angemedia

Happy birthday, Clavis! I got you a translation of the prelude to one of the most miserable episodes in your tortured existence!

"Clavis's Last Love" Pt. 1 translation

ETA: Whoops, forgot to add a link to the page with the manga; it's the first of the "Episode 5" banners.

Thoughts: I found this one to be the strongest in a number of ways: The bit with Clavis's mother is effectively heartbreaking, particularly in her final lines, in a very small number of pages; Clavis's narration takes his malaise into full-blown depression; 255 is engaging, and the reasons why she and Clavis catch each other's attention are actually well thought-out and depicted; the bit where Clavis tells 255 that others are just beginning to recognize the talents she already has and that she doesn't have to strive to be wonderful, as she's already a wonderful person, is a fine example of the contrast between the type of support a Guardian of Darkness would lend vs. Julious's drive to exhort 255 to ever improve. The story's overall well-written and paced; I never would have expected something like this after the Lumiale disaster.

There is one part that bothers me, though: the complete absence of any friendship between Julious and Clavis. Their relationship here doesn't extend beyond that of a Mr. Spacely-George Jetson boss-employee relationship; they hate each other, and have always hated each other. While we definitely do not need other characters usurping the stars of the stories after the Lumiale fiasco, there's an aspect of the tragedy here on Julious's side that's lost in this retelling, of Julious being forced into an impossible position, and Clavis losing his childhood friend as well as his love at the same time. Granted, this version seems to be putting more emphasis on presenting 255's role in events (in which it does a good job in Pt. 1), and the whole "force Julious to do my breakup for me" thing doesn't put her in the best light (which makes me wonder if they'll do this plot point at all). It is a loss of depth in one aspect, though. I suppose I'll have to see how things develop.

The Guardians, according to the Retour twitter, got Clavis an impromptu pick-up band performance, hidden behind the hedges of his house. (Julious thought it would be a considerate gesture, since Clavis "doesn't like commotion." I would think that would nullify the idea of giving Clavis a noisy band performance in the first place. Or maybe, considering this is Retour Julious, he made the choice to actively annoy Clavis; who can say.) To list instrument roles out of curiosity: Marcel on recorder, Luva on tambourine, Randy on harmonica, Oscar on some sort of unspecified "percussion" (was he just clapping his hands?), Zephel on bass (though he mentioned trying to automate it and everything, so who knows if he actually plays it), Lumi on harp (of course), and Olivie on lute again. One mention of the lute thing before, and now he's playing it all over the place. Oh, and Julious conducting. They played "Happy Birthday" and left a banner ~~on one of his bookshelves~~ outside saying "Happy Birthday," and Clavis didn't seem to hate it, so everything seemed to work out improbably all right, I guess.

ETA: Important Miko Mitsuki update:

Clavis (thinking): Such noise...
SFX: ::JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE::
Zephel: LUVA, KNOCK IT OFF!!
SFX: ::JANGLE! JANGLE!!::
Luva: Yes! Yes!
SFX: ::JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE JANGLE::
Luva: Yesss!
(Clavissss! Happy birthdaaaay!)