#Happy Birthday to Momose

[harlepinyo]

no more milgram its bad for my heart

[doodles-in-sand]

doodle dump 👍 its also my birthda

+ sona redesign for the 400th time lol (under cut)

yes i stole shidous throw down fit. what about it. its actaully accurate to what i wear outside usually ill post a pic tmr if i remember to

[senoowo]

[hunieday]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMO 🍑!!!!!

[mrgoodenough254]

Another (late) birthday image for fuuta

[holidxyy]

i knwo her birthday is tomorrow (for me, bc it’s 10:52 pm june 26) but STILL. Amen Guys

[taeaart]

GLOBAL HOLIDAY 🥳

[red-moon-at-night]

Thinking about Amane's interactions with Shidou again and suddenly coming to a depressing realisation: that maybe she rejects him so much not only for the forbidden medical stuff, but because he's acting like a father figure.

Amane's glitched line in the T2 voice trailer is "Father is a very praiseworthy person. Once his/my virtue increases, he'll come back home, right? It's a little lonely, but I'm fine!"

I think Shidou's actions test her faithfulness to her parents. If she leans into his doting, she'll be betraying her dad that's out there and *definitely* coming home if she just behaves and waits a little longer 🥲

[lilium-dragomir]

Happy Birthday @nanamikeento

I love coloring Wotakoi! So it made me really happy to see Narumi on your list of favorite characters~ She looks so cute in this panel so I really felt like coloring it for you! I hope you have a lovely birthday!

[torao-mido]

✨🕺

[incorrect-mltd-quotes]

Rio: Umi-chan, can you please stop breaking all the doors? Umi: That wasn't me. Rio: Then who was it? *Noriko walking in tightening her karate belt* Noriko: Probably someone pretty strong.

[nijimurasx]

I hope all the happy people out there explode!

Happy Birthday Narumi Momose! 💗👨‍❤️‍👨 [5.3]

[maxpawb]

happy birthday amane momose i drew her as usahana (sanrio) because i thought it would be cute..

[otomiyaa]

Day 23: Party

Momose x Shirosaki

[Miya & Mia’s Tickletober 2023] - Another niche tktober 2023 fic I'm fishing out of its grave muhahaha. I realize this is actually up there with my fav anime and pairings EVER. I'll go down with this ship!

Word Count: 1.1K

Momose felt moved. Never had he seen such a thing. The office was decorated, a tray of cupcakes was on his desk, music was playing, and everyone in the department welcomed him with applause. 

“Happy birthday, Momose,” Shirosaki said, and he and a few colleagues fired confetti at him. They all started singing. Woah!

“Happy birthday!” 

Momose blushed and awkwardly wiped the confetti from his head. He then bowed deeply, his hands gripping his pants.

“T-t-thank you very much!” he said, trying hard not to cry. At his previous job, no one had ever done something this considerate for him, let alone his boss. 

The only thing was…. Today was actually not his birthday!

He could understand how his goofy boss mixed up the dates and accidentally swapped the day and month numbers. 

“Today is your first birthday since you started working here. I wanted to celebrate in style,” Shirosaki explained fondly. Aah, so cute. Momose would rather take this day as his new official birthday than admit to his sweet boss that he got the date wrong.  

“Thank you, manager… What about work, though?” Momose tried to say casually as he wiped away a tear from the happy emotion, and he looked around, amazed to see everyone in the office was having fun. People were relaxing, eating cupcakes, chatting, watching MyTube and laughing together. It really was a party, on a plain Monday morning at the Planning and Sales department of Minette.

“We will resume work after lunch. Right now, we will enjoy the surprise party,” Shirosaki said. Momose felt so guilty that everyone was making time for him when it wasn’t even his real birthday, but he couldn’t help but feel happy and honored too, and he thanked Shirosaki again.

“Thank you so much!” 

Aoyama suddenly stood by their side and he proudly munched on a cupcake. “You became a fine boss, Shirosaki-kun, even remembering what to do on your employee’s first birthday at the office.”

Shirosaki thanked him with a humble nod. “Section Chief, thank you. You taught me well.”

"But… aren’t you forgetting something?” Aoyama added, looking very suspicious all of a sudden.

Momose cocked his head, but Shirosaki seemed to understand and nodded. “Ah, right.”

To Momose’s surprise, Shirosaki stepped towards him, and Momose’s initial reflex was to flinch - his former boss had been quite the intimidating figure and he wasn’t over it yet.

However, what happened next was anything but scary. More like… weird?!

“Huhuhuh? W-whahahat, mahahanager!” Momose felt embarrassed to suddenly be tickled on his sides, and he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around his middle, dancing awkwardly in response to the random tickles.

“Happy birthday tickles,” Shirosaki announced dryly.

“Whahat? Hehehehe thahat’s s-sohoho suddehehen!” Momose laughed, shaking his head and trying his best not to jump away too fast since Shirosaki seemed so eager to tickle him.

“A-aren’t Manager and Section Chief the only ones upholding this tradition?” a female colleague asked, but Aoyama hissed “Sshh don’t tell him!” while Shirosaki tickled Momose playfully.

Momose couldn’t believe he was getting dragged in a weird little birthday tickle tradition (?) between the two of them, and it surely was a little humiliating to laugh like this in front of everyone.. but Shirosaki looked like he was having so much fun.

And in return, Momose felt a kind of joy he hadn’t felt in a long while. All of his remaining past work trauma was about to disappear with the magic of Shirosaki’s gentle tickles.

“It tihihickles! Hehehe mahaha-manageheher!” Momose giggled, squirming and wiggling as Shirosaki continued to tickle his sides.

Shirosaki nodded. “Yes. It should tickle.” Hehe! So serious!

Other employees slowly distanced themselves from their awkward tickle party, leaving Momose with only Shirosaki, and Section Chief Aoyama who stuck around too.

“A little bit here too,” Aoyama said, suddenly joining in by poking Momose between the ribs. Momose twitched between them and yelped as they both tickled him.

“Hehehe nohoho!” he whined. Both men tickled him a little more, but not too much. Though embarrassed, Momose truly felt happy after genuinely laughing like that, and he caught his breath with a smile on his face.

“This is for you,” Shirosaki finally said, handing him a wrapped gift. “From me,” he added, blushing adorably.

Momose was glad he already had tears from laughter in his eyes, or he would start crying new tears all over again because of how cute his manager was.

“You even got me a gift!” he whined thankfully, and he opened it after Shirosaki’s encouragement.

“Ah - t-this is…” Momose admired the cute keychain with on one side a photo of Hakutou the cute kitty, and on the other side a photo of Momose and Shirosaki together - a photo that was taken of them when they were at the amusement park.

“You can put it on the house key I gave you. Or… on something else, of course,” Shirosaki said with a cute blush.

Momose’s eyed widened, and he could hear the nervous bursts of laughter from some colleagues behind them.

“A family picture?”

“Are they a married couple?”

“That’s right - didn’t he propose to him the other day? They are moving fast!”

“They even named the cat ‘Hakutou’ after themselves!” they gossiped.

Shirosaki blushed when he overheard them just like Momose, but Momose giggled and held the gift with both hands.

“Manager, thank you so much. I love it,” he said with teary eyes. Shirosaki smiled gently.

“I’m glad,” he said, and he walked away. He showed his cute and goofy side when it appeared he didn’t remember where he was walking off to, so he turned around again and returned to Momose’s side.

“Momose? I wanted to ask. If… Well, if you do not have any birthday plans today… You are free to visit Hakutou and me. I have some drinks too, a-and Hakutou will be pleased to meow you happy birthday,” Shirosaki offered shyly.

Momose blushed. So cute! Of course he did not have plans since it was not his birthday, and he nodded.

“I would love that!”

“Great. Also, I apologize,” Shirosaki said. Momose frowned.

“For what?”

“I realized I should have asked you first… if you wanted happy birthday tickles. My boss gave them to me on my first birthday at the office, and it took me by surprise. I ended up doing the same to you.”

Pfft!! Momose threw his head back and laughed. God, he loved it here.

“That’s alright, ahaha!” he laughed.

My abusive boss gave me mental stress and an ulcer, so I switched jobs. My new boss is the goofiest and cutest person I have ever met. He threw me a birthday party on the wrong date, gave me happy birthday tickles, and invited me to his home!

[doctorbunny]

Amane's birthday flower tweet

(tweet links here)

Happy Birthday to everyone born today. Today is also Amane Momose from #MILGRAM's birthday. Her birth flower is Passiflora caerulea (tokeisou/Blue Passion Flower). The name "Passion flower" [tl note: passion as in "the passion/suffering of Christ, not enthusiasm] was used by Christian missionaries, it comes from the stamen's resemblence to the Crucifixion of Christ, with the 10 petals representing 10 Apostles. The passion flower's hanakotoba are "Faith", "Sacred Love" as well as "Religious fervour". Just so you know, this is simply an annecdote about the flower, it's not directly related to Amane's origins. Hanatokoba is purely allegorical. Simply put, just because the blue passion flower has this kind of backstory and hanakotoba, it doesn't mean Amane's religion is the same. Just added this supplement in case this is the first time you've had a run in with the Hanakotoba Guy and found it hard to understand. [Note: 花言葉おじさん Hanakotoba ojisan aka Hanakotoba Guy/Old Man Hanakotoba/Mr Hanakotoba is Yamanaka's nickname for himself when he does these things, he also used the term in Mikoto's birthday tweet]

本日お誕生日の方おめでとうございます。 #ミルグラム では桃瀬遍の誕生日でもあります。 誕生花はトケイソウ。十字架にかけられたキリストに似た雄しべと10人の使徒に見える花弁から別名「受難の花」と呼ばれ、キリスト教の布教に利用されました。花言葉は『信仰』『聖なる愛』そして『宗教的熱情』。 ちなみにこの花に関してのエピソードなだけで、本人の出自とは直接関係ありません。花言葉はあくまで寓意です。 噛み砕いてわかりやすく言うと、トケイソウってお花にそういうエピソードと花言葉があるってだけでアマネの信教がそうだって話じゃないよってことね。花言葉おじさんと邂逅するのが初めてだとわかりづらいだろうなと思って補足。

[purgemarchlockdown]

Autism and Amane

(CWs: Ableism, Child Abuse, Cults)

(Note: This is mostly based on personal experience and stories I’ve heard from other autistic people.)

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that I love Amane Momose. She’s my favorite character in the series, and I think about her constantly. It’s why I have this blog, I thought about her too much that I needed to write it out somehow.

A personal favorite headcanon of mine is the idea that Amane is Autistic. Mostly cause I’m autistic and I like head-canoning characters who I like with it. So now I'm just explaining why I find this reading of her character compelling.

Right and Wrong

There's no doubt about it that Amane is someone who is heavily constrained by rules and standards, and she expresses frustration towards certain rules in subtle or obvious ways throughout Milgram.

For example, the flag for vulgarity is the only one that is laying down on the ground in Purge March, something that is usually a sign for disrespect.

Implying that this is the rule that Amane breaks the most, something that is consistent with a lot of the other information we know about Amane. Since it seems like a lot of the things she finds enjoyable (cute outfits, amusement parks, performance art) are either neutered to the point of being boring or outright banned.

Outside of that, Amane doesn't operate on the rules of "normal" society. She operates on her own rules. Rules that are molded by the cult but still Her Rules. She does not care much for acting in ways that would be considered normal to people, and has stated that she is alright with that.

(T2 Amane VD)

Amane: Aren’t we the same? Me and Warden-san. You know, I’m aware that I’m out of the ordinary. That my environment was peculiar, and that everyone [else] is normal. Es: Amane… Amane: In fact, there have been people who said that to me. I’ve been told things like, “You’re being deceived.” “You can still make it right now.” “You’re crazy.” Es: … A: You are treating me as a child after all. Because I’m a child, you believe that I must have been brainwashed. It’s not like that. I, too— children, too, understand everything! Please don’t just decide that people must be unhappy.

While this is influenced by her abuse and her justification of it, even before this Amane has been very consistent on repeating this idea that she does not mind not being considered normal and is not going to change how she acts just because other people said she should, for better or for worse.

22/04/19 (Futa’s Birthday)

Amane: ……I’m fine. I don’t know what you’ve done or what it is you’re worried about, but I think if there’s something you believe in, you should stay true to it. It’s not something that should waver just because other people said something. I personally don’t plan on changing my own beliefs even if I’m told I’m wrong either……

That isn't to say Amane Doesn't operate by rules, she does, to an extreme extent even. Something that is even shown above.

But she operates on rules she personally believes makes Sense. If she does not agree with a rule she believes to be nonsensical she will express that. If she does she'll follow it to the letter, even if it harms her or someone else.

21/06/27 (Amane’s Birthday)

Shidou: Amane, I heard it was your birthday today. I asked Es-kun if we could get this cake to give to you…… Amane: I don’t need it. I’ll gratefully accept your well-wishes, but I don’t eat things like that. Also…… Shidou-san, I can’t say I’m especially fond of the way you assume that all children will love frivolous things like this. Shidou: ………… Is that so… I apologise. I’m sure everyone else will be happy to eat it, so don’t worry about it. Sorry for intruding. Amane: ………… ……cake……

She's very inflexible and dogmatic in that sense. But not just because of her cult. As stated she seems to disagree with her cult's view on vulgar things, and seems to have broken that rule multiple times before in the past and has gotten punished for it.

Not only that but she is insistent on certain ideas of "rightness" that are Outside of her cults worldview. For example, she consistently reiterates that children also have feelings and agency, to the point that's her Major focus in her T1 VD. Not her religion, not her crime, but her feelings about agency. The idea was just too important to her to simply let go.

Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food every day).

What is a promise, if not a rule you swear to follow?

Good Interests

Now I would personally love to argue she has a special interest in religion as someone who was a kid with a Catholicism special interest (trauma is weird) but I don't think I have enough ground to argue that interpretation.

What I can argue, is a performance art special interest.

Amane seems to be deeply invested in performing arts. While it is a metaphor for how she's performing for her family and cult, outside of that she seems to actually show a genuine interest in it.

Amane is a bit of a critic. She seems to be a choirgirl that hates the songs she's singing.

T1Q14: Do you listen to music? A: Not really to songs that are highly entertaining.

Which implies that she knows what songs she Does find entertaining, and also that as established before Amane likes looking cute and pretty. She keeps on dressing herself in her MVs in cute outfits, and there is even a minigram about her being self-concussion about her hair and then getting it styled.

There's a Sincerity in these aesthetics, it really seems like Amane Enjoys Performing as an art form. The way she portrays her revenge is not her Stopping the performance, but for the marching band to break from the routine and to go full force into the "real world."

Not only that, but when Mikoto mentions he's an art student. Amane immdieatly asks him if he's good at drawing. The entire conversation shifting from their discussion about studies but about art.

20/07/15

Amane: It’s fine. If there are any words I don’t understand I can look them up later. An arts university, though…… Does that mean you’re good at drawing, then? It may be a bit rude to say, but that’s rather unexpected.

Her critic side even pops up here. Being surprised someone so "normal" seeming would be an art student.

It also seems like TV was a way for her to cope with her situation, judging by the final shot of Magic.

This stuff is so Important to her that it bleeds in Everywhere. Even when she tries to hide it to seem more like a "good girl." The visual ideas of performing arts and music come through.

As mentioned above, it seems like these interests were considered "vulgar" by her cult. It's not something a "good girl" like her should like.

It's something...abnormal.

Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).

Normalcy

Amane is not as good of a girl as she wants us to believe or wants herself to believe. She knows it. She knows it too well.

Dear wise one, Am I worthy? Is it ok to spoil myself? I promise! A pinky promise is a pinky promise!

She's promising that she'll follow the rules this time. Promising that she'll be a "good girl." A status that gets her a modicum amount of respect and safety.

If you become a bad girl, monsters will come out This is the magic that stops that from happening

However, there's a sense of impossibility to become one, as if she was made Unable to fulfill the arbitrary conditions that were set by the people around her. Amane can only pretend to be a good girl, to...mask as one per-say. But she cannot Be One.

Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl

Amane has been masking for basically her entire life, to various levels of success. To blend into the cult, and to seem "normal" in their eyes.

Except, she's inherently Unable to be one. It's not something about herself that she can change. To turn Amane into a good girl is to make Amane into something that isn't herself.

Amane isn't Human in the eyes of her cult, she isn't good enough to be one, she wasn't born in a way that allows for her to be Respected as one.

She's even Represented by The Cat in Magic.

Her feelings of pain and anger and isolation by being different are given to something inhuman. And since this is Amane's MV, this is partially an acknowledgement that she is not good enough to be a human

Not only that, but even in the prison she's isolated. The way she speaks is surprising for a child so the people around her aren't sure how to interact with her, and her unwillingness to act in a "proper" way gets certain people (Shidou) upset.

However, she doesn't seem to even view her seeming inhumanity as a bad thing.

Amane is consistently more frustrated at people not understanding her than her not understanding them. She cares about her feelings because no one cared to adjust to Hers. She cares about asserting her agency because if she does she'll be infantalized.

Because, In spite of everything, Amane deeply loves herself.

T2Q20: How do you feel about you not being like everyone else? Nevertheless I was born as myself, so I'm happy.

Conclusion

I wrote this post partially cause I was inspired by this really good Dunmeshi analysis of Laios' autistic frustration. Which made me go "Wow I should do that but with Amane." So I did.

There's so much I can talk about really, but to me. Amane is a character who is in a world Hostile to who she is. Stuck between having to pretend to be "normal" for her own safety and hating having to do it because it's sickening and confining. Where her interests are controlled or considered "abnormal" meaning she is unable to indulge in them. Where the people around her can either demonize her or infantalize her for not fitting the standards they hold her to.

And, maybe it's just me. But I personally relate a lot to that, and I think there's something really amazing about how she's still able to love herself in spite of it all.

(And, I also think she's trans but that's a whole other discussion.)