iholdhandswithcosmicentities

[iholdhandswithcosmicentities]

idk how u managed to miss the point so badly, also im not whoever you think i am, i’m never really active on tumblr until very recently.

Mizuki and Ambiguity

i know first hand just how important queer rep is in media, especially in japanese media where its even more rare than it is in the west. transmasc rep is after all, virtually non-existent in almost any media… i know how desperate people can get for that rep as well, with how much shipping and headcanons have burrowed their home within the online queer community.

HOWEVER, the way people have been going about the representation that mizuki brings to project sekai is…incredibly questionable. it’s very clear that the whole thing is run by a bunch of teenagers on tiktok and twitter, and that’s quite the opposite of a compliment. They’re clawing at this rep with their bare, grubby little chronically-online fingers, and by doing so COMPLETELY dodging the whole point of mizuki as a character.

mizuki’s gender being unknown is 100% a marketing tactic, almost purely for the debate and excitement that comes with it. they want us to argue about it, they want us to think up ideas for what mizuki’s secret could be. and this is exactly why only gender-neutral language is used for mizuki, and while their only canon pronoun is ‘boku’, they/them is used to replace this neutral language, since the language structure wouldn’t make sense in english without pronouns (any translations of she/her in the english version are mistranslations, some people assume that certain characters misgender mizuki on accident or that mizuki uses they/she pronouns, but this isn’t true) because using he or she would completely ruin the secret from the start. this also causes people to assume mizuki is canonically non-binary, which is also not true. or well, we don’t know. mizuki uses they/them because their gender is unknown, not because they canonically use they/them pronouns.

japanese media has a knack for making accidentally (or sometimes purposely, idk) queer-coded characters without actually making them queer. this is seen most commonly with ‘trap’ characters, which are essentially biological boys, who identify as boys, but who look or appear to be a girl. sometimes a gender-related issue is hinted, but other times it’s just them choosing how they present themselves. this can cause a lot of confusion with exactly who is meant to be queer-coded and who isn’t, especially because some of these characters don’t exactly correct people when they misgender them (Ex. chihiro fujisaki and luka urushibara who are often headcanoned as transfem/MTF do this) and some people get REALLY MAD if you just stick with calling them boys. coding is super finicky in this sense, especially with how fluid and confusing gender tends to be even in real life. these characters could be transfem as much as they could be boys who don’t mind being called girls, an enby who uses all pronouns, or basically any form of individual outside of the stereotypical binary, whether they’re actually queer or not.

and now we come full circle back to mizuki akiyama from project sekai. a character who initially looks like a girl, but has no gendered language used on them, has multiple events focusing them dealing with a mysterious identity related issue that is never outright explained, and some ‘secret’ that they keep from the rest of their groupmates. from backstory cutscenes, which have them appearing more masculine in presentation, its pretty safe to assume that they’re biologically male. this is a widely agreed fact, but the issue arises with their gender identity. the most common headcanon is that mizuki is transfem, either non-binary or MTF, and canonically uses they/them pronouns. the existence of non-binary characters who aren’t some aliens or robots is already VERY rare in anime, even more so than gender-conforming trans characters are; it is highly unlikely that they’d have a transfem character who chooses to use they/them, as the concept of gender ≠ pronouns is fairly new to the public in general. In fact, I’ve only ever seen this ONCE in any form of media, in a manga called Love Me for Who I Am, which is an explicitly queer story surrounding multiple trans characters, including the main love interest, who is transfem, biologically male and presenting completely feminine, AND uses they/them pronouns, insisting multiple times that they don’t feel like they fit either side of the gender binary.

japanese media kind of dances around the idea of trans people, but dips into it just enough for there to be somewhat well-known trans characters in multiple mainstream anime, games or manga. grell from black butler, magne from my hero academia, arashi from ensemble stars, alluka from hunter x hunter etc. now this representation isn’t really good by any means, a lot of it played for a gag type thing or just not really developed, and all of them are misgendered at some point by other characters. so while its not very good representation, transfem rep does very well exist in anime. the common thing to happen with this characters is one of two things. 1. they or others close to them refer to them by their preferred pronouns from the beginning, and we only find out they’re trans because of separate characters misgendering them at some point. or 2. they start out pre-transition and we witness them do some form of ‘coming out’.

mizuki is a very special case, because they don’t actually fit into either of these categories. 1. mizuki isn’t referred to by any pronouns from the beginning (even in their backstory scenes, no gendered-language is used) and 2. if mizuki is trans, they would’ve started out post-transition and in the closet. i’m sure this has happened somewhere but i truthfully have never seen it.

while it is, again, definitely a marketing tactic, i do believe that mizuki does have a purpose. project sekai is a silly little rhythm game, but it goes over a lot of serious topics that surround teenage life. like any other character in project sekai, mizuki is supposed to be relatable. nightcord as a whole is a huuuge progressive step for representation of mental health, which is also a very taboo thing in japan, they even canonically use discord of all things. nightcord represents the mentally ill part of teenagehood, the rep for kids with anxiety, depression, or any other disorders. the part that mizuki plays is for people who are outcasted from society for being different in the way they present. mizuki is for the people who think matching is overrated, mizuki is for the people who can express who they are with the way they dress because they can’t do it with words, mizuki is for the transfems, the transmascs, the enbies, mizuki is for the boys who like dresses and the girls who like suits, mizuki is for the people that refuse to look how society insists they should look.

mizuki’s gender really doesn’t matter that much. whether they end up a girl or a boy or anything in between. like any piece of media, anything can have multiple interpretations from many different, funky little human brains. because that’s the thing with the unknown, is that people will always try to fill that space up with something. and if your conclusion is that mizuki is non-binary? awesome! you think mizuki is MTF? that’s lovely! you think they’re a boy who simply likes being cute? that’s great also! even if you think mizuki is transmasc, feeling masculine on the inside doesn’t always mean being masculine on the outside too! they, he, she? all fine!

mizuki is just mizuki, and i think that’s a wonderful sentiment on its own.

[iholdhandswithcosmicentities]

Mizuki and Ambiguity

i know first hand just how important queer rep is in media, especially in japanese media where its even more rare than it is in the west. transmasc rep is after all, virtually non-existent in almost any media... i know how desperate people can get for that rep as well, with how much shipping and headcanons have burrowed their home within the online queer community.

HOWEVER, the way people have been going about the representation that mizuki brings to project sekai is...incredibly questionable. it’s very clear that the whole thing is run by a bunch of teenagers on tiktok and twitter, and that’s quite the opposite of a compliment. They’re clawing at this rep with their bare, grubby little chronically-online fingers, and by doing so COMPLETELY dodging the whole point of mizuki as a character.

mizuki’s gender being unknown is 100% a marketing tactic, almost purely for the debate and excitement that comes with it. they want us to argue about it, they want us to think up ideas for what mizuki’s secret could be. and this is exactly why only gender-neutral language is used for mizuki, and while their only canon pronoun is ‘boku’, they/them is used to replace this neutral language, since the language structure wouldn’t make sense in english without pronouns (any translations of she/her in the english version are mistranslations, some people assume that certain characters misgender mizuki on accident or that mizuki uses they/she pronouns, but this isn’t true) because using he or she would completely ruin the secret from the start. this also causes people to assume mizuki is canonically non-binary, which is also not true. or well, we don’t know. mizuki uses they/them because their gender is unknown, not because they canonically use they/them pronouns.

japanese media has a knack for making accidentally (or sometimes purposely, idk) queer-coded characters without actually making them queer. this is seen most commonly with ‘trap’ characters, which are essentially biological boys, who identify as boys, but who look or appear to be a girl. sometimes a gender-related issue is hinted, but other times it’s just them choosing how they present themselves. this can cause a lot of confusion with exactly who is meant to be queer-coded and who isn’t, especially because some of these characters don’t exactly correct people when they misgender them (Ex. chihiro fujisaki and luka urushibara who are often headcanoned as transfem/MTF do this) and some people get REALLY MAD if you just stick with calling them boys. coding is super finicky in this sense, especially with how fluid and confusing gender tends to be even in real life. these characters could be transfem as much as they could be boys who don’t mind being called girls, an enby who uses all pronouns, or basically any form of individual outside of the stereotypical binary, whether they’re actually queer or not.

and now we come full circle back to mizuki akiyama from project sekai. a character who initially looks like a girl, but has no gendered language used on them, has multiple events focusing them dealing with a mysterious identity related issue that is never outright explained, and some ‘secret’ that they keep from the rest of their groupmates. from backstory cutscenes, which have them appearing more masculine in presentation, its pretty safe to assume that they’re biologically male. this is a widely agreed fact, but the issue arises with their gender identity. the most common headcanon is that mizuki is transfem, either non-binary or MTF, and canonically uses they/them pronouns. the existence of non-binary characters who aren’t some aliens or robots is already VERY rare in anime, even more so than gender-conforming trans characters are; it is highly unlikely that they’d have a transfem character who chooses to use they/them, as the concept of gender ≠ pronouns is fairly new to the public in general. In fact, I’ve only ever seen this ONCE in any form of media, in a manga called Love Me for Who I Am, which is an explicitly queer story surrounding multiple trans characters, including the main love interest, who is transfem, biologically male and presenting completely feminine, AND uses they/them pronouns, insisting multiple times that they don’t feel like they fit either side of the gender binary.

japanese media kind of dances around the idea of trans people, but dips into it just enough for there to be somewhat well-known trans characters in multiple mainstream anime, games or manga. grell from black butler, magne from my hero academia, arashi from ensemble stars, alluka from hunter x hunter etc. now this representation isn’t really good by any means, a lot of it played for a gag type thing or just not really developed, and all of them are misgendered at some point by other characters. so while its not very good representation, transfem rep does very well exist in anime. the common thing to happen with this characters is one of two things. 1. they or others close to them refer to them by their preferred pronouns from the beginning, and we only find out they’re trans because of separate characters misgendering them at some point. or 2. they start out pre-transition and we witness them do some form of ‘coming out’.

mizuki is a very special case, because they don’t actually fit into either of these categories. 1. mizuki isn’t referred to by any pronouns from the beginning (even in their backstory scenes, no gendered-language is used) and 2. if mizuki is trans, they would’ve started out post-transition and in the closet. i’m sure this has happened somewhere but i truthfully have never seen it.

while it is, again, definitely a marketing tactic, i do believe that mizuki does have a purpose. project sekai is a silly little rhythm game, but it goes over a lot of serious topics that surround teenage life. like any other character in project sekai, mizuki is supposed to be relatable. nightcord as a whole is a huuuge progressive step for representation of mental health, which is also a very taboo thing in japan, they even canonically use discord of all things. nightcord represents the mentally ill part of teenagehood, the rep for kids with anxiety, depression, or any other disorders. the part that mizuki plays is for people who are outcasted from society for being different in the way they present. mizuki is for the people who think matching is overrated, mizuki is for the people who can express who they are with the way they dress because they can’t do it with words, mizuki is for the transfems, the transmascs, the enbies, mizuki is for the boys who like dresses and the girls who like suits, mizuki is for the people that refuse to look how society insists they should look.

mizuki’s gender really doesn’t matter that much. whether they end up a girl or a boy or anything in between. like any piece of media, anything can have multiple interpretations from many different, funky little human brains. because that’s the thing with the unknown, is that people will always try to fill that space up with something. and if your conclusion is that mizuki is non-binary? awesome! you think mizuki is MTF? that’s lovely! you think they’re a boy who simply likes being cute? that’s great also! even if you think mizuki is transmasc, feeling masculine on the inside doesn’t always mean being masculine on the outside too! they, he, she? all fine!

mizuki is just mizuki, and i think that’s a wonderful sentiment on its own.

[iholdhandswithcosmicentities]

‘Listen’ Don’t Tell

a great way to practice ‘show don’t tell’, or perhaps another version like listen don’t tell or feel don’t tell, is to write about a blind character. you don’t have to make them being blind the main focus, but try to write things somewhat from their perspective. since you know they can’t see, you have to rely on things like sounds and feelings the character notices to deduct what's going on. the reader will usually only know as much as the character does, which is pretty helpful when putting your readers in the characters shoes. 

of course you can’t make it exclusively about sounds and feelings, but you don't have to if the focus is moved from the blind character to another seeing one. new writers tend to use a lot of visual cues, which is totally fine, but practicing other senses can really help your writing feel more dynamic and real.

Here’s an example from a piece of my own writing: 

Lily could hear the soft sound of footsteps approach on the foam-like flooring, and a small mechanical buzz between every presumed movement. Eden stopped by the table, opening a small compartment on the tip of her index finger. It whooshed like a little vacuum cleaner and sucked up the floating water with ease.

Lily is my blind character, the sentence starts with him hearing someone walk towards him. He also puts more attention into listening so he can figure out who it might be, a small mechanical buzz between every presumed movement, something someone else might not notice, but he does. The sound lets him know that this ‘someone’ is Eden, his android caretaker, hence the use of her name in the next sentence. In a long-running story, this could also give time for readers to guess who it is if they know who Eden is. Since the proceeding sentence puts the focus on Eden though, it quite literally tells you what she’s doing even though Lily can’t see it happening, but it doesn't forget to add another auditory cue in with the visual ones so you as the reader know what Lily is experiencing too: It whooshed like a little vacuum cleaner.

You don't have to explain every single sound that something could make, however. 

The moment the door closed behind them, Lily felt Eden take off his earmuffs and guide his feet to the floor.

Instead of saying Lily heard the click of the door shutting behind him, I simply say that the door closed. I did this because Lily knows what a closing door sounds like, in his mind he’s processing the door behind me just closed, not trying to figure out what the sound was; because he already knows.

Anyways yeah, that’s basically it. I found writing about Lily to be pretty fun and interesting compared to more visually-driven characters. Do with this information what you will <3

[iholdhandswithcosmicentities]

Therapy

therapy has such a bad rep,, in media it’s always portrayed as some scary thing that only batshit weird ppl and murderers go to. therapy is where ur parents send u when they realize ur insane, and ur always, always gonna be fighting tooth and nail as they force u to go. i go to therapy bc i wanted to, and yeah i have a few issues but none that involve uh,,,murder, or seeing ghosts in the walls. but there’s also the fact that, normal ass people can go to therapy too. you’re feeling upset after a breakup? therapy. you have problems keeping a job? therapy. i literally go in there and talk about school and my friends, that’s it. and it actually feels rlly great to be heard and understood completely by an adult, bc adults dont understand anything it seems.

[iholdhandswithcosmicentities]

Strict Parenting

no but like strict parents trip me out man- maybe its cuz i didnt have them, but i feel like grounding ur kid for WEEKS for sleeping in for 30 minutes on accident is a bit much??? adults b preaching discipline but like,, yeah, i was a mess of a kid with anger issues, but getting to my teen years i ended up learning on my own the consequences of my actions. im not doing drugs or sneaking out, i dont cuss out or yell at my parents, im just sitting in my room all day and playing my dumb little video games, and forming meaningful connections with people online. i wont say im perfect bc i do get shit grades in math and i ended up with a few mental disorders but what can ya do