#you should all read it toobtw. as long as the subject of death and suicide isn't too triggering ofc

[liquidstar]

I wanna reread hiraeth wa tabiji no hate now that it's complete so I can organize my thoughts on it better. But something I'm thinking about is the nature of hibino's immortality- it was just because of hani.

Hibino was always searching for a soulmate, that was his only real goal after having lived such a long life and never finding anyone permanent. Hani was his soulmate at the end. His soulmate was a god. When that god died, so did his immortality.

But they lived almost their entire immortal lives apart. Even on the journey itself, they didn't realize they were linked until the end. The idea that hibino lived his whole long long life just to meet a god as they're dying is a very tragic romance. But at the end it's not a bad thing, he's happy to have lived, happy to have met them, and ready to accept the end.

BUT I think it's also very important to note that hibino chose this. This wasn't some sort of predestined fate, he wasn't bound to his soulmate. He chose them. Even though he forgot it, he and hani made a pact back when they were still a powerful god. And they gave him the OPTION to dissolve that pact. But he chose not to, because he grew to love them.

It's not actually about being bound to a soulmate, it's about a promise being made a long long time ago. That he'll find them again in death, and they can go together. That death will reunite them. And though their memories have fogged over so much time, and as hani's powers fade, those feelings remain.

But I also think this creates a really good contrast with mika and mitsuha, especially in the idea of keeping history alive though memories.

The story is not saying you have to die when your "soulmate" does. Mika wanted to die after mitsuha did, her suicide attempt was the event that started the entire story. But this isn't treated as a lofty ambition, obviously.

On its face the story is about going to yomi, but her actual arc is about NOT doing that. About living. The reality of death isn't something mika actually wants, and she even has a panic attack about it while in the cave...

And hibino yells at her about it too, about what death means, and he tells her that by dying she's also throwing mitsuha away. The memories she holds of her. Once she's dead, the mitsuha only she knew will die too.

That alone doesn't inspire her to live though, it's the whole journey, the fact that she's now made memories with people just as precious to her as the ones she had with mitsuha. The fact that she doesn't want to forget any of it, that she wants to keep at all alive. But really, it's the fact that at the end... The birds were singing

I think it's a really beautiful story about love and death and memories and I'm excited to experience it in one go form (rather than waiting for translations) and hopefully it'll give me an even better perspective of all its themes this way

<3