#I can't remember what we have confirmed about the non-Wa islands aside from Rin saying that they don't all speak the same language

[ambrosiagourmet]

Please go on the Rin family tangent, I'd love to listen to it!

OH I WISH I HAD MORE TO SAY HONESTLY... Mostly it's just in reference to my Rin Masterpost (shameless self promotion!!!), where I talk a bit about the nature of her parents as refugees, and the tidbits we get about the archipelago politics.

Though also, as I have since discovered, the official and fan translations of her parent's history use different words to describe them! I'd love to know more about which way the actual meaning skews... the fan translation calls them refugees, but the official one just says they were "wanderers."

Just from a narrative/character stand point I'm inclined to believe that it is more likely that they left for a reason, partly because "wanderers" is SUCH a vague label and most of the backstory we get in the AB isn't quite so generalized. Also because we do have that one comment about the archipelago being chaotic/at war, on the cover of one chapter, and that's exactly the kind of background detail that would make sense to weave into Rin's backstory imho. I would also somewhat expect more context for how much they traveled/the lifestyle they were living, if it was less a one-time fleeing home thing and more a general practice of travel. But maybe that is just meant to be extrapolated on by the reader. OR MAYBE THEY ARE JUST REFUGEES IDK.

Really I'd just like more insight about that word/description in general. I actually tried to use a kanji search at one point to see if I could find anything myself, but I don't know enough about how to do that properly so I ended up giving up. Maybe someday I'll teach myself more about kanji just so I can figure out Rin's parents' history. It's not out of the question for me tbh.

Anyway as a last note, if they ARE refugees then I'm very curious about the idea that the impact of the possible (it's just my interpretation) Sengoku period setting for Wa extends out to other parts of the archipelago. I mean. it makes sense that it wouldn't just be localized to Wa, given the proximity of the islands and all, but if other parts of the archipelago are meant to draw from other cultures and not ALL just be Fantasy Japan, I'm curious of what the politics of that all looks like. It feels like it could have a basis in real world history rooted in Wa, but then from there could have a lot of potential to spin off into more fictional ideas and Dungeon Meshi specific politics.

Anyway: Rin centric spin-off manga when