niracler

Haha, this is a work where spoilers don't matter.
In this article: The town turns = Even so, the town still moves = それ町 = Maid Café

Basic Information#

Background#

I came to this from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and ended up reading all of Masakazu Ishiguro's manga in one go. When I started reading "The Town Turns," I thought it was just an ordinary slice-of-life work, thinking that this author is quite capable, able to draw works of various themes.

And my psychological journey after starting to read:

" It really is quite an ordinary slice of life" => "Non-linear storyline?" => " I have to rewatch it again."

（ "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" is like this too; once you reach a certain point, you have to start over～～）

Story Features#

Non-linear Timeline#

The timeline in the town is the most intriguing aspect of this manga. I haven't read many slice-of-life works, and the ones that stand out to me are "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," "Minami-ke," and "The Town Turns." Their timelines can be categorized into three types:

"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" - Sequential Timeline: As the name suggests, the sequence goes from 1 to 2 to 3, with the characters progressing through high school year by year. The problem with this timeline is that if you don't weaken the concept of time within the work, the story time will just keep moving forward. At the beginning of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," there's a chapter that spans a semester, and now the characters are about to graduate high school; if they don't want to end it, they can only depict 3 months in one day. (And the movie they filmed before graduation took many years in real life～～)

"Minami-ke" - Supernatural Timeline: Although it's called supernatural, I think the author has abandoned the concept of time. The ages of the three sisters remain the same over the years; they are still in the same grade. While the characters carry memories from previous stories, they've celebrated N Christmases in the story, which is hard to think about. （Are they living in an endless middle school?） The advantage of this is that they can keep drawing slice-of-life stories indefinitely; it seems "Keroro" also belongs to this category～～

"The Town Turns" - Non-linear Timeline: The so-called non-linear means the author can write about any point in time they want. This writing style gives the author significant control over their story themes, "Is this month August? Then let's find an August in those three years to write about" or "This volume is about romance, so let's write all the romance-related stories in those three years together." The difficulty of this style lies in maintaining coherence, and it's easy to encounter bugs like "Why can this character remember events from a time that hasn't arrived yet?" I believe Ishiguro had a timeline of major events while writing, and the official publication released a guidebook after completion.

These works have all been ongoing for over ten years, and if you condense a 3-year timeline into 1-30, it gives a feeling like this:

• 01-10-15-17-20-22-25-28-29-30
• 10-15-20-10-15-20-10-15-20-10
• 01-10-17-02-15-20-12-25-30-27

(This is the timeline sorted out by various town scholars in the second year, and later the official also released a dedicated guidebook)

Of course, the first work that shocked me with a non-linear timeline was the anime "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya." I heard about it on a podcast by a math teacher. I was shocked that there were works that could be watched in a scrambled order. However, even in "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," it was only during the airing of the anime that it was like this; the author wrote it in order.

S2E21. "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" How Many Perspectives? -- Super Permutation Problem - Math Teacher Talks

(This is the main timeline from A-chan's employment to resignation)

Abundant Details#

There are just too many details; it's completely different from authors who write whatever comes to mind. Only monthly manga can achieve this level. Many details from earlier chapters are referenced later. Every time a foreshadowing is resolved, I am shocked by Ishiguro's ability to " tie up so many foreshadowings."

It might be inaccurate to call them foreshadowings because most of the plot is indeed written as the author thinks of it, but Ishiguro has a characteristic of " the content written must not conflict with previous content," and he achieves this in a work filled with details using a non-linear timeline, which is truly exhausting to watch for the author.

In this work, the non-linear timeline does not explicitly mark time in the story. Instead, readers must find key milestone events with time indicators from numerous details to clarify the timeline. For example, there are the following (don't worry about spoilers; you probably won't remember all this, and I've watched it so many times that I can't clarify the timeline without following the guide):

1. Before and After Buni Cuts Her Hair: Hair length and whether there are braids. Buni will cut her hair once in the middle and fails (turning into a hotel tycoon), before cutting, she has small braids, and after cutting, it goes from short to long, but there are no more small braids. This is the strongest timeline clue in the story since the protagonist should have no lines where she doesn't appear. However, this can't be used to judge some time points with similar hairstyles.

(Volume 6 Hair Loss Record)

2. Whether the Senior is in School: The presence of the senior is also a key indicator. Buni meets the senior around the time of her high school graduation. So, the plot with the senior is mostly in the second year, and indeed, the main plot of this work is primarily in the second year. The senior and Buni are also the most popular CP in this work. (Of course, I like them too)

(Volume 1 Historic Meeting, Cat Boy)

3. AJ Spizike's Counterfeit + Buni's Birthday: In the story, Buni buys a pair of counterfeit shoes on her birthday and mentions that she often wears them afterward, indicating that when Buni wears these shoes, the time must be before this point.
4. Clothesline, Doghouse, and Dentist's Sign: The clothesline has cracks from being blown down by a typhoon, the doghouse was burned and replaced with a new one, and the sign of the clinic has saw marks from Buni sawing it. These are all markers that can indicate various time points.
5. The rest are details in the dialogues of various characters. This is more complex, so I won't list them.

For specific details, you can check a town scholar on Bilibili; what shocked me the most was his analysis of Buni's classmates' student numbers and the position of the shoe rack.

（The seriousness of this town scholar is evident）

Unit Stories by Chapter#

Each chapter is basically a standalone story with no connections, but they are still quite elaborate; each volume feels like a collection of stories of a certain type. Moreover, I've heard that during serialization, the story's background is aligned with the current season as much as possible.

Character Development#

Even after the manga ends, the town still keeps turning. If I were to evaluate this manga, this sentence might be the most fitting.

Mainly, the author's continuous development of characters over more than a decade has brought these characters to life; basically, every character's storyline is complete. Every character in the town is fleshed out, so even after the conclusion, their stories live on in my heart.

Of course, regarding the completeness of character storylines, I think it is not as good as "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," where the characters are more important, while in this work, events are more crucial. Characters are, in a sense, accessories to events. Each character has their own unique storyline, although these storylines may not be particularly tight.

Just like in detective novels, almost all major characters are introduced within the first 20% of the work.

Alternate Universe Counterparts#

Another characteristic of Masakazu Ishiguro's works is the recurring characters, how to say, alternate universe counterparts. For example, Ryuuka Kujii from "Sleeping Idiot," Haruka Iwasaki from "Hibiki and Dad," Sayaka Kujii from "My Street Cat," and Manaru and Toki from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya."

(Here is Ishiguro's own drawing of “Senpai Kon's Secret Room”)

（In the heavenly world, Senpai Kon）

(Actually, my favorite is the later released Ryo Murofushi, who is the alternate universe counterpart of the slasher)

Postscript#

PS. Maybe I also have a bit of a talent for spoilers; while using Tachiyomi to view the manga cabinet source, I accidentally saw the last chapter of the volume. Although it's a trivial spoiler, there is still a bit of psychological disparity. （Do not click Buni's dream is to be a comfortable chair detective, but in the end, she became a novelist writing detective novels）

This reflection feels like it talks about something and yet nothing at all; I need to learn how to write work evaluations more specifically.

In the future, non-technical articles should not carry version numbers; write them well before publishing. Even for technical articles, the core content should be solid before publishing～～ actually, releasing half-finished works is an insult to readers.

Reference Content#

• This work's anime is surprisingly called "Maid Café," and the source on Bilibili is only 360p, unbelievable.
• Recently, there’s a town scholar updating on Bilibili, a series of special topics: それ町细节彩蛋汇总（零） - 哔哩哔哩
• Manga Cabinet's manga source: Maid Café Manga_ Even so, the Town Still Turns Manga_ Masakazu Ishiguro - Read Manga
• A post on Zhihu during the last season when "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" was a hit: The Most Controversial Animation Original Author This Season, I Hope He Becomes Popular! - Zhihu

Updates#

• 2023-08-24 17:05 v0.2 Updated the title to make it look more interesting. Also updated the postscript; next time, don't use version number strategies for such articles.
• 2023-08-24 19:53 v0.3 Updated the analysis of the non-linear timeline, comparing it with "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Minami-ke."
• 2023-08-24 20:14 v0.5 Updated the "Abundant Details" section.
• 2023-08-24 22:35 v1.0 Organized it a bit; first version completed.