#i love sskk so much both individually and together

[himi-wiz]

Tags. Tags are absolutely right.

Don't get me wrong I find Dark Era Dazai's still an idiot who lacks the sympathy or patience to mould someone that's obstinate amd full of rawness properly as Akutagawa but there is no way he views his apprentice as a mere tool. His whole thing is he's the one that's no longer human compared to the rest of the world that clicks together in society.

Sorry friend I know you kin Aku but you're actually wrong about what he means to Dazai. Also I wasn't joking. This is literally me pointing and going "This is what Dazai said was his reasoning for why he trained him like that." This is an example of how Dazai feared Aku would treat all his problems when he first met him. I only worded it as a joke because I'm funny like that.

[kyouka-supremacy]

What are the things you like or appreciate about shin soukoku? /gen

(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

I like sskk! I like everything about them. I feel like there's just so much to unpack about them, and there's no end to it!! After all this time I'm still finding out new possible dynamics and ways to interpret their relationship, it's so much fun. They're both very very complex characters, and their dynamics together are pretty awesome? There's the whole deal– I hate myself, so I have to hate you, because you're just like me. It's sooo cool. It's nice to see characters who hate themselves so much, but who also try to do better (Atsushi), try to be better (Akutagawa). They're both so so complex individually, and I simply adore what becomes of them when they come together. I think that when they're together, their individual characterization shines the brightest, because they're souls precisely created as parts of the same whole. And I've written about this forever ago, but I really like how their journey goes from hating each other to loving each other to loving themselves, I think it's a very nice concept to explore.

It's just a... Low-pressure ship in a lot of ways? It's something very very comforting to think about for me. As a ship, it constantly feels like saying “yeah, you do kind of suck. That doesn't mean you can't be loved.” It's just such a sweet sentiment for me!! It's not saying one shouldn't try to be better, but sometimes you do feel like you're utterly bad and unlovable, and there's no helping it; and sskk is there telling you “look. Here's two of the worst people on earth. One of them is unlovable by definition. And they still have in them to love, and to be loved.'” It's just :')

I genuinely love how both of them are kind of awful people. I mean, there's probably not a single thing about their moral code I agree with. But for some reason that makes them very compelling to explore? It's interesting to engage with characters that share worldviews so strikingly different from mine. Them having such fucked up ideals, so many flaws and selfish goals, makes them feel terribly human, and also makes them very sympathetic, in a way. They're a true mess, but one that reminds me so much of how sloppy and incoherent humans are like. Them being so distant from me greatly adds to their appeal tbh! Generally, I have a very strong moral code, and I try to do the right thing, while they're terribly selfish and self-survival driven. I'm mostly perceived as a woman, and they are two men with superpowers who fight and die for each other. I like reading about characters I can't see anything of myself in! I already have enough of myself irl lol.

Now that I think about it, I really really love how they don't mince words. Again, it's something personal, but I heavily dislike the habit of using euphemisms to sugarcoat reality. Sometimes things are unpleasant and ugly, and trying to deny it feels insulting more often than not. Sskk are always very direct, and never hesitated to tell what they think to the other's face, even if it comes at the cost of throwing insults; weirdly enough, it's something I appreciate. I think deep down, they appreciate it too.

The perspective of having someone who makes your true nature emerge is nice. Again, instead of mincing words and faking it, it's nice to imagine there's someone who could see them for who they really are, and loves them still. It's compelling to explore the true terror anyone would feel from being completely naked in front of someone else, but at the same time the sort of relief that comes with it? “This is the part of me I've always beaten up and suppressed and hidden. Look! Isn't that deeply disgusting? Yet that is nothing but the real me.”

The whole complementary-in-everything thing hits that specific part of my ocd brain that has me do stuff like organize my posts in a coherent string so that every post is connected to the previous, have every post posted at a round number timespan, count the pixels in every single picture I trim etc. Atsushi is mostly white in his design and Akutagawa is mostly black but the colors are reversed when they use their abilities combined. Atsushi is good and Akutagawa is evil. Tiger & dragon & cat & dog. Blue and red. government-affiliated job and mafia. Healthy and regenerating vs. sick and decaying. Loved & hated. Attractive and hideous. One loves reading and the other finds it unnerving, one knows how to cook and the other is a cooking disaster, one likes coffee and the other likes tea, early bird and night owl, so on and so forth. Then, the fact that when they come together they end up looking so deeply similar is kind of neat, it's like there's some sort of Hegelian synthesis in their love.

Their canon moments are truly great and exciting. I care relatively little about the amount of moments a ship has in canon– an interesting dynamic is an interesting dynamic no matter their screentime, right? And you're free to imagine what the characters interacting would be like in your head any time. And while I still like to believe their relationship would still be very compelling even without the moments they share, wow. Their canon screentime is crazy, it's outstanding. I think the depiction of their dynamics in canon is exceptionally good, and extremely well-written. The “the words of your past are fundamentally unrelated to who you are now”, the Atsushi wearing Rashomon, the “you damn fool // hurry up and go”, the “just the two of us?”– they're all such epic and sublime moments, every time they leave the reader gaping and bewildered and, frankly, wondering if that really happened. And their scenes are so consistently homoerotically charged!! From the “it's been reserved solely for you today” to the “the man-tiger's my main dish” to the “their eyes met. Akutagawa's lips moved, mouthing the words I found you” to the “once this is done, I'm going to teach you things other than ‘killing’ ” to the “as long as I can't deny your very being, I'll never be able to move forward” to the “don't touch me! Disgusting!” to the “I'm sorry”. From Akutagawa piercing Atsushi with Rashomon to kicking him to getting unnecessarily close to his face. From every second they've spent admiring each other to the way they call out each other's names with so much passion. The list goes on forever. And chapters 84-88 are short to a masterpiece. The characters' growth is madly well-executed, how we see them go through it almost step-by-step, and it's all so consistent, and it's all so human.

Finally, the picture that made me go “Ah! There's something about them!” for the first time. It's very dear to me :)

It's got Atsushi being cute and Akutagawa looking at him with a fairly undecipherable expression that yet is distinctively non-hostile, and this precise illustration made my brain go “Wow, what if Akutagawa actually had a soft spot for Atsushi. What if there was tenderness in his eyes.” Then it all went downhill from there ahah

[saraanzu]

scattered thoughts on the new bsd episode because holy shit

-I don’t entirely agree with the idea that the anime as a whole is extremely rushed in terms of pacing but this episode in particular was. fast! lots of important things happening very fast! I heavily suspect this has to do with the studio wanting to end s5 on a somewhat concluding note so they had to rush through the manga content (‘manga content’ as in the stuff that hasn’t come out yet) to get to that point. so I expect the manga version will be a bit more detailed and slower paced which I’m excited to see.

-at the same time… I don’t think this arc’s quite over. first of all, fyodor isn’t staying dead. we still never learned about his ability or any of his other secrets that sigma read from him. he quotes jesus’s last words on the cross before dying give him three days he’s coming back you guys. it would be completely useless for sigma to reveal all his secrets and not even have that be important for his downfall. speaking of which! sigma isn’t dead either he passed out from information overload there was no blood in the manga fyodor's just lying or stupid. fukuchi also isn’t completely dead it seems since the post-credits have him coming back as a singularity to fight sskk or whatever the fuck! not even going to touch on that!

-I’m pretty sure we��ll be seeing this in the manga to some extent but something I’d especially like more context for is teruko’s actions. it seemed like she felt very conflicted about fukuchi being a doa member and also upset to learn what happened to tachihara. since she gave atsushi the choice to go free despite telling him it wasn’t worth it, I suspected she would betray fukuchi and assumed that was what happened when I saw out of context spoilers that she had killed him. however, all of fukuchi’s actions were completely re-contextualized this episode and teruko only kills him because that’s what he wanted and fukuzawa couldn’t do it. I still like that she was the one to kill him, but we desperately need context on her motivations and her relationship with fukuchi to tie everything together, because otherwise all we got from her is that she’s in love with fukuchi and went along with his plan but was sad about it…because she’s in love with fukuchi.

-speaking of teruko something I want to see in this arc’s aftermath is the hunting dogs disbanding. regardless of their individual motivations and belief in justice their position is portrayed as overly violent and corrupt. fukuchi became a hunting dog despite hating war and the state so he could become all-powerful and almost end the world to prove that the system that allowed him to get so much power was corrupt... it only seems right to me that the hunting dogs disband or something along those lines.

-chuuya having faked being a vampire the whole time was such a lame plot twist I’m sorry. it doesn’t do anything new with skk and completely throws any emotional conflict they could’ve had out the window. at the very least I hope it gets re-contextualized and we learn that it wasn’t something they were both in on from the very beginning or something because if not that completely lessens the emotional impact of dazai’s flashbacks before he drowns chuuya or him entrusting everything to sigma and sacrificing himself. I’m so sorry skk fans I’m glad I’m not one of you

-again sigma isn't dead but is dazai just gonna leave him in there or

[karoochui]

Hello there Mika!! Your art is huge inspiration to me and I love it so much words can't explain it, I absolutely love your sketches, doodles, full art pieces, whatever you make I absolutely adore. Sorry for blabbing but just wanted to ask about things you really hate about sskk, like what the fandom does with the ship that you dislike?😭 Take care of yourself drink some water!💜💫

TW for sa mention!! Sorry but i ramble a bit here so im gonna add a cut!! (Plus the tw) Take care of yourself too and ill get some water right now actually😋

Okay firstly!! Hello!! Thank you so much!! And no worries no need to apologize its very sweet of you im so glad you like my art i really do appreciate it!! Thank you!

And its hard for me to say exactly? Im still very much into bsd but ive been distant with the fandom for a little while now BUT!! From what i remember what i usually didnt like was when people would make them so..two dimensional kinda?? BSD has pretty morally complicated characters and it was really weird when people would flatten sskk's personalities down to just some ship dynamic bc they are SOOO much more complicated than that. And thats just as INDIVIDUALS!! Even when considering them together theres a lot to think about when it comes down to their functionality, whether or not its viewed as romantic or platonic. And of course youre always gonna have those people who just water down any mlm ship into some weird dynamic that doesn't even fit the character's relationship which is just obviously Not Great.

And then as far as the characters individually i feel like a lot of people baby atsushi its really odd. Like that man has gone through some shit he is GROWNNN. I think its because hes the "softer" one out if the two or whatever. Which yeah he's nicer, its made clear akutagawa isn't a great person but atsushi isnt the exact opposite of akutagawa or the "softer" one. They're narrative foils of eachother, they mirror many of the other's character traits and atsushi has also done some Not Super Stellar shit. Do i think most of it was within reason? A little, considering what hes been through and exactly what he did. I do think he is the better person between the both of them - and i feel like thats also proven - but he is by NO means "innocent" or anything weird like that.

Then for akutagawa its really only that weird sa headcannon that originated from something he said in Beast (i can't remember exactly what, but i remember thinking it was NOT enough to warrant a hc like that. I remember that much). And as someone who's been through that a couple times i think its one thing if its some way to help someone cope or feel more seen (more specifically it isnt my business to cast judgement -unless it hurts them or someone else- and im no therapist), but i have seen people apply the headcannon simply because they say its "implied" or it "makes sense". Which, once again, as someone who's gone through that i think thats just. Weird. I dont like it. I personally try to stay away from any talk about it at all from anyone.

I also don't like when people make it seems like Atsushi has to save Akutagawa or something like hes some knight in shining moral armor. Its much more complicated than that and I could go further into this but it would be a whole rant about their characters and dynamic and itd go on FOREVER. So im just gonna say that akutagawa is also a grown man and knows well enough what hes doing with himself, even if its unhealthy (not that Atsushi is any better but lets be real no one is this show really is) and he wouldn't listen to atsushi if he didnt want to anyway. This part is really just personal opinion though, and i don't cast hard judgement on people who see them that way. Im not the type to care enough.

So yeah i guess it wasn't really hard to say at all LMFAO but otherwise i dont think ive had any other issues abt it?? I dont pay much attention to things i don't like anyway so im not easily bothered lol

But i hope this answered your question!! Plz lmk if i missed or misinterpreted something!! It was nice to talk about BSD again anyway though, ive missed it.

[franzsiska]

skk, sskk, and kkdz

soukoku

the ship is my: like the ex i had a messy break up with but still have feelings for

i consider this ship’s feelings: mutual | mixed | strange | awkward | platonic | sibling-like | one-sided | they don’t really like each other

i’d consider the relationship: healthy | awkward | abusive | doesn’t work properly (but that's the charm of it okay) | they’d never get together |

children: gOD no | yes | they’d think about it

general opinion: to elaborate on the messy break up thing lmao, skk was the first ship i got invested in when i first got into bsd and i loved them. sO much, honestly. over time, though, i had more and more shitty encounters with the fanbase of this ship and eventually i just.. let it go, i suppose?? also, like 90% of the content was tailored to popular preference, one i did not subscribe to. so. yeah.

shin-soukoku

the ship is my: little meow meow, i love them both sm

i consider this ship’s feelings: mutual | mixed | strange | awkward | platonic | sibling-like | one-sided | they don’t really like each other

i’d consider the relationship: healthy | awkward | abusive | doesn’t work properly (but they're trYING alright)| they’d never get together

children: no | yes | they’d think about it

general opinion: i've liked both atsushi and akutagawa individually since the start of the story but i didn't care much for this ship until the recent chapters, haha.

kunikidazai

the ship is my: comfort ship. they don't lend themselves to angst easily and i thank the stars every day for that bc damn do all dazai ships need to step back a little on the angst ;___;

i consider this ship’s feelings: mutual | mixed | strange | awkward | platonic | sibling-like | one-sided | they don’t really like each other

i’d consider the relationship: healthy | awkward | abusive | doesn’t work properly | they’d never get together

children: no | yes | they’d think about it

general opinion: the hurt/comfort of this ship is fucking exquisite, i can't get enough of it

send me a ship and i'll do this thing