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riddelplum · 5 years

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Hi everyone! Today I’m here for another AnR analysis, this time for a character that I don’t really like, but still feel like she deserves to be seen in a new light. I’m talking of Inukai Isuke (with later some HaruI). Spoilers for AnR and KnR.

So, how to start that analysis…Well, let’s begin with two types of people: Those who hate Isuke, and those who love her. From what I have seen, most of those who aren’t fond of her view her as a greedy selfish bitch, and lot of those who love her usually like her look, because you know, she’s hot and sexy (I’m not trying to generalize, I’m merely saying what I mostly see in the AnR fandom). Okay, both of those opinions are technically true. Isuke is indeed greedy, especially with money, she is mostly selfish and yeah, she can be quite bitchy. But she’s also hot and sexy and has a great look. Those are all true. But there’s way more to this character, she more than just that, she’s deeper than most of the fandom think she is.

I just want to say before beginning that I had seen one person making a really interesting post about Isuke’s past and how it’s linked to why she loves money so much. It’s on one of @silent-shanin side-blog, askinukaiisuke.

Okay, now let’s start this analysis. Let’s begin with her backstory. We know that she was born in a really poor family and that her parents were neglectful and possibly abusive. Just look at her eyes when she was a kid. She looked dead inside. Poor kid. To be raised by uncaring parents in awful conditions since you’re a baby can have really bad effects on your development. And it’s even worse since her brother, which I assume is her younger brother since he seems smaller, died because of the neglects they underwent. From the page of KnR epilogue, Isuke is hugging her brother and looked close to him, and almost protective, which is normal for an older sibling. So it must have been quite painful and even traumatizing for her to lose her brother. Must explain the dead eyes she had in the flashback.

Then Inukai Eisuke arrived, killed her biological parents and adopted her. It’s left unclear why exactly he killed them. Was it just a job? Or he just has a really soft heart for kids in distress? Anyway, I don’t want to complain about that guy, because I’m sure he’s a loving mother, but I wouldn’t say that raising your daughter to be an assassin is good parenting. From his words and actions, he looks like the type of person who wanted a child for his own legacy. In Japan from what I heard it’s important to build a family and ensure the legacy of it. Since Eisuke is in a homosexual relationship, it’s harder for him to have kids, thus he adopted to fulfill the Japanese tradition. I also think he wanted a kid just because it’s natural for most human beings to want kids, so in his case it’s probably a mix of both. I’m sure he really loves Isuke, but I also think he was self-interested in adopting her, since he needed an heir to his assassin business. And judging by Isuke’s behaviour older and how he acts, I’ve got the feeling he’s a doting mother who spoiled his daughter too much, and really permissive. He probably never corrected Isuke’s bad behaviour or just doesn’t care, as long as she does her job correctly so he could be proud of her.

So let’s analyze those parts of Isuke’s past, and try to link them to some of her current personality traits. First of all, Isuke’s obsession with money. When you lost someone important, in her case her brother, and even herself almost lost her life, because of a lack of money, it wouldn’t be surprising that Isuke has indeed some kind of traumatism regarding money. I think that to her, money is a matter of life and death. The lack of money means pain and misery, and possible death. While money, especially lot of it, means happiness and safety, as well as life. So Isuke’s love for money isn’t just because she’s greedy, it’s because to her it’s a way to ensure herself that she won’t ended up in a similar situation as she were when she was a kid. And let’s not forget that the money isn’t just for her. She wants money for her and her family. And if money is to her happiness, safety and life, then it means she wants her adoptive family to be happy and safe, as well as alive. In that perspective, it’s not that selfish. Sure, from our point of view, it looks greedy since she’s far from being poor. But from her point of view, she needs that money, like I said it’s a matter of life and death. It’s possible that Isuke thinks that without the money as a reward for killing Haru, her family could eventually be in danger. That’s probably why she looks so desperate during her assassination attempts.

Then, another trait of her: her narcissism. Okay, there are two majors definition for narcissism. It’s either just a personality trait, or the narcissism personality disorder (NPD). The first one is just a trait of a personality, while the other is a mental disorder. In Isuke’s case, I don’t think she has a mental disorder. A person with a NPD usually only love themselves, they feel superior to everyone and lack empathy, and they seek prestige. It may sound a little bit like Isuke, but she actually cares about certain people, enough to risk her life for them (her parents), and she doesn’t seek prestige, more like a comfortable lifestyle for her and her family. Isuke’s narcissism is more of a big ego and love for herself. What could have caused that is the lack of love she received from her biological parents. It could be a defence mechanism to avoid feeling unloved again. It may be an unconscious process in her mind to protect herself, to compensate for the lack of love she had experienced in her early childhood. It could also be related to the sudden change from an unloving family to a loving one may have been a shock to her, and she didn’t adapt well. To receive so much love after what she went through could have made her fear to lose the feeling being love, thus she started to love herself so there would at least have someone who loves her (herself).

Isuke is also described as selfish. Well, she is, but not with everyone. She can be selfless with those she loves, like her parents. Her overall selfishness with others can be linked to the fact her biological parents were neglectful and probably selfish themselves. Sometimes kids have the tendencies to repeat what their parents did to them. So Isuke’s selfishness may be the result of bad parenting. It’s hard being generous to others when in the first years of your life, you were raised by two selfish neglectful parents that nearly let you die, and did let your brother died. But, it may have made her selfish with those she doesn’t care about, it did make her selfless with those she actually loves, because she doesn’t want them to be in a similar situation as her and want to repay them (her adoptive parents).

Another word often used to describe Isuke is sadism. Okay, Isuke may look like a sadist because she’s often cruel, mean, and doesn’t show a lot of empathy for others. But she doesn’t seem to actively seek for others pain, more like she doesn’t really care if others suffer. She herself said that she didn’t like when things get bloody or noisy. usually hurting others caused at least of those two, if it isn’t both. So no, I don’t think Isuke is a true sadist. Maybe in a kinky situation, though I view her more as a dominant. The only times she acted sadistically was during her assassination attempts (especially in the manga), when she beat the shit out of Haru while taunting her about Tokaku’s supposed death. But in that case, it was more a reaction to Haru who had made her angry, so she was releasing her anger by beating Haru. Another example of potential sadism is when she used Banba’s weakness (light), and Isuke smiled doing so. But she was mostly just making sure she would be the one killing Haru, and was probably just proud of herself, and since she’s insensitive, she didn’t feel bad for Banba. Another reason for this cruelty towards Banba is that perhaps Banba being traumatized kinda reminded Isuke of her own past, and she hates that. Even being an assassin isn’t something she likes. She likes to have money when killing, but if she could have money without killing, it would be better. That’s why she wanted the reward for killing Haru, so her family and she could retire and live a wealthy life. She doesn’t feel bad about killing, but she doesn’t really like it either. So Isuke does have the potential of being cruel and brutal with others, but she isn’t seeking to necessarily hurt others for fun like a real sadist would.

I think it reviewed most of Isuke’s traits as an adult, linked to her childhood. Even if I don’t think a bad childhood excuse being a nasty person, at least I can understand Isuke and somehow sympathize with her. And you know what they say, evil isn’t born, it’s made (okay Isuke isn’t really evil, but you get my point). It means Isuke can still be redeemable at some point. And that brings us to the second part of this analysis:

Isuke’s relationship with Haruki

In term of personality, both Isuke and Haruki looks like polar opposites. Isuke is selfish, wealthy, and mostly rude to others. Haruki is selfless, poor, and usually friendly. But both of them shared some similarities too, like their values. Both of them are ready to do anything for their family. They both also have an interest in fashion, especially nail polish. In a sense, Isuke and Haruki both represent the idioms “Birds of a feather flock together” and “opposites attract”, and in my opinion, in a really healthy way. It’s important in a relationship between the two partners to balance each others, to be complementary. So for them to have almost opposite personality balance their relationship. But It’s also important for a stable relationship to be able to have a future together, and for that, common values and interests are important. It’s hard to have a long-term relationship with someone you have no interest to share, or with whom you don’t agree at all regarding values. This is why I think Isuke and Haruki are perfect for each other, and have the potential to stay together for a really long time (if it’s not forever).

But how those two could have fallen in love together (because yes, they are canon), and how is it related to Isuke’s backstory? Well, I think Isuke can relate to Haruki in a certain way. Like her, Haruki came from a really poor family. Like her, Haruki is a big sister (well, Isuke isn’t anymore, but she had been once). Like her, Haruki deeply cares about her family and is willing to do anything for them. Maybe Isuke views Haruki as what she could herself have become if her biological parents had taken care of her. Sure, she would have been poor, but with a loving family and a younger sibling probably still alive. This is exactly what Haruki is. She may be poor, but her family is loving, and alive. And she doesn’t pity herself or hold grudge against those who are rich. So perhaps Isuke was able to sympathize with Haruki for those reasons, to have some sort of respect for her, and perhaps some hidden admiration that she would probably never admit. I think it may somewhat be what Isuke’s dream in KnR 2 was about, the possibility to have been in a poor but loving family, like Haruki’s one, or how she might be able to trust Haruki. And plus, Haruki is quite attractive and a blue collar worker. It’s a bonus for Isuke since she herself said she likes blue collar worker. All those things could have lead Isuke to sincerely fall in love with Haruki.

Then what about Haruki? Why did she fall in love with Isuke? Well, it’s not really a Haruki analysis, but still, it’s an important point. In the series, Isuke had often been rude to her, but despite that, Haruki was never angry at her, she usually just finds Isuke’s behaviour funny and go along with it (the only exception is when Isuke had touched a picture of her family). I think Haruki has some kind of admiration towards Isuke, at least at the beginning. Haruki always wanted to be free, and also be able to support her family. Isuke does have a free vibe. She speaks her mind, is mostly always honest, she doesn’t care about what others think of her, and she’s able to help her own family. This is probably the type of life Haruki wants, or at least for her family. Maybe there’s some envy, but not a negative one like jealousy. More like a type of life Haruki would want to achieve by herself. Like a goal to achieve, a motivation. And eventually, she could have begun to relate to Isuke on certain points, and then love bloomed from all those reasons. And let’s face it, Isuke being..you know, sexy, surely help. Not that I think their attraction is purely physical, but it’s still something important in a relationship.

So, about the redeemable thing. Isuke may be selfish, but she can be selfless with those she loves. If she loves Haruki, she will most likely show some selflessness towards her. Even Eisuke noticed a change in his daughter, saying that he’s surprised to see her so kind, which Isuke replied almost bashfully “it’s because I love her”. This is the proof Isuke’s attitude did change a little since she’s dating Haruki. Sure she was still kinda harsh with Haruki on the phone, but Haruki didn’t seem to mind. This is why I believe Haruki can have a positive impact on Isuke. And since Haruki isn’t offended by Isuke’s behaviour, so she’s more likely to not get mad at Isuke, and just let Isuke changes from her own will. Tho, I don’t think Isuke can become a purely selfless person, but she could become less selfish thanks to Haruki. But I don’t think Haruki is the only one who could have a good influence, Isuke could also have a good influence on her. Haruki can be a little bit too selfless when it comes to her family, enough to put her life in danger or even try to sacrifice herself (just look at her assassination attempts). So perhaps being with Isuke could help her being a little bit more selfish (in a good way) and allow herself to enjoy life and to not only live for the sake of her family. So, both of them can have a positive impact on the other, which is a great thing in a relationship, the mutual self-improvement.

So in conclusion, Isuke is a deep and interesting character, and even a little bit tragic, and her relationship with Haruki is surely a positive and healthy one that could help both of them to improve themselves. They are also almost a perfect match for each other. But, despite that, I still don’t really like them or their couple. That’s just a personal preference, I admit they are a great ship, complex and interesting, it’s just that I have a preference for unhealthy ships, or overly cute one. Yep, that must be me who has issues.

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