#neku & beat & kairi

[purplelea]

Twewy native Pre week 2 neku and kh1 Riku would be the most toxic friend group ever

I had to specify neku as twewy native because in dream drop josh straight up said they all died and that's why they got sent to traverse town. But given his lines it's clear he's at least past peak asshole neku.

Thoughts?

OH YEAH VERY TRUE. but actually I don't even think they'd be friends, if that makes sense. Riku needs someone kind who looks up to him (like Sora and Kairi), and Neku pre-twewy... isn't that. Neku on the other hands needs people he can relate to and who share his worldviews (ex: how he got along with Joshua in week 2 and was able to have many interesting discussions with him despite, yknow, thinking Joshua murdered him). So it wouldn't actually work if there was only the two of them: Riku doesn't share Neku's values of shutting himself from people because he's scared of getting hurt & hurting them. And Neku only looks up to CAT.

[catncore]

@tidecrux - " what do you like about it ? "

❝ it suits you. makes you look like a real proper guardian.  ❞ he steps back a few paces from riku to give the teen a proper once over before walking around him to see how he stands from the back. the size difference from sora and kairi wasn't much different than that of neku, beat and shiki. it was almost comical, in a way. almost.

❝  yeah. the colours look good to, but you need somethin' that'll really bring more 'you' out an' i might be able t' help with that. s' been a while since i played with keychains. i have somethin' i wanna test if yer willin' t' wait'a bit. ❞ he'd only ever offered to make keychains for sora in the past. keyblades were finicky beasts at the best of times. unpredictable others and while hanekoma's status as an angel is useful; he was very keen not to touch a key-wielders weapon without them being present.

walking back around riku to look him in eye he gives a affirming grin before putting his hands in his pockets. ❝  i have'a feelin' it'll help you get closer to 'that place' where sora resides. ❞ he might not be able to take riku naturally himself, but he could help modulate him and his keyblade closer to getting there. put a bit of soul into it.

❝  it's a good look, but..... not entirely there yet. give it a couple days, think it over. deal? ❞

[jemtokall]

What characters are available for the roleplay?

So far our taken characters are Sora, Riku, Kairi, Xion, Hayner, Xemnas, Even, Elrena, MoM, Luxu, Gula, Ephemera!

Which leaves these characters available!

Lea Roxas

Aqua Terra Ventus

Pence Olette

Dilan Aeleus Ienzo Isa Demyx Luxord Lauriam

Namine Vanitas Repliku

Ava Ira Aced Invi

Skuld Brain Player

Leon Yuffie Aerith Cid Cloud Tifa

Zack Auron

Yuna Paine Rikku

Seifer Rai Fuu Vivi

Neku Shiki Beat Rhyme Joshua

[oveliagirlhaditright]

The list of Square Enix characters I want in Kingdom Hearts:

You know... this was going to have a particular order, but then I realized that that might be too hard for me to figure out. So no particular order? I think? (I should also mention that most of this list is about people who have never appeared before... except for Neku, Shiki, Rhyme, Joshua, and Beat, because I'm a hypocrite and love them too much--and also want Kairi to have her chance to meet them, dangit!--and because there's a chance if the Wicked Twisters show up in Quadratum, they also could? Or at least some of the Hachiko Group?) Edit: Sho Minamimoto would also be fun. He was in Flick Rush in DDD kind of, but not really (he was just a name of a "competitor" you could go up against in that game, if memory serves). Let's bring him into KH for real now:)

I want the The World Ends With You gang to appear again. But also, of course, the new Neo TWEWY characters. But if it can only be one Neo character, Rindo, of course.

Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI.

I do agree with people who want Final Fantasy XV characters to appear, like Noctis. But with Nomura's feelings about the game (for obvious reasons), I sadly doubt it will ever happen. So part of me was reluctant to even include this. (Also, this could now cause confusion with the Verum Rex stuff, unfortunately.)

Final Fantasy XIII characters. People's favorite picks seem to be Snow and Lightning, which I definitely understand. (I could also see Noel making a cameo, for some reason, which would also be great). The most famous idea, back in the day, was that Hades would hoodwink the two of them into working for him in order to save Serah (which I really, really loved!). But now that Olympus' story is done, that can't happen. But I still think we can find ways to fit them into the story, of course.

Zidane and Garnet from Final Fantasy IX.

Rinoa Heartily from Final Fantasy VIII, for sure, who KHII already teased! Give me my Squinoa! And have this be part of the reason Leon goes back to his true name... though, sadly, I feel like Nomura has either forgotten about all of this, or moved on from it. -le sigh- I also wouldn't mind Laguna, since he was already almost in Birth by Sleep.

And then a secret special answer (that no one will care about but me), who I think I'll save mentioning for kh4challengeweek.

I don't know if these ones are truly on my list (though I do love them), because I could kind of take them or leave them. Mainly because I just can't see it happening, for some reason. But Vaan and Penelo from Final Fantasy XII, since they have their similarities to Sora and Kairi. And this one has even less of a chance (because she doesn't really fit KH), and I would just want her because I love her: Ashe.

Oh! And chocobos, of course!

(Also, to be clear, I wouldn't mind more characters from some of these games. Especially some of our lovely leading ladies. But I just figure that first and foremost, if anyone is to appear, it'll be the heroes and then they might add some more people from the respective games. So we'll be lucky if we even get the heroes.)

Edit: I also agree with everyone else, of course, that we need one more Sephiroth battle to finish off that whole arc. I would have preferred it in KHIII, but we can definitely have it in KHIV. After that, I'm also of the opinion that Kefka should be the next super boss.

Gilgamesh showing up would also be wonderful.

[gsunny6]

KH Goofy and Donald having coffee with sanae while sora (and riku and kairi??) hit the town with the shibuya gang

[addictofanimation]

Kingdom Hearts x TWEWY (Modern Day AU)...

Riku and his friends find themselves on a trip to Shibuya when they get a message from Neku talking about Joshua acting strangely. The usual very eccentric boy has become more withdrawn and doesn't show up for hangouts anymore.

On the rare occasion that they did run into each other, Joshua almost never joined in on their conversations like usual nor did he have any of his usual quips that drove Neku crazy to the point of wanting to physically fight him.

This has led to great concern from their friend group, especially Neku himself (surprisingly). When they arrive that weekend, they get to see firsthand that everyone - despite their initial dislike of teen - all seem to be greatly worried by this change in behavior. They all meet up at Wild Kat to wait for Joshua to show up.

When he finally arrives, he looks so drained that they thought he would face-plant at any moment. When he looks up to see his friends, he tries to give them a smile, but can't seem to put too much effort into it. Before anyone can say anything, though, he also notices the new additions and looks cautious at first.

Until his eyes land on Riku.

His eyes seem to light up and his smile becomes more genuine. He warmly greets the silver-haired teen and he answers in kind by raising from his seat and pulling Joshua into a firm hug.

Neku and the others seem shocked before they turn to Sora and Kairi with clear looks of confusion. Neku asks when Riku and Joshua got so close and Sora says that they had been close when they were little before Josh's parents moved to the city. That was when Riku started going through his "emo phase" and started acting out. Sora was able to help him get through most of it, but a phone call from Joshua (who finally bought his own phone with his own money) was enough to finally help him fully recover.

That's when Kairi giggles and says that it probably helps that they're cousins.

The group starts to lose their minds as Sora and Kairi just smile, completely unaware of what they just did to their friends' psyche.

[rolaplayor101]

on god you’re such a fucking homophobe lmao why are you erasing the fact that he’s in romantic love with riku

Because hes not in romantic love with Riku. Hes got queerplatonic love for Riku, as well as Kairi. And he confuses it for platonic love because he doesn't know what Queer platonic is. Its easy to tell in how he acts in the games. He calls them all his friends, he goes to incredible lengths for them, gets to his knees crying for them, and all in the name of friendship. He even calls Kairi his friend despite how Donald and Goofy tried to imply his feelings were romantic in the first few games.

Sora gets very attached to multiple people throughout the games. He befriends people easily and goes to great lengths to make sure they're ok (how he reacts to Will being stabbed, and Elsa being sad, Tron when he doesn't remember him, also Neku when he immediately calls him his friend and forgives him for betraying him). The same goes for Riku and Kairi, who he's more attached to than anyone else. Once he found out Riku was ok in kh1, he stopped worrying about him and focused on Kairi. In kh2, when he found Riku, he dropped to the ground crying because for the longest time he wasn't sure if Riku was even alive or not, and in kh3 he drops down crying again because Kairi is assumed dead, having been struck down right before his eyes(he also falls to the ground screaming when everyone besides Riku is taken in by the hoard).

Also, he says in kh3 that he "doesnt completely understand [romantic]love, but [he] know[s] about sharing [his] heart with others". He even worries himself into a frenzy about Roxas in kh3, a dude he never even knew, and yet sees as important anyway. None of these things are shown as romantic. In context, none of them are romantic. The only reason it seems romantic between Kairi and Sora to Donald and Goofy is because Kairi is a girl. In kh2, to Meg I believe it is, Donald and Goofy say "he always acts like this around girls" but..he didn't do anything in the scene? He was acting like he normally does?? Nothing changed?? So it's just plain old heteronormativity.

The characters themselves never once call their relationships anything but friendships(except maybe Kairi, but I cant remember her labeling anything)! And everytime romantic love is brought up, Sora immediately equates it with platonic love, because that's the only way he can relate! He sees it as just as important(because it is)! There's also the fact that he can recognize romantic love quite easily with others, such as Meg and Hercules, and Kristoff and Anna. If he felt rom attraction, he'd be able to tell if what he was feeling was it.

Also, he'd show it. He'd blush, have the stereotypical cartoonish "in love" face (lidded, eyes, goofy smile, hearts floating around head and/or thought bubble with hearts around said person, but the video game equivalent), he'd stutter when talking to them, show nervousness specific to romantic attraction and not because he feels ashamed or did something wrong or something. When he holds Kairi and Riku's hands or hugs Riku, he'd show physical signs of romantic/sexual attraction, and or he'd have dialogue thoughts like "I cant believe I get to hold them. My hearts gonna beat right out of my chest" or something to that affect. Sora is no more conscious of holding Kairi's hand than he is Pooh Bear's. And this is Disney, as well as Square Enix. Disney has a formula when displaying romantic attraction in their movies.

Sora's actions are always exclusively done in the name of his friends. "My friends are my power!" Kairi is his power. Riku is his power. Donald and Goofy and Mickey and Roxas and Lea are his power. He cares about his friends. He cries for them. He's an affectionate aroace who treats all his friends specially when he can, although he can't see them all the time(see Pooh Bear in kh3, the talk about being in peoples hearts even when you can't see them, which he has AGAIN with Hiro in Sanfransokyo. This is a direct reference to Kairi being in his heart in kh1 and not being able to see Riku in kh2 AND Roxas now being in his heart in kh3. All platonic scenes and comparisons). And because he was always thinking about Riku and Kairi in the first games, Donald and Goofy and you confused his feelings for Kairi and Riku as romantic, when he himself has always only ever said it was platonic. And he thinks out loud, too, so we hear his inner thoughts.

Queerplatonic attraction can be seen as desiring to be in a relationship just as committed as a romantic one, but platonically, or as desiring to do romantic coded things with someone platonically. Sora says in canon that he always wants to be with Riku and Kairi. He also holds hands with Kairi at the end of Remind and KH3 before he disappears, as well as when they're "coming back to life" after the Heartless Hoard attack. He daydreams in kh1 about holding hands with Kairi and swinging around in a circle after he's found her. That last one only happens once and even still he only ever refers to her as his friend-- not his crush, or anything similar. In the dozen games that have come out, he never takes a shot at it, despite there being plenty of time to after kh2 and before Dream Drop Distance. And since Queerplatonic relationships are often mistaken for being romantic by people outside of the qpr, while also in writing sounding completely like a regular friendship to some people, then it makes most sense for Sora's orientation to be this way. Again, out of the dozen games, he never shows strictly romantic attraction towards anyone(unless you count that one daydream in kh1, but cmon). (I don't even wanna talk about Riku and Kairi. Bi and het respectfully, Riku likes Kairi in kh1, likes Sora until kh3, and Kairi only seems interested in Sora the whole way around.)

And! Since you've shown yourself that you've misread their relationships as romantic, you've proven the point that they all (Sora Riku and Kairi) are in a Queerplatonic relationship! Congratulations! Your fave is a bi oriented aroace with queerplatonic attraction that's also in a polyamorous QPR!

Sorry you have shipping brainrot and cant see how people can be passionate about and motivated by non-romantic causes and people in their lives!(you know, like, what the series is about) Hope you grow out of your amatonormative preteen-like way of thinking! Also, you don't have to be aroace to care about your friends obviously, but apparently you do have to be gay to???

[goldensunset]

If Sora got into the Reaper's Game, what would his entry fee be?

My first guess was the memories of his friends but he already lost that in CoM so I don't think it would have an impact on him. So my second guess is his ability to make friends. He would literally be unable to form friendships, to bond with people. Now that would be interesting for his character development. What do you think?

GREAT question i can’t believe i didn’t think of this for all i’ve talked about kh x twewy.

the short answer is that any reasonable choice for his entry fee has already been taken from him at some point in his life, and it hasn’t stopped him. they’d have to invent some fresh new horror to really put him through the wringer. poor boy.

1. sora’s friends are pretty clearly that which he cherishes most. seems obvious, right? but i mean, everyone loses their friends going into the game (unless y’all died together, theoretically), and he’s lost his friends countless times and gotten them back. neku was horrified and stressed out about having to play for shiki, but it sure motivated him. it would be the same for sora. you mess with his friends, he messes you up. he would take it intensely seriously. he’s played the role of savior countless times, so you’d think he’d ace this.

on the other hand, blinded by love and righteous anger, he might make a rash decision and screw himself over. the reaper’s game isn’t a typical hero’s journey with ups and downs. it’s a test where one strike means you’re out. he might get caught on some technicality. he sure didn’t think twice about the consequences of saving kairi in kh3. oof.

this would be a reasonable entry fee. but i’m not sure if it would drive his character development in a particularly new and fresh way. i guess he’d have to learn to think carefully before jumping into a situation. but i don’t think that’s his critical flaw that needs to be fixed.

2. they could do what they did for beat and take away someone else’s memory of him. ah wait, that already happened during days/CoM/kh2 era lol. but he was asleep for that anyway so it didn’t matter (to him). unless he was actually interacting with old friends during the course of the game who were playing alongside him. or if they were in the rg nearby and he could see and hear them but not vice versa. that would hurt him a lot emotionally, sure, but ultimately the people in the rg have no effect on the game, so it doesn’t matter practically.

taking stuff away for the sake of sheer psychological damage is legit (shiki’s appearance as her entry fee), so this could work. but shiki got over her self hatred by hearing eri speak positively about her. sora doesn’t think other people hate him, he just feels useless. would taking away others’ memories of him really help him to overcome his need for them?

3. now that i think about it what if sora lost his appearance too?? it would hit pretty hard, what with all the identity issues he has. what if he transformed into roxas? xion, ventus? maybe even naminé or vanitas if you wanna push it? any heart that’s connected to his own. or he could involuntarily rotate between appearances throughout the week. that would certainly be horrible enough. i like the idea that post kh3 sora feels somewhat empty or confused about who he is. he’d have to learn how to become someone of his own again, to live for himself.

4. sora’s own memories of friends? well, he’s had his memories meddled with, and he was still a formidable fighter powered by determination, but he almost drove himself right into marluxia’s trap, so idk if i’d say it was really all ok for him. it was a close one. thanks naminé. but in any case, the reapers wouldn’t meddle with his memories, they’d just remove some or all of them outright.

in twewy, neku’s amnesia didn’t affect his edgy personality. neither did rhyme’s partial amnesia affect her loving one. but in kh, a person’s memories are like a core component of their identity and personhood. according to marluxia, if sora’s memory had been completely erased, his heart would’ve been destroyed. (is this true though? have we seen a full amnesiac character before in kh to verify this? did the dandelions at the end of khux really lose it all? debatable ig.) kh, at its core, is about exploring what it means to be human. i can’t really boil it down to a sentence or two.

what would he do if he forgot everyone he ever loved entirely? what if the only thing he remembered was his hatred? would he still be the same person at all, and if not, is this a legal move on the reapers’ part? then again, you could easily make the case that he’s just kindhearted by default. newborn baby sora, with no experience of existence at all, reached out to ventus to help him out. which is wild. so maybe removing memories of love wouldn’t hurt too bad. just depends on what’s left. he could just find new people to love, right?

5. so to your final point: sora’s ability to make friends. now that would be a true kick in the teeth for this little man. as i’ve said above, a trait/ability like this is a core part of sora’s heart. it makes him who he is. sora always manages to get by when separated from his friends by making new ones wherever he goes. again, would he even still be himself if this was taken away from him?

but maybe nothing has to change internally for this to work as an entry fee. maybe his heart can stay exactly the same, and it’s other people whose hearts are now suddenly unable to receive him. the reapers might’ve programmed other people against him. if he tried to reach out to others, if he tried to work with them, but they told him to get lost and fend for himself… then he’d really have to learn to stand on his own.

(that being said, in the og twewy at least, whether or not you even should be trying to make friends is a debated topic. some hold the position that since theoretically every player could end up winning the game, there’s no need to put each other down. others see every other player as competition and backstab potential. potentially even your own partner.)

but regardless, you and your partner have to trust each other- you can’t use psychs on your own. the sentiment of ‘my friends are my power’ is actually more accurate in the reapers’ game than in kingdom hearts. despite everything people say to him, sora’s not hopeless. he can absolutely fight on his own with a keyblade, but he’d be more limited in the reapers’ game when his psychs are derived from a pact with someone else.

what if his partner just absolutely hated him, no matter what he tried to do? they’d have to fix that relationship asap or they’d sink. but if that hatred was built into his game experience, both he and his partner would be doomed, which isn’t really fair to either of them.

one thing to remember when talking about entry fees is that they’re not just supposed to screw you over. for a winning player, the absence of that thing is supposed to make you stronger. living without it should force you to reflect on yourself and consider how much you really need that thing after all. even if that thing isn’t a bad thing inherently, it may have become an addiction or complex, and even if you don’t let go of it again after you get it back, you should at least have a greater level of self-awareness about your relationship to the thing.

this is all also assuming that this is a normal and fair reapers’ game, and not the rigged nightmare neku went through. hence why i talk about legality here. theoretically the reapers can do whatever they want to players until some angel interferes.

TLDR: all of these things i’ve mentioned about sora come back to the same thing: his love for his friends is both his greatest blessing and deepest curse. his addiction to their support and validation is his critical weakness. whatever exactly his entry fee was, it would have to be something that taught him a valuable lesson about this problem of his and helped him to overcome it. this is a tough one

[embraceyourdestiny]

For the ask game!

🧡- Sora

🧡- everyone I ship this character with

(Romantically bc sora is everyone’s friend)

-Riku

-Kairi

-Naminé (sometimes)

-Hiro (big hero 6)

-Ariel (the little mermaid, sometimes)

-Olette (haven’t thought about it much but I think they’d be cute)

-Pence

-Hayner (would be cute too)

-Strelitiza (if she comes back and she’s 15~16 like Sora I think they’d be cute together)

-Neku from TWEWY (…listen they’re cute ok. but ofc og twewy neku not neo neku since he’s 18. unless bc of the time skip sora’s 17 while neku’s 18 and then that case yes.)

-Beat from TWEWY (same as above)

-Honestly let’s add Shiki in their too

Sora honestly doesn’t have that many romantic options since half the cast are… well… him so I’m hoping we get some new characters who are the same age as Sora so he can get more love ☺️💕

Ask game

[andrewmoocow]

Fun with the Incorrect Quotes Generator, part 3 (or 4)

*The Guardians of Arcadia are standing around the broken coffee maker* Varvatos: So. Who broke it? Varvatos Vex is not mad, he just wants to know. Everyone: Aja: ...I did. I broke it. Varvatos: No. No you didn't. Krel? Krel: Don't look at me. Look at Jim. Jim: What?! I didn't break it. Krel: Huh, that's weird. How'd you even know it was broken? Jim: Because it's sitting right in front of us and it's broken. Krel: Suspicious. Jim: No, it's not! Toby: If it matters, probably not, but Claire was the last one to use it. Claire: Liar! I don't even drink that crap! Toby: Oh really? Then what were you doing by the coffee cart earlier? Claire: I use the wooden stirrers to push back my cuticles. Everyone knows that, Tobes! Aja: Okay let's not fight. I broke it. Let me pay for it, Vex. Varvatos: No! Who broke it!? Everyone: Jim: Vex... Douxie's been awfully quiet. Douxie: rEALLY?! *Everyone starts arguing* Varvatos, being interviewed: Varvatos Vex broke it. It burned his hand so he punched it. Varvatox Vex predicts 10 mekrons from now, they'll be at each other's throats with warpaint on their faces, wishing each other glorious death. (looks back at the arguing Guardians before turning back and smiling) Good. It was getting a little chummy around here.

--

Rick, standing with their back turned: I’ve been expecting you, Morty. Morty: How did you do that without turning around? Rick: ... To be perfectly honest, the first couple of people I did that to were not you.

--

Donald: Why are your tongues purple? Sora: We had slushies. I had a blue one. Kairi: I had a red one. Donald: oh Donald: Donald: OH Goofy: Goofy: You drank each other's slushies?

--

Rusty: Dammit, Hank! Hank: What?! It wasn’t me! Rusty: Sorry, force of habit. Dammit, Dean! Dean: Not me either. Rusty: Oh...Then who set the lab on fire? Brock: *whistles while walking away from the dead body of an intruder he dumped into the fire*

--

Max: What’s up guys? I’m back. Sam: What the- you can’t be here. You’re dead. I literally saw you die. Max: Death is a social construct.

--

Vergil: Can you please be serious for five minutes? Dante: My record is four, but I think I can do it.

--

Shiki: Do you ever want to talk about your emotions, Neku? Neku: … No. Beat: I do! Shiki: I know, Beat. Beat: I’m sad! Shiki: I know, Beat.

[purplelea]

The Beat-Shiki friendship being more developed than the Riku-Kairi one is so insane to me. Bro they talked for 4 days only while the others are supposed to be best friends since they are 5?? Crazy.

[olivemeister]

OKAY NEO THOUGHTS NOW THAT I’VE BEATEN IT AND HAD TIME TO MARINATE. no spoilers for another day bc i haven’t finished it yet, but i did go “no, why shan’t i? i have the internet” and watched the secret endings on youtube so those and the secret reports will be discussed. yeah. so here’s some thoughts. i’m going to talk a lot about the more contentious things, i think. and again i haven’t finished another day so nothing to do with that, but of course major ending spoilers for the main scenario.

these are my opinions both as a writer and a media consumer, so there’s kinda two levels here. it is very freeform “as i think of it” structurally so my sincerest apologies if it’s all over the place. i am trying to keep specific topics confined rather than splattering the same plot point/whatever all through the post, but it’s not like i’m posting a peer-revied academic essay here. it’s also fucking enormous and i would say sorry but that would be a lie.

the majority of the game, i actually really enjoyed. the localization was excellent and i can’t praise it enough. i know people threw fits over the “horrible overstep” of... teenagers using slang. but did you know, in real life, teenagers use slang? even in japan, there’s slang? wild but true! the dialogue was great, and while i can’t say much re: the jp cast since i played in english, the newcomers for the english cast were spectacular. i actually think the newcomers were, in some cases, stronger than the returning cast. even in characters where i didn’t like the voice (nagi had to grow on me, i admit it), they were a fantastic match for the character’s personality.

the emotional beats re: character deaths, typically, landed the way i think the writers wanted; kanon’s death in week 3 had me devastated even though i could see it coming a mile away. i think that’s a testament to the best parts of the writing; as soon as i understood how the current game was being run, i knew it was fairly inevitable that every other team would eventually lose. odds would be that, barring something like someone changing teams or a team merger, the majority of the other teams would be completely wiped out. i knew far in advance that kanon would likely not make it to the end of the story, but it still fucked me up when it finally happened not just because i cared about kanon, but also because of how much the other characters cared about her. some character deaths affected me far less, of course. i think kanon was the epitome of “this hit exactly as hard as the writers wanted it to”, but i do feel they fell short with others. ayano’s lack of development really hurt my ability to be saddened by her death, especially when it was so clear that she set up her own possession as a trap for shoka. it undermined things for shoka in general, because while she was devastated to lose ayano, the game did a poor job at making their relationship tangible and meaningful. i felt worse (not necessarily sadder, just worse) about motoi’s death, and i didn’t like motoi. speaking of him...

the biggest issue i have with the game is a chronic square enix issue. kubo is the Man Pulling The Strings, whatever, this is fine. the problem is that he, minamimoto, motoi, and arguably susukichi are the only characters in the game with dark skin. they are all morally grey at best. i don’t think i need to elaborate on why this is an issue. we’re not going to pretend that racism and colorism don’t exist in japan. i’m just going to say that all of the dark-skinned characters are either totally evil, excessively violent, and/or morally dubious. this is my biggest qualm, but i don’t feel it needs more elaboration. yes, i know motoi turns it around in the end. yes, i know susukichi ultimately changes sides as well, and he’s ultimately portrayed as sympathetic. minamimoto is........ his own beast. but the fact remains that we don’t get a single major character who’s darker and unambiguously heroic.

second big issue is that while i understand the decision to keep shiki off camera until the very end for emotional impact, i feel like this was to the detriment of the story and to the detriment of said impact. she was mentioned, sure, and she was briefly seen from the shoulders down in a cutscene long before her introduction, but i feel that this was ultimately for the worse. her absence in the plot made her a borderline non-entity that can easily leave the audience going “why should i care about this?” on what’s supposed to be a huge emotional cathartic moment. yes, people should know this is a sequel and neku and shiki’s friendship was a crucial part of the original game, and much of the endgame of neo makes no sense if you’re unfamiliar with the original, but their interactions in the ending felt incredibly shallow. and i think this is because of how little shiki appears and how isolated she is from her other friends. eri is unseen and unmentioned. she doesn’t interact with rhyme. she hardly interacts with beat, using him as a translator at best. her other relationships are just... stagnant at best, ignored at worst, and despite having had just as vital of a role in the first game as beat did, she does nothing of import onscreen. her only narrative actions are “fix mr mew (mentioned but not seen)” and “be sad about neku”. so, functionally...

for some reason (we know why) the story decided that the only thing that was important to shiki was seeing neku. but by holding off on this reveal of her, we lost the impact that their meeting could have had. because the game refused to show her it didn’t show how much his absence was affecting her, which leaves their reunion feeling incredibly hollow. shiki was gone for upwards of 90% of the game. if not for the first game, this reunion would mean nothing; the narrative does a terrible job of reminding the audience that neku and shiki have a strong relationship and i don’t know if it’s that they expected the first game to have done the heavy lifting, or they thought that what neo gave us was good rather than “good enough”. imo this was an enormous failure and i wish we had gotten more for her both as part of the plot and as a character.

this was an issue present with rhyme as well imo, though to a lesser degree. i think they should have given up the ghost much sooner on confirming that the shadowed figure was rhyme; it was obvious by the time they showed us her silhouette, so i don’t know why the narrative held off on showing her. they didn’t have to introduce her to rindo (or give her the name splash screen) yet, but people who played the first game and are paying attention know it’s rhyme, so why bother hiding her? most of what rhyme accomplishes in this game is off-camera as well, but she has double the screen time that shiki gets.

the shiki thing is another symptom of a common squeenix problem these days, which is poorly-handled implied romantic interests. and i think that was also present with how the end of the game treated shoka. rindo and shoka as an implied romance in general did not bother me; more than a lot of squeenix protags, and perhaps primarily because of the excellent job the english cast did, i actually was unbothered by the suggestion of budding romantic feelings because it felt genuine. they actually felt like a pair of teenagers who were starting to be interested in each other, trying to play it cool and prioritize. this, and shoka’s characterization in general, is really helped by the reveal of swallow’s identity; it retroactively heightens her closeness to rindo specifically and offers enormous insight into her decision to help the team covertly. however, i think this budding implied romance was severely undermined by having other characters comment on it, especially because it felt so out of place timing-wise whenever someone commented. it was never warranted; there are times where they seem to be... not flirting, but not doing a good job of pretending there isn’t an interest. this is not when comments come. the comments come when they are having a totally normal interaction that does not suggest any non-platonic feelings whatsoever.

up until the final day, i had fairly ambivalent feelings about the idea of them as the designated hetero pairing. i felt it was a vast improvement from recent shoehorned romances in squeenix properties. the ending made things much more contentious to me, specifically how shoka is vanished by joshua. the audience should at least have the suspicion that he’s reviving her, but the circumstances surrounding it are the problem more than joshua being a deus ex machina. it’s not the first time joshua was a troll re: reviving someone, but the context of why shoka’s revival is necessary is, well... unnecessary.

they barely foreshadow the shinjuku rules re: reapers, and i will freely admit it’s not remotely ooc for shoka to hide something like that until she can’t any more. but they seem to be just a contrived excuse for shoka to be taken away... and from the framing of it, not from the player, but from rindo. which, i don’t know that i need elaborate on why i wasn’t fond of that. and i won’t lie - i know everybody beefed it in those cutscenes, including beat and neku. but when the dissonance noise grabbed shoka it gave me the exact same vibe as the demon tide grabbing kairi in kh3, and i don’t think i need to elaborate more on why that would put a bad taste in my mouth and make me fearful for shoka’s future treatment in the game. i was worried that the narrative was going to yank her away from rindo like a prize being snatched from him, and it did! while i do also think it’s ic for joshua to fuck around the way he did when reviving her, it also seems contrived and brings up a major question.

if shoka is still playing by shinjuku rules, why does shibuya’s composer have the ability to overturn her erasure? yes, i know, shinjuku is gone, but its composer is still active. surely joshua having the authority to do what he did indicates that on a cosmic bureaucracy level, shoka is a shibuya reaper. the secret reports offer a potential that joshua exploited a loophole by waiting until the second after the shinjuku rules resulted in shoka’s soul being dissolved in order to snatch it up, so perhaps the explanation is that her erasure meant she was technically no longer a shinjuku reaper and no longer beholden to its rules. but that doesn’t answer a different question that honestly bothers me more than the admittedly sorta insignificant question of whether or not joshua overstepped in reviving shoka.

shinjuku’s game has ended because shinjuku has ended; why are its rules still in play for former shinjuku reapers? i am aware that shiba is the conductor “legally” and he has made changes to shibuya’s game, but they’re careful to specify that the “ex-reapers are erased at the end of the game” rules are from shinjuku and do not apply to shibuya reapers. is she considered by the higher plane to be joshua’s underling and not hazuki’s? the secret reports confirm that the transfer of personnel from the destroyed shinjuku to shibuya was authorized by the acting conductor (uzuki) and this is standard procedure, everything was done properly. so “legally” the formerly-shinjuku reapers are shibuya reapers, right? hanekoma notes in particular that it’s a culture clash leading to the shinjuku reapers being designated as such and that they’re only nominally shinjuku reapers. why are a defunct game’s rules still active?

the biggest issue is that shoka’s threat of erasure was unnecessary from a narrative perspective, especially given how quickly it’s introduced and resolved. what was the point of putting this in the story if five minutes later the issue is just dealt with, no effort, minimal tension, by a (narratively speaking, don’t come after me joshua fans) minor character who doesn’t even appear until after the plot is resolved? i honestly wonder if it was just the writers deciding joshua needed to do something so that his appearance in the ending wasn’t just shallow fanservice for people who wanted to see the original gang. joshua’s lack of action is also presumably going to be contentious with fans; i’ve read the secret reports, and i don’t feel that they sufficiently justify why he doesn’t make any moves to protect his city despite being positioned both in his own dialogue and the secret reports as someone opposing shibuya’s purification. i will talk about this a little later re: kubo’s motivations though.

i also think it’s kind of stupid that joshua sets up “find her and you win” and then... rindo doesn’t do anything in that regard. he just bumps into her in the scramble. i know i already said i hate the idea of her being a prize to be won in a game but if they’re going to set it up, why make it pointless in that regard? it feels so unnecessary. joshua portrays shoka’s revival/return as something to be earned, and unlike the ending of twewy there’s no recognition that he was actually just fucking with them.

this is similar to my mixed feelings about kubo’s defeat. on one hand, i wanted to smash his face in personally, i have hated him the entire game. on the other hand, having him jesus beamed and rewritten out of existence without any warning or chance to resist was fucking hilarious and i actually laughed out loud. my speculation as to why he didn’t get a boss fight is that developers worried about people having trouble suspending disbelief over the party being able to defeat an angel. ultimately i think the only way this could have been done was to have it be a boss battle where your victory doesn’t matter, like the week 1 fight with susukichi, and have hazuki curbstomp kubo in the post-battle cutscenes. ultimately, i feel like this was a lesser of two evils; i don’t think the “you lose in the cutscene” approach would have necessarily been significantly better than what we got, i recognize that “the battle didn’t matter and you lose in the cutscene after” is a contentious game trope. and i would understand people struggling to accept the cast defeating a being from a higher plane without intervention from said higher plane. the only benefit would be the catharsis of getting to slap kubo around, which admittedly i kind of miss. having him as a secret boss was an option i guess but i think it would bring more questions than it was worth.

kubo’s motivation is also just bizarre; i understand that it’s given as him getting overzealous after carrying out his orders to purify shinjuku, but why? i feel like this could have easily been fixed/rationalized by “shinjuku’s surviving reapers fled to shibuya, leading kubo to consider shibuya to be an extension of shinjuku”, but that’s solely speculation. i do not know why kubo decided to also start an inversion in shibuya. they didn’t give me enough information. his conflict with joshua is inexplicable and almost entirely offscreen via the secret reports. i do not feel like i have a grasp on why the plot of the game even happened. hazuki’s involvement is iffy; i can’t say whether he initially approved of kubo’s overstep and changed his mind, or if he just took his time collecting his errant underling. the secret reports suggest the former, and hanekoma noting that the contentious nature of the previous game’s events gives a speculative explanation for why no action was taken if hazuki was actually making moves against shibuya rather than kubo being out of line. hazuki could damn well have been lying, there’s a precedent for composers being full of shit and telling bold-faced lies to protagonists, though in the previous game these lies were all eventually uncovered. this leaves me to believe that ultimately, hazuki’s statements regarding kubo acting outside of his given authority were mostly honest. but what i don’t understand is why joshua took such a hands-off approach.

yes, he says he figured the main cast had it under control and would have stepped in had things gotten worse, but this appearance and statement comes long after rindo fails and shibuya is destroyed in multiple timelines. why did he not step in in the first timeline? i can speculate, but the game and secret reports do not do a great job in explaining why the proxy vs. proxy game even happened in the first place. kubo is hazuki’s underling, which makes joshua higher in the pecking order than kubo. if hazuki was capable of exorcising kubo instantaneously, why didn’t joshua just flick him off the board like a flea before he even got started trying to cause an inversion in shibuya? in the epilogue of a new day joshua is seen in conversation with hanekoma, who’s taking shinjuku’s inversion seriously, which seems at odds with how easily his fellow composer ends the problem.

retroactively, i guess i could rationalize this as him realizing that either shinjuku’s composer must be responsible for said inversion or that potentially shinjuku’s composer has been compromised in some way. and i can rationalize him failing to immediately jesus beam kubo as well - it’s possible that, as kubo was initially acting under the orders of another composer (assuming hazuki is still technically “legally” one/at the bureaucratic level of one), joshua’s hands were somewhat tied re: what actions he could take without potential consequences. it could be that joshua would get in big trouble if he took disciplinary action against another composer’s underling, but 1. the legal transfer of personnel should mean kubo is joshua’s underling, not hazuki’s, see the shoka problem 2. hazuki’s status as a composer is questionable given that his territory is now purified and its game is defunct 3. given that kubo was acting outside of his original composer’s turf and outside of his initial orders (purify shinjuku) at this point i feel like that isn’t likely. it could be that he was trying to avoid a conflict with hazuki himself. it may be that he considered it hazuki’s responsibility to retrieve kubo, but that’s at odds with him choosing a proxy to combat kubo’s and his claims that he totally would have done something, really, he swears. they don’t give us much info at all as to why joshua entered a game with kubo in the first place. i have reason to believe that something’s fishy in the secret reports, and i would like to see the japanese text, which i’ll mention again in a few paragraphs.

i know the absence of shibuya’s composer is partially, and perhaps primarily, “there wouldn’t be a plot if joshua fixed it”. but it really feels like they just kinda tucked joshua in the corner and hoped fans wouldn’t be like “hey where is shibuya’s composer and why is no one mentioning them?” that part is probably for the same reason we don’t see shiki until the very ending, teasing the audience by holding off on revealing him until the last second, but it’s jarring to me that shiki is mentioned but neither neku, beat, nor any of the reapers (!) think “we should contact the composer”. even if just to say “we can’t contact the composer, he is unreachable”! i guess it’s to avoid people remembering how significant joshua is and thinking too hard about it, because joshua is simply too powerful of a character to be running around freely. the plot falls apart when you have a character who’s so strong and, in his own words, kind of omnipotent, who could trivialize the conflict in an instant if he took action.

i feel like they surely could have given a more explicit reason for him to not be involved in the story, even if it’s a reason like “he’s in trouble with the higher plane”. which could have easily been set up! hanekoma is clear in his reports that shibuya’s impurification is highly contentious in the higher plane; people are big mad about it, potentially people higher in the chain of command than a composer. this could have been easily utilized as an explanation for why joshua is hands-off; he’s on a shit list and needs to step carefully as a result. but it’s just not addressed. hanekoma is unreachable according to his reports, and he notes that people are trying to contact him for help. are we just to assume that people have looked for joshua to ask for help in the past but it was so long ago that it isn’t even worth mentioning now to the newcomers? according to other reports, the higher ups are pissed with joshua about his game with kitaniji and are turning a blind eye to what’s happening with kubo in shibuya as a result. but this doesn’t explain why the members of the shibuya UG never discuss the composer. hanekoma’s reports have him confused as to joshua’s lack of action as well; he knows the context of what’s going on in shibuya but doesn’t understand why joshua is staying silent.

that said! the fact that hazuki’s motive for the destruction of shinjuku is never stated does not bother me too much. he’s placed in a position very parallel to joshua in the first game, and he even says he felt like he was following in josh’s footsteps. when you add his seemingly-genuine inability to understand why people care about shibuya, i feel there’s enough evidence to... not dismiss, but nudge this aside as “He Too is a misanthropic bastard”; shinjuku’s destruction is a parallel to the intended destruction of shibuya in the first game. hazuki just carried on where joshua had a change of heart. the secret reports complicate this; it might be that someone fucked up in transcribing, but the reports i read online state that shibuya’s composer, i.e. joshua, was responsible for the destruction of shinjuku due to a game with kubo. this does not make sense given everything else, including hazuki’s own statements and later reports, so i’m setting that aside for the moment as either an uncaught mistake either in translation or transcription online (most likely) or hanekoma not knowing the actual truth until receiving the post-purification shinjuku reports. hanekoma also suggests that hazuki’s goal was also the purification of shibuya, but as he’s not shibuya’s composer this is certainly not his jurisdiction so i’m curious as to what exactly happened there.

EDIT: i’ve been informed by a helpful anon that this is not a mistranslation, the japanese secret reports do state that it was a game involving joshua that resulted in shinjuku’s inversion. with that in mind, i have figured out how to rationalize this and it solves a lot of problems: if it was a proxy game between joshua and kubo, then joshua must have been the opposition to shinjuku’s inversion. though you could argue that joshua is responsible for the end result, he didn’t destroy shinjuku; his proxy lost, probably because kubo’s had the support of shinjuku’s composer. kubo’s overconfidence in running rampant in shibuya is now explicable and he may have been trying to rub it in that joshua lost.

if hazuki was still backing kubo post-shinjuku, this could explain why hazuki felt he could make decisions about shibuya’s fate and wander around it; joshua had already overstepped onto his turf to meddle in purification, so he was returning the favor. at this point in time, i figure that joshua’s proxy was either tsugumi’s brother (shinjuku’s conductor) or coco (she’s noted to have inexplicable powers for a rank-and-file reaper, but joshua’s opposition to her killing of neku throws this into question), and if we truly had a scrapped “shinjuku’s final game” plot then joshua’s proxy could also have been neku. kubo’s proxy was presumably shiba. this actually answers a few questions that i couldn’t rationalize when i assumed joshua was uninvolved (why would shinjuku’s composer be running a game against kubo when they wanted the same thing?), so i’m gonna chalk it up as an absolute win.

i think hishima as a character was... sort of nothing. he was just there. yeah, it was kinda funny how he dressed shiba down, but i don’t know that the plot needed him. his role in the endgame could have easily been given to tsugumi without much fuss, and i feel tsugumi deserved a much bigger part in the narrative given how much she was hyped up by solo and final remix. she was so prominent and anticipated that the fans called her hype-chan for years before we had a name for her. this could also be folded into the problem with hiding shiki until the very end; it feels like we missed a whole sequence with both of these characters simply because the narrative refused to show us shiki. instead, we’re told that shiki showed up and fixed mr. mew, and somehow this freed tsugumi. i think the fact that they don’t even give a flashback of this crucial event after shiki’s proper introduction is just a questionable decision. the story tells us that tsugumi’s release from the plushie is of the utmost importance and shiba can’t be swayed without her, setting it up as a vital event, but it happens offscreen with no real interaction with the main cast. it also only happens after multiple failed loops, even though rindo’s interference is what prevents the meeting between coco and shiki to repair the plushie. i don’t understand this from a logistical standpoint; if coco isn’t pulled to escort rhyme, she must have met with shiki and released tsugumi in timely manner, but tsugumi does not appear until after you replay to get coco back to her original schedule. you could wave it off as “she didn’t get there fast enough”, but i can’t accept that as a reason given the circumstances; it’s not like she would have to look hard to find shiba. this one’s flawed writing; i know in a meta sense why she didn’t appear, it was to build tension etc etc, but in-universe it’s a plot hole.

coco being so absent from the plot is also somewhat conspicuous. i wonder what reception of her was like in japan and if that influenced her lack of presence in the story. i honestly don’t even know if she was received well by the english audience, all i know is that i did not like her at all in final remix. not from an “i don’t like the villain because they’re doing bad things” perspective, from an “i don’t find this character compelling and i think they’re annoying” perspective. also curious as to whether or not her speech patterns changed in the japanese dialogue since final remix; i found her far less jarring and obnoxious in neo and i think it’s enormously because she stopped talking verbally in internet shorthand. overall, coco’s retool was imo a change for the better, but she’s barely there for me to appreciate how much of an improvement she was. it feels like there’s an entire narrative we were set up for by a new day, yet it’s almost completely missing. the ending of a new day laid out this framework for neku and minamimoto to be forced allies in an unseen future game. i had mixed feelings about this conceptually, but the narrative setup was fairly transparent. not only does this not happen, coco’s motivation in a new day and what ultimately happened were so lacking to me.

i feel like something got lost and we were originally going to actually see and perhaps play the shinjuku game that ended in disaster instead of just getting a summation and brief flashbacks of the survivors fleeing. this kinda ties in with my complaints about how hyped tsugumi was by solo and final remix, and then she turned out to have a very small (albeit crucial, via her trailer ability) and mostly unseen role in neo’s story. retroactively we learn that rindo’s visions are from tsugumi, but this is something she does entirely off-screen. all of coco’s scheming was for nothing, because joshua was a deus ex machina and whisked neku away the second he died. this feels to me like cut content or rewrites; there’s a whole game’s worth of story that just happened off-camera and we got to hear a little bit about it. it wasn’t enough, imo. i think doing it as a midquel is still possible, but it’s a hard sell to create a video game with a downer ending and we know shinjuku’s fate is already set in stone... even though a new day ended on the tragic cliffhanger of neku’s death, it’s a little different since it’s coming as an optional postgame sequel hook after victory rather than the entire narrative you fought through ending in failure. i suppose it could be done with a Distant Epilogue now that we know shiba and most of his surviving reapers will return to rebuild shinjuku. ultimately i really think that if not for the concern about neku overshadowing the new cast, shinjuku’s purification could and should have been the prologue to neo. it would be a tough balancing act, but i do think it could have been done right and it would have done a lot for narrative tension with his absence if we had a prologue following him that ends in a cliffhanger re: shinjuku’s purification. neku’s role in the story was done decently i think re: how big said role was, but a lot of circumstances surrounding his absence, legendary status, and reappearance leave much to be desired.

frankly, i just don’t like how much they glossed over neku’s three year absence. we’re given a vague explanation of what he was doing, but it isn’t actually an explanation. definitely again feels like a plot rewrite situation; there’s this huge blank space of neku doing nothing because there used to be a story that we were going to play through and it got scrapped for whatever reason. overall i feel neku’s characterization was very odd and perhaps a little inconsistent in this game; he didn’t have much of a personality at all, which i struggle to reconcile with the original game. we don’t see how he reconciled with coco, it’s just dismissed entirely as “no we’re good now”. how are we good? why did you forgive her for playing murder games instead of just explaining shit? i know he forgave joshua for his gatekeep gaslight girlboss behavior in the first game, but we had context as to why he made that decision. also what the fuck was keeping him from coming back to shibuya, i don’t feel like that was sufficiently explained either? for someone who was so hyped up by the narrative, i was a little let down by how insignificant neku ended up being to the plot as a whole. and again, his personality seemed very watered down and neutral despite the seriousness of the situation. why was he so mellow? the circumstances of his return i did really like, because... well, we’ll talk about character relationships i guess.

i already summed up my feelings on rindo and shoka and i think i’ll leave them on the note of “unnecessary elements dampened my potential for overt enthusiasm, but overall i feel neutral-positive about the suggestion of romantic interest” which is a lot more than i can say about a lot of (semi-)official pairings. on a broader and more platonic scale? generally i have positive feelings about the new cast and their interactions; i feel like their development is more understated than neku’s in the first game, his character arc is very in your face and the neo cast is not nearly as overt, but you can see the difference in how the team interacts across the three weeks. rindo and fret’s established friendship, not to be dismissive of it, does exactly what it needs to. i mean this in a completely positive way. it’s an established friendship, they feel like friends, and they serve initially as anchors to one another in the beginning of the game as a “you’re the only person i know in this chaos” setup. this contrasts neku in the first game in an excellent way because of how it highlights their biggest character flaws, which i’ll talk about later; it’s important to rindo’s fatal flaw that he has someone to fall back and rely on in the beginning of the game in the same way that it’s crucial for neku’s development that he’s surrounded by strangers who he must learn to trust and rely on in order to survive. rindo and fret can lean on each other in the beginning of the game, and as people who have known each other for some time, are able to recognize and appreciate each others’ positive changes.

i do love the development of nagi’s friendship with fret, particularly how it’s sometimes but not always remarked on when she shelves her initial aloof attitude with him. i prefer when a narrative is more subtle on that kind of thing; pointing it out every once in a while is okay, but i don’t want it shoved down my throat via dialogue that characters are developing an emotional bond. we can see that nagi is slowly becoming more receptive to fret and less likely to dismiss or disparage him. it seems like their initial relationship is that of two people who have opposite struggles; nagi is notably closed off in the beginning, but fret immediately approaches her with an unearned and offputting level of familiarity. their slow and understated (more noticeable with nagi than fret) development towards accepting each other as friends is mutually beneficial to them even outside of the context of their personal relationship; nagi opens up a little with everyone, not just fret. placing two people with very different perspectives on how to interact with new people in close proximity helped both of them grow. i’m sure other people have different perspectives, but i do not feel like they were being teased as a pairing which i enormously appreciate, i am tired of “pair the spares” shit. (minor note: i also appreciate how while fret’s crush on kanon was very overt and strong, she was also fairly clear that she considered him a kid and his feelings were never going to be reciprocated because of that age gap. i know, the bar is low, but thank god.)

i love how, despite nagi now having been confirmed as older than beat, as soon as beat joins the narrative he takes this hard stance of “i’m the one who’s already been in this hellscape so it’s my responsibility to help the newbies”. he really embodies the big brother role so well in this game; he knows a little more about what’s going on, this isn’t his first rodeo even if it’s not exactly the same, so he considers himself to have an obligation to protect the others. he serves as sort of a physical and emotional rock for the team from the second he joins, becoming an excellent support for them both as a combatant and an older brother figure. he has experience in being both of these things, and i think beat’s writing is some of the best in the game.

despite his position as a former player who’s back in the UG, he meshes with the newbies perfectly. he doesn’t overshadow the rest of the team despite having more lived (ha) experience in the reaper’s game, he doesn’t feel like he’s on a different level from them or anything like that. he fits in while serving an important unique role that he can only fill because of his prior time in the UG. it’s completely understandable and reasonable why rindo remains the team leader despite beat’s presence. he’s had a three year gap since his last game and doesn’t even understand how he returned to the UG. he’s not a fish out of water, he knows the UG and the game. but he’s really truly gotta shake the dust off, and he’s trying to figure out what happened to him in the first place because he knows he shouldn’t be in the UG at all. he didn’t have a huge bump in intelligence since the first game, but it’s hard to dismiss him as a complete idiot. he has both large and small perceptive moments where another narrative might have chosen to keep him as the dumb muscle. in fact, his firm convictions serve an important role for the others - beat knows he didn’t die and can’t be convinced otherwise, and his confidence that he’s a living player is part of how rindo and gang realize they also aren’t dead. he’s clearly not simply a comic relief character. another story might have positioned him as more of a mentor figure, but he plays to his strengths and serves to ground the team instead. beat is honestly a highlight of this ensemble cast to me. i’m unsure as to how much of that is simply because he was one of my favorites from the first game, but i really truly love beat in this game.

shoka and neku’s late introductions to the team mean they have far less “we are now firmly allies and friends” interactions with the rest of the ensemble for unavoidable reasons. i will say that the excellent casting and localization for the english version, particularly shoka, has done a lot to mitigate that issue; yes, the plot doesn’t develop her relationships with the team as a whole as thoroughly as some of the others, but the combat interactions with her are so genuine that i found myself shocked when writing this because, well, those combat lines did so much legwork making her role in the party seem earned and cohesive. i had such a strong sense of her place in the team that just isn’t reflected in the cutscenes, and i find that very interesting but i’m unsure as to whether it’s good or bad; i think it’s incredible that the combat dialogue did such a good job fostering this air of “we are a unit” for these characters and it really is a testament to the skill of these actors, but i do wish it was more prevalent in the cutscenes itself. beat’s established relationship with neku and their relaxed nature with one another does a lot to ease neku’s entry into the group; he has an “in” with a firmly established member and a well-written dynamic with him that helps him out here.

as a nekubeat appreciator i feel very fed and i hope there’s an uptick in interest for the pairing following neo. i love how beat, who throughout the game is constantly forgetting who people from 3 years ago are (doesn’t recognize his former superior bc she’s wearing a suit now and can’t even remember her name), immediately recognizes coco despite her changing her entire aesthetic specifically because he’s so angry with her for killing neku. he’s ready to throw down the second he sees her, which gives this feeling of “he’s been waiting for this moment for 3 years”. because the narrative never addresses beat’s change in style, particularly that he wears his hair like neku now, i choose to believe it’s because the last time he saw neku was immediately after coco shot and killed him. it could be that this shit’s been haunting him ever since neku died. my city now, if you don’t talk about it in the game i make shit up. both their cutscene interactions and combat quotes do an excellent job of maintaining the sense that these two have been close friends for a long time and distance hasn’t changed that. they fall right back into old ways with one another immediately.

even outside of the context of me being a nekubeat shipper, their relationship and continued partnership (UG game context partnership) feels very genuine. neku and joshua call each other partner, but it rings hollow. i’m sure it’s partially the lack of screentime that makes it so they don’t feel like partners any more than neku and shiki do, but the game doesn’t even try to push closeness the way it does for shiki - more on that in a minute. beat is the only one of neku’s partners that seems to have retained the same strength in their bond with him despite the three years; shiki and joshua are super absent in the plot, which really undermines their relationships with neku. i’ve already talked about my problems with shiki’s lack of focus and how i feel it harms her relationship with neku, but as for neku’s relationship with joshua, i think neo has taken an interesting approach that i feel will have a mixed reception.

it actually feels like neku and joshua ended this game on worse terms than the first one even though joshua was a far more benevolent figure this time around. neku is very clear about wanting to return to the RG despite this meaning he will have no access to the UG (outside of potentially text-based communication since rhyme paved the way for RG residents to bust into the RNS and... however it was that shoka’s fanGO account worked, since she and rindo were fanGO friends long before his entry to the UG) and doesn’t show any hesitation or reluctance in stating this desire. he seems quite content with not having joshua be a part of his life, as opposed to the first game’s ending where he extends an open offer to joshua to join his friend group. i understand how this would (and will) let a lot of people down, but i actually think it’s for the best. i have no real opinion on neku’s capacity for forgiving joshua after the first game, good or bad, but i think putting distance between them in this game is the correct move.

i take this viewpoint especially given that after the first game, joshua did in fact choose this distance - neku invited him in, and he did not take the offer. it was his decision to not join neku’s group in the first game’s ending and he continued to remain separate from it in the three year gap; he may have masqueraded as a fellow player and peer in age, but joshua is not and has never been an actual peer to neku, shiki, and beat. his life experiences are so different from theirs that i would struggle to suspend disbelief that they have enough in common to maintain a close friendship. he intervened when neku was killed by coco and placed him in a safe area and gave moral support in the ending, and i think this is the most we should expect of a reforming (not reformed but in-progress) misanthrope like joshua. he’s an enigmatic figure sure and largely benevolent if inactive in this game, but he isn’t a good person and he clearly considers himself to be on a different level from neku and his peers. hanekoma notes that joshua’s somewhat reluctant to continue to remain separate from neku’s group, but i think the narrative places him both objectively and in his own mind as someone who is just... from a different world. joshua chose distance, he chose to cut contact, and this is the consequence of that decision. i think that’s a good lesson to teach; it may not be a given, but it’s natural that sometimes a friendship you ignore will fade. it doesn’t necessarily mean the time you spent didn’t matter, but you shouldn’t be shocked if a plant you don’t water wilts away.

i feel like that wasn’t the intended takeaway, that it was just questionable writing that i’m reading too deep into, but that’s how i feel about the situation.

i’m also incredibly grateful that hazuki was introduced as an age-appropriate option for joshua and i hope they’ll draw attention as a bastard boyfriends ship, both because i think it’s very funny and because i have opinions about shipping joshua with the teens. i know it’s contentious and i’m not going too deep into it, so what i’m going to say is this. the secret reports state in plain objective text that joshua downtuning his vibes aged him down and his true appearance is older. neither the narrative nor supplementary info state anything about how old josh was when he died or how long he’s been a reaper/the composer (reapers ageing is ??? as well, we don’t know if it’s not a thing or if it’s optional or what). however, it is firmly canon that he is older than 15. if that canon upsets you then that’s your problem to either work through or ignore indefinitely. suffice to say, joshua and hazuki do not have the schrodinger’s pedophile issue and i wholly support and strongly encourage that over the alternative for this reason and again because i find it funny and think they deserve each other. i hate to say hazuki is a healthy choice for joshua because i think both of them are just walking messes, but they are actual peers on the same tier of the higher plane pecking order and more importantly the disaster they could be as a couple has infinite potential.

on the girls side of things, i am still mad about eri’s absence not just because it’s a relationship shiki had that just got ignored. i know the story wants us to believe that neku and shiki have something but shiki and eri had more. i’m sorry writers you made a more compelling f/f ship by accident in the first game and i am not invested in the one you weakly suggested between neku and shiki here. if you made shiki have more of a role in neo maybe i’d feel differently, or maybe you would have screwed it up worse. we’ll never know. i think it’s a shame that they couldn’t make me care about neku and shiki as a pairing, but it is what it is.

i was briefly worried that the game would try to suggest something between kaie and rhyme because sometimes people lose their minds when a boy and girl stand next to each other, but i was quickly set at ease with that one. they felt like two people who are starting to straddle that line of acquaintance/friend in a believable way despite how little interaction between them we see, and i appreciate that. i was also briefly worried that fret would develop a crush on rhyme based on his initial reaction at being introduced to her, but again quickly dismissed. can you tell i’m a little gun shy about strangled “him boy her girl” romances in fiction these days? yeah. i’ve been let down too much recently by bad writing.

i think all of the party members could have benefited from more development with one another outside of combat lines - i would like to see more interaction between nagi and shoka, or neku and fret, etc - but that would come at the expense of the narrative’s pacing. i think it could have been done by tweaking certain details, but ultimately i can accept this as a sacrifice made in the interest of keeping the narrative from getting bloated.

i wanna talk briefly about the new main cast a little.

rindo’s ups and downs re: development are much more subtle than neku’s were, but with the secret reports in mind i feel his arc is actually pretty excellent. i think we could have done with a little less of fret pointing out rindo’s increased confidence and how he becomes more assertive, i think the audience is smart enough to notice that on their own. but i’m a huge fan of how the narrative quietly places rindo in this position of a leader who fears that responsibility, but nonetheless has to grow and accept it. hanekoma’s reports may spell it out in plain text postgame, but the narrative already told us in our own way that rindo’s development stalled when someone else entered the cast who could take over for him and this is demonstrative of a(n understandable) lack of maturity and failure to grow. neku’s fatal flaw was his rejection of others, and so he was forced by the narrative into a position where he had to learn to trust them; rindo’s is that he relies too much on them and the narrative forces him to stand on his own.

while i think this is a little muddled (he was right in some instances to not make hard solo decisions; thinking specifically of ayano, it was absolutely the right call to ease shoka into this inevitable loss rather than forcing her into the situation unilaterally) and i wish we saw more consequences of his initial waffling behavior, rindo’s indecisiveness is an actual flaw that i think a lot of people can relate to and i think it contrasts him wonderfully with neku without being heavy-handed. rindo working through it from “relying on others to make choices for him -> still valuing the input of others but not wholly dependent on them -> capable of making difficult calls without anyone else to support him” was subdued and while it had realistic hitches in the form of other characters who he could consider authority figures, it was steady and imo very good. he’s a teenager coming into his own, stepping out of this world where others in his life - motoi as an0ther, shoka as swallow, presumably his parents, teachers, etc - have made the big, scary decisions for him or guided him through them, and into a place where there aren’t these people to guide him. he’s surrounded by people who either don’t know anything more than he does, or don’t care about his best interests; he’s clashing and changing and it forces him to grasp and accept his own autonomy rather than falling back and relying on someone else to fix things when it’s too frightening or difficult.

we can talk cultural differences re: the level of autonomy and responsibility that’s right for teenagers but i’m not really interested in drawing hard lines there. this is a coming of age story; as he approaches maturity, rindo is learning how to be an adult. i think that’s a classic and important narrative concept and it’s done well here.

fret, interestingly, is imo a case where the subtlety didn’t work out. to me, there wasn’t a huge distinction between flippant “telling you what i think you want to hear” fret and “genuine” fret. his initial interactions with kanon don’t seem different from their last conversation; maybe he comes off as less initally honest in the jp version, or maybe this one was a writing fumble. maybe it’s just me, and other people don’t feel the same way! he seems to be a far more static character in a strange way; the narrative tells us that he’s developing via other characters’ dialogue, but it doesn’t seem to support that. to me it’s a failure of “show, don’t tell” - i don’t take a hard stance on “show, don’t tell” as some kind of holy rule of writing, there are plenty of situations in a narrative where telling is perfectly acceptable and i think rigid adherence to showing and not telling can result in a bloated narrative, but in this case i feel like that’s where the narrative failed. it failed to support fret’s development outside of other people telling him he’s changed. i like fret, but i feel like in this ensemble cast fret and nagi kinda serve more as nominal protagonists and are more strong supporting characters than true leads.

as for nagi, i love how, despite it being low-hanging fruit, not only are there no real digs at nagi for being a vocal fangirl of a visual novel dating sim, it actually ties perfectly into her character as someone who understands people. dating sims are about people and relationships. how people interact, the importance of conveying your feelings, the consequences of bad communication; that’s what nagi is obsessed with. and rather than this being a detriment and making her avoid others, it ends up priming her to have healthy friendships because her gaming taught her to value knowing other people. it takes her time to actually open up, but rather than the video games closing her off to others they actually set her up to be an excellent friend. elestra in general could have been a subject of enormous mockery, but instead it’s viewed in a very neutral way and is given the implication of universal appeal by fret picking it up in the epilogue. nagi’s not in the spotlight for most of the game, but the payoff of her monologue to fret about being human was immense and was one of the best bits of dialogue in the entire game to me. it’s not going to be as iconic as hanekoma’s “open up your world” and “enjoy the moment”, but i truly think it’s one of the only parts of neo’s dialogue that approaches its level.

shoka is a character that i think is better on the replay, and i say this as someone who was very fond of shoka the first time around. i thought she had a lot of personality in her mannerisms alone, and i firmly appreciate how she wasn’t a one-note tsundere character. she had some of those minor elements, but subdued and with a reasonable context - she’s hot and cold with rindo and his team because she’s supposed to be working this rigged game to erase them, but she’s already rindo’s friend in a different context and is struggling to reconcile these two parts of her life. knowing her motivation as swallow gives so much retroactive depth to her actions; she was circumventing the game itself not just because she was exhausted by it or unease with shiba like some of the other turncoat reapers, but because rindo was her friend from before the story even began.

i will say that i didn’t actually fully call swallow being shoka simply because at first i had the impression that it would be rhyme (before rhyme’s role in the story became clearer), and admittedly by the time the climax hit the mystery of who swallow was had kind of dropped out of my mind completely, but i think it does a lot to develop shoka. whether this development being retroactive is strictly good or bad as an issue is subjective; neo is a game that has a built-in chapter select, so replaying the game and rewatching the cutscenes with the full narrative context is incredibly easy. however, for a lot of players, if you’re replaying the game it’s with a specific goal of getting something you missed earlier in-game, so you’re rushing through those cutscenes trying to get to that completionist bit. i think a line could have been walked re: giving more of a hint that shoka was swallow before the very end without fully giving it away, but i definitely think the rewatch value is more subjective and based on how you specifically play the game. if you’re here looking to watch all the cutscenes again now that you know everything, shoka being swallow is a huge treat regarding changing the context of her behavior - if you’re fast-forwarding trying to find a pig, it’s totally wasted.

i would have liked to see more of shoka’s backstory and interaction with the other shinjuku reapers for sure, and i wonder if this is another thing along the lines of “we were supposed to see more of shinjuku’s final game than we did”; if we’d gotten more of shinjuku, we certainly would have seen more of its reapers. i talked briefly about how i feel like ayano’s death didn’t hit the way i think it was intended to, but if the game had let us see more of her as a shinjuku reaper i feel like the entire plot would have benefited. it would have benefited shiba as well honestly; they tried to have him as a repentant “now i shall fix what i destroyed” character at the very end, but i don’t feel like they did a good enough job portraying that he had changed and he was brainwashed so it fell flat. if we’d seen more of shiba as the compassionate leader who deserved the loyalty of his reapers that they say he was, the contrast would have done a lot to help define the tragedy of his backstory. overall i think this is another “we lost a chunk of the plot in rewrites or something” issue, which i admit is not based in anything like interviews. it’s just my speculation because it feels like something that was supposed to be here got left behind - i can’t say if i’m right, or why it happened if so. it just feels to me like the shinjuku reapers besides shoka went fairly undeveloped not because of writing/lack of screentime alone but because we lost big pieces of shinjuku content entirely. it’s insane that we only learn in the secret reports how tsugumi became trapped in the mr. mew plush to begin with; to me, this screams “we had to cut something”, and the more i think about it the more convinced i am that we were originally meant to see more of shinjuku’s inversion. hell, the secret reports just flippantly inform us that tsugumi’s brother was shinjuku’s conductor and he’s why she survived - but he goes unnamed and unseen, mentioned only in a piece of postgame content that many players may never unlock.

shinjuku’s final game is just left as this incredible story that was never told, with a cast who we barely see. again, it doesn’t bother me that they never explained to us why hazuki purified shinjuku. but i do wish we could have connected with its reapers to see how they reacted to its impending fate; who was on kubo’s side, who was trying to protect shinjuku? who knew what was happening, and who was just swept up in the chaos? how did the purification affect them emotionally after their escape to shibuya? just from the secret reports we see that tsugumi’s brother is this tragic hero of another story, the conductor opposing the executor and fighting to save his city before ultimately sacrificing himself to keep his sister alive. this is enough content that it could have easily been a standalone, but it wasn’t. i think that’s a damn shame. i’m sure there are people who are already chomping at the bit to write about shinjuku’s tragic final game and it’ll make a stunning fanfic in the right hands, but this is a big gap for fanfiction authors to be filling in.

this was mostly a narrative thoughts dump, but i wanna say just a couple of things about the combat: overall i liked it! i was significantly overleveled for the vast majority of the game partially because i was having fun with the combat, i feel gameplay was very intrinsically motivating. because of how the food system worked, being overleveled didn’t mean too much since it only affects HP, but i also was eating constantly so i was in fact just OP for much of the game. so i suppose, take my gameplay commentary with a grain of salt because i was busted quickly. if i hadn’t been such a powerhouse from early on, i expect my gameplay experience would have been much different.

my biggest complaint: there were some significant issues in enemy design related to battles being timed and the timer having consequences. some enemies were a reasonable/intuitive pain, say, elephants being bullet sponges and chameleons having an invisibility mechanic. these things made them challenging, but in a sensible way. like, of course a big honkin’ elephant has a ton of HP. i think that chameleons in particular could have been tweaked; you have to be very close to them when they’re invisible in order to lock on, and i think this could distance could have been extended a bit to minimize frustration. likewise, it felt like party members that get grabbed by a t.rex were trapped for ages; i feel this could have been tweaked as well. i know a lot of people had issues with wolves for this same reason, but their comparative frailty and my pin choices meant that i quickly overcame wolves and they became a minor nuisance at best until endgame introduced a beefier wolf. even then, i found t.rex noise to be much more of an issue because of their sturdier nature and higher damage output. these are minor gripes; i didn’t like seeing these enemies, but i didn’t hate seeing them. no, here’s what i hate: rhinos and pufferfish.

to me, these are the most annoying enemies in the entire game outside of maybe a handful of bosses. i feel they were poorly thought out in general. the tendency for rhinos to put themselves against the arena walls and the delay on pufferfish exploding after their HP hits zero do not mesh well with that battle timer. i find myself very frustrated by these enemies because it feels like i’m being punished not for a lack of skill or bad decisions choosing weak pins, but simply bad luck. very few pins can circumvent the rhino’s front guard and the hitbox for their guard feels enormous, so i can’t imagine i’m the only player having difficulty herding them out of corners to actually damage them or get beat drops. there’s a postgame dive with a big noise rhino, and it was my worst experience with the entire game because it just kept backing into a corner. i quit that dive multiple times because of how much time i wasted with the rhino; i changed my pins like crazy trying to take advantage of elemental weaknesses or use pins that could circumvent the guard. but it wasn’t about what pins i was using, it was just bad luck with hitboxes. when i finally got the gold rank on that dive it wasn’t that i did anything significantly different, the rhino just didn’t park its ass in the corner that time.

as far as i know, and i hope i’m missing something that someone can enlighten me on, there is no way to prevent pufferfish from inflating and exploding outside of a killer remix. i have not discovered any way to make them explode faster. the amount of time it takes for them to blow up seems to vary not by species but by individual, i’m not sure if it’s being triggered by proximity to a party member or what but i know sometimes one of those little shits will inflate and chase me across the entire arena before finally exploding. in a chain battle, that wasted time adds up. the pufferfish issue could have been severely mitigated, if not entirely fixed, if the gap between HP hitting zero and explosion was just the time it took for them to inflate. that would have basically eliminated my needless frustration with them. but instead i just... don’t know how to make them pop faster.

in normal combat, your post-battle score is primarily just bragging rights/making yourself feel good to have gotten a good grade. but when it comes to dives, where the timer directly decides how many of the finite friendship points you get, the appearance of a rhino or pufferfish specifically is something i approached with dread and disappointment. i already mentioned the postgame dive giant rhino specifically being a nightmare, but this was a reoccurring element for me through the entire game with just normal rhinos. i know rhinos are a returning enemy and kept their front-guard schtick, but the shift to a 3D environment has made them a much more (imo needlessly) difficult opponent.

regarding the pin system itself, i was enormously disappointed to learn how the multi-pin input worked. it turns out that you can only have multiple pins using a single input no matter how many multi-pin wields you unlock; gone were my dreams of having 2 Y-input pins and two ZL input pins (i played on switch). the inability to multi-pin wield uber pins regardless of how many uber slots you have filled is also a huge bummer. i feel like in the postgame i should be able to be an absolute god of destruction, but this didn’t pan out.

this seems to be a switch issue, but autosave was the MVP of the game because i had a few cutscenes crash or freeze (the one with kubo’s reveal seems to be a common source of a crash on the switch version as it fails to load the 3D cutscene); this was annoying and needs fixing, but it was slightly mitigated by autosave kicking in immediately after boss battles. i was crushed thinking i was gonna have to go through the shiba fight again after kubo crashed my game, so the relief i felt upon loading up again and going right into the cutscene was immense. don’t get me wrong: cutscene freezes and particularly crashes are a big problem that a game like this shouldn’t have launched with, but at the very least i didn’t lose my progress on that crash. related, i appreciate the ability to speed through cutscenes you’ve already seen, but i do wish we had the option to skip them entirely because that would have saved me from the freezes that i had to manually close the game and lose progress for.

a more minor complaint that i admittedly am unsure as to how to fix (maybe utilizing the d-pad instead of having it be camera/target select alongside the right stick?) is that i do not seem to have much control over which character my camera centers on in combat. typically selecting the pin that’s equipped to them will focus the camera to them, but every once in a while i’ll be locked to someone whose pin is rebooting while my other party members are actively attacking on the complete opposite end of the arena. i have no idea why this happens. if i’m missing something please let me know. the static nature of the overworld camera took some adjusting to, at first i was offput but i got used to it quickly. if camera was fixed position in combat it would have been a nightmare, but it being fixed in the overworld isn’t the same beast.

this has gotten obscenely long, so props and condolences to everyone who has made it this far. i wanna end on a high note because i want to reiterate something: i have so many criticisms here and that’s actually praise. i enjoyed so much of this game that i’m critical of where it fell short specifically because it’s such a strong contrast to how much i felt it did right. the main story was pretty strong in general, though some character interactions were lacking. the plot itself i didn’t talk a lot about because i thought it was good. there wasn’t much to say, they did a good job! the dissonance noise being created from deleted timelines was great, i loved that. i don’t feel like predictability makes a narrative bad, so it’s not like i was upset when it turned out replay was (gasp) part of a dastardly scheme. for me, foreshadowing is an excellent thing even if sometimes i wish it was handled a little differently.

i vastly prefer this game’s vague sequel hook with minamimoto over how final remix ended a new day; that sequel hook i hated and it had me so worried about neo. thankfully a lot of my fears didn’t come true, and i am very happy overall with the game we got. if another game is greenlit, i would hope it progresses with a mostly new cast; as long as we stay in shibuya some supporting characters can and should be staples imo, like kariya and uzuki, and i hope to see more of what’s being set up with minamimoto even if not necessarily with him as a protagonist. but overall i think twewy’s worldbuilding lends itself much more to a rotating cast if it develops into a full franchise; that’s just the nature of the UG, and i would like to see further installments taking advantage of that and allowing characters to have a complete arc and then retire from the narrative naturally.

i’ve got some pigs to erase and some bosses to slap the pins out of, which i’m sure will take me some time. another day certainly has a secret boss and/or time trial boss rush, so i’ll take a look at that sucker soon as well. i’m looking forward to continuing my playthrough, and i expect to sink quite a few more hours into this game. i really truly enjoyed neo despite my qualms, and i’m leaving the main storyline behind for postgame stuff with almost entirely positive feelings and a hopeful stance on the potential future of the series. i know this was a long-ass post, which is why it’s beneath a readmore, but to anyone who cared enough about my thoughts to keep reading the whole thing... thanks for the time you spent, hope you got something positive out of it!

[catsbiggestfanboy]

1. Is your muse your favorite character in their fandom? If not, who is?

From [x]

    I would say that Neku is probably my favorite overall. His story, growth, and overall character really speaks to me and his development was very satisfying. Not many other characters get the same development and screen time in TWEWY or Neo.

    Aside from Neku, I also adore Beat, Joshua, and Sanae the most. Honestly, no one in the Neo cast really jumps out at me. The only reason I don't put Shiki on this list is due to her lack of screen time. Though Sanae doesn't have a lot of it himself, we do get the secret reports from him which make up for it.

    It's not to say I don't like Shiki or the other characters of the main cast, it's more a criticism at the game design for not giving an integral character more of a chance to show and grow instead of being a background force to keep the main character going. I have the same gripe with Kairi in Kingdom Hearts but that's a whole rant for another time.

[vocalist2d]

Shipping info

Takes a deep breath... (Content warning: -all fictional- incest, underaged character x adult character and possibly abusive relationship mentions. If those make you uncomfortable, the cut is underneath for a reason. Don’t interact with the post if they do. Thank you.)

The World Ends With You: Joshua x Neku, Joshua x Hanekoma, Nagi x Minamimoto, Fret x Rindo, Beat x Rhyme, Uzuki x Kariya

One Piece: Sanji x Zoro, Luffy x Ace 

Sk8: Langa x Reki, Tadashi x Adam, Tadashi x Reki

HypMic: Saburo x Jiro, Jiro x Ichiro, Jakurai x Ramuda, Dice x Ramuda, Samatoki x Ichiro, Ramuda x almost every HypMic character honestly, Doppo x Hifumi, Sasara x Rosho, Rei x Ichijiku, Rei x Otome, Kanaria x Nemu

Kingdom Hearts: Axel x Kairi, Sora x Donald Duck

The Gray Garden: Kcalb x Etihw, Adauchi x Emalf, Yosafire x Froze

Wadanohara AtGBS: Samekichi x Wadanohara

Other Okegom ships: Gris x Idate

Enstars: Rei x Ritsu, Ritsu x Mao

A3!: Misumi x Tenma, Itaru x Citron, Juza x Banri, Muku x Yuki

Pokémon: Ash/Satoshi x Goh/Gou, N x Hilbert

Persona 5: Akira x Akechi, Ryuji x Ann

Magi: Ja’far x Sinbad, Judal x Hakuryuu, Ja’far x Judal, Ja’far x Alibaba, Kougyoku x Sinbad, Alibaba x Aladdin, Alibaba x Morgiana, Vittel x Mahad, Drakon x Sinbad

Hamatora: Ratio x Birthday

Final Fantasy 15: Noctis x Prompto

Banana Fish: Eiji x Ash

Arcana Famiglia: Liberta x Nova, Felicita x Luca

As Miss Beelzebub Likes: Beelzebub x Mullin, Belphegor x Azazel, Astaroth x Sargatanas, Eurynome x Dantalion

Resident Evil: Ada x Leon, Claire x Steve

Pretty Boy Detective Club: Mayumi x Lai, Hyouta x Rei

Bungou Stray Dogs: Dazai x Atsushi, Akutagawa x Higuchi, Kyouka x Atsushi, Junichirou x Naomi, Edogawa Ranpo x Edgar Allan Poe

Danganronpa: Togami x Touko, Kirigiri x Makoto

Dramatical Murder: Aoba x Noiz, Aoba x Clear

Fate: Rin Tohsaka x Archer

Hitorijime My Hero: Kousuke x Setagawa

Horimiya: Miyamura x Hori

Ikebukuro West Gate Park (more focused on the live action version, anime form of the ship is good too): Makoto x King

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun: Hanako x Nene, Minamoto x Mitsuba

Junjou Romantica: Misaki x Usagi, Shinobu x Miyagi

Blood Blockade Battlefront: Zapp x Leo, Chain x Steven, William x Leo, William x Mary

Talentless Nana: Nana x Michiru

Nanbaka: Juugo x Uno, Momoko x Hajime

Osomatsu-San: Todomatsu x Karamatsu, Ichimatsu x Jyushimatsu, Ichimatsu x Karamatsu, Osomatsu x Choromatsu

Pandora Hearts: Gilbert x Oz

Yuri On Ice!!!: Yuri x Victor, Otabek x Yurio, Phicit x Yuri

Yarichin Bitch-bu: Yuri x Tooru

Haikyuu: Kageyama x Hinata, Kuro x Kenma

Thor movies: Thor x Loki

Genshin Impact: Lumine x Childe, Lumine x Kaeya, Lumine x Venti

[oveliagirlhaditright]

After the Game, Fret somewhat didn't like when someone other than canon had red hair and wore purple. Canon compliant. Oneshot. Neo spoilers. KH DDD is canon to TWEWY in this fic. Though you shouldn’t at all have to really know KH to understand this fic.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33469456

For the most part… Fret got on pretty well after Kanon’s death.

It was tough, it really was, but he soldiered on by becoming the more authentic version of himself she had wanted him to be… hoping that that would be enough. And that if her soul did somehow exist somewhere, she might see that and be able to find some happiness there.

And Fret had the Twisters, of course—and Neku’s old friends Shiki, Eri, and Rhyme (who was also Beat’s sister, of course), who had really integrated themselves into the group. There was also sometimes the aloof Joshua—who helped Fret keep his head where it belonged.

That, and all the school work he had to do now, as thoughts about college and careers were coming up, and he needed to try and focus on that, lest he be forgotten.

So, for the most part, while Fret still of course mourned Kanon, he had moved on and was in pretty good spirits, considering.

…The only thing that really got him down, oddly… was seeing redheads like she had been also wearing purple. And at first, meeting the legendary Neku right after Fret had lost the girl of his dreams had somewhat been a thorn in Fret’s side, because he’d just looked at Neku’s hair and the color he so clearly favored and thought “Kanon.”

But, thankfully, those feelings hadn’t lasted. They’d had Shibuya to save, after all. And Neku more than proved why he was great to have on a team and why he was the greatest friend, and why Fret should try and let his ghosts go.

But then, Fret had met Shiki’s best friend “Eri”… who was totally cool, by the way, and a co-creator of Gatto Nero with Shiki, and Fret couldn’t even begin to tell you how much he admired her. Especially since she was so pretty and on point… but not conceded at all, and down to earth.

As fate would have it, however, she’d been wearing purple the moment Fret had met her at Shiki’s birthday party. So, they hadn’t started out well, even though it had of course gotten better, and Fret had almost come undone (as ridiculous as it was for him to still be so hung-up on Kanon, he knew).

Thankfully, Shiki had right away seen his shaking form by the punch table and had come and given him a hug, as she’d whispered sweet nothings into his ear. She had guessed accurately what Fret’s problem was, and held him—not even seeming to feel like he was ruining her party at all—while she rubbed his back soothingly. “It’s okay not to get over a loved one quickly, you know? I was certainly that way about Neku. And you have it so much harder than I did. No one will judge you for your emotions, Fret. And if you need to talk, we’re all here for you. I’ll even go get Mr. Mew for you to hold, as he always cheers me right up.” Shiki had said that last part while winking at him, and Fret had had to laugh then.

He may have been afraid of Mr. Mew when Tsugumi had been controlling him and attacking them with the doll, but now that Fret had seen Shiki with her own one more often than not, Fret was thinking he was a sweet little guy again, and could definitely understand why Shiki would think he was good therapy.

“…And I may mention to Eri that it might be a good idea for her not to wear violet anymore.”

“What? You don’t have to do that? I got used to Neku, so I can with her, too!” Fret had wanted to tell her instantly, but Shiki had already been off to get Mr. Mew for him to cuddle.

And despite everything, Fret had watched Shiki walk across the dance hall with a smile on his face. It felt good to be appreciated. It did.

And after that, Eri did stop wearing that color, and everyone seemed to prefer it that way. Fret did, for his own reason, of course… Eri did, because she didn’t even like it that much, apparently, and Neku appreciated it, who jokingly thanked Eri for getting off his turf.

So, everything was more than good for Fret when it came to those colors for a while… but then some girl named Kairi came to Shibuya: a girl with darker red hair than Kanon, it was true, but wouldn’t you know that she was also wearing amethyst?

At first, Fret had been ready to write this stranger off—just another tourist in Shibuya, that he just happened to notice walking past him—but then she accidentally ran into Beat… and it seemed to startle the girl. And good Lord, then she summoned a magic key-shaped sword to her hands, without even seeming to think about it. And she wasn’t even in the UG! (Though when Fret saw this, his first concern was that they had landed back there.)

And the moment Neku and Beat (who were with Fret to go to Molco, to get him some Tin Pins, because that was becoming a thing again) saw the redhead summon the weapon, they had both exclaimed simultaneously, “You’re a Keyblade wielder!” “Yous a Key wielder!”

Fret had had no idea what they were talking about at that point. So, Neku had hastily explained that Shibuya had actually been destroyed before—a time that he, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme had only recently gotten their memories back of—and when it had, Joshua had taken their dream fragments (the only thing that had been left of them) to another world, to try and bring them back. And there, they’d taken bodily form once again and met a “Keyblade wielder” named “Sora”, and another one named “Riku,”

Beat had then gone to explain that they’d both helped them out, and that they were probably even bigger deals than him and Neku, and Fret couldn’t believe it. Hell! He could hardly even fathom it. What would that even look like? But he didn’t have much time to try and guess, because Neku began talking to the stranger almost instantly.

“Are you Sora’s girlfriend?” Neku had asked her then, bold as you please, as he’d pulled the redhead back out of the way of pedestrians going to and fro from all the different shopping areas. “He told me that he was great friends with a redhead, who liked art like Shiki does… I think he was insinuating then that I liked Shiki back then, and I wanted to kill him for all the hints he dropped her, while maybe not realizing that he had feelings for you yet, but I think it was still there… If you are that girl he mentioned, I mean.”

And then the poor girl had had a single tear slide down her eye—and Fret almost wanted to kick himself for only being able to think “you’re not Kanon, you’re not Kanon, you’re not Kanon, you’re not Kanon. Why are you dressed like her?”, while he looked at her—and she explained to Beat, who was giving her a big old bear hug, but Neku too, that: “Yeah, I’m Sora’s girlfriend, Kairi… I’m looking for him, because he recently disappeared after he sacrificed himself to bring me back to life. I was thinking he might be here, or that there might be Heartless here that I needed to fight, but I don’t know.”

Neku had appeared to give much thought to all of that (crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes, Fret saw), before he finally met Kairi’s eyes with kind ones of his own. “Why don’t you come with me to meet Shiki? She’s another friend of Sora’s. And Keyblade wielders’ hearts can sometimes lead them to keys, right? Maybe there’s something there, if Sora used to tease me about us.”

And Kairi had gone with Neku and Beat to do that (while Fret had followed, aimlessly, feeling really curious, for sure, but also kind of despairing the whole way: he wasn’t going to lie). And then Kairi had found with Shiki’s help, the thing she needed that would help her lead to Sora, apparently.

It was a hockey puck, that Shiki said Neku had gotten her to help them remember old times together… And as soon as Kairi had come near it, her Keyblade had reacted—seeming almost to float over to the puck of its own free will, tugging Kairi along—and then an insanely crazy light show happened (where all of a sudden, the entire world around them had seemed to be nothing but darkness, with just a few pieces of light to speak of: coming from Kairi and the Keyhole that appeared in the sky, that she did acrobatics towards, in order to aim a laser from her Keyblade at it). Then, it was all over and the Buya returned to normal, but the girl was gone.

And Neku and Beat explained that that seemed to sometimes happen with Keyblade wielders—they’d both seen it with Sora and Riku—as they would sometimes get taken away to where they were meant to go next, before they really got to say goodbye. But they both assumed she was fine and gotten what she needed, and definitely seemed to be hoping it, too.

But Neku, Beat, and Shiki had definitely bonded with Kairi that day… and about a year later, she was back in Shibuya to visit them with Sora and Riku… and well, maybe a whole lot of other people. There was yet another girl with red hair, wearing amethyst…

And while Fret was kind of glad to see them—and was thrilled that Kairi had gotten her happy ending and she could just come her for funsies to see everyone now—he couldn’t help sitting in a park bench in Dogenzaka, sighing, as he watched the whole thing unfold.

“Hehehe. You’re in quite the mood. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were turning into Neku…” Someone else had come to sit by Fret… and one quick look let him know that it was none other than the Composer of Shibuya himself… and that he had better get it together, before the guy threw him into another Game to improve himself, like he originally had with Neku.

“Oh, uhh… Hi there, Joshua. It’s good to see you,” Fret said, putting a hand under his chin and regarding the other boy—god—with mixed feelings. “Did you see that ice is really in this season? And diamonds almost match your light blue shirts, right? I feel like if you started wearing some diamond necklaces, you’d be even more stylish than you already ar-”

But Joshua halted Fret’s attempt to somewhat butter him up, with a hand held high and a small smile on his face. “There’s no need for all of that, I assure you,” Joshua promised, violet eyes locking onto Fret’s and that, too, making the youth think of Kanon some. “If you want her back, why don’t you just ask me?” Joshua asked rather smug now.

And it was too much. All too much. Fret wanted to believe that Joshua could actually bring her back for him… but what if this was a trap? And what if Joshua meant it now… but Fret somehow made him changed his mind, when he begged him to do so and thanked him for it. What if he didn’t do everything to code?

Tripping over his words now, as he ran a hand through his hair, Fret asked, “I mean… I would love it. If you want to, and don’t think it’ll hurt Kanon to be back, I’m all for it. But can you really do that? Wouldn’t you maybe get in trouble?”

At that Joshua “hmmed”, and Fret panicked—feeling like he’d ruined his chances for real here—and he was about to kiss the Composer’s feet to try and be on his good side again…

But it seemed like Fret had started fretting over nothing, as Joshua giggled and flipped his hair once. “I’ve brought Players who didn’t win back after a corrupt Game before, so it wouldn’t be the first time. Kanon’s Soul did seem quite promising to me for a few reasons there, so I’d be interested to see how she would shape Shibuya…

“And as of now… I would not get in trouble, dear Fret. But thank you for your concern. Heh. I am the senior of a lot of angels on the Higher Plane. And right now, the ones above me are actually very much interested me and my methods, for halting Shibuya’s purification twice, but having it turn out better both times for it. So, I imagine they’d let this one slide.”

Fret was near tears at that point; of course he was… And okay, maybe he was actually crying now. It was just that this was all he had ever dreamed of after they’d gotten out of the Game, of course… Because despite what he told himself… Fret did still love Kanon. And wouldn’t it be great, to actually get back one of the friends that Fret had lost?

But now Fret had to wonder, as he scratched his neck awkwardly, “All those gingers I saw in purple… was that a hint from you to me that I could get Kanon back?” Had Fret been looking a gift horse in the mouth all this time?

Joshua was laughing once more, as he urged Fret to get up and go make nice with the Keyblade wielders, who—if Fret was hearing it right—were telling all of Fret’s friends about urban legends they had heard of in a place called Twilight Town… and then Nagi chirped back about the ones they’d seen in the Game, and Rindo and Beat jumped in to help her out with that.

Huh… Perhaps Fret really was missing something over there. And was Joshua, too?

“Usually, I wouldn’t give an answer… I would say it’s above your pay grade, or that the world is whatever you want it to be… But, no. I was not prompting you to make this choice about Tachibana Kanon. Though things seemed to work out rather nicely for you, wouldn’t you say? So you’d find the strength to ask me about her?”

“I- I do,” Fret admitted, looking down at the pavement—and then all the buildings around him—and thinking that for a concrete jungle… Shibuya was actually a masterpiece, and might have actually been heaven, as far as he was concerned. “So, when will Kanon-"

But when Fret looked towards Joshua once more, the Composer was already gone.

And Fret… he didn’t see Kanon for a while after that. And he imagined it probably felt like what Rindo had gone through (and somewhat Fret himself; all the Twisters, really), when Josh had first brought Shokie to the RG.

About four months later, Fret was beginning to dread that Joshua had forgotten his promise, or that it was impossible to bring Kanon back, after all…

And he was at 104, checking out all the new selections there, when he heard a voice behind him, “So, Fret… do you mind telling me how you really feel? And no sugarcoating it! I was proud to see how you grew, after all. And you can’t disappoint a lady by covering it up some, if you went to all this trouble to bring her back, y’know?”

Fret dropped the black hat that he’d been about to purchase (that was maybe so light black, it was actually closer to purple), as he turned around to face that voice and ran towards her to embrace her.

“Kanon!"

Author’s Note: So, the other redhead who goes with Sora and the crew to Shibuya in this story is supposed to be Ariel—in a “The Worlds Are Starting to be Reconnected” idea—and it’s mainly because she wore purple seashells (though a shirt here, of course). Not even gonna lie. But if you don’t like that, you can imagine it’s an OC… that Sora and Kairi had a daughter… or just completely ignore that part. It’s up to you.

[gsunny6]

Interaction i want:

Riku Kairi Beat and Shiki crying about their friends or who were/are missing on the roof of 104 while Sora and Neku are standing/sitting awkwardly on the other side (Sora just got there, Riku and Kairi hadnt noticed yet, Neku was already there but he was only passively paying attention until now)