#this extends to akio's other victims as well by the way

[transmascutena]

not a fan of when people claim that akio and anthy don't "really" love each other. like idk man have you considered that love and abuse are not mutually exclusive polar opposites and that this may be a pretty significant part of the show's themes. you can abuse someone because you love them, and you can love someone despite their abuse. this in fact happens often. would be nice if it was as simple as "bad people don't feel love because love is inherently good" like some people make it out to be but it's not

[palms-upturned]

Uhhhh ur misogynistic gay man whose name I can’t remember for that character ask meme

DJSTEJDH HELP… saionji…

character ask meme

What I love about them

love is a strong word when it comes to saionji 💀 but ill admit i enjoy watching his clownery djsgdjxb in the end i found him p compelling, i think the way the show handles both his and touga’s positions as simultaneous victims and perpetuators of the system is rlly interesting… something something about how oftentimes we cling to systems that actively harm us because they also give us some degree of power over others and tempt us w the promise of even more 😔 err anyway, the point is i love that saionji’s queerness and legitimate struggles that come w that don’t exempt him from being taken to task for the ways he abuses what privileges he has, also it’s very funny to watch him get owned 💙 that being said tho i do get like 😔 over his part in the final duel… oh god oh fuck saionji we’re really in it now

What I hate about them

what’s not to hate about this guy… every time he even exists in the same space as anthy i want to rip him limb from limb… but in all seriousness i think the most damning thing about saionji is that he proves that he’s perfectly capable of understanding the abusive dynamic between akio and his victims and even goes to weirdly touching lengths to forgive touga and help him escape, and yet he does not extend any of that kindness or effort toward anthy and actively heaps on more abuse… i do appreciate that a lot about the show, portraying abusers not necessarily as like fundamentally evil people™️ who are somehow different from everyone else and easily identifiable, but people who make the active choice to leverage their power over others, whatever the circumstances may be 😔

Favorite moment/quote

im obsessed with the entire verdant hopes light novel like it’s maybe the funniest thing ive ever read, there’s a scene where saionji runs into wakaba at a department store and drops a bottle of salad oil, which he then asks a store clerk to wrap in a pretty bow bc it’s a gift for a girl, and wakaba is like WHAT. and saionji is genuinely shocked that she thinks it’s a stupid present. second funniest moment is when touga comes to talk to him at the dojo and says “i came to invite you on a date” and saionji pauses before tentatively saying, “me? 😳” and touga is like “haha a double date, i mean. don’t get me wrong, i don’t swing that way” and the narrator is like “this was obviously a lie but saionji didn’t need to know that” LIKE. GOD DHXGSJXBXBC

What I would like to see more focus on

im haunted over saionji being literally homeless after he gets expelled, like… “i have no family or friends to turn to” WHAT? the friends part i can believe but dhgsjdbxbx what?!!?? i just think it’s kind of hilarious that we know a little about each of the stuco members’ families but nothing about saionji’s even tho he seems to be in the most dire situation of them all 😭 but maybe what he meant was that he got disowned after his expulsion… who knows… legit hysterical that no one cared enough to explain that plot beat

What I would like to see less focus on

🤔🤔🤔 again i have no answer for this, i think his storyline was fine

Favorite pairing with

im not immune to tousai… in spite of [gestures broadly]… explaining why would get a little too personal ksbsjdnxbc but let’s say unfortunately i relate to some issues between those two

Favorite friendship

i think it’s p funny that nanami calls him kyouichi, i like to think she bossed him around mercilessly when they were kids

NOTP

errr idk, do ppl really ship him with anthy or wakaba? i hope not 😭

Favorite headcanon

hmmmm… well for some reason when i picture him and nanami as kids i always imagine her just fucking biting him when she gets mad KSSHSGDH so ig just that nanami put the fear of teething toddlers in him

[vinodiriso]

OC Asks - 2,14,27,33,48 (for Yoshino Nara )

@sennenryuu || meme (accepting!!)

YOSHINO. 愛

Does your OC collect anything? What do they collect? 

I stated this various times in replies here and over at @cervamater, but I think it’s time to make it official in a headcanon. So yes, Yoshino does collect something: she is a passionate swords collector. In her personal dojo, that Shikaku had built specifically for her needs somewhere close to the Nara compound, she has a collection of over 70 pieces coming from every angle of the Ninja World (I described one in a reply here). Even if I call it “swords collection”, it includes all the kinds of cold steel (it does, anyway, focus more on Asian-fashioned blades). Her collection, by the time of her canonical death, is estimated to be worth 50 million ryo, a ridiculously high price. This being said, there are very few pieces Yoshino has bought herself: a lot, if not most of them, are gifts from devoted Nara members or other clan heads, seeking first Shikaku’s benevolence (when he was still alive), then his spouse’s when she took over the Nara leadership.

A dear headcanon of mine in this regard is connected to Yoshino’s canon what-if?, her ShibiYosh what if?, where she has a secret affair with the Aburame head Aburame Shibi that, for political reasons, has to remain secret. According to this headcanon, the most prized piece of Yoshino’s collection, worth alone more than 100 thousands ryo, is a cerimonial dagger coming from the Land of Iron, ancient home to Yukinohana Kazoku, Yoshino’s tribe.

What foods does your OC like to eat? What are their least favorite foods? 

Yoshino’s favourite food is ABSOLUTELY chocolate. Chocolate wins over anything, hands down. At first, I thought of this just as a little internal joke, because as much as I don’t dislike chocolate, I can go for months without eating even a little bite of it; recently though, I have been told that chocolate contains some substance that stimulates serotonin production, the “molecule of happiness”. Thinking that Yoshino eats chocolate just to be a little bit more happy is extremely sad on one side, yet extra-IC. Anyways, she likes sweet food in general, so she is a natural appreciator of sweet-and-sour.

I would say that her least favorite food would be raw food, raw fish at top. As much as this can be regarded as somewhat of a silly headcanon, I want to dig in a little bit deeper and say that the reason why she dislikes raw food is because it lacks the love that home hearth should deliver through cooked food.

What kind of childhood did your character have?

Traumatic, loveless and very sad. She lost her parents when she was 11 because of the Mokuren Tribe attack during what “is known” as Yukinohana no Gyakusatsu (The Yukinohana Massacre), but even before that, Yoshino had a troubled childhood; her genetic illness made it hard for her to conduct a normal life and on top of that, after Kenshin killed his elder brother Chi You and became Yukinohana leader, his efforts went to train Yoshino in order that the child would have been able to fight her older sister in the Gods Clash (the fratricidal battle that takes place at the death of the current Yukinohana leader to establish who is to guide the tribe among their offspring). Most of the time, Kenshin pushed Yoshino too hard, often punishing her for what he considered ‘a weakness of the spirit’ when in all actuality, she was just simply too frail to endure such a hard training. Yoshino’s mother, Chihana, was on the other way, too resigned and dulled out by the years of servitude she had accumulated to really be of any help, standing for the sanity of her child. Eventually, Yoshino created a cocoon of apathy, harshness and nervousness to keep everyone at bay.

Her general quality of life did, tragicomic to say, improve when she moved to Konoha to stay with her aunt Nuwa (Nuwa was Kenshin’s younger daughter and the only survivor of the Gods Clash, because she refused to take part in it and instead fled to Konoha with her soon-to-be husband, Akio, a shinobi she had saved). Nuwa has been for Yoshino the closest thing to a motherly figure, filling the girl with confidence in her abilities and giving Yoshino an impression of what a doting mother should be for her children. Also, befriending Tsume [Inuzuka Tsume] and Hyuuga Haru was also a big step for Yoshino in her early journey to learn compassion and affection; however, Haru’s premature death on the battlefield was a huge shock for Yoshino.

Ok, this is already long enough, so I am gonna stop here. This covers more or less Yoshino’s childhood to her early teens (11-12), so it’s mostly pertinent to the question without me going too deep and too detailed on the subsequent matters!

Would they ever kill someone? What would someone have to do to push them to kill someone? If they would kill someone, why?

I am gonna divide this in two small sections if you are okay with it, it’s gonna be easier to deal with it like this!

Pre-Shikaku: Pre-Shikaku is the time of Yoshino’s life before she would be indirectly rescued by Shikaku and the feelings she starts having for him. This includes baby Yoshino, pre-teen Yoshino, teen Yoshino to the age of 18. In these temporal arcs, I have no doubts say: yes, she would. Yoshino starts basking in the idea of killing as a relief from her personal emotional baggage since after The Yukinohana Massacre, when she kills for the first time as self defense. After that, Yoshino will just kill for the sake of killing, of robbing life, of feeling purposeful, of fulfilling her personal revenge against life who has stolen all the good things from her and also a more literal revenge, for her fellow tribesmen who died during the Yukinohana Massacre.

After-Shikaku: after-Shikaku is the period of time extending from Konohagakure War Operation High Quarter’s foundation (Konoha HQ) to her current default verse (post Shikaku’s death). In this timeframe and ESPECIALLY after Shikamaru’s birth, Yoshino is a lot more hesitant in killing matters (aside, of course, to defend herself and/or her fawn). In her canon, after marrying with Shikaku, she only killed one person: her aunt and cousins’ assassin, a still nameless assassin. An extract from a veeery old drabble I wrote years ago about it:“She spitted on the body laying on the prison floor. The sensation was so fucking refreshing; vendetta. Vendetta. VENDETTA.She cleansed the blade of her dao on her victim’s vest. A simple thief that robbed the wrong house; he had found her aunt plus her cousins still inside and, maybe too afraid of them calling out on him, decided the best choice was to break their neck.“I owe you,” she greeted the KMPF chief behind her back, his shoulders in contact with the wall.“Do you?” he wondered, Yoshino was already making her way out of that hellish place.Last one, she decided. This is the last one…”Killing, for her, is a thing of the past. She wants to become a better person. Also, after experiencing just how generous and kind life can turn out to be when one decides to let it be, she feels genuinely bad at the thought of killing someone. She has started perceiving it as a sin.

What were their parents like? How has that affected how they are as an adult? 

I have talked about them a bit in the childhood question, but I guess I can add something else here.

Kenshin’s idea of parenting, although extremely poor executed, had some pure roots. He genuinely loved both Ainai (Yoshino’s older sister, in some older headcanons her name is stated as Aishino) and Yoshino, but his treatment of both his daughter was heartless to say the least; while Ainai was denied any form of approval or affection, for Kenshin was convinced Ainai had to focus on her future role of tribe leader, Yoshino was also denied any kindness and gentleness that she genuinely deserved for her condition. Both Ainai and Yoshino remember their father as an unfair man that war and loss had scarred too deep for him to recover; anyways, what Yoshino doesn’t know and that Ainai keeps as the only good memory of Kenshin, is that was Kenshin himself who told Ainai to send Yoshino off to Konoha to disrupt the Gods Clash tradition and give her a chance to survive.

Chihana (born Kokuyoseki no Chihana, Chihana of Obsidian, later known as Chihana of Iwagakure) was Yoshino’s mother. Chihana was the sole survivor of her clan, the Obsidian Clan, carrier of both the fabulous kekkei genkai Skin of Granite and the cursing genetic illness chakra virus. After her family was extermined by Kenshin (at that time known as Xuanyuan) and Chi You, she was kept as a prisoner of war and given to Xuanyuan as his spouse, to enrich the Yukinohana Tribe with her family’s kekkei genkai. I will just copy here what I have already written about her and Yoshino’s relationship:

“Yoshino’s mother consoled her during her worst moments, when she felt too inpain to get out of the house or when Kenshino reprimanded her too strictly.Yoshino remembers her as a loving figure, although her way to show affectionwas very peculiar. Chihana was always veiled with melancholy and the words sheoffered Yoshino were obscure and difficult to understand for a child;nonetheless, she loved listening to her mother talking. She often stroke herhair too. Chihana never challenged her husband for the decisions he made andYoshino is sure she would never allow herself that far, being her little morethan a freed slave. Chihana taught Yoshino Ninja villagers language, which isvery different from the one she used to speak within Yukinohana fellows. DuringMokuren’s raid, Chihana saved Yoshino’s life, shielding her against her chestto fake her death alongside her mother.

Curious fact: Chihana taught Yoshino how to playshakuhachi when she was little to help her younger daughter to meditate after aparticularly hard training session.”

For how this has affected Yoshino as an adult… well, the most obvious thing is that Yoshino was set not to act like her parents with her own child, that she would have given him all the love, the affection and the encouragement he needed in his life in order for him to succeed and not feel alone in the world. Even though her parents proved to be ineffective to grant her what she truly needed in life, thanks to her basically surviving off alone, she was reinforced against life’s heartaches. This, among her naturally strong character and her combative soul, allowed her to get over Shikaku’s demise and embrace his inheritance, proving to be an effective and efficient leader for the Nara.

[inamindfarfaraway]

My My Hero Academia Ocs 3!

More Quirk and corresponding side character ideas for Unsung. The characters should really come before the Quirks, but that’s my creative process for you.

Spines - Transformation - the user can extend their head and body hair into long spines and bristles that can be fired as projectiles and grow back abnormally fast, although overuse will result in longer and longer gaps and eventually permanent baldness

User - Akio Yashima, the Pro Hero Porcupine and Class 1-D’s strict, irritable, deadpan, but wise and efficient form teacher who does care about his students’ welfare deep down and turns out to have a knack for recognizing when they need help, and is touchy about his receding hairline; has learned to limit his adrenaline production and control his responses to it because goosebumps can trigger his Quirk with hazardous or at least inconvenient results

Tardigrade - Transformation - the user can willingly enter a state of cryptobiosis wherein they are immune to the effects of radiation, oxygen deprivation, extreme temperatures and pressure, thirst and starvation

User - Iemochi Suda, an aristocratic boy and science fiction geek in 1-D with three pairs of arms and symbolic pig motifs, easygoing, hopeful, innocent, inquisitive but fundamentally complacent (his talk outweighs his action), and totally unafraid, has a mad scientist’s hamminess and brilliance and little sense of practical or emotional self-preservation, a top student, several teachers’ pet, even Udo’s, and an apologetic snitch, respects and trusts in rules and authority figures above himself, casually greedy and wasteful of material goods and knowledge alike, unhesitatingly, unconditionally protective of and faithful to his friends; fascinated with the possibilities of science and technology and all too happy to follow his parents’ plan that he inherit and expand the family smartphone company, but ashamed that he can’t ever seem to have an original idea of his own; Goto’s best friend who couldn’t care less about his image, to Goto’s bewilderment, he and Goto are each other’s voice of reason in different situations, him encouraging him to unwind, and have complimentary academic drives; a huge fanboy of Inácio Pedreira

Salinity - Emitter - the user can produce sodium chloride in crystals of different sizes, control it, and detect it in food and organisms, but overuse depletes sodium in the blood and high quantities of salt must be eaten to use the Quirk regularly

User - Emiri Wakimoto, the dynamic, optimistic, passionate, overachieving, overbearing class representative of 1-D, a girl with black hair and inherited mutations of red eyes, fangs and bat wings (ironically salt is sometimes believed to ward off vampires), who always tries to foster cooperation and productivity despite the challenges, but can be bossy and deaf to other voices and is far more dependent on groups to define herself than she’ll admit, fundamentally a giver, secretly not as poised as she acts and pressured to uphold her role as a paragon of idealism and leadership to her classmates and her arc revolves around maturing into that role for real; has grown to hate the taste of salt after eating excessive amounts of it raised her blood sodium levels dangerously high, causing her to faint from hypertension and inspiring her interest in nutritional health and desire to be a doctor, now carries a backpack of healthy snacks and a water bottle everywhere, exercises regularly, is a vegetarian, highly critical of the capitalistic food industry (sensing the added salt in everything will do that) especially for fraud and environmental damage, the fittest of the class; also interested in archeology and lost civilizations; Goto’s other best friend, her meticulous approach and positive attitude balances out his spontaneous and negative ones, and they bond over their experience with expectations and nerdy ancient interests, though she’s popular among the whole class besides the bullies

Pause - Emitter - the user can stop time in the surrounding area and move around within a tight ‘bubble’ of continuous time two metres in diameter for as long as they can concentrate on it, but the bubble is immobile and they cannot see or hear anything outside it because the air, light rays and sound vibrations are frozen, not to mention the bubble has a limited air supply

User - Kin Hattori, the stoic, taciturn, isolated vice class representative of 1-D who’s sworn off his Quirk due to being traumatized by the sudden loss of sight, hearing, and movement it causes as a young child, willing to be considered Quirkless, having panic attacks when he tries to activate it, and envying heroes and Department of Heroics students (or anyone else with Quirk privilege) for their supposedly innately better Quirks, but has his own Quirk-based prejudices due to taking his experiences as proof that some Quirks are nothing but harmful; only talks when he feels he absolutely needs to, responsible, philosophical, agnostic, consistently does well in all his classes but doesn’t excel in any, surprisingly upstanding, nurturing and attentive once his icy shell thaws, ecstatic to no longer be alone; an aikido expert because he got bullied for his ‘Quirklessness’ and decided to learn self-defence, but found a real appreciation for the martial art’s discipline and tradition; a slow burn love interest to Nozaka and friend to the other protagonists, who help him realize that his trauma doesn’t define him

Mouth Shifter - Transformation - the user can acquire the jaws, teeth and/or mouthparts of any animal, but overuse causes severe aches and temporary speech impediments

User - Tani Nozaka, the rebellious, mischievous but benevolent and amiable class clown of 1-D, who while her pranks can get out of hand and her mouth can be faster than her thoughts truly wants to spread happiness and laughter, believes that humans are basically good, actively opposes the bullies and has no tolerance for the mistreatment of innocents, wishes to help the joyless Hattori and is in a sense the class’s moral compass, wants to be a comedian; a nominal Shintoist from a much more devout family struggling to balance her religious upbringing and increasingly secular lifestyle, but getting back in touch with her spirituality, attaining greater mindfulness and sensitivity, and mending her family bonds turns out to be key to improving her relationship with Hattori and previously subpar performance in school; Goto’s third friend, challenges him to leave his comfort zone and defends him from external threats, becomes something of a playfully annoying sister to him; but also a good friend to Pedreira, who’s much more likeminded with a chaotic, fun-loving side and strong sense of justice that accentuate hers and shared issues about being ‘seen’ by their distant family

Crocodile Tears - Emitter - the user can control tears, firing them as hardened beads or liquid jets or even choking people with them, and willingly activate and deactivate the lacrimal apparatuses of themselves and others, but overuse causes sore eyes and difficulty controlling their tear flow

User - Kaoru Murata, the resident bully, worst student and biggest outcast of 1-D who loves making his victims cry, not necessarily through his Quirk, is rude, underhanded, violent and prejudiced against Mutant Quirks, has a ‘might makes right’ power-centric morality and will harass anyone he deems a threat or who simply rubs him the wrong way, cannot imagine a beneficial application of his Quirk and clings to bullying because he knows it’s the only thing he’s good at, resigned to a poor future; emulates and echoes his toxically masculine, emotionally abusive single father, a member of the Creature Rejection Clan, to feel connected to him; nobody, least of all him, knows how he passed the entrance exam; turns out he’s much cleverer than he acts and is subconsciously absolutely desperate to at least give himself the opportunity to move up in the world, hence why he can never bring himself to do something that would actually get him expelled

Blinkers - Emitter - the user can selectively amplify and reduce the interest of others, making them focus solely on something or blocking it from their minds completely, and everything in between, represented by the subject of attention or ignorance gaining a white or black aura, respectively, and the user’s irises changing the same colour, but overuse causes migraines and trouble concentrating

User - Tomomi Oyakawa, the other antagonistic student in 1-D, a manipulative, ambitious drama queen bee who uses her Quirk to stoke her ego and humiliate unfortunate classmates or get them unnoticed and excluded, but has used her Quirk on her clique so much she’s paranoid they’d abandon her should she stop and is dependent on it to function, her entire self worth tied to her popularity; genuinely values her childhood friend Shirayama, treats her with respect, hates Murata because of his bigotry toward her and other mutants and even feels for her romantically but is reluctant to act on it, assuming she only spends time with her for using her Quirk to manage the negative effects of her ADHD; plans to study psychology and go into marketing

Owl Head - Mutant - the user has just that, the round, feathered head of a Ural owl that they can rotate 180 degrees and gives them the bird’s vision and hearing, and their speech is littered with owl noises

User - Aoi ‘Shira’ Shirayama, not the brightest girl in 1-D, quite foolish, impulsive, gullible, and oblivious in fact, her ADHD not helping her marks, but a star gymnast and softhearted friend to everyone despite being Oyakawa’s unwitting accomplice and has a massive crush on her, gradually grows a spine and establishes herself as her equal; loves fashion and wants to be a model to increase the fashion industry’s inclusivity of noticeable Mutant type Quirks

Aero - Emitter - the user can manipulate air to cast winds, sense movement, lift themselves, and create vacuums

User - Kozakura Reizei, a lazy, uprincipled, prickly, vastly enigmatic but clearly troubled older girl who was expelled from U.A.’s hero training course eighteen months ago in her first year following an incident where she reacted badly to a mean trick and accidentally sent a classmate to hospital in excessive self defence, was tried for grievous bodily harm with lower culpability, moved to a juvenile detention facility, and given a chance to restart at U.A. but forbidden from heroics and with mandatory counselling sessions, now embraces her delinquent label and operates a contraband smuggling ring in the Gen. Ed. Department, never speaks of why she aspired to be a hero; looks down upon and ignores most of the others, when not sowing discord to keep the faculty off her back and amuse herself, but takes Hattori under her wing early in the year and is oddly protective of him, having figured out his Quirk and promised to keep it secret, which slowly comes to border on possessive blackmail the lower she sinks into immorality; the main antagonist of Goto’s story in class

Resonance - Emitter - the user can synchronize the frequency of their molecules to the frequency of any vibrating solid or liquid matter, including organic matter, and channel those vibrations into any other matter they touch, but cannot stop their own body vibrating during though the Quirk prevents them being harmed by it and channelling a very high frequency and/or for a long time makes the user tremble uncontrollably and have trouble keeping their balance; they also have a heightened sensitivity to vibrations and can seismically communication with animals

User - Etsuko Noguchi, a sweet and plucky but timid and comedically unfortunate minor character in 1-D, a talented origami folder and fan of magical girl anime and manga who cosplays as her favourite characters and original personas and draws fan manga; doesn’t become a magical girl-style hero because she doesn’t want her escapist hobby to be spoiled by tough responsibilities and violence

Saccharine - Emitter - the user can produce sucrose, and by extension glucose and fructose in crystals of different sizes, control them, and detect them in food and organisms, but overuse depletes sugar in the blood and high quantities of sugar must be eaten to use the Quirk regularly

User - Daichi Wakimoto, Emiri Wakimoto’s moody older brother in 3-F and at first glance her opposite in every conceivable way except their interest in biology, specializes in expanding off of and integrating his technology with heroes’ anatomy, physiology and Quirks, so tends to develop more personal relationships with his clients than most Department of Support students, but otherwise mostly keeps himself to himself, an all or nothing kind of person, regularly alternates between hyperactive and jittery and drowsy on a sugar crash; supportive and proud of his younger sister, but can’t help but resent her charm and popularity, unaware of how hard she works to maintain it; Riiha Okano’s friend and ex-boyfriend (neither acknowledges it, but it’s obvious she befriended and dated him out of pity); has inherited mutations of pink eyes, fangs, and stubby, slightly translucent white vestigial bat wings

[recentanimenews]

Kemono Jihen – 09 – Kabane the Casanova

After she was born and learned to control her golden webbing, Aya had been treated like a tool, and when she was insolent she’d be beaten “like banging on a piece of malfunctioning equipment”. Still, she knew Akio needed her so she was able to live in relative comfort with dresses and books. When Aya learned she had a brother, she imagined him to be like the Prince Charming in her book, taking her and their mother away to live happily ever after.

While a happy ending was deferred, it is still possible. Aya learns this when Shiki welcomes her into the hospital room where their mother is resting. Aya may think she’s a bad seed that should be “done away with” like the other kemono Akio created, but thinks Shiki won’t kill her simply because she looks like a little girl and speaks. But that’s not the reason.

Shiki does not detest Aya, he’s grateful to her for being with their mother and keeping her alive, even though she was all on her own while her big brother had run away and was living in comfort. When she hears Shiki and Aya talking together over her, she wakes up and opens her eyes, and the Tademarus are a family united for the first time. It’s perhaps the sweetest and most moving scene in the entire show, and it was perfect.

Of course, Kumi now being alive and awake means Shiki has some things to think about, and is away for a week, causing Akira to frets and Kabane to bear an all-too-forced smile when asked how he feels about it. Shiki may have his family back and will need to help support them, he promises Kabane he won’t leave the agency before he helps Kabane find his family.

Unbeknownst to Shiki, Aya followed him to the agency and we see that her own style is quite a bit more…modern and mature (read: jailbait) than the frilly dresses Akio gave her. Her precociousness extends beyond wardrobe, however: she’s already planning to work with Granny at her clinic, with plans to start her own “kemonopathy” clinic using her healing webbing.

When Shiki begs Kabane to talk his sister out of this, as she’s only eight, he simply responds “If she has a power shouldn’t she use it?” It’s that cold, certain, honorable logic that draws Aya to Kabane’s side, and she declares him her boyfriend. Then Kon shows up, armed with the absolute worst timing—she had a week to see Kabane alone!

Just like that, Kabane has not one but two would-be lovers, who immediately exchange lightning glares. Inugami interrupts the spat to announce that they do have actual business to attend to: there have been reports of an invisible kemono ripping pieces of women’s faces off in stylish Harajuku.

The three who will go investigate are Kabane, Aya, and Kon, the latter relaxing her no-working-with-tanuki policy by declaring herself a mere “observer”. Really, she wants to closely observe Aya to ensure nothing happens, but it’s also never a bad idea to bring some kitsune muscle as backup.

After Kon’s failed attempt to impress Kabane by trying to order a cop around (Inari’s power doesn’t extend to her anymore), Aya ends up being the kemono’s next victim on accident when she pulls on her hair. Taking the form of a black smoke cloud filled with floating pieces of women’s faces she collected, the kemono’s story is pretty simple: she fell in love with a man who works in the area and wanted to look more human so he’d notice her.

When Kabane says love is about giving, not taking, the kemono is unconvinced, because Kabane has a girl on his arm. Instead she appeals to Kon, who looks like she’s in pain like her. She’s not wrong; ever since watching Kabane and Aya together she’s felt all “mushy” in the chest.  Being with Kabane has always been fun until now, and Kon blames Aya for making it not fun anymore.

Taking on her kitsune form, she tries to eat Aya, but only ends up biting Kabane’s arm. Then she runs off in tears. Aya uses her webbing to create a human body for the kemono, and referred her victims to the clinic where she’ll be able to heal him. Back at the agency, Akira is threatened by Aya’s frightening competence, while Aya thanks Kabane for protecting her with a smooch on the cheek.

Kabane may not quite understand love, romance, or jealousy, but he knows he and Kon didn’t leave things in a good place, so he rushes to the park where she lives and shakes her out of the tree (the gag about her never landing on her feet never gets old). Sure enough, Kon’s face is a mess of big soppy tears. She thinks Kabane must hate her for trying to eat the “bug-smelling girl.”

To Kon’s surprise, when Kabane takes her cheek in his hand, all the chest-mushiness goes away instantly. She sees that Aya wants to be Kabane’s “number one” because in Aya she sees herself having worked tirelessly to become Inari’s number one. Well, Kon wants to be Kabane’s number one, and asks what she should do to do that?

The obvious answer is to kiss Kabane, but not only does Kon not know that, but even if she did kiss him neither of them might understand what it means. They’re basically the most adorable, most hopeless couple ever and I will never stop shipping them. I won’t deny Aya is both cute and capable, but she’s also way way way too young for Kabane. Also, Kon was first!

We get a nice scene of closure where Inugami helps Kumi arrange a memorial for all of her children who were killed. She ask him to keep it secret from Shiki and Aya, but in truth I think they’d understand her need to honor all of the life she created, as they’re in that group too.

Kon is realigning her primary allegiance from Inari to Kabane, but Aya once again beats her to Kabane’s arm at the agency. The two stare each other down once more, with Aya even telling Shiki he shouldn’t mind if she and Kabane married, since that would make them brothers. Akira, the Best Boy, finally steps in to break it down for Kabane: he can only have one lover, so he has to choose.

For Kabane, “lover” simply sounds like “one you love”, which he extends out to the terms “boyfriend” and “girlfriend”. As such, the one he chooses is Inugami, again failing to grasp the difference in kinds of love, and also shocking both Aya and Kon with his apparent confession to “preferring older men”. Inugami, meanwhile, obviously wants no part in a Kabane love polygon!

By: braverade

[lovelesswiki]

Post-Moonless predictions— Well-Kept Secrets (6/10)

previous part<–[here] –> next part

for the last week or so, i’ve been talking about a large theory i’ve been writing. since finishing it, i’ve decided to publish it in parts, since it’s actually about 10 different theories all on one subject. since it’s all written out, i’ll try to be publishing one part of this per day.

essentially, this is a set of theories about what i believe will have to happen in order to properly lead up to a climax–the one we’ve been building up to for years and years now. so, these are what i theorize will happen after the first moonless vs beloved battle, broken up into ten different parts. each theory is explained and theres images for each one.

table of contents (bolded is the post you’re looking at):

moonless and beloved will rematch (1)

soubi will fall into a deep depression and possibly become suicidal (2)

ritsuka will arrive at seven voices, SM’s activity will be revealed (3)

SM will reveal that there was a mole in their organization (4)

kio will be the one to take ritsuka to goura (5)

ritsuka will find things out about soubi and the aoyagi family (6)

SM’s true purpose will be revealed. ritsuka will have to make a decision about good vs evil (7)

seventh SM member will be revealed (8)

nagisa will find out what really happened to sanae (9)

ritsuka will be asked to join SM to fill the aoyagi seat (10)

Theory: soubi keeps secrets well for many reasons, but now that he’s gone, they’re going to have to come to light, and ritsuka will find out more about him and his own family, forcing him to realize just how strong and terrible seimei’s hold over soubi is.

Note: this theory heavily discusses the topic of rape in terms of soubi being both the victim and the perpetrator and in terms of nisei’s rape of mikado. proceeding with caution is advised. 

we’ve already been a little bit introduced to this. or, should i say, ritsuka has been a little bit more introduced to this.

soubi keeps secrets from ritsuka. soubi keeps secrets that he has not explicitly been told to keep. ill write up another post someday about this, but i suspect that soubi keeps secrets about his past from ritsuka because seimei already knew all those secrets and used them against him, and he thinks that not telling them to ritsuka will prevent them from hurting, so he can just ignore his past and pretend like it never happened. this actually isnt uncommon in people who have been through constant abuse, and it makes sense why soubi hasn’t told ritsuka (or anyone) anything yet.

not even kio or natsuo and youji seem to know about soubi’s complete past, involving mainly ritsu’s treatment of him, but also involving what soubi did under seimei’s rule. it is pretty clear from the angry, verbally violent way that he responds to tokino with that he did some pretty terrible things under seimei’s rule. when tokino implies that like nisei, it was soubi’s job to rape and murder enemies, soubi loses his shit but never really denies it. aside from this, we have hard evidence of soubi murdering other teams for seimei, including this being explicitly stated in a drama CD where someone that soubi took pity on comes back to haunt him, and the fact that one of the crimes seimei’s being prosecuted for includes murder, and seimei doesn’t do the dirty work to say the least. there’s also the fact that in the beginning, he kept asking ritsuka if he wanted soubi to murder their opponents, which strongly implies that he’d been put in a situation previously, where that question was necessary and appropriate, and where the answer was ‘yes’. this is a secret long-kept, and i do believe it’s key in understanding soubi, which is something ritsuka (and by extension kio) desperately need, and it’ll play into ritsuka’s later development of understanding that not everything falls into ‘good’ and ‘evil’.

(pictured: soubi starts an yelling argument with tokino over one comment, resulting in youji telling him to calm the fuck down.)

soubi has let a couple things go to ritsuka. he confirmed that ritsu raised him and was very cruel to him, but he didnt expand much on either point. with the few stories that soubi did tell ritsuka, ritsuka seemed a bit distressed and commented that the things ritsu did were horrible. in addition to this, ritsuka learning about seimei and nisei raping mikado seemed to be a huge turning point for him in the way he viewed seimei, and i suspect that there will be something similar when ritsuka learns that soubi was raped at a young age by the man raising him. and i suspect he’ll become very confused and disorientated when he realizes that seimei had soubi do many of the same things that nisei did. while i think their situations are different to where soubi had no capacity to enjoy it or even want to do it, whereas with nisei and in the case of mikado, nisei seems to have gone above and beyond whatever seimei ordered him to do and going along with his personality, enjoyed it, especially given his comments of liking it when listening to ritsuka cry through his wiretaps. 

(it’s probably safe to say that he enjoyed what he did to mikado.)

ritsuka is a particular character, because he’s young, and young people tend to view the world in terms of ‘black’ and ‘white’. for a long, long time, ritsuka viewed his brother as ‘good’ and in the series, mostly towards the beginning, he struggled with whether or not soubi was a ‘bad guy’. however, hes quickly discovering that the world isn’t so clear-cut, which we’ll get to in a hot minute (or more, in the next part of this series).  

by some way or another, probably by just directly asking ritsu or nagisa and by spending an extended amount of time at seven voices, ritsuka will find out about soubi’s childhood. he will also go deeper into what the flashback chapters introduced and we’ll find out what further transpired with ritsu, nagisa, akio, and the rest of the kids in that particular year. i say this because, at this point, it’s detrimental to the story. we’ve gotten to a point where we sort of need to know why these older characters act the way they do and why there’s so much bad blood between them. this will also help ritsuka understand SM more, too, but ill get to that in the next point. there’s also the fact that, you know, theres two potential people that could be ritsuka’s father, the fact that soubi’s mother and ritsuka’s mother were friends, and the fact that a kid suspiciously drown in knee-deep water. so, a lot of unsolved mysteries we haven’t gotten to yet.

so, we have ritsuka and kio finding out about the horrors of soubi’s past, and i think this will heavily impact the way ritsuka sees ritsu and septimal moon. right now, ritsuka seems to sort of respect ritsu, but i doubt he will after he finds out about everything, especially the fact that ritsu raped soubi when he was incredibly young and abused him in every way before and after that. this will cause ritsuka’s opinion of ritsu to drop incredibly low, which will affect what happens in the next part of this series.

ritsuka may also find out about the things soubi did for seimei and will find out that many of the crimes that seimei is held accountable for were actually done with soubi’s hands. i don’t believe in any way, shape, or form that soubi can be held accountable for this in this world, nor do i personally believe he should be held accountable, but i’m unsure if ritsuka will immediately see it this way. ritsuka will be forced to make a choice about good vs evil regarding soubi, and will be forced to come to the realization of just how strong seimei’s hold over soubi and nisei is and what the extent of his power is.

in addition, we’ll find out more about ritsuka’s family, too. i should say that im a firm believer that yun has been building up to something having to do with ritsuka’s father, who he is, and why he’s never present, and ive thought this ever since we got the indirect confirmation that seats are passed down throughout the family, meaning that it was most likely the elder aoyagi who held it beforehand. notice that i say elder aoyagi and not ritsuka’s father, because we don’t know if ritsuka’s father is seimei sr or aoyagi masaki, misaki’s biology professor in high school. this will play a huge amount into who ritsuka is and what he discovers about himself, and how it could even relate to seimei’s motives and his own memory loss.

the way i see it, ritsuka and seimei are masaki aoyagi’s kids. or, at the very least, seimei is his, but i personally believe ritsuka is, too. however, there’s a very real possibility that ritsuka thinks nowaki seimei--who will be referred to as seimei sr, mostly because i think it’s funny--is his father. i’m fairly certain that seimei sr is the one that ritsuka calls ‘dad’ and the person that we see for a couple panels in the early volumes of the manga, and im unsure if he knows that he was fathered by someone else. seimei jr alludes to knowing more about their family and why they’re named what they are named in an extra chapter about ritsuka’s birthday, but doesn’t say much about his family beyond that. regardless, there is something fucked up going on with the aoyagi family seniors, since misaki, ritsuka, and seimei jr all take the last name ‘aoyagi’. the kids look like aoyagi masaki, but the person ritsuka calls ‘dad’ is never home and is most definitely not aoyagi masaki. there’s also the fact that when seimei jr is being taken to the hospital for ritsuka’s birth in a flashback, we don’t actually see daddy. on top of this ‘dad’ is never home and ritsuka even states at one point while he’s tied up that he won’t come save him, and he doesn’t attend ritsuka’s school functions (in fact, soubi seems to be the person his school considers his parent, since he’s asked to come help out at an art museum and he offers to go to the dad event at school for ritsuka in early series loveless).  

i’m of the belief that something is going on with the aoyagi parental lineage, since i don’t really see any evidence that ritsuka’s father is just absent a lot. there’s too much pointing to the fact that something suspicious is going on. and i think this is something seimei knows, but ritsuka does not. i also think that ritsuka will be finding out more about his memory loss, and i theorize that ritsuka at one point found out something he shouldn’t have, resulting in seimei ordering to have his memory taken, and that soubi is probably the one to have done this, given that soubi is able to alter memories, since he did so to hitomi in relation to natsuo and youji.

to put it simply, there’s a lot of very well-kept secrets that i think are about to come out, and it’s going to be detrimental when they do.

[transmascutena]

Akio’s narrative and what it means to be “special”

Here's a bit of a rambly analysis I wrote about the concept of being "special" or "chosen" and what it means within the narrative of Revolutionary Girl Utena, as well as the biased framing of the narrative itself. It also became kind of a character analysis of Akio on accident.

General trigger warning for mentions of grooming, incest and victim blaming. Contains spoilers for the whole show.

In the world of Ohtori Academy, being “special” is synonymous with being a victim of Akio.

In episode 20, when Utena goes to Akio for advice regarding the situation with Wakaba, he reveals his philosophy about there being two kinds of people in the world: those who are special, and those who are not. He tells Utena that she is special, while implying that Wakaba is not. This is a textbook grooming tactic, making a kid feel special/important/mature/whatever in the eyes of an adult to gain their trust and emotionally distance them from their peers, but what I find interesting about this scene in hindsight is that the reason Utena is “special” in the first place is because of Akio. He’s the one who gave her the ring that made her part of the dueling game (part of the narrative), he and by extension Anthy are the ones who presumably manipulate the duels to give Utena the power of Dios that lets her win, and he’s the one who inspired her to become a prince, which is what makes her classmates view her as special too. In a way, Utena is a chosen one protagonist, but we come to realize that it’s only true in the sense that the villain has chosen her as his victim. Akio is not interested in Utena because she’s special, as he would like her to believe, but rather she becomes “special” because Akio has an interest in her — and had it since she was a vulnerable and impressionable child. (I believe that it was Akio who found her in the coffin, not Dios. Although I will also get to the idea that Dios might never have existed in a bit.)

What about the rest of the cast? Aside from Utena and Anthy, our main characters, the people who are designated as special by the narrative are the student council. The duelists who received their rings from End of the World. Again we have Akio deciding who gets to special within the world itself and within the story, and he is deliberately choosing people who are vulnerable, people who all have this fucked up idea about what love looks like. There is nothing special about them, really, apart from them being the exact kinds of people most vulnerable to being taken advantage of by Akio.

Of course this idea he has of people is a false one, but it does have a real impact on the social hierarchy of the school, how people perceive each other, and especially how people perceive themselves. The main example of this is Wakaba, whose duel is all about the frustration of being a side character, but really it extends to all of the Black Rose Duelists. They get their time in the spotlight, their focus episode. They get to be special, but like Akio says in episode 20, it’s only for a short time. It’s only as long as they’re useful to him. It makes sense why Wakaba is angry, and feels looked down on, but with this interpretation of what being special actually means for the characters in Utena, it is perhaps a good thing that she isn’t.

This viewpoint Akio has of the special and the non-special, and how much it frames the narrative of Utena, leads me to believe that the show, or at least a lot of it, can interpreted as being framed by him. The most direct example of this is episode 33, where many of the scenes are literally framed from his point of view, but I do think it extends to a lot of the narrative as a whole. It explains why Utena is the main character, since she’s the duelist whose abilities Akio is focused on cultivating throughout the plot. We find out in episode 13 that he has been watching her duel, and that he thinks there’s a chance she’ll make it to the final one. This implies that, at least symbolically, the first 12 episodes are him watching her to try to figure out her potential. He is not literally “behind the camera” as he is in episode 33, instead he has more of a director role. We know that he has some kind of semi-omniscient perspective of the school and what goes on in it, and I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that that is what we are seeing when we watch the show, at least to an extent. It also explains why he is rarely obviously framed as the villain. We know he is because of the horrible things we see him do, and the show knows it too, but a lot of the time as he’s doing them, there’s a weird sort of cognitive dissonance between the between the framing/presentation of the scene and the horrifying contents of it, which makes it really unsettling. In particular I’m thinking of the weirdly upbeat and romantic music in episode 30. Akio’s grooming of Utena is often presented as this fairy tale-esque romance, because that’s how he wants her (and us?) to see it. Despite the sinister things going on in that episode, the only thing ever framed as such is Anthy. So let’s talk about her now.

The idea that the story of Utena is framed, directed and narrated by Akio really calls into question whether or not we can take his and Anthy’s backstory as presented at face value, and even aside from the symbolic and metaphorical nature of it, I really don’t think we can. I think Akio intentionally paints himself as a victim in it, someone who was once good but isn’t anymore because someone else (Anthy) made him that way. He has constructed this narrative where he is not at fault for anything he does, because his power to be good is literally locked away somewhere, when really, he could just stop being so fucking horrible.

I’m honestly inclined to take him at his word when he says “there never was a prince in this world to begin with” in episode 38. Dios never really existed, both in that the idea of The Prince (as well as The Princess and The Witch) is a constructed role and a metaphor, but also in that Akio was never a different person. He might have been kind once, but that wasn’t taken from him by anybody, he just grew up and he decided to hurt people. Did something tragic happen to him and Anthy to shape the cynical way he views the world? Absolutely. But it’s not an excuse he can use to justify everything like he tries to do. Several times throughout the show we see Akio pushing blame away from himself; he tells Anthy that it’s the world that’s hurting her, not him, in episode 37. In episode 38 he says she “enjoys being a witch.” And he’s not the only one to use Anthy as a scapegoat and blame her for things that aren’t her fault—this is something most characters do just as much as they project their desires onto her—but if he is framing the narrative this way, and that is what impacts the viewpoints of everyone else, then it does all circle back to him in the end.

I think part of him genuinely believes it too, that his own biased reframing of the story is the truth, and that this is how he copes with the guilt he feels for what he does. But of course the guilt is never stronger than his selfishness, which is why he never changes. And I think Anthy has internalized his version of these events as well, which is part of why she’s so trapped. She believes all of it is her fault, that he is the way he is because of her. This is not to say that Anthy is a blameless or innocent person, because she isn’t and she does hurt other people, but the idea that the abuse is somehow mutual between her and Akio or that they’re in any way on a level playing field in their relationship is simply not true. When he says his “Must you still torture me?” line in episode 34, that’s not some revealing insight into her having the upper hand the whole time, actually, it’s just him projecting his guilt and blaming her for his actions again. All she does in this scene to make him react like that is say “Good night, brother,” and to me it has always read as him being upset at being reminded of his role in all of this as the abuser. He cannot stand the fact that he is the one in the wrong here, and he has to make himself believe that Anthy is the one making him do it. Classic victim blaming in action here. It’s worth noting that she does look sinister when she smiles at him in this scene (and I imagine she does feel satisfaction at getting back at him in whatever tiny ways she can,) but again, if he frames the narrative, he is the one framing her that way in the first place. Anthy is not a witch. Not literally and certainly not within the symbolism and metaphor of the show. That’s a role Akio has cast her in. It’s a role she chooses to play as well, to an extent, but it’s questionable how much choice in the matter she really has.

All of this is why it’s so significant that the show ends when Anthy leaves Ohtori. When she leaves Akio. The narrative is Akio’s, and because Ohtori is Akio’s world, leaving it necessarily means leaving the narrative as well. Which is why we never see Utena and Anthy finding each other, or what is really outside the Academy — Akio’s perspective is just too limited for that, and it isn’t for him to see either.

I also just find it nice that their reunion and relationship doesn’t have to be a Story. They don’t have to be characters anymore, there doesn’t need to be any grand conflict beyond what is expected of being real people in the real world in a real relationship. They aren’t “special” anymore, and they’re not being watched. Not even by us.

(Here’s a fun little bonus about Nanami: I don’t believe every part of the show is framed and directed by Akio, and he certainly has no reason to care about all of Nanami’s silly side-plot shenanigans. So I like to think that all of the more comedic episodes are Anthy’s work. It’s already heavily implied that she’s the one pulling all these pranks on Nanami, and as insult to injury this is Anthy framing her in the most ridiculous way possible on purpose.)