#touya1

[shiraishi-kanade]

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

[shiraishi--kanade]

"omg it's so weird that An has a mom Ken should be a single dad why is she even here" An's mom was mentioned as early as Touya1 you guys just didn't read it

[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]

"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,

[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.

[shiraishi--kanade]

Ok so heavy spoilers and very subjective opinions ahead, lovely. This is also going to be very long.

Main point of my :/ reaction: They gave Harumichi a tragic backstory.

Which is to say street musicians bullied him (or/and his music to be precise) when he was very young and he decided that if street musicians didn't respect all music equally then they didn't deserve his respect either. Which I guess explains why he was Like That in Main story. Which I think could have worked if he was like 20 and not like, what, fucking 50 years old? 3 kids? 3 almost all adult kids and a wife and he still didn't even consider re-evaluating his stance on one fucking issue until his youngest son basically dragged him by the elbow to PLEASE give him a fucking chance? Am I supposed to like... Sympathise with him?

I was reading like, surely there's more to this, right? There's more about why He Is Like This? This is some kinda set up? And then nope actually, I was supposed to take this whole thing seriously all this time. 50 years old world renowned fucking classical musicians refuses to give a genre the light of day because someone was mean to him three decades ago. Okay! Wow! Such prose. Such story.

Explicitly do they say it justifies Harumichi's verbal abuse, which I remind you it was, like in the text? No. But they sure as fucking hell imply it. Which brings us to:

My second point of :/ reaction: it retroactively makes The First Concerto look... Much worse.

Now I think TFC was a great event, and I actually think they managed to walk a line between portraying Harumichi as a shit father that he is and showing that Touya always had passion for music, which is important for Touya. But what The First Concerto also did, undeniably, is downplay Harumichi's cruelty which they were so hard pressed on portraying in Main Story, Colorfes and Nocturne. It's like they slammed the brakes on the whole thing and went "hah you see that obvious childhood abuse?? Well actually he, the 10 years old, enjoyed some of it, so it's not that bad!!". Which is like, fuck, fine. Happens. With music, sport, any kind of thing you're forced into as a child, this happens. You enjoy some of it. You may even stick with it. It's realistic. But it did make Harumichi seem much less liable because his cruel actions, his isolation and control of Touya, were a less recent portrayal and faded in some people's memory.

This actually takes it up a notch and attempts to explain and soften why Harumichi was so cruel after Touya started doing street music too, which is not an excuse. It's just not. It doesn't fly. He's an adult. He's an adult with a son who he seemingly loves and it takes Touya taking initiative and asking Harumichi to hear him out ONCE where what Harumichi should have done, if we take this story at a face value, is understand that his encounter with the genre was thirty fucking years ago, IN AMERICA, and maybe things have changed, and to actually give it a chance. Him not doing so makes for an interesting story and it made sense with what we knew about him before Touya5. I can see Harumichi acting like that as a conceited elitist asshole who refuses to see value in other music besides classical (don't worry, I'll bring it up later!) who grows and opens up; but Harumichi who - has now been stated to - enjoys and respects all music but carries one particular boo-boo from his college years, acting like that in Touya1? That doesn't make him seem like he's grown as a person. That makes him seem like a fucking child. That actively makes his character arc worse, and less impactful, and less meaningful. It's not about a prejudiced parent overcoming their bias for the sake of their child's happiness, it's now a 50 years old fucking man admitting that he may have jumped to the conclusions that one time. He's not even morally gray or ambiguous, he's just... A witwwe misunderstood now. I fucking guess. Because they couldn't cope with NOT retconning Harumichi's character.

And for the record, why do I call this a retcon (as a change to his writing):

I would genuinely want to hear how these are the same character. Harumichi's entire problem wasn't that he *checks notes* wasn't respected by street musicians, it's that he was so fixated on classical and how much joy it can bring people that he *did not consider street music as a worthy genre!* Wouldn't that directly contradict the statement that his issues with street music stem from the mutual disrespect rather than Harumichi's lack of attempts to understand its value? Which he would have, by default, if he loves all music? Like that's just something they fucking made up. And it makes Nocturne Interlude look weird for it. And it makes The First Concerto look weird for it, because it went from a genuine, misguided parent trying to give his child what he thought was the best life possible to, combined with this very obvious bleaching of Harumichi's moral grayness, an attempt to roll back the fact that he is an abusive father. Which is sad, because The First Concerto is a good event. But this is where Touya's tussle with classical music should have ended. It event had this note of finality to it. Which they just... Didn't care about, it appears.

Which brings us to my third point of :/ reaction: nobody fucking asked for this?

Like I don't get it. They had so many interesting, wonderful ways to introduce VBS to America, or even to classical music, to street music, anything. We didn't even see Touya's brother, instead we got 3 full chapters of Harumichi Aoyagi. Personally, I am sick of Harumichi Aoyagi. I would do a lot better without Harumichi Aoyagi's backstory.

It's also clunky. The conclusion Touya reaches is that he wants to incorporate different genres of music into his own, like his father did when he was young. But the core is that be wants to just... Appreciate different genres. Which... Like I said. Is not how Harumichi was written until literally This Event. We barely got to meet anyone. We got Harumichi and his classmate instead of, like, I don't fucking know, more diverse and engaging npcs who are not, for example, Touya's father, to lead Touya to the conclusion that he wants to incorporate different genres. And it's also weird to tell that morale of all things through the prism of classical music, which is KNOWN for being resistant to innovation since like, I don't fucking know, mid 20 century if we're being generous? *Head in hands* whyyyyyyyy did you fucking do that when the opportunity to criticise that and make Touya say "actually I'm going to do something BETTER than classical does" would be so much more impactful and realistic.

Oh, speaking of realism!

Last point of my :/ reaction: stop trying to backpedal on portraying classical music like you used to??? Oh my fucking god???

Listen. Harumichi was written to be a stereotype. Touya was written to be a stereotype. You can probably point at any anime with music in it and have a solid chance of spotting a "forced to learn classical at young age by parents, traumatised, rebel" character. He's a cliché. This is not news. It doesn't mean he's not well written, I would be sitting here if this event and this character meant nothing to me, but he just IS. And initially, Touya's "actually I think I like classical, despite everything", including in The First Concerto, I liked those! They added depth! Like I said, it's realistic!

But they are also massively trying to take back everything they narratively implied about classical music. The reality behind it. The child abuse involved. The fact of how fucking morally crushing it is to so many people.

Harumichi's writing is a huge point of it. Until Touya5, he is an elitist who values classical music above all else. Yes, he cares about Touya, and he accepts him, but he STILL is a fucking prick about street music! He was always written to be an elitist who looks down on other genres, that's the point! Everything else they say about him now is a retcon!

And that portrayal of a strict, merciless, cruel father and teacher who looks down on other musicians is stereotypical and harmful as fuck. But you know why that stereotype exists? Because these people are fucking real! Those stories of "abused ex-classical music student" are so plentiful because they are fucking real!

I'll be the first to call out the "classical musicians look down on other genres" bullshit, but I also know that so, so many of them do. Even if they say they don't out loud, they tell you another tale behind closed doors, when they think you'll laugh along to it. Especially older generations, but if you think a lot of younger classical musicians won't jump on the first chance to say "oh all pop music is just all same four chords for 3 minutes lol" you are absolutely wrong.

Touya was one of the characters who called this out. Callously, stereotypically, maybe even harmfully in a way (not Asian, so I won't speak on this issue, but some people raised a very valid point on the subtly racist undertones in Touya's story), but he did. His story mattered. The fact that his abuse was presented plainly and openly mattered. The fact that his father was overtly prejudiced, biased and wrong mattered. Project sekai is targeted at teenage audience, Touya was meant to be relatable for those with same issues, and now we just... Don't have the same character. All of his father's abuse has been explained and diminished. Like all Harumichi's out there have their reasons, like it matters.

Circling back to what I said about Colopale taking back everything they said about classical music: this is part of it. Touya enjoyed classical, so the parts where he was isolated and forced to do it don't matter that much. Street musicians insulted classical music and didn't believe in the fact that all music was created equal, so the verbal abuse Touya was subjected to, well can you really blame his father though? He has strong feelings about the subject.

And that's the issue. Harumichi is no longer a hyperbolic, blown out of proportion but ultimately real character who represents a real issue. He's now... I don't even know what he is. Misguided. Misunderstood. A fucking crybaby.

And that's Sega's take on classical music in general with all of this event, taking place in conservatory and all. And... No? Stop coddling it? I fucking love classical but I actually prefer when people actually speak about its issues: the elitism, the privilege, the classism, the way this industry fosters and protects abusers, both child abusers and just regular horrible fucking people, and the way that they are justified and forgiven for being "genius musicians" (literally!! A point in Touya's story!!).

This development just seems to me like Sega bit off more than they could with Touya's writing - which is hilariously simple and done before a thousand times - and they're circling back to classical because they genuinely don't know what to do with him now, and trying to justify it somehow being an okay thing and not STILL a source of trauma to Touya because they need it. For the story.

God. Just let my boy move on with his life please. What a trainwreck.

Ok now to the positives so you guys don't think it's event is all bad (it's mostly bad):

:D №1: it's actually very funny at times. I enjoyed the bit with Taiga being an idiot. In a way that I wanted to break both of his legs but it was hilarious. Glad to know we all didn't collectively forget he's a high school drop out, that checks out.

:D №2: An and Akito trying to keep up with English was absolutely hysterical and I loved it to bits. They're trying.

:D №3: the new character, Lloyd Hopper, a jazz/classical musician and the composer of Jazz Cat movie soundtrack, is most likely a nod to Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer of Cats the Musical who was, among other thing, a classical and jazz performer. Which is a very cool reference imo.

:D №4: Generally I'm kinda okay with the conclusion Touya came to and the set up for his next arc. I think it's fine. Unless sega writes it horribly badly next time. But... The monologue is fine. I'll accept it.

And here are some things I'm neutral ( •_• ) about:

( •_• ) №1. The whole "other Vivid Street" thing. Painfully unrealistic but I'm suspending my disbelief. What-fucking-ever. This is a game where Hatsune Miku is real and loves you, might as well happen.

( •_• ) №2. The bit with improv at the Conservatory. ...Eh. It's... Fine. I found it cringeworthy in some bits and laughable in others but I *am* also more of a snob than it may seem. Just standard VBS shenanigans.

I don't even remember when was the last time I had so much to say about a pjsk event and especially so many negative opinions. But... It's out there now. You know what I think.

The jury, which are just 12 little clones of me, has come to the conclusion and it's unanimous. Jail. Jail for the writers for one hundred years.

I rate this event 2,5 out of 10. Just on vibes alone.

To sum it up: you should go read on my fan unit because I blend pjsk and classical music better. (Don't, that was a joke). But lord, I didn't enjoy that at all.

Touya5 is so so evil because it's scratching my classical music interests too well. The fuck you mean they visit a conservatory I would die for that 😒