#Izanami would be standing at the gas station like “yeah that's a thing that happened all right”

[adachimoe]

How clueless is Yukiko anyway?

Early in the game, when we're introduced to Yukiko's character, we're given the impression that she has good academics and grades, but she comes off as something of an airhead who isn't aware of the attention she gets from boys.

For example, when Mitsuo tries to ask her out, she seems clueless about what he was after:

The on-looking students even make a remark about the "Amagi Challenge":

These are your first scenes with Yukiko in the game, and it informs your first impression of her. There being an "Amagi Challenge" especially tells the player that she just shoots down guys left and right. But I think the game hints at her being not so clueless, and that what you initially perceive as cluelessness is an act.

I touched on this briefly in the post about "Teddie and Scoring", but when Yukiko appears on the Midnight Channel, her Shadow self announces that she's going to "ナンパ (nanpa)... 「逆ナン (gyakunan)」":

ナンパ is like saying hitting on, picking up, flirting, etc. But it's typically talking about guys trying to pick up girls. Yukiko's Shadow pauses, then corrects herself to say 逆ナン instead. 逆ナン is a combination of ナンパ and the character for reversal/turnaround/etc.

tl;dr = ナンパ is "guy pursues girl", whereas 逆ナン is a reversal of that, so "girl pursues guy".

Let's remind ourselves of what the Shadows are: They poke at very real insecurities that the Investigation Team has, but they manifest as practically caricature-like versions of the people they're based on. Then we're told in December that Shadows hate the truth, and the moment when humans want to see the truth is what makes Shadows go nutso and attack.

When you think about how the game plays out, then the Shadows attack the Investigation Team because the "You're not me!" is the brief moment when humans yearn for the truth. It's a truthful enough statement to torment the Shadows, causing them to lash out.

In the case of Yukiko, her Shadow proclaiming she wants to 逆ナン seems to be part of the caricature-like nature of her Shadow that doesn't represent her. Case in point: Yukiko doesn't go around Inaba hitting on dudes as a way to escape. Perfectly sound logic.

At the beginning of this post, I asked if Yukiko really is clueless about all of this. Considering how her Shadow says "ナンパ" then corrects itself to "逆ナン", I think her Shadow's use of these phrases indicates Yukiko does understand that men are hitting on her. Even if her Shadow is a caricature, her own insecurities and experiences are real.

As we see, people in town are reaaaaaaally not subtle about how horny they are for a 16 year old girl. It's not just boys her age who do this to her, it's random TV reporters and even her own teacher who treat her like this. She is constantly being objectified:

If her Shadow is going on about ナンパ and 逆ナン, and she actually does know what is being said to her, then it seems from the scene on April 12th that Yukiko's way of dealing with this objectification is to just... feign ignorance.

I think you can also assume that one of her other solutions to this is, "Let Chie do something about it". We're not shown this directly, but we get the impression that Chie sometimes deals with these guys herself, and this must be a recurring thing if there's a meta game recommended strategy about talking to Yukiko alone:

And this is probably why her Shadow brings up Chie as a prince figure:

If Yukiko knows she's being hit on and is more aware of these situations than she lets on, then what is this about Chie? Less than genuine helplessness and reliance, it feels more like she is intentionally making her problems become Chie's problems. But Yukiko has a new struggle due to Mayumi Yamano's visit and death, called "managing the ryokan while having no idea what the hell you're doing and also being a high school student". Which is why Chie is no longer qualified to be her Shadow's prince: Ultimately, Yukiko can't make the ryokan also become Chie's problem.

As the game goes on past Yukiko's Castle, there are scenes where I think Yukiko responds differently than before her time in the TV and before everyone saw her Shadow, and I think they lend to the idea that yeah she did know all along.

For example, Yosuke wants her help academically and mentions "private lessons". Yukiko interprets this as something inappropriate. She doesn't bother to ask him what he means by that and reacts by slapping him, insisting that her hand simply moved on its own:

Like how the news reporter and even her teacher acted, in this scene we're also told that ryokan visitors say inappropriate shit to her.

There's also the scene Yosuke tries to get Yukiko's phone number, and Chie mentions that Yosuke calls her to tell her dirty jokes. Yukiko does a thousand yard "......." stare before changing the subject entirely and not giving him a response:

(I've read an interpretation that Yukiko repeatedly acts dismissive to Yosuke because Chie likes him and he's oblivious. I'm not into that pairing, but I get where they're coming from cause early 2000s media did have some "two people bickering with one another means they're going to get married and have 4 kids" type of shit going on.)

Yukiko also reacts when she sees Kanji has an anime nosebleed. She's the one who pushes him into the water, not Chie:

Compare these scenes from after the TV world with how she treats Yosuke and Mitsuo on April 12th, before anything with the TV happens. Yosuke says he tried to ask her out before and got shut down, and she acts like she isn't sure what he's talking about:

While she ends up shooting him down (again), she actually bothers replying to him (as well as Mitsuo), she doesn't get physical, and she shows her fake reliance on Chie by asking Chie what Mitsuo wanted anyway.

You'd think if that she was genuinely oblivious about these interactions with boys as she's shown to be in April, then would her Shadow even know what ナンパ is? And in the May and June scenes, wouldn't she be asking questions like, "What does he mean by 'private lessons'" or "Hey Chie, why is Kanji's nose bleeding?" (which would then lead to Chie pushing Kanji in).

And the culmination of all of this is her response to the reporter who wants to film her bathing in the onsen and offer "all day menus" (99% sure this means "turn the ryokan into a soapland"). Rather than continue to make things Chie's problems or expect Chie to do something or pretend like she has no idea what's being said, Yukiko -- having seen a caricature of herself -- takes her own initiative.

...buuut this raises another question. Even if Yukiko is aware of when dudes are being gross to her, what about the other moments where she seems completely oblivious...?

Is she only aware of the interactions with guys because of how frequently they happen? Or is she actually a master of deadpan humor who is perfectly aware during scenes like this too?