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tokiro07 · 1 year ago

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Since @buhbuhlmao guessed five of my blorbos, I'm going to write up an analysis on one of theirs!

Since they revealed their method for guessing mine, I'm not going to answer their message directly, as I don't want anyone to just copy them

They decided to be generous and go with characters they know I'm familiar with, and gave me the option between Undead Unluck's Creed Deckard, Medaka Box's Momo Momozono, and Cipher Academy's Iesuno Nohime. They suggested that I roll a D3 to decide, but to be perfectly honest, of those three, I'd really like to analyze Momo! I've already analyzed Creed and Nohime a little bit in my 4Y1A Reviews, and I anticipate that I'll get the opportunity to do so again in the future as new information arises, but I'll probably never get much opportunity to analyze Momo again. Hope that's okay!

Now let's go!

Pretty much right from the beginning of the Jet Black Bride Arc, Momo establishes herself as the defacto lead antagonist; she isn't the first one to speak, but she is the one standing furthest forward when the six real suitors arrive on Aircraft Carrier Black (with Nienami just slightly trailing behind, subtly suggesting her ongoing importance to the plot), and she's the one to make the most impact through the chapter that they're introduced

Not only is she making the most notable statements ("males are useless," "we just have to prove we could have beaten the doubles all at once ourselves"), but she also is the most striking visually, being the only one to be a child rather than a teenager, drinking black coffee straight out of the can, and then subsequently eating the can like a goat. Everything about her, from her design to her demeanor, makes a huge impression that allows her to stand out from the rest of her contemporaries, which is what makes her the most fitting to be the final boss at the end of the arc. Even Tsurubami explicitly calls her "the one that looks like the last boss" (I swear I didn't remember that when I wrote that last line, it just lined up like that)

In her next appearance, we see that she continues to act as the leader of the group, deciding the rules for how the Jet Black Wedding will proceed all on her own and providing the ante of the identity of Fukurou's murderer. We of course know now that the answer was actually "Fukurou himself, using the Gehyoukai representative as the weapon," but her knowledge of it serves as subtle foreshadowing that she and the other suitors have a connection to Fukurou, as we confirm once we learn that Fukurou is the creator of their Styles. I think we could argue that Fukurou's manipulation of Medaka's life was foreshadowed as far back as the Minus arc, but I think this is where we really start seeing it in real-time, as there isn't any reason why Momo should know the culprit or that Medaka cares about it if she hasn't been told by Fukurou directly

Aside from Tsurubami, Momo is also technically the first Stylist to be shown using their Style, though we wouldn't know it until later. I don't think I actually noticed the star that represented Label Style's usage at the time, and I certainly didn't notice that it was the transition from the JBW to Hitoyoshi's student council setting out to help Medaka and co. It's a fun little detail! I wish that she had gotten to use her Style more

I always had a bit of a headcanon that Label Style could be used on objects and that her fighting style would be similar to Munakata's hidden weaponry, except she'd be able to pull out even more absurdly large objects like a tank or an elephant. Given her small stature, I figured she'd throw the cards and have their "ammo" appear just in front of or above the target so that she could stay at a distance. But alas, Medaka Box is not about the power system, the power system merely helps to illustrate the themes, and we didn't get to see much beyond simply sealing her opponents. I'm starting to wonder if she could have manipulated the labels once placed, like perhaps changing the "Dead Hitoyoshi" to "Alive Hitoyoshi"? Probably not

Speaking of Hitoyoshi's death, Udou's murder of Hitoyoshi is clearly meant to parallel the murder of Fukurou, as she proclaims "this is just like what happened three years ago." It's at this moment that the remaining suitors, Momo, Kakegae and Joutou, all turn to look at Udou, as if to acknowledge that they all know that her predecessor was the one technically responsible for Fukurou's death. Momo then seals Hitoyoshi to prevent Kumagawa or anyone else from reviving him. "You went far too easy...you should seal off any hope of revival." The way she says this, I think one could have concluded that Fukurou was similarly revived after he was impaled as well; it might have seemed like a stretch at the time, but with all of the suitors having Styles just like Tsurubami, knowing Fukurou's murderer, and reacting to Udou's statement about his death, that was definitely enough evidence to build a solid theory about his survival. Shame I wasn't much of a theorist back then!

Then there's the bit where she refers to the other suitors as "my dear friends." At first it confuses Sui and Nienami, giving the impression that she's saying it sarcastically, and this assumption seems to be confirmed when she later betrays Kakegae and Joutou, but I think there's more to it than that. Sure, she's cutthroat and goal-oriented, but that doesn't mean she doesn't think of the other suitors as her friends. Once we learned that they all learned their Styles under Fukurou's tutelage, it wouldn't be hard to fathom that they formed some kind of bond. Plus, bear in mind that while we don't get to really see them interact much, there's one more character that Momo has a fairly close bond with: Naze, whose mother was the prevoius Momozono clan representative!

Naze was introduced to us as Koga's best friend, but the kanji that she would use to talk about Koga was "experiment," giving the impression that she didn't really feel that close to her, only for us to later learn that Koga was in fact a dear friend to Naze. Momo could well be in the same boat, acting aloof but in fact feeling greatly attached to those she spends time with. The Momozono family all have crazed, sunken eyes and morbid personalities, so it's easy to assume that they don't form attachments, but Naze most definitely does, and we can assume that her mother does too considering that she agreed to marry a polygamist, so it should come as little surprise that Momo did as well. I really would have liked to see more of her interactions with the group, perhaps a flashback to them all training together? It would have been nice for sure

I didn't really touch on it much in my previous Medaka Box posts, but it's odd that none of the Stylists aside from Tsurubami are established to be either Abnormals or Minuses. They clearly have abilities on par with Abnormals and extreme personalities to match, but not one has an Abnormality? Well if only one of them could, it would definitely be Momo. At the beginning of Delete Shiritori, of course Medaka made a good draw to allow her to go first because fate is on her side, but Momo drew the card that made her go last, which is to say "before Medaka in the cycle." Kumagawa notes that the luck she had in drawing that card was "abnormal" suggesting that she has the same kind of favorable fate as Medaka. It's pretty common for Abnormals to awaken their abilities in adolescence rather than childhood, so it wouldn't be at all strange if Momo turned out to be an Abnormal who simply hasn't gained her Skill yet. Or maybe she does have a Skill and Nisio Isin just doesn't want to share that information with us. That's a very him move, after all. Bastard...

This is further supported by her stating "how do you know my Project Name?" when everyone was reacting to her tricking Kakegae and Joutou; though CXC's translation doesn't make explicit note of what said Project Name actually is (thanks again, guys, you continue to do a bang up job...), the fact that she has a Project Name at all suggests that she's already been identified as an Abnormal. Of course, since I can't find any mention of this in the character dictionary or on the Japanese wiki, it's possible that this itself was a mistranslation on CXC's part, but until we get an official translation, we may never know. I could probably write up an entire analysis based on this fact alone if I could only confirm it...

I've jumped around a lot and been at this for a few hours now, so I'm going to wrap it up by talking about the conclusion of Momo's storyline: her becoming the student council president of the 111th class of Hakoniwa Academy. The fact that she was able to match Medaka in a battle of wits at only 5 years old is proof that she's something of a genius, so it only makes sense that she would be able to follow in her footsteps as she grew up. I'd really like to see what kind of students she surrounded herself with, and honestly could see her being the protagonist of a short spinoff. Ostensibly she became the student council president by staging a coup against the previous president, which lines up pretty well with how assertive she was in the JBW

I think that's really the best way to summarize Momo's character: she's extremely assertive, forcing herself to the front of the line to achieve her goal and pushing others out of the way in the process. She ousted the previous president, and she tricked the other suitors after she proposed an alliance with them. Her Label Style exemplifies that surprisingly well, too, as it's an ability that allows her to get obstacles out of the way with ease

...Ah, since her Style requires that she know peoples' names, and her character has the subtle implication that she's surprisingly friendly despite her gruff exterior, I would imagine that a story revolving around her could use that as a way to obfuscate whether she's good at remembering people because she's legitimately interested in them or because she's just being prepared to be able to use her power properly

I'm sure there are other things I could have said or picked apart, but honestly I was able to wring a lot more out of this than I thought I would or could, so I hope this is satisfying, buhbuhlmao!

#buhbuhlmao #medaka box #momo momozono #analysis #long post

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whoiskt · 3 years ago

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End-of-year questions for 2021 under cut

1: What did you do in 2021 that you’d never done before?

Lots of running related based ones so I'll just say the biggest accomplishment which was running a 5k, without hardly stopping to walk. Got my passport finally. Went the furthest East I've ever been. Finished and wore an entirely handmade cosplay. I worked 9 days in a row which was horrible. See, not all new experiences are good 😅

2: Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

My resolution was to stop saying "I think" so much, especially when I was completely sure. Confidence-based thing yet. I've gotten better but I still mess up.

What matters most to me going into the new year is getting out and doing stuff. I want to go out more and just do more of everything. So, my resolution will probably be something related. Thinking of making weekly goals even?

3: Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nooope.

4: Did anyone close to you die?

Also, no!

5: What countries did you visit?

I stayed right where I am, thank you continued global pandemic.

6: What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?

(Leans into mic) a career, please. AND ALL THE FOO FIGHTERS MERCH (the character not the band)

7: What dates from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

You overestimate my memory.

8: What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I made a friend :) and many people have told me that the pictures I took of them was their all-time fave which means so much to me 💕

9: What was your biggest failure?

Eh, probably not finding a job still but that's acting like I haven't given up which most of the time I have. I study and practice for interviews but I'm just not a smooth talker. Just isn't cutting it, I guess.

10: Did you suffer illness or injury?

I got sick 3 times this year!! THREE! And they were all pretty nasty. I hate working in retail, oh my god.

11: What was the best thing you bought?

My phone. Although it was a gift... But I was prepared to buy it myself.

I also rocked at Christmas gifting this year. 🤟 Hell yeah!

12: Whose behavior merited celebration?

I love my boyfriend so I'm always inclined to say Will. He's so nice to me 🥲

I also enjoy the people who stand up for themselves. One little example of this was there was a new boss at work who was helping a customer who swore at him and he shut it down like, "Ma'am I'm trying to help you but if you're going to use language like that then we're done here and you can shop elsewhere." Mad respect.

13: Whose behavior made you appalled?

So, so many people. Definitely the guy who was revealed to only being hanging out with us to get to this one girl, cheated on his girlfriend with her, and messed up our friend group. I'd legit slash his tires but I hold back.

14: Where did most of your money go?

Damn, I don't even KNOW sometimes.

15: What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Going back to in-person events. Vacation. Ugh, I just love being in hotels away from home. So magical.

16: What song will always remind you of 2021?

Probably the big Lil Nas X songs released this year.

17: Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?

Probably happier? Bring quarantined was not fun. Probably about the same, idk. Also still probably about the same, haha. Richer in having more stuff, I guess?

18: What do you wish you’d done more of?

Chores. But in that way where I more wish they were done by past me rather than current me having to do them. Ya know?

19: What do you wish you’d done less of?

Sweat. 😅

20: How did you spend Christmas?

Usual Christmas with the family back home. I will never do anything different.

21: Did you fall in love in 2021?

I fall more in love everyday and it fucking rocks.

22: What was your favorite TV program?

Some things I enjoyed this year: Mob Psycho, Invincible, HunterxHunter, New Girl, Castlevania, Schitt's Creek, Demon Slayer, The Queen's Gambit, Attack on Titan, and Doctor Stone. Did a lot of rewatching this year too 😅

23: Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yes 😒

24: What was the best book you read?

I haven't been reading books but I got Dune for Christmas so I'm gonna read that soon. I read Chainsaw Man and loved that, though.

25: What was your greatest musical discovery?

Not sure I branched it too much this year? Or I branched so much out and forgot to discover?

26: What did you want and get?

Foo Fighters merch increased from 2 extremely obscure keychain/figure, to now several things. I haven't actually bought any of them yet though.

27: What did you want and not get?

A jooooooob 😔

28: What was your favorite film of this year?

I have some catching up to do because quite a few films I wanted to see I accidentally missed their run in theaters. Spiderman was pretty good. I'm glad Tom Holland finally got his own movie since the previous Spiderman movies were more about Ironman than him. I also enjoyed Free Guy.

29: What one thing that made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Stone Ocean announcement and first batch of episodes dropped.

30: How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?

Target apparel. Pretty much exclusively. 😂 Using that discount.

31: What kept you sane?

Foo Fighters animated. Vacation planning. Periodically melting down. Socializing (even when I didn't want to).

Going for walks/runs.

32: Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

None but I keep seeing the actor who plays Winston in New Girl everywhere in ads and I scream every time. Not for the actor. For Winston.

33: What political issue stirred you the most?

Hm, well abortion access is back under threat this year. Worker's rights. Vaccination. Fatphobia. Transphobia. I don't know I get stirred by a lot of things it's probably not good for me mentally.

34: Who did you miss?

I miss many people. Some I'm not sure I know. Will's in the other room right now and I miss him.

35: Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021.

It's all about connecting with people who are open to growth. It's about consistently dedicating yourself to personal change. I suck at that but it's true. (Kinda knew this already but! Sometimes you gotta learn a lesson multiple times.)

Not the best year for my social anxiety. It is deadass so hard to become my friend right now because I don't trust anyone. What I realized about closing myself off to people is it doesn't hurt any less when the "betrayal" comes. It doesn't feel like a bullet dodged, it's still a wound.

So, it's not about avoiding people. It's about finding the right ones.

36: Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

#lifeblogging #year in review

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