#i literally cannot remember this scene and i read the manga several times and watched the anime (only the sub version tho)

[justxtalking]

Good morning-day-night ♥ (?)! I'd like to ask a question about an episode of Yu Yu Hakusho. There in a comedy form, the classmates, if I remember correctly, present the relationship between Kuwabara and Yusuke. That they both play the role of a woman or a man. Is Togashi making fun of this image or is he sticking to it? I realise it's usually done for laughs, but sometimes people can't help but divide m and w.

Hi! If you could tell me the chapter this scene happened, I think I'll be able to answer you. As far as I can remember, there's no such scene in the manga, but I could be wrong. I'm not sure if it was only an anime-thing or a dubbed-thing?

Thank for the ask, I'm sorry I couldn't answer you properly!

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

Diluc v. Childe: Who Would Win in a fight, Husbando Edition?

I have THOUGHTS about what a fight between these two would look like, and because I have a Tumblr to scream into the void with, here! Have a fighting style analysis, because this is really and truly my favorite thing to do and I haven’t done it since last summer. 

To make things fair, I’m not going to consider Childe’s Foul Legacy transformation until the end. I am, however, considering lore, gameplay, and cutscenes. Please note that I have not read the manga and am excluding it from this analysis.

Weapon Type

Right, so if you weren’t aware, Diluc has a claymore. Generally, this weapon is slower than any of the other weapon types, but it also deals the most damage per hit. 

Childe is, first and foremost, a bow user--but his bow can turn into a polearm and daggers when he enters his melee stance. Childe himself states that he is fairly weak when using a bow, and I suspect his melee stance is his way of compensating. Do you know how bad this man is with a bow? He’s so bad with a bow that his last attack animation in his normal sequence is him throwing an arrow. Regardless, this means that Childe has two advantages on Diluc from weapon type alone.

Firstly--Diluc is a close range fighter. He cannot do any damage if Childe is out of his range, while Childe has the luxury of picking Diluc apart from a distance as long as he keeps backing up. 

Secondly--Childe also has melee capabilities. If he were only a bow user, there’s the chance that Diluc would manage to catch him in melee range and then Childe would get flattened. However, his polearm and dagger melee stance is uniquely suited against Diluc’s large, unwieldy broadsword, by sheer virtue of being faster. 

If you watch Childe’s attack animations in his melee stance, he’s incredibly fast and the dual-wielded daggers mean he essentially has a multiattack with each strike. Diluc would have an immensely difficult time fighting Childe, if only because Childe’s melee stance is quick enough that he can finesse his way under Diluc’s guard. 

His polearm stance, as well, gives him about as much reach as Diluc’s claymore does. So Diluc doesn’t even have the advantage of a large reach in order to prevent Childe from cutting in close with his daggers, mainly because Childe has that polearm capability. That leads us to my next point. 

Fighting Style

I watched their normal attack animations several times for this bit--at normal speed and slowed down to properly get a feel for the way they fight. 

Diluc is flashy. His style involves twists and flourishes and frequent one-handed attacks despite being a two-handed sword user. It looks fucking dope, but as a side effect, Diluc leaves his torso open more often than not. At once point in his auto attack sequence, he even turns his back to his opponent in order to deliver a devastating swing. 

But Diluc is almost always overextending--an issue seen in literally all of the claymore users with the notable exception of Chongyun. His sword is really heavy, so to compensate, he’s almost always reaching. Off balance, and it leaves him open. Now, his balance issue isn’t as egregious as Razor’s, but it’s still there. 

I will say this about Diluc. He hits hard, and his charged normal attack is fairly fast for a claymore and more versatile than many of the other charged claymore autos. But it doesn’t matter how hard he can hit or how much damage he can do if he can’t connect. 

Looking into Childe’s style, inherent ridiculousness of lobbing an arrow at a person aside, he’s much more balanced. His melee stance has him facing forward, typically balanced but with moments where his center of gravity is over his feed instead of centered. He and Diluc both have an overextension problem, but because Childe’s weapon means he’s already faster, it’s less of an issue for him. 

There are enough openings in Diluc’s fighting style, at least from what I could tell from his autos, that Childe could take advantage of it with his daggers. For Diluc to win, he’d need to end the fight quickly, and on his terms. He can’t beat Childe in his ranged stance--that’s not going to work, because, well, claymore. So, it’d have to be with Childe in his melee stance. And Diluc is still at a disadvantage, as I just discussed.

Element

Now, let’s talk elements, which is fairly straightforward. Diluc’s skill is essentially him setting fire to his sword. Useful, and dealing high damage. His burst is his only ranged attack, generating a massive flaming bird. 

Childe’s is his melee stance, where his weapons are made out of water. His burst is a hydro aoe. 

The in-game elemental reaction here is vaporize--a reaction that favors hydro. It deals more damage if a hydro attack caused the reaction. Childe, therefore, has a leg up here in counteracting Diluc’s elemental skills and bursts. 

Background

Background-wise, I think this category is up in the air. Diluc was trained with the Knights, and was a Cavalry Captain from a young age. This suggests a high degree of skill and work ethic. Diluc ended up traveling for a while, presumably still training, and he now moonlights as a vigilante. I would not accuse Diluc of being unskilled or out of practice.

However.

Childe is one of Snezhnaya’s foremost soldiers. His job is to fight people, and it’s been a long time since Diluc was a knight and in the same position. Childe needs to stay sharp in order to finish jobs and because he’s got almost the entirety of the Fatui’s eyes on him. Childe was also one of the youngest Harbingers, trained in the Abyss for three months by a master swordswoman who allegedly taught him “heretical” skills that made him a better fighter.

I can’t really weigh these two experiences against each other, but I think their different backgrounds do matter in a fighting comparison.

Emotional Temperament

Ah, the most difficult part of this analysis. Emotional stakes are near-impossible to weigh without context, and fights always occur with context. And emotional stakes are incredibly important. They determine the effort a fighter puts in, what they’re willing to sacrifice to win, and even their strategy during the fight. A desperate fighter will do more to win, for example. 

Going off of their personalities in general, Diluc keeps his cool during fights. He’s calculating. A strategist. Someone who gathers intel before jumping into the arena. This gives him an edge on Childe. 

Why? 

Because Childe’s a loose canon who jumps into fights without doing research beforehand or gauging his opponent. He just likes fighting, while Diluc’s motivation is protecting Mondstadt. Diluc typically would have more to fight for. 

However, Diluc also has emotional buttons. My personal thought is that if Childe knew how to piss Diluc off--possibly by mentioning his father and making this conflict personal by using a Delusion--he might even the playing field. Childe doesn’t get angry during fights, while Diluc is known to have gotten angry on at least one occasion (Diluc v. Kaeya when Kaeya got his Vision).  

And anger, as a general rule, makes fighters sloppy. Considering how Diluc’s style borders on careless with his movements and energy, this isn’t something he can afford.

Remember how I mentioned Diluc would need to end the fight quickly? Right, so I sincerely doubt that Childe would let him. He likes fighting almost as much as victory. A quick fight wouldn’t satisfy his bloodlust--he’d draw it out, probably goad Diluc (see his goading of Traveler in his boss fight). 

I was going to mention arrogance, but honestly? These two guys are both so confident in themselves and their abilities that they cancel each other out. 

Foul Legacy

Foul Legacy is...annoying. It’s a truly massive buff. 

It gives Childe another element, makes him inhumanly fast and strong, and probably increases his durability, judging off the armor. The only downside is the toll it takes on his body. I don’t think he’d use it unless Diluc truly injured him--and I doubt it would get to that point. But! If he did. 

I don’t want to say he’d flatten Diluc right off the bat. But that cutscene with the robots in his story quest? He blitzed them. Three robots in under ten seconds, which is absolutely nuts. And Diluc’s biggest weakness is that he’s slower. Making Childe that much faster? The odds don’t look good. 

So, tl;dr, Childe would probably win a fight between himself and Diluc. Feel free to disagree, this is just my opinion and I only wrote it because I adore fight scenes.

We’ll be back to our irregularly scheduled Bungou content tomorrow :D

[gunnerpalace]

Can I ask your opinion on Fade to Black? I just rewatched it and my Ichiruki heart is just overflowing with feels! But anyways I love your analysis and opinions on all things Bleach.

I am that rare IR who does not actually like Fade to Black very much. I can see what it was trying to do, and I appreciate the idea in concept (and some little moments here and there) but I am not at all a fan of how it was actually put together and executed. I guess I’ll do this as a pros and cons list:

PROS:

I don’t like Mayuri but I sort of like how he was handled in this movie. Him keeping a physical backup of his brain is a cool sci-fi idea for dealing with advancing the plot later.

Dark Rukia’s design is fairly cool. Especially in the little promo book that came with the movie, which you sometimes see screenshots of floating around.

The degree of attachment Ichigo shows toward Rukia is endearing.

The scene where Kisuke asks what Rukia is to Ichigo is cute and pretty spot-on.

Kisuke showing up in his old captain’s uniform for seemingly no reason other than to tweak Yamamoto’s nose is pretty funny. Him and Yoruichi basically alluding to the Soul Society arc is also kind of cute.

Ichigo using some special technique that’s unique to him in order to find Rukia (because it ain’t reiraku) is great.

The fight scene between Ichigo and Dark Rukia, and how Ichigo solves it and saves her, is well done and engaging.

Their little hug scene that’s gif’d on here a lot is sweet.

The ending where they have this discussion about how maybe this isn’t the first time they’ve met feels a little underplayed (they’re real far apart and stoic for people discussing such mushy things) but it’s still nice.

CONS:

I’m really tired of arcs about rescuing Rukia and reducing her to a damsel in distress, because she’s better than that. The Soul Society arc was the first time, and it was set up well and worked just fine—it’s classic. Fade to Black’s reasons are contrived (more on that later) and derivative. Then Hell Verse did it again and it was just stupid by that point. There should’ve been a rescue Ichigo movie instead, and the Xcution arc doesn’t really count since that’s presented as a horror story mostly from his perspective.

Rukia’s has had a hard life as a character and has been dumped on consistently, so I view adding yet more misery and pain onto her as gratuitous and frankly kind of insulting in general.

While Dark Rukia’s design is cool, it’s not really Rukia at all. It is very clear she’s an unwilling participant. It kinda looks like her, but it’s all Homura and Shizuku, they’re just forcing her along into it. And you know what? That’s basically rape, even if it’s not sexual rape. It’s still a total loss of consent and bodily autonomy. I’m pretty not cool with a plot that boils down to Rukia being raped.

I just hate the visual design of the kids. I can’t explain why beyond saying they just look out of place in the setting. Homura in particular looks like she walked off the set of Yu-Gi-Oh.

The backstory with the two kids frankly doesn’t make much sense. She meets Renji when she’s seemingly somewhere around the age of Karin or Yuzu (like 8-12) and they and their friends are together for ten years. At the end of that, she enters the Academy. In the flashbacks with these kids, she looks indistinguishable from how she does in the present? When exactly was this supposed to be happening?

The entire plot of Soul Society not knowing who Rukia is is stupid. Soul Society is a bureaucracy. From what we are shown, the majority of what they do every single day is paperwork. Just like Japan still to this day loves forms in triplicate, Soul Society fucking loves paperwork. And they love records and archives. And all Byakuya can do is find one lone book that references Rukia? There would be literally hundreds and hundreds and thousands of documents referencing her, or signed by her. The most casual search would indicate she was real.

Kon is annoying as hell in this movie. Like, he’s usually annoying, but not as much as he is here. It’s distracting and grating.

Ichigo is a continual disappointment in this movie. There are so many things that I will give them their own entries denoted by letters below:

A. People say he remembers Rukia when everyone else forgets. He doesn’t. Only Kon remembers Rukia. Kon jogs Ichigo’s memory. Ichigo does admittedly remember fully and quickly, which puts him ahead of everyone else, but he still forgets to begin with. That’s stupid.

B. Ichigo is extremely wishy-washy in this movie. He requires a speech from Kon, can’t or won’t beat Shuhei of all people even with his mask on, and loses to Toushirou. It’s pathetic. I get it, he’s a sad puppy without Rukia. It’s still pathetic to watch. The only time in the manga canon where his confidence wavers when it comes to trying to get to Rukia is during the Soul Society arc, when he wants to stay and wait for Ganju so they can settle their quarrel, and you can read that as being unique because it turns out they’re cousins and Ichigo may know something is unique, even if he doesn’t know it. This shit of him becoming discouraged and sad when trying to get to her is out-of-character.

C. This is an extension of (B), but like. Okay, when Orikasa Fumiko is voicing Rukia, and she screams in agony or despair, it chills me to the bone. I cannot explain to you how much I don’t like hearing it. It makes me anxious and makes me angry. She did it on the Senzaikyu when Gin broke her resolve to face death, and she does it in this movie when the Hollow fusion starts. And all Ichigo can do… is stand there uselessly going “Rukia…” like it’s nothing unusual. If he had been on the Senzaikyu bridge when Gin had done what he’d done, and he’d heard Rukia scream like that, he’d have fucking murdered Gin right then and there in cold blood. And here he faces the equivalent and does nothing. That’s not my boy. That’s not Ichigo.

D. When Rukia is crying over the deaths of Homura and Shizuku, Ichigo just stands there uselessly beside Renji and Byakuya and does nothing to console her. Renji and Byakuya at least have an excuse because they still don’t remember her. What’s Ichigo’s? Again, not him. Go to her you moron. At least grasp her shoulder. Not the Ichigo I know.

The fight scene with the goo monster is dumb as hell. Yamamoto should be able to solo it. He activated Ryuujin Jakka and… completely disappears from the fight. He just straight up vanishes. Because you can tell they realized he should be able to solo it and that would deprive them of everyone else getting a fight too. So he just instant transmissions out of the entire movie. And we get contrived shit like the monster being faster than Yoruichi and Soi-Fon so that Kisuke can heroically save Yoruichi (because him doing it in the Yammy fight wasn’t enough already). It’s just contrived, gratuitous, and pointless.

While the IchiRuki moments are very cute (if a little overly restrained, in my opinion) I feel like the rest of the movie that is set up to make them happen is a hot mess. Things happen because they need to for the plot to work, not because it makes sense or is in character for them to happen. I can’t stand movies that are made that way for any franchise, and seeing characters I care about deeply behave in such ways really just kinda pisses me off. The story beats are derivative and generally inferior versions of things we’ve already seen.

Movie Ichigo is generally out-of-character as fuck (and not just in this movie!) in a way that reminds me of like, Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies (wherein he acts basically nothing like he does on the TV show). And Movie Rukia seems generally reduced to a background character.

I said recently that Rukia and Doomguy would be friends, and you know what? I would watch that movie instead of Fade to Black or Hell Verse, to be honest. Let’s do an outline. 

Ichigo is kidnapped by some denizen of Hell (Kokutou and Shuren and company, I guess? they can still be anime pretty boys even if they’re damned souls, maybe they have terrible demonic forms or something) to be used as a reiatsu battery or some shit for evil purposes. (Breaking out of Hell to overrun the other worlds?) Ichigo’s energy running wild causes some kind of temporal and dimensional vortex which draws in the Doomguy. He finds himself in the upper levels of Bleach’s Hell and does what he does, methodically murdering his way about.

Rukia is sent to investigate Ichigo’s disappearance and eventually figures out Ichigo is in Hell, and so goes to save him (against orders, with the help of Kisuke and maybe the others). There she encounters Doomguy, and is at first horrified, but she notices the rabbit’s foot he keeps on him. She decides to help him, and they’re left alone for a minute, assessing each other.

Despite their initial lack of a shared language (maybe his helmet can translate Japanese?), she communicates to him (with Chappy drawings!) that she has to go deeper into Hell to save Ichigo. Given their shared love of bunnies, Doomguy is down with that. She rides on his back as she did with Ichigo, working some of his spare guns as they go. (Imagine Rukia cocking a shotgun meaningfully tho…) Along the way Rukia freezes some dudes and Doomguy punches their heads off. The usual stuff. She tells him about Ichigo as they go, like she did to Hanataro. Doomguy says nothing because he’s Doomguy, but he seems to listen.

They eventually get to Ichigo and liberate him through the judicious application of firepower. His raging reiatsu causes a lot of damage to the surrounding environment. Doomguy takes advantage of the chaos to commit more murder, giving Ichigo and Rukia time to have a tender reunion moment. The three then team up to take on Kokutou, Shuren, and the other baddies, possibly over the course of several different battles. (Probably like a third or so of the movie is this, and maybe the others show up to pair off and get some screen time. Doesn’t really matter.)

Eventually Shuren and the other chumps die and Kokutou becomes the big bad. Ichigo and Rukia do a big tag-team bankai attack to kill him after Doomguy provides them with an opening with a BFG9000 shot (as he is mostly doing add-clear).

Victorious, the three escape to the upper levels of Hell again, where they are met by reinforcements from Soul Society and explain that Doomguy is a friend. Eventually, Kisuke does some technobabble shizzlewizzle to send Doomguy back to the dimensions he more properly belongs to. Rukia gives him a parting gift of a drawing of him and Daisy in happier times. Ichigo gives him a fistbump and a CD player with some punk music, or a collection of edgy Shakespearean poetry or something.

Ichigo and Rukia share an epilogue to decompress and have some playful banter about how she’ll always be there for him just like he’s there for her.

Roll credits to At Doom’s Gate or BFG Division. Mid-credit sequence is Doomguy sitting on a massive demon corpse, making a detailed Chappy drawing of himself, Rukia, and Ichigo killing demons together as friends. End-credit sequence is Ichigo and Rukia playing an FPS game together on a console in pajamas or lounging clothes while laughing and bantering.

Like, yes, this idea is pretty stupid (although I am increasingly tempted to write it) and a frankly bizarre crossover. But you know what? It feels truer to the characters to me, and less contrived and dumb in setting up why what is happening is. It doesn’t really make the characters needlessly helpless or incompetent to generate those good moments of interaction.

And that is really my problem with Fade to Black: what it has to do to get the good moments outweighs them, for me. Maybe it’s because I just can’t turn my brain off and can’t stop doing critical analysis, but I always feel like the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. (And I kinda feel that way about all the animated movies. I was really surprised by how much I liked the Live Action: it nailed handling things perfectly.)

Other people like it, and that’s fine, but I don’t really intend to ever watch it again.

[redrobin-detective]

Are there any kuroshitsuji fics that you really like? Seeing all your posts is sorta re-stoking a long forgotten interest in the subject. If you can't remember any that's fine, also I'm looking forward to whatever it is you're writing about the manor.

I do have a few. The thing about Kuro is it’s a dark manga and the fandom can get rather perverse at times. I need to block half the content on AO3 before I start searching and even then stuff gets through. But! I found a couple of great fics.

Singing in Silence by Kimberly_T,

This one was so cute! Ultra gen fluff, basically it’s Ciel has severe PTSD which occasionally causes him to freeze and have violent outbursts. the servants discover that covertly singing in his vicinity will help gently pull him out of his episode. Fun character fic with some very heartwarming scenes.

how alone you are by luftbaloons99

Late at night, Ciel’s nightmares catch up with him and he is forced to seek out the man who will one day destroy him from comfort. It hits that angst button real good, reminding us that for all Seb protects him, his care for Ciel is conditional and damaging. 

Finis by thealiaarche

The game has ended, the contract concluded. Sebastian goes to claim what is his but as if Ciel Phantomhive would ever lose a game he’s been playing for years. Bastard Boy outsmarts demon and its glorious. 

Volume 1: The Phantomhive Archives by pearypie

It’s told entirely told through old letters from the Phantomhive era being examined by historians. It has a fascinating perspective and Seb’s letters are fun for all their demon innuendo. It’s similar to the original concept of my fic. I was 1/3 through my story when I found this, mine ended up being very different but it initially discouraged me. Anyway it’s very interesting. (This author has written a lot of Kuro stuff, Lots of SebCiel which i ignored but some of the Cielizzy stuff was good)

The First (and Final) Sacrament of Sebastian Michaelis by pearypie

This one just made me laugh. Seb accidentally dies trying to save Ciel (and the contract) and is then judged by a bunch of angels for his “selfless act of love for his master” to redeem him. Seb just wants to return to hell in shame. 

Domina Esques by shuofthewind

I LITERALLY CANNOT RECC THIS FIC ENOUGH. I initially read it on FF years ago and it’s stuck with me. I’ve reread it many times, even when I wasn’t into Kuro and its, I consider, seriously one of the best fics I’ve ever read. It’s long 40 chapters but fuck, fuck it’s so good. It flashes forward a few years so Lizzy is 16, still a kind, cute girl but ready to accept her destiny as the wife of the Queen’s Watchdog. She forces her way into one of Ciel’s investigations and watching the mystery of the Zodiac, of Ciel’s secrets, of her feelings for Ciel unfold is AHHHH!!! The story! The characters! The emotions! I was crying on my latest reread the pay off is OOOF! If you want to feel every conceivable human emotion then read this ((this author wrote another EXCELLENT FMA fic about Ling/Lan Fan post-series in Xing but its still unfinished)) 

[ai-megurine]

Bakugo Katsuki’s Antisocial personality disorder.

Warning: I am not an expert in psychiatry and anyone more knowledgeable than me is more than welcome to correct me.

Gigs and pictures not mine

          Hello everyone! I have been watching My Hero Academia for a while and I have been wondering one thing: why does Bakugo act the way he does? Most people have come to the conclusion that is either for scenario’s purposes or because he has both an inferiority complex and a superiority complex. Well, allow me to offer another theory.

Bakugo has an antisocial personality disorder, also called ASPD.

Now, let me list the ASPD’s symptoms and causes. According to Wikipedia, Healthyplace.com, Mayoclinic and psyco.net, the symptoms are the following (the list is from Mayoclinic but each website has its own):

Disregard for right and wrong.

Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others.

Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others

Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or personal pleasure.

Arrogance, a sense of superiority and being extremely opinionated

Recurring problems with the law, including criminal behaviour

Repeatedly violating the rights of others through intimidation and dishonesty

Impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead

Hostility, significant irritability, agitation, aggression or violence

Lack of empathy for others and lack of remorse about harming others

Unnecessary risk-taking or dangerous behaviour with no regard for the safety of self or others

Poor or abusive relationships

Failure to consider the negative consequences of behaviour or learn from them

Being consistently irresponsible and repeatedly failing to fulfil work or     financial obligations

I have highlighted the symptoms which we see the most in Bakugo but he exhibits them all (excluding the recurring problems with the law but that does not mean he does not suffer from ASPD). First of all, although he does not have problems with the law, he clearly does with authority, as seen in his relationships with his teachers.

Secondly, you cannot be clearly diagnosed with ASPD before your eighteenth birthday because your brain has not finished developing, which means you can get better. However, seeing as he is acting, I am still thinking that Bakugo’s psyche is irreversibly damaged and he will never get one-hundred per cent better (although improvements are possible and can be seen in the manga through his relationship with Kirishima).

Let’s talk empathy.

As you can read from the list, people with ASPD – and Bakugō – lack empathy. And who has more than his share of compassion in the manga? Deku. This is why Bakugo cannot stand Deku. Bakugo does not understand what empathy is, and, without a doubt, it frustrates him to no end. He probably has not felt it for a long time because, even as a child, he is shown not understanding why Deku wants to help when he could have severely injured himself (seriously, look at his face).

 And that is important.

He does not just flat out reject Deku’s help. He does not understand. He gets angry at Deku because he does not understand why someone would help him. If you look at the scene, Bakugo looks at Deku for two seconds before getting angry. Empathy is so foreign to him that something like helping a friend is completely incomprehensible. Thus, Bakugo believes that Deku thinks he is weak, because there is no other reason why Deku would ask him if he is hurt. He does not understand that someone could be genuinely worried about him.

Bakugo hates Deku because he does not understand him.

This lack of empathy from Bakugo is shown repeatedly in the manga. First, he does not bother remembering his classmates to the point that “Uraraka”, a name he probably heard everyday for three months, was not associated to anyone in his mind. Bakugo cares so little for others that he cannot remember someone else’s name. He remembers Ochako’s name during the match because she literally almost killed him.

We also see that he lacks empathy during the Provisional License Exam Arc, when he insults the people he is supposed to save and thus misses it. He fails to see the negative consequences of what he does. In one of the latest chapters, he cannot even try to act correctly in front of a camera. Bakugo lacks empathy to act properly and fails to see why it is a problem.

There are scenes in which he shows genuine concern for Kirishima or Uraraka (when she faints during their match and he saves her in the movie because you know, people with ASPD still have common sense they're humans duh), but they are the only person he seems to care for as persons. All Might is more like a obstacle to surpass for him, not a human. Anyway, caring for literally only two persons is not a lot, especially when you consider how he treats them the rest of the time.

 Also, as I said earlier, ASPD (like most personality disorders) is not fixed until your eighteenth birthday, and Bakugo can get better (although I believe he will never completely recover).

 Let’s talk anger and impulsivity.

 When things do not go their way, they snap. And they snap hard. They become violent, aggressive, etc. They start acting recklessly and accepting that someone else is right is almost impossible.

 Bakugo does not disregard Deku’s plan to beat All Might just because he is an arrogant douche. He does it because he cannot fathom how someone else could be right and him wrong. And when he has to accept that someone else – someone he does not understand on top of it – he is furious and even cries because of how much it pisses him off.

 Finally: why is Bakugo suffering from ASPD?

To know how Bakugo became the way he is, we thus need to look at his family and boy do we have a winner.

In one gif, Bakugo is hit twice by his mother is called weak by the same person because he was kidnapped. She is basically victim-shaming her fifteen years-old son who has just been kidnapped by terrorists. I do not care how annoying your teenage son is, this is not how you treat him. Bakugo should be undergoing massive therapy after being kidnapped by the guys who attempted to murder All Might and himself a few months prior (the USJ incident), not being hit and insulted by a mother who clearly is not too worried for her son.

Seeing that the father does not react in any way at the sight of his wife hitting their son, it is clearly not something new. It is something that has always happen. If we can assume that she probably did not start hitting him when he was very young, the verbal abuse was, without a doubt, already here. And being insulted and screamed at like this is more than enough to break a kid’s mind.

Also, look at Bakugo: he is looking at the ground and visibly shaking. That is not normal, especially when you remember his normal behaviour. Bakugou may say otherwise but his body language shows fear. He looks afraid of his own mother.

I mean look at this! She is even worse in the manga version:

How is a kid’s mind supposed to properly develop when he is treated like this?

Finally... Do you remember Bakugo’s parents being worried about him? We do not see them running to their rescued son and go with him to the hospital, etc. This has a name: neglect. Blatant neglect, I may add. Bakugo had no chance of understanding empathy if his own parents do not show it to him. He was almost doomed from the very beginning!

 Conclusion:

 Bakugo Katsuki developed (and is still developing!) an antisocial personality disorder because of his mother’s abuse and his only chance of getting better is to stay the hell away from her, go to therapy and be surrounded by his classmates and Aizawa (the only people I think actually can actually help him grow up normally).

[hoodlessmads]

Bloom Into You Chapter 41

…is maybe the literal cutest thing I’ve ever read.

I love how that teacher’s like, “What the hell were you doing in the student council room this late?” and they’re like, “Sorry, we just needed this key so we could go have our soapy love confession scene in there but you can have it back now.”

And they’re not quite full-on holding hands on the way home, but they’re just kinda

Just

Just kinda

Screaming.

The panel layout on the page where they’re both laying in bed awake thinking about each other is so lovely. How Yuu looks like she’s looking at Touko but she’s actually not because they’re in their own rooms but she actually is because they’re on the same page literally. And Touko’s adorable “that all just happened” expression as she’s holding her hand.

I find it interesting that as the manga has gone on and as the anime has gone into production and aired, the manga itself has begun to embrace those water themes more and more. Like, I don’t remember water being such a huge deal at the beginning of the manga, but it’s a highly prevalent visual motif in the anime. We see Yuu underwater when she feels distanced from her friends in the classroom, there’s underwater lighting at some points in the opening iirc, and this all comes to a head beautifully in the actual aquarium scene where they are underwater, with Touko looking up at the fish and stuff above them and Yuu leading Touko by the hand into the light, which she had previously felt so distant from. Anyway, it’s just nice how several of the past few chapter covers have featured Yuu underwater reaching toward the surface/the light, and this title talking about sea charts reminded me of that. I guess it’s meant to be like, she’s above water now. On the ocean, which is this whole new thing to navigate.

I love how Yuu comes skipping into school all pumped about her friends’ lives and literally anything at all because she’s in such a good mood and how shy she gets when asked if anything good happened, and the fact that she immediately took that charm out of the drawer and put it on her bag. Like, Yuu in this whole chapter is a whole ass “FINALLY” mood.

I love how the panel layout and our sense of time almost makes it look like Touko has been standing at the door to the classroom for a minute trying to gather the courage to face Sayaka the same way, as though things haven’t changed between them, or at least to face her at all. She goes in looking all determined, like she’s decided she’s going to say something to Sayaka because Sayaka deserves it and it’s only right, but then stops at “Good morning,” and doesn’t end up saying anything else, kind of chickens out, just looks over pensively wondering if she should say something, and if that’s not a Touko ass thing to do I don’t know what is lol. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s still brooding about what to say after school, trying to be all responsible, determined to be the liaison between friend and girlfriend. And meanwhile Yuu and Sayaka are as functional as ever and come to an understanding and reaffirm that they are best friends for life in like two seconds before Touko can even finish thinking about it. God, I adore Yuu and Sayaka’s friendship so much.

But the main point that the classroom scene got across for me was that things aren’t the same between Touko and Sayaka now. It’s awkward. It’s different. There’s a distance between them now that wasn’t there before. And while they will still be friends after this (for a while, if we believe the second light novel to be canon), this is definitely the beginning of them slowly drifting apart. I think it’s a good thing. Sayaka especially could use the opportunity to move on. Staying as close of friends as they were just wouldn’t be a healthy scenario for either of them, especially now that so many things have come to light that they previously kept secret from each other. As much as she does know her weaknesses and still love her, it still feels like there’s a part of Touko that Sayaka never really knew. They have both changed and grown so much since the beginning of the series, and the people they are now just aren’t as compatible as they once were, as friends or otherwise. I hope Sayaka comes to realize this sooner rather than later so that it can start hurting less.

Honestly this chapter filled my heart with fluffy cuteness like a water tank about to bust from too much pressure and I almost died from it, but that ONE panel with Sayaka’s face after she sees Yuu’s charm broke me. Nakatani is a master. That facial expression was just so raw. I hate to see her hurting like that. Sayaka is truly too good for this world. God, please future girlfriend, please love her well.

But Yuu and Sayaka’s friendship waters my crops. That cheek slap and stretch routine is a blatant gesture of unbridled affection disguised as fake irritation and you cannot convince me otherwise. This whole scene. Ugh, she’s so…nice?

Touko’s flustered reaction at seeing Yuu and Sayaka being such legitimately chill friends and having worked out all their issues while she was brooding and being anxious will never cease to amuse me. I love her, I try to defend Touko so much, but it’s scenes like this that prove once again that she’s actually just the yuri equivalent of a fuckboy, god bless her heart. I do adore her.

It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen disaster gay Nanami Touko so I was quite glad to see her make several appearances this chapter. They’re both trying so hard to be chill during the student council meeting but they both helplessly look up at each other at the same time. Or perhaps Yuu looks up helplessly and Touko is just dead ass staring at her, smitten. And Touko is so determined to type very important things afterwards. How is Nakatani so good at drawing cute ass snapshots of cute ass people? And I love how they’re…are ya’ll holding hands with your feet now? It’s adorable. Keep doing it.

Maki is that audience insert.

Same.

Doujima’s still completely oblivious that there are lesbians in this show.

So Yuu. I am always a huge sucker for when characters who are traditionally pretty unemotional get to a point where they’re so emotional that they can’t help but display that emotion in a way that’s uncharacteristic of how they’ve been up to this point, but for that reason is so incredibly satisfying to watch. It is so satisfying to see this adorable person that we’ve come to know and love finally get to this point. Yuu is honestly the best part of all of this fluff, by far. Talk about acting experience. This whole time, she’s worn the world’s greatest poker face, and now that she can finally let herself be the absolute gay mess she actually is, she’s just barely keeping it all in and it’s so adorable and gratifying. You wouldn’t have known this girl could get so red and flustered but damn if she isn’t and it is so fucking cute.

She’s so eager to finally say Touko’s name (with senpai), and in spite of how flustered and head over heels she is, she’s still the same functional and straightforward Yuu we’ve always known. She comes right out and tries to DTR within like an hour of having the initial thought. The response: “Girlfriends? I haven’t thought about it. I guess we are.” Touko, this is why you’re a meme.

And on the flip side of Yuu being so embarrassed, Touko’s all, “Stand aside, I’m Character Development Touko now. I’m not the flustered disaster lesbian you once knew. I’m Smooth Touko now. I’m the new and improved Kiss Your Tears Touko. I troll Yuu about saying my name and not the other way around. I’m smooth as hell now.” But then as soon as “Touko-senpai” comes out she’s just like “fuck.”

Their conversation about happiness at the end is really moving to me, because they’ve moved past the “ureshii” happiness they were talking about last chapter and they’re now talking “shiawase,” which specifically refers to lasting happiness. If that isn’t the deepest most romantic shit. I also feel like bringing up the way Yuu casually mentioned the idea of girlfriends living together at some point in the future and it was just kind of glossed over as if this girl is not already playing the long game with Touko and I’m crying inside. Because I genuinely believe they’ll get there and I always thought so, but this nod from canon is glorious. (You’ve been dating for one day, Yuu, chill.) But in all seriousness, Yuu, you absolute head over heels in love sap. This talk of girlfriends living together and this repeated mention of lasting happiness (has me feeling all types of ways) tells me where Yuu’s head is at. How serious her feelings actually are. Like, that’s marriage material, bitch. She’s that happy. I’m just…so happy for her.

I find it interesting that we haven’t really been in Touko’s head since she texted Yuu on the train in chapter whatever, and not since the confession scene last chapter. We’ve mostly been with Yuu ever since. Even that one classroom scene I would argue is more from Sayaka’s point of view. I hope next chapter we get a little more from Touko’s side. I have a feeling we’ll get something like a Touko-centric chapter at some point, as I feel her personal character arc and the whole thing with her sister still need some polishing off before we can bring the story to a close. But that’s just me.

In some ways, it’s a shame that there’s so few pages left before the end of the story. Yuu and Touko’s new relationship is completely uncharted territory for them now (not to unintentionally make a pun on the chapter title). That period of excitement and uncertainty at the beginning of a new relationship is always one of the most gratifying things to explore in a story for me, so I wish we had more time. There are so many interesting things to explore with this entire cast of characters that just won’t get explored, simply because of time constraints. Still, the flip side is that ending it here in volume 8 will give Bloom Into You the succinct, satisfying conclusion it deserves to a well-structured, well-paced arc, with absolutely no excess anywhere in sight. Bloom Into You is such a brilliant exercise in telling a complete, engaging story while trimming all the fat. Some romance stories can end up feeling bloated in terms of pacing and structure, but I have a feeling this is going to be just perfect. (Unless Nakatani Nio, actual manga genius and icon, somehow manages to fuck it up. Not likely.)

Once again, I’m excited to see where Nakatani takes us and the characters next. I can’t wait to see certain characters’ reactions to the new relationship, like Akari, Koyomi, and Rei. And god, I would love to see more of Yuu and Touko navigating this new relationship, what it means, what the rules are, how they define it to themselves and others. Basically, I just want to know what happens next. Is that too much to ask? Can’t I just know what happens next? God damn it.

[thisisnothingthisisone-blog]

rurouni kenshin ova: trust & betrayal (tsuiokuhen)

spoilers!! major spoilers!! if u watch it before u read this it’ll probably be better. but it’s up to u.

i first watched this series of four half-hour OVAs about 3 weeks ago, and i’m really still heartbroken. i’ve watched it another 2 times since, alone, in the dark, with good audio setups to honor its quality, and it’s lost none of its grace, beauty, or emotional impact. it’s easily one of my favorite anime works ever at this point, and i can confidently say that i think pretty much everything about it is perfect.

first, a short evaluation of the artistic quality of the piece. it’s phenomenal, imo. the visuals and animation are beautiful, lush, with a high degree of hand drawn craftsmanship. colors are used symbolically and strikingly, and the visual metaphors are rich- even techniques common to film, like expressing high emotion through scenes in nature, are used effectively and elegantly. the music is absolutely gorgeous, grand, majestic, orchestral; but so incredibly tender and sorrowful as well. it’s reminiscent of illustrative impressionist composers, ravel, debussy, and has the intensity of romantic ones, rachmaninov; or at least, those are the composers i found myself listening to as offshoots of the OST. i’m no expert on narrative techniques, but i found the pacing, characterization and development, everything about the storytelling to be fitting, effective, and impactful. the mood and tone are somber, but not necessarily bitter; it is dark, and depicts the brutal truth of war, killing, murder, death, and justice; but so, too, does it depict the humility with which ordinary people live their lives despite the suffering abundant in their world. it’s even structured a little similarly to a symphony, i think; the first movement is striking, and sets the tone for what is to come; the second movement extrapolates what is set in the first, and introduces tension, and promise; the third movement is romantic, and moving, the heart of the whole thing; and the fourth, the climax and the ensuing aftermath, the penance. i would definitely recommend this movie based on overall quality alone.

that said, several things in particular pique my interest in this film and the ways that they relate to patterns in my life: the concept of the supremely idealistic hero, who believes in justice but who is utterly gentle and naive; the similarities to the story of inuyasha and kikyo; and the intense appeal of romantic tragedy for me (and, maybe, you).

the idealistic hero. there’s a line in the film where kenshin’s mentor is thinking to himself about kenshin’s potential, and he thinks, (not verbatim, just what i remember) “he is pure. and because he is pure, he will continue to improve, as he is driven by the desire to become strong, to the point where i would consider him a simpleton.” and later, kenshin quarrels with his master about the morality of ignoring conflict and the suffering of the masses, when the principles that come with his strength dictate the a responsibility to protect the weak. i often find myself identifying with characters like this — characters who are idealistic and naive, who desperately believe in abstract justice, without any knowledge of the many gray areas in human morality and behavior, who ultimately wish to use their strength for the benefit of the anonymous “people.” i mean, pragmatically, it’s a ridiculous notion. how can one person decide what justice is for those he has the power to kill? who is he really protecting by doing so? and tomoe does a good job of pointing out the hypocrisy in his actions.

a bit on tomoe — she is a really interesting character to me. i’ve always had a fascination with the “tragic cold beauty” type that develops a warmer side to her, but for whom this warmer side is the cause of her tragedy. there are some quiet, subtle scenes where she looks at reflections of herself, which belie the undertow of her being at war with herself in those moments, where her intentions and desires are confused. she’s a powerful character, her power stemming from her contradiction. their relationship is built up over spare, poetic moments that belie a subtle, but intertwining chemistry, that is delicate and poignant as it is framed by the political instability and widespread turmoil of the times. she recognizes kenshin to be a child in his naivety regarding his ideals. her sorrow over the crops that die in the rain is just as palpable as kenshin’s despair over the antithetical nature of his killing. though her taking on the role of being a “sheathe” for the “brandished sword” of kenshin’s rage and anguish is founded on sexist expectations (that are still common today), she is not depicted as a weaker character by any means. different, and subordinate; but just as necessary, valuable and significant as kenshin, though ultimately she dies as a lesson to him- she serves her purpose beautifully, and then is burned away. they are brought together by death and lost love, and as the iris flower dies without the rain, and only her memory is left after the fighting dies down. she is a character trope that isn’t meant to live, as things that are too beautiful always wither away; she is meant to remain a memory, a reminder, a metaphorical and literal scar.

back to the idealistic hero. i think what attracts me so much to kenshin’s character in particular is the same as what makes tomoe fall in love with him: the so, so incredibly gentle nature of his spirit lying beneath his intense desire to do good in the world. a scene where kenshin and tomoe are together in the house they’ve escaped to, eating the vegetables they planted and harvested together, and tomoe mentions that kenshin’s everday could have been like this, if different things had happened in his life. the contrast between the peaceful life full of small happinesses that he could have had, and the brutal, violent, soul-crushing life he leads then — and the yearning i feel for the life he didn’t have, was very real. his “justice that seems like insanity” is haunting and beautiful, but i also want him to be happy. but his “justice” is detrimental to the gentle, kind person he truly is and wants to be. the idealistic hero can’t exist in the real world the way he thought he could; his shedding of naivety and realization than his only real strength is in protecting the people he cares about is sobering. ideals are abstract, but we live in a constantly shifting, unpredictable world that constantly changes like rippling water, and if we wish to live any semblance of a fulfilling life, we have to learn to not be a stone, which is eroded; but to flow along, carving out a space for ourselves within the tide.

these ideas are explored similarly in the manga series “Azumi,” wherein ax extremely strong, quick, genius assassin is a cheerful and loving girl at heart, who forms quick connections with people and only wants to be kind and have true friends. in this manga there is a theme of comparing her to a bodhisattva — a theme that i think is implied in the rurouni kenshin OVA as well. a bodhisattva is a figure from mahayana buddhism, a religion popular in east asia for a period of time (sorry i haven’t taken art history in a while!!), that has reached enlightenment but delays transcendence out of compassion to save other suffering beings. azumi and kenshin share the characteristic of being extremely powerful assassins, to the point of being like gods of war, or gods of death, who, because they are enlightened in their arts of fighting, cannot be allowed to form lasting connections with people they care about. anything they do form a connection with is killed and taken away from them, keeping them on the path of deified violence that they don’t really want (until, for kenshin at least, the war dies down and he swears to never kill again. i haven’t finished azumi so i don’t know what happens). (if any of this inaccurate please lmk, i’m not that knowledgeable about buddhism;;;)

inuyasha and kikyo. inuyasha was a big part of my adolescence, and i think one of the series that really got me into anime in the first place. it’s not a great series honestly, in terms of artistic merit, but it’s plenty fun and full of surprises despite all its shortcomings. but i remember really liking the story of inuyasha and kikyo, and i see kenshin and tomoe’s story being compared to this in other places on the internet as well. the similarities are certainly there — the cold, long black haired conventional beauty meets violent demon, together they learn to be human and to love, which ultimately causes their downfall and the false betrayal and tragedy of the love that never was, which makes it all the more romantic.

the intense appeal of romantic tragedy — i want so desperately for them to be able to continue their lives happily together, yet at the same time i know that that would make for a bland ending (or maybe not. but,). the moment that breaks me isn’t the climactic moment of tomoe’s death, but the way that her spirit still comforts kenshin as he finishes the job started during the war, and carries his will to never kill again once it is over. the tragedy is what makes the love story so good; it wouldn’t be half as appealing without it, but it’s also what makes it painful. pain and sweetness, together, suffering and love, to feel pain is to feel love and that’s how you know, this is a theme in my life too though in different ways. maybe i just savor the feeling of being heartbroken, but not for myself. i want to feel tragic. i want to be saved. no one can save me in real life, but at least i can dream, project onto this immaculate story. there’s something really feminine about tragedy, for me. (i don’t consider myself a femme, necessarily, but if i had to choose i would lean femme, i think femininity of any kind is a thing to be treasured.) it’s something i felt when i was in the throes of identifying with mitski — she’s such a tragic character, branded in such earnest, genuine sadness and controlled despair. to hold the sorrow without the visceral pain, and peek into a feeling that’s meant to be desired. do i wax poetic? i can’t help it. i’m a romantic, through and through.

also, just another thing. i think another thing that makes the whole deal extra sweet for me is the effeminate appearance and nature of kenshin, haha. it’s certainly not trying to be ~queer~ or anything but it’s one of those things that, i feel like, resonate somewhere innately for those of us who seek out representations of people outside the cis/het norm. i’ve heard that fans of yuri tend to enjoy this series lol.

i honestly can’t think of anything this OVA could have done better. i think there might have been something but i can’t remember it anymore. if you have any thoughts, feel free to reach out~

[webcomixwastaken]

I love FMA. I enjoyed the new FMA movie. But it’s not great.

Because with what FMA actually is, it never could be.

I watched the FMA live action Netflix movie a few days back and here’s what I have to say. Spoilers, most particularly for those who haven’t read the manga or watched Brotherhood, but also for the film itself.

First of all, let me repeat what everyone is saying: it IS visually stunning. SO much care was put into the costume and set design, you can tell immediately that the creators of this film adored the source material and poured a lot of love into recreating shots just perfectly. I also liked the cast immediately - the physical resemblance to their characters was jaw-dropping and their performances were not bad at all! Most were, in fact, very good (Hughes and Mustang come to mind at once. Also like, Hughes is really attractive. My flatmate and I were mooning over him constantly. You know what, everyone was a hottie and it was great.)

For me, an absolutely golden moment was Ed transmuting that stupid-ass rock in Liore (ahem, sorry, Reole) - it was 100% in character for every person involved in that scene. Where would we be without an over-the-top, unpragmatic example of alchemy from our favourite shrimp, Edward Elric? (He was not nearly angry enough when ribbed about his height, though.)

So, these are the reasons why I LIKED the film. I had a GREAT time watching it, my heart was full! It truly is a love letter to the original story.

But it is not a very GOOD film, overall. Hear me out.

The main issue was trying to compress the plot to feature film length. FMA’s story is extremely complex because its themes are so heavy and, well, complex. That’s why it takes so much time and interaction to make an impact. Every time I think about how Arakawa made all the pieces fit together so seamlessly, I want to weep at the sheer cleverness of she - but I also remember it took her NINE YEARS TO DO IT TOO!  So having to cram a decade-long manga with over 100 chapters into 2 hours is a HELL of a difficult job for any director and screenwriter, no matter how skilled they are or how much they revere the material. Which themes, arcs, and characters do you prioritise over others without earning the scorn and ire from millions of diehard fans worldwide? Yikes.

They decided to only adapt half of the first season of FMAB before jumping to a subplot that pops up near the very end of the series, focusing on Ed and Al’s hunt for the philosopher’s stone and emphasising the law of equivalent exchange - a pretty good bet actually, considering that these are the main foundations of the overall FMA story. But because FMA ties this arc so tightly with other themes (the dangers of political power, social problems created by war, the value of human life vs. scientific advancement, etc.) it’s simply impossible to examine any of them long enough to make an impact on the audience. I watched this film with friends who were casual fans/never finished the manga/don’t remember it, and they were overwhelmed and confused by the breakneck pacing. 

For example: the character I missed the most was Scar, an extremely important foil to Ed in what he learned from grief and loss, and how he goes about seeking closure. The references to Amestris’s war ambitions were easily missed without him, as evidenced by my friends. They picked up on the parallels to martial law and racial extermination in the name of imperialism because you literally cannot have FMA without this background, but were disappointed when the film didn’t give them more. Also the removal of Scar allowed Tucker to live slightly longer, which I honestly don’t understand the point of (is the actor someone really famous in Japan, maybe?) because we already had his moment with Ed when he suggests they are similar...we didn’t need another scene of that?? It’s just wasting more screen time, which is already so precious!

This brings me to the nitty gritty, smaller, but just as bothersome filmmaking techniques that damaged this already jam-packed and racing movie: the director’s decision to extend emotional weight at somewhat awkward moments (man, Ed stops to cry a lot) through dramatic music and long takes, but at other times failing to match a scene’s mood through lighting and sound (ie. the moment Ed realises what happened to Nina)?? Several consistency issues, like Lust sending Envy after Tucker then having an entire fight with Roy, Riza and Ed afterwards, but somehow ED manages to find Tucker and Al first, and even LUST appears before Envy finally shows...?? What was he doing that whole time? What is Envy even doing for most of this movie, honestly. We kept yelling, “WHERE’S ENVY??” at the screen every other shot for the last 30 minutes of the film. 

There was one change I appreciated though, changing Lab 5 into a POW camp instead of connecting to a jail. I felt it tied in the devastation of war/power of the military to the horror of philosopher's stones more. But again, we didn’t get a lot of time to even explore that concept anyway...sigh.

The film ends with Ed discovering Al’s body behind the door of truth, refusing to use the stone (I was very tense for a moment there, I’ll admit) and promising his brother they’ll achieve their means some other way. Roy (who replaces Ross as the scapegoat) is still thought to be Hughes’s murderer, though he has “killed” Lust and Envy (who, in a post-credits scene is revealed to simply returned to its puny lizard form). A blatant sequel hook, which makes me wish they had then taken their time on this installment, but I guess the filmmakers were unsure if they’d get a second shot. They may not. It’s not that great. But if they’re given the green light, I know I’ll watch it. I’m rooting for it, because they just needed a lot more time.

[linkspooky]

Touka and Mutsuki, setting up foils and conflict

What you said about mutsuki and touka how they are both fixating on the same thing kinda like a dream was really interesting and true to me. It makes the whole touka mutsuki kaneki/haise conflict even more complex would love to hear more about that from you 

Alright, since I’m the one who brought up this idea and also I’ve seen it go around in others inboxes, I’m going to devote the Touka and Mutsuki comparison to its own Meta rather than just having it as a point in a shared meta. 

To clarify, what do I mean when I say that both Touka and Mutsuki fixate unhealthily on the idea of Kaneki/Haise? Also, why does the narrative set this up?

To begin with, I’ve received several asks as to what I mean by Touka is obsessed with Kaneki, and I’ve also seen other people point out that Mutsuki’s love for Haise is way different and much more violent than Touka’s all accepting love for him and therefore there’s no point in comparing them. However, I raise that this seemingly total opposite difference is exactly why we must compare them. Let me demonstrate to with another chart:

The two are in opposite directions, and Mutsuki is much more extreme yes. However if Mutsuki were not compared to Touka in this moment, you might mistake Touka’s own devotion as healthy if it were not being flagged like this. This is literally the origin of the term foil, which is a foil placed on a stage to highlight something, its something used to call attention to something in someone else.  Let’s elaborate under the cut though. 

Which means this right here: Is an extreme image that serves as a red flag to return the fandom’s attention to Touka once more. 

Foiling though, does not mean equation of two separate things. Which is why saying that Mutsuki’s love for Haise and Touka’s love for Kaneki is not the same, is not really an argument against their foiling. In fact, Mutsuki’s extreme version of love in comparison to Touka’s much more soft spoken and accepting love is deliberately pushed to extremes to serve as an attention getter. 

To quote an old meta from @hysyartmaskstudio​ [x]

See, despite the fact that Tokyo Ghoul is billed as a horror manga, Ishida never uses things just for shock value. Not Yamori’s torture, not Kaneki’s abuse, and not even Torso, sick fuck that he is.

The chapter this meta was written in reference to is Chapter 73, Flower. Which featured Torso and Arima as the main highlights of that chapter. In particular there was this scene where Torso’s narration transitioned back to Kaneki and Arima’s fight in a meaningful way.

The boxes are Torso’s narration, promising to take Mutsuki to a field of flowers, which transitions to Arima quite literally making a Torso out of Kaneki as is Torso’s signature habit, in a field of metaphorical flowers. 

The question is why draw out this comparison? On a surface level there is no way to equate Arima or Kaneki to Torso, while both of them are killers neither of them enjoy it or find the catharsis needed to survive out of it like Torso does in his predation. While figures that have turned abusive in the past, neither has ever subjected a prolonged violent abuse to the point of dehumanization for the sake of making another love them like Torso has done to Mutsuki. 

If you discount the extremities there are similarities between the two of them you might not have recognized were it not for the comparison, though. Look at the narration in the last page:

Connect, his words, his kagune... they cannot reach him.

 Page 19, Ch. 73

Unlike Yamori Torso’s fascination was not with strength, it was with love and connection. If you read the extra material, that gives a window into torso’s mindset, he craves connection and love while at the same time not understanding those concepts. 

A lonely pillow is difficult to sleep on. If I’m not embraced by that kind of smooth flesh, it feels as though my mind will become very strange.

For me, there is no way whatsoever to understand the hearts of humans.

Why they are happy, angry, sad, I cannot imagine. How must I act so that they do not leave me, I fail to grasp.

Since souls cannot be seen, at any rate, speaking to people besides myself, I think of them as automated dolls, crammed with meat.

[x]

Which sounds like the basic concept behind Haise Sasaki’s own birthday poem. 

…But how is someone who has never been loved be capable of loving someone else?

A child who wasn’t able to receive the minimal love they required at the time they needed it the most will continue to gaze at the illusion of affection and never know how to love until the day they die.

[x]

Both of them have a desire to be loved, but also a cluelessness of understanding what that love actually means. The desire for love is not in and of itself unhealthy, but Torso illustrates what can happen when this desire is pushed to extremes. Something that Kaneki also experiences in extremes from time to time.

Then, what in this situation where he is paralleled to Torso is his love forcing him to do? The answer lies in the next image in which Kaneki himself gets torsoe’d by Arima. Having one’s limbs torn off is a really quick and dirty visual symbolism for a limiting of agency. 

This entire chapter ‘flower’ is about Kaneki’s attempt to connect to Arima and want to understand him, but Arima’s answer to this is ‘Don’t play around,” and to cut his limbs off. The question is why is that? Why does Kaneki fail to reach him? The answer lies in Torso, because through Torso the audience realizes that Kaneki’s intentions are not in the right place. Just like Torso, Kaneki is manipulating others passively and limiting them of their agency in order to fulfill his need to be loved. Both Hinami and Arima, Kaneki is reaching out to them in the form of this grand martyr plan he’s set himself up for, he plans to save Hinami and then die at Arima’s hand saving Hinami, and in both situations he doesn’t really care that much about the feelings of the others involved in his martyr plan. 

He didn’t take into account how Hinami would feel watching her brother die, nor did he think of how Arima would feel having to kill his son. Yet at the same time Kaneki claims he wants to understand Arima’s feelings, that’s why Arima says “Stop playing around”, because Kaneki isn’t doing this to love Arima but rather to be loved by Arima. 

Therefore we get two characters who go to extremes to draw love out of others, but do so by limiting the agency of those that they wish to be loved by, because they see no other way of achieving that love. Two character motivated by a fundamental misunderstanding of what love is.

That foiling can apply even further to Arima, a character we see in the next few chapters express true love for Kaneki, but then take his agency away right in front of him by forcing him into the role of Arima’s killer, and one eyed king. In dragging the quinque across his neck he takes away Kaneki’s choice of whether or not to kill him. In it he also takes a way a part of Kaneki’s identity as well, because from now on Kaneki has to conform to the lie that Arima told, that he was the one who killed Arima Kishou. Kaneki after his brief moment of realization and personhood once again finds himself conforming to an idea again becoming the “one eyed king” shortly afterwards. 

So with what has been established so far, attempting to gain love from people by limiting their agency 1) often perpetuated by characters who misunderstand love 2) is inherently dehumanizing and often reduces people to ideas 3) can be done actively (torso) and also passively (kaneki) but the passive variant while harder to notice and less extreme, does not equate to healthy. Showing the extreme version also is a way narratively of pointing out the passive and harder to notice passive version, and call into question the healthiness of the motives of a character practicing this passivity. 

With all of that established, let’s return to Touka and Mutsuki. First, for a narrative foiling to take place there has to be some similarities between their situations. 

Touka and Mutsuki share three major similarities. First, they have an ambivalent attachment to a father and family structure that was suddenly cut out of their lives. 

For Touka this is in Arata. Arata however, was a healthy father figure that disappeared suddenly, hence the source of Touka’s ambiguous connection. I’ve seen comparisons that Touka takes after her mother more than her father, but that’s not the point really, Hikari died when Touka was too young to remember her face, all of her formative memories (IE, in a freudian sense the ones that dictate how she sees attachment from then on) are of her father. 

That’s why she flashes back to her father, or more specifically her last memory of her father leaving when she thinks of the loneliness she feels or her inability to connect with Ayato from this point forward, because to her the inciting incident of all of those subconscious fears stems from her father’s disappearance. Touka also has a lot of subconscious motivators for her actions that arise from the way Arata rose her. Touka finds herself compelled to eat human food even when she does not have to, something that will intentionally make her sick and weaken her because her father convinced her it was necessary to fit in. 

Before the reason is revealed to us though, we see this behavior demonstrated to us when Touka eats Yoriko’s food, above and beyond what is necessary to pass as a ghoul. It even becomes a problem in the final fight against Tsukiyama. 

When Ayato is criticizing Touka for her ideals, her pacifism and want to pass as human he says she is being “Just like Pop”.

Which is also a behavior learned from Arata, and further from Yoshimura that ghouls should be content to just blend in peacefully to the human world and observe. 

So yes, Touka does physically resemble Hikari, and have her courageous demeanor but most of her the unconscious motivators for her behavior come from her upbringing from her father and not her mother who was not around to raise her for most of her life. 

Mutsuki is also someone who came from an unstable home, and lost a father figure, but Mutsuki’s case is more extreme. One Mutsuki is responsible for both his brother, his father, and mother leaving all at once by being the one to kill them. However, losing them still had an affect on Mutsuki. One of his first internal narrations is that he wants to meet his family, even though his life is not pretty. 

Mutsuki’s family was abusive and horrible though, so this urge can rather be read as Mutsuki simply wants to have a family. The same way that Touka longs for the return of Arata after he was suddenly cut out of her life, (Ayato too) Mutsuki wants to experience a stable father and brother figure after being denied that by being born into a family of horrible abuse. 

 Mutsuki still displays a lot of unconscious behaviors from the way he was raised the same way Touka does. Mutsuki’s however are based upon appeasing individuals rather than trying to fit into a human society. Mutsuki’s are individual, Touka’s are societal. Mutsuki while being drowned by his father and later abused had to shout out that his father was the best, in order to get the violence against him to stop.

One of Mutsuki’s main coping mechanisms after that is simply to appease to try to get himself out of tough situations. There are times where it’s minor, like Mutsuki simply trying to avoid conflict. Mutsuki has a habit of reading the mood and trying to go with the flow in the room, rather than standing up on his own for what he wants. He doesn’t speak out against Urie until Shirazu throws a fuss.

There are other subconscious times where this passive behavior is pushed to extremes, and Mutsuki ends up taking and forgiving abuse from male figures in his life as a way of pacifying them. We see this with Mutsuki bringing Urie back from his freakout.

What is textually a heartwarming scene, and subtextually a bit horrifying as it signals what abuse has done to Mutsuki, made him so passive to the abuse of male figures that he is literally willing to forgive immediately being stabbed by them. Moreso than that though, Urie deliberately led Mutsuki with him into a trap in order to gain a promotion when Mutsuki was harmed and in need of a safe place, then left Mutsuki behind and Mutsuki instantly forgives him. Mutuski also lies to Torso in order to pacify him. 

Mutsuki’s words here “I guess this is my destiny, always stolen away by men... completely ” means that he feels compelled to surrender his agency to men in order that they might not harm him.

Mutsuki surrenders agency to men, Touka surrenders agency to humans, two different flavors of the same action, and both from the same source their fathers.

Second, both of these characters find a substitute for their father figure in Kaneki. 

I’ve heard it argued in the past that Arata is meant to resemble Kaneki from Ayato’s point of view only, but there’s too many similarities between Kaneki and Arata not to make the comparison. 

It’s brought up first here:

Arata is brought up again while Kaneki is fighting Shinoara while wearing (surprise) Arata armor. 

A third time right before Kaneki fought Arima: 

Also in the context of a ghoul cannibalizing to gain great strength in order to save his loved ones, only for that strength to become his downfall. Sound familiar? 

Besides that though the way Kaneki enters the scene when Arata is first brought up is him physically forcing himself to become a substitute for Arata.

When Touka says don’t leave me alone here, she’s specifically talking about her family, not Kaneki. Yet in Kaneki comes, assuming it’s about him or otherwise making it about him by fulfilling that promise.

At the end of the arc, we see Touka holding Arata’s wedding ring mentioning her mother and father but thinking of Kaneki, which means that Kaneki was sucessful, he’s become a standin for the kind of love that Touka wants from others.

Then we have Mutsuki, once again Mutsuki’s example is different and more extreme. Mutsuki does not so much slowly grow attached to Kaneki as Touka does, but rather gets attached to Haise because he is the first real stable familial figure after coming from an extremely unstable home environment and mistake that for love. 

It’s made very obvious in 114 Dear, where what earns Mutsuki’s supposed love is just Haise providing for him a safe and stable home to wake up to. Even within the context of the chapter that it’s revealed though, Mutsuki’s love is questionable. 

Phrasing it as a question provides room for the itnerpretation that what Mutsuki is doing is feeling attachment to a familial figure and mistaking it for love primarily because he himself has no experience with love. It’s different from Touka because Haise doesn’t physically resemble Mutsuki’s father at all, but rather he’s the first healthy father figure Mutsuki allowed himself to get attached too. Even before this chapter, Mutsuki and Haise were set up as having a familial bond.

In the first arc, Mutsuki and Haise spend the entire time on each other’s sides. Mutsuki was also the first Q to act cooperatively with Haise, while Shirazu, Urie, and Saiko all were off doing their own things.

Haise protects and reassures Mutsuki, here, here, and here.

In the rose arc, Suzuya specifically asks why Mutsuki of all people only refers to Haise by his last name and Mutsuki says that he was used to calling him that after attending one of his academy lectures. In other words he’s used to seeing Sasaki in a formative position. 

There’s also the fact that in this case Haise deliberately inserted himself into the position of father too. It was his decision to play family and care for all of the needs of what were essentially work assocciates.

Now the third and most important similiarity is that Kaneki/Haise after assuming this roll of surrogate father/family member, then deliberately abandoned both of these people “for their own good” in his mind. This abandonment also comes after promising to be their for them. 

This abandonment leaves both of them fixating on the idea of Kaneki or Haise (because the real one is not around for whatever reason) in his place, to fill whatever emotional need that Kaneki was trying to fill for them. For Mutsuki it was safety and for Touka it’s more ambiguous, but Kaneki has at least taken the place of the loneliness Touka felt towards Ayato. 

Both of them also fixate on a past version of Kaneki, or Haise that they knew. 

In Mutsuki’s case it’s more obvious though because the person named Haise never existed. He was Kaneki’s dream. 

Mutsuki’s obsession is also telegraphed far better because it’s hyperviolent. It takes the form of selfish, possessive love, the same kind that Torso displayed. The want to just make sure Haise never leaves again by rendering him unable to. This:

Is very different from this:

But if the two of them were not compared, you might mistake the latter for looking healthy when it’s not. It’s not for several reasons, one and most apparent is that Touka only knew Kaneki consistently for two months, then he abandoned her for six of which she only saw him once during that time, then he died. Yet she’s devoted three years of her life to the creation of RE:, which is stated textually and explicitly to exist for the sake of Kaneki, maybe, if he wants to come home eventually. 

The reason I phrased that last sentence so iffy is because Touka also says that she doesn’t even want Kaneki to come back in the same sentence that she also says that :RE exists as a place for Kaneki to come back to. So, which is it? Touka’s actions while entirely selfless, are not based around romantic love. They’re based around fixation, or obsession the same way that Mutsuki’s are for Haise. The reason why they are based around obsession is because of this extreme amount of selflessness. Real love requires give and take, an element of selfishness. Touka’s love is akin to projecting love at Kaneki from afar, but you can’t love at a person only an object.

In terms of Tokyo Ghoul itself used though, Human relationships are chemical reactions. (Hello Jung, we’ve only been talking about Freud up until this point).

In other words you can’t react with a noble gas, you need the other person to participate in the reaction. You need to want them to be with you, putting them on a pedestal and sacrificing yourself in the name of them just denies them their agency. 

So while Touka’s actions may seem selfless and noble, it’s comparing them to Mutsuki that makes the reader go “Hmm, something’s not right here.” Which is also what the focus of the next arc seems to be setting up to. As you can see, Touka’s broken family has resolved itself the best it can, Ayato and Yomo have both returned. 

She still has a “thing” with Kaneki that will be unresolved, and will also continue to be unresolved as long as she continues to render herself passive and resign herself to just crushing on Kaneki from afar. 

As for what idea that Touka sees in Kaneki, that’s also unspecific. It’s really specific with Mutsuki, Mutsuki sees Haise as the stability and also self control from his bloodlust that he’s never had. That’s why he associates Haise going out of control with his ghoul powers as fear, and also why he says he needs Haise to stick around while violently dissociating and stabbing him. 

I would say that if Mutsuki wants Kaneki to stay around to fix himself, that is to fix Mutsuki. Touka wants to be the one to “fix” Kaneki. Which is also why Touka makes it her job to be the one to call Kaneki out, and also after the fact the one to provide a home for Kaneki.

Which seems heartwarming at first, but reminder she knew him for two months. Imagine spending three years of your life searching for a coworker at target that you knew for two months and worked the same shift with.

Both of these desires to fix are freudian ones as well. The flaw, Arata disappearing on Touka, Mutsuki being denied a stable household by his father, is sought to be fixed by romantic connection to another similiar father figure, Touka to Kaneki and Mutsuki to Haise. 

It’s a complex that both of them will have to get past if they ever want to connect with Kaneki the person, rather than the idea of Kaneki that exists within their head.