Today was a double-scoop of fun, with two big great series getting releases. I started with Imouto as it came out a little earlier, and read the entire book in one sitting.
It was a gripping story that moved the plot along in a lot of satisfying ways. You can really tell the difference between wasted volumes like in Outbreak Company and useful volumes like this one. Where things happen and random impediments don't randomly get in the way. I guess this is why I rank Yomi higher as a great author in my good books hall of fame than Sakaki.
I think Haruto was right to reject Ai Uioi. Getting with her is a lot like giving up on your dreams, whether it be as a successful author or as Miyako's lover. I'm sure there are good times to give up on your dreams, but Haruto isn't so out of resources as that. He still has a chance, if he keeps fighting with all his energy, and doesn't waste it away on a condolence. A distraction. Haruto is my favorite character in the series and he keeps making the right decision over and over again. It's so fun cheering for such a good guy.
The main point of the book, though, was Itsuki suffering from complete writer's block. He's completely lost interest in his own story, and doesn't want to write anything anymore. I can understand that, I've hit that block too. Where a story doesn't seem to be going anywhere interesting, or there's no plausible way forward for the plot to both be interesting and make sense, and you suddenly never want to write another word in the subject again. You even know what you should write, what you planned on writing, in great detail, but you still don't want to write it. Because it's no longer interesting or fun to write. Even if you somehow managed to drip out the details as outlined onto the page, they'd be as dry as a cookbook.
I don't write for subsistence so when I hit a writer's block, like with Wind or Emperor's Son, I quit and never look back. I don't mind if I never write another book in my life, I've already written the perfect series -- Dead Enders, Choice Givers, and Followers and Emulators, the perfect short story, Sellsword, and the perfect epic all-encompassing masterpiece, In Another World With 100 Waifus. I don't have to force myself to write anything that's no longer worth writing. But Itsuki is in the middle of a series that he's writing for big bucks, he's trying to earn a reputation as a reliable breadwinner in order to marry his girlfriend with pride, and he has millions of fans waiting breathlessly and impatiently for what he implicitly promised them by starting his series -- a good ending to their shared journey. He cannot stop. He absolutely mustn't stop now. And yet he's as stopped as stopped can be.
I sympathize with him as far as that goes, but it's annoying that he's so freaked out about having a little sister that the incestuous themes of his story now revolt him. First off, it's only a step-sister and they only met as teenagers, so the werner syndrome or whatever that keeps siblings from liking each other should have absolutely no effect on his psyche. And it's proven that siblings raised apart are more likely to fall for each other than any other random pairing off the street. This is because people like people like themselves, and there's no one of the appropriate age more like yourself than a sibling. So long as you don't grow up alongside them it feels like a match made in heaven. This one psychological gimmick that Nature uses to keep siblings from falling in love is the only defense against it. From Up on Poppy Hill was a great movie about this very subject. They were perfect for each other and fell in love like a ton of bricks -- only to discover that they were long lost separated siblings, and had to pretend it never happened and break up again. (Because they were in 1960's Japan where going against convention was totally unthinkable). I bet nowadays that same story could have been a love conquers all masterpiece but Poppy Hill is an extremely realistic depiction of post-World War II reality so I have no complaints.
There isn't even any rational reason to be repulsed by incest with a stepsister. It's a stepsister for crying out loud, there will be no uptick in genetic defects in the child because you have no genes in common. Your relationship is a flimsy social construct. If you grew up from year 1 with a stepsister yes that werner syndrome kicks in the same as before, but he didn't do that either. There's simply no explanation for why he suddenly feels so anti-incest after he's lived his whole life vehemently in favor of it.
It's fine for Itsuki to be revolted at the thought of getting with his particular stepsister Chihiro. Maybe he doesn't find her attractive in the slightest or whatever. But to generalize that to, simply because he has a stepsister, condemning all incest-laced literature as trash is quite the logical leap.
Well, people get writer's block for reasons that it's hard for outsiders to understand, in the same way that athletes can get the yips for reasons that seem completely trivial to outsiders, and yet the yips are nevertheless serious to the person actually afflicted. I admit it's a good move to up the tension and suspense and excitement in the series -- 'how is he going to get out of this one??' I'll be looking forward to volume 11 where, presumably, he does get over it.
But I wish I didn't have the sinking feeling, or hunch or whatever, that this wasn't actually about a way to build suspense in the story -- it was a censorship, prudish move designed to stop in the middle of the story and proclaim loudly, in a censorious tone -- 'incest is wrong! it's vile! even with stepsisters or cousins or other legal to marry people! It's totally awful and unacceptable and we condemn as worthless scum of the Earth anyone who might think or feel otherwise! This publication is not endorsing incest by any means!' Sort of like the totally ridiculous and awful ending to Oreimo, how much of this was the author's intent, and how much of it was forced on him by the editorial staff or the laws of Japan?
If I could at least know that this weird plot twist wasn't due to a twisted arm I could enjoy it more.
The Choyoyu manga volume was much shorter and easier to read. Lots of exciting stuff happened this volume. The Empire was as scummy as humanly possible, as usual. I like how they find new ways to be scummy and obnoxious never thought of before. But it turns out the Elm Republic isn't that great either, and there's plenty of scum to go around. And it turns out Democracy isn't all it's made out to be, because liars can easily trick the people into voting however the liars please. It starts with campaign promises never meant to be fulfilled, and then quickly escalates into framing the opposition leader with fake scandals. (Does this sound a bit like Russiagate yet? Kavanaugh? Roy Moore? Trump being impeached twice over nothing? The Lafayette Square gassing hoax?)
I love that the author, in showing how awful rule by evil nobles is, doesn't spare democracy at all, and shows how awful it is too. The only solution is good, clever people coming up with practical solutions to villains whoever they might be. With good people democracy will work, and with good people, though the story doesn't go that way, obviously nobility would work too. This isn't a story about how great democracy is, it's a realistic story where the only good that happens is due to good people doing what is right.
I wonder how the entire Choyoyu story can really be finished in only two more volumes. I hope the manga doesn't end short of the light novel ending. That would be a real bummer of a cliffhanger.
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