#theyre soooo interesting and akanes complicated view of kana is one of my favourite aspects of their dynamic

[penguinkyun]

something i think about endlessly about the tokyo blade moments leading up to sun kana is that akane gets into psychology to find out why kana behaved like that towards her and presumably later to figure out why kana went from the sun to acting like she was doused with water. her monologue is her straight up saying and understanding why kana does that, that shes scared and wants people to look at her and why she wanted to blend in so badly and she acknowledges all of it...only to then completely disregards it right after in favour of trying to brute force kana to get back into acting like the sun

because it is akane's view of how kana should act, she's trying to force her own selfish desire of seeing and competing with sun kana again on equal grounds and thats why she cant reach kana, because shes not looking at what kana needs. honestly the way akane views kana in tokyo blade isnt really all that dissimilar with how a lot of people view ai (loosely speaking)

(i can't really. say what her view is After because theres no proper resolution to this conflict before akane jumps straight to shipping aqua and kana and akane and kana don't really interect post tokyo blade and private arc in any meaningful way until 148. sighs)

it's not that akane's entirely wrong about kana either! kana does want to act selfishly again, she does want to take centre stage and have a proper rematch with akane (her first instinct was to accept the challenge after all) but there is so much history entangled with all that, which prevents her from doing so and shes intimately aware of the cost of acting out, all of which akane sees but disregards moments after acknowledging it because shes acting on her own desires for kana. akane does understand what drives kana, she just fails to take it into account because shes totally blindsided by her own want and desire to see and compete with kana

its such a fascinating character decision to make and ideally there would be a moment in canon where akanes dialogue of "the kana-chan i adored was much more selfish and overwhelming [...] this version of you is abhorrent. i hate it" is challenged in text leading into a proper resolution for their conflict with both akane and kana being able to grow with it but. alas.