#character: yasu

[knoxs2nd]

yasu names the greatest source of her suffering and her own personal failure as the inability to change and thus being forever stuck in her circumstances

but! this inability to change an outcome is the source of beatrice's endless magic and what makes her such a powerful witch

shannon and kanon's struggles against beatrice, their struggles against their roles as "furniture" preventing them from achieving human happiness, are about achieving change and how this relates to one's own humanity

shannon and kanon's goals are both related to change, but as per usual for our furniture foils, they strive for different types of change to make them "human"

shannon strives for external change: marrying george, leaving the island, having a family, etc. her own version of happiness is changing her circumstances. meanwhile, she still retains her internal beliefs that she's furniture using magic (see: proposal in ep 1, date in ep2)

kanon, however, strives for internal change: seeing himself as human rather than furniture with a future. his own version of happiness is believing himself to be human with all the possibilities it entails. meanwhile, kanon's envisioned future for himself in ep6 involves staying on rokkenjima as the family's furniture

the 1000-year old beatrice, whose endless magic can always only result in one outcome, doesn't want for change. in fact, her age and training as the endless witch earns her respect and she should be revered. meanwhile, shannon and kanon are upstart furniture/children

so, beatrice resists change. she carries out the epitaph because the sequence of events have already been pre-determined by fate. she's... in a bird cage, or in a dead-end of fate - whichever metaphor you want to use from the series for her situation.

beatrice is the witch who will be acknowledged as such, while shannon and kanon are furniture who want to become human. but even though beatrice is framed against shannon/kanon as inhuman, her version of happiness is having her heart understood, a human's greatest wish.

beatrice wants to be loved and understood while being antithetical to the change inherent to shannon/kanon's characters

all of these - wanting to be loved, having to change both internally and externally - are all parts of being human

so then, why is beatrice so powerful compared to shannon and kanon? why is foregone that of course beatrice wins, and shannon/kanon are fighting a hopeless battle?

beatrice is someone born from yasu's first childhood love for battler and as the culprit/witch that she first began playing at as a child

beatrice triumphing over shannon and kanon, to me, reads as yasu valuing and believing in the possibility of being understood, accepted, and loved as she was in the past, rather than who she could be in the future.

(of course, yasu believed that she can't achieve this change in the first place. the series keeps framing shannon and kanon as fighting against their fate! but beyond the series itself, fixating on the past and feeling unable to change is a trauma response

...and well, yasu is suicidal. she's suicidal because nothing can change. because nothing can change, she should die. but in her heart of hearts, at least, she can still wish for a miracle to come true, and to be understood)

going back to change and humanity - in the context of the catbox, shannon, kanon, and beatrice all accomplish their goals and achieve their happy endings. shannon and kanon fight for change and become human, while battler grants beatrice's human wish by understanding her heart

but outside of the catbox, for beatrice on the boat, and for ange, the question becomes: how does one live meaningfully as a human?

when battler asked beatrice to change, assuring her of his love and support, she told him she couldn't. she couldn't change her circumstances and leave rokkenjima physically, and she couldn't change herself, as she would always be the sinful witch.

battler knows that beatrice doesn't feel like she can change, but he also believes that what she really needs, and what he will give her, is love and time

beatrice accomplishes her human goal of being loved and understood until the end, but while inside of the endless catbox it's a fairytale ending, outside of the catbox it's a tragedy, because she doesn't do the most important thing, what battler wanted her to do, and live.

now, ange, when she has her family in her heart supporting her, fights for and accomplishes the miracle of both internal and external change: she becomes kotobuki yukari. and, most importantly, she does this by looking to the future and resolving to live

to be human means to want to love, to want to be loved in return, and to change. and...to be human means to live and have a future

[atticmichaelangelo]

Nana Komatsu, the fear of loneliness, and the perfect tragedy of her story

Within the Nana fandom, it is a widely acknowledged fact that Nana Komatsu ( who I will be calling Hachi for convenience) is written and portrayed as a clingy and needy character. Naturally, the effect that such a personality has on the viewers varies, with some enjoying and even empathising with Hachi, while others feel less inclined to such character archetypes, or even real life people, for a plethora of different reasons.

However, I believe that while this aspect of her personality is often highlighted, it plays a much deeper narrative role than it is given credit for. What may initially have seemed like a benign and overused personality trait — Hachi’s need for connection — actually plays a much larger role in shaping the course of her life, and understanding her relationship with loneliness and attachment allows for a greater understanding of her decisions within the anime and manga ( understanding not justification)

To do this we must examine how Ai Yazawa chooses to present Hachi to us, the viewers, in the first few episodes / chapters, and why. Hachi from the get go is depicted to be boy crazy - a girl with her head in the clouds. Someone who is quick to endear herself to others, and even quicker to idolise them - she is a character that wholeheartedly indulges in and thrives off love and attention, even if it is at the expense of her own wishes and dignity (will elaborate). We follow Hachi through her intense attachments - from her art teacher, to the pizza delivery boy, to the guy in the shop, to Asano. Out of all these attachments, we think we can see a recurring theme - they are all of romantic nature, and showcase Hachis constant search and desire to be loved. And yet there is a character whose interactions with Hachi are even more telling of Hachi’s priorities, and which I think is often undermined in the fandom due to the focus of Hachi's romantic pursuits, yet crucial to the foreshadowing and understanding of Hachi’s character and story.

Junko. We see a bond established between them right at the beginning of the anime/manga, while we're still getting to know Hachi, which serves as a key foundation for her characterisation. Hachi follows Junko to art school simply because Junko went. We observe as Hachi interacts with Junko, seeking advice,comfort and security from her, while also allowing herself to be condescended and even embarrassed by Junko. An example of this is when Junko tells Shoji and kyosuke as soon as Hachi meets them that she is loud and has a long history with men. While these traits aren't inherently negative, in the context of the society and time the manga is set in, they were not viewed as favourable traits for women. Hachi's initial protests at having these aspects of her life exposed are telling. Junko can tend at times at the start of the story to be very brisk and sometimes even outright insensitive to Hachi. Yet, when Junko decides to go to Tokyo, Hachi tearfully begs her to stay, even diminishing Kyosuke's importance to his face in an effort to keep Junko close. Realising it would be unfair to hold Junko back from her dreams, Hachi impulsively decides to apply to schools in Tokyo as well. She had no money, no set career aspirations, and no solid plans, yet was adamant to join her friend.

And this brings us to the key aspect of Hachi’s character that Ai Yazawa informed us of from very early on: she will uproot her whole life in order to not be alone. And this trait is depicted throughout all her relationships, platonic and romantic. Hachi may be boy obsessed, but to diminish her later actions to just that is a disservice to Ai Yazawa’s writing skills, as in these pivotal few scenes, Hachi’s past and future link and meld together immaculately - Hachi’s decision to stay with Takumi was foreshadowed and hinted at phenomenally from the very start of the story through Hachi’s past, and how it shaped her interactions with other characters. Her actions were rooted more in a desperate need for companionship and fear for loneliness than, as some people believe, a habit of putting her romantic relationships on a pedestal - and Ai Yazawa has reminded us of this throughout the story.

Hachi grew up in a loud and rather indifferent household where she grew up ( as a middle child) thinking that her absence would just mean less noise in the household, a thought probably encouraged by her parents' passive and impartial approach to parenting and her growing up, giving her an excess of freedom instead of the attention Hachi desired growing up. Given such an environment, she developed an anxious attachment style, clinging onto whatever relationships she has in order to avoid feeling lonely and isolated, such as her friendship with Junko. She compares the feeling to be worse than Asano breaking up with her - the moment when she realised the extent of her unrequited love and the fragility of relationships, causing her to come to terms fully with the threat of loneliness and abandonment. This concept and revelation seems to haunt her visibly throughout the first few episodes, and more insipidly years later as she still seeks companionship and intimacy to avoid the depression and fear she feels when encountering the emotion that she has correlated with feeling unwanted and used.

So given this, it makes Hachis decision to stay with Takumi even more painstakingly in line with her character. Hachi is not written to be a perfect character for readers to project their own morals into - Hachi is young, still rather sheltered and unsure of her place in the world. She thrives off others' reassurance and the security they provide her - when she feels this is being threatened ( such as when she saw Nana interact with Tsuzuki) she spirals. So when she found out she was pregnant, Takumi very intentionally divulged the information without giving Hachi a chance to prepare, recognising Hachi’s intense aversion to being alone, and exploited it in the scenario to fit his interests in keeping her by his side. Hachi was at this part of the story in a very vulnerable and insecure position. She feared and expected rejection and disappointment from her friends, a reflection of her own and society's negative and sexist feelings on her situation, and saw herself as alone. Blast was excelling and becoming increasingly busy, Junko and Kyosuke were occupied in their own daily lives, and she saw herself with nobody to turn to for help or support, and was too ashamed to ask for it from people she held in such high regard. She believed she had nobody who could give her the stability and comfort she has sought for consistently throughout the manga/anime in her friends and romantic partners.

Nobody but Takumi. Hachi knew she would not be happy. She knew that she did not love him and was not loved the way she always idealised. She knew that by marrying Takumi and raising the child with him she would be sacrificing her friends’ trust and opinions of her, and putting herself in a situation that may seem like what she always wanted ( financial stability and a family) , but was less than ideal in reality. But she ended up marrying Takumi - because she believed Takumi at the time was the only one who would accept her, who would not be any more angry and disappointed at her than she was with herself. She saw him as the only option that guaranteed the security she yearned for and seeked in every one of her personal relationships, even at the expense of her own happiness and friendships - and this because we are shown time and time again that Hachi would rather uproot her life than be on her own. She would rather suffer a person and learn to love them than be without. And that is the painstaking tragedy of it all - it makes sense for her character.

Ai Yazawa does a beautiful job at showing the very human side of personalities and relationships. Personal growth is not a linear process, and while Hachi shows moments of self-awareness and even growth, with instances where she is shown slowly blossoming into a more independent woman and recognising her self-destructive tendencies, she ultimately gravitates towards what is most familiar to her. She acts seemingly as a survival instinct, where the pale mockery of a loving relationship seems more plausible and tolerable to her than the shaky and unpredictability of her future, and facing the shock and hurt of those who she holds so dear to her heart. Though this may frustrate viewers, it is also what makes Hachi such a compelling and relatable character — her choices, while flawed, feel deeply human. Hachi doesn’t always make the smart decision, nor the one best in the long run. She is a character that displays the more uncomfortable sides of human nature and actions, and is a character that can be simultaneously loved and sighed at and learnt from, which is infinitely more educational and enjoyable than a character who has things just happen to them. She is a culmination of her past experiences and how she operated through them and processed them is translated and depicted through her relationships and actions in a realistic, though heart wrenching fashion.

[cyberhxchi]

˚₊‧꒰ა ♱ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Blast ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

[hoppipolla]

@userdramas​ event 18: music ↳ Hidamari ga Kikoeru OST by Kanade Sakuma

HIDAMARI GA KIKOERU (2024)

(insp. ☀︎☀︎)

[hakusins]

just a funny thing i did with @yariyarebang's male pc, yixiang !!! i'm still on the fence about making yasu (pretty dark haired oneechan) canon in dol, but it does open up a lot of funny interactions if i do!

[oceanwithouthermoon]

kubosai brainrot so bad i sometimes look at the actual show/manga and realize i forgot how few interactions they actually have together..

[devilatelier]

ah, a creature

[dawn-of-tomorrow]

DIM LIGHT (full JP ver.)

Spread forth your gray-feathered wings and soar as high as you can, back to the place you yearned for.

[commehter]

Kitaika Prison

Despite keeping notes and timelines to avoid stumbling over canon (and especially myself) lot of the development ends up happening on the page during the actual writing process. I have a general idea of how this conversation needs to go, but I don't know what the characters are going to say to each other until the characters are going back and forth, tit for tat. I need to somehow introduce these ideas before I get to that plot point, or else it comes off as rushed. I want to do X but the characters aren't cooperating so the whole thing either gets pushed back or scrapped entirely.

You get the gist. There's a decent amount of planning, but there's plenty of improve going on behind the scenes, too.

Kitaika has been more on the page worldbuilding than I could have dreamed when I first sent Zu-Ozai and Tui there.

Hama's prison exists in canon, but it didn't have a name until off the cuff prison warden decided formal introductions with the Fire Lord necessitated one. Padded isolation cells weren't a thing there until they needed a place to stash Hama. The warden's office is cramped because there's no way that Kitaika was meant for important visitors, unlike the Boiling Rock. Exercise courtyard? Tui decided on a picnic and there had to be a space large enough for it.

I didn't have a single character in mind to populate the prison until Zu-Ozai and Tui kept poking around and meeting people. Now I've established Masaki, Kallik, and Yasu as characters that I might well bring back later in the story.

As excited as I am to be getting back to Caldera, there is a part of me that wants to dive into the story of Kitaika moving forward because it would be fascinating to follow along as the waterbenders and prison guards adjust to their new state of affairs. (There is so much there, you don't even know.) But SToFLO is focussed on Zu-Ozai and the area/people immediately surrounding him, so much of it will be relegated to reports from Tui or Masaki (I'll probably throw in a visit or two to check in with the SWT benders at some point. I have a few ideas.) or else be contained in Folktales and Fables as side stories.

Anyway, just figured I'd share some thoughts/experiences of my writing process in case folks find it interesting. Happy reading!

[kowaindar0u]

💭 (sengo), 🪽(sada), 💞(yuichi), 🗡️(yasu), 💔(fudou)

[ IN CHARACTER CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS . ]

under the cut cause these shits are long again lol

💭 THOUGHT BALLOON — is there something or someone you find yourself thinking about more often than other things? if so, why do you think you do this?

If I must answer this... well. Of course I am always thinking of my dear master. Fond thoughts, to be sure, but also...there's always a little...niggling in the back of my mind. 'What-ifs', so to speak. And... during, and after returning from, our lengthy mission among the Tokugawa, my thoughts have been perhaps more occupied by that of those I spent that time with. Tonbokiri, Ookurikara, Ishikirimaru, Nikkari, and Monoyoshi-kun... Of course being a fellow Muramasa, Tonbokiri has always seemed to understand me more than anyone else. But even the rest of them, I... I suppose there is likely no way to spend so long with a group of people like that and not kindle some kind of bond with them-- at least that's how I feel. I don't know if their feelings toward me are any different than they were when we began. I just know that when they each left us, one by one, fulfilling their rightful end in that timeline... even though I knew they were simply returning home, it really felt as if a loved one had died. And then of course... there are Gohei and Nobuyasu. Two pure, innocent, kind souls who deserved far better than what they'd been given. I never expected to become so attached to a child of all things, but even though I did so from a distance compared to my fellow touken danshi there, I still feel like I helped raise that boy myself. I don't know if I would consider myself a parent, but... The hatred I harbor for that boy's real father is immeasurable. I think about them all so much. I still grieve them, I think, even though I'm not sure what to do with myself when it hits. Even my fellow touken danshi who returned before Tonbokiri and I... sometimes I still think or dream about their 'deaths' and... well. At least I can remind myself they're still here, alive.

🪽 WING — if you could choose to have one superpower for a day, what would it be and why? what would you do with it?

ANY SUPERPOWER? Oh man, that's a hard choice! But you know what, I think I would choose to be able to fly! How cool would that be, y'know?! Especially if you could go super fast, just zoom around in the air! Think about it!! Oho, also... Imagine the surprises I could give Tsurumaru! Just fly way up and then when I spot him, just dive-bomb him! Hehehe...

💞 REVOLVING HEARTS — who and/or what are you most grateful for in your life?

Ah... without a doubt, my touken danshi. Perhaps it's a bit cliche of me to say as a saniwa, but... I'd be remiss if I said anything else. My life with them is wildly different, in the best of ways, from what it was before I ever knew them, and... I could not and would not give them up or trade them for anything in the world, not a single one. Without them... well, I'm nothing.

🗡️ DAGGER — what is something or someone you know you can’t afford to lose? how far are you willing to go to make sure you don’t lose it/them?

Why would you ask me something stupid like that? Ugh. Fine. But you'd better not tell anyone what I'm about to say. Yamatonokami. I know that idiot feels the same about me, but I'd give my life for him. He's my brother. It's my job to try and protect him when I can. And... I guess it's my job to tolerate him, too, even outside of battle, so he doesn't ditch me, yeah? [in souyasu verse, there's also this lol] Yamatonokami... and Souza. He's... I don't know what it is. I don't know why he likes me the way he does, but... I'm glad he does. If anyone hurt him in any way... well. I don't think they'd see the light of day again, even if it means I don't either.

💔 BROKEN HEART — is there anyone in your life you wish you had a better relationship with? if so, how come? what makes this person important to you?

[he is probably a few glasses deep of amazake to be answering this lol] Mmm... I wish... I wish... Hasebe and I got along better... I wish we could interact without fighting and yelling and screaming... I don't even know why. I don't think he likes me at all. I want to like him, though... I want to get along with him. I think if I could manage to not make him hate me so much... maybe all of us Oda swords could get along better and be happier, yeah? But I just can't help myself around him, he always knows just what to say to get under my skin! Sigh...

[knoxs2nd]

in shannon and beatrice's first meeting, they talk about how love is the single element of the world. they both live for love - their greatest wishes are to love and be loved, in turn.

kanon notably does not live for love. no, his greatest wish is to become human.

in episode 4, shannon's concept of the golden land is somewhere she can be at rest with her loved one. beatrice's greatest wish - a universe of two - lines up with shannon's idea of happiness.

meanwhile, kanon's idea of the golden land is a world where he can become human.

george likes shannon, so shannon, the furniture who lives for love, accepts him.

jessica likes kanon, & it makes him happy, but he rejects her. being loved isn't his priority. being furniture is what anguishes him. being unlovable is just another tragic fact of his inhumanity.

it's not that love isn't important to kanon! but love belongs to the realm of humans. it's an important part of the human experience that makes life worth living, but it's not a singular reason to live. to kanon, being human is having possibilities for happiness, INCLUDING love

(as an aside, beatrice, who also lives for love, was so close at the end of episode 3 to pulling a shannon and accepting battler. but she ultimately rejects that type of love that prioritizes positivity and getting along, in favor of a love where she can be understood)

if shannon cries herself to sleep because of her unfulfilled love for battler, then kanon cries himself to sleep because he wants to be human

now, this can be read as a characterization choice between shannon and kanon as two characters of their own with different backgrounds, personalities, motivations, but in the context of reading them through yasu, and how they reflect how she lives in the human world?

and specifically, how she lives in the human world as a woman and as a man

shannon, who tries to present herself and is seen by others as this perfect, ideal adult woman

kanon, who is seen as a weak, boy-ish man who has few redeeming qualities

one of the most prominent themes in umineko is about different perceptions of love, and in particular how the different women feel like they need love and partnership, in order to be accepted as a woman and by society. it's not just a part of life. it's part of their purpose.

so, shannon, who lives for love, is seen as an ideal partner who can die happy as soon as she accepts george's ring. she's fulfilled her purpose.

meanwhile, kanon, who longs to be human, is seen as a tragic, doomed boy who will always die fighting his fate. he dies unfulfilled.

shannon is loved by george and can die peacefully with the promise of eternal love. meanwhile, kanon and jessica's love is framed as being the start on a journey. in ep6, they look forward to some distant future where kanon becomes a wonderful human with jessica supporting him.

love is important to kanon as a catalyst for change. jessica adds onto that, saying that she'll be there to support him the whole time.

love is important to men because it's a motivator for change, while women are there to support men in this journey to being good humans.

(and yes, i'm also pointing to george and shannon in this too! because this dynamic is also present in george/shannon's relationship, in george admitting he wanted to change because he wanted to become worthy of shannon!)

as people, kanon faces far more unknowns in his dreamed of future. but you can think of it as, he has all these endless possibilities, as a human.

meanwhile, shannon has already decided on her set path. she knows exactly what she wants and needs, and what it'll look like.

what does being a woman mean, for one's future, versus being a man? what roles must, and can, a woman fulfill? what are they allowed to hope for and aspire to?

how much more limited do their paths to happiness appear to yasu?

shannon is happier and more optimistic than kanon, but she sees the world in a more limited sense. see: her comments in ep2 on the fish in the aquarium who can live, perfectly happy and ignorant, never knowing that they will never reach the ocean. her comments apply to the catbox, but you can read it through this lens, and view it as her comments on the "world" that women are allowed to inhabit.

kanon is an unhappy, pessimistic person, but also because he's so acutely aware of what he's missing - all the more possibilities that he's allowed to have, as a man. it's an entire ocean out there that he's been denied.

finally, looking at yasu's miracle self. what does happiness look like for lion? what sort of happiness can they aspire to?

lion's gender is intentionally unstated in episode 7. and so, clair wishes for lion, the miracle beatrice, to find happiness - and frames this wish for lion's happiness in the context of both a man and a woman's happiness

live, as a human, in happiness

live, and find love

[midnightmah07]

Tried continuing watching Nana (episode 33) and u know what I think imma drop this show

[cyberhxchi]

༉‧₊˚🍰🍓❀༉‧₊˚.

[zorkaya-moved]

me @ zarina

Zarina @ you:

[hakusins]

(oc) big sister

[dykesbat]

i only talk abt the girls of nana bc im a feminist.