#Mikage Sakurai

[anime-ships-all-good]

Sakurai Mikage x Inose Mai

Asteroid in Love

[idontthinkimokaymentally]

Hello there Mikage "Sakura" Sakurai fans.

[shimmywhenyoucantbounce]

The Unsleeping City Chapter Two and Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Ally Beardsley said, "I get her Kitchen, that really old book" and I perked up a little bit because I know a book called Kitchen, a niche one that I have analytical thoughts about and love as a piece of art and have never heard anyone mention outside of the class wherein I read it. And then they said "it has this really cool trans character in it," and I had to pause the video to scream about this, because the book I know does in fact have a cool trans woman in it. Her name is Eriko. When I had calmed down enough, I pressed play again and Ally Beardsley said "It's by this writer Banana Yoshimoto" and that is as far as I am into that episode because at that confirmation I had to stop and scream again.

Kitchen, the novella, is made of two different pieces: "Kitchen," about short-novel length by itself, and "Moonlight Shadow," a much shorter story. Both stories are about grief, isolation, connection, and food. Notably, both stories start with the main characters already in mourning, their loved ones already dead. We enter their world as one that is notably empty. This parallels the setting of season two, which opens with introductory scenes that still keenly feel Kugrash's absence.

I have been thinking about Kitchen through this entire season, which is part of why I got so excited when Ally Beardsley mentioned it. Kitchen is a book about grief and grieving and relying on others in your time of need to help you and care for you and give you food. Yoshimoto uses light and dark imagery not as symbols of good and evil, but rather of isolation and connection. Multiple times, she brings us the image of distinct points being connected by light in a dark void, including the main character looking up at the moon in a dark sky and, in one of the closing images of "Kitchen," a lighthouse tracing a road of light across black waves. When our narrator meets one of the people who will become her new household, she sees "in the black gloom before my eyes...a straight road leading from me to him" (Yoshimoto 6-7) (I don't have my book with me but I did find one of my old essays about it :) ). The darkness in these images is that which is not known, that which the characters cannot see through, which is why it represents isolation. They do not have knowledge or connection to that place, even though they may in the future. That way, the imagery is also connected to agency and the act of exploring and reaching out to one's world. Kitchen portrays characters in grief and dangerously deep in self-isolation, and the events and relationships that help them deal with that and figure out how they are going to live now. Yoshimoto characterizes the universe not as malicious but uncaring, and proposes that the response to this is to look for meaning instead in each other and the world we make. Which is exactly the struggle our characters are embarking on against NULL! Meaning, value, the things we personally hold dear; and it doesn't matter if they're "cosmically insignificant" or doomed or can be corrupted or whatever because they exist while they exist and they matter while they're there. Aaaaaaaaaa!!!

I've just remembered that one of the characters in "Kitchen" climbs up on someone's roof in the middle of the night to eat katsudon with them. They were not invited there! It was not katsudon that was in the hotel room! They bought the katsudon in the middle of the night and put it in their backpack and climbed up onto the roof and tapped at the window and said "Hello I brought katsudon"! I love this. It's so good. It's also Kugrash behavior.

Victoria Brown also persistently cares for people by providing them food, which is just to say that these two stories are both thinking about the comforting and communal power of cooking for people and eating together.

If I had a nickel for each time a mysterious, apparently-human but probably supernatural figure connected to a liminal location appeared to a character in need and offered them specifically tea in the Unsleeping City and Kitchen, I would have at least three nickels. Also the liminal location in "Moonlight Shadow" is a bridge over a river, which is traditionally a powerful symbol and also something that holds significance in Unsleeping City geography and lore.

In "Moonlight Shadow," a young man in mourning for his girlfriend wears her clothes every day after her death. I'd like to show Ricky Matsui this bit and hear his thoughts on it because of how he has taken on some of Kugrash's role. Ricky feels pressure from other parties as well, the Questing Blade and the Peasant's Sword, to carry on a legacy (that is symbolized by something one wears or carries).

I think that's all the thoughts I have about it for now, except that I seem to remember a line in "Moonlight Shadow" about a cloudy sky hanging heavy like stone, which might characterize the emotional state of New York in Chapter Two as well.

I'd like to know Pete's (and Ally Beardsley's) thoughts on Eriko as a character, and also if they talked to any of the other people in the season's production about the similarity of themes between the book and the series. If anyone has thoughts they'd like to share about this or about Kitchen in general, please do let me know! I vibrate whenever I get to discuss parallels between different media I'm into.

[harukasangel]

Anniversary Dates

Toma (Amnesia Memories) - 08/12/24

Deuce Spade (TWST) - 01/18/24

Rui Kamishiro (PJSK) - 07/02/23

Haruka Sakurai (MILGRAM) - 12/13/23

Orlok (Piofiore) - 12/24/24

Yoichi Isagi (BLLK) - 06/26/23

Platonic F/O's

Yuno Kashiki, Mahiru Shiina, Kazui Mukuhara - (MILGRAM)

Sawa, Mine, Ikki - (Amnesia)

Epel Felmier, Vil Schoenheit, Trey Clover, Riddle Rosehearts, Kalim Al-Asim - (TWST)

Mizuki Akiyama, Nene Kusanagi, Ichika Hoshino, Shizuku Hinomori, Saki Tenma, Haruka Kiritani (PJSK)

Bachira Meguru, Nagi Seishiro, Reo Mikage (BLLK)

Familial F/O's

Mikoto Kayano (older brother), Amane Momose (younger sister) - (MILGRAM)

Shin (younger brother) - (Amnesia)

Ace Trappola (younger brother), all of Diasomnia dorm - (TWST)

Tsukasa Tenma (son), Ena Shinonome (younger sister), Akito Shinonome (younger brother)

[editingrosecastle]

𝓢𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓬𝓮 𝓛𝓲𝓼𝓽

Last updated: 04/16/2024

Bolded = Whitelist (if you request one of these fandoms/characters, there is a chance I'll get it out faster ;))

MILGRAM

Twisted Wonderland

Blue Lock

Project Sekai

Danganronpa

Fanganronpas (DRDT + DRRB)

Assassination Classroom

Food Wars

Genshin Impact

Honkai Star Rail (1st only)

DDLC

Fullmetal Alchemist

Bungo Stray Dogs

Attack on Titans

Romantic Killer

Komi Can't Communicate

MHA/BNHA

Black Butler

SpyxFamily

Demon Slayer

Oshi no ko is selective

If you don't see a fandom listed, just ask me and I'll see if I can do it anyways!

My favorite characters to do!

Yuno Kashiki, Haruka Sakurai, Mikoto Kayano, Shidou Kirisaki, Mahiru Shiina, Deuce Spade, Ace Trappola, Epel Felmier, Azul Ashengrotto, Riddle Roseheart, Isagi Yoichi, Bachira Meguru, Rin Itoshi, Sae Itoshi, Mikage Reo, Ichika Hoshino, Tsukasa Tenma, Rui Kamishiro, Nene Kusanagi, Toya Aoyagi, Honami Mochizuki, Mafuyu Asahina, Kyoko Kirigiri, Hajime Hinata, Shuichi Saihara, Korekiyo Shinguji, David Chiem, Charles Cuevas, Hu Jing, Sayori, Yuri, Ranpo Edogawa, Ai Hoshino, Akane Kurokawa

Blacklist (What I will NOT make edits for, NO EXCEPTIONS!!!)

Real people (Youtubers/Celebrities/live action fictional sources, etc.), Yandere sim + fan projects of yansim, Miraculous Ladybug, Rick and Morty, Steven Universe, Scott Pilgrim, DSMP, Helluva Boss (Hazbin Hotel is on thin ice), Your Boyfriend, Country Humans (Hetalia is iffy for me, ask me first), DRA + SDRA2, Arturo Giles, Subaru Mimasaka, Ruby Hoshino, Shipping edits, L0li/Sh0ta stuff (just no...), NSFW stuff, pr0shitter stuff (fuck off, I don't want any gross ppl here), anything for systems, or just any problematic media in general!

[afurika]

(sakurai mikage (koisuru asteroid) drawn by mikazuchi_zeus | Danbooruから)

[losergendered]

ID: a set of 10 images in 5 pairs. each has one image of the listed asteroid in love character with a white outline in front of their corresponding flags, and a second image which is a blank flag splice. END ID

Mai Inose from Asteroid In Love is spookyfem, lovexenic, and cisxeno!

Ao Manaka is a xenocisgender, autistic, glitravir, bunstarri, panspacemojic, nightcreature, moonbeing!

Mira Konohata is esperkyn, romourina, sundeplergic, has hyperactive-type ADHD, and is a bisexual lesbian!

Mari Morino is sortagirl, FINglaze, nightpoemic, proendoic and a quoigenic DID system! She is dating Mikage Sakurai(s)!

Mikage Sakurai is glitrella, cupcattic, ribbonlexic, and an endogenic OSDD-1a system! She is dating Mari Morino&!

For @anendoandfriendo !

[somena-libra-dawn]

To be fair, despite thinking how unattractive Osako is, I actually like (well, respect) him as a character.

He pretty much fulfills the mentor role due to being teacher and is a developed character (given his implied past that he didn't enjoy study till that motivational book). Not gonna talk about Mikage since I haven't onto GS4 yet. While other sensei are mentor too, Himuro is too strict to follow and Waka-sensei has a depth that I need to uncover to understand him. Yes, they're still supportive due to being a mentor and all... but Osako leaves a lot of impact to me.

He supports Arashi on building Judo club. I remember the ADV where he calls Arashi's parents on the 100-man challenge. He tells Bambi to visit the hospitalized Sakurai bros. In a shopping event, he tells Ruka not go into a fight and is ok with the blond to vent to him.

In his route, he helps Bambi developed and enjoyed her school life to the fullest. To me she has more characterization here besides the generic heroine ones in other routes (e.g., being an empath).

Plus, there is the scene where he rejects her... which makes sense.

Tbh, my fave moments about him (at least to me) are his class's Culture Festival events in yr. 2 and 3 where he is afraid of the ghost inside until accidentally dropping his wallet and suggests adding Kaguya-hime and her suitor into ten group. Lol what!

[moondustdreams]

His smile was so bright as he stood in my doorway that I zoomed in for a closeup on his pupils. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I think I heard a spirit call my name. "Okay," I said. "I'll be there." Bad as it sounds, it was like I was possessed. His attitude was so totally "cool" though, I felt I could trust him. In the black gloom before my eyes (as it always is in cases of bewitchment), I saw a straight road leading from me to him. He seemed to glow with white light. That was the effect he had on me. "Okay, see you later," he said, smiling, and left.

-Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen (1993)

[anime-ships-all-good]

Sakurai Mikage x Morino Mari

Asteroid in Love

[cannibalavanti]

I don’t think anyone has captured the mundane essence of living and loss better than Banana Yoshimoto has in Kitchen. She hooks you from the first page where she describes Mikage’s love and attachment for kitchens because they have always been a symbol of domesticity, nostalgia, fulfilment. More than a living room or a bedroom, a kitchen has always told me so much about the person whom it belongs to. I think about what my kitchen says about me if one were to psychoanalyse it and whether it really is a reflection of my household. I think it might be.

Kitchens are deeply embedded in my core memories, woven in with early summers. A watermelon being cut. Curry being cooked. Late night trips to the refrigerator. Sitting on the counter watching my maid cook. Making a meal when no one is at home. The feeling this book left me with isn’t quite like any other book I’ve read. I feel like I read, perhaps, a very warped alternative reality. Mikage, Yuichi and Eriko are characters you would maybe pass in the street. Complex, distant, real.

The book is sometimes like afternoon light and sometimes like a cloudy day. Sometimes an early morning, sometimes a still and dark night. Banana has so brilliantly and so often used light and darkness as contrasts to how Mikage experiences happiness and grief or solitude, you can visualise her feelings like a painting. I think I might be in love with Banana Yoshimoto.

[probablyrobin]

some charms i’ll never make, but i love these little guys

[sihasbiotakukpoper]

Who wants bunny girl senpai manga?

[laguzmage]

[tetrix-anime]

Koisuru Asteroid - Special Event Visual

[my-anime-goods]

Koisuru Asteroid - [Original Illustration] Pop Up Shop in HMV & Books Shibuya from 8 to 26 July 2020