#Nao Asuka | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shortystack75 · 4 months ago

Text

I just did my annual rewatch of Stars Align aka Hoshiai No Sora and now I once again have too many thoughts. Anyone seeing this is now the victim.

So basically this post is gonna be a long post explaining a tierlist I made for the kids and how they were effected by their parent/s. I made the tierlist at like 3am this morning and immediately passed out while working through my thought processes

OTHER PEOPLE ARE WELCOME TO READ MY RAMBLES TOO IT'S PRETTY ACCESSIBLE BC I EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

So I'm actually going to go from the bottom and work my way up bc I have so many more uncoordinated thoughts about Touma, Tsubasa, and Nao than anyone else.

RINTARO His adoptive parents have done everything right, he and they are delights. his main issue is the FACT that he's adopted. he feels like there's something inherently wrong with him that caused his birth parents to not want him. at the end of the series his birth mother gets ahold of his adoptive parents and wants to meet him, its assumed she shows up at the tournament but leaves before he can catch up to her, making him believe that because he lost his match she doesn't think he's worth even meeting. And yea I'm with the theory that he's Touma's twin and that makes his mom Rintaro's mom and boy would that fuck him up even more and I so wish we could've gotten our original 24 episodes. Overall his ACTUAL parents that he grew up with and currently have did not cause his problems so 10/10 love them sm

Arashi + Class Pres They are rich kids and though we dont see them being effected by this very much i assume they are negatively effected but overall their parents are probably okay

TAIYO Very soft spoken and probably would roll over and die if a bully or mugger approached him. His parents, while very well-meaning, dote on him in a way that probably killed any kind of confidence he had. "It's okay if you dont win" WOULD be good parent words, but they were followed up with "tennis is a two person sport, so its not your fault if your partner messes up" Taiyo actually scolds them for this which made me really happy, as by saying this not only are they making a dig at his friend and partner(who does not need anyone hurting him anymore goddamn), but also could be interpreted as if they do win then it could be all his partner and not him Overall 8/10 this boy just needs more confidence and screentime

ITSUKI He was hard to place because his parent situation has already been handled actually. he got todorokied as a kid. When he was a baby, his mother clearly suffered from some pretty hard postnatal depression, and possibly other stuff, and poured boiling water onto his back. this left him with some pretty horrific back scars that he actually doesn't mind but he clearly doesn't like talking about it, as shown in the show by him not changing in the club room until about halfway through the show, after he'd already known the MC Maki for a while. He's shown to have a very easy trigger to violence however when people belittle his homelife. Without even knowing about his mother, some bullies come talk down to him about his mother being out of the picture and his response was to bash them over the head with his racket 8/10 Current situation, we never see his dad but we can assume he's doing a decent job as a father bc Itsuki and Namie are actually kinda well adjusted despite his lil aggro moment

Mitsue Mitsue is not part of the tennis club but hands around them as the only people she can stand coughcoughADMITTHEY'REYOURFRIENDSLOSERcoughcough and uses their matches as inspiration for drawing. Her parents belittle her passion for drawing and tell her seemingly often that she'll never go anywhere in life, its implied that she starts hanging around the tennis club and Maki's house to get away from her parents as long as possible until she actually starts liking them

Yuu Yuu is a canonicaly non-binary/X-gender character and i love them but their mom is transphobic and yelled at them and was really shitty i hope she dies. not directly related to their mother, but we also see other students bullying them for being gay (no one other than Maki, their mother, and their sisters find out about them not being cis, but most people seem to know theyre gay or at least suspect it) they are physically harassed early on, only to have a friend, Touma, step in and literally scare off the bullies(more on that when we get to him) and towards the middle of the show some other sports guys come into the tennis team's room to talk and start to make comments on Yuu being gay. This is immediately shut down by several of the tennis club members showing their clear support for them at least in the gay sense.

SHINGO His mother is either dead or otherwise out of the picture completely but there seems to be no ill will from him or his father, who remarried. Father is great and supportive of him. His step-mother however... She's constantly comparing him to his mother who she clearly doesnt like and wants as little to do with him as possible. Shingo has a little half-sister whom he adores and she adores him right back, but his step-mom HATES them interacting and does everything she can to discourage it, despite his little sister's clear adoration and love for him. He overall isn't super outwardly very effected by her, but is still clearly put-out by her random hate towards him and likely feels very uncomfortable in her presence. 6.5/10 overall, 9/10 dad but 4/10 step-mom who gets a"Not being as bad as you could've been" award

Now we're getting spicy

MAKI Our main character Maki! He's an overall quiet but pleasant person who has a very realistic outlook on life. His single mother is amazing towards him but works very long hours at her job and so most of the chores fall into him, not that he minds all that much, when he was younger he was often looked after by his mother's friend Shou, a canonical transman that lead Maki to be very informed about gender and was just what Yuu needed. His father however.... physically and financially abusive. despite being divorced he shows up at their apartment when he knows his exwife wont be at home to steal money from them and be mean to Maki. in the after credits scene of the first episode he hits maki so hard something in his mouth starts bleeding(he likely bit his tongue or a part of his cheek) and he curls up into a ball and waits for him to leave. He's terrified of this man. Later in the show he shows up to terrorize maki again and Touma, Maki's doubles partner, gets involved to put an end to it. Throughout the exchange Maki is practically cowering behind Touma which is so jarring because Maki's normal demeanor is so nonchalant and calm. It's implied he's been abused for as long as he could remember to some extent. We see a couple other time that he has an interesting reaction to threats and violence, such as another character threatening him with a racket(he doesn't react and simply says "Use your hands") or upon learning Itsuki bludgeoned a guy with his racket(tells him not to break the equipment because its expensive) Oh also his mother is in the process of getting a restraining order but its not in place yet Mom and Shou are 8/10, dad is 0/10, overall 4/10 experience for our sadboy Maki

TOUMA He's some kind of neurospicy i just know it. His father is ??? never see this man but we know he;s in the household, i think he travels for work or smth cause its mentioned he's rarely at home His mother HATES him. like for no reason. She gives us a lot of vague words she says to his older brother, who seems to be Touma's only positive family relation, at one point she says that he scares her but she also yells at him all the time and compares him to his brother and basically constantly belittles him for no reason. He seems to blame everything on himself but silently. When the tennis team isn't doing good he blows up be throwing his racket on the ground and storming away, but later reveals to his brother that he thinks its his fault and that he's a bad captain. Similarly, when the team is having a celebration he stays to the edges and explains to Yuu that he doesn't like being around people who are having fun because he feels like he's going to ruin it be engaging. We can actually tie this into a little moment he has with Maki during a game when Maki turns to him exactly and goes "I really love tennis!" and Touma stands there with awe on his face as if he couldn't imagine someone having fun by playing with him. Speaking of Yuu, back when he scared off the bullies, 2/3 of the bullies were IMMEDIATELY scared upon seeing him walk up, they told the third one that "Everyone knows he's a psycho" while Touma stands there with a blank face. This coupled with how his mother talks about him makes me think he's had a little bit of a violent streak that may be linked to autistic breakdowns Back to his mother, it is revealed at the end that there's a third brother we've never seen or heard of when we get a scene of his mother and older brother talking. his brother says "I love both of my little brothers" and later that episode his mom calls him to tell him she's divorcing his dad and taking his older brother with her. I just know he'd be even more messed up if Rintaro ends up being his twin brother. Anyway his dad is 4/10 for absence and his mom is 1/10 for doing the bare minimum (really sad that she has any points at all). Overall 2.5/10

TSUBASA he's my little crunchy guy i love him so much We very very briefly see his mother have worry for him at a bad moment but never goes after him when he runs away and she never seems to check on him at any other point. The bad moment is when he falls down the stairs. Specifically he is hit in the face by his father so hard (on a flight of stairs) that he slams into the wall and then loses his balance and falls backwards onto his dominant wrist hard enough to break it. Let me backtrack a bit. at about 2/3 through the anime, we get a scene of him at home watching tv with his 2 older brothers. His dad comes through the door and the music stops, all three boys look tense but Tsubasa specifically immediately gets a fearful look and when addressed by his dad tries to leave the room. Tsubasa is a very loud and confrontational person, likely caused by his dad's toxic masculinity, and says something that isn't important but causes his father to follow him and grab his wrist so hard he looks in pain. What follows is the stair incident. He then runs out of the house in the middle of the night and ends up in front of Shingo's house. Shingo is his tennis partner. Shingo sees him, Tsubasa tries to run away but is quickly caught by the hurt wrist. After Shingo realizes he's hurt he immediately gets his dad to take Tsubasa to the hospital. When the doctor asks if anyone else was involved, Tsubasa denies this and calls himself an idiot with the most heart wrenching expression on his face i swear. He later confesses to Shingo he's sure his dad hates him all because he's not as good at soccer as his older brothers, and blames himself for Shingo not being able to play in the upcoming tournament. When asked why he came to Shingo's house he responds with "I didn't know where else to go" Which makes me want to hit someone, personally. At the start of the series there a part where he raises his racket as if to strike Maki with it, but backs down when Maki doesn't even flinch. I'm taking this to mean he was never actually planning to hit Maki, but acting big and threatening violence is likely something he learned from his dad. When it doesn't work he immediately backs down and leaves the situation, similar to how he acts with his dad. He's also one of the few we see get physical with anyone else. Barring Itsuki and the racket incident, Tsubasa is the only member of the tennis team to threaten another middle schooler. In the club room incident where Yuu was starting to be harassed, Tsubasa was one of the three (Touma and Maki were not present) out of 6 members to intervene. While Shingo and Itsuki told the other boy off and insulted him in turn, Tsubasa actually got up in his space and grabbed a hold of the other boy's face, lightly shoving him. The other boys immediately backed down after this like Tsubasa was assuming they would, like how he learned to behave with his father. Mom is like 4/10 for being useless 🎉and Father is 0/10 for an overall score of 2/10!!!

and now... for NAO My head is in my hands over him So to start, he's an only child and his father is distant and doesn't seem to interact with him or care for him whatsoever(unlike with Tsubasa and hopefully Touma, he's somehow being an absent parent while sitting right! next! to! him!!!), leaving him with no help or reprieve at home from his monster of a mother. She never physically hurts or lays a hand on him from what we've seen but she clearly has deep-rooted mental and emotional manipulation that has negatively effected Nao very deeply. We see a lot of signs early on that we brush away as little quirks he has, such as telling a lot of lies or "fairy tales" as the tennis club likes to call them, staring off into space, or even just looking impassively at what transpires around him as if he wasn't apart if it. That's right this boy disassociates. hard. His mother, to put it lightly, is an extremely controlling and authoritarian parent who wants to hand steer every little thing he thinks, feels, and does. She's constantly complaining to the principal about the club and lying or exaggerating in order for club activities to be suspended or halted because she doesn't think he gets anything from playing and would rather he spend all his time studying. Speaking of studying, that's what she has him do constantly at home. His room doesn't look like that of a middle school boy. It has a desk, a bed, and a dresser. I would even go so far as to say some of his spacey-ness comes from exhaustion. who knows how long she has him studying every night, and its revealed he gets up early so he can go on runs and practice swinging because she doesn't let him after he gets home from school. All of this feeds into his lies. He's learned that whenever he tells her the truth he gets yelled at and belittled and punished. So he lies. he tells her what he thinks she'll want to here and this bleeds into all of his relationships. Upon meeting Maki he lies immediately, something broad to appeal to everyone, but its called out by the rest of the club and he just sits there smiling through it all while looking at the sky. He's left handed and she hates that. He uses his left hand to eat once and she yells at him, making him freeze up and pull his right arm into his center, almost mimicking the fetal position. SPEAKING of eating... boy unintentionally has an eating disorder. We are shown multiple times when he is at home he pushes his food around his plate and eats little to none of it. While there are other scenes of him with food away from his mother, I dont think he's actually specifically shown eating then either, and could've easily not eaten anything there. OKAY so onto the really scary/sad part. There's a part where Shingo brings his little sister to watch their practice game with the girls' team, and she gets lost in the school. She ends up found sleeping in the nurses office, but they skipped over it bc the door was locked and figured she couldn't have gotten in there. They only find her when Maki hears the keys jingle in Nao's pocket and realizes he locked her in there. Nao himself seemed shocked that he had the keys and was the one to lock her in there. His mom had been yelling about the practice game and wanting it cancelled the night before. He found her, and instead of telling everyone or waking her up, he disociated and locked the door, than lied that he hadn't seen her. He seemed so shocked that Maki even thinks that he'd thought his own lie was real. Think of how scary that is. I also think he's neurospicy which his mom would absolutely fuck up even more but thats just me things Dad gets a 3/10 for personally pissing me off and his mom gets a funny lil 0/10 along with the two other shittiest parents. Overall a 1.5/10!!!

In all seriousness In my own little world most of them move in together and share an apartment. Yes ive seen the extra scenes no I dont care im ignoring them.

12 notes · View notes

shortystack75 · 4 months ago

Text

Another very niche post about Stars Align / Hoshiai No Sora

This one is in regards to the characters' worldviews and mindset, based on a few very specific factors and things I noticed while rewatching it for the 5th(6th?) time.

Long post so its all under the cut

Random people who know nothing about Stars Align can also read if you want to see a loser 21 yr old lose their mind, I explain everything so you'll only be a little lost

Teirlist graphic to grab your attention and more easily show you:

So as you can see im basing it off of 2 main axis, one with 2 points and one with 3. I'll give a brief little overview of what I mean by each category and then go into why I think each character is in each category. Solitary vs Inclusive refers to how they center themselves in the world, this does NOT mean whether or not they are self centered, it refers to how they view themselves and other people IN the world and whether or not they believe other people can be outside of their mindset, i'll explain more later. "Me vs the World", "Me vs Them" and "Us vs the Them" refers to how the characters view 'sides'. Do I think that character is likely to think of themselves as as singular? than they fall under one of the "Me vs" categories. Do I think the character perceives a specific crowd/type of person to be a 'side' or do I think the character perceives everyone as the opposite side until proven otherwise? that denotes the "vs Them" or "vs The World" part of the mindset I'll start from the bottom up, left to right for anyone who doesn't know the characters or cant remember the names.

Starting with Maki Our main character, I put him as Inclusive "Us vs Them" because of a few key reasons we see throughout the anime. For the Us vs Them mindset, we consistently see Maki being a team player heavily in regards to not only the tennis team, but people he identifies or gets along with. Before he ever gets to know Yuu and before they're part of the club, Maki has already mentally categorized Yuu as part of his "Us/We" the same goes for Mitsue after they get along in class. We can actually see him interact with Mitsue before he categorizes her when he bumps into her. He apologizes and makes sure she's alright because he's a good person, but otherwise is off-footed towards her. She's not a "Them" in his mindset, but she's also not yet "Us/We". The main part of his Them" is of course his father and anyone who goes against his "Us/We" such as the bully Itsuki hit with his racket "He had it coming" Isn't something he would say about just anyone. As for the Inclusive or Solitary part, there is NO shot Maki was ever going to be Solitary. He's inclusive because of what i've already said about how he interacts with Mitsue ^. He doesn't just see the world as "Us vs Them" he knows not everyone is against him and his, and therefore not everyone should immediately raise his guard, it's why he's so casual in the first episode while not being necessarily friends with Toma yet. Toma isn't included in "Us" yet. at the start of ep 1, the only ones in "Us" is Maki himself, his mom, and Shou, but he very easily and relatedly lets his "Us" grow throughout the anime. I didn't even mention Arashi but he's another great example showcasing Maki's mindset.

Rintaro So most of the rest of these guys in this category will have a much shorter section than Maki's, mostly because we see less and I have to explain less. It's pretty easy to see that Rintaro doesn't view himself as an island and does his best for the club and his parents. This is all in his small actions and ease around the tennis club, it's hard to say whether or nor Mitsue or Arashi are included in his "Us/We". Similar to Maki, Rintaro clearly has no guard against people other to him and doesn't believe everyone not in his circle is against him.

Yuu I'll be honest I almost put Yuu into the Solitary space, mostly because of their (rightful)fear, but realized that Yuu hadn't put the club or Maki into the "Them" category immediately. While cautious with Maki upon being approached, they quickly categorize Maki as "Us/We" when he is open and kind to them, and when with the Tennis club nearer to the start, it's clear that they don't think of the club as "Them" OR "Us/We" yet. At the start of the anime, the only people in Yuu's "Us/We" besides themself are Toma and their sisters, but much like Maki, at the end the entire Club and Mitsue is clearly included in their "Us/We"

Taiyo Taiyo is mostly a repeat of things I've said about Rintaro, we don't see very much of Taiyo at all but what we do see I've determined to be in this category, and as 3 other people will probably read this I doubt any of you will fight me on it, but you would be welcome to! Even 5 years in the future.

Onto Shingo As the first and only part of our Solitary "Us vs Them" grouping, he kinda makes this category. While having a similar mindset to our other "Us vs Them"s, he doesn't really see people outside of those two categories. As shown with how he interacts with people outside of the club and his family, other people are kinda the enemy to him. He was slightly(not like Ituki and Tsubasa) antagonistic to Maki when he joined to club but swapped him over to "Us/We" seemingly easily, doing the same to Yuu when they become the club's manager. While he has an Solitary "Us vs Them" mindset, he doesn't come across as overaggro to others because he's not a naturally aggressive person, just loud and protective. As a good example, the two boys who appeared in the club room and started to mess with Yuu, their manager and part of Shingo's "Us/Them". He's he first to intervene and does so easily and calmly, Yuu is part of his "Us/We" and these boys are not, making them "Them" automatically.

Up to Istuki Itsuki is in a really interesting spot as an Inclusive "Me vs Them" By having an inclusive mindset, he knows that not everyone is against him and some people are just chilling. He does not have an "Us/We" mentality but he still has friends and people he cares about, shown how along with Shingo, he steps in when Yuu is being harassed. He does it in a more antagonistic way, calling them names with no remorse. Yuu may not be "Us" because there is only "Me/I" for Itsuki, but these two idiots have still come into Itsuki's space, his club room, and are messing with his club member, his manager. Anything like this becomes personal because he's "Me/I" centric which is why he reacts slightly more aggressively than Shingo. However. He doesn't see these as attacks, just slights, because they were against Yuu, not himself directly. The racket incident, were clearly attacks. When two bullies come up to him and bad talk his homelife, he has no hesitation. He talks back, responds once or twice, these are warnings to back off, to reason. These bullies instantly were painted as "Them" as soon as they opened their stupid mouths but Itsuki would have let them go, but they kept talking, kept insulting, kept attacking him. So he strikes to defend himself, with his racket. He feels no remorse, in his mindset this jerk deserves it(kinda did but the racket was a bit much i agree with Maki). We didn't get to see much else of his mindset throughout the anime except maybe how he feels about Nao's mom ("Them").

Onto Arashi! Starting off our Inclusive "Me vs the World" off strong with our dear walking contradiction! To easily sum up his Inclusive part, he isn't actually antagonistic to anyone unless they've recently slighted him, seen as him snapping at Sunaga(his doubles partner) but soon realizing he was wrong to do so and apologizing. While Arashi is very much "Me vs the World", it's not active in his brain at all times. While everyone is against him in a general sense, he doesn't believe they are constantly against him all the time.

Toma! Most of what I would be saying about him is a repeat of what I said about Arashi^ you could argue he's Solitary "Us vs Them" but I just don't see him like that. From how he talks when at the bbq to his surprise at Maki telling him he's having fun playing tennis with Toma, etc etc he's a very lonely boy surrounded by people he doesn't think are on his side and expects one day to be against him.

Up to Tsubasa!!!!!!! I love analyzing Tsubasa he's like a little angry bug to me. Tsubasa has a solitary "Me vs Them" mindset, which means once he's placed you into the "Them" category he doesn't really let you out of it, and upon meeting you he expects you to prove you're not automatically in the "Them" category. Despite not everyone being in the "Them" category, he does not touch a "We/Us" category with a 10 foot pole. Nobody is on his side and he's afraid his own actions will cause people to choose to be in the "Them" category. He didn't look for help from his mom or brothers when his father pushed him down the stairs, he ran. He ran because he had to get away from the "Them" he found his way to Shingo's house, the closest person to an "Us" he's probably ever had, but freaks out upon Shingo actually seeing him and trys to run. He's not running from Shingo himself, he's running from the prospect of Shingo no longer being a neutral, safe, space for him. He's running from Shingo seeing Tsubasa crying and hurt and seeing any reason to slide into the "Them" category. He doesn't know he's part of Shingo's "Us/We" he can't know that. He's used to testing people and see if they leave or push back, he's used to seeing people either fail or not fail. He's not used to people actually winning.

ONTO NAO!!! If Tsubasa is the bug i study, than Nao is the salamander i begged my dad to keep in a lil fruit cup as a kid. Do i know how to care for him? hell no. Do i want him anyway? yes. Nao's mindset knows no neutrals or positives. Everyone is against him in someway including himself. His mother is actively against him, his father is there and does nothing, possibly making everything worse by being around but not around, therefore his mind has taken neutral presences to also be bad. Nao is all about appeasal, about prevention. If he can appease people he meets before they know him than maybe they will just be passively against him instead of actively against him. He lies to Maki and the others to try and appease them, to tell them what he thinks they want to hear. He lies to his mother, in body and mind, tells her what he thinks she wants to hear and pretends to eat he food she makes while he stares into nothing, likely tasting nothing but ash. Taiyo tries to comfort him? He reacts in a way he thinks Taiyo wants, because to Nao he himself is broken and having other people realize this is dangerous and he wants to minimize it. Most of all he lies to himself. He may not even realize he is doing it, like with the infirmary incident, where he convinced himself he didn't know where Shingo's younger sister was. Because he views everyone as against him, he doesn't get them all laughing it off and forgiving him. To him he's messed up again and shown them a broken part of him. He, like Tsubasa, doesn't understand Shingo on an intrinsic level because to Shingo Nao is part of is "Us/We" and Shingo doesn't see Nao as an enemy, as an outsider.

Mitsue :) Lastly Mitsue, Similarly to Nao but with less delusions and mental illness, she views the world to inherently be against her. Unlike Nao, she isn't against herself(most of the time) Maki and the club are good friends to have for her because she keeps convincing herself they're all stupid and incompitant. Whenever Yuu mentions Mitsue actually thinking of Maki as a friend, she always shuts them down and spouts off something negative, putting on a tough front. In her mind they won't become actively against her as long as she is either useful(helping them spy on Joy) or as someone disconnected.

Anyway, if you're one of the 3 people to have read all of this, feel free to argue any of these i'd love to read or debate about it.