#yes i know he was an antagonist when he first appeared in the manga but he didn’t exactly stay that way

[zombiemollusk]

concept: what if yugioh but shadi/hasan turns out to be the big villain? or at least one major villain, on par with zork?

not that i know for sure what this guy’s deal was (i don’t think anyone really does??) but he sure does fucked up stuff in atem’s name that. doesn’t really seem to be addressed all that much in the end?

like maybe millenium world could have been about atem deciding “i am not your idealized pharaoh, and i am not your symbol of justice here to maintain an abusive system. i will fight against this paradigm even if it’s meant to benefit me because this power should not be worth the pain and suffering it has caused - including what i caused and perpetuated with it.

and i will be okay without it, because even without that power, i will still be me, and i will still have my friends.”

it’d still fit right into the whole finding-his-own-identity + power-of-friendship theme, but without seemingly justifying or brushing aside massacres or prison-slavery systems. and if set has the same realization and also fights this system (instead of continuing it as pharaoh), it’d really drive home the point that this message is about way more than just “ohhh look how woke atem is”.

and i think a villain with an onscreen history of treating people like concepts and tools with an overly idealized vision of the past would have been perfect for that.

[todomitoukei]

Honestly it’s a depressing ending for the villains. We get hardly any follow up for the remaining ones, Toga was the last one I expected to die and I was hoping it was a ruse at first. But since it’s official it’s heartbreaking. It’s lacklustre just throwing in a character to portray Tomura and what would happen if a civilian did reach a hand out, and throwing in another character for Deku to interact with. Honestly even the heroes were pointless, nothing has really changed in the system. Hawks never got a consequence for his actions, hell it could have been explored of a hero murdering a villain questioning the like of what makes a villain or hero. But he rises in ranks and has done nothing. I just feel it’s such a rushed ending, and I would have been ok with the same ending if it didn’t feel so messy and compiled together. There are so many loose ends and follow ups from characters, Shoto especially. It’s unfortunate, but honestly I’m glad it’s over. I lost passion after a while, but I appreciate the joy it’s gave me when I first started following the manga and getting into the anime, and experiencing the highs and lows of manga leaks. Dabi was my main one, and it’s one positive I gain from this ending for how open it is to his fate. It’s just sad that it ended this way.

Hori's biggest strength is for sure coming up with interesting ideas - like you said, exploring certain parts could've made for an incredibly interesting story. However, his biggest weakness is not following through with what he's starting, doing a 180 right at the end every time.

The cast has always been too big, yet he chooses to show us minor villains like Gentle and La Brava - who receive a happy ending - while the main antagonists endings aren't even being shown.

As much as the villains dying sucks (subjectively but also objectively since the story spent so much time telling us it's about reaching out and helping everyone no matter what), if they had been at least given a proper conclusion it could've been acceptable, yet after 400+ chapters, the author couldn't even bother to show all the main antagonists and their endings.

Where exactly is Spinner? We know he wrote and published a book, but is he in jail and if so, how did they allow him to publish this book?

Is Compress in jail forever? Is he still in a cell with Geten? He read Spinner's book, but how did he get hold of it? Was the prison kind enough to give him a copy?

What about Touya? Assuming he's dead, how much longer did he have? Did his family care when he died? How is the family coping? Are they getting along? Why did Horikoshi not show us Natsuo and Touya talk after spending so much time saying they used to be so close? Natsuo not saying anything and having mixed emotions after all of this was actually an interesting idea, but not when you don't do anything more with it - now people just think Natsuo is an asshole when in reality, he has every right to feel conflicted, but it sucks as a conclusion when we've all been looking forward to seeing him and Touya finally get to reunite and be happy.

What was the point of Shigaraki appearing as a ghost to Deku? Why wouldn't he at least appear in front of his friends? Why wouldn't we see him show up in front of Spinner, approving his book or something?

And yes, Shouto, too. Why is the main info we get in regards to his father? What about his hero costume, which we aren't even being shown? Did he ever change his hero name or is it going to be Shouto forever?

I wouldn't even say it's rushed as much as it's an unbalanced focus. The last few chapters could've been focusing on these subplots, but instead Hori tried to mimick the tone of the first season by showing the kids returning to school and whatnot, something that could've been shown in less time to also make space for elaborating on a bigger variety of characters and plot points.

I'm also glad it's over, I just wish these characters could've been in a better story.

[vraisetzen]

✨️ maki shinichi appreciation post

(because my boy doesn't get enough love from the SD fanbase)

i think by now i've made it plain and obvious that maki shinichi is my best boy out of all the best boys in slam dunk.

which is fairly surprising, because i started reading this manga expecting to like sendoh, based on the hype surrounding him, and the fact that he's shohei ohtani's favourite character.

and to be honest, it's difficult for me to articulate why i like him as a character — for all intents and purposes, maki was introduced in the manga as the quintessential player (before sawakita was introduced). he's physically well-rounded, he's a leader, he has a strong desire to win, and he's the king. he's supposed to represent the glass ceiling for all basketball players in kanagawa. when we're shown, prior to shohoku's match with sannoh, that kainan had difficulty playing against sannoh, that not even maki could go up against them, it serves as a representation of how strong sannoh is.

but all this — the titles, the comparisons — these are all impressions other characters have of him.

as the story unfolds after his first appearance (as a stuffy looking teenager who appearance suggests more of a 50 y/o divorcee than a high school basketball player), more details are revealed about him:

his coach credits his humility and his strong desire to win as part of the reason why he's the strongest; his teammates have complete trust and respect for his leadership and captaincy; kiyota, the petulant child, defends him after sakuragi makes a poorly-timed comment at maki's mature appearance.

and despite kainan's dominance, despite maki's undisputed reign as the best player, he sees the potential and the strength of other players — most notably when he invites sakuragi (along with a tagging kiyota) to watch aiwa gakuen's match against meihou; he also warns sendoh of shohoku's renewed strength, and flags up minami to rukawa's attention.

it's interesting, then, that the kanji in his name: 牧 (maki) means shepherd, while the 紳 in shinichi means gentlemen. he guides his players, like a shepherd with his flock, to victory, and with grace and humility.

maki's the king, yes, but he's also a teen who cares enough about his appearance to change it after being called out for it; he's forceful and domineering, but he has a strong respect for his opponents; he grumbles about kiyota tagging along for the trip to aichi and pretends to be distracted, but he really doesn't mind and lets sakuragi follow as well (while also checking in on akagi).

and i think, also, that we tend to overlook the immense pressure maki must have as the captain of the strongest team in kanegawa — who is not only responsible for the welfare of his players, but also for the honour of bringing the trophy home for the 17th year running.

all these things, ultimately, come together to create an unforgettable and notable character who was only ever meant to serve as an antagonist for our team of problematic children.

(and i mean, just look at how happy he is, winning the inter-high tournament 🥹 in most panels he's pouting like ben stiller in zoolander)

also, this is rather random, but for a character who isn't a fan-favourite, we know strangely quite a lot about maki:

he surfs

he drives a car

wears glasses

has friends outside of kainan (moroboshi)

wore the numbers 12 -> 8 -> 4

had a pompadour hairstyle as a freshman

it's these small tidbits that make him really endearing to me, personally.

maybe i just have a thing for really strong players with no perceivable flaws, who are subsequently revealed as actual absolute dorks (affectionate). or maybe it's just maki shinichi.

[plinko-mori]

+100 Reasons Why I Love Ougai Mori

There are more but I'm too lazy to share them all

Original idea from sigma.analysis on Instagram!

Spoilers from manga, some light novels... And more

Of course this will be full of my personal opinion

Warning: Long post

Now let's start with the reasons!

1) He shares last name with an actress of a telenovela I love so much (Rubí, Bárbara Mori)

2) His voice (Latin Spanish, English and Japanese)

3) His smirks

4) His hairstyles

5) He knows what he wants

6) His ability, it's great and raises so many questions:

How free is Elise really? Does Elise know where she comes from and the abilities in general? How did Mori discovered his ability? And etc–

7) He is so smart, sad that people sometimes forget it

8) He is SO grey and questionable as a character → his morals, his way of being...

9) His calm energy

10) He can fight and defend himself without Elise

11) He can be scary when he wants to (example: that scene with Lucy)

12) He is so rational and realistic

13) How he changes his mood in one second to the next

14) He's hot (for me)

15) He got me into reading the works from the in real life author

16) His character and ability are GREAT references of works from the in real life author and his life

17) Now Rintarou Mori is my favorite writer thanks to him (as I said in reason 15, the character got me to reading about Rintarou)

18) Ougai is aware of the things he has done

19) ↑ And has a such and acidic and cruel attitude about the barbarities he has done that I love and hate so much

20) His knowledge of medicine and anatomy is frightening and wonderful in a weird way

21) He's so tall compared to me, I love taller people than me sorry (I'm 148 cm tall)

22) He gave me the lesson that a good leader doesn't have to be necessary a good person, and a good person doesn't have to be necessary a good leader

23) He is so badass

24) How similar he is compared to Chuuya's biological dad

25) The "Absolutely no chance!" with Fukuzawa and the punch

26) One of my highest kinnies

27) The way he was introduced in the chapter with Lucy

28) His first appearance with Elise and candle

29) ↑ I still was surprised when Mori goes to a place aND BOOM PORT MAFIA MEMBERS–

30) His pose with the hands supremacy

31) Okay but his attitude with Taneda (poor Ango)

32) His panels drawn by Hoshikawa-sensei

33) His laugh

34) He made a motherfucking big plan which Oda ends up dying and everything fOR A TINY (important) ENVELOPE– He thinks in everything!

35) Amazing antagonist

No, I don't think he's a villain

Yes, I'm too lazy to explain it here

36) The fact that Mori makes Elise disobeys when he wants her to do it even if that makes me want to cry

37) He is so clingy and cloying that I love knowing I'm not the only person like that

38) He's not obsessed with children because he's a pedo and I love that

He stuck himself between wanting to mentor the younger generation to help them grow into their potential and throwing everyone's emotions and desires (including his own) out the window in favour of the """optimal solution"""

He's not a pedo... He just has a weird obsession-favoritism with 12 year old girls and younger

That I can explain it to you using: Works from Ougai, Genetics, Society, Comparing 4 cases with Mori interacting with people + Elise...

39) He is like Perry The Platypus

«Weird old man?

OUGAI MORI THE PORT MAFIA BOSS WEIRD OLD MAN!?»

40) Hard to believe or not, the character helped me a lot to understand myself, comprehend my attitude and accept myself (as a walking red flag) when I was going through a rough time

I was really like "OMG NO I'M NOT LIKE MORI STOP–" and now I'm "Yeah I'm tiny Mori" that's character development my bois

41) He got my attention and I want to know about Thomas Schelling, John Forbes Nash and Henry Kissinger

42) His beautiful messy dark hair

43) How different he is with people and how he is with Elise, I find it so cute (and sad)

44) "Tell me Dazai, why is it your wish to die?" That chat was amazing

45) How different he looks compared to the in real life author

46) How observant and analytical he is

47) He helped Atsushi when he could get out of Lucy's ability by himself!

48) His soft smile when Chuuya accepts his vision of leadership and pledges his loyalty to him

49) In Yosano's backstory and Dazai's backstory... Mori did the same error and didn't learn a shit, you are amazing old man (mockery)

50) Dude how can you project yourself on Dazai and teach him manipulation? You did bad but you taught him many things that ended up helping him– But how can you project yourself in him???

51) I have SO many theories about Mori that I loved doing: His past and reasons why he is like that, why he projected himself on Dazai, why Elise is a child, etc... And his relationship with Natsume

52) I make so many content about him exploring fanon and canon Mori! OCs that either have a good relationship with him or have traumas with him, there's no in between

Some headcanons, random scenarios, etc

53) He's a drama queen sometimes, that's amazing

54) Wan Mori is my mood and my friends are really like Wan Dazai damn [sob]

55) He looks so ugly sometimes I love him

56) He's a (sadistic) doctor but I'm sure he made more damage than healing (that's the thing a doctor does). I'm completely sure of (and love) that irony of the character

57) His friendship with Kouyou

58) His chat with Ozaki after the things with Kyouka was sad for me

He really thought "Hey, this girl has nothing to bind her to the mafia, she's sure to leave, she can do it" but Ozaki chose to stay, to help him. Mori was so honest, didn't hide his emotions and was truly happy to hear that she was going to stay, such an emotional and relatable moment for me

I will not go deep on the dialogue, just the emotions

In the manga it was first a shock scene, just shock... I would say even distrustful of her words

But then his smile was very soft, nodding, maybe proud of the fact that Ozaki feels comfortable in the mafia after he became the leader

In the anime it was the same but with a sad expression, there was more melancholy in his words, his facial expression...

And that's why I cry a lot with that scene

59) He loves the city, he wants to protect it so much even if that's really hard to see...

Aww cute thing of the old man

60) His organization means so much for him, the PM is more than "a group of people" to him, I love how he takes care of them, how he seeks, acts and does everything possible for their wellness

Also he's really like «My bois, my people, I want the best of you but please don't act like idiots when I'm not looking– Omg you're just doing it! Damn I will fix everything because this is a disaster, and I hate disasters»

61) Just the fact, only the fact, that he throws everyone's emotions and desires (including his own) out the window in favour of the """optimal solution"""

62) He is aware to the fact that Osamu is superior to him in some things (predict future actions and be many steps ahead compared to the rest) and he accepts it

Ougai (in my point of view) is just irritated that he doesn't have Dazai at his side to use him, but he leaves it that way, he sees his reality, and accepts it but hates it a lot

63) “But doesn't Mori want to have him back to his side?”

Yes, as I said, he is irritated, accepts but hate that fact. He doesn't like it when when things are TOO far out his control, he is stubborn, he is "human" despite being a bastard

64) I appreciate that he kept his promise to Chuuya, Ougai REALLY GAVE HIM THE DOCUMENTS after he became executive when he could easily hide them from Nakahara to the end

Mori did good there, he kept his promise

65) I support that he dislikes dirty things, raw food and mackerel in miso–

SAME MORI SAME

66) One thing that MUST be appreciated:

Even of the traumas, how "evil" Port Mafia is, how bad is Mori, etc– He gives people with no home a place they belong to and where they are accepted

He created a whole good atmosphere for his people you know??? Dude they look comfy there, they don't desperately want to leave the organization (at least most of them, I'm not counting Kyouka and Dazai at all) and they are able to consider themselves a family, see the PM as a home, that is incredible. How close Black Lizard are, Chuuya and Ozaki, Ozaki and Mori, etc

67) He treats people in SUCH different ways I love it

68) He doesn't treat people with the same level of empathy, that's great and so normal... The not-normal thing about his empathy is how he traumatizes people but I'm talking in a people-in-the-real-world context

69) This panel:

How he looks at Natsume

70) He reminds me of many songs from my favorite band! (Set It Off) Such as Duality, Peekaboo, Skeleton... And more

But specially Skeleton

71) Compared to other characters I love: Idc if people hate him, it's great! Mori is a bastard, I don't have problems if you hate him until you obligate me to also hate him

I don't mind if you insult him, when some friends do that I join them because OMG HE DESERVES THOSE WORDS. But go on, hate him, I will not obligate you to love him because it's good that you hate him, just don't obligate me to hate him

72) He's a bastard BUT I STILL LOVE HIM– That thing is really weird in me, right Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter and Adam from SK8? /jk

Okay but actually compared to the rest, I love more Ougai because he's better compared to them

73) He makes the Port Mafia being the less bad option in awful scenarios

74) He also makes HIMSELF the less bad option in awful scenarios

75) How he saw Yosano fall to pieces in front of him because of his own words

That wasn't manipulation, he was literally hurting her because he wanted to...

That's a very shock scene and his face of "I don't give a fuck" omg I love this but hate myself of me liking that

I personally think that he said those things to hurt her on purpose for her to act in a way and/or affect the rest of the ADA that was there

76) He has beautiful eyes (anime)

77) This weird feeling-theory of him wanting to die...

Like dude why do you focus on you dying because of Dazai? Why do you keep torturing Yosano, you know she will end up doing something to you right? You really want that? You want to get hurt that badly? To die?

78) He is REALLY happy in Beast, not fake emotions there

79) Okay in Beast he offered emotional support to a lost teenager by LITERALLY offering to be his dad (+ expressed his past will to save another lost teenager)

AAWWWW MORI I LOVE U

80) He took over a shitty orphanage and made it good in Beast...

Same character, the only differences is where he is + he's 2 years younger

81) His weird "monologues" (like that scene of chess about Aku)

82) Elise treating him like trash, that's amazing AND sad because she has something of him, she's HIS ability! Dude do you see yourself as a trash that hard?

83) He wanted to catch Atsushi to gain the money AND NOT TO KILL HIM, dude that's nice, he didn't want to kill him

84) He isn't afraid of taking innocent lives to increase the Port Mafia's own benefit

85) He has cooperated with ADA <3 (his "enemy")

86) He doesn't punish Ryonosuke even if he disobeys lot of orders. Mori values his skills and contributions to the organization even if he does something that has nothing to do with what he was ordered to do

87) His eyes in the manga are drawing in different (and beautiful) ways... There's the normal ones, the "just black" (like, really just black or similar to black) and darker but not black...

And many shades–

88) A survivor to a war, THE GREAT WAR

89) No matter how high is the risk, Ougai takes that risk and even goes far as to raise the stakes

90) How he made Dazai feel true shock with Q, I love that panel

91) Has the same blood type as me (O)

92) His parallels with Mikoto Souh and Reisi Munakata (leaders of OPPOSING organizations) from K Project

93) Okay but he in the ops–

94) He sees many things as a chess game and how compared to me, chess doesn't give him anxiety

95) He shares birthday with other of my favourite characters, Kajii Motojirou!

96) He's a really mysterious character, we only know a little part of his past... Which is why I do theories about him, yes

97) How we don't know if he knows about Ryonosuke's illness

98) He sucks in throwing darts

99) Literally wrote a message to enemies using CRAYONS

100) I like to understand at least most of the character's mind and mimic him easily!

101) ↑ I also love helping friends with that, it feels amazing

102) We have seen few of his real emotions because most of the time he hides them or fakes them

103) Bro what did he do to Kyouka so only his presence could make her panic?

And Kouyou knows that???? Hi??? I need answers

104) Thank you for sending Kajii and make him do chaos in a boat/yacht/whatever, that was an amazing idea

105) When Mori got sick being close to death, the Port Mafia knowing that killing Fukuzawa could save him, went for that alternative immediately without thinking any consequences...

They love their boss I'm gonna cry

106) He knows the ADA aren't terrorists

107) His weird old doctor clothes

108) His weird dracula leader of the Port Mafia clothes

109) His uniform at the military

110) No trembling, second thoughts or second-guessing and the moment to kill someone (like poor Tachihara's brother)

111) The way in which he uses and attacks with scalpels

112) His hair is easy to draw for me

113) I want to give a hug to this man, dude aren't you stressed at the mafia???

Aren't you tired of people and your ability treating you like trash??? About all of your responsibilities???? You need a rest old man

114) Even if I don't shipp them: The parallels of Kouyou and Mori with Chuuya's biological parents. "Oh, I didn't tell you I'm from the army?" omg they are so close

115) How he scared Tachihara, that hat scene was amazing HE ACTED SO NORMALLY–

116) He always knew about the spies in his organization and let them have close relationships with other members, Ango is a loyal person himself, while Tachihara is now the most loyal member to the mafia, more than Chuuya...

Mori why??? Stop, you are torturing them–

117) His shock in the manga about Francis knowing where the Port Mafia was

118) His chat with Hirotsu about the previous leader

119) Changing his mood from one second to the next

120) There are great AMVs about him in YouTube! (not the shipps ones)

121) When Mori manipulates, he doesn't lie

He gives SOME parts of the information, he strategizes very carefully when, how and where he will reveal information to people

122) He earns Kouyou's royalty by being a better boss than the old boss

123) He earns Chuuya's loyalty by being a better leader with advice to give

124) He almost gets what he wants in return

125) He wanted Fukuzawa to died instead of him (cannibalism arc) because of 2 reasons: Ougai new that his organization would be mad about AND do stupid (destroy) things because of that

He knows them so well–

126) After what Paul did to the mafia, killing some members (Flags), Mori still helped him, hides him from the government aND MADE HIM AN EXECUTIVE-

That's so nice Mori

127) He is IMPORTANT in BSD Beast, the story without his scene hits different you know?

128) The way he manipulates, the way he uses words, the actions he does, how he sees it like a chess game– And he's so calm about it the fuck

129) His different types of smiles I swear

130) He used Ace as a tool because of his money LMAOOOOO

131) LITERALLY has a 3D version

That cosplayer supremacy 🛐

132) He makes mistakes, he isn't perfect, ignoring how he did the same mistake with both Yosano and Dazai, for example: Mori, sweetie, you didn't have to leave Ace in charge of Fyodor, that was a TERRIBLE idea

133) The theory from @/videogamelover99 about Mori related to the Arahabaki project

Specially the real-life connections

134) How Homra Daikazoku fits him and the Port Mafia a lot not only because of the meaning of the song, also because of the context with Homra in K Project

135) I love his ease in sacrificing several of his "pieces" in order to double or triple the damage to his enemy

136) Dude please stop enjoying the fact of people around you fearing you a lot 'cause I'm starting to envy your self-esteem or questionable thoughts as to be SO comfortable with that

137) He takes really serious to keep the balance in Yokohama

138) Vita Sexualis requires strength and energy...

And he uses it MOST of the time wow– How does he do that????

139) I can't say anything of his obsessive AND possessive personality because I'm the same–

Feel ya old man but pls stop

140) His first designs omg

141) I hate dogs, I dislike them a lot but damn I would be his dog and be "WOOF WOOF BARK BARK"

I simp him that hard damn

142) He's one of the few characters that I actually have memorized his voice (without counting seiyuus), the other ones are Undertaker (Kuroshitsuji), Izumo Kusanagi (K Project) and Cherry Blossom (SK8)

143) You can see how times go by on his face, he's physically different from his past self and it shows, specially in his wrinkles

144) This theory in about abuse chain, Akutagawa-Dazai, Dazai-Mori AND (@/amethystroselily) Mori-Natsume

145) "It's necessary to hit the enemy's vital point in one strike"

146) Ougai gives me the same vibes as Vita Sexualis protagonist, daddy and mommy issues + similar personalities you know?

147) "The leader of an organization is at the pinnacle of that organization and, at the same time, he is its slave. The leader must be more than willing to commit any atrocity in order to ensure the organization's survival"

148) THE WAYS KAJII CALLS HIM: Grand Marshal of Outer Space, Outer-space Marshal, Grand Marchal of Space

149) He calls his members by "kun" EXCEPT for Hirotsu, I love that detail

150) Changing his mood from one second to the next

151) "I like this city, its dark, seedier parts included... But parasites like you nauseate me" [dies]

152) The way Elise calls him, I feel sorry for him and laugh at how she insults Mori so much

153) Thank you for giving Arthur a home

154) Thank you for doing exams on Arthur because of his cold because you were worried

155) Love how Ougai can't control Verlaine and take him out if the Port Mafia's basement

156) His "Sakunosuke Oda is risking his life to eliminate a troublesome, violeny group. It's a win-win situation. So why are you so angry?" 'cause he's as blind as me, not all the people don't have problems about ignoring our own emotions–

157) In Stormbringer he was in a place far far away really safe AND OMG THAT CALL WAS AMAZING specially the part like "Oh yes, I can see everything of what's happening" LMAOOOOOO

158) Similar to the author, I have a weird mix of feelings: When I read the author's works (Hanako, Kinka, The Dancing Girl, for giving some examples) I'm in shock, amazed, curious and THE SAME happens with Ougai Mori from BSD

159) He's my blorbo: My favorite character that I can't stop thinking about him, I can't shut up when talking about him and I can't explain how he makes me feel

160) I did many things thanks to the character:

Read the manga, based on that I continue reading things related to BSD, accounts of theories, analysis, I meet people, an ex friend, some close friends I really love a lot...

Because of my fanaticism for him, my life change for better, Ougai and BSD makes me happy, and that's the biggest reason of why I love him

[fellow-traveller]

What's your opinion on Hol's first appearance when he manipulated a girl and told J. Geil he was doing it so they would risk their lives to save him, compared to his later appearance when he got very upset about the implication that he would hurt a woman?

To make it short, it's good character growth, visually. Very rarely one gets to see a minor antagonist who was supposed to be forgettable having such in-depth and memorable development.

I'm not a good meta writer, but let's try to dissect this question anyway. As usual, disclaimer, I'm not an expert in the Major Arcana...yadayadayada okay, let's go!

(decided to put it under the cut because it ended up being a very long answer)

---

By the girl, I would assume you're referring to Nena, the wielder of the Stand Empress. The girl who rode the elephant with Hol Horse. The girl who proposed to Hol Horse for his hand in marriage but got rejected by the cowboy because (likely, he assumed) she was 16.

Before I say more, a brief note on this: I know a lot of new JoJo fans are throwing a fit over Hol "flirting" with a 16 year-old - although I wouldn't call it flirting as it sounded more like "sweet talking his way out of trouble" kinda thing - and my solid argument to that is the era. The 1980s and early 1990s were ladened with people getting into relationships and getting married young, not just in South Asia (where Nena might be from) but also in the West. It wasn't right, but it was the norm, especially in the poorer parts of the world with strong traditional and cultural practices, before the UN strongly advocated for the rights for children's education in these regions, and pedophilia crimes had taken the spotlight in the public eye.

Hol was, and probably still is, the Western rugged gentleman trope through and through. And part of the Spaghetti Western is the cheesy romance, so if Hol's character design was following it to a T, at least in his first appearance in SDC, he's bound to speak like the dialogues in a novel with Fabio Lanzoni on its covers.

Plus, we don't even know if Nena was really 16 years old. She was in disguise, remember?

It's not too far off to say that Hol still respects women as long as they did not interfere with his life as a mercenary. And being a mercenary, one does need a network of people to aid their journeys, even if it seemed like a blatant manipulation of emotions and resources.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't call it 100% manipulation on Hol's part, even though manipulative behaviour is a trait for a Reversed Emperor. Reversed tarot cards are what I assumed the Agents of Dio had traits of and followed through as the villains of the story.

I'm not sure if this is already told by Araki or if it was general consensus since the manga came out, but...it's a common belief that Nena was in love with Hol Horse, second to Dio, and she actually disguised herself into a beautiful young maiden to match Hol's dashing looks. She was genuinely in love with Hol, and based on that, she could be willingly giving up herself to Hol's vices without thinking about the consequences.

Her disguise is also part of her own manipulation of Hol Horse himself (and after that, to an extent, of Polnareff as well), so Hol and her are pretty much just two sides of the same coin. Which, again, is not too far off.

Reversed Empress is characterized as the loss of willpower, going overboard with loving someone, neglecting own needs, heavy reliance on others and being clingy...which is basically what Nena was, and how her Stand works. In the context of her sticking with Hol and helping him, yes, it could be Hol's own manipulative trait of a Reversed Emperor, but it's also Nena's whole Reversed Empress trait doing the works.

Hence, why it's not exactly 100% manipulation by Hol.

That said, we also don't really know if Hol knew that Nena was in disguise. He might have known she had the Empress Stand. Her backstory as a heiress to nobility might also be a ruse, just so she can get close to Hol. All of these? Manipulative behaviours. Though this sometimes made me wish she wouldn't be in disguise since I do believe when Hol said that he respects all women, pretty or ugly, young or old. He wouldn't care about her looks anyway, should she present her appearance as her real self. But that wouldn't be too bizarre, wouldn't it?

(part of me actually headcanon Nena being giddy about Hol Horse, while Midler supports her crushing and gushing over the cowboy...I wished this was real, somewhere behind the scenes)

---

Now what he confessed to J. Geil, about using women around the world for his own selfish benefit, could be true. As I mentioned, Hol's a mercenary, and with a Reversed Emperor, he's basically not following what a king should do - serve his subjects. Instead, they are serving him. Although I do believe it's not solely to risk their lives to save him, but, like Nena, these women most likely were in love with the cowboy that had the Western charm of John Wayne and Marlboro Man. And love can make people do stupid things.

Also, we're kinda forgetting that Hol Horse was a fucking cocky bastard. At least in his first arc in SDC.

So I'm not too surprised if he's trying to overcompensate when talking to other people, even to his work partners. And overcompensation can be an outright lie. Another possible reason for Hol to boast about his "girlfriends around the world" story might also lie in him being intimidated by the person he was talking to. J. Geil is, as far as the canon manga goes, a mysterious man to Hol and he only knew him as Enyaba's son who wielded the Stand Hanged Man. He most likely didn't even know J. Geil killed and raped Sherry, and why he pursued Polnareff first. All Hol knew at that point of time was J.Geil was assigned as his partner, and they were to work together to kill the Joestar group. But at the same time, he knew J. Geil was a dangerous man.

Also, with Polnareff, Hol Horse did his cocky stint as well, in the possibility that he didn't know much about what Polnareff can or cannot do with Silver Chariot, other than the intel that was given to him. Obviously his confidence (and arrogance) rose up a notch when he was a millisecond close to killing Polnareff before Avdol stepped in (irl context it's kinda bull since no one can dodge a bullet unless they have Star Platinum or King Crimson...or Hol Horse's supreme agility).

Hol's cockiness showed the most when he should feel intimidated. It's almost like a defense mechanism.

He's pretty much humbled since he had his head shot at, but in his interaction with Mariah in CDDH, he still has a tiny bit of cockiness left in him. Again, intimidation by Mariah because he did think he was touching her Stand Bastet a few minutes earlier.

---

So this long arse explanation is just to conclude this - Hol had always been a good person, despite the obvious flaws. He still respects women; it's part of his own principle, which he cannot go against as the Emperor. He gets upset (as all people should) if he had to hurt a woman for no reason. Even in the context of his conversation with Nena, even in his Reversed Emperor traits, the words he chose to tell her off were still rather gentle, and while she was saddened, she wasn't exactly hurt by the rejection. Twice, if I might add.

Keep in mind his Emperor card is only reversed when he's the major villain in his arc i.e. when going against the Crusaders in India. Otherwise, his card is always upright and I believe before he met Dio, he's a real deal hero.

Hence why it's more of a character growth for Hol visually, because we saw it happen. From The Emperor and The Hanged Man arc, to the latest Chapter 15 of CDDH. Visually, we saw him gradually changing his Emperor traits from reversed to upright. But upright was what Hol originally was. And so were most of the villain characters of the tarot card (which we barely could dissect because, unlike Hol, their appearances are pretty limited).

---

idk...I hope this answers it.

[mytragedyperson]

OK my brain just decided to think of the karasuno third years and I now have thoughts so I guess I'm gonna give opinions no one asked for

OK first of all who came up with the fanon versions of these characters? Sugamama and dadchi? Sugawara choosing favourites to be protective over and threatening anyone even his other teammates if they ruin his favourites' innocence or upset them? Deadchi? Asahi being Jesus? Fanon in general sometimes has a habit of honing in one one aspect of a character, not even necessarily a personality trait, which is a conversation for another day. And the thing is I wouldn't mind this but its so repetitive that it just gets boring. No hate if you like this version of yhe characters I just personally don't. Especially asahi being Jesus because I feel like it's literally based solely on his appearance and maybe one image in the manga. I'm not saying this is never enjoyable just that it gets boring and honestly annoying.

Now I'm gonna take this one by one and kiyoko isn't really gonna be included because I just don't have much to say about her, except that I love her being protective of yachi, simply because I don't really know much about her character outside of canon. Like the point is kinda that she's there to give quiet support and kinda produce funny moments by rejecting or ignoring nishinoya or tanaka as well as set terushima up as a temporary antagonist for flirting with her but I don't really have much to say about her and, while I understand why people don't like terushima because he made her uncomfortable and kept pushing her, I don't really hate him to the same level other people seem to.

Anyway let's start with daichi. Honestly I feel like daichi, like canon daichi, is underrated and his character is underutilised in fics, especially his weird friendly rivalry with kuroo. First of all, yes he tells his teammates off sometimes, usually when they're arguing during a match or doing something disruptive during practice, unless it's helpful bur that's because he's the captain not because he's their dad. Also he buys them meat buns to praise them for a job well done. But don't forget he's also very competitive, this is especially seen in his interactions with kuroo, and yet I genuinely would say they're some type of friends, like yhey get along well and stuff. Also he's not afraid to lightly bully people, mainly asahi, but he's also really supportive and genuinely cares about his teammates. So many people gocys just on his moments where he tells them off and is their captain and yes this is a big part of his character but so is his more playful side and his caring side and his supportive side. Also if they were a family he'd clearly be the protective older brother, not the dad. Also deadchi jokes were fine at first but that point was crossed long ago. Also chaotic captain squad is always fun to read when it's done right with daichi reluctantly joining them only to actually have fun and end up joining the chaos as he should because he is a teenager and shouldn't have to be responsible for his same age friends who aren't on his team. Like he's not responsible for Suga or Asahi, why would he be the responsible one of the captains. Also I feel like he does have habits from looking after younger siblings but only in the treat them to things occasionally and is protective over them way.

Now suga. Idk if I've made it obvious but I love the pretty setter squad. I just do. The most obvious thing about Suga is how supportive he is, he helps hinata and kageyama as much as he can and is always there to lend advice and is basically the senpai both of them always needed but never truly had. Like for himata he helps teach him the basics and encourages him and believes in him. For kageyama he yachts him how to communicate with his team and is willing to teach him things where oikawa wasn't. Also he's chaotic but it's more subtle than nishinoya and tanaka. Like he'll tease people and lightly bully asahi but it's always lighthearted. Also idk why but I kinda love the idea of the setters just getting together to like care for their nails and hands and just chill together and gossip while occasionally lightly bullying each other. We love suga here

And finally asahi. Asahi is honestly basically anxiety personified and needs to be loved and protected at all times. I always love characters who look a certain way but then act the exact opposite. He's a huge softy and I feel like he'd give the best hugs. If you cried in front of him he'd panic and he gets sad when people get scared of him. Also him and nishinoya are adorable

[nikoldragonne12]

The Alliance: history of creation (part 1)

Note: I will upload the current info about the characters as soon as I'll finish new artworks of them.

Also, I have to send it separately because it would be too long to read.

Thanks for understanding.

Alright, as I promised earlier, today I'd like to share some history of creating of The Alliance, my own apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic story I'm slowly working on - more specifically, we'll talk about the Himura family, a group of very important characters from the story.

Continue if you wanna read more.

History of creation:

Before I created The Alliance, my first characters used to be OCs from a Black Bullet AU I was planning to make. 

For those who don't know, Black Bullet is a discontinuing series that was originally written by Shiden Kanzaki, yet it also has a manga (covers only the 1st book) and a short anime adaptation (that covers only the first 4 books).

2018 - 2019:

Back to the Himura family, the first character I made was actually Natsumi (sometime between 2018 and 2019) but at that time, she was just a self-insert of mine: she was a teenager (then a young adult) with ginger hair and purplish blue eyes (very similar to my old avatar).

Also between 2018 and 2019, I only knew the anime.

2021 - 2023:

I left the series for some time, mainly because I was busy with school stuff and my thoughts were elsewhere but eventually I returned to Black Bullet between 2021 and 2023. Finally I also knew the original light novels (yes, Black Bullet isn't just an anime) and sadly, my thoughts weren't the same. I had several issues with all three versions, the books, manga and anime and even if I tried to include my OCs into it, I didn't feel comfortable. 

At that time, Natsumi was remade to be one of the canon characters’ sister and some of the HGHs already existed too (specifically Mirei, Whitney, Sora, Teenie and Tanya and when they were BB OCs, they were Cursed Children and all 10 years old) - because of my different feelings, I knew I have to take them from this universe.

Last goodbye to Black Bullet:

My last goodbye to Black Bullet was supposed to be a redesign series where I wanted to take the best known characters from the series, talk about some issues I had with them and most importantly, redraw them in my style…

However, while drawing Kagetane Hiruko (the major antagonist of the 1st book and a secondary character in the 4th book), I got the idea… the idea to make my own story that will be inspired by Black Bullet yet it’ll also have my own rules and lore, meaning I’ll be less limited in creating. 

Note: Here, you can compare Kagetane's canon anime appearance with my unfinished sketch.

And due to this specific redesign, Atsushi and Ren Himura came to life. I had these two in mind before the “redrawing goodbye” but I couldn't find the way to imagine these two, how to tie them into the story, y’know. 

I took some inspiration, not only from Kagetane's appearance, but also from his personality a little, as even if he's a really bad person, he's pretty well-written as a character, especially in the books and it's a shame we didn't see more of him. 

Also a “fun” fact: Atsushi and Ren were originally meant to be siblings but I eventually changed that and made Ren Natsumi's brother. 

By the way, only recently I finally started drawing Kaito, Yuuki, Atsushi and Ren - I only have sketches of them from this year.

Speaking of Kaito and Yuuki (Atsushi & Natsumi's sons), these two were also originally meant to be different: they were both adults, Yuuki was a more gentle brother and the one who only knew what his brother was doing, while Kaito was a more rude brother and an assassin. They also weren't related to Natsumi and other characters. 

I eventually changed that completely and made them Natsumi & Atsushi's sons, although I first made Kaito a university student before making him even younger and turning him into a high school student. And I did that because I wanted these two to be closer to the HGHs (a group of eight girls with animal-themed abilities).

Chibi Kaito and chibi Yuuki (2023 - 2024)

My last change is the change of the age:

It was probably something I was changing the most, so I don't remember all the variations, therefore I only present you their current ages:

Atsushi - 43 years old 

Natsumi - 41 years old 

Kaito - 15 years old 

Yuuki - 10 years old

Ren - 38 years old

The Himura family (pics from 2023 -2024):. See how I change their appearance even throughout the months?

[soul-dwelling]

Konro fighting his doppelganger is in my opinion already a retcon - because first time we see the infernal it looks nothing like him and nothing suggests that it is somehow connected to him And even when its revealed to be a dopplelganger ir doesnt look as simmilar as the later doppelgangers, leading me to believe that Ohkubo hadnt developed the concept fully when he first mentioned it in manga - even Benis father figure doppel looked more infernal then the doppelgangers in the end which basically looked one to one (but at that point he commited to making a meta point)

You're right, I got it wrong: I just quickly re-read the Asakusa Arc, and I can't find any place where Konro brings up the Infernal being his doppel--that was an addition added later to the series. So, yeah, possibly a retcon, or at best Ohkubo couldn't dump all of that lore all at once and used it as foreshadowing to reveal later.

Still, though, yes, I can't find anything in the Asakusa Arc where Konro specifically said it was his doppel.

As for the argument that "the doppel doesn't look as similar as the later doppels": that is its own problem, seeing as the doppel rules conflict with the eventual rules about how a pyrokinetic is form. It was my understanding that you become a pyrokinetic when you are bitten by the bug, and that bug bite causes your doppel from Adolla to merge with your body to give you fire powers. Okay...So how come even after people like Shinra, Joker, Benimaru, Konro, Iris, and so on develop pyrokinetic abilities, their doppels are also around at the same time? Can you have two doppels? How do Joker and Benimaru become pyrokinetics but also later fight their own doppels? How can Iris develop pyrokinetic abilities if she is a doppel of Amaterasu? And that's not even getting into how Mari can exist as a doppel of the Evangelist. And Mari hardly ever looked like the Evangelist to me, so, yeah, I don't get how the series acts like any doppels look like their sources.

Granted, Iris never looked like Amaterasu to me, but I blamed that mostly on Ohkubo having a same-y style to certain characters' faces. (Iris looked more like Patty Thompson to me--maybe a casting gag when getting Patty's English voice to play Amaterasu.)

As an aside: there is almost something clever to the idea that doppels are the embodiment of how the world views you...except it's also another soapbox moment for Ohkubo to get all righteously indignant that people didn't get what he was going for with Joker and Benimaru, so their doppels are exaggerated versions of the original character: "You thought Joker was a bad guy and Benimaru was battle-hungry, that you missed the nuances to the characters!" Or, those qualities are there to the characters, and now your doppels just exaggerated what was already there. I mean, jeez, I'm sorry that people initially thought Joker was probably a bad guy since, you know, he was an antagonist, he was blowing stuff up, it was hinted he was expediting some Infernal situations--I'm so sorry I didn't realize he was actually a Batman figure (intentionally ironic, given the name). You can't complain that you did too good a job tricking the audience and then blame the audience: you design a character to look like that (that's on me for judging by appearances), but you stage scenes to leave it to the readers based on that evidence to conclude this is the bad guy, offered little evidence for a persuasive counter-argument (because you wait until later to offer that evidence), and then act holier-than-thou when the audience reaches the conclusion you wanted them to reach before you staged your disappointing and poorly executed plot twist. (And I am back to glaring at the end of Bungo Stray Dogs Season 5 for doing that same damn annoying trick: "You thought the person doing bad things was the bad guy, but he's really a good guy!" ...No. The dude still did bad things--he is a bad guy, even if he's not "the" bad guy, Wreck-It Ralph.)

[sagurus]

Regarding a Common Misconception of Hakuba Saguru

Lately I've been doing some reflecting on Saguru & the various ways I've seen him portrayed, as well as the ways I've portrayed him in the past. And then I was rereading some MK manga, and had some realizations. I've been feeling like rambling about them! So here I go, rambling.

[Disclaimer: I'm not personally taking issue with anyone's interpretation or impression of Saguru - just sharing my own impressions! This is just for fun <3 ]

Misconception: Saguru is constantly accusing Kaito of being KID

It’s a generally accepted fact in a lot of fics I’ve read (and honestly, maybe some fics I’ve written -- I used to hold this belief too!) that Saguru just unendingly insinuates that Kaito is KID--alone, in front of other people, always.

I won’t cite any here, but I’ve seen nods in fanwork to Aoko feeling a little stressed/frustrated about the fact that Saguru thinks Kaito is KID and makes it known. I’ve also seen fanwork where Saguru explicitly calls Kaito KID, presses Kaito for information, or otherwise makes his beliefs clear, even when others are around.

There are only five scenes in the Magic Kaito manga where Saguru makes direct indication toward his knowledge of KID’s identity.

First, of course, we’ve got chapter 17 - the first chapter where Saguru puts together that Kaito is KID.

For a long time, when I’d consumed more fic than MK canon, I recall an image born in my head of Saguru singling Kaito out in class and making the claim that Kaito is KID in front of everybody. I don’t know if I ever read any such allusion in a fic, or if it’s just an assumption I drew based on portrayals I read, but imagine my surprise when he does nothing of the sort.

Now, to be fair, Saguru is A LOT in this chapter. MK is still heavily in gag manga territory, so his behavior is extra extra played up. But if we take away the visuals, the dialogue between Saguru and Kaito can be summed up thusly:

[First scene where Saguru makes direct indications as to KID’s identity]

Kaito: You look so tired. Haven’t gotten enough sleep after chasing KID for three nights In a row, huh?

Saguru: Hmph. Aren’t you tired as well?

And then, a few beats later in the conversation:

Saguru: I’d like to invite you to the Ochima Art Museum tonight, where KID’s declared his next target. Kaito: Eh? Saguru: Then, you’ll understand why I’m so tired. Or, do you have other plans tonight? Kaito: Okay, I accept your invitation. It’ll be great to see your work in action!

And that’s it, that’s the big class confrontation. Aoko is present for it, but she’s more interested in joining in on the fun, and while I do think Aoko pieces together that Kaito is KID, she prefers to live in willful ignorance of it until it becomes impossible for her to ignore. She’s bright enough to pick up what Saguru’s implying, but because he never brings it past implication, there’s no reason for her to look at it too hard. Anyway, I digress. That’s conjecture and headcanon talking. My point is that Saguru never makes any explicit claims, just invites Kaito along to the heist.

Another neat thing about this scene is that--while certainly not motivated by mercy in this case, Saguru does give Kaito an out: “Or, do you have an excuse not to go tonight?” Of course, if Kaito took it, it would be rather damning, but I do think it would have been enough confirmation for Saguru. I don’t think there would have been any arm-twisting to get Kaito to agree.

But Kaito and Saguru are competitive bastards, so here we are.

Let’s move on to the heist!

Once again, the manga certainly plays up the whole ordeal. Saguru is intense and waiting for his moment, and Kaito’s being, well, Kaito.

At the heist, there are a few points where Saguru has opportunities to make allusions to Kaito being KID in a way others would pick up on, or otherwise make his suspicions known, but he doesn’t.

First of all, is this exchange:

Nakamori: Why are you guys here? Aoko: Hakuba-kun invited us! Nakamori: What’s the meaning of this, Hakuba-kun? Saguru: I thought she might like to see if KID is arrested tonight. Nakamori: You’ll fail if you’re too cocky! Saguru: We’re well-prepared. Besides, who knows… KID may already be here.

Saguru does imply KID could be present, but he makes no indication that he means Kaito. His next opportunity to hint at Kaito being KID or otherwise make accusations is when Nakamori asks him to consult as a magician.

Nakamori: Kaito, since you’re here, do you want to use your magic against KID? Kaito: [laughing sheepishly] Saguru: Oh, I want to see that fight, too. If you really can do it.

Needling, yes. Saguru knows what he’s saying and so does Kaito. Accusations, no. This is well within the realm of something Saguru would have said even if he didn’t suspect Kaito, considering their dynamic up until this point.

And then, the most explicit Saguru ever gets in terms of literally calling Kaito out as being KID, beginning when Kaito excuses himself to go to the bathroom right before the heist:

[Second scene where Saguru makes direct indications as to KID’s identity]

Saguru: [handcuffs himself to Kaito] Kaito: Huh? Saguru: I won’t let you do that, Kuroba. Kaito: What do you think you’re doing?! Saguru: I got the report back from the lab. The hair I got from KID indicated that he’s a high school student. After I compared KID’s data with other high school students’ data in the database… Kuroba Kaito came up in the final list. Kaito: That’s a coincidence. Saguru: Really? We’ll see soon enough. Let’s wait until the time KID is stated to come. [Some heist hubbub occurs as officers get into position even though KID hasn’t arrived at the heist time] Aoko: What? KID’s not coming? Saguru: Ha! It looks like I win! You’d better confess who you really are.

And from there, of course, ‘KID’ (Akako in disguise) swoops in and takes care of the heist. That more or less wraps up chapter 17, the first chapter where Saguru understands that Kaito is KID. And I would argue this is the most aggressive Saguru ever is. In fact, rather than persist in trying to accuse/capture/implicate Kaito as KID, he straight up vanishes from the narrative for several chapters.

Saguru doesn’t show up again until the Chat Noir heist, in chapter 25, when he calls from France.

It’s also important to note that at this point, Magic Kaito’s narrative has experienced a slight tonal shift. At the very least, while still often comedic, it reads less like a gag manga. Between the last time we saw Saguru and now, we’ve learned the apparent motivation behind Toichi’s murder, we’ve met Snake (an albeit rather incompetent villain) and Kaito has faced down gunfire and the danger posed by Snake and his men.

The way Saguru is portrayed has also shifted to reflect the shift too. Instead of a hulking antagonist-like character in a Holmes cosplay, he’s dressed primly and presents more as a cheeky but polite character. He’s also more effectively emulating the charm that the story tried to imply he had early on (“Hakuba Saguru, at your service!”, the girls in class fawning over him, the newspaper calling him out as a famous detective making a long-awaited return to Japan).

The interaction is entirely less antagonistic, too. For reference, I’ll paste the exchange (sans Saguru’s massive info dump) below.

[Third scene where Saguru makes direct indications as to KID’s identity]

[At the heist for the golden eye] Kaito: [Hiding in a bathroom stall while putting on a disguise] [His phone starts ringing] Hello…? Saguru: Hi, it’s been a while. Are you still alive? Kaito: [Thinking] This sugary yet obnoxious tone of voice is... Hakuba?! Saguru: You’ve made quite the stir in Paris. They’re all talking about how France’s Chat Noir is going to go up against you in Japan. Kaito: Idiot! It’s not me. It’s Kaitou KID! Saguru: Ha… it doesn’t really matter. I’ll share some information that I gathered over here. [Info dump cut from dialogue] Well! That’s about all I have to say. Do your best. I don’t want to see you lose to anyone until I capture you myself. Kaito: Like I’ve been saying, I’m not KID! Saguru: Oops, it’s almost time for the Paris Fashion Week. See you! Kaito: H-hey…

The only part of this conversation that I could consider to fall into the territory of antagonistic is when Saguru says “I don’t want to see you lose to anyone until I capture you myself.” And more than anything, I think this is less reflective of a real desire to capture Kaito, and more reflective of his competitive nature. Not to mention, within the context of the conversation, it feels much more like teasing than anything.

Saguru’s motivation for making the call is clear: He doesn’t want Kaito to lose, and he wants to help ensure Kaito’s success.

And most interestingly (although I’d like to see the raw manga to confirm this, or otherwise a more literal translation) he never explicitly calls Kaito KID either. Outside of alluding to KID’s actions, Saguru doesn’t explicitly say Kaito is KID or mention KID at all. It’s Kaito who does that.

When Kaito points out that he is not, in fact, KID, Saguru doesn’t argue. He simply brushes off the denial and shares the information he’s collected.

So, to summarize what we’ve covered so far: after Saguru failed to arrest Kaito during chapter 17, he stopped troubling Kaito so thoroughly that the next time he features in the story isn’t until he’s calling from overseas to try to lend Kaito some helpful information. He’s not even playing a part in trying to capture this thief he allegedly wants to catch.

And then, Saguru dips back out of the narrative, although for a shorter period this time. The next arc he appears in is a few chapters later--the Nightmare Heist which he arrives in the middle of. But, there’s not any interaction between him and Kaito, nor any allusions made by Saguru about KID’s identity, so we’ll move on.

The fourth time Saguru makes any indication that Kaito is KID is during the Corbeau arc, when KID is being challenged by a clad-in-black KID lookalike.

Before jumping into that specific scene, though, there’s another interaction I’d like to call attention to--between Saguru and Nakamori. Not because of something Saguru says, but because of what he doesn’t say.

Nakamori: Hahaha! Looks like you let your guard down because you thought I was at home with a cold! Saguru: Our plan succeeded, it seems. Nakamori: But I only told Aoko I had a cold, so how does KID know…? Saguru: Hm...

If Saguru were wanting to make some kind of accusation, even a non-explicit one, he would have made some remark. Instead, he doesn’t say anything at all, which continues to speak to the fact that he isn’t really interested in implicating Kaito.

Anyway, the next time Saguru makes any sort of implication that Kaito is KID he is, once again, trying to help. Last time it was over the phone, so the conversation was private. This time, the conversation is in a classroom, although based on the panels, it seems like Saguru and Kaito are alone at the beginning--or at least, no attention is being paid to them.

[Fourth scene where Saguru makes direct indications as to KID’s identity]

Kaito: [Talking to himself] It must be the case, there’s no other way. There must have been some trick with the case.

Saguru: [Eavesdropping, apparently alone in the room with him] The case didn’t contain any hidden mechanisms. Kaito: Eh? Saguru: No hidden doors or things like that, as are often used in magic tricks. Kaito: W-what on earth are you talking about? Saguru: A new notice from Corbeau arrived this morning. ‘I’ll come and take the real Midnight Crow tonight.’ My name is Hakuba--so I don’t want a ‘white’ person to lose to some ominous black crow. [From here, Akako and then Aoko jump into the conversation.]

Surely a classroom is a risky place to have a conversation about KID, but the nice thing is that Saguru--once again--doesn’t bring up KID at all beyond saying that he doesn’t want the ‘white[-clad] person’ to lose to the black crow. From the outside looking in, all he’s doing is sharing information about the case with Kaito. It may also seem unwarranted from that perspective, but not at all implicating.

Also, another thing I’d like to call attention to is that when Akako joins the conversation (and seemingly blindsides Saguru, as if he wasn’t expecting anyone else to join), Saguru stops talking. He continues to be quiet when Aoko chimes in, and he doesn’t have any relevant dialogue for the rest of the scene.

Once again, Saguru’s clearly motivated to share information in the interest of helping Kaito. He has to share with Kaito’s civilian identity, since he can’t exactly arrange a conversation with KID, and this is likely the easiest way for him to do it. He makes no accusations, and this time he doesn’t even imply he wants KID caught.

So--Saguru is a part of the narrative again, but since rejoining the narrative he seems less interested in actually catching KID and far more interested in helping Kaito. And no accusations or incriminating allusions have been made since chapter 17, before Saguru’s first hiatus from the story.

The final time Saguru nods to Kaito being KID is from the Sun Halo arc. This is probably the interaction that’s closest to what fanon tends to depict when it comes to Saguru making subtle accusations that Kaito is KID. And even then, I tend to take this arc with a grain of salt if only because it felt less like Gosho was trying to add to the story and more like he was just trying to make a Magic Kaito addition that hit various fan expectations while still being wildly disappointing, lmao.

[Fifth scene where Saguru makes direct indications as to KID’s identity]

Saguru: [approaching and commenting on Kaito’s motorcycle] I see, a Suzuki GSX 250R. Akako: Ah, Hakuba-kun… Saguru: You’ve shown me something interesting. Perhaps this might help the police tonight. And could it be that you’ve forgotten… that the only motorised bikes we’re allowed to ride to school are scooters? Kaito: Eh?! For real?!

Once again, Saguru doesn’t explicitly mention KID at all--and segues from his mention of the police to pointing out that Kaito is breaking the rules right now, actually, which helps blend this teasing comment into the conversation.

Yes, later in the chapter Saguru does show up with a team of motorcycle experts. But that also means there’s more disguise opportunities for KID and more factors to account for, thus complicating things for, well, everyone--not just KID.

Also, I tend to dismiss that as Gosho throwing in some comedy, and as less to do with Saguru’s character. Call it cherrypicking if you like :P

To recount--there are five times where Saguru implies Kaito is KID.

The first two are in chapter 17, when Saguru first puts it together, and it is during this chapter that he gets the most explicit about calling Kaito out as KID, as well as the most aggressively he behaves about it. And he backs off so hard after that doesn’t work, that we don’t see him for several chapters.

The next two times he implies Kaito is KID are both in order to help him. No aggression or accusations, just the sharing of information. Even when teasing or suggesting he’s interested in catching KID, he’s good-natured about it, and when he realizes there are potentially people witnessing the conversation, he stops participating.

The final time he implies Kaito is KID is a tiny comment about finding something Kaito has shown him ‘interesting’ and ‘helpful for the police’ before smoothing into gently teasing Kaito for bringing an illegal vehicle to school.

In conclusion, Saguru may start off apparently aggressive in part thanks to early Magic Kaito’s overall tone, but rather than persevering in trying to catch Kaito after cornering him in chapter 17, he actually seems to back off. Once he’s playing a part in the narrative again, when he interacts with Kaito it’s almost exclusively to help him. Yes, he is on the task force and participating at heists, but where it matters, he’s less interested in catching the thief and far more interested in those the thief is opposing (excluding the police force).

[raamitsu]

HOLY MF SHIT-

Finally! I was able to successfully finished reading this theory. Fr it was sucha long ass one and I wasn't sure whether I could be able to finish it. Therefore, I'll try my best to shorten everything I wanted to say or maybe not

I actually loved the idea of someone tackling the smallest yet essential topic such as Nickname(s). It have always been obvious that it plays a major part in our life. We also tend to give ourselves one or a few. Just like a human with different sides + persona, nicknames function the same way. In fact, it is like a switch button to adjust our entire personality according to our surroundings, mostly probably the case.

I made a tweet that touched the same topic last July. To simplify, nickname is a "mask" that covers the real identity of ourselves, thus its existence itself is not real.

Manjiro is a real human while Mikey is a persona. He first created it because he overheard Shinichiro’s conversation with their grandpa and he talked about making Emma happy, so he decided to have a nickname just to make Emma feel comfortable. Since then, “Mikey” has become a safe place for her.

Skipped thru the amazing analysis towards Mikey and everything, however, just like any other TR fans who read the theory, I also unable to agree with the theorist regarding Shinichiro. Let me reassure you guys that Shinichiro is not a real person, therefore spamming OP with negativism and slanders thru DM/ask is an absolute childish and immature. If you wish to express disagreement, please do it with manners.

This could be a collective agreement that the only thing in the manga canon where we become so frustrated and impatient is the way we lack of Shin’s POVs. Similar to what OP mentioned in the theory, we only saw a glimpse of him and his little background story, but the fact that he even appeared in some of the character’s POVs proved that he was more than just a huge influence. There is no POV that were stated or shown in the manga depicted him as a bad guy. Not even once, and yes we all could collectively agree that he is not a perfect brother and he will never be. Why? Just like the question itself, “He’s a good guy but leading a gang?” Well, that’s nothing new. We have a whole dumb, pathetic but kindhearted dude named Takemichi as the ONLY parallel to Shinichiro, just like some of the characters claimed him to be. Takemichi even made it this far as Toman’s 2nd Gen President. Their characterization were explicitly made to be both weak at fight and love, but executing a strong aura of leadership and “never-give-up” attitude, so that should be enough evidences already. Let’s say Shin really was a bad guy, why he was in Mikey’s mind when he’s about to jump off the building? If he’s the type to make a character’s whole existence feels shitty or unimportant, that would have been obvious in the beginning but he didn’t. Wakui would have hinted any displeased expressions or reactions on any characters that have a close relationship with him, but he didn’t. Characters that mentioned his name always has a connotation of respect towards him and that’s because he’s a prominent delinquent and the most respected figure back in his days, until now he was still a very impactful character for some others, for example: Inupi.

Mikey, Draken, Baji, Emma, Inupi, even Izana, as one of the antagonists in the manga series, adored him dearly. Such theory are not sitting right with me but I still do respect OP’s efforts for other amazing analysis. I’d like to add some more regarding Shin; There are multiple official arts from Wakui himself that whenever he drew him, he often showed Shin’s soft side with his siblings. There is no single hidden hint towards anything creepy or mysterious at him. Wakui might be intending to save the best for last so let’s hope that we’ll get Mikey’s POVs. who knows we could see more of Shin in it?

There are another two POVs we’re looking forward; Haruchiyo and Hanma’s. Hopefully we’ll get them all since theirs are important too.

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

               『朧』Commemorative release event  【Toshiya】  2021.7.25

                                           Translation&Notes  Part-1

Notes before reading: This is 1st part of the translation/notes of the Toshiya solo online event for the release of “Oboro” streamed on 25th July.  This part is aprox the first 18-20 min of the 45 min total of the talk. 

Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistakes or any confusing parts. Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated ------

Part 1 

Higuchi Yasuyuki : Hello everyone, this is Toshiya’s Oboro Release Commemorative Event….thank you for watching us….I’m Higuchi Yasuyuki *to Toshiya* Thank you for being here….

Toshiya: Thank you for having me….

H: How is it going?

Toshiya: It’s hot, isn’t it?

H: It is….for real….I want to drink a beer….

Toshiya: That’s right…something very cold and light,right?….

H. says that comments are already appearing on the screen so, they are going to proceed with the talk little by little (he means  people are already watching, as they are already commenting)

H: I met you last year in person because of an article for a magazine *Toshiya nods* We took several pictures and so…. T: Yes, it was for [PHY], right? *Toshiya’s interview featured in PHY【ファイ】VOL.14, you can read it here* H: Yes, that’s it.  After that, unexpectedly, Corona happened and I have interviewed you several times remotely. T: That’s right. H: Are you doing well? T: Yes, I’m doing well…. H: Did something change about your physical condition/health? T: My physical condition…. somehow…. I’d say I lost some weight…. H: Did you lose weight? How? T: I did nothing at all, it was naturally… H: Naturally? Losing weight naturally…. I’m jealous…. T: Well…. somehow…. due to the state of emergency declaration…. I couldn’t go to the gym…. I guess I lost some weight because of that…. H: Because you are losing muscle mass…. T: Maybe I lost some…. Like, somehow, I became a mere shadow of myself *laughs* H: You are burning out…but usually if you don't go to the gym, you will naturally gain weight, right? T: Well, somehow because of the muscle mass loss, I lost weight…. H: I’m jealous of your physical constitution… T: If I don’t go to the gym, I will lose weight…. H: I’m still jealous though…. that’s it….so, this event  will be like a talk event, just like the one we had more or less a year ago… T: Yes, at that place…. H: At Minatomirai…. T: In Yokohama…. H:  The five of you were men in black*…. *This might be a reference to “ Detective Conan“, a Japanese manga series, in which  the primary antagonists of the series is a crime syndicate called the Black Organization. T: It was like   it was the first time that the five of us were in a situation like that... talking on the spot face to face…..*smiles* H: *sighs* It was hell…. T: *laughs* Wasn’t it? H: You were really nervous…. T: Dir en grey can’t talk when the five of us get together….

H: Since when does it feel that way? T: I wonder since when…. I don’t know that… H: But it wasn’t like that from the beginning…. T: But I don’t feel we were that talkative either…. more like…. it’s moments of “who is going to talk first”, “no one is talking now” going on…. H: It’s like you are probing each other…. like” you, talk!”, the atmosphere/mood is amazing…. *laughs* T: *Laughs* It’s like that…. H: Like you don’t answer anything unless you are addressed by your name…. T: It’s like that, it’s like that…. it’s true…. H: I wonder if these five people have meetings in the same way…. T: When it comes to who is going to talk or not, I’m just like “no” …..I feel like relying on others for that…. H: But it’s a band that has been around for a long time, still you all are like “who is going to talk first”…. T: That’s true…it’s like, if someone wants to talk, I’m sure they are going to talk if  they want to….those who want to talk, will talk….

H: Is there any occasion with the members in which you have talked face to face for a long time?  More or less recent…. T: I have no memory of that….*laughs* Higuchi burst into laugh. T: I have no memory of that…. H: That’s amazing… T: That’s right…. it’s amazing…. H: It would be troublesome if suddenly, you are forcibly in such a situation…. T: It would be….it would be troublesome…like…that’s impossible…. H: Impossible *laughs* T: That’s right….I can’t see it happening… H: You can’t…..someday, I would like to do something like that…. T: No way… H: *Laughs* It’s been a year since that event, it’s been already a year but, what kind of things you have been doing?  Do you remember? What were you doing? T: Now I’m solely making songs…I did preproduction stuff….what else?....when there was a live….or more like, when a live was scheduled we did rehearsals….the lives couldn’t be held but we did rehearsals for them… H: Then, it’s like you were preparing yourself for those activities….. T: It was like “let’s put my efforts into something” all the time…. H: It doesn’t seem like it was hard for you to keep being motivated…. T: Until we did the recording of the Rock-May-Kan GIG, nothing changed in me. I was so surprised/shocked because of that…. H: At the time of the Rock-May-Kan GIG…. T: At that time, I feel for the first time a sense of crisis…. that if it keeps going like this, I will not be able to express the things I wanted to. H: It was like a growth/revelation…. T: That’s it…. H: You got a different perspective… T: That’s it…for me….of course I was playing a live….it’s like the mental image of working in bringing together all the feelings into that environment but…. then, among that,  as there are also parts in which I’m rather a person that expresses themselves than a bassist, in my mind, I’m holding an instrument called “bass”, it’s a bass but I have to play without being trapped by it….

H: You mean not being limited by it…. T: I’m very conscious of that…. that’s right….Both of my hands are blocked/occupied but there (at a live), a way of expression is created by myself. I wonder myself if it is this way. For example, people who attended lives told me they had their eyes drawn towards something. I wonder if it is really like that. Like, an atmosphere that it’s created when I’m playing bass. I wonder if they can perceive that because I can express those things…. That kind of power of expression. Even if I did it (at  Rock-May-Kan GIG) as nothing changed, I didn’t feel that….somehow, it’s natural that it feels this way, I thought at the moment “this is bad/problematic) H: However, it was good that you could do a live (with audience) after that…. T: Of course, of course…that’s right, but isn’t being able to do lives something common/natural? Shouldn’t it be the norm? H: Last year around this time, it was the event at Minatomirai, you looked happy with the idea of staying at home…. T: Even now I’m comfortable with that idea…. *they both laugh* I’m pleased with being at home… H: Are you basically mostly at home? Do you like that? T: No, that’s not the case. Somehow, I wonder if I prefer to be at home and have a fun private life….I wonder if I like being at home to have that fun private life…. H: I’m not sure of what the fans think about this but for me, among the five members, the person whose private life is the most mysterious is yours. Things like “in what position does he watch television?” …. T: *Laughs* I see… H: Or “What kind of clothes does he wear when he goes to sleep?”….I can imagine that about the other members but I don’t feel that your daily life is the one I can’t imagine the most.... T: Well, it’s a normal one, just that…..if you all are interested…. H: I’m interested! T: Things I did or say are quite uninteresting but there are many….that are easy to be used to make conversation…. H: I want to make conversation…. T: It’s ok, I’m grateful *laughs* H: Then it’s not like you don’t go out so much…. T: Of course, I have a very normal daily life…. H: Especially now because of Corona…. T: But I go often want to go out for a walk…. H: *surprised* Eh? for a walk? Do you go for a walk like this?*points at him* T: *drinks water* Mmm, well I go for a walk…. H: Don’t you stand out? T: No, not much.  Like no one speaks to me… H: Relatively, you don’t have the feeling of that (of standing out) …. T: *Laughs* There is no sign of that…. H: What are you saying? *laughs* … You don’t feel like that at all….you go on a normal walk… T: I do….

H: Do you have any specific timing in which you feel like walking? T: When it’s still cold in the morning…. recently in the evening… ---- H: I see…. It seems that you spent a lot of time working in a room but with that feeling, I think we should talk about the release we are commemorating today.  This song was one of the many you were doing at that time, right? For you, this song looked as it was going to be selected as a single for sure, you said it yourself… T: That’s right. It's a bit ballad-like and I thought that kind of song hasn’t been released as a single recently. In that sense, it felt really nice to listen and after all, we got asked by the company to make a song that was easy to listen to….it seemed like even if it didn’t become single, it would be a song that would be included in the album… H: You were thinking about this song as a part of the next album…. T: When we decided to make a single of this song….of course I thought there was no problem at all with it being a single but, still saving it for the album would had been a nice “hook” for the album…. H: Maybe the direction of the next album would still be more unclear if this song were kept for it? T: Still, I think it would be ok to just change if we needed to. Nowadays we still don’t know about the direction of the next album though.

[violetlunette]

Okay, I’m planning to do a LOT of BNHA posts once the manga is finished, so to get ready, I’m going to read through every chapter and post my thoughts. This is to refresh my memory and to create reference sheets I'll need in the future.

I’ll admit I’ve been putting this off because I hate recent chapters so much, (so, so much) but as soon as I started re-reading I remembered how much I actually liked the early chapters and why I was pulled into the story right away, so let’s get into that.

Trigger Warning;

*Bullying (Not very graphic) *Suicide Baiting

Okay, so basic summary for those who haven’t read this chapter in a long time;

Izuku Midoriya lives in a world where superpowers are the norm and “heroes” is now a career in which a person will use their special powers—or quirk—to fight against people who use their quirks to harm others or commit crimes. The heroes seem to do a good job in keeping the peace and are admired by the people. Everyone wants to be a hero, even young Izuku. The problem is that unlike literally everyone else in the world Izuku was born without a quirk and is literally powerless—or quirkless as people like him are deemed. Because of this Izuku is bullied by others, the most violent being his “childhood friend” Bakugou. After a terrible day of being ridiculed and bullied, Izuku is attacked and nearly killed by a villain. Fortunately, he is not only saved by a hero but by the Number 1 hero in Japan (and possibly the world) All Might. As All Might is leaving with the captured villain, however, Izuku grabs him. This results in not only the villain being lost, but Izuku learning one of All Might’s secrets. Apparently, All Might has a 3 hr time limit in his hero form, all of which he used up that day. Izuku asks All Might if a quirkless could be a hero, but All Might regretfully explains that he doesn’t think so. Heartbroken, Izuku starts to go home but sees that Bakugou has been captured by the same villain that nearly killed him earlier. Despite the abuse he endured over the years from the bully and being scared, Izuku rushes forward to try and save him. This action inspires All Might to overcome his timelimit and rescue them both. Later, as Izuku is walking away, All Might appears before him. He takes back what he said earlier tells Izuku that he believes the boy CAN become a hero.

Honestly, I pretty much like everything here. This is a great opening chapter. It establishes from page one what kind of person our main character is.

Izuku is someone who has a heroic spirit, and he’s willing to stand up for others even when he knows he’s outmatched. The thing is that despite his desire to save and defend, Izuku is literally powerless in a world where everyone has powers.

We see all this on the first few pages;

This is the first image we see of Izuku; he’s protecting someone who’s been hurt to the point of tears. He's terrified to the point of shaking as he knows Bakugou and company are gonna hurt him (and they do).

Speaking of which, let’s touch on Bakugou—I love him in this chapter. 

(BNHA Fans: LE GASP!)

Yeah, I said it. Yes, I love Bakugou at his worst. (Before the people who follow me for my Bakagou hot takes call me traitor, hear me out.)

I think Bakagou is a good antagonist and opposite to Izuku here. Unlike Izuku, Bakugou was blessed with power but uses it for his own benefit. Which makes sense; he’s a spoiled child who was never scolded for his actions. I also like how unapologetic he was as an asshole he was here. He makes it clear from the get-go that he is all about his ego

--and how he reacts to anyone who challenges it.

I was pulled in and wanted to see how he goes from an asshole to a "worthy rival" character later. (More on that later… sigh.) Most of all, his terrible actions are framed as being bad. Here, they are NOT excused, waved off, glorified, or used to woobify him. He’s not framed as a poor misunderstood soul who needs the power of friendship to save him, he’s framed as an antagonist, especially to Izuku. The way the scenes are drawn, Izuku's reactions--never underestimate the small stuff, they matter more than you think. But that's something I need to study more before I can properly explain.

Oh, and on to everyone's "favorite" part-- the suicide baiting scene. Everyone hates it--for good reason--but in the spirit of fairness, I can understand why it’s there. It also shows how utterly alone and powerless Izuku is in the world, especially against Bakugou. 

Just look at the scene;

Bakugou’s saying it casually but Izuku’s panel shows the effect of those words. Now look at his response;

Izuku is angry, he knows Bakugou went too far and is about to say something, but--

Bakugou threatens him into silence with his quirk, a quirk we’ve seen that’s hurt Izuku and scares him. Even though Izuku wants to say something he can't. He's scared of Bakugou and his quirk and knows he can't fight back. Worse, Bakugou knows that as well. Just look at this panel;

It’s a small panel but it shows something very important--Izuku is alone. No one is there to support him, no is there to protect him, there is no one there for him. He is alone and helpless, and that helplessness makes him frustrated to the point of near tears. But he can’t do anything about it, even when the other is wrong--and he knows it--he can’t. All he can do is grumble about it later as he fishes out his hero notebook.

(I can’t speak for others, but I understand that feeling very well. This scene is probably what caused me to click with Izuku.)

All this sets the overlaying conflict that Izuku wants to fight back and defend himself, but can't. Maybe the baiting it was a step too far, but despite mixed feelings about it, I think it works to make us sympathetic towards Izuku. (Possibly it works TOO well.) I also think it works to show how noble Izuku is when rescuing Bakugou later. Speaking of--

I’ve seen people say that anyone could have been captured by the Sludge villain, and the story would have progressed the same, but I disagree. This scene wouldn't have nearly been as strong if Bakugou wasn't the hostage.

First off, Bakugou getting caught feeds into his arc later. Second, it showed the audience Izuku's moral integrity. 

Bakugou has been beating Izuku up since the former got his quirk and belittled him before that. He is the main antagonist in Izuku’s life to this point. Hell, on that very day—just a few hours before—Bakugou destroyed Izuku’s notebook and told Izuku to kill himself.

Also, this is the same villain who nearly killed Izuku less than an hour before.

The boy is clearly scared as he recalls his pain and fear from the attack, not to mention his near death.

The wounds are still fresh from both events, and he thinks about both. But Izuku doesn’t care about any of that--

All he cares is that someone is scared and needs someone to help him.

This proves to the audience that Izuku has what it takes to be a hero as he’s willing to forego his personal grudges to do what’s right.

THAT is why it had to be Bakugou Izuku saved. Yes, he could have saved anyone else but it wouldn’t have been as meaningful.

I also like how the event really shakes Bakugou up. In any other manga he’d apologize and the two would become best buds from then on (like in Yugioh). But nope.

Here, he’s angry and furious, not just at Izuku, but himself. He hates that he was so weak that he had to not only saved by a quirkless, but by someone who had no obligation to save him. Its kind of an interesting take, especially since we now know how insecure Izuku’s noble spirit makes Bakugou feel. (I’ll tackle this in a later post.)

But enough about Bakugou, let’s move on to one of the best characters in the series, All Might.

I’ve talked about the scene where he tells Izuku that he doesn’t believe a quirkless could be a hero, but I want to say how much I love All Might when he shifts to “Yagi” for the first time. It’s a bit sad but he feels—for lack of a better word—genuine. He’s honest, forward, and kind. Yagi knows he’s hurting Izuku, but you can tell that he feels pain in doing so. It’s like telling a kid that someone they care about is dead, and won’t come back. It’s heartbreaking but it has to be done (from his perspective). All Might could have just said, “no because the villains vary in power, and you’ll get killed.” But instead, he shows Izuku his wound--

--demonstrating that even he—the #1 hero with all his power—met a foe that nearly killed him. Yagi even admits that the only reason he smiles all the time is to hide the overwhelming fear he has every day. All Might didn’t have to say any of that, but he felt that if he was going to destroy someone’s dream he needed to be honest. This was probably the first time in years he allowed himself to be so vulnerable to anyone, which he did to show Izuku that he wasn’t just trying to be cruel.

The introduction between these two was so strong, but it had to be to create the best dynamic in the story—In my opinion, at least.

I really liked how we get to see how Izuku inspires All Might. He was willing to stand back and nothing with the rest of the crowd--

--until Izuku rushed forward.

This inspired him into action and just brings a whole new life to his demeanor (more on that in chapter2). He’s laughing and smiling genuinely--before coughing blood--

—I just love it and him! X3

Chapter 1 also establishes the flaws of the hero system. One issue is that the job of a hero is a bit of a popularity contest and other heroes are looking to steal others’ “captures.”

Like in an RPG game where you spend all this effort to defeat a villain, and then at the final moment someone steals your kill and gets the exp and loot.

(This image has nothing to do with anything, I really like Mt. Lady’s design. I think she’s cute.)

This brings me to the next flaw; how criminals and villains are placed in the same category despite there being a few steps between them. I mean purse-snatching is bad, but not “evil incarnated level.”

(Seriously, Kamui Woods, how sheltered are you?)

But the biggest is its effects on the civilians. Everyone is clearly embedded with the idea of “just sit back and enjoy the show as the heroes handle it.”

Now, in theory, this is a good idea as you don’t want people tangling with villains as that inspires vigilantism and gang fights but it’s created a severe case of bystander syndrome.

Remember that scene where Bakugou makes Izuku’s desk explode--

--and then backs him against a wall?

Yeah, all that happened in front of a TEACHER. And he didn’t say one word, not even a “sit down Bakugou” or “that’s enough, Bakugou.”

(Asshole, stop throwing around important career forms and DO SOMETHING. Especially since YOU singled him out in the first place.)

This especially awfully, as later in the series we see that if he had said some Bakugou would have obeyed. Despite his bombastic personality, he does respect authority, if I remember correctly (don’t quote me just yet though).

Then later when Bakugou’s been captured by a villain, only the heroes care that a kid might die, the rest are just looking on in excitement as if watching a stage show.

Again, more on this later in the series.

Oh! Nearly forgot, but I kinda like that the world's first introduction to superpowers was a glowworm baby.

A little young to be flashing a nurse kid! Hee, hee, I regret nothing!

I dunno why, but I thought it was cute. There's also a metaphor about a "bright future" here, I'm sure.

All in all, I love this chapter. It introduced the main character, and the type of person he was, the "rivalry" dynamic between him and Bakugou, the world, and the meeting of All Might and Deku was just amazing.

But this is only the first step in the manga re-read! Feel free to share your thoughts as well. I'm curious what others think about it. Do you think this was a good intro to the world and story, or a bad one?

[lunaekalenda]

Hi hi hi!! Loving your recent post sis :DDD I’m kinda new to your blog but im loving it so far especially your theme<33

May I ask if the movie event is still open? If yes can I join please? ^^

Maybe 💖🏠🚗 (romance, neighbors and modern!au with Eren Jaeger<33) I got this idea from taylor swift’s song “You belong with me” (this time im gonna change it a little) l do adore this song sm since a year ago! I just find this heartwarming and gives me 🦋🦋🦋 whenever I imagine it:)) I’d imagine myself as a florist on this one instead of yk- a normal student just going to school.. rlly cliché,, I mean I want to be at least a little different. LIKE A STUDENT BUT AT THE SAME TIME SHE’S WORKING AS A FLORIST and then eren would be the neighbour😩 and then you decide how we would met:)) (idk if i said that right, but let me tell u im rlly bad at explaining stuff), for example my mom opened her flower shop and i’m somehow part of it since i’d be helping her arranging the flowers and stuffs! I know it’s a little confusing but im trying my best to explain it😅😅 I APOLOGIZE FOR MY EXPLAINING IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN WELL im bad at it :’) AND IDK IF THIS MADE SENSE BUT YEAH😭

Have a great day or night!! <33

of course! i really hope you like it and thanks for participating honey! <3

romance + neighbors + modern au feat Eren Jaeger

inspired by you belong with me by taylor swift.

It was so late at night. You sigh, leaving the keys of the flower shop in the entrance table. You walk towards your room, your shoes in the entrance, feeling the soft carpet of your room on your bare feet. You sit on your bed, your curtains open, letting you see the window in front of yours. That’s Eren’s room.

You’ve known Eren since the two of you are kids. He moved to the house next to yours, and his room’s window can be seen from your bedroom. Eren was shy at first, also capricious. You easily built a friendship with his sister, Mikasa, and they often invited you to have dinner. As you grew, he stopped to be a insupportable mum’s boy and started to be a sweet and warm-hearted guy, who always cared for you two as a big brother, but never been really close to you. You always wondered why.

Right now, he’s also on his bed, a manga between his hands. His messy bun is wet, so you suppose he has just came out of the shower. He looks through the window and finds your eyes. He takes his phone.

“what’s up weird neighbor that looks to my window?” a text can be read on your phone. You let out a little laugh. Taking your phone, you write a reply. His smile is illuminated by your text.

“i was wondering if my insufferable neighbor was home.” you see how he laughs before replying you.

“ding ding, today is your lucky day, i’m home and freshly showered just for you.”

Flirting jokes were a normal thing between you two. You smile and look at him, you can appreciate how he bites his lip. That's how close your windows are. If you open yours, he could enter your room without making a circus of it.

"let me doubt if you cleaned all your body or just wetted your hair." you say. When he was little and his mom told him to have a shower, it was a spectacle, because little Eren wanted to keep playing video games, so he just opened the water, wetted his hair and change his clothes, trying to make Carla believe he had a shower.

"oh. wanna see how clean i am?" he asks, following it a pervert emoji. You look at him again.

"you're an idiot. gonna block you." your message goes with an angry emoji this time. He laughs.

"then i'll appear in you room tonight." he points the window, remembering you how close it is to yours.

“you sounded like a horror movie antagonist.” you say.

“nah, not into horror.” he answers. Then, he leaves his phone and keeps reading. You enter the bathroom in your room, taking a towel and a pijama. You’re really tired, you have been in uni all morning and in the flower shop all afternoon. Your feet are screaming for a rest, and they deserve it. You enter your bathtub and let your feet relax on the hot water. You sigh.

Every time you talk with Eren, your heart shakes. It feels so good, but, at the same time, you know it would feel better if you two were closer. You can't force a relationship. You can't force someone to like you. But, well, sometimes things go well naturally. You sigh again. Also, your mom asked you to make some floral arrangements for a wedding, and you have to have them for tomorrow morning. It seems today will be a hard night.

You hate weddings. At least right now. 

Making a little corsage of white roses for the sizes of a kid wrist is difficult. But make 15 of those is literally like hell.

You have your light on, working on your desk, right in front of your window. It’s almost 2 A.M and you keep working on them. You have a big bouquet and all the bridesmaids’ corsages left to do. You want to cry.

That’s what happens when you procrastinate and leave all for the last day. That now you’re here.

But it isn’t time to get sad, you have to work. Petra, your client, deserves all of this. She always helped you on your homework when you were little. Also, she’s marring a guy who really loves her! You’re happy for them. You also want to share your day with someone who really loves you.

You sigh and kept working. you have to take out the flowers’ stem, then put a lot of little leaves and other green plants around, sew them quietly and adjust it to the band they’ll put around their wrist, making sure nothing will fall and everything is well placed. Your phone buzzes. A message.

“are you still awake?” Eren’s name shows on top of the message. You unlock your phone.

“yes, got some work left, and i need to finish it.” you look to the front. His room has, surprisingly, the curtains away. It’s totally dark except the faint light that enters from your room, and his phone. You delete the message.

“oh, sorry, i’m giving light to you. i’ll turn it off.”

“no. it’s not that.” he answers. You can see his half-naked body and his messy hair. He keeps writing.

“what are you doing awake so late?” he asks. you send a little message.

“working.” he frowns. His fingers are fast.

“working? what are you doing?” you answer quickly what you have left to do. He reads fast. “damn. that’s a lot of work, y/n”

“i know T.T” you see how him turns on his light. He gets up lazily and searches a sweater, that puts on. He leaves, going downstairs. “what are you doing, Eren?” you ask, but you see his phone on his bed. He comes back no long after, with a pack of chips and a couple juice packs. He opens his window, taking his phone.

“Eren?” you ask. He smiles. “What are you doing?” 

“Come and take this while I enter, please.” he asks you. You take the chips and the juices, and he enters using your window. 

“What the hell are you doing?” He takes a juice and gives it to you.

“I’m here to help. That’s an inhuman quantity of things. If we do it together, we’ll end really fast.”

You’re surprised. Has your neighbor just took juices and chips, crossed your window and talked as if it was the most normal thing ever? He sips juice from the straw quietly, looking at you. He smiles.

“Well, should we start then?”

You give him instructions on how to make it, and he gets it really fast. His hands move carefully between the flowers, and he sews with precision and softness. you’re looking how he does it, and he looks from the side how you look at him. You’re both sitting on your desk, working on flowers, looking to each other sneakily. It’s true that you two are faster now, so the little children corsages are done quick. You then start with the bridesmaids’ ones, they’re easier since you’re used to make them. Eren and you have a small talk while working, talking about trivial things. The six bridesmaids’ are finished really quick. There was just the big bouquet left.

“How are you planning on doing the bouquet?” Eren asks. He offers you chips and you take one.

“I don’t know.” your clock points 3 A.M. “Eren, it’s late, you should go to sleep...”

“I’m okay. I told you I was going to help you.” he winks. “Okay, take this.” he gives you a couple roses. “Also this.” now, some lilacs. “oh, and of course some lavenders.” He gives all to you. “Okay, get up and act as if it was your bouquet and you were the one getting married.” he tells. You get up.

Even in his wildest fantasies, he never thought an image of you taking a bridal bouquet would affect him so much. He’s trying his best to keep his mouth closed, but his eyes are shining. You look so beautiful, in your pijama, all bare-faced and your hair in a messy ponytail, taking a bouquet.

“What do you think, Eren?” you ask. He has been silent for a couple minutes, and you started to feel quite observed. Not the bouquet. You. Eren smiles.

“You look gorgeous.”

Damn.

What did he just say?

His cheeks start to blush and he thinks about repairing it saying just another silly thing, but he’s unable to speak. Because your surprised face makes it even more magical, as if he really gave you the bouquet. He likes you so much, and keeping it hidden for all that time was difficult.

“T-thanks, Eren. But, the bouquet...”

“It’s nice. Let’s do it.”

You work in an uncomfortable silence. He thinks if he should confess all or stay silent, and you try to calm your heart after hearing from him that you looked gorgeous. You want an explanation.

“See, when...” You both talk at the same time. You laugh. “Okay, you go first.” you say. Eren smiles.

“You looked really gorgeous.” he says, cutting the leaves for the bouquet. “You always look gorgeous but, damn, taking that bouquet in your arms and smiling to me... That was a critical hit.”

“Critical hit?” you asks. He nods, looking to the leftover white rose. He takes it and turns it around his fingers.

“Yes. You know, when you play a videogame...” You let out a little laugh.

“Eren, I know what a critical hit is. I was asking why.”

“Because you looked so beautiful with the flowers on your hands that I wouldn’t doubt to buy flowers for you everyday just to see you smile like that.” he says, all in one sentence. You look at him. He’s blushing. He’s so handsome like that, looking at the white rose. He puts it on your hand. “Yes, I... Well, liked you for a long time.”

You start to laugh, making him jump a little on his chair. He looks at you.

“Is it that bad?” he asks. You shake your head.

“Are you telling me that we both hide our feelings for nothing?” you ask. “You’re a dork, Eren Jaeger.” He looks at you, eyes wide open.

“Excuse me? You weren’t the one confessing, if I wasn’t here, we will be hiding all our lives.” he says back.

“You could have been faster, Jaeger.” you tease him, your body getting closer to his unconsciously.

“You could have been faster as well, y/s” he smiles. “Anyway, you take it? I have a long waiting list of people to go out with” he jokes, laughing after that. You laugh with him, his senses getting drunk with the sound. You look the white flower between your hands. A smile starts to take form on your lips.

“I definitely take it, Mr. Jaeger.” You get closer to him, maybe willing a kiss, but he points the clock.

“It’s late, let’s end this. We can’t lose more time, sinc...”

“Oh, shut up, Jaeger.” you take his hoodie and pull him closer to you, your lips covering his. You have waited so long to kiss him. His hands leave the flowers and find your cheeks. 

“If this is the way to shut me up, I will start talking about every single detail on all the Zelda games non-stop. And there are a lot.”

taglist: @lagrimasdeglitter <3

[tsutsumi-kaina]

Theory: AFO Gave Tomura Decay (Part 1)

This was initially posted on my main, but I rearranged/rewrote some parts that went off track and decided to repost it to my BNHA blog instead.

I wanted to talk about one of my favorite theories for a bit-- namely, the theory that AFO slipped Tenko “Decay” in an effort to facilitate Tenko’s descent into villainy. It’s a pretty popular theory, and one of the main arguments in favor of it (i.e. manga!Tenko was seen being escorted home by a man with AFO’s build and similarly atrocious fashion sense) has already been discussed to death-- so instead I’ll touch on points that I haven’t seen talked about as frequently, but still seem to hint at some foul play surrounding Tomura’s quirk.  

Warning: This post has spoilers for both the most recent chapters of MHA (up to ch. 316) as well as spoilers for Vigilantes (up to ch. 109).

1. The Itch

Putting this first because it’s often the point I see cited most frequently as evidence of Tenko being born with his quirk, while I personally feel it’s the biggest piece of evidence we have in favor of his quirk not being natural.

imo the idea that Tenko has some sort of autoimmune disorder that activated in response to having a quirk forced on him isn’t actually all that far-fetched-- because AFO himself  invites us to consider the medical implications of quirk transfers when he compares “quirk transplants” to organ transplants (which, by the way, are notorious for being rejected by a recipient even if they are a 100% match. Organ recipients usually have to take Antirejection meds that suppress their immune system for the rest of their lives-- b/c when left unsuppressed, the immune system will view the donor organ as an invading pathogen and will try to crazy murder it. That being said: One of the more benign signs of rejection after a liver or kidney transplantation is pruritis, a.k.a. severe itching).

Basically: Tenko’s body is trying to reject the unsuitable/transplanted quirk-- and it manifests as an allergic reaction which, like most immunity-related illnesses, gets worse when stressed.

Pictured: 50% Panic Attack 50% Shrimp Allergy

Another point in favor of this interpretation is that Decay seems to trigger something eerily similar anaphylaxis when it goes out of control. Tenko is suddenly unable to talk, his itch is the absolute worst that it's ever been, his eyes are visibly bloodshot, and he begins to audibly wheeze-- as if his throat is swelling up. Yes, hyperventilating can be a symptom of a panic attack (and he very much is having a massive panic attack on top of everything else that’s going on in this scene), but having your airways appear to constrict to the point where you are wheezing and can no longer talk is not. Let’s move on!

2. Decay’s first actual manifestation occurs during the --happiest-- moment of Tenko’s life: Right after finding out his grandma, Nana Shimura, was a hero.

This particular sequence always struck me as…. strange, to put it mildly. Like, really strange. It also blatantly contradicts the commonly accepted explanation for Tenko’s “itch.” 

“You have within you an impulse to destroy that even you can’t control. It’s bursting out of you, and the itching is your body letting you know.” - (AFO, chapter 237)

But if this is really the case, why do we see it first activating during what’s likely the happiest moment of Tenko’s life? If Decay is truly fueled by hate/anger and required sufficient hatred to build up before manifesting, then what exactly is fueling it during this scene and why did it activate at this specific moment? So let’s ask ourselves-- who, other than Kotaro, would be pissed off that little Tenko found out about Nana and wants to be just like her?

*jazz hands* This guuuuuy!

Let's assume that AFO was able to watch the Shimura family drama unfold from inside Tenko-- This would explain why decay suddenly activated after Tenko found out about Nana, despite Tenko being completely over the moon at the time.  Which brings us to our next point. 

3. The Unique Property of AFO's Vestiges (plural!)

The fact that Tomura has never seen a vestige is often  brought up as a point against the idea of Decay being someone else’s quirk-- however, we get a fairly probable explanation for why Tomura has never seen Decay’s vestige in the recent chapters of MHA: Vigilantes.

The main antagonist of Vigilantes, Number Six/Rokuro, is in possession of a quirk called “Overclock” that was gifted to him by AFO. Overclock initially belonged to the hero “o’Clock” before AFO stole it, and initially we’re led to believe that Rokuro is able to see o’Clock’s vestige.

Except, it turns out what he’s seeing isn’t o’Clock’s vestige at all.

What time is it? It’s AFo’Clock!

The above more or less implies that AFO’s vestige is A) Able to masquerade as the “original” vestige of any quirk that he steals (that, or he fuses with their vestige and then overwrites their personality completely with his own) and B) Exists as a pseudo-vestige in pretty much every quirk that he passes down (and there’s evidence of this in the core series, too-- AFO somehow knew of Nagant’s betrayal instantly and immediately activated the bomb quirk he snuck inside her despite his actual body being nowhere near her at the time.  Plus, AFO-Prime heavily implies that he is able to at least sense the actions/thoughts of TomurAFO to a certain degree, even before the prison break occurs). 

In other words, Tomura has never seen a vestige of Decay’s original owner because AFO literally saved over their vestige with his own. 

Additionally: If we're gonna vehemently insist that Decay 100% belongs to Tomura "bc no vestige!" we have to acknowledge that characters like Nagant and Machia never seem to see the original quirk owners in vestige form, either, despite possessing quirks that were gifted by AFO.

At any rate-- We can assume a pseudo AFO vestige present in stolen quirks isn’t nearly as strong as the vestige that’s present within the AFO quirk itself, which is why AFO can’t simply take over anyone that he gifts a quirk to. What the pseudo-vestige seemingly can do, however, is:

Possibly influence emotions/personality like the brain tumor he is (see: his whole monologue about organ transplants being able to influence tastes and personality, which implicitly means quirk transplants can do the same since he is explicitly drawing comparisons between the two)

Possibly force activate their quirks (see: Nagant’s bomb, and likely Tenko’s first incident of decay)

Monitor people from the inside and somehow relay things like their emotional state, situation, and location, back to Prime-AFO. 

Speaking of “monitoring situation/location”...

4. The Key To Heroics (And Villainy, Apparently) Is All About The Timing!

"AFO added you to Find My Friends! Let AFO see your location? :)"

Folks have already talked about how obviously orchestrated this scene is and how it points to AFO having played a part in the Shimura family tragedy, so we'll leave things at that and move on.

Continued in part two (link!)

[hiddleyheh]

I finished the movie for Totsukuni no Shoujo and

i am so normal mmm good movie

Rambles under cut, fair warning for spoilers and mentions dark topics

This is just gonna be me screaming and yelling so yea

While I wasn't expecting the movie to be a direct play-by-play of the manga, I didn't think it would go too dark

But it somehow did??? Like yes, the manga did have Shiva nearly killed by the king, but the movie straight up had a minor character end themself off screen which I was definitely not expecting

Overall, the movie was still lighter in terms of angst, thriller, and horror elements but was still able to to stay pretty faithful the characterizations and arcs that Shiva and Sensei went through in the manga.

The only major difference I noticed was how Sensei's yearning to hold and comfort Shiva was even further emphasized in the anime while the role of the Outsiders and Knights were lessened.

Shiva still witnesses a death first hand, Sensei still faces the dilemma of his past and accepting who he is now. Hell, there was even mentions of the Gods of Dark and Light in the movie, with Mother being an integral part of the ending.

That underlying fear of not belonging, to be transformed and warped into something far beyond your own recognition was present throughout the entire film. And the use of an uncertain and open-ended resolution (although different from the manga) is still present.

Being that the movie is a little longer than an hour, I'm not upset that the full dynamic and history is fleshed out between Sensei and Shiva, or major antagonists and side characters being given little to no screentime. Yes, I'm a little disappointed that Auntie didn't show up, but I see this more of a story that can be watched separately from the main series and still be enjoyed heavily.

OK STORY RAMBLE OVER IM GOING TO YELL ABOUT THE ANIMATION NOW

The animation style is absolutely stunning. Like. Just look at this:

Now imagine watching this move for an hour.

The watercolor-based coloring and textured line art fully encapsulates that child-like, dreamy feel. The entire time, I was getting nonstop waves of nostalgia because of how much it reminded me of picture books I used to read as a kid or kids shows I used to borrow on VHS tapes from the library.

And this is only the main art-style used. Multiple were utilized, and MAN were they used so well to emphasize the mood.

One of the other art styles used was a rough sketch on paper? I don't know how to explain it fully, but imagine rough gesture drawings on yellow post-it notes. It's only used twice in the film but MAN does it emphasize the panic and rush that Sensei was feeling to rush and save Shiva.

A slightly more abstract style that was more slightly based on either dry gouache or pastel was also used for its dream sequences.

Besides the art style itself, the transition from when a character is grounded to thinking/dreaming is made easy to read to the audience when it wants be easily read. The dreams carry really heavy symbolism and foreshadowing for what's to come. Shiva's "true" form even makes a brief appearance in one of them.

The only time that abstract style abruptly stops is near the end of the movie. And it is the one time you can't tell whether the sequence that had just happened was a dream or real, neither or both. It really helps build up to that open-ended interpretation of the end of the movie.

Framing was another absolute delight from the movie.

From the beginning, Shiva and Sensei and posed to be near and facing each other, side to side.

There is always a distance between the two and you know that both want to comfort and hold the other. This type of set up is also meant to have the audience associate the flatness of the framing with comfort and familiarity.

This is flipped when the dutch angle is used to introduce this scene:

You know something is up, besides the dangling clothes in trees.

There were also other great instances of composition. such as the time skip, the use of the door frame when Shiva was gifting Sensei the flower crown, and also this:

(The headless outsider my beloved)

To be honest, I was suprised that the Outsiders were less aggressive and antagonistic in the movie, but I'm not complaining. The Canines were especially cute with that little tidbit of Shiva leaving the bed sheet for them to play with.

I won't ramble about the minor symbolism in the story but MAN when I saw the white chrysanthemums I felt DREAD KSJFLSDF

This was a very enjoyable movie and I highly recommend to watch :]

[hunterartemisanime]

KnB Commentary: Kise Ryouta and the Curse of Being “Pretty Boy” in Shonen Anime

Cheerful, extroverted, happy-go-lucky and sunshine with a face, Kise Ryota is the screen ikemen in Kuroko no Basket. Although Kise is a cult favourite, but I think he is sometimes pushed aside with Momoi. In KnB people tend to focus more on the other GoMs rather than Kise. Here is my take on how Kise Ryota’s character and his types are scorned in Shonen Manga.

Shonen and Shojo manga revolve around two different dimensions: while shonen manga focuses on friendships, journeys and solid characteristic developments, shojo manga focuses generally on the romance parts, interpersonal relationships, appearance and struggles of the ordinary main character. Both manga lauds ordinariness and makes the ordinary extra-ordinary one just by showing that they have the possibility to be sublime. While Shojo manga greatly appreciates male beauty to the point of worship, Shonen sort of looks down on male beauty: anyone who identifies himself as good looking, or wants to be good looking is put down by others around him. Let’s see how Kise fell into the same trap.

Kise is introduced in the story in a very Shojo manga fashion. He is looked from the female point of view of Seirin’s girl students as he walks down the main pathway of the school. That piece of scene almost reminded me Takumi Usui entering school in Kaichou wa Maid Sama. From that point, wherever he goes he is greeted and surrounded by female population en large, much to the annoyance of his team members and opponents. Similar to the effect of “male gaze”, exists a “female gaze” which supposedly decides the desirability of a boy, especially in a high school setting. Kise, being handsome by the contemporary Japanese standards thus somewhat becomes the focus of the female gaze which makes males around him conscious and equally anxious. This phenomenon can be asserted with Momoi’s first encounter in the anime with Kuroko in Aida Gym pool. When Kuroko is hugged by a very beautiful and buxom Momoi Satsuki, the boys on his team lament: “I am so jealous of you Kuroko, hope you’ll die.” This was from a rather “harmless” and “normal” bunch of High School Basketballers, then just imagine how it effects the powerhouse boys with similar primal instinct and with greater ego. Thus Kise is treated with hot-and-cold attitude from males around him: be its his former teammates or current.

Kise is thus definitely an eligible bachelor and he surely knows it. However his self-awareness is without vanity or narcissistic edge. He is shown to be appreciative of female attention and not portray himself as a “playboy” or a “Scorer”; he is never addressed by anyone as “charan poran” (womanizer) in the series. This is a very contradictory attitude in Shonen anime. In shonen anime Male sexuality have very limited outlets: either one should be hyper-celibate and not pay attention to any organism marked as female, or one could be hyper-sexual to the point where they objectify the female form in a not so respectable manner--there is nothing in the Middle. In KnB Akashi, Kuroko and Midorima fall in the former end of spectrum while Haizaki Shogo and Aomine Daiki fall into the latter. Even dating and having girlfriend can make you the object of male scorn: in the anime Grand Blue, the department of Mechanical Engineer has a secret pact to stay single and when they find out that Iori Kitahara is living with Chisa (who is his cousin), they almost throw a violent fit. The male solidarity in Shonen thus ostricise the males who express appreciation in female company and show interest in courting and romance. Kise is snubbed in a similar manner for showing interest in a more feminine side. A same kind of snubbing was delivered to Hiroshi Fukuda of Seirin when he confessed on the rooftop that he wanted to get into the team for dating someone. In Free Momotarou Mikoshiba too, is either ridiculed or snubbed by his teammates for openly admitting to like Gou Matsuoka.

Out of all the Generation of Miracles characters, I think Kise is the most discriminated of all. His discrimination is the unsual kind: he is too important in the plotline to be comic relief like Takao and Izuki and he is too cheerful enough to be the bad boy. So what kind of discrimination does he face? He faces the discrimination for being good looking. Yes, there is a thing to be discriminated for being good looking. I also think Kise has been played within the character of being the “dumb blond”. He is portrayed as “pretty boy” and is expected to limit himself within it. His cheerful attitude is often met with cold shoulder and it is absolutely normalised within the storyline. Unlike other players who greet their rivals outside the courts with a broody attitude and slightly glaring eyes, Kise is the one who advocates “Yesterday’s rivals are today’s friends”. This is a very positive attitude to use in real life to keep the unhealthy competitiveness in check, but it is met with a scorn in the anime. It is shown as if being cheerful is the by-product of being good looking and the former should reflect the latter. This is perhaps the reason Kise’s playing style was completely sniped out of the scene from being “the best of all”. According to the society, a good looking person is just an eye-candy for anyone to drool over and if they have too much agency or talent people enviously comment “(s)he gets all that because of the looks”. It stems from the insecurity of one person having too much social power. The entire thing is very limiting. Kise is not only good-looking, he is acing his modelling career, a field which is highly demanding and taxing and at the same time he is doing well in basketball also in a nationally reputed school. These attributes somewhat gets overshadowed because he is somewhat only identified on screen for his looks. This fact is highlighted with his rivalry with Haizaki Shogo. Haizaki, instead of acknowledging Kise as a player, “marked his territory” by “boning” one of the girls claiming to be Kise’s girlfriend. 

Kise is very much aware of the fact that the swarming bunch of girls are intrinsic to his image, especially as a model and for this reason he tries to be respectful towards them. However, he does not identify the admiration of the fan-brigade with genuine affection. This is the core fact which Haizaki misinterprets about Kise that he derives power from the admiring fangirls. Haizaki despite being the antagonist is pretty much shares the similar prejudice with the people near Kise: that Kise Ryota begins and ends with looks and even his playing style “perfect copy” is less than original. But Kise is not the prejudices that surround him, he is affectionate, loyal and genuine with enough dedication to pursue what he loves. The ideal type of Kise : “a girl that won’t tie me down” says a lot about him. He is eager to meet someone who will respect him for who he actually is and not for his looks or fame. He too is someone who grew out of seeing the surface and judge to observe someone and understand---that is how he started to respect Kuroko at the first place. At the end, when he loses to Touou, he sheds the image of a “cool handsome boy” and cries like a baby in public; something his own captain Kasamatsu or his former teammate Midorima could not do. This shows a lot of courage and strength but also shows that expressing ugly emotions in a public can also be dignified and not necessarily be stripping to masculinity.

Tags

: @sidd-hit-my-butt-ham @yanderebakugo @kurokonbscenarios @kurokonobasket @kurokonoboisket @art-zites @idinaxye @sp-chernobyl @strawbe3ryshortcake @reservethemoon @rilnen @a-shy-potato @thirsthourdemon @animebxxch @edagawasatoru @akawaiishi-blog @reinyrei @chloe-noir @theswahn @ahobaka-trash @jeilliane @trashtoria  @scarlettedwardsposts @quirkydarling @ghostieswaifu @levihan-freaks @hope-im-spirited-away @yves0809 @marshiro1101 @bubziles @heartfullofknb @kit-kat57 @akichan-th