#kiui watase

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Jellyfish Can't Swim In The Night [2024]

[tetrix-anime]

Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai (Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night) - Blu-ray Volume 3 Illustration. Release: 28 August 2024

[varian-wonder]

sillyest

[bunnietism]

Kiui Watase Layout

#CBCCCC , req by @varian-wonder! reblog + cred if using!

[anicastes]

Nox Ryugasaki here will always be on your side!

[daisukoth]

am i imagining things or is Kiui binding?

[essentialthyme]

denied asudhaiudhaisduhasd

[tomonohebi]

[dontmakethatface]

Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai - S01E11 - 14:05

[trixxedheart]

Saw this on Twitter and figured y'all would appreciate it. I have never felt more seen before, genuinely cried over this.

(Weird cut cause I merged the OP's two clips)

OG post (by @/amuroslay)

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night having Kiui announce that the VTuber persona they've been portraying themself as is actually because they feel more comfortable being more masc, effectively coming out as nonbinary transmasc during pride month is so rad. kiui watase the world

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Jellyfish Can't Swim In The Night [2024]

[yuriskies]

I am really impressed in Jellyfish's handling of names and identity, especially the ways that they can both trap us in the past or provide a conscious template for the person we want to be. Episode 11 spoilers after break

The writing in ep. 11 was fantastic, and I love how the narrative shows how Kiui uses their° vtuber persona identity to escape dysphoria. Dwelling on the power an alter ego has in enabling a person to step outside themselves led to some poignant moments. And it was all handled in a sensitive and respectful way! We love to see a story about queer self-empowerment!

A repeated and major plot point is doxxing and how it intersects with identity. Although my opinion is that Jellyfish generally understates the severity of being in that situation, I think this episode at least cued me in to why it handles it in the way it does. It's essentially saying that people conflate artificiality with dishonesty, behave as if peeling off the constructed persona will let them see through the "lie" to the "real" person underneath, and get self-righteous over the perceived conflict/hypocrisy.

In reality though, we're all artificial in some way. Much of how other people perceive us is in the choices we make in deciding what to share. We have public and private faces, external and internal experiences, actual and idealized selves. For some people, those choices are based in changing the distance between those, and that distance provides the space to grow personally.

I think Kiui's turn in the spotlight highlights that. They have constructed Nox to be the person they really want to be. And, as Kiui connects to that outlet for genuine self expression, they are effectively creating a persona that is more real than real. When their viewership and hangers on peel Nox's identity back to the soft person underneath, it effectively binds Kiui to expectations they can't and don't want to live up to. So it was awesome to see Kiui draw on the strength they've been building as Nox to defend themselves. Kiui has become their own superhero and made something artificial into reality.

°To quickly explain my use of they/them pronouns in this post: Kiui doesn't explicitly use a label for themselves, and I don't think we have enough information to interpret a specific label beyond general genderqueerness. They do say that they're not attempting to pass as a man (possibly under duress), but later on, Mahiru describes Kiui as a "girl...and a boy". Based on that, I feel like neither she/her or he/him are quite appropriate, so I'm falling back on they/them.

[dawn-lilacbloom]

age 16: life isn't worth living

age 23: ryugasaki nox :)

[vanquishedvaliant]

People are already getting carried away with YoruKura and "canonical" gender identities and clearly did not watch the same episode as I did. It's more than clear that this character has some issues related to her gender identity but the show very explicitly did not have the character claim to be trans, even going so far as to that character explicitly denying that she was a trans guy

Is that character completely cis? No, certainly not. But it's shortsighted right now to be claiming loudly exactly what specific label we should be applying to her when we were decidedly not given one in the text. If we get more detail about this from other sources perhaps we can be more certain, and it's absolutely a trans-coded narrative, but we simply don't have a specific label to apply here! It's a bit abstract!

[diz-aster]

Yet again Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night has made me cry. Positive trans/NB rep in my band anime?! It's more likely than you think! Honestly I thought it would stay as subtext after the arcade, but for Mahiru to just confirm it in the very next scene??? Fuck. I cried.

There's something about Kiui's struggle with their body, severe social anxiety and sheer want to be 100% authentically themselves is something that I greatly resonate with. The world has changed, but they have not. And that's scary! But guess what, Kiui is going to love themselves anyway.

Also, Mahiru's friendship with Kiui means the world to me. Just *clench fist* it's the best.

There's one more episode left and I just know I'm going to be mourning that this is a standalone anime.

[anicastes]

Huh?!