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just-sp-in-inginthevoid · 1 year ago

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@chaoticdelinqueerwithglitter

A thing I didn't dwell on is financial issue

Apart from being discriminated against because Japan is a very fervent protector of the nuclear family and is just very traditional in general, half of the single mothers in Japan live under the poverty line. I don't know about the number back then (only have the most recent) but raising two children alone is expensive and exhausting (and not only in Japan)

If Papa Sano wasn't living with them, I think he did pay child support for Emma (for the little that we've saw of the man, he seems like a good guy. Besides, you know, perhaps having a child out of wedlock, but we still don't know how Papa Sano and Mama Sano's relationship ended so maybe he didn't cheat! Who knows) so then Karen may have continued to raise Emma and Izana for a bit until he died and child support was no more

Feeling she couldn't keep doing it, and crushed by responsibilities anyway, she decided to quit being a mom.

The way she left Emma and the way she left Izana are both different tho: with Emma she says that she'd be back one day, with Izana she cried telling him he'd be alone from that point on. And we can only theorize about the reason she cried abandoning him

Thing is, Emma (even tho she figured out almost instantly that her mom wouldn't come back) still held on hope and quickly stop feeling alone with the Sano around — but Izana had "You have to be strong, you're going to be alone from now on". And had had to wait about 5 years until he met Kakucho

When he meets Karen again (who also never told him until that point that she wasn't his biological mother, perhaps she did see him as her son since she cared for him the 7 first years of his life) she's gambling at Pachinko. She has money now. That she can spend how she wants. She clearly doesn't look to be doing well. She has eyebags, is smoking and, well, is gambling. We can only speculate why her life became like this. But she doesn't have it in her to play mom again. Or to explain clearly and gently the whole situation to the boy she raised. She's brutal and she pushes him away

That is to say, every big moment in Izana's life has been triggered by Karen's decisions (Shinichiro's death aside)

Sano family brainrot

Mainly focus on Mama Sano/Papa Sano/Emma's mom + Izana('s relationship with Shinichiro) rather than the Sano siblings

Shinichiro & Mikey is here

Mama Sano and Papa Sano loved each other. At least, Mama Sano did. We don’t know what pushed Papa Sano to have Emma with Karen (and if it was planned) but we also don’t know when Mama Sano had to go to the hospital to never come back and those two things are most likely related.

The Sano Parents’ relationship could have evolved in different ways: they could’ve agree to divorce (he didn’t love her anymore; they knew she would die and thought it would be best; etc, etc.) or to allow him to pursue his life and have another relationship if it came to be (without divorce) or Papa Sano was just a playboy and that’s how Emma happened.

Still, Mama Sano was at the hospital since Mikey was very young. He has a memory from his father when he was 3, but he has none of his mother when she wasn’t at the hospital – supposedly she’s been there for so long he would’ve been way to young to remember her being able to raise him.

Mikey and Emma have a 1 year and 3 months age gap. So Mama Sano’s health could’ve declined during Mikey’s first year in life which could be followed by Papa Sano meeting Karen (or he could’ve met her during Mama Sano’s health decline).

And then… OK. If Mama Sano was at the hospital, and Papa Sano raised Mikey and Shinichiro, what did they do when he left to (supposedly) see Karen?

We don’t know if Shinichiro and Mikey were aware of Emma’s existence before she came to their grandfather’s house. Their surprise doesn’t last long, supposedly they knew they had a (half-)sister. Or they didn’t bother freaking out and just accepted it as their new reality, who knows. Maybe they knew their father had a relationship on the side, maybe they didn’t. But they didn’t know what she looked like or even her name, so their father didn’t talk much about that.

Karen is a very interesting, with very little clues/material and no narration from her POV to help which makes it very hard to analyze her character. She doesn’t care about Izana, but she cried when telling him goodbye and told him to ‘be strong since he was going to leave alone from now on’. She lied to Emma (whereas she didn’t with Izana) about picking her up later. She was wearing red lipstick and smelt like flowers that day.

What we know about this woman is: Her first husband was a ‘useless man’ who had Izana with a Filipino woman (the French translation I read called her his ‘ex-girlfriend’ meaning Izana was there before Karen and his father got together – which could give a reason as to why he wanted to marry her. But the English version gives you the idea he was unfaithful, and honestly I think both could be equally damaging to Karen’s mental health) – as to whether this relationship she had with that man was healthy (and honest) or not, we don’t know. But clearly, whether it happened when he was still alive or after his death, she couldn’t care less about him.

But she still had to raised Izana. And until he met her again as a teen, she never told him she wasn’t his biological mom. She let him call her that. (until he saw her again after all those years)

A thing that could’ve bring Papa Sano and Karen closer was that they had to raise kids alone. If him and Mama Sano got divorced, since Mikey doesn’t seem to be at his grandfather’s house as a baby/toddler, I’d say Papa Sano got custody (in Japan, divorced parents can’t share the custody of their children. Only one parent can keep it, and it’s usually the mother (because we all know children need more their mother and their nuturing care than their father /sarc) and father does not get visitation rights most of the time; it’s common for a child to not see their other parent after the divorce. Which, you know, makes you wonder who took care of Mikey when he wasn’t home, but– (oh hey Shinichiro)

And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Was Papa Sano more with Mikey and Shinichiro or with Karen and Emma? Was he there to raise Emma? If Karen knew Grandpa Sano’s address than her and Papa Sano should’ve been rather close (I mean, they had a child together. But Emma could’ve not be planned, who knows), no (if he didn’t know about Emma, Karen couldn’t have known about Gandpa Sano, right?)? Did he meet Izana? Did Izana met Papa Sano?

After her first-husband’s death, Karen had to raise Izana alone, meeting Papa Sano 1. someone could understand the pain and difficulty of raising a kid alone in Japan (which there are a lot of articles about) and 2. Papa Sano was a good guy. Not like the ‘useless man’. But like the useless man, he died too.

She wasn’t going to raise 2 kids by herself. Or 1 again.

No matter the reasons, she couldn’t handle raising kids, to be a mom, anymore.

So Emma goes to the Sano and Izana remains a Kurokawa.

Mikey is the one to have made Emma opened up to them. They don’t have a big age gap either so it’s easier to get closer, contrary to Shinichiro. Shinichiro took on him to raise his siblings, he says to his father’s grave that he’ll take care of them and that he(his father) doesn’t need to worry. But Emma, unlike Mikey, wasn’t in his life before he lost his parents and his ‘normal’ life. He never had a normal big brother-little sister relationship with her, whatever a normal siblings relationship is supposed to be like – he straight up went ‘guess I’m your father figure now. Wanna see delinquent stuffs?’

And now… Izana and Shinchiro. And the 1Billion dollars worth question: Why didn’t he ever bring Izana back to the Sano household?

They both have wayyy more of a brotherly relationship than what Shinichiro has with Mikey and Emma (which isn’t brotherly since he’s raising them). He shows him the delinquent ways (kinda like with Mikey) but he doesn’t have that ‘father figure’ responsibility there, for once.

But let’s go back to facts for now. Shinichiro learned about Izana because of Emma (while Mikey didn’t bother to listen/remember) and went off to meet him. Why? Just to see how he was like? *shrug*

Why didn’t he tell Emma about the correspondence he had with Izana? *shrug*

He didn’t make Izana and Mikey met for at least two reasons: 1. Mikey complete disdain when Emma talked about Izana 2. Izana clear rage for Mikey (tbf, Shinichiro ruined it by only talking about Mikey when he was with Izana). But it could’ve been dealt with if they had met, no?

Financially, it could’ve been difficult to take care of Izana (alongside Shinichiro and Mikey, Emma. Three children is already a lot, specially when there’s only one adult to support and raise them) – but that doesn’t explain why he couldn’t make them see each other from time to time.

Adoption could be a sensitive topic as well – first of all, no matter the country, adoption is hell and Japan is definitively NOT an exception, second of all, in Japan, parents can request the children they put in institution to not receive foster care. No matter what, biological parents (unless they legally, officially cut ties but it rarely happen) have more power on the children than the foster parents (and they can take they children back whenever they want, even if it’s been 10+ years they didn’t see their kid and didn’t bother to come and see them, even if the children have been in a foster family for years and grew up there). And here comes a problem:

Is it Karen or Izana’s biological mom who has more power on Izana’s life?

By Japanese laws, it’s his biological mom (except if she went through the process of cutting ties with him but I doubt it) but it’s still Karen who was his father’s wife, who raised him, and who put him in the institution. But did she ever had ‘power’ on him? Since she didn’t gave birth to him, and is most likely not registered as his mother officially/legally.

Which brings me back to my Why-Did-Shinichiro-Went-to-The-Philippines-There’s-No-Other-Character-That-Can-Be-There-But-Izana’s-Biological-Mother questioning which I’m still not over with and won’t ever be.

Gotta wonder when and how he found out about Izana not being related by blood to him and Emma. Was it when he went to pick him up at the institution? Did he go see Karen once to get the permission to adopt Izana (really, it would’ve been Grandpa Sano officially)? Then went to the Philippines when she told him about how Izana wasn’t her kid? But going to the Philippines, first, cost money, second, he either did it just before or after his clash with Izana.

And. He asked Mikey how he’d feel if he had another big brother. Why didn’t he tell him there. What was your reasons Shinichiro. Why didn’t you bring Izana home.

I mean, there’s also the question of Izana going to Juvie and pushing a guy to commit suicide when he was twelve which shouldn’t have helped Shinichiro in his decision, but he’s the one to have shown Izana how to be a delinquent – sure, probably not like that, but who knows how Izana would’ve turned out if he hadn’t be shown the way.

Not going to bother on how Izana discovering he wasn’t related by blood to any of the Sano led him to stop interacting with Shinichiro (for a while) and then Shinichiro died (probably).

And we have no canonical evidence of Shinichiro being aware of Izana’s dependence on him for his mental stability; just like for Takeomi’s, so… Can’t talk about how Shinichiro sees Izana either. We just know that since the 8th gen, BD is not what it once was. Gotta wonder if the 8th gen happened before or after the clash, too. And the 9th.

And for Izana and Emma’s relationship… As children, they seemed rather close (for the little we saw of it), but they spent more than a decade apart. Emma most likely doesn’t remember him much (which wouldn’t help her wanting to see him again, he’s basically a stranger even if he’s her brother) and Izana… Had the institution. He felt too lonely, cut off, and he didn’t interact with her in years, she was a stranger to him as well. He has more memories with Shinichiro than with her. Kinda like Kazutora, he got rid of what he held dear and realized it too late. The only thing he didn’t realize too late was the importance of Kakucho in his life. Kakucho was truly the most constant person in his life. More than Shinichiro and S62.

Blood ties are very important in Japan, way more than in the western world where we are more opened to adoption (the adoption rate in Japan is disastrous), in Japan you are expected to have children and they have to be yours. Biologically. Learning he doesn’t have ‘biological family’ (his father’s dead, how could he possibly found his biological mother? Him and Shinichiro, him and Emma, aren’t siblings? The things he hold on, the things that made him go through it, isn’t real?) And even though Izana dies telling Mikey there’s ‘no way to save me, right?’, he also dies protecting Kakucho – who he isn’t related by blood to, but who spent most of his childhood, teenhood, whole life, with. He also dies with Emma on his mind, as his last question was both for Mikey and Emma (‘there’s no way to save me, right? Right? Emma’) – because at the end, even thought she became a stranger for him, she was still his little sister. Even thought he agreed to her murderer, he walks away as soon as he sees her, he knows what’s about to happen. And he didn’t smile or anything that showed it was happy with her soon-to-be death. Izana doesn’t know how to read people (thinking S62 only follows him because they’re scared of him) but he doesn’t know how to read himself either. (didn’t realize he had Kakucho until the end, didn’t realize he also had S62, didn’t realize he could’ve had Emma and Mikey if he came to meet them. And it’s not illogical. Izana truly felt lonely, at the institution, until Shinichiro came to see him, he had no one. Then he had had to wait his 12 to meet Kakucho, and then he met S62 in Juvie. Whereas Mikey got to see the ‘good’ sides of delinquency, Izana fully focused on the ‘bad’ sides of it (assaults, drugs dealing,…). As always, and that’s not news to anyone, Izana is a tragic character.)

Edit: if we decide to think about 'Mama Sano is the one to have raised her sons (and somehow Papa Sano got visitation rights if they got divorced)', then Mama Sano fell ill possibly after his death. If they were still together, the 'player Papa Sano' scenario is a bit more likely - but she seemed to have become close to Emma (as Emma heavily cried when Mama Sano died) still. I just want to know when did things happen in the timeline, Wakui pls

#she feels like a Toji-coded character to me #gambling. abandoned kids. convinced themselves they didn't care about those said kids or abandoning them #details prove they do or at least that they did once #the way they handled the situation was disastrous #and maybe it wouldn't have happened if themselves didn't have a shitty life #we don't know Karen's age but it was only recently that the law about the age one has to be for marriage in Japan has been changed #it used to be 16 for girls #and even if she wasn't that young she still looks like she didn't had the opportunity to enjoy life as a young adult #also another thing we can all agree with is that Wakui knows how to write complex human characters #they all have their flaws and some are more forgivable than others #no matter how Karen wished to raise Izana she failed him #AND WAKUI WON'T GIVE US HER BACKSTORY OR THE REASON BEING HER ACTIONS SO WE CAN ONLY THEORIZE #also gotta wonder how grandpa Sano could financially support 3 kids+hospital fees

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