#kanade yoisaki analysis

[vynnysvalley]

꒰୨୧ Project Sekai - Fragment SEKAI Analysis; Yoisaki Kanade 

Yo! To make this introduction quick, I’m a huge fan of Project Sekai, especially when it comes to the characters. Project Sekai’s has some of the most realistic characters I’ve ever seen in a rhythm game, and I often find myself identifying with many of the trials and tribulations they're put through.

That being said, I’ve always thought that the Fragment SEKAIs were a beautifully artistic way of visually representing these characters' inner consciousness, so I thought I’d start a little series where I analyze them! Since all the Fragment SEKAIS haven’t been revealed, I’m going to be going in order of release date. 

Note: I only play on the EN server, and while I do try to keep up with what’s going on in the JP server, I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on all the globally unreleased storylines, so my apologies if there are any discrepancies.

ˏ°•⁀➷・A First Look At Kanade’s Fragment SEKAI

Kanade's Fragment Sekai

Debuting during the Half Anniversary Celebration Colorful Festival Gacha, Kanade’s Fragment SEKAI first appeared in her The Dream I Saw Will One Day Card. It consists of a night sky lit by dozens of floating lanterns that breeze through the air. There is a vast field of white carnations that stretch on for a seemingly infinite distance. 

ˏ°•⁀➷・The Night Sky

Faintly Glowing Elpis, Untrained

If you’re familiar with kanji (or are just an avid Project SEKAI fan who likes to scroll through the wiki in their free time), then you’ll most likely have noticed the connection between the night sky and Kanade’s surname. Her surname, Yoisaki (宵崎), uses the kanji Yoi (宵), which means “night.” Easy, right?

Additionally, this is the time of day when Kanade becomes her unfiltered self. It’s when we get to see her at her most productive, her most vulnerable, her most selfless, etc.. Since Fragment SEKAIs are manifested from an individual’s strong feelings, it makes sense for Kanade’s Fragment SEKAI to have a night-time appearance, since that’s when she seems to feel her emotions the strongest. 

ˏ°•⁀➷・The Lanterns

The Dream I Saw Will One Day, Untrained

Many cultures use floating lanterns as a symbol of good luck and prosperity, welcoming good fortune by releasing past misfortune. They are also used to mourn deceased loved ones, acting as a guide for ancestral spirits. 

The presence of the floating lanterns makes sense given Kanade’s backstory. As we all know, Kanade lost her mother after she succumbed to an illness. Sometime after, Kanade’s father overworked himself to the point of hospitalization. Though he is alive, he has sustained severe psychological damage, rendering it difficult to remember things properly, including Kanade herself. 

Kanade is still mourning the loss of her parents and the death of her childhood as she must now carry the burden of living alone at such a young age. At the same time, she is trying to push through her trauma so that she can focus on making music that will save people. Whether she’s able to completely let go of her past is debatable, but she is at least willing to come to terms with it and move forward for the sake of Nightcord. 

In a more literal manner, floating lanterns are objects that Kanade holds dear to her memories. In Side Story 1 of The Dream I Saw Will One Day, Kanade mentions that the song played by her mother’s music box was written by Kanade’s father after he went on a trip with her mother. 

The Dream I Saw Will One Day, Side Story 1

Later, when Kanade winds up in her Fragment SEKAI. She notices several lights twinkling in the sky. Upon closer inspection, she realizes that they’re lanterns, sparking a memory of a moment shared between her and her mother when her mother was hospitalized. We view a brief flashback of Kanade’s mother showing Kanade a photo of the trip mentioned above, which happened to contain floating lanterns. 

The Dream I Saw Will One Day, Side Story 2

This single moment meant so much to Kanade that it took shape in her Fragment SEKAI. While never explicitly stated, the presence of the lanterns implies that Kanade may have wished to visit the lanterns with her parents and is saddened that that day never came. It also shows how deeply Kanade treasures the time she spent with her parents, even if they were small instances like the one displayed here.

ˏ°•⁀➷・The Carnations 

Flowerbed of Memories, Untrained

Carnations are flowers with many meanings, varying further depending on their color. White carnations are often associated with a mother’s love since they represent purity, affection, and a prosperous life. They are sometimes given to mothers on special occasions for good fortune. Additionally, white carnations are used as funeral flowers representing remembrance and sympathy for deceased loved ones and new beginnings. 

Similar to the lanterns, the carnations are a reference to Kanade’s mother. Her mother loved Kanade deeply, often smiling during her time in the hospital so she wouldn’t make Kanade worried about her. The carnations are a symbol of the pure and unconditional love between Kanade and her mother, a love so strong that Kanade can still feel it after her passing. 

Carnations are also a part of Kanade’s background in a physical sense. They are first mentioned in Side Story 2 of The Dream I Saw Will One Day, where we learn that carnations were flowers that Kanade’s mother loved dearly, helping her feel at peace during her time at the hospital. 

The Dream I Saw Will One Day, Side Story 2

Their significance is brought up once more in the Carnation Recollection event storyline, this time with more context. In Chapter 5, The Flower Garden of Distant Memories, it is mentioned again that Kanade’s mother adored carnations. 

Carnation Recollection 5, The Flower Garden of Distant Memories

As the conversation progresses, Kanade mentions that her father once took her to see a field of flowers. Carnations to be specific. 

Carnation Recollection 5, The Flower Garden of Distant Memories

Sound familiar, huh? Exactly like the field of carnations we see in Kanade’s Fragment SEKAI. 

After their discussion, Mizuki and Kanade decide to search for the field, giving us another crucial piece of information. In Chapter 6, Forgotten Happiness, we find out that the reason carnations are so important to Kanade isn’t solely because they’re her mother’s favorite, but because they remind her of an outing she had with her parents. 

Carnation Recollection 6, Forgotten Happiness

Just like the floating lanterns, her Fragment SEKAI took inspiration from a treasured childhood memory, staying consistent with Kanade’s theme of refusing to let her memories of her parents (especially her mother) disappear. She can’t win back her childhood, but she can keep her memories of it alive by appreciating the moments she was able to experience.

Also, I know that later in the story we find out that the field of carnations was just a flower bed of carnations, but up until that point Kanade had remembered it to be a field, thus it manifested as her child self’s vision of the flower bed.

ˏ°•⁀➷・Interpreting Kanade’s Fragment SEKAI 

The Dream I Saw Will One Day, Trained

Kanade’s past has always been a primary aspect of her character, serving as one of her biggest driving forces for creating music, so it makes sense that her Fragment SEKAI would be tailored to her childhood memories, especially with her tendency to cling to the past due to the trauma she experienced from her mother’s death and her father’s ailment. 

With the many references to her childhood, one way that I interpret her Fragment SEKAI is that it’s a literal and metaphorical representation of how Kanade is constantly trapping herself in her memories. Kanade is a very guilt-ridden character, feeling as if she doesn’t deserve a moment of peace after (in her own eyes) causing her father to fall into a depression. The pain of losing the two most important people in her life combined with her growing sense of guilt caused her to develop a savior complex, overworking herself to the point of neglecting basic needs and viewing the personal problems of her group members as her own.

On the other hand, it can also represent the "rebirthing" of Kanade's motivations. Carnation Recollection is where she begins to go through some major character development. Originally, it seemed like Kanade was creating music as a punishment for herself, a price she had to pay for her father's hospitalization. She unintentionally viewed Mafuyu as a crux for her goal, feeling that if she saved her, she would be able to make up for what she had done. As she struggles to create a song that will resonate with Mafuyu, she realizes that she hadn't considered what Mafuyu needed to feel most, instead focusing on stopping Mafuyu from disappearing to prevent herself from going through the trauma of losing people in her life all over again.

Carnation Recollection 7, What Lies Beyond The Maze

Kanade realizes that she doesn't want to save Mafuyu so she can feel like she saved someone and alleviate her guilt. She wants to save Mafuyu out of a genuine desire to help her. Kanade truly cares about her and wants her to feel warmth when listening to her music. The carnations and floating lanterns could be seen as representations of the subtle death of her old motive and the birth of her new, authentic one.

The final way I view her Fragment SEKAI is that, in some weird supernatural way, it's trying to comfort Kanade. Whether that means Fragment SEKAIs has some form of sentience or there just so happens to be a little but powerful voice in the back of Kanade's head that's telling her to be kinder toward herself, I don't know, SEKAI lore is weird, but it makes sense given that this was a rare time where we got to see Kanade look so peaceful.

Carnations were flowers that gave Kanade's mother a sense of serenity, making her feel as if Kanade and Kanade's father were in the hospital with her when they weren't physically there. I'd like to think that they serve the same purpose here by reminding Kanade that she isn't alone. She has Nightcord now, along with her parents. Though they can't physically be with her, in her heart, they are still standing by her side.

ˏ°•⁀➷・Final Words 

Flowerbed of Memories, Trained

Doing this little analysis gave me a whole new level of respect for Kanade and the delicate approach the writers have when dealing with her depression and trauma. I hate to admit that when I started playing the game two years ago, I thought she was your typical surface-level sad, slightly quirky shut-in character. I immediately dropped that assumption as I progressed through Nightcord’s main story, but I still hadn’t realized the amount of love and care that was put into her character arc until now. Kanade is a genuinely tragic character whom I deeply sympathize with, and hopefully one day she’ll realize that she deserves to be saved as well (or maybe she already did, idk again I play EN lol). 

If you’re still reading, thank you for sticking around for this long! I appreciate it. I hope I did a decent enough job (even though I feel like I was just mindlessly yapping for most of it). It’s my first time writing out a fully coherent analysis that isn’t just me spamming the first few sentences that pop into my head in my “brainrot channel” on my friend’s Discord server, so feel free to let me know if I missed anything or if you have any other interpretations. I’m always open to hearing different perspectives. 

Up next will be Mafuyu Asahina, who happens to be my favorite character in the entire game! No idea when I’ll be popping it out, but hopefully it’ll be soon. Anywho, I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!

[the-one-that-weeps]

Following up on the Kanade post, let me remind you that all niigo members have ribbons and, obviously, all of those have meanings.

Collars and ribbons were always used as a mark of property, something you can't untie with easiness, something that can be an accessory just as a choking trap, so I think it fits fairly well. Let's look at some examples:

Kanade's is striking because unlike with the others there is no red to be found on her design, yet it's still a crucial part of her. Red, the colour of passion, of rage, of danger and of life. In literary analysis, red collars and strings often symbolize guilt or crime.

Just like Kanade, all the Virtual Singers also have red ribbons around them. And if that's not enough, Luka and Meiko have red strings wrapped around their hands, opposite to each other.

Mafuyu's is blue, but not the faithful light blue of Kanade's eyes, it's dark like the depths of despair. And not be your average lit professor but blue symbolises sadness and depression in any media.

Ena's is brown. The most common of all colours, the colour of dirt, of mud, or muddled paint, but also of vitality.

Mizuki's is pink, the colour of cute pretty things. And maybe if it's tight enough around their neck they can become one too.

Not only that, but all niggo members wear a black one too. Black, the colour of the night, of despair, of death and sorrow. But not the colour of Nightcord.

Because Nightcord is purple.

Purple combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce rage of red. It is often associated with mystery, ambition, creativity or wisdom and is on this thin line between warm and cold colours, black and colourful. But it's neither of those, nor life or death, nor joy nor woe.

And if that's not niigo I don't know what is.

[eclipixnova]

all pjsk characters get mischaracterized everyday. We need to talk parts of them that hasn't been talked abt

[uraniumnm333]

[heads up this leads into a kanade tsukasa parallel rant so uh. :thumbsup:]

dawg i love mafuyu and tsukasa i think they're both so fun. it's so silly to see how even though they grew up in situations that are like complete opposites they still cope similarly

like listen tsukasa was hurt from the absence of his parents and mafuyu was hurt because of the presence of her parents. tsukasa's parents had to focus on someone else and mafuyu's parents had to focus on her. mafuyu looks inside herself and tsukasa looks outside himself. mafuyu is calm and tsukasa is not. hell even how others perceive them !!! people see tsukasa as self-centered and see mafuyu as considerate of others !!! but they still both hurt so much and have pushed down what they feel to make others feel better which sucks. i would like to present another, possibly even better parallel tho: tsukasa and kanade. they're similar in the way that they want to save others, they became extremely self-reliant, they both are WAY too hard on themselves and they're both basically a doormat i'll be honest. they both look towards other people to ignore how they're feeling (kanade wanting to save her fellow niigo members and tsukasa's future star dream), they both lead other people, they both have music notifs, ectectect. i think kanade and tsukasa should hang out. it would be very funny.

like kanade starts going to kakiyama and tsukasa sees her and it's on sight bro !!! he sees this girl who looks like she's about to melt and the thought process goes straight to "HEY GARRUU MY NAMU IS TSUKASA TENMA I AM STAR I AM WARUDO FUTURE STAR" and kanade is fucking HORRIFIED

tsukasa is slowly integrated into nightcord to the point where he's just. in the discord server. i think it would be so goofy tbh. there's a wxs/n25 group chat and they end up doing a collab song that is just carnival by otetsu also i think mafuyu and rui would get along. ourple to ourple communication. all of wxs has spidey senses and as soon as any of them see mafuyu they Know. like have you read the rui and mafuyu interaction where rui is just ominous as shit like "maybe. you should be careful. perhaps you should communicate with others." and he just leaves. all of wxs know that's a given. mizuki emu pink to pink communication and ena and nene just. they just. yknow how sometimes you just.

anyways yeah give me tsukasa kanade friendship or give me death

[shiraishi-kanade]

Kanade is selflessness born of selfishness (because she wants to atone for what she's done by saving other people, she works herself to the bone and doesn't care about her own well-being - but that desire to save others is ultimately something that she believes will be her redemption, without a care of why or who she wants to save. Mafuyu notices that, and a large part of Kanade's story revolves about her learning to want to compose and save out of earnest desire to help rather than the idea of making up for a crime that only she herself thinks she's guilty of)

An is selfishness born out of selflessness (she wants to go to the height her father and Nagi were, and beyond that - surpassing Rad Weekend, an event many people consider a monument rather than a goal point to be passed - something that appears to be so incredibly selfish, but she does that because they wanted her to. She's taken on the burden of her family's crushing legacy because they placed their hopes and trust in her and An is so utterly selfless she could never say "no", no matter how hard it would be, how much it hurts. An is a bearer of a dream so inherently selfish but one that is passed upon her regardless of her will, and she is so utterly selfless that betraying those hopes was never an option)

Oh to be narrative foils with someone in proseka universe.

[atalina-falling]

n25 and sakura: secret distance event analysis

I read the Secret Distance event a while back and it’s been stuck in my head ever since, so I wanted to take a deeper look into the scene in chapter 6 where the members of Nightcord at 25:00 discover the sakura tree. Specifically, I wanted to analyze their individual reactions to the falling blossoms and the way these reactions all reflect larger themes in each of their own stories. Spoilers for the Secret Distance event below cut, as well as discussions of suicidal ideation:

mizuki

Mizuki’s reaction is the easiest to decipher, since this event is mainly focused on them. From the flashbacks to their past, we can see that Mizuki associates sakura with the experience of being an outsider and watching everyone else admire the flowers with their friends. Because they thought this was something they could never experience, they didn’t see the sakura as pretty, even though the flowers perfectly fit the cute pink aesthetic that Mizuki loves. In the present, Mizuki is watching the sakura with the other members of N25 and realizes the flowers look beautiful because they’re together with people who genuinely care about them. Another factor might be that Mizuki has grown into the cute feminine aesthetic much more since middle school and has used it to develop an identity of their own, allowing them to appreciate the flowers that fit their own aesthetic.

kanade

I get the feeling that Kanade hasn’t seen anything other than music as beautiful in a long time, especially anything commonplace. It’s been shown that she rarely goes outside and has little interest in tasks like eating or sleeping as they take time away from music. In the previous event, Singing Among the Cherry Blossoms, she sees Ichika, Kohane, and Minori singing together under the sakura trees in the park but makes no particular note of the flowers, only saying the trio’s music is nice (Chapter 8: Meeting As They Bloom). However, here with N25, ordinary sakura become so beautiful for Kanade that she is confused by her own reaction.

mafuyu

Mafuyu is envious that the sakura petals look beautiful as they die. This event does a good job of highlighting Mafuyu’s passive suicidal ideation and shows that although she has made the decision to live on and continuee making music with N25, she still considers death to be the easiest escape from everything she’s going through. In chapter 5: The Last Haunted Place, Mafuyu expresses empathy with the prodigy music student who died under the pressure of everybody’s expectations.

However, Mafuyu also knows that if she were to ever disappear, her parents and peers would all be disappointed in her. She’s envious of the sakura and how they are admired by everyone as they fall, seen as beautiful in their final moments, because it is something she will never have.

ena

Ena is envious that the sakura are admired for their inherent qualities while she struggles every day to receive attention. For Ena, beauty is a tool she uses to get validation from others. She constantly tries to create beauty through her social media posts and to some extent her art. The idea that something could be beautiful in its natural state, without even trying, is unfair to her, especially the fact that it is admired by everyone. (Side note: I am begging Sega for a MafuEna cover of Jealousy by *Luna).

TLDR: no one in this damn group is capable of looking at sakura normally.

Okay, that’s all !! I have a million thoughts about this event but I wanted to analyze this moment in particular.

[apieceofsushi]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

THE NEW CARDS-

THEY’VE BEEN REVEALED AND I-

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So, I'm going to analyze each card to ensure that I get everything I want to say out of my system! I'll probably make more posts once the English translations come out for this event, but until then, enjoy my speculation!

Mafuyu - In the Warmth of Glowing Dusk When I looked at the art for the first time, I just put my phone down and stared into space for a minute. IT'S SO PRETTY AAAA! Mafuyu is actually my favorite character (I've been debating this a long time, and while I love every character in N25, I think I can most closely relate with Mafuyu), so I shrieked when I first saw that the next event would be focused on her.

I'm glad my theory was right - that Kanade was indeed the one pulling her hand. I couldn't be too sure just from looking at the event teaser alone, but it makes sense! (I'll talk about Kanade in a little bit) I love this theme of an abandoned hospital, with flowers and plants being the only thing that's thriving. It's interesting, as we know that Mafuyu wanted to be a nurse, but then her mother pushed her to become a doctor. It appears Mafuyu is a nurse, but she looks far from happy. Of course, I haven't been able to read the event story yet (I haven't read a lot of the event stories for the N25 events that haven't come to the global server yet--I need to work on that), so I can't say for sure what exactly the upgraded art is representing, but I can say that it is drop dead gorgeous.

Mizuki - There's No Need to Be Afraid

What do you know, Mizuki is wearing one of their fun alternate outfits! As cute as it is that they're comforting my boi (I'll get to him momentarily) I kind of wish they was the three star of this event. The attribute to this event is cool (so I believe), and Mizuki definitely is in a lot of mixed events as a four star--and those events are cool attributes a lot of the time. This card line up is virtually the same as Mafuyu's previous event--except it's Len instead of Rin. Can't get too salty, as this art is still top-tier, but just something that I wish they had considered.

I like the continued hospital theme in Mizuki's upgraded art; it was actually what made it fairly obvious that an abandoned hospital was the theme! It appears that they're looking at...a mannequin? I mean, you wouldn't have a random person in the upgraded art, and Mizuki does love fashion, so it makes sense. But they look great in both versions of the card!

Shyly Greeting While Hiding

*inhales* MY BOI MY BOI HE'S HERE! Len finally made it to the Empty Sekai! Say hello to your new friend, depression! I just love how they made him all shy and timid for this Sekai, I think it's just perfect! He's so cute...I can't wait to see his full design! And I know Len is the focus of this card, but Miku looks really good as well :D

You can actually tell pretty easily that the upgraded art is set in the Empty Sekai, with is interesting, considering all the others seem to be in this remote hospital. I didn’t realize this first of all, because I was so focused on how sad my boi looked......Len......it he seems so shy in this Sekai I love it—I hope he warms up to the others over the course of the story, as I’m sure they’ll love Len.

The Best Angle for the Perfect Shot

I remember taking one look at this and just going, “hang hang hang hang on I—hang on I need to make that my wallpaper for like a billion things there’s all four of them I need this!!!" While I’m glad this card is practically free, this shot of them is so golden, so it’s incredible that it’s only a three star card.

I’m actually really interested in what’s going on in the upgraded art, as it seems to be a hallway.....but with like a ton of IV drips?! Maybe it represents the lives that could’ve been saved but were just around the corner....I honestly have no clue, but it is just as interesting as all the other cards! Ena my beloved....

WAIT SHOOT SHE’S JUST UPSIDE DOWN-

As to Not Let Go of That Hand

Aaaa I love Kanade in this card! She seems happy, which isn’t always a given. But, I did mention earlier that I was a little bit salty about the gacha combination. I guess it just seems strange that Kanade is the one who is pulling Mafuyu’s hand, and....she’s the two star? Well, it is what it is! I’m still in love with all the card art. Sometimes Kanade is just so wholesome to me and I love her ;;;; And hey! At least this art makes it easier for me to draw these designs now :D

On that note, I think I’ve gotten down everything I wanted to (for now)! Bug sounds incredible, and the little snippets from the 2DMV look really cool too! Enjoy to those who are playing on the JP server!

[jeiseny]

We'll see what comes out of this.

I have a creeping suspicion of what the issue could be, and I'm not sure they'll budge on this; this doesn't mean I'm not going to fight.

I'm slightly upset about loosing my character analysis posts, of course - but most of them were reblogged enough to be preserved in a somewhat olay-ish state and could be restored if I were to make a new blog, as far as I'm aware. But the thing I'm not giving up upon? My username. You can't take shiraishi-kanade away from me. It's my entire essence.

If my account will not be restored, I will probably go by yoisaki-an to keep the brand going. But it doesn't flow nearly as well, does it? I will be very upset, tumbrl. Don't do this to me.

[proseka-wishlist]

We still don't have a Kanaena duet, and honestly? Part of me really wishes for a non breath oblige cover, I feel their voices would mix so well for a song like that, specially when the first chorus hits, plus with enough analysis on it the song just really fits the two of them + their dynamic with Mafuyu and Mizuki and imagining their voices mixing on the "i love you" part just makes me soft ahghshhahghgah

Non-breath oblige by PinocchioP sung by Kanade Yoisaki and Ena Shinonome of 25-ji Nightcord de.

When I read your ask I actually stopped to look up all of 25ji's songs because I was like "there's no way we haven't had a kanaena duet" but no, there really isn't one?!? Stellar choice for them, though

[64space]

hi i could write an entire analysis on why kanade yoisaki's i-can-fix-her complex would be detrimental to both herself and mafuyu if it weren't for the rest of n25 intervening/being a group But i'd rather just say that kanade is still way way way more fucked up than she lets people believe and then refuse to elaborate

[the-one-that-weeps]

There's something so purposeful in Kanade's theme colour being red. Not white, the colour of innocence, hope and light; not blue, the colour of courage, loyalty and sadness. Her theme colour is red: the colour of danger, of passion, of rage and of blood.

There's something so particularly striking that such a peaceful, calming presence — an angel from hell — wears a red ribbon around her neck like a rope on a hanged man, and even more that it's the thing that describes her best.