#touya1

[shiraoyagi]

just to give my 2 cents (not that it particularly matters), but i honestly disagree with this because it requires a hierarchical view of relationships which i don't think applies well to vbs (and is frankly, amatonormative, but that's a whole other tangent i won't go on here)

they do all care about each other equally. they just care about their partners in a different way from their teammates. the relationships are different, but one is not more significant than the other; especially when we get into specifics.

(event spoilers below, i labeled them in the tags)

for example, you made the statement that only an's singing will make kohane's heart pound, but this is not true. in fact, during kohane5, we are treated to this scene:

(tls by lozy bug, this is from chapter 6 of over rad squad)

there's also the fact that in main story, kohane showed incredible amounts of concern for akito and touya and did everything she could to help them even when she was under the impression that they sabotaged her and an. there's also akito supporting an in various events, the fact that in akito3, she was the one to give him the dream of "surpassing rad weekend" rather than just "i want to put on a good event like that", and the implication he wanted to team up with her during vbs main story. there's also touya seeing himself in kohane in main story and touya1, and her hard work trying to compose in touya3 giving him the boost he needed to continue composing. there's akito going from making jabs at kohane early on to wholeheartedly supporting her in kohane3; when an barely could— and he noticed that in resonant town and was still there to support her through her insecurities. there's even an4, where akito made it blatantly clear he trusted an to keep singing with them— where it was made clear that all of vbs trusted an to keep fighting, no matter what. there's kohane4, where touya was pulling the rest of them along in spite of all the backlash they faced. there's an5, where both akito and touya did everything they could to help her with her feelings towards kohane; and especially touya, who couldn't bear to see an repeat the same mistakes he did in main story— not just because their team relies on it, but because he undeniably cares about her.

this doesn't even account for earlier events, like akito1, where everyone was concerned for akito (not just touya), and i failed to mention that kohane's main conflict in kohane3 is the fact that she doesn't want to hurt akito by messing up a solo at crawl green, the livehouse he has trauma at (and even if she never learned the specifics, she clearly can empathize with it, especially with what happened to her in main story). i can list a lot more examples (like touya's an2 card story revealing that he has been worried about an this whole time up until an5, but akito wouldn't tell him anything because an was only comfortable coming to him and not touya or things like akito fes, an fes, mixed events, and other card stories) but we'd be here forever.

vbs does have two duos, yes. their partnerships are very important to their lore, and i don't think they should be undermined (and frankly i hate when people do that).

HOWEVER, i also don't think it's fair to treat the friendships they've made with their teammates as something "less important" to these characters just because the partners tend to be more openly affectionate with each other. all of them would be miserable if they weren't a team and were just still duos, if you think about it rationally. kohane would have no one to challenge her as an equal, an wouldn't have anyone to comfort her and then push her into talking with kohane, while akito and touya would likely be permanently broken up without the interference of a sekai (which only exists BECAUSE vbs are meant to be a team; that's their true feelings), and none of them would surpass rad weekend; because they'd never get the growth that they needed from each other.

anyways please don't take my argument personally, i just wanted to add my own thoughts, so i'm sorry in advance if this makes you uncomfortable

Each time someone claims that *insert VBS character* cares about their team the same as their partner, I explode. Yes, they are not *just* two duos, they're a team, but they're still two duos. Akito will care more about Toya than both Kohane and An. Only An's singing will make Kohane's heart pound. Toya won't sing without Akito. Only Kohane will be able to make An feel such strong feelings of both adoration and inferiority.

They can care about their teammates but value their partner more.

[shiraishi-kanade]

What if I told you the underlying narrative of VBS is actually about selfishness

[shiraishi--kanade]

"Why does Rad Dogs have so little lines for girls?" well you see it's because it's Bad Dog's counterpart to Ready Steady, which, while it represented all of the group, primarily focused on Vivid's relationship. Despite being a Touya1 Rad Dogs is actually just a re-telling of his and Akito's story, which makes sense considering it was probably commissioned before the plot of event was actually known, and even more sense if you consider that Ready Steady and Rad Dogs had the same lyrics. In this essay I will,

[spookydetective]

Ok, so in Touya1, Touya states that it's hard for people who were originally in classical music to switch to jazz, since jazz relies on freedom of expression while classical is more structured, for lack of better term.

The commissioned song for that event (RAD DOGS) contained classical, as Touya's singing was rigid, and also to reference his past and his split, thanks to everything.

In Blender, it has jazz, because Touya no longer thinks of himself as someone who ran away. He ran away, yes, but as his dad told him, he can't let that define him, letting Touya break free, in a sense. Touya, with this, might've finally begun to take flight. He is truly free now.

i actually need to start tagging these because HOLY SHIT

[shiraishi--kanade]

This is a very personal opinion, but I think my main issue with Touya's writing is that Harumichi issue was resolved way too fast.

And by too fast I don't necessarily mean too easily. I'm fine with Harumichi stepping away and being fairly easy to persuade, if his character calls for it. I mean that there was no reason for that to be Touya's first ever focus event.

First focus events in proseka are kind of a mess all around. They were still obviously testing out the waters, which is why they tend to me shorter and messier in general, if not outright clashing with further arcs. Hell, An1 was retconned to hell and back, so it's pretty clear they did not have all the arcs planned from the very beginning.

Back to Touya. Solving his main problem in Touya1 has left him kind of on stand-by mode until The First Concerto, tackling his other issues in the meantime. In a way, Touya's arc is very musical because it is about feelings, which inherently ties into topics of musicality and artistry; I don't think Same Dreams, Same Colors, and especially not Walk On and On to be "empty" or pointless events, but they feel disjointed in the grand scheme. Touya seems to have gotten over his trauma and heal, then in The First Concerto we see that one wasn't entirely true; that retrospective makes SDSC and WOaO lose some of their impact.

If it were up to me, Touya's arc about recovery and finding out new things and how that influenced his feelings and him convincing Harumichi to fuck off should have been happening simultaneously. In other words, mending things with his father should have been his arc throughout his focus events, and not solely something that happened in Touya1 and quickly left behind.

This especially has potential when you consider how differently Touya and Harumichi approach music in general, and how different the understanding of "essence of music" is between them - and how, ultimately, Touya is much closer to it than his father is. I wouldn't want it to be a redemption arc, but I would want Harumichi to he proven wrong over the course of it, and finally concede because of it.

This doesn't mean Harumichi would have to keep being a hypercontrolling abuser for longer, I don't take pleasure in needless angst. I think if you just take away the aspect of him understanding that Touya's music has value for him and push it forward like three events further and just let Touya do whatever he wants for other reasons from Harumichi's perspective in the meantime, with them finally coming to some sort of understanding in The First Concerto, it would make for a much more exciting character arc.

But hey what do I know.