Planet

Name: Planet. (惑星)

Author: Konohara Narise (木原音瀬)

Synopsis: Poverty, violence, exploitation, death... Mura, a man who believes he's an "alien," lives alone and homeless in the slums, waiting for someone from his star to come for him. Enduring hunger and the grind of harsh, daily-wage jobs, he maintains a quiet existence, sometimes cheated out of money but accepting his life and finding a certain peace in his daily routine. However, this bleak but stable life is disrupted when he encounters a young artist, setting off a story that explores the light and darkness of a man living at the bottom of society without a place to call home.

Publisher: Shueisha (集英社)

Publication date: September 26, 2024

Illustration: Waka Hiraku (平庫ワカ氏)

Raw Source

Check the tags on Novel Update

Genre: Adult, Yaoi.

Status: Completed

Table of Content:

Comments

  1. JewelsNovember 4, 2024 at 2:11 PM

    I’m not a fan of this translation 😭. Mura's thoughts were fragmented, and his descriptions were almost childlike. His perception of his surroundings is disjointed and nonlinear, and he doesn’t have a consistent sense of time passing; the story flows through moments of heightened awareness rather than in chronological order. This was challenging to convey in the translation and threw me off balance, so please forgive me for the less-than-perfect result 🙇‍♀️

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    1. AnonymousNovember 4, 2024 at 11:31 PM

      AH!!!!! i'm screaming!! I'm about to read it later tonight! Also I'm so happy to see there's other commenters! it makes everything more lively 😄! Seems like this is gonna be really sad one so i'm strapping myself in lol

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    2. JewelsNovember 5, 2024 at 8:34 AM

      I'm really happy with the other comments too~ it's so nice to have other people to talk about Konohara's works, finally I don't have to keep this obsession only to myself haha

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  2. DNovember 4, 2024 at 7:09 PM

    Thank you so much for translating this! I've been looking forward to reading it since Konohara-San posted about it on twitter. I'm sorry it was a tough translation. I feel like Konohara-San was probably in a sad/confused type of mood while writing this...I am super interested in tracking the motifs of light and darkness in this novel. As well as the reoccurring theme of turning hate into love. My favorite thing about reading konohara-san's works is her ability to write characters who hate each other into love so well. Thanks again!

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    1. JewelsNovember 4, 2024 at 8:03 PM

      You’re very welcome~ I was also eagerly awaiting this novel and was thrilled when the Kindle version was announced! There’s something special about reading a recent work by Konohara-sensei, and Planet definitely stands out—the writing style and themes feel so unique. Yet, her talent for creating flawed, deeply real characters remains as powerful as ever. This has become one of my favorite novels, but I don’t think I’m ready to dive back into it just yet. I desperately need something light-hearted after this 😅

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  3. Daisy14November 4, 2024 at 10:56 PM

    Hello! Thank you for translating this interesting story :)

    OMG How could it end like that? This story left me feeling dazed. Is it really the end? Goddd I hope there'll be a sequel cause this isn't enough. I have so many question, like first of all Why was Kan san so mad? Is it just because its coming from an unreliable narrator? Like truly I don't understand. For other things like about his mom and dad, I already read between the lines wayyyy before the reveal. But the ending, I really don't understand. I tried to find a discussion on this novel but found none huhuuu. I hope more people would read this.

    Oh and a genuine question, why is it tagged as Yaoi? Did I miss a yaoi part? Cause I don't think him getting raped by men makes it a yaoi. Plus the ML isn't really an ML??? Do you get what I'm trying to say? I'm not trying to say that Kan san isn't the ML but I dont think there's a romantic relationship here. I dont know how to explain it but I don't think Kan san's feeling for Mura was in a romance sense. I think he thought that Mura was interesting and being with him, made him see things differently and him helping Mura with his basic needs like food and shelter is sort of like (I forgot the word) but it's when someone does something just to make themselves feel better about themselves. Yk what I mean? It's not pity but something else.

    - English isn't my first language so I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say here.

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    1. DNovember 5, 2024 at 3:07 AM

      For me, any kind of homoerotic (sexual or romantic relationship) depicted between two male characters is yaoi/BL. Regardless if there is consent or not. It is stated that Kan has an ex boyfriend ( so that means he was in a homoerotic relationship off the page). I do believe that Kan was in love with Mura and vice versa. The patience Kan had toward Mura, the way they both would caress each other's face, them sleeping in the same bed, Kan taking Mura home (shows at least attraction in my eyes), Kan taking care of Mura after the sexual assault and wanting to carve Mura's face into wood, so that he could always look at/know Mura's face, were all actions/things that gave love to me. I believe Kan was angry because he felt like he didn't deserve Mura, that Mura was too good for him. Kan was insecure & felt like he wasn't as kind as Mura believed him to be. He was also angry because he was in love/had a crush (which is also homoerotic) on Mura, and erroneously believed that Mura had sex with another man. Kan only heard the doctors talking about it as Mura doesn't have the vocabulary, sadly, for rape to let Kan know what really happened. In the end of chapter 5, Mura thinks about Kan and states he wants to be with him. Mura thinks about touching Kan and wants to stay by his side forever..... It is just hard to understand because Mura doesn't have the vocabulary or experience to say 'I love you' to Kan.

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    2. JewelsNovember 5, 2024 at 8:29 AM

      Daisy14, You are very welcome ❤️ And don’t worry, English isn’t my first language either, so I totally understand the challenge of trying to express your thoughts and feelings as you would in your native tongue 😁

      I think Kan was mad because he took Mura in, gave him shelter and affection, and then assumed Mura was going around with other men. Maybe he felt betrayed, jealous, or even disillusioned because he saw Mura as someone detached from worldly desires. That’s just my guess, though… The ending is definitely abrupt, and without Kan's perspective, we’re left to rely on Mura’s limited vocabulary and his unique sense of reality.

      I decided to use the Yaoi tag because there’s an underlying romantic or affectionate dynamic between the two, even if it’s subtle and mostly on Kan’s side. It may be one-sided, but we have to consider how Mura views the world. His thinking is very simple—he understands things in terms of like/dislike, good/bad. He can’t quite grasp complex emotions like love, but he does know Kan is special to him. He feels drawn to Kan because he finds comfort and calm in his presence, which I think goes beyond just wanting to feel good.

      So while their romance isn’t explicit, and we might hesitate to call it “romance” in a typical sense, I feel like Kan had romantic feelings for Mura. He would get flustered whenever Mura showed affection, asked him to sleep in the same bed, and didn’t mind when Mura was being all cuddly 🥺. Was Mura in love with Kan? We don’t know for sure, but Kan was the most important person in Mura’s life—he just didn’t know what to call it 😞.

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    3. JewelsNovember 5, 2024 at 8:32 AM

      D, thank you for your comment ❤️ you were able to explain it better than I could 😅 I totally agree with you, I think their relationship went beyond mere friendship.

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    4. Daisy14November 5, 2024 at 11:55 AM

      Woahhhh thank you for both of your comments. Okay I totally understand both of your answers for the yaoi question hehe. I also believe that their relationship can't be called as friends.

      But I'm happy rn cause I finally could understand why Kan san was mad because of yall. So thank you hehehe. Ohhh and another question, (sorry for a lot of questions) I just remembered that at the end, the dude who gave Mura a job said that the job was making electricity by the sea? So what does that mean? I thought it was like an oil rig but thats too far into the sea and needs much more experienced people for the job. But then Mura said in the "poem"? at the end that protective clothes was uncomfortable, so maybe my thought were right? What do yall think?

      But I truly hope that we could get a sequel maybe from Kan san's perspective. OHHH and do yall think that Mura's dad knew about what happened to his wife? I was spiralling overthinking about that. Like how maybe he also saw the same DVD and couldn’t do anything. But then I remembered him wearing the hair tie same as his wife's skirt so maybe he doesn't know? Honestly idk. What happened to the dad was also so tragic. At first I thought that because there were already a lot of accidents happening, he just one day unluckily got into one too. But then when it was revealed it was only days after what happened to Mura, I was just shocked. The dad must've confronted them and they retaliated back. RIP Mura's dad.

      Plus the mom's ashes being with that POS makes my heart boil. I just can't– The overthinking that I did for this story was a lot as you can see.

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    5. JewelsNovember 5, 2024 at 1:15 PM

      Please, ask away~ it's so nice to have people to discuss these novels with 😁

      In Chapter 2, one of the characters mentioned: "I heard recently that some recruiters outside the Center are tricking laborers and bringing them to nuclear plants." This might be me overreaching, but the Fukushima nuclear plant, which had a meltdown after the 2011 tsunami, is by the sea. I wonder if Konohara got some inspiration from that, and even though it's fiction, I sure hope it’s not meant to be the same nuclear power plant 😞

      I don’t think Mura's dad knew what his wife was up to during the day. Mura mentioned that his dad worked all day, but he took good care of them until she suddenly disappeared.

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    6. Daisy14November 5, 2024 at 3:26 PM

      IKR it's so nice to discuss something we have in common hehehe

      OH DAMNNN A NUCLEAR POWER REACTOR? GODDDD I totally forgot about that part. Damnnnn oh shoot now that's gonna make me overthink about this even moreeee goddd. I hope not tho truly huhuuuu. Gosh I hope if there's a sequel it wouldn't have a tragedy tag. If it does, then I wouldn't even read it cause that would crush me.

      And about the dad, I hope that's true cause knowing the truth would hurt so much.

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    7. Daisy14November 5, 2024 at 3:41 PM

      Oh and btw I'm really happy to see that there's comments now hehehe. I just went back to chapter 2 to see the thing you mentioned and I just saw the comments. YAYYY more people reading this.

      Thank you again for translating this story. You really did a good job at translating this especially cause the narrator is someone like Mura.

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    8. JewelsNovember 6, 2024 at 7:46 AM

      thank you~ ❤️🙇‍♀️

      Delete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM

    I still think about this story... I keep wondering about Mura and that ending.. if he still has to endure more suffering, if he's still being taken advantage of.. and if so, I hope someone comes and saves him.

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    1. JewelsJanuary 21, 2025 at 8:19 AM

      This one is really heartbreaking 😢 I’m still holding out hope for a sequel that gives us some closure. Mura deserves a happier ending!

      Delete

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