This was my favorite chapter in The Gem saga: it was whimsical, musical, the designs were challenging and fun.
Up until this moment Kane was faring well and swimming in his comfort zone: he was painting, being acrobatic, being artistic in general and being his usual self.
Singing is the real challenge. If you want to make it somewhere, sometimes you have to make it by doing the things you are not comfortable with.
Anyways it's almost the same when you get first hired somewhere and you are the last one to come in, the intern, and will have to do what others don't want to do.
When you have to face the music you have to face it all the way: Kane feels heartbroken and is convinced he cannot sing. So he ask for help to Dingen, the official court singer, and asks him to teach him.
It's a classic "rumor spread" song.
You even hear Mr Anise speak a bit of "S'inglish".
Well, the Anises are from South East Asia, so I thought I'd have them speak the way we speak English over here, every now and then, it could be fun.
Followed by a part I call: test, enemies, allies.
Lucky for Kane he can turn enemies in allies here and manages to involve everybody in his adventure
Of course the issue right now is still figuring out what to sing and will singing be enough to get him closer to Gemma?
At this point of the story Kane has made contact with Catstalia - here drawn as derpy cat (hahaha I love this version).
Circe is now associating Kane with somebody else - we'll know who when she'll tell Kane a story.
Kane has emotions he wants to express about his waiting, his longing... something that Circe feels "runs in the family".
Circe's feelings are also triggered by the song Kane is singing, which was sang by his grandfather all the time.
We've heard this song before. Here:
when we realized that Kane can actually sing and has a deep voice but very seldom use it.
Every time somebody has a good idea a bunch of people want to hop on the bandwagon and tag along - and maybe change it to their own liking.
But no matter what idea one may have of that project and how they see it, the original author has his own vision and nobody should push him around and get the idea corrupted.
He is the one with the whole vision, from beginning to end, the rest have bits and pieces and lots of wishful thinking.
So Kane is asking for a bit of respect here.
Terry Pratchett, who had just died, expressed this concept wonderfully in the sentence you find in the bottom left speech bubble.
Only children jump into a hero's journey with no fear.
An adult, refuses the call to adventure a couple of times before he jumps in. So Kane falters for a while, in doubt.
So this is what Kane is singing, let's compare it:
The song was successful and although he did not get him a full invitation to the inner circle, Kane is invited to have merenda (afternoon snack, very much like a pic-nic) in the inner gardens, provided he makes the snacks.
He takes off halfway during the merenda to go fetch his art supplies.
It's his bond with Catstalia that finally gets Gemma to talk to him and let him in the inner circles.
Remember? If she talks to him, he is "in" but he cannot talk to her unless she addresses him first.
This scene will repeat itself at the beginning of chapter 6. Almost like a "previously on The Gem of the Mediterranean Sea", hahaha.
Anyway, at the end of the chapter we realize that the reason why everybody looked so funny and everybody was singing and dancing was that the chapter was a puppet show, put up by Kane and Castalia to tell their story to their children (and Itzak).
A story within a story within a story.
In this panel there's a clue about Lorenzo.
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