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doctorbunny · 1 year ago

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Good read on the horrible things that happened! However while reading I had some thoughts on Gozake's punishment. I think people saying 'waterboarding' are probably right on the money or at least really close But I got reminded of something. Gozake is described as a 'weird monk' 不思議な屋さん (although 'fushigi' is a more positive weird, like eccentric unlike 変/hen) he's also wearing large prayer beads (Mala) around his neck

Anyway, what are monks known for? Meditation And what's a kind of meditation? Waterfall meditation! 滝行 (takigyou) is a buddhist practice of meditating under icy waterfalls. It's not pleasant at the best of times but its meant to train the mind and body. And just like other kinds of harsh training regimes, if someone in good health, who understands their limits, undergoes them. It can be a challenging but rewarding endeavour However this all goes out the window when it is a child being forced into it.

Not all takigyou is this harsh, especially for beginners/tourists, but these sorts of conditions could easily become used for torture

Look at the waterfall-like stream Amane is under here, this is not gentle (she's also dressed improperly, suggesting she hasn't gone through any of the preparations beforehand and probably didn't get cared for afterwards)

For reference, children can partake in this safely, these are the sorts of streams you'd expect a beginner to stand under:

This is from a real Buddhist temple in Fukuoka, where Amane's from. (篠栗四国八十八箇所/Sasaguri shikoku hachijyuu hakkasho/) The gentleness really contrasts the harsh abuse Amane was under

The gifs from today also seem to include drowning imagery. It seems Amane has many bad experiences with water...

There’s one thing I’d like to note about Amane’s thumbnail, outside of the confetti (+ the thread wrapped around the pole, as @gunsli-01 pointed out) being colours associated with the cult. And it’s something that everyone else has noticed; the lack of any other colour.

Gunsli, a friend of ours and I was talking about it and I remembered that colour deprivation was a form of torture. Or, to use another name for it,

White torture!

“Electroshock, waterboarding, and a thrashing- These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girl- But the cult accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction White Torture!” - Gunsli (This is a joke.)

For those unfamiliar, white torture is comprised of denying the victim any sensations, slowly eroding at their mental state and their sense of self until they break. Though, to use better descriptions (which, again, thanks to Gunsli for finding and formatting some of these for me)-

The prisoner is locked in a completely white, soundproof room. The color white is used to hit all the senses: The sight: White lights are coming from neon tubes positioned in a way not to create any shadow, and the prisoner is dressed in completely white clothes. Hearing: The room is soundproof or alternatively it is located in a remote place where voices cannot be heard. In this latter scenario the guards stand in silence and use special padded shoes in order to avoid causing any noise. Tact: All surfaces are smooth The taste and smell: Each day they are served white food, usually unseasoned rice to deprive them of the senses of taste and smell. Although it may seem less formidable than other corporal punishment, this torture leads quickly to hallucinations and has long-term adverse effects. The prisoners can be kept in this state for months or even years, and once outside the room the psychological consequences will be permanent.

All in all, it can be emotionally devastating at best, and definitely not something people would expect a 12-year-old to be put through. This form of torture would propagate the kind of mentality that the cult would want in Amane. It would not only shake her faith in her own perceptions of reality but create a vulnerability in her. They can then exploit this to strengthen her faith and commitment to their cause. Or to use marketing ideas, creating a need for the product they’re selling; albeit, more proactively.

“Oh, yeah the reason that the pipe/baton may have the thread around it is because white torture involves the removal of textile sensations as well as color. Guards even wear padded shoes so the prisoners can’t even hear their footsteps. The fact that the thread is not only colored but a textile sensation may allude to Amane adding it for comfort or so the baton had some physical sensation.” - Gunsli

I wanted to touch on this comment here, in conjunction with the thread colour.

With the idea of white torture in mind, I believe that there’s a chance the member that represented Green(Gachata) was the one who directly inflicted this on her. However, I’d like to explore all the possible interpretations. Before that though- There’s another thing to note, the member represented by Yellow(Yuri) has the most “conventional” form of punishment out of everyone here. That, including the fact that Yuri is the one that looks the most upset about having to punish Amane,

could indicate that he did try to provide support while the punishments went on. Hence her usage of yellow as the only tactile thing in her thumbnail. To be more specific, the only tactile thing that she had some sort of agency interacting with. Though you could also argue that, since his punishment was physical beatings, that it was the only one with heavy/hard physical contact. Especially when taking into account the other punishments were electroshock, waterboarding and white torture. All things that can involve minimal or no contact with the victim.

Something else to note, is while Yuri and Gachata have secondary colours (Yuri having a splodge of green and Gachata having red highlights), Red (Riyone) and Blue(Gozake) do not. That, included with Amane having all of their colours on her, would indicate the influence that each member has on the other. In other words, Amane was influenced by everyone. Yuri was influenced by Gachata. Gachata was influenced by Riyone, and Riyone and Gozake weren’t influenced by anyone. Incidentally, Amane’s “wings” are also the softer pink on Riyone’s outfit, despite the fact that she already has the more vivid red.

On the colour sharing thought, Gunsli pointed out that it might be how each member is connected to each other (i.e. Gachata being Riyone’s kid and having pulled Yuri into their association). Going off of the colors alone she speculated that Riyone was possibly Amane's mom and Gatchata her older brother. Yuri is more than likely a friend of Gatchata's or someone they met and brought into the cult and Gozake a higher up within the cult that works alongside Riyone. (Possibly even a second husband but she said that's just an assumption.)

However, she does disagree with me in regards to who enforced white torture. Gunsli feels as though it would make more sense for Riyone to be the one to do so, since she’s already associated with light. This, in conjunction with the pink on Amane and how it’s hidden under the white of her outfit until the “transformation” scene, makes a more cohesive narrative. There’s also the fact that there’s no pink confetti depicted within the thumbnail. Secondarily, while Riyone’s colour is red, with pink highlights, she is mostly depicted in white. With pink, red and grey highlights, in order of how frequently they show up in her design.

Another possibility is that Amane was consistently being punished through the use of white torture, and each member’s punishment was an intentional breakage of that. This would make Gachata’s punishment more likely to be something like sound torture. If it was done this way, it would subconsciously reinforce the idea that the only people who contribute to her sense of self are the other members of the cult, while also amplifying the impact of their actions being a punishment for her transgressions.

The cycle of punishments starts with Riyone. She either uses light torture or electroshock. The main colours depicting her form of punishment is a luminous yellow with a backdrop of a duller yellow. We’ll get back to this, but this seems to represent her specific type of punishment. Her expression changes from when they found Amane, being at peace/harmony as opposed to the dead eyed stare that was given before. This is a tad unnerving, since out of the four, this is the expression closest to happiness we see in this loop.

Secondly, we have Gozake. He appears to have picked waterboarding as his style of punishment, though we are unsure which form. The main colours that appear here are various shades of blue, save the bubbles that have highlights of white. This makes it possible that he was acting on his own ideologies. His expression on this scene is also different from the discovery scene, which appears to be more upset/disheartened. Though I do have to state the caveat that his expression is a lot harder to read since we don’t see his mouth in either expression. It would be interesting to find out how much context would be changed if we see his mouth.

Thirdly, we have Yuri. He goes for a simple pummeling for his punishment. The colours used for the physical effects here are some small yellow ones and a large overall pink one. This likely indicates that Riyone suggested this punishment to Yuri, and that Yuri is following Riyone’s ideology with regards to this punishment. This doesn’t stop him from looking upset and uncomfortable, however. This is an expression that stays consistent from the discovery to the actual consequences; the only one to do so out of the whole group.

Lastly is Gachata, who seems to have used sound torture. The colours used for the sound effects are red and green, in the order of how frequently they are used. Though I believe it should be noted that the green ones are closest to Amane’s body. It is extremely likely that Riyone also suggested this for Gachata to use. His eyes are closed, and he looks like he’s either concentrating on his actions or trying not to focus on the implications of what he’s doing. Another thing to note is the fact that he has the same expression as Riyone in the discovery scene (a dead-eyed stare), though it is undercut by the glasses he wears.

(To add on the idea that Yuri and Gachata were unwilling participants, Gunsli wanted to point out how Amane was punished by them as a group of three.

As you can see, here Gachata flicks her on the forehead as a punishment instead. And while the background is the same yellow that's used in association with Riyone's punishment, the actual impact is more of a light blue. This is a blue that is associated with Amane. Both in her prison straps and on her birthday art. It is then followed up with all of them hanging out happily-

"Will you laugh with me and forgive me? I promise! I can only become a better girl!"

-until Riyone and Gozake show up.

Incidentally, as Gunsli spotted, while Riyone is looking at Amane. Gozake is looking at Riyone, as if awaiting orders.)

In the Magic MV, it loops through this cycle of punishment five times, though the last two are zoomed in on Amane. From what Gunsli and I put together, the most likely option is that the punishment escalated until reaching white torture. This seems to be depicted by this scene-

Along with the line that leads up to this scene,

"Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl. I hope, I hope everyone can be happy and smile. Forever, forever together would be a dream."

As you may have realized, the black is used as the main backdrop for Amane’s punishments, so the fact that she’s shown isolated, save for a single spotlight is… telling. And even after she transforms, to the joy of everyone, the stage is still a solid black, denoting the place she’s standing currently is a place of punishment.

Gunsli would also like to note that it's interesting that when the punishment ends, there's a lightning strike (also known as natural electricity) behind Amane and she is bestowed a lightning wand. The element related to Riyone's punishments. This, in addition the full reveal of pink on Amane, also makes this scene come off as a passing of the baton of sorts. Possibly showcasing that Amane may now have the power to punish people with her wand/lightning rod and the ideology of Riyone acts as her "wings", carrying her higher up the ranks.

After that it departs from chibi to the regular style. Amane waves her wand, background transitioning via star wipe into a blue, before walking out of it, the stage returning back to normal. This is likely meant to represent her leaving the white torture room. Again, this is a similar blue to her birthday art and prisoner strap. The stars, on the other hand, resemble the luminous yellow in Riyone's punishment. Stars are also a natural form of light, one of the possible methods of reprimanding Riyone used. Another important detail is that in this scene, the white on Amane's clothes gets illuminated, washing out everything else.

After that, she blows a kiss at the viewer, joining hands with the other members before the credits roll-

-before it glitches out, reflected in Amane’s eyes. However, the only thing reflected is the empty stage, the cult’s symbol on full display.

Closing Notes:

It very much appears that Amane has undergone several forms of torture as a punishment. Not to mention that, if we're right, this was coordinated by her mother. It would be a good idea to keep this in mind, especially since Amane has likely been re-traumatized due to the voices the guilty prisoners have been hearing.

“How about we not continue to torture the literal torture victim this round. That'd be great.” - Gunsli

As for me, I agree with Gunsli. Amane’s been through enough, as is.

#amane momose #milgram #milgram theory #reblog

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