#I think it just has to do with societal values being very different in Japan

[testure-1988]

I thought Cube 2021 was going to be an exact remake of the original, but it has enough differences to make it a separate film.

[rmorde]

SaShiSu: Honne-tatemae (PART 1)

What is "tatemae" and "honne"? What role do they play with SaShiSu? I'd like to explore these ideas these series of posts.

Now, a few clarifications:

This is not a serious university level research study. Please do not expect equally serious citations.

Aside from the "tatemae" and "honne" definitions plus their significant role in Japanese society, the rest of non-canon/official stuff are purely my opinion. So, if you disagree, it's alright.

Okay, cool? Cool.

TATEMAE & HONNE: A GLIMPSE

Now, back to "tatemae" and "honne". Simply put:

Tatemae = Facade -> The "face" shown to remain in harmony with society Honne = True feelings -> The real face hidden away from society

"Tatemae" is the "masked self" used to get by and avoid causing trouble to others. "Honne" is the "true self" suppressed deep inside in exchange of being accepted by others easily.

These concepts are vital when living in Japan. It's practically a communal obligation because being in harmony with society is everything there.

"Tatemae" is practiced by everyone EVEN among people with very close relationships because it has to be ensured first that said connection is extremely strong and trusting. The people involved have to become so in tuned with one another that they can read between the lines whenever they interact. So, when people starts showing their "honne", they would just get it without fuss.

SaShiSu: The Disaster Trio

So, what does "tatemae" and "honne" had to do with SaShiSu? Frankly, I think it is what led to their disastrous end which I talked about a bit in the past. This is kind of an expansion of it.

I'll establish first how I think their honne-tatemae works first. Starting with simplest one:

Satoru

Satoru has no tatemae to speak of at the beginning. He is crass and rude. He has no filter whatsoever. He shows 100% maximum no chill honne.

If he says "We're strong together" to Suguru, he meant it 100%.

If he displays comfort drawing confidence from Shoko, it is exactly just that. No double meanings or ulterior motives.

Satoru functions in JJK's world with just his honne and a lot of people around him dislikes it - even pre-Toji Suguru admonished him for it.

However, during the Star Plasma Vessel mission, he started to have a semblance of tatemae for Riko's sake. Satoru wanted her to live her last days worry free, so never once did he display any weakness in front of her and Kuroi. The only one privy to that was Suguru.

Even after being stabbed, Satoru kept his bravado: "[I'm strong]. It's fine. [Everything will be okay]." He also used it on Suguru so he'd be dissuaded from backing him up and just focus on helping Riko escape. In a way, this was the foundation of the tatemae Satoru would display for the rest of his life.

However, this tatemae is not a traditional one. It is not put up to maintain societal harmony (aka to please the conservative higher-ups). Satoru put it up as a reassurance for the people that matter to him. He is not doing it to make society happy. It was for the sake of the people he values most.

Another complication is Satoru's tatemae and honne are practically blurred together. He only had to "save face" twice:

The aforementioned reassurance when Toji stabbed him

The happy face he had for his students after he killed Suguru

So, distinguishing Satoru's tatemae from his honne is a nightmare for everyone because his facade is never really tested much. They never saw it crack to help them tell the difference. This means that people just assumes that Satoru is using tatemae all the time to be safe - that he has ulterior motives in everything ranging from annoying to threatening.

In truth tho, Satoru is being real for real. In his perspective, he rarely has to use tatemae. So, technically he is still functioning with no chill honne. Just 99.9% and not the previous 100%. It's not much difference from when he was in school but different enough.

'Satoru shows "honne" 99% of the time. People don't believe it and thinks he is showing "tatemae" instead. Satoru has yet to catch on the misunderstanding of his image.'

Up next! The unexpected disaster of the trio.

Shoko

If Satoru is honne menace, Shoko is the tatemae nightmare. We never see beyond the surface with her.

Details about Shoko are minimal. A simple answer to that could be that Gege didn't care. But considering his female characters had substantially fleshed out backgrounds (narrative utilization of their characters are a different topic), I think a case can be made that Shoko's little to no display of PoV is intentional - that she always held her true thoughts and feelings very close to her heart and it takes a miracle or the end of the world to even glimpse them.

To put it simply, Shoko is the exact opposite of Satoru. Her tatemae is ironclad 21/7 and her honne is so shrouded that it fools people into thinking that it's actually her tatemae.

Her unflappable personality and neutral stance made her look cool, calm, and collected albeit detached. It is a great facade for her job as their resident doctor & forensics. But it is terrible for her relationships because everyone thinks that is all there is to her and leave her alone to it.

'Shoko shows "tatemae" nearly all the time. Compounded by the fact that she is rarely seen off-work and without her poker face, people assume she is always like that. No one tries to understand her "honne" because they believe she is already showing "honne". She has yet to show skills in refuting the wrong perception.'

Lastly, this fucker who I absolutely love but really really needs help. The poster boy of honne-tatemae:

Suguru

Satoru and Shoko are two awful cases of honne and tatemae on steroids. Suguru is the one who uses these concepts very well much to his advantage and detriment.

I think it was mentioned before that, officially, it is actually Suguru who is much more popular than Satoru. It is not hard to see why in a Japanese society.

Suguru is the epitome of an ideal man in Japan from his looks down to his behavior: tall, dark, handsome, and very appropriately polite in public but refreshingly fun in private.

Suguru fits the Japanese ideal especially for that last factor. He knows how to properly show tatemae and honne. In front of authorities and strangers, he is the prim and proper stand-up guy aka "dutiful model sorcerer". However, among friends, he is as much of a nasty gremlin as Satoru albeit more agreeable. The contrast makes him charismatic which is a great boon for his work and relationships.

At the same time, since everyone knows his tatemae, he has basically boxed himself in a particular role publicly. This was not a hardship at first for Suguru because his facade is in line with his true feelings. It just all fell apart post-Toji because the experience transformed his honne into something so antithetical to his tatemae.

Suguru grappled with that incompatibility for more than a year until eventually, he came to a decision to discard his tatemae of "dutiful model sorcerer" by becoming a mass killing curse user.

Does this mean Suguru is now living like pre-Toji Satoru - just 100% maximum no chill honne? No. Absolutely not.

In fact, Suguru displayed his honne-tatemae on a much grander scale instead.

Tatemae = Ordinary Facade World of Non-Sorcerers = A helpful monk Honne = Cursed True World of Sorcerers = A genocidal curse user.

Even on a micro-level within his new family, Suguru also maintains another layer of honne-tatemae which seems to be only Satoru, Shoko (maybe), Nanako, and Mimiko were privy to.

Tatemae = Jujutsu sorcerers, especially those from school like Satoru, are his bitter enemies. Honne = He actually has no hard feelings against jujutsu sorcerers and their enmity is just simply a difference of mindset.

'Suguru is a master class of how "tatemae" and "honne" works. Unlike Shoko, he is in full control of how he presents himself. Unlike Satoru, he is also in full control of how *most people perceive him.'

*I say "most people" here because Suguru failed to control how Satoru and Shoko view him. He was absolutely delusional at thinking he succeeded at it. What a dumbass. I'll explore it next time in PART 2. This post is already long as it is. I'll just leave it as PART 1.

[real-life-senshi]

Reading PGSMs director talk show with Ayaka just now (THANK YOU btw for the live blog and translation! I would have never seen it otherwise) and their dynamic is such a treat to watch, but tbh I don’t really get why they call Rei boyish? I never got anything particularly “guy-like” about her throughout the show, but maybe that’s just me, so I hope you don’t mind if I ask if you do?

Hello friend~

Thanks for dropping by. I'd be happy to try answer your question! I do want to preface I'm not native to Japanese culture, so I'm also trying to explain this from an outsider perspective, which has its pros and cons!

First of all, I want to note that it is important to consider the cultural and societal values from the Japanese perspective.

The word Director Suzumura used to describe Rei is "サバサバ" [sabasaba]. In Japanese, it means "refreshingly candid". This in itself isn't meant to say Rei is boyish, but サバサバ is more often than not considered a masculine trait. Because of this, assistant-host Miyuu latched onto that and extrapolated it as Rei seemed *relatively* more boyish than the other Senshi, possible except for Makoto (who as we learn more about the character is actually very lady-like inside), and Haruka (our beloved butch lesbian).

The reason for this is because of Japanese societal values. While it may not always be obvious especially if one's view of Japanese culture is only through pop culture or anime culture, Japanese culture is heavily hierarchical, conservative and gendered. The idea of honorifics (-kun, -chan, - san, -sensei, -sama, etc) is a good example of that. Now knowing the Japanese social construct is still man-dominated, explains why サバサバ is considered a masculine trait because their position makes it more likely that man feels comfortable, confident and accepted to speak their mind straightforwardly. Many girls and women are still conditioned that the best female qualities are to be demure, soft, quiet and pretty like a flower. (Bleh!)

It is important to note that hierarchy weighs above gendered norms. Just think back to Act 33, Rei's father's secretary was almost grovelling at Rei because Rei is his "ojousama", the daughter and heiress to his employer means a full-grown man is bowing deeply and speaking like a servant to a 14 years old girl.

In the case of Rei and Minako, Minako has been established as the Princess while Rei is being coached into the leader position, and then Minako is revealed to be THE leader while Rei is just a substitute. When considering this hierarchy, Rei's continual buttheading with Minako through speaking her mind and standing her ground understandably stands out to make Rei seem more confident and サバサバ than any other Senshi. Even though Makoto is the default tomboy of the group, Makoto has always been very respectful to Venus/Minako.

When I googled "サバサバ系女子" [sabasaba-kei onna] (refreshingly candid type woman), this is the result:

サバサバ系女子とは？ サバサバ系女子とは、性格がさっぱりしていて頼りになる女性のことを指します。 良い意味で他人への興味が薄いため、「自分は自分」「人は人」の線引きが上手です。 他人の意見に流されたり振り回されることがなく、自分の意思がはっきりしている女性です What is a Sabasaba-kei girl? Sabasaba-kei girls are women who have a refreshing personality and are dependable. In a positive sense, they are not interested in other people, so they draw a line between "I am myself" and "other people are other people. She is a woman who is not swayed or influenced by the opinions of others and is clear about her intentions.

It does remind you of Rei, doesn't it? lol And yet, this is only positively recognized in the recent decade in Japan, when the outside world's influence started to open people's perspective that subverts traditional Japanese values. For a girl or woman to be like this way back when, girls could easily be viewed as masculine, boyish and even improper.

What differs between Makoto's tomboyish ways, is that Makoto actions, physical mannerism and appearance make her feel a bit more masculine, thus tomboyish, but in Rei's case, it's her personality, speech mannerism and how she speaks her mind that make her seem to be what the Japanese would consider masculine.

Hope this is adequate and helps you get some perspective!

(Now I really should start getting the translated summaries done for Jouji, Mew, and Miyuu's episode with Director Suzumura...)

[ctl-yuejie]

How the diverse world of the addictive tv series “Cherry magic” got made

(interview with scriptwriter Yoshida Erika by Yokogawa Yoshiaki)

沼堕ち続出ドラマ“チェリまほ”の多様な世界はどうやって作られたのか【脚本家・吉田 恵里香さん】2020.12.22  横川 良明

for @howdydowdy because we were talking about what a fantastic character Fujisaki is and the notion of consent when it comes to reading someone’s mind

Currently, societal values continue to change rapidly. On one hand the movement of respecting each other’s diverse individualities and making it easier for each and every one to live in society has become more active, one the other hand it is not a rare occasion to be lost for words when suddenly unconscious discriminatory biases – derived from not being able to cut loose old values that are rooted deep in oneself – raise their heads.

How should we exist within this period of polarization? This series is to create the opportunity to think about this topic by having discussions with the toprunners in the entertainment world. The person I am introducing for the first edition is screenwriter Yoshida Erika.

She is behind the script of “Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!”, the tv series that has grabbed the first spot on the oricon satisfaction ranking for 4 weeks in a row, and has gained fast popularity despite its late-night spot. The enthusiasm for the show can be attributed to the soft view Ms. Yoshida has on the world.

Yokogawa Yoshiaki (YY): I am happily watching the series. I really liked the original work, however the way it was adapted to a television format has been brilliant. One big thing is the making of the character of Kurosawa played by Machida Keita. By Adachi’s magic (played by Akasouji Eiji), the voice of Kurosawa’s heart spills out, and while the original text had him be quite blatant in his expressions overall, the drama carefully examines them.

Yoshida Erika (YE): That is definitely where there is a difference in depth. The original has the premise of a work in the BL genre, readers are expecting a BL-like development, so they can take such things in stride, but the viewership of the tv series is more varied. Under them there might be people who do not like BL. That is why I was conscious about how different people from different backgrounds might watch this show.

It is not okay to assault someone just because you were invited to their house, kissing or touching without consent is not okay and being of the same or different sex makes no difference in this. Treating such things as okay because it is BL would be rude to the parties concerned. Because we are using the BL genre, we want to specifically protect the “firsts” of the parties concerned. That is something the producer Ms. Honma Kanami and the director agreed about and I therefore paid extra attention to.

YY: Adachi himself, as he is about to step into Kurosawa’s house thinks “Not that I might possibly get assaulted?!”, and is very vigilant, but with some soul-searching realizes that that is rude towards Kurosawa. To say it briefly, you can feel the probity of the creators.

YE: I thought that a main character that thinks that he will get assaulted when he steps into the house of someone will not be loveable. No matter how well received the person is who acts it out, if we cannot love them on a human level, this drama will not work. Adachi’s power to read people’s hearts is also the action of seeing people’s darker sides on his own volition. That’s why a character we cannot love as a person will receive push-back by the viewers.

YY: Just like you said, the act of reading peoples’ hearts includes great violence. That is why I think that when he realizes that Kurosawa has fond feelings for him, unlike the original where he reads Kurosawa’s heart on purpose, the drama treats it as an accidental force. Over the whole series, it is of focal importance that Adachi doesn’t overuse his magic.

YE: That is where we were extremely careful. In the manga easy comprehensiveness is important and that type of suspense is interesting - and we don’t intend to deny that - but if you do it as a drama, I didn’t want to make him into a young man using his powers at ease. That is why, especially in the first half, he decides and tries very hard not to use his powers when possible. The scene where he reads the CEO’s heart appears in the first issue of the original, but in the drama we pushed it back to the 5th episode. We made it a point to illustrate how Adachi is filled with the emotion to help Kurosawa and that is why he uses his powers.

                                                       -

That what I don’t want others to do unto me, I do not want to inflict on characters.

                                                       -

YY: His colleague Fujisaki (Satou Ryo) is a Fujoshi in the original and that premise was cut from the series. If you decided to have a Fujoshi character on a prime time show, did you think that misunderstandings might arise easily?

YE: That was definitely a thought. In BL as a genre it is not an issue that a character exists that takes the same viewpoint as the reader, and I love Fujisaki in the original, but the people who are acting it out in reality are real people. At that point, loudly fawning about someone else’s’ love life is not perceived as good conduct. At the least, I thought that I wouldn’t want to be treated like that.

YY: It is fine to envision fictional characters as romantic partners, but it is different when you make a real acquaintance the target of that.

YE:

A thought we had was that if Adachi and Kurosawa were to really date it would be one thing, but grinning at someone - who might even be heterosexual – because you inflate your own BL adjacent delusion isn’t much different from a man grinning at a woman with big breasts and calling her sexy. I wouldn’t want to get treated that way, so I didn’t want to inflict that on the characters in the story as well.

When it comes to Fujisaki it isn’t like she isn’t a Fujoshi. We do not clearly state it, but I thought there was no reason to show it in the drama. 

YY: You are saying, that it is fine that people might interpret Fujisaki as a Fujoshi when she is smiling at Adachi and Kurosawa.

YE: Yes. That is where you are free to imagine (laughs).

YY: What I thought was very fresh is that instead of proclaiming her to be a Fujoshi, Fujisaki is turned into someone who “is happily living her daily life even without romantic love”. We don’t often get characters like that in Japanese tv series.

Personally, I also like romantic tv series, but while feeling venerated when the main characters have realized their love in the final episode, when trying to build a romantic connection to someone else in real life it might not go well and beyond that, it is not that it never happens that I, who also holds interests in other things than romance, end up feeling empty because of the lonely feeling of having been left behind (when watching a romance on tv unfold).

But with having Fujisaki appear, it felt like I got rescued.

YE: Until now, for several projects I made the suggestion of a character that is not interested in romance, but I wasn’t understood. “Is it necessary to do that?” “Aren’t you overthinking it?” were things I got told often.

But with this production, when I said that I wanted Fujisaki to be asexual or aromantic, no one denied me. From that stage on I thought that this place was a good one, and thanks to the original writer giving her agreement it got turned into reality.

YY: Since this kind of character hasn’t really appeared in a tv series, it felt like people like Fujisaki were assigned to be non-existent in this world. But thanks to you envisioning her like this, seen from a person that like Fujisaki might say “I got used to acting “normal”” and feel a notion of despair when confronted with people not understanding them, it felt like it got emphasized that people like her also exist in our society. Picking such little voices feels like it is one of the purposes of entertainment.

YE: If that could become the case I would be glad about it. 10 to 20 years prior, a “fairytale gay” (describing the flamboyant gay friend, that mentally supports the heroine by giving some harsh but accurate advice) often appeared in tv series from abroad, but this portrayal slowly changed, finally it has reached the point where the view point that being gay isn’t something special has penetrated the public.

So this time, I believe that one of my duties was to tell the story of people that are not interested in romance or people who do not only love one person, not from a standpoint that is convenient for consumption, but to have properly realized characters up to their individual backgrounds.

                                                     -

I hope the time comes where it isn’t necessary to especially say “This is a BL series”

                                                      -

YY: Please let me speak on something that has confused me this far. Prior, when you explained Fujisaki in context of the script, it felt like it wasn’t okay to call her asexual or aromantic because she herself doesn’t use any of those labels. I was somewhat afraid that an outsider would just selfishly declare that “you are asexual, aren’t you!?” in regards to someone who hasn’t professed anything.

YE: There is the point of both of the terms asexual and aromantic not being widely known in Japan as much as compared to overseas and I also think there are people who just wouldn’t use these words. Even when you think you are not interested in romance at the moment, it could also be that you just haven’t found the person that makes you feel that way. That’s why I can understand how labelling someone has a violent notion.

YY: My next question is also relating to that: This applies to Cherry Maho, but generally when I write about over works that feature a lovestory between men I try not to use the word BL.

This is my own opinion but to me it feels like the term BL has too much of a sexual image.

In private I casually use the word BL. However, for the content of an article that is read by an unspecified number of people, I remember stumbling over labelling something as BL. Using BL as an easy genre specifier has the effect that there will be a layer that won’t get looked at. I simply want to have more people enjoy a piece of work. I don’t object to the editor using BL in the title but in the content I write, I try not to use the term BL story but simply “love story between two men” and keep it close to how you’d address it in reality.

YE: I understand that. Obviously, I don’t intend to shame the taste of people that like BL. However, I understand that there are people that feel a sense of resistance towards BL as a genre. That is why I also don’t use the word BL when I promote on twitter. I do think that it would be great to have a new word.

Just like women have things they don’t want to be subjected to, men also have things they don’t want to be subjected to. This kind of awareness has become more broadly spread bit by bit. However, in order to have it really penetrate society it needs for the voices of the affected people to be heard. But it is also the reality of today’s society that violence is directed at people that raise their voice. That is why I feel like it is the job of the people that create tv shows to speak up instead.

At the least, that is how I want to straightforwardly create the world, so that in 10 years without directly stating “this is a BL series” we have a society that takes it in as a “new cool romantic drama beginning” with “the leads being actor x and actor z” and as nothing unusual.  Now we really have such a transitional period, and as a writer I want to build the steps towards it.  

                                                          -

original article: https://mi-mollet.com/articles/-/27045?page=3&per_page=1

[janiedean]

Without going into terfism, how then do you think feminism should fight to become the norm? Normal ways don't work and women and afab people keep being oppressed everywhere in the world. Like, peacefully opposing the patriarchial system didn't work. We need to take stronger actions.

I mean I don’t think you’re completely right in the sense that this question requires a lot of space to be answered and honestly I’m running on very little brain juice these days but:

'everywhere in the world’ is already a thing that can’t be used here as an argument because like a woman who lives in saudi arabia is more discriminated/oppressed than one who lives in any western european country and even within that a woman in europe can be discriminated bc sexism and not lawfully and what a woman from saudi arabia needs is not what someone in the united states needs so we can’t presume that if a thing works here then it works somewhere else

this goes also with cultural backgrounds bc like a woman in japan might be societally discriminated for wholly different reasons than a woman in italy and so on so I’d like to state that each single country has different issues and presuming that there’s one feminism to rule them all that would solve every issue is like... would be nice but that’s not how it works

‘peacefully opposing the patriarchal system didn’t work’ is a statement that honestly leaves me a little iffy because like... since feminism existed (as in, a century and a half roughly) as you know an ideology that you call like that women in most of western countries have equal rights as men, can vote, can divorce, should receive equal pay by law (then the fact that they laws aren’t apply is another problem), won’t get their kids taken away if they’re not the breadwinner, can work/study without people thinking it’s just for men, can get an abortion or are on their way to (never mind regressive places but I’m speaking in general), can press charges against rapists etc like... it didn’t work? it did work, the problem is that since we lived in a patriarchal society until that happened we still live in societies that didn’t shake the sexism away but like... when the french revolution happened in 1789 it didn’t automatically destroy all monarchies, and women having gotten equal rights doesn’t mean we don’t have to work at dismantling what remains of patriarchal society - and I’m talking about western countries or like y’know countries aligned with that set of values bue like it didn’t work? it did work. if it didn’t I’d have been married with kids I didn’t want and having barely studied until junior high if I was lucky at this point in my life unless I was like rich or coming from a class upper enough I could afford to do something better with my life and so on instead of like studying to work in politics hopefully and I’m speaking just about me 

‘around the world’ issue: until people don’t put two and two together and realize that most places where women don’t have equal rights and are oppressed are theocracies we aren’t going anywhere imvho but like... you have to look at each single situation and support the activists there? like if a woman from saudi arabia who’s fighting for equal rights in saudi arabia tells you that they need this this and that you don’t go like BUT ACTUALLY I THINK, bc she’ll know better than you (and I’m using saudi arabia as an example bc idt we can argue about those women being oppressed)

and with that I mean that I’m done with western feminists speaking over idk iranian feminist refugees but that’s another problem entirely

in your own country you also have to be intersectional and work with other men too because ding ding if you’re like some people whose marches I went to who go like ‘if men want to be here they march in the back and anyway you don’t bring your male sons to this type of events’ then you go not fucking anywhere bc you have to work with the men who are not sexist, you have to take into account the issues of each single category of woman there is and not presume everyone has the same issues and like... not actually decide that by being a woman you automatically know better than other women which would already be a great way to make sure ppl didn’t think all feminists are like the radfems

working on dismantling patriarchal remains of society if you live in one where you have equal rights which can be done peacefully by idk voting for people who are pro women’s rights/don’t want to take them away, supporting the right organizations, get involved with your reps etc etc etc like if you wanna do activism that’s how it works but violent protest esp in a society where you do have equal rights on paper doesn’t exactly work

also support feminists from places where that doesn’t happen

I’m not going to go and say WHAT SHOULD OTHER WOMEN IN PLACES I DON’T LIVE DO but like... if saudi arabian women went for violent revolt I wouldn’t blame them but that’s because they live someplace where they can’t drive without a man in the car last I checked and if they do you support them but again that’s what they need to do not what you need to do as a westerner and sure af going there and preaching isn’t your job

there’s a hundred different patriarchies supposing that you can dismantle them all the same way is like... we all wish

tldr: I’m not a gender studies history professor and I sure af don’t have a solution but I’d like to presume that sticking for feminism that includes everyone including men who are legit pro women’s rights without talking about any other woman, doing on ground activism, not vote for assholes and looking at what policies they preach, being intersectional and keeping in mind that feminism = equal rights/equality not doing actual regressive things like idk that time someone said separating male and female children in obligatory school was a great idea (it’s not) is how you make sure we don’t lose what rights we gained in the past century or so, and surely like violent protest or making generalizations or terfism are so not the ways to go imvho *shrug*

[akechicrimes]

it does matter, actually, that goro akechi is a minor. not because this somehow exonerates him morally, or because this somehow makes him not responsible for his actions, but because persona 5 is invested in children as a source of hope for a better future. 

once i saw someone complain that people will defend akechi’s murders on the grounds that he’s a child/minor and how they felt that this doesnt excuse multiple counts of murder. and i was like, ok, well, im not sure anyone was excusing him, but alright, sure. and i’ve seen a few rebuttals to that, one of which is that shido and the other adults in akechi’s life had a responsibility to support akechi in such a way that it didn’t come to murder, and of course it’s on shido to just not be a massive dick who endorses fascism and murders in the first place. and i was like ok, well, this seems a little patronizing and dismissive of akechi’s agency and autonomy, but alright, sure.

in a very roundabout way of explaining my first two sentences, there’s one thing that bothers me lately, and it’s selim bradley from fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood. 

for those of us not familiar with fma:b, selim, or pride, is the oldest homunculus/artificial human in the show and the second-oldest villain, despite the fact that he looks about eight years old. of the seven homunculus named after deadly sins, selim/pride is the only one to survive the show--with an asterisk, which is that selim gets the “homunculus” part of him erased by the end of the show. with the “pride” aspect of him gone, selim is mortal, without any special powers, without memories of any of his amoral acts, and is generally just a happy, normal child.

which is a weird exception to fma:b’s general rule in which every other homunculus dies. even fan favorites like greed and envy don’t live, despite the fact that greed and envy are far more sympathetic as characters. selim kills multiple people on-screen, shows zero remorse whatsoever, and is an active helper in all the other mass-murders that the homunculi engineer. selim’s not an innocent in any way. also, he’s like, 200 years old? 300? he’s very old. biologically, mentally, emotionally, selim is not a child.

but fma:b goes out of its way to make sure that selim gets a second chance at a future, just because his body looks like a child’s. cut another way, he gets an exception from a large number of terrible crimes, up to an including participation in genocide, just because he looks like a child. 

fma:b reminded me that, outside of tumblr’s purity politics over children, and especially so in japan, children are socially constructed in a very specific way, beyond biological age and legal majority cutoffs. 

yes, biological age is a thing. yes, legal majority is a thing. i’m not saying that being a child isn’t a biological thing--it is, obviously. but what i’m saying is that there’s a difference between, say, the sex assigned to you at birth and your gender presentation, to use an analogy. there is a such thing as biological age, but the societal status of being a child of a related but separate thing. and this status of being considered a child is a societal construct.

the social construction goes like this, insofar as i’m aware: children should be good and silent and dutiful and work hard and go to school and listen to their elders, and their elders in turn should do everything they can to guide the children to the right path and build a good society for these children to inherit. (if we want more details on this, please see the entire history of filial piety in asia.)

so that’s a social contract right there baked into the social construct of childhood: children don’t have power, but adults have an obligation to make sure they don’t need power, and to make sure that the future and their children’s futures look bright. 

children represent the future, essentially. they’re the next generation. they’re simultaneously without legal rights as adults and in a very vulnerable position, for sure, but they’re also simultaneously considered the country’s most precious capital: quite literally the people who will inherit and lead the country next.

which, personally, i think puts a whole new spin on the phantom thieves in general. they’re not just kids who’re being rowdy or kids telling abusive shitty adults theyre being abusive and shitty--or, they’re kids doing those things, but they’re not just kids doing those things. they’re kids who’ve been specifically let down by adults who did not fulfill their social obligation to them. they’re kids who’ve been abandoned and neglected by the very adults who should have been paving the way forward for them, as society has asked those adults to do, because those adults have instead chosen to line their own pockets and cover their own asses. 

so the kids said: alright, well, then i’ll take power for myself, and i’ll make my own future. (which is where we get a lot of those promo slogans of “steal back your future” and junk like that.)

sae’s comments about how adults should do their part to fix the world for the kids is just a resolidifying of the way the world “should” work, and we could talk about her comments on the matter, but actually i wanna talk about yoshida.

i especially want to talk about yoshida because yoshida and shido are the two politicians we see the most of, and both of them spend a lot of time reciting political rhetoric to speak to the hearts of the general japanese populace. we all know the way that shido thinks of japan: a large vehicle that one person is in control of, and the masses just compose the throne upon which the ruler sits.

we also already know that yoshida’s a Real G, but it’s worth really close-reading some of his lines. he speaks a lot about apathy, the lack of caring for each other in society--a general willingness to disregard your fellow man, to not uphold one’s social obligation to each other. but he also talks a lot about the “youth”--which is not really uncommon for a politician, obviously, since politicians are always talking about “the children” and “the kids” and “the next generation” and “those damn millennials” and all that shit. 

yoshida instead gives us these fun lines:

A world where the young exist only to be exploited... is a world that must be changed!

And while our society appears to be prosperous, many of our young people are quietly suffering. They lack jobs, security, savings... The next generation will lead us into the future and yet they have no plan for how to arrive there.

Passing on the societal ills we have created to the next generation... is not right!

...the current administration refuses to discuss their plans for the future... Can we really accept such an utter lack of transparency?!

If you make a promise, you must keep it. If you make a mistake, you must atone for it. These are basic human principles that we have all learned from the youngest of ages... 

yoshida’s entire thing about how the adults have let the children down isn’t just him saying shit--he’s commenting directly on the fact that the social contract has been broken, and he’s putting the blame on the administration for not upholding their responsibility to secure a future for the children, especially since the children are the future of the country. 

this is partly why he doesn’t blame the phantom thieves for acting the way that they do; rather, he seems them as a logical reaction to the injustice that’s occurred as a result of the society that the adults have left for them:

I bet [the Phantom Thieves] are a group of young people. Young people who have experienced cruelty and injustice... They bravely face the societal ills that plague our world without thinking of the consequences.

(i think also in part he admires the fact that they’re anonymous and don’t benefit personally from their actions, which is exactly the opposite of what he did as a young politician. he also doesn’t throw the real embezzlement culprit under the bus to exonerate himself presumably for the same principle of desiring selfless public service instead of personal gain.)

in both the early parts of the s link and later on when yoshida starts talking with matsushita more extensively, akira’s important because he’s young--he represents the young demographic that yoshida and matsushita are discussing the future of. akira demonstrating support for yoshida in a public way means a lot because he’s a minor. matsushita asks akira for his opinions on the phantom thieves and other issues because akira is a minor. akira’s opinion is supposed to be heard and valued by adults, who should take his opinions into consideration and do their best to not let him down. 

this is tied into the general thread of yoshida being a person who was self-admittedly just as corrupt as everyone else, who was blinded by glamor and fame and money, who got caught up in political scandal. yoshida’s general acceptance of his mistakes as a human being and politician ties over to his general belief that it’s not that the youth are rebellious no-good teens, but that the youth have been let down by politicians like who he used to be. he blames himself, and because he is not too different from the rest of the older generation and politicians in general, he implicates a lot of the older generation and politicians as also blame-worthy.

his quest for redemption and atonement dovetails neatly with his views on the broken societal contract. taken together, yoshida’s s link implies to us the idea that the entire general older generation in japan more or less owes the children of japan a formal apology, and the older generation better get on their redemption arc and start being the vanguard of the change for children:

The reason [the Phantom Thieves are] causing a stir is because they are addressing the world’s problems. Setting aside whether their actions are right or wrong... there is one thing I can safely say about the Phantom Thieves. A belief with conviction... has the ability to move a person’s heart.

I’m sure you are all aware that I am “No-Good Tora,” the one accused of embezzlement. However, because I was accused like that, I was able to understand the suffering of the weak. Why am I in politics? In the past, it was merely for personal gain. But why do the Phantom Thieves continue to change hearts? I believe they do it for the world and its people. And in choosing to do justice for others, they had no choice but to disguise themselves. No matter what the world says, I fully support them. 

I’m just an average citizen. However, I will continue to voice my beliefs. I may not be able to become a Diet member this election... and I may not be able to effect change during my lifetime... but I’ve made my peace with that. I will be happy as long as I can be a meaningful stepping stone for the future of our youth!

okay. so that was a lot of close reading about yoshida. why did we do this exercise, tumblr user akechicrimes. 

there’s two takeaways from this. the first is the one that yoshida has already talked about extensively, which is that the phantom thieves are just but not because Fuck Cops and Fuck Capitalism and Fuck Anime Jeff Bezos. the phantom thieves are just because the people who are supposed to be upholding society aren’t doing their fucking jobs. the phantom thieves are specifically saying: we’ve been let down by society, so apparently we have to do everything our goddamn selves around here.

(which also ties in neatly to the general “fuck cops” vibe of persona 5 which, i would like to say, is very specifically “the cops are not doing their jobs.” the TV station scene where akira speaks back to akechi is, if i’m remembering this right, maybe the ONLY time we really hear “akira’s” opinion on the morality of his own activities, which is fascinating because he just does these things without ever justifying himself to the player--anyway, his three options are: (1) They’re justice itself, (2) They’re necessary, and (3) They do more than the cops. so akira can’t ever at any point say that the phantom thieves are bad, but his most interesting and detailed answer is to point out that the cops aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, so who can really blame the phantom thieves for doing what the cops aren’t?)

the second takeaway is that yes, goro akechi does get more leniency because he’s a minor. 

yes. seriously. this isn’t a matter of excusing what he did, or downplaying the fact that he committing murder. i’m not saying that he wasn’t old enough to make decisions (although i would never say that he was old enough to make decisions, because he was 14/15 when he got wrapped up in shido’s conspiracy). i’m also not saying that akechi, somehow for some reason, didn’t volunteer himself willingly, because all the evidence points to the fact that he did (although of course “free will” is also highly circumspect considering his living conditions at the time and the fact that shido makes it clear that he was able to manipulate akechi without ever infringing on akechi’s sense of autonomy). i’m not even saying that akechi was driven to the point of murder and had no other choice (although i think that might also be true as well).

what i am saying is that under the construction of childhood as japan’s future and japan’s hope, akechi is considered a valuable member of society, and is therefore worth saving.

or at least he should be.

akechi says that he’s an unwanted child, but “unwanted child,” according to yoshida’s rhetoric (and a lot of japan’s general rhetoric of children as hope for the future) is an oxymoron. (or at least it would be an oxymoron if japan weren’t so fucking hypocritical.) you can’t not want the future of the country. you can’t not want hope for a good future. the very idea that a child could be not wanted or not valuable doesn’t make any sense, because children are the future--in some ways, whether you like it or not, that child is going to inherit the earth when you’re dead.

the kind of person who’d not want those things is--well, shido. (this is why i used yoshida; yoshida and shido are two polar opposite politicians.) shido quite literally does not want a good future for anyone in the country and quite literally does not want akechi and quite literally does not see akechi, one of the very young-person citizens that shido is supposed to be serving, as useful or valuable in any way unless akechi is directly promoting shido’s fame and popularity. shido being akechi’s father is just a very neat and nice way of literalizing the ways that shido, as an adult, has let down akechi as a child--the ways that shido quite literally owed akechi something to make akechi’s life and future better, and instead did everything awful.

there should not ever be a thing like “unwanted child.” that in and of itself, from the start of akechi’s life, was nonsensical. and to the extent that shido being akechi’s father is allegorical of the ways that shido is a terrible patriarch for japan, i would say that akechi, as an unwanted foster child, is just another allegory for the ways that children nowadays are treated as misbehaving, lazy good-for-nothings who have to work themselves into the dirt to be given half the salary and half the praise. akechi, as an unwanted child, is just the personification and representative of an apparently unwanted generation. 

what i’m getting at is that akechi’s status as a minor (and yes he’s a minor even if he’s eighteen; age of majority in japan is twenty)--akechi’s status as a minor is a critical part of why akechi gets a shot at a redemption arc. so yes, actually, the other villains or palace-rulers don’t get redemption arcs because they are adults, who had a societal obligation to do better by their peers and by the children of japan. yes, actually, akechi’s informal “trial” in the hands of fandom is to be tried as a minor and not as an adult. yes, i know kamoshida didn’t kill anyone and akechi’s literal crimes are more morally repugnant, but yes, unfortunately, being a minor does actually exonerate him on the morality spectrum to a degree. 

being a child matters in the larger scheme of persona 5′s logic of who owes who, who’s responsible for who, and why we should not be apathetic. adults owe children a better future. adults have been letting children down. adults owe every single phantom thief, including akechi, an apology, a better future, and health and happiness; and they owe that to japan’s future not as a matter of exchange or morals, but simple social obligation. adults are supposed to take care of the kids--full stop. 

”okay but @ tumblr user akechicrimes?? akechi KILLED people.”

yeah, i know. i said “being a minor does actually exonerate him on the morality spectrum to a degree.” 

what degree? no idea. that’s up to you to decide. if you want to play in the black-grey-white morality scale that only goes two ways, you’re welcome to continue to ask “what degree.” we can argue that being a minor somehow reels akechi back from the “black” end of the spectrum into the “grey” or “white” parts. 

but (if i may be permitted to go completely off the shits into things that might make people pissed off at me for saying) i implore you to consider that this two-way scale of morality is not the line of thought that persona 5 is pursuing. 

this, again, ties back into the social construction of a child. i’ve said “a child is representative of the country’s future” so many times i think it’s lost meaning, so let me dice it a different way: a child is socially constructed as representative of potential and hope. a child is socially constructed as the capacity for things to get better. in persona terms, a child is the fool at the start of their journey, all futures contained in one present, a vast multitude of could-be’s. 

for a game very concerned with japan’s general societal ruin, children are not just in the position of having been let down by adults, but are--as the phantom thieves demonstrate--representative of better futures regardless of how terrible circumstances look in the current day. they are a source of believing one day this sad, depressing story might actually end with “and then they lived happily ever after.”

if i may go even more completely off the shits, take a look at this heckler from yoshida’s s link, which is the one that akira speaks back to in the middle of yoshida’s speech:

...I’ve been wrong this whole time. Even though someone has failed in the past, it doesn’t mean that person can’t try again.

this is to say, redemption arcs insofar as persona 5 (and also persona 5 royal, i think) is concerned is not a question of necessarily addressing the wrongs that have occurred. yoshida sets the bar pretty high in that yoshida does not ask for forgiveness for what he’s done, and instead simply accepts his actions and their consequences without attempting to lessen the blow. he embraces what he’s done in all its awfulness. 

but because akechi is a a minor, and because akechi as a minor is getting wrapped up in persona 5′s train of thought about kids as the hopeful futures of japan, akechi is at the very least owed a chance to do better. as a minor, japan is societally contracte to give him the space to have the potential to be better and do better. nobody is obligated to forgive him, and indeed neither royal nor akechi ever seem to entertain this as a valid possibility. forgive, forget, reconciliation, retribution, and resolution seem to be all off the table, as if the very idea would minimize haru or futaba’s losses. the very conceit of the dreamworld in P5R wants to shoot down the very idea that the past can ever, to any degree, be fixed, remedied, or even emotionally resolved. akechi will have always killed wakaba and okumura and this fact will always be awful--full stop.

nevertheless, despite the fact that the past cannot be changed, akechi is still a minor. rather than attempting to resolve the issues of the past, akechi is still owed the space to become a beacon of potential change for the better in the future--which is also known as hope. 

i’ve said this in other posts elsewhere, but persona games are like, obsessed with hope. they fucking adore that shit. why not? even in difficult times, even when things are terrible and you’re going through misery, if you at least have hope that one day things will be better, that life will change, that the new generation will step up to the plate and make the story have a happy ending, pain becomes easier to bear. and why not? persona games cover a breadth of difficult topics. 

especially in a game like P5, which talks at length about modern day japan’s ailments, what good is it if the player walks away with a defeatist attitude that the future will be terrible? 

if reality is malleable like morgana says, isn’t the first step to have hope that this is true?

this post has gone on a lot longer than i thought it would. but in any event. that’s why it is valid to say that akechi being a minor “exonerates” him to a degree. 

also selim bradley lives because fma:b concurs that children are a hope for a better future and fma:b is particularly invested in this line of thought because it’s a story about edward transitioning from a child to a young adult who is learning about the ways that the world works and is also still just childlike enough to propose that the world shouldn’t have to work in the bloody, awful way that it does. selim is representative that all children should be given as many chances as possible to do and be better because they are representative of potential. if that wasn’t clear. lmao.

[stillness-in-green]

Shigaraki, the League and “Redemption”

(In this post: 1700 words about how much I feel like stories/meta in which Shigaraki is rescued or redeemed miss the entire point of Shigaraki.)

It's a big open question how much of Shigaraki's backstory was engineered by All For One.  We're not even sure if AFO is the villain who killed Nana's husband, the event that kicked off the entire downward spiral of the Shimura family, much less what degree of involvement he had in Tenko's manifestation of Decay.  There's a tremendous amount of well-thought-out, interesting meta and fic about what will happen when Shigaraki finds out the truth, whether he can or should still be redeemed as he currently stands, or how Tenko might have been saved from ever becoming Shigaraki to begin with.  While I have read and enjoyed quite a lot of those theories and stories, I still find myself bothered by the prevalence of that line of thought because it ignores the fact that hero society stands condemned regardless.  

Whether or not AFO gave Tenko the Decay quirk knowing what would happen, whether he found out about Tenko the night of the accident or never lost track of Kotaro from the very beginning, in truth, none of that matters to the narrative of the League on the whole.  Nothing about Shigaraki's past has any bearing on the pasts of the other members. Trying to decide how to "save" Shigaraki avoids the fact that he is the leader of the League of Villains and their pain still stands regardless of their leader's history. 

You cannot act as though saving Shigaraki--with All Might, Inko, Izuku, Eraserhead, anyone--would redeem hero society, because Shigaraki is not hero society's only victim. He's not even its most straightforward one!  The condemnation he articulates of the world he lives in can't be addressed by him realizing he was manipulated by AFO all along or getting a good therapist in prison, because the world he lives in has failed a good many more people than just him. 

Let's break it down.  

The League Members

Twice fell through the cracks because of a lack of social support after his parents were killed in a villain attack.  He was just a teenager back then--what arrangements were made about where he was going to live?  If he was old enough that foster care/being placed in a group home wasn't a good option, did he instead have a stipend from the government?  Where was the social worker who should have been overseeing his case?  Where was his homeroom teacher when he dropped out of school?  What support should have been available when he wound up homeless on the streets?  Heroes stop villains and are rewarded both socially and monetarily for doing so, but the much more difficult and involved work of dealing with the fallout from those battles is clearly undervalued, badly so, in comparison.  Hero society, which prioritizes glamorized reaction over everyday prevention, failed Bubaigawara Jin.

Spinner had the wrong kind of face.  X-Men-style mutant discrimination left him isolated and alienated, shunned by the inhabitants of his backwater hometown because of his animal-type quirk.  To say nothing about the threat of violent hate crimes implied by the existence of a KKK analogue!  But it goes further than just the bigotry of his neighbors--Spinner's quirk was also unremarkable, meaning that, in a society that prizes flashy and offense-based quirks in its heroes, Spinner would have had few if any role models.  Given how many heroes there are, it seems strange to consider that there isn't a single straightforward heteromorph for Spinner to idolize, but given how strongly he latches onto first Stain's warped ideals and later Shigaraki's nihilistic grandeur, Spinner is clearly a young man desperate for a role model--if a hero that fit the bill existed, he wouldn't be a villain today.  So he's failed directly by his community for their bigotry and indirectly by society for the way it told him, in a thousand ways big and small, that Iguchi Shuuichi was not a person worth valuing.

Toga had the wrong kind of quirk.  It's true that, more than anyone else in the League, she feels like a character who would always have struggled with mental stability, even with the best help imaginable--but she didn't get the best help imaginable, did she?  She got parents who called her a freak, who berated a child barely into grade school about how unnatural and awful the desires she was born with were.  She was put into a quirk counselling program that apparently only caused her to feel more detached from society.  If Curious' characterization of quirk counselling is at all accurate, it seems to focus not on how to manage one's unusual or difficult quirk in healthy or productive ways, but rather on stressing what society considers "normal," on teaching its participants how to force themselves into that mold.  Hero society wants people with different needs to learn how to function like "normal" people; it is unwilling to look for ways to accommodate such people on a societal level.  Toga Himiko was failed by a society that demonized and othered her for a trait that she did not choose and innate desires that she never asked to experience.

And then, most prominently of all*, there's Dabi.  We all know where the big Dabi backstory mystery is going, and his is the most open condemnation of hero society of them all.  Dabi was raised on a heady cocktail, parental abuse mixed liberally with unquestioned acceptance of the fundamental importance of having a powerful quirk.  Whatever else can be said of Endeavor's path to redemption, the old Enji is emblematic of everything wrong with hero society: the fundamental devaluing of those without power, the fervent strain to push oneself past one's limits over and over and over again, regardless of the consequences to your health or your relationships, the practice of raising children to glorify a dangerous profession that fights the symptoms of societal ills rather than the root causes.  The ugly secrets hidden in the Todoroki house are the ugly secrets hidden within hero society's ideals, and because he embodies those ideals so thoroughly, of course Endeavor is lionized and well-paid by a society that never had to see Todoroki Touya's scars.

Mirror of Reality

All of these issues map to things in real life, and I don't only mean in a vague, universal sense--I mean they reflect on specific and observable Japanese problems. Read up on koseki family registries and consider how the dogged insistence on maintaining them impacted the Shimura family, tracked down by a monster.  Look into societal bias against orphans and imagine how it shaped peoples' reactions to teenaged Jin and his alleged 'scary face.'  Read up on how Japan approaches mental and physical disabilities, on what it regularly does to homeless camps, on what responses get trotted out when someone comes forward with a story about closeted abuse.  The League embodies these issues in indirect, sometimes fantastical ways, but they're not what I would call subtle, either; there's a reason the generally poor, disenfranchised League members are contrasted with powerful, urbane criminals like All for One, callous manipulators like Overhaul, and entrenched pillars of society like Re-Destro.  

Hero AUs are a fun thought exercise and all, but the League exists to call out and typify very real problems in heroic society and, by metaphorical extension, modern day Japanese society as well.  Hero society studiously looks away from its victims.  It doesn't want to see them and it thinks even trying to talk about them is disruptive and distasteful.  There's no indication in-universe that there's even a movement trying to change this state of affairs.  Certainly there are a great many things that could have changed to spare the BNHA world Shigaraki Tomura, but none of those quick, easy solutions would have saved Twice or Toga, Spinner or Dabi.  The League of Villains is the punishment, the overdue reckoning that their country will have to face for its myriad failures--for letting its social safety nets grow ragged, for failing to stamp out quirk-based prejudice, for allowing its heroes to operate with so little oversight.  For growing so complacent that not one person had the moral wherewithal to extend a hand to a bloodied, lost, suffering child.  

Shigaraki, Past and Future

One of the most heartbreaking and yet awe-inspiring aspects of Shigaraki's characterization in his Deika City flashback is that he was thoughtful and compassionate enough to reach out to other kids who were being excluded and teased by the rest of his peer group.  The League is foreshadowed for him even as a child, because even back then, he was a kid suffering repression and repudiation and so had empathy for others in similar straits.  Young Tenko is the person who would have reached out a hand to the scary but obviously needy Tenko wandering the streets; Tomura, despite everything All For One did to him, still retains that core of fellow-feeling that invites other outcasts to play with him.

"Saving" Shigaraki without addressing the societal flaws that created the people gathered under his banner negates the entire point he and the League exist to raise. I think readers will be forced to confront those flaws alongside Midoriya and the rest of his classmates, who the story has made a point to keep mostly isolated and on a steady PLUS ULTRA diet of all the same rhetoric that leads to consequences like the League to begin with.  I only wish more of the fandom--hero and villain fandom alike--was on the same page and writing their fic and meta accordingly.

Footnotes and Etc.

*The only characters in the League whose backstories we don't have much window on are Mr. Compress and Magne, both of whom are framed as seeing society as repressive.  Magne openly says as much to Overhaul; Mr. C intimates it to the 1-A kids during the training camp attack.  I'm inclined to hold off on commenting on them very thoroughly, though, because in neither case do we know exactly what drove them to crime in the first place. That's not a huge problem for Sako--if anyone on that team is into flamboyant villainy for the sheer joy of it, it's him--but I would definitely want to know more specifics about Magne's personal history before I correlate her experience as a trans woman with her portrayal as a violent, even lethal, criminal.  That would get right into the problematic elements of portraying all these societal outcasts as villains, people who undoubtedly have a point, but have taken to terrorism to illustrate it.  It's very possible that, for all that the League maps to real problems in Japan, we're still going to get a very mealy-mouthed, "But it's still wrong to lash out when you could protest nonviolently and work with your oppressors to seek a peaceful solution," moral from all this.

P.S.  None of the above meta even takes into account the multiple non-League characters whose stories illustrate various failings of hero society--Gentle Criminal, Hawks, Shinsou, even Midoriya himself, as those endless reams of Villain!Deku AUs are ever hasty to expound upon.  Vigilantes touches on the idea of "hero" and "villain" categorizations as being almost entirely political in their inception, as is also hinted at with historical characters like Destro.  Seriously, the mountain of problems with hero culture just looms higher with every passing arc!  

P.P.S.  I absolutely do not mean to imply with this meta that Japan suffers uniquely from any of the problems discussed above.  Other countries obviously have their own difficulties with homelessness, accessibility of care, victim blaming, and so forth.  Horikoshi is writing in and about his own culture, though, and stripping Shigaraki of his villainous circumstances in the interest of making him happier and/or more palatable strikes me as being kind of culture-blind in a way that it’s very easy for Western fans to unthinkingly slip into.  Just some food for thought.

[orihara-infobroker]

Seclusion Day Eighteen

“Oh come on! That was so cheap!” Izaya protested as Akabayashi jostled him, using the distraction to execute a series of attacks in the game they were playing.

“Gotta learn to focus better,” Akabayashi responded, laughing as he scored a win. Izaya huffed and shifted further away from the redhead as the next round began.

“I was trying to be nice to the rookie but since you’ve decided to cheat…” Izaya pulled out his cheapest combos, forcing Akabayashi’s character into a corner.

“What the hell was that?” Akabayashi retorted indignantly. “That shouldn’t even be allowed!”

“What shouldn’t be allowed is playing video games when you should be working,” Shiki observed as he appeared in the doorway of his office with his coffee cup. “If you’re any louder, my neighbours are going to complain.” He made his way to the kitchen to refill his mug.

“If they haven’t complained about Izaya yet…” Akabayashi responded as he mashed the controller buttons, attempting to redeem himself in another round. Izaya prodded Akabayashi’s thigh with his foot.

“Your trash-talking needs work. How are you going to beat all the kids in online gaming if your worst insult is that I’m loud?”

“Is that what I was supposed to be doing?” Akabayashi responded with a grin. “If you really want insults…”

“How about you keep your insults to a minimum, along with the noise? I have work to do, even if you two don’t.”

“You say that but you’ve already done the daily call. You’re really not required to do anything else. It’s not like you’re on a clock.” Izaya threw his hands in the air as he won the third round. “Yeeeessss! Suck it, Mizuki!” Shiki moved behind Izaya and tugged his head back. Izaya grinned up at him and offered up the controller. “Take a turn.”

Akabayashi grinned. “Call it a coffee break.”

Shiki sighed and let Izaya go, pulling out his smokes as he joined them on the couch. “What else do you have?”

Izaya grinned and moved to the stack of games that had arrived that morning, along with the game system. “Borderlands? We can do co-op.”

“Sure.” Shiki lit his smoke and grabbed the controller as Izaya switched out the games. “Too bad it’s co-op only.”

Akabayashi snorted. “Should switch our team meetings to Overwatch matches.”

Izaya settled on the couch between them with a snicker. “So you can watch Aozaki fail to figure out how to play?”

“Yep,” Akabayashi replied. 

“You do realize that Overwatch is team-based, right? So if he sucks, we all suck?”

“I’d take a loss to watch him fail.”

Shiki eyed Akabayashi with mild disdain. “Nice to see where your priorities are.”

“You know…” Izaya mused. “Japan doesn’t have any teams in the Overwatch League.”

“The what?” Akabayashi asked.

“Esports?” Izaya replied, rolling his eyes. “You keep saying you know what the kids are into and you don’t even follow esports?”

“And you do?”

“Of course not. Who wants to watch a bunch of Koreans play video games on TV? I don’t watch sports either, for the same reason. It’s boring. But I do know about it. It’s a fascinating shift in social dynamics.”

“Look what you did, Mizuki,” Shiki accused the redhead with a long-suffering look.

Izaya stuck his tongue out at Shiki before continuing. “Fundamentally, all of the sports we enjoy watching are rooted in skills that could be considered necessary. Physical strength, the ability to protect ourselves and murder our enemies or dexterity based skills that reflect the ability to hunt, as an example. What little tactical thinking there is tends to be relegated to the coaches or one or two members of a team and almost always revolve around battle. Video games provide an entirely mental arena and are heavily stigmatized as not being real sports even though they tend to have very similar rule structures.”

“They’re games, not sports,” Akabayashi commented. “Haruya stop stealing my shots… Have you played before?”

“Nope. I have good hand-eye coordination. Maybe if you had two eyes you could keep up.”

“Oooooo low blow!” Izaya exclaimed with a laugh. “But what is the difference between a game and a sport? Is it solely the physicality?”

“That is the definition,” Shiki replied.

Izaya wrinkled his nose at the answer then shrugged. “Well, yes, but pretty much everything else is the same. Yet society encourages only sports as valuable. The mental skills required in playing games is less valuable than the ability to throw a ball or tackle an opponent. I mean, look at the struggle in the yakuza. The old men who believe that brawn is the answer are clashing with the younger men who believe that intelligence is the future.”

“Different generations, different thinking,.” Akabayashi shrugged. “Haruya, stop camping. Why am I not surprised you picked a sniper?”

“Just like no one was surprised you chose the soldier?”

“Exactly. Esports is fascinating because it shows a change in what society values.”

“I don’t think it does,” Shiki countered with a slight smile. “I think that intelligence has always been valued, at least in our culture. Intelligence doesn’t lend itself to easily entertaining forms of showmanship, however. Sports is an easy to watch, easy to interpret show of physical prowess. Watching shogi, on the other hand, simply looks tedious to those who don’t understand the nuances of the game or lack the attention span. Watching people show off their quick-thinking and mastery of team-based tactics in a video game is far more interesting than watching two old men play shogi.”

Izaya paused to look at Shiki with a slight pout. “You just subverted my argument!”

“Was it an argument?” Shiki replied with a smirk.

“Tch. Your point is… valid.” He admitted reluctantly. “It’s still fascinating to see the shift in societal perception. Video games were considered a waste of time, something that only kids did, silly and pointless. Now they are being viewed in a different light. Being a ‘gamer’ is becoming normalized instead of embarrassing and nerdy. People can now become professionals at playing games, just like athletes.”

“How profitable is it, though?” Akabayashi asked. “I don’t imagine it’s that good a job.”

“The League pays $50k US annual salary. Plus the prize pool depending on how far they get.”

“$50k?” Akabayashi shook his head surprised. “That’s more than some salarymen are making. Haruya, you should consider changing careers.”

“Do I look like I would enjoy sitting in front of a computer playing games all day? Besides, I make more than $50k.”

“You know what would be an even better idea?” Izaya asked with a grin. “Awakusu sponsored Overwatch Team! I bet you could totally sell Mikiya on the idea. Yakuza sponsored esports. Just think of the team names you could come up with.”

Akabayashi and Shiki exchanged a look. 

“The Tokyo Ninjas?” Akabayashi suggested.

“Tokyo Samurai,” Shiki countered.

“Predictable.” Izaya criticized.

“You’d probably name the team with a cat reference.” Akabayashi teased.

“Tokyo Neko?” Shiki snorted.

“Doesn’t really flow. You could just call them the Tokyo Yakuza. One of the teams is called the Outlaws, after all.”

“Ah yes, I’m sure that wouldn’t cause problems at all.” Shiki chuckled.

“It’s just a gaming team. No one will think anything of it.” Izaya insisted with a grin.

“He’s probably right,” Akabayashi agreed. “They’d just think it was a media thing.”

“Not only are you a wealth of information,” Shiki told Izaya. “But also a wealth of strange and terrible ideas. How much would that even cost?”

“Around $30 million.”

“Somehow I don’t think Awakusu has that kind of capital to invest.” Akabayashi laughed. “Maybe Medei could do it.”

“Too bad. Guess you’ll just have to stick to your life of crime.”

“I think we’re good with that,” Akabayashi replied with a laugh.

“Agreed,” Shiki seconded. 

[tender-history]

On Research: Worldbuilding and Culture

Hullo, in this post I’m going to talk about how I research and do world-building for my stories!

I’m doing this through the following ways:

1) using chapter 1 of my historical Taegi fic  to illustrate what I did to research the era and the culture for that period,

2) providing the templates and tools I used in the hopes that it can help some of you all writers if you ever want to write your own research-intensive stories or original fiction that requires world-building!

While I’m using my BTS Taegi fic as a means to explain my process, this post is for any sort of writing project - original or fanfiction. If you follow me for fic, though, there will be chapter 1 spoilers for it. So if you haven’t read that yet, be-warned that there be spoilers below!

> How I do my research/world-building:

 If your idea for the actual story is agnostic of time-period or setting, identifying that is possibly the first step. My initial idea for this story was to have it take place during a war (the Imjin War between Japan and in 1590s was the first choice) but finding the spooky landscape to set it against while also maintaining the drama and tension of a battlefield was going to dilute the characters and their inner conflicts.

So I went back to reading about Korean history in broad terms (Google Books is your friend) , trying to locate a time-period to set my story in. I finally chose this time-period because it was very interesting to me in multiple ways.

- it’s still a way away from the big social reforms in Korea in the 1800s that would push it into the Modern Period of history

- it was a time period when common people and peasants began to lose trust in the king and the upper-class bureaucracy, leading to peasant rebellions and some villages stockpiling their own grains

- it is a time when global influences were beginning to creep into Korean society, including Christianity. In fact, just a few years from this, a major wave of persecution would be unleashed against Catholics in Korea.

- I chose this time-period also because I wanted the level of organization of society that’s in this fic. It’s been established already, which means the characters are at a point of history where things are more or less stable in terms of what is expected of them as a member of this society. I needed that stability to create a quieter sort of period mystery.

 To research for this story (or any other), once I pick the time period, I start looking for answers to my biggest questions: 

1) how did they live: this includes food, travel, interests, societal hierarchy and organization, family structure, music, religions, and mythology. Basically, anything that they shared as a cultural group. In doing this, I had to separate royalty from common folk, because so much history is written about the royals and there’s so less about the folk. I looked up everything from the food that the common people ate to the issues they faced (winter and the gap between rice and barley cultivation was a huge aspect; so huge, in fact, that the popularity of kimchi can be attributed to needing a protein source in the winter that wouldn’t go bad). I looked up clothes and fabrics and the layout of villages. I looked for traditional crafts. And when I did, I found myself going down rabbit holes about caste professions (the shaman, for example, is of low caste in Joseon society, which was surprising to me considering so many period fics I’ve read has depicted them in a different fashion.)

I know that this feels very disorganized and random, but that’s because I have been doing world-building—both fantasy and historical—for a long time, and my process is built basis what I’ve historically realized works for me. But to make this post more useful, I’ve figured out a template that helps to look into culture. I used to use this to build original fantasy worlds, and I think it is useful.

And here is a graphic where someone has analyzed Japanese culture through this lens:

Most cultures share elements of commonality. You can use this graphic above to figure out how to research. For example, the culture of Joseon Korea as I have tried to research for this fic comprises of:

1) Language (written and spoken - so Korean; Hangul, + Chinese characters);

2) Religion (shamanism + neo-confucianism)

3) Government (caste system + agrarian bureaucracy + royalty) etc.

You can fill in the blanks this way for any time period and thus get a better understanding of the culture you’re writing about.

 Additionally, I’ve spoken about the cultural iceberg on twitter before, but I find it very useful when I’m researching to pick up on each element in it and look up information pertaining to them.

This is how I use the iceberg:

> the top portion is usually the things that we’ve picked up on, through Run episodes or general Bangtan stuff. Like, we know hanbok is Korean traditional dress. We know the kind of food they eat. We know the music scene in SK, and that the major festivals are seollal and choseok.

> the bottom portion is where you gain deeper intercultural understanding. Notions of modesty, for example. We know that gender roles in Korea are more entrenched than they are in the west. In this fic, men are the ones mostly occupying spheres of influence, but women have their own spheres—we’ll get to that in a while. If you see, there’s an aspect called ‘nature of friendship’. This is where the concept of hyung-line/maknae-line/same-age friends all fit into this culture. It’s less visible than the top half, but you can still gain knowledge of it. Similarly, ‘attitude towards elders’ or ‘concepts of beauty’ are both aspects of culture. These are keywords you can use to learn more about culture. Again, you can also use this in original writing projects to build your fantasy world. I know I do :)

 Now that I know how my characters live, I come to the second stage of planning/world-building:

2) where in society are my characters: since I’m writing a mystery, I need someone who wants to solve it. I need detectives. I read up on everything I could about the Joseon lawmaking process, going through scholars and bureaucrats and ministers before I found a smaller, quieter force: the podocheong. I also need medics, people in charge of administration, senior officials, and so forth. For each of this, I tried to look into how my character could have entered that role, what that role comprises of, and where it puts them in that society. Seokjin, because he is a senior official, would require to have taken a test to enter into that force. His family would have to be of a particular class status to even enable him to take it. Knowing this, I looked up everything I could about the gwageo because I found it so fascinating! There were whole coaching centers dedicated to just teaching children of upper-class bureaucrats so they could pass the gwageo! If you belonged to an upper-class yangban family, and you didn’t pass the gwageo for four generations, your titles could be stripped from you. This is another nugget of information that I thought would be an interesting premise for a character being a in a particular conundrum—you’ll see that later in the story.

For Taehyung, being an artist in that age would have come with interesting baggage. Calligraphers and painters were usually higher-class folk. Peasants simply did not have the time or the materials to pursue art. But there are outliers—inkstick craftsmen, for example, are among what was considered the ‘vulgar common caste’ but they were the ones who made ink and color pigments.

 This just helps me create a richer world than I would have without putting in this research. It also makes your world seem more cohesive, lived-in, and deep.

So now that I know how they live and who they are, we come to:

 3) what are my external/internal conflicts: my characters behave the way they do because of the culture and the customs of the time period. My external conflict—the murders—have to be set against a background of this, and informed by this. So I chose to make Yoongi a sort of disgraced scholar because it allows him to operate outside of his station: he needs to talk to Taehyung, or villagers for example who are all beneath his station, and he wouldn’t be able to do that to the same effect if he is a regular scholar like Jin is. The culture simply won’t allow him to. That also leads to friction between yoonjin, and secrets once they start appearing. His current station helps him integrate better into Tae’s world, while removing him from the world he’s working for. It also serves for his internal conflict, fears and grief.

 Now if I were to extend this example to a more contemporary story: say your characters are in modern Seoul. Your external/internal conflicts can still be tied into the culture. Expectation on children to look after their aging parents OR the character’s family values vs. individual outlook OR Korea’s culture of students studying late into the night vs. the slowing job industry etc.  For a Jinkook fake-dating AU, say, consider what are the troubles that Jin and Jungkook, who have 5 years between them, individually face. 27 year old Jin’s place in society, social spheres and worries will be very different from just-out-of-college Jungkook’s.

 Why does any of this matter? 

I just think putting in some effort to understand culture makes for richer characters, a richer world, and better writing. Not to mention it lets you learn about a new culture, which I think is fascinating, especially if you spend so much of your time thinking/talking about 7 Korean boys.

 So to summarize— I guess this is how I research/worldbuild:

 1) Find out when and where

2) Find out who, and how that character is affected by the customs/culture of that era/setting

3) tie my external/internal conflicts back to the era/setting so that the world feels truly lived in and alive.

For truly good world-building, make sure that your conflicts are caused by limitations imposed on a character due to their cultural setting, or because whatever is happening is outside of their comfort zone. Human beings don’t live in a vacuum. The society and the values that we grow up in affects everything we do, every decision we make. Even rebelling against that culture is an aspect influenced by that culture. Your world (fantasy or otherwise) will feel way less flat if it follows the rules of actual cultures world over. 

*mic-drop*

If you found this post useful as a resource for writing/world-building, please consider a small ko-fi donation!

 [PS: Clarifying that I will not be taking ko-fi for the fic itself - only for the original content that I provide here, on this blog, which can be used for fanfiction or original world-building.]

[oneyearabroad-faithadler]

School in Japan!

As a lot of my readers likely already know or hve heard from me personally, school in Japan is VERY different from school in the United States. There seems to be a pretty consistent consensus as to what “student life” looks like. Though it differs slightly, espeecially depending on your location, in my area (Isesaki, Gunma), it’s most common to see students waking up at early hours to either get to school by means of public transportation (most common) or transportation provided by the school. Either way, this generally takes anywhere from 30 minutes to upwards of an hour. Again, I would like to make it very clear that this is in my area and from observations I’ve made, people I’ve talked to, and very mild research. My personal schedule includes waking up at 6:15, leaving home by 7:25, then taking the bus from Isesaki Station to my school, Honjou Higashi High School in Honjou, Saitama. YES, my school is in a different prefecture. I actually just completely switched places with my host sister who is currently studying abroad in America! I couldn’t be happier than I am, though. As a private school, my school has been able to do so many amazing things for me and has made so many generous accommodations. That being said, my tansportation does generally take somewhere between 40 minutes to an hour to school, and the same back. I usually spend my time on the bus studying Japanese! I’ve made flash cards and downloaded some lovely apps on my phone for quick studying (I can make a seperate post on this if anyone is interested), and this is super common for students! If people aren’t studying, they’re most likely sleeping. Just as with most shared transport in Japan, the bus is always very quiet to respect other passengers. I also sometimes take advantage of this time as my relaxation/alone time. I’ve found that I LOVE Japanese reality shows. I’ve been able to use it as a study strategy, as well! Again, if there’s interest shown in my study strategies for language, I’d be more than happy to make a seperate post for it! Moving past the bus ride, my school goes from 8:30-3:55 on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 8:30-4:55 on Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and from 8:30-12:45 on Saturdays. Classes are 50 minutes long with a 10 minute break in between, and a 40 minute lunch. Long hours and Saturdays at achool are not at all uncommon for Japanese students, especially if they belong to an after-school club! I currently don’t as I am atill adjusting to my schedule as is, but I’m certainly hoping to join one soon. I think it is a pretty prominent aspect of student life in Japan! At my school, they have an incredible sum of clubs that I could choose between, so it makes it a little bit harder. Some common clubs include sport clubs (baseball, volleyball, etc.), cultural clubs (tea ceremony, flower arranging, caligraphy, etc.), and general clubs based on interest (manga study, film, craft, etc.). Generally, clubs meet most, it not all days of the week. Next, I’ll tackle the question that’s probably on a lot of minds - I DO wear a uniform. Most high schools, public or private, require uniforms. Generally beinng “in uniform” goes beyond just a uniform, though, and this is something that I don’t think many consider. We aren’t allowed to wear any jewelry (outside of a simple watch), hair longer than shoulders must be pulled back into a ponytail (or braid) at or below the level of the ears with a simple ponytail holder (navy blue, black), and the style shouldn’t be at all extravagant. Essentially, the goal of school uniforms is to make each student as... well... not unique as possible for lack of better words. The idea of unification is a societal/cultural aspect more than anything. Here, it’s “we” over “I” nearly every time. I think that this is a good time, however, to remind everyone reading that this isn’t “stripping kids of their individuality!” or anything along those lines, it’s simply a difference in culture and values. As are most, if not all differences between cultures, and that what makes having this opportunity so amazing! Until next time!

[arashi-astrology]

Arashi Astrology: Ohno’s Chart Ruler

This post is completely inspired by @transiting‘s BTS Astrology post! Despite knowing little to nothing about BTS, I enjoyed reading it and wanted to try doing something similar for my favorite boyband, Arashi. Fortunately, Arashi’s members are among the few Asian celebrities whose birth times are publicly known, due to their fortune telling segment in their SP 「真夜中の嵐」. This means that I can do a much more detailed reading, but I decided to keep this post focused on one component of the Natal Chart, the Chart Reader, so that it’s easier to digest. If you enjoy this post then PLEASE let me know, so that I can gauge the level of interest there is for this kind of content.

For obvious reasons, we’ll start with the group’s beloved leader, Ohno!

Ohno Satoshi November 26, 1980 / 9:07 A.M. / Mitaka, Japan

Let’s begin with the rising sign (AC), the sign that symbolizes how you generally act and behave. It is the strongest impression you give to the people around you, and the way you instinctively examine and move in the world. Ohno’s birthtime makes him a Capricorn Rising, which initially surprised me (I had him pegged as a Taurus Rising), but on second thought, it makes a lot of sense. Although Ohno doesn’t really fit the ambitious, go-getter image of a Capricorn, he is known as a hard worker and comes off as a serious person (people even say he’s like an old man). The rising sign affects your resting face and Capricorn Risings usually have serious, stony resting faces, as Ohno does. When he talks to people, it is through simple, matter-of-fact sentences, especially if its their first interaction. Just as Capricorn is known for its ambition, it’s also known for its caution and hesitance, due to the heavy feelings of responsibility and self-doubt. Ohno’s expression of these traits were more obvious in his teens and in his 20s. If one looks at his TV appearances back then, he was even more silent, serious, and cautious than he is now. He’s become much more relaxed and confident in the past decade—another Capricorn Rising trait, as it’s ruled by Saturn, the planet of time, and those ruled by Saturn tend to bloom in their 30s or 40s.

Being a Capricorn Rising makes his Chart Ruler Libra Saturn in the 9th house. As the name suggests, the Chart Ruler is one of the most important components of the chart; you could say that it symbolizes the main theme of a chart. With Saturn as the Chart Ruler, that theme becomes one of diligence, responsibility, and hard work. Saturn promises difficult challenges, but if you manage to hang on and do your best, your struggles will bear fruit and you will become a better person for it. Having Saturn in the 9th house, the house of college, travel, and knowledge-expanding adventures, suggests that Ohno’s difficult challenges were about knowing what direction to take in life, especially between the ages 18-21. He might have felt trapped and suffered from low self-esteem. We do know from interviews that Ohno had thought of leaving Johnny’s as a trainee and that in the early years of Arashi he felt inadequate and like he was lagging behind the others, so that might be what this is referring to.

This is also evident in how his Saturn squares Capricorn Mars in the 12th. Mars is the planet of energy and action. A Capricorn Mars indicates someone with a subdued but determined approach to life. Picture someone whose response to the towering mountain in front of them is to grimly push their sleeves up and get to work with a ten-year plan in their mind. But when you put that Capricorn Mars in the 12th house then things can get fuzzy. The 12th house rules “the collective unconscious” and planets here lie beneath the surface. Accessing these planets consciously does not come easily and in the early stages of life you might not be aware of them at all. Nonetheless, they’re there and their energy seeps out without you controlling it. As a result, others will feel this energy from you, even though you’re not aware you’re giving it off in the first place.

Mars in the 12th can be a particularly tough placement, because it means that Ohno was usually unaware of what motivated him and what angered him. He might’ve found it uncomfortable to try to understand and confront his anger, leaving it to fester in his unconscious until it found a way out. When it did, it expressed itself in a messy and uncontrolled way, perhaps through a sharp remark he didn’t mean or a bout of anger he couldn’t control. However, the other Arashi members have stated that they’ve never seen Ohno seriously mad, which means that Ohno handles this placement better than most. There’s a possible reason for this: his numerous creative outlets, in particular his dancing and singing. People with 12th House placements are usually artistically gifted, because their connection with the collective unconscious gives them a deep perception of the world that lends itself beautifully to art. Mars in the 12th, in particular, is great for dance because it’s literally creative action that expresses the drive and passion within that is otherwise repressed. That’s why when Ohno dances, he seems like a different person, giving off a commanding and determined aura that one wouldn’t expect from him. He’s probably been using dancing (and singing and drawing—jesus is there anything this man isn’t talented at??) as a way to release stress since he was young.

That doesn’t mean that he still doesn’t have trouble with the placement though; Saturn in the 9th square Mars in the 12th indicates that his struggle to decide his path in life was complicated by his low awareness of his motivations and desires, as well as by him being very critical on himself.

Yet Saturn is about overcoming those challenges and mastering those weaknesses, and Ohno has clearly made progress on both of those fronts, showing his true potential. Libra Saturn as the Chart Ruler signals leadership and diplomacy, someone who keeps the peace, values fairness, and guides others with a realistic worldview. Libra is the sign of equality and balance after all, and dignified Saturn is the most happy there, reveling in the firm and yet sympathetic laying down of the law. How many times have the other members said that if it wasn’t for Ohno, Arashi couldn’t have stayed together? That Ohno’s unique “leading by not leading” style was what kept the peace in Arashi and gave them a feeling of stability? And who can forget Nino’s account of the time when, in the midst of a disappointing period with little success or popularity, Ohno refused to stop their current activities and told the other discouraged members, “If people can’t do their current work properly, then they won’t be able to do anything properly”, inspiring them to continue. Prizing the value of hard work and cooperation, you can’t get more Libra Saturn than that. Even though Ohno had numerous misgivings about being the leader, he always had the makings of one within him.

Looking back at the chart, you can see that Saturn and Jupiter are very close to each other, making them conjunct. Saturn conjunct Jupiter, or “The Great Conjunction”, only happens every 19 years and has been linked to the rise and fall of great powers (the next Great Conjunction, you’ll be interested to know, is next year on December 21, 2020). Those born during the conjunction have extra apparent Saturn qualities (serious, cautious, diligent) due to Jupiter, as the planet of growth, expanding anything it touches. However, Jupiter is also the planet of beliefs and faith, and Jupiter in the 9th gives Ohno a great deal of positive energy in the form of a strong inner faith that allows him to believe that in the end, everything will work out. That, plus his Sagittarius Sun, causes Ohno to sometimes be laidback and to go at things at his own pace. Saturn’s influence restricts some of Jupiter’s buoyancy, but the two planets also work together, with Jupiter’s faith being the energy that powers Saturn’s labor. The position of Jupiter can also tell us how we attract good luck, and with his Libra Jupiter in 9th conjunct Saturn, Ohno attracts luck by not letting that faith die while continuing to work diligently and treat others fairly.

Ohno’s Jupiter in the 9th also shows that, more than anything else, he likes being limitless, free to do and explore whatever he wants. Here we can see a sign of the Ohno who said he liked fishing because of, “the freedom”, as well as the Ohno who can be a complete hermit at home, not answering anyone’s calls. We can also see the Ohno who wishes to take a break from Arashi in order to pursue other things in life, while he still can.

That desire for freedom is reinforced by his Sagittarius Sun in the 11th, which is also sextile his Saturn and Jupiter. The sun is our ego, that essential core of our identity that we discover and work towards throughout our lives. Sagittarius is embodied in the archetypal figures of the student, the traveler, and the philosopher. Exploration and the scholarly pursuit of higher knowledge, those are both encapsulated by Sagittarius (if this sounds awfully familiar then that’s because Sagittarius rules the 9th house and it’s ruled by Jupiter. Clearly this is a repeating pattern in Ohno’s life).

The 11th House, meanwhile, is what I like to call “the house of societal networking and groups”. This is the house that tells you how you are with acquaintances, specifically how you are at connecting and collaborating with them to work towards some common goal that will benefit society. In addition,those with planets in the 11th house can feel like a bit of an outcast, with an innovative streak that helps them think outside the box, leading to bursts of genius. Other people might not be able to understand your way of thinking and you may feel alienated as a result, but your experiences will also cause you to be more open-minded towards others. Sound familiar? Ohno has often been called “a mysterious person” by other celebrities, who find him hard to understand. And when it comes to art, Ohno can astound everyone by coming up with an artistic vision no one else could’ve. 

Having his Sun in the 11th means that Ohno’s identity as a curious explorer is carried out through collaboration with others. Even though he might not think so himself, Ohno thrives in groups; working together with others helps him come up with new ideas and projects, satisfying his wish for freedom and exploration (Sun sextile Jupiter), as well as giving him more opportunities to be a leader, which is good because Ohno finds purpose in taking responsibility (Sun sextile Saturn). 

And that’s what Arashi did for Ohno. By leading Arashi, Ohno found purpose, explored unexpected possibilities, and, with the help of the other members, provided something to society as a whole. 

And though Ohno will be taking his long-awaited break soon, the theme of his Chart Ruler will carry on. While I can’t know exactly what Ohno will be doing during his break (although I do want to write a post about what astrology says he’ll be doing), it seems pretty clear that his road to personal fulfillment is through continuing to work in collaboration with other people, and using that inspiration to take on new, meaningful projects. Whether that takes the shape of a group art exhibition working with a medium he hasn’t tried before or starting some sort of amateur dance project or getting better at sailing (or perhaps... dare I say... marriage??), only time will tell. 

[otogetranslations]

A Sasazuka Essay

Written by one of our most beloved translator: khikari AKA Kujouhikari!

She completed translating mostly all of Sasazuka route in our on-going translation project: Collar x Malice Unlimited!

Here is the link to the original post: Reddit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUA27Rhfe3vyf1Ug_Qi5U1RZXvzwMZ1dT8hX8bEy_RM/edit?usp=sharing

Greetings.

To discuss Ichika in donut's route, we would have to discuss donut himself as well. It is something unavoidable. I have a generally favourable opinion of donut, to be point of being extremely biased towards him. As such, this is purely opinion with that fact established. This post will also be long because I have trouble finding 'concise' in my dictionary.

I played the game in Japanese so my experience might also differ from yours in that respect.

Also, there will be spoilers.

1.) Hoshino Ichika as a person

Basic background (Just so we are on the same page): Hoshino Ichika is a newbie police officer, quite fresh off her graduation. She is only 21 and still does not have that much experience in the workforce. She has impressive accuracy in her aim and handling of guns, however she is not a professional in it (compared to others). Her family is implied, and is confirmed, to neglect and dismiss her diligence and will in a variety of ways. She is often compared with her brother, whom she loves but is on unsteady relations with, after he moved to Tokyo.

Personality: She is an ordinary person with an ordinary sense of justice and morale, is empathetic, and not especially talented. Her most significant trait is her strong will and diligence, working hard for her ideals to come true. She faces things head on, for the better for worse, and tries to confront things that she is uncomfortable with as well. Not being a complacent person, she constantly strives for a better reality within her abilities. She understands what she can do, and what she can't do, very well. She also has extremely low self-esteem due to her upbringing, and was under a lot of stress during the X-Day incidents due to being a newbie, not going well with her family, then the collar happening.

I admire her for all this. She might not be the most powerful, or greatest, or most active, but she does what she can and tries to be true towards herself. She might fail and fall on the way, and even be a hypocrite sometimes, but she is only human. She isn't trying to save the world, she only wants her family safe, and those that she care for to be alright. I admire people who try despite knowing their limits, just as much as I admire those who are active and cause real change.

Also, I find it strange to pick at her hypocrisy sometimes. Her low-self esteem means that she is constantly unable to accept praise as what it is, yet her upbringing makes her yearn for understanding of some sort that she never received from her parents. I think critisizing her for that can be unfair.

I also personally find realistic egotism in characters to be something beautiful, influenced by the many literature I have read. I empathise with them better.

2.) Sasazuka Takeru as a person

Background Summary: Sasazuka Takeru is 24, an extremely talented hacker who moved from America to Japan due to his trauma with his mother. (In the beginning) he resigned from the police due to despairing at the police and the government's methods, in hope of trying to do something himself. He is used to the merit-based system in America, where ability influenced your input in the situation. However, Japan is the opposite, where the number of years you have spent in a corporation is prized over your ability (this can be still quite relevant in modern Japan). The ability to present your argument can be more important than the substance of it in this case, where these incidents have shook up the entire country. Thus, he is highly frustrated and running short on time with little resources to try to solve something important to him.

Personality: I personally empathise a lot with Sasazuka, as I have a similar sewage personality diluted slightly with coke. (I just wrap it up slightly better thanks to books.) He is highly pragmatic and has his priorities on a rigid hierarchy according to his personal investment, and thus can be seen as egostical. In other words, he ranks his individual needs and morales higher than what is important for the 'greater good'.

This means that he sees practical solutions to problems as more important than the decorums and traditional methods of society, and cares little about feelings he trample on. He evaluates every decision he makes with cold harsh logic, and spends no effort on things he deem 'meaningless'. (For example, society values family relations. However, if he evaluates the relationship to have no future, he'd cut it off, even if it is family. He places value on his own judgement and not general consensus.) And thus he is the most morally grey of the main cast.

He is a true neutral, which diverts from the tradition lawful good or lawful neutral protagonists society tends to value. I cannot comment on him much due to the similarities I find. He is neither good, nor bad. You can only measure that compared with your own moral compass, and whether he is against you or with you. (That's how war works, really. Nobody fights for what they don't believe in. Being the enemy doesn't make them wrong, but it doesn't make them right. It's the same for allies. Imperically, right and wrong can only be decided on how many casualties one's actions result in.)

As a person, he is extremely guarded of other people, and does not give his trust easily. There is no point spending time and effort on someon who is either going to betray you or is not worth it. However, this means that once someone has earned his respect, he will always prioritise them over other things. He has time to spare because he has cut off unimportant people, after all. He will go the extra mile to make sure they grow and can be happy independent from him while he accomplishes his own goals. This is true for both friendships and romantice relationships. This makes his relationships either very shallow or very deep, but nobody has qualified for the latter in love so far.

He is also very honest and tries not to be a hypocrite. What he says are usually logical and sound. He just doesn't wrap it up and consider the other party's feeling as much, because he wants improvement. Babying people will cause no progress. He shows his most natural self to the world because of this. Pleasantries might make co-operation more smooth, but they don't solve the actual problem.

His good parts and extra effort are reserved only for those who he deems as deserving.

(Also, this might also help you understand why he chooses to be morally grey and result based. In Australia, the the first British settlers came across the native Aborigines and judged their standard of living to be 'low'. Feeling the Aborigine children to be 'abused' in such a 'lowly' environment, they decided to kidnap the children so that they could have a better life. They brought them to these 'schools' where they are taught the skills to be a servant so that they can have a job in the future and lift themselves out of the 'poverty cycle'. They had good intentions in their opinion, but for the Aborigines, this is just them stealing their children away and throwing poop on their culture.

Doing what seems 'good' depending on societal morals can lead to these situations, and thus the best a person can do is to not betray themselves. I'm rambling sorry, but in this case, Sasazuka would value the result and say that the good intentions are not excusable. Would this make sense?)

3)Finally answering the question (I made you wait long enough.)

Sasazuka's treatment of Ichika: Just would like to address this first. Sasazuka is cold towards Ichika, calling her 'baka neko' idiot cat the first time they meet. The Japanese wording is less harsh than the English equivalent. (There is even a saying that someone more cute the more baka they are.)

Sasazuka is harsh and cold throughout the beginning because of how badly their personalities clashed. Sasazuka is a person who doesn't value meaningless effort, while Ichika tries despite having little experience or ability. For Sasazuka, Ichika should be focusing on something else and not bother him and lower his efficiency. Explaining to her would be wasting time because she is very unlikely to grasp hold of the situation quickly and contribute to it. She may be a victim, but Adonis is a large organisation adept at manipulating the emotion of masses, so she might be just acting. The enemy formally nearly suceeded in bringing the president down...They must have had many spies in government to make that possible, so they have the resource for this little act.

Conclusion: Time spent on her is wasted, and keep information from her as much as possible. Giving her extra information might even cause her to poke into dangerous situations due to lack of experience, thus encourage her to rely on someone more capable and caring like Yanagi-san. It is a lose-lose situation to work with her.

Meanwhile, for Ichika, she knew that she was dead weight, so she wanted to try and help in whatever way she can. She wanted these incidents to stop, and her hope of restoring the gun law is her main motivation in this route. Sasazuka handled the August(?) case which was the reason for this to happen, and thus he was her best shot. Enomoto's cases were to do with internal police conflict, Shiraishi was most likely a dead end, and she knew that she didn't have the ability to keep up with all cases like Yanagi. Therefore she sorted her priorities and decided to try to help Sasazuka.

Having a lot more EQ than Sasazuka, she realised early on that he was trying to do both of them a favour by not involving her. She also knows that he is extremely independant and would find her help to be intrusive, so she opted to help in the only way that would not bother him or slow him down: health support. She tries to do what she can, and hopefully would gain his trust so that she could have other ways of helping, like gathering information the slow way. For her, it's not that she likes Sasazuka over the other people or anything, it's just that she rationally did what she could for her goal to be accomplished.

Here, there is extra tension because Sasazuka is extremely frustrated and rushed because working in the police meant slow results slow action, but working alone meant less resources. People are dying by the day and he understands those deaths as a victim himself, so he wants to do something about it but it's slow. Ichika is under a lot of pressure for reasons stated earlier. Both of them are types to bottle things up and thus they kind of take it out on each other, but Ichika is more mature about the whole thing.

The love part: As to where they both start getting drawn to each other.... Sasazuka slowly opens up to Ichika who constantly tries without overly disturbing him, which makes her comfortable to be with. She respects his abilities and knows her own limits, which he can respect in turn. She might not be talented, but she is doing what she can while taking his preferences in consideration. Her care for her brother is something he admires, because he can't do the same for someone who doesn't return his affections. She...might remind him of his own mother who treated him as more important than her own life, despite him having such a troublesome personality. Thus, he wanted to help her with her brother while getting to know Sera in the process. Win-win. He knows that he is generally disliked, and thus he could test Kazuki's reactions. If he loved his sister, great. If he doesn't, then he'll tell that to Ichika upfront.

He begins to like her because he can respect her, she is gaining his trust, and most importantly, he feels comfortable around her. The last quality is something rare for him to find. (Isn't the ideal relationship being able to eat potato chips together on the couch, watching the same movie and laugh while pointing out its ridiculousness? In real life at least.)

Thus...he kissed her. Not to start a romantic relationship. It is him trying to repay her with his earnest feelings mixed in. Words wouldn't console her, then. (He also has less reservations about it because, you know, America.)

Ichika grows to like him because of his kindness and honesty she sees through his actions. His words can be aloof, but he has never truly abandoned her or led her astray while she was partners with him. He might even remind her a little of Kazuki, who is aloof and tsun as well. Since Sasazuka is opening up to her, some of her big sisterly feelings of taking care of Kazuki seeps through. She grows fond of Sasazuka, who shows more and more of his softer parts the more she gets to know him. (Please remember that she has high EQ and has a pretty good read on him. He's not that hard to read because he is quite straightforward and doesn't lie.)

He is earnest and trying his best, and thus she can respect him too. She admires him for being both diligent and being talented, but on the other hand he is terrible at wrapping his words and taking care of health. Thus, she can't leave him alone, because she admires him and grows to like him.

His support of her helps these feelings grow, and the kiss reminded her that romance yes indeed could exist. With that in mind, she also slowly realises her own feelings of protectiveness and affection towards him.

For both of them, it isn't a sweet romance purely based on love. (Though this can be said for all of the main cast except Enomoto.) For Sasazuka, it is comfort, trust and respect which led to affection. For Ichika, it is admiration, trust and caring nature that led to affection.

However, it doesn't progress to actual romantic feelings as quickly because of this foundation. Just one step short. They have mutual respect, but haven't closed enough distance to reach a deeper relationship.

Therefore, the turning point was when Ichika tried to protect Sasazuka, Sasazuka tried to protect Ichika and his trauma was dug up. This set off the last chain reaction needed for them to close the distance. Later, when Sasazuka confesses that he was morally grey, he trusts her but is also half testing her. He would never change, and he knows that, so he wants to know if she'd be disgusted or appalled. Because of how invested he was, however, he couldn't bear for her to react negatively and cut it off completely, so he made her drunk first. So that he and her both had a way out.

But...she didn't do any of that. She said that he was kind. She asked him to not go down the dark path. She...accepted him. For Sasazuka, this is more than enough reason for his feelings to tilt to romantic affection.

Then she proceeds to cry and he panics. He doesn't want someone who did all this for him to cry, and thus this memory became important for him. Important enough that he could push down the feelings of revenge, because he doesn't want her to cry. He doesn't want to make her, who helped him and accepted him despite his sewage attitude and questionable morals, to cry again.

It is for this reason that he couldn't confess to her that easily, too, which would lead to the tragic love end. He knows that he isn't the best choice and isn't good enough for her to be happy. She makes him comfortable and is special in doing this, and thus deserves the best happiness she can get. He also has the priority of destroying the remainder of Adonis, and thus...

In the good end, his feelings overrode his other wishes and his reason. Love > Respect & Reason, basically. He planned to confess to her on christmas, but she did first, and you know the rest. From then on, his affections are more open, but at his core, he is a person who isn't made of honey, so he is honest, showing his natural dry self.

For Ichika, Sasazuka confessing is a sign of trust, but also something that panics her. Her feelings progressed to love earlier than him, and she called him an idiot for being so stupid. He calls himself mean and morally grey, but she knows the kindness hidden within him. He downplays all his positive sides and says all this to her, expecting her to push him away. Are you an idiot? (I already love you!) So, don't go off to do things that will hurt yourself!

Because of this, the...Sera event affected her deeply. She knew he was on the edge. She doesn't want Sasazuka to stray off. Desperate to keep him in the side of the light, she remembered how he was troubled by her crying, and the fact that he trusted her enough to confess all that. She then threatens him with her tears because...it's the only thing that made him halt and unsure.

But ye I don't have anything more to say on her front, the rest is all in the game, go play the game you heathen!

Ichika in comparison with other routes:

To discuss this, we have to discuss what part of Ichika shines in other routes. Enomoto - Cuteness, initiative, bravery and willing to confront what he was unwilling to face. Shiraishi - She showed her will strongly. Her EQ was high and saw right through him XD. She chooses not to give up on what is precious to her no matter what. She pointed out his wrongs actively. She was so...kind. And cute. Okazaki - High EQ, figured out what Kei actually wanted. Won't take his poop reasons for using her as a reason. Refuses to give up and self sacrificing without being overly so. Cuteness. Yanagi - Willing to face reality and not run away, whether it is with Yanagi or the last boss. High EQ. Takes initiative and does what she needs to do. Shows her compassionate nature and helps Yanagi forward, together. Cuteness.

As we can see, cuteness is the common factor in all of them. She shows the same in donut's route. Nuff said.

High EQ - As shown in my rambles, she shows this very well.

Compassion - yep.

Strong will - Yep, was willing to do anything to improve the situation, even if it meant buying donuts or doing other things.

One thing I think is special to Sasazuka's route is her grasp on her own limits. She knows what she can and can't do, and that's important. It's admirable. She doesn't shove her nose into matters that aren't hers, and she listens well. She is willing to admit that she isn't capable and that's important in the real world.

As for why she might not seem as exceptional...well. It's because Sasazuka is almost never doing the wrong thing, and is always trying to improve himself. Enomoto refused to accept reality. Shiraishi was blind to what he really wanted. Okazaki wanted meaning to his life in a destructive way. Yanagi was stuck in the past and is overly compassionate, so much that he could not move to act.

Sasazuka is always acting to solve the case, is self-motivated, and is grounded in reality. He is mostly a self-completing person. Though his words are sharp, he always does what is needed. He is honest. He doesn't hide his intentions. His main flaw is his true neutral alignment which does not mesh well with his trauma. Thus, he doesn't need to be changed or forced to change like the others. So she could never assume a super active role in this relationship.

For Sasazuka, Ichika represents comfort and somewhere he could properly breathe around. She is someone he respects, and he wishes her to grow into the best version of herself. They might not be equal in ability, but their mutual understanding, respect and admiration makes them treat each other as equals.

And isn't that enough? I find that to be admirable. I think she shines just as much as in other routes, just in a more realistic way rather than an active way. Valuing a more active and interactive heroine is great and all, but I think the writing in the game captures more realistic and...explicit? Not so pure? Love relatively well.

[yuzuruspoohsan]

When Yuzu said he had given up happiness, i think maybe he had someone he really liked/loved and chose skating over couple... what you think? He's handsome, smart and funny.... i'm sure some girls were interested on him.....

As a good friend who has taken great strides to teach me would say: “that’s a very amatonormative thing to assume.”

Now he may or may not had to do that (who can tell), but he definitely given up on a numbeerrrr of happinesses.

Happiness comes in forms more than one. To assume that he given up “love” and that is the happiness he spoke of is actually a huge stretch. Why?Because happiness comes from a multi-clasm of things and aspects of the tangible and intangible. People can find happiness in so many things.   

But the media, social media, society, and cultural values often instill the idea of amatonormativity, which is that “love rules above all else.” (And boy....have I been educating myself about all the different kinds love other than “romantic love.” So many! Some more appealing to me than thiss so called “romaannttiiccc lovee.”) 

In truth, while love is often advertised as “the should be” and the “greatest” desire and thing you ought to and will ever have, is not the case for everyone. And we should not always assume that everyone desires or to be in a romantic relationship.

(If you think about it, amatonormativity can be hurtful and give rise to some socio-societal issues…..but I am not the best person to turn to for that kind of juicy read Q w Q. I would love to take a course on it or study it….but I was not blessed with financial leisure.) 

When Yuzu said happiness, I do not think he meant something specific such as just a romantic relationship, and if I remember correctly, I think he said he given up a number of things, “many happinesses.” 

You need to take into account that he could’ve retired after Sochi or any other years in the past. He could’ve retired and went back to living a normal life, going to college (like physically going to campus, not online courses), hanging out with his friends on a daily basis, or checking off things on his bucket list, but he didn’t choose that life. 

He pushed doing what he wanted to get better at, figure skating. And now he’s a rock star in Japan, but being super famous also has some major downsides. He can’t even go on public transit without the paparazzi finding him or the other passengers gagaing over him. (It must be a terrifying thought for him….hence why he must shuttle around in a car.)

He is ever vigilant that his privacy and the details of those close to him would be compromised. A little while back, there was even a huge rumor he was getting married, which turned out to be false and he needed to go so far to make a public announcement that it was not true and you could see on his face that he was very very upset (I saw the video awhile back and you can take my word for it.) 

These are all things you must take into account what he meant by happiness. 

Now, I don’t want you to think I’m rejecting your idea at all. I am just stating my own opinion on the thought. I personally feel that he had given up on some things that are more important than just “someone he liked” (which we don’t know anything about and shouldn’t push the idea). You don’t know what you’ve lost until you’re in that situation. I, for one, would hate to lose my independence and privacy.

Like I lovvveee food. I would hate to be that person who cannot hang out with her girl friends to eat at a cute cafe or restaurant because I cannot be seen in public without a horde of people trying to take a photo of me. I would never in a million years ever want that to happen. I would neverrrr give up the life I have and all the joys I receive in my normal life. 

And heyyy, I admit I thought he might’ve had a crush here or there or that he may have liked someone in the past, but at the end of the day – who cares! I don’t know him. He’s not my friend. If he got married the next day (I would be damn shocked) it would not have any impact on my life at all (unlike politics…..sighhh, that’s a mess of its own.)

[dropintomanga]

Rejectors Are Princesses, Too (Princess Jellyfish)

“Why? Why am I so confused right now? A normal girl would be happy to hear those words (”Will you marry me?”), right? I’ve seen it over and over again in TV shows and manga. When the man proposes, the woman cries with happiness. So how come I’m not crying?”

For many of us who’ve have fallen in love with someone and tried to confess our love to that person, more often than not, we get rejected. After processing all the bad emotions associated with the rejection, we move on. There’s ton of advice on how to deal with rejection. But what if you were the one who did the rejecting? After finishing up Princess Jellyfish, I was reminded of the perspective of the person who has to put up with a love confession by someone they aren’t interested in.

Near the end of the series, Tsukimi Kurashita goes through an ordeal where she ends up at Singapore to study fashion in order to save her friends from being homeless. After Kuranosuke Koibuchi rescues and brings her back to Japan, Tsukimi runs into the one guy she was interested in from the start of the series, Shu Koibuchi, the older brother of Kuranosuke. Shu just came back from Italy to get a jellyfish ring there as a way to propose to Tsukimi. When Shu gets his big chance to propose to Tsukimi, Tsukimi doesn’t know what to think at all. After some deliberation, Tsukimi rejects Shu’s marriage proposal saying that she still has things she wants to do.

Throughout the early-to-mid parts of the series, there was a big focus on the potential romance between Tsukimi and Shu. Both had extremely different personalities, but they found out each other attractive and their inner strengths admirable through multiple dates. However, during the attempt to save her home of Amamizukan from being sold, Tsukimi tried to reach Shu via phone. However, Shu dropped his mobile phone in the water. That led to Tsukimi’s lone journey into Singapore. This lack of communication between them around this time created a huge literal distance between the two that doomed the future of their relationship. One can argue that this change in plans for both characters threw the traditional script of a destined couple awry. This scriptlessness is part of a psychological phenomenon where people think they’re happy if something good happens to them, but they get a negative reaction instead. I heard about this idea of scriptlessness from a podcast episode about the growth of BS jobs. It was a discussion about how certain jobs are supposed to make you happy, but can end up making you miserable if the work there makes you feel like you’re not contributing to something bigger than yourself.

There was a brief part where unrequited love was compared to BS jobs.

“Q: You argue that there are even spiritual consequences of b.s. jobs, and one of them is something that you call scriptlessness (ph). What do you mean by that?

A: I remember being very impressed by a psychological study which looked at people in - you know, sort of looked at times they'd been in love or people had been in love with them when they were teenagers and how they'd managed to integrate the experience or - especially unrequited love. And what they found out was that, you know, if you are in love with someone who does not return your feelings, well, you know, it's difficult, but you can come up with a story about it. You know, you - people would come to terms with it. They almost remember the incidents fondly 20 years later. 

It was the people who had other people who were in love with them, who didn't actually feel the same way about them, who were still kind of hurting. They were really confused. They felt guilty, but they felt indignant. And they just didn't know how to feel.

And one of the reasons why, they suggested, is because, you know, if you're in love with someone who doesn't love you, you know exactly how you're supposed to feel. There's, like, 2,000 years of literature telling you exactly how you're supposed to feel, how you're supposed to behave, what's appropriate, what isn't. 

Whereas if you're on the other side, you're pretty much at a loss. You know, there are no novels written from the point of view of Roxane instead of, you know, Cyrano (from the play “Cyrano de Bergerac”). And so those people didn't have a script.”

Tsukimi was Roxane. She was somewhat at a loss over Shu’s proposal. Many girls would be ecstatic if the men they loved wanted to marry them. However, there’s a lot of societal pressure about marriage and for women to just settle down despite all the opportunities women have gotten over the years. That societal pressure leads to guilt. If they are the rejectors, they may get criticism via statements like “Why did you reject him? He looked like a great guy!” That starts to sting since the rejector is technically the main source of of the rejected’s pain. There’s really no real manual for it all because since being rejected is an universal feeling that’s more easy to talk about.  I did find that study on unrequited love and it’s quite the read. Rejectors don’t get portrayed often in media and when they do, it’s not well. They’re viewed as villains. Not many people want to understand rejectors’ perspectives because they view them as being selfish. Rejectors may also decide to be quiet about rejecting someone out of fear that their “interest” might retaliate with anger. Think about the bad relationships that women and men continue to foster due to their fear of being socially shamed.

Tsukimi did the right thing in telling Shu how she really felt. She did love him at one point, but her desire to accomplish something meaningful herself was greater. Shu’s love became unrequited over time. To be fair, he was worried that Tsukimi’s jellyfish obsession would make her out of reach for him. There’s also a huge age and social class gap between the two.

There’s an argument made that clarity is valued less than ambiguity in dating these days. Shu’s marriage proposal was clear and blunt as hell. It’s also a huge shocker because no one knows what life would bring. Loss is bound to happen more when relationships become more intimate. Shu is noted to be very naive when it comes to romance as he grew up mostly studying and trying to get into politics. He doesn’t fully grasp the many intricacies romantic relationships bring. Tsukimi became more willing to embrace a certain level of ambiguity after her experiences in Singapore. She started to see there were things more important than just romantic love. Even though she’s in full-on fashion designer mode by the end of the story, Tsukimi knows how important Kuranosuke is to her. She might love a guy at some point whether it’s Shu again, Kuranosuke, or someone else. She might not.  As Akiko Higashimura noted in the end, Princess Jellyfish is a neo princess story for the 21st century. Romantic love shouldn’t be the only type of love that matters. Also, more importantly, loving something/someone also means saying “no” sometimes. I wish more people realized that. Saying “no” doesn’t make you an ass. When done with politeness, assertiveness and respect, it makes you look good in front of others. Think about it - no one wants to be around a “yes” person who keeps doing things to please others and ends up disappointing them (and themselves) over and over again. Saying no is an act worthy of being worshiped royally like a prince or princess. On a side note: Princess Jellyfish was a fun read. I remember talking about starting it with one of Kodansha Comics’ people at Anime NYC last year. Now that I finished the series just before Anime NYC this year, I can see why Princess Jellyfish was popular in the U.S.. There’s a good amount of quirkiness that makes it stand out. Some parts were a little over-the-top and the hiatuses hurt the series a bit, but I recommend Princess Jellyfish to anyone who loves a silly romantic story that tries to convey a strong message about being beautiful.

[korinsu-t-blog]

May 25 // Imperial Palace + Yasukuni Shrine

Uneventful but hot day today. After the disaster that was the Fuji trip, I think most of the Lime crew were just happy to have an easy(er) day. I got to wake up at 9 today, which was pretty nice.

The Imperial Palace was a little disappointing, despite how big it was (5KM circumference in the direct center of Tokyo, a landspace that once had a value higher than the entire state of California combined). Back in it’s heyday it must have really been something, but most of the space inside the first wall had been leveled out and left as open gravel. There were moats and tall stone walls making subsequent wall layers, but not being able to go inside was a little disappointing. We did get to muse around in the gardens though, which was a good diversion. The gardens were really beautiful, and there was a square wishing well sequestered away deep within the garden that not too many people found. We also heard a Kendo training match going down behind some walls further in the palace which was neat- they shout like tennis players whenever they swing, part of channeling their energy or something to intimidate and challenge their opponent on the mental field.

The whole palace dynamics, the Shogun and Daimyo, are things I’ve really enjoyed learning about. In some ways it can be compared to the history of Feudal Kings in Europe, but it’s also quite different. The Shogun, who deposed the reigning emperor, relegated control of individual territories to his twelve generals, the Daimyo. Some were more loyal than others and some were more pure of blood, but all of them routinely had to journey to Tokyo with a massive retinue to pay respects to the Shogun at his palace at least once a year. The soldiers of a Daimyo would stay in barracks just inside the walls, living with the Shogun’s people and soldiers while the Daimyo himself went in further with nothing more than a token honor guard to confer with the Shogun. The politics of the different factions, in addition to the emperor and his eventual return to power, are very interesting to me.

After the Imperial Palace was the Yasukuni Shrine, which I talked more about later. Basically, it’s a place where warriors from WW2 were enshrined, very analogous to Arlington Cemetery. It’s a culturally significant place to a huge degree, but not much going on there besides paying respects.

Post Yasukuni we were left to our own devices. The Lime gang went to get udon (thicc noodles served in broth, I got mine with tenpura chicken), then hopped a train home to work on blogs and stuff. After that we left for Shibuya to go shopping, got a whole lot of nothing done while wandering around in crowds at least twice as packed as our last visit (the scramble crossing was insane, thousands of people), and generally just wasted time until we came back to our home block and ate curry. No luck finding a place that sells robes, but I did google one back in Harajuku, so I’ll be dipping back there in the future to see if I can pick up a happi or yukata.

[Tokyo Station, where we got off in the morning. It’s really hard to describe how massive some of the buildings in Japan are, especially when the residential areas are so crammed and small. It’s like there’s no in between: either it’s huge open spaces, or it’s deep urban.]

[One of the skyscrapers across from the station. You can see that greenery is still everpresent in the city.]

[The second layer of the Imperial Palace is right over that bridge. There’s a gatehouse with slits to fire projectile weapons from, though they haven’t seen use in ages.]

[A view of the outer moat.]

[The Imperial Gardens. You can see the Tokyo skyline in the background, but the garden is amazingly silent and tranquil. I don’t know how they did it.]

[The wishing well, located deep in a secluded corner of the garden. I washed my bad-luck rock here, hopefully that was enough to purify it.]

[One final picture of the gardens from higher up on a waterfall.]

[The gates of Yasukuni shrine- again, absolutely massive. These gates always signify that you are entering a sacred site, much like how the spirit rope signifies a particular small place where a kami or spirit resides or passes through.]

[The gates of the Yasukuni shrine, emblazoned with the crest of the emperor: a chrysanthemum blossom.]

[Today’s bad candid is Rebecca, a DAS major and member of the Onlime gang. This one was taken in rush hour, we were all crammed into the train with a bajillion other people and just trying not to lose our group.]

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Reading review:

Today’s readings had a lot to talk about the conservative Japanese movement (a little more nationalistic than their country’s current anti-nationalist stance), which looks to move Japan closer to the standards of national pride that countries like America exhibit on the regular. One of the major confluxes of problems for the conservative movement comes from locations like the Yasukuni shrine; a place where 2.5 million warriors are enshrined. Included with these men are 14 Class A war criminals from WW2- this makes visits by the Prime Minister extremely problematic from a public standpoint. To visit the shrine is to call back and even honor the people that Japan has culturally and societally denounced ever since WW2, but at the same time, it’s like the President visiting Arlington Cemetery. Not being able to publicly pay respects to their dead without getting major flak from China, Korea, the US, etc. must be a pretty disheartening thing. That, combined with the massive post-war somewhat foreign-enforced culture of “do not be proud to be Japanese, nor of your country’s accomplishments” has certainly left a lasting impact in the people. There are no flags in the streets, no pride in the country, and no soft nationalism like American citizens so freely celebrate in their own country.

It makes it interesting then, when foreign powers constantly take a dump over Japan diplomatically whenever they do something to acknowledge their war dead- especially Americans. Like I said a few days ago, the parallels in Japanese and American society are extremely aligned; and to an extent they have historically faced similar problems. Honoring the dead- all of them- is much like the American people honoring Andrew Jackson by plastering his face on the five dollar bill. Jackson still did terrible things, but no one is giving Americans flak for keeping up statues and such in his name. I think there’s a lot of room for Japan to expand in terms of national pride, but massive internal and external pressure is preventing its people from truly regaining their sense of national pride for fear of becoming what they once were. It’s sad to see these people having to play a close game of shunning their past while also paying respects where they can, for fear of being called out by foreign enemies or overbearing powers-that-be.

[jojotier]

The Pressure of Koito’s Military Upbringing, from the Perspective of a Military Brat

Hey there- I’ve been seeing a lot of meta for Koito. Not all of it is something I agree with, but I think that @chibivesicle brings up a good point that many people tend to gloss over- the pressure of being in a military family, and the goals that get automatically set for you, sometimes from a very young age.

For reference, this is drawing on my own experience, being from a military family. My father was a sergeant back in 2003 (so you can guess where he was when I was little) and I grew up partially on a military base. All the men on my father’s side have gone to war, while many of the men on my mother’s side, including my grandfather, have also enlisted in the army, despite mostly living in Puerto Rico. 

When relaying this, a few things need to be kept in mind- this is the perspective of a modern army kid from the US, so the cultural context is different from that of Meiji era Japan. It should also be noted that my parents only rallied behind my being in the military simply because my brother is unable to join, and that unlike Koito, I ultimately refused to enlist.

However, this is a great jumping off point for one of the biggest things about being a kid from a really intensive military family: more often than not, you are expected to live your life centered, in some way, around the military.

For myself, the only reason why my parents ultimately agreed to me not enlisting was that I was forced to promise them that I would work with veterans for the rest of my life. This mirrors, in some way, Koito’s own perceived “”flexibility””- sure, he wouldn’t join the navy, but he’d be in the army. He’d still get to see that “glory of battle” and put his skills to use. 

The only other reason why they agreed is because they expect my younger sisters to be more involved. Koito, unlike myself, doesn’t seem to have any older or younger brothers that can be in the army (or at least, he’s never mentioned this), so it’s very likely that he has more intense pressure on himself. He’ll be the one who carries on the great family legacy- so he absolutely must be enlisted somewhere. It should also be noted that during this time period, Imperial Japan placed high importance on militarism and serving one’s nation for the glory of all. Koito has additional, societal pressures to join that I’m personally not all that qualified to get into.

Admiral Koito’s speech about his son learning how to lead men also eerily reminds me of things my own father tries to tell me to convince me to enlist, even still- “It’ll teach you real discipline. You value life differently. You become a better person.” Worthy of being a “hero”. The last bit is implied, but it echoes a sentiment seemingly shared by military families- that being in the army is not only a rite of passage into real adulthood, but the way to become a better human.

Because when you grow up on a military base, surrounded by soldiers going to and from war, talking big about how they’ll defend everyone at home- your view of heroism begins to become warped. You start to only be able to see the “big picture”- to think about how the “honor” of a nation must be defended from evil, corrupting forces. And everyone around you pushes that view- pushes you to idolize and discuss and view being a soldier as the Ultimate Good you can do.

The only real choice. 

This is likely the pressure that Koito grew up in. It didn’t matter what he may have said he wanted to do as a kid- the expectation is that he “grows up”. That he wises up. That he go into the army, and bring honor to the family and country, and continue his father’s legacy. This isn’t even to say about the overemphasis of carrying on family legacies, or the sheer ignoring of possible mental health after the fighting is over- the expectation is always to be willing to lay down your life.

This is where things diverge a bit.  At least for me, we stopped living on a military base. We stopped living around a lot of family, and around a lot of soldiers. The people really pushing me to go into the military dwindled down to only two. I began to want to look at other alternatives- and I forced my parents into letting me do so.

Koito lived with even more intense pressure for a little over 20 years. 

It cannot be overstated, how much that background would have impacted Koito’s personality. His views of heroism only include the great and powerful men- those who have the ability to make countries, or those like Tsurumi, who promises to give “heroes” like the 7th Division their due, which has been so cruelly taken from them by the government. His desire to have been part of the fighting sooner. His yearning for war. It all makes sense in the context of these pressures

The thing is, there isn’t any telling how much of this internalized militarism is because of his upbringing, and how much is because of his own tendencies. His drive to be the best could be applied to any number of pursuits, and his athleticism in the circus arc can be contributed to either an aristocratic upbringing or a desire to train his body for combat. 

This isn’t to say that Koito didn’t want this pressure, either- we don’t know enough about Koito’s childhood, enough about his dreams and aspirations as a child, to make a definitive statement on whether or not the army has been his dream from day 1.

However, it does factor into his insecurities- because now, it’s not just a matter of being a good soldier. He has to be a worthy soldier. A soldier who can lead men victoriously; one who can carry on the family legacy; one who can be good enough to earn the title of a “hero”. 

Anyone can be a good soldier. Someone from a military family must be the best- the shining beacon to lead all others by example. 

If Koito can’t even lead the expedition of Karafuto, then what else is he? A failure? Inexperienced? 

Who’s to say?

tl;dr: When you’re from a military family, you’re expected to build your entire life around the military. Koito’s insecurities come from a fear of failure.