(Pacer Graphic / Sophia Phillips)
“Firefly Wedding” is a manga series that finished earlier in February with its volume 12.
The series is a fairly short one for those used to reading longer winded mangas or shoujos. It says everything that it needs to be said in a manageable 79 chapters, but there is still enough content to keep you satisfied. There is word that the mangaka/author is releasing a few short spin-off books for the series, which is really exciting news for the fans.
In addition to that, there is said to be an anime adaptation for “Firefly Wedding” in the works. The fandom is being well-fed in terms of content, which I hear they are dying for. There are content warnings for this article, we will be discussing themes of suicide, sexual assault, sexual themes, violence and kidnapping.
What is it with the name “Firefly Wedding?” A personal theory is that it derives from the fact that our main character Satoko Kirigaya has a lasting heart condition that is slowly winning the battle against her body. Fireflies notoriously don’t live for very long, so it leads the audience to wonder if this manga is going to have a bad end in terms of her life or Shinpei Goto’s.
The idea of it meaning that one of them is going to have a short life is a horrifying, but very real possibility, both with her worsening heart condition and his reckless job as an assassin with no regard for his own life. Of course, we will be talking about the controversial ending of the controversial ending along with the everything else, so stick around to the end to find out.
Our story follows protagonist Satoko on a journey back to her home after finding herself trapped on the Celestial Maiden Isle, an island without proper laws in place or an official government. The island is dangerous, with people carrying swords and other weapons. There are no true punishments in place for any wrongdoing, which makes it the perfect place to breed evil.
In the early chapters, the reader is left in the dark on why Satoko was kidnapped in the first place, leading you to think that her abduction was because of her noble status.
A popular theory before the later chapters came out was that her father either had her sent there, or she had a hit put on her by her sister to get her out of the family. It being revealed that her father and her mother were sending for separate things in chapter 45 was a total shock.
It defies her entire reason for living this long on this island. Her drive to get back home and marry a wealthy man for her dear father’s final wish. When he shows up in chapter 44/45 and tells her that he had her sent to the isle as a means to set her up with the doctor from the earlier chapters in the brothel, it sent my blood boiling.
She trusted her father with her life, only for him to send her to a lawless isle to stage a hero saving her and force a marriage was one of the craziest reveals that I have seen. The fandom on reddit was both impressed by the reveal, while others weren’t shocked at all. With some saying that the father had that kind of unreliable face.
It’s later revealed that he did this with intentions to see her happily married, as well as to have a profitable outlook for their family name. This is shown when her father confronts the head of the Okumura family. There is a scene in chapter 71 where her father pleads with the head of the Okumura family to give her a chance at marrying his son and combining their families, only for him to be taken into police custody.
This scene was genuinely one of the best scenes in the manga. Seeing him be taken into police custody was so satisfying after everything that he put Satoko through.
Satoko has a strong resolve through the entire manga with a fierce need to live despite her possibly fatal heart condition. She shows this immovable spirit from chapter 1.5 when, during a moment of uncertainty, she offers her hand in marriage to an assassin that she doesn’t know. It took a leap of faith for her to believe that the assassin would actually help her, all for him to become her very reason for living.
Their romance felt very interesting from the moment they met, given that they were raised up in two very different environments. She hailed from nobility, while he came from more humble, poor beginnings. She acts nothing like you would expect from a noble with a headstrong attitude and a lack of shame in trying new things.
When Shinpei tells her that she needs to become a prostitute, she does so with little hesitation after he explains. She doesn’t turn her nose up at work and actually insists upon it when they provide her free food and lodging.
Her attitude towards the other girls remains respectful and kind, even the ones that she isn’t fond of. The relationship that we see foster between her and Aoi becomes special. Even after Aoi tricks her into the barn with Shinpei to get rumors started about her, Satoko never turns cold on her.
She even goes as far as to talk Aoi down from suicide and embrace her in what could have been her last moments. It makes for a powerful moment when Satoko finally experiences the power of girlhood and uses it to her advantage.
You have to think, Satoko had no experience with socialization before this, but throughout the series you can see her social skills improving exponentially as she socializes with the other girls like Shinpei and Kotaro. For her to gain these skills over the span of not even a year is astounding. It shows that trauma can mature you quicker.
Her age is stated in two separate chapters, but both say different things. One says 16 and the other 19. Either age, the growth in her blossoming into a mature woman instead of the naive girl she was in chapter one is nothing short of amazing.
The way that her insecurity is painted also shows up in short scenes throughout the series, but one of the most impactful moments is actually in chapter 38 when she confronts Asagiri. Asagiri teases her for over ten chapters it feels like honing in on her insecurities as a way to deflect from her own, if not more.
Satoko picks up on her insecurities more clearly in chapter 38 and takes the time to relate to her, claiming, “Showing your ugly side is painful, even if you believe in the other person. So I understand Asagiri-san’s feelings.”
This is a powerful moment that changes the course of their work together. They work together to gain more information on Satoko’s mothers involvement in getting her kidnapped, only for it to be revealed that both her mother and father had a hand in her being kidnapped.
Asagiri also reveals that Satoko’s mother had actually sent for the men that attempted to assault her in the second chapter. Her mother wanted to ruin her virtue and leave her broken.
This begs the question. Why would her mother do such a thing?
It’s never stated directly, but the fandom has a couple of guesses as to why she would do such a thing. She hates the attention that her daughter is getting because of her illness being one of them. The one that I will stick by though, is that all of the attention to Satoko took away from her sister who is actually healthy.
We don’t hear much more about her mother after it’s revealed that her father had the larger hand in getting her sent to the island.
Shinpei however is the more interesting player in this. He comes from nothing and seems to have no real emotions besides baseless obsession with Satoko. His never-ending smile leaves no question to his insanity, especially when it’s revealed in chapter 70 that he leans into his hallucinations to cope with all of the people that he’s killed over the course of his life.
He has this ambition to marry Satoko at any cost, even when she’s not keen on the idea. His obsession even leads him to follow her request in killing no one for over 40 chapters of this series.
His trauma drives him into his own head. He has a lot of abandonment issues rooted in his mother dying and leaving him an orphan early in life. When Satoko admits her love for him, he doesn’t believe it because of her adamant denial for what we can assume is months.
When she convinces him that she does want to marry him and seals it with a kiss, it’s like a switch flips. He becomes more determined than ever to make that dream a reality.
He even goes as far as to attack the man that Satoko is later set to marry and crashes the ceremony.
Good news is, he is allowed to roam free thanks to the duke’s son wanting Satoko to have a good life and happiness. The bad news is that she only has a month left in her life.
With a worsening condition, he makes good on their promise of what they wanted from their long lives together.
He takes her out to a small cabin and carries out her dream, even taking care of her as she gets sicker. The scene that was especially upsetting was him figuring out that she was taking opium to manage her pain. He gets mad on her behalf because he knows that she wants to live and not have to rely on the medicine to have a long life.
This scene really hit a nerve because he told her that she would become an invalid and have to rely on opium forever after she started taking it. Though she wanted to live, her determination doesn’t feel like enough.
They hold a small private ceremony between the two of them to be wed before she gets worse.
Opinions on the ending though, I wish she would have stayed dead over the ending that they provide us with.
Her living and him not knowing about it for like 50 years leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Shinpei is the type of man that would visit her grave every day until he died and you’re telling me that he didn’t even know she was alive. Give me a break.
The fandom is very unsure of what to make of the ending, most claiming that it’s terrible and she should have stayed dead. Even if it did end at chapter 78, that ending was just as bad.
Having an unsure ending where barely any dialogue can confirm it almost makes it more open-ended.
Overall, the ending was weird. This story was a really dramatic, but good read. If you want some classic yandere romance, this would be the way to go if you can forgive the weird ending.
