Ikoku Nikki Chapter 52: Release Date, Spoilers & Where to Read

There’s no short list of slice-of-life mangas. There is a huge market out there for the various genres of anime and mangas such as drama, fantasy, shounen, shojo, romance, and more. In this broad list of manga categories is the one catering to older women, that is ‘josei’. One such josei manga is Ikoku Nikki by Yamashita Tomoko.

The name itself suggests ‘different’, which can sum up the situation in this story. Your life from yesterday is different from what it is today, Two different people come together and try to live differently than the way they did before.

Ikoku Nikki shows the lives of two people who are brought together by circumstances. No, no, they are not lovers, but rather an aunt and her niece. Makio Kudai is a 35-year-old novelist who was living on her own, away from her family. After a long time of zero communication, when she is suddenly given the guardianship of her 15-year-old niece, you can imagine the peaceful daily life turning upside down.

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Asa Takumi lost her parents and has no one to rely on except a distant aunt. Makio is estranged from her sister due to reasons, but very clearly states to Asa that she hated her sister (Asa’s mother) and is not emotionally capable of loving Asa as a niece just because of blood relations. However, she cannot ignore the fact that Asa is just 15 and does not deserve a cold and harsh world, and rather something beautiful.

Despite her low ability in daily household chores, Makio is a very elegant speaker, thanks to her profession. The death of Asa’s parents and its impact on both the main characters is shown rather than directly diving into the story of these two ladies interacting and getting together.

Now a quiet woman in her mid-thirties has to live with a grief-stricken teenager and care for her in her own way. They are opposites in their personalities but life always has a plan for all of us.

This story shows the daily lives of both these ladies (young and old), the way they deal with their grief of losing someone, and how their relationship grows warmer over time.

Ikoku Nikki Chapter 51 Recap

Another day in the lives of Makio and Asa- Asa asks Makio to return a book to Kasamachi-kun when she’d go on a date with him. But Makio clarifies to a confused Asa that Kasamachi is just a friend.

In the whole dinner “not-a-date” with Kamasachi, Makio discusses how time is going by so quickly with Asa. Especially because Kamasachi mentions Asa talking about exams and job hunting. When ordering food, Makio is surprised to find the menu to be changed from the last time she visited.

Upon further prodding, she says that she now calculates time from when Asa arrived in her life. She mostly refers to any incident based on when and what Asa did. All of this is because she does not check on how time passes by and how quickly the seasons change. She also mentions getting anxious about being tied down.

Makes sense, considering she was a lone woman with no husband or children but now she has a niece to look after, out of nowhere. Kamasachi tells her that he finds this whole thing beautiful. Like a satellite revolving around someone, which might crash if you are too close. This is a beautiful comparison according to the situation.

There’s a brief flashback of Makio screaming at Kasamachi about him not being able to understand – be it her feelings or the circumstances, whereas in present Makio admits that “maybe that is why she was scared of getting closer to Asa, she might crash”.

Kasamachi however, bursts her bubble of getting involved in Asa’s life when he points out that she was already involved the moment she took Asa in as her own. He also compares the situation between him and Makio and between Makio and Asa. Stating that while he and Makio were further away from each other’s orbits, both Asa and Makio were closer than they thought (Progress!). Not only this but also that Makio might be cared of losing her own orbit while straying closer to Asa.

But Makio has her own thoughts regarding this. While she may still hate her sister, she feels that leaving behind your daughter might be even scarier. Kasamachi consoles her with a line said by his teacher- Raising children was a continuous stream of fear. Only for Makio to deny raising Asa. But nevertheless, Kasamachi persists and makes her understand that ‘even loving is an act of overcoming fear’. (Take this to heart folks!)

The topic of discussion goes further when they discuss briefly Makio imagining Kasamachi marrying someone else even when they were in a relationship- with each other! Also, some ‘situationship’ going on over here. Kasamachi does simplify it for Makio they may be a satellite as they were involved with someone from a distance and are okay with not giving back the same that they are given.

Later on, on her walk home, Makio ponders whether her sister was scared and how she still seems young and pretty when she thinks about her. Makio wonders whether it will be fine if she held Asa dear, just as her sister once had.