#HnK 95

[strogelen21]

This is a list of manga that I am currently reading and caught up with. Don't mind this too much and feel free to ignore it if it pops up on any of the tags. It's really more of a reminder to myself on which chapter I last read.

Jujutsu Kaisen (呪術廻戦) - Chapter 259

One Piece (ワンピースパ) - Chapter 1114

My Hero Academia (ヒーローアカデミア) - Chapter 422

Chainsaw Man (チェンソーマン) - Chapter 164

Vinland Saga (ヴィンランド・サガ) - Chapter 210

Spy × Family (スパイファミリー) - Chapter 98

Dandadan (ダンダダン) - Chapter 151

Sakamoto Days (サカモトデイズ) - Chapter 165

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (葬送のフリーレン) Chapter 130

And as for manga I've yet to get caught up on:

Land of the Lustrous (宝石の国) - Chapter 95

Hunter × Hunter (ハンター×ハンター) - Actually, I don't remember, I might as well restart that

To my small amount of followers and to those who stumble across this post, sorry for not being able to upload any new art lately. Right now, I'm binging Young Justice and plan to read Vagabond soon.

If anyone has some recommendations for any manga to read someday, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm not the best when it comes to in-depth discussions and details, but I can always try.

[garblegarden]

always fun to consider the implications of big plot events on one's own characters...

[padpa-appreciation-corner]

Reborn as a Lunarian, only keeping unique silhouette when colour is lost.

[king-paimon]

I've read up on your blog through a lot of Houseki no Kuni's manga. I liked your analysis though I gotta say come the last chapters, specifically since chapter 95, I didn't always agree with them.

I didn't need the end to be happy sunshine and rainbows, or the opposite, for Phos to go all revenge monster on the gems either. But at the end there, I felt like we all just accepted everything Ichikawa threw at us with no criticism, all that torture flattening the narrative's nuance, and if I didn't like it, I was seeing it through the wrong angle.

I know you don't act like that, which I appreciate. Throught all your reviews, you expressed understanding on why so many people disliked the story. Thank you for that, thank you for not being judgemental. And I'm glad you enjoyed the ride.

I just couldn't help but feel like so many story threads were left lose, and so many complete 180°s were thrown that didn't match the story or it's characters. Some people described it as a self-sabotaged narrative, and I see it. It wasn't enough to give me catharsis - especially with the character set up as the villain getting everything he wanted.

I guess I just had higher standards, which the story didn't meet. That is not a bad thing, after all.

I think my biggest gripe is with how Cairngorm's character was handled, and I'd like to include this here. The ambiguity of their predatory relationship was in poor taste, and remained unaddressed. I can see why so many of my friends left the series when that plot point happened. They deserved better.

Hi @intoxtinction! Thank you for sending me this message and sorry that it took me so long to finally respond. Real life has been kicking my butt and free time to do anything on here is a rarity. But I still wanted to write a response to you because I really loved your response! And yes, I saw the comment you left on my last HnK meta post. You're good; don't worry about it!

Thank you again for your kind words. I'm glad that you like my posts, even if they sometimes become long, nonsensical rambles and especially if you don't agree with some of my points! I love that. Whenever I wrote my posts, I always try to keep an open mind and take into account that all fans are different and would have different views when it comes to works works like HnK. As far as I can see, HnK is one of those works that is supposed to draw up conversations because it's not a simple, straight forward story with clear distinction between black/white moral characters. Everyone who reads it is going to view the events in the story differently based on their own beliefs and even if everyone's views conflict with one another, I think it's fascinating and even wonderful. So even if I may not agree with some fans when it comes to certain aspects of HnK, I never hold it against them. I don't want to demonize anyone for how they interpret the story, at least not too harshly anyways. I know when I'm biased, but I don't let that stop me from at least trying to understand where other fans are coming from. HnK was such a fascinatingly complex and unconventional story, and the fact that it can spur many views and feelings from people is one of the reasons whyI liked the series.

With that being said, however, I also think it's important to be open to properly critique our favorite works. HnK is not immune from these critiques, because for as much as I enjoyed following the story over the past couple of years, there are many aspects in the overall story that were far from satisfying. So many loose ends, incomplete character arches, and questionable story decisions... After being away from the story for some time now, it's become more apparent that there were many aspects to the HnK that has me question Haruko Ichikawa's story telling abilities. Don't get me wrong, she's shown to be a very fascinating storyteller and I overall liked what she created. But when it comes to the incomplete story threads for all of the other characters besides Phos, I can't tell if some of Ms. Ichikawa's decisions were intentionally left up for interpretation or if their stories were just not important to complete since at the end of the day, HnK is about Phos's story. One of these decisions I question the most about is Cairngorm's story arch, so I couldn't agree more with you, @intoxtinction. Cairngorm was done dirty in so many ways and they deserved a more satisfying ending to their story.

I was planning on writing two last posts that would be focusing on these topics. But because life has been kicking my butt too much lately, I don't know when they will be out, if at all at this point. But if I'm able to complete them, I hope you'll get the chance to read them and share your own thought. And again, it's totally fine if you don't agree with my points; I'd still love to read them!

[squidokja]

Have a pleasant ten thousand boops

(i can stop if it bothers you xd

But really. This line hit me so much in the manga. The ending was so good in the worst way imaginable because I love it)

TRULY THE QUOTE OF ALL TIMEE

Chapter 95 annihilated my existence and the epilogue was straight up insanity it was too good and waugh love that you are also a hnk fan AAA Boop will, as Boop does, continue to travel space and time, shining brightly all the while. (pls I LOVE those asks!!)

[hackernewsrobot]

Samsung Profits Plunge 95%

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/26/tech/south-korea-samsung-q1-profits-plunge-intl-hnk/index.html Comments

[fayday]

WE FUCKING WON

SHITTING AND CRYING

[jitteryfool]

Phos and the others' gratitude towards them

I'm noticing this new trend of everyone in HnK just... thanking Phos for helping them by suffering in their stead, basically.

It's interesting to see, I think. Since Phos always had this problem of feeling useless and worthless which is compounded by the way the old gem society has been constructed. But now, Phos has been 'useful' to a variety of characters in the manga, just not in the way they expected or wanted.

Because every time they help one of the characters with their pain, Phos' mental stability gets more and more broken down, more pain gets added each time someone sincerely thanks them for their help, those people often ignoring what Phos feels in favor of focusing on what they got out of it. Not only that, after expressing their gratitude, they just abandon Phos.

I already noticed it in the chapter with the fight with Cinnabar and then the confrontation with Adamant but chapter 95 makes this stand out even more strongly.

The earliest case I can think of would be Cairngorm:

Cairngorm leaves Phos' side after thanking them. They attain 'happiness' and 'freedom' (which is extremely debatable looking at their relationship with Aechmea but this is a whole other can of worms I won't open here) on the cost of Phos losing someone they thought they could trust and rely on. Not that Cairn really cares though, because Phos has already fulfilled their use to them.

And then Cinnabar.

Again, someone thanks Phos for helping them be happy... and again, the price for their wish was Phos being hurt. Helping Cinnabar is what started the story and since then, everything just went downhill for Phos.

This is subjective of course but I personally find these panels incredibly selfish on Cinnabar's part. Like.. 'Oh thanks to you going to the moon and waging war against the Earth gems and then being shattered by everyone and buried for centuries I could enjoy myself. I'm really grateful you suffered this much, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make friends with the others!" (*coughs* this is my bias towards Phos speaking, sorry.)

We saw that after the Moon gems left, Cinnabar was able to interact with the others and have a job, which is what they always wanted. And just like Cairngorm before, Cinnabar turns against Phos after their wish was fulfilled (fighting against them in the first raid, suggesting to bury them..).

The exact same thing happens with Adamant.

Again, these characters get to be happy because of Phos' action and subsequent hurt but they don't care about that part. That's why them thanking Phos feels so incredibly selfish to me, they're just brushing over Phos' pain.

Again, they say they're grateful towards Phos but they don't really seem to care for them though.

Because, after all, they just want to use Phos for their own gain, for their own happiness.

They're all so wrapped up in their own pain, their own suffering. Cairngorm suffered under Ghost's control, Cinnabar suffered through the isolation and loneliness, Adamant has suffered for so many thousands of years.... that they're all so quick to be "grateful" to Phos for suffering in their place, nevermind that none of that was ever really Phos' choice, that they were groomed, manipulated and pushed towards this.

Phos succeeded in obtaining what they always wanted in the worst possible way: to be useful.

[summer-sapphic]

Just saw a post of someone jokingly suggesting that Phos just destroy the moon once their 10,000 years of whatever is over, but like. Yes.

If that's an option for them, I think that's the only way we'll get anywhere close to a satisfying ending for Phos. They were used by everyone. The Lunarians, Cairn, Adamant, even Cinnabar. They were made to suffer so that everyone else could be happy.

Not all the gems are to blame but they get 10,000 years of peace and partying up on the moon. When Phos comes around and they're asked to pray, I want them to just say NO and obliterate the moon.

And then, when they're left alone again, I want them to go to the shore and wait for new Gems to be born, and then help give them a life of peace and happiness on the island.

Phos deserves peace and happiness and to be loved and appreciated.

[pemprika]

hnk 95 spoilers

the developments in hnk 95 effortlessly flipped my whole brain upside down.... i’m genuinely shocked and confused overall, and extremely devastated on behalf of phos like jfc... the events were not at all what i had expected, but nevertheless, ichikawa has managed to keep the story unpredictable as ever and still remains to be incredibly interesting to me! i have more questions than possible solutions/answers like everyone else here, but i wanted to voice out what went zooming thru my head as i was reading the entire chapter

phos spending 10,000 years in pure solitude, isolation, and loneliness, on top of not understanding the whole picture of what is happening to them...is insane. i honestly can’t imagine how phos must feeling ;; after realizing that they had been betrayed by aechmea and instigating a violent massacre against their gem family, i can assume phos is undergoing a lot of regret and guilt, and feeling hopeless TT MAN. this is so much worse than death... thank you ichikawa for never failing to top phos’ suffering as each chapter goes on!

it seems like phos is well on their way to becoming the next adamant. during this long period of 10,000 years, as adamant’s divine powers continue to transfer over to phos, there is a very big possibility that new gems will be born. if they will, then phos could follow a similar path as sensei and coexist with or lead new gems within their society. just interesting to think about. i assume phos may mellow out somberly during this long time period, and we will def see some kind of time skip again soon.

i’m also VERY curious about new development with the gems turning into lunarians. like how wild was that? really didn’t see that one coming, and i was already mentally prepared to end the story with the gems never making a reappearance, but of course, ichikawa said wait. let’s make phos suffer in extremity! but i think it makes sense to have the gems go this route... makes me wonder that this will be how they will be prayed away in the end? ^_T i’m mostly anxious to know how much of the gem-lunarians have changed in terms of persaonlities and what their thoughts are on phos being situated back on earth, alone, for that long of a time span. will they keep their mindsets or will they change significantly to mimic the lunarians? i personally see the gems being complacent about these new changes, observed in the way they based their decision on euclase’s answer (finding comfort in following a leader figure). this is their opportunity of peace and since gems were never taught to empathize properly, i’m not sure if they would put a lot of perspective in phos’ situation. plus, the way phos had become warped and judging how they had misinterpreted phos’ past behavior may offset their perception

i am sincerely wondering if we’ll get a glimpse of the gems’ perspectives at all... i think shinsha has the most potential to understand phos’ isolation and loneliness, but i’m not sure if they’ll even manage to voice an opinion if they were able to anyway. also, the way antarc came back shook me to my core... antarc waking up on the moon and being confused as hell as we all are like damn you’re living like this i’m sorry ^_T and the parallelism with cairngorm/aechmea and antarc/adamant was so good too... anyway, my brain’s barely functioning now. we have a hiatus until further notice and i hope we’ll get to know what ichikawa is planning for the ending soon... i need my phos closure now TT

[catorikishin]

So, chapter 95, huh

[hubblebubblehub]

ichikawa really dropped one chap 95 and decided to go on hiatus. thanks for the depression queen

[garblegarden]

Did you finish Houseki no Kuni? What did you think of it, in the end? Did you like it? Have any criticisms?

I've been keeping up with HnK since 2020ish (I even endured the 1.5 year hiatus after chapter 95!) and I did indeed finish it! I have many thoughts.

I was initially drawn to it because I like minerals and this was a fun looking series where all the characters have a mineral namesake and where the bits of geology are actually accurate, or at least there's an effort made to give characters matching abilities and appearances to the minerals they're based on. Cleavage and mohs hardness and rarity are taken into consideration for characters and their strengths and weaknesses partners typically have a theme that makes them make sense, (sub i.e. benito and nepti are partners because they occur together in nature, melon and hemimor have piezo and pyroelectricity, morga and goshen are both beryls, rutile and padparadscha sometimes occur together (i.e. star sapphires and other corundums) etc etc etc), and their colors typically actually match what rock they're based on. That's good to see!

I think that Ichikawa's sense of design and aesthetic is really top-tier in this one. The kind of unsettling simplicity that permeates everything is really appealing to me (Like how the earth is literally just shallow seas with a single grassy field for a landmass, how the gems all dress the same and do so completely monochromatically, the moon is just this kind of pastel rainbowy color, etc etc etc) and makes for a really unique setting.

Ichikawa also makes a really good use of black and white to make some really striking panels in the series with high levels of contrast, detail and simplicity used in the right spots, and in opportunities where she gets to use color (i.e. the artbooks and covers) they look just as cool, too. Like, you don't get a sense that an illustration she makes in either medium would be better off in a different way, she just has a really high level of skill both when limited to black and white and when given the ability to use color.

The character designs are pretty solid, but my absolute favorites are Phos's last few designs. Everyone else is ok too, but "evil maniac broken up big leaf and spikes everywhere" phos ruled, "sobbing and sopping wet-with-mercury-gold-amalgam, naked, bald and being born fully grown but without skin" phos is slept on all the time and should be appreciated more, and "big floppy white thing" phos is for sure in my top 3 character designs of all time if not my absolute favorite. Big featureless white thing with reaction diffusion patterns? SIGN ME UP!!!

In terms of the actual plot I thought it was pretty nice and the whole "ship of theseus" thing was fun to watch play out but as many other people point out, the series doesn't really give a whole lot of time to anyone aside from Phos. Admittedly they are the protagonist so this makes sense, but what about the other guys? Everyone else's character arcs have definite starting points for interesting development (i.e. many characters have inferiority complexes in comparison with their peers due to how they were raised to see their material properties as different from one another, yet they were all treated as the same sorts of lifeforms, causing them to resent one another. This is further perpetuated by the fact that they're hunted for sport and not given much time to form their own societal roles outside of "fighter" "seamstress" "doctor" or "weaponsmith" and so on. All very basic roles, because there really isn't much of an opportunity to do much more on account of being attacked by the moon all the time.

However, a qualm I have with this is how the narrative frames the moon as being an inherently superior society in comparison to that of the gems. I was in a state of despair finding out that all of the gems were cool with being converted into lunarians and assimilated into their society with no issues at all. Now, this could be intentional, a sort of "the winners write history" take on the subject, or a "gems are inherently compliant with whatever's easiest for them because they're all so tired after centuries of war that they'll go with whatever at this point" sort of thing, but there isn't much of an effort being made to suggest this to the reader and it just kind of leaves me with a weird taste in my mouth where I'm not really sure if the grand-scale cultural erasure that happens to the gems is trying to be presented as a good thing or not.

A similar criticism is in regards to aechmea and cairngorm's relationship for kind of obvious reasons. I think most of us have beef with these two. It's very evident that there's a big power imbalance between the two of them. However, nothing negative is shown about their relationship, and in the end gorm goes into the endless void never having become their own person. And this would be alright if it weren't framed as a good thing! I don't mind a tragedy! It's just, with many other things here, (maybe this is a show of poor reading comprehension, idk) it's very hard to tell what Ichikawa's intentions were when writing these parts of the story and so it feels kind of weird. The parts of the later volumes focusing on them were kind of hard to get through. And why does aechmea keep growing. He keeps getting taller and cairngorm keeps not doing that so as the manga goes on it looks more and more......... suspicious

Another thing I think is both infuriating and fascinating is that everyone's goal of eradicating humanity is very very biased. The only people who get to have a say in it are all misanthropists, and there isn't even a physical humanity to destroy anymore either, it's all just vibes. Aechmea wants to destroy humanity because that's the only way he'll get into the pure land of nothingness if everyone else is destroyed too, Adamant wants to destroy humanity because that's what he was made for, Pitapat wants to destroy humanity to take revenge against the guy who stole his creator's life's work, Phos wants to destroy humanity because the former two kind of forced them into that and 10,000 years later after cooking on a beach in the worst "holy robot eye"-induced trip of their life they (at least in my take of the book) have literally nothing else to do other than destroy humanity, like that's the only thing they've been given to do for their whole life, so they do because they've never had a purpose otherwise. They're all misanthropists, but humans have been extinct for eons at this point, so what's the point, really? To eradicate selfishness and desire and that's what humanity represents and sort of manifests even millions of years into the future? (I mean, it is a series based on buddhist principles) Now maybe it's because I think the enduring human spirit is cool and this isn't a book for people who rock with the enduring human spirit, but Phos and Pitapat kind of celebrating both of their deaths at the end going "oh yeah we did it we destroyed humanity" kiiiiind of lost me. At this point humanity is such an abstract concept that it seems like there's not much of a point in scrubbing themselves off the face of the universe in order to prevent other intelligent races elsewhere in the universe from evolving and becoming selfish. That'll probably happen regardless of whether the last remnants of the human era sacrifice themselves or not. (In fact, that's already implied by Life and Culture of Y-3579203181277. So, like, what's the point? Maybe that is the point, that there's no point. I dunno. Much to think about. This is why this series has wormed its way so deep into my brain, because nothing about it is clear.)

It DID look beautiful, though!

[houseki-no-pleasegodno]

Another meme that doesn't make sense lmao

[jcsoapland]

that pretty much everyone EXCEPT Phos got a good ending makes me think that the entire manga was some pitch black comedy and we’ve finally reached the punchline

[multifandom-onigiri]

I feel so dead inside