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straybaddog06 · 2 months ago

Note

Hello! I saw your izuleo as shinaya posts and I got curious on why you think they are similar? I always thought Leo was the most similar to shintaro and wasnt very similar to ayano so I wanted to know about your view!

Hi!!

First of all I’m very sorry it took me a while to get back to you, I love these characters and wanted to make sure I could cite and explain my reasoning well since I have put a lot of thought into this which included rereading so much content. I’ve also been fairly busy this month which got in the way of things lmao

Secondly, I am so interested in how you view them, I can kind of see/understand your Shintaro assignment. They do have some similarities but I’m curious to see you explain it!

I am assuming you’ve seen the entire project but I am going to reference everything I can just in case. I know you mainly asked about Ayano/Leo but I do need to touch up on Shintaro/Sena due to their narrative ties.

P.S: The TL’s used and cited are

Maluridae: Lionheart

Royalquintet: Blue Filament, Requiem

Kageyama8: Duel

Kagepro wiki: Additional memory, Toumei Answer, Old Day’s

The official english kagepro TLs (there are issues with these however they’re easier to cite)

Their narrative role’s

Within the Narrative Ayano and Leo(at first) are introduced to us as characters who haunt the narrative.

Leo

Within Enstars ! Era Leo is gone for the most part, he doesn’t get return until around the end of summer. While he’s not dead per say the way he’s spoken about in game and in lionheart before his return is like a sore thumb. He’s not here, he may never come back as far as they’re aware but they go on waiting for his return. Leo is the heart of Knights in its writing, they never feel whole without him, they manage to get on their feet again when Tsukasa joins them but Tsukasa isn’t Leo, he can’t fill the gap he left.

While Anzu acts as an audience stand in as she’s supposed to be us and represent us, Tsukasa acts as a great voice of the audience. Like Tsukasa we do not know who Leo is, we’ve never met him or knew him before we know even less than what Tsukasa has heard as well. In a way it could be easy for a reader be swept up into their beliefs. Tsukasa idolises Leo in his head and has an impression of what kind of person he is.

Within duel Naru say’s “Since our leader isn’t here, we’ve become carefree and self indulgent” this implies he was the kind of person who would wrangle the other three into order regardless of their individualism. Not to mention if you look up to a group of people and they talk about someone who’s their leader in what looks like a good light you tend to respect them. Add being called a king for a traditional medieval themed unit and you can just imagine what kind of person they are.

And even when Leo does return, he still haunts the narrative, more specifically Sena’s narrative. A lot of Sena’s writing when it involves him does revolve around Sena’s guilt and his perception of Leo as a person. During the start of Leo’s return Rebellion/Horror night Sena reflects how he doesn’t know what kind of person Leo is now and in the latter how he’s afraid to get close to him in case he hurts him again. This comes to ahead in Requiem and Gambit, for example in Requiem during Leo’s outburst he says “Weren’t you always a nice guy who’d never hurt anyone? Wait, no… I was the one who made you like this, so do you want me to apologize?”

Here we see part of how sena views him, a lot of the way he views Leo is shaped by their first two years together. Which is fair it makes sense, but with how there’s a clear divide between them that doesn’t start to close till towards the end of Halloween and more so Requiem, it does feel like idolisation. Especially with how Sena uses “weren’t you” instead of “aren’t you” because it’s weird, weren’t you is past tense it would have made more sense except Sena as stated in rebellion feels like he doesn’t know him very well anymore (understandably) and accepts that Leo telling their groupmates to go die is normal for the Leo that exists in present day.

Lionheart goes on before this with quotes like:

“Our youth became riddled with cracks. It's broken now, and its purity has been lost. That precious radiancy only exists in the past now, and he chose to be buried with it.” And “He was pure like a child, and played those melodies of love with goodwill and passion; I didn't really hate those songs of his. In fact, I actually liked them quite a bit.”

Using terms like “purity” and “radiancy” displays how highly he views that time. How to him he was happiest and it was something he may feel like he’d taken for granted. He calls Leo “pure like a child” someone who has no ill will, who holds no malice, naive to the dangers and pains of the world. Again he uses past tense because after the war he no longer is that pure vision of him.

“Because there was one person who existed who told me that he liked me — who called me beautiful. Because, even if it was only a moment, a part of my youth existed in my life... where I was affirmed and loved to the point where I was able to think that I was glad to be born.” It’s no wonder he feels the way he does when Sena expresses to no one but himself how much he felt cherished that he was happy to be alive. There was once someone so pure and innocent who showered him love and affection, someone who made him feel good about himself. Yet now as far as Sena is aware those days are dead, that person who loved him unconditionally once died by his own hand.

Ayano

As for Ayano she’s dead before all the media’s begin and haunts every route, even manga2 due to how it’s set up.

Ayano’s death has personally affected every dan related character except for like Hibiya, this is because most characters knew her personally. Mary doesn’t move in until post Ayano’s death, Hiyori is her aunt and Momo had met her before plus she’s shintaros sister. Hiyori is more impacted by Ayaka’s death than Ayano’s but Hiyori is a whole can of missed potential.

Shintaro is a neet because of her death, and yes Takane/Haruka disappearances have some impact he’s more impacted by Ayano’s death. Partially, Shintaro wallows in his grief and can’t get himself to do anything if it’s not for Ene pulling him out and distracting him. Part of this could be taken from how he believes it is his fault she died however with manga2 we know this kind of thing would have probably happened regardless due to Haruka’s death. However I have reason to believe manga2 shintaro would never have gotten as bad as he did in Route XX since Haruka died of natural causes due to his condition while Ayano as far as Shintaro is aware was struggling mentally and then actively said it was his fault. Shintaro saw her crying as evidenced in Toumei answer mv and did nothing.

Her lack of presence has affected most of the cast but more than that there’s how she’s introduced to people. Ignoring the manga, the novels introduce her in novel 2, this is the standard Takane backstory that’s in the three main story formats we learn who Ene is and Who this random guy at the end of novel 1 is and how Haruka is Konoha. We know the full quartet at this point but we haven’t met Ayano in the present. We have no idea what happened to her but she is out of the picture. Ayano is seen as a cute ditzy girl. She’s not the most bold or confident but she’s sweet.

Shintaro gets haunted by Yaki in novel 3 as she tries to get Shintaro to remember the past timelines before he wakes up to Kano in the room. While Kano is trying to get out of the situation he turns into Ayano and says “Then, why didn’t you save me?” “Hey, answer me shintaro. Could it be that you’ve forgotten about me?” “Fine. Goodbye Shintaro. Be happy.”

With shintaros monologue saying things like:

“The thoughts I’ve been thinking for years were trying to spill out, but I couldn’t form them into words. In the end I couldn’t say anything. Ayano didn’t wait for me. And just like that day, I couldn’t tell her anything.”

And

“Was this punishment? Was this punishment for me, who didn’t listen to that person and couldn’t lend her a hand?”

This shows to us something has obviously happened to her, how it’s had a huge effect on both Shintaro and Kano even if we haven’t seen all the details yet. Shintaro is grieving, he has things he wishes he could have told her after years of mourning, he reflects how he may have been able to do something to save her had he just done something instead of just standing by. We also get a sense that Kano hates Shintaro with the whole turning into a dead person and clearly holding a grudge against him.

Personalities and relationships

Ayano

Ayano is shown in a fairly positive light in the novels and the manga. She has her flaws but no one really has any bad opinions on her, everyone loves her. She’s cheerful and optimistic, sure she’s awful academically but it’s fine, most people suck. She was excited to become an older sister, showing her siblings the unconditional love and support they’d been robbed of prior.

There’s also something you could say about how quickly Ayano was to decide to effectively kill herself for her siblings and friends. Is it death if you don’t truly die but enter an alternative dimension? There’s no way to truly guarantee it would have worked and she was still jumping off her school roof. She was only a 16 year old girl. A child finding out that after her mother died, her father is only alive because he was possessed by an evil snake and because he was possessed by an evil snake her best friends and siblings are all going to die. As far as she’s aware too there’s no way for her to get out of this with no one dying. Desperate, she goes to kano for help because like god can you blame her? She’s a child dealing with this, and there’s no one she can even go to due to it being supernatural. She doesn’t tell him everything either because how can she? She’s not telling her brother she’s going to jump off the school roof for everyone.

I love Additional Memory and Manga2, they deconstruct her character so beautifully. To start with Additional Memory is more aligned with the typical timeline we’re aware of that happens in the other routes, through the lyrics but also partially the music video, we see her more ugly emotions. It makes her feel so much more real than plastic.

For Additional memory, the song details Ayano’s feelings after she jumps into the daze.

The lyrics at first mention how she sees her life flashing before her eyes, how everything has come to end. She’ll never get to grow up and have a normal life with the people she loves.

She’s staring at a tv replaying past memories. Her feelings towards Shintaro become apparent but instead of saying anything, she does not. She loves him but is a coward and keeps it to herself. As she dies her feelings are stripped away, melting and rotting because Ayano is dead. While the feelings may remain, to society she is dead and that’s what everyone will believe forever more.

Ayano never wanted to die, she wanted to grow up with her friends and family. All of her feelings go with her to her grave, she’ll never get to give them to Shintaro. Instead all of her feelings will be swallowed by the daze as she dies, never to be heard by anyone.

One of the key lyrics within the song is “My true feelings melted in a story where proof I lived is forbidden” and its sister lyric “My remaining feelings are a story where ‘happiness’ is forbidden” Breadbox/ David has a decent analysis video on the song, where he suggests the idea that: Ayano is lying to herself in the first half and honest in the latter.

Saying her feelings melted is like saying: The feelings I had for shintaro do not exist in a living world where I failed to reach out to him. When it comes to the sister lyric it reads as though if we take away her romantic feelings towards Shintaro, everything she wanted to do and everything she felt & went through all exists in a life/story where she’ll throw herself off the roof for those she cares about. She’ll never live past being 16 in her first year of high school.

In jin’s 15/8th livestream in 2018 just before additional memory’s release, Jin said that “Ayano has a so-called gentle girl image, but she also bears these kinds of feelings” which is so true! Compare additional memory to Ayano’s theory of happiness and it really is like night and day.

When it comes to Manga2 it gets a bit different, as this is a timeline set before every other single piece of media. It’s the earliest one we’ve seen if it’s not the first. Even if it’s set up after manga1, manga1 has it orchestrated so it’s Shintaro remembering.

I love how they introduce us to her by her ominously standing there looking at Hibiya like: “I’m a monster c:<“ in fact she calls everyone with an eye power a monster. First of all it gives us all a go ahead that something is not right with Ayano even if the manga is your introduction the earlier volumes in manga1 has Ayano during the yuukei yesterday portion who is a lot more normal in comparison. I think it’s interesting if you’re familiar with the music route before this point than you’ll be aware of how in Ayano’s theory of happiness in the lyrics and mv Seto cries that he’s a monster and Ayano tries to assure him/Kano/Kido that those red eyes are heroic.

One thing to note is from a young age she was worried sick about her siblings, something could easily happen to them! Who knows what but they or someone could get hurt because of them. And then she, Mary and their parents get caught in that landslide trying to research Mary’s eye powers. Ayano is forced to watch the shit show of Azami’s life on repeat, through favouring eyes which conveys all the emotions and generally it is believed Azami had a wider handle on the powers than the dan. Not to mention Ayano was like 15 at the time, no child should ever have to go through that, it’s no wonder she had completely lost it blaming Mary and saying she needed to die to save her siblings. Three years later she still is contemplating it because to her there is no other exit to save the people she loves.

She’s also forever stuck in a however long series of time loops watching how everyone around her dies and being unable to communicate or get any sort of closure.

While in the other routes she’s very sweet, manga2 is a little more snarky. She’s willing to tease Shintaro about showing him Azami’s memories and make him lose his appetite like Hibiya. She also didn’t want anything to do with him since to her he wasn’t involved with the power’s situation. She generally comes off as more competent and smart in contrast as well. She really does feel like a different person than other Ayano’s post Mary moving in.

Now within the Old Days voice drama from the Daze/Days single it features a version of how Ayano and Shintaro meet as at the end of the manga there’s a different version of this. Ayano had fell asleep while doing make up work and Shintaro had forgotten his wallet. During this Ayano kinda just begs him to tutor her where he agrees. This is the start of their friendship, Ayano is really pushy and seems to like him quite a bit while Shintaro was monologuing about how everyone around him is fake and stupid and actually he’s not bothered to make relationships. It’s like extremely evident middle school shintaro had a lot of issues.

Shintaro also goes on to tell Ayano as they’re parting ways “It’s not all just good things. Even if I want to forget or don’t like it, I end up remembering everything. I always worry about insignificant things. It’s a pain in the ass.”

And she responds with: “Huh? Oh, no, I was thinking if Shintaro-kun can’t forget the bad things, it would be nice if there were lots of good things that’ll happen to you so it’ll outbalance the bad things. If that happens, then you won’t really think about all the bad things, right?”

She already likes him, which doesn’t seem hard for her but is already being considerate. While Shin is an ass and has been rude towards her she’s apologised when she didn’t need to but also asked him to tutor her and he agrees.

You know like Shintaro said that he can’t help but think about bad things and Ayano’s first thought really is: I want to be his friend and make him happy.

We see an extension of this in Toumei answer’s mv and lyrics. Toumei answer details the middle school and high school relationship Shintaro has with Ayano. It’s from Shintaro’s perspective and it gives us a good idea about him. He’s depressed, his intelligence just makes school boring, we know from old days he can’t stand his classmates and manga2 gives us more of an understanding of how closed off he is (partially as manga2 is very different but some things still carry over between routes)

During the first half of the song it’s focused on their middle school years. Within the mv we have Ayano giving shintaro a paper crane with a smile during the lyrics “If that’s the case, then hey, that’s pretty boring” Saying that, you always seemed to be enjoying yourself

and Shintaro ripping up his test scores on the school roof only for Ayano to pull him back with her scarf happily during “At this rate, even if I die Someone else will just replace me” Just whispering that is foolish

We can understand more about their relationship through this. While Shintaro is being a sourpuss, she tries to cheer him up through small acts like making paper cranes and pulling him around with the scarf. The paper cranes are especially interesting because while it’s never been directly stated there is the popular myth that if you create 1000 cranes a myth will be granted. This is fairly on brand for kgpr, the snakes do grant dying wishes after all. Toumei answer implies this started before high school, possibly just because she could and it’s fun giving things to people. When it comes to cranes specifically they’re said to have a long life. At some point Ayano was aware she wouldn't have one herself but desperately wished she could save the ones she loved and let them be able to have a long life instead.

In the second half of the song Ayano has died and there isn’t as much to talk about her since this is a more of a Shintaro song with a lot of the analysis to be focused on him. Shintaro is mostly reflecting how he won’t forget about her including the small details even if other people do.

However, one thing to note is that this is the only route to show/depict Shintaro seeing Ayano crying and running away, this scene also shows up in Ayano’s theory of happiness and Konoha’s state of the world but Shintaro is not shown in those. So Shintaro saw her crying, he did not know why and never pushed further. To Shintaro if he had pushed then maybe she would still be alive because he’s a normal guy for the most part, to him she’s a normal girl so surely it must be more down to earth than an evil snake.

Leo

In conjunction Leo is carefree and bratty. He has a one track mind, he’ll compose to his heart desires regardless if that causes an inconvenience to someone because getting the idea from his inspiration is in most cases more important to him. He can get so absorbed into it that he doesn’t pay attention to what surrounds him or that he isn’t entirely absorbed and just decides he feels like ignoring someone. He writes on whatever regardless of what it is so he can compose and composes songs about people when he’s annoyed with them. He also has an awful habit of saying things, without thinking that can or has hurt other people even if he doesn’t mean to. Think before you speak? Some of the time.

At the same time Leo is incredibly kind. Leo falls in love with people easily and praises them as such. He says he loves people like it’s breathing. He’s not the kind to pointlessly praise however as he has said Sena’s singing was shit with no sugarcoating even though he loved his voice or like how in starfes Leo tells Tsukasa to shut up because they had a long day ahead of them.

In gambit Leo states that the king slayer members are just like him. Scared and alone they attached themselves to a strong weapon to try and make it through the day. That all Leo felt was anger and pain, wanting to get revenge for the hurt that they caused but to him regardless of their actions they aren’t so different in reality. Here Leo is like before admitting that yes while Sena was using him for his own benefit to make his dreams come true, Sena isn’t all to blame because Leo still chose to do everything.

He can come off as wise with some interesting insights, he’s been mentioned to talk with Shu about art and he mentions and references a wide array of different stories/rhymes ect. Although these can be usually swept up with everything else happening within the story, checkmate and canary are standouts within their stories as they play a large narrative role.

There’s a certain transience Leo has in ! Era as well, primarily this is prominent in Blue Filament/Fleur dis lis/Horror Night and Canary hall. He’s been away for so long and everyone has changed. Yumenosaki isn’t the place it used to be nor is Knights, the school to him is far more peaceful and his unit are all close to one another all of a sudden. Leo at this point is still struggling with his stage fright which he keeps mostly to himself as well as just hasn’t been back for very long.

In Blue Filament he says to Tsukasa: “You’re… not just picking on me ‘cause you hate me, right?”

“Hmm. I guess I got the wrong impression ‘cause you keep doing stuff I hate or I’m just not good with. Sorry about that. …Sorry, Newbie, you can go now.”

“Is it that important? I don’t get it… It’s just letters, just a word… But I guess I need to learn how to deal with that too. Yumenosaki’s gotten peaceful while I wasn’t looking, so the lower the possibility of hurting someone, the better.

I was waiting so long for that time to come, and yet…

It’s ironic. In this world, this age… It feels like I have no place.”

With everything that’s happened this kind of reaction is understandable, Tsukasa had a built up image of Leo inside his head that was crushed the moment they met. He was unbelievably excited to finally meet him during Leo’s 2nd sub story to the point of dragging Ritsu by his foot, only to be so blind sided by the kind of person Leo actually his and his “useless” he came off as. Then we have Blue Filament for example where Tsukasa went and dragged Leo who was trying to apologise away to do some jobs. Not to mention Rebellion where Tsukasa airs out more of his complaints.

Moreover by the writing in ! Era we see Leo whose been away for so long trying to reaccluimate between his return and Canary. He went through a lot and once he returned so much had happened that the whole atmosphere changed and shifted, it’s a lot to get used to especially after the mess that was his second year. You’ve been away for so long that you missed some important things especially with your friends, then it’s the place that once felt so suffocating and hostile suddenly feels a lot more peaceful where it’s easier to breathe. There’s also Leo’s stage fright as well and just how annoying it was to get him to preform lives pre-Halloween.

We don’t know the full details of Leo/Sena’s school life before the war and during the war other than what we see in checkmate, horror night and Lionheart. We know how they met with Sena singing awfully and Leo stumbling across him. It’s enough to guess that they were in their own little bubble for the most part, with Leo dragging Sena around. That’s the impression I got from them. Especially with for example how Naru would comment on how she never knew him well and how she would often see those two together.

Sena also refused to acknowledge the feelings and his relationship with Leo instead deciding to ignore all the red flags and use him all for what he’s worth. Continuously disregarding his relationship with him even though he monologues to himself how Leo is charming and a carnivorous beast. Which even Leo was aware of how fucked he was during their second year yet still decided to press on regardless of what was happening around him.

During Rebellion too Kuro mentions Leo going berserk before which is an interesting descriptor for someone. There’s also Sena mentioning how he tossed out his humanity and snapped. Then later in gambit going on to say that he went on a villainous rampage and with how they generally talk about the war era gives an idea that Leo, while with the resolve to protect the things he holds dear willingly cut down whoever was in path regardless of who they may have been to him. While he loved and wanted to protect, devoting himself to Sena he tore everything around him down, disregarding anyone else’s feelings as he was also in pain and needed to vent it out.

Their relationship with death

When it comes to both of these characters they are intrinsically related to death, it is a huge part of the narratives surrounding them and how they’re written. The narratives within their respective stories could not happened without them, Ayanos death happens In every route without fail regardless of it’s an accident or sacrificing herself for her siblings meanwhile Leo would perish in that school with and without the war the only way he’d ever survive is if he didn’t go to Yumenosaki. Although even that is a questionable statement.

Leo

When it comes to Leo his downfall had been a slow burn but as soon as he broke his arm saving Little John that’s when it truly began. He truly realised that none of them cared or loved him like he did but he was still in denial. Laying there with his broken arm bleeding out whilst trying to convince himself it wasn’t a tragedy, he composes a song in his own blood, the blood keeping him alive. He in that moment was sacrificing the very thing that keeps him alive to compose a new song, a weapon, that would possibly be used by someone who doesn’t love him.

Weapons are common imagery associated with Leo’s songs as well, that is how you’d fight in a musical war after all. To everyone he has no use unless he can give all of himself to create their weapons(songs) to fight(perform). When he asked if the members of chess would have his friendship or his songs they all chose Leo’s songs over him. The only one he did not ask was Sena, however this can be read as A) Leo believed he knew Sena’s answer already Or B) he was too scared to ask. I think both are valid readings personally yet by the time October came around Leo saw that eleven Sena just like everyone else didn’t care about him anymore and only wanted him for his songs.

Even if Leo doesn’t want to compose anymore he will force himself to so that he won’t be thrown away by the ones he loves, this goes to such extremes as biting his hands raw and bloody if it means they’d have a new weapon. He’s sacrificing his body and all of himself just for the ones he loves even if it may end up killing him in the end. In Canary he doesn’t want to compose, not really but if he doesn’t compose a new song that suits his unit’s taste then he’s as good as dead. They can discard him all they want, because the only worth a canary has is it’s song and the only worth Leo has is the songs he can compose.

In Checkmate Leo walks to his death with his head held high. He’s interested in Ritsu and Naru’s abilities while pledging his life to Sena’s. He loves him. However, he’s desperate for the unbreakable sword to save him from his death. He has no one else, so he’ll sacrifice his heart, soul and body to Sena even if he ends up in bloody tatters, he will do everything for the ones he loves even if that means walking to his own grave. His death was an orchestrated affair but no one truly anticipated he’d die, Eichi tried to see himself in him but instead he was met with someone who would rather let a game of chess go on forever so they could keep playing.

Checkmate and We’ll be knights is his pledge to himself and everyone to devote himself in his entirety to protecting Knights. There are no more options left for them but to stain the chessboard with the blood of their past comrades. He made his decision to make Sena’s dreams come true, so following that he’ll abandon everything else regardless of the love he once had for them and pierce their bodies under the guise of the love he’s desperately clinging to.

Leo also does a good job of hiding his feelings, for example no one knew about his stage fright. It was alluded to but it was never actually stated or even addressed by his unit mates for example. There’s how he wanted to push himself and get better but no one saw that and we’re just like ‘well it’s fine if he doesn’t we have a back up plan.’ It’s also commonly mentioned how it’s difficult for characters to tell what he’s thinking. Which translates here as even with the outburst about how stupid he was to buy into everyone’s circumstantial love, Leo was able to smile and put on a show where everyone was none the wiser about his breaking heart.

If Leo didn’t die as an idol the whole narrative would not be the same, would Tsukasa still even be allowed in knights? I personally doubt it or at least it would be more difficult for him to join. We know the whole DDD fiasco would certainly be different and so on. Meanwhile, if Leo never returned the narrative probably wouldn’t change much, even in the events that Leo is there for the only ones with a major impact would be Rebellion and Requiem. Leo doesn’t have that much impact on a lot of the events, he’s doing his own thing. Canary’s whole conflict wouldn’t happen, Horror night wouldn’t change much at all, same with Fleur dis lis, starlight and fortune banquet. Requiem would majorly change due to it being Izuleo’s graduation and Leo’s outburst caused most of the conflict.

Leo is also generally described as sacrificial, especially from Sena’s perspective. To Sena in rebellion he talks about how he threw away everything to protect knights during the war and that while he doesn’t know what kind of person he is now due to the carnage he knows Leo must still care somewhat for knights. To Sena, Leo died as an idol to bring his dreams to fruition as well as shielding him from the hurt and pain of the deceased they killed during the war.

During Dark night passing/Next door and Gambit this comes up again. Leo chains himself to make up for his past mistakes, he releases songs with a shady guy so that people can still listen to these songs even if they’re not good as a part of his repentance. A shady guy that could easily lead to the death of Leo as an idol once again. He will gladly die once more if it means he can make up for his crimes. In Gambit too he goes off on his own again to sacrifice himself, willing to lend a hand to king slayer and let them have the name of knights. He’ll put himself in harm's way so his precious friends will be unscathed.

Ayano

Ayano is built on the perception of wanting to be a good big sister. A caring big sister. Outside of her siblings Ayano lacks an identity. Yes she loves wearing her scarf, yes she loves Tokusatsu/heroes but that’s mostly it. She’s sweet and kind, gets awful grades but that’s not much of an identity. Without her family Ayano has nothing to her name.

When Ayano is met with the circumstances of an evil snake possessing her father and killing her family she does everything she can. She gets her brother to help to pretend to be her so she can investigate, she does all the research she can and yet concludes she needs to die. She doesn’t consider killing her own father, she doesn’t consider getting anyone else involved or trying to get help under the guise it’s her father’s doing. She shoulders this alone. Ayano never even wanted Kano involved either but she was alone and scared and needed his eye power to help.

Ayano never wanted to die, she’s terrified. But if she doesn’t die, her entire family will be taken away from her. She has nothing left. She’s so quick to sacrifice herself because she loves them and Ayano can’t bear to exist in a world where they’re no longer alive. Ayano doesn’t want to die but feels she has no option left, she decides to die on the school roof probably because falling off is the easiest method of suicide. She just has to fall, slip, make one wrong move, ect. Every other method she has to harm her own body and fight her instincts to survive, this way she can make sure she doesn’t survive for her siblings sake because Ayano truly doesn’t want to die.

If Ayano never died here the entire plot would be different. Hypothetically you could have the rallying against Clearing eyes start during that summer she was supposed to die in. There are so many ways the story could have happened, but Ayano must die in a world where her siblings live.

At the end of manga2 Ayano is so willing to sacrifice herself to hold everyone’s bitter frustrations at being killed. All her siblings have died as well as some new friends. A world where they have died is not a world worth living in. She offers her body, her entire life to Mary, to effectively kill her and transcend her body of existence to a phantom of pain and suffering. It’s better that Ayano bears this doomed fate than anyone else. She’s alone in a purgatory of her own making, a hell forcing herself to watch the same few days in a week of summer over and over again with no one for company. She may have shintaro but shintaro doesn’t really count for company when he’s unaware she’s been living inside him since before he was born.

She for a long time did not feel human anymore so what’s more fitting for a monster than to be locked away and subjected to a time loop of searing the deaths of her loved ones on repeat into her eyes. This is a fate she cannot bear to give anyone else, it will be her own burden to bear.

She refuses to live in a world where her siblings are dead, so instead she’ll put herself in a time loop of suffering in hopes this transformation into a snake will someday save them. Even if it means centurises of watching them die over and over again, if they eventually escape and are allowed to grow up this punishment will be worth it.

Ayano’s death is a fundamental rule of the project. It happens in every route without fail, the narrative cannot begin unless Ayano has met her death regardless if she leaves the kagerou daze or not and regardless if it’s a suicide or intentional. The narrative cannot begin unless she dies.

Conclusion

In conclusion I pair them together a lot due to how their respective narratives portray their characterisation and their roles within the stories related to other characters. They feel fairly similar to me personally.

As a bonus Shintaro and Sena both get blamed to their face by Ayano(Kano)/Leo that their mental downfall is all their fault. While it was kano in truth Shintaro does not know about it until two years later long after the damage has been dealt. (That’s if he finds out at all in the route )

#this is like 6.5K words #Ayano Leo similarities are real TO ME #I write this in a document called autism diagnosis #character analysis #tateyama ayano #leo tsukinaga #sena izumi #kisaragi shintaro #ensemble stars #Enstars #kageou project #kagerou daze #kagepro #mekakucity actors #naki’s asks #technically shinaya and izuleo

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