#Shimura Mako

[bnhaobservation]

Ramblings about the Shimura family

So, one thing I noticed is how BNHA presents interesting family dynamics with a special focus to how parents deal with their children.

And where there’s an interesting dynamic I love to dig into things so let’s start.

PREMISE

For the sake of this observation I’ll assume that ‘what is not shown just never happened’ meaning that if a character is never shown doing a certain action, it just means he never did it. This might not be necessarily true, sometimes stories don’t show things because they’re of no use (the character does it but it changed nothing so it’s unnecessary to add it to the plot) but, as assuming what wasn’t shown happened would just constitute a debatable speculation, I’ll simply leave it out.

Also, if you’re solely an anime viewer, this will contain spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

With this said let’s start with the Shimura family.

In the Shimura familywe see a characteristic that’s common with the other BNHA families which are abusive, this characteristic being that the main perpetrator of the abuse is the father.

So let’s give an in deep look to Shimura Kotarou.

The interesting part about Kotarou is that he isn’t just an abuser but also a victim of abandonment. His father was killed from All for One and his mother, believing to protect him, left him in the care of a foster family when he was a small child. [Chap 95/281]

While Shimura Nana’s intentions were good, her choice is debatable (her first loyalty and duty should be to her son) and the psychological effects of it on Kotarou will be terrible as he comes to see his mother as a monster and would have preferred for her to have never loved him [Chap 235].

Victims of abandonment can react by becoming unable to form future attachments so as to avoid the pain that might come should they be abandoned again, and this is probably what happened to Kotarou, who is 32 now and is still plagued by the pain he felt for his own abandonement.

Adult Kotarou therefore is depicted as an anaffective man, he married Nao, who knows of his sad past and feels sorry for him and hosts in his home his in-law who probably feels equally sorry as well as indebted to him (as they’re living in his house) and promised them all a home full of joy [Chap 235]...

...but it’s clear he never delivered what he promised, he’s actually not even shown making an effort to deliver it in some ways beyond giving the home they live in.

We never seem a single panel of him making happy, or at least being happy with one of the members of his family, of them smiling together.

Tenko’s wish to become a hero didn’t disrupt the peace of an otherwise happy family, the family was never depicted to be happy to begin with, people just contented themselves with what they had, probably feeling they couldn’t ask for more to Kotarou and Kotarou ends up taking advantage of how people seems okay with humoring him.

The one rule Kotarou forced upon his house, “never talk about heroes”...

...and that he alone enforces, clearly exists TO PROTECT HIM AND SOLELY HIM from pain, as no one else in the family is shown having a problem with talking about heroes.

Kotarou doesn’t consciously mean to be cruel toward his family, he’s not doing this out of a wish to harm them or of a sick pleasure in seeing his kids suffer, he is a victim of abandonment and just wants to protect himself from that same agonizing pain he felt from when he was a small child, and, in his mind, it makes sense his own experience and way to feel would apply to everyone, so he sells his own rule as a rule that would protect his family as well, because to him heroes are monsters and so, by this logic, everyone would be protected by staying clear of them.

However it’s clear there are 4 adults in the house and not only he is the sole person who’s believing such thing. This alone should really make him reconsider his beliefs, if he really cared about making people in his family happy. The problem is, he actually doesn’t.

Everyone is uncomfortable when he leaves Tenko out in the garden but he’s just ‘rules are rules’ and ‘I’m doing this for Tenko’, but shows 0 care for how, due to this, Tenko will end up skipping dinner (he’s a kid of 5, eating is very important for his growth!) and, when Nao points out how Tenko’s allergies are getting worse, he expresses no concern whatsoever.

What matters to him, it’s that the rules that exist to protect him will be respected, so he’ll be safe.

He dresses up his intentions as aimed to protect his children, but the only one he selfishly cares to protect is himself.

Kotarou, in upholding his rule, is not even caring of the societal pressure that presents heroes as good, forcing on his family his personal view.

His children live in a world in which people talk about heroes, has toys about them, view them as good people. He’s actually asking them to go against society’s view of heroes when they’re kids, to be different from the rest of the children. He forces them to hide their own aspirations (Hana too wishes to be a hero but doesn’t voice it, she actually lieas about her own wishes [Chap 234])...

...or tries to squash them (Tenko is clearly more vocal about how he wants to be a hero and so he suffers the brunt of Kotarou’s anger).

In short, this means the rule he forces upon his family, doesn’t protect it but actually psychologically harms his children.

The other adults in the family, Nao and her parents, don’t seem to fully realize this.

Likely, part because they feel bad for what he went through as Kotarou is a victim and they’re sympathetic toward him, part because they’re indebted to him (as he paid for the house they live in and everything else), they humor him, apparently without too many troubles. It’s not hard for them not to talk about heroes, after all, and this cause them to buy in his excuses (what I’m doing is for Tenko’s well being, he has no quirk so if he doesn’t understand he’ll only be more miserable). Because it’s not a big deal for them to respect Kotarou’s wishes, they assume the same should apply to the kids and their support is merely aimed to encourage them to endure/dismiss the situation and their feelings about it.

They fail to notice the psychological damage Kotarou is doing to his kids and continue to enable him to damage his kids. They should notice instead, the warning signs that what Kotarou is doing isn’t good for the kids are all there.

We can see how both his children are actually scared of him, Hana to the point she keeps her wishes to herself without daring to voice them and, when caught peeking in Kotarou’s study, she’s so scared she pushes the blame on Tenko...

...and Tenko finds so distressing living in that house to the point he develops psychosomatic itching in response to feeling himself rejected and in danger.

Tenko even tries to verbalize how ‘it’s the house, he gets itchy there’ but the other adults, despite caring for the kids, don’t really seem to truly notice, or, more likely, don’t want to see.

Tenko’s family is a microcosm, it reproduces, in smaller scale, society.

Heroes and common people don’t want to see what fails to conform with their pretty vision of their society. They prefer to sweep it under the rug, to pretend Endeavour isn’t an abuser because he’s so much more useful fighting what threaten them.

In the same way Tenko’s family doesn’t want to see Kotarou is mistreating/abusing his kids, that their family is flawed, that the one who allows them to live a comfortable life because he pays the bills with his works, also selfishly cares solely to protect himself and damages his own children.

They realize Tenko is sad and try to comfort him, they try to cure what they believe is an allergy, but fail to nail the cause of his pain, fails to see he feels in danger, that he feels he needs to be saved, that he feels like the house is rejecting him, leaving him to his own devices, making him miserable.

And this works so easily because one of the problems with psychological abuse is how easy is to fail to notice it or how damaging it is or persuade themselves that what they’re witnessing is not abuse.

The scars psychological abuse leave are not visible so they can be conveniently missed.

In fact we see the adults grow concerned only when the abuse becomes physical, we can see they are uncomfortable and complain when Kotarou causes Tenko to skip dinner, and they outright rebel short after they see him beat Tenko up…

...but they don’t even seem to realize Tenko’s psychological state is being harmed to the point he developed a psychosomatic rash.

(And in a way this parallels how Deku realizes Shigaraki needs saving when he sees him being threatened by All for One… but can’t quite wrap his head around how Shigaraki needed help even before that point and was screaming in the battleground that what he was doing was because society itself lead him to that point with its constant rejection)

Also, as said before, Kotarou’s status as a victim contributes to protect Kotarou, to make him look as blameless (the way hero status helps heroes to get away with what they do).

Although Nao sees her son’s distress (but still doesn’t manage to connect the dots between the hitch and the family situation) she swallows the idea that Kotarou acts in sush way because he KNOWS and therefore he’s acting for Tenko’s well being, instead than for his own.

And mind you, Kotarou was probably genuine when he said (after slapping Tenko twice and leaving him out of the house and being confronted by the family) he didn’t want things to get that far (after all his profile confirms all he wanted was a happy family), although it was probably not for Tenko or his family’s sake but for himself.

Kotarou likely built a home hoping to find back what he lost when his mother left him, his own happiness and security but, due to the psychological damage he received from it, he wasn’t capable to create a happy, joyous family, a safe environment that could fill the hole his mother left inside him because he can’t connect with his family nor truly care for them. He’s too busy protecting his own old wounds.

As a result, his family becomes a mean to an end he can’t reach (finding happiness and safety), it exists to serve to that purpose and he can’t accept his children wouldn’t conform to this and give him distress instead.

The most obvious example we have of this is when Tenko ends up losing control of his quirk.

Although Nao is scared and she’s dying due to Tenko’s quirk having hit her too, after a second of hesitation she still opens her arms and still tries to embrace her son, to comfort him, to save him from the desperation he was feeling...

...where in Kotarou’s case, despite him not even having been harmed, his instinctive first reaction is to try to protect himself by trying to keep Tenko at distance, to swat him away, hitting him with the first thing he finds, a garden instrument.

Kotarou’s first reaction isn’t to protect his son, to save him from pain, he wants to STOP TENKO from harming him, he wants to protect and save himself, with the result that, according to what we’re shown, Tenko deliberately kills him or comes to think he has deliberately killed him (I’m not sure the narration is 100% objective, previously Shigaraki claimed he hated everyone but the visual seems to imply Tenko didn’t want to kill his mother and the story overall didn’t show him as hating his mother, Hana or his grandparents, so it’s entirely possible Shigaraki is now feeding himself a narrative in which young Tenko was in control and did it out of hate still to protect himself from the pain of having murdered his family by mistake and out of fear… and also because All for one did his best to groom him to hate things).

(And again this parallels how the heroes, who shouldn’t kill, all feel perfectly justified in the idea they should kill what threatens them, be it Twice or Shigaraki)

In a way what makes it terribly ironic is that the ‘symbol of fear’ is nothing else but a very scared little boy himself, someone who nobody saved, the living representation of ‘All Might wasn’t here (to save him)’… and at the very same way that little boy who used to play with Mikkun and Tomo because no one wanted to play with them, is the young man who collects around himself people rejected by society (aka the league of villains) and plays with them videogames, wants their dreams to become reality and even sends Machia to retrieve them when they’re parted.

Ultimately, although a lot of Tenko’s issues come from having been groomed by All for One and from the trauma of seeing his quirk kill his family as well as not receiving help by passing people, the harm done to him by the abuse he suffered at home at Kotarou’s hands, is still equally visible and is the groundwork for All for One’s manipulation.

Even without the trauma due to his quirk and All for One getting involved, Tenko was a child showing signs of deep distress (Tenko scratches so much he basically ruins his skin and the itch is clearly a psychosomatic manifestation of his psychological distress) and, very likely, they would have plagued him even if he’d been allowed to grow up in his family. Actually, considering it’s implied his father’s abuse was escalating, they would have only gotten worse.

On a sidenote it can be that Tenko/Shigaraki can currently see that his father was a victim as well.

He quotes his father’s words “Heroes hurt their own families just to help complete strangers,” and claims to hate his grandmother even if he clearly couldn’t expect help from her as she was deceased. Kotarou informed him she was a monster who abandoned him so it can be Tenko/Shigaraki could see the causality of all it. Because Shimura Nana left Kotarou, Kotarou abused his two children and this in turn triggered Tenko’s loss of control over his quirk and the murder of his own family as well as his descent into becoming a villain who’s now threatening the whole Japan. As Shigaraki said, it added up, little by little.

By the way, in case I hadn’t stressed it enough, Kotarou being a victim doesn’t excuse what he did to his kids, no, not even if Tenko/Shigaraki himself can understand Kotarou was, but the idea that Tenko/Shigaraki could see the progression even in his family’s history makes for an interesting food for thoughts.

Tenko, after all, despite everything he went through and what he’s doing has, differently from Kotarou, shown more humanity.

He’s not a completely anaffective person, he showed worry for his master (before All for One tried to take him over), he cares for the league and doesn’t try to force them to do things that make him feel better. It’s little things but, for example, he remembers how the league wanted to eat Sushi and asks for it or accepts it when Dabi doesn’t want to tame Machia or doesn’t get angry when, Himeko, Twice or Spinner question him but explains himself the best he can, how he sends Machia to protect them and seems to want them to have a future in which THEY can be happy.

The league became an environment which accepts people, instead of making them feel rejected as Tenko felt rejected by his own home.

And despite everyone claiming he destroys things for the fun of it, we see that’s not quite the case. Although he claimed that, by killing Kotarou, he finally put a end to the itch (because he finally put a end to the distressing feelings his father summoned), we see him not much later racked with guilt (he’s again scratching himself as he walks).

Tenko/Shigaraki ‘s trauma due to his father’s mistreatment was never healed and got only worsened by All for one who capitalized on how Tenko came to think that, in order to find relief from what haunts him, his only way was to destroy it. Yet Tenko/Shigaraki knows this is not a fix all solution, he believes deep down that the weight in his heart will never go away but he believes all he knows is how to destroy things. He doesn’t want a future for himself (which in a way hints at how he’s suicidal too), however he cares for the guys in the league and wants them to have a chance to live how they see fit, to have all they want to have.

So, although Tenko is a victim like Kotarou, he tries to take care of his newfound family and this makes me hope that where Kotarou was ultimately what triggered his own family to be destroyed, Tenko will, instead, be the one who’ll manage to protect it as, in a way, his intentions are the opposite to what his father claimed the heroes are. If heroes are people who hurt their own families only to help complete strangers, Tenko/Shigaraki hurts complete strangers to help his found family.

It’s probably no coincidence Tenko/Shigaraki looks like Shimura Nana, down to having the same mole she had.

Now, the ideal outcome of the story would be that those two positions were to be reconciled into a ‘let’s hurt no one and help everyone’ because, if we accept the parallel family/society, saving your family saves society and saving society save your family.

After all the league members became a threat to society because their families didn’t save them, if their families had properly taken care of them they wouldn’t have ended up in such situation… but at the same time if they continue to care solely for their own little group at the expense of society, society will continue to try to destroy them in a vicious circle where no one gains something and everyone loses.

“One for all, all for one” should be a single unit after all, a single philosophy, a single person should be protecting society and society should be protecting the single person… but at the moment no one seem to fully have realized this in the story so we can only wait and see.

[magicianenthusiast]

Alive Shimura family au

kotaro and the grandpa are still alive btw I just didn’t feel like drawing them

[ao3feed-izuku-midoriya]

5 Gone, 2 Left

5 Gone, 2 Left by artist wh0re

It was an accident. It wasn't on purpose. Well, maybe his father was, but Mom, Grandma, Grandpa and Hana, they weren't.

And with them gone, he has to find some way to help Izuku, he's only a baby, he can't fend for himself, not in an empty house like that. But he's too scared to touch him after what happened.

Words: 1497, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Shimura Kotarou, Mako | Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko's Grandmother, Chizuo | Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko's Grandfather, Shimura Nao

Additional Tags: Brothers, Midoriya Izuku & Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko Are Siblings, Child Shimura Tenko, Baby Midoriya Izuku, Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko Needs a Hug, Shigaraki kills his family, but Mido's safe cuz he's asleep in the house, Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko is Not a Villain, Yagi Toshinori | All Might Adopts Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Yagi Toshinori | All Might Adopts Midoriya Izuku

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43179348

[aarcanevillains]

Encoded Chronicles: Characters

Masterlist

Meet the Cast of Ashes Between Us

Phoenix

Name: Touya Todoroki

Alias: Phoenix

Quirk: Blue flame

Age / DOB: 23-24 / January 18

Looks: Link | Link | Extra

Family: Enji Todoroki, Rei Todoroki, Fyumi Todoroki, Natsuo Todoroki, Shoto Todoroki

Height: 176cm (5’9”)

Genesis

Name: Yoru Shimura

Alias: Genesis

Quirk: Float and Decay

~ She can suspend herself in the air ~ She has a five-point touch quirk that decays whatever she touches- unlike Tenko/Tomura however, she can undo some of the damage she causes

Age / D.O.B: 23-24 / August 2

Looks: Link

Family: Nao Magi-Tsukauchi, Naomasa Tsukauchi (stepfather), Hana Shimura, Tenko Shimura, Mako Magi, Chizuo Magi, Nana Shimura, Kotaro Shimura (deceased)

Height: 167cm (5'6")

Omen

Name: Eto Midoriya

Alias: Omen

Quirk: Copy

~Can permanently copy quirks par mutation types, it is unknown why she had this quirk as DNA suggests she is biologically Inko and Hisashi's

~She cannot take quirks, but she can disregard quirks from her arsenal that she deems unsuitable for herself

Age / D.O.B: 21 / October 31

Looks: Link

Family: Inko Midoriya, Izuku Midoriya, Izumi Midoriya and Hisashi Midoriya

Height: 170cm (5'7")

Jackal

Name: Izumi Midoriya

Alias: Jackal

Quirk: Telekinesis

~ Unlike their mother her telekinesis has a much broader and stronger spectrum

~ Though she starts as a general student a surprise transfer and her twin's excitement leads her to enjoy this new career path

Age / D.O.B: 16 / July 15

Looks: Link

Family: Inko Midoriya, Izuku Midoriya (twin), Eto Midoriya and Hisashi Midoriya

Height: 166cm (5'5")

[maximumfonzarelli]

6 fanarts challenge (requested characters)

[helga-grinduil]

Shimura Tenko: Origin [part 1]

[wrongmha]

If we couldn't carry our dead inside us, we would be empty.

Source: A Softer World

[remcadll]

Nothing like a look at Shigaraki's family status to get nice and sad

[anime-to-the-t]

[lyrick-buffpuff]

I have resumed Flufftober!

Thank you for being patient with me. I am returning with more fics, and hopefully I can expect to catch up over the weekend; if I am undisturbed. 

Day8: Unwavering 

A Nao centric fic. 

Nao’s parents try talking her out of her choice. 

The lovely @dubliinwaltz​ beta’d this work. Tysm bb. You can check out her works here! 

Also another box off the good old bingo board

@badthingshappenbingo​ @flufftober​ 

[quiixs]

“No nos olvides”

[flamingeyes]

Intriguing.

I want the memory of Twice and Magne and Nao and Hana and his grandparents to hug Tomura in his head before they let go so he can go back to the living world.

I want them to hug him, holding his hands. The hands pushing him forward instead of holding him back.

And I want him to stand into the living world, a nostalgic smile and tears fill of joy in his eyes. He's ready to be the hero his father and AFO never let him be. He's ready to save everyone, save his friends, save himself.

And then he's ready to pay for what he did and keep living afterwards to see the world he promise the League, a better world.

[itsnothingofinterest]

You know what, I’m gonna do something fun. You remember that theory I had about AFO stealing the Shimuras quirks and those quirks & corresponding vestiges being in Tomura? Well I’m thinking I’m gonna take a crack at guessing what those quirks could be (/making up whatever sounds cool & might work because there’s not much to build off of), under the assumption that Tomura will get and use them like Deku and the OFA vestige quirks. Because I’ve grown really attached to this theory*.

Kotaro Shimura:

Starting off is everyone’s...at least 2nd least hated abusive parental figure of MHA and Nana’s son; Kotaro.

My guess for him is one I had since his last appearance alive, when a pair of hedge trimmers seemed like they flew to his hand to help him strike his son. Not that that’s how it happened in the anime, but I’m still attached to the idea regardless. I think he had a form of Psychokinesis, similar to Inko Midoriya (if you’d like, feel free to insert an Inko Shimura theory here). It seems a natural child quirk to Float, and would be useful to Tomura.

A telepathy quirk would, for example, allow Tomura to fight at range in a way he (and most of his allies) otherwise can’t; which opponents have tried to use against him in the past.

Chizuo:

Now, because of that fact that quirks build of their parent quirks, we’re gonna be a bit unconventional and do the grandparents next and move down the family tree; starting with the father-in-law because his cooking gives him one (1) actual character trait to base some assumptions off of. So I’m only mostly making something up from thin air.

Of course it probably wouldn’t be anything too impressive, being a civilian, so I’m gonna go with something really basic but potentially useful. Namely, a heightened sense of taste and smell that allowed him to become a fairly decent cook in life; mostly for his family.

Still as I said, basic can be useful, and a heightened sense of small could provide Shigaraki numerous advantages like it does Gigantomachia; such as tracking opponents or sniffing out traps.

Mako:

The grandmother, and sadly the one who we know the least about and has no parents I can speculate on; meaning I’m just making something up from scratch. If there’s anything to build on, it’s that she was a caring person, and I kinda get the impression she was the bread-winner of the pair back in her day. Hmm...

How’s about a Magic Hand quirk. Like the DnD cantrip. The ability to conjure some energy hands for when you need an extra pair or some extra reach. ...It’s the best I got.

Now Magic Hand might not seem too useful for Tomura; what with them likely to not be able to kill people or steal quirks like his normal hands, and also he can conjure all the hands he wants now. But idk, I think a pair of ghostly grabbers could prove useful.

Nao Shimura:

The penultimate family memeber; it’s time for Tenko’s kinder parent, Nao Shimura. Sadly, she is also someone without much of a developed personality outside her familial role to take power ideas from; but we did just came up with ideas for her parents to combine & build off of. Better than nothing.

Magic Hand & Enhanced Taste shall combine to form Body Double. The idea is that she conjures up an assistant made from a mist she exhales to, like her mom’s quirk, act as an extra pair of hands. Except it’s better because it’s a whole body. Still relatively short range though, if just to give room for her daughter.

This would be useful to Tomura as a distraction and something to take a hit for him when he’s in danger. Because it feels fitting for his mother’s quirk to be the one to best protect his life. (especially since I keep theorizing he’ll give Regen to Dabi.)

Hana Shimura:

Last but only technically least, one of the first Shimuras we ever saw, and the one I assume has the best quirk after Decay in the Shimura family since she had ambitions of being a hero; it’s Hana’s turn.

Factoring that with her free spirit, and combining Psychokinesis with Body Double, I’m guessing she had an Astral Projection quirk. The ability to create a solid double of herself which can be remote controlled. Unlike her mother’s quirk, which was more like an extra set of limbs, Astral Projection allows the user to see and hear through it and use it from any distance; and had Hana grown proficient with it, she even would have been able to change it’s shape in a variety of useful ways.

When combined with the AFO quirk in Tomura’s hands though, it allows for an even greater application. As by allowing a quirk vestige to inhabit the Astral Projection; Tomura could effectively bring back to life anyone who’s quirk was stolen, including anyone in his family. With enough control, perhaps his entire family! Now the catch is that any Projection may not be able to use their own quirk, as that would still be in Tomura’s body. But since the form could shape shift, the vestige may be able to replicate their quirk by simply shaping their body the way it should do with their quirk.

Such an awesome ability would surely become one of Tomura’s headliner powers, thus making the duo they always wanted to be...probably minus the ‘hero’ part, depending on when all this happens. (And honestly I don’t think he could ever be a hero with how the word has been soured for him.) But the important part is, they’d be working together. And with the rest of the family to boot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Incidentally, because I am so attached t this theory, I happily welcome others to share their own ideas for the Shimuras’ quirks if you have any and are interested in sharing (which I presume you are if you’ve read this far into this theory post).

[chaossery]

Since some people seem to think that you have to be on the same level as All For One or Endeavor to be considered an abusive parent, here are a few little reminders of why Kotaro Shimura is not just “a little strict, but apart from that not all that bad of a father”:

-          He has locked his five-year-old son out of the house for what appears to be hours, even going so far as to refuse to let him in for dinner unless Tenko would apologize for inconveniencing other people with his hero games. And knowing Kotaro, the punishment is less for troubling some guy with a trilby and more for playing hero. (Keep in mind that at that time the whole family thought Tenko had some sort of allergy no one knew the cause of. Therefore, by locking him outside, anyway, Kotaro has placed his rules above his son’s health.)  

-          His daughter, who seems to be no older than six or seven, is so scared of being punished for sneaking into his study and looking at a photo of her grandma, which Kotaro is hiding in a drawer, that she burst into tears putting all the blame on her younger brother when her father confronted her. (Remember that up to this point Hana had always been incredibly sweet to Tenko and the only member of the Shimura family to unconditionally support his dream of becoming a hero. Thus, what this incident tells us isn’t that Hana is some kind of notorious snitch having no qualms about throwing even her beloved younger brother under the bus, if it fits her agenda or something like that, but rather how Hana is so extremely scared of her father that she would even resort to falsely accusing Tenko of a “misdeed” committed by herself just to escape her father’s punishment.

-          Thinking that it was Tenko who snuck into his study, Kotaro slapped him in the face hard enough to send Tenko right off his feet. And instead of immediately showing regret for this act of violence against his five-year-old son like many detractors are claiming, it is heavily implied that he hit his child yet again:

After that, he left his completely distraught son behind in the garden (maybe even locking him out of the house again, right after having gone berserk like that a moment ago) to retreat into his study, needing to sulk a little by himself.

Furthermore, we can once again assume that Tenko, after everything that had just occurred, has been on his own outside for quite some time since Kotaro’s violent outburst was shown to happen at sunset, yet when Hana came outside to apologize, it was already entirely dark. This means that apparently the first member of the Shimura family who deemed it appropriate to go and comfort Tenko after everything, that had happened, was Hana who happens to be a little child herself.

Meanwhile, the three remaining adults in the Shimura household were seemingly only able to oppose Kotaro, if all three of them were doing it together. (Not exactly their proudest moment, either. Though that scene might also be an indication that even his wife and in-laws are somewhat scared of Kotaro.)

-          Last but not least, the last thing Kotaro did before dying by his son’s hands was, yet again, hitting his, at this point, completely frightened and traumatized child – this time with a weed whacker.

Of course, one could argue that this time, Kotaro was really only trying to save his own life from his son’s deadly powers. However, even if Kotaro’s fear-driven last act in life is somewhat understandable, when compared to his wife Nao’s last action before her demise – reaching out and trying to hug and comfort her son – it paints a rather unpleasant picture of a Kotaro as a father.

Nao was willing to give up her own life to comfort her child. Kotaro, on the other hand, was willing to hurt his child for the umpteenth time to presumably save his own skin.    

 This last act of Kotaro’s also really makes me doubt whether, after being confronted by Nao, Mako, and Chizuo, he would truly and, above all, permanently have changed his ways. I mean, if Horikoshi really wanted to imply Kotaro letting go of his abusive behavior and actually becoming a better father to Hana and especially Tenko, then why didn’t he show Kotaro (finally) giving in to his fatherly instincts, reaching out to Tenko, when he needed it the most, and trying to help him the same way his wife did.

Instead, Kotaro died the way he lived: hurting his child. So, I think the implication here is that, in the end, even if he hadn’t died on that faithful day, sooner or later, Kotaro would have started to abuse Tenko again. If he had survived, he might have tried to be a better father for some time. But ultimately, he would have probably resorted to hurting his children, again at some point.

What might have actually ended this cycle of violence and abuse would have been Nao leaving with her children and her parents, and divorcing Kotaro.

But then again, Nao would have been in a really bad position to actually go through with a divorce as Kotaro appeared to be the sole breadwinner of the Shimura household. (Thus, Nao was more or less in the same situation as Rei Todoroki if you think about it.)  

And so, in the end, Nao might have ended up on the street with two small children and her elderly parents to take care of; without a job and maybe even without a home. Furthermore, under these circumstances, I think, it would have been rather unlikely for Nao to maintain custody of Tenko and Hana.

At the end of the day, even if Tenko’s quirk hadn’t activated in the worst way possible with his entire family dying, I don’t think Tenko’s life would have improved all that much. The story of the Shimura family was headed for a tragic ending, either way.

The only way to truly prevent tragedy from befalling that family would have been for heroes or society, in general, to somehow intervene. But as we’ve all seen with the Todoroki family, neither heroes nor society in the world of BNHA have the best track record when it comes to actually stopping people like Kotaro and Endeavor from further harming their families, and holding them accountable for their abuse.

[mahounomanga]

Mahou no Ruby-chan

Today we're looking at the third in a trio of magical girl manga created by Midori Shimura. For context on what these are and who created them, please refer to my posts on the first two.

Mahou no Ruby-chan ran for a total of six chapters in Shogaku Ichinensei from the April 1973 issue to the September 1973 issue. With a run of only six months in a magazine for first graders, it should come as no surprise that this series hasn't left much of a mark. What's unfortunate; however, is that I haven't found much of anything else about the manga itself, like, at all. I haven't dug up any plot details, and I couldn't even find a single picture of the main character.

And if Mahou no Ruby-chan were just a manga, the story would more or less end here on a dour note. But like Mahou no Enzeru-chan, this little series got merch. More specifically, a brief audio drama of Mahou no Ruby-chan was released on a vinyl record, and the kind folks at Ric Mania have uploaded the whole thing on YouTube.

My Japanese listening comprehension is rather poor, so take this with a grain of salt, but what I can glean from this is that Ruby-chan is a tiny, energetic witch from a magical forest in a magical country on a magical star. She lives with her mother and father, as well as her nanny (who is a black cat if I'm understanding correctly). Ruby is friends with the animals of the forest and she uses her magic to try to help her family, but at times these efforts backfire and hijinks ensue. She befriends a boy named Goro who she tells about her magic, and naturally he ends up getting roped into her shenanigans as well.

Two things about all of this are interesting to me in relation to contemporaneous magical girl anime. One is that Ruby casts spells with a tongue-twisting magical catchphrase that I'm not even going to try to transcribe. These were quite common among magical girls of old, such as Sally the Witch, Himitsu no Akko-chan, and Chappy the Witch. They would even show up in slightly later witchy magical girl shows like Ojamajo Doremi, while magical girl warriors a la Pretty Moon have historically favored English word salad for their incantations.

The other noteworthy detail about the audio version specifically is the cast. Most of the voice actors here have also done voice work in a handful of magical girl anime. The narrator is Yoshiko Ohta a.k.a. the original voice of Atsuko Kagami in Himitsu no Akko-chan and the voice of Akko's mother in the 80s reboot. Ruby herself is voiced by Yoneko Matsukane whose only other magical girl involvement appears to be a bit part in episode 6 of Cutie Honey. The cast also features a number of Mahou no Mako-chan alumni, with Hiroko Maruyama, Akira Kamiya, and Isao Sakuma (who voiced Taro, Senkichi, and Akira respectively in Mako-chan) voicing the nanny, Goro, and Ruby's papa respectively in Ruby-chan. Nearest I can tell, the only other magical girl project Sakuma has been involved in was Esper Mami, where he voiced a couple of bit parts. Maruyama and Kamiya on the other hand are MVPs of classic magical girl anime. Hiroko Maruyama played supporting roles in Himitsu no Akko-chan, Majokko Megu-chan, Pastel Yumi, Sweet Mint, and Hana no Mahoutsukai Mary Bell. Akira Kamiya has a couple small roles in magical girl anime of the 70s, as Jun in Miracle Girl Limit-chan and Kinsaburo in Majokko Tickle, but his most notable roles in the genre wouldn't come until the 1990s. This man is the voice of Professor Tomoe in Sailor Moon S (i.e. Sailor Moon's most popular season) and Professor Kisaragi in the 1997 shoujo reboot of Cutie Honey, titled Cutey Honey F. And as if that wasn't enough, he's also a famous voice actor just in general, with his best known role being Kenshiro in Fist of the North Star.

Getting back to the manga side of things (inasmuch as it's possible to do so), Mahou no Ruby-chan would be Midori Shimura's third magical girl manga, but it would not be her last, as she was also tasked with adapting Limit-chan and Megu-chan to manga. Shimura's career as a mangaka was brief, lasting only from 1971 to 1975. In that time, she penned 11 manga, FIVE of which were magical girl. That is the highest ratio of magical girl titles to non-magical-girl titles we'll see on Mahou no Manga for quite some time, possibly ever.

At the risk of getting too sentimental, researching Midori Shimura's work and her contributions to the magical girl genre have really put into perspective why I'm doing this project in the first place. It would be fun to give my two cents on magical girl stuff people already know and like, but it ultimately feels more worthwhile to excavate the ones people probably don't know about, even if I don't always feel like the most qualified person to do it. I can only hope to give Chalk-chan, Enzeru-chan, Ruby-chan, and others like them a fraction of the recognition they deserve.

[helga-grinduil]

Shimura Tenko: Origin [part 2]