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brucebocchi · 1 year ago

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Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 4: #5-1

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.

The list is complete! This took a lot of work but I'm over the moon to get this out there. Please consider leaving a tip if you've enjoyed reading.

Here goes, my top five anime of 2023:

5. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

Zom 100’s debut hit like a freight train, especially coming from a brand new studio. It had everything: Visceral satire of Japanese work culture, incredible animation, vibrant colors in unexpected places, clever cinematography, wish fulfillment for everyone who’s ever wanted to Stone Cold their boss, and most importantly: Zombie titties.

The premise is magnetic: When your job makes you feel like a zombie, an actual zombie apocalypse means certain freedom from the grind. Akira Tendo realizes that he can finally use the vacation time he amassed while being exploited and overworked at a legally dodgy black company, so he writes a bucket list of everything he’s ever wanted to do, with all intention of checking off every single line item before succumbing to a zombie bite. He manages to rescue his hunky fuckboy bestie from college, and they embark on a road trip across Japan to finish out the list, along with a beautiful, risk-averse tsundere and a big-tiddy German weeb.

It's a perfectly fine elevator pitch, and a welcome break from the guns-and-grit quagmire the zombie genre has been stuck in for the past two decades, but what makes any good zombie-flecked media resonate is the human element, which Zom 100 delivers expertly. You’re quickly given reason to care for all the characters, their motivations are clear and relatable, and you want to see them survive and live out their dreams. But more importantly, you just want to hang out with them through their hijinks. It even delves into more serious matters, like what we owe our parents as adults, the ways isolation and bitterness can drive people to act out in their worst moments, and even the factors that push abuse victims to stay with and even return to their abusers.

Above all, though, it’s a powerful (if extreme) story of finding joy in the direst circumstances. Akira, Kencho, and Shizuka are all kindhearted, well-meaning people whose situations kept them from what they truly wanted to do with their lives, and there’s something kinda beautiful to be found in them finding a new opportunity during the possible end of the world (Beatrix is a sweetie too, but aside from the whole zombie thing, she’s already exactly where she wants to be). The final arc of the season, in particular, looks you dead in the eye and asks you: If you were suddenly faced with the ultimate freedom, would you use the opportunity to better yourself, improve the lives of others, or do whatever the fuck you want at everyone else’s expense? You may not like the answer at first if you’re honest with yourself, and that’s okay. The world isn’t over, and there’s still time for you to be your best self.

Zom 100, unfortunately, fell prey to a cruel irony in the form of production issues. Bug Films is a new studio made up of a former team from OLM that was responsible for similarly gorgeous projects such as Komi Can’t Communicate and Summer Time Rendering. They clearly saw so much of themselves in Akira's workplace exploitation that they had to swing for the fences here. The firm he works for is named “ZLM” in this adaptation, for fuck’s sake, and he fully destroys his zombie boss in the first episode. But new studio or old, the anime industry is a grind, and Bug had trouble keeping up; animation quality did take a bit of a dip after the stunning first episode, and episodes were frequently delayed as the summer broadcast season wore on and ended without the entire seasonal run making airwaves. Hell, it was impossible to watch the final three episodes until just a few days before I could write this sentence.

For what Bug were able to pull off, though, Zom 100 is outstanding. The paintball-colored blood splatters everywhere are an instantly-iconic look that strike the balance between horror and spectacle. Everything and everyone looks gorgeously faithful to Kotaro Takata’s art, and delivers an appropriately cinematic look that the manga always deserved. I almost don’t know what else to tell you but that this show is a fucking blast.

There’s also a zombie shark. What more could you want?

4. Oshi no Ko

I spent a good chunk of 2023 just assuming Oshi no Ko was going to be a layup for anime of the year. Shortly after moving on from Kaguya-sama, I rushed to binge Aka Akasaka's subsequent manga in time for the anime's feature-length debut. I was taken in by OnK's bonkers premise and sudden dark turn and quickly fell in love with the characters, and my anticipation only grew. I had high expectations for the screen adaptation, but nothing could have prepared me for just how lovingly it all came together. This is as close to a perfect adaptation as you can find, and the same can be said about both the preceding and following entries on this list.

Oshi no Ko is an audiovisual feast. Doga Kobo cleaned up Mengo Yokoyari’s character designs just a smidge, but put just the right flourishes on them to make every single cast member instantly iconic. One look at Kana Arima’s eyes will tell you everything you need to know about the level of care put into the visual design of this anime. The performances are on point as well; though many of the main cast members are relative newcomers to the world of seiyuu, you can tell they truly came to understand the characters before they even recorded one line. I’ve already gushed about Rie Takahashi in earlier entries, but her turn as Ai Hoshino is easily one of the best voice performances all year. Takahashi makes a meal out of every single second Ai spends on screen and gives you every reason to care about her as a character.

Showbiz manga in general is obviously missing an audio element, and when an adaptation can expand on that aspect well, it can help turn even middling source material into something transcendent (see also: Rock!, Bocchi the). Music is central to Oshi no Ko, and the OP/ED combination is already iconic; YOASOBI’s “Idol” has had the best worldwide chart performance of any Japanese song ever, and the prolonged intro to Queen Bee’s “Mephisto” became a meme in Japan in the same vein as JJBA’s iconic use of “Roundabout.” Rather than taking manga characters’ word for it that someone is a terrible actor, we actually get to cringe along to an amateur actor’s hammy emoting. We get to see and hear what turned a fictional idol group into a national phenomenon rather than just see cute girls posing on the page. All of this is to say that while Oshi no Ko is an excellent manga, it needed a screen adaptation, and especially one of this quality.

Oshi no Ko deserves every shred of its success. I've never seen an anime make a splash this enormous with just its debut episode, even if it’s kind of cheating to say so because the first episode is almost literally a movie, and if I were to give an award for the best single episode of anime this year, it would be that one, hands down. Adapting the entire first volume into a feature-length debut was the correct move (mostly because it’s a tonal rollercoaster, and the Big Event that defines the entire story wouldn’t have happened until the fourth episode otherwise), and the investment paid dividends. The hype naturally died down a bit as the season wore on and settled into a more consistent tone and rhythm, but it remains an essential anime to 2023.

You may have noticed that I have said very little of what this show is actually about, and that’s by design: If you still don’t know the plot of Oshi no Ko’s first episode by now, I refuse to tell you: you need to go in blind. All I will say is that it is an idol anime that glorifies nothing. If you've read this far and still trust what I have to say about anime, I beg you to just take my word for it. It's an incredibly rewarding experience.

3. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

There's just something so wonderful about taking in an adaptation of a work you’re already familiar with and knowing, almost instantaneously, that every single person working on it genuinely loved the source material and relished the opportunity to bring it to life. Nearly every single member of the original cast is in the dub (including the ones who went on to be MCU mainstays), Edgar Wright is back on as executive producer, Anamanaguchi reprise their soundtracking duties from the video game, and even Bryan Lee O’Malley himself helped co-write everything.

That last detail is probably the most important thing about this entire production: It’s not exactly a secret that the original Scott Pilgrim comics are very imperfect portrayals of a very imperfect young man. I knew reading them at the time that the comic did not have a great grasp on relationships and the dynamics between men and women, and that was at a time in my life when I myself was pretty terrible with and to women. O'Malley has said that he would only revisit Scott Pilgrim if it was “the right thing” and that he was leery of a straight retelling of a work he has since outgrown.

So instead, we have the Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim, to put it simply. Takes Off is a completely new story that reexamines the Scott Pilgrim comics, movie, and even game without undermining what came before it. This series is not a repudiation of Scott Pilgrim (the character or the franchise)’s flaws, nor is it purely fanservice; it splits the difference perfectly. It’s both more mature and completely self-indulgent. This show so easily could’ve marched to the familiar discourse drumbeat of “Scott isn’t the hero here” or “he’s actually not a good dude,” but it instead focuses on what should always be the second half of that sentence: “But Ramona still sees something in him.”

Yes, Ramona Flowers is effectively the protagonist of a new work that doesn’t even have her name on it, and it tackles some surprisingly necessary questions: What was her responsibility in creating seven evil exes in the first place? What made them evil? Are they even that evil? This series opens up entire worlds of possibilities within the extended cast and gleefully dives into them. Though Takes Off may not flesh out every single character, it does take its time with several of the ones who really did need a little more meat on their narrative bones, and even gives some characters new roles just because it would be fun to see them in new situations.

I still cannot believe they got Science Saru to make this show. “They made a Scott Pilgrim anime” and “They brought back the movie cast” are already good enough fodder for that Vince McMahon meme, but “It’s produced by the motherfuckers who made Devilman Crybaby” had me falling out of my chair. The animation maintains O'Malley's chunky, cartoony character designs and works wonders with line weights and simulated camera effects to give everything a tactile, weighty feel, like it’s somehow (and very appropriately) splitting the difference between a comic, a film, and even a video game. There’s a wide array of visual effects that helps to place all of Scott Pilgrim’s influences further on its sleeve: Dynamic action scenes, camera depth and chromatic aberration, and our beloved pixel art inserts. It looks like every Scott Pilgrim, everywhere, all at once.

The live action film’s cast did a (mostly) great job reprising their roles for animation, and there are some wildly unexpected cameos in there. Voice acting is not quite the same as stage or film acting, but everyone pulls their weight, and dialogue feels far more naturalistic than your average anime dub. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong and, surprisingly, Chris Evans are outstanding in their respective roles. I’m gonna have to watch this again in Japanese, though. Fairouz Ai as Ramona, Aoi Koga as Knives, and Yuichi Nakamura as Lucas Lee? Sign me the fuck up.

This is not an apology or revision of Scott Pilgrim the character or work, it is a celebration that still acknowledges and improves on the flaws. If you’re a Scott Pilgrim fan who’d been clamoring for a proper cartoon adaptation, Takes Off may not exactly be what you’ve wanted, but it may be what you needed. Chances are pretty good that you’ve grown since the first time since you read, watched, or even played something with Scott Pilgrim’s name on it, and it’s a blessing to say that while the character may not have grown, Scott Pilgrim the franchise finally has.

2. Jujutsu Kaisen, season 2

I’m so glad I picked up JJK this year, if only because I would’ve otherwise been caught in a mudslide of memes I didn’t understand.

Season 2 follows in lockstep with the manga from where season 1 left off, beginning in extended flashback with the Hidden Inventory/Premature Death arc, covering Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto’s high school life and the events that would eventually create the rift between them that came to shape Jujutsu Kaisen’s story. We see very different versions of Gojo and Geto here, much younger and more naive, but only marginally less powerful as they’re sent on an escort mission with the future of the jujutsu world in the balance. Because this is Jujutsu Kaisen, and because Jujutsu Kaisen is for masochists, nothing happens as planned.

We unfortunately do not get the precious slice-of-life hijinks the OP suggests, but if you watched season 1, you should know better by now than to trust an OP. While the initial arc does have its quieter and goofier moments (and some delicious homoerotic subtext), it wastes little time in declaring that this is a new version of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime: Lines are thinner, character models are looser, and action is buckwild. Two of the best fakeouts in the series happen in the span of five minutes. Those unfamiliar with the source material may have wondered for a bit why there needed to be a five-episode prequel arc to start the season, but the pieces would soon fall into place.

And then came Shibuya.

The Shibuya Incident arc was what made Jujutsu Kaisen a must-read in every new issue of Shonen Jump. It reset the status quo for the story and shaped it into something far beyond another “teenagers with special powers go to a school for teenagers with special powers” battle shonen. Needless to say, the hype for its anime adaptation was astronomical.

The Shibuya arc sets the stakes early: Nobody is safe and there may be no happy ending. Triumph is short-lived, and every threat is existential. Everyone who has been in the series up to this point plays a role, and you’re not going to like a lot of what’s needed of them. This arc punches you in the gut, repeatedly, and in between each blow is some of the most intense and innovative action you’ve ever seen. It will hurt, and you will beg for more.

I liked this arc a good amount in the manga, but by the end I was ready for it to be over. I didn’t get the hype around Toji, thought the deaths were cheap, and was so. FUCKING. sick of Mahito. Seeing it in fluid motion onscreen, though, everything just clicked for me and I couldn’t get enough. I fully get now why the girlies have been wetting themselves over Toji; the character modelers were HORNY horny this season. I see now how even the most unceremonious deaths fit into the narrative, or at least one will make perfect sense to me once Gege Akutami and I have a little chat :). And holy hell do I understand now that Mahito is one of the best shonen villains in the history of the medium, that sick bastard. Season 2 was my Rosetta stone for Jujutsu Kaisen; I see it all now. My sixth eye has been opened. Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the literate one.

JJK’s second season has a markedly different feel from the first from a presentation standpoint, and I feel it’s for the better. Every aspect of the presentation is on point, and I want to call attention to the audio element: The production music, with a heavy focus on jazz piano, is wonderfully unique for the genre, and the voice acting remains top notch. These are banner performances from the likes of Yuichi Nakamura, Kenjiro Tsuda, Takahiro Sakurai, Asami Seto, and Nobunaga Shimazaki, but the performance that defines the Shibuya arc (and by extension the entire season) is Junya Enoki as Yuji Itadori.

Enoki’s been great this year in lead roles in goofy works like KamiKatsu and Girlfriend Girlfriend (not to mention minor roles in Skip and Loafer and the vending machine isekai), so it’s no surprise that he continues to crush it as JJK’s protagonist; Yuji Itadori is a goofy dude. But the Shibuya arc, for as much ground and as many characters as it covers, is ultimately Yuji’s story as he is forced, time and again, to endure the cycle of the “suffering builds character” meme. His peers and mentors in the first season told him repeatedly that the life of a jujutsu sorcerer is a short and unhappy one, and he now has to shoulder that burden for everyone. Enoki nails every single part of a wide spectrum of emotions Yuji is forced to endure over the course of the Shibuya arc, be it determination, naive confusion, or just pure unbridled trauma. If this isn’t the best voice performance of the year, it’s top five at worst.

Like every major battle shonen release in the age of social media, this season has had its detractors. Reviewers at Anime News Network kinda hated the story, but that’s something you take up with Gege Akutami (and get in line behind the manga readers). I've seen people complain about the animation. Which, like. If you don’t like the new visual style, sure, fine, that’s up to personal taste. But if you think this season isn’t well-animated, you just plain don’t know ball. It may not have a cohesive look, but that was the draw for me: Season 1 was good, but at times I felt like it looked a little too rigid, a little too shiny, a little too samey. Season 2, especially the Shibuya arc, looks like everything. Sometimes it looks like an action film, sometimes it looks like Mob Psycho 100, and at points it looks, most crucially, like Akutami’s most iconic panels brought to life, stroke for stroke.

The varying styles weren’t an accident: Nearly each episode had its own director, and those resumes cover top-tier animations like Mob Psycho, Devilman Crybaby, Kill la Kill, Heavenly Delusion, Oshi no Ko, FLCL, even Akira and goddamn Golden Boy. While the episodes don’t look entirely consistent from one to the next, the variance is less jarring and more “holy fuck, what am I going to see next?”. The looser style of animation is what Jujutsu Kaisen always needed; Akutami’s art is very loose and dynamic, and his action panels are borderline inscrutable at times. Season 2 nails the feel of JJK to a degree that its adaptation always needed and lets its directors, storyboarders, and animators run wild. At times, characters will look like they leapt right off the page; others, they will look like something you have never seen before in your life.

It is unfortunately impossible to talk about this season without also bringing up MAPPA’s working conditions, and how animators were frequently overworked against nigh-impossible deadlines. It was an open secret last year as Chainsaw Man aired that MAPPA’s animation schedule was a meat grinder, but that came bubbling to the surface quickly as JJK’s second season aired. Word got out midseason that MAPPA had its animators sign NDAs about their work conditions, but complaints still broke containment and several staffers took to social media to apologize for their work looking incomplete, and some even publicly announced that they are leaving the studio. It is stunning that the finished product looks the way it does under such conditions, and I respect the animators for putting in such incredible work, but something has to give. Several major series suffered from major delays this year, some of which I gave significant praise, but MAPPA is lucky that all of JJK came out on time. I wish I knew what could push them to treat their workers with the dignity and respect (and pay) they deserve, but that’s a conversation that covers much wider ground than just anime.

MAPPA has already announced that the series will continue through the next major arc. While there is quite a bit of it that I would love to see on screen, I can only hope that the animators get to rest. For now, though, we can be proud of what they made under duress, even if some will forever wonder what it would look like if the staff were treated like something a notch above cattle.

1. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Fucking hell. This is why I watch anime.

I was curious about this one because a couple major anitubers I watch had reviewed the manga and were effusive in their praise. I knew the anime adaptation was on the way, so I decided to hold off on reading and see what the anime would be like, and with Keiichiro Saito (director of Bocchi the Rock! and key animator for Oshi no Ko’s instantly-iconic OP) at the helm, my excitement was piqued. That guy turned a B-minus 4-koma into an innovative hit comedy, so what can he do with a beloved source material and the backing of a legacy studio like Madhouse?

I've had so much to say about Frieren since the premiere, and I still have so much to say now, but to talk about what I love about this show is to talk about everything about this show. When the first four episodes dropped, I described it as “Mushoku Tensei without the baggage,” and I stand by that. There were multiple points throughout Frieren’s first cour where I'd nearly forgotten that I wasn't watching Mushoku Tensei. Every single element is on point: The animation is fluid and expressive, backdrops are consistently gorgeous, voice performances are quickly memorable, and the music is evocative and instantly iconic. This is, plainly, one of the most beautiful pieces of television I have ever seen on nearly every level, be it visually, sonically, or thematically.

The initial four-episode debut was a masterclass in establishing the setting, building emotional investment into the characters, and slowly but deliberately laying out the premise of the season to come. The titular Frieren is an elf mage who, for a very brief decade of her millennium-long life, lent her skills to an adventuring party to slay the Demon King. Though she helped save the world, she was never one for stuff like adulation or socializing, so she breaks away from the group to continue her hobby of collecting various spells and arcana. She regroups with them after 50 years, having kept in contact with none of them, only to find them older and frailer. The party’s leader, the hero Himmel, passes away shortly thereafter, and Frieren breaks down at his funeral, having realized exactly too late how important he was to her and that she’d never really bothered to get to know him as a person.

Some time later, she’s called by the surviving human member of the party, Heiter, under the guise of translating an old text, but soon realizes that he duped her into helping train the young orphan girl he adopted, Fern, as a mage. Upon Heiter’s death, Frieren and Fern head out together, carrying out odd jobs and retracing Frieren’s steps from the journey that changed her more than she realized. They soon learn from the other surviving member of the party, Eisen, that (ooh) heaven is, in fact, a place on earth, and that Frieren may be able to properly pay Himmel his final respects in person. In order to do so, they must make a trip to the north, past the Demon King’s castle. The story of Beyond Journey’s End is, quite literally, a nostalgia trip.

Frieren's story is one of grief and regret, but also how we can use those emotions as a way of moving forward rather than looking backward. Her history is a long one and her memories seemingly everlasting, but she uses them to pave the road ahead of her rather than let them shackle her to the past. This is best exemplified by Fern herself, as well as the other companion they pick up along the way in Eisen’s former trainee, Stark. Frieren can carry on the legacies of Heiter and Eisen by helping their young wards grow into the capable young adults they’re meant to be, while Himmel’s legacy lives on in the memories of the towns and villages he helped save along Frieren’s new path, and most importantly, in Frieren herself.

The degree to which Himmel truly mattered to Frieren becomes more apparent to her as the story goes on, and it becomes more evident in her actions. Himmel was a gentle, selfless (if self-aggrandizing) man who was every last bit the hero the modern world believes him to be. With every statue of him she cleans, every flower she plants in his name, every core memory that returns to her, we are watching Frieren become more and more like him in real time. You would expect a thousand-year-old woman to be pretty set in her ways, but we see her holding off on old, bad behaviors because of how Himmel would react to them back then. As Fern and Stark grow into young adults, we see her beginning to treat them the same way Himmel treated her. Frieren doesn’t realize it until later in the season, but it’s apparent to us early on that Himmel well and truly loved her, and I feel that it’s dawning on her that she loved him too and didn’t recognize it. That is tragic in and of itself (this show absolutely is a tearjerker at times and I will cop to getting misty-eyed as I write this), but there is something beautiful, well beyond my grasp, in being able to honor the memory and carry out the legacy of a loved one in how you treat those around you. I don’t think anything could have made Himmel prouder.

Frieren herself is a really goddamn good character too (and expertly voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki, best known for voicing Anya Forger in Spy x Family). Though she is portrayed as quiet and uncaring for the early part of the story, it’s been really delightful to watch her open up, and above all, inadvertently reveal that she’s actually just Really Fucking Weird. For as self-assured and put together as she always seems on the surface, it was great to learn that she’s just an enormous slob (she just like me fr), and any outward expressions of smugness or her offbeat sense of humor are always a joy. “Deeply weird person trying to act normal” is always fun, and there’s just something so consistently delightful about seeing someone so typically calm and intelligent get caught in a mimic chest every single time.

I still can’t get over how fucking good this show looks. Beyond Journey’s End features some of the most intricate, loving animation I’ve seen for stuff as simple as someone putting on a jacket. Action scenes are few and far between, but not a single frame is wasted when shit pops off. Not everyone is as detailed as possible at all times, and they don’t need to be, but everyone looks incredible when they do need to. It’s well above my pay grade to accurately say so, but this show could be a lesson in proper animation budgeting. I could go on and on and on, but I’ve written nearly eighteen thousand words about anime, so I’ll wrap it up.

The debut season of Frieren will continue into 2024, and if the quality remains a constant, it could very well be one of the best anime of next year too. It has remained as MyAnimeList’s top-rated anime ever for its entire run, warding off the legion of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fans. Frieren deserves it. I say with no hyperbole that this is one of the most perfectly realized things I’ve ever seen on television. This is an essential watch for anyone who likes fantasy anime, anime in general, or fantasy in general.

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bnhaobservation · 2 months ago

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Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 3: The girl who's like ice, Himura Rei and how she became Todoroki Rei

So this is part 3 of my ramblings about the Todoroki family. If you hadn’t read yet part 1 and part 2, and expecially the premise in it, I recommend you to do it otherwise you might get lost and not manage to work out how this series of meta is organized.

THE GIRL WHO’S LIKE ICE, HIMURA REI, AND HOW SHE BECAME TODOROKI REI (Chap. 31, 187, 301, 302 and 387 plus Ep. 130)

Canon information:

There’s little info about Rei before she became Todoroki Rei. We got more about her family, but, although I’ll quote that bit from the manga, I’ve already written a meta about the Himura family so I do prefer people to check it for the commentary, meta and cultural context about her family, instead than rewrite everything I said in it, so here I’ll focus just on the little we know about Rei pre-marriage.

She has an ice Quirk, which is why she catches Enji’s eyes, she come from a once prestigious family who had ended up in deep distress and came to a de facto end when Rei was sold to Enji.

The first time we hear her story is from Shōto in Chap. 31.

Todoroki Shōto ‘Kosei kon. Shitteru yo na. “Chōjō” ga okite kara dai ni~daisan sedai-kan de mondai ni natta yatsu… Jishin no “kosei” o yori kyōka shite tsuga seru tame dake ni haigūsha o erabi…… kekkon o shiiru. Rinri-kan no ketsuraku shita zenjidaiteki hassō. Jisseki to kane dake wa aru otoko da… Oyaji wa haha no shinzoku o marume komi haha no “kosei” o teni ireta. Ore o ALL MIGHT ijō no HERO ni sodate ageru koto de jishin no yokkyū o mitasōtte kotta.’ 轟焦凍「個性婚知ってるよな。〝超常〟が起きてから第二～第三世代間で問題になったやつ…自身の〝個性〟をより強化して継がせる為だけに配偶者を選び……結婚を強いる。倫理観の欠落した前時代的発想。実績と金だけはある男だ…親父は母の親族を丸め込み母の〝個性〟を手に入れた。俺をオールマイト以上のヒーローに育て上げることで自身の欲求を満たそうってこった。」 Todoroki Shōto “Quirk marriage. Do you know about it? After the ‘exceptional/supernatural’ happened, between the second and third generation they became a problem… In order to pass in inheritance a further strengthened version your “quirk” you choose a spouse… and get her married to you by force. Old-fashioned way of thinking which lacks in ethics. He’s a man with achievements and money… My father persuaded my mother’s relatives and obtained my mother’s “quirk”. Through raising me to be a Hero greater than All Might he wanted to fulfill his own desires.” [Chap. 31]

Later Tōya will also toss in his two cents on the marriage (Chap. 290 and 302).

Todoroki Tōya ‘ENDEAVOR wa katsute chikara ni kogarete imashita, soshite ALL MIGHT o koe renai zetsubō kara yori tsuyoi “kosei” o motta ko o tsukuru tame muriyari tsuma o metorimashita.’ 轟燈矢「エンデヴァーはかつて力に焦がれていました、そしてオールマイトを超えれない絶望からより強い〝個性〟を持った子を作る為無理やり妻を娶りました。」 Todoroki Tōya “Endeavor was once thirsty for power and, out of despair of not being able to surpass All Might, in order to create a child with a stronger “Quirk” he took a wife by force.” [Chap. 290]

Todoroki Tōya ‘Obā-chan-tachi ga binbō shitetakara Okā-san o uttan daro. Okā-san wa sōsuru shikanakattan daro.’ 轟燈矢「おばあちゃん達が貧乏してたからお母さんを売ったんだろ。お母さんはそうするしかなかったんだろ。」 Todoroki Tōya “Grandmother and the others were poor so they sold mother, isn’t that it? Mother had no choice but to do it, isn’t that it?” [Chap. 302]

Then we’ll get a quick glimpse of the Miai between Enji and Rei in which we actually see how the family head didn’t really need to be persuaded but seemed more than willing to jump at the chance to have his daughter marry Enji.

Rei no chichi ‘Jiki No.1 no yobi goe takai ENDEAVOR-sama kara o koe kake itadakeru to wa yume ni mo omoi masendeshita! Gyōkō no kiwami ni gozaimasu!! Himura mo katsute wa meika to yobareta yuisho aru iegara ni gozaimasu yue-- TOP HERO-sama no hanryo to shimashite wa jūbun ni tsuri ai ga toreru mono to--…’ 冷の父「次期No.1の呼び声高いエンデヴァー様からお声掛けいただけるとは夢にも思いませんでした！僥倖の極みにございます‼氷叢もかつては名家と呼ばれた由緒ある家柄にございます故──トップヒーロー様の伴侶としましては充分に釣り合いがとれるものと──…」 Rei’s father “I never dreamed that I would be approached by Endeavor-sama, who has been hailed as the next No. 1! We are at the height of luck!! The Himuras also come from a distinguished family with a prestigious lineage, so I think she would be a perfect match as the Top Hero-sama’s companion…” [Chap. 301]

When Enji will meet her, he thinks she’s a woman of ice, a strong one for the matter, but later realizes that she can easily melt.

Todoroki Enji ‘Kōri no yōna onna datta. “Kosei kon” dearu koto mo shōchi no ue de…… Ie no tame ni ore no tsuma ni naru to iu. Tsuyoku─────… shikashi furereba tokete kiete shimai sō na─────…’ 轟炎司「（氷のような女だった。〝個性婚〟である事も承知の上で……家の為に俺の妻になると言う。強く─────…しかし触れれば溶けて消えてしまいそうな─────…）」 Todoroki Enji “(She was a woman of ice. She knew that it was a “Quirk marriage”… but she said she would become my wife for her family’s sake. She was strong… but if she were to be touched, she would melt and disappear…)” [Chap. 301]

The anime gives us more info about the Miai and Enji’s intentions.

Todoroki Enji ‘(Ichiō, miai to iu katachi o totte wa iruga, koreha “kosei kon”. Jishin no “kosei” o yori kyōka shite tsuga seru tame ni haigūsha o erabi, kodomo o uma seru tame no kekkon. Ore wa nozonda noda. Ore no honō no “kosei” to kōri himura-ke ichizoku no kōri no “kosei” ga majiwareba, ALL MIGHT o mo koeru HERO ga umidaseru to. Katsute wa meikadatta Himura-ke mo ima wa aoikitoiki… No.2 HERO no chii to meiyo, soshite jisankin meate ni Himura-ke no tōshu wa ore no teian o assari to ukeireta. Kotowaru koto mo dekita hazuda. Daga kanojo wa “kosei” kondearu koto mo shōchi no ue de, ie no tame ni ore no tsuma ni naru to iu.)’ 轟炎司「（一応、見合いという形をとってはいるが、これは〝個性〟婚。自身の〝個性〟をより強化して継がせるために配偶者を選び、子どもを産ませる為の結婚。俺は望んだのだ。俺の炎の〝個性〟と氷叢家一族の氷の〝個性〟が交われば、オールマイトをも超えるヒーローが生み出せると。かつては名家だった氷叢家も今は青息吐息…No.2ヒーローの地位と名誉、そして持参金目当てに氷叢家の当主は俺の提案をあっさりと受け入れた。断る事もできたハズだ。だが彼女は〝個性〟婚である事も承知の上で、家の為に俺の妻になると言う。）」 Todoroki Enji “(Just in case, although it was made to look like an arranged marriage meeting, this was a “Quirk marriage”. A marriage to have children in which the spouse is chosen in order to strengthen and pass on one’s “Quirk”. I wanted it. If my fire “Quirk” and the ice “Quirk” of the Himura family were combined, I could create a hero that would surpass All Might. The Himura family, which was once a prestigious family, was now in deep distress… The head of the Himura family easily accepted my proposal, aiming for the status and prestige of the No. 2 hero, as well as the dowry. She could have refused. However, even if she was aware that it was a “Quirk” marriage, she said that she would become my wife for her family’s sake.)” [Ep. 130]

As for Rei she’ll claim the choice to marry Enji was her own.

Todoroki Rei ‘(Sentakushi wa kagirarete ita keredo erande susunda no wa watashi no ashi de───── semete sono sakide wa waratte iyou to omotte ita no ni───…)’ 轟冷「（選択肢は限られていたけれど選んで進んだのは私の足で─────せめてその先では笑っていようと思っていたのに───…）」 Todoroki Rei “(Although my options were limited, I chose to move forward with my own feet─────At least from now on I’ll try to smile, that’s what I was thinking─────…)” [Chap. 302]

We see a bit of their first date in which all we learn is Rei likes flowers, or more specifically Gentians.

Todoroki Enji ‘……’ 轟炎司「……」 Todoroki Enji “…”

Todoroki Rei ‘……’ 轟冷「……」 Todoroki Rei “…”

Todoroki Enji ‘…… Hana ga suki ka.’ 轟炎司「……花が好きか。」 Todoroki Enji “Do you like (those) flowers?”

Todoroki Rei ‘Hai. Totemo kirei.’ 轟冷「はい。とても綺麗。」 Todoroki Rei “Yes, they are very beautiful.” [Chap. 301]

We know it’s their first date and also their first meeting due to this previous bit.

Todoroki Rei ‘Kono ohana watashi ga sukitte itta no. Hajimete atta koro tatta ichido.’ 轟冷「このお花私が好きって言ったの。初めて会った頃たった一度。」 Todoroki Rei “I told him I like/love these flowers. Only once, when we first met.” [Chap. 187]

Then we have a huge wall of information about the Himura family, courtesy of Geten.

Geten ‘Himura wa chi ga koinda. Furuku kara no shōya datta Himura wa nōchi kaikaku go mo bunke o fuyasu koto de zai to PRIDE o nantoka tamotte kita. Demo chōjō ga okiru to tomoni kasokudoteki ni reiraku shite itta. Chi ga mazaru no o kirattanda.’ 外典「火叢は血が濃いんだ。古くからの庄屋だった火叢は農地改革後も分家を増やす事で財とプライドをなんとか保ってきた。でも超常が起きると共に加速度的に零落していった。血が混ざるのを嫌ったんだ。」 Geten “The Himura blood runs thick. The Himura, who were village heads from long ago, managed to maintain their wealth and pride even after the land reform by increasing the number of branch families. But as the exceptional/supernatural happened, things (for them) started falling down at an accelerating rate. They hated mixing their blood.”

Geten ‘Kekka bunke… tōen dōshi de no kekkon ga aitsuida.’ 外典「結果分家…遠縁同士での結婚が相次いだ。」 Geten “As a result, the branch families… had marriages among distant relatives which occurred one after another.”

Geten ‘Mizukara o heisoku kankyō ni oki Himura-ke wa shukushō no itto o tadori. Tōtō honke ga miuri o hajimeta koto de jijitsujō no shūen o mukaeta. Nokori no wazuka na shizoku mo risan shi sono naka no hitotsu datta boku wa saikōshidō-sha (read: RE-DESTRO) ni hirowa reta.’ 外典「自らを閉塞環境に置き火叢家は縮小の一途を辿り。とうとう本家が身売りを始めたことで事実上の終焉を迎えた。残りの僅かな氏族も離散しその中の一つだった僕は最高指導者(リ・デストロ)に拾われた。」 Geten “As a result of placing themselves in a closed environment, the Himura family steadily shrank. When finally the main family started selling themselves, it came to a de facto end. Even the few remaining clans are scattered, and I was among them and then picked up by the supreme leader (read: Re-Destro).” [Chap. 387]

Something else?

Originally she was planned to have a boyfriend before Enji were to approach her but we don’t know if Horikoshi kept this part from her prototype or axed it, as in canon it never comes up. Alter all, in the prototype, it seems it’s due to how she was forced to part from her boyfriend that she came to hate Shōto’s left side (in the prototype Shōto hated her back) and ended up going insane and scarring him.

Cultural corner:

Kekkon (結婚 “marriage”): for a long time in Japan marriages weren’t out of love but out of interest as the marriage had to be beneficial to the family of the future newly-weds. Actually it was believed if one were to choose a partner due to love… well, this would make for a poor marriage (a common way to say was “Those who come together in passion, stay together in tears”). Even nowadays only the 70% of marriages in Japan is a love marriage while the rest are the more traditional arranged marriages. The fact that Enji and Rei marry not out of love but solely because it would be beneficial to them/their families is therefore seen as a possible reason to marry in Japan as long as both Rei and Enji agree to it.

Miai (見合い “matchmaking”, lit. “look meet”): it’s a Japanese traditional custom in which a woman and a man are introduced to each other to consider the possibility of marriage. Taking information about the potential spouse and his/her family before the Miai not only is perfectly fine but it’s usually part of the whole custom as usually a ‘nakōdo’ (仲人 “go-between”) presents the family with photos of potential candidates and their personal history (as well as info on their family) for the family to select among them before deciding to organize the Miai. Usually the potential spouse checks them with his mother. The fact Enji’s mother is never shown can be seen as a hint she’s dead.

Yūseigaku (優生学 “eugenics” or “science of superior birth”): it’s a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. While Japan tackled the problem mostly by forcing sterilization or abortion for criminal and people with mental illness or genetic transmissible diseases (or who were exposed to radiations) with a law that existed from 1948 to 1996, Japan also considered marriage between the right candidates as a way to produce better offspring. In fact after Japan was forced to drop its isolationist politic (1868) some promoted the idea that the Japanese race should produce superior descendants through ‘kokusai kekkon’ (国際結婚 “international marriages”), in short by basically having mixed marriages between Japanese and Westerners… however in between the two world wars Japanese people were instead encouraged to marry other pure-blooded Japanese so as to preserve the purity of the race. It’s worth to mention that in Miai the candidates and their families are judged on a large set of criteria aimed at determining the suitability and the balance of the marriage… and said criteria include also if the family has a history of genetically transmissible diseases or mental illness as well as the bloodline of the candidate. There’s also to wonder if Horikoshi took inspiration for his Quirk marriages by the international marriages… while the Himuras wanting to marry among themselves were inspired by the pure-blood culture… but that’s up to speculation.

Sanjū Shitoku (三従四徳 “The three obediences and four virtues”): a set of moral principles and social code of behavior for maidens and married women in East Asian Confucianism. In specific the three obediences instruct that a woman is obligated not to act on her own initiative and, at home, she must submissively obey or follow her father’s orders before getting married, her husband’s after getting married, and her sons’ after her husband’s death. In short, in addition to filial piety, women were also expected to follow those rules.

Giri no haha (義理の母 “mother-in-law”) and giri no musume (義理の娘 “daughter-in-law”): In traditional Japan, the daughter-in-law was supposed to provide care but also to obey to the mother-in-law. It wasn’t just the virtuous thing to do, in the past divorces were commonly initiated not by the husband but by the mother-in-law and so, if she failed to satisfy the mother-in law, the bride would be sent back home in disgrace. Nowadays things are better (previously the mother-in-law could see the daughter-in-law as little more than a servant if she so wished, as the mother-in-law had primary authority) but the mother-in-law is still seen one step above the daughter-in-law.

Rindō (リンドウ “Gentian”): The most common one in Japan is the ‘gentiana scabra’ or Japanese gentian or just Rindō (リンドウ) which, in Japan, blossom from September to November so it can be the one Rei received when the JP Hero Billboard Chart took place (November)… but during the date Rei seems a tad more overdressed for someone who should have a body that handles cold well if we are in that time of the year. We also have the ‘gentiana zollingeri’ or Fude Rindō (フデリンドウ) which blossom from April to May and the ‘gentiana thunbergii’ or Haru Rindō (ハルリンドウ) which blossom from March to May and therefore could be the type of Gentian Rei had during the Paranormal Liberation War arc, which takes place in March (as Enji likely bought it from a greenhouse and there they can blossom a little earlier it is possible for him to buy the ‘gentiana zollingeri’)… but again, this doesn’t seem the time during which the date takes place.

Yamato nadeshiko (やまとなでしこ or 大和撫子 lit: “Japanese carnation” or “Japanese caressable child/Japanese beloved child”): a Japanese term meaning the “personification of an idealized Japanese woman”. It’s supposed to possess grace and beauty but also inner strength. She exhibits delicacy and deference, as well as quiet determination. Both dignified and modest, she is believed to embody characteristics of delicacy and fragility, as well as elegance and sturdiness. Though outwardly submissive and obedient, she is internally strong. Her life revolves around acting for the benefit of her family, following instructions or acting in the best interests of the family head. Virtues include loyalty, domestic skills, wisdom, and humility as well as the ability to endure whatever life might ask of her. Noble Japanese women who were raised in wealthy/prestigious households learned proper etiquette and Confucian ideology so as to become Yamato nadeshiko. Although the Himura were poor, they were prestigious so very likely Rei was also raised in this way.

Yuki-onna (雪女 “snow woman”): is a spirit or yōkai (妖怪 “strange apparition”) of Japanese folklore that is often depicted in Japanese literature, films, or animation. She’s supposed to be beautiful, very pale and calm. It’s probably a coincidence but in one legend she’s supposed to say ‘Koori gose yu gose’ (氷ごせ湯ごせ “Give me ice, give me hot water”) and disappear when she’s splashed with hot water, which seems a reference to Rei’s Quirk and to how she burned Shōto with hot water and then was hospitalized, basically disappearing from the Todoroki house.

Otto (夫 “husband”) and tsuma (妻 “wife”): in Japan, although things are changing, the role of the husband is just to work hard and provide for the money. He’s hardly at home, spending his time working by day and, in the evening, drinking with his boss and colleagues. Sometimes he’s also expected to have other social interactions with them like going to play golf with them. The role of the wife is instead to take care of the house and the children as well as to administer the family money (the husband gets an allowance according to how she sees fit). She’s however supposed to obey to her husband in all the other things and not complain whatever he does. For example if she were to ask for a divorce because he cheats on her, it would be seen as shameful FOR HER (never mentioning in Japan is very difficult to obtain a divorce if your partner doesn’t agree to it). Mind you, things are changing so this isn’t anymore a perfect depiction of how husband and wife are, but it’s still prevalent enough.

As said before, for a cultural corner related to the info we have about the Himura family I’ll ask you to check my Himura family post.

Doylist commentary:

Horikoshi apparently doesn’t tell us much about Rei’s past, but in the little Enji says about her we might miss some details that might instead be more evident to Japanese readers due to their culture. In fact Enji’s description of her seems to imply he sees her as a Yamato Nadeshiko, an ideal of Japanese womanhood, which is at the same time delicate and strong and would sacrifice for the family (as well as follow the three obediences)…

…but of course, if we’re not familiar with what a Yamato Nadeshiko is, we miss the implication.

The whole ‘woman of ice’ also might be a reference to how Rei seemed cold and impassible, her face expressionless when he first met her, but might also be a reference to a Yuki-onna.

There are however oddities in the whole thing that seem to imply to a retcon in Rei’s backstory.

The most important one is that both Shōto and Tōya portray Rei’s family as forced by Enji to sell her off.

Todoroki Shōto ‘Jisseki to kane dake wa aru otoko da… Oyaji wa haha no shinzoku o marume komi haha no “kosei” o teni ireta.’ 轟焦凍「実績と金だけはある男だ…親父は母の親族を丸め込み母の〝個性〟を手に入れた。」 Todoroki Shōto “He’s a man with achievements and money… My father persuaded my mother’s relatives and obtained my mother’s “quirk”.” [Chap. 31]

In Chap. 31 Shōto, to say Enji persuaded Rei’s family, uses ‘marume komi’ (丸め込み), which seems to have a not so positive implication, as it’s used to imply you managed to talk someone into doing what you want, as if the Himuras didn’t really want to let Rei marry him and needed to be persuaded.

In Chap. 290 Tōya instead uses ‘muriyari’ (無理やり), which means “forcibily, against one’s will” so he paints an even darker picture.

Then… with Chap. 301/302, this is kind of turned over.

In fact, in chap 301, we see how Rei’s father looks more delighted than forced/in need to be persuaded when he meets Enji, the anime even remarking this more by painting the family head grinning as he interacted with Enji, Enji doing hardly any work of persuasion, as he’s not even shown speaking as the Himura family head talks of how honored they are he approached them and how Rei will be an appropriate bride for him.

Also later, in chap 302, Tōya, despite claiming his mother had no choices (しかなかった ‘shikanakatta’), with Rei not correcting him, will now place the blame on his grandparents being poor (so Rei had to marry Enji to help them) and therefore deciding to sell Rei (売る ‘uru’), and not on his father persuading them (as Shōto said) or forcing her as he said before.

This greatly shift the blame of Rei being sold on her parents, as hadn’t Enji not shown up, they would have probably handed her off to someone else… never mentioning what will be revealed much later, in chap 387, when it’ll turn out Rei was never meant to marry for love, as the Himura were used to marry among them.

Geten ‘Himura wa chi ga koinda. Furuku kara no shōya datta Himura wa nōchi kaikaku go mo bunke o fuyasu koto de zai to PRIDE o nantoka tamotte kita. Demo chōjō ga okiru to tomoni kasokudoteki ni reiraku shite itta. Chi ga mazaru no o kirattanda. Kekka bunke… tōen dōshi de no kekkon ga aitsuida. Mizukara o heisoku kankyō ni oki Himura-ke wa shukushō no itto o tadori. Tōtō honke ga miuri o hajimeta koto de jijitsujō no shūen o mukaeta. Nokori no wazuka na shizoku mo risan shi sono naka no hitotsu datta boku wa saikōshidō-sha (read: RE-DESTRO) ni hirowa reta.’ 外典「火叢は血が濃いんだ。古くからの庄屋だった火叢は農地改革後も分家を増やす事で財とプライドをなんとか保ってきた。でも超常が起きると共に加速度的に零落していった。血が混ざるのを嫌ったんだ。結果分家…遠縁同士での結婚が相次いだ。自らを閉塞環境に置き火叢家は縮小の一途を辿り。とうとう本家が身売りを始めたことで事実上の終焉を迎えた。残りの僅かな氏族も離散しその中の一つだった僕は最高指導者(リ・デストロ)に拾われた。」 Geten “The Himura blood runs thick. The Himura, who were village heads from long ago, managed to maintain their wealth and pride even after the land reform by increasing the number of branch families. But as the exceptional/supernatural happened, things (for them) started falling down at an accelerating rate. They hated mixing their blood. As a result, the branch families… had marriages among distant relatives which occurred one after another. As a result of placing themselves in a closed environment, the Himura family steadily shrank. When finally the main family started selling themselves, it came to a de facto end. Even the few remaining clans are scattered, and I was among them and then picked up by the supreme leader (read: Re-Destro).” [Chap. 387]

While Geten calls Rei marrying an outsider ‘the main family starting to sell themselves’, the implication seems to be Rei’s parents would have always decided who was going to be Rei’s husband… but this seems denied by Rei herself.

In fact in chap 301 she claims it wasn’t like her opinion never mattered. Rei had the option to refuse but she accepted for her family’s sake.

Todoroki Enji “Kosei kon” dearu koto mo shōchi no ue de…… Ie no tame ni ore no tsuma ni naru to iu.’ 轟炎司「（〝個性婚〟である事も承知の上で……家の為に俺の妻になると言う。）」 Todoroki Enji “(She knew that it was a “Quirk marriage”… but she said she would become my wife for her family’s sake.)” [Chap. 301]

The anime too remarks how Enji’s proposal was easily accepted by her parents (so Enji didn’t need to talk her parents into it as Shōto instead said) and how Rei could have refused (so she wasn’t forced by him to accept as Tōya said).

Todoroki Enji ‘(No.2 HERO no chii to meiyo, soshite jisankin meate ni Himura-ke no tōshu wa ore no teian o assari to ukeireta. Kotowaru koto mo dekita hazuda. Daga kanojo wa “kosei” kondearu koto mo shōchi no ue de, ie no tame ni ore no tsuma ni naru to iu.)’ 轟炎司「（No.2ヒーローの地位と名誉、そして持参金目当てに氷叢家の当主は俺の提案をあっさりと受け入れた。断る事もできたハズだ。だが彼女は〝個性〟婚である事も承知の上で、家の為に俺の妻になると言う。）」Todoroki Enji “(The head of the Himura family easily accepted my proposal, aiming for the status and prestige of the No. 2 hero, as well as the dowry. She could have refused. However, even if she was aware that it was a “Quirk” marriage, she said that she would become my wife for her family’s sake.)” [Ep. 130]

And it’s not just Enji who says so; Rei herself will claim the choice to marry Enji was her own… which matches with Japanese laws (arranged marriages can’t be done if the candidates don’t both consent).

Now, credits when it’s due, the idea here might be that the family actually gave her the option to marry a Himura, Enji, or some other rich guy, hence her options were limited but she could make her pick, and Rei might have felt psychologically ‘forced’ to marry among the candidates chosen by her parents due to filial piety and duty of obedience, even if not physically forced to do so. We can’t really say if Enji was her parents’ favorite candidate (we don’t know if she had other suitors who were more or equally prestigious and rich), so they influenced her choice, or she thought he would be her best pick among the candidates presented to her.

Still, in order to be good to her poor parents, she chose to marry Enji… but still this paints a completely different picture than the one Shōto first and Tōya later painted, as Enji isn’t really working hard to persuade her parents or forcing Rei’s hand, he made a proposition and came clean to his intentions of having a Quirk marriage and the ones who’re really to blame are Rei’s parents.

Interesting enough in the prototype it seems more like Rei was forced into a marriage, as the prototype version says she had a boyfriend/lover (愛人 ‘koibito’), meaning she had to give up on that person to marry Enji, which would fit more with the idea of her being forced and her family needing to be persuaded, where the manga instead never mention her having a previous love interest.

So again, we get a feeling the story changed track in regard to how unfair it was the marriage toward Rei (as now she had some options), and on how much Enji was to blame for it (as now the Himuras needed zero persuasion to switch from selling her to a poor, distant relative to selling her to the rich and prestigious number two, Rei gave her consent and, anyway, if she hadn’t, she would have to marry a relative or, possibly, another rich candidate) and so it can be the whole thing was retconned again to paint a less negative picture of Enji.

Something else I found odd, but that might not mean anything, is that usually girls who come from prestigious families (even poor ones) become wives who dress in a traditional fashion, with kimono and all (think for example to the main character of ‘Ai Yori Aoshi’ (藍より青し “Bluer Than Indigo”)), while Rei is shown in jeans and t-shirt or skirt and t-shirt. It’s a stereotype, it’s not necessarily a truth of life, but it still makes me think that the plan for the Himura to be a prestigious, traditional family was something Horikoshi came up with later, and that likely he originally envisioned Rei as coming from a family of poor commoners and then he switched to a prestigious family.

Last but not least… Rei is shown as heavily dressed for her first walk with Enji (she has a jacket and a scarf) despite having a body better suited for the cold, which seems to imply it should be winter but… gentians are blossoming meaning it’s either spring or autumn. The anime seems to outright go for a warmer season as it leaves the window open (in the manga it was closed) so maybe it was a mistake to dress Rei so heavily (Enji is comparatively much less dressed as he’s only wearing a suit).

As for the Himura backstory, it sure is interesting but it’s clearly placed at that point more to explain why Tōya too ended up on having an ice Quirk (the Himura blood is just that thickthat whoever has it can’t help but have a ice Quirk) than to enrich Rei’s backstory (or Geten’s) with details. Yeah, they benefit from the addition too (the story becomes also explanation why Geten joined Re-Destro) but it doesn’t really seem about them or for them, but feels as a narrative expedient to explain/excuse a sudden and not foreshadowed surprise.

It’s not bad, however again, it feels poorly foreshadowed.

It was Shōto himself who introduced the Quirk marriages, but claimed they started becoming a problem during the second or third generation, stating those earlier generations were lacking in ethic (Shōto is probably a fifth generation as Midoriya). Well, it turns out the Himura always did Quirk marriages, albeit, differently from his father, as they didn’t want to mix their Quirk with other Quirks, but strengthening/preserving their own ice Quirk as well as their blood. Shōto though, blames only his father to do as those old generations, which seems to imply his mother’s side wasn’t doing the same.

The result is that the whole Himura family’s past seems more like a spur of the moment idea, more than something planned… or, at least, to me it feels like that.

Something else worth mentioning is through the story we’ll never learn about Enji’s mother, very likely because it spared Horikoshi from drawing her which is fair… but it’s still a pity.

Last but not least, in the anime only monologue there’s probably a mistake.

Todoroki Enji ‘(No.2 HERO no chii to meiyo, soshite jisankin meate ni Himura-ke no tōshu wa ore no teian o assari to ukeireta.)’ 轟炎司「（No.2ヒーローの地位と名誉、そして持参金目当てに氷叢家の当主は俺の提案をあっさりと受け入れた。）」 Todoroki Enji “(The head of the Himura family easily accepted my proposal, aiming for the status and prestige of the No. 2 hero, as well as the dowry.)” [Ep. 130]

‘Jisankin’ (持参金) means “dowry” but the dowry is an amount of property or money brought by the bride to her husband on their marriage (it can also be called ‘kashi’ (嫁資)).What the husband pays to the bride’s family instead is called ‘konshi’ (婚資) or ‘yuinōkin’ (結納金), both meaning “betrothal money”. In some cases the “betrothal money” can be an amount big enough to surpass the “dowry” (so basically the groom pays for the dowry and then some more), but it would have still made more sense for the dialogue to say the Himura wanted the “betrothal money”, not the “dowry”.

Watsonian commentary:

So, instead than trying to find a companion he could love and that would love him back, or waiting for when he’ll meet one, Enji decides to marry a woman who can give him an offspring that could help him fulfill his ambitions and erase his inferiority complex as well as his dark feelings all in one single blow.

Mind you, as I said in the cultural corner, in Japan people is okay with marriages not done out of love, but it’s no more AGAINST marriages done out of love. Enji doesn’t have a family pressuring him to marry Rei. It’s just he thinks he’ll feel better if he’ll have the kind of heir he wants, instead than if he’ll choose his companion according to what he feels for such person or, at least, personal compatibility.

It speaks of a man who doesn’t know the value of emotional relations, who’s completely obsessed with his own goal.

His father died when he was a middle-schooler… which means if his mother was alive he might have had memories of their relation. Either she died earlier than his father, or their relation wasn’t the sort one also wishes to have for himself. If his parents too married for convenience and not out of love, it might have made easier for Enji to follow that same path.

Now, as said in the Doylist commentary, likely Enji’s mother wasn’t included for practical reasons, but, in a Watsonian commentary, the most ergonomic explanation for her absence at the Miai (normally the mother of the potential groom would be very involved with it) as well as in Enji’s home (as said before, the firstborn take over the family house and then, due to filial piety, is supposed to take care of his aging parents and, since Enji’s mother is a widow and Enji’s house is big enough for it, it would have made even more sense for her to live with her son and educate Rei to the rules of the house), is that she’s dead.

What’s more, if his mother died early on, before his father did, this could have had unpleasant psychological consequences that lead to the character Enji has, in fact an early loss of his mother can cause in a child low self-worth, emotional dysregulation (as in difficulties in managing emotions which can lead to outbursts or withdrawal) and a general insecurity in relationships, which might have pushed him to prefer a relationship based on interest than one based on feelings.

Long story short, Enji’s ‘weakness’, unknown to him, could have had its psychological roots in his lack of mother figure, though he realized of his weakness only when his father died and he failed to act.

Of course all this doesn’t exactly make him a well balanced guy who can be considered an ideal husband.

Rei is in no better position.

There’s no freedom to marry who you love in her family, traditionally the Himura marry among relatives, and when the Himura ends up being poor they’re all to sell her to the best offering.

Legally the family head, which is also Rei’s father (according to the anime the guy with Enji and Rei at the Miai is the family head and Rei’s father... but just so you know, the fact that the two are one and the same isn’t mandatory) couldn’t have forced Rei to marry the potential husband he favored, and Rei claims she had options, albeit limited ones, but likely they were to chose among the candidates her family picked for her as filial piety and the duty to obey to her parents likely pressured her not to say ’no’ to the whole thing.

In the end Rei chose economical stability for her birth family over the continuation of the Himura family line and she tried to be happy with her choice.

Maybe it wasn’t she just chose economical stability, maybe she thought since Enji showed interest in what she liked, asking her if she liked flowers, this could mean he would be a good husband. Maybe the other candidates didn’t even ask her that much.

Still, in making this choice, she basically agrees with Enji’s plan to have children he can use to fulfill his ambitions, she ‘sacrifices’ them (as well as herself) to help her own previous family.

Honestly I don’t think she thought she would ‘sacrifice’ her children, she likely didn’t expect things to go that bad… but she probably also expected her own children to act like her, do what they must for the well being of their birth family (read: to satisfy their father).

She was clearly raised to obey and sacrifice herself for her own family, and she has likely assumed it was fair to expect her own children would do the same because that’s how she was taught the world works. Not only she likely didn’t expect Tōya would end up being incompatible with his Quirk, but also that, once Tōya was told by his parents he couldn’t train or become a Hero, Tōya would resist them and continue training. Obeying to her birth family, sacrificing herself for it, was probably so natural for her she didn’t even realize it until Tōya slams on her face she’s also responsible for his situation.

There’s to wonder how the Himuras see Enji. Despite all their flattering when he approached the Himura, there’s no hint whatsoever Enji is also from a prestigious family, the Himura family head praising solely the position he has reached as a Hero, not his family history.

Enji has a big house (although smaller than the Himuras… at least in the anime), yes, but he might have bought that later, it might not be his birth home.

So, despite Enji’s position and money which allows him to buy Rei and to have an impressively big house, the Himura might look down at him as just a commoner who got successful and rich but nothing more.

Anyway… if things had gone well… Enji and Rei would have probably been fine regardless of being two people who clearly didn’t have the best psychological background.

Rei would have played her part as perfect wife and mother, obeying Enji and taking care of the house and children and Enji would have played his part as perfect husband, working hard so as to provide money for his family and raising his own heir the way he wanted to.

Problems came though, and, with them, the balance the two of them had came crashing down… but we’ll see it in the next part.

That’s all for this part. Please stay tuned for the next!

#boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #bnha meta #Todoroki Enji #Todoroki Rei #bnha ramblings

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