#ga meta: manga

[everythingsinred]

~ essay navigation ~

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Anya's essays are interesting in theory, but I really don't wanna read ALL of it! I just wanna read the analysis of my favorite parts!" or maybe "I DID read all of Anya's essays but now I wanna reread one specific thing she talked about and I can't remember which post it was in because there's too many of them!" ? Me too! Don't even worry about it! Today I am addressing those issues with a TABLE OF CONTENTS!

This is for essay parts AND in-depth character questions related to GA that I've answered. I get a LOT of questions about GA's ending and thus I feel like I've talked about it exhaustively. This is how I make it all digestible. <3 Love ya!

Anime NM Essay (6 parts/includes a self-contained and easy to navigate table of contents so I won't go into it again here)

NatsuMikan Essay (Natsume's Version) (30 parts. This is the one people actually read I think):

Part 1 (covers ch 1-4. corresponds to pt 1 of mikan's/ mikan entering the academy and the northern woods game)

Part 2 (covers ch 5-8. corresponds to pt 1+2+3 of mikan's/ northern woods game and mikan's intro to academy life)

Part 3 (covers ch 9-12, corresponds to pt 4 of mikan's/ dodgeball, letters, culture fest announcement, and central town)

Part 4 (covers ch 13-16, corresponds to pt 5 of mikan's/ the reo arc)

Part 5 (covers ch 17-20, corresponds to pt 6+7 of mikan's/ culture fest up to anna's shop)

Part 6 (covers ch 21-26, corresponds to pt 7+8 of mikan's/ rest of the culture fest)

Part 7 (covers ch 27-30, corresponds to pt 9 of mikan's/ exams, kaname & bear's story, beginning of z arc)

Part 8 (covers ch 31-35, corresponds to pt 10 of mikan's/ part 2 of z arc up to going through the tunnel)

Part 9 (covers ch 36-40, corresponds to pt 11+12 of mikan's/ part 3 of z arc up to the discovery of z's headquarters)

Part 10 (covers ch 41-44, corresponds to pt 12+13 of mikan's/ part 4 of z arc up to its conclusion)

Part 11 (covers ch 45-47, corresponds to pt 13 of mikan's/ natsume's bday and christmas ball prep)

Part 12 (covers ch 48-52, corresponds to pt 14 of mikan's/ christmas ball and winter cleaning)

Part 13 (covers ch 53-55, corresponds to pt 15 of mikan's/ part 1 of new year's arc up to n&m sleeping together)

Part 14 (covers ch 56-61, corresponds to pt 16 of mikan's/ part 2 of new year's arc up to yakumo and natsume's fight)

Part 15 (covers ch 66-70, corresponds to pt 17+18 of mikan's/ part 3 of new year's arc up to conclusion and aoi's departure)

Part 16 (covers ch 71-76, corresponds to pt 19+20 of mikan's/ transition arc including alice stones and valentine's day)

Part 17 (covers ch 77-80, corresponds to pt 21 of mikan's/ part 1 of sports fest arc up to the equipment mishap)

Part 18 (covers ch 81-86, corresponds to pt 22+23 of mikan's/ part 2 of sports fest arc up to n&m's masked hug and conclusion)

Part 19 (covers ch 89-91, corresponds to pt 24 of mikan's/ soul swap arc)

Part 20 (covers ch 93-95, corresponds to pt 25 of mikan's/ transition arc including swimming up to n&m hugging to comfort each other)

Part 21 (covers ch 96-100, corresponds to pt 26 of mikan's/ beginning of escape arc, natsume's confessions)

Part 22 (covers ch 101-116, corresponds to pt 27+28 of mikan's/ part 1 of time travel arc up to izumi's death)

Part 23 (covers ch 117-123, corresponds to pt 28 of mikan's/ part 2 of time travel arc up to conclusion & mikan's decision)

Part 24 (covers ch 124-138, corresponds to pt 29+30+31 of mikan's/ high school arc up to conclusion)

Part 25 (covers ch 140-143, corresponds to pt 32+33 of mikan's/ yuka's funeral, christmas ball and shiki's gift to mikan)

Part 26 (covers ch 144-145, corresponds to pt 33 of mikan's/ rapunzel arc)

Part 27 (covers ch 146-149/ natsume and ruka developments and new year's planning)

Part 28 (covers ch 150-163, corresponds to pt 34 of mikan's/ new year's concert and natsume's death)

Part 29 (covers ch 178-180, corresponds to pt 39 of mikan's/ final chapters, which we all know by now i despise)

Part 30 (covers the nm content in kageki, corresponds to pt 40 of mikan's)

NatsuMikan Essay (Mikan's Version) (40 parts. Longer and stole more of my soul but got less engagement) :

Part 1 (covers ch 1-2, corresponds to pt 1 of natsume's/ mikan entering the academy)

Part 2 (covers ch 3-5, corresponds to pt 1+2 of natsume's/ adventure in the northern woods)

Part 3 (covers ch 6-8, corresponds to pt 2 of natsume's/ mikan's intro to academy life)

Part 4 (covers ch 9-12, corresponds to pt 3 of natsume's/ dodgeball, letters, culture fest announcement, and central town)

Part 5 (covers ch 13-16, corresponds to pt 4 of natsume's/ the reo arc)

Part 6 (covers ch 17-19, corresponds to pt 5 of natsume's/ culture fest throughout the SA event)

Part 7 (covers ch 20-22, corresponds to pt 5+6 of natsume's/ culture fest up to imai sibling meeting)

Part 8 (covers ch 23-26, corresponds to pt 6 of natsume's/ culture fest up to conclusion)

Part 9 (covers ch 26-30, corresponds to pt 7 of natsume's/ exams, kaname & bear's story, beginning of z arc)

Part 10 (covers ch 31-35, corresponds to pt 8 of natsume's/ part 2 of z arc up to going through the tunnel)

Part 11 (covers ch 36-39, corresponds to pt 9 of natsume's/ part 3 of z arc up to mikan falling in the sand trap)

Part 12 (covers ch 40-43, corresponds to pt 9+10 of natsume's/ part 4 of z arc up to pengy's death)

Part 13 (covers ch 44-47, corresponds to pt 10+11 of natsume's/ conclusion of z arc, natsume's bday and christmas prep)

Part 14 (covers ch 48-52, corresponds to pt 12 of natsume's/ christmas ball and winter cleaning)

Part 15 (covers ch 53-55, corresponds to pt 13 of natsume's/ part 1 of new year's arc up to n&m sleeping together)

Part 16 (covers ch 56-61, corresponds to pt 14/ part 2 of new year's arc up to h+r+m chasing after natsume and ruka deciding to tell his and natsume's tale)

Part 17 (covers ch 65-67, corresponds to pt 15 of natsume's/ part 3 of new year's arc up to mikan getting hit by persona's alice for the first time)

Part 18 (covers ch 68-70, corresponds to pt 15 of natsume's/ part 4 of new year's arc up to conclusion and aoi's departure)

Part 19 (covers ch 71-73, corresponds to pt 16 of natsume's/ part 1 of transition arc, including alice stones and valentines day)

Part 20 (covers ch 74-76, corresponds to pt 16 of natsume's/ part 2 of transition arc, including the graduation concert and hoshino)

Part 21 (covers ch 77-80, corresponds to pt 17 of natsume's/ part 1 of sports fest arc up to equipment mishap)

Part 22 (covers ch 81-84, corresponds to pt 18 of natsume's/ part 2 of sports fest arc up to the borrowing race)

Part 23 (covers ch 85-88, corresponds to pt 18 of natsume's/ part 3 of sports fest arc up to kibasen and conclusion)

Part 24 (covers ch 89-92, corresponds to pt 19 of natsume's/ soul swap arc)

Part 25 (covers ch 93-95, corresponds to pt 20 of natsume's/ transition arc including swimming up to n&m hugging to comfort each other)

Part 26 (covers ch 96-100, corresponds to pt 21 of natsume's/ beginning of escape arc, natsume's confessions)

Part 27 (covers ch 101-110, corresponds to pt 22 of natsume's/ part 1 of time travel arc up to n&m/kaoru&yuka parallel)

Part 28 (covers ch 111-123, corresponds to pt 22+23 of natsume's/ part 2 of time travel arc up to conclusion and mikan's decision)

Part 29 (covers ch 124-131, corresponds to pt 24 of natsume's/ part 1 of high school arc up to hotaru's farewell)

Part 30 (covers ch 132-134, corresponds to pt 24 of natsume's/ part 2 of high school arc, including mikan getting 3 love confessions and returning 1)

Part 31 (covers ch 135-139, corresponds to pt 24 of natsume's/ part 3 of high school arc up to conclusion and yuka's death)

Part 32 (covers ch 140-142, corresponds to pt 25 of natsume's/ reuniting with mikan in labyrinth)

Part 33 (covers ch 143-145, corresponds to pt 26 of natsume's/ rapunzel arc)

Part 34 (covers ch 150-163, corresponds to pt 27 of natsume's/ new year's concert, escaping with persona, and natsume's death)

Part 35 (covers ch 164-166/ mikan trying to save natsume)

Part 36 (covers ch 167-169/ mikan's widow arc)

Part 37 (covers ch 170-172/ memories lesson)

Part 38 (covers ch 173-177/ mikan's departure)

Part 39 (covers ch 178-180, corresponds to pt 29 of natsume's/ final chapters... this part is just me ranting actually)

Part 40 (covers nm content in kageki/ corresponds to pt 30 of natsume's)

To be continued because Tumblr hates me and I hate it back <3

[lucysarah-c]

What do you think about Levi not mentioning Farlan and Isabel throughout the anime? They were literally his first real friends and family. Even in their deaths he was frustrated. But strangely we don't see any flashback scenes about them or Levi talking about them. It's obviously disturbing to me.

I have an Oc an underground childhood friend that I ship with Levi in particular and I didn't write their story down, but it makes me think that if my character was in danger or if she died with Farlan and Isabel or if she ended up dying long after their deaths, Levi would never remember her or talk about her, just like Farlan and Isabel's deaths, and that bothers me.

I know it's a bit strange to get this kind of analysis-like question since you are a Levi writer's blog. But since I love your writings and I really liked and found comfort in your answer to anon's question about whether Levi likes weak people. Because I am also a person who gets caught up in rumors and doubts whether Levi will like us or not haha.

Anyway, I don't want to deviate too much from the subject and make it too weird. You can answer question if you want.

Hi, sweetie! Oh, I see. Yes, I understand where you're coming from. First of all, I'd like to thank you for saying that you love my writing, and I'm so happy you found comfort in my answer about Levi and a "weak person." It's alright that we get lost in what the fandom discusses too frequently; it has happened to me too. And do not worry, rest assured, I don't find these "analysis questions" weird at all. Though my analysis will never be as good as my close friends', like my friend Sushi who used to have a meta-analysis blog of SnK or Cosmic! They are beyond amazing.

But to answer your question, before I get lost in my thoughts, long story short, Isayama is extremely bad at writing emotional connections in my humble opinion. In my personal group chat with my SnK close friends, we discuss this in great detail at least twice per week haha. In my opinion, Isayama is a writer or a storyteller who struggles to find a balance between keeping the plot going and creating a cohesive society and interrelationships between characters. I personally think that the story was always advancing so fast, full gas, no stop, that we hardly got any real details about the characters that made them human beyond their mere roles in the story.

I always use as an example, if one chapter in the manga or anime started with different panels of the veterans getting ready and sitting down all together for a meeting, we could have seen how their personal chambers were, how their interactions were not only between them aside the presence of the cadets, but we could have also seen how they confront early mornings, if they had paintings of loved ones, flowers on their desks, etc. It would have taken ... 5-10 pages at most, and we could have learned so much. It's something I even keep in mind while planning my own stories; I have an entire notebook of "backstory" for all the characters of Holy Ground, canon or not. So when the time comes around, I can drop little details of their lives here and there because... Let's be honest, has someone ever sat down next to you and said "here, let me tell you my whole life"? No, usually, you get to know someone organically, and that's also what, in my opinion, should happen in stories.

Now, going back to why Levi doesn't talk about Farlan and Isabel. Well, my best answer to you is, sadly, another question. Tell me one scene in the whole anime or manga where Levi was having some quality time with someone he felt comfortable enough to open up and talk about fond memories, be vulnerable, or even crack a joke about some silly hormonal stuff he did as a young man with Farlan. Tell me, I will wait... Haha.

Levi doesn't talk about Farlan or Isabel because he doesn't have screen time to talk about almost anything besides the plot moving haha. I would put my hands on a burning fire and swear that Farlan and Isabel are still extremely important to Levi! And so would be your OC! Don't let Isayama's literary limitations fence your story. That's my best advice; explore feelings that he didn't have the production time for (perhaps he wasn't allowed to write about it because of financial stuff) or he simply wasn't good at it.

Hope that helps!

Love ya!

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Post Index: Meta & Translations

Hello! I write about cultural and linguistic nuances in MHA, focusing predominantly on the character growth and relationship between Bakugou Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku.

I'm also part of a fan-translation subtitling project for the DVD releases of the Japanese musical stage adaption, My Hero Academia: The Ultra Stage, organized by dekusheroacademia. You can find more information about it on their blog!

Posts are arranged chronologically by date.

Linguistics & Cultural Meta

Katsuki as the unlikable ikemen

The lyrics of "SKETCH" and how they interplay with Bakugou Katsuki: Rising

Izuku and Katsuki talk about the bullying differently

The special status of "childhood friends"

“Motto mo naka ga ii”: The Language of Bonds in Japanese

"His weaknesses" or "My own weaknesses": Layers of meaning in Chapter 284's furigana

Katsuki's Danger Sense

Dynamy's name & elongated vowels in written Japanese

"Deku is fine, Kacchan": Izuku is sincere and Katsuki is hilarious

Frame Narratives in Manga & Chapter 348

Cultural perceptions of curse words and rude language in Japanese

Omae: Complexity of Self-Expression and Intimacy with the Japanese “You”

"We'll handle the things you can't" Plural, Singular, & Proximal Demonstrative Pronouns

"I know" or "We get it"? Katsuki's Intentions in Chapter 322

Chapter 348’s “Shitty Nerd” Narrator Isn’t Omniscient (And It’s Not Bakugou Katsuki) (Follow-up to Frame Narratives in Manga)

Omae Part 2 Electric Boogaloo (aka "An Exhaustive Analysis of Bakugou Katsuki's Second-Person Pronoun Usage")

Character Meta

Bullying in Japan and how Izuku sees Katsuki's behavior

Translations

New Year's Bunny Izuku

"Go Beyond" (Deku's "heart" theme) [Ultra Stage]

Musical 4 Promotional Poster [Ultra Stage]

"I'm gonna be on top!" [Ultra Stage]

Volume 37's cover announcement and title

"Impatient Heart" (Deku's Kacchan song) [Ultra Stage]

U.A. High School Field Trip Around Japan: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Things I Made

Less Than Zero (bkdk AMV)

[bthump]

sorry, it’s not meta or even question, i just wanted to share my feelings about this manga and fandom and you can skip it if you want (and my english is bad too)

the misunderstanding of griffith's character upsets me a lot. like, i have known since my childhood that in some manga exist character that named Griffith and he is the biggest asshole of all villains ever and pure evil lol. I ended up reading this manga only at the age of 20 and I was so shocked after the end of GA. i thought that i’m insane and seeing things that is not in his character before i find your blog (and i want to thank you for your work. you are like a sunshine in this dark smelly scrapyard of dudebros). buuuut i find its kinda ironic (sadly) that the most highly moral and very sensitive character claimed as “cold psychopath”. he literally was killed by his human heart (feelings for guts) and good intentions, his burden is too heavy. and it’s too ironic that manga with such a deep characters have so infantile and stupid fandom. i really can’t shut up about this for months.

<3 thank you for your kind words, and for sharing your thoughts!

I completely agree, it's a huge shame that so much of the berserk fandom ignores Griffith's complexities, emotions, morality, etc. They're missing out on a great story by pretending the Golden Age is about some dude who's always been secretly evil.

[alovelyburn]

Rambles about Berserk Deluxe Volume 1 (aka V1-3) - Part 1

OKAY WELL OBVIOUSLY NO ONE WILL REMEMBER ME, but whatever, if you’re here you’re about to start getting flooded with Berserk meta again because I am rereading the series and I started doing it on Twitter but holy crap what a nightmare that is. 

Things to note: 

-I like Griffith, if that’s a problem for you then I... I don’t care, have fun with that, I don’t know. -I barely remember how Tumblr works -Honestly a lot of this is probably just going to be me talking about things I already talked about years ago but realtalk I don’t read my own old meta so like, I have no idea what i said back in the day. 

So without further ado, 

Rambles about Berserk Deluxe Volume 1 (aka V1-3)

1. I remember back in my Berserk fandom days there was a disagreement between fans on whether the Black Swordsman arc was necessary at all and whether it should have been situated after the golden age instead of having the golden age arrive as this prolonged flashback. 

The argument was  generally that the Black Swordsman arc spoils the end of the Golden Age, which it DOES but... to me that's skewing the importance a bit, right like the Golden Age is a flashback, the whole point of the entire arc is to explain what's happening in the main story which is  everything *except* the Golden Age. For various reasons the GA is the most famous/popular part and obviously the most adapted part so it does change the way people might see this since so many people come into the manga through one of the animes that really only touched on the Hawks era, but it doesnt change the fact that, in the manga, the Golden Age is literally just a long flashback, so you're *supposed* to know how it ends. 

I also think the Black Swordsman arc provides some necessary context for understanding what happens in the GA, especially re: Griffith's mindset since Griffith  himself doesn't talk much about his thoughts or feelings which has made him rather easy to misinterpret... which is actually what drove me out of Berserk fandom and into JoJo's back in the day because I literally could not stomach another argument about whether Griffith is a sociopath (no).

2. Also, the scene with Guts in the snake duke guy's dungeon (and just his early relationship with Puck in general) is pretty interesting when you consider the much later revelation about his history with the flower elf. Obviously that was almost certainly not something Miura knew  he would add when writing it, but as retroactive logic it does work very well - last time he left an elf get attached to him she ended up killing herself so you know, why do it again?

It really continues into his early attitude with Puck in general, even in the later chapters until he gets used to having the guy around.

3.  Going into the priest-and-daughter chapter (The Brand), it's interesting to see how much of Griffith's stupid Promrose speech he's still carrying around with him.

Priest: My nephew became a mercenary and died 

Guts: WELL THAT WAS HIS DREAM RIGHT, I MEAN HE DID WHAT HE WANTED NO MATTER WHAT, SO WHAT HE DIED ITS FINE, WE’RE FINE.

4. He’s also inherited Griffith’s nasty habit of swallowing his guilt by pretending he’s actually totally cool with people dying because of him. I remember back in the day people used to say Guts comes off as a psychopath or a villain type early on, and I kind of get it, but I do think it’s fairly obvious from the beginning that he’s bullshitting himself. And then of course that becomes VERY evident after his encounter with the slug count and Theresia.

4. In an old interview Miura had mentioned that Casca’s presence post-Eclipse, really the reason she survived the Eclipse to begin with, was to prevent Guts from dissociating form the Eclipse and letting the memory go dull. That does make sense to the writer in me, but the reader in me is like, how could he forget, the eclipse never really stopped happening for him. hes still being attacked everywhere he goes. 

I actually kind of miss the horrible effect of the brand.

5. This has nothing to do with the story but if I’m paying 50 bucks for a huge deluxe edition of Berserk, I feel like I should have gotten the colored pages in color. Just saying!

6. I really just... love Guts so much? His wildness especially in those early days, his apparent fearlessness which is actually just a pretense since per Puck he’s actually afraid basically all the time AND WHO WOULDN’T BE? 

7. I know this gets said a lot but Guts’ sword is obviously used metaphorically a LOT, I mean if I keep doing these things (why,...) it will just come up over and over again, him and his heap of raw iron. But also all his other swords.

8. One of the things I really deeply love about Guts is watching him fight. I could watch the battle scenes in the OVAs forever, and the thing I love about it, aside from watching this person who is in so many ways unsure of himself and his value and his relationships suddenly become absolutely sure and confident and just transform into a force of nature. I bring this up here because I reached the part in the slug count story where Guts reveals the depth of his skill with a sword and its one of my favorite moments in the Black Swordsman arc. 

9. Guts and his rage at people being nice to him.

10. So one of the things Miura did a lot is... this kind of sequence where you get a visual parallel and often text about someone else that is meant to clue the reader in on what’s going on with a different character entirely. This is the first of them - where we start to understand what happened with Guts through this comparison with Vargas, who was mutilated and lost his loved ones to monsters - the specifics of the mutilation are even direct parallels to Guts’ wounds from the Eclipse. In some cases this storytelling technique is very difficult for me to interpret and analyze because I’m not an especially visual person? But I do make an effort to pay attention to it because it’s done a LOT and in some cases those parallels are the only way you ever have a situation or emotion directly addressed (eg. the King and Griffith in the dungeon, which is just the King and Griffith talking about the King in a way that we’re meant to understand applies to Griffith but yeah anyway that’s several volumes in the future). 

Also the ENTIRE final confrontation with the Slug Count is literally 75% this exact storytelling technique so its not surprising to me that the first use is a parallel between Guts and Vargas, particularly with the later parallels between the Count and Fermto/Griffith.

11. And there he goes again, covering his pain and guilt and self-hatred with rage and disdain. Genuinely one of the things that frustrates me about Western Berserk fandom is the stubborn inability to perceive the nuance in Griffith’s character yes, but also in Guts’s character. He is so often perceived as just the metal badass on a vengeance quest because he hates Griffith so much and hes actually a pretty complicated person with extremely complicated relationships with himself and Casca and Griffith and so much of it is literally just stated outright that I have no fucking idea how people miss it, it is the weirdest thing I have ever encountered in any fandom ever and I don’t understand why it happens. Anyway.

12. So, the obvious interpretation for this scene would be that he’s thinking about the ever ambitious Hawk who ended up self-destructing... but I actually think he’s talking about himself. He’s shitting on himself for having dared to imagine that he could step out of Griffith’s shadow and do something that made him Griffith’s equal and, in the process, ended up abandoning the people he loved in a way that led to Griffith turning into a demon and Casca being raped and going mad, killed his surrogate family and got him permanently maimed. 

Now let me be clear, I don’t think it’s his fault. But I think he thinks it’s his fault because he aimed too high and accidentally broke Griffith. Which, I mean, he is aware that he’s the one who did that by this point.

And that is why, even though he identifies with Vargas, even though he is frustrated and pained by Vargas’s situation, he also holds Vargas in contempt. Because he sees himself in Vargas, and he hates himself.

...

It’s 3am, I’m gonna stop now. Bai!

[demonwield]

     . . .so I’m RE-READING Akame ga Kill! ZERO and. . .I might. . .need to actually start making icons cause the manga still had really good art and could still be used for her even in older rps. . .not to mention I. . .think I should go over a meta about the last chapters. 

     Because the last chapters REALLY shape up Akame as a character, explain Gozuki more, the weight he left on her shoulders, just so much. . .and man, I forgot though I HATED her father. . .he. . .really was a good man in the end. Just put between a ROCK and a HARD CHOICE. . .and he truly did love her.

     . . .do I do it, and break everyone’s heart today?

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Mikan (pt. 40)

Hey! I played Just Dance with Zoe and then decided I was just gonna post this last part because I don't want it hanging over me. It's July and I just exercised and it's really friggin' hot and I'm sweating but I'm gonna post this so I don't forget tomorrow.

That's right, folks! Just one more part in the forty part essay special by yours truly about everyone's favorite shoujo manga couple (I speak for everyone on the planet, yes)!

<- Prev

Kageki no Kuni no Alice Chapter Four

Kageki is a step-up from the last few chapters because… well, because I get to pretend like those chapters just didn’t happen. There’s a lot I don’t like about Kageki, but I like the NatsuMikan, which there is a fair amount of! And that’s what I’ll be discussing today. Hopefully that’ll lighten the mood from last time. Though! I don't have much new to say that I didn't already say in Natsume's version. I'll do my best so we can end on a high note!

Natsume and Mikan are at the Opera School in order to visit Aoi, because they do everything together. But Natsume is also being ridiculously cold to one of Aoi’s classmates, Tsubasa’s sister, for no real reason. So Mikan and Aoi both scold him for being mean. Mikan apologizes for Natsume’s sake and we get a glimpse of the fact that they both have matching promise rings. 

RINGS!!!! They're gonna get married!!!

This is pretty big because as far as we know, Mikan just got back to the Academy a few weeks ago, and only part of her memories were recovered, but somehow in that time, her romance with Natsume has rekindled enough that she once more wants to get married to him… though this rekindling occurred off-page. Sigh. 

This chapter is presented in a strange way, jumping around in time, starting with a confrontation and then rewinding. I think it’s to introduce Natsume and Mikan right away for fans so they keep reading, but it makes things jumbled up. Natsume is as handsome and popular as ever, and quickly gets the attention of the Opera Troupe girls, but this excitement is dampened by Mikan’s enthusiastic arrival because oh dang he’s taken. 

That's right!

Mikan is excited to meet Hikari, because she loves Tsubasa, and it’s funny to see her speaking for herself and Natsume (because they are an item!), much to his chagrin, loudly proclaiming their joint appreciation for Tsubasa’s care. What I like about that is that Mikan and Natsume are a unit at this point, which is what makes her feel comfortable speaking for his feelings in the first place. “I” becomes “we.”

Hikari grabs onto this, that Mikan knows Tsubasa, and tries to get more information out of her. Mikan is affected by pretty faces, as we know, and Hikari is beautiful (or handsome? Since she’s characterized by a sense of masculinity in this story but honestly I've never read this manga in its entirety so I wouldn't really know), so she gets overwhelmed and Natsume ultimately ruins the mood again by stressing to Hikari that her brother wants her to leave.

I'm so delighted we can get back to NM content that makes me feel something!

Mikan scolds him for being harsh, though he claims he’s just not interested in sugarcoating. Hikari gets depressed and Mikan is again affected, though Natsume doesn’t like that. Then Thoma arrives, and the atmosphere between him and Natsume tenses, which spurs Mikan to ask what their relationship is. It could be simple curiosity or actual jealousy, whichever. If it is jealousy, then it’s interesting to note that the both of them are a little possessive of the other. Mikan certainly doesn’t seem to mind being monopolized by Natsume, but this could suggest she’s monopolizing him too. 

Natsume starts to leave and Mikan rushes after him. That makes me think that she could have been feeling jealousy, but mostly that she is just as intent on spending as much time together as he is. He can’t leave without her when she came to spend time with him! 

They are a married couple, even if they're not married yet.

When they leave, they’re joined by Narumi, who calls Natsume kind and thus gives Mikan a new impression of what he was doing with Hikari. It’s hard to tell with Natsume, honestly, because his kindness and cruelty all look the same. When Natsume confronts Naru by asking if Hikari was dragged into the school for Thoma’s sake, Naru denies it. Then he brings up the manipulative action of scouting Mikan for the Academy, leading to their meeting and falling in love. He turns to Mikan and asks if she thinks that was a mistake, coming to the Academy and meeting everyone.

It's refreshing to go back to "everyone" again, to remember the sheer number of people Mikan loves. Her alice stone was created by the thoughts of many loved ones, after all, not just Natsume, not just Hotaru. There is not just one name written on her heart.

She must no longer hide behind everyone or we... She can initiate affection like this. Isn't that amazing?

She grabs Natsume’s hand and says “Not at all!” looking him straight in the eyes, so he knows she’s telling him, “How could I regret something that brought me to you?” This makes it personal. Yes, she's happy to have met everyone else and they are all dear, but reassuring Natsume means letting him know how much he specifically matters to her. She trusts Narumi because she’s sure he has good intentions. After all, with everything that happened on her side of things, Narumi seems to have only been helpful. This is also a callback to Narumi requesting that Mikan have faith in him, despite his recent betrayal with the letters. Mikan chose to trust him then and never stopped. Natsume seems to cave, because he's weak when it comes to her, but he admonishes Naru for being manipulative.

Natsume then tells Mikan not to hang around Naru or Hikari anymore, just a little taste of what Natsume monopolizing Mikan looks like. He obviously knows that Mikan will not listen to that, but it’s his way of communicating that he dislikes Naru manipulating her or the way she behaved around Hikari. Mikan just says “huh?” though, so his message might not have gone through the way he liked.

Chapter Five

There’s not much I can analyze in Kageki that I didn’t already mention in Natsume’s version because they spend literally all their time together. On top of that, we get little of their perspectives, and mainly see them through Hikari’s eyes. So if this is short or minimal… oops.

Hikari is being stalked and bullied by Bear, and Natsume gets annoyed that she’s not angrier with him. This is a plot thing, but I always think of Mikan and how much I love her rage and how Higuchi ultimately drained her of all of it for the sake of being a smiley girl who makes everyone happy even to her own detriment. To me, he might be saying these words to Hikari, but he’s talking to Mikan too.

We're not just talking about Hikari, are we?

Mikan and Natsume are here as loving parents to pick Bear up from school, and Mikan is more focused on gathering Bear while Natsume is scolding Hikari. When Hikari’s cousin arrives to defend her, claiming that Hikari is just incredibly disciplined with her feelings, Natsume counters that she’s really just repressing them. (SOUNDS LIKE MIKAN!) I don’t think Natsume would be as adamant about this if it didn’t connect to Mikan. Maybe this is something they talk about, or something that will soon become a conversation. In any case, Mikan doesn’t seem to take any of what he’s saying personally, so maybe it’s not getting through to her.

In any case, Natsume goes a little overboard insulting Thoma, who instantly dismisses him by telling him to go home, which he does, but not before setting a fire that Mikan rushes to put out. After that, Mikan rushes after him. Because she has to be wherever he is. It's not just Natsume monopolizing her. It goes both ways.

There’s a big to-do about Hikari and Bear and anger and acting and Tsubasa, which I won’t get into mainly because I don’t really care. All that matters is Natsume using a non-burning fire and Mikan being impressed at the control he has over his alice. Like, "Wow, my boyfriend is so cool!"

Chapter 5.5 Omake

This omake takes place after Natsume was ordered to go home, so he and Mikan are doing just that, hand in hand. Where he goes, she goes, and vice versa. A clingy couple. 

GSHDFJHJKFGHKJDFJFHJFFJFGHSJFGDSHJFHAGSHK Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

Mikan asks what’s up with Natsume’s behavior with Thoma and Narumi pops out of the blue to explain that Natsume took her absence hard and that he strayed from the right path. Mikan is happy to see Naru; Natsume isn’t. All typical. But Mikan is confused because if Natsume skipped grades, shouldn’t that mean he was a good student and worked hard? And Naru says yes, that he did work hard, but by going on missions (THAT’S A CRIME NARUMI). Mikan is instantly concerned, because she watched him die once before and doesn’t ever want to experience that loss again, so Narumi assures her that none of the missions were at all physically taxing. That doesn’t eliminate her concern, though, until Natsume messes with her a little. 

In any case, Natsume re-enrolled as a high schooler when Mikan returned, so he could capitalize on her new presence. Mikan is excited to see Shiki and Narumi again when they appear, and they offer to show her Natsume’s middle school pics which she is excited to see until Natsume pulls her away, greedily. This chapter further teases Mikan and Natsume's rings, their inevitable wedding. Additionally, we see that there's some conversations yet to be had, particularly about what Natsume has been up to without her. She obviously wants to have these discussions, since she asks questions and then is so eager to see his middle school pictures, but it seems like Natsume is content now to completely leave that era in the past now that he has his girlfriend back.

Chapter Six

Mikan and the SA class are getting ready for the Culture Fest. Natsume complains about the Opera School students coming to visit the Academy campus during such a busy time, but he’s not really doing anything, so it feels unfair for him to say. 

Mikan doesn’t seem to mind that she’s being followed by a leech, and she teases him. She doesn't need him to help. He's just there so they can be together, and if he doesn't contribute anything, then that's fine too, as long as he's around. But the teasing never ends, because they wouldn't be NatsuMikan without it. This is crucial, because their bickering was never a cover-up for anything like it sometimes is for other bickering couples. For them, the bickering was always a relief. For Natsume, he could act immature and childish with someone when he’d been forced into a far more adult role in his life. For Mikan, it’s a way for her to cheer up when she’s feeling down, because bickering with him makes them both happy. The fact that they’re now officially a couple doesn’t eliminate the bickering, it just eliminates the pretense about it.

I'm sniffling...

Chapter 11.5 Omake

This is an outtake chapter surrounding Hikari searching for inspiration for her acting in a kiss scene. Tsubasa can’t help her for some reason, even though he’s in a relationship (inexplicably, his relationship is described as “new,” even though he and Misaki have been dating for like five years at this point). Thus, she must look elsewhere for romantic inspiration. And where better than Natsume and Mikan out and eating floating soft serve ice cream together?

She gets the ice cream all over her face and, since there’s nobody around, he licks it off her. She seems to find that silly and cute and laughs as he does so, though she is blushing. Will Mikan ever stop blushing around Natsume though? I don’t think so. It’s nice though that their affection is so reciprocal now. She doesn’t even freak out, really, which implies that there’s more intimacy to this extent happening away from the reader’s prying eyes. 

This was given to us because Higuchi felt bad about what she made us go through with the wretched final chapters. I appreciate the apology, actually, but I think we all agree we could use some more apologies of this nature.

They’re interrupted and it’s only then that Mikan freaks out, embarrassed to be seen doing something so weird. Very interesting! Maybe they'll work up to PDA status later. Nobody likes a voyeur, which is what the others are right now, but getting spied on while you're kissing is a little different than typical PDA. Who knows!

Conclusion

This is my last NM conclusion as far as I know now. How cute they are in this little spin-off manga! It lifts my spirits. Hopefully, seeing them all cutesy lifted your spirits too.

Anyway, friends, I'm genuinely remorseful that the last few parts of this essay were so negative and bitter. I'm usually not one to linger on those parts of GA. My mind is firmly rooted in various AU endings so I tend to be pretty chill about my feelings, but when I have to specifically address everything, it all comes to the surface and I get a little bitter. I'm really sorry it had to be that way.

In any case, despite the bitterness towards the end, writing this essay was genuinely a blast for me. It was nice to put my feelings about this manga into words.

I started writing this essay on April 12, 2015 (which means I was sixteen at the time). I always knew the exact order I'd write this essay in, because my main motivation in analyzing GA was to present my thesis about Mikan genuinely being in love with Natsume. Back then, I'd seen one too many tumblr posts about Mikan being "obligated" to be with Natsume because he was dying or because of comphet or because Natsume scared her or silly things like that and it pissed me off. Additionally, I was bombarded with people calling Mikan a Mary Sue or disregarding her character. I remember seeing posts like that in the dark ages and thinking, "Did these people even read the manga? Do they even pay attention to Mikan?"

I'd see those posts and roll my eyes. I'd read a grossly OOC Mikan in a fic and sigh exasperatedly. I'd see people disparaging her and I'd disapprove. I'd know deep down that Mikan does love Natsume and that she's much more than people are leading on. I knew they were wrong, but I more or less left it at that.

But then I'd ask myself what exactly it was that they were missing and I'd have to confront the fact that I was thinking based on vibes and "just because" and there's no evidence in that. Was I paying much attention to her either? So one day, probably in between ranting to Zoe, I opened up a Google Doc and decided I'd do the hard work and analyze the whole fucking manga to prove my point. Besides, there was no real analysis for NM out there, so I'd take one for the team and do it. But it wasn't enough to analyze NM. There's too much going on there to leave it to one essay.

After all, most people think of anime scenes when they think of the earlier chapters, and that's not accurate, so I'd have to distinguish between the anime and the manga. But it's not enough to simply distinguish! The anime contains scenes worth discussing, since NM is pretty different there. Thus, the essay had to be divided between manga and anime. But that wasn't enough, either, because analyzing Natsume and Mikan's feelings in one essay was sure to give me a headache, which means this project had to be three parts, and Mikan had to be last. She always had to be last, my grand finale to prove that she was no Mary Sue, that her love for Natsume was built up from the beginning, and that she had depth and growth that should be appreciated.

It is now July 27, 2023 at around 11 PM. I'm now finished.

Altogether, across all three essays, I wrote about 243,240 words about NatsuMikan. Hundreds of pages in my Google Docs. This would be a huge book. And if anyone out there read all of it? You're a damn trooper. I appreciate you so much.

To all my readers, the ones who stuck with me from the beginning, or the ones who find it long after I press post on this last one, the ones who read each word, or the ones who skimmed to the analysis of their favorite scenes, I thank you. To everyone who left a comment, I thank you. To everyone who reached out to tell me their thoughts, I thank you. To @crimsoncitrus for helping me out with plenty of the translations throughout this process, thank you! To @thesightofworms, for being my favorite person to rant to about GA, I very much thank you. And to Higuchi Tachibana, I thank you. I do have beef with some of your choices, but creating manga is no small feat and you wrote 180 chapters for us to consume and I am beyond grateful that you have created something so enduring and important to me, something I have never been able to move on from.

I have loved GA since I was twelve years old and I show no signs of stopping. This is just one labor of love of many to come. I'll never shut up about this manga. Today I finish a very long project that I've had on my mind since I was a teenager. Tomorrow I'll pursue another. I can't imagine I'll ever stop coming up with projects for GA. :)

Took me long enough, but we're done now! I love you all. Have a wonderful day <3

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[kanotototori]

Chapter 103-2

Happy extremely belated New Year’s, everyone - it is now February of 2023 buuuut this is my first meta of the year, so. :P

These Noragami thoughts where brought to you by “3 AM coffee and write the chapter thoughts post because it will never get done otherwise.”

Note: I had to remove all the links to my sources because Tumblr really hates them and so prevents the post from showing up in the tag. Urgh. Sorry about that.

Thoughts under the cut.

Word Count: 2,100~

Dated: February 6, 2023

Chapter 104-1

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen me change my mind about this chapter at least 3 times already - the truth is, I am still kind of on the fence about it. I think the next one and a half chapters could make or break the plot of this arc, depending on how Adachitoka chooses to contextualize Father’s new-found (asspull?) ability and what happens within the space this ability created. But that’s getting a bit ahead of things!

This page in particular is very intriguing to me.

 夜ト　おまえは言ったな　「どこの世界で生きてんだ」と

それがいい。今なら出来る

…この力を何と呼ぼう

What Father is quoting here ( どこの世界で生きてんだ ) is Yato’s line to him from Chapter 102-2: Lifeline.

I usually read Noragami chapter raws in full when they first come out and what I found interesting here is what comes after Father quotes that: それがいい。今なら出来る sore ga ii. ima nara dekiru (roughly, “That’s just fine/good. I/You can do that, now.”) The thing about Japanese is that it often omits the subject of a sentence if the subject can be inferred from the context of the conversation, which can be... quite vague, sometimes, more so in manga format where it isn’t always clear what the speaker is referring to. 今なら出来るin very literal terms would be something like “now, can do.” It’s not specified who can do (something) here: you could insert “you” or “I” or even “we” - if we’re counting Mizuchi as a participant in the conversation - as the pronoun and it would still make sense.

I think fast-moon’s translation makes perfect sense too but personally, when I first read this page, I inferred the subject to be Yato (”You can do that, now”) rather than Father (”That’s something I can do now”) because Father was quoting Yato (the subject of the sentence, the one doing the saying, おまえは言ったな... omae wa itta na). If Father was referring to himself, I would rather think that he would have used オレ (ore) preceding the sentence, the masculine pronoun that Father uses to refer to himself.

In that sense, I took it to be something like “You say I’m living in a completely different world, well, now you can do that too”, as in - you can live in that world (that I live in), too. Definitely take it with a grain of salt because I certainly don’t have as much translation experience as fast-moon buuut considering Hiyori sees the memories of the past in that void, I think it’s a reasonable interpretation to entertain.

102 also gave us this flashback, after all.

So, what is Birthing a Nation and what can it do? And - perhaps more importantly - where did this ability come from? (The jury is still out on whether it’s an asspull ability or not, lol, but I am definitely intrigued by it.)

The only thing we know for certain is that it can create a space: it is that black, reflective void that Shiiho likens to a lake, which is expanding (insert domain expansion joke here). Hiyori sees it as a space that is underwater, where several scenes can be seen. They might be memories, as we see the sakura tree under which Yato met Tamanone, Father and co.’s old hut, and possibly their home in Tamagahara. The end chapter note describes it as an “enchanted world” ( 魅せる世界, miseru sekai)* that was created by Birthing a Nation.

* Side note: I thought the 魅せる in 魅せる世界  miseru sekai was an alternative/archaic kanji spelling of the modern 見せる (miseru, “to see/to be shown”), but it’s actually a special class suru verb 魅 する (misuru, “to charm/to bewitch/to enchant”). I do wonder if it’s meant to be homonym worldplay on both  魅せる世界 “enchanted world” and 見せる世界 “world that can be seen/is shown”, Adachitoka does love their worldplay.

Its Japanese name, Kuni-umi ( 国生み ,”the birth/creation of the land/nation”), also alludes to this ability to create. As fast-moon pointed out in the translation notes, it specifically refers to the creation myth of the Japanese archipelago by Izanami and Izanagi.**

After the formation, Heaven was above and Earth was still a drifting soft mush. The first five gods named Kotoamatsukami (別天津神, "Separate Heavenly Deities") were lone deities without sex and did not reproduce. Then came the Kamiyonanayo (神世七代, "The Seven Divine Generations"), consisting of two lone deities followed by five couples. The elder gods delegated the youngest couple Izanagi and Izanami to carry out their venerable mandate: to reach down from heaven and give solid form to the earth.

This they did with the use of a precious stone-covered spear named Ame-no-nuboko (天沼矛, "heavenly jewelled spear"), given to them by the elders. Standing over the Ame-no-ukihashi (天浮橋, "floating bridge of heaven"), they churned the chaotic mass with the spear. When drops of salty water fell from the tip, they formed into the first island, Onogoroshima. In forming this island, both gods came down from heaven, and spontaneously built a central support column called the Ame-no-mihashira (天御柱, "heavenly pillar") which upheld the "hall measuring eight fathoms" that the gods caused to appear afterwards.

- Kuniumi, Wikipedia

** According to Wikipedia, Kuniumi in reference to this myth is spelled 国産み instead of 国生み, which is how it’s spelled in Noragami. The kanji 産 seems to have stronger connections solely to the act of childbirth, among other things. While 生み can also mean “birth, giving birth”, it can also refer to the act of creation, “bringing into the world.”

I remarked (partly in jest) that Father has become undeniably “Izanagi-coded” buuuut in truth, he has always been partly “Izanagi-coded” in the sense that he seems to have been inspired by the mythos of Izanagi (an idea that @nyappytown​ helped me tap into with her brilliant breakdowns of Susanoo inspirations in Yato’s character). I touched on this briefly when I did my post on the origins of the mythical magatsuhi-no-kami 禍津日神 (once again Noragami’s spelling differs a bit, magatsukami 禍津神, even though clearly this concept was inspired by the myth). It warrants another mention because immediately following the Kuniumi came the Kamiumi 神産み (”the birth of the kami”), a period where many kami were born from Izanagi and Izanami’s union, then Izanami’s death, Kagutsuchi’s death, during Izanagi’s escape from Yomi, and, finally, during Izanagi’s purification following his return from Yomi.

I think a lot of the comparisons to the Izanagi mythos re: Father came from the fact that he calls himself “Father” (as in, the “father” of the gods, in a sense) and the parallels with his descent into Yomi (I think it’s fair to say that Father seeing Kaya’s likeness in Izanami can be compared to Izanagi descending into Yomi specifically to see Izanami, his deceased wife, on some level) and subsequent return from Yomi. Father returning from Yomi has certainly been talked about a lot but the immediate aftermath has not yet come up - I think it’s safe to bet that it will be drawing from Izanagi’s purification, the last part of the Kamiumi.

The TL;DR of the Izanagi purification story, as written on Izanagi’s Wikipedia page (complete with citations that I will not include here):

Izanagi, feeling contaminated by his visit to Yomi, went to "[the plain of] Awagihara (i.e. a plain covered with awagi) by the river-mouth of Tachibana in Himuka in [the island of] Tsukushi" and purified himself by bathing in the river; various deities came into existence as he stripped off his clothes and accouterments and immersed himself in the water. The three most important kami, the "Three Precious Children" (三貴子 mihashira no uzu no miko or sankishi) – the sun goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami, the moon deity Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, and the storm god Susanoo-no-Mikoto – were born when Izanagi washed his left eye, his right eye, and his nose, respectively.

(Note: As you can see, water plays a big theme in Shinto. The islands of Japan were born out of the sediment in the ocean, and here, it is an agent of purification by which one can clean themselves of ritual impurity, kegare 穢れ. That continues to be the case in modern day practices, which you can see at Shinto shrines, and in Noragami as well - clean water is used to purify blight caused by ayakashi.)

The Kamiumi Wikipedia page goes on to elaborate that Omaga-tsuhi (Magatsuhi-no-kami, just a slightly different variation of the name) was the second god born of the impurities that were stripped from Izanagi after he discarded his clothes, following his return from Yomi. According to Japanese Wiki Corpus, Magatsuhi-no-kami is a god of disasters.

I won’t rehash too much of what I said in “On Matagtsukami: A Few Noragami Thoughts” but one thought has got me thinking:

How exactly was Yato wished into existence by Father, from a single strong wish? Perhaps, just maybe, the thing that some people argued would make it implausible for Yato to have been born from Father’s wish - the fact that his return from Yomi rendered him no longer fully human - is the very thing that enabled it to happen in the first place? Could it have been from the purification process after returning from Yomi? Or maybe with the help of the Brush - not Father forcing another name on an already existing, reincarnated god, but by using the Brush as a catalyst for the manifestation of Father’s wish in some way, since Yato was born after Mizuchi had been named with the Brush?

Bear with me, here.

It was said a few chapters ago that the Brush has been “infused with Izanami’s spirit” - it has Izanami’s power in it, and that’s probably why it works and simply naming ayakashi with a mask and incantation does not. After all, ayakashi have “lost their spirit” and have “neither true names nor human forms” - they are simply vectors of negative energy and impurities.

Side note: Just realized we got pretty much the same visual in this chapter. Not a coincidence by any stretch of the imagination.

But Izanami helped create the islands of Japan, her power is (was?) “creation”, just as it is Izanagi’s. Her status as the “matron god” (国母たる神, koku botaru kami) of the country has even brought up in 103-2.

I suspect that Father had “infused” himself with the power within the Word by drawing the ayakshi eye on his face, giving him abilities similar to that of Izanami. We never really got an explanation of the powers we see her use in Yomi. Naming ayakashi and corrupted spirits is one thing... using such a power on a spirit akin to a deity might be entirely another. (Considering the fact that Izanami is sealed in Yomi and the whole “laws of the Underworld” we’ve gotten a few chapters ago, though, I can’t see this ending well for Father.)

(Note: The above panel of Izanami is from Chapter 36, titled 呪 縛 Jyuubaku, “Binding Curse/Spell.” It’s the chapter in which Izanami completely seals off Yomi to prevent Yato from escaping. Possibly the name of one of her abilities?

Also, I’ve always thought some of the patterns bear a striking resemblance to Jomon pottery.

From Prehistoric Japanese Pottery.)

Birthing a Nation being a reference to the creation of Japan would seem to confirm that, indeed, the Brush has powers of “creation” - Izanami’s powers. In tandem with the myth of the birth of many gods following Izanagi’s return from Yomi (and the established parallels with Father), I would not be surprised if Father had somehow used that power to create Yato, hence why just one man/deity/goryo was able to create a kami when it shouldn’t have been possible.

Considering that the last Brush was said to be weaker than the current one Father is using, I do think that another element was needed for a kami to be created. As to what that would be, I have no idea - this theory certainly has its holes, it’s not perfect, but I wouldn’t say it’s far-fetched, either. A lot of kami seem to be born from things like blood and random articles of clothing so maybe that’s on the table? ;P

But back to Birthing a Nation. So, it has created a space that looks like a reflective, watery void, bearing the same patterns that we see Izanami use in Yomi. Hiyori sees what seem like memories but... what is that space? What is actually in it?

I don’t think they necessarily have to be memories. Seeing as Father was specifically responding to “you’re living in a completely different world”/”just what world are you living in?”, I think it could be any number of things. Does Father want Yato to experience the world as he sees it (considering that Yato specifically said he doesn't know "what bullshit you think you've been seeing or hearing")? Is he sending him back to the past? Has it something to do with Father's or Yato's memories?

...Is he creating another alternative timeline altogether?

I guess that remains to be seen. But I think we are going to be seeing Father’s return from Yomi and Yato’s birth very soon!

[smoochesforghost]

.

[magicpotatoobsession]

GIVEN | Bassists & whacking people on the head

Apparently giving other people a good whack on the head is a thing that 🎸bassists🎸 do in Given 😂😂😂

LOL it's funny but it's a good way to snap people out of wallowing in their guilt/trauma.

Chapter 9/Ep 8, Mafuyu started to wallow in his guilt for blaming Hiiragi and for running away from his issues,

and Hiiragi snapped Mafuyu out of it.

It’s good that Mafuyu was coming to terms with why he momentarily lost his temper at Hiiragi. But Mafuyu started to stew in the guilt of his actions a little too much, which was unhealthy and unproductive. Hiiragi immediately lightened the situation and asked Mafuyu to call him sometime, in other words, COMMUNICATE MORE with him.

Trust me, I truly believe it was right after this chat that Mafuyu actually finished writing the lyrics for Fuyu no Hanashi but just couldn't quite sing yet. Clues:

1. In the anime, right after Hiiragi leaves, Mafuyu had a flashback of him meeting Yuki for the first time and the whole "My dad hits me when I talk" and "I'm not your dad" memory. This could suggest that Mafuyu was coming to terms with the fact that it's ok for him to attempt to communicate his feelings in the form of a song.

2. In the manga, this flashback between Mafuyu and Yuki occurs at a different point. But after the Hiiragi and Mafuyu convo, we get a montage panel. Within that, we get a small ~Mafuyu may have been writing lyrics in class~(I have my FBI hat on)

This conversation was INCREDIBLY important for Mafuyu's healing and repairment of his bond with Hiiragi.

---

Chapter 27/Given Movie, Akihiko started to dissociate and wallow in his own negative feelings and doubts right before the CAC live,

and Haruki snapped him out of it.

Pay attention to what Akihiko's saying, he was so depressed that he was on the verge of giving up on music completely, and because to Akihiko music is his life passion, he was basically about to give up on himself completely.

But remember to Haruki, music is all about COMMUNICATION.

In that moment, Haruki didn't need to say it out loud but Haruki's essentially evoking to Akihiko, "come on, snap out of it! Communicate with me through this CAC live, through music. You believe that telling me using words won't solve anything? Ok fine. Tell me and express it to me then through music."

Akihiko dissociating was unhealthy and also unproductive as they were just about to start performing but Haruki helped ground him again.

While Mafuyu's song did the ~magic~, Haruki's "whack" helped unleash all the PASSION that was previously fogged up by Akihiko's depression. Akihiko was truly able to immerse himself and enjoy playing the drums in Yoru Ga Akeru thanks to Haruki's "whack".

---

Both Hiiragi and Haruki seek validation by wanting to be the centre of the social system they operate in.

Hiiragi wants all the spotlight and dazzling attention from the members of his childhood squad and gaining fans by being involved in music.

Haruki wants to be the one that everyone relies upon to feel a sense of self worth.

But Hiiragi and Haruki love their respective squads so so so much. As the bassists and as the home “base” of their squad, they stop their loved ones from overthinking and running away. They bring their loved ones back to reality and remind them that

The “bass”is to a solid relationship is COMMUNICATION.

Also

The bass line of a song is usually how we are able to tell the key 🔑 of a song.

And guess what?

COMMUNICATION IS KEY.

*Badum tsssss mic drop*

Masterlist of my Given Metas

If you like what you read, all I post is basically Given analysis content! Give my blog a follow to be notified of future posts! #metapotato

[telehxhtrash]

A masterpost on Togashi’s gay subtext and why it’s intentional.

Hi ! After seeing so many posts about Togashi dropping subtext about Killua's possible romantic feelings for Gon, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a sort of "masterpost" with all the subtext that Togashi has included into his work.

I usually see a lot of people trying to say that HxH isn't about romance and that Togashi isn't interested in writing romance into the manga, but when you analyze all the subtext that's been going on the further Gon and Killua's relationship progresses, I think it's incorrect to say that Togashi has never hinted at the possibility of romance in HxH.

This is going to be a long post, enjoy your read!

Also, please note that I will only base this analysis on the manga, so there can be no mistake that "maybe this is just something the anime made gayer" : i want to prove that the subtext is 100% intentional on Togashi's part.

I'd also like to mention, although I will analyze it further after listing the subtext, that Togashi is a VERY smart man. There are always little details in the story and/or foreshadowing that are easily missed at first but when you notice them, it truly makes you understand how much attention and care Togashi puts into his work. There are countless details and symbolism that are analyzed daily through wonderful meta posts, from the main 4′s birthdays and their link to their character or the religious symbolism in Kurapika’s story arc.... Togashi loves to foreshadow and plant little details into his work, so when Togashi plants subtext, I'm sure he 100% knows that he's writing it, and it can't be seen as unintentional.

I'll also link all my references for this post at the end of it, so feel free to read all the additional textposts and content if you want to know more.

Well, let's get into it!

EDIT : i can’t believe this post is still being used as a reference it makes me so happy... thank you so much !!! i edited this to tweak it a bit because i wrote this a while ago and the phrasing seemed off to me, so if you’re reading or re-reading this post, hi, welcome to masterpost on gay subtext 2.0 !

GREED ISLAND ARC

Greed Island is to me the arc that lays down the nature of Killua and Gon's relationship. It's during this arc that we get to see a bit more of what Killua thinks, how he's lucky to have met Gon and that he feels really grateful. Gon’s behavior in this arc is also very affectionate, with him always reassuring Killua about his place next to him. While the scene where Killua thinks "You've got it backwards, Gon, I'm the one that's glad I met you." can't be considered as subtext, I think it's something that lets the reader know a bit more about how Killua feels towards Gon. 

But other than this scene, which can clearly be dismissed as platonic, there are 2 more moments in the Greed Island arc that are layered in subtext.

• The Rainbow Diamond (chapter 151)

During their time in Dorias, Killua uses Risky Dice to gain cards from the slot machines. The first card that Killua gains is called "Rainbow Diamond", the description of the card being "A diamond that shines in a rainbow of colors. Propose with this diamond and she is guaranteed to say "yes"". 

There are 3 different things we can take from this panel. First, the card is a marriage proposal card, so it's obviously romantic in nature. Second, the object is a RAINBOW diamond. And third, Killua, wanting to keep the card safe, gifts it to Gon.

In short, Togashi sat down at his desk, decided to draw Killua winning a MARRIAGE PROPOSAL CARD (it could've been any card, but Togashi CHOSE to make Killua win a marriage proposal card) that has a RAINBOW diamond on it and made Killua gift it to Gon. 

While I personally don't think that subtext can be used to 100% ascert that Killua has romantic feelings for Gon, I think it's a funny little touch from Togashi, and I'm even gonna say a sort of hint towards how Killua's feelings for Gon are going to evolve in this arc and the next.

• “It has to be Killua” (chapter 166)

Now this is a scene that I've never seen anyone talk about, at least on Tumblr, but when I read a bit of analysis on it I was 100% convinced this was intentional subtext. I'm basically quoting here what this article explains, so if you want more detail, I recommend reading it.

As you probably recall, during their deadly dodgeball game against Razor, Killua decides to sacrifice his hands to ensure that Gon could use all his strength. When confronted about it, Killua insists that it's nothing, and Gon shocks him by saying that he knew all along that he was hurting himself for his sake. 

Gon then says that it can only be Killua holding the ball, and that it has to be Killua, resulting in Killua being absolutely awestruck and embarassed. I'm also going to talk about the anime adaptation for this one, because it's perfectly executed and translates extremely well the nuance that the second sentence bears. If you want to rewatch it, this scene happens in episode 70. It's worth noting that in the anime, we see Killua not reacting to Gon's first sentence, but losing his composure entirely when Gon says the second sentence. But why ?

The reason was lost in translation. His exact words are "Booru wa Killua ga motte-kurenai to. Killua ja nakya dame nan da.". Both sentences basically say the same thing : It has to be Killua holding the ball. That second sentence can be translated literally as "If it's not Killua, that won't do." However, the second sentence, in a different context, can also be used to say a totally different thing. 

While it's certain that Gon used this sentence in the context of the dodgeball match, the sentence "~ja nakya dame nan da" also serves as a confession of one's feelings in japanese. It's basically the equivalent to "you're the one for me". When you google the sentence, it turns up romantic songs, forum posts asking what it would translate to in English and posts on how to confess to someone. 

The sentence basically drowns in romantic subtext. As mentioned before, Killua has no reaction to the first sentence "Booru wa Killua ga motte-kurenai to.", but loses his composure at the second one, and I think that was a very deliberate thing Togashi wanted to convey : this sentence has an additional layer, and clearly Killua is taking it to heart.

I will come back to this specific subtext in a bit, because we can parallel it with another subtext-y situation, so please keep it in mind for now.

CHIMERA ANT ARC

Now onto the sad gay arc! This arc is so RIDDLED in subtext and parallels that it's making me lose my mind.

• Gon, you are light. (chapter 199)

This scene is just... So romantic in nature. I’m not too objective on this, but I really do believe that this moment is the exact moment Killua fell in love with Gon and started to realize he felt a bit more than friendship towards him. It’s Killua respecting Gon for who he is, realizing that he’s light and he’s always been, he’s the one who saved him and who’s always been so bright and optimistic and always makes the best out of any situation. In this scene, Killua lets himself drown in Gon’s light, allows himself to feel this “wow” moment of pure admiration and love, and it’s absolutely beautiful.

It's extremely important to take the context of this scene into account. What happened is that Killua, who has been struggling mentally for the entire series with the fact that he's always running away, ran away once more, leaving Kite to die with Pitou. This ENTIRE chapter is literally adults absolutely DESTROYING Killua, first Kite's troupe bashing him for leaving Kite behind, and then Netero, Morel and Knov coming in like icing on the cake telling Killua that "After all, he's just a kid", and that he should hurry up to his mommy. 

Killua is beating himself up for running away again, got destroyed by Kite's team and 3 extremely strong pro hunters. His morale is down in the drains right now. He expects Gon to be mad at him for betraying Kite, for running away once again, for leaving Kite to die alone and ripping Gon away from Kite : he expects that he'll lose Gon for his cowardice.

HOWEVER, the first thing that Gon says to Killua after having been passed out for god knows how many hours is "Thank you". 

Gon woke up and instantly eased up all of Killua's fears : he wasn't a loser for running away, and Gon was actually thankful for him. Gon, at this moment, was the only one that showed kindness, understanding and gratefulness towards Killua. Gon even goes so far as saying that he knows that Kite isn't dead, and that they have to help him. At this instant, Gon is truly Killua's saving grace. He's the one that trusts him with his entire heart, and believes in his choices when even he can't believe in himself. Gon is truly Killua's light at this precise moment, because he was the only one who supported him, trusted him and reassured him in this awful situation.

How can someone shine so bright in such a terrible situation ? How can someone be so positive that nothing bad will happen ? 

Gon asserting all of this makes Killua respect him a lot. Keep this word in mind, because it’s going to be important in the next piece of subtext I’m analyzing, because those two scenes canonically follow each other and are basically Togashi highlighting that something special happened when Killua called Gon his light, and that his feelings deepened.

• Introduction to Palm's character (chapter 200)

This piece of subtext is very very easy to miss but it's one of the most important subtext-y scene, because coupled with the “Gon, you are light” scene, it’s very clear that this dialogue is deliberately highlighting Killua’s feelings.

This chapter introduces Palm's character (which, imo, is a character introduced for the sole intent of being a catalyst to Killua's feelings towards Gon, but I'll talk about it in my post talking about the CAA parallels) - edit: i talked about this briefly here.

So, Killua having looked into Gon's eyes for like 10min straight and concluded that Gon was the light of his life a chapter ago, is now chilling with Gon as they meet Palm. 

Palm takes them to a café and STRAIGHT OFF THE BAT harasses them about how much she's in love with Knov. Like when I say harassing, it's literally a whole page of her explaining her feelings towards Knov. 

There are two interesting things that can be drawn from this interaction.

First, it's extremely easy to draw parallels between Palm's situation towards Knov and Killua's situation towards Gon. Palm starts by saying how amazing her master is, that she probably has special feelings for him but the most important thing is to respect the other person. Remember how I talked about how this last scene was Killua having a surge of deep, deep respect for Gon ? Palm makes sure to highlight that special word, that it’s important to respect someone when it comes to love.

She then goes on to say that she hasn't said anything to Knov, and never will. All of this adds nothing to the story, it's empty dialogue, Togashi could've introduced Palm in virtually any other way possible, but he chose to drag her and the gay duo to a café and make her have a monologue about love RIGHT after the extremely emotional panel of Killua declaring that Gon is his light just a chapter ago.

But there's more. Not only does Palm monologue for a while about love, but after finishing her monologue, this happens :

This panel features ONLY Palm and Killua, her looking at him like the psycho she is, and straight up telling him that "love can suddenly spark out of nowhere, don't you think so?". 

What's so interesting about this is the fact that Togashi made the deliberate choice to have Palm say this to Killua and Killua ONLY, which after the gay existential crisis he had last chapter, can very much be applied to his situation. Love DID spark out of nowhere, and Togashi wants you to notice. Togashi could've made Palm say this to herself, with no distinct listener like the last panel, but he made the conscious choice to draw this panel with Palm adressing herself to Killua SPECIFICALLY. 

Those two pieces of subtext, that fit perfectly together, make me believe 100% that Togashi knows what he's doing and he's not unintentionally planting gay subtext in his work. The fact that Togashi sat at his desk, drew Killua calling Gon his light, and then followed this scene with the introduction to a character who picks Killua apart to tell him that "love is something that just happens, don't you think?" is 100% proof that Togashi knows what he's doing.

• Date with Palm (chapters 217 and 218)

I think this situation has many layers, but many people still dismiss it as bro behavior so I'm gonna try my best to counter argue. First of all, and although that's not proof of anything, Killua looks EXTREMELY distressed by the prospect of Gon going on a date with Palm, but that can be counter-argued by saying that Killua is just worried because Palm is completely crazy. 

What I want to talk about is the scene that happens right after, when Gon and Killua go to the gym (because theyre DUDES YEAH WE WORK OUT NO HOMO), and the conversation casually drifts to Killua asking Gon if he's ever been on a date before, valid question considering what just happened previously. There are multiple things here :

1) Killua seems distressed that Gon has been on dates before. While it can be argued that it's a normal reaction because Gon has and he hasn't, I believe that Killua - who is in no way a normal person who would get flustered about "not having been on dates before a certain age" - would not feel uncomfortable that his friend is more experienced than him - especially when literal seconds later, he monologues about how he doesn’t care about dates and just wants to stick with Gon.

2) Gon then proceeds to ask Killua if he's ever been on a date, to which Killua responds :

What I want to highlight is the panel where Killua says "And the truth is, I want to stay by your side... Always...". Basically, what Killua is saying, is that he doesn't care about dates, all he wants to do is be with Gon.

I don't think this can be counter-argued as bro behavior, but with all the subtext I've explained before, this right here is pretty gay. Togashi put this panel deliberately to show that Killua doesn't give a crap about dates when he can stay with Gon, and with the "gon you are light" scene and everything in mind, this is another intentional subtext.

There's also the fact that Killua stalks the date like a jealous girlfriend - but I'm not gonna count that as subtext because it can be argued that he's just worried about Gon because Palm is insane.

• Gon is my best friend ! (chapter 219)

Remember how I told you to keep the "It has to be Killua" subtext in mind because I was gonna come back to it later ? Well.

During Palm's date with Gon, Killua runs into Rammot, who would definitely have ran into Palm and nenless Gon. Killua is forced to confront his worst fear : this is the moment where he knows that if he runs away again, Gon WILL die. Killua is literally overcoming his "programming", the physical representation of years of abuse out of love and care for Gon. He's ripping out the needle from his forehead out of pure, genuine care for Gon, because if he doesn't, then he'll lose him forever. 

Now, what I actually wanna talk about is this panel :

What we see is Killua thinking happy thoughts about all his adventures with Gon because he can't - won't - doesn't want to run away anymore, and all this for his sake. But what I wanna draw attention to is the dodgeball panel that's bigger than all the others, and the only one where you can actually clearly make out what's written : "Killua ja nakya dame nan da". 

Now, isn't that interesting that the panel that takes a bigger place in the whole panel is the one with this particular sentence? Remember what I talked about a bit earlier, about how "~ ja nakya dame nan da" is a sentence with a lot of romantic connotations (would pretty much equal to "you're the one for me" in English). Clearly this particular sentence stuck with Killua. 

I'm not completely objective on this matter since I firmly believe that at this point, Killua has romantic feelings for Gon, but I interpret this as another deliberate thing Togashi did : putting the panel bigger so we can see that it has a particularly significant importance to Killua, and Killua's state of mind right now (not wanting to lose Gon). 

In my opinion, two things happened here: One, Killua remembers this specific interaction because he knows how much Gon trusts him and he doesn't want to betray his trust. But I also firmly believe that Killua remembered this specific interaction because of the romantic connotation the sentence "Killua ja nakya dame nan da" has. Those words clearly shocked him, and I think he remembers them in this life-threatening situation, after the "gon you are light" scene, Palm talking about "love just happens", the "i want to stay with you, always" because he realizes that he wishes Gon would say that sentence in a romantic context, and not in the context of the dodgeball match, thus leading him to surpass himself to prove his love and perhaps live to see the day where Gon could say those words in that romantic context.

Now, of course, all of this is my interpretation, so it's really up to debate, but I really wanna highlight the fact that Togashi deliberately CHOSE to highlight this particular interaction between Gon and Killua, this sentence with romantic subtext, to lead Killua to finally break his chains and be able to be protect Gon fully. It’s also interesting to note that the 2011 anime adaptation also makes it a point to emphasize how deep these words stuck to Killua by making it the last flashback that makes Killua effectively rip out the needle out of his head. 

Also let's quickly mention the irony in the situation here : while Gon is on a romantic date, Killua fights to protect him, overcoming his weakness to prove his love. It’s not Palm who deserves that date, it’s Killua.

• A lovers’ suicide (chapter 286)

Now, onto the most important piece of subtext, that can not be counterargued as platonic in any way, shape or form. During the palace invasion, Killua leaves Gon's side, proceeds to go kick Youpi's butt only to have to fall back because he used up all his electricity nen. When Killua is charging up, he meets with Meleoron, and tells him that once he's done charging, he'll go back to Gon's side. 

They briefly exchange information about the battle, and then Meleoron proceeds to ask Killua what's the plan for him and Gon. That's when Killua explains that "Once Gon is like this, he won't budge an inch. Worst case scenario, it'll be a double suicide.". At worst they both die, cool. They “go down in flames together”. It’s actually much, much more meaningful than that.

The specific word that Killua uses for double suicide is "心中" (shinjuu), which is a heavily romantically connotated word in japanese. Shinjuu, also translated as "lovers’ suicide", is when two people die out of love, by the same method, because there's a belief that this'll allow those two people to spend eternity together. Shinjuu is a major theme of Japanese literature, and it is always used romantically. It's a very uncommon word to use to refer to two people dying together, because of its heavy romantic connotation, and because it always refers to double suicide committed by people bound by love. In literature, it always refers to two lovers, in love. If you want to read more on shinjuu, i suggest this and this, those articles explain its historic roots and the definition, also emphasizing the feeling of "oneness" that characterizes shinjuu. If you’re interested, I also suggest reading the japanese article that defines shinjuu, and hitting the google translate button, it has some pretty interesting sentences like “Shinjuu is traditionally committed by men and women out of mutual love, in the hope that they will be connected in the afterlife because they can't be together in this world.”

So basically, what Killua is saying is that he wants to go back to Gon's side to die with him, committing a "lovers’ suicide" because he doesn't want to leave Gon to die alone, and wants to die with him.

I also want to emphasize how special this word is to Killua, and that he and everyone around him know the special meaning of this word - In chapter 300, Ikalgo literally says "We were... No, KILLUA was ready to commit shinjuu with Gon". Ikalgo is really highlighting the fact that this word holds special meaning, especially to Killua, and that it was HIM who was willing to commit shinjuu by staying with Gon. Ikalgo and company dying with Gon wouldn't be shinjuu, but Killua dying with Gon would be, and Togashi emphasizes this through Ikalgo's thoughts.

This is pretty much the gist of it, but I suggest reading the wonderful post I linked in the references below if you want to know more about this specific subtext.

(edit : i actually wrote a post going a bit more into detail on Killua’s shinjuu wish if you want to read it here ! :3)

• “The one that Gon needs the most is you” (chapter 294)

I will go into this subtext more in details when I write the post about parallels in CAA, but I still want to talk about it briefly here.

Like I said before, to me, Palm was introduced as a catalyst for Killua's feelings towards Gon. Togashi purposefully wrote Palm as having romantic feelings for Gon to foil Killua's feelings for Gon and make him show jealousy towards Palm. 

To Killua, Palm is someone who stole Gon from him, he sees her as a threat because maybe she'll make Gon happier than he does ? (ofc we all know thats not true but Killua is baby) - Basically, Killua thinks Palm might be more important to Gon than Killua is, because he believes they are romantically involved. That's why when he sees her again later on, after Gon rejected his help, leaving Killua helpess as to how to save his dear friend, Killua sees Palm as a saving grace. 

He knows that if Gon sees Palm as a chimera ant, he will spiral down even more, so he tries to reason with her to get her to be gentle to Gon, because if not her, then who could? Palm would clearly be able to comfort Gon, with whom Killua believes is romantically involved with, better than him, right ? If Gon rejected Killua, then clearly Palm could help, since she seems closer to Gon (BECAUSE HE BELIEVES THEYRE DATING), right? 

This confrontation between Palm and Killua closely ressembles a situation like an ex confronting a new girlfriend - and I think this is exactly why Togashi wrote Palm this way. He wanted Killua to confront who he thought was a threat to their relationship, making him believe that this person who's """"dating"""” Gon is more important to him than himself, only to have her openly admit that she means nothing to Gon. The only one Gon needs is Killua.

And that, my friends, coming from someone you believe is romantically involved with your best friend (who you probably have a crush on), someone you're jealous of, the one you thought was the person most important to him, that's a pretty meaningful statement. 

Basically, what's happening, is that Palm reaffirms that Gon holds Killua closer than a potential romantic partner. And that's why Killua is so, so happy to hear that. He was questioning his entire relationship, questioning if Gon even cared about him, because he rejected him a few minutes before, but then his "rival" comes in and reaffirms that even she knows that no one comes close to Killua to Gon.

I also want to mention that this act of pure love (Killua only thinking of saving Gon when in a life threatening situation) is what made Palm come back to her human senses. d'awwwwww

• Illumi and Hisoka’s parallel on lovers who die of Alluka’s requests. (chapter 323)

Now onto the final significant subtext - while I don't particularly think of it as subtext-y, I know a lot of people have so I still want to include it here.

When Illumi explains Alluka's powers to Hisoka, he explains that there are two different types of linked deaths when a request is failed : 1) the person who failed + the person they love the most 2) the person who failed + the people they spent most of their time with. 

When applied to Killua, Hisoka naturally comes to the conclusion that no matter the outcome, Gon would always be the one dying with Killua, because he's spent so much time with him, and because he's the one that Killua loves the most. In the panel where Illumi explains this, we see a romantic, heterosexual couple  demonstrating the effects of not completing one of Alluka's requests, and thus the "most important person dying". 

While not making any true parallels, the fact that Hisoka, and the readers, are drawn to compare a heterosexual, romantic pairing to Killua dying with Gon because he's his "most important person" is an interesting piece of subtext.

_______

I want to finish by talking about Killua's birthday and how significant it is in my opinion. All the main 4 characters have birthdays that fall on specific dates, related to Japanese tradition, and often with events that can be associated to their character. Gon's is 5/5, which is Children's Day. Kurapika's is 4/4, the number 4 being considered an unlucky number, and this being an unlucky day to have a child. Leorio's is 3/3, Hinamatsuri (not really any main parallels here but still). But Killua's birthday is 7/7, and is the Japanese day to celebrate Tanabata. 

If you are not familiar with Tanabata, the story is as follows : Orihime is a princess who works for her father, working hard and well, but she laments the fact that because of her hard work she can't meet someone and fall in love. Her father arranges for her to meet Hikoboshi, allowing Orihime to leave because he expects her to come back to work for him, but the two immediately fall in love and get married, and she never returns. I won't get into the rest of the story as it's this part that interests me the most, but if you want to read more about Killua and Tanabata I suggest reading the post I referenced below.

Does the story of Orihime remind you of anyone ? Killua also works for his father, but laments the fact that he can't go outside and meet someone. His father then lets him go, saying, and i quote: "he will come back, because he's my son". Doesn't this remind you of the tale of Tanabata ? Killua's story references the tale of Orihime perfectly, and I believe this is intentional : Killua's birthday isn't of any importance to the plot, so why make it Tanabata, a day that celebrates a love story that closely ressembles Killua's story ? The answer is simple : subtext.

With all this in mind, I think it's pretty clear that Togashi is writing intentional subtext to hint at Killua's feelings being romantic in nature. Togashi is a master writer, he has years of experience, and I strongly believe he knows what he's doing and not planting unintentional subtext. He's a very smart man, and knows how all of this can be interpreted.

I will finish by saying that Togashi is NOT an author that would deliberately queerbait his readers. So many people dismiss the possibility of having gay subtext leading onto an actual canon gay relationship because "it's not like the author would ever have gay main characters". While this holds true for a lot of manga authors, especially shonen manga authors, it does NOT apply to Togashi. 

Togashi has always displayed interest in queer subjects and queer representation, putting trans characters in all of his major works (Miyuki in YYH, Mikihisa in Level E and Alluka in HxH). There were also canonically gay characters in his previous works : Itsuki in YYH, and a character named Kuramoto in Level E. 

Togashi also always had interest in mangas having BL elements, citing Maya Mineo's "Patalliro!" as a manga he was attracted to during High School. If you're unfamiliar with Patalliro, the story focuses on the main character's love life as a gay man.  He also admitted to basing Hiei's (YYH) design off a character from that manga. 

Last but not least, Togashi mentioned in a note included in volume 1 of YYH that he wanted to write a sports manga, called The Trouble Quartet, where basically all the characters are gay. Togashi said he based it off his own interests as a writer, and that while it was refused by Shonen Jump, he got deeply attached to the project and that he would love to explore this project in a different shape once he made a name for himself. I suggest reading this post because the parallels between The Trouble Quartet and HxH are HILARIOUSLY accurate.

In short, Togashi has always had interest in queer matters, and was always interested in putting queer representation in his work. After YYH, which was a terrible experience for Togashi as a writer, he managed to snatch a contract that basically allows him to do whatever he wants with HxH. Having always held dear BL matters but never being able to explore it to his full intent, I believe Togashi is exploring queer identity further with HxH, because Shonen Jump basically lets him do anything.

To conclude, with Togashi's past experience and skill, his interest in queer representation, and the amount of subtext surrounding Killua, I honestly believe that Togashi is trying to explore further queer representation, and I wouldn't be surprised if HxH ends with Gon and Killua becoming a canon pairing, whether it be delivered in an ambiguous manner or not. 

Edit : I actually wrote a post on why I believe it won’t be ambiguous, and that it’s truly never been ambiguous, just developing : here.

I hope you enjoyed the read, thank you for reading all of this, and feel free to show this to anyone who denies subtext in HxH !

REFERENCES

- "It has to be Killua" - Medium article, "Impossibilities in Translating Queerness : The Dodgeball Dilemma" 

- Palm's Date Scene - Reddit post, "Togashi's love of Ambiguity: Chapters 217 and 218" 

-A thematic analysis of Palm’s character : ”The Issue With Palm”

- Shinjuu - Tumblr post by hunterxhell, "A lovers' suicide, I guess." :  + the post that mentions Ikalgo talking about shinjuu 

- An analysis on different subtext-y situations

- Illumi and Hisoka’s parallel : here and here 

- Killua’s birthday : "Killua, July 7th, and the significance of his birthdate”

- Togashi's interview mentioning Mineo's Patalliro 

[pikahlua]

Izuku Midoriya, the Unreliable Narrator

(Warning: manga spoilers)

I called Izuku an unreliable narrator in my last meta post, and I feel compelled to elaborate because I don’t feel like we talk about this enough.

There are many types of unreliable narrators, and I would never say Izuku is a narrator who outright lies (well...yet?), but there are three important facts about the MHA story that call into question the complete accuracy of Izuku’s narration.

Oh, and I’ll be employing a spicy 🌶️ meter for Izuku’s unreliability.

1. Limited point of view 🌶️ (1/5 shishito pepper tickle)

The limited perspective is a literary tool prominently used in written fiction to limit and filter knowledge about the story to the reader. Can a limited perspective be employed in visual media, such as graphic novels or animation? Debatable. At the very least, elements of a limited point of view can be used in a visual narrative like MHA without resorting to placing a 1st person POV camera between Izuku’s eyes.

Izuku narrates a lot of opinions about hero society and aligns them with sides like “heroes” or “villains” or “Japanese society.” Often, Izuku agrees with these opinions, be they about events or other people in his life. However, as the protagonist, Izuku’s opinions are likely to influence the audience because he is relatable. Of course, this in and of itself doesn’t make Izuku an unreliable narrator, but unreliable narrators can be naive or overly optimistic, for instance. Izuku’s limited POV would truly result in unreliable narration when his narration purposefully sets our expectations for something that ends up getting subverted in the end.

The usual example of this would be Katsuki. Izuku and he misunderstand each other often, so that misunderstanding often gets built into the narration. It doesn’t have to be overt like Izuku thinking something of Katsuki that is blatantly wrong. Sometimes it can be trope subversion, like how many in the audience thought Katsuki would end up a villain early on, only for it to end in the plot twist that was the Kamino Ward arc.

2. Withheld information 🌶️🌶️ (2/5 delicious poblano chili pepper bliss)

Chapter 1 (manga) or episodes 1 and 2 (anime) contain the first loud signal that Izuku is an unreliable narrator. We are treated to the first major arc of the series, the middle school arc with All Might and the sludge villain. The arc opens with Izuku narrating over a moment from his childhood, and the arc goes on to show the story of how Izuku met All Might.

There’s one line narrator Izuku says that really sticks out though.

Izuku ends the short tale with his famous line, “I forgot to mention, this is the story of how I became the greatest hero” (paraphrasing here, since there are multiple translations).

「言い忘れてたけど」 (literal translation: “I forgot to say”)

One tell-tale sign of an unreliable narrator is withholding information. Izuku told us an entire short story, start to finish, before tacking on this important detail at the end. Technically, this line is the beginning of the story that is the entire MHA manga. It’s such a colloquial line that it comes across as innocent and endearing, characterizing Izuku as friendly and likable. But it’s easy to miss that this also characterizes him as clumsy, or error-prone, or forgetful.

Missing information results in unreliable narration.

3. Word choice 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (3/5 the sting of raw jalapeño pepper in the open cuts on your hands)

I was being really lenient with my paraphrasing of Izuku’s narration in #2. I want to take it to task now. Here is the Japanese:

「言い忘れてたけど、これは僕が最高のヒーローになるまでの物語りだ。」

Ii wasureteta kedo, kore wa boku ga saikou no HIIROO ni naru made no monogatari da.

My best, most literal translation of this would be: “I forgot to say, but this is the tale of how I become the greatest hero.”

Two words stand out:

Tale (monogatari) - This is a story, an epic, a narrative. Even when relaying stories about history, this word implies fiction (yes, even in Japanese; look it up on Wikipedia). So either Izuku is dead-face telling us he’s making this whole thing up, or he’s breaking the fourth wall, which is something we can’t put past Horikoshi, admittedly, BUT CONSIDER...

Become (naru) - THIS IS PRESENT-TENSE, NOT PAST-TENSE. I know many translators have made this phrase past-tense (and there’s nothing wrong with that translation, technically), but there is legitimate reason to believe Horikoshi actually intentionally made this word present-tense (and we’ll get to that a little later).

Izuku gives narration throughout the entire manga and often in past-tense, so why does he speak in present-tense in chapter 1? Even his opening narration is in present-tense: “People are not born equal. At the tender age of 4, I knew this reality of the world, and it is my first and last setback” (again, my most literal translation attempt). That’s sketchy! We’re led to believe the MHA story is Izuku reminiscing from sometime in the future. Is he just making this story up as he goes in real time?

4. Other narrators 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (5/5 plot twist we skipping the habanero and going straight to Carolina Reaper and other venomously-named doom fruits)

“Uh, excuse me! Didn’t you say there were only three facts?”

Oh, I withheld that information from you. There is a fourth fact.

(Yes, I’m an unreliable narrator. See: next paragraph.)

Did you even notice that the scan of the speech bubble from #3 isn’t from chapter 1 at all? It’s from chapter 297:

Yeah, that scan in #3 actually says this:

「これは僕が最高の魔王になるまでの物語りだ。」

Kore wa boku ga saikou no maou ni naru made no monogatari da.

“This is the tale of how I become the greatest demon king/lord” (yep, still my most literal translation attempt).

The translators here clearly have no problem using future-tense in this translation (in Japanese, there is just past-tense and non-past-tense, which can be present- or future-tense given the context). The only word All for One uses in this panel that’s different from Izuku’s chapter 1 narration? He says “maou” (demon/evil king/lord) instead of “HIIROO” (hero). That’s it. Same tense and all.

Multiple narrators provide an opportunity for us to scrutinize other narrators, or Izuku, in this case, since he’s the narrator 95% of the time. While the above panel of All For One isn’t standard narration rather than mostly just a fourth wall break, we also get Katsuki as a narrator interspersed throughout the preceding war arc. I want to say there are other moments in prior arcs where other characters narrate as well, probably in arcs where Izuku isn’t prominently featured? But I don’t know them off the top of my head and don’t feel like looking them up because I’ve made my point: THERE ARE OTHER NARRATORS.

In conclusion: Gargle lemon juice to rescue your taste buds.