#like. Aki at the start of part 1 didn't like her at all because he was in his “i hate all devils” mindset

[laugtherhyena]

Hina doesn't smile 24/7 in a "Smile and it will all be ok" way, it's more like trying to be actively deceitful by hiding her true feelings when in a dangerous situation; Devils (and even more human foes she goes against to some extent) expect one to feel intimidated to some extent but if you're smiling like a weirdo that throws them off the loop a bit.

It was a job thing at first, but she does it so much it became a habit for even when she's not out devil hunting even despite Hina always being very blunt with her words when it comes to letting people know what what she thinks. However her brevity and choice of words can often lead to people misunderstanding her intenions, the smiling thing doesn't help with that either. Most people she's worked with don't have a very high opinion of her.

Kiss..?

[animeyanderelover]

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy relationship, possessive behavior, obsession, overprotective behavior, jealousy, paranoia, abduction, violence, death

Tags: @saiyara05 @shellofthewell

Words: 8.1k

The CEO and her bodyguard Pt.2

Pt.1

Months flew by faster than he had expected as he grew familiar with his duties as well as the people around him. It wasn't quite as boring as he had initially assumed. He wouldn't complain about it obviously, not with the amount of money he earned every month by following you and successfully intimidating about everybody that crossed his path.

It wasn't like he had much action within the job besides glaring at someone when they got a bit aggressive or irritated with you, something he had started doing when Yukimaru Aki had told him that no one was allowed to disrespect you or question your position as the CEO. As much as the little lady was bickering with you daily, she genuinely cared about you. Sone Kazuma wasn't much different as Toji had quickly realized. Both of your closest friends and assistants were more shady than what they initially appeared to be like and it was all done for your protection and reputation.

The most entertaining part about his job was actually watching you three who honestly appeared sometimes more like a trio of comedians than three of the most influential figures in Japan with your company. So whilst he wasn't able to beat anyone up as you usually were against any form of violence due to only minor incidents, he at least got a good laugh out of watching Sone, Yukimura and you at times. He had some memories he dared to title as fond since they had managed to elicit a chuckle out of him or had pleasantly surprised him.

~~~

His head was leaning back as he stared at the wall of the room, your gibberish white noise as he tried to somehow survive the sheer boredom of the presentation you were currently presenting to a few of higher-ranked members of your company. A presentation with fucking 39 foils plastered with statistics, charts and numbers. Aki had helped you putting everything together as she had essentially imprisoned you in your apartment for hours the last few weeks, discussing and planning everything with you.

Initially he had seriously thought that you couldn't do it as you had whined and begged and protested for her to let you off the hook because the both of you had still time but your best friend had remained firm in her decision. But in this moment you were doing surprisingly well, looking professional as you stood in front of the long table and had memorized everything that was written on the foils. You appeared to be in your flow as you fluently explained everything and suggested changes and adjustments for the feature. You almost looked like a different person.

Until suddenly someone stormed through the door, panting and gasping for breath, her cheeks flushed red as she sputtered out some apologies before flopping down onto her chair as Sone, who just happened to sit next to her, offered her a bottle of water. The younger woman wheezed out a "thank you" before taking a few gulps of the water. And just like that your focused appearance vanished into thin air as a grin stretched your face.

"Midori-chan! You came? Does that mean that...?" You didn't finish your question but he could see that you were slightly bouncing on your heels as you giddily looked at her with expecting eyes. She gave you a nod as a grin also broke free on her face.

"I'm officially an aunt now."

"Oh my god! Congratulations! What's his name? Is your brother fine? Is your sister-in-law alright? Is it really alright for you to be already here? I wouldn't have minded if you would have just taken the day off to spend some time with your little nephew! Tell me everything!" You rambled excitedly as you walked quickly over to her and grabbed her hands in your own, your eyes sparkling with joy and happiness. Midori on the other hand seemed a tiny bit flustered with your sudden intimacy and the onslaught of questions but she most likely didn't say anything because you were her boss.

"Both are doing fine. They're just a bit exhausted from everything. His name is Hayato." She answered you, the sheer brightness of your eyes almost overhwelming her as she averted her eyes elsewhere.

"I'm so happy for you. What does he look like? Do you have pictures? Please tell me that you have pictures of him. Can I see them if you a few? Can I-"

Aki suddenly loudly cleared her throat as he interrupted your happy ramble and adjusted her glasses.

"As happy as I am also for Midori-san, I think you're forgetting that we're in the middle of a meeting here, (y/n). You can interrogate her all you want after we are finished with this presentation. We're only halfway done." She reminded you with a dry yet sharp voice that made your shoulders lift up as a look of discontent deformed your face. It was obvious what you would have rather done right now but then your shoulders sagged in defeat as you plodded back to the front of the room.

You opened your mouth as Aki switched over to foil no. 21 yet nothing came out as you suddenly furrowed your eyebrows, wrinkles appearing on your forehead as your eyes were focused on the ground. Aki gave you a slightly confused look that morphed into a look of horror when you lifted your head and gave her an apologetic and bright smile.

"I forgot what I was supposed to say, Aki-chan."

A collective groan echoed through the room as Aki pinched the bridge of her nose, her nostrils flaring as she released a deep breath through them.

"Can we like...start over from the beginning? Because that's the only part I remember. I'm sure that it'll come back to me whilst I'm talking about what I recall. Midori has missed half of the presentation anyways."

Your suggestion was spoken with a tad bit of guilt and embarrassment audible in your voice as you gave everyone a sheepish grin whilst scratching your cheek. You braced yourself for a few scathing comments from Aki's side but instead a deep chuckle cut through the groans of your workers and you turned astonished around only to find your bodyguard leaning back in his chair, failing to hold his laughter in.

~~~

In hindsight he probably shouldn't have laughed because the mood of the room hadn't exactly called for it and Aki had given him her infamous death stare when she had caught him laughing. It had been the combination of everyone's tired and done faces, Aki's twitching brow and your sheepish face that had suddenly caused him to to splutter. All heads had turned around to him as he had quickly attempted to hide his laughter behind coughs. When his green eyes had met yours though, he remembered being sort of surprised to see you actually smiling at him as if happy to see him laughing.

He even remembered that within two days after this conference, you had woken him up by ringing his door bell persistently in the early morning.

~~~

He hadn't exactly been able to guess beforehand who it was that dared to knock on his door at such a godforsaken hour but when he opened it and saw you standing there with the same apologetic grin he often saw you giving others when your airheaded behavior got in the way, he couldn't bring himself to be surprised.

"Good morning, Fushiguro-san! Have I interrupted you?"

He leaned against the door frame as his green eyes locked onto the package you tried to hide behind your back. That combined with the impatient and eager spark in your eyes despite your somewhat guilty grin told him that you had something for him and in typical (y/n)-fashion you couldn't wait until his shift started and you would see him for over half of the day anyways.

"Just get it over with quickly. I'm trying to get some sleep."

You tilted your head rather adorably before glancing outside the window.

"Have you been up late again? I mean, it isn't any of my business. What you do with your time after I'm in my apartment and don't have to go outside anymore isn't of my concern because that is your free time. I just want to kindly remind you that in 2 hours I have to go back to work which means that you have to get back up by then too. I don't care too much personally but Aki will probably chew you up if you're sloppy in your job to protect me."

You were rambling again and Toji was absolutely not in the mood to hear it. Not when he was tired and lost money when he had been out to gamble a bit. He still had more than enough left of course but it had irritated him nevertheless. So instead he suddenly grabbed the package you were hiding behind your back and ripped it out of your hold.

"Hey!" You yelled before quickly covering your mouth as you remembered that Aki was inhabiting the apartment right next to Toji's. You glanced somewhat scared over at the door leading to Aki's apartment, ready to dash away if she should have woken up because both of you knew that she wouldn't take it well if she would find the both of you still awake instead of sleeping and getting some rest. When a minute passed by and nothing happened, you relaxed a bit.

"That was supposed to be a surprise for you. You're such a fun killer." You now whispered to him in a hushed down, pouting and glaring at him cutely that he couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle.

"You're quite bad at hiding a surprise if you shouldn't have known that already." He whispered back, playing around with the package in the palms of his hands.

"At least open it then. I want to see if you like it." You replied, gesturing at the package to urge him to open it. He shook it a bit in his hands as he couldn't help but question what you had bought in what had most likely been a sudden and unstoppable impulse of yours. The package was quickly torn open and you eagerly gauged his face as he saw what was inside. He arched one of his brows before looking at you.

"Seriously?"

"Well, you always look quite bored when we have a meeting. I understand that, I also feel that way. Unfortunately your job is to protect me and my job is being the CEO which also includes all those conferences. Since it isn't your job to actually listen to what I have to talk about during such meetings though, I thought buying you one of those might keep you entertained at least a bit. I also bought a couple of games you can play. Some of them aren't even available yet."

You explained in hushed giddiness as he pulled out the Nintende DS you had purchased for him. He remembered vaguely some adds he had seen about it as it was a very new and portable device. There were also some games inside the box that he could play with this thing. Now, he wasn't quite sure how to feel about this but he also knew better than to tell you straight in your face that he didn't know what to do with a Nintendo.

"Do you not like it?" He had perhaps remained quiet for a few seconds too long which gave him away to you.

"Let's just say that this isn’t what I was expecting to receive from my boss at such an early hour. I must admit, I’ve never really played much before.”

“But I thought you liked gambling!” You exclaimed confused before remembering that you had to keep quiet in order for Aki not to hear you. Toji gave you a weird look when you said that before he huffed out some air, somewhat amused by your statement.

"That's not the same, you know?" He told you after a few moments where he was thinking about what to say. He knew what Aki thought about his gambling habits and he knew that even Sone-san, despite being much more respectful and calmer about it than Aki was, also wasn't a big fan of it. He didn't know how you felt about gambling though.

"I know that of course. But seriously, isn't this the healthier option? You can still waste hours of your day doing something that won't do anyone any good, not even you, but at least you don't spend huge amounts of money on something that has only a little chance of earning you money anyways. You won't lose any money playing some games on a Nintendo. Can you tell me what the appeal in gambling is?"

You were genuinely curious as you looked at him and perhaps it was this look that you gave him that actually managed to overwhelm him for a short moment. You weren't really judging but instead asking him why he gambled as often as he did. And for the first time, he couldn't find a good reply. At least not one that every other person addicted to something would give you. "It's...just fun, alright? " He answered you after a while, although even you caught on to the slight hesitation in his voice.

You gave him a very long observant look as if searching for something in his body language or facial expression before you sighed and nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Well, I don't really care what you do in your free time as long as you do your job. Do not gamble in my presence though." "Weren't you gambling too the first time we met? Or is it alright for you if you gamble because you have enough money to waste?" Toji scoffed as he referred to the first time you had met him in the izakaya.

"That's true I guess... It was a one-time-thing though, understood? I won't do something like this again. I just...had some stuff on my mind back then." You spoke after a few seconds as if you had also been searching for a good enough answer to justify your participation in a small gamble without repeating what everyone addicted to gambling could have said too, although you still failed. Much like him. Then silence befell the both of you. Not the comfortable one, the awkward one where both of you grew slightly uncomfortable.

Toji didn't even know why he of all people suddenly felt so weird, so much aware of any blink he did with his eyes around you. He wasn't used to it so he was the first one to decide to end this conversation. "Thanks for the gift then." He finally said as he turned around in the doorframe and felt briefly embarrassed when he repeated his own words in his head and wondered if he could have said something that would have sounded better. He didn't even know what else he could have said but somehow the gnawing feeling in the back of his mind didn't want to leave him alone.

"See you in about 2 hours then." You muttered awkwardly as you turned around and walked towards the elevator. You turned one last time to wave him temporarily goodbye before you realized that he had already closed the door to his apartment.

"Well, that was weird." You muttered to yourself as you pulled out your key to enable the lift to reach the 4th floor.

~~~

"Furukawa-san, please calm down and have a seat." You said with a painfully forced amicable smile as you made some appeasing movements with your hands in hopes of calming the older man down.

It wasn't hard to see that you were slowly reaching the end of your patience though and Toji had to admire you for even holding out for as long as he did. He knew for sure that he would have snapped minutes ago with the bitter and entitled attitude the businessman was giving you as if forgetting that between the two of you, you were definitely the financially more successful CEO by a long shot.

He had been arguing with you for a while now about a contract you had crafted for a cooperation between your company and his smaller and insignificant one. He wasn't satisfied, wanted to play a bigger part within your company.

"I understand your frustration but your business has only been existing for a few years now. Frankly spoken, I fear you still lack a bit of experience in this business so I think it's better for you to learn a bit more about how to handle your own company before I assign you a bigger role." You told The older man, barely able to swallow the annoyed sigh back that desperately wanted to be let out whilst you were enduring his angry rants.

Toji was sitting on the couch in your office in the main building of the company in Tokyo, only focusing half-heartedly on the Nintendo as he constantly glanced at you and Furukawa-san, his eyes narrowing the more he heard him arguing stubbornly back at you, ignoring your logical approach to his discontent. Couldn't that old geezer just shut the fuck up? His jarring voice was giving Toji and probably even you a headache by now.

"Furukawa-san, you're not looking at this from a logical point of view. You can't expect me to put someone who has so little experience in handling a company to a higher-ranking position just li-"

"I do not have to listen to someone younger than me berating me like this! Especially not to someone who just one day conveniently appeared after the death of the previous CEO and his father and took over the company just like this! That's quite suspicious, wouldn't you agree?"

You didn't have enough time to even feel the anger making your blood boil as he accused you as bluntly as he did. No, instead both of you heard a sudden slam as Toji snapped the Nintendo closed and stood up from the couch as if the insult directed at you had struck the wrong cord in him and not you. All of a sudden there was a shift in the atmosphere as it felt heavy and oppressive, for Furukawa more than for you as his angry expression quickly dropped when Toji took a few huge strides to him before shamelessly towering over the smaller man.

"Wanne repeat that again?" He asked in a sneering tone as green eyes looked down on him as if he was a mere piece of trash laying uselessly on the ground somewhere. Furukawa's mouth went dry instantly as he stared at your bodyguard who so far had spent the entire time playing some games on the Nintendo you had gifted him. He nearly jumped up when Toji pressed a hand on his shoulder and applied a bit of pressure. His legs instantly gave up under him as Toji forced him to sit down again.

"Stop acting like a little brat. You ain't shit here, your age must have made you already quite a bit senile, hmm? Show some fucking respect to her because between the both of you, she is the one who makes all of the decisions. She's important, you are not. So stop acting like you're anything special because you are replacable to her. Be grateful that she even made time for you in the first place."

He'd gone visibly pale in his face and all he could manage to do was a weak nod, his whole body rigid. You gave Toji an appreciative nod as he continued standing behind Furukawa, glaring down at him. When you realized that he actually intended to stay there, you dismissed him with a wave of your hands.

"Fushiguro-san, that's enough. I think our dear Furukawa-san here has received his reality check. You're going to give the poor man a panic attack if you continue glaring at him like this."

For a moment Toji's gaze met yours as if telling you that such behavior wasn't enough before he let out a "tch" and stuffed his hands in the pocket of his trousers before flopping back down on the couch, resuming the game on the Nintendo. You could still see how he was glaring sharply every once in a while at Furukawa.

"So, Furukawa-san..." You began again, your voice snapping the older man only partially out of his tensed position.

"Let's talk about our contract again, alright?"

~~~

"That turned out easier than expected." You told him as you were putting on your jacket, about to leave your office. Toji was leaning against the wall on the other side, watching you as you stuffed everything into your handbag. You glanced shortly at your watch and let out a thoughtful hum. "I actually have time left. You really intimidated Furukawa-san for good. The poor guy just agreed blindly to everything I suggested. I appreciate your help of course but can you try to be a little bit less intense?"

Toji rolled his eyes at your words. "So now I'm being scolded for doing my job too good? It really is quite difficult to please Yukimaru and you." He told you, although at least he didn't seem to be deeply offended by your words. "I only did what Yukimaru asked of me. Complain to her, not me."

"I am aware of what Aki-chan told you but I didn't expect you to react quite as...well, ferocious as you did today. I mean, don't you think that you were overdoing it a bit? There isn't much use in me negotiating with partners if all they do is agree with everything I say. It takes a bit of fun out of it, although Furukawa-san definitely was a pain in the ass today."

You grinned when your last sentence elicited a light chuckle out of Toji as he trailed lazily behind you the moment you left your office and finished your work for the night.

"Hey, how about going out for a drink? I still have time and don't really want to go back home already." You abruptly asked him as both of you stepped into the lift and you pressed the button for the first floor.

"Don't really have a choice, do I? My working day only really ends when you're back in your apartment so as long as you're still outside, I can't really leave your side." He answered, although he definitely wouldn't mind going out for a bit. He had been stuck the entire day in your office, dealing with more or less tolerable people whilst playing some games on the Nintendo you had gifted him.

"That's right, I guess. Well, just means that I don't have to worry about anyone or anything as long as I have you with me." You replied with a slightly flustered grin as if just remembering that there had been very specific rules in his contract that he had to follow as your bodyguard. Your words caught him off-guard and he didn't know why. He glanced briefly over to you, gauging your expression as if trying to detect any dishonesty on your face. When he didn't find any and realized that you were actually being honest and had just given him a compliment, his eyes shifted to the buttons in the elevator as he sensed a weird warm sensation somewhere in his chest.

"How about going to that izakaya again?" You asked him as both of you left the huge building as every other worker on the first floor bowed down to you and wished you a pleasant night and you did your best to bow your head to all of them and thank them for working so well today.

That izakaya? What did that mean?

It seemed to be important to you and judging from the expectant look you had in your eyes, he realized that you assumed that he knew what you were talking about as well. All he could do was give you a surprisingly clueless and confused stare. A look of theatrical hurt crossed your face as you gasped shocked at him.

"You don't know what I mean, do you? How could you forget?" You spoke slightly dramatically as you placed a hand over your heart. It was only a playful gesture from your side but it bothered Toji much more than he had expected. Not your dramatic reaction but the fact that he had forgotten something that involved you. He was silently brainstorming for the memory that you meant by "that izakaya" but he had probably been to quite a lot izakayas in his life before which he couldn't even recall anymore. Had there ever been a special izakaya before in...

Oh. That's what you meant.

You snorted when you saw his face morph into one of realization as he finally understood to which izakaya you were referring to.

"Wow, seems like the gears finally started spinning. Took you long enough to remember. I'm talking about the izakaya where we first met, Fushiguro-san."

He narrowed his eyes but instead of glaring at you for laughing at him, he glared at the pathway beneath his feet as he silently strolled with you through the busy streets of Tokyo, the city bright with all the lights and adds from the buildings. He had forgotten, honestly he couldn't even remember very detailed what he had been doing with his life much before meeting you. He only vaguely remembered gambling a lot, accepting requests from others for the right amount of money, he remembered killing people for money. Only fleeting memories though, he couldn't even recall very well the faces of people who had hired him. But that wasn't the case with you, was it?

He started walking a bit slower when he realized that he could recall almost everyday he had spent with you more detailed than he could recall the almost last two years of his life. His eyes focused on the back of your head as you took the lead and walked through Tokyo in a good mood, heading for the izakaya. Had he been paying that much attention to you?

You tilted your head slightly to look at him and when your gazes met, he instinctively looked away. He didn't know why. But looking at you somehow only made him recall everything even more, flodded his mind with images of you laughing, pouting, goofing off and being silly.

"You don't have to feel bad for forgetting, you know? I didn't really expect you to remember."

What? What did that mean? Green eyes instantly shot up from the ground as a strange feeling took over him as he mulled over the words you had just told him. Unfortunately you didn't seem to have any intention of explaining yourself further as you walked on. Honestly, he had heard worse in his life, he had been treated worse in his life and nowadays he couldn't even be less bothered if anyone would try to get under his skin. So why...?

Why were your words bothering him so much?

You were a bit surprised when his steps suddenly quickened and he stood in front of you within an instance, forcing you to slow down and eventually fully stop. You were occasionally still amazed with how tall he was, especially since you would go as far as considering yourself quite tall in comparison to many other women in Japan. Now was one of those moments as you looked up at him, slightly confused as he was staring down at you with narrowed eyes as if you were a riddle he was desperately trying to solve.

"What do you mean?"

Hearing him speak so normally without any sneer, cockiness or slight annoyance came totally unexpectant and suddenly you found yourself being overtaken by awkwardness. You had never seen him quite as honest-looking as he was right now and you were taken aback by green eyes staring at you, silently wanting an answer from you.

"...What?"

It was the only thing you were able to blurt out as you were unable to tear your gaze away from Toji, your heart pounding in your chest due to his shift in attitude. Honestly, you wouldn't have been alarmed by anyone else acting this way. However, you couldn't help but be worried by Toji suddenly acting so out of character.

Before you could even grasp the situation, Toji seemed to snap out of it. It was if someone had just pulled him out of a trance. He blinked down at you as if he had just woken up from something before his face twisted into an unreadable mask that you couldn't fully decipher. He stepped out of your way, avoiding your own eyes vehemently. When he realized that you didn't move and were still standing there, looking at him with those eyes, he suddenly turned his back to you and walked on his own.

"Forget it." He muttered as he quickly moved to the izakaya. You stood there for a while, staring at his back as you were silently contemplating whether or not you should try to ask him about what had just happened. You could see though that he absolutely didn't want you to try to dig deeper so eventually you forced yourself to move and trail behind him.

~~~

Four glasses of beer and a plate of buttery and delicious tuna sashimi later and you were full. He'd accompanied you already a few times for a couple of drinks before so by now he kind of knew what was coming for him. Both of you had sat down on an empty lower table, the izakaya not nearly as full as it had been back when both of you had met for the first time.

"You probably shouldn't drink too much. Yukimaru will probably only scold you as soon as you get back to your apartment." He spoke as he watched you ordering another beer. You let out a tired and exhausted grumble as you rubbed your eyes.

"t's not my fault that I'm not built as you are. Sseriously, do you ever get drunk?" You slurred as you looked up at him through half-lidded eyes. Even if you tried to be serious right now, it was impossible for him to take you as such as he stared at your face. His eyes took in your hair, your eyes, your nose, your cheeks until they finally zoomed in on your lips...

"What are you lookin' at? my eyes are up 'ere." You spoke, your words snapping him for the second time tonight out of a daze. What was wrong with him?

"...'ey, anser ma question. What's your secret behind not getting drunk?" You repeated yourself, a pout on your lips as you snapped your fingers in front of his face as if hoping to get his attention.

"I don't know. I guess that I was just born with it." Your bodyguard spoke after actually considering it for a while before he also took a sip from the sake he had ordered. Honestly, sometimes he wished that he could get drunk and his inability to do so hadn't made him the biggest fan of alcohol. He enjoyed it though when he was around you as he just joined you whenever you were drinking.

"Hmm...So it's all thanks to your body." You muttered to yourself as your eyes shifted from his face to his toned chest, your gaze narrowing thoughtfully. His brows went up to his forehead as he noticed where your gaze was lingering, your eyes squeezing as you stared bluntly at his chest.

Before he could make any cocky remark about it though, one of your palms suddenly laid itself flatly on his chest, close to his own heart.

As his skin suddenly started heating up a tiny bit and he could feel his own heartbeat picking up its speed, he wondered briefly if perhaps alcohol had an effect on him after all. The warmth from your palm seeped through his shirt and spread throughout his entire chest. His gaze was glued to your hand resting on his chest, probably feeling his own heartbeat through the tip of your fingers. He was struggling to say something and a part of him didn't really want to say something either in favor of just having you touch him.

"C'n I borrow your body then? I wanna drink without gettin' drunk. That's not possible though, is it? Aaah, I'm jealous of you. Ye have such a beautiful body."

You pulled your hand back from his chest as if the sudden realization that swapping bodies wasn't possible had just immensely disappointed you. Toji on the other hand was attempting his best to figure silently out what the fuck was going on with him.

“Beautiful…?” Was the first word he was able to say to you after he had calmed down a bit, although he was still painfully aware how the heat of his skin and the own throbbing of his heart only got worse as he looked at you.

“Yeh. I mean, come on! Look atch you! You look like the guy people either wanna be with or want to be!” You spoke up as your hands gestured wildly at him, trying to make your point obvious.

He knew what you meant. Toji was highly confident in his abilities, he knew that his body and the physical strength that had come with it was one of a kind. All of his clients all of the women who had approached him in his past had known that too.

Yet hearing it from you, half-drunk and looking like your head was about to bang on the table because it was too heavy for you and you were quite tired at this point, just sounded so much more sincere.

He swirled the small cup of sake around in his hand, watching the clear liquid spiraling around as he did so. He wasn’t sure if he would have been able to say those words as easily if he would have continued looking at you.

“Thank you.”

There it was again. Sincerity. You peeked over to him as you heard it but you didn’t know what to say. Then the silence came. The same silence that made him itchy and more aware of every breath he took around you. You didn’t seem to mind as much, already happily drunk to care about the infamous awkward silence and in that moment he envied you for being able to just say whatever came to your mind and to remain so unaffected in a situation that had him acting so unusually stiff.

“Do you…actually want to know my answer to your question from before?”

That seemed to be enough to gain his attention as you felt his green eyes resting on you as you were playing with the chopsticks. It had been bothering you the moment he had asked you this question and you had been silently thinking about an answer in your head the entire time. At least up until you had downed your first glass of beer and had temporarily forgotten about it. It had just randomly came back to you now.

"...Do whatever you want."

You took that as a yes from his side.

"I didn't think that you would remember because to me you looked back then like the type of guy who doesn't care about his surroundings and the people in his life unless money is involved."

He couldn't really deny your words and his vague memories from his life in the years before he had met you only proved your point. Yet it wasn't true. At least not fully. Not when it came to you.

"That's sort of rude to say to your bodyguard, don't you think?" He chuckled as he tried to overplay the strange emotions your answer had awoken inside of him.

"Probably. But I am happy to see that I still made the right choice by picking you. I'm sure that if I would have chosen of Aki-chan's selected choices, I wouldn't have such a good time right now. You really are a nice drinking buddy, although it isn't quite as fun if only one party gets drunk."

You tried to give him a small smile without looking stupidly drunk before you took a glance at your watch and realized that it was about damn time for the two of you to leave.

"Aight! Time to head home." You declared as you slowly stood up, your head slightly spinning as the sudden shift of gravity due to you standing up after having only been sitting for the last two hours was almost too much for your drunk self.

Toji quickly grabbed you, his hand wrapping around your arm to stabilize you.

"Are you going to be fine walking like this around the streets?"

He asked, his tone somewhat laced with amusement as he also stood up from his seat.

"That's what you are for. Aki-chan will kill you if you lose me." You replied with a grumbling tone as you pinched the bridge of your nose. Perhaps you had overdone it a bit with your beer tonight.

~~~

"I'm more than capable to walk on my own two feet, y'know?" You complained to him as he led you through the crowds, his grip on your arm tight enough to not lose you yet also loose enough to not hurt you.

"You look like a gentle gust of wind could knock you off your feet." He instantly shot back, grinning as he looked at your slightly wobbly figure, swaying gently left and right.

"Now you're the one who is being mean. I'm your boss." You whined as you swatted his arm lightly when you took notice of the grin on his face. At least he seemed to be back to normal again. You had been low-key a bit worried when he had been so strangely sincere with you.

Your eyes lazily flew across the people walking all past you as Toji led you the way back to the main building. Your car was still in the parking facility where only workers of your company were allowed to drive their cars into. You wondered if Kazuma had already taken Aki with him and if both of them had driven home already. If Aki was still waiting for you, she would most likely insist on driving the car because she would never let someone on the wheel who had just consumed alcohol and Toji's apparent immunity against it was something she couldn't care less about.

You nearly tripped when Toji's strides suddenly increased in length and speed only to feel yourself suddenly be pulled closer against him, your body pressed against him as his one arm wrapped around your waist.

Subconsciously you noticed how incredibly warm his body was but you were more confused with his action. You glanced up at him only to notice that his green eyes were focused on something behind the two of you. You tilted your head around to search for whatever he was noticing but there were just too many people among the crowd.

"Toji...?"

A short skip of his own heart as you suddenly called him by his first name before his senses went back to focusing on those same footsteps he had been noticing for a while now. Someone was following you two. No, someone was following you.

He didn't answer you but you could sort of tell by his focused look that he was sensing something you couldn't. You didn't know why but for some reason his senses were so much more enhanced than those of everyone else around him.

"There's someone behind us, isn't there?" You asked, although you were already pretty sure that you were right anyways. Toji could tell from the look in your eyes that he didn't need to confirm what you already suspected so he didn't answer your question at all. Green eyes were darting over all the people in the crowd, trying to figure out which one of them it was. Until his eyes landed on a young man whose face was partially hidden by a mask he was wearing.

"Listen, there are still some members of the same group out there who murdered the two previous CEO's of the Ito company. One of them walked a few months ago just like that into our main building with a knife. It's clear that they're out for (y/n)'s life too. That's why I wanted her to get a bodyguard. And for some reason she has gone for you, a random man she met on the street. So as her bodyguard, you have only one job to do. Protect her. Protect her no matter what."

Those had been Aki's words to him a few weeks after he had been recruited by you and it had been her first words to him in a while as she had generally avoided conversing much with him when he had been new. She had obviously still been a bit resentful that you had chosen him over every other bodyguard she had suggested for you.

As his green eyes were scrutinizing the man standing there amongst the crowd, Toji stopped walking. He just stood there, silently staring at the guy who had also stopped when he had noticed that Toji had stopped. He had apparently finally realized that he had been spotted and Toji could tell even from the distance that he clearly hadn't expected to be spotted.

You had been about to say something to Toji but when you looked up at him and saw the look in his eyes, you quickly decided against it. Green eyes were fixed on someone within the crowd you still couldn't make out, focused and gleaming with something that made you swallow a bit.

There was something dangerous in his eyes and even the man could sense that from the distance as he slowly stepped away. Toji never left him out of his sight, his eyes following him and following him until even he couldn't make him out amongst the full streets anymore.

Only then did he finally turn his gaze back to you and released his hold on you, although it took him more willpower to do so than he had expected, your warm body pressed against his own causing pleasurable shivers to travel through his body.

"He's gone. You don't have to look so worried anymore." He reassured you when he noticed the look in your eyes. You glanced back at the crowd for a short moment before you nodded slowly.

~~~

"What in the world happened? (y/n), have you been drinking too much again?"

You let out an exhausted groan as Aki's voice pulled you out of your little nap. God, had you fallen asleep? The last thing you could recall was getting into the car and after that everything was sort of blurry. So you had perhaps fallen asleep whilst Toji had driven you home. Why was Aki making such a drama out of it though? It wasn't like you had never drunken a glass or two too much before.

"Aki, you're too loud." You grumbled as you cuddled yourself against the hard but very warm surface beneath you. It felt nice, what was it?

"Ooh, you're enjoying that right now, aren't you Fushiguro? I would appreciate it if you would let her down."

"What was I supposed to do? She fell asleep in the car and didn't want to get up when I tried to wake her up."

"You could have just told me and I could have helped."

What were those two arguing over again? You slowly forced yourself to lift your head, blinking with heavy eyelids to adjust to the light in the first floor. When you finally cracked them open fully, you understood why Aki was causing a little scene right now. Since when had you been on Toji's back?

Toji was the first one to notice that you had partially woken up and Aki noticed only a bit later.

"(y/n), would you please get down from him?"

Your sleep and alcohol-addled brain needed a bit to process her words before you slowly got down from his back with a slight look of discontent in your eyes.

"Why do you look so unhappy?"

"Toji is so warm, Aki."

"He's your bodyguard and not your plushie! Wait, did you just call him 'Toji'? Since when have the both of you been on first name terms?"

You considered her words for a bit. She had a point. So far you had only referred to him by his last name and he had done the same. However, he had been working for you closely for nearly a year now so honestly, at this point you thought that it was appropriate.

"Since today. I think the both of us are close enough now to call each other by the first name. Hey Toji, call me (y/n) from now on and not (l/n)."

You said as you turned around to look at him.

You didn't know if you had imagined the short expression on his face that almost looked flustered before a grin spread across his face.

"(y/n), huh?" He muttered, more to himself than to you or Aki before he locked eyes with you.

"Can't do much but do as you say. You're the boss after all."

~~~

The lift stopped on the third floor as Toji stepped out of the rather cramped room since he took up a lot of space within the elevator. You and Aki were staying as the both of you were heading for the fourth floor. You were still drunk after all so Aki planned to escort you to your apartment and make sure that you would instantly head to bed and sleep because you had work to do today again. You hadn't mentioned the fact that someone had been following you to Aki yet and whilst he initially thought that you might have forgotten about it temporarily again because of all the alcohol, you had thrown him a short glance when Aki had asked him if everything had been fine. He understood though. You were drunk and had a bit of a headache so Aki's overbearing questions if she would find out tonight probably would only add to your pain. You'd tell her tomorrow about it.

"Good night, Toji."

"You better not have a hangover tomorrow, Fushiguro-san."

With those words, the doors to the lift closed and he was left alone. He unlocked the door to his apartment, didn't bother to turn the lights on as he went to the living room and flopped down onto the couch. He leaned back against the pillows propped against the furniture, his gaze focused on the wall. Were you already in your apartment or was Aki still trying to stabilize your staggering and much taller figure than hers?

He clicked his tongue frustrated when he realized that his thoughts had drifted once again to you. He sighed as he leaned his head back. Today...had been strange. And now that he was all alone in the darkness with little sounds surrounding him, he became all the more aware of the fact that his heart was still pounding against his chest. It hadn't stopped doing that ever since you had touched his chest and he swore that he could still feel the weight, the warmth and the shape of your palm resting so close to his beating heart.

And then there had been the guy who had been following you... And when Toji had noticed, his body had instinctively clutched your body protectively to his own. When the fuck had he ever done this for one of his clients? He had no doubt that the guy was the pathetic leftover of the assassination group Aki had warned him about and he had also no doubt that he would have most likely attempted to do something if Toji hadn't been with you.

He would have tried to hurt you probably.

That thought struck the wrong cord somewhere inside him again and even worse than when this Furukawa guy had insulted and belittled you in his presence as anger tensed up his muscles before he forced himself to relax again.

Seriously, what was wrong with him?

It almost felt like...

Pt.3

[inkblackorchid]

What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 3)

Trying my absolute damnedest to finish this one and part four sooner now that I've finally covered the Pearson backstory. *Ehem* Hello again! I hope you're ready for more yelling about a certain spiky-haired Blackbird aficionado, because I sure am.

To get some things out of the way first, though, here come the usual disclaimers:

This is part three of a series of posts about hpw Crow's character was handled during 5Ds' whole run. You can find part one here and part two here. Reading them technically isn't required, but things sure will make a whole lot more sense if you do. (Bring snacks, they're long.)

This post isn't meant as a Crow hate post, nor is it meant to convince people who didn't vibe with his character to change their mind. This is my very long winded-attempt to analyse the writing decisions surrounding his character as best I can, without too much bias. That said, full disclosure, I do personally like Crow, so there's a good chance that will shine through whether I want it to or not. But also, I'm trying to have fun here, so please cut me some slack.

In case you haven't read my previous Crow posts (no shade there) and/or still believe the many, many production rumours that have been haunting the 5Ds fandom since the show's original run, please let me burst your bubble(s) with some insanely comprehensive research by someone over on Reddit (thanks again to @mbg159, who's also here on tumblr): No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, or the final boss of season 1, and his spike in screentime has nothing to do with his cards. And also, No, Aki didn't get less presence in the narrative because her VA got pregnant. What if you don't have the time to read either of those long posts? In that case, please take away this simple, very easy rebuttal of why the above theories are bullshit: Their would-be "key points" don't line up with the 5Ds production timeline. At all. Not even vaguely. So please, ditch them, let them die, seeing them still talked about makes me feel like I'm gonna break out in hives. And for the love of god, don't use this post or in fact anything else I post to pit Aki and Crow against each other. Both characters have their strengths and their reasons to love them. I am not the least bit interested in starting any character discourse. So please, spare my sanity. Ok? Thank you.

And now, we can get to the good part at last. In my previous post in this series, I stopped my analysis at episode 95, a.k.a. part two of the Pearson backstory. In this post, I will thus be picking up right after, at the very start of the WRGP—with the Team Unicorn match. The goal for this post is to analyse Crow's part in this particular arc, then provide some food for thought/ideas on how things that rubbed some people the wrong way could have been improved.

More below the readmore, and I give you not just my usual warning, but an extra warning, too: The universe will not let me write short things, so tread with caution, stay hydrated, and expect a veritable dissertation below, because this post feels long even to me, who has long since lost her sense of length when it comes to text. (But I'm well aware this is the result of me refusing to split the WRGP part into two separate posts, so I take full responsibility for that.)

Since we left off right after I chewed through all the issues with Crow's rather belated backstory and especially Black-Winged Dragon last time, we jump right into the thick of things now, with episodes 96 and 97, which serve as the preamble to Team 5Ds' first WRGP duel against Team Unicorn. Crow only gets two major things to do during this short stretch of episodes, the first being that he's Team Unicorn's gateway into roping Yusei into a duel during practice, which helps them set up a ruse that baits the 5Ds gang into sending Jack as their first wheeler because they think Jack's deck is best suited to countering Andre's—which, as it later turns out, it is not.

(Arguably the screenshot where Crow gives off the strongest Youngest Sibling Vibes during the entire show. Look at him, all chastised.)

Crow's second role is an odd one that I argue only he out of the main three guys could fulfill at this point: He's the one to get injured right before the Team Unicorn match, rendering him unable to compete, which leads to Aki offering to take his place for that particular match.

(Pictured: Bird Boy regretting all his life choices up until that point simultaneously.)

Here's the first moment I have to talk about in greater detail. See, the thing is, I don't know what the fandom consensus on Crow getting injured here is, but I argue that this moment was a (rare) strategic decision made by the writers at this point. Crow's injury accomplished several things: 1. It sets up the mystery of why his back wheel locked up out of nowhere, which is later paid off through Team Catastrophe's shenanigans. 2. It organically allows Aki to take his spot without introducing any argument about which of them is "worthier" of having that third spot. 3. Through this, it also allows him to actually bounce off Aki for once (a point I will come back to below, during the Team Catastrophe section). And 4. It allows the show to (TECHNICALLY) pay off the setup they did in letting Aki get her turbo duelling license and train with the boys. (Generally, Crow's and Aki's character writing intersects a bit during the pre-Diablo incident WRGP section, something I'll touch on below.)

Moreover, I think this is also the only match where they could have done something like this, and the reason for it is very simple: Team Unicorn are one-off opponents whose presence in the narrative is only relevant as far as it concerns the WRGP, and they are also one of the first teams the 5Ds gang faces. If we think about the opponents Team 5Ds has after this, it becomes very obvious why Crow could only be injured during this duel: If they had tried pulling this stunt later, it would have forced the writers to pull Aki centre stage during a much more plot-relevant duel than this one (which they were apparently allergic to, but let's not go there), not to speak of the fact that it would have forced them to sideline someone they were definitely trying to sell as the third portion of their protagonist trifecta, which would have probably been awkward. (If not for the fact that they literally did this to Crow later in the show, but I'll get there. Yes, I know there's a lot already that I'll still be "getting to".)

The thing is, whether or not it feels like an awkward writing choice to make so early in the big tournament of this arc (you be the judge of that), Crow's injury finally allows him to have a few interesting character moments for once. For one, there is his immediate disappointment about being forced to stay on the sidelines. Aside from the fact that this is a human and relatable reaction to his injury, it stings even more for the character than it does for us as the audience, because Crow got a moment where the Satellite orphans he previously took care of cheer him on for the tournament literally within the same two Team Unicorn preamble episodes.

(Say what you will, this is just stupid cute.)

So when Aki eventually offers to take his place during the match, he's understandably apprehensive—and again, this is human. It may seem mean in the moment, but from a character writing standpoint, it's a natural response. Plus, it's certainly more interesting to watch the group have a bit of conflict among themselves, rather than everyone immediately jumping straight to acceptance. It introduces tension, and, for however brief a moment, raises the question of whether Crow might refuse to let Aki take his spot. This is also the point where Aki and Crow's character writing officially intertwines, at least for the stretch of episodes between the Team Unicorn duel and the Team Catastrophe duel. And you know what? Say what you will, but I think it does a world of good for both of them. The 5Ds cast, as lovely as it is, doesn't get a lot of room to bounce off one another where it concerns personal matters anymore, once the WRGP starts. Arguably, they get little time to bounce off one another outside of plot-related discussions at all once this portion of the show comes around. The characters are treated as "fully developed", and thus, the writing largely doesn't take the time to show us how the group naturally interacts with one another anymore, especially not with how many side characters (chiefly Bruno and Sherry), antagonists, and duels the show now has to juggle. So Aki and Crow getting even a smidgen of personal conflict here is honestly a breath of fresh air. The interaction kicked off by Crow's injury isn't completely plot-irrelevant, like most character interactions during the pre-WRGP were, but it's not something that feels like it's only there to explain the machinations of the antagonists to the audience, either.

Let me go through this in a little more detail to illustrate my point.

So, episode 97. Crow storms off after Aki offers to take his spot, while Aki heads out to prepare her runner, intent on helping her team. The personal motivations here are already very nice and reflective of these characters as we've gotten to know them up until this point: Crow's angry and disappointed (mostly at himself, which is noteworthy!) because he can't compete. And specifically, he's angry because not being able to compete in the first match means he can't show the kids his duelling like he wanted to. Then there's Aki, whose offer to take Crow's place is every bit as much of a strategic suggestion as it is a bid for acceptance from her. Acceptance, which is the thing she's been all about ever since she was introduced, basically. So she pleads with her friends to accept her, see her as an equal, and allow her to duel for the team, which they do. And Crow initially throws a fit, but then...

(Listen. You have no idea how much Crow and Aki getting to actually be friends means to me.)

He comes around to the idea and not only gives Aki his express permission to take his spot, he even coaches her a bit right before the match. Moreover, as his text states above, he literally entrusts her with the kids' hopes, as well as his own. This quickly brings both of them full circle: Crow, who already has a theme of legacy attached to him, passes the torch to Aki for this match, and in so doing, offers her the acceptance she asked her teammates for. (Frankly, stuff like this makes me wonder why on earth people were so eager to pit these two against each other, when their shared moments are actually some of the best-written during the often rocky WRGP arc.) So, though this injury pulls Crow out of the duel, it, funnily enough, ties him better into the story and to the other characters.

From there, we then dive into the Team Unicorn match proper. And well, being injured as he is, Crow doesn't exactly get a whole lot to do there. However, since we're in the portion where his and Aki's writing overlaps a bit, I do need to go on a quick tangent about what Aki's portion of this duel means for Crow.

(Sigh. Okay, buckle up for a quick and rough detour.)

First, something I need to get out of the way and off my chest: I have made no secret out of the fact that I hate Aki's portion of this duel, save for the moment where she summons Stardust. Hell, this duel segment is pretty much universally hated by anone who has even a smidgen of sympathy for Aki. It's regarded by many as the very moment the writers axed Aki's character, and for good reason: After all the buildup surrounding her getting her turbo duelling license, the supposed "payoff" of it all is that she gets to duel against Andre for a depressing four turns before being defeated immediately, which leads into Yusei's frustrating portion of this duel, which, to my knowledge, isn't regarded any more kindly by fans than Aki's segment. It's a massive let-down, simply put. But the thing is, it's not just a let-down for Aki. After all, the brief character conflict she had with Crow about taking his spot here can and should be regarded as part of the setup for this moment, and as such, it can also be considered to be wasted the second Aki leaves the track after barely making an impact whatsoever.

However, I do need to mention that I have a theory on why this segment was handled the way it was, mostly because I feel like Crow's later interaction with Aki, shortly after she's out of the duel, underlines it (mind that this is just my personal theory, though, after having watched the show perhaps more times than can be considered sane): I think there is a cultural aspect to this duel. See, the word ganbaru, which anime subtitles often like to translate with "do your best" or something along the lines, has a greater significance than the translation implies. Though it's not inaccurate per se, there's more than just the idea of doing your best behind ganbaru, because it's something like an umbrella term not just for doing your best and succeeding, it's also the idea that you have to keep trying, even if you don't succeed. It's related to tenacity, to persistence, even in the face of terrible odds. And make no mistake, I don't mean the Japanese equivalent of "if at first you don't succeed, try again" here. I genuinely do mean "you have to keep trying, even if you fail". There is no guarantee of success here. And for that reason, the idea behind ganbaru is also that it's not simply the success that has value, but the effort made in the attempt to attain it, regardless of the result. (Side note: I tried to scrounge up a resource I could link to that nicely explains this concept, but unfortunately, all the promising articles were paywalled and the ones I learned it from require institutional access to lecture materials.) And this is where I will posit the tentative theory that this is exactly what the 5Ds writers were going for with Aki's segment of the duel—it was very much meant to be the payoff for her turbo duelling license setup and her plea to take Crow's place, but it wasn't so much her success that was meant to be valued, as the effort she (and by extension, Crow) made for and during this duel. And this is where Crow's little pep-talk with Aki after she's out of the duel comes in, because it feels like it supports exactly this interpretation:

(This is essentially the whole sequence. Note how Crow, despite so fervently entrusting Aki with his and his kids' hopes prior, doesn't admonish her for making a bad showing in the slightest.)

I don't think it gets any clearer than it is here. During this sequence, Aki is painfully aware of how poor her performance was against Andre, especially after she was so insistent on duelling at first, and despite having been entrusted with Stardust by Yusei, to boot. Yet, Crow doesn't have a single word of criticism to offer her. Instead, he even tells her she did well and that nobody's perfect. It very much reads as valuing Aki's effort over the result she achieved to me, and thus seems perfectly in line with the idea behind ganbaru.

However, if we assume I'm correct about the intentions behind this writing choice, we come back to why Aki's segment of the duel is so hotly debated and why it may have arguably been a disservice not just to her, but to Crow, too, character-wise. Because the majority of non-Japanese watchers of the show culturally don't have a 1:1 applicable concept like ganbaru, this writing choice was more likely to fall flat for them, because to someone who wasn't raised to understand the idea behind it, Aki's portion of the duel doesn't register as a payoff; it registers as a massive disappointment, because it feels like the writers, who had so much setup already done for her, let her fail on purpose, just to later let Yusei attain his arguably dumbest victory of the entire show. Thus, they also essentially waste the conflict she had with Crow about whether she would be allowed to take his spot in the first place, because with how little she achieved during the duel, she may as well not have gotten on the track. (Figuratively speaking. Please Do Not take this to mean I would prefer a version where Aki hadn't duelled at all. That would be worse. It would be infinitely worse.)

(Also, side note: If this post reaches anyone who's actually Japanese and still remembers this duel, I would genuinely love your input on whether my interpretation is feasible or just wishful thinking. Did you interpret Aki's part of the duel the way I did here? Or did it fall flat for you, too? If what I'm saying here feels like an absolute reach, please tell me. I'm honestly just trying my best to make things make sense here and remembered this concept from some classes I took in Japanese studies at uni.)

With all that in mind, it doesn't come as a surprise that some people were just as frustrated with the way Crow was barred from duelling here as they were with Aki's segment or Yusei's later victory. But it is what it is—the Unicorn duel concludes the way we all know it to, and with that, the show begins setting up the following duel with Team Catastrophe.

The only other, non duel-related, noteworthy thing that happens between the Unicorn and the Catastrophe match is a brief appearance at the Poppo Time by Sherry, who admonishes the signers for celebrating their victory early and warns them about Iliaster. Why do I bring this up? Because it's one of less than five times that Crow is in the same room with Sherry. Remember, Sherry. The girl he later, during the finale, talks out of working for the big bad evil guy because he suddenly seems to have such a deep understanding of her motivations and character that he can accurately deduce what argument will make her understand that working with Z-ONE won't give her what she's looking for. So, does Crow get a meaningful interaction with her during this scene, then? Nope. Not even in the slightest. Crow says exactly one sentence that is aimed at Sherry during her appearance, and that sentence is this:

(What a meaningful conversation!)

And yes, I will come back to Crow and Sherry's dynamic in particular. But we'll save that for the Ark Cradle arc post. For now, just keep it in mind as we move along to the other WRGP duels.

So. Team Catasrophe.

During the duel against this team, which was previously only hinted at ominously, the writing for Crow and Aki overlaps again, and this starts with the writers essentially doing a complete switcheroo of what came before: Instead of Crow getting injured and being unable to compete, it's Aki who crashes, ends up in the hospital, and is thus forced to give up her spot during the duel. (This also goes hand in hand with her suddenly losing her powers, which we are given absolutely zero explanation for, but let's not talk about that clusterfuck here. If you're interested in my opinions about that particular trainwreck, I have a rant for you.) Additionally, it's during this stretch of episodes (103-105, which is a whopping four episodes less than Team Unicorn got) that we find out that not only Aki's crash, but Crow's previous one, too, were both sabotage, caused by the rather unscrupulous Team Catastrophe by way of a special card that can cause real damage even when there is no psychic duellist present. (A card we also find out was given to them by Placido/Primo, but this is irrelevant for both Aki and Crow.) Crow's reaction to this piece of information, particularly once Aki gets injured due to the same thing, is where things get interesting for him again, because he gets pissed, to say the least.

(A moment I imagine firebirdshippers must have been positively delighted about.)

Here, I have to reiterate an earlier point: Think what you will of Team Catastrophe, of Aki's crash, and of the sequence where her powers suddenly don't work, but this moment here, where Crow gets angry on her behalf and swears to duel Team Catastrophe into submission—not because he wants his kids to cheer for him, or because he wants to prove himself, but as revenge for his friend—is one of sadly only a handful of moments the writers use to show the strengthened relationships between the individual members of Team 5Ds after the dark signers arc. It's one of the precious few scenes that actually shows, rather than tells us or lets us search for scraps in the subtext, that the signers, and the members of Team 5Ds as a whole, care for each other outside of revolving around Yusei like planets around the sun. Even if it's laughably small, it's at least a hint that there are individual friendships between the other signers, too, that they all stick around one another for reasons beyond gravitating towards Yusei for one reason or another. And for that alone, I'm grateful that they put this here, even if Team Catastrophe was otherwise so ridiculous and made such a bad showing at their actual match that they could barely be taken seriously as antagonists at all.

Speaking of which. The actual meat of the matter. The Team Catastrophe match. What does Crow do here? Well, he duels! Even though he wasn't supposed to, for injury-related reasons. What both his participation as well as the actual duel accomplish, though, are that they not only showcase previously established character traits of Crow's again, but they also make a (possibly unintended) callback to a previous, major duel Crow took part in: His dark signer duel against Bommer/Greiger. Where and how? Let's see.

Firstly, Crow's participation. The reactions of the other characters to this make it very evident that Team 5Ds did not plan for this, with Yusei and Jack even going as far as to say they "had no choice" but to let Crow duel, because he insisted. This is perfectly in line with the stubbornness we already know from him at this point—a stubbornness that was also a major reason for why he took Bommer on and later continued his duel with said man, despite Yusei showing up and telling him he shouldn't be duelling a dark signer.

Secondly, there's the manoeuvring thing, and here's where I can call attention to a fun tidbit: The WRGP isn't what introduces the concept of manual mode during turbo duels to the audience. It's Crow. During his duel with Bommer. Being crafty and a bit shrewd as he is, Crow, during said duel in the DS arc, purposefully switches to manual mode when he duels Bommer, because he figures that attacks that can deal real damage can probably be evaded if you actually have control over your runner and aren't stuck in autopilot.

(Don't believe me? Here it is. And frankly, it is somewhat hilarious, yet also very fitting that Crow is the only one who thinks to do this during a duel with a dark signer.)

The reason this particular bit is relevant during the Team Catastrophe duel is because Crow essentially repeats this trick here. Of course, it's a bit less impactful now, given that manual mode is standard for WRGP duels, but still: Due to Hook, the Hidden Knight, Crow is forced to pay attention to the track and manually evade the monster's attempts to make his back wheel lock up during the duel, mirroring how he thought to manually evade Bommer's attacks during the DS arc.

Thirdly, there's the revenge angle, and this one is a particularly juicy callback. Remember, Crow's major reason for taking on Team Catastrophe, despite being injured, is that he wants to get revenge for Aki. This directly parallels how his major reason for duelling Bommer during the DS arc was that he wanted revenge for his kids, whom he believed to be dead at that point in time. (It also, interestingly, establishes a bit of a connection to his deck, which boasts a fair amount of revenge effects, but I'll not get into that here, seeing as I've talked about Crow's cards a bit before.)

Keep in mind, despite all the things listed above that this duel accomplishes, it's also by far the shortest WRGP duel. It lasts a whole six turns, total, which is ludicrous compared to the likes of 27-turn Team Unicorn, 26-turn Team Taiyou, or 25-turn Team Ragnarok. And I don't think it's controversial to say that the Catastrophe guys are probably the most forgettable WRGP Team, too. Yet, somehow, despite all its shortcomings in terms of memorable antagonists and plot relevance, this is one of the best duels of the WRGP where Crow's character writing is concerned. Now, I'll be perfectly candid: Coming into this post, I did not expect the Team Catastrophe duel, of all things, to end up being as good at actually showcasing Crow's character and his ties to other characters (who aren't Yusei) as it was, but here we are. And we had better hold on to the good the Team Unicorn - Catastrophe segment did for Crow, because the next thing that's coming up is a harsh break from the WRGP, starting with the sudden appearance of Placido's home-engineered army of killer duel robots. And what does Crow get to do during this part?

Uh. Well.

(Pictured: Bird Boy being demoted to benchwarmer while the city's being ransacked by murder duel robots.)

Nothing. A whole lot of nothing, is what.

During the duel robot invasion, we only ever flash back to Crow to ascertain that he is, in fact, useless during this part of the show, something he shares in common with Ruka, Rua, and Aki here, because all of them get pretty much nothing to do while Yusei finally gets the hang of accel synchro. Granted, Aki gets to save a little girl at the hospital, but in comparison to Yusei's lengthy, plot-heavy duel with Placido, this feels like a consolation prize. And for once, Jack is only marginally better off, too, because sure, he gets to beat up a couple of robots, but that's it, really.

Where Crow is concerned, his plot relevance doesn't actually resume once the Placido duel finishes, though. (And neither does Rua's, Ruka's, or Aki's, while we're at it.) Because wouldn't you know it, the next big thing directly after the duel robot invasion are the Red Nova episodes, where three out of five signers (Crow, Aki, and Ruka, unsurprisingly) are removed from the screen almost in their entirety again while Jack gets his much-needed dragon upgrade so he can keep up with Yusei, in order to uphold his status as a classic, almost-evenly-matched yugioh rival.

Speaking of upgrades and dragons, let's make a quick detour while our protag and rival duo take their express vacation to the Nazca plains. It is, of course, no secret that no signer outside of Yusei and Jack ever got a dragon upgrade within the anime. (No, I'm not forgetting about Life Stream Dragon. But that one, unlike Shooting Star Dragon and Red Nova Dragon, was a.) teased all the way back in the DS arc and b.) didn't have a unique summoning method or some other gimmick that made it an "elevated" synchro. So I'm discounting Life Stream as a "proper" dragon upgrade on purpose.) Is this the point where I start arguing that Crow should have gotten one, then? Well, not quite. Not with the writing the show canonically gave us, at least—after all, with how late Black-Winged Dragon was introduced, it would have been bonkers to upgrade him here already, if even at all. However, I do argue that the way the show hands only Yusei and Jack upgrades seems a bit... off. Now, I know why only those two get upgrades, or at least I think I do. After all, they're the central protag/rival duo, and within the framework of the character archetypes the larger yugioh canon has created for itself, this would have always made them the first, if not the only candidates for dragon upgrades. What feels a bit off to me, though, is that specifically the 5Ds cast feels like it... chafes a bit against those character archetypes, for lack of a better word. The problem is this: The signers, as far as the first two arcs are concerned, are sold to us as equals who all have very powerful ace monsters. Yes, Jack and Yusei are still undoubtedly the best duellists among them, but not on account of having uber-powerful extra special monsters that were acquired through supernatural means that are categorically inaccessible to the other signers. However, with the appearance of Shooting Star and Red Nova, this changes. While Yusei and Jack were previously and would have always been the two guys who had a Special dynamic with a capital "S" on account of their character archetypes, their acquisition of the dragon upgrades—and even more so, the lack of upgrades their fellow signers receive—now decidedly puts them in a different power bracket and skews the balance between previous, supposedly "equal" characters. (Which, unfortunately, is yet another thing that makes everyone else easier to sideline.)

Why do I bring all this up in a post dedicated to Crow? Because this new power imbalance arguably impacts him more than the other signers—because he's Team 5Ds' second wheeler and doesn't miss another WRGP match from here on out. Thus, that power imbalance is felt in the upcoming duels, where Yusei and Jack bust out Shooting Star and Red Nova like it's nothing, while Crow is left manoeuvring with the somewhat underpowered Black-Winged Dragon and whatever else he can come up with. This is also why I claimed that the show did sideline Crow in some aspects further above. Because while some parts of his writing go to great pains to establish him as part of a protagonist trifecta that is now supposed to take centre stage before the other characters, he also permanently lives in Jack and Yusei's shadow, ultimately barred not just from reaching equal status as a signer (due to his late and rocky introduction and dragon acquisition), but also barred from becoming the equal of his foster brothers as a duellist. Frankly, I'm surprised the show didn't make this a plot point, because the first thing my mind jumps to when I think about this is whether Crow felt left behind after his brothers acquired such immensely powerful, special cards. But more on my personal writing ideas later. For now, let's just put a pin in the power-imbalance thing.

So, when is Crow back on screen in any meaningful role, then? (Note that I mean this as literally as possible. As per my discussion about "screentime" and my gripes about it in part two, I gloss over the parts where Crow is on screen, but could be traded for any other signer or even a lamppost without affecting the scene at all.)

Well, the next thing Crow gets to do isn't exactly glorious, but it sure is funny.

(I want you all to remember that he has to wear this costume and play this part in Team 5Ds' absurd plan to capture Yaeger/Lazar because he lost at rock-paper-scissors. This will never not be funny to me.)

Ignoring the hilarious outfit and Crow playing the bait at a fabricated cup ramen promo event meant to lure Yaeger in, bird boy does actually get something that's not just for funsies to do during the two episodes where Team 5Ds is trying to get more information about Iliaster: He gets to have a duel revanche against Yaeger, who, if we remember the DS arc, ditched him the last time they squared off. Much like the Team Catastrophe duel, this one, too, calls back to previous duels Crow has had: For one, it's the obvious conclusion to his unfinished, first duel with Yaeger. And for two, Crow repeats a "trick" (for lack of a better term) here that is also unique to him: losing on purpose, which we remember from his duel with Lyndon.

(Identical-looking clown family jumpscare be upon ye.)

And again, much like getting injured for the Team Unicorn duel, I argue that this story beat here is something that could also only have been accomplished with Crow. Because he's the only one who has previously duelled Yaeger, firstly, because not wanting to make a child cry by beating their dad in a duel makes sense for him as a character due to him being a family-oriented person who loves children, secondly, and because losing on purpose in this scenario is a tactic that would seem out of character from anyone else, thirdly. (We recall, the only times Jack and Yusei, respectively, ever consider/offer to lose on purpose is when the lives of people close to them are on the line, in the shape of Carly/Rally. As for the others, aside from not being present, Aki, Rua, and Ruka are so heavily sidelined at this point that they would have never been an option for this. And if his writing is anything to go by, Bruno is mostly purposefully forbidden from accomplishing Plot Things, especially through duels, while he's Bruno.) But hey, due to the way this episode is set up, losing on purpose works out for Crow, because it convinces Yaeger to stop hiding and actually share his knowledge about Iliaster. This, by the way, is the second scene where Crow gets to be in a room with Sherry for a longer stretch of time. And look, him joking that Sherry might kill Yaeger if he doesn't spill the beans about Iliaster soon is fun and all, but in light of the Ark Cradle duel later, I have to point out that he, again, doesn't get to have so much as a shred of a meaningful conversation with Sherry here. Again. But moving on. The scene with Yaeger at the Poppo Time then leads us first to the small sequence in the arcade where the gang has to win a simulated duel to get Yaeger's encoded intel, then to episode 116—the Moment Express episode, where, due to this being a Yusei, Sherry, and Bruno-focussed episode, Crow gets nothing to do again. (And also doesn't get to interact with Sherry again.)

Congrats! We've survived the WRGP break. This leaves us with three more WRGP duels before shit hits the fan and the Ark Cradle arc commences. And full disclosure, I'll be doing a bit of a quick-fire round of those three duels. Why? Because despite them all having their merits in their own rights (they're the better liked duels of the WRGP for a reason), there honestly isn't that much focus on Crow during them. He duels, yes, and I've seen people point this out over and over again as the supposed smoking gun that shows how Crow had so much more relevance and screentime than Aki and yadda, yadda. We've been there. And it's not that I can't see where this argument is coming from—I'll be the first to tell you that it's a travesty that Aki never got to duel in the WRGP again outside of the Unicorn match. But I want to use the final three matches to dig into how the way these matches—and especially the opponents to go with them—were set up made it nearly impossible for Aki to replace Crow again during any point of the WRGP finals.

First, episode 118. This is the only preamble episode we get for the first two WRGP finals teams, and here, our group is split in two: Yusei, Bruno, and Rua introduce us to Team Taiyou, while Jack, Aki, and Crow introduce us to Team Ragnarok. There isn't much to say here, because the only thing this episode does for Crow is a shallow repeat of what the Team Catastrophe duel did: By putting him in a group with Aki and Jack, and letting them decide among themselves, independently, to check out the exhibition match, it implies that he voluntarily spends time with signers who aren't Yusei. Thumbs up. Gold star. You made an effort (I guess). Then, the real fun starts.

Round one. Team Taiyou.

(Pictured: The sweetest country bumpkins to ever grace this earth. Yes, I'm biased.)

So here's the deal with Team Taiyou, from a narrative standpoint, as best as I can grasp it: They are a callback to Team 5Ds' roots. Specifically, to the boys' Satellite roots. The Taiyou boys come from humble origins, have only one, mostly home-engineered duel runner, and play using old cards that are widely considered shitty, as 5Ds canon tells us. They are essentially the non-signer, countryside version of what Jack, Crow, and Yusei once were, which is why this is the first duel where the duellist constellation on Team 5Ds' end couldn't possibly have been altered. Team Taiyou is there to remind us where our boys started, so it has to be our boys duelling them. This also goes for Crow, even though this duel otherwise doesn't accomplish much for him, character-wise. Instead, it's more of a narrative wink at the audience, as well as providing a breather between otherwise extremely tense, plot-focussed duels. But yeah, Crow's part in this match isn't much to write home about; he doesn't get any verbal interactions that are very meaningful to his character, can't get so much as a scratch in on Zushin, even with Black-Winged Dragon, and is defeated so Yusei can take out the legendary giant.

Round two. Team Ragnarok.

(Behold the pizzazz of at least two contenders for Haircuts With The Most Spikes in the show.)

Though this duel is framed as being even more so aimed towards bolstering Jack's character writing than Crow's, given the inclusion of Dragan's personal history with Jack, Team Ragnarok gets significantly more interesting for Crow again than Team Taiyou did. This is, of course, mainly because of Brave/Broder. Where Team Taiyou were a callback to the 5Ds boys' roots, Team Ragnarok are their narrative foils. Dragan is the duellist who lost his pride to contrast Jack, who's brimming with pride at all times, and Harald/Halldor is essentially the rich, "destiny isn't bullshit, actually" version of Yusei. Meanwhile, unlike the first two, who highlight our 5Ds boys' characteristics by contrasting them, Brave acts as Crow's mirror. Through Team Ragnarok's flashbacks, we see that he gets almost exactly the same, lovable-rogue-type backstory that Crow did during the DS arc, just in a different setting. The only, major difference between them is that while Crow is more down-to-earth, Brave likes to be pretty flashy.

(Keep in mind that he's doing this on a runner. Is there such a thing as courses on how to do acrobatics on your runner? Like there are courses for vaulting on horseback irl? I'm overthinking this again.)

Unsurprisingly, the duel thus ends up addressing the similarities between Crow and Brave, mostly through two things: One, the duel essentially becomes a contest of who can out-trickster who, culminating in the famous, ridiculous-in-the-good-way sequence where Crow activates a trap from his graveyard, to the shock of pretty much everyone present. And two, despite being on opposite sides, the two bond over their concern for the children they took care of and their concern for children in general, which is expressed most clearly in the scene where Crow's kids, in an attempt to hold the poster they made for him higher, very nearly fall over the barricade in the WRGP stands. Despite the hefty length of the full duel, these are pretty much the only things actually related to Crow's character that come up, though. They're good, don't get me wrong, but in a duel that is otherwise this dense with plot, Aesir shenanigans, and Iliaster foreshadowing, it's no surprise that the duel doesn't add that much to Crow's character, outside of giving him someone he can bounce off very well and relate to. Again, though, we are faced with the same situation as with Team Taiyou: Due to the way the members of Team Ragnarok are written, meant to contrast/parallel one male duellist each from Team 5Ds, nobody other than Crow could have taken the third spot here, either. It would have felt awkward from a narrative standpoint (as much as I would have loved to see Aki duel more).

Now, finally. Round three. Team New World.

(Welp. Here come the robots.)

I had to check to make sure I wasn't misremembering this, but due to the way this duel was set up so José/Jakob could bust out Meklord Emperor Granel with a ridiculous amount of attack points, Crow gets a resounding four turns total in this duel. (Gee, I wonder which other character got this treatment during a WRGP duel.) During those four turns, there are only two things he accomplishes: One, leaving behind two combo pieces Yusei later uses, and two, showcasing the shrewd tactics that earned him the label of "trickster" during the Ragnarok duel by bringing out a non-synchro monster that can take advantage of a synchro monster's attack points and effects—Aurora the Northern Lights. And arguably, this is a very smart play, moreover, it's the only time anyone in the show has the bright idea to not use synchro monsters against the known and feared synchro-killer Meklords. Unfortunately, as smart as it is, the narrative doesn't reward Crow for this play—José all but shrugs what could have been a turning point in the duel off, then proceeds to steamroll Crow the next turn, leaving Yusei to score the win, as usual. To get back to the "Crow got so much more screentime than Aki during the WRGP" thing for a second, of all the duels in the WRGP finals, this is arguably the one where Aki could still most easily have taken Crow's spot again, because here, it doesn't matter whether it's him or someone else, as this duel isn't tied to his character in any way. Unfortunately, due to the Granel-steamroller-strategy, this is also the duel where letting Aki take his spot again would have been the biggest shot in the foot, because unless they had changed Team New World's strategy, Aki would have gotten brutally guillotined here, same as Crow—something I can't imagine anyone, not even people who hate Crow, being happy about.

With that, though, we've finally made it through the WRGP. So, what's the bottom line here? Frankly, speaking from my own interpretation, Crow occupies an... odd spot during this tournament, to say the least. Though he does get to duel the majority of the time, few of the duels actually cater to his character in any way. Moreover, he only gets to be the star of the show in a WRGP duel once, during the by far most forgettable match against Team Catastrophe. And mind that I use the term "star of the show" very loosely here, because the problem the WRGP arc as a whole has, in my opinion, is that the rather lame Team Catastrophe duel is the only one in the whole tournament that isn't won by Yusei, which categorically means that any of the other character's big moments are usually undermined by the fact that they ultimately still need him to save the day. Thus, moments like Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Crow using an anti-synchro-killer strategy that for once actually forgoes synchros are somewhat cheapened by the fact that they're not actually the turning-point moments they're initially painted as, because ultimately, Yusei always has to be the one to save the day. What's worse is that this almost feels like a bit of a non-issue that could have easily been fixed—given that the show tells us that teams can shuffle around their line-up for a match any time. But unfortunately, the writing never interacts with this as a possible strategic element, nor does it ever seem to consider letting Yusei lose, or forcing him to give up his spot for a match. I feel the need to say that I don't put the blame at Yusei's feet here, though: This strongly feels like an oversight by the writers, and perhaps a disproportionate need to have a nigh-infallible protagonist (on the duelling side of things) that their audience would never run the risk of calling "lame". For Crow, though, this chiefly means one thing: In any duel other than the Catastrophe one, it was always clear that even if he partook, he would never finish the match. And yes, this is technically an issue Jack has, too. But this is where the character writing outside of the duels comes into play, too.

Unlike Jack, who actually gets to do something during the Diablo invasion (albeit very little), who gets his very own dragon upgrade and who gets a very personal, pre-duel plot with Dragan, the show's writing doesn't bother giving Crow a lot of plot- or character-relevant things to do, once the WRGP starts. This is also why I was so surprised at how much the Unicorn and Catastrophe duels embrace his interactions with Aki—compared to the later duels in the finals, this portion still makes Crow feel genuinely relevant and interwoven with the other characters. Meanwhile, out of the three final duels, only the Ragnarok one actually tries to establish a connection to his characterisation, through Brave. The Taiyou duel only sets itself up in such a way that Aki partaking instead of him would have been awkward. Meanwhile, the New World duel just has him being treated like a floormat in a sad parallel to Aki during the Unicorn duel, seeing as they both get a nice moment where it looks like they might turn the duel around (Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon onto the field at the same time; Crow summoning Aurora the Northern Lights, which couldn't be absorbed by the Meklords), only to have their hopes dashed as they're mercilessly cleared off the track. Outside of the duels, many scenes sadly give the impression that they may as well not have included Crow, though—he often gets so little to contribute to a moment or even to say at all that substituting him with a cardboard box seems like it would not have impacted the scene in any way. And that's without addressing his non-existent connection to Sherry, which feels extra glaring, given his later interactions with her on the Ark Cradle.

All in all, the WRGP feels like a very mixed bag, where Crow's character writing is concerned. His belated backstory, which I talked about in part two, is front-loaded and asks as many questions as it answers. Then the tournament commences, gives him some actually decent character interplay with Aki for once (at the cost of letting her succeed in the tournament, it seems), only for him to be basically irrelevant during the WRGP pause again. And once the whole thing resumes, it becomes this hot-and-cold thing where some duel aspects seem tailored to him, while others treat him as completely expendable. The end result is an arc where I'm left wondering why exactly the writers felt the need to make it seem like Crow made up one portion of a protagonist trifecta, if they never actually bothered treating him as equal to the other two. (The answer, I believe, lies somewhere between the fumbled setup they did for him during the Fortune Cup and DS arc, and the way yugioh in general treats its character archetypes. But that's just speculation on my part.) The one, saving grace the WRGP (outside of the Pearson backstory) has for Crow is that it at least doesn't introduce any new character- and/or timeline inconsistencies. In fact, his character stays remarkably true to form once the tournament begins.

Okay, onto the final bit, then. As I've done in both previous posts, let me delve into completely subjective territory and offer some ideas on how this arc could have been handled to make it seem a little less all over the place with Crow. And since his writing here canonically intersects with Aki's several times, let me try to do it while offering the best of both worlds to both characters, if I can.

As far as Crow's backstory is concerned, I've already offered my solutions to that in part two. Now, to stay consistent with my own suggestions, I'll try to branch off what I wrote in the last post. This means that, as per my previous two analyses, we're dealing with two scenarios again: One, Crow stays a signer and we try to touch canon as little as possible. Two, Crow isn't a signer and we adjust canon in whatever way we need to to make him feel interesting and necessary despite/because of that.

First, though, let's get two adjustments I personally would have made in both versions out of the way:

The way the WRGP is structured puts every character that isn't Yusei at a massive disadvantage, where character moments in duels are concerned. Thus, I propose an overhaul. Among the changes I think could have benefitted the characters (yes, all of them) are: One - Aki actually getting to accomplish something during the Unicorn duel (she can and should still have her moments with Crow, but maybe let her portion of the duel end in her thanking him for coaching her, creating a more upbeat scene that strengthens their friendship, which could double as good setup for their later double-duel against Sherry). Two - letting the Team Catastrophe duel actually play out properly (as in, they become more meaningful as opponents by having a better strategy, for example, and Crow could stick it out longer against them, in order to make this more so his win than Jack's. Also, why not let Aki actually see him get back at Team Catastrophe for her?). Three - giving Crow an actual character moment during the Taiyou duel (what if one of the country boys had played a card or two of the ones he learned to read from? It could have helped drive the parallel between the two teams home.) Four - letting Crow's anti-Meklord strategy get at least a little payoff, if only for two turns (show us at least proof of concept, damn it!). Yes, the Ragnarok duel is the only one I wouldn't rewrite (unless special circumstances are introduced, see below). Additionally, let Team 5Ds alter their line-up more than once, damn it. Let them actually strategise about the duels, let them take into consideration who should go first when and whose deck might be better suited to which scenario. Also, remove Yusei from at least one duel. Doesn't matter how, just let him not partake once. Perfect setup to let Aki duel again, and would also allow for spicy character interactions. (Arguably the best duels where this could have been done would have been any of the final duels, though it would have also required rewriting the antagonists somewhat in any case.)

For the love of god, give Sherry and Crow some setup. Let them actually interact, let them introduce their philosophies to one another, just do something, anything to make Crow understanding and talking sense into her during the finale seem earned. A few chance meetings, or maybe even a tiny side-plot could have done so much here. And if you can't let them interact outright, at least let Aki and Crow talk about Sherry! Double whammy! The two characters who end up duelling against her are made to seem even more like a team, and Crow actually gets to find out what Sherry's deal is on-screen. Just. Set. it. up. I beg you.

There we go. Now, onto the two branches.

Option A: Crow stays a signer and obtained Black-Winged Dragon.

Seeing as Crow's signer status, funnily enough, isn't all that relevant during the tournament itself (save for two notable exceptions), there aren't that many fixes to be made here. Crow can still get injured, miss out on the Unicorn duel and be the star of the Catastrophe duel. But giving him something to do during the duel robot invasion that isn't standing around and hoping Yusei will fix everything would also be nice. It's fine if he can't drive out there and duel, but why not let him do something else? He's a crafty guy, why not let him find, say, a way to fry the Diablos' runners, taking a few of them out even from a semi-stationary position without duelling them? He could at least get as much of a consolation prize scene as Aki got with her saving that child. Then there's Team Taiyou, which, save for what I proposed above, is a duel that doesn't feel like it needs changes. Crow does his thing here. That's it. The same goes for Team Ragnarok, especially given that they're specifically written to oppose an all-signers Team 5Ds. Finally, there's Team New World, which, if I'm being completely candid, I would personally overhaul to change the cyborgs' strategy entirely in order to actually let all three members of Team 5Ds shine. But this is the version where I touch canon as little as possible, so... Aside from what I wrote above, no changes needed. Just make Crow seem a little more relevant, make his strategy have at least a little payoff, even if Granel's back out and menacing literally two turns later.

Option B: Crow, as per my previous posts, isn't a signer and doesn't have Black-Winged Dragon.

This is the version that would categorically require heavier changes, though they honestly don't arrive until the break in the tournament. Unicorn and Catastrophe stay the same, I would still propose that Crow gets to be a little more useful during the Diablo invasion. But! In this version, seeing as he never acquired BWD, the break in the WRGP would be an excellent spot to let Crow acquire an upgrade for his beefy Blackwing ace monster of choice. Give him a little side-plot, too, something to do, something where he proves himself. Maybe let him run into Iliaster here, or maybe call back to Pearson again and introduce the new Blackwing upgrade as a treasure Pearson stashed away before he died (maybe this could have even been the card Bolger was actually after; the world is our oyster here). Then he's beefed up, too, and actually feels a little more on the same level as Jack and Yusei. The tournament recommences and again, the Taiyou duel could stay mostly the same, I think. Ragnarok and New World are where it gets really interesting, though. The way I see it, Ragnarok could go two ways with Crow not being a signer: Either he partakes as he did in canon and his non-signer status is called out as a peculiarity by our Swedish boys who happen to be obsessed with fate (which would make his performance against Brave seem all the more impressive), or, due to this being a duel all about destiny and celestial pissing contests, Crow's spot is given to Aki again for this duel due to her signer status (this would, obviously, require rewriting Brave, perhaps even switching him out for a Ragnarok lady instead). As for Team New World, this duel would honestly be a lot more juicy with a non-signer Crow, because much like he was for the dark signers, a non-signer Crow would essentially be an unknown in their plan for the cyborgs. He would be the guy who's Not Supposed To Be Here. Granted, he would still be beaten, but he could still get an excellent moment where his out-of-left-field anti-Meklord strategy genuinely seems to turn the tables for a bit, angering José and providing even stronger setup for Yusei to win later.

Aaaaand that's that. Somehow, I get the feeling the WRGP had the least things that needed fixing because it also had the least actual character writing. But that might just be me. It's late and I have been writing for A While. But hey, I got out part three faster than part two! I consider that an achievement.

Now, while I get my talking points in order for part four, I hope you'll have fun chewing on this one. See you in the grand finale to my Bird Boy dissertation.

[sang8262]

AKI Update - Lore Summary and thoughts

following all the LORE that AKI's update brought us, and in eager anticipation of Ed's release, i wanted to make sure i had my facts organized before starting to speculate and what not

this post is a summary of key info from World Tour, but also AKI's arcade and Master skill/ bond conversations... so inevitably has become one of those loooooong posts lmao;;; spoiler warnings obviously! and take things with a hefty pinch of salt (as anyone should, when talking about JP...):

---- TL;DR

MY GUESS, IMO: is that JP is planning on reviving Shadaloo under the name of Neo Shadaloo, but is not trying to bring back Bison. He's planning on using Ed -- potentially to make Ed the new boss of the organization.

FANG, and his student AKI, are working on reviving Shadaloo as well, but are at odds with JP. Based on FANG's dedication to Bison, FANG and JP must disagree on who should lead the organization. It's still unclear what, exactly, JP would gain by making Ed the new boss, or how he'd benefit from bringing back Shadaloo at all (considering he did not seem to approve of their methods). But we can never be sure with this guy can we...

---- And a clarification: Within the world of SF6 so far, characters use the terms "remnants of Shadaloo" and "Neo Shadaloo" to refer to the same exact group, that being ex-Shadaloo goons working under JP's orders. We are currently unsure what this has to do with the 'Neo Shadaloo' group from SFV, that Ed and Falke leads. The following recap, basically the whole reason I needed to be so thorough in this post particularly, is to show what led me to this (frustrating and confusing) conclusion.

So anyway: ----

A quick recap of World Tour, regarding Bosch and Shadaloo.

((You're good to skip to past the screenshots if you already know about how Bosch got his Psycho Power, and JP/ Shadaloo's relationship to the tournaments)): 1. Bosch is part of the Resistance in Nayshall. Their plan is disrupting the Suval'hal Martial Arts Tournament to prevent the shady money laundering going on behind scenes, and hopefully, take out JP as well. 2. Bosch (and the Avatar) gets caught up in the Tournament, after being targeted by Juri. She's revealed to have been hired by 'remnants of Shadaloo', likely unbeknownst to her. 3. Bosch is captured by 'the enemy', but was given a chance to live because of his strength and will. He received "physical modifications" and enters the tournament in hopes of taking down JP during the awards ceremony. 4. Later, the Avatar wins the underground tournament in Nayshall's Lowlands and formally enters the Suval'hal Tournament as Metro City's representative. 5. Bosch is confirmed a fellow seeded fighter, but it's revealed he's representing a group calling themselves "Neo Shadaloo", cited as 'remnants looking to bring back Shadaloo'. 6. And just in case you didn't know, JP is the one behind forcing the Suval'hal Tournament to continue in Nayshall as a means to launder money. And he knows about Bosch's failure as a host for Psycho Power. He's likely the one who gave it to Bosch in the first place, considering he does the same to the Avatar. ----

And here are some screenshots where I pulled this info from just so it's there as ref:

---- SO WITH all that out of the way, the important bit is that:

In universe, "Neo Shadaloo" and "remnants of Shadaloo" are used rather interchangeably. Both refer to 'group of people with previous connections to Shadaloo, and are trying to bring back the organization'. This is... terribly confusing and raises some eyebrows since Ed and Falke's group is also called Neo Shadaloo. But their goals couldn't be further from the above: they broke free from Bison's grasp despite being experimented on to be his vessels. And, though they use Psycho Power, they'd never use it to harm others, let alone bring back Dictator. ---- The big question is: what the hell is JP planning?! Is it truly to bring back the organization and Bison? And is the use of the name 'Neo Shadaloo' intentional? What are his connections to Ed and/ or AKI? Now, thanks to AKI's update, we have the TINIEST bit more info to make speculations on:

----

AKI Arcade and WT Master content!!!

Brought with us some really wonderful characterization and background for AKI herself, which I loved!! Unfortunately, I'm skipping all that and focusing only on her connections to Shadaloo and JP;;; ----

Starting with her arcade mode: JP is her final boss! AKI's been tasked by her master (Fang Fei, or F.A.N.G., idk why they changed his name) to track down the remains of Shadaloo and find out what they're planning... and eliminate any obstacles to their own goals. This leads her to JP, and it reveals some interesting things:

She asks JP: "The remains of Shadaloo, experimental subjects like Ed... We know where all that money you have laundered is being funneled." In typical JP fashion he claims he hasn't the slightest clue what she's talking about, but does admit he's "acting as a treasurer of sorts. And all [he's] done is distribute the funds left by that organization accordingly".

AKI leaves JP with a warning that she can end his life whenever her master desires, and to "Leave the revival of the organization to the master".

Not the biggest surprise that FANG wants to bring back Bison, but it IS more shocking that it implies JP is also trying to revive Shadaloo! In JP's own Master/ bond conversations in World Tour, he does seem to find Bison's methods incomprehensible, brash, and far too violent for his tastes. Yet he also admires Bison's strength, and wanted to see the world from his point of view. Badly enough to obtain Psycho Power for himself.... We should remember this man lies as easily as he breathes, so we can't be 100% sure whether he 'likes' Bison or not, or whether JP wants to revive him.

From all this, my guess is that JP very well might be planning to bring back Shadaloo as an organization... but, not necessarily also bring back Bison. Because why else would FANG, Bison's biggest fan, find JP's efforts a hinderance? Otherwise, they'd be working together instead of having AKI threaten JP's life. And this is better supported as we look at the 2nd quest AKI gives us as we level up her Master skill:

She gives us this quest: "A.K.I.'s 'master' is curious about Shadaloo's current state and believes tracking down active remnants of the organization may provide some insight. But who could this mysterious 'master' be?" We need to "Talk to the contact in Nayshall while wearing a Shadaloo Soldier Helmet", essentially posing as a member of Shadaloo to get info out of their goons. And this is what the 3 members we track down have to say (the Avatar is Number 13 btw):

The summary is that: 1. The remnants of Shadaloo want to make Ed their new boss of the organization. 2. Definite confirmation that JP was the chief financial officer for Shadaloo. He's been using funds to restore Shadaloo bases near Nayshall, and is tracking down Ed/ trying to get him on board so that "Neo Shadaloo will be back for real". We come to the end of the quest by reporting back to AKI, and bringing her (adorable) report letter to Fang Fei:

So I think FANG's furious response is clear evidence that JP must not be reviving Bison. What JP's plans are with Ed, and why he even wants to bring back Shadaloo (as Neo Shadaloo apparently?) is... is unclear. Obviously we'll get more info once Ed is released, and I'm quite sure he wants NOTHING to do with neither JP nor FANG's plans.

---- Speculative Rants! Pinch of salt, heavily recommended!

Honestly, this is less of a speculation and more like, me complaining about JP lmao. Frankly it's quite hard to guess anything too interesting, since I or anyone else for that matter, has any clue what motivates JP to do... like, anything he does at all????

I keep saying this but seriously, what is his deal?! He's the head of a world recognized NGO, been publicly recognized and rewarded for his philanthropy, acts deathly allergic to both conflict and unnecessary attention, and even wields Psycho Power with no apparent negative effects quite SKILLFULLY at that.

He has an observant, analytical personality that finds morbid entertainment in The Human Condition™ and Struggle™, and is incredibly hard working for someone who finds meaning in nothing I might hazard a guess that he enjoys creating problems and situations to spectate how people act in response. It might be that he simply enjoys the thrill of getting away with crime, since he clearly doesn't want to be held responsible nor credited for any misdeeds.

But I still feel like he has some greater, more tangible plan. Something more than merely creating chaos as "light entertainment", as he often puts it. In fact, he doesn't particularly care about what becomes of his victims (Ken, Luke, Bosch, even the Avatar so long as we don't get in the way of his nondescript """"plans""""), so it's not even purely about causing suffering for the sake of it. He HAS goals just. Really really obscure ones.

But I'm also frustrated because... Why go after Ed? Surely he must know that Ed disapproves of Bison's cruelty, and would definitely disagree with JP's own amoral activities. I'm strongly speculating that JP doesn't want to use Ed as a vessel for Bison (otherwise, FANG wouldn't have been so upset), so what other reason could JP have in making Ed the leader of Neo Shadaloo?

---- In closing:

We just won't know... UNTIL ED RELEASES! I'm looking forward to his arcade and World Tour stuff to finally shed some light on what the hell is going on. This all felt a bit futile to 'analyze', since it didn't quite reveal as much as I'd hoped in the end.

But we'll see where Capcom takes the story! I only hope that JP doesn't end up disappointing in the end, that's probably my biggest fear right now;;; His whole allure is the mastermind, the schemer, the devilishly charismatic guy who gets away with it. He's "lost" to the Avatar once already, but he.. didn't "lose", yknow? He's a bit untouchable right now, and I want his defeat to be interesting!!! But how can we have a satisfying victory over an antagonist we understand so little about?!?!

Anyway. Long post is long. Everyone who's survived all this rabble, thanks for your time and attention <3 !!

[animehouse-moe]

Can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from CSM? And why you loved them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Thanks....

Alright, top 5 characters and top 5 moments. This was an interesting one. Of course, there's definitely going to be manga spoilers for both Part 1 and Part 2, so anime/part 1 onlies beware.

Makes the most sense to start with characters so we'll go there first.

Denji

Kinda hard not to put Denji on the list. I know sometimes people's favorite characters can be the supporting cast, but in such a character focused series it's hard to not love Denji's character arc, and his cyclical story that feels like it mimics a devil's reincarnation. Always the same person, but everchanging, Denji's stuck searching for happiness at every turn in his life despite accruing everything that he thought would make him happy.

Asa Mitaka

I mean, there's a reason that the main character is called a main character. Asa's duality, and her juxtaposition in part two against Denji is really well done. Everything of hers serves to be an antithesis to Denji's, so both characters have done really well in bringing out the best in each other when they're together.

Quanxi

Alright, finally into the supporting characters. To put it simply, Quanxi is just plain cool and interesting. Having taught Kishibe all he knows while putting him through the ringer each time he asks her out, it's just fun. Being the oldest Devil Hunter and also one of two weapon hybrids to evade Makima's grasp up until the end? There's just too much that's cool about her, and her re-appearance in Part 2 only heightens that as she may well be positioned to take over Kishibe's role from the end of part 1. As a note, I was torn between Quanxi and Reze for this "spot", but I feel like Quanxi brings a more "complete" arc through what I've seen of her character so far, while if Reze resurfaces she'll become far more important than her role in part 1.

Makima

Chainsaw Man's core cast is pretty undefeated in terms of quality. I mean, it's pretty hard to do much with a character when they all die so quickly. Anyways, Makima as the antagonist is just plain good. People will get hung up on her manipulation and whatnot, and that is a part of her character, and a good one, but a lot can neglect the "genuine" aspect of her character that makes those manipulative pieces that much harder to discern at moments. She's more complex than just "Chainsaw Man is mine", and she deserves credit for that as a character.

Power

I'd like to say I struggled with choosing Power, but I really didn't. I do like Aki and his whole thing about death and revenge and his relationship with Himeno.... but I think that Power gets the head start on him. It's not really stretching the truth to say that the women of Chainsaw Man are more important to Denji's character than the men. After all, it's why four of the five in this list are women, Power included. Power's story does really well to bond with Denji as a sibling, giving him a closer connection to her than he has to Aki. It's almost like a precursor for becoming a big brother to Nayuta. And then there's the whole thing with Power's death mirroring Pochita's. Power fills a void in Denji, much like Aki. But it's not Power herself that does, but their bond, the pieces that the pair have put together between themselves through jokes, fighting, fear, or anything else. So, out of all the possible recurring characters, Power is arguably the most important, which makes me curious to see if we'll ever find the Blood devil/fiend again.

Alright, on to top 5 moments now. This one's a bit more challenging, because defining a moment isn't super easy. Because of that, I'll center it around a panel or sequence that I think is really important, impactful, or cool.

Go Find The Blood Devil - Chapter 91

Ended the characters with Power, so gotta start the moments with Power. This one's rather self-explanatory, as Power gives her life much like Pochita to offer Denji a new life, not another chance at his current, but a new one. It plays, in the literal sense, into Denji's circular story of rebirth and how it affects his dreams and ideals. Great moment all around. Also on that note, Pochita's moment is solid, but it's more foundational than some of these other moments. It has it, but it's more important as a story aspect than something that can grip readers with the same importance.

Play Catch - Chapter 79

I know I picked Power over Aki earlier, but that doesn't mean that he's a worthless character stuck on the sidelines. He does a good bit through life in the manga, but his Gun fiend moment is the most important for both him and Denji. It speaks to Aki's innermost desires, to be able to play with his brother once more. Though in this case it shows how he's come to see Denji as a younger sibling and is using that to replace the one that he lost. All the while it's meant to show Aki's desire to be able to laugh, to have fun and lead a normal life, none of which was available to him. Infinitely more depressing than Power's death, Aki's moves in the opposite direction as a self-serving one which impacts Denji in a totally different way.

Save The Asa - Chapter 127

This stretch from Part 2 was really something else because it's the first time that Asa and Denji really talk properly. There's the piece at the aquarium, but it's not the same as looking into these characters like they do in this chapter. How it approaches the feelings of depression, and what can help fight them or stave them off is just incredibly fresh and realistic, and so very much Denji-like. It's silly and wonderfully uplifting and important, as well as showing Denji's resolve and (at this point in the manga) his latest reborn self. Sure, he's gone through hell several times over but he's now got a little sister, a bunch of dogs, and a massive Chainsaw Man fanbase. The sun's only just rising on his new life, and he's excitedly reaching out for more.

Dream Battle - Chapter 10

It wouldn't be Chainsaw Man without some insanity, and I feel like Denji's fight with the Leech Devil is the first real instance of that, and such an electric one at that. On his last legs, bordering on desperation, Denji's feral and ridiculous side appears for the first time, and it's an incredible amount of fun.

Chu Chu Lovely Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura

I love Maximum The Hormone, Fujimoto loves Maximum The Hormone, how could this chapter not top my list of favorite moments? Belting off a song about sexual assault as Denji beats the brakes off a bunch of guys taking their turns against him, it's just so Chainsaw Man I don't know if there's a moment that better explains the series. It might even top the list of chapters I can't wait to see adapted as the series continues, purely because I know the song will play during the fight.

Finally, out the other side. These things always take a deceptive amount of time because I have so many ideas swirling around in my head that I need to trim down on. Going all the way down to five for each is really difficult, but given how narrow the criteria are, I feel pretty confident in my decisions at this point, especially in my favorite moments.

[aki-346]

More HC For Pokemon Sunrise

I lost all my hc because I didn't know how to save it as a draft...BUT LETS HOPE I CAN REMEMBER EVERYTHING

(Im going to put Daigo and Alain again because I missed some hc)

General

Aki, Daigo, and Alain are in a friend group called "The Gang", this friend group is the people they usually hang out with, which is Aki, Alain, Daigo, Goh, Satoshi/Ash, Serena (and sometimes Mairin/Maron, Koharu/Chloe, Hikari/Dawn, and Mikuri) Thank you @for-315 for helping make "The Gang"

Alain & Daigo

Alains metagross is from Daigo (EVERYONES HC)

Alain gender is still man, but his sexuality is Pan

Alain, Daigo, Mairin have matching bracelets (the one Mairin wears in xy-xyz)

Daigos gender is Genderfluid but is mainly a guy but loves being feminine, but Daigos sexuality is gay, his first crush was Mikuri but he didn't understand his feelings but feel for Alain HARD. (we love the gays)

Shota does work for Devon company now.

Daigo has blue and yellow eyes in this AU (THANK YOU LAVY- I LOVE UR HEAD CANON)

Daigo, Alain, Aki do have matching bracelet things (the ones that have starts, hearts, etc in my redesigns)

When Alain arrived in Hoenn for the 2nd time because Daigo invited him (This HC is from Children of Science, PLEASE READ IT ITS WHOLESOME), they gave gifts to each other, Alain gave Daigo a rosegold necklace and Daigo gave him a bracelet that can hold a key stone but can be placed on a mega ring too, but Daigo also gave him a keystone <33. They both wear their gifts.

Daigo does give aki a custom made mega ring for Christmas.

(EHm- Daigo and Alain switch EMhhH.)

Aki-

Aki is my pokesona and is me :)

Aki was 13 when xy-xyz happened ( 3 year - 16 / 4 year - 20)

Akis birthday is on November 17, 2001

Aki gender is GenderFluid, and is Pan.

Aki lives with Alain, and Mirai.

Aki was the 5th placer in Kalos league (age 12), She placed again

Akis team is Gekkouga, Lizardon (Mega X), Absol (Mega), Shaymin, Diancie (mega), Cingerace.

3rd on the 2nd league (age 16) and placed 2nd (age 20-21)

Aki does have PTSD of having trust issues with friends, and social anxiety with her being extroverted. And is also scared to lose her loved ones

She has a girlfriend (Mirai) that kinda does pokemon performing but mostly does sewing and making clothes (the same with Aki).

People would hate her team because it has 2 mythical pokemon is "over powered" but Diancie and shaymin are in the same level as Akis other pokemon.

Here we go TRUMA . When she was a kid (5) , her mom had a leafeon as he partner because she did pokemon performing, but the leasfeon went missing for 1 week but when home and turns out it is really injured and is bleeding (ALOT), it died that same day on the door step. At the age of 8 her brother died, trying to save her life.

When she went to school she had only 2 friends because everyone thought she was annoying and too much, those friends accepted her as what she was, but then one day she was talking a lot about pokemon then her friends told her to "shut up" then figuring out that the people she thought accepted her, it hurt her so much. When ever she keeps talking about something none stop to The Gang, and she would usually think that they are ignoring her and keep talking to someone else, she would get quiet and stop, but they are actually listening to her and Alain comforts her when it happens

She was stuck on choosing either pokemon performing, or pokemon researching because her parents do those jobs but found pokemon battling amazing and cool, she choice that to be her path but her grandma didn't like it and said "your too much like a boy" and "Isn't pokemon battling only for the guys". Aki always had those words in her mind and through her jounrey she firgured that she really loved being masculine and didn't care who would stop her. She cut her hair and changed her outfit, her grandma was disappointed in her but her parents were so proud because she found herself. (DAMN I WROTE A LOT SORRY)

I MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE A PART 3 AGAIN- BUT FEED ON THIS FOR NOW- <3

[frosted-hyacinth]

かべのはな - Wallflower

Part 1, Part 2 This is a short story, my grammar is bad... First post on tumblr btw!

The first time you had tried gaming, your friend, Aki - it’s meaning was something like ‘bright helper’ but she, some way or another, had ended up the exact opposite of what her name meant- had somehow managed to make a deal with you; if you had joined her in playing it to prevent others from thinking she was lonely, she would lend you the manga you've been wanting for a long time though due to it's leaks and large popularity all copies were sold out within the first few hours of release. You sulked in your room for hours. But anyway, this was how you ended up here, with your friend's leant monochrome headphones sitting plainly yet comfortably atop your hair, the unmistakable sounds of mouse clicking filled the room when suddenly it all stopped. Someone had… somehow joined the server lobby that was apparently meant to be private, or so she said. Your face flickered with surprise, head snapping towards her sheepishly laughing face. 

“I thought you said I didn't have to worry about awkwardly meeting other people since this was a private server!“ You quietly yelled, an evident glare faced directly toward the said friend “Well that's what I thought at least! Why don't we just ask the intruder how - and why he's here!" She stated "He?" "Please don't say I assumed gender." Her voice trailed off "But you just did-" You said, trying to back what you just said but was interrupted by the 'someone' joining the voice chat leading to everything becoming even quieter if it could. "..." The two companions could hear the lightest shuffling of clothes before he (?) spoke up 'Hello?" "You just - mhph!" before your *cough* dear *cough* friend, could say anything rude like all the swear words in her small vocabulary, you were quick to throw your hand over her mouth stopping her from saying anything "Continue." You calmly replied, letting your arm drop down to let the poor girl breathe "Hey." The stranger said "Well? How did you get in here?" She questioned, suspicion evident in her voice "It wasn't privatized. It automatically spawned me here." "What are your pronouns? It's getting tiring to have Y/n saying I'm assuming gender." "Who?"        

Turning off both your microphones, before screaming as loud as you could in her face, even though it really wasn’t all that loud “Aki! Don’t just say my name in front of strangers! Didn’t you learn that during elementary school before?!” “Opps, sorry, that was a slip of tongue. But I guess to be equal you could tell him my name too?” “Why would I want to-” You wanted to say that there would be no reason to list out Aki’s name as well but instead, the unfamiliar voice asked “Are you both still here?” “Uh, yeah! We’re still here!” “Since I just said my friend here’s name, I guess I could tell you my name too. It’s Aki by the way.”

More of that unstable, in between comfortable and disturbing silence because with the boy, behind the screen, he was debating whether or not to let these two girls know his name, especially since they told him their names even before they were sure he would tell his in return. Did they trust him? Screw this, it was tol much pressure. "Kozume… Kozume Kenma, you asked earlier for my pronouns, I’m a boy. I thought you could figure from my voice though…"

        "Wait! Aren't you that twitch streamer?"       

"Yes?" Queue the fangirl squeak/squealing of Aki ``That's great! That means you can help Y/n here! She's a total noob at this game, though she's considerably good since she just started a few hours ago. Soooo I'll leave the two of you alone for now." Yeah, Aki was the no. 1 shipper of you and Kenma when you first met. I guess your personalities were just too similar; both were timid who only spoke to people close to them even though it was still quiet. Both were even shut ins but who'd stay in most and for the longest? That question remains unanswered.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥       

You watched Aki exit the fluorescent lit room with the excuse that it was a little too hot in the room and she was going outside for a walk *cross* presumably for two, three hours of a 'binge watching anime marathon' but what the girl didn't know was that it's probably a really bad idea to leave two socially awkward people together. For sometime the room was silent before Kenma started to speak, "So, what do you need help with? - In game." "I………… don't know, I don't even know how to play this game, Aki just left me here."        

"I could help you."       

With these simple words, both started moving in game and eventually warmed up to each other, talking like you'd known the other for years

.˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥       

Gtg, Aki's calling me, she says she wants me to do something.    

Oh, bye

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

*This is a text, just to let you know ;) yes you asked for each others numbers

[1/?]

[hxhhasmysoul]

Thoughts on ChainsawMan?

People tend to compare that to Jujutsu Kaisen.

I actually wrote down my thoughts about CSM, after I read it. And they stand because after the hard reset of the story and of Denji with the end of part 1 (is that what's it's called in the fandom? idk) I just went "really?" and stopped reading.

So I won't repeat what I said there I will just write a bit about what I think about people comparing CSM and JJK. And about how I don't really find them very similar at all.

I think the comparing started with Fujimoto himself? Idk if people compared them before he said it. And generally I wish he hadn't said that and that people didn't compare the two. There's a lot of this attitude "I like this thing more so it must be better in every way and the other thing needs to be shit, and I'm intellectually superior for liking it" coming form the CSM fandom. Idk if JJK fans are also such dipshits, but it took me a lot of blocking not to see posts from CSM fans who showed love for their fav by coming into the juju tags and shitting on it while saying nothing about why they think CSM is good. It reeks of high school mentality that many fail to shake until their 30s or even later.

The problem with comparing these two is that any similarities are extremely superficial. Fujimoto and Gege have completely different attitudes towards their characters, storytelling, world building, themes. They are clearly trying to achieve very different things with their stories and that's okay.

As I say in that post I linked above, I don't think CSM is bad but there's just nothing in it that matches my subjective tastes. JJK isn't perfect but the great things about it really hit the sweet spots for me.

(highlighting this so hopefully the CSM fans leave me the fuck alone)

CSM and JJK spoilers ahead, if you're an anime only. Also my opinion of CSM is based on part 1 and like a few chapters of part 2 that I read before I completely lost interest in it. I don't see myself picking it again, though.

_________________

Characters:

Fujimoto's gag character is Denji. Gege's are Toudou and Takaba. It is a valid writing choice to make your main character into a joke but not one I like. So like the moment I realised Denji's budding sexuality is a joke not a theme CSM really lost in my eyes. And since Fujimoto had (has?) just one joke for Denji to be the butt of over and over again it just got boring.

After the first two chapters I was ready to love Denji, to adopt him. Like 25 chapters in I was completely cold on him because it became clear that Fujimoto isn't going to do anything with him. If you compare that to Yuuji who's consistently getting juicy character development - it's easy for me to care about him, and when he gets traumatised, I get traumatised with him and now we have this bond where I mentally adopted him.

Aki is less meh then Megumi but in the end he's there just to die meaninglessly because Denji gets reset. I prefer Nobara to Power but I still think Power is okay, but in the end she's there just to die meaninglessly because Denji gets reset.

Makima barely wins at being more interesting with Sukuna. And that's mostly because Gege is very against developing Sukuna. Compared with Kenjaku or even Mahito? She's so dull, her plot is simplistic, and her manipulation is kinda one note.

Storytelling:

My blog's name references HxH. Part of why I obsess over HxH is the idea of characters having very different and separate goals. Story lines that run concurrently and kinda bump into each other, feed into each other and then separate. I hate the contemporary hot take that everything in writing has to be meat, has to further the plot.

CSM part 1 is very focused around the Control Devil's ploy to control the Chainsaw Devil using the Gun Devil as a ruse and other factions trying to interfere with that. There's really only this one plot line going on, there are some character arcs on the side, there are some factions nuances but they really just all prop up the main one.

JJK isn't HxH in this respect but the way in which characters have their own goals that don't necessarily further the plot is still really well done. And there isn't even one main plot. Kenjaku is the driver of it all and they have their huge scheme but Sukuna has his own plans, Gojou had his own power play with the elders and was trying to put that in motion. Other characters have/had their own schemes or goals too. People love to complain that the Zenin arc has nothing to do with the plot. I guess. It has everything to do with the themes though. I'm so sad that when Gege decided to speed run juju they cut Nobara, because her story had all the hallmarks of being about the themes but also her powers would really lend themselves to the main villain fights.

Shock Value vs Anticlimax:

HxH uses anticlimax very efficiently making the story feel fresher and much more interesting than for instance stories that rely on plot twists and reveals. The way most HxH arcs end is unexpected and kinda anticlimactic but extremely satisfying. There's build up and it gets resolved in a very fun way but not the most obvious one.

I don't remember CSM using anticlimax at all, but I have read it once and only part 1 and didn't watch the anime. So maybe it does but not in a way that was memorable to me. But it uses shock value and twists and reveals a lot, and mostly relies on killing off characters. Which for me resulted in not even trying to remember their names or faces and sometimes skipping through their dialogue if the exchanges got boring.

Gege isn't Togashi but the HxH and YYH influences are visible. Gege can suddenly kill off a character and doesn't stray away from graphic violence and body horror for shock. But the killing off isn't constant. It makes sense to get invested in the characters. Anyone can die but it's not a given, it's a threat not a promise. And the anticlimactic moments are meaningful and satisfying - sometimes in a cruel way. Yuuji's breakdown in the detention centre; then his death soon after; Junpei's death; the end of the exchange event; the whole fucking Shibuya arc which gives the reader no catharsis just drags them deeper into despair with every little moment that doesn't result in a clear win - it's excruciating; the conversation between Yuuji and Higuruma.

There's shock value in JJK too, as is in HxH. It's just used more like spice, it's not all there is to the flavour.

World building:

I just like complex magic systems where the results of the fights are not a given and fights can go interesting ways with how the characters utilise their powers in creative ways. In CSM it's just Chainsaw Devil hack and slash, Chainsaw Devil win, Denji is anemic - and for me that's very whatever.

Themes:

I've read some meta and saw some video essays about CSM and some people actually talked about the themes. I don't really remember much of it... I think it was mostly about the found family thing and life being kinda hopeless so carving these little moments for oneself? There might be more I just never was invested enough and the stuff i read/heard didn't fully convince me. Like I felt, yeah there might be some of it but it all felt like kinda gliding on the surface.

The themes in JJK match my interests far better. Oppressive systems and how hard they are to overcome even if you try. Bodily autonomy. Anti traditionalism and anti patriarchy. Deconstruction of the narrative of the hyper individualism of "the strongest" ideology and the idea of meritocracy. Reconciling guilt and your own values.

[lone-prayer]

HC - Bad Ending Verse Details

Just completed Kazuya / Shadow Naoya's about page! I didn't add everything about this AU's canon divergences since his biography was getting pretty long already and I wanted his page to make sense even for those who haven't played Persona 1.

So here's some more details about Naoya and his Shadow in this verse!

Firstly, the Naoya in this AU ('Twodou' for short) is not the same morally upright Naoya in my main verse. Persona 1 features some basic moral choices in the game which you can answer successfully to unlock your party's Ultimate Personas. Twodou failed literally all of them, which essentially makes him a cowardly teen who will abandon others and jump to beating up a 'monster' to save his own skin. He's also going along with the party only because he feels obligated to, and is ambivalent about whether the world is worth saving.

As a result, they also fail to get the game's Good Ending as Mai refuses to hand the compact over and the party takes it from her by force. After beating Kandori and finding the Real Maki, Ideal Maki is then dragged back into her Ideal World by Mai. Kazuya does manage to steal Aki's mirror compact before she is erased, using it to re-enter the Ideal World.

Kazuya's attitude proceeds to bite him in the ass when the party confronts a masked Ideal Maki in her hospital bed and Mai in the Lost Forest, meeting with Setsuko along the way. Kazuya essentially gives Nanjo's 'if you want to commit suicide do it already' speech without the 'we'll always be your friends and remember you' part, which leads to the Ideal Maki falling into despair and merging with Pandora there and then.

In the middle of the fight, the Ideal World starts deteriorating and Mai recognises this as the Real Maki having returned to the Sea of Souls. Kazuya manages to drag the party back to safety to the real world, but they watch in horror as the mirror they just exited shatters, along with the remains of the DEVA System.

Blaming Kazuya for the loss of both Naoya and Maki, the party is quick to shun him. But they decide not to tell Naoya's parents — how could they possibly tell a couple their son is dead and there's another part of his psyche piloting his body? The rest of their school years are spent in a tense silence, which is mostly overlooked in the aftermath of rebuilding the town.

Kazuya does feel very guilty about having to leave both Maki and her mother behind. This guilty conscience is partly why he chose to become a doctor, but the real Naoya genuinely wanting to be in the medical profession helped a lot too.

Like his Self, Kazuya does have frequent dreams about his past and meeting his other Shadow Selves. Because of this, he knows that, by taking over the human's body, he did condemn Twodou to limbo. He's trying to convince himself he doesn't feel some twang of not-quite-guilt over that.

[salmalin]

My thoughts on the FFXII ending theme "Kiss Me Goodbye" and why it's so Jarring

I would like to preface this breakdown with six things:

1. Final Fantasy XII is my favorite video game ever, even after more than a decade playing it. 2. I have a semi-formal background in music, writing, and game production. Mostly music. To the point where I get paid actual real life money to work in these fields. No, I will not elaborate. 3. "Kiss Me Goodbye" is, objectively, a good song. 4. This is my humble take/opinion. 5. I love Nobuo Uematsu. He is the reason I started playing piano in earnest -- so I could play his music. I was too poor for an MP3 player but the choir room was always abandoned at lunch. 6. I went on a rant about how much I couldn't stand this song in the context of the game, which resulted in me being told to just make a long-ass in-depth tumblr post. 7. It's about 3AM.

So here's my take:

Kiss Me Goodbye, written by Nobuo Uematsu and performed by Angela Aki, never should have made it into the final game.

Part 1: Initial Reaction

Much like many of you, way back in the days of Younger Me playing this game for the first time, I had played approximately 46 hours. (According to the save file, that is. I cannot tell you how long it took me to beat the Demon Wall, how many times I died without saving after two hours of gameplay, my disastrous forays into the Nabudis Deadlands, or how long it took me to beat the Geruda the first time, nor I do not care to estimate.) It was the most appropriately scored soundtrack I had encountered thus far in my life, and has only been beaten out by one film since -- Weekend (2011). I had beat Vayne and saved Dalmasca... all to rising strings and horns and then....

Then Kiss Me Goodbye started playing. Hearing that song was so jarring I can still feel it. It's been more than ten years. (Likely longer than fifteen, in fact.) Many of you have felt this very emotion. Some of you, not so much. But the general consensus I have found over the years is for a lot of small reasons that build into one very big reason:

Kiss Me Goodbye does not belong in Final Fantasy XII.

For some, this reaction was easily explained -- the sudden and acute switch from a fully orchestrated piece to what seemed to be a fully orchestrated ballad was jarring simply because they "added lyrics." But it's far more than that.

Part 2: Context

There was a lot going on behind the scenes when Square was making Final Fantasy XII. (Here is an excellent breakdown.) Staff were shuffled around, the main writer left, Nobuo goddamn Uematsu left, and some very qualified peeps stepped up to the plate to finish what was left. And they did an excellent job, but some tone stuff didn't line up in some spots because they were given half a script and expected to run with it. Modifying a script is sometimes harder than making a whole new one, so the fact that they didn't get the time to do so resulted in some Issues that have come to haunt it in subsequent game reviews. The most egregious examples being:

1. Vaan and Penelo's less than active participation in the plot than most others (which I personally like, as it symbolizes that Ashe's charge towards reclaiming her throne is legitimately supported by the common people, and how children often get swept up in the bloody aspects of war and revolution. I also love when they bicker in the background.)

2. Balthier's one off mention of being a former Judge and then nothing. (Please, I am begging for more details. I want them. So badly. It hurts. Please.)

3. Reddas used a nuke Nethecite on Nabudis and they really don't go into it. Which, uh... you'd think a Japanese game would, after touching on it.

4. Kiss Me Goodbye in its entirety.

Because you see, Kiss Me Goodbye was a carryover from the original crew. More than that, it is the only song Nobuo Uematsu made entirely by himself. He's on the writing credits for only one other song in the game (to my knowledge.) What does this mean? It means that "Kiss Me Goodbye" was made for an entirely different game. You'll find more on this in the "Lyrics" section at the end, but is ultimately unimportant. Were discussing why the song is so jarring, after all. For not, let's focus on-

Part 3: Era and Culture

Relevant Fun Fact: In Japan, music genres tend to trend (not hit, but trend) a solid 10 years later than they do in America. Disco in particular had an extremely long lifespan that started late in the game and continued into the 90s. Why, you ask, do I mention this?

"Kiss Me Goodbye" is pop. However, when I called "Kiss Me Goodbye" pop, my fellow FFXII peeps were like, "No, it's not pop -- it's a Ballad." "You can't dance to Kiss Me Goodbye, so it's not pop." This has been the response from almost everyone I know. It's a response I've gotten at conventions, at panels, and even seen in interviews.

Here's the catch:

"Ballad" is a format, not a genre.

In 2006 -- the year Final Fantasy XII came out -- "Kiss Me Goodbye" likely would not have been labeled as pop. This was the year "Sexyback" by Justin Timberlake and "When We Were Young" by The Killers trended pretty high. Green Day did covers of U2 songs, and "Every Time We Touch" absolutely decimated the weeb community at large. Yeah -- that year. If you were there, you likely remember it. Vividly. Quite likely against your will. (On that note, "Every Time We Touch" absolutely slaps but I refuse to subject myself to half an hour of flashbacks to low quality Naruto AMVs uploaded to youtube and watched over a shoddy dial-up connection. Yes, you read that right -- I still had dial-up in 2006.)

Part 4: "Kiss Me Goodbye" is a Pop Song

Why, you ask, do I insist on saying Pop when it clearly doesn't line up with 2006 definitions of Pop? Well... What is Pop?

"Pop" simply means "popular." It's a genre that changes from year to year, decade to decade. 1950's Pop is different from 60's, 70's, and 80's Pop. This is outright undeniable. It's a genre that changes from country to country and year to year. It is not a "static" genre that has a largely consistent definition, like Jazz, Bluegrass, Punk, or Metal. Pop borrows from all of these, and likes to change up what it borrows from depending on current events. Green Day, for example, is punk. It's undeniable that they are also Pop. Y'all remember when Mumford and Sons got popular? Yeah -- Banjos are a Bluegrass cornerstone.

Now what I want to drag your attention to... is American film.

Yes, I have a point. And we're almost there. Just sit tight for a second -- I'm trying to keep this as brief as possible, I promise.

There are many examples of Pop songs over the years being put at the end of films. But the examples I'd like to draw your eyes to are largely Disney films because they are not only the most egregious examples of this -- but they largely follow the same pattern as Final Fantasy XII during that time; largely orchestrated soundtracks ending with a single Pop song laid over the credits. So what movies were coming out of Disney around 2006? Meet The Robinsons, Brother Bear -- their themes are rather sedate at the end, right? They're ballads? Yes, but how does that prove my point? That's only a handful of Disney films.

"Yeah!" you must be thinking. "You're wasting my time! What is your point?!"

First... let's look further back than 2006, shall we? Like... ten years back. (Remember that thing about the delay of popularity in American music in Japan? Yeah, it's important now.) Because if you look ten years back, you start to see a pattern that "Kiss Me Goodbye" lines up with perfectly.

And that pattern is in

EVERY FREAKIN' MOVIE FROM THE 90'S.

Ever After. Beauty and the Beast. Hercules. Anastasia. Even "The Prince of Egypt" did this.

"What is this pattern?" you ask. "What kind of pattern could possibly be in all these animated movies and then a Drew Barrymore Movie?"

Look, these are just the examples off the top of my head. I can't just raid my old VHS collection 'cause my mom's got them clutched in her wrinkled old Transphobic hands. I'm operating largely on youtube and memory at this point.

Anyways.

This Pattern I speak of is: "Music for the film is largely orchestrated beat for beat to fit with the film to the point of seamless integration. It suits each and every moment and doesn't feel out of place. However, during the end credits you have a single song that -- if the film is a musical -- is a cover of a song early in the film... except it's bad. If the film is not a musical, then they slap a song by a popular artist on the credits and call it a day. The song usually does not fit at all. This is all to, 1. Sell the Soundtrack. (See Pokemon the First Movie OST and Pokemon the Movie 2000, I am not joking.) 2. Potentially get the movie free advertisement by taking a chance that the cover will make it into the top 40. The song is generally a ballad, usually a love song, in order to cement its place as a Pop culture influence in a blatant attempt to boost sales long term."

"Oh, but Sal -- that second one couldn't have actually happ-" It did.

(For those on audio transcription, the video I linked is "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal.)

Of note, the band refuses to tell anyone what the lyrics are about.

Pop in the 1990s was largely either Britany Spears or Backstreet Boys level of over the top, or hella orchestrated ballads. Seal. Celine Dion. Etc. Also, everyone scooped. (It's a thing where you start to hit a note and then move up to the right one.) Sound familiar? Yeah, that's 'cause what "Kiss Me Goodbye" is, down to the letter. (She scoops so much. It's... It's infuriating.)

Now, do I think Nobuo Uematsu wanted to do either of these things I mentioned up there about using a pop song with that pattern?

No. He doesn't need to. He's a good dude and the Japanese version was solid -- just obviously not made for the game they ended up with, and by then deadlines were too tight to write and record another one.

But the English/American adaption? It checks all the boxes, anyways.

The lyrics ultimately don't make sense (see "Lyrics" section below), it's by a big name artist who is constantly scooping hello 90's Pop Ballads my old nemesis, it's got a strong orchestration followed by swelling violins and vocals A La Celine Dion (please just look up her hits from the 90's to understand, I'm not strong enough to go through her catalogue again), and even though it's largely orchestrated and "acoustic" it is undeniably formatted like a 90's Pop song -- just not the "Pop" we've been listening to in the last 20 years.

Part 5: Conclusion

In spirit, the English/American adaption "Kiss Me Goodbye" is a 1996 Pop song that happens to be a ballad and a love song tacked onto the end of an American film that never broke the top 40. You literally cannot change my mind. So you can imagine how jarring I would find it, as an American, to hear this Pop Sappy Love Ballad following dozens of hours of classical music to wrap up the end of a video game about war crimes. You can't just forcefully drag me out of the Feels of Averted War Crimes and Peace To Ivalice and into the end credits of a Disney movie about falling in love with a Furry.

And this is why it's so jarring at the end of the game for a good chunk of American viewers.

Bonus Round: Lyrics

This is the part where I dip/rip into the lyrics.

You have been warned.

Japanese Version Notes:

This song was likely written with Ashe's plotline in mind. However, considering Ashe leaves behind the memory of Rasler long before the end of the game, it does not fit, tonally speaking. She is not the focus at the end of the game -- it is a successful ensemble cast. Reviewers can say whatever they want about Vaan and Penelo being unimportant -- they absolutely have an interest in stopping their homeland from being the battleground for an all-out if not one-sided nuke Nethecite war. In fact, they have more of a stake than the others.

Yes, Basch is bound to protect Dalmasca. Yes, it's Ashe's homeland, too. Balthier and Fran are in it for the destruction of the nukes Nethecite. But Vaan and Penelo? They have friends there. They have Migelo there. They were raised there and Vaan fought rats there (notably after his parents died of the plague), and they raised orphans there. People know them. They have a much higher stake in all this than anyone else. Ashe can just rebuild her castle -- everyone she loves is already dead aside from Uncle Halim who is on one of the ships fighting. Not Vaan and Penelo, though, because their family is legit under the debris falling. Heck, the end of the game is in Penelo's point of view.

It doesn't make sense to have a song from Ashe's point of view here. Obviously the ending video was to lead into the sequel, which makes the song seem out of touch even in the Japanese version.

However, to it's credit, this is because of the scene itself, not the song.

English/American Version Notes:

Kiss Me Goodbye's English/American adaption is everything I hate about American Pop Music jam-packed into one song and I will not apologize for this statement. It's clear from the get go.

You say my love is all you need To see you through But I know these words are not quite true Here is the path you're lookin' for An open door Leading you to worlds you long to explore

Everything about Rasler is stripped away from the American version, with only a brief mention of "love's mortality" and occasional "love's memory" that has been essentially repurposed in a new context to mean a dying love, not a lover dying. Translations are tricky like that. Unfortunately the association isn't strong enough to actually mean anything, even placed in context.

This song, in the English/American release, has nothing to do with the game. More than that, it hits all the things I hate about American Pop Songs, which has largely gotten worse lately:

1. There are no defining characteristics about the lover. 2. There's no plot behind the ballad, which is legit supposed to tell a story, which it doesn't. Just "let them go." Which, again, was stripped of context. 3. The lyrics are borderline gibberish to me.

Kiss me good-bye Loves mystery All of my life I'll hold you close to me Won't shed a tear For loves mortality For you put the dream in my reality

Look, I understand getting a song translated is hard, and getting it to rhyme is harder, but the amount of mental gymnastics I have to go through to figure out that last line is not worth it when it has no lead up or payoff. 4. Every other note is scooped, which 100% makes it a bad pop song from the 90's whether you like it or not. Just a musical nitpick, but please... please... I need people to stop scooping through an entire song. Please, just hit the note. Don't start on a different note and slide up to it on the reg. It's an inflection meant to be used as an emotional emphasis, and done so sparingly with a measured amount of control. A great example of this is "I Won't Say" when Meg sings it in Hercules. 5. God I'm out of points. I'm tired. I just want to stop listening to this song.

[laugtherhyena]

And here's some silly fun facts about the most normal public safety agent ever

-She was fully aware of how dangerous working as a public safety devil hunter is, hence why Hina trained her skills with the swords for 2 years before joining the bureal. She would practive moves in the Akiyama estate and out them to test by hunting devils in the forest nearby, which is how she eventually ran into Mayura.

-She was skeptical of the Wolf devil becoming friendly with her at first and had a goal of killing her as a way to wrap up her pre-public safety training, she gave up on the idea after some time and it's a topic her and Mayura laught about every once in a while.

-She was trained by Kishibe when she first joined public safety, taking into account his "loose screws" philosophy when it comes to the hunters, he considers Hina one of the best ones he's trained. This sentiment is why he sticks up to her to help work out her problems with the government in part 2.

-Hina was originally from divison 2 and had two work partners before moving to division 4 to work with Mayura, one died in a mission and the other quit public safety. Hina left one of her father's swords on his gravestone and gifted one for the other the last time they saw one another.

-Since making a contract outside an official devil hunting post is illegal and she made her contract with Mayura before joining the bureal, through her time on division 2 she kept her contract with the Wolf devil a secret and wore an eyepatch over her yellow eye (the one acquired in the contract). When Mayuta came to public safety, she fell onto Makima's division and told her everything about her and Hina, Makima called her to have a talk about that and said she wouldn't press charges against her for illegal devil contract and hiding the location of a strong devil if she moved to her division.

-During the first few months on division 4 the two always went on missions alongside Aki and Himeno because Makima ordered him to keep and eye on the two and report to her if they were doing anything that wasn't by the books.

-For the entirety of part 1 neither Hina nor Mayura were completely under Makima's control like most of other characters.

-She's seen herself dying so many times via the Future devil's powers before reacting accordingly just in time to save her skin. This is the core of her fighting style. Which led her to become overconfident in her abilites that she hardly believes she can really die until the point she's at death's door.

-Since she lost her sense of taste in the contract with the Future devil, Hina eats the most heatly and balanced died for her lifestyle since how it tastes doesn't matter to her. She's generally one of public safety's healthy hunters too since she regrains from smoking or drinking since she wants to live a long life.

-She did go out drinking one time with Aki, Himeno and the other division 4 agents sometime prior to the events of part 1. It didn't go well at all because Himeno got drunk and ended up kissing Hina, there was no puke involved, but it's the whole reason she dislikes her so much and avoids her.

-The thing is that Hina has a strong aversion to being touched/physical intimacy, she doesn't like others touching her unless she's very very close to the person so you can probably guess why the Himeno thing made he tremendously upset and and uncomfortable. After the fact whenever she sees someone who is about to get touchy with her (be it just putting a hand on her shoulder, leaning close, headbutting or anything regardless of how simple or normal it seems) she will react to stop them from doing so in a similar fashion to how she reacts to upcoming attacks using the Future devil's power.

-Hina is a really weird person in general, she will talk and start conversations with anyone but she's not necessarily a sociable person and will oftentimes be straight to the point and/or blunk with her opinons/words. Her lack of elaboration and smiley face regardless of the situation can often lead to people getting the wrong impressions of her, she's far from the most popular hunter amids her peers in part 1.

-She has a neutral stance on devils, if she has to kill one to achieve a goal, she will, but if she doesn't then their existence doesn't bother her at all + she understands devils really well after being around Mayura for so long, to the point she has an easier time interacting and getting them to listen to her than the other humans around oublic safety. Which is a major factor to why she was promoted to new head of Division 4 and devil related affairs in part 2.

-Both of her arms have a lot of self-inflicted scars from the times during missions where Mayura got heavily Injured an Hina opened a cut on them to give her blood. After her fight with Quanxi in the International assassins arc she gets even more scars across her body from Quanxi's sword attacks.

-She goes back to the Akiyama estate every so often to tidy up the place and make sure everything her fater treasured so much is still there in prestige condition.

[safitheartist]

I agree with most of this. I just singled Aoi out because her lack of development was the most jaring considering how the show almost felt like she was set up to become a more fleshed out character.

And at this point I think she probably was suppose to but there was corporate meddling involved.

You see, in the games there was a curious change they did for Aoi. You remember the redesign I mentioned they gave her in Galaxy? Apparently they made that design change to signal that Aoi changed her primary unit type in the games.

In the first two go games you could unlock Aoi as a playable unit, she was a goalkeeper in these games, however, in the third game Aoi was changed to a middle fielder.

That seems like a very unnecessary change for a unlockable support unit, until you realize what the premise of that season was.

A bunch of amateur players were selected to be part of the national team, Aoi said all the way back in season 1 that she would like to play in the national team one day.

My guess, considering Shindou was genuinely just kind of stuffed into that season with no grander narrative reason, is that they originally intended for Aoi to be part of that team instead, not Shindou.

It would make a lot more sense if Aoi had started as a goalie and gotten into conflict with Ibuki that way, only for her to move to middle field but still have tension with him then literally the entire conflict between Shindou and Ibuki.

Heck it could even mirror Endou's Libero arc from the OG series.

As for the other female characters, I agree. OG definitely handled them a lot better then Go, even if some of their arcs were a bit questionable.

I also am still upset about the whole "Endou's wife" debacle. The games handeled that aspect disasterous. Literally in the CS games there is a sequence where Tenma can choose who Endou is married in that timeline and that event involved Aki. 💀 Like they didn't even have the decency to just leave her out of it, especially considering she is literally Tenma's sister/aunt/cousin (Level 5 why did you never clarify, she literally raised him since here early 20s, what is going on in that family??)

On a more positive note the Games did confirm that Natsumi became the schools chairman after the events of the first games.

As for Akane and Midori, I can not agree more, both of them were done very dirty. Honestly a Aoi arc probably could have involved them too actually, considering they are her senpais and mentor figures. I feel like them getting a mini arc where they help Aoi become a player would have been a great way to develop them and explore them more.

Again the games actually are better in that aspect due to the Ina chat and Ina link conversations.

Basically if you don't know, the games have a sort of message board function where the kids post on during several instances during the game. The developers used that function to reveal some character tid bits and give us some interactions to flesh the characters out.

Both Akane and Midori get some good bits there. They also have some in game events, though Akane is still suffering from many of the same issues as you mentioned, she does have some more personality in there.

Her relationship with the other 2nd years gets fleshed out more and we also find out that she is a artist, she makes stickers for Inalink in the second game. (Including a crying Shindou one, which she made unprompted which was very funny because it implies even she thinks he is a bit of a cry baby lmao)

Anyways as for Ares...I have not watched that show and I am not touching it with a 10 meter pole.

Aoi Sorano should have gotten a character arc and here is why

I’m revisiting some childhood obsessions of mine and of course ina11 would be one of them

And I just realized what a waste of character potential Inazuma Eleven Go had with Aoi.

Let me explain, Sorano Aoi is one of the support characters of Inazuma Eleven Go and the disignated “love interest but eh they are 12” to protagonist Tenma Matsukaze (Which honestly, good on them for avoiding the love square mess of the first trilogy…..at least for the most part.)

But well here is the thing, the series really did Aoi in particular dirty, especially the anime.

Aoi was a childhood friend of Tenma (who for whatever reason lived with Aki since he was in elementary school despite him only really living with her because he wanted to attend Raimond) and they met and became friends due to their shared interests (Soccer and Dogs).

And their relationship is rather sweet and seems really genuine, while Tenma is the cookie cutter obvious as a brick shonen protagonist, him and Aoi are shown to interact regularly and their bantern is rather cute really. You can tell that they clearly care for eachother and there was never really a question as to why (as I had to ask myself with Endou and his harem so often, like seriously, why was every girl except Raika and Haruna into him?) They just have that chemistry going on that comes due to having a established past and shared interests.

And for the first season and Game Aoi was fine staying as a suport character. She became a manager to the soccer team to support her best friend (crush) and because she really loves soccer and the reason why she didn’t join the club as a player is simply due to sports clubs in Japan in general being separated when it comes to gender. The games were set in the future but I guess they just never bothered to change that…well till soon after that is. But we will get to that.

Aoi is a good moral support to Tenma and the other characters and had a very fun personality in the begining of the series. She wasn’t just a Aki rehash as most people feared when she was first anounced and the lack of love rivalries made her interactions with the other female characters a lot more fun.

She wasn’t the most interesting character in the show but for what she was suppose to be she was pretty neat.

However, this changes near the end of season 1.

What started as a small moment where they said “Hey we support women’s soccer btw” and some fan service soon turned Aoi from a somewhat alright support character to well…pretty much a walking disapointment.

Near the end of season 1 of the Anime they mostly were starting to promote the second game/ season and therefore decided to adress one of the main criticisms of the first one which is a lack of female representation in the main team. (Something ina 11 has always had a issue with, especially the anime.)

So they started to make allusions to the idea that Aoi potentially could become a soccer player in the future, something that juat never really happened in the show. Having her herself make comments about it and having a freshly redeemed Goenji say that he supports women soccer and that he hopes for it to become more popular soon.

And that’s the big problem, this could have become a very interesting sub plot if they had deciden to follow through on it. Having a arc where Aoi decides to move from her possition as manager to a actual player would have been a very neat concept.

They could have gone in a lot of directions with it, for exampel having a all female team try to ask her to join them instead or have her help another character with a hisatsu only to end up making it a duo hisatsu and so on.

Inazuma eleven’s biggests strengths often layed in having characters deal with their emotions regarding the sport they love so much and what their role in regards to it and the people connected to it are. Having Aoi go from a passive character to a active one would have been a great way to adress gender roles in Japan and to flesh out her relationship with Tenma even more. Heck they could even have had a arc where she questions why nobody ever asked her to become a player.

But well, the second season rolled around and…nope. The games did introduce a female player to the main games, Nonobana Kinako who joined after a rift in the time line (no I’m serious) and they just abandoned the gendered club rules.

And this is where it turns somewhat ridiculous….which honestly is saying something if we regard what show I am talking about.

Aoi had a interest in the sport since she was little and has made comments about it, the only reason why she couldn’t be a player was due to the gender restriction of the club. So now that it was gone shouldn’t she at least consider joining?

Nope.

The idea is not even mentioned.

The farest this concept went was a ending where they devided the team into 4 groups with Tenma, Tsurugi, her and Fei as the leaders (the song was performed by her’s, Tenma’s and Tsurugi’s voice actors too, not Fei’s though for whatever reason).

And it’s just a shame. Especially when in season 3 Aoi’s main role was to connect with certain members of the new team and it would have been a lot more interesting if they had her do this as part of the actual team rather then as manager.

Instead they just gave her a redesign to make her look cuter and had her connect to said characters by being agressivly nice. (Honestly season 3 Aoi was so boring and her inclusion seems really contrived).

It’s just a shame how obviously she could have been a better character.

[laugtherhyena]

Speaking of her i might as well post these random facts comps of the part 1 girlies, not sure when my unfocused ass will finish the new refs lmao

-The time period in which she was the strongest was during the middle ages, back then her devil form used to be three times as big with 13 heads.

-She exists in a paradox of sorts(? Unsure if that's the right term); Wolves are social creatures who function within groups whereas Devils are solitary and tend to fight or control one another whenever they meet. Being the Wolf Devil, her biggest dream was to have a companion by her side but that's not something she couldn't achive for the longest time due to the nature of devil relationships. When she found said companionship in Hina, she was willing to give up her devil form so that as a fiend they could be together in public safety.

-Which is a big deal because Mayura really likes her devil form! She like being wild and huge and powerful. Tho at the same time she doesn't really mind being a fiend, or acting like a human, in fact, Mayura goes out of her way to have her ears pinned down when not in her battle or devil form so that they blend in with her hair and give her a less outright-fiend-looking appearance.

-The body she took over to become a fiend was of a girl in her 20s whose body was hastily hidden in the forest Mayura used to live in while still in her devil form. She was eating the body when Hina first bumped into her and after their fight she sorta left the body in he cave to finish later, a couple years went by and when she settled on becoming a fiend she used the decaying body to do so, which is why she has no memories or personality traits from whoever that human was.

-Mayura showers once a day and brushes her teeth every other day, which is surprisingly clean for a fiend!

-Mayura is one of the few fiends at public safety who can read! It's something Hina taught her back when they would meet at the forest or the Akiyama estate and she brags about it a lot.

-She prefers eating raw meat over cooked dishes.

-She keeps the upper part of her shirt unbuttoned so that it won't rip when she transforms into her battle form, this has led to a handful of people staring at her cleavage but since Mayura lacks understanding on what humans deem inappropriate or sexual she genuinely just thinks those people are trying to read her collar/tag. (Even if she did know why they were staring, i doubt she would care)

-On a similar(?) vein, she couldn't understand why Hina was so upset after Himeno kissed because she just assumed it was a human thing and that's all, it was only after Hina explained to her why she was so uncomfortable that she got it and started hating Himeno for making her feel so awful. She was happy when she heard Himeno had died and didn't even want to come to the hospital to see Aki.

-She worries much more about Hina dying in missions than Hina herself. Hina is absolutely terrified of dying, but she's so overconfident in her abilites that she hardly believes she can really die until the point she's at death's door. On that note, he kinda prefers the role they have in part 2 since Hina isn't going in as many dangerous missions anymore and he like bossing people around.

-Still on part 2 shenanigans, Mayura isn't friends or close at all to any of the new fiends, devils and hybrids working at public safety. After losing Cherry and Beam she sorta does that as a way to not get attached and suffer again.

-Since she had never been close to anyone before Hina and public safety she had never experienced loss either before those two died in the International assassin's arc, so it was pretty bad for her and it led to Mayura hating Denji after the fact since she blames him for not doing more to save Cherry and Beam when they were his biggest supporters/fans. (Mayura didn't went to hell in that arc so she has no idea of how bad things were there with the Darkness devil)

-Back in part 1, other than Hina, Cherry and Beam were her closests friends in public safety and she didn't get along that well with anyone else really. She found Galgali, Angel and Spider to be a bore, thought Power and Denji were annoying and didn't really interact much with the other humans (she did enjoy scarring Kobeni tho).

-Friends? Partners? Girlfriends? I genuinely have no idea what she and Hina are and I don't think they know either (nor do they care much I'm certain)