My personal favorite of the works in this anthology. It's beautifully layered, with blends of multiple different timepoints, many different thematic interpretations, and one of the types of yuri that I love the best: an unstated but undeniable longing that drives one to take formerly unimaginable actions.

A few thoughts I've had on the more murky aspects of this chapter, without having read the novella that it was adapted from. Speculation abound.
- The line "I dreamed of petals landing in the pond" in the context of its original poem has a second part that goes (vulgarly) something like "alas, spring half past, yet [I am] far from home". The line as a whole has the connotations of time passing as well as either missing home or missing someone who has yet to come home. In the context of this chapter, using a poem line that's about "dreaming" could also imply that it's from Mari's perspective, as the soil god says that everything which happened may feel like a dream to her.
- The sambar deer spirit, a "water deer", represents clean water, pure, unsullied water. There's a sense that this is what Mari is trying to hold onto, to the point that she becomes water herself.
- She can't stop change from happening though, as is alluded to throughout. Their city alone has gone through multiple rounds of restructuring, the sambar deer gets closer to the city than it should (as all animals do when their natural habitats are destroyed. the Formosan sambar deer, coincidentally, was once near extinction due to habitat loss and hunting), and even the local Taiwanese gods have become displaced by the foreign Shinto gods.
- Mari's deepest wish is purposefully not stated, though of course, I would believe that her wish was to stay with Hezhou forever, in an unchanging bubble. The fact that this can't happen, as her wish was reversed with the antler's return to the deer, potentially means two main things. One, she just has to suck up leaving Hezhou and marrying the guy her parents probably betrothed her to. Or two, even if the world isn't perfect and she can't remain "pure", there must still be a way to adapt as the rest of their world has, and as Hezhou clearly wishes for her too.

last edited at May 2, 2024 1:08PM

anyone ever try turning into a monster so they don't have to get married to a man and would get to stay with their girl crush, me neither but I'd imagine it would go a little like this lmao.

Also given that Mari spends a year unconscious I'd wager that her engagement probably fell in the water (man... do proverbs not translate...) she'd at least get to stay, but after that... it's currently left up to the imagination. But who knows considering we seem to be following the little guy maybe we'll get to hear if Mari got her happy ending after all.

Oh wait that's what Suicune is

In an anthology of good stories, this one definitely pulls its weight. I feel like the three blind men touching an elephant, with each story revealing a little more about, I suppose, the lived experience of marriage in each setting.

Mari's deepest wish is purposefully not stated, though of course, I would believe that her wish was to stay with Hezhou forever, in an unchanging bubble. The fact that this can't happen, as her wish was reversed with the antler's return to the deer, potentially means two main things. One, she just has to suck up leaving Hezhou and marrying the guy her parents probably betrothed her to. Or two, even if the world isn't perfect and she can't remain "pure", there must still be a way to adapt as the rest of their world has, and as Hezhou clearly wishes for her too.

Mari slowly turning to water feels like she's trying to fight against the flow of time and the change that comes with it, and in doing so is having her "self" washed away in the process of trying to fight the tide. And it's interesting that the solution to Mari's spirit being washed away involves a "soil god" associated with the earth and stability.

Wow this was strange, eerie and mysterious, the symbolism also played a big part. Chinese mythology and ways of seeing the world are really interesting. The art was also fantastic, so expressive and unique. Overall it was a nice experience