I assume the chicks being all male means the dad intends to raise and sell them for meat, rather than eggs. Honestly I'm surprised he built the coop himself instead of telling someone else in the family to do that, too.
This chapter made me as angry as I thought it would lol. I know this was the olden days and people were irresponsible with their dogs but I really hope Otto is capable of learning from this and keeps Ruko home from now on but I doubt it. What's also concerning is that Riki is horribly irresponsible too and Ken could still come and kick Ruko's ass again if another female (assuming that's what happened going off what it's based off) shows up.. or they just spat because Roku wants to be left alone. Didn't he imply in the last chapter Ken was aggressive to males in general to begin with?
Not much to say, but I don't blame Roku avoiding Ken from now on because of what Ken did to him. Roku shouldn't befriend a dog that turns out to be violently aggressive toward him. I don't even know why Ken keeps showing up to see Roku if he did hurt him. But I am damn sure that Ken wants to keep doing what he did to Roku. I know it might not happen at all when a female shows up, but I wish Roku could stand up and fight back.
And yeah...I also have the feeling that the asshole father wants those chicks to be raised so he could butcher them. Especially since none of them are females, if not a few.
It’s wild how casual people used to be about their dogs just letting them wander around like that, and then if something bad happened it was just a matter of ”oh well such is life”.
If the relationship with Ken and Roku is based in real life, I wonder if that was an inspiration for the relationship John and Gin have in the start of GNG.
And while I’m thinking about how Yoshi’s life has influenced his writing, if the depiction of Otto’s mother is truthful to reality as well, it puts an interesting spin on how Yoshi writes female characters. The writing is sexist, but considering what he presumably grew up with witnessing, it’s pretty cool that characters like Reika and Cross are depicted opinionated and verbally standing their ground in conflicts with their husbands and other (friendly) males. Reika is shown to put hot-headed Hiro in his place on multiple occasions while Cross cheers, and the Ohu dogs generally agree on the ”don’t piss off your wife / pack matriarch or you deserve the punishment” when it comes to mundane situations. Of course it’s far from ideal and the overall depiction of relationships and women is super dated and tired, but I think it’s a cool observation that Yoshi still gave his female characters way more agency than what he saw his own mother have. (Granted, I haven’t read Orion and everything’s in shambles in TLW and forward so I’m mostly thinking of GDW here.)
How cute to see Otto taking care of the baby chicks. And looks like Roku wants to be a hunter. Wild animals in front of him.
And one of the grown chickens pecks him on the cheek. That moment is pretty funny.
Seems like everything is fine despite the asshole father still arou-
*sees the asshole father giving Otto an ominous glowing stare*
...Nope. Everything is not fine.
...I'm not even surprised to see the dick father calling Otto out of bed for whatever reason, yelling at him, and then smacking him in the face for no apparent reason. Why isn't that guy exiled onto an island yet?
Back to snow season? Alrighty then. Otto and Roku sure are having a good ti-
...Oh shit. It's Ken. Roku sure hasn't forgotten about him.
Wait, no! Roku, don't do it!
Roku's in trouble now. How is he gonna fight back against Ken?
Thanks for the chapter Roku looks so cute in this chapter! God, I hope he doesn't get too hurt fighting Ken, I wonder what they're fighting about anyway, something new from last time?
Makes me wonder why Yoshi/Otto's D-Bag Dad bothered to have kids if he doesn't like them
I'm going assume that "walking past people as they talk is rude" is some cultural thing, because that seems like such a bizarre thing for even Otto's dad to lose his shit over. Of course him completely disregarding the fact that Otto literally got permission from the "slighted" guy is 100% on brand for him.
Seeing Otto watching the chickens reminds me of another one of Yoshi's stories about his real. Specifically, in one of his end-of-volume essays, he talks about how Kuro once killed a chicken of theirs for some reason and his father viciously beat him with a chain for it. And now I'm very worried for both the chickens and Roku...
I know I've been expressing a lot of negative emotions about Otto's father (in a reasonable way, though). But seriously, FUCK that asshole father. He's even more damn insane when he gets pissed and loses his temper over the littlest shit like "walking past" a guest. That's like when somebody accidentally drops a grape onto the floor and then the other loses their shit over it. It doesn't even matter if that was a "cultural" thing. What was Otto supposed to do when the guest gave him permission to walk on by? Just sit back and do nothing?
Asshole father: "Aren't you ashamed about what you did, Otto?!"
And aren't YOU ashamed for being such a dick all the time, bastard?
I would not even blame Otto if he finally gets tired of his dad and stands up for himself and fights back against his father at some point. Because holy shit, that guy should really be locked up so he would never hurt anyone ever again. Especially children.
EDIT: And for the asshole father to blame Otto's mother for literally no reason is also uncalled for. He should be blaming himself for his shitty behavior, even though he never will.
And the rivalry between Roku and Ken is heating up. Roku is bigger now. But I still have a bad feeling about what's gonna happen between those two dogs.
And after what Digsu mentioned in those black strips...I'm afraid of what I'm going to see in upcoming chapters.
Last edited by Spirit Tree on Sun Jan 22, 2023 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The back cover of volume 1 has an image of Roku alongside the sledding accident from chapter 1... which is kinda funny since he wasn't with Otto's family (or probably even born yet) when that scene took place.
That poor dog's back must hurt so bad from carrying the marketing for this series.
Initial reaction: Is it just me, or does that look like Roku and Ken are kissing more than fighting? Either way, Roku actually made Ken bleed. Good for him. But on one panel, does that look like Ken is talking?
That's right, Ken. Get the hell out of here. But did he just attack another black-furred dog? Or what is that panel supposed to be?
Hey, it's school time for Otto. That's a pretty big school building.
...Why do I get the feeling that somebody is gonna bully Otto at school?
Thank you Vanille!
Seeing how Roku and Ken fight, I wonder if that's where Yoshi got the inspiration from to when Hakuro and Aram fight, reminded me of that.
That kid in the last panel is definitely a bully. I don't like where this is going.