#crying in shin soukoku

[ssaraexposs]

He's so happy to see his partner again

[sskk-manifesto]

“Do we need any more?” who's gonna tell him last time he fucking died

[sad-emo-dip-dye]

Does the transition from “I cannot move forwards until I tear you apart” to “just the two of us” make anyone else absolutely insane insane insane or is that just me

[aethellren]

so tender, so vulnerable, so painful

[little-blurry-stars5]

Soukoku is all fun and games until Chuuya has to explain to akutagawa he's in love with the man that abused him and always made him feel like never enough.

Shin soukoku is nice and all until atsushi has to explain to kyoka he's in love with the man that abused her and told her her only point in living was to kill.

Soukoku is great until akutagawa has to watch dazai treat Chuuya so much better than he ever treated him.

Shin soukoku is lovely until kyoka watches atsushi's eyes light up at the sight of the man who tried to tear her life apart.

[denkies]

Here are my 2 "best times for a shin soukoku kiss scene":

1. Reunion kiss. Atsushi is so relieved at seeing Akutagawa alive well and controlling himself, of course he can't help himself. Aya sees it and everything. They fight Ame No Gozen as a power couple

2. Right before resetting everything with the page. They're unsure if they'll remember everything, and kiss. (And then they do remember everything.)

[etrevil]

Akutagawa leaving Atsushi like this makes me wanna believe he's conscious again and just fled in embarrassment and denial that he gayily bit his enemy-partner's neck.

[kyouka-supremacy]

And what if after Akutagawa has gained his memories back and after they've defeated Gozen and after Dostoyevsky is gone. What if Akutagawa says “Oh. It seems like my role here has been solved” and his body fades away because the pact he made with Bram of keeping living to protect everyone is now concluded, and he has no reason to stay. What then

[nakajimaas]

can u imagine atsushi celebrating his 21 bday and feeling sad because now he's older than aku was at the time of his death? knowing he will keep moving on, but aku will stay 20 forever? yeah

[bsd-brainrot-haver]

them?????? *combusts*

[lasutotu]

Big hand holding 🫶

[flyolai-brainrot]

idk if y'all wanna see sketches i abandoned but still really like but

[sad-emo-dip-dye]

When Akutagawa told Kyouka he was happy for her, when he didn’t attack Atsushi while he was grieving for the headmaster, when he reached out for Atsushi with Rashomon during the fight with Francis, when they worked together to defeat Ivan, when he kept his promise and didn’t kill the man aboard the ship, when he sacrificed his life to give atsushi a chance to escape, when he

[sugarcarnation]

insane about this tbh

[evilkaeya]

uhm so I ended up writing a really short fic based on this post in attempt to get over writer’s block (it didn’t work but hey I wrote something...?)

read HERE thank you

[denkies]

The BSD 5 Opening, Tetsu no Ori, is a love song from Atsushi to Akutagawa

Let's start at the beginning of the song, with the accompanying scenes.

Putting Atsushi and Akutagawa with those specific lyrics was probably not a silly mistake done by complete coincidence. But let's keep going!

These lyrics specifically pertain to Atsushi's feelings after Akutagawa's death. Both "places" in these lyrics refer to the afterlife-- somewhere only seen after death, and somewhere Atsushi doesn't want Akutagawa to go.

"A place you can't go" can also be foreshadowing that Akutagawa doesn't go to the afterlife. He becomes a vampire. On that note, Atsushi believes that Akutagawa can be woken up from his brainwashed state-- and actually begins to succeed in chapter 108. He doesn't believe Akutagawa to be in the afterlife, because he has faith that he's still there.

The anime opening ends with those lyrics, but the full song continues. I'll be talking about some specific parts, which pertain to the topic.

This one is pretty quickly explained, as Akutagawa and Atsushi quite literally symbolize Yin and Yang, even physically. The line about being unable to ignore the "bug in the iron cage" comes up later!

Past tense, expressing the sorrow that came after the heat of battle. "The loss of ecstacy" seems to reference the 2 battles that they won against Fukuchi, as the ecstacy of winning was taken from them.

"That we can only be slaves to something; knowing that you will lose." is referencing these rewritten battles again -- Fukuchi tells them that they won, but he went back in time (chapter 87). In the lyrics, Atsushi recognizes that they are slaves to Fukuchi's sword, that they can't win.

"Knowing that you will lose" might also reference Atsushi's thoughts on Akutagawa's sacrifice. Atsushi knows that the escape route was only for him; that Akutagawa's first and foremost priory was getting Atsushi out alive. Knowing that he couldn't have saved Akutagawa from Fukuchi, because Akutagawa didn't want to be saved. He was going to lose, in every scenario, to keep Atsushi safe.

And finally, this part. "You've already taken flight; you've become a butterfly," again, referencing Akutagawa's death. Funnily enough, I think this also ties into Akutagawa not actually being dead. Butterflies symbolize the soul, death, and rebirth. All of these are relevant to him in vampire form, so equating him to a butterfly isn't too far off. It's also very pretty and sweet.

The line about the iron cage comes up again, this time, Atsushi revealing himself to be the "bug in the iron cage." The entire sequence seems to be about Atsushi's grief, that he can't ignore and is trapped in like a cage.

His desire to be free is also tied to him wishing to be reunited with Akutagawa. "You've already taken flight / If I could fly now, outside the iron cage..." I think it conveys that Atsushi wants to escape this grief, but only if it means reuniting with Akutagawa once more.

Lastly, as my evidence, the song title "Tetsu no Ori" (鉄の檻) literally means "Iron Cage". The song itself is about Atsushi being trapped in his grief, and love, after Akutagawa's death.

I rest my case.