#like I don’t put down maki or her strength or her role in the story to uplift a male character who

[nakamurareia]

ppl say it’s not that deep to like morally grey/straight up villainous male characters and that is true!! u can absolutely like your shitbag dickface character and not condone their actions irl!! but like so many of u r just straight up misogynists like. u can love your emotional support asshole man without degrading women in the process. it’s rlly not difficult

[lavenderjewels]

JJK chapter 246 thoughts below

Because the official chapter’s translations last week were disappointing in a couple of ways, I read the fan translation. Keeping all my thoughts here until the official one drops!

I loved this chapter a lot! :’)

MEGUMI.

I have been SO confident that yuuji is trying to save megumi since he was taken over that I am unbelievably satisfied, especially after seeing way too many posts that megumi is 100% dead or has no chance. I’ve been slightly bitter at seeing so many theories about Gojo coming back that don’t make sense when it would be a crime if he came back but not Megumi (or Nobara). The only question is whether or not Yuuji will actually be able to save Megumi or if either will die in the process—for my own sake, I’m believing in the power of friendship. Also, I wish there were date/time stamps for the flashbacks, since it’s hard to remember when in the time skip it is.

And LOVE that Yuuji was the one that came up with that plan. Nothing will ever be easy and there’s no way this plan can go right without more death, but that little sliver of hope is fantastic. I can always rely on Yuuji being the “humanity” of the team. Thinking back to when Hana and him off-handedly wondered if Gojo forgot about Megumi during the fight. It’s nice having two people who are invested in saving Megumi when the situation is dire.

Did Choso getting punched x2 straight through the chest and stomach worry me? Yes, but he’s not dead and Yuuji didn’t look devastated, so I’m taking this as a positive that he’s out of the fight for now. If he wasn’t a half curse and it wasn’t so casual, I’d be concerned. Sukuna does NOT like either of the siblings since he’s met both. Very sweet that Yuuji caught him the second Sukuna threw him aside.

The color page (which looks incredible) is fueling my belief that Maki is with Yuuta as help with Kenjaku. That, or the current team is the first round of fighters and they’ll need her soul sword for something last-minute sukuna related, but I just wouldn’t be surprised if the jujutsu high second years stuck together.

Higuuuuuuuurumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa <3

I love him. “Sukuna found himself completely enthralled—“ same

No really, I’ve adored his character since chapter 159 released and I’m so happy that one of my favorite characters is getting all this. I already have other posts lined up for when the official chapter drops, but I love him.

His conversation with Yuuji was dark, but I love these quiet moments of insight. Such a good chapter for all these tiny character moments with interesting implications.

Despite my disappointment at the trial ending so soon, I like this fight and I think Sukuna does too (for Higuruma). The end pages about Higuruma’s quick learning and adaption to sorcery is exactly what I wanted to see!

(Continuing) Higuruma is essentially a tired lawyer new to sorcery and is not nearly as overpoweringly strong as Gojo, yet the manga states he rivals Gojo in raw talent and adaptability. Realistically, he doesn’t and can’t have that overpowered strength to the degree of Gojo, but I love how that doesn’t diminish the skills he does have and shows how valuable these characters can be (and it’s not JUST talent, but how their mindset around life and sorcery too). They don’t have to be overpowered to have a profound impact and be smart in their fighting.

(Continuing) I remember seeing comments after Gojo died that there was no use because there can’t be a way for the protagonists to defeat Sukuna without a deus ex machina, plot armor, etc. But I hoped the story would lean into the characters’ strengths and have them work together to find a smart way with combined effort to take down Sukuna, rather than Gojo be the magical solution to killing Sukuna and Kenjaku. So this chapter worked in a lot of ways for me.

(Continuing) It’s the same reason why Yuuji turning his role put on him (by others and himself) as a cage/tool into something significant in this fight is very compelling. At a surface level, these characters are much weaker than Sukuna, but I think they genuinely have a chance. Plus, it’s more entertaining to have a team fight in jjk and, despite still heavily incorporating the power system, I find this fight to already be more emotional and investing than the Gojo Sukuna one. Not to be overly negative on that last fight (there’s good moments in it and the fighting itself is fun), but this is what I wanted from JJK!

More people will die at some point. Better not be Choso (Yuki died for him so that had better not go to waste immediately), but could honestly be anyone. I do think there’s going to be a moment where things do end up going right for the protagonist team, but that could be a long time from now. Kusakabe being surprised at himself for his willingness to die to protect Higuruma was??? Adorable??? A duo I never considered, but I need them to survive (unlikely) and interact more now that I’m thinking of how well they’d get along.

Another long review of a jjk chapter, but had a great time with this one! At this point, I mention it weekly, but Sukuna in his original form is beautiful every time I see him and im very happy to have him in that form for this fight.

[ootahime]

what is utahime’s role in the future? — a prediction (manga spoilers)

part 2 (unedited)

part 1 is here!

let’s continue answering the question: is utahime weak?

chapter 135

what preparations is utahime making? like i’ve mentioned before, i theorize that she needs to charge up in order to use her technique. since momo and the other kyoto students are fighting on the front line to buy time for utahime, i believe that they trust that their teacher’s ability can help turn the situation around.

what do the students think of her? do they think she’s weak?

chapter 128

mechamaru manipulates the circumstances in a way that allow him to keep the kyoto people away from danger. this has more to do with how much he cares about his classmates and his teacher rather than seeing them as incompetent sorcerers who can’t hold their own. notice how he says “EVEN utahime”.

chapter 128

kamo thinks mechamaru doesn’t have that much faith in the Kyoto students—but this isn’t true at all! he knows who the enemy is and has a grasp of how dangerous they are. he just wants to keep his friends safe. besides, kamo is a semi-grade 1 sorcerer which means he’s more than capable of defending himself against curses. but since he’s being kept safe too, it suggests that this is not a matter of keeping weak people away from fighting :)

chapter 41

this seems a bit off topic but let’s talk about the misogyny in jujutsu society. momo points out to nobara that the women from the zenin clan are expected to be perfect. the misogyny runs so deep to the point where some women aren’t allowed to even fight. you may think that this is just about the zenin clan but it’s about society as a whole. that’s why nobara responds to momo in a more personal sense. she doesn’t care about the boys versus girls issue because she embraces all aspects of herself. she loves herself when she’s strong, and she loves herself when she’s dressed up and beautiful. if it only applied to the zenin family then nobara wouldn’t have responded the way she did.

in the chapter before, nishimiya explains, “even if a girl has skills, if she’s not cute, she’s looked down upon. of course, if she’s only cute with no skill, it’s the same. women sorcerers aren’t expected to be skilled, they’re expected to be perfect.”

some of the female characters in jujutsu kaisen apply to this. for example, maki and mai. they’re looked down upon because one can’t use a cursed technique or see curses, while the other’s cursed technique is weak. in chapter 148(?) naoya says the only thing maki had going for her was her face, but it’s ruined now so she’s nothing. the zenin twins fall under the “cute but not skilled” category in jujutsu society. before we can put utahime into a category, let’s examine mei.

i promise this will all connect so please bear with me LOLLL let’s move on to mei. we find out that mei has the ability to control crows. she deems this ability as weak because it’s simple and doesn’t have much attack or defense power.

she convinces herself that a sorcerer’s worth doesn’t revolve around their CT. by following this ideal, she soon found herself at her limit because you can only hone your physical abilities to an extent. she said she was crushed because she thought that her weak CT would forever stunt her ability to grow as a sorcerer. but because of all the training she did in order to not rely on her CT, she was able to combine her physical prowess with her technique to make what’s best of her ability to control crows.

mei is an example of a perfect woman based on the standards the jujutsu world has established for women. although she has a weak technique, she makes up for it with adept use of weapons and physical prowess. she found a way to incorporate this “weak” ability to make it something strong. she’s beautiful and powerful so therefore, she was promoted to be a grade 1 sorcerer. she is what a woman is expected to be in order to be acknowledged by others.

what about utahime? why couldn’t she follow the same footsteps as mei?

i can’t answer that because we don’t really know much about utahime so far. i can only speculate why. being a grade 2 sorcerer at 20 is not bad at all. but why is she stuck as a semi-grade 1 sorcerer at 31? that surely proves she’s just weak, right?

semi-grade 1 sorcerers are sorcerers who have performed well on missions with a person accompanying them. i feel like when utahime was on a mission to exorcise a grade 1 curse on her own (the final step of the grade 1 promotion process), something happened that gave her her scar and made her unable to fulfill the mission. it’s either that or she did complete the mission but her appearance is too unsatisfactory. can you recall what nishimiya said? if you’re cute and not skilled, you’re not good enough. if you’re not cute and skilled, you’re still not good enough.

in men, scars are a symbol of honor and strength. on the other hand, scars on a woman’s face are seen as an imperfection. as a result, those who are scarred are deemed imperfect and unsuitable for marriage.

gojo hates the way things are run because the higher ups are so close-minded. they make decisions on a whim and have no compassion for sorcerers who are breaking their backs on their orders. he wants to change jujutsu society for the better by raising the next generation of sorcerers to be as strong as him. the old-fashioned and narrow-minded attitude of the higher ups leads me to believe that utahime is stuck as a semi-grade 1 sorcerer because she is viewed as imperfect. utahime’s scar is most likely the reason contributing to her being held back. who would want to promote a woman who isn’t beautiful enough to be a grade 1 sorcerer?

she obviously has a lot to offer because she’s a teacher at Kyoto. todo, a grade 1 sorcerer, has never shown any sign of disrespect towards utahime despite the fact that he surpassed her in rankings. he trusts in her and believes she has some things she can teach him.

can we additionally address the fact that gojo respects mei? he refers to her as mei-san and says that there’s no way she’d cry because she’s strong. mei has a weak technique though? 🤔🤔🤔 controlling crows?!?!?! nah im jk, mei is strong with and without her technique, of course. since gojo respects someone like mei, a person who doesn’t have an out-of-this-world technique, i believe his view of someone strong isn’t solely based on their technique. when he calls utahime weak, he may not be insulting her CT. it’s just all jokes because in chapter 65, geto and mei join in on the fun too and pick on her. mr. hot shot knows that utahime is a valuable asset to his plans so he entrusts her with the task of unearthing the traitor(s). if she was so incapable of such a thing, why did he pay mei to do the same job? 🤔

*a lot of people think mei was actually paid by gojo to promote his students but that’s incorrect. it goes against everything gojo advocates for. he wants his kids to enjoy their youth because his was taken away. being a sorcerer is not a smooth job and no matter how many years you’re in the profession, it never gets easier. he doesn’t wish for his students to be thrust in a world full of hardship and loss, which is why he was so against yuuji and yuta’s execution. he works hard to preserve the innocence of his students. he doesn’t want yuji’s heart to break, not even once. why would he pay mei to promote his students to grade 1? that would automatically strip them of their innocence and youth and push them into a world full of burden and pain.

PHEW that was long. how does this all tie back to utahime’s future role in the story?

her CT will probably come in clutch in an important battle

she might be the one to help get gojo out the box (A REACH i know)

she will help gojo with his plan to overthrow and change jujutsu society as a whole

i don’t really have to dive into the first bullet point. as for the second one, look at what i found!

in the second opening, utahime is seen searching for something in a dim forest.

*i read an analysis about opening 2 and apparently this just symbolizes her looking for the traitors. that makes sense too.

in chapter 144, this scenery pops up right before they enter master tengen’s base(?) the branches are thicker than in the opening but it gives the same vibes to me. i think utahime will be the one to break gojo out.

why utahime? well, gojo is their best shot at stabilizing whatever the fuck is going on right now. she knows it’s a crime to unseal him, but she wants her students to be safe so she’ll probably risk it. plus, gojo’s flashback starts with him breaking utahime and mei out of a building with a barrier.  i think utahime breaking gojo out of the prison realm will make a perfect parallel :3

that theory is a massive ass pull I KNOW. it’s just fun to think about. it’s likely that kurusu hana will be the one helping yuuji and megumi out with that.

if utahime isn’t the one freeing gojo, she will definitely come face to face with the other traitors.

ive read numerous Reddit threads and tons of users think she’ll play a small role in the story—nothing too significant. i’m perfectly content with that as well. i never expected her to be gojo level or anything like that LMAOO. as long as we get to see her technique in action, i will be satisfied 😮‍💨

——

i feel like there may be a few things i missed but i tried to include everything i could think of. the organization of this post is quite off but im too lazy to rearrange it in a way that makes it more coherent LOL. thank you so much for reading. ill probably analyze gojo and utahime’s interactions in the manga and anime next :-)

[cassanovancats]

felicitate. seven.

six < current > eight

Dec. 2017

It was five days before the declared start of war when you were asked to meet seemingly everyone associated with your school to discuss plans. The school had closed for the week, as it was normally for the holidays, but the atmosphere around campus wasn’t the typical jolly one. Satoru, attempting to keep normalcy, roped you into decorating every room the both of you could enter, but no one seemed able to crack a smile when the weight of Geto’s threat existed.

Satoru had briefly explained after the campus attack that he was in the same class as your brother and Auntie Shoko. He told you about how Geto was his best friend and included the details on how Geto massacred a village for the sake of two young girls with cursed energy. You still felt uncomfortable about how closely Satoru was to going a similar route; the story was eerily similar to how your family formed. You could tell Satoru felt the same unease. Even at the meeting now, your brother’s leg bounced out of anxiety and he clutched you slightly too-tight to his side when you sat down. You were the only student not on the other side of the table.

“I believe we should discuss what roles you, as students, will have on the night of the twenty-fourth,” Yaga begins after the typical pre-meeting formalities. “Firstly, you all are still children.” He raises a hand to silence the immediate protests and levels a stern look at everyone. “It is a fact; even Hakari-san is only just barely seventeen. Thus I wanted to give anyone who wishes an out now. You have taken on missions by yourselves or as a group, but this will be far more dangerous than anything you’ve experienced before. Stepping away now will have no effect on any schooling, grades, or how you are perceived here. In fact, it’s likely the smartest option.”

It seems no one even breathes for a second. Maki makes a point of crossing her arms and settling further into her spot. A clear sign that she (and the rest of your peers) aren’t going anywhere. Satoru beams.

“I didn’t expect any of you to bow out, anyways. Now based on what Suguru Geto said, there will be two areas of attack that will need sorcerers. Obviously, both of these spots will have other sorcerers, but I am sure they won’t decline the help. Inumaki, as a high level shaman, you will likely be most needed at Shinjuku. Gojo-san can escort you there.”

“Salmon,” he nods eagerly.

“Hakari and Panda will be positioned in Kyoto with their students. I will be their escort.” The two nod resolutely. You and Maki wait for your assignments. “Zen’in, Gojo and Okkotsu will be left on campus.”

“What?” You explode in anger, standing up and dodging your brother’s attempt to grab you. “No! You all know I’m a great asset, especially paired with either of my brothers.” You suddenly turn back to Satoru and ask, “Where’s Gumi assigned?”

“(y/n),” He tries to plead.

“Where is Gumi?” You stress. “The fact I can copy ten-shadows or limitless should mean I’m right there fighting with you. I cannot just sit here on campus and let other people put their lives on the line when I can help! Even if I don’t fight, you can have me copy Auntie Shoko’s technique and I can be first-aid!” You know you are throwing a child’s tantrum, but you can’t help it. All your life, your brother has been in your corner, telling you that you could be just as strong as him. He never, ever pushed you to the side or doubted you. So why now? Why, when the fight is not only important for jujutsu society but personally for him?

You sniffle and wipe your eyes, cursing yourself. Satoru stands and gently pulls you into a hug, tucking your face into his neck. Even in anger, you melt in his arms.

“Gojo, we believe you are best positioned to protect the school. I ask you to believe me when I say this is not an underestimation of your strength or a move to keep you from a fight. I assure you, we,” Yaga gestures vaguely at the faculty surrounding you, “considered all the points you brought up. That doesn’t change the decision we made.” You sniffle again but nod this time, burying your face deeper against your brother.

When he guides you both to sit back down, you’re still upset but now largely embarrassed at your outburst. Maki must be equally crushed yet she didn’t feel the need to scream and cry. Yuta even seems content with his assignment. You tune out the rest of the meeting, lost in your feelings of shame. Most of what is discussed is logistics for the people that get to fight, anyways. Decidedly not relevant to you.

When Yaga dismisses everyone, Satoru gestures for you to climb on his back. You oblige, knowing it’s his attempt to make you feel better. He carries you towards one of his personal cars, intending to take you to the apartment rented nearby. Though teachers also have rooms at Tokyo High, Satoru said that you both needed a place as a family, and because the Gojo property is not near Tokyo, he keeps an apartment. The drive is silent, save the sounds of your music coming low from the speakers; he even makes the effort to drive only slightly faster than the speed limit for you.

Neither of you break the silence until you’re sitting on the couch you both had argued about for a week until Megumi stepped in. “(y/n), I need you to understand why I’m not taking you with me.” Satoru begins. “Trust that I know how much you want to help and that I know how valuable of an asset you are. But I believe Tokyo’s campus will also be attacked, and not just the campus, but Yuta as well.”

“Why not tell us this? Why did Principal Yaga frame it as me protecting Tengen and not let Maki or Yuta know about any potential danger?”

“Because it’s best none of you know. I’m telling you as your brother, not as a teacher or official of the school. You must act as if you do not know there is a chance of attack, but you also need to be prepared to fight.” Satoru is serious, trying to impress upon you how you must treat this mission with the utmost sensitivity. You nod slowly, letting the information sink in.

“So… be prepared to fight without letting Yuta or Maki know that I’m preparing?”

“Exactly. If either of them know, my plans won’t work. This plan was made with the promise I wouldn’t tell you either, but Principal Yaga isn’t that dumb. The point is, I’m asking you to trust me.”

“Okay.” There isn’t a moment's hesitation. You trust Satoru Gojo’s strength as a sorcerer, but more importantly, as your brother. Everything he has done since taking you in as a Gojo has been done in consideration of your well-being. The etiquette classes, the language lessons, the training sessions, even what toys you had as a child: all were carefully considered and chosen by Satoru in regards to what would help you become just as strong as him. There is never, has never been, a doubt that your brother loves you and wants what’s best for you. You trust him.

Satoru gathers you into another hug when you agree. “Now, before we go off to war, I wanted to give you your Christmas gifts! There’ll be no time to exchange when taking on curse users so Christmas has been officially moved to December nineteenth,” He declares, finally releasing you and moving to the luscious tree in the corner of the room. He tosses the first wrapped box at you. You laugh and catch it out of the air. Leave it to your brother to pull you back from the cusp of a breakdown in less than thirty minutes.

[linkspooky]

What do you think about Miwa Kasumi? Do you think that she will play a role in the future, and where would the story lead her? And what do you think about her relationship with Mechamaru? She will most likely be a background character, but I still have hopes about her having any significance in the story.

Miwa’s relationship with Mechamaru is actually one of my favorite ships in the series. MechaMiwa shows one of the central themes of the theories, the desire to get closer to other people, but also how difficult it is to be close in the end. Mecahmaru’s desire to be together with everyone is one of the strongest emotional moments,and it all started from Miwa’s nervous attempts to reach out to him. Miwa is a character written around this conflict, the desire to be closer, and the fear of being close. 

1. Just in it for the Money

Miwa parallels two older jujutsu users in her technique. First she uses the same “new shadow style”, as this first class and she uses simple domain users which Mei Mei has incorporated as a part of her techniques by using her little brother Ui Ui. 

She also parallels them both in the fact that she’s not in Jujutsu Sorcery for entirely altruistic motivations. The other New Shadow Style user avoids a hard fight or making any real effort to go after Gojou because he just wants to protect himself. Mei Mei is just in it for the money. She’ll take whatever the quickest route is to earning more money. 

Miwa doesn’t care as much about what is right or wrong, and is more in it for personal advancement. Which is why despite the fact that Maki comments she’s a nice person, she goes along with the other Kyoto Kid’s plan to kill Yuji very easily. 

Miwa’s biggest adult foil is Mei Mei. They are both Jujutsu Sorcerers who are entirely in it for the money, and their own personal advancement. They’re also both older sisters who incorporate simple domains as a part of their technique. However, there a is a strong difference between them. Mei Mei is someone who uses her own little brother for her own benefit. Ui Ui exists to make her happy, and part of their technique is Mei Mei asking him to die for her. She puts her own little brother at risk for the sake of her jujutsu technique. Miwa is someone who is working her hardest for the sake of her two older brothers. 

They are both older sisters but Mei Mei uses her little brother for her own benefit, whereas Miwa overworks herself for her brother’s benefit. This resulting difference also changes their priorities as well. 

Maki is stunned when someone like Miwa gets along with Mai. However, there’s an important difference between the Kyoto kids and the Tokyo Kids. The Kyoto kids are much closer as a unit and strive to get along as friends whereas most of the Tokyo Kids while getting along don’t really act like friends. 

Maybe it’s our nature as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, but even if we’re friendly with each other there’s always this distance between us. 

Being cooperative and working on a team is seen as a weakness in the Jujutsu world where individual strength is valued above all else. This is probably in part why Utahime who is much more adept at social things like routing out spies, or getting along with the higher ups is looked down upon as weak by Gojou. 

This is a running theme in the Jujutsu World. People die at any time. Even children will die. Being a jujutsu sorcerer is a high risk occupation to the point where it’s almost not worth getting close to others because you’ll only guarantee yourself pain. 

Being a Jujutsu Sorcerer isn’t a team sport. No matter how many allies you hvae around you, you’ll always die alone. That’s the prevailing attitude  in the Jujutsu world so sorcerers as a whole avoid getting close to one another. The result is while Yuji, Megumi and Nobara all get along they can’t really confide in each other like friends and often keep secrets and lie to each other. 

Yet, precisely because they’re human Jujutsu Sorcerers also have a desire to become closer. The Goodwill Event Arc is this interaction over and over again. The Kyoto team tries to get the Tokyo team to understand them, and the Tokyo team refuses empathy. 

The Tokyo Team is individually stronger, but the Kyoto team have emotionally bonded on a closer level. It’s probably because of the differences between Gojou and Utahime as mentors and their differences in priorities. However, it goes farther than this.

Maki can’t even get along with Mai her own twin sister. She places her strength as a jujutsu sorcerer as higher priority than the only family member she’s ever liked. 

Megumi is also the result of a person choosing strength over family. His father abandoned him, and he became the strongest human capable of killing several jujutsu sorcerers, but yet Toji was a complete failure otherwise as a person because he abandoned his son, his only connection to other people. 

Gojou was the absolute strongest sorcerer in the world, but he couldn’t do anything to save his one and only best friend because he failed to understand him until it was too late. Companionship and getting along with other people is just as important as strength, because Jujutsu sorcerers are human, but Jujutsu Sorcerers tend to ignore this fact. 

Avoiding closeness isn’t a sign of strength. Maki and Mai aren’t close because Maki is too strong and doesn’t need Mai, it’s because Maki’s too insecure and bad at communicating in order to face her sister. The reason that people have difficulty getting close to each other, is because it’s painful, especially when it’s inveitable you are going to lose those people. 

Mechamaru and Miwa’s relationship is so unique and special because it shows this struggle to be closer to others so vividly. Everything Mechamaru did, was because Miwa was the first person to reach out to him and bridge the gap between him and other people. 

The technique Miwa uses is even called “Domain for the Weak.” Miwa is a weak person, who is not able to go after such lofty ambitions as people like Maki, Nobara and Gojou. All she’s really trying to do is survive and protect ehrself, and yet she meant something so profound to Mechamaru. 

Her simple action of just trying to get closer is not only something that Maki, and Gojou can’t do. Maki can’t get along with her own twin sister, Gojou never understood his one and only best friend. It also gave Mechamaru the hope that made him fight even harder to be with everyone. If Miwa had never gotten close, she would never have to face the pain of losing him. However, at the same time it’s because Miwa tries to get close that mechamaru who spent his whole life alone, hospitalized, and suffering terribly started to love his friends with all of his heart. He went from a spiteful child lashing out at the world, to somebody who would do anything to protect those friends. 

Miwa’s character may go in an interesting direction now in her reaction to Mechamaru’s death. Will she choose to try to get closer to someone again, or will she take Mei Mei’s path and choose to obsessively focus over the individual pursuit of money so she never has to feel the pain of loss again? 

[winterune]

Well, that’s one more anime ticked off my 2019 watch list. I still have...I don’t know how many I have left ^^; Maybe I’ll finish those spring leftovers first haha, then maybe I’ll finally watch the part 2 of Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 (for which I would need to rewatch part 1) and Vinland Saga. Well, anyway, let’s get into it.

Hoshiai no Sora - Thoughts and Musings

This anime was...one hell of a ride. Okay, maybe not as much as Beastars was (though, Beastars wasn’t really emotional per se, but rather an anime that tackles really heavy topics), but the emotional roller coaster throughout its 12 episodes was really something to reckon with. Honestly, I wish this was a two-cour anime instead of a one-cour, because the 12-episode run doesn’t give it enough time to really flesh out all their characters and give everyone a satisfying ending. 

I mean

As long as he’s alive, we will never be free. I’m ending this.

What kind of ending is that??? *flips table* (beware of spoilers)

In its heart, this is a story about trying to find your place in a world that is trying to box you in. It’s not just your average sports anime about a weak sports club trying to gain its reputation back. It’s more than that. We have this cast of seemingly stereotypical characters, but right from the very first episode, we’re immediately given a tease of a dysfunctional family in our two main leads: Maki with his single mother as a parent and his abusive father still terrorizing them from time to time for money, and Touma who doesn’t have a good relationship with his mother for unknown reasons. And it turns out, the rest of the team member has their own issues to deal with. 

Rintaro, being a child born out of teen pregnancy and was then put up for adoption. Though he has loving parents, it still doesn’t erase the confusion and incompetence he had felt because of it. (I kind of have issues with how his parents told him he was adopted when he was still only 10? 11? I think that’s a bit too young for him to know he was adopted. I mean, an elementary school kid is suddenly being told that the parents he has always known has never been his real parents. It would get him thinking: why was he adopted? Why didn’t his mother take him? Was he unwanted? Was he a mistake? Huh, I guess that’s why I can’t do anything right. I’m a failure. I was a mistake. I shouldn’t have been born.)

Itsuki’s mother, in, probably, a bout of depression, poured hot water all over his body when he was only 1 year old.

Shingo, who doesn’t seem to have any problems, lives with a step-mother who is only protective over her daughter while dismissive over him. He doesn’t seem to be overly bothered by it. In fact, he adores his little sister. He’s probably learned to deal with his step-mother’s behavior. 

Taiyo’s parents are quite overprotective and overbearing, but at least I don’t think they’re doing any real, permanent damage to him. 

Tsubasa, though has wonderful relationship with his brothers, has a father with high expectations and will not settle for less, who won’t try to understand why he dropped soccer and took up soft tennis. Who won’t get off his case, saying that it’s stupid, that it doesn’t do him any good, that you’re better off studying instead of joining such a stupid club. And he actually slaps him, right across the face, causing Tsubasa to fall off the stairs and break his wrist, one month before his big game. And yes he looked shocked at what he had done, but he didn’t do anything; he just stood there, he didn’t even chase after him, as if he was justifying his actions to himself. Like, dammit! Don’t you know what you’re doing to your kid? You’re already hurting him emotionally and you slapped him?! I will say that Tsubasa’s story hurts me the most, because this kid, this happy-go-lucky kid who always smiles and laughs when he’s with his friends, cries as he runs out of the house. And can I just say that Toshii’s voice acting was just...spot on? To the point that I think I cried harder because of Toshii’s voice breaking when Shingo found him outside the house, when the doctor at the hospital asked him if he wasn’t pushed off the stairs, when they were talking in that park and Tsubasa hates how his father kept bragging about his time with his soccer team and never listens to a word he says, never sees him for who he is, because he’s not his brothers and he wanted so badly to play in their game. 

But then we have Nao, with that kind of negative overprotective, overbearing, emotionally abusive mother and an indifferent father. It hurts. Hearing his mother talk hurts. Imagining myself in Nao’s shoes hurts. There are the kinds like Maki’s father, who knows they’re a jerk by abusing their own kid. Then there are the kinds like Nao’s mother, who, as Maki said, doesn’t even realize they’re abusing their children, justifying their actions by saying it’s for their kids. She’s blind to Nao’s feelings. All she cares about is what she wants. It doesn’t matter what Nao wants, because I’m her mother and I know what’s best for my son. What she doesn’t know, however, is the permanent damage it’s doing to Nao. Sure at the “conclusion” to Nao’s arc, Nao seems to have find the strength and will in him to shut out his mother’s words, but we also see something different. Nao’s mother is only going to let him off the hook this time. Which means she will probably be worse than she had ever been once Nao comes home from the match. 

And finally, one of the most important of all: Yuuta’s arc, where he questions about himself, his gender, the role that is expected of him, and how he feels as if he doesn’t quite fit in with the boxes already laid down by the world. Also his desire to find an answer but also the fear of coming to terms with it, not wanting to disappoint his parents but all the while wanting to find a place he feels like he belongs in. Very realistic. Very relatable. I’m not entirely sure how it is seen in Japan, but in my country, due to strong religious beliefs and traditional values, people with “questionable” gender identities are seen as a sin, a violation, improper behavior - some might even call them a shame to the family. So, I really appreciate the director and his team writing quite a realistic portrayal of the lgbt+. I don’t hold anything against his mother, however, as I understand her feelings exactly, even as I would like Yuuta to have the freedom to learn and discover who he is and what he wants to be. 

Even Mitsue, whose family wasn’t shown much, says that her parents don’t approve of her drawing. But that’s what she wants to do. That’s what she wants to be good at. She’s not good at studying. She doesn’t have passion for it. She likes to draw, but even people on the internet says her drawing isn’t good (when in fact it’s quite good). She’s not good with people and her classmates make fun of her. She’s haunted by an inferiority complex, social anxiety, frustration that she doesn’t fit in this world. 

This entire show is like a How Not To Be A Parent 101. I do think some are stretching it a bit too far, but I understand what the director’s trying to say. A parental figure is important in a child’s life. Even if you have a crappy life, even if you’re bent on pushing your dreams and expectations to your children, even if your spouse doesn’t appreciate you any longer, that’s no reason or justification to “push the blame on your child”, to abuse them, both emotionally and/or physically. 

When you don’t have a good parental figure, a good family environment, it will scar your children for life, and these children will start looking for a place they can belong to outside of their families. Whereas Nao’s mother said that the soft tennis club is a bad influence for Nao, I’d say it’s a good thing Nao found his place inside it. With a mother like that, and a father who doesn’t care much about what happens to him, Nao could have done a lot worse. And yet there’s this sports club made up of misfit children, who are hiding all their pain behind their smile and laughter, because this club is the only place where they can be themselves. Where they don’t have to worry about overbearing/indifferent/abusive parents. In this club of misfits, everyone has everyone else’s backs. When one’s down on the low, someone else will try to lift them up. 

This club is their refuge, but in a way, I also think this is their sort of escapism. Because once they’re back in their homes, their lives return to being pressured and trapped under the expectations of their parents. Why I think it is an escape is because, neither of them really grow from it, aside from, I guess, Shingo, Rintaro, Itsuki, and Taiyo. They have either learned to live with their families or showed positive development. Nao’s mother is still a problem, Yuuta’s journey of self-discovery is still long and winding, while Tsubasa still has yet to make amends with his father. Not to mention we have Touma, whose mother just basically told him over the phone that she despises him and is getting a divorce, and Maki, who’s bent on killing his father. 

This is not a story of self-healing. This is a slice-of-life story that is trying to tell how bad parenting affects children, especially children in those early adolescence years, when they’re just beginning to learn who they are and what they want to be. It’s not a story of how these children can overcome it. The club acts as their refuge, but not a place of healing. And if their psychosocial development took on a negative turn (see Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development), especially like Maki’s case, well you can imagine what will happen next if he’s not given the proper treatment. 

As a final note, I would like to say the sports aspect is a bit weak. The soft tennis matches were too easy, too straightforward, as if the staff didn’t really care what happened in the matches. Well, the main story isn’t in the matches, so there’s that. Also, I would like to say that how they dealt with Maki’s father in episode 5 was also weak. I mean, what’s with Touma yelling at him? To me, it was a bit out of character for Maki to let Touma meet his father (I’d thought he was the type to say, no, that’s all right, I’ll deal with him myself, though I think Touma would have forced himself inside Maki’s house nonetheless). And that spontaneous outbursts about killing him? It was very cringe-worthy when I saw it, but now that I think about it, though it was probably Toma’s heat-of-the-moment outburst then, Maki certainly took it seriously with how he was holding that knife in the end. 

[pride-vns-blog]

LGBTQ VN Week: Day Four! (6/21)

Wow, we’re already at the fourth day of LGBTQ visual novel recommendations! You’ve probably seen this preface on previous parts of this list, but if you haven’t read my first post, that writeup’s “One note before we get started” section, explains more clearly what this list is and why I’m writing it!

Plenty of visual novels talk about sex and intimacy, so for today, I’ve set aside four with my personal favorite approaches to the topic — CODE:Phantasm’s 404 Error: Connection Not Found, parade’s No Thank You!!!, SugarScript’s Cute Demon Crashers, and Mitch Alexander’s Tusks: An Orc Dating Sim, plus a conversation with Mitch about his creative process on Tusks.

Head on in to hear about your little brother dyeing his hair pink, a truly inscrutable protagonist, freeloading demons playing Mario Kart, and inspirational Skyrim mods!

404 ERROR: CONNECTION NOT FOUND (CODE:PHANTASM)

Itchio Tagline: “Sometimes connecting to others is harder than loneliness.” Genre(s): Slice of life; drama. Release Date: July 30th, 2017 (demo); TBA (full version). Content Warnings: Text-only depiction of sex and sex work; adult content.

404 Error: Connection Not Found is the story of Ren Matsuura, a camboy who ran away from home after turning eighteen and supports himself financially through camming — but thanks to his agoraphobia and general anxiety, he rarely goes outside, to the point that he’s pared all his social connections down to casual conversations with his clients and lying to his younger brother Haru about what he does for a living. When his brother decides to come visit for the first time since Ren moved out, Ren is forced to confront the fact that his guilt and shame have driven him into a corner with no support system. In the span of the demo, he starts to try and reach out to the clients he has a more regular relationship with to prepare him for Haru’s eventual visit, ending on a cliffhanger that seems to be leading directly into the plotline of the main story.

This visual novel’s demo is the shortest of all the stories on my entire list, to my knowledge, but it’s also the most memorable demo I’ve played in a long, long while. As someone who’s had to contend with similar mental illnesses in the past — paranoia and agoraphobia unsurprisingly have a pretty high degree of comorbidity! — I felt like Ren’s slow struggle to make progress for the sake of his younger brother was written sincerely, thoughtfully, and believably in the timespan of a single demo playthrough. Ren can be funny, when he’s not spiraling internally, and his rocky progress at trying to talk to others more honestly is loaded with plenty of funny jokes and quips about his takes on things. He’s a sympathetic, well-rounded protagonist who comes across strongly in the demo alone, and I ended up really rooting for him to make it to a place where he was happier with his life.

There’s another aspect to the story that I ended up really liking, too: the fact that sex work, especially jobs like camming, can be extremely common among LGBTQ people who can’t support themselves financially in other ways. Ren can’t go outside and can’t interact with many people without severe, earth-shattering anxiety attacks (a few of which we see in the demo!), so this job is what he’s got. It’s a job that’s sustained him for years, and although it’s certainly fed into his own relative isolation, 404 Error seemed to walk that careful balance of making it explicit that it’s Ren’s own lack of steady support for his mental illness instead of the simple fact that he does sex work that causes his interpersonal problems. I’m optimistic about the remainder of the story’s handling of those kinds of things, too, because what was present in the demo was sympathetic and sincere! There’s not very many sex workers or camgirls/camboys in visual novels outside of an extremely tiny handful, let ones alone in conjunction to stories that acknowledge of the way LGBTQ people as a whole can struggle with more convential jobs, so Ren’s genuinely empathetic personality and the hope I have for his future makes me excited to see where CODE:Phantasm takes 404 Error from here.

404 Error: Connection Not Found’s free Yaoi Game Jam demo is available now, and you can follow the CODE:Phantasm team on Itch.io, Twitter, or Tumblr to stay updated on their progress with Ren’s story.

NO THANK YOU!!! (PARADE)

MangaGamer Tagline: “This summer vacation begins with a car accident...” Genre(s): Comedy; drama; mystery. Release Date: June 28, 2013 (Japanese); February 27, 2015 (English).  Content Warnings: Adult content; multiple sex scenes; frequent sexual harassment; blood; drugs; violence; death.

Right off the bat, I think parade’s debut visual novel (as a studio, at least) does a lot of interesting things and definitely seems to be aiming high with creating distinct, memorable stories. The art in No Thank You!!! is gorgeous, its voice acting is top-tier, a lot of the side characters are compelling even beyond the space or role the narrative gives them, and the love interests alone are all fully-realized characters with interesting stories. Romance option Ryu’s route, in particular, fleshes out the larger sense of mystery and the other characters to an astounding degree! That’s to say nothing of the most unique mechanic — which I mostly call the NTY!!! button — that offers you the chance to say “no thank you” in a variety of scenes without always telling you what it is you’re saying that to. It’s occasionally a little too easy to guess, but at certain points I ended up lulled into a false sense of security with that easiness that the game was all too ready to take advantage of with a much less obvious choice.

One of the sticking points with No Thank You!!! that I’ve seen other players express, on the other hand, is the way protagonist Haru is written. That’s not to say his writing specifically is bad — parade clearly had a vision in mind for Haru’s personality, and from his sketchy beginnings to his clearer end, he’s a coherent character with a consistent narrative. While the crux of the story is more insight into Haru, where he came from, and what the truth behind all those mysteries might be, though, Haru’s behavior still underpins a lot of what drives the romance routes forward. And his behavior... The official quote on his personality, “[s]exual harassment is an everyday activity for him,” can at times seem like it’s underselling exactly how often he tries to grab an ass. It’s no surprise that a fair few other players I’ve seen have walked away with pretty strong opinions on Haru as a character. (I’m personally not a huge fan.)

But to me, a divisive protagonist who you don’t actually fully understand as a character — Haru’s thoughts on a lot of key things are far less accessible than the likes of Aoba Seragaki or most Western M/M protagonists, which leaves you knowing most of his thoughts or feelings via his interactions from others — seems to go perfectly hand-in-hand with the way the visual novel as a whole operates. No Thank You!!! puts you at a distance by Haru’s viewpoint being occasionally “indecipherable” (to use the official phrasing), and then it throws you further with its sometimes-unpredictable NTY!!! button mechanic, but the strength of its other individual pieces taken together still sold me on it as both a solid set of mystery stories and an 18+ dating sim.

Also I really like Maki.

No Thank You!!! is available for a sale price of $19.95 on MangaGamer’s store (18+), and you can read more about parade’s story and characters on MangaGamer’s designated No Thank You!!! page (also 18+).

CUTE DEMON CRASHERS (SUGARSCRIPT)

Itchio Tagline: “A short and silly consent-friendly and sex-positive VN!” Genre(s): Modern fantasy. Release Date: April 7th, 2015 (Mirari and Akki’s routes); August 15th, 2015 (full version). Content Warnings: Multiple sex scenes; detailed uncensored nudity.

I don’t think I could sum up Cute Demon Crashers better than the Itch.io tagline does — it’s short, it’s hilarious, and it’s got an emphasis on consent that meshes perfectly with its goofy “a bunch of incubi and one succubus come to the mortal realm to have sex” plot. The characters are all charming and fit perfectly into its universe, with distinct personalities that come across clearly without ever feeling hamfisted in the limited time that the script lets you spend with them. Although this isn’t necessarily a romance game, especially given that incubi and succubi are “closer to what people know of as aromantic” according to the SugarScript FAQ, its cute, thoughtful writing and adorable design in everything from the characters to the user interface mean that there’s plenty of love infused in every aspect of Cute Demon Crashers.

Like yesterday’s We Know The Devil, Cute Demon Crashers is one of those visual novels with a distinct, memorable mechanic that almost placed it squarely in Tuesday’s creative design list. Cute Demon Crashers is one of the first visual novels — or, by my experience, the first altogether — to implement a mechanic specifically themed around stopping in the middle of sex. If you’re ever uncomfortable or you just plain want the scene to end, you can hit a button and protagonist Claire will talk with her partner to bring things to a close. (There’s also an option to just plain old not have sex with any of them, and spending time with the characters!) A lot of the dialogue in these scenes in particular is thoughtful, nuanced, and reads to me as being a pretty realistic depiction of how someone like Claire might ask those questions or express those kinds of concerns. 

The way Cute Demon Crashers handles intimacy and sexuality, by another measure, is one of those things that I think has also had a not-insignificant impact on the visual novel community as a whole; I’ve seen a fair number of people who’ve apparently never enjoyed an 18+ dating sim before talk about how its portrayal of sex resonated with them or brought them some measure of comfort. Because of the SugarScript team’s relative investment in the English-language visual novel scene as a whole, too — this project was born out of NaNoRenO and I’ve seen them promote development forum hub LemmaSoft or other small visual novels more than once — the compassion for the player that’s written into every aspect of Cute Demon Crashers seems to extend naturally to everyone else around the team in real life, which is something extremely special.

The entirety of Cute Demon Crashers is available now for free, and you can find out more information on its upcoming sequel (Cute Demon Crashers: Side B) on the SugarScript Twitter, Tumblr, and Itch.io!

Itchio Tagline: “GAY ORCS available in YOUR AREA.” Genre(s): Romance; fantasy; community building. Release Date: July 18th, 2015 (First Day demo); January 1st, 2018 (FUARLANG/full main story); TBA (individual route endings). Content Warnings: Adult content; sex; mentions of violence.

Mitch Alexander’s Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim, from head to toe, is one of my favorite depictions of sex and intimacy in video games — and with every gradual update, especially the most recent FUARLANG build that finished out the mai storyline, I’ve only become more sure of that. There’s an endearingly genuine quality to its art, character dialogue, and even in things like the NPC autonomy feature, where your companions have just as many chances to sway things like group votes or decide who’s on watch as you would without NPC autonomy being enabled. 

Interested to hear Mitch talk a little bit about his design process and the inspiration behind Tusks, I got in touch and asked him a few questions!

Thanks for taking the time for an interview, Mitch! While the title might be fairly self-explanatory, haha, how would you outline Tusks: An Orc Dating Sim in more detail to somebody new?

Tusks is a visual novel where the player joins a group at an annual orcish gathering, in a forest at the edge of a semi-mythical version of Scotland, and you then travel with this new found family and get to know them better. Most of the game is your group getting into adventures, talking to them one-on-one at camp at nighttime, and making decisions about how to go about your travels. The game's cast are all queer, and the game itself is an exploration of queer identity, community, history, and our relationship with the idea of monstrosity/Otherness.

I think it's fair to say that Tusks, as well as your larger body of work, deals a lot with intimacy and sexuality, especially the intersection between those two things; this is probably a question you've thought over yourself a fair bit, but what in particular interests you about those topics that drives you to explore them in Tusks and your other work?

Part of it is the fact that intimacy and sexuality are areas that can be massively important to queer people (especially since many of us are marginalised as a result of our sexuality being seen as deviant) but there aren't a lot of mainstream sources that play with intimacy and sexuality in relevant ways. And part of it is just because exploring sexuality for its own sake can be fun as well!

Definitely! There's always room for more fun with depictions of sexuality, haha. The premise for an all-orc dating sim is definitely a memorable one, and one you've fleshed out incredibly well with the thoughtfulness of your worldbuilding and character dynamics. What was the original inspiration that you built Tusks on, and what helped carry you across the finishing line of completing (for the most part) its story?

It was a lot of different threads coming together: I'd been playing a modded Skyrim save with an orc character who, in my head, was gay and had left his stronghold so to find other orcs like him and establish his own wee found family. That happened at the same time as me finding out about the NaNoReNo visual novel game jam, plus wanting to work on a game that actually put queer characters and discussions first and foremost rather than us just being a token presentation.

As for what carried me through, there was lots of things: the excitement of getting to tell stories that you just don't see in mainstream games, getting amazing feedback from players, and then at the end when I released the full main story on New Years', it was sheer bloody-mindedness.

There's a fair few interesting mechanics in Tusks, especially with regards to NPC autonomy; can you share a little bit of insight on why you decided to include those and how they function in the code?

NPC autonomy's a small but effective way of just slightly upsetting this idea that in visual novels, the player character gets to make all the decisions -- it automatically puts you in a decision-making leader role, and it's up to the writer then to narratively justify that -- which can be difficult if you're wanting to tell a story about a group of equal partners. So instead, NPC autonomy lets characters vote on things or lets characters potentially turn you down for romantic encounters.

It's an optional feature, so it's possible to play the game without it being on -- it just slightly changes the flow of the story and makes it seem a tad-bit more like you're part of a collective, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes sense! I think my playthroughs where NPC autonomy was on were definitely more interesting, by and large, because it really does add a lot to that sense of cooperation and community.

If you had to pick just one, what non-human (and non-orc) creature do you think more people should appreciate?

I'm really interested in exploring things with strong mythological connotations like minotaurs, since they're surrounded by particular ideas like labyrinths, being half-human and half-animal. I'd also really like to see someone explore the monstrousness of hags from [Dungeons and Dragons], because I think there's probably a way to talk about them and explore their relationships to femininity, presentation, glamour magick, witchcraft, and power.

Good choices! Those are both definitely really interesting ones. To wrap things up, are there any LGBTQ visual novels from other developers that you'd like to recommend?

I'd recommend checking out The Bitter Drop, by Isak Grozny; Ladykiller in a Bind by Christine Love, and We Know the Devil by Date Nighto!

Perfect! It's been a pleasure talking to you, Mitch, and I'm looking forward to your future projects.

Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim is available now for a reverse-sale price of $2.02, and you can support Mitch Alexander’s work on Patreon or follow his “nonsense” on Twitter and fully-released work on Itch.io!

[sambart93]

2018.05.04 WakasamaGumi Mairu (2): IceCream [Review]

This is the second installment in the WakasamaGumi series! I believe they are based off a book collection (see here). The first installment is here, and the DVD order is here.

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 PreOrder the DVD here My Review of First Stage here

CAST and CHARACTERS

Tamaki Yuki as Minakawa Shinjirou Irie Jingu as Nagase Shiono Akihisa as Sonoyama Kaoru Nakamura Yuichi as Fukuda Harunosuke Yasukawa Junpei as Koyama Miyazaki Karen as Koizumi Sara Inoue Sayuri as Shido Shinako Wagou Shinichi as Maki Atsuyuki Kobayakawa Shunshuke as Souma Koyata Hashimoto Zenichi as Anno Kazuma Takeshi Naoki as Souma Kakunoshin Matsunami Yuuki as Tatsusaki Hiromitsu Onodera Zuru as Katou Tomoe Kamakari Kenta as Tamai Kazuma Itou Yuuichi as A Niwa Reporter Awane Makoto as Koizumi Takuma

Ensemble: Kida Haruka, Nakano Yuka and Ashida Chiharu

*

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This was a lot of fun (I feel I say this a lot but it is important!). I think I liked it just as much as the first one but for very different reasons. Don't get me wrong, neither version is perfect or what I would be satisfied with but they were good and fun enough in their own way. The first one was a lot of fun because of the story, the cast (I liked many in that cast and even the ones I didn't know I enjoyed for the most part), the songs and because I was new to MMJ so things like the paper props they did were so much fun and fascinating to me. This time I felt like the comedy really shined through and hit the mark very well, the adlibbing was very good, the main story was great (it focuses on Tamaki character Mina-chan and his dream this time), I really liked the side plot with the brothers too. I really liked the cast changes for the most part (I love Tamaki and Shiono, and Yuichi wasn't too annoying -- sorry NY lovers but I've never liked him for some reason). But I don't particularly remember any of the songs being memorable, unlike last time, and personally the romantic story line A. confused me (because of what happens in the first stage and to my knowledge) and B. girls being bitches because of jealous is really over done and just not fun to watch. Also I don't like how much they changed Wagou's character. And I really wanted us to stay focused on the military guys - I wish most of them had been back this time around. I do love Tamaki's Mina's story but I felt we lost a lot of stage time with the Wakasama and such I was really looking forward to see the ridiculousness between Kenta's character and Wakasamagumi. There has been a 3 stage announced so I hope we get more Wakasamagumi and a lot of the military back next time. And less romantic lines. Also I really enjoyed the NEW characters, especially the brothers, so it'll be great if they come back alongside Tamaki next time around. Rating: 6/10

SPOILER REVIEW

The story for me didn't quite have the impact this time round. While I loved the main plot line: Mina-cyhan realising and making his baking dreams come to life, and I loved the brother plot line; one trying to protect the other but both of in severer poverty; the other story lines just bored me; I really, really, really, really HATE romance in stories, ESPECIALLY when it's the troupey 'bitchy girl sabotaging nice girl because she's jealous' bullshit which is what we have here. Also I was super confused; in the first play they make it obvious that Sara is in love with Nagase but THIS time around we see Sara falling for Mina-chan and it's like WHICH ONE WOMAN?! Don't flipflop between your TWO CHILDHOOD FRIENDS!' so that ticked me off.

BUT, I really liked the ending for Sara's development. Most of this play she's either being attacked by the horrible idiotic girl, or she's being forced into omiai's // arranged marriages by her father. And finally at the end she confronts her father and explains 'I don't want to get married right now. I was go out and find out what I can do and do I want to do.' which was really great and girl-power. It was great seeing Sara get her control and power back into her life. She's pretty girl-power and strong in the first stage with all the protests and supporting the right to be 'free' so with this stage forcing conservative views on her and other girls trying to hurt her through jealousy, she does lose herself for a bit in this. But seeing her come out and realising what she wants and what she wants to do is so empowering. I love Sara -- yes, you heard me! She's one of the few female characters that I love and I'm so happy she found the strength to tell her father no. And what made it even better was that her father was understanding and accepted her choice! It was such a feel good moment. I kind of hope, thinking about it now, that the third play is focused around her. In the first one we focused on Nagase and his time at the military, then this time we focused on Mina and his dream to open his own bakery, and hopefully next we have Sara pursuing her dream and focusing on her. It would make sense because they're childhood friends and have always been together so I do hope! I assume the next stage is following the next book so I'll have to find out what the next installment is.

*searches* Looks like the next one is ‘Wakasama to Roman’ and there seems to be a spin off with the yellow cadets too called Meiji, Kiniro Kitan and Meiji, You Modan.... so we’ll see what happens next.

I was completely onboard for the cast changes, or at least I accepted the cast changes for Tamaki and Shiono.... AND now I've only just realised that Yuichi replaced Someya. Which doesn't make sense; I thought it was an obvious end for his character at the end of the first one. I guess that's why he doesn't have as big of a role this time around because he already got his head on straight and already has a girl in his life. But... you could've just not had him in it.

I like the scene in the beginning when the boys are slacking off at Mina's bakery/cafe and an officer walks in and they try to hide but JP forgets his sword and the guy is like 'oi!' and points to the sword and JP hastily grabs it and they run out of the store. I guess they still haven't matured since the first stage xD Shiono's character was funny because he'd get his sword out for any type of conflict or the moment that didn't suit him and everyone else had to hold him back xD I didn't realise until later but he replaced Kubota Hidetoshi which is a shame because I really liked him in the first one, but I guess Shiono is a good choice as a replacement. BUT he doesn't have the scar this time?!? What's that about?! They actually ate sweets during the show and it made me so hungry.

I really, really liked Kobayakawa's character! He was just the sweetest! (haha get it?!)

I've heard that Takeshi is a dweeb in real life but I've only ever seen him as Doudanuki in TouStage and in this and his characters are pretty similar in these two; very angry, very aggressive and very 'my way or the high way' kind of thing, so much so that he hurts the people around him (ie. manba-chan and in this, his brother). But I really liked the ending when he and his brother made up and TamaChan kindly offered them jobs at his shop and all of a sudden Takeshi was just the cutest and happiest character, running around and helping xD

KenKen's character was fucking ridiculous this time around! Unfortunately, he has no where near as much screentime as he deserves. But when he's playing Tamai he's ridiculous and pompous and feels above everyone as usual. But then he falsl for Shinako and becomes this romantic, idiot mess. And then there's other times where he's playing the waffle ghost and going around as like a narrator and doing these stupid dances and just being ridiculous. Everyone was laughing so hard. OH there was a moment when it was Shiono, JP, Yuichi, and KenKen. The three of them were facing KenKen in a line and KenKen had his back to the audience. KenKen started talking but messed up right away and the three of them just broke down into laughter immediately and KenKen tried to keep it together but you could hear him wanting to laugh so hard! It was a really good moment. KenKen was like ‘I’ll beat your ass!’

Wagou's character was also confusing. In the first one he's this quiet, mysterious, starts to get stupid towards the end in a funny way, ninja character. But in THIS one he's basically his Osomatsu on Stage character; a big shot with lots of confidence and completely pompous. So I am not sure why they brought him back and/or why they gave his character a complete 180 change.

The end dancing scene is funny because it's obvious KenKen character is still in love with Shinako. I also liked the dancing scene in general, it was sweet yet still had a nice balance of comedy in it.

TamaChan fell out of character at one point and it was totally cute. Something happened, and he just burst out into proper laughter. It was the cutest thing! Then during the curtain call, KenKen was showing off the marshmallow goods and started opening it up and showed the faces on the marshmallows before putting on into TamaChan's mouth and TamaChan yelled Wagou's character's line of 'DELICIOUS desu!' and Wagou got embrassed because previously in the play he had messed up that line a little so TamaChan was getting payback. Then Wagou pulled this angry sulking face at TamaChan and TamaChan (mouth full) was like 'I swear I'm not making fun!' so Wagou redid this line straight away so he could come out on top xD

Tamaki actually ices the cake here! So god knows how many cakes they wasted in total! I just hope they ate them every time! Or that the cake is fake but just the icing isn't.

JP's repetitive comedy part was catching swords with his barehands and then those swords being ripped out of his hands and his reaction everytime was perfect and so funny! His character is an idiot. It cracked me up everytime!

The Aftertalk

The aftertalk consisted of: Yuichi, Irie, JP and Shiono. It was super funny! They talked about what sweets they like and/or recommend to people so they said:

Irie: Monte Blanc << He mentioned he can eat 6 in a row and everyone was like 'WTF?! HOW?!' Shiono: Crepes and came make them himself. He used to work part-time at a crepe store. Yuichi: recommended Rokkatei which sounds like a famous sweet shop here JP: Choco with strawberries inside. And he also liked Rokkatei here

The Ex-Aid kid, Iijima Hiroki (how many fucking Hiroki's are there?!?!?!?!?) was there tonight! He walked in and he's tall and so freaking skinny!! He looks so much better in real life than on TV xD He has this white t-shirt on and flappy hair; no mask, no glasses. Just waltzed in.

*

GOODS

I’m lucky JP isn’t so popular so I didn’t have to try the random badges myself. I feel like KenKen will be easy to get too.

*

And there we have it! Stay tuned for more reviews/reports coming up!

[murasaki-murasame]

Danganronpa V3 Liveblog Part 19 [Chapter 6 - Trial]

I was going to make some sort of a vague meme about this ending, but honestly I don’t even want to indirectly spoil anyone about what happens, so I’ll just say that this was fantastic.

This probably won’t actually be the end of my liveblog, since I have some post-game content to do, and some optional bonus things throughout the game I might just google and write about later whenever I get around to that. But this is the ending of the main game.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

[Fake edit: hahahaha holy fuck this ended up being 10.4k words long. Good fucking luck to anyone who wants to read all of it, I guess, lol]

Jesus christ, where do I even start with this??? There’s just . . . so much shit that went down. So much.

To start things off, I wasn’t kidding when I said that this was a fantastic ending, overall. I loved it a lot. It was so ambitious and intense and surreal that I couldn’t help but like it. I definitely have SOME issues with things, but I’ll get to them later.

I should at least say that, as you can all verify from my last post, I wasn’t exactly expecting Tsumugi of all people to be the mastermind. I guess it justified her continued existence in the story, after she felt so weirdly pointless.

Though before I talk about Tsumugi specifically, on the whole topic of pointless characters, Himiko was definitely . . . the weakest link by far. I don’t really hate her or anything, but she just had so little going for her as a character by the end. Even the whole thing with Tenko dying and giving her emotional strength and development and stuff felt like it didn’t really change much. So seeing her alive by the end, especially in the epilogue scene, felt . . . awkward. It’s not like I wanted her to die or anything, but I feel like the epilogue might have had a bit more . . . weight to it, if it was just Shuichi and Maki left. I dunno. I’ll talk about the epilogue later.

On the topic of Tsumugi, I honestly think I might prefer her as a villain over Junko. Mostly because this game’s entire ending and it’s overall theme feels way more interesting than everything Junko represented. I’ve said before that I really do like Junko as a villain, and that seeing her come back yet again would have been totally fine, but I think I liked Tsumugi as a villain even more than her. I’m aware that with how Tsumugi’s character works in general, there’s not much that actually sets her apart from Junko, but still. The things she represents on a thematic level are really interesting to me.

I also just appreciate that it was genuinely surprising to me that she was the mastermind. I really didn’t see it coming until they basically spelled it out for me.

I probably should have guessed where this trial was heading in advance. I said last time that the shot put ball and whatnot confused me, but it should have been obvious that it was hinting at Kaede not truly being the first killer. And the detail of the secret entrance to the hidden room being in the girl’s bathroom should have clued me in about Tsumugi. I could easily see someone else figuring it out if they had a good memory and also figured out that the chapter one case would be relevant again, but I didn’t remember the detail about Tsumugi having gone to the bathroom around the time Rantarou died, so that was a genuine surprise. I really like that they actually planted evidence pointing toward her at the start of the game, even though it didn’t really become apparent until you learn stuff much later in the game.

I also really liked the whole detail of how her talent as the Ultimate Cosplayer connected with her role as the mastermind. It really wasn’t what I was expecting at all.

To dive right into the Big Twists, it turns out that my guess about how this would end was basically the opposite of what I expected. I’ve said before that I expected the reveal to be that the world of V3 was a fictional story being broadcast to the ‘real’ DR world, but in the end, if we at least take the ending at face value, it was the entire DR franchise that was ‘fictional’ in the context of V3′s world. So that threw me off big-time. In general things escalated way more than I expected, and there were way more layers of meta going on than I thought there’d be.

But I love how that all tied into Tsumugi’s identity. Like, I totally believed that she was really Junko, or at least some kind of clone or descendant or whatever of Junko, and I accepted the idea that ‘Tsumugi’ was just a fake identity. But nope, Junko is just a character she’s cosplaying! I didn’t consider it at first because of the whole cospox plot point, but then the big twist happened and it became clear that she can cosplay as Junko because, in the world of V3, Junko is a fictional character.

The whole scenario of her continually switching between cosplays was, to be honest, genuinely disturbing. Especially since they got the original VAs to voice their appropriate lines. So it really felt as if all of the previous characters were coming in, which helped make the trial feel really fever dream-y, in a good way. It really hammered in that feeling of artificiality going on.

It’s interesting to me that, with how the whole ending worked, ‘Tsumugi’ was probably still a fake identity of sorts. Like how every other character’s identity was made up, to the point where it was heavily implied that even their names were fictional. So it’d make sense if Tsumugi’s whole identity was also fake. She called herself the Ultimate Cosplayer, but if we believe her story then the whole concept of Ultimates wouldn’t truly exist in their world anyway. But I like the implication that she was basically just pretending. It’s consistent with everything else, at least, and her talent didn’t really play into her actual plot role at all, just her ‘aesthetic’ as a character, if that makes sense. So I like the idea that she was just a random, ‘talentless’ member of Team Danganronpa who adopted a false identity in order to take part in the killing game. The idea that we might have never known her true identity at all beyond, well, her job position and her personality, makes me like her even more as a villain, somehow.

In general, I love how incredibly meta this ending was. I love how cynical it was. I love how it rejects itself as a franchise, and everyone playing it. It’s great. The fact that they openly talked about the Danganronpa franchise, Team Danganronpa, and the entire fandom, was just great. I totally get why the guilt-trip nature of it might bug people, but I like it. It’s certainly hard to argue against the point it’s making. This game only existed because people actively supported this series. Because they genuinely enjoyed experiencing the emotionally thrills and catharsis that the killing games gave them. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the series just keeps going like nothing happened.

I’m aware that the ending wasn’t really intended to be genuinely spiteful towards it’s audience, especially since the final moments of the game are all about the audience changing their minds and deciding that they want to stop the killing games, and to also save as many of the remaining characters as possible, but there’s definitely still a very clear element of spite going on that can’t really be ignored. It’s very vocally aware and critical of the way that people enjoy violent media, even if it also accepts the possibility of people being able to change for the better and be positively influenced by the stories they read.

It just fascinates me that they even went this far. That they took their franchise to such an absurd point. That they created the idea of this fictional future where their own franchise would grow so big and so popular that they’d start killing real people to continue it. That they made themselves, as the people who made this game, the villains. It’s such an incredibly risky move that I’ve basically never seen before, especially if we take into account that this franchise has been going on for like 5+ years already. It’s also part of why I don’t think this ending was 100% spiteful toward it’s audience. Because, at the very least, it also holds itself accountable in all this. The devs are aware that they’re the ones actually sitting down to make these games in the first place. So it’s not like they’re placing all of the blame on their consumers.

The whole back and forth spiral of emotional tension and cynicism and hopefulness and redemption and self-awareness made the whole ending part incredibly intense and emotional. It really did feel like the people making the game were laying themselves bare and engaging in a direct conversation with the people playing their game, to ask them to consider the idea of violent media, and the idea of the authenticity of lies/fiction vs truth/reality.

Weirdly enough, this whole ending reminds me a fair bit of Nier: Automata, and that game’s entire thematic point. They’re very different games, in obvious ways, but they’re weirdly similar.

I didn’t really see the whole Argument Armament section coming, but oh man that part sure was an experience. Thankfully I’ve been slowly getting better at them, but it was still really stressful. But what truly made it special was hearing the voices of the audience during it. I just love the entire concept of you literally arguing against the voices of people saying stuff like ‘ugh, I hate meta endings like this!’ or ‘I’ve invested too much time and money into this franchise for it to just end!’ or ‘I just want to see people kill each other, death is the entire point of Danganronpa!’. And then eventually it just became a bit of an unending scream of ‘HOPE DESPAIR DESPAIR HOPE HOPE HOPE DESPAIR HOPE’, which was honestly the most perfect way it could have ended. With how obsessed this franchise has been with the concepts of hope and despair, and with how more and more emotional weight and baggage has been placed on those concepts, it’s very fitting that this game basically ends with you facing down a horde of disembodied voices mindlessly shouting out that words, and you telling them that you plan to end the Danganronpa franchise.

And on the whole note of that part, I really liked how Keebo played into the ending. Maybe it would have had more impact if he’d been the protagonist this whole time, but the idea of him being ‘the audience surrogate’ was really cool, if only because it set up the aforementioned scene. I also liked that he wasn’t immediately validated in being obsessed with hope. He wasn’t necessarily in the wrong or anything, but he wasn’t able to argue for hope in the face of despair in the way he wanted to. They also didn’t try and suddenly ignore Shuichi in favour of having Keebo suddenly be the protagonist in the end, so that was nice.

Before I talk about the epilogue and some other assorted points, I should say that the part where they explained the game’s title was AMAZING. I loved it so much. The reveal of this being ‘Danganronpa 53′ was such an effective ‘wait what’ moment. And then we got the incredible parody logos for Danganronpa 4-10. That was an amazing scene. And in general I just love the sorta-dystopian future that whole scene sketched out, of the DR franchise going on for such a long time that they eventually decided to hold a ‘real-life killing game’. But anyway, it also completely validated how weird this game’s title is. I guess on some level it’s still a bit unnecessarily confusing for it to have ‘3′ in the title, but I like that they gave such a surprising yet effective explanation for the ‘V’ part. I may or may not have laughed out loud when one of the random lines of audience dialogue said ‘V is the roman numeral for 5′. I don’t know why that was so funny to me, but it was.

The audience dialogue thing was also an amazing concept that added a lot of unexpected comedy to the situation. It did a great job of encapsulating the attitudes of the fandom. It was hilarious to see random lines of text floating about that were complaining about the ending being boring and them wanting to see an exciting clash between hope and despair. There were too many lines for me to remember, or to have even noticed in time, but a lot of them were really hilarious. I kinda lost it when they started complaining about Shuichi, and when they randomly started insulting him over how he didn’t have his hat anymore. That was great. Then we got some random and hilarious lines like ‘Shuichi is so yummy <3′. I think my favourite one was probably ‘Danganronpa 25 was the best one’. That made me laugh. The writers of these games know us so well, lol.

Though, as I kinda said above, I do appreciate that the audience got their own redemptive moment in choosing to allow the franchise to end by not voting, while also asking Keebo to do what he can to save everyone other than Tsumugi. That was really nice.

Back on the topic of the game’s title, I wish they’d kept the ‘everyone’s new semester of mutual killing’, since they ended up name-dropping it during this trial, but they never really brought up the English game’s subtitle outside of the part where the game’s full name was said. I think that the name-drop would have just had more impact if they’d kept it as the game’s subtitle in English. It’s a minor issue, though.

I kinda want to leave my thoughts on the epilogue for as late in this post as I can, so I should talk about some other points first.

I talked a bit about how this trial went back over and re-did chapter one’s trial, but I didn’t go into much detail about it. I thought it was a really neat concept, to go back over such an old case and point out how the conclusion everyone came to was wrong. I thought that that whole trial was complicated enough as it was, but I really wasn’t expecting there to be a whole other layer to what went down in it that was being saved until the end of the game. But it actually made a lot of sense. As I said, we knew from the start that Tsumugi went to the bathroom around when the murder happened, but that didn’t seem to be an important detail until we found out later that that’s where the hidden entrance was. They even took the time back in chapter one to go over her cospox to explain how she couldn’t have possibly been the killer, which did a good job at getting us to stop suspecting her. But as it turns out, she was able to kill Rantarou in a way that avoided needing to use her talent at all.

It also addressed the one thing I disliked about the first trial, at least in terms of the in-universe logic and mechanics of it. At the time, I suspended my disbelief about it, but the idea of someone being successfully killed via a complicated Rube Goldberg machine felt a bit contrived. So I love that the big twist was that Kaede’s whole complicated set-up actually ended with her missing her shot, and so Tsumugi had to rush in and beat Rantarou to death with a spare shot put ball to make it look like Kaede’s idea had worked. I don’t quite know why, but the image of Rantarou just being absolutely baffled by the fact that a shot put ball just fell by his feet out of nowhere, and Tsumugi panicking in the background and rushing in to beat him to death with ANOTHER shot put ball was just the most hilarious thing ever to me. It was great. But I do feel genuinely bad for Rantarou. He must have been so confused about all the unexpected things that happened in the moments before he died.

I’m also very grateful that part of the twist was that Kaede was truly innocent [beyond having had the genuine motive and intent to kill, but you get my point], and that, specifically, she wasn’t even related to the mastermind. After the twin sister reveal, I expected that part of the twist would be that Kaede was in on the mastermind’s plan the entire time, or at best was unaware of it but still related to the mastermind. I immediately thought that it’d be too lame and out of the blue for anything along those lines to be the case, so I’m glad that the twin sister thing was just a red herring, and that Kaede was just a random, everyday person. I guess this also means that her moments of being cross-eyed weren’t some sort of a hint at some kind of ‘mental instability’ or whatever. That’s nice. I didn’t really mention it at the time, if I remember right, since it didn’t really feel important enough to talk about, but I’m very thankful that the game didn’t use something like that as any sort of a sign toward someone being ‘crazy’ or villainous or whatever. I mean on some level they still played into that trope to some degree, if only in order to use it as a red herring, but still. One of my own eyes is kind of crossed, a bit, so it would have been slightly depressing to see something like that be used as that sort of plot point. I sure didn’t expect a game like this to give me a reason to bring up that kind of a personal detail, but here we are!

This also gets me onto the topic of Rantarou himself, and . . . honestly, his entire deal ended up feeling really disappointing. He kinda just served to give an example that backed up what Tsumugi said about the state of the world. We didn’t really learn anything new about him. We just got a bit of context for what killing game he was a part of, and why he got roped into this one. Which is fine. I just kinda wanted something . . . more. I think he’s the kind of character who I might want to spend some time thinking about before I make a final decision on how I feel about his place in the story. I’m at least genuinely curious about how exactly his killing game ended up, for him to end up as the Ultimate Survivor. I’m still not entirely sure how that whole concept works, especially when they casually mentioned that if they executed Tsumugi, then Maki would become the new Ultimate Survivor, which I still don’t quite understand, since she was one of the ones volunteering to die in order to let everyone ELSE survive. Anyway, I think the basic implication is that he was the only survivor of his game, so I wonder if that means that he killed someone and successfully escaped. It’s the only way I could really see it ending up that way. I guess the alternative option is that maybe he and one other person survived and escaped because of the rule about the killing game ending at that point. I’m not sure, though, since it seems odd that only one of them would have been called the Ultimate Survivor and forced into this killing game, and not both of them. Then again there might also be something else to it, with how he implied in his video message that there was some trick to the ‘two survivors’ rule, but I still can’t quite work out what that would be. Either way, with what we know now, I feel like his whole thing of saying that he wanted this killing game to happen makes me think that he was taking some kind of genuine pleasure out of it. If it was just a matter of him saying that he needed to win, it might have just been out of a desire to survive, but in that case I don’t think he’s say that he wanted this game to happen. I dunno. His whole character feels weirdly confusing to me, but maybe it’ll make more sense once I spend some time going over things in my head.

And on a similar note, I said before that I expected the Monokubs to be somehow based upon other survivors from his game, but I guess that one didn’t pan out the way I expected. What WAS the point of the Monokubs, in the end? Was the entire running thing of them seemingly having repressed memories like everyone else a red herring? It felt like their characters just sorta stopped existing early on in this trial after they all got blown up and then never mentioned again. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they were genuinely pointless, but it’d still be a bit lame.

I guess I’m on a bit of a roll here with talking about specific characters, so I should take this time to say that I honestly feel kinda bad for Kokichi now. This trial didn’t really tell us anything new about him, but it spelled out a lot of the fairly obvious things being hinted at, and it made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t really a bad person at all. He didn’t have anything to do with this. He really was completely lying about being the mastermind in order to try and stop the game. Even his gang seems pretty harmless. So it’s pretty hard not to feel bad for him, even if he was still genuinely annoying and irritating as a person. Though now that we’ve gotten to the end of the game, I’m still a bit confused about all of the stuff that went down in chapter four that pointed toward him being obsessed with Shuichi, and jealous of Kaito’s closeness with him. I still feel like there were very deliberate hints pointing in that direction, but it never went anywhere. There’s at least the whole ‘when I find someone I like, I do anything I can to make them notice me, even if it means strangling them’ scene, which seems even more confusing to me now. I dunno. Maybe he DID have his own feelings for Shuichi, and it just didn’t get explicitly mentioned in the game itself. Maybe it’ll be elaborated on more in his free time events, and post-game stuff in general. Either way, it still feels like a bit of a strange loose end. Maybe I’m reading too much into things.

Though it’s hard to unironically call anyone in this game innocent or sympathetic after the whole plot twist about them all being Danganronpa fans who volunteered to take place in a killing game. That sure was a twist. A lot of the ending had a more comedic tone to it, even if basically all of it was genuinely kinda horrifying and emotional and involved the characters finding out that everything they knew was a lie, but that part in particular stuck out to me as being 100% horrifying. Although it was kinda amusing seeing the game point out via Shuichi that there’s already been several detectives in the franchise. Which I guess takes on a slightly different context when you think about this being the 53rd entry in the franchise, but you get what I mean. Everything else was just depressing and unexpected, though. Seeing Shuichi excitedly talk about having planned out an exciting murder AND execution for himself, and how neat it’d be to have a detective become a murderer, was really hard to sit through, especially since he still had that little moment of being flustered about not wanting to be too demanding toward the people running the games, that made it clear that it was still genuinely him saying it. Then we got the part of Kaede saying that she has no real faith in humanity, which just hurt a lot. And then they dragged Kaito of all people into it and I started to genuinely wish the scene would stop because I didn’t want to see what he had to say. But then he went and had the most terrifying audition of the three, where he talked excitedly about wanting to murder everyone else in the game. That really just twisted the knife that had already been stabbed into my heart after the first two auditions we saw.

So it’s hard to be TOO sympathetic of anyone when all of them genuinely wanted this. I guess, come to think of it, this also probably ties into what Rantarou said about him wanting this to happen. He probably did genuinely like the idea of taking part in these games. Which puts a really sinister twist on his character, and also every other character in the game.

In general it’s kinda awkward to talk about any of the characters in the way they’re presented to us, now that we know that all of their backstories and talents and stuff are just lies, and that they’re actually just normal people who willingly took part in a death game. We probably don’t even know any of their real names. But it’s pretty clear that a big part of the game’s message is that just because these things might be lies, it doesn’t mean that they’re ‘not true’. These are still the characters we know and love. These are still the people that they genuinely believe themselves to be. At least after having their memories replaced, they became people who didn’t want to kill others, who were horrified by the idea of it, who banded together to stop it. For the most part. You get what I mean. So there’s still value in the characters as we knew them, even if they were the result of taking existing people and then replacing all of their memories and giving them new identities. There’s still value in the experiences they went through, the lessons they learned, the feelings that they experienced, and even the feelings that we experienced because of them. In spite of this trial’s set of reveals, it really was, in the end, a celebration of the power of fiction. It embraced the value and meaning of fictional characters and their stories. It validated the characters, and the experiences they had in this game. So I’m still allowing myself to see them as the people we knew them as, and to feel sympathy with them because of it.

It’s really disturbing to consider that the identities they were given were just . . . made-up identities that had barely anything to do with who they were before. It’s especially depressing to think about how all of their motives and whatnot were thus completely made-up and pointless. All of their backstories and traumas and whatnot were just fictional. Which makes it really depressing to think back on topics like Ryoma’s self-loathing because of his past, or Kirumi’s dedication to protecting the country even if it meant killing everyone else in the game, or Maki’s history with being trained as an assassin and how that basically broke her as a person. In a sense, those things still hold weight and validity because the characters at least BELIEVED them to be true, but it’s still just . . . depressing to think about how much pain was put onto these characters in the name of giving them interesting backstories and whatnot. This also presumably means that Kiyo wasn’t ACTUALLY a psychopathic serial-killer who had an incestuous relationship with his sister. Huh. He sure got the short end of the stick in terms of how his backstory reflected upon him as a person.

[Fake edit: I don’t know how I forgot about it, but there’s also the fact that apparently Kaito was just given a terminal illness as part of his backstory, which is a really fucking disturbing concept. To think that they just casually decided to make things more interesting by messing with his health like that. Especially since it’s pretty easy to guess that they gave it to him because of how enthusiastic he seemed to be about wanting to kill everyone. So it’s like they were giving him the illness as a sort of dramatic irony, to set up a scenario along the lines of him dying from his illness after he killed all of his friends, making everything he did pointless. And of course there would have been the additional angle of it becoming something that the audience at home could sympathize with him because of, which . . . definitely worked, I suppose.]

But obviously the characters weren’t exactly all clean and sinless individuals before this game, even if these depressing backstories and whatnot are fake. They clearly all had their own problems before the game started. And the characters we know now are probably at least nicer, on average, than the people we saw in those auditions.

And as I said above, Tsumugi was probably no different. She clearly knows all about what her life was like before this game, but Tsumugi as we knew her for 99% of the game was almost certainly a false identity. She was still the closest to her original self out of everyone in the game, but still.

At least we know that, on a visual level, it was only their outfits that got changed. So that’s nice to know, I guess, even if it’s not particularly important.

Now that I’ve gotten to the end of the game, I can finally talk about the last major thing I got spoiled about! Which didn’t even technically end up being completely accurate in it’s implication anyway! Yay!

Basically, a week or two before I started playing the game, I was just scrolling down my dash, and one of the recommended posts was a fucking DRV3 meme about Shuichi rejecting both hope and despair, in favour of dying. Of all the ways to be spoiled, I got spoiled via a goddamn meme, and of all the things to be spoiled about, I got spoiled about THAT. So throughout this ENTIRE game, I’ve had the vague idea of Shuichi dying stuck in my head. Which has been kinda agonizing. I’m so glad that it wasn’t actually accurate, and that he lived, but I still hate that I got spoiled about it. I suppose that I only had myself to blame for not having installed xkit by then in order to blacklist the DR tags, but still. Considering that I had never posted anything about DR before that point, I can’t really be blamed for assuming that Tumblr wouldn’t decide to just randomly suggest me a post about it.

That point, and the point of me having seen a screenshot from Kiyo’s execution, were the main things I got spoiled about. I also thought I got spoiled about someone [aka Kaito] killing because of their terminal illness, which ended up being technically untrue and probably just a made-up example of the sorts of motives in this game, even though it still lead me to the correct assumption of ‘Kaito ends up being a killer’. Those are the main things. I also knew in advance that this game has a really controversial ending, and that it has a bonus dating sim mode thing, but I didn’t know anything specific about those things, so the nature of the ending still surprised me, and honestly the existence of a dating sim mode isn’t really a spoiler to me.

So yeah, those are the things I knew about this game in advance. I wish I could have gone in COMPLETELY blind, but oh well. It didn’t end up affecting my enjoyment of the game as much as I was scared it might.

Anyway, the main character left who I want to talk about is Shuichi. I’ve already talked about basically everyone else, including Keebo and Himiko, and I don’t really think there’s much to say about Maki. I still love her a lot as a character, but this part didn’t really give me much to say about her that I haven’t said already, except for one detail [that I’ve kinda already talked about] that I guess I’ll mention again in a second.

Though I guess it’s also worth talking a little bit about the surviving cast. Which I’m more or less including Keebo and Tsumugi in, even though they died at the very end. The fact that Shuichi, Maki, and Keebo lived until [more or less] the very end was pretty predictable since they’re all so noteworthy, although as I said above I genuinely expected this to end with Shuichi dead, so I suppose it ended up being surprising that he actually lived to the very end. In that sense I guess Maki was the most predictable survivor. And obviously Tsumugi staying alive until at least the final trial made sense, in the end, since she was the mastermind. So other than Shuichi who was surprising for his own unique reasons, I’m still slightly baffled by Himiko surviving. Even in spite of her [relatively minimal] development and focus, she still felt really weird as part of the final three characters, next to much more important ones like Shuichi and Maki. But this sorta thing always happens in these games, and it’s probably a good thing that at least one of the survivors was someone who I would never have expected to survive.

Anyway, on the topic of Shuichi. I still adore this boy with all my heart and soul. He’s wonderful. At this point he probably beats out Hinata as my favourite DR protagonist. He’s such an incredibly good boy who deserved a much better life than what he got. I’m just kinda casually ignoring the stuff we learned in his audition, lol. But I kinda have to ignore that whole can of worms if I want to talk about what I like about any of the characters, really. I really felt horrible for him during this entire trial, especially after the reveals started kicking in. Seeing him go through so much emotional pain, until he decided to just accept death as a means to put an end to the killing games, just kinda broke my heart. There’s several points during the overall trial/ending that I nearly teared up at, and him talking about how in spite of the fact that everything he went through might have been a lie, the pain in his heart was still real, was definitely one of them. That really hit me hard. I loved seeing him be so resolute in saying that the concept of the killing games is horrific and deserve to be stopped even at the cost of his own life, but it was still hard to watch.

I hate to keep bringing this point up again, especially at this point, but I still at least like to believe that he had his own crush on Kaito. I’m very aware, especially now that the game’s definitively over [aside from the bonus stuff], that it’s probably not canon, but I still choose to believe it. I’m still choosing to believe in the way that his story and his thoughts and feelings toward Kaito came across to me. And hey, in spite of the guilt-trip-y nature of parts of this ending, it was ultimately still a celebration of the meaning of fiction and the validity of the things that fictional characters allow us to experience, so I don’t feel too bad about sticking to this interpretation. I know that the game made a pretty clear point to address Maki’s feelings for Kaito while not saying the same sort of thing about Shuichi’s feelings, but still. Though I should say that it’s not like any of this meant that I felt negatively about Maki’s feelings for Kaito and how they were portrayed. I still felt bad about seeing her find out that they were more or less a lie that had been written out as part of her character. I mean, it’s hard to call those feelings a lie when they were based upon the sorts of interactions and dynamics that would understandably lead to such a thing, so I won’t dismiss her feelings or call them fake or anything, but I can also see how the game was organized to force her to feel that way, which is still fucked up.

This is getting more into headcanon territory, there’s certainly something appealing about the idea of Shuichi developing feelings for Kaito without it having been ‘written out in advance’. Again, I’m not trying to imply that that whole deal makes this sorta thing less genuine, but still. There’s something both cute yet tragic in seeing things through this lens of Shuichi developing feelings that nobody had expected or planned for. Especially since, in hindsight, even if it might not be ‘canon’, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kaede was literally written by Tsumugi as being ‘Shuichi’s designated love interest’. They were even literally shoved into adjacent lockers, just to hammer in the fact that the game basically shoved them together. This isn’t some kind of ship hate, though. I actually still quite like Shuichi/Kaede as a ship, as I’ve said a few times before. But with how this ending works and what it says about the game in hindsight, it’s hard not to retroactively interpret these sorts of things through this kind of lens. With how many things Tsumugi specifically pointed out as being part of a pre-written script, it’s hard not to wonder just how many character points and relationship dynamics were similarly ‘part of the script’. And out of basically everything that didn’t get explicitly talked about, Shuichi and Kaede’s dynamic seems like the most likely think that was ‘forced’ to happen. Especially if we assume that Tsumugi might have expected her to survive for most of the game, whereas she died basically immediately and then Shuichi spent most of the game interacting with Kaito [and Maki, to a slightly lesser extent].

So even if I won’t really be as bold as to call any of this canon, there’s definitely room to make some interesting interpretations regarding concepts like the sometimes ‘forced’ nature of love interest scenarios in media. In spite of my warm feelings toward Shuichi/Kaede as a ship, I can’t help but me very intrigued by the idea of him not following along with that whole dynamic that was set up from the start, and instead getting cut off from her almost immediately, and instead spending most of the rest of the game with Kaito, in a way that might not have been planned for. I like the idea of a character like Shuichi indirectly rejecting the heterosexual romance set-up that he was basically shoved into, and instead developing feelings for another boy in a way that nobody planned for, entirely of his own volition. It’s just an appealing idea to me. I guess along these sames lines it’d be hard not to also look at Maki’s romantic feelings for Kaito that were explicitly fabricated, but as I said above I have no interest in engaging in ship hate, or denying her feelings. You get what I mean, though. I also can’t help but think back to that one scene where Maki asked Shuichi if he liked Kaede or not, and he just kinda vaguely said that it’d be normal to like someone even in a situation like this, and after that his hypothetical feelings for her pretty much never came up again. Not explicitly, at least. I figured at the time that he ‘obviously’ had to have been in love with her, because that’s how these things work, but after the concept of romantic feelings being fabricated came up explicitly in canon, it’s hard not to look back on that scene and wonder if there was anything more to it.

Another thing along these lines that’s kinda interesting to think about in hindsight was that it was Tsumugi who had that one off-hand line about asking Shuichi if he, Maki, and Kaito, were part of a ‘reverse love triangle’, which he hurriedly denied. At the time I was kinda intrigued by that line’s existence since it, in addition to Shuichi’s whole ‘I shouldn’t talk about another boy like that’ line, made it explicitly clear that the game was at least aware of how romantic his feelings for Shuichi come off as being, but that line certainly gains an interesting new context when you know that Tsumugi is the mastermind who knows everything, including the ‘settings’ of every character. I can’t tell if this somehow supports my whole aforementioned interpretation of events, or if it implies that this whole set-up in my head might have been intentionally planned by Tsumugi. I’m not really sure. It’s hard to tell just based on that one line if this might have been something she specifically wrote into Shuichi’s character. Though the fact that she goes out of her way to basically mock Maki over her fabricated feelings for Kaito, while not doing the same for Shuichi, makes me think that she only wrote Maki as being in love with him.

So for now I’m sticking to this whole headcanon interpretation, partly because I just fundamentally ship Shuichi and Kaito, and partly because I like this hypothetical meta-narrative subversion of romantic tropes in media.

Anyway I think that’s basically everything I feel like saying about the characters, and most of the story beats. Before I talk about the epilogue, and my feelings on the game as a whole, I should probably talk about a few more of my issues with the game.

I think we can all agree that the mini-games were, and always have been, largely pointless and unnecessary. They’re just not very great. They’re definitely more stream-lined and not as clunky as they used to be, but they sometimes feel SO ‘stream-lined’ and simplistic in design that I start to question why they even exist. The Psyche Taxi is probably the biggest offender of that. It’s such a waste of time. It never tells you anything new. It’s just this painfully drawn out procedure of the game spelling out stuff that it just went over a minute ago, and there’s not even any way to make it go by any faster because there’s a limit to how fast the car can go. I never felt like it did anything to help me solve any mysteries, at least from what I can remember. I think that the Mind Mine thing also felt pretty unnecessary, with there being only like one time where I had to think about which option to choose. I also never ran out of time in it or anything. The Hangman’s Gambit was also pretty bad, but mostly just an exercise in frustration where I either know what the answer is but have to figure out what exact wording the game wants from me, or I have no clue what it wants, and I have to awkwardly stumble my way into a solution. Which at least got a bit more manageable when I got the skill that shows the first letter of the answer immediately.

The sword rebuttal game was fine. It’s a neat representation of arguing with someone, though it usually wasn’t too difficult to figure out the logic of what to do, and sometimes the slicing mechanic just felt a bit clunky and hard to control. There were definitely a few moments where I felt stumped by the logic of them, though. The Mass Panic Debates were also OK, though they ended up never being anywhere near as difficult as I expected. I think that they were afraid of them overwhelming people, so they never made the logic of them too difficult. I don’t even think I needed to get that one skill that lets you focus on one conversation at a time. I’m glad I got the skill that silences loud voices, but that wasn’t really part of the inherent difficulty of those parts, and more just an annoyance that I got a skill to get rid of. The Scrum Debates were a really neat concept, but they felt woefully shallow and under-used. It basically always felt like the logic of them was just another Psyche Taxi-esque scenario of the characters rehashing an argument they’d already gone over before, with it just sometimes being guesswork to figure out which keyword was meant to argue against each statement. I really wish that they could have re-worked it so that new sorts of arguments and debates came up during them, that made me think about it from different angles. I also wish that there could have been more than one of them per trial, since that just lead to them feeling really minor, especially since we didn’t even get one in chapter six, so there were only five in the entire game. I think that there was also only one Mass Panic Debate per trial, which similarly made those parts feel kinda shallow and forgettable in spite of how both of them were hyped up as the new mini-game types. I guess I’m glad that they never tripped me up too hard, but it was also a bit disappointing that they never felt very exciting or meaningful.

Also, even though it wasn’t really a ‘mini-game’, I was never a huge fan of the sections where you have to browse your entire list of truth bullets and pick one. Those parts nearly always fell into being either so easy that it wasn’t any kind of a challenge, or so weird in their logic that I almost had to brute-force the answer.

In general the best part of the trials gameplay-wise were just the regular non-stop debates. Nearly everything else feels kinda unnecessary. But the regular debates were really good. They obviously varied a whole lot in difficulty, but that’s fine.

And even though this isn’t a complaint, I should round this section off by saying that the Argument Armament parts were really good and I have no real issues with them, other than that I kinda suck at rhythm games, so it took like half the game before I started getting actually good at them. I can’t really say that they were TOO difficult as rhythm games in spite of my inherent lack of skills at the genre, since I’ve seen a lot worse from regular rhythm games, and I’ve also witnessed the absolute insane nightmare known as Drakengard 3′s final boss, but still, it probably would have been had if they were genuinely difficult as rhythm games, and in practice they were at least difficult enough for me to struggle with them, and they made the finales of each trial appropriately climactic. Plus, as I said before, the one with Keebo was absolutely great as a way of representing the idea of arguing against the entire DR fandom.

The closing arguments have also always been a really neat idea, and I’ve always loved the aesthetic of them. Including the music. They’re always a neat way to end things off in a trial. The puzzle element of them still does feel a little pointless since the entire mystery’s already been solved and so it feels a bit like padding, but it’s not a big deal.

I guess I’m getting off-track in terms of talking about my complaints about the game, but other than the mini-games being largely boring or obnoxious, there’s not much else to go on. Maybe I should go back and quickly give my thoughts on each case’s murder mystery, just to end things off.

Chapter 1′s case is still a major highlight of the game, if not the entire franchise. I love it a lot. I guess it’s probably the most interesting case in the entire game, but most of the rest of them are still very good too, and this wasn’t the one I had the most difficulty with, even if I didn’t see the identity of the culprit coming. I still have general issues with the basic concept of setting up a female protagonist only to replace them almost immediately with a male one, but it still played out in a really compelling and emotional way, and at least fulfilled my desire to see a DR protagonist become a murderer, in a way that I didn’t even see coming even though they laid out hints for it in advance. Though obviously it’s impossible to talk about it without talking about the chapter six twist about how her plan actually failed, even though Kaede herself thought it did. That was a really neat extra layer to that whole mystery. I’m also still kinda sad that they killed off Rantarou immediately, especially since I feel like the endgame did a bit less to develop his character than I wanted it to. He’s definitely someone who I want to learn the most about via free time events and stuff.

Chapter 2′s case was probably the one that at least felt the most difficult to me, at least when I was actually sitting down and going through the trial. It was probably because I was playing it later at night than I should have, but as I talked about earlier in this liveblog, it just kicked my ass. It was the only trial in the game that I had to take a break from and come back to a day later to finish it, though a big part of that was due to me misunderstanding how retrying parts of the trial worked. Either way, I can’t help but commend Kirumi for setting up a mystery that, at least to me, was very difficult to solve. I’m also still sad that they killed off Ryoma early on as well, since he was another favourite of mine, but I liked his role in this chapter so I’m fine with it. This chapter in particular is one of the more depressing ones when you know in hindsight that everyone’s backstories were completely fabricated and forced upon them.

Chapter 3′s case was weird and I think most people also probably see it as a low point of the game. I loved the whole occult aesthetic of it, and the plot twist of killing someone off during an investigation, but it ended up feeling too easy. It was weird, though. Like, the identity of the culprit was obvious from the start, even ignoring that I’d been spoiled about it, but the actual logic behind how the murders happened, mostly Tenko’s, felt surprisingly difficult to me. It was basically at the same level as Kirumi’s case in that sense, but maybe even higher than that since I distinctly remember dying in this trial like five times, but I didn’t need to stop and come back to it later since by this point I knew that retrying parts of a trial if you die isn’t really a big problem. The motive in this case was definitely the most bizarre, not to mention the most unsympathetic. It’s almost weird how in a game filled with mostly sympathetic and understandable killers like Kaede, Kirumi, Gonta, and Kaito, you have Mr. Psychopathic Incestuous Serial Killer thrown right into the middle. It was just bizarre. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the game for killing off Tenko, a lesbian, in a way that was explicitly described as being ‘a pointless waste’. But whatever. I quite liked Angie’s whole sub-plot in this chapter as well, though I’m glad she got killed off.

Chapter 4′s case is still . . . iffy to me. I know that it was intentionally unsatisfying and kinda depressing and out of the blue, but it just really threw me off and felt really disappointing. It’s probably my least favourite case in the game, but maybe chapter three is worse than it. It doesn’t help that this whole chapter happened before Kokichi started getting any degree of redeeming or even particularly interesting qualities, at least in my opinion. I also still feel a bit let down by how the whole climax felt so weird and unexpected that I wasn’t even as depressed by Gonta’s death as I should have been, considering how much I liked him as a character. There were definitely a few parts that got to me, but not too many. I really liked the whole virtual world concept, though, even if most of the mysteries related to it felt painfully easy to guess. This chapter also made me like Miu a fair bit more, and it was pretty neat getting a case about someone’s murder attempt getting turned against them, even if it’s not a completely original concept in this franchise. I also still feel a bit confused about certain aspects of Kokichi’s feelings and motives in this chapter in particular, as I went over before, but it’s not a big deal. [Honestly, my favourite part of chapter four was probably just finishing off Kaito’s free time events.]

Chapter 5′s case was really depressing, and also way more complicated than I expected it would be. I at least remember it feeling pretty difficult, though the effect was lessened a bit because of the weird detail of me kinda-sorta-not-really-but-technically being spoiled about Kaito being a killer, which made the outcome of this case pretty obvious. But it was more about the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ than the ‘who’, in the end. This is where I started liking Kokichi a lot more as a character, which also makes me think back about this chapter positively. And obviously I love every part of the game that has Kaito in it [except for the one obvious exception, lol], so that made it a really emotional ride as well. Having to actively pick him in the vote and have him get executed was incredibly painful.

I guess there’s not much to say about Chapter 6′s case that I haven’t said already, so . . . yeah. It’s obviously not a murder mystery trial like the others so I can’t compare it to those ones in that sense, but it was probably still my favourite trial just due to how incredibly intense it was, and how much of an emotional roller-coaster it put me through. It’s at least easily my favourite chapter six trial in the series.

I don’t think there’s much else to say about the characters, other than that they’re probably my favourite cast in the series, as a whole. It’s hard to compare them to the casts of DR1 and DR2, since they all feel like they’re going for slightly different things, but still. I just love this game’s cast a lot. It probably helps that this was the first game I actually played for myself rather than reading/watching an LP of. There were definitely a few characters I felt ambivalent about to the very end, like Himiko, but for the most part I liked them. And chapter six definitely made me like Keebo and Tsumugi a lot more, in very different ways. I’m still kinda ambivalent toward Keebo, but he at least ended up being more than just pure comic relief, though I still dislike how his ‘persecution complex’ is framed by the narrative, with how he gets treated by everyone in practice. I liked the vague idea brought up of him learning to embrace the things that make him unique, but it fell kinda flat because of how badly his character as a whole was executed. And as I said above, I really like Tsumugi now, after having seen her as boring and pointless up until this point, even though she definitely feels less like her own unique character, and more of a representation of ‘the ending of DRV3′, and all that entails. I still think that I might prefer her as a villain to Junko, but it’s hard to compare them. Again, it’s kinda less about them as individuals, and more about them as the concepts they represent. Anyway, the characters I liked least were almost definitely Himiko and Kiyo. At least with Kokichi he was still a genuinely interesting and complex character who I slowly warmed up to, Rantarou was just sorta disappointing rather than actively bad, and Angie served an interesting plot purpose even if she was hard to like as a person, and pretty flat. Himiko and Kiyo were the ones with least going for them. Mostly Kiyo, whose entire purpose was just to be really creepy and off-putting. I’m more ambivalent about Himiko. I just wish that she felt more . . . interesting, I guess, or had more development. But in general I actively liked the majority of the cast, by the end.

Anyway, I suppose I should finally talk about the epilogue, although there’s not really much to say about it at this point. It was just really good. I was initially skeptical of the idea of the ending ‘backpedaling’ on actually killing everyone off, but at least Tsumugi and Keebo genuinely died, and I really liked the way that everyone else surviving played into the element of the audience themselves having their own redemption moment of sorts. The part where Shuichi says something along the lines of ‘maybe they wanted this lie to become the truth’ was one of the moments in this part that nearly made me cry. I think it put me the closest to actually crying, honestly. It was just a really effective way of tying together this game’s lies vs truth theme in with the whole theme of the power of fiction and the redemption of the audience. The idea of us, as the audience, loving these characters enough to want them to live, to want their ‘lie’ to become a new sort of ‘truth’, really got to me. And on that whole note, I forgot to mention it, but I really loved Shuichi’s whole speech about the love between all of them, and how the love passed onto them from everyone that died has meaning, and can even change the world itself if it could successfully get through to the audience and change their minds. That was a really nice scene. I also couldn’t help but like it when Maki pointed out how much Shuichi was sounding like Kaito, and how obviously Shuichi could do something like change the world, since he’s Kaito’s sidekick. And, of course, the part where Shuichi used Kaito’s catch-phrase about the impossible being possible also really got to me.

It’s interesting that, right at the end, the game basically calls into question everything that Tsumugi said, and made it unclear what the outside world will truly be like. I can see why that might seem unsatisfying and wishy-washy to people, but I like it. I like that, to the very end, you can never tell for sure what the truth is. It really gets across what the game is trying to say about the concept of truth vs lies. And on that whole note, I loved Shuichi’s whole part of saying that you can’t really call either truth or lies ‘bad’, and that lies can be just another way of telling the truth. It’s a simple concept, but it hit pretty hard as the culmination of this entire game. And I quite liked the final line of [from what I remember] ‘If the world can change to even a small degree, then this story won’t end’. That was a nice way to end things off. The whole ambiguity of this ending does make me wonder if they’ll decide to genuinely continue the series. I honestly hope they don’t. Partly just because I really resonated with the whole point about the killing games being inherently evil and needing to be stopped, but also partly because it’d kinda destroy the ambiguity of this ending. We’ll see. I’ll probably be fine either way.

I feel like Tsumugi’s final words about her being a ‘cosplaycat killer’, and her seemingly disappointed or annoyed expression before she died, will nag at my brain for a while. But I think that’s a good thing, that the game’s leaving me wondering about what her deal is, even to the end.

I think I’ve finally, finally run out of things to say, so all I can do is just say that this was a fantastic game. I get why a lot of people disliked it, but I really loved it a lot, even if it had some issues. It was undoubtedly my favourite game in the series, though. I certainly prefer it over DR3 as a conclusion to the franchise. I’m kinda sad that this is the sort of game where you can’t really explain why it’s so good without spoiling people. That sucks. And it’s also the sort of game that only really has it’s full impact if you’ve experienced the franchise up to this point, so I couldn’t suggest that someone go into it blind.

As I’ve said before, I’ll check out whatever post-game bonus stuff there is to do, so that’ll be the rest of this liveblog. I’m not sure how many posts it’ll take to finish it all off, and how much time it’ll take, but we’ll see. I think I might take a bit of a break from the game for a day or two in order to let my thoughts on it simmer for a while, and also so I can do some other things I need to do. Once I’m done with the entire game, that’ll probably be when I allow myself to dive into the fandom, finally. That’ll be interesting. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll reblog fanart and stuff, though, in case I want to keep my followers unspoiled. I dunno. There’s probably a good amount of stuff that’s not TOO spoiler-y that I can reblog. And to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if I even end up making some of my own fanart. I at least really want to draw Shuichi and Kaito, for obvious reasons. But this franchise in general tends to have the sorts of characters that make me want to draw them, so who knows what I’ll do.

Anyway I need to forcibly stop myself from continuing this post because my brain is starting to melt a little bit and I need to go to sleep, lol.

[oumakokichi]

Hello! I hope this is not too much to ask, but would it be okay to ask for a brief description of your thoughts on all the V3 girls? As in, strong points (as characters), weak points, how the narrative treats them...

Sure anon, I don’t mind! This is a really fun question,actually. I really love the ndrv3 girls, and it’s interesting because I’d saythe strengths and weaknesses of them are pretty varied.

I’ll try and write a little bit about each girl in detail,but it’ll involve discussing pretty much the entire game so there’ll bespoilers under the read more! Only read if you’re comfortable with that!

I suppose the easiest one to start with would be Kaede, asshe’s our fake-out protagonist. Her strengths are pretty easy to see: she’scharismatic, likable, go-getting, and would’ve made a really excellentprotagonist for all these reasons, especially as her charisma in particularsets her apart from characters like Naegi or Hinata who weren’t especiallycharismatic or influential among the group at first.

One of her other biggest strengths in my opinion though isher distrust of people. Her paranoia itself is what makes her character themost interesting in hindsight; there’s something very chilling about going backand re-reading Chapter 1 realizing exactly how little Kaede could actuallybring herself to trust others.

Despite wanting tobelieve the best in people, she wasn’t someone who could actually do so, and itshows. This trait is something that humanizes her and makes her go from “relativelylikable self-insert protagonist” to “incredibly interesting protagonist wholies to the player and other characters and even herself.” I know it soundscontradictory, but that particular flaw of Kaede is one of the things I likebest about her, and what would’ve made her the most interesting had she stuckaround for longer, in my opinion.

Her weaknesses are… well, she’s mostly just limited to thepotential she could have had, rather than what we actually got to see. Bykilling her off so early, the narrative limits her autonomy and mostly treatsher like an object to be used for Saihara’s development. Even her flaws,including both her skepticism of other people and her willingness to kill aperson, are completely brushed under the rug by Chapter 6. By focusing only onwhat she meant to Saihara, and notwhat Saihara or anyone else in the group actually meant to her, the narrativeacts as though that’s pretty much the only important thing about her, leavingme rather… unsatisfied, in the end.

Next up, there’s Maki. Again with Maki, I feel like thethings I actually came to like about her the best are the things that make herflawed as a character. But those flaws are themselves interesting. I like thatMaki is cold, antisocial, and… well, for lack of a better way to put it, notthat bright. Maki has had all the compassion and kindness stomped right out ofher at an early age due to her assassin training; it makes sense that shewouldn’t necessarily be the nicest.

I like that shegets to display flaws more typically found in male characters—including Kuzuryuuand Togami. I like the fact that she’s an easily manipulated pawn in the grandscheme of things, because that makes perfect sense thematically with herbackstory as an assassin who has only ever been trained and pointed at targetsand told to kill without questioning it. Female characters should be allowed tobe cold, to be standoffish. They don’t have to be nice or even good peoplenecessarily, and the fact that Maki is arguably neither of these things issomething I really do like about her, since it’s such a break away from themold with main girls in DR.

Unfortunately, her weaknesses are along the same lines asKaede. The biggest flaw to Maki being regarded as her own character is, sadly,Momota. Everything about her character revolves around Momota. Every singlestep of development she makes is never attributed to her own doing, but toMomota, be it through direct or indirect intervention.

While I very much like the fact that Maki claiming herfeelings for herself is an important part of her making her own choices andrefusing to be manipulated by Chapter 6, the narrative really drops the ball bytrying to make Maki into this cute, tsundere, “shy, blushing maiden in love”every time the subject of her feelings for Momota come up. All her complexitygoes out the window in favor of playing right into tropes without any interestingsubversion at all. Not even to mention all the added layers of misogyny thatcome with their dynamic. What could have been a very compelling story aboutself-love instead boils down to a shounen protagonist guy telling a tsunderegirl that “girls shouldn’t use weapons, they’re better-suited looking cute andtaking care of children.”

And like Kaede, all of Maki’s biggest mistakes get brushedunder the rug by later chapters. I’ve mentioned it before, but Maki facesalmost no consequences at all for her reckless impulsivity. Not only does noone in the group bring up her attempt to kill Ouma; they don’t even bring upher attempt to murder all of them.Maki’s harsh, ruthless treatment of the entire group doesn’t even wedge so muchas a temporary hurdle into their friendship with one another, she neverapologizes, and it’s never addressed as any kind of issue or flaw by thenarrative. Most of the reason why it never comes up is because the charactersmostly act like “she was in love with Momota, so it’s okay.” I hope if we seemore of Maki as a survivor in any future installments, this kind of pitfallwill be avoided again.

Next up, Himiko. Himiko is perhaps one of the best-writtenfemale characters in all of ndrv3, in my opinion anyway. As a dark horsesurvivor who no one was really expecting, she displays tremendous character development, is funny and compelling, and ishonestly one of the characters you root for the most by the end of the game.Because her character arc has to do with her feelings towards Tenko, herautonomy is never limited to existing for the sake of a male character. She’sfeisty and likable, her FTEs are good, and she reaches just the right pointbetween comic relief and a genuine character in her own right who you want tosee more of.

She probably has the fewest weaknesses out of any of the ndrv3girls, too. Unlike Maki and Kaede, whose biggest weaknesses involve gettingwritten to help further either Saihara or Momota’s development, this neverhappens with Himiko. Beyond the occasional joke in poor taste (there’s a reallygross joke in Chapter 5 where Himiko mentions liking the soap opera-likedevelopment where Monotarou thinks he’s Monofunny’s abusive husband and startsbeating her), there really aren’t any bad scenes with Himiko in them. She’spresent in most chapters, especially Chapters 2 and 3, her characterdevelopment is gradual and well-written, and she’s just generally strong allaround.

Then there’s Miu. Honestly, I was not expecting Miu to windup being one of my favorite ndrv3 girls by the end of the game, but, well, hereI am. There’s something about Miu that I find so genuinely likable even whenshe’s being horrible as a person. Again, I think one of her flaws is the factthat she’s written to be so irredeemably awful, gross, and mean all around, forthe most part. She’s allowed to be crass in a way typically reserved only formale characters, something I like about her even when it gets a littleexasperating.

Not only that, but the biggest thing Miu has going for heris how incredibly plot-relevant she is by the end of the game. I would stillput her as one of my top picks for a character I wish had been a survivor. Hertalent is incredibly useful, on par with Alter Ego in terms of outsmarting theringleader and helping everyone to stay alive. Miu’s genuine, honest-to-godlove to invent and to create things that can “change the world” is one of themost interesting things about her, since it’s a stark contrast with hergenerally selfish and cowardly personality.

Her weakness is… well, there’s a fine line between crass andjust gross, and Miu often crosses it. Her love hotel scene is a prime exampleof this, since she pretty much just forces herself on Saihara and it’s playedfor romantic comedy. But this is a flaw I have with quite a few of the girls’love hotel scenes, really. If anything, Miu gets far more called out for hercrassness and gross comments than other characters of a similar variety (suchas Teruteru), because her low-standing within the group is lampshaded onseveral occasions.

Next, there’s Tenko. Tenko is a wonderful character,compelling and lovable and genuinely good as a person. It’s easy to see why shescored so high on the Japanese popularity poll. Like Himiko, she was anotherdark horse pick who I don’t think many people expected to get as attached toprior to the game’s release. But after the game came out, her strengths wereeasy to see: she’s brave, self-sacrificing, and wears her heart on her sleeve.Her genuine wish for Himiko’s happiness and development, as well as theprotector-type role she plays for most of the group, makes her extremelylikable, despite people’s fears about the whole “menace” thing.

The biggest weaknessTenko has though is the fact that it’s very difficult to separate her fromHimiko’s character sometimes. I love himitenko as a ship, including all theflaws and the potential for growth and development between them, but it’s truethat Tenko doesn’t really have the same level of depth to her that Himiko does.Looked at separately from her relationship with Himiko, there’s not really adefinite role for her within the group, and she suffers from similar problemsas Kaede and Maki in that sense, mostly being written to further anothercharacter’s development. But we actually get to see the bond explored betweenthem a little better than we do with Saihara and Kaede, or even with Maki andMomota, so I have fewer problems with this on Tenko’s front.

Next up is Angie. It’s kind of hard to know where to startwith Angie, considering what a mess Chapter 3 was in so many ways. But I’lladmit that I quite liked her as a force of chaos and “mid-boss” of sorts. Herself-serving interest in a “peaceful school life,” and the fact that she was willingto go on quite a power trip in order to enforce it, was a first in any DR game.Angie does and says extremely mean, self-serving things with a smile on herface, and that would’ve been a lot more fun if only she’d been written better.

Her weaknesses are… well, there are a lot. She’s a prettystraightforward racist depiction of what Japanese people think the “quirky,exotic foreign girl” trope is all about, not helped along by NISA inadvertentlymaking it like 10 times more racist by actually putting a name to her religionand god when there isn’t one in the original game. Most of the genuinelyterrifying things about her character, including the brainwashing implicationsin both the plot and her FTEs, never actually serve any kind of narrativepurpose, making me wonder why the narrative even brought it up in the firstplace if there were no consequences for it and no point.

Next, there’s Kirumi. Kirumi’s stone cold emotionalmanipulation in Chapter 2 is perhaps my favorite quality about her. The factthat she can be genuinely caring as a person, constantly putting others’welfare above herself, and cold enough to lie to people’s faces and makehorrible, awful sacrifices, is an extremely compelling trait. She has a greatdesign, she’s smart, and she’s formidable, much better at lying and attemptingto tug at people’s heartstrings than someone like Celes ever was.

Unfortunately, her biggest weakness is simply that she’s notvery relevant in the grand scheme of things. By getting killed off so early,Kirumi’s character never really gets brought up to serve a bigger purpose lateron. Many of the things in her backstory are overwhelmingly contradictory withother points of the plot—that’s the point, of course, since their backstoriesare all made up, but it’s still true that putting her as “the shadow PrimeMinister of Japan” was perhaps going a bit overboard compared to everyone else’sfictional backstories.

Kirumi mostly just lacks any real growth or development,again because she was killed so early on. She could have very well worked as aMaki figure, someone who thinks of herself as a tool and therefore neverprioritizes her own wants or emotions, but this isn’t something the narrativeever particularly addresses. So sadly, her long-term relevance is prettyminimal, and even though she had great potential as a female character with noties to any of the male characters, she never gets a chance to shine in thespotlight.

Lastly, there’s Tsumugi. I saved her for last because, ofcourse, it’s impossible to talk about her strengths without including the factthat she’s the ringleader. And she’s funas an antagonist. She’s smart, incredibly quick at adapting her story or makingup new lies on the spot, her ability to fly under people’s radars and hide inplain sight is fascinating, and it’s generally just a blast to go back on areread and see all the foreshadowing that was there the entire time.

One of Tsumugi’s biggest strengths is still, in my opinion,the fact that she’s not Junko. Forthe first time, Kodaka successfully pulled off a really greatmastermind/ringleader twist that didn’t involve falling back on Junko or herAIs. And all the red herrings and bait to make the player think that Junkowould be involved was just spectacular; you can really see why a lot of peoplewould fall for the Hope’s Peak remember light in Chapter 5, hook, line, andsinker, because it’s something the characters themselves fall for so easily.

As for her weaknesses, mostly it’s extremely hard toevaluate her as a character at all if you take her ringleader position away.That’s deliberate, of course, but it’s still true that where Junko reallyshines right now because of all we know about her from dr0 and other sidematerial, we know virtually nothing about Tsumugi at all beyond what we see inChapter 6, and even then we know she was lying about quite a lot. Tsumugi isspectacular as an antagonist, but it’s hard to evaluate “Tsumugi Shirogane” thecharacter without including her role as an antagonist, and that’s because sheintentionally made herself act as plain, boring, and uninteresting as possible.

Anyway, this got very long, but I think I covered all thegirls with this. I hope this answers your question, anon! I really like thendrv3 cast in general, so getting to talk about the girls in particular was alot of fun!

[darkershining]

My predictions for the NDRV3 characters

So, New Danganronpa V3 is coming out in Japan in about ten days. I’ve seen a lot of people speculate on which characters will survive and which ones will not. I have some theories of my own, so I thought I’d share them. (my speculations under the “Read More” link will also include spoilers for previous games in the series)

Kaede Akamatsu

She’s the protagonist, so I’m pretty sure she’ll survive. I know some people have speculated that she might end up dying in some twist, but I don’t think that’ll happen.

While the lies mechanic seems to be optional, the whole theme of truth VS lies, along with Kaede being willing to lie in order to get through the trials, makes me feel that Kaede might potentially develop this darker, manipulative side to her character as she keeps trying to find a way to get everyone out of the school.

Again, I don’t think she’ll be killed, and I don’t think she’ll kill anyone either, but I do imagine that an execution for her would involve her being put into some sort of death trap being controlled by Monokuma via a piano keyboard. If Kaede manages to dodge the first few traps, then Monokuma just keeps playing the piano faster and faster until one of the traps finally gets her.

Ki-Bo

I’m pretty sure he will be one of the other survivors, since he seems to be a pretty major character. Of course, previous games have had a character who seemed to be built up as important end up being the first victim, which has had people speculating that either he, Shuichi, Rantaro or even Maki might be the first victim. I don’t think that’ll be the case here, at least not with Ki-Bo.

Another thing that came to mind while thinking about what might happen with Ki-Bo during the game are Alter Ego and A.I. Chiaki from the first and second games respectively. Both of them were executed, but still managed to help the protagonists in some way towards the end of the game. We could get a similar situation, if Ki-Bo’s body were to be destroyed, but he managed to transfer his mind into something else beforehand... but I don’t think actually anything like this will happen. It was just one possible scenario that came to mind.

For some reason, I imagine that a possible execution for Ki-Bo would involve magnets somehow.

Rantaro Amami

I just mentioned above in my speculations for Ki-Bo how previous games have had a character built up to be important, only for them to be the first to die. If they do that again, then I think Rantaro is the most likely candidate. I think he’ll either be the first, or one of the last victims.

Being the ??? character of this game, some people have suggested that they may either subvert expectations for the character to be important by killing him off early, and only revealing his talent later on, said talent either proving to be important or unimportant to the story depending on what happens.

I think there’s also a chance he might end up as one of the last victims instead, basically being the important character he’s sort of been built up to be.

Some people suspect he might even be the Mastermind of this game. I don’t know if he will be or not. It seems a bit too obvious that they’re building him up as sort of a suspicious character... Some ways I could see this plot working if he is the Mastermind, is that his memories of being the Mastermind might’ve been wiped along with his talent. Or he might simply have been working for the Mastermind, and... I don’t know.

Or maybe he truly is “not a suspicious guy”, just as he claims. Who knows?

As for what his talent is, I saw someone at some point suggest that he might be a journalist, or something. I kind of like that theory, and think it could make sense.

I have absolutely no idea what his execution would be, or what it might involve.

Shuichi Saihara

I think he’ll either be a survivor, or one of the last characters to die.

He’s the Ultimate Detective, a title previously held by Kyoko Kirigiri, and of course, this is one of the reasons for some of the speculation surrrounding the character, such as him being the first to die, or him being corrupt/evil in some way and that him seemingly lacking faith in his abilities is all an act.

It’s highly unlikely he’ll be the first victim, and from a trailer, it seems he’ll in fact be a suspect in one case, with Kaede trying to prove his innocence.

Despite his lack of confidence, Kaede seems to believe in his abilities, and might come to rely on him for advice and such. This is part of why I suspect he’ll either be one of the survivors, or a late-game victim.

He claims that the case(s) he happened to solve was just luck on his part, which is why he doesn’t think he can be considered a true detective yet. Perhaps he late in the game stumbles upon something that leads to the Mastermind having to “silence” him... In this scenario, he’d at least probably be able to leave some important clue for the remaining students before being killed off.

Alternatively, a similar scenario to the above with him accidentally discovering important information relating to the Mastermind’s motives or whatever might occur, but instead of him dying, he ends up accidentally killing someone trying to prevent him from sharing this information with the others. I don’t know.

If he does die, I also imagine this would have quite an impact on Kaede, who as stated before might’ve come to rely on his advice to help solve the cases.

No idea what kind of execution Monokuma might give this guy if he were to kill someone.

Maki Harukawa

Just like with Shuichi, I think she’ll be either a survivor or one of the last characters to die.

Being one of the earliest characters to be revealed in the teaser along with Ki-Bo and Kaito, there’s naturally been speculation about her and an indication that she’ll be important.

Her talent for looking after children makes me think her role in the story will relate to the Monokuma Cubs somehow. If they end up taking a liking to her, and she ends up dying late in the game, perhaps her death could lead to one or more of the Monokuma Cubs switching sides as they blame the Mastermind for whatever happened to her?

If she does die, her death would also likely leave an impact on Kaede, since a piece of official art has suggested the two might become close.

Once again, no idea what her execution would be... Maybe something involving deadly contraptions designed to look like children’s toys? Maybe one of the Monokuma Cubs gets caught up in it somehow, and Maki uses the last of her strength to get them out of there safely, leading into the scenario described above where they switch sides because of her? I don’t know. It’s my best guess at the moment.

Kokichi Ouma

I think he’ll be a survivor.

It seems like they’re building him up to be sort of a rival-like character, which is part of the reason I think he’ll survive.

Of course, since he is kind of a jerk, there’s always the chance someone might kill him, but I don’t think that’ll happen.

I can imagine him having a few “Pet The Dog” moments towards the other remaining students in the later parts of the game (again, if my theory about him surviving is correct), although he may or may not have some strange ways of showing affection. I don’t know.

Like some others have suggested, I also suspect that this “evil organization” he claims to be the leader of is really just a soda factory or something.

I have no ideas for what his execution would be.

Tenko Chabashira

I think she’ll be one of the survivors.

The games usually have one athletic girl among the survivors. I think Tenko is the most likely candidate to fill that slot, if this particular pattern keeps up.

Tenko dislikes men, and from what I can tell, the demo does hint that this is because of something that happened in Tenko’s past. Depending on what exactly what aspect of her backstory is, I’m not sure if we’ll learn the full story, or only get enough details to make a good guess at what exactly happened.

I imagine that over the course of the game, she might at least reach a point where she better tolerates her male classmates and might even consider a few of them as friends, but still has some ways to go before she fully overcomes her dislike of men. At least that’s what I’m kind of hoping for.

Along with the potential character arc, another reason I think Tenko will be one of the survivors is that I get the impression that Tenko isn’t the kind of person to easily let her guard down, which would make it difficult for anyone to kill her.

If she does get killed, then the culprit will probably be one of the other girls.

Since her talent is fighting related, then her execution would probably be something similar to the executions for Peko in the second game and the unused concept for Sakura’s execution in the first game, with Tenko being forced to fight against something. I’m picturing Tenko fending off male figures that try to grab her, and when one of them does manage to reach her, she instinctively throws them at a hidden switch or something that triggers a trap and kills her. That’s my best guess, anyways.

Angie Yonaga

A lot of people seem to think that she’s going to kill someone, partially because of the whole “blood sacrifice” aspect of her character description. Some have also theorized she might kill someone and claim that the God of the Island made her do it. Personally, I think she’s going to be a victim instead.

I feel like that there are a few characters whose talents and personalities have led to speculations that these characters would be among the killers, but that I personally think might instead be victims in order to subvert these expectations. The two characters I’m getting this impression from the most are Angie and Tsumugi, but I’m currently leaning towards the former. Or maybe they’ll both be victims.

Anyways, even with the whole “blood sacrifice” thing, Angie still seems like a fairly sweet, albeit quirky girl. I don’t think she’ll actually kill anyone.

I’ve seen someone suggest that the “blood sacrifice” might lead one of the other characters in the game to think Angie will kill them at some point, leading them to kill her instead. I could see this happening.

If I’m wrong and she does kill, then I’m not really sure what her execution would be, but it’ll probably be trippy.

Kaito Momota

Hmm... I don’t know if I think this guy will be a survivor, a victim or a killer. I feel he could end up as any of these, really, although I do admit the former two seem more likely... Since he was one of the first characters revealed, and has since been featured in a piece of official art alongside Shuichi, then I guess there’s a chance he might be one of the survivors?

I suppose he might be one of the comic relief characters who manage to make it all the way to the end.

Okay, I think my best guess at the moment is that if Shuichi dies, then Kaito will be a survivor. If Shuichi doesn’t die, then Kaito won’t be a survivor. I don’t know why, but that’s the feeling I get, for some reason.

I imagine his execution would be a bait-and-switch callback of sorts to the “Space Journey” execution from the first game. Kaito gets locked inside a rocket, and we see a countdown going down. However, when the countdown reaches zero, instead of blasting off into space like it’s supposed to, the rocket just explodes. At the control panel, Monokuma looks a bit confused for a moment, then just shrugs and leaves.

Miu Iruma

I have similar feelings about her and Kaito, as in I honestly can’t guess what I believe her fate will be. A lot of people seem to think, or at least hope she’ll be one of the survivors. I guess of the girls I haven’t already talked about, she does seem like the most likely candidate to be another survivor. I could also see her being one of the victims, though.

I think my best guess is that if Maki isn’t a survivor, then Miu will be and vice versa.

If Miu is a survivor, then her talent will somehow come into play near the end, with the students maybe finding some kind of device partway through the game that doesn’t seem to work, and that Miu starts tinkering with. I don’t know.

No idea what her execution would be, but my best guess is that Monokuma would use one of her own inventions to kill her.

Himiko Yumeno

Probably going to be one of the victims.

People have early on speculated that she’d be one of the killers because, well, an execution based on stage magic... Just imagine the possibilities. However, since we now know more about the character’s personality, namely the fact that she’s probably the laziest character in the game, I think she’s most likely going to be one of the victims.

If she and Tenko develop a bit of a friendship as implied by how the demo had the two drinking tea together in the kitchen while someone stole a knife from the kitchen, a moment similar to something Aoi and Sakura did in the first game, then I imagine Tenko might not take Himiko’s death well, possibly feeling bad for not being around to protect her at the time of the incident, especially if she had promised she would keep Himiko safe, or something... Of course, we don’t actually know what their relationship will be like in the full game yet, so maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here. A friendship between these two characters would still be cute, though, even if it would probably end in tears.

If she did end up killing someone, then again, there are probably a lot of stage magic related ways that Monokuma could make the little magician “disappear” in her execution. There’s also a scene in one of the trailers featuring a boo-ing Monokuma audience that has been speculated to possibly be part of someone’s execution, with Himiko being one of the possible characters speculated to be the one being executed.

Gonta Gokuhara

Ah, the big, muscular cinnamon roll of this game. He’s probably not going to live past the fourth chapter.

I can’t really imagine him killing anyone, with the whole gentleman aspect of his character, unless he kills someone by accident. So, I expect him to be one of the victims. Probably the victim of chapter four.

Not sure what his execution would be like, but some people have suggested Monokuma might deal with him similarly to how an exterminator gets rid of bugs, which may be based on speculation relating to a scene from a trailer that has Monokuma holding what appears to be a flamethrower. As long as it’s not getting tied up and then eaten alive by giant robot spiders, or something like that. Ugh.

If Gonta manages to defy expectations and survives the game, then someone please draw a picture where the previous muscular gentle giant-type characters of the series congratulate him on getting through the game alive and thus breaking the curse.

Tsumugi Shirogane

While talking about Angie earlier, I mentioned how I felt a few characters who were being speculated to be killers based on talent and personality were instead going to be victims, just to subvert expectations. I mentioned that I think Tsumugi might be such a character.

People have speculated that Tsumugi will commit a murder, and use her cosplaying skills to create confusion about the identity of the victim and/or murderer. I’m not sure if this will happen, or if Tsumugi will instead be a victim...

Either way, Tsumugi probably isn’t going to be a survivor.

For some reason, I’ve imagined that her execution would feature mirrors in some way. Alternatively, she’d be killed with a giant sewing machine.

Ryoma Hoshi

Ah, yes. This guy. His popularity seems to have increased quite a lot since his backstory was revealed. And what a backstory it is. Killing members of the Mafia with a steel tennis ball. Wow. Anyways, he’s probably not going to be one of the survivors.

Some people have suggested that he of all characters might end up being the character who at some point ends performing some sort of heroic sacrifice to save the others. I kind of like this theory, and I can even sort of see it happening. I mean, he’s probably going to be executed anyways even if he does escape, so he might decide to do something for the others that he knows will result in his own death. What exactly this would entail, I don’t really know.

So, I guess I’m leaning towards him being one of the killers, but that he’ll have some noble reason for doing so. Not sure what that would be, though.

Alternatively, maybe he’ll break one of Monokuma’s rules, and get killed for that.

No idea what his execution would be. I don’t think it’d be similar to Leon’s execution from the first game, so... maybe a giant tennis racket would be used?

Korekiyo Shinguji

I think he’ll be one of the killers.

I’ve suspected him for a while, and I’m not entirely sure why, but I guess it’s just that he seems more likely to be one of the killers than some of the other characters I’ve talked about.

One trailer also shows a few scenes that are believed to be some of the executions, with one of them being believed to be his, although some people have also theorized that said execution could also be either Gonta or Kirumi’s execution, due to a spider web featured in the scene. I agree with the people who believe that execution is most likely Korekiyo’s, due to the vine imagery, and the story someone explained might be the basis for the possible execution depicted in that scene.

I believe the person who explained why that scene might be Korekiyo’s execution also speculated that Gonta might somehow be involved in Korekiyo’s crime, which I hope doesn’t mean that Korekiyo will be the one who kills Gonta during chapter 4. But since they said the person in the story spared a spider’s life, then maybe Gonta comes across the victim of Korekiyo’s crime as they’re dying, but said person dies before they can actually tell Gonta who killed them, so Korekiyo lets Gonta live because he doesn’t actually know who did it? I don’t know.

For some reason, I imagine that if Korekiyo does kill someone, that he’d pose the body to make them look peaceful in death. This may or may not count as one of the clues used to uncover Korekiyo as the killer.

So, yeah. Based on the part of the scene from the trailer believed to be part of Korekiyo’s execution, I’m guessing Korekiyo tries climbing the giant vine/thread, possibly as Monokuma is setting things on fire underneath. Something (possibly the Monokuma Cubs trying to climb after him?) eventually causes Korekiyo to lose his grip or causes the thread to break, sending him falling to his doom.

Kirumi Toujo

All right, last one. Based on the demo, she seems fairly calm and composed. Still, people have speculating for quite a while that she’s going to kill someone, and unless she’s the character who everyone thinks is going to kill someone, but ends up being killed instead, then I’ll put her in probably one of the killers category.

I’m not sure what could motivate her to kill, though, but then again, I guess that’s why I’m not the Mastermind.

Being a maid, she’d probably be good at cleaning up evidence of her crime, but of course, she’d probably miss a few things that allows Kaede and the others to discover the truth.

I have no idea what kind of execution Monokuma would give her.

And those are my thoughts. So, basically:

I think the survivors will be Kaede, Ki-Bo, Kokichi, Tenko, Maki/Miu and Shuichi/Kaito.

I realize that I have a really hard time guessing which of these characters might be killers, so it’ll be interesting to see how things play out.

I’m probably going to be surprised if Gonta survives, or if he dies in a chapter other than chapter 4.

I currently have no idea who the Mastermind might be. Whether it’s one of the sixteen students, or someone else. I just hope it isn’t Junko again.

[linkspooky]

Nobara and Gojou

Nobara and Gojou have suffered similiar defeats in the Shibuya Incident Arc. They both lost, despite being clearly stronger than their opponent. Every single one of the main trio (Nobara, Megumi, Yuji) parallels a member of the flashback arc’s trio in some way (Gojou, Shouko, Getou), but while Nobara’s most obvious parallel may seem to be Shouko I would also argue she parallels Gojou quite a bit. Both Gojou and Nobara are characters that focus on individualism and duty above all else, in ways that Megumi, and Yuji don’t. Nobara parallels Gojou in the worst ways, she shares all of his flaws. 

1. Strength Isn’t Everything.

Jujutsu Kaisen has always been a manga about nuance and balance. There’s more than one way to skin a cat (or exercise a curse). Which is why we’ve seen the story introduce two seemingly opposing ideas. Number one, we don’t live in a world where you win just by being strong. Number two, you can’t close a gap in strength through petty tricks alone. 

These ideas seemingly contradict one another. The second establishes that if there’s an absolute difference in strength then strategy won’t even matter. The first establishes that strength isn’t that you can’t win a fight just by being strong. However these ideas are not opposites, they’re complementary. What they suggest is that the world is a complex place, and there’s no way one single strategy will win every possible fight. There are times when strength wins the fight, there are times when strategy is the way to go. The solution isn’t to favor one or the other, but rather to find the balance between the two. 

Before Nobara gets into her fight we’re shown a fight where Megumi has the starring role. The world view of the shaman Megumi is fighting against is important for this. 

The shaman that Megumi fights has a world view of “being strong makes me free to do whatever I want.” He believes strength to be permissive. Being strong means being competent enough to accomplish whatever you want, in any situation. 

If you want to do something, and you have the ability to do it, you should be abel to do it. That’s why it’s permissive. Strength grants permission. Getou brings up the idea in Premature Death. Gojou technically has the ability to slaughter every single human that’s not a shaman on the face of the earth. If he’s able to do it, then why can he tell Getou that it’s impossible? If the world really were as simple as Getou suggested it to be, then being strong really would be enough. Gojou would be capable of doing anything, like some kind of god. 

However, even the shaman’s own cursed technique reverses this idea of strength. Attacks that are strong around him become weak, whereas weak counters become strong. There is no idea of absolute strength. No person is going to be strong in every circumstance all the time. 

That shaman is beaten not by Megumi’s decision to face his head on, but rather by his choice to make a tactical retreat and rethink the situation after figuring out his cursed technique. Strength is not the absolute decider of everything. More than that, Megumi and Yuji were both choosing to cooperate with one another, even though cooperation was harder for both of them at this point. 

They both admit the hardest part of the fight isn’t even fighting against an enemy. That it would be easier if they were just strong enough to fight everything individually on their own, however, the fight is won by Yuji listening to Megumi, and Megumi choosing cooperation. 

This is also the exact opposite advice that Gojou gave Megumi. Megumi’s tendency is to sacrifice himself, and defer to others because he has no confidence in himself and his own individual strength. However, once again this reflects the complex nature of reality there’s no advice that applies to every single situation in the world. Gojou’s advice won the fight in Origin of Obedience, but if Megumi fought like Gojou did he would have lost this arc. 

We see Maki, and Nobara who are both characters who parallel strongly to Gojou and think they are people who can accomplish everything they want with the power of individual strength, make several critical mistakes. First, Maki doesn’t even consider the possibility Gojou could have lost. Because, Maki’s world view is the same as Gojou’s, the stronger opponent should always win. Maki is a character trying to overcome her family circumstances just by becoming the strongest possible shaman she can be to prove them wrong. 

Nobara makes a similiar mistake to Maki. We see her lose the fight because of the absolute confidence she has in her own strength, that she can win every situation by being strong enough to fight on her own. 

Rather than keeping the person she wants to protect close to her, Nobara sends her away so she can fight on her own. She assumes the weaker person will only get in her way and is safer farther away from the battle. Which is also literally the premise of Gojou’s entire fight in the subway, he goes in alone because he assumes that any other jujutsu sorcerer would only get in the way, just like the innocent civillians were there solely existing to get in the way of his techniques.

Nobara gets arrogant and refuses to analyze the other person’s jujutsu techniques and gets critically wounded. At which point we see Nobara run against the flaw of her own world view. That if she can only accomplish things with strength, then the situations where she’s weak she’s completely helpless. Nobody is strong all the time, and if she’s weak then there’s nothing she can do. If everything is decided by strength than the weak have no choice. 

2. Nobara and Gojou, Broken in the Same Way 

During Nobara’s introduction chapter Gojou says that Shaman’s have to possess a sort of craziness, to jump into battle risking life and limb like it’s nothing at all. 

While Yuji feels absolutely nothing putting his life at risk to an almost suicidal degree, I would say Nobara is the one who’s actually the closest to what Gojou describes. Just like Gojou she has the single-mindedness to believe that is she’s strong enough that she should be capable of anything. 

Nobara and Gojou assert their individualism over everything else. They don’t bend to the world, they bend the world to the way they want it. Yuji’s strong and confident in a similiar way but he always puts the wants and desires of others over himself in every situation, but Nobara is always about what she wants first and foremost. However, there are two parts to Nobara and Gojou’s world view it’s not just about strength, but also about duty. Gojou and Nobara are extremely selfish people but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about others. They see their absolute strength as an obligation to use it to protect others.

If the situation is to go all out and kill the enemy, or save the life of a person right in front of them they’ll always make the choice that spares the innocent life. They are strong, but their strength is duty bound, it’s something they tend to use for others rather than themselves. Even in Nobara’s choice to send away the aide that was with her, she was using herself as a distraction so she could get away safely. They’re selfish people, but they don’t necessarily put themselves, and their well beings over others. 

Gojou is technically able to get out of the Shibuya situation is he just massacres every human on the inside of the curtain, but he’d never make that choice. So we have Nobara and Gojou caught between the same rock and a hard place. They can’t sacrifice others, but they can’t cooperate with them either. For Gojou and Nobara the most important thing is their own individualism and their world view. 

What Nobara hates is being told she’s wrong in any way. She views her world view as absolute. What she refuses to do is revise her opinions. She can’t be wrong. She cannot accept the fact that other people might have views that contradict hers, and that multiple points of view besides her own can coexist at the same time. 

If you look at the way Nobara judges the difference between Maki and Mai. She accepts Maki because Maki is more similiar to her and she likes Maki, and refuses to accept Mai because she doesn’t really like Mai. If she doesn’t like Mai than she doesn’t even want to bother thinking about her world view. It’s a narrow minded and flawed way of thinking. Gojou and Nobara tend to push other people away from them for two reasons, one they believe they can accomplish everything they want to do alone because they have such absolute confidence in themselves, and two they think they already see everything. Gojou assumes so because he has the six eyes and perceives the infinity, and Nobara because she thinks she’s smarter than the judgemental country people she was raised around. 

Gojou and Nobara lose in a similiar way. If it’s a contest of sheer strength they’ll never lose. Gojou pulls off a miracle and activates his territory for mere seconds, and slaughters thousands of curses at once. Nobara is so crazy, she wins a game of chicken against a literal demon and is completely willing to light herself on fire and let herself burn if her opponent burns with her. They don’t lose because they’re weaker than their opponents. They both get surprised by what they didn’t know. They specifically didn’t know it because Gojou, and Nobara already assumed they knew everything. 

Gojou is blindsided by the fact that Getou’s body still exists in some form and because of that his brain completely stalls in a critical moment. Nobara loses because she doesn’t really understand the cursed technique of the person she’s fighting against so even though it might be weaker than hers she’s still overcome. 

Gojou and Nobara are both people who assume they should be able to accomplish anything with their own strength. They both have inhuman levels of strength and determination. Which is why we see they’re similiar even down to the way they move their bodies, they act and move like inhuman puppets when pushed to their absolute limits. Hunched shoulders, stiff zombie like movements, it’s a clear parallel. 

If everything in the world really was decided by strength and determination than Gojou and Nobara would never lose. Neither of them are lacking in strength, or their determination to help others. But as Gojou says towards the beginning of the manga he has the ability to just murder all the higher ups in the Jujutsu world but that won’t really change anything. Gojou and Nobara are both fundamentally unable to accept other people, and are always distancing themselves from others and trying to fight on their own. That’s why for both of them, it’s not enough for Nobara, or Gojou alone to be strong.