1. "......"
2. And now for our graduation song,
3. accompanied by third year...
5. For some reason...
7. "Leave them on the window of days gone by..."
8. "Those dear old memories..."
9. "The color of the flowers, the shadows of the clouds..."
10. "and take flight, today we go our separate ways..."
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1. I alone stood silently listening.
2. "Farewell..."
3. I didn't feel like responding with "Now farewell" to her piano playing.
4. "Now farewell..."
5. "Now farewell"
6. "Farewell, my friend..."
7. There was nothing for us to share a smile over.
8. "Now farewell..."
9. We were no longer friends.
10. Taking my two little sisters with her.
11. "Mom...!"
12. Right after I started high school my mom left,
13. Should have been fine.
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1. Unlike me, they didn't look at all like my dad.
2. "Can I... Sit here?"
3. "Um..."
4. "Is someone else coming?"
5. I was left alone in my dad's house.
7. "You look like you're thinking about something unpleasant..."
8. "So to encourage introductions and interaction I'd like you to draw a portrait of the person next to you."
9. "It's april,"
10. Was during art class the day after my mom disappeared.
11. The first time I had a proper look at her or exchanged words
12. "You just seem kinda down..."
13. "Huh...!?"
14. "...did... Something happen?"
15. "Why do you ask??"
16. "Something bad?"
1. I thought she was odd.
2. "See? This is how you look"
3. "Can't you smile for me?"
4. "Just a little"
5. "Oh..."
6. "I don't want to draw you looking sad like this."
7. "Okay..."
8. "All right..."
9. "..."
1. "I'm done!!"
2. "...I..."
3. The me in her drawing looked like someone I could never be
4. No matter how hard I wished.
5. "..."
6. "Aha ha..."
7. "...it doesn't look like me at all."
8. "Really...!? I, I'm sorry. I'll try harder next time!!!"
9. "..."
10. "Wh..."
11. "It... Doesn't look like you, does it...?"
12. "What do you think...?"
14. "..."
15. "..."
16. "Thanks."
17. "I wish... I could look like this."
1. And my very existence made my dad beat me.
2. "I bet..."
3. It didn't really hurt that much, but my mom had disappeared on me.
4. "I'll be happy..."
5. "If I have a family that makes me smile like this someday..."
6. "It's like..."
7. "You're so weak and emotional..."
8. "Sigh..."
1. "When you're by yourself you always sleep in the same pose, facing the other direction."
2. "...huh?"
3. "Hey, do you always sleep like this when you're with someone?"
5. And you couldn't kill me...
6. I couldn't kill you...
7. "This is the normal way to sleep!"
8. "So what? I like to see your sleeping face."
9. "Ha ha ha!"
10. "Huh?? I mean..."
11. "You've been watching me that closely!?"
12. ...I'd forgotten.
13. "Let's sleep together."
14. "I'm cold."
15. "Hm?"
16. ".................. ................. ................. ................."
17. How being held like this... Makes my bruises ache.
1. So I don't
2. They don't really hurt too much unless I press or touch them,
3. My senses... Have dulled.
4. Really think about how broken my body is, how much it hurts, unless someone touches me like this...
5. ...but your tenderness... Makes my whole body ache...
6. But on the other hand...
7. I know...that someone is with me...
8. When my body hurts this much...
9. ...so I'm glad for the pain.
1. "I want"
2. "The police to see what your husband did to you"
3. "Before the bruises disappear."
4. "...pain isn't good..."
5. "It's not good... But since you're already covered in bruises..."
6. "I'd rather be hurting because I'm with someone..."
7. "Than be alone"
8. "And forget the pain."
9. "Hey..."
10. "Can I... Have thirty years...?"
1. "But maybe if I have another thirty years I can get you back to the innocent state you were born in... So what do you say? Can I have thirty years...?"
2. "It took thirty years to get you this twisted up, so I know I can't change that right away..."
3. "Want you to stay with me..."
4. "I... I just..."
5. "Are you kidding me...? How can you say that in these circumstan- ces...?"
6. "Do you really think someone as sheltered as you can even survive that...!?"
7. "Can you even imagine how hard it's going to be!?"
8. "We won't be able to stay together once we're arrested."
1. "But I know someone who's been through unimaginable hardship her entire life"
2. "And still"
3. "Never gave up and managed to keep on living."
4. "I'm not going to let this go."
5. "You're not going to let this go, are you..."
6. "..."
1. But I don't see it that way.
2. We're at a hopeless dead end
3. You may think
4. "...let's get some sleep."
5. "... Listen,"
6. "It's almost morning..."
7. "And we've hardly slept at all."
1. I feel vindicated
2. For everything I've done.
3. Now no one will hit you and I can be with the one I love.
4. But it's not like I didn't get what I wanted.
5. I regret all the things I've thrown away
1. "Or you have a reason?"
2. "Just because?"
3. "WHY? Which is it?"
4. "I want to visit our school"
5. "School?? Now!?"
6. "You have a reason...?"
7. "I see"
14. "Whaaat!?"
15. "Even though you're so sick you've lost your voice!?"
18. "Wanna stop in?"
19. "Haha ha."
1. "Yeah. By the gaien-nishi intersection is fine."
2. "In hiroo?"
3. "To arisugawa park."
4. "Got it."
5. "Can you go across there and then take one bridge over to hiroo?"
6. "Oh, shin ohashi bridge."
7. "The one with two pillars?"
8. "Kuramae bridge?"
9. "You know the yellow bridge over the sumida river?"
10. "I'm sure."
11. "Are you sure!? That's way out of the way!"
2. "I wanted"
3. Oh...this place...
4. "To come back here"
5. "..."
6. That bridge...
7. "But"
8. "For a walk"
9. It's...
10. "If our only memories are of being soaked in the rain..."
11. "After things calm down..."
1. "To see the night view after sightseeing in asakusa"
2. "So I wanted to make it the place we came"
3. "It wouldn't be a great memory,"
4. "Instead."
2. "!"
4. So instead
5. We stopped by the park where we used to talk after school.
6. "Too bad..."
7. School security had gotten tighter and we couldn't actually get inside the grounds,
1. "What did you want to do at the school? Why are you writing? You can talk"
2. "It just feels weird, like I'm talking to myself."
3. "Cough cough"
4. "What did you want to do at the school?"
5. "Oh well..."
6. The reason I wanted to visit the school
8. is 'cause I felt like if we were going to start over, that's the place to start from.
9. I want to read the letter I threw away at the other inn, so write it again here.
10. "Thanks"
11. "Hahaha, I think that falls under "Just because"!"
12. "Right?"
13. "Cough cough"
1. "Oh!"
2. "Speaking of that inn! The other inn!!"
3. "What was up with the decorating, right? Creepy!!"
4. "Haha ha!!"
5. "Ha ha!"
6. "It was like some sort of cross-cultural communication thing!!"
7. "Hahaha, you can't even laugh."
8. "?"
9. "..."
10. "....."
11. "Ha ha ha ha ha!!!"
12. They were selling talismans for 1800 yen!
13. With a sign that said "best seller"
1. "..."
2. "Mine are cold, too, but so are yours."
3. "Your hands, I mean..."
4. "Hey..."
1. But if we'd just kept on holding hands maybe they would have warmed up...!
2. ...I let go too soon that time...
3. Both our hands were so cold, I just gave up,
4. "..."
5. You don't give up, do you
6. "Hahaha."
7. "I mean..."
1. "..."
2. "Yeah."
3. "Hey..."
4. "And you're so cute, after all."
5. "Do you remember what we talked about here after graduation?"
6. "I feel bad for you right now"
7. "Now farewell, farewell, my friend..."
9. "For that bright shining tomorrow..."
10. "..."
1. "Uh, um..."
2. "Sorry. For every- thing..."
4. "Uh..."
5. "..."
6. I'm running out of space left to write...
7. "I re- member."
8. "What's up? The offer's still good."
9. there's been something
10. I could never tell my parents or my husband or my boyfriend or my friends, can I tell you?
11. Ever since I was little
1. "If"
2. "You're ever in trouble"
3. "And there's no one else you can turn to,"
4. You were probably talking about money...
5. Sorry for always asking for other things...
6. "Don't hesitate to ask..."
8. It's something I've kept inside for 30 years, so don't tell anyone.
9. "I'll do... Whatever I can."
10. "I promise"
1. "...I just wanted to tell you that..."
2. "Um..."
3. "I, I, I,"
4. "I'm going home."
5. "...no."
6. "Oh."
7. "Do,"
8. "do you want to walk home together...?"
9. "...yeah."
10. "I don't..."
11. "Now that's something you'll never have to ask anyone again, so I'll cross it out. I won't...tell anyone..."
12. "It's okay."
13. "And..."
1. You don't
2. Someday I hope you'll die by my side. That's all I wanted to say. When you've served your time, shall we look for a home together? If (because?) it's too difficult to be lovers or friends, how about as family?
3. "Want to go home?"
1. I want to go home
1. That day in art class where we had to draw portraits of each other,
2. "So hey..."
3. "The first time..."
4. "I talked to you,"
5. Had something happened that day?
6. I've always wondered...
1. "Oh."
2. "Huh...?"
3. "Oh... You mean..."
4. "Listen..."
5. "The day your mom left...?"
7. "Yikes!!!"
8. "... Sorry ..."
9. "Guess I shouldn't have asked... I had no idea..."
10. I was so sad that day...
11. "You must have felt... Pretty rotten..."
12. Someday when this cold clears up, I'll tell you again.
13. "I had no idea..."
1. "Excuse me."
2. Yet all I can remember
4. "Come in!"
5. "Lost something? Need directions...?"
7. "...!!!"
8. Is my smiling face.
10. "No."
1. Loves his big sis!
2. Tsuruta Kohei
3. 12/18/1972
4. from Osaka
5. lives in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo (Hakozaki)
1. Afterword
2. I'm occasionally asked why I called this manga "Gunjo".
3. "Because this manga's image color is ultramarine blue." When I first started serialization, I told my editor I wanted to title it ~Ultramarine Blue~, so it originally gets its title from the color ultramarine blue. [Note: (gunjou) = ultramarine blue in Japanese. The first kanji means group or cluster, and the second kanji means blue.]
4. However, as an author I didn't really have any direction or goal or theme and I was a little unsure of myself, so I just didn't feel like I could create something that would live up to that name, so I changed the "gun" kanji to and dropped the "ultramarine blue" subtitle. [Note: is just a different (uncommon) way of writing. The meaning is the same.]
5. With the radical slightly to the side, there's no feeling of weight or suffocation, but I like the way it looks with the heavy supported by the fragile legs of .
6. It's an unbalanced relationship. Sometimes I'd look at the kanji while working and think "I made you into a manga." [Note: Although it does not have that meaning in the kanji or , when the radical is used on its own, it literally means "you". She sees her characters in the unbalanced relationship of the two parts that make up .]
7. The word "gunjo" or ultramarine blue, which became the title of this manga has no meaning in relation to the story, but now that it's over, if I were to give some meaning to the formerly meaningless (to me) , the only thing I could think to say is that "that part of your youth that you've been dragging along all this time is over now". But that's just something I thought of right now and I might say something different later. [Note: is the first kanji in the Japanese word for youth, .]
1. Songs I listened to:
4. Nakajima Miyuki: Ai Dake wo Nokose, Kaze ni Naranai ka, Mabataki mo Sezu, Sora to Kimi no Aida ni
6. Nakajima Miyuki: Tenbin Bakari
8. AKB48: Heavy Rotation
9. I was finally able to bring them to the conclusion I'd planned out since before I even started drawing the first chapter.
10. Thank you for seeing it through to the end.