Kusuriya no Hitorigoto 2nd Season Episode 10 Discussion

Great kaidan episode. I just have two questions. Does the title now canonically have a paranormal element? And do the Chinese actually have a similar tradition of telling kaidan stories? Or is this just an easter egg by the author?

@MegamiRem Considering how much this episode brought Maomao and Yinghua together, albeit comedically, I wonder if the writer intended to ship them as a joke pairing? I mean, there were at least two "gay out of context" gags in this episode.

@senku_13 This episode references the Japanese tradition of telling scary stories, where people gather together with candles and extinguish them after telling individual scary stories. While this helps cool down during the summer (a time for scary stories and content in Japan), the whole experience is scary in itself. It is believed that when all the candles are extinguished and all the stories are told, the participants approach the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead. That's why at the end the lights go out and all the participants expect paranormal things. Of course, fictional depictions of this tradition often include an "it was all part of the story" ending, where the storytellers die or getting isekai-ed in ghost world.

Anyway, google Hyaku Monogatari. True, in the original there should be 100 candles, but where will you find so many people for scary stories these days?

@ropiel This is called the hyaku monogatari tradition, part of the larger kaidan culture. If you're interested, you can look it up online. There's even a standalone arthouse movie Kwaidan featuring a couple of these stories that looks pretty cool.

Felt like a useless filler episode, which is a shame for this series.

1/5

Great kaidan episode. I just have two questions. Does the title now canonically have a paranormal element? And do the Chinese actually have a similar tradition of telling kaidan stories? Or is this just an easter egg by the author?

@MegamiRem Considering how much this episode brought Maomao and Yinghua together, albeit comedically, I wonder if the writer intended to ship them as a joke pairing? I mean, there were at least two "gay out of context" gags in this episode.

@senku_13 This episode references the Japanese tradition of telling scary stories, where people gather together with candles and extinguish them after telling individual scary stories. While this helps cool down during the summer (a time for scary stories and content in Japan), the whole experience is scary in itself. It is believed that when all the candles are extinguished and all the stories are told, the participants approach the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead. That's why at the end the lights go out and all the participants expect paranormal things. Of course, fictional depictions of this tradition often include an "it was all part of the story" ending, where the storytellers die or getting isekai-ed in ghost world.

Anyway, google Hyaku Monogatari. True, in the original there should be 100 candles, but where will you find so many people for scary stories these days?

@ropiel This is called the hyaku monogatari tradition, part of the larger kaidan culture. If you're interested, you can look it up online. There's even a standalone arthouse movie Kwaidan featuring a couple of these stories that looks pretty cool.

@RobertBobert Well, AFAIK in the manga the existence of the "ghost" was left much more vague... Idk abt the LN tho, haven't read as far yet. So technically yes, but it doesn't rly matter, the rest of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto are much more grounded in reality.

Abt Chinese culture, this is not technically based on any earth RL culture. Or to be more precise, it is a combination of Chinese and Japanese culture. Example, the names Maomao, Lishu, Luomen, and Loulan are Chinese-based. However, the names Hakuu, Gyokuyou, Suirei, Shishou, and Jinshi are Japanese-based instead. It doesn't borrow from a single culture specifically.

Now I want to go into a forest in the middle of the night to see those mushrooms. And hopefully don't die or be killed looking for it.

Shisui is nice, bring snacks and a good story.

Cut in the end just to remember that Jinshi is somewhere, and is part of the series.

So basically there were 12 people with 12 ghost stories... but the old woman said 13 ghost stories... cause she was gonna kill em all and make em the 13th story??