#kazakami

[arupinishere]

it's them .........................

[mapoeggplant]

skip to loafer chapter 58 analyze // spoilers

takamatsu-sensei continues with her beautiful and delicate writing, respecting her characters so that they themselves come into their own at the right moments — extending even to the secondary characters.

when i first opened the chapter and saw kazakami, i confess i was a little surprise. on one hand, exploring more of his character was something i was waiting for so long. on the other, it surprises me how she chose such moment to explore him a little further, but now I understand why she did it.

while we see the ending of the summer trip and mitsumi opening up to her friends as a closure to a long storyline, we do have to keep in mind that it only opened another door, way more tricky to explore. to dive deep into that right away would give her little to no time to explore the other characters that englobes the narrative and makes it function. it’s such an intelligent way to keep the plot flowing and adding more details to it.

well anyways, i digress. let’s focus on kazakami for now:

i’ve seen a lot of people often calling him a little selfish or self centered before, since the little scenes we had with him, his posture were always nonchalant. for me, it always felt like something was off, something he was hiding. not that i was sure about it, it just felt like “hm…this comes from a place of defense”. giving up soccer and focusing on being the president, for exemple, gave me an impression of him trying to find a distraction and a way to keep boosting his curriculum. and now, with more information, i have my doubts.

for kazakami’s backstory, sensei uses a plot she’s been using for a while: the “show not tell”, where she explicit give us a little of said character as a way to keep us going — for shima, the scandal; yasaka, her bedroom; now for kazakami, it was dive. opening the chapter with him pretending to be the main character was a very smart idea. that instantly broke the image we had of him, as this serious, ironical guy, specially after how ch 57 ended. now, we clearly see he’s just a boy with his own story and interests.

that brings the reader closer to kazakami (specially since us, the readers, also love anime and such lol). and she keeps on “showing, not telling” when she choses to show how kazakami is on school first to later expose his life at home.

that wall he build, that nonchalant attitude, it’s all a result of strict parents. it’s not that kazakami doesn’t want to be a normal teenager with interests: he was raised with the mindset of productive rather than pleasure. he was repressed into this box and feels guilty to break from it — by doing that, he’s afraid to sound ungrateful and selfish; that’s why he just swallows his food and accept his fate. the next day, a little more gasoline is added to the fuel. kanechika is the exact opposite of him, the perfect description of “freedom”.

but he also is someone who’s fighting for his dreams, someone who have his parents approval, someone who never let go of his interests and still have a bright future ahead of him. it’s frustrating for kazakami. he had to let go of everything in order to have the same future of the the “authentic” guy who never let go of anything. it’s a slap on the face, specially when kanechika holds dear the same thing as him: dive. the contrast between both characters is amazing and

i’m glad sensei chose to explore both at the same time. yes, we do focus more on kazakami, but we know a little about kanechika’s future and we also know a little more of his personality (i mean, he ran after kazakami just to talk about anime. he is observant, he can see that there is something more there). it’s a balance between narratives to maintain the equilibrium and use kanechika’s kindness as a way to tell more of kazakami’s backstory. but this is a conversation we will only continue when the next chapter is out…

thank you for reading it!! i’m sooo excited with what sensei have in store for us and can’t wait to discuss more with you guys

[aswling]

one of my fave dynamics is when one guy is a weirdo who loves to yap and the other guy (also a weirdo) puts up with it to maintain his normie reputation

[nyaa]

[aeroplaneblues]

Tonal shift🫠😂

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!!! 🥳 @sabraeal

This is takamine and kazakami from skip to loafer, i will let her explain it better but Jen really knows how to sell a ship😂

[haru-rain]

After what his family did to him, it must have been so frustrating for Kazakami to see Kanechika and the others having fun talking about something he's passionate about.

But Kanechika is so pure that all he can think of is that Kazakami loves tokusatsu too. 🧡 I really hope that Kanechika will be able to help Kazakami and free him, if only a little, from all this pressure.

[lesbianpegbar]

and i think what really gets me about it is how grounded in reality this is. he likes a kids show. he’s horribly embarrassed and hates himself for indulging in something so seemingly stupid and childish and he should grow up and be presentable and be an adult and leave that stuff behind and it’s like. he just enjoys a kids show. idk smth smth about this feeling like a very real and honest portrayal of something that seems silly but in reality hurts so bad when it actually happens

[muninnhuginn]

kazakami really is about obligations all the way. whether to himself or his parents, he's decided he's had his time in the first two years having 'fun' and now it's time to focus. but, the thing is, most of his 'fun' is just ticking off some checklist of all things you'd expect to do in highschool (and the one sport he did actually like, he had to stop because of injury). so, does that really count? isn't that just fulfilling a role regardless of his own wants and needs?

anyway, now he's 100% focusing on his third year. despite how kazakami is hitting all the points in the checklist, how he's showing how he's meeting expectations, it's still not enough for his parents. he has the one hobby to himself, his interest in tokusatsu, which he's into enough to have his own figures and to know obscure trivia off by heart. and his parents are just... dismissive of it. "it's for children", they say, as they ignore their own child's needs.

no wonder kazakami never lets on more about his hobbies in school and only portrays himself as the outgoing model student, if this is how he's treated for showing his genuine interests.

[sklogw]

love how all of these side characters were featured in this chapter

[shimamitsu]

had a dream a new chapter dropped where shima and mitsumi became a couple and had their first kiss but then out of nowhere there was a random info that kazakami died?? i went to your tumblr to check reactions and you were making winning memes about shimamitsu but also said things like ""sad about kazakami but maybe it's for the best"" 😭😭😭

[kyungraeist]

i just read the stl chapter and the storyline makes me rlly feel. idk kazakami obviously needs to find his own way in life and be able to express who he is and hes just now realizing that he doesnt have to live the way hes been told and he can figure himself out by his own means

[quyqyart]

I thought it was gonna end with "summer break is over" to conclude a sweet and chill chapter but a Takamine x whathisname arc??? So excited for what the author is cooking I always thought those two got good chemistry/ are eachother narrative foil

Kazakami his name is Kazakami oops. I'm excited for what his development would be. He's been a foil to Takamine (and by extension Mitsumi since Mitsu and her senpai are the same type of harworkers/go-getters) since the last culture festival. Kazakami is a bit like Shima. He has charm and natural people skill but he does things not because he want to but out practicality. I don't think he's a people-pleaser like Shima but I think he will have an arc mirroring Shima's wanting to act again. In the last culture festival Shima was drifting aimlessly while Kazakami was going about his highschool career in a very purposeful but passionless way.

His stationary smile is fascinating it's fake as hell. My prediction is it gonna break in this arc

In terms of side characters' development I'm also hoping for something Sayaka related soon, she's the most interesting to me

[mapoeggplant]

skip to loafer chapter 59 analysis // spoiler

the battle between who you are, who you want to be and what people think of you: who do you trust to form your identity?

when i read chapter 58, i had this whole idea in my head for the next chapter. i thought kanechika would get closer to kazakami and help him get a little more comfortable with himself. well, i wasn’t entirely wrong. what i forget to consider was how sensei always have a card on her sleeve, ready to surprise us at any time. and this time, the surprise came in form of a teacher.

but first, i want to start with the obvious: the conversation at the beginning of the chapter. after having so many internal battles, kazakami is left with nothing but shame of himself, his hobbies and his recent outburst. he’s feeling defeated and alone, with his internal voices giving more and more power to his parent’s. and suddenly, a boy with dreams as big as the world stop him on his tracks and break his walls.

for the first time on the chapter, kazakami receives his first confirmation: yes, it wasn’t right of his parents to do that to him. just having someone outside of his personal zone blasting this out loud made it clear to him, made it easier to see. that’s why there was no need to go grab his figures back — all he wanted was a confirmation of his pain, someone that would be brave enough to say “this is wrong and you have the right of being hurt”. there was all he needed; nothing solid, but words as concrete as the burden on his back.

i love how kanechika was left surprised because of it. for him, it was easier to just go and resolve the misunderstanding. that’s the contrast between them: one who moves thought actions and the other who moves through words. and that was the best opening for the next scene, with the ace card sensei pulled: hanazono.

i don’t think i’m wrong when i say that it wasn’t surprising to see how everyone was acting when they found out she was pregnant — the prejudice, the side eyes, the judgment. and kazakami wasn’t innocent in all that: he also had a previous image of the teacher on his head, having it a little shaken after hearing her words. he’s once again grabbed by the neck and forced to look outside of his box, once again having to face his own past judgments.

hanazono isn’t the type of person he thought she was. she’s bolder, more assure of herself and with strong convictions. she’s someone who manage to look at herself in the mirror and ask the hard question: who are you? who do you want to be?

contrasting with what kanechika had to say (as in, giving voice to a feeling he already had, but couldn’t put a name to it), hanazono challenge’s him to see everything from another perspective. “the person i thought i was isn’t the right one so…who do i want to be?”. he’s now left with more questions than he had before. so…is it right to give up on everything he loved just to seek the future his parents want? the “self” he seeks to find, is it the one who’s a proud diver fan or the one who has nothing but someone else’s dreams?

this is very, very confusing for an adolescent who had it all stripped from him. kazakami thought he had an idea of himself before, but it’s all proving to be wrong as the time passes. he wasn’t someone that get sad about figurines — but now he heard his feelings out loud. he wasn’t someone who would lose his time with football, girls and other frivolous things — but is he the one who his father want him to be?

sensei has a talent for portraying confusion and deep, weird emotions we all felt as teenagers (the seek for our identity, the chance we need to be who we are), so it wouldn’t be different now. what we’re seeing of kazakami is only the beginning of his journey of finding who he is and who he want to be. and now, to make things even better, we have a new mother who’s ready to show the world how strong and capable she is without all of them.

thank you for reading!!!! what a nice feeling to have another amazing chapter, huh?? hope you guys liked it, will love to discuss it more with you 💛

[roastbeefcroissant]

Skip to Loafer breaking news: Mukai Tsukasa too well adjusted for development arc of his own

[cloudbends]

skip and loafer chapter 58 thoughts. sorry I got distracted because KANECHIKAAAAAAAA

[haru-rain]

Kazakami looks a bit sad, doesn't he ?

I think telling him that Kanechika takes after his family reminds him of his own situation, his own family.

A family composed of doctors, consultants and other such professions. He is expected, like all his family, to study at T University. Kazakami has known this since he was a child. And he promised himself to focus on his studies during his third year of high school. He's given up soccer and any other form of entertainment that might distract him from his goal.

The only source of entertainment he allowed himself was his passion for tokusatsu. But his father and mother don't agree; they've taken everything away from him...

So to see that Kanechika can afford to continue his club activities and that he'll surely pass the entrance exam to the university he wants without too much difficulty - just the opposite of Kazakami - must have been so frustrating for Kazakami to see...