#good luck mukuyuki! remember to stay kind everyone!

[ryukogo]

Sorry, this is about to get long, but hi! Here's Part 1/??? of why you should consider voting Muku Sakisaka and Yuki Rurikawa, from the mobile game A3! Act! Addict! Actors!

(majority of images are taken from A3's various available wikis and media!)

First of all, what is A3?

Muku and Yuki are two characters from the game A3! Act! Addict! Actors! (Yes, that's the name of the game, that's why it's A3!)

A3! is a mobile game about a theater company known as Mankai Company! Mankai Company is split into four subtroupes named after the four seasons - Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter! This game has a stageplay adaptation, a movie adaptation (using the actors from the stageplay) and an anime adaptation! I can't show you a lot of stageplay and movie pictures to support my essay because of common fandom courtesy, but I can show you anime screencaps!

To put it briefly, the plot of the game is that you play their director, Izumi Tachibana, who must save this theater at risk of shutting down thanks to a huge debt incurred before she arrived after the sudden disappearance of the previous director. And she does all of this in one year! Isn't she amazing?

Okay, now that we got the setting out of the way, who are Muku and Yuki?

Muku and Yuki are two of the members of the Newborn Summer Troupe! As depicted here, their associated character colors are pink (Yuki, the greenhaired boy) and blue (Muku, the pinkhaired boy).

They are called the "Newborn" Summer Troupe because they're part of the group that Izumi gathered to try and save Mankai from being shut down.

Muku and Yuki are part of the Summer Troupe, who don't appear as Summer Troupe until the second "act" of the game's story - but you meet Yuki in Act 1 already as a tailor!

Yuki, at the start of the story, is an independent 14-year old boy that the company's manager enlists to create the costumes for the first Spring Troupe play, Romeo and Julius. This is a single boy who made AND designed all these costumes by himself! And he does this for all the plays that Mankai Company produces afterwards! Isn't he so cool? I wish I could be this creative and self-sufficient at his age.

His appearance may make him seem demure, but the minute he opens his mouth, he's got a tongue sharper than steel that can cut you down in an instant! He takes no prisoners and gets the job done!

Because she's already met him as the tailor, Izumi invites him as one of the people she scouts for the next troupe, Summer Troupe. He's convinced to audition after she tells him that he'll learn better about theater costuming if he joins in.

Not long after that, our dear Muku shows up! Though he doesn't get noticed immediately because the others are making a ruckus trying to convince Yuki. He has to actually cry out an 'excuse me!' to get noticed later.

Muku, our resident Wonderboy (a nickname bestowed on him by Yuki!) is a 14-year old boy who enjoys reading shoujo manga and athletics. His dream is to become a prince that everyone loves - this culminates in his first lead play a year or so later into the game's timeline, The Floral Prince).

He's a sweet boy, but prone to daydreaming and being very harsh on himself. He used to be part of his school's track team - the prince/ace of it, even - before he got an injury that forced him to drop out, destroying him.

Alright, back to the main story.

Once he's noticed, that's when Yuki recognizes him as his schoolmate from their school, St. Flora! Mind the subs though, they misspell Sakisaka.

The expression Muku and Yuki have here when viewing each other is very significant, actually, because in context, Yuki remembers Muku as a former star of the track team of St. Flora, while Muku remembers far beyond it.

This is information you get from one of Yuki's birthday cards - MANKAI Playback SR Yuki Rurikawa!

(translations by brainwashingdetective found here!)

Even prior to actually meeting each other properly on MANKAI's grounds, Muku remembers Yuki vividly - even remembers his encounters with him a lot better than Yuki himself does.

The above shows an incident of when he remembers Yuki negotiating with their school on the usage of a ribbon instead of the traditional boys' uniform's tie because "it was cuter". He remembers every detail of it until the point Yuki wins the argument.

See below image!

This is very relevant, because he states that 'ever since then, I thought Yuki-kun was cool'. I'll get back to that in a bit!

From that point on, the rest of Summer Troupe ask him to regale them with more stories of Yuki being cool, and he's very happy to do so! Yuki then says this:

The line that Yuki says is said in quiet observation, so that maybe Muku doesn't hear - hence why Muku asks if something is wrong after.

Now, let's bring attention to this line:

This is one of the most significant moments that cement Muku and Yuki's relationship as dear friends. The moment Yuki is referring to is a moment that occurs during Act 2 of A3!'s main story.

Summer Troupe, the comedy troupe, has their first play being known as Water Me!, and as such the members are distributing flyers to the people to ask them to watch their play. Muku and Yuki, as a team, are assigned together on the same street.

Sometime during this, the two of them run into two of Yuki's classmates. These two classmates are, to be put in kind terms, very rude to him. Very unkind.

(content warning: malicious words about crossdressing and boys who wear dresses)

The thing about this verbal assault is that Yuki doesn't give them the benefit of reacting - he remains stoic as they tear him down for his decision to wear cute clothing. Muku jumps to his defense, but Yuki tells him that it's fine.

But then they aim their ire at Muku next.

That's when Yuki gets stirred into action.

You can attack him, you can attack his choices, his decisions, you can attack everything about him, but don't you dare attack his troupemate or involve him like this. You have no right to do so.

Yuki channels his character in the play to convince them to watch the play, catching them off guard really badly until they mumble that they'll think about going together 'since it's not a crossdressing cafe...'

Cue Yuki sending them off so casually and coolly, like this!

After that event Yuki sighs and tells Muku that they should take a break, and find their way to a secluded spot. In the anime, in-game, and in the stageplay, this happens to be in a side alley. In the movie adaptation, it's a relatively empty park bench area.

While Yuki is taking a small breather, Muku takes this chance to tell him that he's cool.

Yuki, bewildered, asks him, 'what? How?', because he doesn't know how what he did could be perceived as cool - he's just trying how another troupe did their 'fanservice'.

Muku then tells him exactly how that was cool, unrestrained, unbarred. He confidently tells Yuki that that is very cool of him.

And for that moment, Yuki's resolve wavers.

It should be noted that Yuki, as a character, is very headstrong. Independent. His first character song, MINORITY, speaks about how he won't let the world decide what he can do or wear or what he likes (cute things), but knows that that sets him up for a lonely road ahead. He won't let the world dictate what he can do, no matter how much it tears him down - but that doesn't stop him from hurting, and feeling all alone in the world.

This has taught Yuki to build walls around himself. To build up walls made of his sharp words and barbed tongue-lashings so he doesn't get hurt by anyone ever again. But that makes him lonely.

To Yuki, the Muku who shamelessly praises him for being cool for these things, when other people have only torn him down... when Muku himself finds it hard to see how people can see him as cool too because of how he tears himself down... it allows him to open up for the first time to someone.

This is the scene in the anime - they're wearing their Summer outfits in this one (because these anime characters change clothes per season and event!).

In game, it looks like this with their default Spring outfits instead:

This is Summer Troupe's very first in-game CG. The anime and the game handle it relatively the same - Yuki opening up to Muku like this, allowing himself to be tired for once, and weak, while Muku stays there for him and allows him to cry it out, if only for a moment.

Muku has always been there for Yuki. He is one of Yuki's closest and dearest friends from that point on - the one he can be the most open with. It's very lowkey, but you'll see them constantly together in most backstages and stories going to cafes, going everywhere together.

We have Muku to thank for allowing Yuki to realize that these people in MANKAI, who would become his found family, are people he can be open to as well. And, since it's been so many years since then, that's exactly what happens. If only you guys could see Yuki now ingame with Muku steadily by his side!

If you'd made it this far into my essay, wow, thank you very much! I have many feelings about these two specifically, and I'd love it if you guys considered them for your votes!

Additional note, please consider reading this thread by one of my friends on Twitter about Muku and Yuki as a duo and how the anime takes from the game and shifts the narrative in a way that makes them complete each other's character arcs better than depicted in game! They put it way better than I can, I think. Plus they talk more on the Muku side, and I've already run out of space for pictures in my reblog.

That being said, thank you for taking the time to read my essay! I hope people understand how much they mean to me after seeing this.

Semifinals