#in the anime he briefly checked upon Yuuta before joining the bunch

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Basically a weird kind of meta on why Shiraishi is less nice than sometimes canon suggests

The summary is, basically: Shiraishi is nice, but my opinion is that people forget vs Fuji. How his tennis and concept of ecstasy might tie into this, and the problematic sides of his love for poisonous plants. How he’s a person that pulls, not pushes. Briefly considers an opposite interpretation of above, however illustrating the way it would still remain an effort from him to pull the person into the situation he wants.

sdfgfdsfg I keep remembering how gakupuri and dokipuri ‘solved’ Shiraishi’s inability to deal with being hit on by women, like

Shiraishi very intensely takes the initiative there and in dokipuri he becomes downright controlling in the ending, just like Yukimura he pulls a kind of ‘yes or agreed’ only this time the protagonist wouldn’t have the guts from the beginning to even go against him. I’m sure there was a better way to do it than that but

Doku no hana is also a mess because Shiraishi is effectively entrapping and ensnaring the subject of the song like a poisonous flower would in a sexual way (not going in detail on that just read a translation of it it’s a hot mess)

For example, control over his body and his mind is a cornerstone of Shiraishi’s tennis, but in a sense, there’s also an element of controlling his opponent. His tennis is as effective as it is because it’s completely textbook and he sure did lead Fuji around by the nose, both by logical plays and destructing his counters. This is vaguely supported by him being always in time and disliking it when others are tardy.

Just like Yukimura, he’s a person to pull instead of push. He provokes Fuji into unleashing his counters and downtalks him when he proves to be less, internally, externally.

Vs Fuji is a match that really stands against his later characterisation as this Pure Good :tm: big brother character

Like, I do believe Shiraishi is a nice person! He keeps check on Kin-chan and his team and there’s no malice in him attempting to work the devil out of Kirihara on Yanagi’s request. On top of that he’s genuinely nice in girls be gracious when you’re conflicted about having to move but not having the courage to tell him, where he tells you he knows you have to tell him something but understands you’re ot ready yet and gives you space to sort out your feelings first, where the default game response is the partner being angry/upset. But he does have the ability and personality to be not that.

One of Shiraishi’s most telling moments in my opinion is the moment he expresses explicit and dark disappointment at Fuji not being stronger (it’s not made better by he fact he uses a downward cutting motion in the anime)

There’s this thrill that comes from taking on a strong opponent, like it isn’t as much that Shiraishi necessarily enjoys pulling out the full potential of his opponent like Fuji did, but he does want to be pushed back. He says he rather wanted Fuji to play as passionately as he did, from the beginning, knowing that it might have cost him the match

(this has a funny tie-in with him liking to tease people that are hard to tease, like Tezuka. This is canon from the pairpuri books.)

To me, he’s a character that’s continuously chasing a concept of ecstasy. Winning isn’t something he does for himself, but for his team. But within that unpersonal desire for victory, there’s a burning passion, and a desire to be challenged, and separately, a desire to dominate, if his explicit uttering of ‘ecstasy’ as he leads over Fuji is anything to go by. To his end of ecstasy, reading between lines, he’d have possibly willingly lost the match. I have interpretations of him that have him be blinded by the pleasure associated with it, willing to pull strings and pull people in order for him to attain it.

His extended concept of ‘ecstasy’ comes around to ‘things that are high of pleasure but not necessarily good’, like, I’d count him wishing Fuji playing passionately from the beginning under that because it’d have been the match he wanted, but also, his entaku shot and his favourite food being cheese risotto. Cheese risotto is not healthy, as it fell into the ‘others’ category when the pairpuri book categorised people’s favourite food by their beneficial nutrients. But I believe Shiraishi enjoys it very much even when he’s supposed to be the health guy. It’s not quite good for him, but he enjoys it regardlessly. (this is also why I’m so mad that they chanced it to self-made soba, because while that’s like showing the effects of hard work and self-sufficiency I believe cheese risotto carries the more important message)

It’s also this hardworking and step-by-step side of him that is rather frightening when put into action. He’s methodological in love and will not hesitate to take action to come closer, or like in gakupuri, where he instructs protag-chan to call him (my memory keeps saying there was something about using a special toy but tbh. that sounds so wrong I’m almost certain it wasn’t quite that) to keep someone close.

It’s canon (from somewhere) that he likes the allure of something dangerous hidden within beauty, and according to rajipuri he not only memorises the plants that are poisonous but also the effects of their poisons. make of that what you want.

Shiraishi has a recurring theme of poison and medicine, like there’s definitely a part linked to caring for people in the medical way, considering his favourite place to visit in school being the infirmary. This makes things potentially worse in lots of ways. This makes a scenario in which he deliberately lets someone get hurt to care for them a scenario that can happen. This is terrifying.

And from the houkago anime, he is perfectly willing to stage an entire murder mystery at Seigaku involving Atobe, Yagyuu and Kite, going far enough to develop a ‘fake Inui juice’ to temporarily knock someone out, just to get the right mindset to write.

From vs Fuji to ecstasy to poisonous flowers you can also deduce there’s an important part of Shiraishi that wants to let go of his responsibilities and be not in control but that’s a mess of a tangent to untangle. He is the kind of person to step forward to someone who can do that, either weighing the risks and convinced he can put a hold to things when they go too far or alternatively trusting the other person not to take things too far, but he will also pull this person into the place he wants them to be.

On a final note, consider anime!Shiraishi’s initial response to the fear of his teammates becoming too fast, too strong, too wild for him to follow was to balance them out with a training menu more similar to his, actively roping them in before he realized what he was doing, that he was afraid, that it wasn’t working.