Tuesday, April 25, 2023

The Girl from the Other Side 10


 
The Girl from the Other Side 10
Siuil, a Run
by Nagabe
Seven Seas
2021
 
 
The 10th volume of The Girl from the Other Side opens with a flashback to Teacher's life when he wad still human, before he became a cursed Outsider. The soldier who thought he knew him was right - in fact he's the one who gave Teacher the locket he's held onto all this time.
 
We also see when the curse spread in their village. Teacher was shot with arrows helping his wife and infant child escape from being killed by soldiers. As he lay dying, another Outsider found him, and he became Cursed.
 
We return to the present, where Teacher has his memories back, all his memories, after Shiva gave him her soul. He finds Shiva, who has fully transformed into an Outsider now as well. She looks a bit tree-like, but she can still move, and retains her human memories.
 
Teacher tells Shiva about the time he spent alone before he met her, and reminisces about how they first met.
 
And we learn the truth about Shiva's relationship to Teacher - who they both were before they met in the forest, wrongly believing they were total strangers.
 
Because this volume is almost all flashback, it feels like a kind of calm before the storm that I'm sure is coming in the next, final collection. We know the truth now, or most of it, and all that remains is the confrontation between the king and his soldiers and Teacher and Shiva. 
 
One choice I thought was interesting, we never see Teacher's human face. It's always concealed by shadow, or up out of frame. His monstrous Outsider face is the only face of his we ever see.

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