#Kagurabachi meta

[sassyangelchild]

Once again thinking about posting some thoughts about the recent arc/chapter from Kagurabachi and it ended up being a wall of text so...

Samura and Uruha (Sword Bearer Assassination arc)

Spoiler for up to Kagurabachi ch58

"Those people died for me. I can't just throw away my life!"

But before that "I understand where you're coming from."

He's not shying away from the idea of them being part of the evil that should be rooted, he acknowledges that notion as valid, but he *can't* throw away his life when people who cared died protecting it. It goes against his own consciousness.

"I was ready to die at any time. For three years (...) I lost my will to live."

He's not afraid of death.

"We'll give our lives so you can escape. You'd better survive or we'll curse you."

Meeting Chihiro or Hakuri is not what made him fight for his life, it was the sense of duty. Uruha giving up would make the sacrifice worthless and he can't allow that.

Samura is fighting because people have died for them, believing them heroes when not knowing the whole truth, because whatever happened back then was so bad he believes they are the greater evil right now since they weren't even held accountable for it.

And then despite the overwhelming advantage an enchanted blade gives, Samura takes the regular sword to duel him.

"It's just our egos. All that remains is to battle to the death."

I feel like Samura acknowledges that while Uruha understands why he's doing this (they committed sins and didn't atone as they should have, even if Uruha doesn't agree with how he wants to handle it he seems to agree to some degree), he can't ask him to just not defend himself because Uruha is also bound by his duty to make all those sacrifices worth it.

It's not that Uruha himself is afraid of death, he's just stating he can't go along with that kind of plan because other people died to make sure he lives the same way Samura won't stop because other people died for them when it shouldn't have happened, when they weren't the heroes everyone believed.

They both understand even if they can't agree because it's the weight of others lives that motivates them.

Samura choosing to fight with a normal blade, giving Uruha a chance to fight fairly, really makes it feel like it's a clash of ideals and perspectives, the same way Sojo and Chihiro's fight was, the same way it's been for other fights between enchanted blade users since the war ended. They both have different takes from the people who sacrificed themselves for their sake.

Like he said "It's just our egos. All that remains is to battle to the death."

So that's what they do. Uruha isn't throwing his life, it's a battle.

If Uruha dies is going to be honoring the deaths of his comrades, fighting for his survival (even if the odds didn't look that good from the start since Samura was his master, is older and more experienced and is the one whose goal right now is to kill).

"Guess I'm going to hell too."

"Yes (I'm going to shoulder this alone). Nobody else has to endure this hell."

He's saying he will bear with the consequences and will make sure they pay for their mistakes, but since he's the winner Uruha doesn't need to concern himself with it any longer. Uruha doesn't need to feel regret because he followed through and fought to survive until the end, (maybe this is a stretch but) he doesn't need to keep enduring the burden of their past and the weight of all those lives.

When they met again they almost got no time to talk, the only personal stuff Samura got to say was right before the beginning of the fight:

"Uruha. You've been through a lot. Get some rest."

We've seen Samura cares for others, one could say that perhaps too much.

He cares and that's why he feels so responsible for every death.

I can't say I'm glad with what he did and I don't agree with how he is doing things, I'm not forgiving him for this because while I believe there is truth in what he says and they must have done something truly horrible back then betraying his former allies and friends is too much when what we've seen from Uruha is a good person with no intention to harm anyone in the future (young Uruha posing in that photo with Rokuhira destroys me, he looks so young) but after seeing that dialogue again I do believe from his pov at least he is letting him "rest" from the hell.

There is a lot of stuff I've probably not mentioned because it was already too long but yeah I don't believe someone like Samura is capable of doing this without feeling something which doesn't mean I have to like it but yeah. If there are mistakes or it seems a little nonsensical it's because I wrote this at 4am (the brainrot is strong)

[ultfreakme]

Legacy in Kagurabachi, Part 1: The Enchanted Blades and Kunishige Rokuhira

So there's been a running theme so far in the manga of children inheriting parental legacies, and the impact these legacies have upon the world. The key players in this concept are obviously Chihiro and Hakuri.

Kunishige is upheld as a hero of the Seitei war. His blacksmithing and weapons are seen as the source of heroism to the point he is revered more than the wielders themselves. The swords specifically, are the object of reverence, as opposed to the people, and thus the sword-maker is important.

Swords in Kagurabachi are symbols of power and status. We see in the Rakuzaichi Arc that the swords are prized extremely high and even without being unsheathed, they are capable of stirring turmoil in society purely because of the meaning attached to them. Kunishige is buried under the status these swords hold, and his image and message are thus warped by larger social orders(The Kamunabi specifically) to create an image of control and peace among the regular population.

The swords are a tool by which the Kamunabi keeps the population from panicking. They are stronger than sorcerers, thus there is a sense of assurance that can be given to the people if the kamunabi can say they have them. Attaining the swords and keeping them under the Kamunabi's lock-and-key is a matter of physical power but also a matter of social control.

This is the legacy assigned to Kunishige Rokuhira by the world. But what Chihiro holds as his father's legacy, is based around the objectives for which the swords are used. They are less about power and more about intention.

This is primarily the will which Chihiro chooses to carry out. His stated goal in the manga is ensuring the swords don't fall into the hands of wrong people. But there is a twist, things are more complicated than ensuring the katana falls into the right hands.

As previously established, the role of the katana is not defined by Kunishige alone. Sojo is wrong in assuming Kunishige intended for them to be tools of violence and nothing more, but he is allowed to philosophize that the Six Swords are for that meaningless violence and chaos. A 'death of the author' situation where intention of the author(in this case, blacksmith) does not matter. Those who wield the katana define its purpose.

Chihiro is also realizing, just by merely existing, the katana takes innocent lives. Wielding it is a level of complacency.

Chihiro also very quickly realizes, the swords don't matter. It's why he is fine with Cloud Gouger breaking, it is why he was able to give up Enten without any amount of struggle. It is also why I believe, he may have quit blacksmithing to hunt down the swords.

Yes, ending the Hishaku and finding the swords is a revenge tour for his father, but this entire endeavor is also about preserving the image of Kunishige Rokuhira. The core message Kunishige parted to Chihiro does not center that katana, but rather the people and the defeat of evil. Ultimately, this is what matters and Chihiro is smart enough to prioritize this. Kunishige himself does not want for Chihiro to follow in his footsteps and de-centers the katana.

The way Chihiro carries out Kunishige's legacy is complicated. He hasn't fully disavowed the swords. He needs it as a tool to fulfill the actual goal his dad had, which is to stop evil and get the swords back. But in doing so, he's faced with the damage his father's work has done.

How will Kunishige be remembered? What is his final impact on the world? Chihiro idolizes his dad but he's being confronted with a world where people are dying because of his father's creations.

Kunishige tells Chihiro to think about what kind of katana the world needs. And by letting Cloud Gouger break, I think Chihiro's asking back "do we need a katana at all?" How will Chihiro carry out his father's legacy? By retrieving the blades and keeping them protected on his own thus preserving the material legacy Kunishige has left behind? Or will he preserve it by breaking all of them to maintain peace?

It seems like the latter considering the latest chapter. If preservation and protection is Chihiro's end goal, even he admits the Kamunabi are better equipped to seal the blades. But he is still in disagreement with them and doesn't fully rely on them. This is because our Found Family Gang have realized the Kamunabi also intend to use the swords eventually, but also because Chihiro knows the Kamunabi will sacrifice innocent lives for the swords.

Ideologically, the Kamunabi and Chihiro are opposed.

The Kamunabi will allow dozens of human beings to be auctioned off for the sword. Chihiro won't let Hakuri go just to keep Enten.

The Kamunabi also clearly want full control of the narrative of "Kunishige Rokuhira". Hence why they are so put off by Chihiro. It's not just the killing, it's the fact that he used the sword in public and is getting in the way of how they do things.

All that aside, my theory for the future of Kagurbachi, is the the swords are all going to be destroyed, including Enten. I'm just guessing at this point and there aren't enough chapters out yet for me to say for sure this is what will happen. But I believe that's where we're headed.

[blog-of-hubris]

Kagurabachi Chapter 3: Witness

A good few of my followers/mutual said they were interested in me doing metas on more series outside of jujutsu kaisen. So here it goes!

This meta is going to be about… You guessed it… Kagurabachi lol! This is a new manga in weekly shōnen jump that has gotten some (weird) attention from the animanga fanbase. So bare with me as I dissect this chapter and follow me for more (if you don't already)

P.S—If there is a series you want me to write about, let me know in my asks or comments below!

Meet Hinao

This chapter is a pretty straightforward one, and that's pretty much been the theme of this manga so far. It starts off with an interesting infomercial like moment where we are introduced to the character Hinao. Hinao is an informant on the Yakuza and Sorcerers, while also being a “handler” of sorts. She has access to both sorcerers and yakuza, acting has the connector between the two. I like the addition of a character like her, but I do hope there is more distinction given about her safety being the one who connects two unpredictable parties.

We also get a loose number of how many sorcerers are around, and in Tokyo alone there are over 1000. That leaves a lot of room for different character types, motivations, and powers. I hope that we don't get a stereotypical sorcerer of the week situation every fight. There is a lot of potential to expand on the world building, or more specifically the city building of Tokyo, Japan. Later down the line, I could see the series expand farther, but I think baby steps are best for now.

There is a flashback showing how Hinao and Mr. Shiba started working together to find information on Rokuhira (the MCs dad). Nothing special really straight forward as well, but I like that Hinao mentions she had no idea Shiba was connected to Rokuhira. That information is nice because it confirms how secretive Shiba is, making me more interested in his overall persona.

The Little Girl Char

Ok, first, her name being Char is so cool. I'm a gundam stan, so I feel like this is a homage to the red comet, but I also could be in my own head canon. Either way, WE LOVE CHAR!

Any who, the chapter isn't complicated from here, but I have some moments I really enjoyed.

For example, the conversation between Chihiro and Char felt like a big brother/little sister connection. Chihiro wanted to take her out to get food just because she hadn't eaten, but he didn't believe she actually saw and enchanted blade. You can't blame him, Char is a smart girl and seemed to be acting as if she had no information to give. I think this is her way of protecting herself from everyone. She went into Hinao's place because it was somewhere to hire bodyguards, but she can't just trust every person who asks her about the enchanted sword.

After a short time, Char mentions the sword forming a cloud, which indicates to Chihiro that she isn't lying. My favorite part about this scene, is that if you are paying attention, you see a sorcerer walk into the restaurant while they are talking. He sits right behind Chihiro, and listens in to their conversation. This is when I see Chihiro has a lot of learning to do when it comes to his surroundings. He saw the sorcerer being antagonized by the shop owner but missed that he was a threat to them. This guy perfectly catches our MC off guard, explodes a doll to cause disarray, and grabs Char.

Fortunately, the sorcerer intended on killing Chihiro with that blast but failed. This is where the chapter ends, with him expressing his disappointment in Chihiro's survival, while Chihiro apologizes to Char for not believing her. I find Char's response so cute, but I also am very intrigued with who Char is.

Why is she being chased? How does she know the bad guys? Why did the sorcerer not just kill her but capture her? I think this is a good plot point that could truly elevate the series, even though it's only 3 chapters in.

Potential…

I see a lot of potential for Kagurabachi. The paneling is nice, the character interactions are good, but I need more substance out of the world building. I hope the mangaka doesn't take too long in establishing some sort of concrete enemy, even if there is a plot twist that changes things later on.

I also want more characterization, but I'm still determining if this is a narrative based story or a character based one. Furthermore, I hope that this starts to become clearer down the line and not too late!

[hestzhyen]

An Extremely Subjective HakuHiro Romantic Trope Breakdown

Greetings, void. This arc is rough and the brainworms won't let me write my own hurt/comfort fan fiction- they demand half-baked analysis instead of lovemaking. So have the closest thing that passes for fluff from yours truly.

In essence, this is just a list of the explicitly romantic tropes I love applying to HakuHiro with varying degrees of gushing ship babble as justification. Some are definitely skewed hard towards headcanon but there's always at least a tenuous connection to something that's demonstrated in the work itself. Proceed if this kind of brain rot sounds like your jam! Otherwise just please let me die from cringe in peace.

Battle Couple

Offense and support working in perfect harmony.

So this is just one of my personal favourites, but Chihiro and Hakuri definitely have strong vibes for this trope. They fought together in an absolutely stunning display of mutual trust and understanding in the Rakuzaichi Arc. Seriously, these guys pulled off some truly spine-tingly good moves to take down Kyora despite Hakuri only just awakening to his powers the very same day.

They demonstrated this again in the train fight protecting Uruha- Hakuri and Chihiro only need the bare minimum of communication between them to fight in style. I look forward to more chances for them to show off their teamwork! If they end up fighting back-to-back in canon I'll probably just straight up ascend to fudanshi heaven on the spot. I LOVE BATTLE COUPLES.

Love at First Sight/Rescue Romance

"This is the kind of man I need in my life."

Love at First Sight is pretty self-explanatory: person A sees person B and immediately falls head over heels. It's easy to slap that on Hakuri in his introduction chapter- he's only missing an invitation to get to know each other over some coffee when they finally meet up, really. Unless asking someone to help you kill your family is the Kagurabachi universe's equivalent...?

As for Rescue Romance, it's another very simple scenario: person A is saved by person B, which causes them to fall in love. Chihiro saves Hakuri with the other random people at the site of Sojo's massacre attempt, and Hakuri... yeah. You get it.

I think there's a better trope to associate to this later on in the list, but Love at First Sight and Rescue Romance are still apt and very funny tropes to apply towards Hakuri's first impression of Chihiro. The way he waxed poetic over the mystery samurai who saved and inspired him had me in stitches. Seriously, my oldest notes on Hakuri from that chapter are mostly just laughing about him being really passionate about Chihiro for someone who's not intended to be a love interest! Go get 'im, Hakuri. He needs you in his life just as much as you need him in yours.

Mindlink Mates

Don't need to hear each other at all if you just "get" them.

This is something I like to apply as a Fanon concept based on what happens in canon. Hakuri and Chihiro aren't literally linked mind-to-mind via telepathy, but both of them have a deep understanding of what the other's thinking and feeling at any given moment. I really like the concept that they understand everything about each other on an instinctual level. It's mostly fueled by the Aun concepts that have been associated to them, which I'll get into during a later section. But yeah. Hakuri and Chihiro being borderline telepathic in how they can sense the other's status. That's crack cocaine to me and it's not too far removed from canon so I'm running with it.

I also really like the idea of their strong emotions and desires bouncing off of and amplifying each other's, but I don't know if there's a specific trope for that, so it gets placed here at the end of this tangentially related section. Also not something far removed from canon given how they both fuel each other's self-destructive savior tendencies because they feel the same way!

Moe Couplet

They're so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute

A Moe Couplet is essentially a pair of characters that enhance each other's cute traits. Separate, they are perfectly fine individuals with their own appeal. Together, they are adorable and capable of some tooth-rottingly sweet moments. This trope isn't typically associated with romantic duos in stuff aimed at general audiences, but it's common in BL as the basis for "fluff" works and wholesome pairings.

This is probably the biggest stretch to apply towards canon on the list, honestly. We haven't seen that much moe moe action from Hakuri and Chihiro- they're kind of busy fighting for their lives or hurting themselves to save others most of the time. But the few moments we get send me straight into cuteness agression-induced brain rot every time I think of them.

Most of this trope label for HakuHiro comes from little details. Like Chihiro often being shown reassuring Hakuri, and Hakuri getting some of the sweetest smiles out of him in return. Hakuri brings out Chihiro's soft side when Char's not around to do so and Chihiro helps Hakuri be his absolute silliest. These guys are are so good to each other! They melt the ice around my cold, dead heart into a slurry of hnnngh and incoherent shipper screeching.

What's it actually based on though? Well, I thought I was just doing normal delusional fudanshi things by thinking Hakuri is extra cute when he's around Chihiro and vice versa. But then Hokazono-sensei threw me a bone in an interview by saying he intended for Hakuri to "bring out Chihiro's personality and add some cuteness". And I. Just. I exploded into confetti on the spot. MOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

One True Love

This ship is not merely an OTP to me, if you haven't noticed.

Note: "ai" is not inherently romantic despite it being the end-goal of pretty much every romance novel out there. It's for deep, profound affection felt for someone- friends, family, even pets. It's rare and not commonly said aloud outside of the climax of a love story is all!

This is mostly tied to Hakuri's experience with love growing up and how he can find out what 愛 [ai, purest and deepest love], really means.

Hakuri probably has no fucking clue what love of any kind is really supposed to look or feel like, much less the ultimate form of it. His father threw ai around as something to manipulate his children into serving the family tradition. Soya used it as an excuse to torture him. This was deliberately done to contrast with the love that Chihiro knew growing up- true ai between father and son, which was cruelly ripped away from him.

So let Chihiro teach Hakuri, and Hakuri provide in return. They're already each other's perfect partners anyway so just put a romantic spin on it!

Hakuri finding unconditional love he doesn't fear in Chihiro and Chihiro finding the same in Hakuri once more. Neither of them ever needing to fall in love again because they slot together so perfectly to fill the gaps in each other's hearts. Oh I'm gonna die...

Opposites Attract

If not meant to be canon, why colour coded as opposite compliments? :thonk:

This is the trope that activates a primitive part of my brain that overrides all thoughts with eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee noises when it comes to HakuHiro. Hakuri and Chihiro are true opposites that are perfectly balanced to contrast and compliment each other, resulting in a duo greater than the sum of it's parts.

Hokazono-sensei made his intentions about Hakuri and Chihiro extremely clear by going so far as to colour code them for us. This is the protagonist and his foil/deuteragonist guy who is Important as Fuck. The level of detail in designing and writing them reads like he took this trope extremely seriously and said "let's save the Hero + Lancer coding for Hiyuki instead". 'Cause as much as I love her, Hiyuki's got nothing on Hakuri when it comes to this trope. Her thing is closer to being the same person as Chihiro with the opposite frame of mind and mode of expression- it's Hakuri and Chihiro who are the true manifestation of Opposites Attract down to the tiniest details. I'm ready to die on this hill so come at me and put me out of my misery.

I mean just look at these guys:

Chihiro: black and red, stoic, reserved, serious and polite, slim and straight profile.

Hakuri: white and blue, emotive, outgoing, silly and casual, loose and boxy profile.

They invert the same ways under pressure; Chihiro stresses and falters while Hakuri focuses and buckles down. Their fucking backstories are in on it too: they both lost their father's love but under distinctly opposite circumstances. Even the love they received was contrasted since Kunishige was a perfectly wholesome dad while Kyoura used love in an abusively manipulative way! And that laid the foundation for the premise of the Rakuzaichi arc- Hakuri wants to destroy his family's legacy while Chihiro still wants to do right by his. It would take a whole 'nother post to list everything between them because every single detail about one is carefully crafted to be present in the other in order to complete their characters. It's absolutely insane and it's what really sold me on the ship.

The level of care put into writing Hakuri and Chihiro as opposites who complete each other is out of this fucking world. I'll feel sorry for whatever girl gets assigned to be a mandatory heterosexual love interest for either of them because there's just no way to compete when two people are written to be so thoroughly intertwined with each other.

(To clarify just in case: I don't think Chiyuki is a bad ship. I'm not trying to trash it and say HakuHiro's better or more legitimate somehow. I just have an issue with shounen romance in general because the girls don't get nearly as much narrative effort to make them compelling companions to the MC compared to the "best friends" and Kagurabachi is doing nothing new in that regard so far. Hokazono-sensei can actually make a bigger impact by refusing to tease Chihiro and Hiyuki at all instead of going down the tired old path of obligated sub-par heterosexual ship tease/romance IMO.)

The Power of Love

Nice Heroic Second Wind you got after thinking about Chihiro there, Hakuri.

So this is definitely skewed towards pure delusion on my part, but that's what we're all here for anyway. Power of Friendship? Never heard of it.

Basically, person A uses their love for person B to power up and overcome the hardship they're facing. In this case, I'm interpreting Hakuri's tendency to think of Chihiro when he's in dire straits as romantic!

Hakuri comes in clutch a lot and his feelings abut Chihiro are the reason he can do it. The memory of his samurai refusing to yield gives Hakuri the strength to keep standing and finally put Soya down in chapter 36. He does it again in a sadder way in Chapter 58 when he thinks of Chihiro and musters the last of his strength to summon him too late to save Uruha. I have no doubt that he'll have more of these moments as the series goes on, too. Chihiro is kind of hope incarnate to Hakuri.

Chihiro's drawn strength from his feelings for Hakuri too, but not in a pinch kind of way like the Power of Love trope typically implies. I'm just waiting for the day when it's his turn to use memories of Hakuri to keep standing (never gonna happen)!

Ship Tease

Putting this here for lack of a better term, but there's a running gag about Hakuri and Chihiro's relationship that's been escalating in intensity since the early parts of the Rakuzaichi arc. It only comes across in bits and pieces in English compared to Japanese, sadly, but I'll do my best to explain it.

Basically, I'm interpreting the jokes about Hakuri acting like a dog as deliberate ship tease for the lols from the author.

"Paw. Shake. Good boy."

It starts in chapter 28 with Hakuri dropping everything he's doing to run over to Chihiro when his name is called. It's really cute and funny and not something that can get lost in translation- Chihiro calls, and Hakuri comes. Just like a loyal dog to it's master.

It's set aside for a while until the Sword Bearer Assassination Arc starts up and Hiyuki drops this banger during the trial in chapter 46:

"But where he [Hakuri] stands is a big pain in the butt. He's not the one calling the shots." - official TL

Of note is the term Hiyuki used to say that Chihiro's the one in charge: 舵取り [kajitori]. The normal meaning for it is "steering a boat" or "helmsman" with the secondary being leader/director, so it's not like the English TL messed up. Same meaning different wording. What's lost is the subtext: 舵取り as Hiyuki's using it can also imply that Chihiro's in charge of Hakuri like the owner of a dangerous guard dog would be lmao. Hakuri kind of earned that jab after threatening to leave her in the storehouse to die if she hurt Chihiro, though.

And then there's this completely unnecessary scene from Ch. 50...

"Who's this? This little squirt smells like Chihiro, but he's not Chihiro."- official TL

The TL again isn't bad here but it really downplays just how fucking weird Samura is (which downgrades the rocket propellant to mere ship fuel). Samura's phrasing about Hakuri smelling like Chihiro was so batshit insane in Japanese that fellow JP shippers felt compelled to reach out to the rest of us in English to let us know, which is almost completely unheard of.

Basically, Samura wasn't saying that Hakuri merely smelled like Chihiro. He actually said that Hakuri was wearing Chihiro's scent, completely enveloped in it to the point of smelling identical to him. A native JP reader (in the link above) said that in their interpretation, the word "まとって [matotte]" isn't really used for friends, but more for lovers, family members, or dogs and their owners in the sense that being so physically close all the time causes their scents to rub off on each other.

It's not a normal term used to describe smelling like someone in the first place. When Samura meets younger Chihiro in the flashback and says he "reeks of Rokuhira", he just emphasizes the typical word for "smell/scent" (香り [kaori]) in quotation marks in the Japanese version. So for some reason we just had to know that Hakuri smelled like Chihiro in the way dog or a lover would, huh... so much so that Samura thought he actually was Chihiro... (I can't get over this, it sends my sides into orbit every fucking time).

So yeah. That's some top-tier ship tease if I do say so myself. What that dog doin'? What did they get up to on the train before meeting with Uruha? That's for us to decide!

Soulmates

It's not exactly hard to see that Hakuri and Chihiro have a bit more going on between them than standard friendship or brotherhood, even for a shounen series. Even some dudebros acknowledged this before the fandom gave over to homophobic trash anyway.

It all stems from Hakuri invoking one of the most potent romantic tropes there is as soon as they meet:

"That day, a samurai lit my helpless existence on fire."

Jesus Christ Hakuri, that's some passion!

I think the "soulmates" trope is the most fitting description of what's going on between Hakuri and Chihiro from the very first time they meet. I'll even go so far to say that it actually has a pretty damn good case for being canon in a platonic sense!

For the uninitiated (like I was), the soulmates trope is invoked when two characters feel a strong and immediate connection upon first meeting each other. It can be one-sided or even completely rejected by both at the start, but they will always find their way to each other since they are fated to be. The whole world falls into kilter when they get together even if they were perfectly functional people on their own before. HakuHiro is this trope to a fucking T in my mind. Absolutely flawless execution, 10/10 no notes.

Hakuri's part is obvious- he sees Chihiro and decides he must have this amazing person in his life no matter what. He feels the pull of destiny and answers the call with an overabundance of enthusiasm.

Chihiro's part is more subtle. He does the one-sided rejection thing at the start by running away, but fate pulls them together via circumstance and he takes Hakuri back with him. And somehow, for some reason, Hakuri is the first person he opens up about his genuine feelings to in a surprisingly raw way:

"If I don't do something, and a sacred blade takes the lives of innocent people... I wouldn't be able to bear that..."

He met the guy minutes ago, tried to run away from him, then decided to bear his heart to him in the elevator. Chihiro's a natural stoic who doesn't show much of what he's feeling and generally keeps thoughts like this to himself. But Hakuri brings out this softer, more vulnerable side to him that no other character has before. Then as the arc progresses, Chihiro comes to rely on Hakuri more and more until it's crazy to think that he ever ran away in the first place. It's like they were always meant to find and save each other.

I'm not looking too hard at this with shipping goggles strapped to my face. We get confirmation that this is what's going on with them via The Word of God Himself:

From the Volume 4 description: 一方、兄からの愛と暴力によって��に伏した伯理。今際の際に脳裏を過ったのは、ある少女との日々だった。極限の中、二人の少年の魂が呼応する。

"Meanwhile, Hakuri is struck down by his brother's love and violence. On the brink of death, he remembers the days he spent with a certain girl. In the midst of this extreme tension, the souls of both boys resonate with each other."

The last sentence is basically more total harmony/Aun imagery for Hakuri and Chihiro. 呼 (ko) means to call and 応 (ou) means to respond. Together, 呼応 means to act in concert. So Hakuri and Chihiro's souls call out and respond to each other in perfect sync when they're in dire straits. It's canon!

If that's not enough, then there's also the Aun imagery. It was left out of the EN Chapter 38 colour page as usual (never gonna forgive the EN version for removing the text), but basically the author used deliberate religious imagery to tell us that Chihiro and Hakuri have an inherently harmonious relationship. A and Un, in perfect sync- whatever one starts, the other will finish. The beginning and end of all things. A perfect pair.

They demonstrate this lethal effectiveness by working in tandem during the storehouse fight, with Chihiro only needing to yell Hakuri's name for Hakuri to perfectly interpret everything he's thinking and execute on it flawlessly. It's absolutely insane stuff even if we disregard Hakuri only woke up to his power less than an hour ago in-universe isn't it?! And they repeated the stunt the next day while protecting Uruha, so it wasn't just a one-off for a cool moment. It's core to their dynamic for their souls to resonate in total harmony!

And just to top it off, we got a funny little gag of Chihiro and Hakuri passing out and waking up at the same time side-by-side after the auction, totally in sync.

All of this within a week of meeting each other.

Some actual romantic soulmate couples don't get this much effort put into coding their relationship, just saying. I also don't think people would be so quick to jump on the sibling interpretation after Shiba's "What are ya, twins?" joke if Hakuri and Chihiro were a heterosexual ship option, just sayin'.

Unknowingly in Love

No sad pictures of dead Kunishige in this post!

This is another one that's far closer to fanon than canon. It banks on the fact that both of them grew up isolated and, quite frankly, probably poorly socialized compared to the rest of the world.

Chihiro lived with just his dad in a remote mountain home and only occasionally visited the town nearby with Shiba. No friends, no school even. Hakuri lived on the secluded Sazanami estate surrounded by his family and saw some of the outside world, but likely only the criminal elements of it. Plus there's the whole growing up only knowing love as something abusive and manipulative thing; even his parent's marriage was strongly implied to be arranged and joyless. Neither of these guys have anything decent in their personal lives to reference from!

So in my mind, while Hakuri and Chihiro have certainly heard of romantic love and thought about it themselves, they wouldn't really have an idea of what it feels or looks like to them. Couple that with being each other's first friends ever and you've got some extremely potent fluff (or angst) about them being unaware that what they're feeling isn't platonic.

You Are Worth Hell

I will follow you into the dark.

And to round things off, one of my favourite romance tropes ever! But it's not canon at all- YET.

You see, Hakuri and Chihiro are constantly pulling each other forward. When one stumbles, the other's there with a helping hand. But what happens when one descends into hell like Chihiro says he's doing this very arc? Will the other try to throw them a lifeline and hope for the best?

Nay! The other will stay by their side out of love.

This trope can veer too close to toxic situationship scenarios for comfort, it's true. Characters staying to "save" someone or letting themself get dragged down at their own expense is not healthy at all. But the core sentiment of this trope is that anything is bearable if you're with the one you love. The emphasis isn't on the mutual suffering but rather the comfort of being together despite it all.

My personal interpretation of the relationship between Hakuri and Chihiro is that one was born in hell (Hakuri) and the other has condemned himself to it (Chihiro). Hakuri's trying to rise up while Chihiro has consigned himself to sink further into the darkness. They met at at a crossroads on their respective journeys and are walking together for a while. And when Chihiro takes a turn to keep going further down, I think Hakuri will stop him from going too far. Hakuri will be the light in the gloom until the mission's over. Then they'll figure out if they can make it back up or not. And if they can't? Well, he was already at rock bottom before Chihiro came into his life. It's worth it to stay in hell at his side and face everything together.

So I think this can apply very well to HakuHiro as the current arc progresses. Hakuri choosing to stay as a partner to provide support rather than trying to save Chihiro at his own expense would be huge character growth for him. And Chihiro accepting Hakuri's gesture would be growth for him too- he doesn't have to do this alone. There's no truly Bad End for their stories if they are walking side-by-side to face the hardships together until the end.

That's it. If you got through all this, thanks. Yap at me about tropes I missed! I love hearing the myriad ways other people interpret this ship. Unless you think fixed left-right boring seme/uke stereotype ChiHaku is the only valid interpretation, in which case we can never be friends. Sorry not sorry.

[uh-mozzaza]

I see Kagurabachi has been compared to Morbius, but I think the way internet fandom behaved was closer to how Goncharov developed on tumblr?

Kagurabachi hasn't gotten popular on tumblr (yet), but the way people talked about it on twitter and reddit, even before the first chapter was out, was very similar to what we saw in the Goncharov phenomenon. That is, the online community being self-aware of how usually fans and fandom behaved, and copy and pasting those behaviors on a piece of media solely off the concept of it.

The only thing people knew about Kagurabachi was: 1)it's a shonen series 2) its protagonist looks broody and has a katana

and from collective experience from similar media they made an inference of how a potential Kagurabachi fandom would react. Making jokes and memes, comparing characters powers, just in general talking as if the series had been out for a long time and was super popular.

That is more or less what happened with Goncharov, where tumblr users saw the concept of "the greatest mafia movie ever made" and knew how tumblr fans with a niche interest in an old moody drama film usually act (analysis, fanfic, collages, etc...)

The key difference is that Kagurabachi IS a real manga that has been published weekly on shonen jump, so that the initial ironic hype has slowly been replaced by normal interest based on the story's progress, tho some level of "let's pretend this is a long established series as a game" still lingers. But both have been really cool example of fandom meta-narrative

[runabout-river]

I read through the first chapter of the new Shonen Jump manga Kagurabachi and it promises story and character.

The main story beats and the protagonist are introduced with the above powerful image as the flashforward that comes true at the end of the chapter.

Chihiro is a serious and hard working character but man was his father marked for death in the first few pages of the manga.

We get a timeskip where 15 year-old Chihiro has experienced some traumatic event that left him full of hatred as he himself says later on. It was interesting to piece the clues together on what kind of world this takes place in, too.

The clothes in the beginning said modern times, the katana making is ambiguous, then we see a car I would describe as from the 1920s but they also have either the technology or other means to completely remove scars from one's body, so the medical advancement are further along then the 20s.

The Seitei War that apparently happened 15 years ago is of course the clue that tells us that this story takes place in an alternative universe and the existence of "sorcerers" adds the supernatural element.

(Not to be confused with the sorcerers from JJK and the Japanese and other audiences won't even be because Jujutsu Sorcerer is a loose translation of jujutsu-shi. In German e.g. it was translated as Jujuzisten: those who practice Jujutsu. No "sorcerer" to be found here.)

Kagurabachi is drawn neatly and the panels aren't too busy most of the time except when the details are important to the story. I also liked the use of completely white backgrounds when black forground elements had to be highlighted.

Overall, an engaging first chapter worth checking out. In a few months, we'll know if SJ will pick the series up. Jjk at around chapter 8 or 9, was on the verge of being cancelled at the time. Unbelievable, if you think about it from today's perspective.

[linkspooky]

How do you decide when or if to write metas for fandoms

Well, in general I tend to write metas for shows I feel like state most of their deeper themes in subtext that's worth elaborating on. The big examples of this would be Tokyo Ghoul and Jujutsu Kaisen, shows with seemingly archetypal characters but deeper themes hidden underneath.

Or Bungou Stray Dogs which references like, all of classic literature.

Or Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is the smartest modern day retelling of the chosen one mythos or the hero's story.

Or like, All of Yu Gi Oh GX.

The more people are likely to dismiss something as shallow shonen the more I want to elaborate on it.

On the other hand there are series like Kagurabachi, Sakamoto Days and Especially Undead Unluck which are so good I don't feel the need to write meta they are pretty self-explanatory.

Maybe one day I'll write the bachibros my "Chihiro is not a good person" meta.

[randomness-is-my-order]

hey, welcome to my end-all be-all main blog!

this introduction is a long time coming and today i bit the bullet. fair warning: this is wordy as fuck.

hello to anyone who’s reading this. i’m teru. i’m in my early 20s. she/her. this blog is to essentially engage in any and all media fandoms that i jump into and share my insights as well as post about my fics. i usually engage in a wide variety of fandoms, ranging from books/anime/manga/webtoons/shows/movies and even, occassionally, kpop though the latter is probably just going to be reblogs. i write metas for media i am more invested in while other source material might get a short review + shit posting.

my ao3: link

fandoms i am in currently/have been significantly engaged with before:

–mo dao zu shi: the novels and the cql ‘the untamed’. [i’m in my supercharged mdzs phase at the moment and this series might be a long-standing fixture on this blog].

– percy jackson and the olympians: the books and more prominently, the tv adaptation that was released in 2023. [my commentary during airtime was focused on analyses and positive feedback but my thoughts on the franchise as as whole and the author, rick riordian are much more critical, just an fyi for all the people who found my blog through those posts.]

– naruto: majorly posting of my fics and the ocassional doodle.

– other fandoms/media i’m into: boku no hero academia, haikyu, frieren: beyond journey’s end, kagurabachi, 86, heavenly delusion, demon slayer, dandadan, centuria, the queen’s thief novel series, stormlight archive, wheel of time, tbate, the infernal devices, project hail mary, stranger things, the umbrella academy [season 4 is NOT canon], re:zero, spy × family, saiki k, miraculous ladybug [forever hate-love relationship fandom], litbc, heartstopper, various k/j/cdramas [reply 1988, mr. queen, weak hero class one, someday or one day, go ahead are must-watches amongst many others], bts, stray kids, not me [the bl], given [solely for that one song], the rose, day6, so on and so forth.

– comfort characters: wei wuxian, naruto uzumaki, mike wheeler, nick nelson, eugenides, william herondale, violet, momo ayase, okarun, anya, loid, and moreeeeee.

– otps: shikanaru, caitvi, wei wuxian/lan wangji, mileven, platonic madwheeler.

– how active am i on here? it is extremely erratic. i may continuously spam-post for a week or two and then go mia for months. i don’t know. irl situations dictate my presence on here entirely. alot of my posts are rambly and include ranting but i’m open to discourse most of the time. i specify when i’m not. dms are, of course, always open, but i may be a bit slow to respond [sorry!]. i don’t always respond to asks–sometimes i will dm you back if you aren’t anon if the topic is more suitable for a one-on-one chat but feel free to drop them! there will be lots of fic-related postings and i might some day end up compiling all my works into a coherent system of links but that day isn’t today.

i reblog cute art and any metas that i personally agree with. i don’t know why but i comment sparingly and once i’ve seen you enough, seen your posts enough, i’ll end up following you. despite all the time i spend here, i’m frankly still figuring out how to work this site.

i’ll discuss mature and triggering topics and will try to forewarn them but there probably won’t ever be any nsfw (graphic) content on here. i’m human so i’m learning and changing opinions on things every single day. though looking at media critically is important, i do give in to my biases and just have fun with things all the time. i take stories and characters seriously and will get heated about them at some point or another. if any of this isn’t your thing, i bid you farewell. :))

i will also bid you farewell if you are racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, bigoted, unnecessarily inflammatory and insulting.

anyway, let’s have fun here and engage with each other with good–or at the very least, cordial–vibes!

[ultfreakme]

Legacy in Kagurabachi, Part 2: The Rakuzaichi and The Sazanami Family

Part 1 on the Enchanted Blades and the Rokuhiras here

The Rakuzaichi is the auction which the Sazanamis have been running for 200 years. They were once a merchant family, using a sorcery technique called Storehouse to facilitate their business, but somewhere along the line, they began dipping their toes into illegal and cruel practices such as human trafficking, looting, murder, etc.

While the Enchanted Blades have become emblematic of the Rokuhira family, it is a very recent development. It comes from this family but the blades themselves do not influence the way the Rokuhira family worked. They are always family first.

But the Sazanamis lived and died by The Rakuzaichi for multiple generations. They are auctioneers and merchants first, and family second. The legacy of the Rakuzaichi was set in stone- they were unshakeable, all-powerful, and their existence controlled a large part of the country to the point even government organizations were afraid to take action against them. The Rakuzaichi had sunk deep into the fabric of their society. This deep interweaving of the business to the family influences how the Sazanamis view themselves and their people.

With the Rokuhiras, the world around them sought to redefine the humanity of the people to control the narrative and uphold a symbol (Sojo and the Kamunabi as a whole refusing to view Kunishige as a father when it was one of the most defining roles he played in his life), but the Sazanamis just do it themselves. It started at the home, and spread outwards.

While you can distinguish the Rokuhira family as a people from the Enchanted Blades, the Sazanami ARE the Rakuzaichi to the point those words feel interchangeable.

This is best highlighted in Hakuri, but by extension through Kyora, Soya and Tenri.

In order to preserve the Rakuzaichi, the concept of 'love' and 'power' had become one as well. Kyora says love needs to exist between the family for him to be able to pass down the Storehouse, but we don't know that. What is love to the Sazanami?

Tenri is praised for his power, Kyora dotes on him, but ultimately Kyora will kill his son for the auction. Kyora metaphorically and literally sees his children as tools.

Soya affirms this in the way he treats Hakuri. There is a twisted affection for Hakuri within Soya based on his lack of power. Soya, at some point, realized that power won't get you real love. The existence of power itself dictates the amount of 'love' he will receive from Kyora and so that affection isn't real. Tenri is showered with affirmation while Soya fell to the wayside because he wasn't as strong as Tenri. He grew jealous, and he began hating Tenri for it.

But Hakuri? Hakuri has nothing and therefore he falls outside of the system of power by which Kyora doles out his 'love'. Due to this, he's no competition to Soya and therefore the only thing in the Sazanami Storehouse upon whom true love can be found.

This emphasis on the presence or absence of power is the core by which the Sazanami family function, generating a never-ending cycle of abuse. This cycle of abuse is crucial to running the Rakuzaichi. We even see it in Kyora and his father, who only acknowledged Kyora with the condition he keep the auction going.

The legacy passed down by the Sazanamis, is abuse. They hurt the world, but they also hurt themselves. And this constant infliction of pain for the image of the Rakuzaichi and its power is what keeps things moving.

The Sazanamis dehumanise themselves for the auction, for the object. Tenri dies for a broken door. Kyora dies for the auction. The Tou's purpose is to keep the show going despite the hurts to themselves.

Hakuri escapes only because he was a non-entity to the Sazanamis due to his lack of power. He cannot become a valuable object in the Storehouse. Thus he is discarded, and has the chance to be viewed as a human through Ice Girl. This humanization and the acknowledgement by literally anyone on the injustice of his abuse is what breaks Hakuri out of the mindset.

Ice Girl saw him as a human being, when no one else did.

But Hakuri hadn't broken free just yet. He saw himself as a person through her, but he was too late in seeing Ice Girl as a person of her own. Her death is the final straw.

If Ice Girl had lived and they had run away together, Hakuri wouldn't have stood up against the Rakuzaichi. Up until then, he prioritized himself but Ice Girl showed him that it's not just about Hakuri, or even the Sazanamis.

The Rakuzaichi is just the biggest symbol in their world of the inherent exploitation and discrimination running in their society. She tells him she will never be free of the cage as long as people only value her for her sorcery, her power.

Hakuri realizing that he too inflicted the same pain upon her, that he is part of the cycle, is what finally pushes him into ending it all.

While Chihiro works to preserve the legacy, Hakuri's role is to break it.

It's kind of funny how Chihiro is trying to inflict a sense of human meaning into the object(enchanted blades), but Hakuri's job is ensuring humans aren't seen as objects.

Ultimately, they both want for there to be kindness in the world.

Bonus meta: Storhouse and what it means to Kyora v Hakuri

[ultfreakme]

Kyora & Hakuri: The meaning of 'Storehouse'

So we got our very first non-Chihiro Color Page and it's Hakuri! It's a shock of a page because for the first time in forever a cover isn't red, and doesn't contain our protagonist. Even more shocking is the way Hakuri is donning clothes that resemble his father Kyora in a backdrop that is very similar to the old Sazanami Auction Storehouse.

During the final showdown in the Rakuzaichi Arc, we get a flashback sequence where we see a young Hakuri saying he'll be the head of the Sazanami Clan.

Technically, with the dissolution of the Rakuzaichi and through possessing Storehouse + Isou, Hakuri is pretty much the Head. But in doing so he has redefined what the Storehouse means.

With Kyora and the remaining Sazanami legacy, the Storehouse existed to exalt the owner. It's a treasury, it holds all the 'valuables' meant to increase the power and value of the Owner of the Storehouse. The Storehouse exists to service its possessor. It's exploitative and inherently dehumanizing and was used exclusively to strip others of their agency- by registering the people that were trafficked and even his own family.

It was used entirely to devalue people.

With Hakuri, who's guilt-ridden for his own role in the Rakuzaichi with the fresh memory of how he dehumanized Ice Girl, the Storehouse (and Hakuri himself) exist solely in service of others. Storehouse is physically taxing and Hakuri is constantly endangering himself when he uses it. This is because of practical reasons where he has little experience, but also thematically- he is devaluing himself in service of others. It costs him every time he activates it, but he doesn't care about the damage to himself.

Hakuri has turned the Storehouse from a treasure hoard to what it's name suggests its use is- a place where people can keep and take things they need. He has reduced himself down to pure utility.

This view of himself as a "tool" is specifically highlighted in him giving Tobimune to Samura. His assigned goal along with Chihiro is to protect the Wielders. Hiyuki makes a very interesting comment-

Hakuri is sort of established as someone who isn't functioning for himself or on his own anymore. He follows others. With Chihiro gone, he's now a tool to be used by Uruha, Samura and the Makizumi.

He also knows the damage of dehumanizing people or determining value based on like, a merit system of any sort so to him the Makizumi aren't any different from the Wielders and he wants to help them too.

With Samura basically declaring what he needs and what he wants to do, what is Hakuri to do here but to oblige to his requests? He services them, he's going to be useful to them.

I think that's what the new cover is meant to highlight. While Kyora fought so hard to protect his Storehouse and the things within, Hakuri fights to protect everything outside of it, everything human and autonomous.

[ultfreakme]

Chapter 56 meta thought:

So Kagurabachi has had this running theme across three arcs wherein people are dehumanized into tools and objects, primarily by the Hishaku and the Kamunabi. It's happened frequently enough that I am confident in seeing this is a central theme of the story.

The theme starts in the first chapter with Kunishige emphasizing the dangers of the katana & how its use as a tool needs the human element of purpose to be used wisely. This human element is stripped away by literally everyone. In the first arcs we see that Kunishige is remembered for the blades specifically.

Then we learn that the Kamunabi value the blades over people in their willing participation in the Rakuzichi Auction, and in how the basically imprisoned all the blade wielders and dedicated a majority of their forces to protecting the Wielders over you know....protecting the rest of the country, which is their ACTUAL job.

The Blade Wielders are synonymous with their swords and that is the only way the Wielders hold value to the Kamunabi.

Hokazono had said in an interview that this is a story about people. The Seitei War was against other humans and there is no monster waiting to attack, it's just people....doing their worst towards each other and the aftermath of how everyone dealt with the ways in which they monstrously attacked fellow humans.

With that being said I specifically want to talk about the latest arc and recent chapter(Chapter 56), and highlight those themes further here.

Samura & Uruha

Samura and Uruha understand very well that their value is so high because they are synonymous with the blades and thus have begun to see their life as such.

Uruha sees himself as a "dangerous" tool(or I guess more of a key to a dangerous tool). If he falls into the wrong hands, he would be the reason for unspoken amounts of violence against others. His value as a key has already led to the death of his entire squad and so he values himself as an object in that manner- protecting himself in the moment for his abilities so he's not used against others.

Samura is the opposite. He knows he's dangerous, but he determines his value in how useful he is to others, not based on his potential to cause damage. He also sees himself as a person first- he talks about himself and his actions in the war a lot, indicating that he recognizes his autonomy and had even kind of punished himself for it. He maintains his personhood outside of the worldly possessions, his life's value is not determined by an object- and therefore he is willing to die protecting Uruha, The Makizumi and Hakuri.

Their clash in the way they conceptualize themselves is how Hakuri determines who gets the sword.

I don't think it's coincidence or thoughtless action which led Hakuri to get Tobimune to Samura.

The Makizumi and Hakuri's job was protecting the Wielders- Hakuri's mission was accomplished with the the teleportation. So why did Hakuri give Samura the exact tool he needed to put himself back in danger?

Because Hakuri also sees himself as a tool who lives in service of others. He determines his value based on the number of people he can help, not based on personal motives. He is a storehouse, he is a place where people can come and take what they need. And if Samura needs Tobimune, who is he to deny that? He's fully abandoned his personhood in service of others (I am going to make another post about the view of 'Storehouse' wrt Hakuri and Kyora+ the Sazanami family later).

Hakuri understands Samura's desperation to save others. He also does not want the Makizumi to die despite them not being a part of his mission because much like Samura, he also sees them as people (Uruha does too but he's deeply influenced by his own squad and Gurt/Bandana Guy's sacrifice), and therefore Hakuri would give Samura whatever he needs to accomplish his goals. Hakuri grew up in an environment that consistently objectified human beings(literally).

He won't make the mistake of stripping the chance to live for themselves from them again.

[sassyangelchild]

Hakuri, his true value, the girl from his past and the Rakuzaichi Arc

This started as me trying to tweet about some Rakuzaichi Arc and Hakuri thought because I still didn't get over it (I started Kagurabachi yesterday and already read all the chapters released lol) and it ended up much longer than I expected. I'm sure most of this would have already been said by someone, and is mostly me rambling but…

"You talk with me. Thanks to you I've enjoyed this meals."

The way something so simple really gave Hakuri enough strength to move forward, made him not lose hope in life, still makes me feel things.

"We talked… We talked together…"

The way his last attempt at stopping her is that, the words that gave him hope. He wanted to give back some of the hope he found in those words, to at the very least say "you were there for me, and talked with me, and that wasn't meaningless because thanks to you I thought it was ok for me to still be there. It's not that I talked with you, we talked together. You said we were both the same so if I have value you have it too".

The way he remembers how he specifically reinforced her idea of how, even if being sold wasn't her fate, she is unable to be with other people or be a normal person. His words can't reach her because she's been cornered, she really doesn't see hope.

Even if Hakuri's family mistreated him he still hoped they loved him. He was still waiting for the praise of his father after seeing how he was fully aware of the beatings and still turned his back on him. When he was explaining how his big brother always was "conveniently" losing the tools to beat him up so he will surely go back to beating him the old-fashioned way he sounded like he was trying to find some love in that, "He doesn't really want to hurt me that much, see? He lost the tool again." Even when believing his brother wanted to kill him when describing him he said "he loves me".

When she says her lover sold her I think it also resonates with him because it lets him see how she truly stopped believing someone could truly love her, and he understands her despair because he's also motivated by wanting his loved ones to love him back.

Throughout the arc Hakuri finally discovers he actually had talent with sorcery. One of the reason for being bullied and his low self-esteem was the belief that he didn't have any talent in that area, and his family didn't really care enough to realize it wasn't true or aknowledge any of his efforts to still serve the family.

He feels useless not being able to do more but let's be honest, he was doing his best with the non-sorcery stuff and at some point his lack of talent wasn't even the problem. The moment Soya, his big brother, realized Hakuri was no longer the pathetic and weak little brother he believed he was he got angry and refused to believe it, and his father just aknowledged the mistake of not having noticed his true talents before but didn't really believed in his potential even when presented with the evidence. Chihiro tells Kyora (the father) he should have believed in Hakuri and the father still manages to underestimate Hakuri again other three times, convinced that "ok he surpassed what I believed him capable of but he can't do more", his defeat is partly caused by his refusal to look at his son and realize he was great all along, something Soya also does. They both convinced themselves that Hakuri was a failure no matter what. Shiba only needed a day or two to look at that boy and realize he was in fact super talented without Hakuri doing anything big, but they have literal proof Hakuri is a talent not seen since the first generation and they still insisted he was no good, truly blind to the facts.

"Even if it was all lies (…) This time, I'll prove it"

Hakuri says this in his fight with Soya. Yeah, he knows maybe the words that girl said to him were just a way of gaining his sympathy, he can't be sure, but as she said he was trapped in a cage that made him unable to see his own worth.

He thought if his loved ones saw him as worthless he truly was worthless, but thanks to her words he slowly realized he still has value that is not conditional on his family or being useful to them and he found other people who valued him for who he is.

Even if her telling him he had value could have been said without truly believing in it, he will prove she was right: Hakuri is using sorcery, he's refusing to lose hope and let his family words become true, refusing to stop fighting; his brother is still screaming he won't amount to anything but no amount of words can change the fact that that's no longer true.

She said they were the same, rejects, and it's true that when they met both believed no one would ever value them. But she was the first to make Hakuri feel like he was important to someone, and that made her important to him too.

By proving he has worth and not losing hope he's also proving that if they were the same then she wasn't just merchandise. She was valuable as a person even if someone she cared about didn't value her, it was her words that taught him that.

Hakuri finally asks Chihiro to slay his father after he sees how one of his brothers died protecting a worthless door. This request it's the final step to accept that yeah, while Hakuri still loved his father and wanted him to praise him he's no longer dependent on his acknowledgement, because he has finally found himself and knows what he wants to do.

I think the whole family affair was tied up already with the end of the arc but I wonder if we will see any of his family members (like Soya) in the future. I don't think it's super necessary right now because Hakuri has already moved past his family and has other goals now and I'm sure with the Rakuzaichi dismantled the brothers will have their hands full looking for a way to survive (I guess they will end up putting to use the fact that they are proficient sorcerers? But I guess they will lay low for a while) but since they are still alive it wouldn't be so rare if they appear again in the future.

Kinda unrelated (didn't know where to fit this), but going back to the girl in Hakuri's past (I just realized she was never given a name and Hakuri didn't ask either), all her story also made me think about the first arc with Char: Char's mother body had special properties so she was hunted down for it, someone she trusted sold her, she ended up trapped and used as a guinea pig. The biggest difference was Char's mother had someone who still loved her (her daughter) so she never let the situation make her lose all hope.

And despite that, hope alone wasn't enough, one could say she never found someone who was willing to help her and she died trapped in there. Yeah, the girl from Hakuri's past wasn't entirely wrong, her fate looked quite bad and she didn't have anyone for her to still try despite the odds, it's quite possible even if she really did escape she would have ended up back into the black market or hunted down (let's be honest, Hakuri at most could have let her escape but he didn't seem to have the power to protect her), it's undeniable. But then... then we have Char, who also kept believing she had a chance at happiness because someone she cared for was wishing for her to not give up and keep looking for it, and she didn't give up and found people who care of her and won't see her as a tool or a monster. Yeah, she was lucky to find Chihiro's group, but she is mostly safe right now.

So, at the end, we don't really know what would have happened if the girl from Hakuri's past didn't lose hope. We have seen the two outcomes happening.

Being completely honest (and after having said all of this, lol) I'm not sure how much Hakuri was willing or able to help her, I assume the "let's eat together outside" was him letting her know the "let's escape together" was on the table? Or was it a last favor to her? Either way I think it was when everything went down that he finally fully realized how horrible was the situation and thought about how he should have done more before that point. Like his determination to stop the Rakuzaichi and his realization of how horrible it was were that strong because she did something very extreme, but I don't know if he was determined about stopping it before that. When he first talks about how he started to realize it was wrong he's shown in a suit looking at a group of prisioners so I assume he was already somewhat doubtful by the point in time he met her and still was hard to convince him/he still talked about merchandise and all that, so maybe he was willing to let her escape, maybe even prepared to be disowned and receive a beating, but wasn't really thinking about stopping the whole thing, I don't know.

Anyway, if someone read all of this... hope you enjoyed it (?)

[ultfreakme]

Praying that Samura's daughter(Samura Jr.) slowly catches glimpses of her memories with her dad and then it all hits her at once. She had been wondering who her father was but had no answers, until she does and turns out he loved her but not enough to stay beside her or let her make her own choices. He took away her memories without discussion and staged everything about her current life. She knew nothing, she was kept in a bubble to not know the extent of her father's crimes and the danger he poses to her. Yes, it would've been a huge risk for her to know, but she should've gotten an option.

Chihiro seeing her go through this and realizing Kunishige did almost exactly the same to him. Giving him only the faintest information, keeping him away from a world he should've gotten to explore because Kunishige prioritized his safety over his freedom.

I really like the consistent theme of parents dictating the course of their child's life for their own ambitions, which in turn ruins the child. We got it with Hakuri, Chihiro and Hikuhiro to an extent. Hope it goes on with Samura Jr.

[hestzhyen]

Volume 4 Extras and Da Vinci Interview Yap: Names Edition

Not going to post screen caps since the extras are considered an incentive to buy the volumes. But I will definitely talk a bit about the info we got!

Names!

Braidbro's given name is Enji (円慈). 円 (en) means "circle" or "round" and is also the kanji for the Japanese yen. It's chosen for a baby to convey a sense of being valued, successful, and surrounded by love. Hm. 慈(ji) means love (in a parent-child sense), mercy, or compassion, and is chosen for it's direct meaning. HM. Wonder why he was the one Shiba talked to about honoring Tenri's memory by making sure none of the other kids followed his footsteps... (not). [circle of compassion] perhaps?

Sazasis is Tamaki (珠紀)! 珠 (tama) means "pearl", chosen for purity, beauty, and grace. 紀 (ki) means era or chronicle to remember special moments or events, the family's legacy and history, and/or to follow rules and regulations. [pearl chronicle] is a pretty name!

Birthdays

Kerfluffle over Hakuri being 17 aside, not much stands out. Unless you're into zodiac signs and Western birthstone interpretations I guess- go wild if so.

Well, actually... Sojo being confirmed 30 years old is pretty funny. Dude legit had beef with an 18-year old because of his parasocial relationship to the kid's dead dad. LMAO. He must have been so happy to have been born a day (and like 10 years) after Kunishige too.

If we want to take holidays into account, Chihiro was born on Mountain Day (8/11)! It's a fairly recent holiday that was only enacted in 2014, ostensibly to promote appreciation of the many mountains in Japan. I don't think there's any special meaning to this beyond the trivia value, as it was probably a coincidence if anything.

Hakuri's birthday falls on an unofficial holiday- Sakura Day (3/27). It was created in 1992 by the Cherry Blossom Association to promote interest in the tradition of hanami, or cherry blossom viewing. Probably another coincidence but we take these. It seems to suit him somehow!

Spring and summer, what a wonderful combination~ Don't think too hard about how Kunishige probably had New Year's sex based on Chihiro's birth date though. Don't imagine sexy Kunishige. Don't do it! Stop that!

SoTen?!

There was a little sketch of Soya talking to Tenri (thanks to Hella for the TL!) in the extras. It mentioned that Soya had a slight inferiority complex towards Tenri due to how fast his youngest brother surpassed him, which led him to fixate on Hakuri instead.

SoHaku folks are going a little nuts over this as you'd expect. Can't blame them though since several prominent artists in and outside of that circle had thought this might be the case. To have it confirmed in canon is pretty satisfying for all those who believed in it.

I never gave it much thought from the Tenri perspective, but it makes sense. Soya seems like he was supposed to be That Guy but was found lacking for some reason. He was lurking in the background every time Kyora was talking to Tenri and Hakuri side-by-side, completely unnoticed. And the stuff with his name, of course... So yeah. Hakuri really was Soya's punching bag because Soya felt he wasn't good enough. Thank goodness Soya is dead and definitely never coming back. Clothing Mysteries Revealed

There were also simple sketches of Hakuri and Chihiro's top layers to basically confirm what we already knew thanks to Chapter 45. Chihiro wears a plain long-sleeved black shirt, a track coat, and a trench coat that is a pain for Hokazono-sensei to draw. He might change the trench coat for something else later but wouldn't count on it for now. Hakuri wears a long-sleeved black turtleneck under a dress shirt and a haori that he tucks into his pants (cute!!!). The biggest surprise is that the dress shirt has a breast pocket I guess?

I'm happy for all the fan artists out there who will find the references useful, but... THE STRAPS? HELLO??? WHY THE STRAPS ON THE PANTS?! I insist this insignificant detail gets elaborated on. I require it. Is it his own fashion sense? If so, he didn't have them the day Ice Lady died despite the half boots, pants, and haori-undershirt combo remaining intact. At least a day passed (maybe) between her death and him being kicked out- he has a different style of dress shirt on the second layer compared to when we see him in the present day. So Hakuri had time to change but why add the straps? Where did they come from??? I cannot let this go. HELP.

Da Vinci Magazine Interview

Hokazono-sensei provided a long interview to the magazine that was published to help promote Volume 4's release. Brasilbro posted a lightly edited Machine TL of it, which has caused some buzz (my soul withers at the prospect of trying to do it myself...). As expected there's a lot of love given to Naruto, John Wick, and depicting blood splatters. He also references JJK and CSM as other manga that tell a faster story than previous shounen series. I've seen a lot of manga in recent years try to emulate Fujimoto-sensei's style, but I think Hokazono-sensei's done it the best because he's also a film buff. You can tell he loves action movies and has a movie director's PoV when he's composing the scenes (and especially the fights). Not that other styles are bad- I love me some more traditional shounen like Wind Breaker and HxH too. It's just if you're going to try and copy the feel of a Fujimoto manga, you need to be as insanely in love with movies as he is.

That's why the pacing in Kagurabachi is so fast, too- he doesn't want to lose reader engagement by slowing things down and having longer arcs with a few "dead" chapters here and there. He acknowledges that this makes the manga a very dense read at least. And I'm fine with it. I wish it was a smidge slower, but I still wouldn't change the pacing. I just hope it doesn't go any faster than this because every week is like a whirlwind already.

Kind of interested, kind of worried that he's using up all his prepared ideas as fast as he can to try and create new ones. Won't call it arrogant but maybe... idealistic? Creation is hard, man. Especially working at the brutal pace of a weekly serialization. I just hope he can keep up without compromising his health like so many other mangaka are forced to do. He mentions in the next paragraph that he's starting to feel the pressure. Not surprising in the least with all the extra art he's had to make for cover and color pages, volume bonuses, and re-draws.

I'm also really, really glad that I can put my worries of a sudden introduction of yokai or mythical beings as enemies to rest. He confirmed that he wanted Kagurabachi to be about people versus people. Yay! I wouldn't drop the manga if we changed course into fighting a supernatural threat, but I could get that pretty much anywhere. I'm invested in Kagurabachi for the storytelling about the human vs. human conflicts more than anything else. Keeping the cast and foes entirely (or mostly) human helps sell the extremely personal nature of Chihiro's revenge mission IMO.

Then there's this...

You wanted Hakuri to add some cuteness, huh?! Oh boy did you nail that one, Hokazono-sensei. These two are going to be fruity as heck to the end I can tell. But I'm also reassured as a HakuHiro shipper that Hokazono actually wanted Hakuri there and likes the character (he also mentioned that he likes drawing him in the Vol. 4 extras). I didn't believe the bad-faith accusations of Hakuri being the result of executive meddling for one second- don't sell me that short. I've read all of Hokazono-sensei's oneshots so I know he loves his color-coded SasuNaru expy duos. But sometimes I feel the relationship he's written between Hakuri and Chihiro is too good to be real. If he REALLY wanted them to come across that sus, though? Okay then! I won't worry about the wellspring drying up any time soon.

In general it seems like Hokazono-sensei's pretty put-together (for a memelord) and happy to be drawing Kagurabachi. I'm really, really glad for him and It's exciting to see his series finally get the recognition it deserves. Kagurabachi's on the big come-up now with all the extra promotion since winning the Tsugimanga award. Become the future of WSJ!

It's late. I've yapped too much today. If you read this- thanks. Say something nice to yourself, alright? And take care.

[uh-mozzaza]

Sojo is such a tumblerina <3 truly a believer in the superiority of his headcanon

[hestzhyen]

On Hakuri and 愛 (Pure Love)

Hello dear void. Here's a crazy character theory/interpretation for you: Sazanami Hakuri has no idea what love is supposed to feel like or be expressed as and it deeply affects his character to the point of being a major (and tragic) flaw. This is at least half the the reason why he's devoted to saving lives no matter the cost to himself, and he will continue to be this way until his lack of understanding is addressed and corrected. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Just kidding, of course there's a yapfest coming.

This was part of my usual weekly chapter rant until I realized it needed to be it's own thing. As to why I'm going on about this: blame the colour page. The captions get removed for the English publication, but there's always some text in the Japanese version. In this case, for our first-ever solo Hakuri colour page, we got: 胸に秘めたその信念- [mune ni hi meta sono shinen-; "The conviction(s) hidden in his heart..."] (My TL isn't perfect, but the sentence is simple enough that I'm confident I got it mostly right.)

Hidden, hm? Hakuri, the most zero-filter, living-in-the-moment, heart-on-his-sleeve guy in the Kagurabachi universe is hiding something? Of course he is! We just went through a whole arc about it!

The easiest conclusion to draw is that caption is talking about Ice Lady and/or the indoctrination he underwent growing up as a Sazanami.

He only mentioned Ice Lady as "someone who set [him] on the right path" to Chihiro in a flashback panel in chapter 34- no one in the cast except Hakuri knows what happened with her. He keeps her memory close but hidden from the world. Her suicide drives him to be a savior regardless of the cost to himself; he'll never let another life slip through his hands again even if he can't or won't talk about her. She's definitely his reason to exist as he is right now.

As for the indoctrination, growing up as a Sazanami means believing that you are a tool that lives for the Rakuzaichi. That sort of thinking is still present in Hakuri too- he just shifted the fervor from "honor the Rakuzaichi" to "make the world a safer place".

It's hard to say how much of his lineage he's hiding right now (if any at all) as of writing this, but Hakuri doesn't seem to be taking any precautions to keep people from finding out he's a Sazanami. He was even completely up front with Chihiro and Shiba about it and his family's mindset when they met! So he might not be cognizant himself about why he's so wholehearted in his devotion to a cause, but it's there in plain sight for anyone to remark on.

All that said, I'd like to posit that there's another 信念 -conviction or belief- that Hakuri's hiding- one that he's buried so deep that he doesn't realize it's even there, despite it being just as influential as Ice Lady. It's the depressing result of being raised as a "tool". Worse, a "useless" one.

Hakuri's deeply held belief in his own lack of worth is a key factor in his suicidal recklessness when it comes to acting on his other convictions.

"You poor thing. You're the one imprisoned in a cage."

It's all rooted in the Sazanami interpretation of "love", of course. Hakuri's warped view of affection is a key factor in why he's so goddamn reckless. He rejected the way his family viewed and treated other people like Ice Lady, but he hasn't spared any of that righteous anger for himself. He completely accepted how his family treated him and still holds the same mindset towards himself, whether he acknowledges it or not.

Because this is not something someone just shrugs off after an arc (not with a competent writer, anyway):

Most people would not frame this kind of blatant abuse as "love" in any way, shape, or form. And yet...

"When push comes to shove, Chihiro will abandon you!! He'll put himself first! But I'm not like him! I love you unconditionally..."

"Because... you always loved me..."

Hakuri and Soya both recognize Soya's feelings for Hakuri as not just any love, but as the deepest, purest love there is: 愛 [ai]. It's a horrific interpretation of something that's supposed to be almost unspeakably precious, but that's what the arc built the Sazanami clan's whole identity as villains around. It took key aspects of Chihiro's character -specifically his father's love and legacy- and warped them into something toxic to be put down through Hakuri.

*----------------------------------------------------------------------------* Before the panic sets in, I wanna say that ai is neither inherently nor exclusively romantic- that's 恋 [koi].

Mutual feeings of ai are the end-goal of many a romance story, yes. Everything builds up to that climactic declaration of 愛してる [aishiteru, "I love you"]. But ai can also be felt for family, friends, and even pets. It's for anyone the person builds up a profound enough affection for.

So Hakuri and Soya using ai to describe Soya's feelings isn't meant to imply romantic intentions (though I understand why some people ran with that interpretation). Actually, I will vehemently argue the opinion that these two using it at all means neither of them have a single clue as to what ai is supposed to look or feel like in any context. *----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

There's a reason Hakuri bitterly acknowledges Soya's abuse towards him as ai. It's the same reason Soya framed his abuse as acts of ai in the first place. It's not valid as justification, but it's understandable: they just don't know any better.

Kyora: "...Hey now, don't you love me?" Hakuri: "...? We love you." Tenri: "Of course we do."

There are multiple words for "love" in Japanese, but ai is supposed to be the deepest, sincerest, most profound and unselfish type of love there is. Ai is merely an imperfect term for an affectionate sentiment beyond words. If you have to clarify or explain your feelings as "ai", then they might not be ai in the first place.

Kyora throws around ai as something that can be used or withheld for any reason at all. Someone who truly felt ai for their kids would never do such a thing, much less consider it! But the Sazanami mindset corrupts even the concept of pure love and all of them are worse off for it.

So Hakuri only knows this ultimate form of love as abuse and manipulation. He believes that it's something conditional. Something painful.

Something he's not worthy of if it's positive, but earns if it's negative.

Any scrap of it he could get.

Contradictory and illogical? Yes. But if you understand why someone can wholeheartedly believe in that, I've got a hug or a fist bump or whatever you're comfortable with waiting for you.

Hakuri never talked about how far Soya -the manifestation of everything that was fucked up with his family- went to dehumanize him. Shiba and Chihiro got the "it wasn't so bad" version of the abuse. Just the beatings, no mention of the Visual Metaphor Tools he's still got hidden inside his storehouse. No talks about how he craved love with every fiber of his being but was tortured in the name of it over and over for years. No forced recognition that what was done to him would not be considered an act of love by any sane, rational human being.

The closest Hakuri's ever come to acknowledging that this might be an issue for him was when he asked to join Chihiro:

Taking the first step.

He's here for Ice Lady and to see if he can find out what Chihiro saw in him that made Enten a worthy trade for his "worthless", "useless" life. He's trying to understand why Chihiro regards him so highly as an "equal" as much as he's trying to be a savior. Both of these reasons drive him. But he only flashes back to one for motivation. He'd really rather not think about the other one (and hasn't outside of this moment).

No one alive knows what he truly endured and how it warped his perception of love and self-worth. He keeps his beliefs about his own worth hidden away in his storehouse as the peeler, wrench, chair, and more. Ice Lady had a glimpse, but he killed her with the loving Sazanami mindset that justified his own torture. He's carrying this burden alone and it's weighing on him and everything he's doing this arc.

So that's where we're at right now. Hakuri's reasons for acting the way he does are hidden alongside the beliefs about himself that he's yet to address, the combination of which is sending him into a self-destructive spiral. He won't be able to climb out of this mindset until someone can convince him that he's worthy of love just for existing- that ai is so much more than fists, metal rods, and calculated manipulation.

My hopes on how he learns this are obvious as a HakuHiro shipper, but I think it could easily come from everyone around him. Shiba, Char, Hinao, maybe Samura and Uruha and other characters we have yet to meet as well. All of them can help him let go of this hidden belief and replace it with something more wholesome. I just hope it happens before he loses something precious and irreplaceable.