#dialover analysis

[callmeklair]

How would you rank the boys from most to least possessive? Kind of random question I know but I'm just interested in your opinion :3

it makes me really happy knowing you all love my opinions even though I feel like that's it's been long since I read a few routes and hopefully don't make any misinterpretation 😭

I didn't know what kind of interpretation you wanted so I gave my opinions in what way they were and now are possessive and why.

there are chances some people's ranking might not match with mine but I tried my best to rank the boys based on my (not so horrible) memories. it was difficult to do overall so I did family wise because many boys were ending up on a tie.

(don't forget to read the conclusion note!!)

I ranked based on them giving freedom to Yui from least to highest !!!

Sakamakis:

1. Ayato: it's wayyyy too obvious that Ayato is the most possessive out of all his brothers, and one of the reasons being Cordelia's obsession to make him no.1 which narrowed down his mentality to "yours truly" and always getting/acquiring "first class things" it can also be seen in the anime how obsessed he became to make Yui only his after being the first one to taste her blood, to the point he left hickeys on her before she went for a bath. I wouldn't say his possessiveness towards Yui was just as "a prey", more than that, his obsession to be number one due to Cordelia surpassed that reason as Yui's blood was considered special as it was the finest of its quality in the whole world, according to them.

Kanato: I haven't read his routes much, actually I tried to but just couldn't make myself sit through it, but based on what I have seen in anime and some routes, he is one of the most possessive ones after ayato (maybe?) and.... not in a good way. I don't think I need to expand on it because we all have sat through it in anime in scenes with Kanato. though there are chances he might have changed a little(?) in future games, Kanato stans are free to come and correct me because he is one of the characters whose content I have never read much.

Laito: it might be surprising to some but let me tell you, his possessiveness started on Yui as "a prey" behind that facade he puts on due to what Cordelia did to him. it's more like he is conflicted. his possessiveness is way too conflicted because of Cordelia. openly, people think that he let's Yui to be shared to others but I think it's more like, he don't wanna succumb to any feelings or have anyone special to him, to the point he don't wanna be possessive to someone in either good way or bad way. but ofc, after staying with Yui, he finally started to open up and slowly became possessive (in mid of MB maniac/ecstasy, then VC and further) I would say he is a silent possessive man, because people will think he is being carefree but he is indirectly protecting Yui (encounter with Carla and Shin in DF)

Reiji: the only reason Reiji is considered more possessive than Subaru is because of his obsession to not let Yui in contact with Shu, which is of course because he was scared. Seeing how everything eventually belonged to Shu, no matter if he wanted it or not, meanwhile he, Reiji, being neglected by everyone, even servants, he was scared to lose Yui to Shu. and thus he was such a nasty possessive man in the first game, but his character slowly developed and his possessiveness turned towards the direction of sweetness. it was good to see how he went from being scared of Shu snatching Yui away to not feeling the fear anymore and having full on trust on Yui which is a very big thing in Reiji's case.

Subaru: because of his distrust in women due to his mom, even though he was possessive with Yui, it was not in a good way but, thankfully, eventually as he became comfortable with her, he slowly became a sweet gentle boy. what I liked the most was that despite being possessive he let Yui freely roam around but magically appeared whenever someone advances at her. tsundere.

Shu: my lazy sloth, who doesn't want to have anyone close to him because of his past. he was the least possessive for obvious reasons but gradually as his relationship with Yui developed and he came out of his bubble, his possessive side could be seen. Just like the other two before, he did give freedom to Yui but easily gets jealous so his possessiveness was never in a bad way that much.

Mukamis:

(these brothers were so hard to rank because they are equal to each other when it comes to possessiveness)

Kou: ┐⁠(⁠´⁠ー⁠｀⁠)⁠┌ he was very much possessive of Yui in MB but in a very wrong way due to obsession of Adam's apple plan but thankfully by the end of ecstasy he started becoming a little normal. he gets easily jealous, so Yui always watch out for herself. in conclusion, he is the most possessive in his brothers and thankfully it went from toxic to normal possessiveness.

Ruki: livestock. yes that's the word he used to rationalise his toxic possessiveness towards Yui for completion of his plan. it was cute to see how he went from being possessive as "master" to being possessive as a jelly boyfie. plus one of the reasons he is very possessive with Yui is because he can never get any "undisturbed" alone time with her due to his brothers which makes his actions ,when he is being possessive with her, very cute.

Yuma: my sweet Gardner boy. (Yuma Stans help me because I'm out of words (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠))

Azusa: my cinnamon roll and one of the members of "eve's no. 1 protector" club. Azusa is cutely possessive (if we ignore the knife obsession in starting). best boi, will do anything for Yui. Might not look possessive of Yui but he secretly is but more than that, to him her happiness matters the most. I read somewhere that in his route in chaos lineage it was revealed he asked Karlheinz to turn back time 3-4 times??? I'm not sure if i remember it correctly but this also directs towards how he remembers in almost most of the routes in CL, and in some, to us readers, it's indirectly hinted that he remembers but he is hiding it.... but that's a topic for another day. also feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. and we got distracted from the topic.......

Tsukinamis:

Shin: insecure possessiveness. after losing his eye and getting his pride hurt, his only aim was to surpass his brother, Carla, which he was never able to. just like how Carla wanted recognition from his father, Shin wanted recognition from his older brother. this is why he was so obsessed to get Yui in every single route, even in his own route. this is why I loved his route, because of the development. minor details matter too. his toxic possessiveness turning into normal boyfriend possessiveness yet the goal to acquire her remaining the same but not in toxic way (LE being an example when he pushed Yui away to keep her safe no matter how much he wanted her.)

Carla: he is such a beautiful composed character, that people aren't aware about the rate of his possessiveness. unless you have read any Carla route, you won't know how bad is the possessive rate in Tsukinami family. as he was raised to be a king, he hides his emotions well which is also the reason why it took him time to realise his own feelings but when he did, the possessiveness (⁠ﾉ⁠´⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠ ⁠ﾐ⁠ ⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

because of DF Shin, Carla is on second rank or else his LE route was dangerous for my heart. ifykyk

→ I didn't rank kino because I'm totally not aware with his character so I didn't wanna make any wrong interpretation.

in conclusion: all of them were toxic-ly possessive at some rate but slowly as the more time they spent with Yui and developed their character, their nature of possessiveness also started to change. I rated the possessiveness based on the freedom they allow Yui for.

any diaboy at first rank doesn't mean that they don't give freedom to Yui at all, it's just less compared to others and their jealousy level is ↑

why did this post go from possessive analysis to character analysis, I'm sorry, i just loose the track so much while writing (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)

[spunkypigeon]

I never understood Reiji's goals and intentions until I came across your blog. You have literally analyzed the entire game in such a detailed way that in the end you can't help but think about his psychology and character. I admit that before I read every one of your posts about this boy, I always found him to be the most boring Sakamaki brother and I couldn't explain his actions, but thanks to you I decided to give him 1 more chance. What I like most is the fact that even though he is your favorite, you don't justify or sugar coat him like many people do with their favorite character, but you appreciate, examine and explain his flaws and mental problems, trying to analyze like a true psychologist. Respect for the work you have done. I saw that you're planning more posts like this in the future and that you're going to try other characters like Ayato, who I think shares quite a bit of Reiji's personality. I can't wait for it.

Ah! Thank you, I'm glad you decided to give him one (1) more chance [even though you shouldn't, he's very rude]. BUT your point is exactly the reason why I wanted to analyse him in the first place. He's generally considered 'boring' or 'annoying' to deal with, and his dialogue can be hard to sift through if you're only looking at him at surface level.

I know I've said many times that I wanted More Blood done and dusted before now - and I genuinely thought I'd be finished, but sadly over 100k words isn't enough words for our boy - that and I'm ☆chronically ill☆ at the moment. I feel like a sick Victorian child lmao

I am getting through the transcripts, but very slowly. It doesn't help that I was on the verge of a stroke when someone decided to ☆delete☆ a section of my work. Thank you Ctrl + Z because I was about to invoke the most destructive gamer rage this world has ever seen.

I am glad that you decided to send this ask Anon since I never really knew how much this could help people understand Reiji (even if it's just from my perspective). I feel like the best way to thoroughly appreciate a character is to acknowledge their flaws, and I'm glad you're able to appreciate them too >3<

But I do think you're right about Ayato. I feel like he definitely shares a lot of traits with Reiji, but more so as his opposite. I feel like Reiji and Ayato have a ying/yang code to them; I stand by my interpretation that Ayato represents chaos and that Rejii represents order.

[For your diligence, please take this sanrio Reiji]

Also, mini rant: I can't be the only one that instantly thinks of Zhongli whenever they see the word 'order', right? The line just goes through my head like the plague, so now my brain decided to fuse him and Reiji together, and now I'm stuck with this:

that feels like a ☆violation☆ of fandoms

[jazzystudios82]

I still don't understand how there are people who think that Cordelia wasn't as bad as she was towards her sons, and also to the other people around her who weren't Karlheinz.

Look, there's nothing wrong with liking characters who are terrible people in the actual canon. Just remember that you have to keep that in mind and not disregard what they've done to other characters.

I mean, Cordelia would throw Ayato into the lake as a twisted form of 'punishment', she made Kanato sing for her because it made her (in her own words) 'fired up', AND she made Laito believe that what she was doing to him was a normal way for a mother to show her son love!

Example #1: Cordelia with Ayato

Example #2: Cordelia with Kanato

Example #3: Cordelia with Laito

And I agree with the original poster regarding Cordelia being one of the more interesting characters in the DL franchise, I mean, she's the one who the creators give more focus on compared to Beatrix and Christa.

The point that I'm trying to get to (that I've probably taken too long to get to 😅) is that it's fine to have a character like Cordelia as one of your favorites as long as you remember that she's done terrible things and that it also doesn't mean that you're excusing her actions.

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How much of a terrible mom was Cordelia? A full explanation.

It's a shame that the first post of my blog is dedicated to a rather ''interesting'' take @yuikomorii showed me, but taking into account that I've done my research involving the mothers, I find it a perfect opportunity to make a full explanation of Cordelia's abusive behavior.

Before I start, I would like to talk about why Cordelia acted the way she did (I AM NOT JUSTIFYING HER ACTIONS).

We know that Cordelia's father was neglectful towards her after the death of her mother which made her lack the ability to understand love.

Karlheinz manipulated Cordelia into marrying him and giving him children FORCEFULLY (because Cordelia did not want to have children). He also convinced Cordelia that it was okay for her to have many lovers and to have sexual relationships with FAMILY members

Cordelia's abusive behavior towards the triplets also comes over the fact of her jealousy and obsession with Karlheinz and surpassing Beatrix and Christa.

Getting this out of the way I will now start explaining why Cordelia was NOT a good mother despite her traumas.

It's not strange to view Cordelia negatively if she's one of the antagonists of the franchise. NEVER did Diabolik lovers ever paint Cordelia as a good person and constantly tell us about how shitty she was towards her children and how much it affected them.

2. I'm not denying the fact that around those times parenting was more strict, however, you're forgetting that Cordelia didn't just slap, ground, or yell at her children, she put intense waves of pressure on Ayato, and drowned him, she sexually abused Laito, manipulated him and groomed him when he was a KID, forced Kanato to sing until he bled and made him watch her have intercourse with other men. This was the abuse the triplets went through until they finally had enough and attempted to kill Cordelia, which they succeeded.

3. Yes, it's true that Beatrix wouldn't give the triplets much attention or love, she would probably neglect them due to not being her biological children and belonging to her rival, however, Beatrix WOULD NEVER do the messed up stuff Cordelia did. Yes, she was a terrible mother to Shu and Reiji, yet she would've never stepped down at Cordelia's level.

4. A normal mother doesn't drown and threaten her child due to personal issues, A normal mother doesn't sexually abuse her child and grooms him to make him depend on her, and a normal mother doesn't force her child to watch her have sex with men and doesn't use his singing voice to get horny. If she was an affectionate mother ayato wouldn't have found the need to HIDE himself from her and the triplets wouldn't have considered killing her.

5. I would also like to add, that no matter how badly influenced Cordelia was, and no matter how much childhood trauma she went through, that would never be a justification for the way she treated her children. This does not only apply to Cordelia, this applies to every character and to real people as well. It's a reason why they behave that way, but never a justification. Also, Cordelia doing the bare minimum and behaving like an actual mother for a few moments does not mean she cares about her children. I don't think this is explicitly told, but I believe in those particular scenes she's grooming Kanato to become dependent on her like she did with Laito and Ayato.

6. ''She never spoke that way to her children'' I'm sorry but I have to laugh?? I would've understood if you were an anime only (not really) but taking into account that you do know about the games this is really really wrong lol. I don't why it's difficult to understand that Cordelia didn't love her children. Cordelia is such a bad mother that when she was resurrected in Ayato's DF route, she didn't even apologize to him or to his siblings, and yet he still forgave her! She even told Ayato to APOLOGIZE to her and continued to insult him

(Credits to @dialovers-translations)

I understand (I think everyone in the fandom does) that Cordelia had her reasons to behave this way (childhood trauma and manipulation) but that doesn't excuse her actions. I don't agree with people hating on Cordelia and loving Karlheinz but I also don't agree with people defending Cordelia and saying she did nothing wrong when she did.

Cordelia isn't a black-and-white character and she's not a bad character either, she's very well-written for her purpose (an antagonist) but she's not a good person or mother. She never regretted what she did and if she was still alive during HDB she would've still been abusive to the triplets.

This is my problem with morally grey characters/Evil characters. They can't exist in media if people ignore their wrongdoings and actions and try to justify said actions. I'm not saying that they shouldn't exist but I'm tired of people painting them as good people or justifying their actions when their whole purpose as a character is to show that they're not good people and their actions are/were wrong.

To finish off the post I would like to say that I love Cordelia's character and I consider her to be one of the best-written characters in Diabolik Lovers. In my opinion, I would've liked to know more about her in further games but even if I feel this way about her I don't justify her actions and that's something we should all do. I'm glad the fandom no longer justifies the actions of the characters (with some obvious exceptions). And even if I like Cordelia as a character I don't shame others for not liking her, at the end of the day she was a horrible person lol.

[yuikomorii]

// Ok I didn’t want to go this far but at this point, you guys are hating on Ayato just for clout and it shows. It’s okay not to like a character but straight up spreading misinformation about him is not okay. If you lack reading comprehension, just admit it.

What makes Ayato’s past so sad isn’t only the fact that Cordelia was mean towards him. She mentally and physically abused him, yet what genuinely hurt Ayato the most was the way Cordelia treated ALL the triplets. A part of him didn’t even want to kill her, given that he CRIED in the MB flashbacks because, despite being a huge abuser, he STILL felt sympathy even for someone like her. No matter how horrible Cordelia was, Ayato still wished for Karlheinz to reciprocate her feelings only to finally see her happy.

Don't even get me started on the Adam curse. He was practically used as bait and abandoned to death by his own brothers, but he still hoped for their safety after escaping. That curse literally destroyed his entire life because its purpose was to make the person who ate the fig drown in despair and go insane. That's why he was sooo obsessed with Yui's blood. Heck, he's cursed in routes other than his own, as he goes insane in Ruki's MB one, to the point that his brothers had to lock him inside the dungeon. In addition, in his MB Vampire Ending, he falls into a coma because he refuses to hurt Yui and keep drinking her blood.

Other than that, Laito was the one who made him believe that he wasn’t special, hence he adopted the “I will never make someone special again” mentality. He also wanted to kill him when he was younger (no hate towards any of his brothers though). Kanato was the only one who never did something bad to him, considering that when Ayato was a child, Reiji called him the disappointment of the family after failing a test.

Ayato did twisted stuff too; no character is a saint, but he always tries his best to fix things. Even when not dating Yui, he’s capable of showing compassion, support and a desire to improve his relationship with his brothers BY HIMSELF. Check this analysis for example.

Other than that, despite every time being hurt when trying to show kindness, he still became a very selfless guy who’d sacrifice himself for anyone at any given time. What makes this even more admirable is that according to Karlheinz, he’s literally the only one who actually VALUES his life. This guy who loves life would risk it all for Yui, even when not dating, or for any of his brothers.

Credit to: dialovers-translations and tournesolia on Tumblr

On top of that, he's incredibly empathic?? He forgives everybody, no matter what they do to him, and seeks to maintain good relations with them. In Kino's LE route, for example, he tortures and burns Ayato, but Ayato is the first person to recognize him as his brother because he wanted Kino to feel that he, too, belonged to a family.

Last but not least, nobody silences Karlheinz as good as him. He was also the only one who connected the dots by himself about his dad being the root of all evil (Laito too but that was after the letter), including being the only one who didn’t want to kill him only because he didn’t want to fall into his plan. Check this post.

Oh and, Ayato is actually really big; it’s not that only his fans make him that way! This post basically proves that he’s the IT boy of otome games and I should also mention that he’s the character that sells the most in Japan and China! Just look what Japanese fans think of him. ;)

You can dislike him as much as you want but nobody can deny how brave and pure-hearted he is. He’s the definition of from zero to hero.

As I mentioned earlier, it's fine to dislike him, but don't become obsessed with it, lol. At the end of the day, he's merely a fictional character with endearing characteristics and the male lead. It's really not that deep. Besides, it's embarrassing when the hate comes from Yui stans because she definitely wouldn't be happy of any of you talking about her man in that way.

[afra-blueraz]

🦋 Admin analysis:

Can vampires love someone else other than Yui? (Did they fall in love with someone before Yui? Can they fall in love with someone else after Yui?)

Well, first, I will give the shortest possible answer to this question. No, they can't fall in love with anyone after Yui, or there was no one they loved before Yui.

But first, let me give you a reason for my answer. First, let's examine the question further.

Can they fall in love with another person after Yui? Well, the answer to this question is simply no. But why? Let me remind you that vampires fall in love only once and this is a statement made by themselves and even proven by themselves, but how? Remember when Yui died they lost their mental health due to the tragedy and vampires went crazy and decided to join her after death by committing suicide. This simply shows their loyalty to their lover, but let's mention some proofs.

One of the simplest examples is daylight CD, which almost 90% of the boys decided to join her after Yui's death.

Bad endings in many games where when Yui dies they join her by committing suicide.

All these examples show that they don't even give themselves a chance to live after Yui, so they simply don't want to love anyone after her. So they can never fall in love with anyone else after Yui.

Translation: /@dialovers-translations

Was there someone they were in love with before Yui? Well, the answer to this question is no. Why? The answer is completely evident in the previous answer. If they had real and pure love for someone before Yui, they would have had a mental problem with their death or losing them and decided to commit suicide again. If their love for a person is real, they see the world as empty and meaningless without their beloved, and they have no motivation to continue living, especially vampires who have eternal life and death is simple to them. So if they are alive now, it's because they never had romantic feelings for anyone before Yui.

But what about Laito and Ruki? Was it shown in the game that they had a girlfriend? What do you think? I don't call Laito and Ruki's former relationship love since both of them admitted that those girls were just prey and nothing more. Both Ruki and Laito have only used the blood of those girls.

But not all diaboys are virgins. So it means they have experienced sex. The answer to this question is simpler. Because you don't have to be in love with someone for sex. Sex is only to satisfy sexual needs.

How about the Mukamis? Those who have never been vampires for all their life to fall in love just once like vampires. Yes, Mukamis were not vampires. But they became vampires when they were children, and their childhood was not an age where they could understand love like an adult. So this means that Mukamis have not fallen in love even when they were human.

Does this mean vampires never fall in love? No, this is completely wrong. Vampires can fall in love, but the past and experience that these boys have had, especially in relation to women, makes them not know how to fall in love. This is why they have never been in love before Yui. It may be bitter for some to accept this fact, but the main point is that they only fall in love once and loyalty to their lover is something that is special about vampires, that's why they can't fall in love after Yui. Or they simply can't love anybody else other than Yui.

This analysis is by checking games and CDs. If you have any other opinion, I will be happy to share it with me.

[vampires-bitrs]

Please write your story about sacrificial brides! The DL fandom is still very active, however rarely do people write about the dark and twisted side of this franchise. Or at least share your ideas and headcanons on what your story or OCs would be like! 😭🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

OMG OMG THIS ASK HAS ME GEEKING ＼(^-^)／

So far, the story is still in its outline phase. I did have a writer wave where the ideas flowed freely so now I'm just trying to piece all the fragments together

I know some people don't like to know what happens at the end of a story but I feel like the appeal of doing that setup comes with the progression of the actual story but on to the headcanons

Cordeila is still alive during this time (yes, the MC will run into her)

It takes place around 1994

The boys are living in Romania

My OC for the story I was having a hard time coming up with a name or specific look for her, so I was thinking maybe she could just be nameless or a self insert like Y/N L/N but I'm still deciding...

I have noticed that the boys have been written more fluffy in recent years and don't get me wrong I love it but sometimes I do wish there was a little bit more content focusing on their more darker side so if your looking for more DL fanfiction like that @jardinsdeminuit has a wonderful one shot selection of fics on their ao3

My personal favourite was "Shackled" 🤭

"The Switch" by Rinster is truly one of the best DL fanfiction I have ever read. The story telling, the boy characterization, the fact that it's choices based, meaning your actions can have consequences it's still ongoing, but so far it has 74 chapters, which should be plenty for now!

If you're looking for art that really captures the mood of the different routes, @ausd has amazing art that captures that chilling feeling, especially laitos route mmm CHEFS KISS everytime I look at their art it's just!

If you want some analysis that'll make you cry read "The Fall of Yui Komori: A Partial Analysis of Laito’s HDB Route" by @everything-laito I swear after reading this I needed to put my phone down and take a breath of fresh air it definitely gave me a new found perspective on just how strong Yui it's just so good.

@carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich also makes analysis, but her fanfictions MWAH they capture Shin sadistic side perfectly my personal favourite is Siren’s Call (Siren!Shin x Reader One Shot) (this one is not a shin fic but it's my guilty pleasure Bathtub Merman - Merman!Azusa Mukami x Reader One Shot you can tell I have a thing for under water creatures)

@dixbolik-lovers does all the boys and her Aus are to die for, and the fanfiction can be found on ao3 and Wattpad as well.

@sakamakibride "Lunacy one & two" based on the DIABOLIK LOVERS VERSUS Ⅱ Vol.2 Shuu VS Reiji perfectly grasp the tension between the Shu & Reiji If you have time, I would recommend a read.

@nutaella-kookie-storage has some of Nutaella-kookie old works wonderful OC amazing headcanons and unique world building.

Honestly, if you want the boys at their rawest, take them straight from the translation! @dialovers-translations

[loveholicc]

Hi, sorry this is an old ass post I just wanted to comment a feeling I have had for years.

I know how his HDB ending seems, in that it seems like ohoho we'll just fuck off into the sky y'know we love each otherrrrrr ❤️ everything is fine!

But personally, I think that's, like, part of the horror in itself. You're shown all of these horrific scenes, actions, thoughts and words. And then it just ends. "Happily". They just fly off into the stars. Nothing is spoken of, nothing addressed. No apologies, no reconciliation, no "I'm sorry I did all of that to you, I'll be better". It's very likely just, Rejet trying to Be Otome, but I personally have always seen it as a part of the horror that is the first game. It's the honeymoon phase starting, it's knowing this man will never be capable of love, it's knowing Yui will never be loved in a way that she hopes. She gives up and takes what she can get. He kills Karl, he's still obviously mentally quite fucked up. It's horrific, and only adds to everything that came before. Just knowing he's not sound, knowing what Yui went through, and then the game ends. It's the good ending in that you don't die, and that's it.

sorry for such a broad question but in your opinion is laito a well written character relative to everyone in diabolik? i really Want to learn more about him but i also dont want to subject myself to All That and i just want to know if he's worth reading about or just a pile of interesting plot threads thrown together for shock factor and unfulfilled thematically.

like my current personal opinion (may be wrong) is that i dont feel satisfied with the idea of yui's love or proactiveness fixing laito in any way because it doesn't mesh well with the actual ideas surrounding his character and unpacking that love is not poison goes beyond romantic love or a singular place of understanding. additionally it doesn't feel earned it feels like a chore for the player to trudge though for the sake of reading. i dont want to read laito's story that bad if it's the case yet im intrigued by the things offered by his character like the processing of the deeply visceral way csa shatters who you are

I wanted to wait till I finished his CL to answer so I'd be fully caught up with laito's routes, but that'll take too long so.....!! I might change my answer later!! lmao

[tw laito stuff, csa and suicide, yeah]

I do think Laito's a well-written character but his stuff is really difficult to get through if you have certain triggers, so it's tough to recommend. Even beyond the csa stuff, Laito is in a real hurry to die and he makes several attempts throughout the series. There's a certain unique sort of awfulness, at least for me, involving scenes where a character fails a suicide attempt and then get even more upset and desperate about it. So I understand what you mean when you say you're not excited about putting yourself through it. They were the hardest routes for me to get through too :')

A lot of earlier games suffer from endings that are like "And the two lived happily ever after, and we're not gonna unpack all that stuff!" and Laito's routes are no exception, but if you can look past that and make it to LE, I wouldn't say that Laito gets fixed. He has an ending similar to Ayato's that's like, it feels like we fixed everything but in reality we couldn't overcome the core issue! They really seem to believe that Laito absolutely can't be happy or live a normal life the way he is now. He has to die and/or rewrite his memories to be comfortable loving someone. It's up to your tastes if that's satisfying or not, but I kind of love the bittersweetness of LE endings, and the way they feel like a happy ending until you think about them a little too hard.

What's interesting is that Yui's purehearted love often hurts Laito more than it helps him. He responds to love, from Yui or from his family members, with revulsion. There's jealousy when he interacts with straightforward characters like Yui or Ayato, like "If only I could be as simple and pure as you, but nope, I can't." He's very self-aware for a diaboy, which only makes it hurt more when he keeps arriving at the conclusion that he's rotten. He definitely makes progress, which is really satisfying to see, like how he gradually allows Ayato back in his life emotionally. But as of right now, the end of his arc is so, like, "I tried, really I did! But my perspective on love is fucked and I need a hard reset! Maybe I'll be normal in the next life but definitely not this one!! Bye!"

...So, it's hard to say if you'll be happy with it. I see a lot of mixed opinions concerning the LE endings. They often give the diaboy what he wants but not what he needs, so you're left going, "Wait, I don't know about this...!" A lot of people really hate these endings, but they actually get more interesting to me the more conflicted they make me feel...and oh boy, was I conflicted about this one! :'D

If it sounds interesting to you, too, and you don't mind some pretty brutal scenes along the way, give Laito's routes a try. His HDB will definitely make you mad though lol

[ratwars]

Who do you think is the deepest character in diabolik lovers and whyyyyyy :3 (sorry if this is weird btw :,))

Tomà out here activating my dialovers derangement syndrome 🥲 ty ty ty also sry sry sry in advance 🙏💜

Minors dni with this post

This is not weird omg no one ever asks me about dialovers you need to understand I was into VNs including otome before I was into any anime (including bsd) and diabolik lovers is my longest term obsession that isn't music 💜🙏 This is mostly going to involve things from the games (because the anime was basically silly fanservice that barely scratches the surface for anyone) but I'll leave out drama cd stuff because I would actually need to go refresh myself on those.

Absolute novel under the cut sorry. also cw noncon, cw dubcon, cw abuse, cw csa, cw suicide, cw matricide

Anyone not familiar with the series who decides to continue pls be aware of these warnings and take care of yourself. Also pls understand everything I say is in terms of the series and setting. Absolutely nothing that happens in these games would make any of these characters redeemable irl. This is fiction and a trashfire Do-S fetish franchise. Trauma doesn't excuse abuse. I don't condone any of the bad behavior from this series irl. (Sorry since this isn't my sideblog I feel I need to explain this so ppl don't come at me thinking I'm excusing stuff for reals with this little analysis)

Also this is probably going to have spelling mistakes and horrific formatting because I wrote it on mobile so my bad on that too.

This was so hard to answer because so many of them have serious trauma, maladaptive coping mechanisms, and large amounts of growth throughout the various sequels. I think you could make the logical argument of depth for every single character. The Sakamaki triplets are def the most tragic of the first two games in this regard though (maybe only rivaled by the Tsukinami brothers once we get to Dark Fate because of the whole being the sole survivors of genocide thing)

But as a whole I think Carla and Shin deal with their predicaments in a more outwardly focused manner (which makes sense given their stories and roles as antagonists in their debut game) so I don't think I could objectively call them the deepest esp Carla even though he is my fave.

So out of the Sakamaki triplets I am going to go with Laito. Shocking I know because I have said before he is the one I am the most terrified of. But hear me out.

(I'm using HBD (haunted dark bridal) to refer to the first game, and MB (more blood) to refer to the second game going forward)

His first route in hdb is a stomach twisting mess of isolation, noncon, gaslighting and victim blaming. It is also the only route in that game where Yui tries to kill herself, which imo is really notable. Tbh the first time I played it I was so deeply uncomfortable I didn't really give his character a lot of thought. During replays and some of his drama cds though it def changed my perspective of him (in terms of the deepness of his character, not my dislike of him)

Here are my arguments in topical format because I don't really want to go through and do the research needed to refresh myself and make this chronological. Also if I am mistaken with anything I've paraphrased my bad it's because this isn't a real essay more of a rant that you might regret reading lol.

- Cordelia

We can't go into the rest of my arguments without the facts. He was groomed by his mother and experienced a childhood of CSA at her hands. And he is absolutely confused and suffering when he has his flashbacks. Yes he kills her with the other two triplets, but that didn't actually solve anything for him internally, and I think it is a pretty clear-cut argument that his negative traits and behaviors can be linked back to his unresolved trauma from this. He even says it himself too when he tries to project onto Yui and claim her hatred for him must be the same as his for Cordelia (though unnamed in his quote im pretty sure) that a hatred can run so deep that even killing the person won't relieve the burning. The other ironic part of this is that in the dialovers universe it is explained multiple times that the highest act of love for a vampire is murder. So. Every LI (Reiji, Laito, Ayato, Kanato) that committed matricide out of their hatred probably has some deeper more complex feelings going on than that. (You could also argue maybe a similar thing about Carla and patricide as well though he is Founder/First Blood not vampire. But he is more open about his reasoning and feelings around his parents and why he did what he did imo)

- His disdain of purity (plot twist. It's jealousy).

We repeatedly see him mock both Yui's purity and religiosity. He is arguably the worst out of all of the LIs when it comes to this topic, and hits this point right out the gate when he assaults her in the abandoned church. It is simultaneously a logical and also weird choice on his part to continue on with when you realize how unwavering her faith actually is, and if you do other routes before this one you are already coming in realizing no matter how much she "breaks", "changes", or "gives in" in other ways, she never actually abandons her faith completely even in future games when she is living quite literally in the demon world. Even in routes where she becomes a vampire she doesn't eschew God. However it is canon that she is a devout Catholic and that she originally wanted to be a nun (before the events of the game screw that up for her), so it is still relevant.

While it may have started as a way to try and break her down, it really becomes more and more clear through his routes that like a bunch of his other behaviors, he is projecting his own struggles onto Yui.

He is jealous of her purity, so he attacks it. He is jealous of her faith, so he attacks it. He is jealous of her unwavering belief in goodness and in humanity, so he just. keeps. attacking. it. Because seeing it exist in front of him hurts, but especially early on he isn't aware of his own emotions or why he acts the way he does. So many things in his routes and his monologues highlight the fact that Laito views himself as permanently dirtied by his past, and this behavior is tied to that.

- His inability to identify his feelings from his fake front and his use of sex to maladaptively deal with his trauma.

** I wrote way too much on this and decide nvm I think even if someone has only seen the anime his hypersexuality probably speaks for itself. Plus this is getting so long 😔**

-His lack of control in MB and "forced" behavior. His confusion over his own tears near the end of HDB.

There are various instances (esp in MB where his characterization is wildly different and desperate compared to HDB) where we see his mask start to crack, or realize that his mask wasn't actually very good to begin with and the exhaustion from the continous abuse in his routes has caused both Yui (and us as the reader) to fall for his bullshit more easily. He plays the part of a pervert, but Shu (who arguably is a massive pervert) calls him out in MB for being a phony. His behavior in MB makes him come across as desperate and out of control, as opposed to his calculated sadism in HDB. This all comes back to his inner turmoil, unresolved feelings, and trauma and we slowly unpeal those layers through the rest of the series.

I think at baseline it is really easy to dismiss Laito. I did from the beginning too. Plus he never stops calling Yui Bitch-chan no matter how many sequels he gets 🤦‍♂️ But that is just falling for his fake front, exactly what he wants you to do because then he can just keep carrying on without dealing with his bs and let off steam temporarily in the process. But under the surface there is a lot more going on. And he definitely is a character that has an insane amount of depth.

Sorry for the multi part novel. I don't even like him as an LI even in this series. But for a series with so many inconsistencies, retcons across games, and questionable writing choices, they did a good job with his character. I just need him to stay far away from both me and Yui 🥲 Imagine if you had asked me something that prompted me to talk about my faves 💀💀💀

[komoriyui]

《 I would like to thank Rejet with my whole heart for all of their unserious Dialovers content, such as the 4-panel manga, and the silly CDs they've released (;﹏;) Because after experiencing the hell that was rereading Laito's HDB route to help me write an analysis, I put on one of those silly CDs, and listening to all the boys commit to helping Azusa find his lost sock felt like the best breath of fresh air I've ever taken... (´ ∀ ` *) 》

[everything-laito]

Do you think Laito’s and Ritcher’s relationship could be fixed? I feel like they would have a good relationship if that’s whole “love triangle” thing didn’t happen

Oh man that's a really interesting question! Thanks for stopping by!

akl;sflsdkf omg yeah I would use the "love triangle" statement very lightly because oh my god alsdkjflkdsf why is it technically a love triangle oh noooooooo I didn't realize that until you said it

(More under the cut––this was longer than I thought this was going to be alsdkjf)

Uhhhhh I don't think there's anything there to salvage it. Both people are incredibly egotistical, and well... Richter and Cordelia did kinda have sex/did sexual things in front of Laito, so,,, I would imagine a situation like that wouldn't really escape Laito's head, whether Laito ever forgave Richter for that or not. When it comes to Laito forgiving Richter, I would say no, absolutely not––in Dark Fate, Laito ends up forgiving Cordelia at the end of his route, but he doesn't mention Richter at all. I agree that their relationship would be very interesting if they didn't have a weird "rivalry" going on, but I feel like Laito being the foil to Richter is extremely effective as a character dynamic.

If it didn't happen, I don't even know if Richter would really be involved with Laito at all, or even the brother's. It's really his ties to Cordelia (not Karl) which makes him involved in the family and is the reason why Yui was able to make it through the Sakamaki's situations in HDB in the first place.

There's a few scenes that we see Laito and Richter in. One of them is Maniac 07 (if you're interested in seeing my breakdown of that scene you can read it here) and a handful more in Dark Fate. But Laito's pissed. He's so pissed off that his facade comes off, and he has said that he would want to kill Richter. The fact that Laito was able to forgive Cordelia (which I have my personal reservations of) was already an incredible feat, but I feel like forgiving Richter would be a stretch.

Honestly, you brought up something I never really thought of before. If we were to simplify this to a normal "cheating" situation (assuming Cordelia ""cheated"" on Laito with Richter PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM USING "CHEATING" VERY LIGHTLY, Laito was in a nonconsensual and coerced relaitonship with Cordelia no matter how you look at it), it would make sense that Laito is more mad at Richter than Cordelia. In many cheating cases, the "cheatee" doesn't get mad at the "cheater/their partner," but rather the person the cheater had the affair with. This usually is because they don't see the person in the affair as human because they don't know them as well in comparison to their partner. It's just taking the blame off of the cheater and putting it onto the other party. So I guess that may be why Laito wasn't as mad at Cordelia for having an affair with Richter??? But also, let's put it in context: Laito was most definitely coerced and pretty much brainwashed and manipulated and abused and conditioned. He kept believing he loves Cordelia when in actuality, it is not love. It is a bit different than using my simplified """cheating""" situation. So with the addition of "cheating psychology" and Laito's very complicated emotions with Cordelia (being pained by her and also trying to convince himself that he loves her etc), it makes sense why Laito was more angry at Richter than he was with Cordelia.

But maybe I'm wrong, maybe Laito does have it in him to forgive Richter. I personally cannot see it at this time, and even if he does, I don't think something like this can be fixed to the point where they'd be "chill" with each other. However, if you have headcanons about their relationship dynamic if the Cordelia thing never happened/if this was magically fixed, I would love to hear!

Thanks for coming in and asking!! As always if you need any clarifications or have any questions etc, let me know! -Corn

—————————————————————————————-

KO-FI | ANALYSES MASTERPOST | ANALYSIS TAG | FAQ

[callmeklair]

"If you like Yui you shouldn't talk bad about Ayato because she wouldn't like it if you talked bad about her man."

Dude, I can talk bad about Ayato all I want because he's a damn fictional character and I swear Yui won't care either because she's a fictional character too.

And I don't even hate him, but his fans make me can't stand him. I don't even know where the hell all this supposed "hate" and "misinformation" towards Ayato that her fans talk about comes from.

I mean, I might even bet that Ayato stans here on Tumblr use multi-accounts to make it seem like posts about Ayato get more likes and reblogs.

Ayato is an overrated character, he may be the poster boy but he's not even the best written character in DL, let alone the most interesting. There's a reason why Japanese fans (the ones DL games are really aimed at) prefer Shu and Subaru. Japanese Dialovers prefer to draw Yui with Reiji rather than Ayato, so I don't know where this supposed "popularity" of Ayato or AyaYui himself comes from. 🤷🏻‍♀️

yeah whatever you said, exactly my thoughts. where did misinformation come from? like it's opposite, you all push down so many analysis and ayato facts on us like we did something wrong by saying "he is not that perfect to be overhyped so much" :/

and as I said it cannot be compared who had it worse because trauma is something that can't be compared yet these people in their analysis paint it like "ayato literally had it worse because he was treated like this by this character" so were other boys by other characters :/

all we do is just say that we hate the overhype but they interpret it as Ayato hate. I genuinely have neutral feelings for him like he is okay but we never said we hate him.

It's all just their delusional

[xxblackgardenxx]

Laito And Abandonment Issues

There is this behavior I have noticed from Laito, that happens whenever Laito thinks Yui is trying to "escape" him. This is just one thing that makes dating Laito so toxic. He has this constant fear of Yui leaving him and her dying. This is seen with the Daylight CD's and chapters in the games.

(bit of a long read)

Pretty much, his BIG problem with why Yui and him fight is because of this mindset and trauma. Of course this mindset and trauma became a thing because of his horrible mother. With her having a sexual relationship with him and using him. The abandonment issues all started then, he loved her and she only used him, she was not his and this has effected him greatly in relationships. He NEEDS people(men) to know that Yui is his, because in the past his "lover" was not. This can be seen with Kou in MB, when he flaunt the pictures of him and Yui, he NEEDED Kou to know to back off and that Yui was his, and there is nothing he could do about it. This way he is in control, which in most in his life, he was not. (his a petty bitch-I love him).

But I mostly want to talk about his way of "putting Yui in her place" I guess you could say, In Date Fate and Chaos Lineage. Right so in Date Fate, Yui is trying to help Laito by talking to his brothers, so she tricks Laito to make him fall asleep and go to the castle. But Laito being big brain, he knew something was up. He then followed her and was big angry deep voice boy. He believes that Yui wants to get rid of him, that she no longer loves him, or maybe it was a lie from the start. His used to this treatment, and that was his only "love" he has experienced, so of course he is going to have not only abandonment issues but trust issues as well. For "betraying" him, he legit is like "Oh you love me? Then you can never leave my side" Again. That need of staying in control. Well if you tie her up, she cant do anything you don't want her to do.

And we see this again, in Chaos Lineage. Laito getting jealous of Kou and tying Yui up. I believe this time was more, not him scared SHE was going to do anything, but "protecting" her. DF was more out of fear of her leaving him, while CL was more the fear of men taking her away from him. So either way, he is afraid of losing her. Of course people are afraid of losing their lover, but I think it is clear that Laito CANNOT deal with the mere thought of Yui leaving him in a healthy way. This now comes to Daylight. Laito becomes very impulsive under a lot of stress. He holds a lot of emotions, and it is hard to digest when he becomes like this. Everything he was holding back behind that mask comes to light all at once, I cannot think of how awful that must feel like for him.

Under stress, he becomes angry I have noticed, and puts all of his stress and anger onto Yui. He does not know how to cope with this height of stress, he laches out because he does not know, for one, that he acting in that way, two, how to calm it and third, how to catch it before his mind goes wild. Honestly, as I am a person with anxiety, I think he may have it as well. It seems like once he is in a runt, it only gets worse and worse to the point he gets like in Track 4. He realizes reality, he cannot deal with dubbed reality and closes his heart and acts as if he is not hurt. What he does is getting rid of what is hurting him, and plans to kill Yui. (Messed up I know, like what the fuck is up with Laitos routes and CD's and dying? Like omg please stop. LE ending fucked me up :))

This mindset, the mindset of him only able to see the bad, he is only able to see that one day Yui will die and so that means his life will be worthless. This is why he doesn't stop wanting to die, even though finding love. Even though he has found happiness, the world will just not allow him to fully keep this happiness. It is truly a tragedy, as Yui is not able to life forever, he knows this, and acts out. Whenever I am reading Laitos route, I am always thinking of how fucked up he is going to be once Yui is gone. It is truly is tragic.

[diabolikpersonals]

Heyyy, just an interesting question I had, do you think diabloic lovers could’ve been more popular and better if it wasn’t a “romance” thing, for me I feel like it would’ve been wayyy better if they were to choose the healing from trauma route for the franchise, esp since it would’ve made sense since the vampires had traumatic childhoods. Not only that the “romance” isn’t even romance it’s straight up (TW: SA, abuse and manipulation) and it’s hella weird that most of the characters are minors. Sorry for blubbering so much but just a thought I had 😭😭😭

You and I just aren't members of the target audience, anon, but dialovers is plenty popular because it's a dark romance. I get that the eng-speaking fandom isn't all that active, and things are especially quiet because we're in the middle of a long hiatus, but it's a fairly popular otome game series with lots of dedicated fans, u know? And the thing everybody knows it for, and the thing that the fans are always talking about, are its dark romantic fantasy sexy vampire stuff. Getting preyed on by a hot vampire guy is a pretty normal & common fantasy to have, imo. so I don't think it needs to change to become more popular or anything, in fact I think it'd become less popular fsdghfh

But I hear you, because I'm not part of the target audience either (opposite end of the spectrum, personally...!) and I'm mostly into it for plot n character analysis. (I know that sounds so pretentious but I can't help being a nerd about this stuff ok.......I definitely have my ships too) I've definitely felt, as I was playing and reading, that this is an amazing story that is kind of held back because it's an otome game and the law requires them to stick blood-sucking scenes into almost every single chapter.

I'd argue that dialovers already is steering itself in a direction where it's focusing more on character-driven plot and less on romance. A lot of people complained about LE for this exact reason. Personally, I like it...! I know it's because I'm not the target audience but when I'm playing these games, getting through the bloodsucking scenes is such a chore, especially when I'm like "GUYS there's a demon war going on!!!" lmao. I thought this was an unpopular perspective to have in this fandom, but I've met some people who share the same opinions as me, and I think both parties can be satisfied (and I'm putting this in bold because I'm so so serious) if dialovers released a series of light novels.

This is my newest thing I'm campaigning for bc I think it would be the perfect supplementary material for dialovers. The best blood-sucking scenes are gonna be in the game, since they've got the visuals and the voice acting. Novels aren't structured like the games, so while they'll definitely still have blood-sucking scenes in them (duh), they won't have to interrupt important plot points to have 5 or 6 unnecessary ones. It's a retelling so you can take the scenes from the games and describe them in way more detail! Dialovers as a tighter story! More insight into how the characters act, and what they're thinking and feeling! Intimate scenes described in prose! Cool new art for the covers! And rejet makes money without the need for voice acting, so it can be done during the hiatus! Everybody's happy, right??? rejet pls hear my pitch.......

[afra-blueraz]

Thank you so much for mentioning me.

As I said before in this post I really don't like when people say a fandom is dying. Let's don't make negative effects on people who still enjoy this fandom. Read my post and it will help you. A lot of people liked it and it gave them good feelings and motivation. As I said even if just one person is active in a community this means that fandom is still alive.

I know I'm not that much active these days and I have personal reasons. Summer is a hard season for me but I won't forget my love for DL. I promise I will back in a very good time.

I'm not into OC blogs but I can introduce you some canon blogs and artists who write canon x canon fanfics, headcanons, novels and ...

Me myself in my personal blog @afra-blueraz something write silly headcanons.

My friends @its-irsaa-fyp @callmeklair @shuyui-nether @diabolik-art-blog @dialovers-lover-xoxo @diacripticcomplex write very interesting headcanons and fanfics.

My main blog @dia-souls me and my friend Irsa write a lot of things such as, fanfics, one-shots, CD and game analysis, novels, headcanons and a lot of DL related things.

There are a lot of artists like me hehe 😂 although I'm not a very good one but I draw some silly canon x canon from my favorite ships. I really admire @uusercatt367 @krtn004 @ausd . They are my favorite artists. All of them are amazing and draw canon x canon ships.

I introduce you a new artist here @ren0rina . They are new on tumblr. I love their works.

The Fandom and tumblr community is dying..so many roleplay-ask creators are inactive (reasonably so) and it's kind of sad, honestly! I miss a lot of the people who used to post like @the-mostdiabolik-of-lovers @dialoverssakamaki @ask-ayato @strawberry--bride It's kind of sad to see the community is slowly dying! Thanks for keeping the community slightly alive and being active ❤️

Ps: You don't have to post this if you don't want to haha just a note of appreciation.

// Aww, that’s such a sweet message, Anon! 🥹💖

I really miss roleplaying too, but I do understand why a lot of people stopped being active or simply lost interest. I feel like the DL fandom is going a bit downhill, since nothing interesting happens to the franchise anymore, and there’s so much drama that it becomes tiring. Nevertheless, I’m glad there are people out there who still show support and interact with my posts. Thank you. <3

[spunkypigeon]

Diabolik Lovers Drama CD Analysis: The Dinner Banquet by Moonlight

This drama CD is already a part of my HDB route analysis for Reiji’s character, however, I wanted to post it separately for convenience - this post mainly consists of both analysis and my own thoughts and interpretations. I thought I’d post this separately just in case anyone wanted to read my thoughts on it without having to scroll down my entire HDB route analysis. 

As always, this transcript is by the lovely @dialovers-translations.

So, shall we begin?

Word Count: 9,171 words

*Cling*

Reiji: Haah...I simply cannot get enough of the fragrance of this tea. During this short timespan given to me, I get to indulge in the highest of luxuries. At dawn, when everyone is falling asleep, enjoying a cup of tea by myself. A wonderful time just by myself. I even find myself wishing that the fools in this household would just never wake up again.

The door opens.

Shuu: ー Sorry to crush your dreams, but I’ll have to interrupt your ideal time.

Reiji: Hm? ...Tsk, Shuu. You truly do appear at the worst possible times. Hmph. Thanks to you, the best time and space changed to the worst time and space in the blink of an eye.

You usually do not wake up over the slightest thing, so what’s the matter?

Shuu: Hm...For some reason I couldn’t fall asleep. There’s this certain thing missing from my bed after all.

Reiji: ...’This certain thing?’

Right at the beginning of this CD, it’s pointed out to us that Reiji rarely gets his own time, he’s always busy with something and never really has any time to himself to relax - bringing us back to his perfectionism and how that can cause people to become restless until something has been ‘perfected’, leaving sparse amounts of time to simply sit back and enjoy your own company; yet that becomes interrupted, and Reiji’s sour mood returns.

It’s quite fitting that out of all the brothers, it’s Shuu who decides to deflate Reiji’s mood - if you’ve played or followed Shuu’s route, then you know that he’ll frequently do things to intentionally irritate Reiji, and I think that is exactly what he’s doing here. Shuu has a trivial problem, an inconvenience, and who does he annoy ? Reiji, and him being the way he is, voices his disdain for Shuu’s presence. What I find to be quite apt is how Shuu gives a vague hint to his problem and expects Reiji to know what it is. The reason I’ve said that it’s quite fitting of Shuu’s character to do this is because he does the same thing but with his emotions throughout his route - not only does he not elaborate on his inconvenience, but he purposefully makes Reiji question the circumstance; and we all know that Reiji despises not understanding things. To link back to a prior section, notice how Reiji only vocalises his displeasure, he doesn’t physically remove Shuu at any point, implying that he may not hate Shuu as a person, but he doesn’t condone his behaviour. Shuu catches Reiji’s attention and then promptly cuts him off, annoying him. Furthermore, notice how Reiji was the first person Shuu went to, yes Reiji is the most mature, but Shuu still went to him to fix his problem; that could imply that in this scenario, Reiji acts as the ‘caretaker’, the mature figurehead who deals with everything from financial affairs to personal problems - this further shows his need to succeed at everything, and be ‘perfect’ -.

Shuu: Nn...I’m tired...Oh well, I’ll sleep.

He drops down on the couch.

Reiji: Ah...! Wait! Please do not sleep on the couch!

Shuu: Zzz...Zz...

Reiji: Ugh...You...Vampire version of Sleeping Beauty! Shuu! You’re in the way! If you fall asleep there, it’ll ruin my long-awaited tea time! You’re an eyesore, so please disappear from my sight!

Shuu: ...Hm? ー Zz...Zz...

Reiji: ...! Kuh...He won’t wake up. This guy really...!

Hm. Oh well, it’s fine. I suppose he wishes to be killed by me. I’ll grant your wish right now.

Reiji pulls out a blade.

Reiji: Fufufu...If that’s what you want, Using this silver knife I’ve spent days and nights sharpening, I’ll chop off your head in a single motion. This is your punishment for corrupting my wonderful space. You deserve to die while writhing in pain.

Shuu: Nn... (sleep-talking) I can’t...suck no more...Zz...

Reiji: Heh. Dream on for eternity, Sakamaki Shuu.

Notice how Reiji still keeps up his politeness, even when practically yelling at Shuu - it’s fairly easy to see how much Reiji resents his brother, and with that in mind, it’s a natural response to be quick to anger. Yet, with Reiji’s annoyance growing, you’d think that his form of speech would differ and grow more irascible in his wording. I find it quite apt for Reiji to call Shuu “Sleeping Beauty”, not only for the fact that he usually just sleeps all the time, but the fact that Aurora/Talia/Briar-Rose (depending on what source you’re reading from) was a princess within the fable...and given that Karlheinz is the current Vampire King, that would give Shuu a ‘princely’ status. To add onto this, just because I thought it was neat, in the Disney adaptation of the fable, Aurora only speaks 18 lines - which reminded me of how little Shuu tends to speak. There’s not much to analyse for that part but I thought I’d mention it since I thought it was quite apt of Reiji to draw this comparison.

Something that did strike me as strange, was how Reiji decided to draw his sharpened knife at this point in the narrative - if Reiji truly hated Shuu (which I don’t think he does) why wait until now to attempt his murder ? In all honesty, I don’t think Reiji would’ve actually killed Shuu; in my opinion, I think it was more of a ploy to wake Shuu up - put him on high alert - and get him to leave the room. It’s in a vampire’s nature to have higher senses, so one should be able to detect another and or possible danger and it can be implied that Reiji was attempting to use those senses to his advantage in order to get Shuu to leave of his own accord. Additionally, how Reiji claims, “This is your punishment for corrupting my wonderful space. You deserve to die while writhing in pain” could be inferred to refer not only to Reiji’s current dilemma - his “wonderful space” being his time to himself without being interrupted, being surrounded by his own company and relishing in the sparseness of their occurrence; since Shuu has interrupted that, it has therefore become corrupt - however, it could also relate back to Reiji’s childhood and his CEN. It could be implied that if Shuu had been different, Reiji’s childhood might have been different too, but due to that not occurring, Reiji’s once ‘pure’ childhood has now been tarnished and 'corrupted' - pure in the sense that as an infant he would’ve received the care he needed, yet due to Shuu’s importance, that pure, ‘motherly’ care and acknowledgement was lost, and his once “wonderful space” was then only full of loathing and solitude; to me, that makes sense as to why Reiji says “You deserve to die writhing in pain”. Overall, this inference might be considered a long shot, however, it did pique my interest and I thought I’d share it.  

Approaching footsteps can be heard in the distance.

Ayato: ...Aaah!!

Kanato: Trying to kill him in his sleep...What a boring way to murder someone.

Laito: Nfu~ Are we interrupting something, perhaps?

Ayato: Oi!! Don’t try and kill him here, you idiot! Take that kind of stuff outside! You’re in the way!

Reiji: Why are you three here? Did you not say you’d be going to bed and headed to your rooms earlier?

Ayato: Ah, yeah, we did say something like that! But you see, I’m hungry so I just couldn’t fall asleep.

Laito: Nfu~ What were you trying to do while we were asleep, I wonder~?

Kanato: If you want to kill him, it’s the most fun when the other person is wide awake. You wouldn’t want to miss out on their suffering face, would you?

Ayato: Kanato, you really are messed up, huh?

Laito: Eeeh~? But you know, I can understand what Kanato is saying.

Kanato: Fufu...~

Reiji: Haah...

Shuu: (yawns) ...Shut up. Don’t make a fuss right next to the couch.

Laito: Oh dear? Have you awoken?

Shuu: Anyone would wake up if it’s that noisy...Che

Ayato: ...This is the living room, you know!? It doesn’t belong to you, so don’t go clicking your tongue like that! This is my turf!!

Laito: It doesn’t belong to you either, Ayato.

Ayato: Haah!? Every single thing in this house belongs to me!

In this section of the CD, we see Reiji take the passive role when faced with the triplets - which is evidently different from how he is with Yui, or Shuu for that matter - and this could possibly be due to their vast differences. It is to my interpretation that compared to Reiji, Shuu and Subaru, the triplets are rather unhinged and far more bombastic in their whims, desires and means of keeping control - more so Ayato and Kanato moreover Laito since he’s easier to negotiate with -. In addition to this, Reiji’s lack of dialogue in this part could imply back to his passive behaviour compared to the three, as well as present their character differences; and they also tend to listen more to Shuu over Reiji, which would no doubt cause friction, and could potentially link to why Reiji’s presented as passive towards the triplets - there wouldn’t be much point in trying to control their behaviour if they never planned on listening to Reiji in the first place -.

Kanato: Ah...I’m so...terribly hungry...

Ayato: Haah?

Kanato: I...I... *sniff* This whole time...

Ayato: ...Oh fuck.

Reiji: Hm? Kanato, what’s the matter?

Kanato: I’M TELLING YOU I’M HUNGRY, AM I NOT!? I’ve been telling you OVER AND OVER with the look in my eyes! What’s your problem!? Don’t make fun of me!!

Laito: Aha~! He snapped!

Kanato: You see, when I get hungry...I completely lose control...I just get so incredibly angry, I can’t help it!

*THUD*

Shuu: Aah...Noisy...

Ayato: Calm down already! If you throw a tantrum like that, you’ll only get even more hungry!

Kanato: Shut up!!

*THUD*

Kanato: As if you would understand how I feel!?

Ayato: ...!? Fuck, this pisses me off! Oi, Reiji! This is your responsibility!

Reiji: Haah? I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t spout such nonsense. For starters, if you guys had just minded your own business...

I quite like this interaction between Reiji and Ayato here from the declarative “Oi, Reiji! This is your responsibility!“, it not only paints Ayato as a bit of a brat, but it also implements the theme that Reiji is the ‘caretaker’ among the brothers - he cooks, he cleans, he makes sure everyone is okay; more so Kanato, but that’s for an obvious reason. There’s also the implication that the triplets view Reiji as more of a ‘paternal figure’ since their actual father is absent from the majority of their lives, and due to Reiji’s strict and stiff personality, he would naturally be considered as the ‘responsible’ member of the household; hence why Ayato is quick to pass the responsibility of his brother’s hunger onto him - it reminds me of how a child would complain to their parent and then expect them to fix their problem -.

I’d also like to mention the use of aposiopesis, the ellipsis at the end of Reiji’s sentence implying that his dialogue is trailing off or ‘breaking’ and is left unfinished. For instance, it could imply that as he’s talking, he’s had the realisation that the triplets wouldn’t have listened to him anyway, but it could also represent his passiveness in the situation. He was on the verge of ‘killing’ Shuu and now he’s allowing his siblings to run rampant around the living room and declare him to fix Kanato’s problem...that doesn’t seem like the authoritative figure we follow through his route with Yui and I think Reiji’s purposely taking the back seat, and his unfinished sentence could be implied to demonstrate that. From my interpretation, it seems that Reiji’s initial thought process is to simply ‘stick it out’ until the triplets leave, and he can once again attempt to have his moment of relaxation.

Kanato: Uu... *sniff* Anything will do...Anything...Just...FILL MY BELLY!!

*THUD*

Laito: Nfu~

Shuu: Aah...What a pain.

Reiji: ...I understand. I understand so please calm down! I will make you a homemade meal. ESPECIALLY for you guys’ sake, I will do that.

Shuu: It isn’t really special or anything. You’ve always been the one in charge of cooking.

Reiji: Shuu!!

Laito: Nfu~ Either way, we don’t want Kanato to cry and complain any longer, so please get right to cooking~

Reiji: Good grief... (mumbles) Why do I have to do all of this...One day, I’ll kill these guys for sure...

Kanato: Did you say something!?

It’s evident to see that compared to all the brothers, Reiji often goes overlooked or simply does not hold more of a notable presence; and I think scenes like this display that quite well. Phrases such as “I understand. I understand so please calm down! I will make you a homemade meal. ESPECIALLY for you guys’ sake, I will do that” portray Reiji as a character who tries to conform, reason and reassure the situation at hand; the fact that he repeats the verb phrase “I understand” implies that he’s opting to reason with Kanato’s demands and let him know that the problem will be addressed and sorted. By following Reiji’s route, we understand that he’s a character who abhors unnecessary drama and complaints; therefore, he’s attempting to solve the problem quickly and avoid any possible tantrums from Kanato’s end.

*TIMESKIP*

Reiji: Here you go, now there’s nothing to complain about, is there?

He drops the plate on the table.

Laito: Nfu~ So violent! The pudding you took your time making will become a mess!

Reiji: Even if it looks bad, as long as your stomach gets filled, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Ayato: ...Are you happy now, Kanato?

Kanato: ...Pudding! Sparkling...Pudding!!

Reiji: I present to you, Sakamaki Reiji’s special iron-packed pudding, topped with raspberry sauce.

Kanato: *munch much* Mm...~

Reiji: Hey! At least give your impressions first! Like ‘it looks good’, or ‘thank you’ to express your gratitude!

Kanato: Haahn...*munch munch*

Reiji: ...The cold shoulder!?

The notion that Reiji drops the plate on the table alongside his remark presents a passive-aggressive tone, which I think is quite fitting since he likes to display a more ‘gentlemanly’ façade - he’s obliged to Kanato’s whims even though he didn’t want to; passive-aggressiveness naturally comes hand-in-hand with that sort of behaviour, that sort of passive behaviour. Additionally, Laito’s remark of “so violent” could imply that he doesn’t take Reiji’s sour mood too seriously and opts to play off of it - it can be further implied that none of the triplets take Reiji’s efforts seriously at all. This inference can be found when Kanato gorges the pudding without uttering a word, which causes Reiji to grow more irritated since he feels like he’s entitled to an utterance of praise to “express your [Kanato’s] gratitude“. It not only displays Reiji’s passiveness to ‘give in’ to Kanato’s anger, but it also displays his incessant need for praise, acknowledgement and attention from others - which we can clearly see throughout his route, as it stemmed from his childhood and CEN -. It also explains why Reiji becomes quite expressive when given “the cold shoulder!?” by Kanato.

Ayato: Haah...Oh well, he calmed down so whatever? By the way, Reiji, isn’t there any for us? Aah!?

Reiji: ...Why would I have to cook for you guys as well?

Shuu: ...I’m hungry.

Ayato: Exactly, hungry!

Laito: Right~? We’re totally starved!

Reiji: I do not care! Why not cook for yourself?

I find it quite humorous that Ayato expects for there to be food for him and the others, it not only shows his entitlement, but also his treatment of Reiji - the caretaker, the figurehead, the paternal figure, the butler -. It’s at this moment that Reiji shows his more authoritative side towards the brothers and attempts to cut their interaction short - evidently it doesn’t work, but it shows how the other brothers are willing to take advantage of Reiji’s efforts in order to sate their own needs. It both displays the brothers’ selfishness, but also Reiji’s lack of presence - which could imply why he’s as brutal and manipulative as he is throughout the entirety of his route -.

Ayato: If we were allowed to, we would...But are you sure? If we were to cook, who knows what will happen to the kitchen...

Laito: Right? Weren’t you the one who lashed out at us for using the kitchen the other day?

Shuu: Ah...That was...Because you guys made the whole thing explode, right?

Ayato: It wasn’t an explosion! We were only cooking!

Reiji: Would the kitchen really explode from just cooking? ...It can’t be helped. I’ll make an exception and make something for you guys as well.

Shuu: Try and make it as quick as possible, okay?

Reiji: ...! For some reason I just don’t feel satisfied... Oh well, I suppose it’s fine. I will make you something.

Kanato: ...I’m looking forward to it.

Reiji: You’re still planning on eating more!?

Here we see both Ayato and Laito display their slyness, a little bit of reverse-psychology in order to get their way - to eat without cooking -. I find it quite fitting that Shuu also plays into this, not only due to his apathy and laziness, but also because he knows that it’ll irritate Reiji; in turn, their ploy works, Reiji questions himself, something that he does internally quite frequently, showing his more doubtful side, and gives in to their demands. Interactions such as this show how the brothers tend to treat Reiji as a servant of sorts - and can explain why Reiji treats Yui as such, he’s treating her how he himself is treated. It’s both sad and ironic. However, Shuu’s quick remark of “Try and make it as quick as possible, okay?” not only shows his gall, but his ungratefulness towards Reiji, and how far he’s willing to go in order to annoy him; and Reiji’s reluctant to that, he yet again gives in and becomes passive, this can be seen through the phrase “it’s fine”. It’s a phrase we all use when we yield or back down from something, even if we’re not fine with it; it presents our own passivity towards something that may cause conflict. I also wanted to bring attention to Kanato’s dialogue here, as it again presents the brothers’ entitlement, and how they each expect Reiji to rally round each and every one of their problems or inconveniences - but also, the exchange is quite funny to me -.

*TIMESKIP*

Reiji: Now you can’t complain.

He drops the plates on the table again.

Laito: Nfu~ What a brute. There’s no reason to slam them down like that.

Ayato: Woah!! Despite everything, in the end Reiji’s a good guy! He made all of our favourite dishes! I’m digging iiin~ *munch munch*

Delicious, this Takoyaki!!

Laito: These macaroons as well...They’re sublime~ Almost as if they’re straight from a famous store in Paris. Nfu~

Shuu: *munch munch* The steak’s good...

Reiji: ...!!! Unconsciously...I ended up...making everyone’s favourite dish...I almost seem like you guys’ mother at this point! Damnit!

He slams his fist against the table.

Reiji: ...I can’t forgive myself.

Again, we see Reiji’s passive-aggressiveness through his mannerisms, for which Laito states “What a brute”. The phrase itself holds no deeper meaning in the context and is mainly used to display Laito’s ‘playful’ personality and mockery towards Reiji. Additionally, the praise that Reiji lacked from Kanato earlier is made up for here by Ayato, Laito and Shuu as they each state that: “The steak’s good”, “They’re [the macaroons] sublime” and “Despite everything, in the end Reiji’s a good guy”. I wanted to bring attention to the third comment - made by Ayato - as I find it quite significant towards Reiji’s character. It can not only be used in the context that he’s gone out of his way to please the others and their ravenous stomachs, but it could also relate to his route in general - throughout Reiji’s route he (at first) treats Yui quite poorly yet, when the time calls for it, he’s also there for her; he’s got Yui’s back when all else fails is what I’m trying to say. That despite everything, Reiji does care for Yui, it’s just in his own messed up way.

Furthermore, I find the notion that Reiji subconsciously cooked their favourite meals to be quite telling - implying that as much as he claims to hate his brothers, he’s still meticulous in their preferences; inadvertently showing that he does, in retrospect, care for them. The added factor that Reiji seems to despise the fact that he’s catered to everyone’s favourite dish, and can’t forgive himself for it could imply that to some degree, Reiji views himself as a ‘bad’ person - or that he likes to think that he’s a bad person in order for him to make sense of his childhood; again bringing us back to his CEN and the belief that a child has to be ‘wrong’ in some way for their parents to not love them, and with that in mind, it therefore makes a little more sense as to why Reiji becomes frustrated with himself after this situation.

Footsteps approach

Subaru: ...Oi!!

*THUD*

Reiji: ...! That startled me! ...Subaru?

Subaru: Che...Makin’ a fuss down here...You’re all far too loud, I can’t sleep!!

Reiji: Aah...My apologies for the inconvenience. However, it should be resolved now. Their bellies have been filled, so they should soon...

Subaru: Oi, make something for me as well.

Reiji: Haah...?

Subaru: ‘Cause of these guys I woke up and when I came downstairs, the air was filled with nothing but delicious smells. Now I’m hungry as well.

Ayato: *munch munch* Aah? If you snack at night, you’ll get fat!

Reiji: Speak for yourself!

Subaru: ...Che! Hurry up! I’m starved!

Reiji: Heh. I refuse. I’ve been cooking non-stop since earlier, and I do not wish to return to the kitchen over and over again.

Subaru: Haaah...!?

Reiji: Seeing you sulk that much makes me uncomfortable too, if you are dissatisfied, why don’t you...

*CRASH SHATTER*

Reiji: ...!?

Laito: Ah-aaah~ Look at that hole in the cupboard. Now we get a nice view of the moon.

The added appearance of Subaru to this scene allows us to view Reiji from different perspectives and scenarios. Subaru also desires food and Reiji puts his foot down and denies - showing assertiveness towards his sibling - and from that, Subaru begins to destroy the house - throwing a makeshift tantrum if you will -. It could infer that if either the triplets or Subaru don’t get their own way, they’ll resort to violence, which would no doubt cause Reiji an unending amount of hassle; it links back to the point I made previously, that Reiji is treated as some form of servant by his brothers, and in order to avoid a large scale conflict, he must oblige and become passive (to a degree, he still remains his usual snarky self). It could be implied that when Subaru creates a hole in the cupboard, it’s as if to say “don’t test me”, and we all know that Reiji is a man who prefers to avoid unnecessary risks, and so, he becomes complaisant. It’s a good tactic on Subaru’s end, yet form Reiji’s perspective, it shows his lack of assertiveness towards his brothers, and how he allows himself to be pushed around by them - which obviously allows all that negativity to bubble and fester for him to later take out on Yui -.

Shuu: Nn...It’s cold...

Subaru: Oi...Shall I do more? Aaah!?

Reiji: Haah...

Subaru: I don’t mind wrecking every single wall in this damn place.

Ayato: Oi, oi, cut us some slack. It’ll become something even worse than a haunted house.

Shuu: Father will go on a rampage so cut it out. This is a pain.

Reiji: ...!! Father will!? That’s...You leave me with no other choice, I understand. I’ll make you something.

Subaru takes a seat.

Subaru: Make it quick, got it?

Reiji: Just sit still there and prepare yourself!

Laito: Nfu~ He may be complaining, but he sure looks after us well.

Reiji: Laito! Did you say something just now?

Laito: Noo~ Nothing at all. Nfu~

Once Reiji realises that their “Father will go on a rampage” if any more damage is done, he’s quick to null Subaru’s behaviour. We know that out of all six brothers, Reiji is the only one to value his father’s opinion and presence - I’ve mentioned why earlier on during the childhood section, but it again links back to his CEN and need for approval. Reiji wants to prove that he’s capable and successful to his father so that he may receive the love he lost out on, he wants to be acknowledged by him and prove he’s worthy enough to be loved. 

I also like how not only Ayato calls out Reiji’s ‘soft spot’, but Laito also points it out too, and - in typical Reiji fashion - Reiji’s quick to dismiss the statement by goading Laito to repeat his phrase, which Laito promptly denies. It links back to the point I made of it earlier, that Reiji doesn’t want to think of himself as a ‘good’ person, this could be due to a multitude of things such as his upbringing, race, resentment of Shuu, the fact he had his own mother killed, his treatment of Yui etc. However, in my opinion, it could also be implied that Reiji doesn’t want to believe that he’s a ‘good’ person because that could allow his brothers to take advantage of him further; that his ‘politeness’ could be his downfall and no one would take him seriously or see him as a threat - especially in regards to Yui -.

*TIMESKIP*

Reiji: This is the last dish for the night, got it!?

*THUD*

Subaru: ...Haah!? What’s up with that attitude!? ...By the way, what’s this?

Reiji: Hmph. You’re always saying how you don’t have a favourite meal, so I made this from the leftovers.

Ayato: Aah? What’s this? Pasta?

Laito: It’s Reiji’s favourite Carbonara, right?

Reiji: Heh. Despite complaining about being hungry earlier, in the end, you have a small appetite. Since I assumed you wouldn’t have much, I figured it would be best to make my own favourite meal, so I could eat it afterwards.

Subaru: Che...Fuck. You made me this sloppy, slimy dish...

Reiji: Exactly. That’s why it might be wise for you to pass up o...

Subaru starts wolfing down the pasta.

The more this scene continues, the more apparent Reiji’s passive-aggressiveness shows; the irony of Subaru asking what Reiji’s problem is, is honestly brilliant. It really shows how out of touch each brother is with one another. I also quite like how Reiji just assumes that Subaru won’t eat the meal and it backfires exponentially - it demonstrates that Reiji not only underestimates Yui but also his brothers; yes, it also shows his manipulation since he more or less goads Subaru into not eating the Carbonara since it’s Reiji’s favourite dish, again linking back to Reiji’s reverse-psychology and anti-conformity tactics.

Subaru: *munch munch* Mm...

Reiji: You’re actually eating it!?

Kanato: Smells nice...Let me have a little too.

Subaru: (talking with his mouth full) Just go ‘head and take some...

Kanato: Okay. Thank you very much. Bon appetite.

Reiji: Hold up! My share! Make sure to leave some for me too!

Subaru: Haah? As if I care...

*Sluuuurp*

Reiji: Aaaah! Scarfing it down like that...! I made a larger portion so at least leave some behind!

Kanato: Thank you for the meal~

Ayato: Woah! They ate it all in one go!

Reiji: ...You’ve got to be kidding me!? That amount...By just the two of them, all at once...

By having Subaru eat the dish, and Reiji consequently being surprised by that, it presents the implication that Reiji’s intellect and ego can sometimes precede him and thus demonstrates his overconfidence. He’s overconfident in himself to always be right, but he also underestimates everyone else around him to play into his tactics. I also enjoy how Kanato also digs in too, it not only shows both Subaru and Kanato getting along for once, but I just find it funny how someone as petite as Kanato is eating so much; it’s also amusing how they both disregard the fact that Reiji made the dish for himself and yet by the end of it, he’s the only one who’s not eaten. Reiji’s dialogue of “Hold up! My share! Make sure to leave some for me too!” could be interpreted as a plea, he’s almost begging for his two siblings to leave him some of his own dish; the ellipsis during the statement, “...You’ve got to be kidding me!? That amount...By just the two of them, all at once...” sells his disbelief at the prospect of the situation he’s just caused himself. I like to think that this shows how his usual cocky behaviour can, at times, backfire. It shows that he’s not as perfect as he likes to think he is and that assumptions can do more harm than good.

Subaru: ...Phew~ It didn’t taste bad.

Reiji: Ugh...Why did you not leave my share behind? Today’s carbonara turned out excellent as well!

Subaru: You made it for me, so I get to decide what to do with it. Stop complainin’...!

Reiji clenches his fists.

Bearing that in mind, we again see Reiji become a little more assertive towards his sibling yet he quickly becomes passive once more. We see this through Subaru’s retort, and again shows how Reiji’s usage of words can backfire; therefore, that then gives him no logical argument to present to Subaru, and so, he clenches his fists. Reiji’s body language within this section is telling of both his passiveness and also his anger, it can be implied that clenching your fists is the result of pent up anger and frustration; with that in mind, this can therefore link back to Reiji and his ‘control issues’ - his perfectionism, his narcissism and his need to monopolise everything -. I particularly enjoy how Subaru calls Reiji out on this by telling him to “Stop complainin’...!”. The declarative itself presents Subaru as a reckless character, but as someone who has more presence than Reiji; it also presents the difference between Reiji and Shuu compared to their respective siblings - both Shuu and Reiji are a lot quieter and reserved in their ways, whereas Subaru and the triplets are vocal, disruptive and reckless in their behaviour. However, this section could also imply that Reiji knows when to hold his tongue so that conflict does not break out on his end, it can be implied that he clearly wants to argue back against Subaru due to his clenched fists (showing his irritation) yet, he holds back. He holds back because as we know, Subaru’s temper and sheer strength can often be a loose cannon, and I don’t believe Reiji would challenge that; hence why his fists are clenched - he’s ‘biting his tongue’ so to speak -.

Reiji: Kuh...

Laito: Aah~ My belly’s filled and we get such a nice view of the moon from here.

Ayato: Yeah! I finally feel satisfied!

Shuu: I feel you.

Reiji: Ah...That’s right! All of you were finally able to fill your empty stomachs, weren’t you? All because of me! That being said, hurry up and...

Laito: Nn...

Ayato: I’ve gotten sleepy... *yawns*

Shuu: Zz...

Kanato: Good niiiiight~

Reiji: Hold up! Will you all be sleeping here!? I was just about to pour myself a cup of tea to lift my mood! Return to your rooms at this instant!

Ayato: ...That’s a pain. Who cares if we sleep here?

Reiji’s frustration becomes more and more apparent as the CD continues and this section displays that, especially through his need for recognition, “All because of me!”. This exclamative demonstrates both his aggression and his thirst for acknowledgement - he wants thanks for his aid -. The personal pronoun “me” can be implied to present Reiji’s self-importance, as he’s stating that his siblings’ stomachs would still be in ‘peril’ if he hadn’t been ‘generous’ enough to provide what they wanted; yet again, he and his remarks are completely and utterly ignored, it demonstrates that his brothers don’t take him seriously and that he’s just the ‘parental’ figure, he’s the butler to them. When you see Reiji’s treatment from the other brothers, it becomes easier to understand why he’s the way he is with Yui, especially his need for reassurance and praise.

Reiji’s demands are again ignored; each line he speaks at the end of this section is an exclamative, he’s quite literally shouting at them and he goes disregarded - as the CD continues his mood decreases and decreases until he more or less gives up and gives in to his brothers’ anarchy. I’d like to link this back to Reiji’s relationship to Yui, much like how over time Reiji wears Yui down into becoming more or less subservient to his whims and desires, here we see almost the same thing - their situations parallel each other - as all the brothers exhaust Reiji and wear him down until he inevitable gives them what they want. It all inadvertently links back to Reiji wanting to cause others the same pain and struggles he feels and this circumstance is no difference; if anything, it displays it to a bigger extent.

Laito: *yawn* Napping in the light of the moon...is another one of my ways to have fun. Nn...I’m sleepy...

Reiji: Don’t actually fall asleep!

Kanato: Uu...*sniff* I’m tired but...You’re being noisy...

Reiji: ...! What is you guys’ problem!?

Subaru: My thoughts exactly! Getting sleepy after eating...You’re all Vampires, aren’t ya!? This is the pinnacle of laziness.

Reiji: Exactly...Indulging in human food and then falling right asleep...Heh! This is unbelievable.

Subaru: As a Vampire...It has to be ‘that’, or I just can’t feel satisfied. Isn’t that true?

Reiji: You’re right.

Reiji licks his lips.

Reiji: In the end...Nothing beats drinking the blood from a fair lady’s neck. Otherwise, our hunger and thirst can simply not be quenched.

Subaru: Heh, so simple-minded.

Reiji: What?

Within this section Reiji’s mood changes rather quickly from Subaru’s remark at his brothers’ laziness, and then it reverts back to his usual sour mood. What I wanted to bring attention to here is how Reiji’s mood lifts when someone is in accordance with him, they have either similar or the same views as him; it relates back to Reiji’s need for approval and reassurance, and for a brief moment, Subaru allows him to indulge in that which therefore lifts his mood.

I do find it quite humorous how Subaru calls Reiji of all people “simple-minded”. It could imply back to Reiji’s lack of presence, he doesn’t stick out all that much compared to the others; therefore he could be viewed as bland by both his brothers and us as the audience, so by Reiji declaring that drinking from the neck is best, it wouldn’t stick out all that much - it’s the typical place to bite within most Vampiric fiction -. With this statement from Reiji alongside his more passive presence, “simple” would be the first word to come to mind - if you weren’t aware of the complexities of Reiji’s character, or, from the brothers’ perspective, the inner struggles and complexities of Reiji behind closed doors, it’d be natural to label him as “simple”. With this implication in mind, it could be seen as quite a meta joke from our perspective.

Subaru: Drinking from the neck is too orthodox, it’s boring. Besides, the taste of the blood is too rich, it’s not my cup of tea.

Reiji: ...Is that your way of indirectly ridiculing me?

Subaru: I just meant to say that an old geezer’s tastes are different from mine.

Reiji: O-Old geezer...!? There isn’t that large of an age gap between us!

Subaru: Hah! Then at least your appearance is that of an old geezer! You’re barely any different from our old man. ...When it comes to blood, you see, it’s best when sucked from a woman’s ankle. When you bite her there, you get a perfect view of how she tries to reject you with her entire body.

Shuu: Heh...Hehehe...

Reiji: Shuu! Weren’t you asleep?

Shuu: No, Subaru’s childish lecture on blood-sucking was simply too hilarious...I couldn’t help myself.

Subaru: Haah!? Child, you say!?

Shuu: If you’re going to call Reiji an old man, then so am I, right? In that case, you’re nothing but a brat. A child.

Subaru: ...Ugh.

It can be implied that when Reiji uses the interrogative, “Is that your way of indirectly ridiculing me?“ he’s not just asking if he’s wrong, he’s posing the question “are you mocking me ?”; therefore, ‘ask’ in this context could be implied to mean ‘demand’ instead - it all depends on how you yourself interpret the tone of this dialogue -. However, with Reiji’s character in mind, it could be inferred that he’s almost offended by Subaru’s comment, as if to say “are you saying what I’m doing is wrong ?” and we all know that Reiji loathes being wrong or seen as “simple-minded” as Subaru put it; Reiji’s a character who enjoys using his intelligence to overpower his prey and back them into a corner mentally - therefore, to have that pulled into question would most likely cause some form of offence to Reiji, he’s intelligent and he’s a man of tradition; I doubt he’d enjoy having that mocked. It also links us back to his ‘retraining’ of Yui, throughout Reiji’s route in HDB as Yui barely calls out Reiji’s behaviour and she never mocks him whereas the brothers do; most likely if Yui went against Reiji she’d be punished with something truly abhorrent. However, in other routes (I’ll pick Laito’s HDB route since it’s the closest to Reiji’s in terms of psychological abuse) she ‘bites’ back a lot more - such as when she quite literally bites Laito’s lip when he kisses her against he will...and what does Laito do ? He plays it off and treats Yui like a game - both Laito and Reiji treat Yui as a psychological game, something to crack and break until they’re subservient, in essence, it’s a game of cat and mouse to these two. I wanted to compare this little section because compared to Laito, Reiji wouldn’t stand for Yui fighting back and would most likely view it as ‘bad manners’, later punishing her for it. My point is that Laito’s the type of character who doesn’t let mockery or resistance offend him, or get under his skin, whereas Reiji is, and I think that’s due to the mockery he endures from his brothers - Reiji is quite often the ‘butt of the joke’ whereas Laito is not and treatment like this would undoubtedly effect Reiji’s tolerance towards his siblings as well as Yui’s resistance. 

I also like Shuu’s interjection here; how he calls Subaru a child when Reiji is called an “old geezer”. It’s not just Shuu saying that Subaru’s the youngest and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, it’s also Shuu retaliating since he’s just indirectly been called old, but it’s also Shuu inadvertently defending Reiji. By Shuu naming Subaru a “brat”, he’s unintentionally defending Reiji and fighting his corner even though he’s most likely only trying to save his own feelings since he’s the eldest and he’s basically just been told through Subaru’s remark at Reiji that he also looks like an “old geezer”. Shuu - who we know likes to wind up Reiji - has just haphazardly defended the brother he has so many quarrels with; it’s both unintentionally funny and quite endearing.

Shuu: In that case, I can understand why you would suggest something as childish as drinking from the ankle.

Subaru: Then which place do you prefer!?

Shuu: Me...? I...Let’s see...It has to be the chest, right? Piercing through the veins closest to the heart and sucking her blood suits my tastes best. The blood flowing from those veins is so sweet, it’s almost like syrup, you know?

Subaru: Che...So you are an old geezer after all!

Shuu: At least call it an adult’s acquired taste, youngster.

Reiji: Okay, no fighting! Besides, don’t be engaging in such ridiculous quarrels here, but take them elsewhe...

Laito: ...I can’t help but like drinking from the thighs best, I suppose~ Drinking from a young maiden’s second softest spot makes the blood slightly greasy, it sticks to my throat...Nfu~

Subaru: Che...Laito! You were awake as well?

I’d like to bring attention to the aposiopesis that Reiji uses within his dialogue here. Aposiopesis is the device of suddenly breaking off in speech, which can be found within “elsewhe...”, it shows how Reiji’s speech is trailing off in tone, but if we pair it with the ellipsis at the beginning of Laito’s sentence, it can be interpreted that Reiji is once again being interrupted by his siblings, and with the inclusion of the ellipsis at the end of Reiji’s dialogue, it can be further implied that he knows he’s about to be ‘cut off’; hence why aposiopesis has been included, Reiji trails his sentence off - possibly growing quieter depending on how you interpret ellipsis - because he knows he’s going to be interrupted again. It’s a regular occurrence for Reiji’s character to be cut off by his brothers or just ignored in general. I didn’t want to say too much about this section or derail into a tangent since I’d just be repeating myself but I did want to mention the aposiopesis.

Laito: I was finally thinking of getting some rest, but you guys’ started talking about something interesting so I woke up again.

Reiji: In that case, please use this opportunity to take your leave! All of you have been given your own, proper room after all!

Kanato: Uu... *sniffles* ...Shut up...! I can’t sleep...I CAN’T SLEEP LIKE THIS!! Teddy...My Teddy is saying he can’t sleep either...It upsets him!

Reiji: ...! Don’t suddenly scare me like that!

Kanato: I...Such thing...Whether it’s the neck or the feet, the chest or the thighs...I don’t care about all of that!

*THUD*

Kanato: I...The place I like best...are the fingers. In particular, the little finger - which looks as if you could just bite it off - is my preference.

Subaru: Basically...What you’re trying to say is that, right?  You might just accidentally eat the whole pinkie ー That’s what you mean, isn’t it?

Kanato: Fufu...Haha...What happens, happens, but it’d be twice as delicious.

Shuu: Ugh...I’ll pass up on human flesh.

Laito: Likewise. Picking out the bones is a pain after all. If I were to eat it, it would have to be properly seasoned.

Something to note here is Kanato’s outburst, as soon as Reiji proposes that they all retire back to their rooms so that he may indulge in his own privacy Kanato has one of his famous outbursts - which then scares Reiji -. However, once Kanato begins to talk again, he brings the conversation back to blood drinking; the very ‘argument’ that Reiji was trying to dissipate between Shuu, Subaru and Laito. It not only displays that Kanato uses his violent emotions to get his own way (as per usual with him) but that Reiji’s interests and pleas are of no concern to anyone - Kanato has basically just shut Reiji up in order to carry on the conversation at hand between the other siblings; it genuinely shows how dismissive of Reiji all the brothers are.

Reiji: Right, right. Putting this talk about flesh and bones aside, now that you are all awake, hurry up and...

Ayato: ...If you’re gonna suck her, it has to be the nape, right? I don’t like it to be too fatty. Something a little more refreshing is exactly my taste!

Reiji: ...!? Ayato, you too...

Subaru: But that’s lacking, don’t you think? Then it feels like you barely even had any.

Ayato: That’s not true! To make up for it, you just have to drink plenty!

Reiji: Well, Ayato has always been quantity over quality. That being said...

Shuu: Jeez...Both Ayato and you guys don’t know a thing.

Reiji: Shuu...Please don’t stir up this conversation again...

Kanato: ...Saying we don��t know...*sniff* That’s just...Too cruel! Both me and Teddy...*sniffle* did our best to come up with an answer! Yet you completely disregard it like that...

At this point it’s growing quite clear that Reiji’s giving up on the conversation - he has his little quip at Ayato’s expense, but aside from that and the usage of ellipsis and aposiopesis, it can be implied that Reiji’s grown tired of trying to be assertive towards his brothers; opting to replace his strict orders with reluctant pleas - something we tend not to see during his actual route - and it shows the difference between Reiji and his siblings.

Laito: Exactly! Right above the chest is standard just like the neck, isn’t it? Or perhaps the eldest son standing at the head of this long-lasting Sakamaki household has no other choice but to protect such traditions?

Shuu: Are you trying to insult me? A ‘fake’ pervert like yourself probably doesn’t even understand the profound meaning behind standards.

Laito: A fake pervert? ‘Pretending’, you say?

Reiji: Fine, fine! Who cares if it’s just an act? If you were a true pervert at heart, it would be disgusting anyway. So, everyone, pleaseーー

Ayato: This kind of pisses me off...The way you’re looking down on us. I don’t give a damn ‘bout you being the eldest son of not...The greatest person in this household is this Ore-sama over here!

Shuu: Hah. You’re lame.

Ayato: Aah?

Subaru: He really is. Being the ‘greatest’ or the ‘strongest’, bullshit.

Ayato: What did you say? You wanna fight!?

Subaru: Fine by me. ‘Cause I had my fill earlier...

He cracks his knuckles.

Subaru: ...I’m overflowing with energy now. I need a little something to let off some steam.

First and foremost, I wanted to draw attention to Shuu calling out Laito’s façade, I don’t intend to do a deep dive into the subliminal meaning of this interaction since this is a psychoanalysis of Reiiji but I did think that it was quite funny to see Laito become irritated at the fact that Shuu’s basically just called out his entire defence mechanism with little to no effort at all. Secondly, I like how Reiji chooses to ignore this, his irritation has come back, since by almost removing himself from the conversation at hand, he’s allowed Kanato’s outburst to derail the situation further and allowed for Shuu to cause conflict between the brothers. The exclamations are back and his snappy attitude is coming to the forefront; this can be implied through “Who cares....”. It can be implied that Reiji’s becoming aerated once more since he’s once again trying to control the situation - to no avail again -, everything’s getting out of hand and it’s doing so at a quick pace, and Reiji’s attempting to defuse this; it once again demonstrates Reiji’s control issues that we see quite prominently through his route and his treatment towards Yui.

Reiji: Honestly...So hot-headed. Are you listening to what I’m saying? You lot, I would GREATLY appreciate it if you would all take your leave. Right now!

Laito: Nfu~ If you want us to leave, you might have no other choice but to use brute force.

Reiji: Haah...?

Kanato: Horrible...Telling us to leave...Even though we’ve been expressing our will to stay here...Isn’t there a single place for me and Teddy in this whole manor...!?

Reiji: Hold up, I never said that. I’m simply telling you to rest in your own roー

*CRASH*

Reiji: ...!?

Laito: Ah-ahh~ Here we go.

Ayato: Heh...You vandal! Even if you try to scare me off by destroying our surroundings, you won’t get your way!

*CRASH THUD*

Subaru: Heh! Lame! You’re nothing but a fraud! Nobody has ever thought of you as ‘amazing’ or ‘strong’!

Ayato: What did you just say...!?

*CRASH*

*CLATTER*

The situation quickly devolves into madness and as it does, Reiji’s dialogue reflects that, he emphasises his words alongside his exclamations - and what happens ? It devolves even more, Laito takes this opportunity to aggravate Reiji further by taunting him; and Kanato takes this to an extreme, interpreting Reiji’s words to mean that he [Kanato] has no place within their house and that he doesn’t belong there. 

Reiji: Waiー! The manor...The manor will fall apart! Shuu! Didn’t you say that father would be enraged!? Please stop them!

Shuu: Ugh...What a hassle.

Reiji: It isn’t ‘a hassle’!

*SHATTER*

Laito: Hm...But stopping those two once they’re like that is rather difficult, don’t you think?

*THUD*

Laito: More importantly...Shuu...Let’s continue our discussion from earlier.

Shuu: Hm? What do you mean?

Laito: That I’m a fake pervert. I’d like you to explain yourself.

Shuu: What? You’re still talking about that? You’re surprisingly one to hold grudges.

Laito: Nfu~ I get told that a looot~ ...Well then, tell me your reasoning. Depending on what you say, even I won’t forgive you.

*CRASH*

I genuinely enjoy how Reiji becomes frantic at the realisation that their father would be “enraged” by their reckless commotion. It not only displays how much Reiji’s values his father’s opinion but it also removes him further from his brothers - the rest of them could care less about what their father thinks or feels, yet Reiji persists, he doesn’t want to displease him because he wants to be acknowledged by him; it all brings us back to his raging CEN, but at this point Reiji’s losing his usual calm composure - his composure drops and his control of the situation decreases. The situation has become out of hand and Reiji’s becoming quite desperate for the commotion to end; I think that’s why he states “It isn’t ‘a hassle’!“, Reiji’s genuinely asking for help in order to rein his brothers in. Additionally, the notion that Reiji uses single quotation marks in regards to Shuu’s statement could imply that Reiji’s showing some form of sass towards the situation, and what happens ? Latio cuts in - meaning Reiji is promptly ignored and avoided - so that his and Shuu’s ‘discussion’ can continue, which then spurs another argument to arise.

Reiji: Ugh...These two are starting an argument as well...Just cut it out already!

Kanato: *sniff sniff* Why is...everyone...so loud!? Shut up! SHUT UP!! I don’t understand!

Reiji: You are plenty noisy yourself!

Kanato: ...! That’s why...That’s why you tried to drive us out earlier, didn’t you?

Reiji: ...! ‘Drive out’, you say?  It might have sounded that way but...

Kanato: You’re admitting it, huh? You just admitted it, didn’t you? That you tried to get rid of us!

Reiji: Ah...So what!? I simply wanted to enjoy a cup of tea by myself, that’s all!

Kanato: Shut up!! ...In that case, please brace yourself. Teddy, he is the embodiment of all evil trying to strip us of the place we belong. You don’t have to hold back, okay?

Reiji: Aaah, come on! Why...Why does it always turn out like this!??

Kanato: Teddy...GO!!

*Pow pow pow pow pow*

Reiji: ...Don’t attack me with your stuffed bear! Aah, please!! Just cut me some slack! Whatever happens, don’t come crying to me afterwards...!!

*CRAAAASH*

ーー THE END ーー

Something that I wanted to place emphasis on is the notion that Reiji and Kanato are the only pair left. What I mean by this, is that it’s quite apt for these two to be the only ones left - we know that Reiji is treated as an outcast by his brothers for his dictatorial personality and strict need for rules and control however, Kanato is also viewed as an outcast by his brothers too, most prominently Ayato and Subaru with Ayato calling him a “hysteric” for his unbearable personality and incomprehensible actions. Notice the similarity ? None of the brothers can bear to be around Reiji due to his uptight personality and none of the brothers can stand to be around Kanato due to his mania. The outcasts are grouped together however, it’s also the dynamic of a parental figure and a child being presented too since Reiji tends to look after Kanato - it’s a mature and immature dynamic -.

I also wanted to bring attention to when Kanato exclaims “I don’t understand!”, it’s quite sad from his perspective since it showcases how much of an outcast he is compared to the other brothers, again something we see with Reiji. However, I like how Reiji genuinely shouts back at him with “You are plenty noisy yourself!“, it shows Kanato’s lack of self-awareness and it also displays Reiji’s irritation - he’s lost complete control of the situation and now he’s watching from the side-lines unable to do anything because no one will bother to listen to him. I also wanted to give weight to when Reiji says “It might have sounded that way but...” towards Kanato’s statement as it can be implied that in this moment, Reiji is attempting to show compassion towards Kanato yet he quickly justifies his actions; it presents the implication that Reiji is willing to compromise but he will remain logical towards whatever circumstance is thrown his way - much like how he is with Cordelia within his route -.

Additionally, the image of Reiji being attacked by Teddy is honestly hilarious. But, I wanted to bring attention to Reiji’s last piece of dialogue: “Just cut me some slack! Whatever happens, don’t come crying to me afterwards...!!”. It poses the implication that Reiji is practically pleading with Kanato to leave him be - he’s worn out and frustrated - but it’s the implication that Kanato goes to Reiji when something goes wrong that’s somewhat endearing to me, and it reinforces what I implied earlier, that there’s a parent/child dynamic between the two - one outcast looking out for the other, if you will -. I just think that it’s quite a sweet implication to make between the two given that they are ‘pushed out’ compared to their siblings.

In conclusion, Reiji is mostly dismissed and ignored by his brothers, and can be implied to only be viewed as the butler façade he tends to display; and if you think about it, it’s honestly quite sad, but it gives us the understanding as to why he’s so controlling of Yui and why he craves attention and acknowledgement for his actions. If his brothers are barely willing to appreciate Reiji’s ‘good manners’, then it can be inferred that he’s going to try and find it somewhere else; that being through Yui and her kind nature which Reiji promptly takes advantage of in order to quell his own needs.

[lys-lilac]

Yui Komori: Character Analysis

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I have done a character analysis post. But some opinions regarding this character tested my patience, so I had to write. 

Note that these are my personal opinions, and I don’t want you to get affected by it at all. What people think varies, so it’s alright. 

Yui is a 17 year old highschooler who goes to live with the Sakamaki brothers after being told by her father. Now, her father is a priest in the church, so growing with him, she is kind, gentle and shy type of person.

I saw many people saying that she has no character, is boring and all. Well, what do you expect if you recently got to know that the person you trusted the most, is actually not related to you? She discovers the fact that she is not the biological child of the priest. On top of it, she has to now live with vampires. 

(Ah, that’s their normal version.)

(This is the actual them.)

I think her reaction was right. Struggling against them is of no use, as Reiji says. Fight back and run away, be dead in the next second. Many of you might think it’s better to die than to live in such conditions, but we all know, we treasure our life more than anything. Saying and taking action is a lot different. But again, she proves that she is a benevolent character in episode 12 of S1, when she stabs herself for Ayato’s sake. Now, she could have used this chance to escape, but she stays for them.

What’s more, she even tries to help the Mukami brothers despite all her difficulties. This shows her compassionate nature, and there are a few characters only I have seen this trait in. That makes me admire her a lot. 

Many viewers also say that she could have been a little agressive, and that’s why she is a bad character. Well, what about the Sakamaki brothers? They are bad in themselves at first! Think of it this way. You have been instructed to live with some vampires. You somehow fight back your fear. So there must be rules and regulations you need to know about first, for example, attending school at night. Now you can’t expect to know everything and be the torchbearer. No. And the fear of being prey, drives her to be silent. 

But these brothers, they just play around with her, and more than that, accuse her of knowing nothing. How are we supposed to know about something if we don’t have any encounter with it at first?!

Don’t worry, I like the Sakamaki and Mukami brothers a lot, but some are just straight jerks. Using the words, disciplining us, livestock is straight rude. But still Yui manages to breakthrough that and help them in any way she can. If that’s not kindness, I don’t know how to define it else way. 

Anyways, the guys change a little in the progressing episodes, which is good to see. (I was impressed by Ayato’s development, I have to say!) 

(Yes, protect her! XD)

Lastly, since this is an animation of the original game, there are a whole lot of plot holes which I don’t want to open in this post. I obviously disliked how the plot didn’t develop properly, but since this was a promotion for the game, I ignored it. 

The game’s Yui has a lot more of character, so check it out if you want to! Everyone has flaws, and it’s this trait that makes us different from others.

Until then!