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[grandguignols]

i can’t stop thinking about th team leaders. especially fuya because like… in a narrative sense he got the short end of the stick. his “role” is to be an example to the wicked twisters, to show them what’s at stake, and to be the first “loss” without being a character the player has to… care about, necessarily. because it’s not about “ohh this character that we loved so much is dead,” it’s about establishing the stakes of the reaper’s game in-canon (not so much outside of that, though. especially if you’ve already played twewy.)

but also like… it’s not. impossible. for his death to also be a “this character that we liked died” moment, even if he’s absolutely not given any sort of depth or on-screen time as compared to motoi or kanon. because what neo twewy also does really well, i think, is that you sabotage the deep rivers society by…

fulfilling their final wishes!

which i don’t see talked about enough. maybe because it didn’t hit for other people like it did for me, but like. the reason the deep rivers society end up at the bottom of the barrel is because you, rindo, go back and time and make sure they can do all the things they wanted to before they got erased. they’ve already lost hope of getting out - see: the secret reports. it’s been more than 30 loops, it’s about survival. you help these guys go to an art exhibit they really wanted to see, see a lecturer they always wanted to listen to, etc.

and that’s the direct reason the wicked twisters don’t get erased, yes, but it’s also the direct reason the deep rivers society do get erased. because you encouraged them to do something they loved for the last time. and while that already makes me deeply sad, fuya didn’t get that. he just got a team that… didn’t show up when he needed them to.

and he got erased for it! after. over 210 days of the reaper’s game.

so. yeah. fuya kawahara, everyone.

[grandguignols]

Shiba Miyakaze: An Analysis

Shiba Miyakaze is an interesting character to me because I think his overall “redemption” was done very sloppily the first time around. You don’t actually get to see a lot of what he was like “before” Kubo apparently started manipulating him, only having what Shoka and the other Shinjuku reapers say about him as fact. Taken at face value, it’s hard to believe there was anything good about him at all, let alone enough to warrant going to such lengths to save him. It’s only in a second run through that more and more pieces of him become obvious, and it’s by putting together these pieces do you get a sense of what Shiba is like as a whole- and what became of him. So I will try my best to explain these aspects of Shiba as a general analysis of him, his personality, what became of him, and why it all happened. Spoilers will abound, obviously, so fair warning for that.

First off, there are 4 major pieces of information that the game gives us:

The hierarchy of reapers and angels, and the subsequent dehumanization that comes with going higher up the ranks

Shiba and Hishima being put forth as a direct parallel to Uzuki and Kariya

Shiba being stated to be a charismatic and social person who is deeply lonely during the course of the game

That Kubo, as an angel, has the ability to warp lower being’s ‘vibes’ just by being around them and Shiba was affected by this more than anyone else

First off, let’s talk about the hierarchy of angels and reapers. While it’s not information that’s directly relevant to Shiba himself, it will inform most of the context related to these other points. The secret reports in both the original game and NEO talk about how Players with strong Imaginations can become Reapers, who then go up the ranks to become Game Masters, then eventually Conductors, with some even getting to go up Higher Planes than that. The entire point of the Reaper’s Game is just that- to find the most “talented” and “capable” of the dead, and appoint them as caretakers and custodians of the UG, RG and beyond.

However, once you analyze both the original game and NEO, you’ll find that this hierarchy is also inversely related to a person’s humanity, ie, the further up you go, the more detached you become, and the less you see people beneath you as “human”. The original game’s Reapers were all what “ideal” Reapers were: they challenged players and tested them to their limits, but were also always in danger of being overthrown themselves. Even one of the lowest of the named Reapers, Uzuki, was blithely unconcerned with how she erased players, as that is simply part of her job description. And as you go further up the ranks to Higashizawa, Konishi, Sho then Megumi, you’ll find that they all get worse and worse.

NEO showcased the Reapers in a slightly more sympathetic light, because under Shinjuku rules they don’t HAVE to actually test humans directly. This is stated to be a bad thing in the Secret Reports, as it puts the Reaper hierarchy “at a total standstill”. Shinjuku rules in general are considered to be bad by Hanekoma (an Angel’s) standards, because it “neither encourages nor allows for personal growth or change.” But if you compare the Shinjuku Reapers and their relationship vs the Shibuya Reapers, you’ll find that the lack of such a dog-eat-dog setup actually allows them to be closer, to the point that Shoka considered them a family.

But even under Shinjuku rules, Reapers have jobs. A job that requires them to erase players and be fine with it. And the higher up you go, the more players you have to test, and the more players you have to erase. It’s a system that necessitates detachment and cruelty, and it can be seen most obviously in Shoka who had to ‘help’ Rindo and the others through sarcastic quips, cruel words and discouragement, while dealing with Rindo and the others calling her and her family monsters, etc. We know through her Swallow identity that that is her “true” self, and the front she has throughout the game is just that- a front that was forced to exist because she was a Reaper, and one she willingly cast away even though she knew she would die for it.

In relation to Shiba, he is a Conductor. A Reaper one step away from the Higher Plane, but sits the Highest among Reapers in the UG. The Conductor of the last game- Megumi- gives insight to just how detached a job that is, as even if he loved Shibuya and wanted to protect it, his “protection” required the complete elimination of free will. Shiba, by necessity, has to completely disregard the people around him for the sake of his position. He has to make decisions that involves the erasure of Reapers and Players below him. And even though he didn’t get this job until after he moved to Shibuya, he was still well on his way to promotion there, as it was stated he became Game Master in Shinjuku beforehand.

This brings us to the next point: how Shiba and Hishima parallel Uzuki and Kariya, respectively.

This was a point that could be considered kind of minor, but upon thinking actually gives both characters a great deal of insight. It’s shown most obviously in Final Day’, where Uzuki and Kariya both immediately hone in on Rindo mentioning the relationship between Hishima and Shiba, and then Uzuki calling Hishima to yell at him to talk to Shiba. She says to him: “if [my partner was getting played] I wouldn’t be able to bear it” and then sympathizes with Shiba when talking to Kariya:

This is notable for a few reasons: Uzuki HATED Shiba up to this point, and constantly complained, either directly or indirectly about him to the Wicked Twisters. The fact that she’s so easily able to sympathize with him means that on some level she understands his situation.

Secondly, she does actually go through something similar, being the Game Master and Conductor of Shibuya, who got played by Shiba into giving up her position to him. But unlike him, she still had Kariya to support her through it and prevent her from becoming too ruthless and uncaring- to still be human. Kariya’s support is part of the reason she was willing to go against the rules of the Reaper hierarchy and to protect Shibuya even against orders.

And lastly, a major motivation of Uzuki’s was to work up the Reaper hierarchy, and eventually become a Game Master or even a Conductor. In the original game she was INCREDIBLY single-minded in regards to this, and was willing to do almost anything to go up the ranks. Considering every other parallel drawn between them, it’s safe to assume that Shiba has a very similar mindset, and probably puts great importance on the hierarchy. This is backed up by how Shoka and Rindo talk about him in one of their conversations in w3d2, where Shoka talks about the Reaper hierarchy.

(As a side note, both unpainted- his boss theme, and butterflies- his Noise motif, are very very tied into the concept of transformation, metamorphosis, and changing yourself. The lyrics of unpainted, however, seem to be almost sorrowful and unsure about this change, and still consider themselves ‘unpainted’ or incomplete.)

Kariya and Hishima are both the emotional rocks for Uzuki and Shiba. Neither of them care (or seem to care, in Hishima’s case) about the Reaper hierarchy, and because of that, they are the perfect partner to rein in and ground them. Hishima being the sole person Shiba was willing to listen to, and Hishima being comfortable enough to talk to him so bluntly despite Shiba’s position as Conductor shows that even after 3 years, that familiarity is still very present between them, and Shiba missed it dearly, because...

Shiba is an incredibly isolated character, and is stated to be as such during the course of the game. Susukichi, Shoka, Beat and Nagi all comment about it in various times during week 3, which Susukichi explicitly saying “part of me wonders if he’s just lonely” and that he always stood at the scramble crossing to wait for someone. While this is obviously in reference to Hishima, it can be said that Shiba is aware, to some degree, of every other Shinjuku Reaper’s reluctance to be close to him.

The Secret Reports state that “judging by the Shinjuku Reapers’ unflinching devotion to him, [Shiba] must have been exceptionally charismatic”. And why wouldn’t he be? He wasn’t in as high a position as he was 4 years ago, and Shinjuku’s rules allowed an environment where Reapers could be incredibly close to each other. The actual situation that led to Shiba overthrowing the previous Conductor is implied to be seen as him “saving” the Shinjuku Reapers (because they thought the Conductor was the one who wanted the Inversion) and by the time they realized that was not the case and that Shiba himself was most likely responsible, they couldn’t bring themselves to break up the last thread they had to their hometown. This is a topic that could be an entire analysis in and of itself, but Ayano and Susukichi in particular both could never fit in properly in Shibuya, and so they clung to the last vestiges of familiarity they had. And with the Reaper job description requiring Reapers to be uncaring to those below them, it was easy enough for them to blow off and subsequently enable Shiba into becoming worse and worse, while distancing themselves from him emotionally.

As stated before, Hishima is his emotional rock. And according to Shoka who didn’t even know about this relationship, he had been absent from Shiba’s life for at least 4 years, well before the Shinjuku inversion and everything that came with it. This is a decision that damn near everyone in the cast calls him out on, with Kaie calling Hishima a hypocrite, both Shoka and Rindo being unimpressed with him, Uzuki calling him a coward, and even Shiba himself getting visibly upset at him for “leaving him” which Hishima couldn’t deny. Hishima’s thoughts and feelings on this are also a topic that could be a whole other analysis but suffice to say, he still very much cares about Shiba, and his constant inability and hand-wringing about going to confront him is a manifestation of that. Or rather, as he is Kariya’s (shadow) parallel in much the same way Shiba is Uzuki’s (shadow) parallel, his decision to not act comes from resignation and inability to take responsibility, which becomes harder and harder to overcome and confront as Shiba gets worse.

With absolutely no one to keep him ‘human’, so to speak, it was easy enough for Shiba to put all he had into his workaholic tendencies. Kubo’s “vibes”, put together with every other information here, simply exacerbated all the issues Shiba had.

I actually resent the idea that Kubo simply mindcontrolled him into being “evil” because I think that’s a very boring way to read the situation, and takes responsibility away from Shiba about what he has done. If anything, I think it’s meant to be a metaphor on emotional isolation, and how people without human connections can become horrifically inhumane themselves. Kubo simply planted the seed that would force Shiba to want to take the last step into being “inhuman” (ie, being an Executor- an Angelic position), while also taking advantage of his crumbling social connections to convince him to pursue such a position wholeheartedly.

In the end, what saved him was rebuilding his human connections. Rindo stated in w3d6 that unlike the Twisters who all have each other, Shiba has no one, but ironically, leaving Shiba alone only ever ends with further tragedy.

It’s only through rebuilding his connection with his partner, as well as confronting and making amends to the girl who (arguably) suffered the most under him (as Tsugumi’s brother was the previous Conductor, and her Soul’s entrapment was one of the results of Shiba’s actions) that he could break out of his cycle of tragedy, as well as becoming “human” again. Human enough to recognize every mistake he's made, as well as taking the steps to make amends for it.

As Nagi stated, “Humanity is the difference between being fraught with fear when facing others, versus being blithely unconcerned with others altogether”