#nakamigama hirokai

[review-anon]

I’m gonna pick a more recent character to shake things up a bit. So how about Nakamigawa Hiroaki from Tetro Pink?

Alright so now that I have watched the first two chapters of Tetro Pink I can start tackling these now starting with Hiroaki.

Since I will be talking spoilers under the cut it goes.

Hiroaki is a fasinatingly complex character because at first glance he's the antagonistic rival character of the group, constantly arguing with everyone, getting on everyone's nerves and causing unnecessary conflicts. But and this is a strength of the character writing of this fangan, things aren't as simple.

Yes he's an arsehole, but he's also an arsehole who has a point as he correctly questioned Sasaki's leadership, being the only character who was willing to do that, and the fact that rather then take his criticisms on board Sasaki reacted so badly says a lot about her. And while he managed to identify Sasaki as the culprit in Chapter 1, you would think he would be smug about it but as it turns out, he wasn't happy doing it whatsoever as despite how much he couldn't stand her, he still felt bad about her being executed.

In addition while most antagonistic characters are on their own, Hiroaki does have someone by him at all times, Ojima. The reason I think these two boys bonded so early was because of their shared talent of drawing; Ojima is a children's book illustator and Hiroaki often has to draw to design his own fashion designs. Ojima is also when he's not zoned out, a very patient person who is very willing to put up with Hiroaki when he is acting out. And when Ojima does have his rare breakdowns, Hiroaki is often the one to pull him out of it.

It also helps when Hiroaki is being a collosal prick, its usually due to external circumstances. Firstly we find out on Chapter 1 he is a drug addict and one of the rewards was his dope. Since the rewards got swapped when Wada fell asleep, Hirokai during Chapter 2 was suffering from drug withdrawal effects which if you don't know someone into drugs, can be a very scary experience that in extreme cases can also be fatal. Coupled this with the adralinine gas and no wonder Hirokai was going berserk as he was being driven to the bend, but even when he was pushed to his limit, he refuses to kill.

That being said, the stress of the Killing Game is getting to him as he's became very suicidal to the point I bet when Yagami attacked him, had Mai and co not broken things up and Yagami killed Hirokai, the latter would have let the former kill him. Its also very interesting these two hate each other so much for the same reason; Sasaki. As not only did Hirokai oppose Sasaki when she was alive, but since Hirokai got Sasaki's diary during the motive swap, he's been reading it extensively and claims that he has a better understanding of his former enemy now and the fact he tells Yagami to wake up makes me think she never really cared for Yagami.

Hirokai also doesn't seem to like freeloaders as yes he's part of higher society but he had to work his bum off to get there, whereas some people he knows were born into wealth and luxury. He also has a interesting viewpoint on beauty that while physical apperance can help, ultimately it depends who you are on the inside, which makes me wonder why him freaking out so much when Yagami messed his face up was because he thought his external apperance now reflected his internal one.

There's a lot more to Hirokai then just being an arsehole as he has layers to him, and he's actually quite a compelling character given how you could argue most of his more jerkish actions are due to either drug withdrawel effects or the motives which are designed to make people stressed.

Its actually funny that while the scumbag scientists are placing bets on who kills like they are Squid Game VIPS, a lot of them bet Hirokai would crack first and they failed miserably so he's defying the odds of the experiment. You have someone who has every reason to go berserk yet they have enough sanity in them to do so.

This is how good the characters in Tetro Pink are when the most antagonistic character has reasons to be antagonistic and doesn't go too far.