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[mondgewalt]

a little unrelated, but i thought i might include these too from the volume 3 extras

Jan finally learns Brawler's backstory

(In 2024) (After being tortured by at least two separate people who were weird about it)

In case you don't know, two specific, major (albeit short) scenes from Brawler's backstory are presented in Chapters 16 and 25 of the manga. In case you're not interested in reading the manga, they're summarised very plainly in his History section on the Wiki.

I genuinely recommend you read the manga, however, because the way it presents parallels is... unparalleled... by the anime.

Here is my breakdown! I'll try not to spend too much time on it because I've been awful at organising my time today, but if you know me, you'll know you're in for a few long paragraphs.

So - in the first scene presented in Chapter 16, Brawler's grandpa tries to teach him the type of lesson a mama cat might also try to teach to her young. He attacks an overly confident young Brawler with a boring haircut with chopsticks, and Brawler dodges, but he's obviously jumpscared by it. The lesson is: an attacker might come even when you feel safe, such as when you're eating! It's unclear what kind of life they're living, but what's for sure is that Brawler already has a habit of fighting, and is being instructed by his grandpa. Another element I noted is that their meal is fairly sober, and the house they live in is undecorated, with cracks in the walls.

Embarrassed that he got jumpscared, Brawler considers reciprocating the attack to scare him back. Just as his grandpa had, his grips both of his chopsticks.

The next two pages aren't a continuation of this scene. Instead, the both of them have clearly aged and Brawler's hair is cooler. His grandpa is wearing an eyepatch. When he repeats the same lesson again, Brawler points out that he doesn't have eyes to spare: it's strongly implied what might have happened.

Why didn't he dodge? "He wasn't going to chicken out and lose like he did." It seems that his grandpa is teaching him to have a strong ego more so than he is teaching him survival instincts. It's not about surviving the fight, it's about winning... at having the best fight possible. His grandpa teaches him masochism... I mean, his grandpa tells him to put his life on the line for a good fight.

This is giving me a second reason not to acknowledge Shikoku Arc as canon. One other theme ruined.

Brawler has very much learned from his grandpa's pride. He grabs his hand, holding his chopsticks, and points it to his eye.

Remembering these conversations is what inspires his strong reaction to Master in the Shinkansen.

Brawler did step back and look upset in the anime. What was missing was his point of view.

Not too long afterwards, Brawler says the same thing (although differently translated, which makes sense considering the added context of the manga) he had in the anime. The difference is: we now know why he says it.

He continues with: "the two of us are fighting with our lives on the line". This is what he just recalled his grandpa telling him.

About 9 chapters later, Brawler is about to die in a fight against Master. Staring at his opponent, he remembers that first conversation with his grandpa again. The very next minute, in fact: his chopsticks are bloody, and his grandpa's eye injured. Young-boring-hair Brawler stares in shock, while his grandpa calmly instructs him to... be a masochist... I mean, enjoy getting hurt as part of his enjoyment of a fight.

"You only live once. Enjoy fights to the fullest." There is an implication here that at least I am reading into: Brawler is in pain. We later learn that his injury was slowly reopening due to Doctor's purposefully botched surgery. The injury being shown in a previous panel is that same injury. Remembering his grandpa's words, Brawler decided to ignore the pain and let it kill him.

Famously something you should avoid doing. Except if you have a uterus, in which case, give it 7 years on average before it gets diagnosed. [...]

And then, telling his old man to watch him, he fucking dies.

This was a good chapter overall, even beside the flashback - like I mentioned above, the manga does a great job of showcasing parallels. In this chapter, Boss also explains to Pupil that Executioners like Master don't differ much from Akudama.

I genuinely didn't know this was what Brawler's flashbacks were like. All I knew was that he had a grandpa some people are weird about. What I now know is that Brawler had the worst grandpa on Earth??? He's like if your boomer grandpa were proud about getting dropped from a great height rather than about drinking from the hose when he was younger.

It really seems that this man's advice actively cost Brawler's life. And I don't think the manga shies away from implying that it's not right.

Boss' speech is from her point of view and about the Execution Division. But what ties it to Brawler is not only her own comparison of Executioners like Master to Akudama, but also, Hoodlum being paralleled to Pupil.

Hoodlum and Pupil are different people with different personalities, so it makes sense that their reactions would be different either way. We know Hoodlum shuts down up until he grabs the sword to attack Pupil, whereas she was crying the entire way. But I think the fact that she's actively aware of what is happening might lead to her stronger reaction, while Hoodlum is only just guessing and unsure.

In any case, what's clear is that Brawler's grandpa's advice was dogshit and clearly biased towards his own interest. Did Brawler really carry out what he himself wanted, or what his grandpa wanted? Was he bound to end up this way, learn this lesson, regardless? What doesn't change is that this stance is selfish - and leaves the ones you care about and who care about you behind. Plus, is this fight really worth the many other fights you could have had, had you lived longer?

It wasn't just Doctor, it wasn't just Master, it wasn't just himself - all of them, plus his grandpa, killed Brawler in that moment.

("This is not a children's playground, go home"... Oh, you're trying to be a sensible grandfather figure now, shithead? Why are you alive? This sucks!!!)

Most importantly, this puts emphasis on Brawler's ego. Brawler is a man with a great ego, which we now know he was taught to have. He doesn't just happen to be the best fighter - he aims for greatness. He wants to have a very long prison sentence just like Hoodlum. [...]

Much of his circumstances are still missing. First off, why was he taught to fight in the first place? And why was he separated from his grandpa? And did he have other family beside him? (Is Akudama Drive implying that if you only have one adult guardian, you're bound to become a criminal? I'm in deep shit. /ex) His flashbacks imply a fairly humble lifestyle. We know Brawler can eat a lot - were his needs and wants not met because he couldn't afford them? It's not like the quantity he was eating had increased by the later flashback, so the humble food, compared to his liking for huge servings of meat, was probably not a personal choice. That being said, we don't know his grandpa. Maybe he wanted that for him - he clearly had a lot of influence over Brawler.

I don't think these questions need to be answered to tell a good story. I do think all of these questions would have been more interesting to tackle than whatever Shikoku arc was about, however.

[mondgewalt]

Non-BL post‼️

Tag game specifically for those of us who are still actively into Akudama Drive after all this time: reblog and write in tags why you think you like Akudama Drive so much. (Try to consider why it stuck out to you, why it's an active interest to you rather than just a story you liked, etc. It's okay to mention it if you're not even sure)

[mondgewalt]

wait your username is moon violence... force?? my dutch ass was like m o u t h violence

yeah!! it‘s literally just a pokemon attack (moonblast) that i really like

[mondgewalt]

(tags via @mondgewalt)

I'm starting to find it immensely funny how this entire fandom (three people) just begrudgingly tolerates Ogaki at best

[mondgewalt]

hey so, I heard you had a bunch of the english chapters, and were giving them out when asked like..a year ago or something...? (totally missed that oops-) any chance that offer is still standing 👉👈

sksjdjdjdjd did i ever say that?? 😭 i never owned any of the english chapters, only the japanese ones! i could give you the japanese versions at most.

[mondgewalt]

the only reason i can think of to justify doctor's "unknown" gender is the possibility that her more masculine appearance, shown in the manga, was not her first either. the possibility that she moves from body to body regardless of gender. this could honestly be very interesting (even within the realm of what role her sexuality plays for her personality) but i have a vague recollection that she was shown exclusively collecting female bodies - implying she was seeking a sex change specifically...

...again, if that were the case, what a waste to miss out on that aspect of her characterisation. trans woman evil scientist who transitions evilly.

even if the case were that she was a woman who changed bodies regularly and wound up forced into using a man's body The One Time, it would have to be stated in the story to make sense. i hardly believe that's the case, since rokurou ogaki specifically seems to focus on her "actually being a man".

[mondgewalt]

*(slash j unless you're the one person with objective opinions on ships)

"Why no Ha-" only minor in the Akudama cast. Next question 🙂

[mondgewalt]

did i . did ijust. wait wait wiat. like did i notice this before and forget or did i never. because like . episode 12 aired on christmas eve. i remember that very distinctly.

swindler died on the cross on . jesus day.

[mondgewalt]

List and lyrics on the Wiki, Spotify playlist

[mondgewalt]

infecting the akudama drive tag. hello everyone.

[mondgewalt]

i've never seen a model sheet for this guy before ;_;

[mondgewalt]

honestly i don‘t know why this was added as well, probably as a joke?? i don’t think the team behind the german dub took hoodlum seriously, because there was also a scene in which he compared 20 minutes to an anime episode. overall, he‘s a very goofy character who speaks… very goofy.

i think this kind of change is a little common in the german dub? actually, not even this kind. i think the dub added a lot of things i haven‘t heard in any of the other dubs. one example is master mentioning his master when he hears pupil screaming for him in episode 6. he says something like „now i understand, she should see how her master dies, just like i did once.“ while in japanese he says „i understand, people like you (brawler) are the ones i hate the most“….

now i can finally talk about gender-hoodlum and explain what he said 😭

first off, here is the scene in question with a rough translation:

you might be wondering why i wrote Polizist*innen with an emphasize on innen instead of translating it normally, like i did when brawler said Polizisten. before i do that, i need to explain how the german language works:

unlike languages like english or japanese, german is one of many languages that uses grammatical gender. that means, instead of referring to everything with a single, definite article (e.g. ‘the‘) or none at all, german has a whole 3 of them (there is actually more but for the sake of keeping this short, i‘ll keep them to the 3 basic ones)! der, die and das. i‘ll only introduce you to der and die, as they are the most relevant right now.

der is the masculine version, used for words like der Hund (the dog), der Baum (the tree) and der Polizist (the police officer). as you can see, police officer is a masculine word, because it‘s a profession. professions usually use der, unless they‘re feminized and switch to die. every profession has a female equivalent (e.g der Arzt and die Ärztin, der Verkäufer and die Verkäuferin, der Feuerwehrmann and die Feuerwehrfrau).

die is the feminine version, used for words like die Katze (the cat), die Blume (the flower) and die Polizistin (the police officer). nothing about police officer changed in english, it still has the same meaning, but in german we‘re speaking about a female police officer. here is something important to note about die though: it‘s also always used for plurals. die Hunde (the dogs), die Bäume (the trees), die Polizisten (the police officers).

now since that is out of the way, you‘re probably still confused. why did hoodlum correct brawler? what the hell does *innen mean and what does that have to do with a political debate in germany?

what hoodlum did is called ‘gendern‘ in german, i think you know where the word comes from. it‘s a way to be inclusive in speech and writing by trying to refer to every gender instead of using the standard masculine words. for example, one common variation i see is Schüler*innen (students). i‘ll try to break it into parts and explain it

Schüler: der Schüler, the standard singular word and what is basically described.

*: a star to divide the noun and ending. when you vocally gender, this is a pause.

innen: die Schülerinnen, the plural and female word for Schüler. the ending is used to make it inclusive to female students.

btw i mentioned that gendern caused a political debate in germany… i think it‘s far bigger. while gendern has been a thing for years now (it just wasn’t called gendern back then) through other ways (e.g saying „Schülerinnen und Schüler“), it has caused recent controversy when *innen became popular. news broadcasts, some schools, etc. have started to use it and a lot of people began criticizing it:

“people who have been criticizing gender-inclusive language think: texts become longer and more complicated. There would also be no need for a gender-inclusive language. when someone is referred to as „Schülern“, it grammatically means everyone — boys and girls.“ text from https://www.zdf.de/kinder/logo/gendern-gendergerechte-sprache-geschlechter-100.html translated by me

controversy has been going so far that certain political parties even began to ban it from unis and other places.

so yeah, i can‘t explain it but seeing such a recent topic in fucking akudama drive, a japanese anime, is a little funny to me 😭

[mondgewalt]

now i can finally talk about gender-hoodlum and explain what he said 😭

first off, here is the scene in question with a rough translation:

you might be wondering why i wrote Polizist*innen with an emphasize on innen instead of translating it normally, like i did when brawler said Polizisten. before i do that, i need to explain how the german language works:

unlike languages like english or japanese, german is one of many languages that uses grammatical gender. that means, instead of referring to everything with a single, definite article (e.g. ‘the‘) or none at all, german has a whole 3 of them (there is actually more but for the sake of keeping this short, i‘ll keep them to the 3 basic ones)! der, die and das. i‘ll only introduce you to der and die, as they are the most relevant right now.

der is the masculine version, used for words like der Hund (the dog), der Baum (the tree) and der Polizist (the police officer). as you can see, police officer is a masculine word, because it‘s a profession. professions usually use der, unless they‘re feminized and switch to die. every profession has a female equivalent (e.g der Arzt and die Ärztin, der Verkäufer and die Verkäuferin, der Feuerwehrmann and die Feuerwehrfrau).

die is the feminine version, used for words like die Katze (the cat), die Blume (the flower) and die Polizistin (the police officer). nothing about police officer changed in english, it still has the same meaning, but in german we‘re speaking about a female police officer. here is something important to note about die though: it‘s also always used for plurals. die Hunde (the dogs), die Bäume (the trees), die Polizisten (the police officers).

now since that is out of the way, you‘re probably still confused. why did hoodlum correct brawler? what the hell does *innen mean and what does that have to do with a political debate in germany?

what hoodlum did is called ‘gendern‘ in german, i think you know where the word comes from. it‘s a way to be inclusive in speech and writing by trying to refer to every gender instead of using the standard masculine words. for example, one common variation i see is Schüler*innen (students). i‘ll try to break it into parts and explain it

Schüler: der Schüler, the standard singular word and what is basically described.

*: a star to divide the noun and ending. when you vocally gender, this is a pause.

innen: die Schülerinnen, the plural and female word for Schüler. the ending is used to make it inclusive to female students.

btw i mentioned that gendern caused a political debate in germany… i think it‘s far bigger. while gendern has been a thing for years now (it just wasn’t called gendern back then) through other ways (e.g saying „Schülerinnen und Schüler“), it has caused recent controversy when *innen became popular. news broadcasts, some schools, etc. have started to use it and a lot of people began criticizing it:

“people who have been criticizing gender-inclusive language think: texts become longer and more complicated. There would also be no need for a gender-inclusive language. when someone is referred to as „Schülern“, it grammatically means everyone — boys and girls.“ text from https://www.zdf.de/kinder/logo/gendern-gendergerechte-sprache-geschlechter-100.html translated by me

controversy has been going so far that certain political parties even began to ban it from unis and other places.

so yeah, i can‘t explain it but seeing such a recent topic in fucking akudama drive, a japanese anime, is a little funny to me 😭

[mondgewalt]

Attention! I have created an Akudama Drive Visual Novel

you can download it HERE (unzip it and click on the application, it is to be played on Windows and in windowed mode only, turn your audio on) (I pray everything works smoothly 🙏)

This VN is very short and based on my previously written fanfiction, which you can read here if you wish for more context (the fanfic itself isn't even 2k words, so you can already anticipate that this game is much shorter than that)

TW for blood halfway through!! also cannibalism...

[mondgewalt]

[mondgewalt]

here is a translation of cindy‘s answer to the question “who do you identify with the most in akudama drive?“

she says that she relates to boss the most, as she can‘t really relate to any of the akudama (swindler included) or master. i didn‘t make any screenshots because… it was a lot… and taking screenshots was tedious… anyway, here is her explanation:

„i can‘t properly explain it, but Sakakibara-san […] describes her as a career woman, who hoped for a peaceful career evening. she‘s a woman in retirement age who‘s in the middle of her menopause. (laughs) i found that fitting. when i designed her, there was nothing set in stone, just that she was a strong, older lady. […] and she‘s not even a good boss, even if it looks like it. she‘s being scolded by her superiors and challenged by her subordinates. […] she expresses her problemes by sighing, while she tries to do her tasks. later, a catastrophe happens, which could mean, her decisions were wrong. it‘s like she made the right decisions as an officer, but was wrong as a human. that way, sides begin to show and her character as a tough, older lady, officer and middle manager…. feels so real. in some way, i‘m a tough older lady myself. (laughs)“

[now that i think about it, there is no real reason for me to post this… but i live translated it and want to find some use in it. ]