JULY 31ST, 2012 · 75 NOTES 407Please respect copyright.ļ¼°ļ¼„ļ¼®ļ¼”ļ¼®ļ¼”X4iWxIhzBs
KARIN UZUMAKI KARIN UCHIHA SASUKE SASUKARIN SASUKE TRANSLATIONS FYSK: LAP FYSK: POINTERS KARIN'S CHARACTER QUOTE MISCONCEPTIONS THE BOND SPECULATION
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ABOUT KARIN’S LINE IN 485 MEANING SHE IS “OVER SASUKE” [ + OTHER THINGS]
I’ve seen a good amount of people using Karin’s line in Chapter 485 (which has been translated as either “Actually… forget it, I’m done with you…” or “No… I don’t care about him anymore”) to claim that Karin has stopped loving Sasuke altogether; or that have interpreted it as Anti-SK.
So I thought it wouldn’t hurt to address it; and tbh, rather than doing it due to the aforementioned reasons, I’m doing it mostly because I’ve seen a good part of the fandom saying that they gained respect for Karin (awesome!) due to this line, but that they would completely lose all respect for her if it turns out she still has feelings for Sasuke.
And the latter is not awesome; why? because they’re having unrealistic expectations (feelings - love [especially in Kishi’s manga] does not work that way), and setting their perception of Karin’s character atop of a deck of cards that does not have a stable foundation.
First of all, I’ll address the line itself:
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“iya… mou iinda… sasuke no koto wa…”
Which loosely translates into “no… that’s enough… [of] about Sasuke…”
The difference between the line in Japanese and the way it was put in the English translations is quite something, isn’t it? Perhaps not as far as meaning goes, but when it comes to its tone and feeling.
I asked a fellow Japanese friend about it; without giving her much context (I only said it was a girl saying this about a guy she loves) I sent the line to her (I didn’t even send her the panel itself, merely the transcription - and as you can see, I even took out Sasuke’s name and wrote ‘he’ instead) and asked her whether it showed some hesitance on her end.
This was her reply:
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“[…] sounds like the person is giving up unwillingly”
That is exactly what is going on in that panel; the line is not only backed up by the mood of the panel (look at it, it’s deliberately made so that Karin looks small, lonely, and desolate) but also by the panel that came directly before it.
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^ this is Karin concerned about Sasuke and the fact that he is overdoing it; after being instinctively concerned about him, as she would have usually been, Karin tells herself that “no… it’s enough” because Sasuke betrayed her. He hurt her.
And more than that: he simply is “not the Sasuke you used to know”. He is a “completely different Sasuke.” He is a stranger. His essence and his chakra and his behavior and his words are the complete opposite of how he usually was; of the Sasuke, Karin fell for, bled for, fought for.
It is enough.
The line in question is not meant to reflect that Karin has absolutely “given up” on Sasuke or “gotten over him” (again: love - especially the kind of selfless love Karin feels for the guy - does not work like that); what that line is meant to showcase is that Karin does have self-respect and that she is strong enough to be assertive about the situation. And this is one of the things that makes her so good to Sasuke because she is not about to knock herself down a notch below him and let him do as he pleases; in other words, this yet another instance that showcases that Karin is well suited to Sasuke.
But this [Karin’s assertiveness, Karin’s self-respect] is not something that came out of nowhere and was solely showcased in this panel. No.
That panel is the epitome of consistent behavior and character traits that Kishi had been showcasing since Karin’s introduction. It is fair to regard it as a highlight, but it should not be held as the base of her character or as the only moment when she has showcased dignity and self-respect because it is not.
And moreover, what that line represents as far as her feelings for Sasuke go is that Karin is not in love with an illusion. She can, logically, acknowledge when the Sasuke she fell in love with is no more; that is what her mind and senses are telling her. There is not a shadow of a doubt about Sasuke’s change.
So she tells “shut up” to her heart and is her usual assertive-self. But you can easily see that her mind and her heart are in disarray when it comes to the Sasuke issue; so it is not something definite. It is tied to Sasuke himself and to what he will do / how he will behave from now on.
Karin will, logically, require a reason as to why she should give a chance to Sasuke again (in other words: this is good for SK). And even before that, she will require a glimpse of hope about the Sasuke she fell in love with still being in there, somewhere.
Turns out, it is quite possible Kishi already delivered the latter, in Chapter 487:
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^ this is Naruto, however briefly, actually reaching Sasuke; this is 'Dark'suke reacting to Naruto’s words and deciding to pause his revenge in order to make him a promise that, as we recently saw, he does intend to uphold: he is going to kill Naruto first before touching Konoha.
And what do we see right in the middle of it? That’s right, Karin going “…” which most likely indicates she felt something in Sasuke’s chakra. Otherwise, Kishi wouldn’t have bothered to randomly place that panel in.
But alright, that’s just speculating on my part lol
What I’m trying to say is: tl;dr when it gets confirmed that Karin does still have feelings for Sasuke, do not claim that this shows that Karin has 'no self-respect’; because Karin’s line is not tied to Karin getting over Sasuke, but to Karin being emotionally strong enough to be able to be assertive about what happened and acknowledge what he did to her, without blindly clinging to an illusion.
And that’s what matters, IMO.
ns 15.158.61.44da2
