#well whatever. SOMEONE has to write catboy manga analysis text walls

[mamanbou]

The Roppongi-Yoyogi beef in tmm au lait is something that's so important to me. The hatred they share. Yoyogi obviously hates Roppongi on sight because Roppongi is a narcissistic freak, but I think it goes deeper than that. It's because roppongi is bisexual.

i think yoyogi's closeted-gay in-love-with-his-best-friend doing-mental-gymnastics-to-regularly-kiss-said-best-friend-as-a-bit ass saw roppongi openly flirting with a man onstage and felt a complicated unspeakable blend of emotions and instead of confronting any of that he just decided that, no matter what, he hated him. (Which is quite easy to do given that he's insufferable)

Roppongi, being surprisingly perceptive, is of course fully aware of this. He makes it clear repeatedly, though mostly in extras, that he knows exactly what Yoyogi is.

Like with most other things he perceives about Yoyogi, he finds this fact equal parts frustrating and (sym)pathetic. So he openly tries his best to give yoyogi advice and hints and nudges towards at least realizing his feelings, but it never really works Yoyogi loves both Shibuya and Anzu dearly (in a general sense) and would never seriously take action to jeopardize their relationship, so conceptualizing his own feelings about shibuya as romantic is too dangerous. And also because i think he'd rather die than admit Roppongi was right about something.

Yoyogi is full of himself, but only in that he acknowledges his many strong points in an objective, neutral light without embellishment. He's intelligent, he's physically adept, he's handsome, he's good with women- these are all traits that are societally encouraged. He's also very likely gay, based on. the way he acts the entire series. Like seriously whenever he discusses women (including Anzu, which is very notable as she's kind of the female audience insert when it comes to fanservice) it's "women are attracted to me, I am capable of attracting women". whenever he's deliberately seductive, it's either a means to an end or he's messing around- either way, 110% uninvested. Compare that to his baffling persistence in finding any excuse to kiss Shibuya directly or indirectly... his ass is homosexual.

But being gay isn't rewarded by society. it isn't something that Yoyogi can embrace like he does all his other traits- he can't even bring himself to face it properly, because it would shatter his self-image and public persona of objective superiority. Yoyogi's narcissism isn't an actual obsession with the self, it's more like a dedication to showing off the most accepted version of the self.

Compare that to Roppongi, whose narcissism is 100% pure and all-encompassing. There's not a bit of posturing. He's flamboyant, certain in his own judgement, prioritizes his own wants and needs to an often absurd degree, flirts with anyone he pleases with no pretense... he loves himself, ADORES himself, in his ridiculous entirety. He doesn't feel he has anything to prove, he's just himself- and "himself" is inherently a thing of greatness. So he's happy with his bisexuality, polyamory, and subtly feminine gender expression- unlike Yoyogi. Compare their initial reactions to their mew mew outfits.

So of course Yoyogi immediately hates him. Roppongi receives nothing but adoration for proudly, mindlessly (well, not really, but to the bitter outside observer it would appear mindless) displaying these traits that he keeps locked deep, deep in a closet to protect his social standing.

Anzu calls Yoyogi's dialogue here "Roppongi-kun-ish", but it isn't, really. He's more resigned than anything else. He receives benefits for his attractiveness, it's best (objectively) to be above average, versus Roppongi basking in the grand consequences of his excellence.

Roppongi's issue with Yoyogi is that Yoyogi refuses to face his flaws or work to improve himself for the team's sake. He cares for the guy as a teammate, and shows him special attention as he tries to understand him, but he insists on being incredibly difficult to work/reason with because Yoyogi's issue with Roppongi is that everything about his personality triggers self-loathing.

I just think the contrast in their characters and the background conflict that springs from it is so fun, it would've been so easy to make the two self-absorbed "mature ones" indistinguishable from each other, but the best thing about au lait is the main character writing (aliens notwithstanding fuck those guys). Read au lait for them. In my minds eye they're like a serene worldly mother bird and her baby bird who won't stop pecking the shit out of her leg