Discord archive - About Shima, Mitsumi, Nao; the seashell, sand, and the sea

from what i think: light pink is often associated with softness, kindness, and calmness. it conveys warmth, nurturing energy, and subtle tenderness and it can also represent innocence, playfulness, or youthful affection. so it just likes mitsumi, a person who just has first few moments about the new place, with the new friends. i also think about this: in this world, there are many seashells, but not many of them are similar to each other, so it may represent the uniqueness of that specific seashell, and also mitsumi. she's unique to any others, because she is different, so unique, has a kind of energy that cannot be found in anyone. and that adds to the flavor of everyone life, somehow, you aren't able to forget her and just want to go to her to have a place to talk with, to share the memories with, because she's special, the one who brings them out of the darkest place of their.

from Chapter 25

for sand, i remember it for being unstable, not fixed and most importantly, it's so much. this imagery could represent shima's thoughts as transient, fluid, and difficult to pin down. it suggests a mind that drifts between ideas, unable to fully articulate or organize them. and because so many of it, i think it could symbolize fragmented thoughts—scattered and hard to gather into a coherent whole. the metaphor reflects a feeling of mental disarray or an inability to form structured, linear thoughts. also, sand could be tied to the concept of impermanence. just as sand slips through fingers, shima may feel like his thoughts or emotions are fleeting and hard to hold onto. this could hint at underlying uncertainty or a transient emotional state.

from Chapter 42

shima is not always good at being a stable, but can move easily by just the thoughts inside him (like the dinner scene in volume 9, it really depicts how easy for shima to bring his negative thoughts about what people could think about him, and that made shima ate more, because maybe he thinks mitsumi's family will get annoyed because the food they cooked isn't delicious or somewhat like that).

the scene when shima try to defend mitsumi is somewhat really confusing in his thoughts, there are uncertainties, because he wants to ignore it anyway. but the words mitsumi confessed to him really bring a change to him. it also portrays something about sand, serving as a foundation for building (e.g., sandcastles or concrete). while scattered, it holds the potential for cohesion, creation, and growth. this could represent his unstructured thoughts as raw material for deeper insights or creative expression. it can be a lot of crumbling like now, but there would be a change, a growth for him, just like sands, it can get stronger if it has enough conditions, and for this, mitsumi, friends, the changes in his mindset (most can be found in the latest chapter).

for nao... this takes a lot.

i immediately think about seashell again for the first frame. small, ordinary things like stones or shells often serve as memory triggers, holding emotional weight far beyond their physical form. in this case, it symbolizes the things remembered—moments, people, or emotions that are deeply cherished but distant. a shell withstands the elements, symbolizing resilience and permanence, even as time and circumstances change. this contrasts with the fleeting nature of human experiences, evoking a sense of longing for things lost to time but preserved in memory.

from Chapter 29

seashell may represent the moments of nao when she/he was in her/his youth, a sadness which couldn't say loud. but seashell is durable, it cannot be breakable, like the memories, because you want to forget it, it doesn't mean you can completely do it, things will still make you remember that anyway. there would be time you will see it again, and then cry. but at the same time, it could describe something about hope, as there are more seashells on the sea, so let the others take care of it and try to bring new things to it, and the time will make the color on it fade away. and you will see, that won't seem big as big like the last time you see it, it's now a small, colorless seashell, like the memories are now just the past, let's forget it and bring a new hope, a new color to it anyway.

so the beach, a liminal space between land and sea, symbolizes transitions—between past and present, joy and sorrow, connection and solitude. nao's reflection on the "beach covered with weeds" suggests an imperfect, unromanticized memory. it reflects how our pasts, her pasts are often messy, tangled with both beauty and hardship. so many things happened, so many unfortunates come to her that they make seem the life to be what, full of spikes, full of dangerous that we don't want to go through it anyway. i think of weeds being symbolized for things that grow without care or intention. you know how fast and vast are weeds can grow right, i find it to be. the image of a beach overrun with weeds might parallel the character's emotional state—memories or relationships left untended, overtaken by regret, guilt, or sadness. the vastness of the sea, the untamed weeds, and the smallness of the stone all reflect the inner landscape—complex, raw, and seeking balance.

from Chapter 29

you wonder how the beach will look like when you are happy, and when you are sad. and when you are in that sadness feeling, everything is full of messy, not even a seashell, a grain of sand and grass looks beautifully there, but rather than spikey. it may be comfortable at first, but the more you see it, the painful it gets. it's just what life is made to be, messy, unorganized. but that isn't meant to be, at that moment, this messiness is also a call to action. our desires are strong, we don't want to live like that way, so we stand up, and run to somewhere further, to somewhere that we think it can bring happiness to us. like nao, like anyone grappling with life’s messiness, doesn’t want to stay amidst the overgrown weeds forever. maybe she could might hurt, but her path is no longer dictated by others. there’s no turning back, only forward. only moving forward, then you know how the life isn't just messy that much, and the weeds never seem to be like the way it was before, and that seashell isn't much matter now.

while past pains cannot be erased, they can be reframed. the fading color of the seashell echoes the slow healing process—how time softens the sharp edges of grief, turning once-vivid memories into something faint, less consuming, and more manageable. this mirrors her potential for growth, as she seeks new experiences and colors to bring meaning to her life. life is full of different colors, so just go and find it, maybe bring that color to heal the sadness, the grief of time, of emotions, of memories. it worth more than just looking at beach and do nothing.

Resources

1. lila's tweets, her tweets are passionate and giving me a deeper dive into characters, I sometimes use her analysis as a ground for mine. You can follow and read her tweets here.

2. Most of the images of chapters I'm using is from comic-days, you can read it all the chapters here.

3. For translation, I use Tsubame Club's version as the main resource, you can also read all the translated chapters here