SPOILER WARNING: Due to the story's short length, as well as a Nested Story Reveal halfway through, all spoilers will be unmarked!
Asami Iguchi, also known as A-chan, is seen lining up with a group of people who are waiting to cross the river that is guarded by two teenage boys, in hopes that she can go in there and achieve her dream. But as it turns out, it's never that simple as A-chan sees other people being refused entry for various reasons. With that realisation, can A-chan be allowed entry into the river?
A-chan, Sotchi ni Ikanaide (あーちゃん、そっちに行かないで A-chan, Don't Go There) is a one-shot Doujinshi manga written and illustrated by Miki Usami. It was released on 15th of August 2010.
The original story can be found here: Rolling Panda site
Not to be confused with A Channel.
This story is very spoileriffic in nature due to its premise, so every spoiler on this page is inevitably unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
A-Chan Tropes
- All Just a Dream: The first half of the story is revealed to be in A-chan's own dreams.
- Ambiguous Situation: The unclear fate of anyone who visits the river, though judging with the happy expression of the boy who is allowed entry there, it is assumed that the river is a safe haven. This trope gets swiftly Subverted, however, as this story is just taking place in A-chan's own dream.
- Look Both Ways: What The Reveal turns out to be, as it is revealed that A-chan was hit by a truck while riding on a bike on her way to school. Downplayed as the injuries did not kill her but it instead led her to be hospitalised.
- Minimalism: The actual setting only takes place in a hospital as A-chan's dream sequence is within her dreams. As well as A-chan being the only recurring character.
- Minimalist Cast: Only A-chan is the recurring character in the story.
- Nested Story Reveal: The story is about A-chan (Asami Iguchi) seemingly waiting within a line of people who are going through a river blocked by two teenage boys, until she was refused entry by them. Halfway through the story, however, it is revealed that this was All Just a Dream and the real A-chan is in a hospital bed after she was hit by a truck while riding her bike to school. Some of the people she has encountered like Koki Masaru are revealed to be hospital patients in the same hospital she is in.
- Spoiler Cover:
- The sample page of the story on its own site, where A-chan has a bandage to her right eye and her forehead, as well as scrapes around her, spoils the big reveal that the story is a Nested Story Reveal and that she was involved in an accident. This also overlaps with Late-Arrival Spoiler as that said panel only happens during page 19, thus spoiling the majority of the story being just a dream.
- The original cover of the doujinshi (as seen in its store page on suruga-ya.jp), on the other hand, is an Aversion, where it only shows A-chan standing in a grassy field with the building behind her.
- Spoiler Title: The manga's transliterated English title, A-chan, Don't Go There, is a spoiler since A-chan is denied entry of entering the river (in her dreams somehow), which only happens in page 12.
- Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to talk about the main protagonist A-chan without mentioning that the whole story is simply happening in her dream and she has been hospitalized after all this time.
- Wham Shot: The whole of page 14 shows A-chan in a hospital bed being treated from her injuries, which completely recontextualises everything about the story.
