#Niihara Taisuke

[itagakimizuki]

25 JI AKASAKA DE (2024) 1.06

[divineandmajesticinone]

25 Ji, Akasaka de (2024) I 1.04 "Wanna rehearse our kiss scene?"

[gabrielokun]

[itsallaboutbl]

I don't wanna give you to anyone.

[lovetune]

PERFUME COSMIC TREAT (2024) dir. Tanaka Yusuke

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Hayama's mask finally slips

The opening scene of 25 ji Akasaka de really messed me up! Now I'm processing it here in writing, and you can follow along if you want. I'm mostly trying to make sense of the way Hayama's usual cool guy mask slipped in favor of some wildly disparate kinds of affect.

This and all other gifs are by @my-rose-tinted-glasses. (Thank you!)

There's one thing that struck me right away in the opening scene of episode 9 that picks up from that moment. Instead of being so overcome by strong emotions that they get past his "shell" and get expressed in spite of his repressive habits, it's apparent that at least some of the time, being overcome by strong emotions actually makes Hayama's affect (his expression of emotion in his face, voice, etc.) even lower. (For an explanation of the affect terms I'm using here, check out the first section of this post about The Eighth Sense that I wrote a while back.) I'd say that Hayama's affect is normally restricted. It's not completely absent, but when difficult things come up, it's lower than one would expect to the point of seeming inappropriate to the situation. It's really unusual outside of clinical settings to see someone with blunted affect, which is one step less expressive that restricted affect, much less flat affect, which is a total absence of it. Well, it says a lot that Hayama's affect is definitely at least blunted here.

In fact, Hayama's face freezes up repeatedly throughout the episode 9 opening scene. The first time it happens is immediately after Shirasaki asks him to sleep with him. From that point until the end of the scene, Hayama's affect has the following settings:

frozen - face completely motionless and numb, sometimes with a kind of slackness to it, often with eyes glazed over or appearing unfocused; approaching flat affect

activated - blinking, swallowing hard, eyes darting about, jaw muscles subtly going bonkers, holding back tears

obviously fake detachment - an approximation of his usual social persona--a super calm, cool guy who reacts to anything and everything with a slight smile--only really strained in a way that makes it clear (if you're actually paying attention) that he's actually hanging on by a thread

drowning his sorrows in pure horniness

Once Shirasaki propositions him, Hayama's most frequent response is numbness. After it first comes over him, he manages to recover and goes into fake detachment mode. He does his little smile and says Shirasaki is just drunk and tries to excuse himself. When Shirasaki comes after him and hugs him from behind, he gets activated enough to show emotion, seemingly because Shirasaki can't see him when they're positioned that way. He closes his eyes, takes a breath, and sets his jaw, like he's trying hard to compose himself.

He tries to shrug Shirasaki off. In the process, he turns his head to the side, seemingly about to try to return to cool guy mode and make the kind of comment you'd expect from a cool guy. But Shirasaki hugs him in the same way a second time, surprising him and causing him to pause in that position where his face is visible. His face freezes up again, seemingly because Shirasaki can see it now.

When Shirasaki asks again, Hayama turns around to face him, still frozen. He needs a moment before he can look Shirasaki in the eye. It's as if he's trying to look at Shirasaki but his eyes aren't responding. They're more glazed over than ever. When he asks, "What does that...mean?" his speech is so halting that seems like forming sentences isn't coming easily. He may even be experiencing some psychomotor slowing at this point.

But by saying this, he's still handling this situation better than he has similar ones in the past. He's being a little bit direct, at least. Shirasaki may not understand how he feels from this question but by asking it, he's at least making some space for the possibility that Shirasaki will say it's not just about acting this time.

That's when Shirasaki really fucks up. "To get into character," he says. Hayama freezes again, and his eyes go all glassy. Shirasaki continues, reminding Hayama that he said he'd help him and talking about how he's nervous about doing an intimate scene. He's appealing to Hayama's obligations to him and his desire to help and protect him.

It works, sort of. Hayama thaws out enough to say, "Is that so?' and seems to be moving toward relenting. At that point, he shows more emotion than he has in this whole exchange so far, more than he ever has when he and Shirasaki are together (and not acting). This is the most emotionally activated he gets during the scene. He blinks rapidly, his eyes dart around (a more animated version of avoiding eye contact and a sign that he's thinking rapidly), the muscles in his jaw tense up, he swallows, hard, and his voice when he says "Is that so?" has a husky edge to it. In other words, he's fighting back tears. When Shirasaki says yes, there's even more blinking and swallowing.

This is an obvious point at which this uncharacteristic display of emotion should have caught Shirasaki's attention, if he wasn't too far up his own ass to notice.

When Shirasaki drags Hayama across his apartment by the arm, swings him onto the bed, and climbs on top of him, he freezes again. Even when Shirasaki asks directly if he'll do it with him, he stays motionless and silent. Even his eyes don't move and he almost seems to have stopped blinking.

Shirasaki takes some unaccustomed initiative here. He says the same thing to Hayama that Hayama said to him in the gay bar in the first episode, only with an added "please": "If you don't like it, please let me know." Then he leans down to kiss him.

When Shirasaki pulls back and looks at Hayama after that kiss, he notices his bland expression and the fact that his eyes have remained open the entire time. He finally starts to attend to the signals Shirasaki is giving off. (It's not a coincidence that he's more observant when he's looking for signs of rejection, which he seems to expect.) But when Shirasaki sits up, starting to back away, Hayama seems to thaw out, probably out of pure desperation. He swallows hard again, blinks, then grabs Shirasaki's wrist and pulls him back toward him. When Shirasaki initiates another kiss, Hayama kisses him back this time and reaches for him with his hands. And then they're kissing, shirts are coming off, they're moving together, and the physical part of intimacy, at least, gains its own momentum. Hayama is blocking everything else out and just letting desire take over.

Until Shirasaki reaches for Hayama's belt buckle. Then Hayama seems to surprise even himself when his hand clamps onto Shirasaki's and stops him. (I have things to say about this but that'll have to wait for another post.)

Hayama's too overcome to really explain, but as soon as he says he can't continue, Shirasaki is so embarrassed that he rushes to apologize and blames his behavior on alcohol. Hayama isn't able to make eye contact with Shirasaki after that, and he leaves in a huge hurry, rushing away in such an uncharacteristic manner that it really ought to have attracted Shirasaki's attention.

Just like that moment when Hayama was choking back tears. Just like his frozen affect at other times. It was all very out of character for Hayama. It all should have caught Shirasaki's attention--if he was paying attention and not too wrapped up in his own bullshit.

Basically, after blanketing all of his emotions for nearly his entire life, Hayama found someone who touched him in an authentic way that no one else ever had and brought out a kind of vulnerability in him that he hadn't experienced since, well, probably relating to his mom as a child. And then that person was too oblivious to realize he was basically subjecting him to a form of torture by trying to pressure him into sex (let's call it what it is) while pretending it meant nothing to him. It's no wonder Hayama stopped functioning. He's probably mildly dissociating.

Shirasaki has his reasons. But like @my-rose-tinted-glasses said --after this, if Shirasaki also sneaks out of Hayama's place at the crack of dawn and just leaves him there without telling him how he feels, as it seems from the preview, he'd better run to him before the end of the finale. If he doesn't, well, I hope Komagine Kiita's half-robot tokusatsu boyfriend tracks him down and makes him pay.

Well, I'm definitely not done processing, so you might be seeing more posts about this episode.

[zhaozi]

They are the cutest!!!🥰😘🤩

[conscbgb]

Their hugs...I LOVED THEIR HUGS

[dramalove247]

Favorite Things:

At 25:00 in Akasaka

We loved this series SO MUCH! This easily became one of our favorite series we have watched. We found the writing so good and loved the characters and story they created. This series was beautiful and deep and we can't say enough about it.

Plus, it's super fun to watch a series about making a series!

❤ Here's some of our favorite posts about this series (spoilers ahead)

We could not agree with @ginnymoonbeam more! This was so well done and why we can love the character so much. It was fun to watch him grow through the series. And even when the misunderstandings were painful, they felt real.

I loved this element of the story. Great post by @heretherebedork

This scene was everything. The relief they both felt... ❤❤❤ Thanks for the amazing GIFS @wanderlust-in-my-soul

Really appreciate these translations by @colourme-feral. Especially during their sex scene where Shirasaki says "I like it"... the version I watched said "I love you". Understanding that there is no subject to the "like" is really interesting with the earlier scenes where they both said to tell them if they didn't like something.

This post by @emotionallychargedtowel was so good! This scene gutted me. The pain they are both feeling is wild. But I can't be mad at Shirasaki for hurting Hayama because he couldn't see past his assumptions and own desperation and pain. Ugh... so many feels... but I love it so much!

Shared post by @colourme-feral and @my-rose-tinted-glasse. This scene is another one that had so much weight and pain. When that door closed... 😭

This excellent post by @emotionallychargedtowel explains to much about why we are obsessed with these characters and this series! ❤

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

At 25:00 in Akasaka Episode 1

[a--hot--chocolate]

at 25:00, in Akasaka ep.9

[itagakimizuki]

25 JI AKASAKA DE (2024) 1.04

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

Original title: 25 Ji, Akasaka de | 25時、赤坂で.

[gabrielokun]

[itsallaboutbl]

Shall we rehearse?

[t-u-i-t-c]

Kiita Komagine & Taisuke Niihara │ LANDOER │ 5.26.24