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EDIT: After I was done and posted this a few more things came to mind, also thanks to my Twitter mood making me think even more about it so as of 30th April there is more in here, waha.

Hiii, it’s me again, and behold, the other day shortly before I went to sleep a new Haruka theory came to me that strikes me as quite galaxy brained, so get ready for:

Haruka and Mirai (the little girl) were meant to be twins

cw for suicide, animal death and things like infant death

So what exactly do I mean by this? Well, that Mirai either died in the womb or during birth. It is not all that uncommon that in a pregnancy with twins not both of them survive, for various reasons. One of these reasons can also be: strangulation by the umbilical cord. 

Isn’t that a “nice” coincidence with the whole strangulation theme around Haruka going on. A twitter mutual of mine even pointed out that this might even be a link to the necklace, sort of like a constant reminder to himself about this.

We would also have another link between the 01&02 prisoner pair, if both cases would in a way revolve around an unborn child.

It would also get rid of some of the contradictions we have with the whole narrative. We see Mirai both at the same age as Haruka, but in AKAA we see her clearly younger than Haruka. So what if that is basically just her “ghost” haunting him? A sort of prenatal survivor's guilt going on?

With how badly his mothers tends to treat him overall she might as well have said things to him like “It is your fault she suffocated” (imprinting that whole picture of strangulation in him deeply) or “I wish it would have been you who died and not her”.

This puts some scenes in AKAA into a very interesting light. My twitter moot that I mentioned earlier once compared the imagery of Haruka stuck in the room surrounded by the dead animals with a ritual that is called "kodoku". It's a sorcery from japanese folklore in which insects (and in some versions also other animals like snakes etc) are put into a jar or confined space with the goal of killing each other until only one survivor is left. The goal of this sorcery is to create a curse that causes misfortune and bad luck. Now what does Haruka always say he causes people, hmmm. And what if this confined space was the womb? I already linked the last scene in AKAA where he is swaying in the fluid with what seems like a wish to return to the mother's womb, the goal to be reborn. So maybe all of this is connected in a way.

Maybe it even is a hint that every time we see Mirai in the MVs Haruka is in some way connected to her, be it holding her hand or with his hands around her throat. Does it point to how they were basically connected in the mother’s womb? Or how she is still haunting Haruka as a constant presence. Probably even more so as the expectations of his mother what he should have been and couldn’t be. I know a lot of people link this to Haruka being transfem, I kinda see it as the opposite actually, him getting this wish of his mother forced on himself, this thought that he might be better and more worthy of love from her if he would be a girl, this is completely for his mother’s sake, not for himself. 

And of course the death of Mirai would not at all have been his fault.

But he would still absolutely blame himself for that, having taken that away from his mother that she wished for so much more than having him.

So I still think that is of course what got him into Milgram. As a big defender of the suicide theory I fully believe that this lead up to Haruka taking his own life, his Milgram “murder” proper.

Another contradiction is the interrogation answer where he answers that his family consists of him and his parents. Well, this could mean he just didn’t include the deceased person. Or that she never properly existed in the first place, never was an actual part of the family. It always struck me as weird that we don’t have more … presence of Mirai in any way, seeing her with his mother, any sort of mention. If she really played such a big role in the Sakurai family life that Haruka had a reason to be jealous of her, why do we not see anything about this?

It feels like I am really on to something here, but as much as this would clear up some contradictions it also adds some … Haruka’s infamous “I can kill anything smaller and weaker than me, you know?” is such a hard statement, but Haruka’s perception of the world is rather special, so it might as well be that we can’t even take this all literally? Maybe it was “real murder” in his mind, even though it didn’t involve a physical present person.

What also got pointed out to me was, that his 3rd anniversary artwork is a very fetal posture, fitting this whole theme as well.

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I learned about milgram in March if last year, when the 3rd anniversary merch dropped, I didn't get super invested until August. I was normal about milgram at one point

Also added two bonus questions from where the fandom notably breached containment

oh and for people during trial 1 I really want to hear what the fandoms thoughts on the characters were back then and how much they’ve changed especially with what the theories of a character were before their MV

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Kotoko and her connection to Dante’s Inferno’s Satan

Disclaimer: This is just about symbolism and I know how it sounds but I promise I’m not trying to imply anything or demonize her! I love Kotoko! Ive just been repeatedly noticing details about the parallel for several months now and I just really want to bring it up! This is just an analysis of the details MILGRAM has provided for it. I’m incredibly sorry if I make a mistake!

Kotoko has a lot of parallels to Dante’s Inferno Satan, especially in relation to Es.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, Dante’s Inferno is a Christian poem that outlines the 9 circles of hell. MILGRAM directly references Dante’s Inferno by quoting it in all the t2 door arts.

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter.” A quote derived from a sign at the gate of hell in the poem.

Each ring of Hell contains sinners with different levels of sins, and each ring’s sin was meant to be worse the further inside you go. Ive seen a couple theories that each prisoner correlates with a specific ring of hell. (Ex: Haruka is ring 1, Limbo; Yuno is ring 2, lust; etc)

But Dante’s Inferno only outlines 9 rings, what about our 10th prisoner, Kotoko?

While it could be that she’s again the “outsider” to the other prisoners, the last section of the 9th ring of Hell is significant because it is the center of Hell, containing Satan. So it could be reasonably argued that Kotoko correlates with it.

MILGRAM already has a TON of religious references. One that I’ve seen pointed out is how it seems the cover art of each novel is a reference to a famous Christian art piece.

The Es in each novel seems to be where Jesus relatively is. Remember that Jesus is both the son of God AND God. God gives sinners their judgements which sounds very similar to Es and how they're giving the prisoners (the human sinners) their verdicts.

Plus, the quote Milgram quotes is on the doors the prisoners are entering, and in Dante’s inferno, it’s on the gate of hell so you can compare or theorize that MILGRAM is a parallel to (or straight up is) purgatory. And Es, being the one who decides the verdict, parallels God.

Also, her t2 VD is named “YONAH,” which is the masculine version of the name Jonah. Not only does this relate to her themes of masculinity again, Jonah is a name that originates from Hebrew origins which means “dove.”

It is also a reference to the book of Jonah. A main theme of this book is “Jonah wants God to operate on his timeline [...] He wanted God to dole out punishment on his clock instead of according to God's plan. Yet God showed Jonah that in his infinite wisdom, he can't and will not be rushed.” Which is pretty much exactly what happens in YONAH, and also once again compares Es to God.

Dante’s Inferno’s Satan was an angel, a splendid being, apparently the most perfect of God's creatures… an “Angel of light.” We/Es deemed Kotoko innocent in t1. She had the highest innocent percentage in t1 too because a lot of people thought her murder was justified. You know, the most perfect of God’s creatures. The most perfect out of the prisoners.

“We really can work together.”

But then Satan tried to usurp God.

“If you don’t have the strength on your own, let me take care of it. Es! I can do it in MILGRAM!”

Kotoko wants to be the prison guard because Es isn’t capable in her eyes.

Satan was ultimately sent to Hell and punished as "the ultimate sinner" for his betrayal of trying to usurp God.

We are now punishing Kotoko for her attempts to judge the prisoners herself and “usurp” Es. It works even better now that she has the highest guilty percentage in all of MILGRAM so far as the “ultimate sinner.”

As a lot know, Fuuta also has tons of religious references too. (Ex. His VD is titled Baptism by Fire) By him also passing judgements onto people, you could say that he was trying to play God.

What is that saying about us, the audience, then? And our parallel/foil to Fuuta/Kotoko?

Dante’s Inferno as a whole is very much based around the idea of “evil will be punished,” which not only encapsulates Kotoko’s ideals but MILGRAM’s as well. It makes sense that MILGRAM says that Kotoko is a perfect parallel to the facility.

(I also wanna mention that there's something that could be said about the holy trinity in relation to Es + the audience + jackalope. For example, how Jesus is God in the flesh and Es is the audience "in the flesh," by acting as a personified version of us to interact with the "human sinnners" but I feel like I might be going into tinfoil hat territory.)

[mrgoodenough254]

Nice edit!

So Miku got a couple of new songs from Crypt of the Necrodancer-

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Fuuta

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Arghghgggggg it's so annoying talking and responding to thingssss. I try to be as polite and understanding as possible but it's draining meee

[mrgoodenough254]

Amazing art!

No Seek, No Find

NEVER AGAIN😭😭😭😭😭😭 yk i might edit this post and fix a lot of issues uh

[mrgoodenough254]

More serious summary of the livestream

Unfortunately I can't provide a full translation because the entire time I was watching in autistic excitement like 😊🥰🤩 whilst my brain melted out my ears and didn't pick up on a lot

Luckily, I have a feeling someone will get around to translating this stream eventually since they finally had the BGM on a lower volume so everyone was audible the whole time Without further ado:

We started with introductions seating order is Yamanaka, Yurina (Es' VA), Minami (Amane's VA), Ryouta (Kazui's VA) and DECO (who dyed his hair blonde) They each have one of the 4th anniversary acrylic stands in front of them The actors have their characters but Yamanaka has Haruka and DECO has Muu

Yamanaka admitted to being a Haruka oshi/fan

Then Minami talks about being a Fuuta fan (she calls him cool) and she's handed the Fuuta stand and she pushes the Fuuta and Amane stand next to each other (and jokes about their height difference then imitates Fuuta going zenbu zenbu zenbu!)

But then Yurina sticks her Es stand in between them to separate them

And then they move the Amane stand next to the Kazui one and everyone coos

Before moving Amane and Fuuta back together in front of Minami Then they basically just lift all of the stands up on to the table and continue on

They discuss their thoughts on the trial

Looking at who got voted inno and guilty Minami is happy Amane got inno but has no idea how Mikoto wasn't guilty They note that the audience wasn't very happy with Kotoko for beating up the other prisoners Then they give some thoughts on the MVs from Daisuki to Deep cover They get most excited talking about Cat and Purge March Kazui says that he was able to put the right emotions into Cat because he recorded the voice drama first Yurina and Minami actually caused the microphone to peak with their excited shrieks at one point (ow)

They answer some audience submitted questions One question was answered along the lines of "Be prepared" One was submitted in English and they tried to but couldn't read it Then they got a question (in Japanese) from someone from 韓国/South Korea [side note: I feel like the south korean milgram fandom has gotten more prominent recently, its always been there but it feels bigger than ever and that's pretty cool]

After audience questions they made a few announcements Some things we already knew, the gratte cafe crossover, the Kotoko line stickers, Earbuds are still on sale (and they're making badges and stuff based on the earbud promo art) the 4th anniversary art/acrylici stands literally in front of them Then some new things: Minigram LINE stamps (everyone was especially pleased for the Kazui XP stamp) There's going to be a part 2 to the Karaoke collab (no details yet other than its coming)

They also announce this year's perk for annual members [the pain of being an annual member but living outside of Japan so you can't get these 😭] Blank lamenated cards of the prisoner's interrogations and a whiteboard pen so you can write your own interro questions and answers They bring out the cards for Kazui and Amane and do some examples

"Do you like cake?" "I don't eat it."

"What did you have for lunch today?" "Gyudon." [a beef and rice dish]

Then Minami just writes "Toilet paper" in katakana and everyone laughs (Then she writes Toilet paper rap/lap/wrap and I'm not sure what she means)

Most exciting is script books for the Hallucenation liveshow (scripts of the voice dramas and songs) The live show uses condensed versions of the voice dramas but this is the first time we'll have official transcripts of key moments to help check translations with

Then they start saying that T2 was hellish, but T3 is going to go beyond hell: They're going to send everyone to Super Hell And at this point my brain fries and overloads on eeby deeby memes as they all go back and forth talking about Super Hell

They all start doing their outros/saying goodbye

Yurina talks about upcoming challenges we have as guards meanwhile Yamanaka ominously holds the Haruka stand up in frame

Then that's basically it, not much going on because a lot of stuff (like Hallucenation, the plushes, earbuds) came out right before the 4th anniversary

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No way I thought when I was younger that I didn't want to get married but "I guess I might get married so that they could kill spiders for me"