consumed by the original generation - it could also be something like that, because since they're clones their bodies wouldn't have changed to adapt to the times, different foods, different air quality, etc, which would translate into poison for the newest generations.
i hope i didn't go too far down the theory rabbit hole, oops! 😂
Okay so completely ignoring the dudes fighting over Carine here in Volume 2, Chapter 3, am I reading this right?
Victor basically says "She is not my lover, if she was I wouldn't be able to sit with the Count"
I don't know if this has been thought of before, but what if part of D's resentment of his father stems from being taught that Papa D is weak? My theory is that Papa D tried to keep his son from Sofu and tried to take him back, but Sofu was too strong. Since D was taught survival of the fittest, subconsciously, he resented his father for not being able to save him.
This summary/ review has been divided into 2 parts because of how long the summary is.
My summaries/reviews of the previous chapters can be found here: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5: Pt 1].
As always, I’m not sure of the exact spelling of pretty much all the names.
SUMMARY
16. Catherine brought her bubbly self to see Sofu and Fantome Noir again. As they had tea, she talked about the Statue of Liberty and how her father, who was a frequent traveller, could always look at the Statue of Liberty on his return to New York and know that he was home. Catherine then went about trying to convince Fantome Noir to go traveling with her by saying that she could taste delicious food, wear beautiful clothes and maybe even meet some great men. Catherine added that Fantome Noir shouldn’t be brought down by her lover’s death and should go out there to experience a new romance. Sofu muttered as an aside, “Sigh~ This is why I hate Americans-”
17. Fantome Noir got Sofu to relate a message to Catherine for her, “Do you know what it means to fall in love?” Catherine said of course and began listing the “lovers” she has had in the past like her classmates. She even fangirled over Victor again and wondered what she should do if he proposed to her. But Fantome Noir interrupted her to say that that was romance, not love. Catherine was confused by this and said that her favourite was still her father who was dashing, kind, learned and gave her whatever she wanted. She had never met anyone better than him and wanted to marry someone who is even more outstanding than him. Sofu mentioned that it would be difficult to find someone like that. Catherine agreed and quickly broke down into tears saying that she wanted to see her father again as soon as possible.
18. We cut to the Paris Police Station, where we find that Hans had previously requested for help from the police in finding Catherine’s father. Hans was informed that a man who had Brandt’s passport and wallet was still alive and had been arrested by the police. However, he was probably not Brandt as he looked to be in his 80s or 90s; perhaps he was a beggar who had stolen the passport and wallet from Brandt. Hans asked to speak to the man who was arrested and was taken aback when he saw how bedraggled he was.
19. We return to Catherine who was crying and Fantome Noir who had reached out to touch her head. Fantome Noir opened her eyes gradually and said that she wanted to see Catherine’s father too. Even Sofu was surprised at this; he got all excited that a contract could be formed between Catherine and Fantome Noir. Catherine began happily planning the living arrangements for Fantome Noir and how once they found her father, all four of them could return to New York together.
20. This was interrupted by Victor popping up through a set of curtains to tell Sofu that Lena had asked for him at the front of the shop. Sofu, Victor and Hans went there and left Catherine and Fantome Noir to chat. We discover that Lena had found Dubois and brought him back. After sitting down to tea together, Sofu, Victor and Hans learnt that Dubois had met Brandt half a year ago. Hans asked Dubois if he had sold Fantome Noir to Brandt. Dubois mentioned that he mistook “Fantome Noir” for “Black Ghost”, which was an eel from South America (and which was going to be exhibited at the Paris Expo). The sale fell through and Dubois thought that Brandt had returned to New York.
21. At this point, Hans brought up what had happened at the Parisian Police Station last night. He could not get any answers out of the man who was arrested and he suspected that Brandt had already been attacked and killed by some rogues. Then they brought up how since Brandt wasn’t looking for the Black Ghost eel, the Fantome Noir that he was looking for might be a mermaid and went into discussing mermaid lore about how mermaids have very long lives, how eating their flesh can render one immortal, how “The Little Mermaid” was based on Fouque’s “Undine”, how mermaids had a lifespan of 300 years old etc.
22. Sofu poured cold water over the others’ romantic discussion of mermaids and mentioned that despite their appearances, mermaids were ferocious in nature and ate meat. Dubois brought up how the Black Ghost eel was the same and Victor freaked out because he had placed the eel with other fish when setting up the site exhibiting animals at the Paris Expo. So Dubois and Victor quickly ran off to rescue these fish from being eaten.
23. With only Sofu and Hans left in the front of the petshop, Sofu turned to Hans and said that he wished to meet the old man who was arrested. He added mysteriously, “Realising the customer’s wishes was the duty of the shop.” At the Parisian Police Station, Sofu and Hans found that the old man was extremely ill and probably only had a couple of days left to live. Sofu asked if they could take the man away; the police allowed them to do so as since the man’s identity was unknown, if he died, the best he could hope for was to be buried in the public cemetery anyway. On their ride back to the petshop, Sofu mentioned that he wanted Fantome Noir to verify the man’s identity.
24. After the three of them crossed the bridge and gotten to the palace, the old man suddenly seemed to recognise Hans. Catherine appeared and the old man managed to call out her name haltingly before being interrupted by a fit of coughing. Sofu gave the old man a cup of something to drink. After a few moments, the old man dropped the cup and looked as though he was choking badly before gradually turning into a young man.
25. Hans and Catherine reacted in shock because this seemed to be Brandt but one who was far younger than his actual age. Sofu mentioned that this was merely terminal lucidity. Brandt seemed to recognise Sofu and addressed him as Count D but Sofu stated that this was the first time that they have met. Sofu also addressed Brandt as Your Highness and asked him to hurry as the Princess was waiting for him.
26. Brandt threw open a set of curtains dramatically and knelt down before Fantome Noir. “Many apologies for the delay. I’ve come to take you away.” Hans and Catherine freaked out at this and Catherine asked if her father was a prince. Brandt laughed and began his explanation. On the night of his wedding, the maiden (presumably Fantome Noir) had disappeared from the ship. Before long, a storm appeared and Brandt was swept overbroad and dragged into the ocean by a few mermaids, who were Fantome Noir’s sisters.
27. Having dragged him into the ocean, these mermaids kept scolding Brandt for being ungrateful and breaking their sister’s heart etc. He declared that if he had known that she was the one who saved him, he would not have gotten engaged to a human girl whom he met later. The mermaids got Brandt to swallow a black pearl, which caused him to choke and feel hot. They told him that he now had the same lifespan as a mermaid; that he had to find their sister and marry her and that until that day came, they would not forgive humans.
28. When Brandt woke up again, he found that he had washed ashore onto a foreign land. He also discovered that he didn’t age. So he began traveling across Europe in search of Fantome Noir. Along the way, Brandt met a Count D whom Sofu said was probably his grandfather. This was about 100 years ago. This Count D suggested that Brandt go to USA; Brandt did so and began aging. As he crossed the sea, he kept hearing the mermaids asking him to hurry.
29. After Brandt discovered that Dubois didn’t manage to find Fantome Noir either, he became extremely dispirited. As Brandt walked along a bridge across the Seine River in Paris, he heard voices telling him to hurry and that time was running out. He toppled over the rails of the bridge and fell into the river. Brandt saw Fantome Noir in the river and called out to her. But he realised that she could not hear or see him. He also remembered that he was no longer young or handsome; thinking that she probably couldn’t recognise him even if she saw him, he rose to the surface of the river again. When Brandt was fished out of the river, 300 years’ worth of aging had hit him all at once. He could not move, he could not remember anything clearly, he could not even ascertain who he was.
30. Back in the present day, upon hearing his story, Hans and Catherine were extremely ashamed that they had failed to recognise Brandt. Fantome Noir then made the startling announcement that she wasn’t the one whom Brandt loved; she was his daughter. She explained that her mother should have turned into foam after jumping off Brandt’s ship but she was pregnant with her so she gave birth to her before dying. In other words, this Fantome Noir was Catherine’s elder sister and was in mourning for her mother. On hearing that he did not make it in time to see the original Fantome Noir, Brandt gradually grew older again, died and turned into foam.
31. After Brandt’s death, Catherine suddenly brought up the point of why Brandt got together with her own mother if he was so devoted to the original Fantome Noir after all these years. Hans then mentioned that both of them were actually orphans from the ghettos of New York whom Brandt took in. Brandt had wanted to adopt both of them but Hans, who was at an age whereby he understood things, insisted on acting as his servant to repay him for his kindness.
32. Later, it seemed that Sofu recounted everything that happened to Victor and Dubois who had returned to the petshop for tea. Victor noted that one of Sofu’s fingers were injured but Sofu said that it was nothing. Someone wondered about how long the lifespan of the half human/half mermaid Fantome Noir would be and Sofu said that his father and grandfather were still studying mermaids. Sofu also mentioned how mermaids could only give birth once in a lifetime as the baby would claw its way out of the mother’s body and use the body as a source of nutrients, which caused Victor and Dubois to throw up. The chapter ended with Lena asking about Catherine’s love life and Sofu hinting that it was right beside her but she didn’t realise it (I think he was referring to Hans).
THOUGHTS
1. Yay, the first “real” petshop transaction (sorta) in this series! AND it continues the theme of mermaids and A Tragic Love Story in PSOH! :)
2. If there is one thing that perfectly sums up the overall relationship between Sofu and Victor, it is probably my fav convo between them in this chapter.
Sofu: Welcome to Count D’s pet-
Victor: Hello!
Sofu: What? Oh, it is you, Baron. -_-‘’
Victor: Hey, hey, don’t be so cruel~~~ I thought we have a very good relationship?
Sofu: Don’t say such things that would cause a misunderstanding.
Victor: Ah, here’s a small gift for you. Today, it is Galette des Rois.
Sofu: Thank you for your care and concern! :)
3. Is Sofu even trying to run a business or exact revenge on humans by opening the shop so late??? He’s like worse than D was in SPSOH.
4. Given Sofu’s statement that he hated Americans, I’m now REALLY curious as to how/why the Ds went to USA.
5. Even though Catherine fangirled over Victor, it just feels like they could have been siblings. Haha.
