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I realized that I had shared my impressions verbally many times, but hadn't written them down. I should have learned how amazing writing is from watching this anime. Up to Chapter 3 are my impressions, but Chapter 4 is almost entirely speculative. I'm an anime-only viewer who hasn't read the original manga, and I haven't exhaustively read interviews with the author or editor, so please don't take my words as gospel, and at best, just feel a sense of thaumazein.
Table of Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Postscript
I got hooked at the scene where Rafal dies. There is a successful example of a work where the protagonist changes in a single work, called JoJo, but it doesn't feel like JoJo, where the protagonist achieves something and then moves on to the next. At least as far as I know, I've never seen a manga that does that, so it felt new. But more than anything, I think the reason why there aren't manga like that is because it's commercially disadvantageous. The more it sells, the stronger it is as a work if character goods can be developed. Even if that's not the case, if there's a 'I like this character,' the work is easier to get into. Even when reading Jump, I think that manga can't start unless the characters are good after all. In that sense, this work had Rafal, who was a very good character, die, and it felt like an introduction that showed where the work was headed. I thought it was perfect as the opening of a work that questions the common sense of the world, and I myself had doubts about character worship (although I myself ultimately like those kinds of works), so I had to see it to the end. I was able to start watching with the expectation that 'This work depicts the strength of humans that transcends animal instincts, such as intelligence and reason,' so it was the best introduction.
I liked this chapter the most as a drama. Mr. Badeni is great, isn't he? He properly shows the unpleasant aspects of intelligent people, but rather, he has a charm that makes you like him. As an aside, I think the part about losing his eyesight to read forbidden books comes from the anecdote of Odin offering his left eye to drink from Mimir's Well. As an episode, the process by which Count Pyast reaches the truth was really good. I think the best way to express the strength of one's feelings is the amount of time spent on them. Count Pyast's was an absurd amount of time, adding up his own life and the lives of his predecessors, and the despair of it being destroyed overnight was overwhelming. But at the moment of his death, Count Pyast seemed to have the joy of reaching the truth when he understood the heliocentric theory as an experience. Even if his life is denied, the joy of reaching the truth wins out. I was thrilled by the purity of his intellect. Also, in this chapter, there seemed to be many characters who talked about views on life and death and religious views, including Glass. It was interesting that each of them had values that I didn't have, but that made sense. I like how Badeni reverses every time he witnesses a moment that makes life special.
I think the protagonist of this chapter was Novak rather than Durak. Personally, it was the most subdued chapter in terms of interest, dramatically, with his death and the drama with Yolenta. One way or another, I thought that characters are important even in this kind of story. Also, I think Chapter 3 was about what you can give up for what you believe in, but I thought Dr. Stone was doing something similar in a bright and fun way, and it might be because there were no new discoveries compared to Chapters 1 and 2.
I wanted to write my impressions because of this chapter, and I thought the depth of what this work depicts increased. Rafal reappears in this chapter, but I don't think Chapter 4 can begin without talking about this. I interpret this Rafal as 'Rafal, Ogzy, Durak, a symbol of the humans who have lived for the heliocentric theory in the three chapters so far,' and the fact that he has Rafal's name and face is merely an expression to convey that he is a symbol. Rafal in Chapter 4 had intelligence and pride like Rafal in Chapter 1, believed in the heliocentric theory (or rather, intelligence) like Ogzy, and was able to sacrifice anything for his purpose like Durak. He seemed like a good person at first glance, and he was the one who talked about 'thaumazein,' which was presented as the conclusion of 'what is intelligence' in this work. But at the same time, he had similar qualities to Novak, and he had no hesitation in killing people who stood in the way of what he believed in. The episode where Alberto's parents were killed by Rafal shows that the protagonists, who we had thought were 'good people,' could behave like Novak, who is the villain in this work, with just one wrong step. Using the symbolic character of Rafal, the feeling that the viewers are being denied what they had thought was right until now, that the 'intelligence' and 'beliefs' of the protagonists so far are the same as Novak's 'madness,' is reminiscent of Count Pyast being denied the geocentric theory without contradicting the documents left by his predecessors. And if we are Count Pyast, then there is salvation in reaching the truth, and that was thaumazein. In other words, true intelligence is not 'something that proves the correctness of one's beliefs and thereby obtains a truth worth correcting the errors of others at any cost,' but rather 'questioning' even one's own common sense. I think this is the truth that this work depicts. However, the word 'truth' might be a little too strong for someone who has learned something from this work, so it might be better to say 'a proposal regarding the true nature of intelligence in this work.' The reason is that Alberto's trigger for thaumazein regarding the heliocentric theory was the book that the madness of the protagonists had connected. If they wanted to deny madness, they wouldn't have ended it like this. Going back to the story of Count Pyast, the errors of Count Pyast and his predecessors were not in vain. It is obvious that Badeni needed the vast amount of data left by his predecessors to be convinced of the heliocentric theory. But that's why the proposal of this work is 'to doubt,' and 'Was the madness that seemed to have been concluded as wrong actually right if you consider it carefully?' 'Isn't it not something that can be talked about in terms of right and wrong, good and evil?' I think they left room for doubt.
To be honest, until I put it into writing and summarized it, my thinking had stopped at the point where I thought, 'The characters in Chapters 1-3 were wrong,' so I thought it was important to put it into writing. After all, writing is a miracle (ignoring the context of the main story). Also, a little bit off topic, so it's a story I didn't write in Chapter 4, but again, talking about Count Pyast, I feel like his intelligence had the strongest sense of thaumazein among the characters up to Chapter 3. He kept remembering the full Venus, and in the end, he didn't deny what Ogzy and Badeni said. Also, I think the fact that he actually reached the truth and died is an expression of the stance that thaumazein is good! I feel like I've written down everything I wanted to say to someone about what I thought in this kind of place. I'll write my impressions if there's another work that I can talk about. Even if there isn't, I'm writing my impressions of Jump every week, so if you're bored, please read them. See you again!
