#there's so much happening in mahiru's video and it's so fun to see how the visuals and lyrics interact

[theamityelf]

Who all has who in the mini thh au

Great question!

Hajime- Kyoko

Both forgot their talents, both kind of on the abrasive side. Kyoko will be frequently sneaking out to investigate stuff on her own, which stresses Hajime out because he gets in trouble if he loses her. Built-in conflict.

Nagito- Makoto

Lucky students, and I love imagining the drama of Makoto necessarily being present for everything Nagito gets up to and trying to stop him and maybe succeeding in talking him down from some stuff. And just the idea of Nagito talking while they're in the cabin together each night, saying his usual weird stuff about talent and hope to Makoto while Makoto is all the way in his terrarium and so he can't reply loudly enough for Nagito to hear. So maybe instead he breaks something, just to make enough noise to interrupt. Honestly, there would just be so much going on with them.

Chiaki- Celeste

The gamers, lol. Chiaki would do her best to indulge Celeste's vibe, and I think that could be very fun, because she really does not know how. They reach a point of common ground when Chiaki starts making bets with Celeste about the outcome of her video games, and getting the other senpais and kouhais in on it.

Teruteru- Yasuhiro

This matchup was by default, but Hiro not liking smoke does add some tension.

Imposter- Junko

Imposter and fashionista are super compatible talents, and imposter and analyst are super compatible talents. Both of them read people and put on personas. They would see right through each other.

Mahiru- Hifumi

Both have visual art talents, and Mahiru would whip him into shape.

Peko- Mukuro

The loyal warriors. Very similar vibe. They would be very polite and impersonal to each other. Protecting Mukuro is secondary to protecting Fuyuhiko, of course, but having to care someone so similar to herself, but tiny and powerless, might be a very moving experience for Peko.

Hiyoko- Sakura

Both masters of a particular physical art form. Sakura's steady presence, both respectful and demanding of respect, would be a good influence on Hiyoko. Oh, she would still be super rude, but her interactions would shape up differently and she'd eat a more balanced diet, lol.

Ibuki- Sayaka

Musicians. Sayaka, being more on the calculated side, would be interesting to have as the person whispering in Ibuki's ear. She might try to convince Ibuki to do something she wouldn't normally do. It most likely wouldn't work; Ibuki is very independent. But Sayaka is pretty resourceful, and as a side note, one might think about the despair disease...

Mikan- Kiyotaka

This one was also kind of by default, once the more obvious ones were sorted away. Personality-wise, his bold presence contrasts with her more meek disposition, and she would be really proud of that. Taka argues with bullies! He cares about making sure everyone behaves. She loves him. She loves that someone so principled depends on her. Also, important note: When murders happen on the island, usually the kouhais are left alive. (Though murdering specifically the kouhai so that the senpai gets killed as punishment for losing them is also potentially a thing. Most people would consider it too low a blow to murder someone who's four inches tall, but still. Worth considering. The kouhais' role in this adds a new dimension to the kinds of murders that can happen.) When a murderer is executed, their kouhai is also left alive. Mikan always volunteers to take in the unattended kouhai, because she just really likes this dynamic. (If the Undead AU is Nagito's best timeline, this genuinely might be Mikan's, lol.)

Nekomaru- Leon

Because sports. I could have had Akane and Nekomaru trade, but this was the alignment I chose. (Anyway, if one of them dies, the other will take care of their kouhai, so there's a good chance Akane will have Leon later on.) Nekomaru is a good enough coach to make Leon actually enjoy practicing baseball. Just, you know, tiny baseball. Or, he's a good enough coach to identify what Leon likes and dislikes about baseball and direct him to excel in a way that emphasizes the aspects he likes.

Gundham- Toko

Another "by default" one, where breeding animals and writing romance novels are kind of close if you squint. The idea of Toko being in the care of someone like Gundham is actually super heartwarming; he would make sure she has everything she needs, he would tolerate any lashing out on her part in the same way he does the bites of his Four Dark Devas of Destruction. Toko would be very unused to being so cared for and accommodated that way. If Gundham dies, Sonia will take Toko. Which...would be interesting in a lot of ways, starting with Sonia's enthusiastic interest in serial killers and Toko's romantic obsession with Sonia's assigned kouhai.

Fuyuhiko- Mondo

Both gangsters with a need to present as strong. Fuyuhiko takes it farther than Mondo does (to the point where Mondo is often protesting the things Fuyuhiko says), and they butt heads a lot, but they also have each other's backs.

Kazuichi- Chihiro

Both STEM. I feel like Chihiro would be constantly blushing about everything Kazuichi says and does, and they would also be fascinated by his work. I think it would change his whole deal for the better, if he had the constant company of someone like Chihiro. I think he would be less comfortable openly bugging Sonia if there was an underclassman sitting in the fold of his beanie.

Akane- Aoi

Athletes. Their personalities would go really well together, and Akane would be so serious about making sure Hina is okay, getting enough exercise, eating enough food, etc. It's like she has a new little sibling. Like I've mentioned, she would get a fishbowl from the market so Hina can swim when they're in the cabin. (When Hina has trouble scaling the side of the fishbowl to get in, she would teach her a few parkour tricks.) She would take her to Mikan every time she hurts herself exercising.

Sonia- Byakuya

Heirs. And it's really funny to imagine Byakuya being his cold-blooded self while he's sitting on the shoulder of someone really nice. I also like imagining Sonia trying to make a luxurious enough living space for him. Using her own jewelry to decorate, a silk scarf for bedsheets, etc. She's very proud of her handiwork.

[archivalofsins]

I'm glad I don't look in the tag like the shit that passes my dash is like stuff I know, and then Mikoto being hypersexualized on a bimonthly basis with the implied impression that it's fine as long as it's a male being sexualized. I have no stake in it one way or the other. If that's fun to some, it's just fun, and I'm certain other characters are sexualized just as much in different circles. Maybe I'm just lucky enough not to have seen that.

Yet that again would be due to people recognizing subconsciously or not that hypersexualizing certain characters of the cast is problematic on some level. I don't see this sort of discussion as often around Yuno despite the content within her music videos. I don't see it around Mahiru or Kotoko as much either. This is excluding every other character that was a child when Milgram started all together.

This may sound like a complaint or a dig at this fandoms ethics, but it isn't because literally most fandoms treat male characters like this. This isn't something the Milgram fanbase created or anything it's quite common.

It's why Persona 5 wrote those story beats around Ryuji how they did- Because when sexual harrassment happens to a man in fiction it's comedy when it happens to a woman in fiction it's either horror or very notably a moral failing on the one doing it. Or maybe again I've just gotten lucky and haven't read a lot of egregious shit in that regard.

The way all fandom tends to hypersexualize men in general is a byproduct of how the sexual issues of men are discussed in media and ignorance. The same as it is when it comes to hypersexualization and caricaturing of female characters past and present as well. I don't want this to come off as me saying being overly sexualized is a male issue alone. Because it's not. This is a very reductionist explanation of sexualization in media, something that affects all genders differently.

There's much more to it than what I'm saying here. Plus, not everyone does this with the intent of demeaning a character or reducing them to their sexual appeal alone. Some people just find a design sexy or aesthetically appealing that's pretty reasonable. Displaying why that is- is reasonable as well.

However, when that is put alongside comments like "I'd never judge a female character like this, of course, I have some class." It starts to make me raise an eyebrow just a bit. Like, I end up wondering like um why not though?

Hate to be openly pansexual (no i don't this is hyperbole) but um, women are hot, lol. What does no one else think so? Is it bad to point out the features of the Milgram women too. I'm sorry but Mahiru is hot she dresses well and homely she has a decent figure and she is not lacking in the chest department.

It really comes down to preference at the end of the day. Am i going to sit here and say Mikoto looks average? No, like Mikoto, Kazui, Mahiru, and Shidou are all genuinely attractive and can be somewhat charismatic people. Ya know something that a good few murderers are. That's kind of the point of them being the adults of the group.

They are the end result of everyone here younger than them and are more than likely the best at what they do.

Outside of that, it would be weird of me to hold anybody to a certain standard when it comes to what they're attracted to in fiction. Unless they are romanticizing a criminal act or a child. Gotta make that really clear. Since that isn't really occurring here, it is kind of free game. Go nuts, really.

I just find it interesting that everything a person would ethically have an issue with someone doing to a character that's a woman has been done to Mikoto with reckless abandon.

From hyperfocusing on the measurements of his body, overtly sexualizing him regardless of how covered up he is, making assumptions about his romantic or sexual preferences. It's like everything that would make anyone rightfully a creep if they did it to a woman whether that be in real life or in fiction has been done to this one fictional dude to the point it technically happens in cycles. I can tell when a month has ended based on if this man's body is being talked about sometimes, and I shouldn't be able to do that at any time.

It's impressive. I need to note again that I'm not saying this because I'm a prude or to protect Mikoto's very nonexistent innocence. It's just a funny and interesting double standard to look into within any fandom, not just this one. I know it's all in good fun, and this isn't meant to call it out or anybody in any way.

It's just meant to be me going,

"Hey, this is a funny thing that hasn't really been questioned that much that actually ties into other writing tropes in media that are pretty bad. Let's talk about it."

Even if it is not that deep.

Personally, I've always found it interesting as daughter of a guy that suffered interpersonal partner violence and being raised in a community where the sexual assault of both men and women is prominently discussed to see how men and women are sexualized not only in media but by fanbases. Of course, I'm way more interested in this when it comes to black people. However, when a good example of the differences is sitting right in front of me, it's hard to overlook it.

Better excuse, though- Mahiru is hot, too! Maybe stop talking about how she's delusional and instead discuss how she had low confidence and rejection sensitivity. Causing her to not understand what she was doing was too much for the situation as well as made it difficult for her to let the fact that she was not accepted by someone she liked go. Similarly to Mu.

Like maybe this line from This Is How To Be In Love With You deserves a bit more focus,

"What do you think? I know it's not the type of question you want to be asked."

A common question for one to ask their partner about the outfits they put on.

Or this one in I Love You,

"Sigh... No appetite, I can’t sleep, my hair’s a mess. What am I supposed to do now? If you won’t tell me, I can’t be me."

I'm not hungry, I can't sleep, and worst of all- I'm not even looking good right now. Yeah fuck it actually this is a Mahiru appreciation post now that woman served this community several different outfits and this bastard only gave two fuck Mikoto stop complimenting this man for his cycling body.

Yeah, he's fit. We know! The man bikes to work to stay in shape and practices swinging a bat when angry.

But guess what-

Mahiru jogs, and she even has a cute jogging outfit. We've never even seen this man on a bike. Let alone in a cycling outfit.

Q.04 Are you picky when it comes to fashion?

Mikoto: Of course I am. Nobody would want to ask for anything from an unfashionable designer, right?

Oh, you're picky huh. People wouldn't ask for anything from an unfashionable designer, yeah... So, why does Mahiru Shiina's first music video look like a fashion catalogue-

While all we see from you is you putting your clothes where they belong,

Sorry, I got heated there. It's not a fashion competition because we clearly know who would win that. Long story short, Mahiru has a cute design too.

[good-beanswrites]

Hello 🎬👋!! Haha, I’m glad you enjoyed the thoughts, I loved these so much! Thank you!

LMAO I think a few of them would have real good taste in song titles, but others… not so much 😅 I actually think Yuno would have some pretty solid ideas. Though Haruka has some nice thoughts too, I heard both his titles are specific plays on words that I don’t think he’d come up with himself…

Omg yes! The prisoners would have such a good time planning mv outfits! I can definitely see it being bittersweet for Fuuta – exasperated by, but also homesick because, they all remind him so much of his sister ;-; Mahiru is devastated she's not getting a new outfit for I Love You and so she enjoys styling vicariously through helping the others. Shidou’s outfit was even more painfully Dad before the group helped tone it down. Before the mv color scheme was decided, they cycle through a few different colored marching band uniforms for Amane. Muu doesn’t quite understand the flower dress, but the team promises her it will all come together to look great.

>:O The birthday art can be au canon!! The previously mentioned fashion crew makes everyone dress up like their cake, and designer Mikoto photoshops them into a pic of it aww. Even after watching the t1 videos, it would be the nicest they've seen everyone get dressed up. They're shocked seeing the boys clean up so nicely in their suits, and the girls are just shining in their fancy dresses and heels. And maybe Es’ “birthday” pic was a pre-experiment candid shot of them chillin with the bunny off set :’)

On a slightly darker note, I wonder if those pv shots of the restraints are canon too. Milgram had a few ideas for worst-case restraints and took a few shots for reference during an early fitting…

ADFGGH rip Haruka 😂😂😂 I love the idea of a whole group of them sneaking around looking for tasty goo and fun props, and instead stumbling upon The Mannequin Room. And waait I'm so emotional over Kazui loosening up and having a bit of fun with his tricks :’D With all the themes about certain characters growing up faster than they should, it would be so lovely to see them giggling and messing around in a blooper reel! I’m imagining someone trying to twirl Amane’s baton as well as her and epically failing at it.

Yeah, I have a lot of different predictions for Amane’s t3 changes – but no matter what happens, she starts accepting help just a little bit more behind the scenes >:) It’ll still take her a really long time to break away from the cult’s beliefs (no one in the cast/team really knows proper cult deprogramming strategies at this point, but they start looking into it as soon as the experiments ends.) Still, she finds a balance of keeping most of her religion and also realizing that the others genuinely care for her. 

And oooh I really like that 👀 I always pictured the prisoner Es hints to be leading toward them being a prisoner in the future (accused of executing prisoners), but that would add so much more drama if it relates to a past imprisonment. The ten would make a perfect heist team, hacking the system, snooping around, and charming facility members in order to find paperwork detailing past experiments featuring Es. And Kotoko would certainly be leading the investigation – I love how closely she’s monitoring everything, it would fit so well if she were the one to see the truth first. Between the realization that Milgram hasn’t been fully honest, and the threat that Es may be there for even longer, the jailbreak would erupt much quicker than the current timeline. Although the au is nicer overall, I really like keeping Milgram a pretty shady organization hehe 

[prisoner-000]

Hey, here's a fun question: Which lines are sung visually/directly by the characters in each MILGRAM MV?

T1:

Weakness: Haruka's 'Ah, ah, ah's' are also shown in video form in the chorus. He definitely does have that manner of laughing in canon, but I'm not sure there's much to say about it. He has every disease

Umbilical: No lines are sung/said. This might resemble Yuno's whole 'innocent girl with little agency' thing that people saw her as at first. She doesn't even get to say anything in her own story.

Bring It On: Nope. No lines sung/said. Like with Yuno, I think this might be taking away from Fuuta's agency on purpose. To portray him as more of a follower that got out of hand instead of the group leader. Though this may also be a budgetary issue, as Milgram's animation was pretty limited at first, they couldn't afford much lipsync animation.

After Pain: Arguably, her part with holding on to Rei's sleeve can be lip-read as 'I'm sorry/gomenasai' which would sync up with 'gomen' in her lyrics, though I think it's supposed to be more of a parallel than a direct spoken line. It's still a very fun detail that I don't see people talk about that much!

Throw Down: No spoken lines. This time, I think it's just Shidou putting up that barrier between the audience and what actually happened with his backstory, making it more vague and unclear.

TIHTBILWY: "I'm sorry!" In the scene where Mahiru looks at the camera, and maybe also her monologue on the phone? The lipsync doesn't quite match up, but it's possible. The fact that the only proper thing she says is "I'm sorry" hurts, though: She really does know she did something horrible and wants to atone for it, but doesn't know how.

half: "The curse of reuniting with you puts a dagger in my heart; I imagined you saying "See you" was the same as "It's over"; Only if your heart would change, but that's not possible; Please tell me what I should do, feelings shrouded in lies will float and away and disappear" (essentially: the entire chorus). It's notable how this is all sung during Kazui's performance on stage, once while wearing his mask, once without.

Magic: "See?" (From 'See, isn't it a great thing?') and "God/Wise One" ("Kami-sama" from 'Dear Wise One, is this ok?'). To me, the 'See?' is directed at herself, convincing herself that the things that happened to her were actually good. The whole song is just Amane trying to justify all the horrible things she went through.. And the visual cue just makes that more obvious :(.

MeMe: "Why am I here? It must be a mistake, right? Take a good look at me" and "Never forgive" (from "I will NEVER forgive you if this is happening to me even though I'm right"). First one is pretty self-explanatory, I feel like the second one has some implications about Mikoto's judgment of other people, mayhaps.

HARROW: No spoken lines! Due to the lines being more general in establishing Kotoko's goals and not really towards any one person in particular, it might have been awkward to fit a speech segment into the video. So. Hmm.

T2

All-Knowing and All-Agony: No lines are sung directly except for mayyybe an "Ah" in the middle. I think they might be trying to highlight Haruka's tendency to Ah, eh, hm, in his speech mannerisms, with these being his only visually spoken lines.

Tear Drop: "Shut up" (from "Just shut it, will you? You know it all") and "So nauseating... So creepy... will you please disappear". These are very clearly said to a person in particular; though also possibly just her clients that infantilize her in general. Love that these lines get emphasis considering Yuno's character.

Backdraft: "So worthless!/What a load of crap!" and "Come up to the ring and face me!". Very much still Fuuta's tough guy act talking to the people that judged him.

It's Not My Fault: "We are just the same" (from "I am doing this just because I'm bored, we are just the same" and "I'm always so pitiable!" (Translated as "I'm always the drama queen" but this sucks as a translation so.. lol). Aimed at Rei, mayhaps? The first line carries some very interesting implications with it. Wasn't here for the drop of this MV so it's probably already been analyzed to death..

Triage: "I want to be forgiven, I want to live!" Ohh Shidou.. be careful with that developing savior complex. Basically Triage's whole message summed up into two lines.

I Love You: Just a simple sigh. She's too exhausted to say anything more than that.

Cat: "Phew, wow, I'm drunk.. Hey, if I said I liked you, what would you do?" and arguably him breathing out smoke/sighing at the end. Infamous confession scene. IMO, this is still him confessing his feelings for his friend, which leads to that insane downwards spiral that ruins his life.

The Purge March: No lines spoken. Due to most of the MV taking place before the murder but the lyrics being about her motivation for murder... Yeah, it's natural no lyrics are visually said. (Since they also want to keep her actual murder scene vague).

That's all we've got so far!! Hope you enjoyed :-) if you have any thoughts feel free to add on!

[good-beans]

(Milgram self-insert oc masterpost hehe)

Name: For the sake of posting online I’ll call her Rose!

Color: #E7355B [the pink in the art]

Age: I guess she’d be 20 given when Milgram started huh.

Status: Milgram Staff, Machine Technician

Symbols/imagery: ballet/musical theater, science experiments

Song genre: very similar to Mahiru's, something upbeat and extra pop-y

Tentatively she's number 011? She's not really prisoner but she's also not free to come and go, so I'm not actually sure if she'd get a number (Edit: I've decided she'll actually be 012. Staff is given the 01X range, and even though Es doesn't actively have a number they'd be staff member 011, making her 012.)

Story: Since the project is supposed to be realistic/present day, the mv machine would be brand new and unpredictable tech, so they’d want someone keeping up on maintenance and making sure the brain-invasive process won’t cause any harm to the prisoners. Rose was studying abroad in Japan working on some cool neuroscience tech (irl I know nothing about technology or brains but shh) and she stumbled upon some secret tech/plans from Milgram. Long story short, she was dragged into the experiment to make sure things ran smoothly.

Writer's Reasoning: She’s really fun for me to play around with, as she allows me to work with a character who has a tiny bit of pull over Es’ mindset in conversation but not the final decision (aka mirroring the voting system), and someone who is simultaneously trapped in the prison but has a reason to see all the canon content.* I really enjoy the character interactions and dynamics Milgram has set up so far, so it’s been super fun seeing how things change for better and worse when someone not quite aligned with either Milgram/the prisoners is thrown into the mix!

*As much as I love dramatic irony in fiction, it would drive me crazy if I knew every detail of of the vds/mvs but Rose didn't – and every single Milgram character is The Worst Communicator Ever so I couldn’t justify that she’d hear it secondhand from them...

Story roles:

She’s a bit conflicted -- she’s officially Milgram staff and knows she should remain neutral on the prisoners, since she won’t be allowed to interfere with the process/executions. At the same time, her job description is literally “make sure the machine doesn't hurt them and everyone's safe :)” and she's way too emotional to avoid getting hopelessly attached to everyone 😅

I really enjoy the theory that the machine extracts videos based off of priming, so one of Rose’s duties involves listening in on the interrogation and making sure there’s been enough material discussed/not too much time has passed overall (hence the ringing of the bell happening at different lengths for each vd -- That's her ringing it :3). She then watches the mvs along with Es to make sure there are no machine glitches, and know how to calibrate it better for next time.

(IEdit: I've since decided to add in official trial mvs, but before when I wasn't ready to tackle that:) She has to run some tests on the machine to make sure things are calibrated correctly, so she'd extract little things here and there. It gives me the opportunity to think up lyric snippets and recurring symbols for her without worrying about full encompassing music videos.

I'm not afraid to admit she can fall into Mary Sue territory every so often by being everyone's friend, because it's less about "aw everyone likes her" and more about "canon is too painful rn and I need a fix-it tool to take care of these guys and give them hugs and tell them someone forgives them and cares about them and unfortunately these characters wouldn't let anyone less than a friend do that." Rest assured she's definitely not perfect and will fuck everything up on occasion :3

Miscellaneous: Whenever I play around with normal au ideas she's still working on the machine (but in a public, more ethical setting), and she's Mahiru's roommate :) Her character isn't super focused on love, but if I had to pick a cover song it'd be Stickybug II. It's very much my vibe, the lyrics fit well enough (better than most songs, at least lol) and it's one of my favorites out of my limited knowledge of unchosen Deco songs! (Edit, I've actually given her non-deco cover songs hehe)

So yeah, I hope she's not too boring without a cool crime to decipher, but I wanted to share since I was really proud of her! It took a bit of tinkering to find a way to fit her into a perfect secret-third-thing role that runs very smoothly with all of canon, so I was very excited!

[1moremilgram-enjoyer]

Continuing on "Haru's quest to annoy FF about every character in Milgram because they had the bad luck of getting interested in it basically at the same time he did" (/lh) Next on the list of prisoners is Fuuta. I remember you once said that he's one of your favorites along with Amane, Mikoto, and Muu, so I'm interested to hear you cover him !

Ah, so that’s why you’re doing this, your character motivation. The lore thickens. /lh

Yeah, I like Fuuta quite a bit. I’m always a sucker for protag foils, and since we can consider Es and even ourselves as the protag(s), then obviously I was going to love Fuuta. His views on justice are really interesting when considering we kinda do the same thing he ended up in Milgram for, deciding on people’s fates with horribly incomplete information and trying to justify to ourselves why we’re in the right for causing these people psychological pain. Not like it’s gonna stop me from voting people guilty when I think it’s deserved though lol.

CW: Cyberbullying, mention of suicide and murder.

(T2) Q9: How do you feel about the first trials results?

F: You’re the same as me.

Oh yeah that’s the good shit right there.

That is certainly a huge factor, Fuuta is great as a reflection to some of Milgram’s main themes and I love him for that. Even if his personality is maybe reminiscent of some other characters I’ve seen (when did Xander Matthews and Ace Markey have a secret love-child and why does he have a Bakugo complex), he’s still unique enough that I don’t see it as much of a problem.

And let’s not kid ourselves. Part of me enjoying a character sometimes comes from loving their song, and not only is Bring it On a banger like no other, Backdraft is probably my favorite Milgram song.

There’s also just a certain amount of hilarity that comes with the fact that people in Trial 1 managed to inno someone they believed to be a damn organ harvester then turn around and guilty my guy for having a Twitter account. Truly the most unforgivable of crimes.

It’s especially interesting now with Backdraft the theories around his “murder”, because I actually think it may be one of the more unclear ones in terms of what happened. You might have seen there’s a theory he wasn’t the one to start the witch hunt on the girl that ended up dying, which I find is quite believable even if we still have to explain what was going on with that photo he took of someone’s home in his Undercover silhouette thing. But what’s even crazier to me is the goddamn Undercover kill shot where his victim has both shoes on, unlike Mahiru’s and Kazui’s. Does this imply it wasn’t a suicide? Is it because whoever has the orange spray paint that shoots really straight at the one graffiti’s forehead actually murdered the girl themselves? But Fuuta still got blamed for it?

Hey remember when I said the more headache inducing a character the more I’m going to love them?

Anyways, I also think it’s cool how much Backdraft references the events during Milgram themselves. I love Es appearing in a prisoner’s song, too, especially with the whole “the one shadow from Purge March kinda looks like Es thing”-

Oh yeah Amane! I love her dynamic with Fuuta so, so much. They’re so cool and awesome and great and I hope Fuuta doesn’t get too indoctrinated but also I think it’d be kinda funny. I don’t think it would happen though, I trust big bro Fuuta will help Amane reject her cult’s teachings please I need them to have a wholesome ending where they just eat cake and play video games together you know Amane would beat his ass in any game even though she’s probably never touched a videogame in her life-

I am immensely normal about them, as you can clearly tell.

Anyways, some other things which I find really interesting.

(T1) Q1: What is a friend?

F: Folks you can get hyped over the same thing with

(T2) Q16: Do you have a lot of online friends?

F: I don't know if we were friends or not. There were times when we had fun together. But I don't know if I can call it that.

Am I reading this wrong or did my guy change his definition of what a friend is specifically to exclude his old friends? Because that’s some crazy character development right there.

(T1) Q9: Do you have apologetic feelings for who you killed?

F: I never killed anyone. Didn't you hear me? I thought you were a guard!

(T2) Q6: Do you remember the name of the person you killed?

F: I'm pretty sure I do. I saw it often after all.

So he’s admitting he did kill someone in a way. More character development.

(T1) Q10: Which prisoner do you get along with the most?

F: I'm not anyone's happy friend. Well Haruka's younger, so I take care of him.

(T2) Q2: How do you feel about Haruka?

F: This isn't the time to worry about other people. Plus it's not like he's a kid either.

More changes, my guy really is very different from trial 1 himself and I think that makes him extremely compelling.

Okay I need to stop or I’m gonna be here forever, this guy is just all kinds of silly. Anyways, love him. Please don’t get indoctrinated into Amane’s cult.

(T2) Q14: What are you thinking about now?

F: Maybe because I'm anxious, but I want something to rely on.

Please. Fuuta you’re like the only one there who might be able to reach her Fuuta please.

Anyways, I gotta go before those two rot my brain further. Hope you enjoyed! Take care!

[purgemarchlockdown]

3/7/21 Amane - 8 mikoto - 12 mahiru - 6 kotoko

(Hope you don’t mind my asking so many ^^;)

No problem! I Like answering these! Again I'm assuming your asking for Tsumi's since that's the most recent one I reblogged...if it's for the other one do tell and I'll do that one too!

Amane:

3. favorite non-mv official illustration?

THE MILGRAM SECOND ANNIVERSARY ONE!!!!

I LOVE THIS IMAGE! I LOVE HOW SAD AND HORRIFIED SHE LOOKS! I LOVE HOW SHES LOOKING UP AT SOMEONE! WHO IS IT! WHO FOUND HER! MILGRAM TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHO FOUND HER-

God I've been trying to find an excuse to talk about this image Forever. It sticks in my brain, I'll be doing things and suddenly this image will pop into my head and make me sad.

(Plus I just noticed but it contrasts real nicely with her third anniversary image, Amane looking up with a scared expression/Amane looking down with a distant one, fun times)

7. favorite relationships with another character if they weren't in milgram, the way you'd imagine or would like them to be?

Huh that's actually kinda hard since...well...yknow. It's sort of hard to imagine her meeting anyone here without the murder. For multiple reasons...

If were assuming its either a "nothing bad happens AU" or she got out of her cult somehow...I think its still the 0308 friends lol. What can I say I like the pals too much! I think they should play video games together.

21. do you have any similarities with them/relate to something in them?

*takes out ten folders filled to the brim with papers* Yes.

I won't talk about it too much since a lot of it is personal stuff but Amane is really relatable for me in a lot of ways. She reminds me a lot of when I was younger actually...

For a not super sad one: When I was younger (and still now actually) I would always get really frustrated whenever I thought people didn't take me seriously or treated me like I was stupid so Amane's hatred of it feels very familiar.

Mikoto:

8. what is your theory for their crime? if there is general consensus on it in the fandom, do you have any other, not-so-widely-accepted thoughts on it?

Hm...I'm pretty sure my thoughts on it align with the general consensus. I think their was at most three victims, I don't think he killed them on the train, I think John is throwing himself under the bus to protect Mikoto...and the rest Im not really sure.

Mahiru:

12. what do you wish would be discussed more often about them in the fandom?

Oh so much- one of these days I'll break down societal exceptions of love and romance and how that interacts with Mahiru and how idealized and unrealistic her version of love is...one of these days...

It's not like that isn't discussed in the fandom but most discussion I see of Mahiru is about her crime so I'd like to talk more about her character.

Kotoko:

6. favorite relationships with another character in the prison?

Hm...Am I allowed to say Es? I think their dynamic is really interesting and Kotoko's pretty isolated from everyone else. "I'll be your fang" is just...hmm...Kotoko...

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Rpg Anon: Strap in, mod. Cuz I gotta give my two cents on you being interested in Disgaea now.

First of all, I don't anything about what happens in disgaea 6 or 7. Kinda didn't care anymore after the older characters didn't feel like work was done to make their moves modern anymore.

Ok now, if you're that interested just of the hinazumi bit, you can ignore Disgaea 1 and 3. I didn't play them either but they didn't seem too interesting to me. Just know Laharl, Etna, and Flonne are old characters from the first game.

I recommend playing Disgaea 2, 4, and 5. Mostly cuz I biased like these ones. You can play 2 on a psp emulator like I did. 4 is the first game I saw and how I got into the series tho and 5 was pretty fun to watch and had a great story.

Before I gush over the hinazumi-ish details of Adell and Rozalin, important tips for Disgaea 2 tho. 1. DO NOT kill your friends. Friendly fire is always on and it's always a bad idea to accidentally do this in all the games but 2 actually punishes you HARD if you do it way too much. *shivers in fear remembering the Worse Ending* 2. Adell hits REALLY hard if the opponent is stronger than him. Prepare yourself to see him level up like crazy for being a level 100 fighting level 500's. 3. Adell's cowardly scaredycat little brother is the best unit in the game bar none. His aoe attack where desperately flails all around himself does more damage than anything in this game.

Now for the stupid gushiness. Spoilers tho. Adell and Rozalin start off really not wanting to be around each other. They really don't like having to drag or be dragged everywhere. Character Development happens tho and by the end of the game, well, Adell fucking kisses the insanity out of her. 👍. Funny as the credits show her trying to shoot him for doing that. Here comes the reall Hinazumi levels of tsundere lovey dovey shit. Come Disgaea 4, you can recruit them separately as dlc. The thing is, well, they both seem to have secret motives for why they want the job and need the money when you first try to recruit. Turns out they secretly wanted to buy something valuable for the other. (Adell wanted to buy a fancy necklace for Rozalin and Rozalin wanted to buy a new fancy house for Adell) How sweet. However, whoever you recruited first suddenly arrives after the second is beaten and admits their reasons and they feel moved. Cue the lovey dovey atmosphere of "You did all of this for me?" "You were doing all of this for me, too?" "I... um... uh..." *long silence and then the atmosphere burst into colorful hearts and rainbows as they're both lost in their own world, staring at each other in silence* What happens next can only be described as:

Ibuki coming out of nowhere screaming out "OH. MAH. GAWD. These two. Are. MARRIED!!!"

(Cue the tsundere.)

Hinazumi finally realizing everyone was watching: WE'RE NOT MARRIED!!!

Hajime: yeah um um um she's just a freeloader living together with me under the same house!

Mahiru: Hajime, you idiot! You're only giving them more of the wrong idea! Also who are you calling a freeloader?!

Ibuki: You two are definitely married!

Fuyuhiko: Okay okay! That's enough. You're both fucking hired. Work together as husband and wife to make money for the business, you two.

Hinazumi: We're not married!

(This was fun to go thru again.)

From then on, it gets more and more intimate and hilarious. Honestly, I wish I could gush over it more but I don't have time.

//Ok, so I checked out a video on what you were talking about, and I'll link it here.

//So there's two possible outcomes, as RPG said, and they both give off this absolutely perfect tsundere romance vibe. This is the most Hinazumi thing I have ever fucking seen, and I adore it.

//Kaguya-sama wishes it could be this good.

//And what's funny is I imagine this being a potential story interaction for the Survivor RPG we brainstormed a while ago. Except maybe instead, it's just Ibuki and the other Remnants teasing Hinazumi that they are stupid in love and married.

-Mod

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Jellyfish finished! Last episode here was like, decent. We got our moment of Kano nearly bombing again only to be brought back to confidence by the fans and also Mahiru, like sure that was good. Performance was solid but fuckin entirely full disclosure Girls Band Cry episode 11's performance rocked my world so much that this felt wayyyyy weaker just by virtue of having watched that just a couple days beforehand, so I didn't feel very impressed at all lol. Kano and Mahiru make up, it's quite a nice scene, ideally they would've then made out but I suppose that kiss from however long ago just happened for the hell of it. Couple loose ends wrap up, our characters are certainly in a better position, things are neat. The best scene of the episode and one of the strongest in the show comes in a mostly vertical video phone recording of the gang painting over the main Jellyfish mural that started the entire show, a very clear rebirth for the lot of them. I liked this bit a lot, like a lot a lot. Fresh start, the characters are all close enough friends to just vibe, per Mahiru's narration it's not even so much about the numbers anymore it's just they enjoy spending time together and want to keep doing so which is really nice, shit's just good.

As for Jellyfish as a whole, I mean like, I think you can probably make out the progression of my opinion just through all my posts so far. It's definitely good, like I clearly had enough fun to where my score here is positive. But for how much I was anticipating it and how special the first episode felt, over the course of its runtime I think it started losing me on a lot of things. There are lots of random side-tangents that don't amount to anything, conflicts that feel both rushed and not sufficiently resolved at the same time, I don't want to see the entire discussion of the show turn into "muh duh yuri bait" or whatever bullshit but also that kiss that never meaningfully amounting to anything further was odd, and just in general the show could've went further in a lot of ways, really. I was never really impressed past the first episode and a couple straggler scenes later on, instead it was just going through the motions. I could probably even make some drawn-out metaphor about the show itself drifting aimlessly like a jellyfish in the sea, like woah ain't that ironic, but yeah nah I hope I've communicated my feelings well enough. That can be all I think, end post.

[gunsli-01]

just wanna say since I've been away from fixating on milgram for a month or so and came back for a skim (I got my therapist hooked, so its on the mind).. I wanna say how the fuck did this happen but I've similar enough that like, I hope you're taking care of yourself, congrats on the marriage (thats recent right?), your posts are always nice to see, I hope Organ Thief's Dance Party is entertaining for you too

I got so carried away beneath this cut that it's just a new Mu post I'm sorry in advance! Before any of that though I'll try to answer your points to the best of my abilities!

I'm so happy to hear about the therapist thing! I hope more people can enjoy Milgram so many that getting to a million views is pretty much immediate during trial three!

I think conflicts appearing in the fandom in and of itself isn't a bad thing it just means people care about the material, but I hope people can do that in a fun and respectful way. Not only to make the environment comfortable for old fans but newcomers as well. I don't believe it's good for fandoms to become exclusionary or too closeknit since that can lead to terrible forms of conflict down the line.

A fandom should be full of various people and opinions. So, I always wanna remind people to look at the views of others outside of mine since it helps form a more well-rounded opinion. It's even helped me better reflect on my own biases. I do like passion, but too much of anything in one direction can be bad, and I want more and more people to like and watch Milgram! So, regardless of what happens, I want people to see the fun in it not just from the content but its fans who do great things in a passionate way every day.

I'm taking care of myself and my dad to the best of my abilities he surgery went smoothly too! I'm still very much enjoying Milgram all the way! I hope none of what I said about the fandom comes off as pretentious or too serious because I know it'd be easy to read it that way. When it comes to the marriage, I assume you're referring to my blog description.

Ah, Star and I have known each other since late 2013! We met through Tumblr actually. That's why I was so upset to have my blog shadow banned because it has a lot of sentimental value and I'd hate to lose it. We started dating maybe three years after and we got engaged two to three years after that. Though, since we live in different countries, we haven't officially tied the knot yet. She's my best friend, confidant, and we hang out often. Even meeting up in person whenever we can manage/afford to.

Actually, she's the reason anybody even gets to see me talk about Milgram at all right now. She introduced it to me! She wanted me to look over the entire series. Because she was very well acquainted with my penchant for deductive reasoning and love of solving mysteries. Because of thar she wanted to know what I would think was going on based off the trial one music videos alone. I was a bit miffed at her at the time, so I was like, no, I don't wanna.

Though she went if I didn't want to watch all of it then she'd at least like it if I looked at Mahiru's song. Causing my response to Mahiru's first trial song to pretty much be you trying to say something about me, huh?! However, I really loved it and pretty immediately went okay I'll watch the rest. However, that was only after she asked what I thought happened and the only thing I could think was with the focus on food, probably poisoning, but other than that I'm unsure.

So, I'm very nostalgic when it comes to Mahiru's song since it's related to a person I love.

If you don't want all the personal stuff here's the Milgram stuff!

I think the thing I'm looking most forward too is hearing Shidou's cover of Delusion Tax given how the VA handled Liar Dance! Shidou's voice tends to be more reserved when it comes to singing his original songs but go hard in his covers. Mu is the exact opposite, her voice being stronger in her original songs but going to a gentle whisper in her covers.

Showing the dichotomy between how she presents herself and how she may be inwardly. That outward appearance of dominance breaking into a soft-spoken stint. While Shidou's soft demeanor breaks way into a more domineering tone with hard enunciation that's so good to hear. So, I'm really curious if that will stay in Delusion Tax just like it stayed for Mu with MKDR.

I like Mu's covers far more than her original songs because of that vocal change and the subtle gentleness like holding porcelain. Especially the scream here and how it directly contrasts with the one here. Her covers really highlight that similarity between her and Futa of putting on a tough front but having an incredibly soft interior that needs a lot of nurturing from their environments.

Something also highlighted by her being represented as Parasitic Wasp in It's Not My Fault.

One of the insects that build cocoons on a host and use the nutrients off them to feed their young. Meaning It's Not My Fault we are literally seeing an artistic rendition of a Parasitic Wasp nest being built on a beehive.

Explaining why Mu is so large in comparison to the others. It's a literal hostile takeover until she gets enough of what she needs and leaves.

This also explains why she's so quick to leave and nothing remains when she does in the end. Since they eat everything and go. Yet, it has another meaning too! Mu being a parasitic wasp can be read as her leeching off of a society of course but it can also be read as her needing external validation to support her own beliefs. Showcasing that she lacks the mental fortitude necessary to defend or rationalize her own behavior or past actions.

This is highlighted in After pain when she's literally drowned in her own negative opinion of herself. Something that used to be feeding her is now eating away at her. Because it doesn't come with that sweetness of external validation. No one else is saying that she's right so she'll always wonder if she's wrong on some level. Because she's incapable of validating her own behavior this is even shown in It's Not My Fault when she basically begs the viewers not to hate her or even look for her bad side the source of her pain.

In a, "Just keep liking me, keep feeding me, I can't do it I can't take it on my own." In a way, reminiscent to the way Mikoto freaks out when everybody, but Kotoko wishes him a happy birthday. It also feeds into why her victim ignoring her bothered her so much and she couldn't let it go. The reason she's behaving this way is perfectly illustrated at the end of It's Not My Fault where she's literally reformed by the previous verdict and breaks away from her host, in this case the hourglass.

Something that very much comes through in the tone of her cover songs. While Shidou- Ah, his are so full of that usually restrained animosity of his that I just love! So, that mixed with Delusion Tax may just get me.

[thinkin-bout-milgram]

Mahiru Shiina Theory, Trial 1

T/W: Stalking, mention of suicide

Alright, today we’re going to be talking about one of my favorite cases, Mahiru’s! Before we get started, I’d like to thank @/iaobug for translating the text in Mahiru’s video into an easy to read and understand format! If you guys want to see the translation I’m using, I’ll link it here.

For the format of this theory and all other prisoner theories, I’m going to format it as a list of claims, followed by evidence/my rationale to support each. Then, at the end, I will summarize my claims into what I think actually happened.

So, let’s begin with Mahiru.

Mahiru’s love is the one who died.

I think that from the focus of the MV being entirely on whoever this person is, it makes it pretty clear that he, the only person the video really cares about, must be the victim if Mahiru is in the “killer” position. 

Additionally, in her audio drama, Mahiru admits that her love might have killed someone. Granted, she’s defensive about it and deflects the blame, but it makes it seem like the object of her love must be the one who died. Trying to find how that occurred will help us figure out the video.

Mahiru thinks about love constantly.

This one is pretty obvious once you get to know anything about her, but it’s most obvious through her guide, “This is How to be in Love with You” (also the name of the song). She begins her story after finals, talking about how to find love and make the other person fall for you. 

She immediately jumps to someone she makes eye contact with being “the one,” even though she hasn’t talked to him. She clearly believes in love at first sight. Every experience she has since coming to Tokyo, she thinks about in the context of possible love. From days 1-7, she’s just thinking about this guy and trying to get to know him.

She also thinks about him when he’s not there, as seen on Day 7 with her romance novel. Even catching a glimpse of him outside of her work once (Day 6) makes her think about him at work every day from then on out, hoping she’ll be able to see him, or even talk to him.

Mahiru believes the cause of death is her intense love.

Mahiru seems to be quite overbearing in her relationship. She’s thinking about love constantly and thinks of even the smallest things as a major milestone. At the same time, she’s so blinded by love that she seems to do things without much regard for what he wants. For example, she says that she asks questions he doesn’t want to hear because he looks cute when he’s confused (0:37), and that she calls him early in the morning to wake him up so he’ll wish her good morning, even though she knows she goes to sleep before him (1:25). 

Though she seems perfectly aware of this behavior, she never really realizes that she’s causing a problem and plays it off as a cute and silly thing instead. She says “sorry” a lot, or does things like asking for forgiveness ahead of time: “I’m going to start relying on you if you’re kind to me, so please forgive me, thanks!” (1:34). She doesn’t give any opportunities to actually talk about the problem, she just briefly acknowledges it and continues on.

Mahiru seems to think that she was too much for her love, and while she feels awful about it, she doesn’t seem to be doing anything to correct it in the future. In her audio drama, she says something like “If my love caused this, then maybe I just shouldn’t live anymore,” because her kind of love is so integral to her person. Her entire self is love; she doesn’t know how to handle it if her overbearing personality is what caused her love’s death.

Mahiru changes her personality to suit the person she wants to be with.

One look at her guide will tell you that much. She seems to really want to have every shared interest with him, so she just pretends. She buys the same bread as him even though she can’t eat it all, she says she goes jogging too so she can jog with him, and she even says on Day 11 that it’s crazy how similar their interests are, and that she “feels like a totally different person since she first saw him.”

It’s even on the front cover. The tagline isn’t something like “how to make someone fall in love with you,” it’s “how to become someone that anyone can fall in love with.” She focuses on changing herself for her crush rather than finding someone who will accept her as she is.

However, while all of this is very cute and very Mahiru, the further you get into her story, something becomes increasingly clear:

Mahiru is an unreliable narrator.

The video clearly indicates that there are two different stories going on; the Mahiru in the room with the couch and the feathers, and the Mahiru in the guide. I believe that the events of the guide are how she remembers the story, while the ones in the room are closer to what actually happened. Looking at the two of them as the same story, with one being more factual and one being more skewed, is going to help us determine what actually happened. 

There’s support for this beyond the weirdness that starts occurring in the guide, though. The video literally starts with Mahiru reading a book, then getting a shiny look in her eyes. The colors in her eyes are then immediately shown as the cover of her guide, which shows up immediately. I think that the book essentially is the guide; it’s the story that she’s created to be the account of the events. 

To better understand the story, I think it’s best to look at it one day at a time, and to see when the video cuts out of the guide into reality.

The first seven days occurred how they occurred in the guide, more or less.

It all seems pretty plausible. Mahiru moves to Tokyo after finals, thinking about falling in love, as Mahiru does. She catches a guy’s eye and falls for him, and immediately sets out to have him notice her. 

After Day 3, we cut back to real life Mahiru with the same gleam in her eye as before. We see the first of the blue feathers fall as she seems to set out on her quest to become this guy’s one and only. Then, we go back to the guide on Day 4.

She orders the same bread order, and notices he likes jogging, so she takes up the hobby to have a similar interest. She thinks about him at work and while reading romance, hoping that he thinks the same way about her.

Now, I say that she “notices he likes jogging,” even though Mahiru reports it as them going jogging together. That’s because this is the first inconsistency; Mahiru says they go jogging together, yet in the Day 5 picture, she seems to be jogging alone. The lack of appearance of the boy in the guide is very important, and will be something I’ll go back to as her story unravels. 

Mahiru acts like she’s in a relationship even without being in one.

After Day 7, the video cuts back to her in real life with the phone scene. She wakes him up so he’ll say good morning and says she wonders if he’ll “get angry soon.” This makes it seem like he might not be treating this as a cute good morning phone call. He might instead be thinking it’s some random girl calling him and waking him up every morning, and is understandably getting annoyed.

There’s also the line I mentioned earlier about Mahiru apologizing in advance for starting to rely on him. Yes, “starting” to. I think that this whole phone call situation happens before she even thinks they’re in a relationship, showing that she’s definitely willing to break the boundaries of normal social interaction in the name of love.

The video then goes back to the guide on Day 8. 

Day 8 is when things start to get suspicious.

On Day 8, Mahiru “ambushes” him outside of his job in order to confess her feelings. However, while this shows, the lyrics say “We fought sometimes, I was happy to get hurt.” Then, in the next part, she says that it was a success. It doesn’t make sense if they fought and she got hurt if it was truly successful.

Her report of the night is also weird. She says that she’s choosing not to believe that it was several hours, and that it felt like no time passed at all–which, in the non-fantasy version, probably means that it was basically no time at all. She then doesn’t actually say the results; she just says “you can probably tell by the look on my face.”

Again, though, the lyrics for Day 8 don’t match her happy confession story she’s trying to portray. The lyrics on the second part say “this sickness is pretty bad.” I assume this is meant to mean love sickness, but I wonder if it’s alluding to another kind of sickness, meaning Mahiru’s delusion. After all, this is the last day when Mahiru tells the story without outright lying.

Day 9 is when Mahiru begins to misreport the story.

Day 9 is Mahiru’s bar date with the guy. The text in her guide begins to get slanted, very clearly indicating that something is off about the picture she’s painting. However, there’s something else suspicious about this.

Mahiru mentions that he’s an extreme lightweight, or she’s just really good at holding alcohol. If this implies that she had a lot to drink, it’s very possible her memory is deceiving her, too. If nothing else, the mention that he gets blackout drunk super easily feels weird as things start becoming less clear cut.

Days 10 and 11 don’t have a ton going on in them to talk about, but I’ll still mention them.

Day 10 has extremely slanted text. It’s a shot of Mahiru and her beautician in the mirror as she works on self care. I find it a little weird that Mahiru says she goes to her beautician with love advice when, according to her narrative, things are going perfectly. What is there to get advice on?

These last 3 days combine together to make me think that it’s possible that Mahiru got rejected, drank to forget it, and then went to her beautician to try to look even better to try to win him over, and to get advice from her on what to do next.

Day 11 is one I already mentioned, where Mahiru talks about how close their interests are. Other than showing that she’s probably changed herself a lot for this guy, it doesn’t really add much to the overall narrative.

Days 12 is when Mahiru takes a turn for the worse.

Day 12 is the most concerning entry so far, as she says she went to his house for the first time. She didn’t eat anything, and she doesn’t remember anything. Though, in the lyrics, she talks about “the nights that I don’t want to say goodbye.” If it was such an amazing night that she never wanted it to end, why can’t she remember anything?

This is also when the complete lack of appearance from her theoretical boyfriend comes back. Where is he? Why isn’t he with her in the house? It’s possible that he’s just off of camera, taking a picture of her, just like it’s possible he was for most of their dates. Except, then, why isn’t he in the mirror?

It’s not like it’s impossible for people to show up in mirrors in this video; the beautician literally does that on Day 10. The only reason why he wouldn’t show up in the mirror is if he wasn’t there to be seen. If he’s not in the hallway with her, why isn’t he there? 

The only conclusion that makes sense to me is that she broke into his house while he wasn’t there. She didn’t eat anything because there was no meal, and she didn’t remember anything because she didn’t do anything with him. She invited herself over, rather than him inviting her over as she reported.

Mahiru is completely stuck on this guy, and is forcing him to stay stuck with her.

After Day 12, we cut back out to the real world, where she looks outside of bars which look like a cage. She then turns back towards the camera with a… mischievous? Look on her face. 

She then proceeds to jump on the couch with a hug-like gesture, scattering blue feathers everywhere. 

One of these blue feathers was seen earlier, when Mahiru first catches his eye and decides to chase after him. I think that these blue feathers represent him, being caught with her in this room, which appears to be a cage. They’re feathers, because he’s stuck like a caged bird. He can’t escape her adoration for him, because she’ll keep pursuing him no matter what he does.

It’s possible that this is Mahiru’s kill moment. After all, though she’s holding Es in a more loving embrace than Haruka, her hands are still around their neck.

However, unlike Haruka, I don’t think Mahiru literally choked her victim. I think that it’s a metaphorical sign of her strangling someone with a relationship, giving them no escape from her and her love. That’s why her jump is a hug, which makes the feathers–representing the boy–scatter away from her. Her killing method is metaphorical strangulation, meaning that her overbearing love is what killed her victim–the relationship was just never consensual in the first place.

Days 13 to 16 are what sends her lover over the edge.

Mahiru’s fantasy is getting deeper with each of the final days.

On Day 13, she comes back from a wedding holding the bouquet, theoretically meaning she’ll be the next to get married. She says that her dream of getting married to her love might not be a dream for much longer, but at this point, in what we think happened, they’re still not together. This is just Mahiru trying to justify herself.

On Day 14, she and her boy go to an outdoor cinema together. This time, we actually see his hand! This implies that yes, the boy can show up in her visuals, he just hasn’t before because he hasn’t been there. It’s also odd how she said she had to “practically beg” him to go to the movie, considering she says back on Day 11 that they have crazy similar movie tastes. He should want to go to a movie he’d also enjoy with his girlfriend, but instead she has to beg. This is probably because instead of his girlfriend, it’s that weird girl who waited outside his work to ask him out out of nowhere.

Day 15 is her going to the shrine and wishing for something she’s already decided on. Though, if she’s already with her dream man, I’m not really sure what she’d be wishing for. Marriage, I guess? She seems to think her wish is the most obvious thing in the world, though–probably because her wish is to be with him.

She also says “may no one get in our way,” which is weird, considering there’s been no indication of anyone doing such a thing. Maybe someone else has caught his eye, considering it seems like he doesn’t actually have any interest in Mahiru? 

Day 16 is our unceremonious end to Mahiru’s love guide. She’s practiced all of his favorite dishes and is waiting for him with them for when he gets home! 

Except, they’ve never lived together. And I’m not even sure that he’s told her all of his favorite dishes. So, it seems like Mahiru has stalked him enough to know his favorite recipes, broken into his home, and cooked them for him. Yeah, I’d be interested to see his face when he sees you there too, Mahiru.

Mahiru wakes up.

After this, Mahiru wakes up on the couch with the feathers scattered over the floor. She looks at them with a look of horror.

I think it’s probably safe to say that this is her finding the body. What’s still not entirely clear to me is how he died. It seems like it’s probably either suicide, his only means to get away from this crazy stalker girl, or he literally had a heart attack or something. While it’s possible she hugged him so hard he couldn’t breathe or something, that seems a little too implausible to me, and it wouldn’t really place any of the blame on her previous actions. For the build up to matter, it seems like he must get overwhelmed in some way.

And now, a summary of my theory.

Mahiru is an unreliable narrator who describes the events how she wished they happened. While she seems to think that her sweet love in her relationship was just a bit too clingy, in reality, it was full on stalker behavior that got the better of him. She broke into his house multiple times, learned lots of information about him and even tracked down his workplace before asking him out the first time. Her stalker behavior started before she even got rejected.

This killed him indirectly somehow, and when she found his body, she created this false narrative in her mind to protect herself, much like Futa. She refuses to really accept the actions that were at fault and just plays it off like she can’t help it because she has so much love to give.

VOTE: GUILTY

Mahiru needs to understand that what she thinks is not reality, and that her actions were bad. I mentioned that she’s like Futa in this way, and I think that’s pretty true. Her actions went too far and accidentally killed someone, and now she’s trying to reframe the events in order to protect herself from guilt.

I think that Mahiru feels less responsible for her kill, though, even if you remove the denial. Mahiru doesn’t really take any accountability for what she thinks she does wrong in her fantasy scenario anyway. Futa tries to convince himself he was right, but it’s clear that’s denial. Mahiru convinces herself the situation was entirely different, then doesn’t even really take accountability for the fake situation.

She got a pretty resounding guilty vote in the first trial, so we’ll see if her narration becomes more or less reliable the next time around.

[sassyangelchild]

Mahiru (MILGRAM) and why I voted her guilty

Okay so I know that Mahiru’s trial time has almost ended but I wanted to share my thoughts on her and her crime. English is not my mother tongue so I may make mistakes, sorry in advance.

At first I thought the same as a lot of people, that her and his boyfriend had problems, she pressured him too much and he killed himself... BUT then I satrted to think, and to find her MV a little suspicious.... what if they weren’t even dating?

Ok hear me out.  I’m not saying they didn’t know each other. But I don’t trust Mahiru’s POV. Yes, the PV can’t lie because it’s extracted from their minds but that only means that we are seeing what Mahiru truly thinks and how she viewed the crime. What she thinks happened and what happened could not be exactly the same. 

Now I’m going to analyze the PV to support my theory. Obviously I can’t know if it’s true, I can’t only speculate since we don’t really know the truth, but I’m going to explain the things that made me reach this conclusion. Some parts I would mark them as pure speculation based in if my theory is true. The translation of the diary is a translation posted in the youtube video comments by 猫黒.

So Mahiru’s story is a 16 day story (the number of entries in her diary that appear in the PV). The first two days Mahiru and the man who is supossed to be her boyfriend don’t even know each other, so we are talking about a 14 days relationship/12 days if we take into account the first day they TALKED for the first time. It’s... quite short.

Day 3 is the first time they even exchange a GLANCE and we don’t even know if the “boyfriend” noticed her lol they locked eyes for a moment but it’s not something so unusual. Mahiru felt it was fate, sure, but we don’t have the boy’s point of view.

It’s not until day 5 they really interact. Day 4 is Mahiru seeing him but she doesn’t even talk with him and he doesn’t approach her either so... he probably didn’t even notice her/didn’t know her. Day 5 she finally is able to talk with him. 

Day 8 Mahiru decides to confess waiting for him outside his work. This is... weird. I mean, they don’t even know each other that much but she is already waiting outside his work? To me this seems like she stalked him since she couldn’t get a hold of him by normal means. The most normal interaction if they were already friends would be to call him or something to hang out, this feels more like Mahiru trying to ensure he can’t avoid her since she knows he has to go to work and go home at some point, it doesn’t seem like he is expecting her to be there and for that reason she is early, to make sure he doen’t go home without encountering her. She even call it an ambush. 

Then she calls it a date but based on what I said above I don’t really think it was, although for Mahiru it was because her mind works like that so it’s not a lie for her. I thinks it’s the same as in day 3, for her it was “destiny” but we don’t have the boy’s point of view. Also a very suspicious thing: she doesn’t tell you the boy accepted the confession. We suposse he must have because from that moment Mahiru is convinced they are dating and tells you that but I don’t think Mahiru is a reliable narrator and if they are really going out, why refuse to say “he said yes”? She just says “Not gonna say. But can’t you tell from my face?”. She avoids telling crearly what was the answer.

 And it’s not only that. The diary entries start to become messier, the lines more broken and the text harder to read around day 8, the confession, until they resemble an anonymous threat letter lol. Why would it get darker when supossedly the guy told her yes? My theory is that things didn’t go as well as Mahiru makes it seem in day8. Maybe in her head she is still convinced that things are going to work out in the end but deep down she knows things are not that good and so the diary becomes more of a mess reflecting that.

Day 10, she seems to thinks they are going out and every time they meet she calls it a date, but I find interesting that she says he doesn’t seems to notice her appearence. You could say he is just that sort of guy but come on, they are at the start of the relationship and he doesn’t seem to look at her or tell her she is pretty? Seems to me like he isn’t even interested in her romantically speaking and probably doesn’t even think they are in a relationship lol

Okay in day 11 they go to the same place. Maybe they really went together (which doesn’t mean he thinks about it like a date, he could thinks about her like a friend or a nice girl without wanting to be in a romantic relationship with her) or maybe, since she already said it’s a place from a movie he really liked they could have meet there by pure chance. I can’t really say without more info.

Day 12, and this is the exact moment where I started to find everthing super suspicious. First Mahiru is totally in love with the guy, she talks constantly about him in the diary, she interprets everything he does or likes as fate or something good blablabla.... then why doesn’t she say more about that day? She has been in her boyfriend’s house for the first time and she says she hardly remembers anything? Are you kidding me? She can’t tell anything about the date? They hang out at his house and she can’t even say something like “wow, he finally made a move, I’m so happy” “wow we talked a lot and I had a lot of fun” “we watched films” “I’m a little sad because he didn’t try anything”..... How can she not have anything to say about such a step in their relationship when she usually talks about the smallest interaction they have? It’s super suspicious. And the weird things don’t end there.

The picture of day 12 shows her in his house but don’t you thinks it’s a little weird? Because the boyfriend is not seen anywhere at all. They even put a mirror in there to show you that he isn’t there. Why put that mirror there if not to show us that yes, he is not there welcoming her, we aren’t seeing him and it’s not because he is in front of her because then he would be reflected in there. And then you start to wonder... And realize all the dates and stuff Mahiru talks about where the boyfriend should be... he is just not there. It’s always Mahiru alone with the exception of one day we would talk later. And it’s not because the photos can only show Mahiru because we’ve seen the hands of the person who sells her coffe in day 2, the dog in day 8 and the hairdresser in day 10 that is even shown in the mirror too. Why is the only person who is not shown in the photos the boyfriend? Because he wasn’t even hanging out with her, she probably stalked him and thought about it like a date. 

Day 14 is the only one where we supossedly see the boyfriend, and in case it really is him it only makes it weirder for him not be in all the other photos. Mahiru is always talking about they going out on dates but she is always shown alone. 

Also she says she “really asked him to come along”. Why do you have to really insist if he is supossed to be your boyfriend who loves movies? Maybe because he doesn’t even know you that well and you are not going out...

Day 15 they go to the shrine to pray for the new year. Again he is not shown in the photo, and considering that is quite common to go to pray at the shrine in new year I think (again) that although they may have seen each other there for real it was not a date although Mahiru probably thinks that it was fate and therefore a date of sorts.

Mahiru’s wish is also weird. Why woul anyone get in their way or why is she thinking they are no going to be together? They supossedly just started going out, why is she so paranoic with him leaving? Maybe because they are not really going out and she fears he is going to get taken by other person since he is technically single.

Day 16, the day before the crime, the last entry we have before the scene where Mahiru wakes up with an horrified look in her face. She says she is in his house waiting with the food ready. Ok lovely but... think about it. First, if it’s a surprise it means he doesn’t know she is in his house so how has she entered? Did he gave her his house keys? That’s a little weird since they aren’t going out for that long, Mahiru dind’t even mention him giving her the keys (nor has she mentioned him doing nothing a boyfriend would do like kissing her or telling her he loves her) so they don’t seem so close yet. She says she has jotted down everything he likes, which makes me think that he hasn’t told her, she has deduced it by... basically oberving him which depending on how has she done it could be stalking. 

Okay now think about it. You are a boy who meets Mahiru. She seems nice, sure, but you aren’t really interested in going out with her. Then one day she is outside your work waiting for you, confesses and you tell her no so you thinks everything is okay. She keeps talking to you so you think “well nothing wrong with that I guess”. One day you return home and she is there. You don’t know how she has entered. She is just there, smiling as if nothing is wrong, with dinner ready. That would scare me to death. 

And the next thing we know is that he is dead. 

I think he freaked out, told her she was creeping him out and that he didn’t want her to keep stalking him, that he dind’t love her... and she snapped.

If we listen to the song she is shown as someone who doesn’t really care about his boyfriend’s thoughts. She thinks his distressed face is cute instead of worrying for why is he making that face in the first place, she calls him knowing she would wake him up, she talks about a “breakup ritual” like it’s something normal when it isn’t and even if they were going out if they are constantly breaking up she should be thinking about which are the reason because that is going to end up being a toxic relationship but she doesn’t seem worried at all... In one line she says  "wonder if you’ll get angry soon" and in other she says  "I’m going to start relying on you if you’re kind to me, so please forgive me, thanks!". That sounds like he stayed friends with her (why wouldn’t he at the start if she haven’t done anything bad to him) and she interpreted as permission to start fantasizing about being more with him and start stalking him. The lyrics make her seem emotionally manipulative “ If you don’t hug me, even our hearts will start drifting apart”, “ Giving you love to the point of pulling you down”,  “ We fought sometimes/I was happy to get hurt/Let’s have matching pain, this sickness is pretty bad/This is a claim of responsibility/From the two of us with matching love”. 

I think some of the lyrics fit quite well my theory of them not being in a real relationship “Wanting to know everything about you, but wanting to die because it can’t come true”.

And lastly don’t forget the interrogations we have seen up until know. They ask Mahiru what she would do to atone for her sin and she says she doesn’t even know if  her actions were a bad thing. She also said to Es that if they are not careful she might fall in love and kill him too. When asked what does she want from her lover she says that she only wants for him to accept her love (meaning his previous “boyfriend” who I think wasn’t in reality her boyfriend did not accept her love, making me believe more in my theory). She is also shown to be quite self centered and selfish, always talking about what she wants without caring about what her partner might feel (when asked what is worse than death she replied not being able to love... girl you killed the guy, I think he has it worse and all you are thinking is like “oh, how bad I killed him because I can’t keep on forcing my love on him”)

To sum up, this are the reasons why I voted Mahiru guilty and I seriously think she was not in a relationship with the guy or at least she has distorted the reality in her mind.

[archivalofsins]

There's a lot of things I want to talk about and do now that my energy is back up. Though for the most part I have to get some life stuff in order. So, today I'm starting out on that. Personally I'd like it if the Milgram fandom at least on here could do some fun stuff over the intermission.

Some cool ideas,

Making a bunch of fanart of Es sleeping and dreaming about being on vacation over the intermission as everything is just going wrong behind them. Little guard on break signs.

Fanfics about Es going on break after trial. Little on break short fics. Kind of reminiscent of the Clock Over Orquesta collaboration. Fics about what the prisoners due over the intermission maybe them receiving the things they ordered over the trial. Just little slice of life stuff like that.

Of course, there's the anniversary and other holiday specific fan events that go on here. It just be nice to relax after trial two ends. Like a vacation.

Though before all of that there's some things that I'd like to note about the prison. Particualrly the song extraction.

Yuno notes that the interrogation room changes after the bell rings in her trial one voice drama. The prisoners seem to have adjusted to this fact over the course of the trials.

The room's...changing? With that the interrogation is over. From here, I'll be taking a peek at the mental images produced from your memories.

During Futa's voice drama before the bell rings we hear what is labeled as a mechanical sound. After which he goes-

What?! What's happening?! It's time, I guess. I'll be having a look...at what your justice is. So, this is what'll be extracting songs is it? Hmph. Do what you want!

The same mechanical noise noted in Haruka's first voice drama. The mechanical noise comes before the bell ringing in Shidou's voice drama too.

It's time, huh. So, this is what will be extracting songs, huh. It sure is intriguing. I wonder what mine will be like.

Given that Mu states the same thing as Yuno that the walls start shifting in her voice drama chances are Haruka, Yuno, Futa, and Mu were all not warned this was going to happen before they went in.

Ah! What is this? The walls are moving! What's happening? Times already up? We didn't get to talk much, but... I guess that's okayy. I'll be taking a peek at the inside of your heart now.

Unlike Shidou who seems to have been told beforehand this was going to happen. More than likely by Futa. This is played off as Shidou just being more composed than the others. Hwowever, as we come to see from Kazui's voice drama when he attempts to test out the barrier it's more than likely Futa just told the others what happened within his interrogation.

Simalarly to how Haruka spoke to Yuno after his interrogation. Where he states he felt a hit when the machine started.

20/06/16 Yuno: Hey, Haruka-kun, how was it? The guard put it like “your mental images are gonna be extracted!!” but what was it actually like? Haruka: U-uh…… I’m sorry. I don’t, really remember…… I spoke with the guard, and then a bell rang…… a-and I felt my shoulder get hit…… and then…… N-next thing I realised, time had passed, and it was over…… Yuno: Hmm~ You sure there wasn’t something fun that happened? You were smiling really widely when you came back, weren’t you? ……I’m looking forward to my turn~ Haruka: Ehh……!? ……ah, n-no, I…… n-nothing happened…… hehe.

Mahir's response while different from the others still registers that something strange is happening but she blames it on herself for getting overexcited.

W-what is this? Is it because my love exploded? No, it's the end of the interrogation. For goodness sake... As always, things never go as planned, do they? With you prisoners, I mean. Uh...Um... This is what'll be extracting songs, right? But, I'm not that good at singing, though. You won't necessarily be the one singing. Your mental landscape will present itself in the form of songs and videos- that's all.

This is something Genderqueer-mahiru brought up as tying Milgram and Caligula Effect together. So, it's important to highlight that Es in canon blatantly states that something which occurs within the Caligula Effect universe is also occuring within Milgram. Let's continue/circle back to Kazui.

Kazui's first voice drama displays to us that the prisoners are actually sharing information amongst eachother. At least Futa is explaining Shidou and Mahiru's responses and immediate guess that this was the thing that extracted songs.

He does this from the very beginning by testing out the barrier.

Now then... I wonder how this will turn out. Sorry for the wait prisoner no.07, Kazui. ...Hm? Excuse me. W-what?! Sorry, just let this idot restrain you for a second. E-eh...! Kh...! You...! That's rude! Eagh...! Now, now... I won't hurt you, so don't be afraid... -Huh...? Ghaah! Nn... What's this...? I've suddenly lost my strength...?

When Kazui is just restraining Es he's behavior is allowed. However, after he states he has no intention to hurt Es suddenly his behavior is prohibited. Showcasing how much of a liar Kazui is right off that bat. Because he said that knowing full and well he absolutely did have the intention to hurt Es the only thing which is prohibited. Something he goes into after.

Hmm~ Hey! Are you listening to me, Kazui?! If someone tries to hit you their fist will suddenly stop... From Futa's accounts I had the mental image of an invisible wall. So, I was wondering about what would happen if I tried to restrain you. ... But the moment I tried it, I lost my strength. I wonder why? It was almost like I, myself, became oppossed to attacking you. Hmph, I don't know all the details either. I just know that a prisoner can't attack the guard. I see... Hehaha. But knowing that it's not like a magic barrier reassures me, as an old man. So there is a way to realistically explain it, at least... It might be something similar to hypnosis.

Then when the machine starts this is Kazui's response-

What's this? It's time to end the interrogation. It's a pity- we were just starting to get serious. Haa... What a relief. I've had enough of this.

Pretedning to be surprised but happy all the same for it to be over. I say pretending because we know from Amane's reaction that mostly everyone was told how these interrogations go.

Oh, my. Is it already over? It was a fun time. While we had some minor disagreements you listened to what I had to say. I am very happy about that. ...

Mikoto is an interesting case because he does not respond to the bell since at the time it rings he's apparently not conscious of the situation. It's like this seemingly both trials. I'm not gonna play these games with this man anymore. It's oddly conveninent that he doesn't have a reaction to the room changing both times. Even though he would know exactly how the room fucking looked before and would be waking up to a completely changed environment. Despite that he's rather calm. Even though this was something jarring for other prisoenrs to see happen in real time.

He's jsut here like yeah this might as well fucking happen I guess. He just wakes up in a changed room and just rolls with it. Both times apparently.

Since Kotoko has seen this happen several times already she's rather relaxed about it. The one shocked this time is actually Es.

...! It's time... Oh, well. Then we can leave things as is. All I've wanted to say has already been said anyway.

Again this is interesting because of how greatly it aligns with the Caligula Effect games. As well as telling fans that the song extraction machine is just not within the prison while the guard is asleep and the trials aren't going on. It's more than likley just summoned into the room when needed.

Meaning the prisoners can celebrate the trials being over by going at least we don't have to hear that creepy bell anymore. I'm also surprised none of the prisoners have like seen Jackalope cooking? Or there's not many fanworks about that. Like they all go to the kitchen as well.

[good-beanswrites]

Same Lights, Camera, Sing Your Sins anon here (you know if I'm gonna keep sending anon asks because of ideas, I need a shorter name...) Glad they're getting time to cool off on what happened during the trial. This project is hard on them all QvQ

Okay another thought! While working on the Trial 2 MVs, you think the prisoners get to watch everyone's first MVs? Like, maybe praise how each video looks ("Oh my gosh, Amane you look amazing!"), making comments with Jackalope's artistic choices (Shidou's flower mummy) and how stiff some of the prisoners look ("Fuuta you're walking like a tinman." "Shut up!"), some singing along to songs they've overheard earlier (Kotoko singing Weakness), and...er...shirtless Mikoto ("Amane don't look!"). Idk, this makes their filming for the next MVs sound more fun as they hang out.

Hello again!! omg Thank You for sharing once again, I’m obsessed with that 🥺🥺🥺 That's so wonderful picturing a little movie night... (And yes, feel free to pick a name :D else I will dub thee 🎬 next time given the theme lmao)

Okay so my original idea was that those first videos were actually watched on the down-low. There were a few days of nothing going on while the prisoners debriefed, made plans, and communicated their song ideas to the writers to start working with. (Minor detail but I think they’re cut off from the world still, no internet access though they can exchange a few messages/visits with family). They do, however, get access to the others’ T1 videos on their phones/ facility computers. Everyone gave permission to watch them, but there’s a bit of hesitancy. They haven’t started filming their new videos yet, so no one has gotten a look that deep into anyone else’s hearts. Just because they’re closer in this au doesn’t make them better communicators -- there’s still a lot that’s been left unsaid regarding near-murders and their true selves. So they only watch them in secret out of respect.

Haruka hides under the covers to watch After Pain on loop late into the night (going “she’s just like me fr”). Fuuta doesn’t care much for the others’ songs but tries to decipher the crimes as best as he can. He probably gets one stuck in his head the next few days that he finds really embarrassing. Mahiru gets very emotional over the other lovers, doing a poor job of hiding her sympathy toward Yuno, Shidou, and Kazui in the following days. Kazui is embarrassed to watch Throw Down so often, but Shidou is such a subtle man and it’s nice to see a more open side to him (who admits to lying as well). Amane takes a while to watch them -- they’re videos supporting murder and sin, after all -- but once she convinces herself it’s to help the experiment, she allows herself to enjoy  them. Kotoko does the same as Fuuta but jumps straight into Fandom Mode and starts taking notes and analyzing the others’ videos. She keeps a secret folder on her phone of theories and symbolism and screenshots for reference. 

HOWEVER

You have opened my eyes to Milgram Movie Night 👁️👁️

Everyone realizes they’re going to need to get comfortable with a lot of personal info really quickly, since T2 filming starts in a few days. Rather than Jackalope’s suggestion of undergoing a painful group circle talk, they go with Mikoto’s idea to all sit down to watch the videos together. This keeps the atmosphere up while they watch, allowing for many compliments and encouragement. It also lets the singer defend things in their video if they see fit, though most let it speak for itself. (Fuuta: “ah, back when I was a menace online.” “You’re still like that Fuuta.” “I’m a changed man!” “You got one guilty verdict and nothing’s even happened yet.”)

I love all of those reactions so much ahhhh! Amane getting showered in compliments like she deserves. Honestly, all of them getting showered in complements because it's what they deserve ;-; Playful teasing getting thrown around for everyone. Not even Jackalope is safe from their heckling (see: Throw Down flower person), and he's not even there to defend himself. There’s lots of blushing and eye covering during MeMe. And a singalong aspect!! I don’t know I didn’t think to incorporate that into the fic so far -- there’s nothing quite like heckling your friend onstage by echoing their lines really loud from the wings asdfsdfsd. Mikoto recognizes the video game from Fuuta’s and makes his whole day. Mahiru and Shidou realize they have both flowers and food in common, and get to talking. All at once, everything clicks into place for why Amane hated Shidou him so much.

I'm also realizing Kazui would have a Moment TM while seeing all the prisoners talking so comfortably about their deepest selves and struggles. I don't think he'd break down and open up just yet, but I bet it's be a pretty big change of heart for him to see such honesty/vulnerability...

Plus, most of my original ideas can still stand after the fact! There's no shame in seeing too much personal info about another prisoner, the only shame comes from just how many time the video was looped in private lmao

[noddytheornithopod]

Time to watch some Danganronpa S content

First up, gonna watch a proper playthrough with Makoto, so I see how the actual game works.

A little event thing has Makoto try to tan Monophanie and she just ends up resembling Monokuma LOL.

Komaeda talks to Makoto about luck! They discuss similarities and differences and are both all “no YOUR luck is better”.

Chiaki stays up too late and is tired in the morning cuz she’s gaming and met another player from... Novoselic. Chiaki even admits she got into the conversation a lot despite usually focusing on game more than chat.

Makoto invites Byakuya to a barbecue. Byakuya’s all stuck up and snobby as expected, but hey at least the cooking is from Teruteru so Byakuya’s all “okay fair enough.”

you can lose coins wtf

Masaru’s being obnoxious with the whole KIDZ RULE thing as Kaede tells him to go back to bed. Kaede doesn’t really do a good job of talking to him, but Makoto is able to figure out that a fight happened with the others because the kids kinda remind him of experiences with Komaru (who apparently locked herself in a closet after a fight once RIP). Masaru ultimately runs back after Makoto convinces him the others are probably concerned. Kaede thinks kids are a handful, lol.

Hmm now I wonder if Maki will have scenes with the kids lol

Makoto is looking at a weird photo on Mahiru’s camera that is just of the motel, and Mahiru is certain it’s not hers. Maki sees him trying to figure it out. For a moment Makoto wonders if it could be a ghost photo or something, and Maki says make sure not to tell Kaito, lol.

OMG following up on Tenko realising that her master was male. This made her realise she has to grow from this and learn to overcome her hatred, so she decided with two pretty nice reasonable guys, Makoto and Impostor. Tenko unsurprisingly is pretty terrible at this, and Impostor says if she fails, he will get Kirumi to lecture her. Tenko’s still being hard, so Impostor’s still deducting points, lol.

Makoto and Hajime discuss what it’s like to be around other ultimates.

Gundham seems interested in Makoto’s luck. Not quite sure what he was actually saying, but he seemed to be asking how he felt about it, and let him touch his hamsters.

Shuichi and Kyoko! Makoto comes in as they’re talking detective stuff, specifically detectives Kyoko’s met before and how some have died. Kyoko also reassures him that people do care about him and will miss him if he died, Shuichi doesn’t expect something dangerous in his line of work but Kyoko says you can never know. Makoto also assures Kyoko that people care for her too, and she admits that as much as she tried to keep her distance from others, getting close to people is something she can’t help.

Tsumugi and Makoto are talking about being PLAIN as they go see a generic blockbuster movie (his words, not mine). Makoto seems somewhat intimidated by Tsumugi actually, especially with her constantly discussing being PLAIN. She also says she senses a rivalry against fellow plain person Makoto. Tsumugi says plain so much that Makoto starts saying it too LMAO. Makoto also disagrees Tsumugi is plain, he thinks she’s at least assertive towards him. In the end, Tsumugi basically admits she’s just trolling Makoto. Plain gal’s gotta have fun too lol.

Okay that’s all the vid has, I know there’s more cuz there’s some with dialogue trees so I’ll hope a video showing all his events comes out sometime. Anyway...

Kaede

Return of the music trio! They’re talking about music coming up in their heads. Sayaka doesn’t really imagine new stuff like Kaede and Ibuki but stuff she practices does stick in her head. Also heh, Sayaka and Ibuki start singing, and Kaede is encouraged to join in. She’s usually embarrassed to sing but sometimes it’s fun for her.

Komaru scene, think this was at least partially shown. Komaru isn’t into classical music, but a CD of Kaede’s work really got to her. Komaru worries about if Makoto is out of place, Kaede assures her he seems to fit in really well. Kaede also says he’s probably popular with the girls, and Komaru’s all NO HE’S TOTALLY ORDINARY. Komaru then goes on about I DON’T HAVE A BROTHER COMPLEX, much to Kaede’s shock.

Fuyuhiko also listens to a Kaede CD, and while he doesn’t really know what to say, he admits the music really helped him visualise things. When Fuyu mentions when he tries to compliment his sister’s photos she’s annoyed, Kaede assumes it’s just her way of fawning over him, but Fuyu knows better because yakuza. Kaede continues to insist that she could just not ask for his attention though, yet she does anyway. Kaede thinks she’d like it that Fuyu is checking out other stuff to give better impressions, but Fuyu says his sister would probably just be jealous, and jokingly(?) says she could be stabbed for knowing this.

Oh Kaede’s at the beach with Kirumi and Angie... OH WAIT SHUICHI’S HERE, AND HE’S ALL BASHFUL. Kaede immediately realises it’s cuz bikini, and lets him know what to say, and Shuichi is able to compliment her without stumbling too much. He even says it works with her hair, which actually catches her off guard. Kaede even compliments him back, and wow he’s still flustered. Miu jumps in and says Shuichi covering so much means he’s a perv. :v Kaede defends him tho. Also lol apparently Ryoma and Kirumi absolutely wrecked everyone in volleyball. Shuichi admits he basically sucks, but him and Kaede agree to train a bit together, and Kaede’s happy they get to hang out (whether it’s just Shuichi or everyone, it’s still sweet). :) Also someone helped me realise that it wasn’t just Miu keenly watching the Saimatsu scene, Himiko mentions that Miu should’ve at least been discreet. Kokichi was beside her and says she has guts, which means he was probably watching too. :P Everyone knows Shuichi and Kaede have tension going on, lol.

Kaede and Kaito chat, and Kaede considers training with him! Kaede’s struggling a bit, but she bounces back, naturally. Kaito asks her for a theme song, lol. Kaede’s up for the challenge though, and Kaito even calls her his co-pilot in spirit!

Kaede and Toko discussing music, Toko seems quite familiar with classical. Shuichi appears! He’s impressed, admitting he didn’t know much until Kaede taught him about it. Toko is writing a romance about a performer and conductor so she researched this stuff. Kaede’s interested, but Toko’s insecurities kick in. Shuichi tries to reassure her, but Toko’s not having it. Suddenly it goes into this whole thing about what to take from reality and what to be original with, and the relationship between fiction and reality is quite complex, with overlap in some places, while differing in others. Why do I have a feeling I need to share that to certain people? :V Also this is just my indulgent shipper brain, but I was lowkey hoping Toko would accuse them of being a couple given she always makes remarks like that. :P I like seeing her intellectual side shine, though!

Angie is trying to sacrifice an animal to Atua... of course she is. She says Kaede would be even better to get some blood from, but she mentions she has anemia (whether this is an excuse to get out of it or not, it’s understandable :P). Kaede mentions Gundham and Gonta care for animals at the farm... Angie just reads that as them offering an animal or even themselves for sacrifice. :v Kaede then rushes to find them before Angie does.

Maki just “you’re too slow”-ed Kaede, lol. Kaede is surprised Maki takes wearing a bikini so well, too, Maki acts naturally hardened too about it. Also turns out Kaede followed Maki to her secret hideout, and interprets Maki letting her stick around as her secretly wanting her to be there. Kaede mentions wanting Maki’s affectionate side in a bit of a tease, but Maki says she’s leaving... only to reveal to Kaede’s surprise she’s being a tease too. Maki also admits she doesn’t really talk to anyone else like this. More friendly teasing ensues. Kaemaki shippers, have some food!

Kaede offers to make music for Tenko, even as a video. Tenko even seems to respond to the idea of being an idol.

Chiaki seems enthusiastic about the idea of Kaede making piano versions of video game music. She’s actually considering an album, and is going to Chiaki naturally cuz she’d know way more games than her. This is the collab I never knew I wanted but I’m so happy I’m seeing it.

Biker gang theme... lol. I don’t think Kaede is into the whole noisy bikers thing, but Mondo still says he’d ask for her if he needed music for a business or something. Kaede is still giving the theme a shot tho.

Miu bragging about her swimsuit... what is this gonna be like. :v One of Miu’s nicknames is “Guy-a-day?” Lol. Yeah, as expected, lots of bickering, Kaede even asks why Miu just can’t be nice and Miu still hits back. Kaede notices she argues with Toko a lot too, and suggests they should hang out. :v Miu actually envies Toko, wondering why she seems to be better at having friends than her, with Kaede citing Komaru. Hey, at least Miu has Keebo, they have their odd friendship romance thing going, I guess it works for her there cuz it ties directly to her talent. But yeah, Miu actually seems insecure about not really having many friends. I mean, if even Toko has a more consistent friend, yeah. :P

Kaede admitting to Rantaro it’s hard to relax when she’s not used to traveling, and when she does it’s for piano performances. She’s asking him for travel advice, basically. Rantaro is more than happy to help, outright saying his travels will all be worth it if it helps her. More ship bait! Kaede’s also drawing a map of the island, and they go off exploring together.

Kaede’s running a juice stall with Aoi, Celeste and Byakuya, and when Kaede tells Byakuya that they ran out, he quickly solves the issue... not without commenting he doesn’t want to do “grunt work” again.

Kaede and Shuichi dancing at the bonfire. :3 It’s naturally awkward for them, but while Shuichi’s clearly nervous, Kaede admits she’s nervous too, because they’re rarely this close together. They then dance some more.

Kaede says it’s Summer, but realises it’s March. XD She’s reminiscing to Maki about how sad it is they’re gonna be moving on soon after graduation, and how she wishes she could stay longer. Maki is surprised, saying she’s usually the “positive dumbass”. XD Kaede says Maki should at least call her a piano dumbass. :P Maki does admit she’s kinda sad to see things move on too, though. It’s a nice bonding moment they have. Wow, the Kaimaki shippers are gonna love DRS.

Kaede wants to know the secret to Sayaka’s smile. Sayaka says to pay attention to how your expressions look, but what’s more important is to want to make others smile. Naturally, Kaede sees eye to eye here.

Time to go, we have Rantaro, Celeste and Monaca here... wait they’re playing fucking Clair de Lune, the monsters! Wait, it’s diagetic! So basically, on their last night Kaede got to have her piano played across the island, she could’ve played live but wanted to try something different. Celeste actually would like Kaede to play for her servants in her castle when it’s done. Monaca also wants some for her, and Rantaro thirds himself, even mentioning he’d love to share it with his family.

Side note but I made a mistake of reading the YouTube comments and we’re already getting shippers fighting about what is more canon of a ship, guys just chill the fuck out and accept people see and like different things. Look, I’m clearly biased to Saimatsu, but I really liked the Kaemaki interactions here too! It actually gave me a better impression of what that ship could look like.

Kokichi

Kokichi says if they’re meant to expand their horizons he’ll do a good deed a day... he’s trolling, obviously.

Kokichi claims he’s kind to all children and animals. XD Monaca says she wants a book, but Kokichi nopes her, saying she could reach it herself with her wheelchair (keep in mind Monaca only pretends to be disabled). Monaca and Kokichi proceed to have some mind games, even bringing children vs adults stuff into it and judging each other based on that, lol.

Hiyoko is squishing ants, Kokichi feels betrayed! Lol, she calls him a creepy little raccoon freak. The Hiyoko avatar discussion comes back up, she says because she was doing performances they didn’t get the time to measure her growth, which even she didn’t foresee. Kokichi then says he lied and feels happy Hiyoko got to grow, which she doesn’t buy, and then more fighting, lol.

Kokichi... deliberately triggers Syo to appear just cuz he wants to chat. Lol, Syo even calls him cute and is actually willing to kill him. Kokichi also wants to call her “Geno”, lol. Syo is now chasing after him. :P

Gonta has bugs even here! Kokichi claims he’s not as lucky, having no subordinates as Supreme Leader. Gonta wonders if he’s lonely, and Kokichi deflects that naturally. Gonta even calls him his friend, and Kokichi wonders why even with all the lies, and Gonta says despite the lying he still can make people laugh. Kokichi continues to challenge that and says maybe one day he might do something horrible, but Gonta is of course a sweetheart. Someone so earnest vs a compulsive liar, damn. Kokichi does say hearing his sentiment isn’t boring from him, and as we know, that’s probably the highest compliment he’s willing to admit. :P

Uh oh, he’s with Keebo at the pool. Shuichi shows up, too. Keebo has a floaty that will be able to hold him... barely. Poor Keebo is pushed in, and when Shuichi goes to see if he’s alright, Kokichi does the same to him. :v Keebo finds it scary even as he doesn’t need to breathe, heh. Kokichi does mention he wants to make the most of his time before adult life, and even the others see his point, they’re still not happy though. :v I do think Kokichi seems aware that Keebo can’t drown though, and that probably factored into what he was doing.

Kokichi and Monokuma argument, and Chiaki appears? XD Also wow, talk of a ghost again (even with a photo OF the ghost), apparently Shuichi is investigating? Hmm, Kamukura maybe? Or even Junko lol. But yeah, Kokichi’s suspicious it might be him, and Chiaki understands the suspicion but doesn’t think it’s Monokuma’s doing. Apparently they also checked with Chihiro and that makes Monokuma feel bullied cuz they got reassurance there already lmao.

Kokcihi is shit talking about Miu to Kazuichi. :v He ends up trolling him too, and when Kaz says he doesn’t wanna ever fix stuff for him again, Kokichi says he’ll just ask Gonta to bring it over for him. Kaz admits he can’t say no to him and is pretty mad about it. :v

OMG Impostor feels like Kokichi understands him well, he said he’s his truest self as he’s deceiving. He doesn’t care for Kokichi trying to “recruit” him, though.

OMG he’s calling Kirumi his mum again. Kirumi’s not a fan, and she also sees his request to recruit her as made up. Kokichi even says the way she scolds him is motherly. Hmm, I wonder if there’s any reads of this with the whole orphan headcanon/implications?

Kokichi’s just getting lots of ice-cream and shaved ice lmao, and says it’s like living the dream. Gonta’s worried he won’t have much allowance left, and even says even as he’s getting paid for work it mainly goes to look after his bugs. Also, Gonta asks if his organisation pays wages, lmao. Kokichi worries that Gonta is so earnest, but can’t help but be charmed by that.

Hoo boy, Mahiru’s here. She’s scolding him cuz he tricked Ibuki into swimming around the island. She exhausted herself and Peko and Sakura had to help her. Mahiru really isn’t a fan of him to put it mildly.

Scene with Makoto and Hiroko, huh. Hiroko is still finding Hope’s Peak wild, and Makoto recounts what it was like seeing it for the first time too. Kokichi interjects and asks what it’s like to be the mother of an Ultimate. Hiroko says it’s actually surprisingly normal, back home it’s just whatever family you have already. Makoto says his experience with his family was similar, they didn’t act differently to him once he got into Hope’s Peak. Hiroko asks why he’s curious, and Kokichi makes up some origin of being born without parents, and Makoto recounts a similar lie. I do think there’s some truth here though, Kokichi seems like he genuinely wanted to know what it was like to have parents, he just has to cake it all in lies to not get all serious.

Byakuya and Impostor meet and Kokichi is here... hoo boy. They both find him annoying, but what’s probably the funniest part is that Kokichi and Impostor talk about disguises and stuff and Byakuya ends up feeling like a third wheel against his doppelganger. XD

Toko hates serving people, but she accidentally ends up fantasising about Byakuya, lol. Kokichi is amused and has to serve food instead of her.

Kokichi entertaining kids with scary stories, heh. Jataro is sceptical cuz he lies and finds the appeal of ghost stories is that they COULD be true, but Kokichi promises to make a game out of it where there’s a level of truth and lies in each story, and insists the game needs rules to be fun.

Final scene is with Keebo and Miu, interesting. Usual shit starts, but Kokichi actually reveals he brought them over because of the temple that holds the Future Foundation stuff (well, whatever this timeline has, I guess it’s where they go to reawaken?). Also heh, Kokichi wishes he could’ve been the antagonist, but Monokuma beat him to the punch. :P Miu then goes to inspect the ruins, while Kokichi calls himself a champion of justice, saying the supreme leader thing was a lie (which it funnily is but yeah XD).

[amazingorangedangantrash]

Do you have any headcanons for Makoto interacting with class 77??

oh bOY DO I-

Makoto interacting with class 77

(AH i started typing out his interaction with the remnants + post sdr2, but then I thought maybe you meant something more like the literal class + their school days/pre-despair? so here's that, sorry if it's not what you meant-)

(Also I got a bit excited and this ended up being less so headcanons and more like- how Makoto befriended the entirety of Class 77-B and then some, and because it’s long af, I decided to put it under the cut for the sake of both mine and your sanity, anon)

Makoto Naegi and class 77 (and Hajime Hinata because I just want to include him ok-)

• Chiaki Nanami- honestly I think him and Chiaki would get along well. She wants to make friends, and he's extremely good at it- I can imagine him walking up to her one day whilst she's alone and shyly asking if she'd want some company. I think he'd probably be a big help in her trying to befriend the rest of her class, and I think she'd probably come to him for advice/to complain. She'd probably look up to his outgoing and extroverted nature, and try to apply that to herself. He probably gives her some suggestions on how to get everyone closer. I also like to think she'd come to him when she needs a break from the rest of them too- she loves them, but they're a handful, and Makoto is sweet and soothing to be around, he's very open and easy to read, which can be comforting. Makoto and Chiaki are the “glue” of their friends, they help keep everyone connected (after all, it’s only when those two ‘die’, that everyone completely falls into despair). Whilst I think they enjoy and are proud of that responsibility, the expectations might get a bit much sometimes, understandably so, and they’d need to let it out to someone who feels the same. They both cherish their friends a LOT, and it’s sweet to imagine them gushing about it how awesome everyone is and how much fun they have spending time together. Chiaki and Makoto will be seen playing video games together to blow off steam from time to time.

• Hajime Hinata- he probably gets introduced to Makoto through Chiaki, and the two bond, if not instantaneously. Hajime and Makoto are VERY similar, in that they're both "normal". Hajime straight up doesn't have a talent, and Makoto only kind of does? He got into the main course through a lottery, and his luck is nowhere on the level of Nagito's- he's just as "ordinary". I think Hajime would be jealous of Makoto at first (after all, they're not that different, and yet it was Makoto who got to be part of the "special" group), but that would quickly turn into being comforted by him. Makoto also believes in everyone's potential, and whilst he admires talent and Hope's Peak, he doesn't believe that only the talented are worthy or capable of producing hope. I like to think Makoto harbours a little bit of an inferiority complex, being surrounded by talent all the time, and Hajime can definitely understand that. I think the two of them could form a strong bond, and a close friendship, due to their similarity. It's one thing to hear about your worth from someone 'better' then you, it's another when they're on your level. Makoto is very humble, and that's what Hajime needs- someone on his level to get real with him and be a friend. Additionally, Hajime is someone Makoto could maybe confide in about his own insecurity- lord knows he couldn't with his own class, or any of the other Ultimates really, but Hajime gets it. The two could bounce off each other well. I know a lot of people joke about them being ‘brothers’, but I can really see them forming a close, caring bond. Hajime doesn’t really have friends, and whilst he might be prone to bitterness and agression, he’s also got a good heart and cares about doing what he feels is right (dr3, when he tries to befriend the Kuzuryu sister and demands to see Mahiru (I believe it was). They both have an advocacy for justice, but a self-sacrificing nature too. They’re similar but yet also opposites in a way. They’re perfect as each other’s support and as their mirror perspective. 

• Nagito Komaeda- oooohhh boy. We all know how Nagito thinks of his own talent *wheeze*, let's just say at first he's not- the kindest to Makoto. He doesn't understand why Makoto is so carefree and friendly when he's so 'worthless'. He sees Makoto as being overly confident and cocky (when the opposite is true), and almost finds it insulting that he can just casually walk up to the others and act like they’re ‘equals’. However, as time goes on, he comes to realise that Makoto's attitude and approach to life is truly extraordinary, and that he has a way of inspiring hope in others that Nagito has simply never seen before. I think Makoto would be a little hurt at first by the harsh treatment, but would continue in his endeavour to reach out to and connect with Nagito (and Nagito would find that persistence astonishing- no one has ever tried that hard with him). Unlike the others who either ignore or are irritated by Nagito's continuous self-deprecation, I think Makoto would instead be primarily concerned and do what he always does- try to help. Makoto is an excellent people-reader, and he'd be able to tell that Nagito's hostile and antagonistic attitude towards him (and other "normal" people) comes from a place of self-loathing and a twisted admiration for hope (a feeling he's admitted isn't entirely foreign to him). I think Makoto could grow close with Nagito, and maybe help him to see his own worth. After all, if someone as "talentless" as Makoto could be (what Nagito considers) the Ultimate Hope, what's to say Nagito doesn't also have worth? I think Nagito would go fanboy once he figures out Makoto's true talent though (maybe not as hardcore as dr3 lmao) and Makoto maaay have to reel him in a little (it's definitely jarring to see Nagito jump from disdain to total adoration towards him in the span of like- half a week). Makoto probably wouldn't like being idolised (he's definitely not used to it), but he wouldn't put Nagito down or push him away because of it either- he recognises that it's not, well, the healthiest, but he also knows it's not from a place of malice or impure intent. He thinks that Komaeda's outlook on life is similar but different to his own, and respects him for making him consider hope from a new viewpoint- and the same for Nagito. Makoto admires that Nagito chose to turn to hope instead of despair, despite the hardships he's endured. I also like to think Makoto (alongside Chiaki, probably) would play a pretty important part in getting Nagito to interact more with his classmates (he has a tendency to just... watch from afar), and open up more to people in general.

• Also on the note of Nagito- I've seen people suggest that Makoto could cancel out Nagito's super luck with his own- making them both just average. It's definitely interesting to consider! I believe somewhere Nagito stated that he just wanted a normal life and that he resents his luck for making him endure such suffering? (His poor dog ;-;). I'm going off into my own little Komaegi world at this point I'm sorry sjjdjssjdh but if that's the case then Nagito would be extremely comforted in Makoto's presence, finally not having not worry about something extremely bad happening to someone else due to his luck. He gets to feel what it is to be "talentless", and to his surprise- he enjoys it. It’s not so bad being ‘normal’. (secretly it’s all he’s ever wanted).

• Kazuichi Soda- Kazuichi seems to really crave friendship and connection with others. (I don't know a lot about him, but apparently he had a real tough/abusive childhood, and a bad experience with his peers lead to him developing trust issues) He puts on a façade, but we all know he's really soft underneath. I think someone like Makoto, who's very open with his feelings, honest, and naturally friendly, is the kind of person Kazuichi would appreciate. Makoto has a LOT of patience, and he could deal with Kazuichi's antics and goofiness a lot better then the others. Kazuichi is one of the more "normal" characters (personality wise anyway), as he acts a lot like you'd expect from a teenage boy. He's relatively carefree, he's talkative, he likes girls, etc- Kazuichi and Makoto would have a very typical "bromance"- they both offer a bit more of a typical friendship then their classmates. Kazuichi can be pretty clingy, but I don't think Makoto would mind too much. It probably feels nice having someone actively seek out his company and companionship instead of the other way around. Kazuichi could also teach him some stuff about mechanics- which comes in usual for anyone, really. (Once Kazuichi finds out about Makoto cancelling out Nagito’s luck, he insists that Makoto accompany him whenever he knows he has to be close to him for too long- he always seems to get the brunt of it around that guy...)

• Gundham Tanaka- Gundham can be very... enthusiastic, sure, but Makoto is used to the overabundance of energy from his own classmates already. At this point I feel like he's started to be able to read in between the lines when people talk to him, and he'd be able to see Gundham's gentle and caring nature, espeically when it comes to his furry friends. He'd see that Gundham probably craves company and connection, but due to his fear of intimacy, covers that up with an appearance of self-grandeur. In actuality, Gundham appreciates the time Makoto spends with him. I feel like Makoto understands that Gundham struggles with conveying his emotions and thoughts, and instead communicates his own feelings of friendship through Gundham's own love language- his animals. Makoto probably even goes out of his way to learn more about hamsters just so he can show he's made an effort- something Gundham is extremely grateful for. Makoto helps him with coming out of his shell a little, and Gundham helps Makoto learn to appreciate life a lot more when he's not cleaning up animal poop haha.

• Peko Pekoyama- Makoto is definitely no stranger to strong female fighters, especially the quiet and reserved type, so he'd be able to click with Peko. Whilst I think he’d be a little intimidated at first, he'd soon see past that icy exterior and realise that Peko isn't necessarily cold or emotionless- she just doesn't show her emotions visibly much. He'd learn to recognize that she speaks more with her actions then her words or even her face- as she often will do subtle things (such as buy him a drink or offer up her own time to talk with him) to communicate their friendship, something people don't realise at first. Peko has a lot of trouble communicating her feelings to Fuyuhiko in particular, and thus Makoto is more then happy to help her "practice" her communication, not just for Fuyuhiko's, but for her classmates' sake too. (Also it's mentioned that she likes cute animals and I just- imagine her struggling so hard not to reach out and ruffle his hair because omg he’s literally just a pupPY-)

• Akane Owari- Akane is a basically the lovechild of Sakura and Hina lmao. She's this wonderful mix of Sakura's strength and Hina's personality- I think Makoto might be a little intimidated by her (especially as she can be... aggressive at times), but he'd quickly warm up to her and vice versa. I think it was mentioned that Akane likes "small hungry things"? She'd definitely feel protective when it comes to Makoto, since he's so small and sweet- and not outwardly the strongest. I like to think he might remind her of her little siblings, who she adores and almost misses looking after. Whenever they hang out, it's normally at lunch, and Makoto will always make an effort to bring her some kind of food or snack if he knows he'll see her, a gesture she's extremely grateful for. Akane is great company on days where Makoto wants to be active, since she's like a big ball of energy. She's also laid back and carefree, and sometimes they'll sit in the grass and just eat and talk about stuff. Akane doesn't like to bother herself with complicated thoughts and feelings, so she's great to spend lazy days with too.

• Nekomaru Nidai- (apologies I don't know a lot about him but-) like Akane, Nekomaru is quite protective over Makoto. We've seen that he's got a righteous heart and strong protective streak, and he's unafraid to show his emotions, even if it gets him mocked by others. He's very passionate, much like Makoto. Makoto is very honest too, and I think the two of them would click over that. Nekomaru could act as support and encouragement for Makoto, as well as help him with organisation (he IS the ultimate (team) manager after all). I think Nekomaru would recognise that Makoto's talents lie elsewhere then his physicality, and instead of mock or belittle him for it, acknowledge that proudly.

• Teruteru Hanamura- ah yes, the little perv. Much like everyone, Makoto would probably be annoyed by Teruteru's... suggestive-ness at first, but I think after they spent some time together, Teruteru would ease up on the perviness, and treat Makoto with a bit more respect. Seeing as he's bi as hell, I can definitely see him developing a little crush or infatuation with Makoto (at the very least find him hot lmao). Makoto definitely wouldn't be used to someone expressing their attraction towards him so forwardly, and he'd be a little flattered (if not also rather disturbed-). Teruteru has been shown to have a real soft spot for his mama, and him and Makoto could definitely bond over their deep love for their families (the Naegi sibling relationship is so cute gah-). Makoto would learn to see past Teruteru's persona and recognise that underneath, is a boy who loves him mama and cooking food for people to enjoy more then anything. (Teruteru will complain at him for his "trash junk food" prefences, but Makoto will pretend not to notice when he secretly sneaks a bite because he knows it reminds him of his mom's cooking).

• Sonia Nevermind- Sonia is definitely a bit overwhelming at first. Makoto struggles a bit to not treat her as an figure of authority (she is royalty after all, it feels weird to treat her like a close friend right off the bat), but he soon gets over it. Sonia has expressed she wants to live like a "normal Japanese highschool girl", and I think Makoto would understand that, doing what he can to make her feel comfortable. He might find her obsession with Japanese culture and general misunderstanding things a tad off-putting (having her stare at him for 15 minutes straight while he slurped up some instant ramen was... an experience) but he understands it comes from a place of curiosity, and chalks it up to her being a foreigner. He actually finds it very sweet that she's trying to learn about different cultures and educate herself, and he's the last person to judge for it. He doesn't mind sitting and explaining things to her, and it's also interesting to learn about her life too, as vastly different as it may be from his own. She doesn't have to worry about him treating her badly or trying to take advantage of her occasional naivety. (He also recognises that she's a lot smarter then she may first appear, having in-depth knowledge of warfare, economics, and the complex hell that is international politics-). Her love for the occult and spooky stuff would remind him of Komaru- he makes a note to set up a ouija board session for the two of them someday.

• Ibuki Mioda- Ibuki is definitely an interesting person! She's very upbeat and friendly, and whilst it throws Makoto off a little at first ("M-m-makoto-chan?!") he gets used to it. After all, it's not like the others aren't also... quirky. It's stated that Makoto likes pop music (probably a result of his friendship and early feelings for Sayaka), so he'd probably be pretty fond of/interested in Ibuki, being a musician. She'd probably help him branch out into some more...*ahem* niche music tastes, and to his surprise, he actually ends up liking some of it (the absolute whiplash his own classmates get when one of them accidentally rips out his earphones and intense heavy metal comes blaring out-). Ibuki isn't exactly book smart, but she has a lot of emotional intelligence, like Makoto. Unlike Makoto, whose empathetic (or I suppose sympathetic) and caring nature is pretty obvious at a first glance, Ibuki isn't as much so, which is why Makoto finds it interesting how her outward punk appearance doesn't match her inward very caring side. She really values individualism, and encourages him to be himself, thinking it's dumb that he feels inferior for his "talent"- she thinks it's cool that he doesn't have an obvious focus or persona like everyone else puts on, that he gets to explore his personality and expression for himself, and she tells him as such. Makoto is grateful for this- he worries that he's too bland or doesn't have a ‘real’ personality and isn't special, and Ibuki is quick to refute him, pointing out all the little quirks and aspects of his personality she finds super duper cute (to his embarrassment)! Like with her music, Ibuki is able to find the beauty in places one typically wouldn't look, and Makoto admires that about her. Ibuki is pretty good at reading the mood, and if she senses something is off, will do her best to lift up Makoto's spirits without needing to outright confront him about it- similarly, Makoto will happily listen to her rant or gush about things without judgement- she knows that her interest and personality isn't what people typically expect from her, and he doesn't care. She doesn't feel like she has to hide her emotions or put on a mask to make him feel better, like she might with others. She knows her negative feelings won't bring him down, so she feels comfortable expressing herself around him, even when it's not always happy. They appreciate each other's honesty in being who they are. They bounce off each other's energy well, being such optimistic and enthusiastic people.

• Mikan Tsumiki- Mikan is a very, very vulnerable person. She's nervous and insecure and has some very obvious self-esteem issues. Unlike Komaeda however, she isn't *confident*, and is therefore very meek and timid and easy to take advantage of. Girl's got a lotta issues (i just read through her page on the fandom wiki and- man-), and someone gentle and understanding like Makoto would be really good for her to form a healthy relationship with (hopefully just the start of one of many). Unlike others, Makoto wouldn't want to take advantage of Mikan, and I think he'd genuinely want to help her improve herself, both in becoming more assertive and also in learning to have a little more faith in people, not always assuming the worst from them. He'd help teach her that there are good people in the world too, and that by learning to view herself with more respect, it will be easier for her to (rightfully) demand respect from others too. I honestly don't want to go into the more *unhealthy* sides of Mikan's potential for obsession, but as with Nagito, I can see her developing a bit of a crush on Makoto. (Whether or not that goes anywhere is up to you of course.) I think Makoto, whilst understanding that it stems from an unfortunate past, would appreciate Mikan's sweet and helpful personality. Makoto is very clumsy, partly due to his fickle luck, so I can see him getting bruises and minor cuts and stuff often due to it- Mikan ends up being the first person he goes to when this happens, and she doesn't say it to his face, far too shy, but he knows she's grateful to be considered a help to him.

• Hiyoko Saionji- Hiyoko is definitely... a tough one. She's very openly hostile and aloof, and she has no problems bullying others. I think a lot of Makoto's experience from dealing with Byakuya, Toko and Celeste would come into play here, as he's used to dealing with the openly mean, dismissive and arrogant types. A lot of Hiyoko's hostility comes from her past, and being treated cruelly herself, leading her to develop a harsh exterior as a coping mechanism. I think she'd be kind of jealous of how Makoto can roll with the punches so easily- I think she'd start to feel kind of bad about saying mean things to him. He would be patient with her, but would also call her out on her behaviour (without being dismissive or cruel himself) something I'm sure she didn't have people do before. She might not consider him to be like an "older" brother, but she'd respect him as an equal (since she deeply loves her father, I think she'd want a genuinely kind, good male figure in her life). Makoto is an older brother to a younger sister- I'm sure he's had to deal with Komaru being a bit of a brat before haha (am older sibling myself, can confirm). Hiyoko really appreciates traditionalism, and knowing this, Makoto might try to learn more or engage with that side of her- she acknowledges that her interests and attitudes are out-of-fashion, so she'd appreciate the effort made to understand her. Makoto might help to get her to be more sympathetic towards others. She'd offer a different perspective of their country and it's beauty to him.

• Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu- ah yes, the irl boss baby- as with everyone, Fuyuhiko would be short-tempered and aggressive towards Makoto. He'd eventually come around though. Makoto is pretty used to dealing with tsunderes, and takes it all in stride. It's a little to surprising to Fuyuhiko at first to see someone who isn't as easily deterred by his attitude as the others, and he admires that. Fuyuhiko has quite the inferiority complex, and part of that comes from his short height and youthful appearance (babyface-). It's nice to see someone like Makoto who isn't really that affected by his own appearance, and doesn't let it affect how he sees himself (Fuyuhiko is actually a little shorter even pfft). Fuyuhiko seems to want company, but has trouble initiating friendships and conversations (think back to the party from chapter 1), due to keeping up his lone wolf persona. Makoto recognises this, and will instead take on the role of instigator, which Fuyuhiko is thankful for. Though you wouldn’t expect it, he's actually also a Good Boi, and has a certain respect for rules and order (he's against underage drinking, smoking and sex, can you believe it?). Because of that, he'd respect Makoto for being the obedient student he is. I think Fuyuhiko would like Makoto's sincere and honest nature, especially considering he's not someone who's easily trusting- the Yakuza don't take friendship lightly, and once Fuyuhiko takes a liking to someone, he'll become fiercely defensive, protective of, and loyal to them to a fault (of course that doesn't entirely stop the jabs or insults- hey, he's trying). I think eventually Fuyuhiko would confide in Makoto about his own feelings of inadequacy and insecurity when it comes to honouring his family name- Makoto would be able to relate. He'd be able to reassure Fuyuhiko of his strengths, whilst also providing him with chance to experience a more typical, playful highschool boy's life. (He'll drag Fuyuhiko along with him to hang out, and although the other will complain and scoff at him, he'll enjoy it). He gets to be a bit more laid back and amiable, and less snappy or snarky. Makoto won't judge or embarrass him for letting loose a little, and vice versa.

• Mahiru Koizumi- Mahiru and Makoto are very similar, in that they both take on a friendly and optimistic attitude. They both tend to be the "caretakers" of their groups, and like to help others. Mahiru is the closest thing to a "makoto" class 77 has. They're both very kind and caring, and don't hesitate to offer their assistance and support. At the same time, they aren't doormats (well, Makoto is a bit of a pushover, but not to the level of characters like Mikan or Hifumi). Whilst I feel like Makoto is a bit more- restrained (he's seriously sarcastic and sassy, he just keeps it to himself most of the time), both he and Mahiru won't hesitate to point out when they don't agree with something. Mahiru's treatment of him due to him being a "boy" might be a little irritating, but it's not like he hasn't heard it before- (kyoko's "after all, you are a boy, aren't you?" comes to mind). He understands that she's probably had to deal with a lot of crap from guys, and doesn't take it to heart. It's been mentioned that Mahiru likes to take pictures of smiling faces? Well, I think Makoto would find that beautiful. Whereas others chastise her for it, and urge her to take pictures of other things, like objects for example, he instead encourages her to pursue what she's passionate about- after all, a talent is a gift, and you deserve to enjoy it. So what if it's "generic"? If it's what she likes, he sees no reason why she shouldn't continue to do it. He thinks her work is lovely regardless. (This is more of a personal interpretation, but Makoto gives off very foresty, natural imagery, and I think he'd maybe like that kind of thing, so maybe she'd find inspiration through his likeness to it?) Due to his innocence and pure nature, she starts to see a bit more of the appeal in nature. His smiling face is one of the first pictures of a boy she genuinely likes (though, it's not as if she'd ever tell him that).

• Ryota/Imposter- well, Imposter would probably act the same way around Makoto as whoever they were impersonating, though Makoto would probably be able to tell something was... off (though he just wouldn't be able to put his finger on what, exactly). If Imposter ever did reveal themself to him, he'd make sure to let them know that it was ok, and that he'd support their journey to reclaiming their identity however they wanted. Ryota (if he ever left his room and actually made connections with his classmates hsshhsh) would probably be the same as he was in dr3? He'd probably be a little inspired by and hold admiration towards Makoto, seeing him befriend all of his classmates, before that started to slowly turn into resentment and envy- animation is a wonderful thing, I'll be the first to defend, but Ryouta basically uses it to fill the hole in his heart that really, can only be filled with genuine human connection. Makoto could act as a stepping stone for this, much like Imposter, and act as support- him and Ryota are similar in firmly believing in and wanting to spread hope more then anything. Makoto would also genuinely take an interest in and admire Ryota's talent, giving him well-deserved validation for his efforts.

BONUS-

• Chisa Yukizome- news of the remarkable underclassman who managed to miraculously befriend all her beloved students reaches her, and she can't be more ecstatic! She takes whatever opportunities she can to invite Makoto into her classroom, under the guise of "important faculty stuff". Makoto's talent (luck, as they haven't yet fully realised his potential of hope) is a lot harder to cultivate then the norm (they're almost scared to experiment- the LAST thing they need is another Komaeda incident), so it's best to just- let him be most of the time. His schedule is a lot more flexible because of this, and you BET Chisa takes advantage of this whenever she can. She's extremely grateful to the young boy for uniting her class, and finds it simply wonderful how so much potential- so much hope can reside in someone so young. She makes sure to let Makoto know how much she appreciates his help, and will often leave him little gifts, like sweets and handmade arrangements, to show her gratitude. (Makoto doesn't really understand why this one teacher in particular seems to have taken a shine to him, but he doesn't mind- he finds he actually really likes having people place their trust in him- he enjoys spending time with class 77, and finds it both extraordinary and humbling that they seem to reciprocate the feeling).

• Izuru Kamukura- he doesn't understand why Makoto Naegi has had such an effect on the others. He's so unremarkable it's almost special. His talent is hardly enough to be considered "ultimate", especially not compared to someone like him, who has more talent then all of them combined (which isn't arrogance, merely undeniable fact). Someone like him, the 'ultimate hope', should be utterly bored and disinterested to the brink of tears with someone as mind-numbingly normal as Makoto Naegi and yet-

He isn't.

Perhaphs because unlike everyone else, Makoto doesn't consider him any more "worthy" then the rest of them. Unlike everything Izuru had been taught, had understood as soon as he'd opened his eyes for the first time, had known since the moment of his conception, Makoto didn't believe talent was all that was needed for hope. He believed everyone and anyone was equally capable of it, of becoming hope-

Makoto Naegi is-

Very interesting.

_

Aaaand there you have it, anon! ahdgjdsfhs I’m sorry it took so long. It kind of turned into more potential relationship analysis then actual headcanons oops- I might make a follow up to this that’s a bit more general-hcs style haha. I hope if anyone actually read this they enjoyed it! lemme know what you think!

tl;dr makoto is an angel and class 77 will happily steal him away hehe

https://www.zerochan.net/2046777#full