My Thoughts on “Nemurenu Ou ni Sasagu Yogatari” Chapter 3
The third chapter of “Nemurenu Ou ni Sasagu Yogatari” has my favorite story of the series. Usually I don’t like stories about suicides, and I definitely don’t like spreading stories about “lovely suicides”, but something about this story punched me in the guts. Seeing your best friend, whom you’ve fallen in love with, get married to someone else is the worst kind of love sickness. I can only imagine it being many times worse if it’s a socially forbidden relationship where you cannot even speak of your love. The illustrations were so lovely in the chapter and simple way the story was told really brought home the sadness and desperation for me. Yes, I’m mad at Afshaal for killing himself, but in the end, he got wanted: he died in the arms of the man he loved and he overshadowed Jalil’s wedding day, making it into the day Jalil’s best friend dies instead, thus depriving Jalil’s bride of her day. It’s the ultimate act of selfishness for a man who had lived selflessly.
As for King Rasheed and Farasha, I’m happy to see some progress with Rasheed. His eyes look normal and he smiled. Going into the final chapter, I really wasn’t sure whether I wanted the cycle to repeat or whether I wanted it to be broken. Either way would have been fine with me.
Here are my favorite scenes from the chapter. Most of them are of Afshaal looking extra sad. He has such sad and easy to sympathize with eyes.
Lovely Manga 
I really loved on how the chapter touched upon how “love persists regardless of gender” through all these reincarnations. I’m surprised the author put in some super light shounen-ai, you don’t see it much in shoujo unless it’s done as a comedic aspect. Great chapter~
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Did you ever write your thoughts on Chapter 2? Your short captions for the scenes had me giggling despite the serious matter. Again, poor Afshaal. T_T He did live selflessly–I was expecting an arrogant rich brat, but now I’m sorry I ever thought that.
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Looks like I didn’t :(. Oh well… i suppose I can say a little something after we finish the series. Right now, I’m about halfway through translating the prequel chapter that tells of the story of the original of the couple’s curse. Hahaha! Finally we understand why they keep asking about evil Djinns.
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I… I can’t help it. The theme from Neverending Story started playing in my head at the end of the chapter! XD”
Overall, I enjoyed this chapter, though I do have to agree that the suicide bit was off-putting. I really appreciated the author passing over the gender norms, as finily said. I really liked Afshaal, too. Those sad, sweet eyes… I couldn’t help sympathizing with him. I was really rooting for him. TT~TT
The king in the main story kinda just irritates me still. It’s like watching a cranky two-year old… Maybe more sleep will help a lot. I certainly hope so! Farasha seems too sweet for him. XP He is getting a little better, I guess. <<; I wish we could see some of the king's halves of the stories, too…
Looking forward to the prologue!
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