#if you havent heard of these id very well reccommend doing your own research

[reco-obsessed]

since its a special occasion tomorrow, (REKO BIRTHDSY TOMORROWWWWW) do you have any hcs for how reko celebrated her birthday over the years?? :33

hc anon here.....im always lurking.....and stalking.....

(you can only answer this ask tomorrow so its on time if thats ok.....im sending it early though because im EVIL!!!!!!!!)

hohoho, i like your sick and twisted ways hc anon. i like them verrrry much. youre always on the hunt for more hcs. i can respect that

id say its actually a good thing you sent it early because it does usually take me a day or two to write all my hcs out. im a pretty slow writer.

admittedly it isnt something ive thought of extensively. i dont personally know a lot about japanese culture, but some brief online research seems to imply birthdays arent as big of a deal there as they are where im from; in fact, it seems that individual birthdays as opposed to all babies aging up unilaterally on new years was only instituted in japan in the 50s. most birthday traditions are borrowed from western ones, and tend to be understated in comparison. keep in mind this all from a really quick google search so i dont wanna sound like im an expert on any of this, im just some random westerner. so go ahead and take a grain of salt for everything i say forward. but from a really general perspective, id assume theres less fanfare about it.

overall, i dont think reko would put a lot of extra emphasis on her birthday. in fact, even if she were going by more western traditions, i doubt she would. she seems like more of the type of person to not care so much for the idea of a day thats all about her. if it werent for her excellent memory, she'd probably forget about it until after it already happened.

that said, there are a couple specific dates that have more importance in japan- particularly 3, 5 and/or 7 (it depends on the kids gender). children are sometimes taken to shrines and dressed in kimonos to celebrate for living into late childhood. i have no idea how common this practice actually is because its hard to find any reliable sources that actually specify, but given the fact ive mentioned i believe reko and alice's mother would be more spiritual, i think it would make a lot of sense if they did it regardless. but seeing as these ages are all before reko got scouted and her and her brothers relationship was more tense, theres not much angst i can think of to inject here.

that said, its not like people in japan just dont do anything for their birthdays. its often a dinner or similar small celebration with close ones, and i imagine once reko was taken under the wing of her father and pushed into the limelight, she eventually stopped wanting to even do those. her interest in "hard work" and already being so "mature" would be commended, but, alice would be in the background seeing it with his own reservations. he was too young back then to fully comprehend just how poorly she was being treated and how this was reflective of it, so he never spoke up; its one of those things he looks back on with guilt, and so he always has this conflicted feeling around the time of her birthday (even though reko doesnt really care, and would probably be disheartened to know her brother is getting all sad and worked up about it).

in reality, reko stopped wanting those family dinners because she was already struggling to look her parents in the eye because of all the pressure she was being put under by them. at first, she really enjoyed getting to have the time with her family because she was so busy now, but her father getting so obviously blinded by greed and her mother turning the other cheek made things too tense. this wasnt obvious to anyone at first, until of course she had her rebellious phase, and she stopped trying to hide how she really felt.

fast forward to her 20th birthday.

the 20th birthday is considered the milestone to adulthood in japan, and theres certain cultural events associated with it, all celebrated on the succinctly named "coming of age" day. speeches given, the wearing of traditional or formal clothing, the opportunity to reunite with people from secondary school.

im less sure of how to interpret this for rekos character; by 20 shes very likely to already be a part of samurai yaiba, and depending on her celebrity status, im not sure whether she'd want to attend a major public event specifically for that reason. i have no idea what celebrity culture is like in japan, so im not sure thatd even be an issue. but even besides that- theres hang ups here. a celebration like this likely means shes going to have to be around her close family. based off what we know, her relationship with her parents can be probably be described as "awkward" at best at this stage. her fathers relaxed, but shes still more than likely sorting out her baggage. she wants to be grateful to her parents, make amends, but probably still harbors some hurt after all these years. and of course her dynamic with her brother at this time is a whole can of worms.

seeing how emotionally distanced she is from everyone and how isolated shes been from her peers, i dont think she'd really have anyone to celebrate with. combine that with her disregard for of the importance of these things, and... i struggle to see her looking forward to it, to say the least. i wouldnt be that surprised if she didnt want to celebrate coming of age day at all, and just treated it like any other day until one of the band members finds out and calls her out about it, upon which she maybe has a sudden change of plans. which, depending on which member that was, might jsut be going out for a legal drink for the first time. but its hard for me to say. if she did, she may not want to do it in the most traditional sense. maybe she still travels to her home town, but rather than going to a highschool reunion or renting out a furisode, she uses it as more of a way to observe the way things have changed since she left. maybe she finally has a birthday dinner with her parents again.... you know. baby steps.

until we get info on reko in her 60s, thats about it for any ideas i have on reko birthdays !