#the endings one flaw is being too rushed and that isn't even its own fault

[cozmo-the-mighty-chinchilla]

The Owl House ending was so good but it also awakened a fresh new anger at how the show got cut short. What I would give for one more episode of just shenanigans with them. No battles, no trauma, no world ending wars, just this goofy little(huge) found family doing funky lil crimes like the old days.

And I will say, even though I was JUST complaining to my friend(who is currently watching it for the first time) about the lack of plot In the first season, the finale has actually given me a new appreciation for it. I miss these guys already, I want more of them and their wacky high jinx.

[soul-dwelling]

The one "positive" from MHA is... That it made me apreciate SE in comparison lol, hell even the mangas awful copout ending atleast was memorable in how bad, disgusting and rushed it was - in MHA it just feels like nothing, not even giving us those rushed redemptions - nah even that is too much for Hori, so lets just give the old "dead equals redemption" trope which is as lazy as it is cowardly - atleast Crona got the hope of getting bailed out of jail, and the society actually changed, even if unrealistically, with the witches truce - while in MHA the whole buildup of "maybe this society is bad, maybe heros shouldnt be worshiped, maybe civilians should not be infantalized and depowered and shouldnt just rely on fascists supercops when they literally have their own powers, maybe the villians should be integrated and understood...."- nah, they are all evil psychos, lets stigmatize mentall ilness as being violent...

It really was reduced to "one evil baby is at fault, so if we use our flashy moves and kill it, everything will go back to normal" - but no Hori then trys to have his cake and eat it too by trying to force the whole meta "actually live doesnt return to normal after a war!" - but it kinda does, besides the Endeavour misery porn which doesnt work after he got retconed to not be evil - because that is what happened and why it does feel weird when Natsou disowns him - because that would have worked with the og Endevour, showing that a redemption arc isn't enough and some scars will never heal and he has to accept it and repent for the rest of his life - but after it getting changed that Toya was unhinged from the start and Endy was just kinda bad at communicating...

Man I ranted a lot longer than I thought, apologys for that, MHA is just so bad that it happens

I debated whether to post this now or wait until Chapter 426 of My Hero Academia comes out on Sunday, given how many spoilers there are in my answer and in the question itself. 

But I would rather get the answer out now instead of letting it fester, especially as I’m guessing this will not be the last time I respond to this chapter, this extended epilogue to the manga, and how the beginning, middle, and end of My Hero Academia worked and didn’t work. 

So, screw it, here is my response, and I hope the spoiler tags are enough to prevent people from learning something they weren’t ready to read until Sunday.  

The ending, ongoing

A friend of mine had written something similar: it feels like My Hero Academia is ending with a whimper. 

The thing is, I have been struggling lately with whether I want something to be ambitious and fail at its own goals, or competent but cliche. 

You bring up how Soul Eater had a memorable ending even if it was, let’s be charitable, flawed. I’m not sure I agree, as Soul Eater’s ending was so bad that it’s hard for me to see MHA somehow having a worse ending. You’d need to resurrect Midnight just for a fanservice gag to get things as bad as Soul Eater’s ending. 

The comparison I’m grabbing is actually to Fire Force, as it does something similar to MHA: the final battle ends in glorious fashion, then the epilogue we’re dealing with is rushed, unsatisfying, contradicts earlier character beats, and re-stages the setting in a way that is bothersome (Fire Force is revealed to be the Soul Eater prequel no one was asking for; My Hero Academia should be showing life after near global destruction, or at least the destruction of most of Japan, and instead Cementoss is already rebuilding entire cities, so the stakes have evaporated--even if, I’ll admit, once you introduce a character who can do almost anything, that’d be pretty stupid to not have that character still out there single-handedly saving the entire world *cough cough* why is Yosano only with the Agency if she could be healing people of cancer throughout Japan in Bungo Stray Dogs *cough cough*). 

Ambitious or Competent? 

But to go back to what I said, that I struggle to decide whether I want a story that is ambitious or competent, it’s kind of how I feel comparing Chainsaw Man and Dandadan: I really cannot stand the storytelling direction of the former even as I have to admit it is more audacious and trying to say something really complicated even if I think it is failing at getting that message through to its audience, while the latter in terms of plot, character progression, paneling, character designs, humor, pathos, and dynamic artwork and action is all or mostly expertly crafted but not necessarily groundbreaking (minus the stunning artwork and two-page spreads). 

And even then, Dandadan doesn’t get it always correct, where a potentially thought-provoking detail is reduced to a cliche, and often an offensive one at that: the latest chapter as of writing, Chapter 158, takes a complicated idea about mourning the failure to live the dream of a childhood friend…and instead of using that to talk about hyper-sexualization within idol culture and maybe even the magical girl genre, it’s just a really bad joke of an underage girl forced against her will into a revealing outfit to put on a show she does not want to put on but is coerced into doing, and, oh, to keep the author’s exposure kink going, we got to make her a (forgive the insulting phrase) “mousy” girl with pigtails, glasses, and a more reserved personality so that the readers can also enjoy the author’s kink--gross, fuck this shit.  

So, do I want My Hero Academia to be competently done even if the ending is cliche, or do I want it to be ambitious even if it can’t quite reach those lofty goals and still ends up with a deflating ending or a confused final message it is trying to give to the audience? 

I’ve said before that Shoto Todoroki may work better as the protagonist of his own story. With that idea in mind, and based on your remarks, is it possible that Horikoshi had a very ambitious idea in mind--the tragedy that Endeavor and Dabi both got what they wanted, and the cost ended up making what they got a punishment rather than a victory--but that the kind of story Horikoshi is writing was not suitable for that tale? 

I really hate that argument I am proposing, because it makes it sound like the problems are the circumstances of genre (superheroes), demographics (shonen), and the publishing industry (weekly release schedule, etc) that hampered Horikoshi, when the more likely answer is either that Horikoshi just isn’t that good at writing that kind of a story, or that it was never that kind of story he was interested in, or that he succeeded in the story he wanted to tell and I just don’t like the execution or even the message itself. 

Too Many Characters?

A common complaint I read online is that My Hero Academia suffers because it has too many characters. I have never been convinced by that argument. 

MHA is like a good Pixar film: there is always some group of misfits in the background serving as comedic relief but who also have their own narrative path through the story, whether it is to give those misfits their own path for character progression or, as is more often the case, just a path to show what their characterization has been this whole time. 

Think of Gurgle in Finding Nemo when one of his last scenes in the movie is yelling at the Aqua Scum: that’s not showing his character progression, that’s clarifying what his characterization has been this entire time--he is indeed concerned about cleanliness, but even when the Aqua Scum gives him what he has always wanted, that being an absolutely clean tank, he is not overjoyed but horrified because it ruins his buddies’ plans to save Nemo. Gurgle’s characterization was never cleanliness above everything else; his characterization was he wants cleanliness _and_ to keep protecting his friends. That moment is more ironic than anything, as well as the start of his plot, that being, how is he going to save Nemo and fight against the very thing he has always wanted…only that plot never actually starts or reaches a conclusion because the title of the movie if Finding Nemo and other characters such as Gill are the actual protagonists or at least supporting characters that instigate the plot and progress along the way. 

That is my long rant about why I don’t really care that Sero and others have limited character moments in this final arc, and why I think it’s silly to say that there are too many characters for Horikoshi to satisfy for all of them. 

That being said, that doesn’t mean I don’t think he dropped the ball--because I think he did when it comes to the Todoroki family drama. 

Natsu as Audience Surrogate

As I said before, I am struggling to separate my thoughts from just whatever was the last thing I read online. But I can’t ignore what I think people in the Reddit thread got correct, that the final arc centers on Endeavor when the audience also wants the ending to center on Dabi, Shoto, and the rest of their family. It should have been enough to gesture at just enough of Natsu’s education, career, and dating life to give a sense of full characterization--and instead he ends the story still striking me as an accumulation of grievances against Endeavor, and it rings hollow rather than making Natsu our audience surrogate, someone we identify with and agree with and hence can characterize ourselves. 

I don’t know--would it have been better to lend less background information to Natsu to make him a better audience avatar? Should he be like a Fire Emblem protagonist or the OC you create in Sonic Forces, just bland enough that you can place yourself in their shoes? I don’t think that’d work either; it’d just make Natsu into a dull protagonist like someone out of a crappy isekai. But at least I’m trying to figure out what went wrong and how to improve on what is already in the story without re-plotting and completely contradicting the messages Horikoshi is trying to deliver. 

Move Up Dabi’s Confrontation with His Siblings

As I have also said, maybe I would have enjoyed parts of this final arc if they were not forced into the end of the story, which would mean moving them up to earlier in the story. This again is based on something elliotthezubat and I have been plotting as ideas about how My Hero Academia could have gone, but one idea I had discussed was having Dabi confronting Natsu and Fuyumi earlier and on their own. Between when Dabi puts out the video and when the final war starts, why not have a scene of Dabi sneaking up on Natsu and Fuyumi to confront them? 

I know that does not sound realistic, or even believable--I’ll address why that can still work, however, in a moment. 

And it disrupts the intended forcefulness of forcing all of the confrontation into one moment of the family trying to freeze Dabi together. But that is my point, forcing all of it at once undermines a lot of the more nuanced details you can pull from the complexities of the sibling relationship. It also would actually let Natsu and Fuyumi say something more meaningful than just repeating what Endeavor and Rei were already yelling at Dabi when trying to kill or freeze him, and it would address what is a repeated complaint in the Reddit thread, that Natsu and Fuyumi say next to nothing to Dabi when they actually face him at the hospital. 

As for why this would still work even if it doesn’t seem initially to be that realistic or believable: we already saw Dabi sneaking around to find Toga to deliver Twice’s blood. It is in keeping with his methods and skills that of course he could find some way to get to Natsu and Fuyumi when they are alone. “But aren’t they at the UA fortress?” Then write a way for them to not yet have arrived there; it can’t be any dumber than how they all happened to show up right where Dabi and Endeavor are fighting in the climax. 

Make This an Actual War Arc

Having Dabi track and confront Natsu and Fuyumi earlier has the added benefit of making your war arc into an actual war arc. I have complained repeatedly online that the wars in My Hero Academia don’t feel like wars, they feel like one big battle that constitutes the entirety of the so-called war. Wars consist of numerous battles, not just one big battle--and I don’t think MHA did a good job making this all feel like a series of battles leading to anything. It got better when it was Izuku and the Pros finding AFO’s base only to get the video message--that kind of covert work shows greater dimensions of a war beyond just fistfights and explosions. 

And that’s why Dabi on his own looking for Natsu and Fuyumi would suit this war arc: it’s a quieter moment of surveillance and covert work, not a major battle. 

One thing I never appreciated enough in the Season 1 finale of Justice League was how the World War II scenes are broken up into the various dimensions of war: Green Lantern on the ground with the infantry, Supes and Hawkgirl in aerial combat, but also J’onn and Wonder Woman on their own covert spy missions. 

MHA didn’t have enough of the covert spy stuff during the war arc, I anticipate because Horikoshi covered a lot of that before the war kicked off with Hawks infiltrating the PLF. But to not persist with that tone and style of warfare is a missed opportunity and hurts the pace and intensity of the war: we need those quieter moments that a spy story can provide against all the explosions and physical battles.

And it is a good spot where to stage Dabi, Natsu, and Fuyumi airing their grievances now so that we get where they come from in the final confrontations, rather than forcing all of it with limited page space, time, and dialogue to get at how the relationships between them have changed since Toya “died” and since Dabi’s video. 

Does Anything in Society Change?

I’m going to quote part of the initial question: 

“not even giving us those rushed redemptions - nah even that is too much for Hori, so lets just give the old ‘dead equals redemption’ trope which is as lazy as it is cowardly - atleast Crona got the hope of getting bailed out of jail, and the society actually changed, even if unrealistically, with the witches truce - while in MHA the whole buildup of ‘maybe this society is bad, maybe heros shouldnt be worshiped, maybe civilians should not be infantalized and depowered and shouldnt just rely on fascists supercops when they literally have their own powers, maybe the villians should be integrated and understood....’- nah, they are all evil psychos, lets stigmatize mentall ilness as being violent…”

There is a lot here, so forgive me if I go out of order. 

I think the story lost me about any chance of a changed world when it had, to repeat myself, Cementoss already rebuilding entire towns that quickly. As I said, of course that would happen--Cementoss has that power, he is a good person, it would not be pragmatic to do anything else, use every tool you have. But visually and thematically, it says, “Don’t worry about your emotional attachment to your original home and possessions--things are reset back to normal!” 

Add to it that the Cementoss moment is on the same page as a useless cameo by Koichi from My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and I was sour. How do you stage the arrival of a popular enough spinoff character to just have him looking around at everything? You could have just as easily had him as a background gag, where he’s still having the same problems as before, to indicate he really hasn’t progress as a character (because, sorry fans, Koichi never progresses in Vigilantes, that is why the ending to that series is miserable to sit through). 

I think I understand your point about “death equal redemption,” as regards maybe Toga, if she is confirmed dead, and Dabi, whenever he finally dies having now given an unearned, barely registering apology to Shoto, as well as Endeavor’s attempted death to stop Dabi that has effectively killed his Pro Hero work and, in a rather disablist fashion, implies that with his injuries he may as well be dead--which is fucked up and offensive, but that could be my misreading, not Horikoshi’s intention or even execution. 

I do think that is similar enough to Crona’s willed exile to stop Asura, but I agree, there is the intention by the end of Chapter 113 that Maka will get Crona back--it’s just a matter of how much time and whether Ohkubo will ever wrap up that story (and wrap it up in a way that satisfies enough readers and not piss away continuity, canon, and the lasting message or theme of Soul Eater as a whole). 

I don’t know what to make of Horikoshi’s attempts to speak to the problems with Pro Heroes within his fictional setting and as suitable for real-world application to talk about policing and other power structures--because Horikoshi was never consistent. Maybe this would work better if My Hero Academia was split into different series. I hate to suggest the MCU model, as we have seen how that has hurt enough other stories, MHA being one of them. But what if each competing, potentially contradicting message was in its own story, even as they share the same setting? You can have your story about how being a hero, lowercase “h,” rather than a Pro Hero means that you are holding onto the ideals, and how you wrestle with your own failures to hold onto those ideals and need to be more pragmatic or else you burn out your body: that is the point of Izuku’s journey in MHA. Then you can have a spinoff about the dangers of such power structures as like a form of policing and how such structures do violence not only to society and the people injured by police but also to the police themselves: that is Endeavor’s story, and it’d be a hell of a lot better as its own manga so that the full tragedy of what happens to him is not getting in the way of whatever hopeful message Izuku’s story is offering. 

Furthermore, for all the praise Endeavor is getting right now, the guy was a bad Pro Hero. In Vigilantes he sends his flames out at random and burns to death a bystander [who turned out to be a villain anyway with a regenerative ability, so no lasting harm done]. During the Sports Festival he was a braggart about his son and burning bridges with All Might instead of focusing on collaborative efforts--something that then harms the mission to save Bakugo. His fixation on handling missions faster than his sidekicks fails to train them as effectively as he could, and it risks exhausting his body and attention, something that already happened against the Nomu, which he is still recovering from, and will persist when trying to save Natsu from Ending and stopping AFO. All of that works in terms of characterization, just not when the readers keep insisting he is a great Pro Hero and a great hero when the story is actively showing you he is not, and even Horikoshi is hammering this point when the only reason Endeavor got to be Number 1 is because All Might retired: Endeavor was a good enough Pro Hero, but he wasn’t a good Pro Hero or even a good hhero, if that makes sense. 

You point out how the story seemed like it would go in the direction of presenting a message that heroes should not be worshipped. I have to agree that this detail falls apart within the story, as Izuku still, correctly or not, gets praise for what he accomplishes: the hero worship has not ended. But I do think the story can still stick this landing if we see Izuku does serve as inspiration that people take on agency themselves to help others rather than waiting for someone else to handle it. 

You point out how the Pro Heroes are presented as akin to “fascists” and “supercops.” I think Horikoshi even backpedals on this point, getting close to the idea but refusing to commit to it. Endeavor is already one example I gave above. We can also take examples of Mount Lady and other seemingly selfish Pro Heroes--who are later shown to have actually decent reasons for their actions, understandable ones, defensible ones, or just pragmatic ones that are more so indictments against the system rather than only the individuals within it. 

Why is Mount Lady a glory hound? Her Pro Hero work does enough collateral damage that she has to offset that bad impression by making a good impression on people, which means she also has to do even more Pro Hero work to pay for the damage she causes and to get better insurance coverage as she keeps losing providers because of the damage she is doing, putting her into a viscous cycle of having to get more fame to pay for damage she causes but which itself causes more damage that she then has to get more fame to pay for and on an on: she is a victim of her own success because the system does not make best use of her abilities. Granted, maybe she should have stayed in her rural hometown where she couldn’t cause as much damage--but that’s also a waste of the talents she can offer across Japan, as she can get around faster by her size and is useful when dealing with rescues from tall urban buildings. And granted, a lot of what I said is based on gag comics and encyclopedic information that should have been in the text itself, otherwise Mount Lady’s progression comes across as lazy: she goes from showboat to serious fighter in Kamino to giving useful advice to the students without a hint of self-absorption. 

Society’s Fault or AFO’s?

I question how much of my problems with MHA are because I am asking the story to hit me over the head with its message and that I’m not practicing enough close reading skills to get the nuanced message it is offering, and how much of the problem is because Horikoshi is bad at this. AFO being responsible for so much misery should be fine because it does not detract from the responsibility Nana, her son, All Might, Gran Torino, bystanders, Endeavor, and others had for how Shigaraki was abandoned, Toga was suppressed, Spinner was ostracized, and Toya “died.” The problem is also that it is too coincidental even for a supposed galaxy brain-tier villain like AFO to account for all possibilities, at least with Shigaraki. Add to it how offputting it was for the story to need narration to literally spell out that AFO was always this bad since birth--no, that is not how babies work, they are not born bad, why is it now that the story is hitting me over the head with a message and one that is not believable? It’s not as if this could not work: show that Yoichi and AFO were taken in a few times since they were babies, hence each time was a chance for AFO to grow up and learn to work with others--and instead AFO got possessive and killed them all except Yoichi. Yes, that is still offputting that a child would be that lethal, but it also shows that he has been given chances over and over again--he was not born evil, he just refused to learn to live with others and that allowed him to be evil. 

Endeavor and Wrapping Up 

And I still didn’t tackle how the manga seems to retcon some details. As you point out, the conflict now comes across more as Endeavor being bad at communicating to Toya. And while the manga makes it clear that Endeavor’s bad communication with Toya doesn’t ameliorate the facts that he was practically buying Rei from her parents, hit her, hit Shoto, indirectly led to Rei scarring Rei, and indirectly led to Dabi leaving burns and scars on his mother and siblings, it is difficult to read this less as a complication for the character so that we see his tragedy and more as a late attempt to make him more endearing and sympathetic rather than maintaining his guilt. It’s as bad as the late revelation that all of this is inspired by Endeavor’s dad dying trying to save a child--something that should be poetic or thematically appropriate, that Endeavor’s dad died trying to do something he thought would help but only ended with both parties dead and a child without a parent, and Endeavor’s work to be a better hero did little initially to help society to prevent another father from dying and only stopped AFO after numerous failings ruined the lives of his wife and children--and even that victory fell apart because Endeavor didn’t stop AFO or even Dabi, it was Bakugo killing a child, then Izuku screwing up and letting AFO back, and the family having to contain Dabi. It’s a muddled mess where I don’t know what the point to any of this was except, “Endeavor must suffer,” and instead of that being cathartic or a lesson, it’s just a confusing mess. 

I’ll wrap up there for now. 

There’s more I want to say about Endeavor, but I think I touched upon the basics of how I would have responded to your point: Endeavor’s tale should be a tragedy, but that message is in conflict with the message we get from the stories of Izuku and everyone else, so, if Horikoshi wanted to get that message across, it would have been better as its own series running parallel to the initial My Hero Academia manga. But that was not going to happen without Horikoshi taking a slower pace or sharing art and writing with someone else. I mean, it sort of worked for some of Bungo Stray Dogs to farm out some of its art to other illustrators…

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Natsume (pt. 2)

And we're back with more exciting and mean Natsume! Here we will further explore Natsume's life and how absolutely dark his existence is, as well as some very important aspects of his personality that will be useful to us when NatsuMikan starts picking up speed.

Again, I am warning people that this whole essay in general talks heavily about topics like bullying, child abuse, suicidal ideation, and depression, so if those are triggering topics, it might be better for you to not read.

Previously, we were introduced to Natsume and he has sent Mikan on a dangerous quest to the Northern Woods. During that trip, she and her friends have captured his one and only best friend, Ruka, which will not bode well.

Chapter Five

Chapter Five is instrumental for completing Natsume’s introduction, long as it’s been. Natsume is a mysterious character, and he will continue to be evasive and strange for many chapters to come, but by the end of this chapter, we will understand some basic foundation for his character.

The chapter starts with Ruka’s point of view, recalling a moment when he saw Natsume cry, presumably after a mission. Ruka wonders why it’s only Natsume that has to go through “this”, and Natsume tells him that he can take it--for now. He says he wants to grow up and be an adult, to be big and strong enough to properly escape this hell. This is a consistent wish of Natsume’s, and in many ways his only wish: to grow up already.

Higuchi really out here trying to convince us this was supposed to be a cheerful story.

Natsume had to be an adult, had to make the selfless and responsible choices for the sake of his family and for Ruka, had to abandon play and smiles and laughter for a life of secret missions and frequent hospital trips. He’s dying and he wants to be an adult already because he’s certain he’ll never be able to grow up. He wants his body to match the level of responsibility he’s had to take on, but he can’t force the outside to match the inside, especially when he’ll probably be dead long before it happens anyway. This wish evolves and changes when he falls for Mikan, but it doesn’t go away.

He associates adulthood with control, because his life at the academy has been observing the adults control and use him. He wants control for once, to be able to make a choice and even just say no.

Ruka notes that Natsume hasn’t cried at all since that night, and that he now keeps all his sorrow locked away. This kid needs therapy, immediately. This is another reason that Ruka is so precious to Natsume. Ruka is compassionate and kind, so concerned about his friend that he would also shut away his own heart so that he can’t be happy for as long as Natsume is in agony.

Natsume has a scene of his own, where he snaps at Permy for saying that Mikan is full of crap and lying about being an alice. He points out that the academy is not an easy place to lie your way into, and Permy immediately backtracks and lies that she’s agreed with him this whole time. Like I’d said earlier about the loneliness involved in being surrounded by fans who don’t really know or understand you, having people all around you bend over backwards for your approval makes it clear that they really have no interest in what you’re saying, just that you’re the one saying it.

In the anime essay, I’d pointed out that because of their admiration for him, it would elude people that Natsume is in fact lonely. He speaks out against things and people rush to agree, not really considering why he might say that. This is a similar moment, though he doesn’t seem too bothered by Permy’s behavior. It’s still concerning, but it’s interesting to compare this “yes, man” attitude to Ruka’s.

There is obviously a difference between someone agreeing with every word of your mouth no matter how much it changes and contradicts, bending over backwards for your approval, and someone wanting to match you out of compassion, but Ruka’s line of thinking does still have some major flaws.

Ruka is a child, just like the rest of them, so even though this behavior is motivated by love and compassion, it’s still immature and raises some questions.

“If you won’t smile, I won’t smile either,” is a sweet line, but now Natsume is aware that Ruka’s misery is his fault. If he wasn’t so sad, Ruka could be happy. This doesn’t make Natsume happy; it just makes them both sad, and that doesn’t solve any problems. Naturally, Natsume would never say that, and Ruka would claim he’s unbothered and--just like Natsume--that he doesn’t care about hanging out with the others, but they’re both miserable now, and I think this is part of the reason why there’s a gap between them at the start of the manga, and why they’re a bit distant, despite being best friends.

They’re each other’s most important person, but they don’t really communicate that well, and Ruka constantly feels like a burden.

Natsume needs something that Ruka can’t give him, and that something is what he’ll eventually get from Mikan.

That being said, at the moment, Natsume is getting nothing but irritation from Mikan. When he finds out Mikan and her gang kidnapped Ruka, that irritation turns into rage and we see a final fundamental building block for Natsume’s character: his berserk button.

Natsume doesn’t care about the reasoning or justification for the kidnapping. He doesn’t care about explanations or common sense.

His rage only increases when he discovers Ruka was tied up and even beaten (he is told this by a classmate, when Ruka is actually unharmed). The other kids in Class B--his admirers--are terrified to see how scary Natsume is when he’s furious.

Natsume's biggest weakness is Ruka so Mikan is kinda fucked.

He doesn’t care about the game anymore. He only cares about Ruka.

So he goes to the Northern Woods, where nobody is expecting him. He tells Mikan to leave the school, which… she cannot do, obviously. He is overtaken by rage and he ceases to be reasonable.

He uses his alice on everyone but Ruka, and is about to use it on Mikan, but her alice nullifies it. Then Narumi kisses him, prompting him to pass out.

Here, we are introduced to a consistent character trait of Natsume’s, one that may contradict all that talk about forced maturity and selflessness. In fact, Natsume’s habit to go absolutely postal on anyone who threatens a loved one is a contradictory one. Going into a rage requires the sacrifice of common sense and reason for the sake of complete emotional detonation, and as a result he fails to understand that his actions could inadvertently hurt his loved ones or innocent bystanders. No reassuring words are enough to calm him down, and sure enough Natsume will destroy something.

It’s important that we see this trait now, as part of Natsume’s informal introduction, as we will see plenty more instances of it later on. In a way, going berserk for someone can even be a love language of his, where if a person being threatened is enough to set him off, he probably cares about them.

And just as interesting as seeing what he does in these situations is posing the why! Why is it that Natsume goes ballistic in these situations, when it requires the loss of the one thing he wishes he had more of, control? My guess is that Natsume has had a rough childhood and much of that time was spent running away from a dangerous entity. Staying cool and calculated under some conditions would have its benefits, but so would the quick-action and confidence that Natsume would gain by going berserk. When you have to protect someone, and Natsume has been in that situation many times, then it’s sometimes even beneficial to be able to lose yourself for a moment or two. But perhaps it’s not that either. Natsume is, despite all his airs of coldness and mystery, actually a very emotional person, and in that way he is easy to understand. Even if this isn’t a habit he developed by watching his loved ones ripped away from him through either extortion, manipulation, or just plain murder, it’s still something he might be predisposed to: attacking with everything he has despite not having a clear plan or even any real thought.

Chapter Six

We pick up where we left off and Natsume wakes up grumpy after everyone seeing him under the effects of Narumi’s pheromone alice. He causes more destruction, still in somewhat of a rage, and even causes Narumi a head wound though his teacher seems unbothered by this (or maybe even used to it, who can say).

The next thing that happens is that an alarm rings, signaling that Natsume is due for severe punishment, and, as Naru points out, not something he can help with this time. Narumi warns him to get a move on before a mystery enemy (Persona) arrives, and that is enough to scare Natsume into getting out of there. But not before he issues a word of warning of his own to Mikan, that she will regret coming to Alice Academy of her own free will.

Isn't it interesting how her optimism, something he hated so much about her from the start, ends up being something he loves about her?

I have very many thoughts about this warning. It might even seem like a threat, as if Natsume will go out of his way to make sure she regrets her decision, but he does no such thing. He is convinced that Mikan doesn’t need help reaching that conclusion--she will realize it on her own because the school is simply that terrible.

It makes a little bit of sense to view Natsume’s hatred of Mikan this way: Mikan skipped right into his own personal hell with a smile on her face and a bubbly attitude. Meanwhile, he fought and kicked and screamed right until the very end when he was forced into attending the academy. And Mikan is not some normal girl who might be able to live a quiet and pleasant life in the academy. She’s already been marked, what with all the games about her enrollment, and that might anger Natsume even more: she’s really naive enough to walk into a place that’s not just hell to him, but inevitably to her too. Because of this, Natsume hates her and is predisposed to hate her more the more cheerful and optimistic she is.

And, unlike in the anime, this hatred takes much longer to go away.

Anyway, we see Natsume again later in class, when he shows up late after having just been terribly abused as punishment for his actions in the Northern Woods.

In the anime, Natsume catches Mikan insulting him while wearing the punishment mask, and although he’s covered in scratches and the kids are whispering about his bad mood, there’s not much else to it. He doesn’t seem any more unpleasant than he’s been this whole time.

There's nothing funny about this but I will put here as a warning that anybody who jokes that kids should be hit will be hit by me!

In the manga, Natsume is so weak that he can hardly stand. It’s not just scratches, but blood and gashes on his wrists and legs. The mask is not only used to mark him, it’s also used to punish, by physically abusing him when Persona has better things to do.

He makes his way to his seat, but Narumi is on the way, just enough to make a quippy comment.

(I wonder sometimes about Narumi establishing himself as untrustworthy to the children, particularly Natsume, and how exactly that’s supposed to be a help to the student body at large. I mean there’s the possibility that Mikan is special, and her being Yuka’s daughter helped Narumi remember what he became a teacher for. In that case, it might make sense that Narumi, being so jaded and bitter, might be content acting as a villain to the abused children of the academy, and especially to Natsume, but I can’t help but feel that’s not the case. I don’t want to think that Narumi was willingly complicit and even amused by Natsume’s abuse. It’s difficult to tell for sure, though, because Narumi is way more mysterious than Natsume tries to be.)

Sumire tries to kiss up, whining to Natsume about how everyone is suddenly acting so nice to the new girl, until Natsume forcefully kicks her desk to shut her up. He only holds back with Ruka, who he would never lash out at.

Narumi then announces that Mikan shall have a partner, and that her partner will be Natsume. It’s funny because although Hotaru made it clear she didn’t want the job, Iinchou was willing to volunteer, but Narumi ignores that because he always wanted Natsume to be her partner. At this news, everyone is shocked, wondering if Mikan is supposed to be special, seeing as she’s paired up with Natsume of all people.

Narumi smiles to himself despite the chaos and then lets himself leave the classroom, saying, “let’s see what happens.”

Why does he partner them up?

Mikan thinks Narumi is crazy for this, and from an outside perspective it certainly might seem that way.

Natsume’s theory, as becomes clear later during the exams, is that this was organized by the ESP and Persona, perhaps as a punishment, but definitely with ulterior motives. He is closer to nailing it, but a little off. There is no way in hell the ESP would want to partner the child of rabble-rousers with the school’s pet child soldier. That’s a recipe for disaster. Knowing that the ESP was excited to welcome Mikan because of her alice, and that her presence at the school might encourage Yuka to try and save her, he wouldn’t have wanted to disturb his own plans.

So what is the reason?

It’s all Narumi, of course. Perhaps the O.G. shipper, Narumi could tell right away that Mikan’s nullification would be useful, particularly in regards to Natsume. Pairing them up is just another means to an end, as Narumi actually wants the kids to raise some trouble.

Chapter Seven

Being partners with Natsume is quite unhelpful.

Mikan ends up a No-Star and her Special-Star partner is for the most part absent throughout her ordeals, having to cope with it all on her own.

Chapter Seven is mainly lacking Natsume. He functions to not function for most of it, that is to establish himself as being a terrible partner.

There is a moment that stands out, when Mikan is writing a letter to her grandpa, where Natsume appears. Yes, he appears in her head to taunt her about her regret coming to the school, and she spites him by committing to optimism and determination in the future. But he also has a short appearance paralleling a panel of Mikan: they are both in their beds, awake.

WHAT WAS THE REASON?????!??!?!?

This parallel is interesting, their panels right next to each other. She is thinking about her grandpa, and we have no way of knowing what Natsume is thinking about, but there has to be a reason for him to appear despite having been mostly absent so far in the chapter.

To me, it’s another narrative tool to pair them together. They have been so far, in more ways than one, and will continue to be as they fall in love, and this is just another example of how they’d been fated from the start. Even when they hate each other, and even when they aren’t thinking of each other, they’re still tied. Looking at those panels, and seeing Natsume despite his relative irrelevance to the plot, seems to be a message that there’s more to come between them. I don’t know if any of what I’m saying makes sense, or if it seems silly, but there’s very little analysis I can do without just talking about potential.

Later, with Mikan in a new mood, ready to make the most of her situation, the kids are talking about her resilience with both her no-star status and having Natsume as a partner.

Ruka does the talking for Natsume, warning Mikan that she’s being watched and remarking that nobody should have been assigned a no-star for simply disturbing class.

Once again, Mikan and Natsume are paired: they are both treated unfairly, with Mikan given a no-star status she doesn’t deserve, and Natsume given a special-star status despite the fact that he doesn’t even go to class most of the time. They’re the exceptions to the rule, and the reader is made to wonder what exactly it is that they have in common that would result in this treatment.

Ruka tells Mikan not to trust any teachers at the academy, not even Naru, and this is almost like hearing from Natsume himself. Unlike Mikan, who will happily make strong bonds with teachers like Narumi and Nodacchi, Natsume has absolutely no positive adult figures in his life. His father is far away, his mother is dead, and every teacher is someone he holds either directly or indirectly responsible for his suffering. The adults at the school have failed him and he has nobody to trust. Something Natsume needs is a positive role model, somebody he can look up to and have faith in, because as it stands he’s a traumatized boy who absorbs negativity and takes it out in bad ways. A trustworthy adult would very much help Natsume grow and learn better coping skills, and in the meantime it makes perfect sense that he would act out and even be a bully at times.

Chapter Eight

Natsume has a habit of ignoring any and all episodes where Mikan has confrontations with her teachers. He is either dozing off or listening to music with Ruka, and doesn’t seem particularly interested in even watching.

That being said, we see a new side to Natsume in this chapter, a new emotion in a way we haven’t before: fear.

Natsume ditches class with regularity. He does not care about being present. For most classes, he would simply walk out and go screw around somewhere else, but with the dangerous ability class, he doesn’t have that choice.

The other teachers may be complicit, but they won’t do the abuse themselves. Persona is not above that, as we have already noticed despite never even seeing him so far.

If Natsume does not want to attend the dangerous ability class, then he has to run for it, and in this chapter he does, like his life depends on it, because his safety sure does. He’s only ten years old and forced to do horrible missions for the school. This is one of the scenes that reminds me that he is just a child. He knows he could get punished for running, but he does it anyway. Maybe, if he runs fast enough, they won’t catch him. Maybe, if he doesn’t get caught, he doesn’t have to go on a mission. Maybe, just this once, they won’t mind if he doesn’t show. It’s such a childish and desperate thing to do, to avoid pain at the cost of more pain to come.

Natsume is scary when he's scared...

It’s funny that as he is running from pain, he runs into Mikan, who will later alleviate his pain. For now, he just shuts her up so that Persona can pass the area while looking for him. We see Persona for the first time, what Natsume is scared of more than anything, and although his fear seems obvious, Mikan is preoccupied by annoyance for being shut up like that.

They bicker--or she bickers at him, mostly--until the middle schoolers encounter them and start bullying them.

Natsume is ready to ignore them and walk away, until Sumire’s brother calls him a murderer, reminding us of the rumor Hotaru and Iinchou discussed. Natsume stops, and Sumire’s brother whines that he’s just a special star because he’s “Persona’s favorite”.

Sumire and her brother have, like, nothing in common other than curly hair, huh.

Being Persona’s favorite is no privilege, as we know now from the run-in we just had with him and Natsume’s fear. This sets Natsume off and he starts some fires. When they threaten to call Persona, who Natsume was just running from, he responds that they can call him all they want, but he’ll burn them before he can get there to capture him. We see once again, through Natsume standing up for himself, that his berserk button lacks reason (as he is willing to sacrifice punishment by Persona again).

In a last-ditch attempt to threaten him, the middle schoolers threaten Mikan, who they perceive to be Natsume’s new girlfriend. (Calling her his girlfriend is interesting because it is even more proof that they are being narratively paired together! It shouldn’t be a surprise at all that they eventually get together, when almost everybody around them pairs them up like this, even when they can’t stand each other.) They do not expect that Natsume actually hates her, and genuinely doesn’t care if she gets bullied or not. He smiles in twisted amusement at this turn of events and walks away for good this time, leaving Mikan to be bullied.

Aw, he's smiling! How sweet.... oh wait that's a skull.

Now, Natsume is a good person deep inside, somebody who is selfless and kind in secret ways. There is no secret kindness about this scene. He is not a nice person, for sure, and this scene is proof of it.

Natsume is used to sacrificing himself for the comfort and well-being of his loved ones, so there might be relief in not caring about the comfort or well-being of somebody, and being able to choose his own well-being before that of somebody else for once. It makes sense that he would be so amused, because this time nobody has anything to hold over his head.

Conclusion

We have seen some more of the abuse Natsume faces on a daily basis. He and Mikan have been partnered up and they are presented narratively as foils and as pairs even outside of that dynamic.

For the next part, we'll see even more examples of them being paired together, as well as how Natsume is isolated from his classmates.

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[aj-anime-blog]

Deca-Dence - Review!

Wooooo Deca-Dence!

Deca-Dence was a summer 2020 anime, and that’s when I originally watched it! I've watched it about a dozen times since, as it landed itself right on my roster of my favorite animes, if not my favorite of all time.

Deca-Dence is an original piece, so no manga source material (whaaat!) and comes from the genius brain of Yuzuru Tachikawa, the director of other fan-favorites like Mob Psycho 100 and Death Parade (a review for Death Parade is in the making!). Original mangas are such a hit-or-miss recently, and I think that this one got the bullseye!

What's our concept?: Set in the future, the world is now plagued by monsters known as Gadolls. In an attempt to keep humans safe from them, mobile fortress Deca-Dence was constructed, where Gears, who live near the top, fight the Gadolls, and Tankers, who live at the bottom, provide support from inside Deca-Dence. Our protag, Natsume, is a Tanker who wants to fight with the Gears, but her prosthetic arm keeps her out of battle. That is until she meets Kaburagi, an older Tanker who seems to know his way around fighting and might have more to him than he lets on.

It's gonna be hard to go through this without spoilers, but I promise that I'll keep it spoiler-free until the section at the bottom!

So overall, what do I think?: 10/10! I've already said it, but Deca-Dence is one of my favorite animes of all time, and it deserves the spot! It has incredible characters, a story that keeps you hooked even through twists and turns, and a pace that manages to cram so much plot into only 12 episodes without feeling overwhelming or rushed! Deca-Dence presents ideas that, at the surface, may seem overused or old, but spins them in such a way that they're completely original. It follows through with character relationships, making them worthwhile and fulfilling.

Let's start with the story this time!: 10/10!! It's going to be really hard to explain the beauty of Deca-Dence's plot without spoiling it, but I'm doing my best! I really do recommend just giving the show a try, though, as it's really worth it! (Don't just drop it after episode 2, like a lot of people did :( That's just judging it wayyy too early!!)

Deca-Dence has a story that's thrilling and new. Everything that happens builds off of itself in a way that's natural and smooth. The elements of the story, no matter how different they may seem, play their part and work together well. The show isn't predictable either - don't go in thinking that you know what's going to become of it. Each twist feels surprising and new without feeling like they're coming out of left field.

I won't say much more in fear of ruining it, but Deca-Dence's story holds up well, and with its strong cast of characters supporting it, it becomes absolutely suburb. I think a lot of people fell into this pit of seeing only the beginning and tossing it aside, but no matter how strange the concepts in it may be, they wind together to form something really unique!

So those characters, huh?: 11/10, I love them so much! I'm a character nerd through and through, and Deca-Dence sends my little character-obsessed heart wild. The protags, Natsume and Kaburagi, are both fascinating, have incredible development, and engage in a character dynamic that is so natural and well-written that I never doubted it.

To be honest, Natsume doesn't have a personality that's anything new. She's young, determined to a fault, naive, and a complete sweetheart. She wants to fight the Gadoll and she'll do anything to achieve that dream. She's not a natural at fighting but her motivation to do so makes her believable and relatable. She's looked down upon because of her prosthetic arm and forced into a job that she doesn't like, but she never gives up on her goals. Even though she's so simple, her interactions and energy make her lovable and a wonderful protagonist.

Kaburagi follows the washed-out warrior trope, as he's an older man assigned to clean-up duty who keeps to himself and never shows too much emotion. While this type of character can sometimes get annoying, the show gives Kaburagi enough time to show his real feelings and explain how he got to his position. This proper development keeps him down-to-Earth and shows him as even more flawed than Natsume. Kaburagi's motivation, which I can't explain for spoiler reasons, is entirely believable and explains perfectly why he decides to put up with Natsume, even though she's his polar opposite.

The relationship between the two characters is balanced and beautiful. It's given the proper time to grow, mature, and ends up being extremely worthwhile. Natsume relies on Kaburagi, as he sees the potential in her and continues to support her in ways no one else ever has, and Kaburagi understands that Natsume is everything that he's trying to rebel against. Their relationship is emotional, runs deep, and leaves you wishing that there was more of them to watch, even after the show has ended.

The villain! The villain. I cannot talk all that much about the villain at the risk of spoiling. He is evil. I really really hated him, and that is a very good thing because it means that he's well-written. His motivation makes sense, his actions make you want to strangle him, his design was really really good! He's not the most interesting thing in the show, as his character is really only there to move the story along, but not every villain needs to be incredibly deep for a show to be good.

Lastly, our supporting characters! While none of them are as wonderful as Natsume or Kaburagi, they're still interesting and hold their own. They play important parts in the show and all of their interactions with the main two feel natural. Their conflicts make sense, their resolutions feel well-earned, and their personalities are all unique! For a 12-episode anime, there's a larger cast of supporting characters than you would think, and nearly all of them are memorable and loveable.

Time to shut up about characters, what about the art?: 9/10, ooooh yes the art! Deca-Dence is gorgeous! It's animated by studio Nut (bwahahhaha), who haven't done that much else in the anime world. Still, for a relatively new studio, it's absolutely amazing! The characters all have unique looks that make them stand out and the fight scenes are to die for. They lose a point on the CG, since it's a little bit less than amazing, but again, for a new studio, it's definitely not the worst I've seen!! (Admittedly, I also don't like CG much at all, so I'm always harsh towards it when it's used).

Deca-Dence switches between two styles that vastly contradict each other, one which is a colorful, happy-go-lucky style, and one that's the more typical anime style. I'll speak more about them in the spoilers section, but they do a wonderful job at maintaining the tone of the show, as to not let it get too dark, and forming a clear divide between the events of the two parts.

Oh goshhh the Gadolls look so cool. I'm so obsessed with cool monsters in anime and woah they look awesome!! They're original, with cool designs that I haven't seen elsewhere. The show could've so easily slapped in some pretty typical-looking dragons or wolves or whatever, but they instead spent time on these epic creatures, and it's so worth it! It makes the setting that much more unique and allows it to stand out from other animes.

Surely there's a flaw in this anime? The pacing, maybe?: 9/10. Yeah, I would argue that the pacing is Deca-Dence's weakest point. Not that the pacing is particularly bad compared to other shows! I still think that, for a 12-episode anime, it does a wonderful job of fitting in a large amount of plot into only about 5 hours! But, at some points, parts felt rushed or confusing, as the show would zoom into them. I never felt like I was truly lost, though. Even if I did wish that there was a break from the action, I never found myself really thinking that the show was leaving me behind in the dust. It's not the kind of show that you can turn on and leave running while you multitask, though. Blink for too long and you might miss something important, which can ruin some of the hard-hitting twists that the anime works so hard to build up.

OK! Time for spoilers! I beg you, go watch the anime before you read past this, because it's totally worth it!!

Woahh episode 2 am I right?? I thought that I clicked into the wrong anime when I began it, it took such a wild turn, and so soon in the anime too. This is what I really mean when I talk about a show not being what it appears to be! Again, I really encourage you to watch it for yourself, but if you're that stubborn on reading this through before you turn it on:

Deca-Dence is not about the heart-wrenching battles between Gears and their desperate attempts to keep humanity alive, because Gears are just avatars for cyborgs! You see, there's a civilization of cyborg people who are living above the Earth, who log in to fight in mobile fortress Deca-Dence as a game. So the Gadolls are genetically grown as prey for the Gears and the entire story surrounding Deca-Dence's battles are scripted. Crazy right!? The best part: the Tankers aren't in on this at all. You heard me: Natsume and her human friends have no idea that Deca-Dence is staged.

From here, Deca-Dence has two distinct parts: we'll call them "Natsume's half" and "Kaburagi's half". Natsume's half refers to the mobile fortress, the Tankers who live unaware of the cyborgs, and the art style that premiered in the first episode. Kaburagi's half is the Solid Quake organization, the Gears who are avatars of the cyborgs, and the goofy, stylized art style with big lines and bright colors.

The twist and the diverging sides of the story set this show up as not your typical sci-fi anime, but as something a little deeper. The stakes are the same, as humanity is in just as much peril as it was before - it becomes abundantly clear that the Gears and cyborgs don't care about them - but the name of the game completely changes as you realize that our so-called "heroes" aren't really all that heroic, and there's a lot more going on.

Kaburagi is, of course, one of these cyborgs, cursed to live among the Tankers because of a mistake he made while playing as a Gear. Now, he's in charge of eliminating "bugs", or mistakes that the system finds. He's upset with his life, frustrated at what he's doing, and contemplating suicide. But when Natsume walks into his life, a little girl that the system considers legally dead, Kaburagi sees a chance to rebel, even the slightest, against the system. He's supposed to kill Natsume, but instead, he takes her under his wing, determined to protect what he's been instructed to eliminate. This development gives their relationship a deeper meaning, even if Natsume doesn't know it.

Deca-Dence does a wonderful job at showing the watchers both sides of the story but keeping Natsume's side in the dark. Even though we see scenes from Kaburagi's side, Natsume knows nothing about them. When Kaburagi leaves after Hugin kills his avatar, Nastume doesn't know where he's gone and has no reason to believe that he hasn't run away. There's no way she could guess that Kaburagi's new form - his weird orange Gear avatar - is the mentor that she once knew. And when Kaburagi, back in his original form, is killed in front of her, she really believes that he is dead. When Natsume finds out about the truth of the Gadolls - that the world she knows is fake - her horror is palpable and realistic, because there's no way she could've known any better.

Kaburagi's world has a goofy style to it, with the cyborgs looking cartoonish rather than realistic. While it might initially seem off-putting, I think that it ends up balancing the tone of the story much better. Consider the hellscape that is the reform facility that Kaburagi visits. Imagine how dark it would've been if it was not in a silly style! By keeping the style cuter rather than realistic, the show doesn't dip too far into dark and gritty, and I really liked it!

It also set up this harsh divide between Kabruagi's half, where things are easygoing, done for pleasure and fun, and not nearly as harsh as Natsume's world (Look at the name of the series! Decadence literally means living in excessive luxury!). Even when the cyborgs are in their Gear forms, which are drawn in Natsume's style, they're still a lot more colorful and vivid, showing that their lives aren't as harsh as that of the Tankers. The art styles reflect the differences between the two halves and give them both distinct tones and personalities!

& finally, let's take an in-depth look at one scene!: I had a really hard time picking what I thought summed up the series in a single scene. In the end, I think that Natsume and Kaburagi's discussion at the end of episode 7 was the best. Here, we see a culmination of a lot of the character development going on. Kaburagi, in this scene, is in a Gears avatar that Natsume doesn't recognize, meeting her for the first time since his normal avatar was killed. Natsume's been working with the Tankers to protect them from Gadolls that infiltrated the fortress, and she's motivated them all to rise up and fix the hole in the fortress themselves.

Kaburagi has encouraged Natsume to be a stronger person, even though she had to be independent and not rely on him any longer. His pessimistic view on the world - that they'll never defeat the Gadolls - has rubbed off on her, but it's only made her more determined to be stronger to stand up to them. In this scene, we see her breaking down as she considers that Kaburagi might be right, and that she'll never kill them all, but that she needs to continue fighting.

Though Kaburagi previously doubted Natsume and her endless determination, he now feels filled with the same motivation. Natsume has convinced him, time and time again, that he can't give up, and so he decides that he's willing to do anything to make sure that she never loses that hope. He wants her dreams to come true, and he knows that she can't accomplish them alone.

This perfectly shows the effects that they have on one another. Natsume is now stronger than she's ever been: independent, able to take down Gadolls on her own, and determined enough to patch up the hole that no one else thought could be fixed. Kaburagi, in stark contrast to his suicidal thoughts from episode two, is now completely devoted to make the world a safe place for Natsume. Their relationship has shaped one another into being the best versions of themselves, and this isn't even the end! They still complete their growth in the last few episodes, but I've rambled about them enough.

We're done!: That's my review of Deca-Dence! I really believe that it's one of the masterpiece animes in recent years, and I wish it got more attention. I'm sure that there's plenty of anime out there like this one - forgotten diamonds in the rough - that I'd love to dig up and fawn over. Tell me if you know any! Or, if you disagree with my review, tell me where you think I'm wrong!