#what a fascinating kid tbh

[austajunk]

How about our boy Nagisa Shingetsu? ^.^

You mean the saddest boy to ever exist? Sure, let’s talk about Nagisa!

My first impression of him was that if I was a kid, he would be the kid I would shove into a locker (I was a very mean kid lol). His design makes him look like such a square in my opinion. But past that, they make it pretty clear that he’s the overachieving serious type of the Warriors of Hope, the one who actually wants to make a difference while the other ones are kinda messing around like kids. I got the impression that he was the type of kid to be like “I’m the mature one, I swear! I’m so above playing around” which makes him very endearing to me. I think all older siblings (which I am) have a need to be the serious leader in charge.

Of course, I find it very interesting that while he does strive to be serious and goal-oriented, he (as noted by Kodaka and the writers) is probably the most “childish” of the Warriors of Hope. And I think that’s in his hopefulness and ideals. Unlike Kotoko, he allows himself to believe in Monaca and to be manipulated by her because he has a little boyish crush and because he genuinely cares about the other kids. He’s the one who most notably cares for Jataro when the others find him disgusting. I think deep down inside (and maybe this is confirmed) that he knew his hopes for a children’s paradise were never going to come into fruition but he wanted to try so badly just like a kid playing pretend.

Chapter four is so interesting because when the Monokuma kids start turning on him, he freezes up and goes completely immobile until you take care of the attackers. His trauma is on full display constantly. His fear of overstepping the lines of those around him, his need to be accepted, his constant edging around confrontation because it terrifies him… Nagisa is just a horrifically sad story of a boy whose parents saw him as a commodity and status symbol instead of a human being.

I think the thing to take away from Nagisa in retrospect is what he says to Toko and Komaru in Chapter Four about how society (and religion and other factors) expect children to just forgive their parents for being fucking terrible and to just live with abuse. That’s true. There is a thing in society (and particularly Japanese society) where you’re meant to just accept things and respect your parents and family no matter what, even if they’re destroying and abusing you everyday. As Nagisa says, none of this may have happened if the children were just allowed to fucking hate their parents! But instead, society repressed them because that’s easier and more acceptable from children. They stuck the Warriors of Hope in the troubled kids class. The police brought Masaru back to his abusive father. The entertainment industry continued to exploit Kotoko. Jataro was neglected until he began to believe he was ugly and only deserved repulsion.

Nagisa is smart. He knows what could have happened to make this all better and I think there is a small piece of him that hoped desperately that society and adults were better so he didn’t have to be this way. He’s the only one to have regrets about killing his parents despite what they’ve done to him. This is why he was probably labeled as the most childish among the Warriors of Hope. Because he really did have that optimistic idealism in his heart which added to a much more horrific and emotional breakdown for him in the end.

But in a sense, I must repeat that as much as I really feel for Nagisa, I think he needed to breakdown and get defeated like that. As I said, sometimes things really do just need to fall apart before they start to get any better. And they do. The kids come back at the end and in the anime, Nagisa starts to put some trust in Komaru and Toko to tell them about Monaca and to ask them not to hurt her. It’s a small change, but it is the first step and something incredibly significant for Nagisa to open himself up to trust again.

Also, not strictly important, I think it’s pretty funny how he came to beat up Servant with his robot after that intense scene of Komaru and Toko reaching this moment of beautiful understanding. Perfect writing imo.