#shu takumi your mind needs to be studied

[pavo-dence]

finally finished ghost trick

[hikari-kaitou]

The sparse backstory that AA/DGS main characters tend to have is an intentional move on Shu Takumi's part. His philosophy is that the main character in his games shouldn't have too strong of a personality so that it's easier for the player to project onto them. He's also mentioned in another interview that he's not good at thinking up characters' backstories and feels like it stifles fans' fun imagining different possibilities anyway. That fact aside...

Ryuunosuke made reference to his parents precisely once, as far as I know, and it was in an exchange with Asougi. Asougi asks him something like "If your parents told you to study, wouldn't you do it?" And Ryuunosuke replies with something along the lines of "of course, how do you think I got into university?" We don't know what Ryuunosuke’s relationship with his parents is like, but here are two facts that seem worth considering:

-The topic of Ryuunosuke's speech at the speaking contest he beat Asougi in (see Escapade episode 1) was about how it's important to treasure one's mother and father. We aren't told the specifics of the limitations for possible speech topics because it isn't relevant to the story, but the participants clearly had some degree of freedom in selecting what to talk about. Ryuunosuke used his freedom of choice to argue that people should treat their parents with more care. What a precious boy 🥺

(semi related side gripe: Having translated both games myself when they first came out, I can say that overall I'm fairly happy with how they were localized, but for some reason the translation for Escapade episode 1 was awful! What happened?? Asougi’s speech was supposed to be a call to action for the working class to rise up against their wealthy oppressors! What's this filial piety bullshit? That was Ryuunosuke’s speech! Ugh... There were lots of other things that bothered me about that episode, but never mind that now.)

-I did some research on university attendance rates in the Meiji Era. It seems that only between 1-2.2% of the age appropriate population received a higher education. Even when it came to lower-level education, such as elementary school, 25% of boys didn't attend, and 50% of girls didn't attend.

So what does this have to do with Ryuunosuke’s family situation? Well, in order to be one of those select few who was able to attend university, you not only needed to have had pretty consistent school attendance up to that point (meaning that your family didn't need you to spend the majority of your day working in the fields/helping with the family business in order for you all to survive) and great test scores, but you also needed a solid lineage, and a family that was wealthy enough to afford the tuition. Basically, Ryuunosuke’s family must have been doing well enough for themselves that they were not just getting by; they must have been of good socialvstanding and had a fair amount of money to throw around.

There were also two (so far) Japan-only DLC episodes, and in one of them, Ryuunosuke has a sterling silver pocket watch that he says was a gift to him from his uncle. Ryuunosuke wasn’t told that it was a very expensive watch, so his uncle clearly didn't make a big deal of pointing out that it was real silver. This is just conjecture on my part, but I feel like if it had been a big deal for his uncle to give him that watch, he would have made sure that Ryuunosuke knew its value so that he’d treat it with care. Incidentally, we're not given any more details about this uncle, so we don't know which of Ryuunosuke’s parents' brother he is or anything, but the word uncle is written with the characters 叔父さん, indicating that the man is your parent's younger brother, as opposed to 伯父さん, which indicates your parent's older brother.

...Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to get so long and rambly @_@;; I just really love talking about Ryuunosuke ok

Okay no but seriously what the fuck is going on with Ryunosuke's family situation???

Like basically every major character has shit going on with their family members (kazuma, susato, Iris, van zieks, maria to name a few). Even Gina ACKNOWLEDGES her parents or lack thereof, and it plays into her initial distrust of adults and to some degree how her relationship with Iris develops but like. I don't think at any point in the game Ryunosuke even mentions his family?? Like even as a concept he engages with. This man could have just risen from the seafoam of waves crashing on the beach as far as everyone else knows. There was a pile of moss in the woods and then Ryunosuke sat up from it and he's just here now.