Golden Days Commentary – Volume 2

The second volume of Golden Days is probably the most typical volume, yet it’s a bit unique as it’s also the volume that is the most episodic and slice-of-life. If I had to cut down this manga for something like an anime adaptation, this is probably the first place I would start cutting material. Yet it’s still a great volume, filled with tons of character development and backstory. So, let’s take a look at it, shall we?

The volume opens with Mitsuya waking up before his first day of school. Jin plays a prank on him because he doesn’t know what a traditional Japanese loincloth is. One thing I like about this scene is how it shows the group as a family. The Kasuga parents are mostly absent, so it’s just the four of them, plus the two servants, who have their own little household within the household. Yuriko takes on a “motherly” role, and they all dote on Aiko. I think Yoshimitsu took on the role of the “voice of reason,” a role that Mitsuya isn’t at all suited for.

They take a streetcar to school, and Mitsuya remembers overhearing a conversation about his being diagnosed with “multiple personality disorder.” The household has agreed to treat him like a different person than Yoshimitsu. At school, though everyone has heard about his “accident”, no one has heard about his “multiple personalities.” Since Yoshimitsu was a top student, Mitsuya surprises everyone by not being able to read German or archaic Japanese text. (This is because the Japanese written language has changed a lot since 1922. In 1946, it underwent a major change during the American occupation of Japan, in order to reflect modern pronunciation instead of traditional usage. That’s why it’s difficult for many translators to read anything from prior to this.)

There’s also another boy who dramatically reminisces about Yoshimitsu’s poetry reading. Clearly, Jin wasn’t the only one with a bit of a crush on Mitsuya’s grandfather.

A group of Jin and Yoshimitsu’s friends decide to “cheer up” “Yoshimitsu” by taking Mitsuya to a geisha house. Mitsuya, still uncomfortable letting others touch him, freaks out and storms into the room where they are all waiting for him. Jin seems pretty chill about it—evidently, he didn’t think anything would happen.

Later, Mitsuya asks Jin for help with his studies, saying that he will now allow Jin to come “within 30 centimeters” of him. Jin carefully measures the distance with a smile. Mitsuya thinks he’s teasing, but Jin insists that he wouldn’t tease someone he loves. Mitsuya’s reaction is interesting. Instead of saying he doesn’t return Jin’s feelings (like Yoshimitsu did), Mitsuya says that Jin’s confession makes him uncomfortable.

Jin remembers the time Yoshimitsu friend-zoned him, and promises to stop saying he likes Mitsuya (and Yoshimitsu, since at this point Jin hasn’t separated them in his mind).

After Jin teaches Mitsuya a few German words, Mitsuya isn’t so lost at school. He studies a lot because he has none of the entertainment he’s used to from his own era. It’s not surprising that Mitsuya is the kind of person who is used to watching television in the middle of the night. His personality at the beginning of the manga is restless, and he seems uncomfortable with quiet contemplation. The quiet and calm of the Taisho era is a big change for him.

Starved for stimulation, Mistuya quickly gets excited at the prospect of seeing a movie. The other boys mention that Yoshimitsu liked going to the opera, which Mitsuya says is for “old people.” Mitsuya spends most of the movie watching Jin’s expression change—not unnoticed by his classmates. They pick up on things much more quickly than Mitsuya does. His eyes follow Jin not only so he can know what’s acceptable in this time period, but because Mitsuya is drawn to Jin.

It’s when Mitsuya tells Jin that he does look like his mother—that he does look foreign—that Jin becomes upset. Jin insists that he’s nothing like her, but I think his tendency to go to extreme measures might be inherited from her.

The cold glint in Jin’s eyes when he describes his mother makes Mitsuya shiver. Like in chapter 1, Jin’s anger is similar to Mitsuya’s towards his own mother, but a lot more virulent.

Before they can finish their conversation, a group of radicals who oppose Jin’s father attack them. Jin pulls out the gun he carries “for protection” and threatens to shoot them. His expression when he holds the gun is just so cold, and so different from his usual expression. Like this is the only time he feels powerful, and in control.

Mitsuya pulls Jin away from the escalating situation. When he says, “It’s okay,” Jin snaps out of his anger. As they wander through the evening streets, Jin explains his feeling to Mitsuya, and Mitsuya finally smiles. He’s been frowning ever since he arrived in the Taisho era.

When Jin and Aiko’s mother returns home in the next chapter, Mitsuya sees firsthand how her delusions affect the Kasuga children. Their mother must have been a lot more rational in the past, as she not only taught Aiko to play the piano, but she was also the one who tutored Yoshimitsu in the violin. I kind of wonder what kind of relationship she had with Jin before this crazy spell. She had abandoned him to his grandmother in the past, but seems to have been close to all of the children before Kai’s death. I think this second abandonment is one of the main reasons why Jin is so angry with her.

Aiko was only abandoned once, so she still holds out hope for her mother’s affection in a way that Jin doesn’t. He also can’t accept that she’s completely erased Aiko from her memories, conflating her with Kai.

Mitsuya can’t accept that everyone plays along with Jin’s mother’s delusion—even though he did just the same thing with his own mother, in his own era. Rather hypocritical, but it’s always easier to see the flaws in other people’s behavior rather than one’s own. It was actually Yoshimitsu who suggested the idea at the beginning.

Mitsuya’s attempt to correct the problem just makes things worse, and they all have to play a small concert to draw her out of her room. Jin is too tone-deaf to contribute, though. Since it said they were all being taught by her—Aiko on piano, Yoshimitsu on the violin, Yuriko in singing—so what was Jin learning? Maybe he’s just that tone-deaf.

By the way, the direction of the text in the bubbles when the Kasuga parents speak together indicates that they are speaking another language, presumably Italian.

Jin isn’t very careful with that gun, is he? He’s definitely a candidate for accidentally shooting someone. Mitsuya is, understandably, concerned about the gun, as, in modern times, personal ownership of guns is illegal in Japan. Jin misunderstands Mitsuya’s question, and states that he has a permit for his gun.

The next chapter begins the two chapter “elopement arc,” I suppose you can call it. Yuriko arranges a meeting with Taeko, the girl from the omai in the second chapter. Jin reacts to her presence by kissing Mitsuya on the cheek again, and consequently getting knocked on the head by Mitsuya. His over-the-top reaction is a bit strange, considering how nonchalant he was with the geishas earlier, but I think he’s intentionally over-acting here. He saw how upset Yoshimitsu was the night before the omai, and, in his mind, is just keeping his promise to break up the arranged marriage.

The only other time we ever see him so jealous is with Kei, and there’s a reason for that too… we’ll get to that later.

This is also an interesting scene as its the only time Jin is so openly affectionate with Mitsuya in a public place (though I don’t really think anyone can see them since they are on an almost deserted upper balcony). For all of his dramatics, he’s actually really careful to not look like he’s in love, especially in front of classmates at school at other social equals. It’s Mitsuya who gives it away. Throughout the manga, the school friends can tell that Mitsuya is in love with Jin, saying things like “I thought you were in love with Kasuga.” But they never say such things about Jin.

The elopement story itself is pretty straightforward, so I won’t spend too much time on it. Taeko is in love with Jin and Mitsuya’s classmate, and Jin comes up with a plan to help them elope (and ultimately end the arranged marriage). The plan, of course, also involves using that gun he’s so fond of. His smile is so smug during these scenes. Yuriko and Jin both use their acting skills to transform the situation into the one they want. I think Jin is acting a lot of the time as he goes about his everyday life. It’s not often he shows what he’s really feeling inside, unlike Mitsuya, who wears his heart on his sleeve.

Kunimi is introduced here in Yuriko’s flashbacks as well. Yuriko becomes nostalgic about her own romance, which she believes is spoiled forever.

At the wedding reception/party, Mitsuya tries very hard to appear like Yoshimitsu. He even keeps his hair unruffled, and, at Jin’s prodding, speaks formally. Jin can’t stop staring at Mitsuya now that he looks so much like Yoshimitsu.

Jin’s grandfather arrives, and he definitely suspects that something is up. I do have to wonder what Jin would have done if his plan had failed. Have his own “Scotsman on a Horse” moment, à la Monty Python?

Jin and Mitsuya sit and discuss how society’s expectations and love are so far apart. Jin says that he loves Yoshimitsu, and Mitsuya asks Jin how he can flirt with Mitsuya without betraying Yoshimitsu. Jin laughingly responds that he loves the person he’s speaking to—Mitsuya. Mitsuya has hit pretty close to something that’s troubling Jin, and this idea that he might be “betraying” Yoshimitsu will be haunting him until the end of the manga. At this point, though, he still believes they are the same person. He is still seeking the “Yoshimitsu” within Mitsuya.

Mitsuya wonders if he can be a different person with this new family he’s become a part of, since he no longer has to be the person he had to be in his own era. He’s beginning to realize that his time in the past will be the beginning of finding his true self.

The elopement goes smoothly, though the involvement of Jin, Mitsuya and Yuriko soon becomes apparent. Jin’s grandfather strikes Jin in anger, and Jin insists that he will not allow anyone to control him. (This will come up again in chapter 32) Moved, Mitsuya tries to punch Grandfather Kasuga, and Yuriko and Aiko quickly jump in to defend Jin as well.

Jin gets him to go away by threatening to tell everyone about the involvement of the Kasuga family. Yuriko says that he is “using the family name as a shield.” A little ironically, perhaps, as Jin will soon be destroying the reputation of the family name forever. Mitsuya privately hopes he never gets on Jin’s bad side.

In the garden scene at the beginning of chapter 11, it’s apparent some time has passed since Mitsuya first arrived. He came to the Taisho era in late August, while Yuriko states that it is now October. He’s been living in the Taisho era for over a month now.

The body language in this scene speaks a lot louder than the text. Mitsuya recalls what Jin said at the party—that he loved him—and that it wouldn’t be so troublesome if Jin was a girl. When I first read this scene, I assumed he meant, “It wouldn’t be so troublesome if I was being pursued by a girl who confessed to me,” but I now don’t believe that’s what he’s saying here. He’s keeping his body turned away from Jin, like he can’t look at him, yet his line of sight keeps drifting to Jin’s open mouth, like Mitsuya subconsciously wants to kiss him. He’s saying “I don’t know what to do with these feelings, since I can’t understand why I have them for a guy.”

Jin’s expression is peaceful, but his dreams are not. He’s remembering his emotionally abusive grandmother, now deceased. Grandfather Kasuga’s wife was just as open-hearted and accepting as her husband, who forced Jin’s parents to give him up so that he could be raised in the main house. She makes Jin take a bath just because he looks “foreign,” and the women who work for her don’t want to touch Jin because they think he’s “dirty.” They don’t even care that he can overhear.

Jin, as stubborn as always, waits in the bath because of what they said about him. He grows up in this isolated, neglectful situation until Yoshimitsu becomes a ward of the family (taken in at Tsuneyasu’s insistence). Jin’s so fixated on Yoshimitsu because Yoshimitsu was the first person who ever accepted him fully, without ever betraying or rejecting him. This is why the idea that Yoshimitsu is a separate person than Mitsuya bothers him so much in later chapters. He’s kind of in love with the idea that he could have just ONE person who means everything to him for his whole life.

In his dream, he reaches out to Yoshimitsu and grabs Mitsuya instead. Mitsuya comments on Jin’s eye color, just as Yoshimitsu did the first time they met. Jin begins to hope that he is finding “Yoshimitsu” within Mitsuya.

Mitsuya compares it to “looking through cellophane,” as it is like seeing a different world. Perhaps he’s beginning to see Jin differently as well.

Aiko insists that Mitsuya play “The Heather Rose.” Mitsuya is hesitant because of his promise to his mother (who hasn’t even been born yet!), but when Jin asks him what he thinks will happen if he waits, he overcomes his doubts. He’s starting to overcome the restraints he’s placed on himself from his life in the future.

Jin remembers Yoshimitsu playing the song for him, though he would always mess up at the end. Mitsuya messes up in the same place, due to Yoshimitsu’s teaching it that way, and Jin jumps up in surprise. He believes that he’s found “Yoshimitsu” now. By the way, Jin uses a lot of “light” imagery to describe Yoshimitsu and Mitsuya. The kanji used to spell “mitsu” (光) means “light.” I think that’s why Jin says that Yoshimitsu is his “sun.”

The chapter ends with a short flashback scene, showing Yoshimitsu explaining to Jin that he can’t return his feelings. He told Jin that he loved him as a family member, like a brother, and couldn’t possibly become his lover. He asked Jin not to pursue him any longer, as it would damage their good friendship. I think Yoshimitsu knew that Jin put a lot of his expectations in him. Jin just expects more from Yoshimitsu than Yoshimitsu can possibly give him. This put a lot of pressure on Yoshimitsu, and he probably felt kind of suffocated by Jin.

I will have a commentary on the third volume a later date. This one turned out to be even longer than the first… oh well.

Scans again, by Ivyscan.