#kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

Long as hell text post under the cut my guys

me when i wake up and talk every day about the same shit. heart <3 i could talk for days abt jin and the misogyny he writes with. it's everywhere of course lol but out of the female characters takane's like…. the most tragic, in my opinion, because she's the only female character to have absolutely 0 backstory. yes, there's Some stuff, such as her illness, but truly takane does not have that much angst surrounding her illness. everything about her is rather about haruka. takane's moment is yuukei yesterday, but yuukei yesterday is entirely about both haruka and takane and their relationship. yes it's takane's pov, but it's ultimately still about… haruka, and how she feels about him.

back then in the fandom, pre over the dimension specifically, there was a take going around i remember pretty well. "people write haruka and takane like there's nothing more to them than being in love with each other" like the only time we'd see haruka and takane specifically (in fan content), they'd just be there to be shippy. i TOTALLY agreed with this sentiment and i always have, especially because i've always been obsessed with them as characters and i was overanalyzing every little thing (when otd came out i was over the moon bc i got so much stuff right btw. if u even care)

HOWEVER. if u think about it. pre over the dimension, with the manga having covered yuukei yesterday already and the next time takane (and haruka) appear as themselves in the manga is A LOT later in volume 10 (by that time, otd was already out) (also i'll get to takane in 2nd manga route in a second), so what we had at the time, for haruka and takane's backstory, was manga&novel yuukei yesterday and what we got from the anime. if you consider this… truly, at first the only thing to go off really was. just their relationship. that was all there was to both of them, because haruka was described from takane's pov, and everything we got from takane was how she felt for haruka. that was IT. for everything else u had to read between the lines like i was doing bc 10 years later i'd still be here talking about it teehee

of course there are also the songs. takane's songs set in time before she's ene are yuukei yesterday and of course headphone actor, one of the Best kagepro songs dont even come AT ME anyways headphone actor as a song touches THE OTHER BIG THING we were offered about takane at the time. okay, she isn't JUST in love with haruka. the other thing about takane is… she wants to SURVIVE!!!

i've talked about this LOADS of times i know (about this entire thing actually but i just like talking about also it's my blog) takane gets opening eyes because she's so determined to live. ratio + this from novel 2 headphone actor

which brings me to. ugh. second manga route. takane….would not…. KILL HERSELF…. second manga route WHY. we finally get to see Takane again in the manga and she's just so spectacularly NOT HERSELF it's crazy. takane since her INTRODUCTION is presented as "selfish" and how her want for attention from haruka or in general gets the best of her. that's ene. THAT'S ene!!! that's also why ENE stays with shintaro!!! it is FUNDAMENTAL to her character. we were given miserably little about her and in the most simplified way to put it, those things are: takane 1. is an attention whore<3 2. doesn't want to die. so tell me. how do you manage to get these 2 very simple things so incredibly WRONG in second manga route.

where in the world would takane get mad haruka got another friend. it makes NO sense!?!? bro haruka and shintaro ARE ALSO BEST FRIENDS IN THE MAIN ROUTE, where takane ACTUALLY HAS REASONS TO ACTIVELY REALLY DISLIKE SHINTARO, and she doesn't give a fuck that they're friends, why would she randomly care so much now when she has no reason to even dislike shintaro? so basically because she doesn't have ayano she gets jealous and wants haruka all to herself?? erm ok?? let's say that's true (it's not), even if she was jealous of shintaro her desire to be by haruka's side WILL be stronger, she would NEVER just turn around and leave. absolutely NOT. one of the stupidest things takane does is want haruka to look her way so bad she doesn't realize HE'S DYING ON HER. this bitch is so insanely self centered she would never in her life walk out on haruka just for having another friend. REAL takane walks in there with that stupid basket and be like Everyone look at me NOW<3

ok. first trait: attention whore: second manga route FAILS. second trait: doesn't want to die. wonder what second manga route will do. (looks into the camera) takane kills herself in second manga route.

dude you're crazy. you literally get EVERYTHING WRONG. it pisses me off. and not only does she kill herself but she does it because haruka DIED!?!?!?!?!? OH MY GOD. i hate it it's so fucking fake it's not HER THAT'S NOT TAKANE ENOMOTO THAT'S A SHIT CHARACTER JIN AND MAHIRO SATO DECIDED TO SUDDENLY WRITE INTO THE STORY i already put it in this post but let me attach it again

dear lord. anyways i've talked about that loads of times but i needed to include it in this talk cuz. yeah. i dont even HATE the rest of second manga route i just hate how takane is written specifically but since she's everything 2 me erm. you get my thumbs down!!! anyways having acknowledged second manga route we can move on.

back to main route discussion. so takane's backstory. not super deep, especially compared to other characters. yes her backstory is basically that she's sad because her boyfriend dies. but as ene there's so much more to unpack, right?! a character who will 100% accept a HALF DEATH because she's so determined not to die, but she's also mentioned to be tirelessly looking for her body because despite everything she's got HOPE? that's SUPER interesting, i love her!! what will she- *is obsessed with shintaro* ene's obsession with shintaro again ties in with everything else, desperate for attention, finds kinship with shintaro because she (or rather, ayano) decided he's compatible with her, but most importantly, he's doing badly and she wants to help him. takane isn't a person anymore, she's alive only as a technicality, so… she spends time with shintaro! but we ignore, it's TWO YEARS. and only in one of those she is with shintaro. we tend to overlook she spends the WHOLE TIME looking for her body in that other year. of course ene talks a lot about how much she loves her power, how much she loves being ene and not having to take care of her sick body but it's a REALITY that she wants to get it back. if she really didn't want it, why would she look for it and later get back into it when she does find it? but that's in between the lines. ene's obsession with shintaro is super interesting and you KNOW i love everything we know about takane be it her obsession with shintaro or her crush on haruka. i just wish there was....more.... like everyone else gets more! like HARUKA, a damn side character, gets more!!

haruka gets so SO much, he even bonds with SETO!! he gets a really well developed friendship with shintaro, he gets a very long detailed introduction scene with ayano with funny younger mekatrio shenanigans, he gets yuukei quartet hangout moments, he gets a GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH KENJIROU (fundamental imo as he's very important both in general and haruka and takane's social circle back then) and not just all that, but super thoughtfully written feelings about his illness, views on life, wishes... and all takane's story gets is…. she's sick, but it's ok it's not deadly, HARUKA HOWEVER…. oh, HE'S the real delicate one….especially since she's in love with him ofcourse!! dont forget!! btw she's grumpy cuz of her illness. she wishes she just didn't need sleep. aaanywaaays did we mention it's not as important as haruka's illness and btw she's in love with him?

unlike haruka, takane gets no relationship with ayano, and all their interactions are talking about how in LOVE they are with haruka and shintaro. no relationship with kenjirou beyond comic relief of ugh useless ass teacher, even revealed later on she stays in the dark about kenjirou forcing them to participate in the festival ON PURPOSE and playing her like that so she would be determined and make haruka join. her dynamic to shintaro pre being ene is just pitiful, and if it wasn't for his behavior towards her shintaro would be…. erm normal?? yea he's cold to ayano but that vs the way he randomly treats takane without even knowing her. god. imagine kagepro where shintaro DIDN'T do that. he'd still be flawed and stuff like what was the need😭 like HUUHH. takane gets nothing!!!!! and if we're still on the shintaro subject, why she's the asshole for being a menace as ene? whatever. i support women's wrongs. bully him harder.

alright. later she's ene, bonds with the dan. wait!! look!! it's KANO!!! she has so much in common with him, to the point he chooses her to open up to and helps her get her body back!!! this is a GREAT character choice to pair her with and to develop a dynamic with!! uh. oh wait….. kano's just totally awful to her and then later leaves her to get her body back offscreen and on her own? (looks into the camera again)

to continue comparing haruka and takane. takane mentions grandma makes her lunch, grandpa is dead, and they're both SUPER worried about her illness. there's…. nothing about their personalities or their relationship to her. meanwhile, haruka mentions everything! he's all like my illness… when it killed my mother it was exactly when the doctors said it would. my dad is cold and a little strange and doesnt spend time at home. we have a live in helper who does chores. like that's already so much deeper!

u find out through another mention later on that takane's parents work overseas but you dont know ANYTHING else despite it being so specific. while haruka goes on about his relationship with his dad or rather lack of relationship, and there's even some stranger at home doing chores for him. and again HE GETS TO HAVE A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH KENJIROU, heavily written as a father/son dynamic. man.

anyways…. this is kinda all over the place and it's something i talk about very often but teehee. wanted to do it again. i was thinking about it again because i realized i don't tend to draw haruka in a context outside being takane's boytoy. which i don't particularly care about because i know that's not all i see him as and i do see him as a deep character of his own and i like analyzing him just as much… it's just in art specifically he's just always there to be in love with her and nothing else. and i was like damn does that suck of me?? but you know what. i dont care<3 thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#kagepro #kagerou project #takane enomoto #kagenalysis #my art

[yuukei-yikes]

what girls say: im fine

what girls think: while everyone in kagerou project gets proper focus surrounding the horrors of their eye powers, takane doesn't so she can stay silly goofy but her eye power is possibly one of the scariest ones to have. takane's eye power puts her through a liminal horror no one pays attention to just because the only thing jin thought to make her say was "this rulesssss!!!" but imagine you wake up one day and everything you knew and loved and were, is gone and ur stranded in a place where your current existence is pointless and empty. you can be everywhere but also nowhere, and not only that but the "person" who did that to you made sure to erase everything about your disappearance. but then you find 1 person who is living proof of your past life being real and you find a tiny bit of power to influence reality through him which means you found a purpose to life again but that purpose is entirely some guy and he's just kinda the worst but you're doing everything to keep him sane because in return that keeps YOU sane. and through it all ene always says yay i dont even care im soooo unbothered im totally ok with this even though it's also said [glossed over/mentioned/never given consideration] she did spend one entire year [in which she never slept or paused like a human because she's not human anymore] LOOKING DESPERATELY for her physical body. yet she still says yeah this is alright😃 when as a human one of the things we knew about her is that she represses her emotions (takane enomoto ❤️s denial) basically i want to study her post str brain under a microscope and i wish all this had been actually explored because it's insanely interesting and a fun bit of horror genre to kagepro i think went to waste (we still get horror with haruka and takane's story as a whole but i just wish takane's side was more explored). takane enomoto is terribly overlooked as a character despite technically being the face of the project😡

#kagevinnie #takane enomoto #kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

the good ending of kagerou project! EXPLAINED :3

hello kagebody. no one asked for this but i felt like talking about it for 2 reasons. 1. it seems like a lot of people DONT KNOW kagepro has a good ending. it does. in september, summertime record will have been out for 10 years. 2. i felt like talking about it cuz i love kagepro :3

as we know kagepro’s big characteristic is, it’s complicated and deals with inconsistencies and already convoluted concepts, it’s also written by 1 guy across different types of media in the course of many years. that’s to say let’s not shit on it for being complicated let’s love it for it. also to say... some of what i will explain contains MY OWN interpretation based on what we are presented. because what we are presented with is Not in anyway clear.

okay. the good ending of kagerou project appears in THE ANIME. the novels and the manga contain doomed routes that end in resetting. the songs contain endless routes, but it also contains SUMMERTIME RECORD. that is a good ending, though it has no hiyori or ayano. nor an explanation. but the actual Good ending we all go by, AND the official post str content (lost day hour comic released in 2018) also goes by, is the ending of the anime. that’s what i will be talking about!

kagepro isn’t a stranger to plot holes. but the way it gets a good ending is essentially, there’s a HUGE important change from usual routes. which is saeru not killing everyone. for anyone who doesn’t know saeru is clearing eyes. clearing eyes is the snake possessing kenjirou and later konoha/haruka’s body. “kuroha”, for the golden years kagepro fans.

usually, saeru just shows up, kills everyone, forces mary to reset. the big big BIG thing with the good ending is.... saeru doesn’t kill anyone. let’s go over why saeru even kills everyone in the first place. it wants to create a new medusa and end the world basically: the dan possess snakes, their eye powers, and when they’re killed, they release the snakes, giving them back to mary. mary possesses COMBINING EYES. this is the eye power that makes her float and get the short hair. she is given this power when she passes away with her mother shion, while she possesses locking eyes since birth.

so, when the dan dies, mary gets all their snakes and Combines them, activating Combining Eyes, which she can use to reset the world and also control the daze, meaning she can merge the two worlds (what saeru wants her to do) (this would end the world), and also open it and close it.

so, in the kagepro good ending, saeru doesn’t kill the dan. yet mary is able to activate combining anyway. this is something i really like, though it needs a lot of Filling It In Yourself for it to make sense.

the anime shows the snakes leaving the dan members’ bodies when mary starts activating combining, and the dan doesn’t immediately die from getting their snakes taken away. we could argue they’re all weak and on the ground is bc saeru just kinda punched everyone across the room, not because mary took their snakes, BUT i like the idea that it’s mary slowly killing them herself through taking their snakes. i think it speaks to how high the stakes were, and how obsolete resetting was getting. the routes were getting inconsistent to a point where mary herself is killing her friends, not saeru, through her despair of keeping them alive and resorting to restart so she doesn’t have to deal with what’s going on. this can also be about a deeper motive of mary’s, which is that even if they all survive, she will lose them to old age eventually. restarting, she can avoid this fate. it also makes sense, because saeru CAN remember resets and mary CAN’T. so saeru deciding not to kill the dan this time can also speak of how wicked saeru is, maybe getting confident in what it’s doing, and manipulating mary into it like it’s been doing but this time forcing her to be the one to kill.

moving on: in this window of time where the dan is slowly dying and mary’s about to reset, she also opens the daze, which is when shintaro and ayano show up. earlier, shintaro had killed himself because retaining eyes, shintaro’s eye power, had been activated, and he knew he had to go to the daze. that’s the scene he goes get ayano and together go see haruka. SO. when mary opens the daze, shintaro and ayano walk right out of there, ayano having been there for 2 years and shintaro having been there for erm, 1 hour or something.

here’s when we’re all like yeah shintaro&ayano come save the day!! what shintaro and ayano do is use a combo of their eye powers. they go through a plan they made countless routes ago. shintaro’s power is retaining, he was born with it. retaining is a snake fabricated by mary herself in another route. this snake is also an ayano from another route who sacrificed herself to become shintaro’s eye power. isn’t that fun. SO, what retaining does is remember past routes, so when shintaro activates her he immediately Knows everything. ayano’s power is favoring, The Empath power. she can transmit thoughts, memories, emotions. and then they play a game of telephone: shintaro’s knowledge of the resets existing goes to ayano, and then ayano transmits them to mary.

mary, now being aware of what she’s doing and what she HAS been doing, doesn’t reset, shitting all over saeru’s plans who is beginning to despair and start acting pathetic. now here’s when we’re all like omg the power of friendship solved the rest. NO!!!!

now here’s my... personal interpretation to a huge part of it. mca is Very unclear. but basically: haruka and konoha are actually the ones to save the day, not shintaro and ayano. shintaro&ayano are keeping mary from resetting, but they aren’t FIXING the issue that is making mary reset in the first place which is this GUY TRYING TO KILL EVERYONE. despite everything saeru is STILL HERE, STILL IN HARUKA/KONOHA’S BODY.

mary temporarily takes everyone to the daze. no one is dead, theyre just There. who else is in the daze. haruka’s cute little spirit!!! while saeru is kicking and screaming about the route differing and the power of friendship getting a little strong, it’s finally acknowledged that despite saeru is in a hostless body, this body still has an owner, and as of late, it’s got owner(S). through its time in haruka’s body, awakening eyes/konoha became its own person. being its own person, it’s got the right for a wish. saeru is the very snake that grants all those fucked up wishes.

saeru, while possessing kenjirou, alienated its plans with kenjirou’s wish of seeing ayaka again. because it needs a wish to function. kenjirou’s wish was perfect for what saeru wanted, since ayaka was in the daze, seeing her again implied opening it which implied killing everyone. easy. but now saeru jumped from kenjirou’s body to haruka/konoha’s, and these 2 souls have very different, individual wishes that saeru is now forced to face: haruka reclaims his own body. and konoha wants hiyori to live.

for haruka, his wish had been ignored since the beginning, it’s the one that was the most twisted of all (u want a strong body? ok u didn’t say u wanted to be IN the body, right?) so, saeru is forced to grant this wish finally and is forced out of the body and puts haruka back in it. for konoha, saeru is forced to be a surrogate life to hiyori. haruka, being the original host, is now alive, and awakening eyes/konoha, is within him, playing the role of an eye power it was always meant to play. meanwhile, hiyori also gets to get out of the daze alive, through the forced “sacrifice” of clearing eyes. this serves a very interesting bit for hiyori since she possesses power over the most fucked up snake of all but that’s for post str headcanons sweetness.

basically! mary activates combining and opens the daze, letting out shintaro&ayano who are like stop🛑 do not reset. instead they all go to the daze where haruka is like💖GIVE ME MY BODY BACK to saeru. also allowing awakening eyes/konoha a moment of control again to be like hi. i am also person now and i have a wish as well and my wish is that hiyori lives :3

so, saeru’s gone, haruka&hiyori are alive (+ayano, whose death has always been a plothole that ignores the rules of the daze, so to keep it on theme her survival also has no real basis+shintaro, whose death earlier also made little sense but they get to walk out for protagonists privileges), they get out the daze and mary gives back all the snakes so no one dies. hurray!

bc of all this, the mekakushi dan is alive, members from 0 to 10. they do get a happy ending. ....but we could also say it was the power of friendship. that works too!

#kagepro #kagerou project #mekakucity actors #i never use that tag actually whoa #kagevinnie #kagenalysis #kagexplain

[yuukei-yikes]

chatting with my kagefriend @hibihiiyo about ayaki

i keep imagining how whenever shintaro activates retaining, all the routes bleed together in his mind so post str since its his constant state it's confusing AND terrifying to live past that august once and for all. like, it goes on beyond what he has known and remembers hundreds of versions of. so picture that, but from ayaki's perspective.....

all those routes, and shintaro finally knows. constantly. because shintaro will ALWAYS remember at one point, but then he'll forget again. ayaki is used to it. in fact she resents how she looks forward to it because it's the only time she interacts with... anything!!! she has actual influence when shintaro activates her. depending on what she says shintaro will say something different. routes always differ, at least slightly, but seeing shintaro at the end before it starts again is her one chance to say ANYTHING before she waits thousands of years again until shintaro is born and grows to be 18. she has actual presence when he remembers, even if they're tiny pockets of time in her eternity. however post str this is constant. shintaro is There.

and you know who else is there. HERSELF. time for ayano math.

ayano just fucking hates herself that's like. ayano 101. but what happens when there's 2 of them. they both hate themselves for doing things but those things are vastly different from each other. so... same person, different contexts and choices. which one is most hated by both? the answer is. well. whichever is alive!!

Because THAT ayano, so basically our final route ayano, has everything. but... erm, SHE wasn't supposed to Make It. ayano is never supposed to survive. ayano staying is an anomaly. and ayaki will continue to be miserable as her family and friends are alive and she is not there to be by their side, but that's always been part of the deal, she knew that she wasn't ever getting "a happy ending" because her Happiest Ending is her family's safety. her very existence is being doomed for infinity. but this route's version of her staying around and... GETTING A HAPPY ENDING!??!?!?! THAT.... WAS NOT EVER EVEN CONSIDERED.

shintaro continues to astonish her when he pulls something like this, letting ayano survive? SAVING ayano? who the hell does he think he is. hasnt ayaki suffered enough? why is she also cursed to watch herself get a happy ending. she doesn't deserve it and ayaki knows ayano knows she doesn't deserve it.

THIS ayano roped kano into it, she basically threw haruka and takane at the wolves, she left her siblings completely unprotected. ayaki was Left because she was willing to do something extreme and awful and scared her siblings away and made it right in her mind by cursing herself to be This, just for her "succesful" version to kill herself out of the situation AND get put on a pedestal for it? bullshit!!!!

this route's ayano is glorified and praised by her siblings and welcomed back with open arms and tears. this ayano gets to apologize and make things right, she gets to eat her favorite food again, she gets to become friends with mary, she gets to go on a date with shintaro, she gets her siblings to trust her. she gets everything despite she was a coward and wronged everyone FAR MORE than ayaki did, and she only suffered 2 years of the daze compared to ayaki's eternity in there.

hope articulated so spectacularly their thoughts abt ayaki's psyche that i am straight up quoting her text rn:

"she decided she’d punish herself by dying over and over again, and watching the people she loves die over and over again for all of eternity, until she manages to find some way to get thru to shintaro and fix it and never be able to be a human being again and live normally. thus is forced to become so numb, desensitized, and uncaring to pain and suffering that her otherwise human brain, which was never meant or designed to be turned into an immortal demi deity and the patron saint of suffering, would split in half and make her go insane. which it probably did. her human brain was not meant to live forever, to suffer forever, to watch others suffer forever, to watch the same mundane endless events with no agency or control over how they occur. death, pain, and suffering became tools to win her ultimate game of 5 dimensional, temporal chess and thus she can no longer abide by morals to fulfill her ultimate purpose. deci and ryan’s self determination theory states all humans need to feel relatedness, competency, and autonomy to thrive in their environment, and by martyring herself into a snake, ayaki chooses to deprive herself of all of these things. she is not good at her job and must fail over and over again for eternity because the story playing in front of her is RNG out of her control. ayaki cannot relate to anyone because nobody knows she’s there, not even shintaro except on rare instances. and ayaki has zero autonomy over anything, except her incredibly cryptic vague dreams that rarely even work"

ayaki's big curse is her humanity remaining. It's the pain she feels because of the love she feels, over and over, it nevers gets any easier and it never hurts any less, her love grows stronger and stronger with each reset. ayaki hates herself so much which is why she hates our route ayano Even More

#kagevinnie #ayano tateyama #kagepro #kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

to me, kano and kido are arguably the best written siblings in all of kagepro. the way theyre in a fight for like. an unsaid amount of time and there's just constant tension between them yet act normal like nothing is wrong is so so so real, and when they make up it's rather about not forgetting that who you're trying to protect is also someone you can count on ;_;

i wish their dynamic didn't rely so much on the haha punches you gag because in all of those punches there is a very substantial part of their relationship which is the absolute 0 patience kido has for kano and it isn't because kano is silly class clown and kido is a mood killer, it's because kido is just constantly angry at kano all the time because they never properly resolved their issues as kids. i love their relationship so much and it means a lot that they have that space in the seventh novel to speak to each other

also shout out to seto my fellow middle sibling who's the mediator he's a real one... the 3 of them are so well written as siblings it just kills me every time

#kagevinnie #kano shuuya #kido tsubomi #kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

takane's awesome for a million reasons but one of them is that she's the only one to basically... condition?? morph?? her own power as she pleases. opening eyes is technically the eye power version of a "teleportation" power. it projects your spirit somewhere else without PHYSICALLY taking u there. takane just uses it... exclusively through technology?? for some damn reason??? this is so funny bc it also exists within conditions bc she cant go anywhere with no internet and can't feel where her body is😭

azami and mary used opening to be in other places at once through projecting their spirits there (including technology), but they don't lose consciousness when they do it. we could say since takane's 100% human she can't do so much at once like them but... no other eye power has that sorta thing? everyone's able to do everything. haruka's snake can REGENERATE HIS BODY if he gets hurt like i think takane should be able to get a pass to be facetiming everywhere at once. sorry haruka and takane are fucking creatures. everyone else's eye powers don't require that much physical involvement at all. it's almost as if haruka and takane's whole thing was particularly their physical bodies getting involved as a price to pay..🤨..... the came back wrong of it all... ok sorry im getting sidetracked i was talking abt takane

BASICALLY. i truly do believe takane doesnt even know how to use opening eyes. she never read the nonexistent instructions so she made up her own way of doing it and after she gets her body back she's just been doing it that way for so long she just..yeah❤️

and also takanes the only one who had their power in Constant Activity. with that i mean takane existed through opening eyes alone for TWO YEARS. she had that shit On all the time. she had no choice bc she didn't know where her body was, she is a little stupid but this was mostly out of making the most of her situation. i think post str she should learn how to use it❤️ but can't. so she gets frustrated she can't ❤️ erm erm erm. something something haruka and takane are the only ones who cant entirely master their powers. takane uses it with these conditions (loses consciousness/exclusively online) and for haruka awakening is keeping his heart healthy but Doesnt provide Any extra strength.

anyways. all of that so i could say: au where azami lives post str and she sees the way takane uses opening and she's like. Wtf. and tries to coach her on how to use it properly but they can't understand each other and keep clashing. sorry for being cringe i like azami she should live. erm. whoa when did i write all this.

#kagevinnie #takane enomoto #kagepro #kagenalysis #me trying to fall asleep and getting a thought: ill write this in one sentence. #15 min later:

[yuukei-yikes]

idc what anyone says. ene's coping mechanism wasn't super crazy and she's got nothing to apologize for ever. "trying to make shintaro forget" wasn't an insane or evil take. especially for herself likeeee SHE WAS DEAD and considered the most mentally healthy thing in the fucked up situation was to forget her own life bc she wasn't gonna get it back so what was the fucking point of obsessing over it (she DOES spend a WHOLE YEAR searching for her body before deciding to stay with shintaro!!)

and SEEING HOW SHINTARO WAS DOING she Evaluated he'd also benefit from thinking about literally anything else. idc i don't think she was trying to make shintaro FORGET forget, she was rather trying to get him to think about literally anything else. it had been a whole year and he was rotting in his room. ene wanted him to get through it. yes mourning and acceptance is necessary for moving on healthily but i think ene did what she could with the tools she had idc. this is hate mail to kano

the only thing ene could apologize for is being too funny aka making shintaro's life hell but first: that's what saves him, second: he WAS the worst person in the world in hs i think she's right and correct. i love you takane enomoto i will defend you. don't ever apologize for being right

#kagevinnie #kano: imagine trying to move on from a dead loved one😭😭😭😭😭 ene ur so cringe #takane enomoto #kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

seto finding mary in every route.... hibiya and hiyori being friends in every route.... momo and shintaro growing up together in every route... seto kano and kido finding family in each other against all odds in every route.... haruka and takane falling in love with one another in every route.... hiyori being a fan of momo's in every route... ayano sacrificing everything and more for her family in every route...... route after route, shintaro still being willing to keep forgetting before remembering if it means the chance of a normal life for them all but especially mary... and at the beginning of it all azami initiating a convoluted tragedy that will last so so so so so SO many resets, but how could you ever blame her when all she did was love and be loved....i need to explodes...

#kagepro is a love story. EXPLODE #kagevinnie #kagenalysis #kagerou project #the worms are insane tonight as u can see.

[yuukei-yikes]

Hi

kagerou daze II headphone actor, takane pov:

kagerou daze VI over the dimension, haruka pov:

saeru saying the same line, meaning haruka and takane are conscious at the same time without knowing it. they realize at the same time that they're outside of their own bodies

and after seeing themselves, they see the other

anyways. i just wanted to remind u haruka and takane mourn each other at the very same time. while also mourning themselves. just always thought that was so funny.

#kagepro #haruka kokonose #takane enomoto #kenjirou tateyama #kagevinnie #kagenalysis #i talk abt tjis a lot but i wanted to post about it again❤️ #i randomly open the novels and flip to the exact page i want bc i basically have them memorized. like im not even kidding #and i dont mean just these 2 novels i mean all of them but yeah these 2 specifically #harutaka

[yuukei-yikes]

i extended on something i wrote months ago in the subject of shinene codependency (and shinaya breakup) but its hidden in a Much longer post under a read more so i wanted to make it into its own post for my kagenalysis tag❤️:

to rant a bit abt the "personal narrative" of shintaro. i think it's interesting that shintaro is essentially a very self centered character and kagepro is very meta in the way it treats him as a main character. because inside of kagepro, he really gets as much focus as any other character, they're all "main" character to us. its rather inside the story he plays a very important role therefore he is the protagonist and as the protagonist he puts an end to the story itself too. i think this is all interesting together and fun to dissect shintaro's character as inherently self centered because that's what the story is. the initial premise is that he's a depressed guy living in regret he used to be "such a bad person" to someone he cared deeply about.

his self centeredness shows not only in the way he acts even without retaining activated, but he is really in the center of it. shintaro IS the protagonist and deep down even if he hasn't remembered yet, he knows that. so does everyone else. they all know they depend on him, sooner or later.

and i like to think of all this in a post str context thinking that the way he handles all that in everyday life once this story is over and theyre free from a narrative in the first place, is self destructive because its not compatible to being a normal person. he's a protagonist but there's nothing to be a protagonist OF anymore

so it IS taking him a bit to really LOOK at his friends and stop looking only for himself. technically he's lived a hundred doomed lives and now he's here trying out this one and again it is scary and new and... ene, who's been the most dedicated to centering her life around shintaro, is a clear safe place while navigating this.

he takes takane totally for granted because of this. in the narrative she has always been his sidekick. she has been the second main character to him. she has always lived and served him in all timelines, in all the time theyve known each other that she can't remember and he can, takane has been more ene than she's been takane to him, and ene has always been his annoying lap dog he hates as much as he needs in order for the story to move forward. takane of course reciprocrates the dynamic because it's also all she's known for a year. but... it's a year, vs. shintaro's God Knows How Many resets.

so eventually... as she is free from the narrative and very much her own person outside of him, capable of finding love and priorities somewhere else away from him and OUT LOUD tackling issues like hey we have a codependent dynamic going on we should work on, bc she does normal people stuff like going to therapy, takane moves on. which is mind blowing for shintaro AND HE DOESNT LIKE IT

he shuns it completely whenever takane brings it up, which she does a lot as time goes on. because time keeps going on. it keeps passing by. and everyone around him seems to be growing up and that's so infuriating and so terrifying and then stuff like ayano dating him and dumping him is as much of a reality check as ayano being alive in the first place, and he doesn't know what to do with it other than cry and thrive off the attention takane gives him again upon seeing him broken again.

he's in PAIN but it's familiar. it's comfortable. it's classic. it works. because the story he was a protagonist of was a tragedy, so he doesn't know how to behave when there is hope in the future. ❤️

#kagevinnie #shintaro kisaragi #kagenalysis #takane enomoto #kagepro

[yuukei-yikes]

kenjirou tateyama surviving my beloved because god im so curious JUST HOW CONSCIOUS WAS HEEE like. i've always ALWAYS been a Kenjirou Is Entirely Possessed And Unaware Of What's Going On truther, ever since i was a kid. but god. ouuuughhhh his dubious awareness is so damn interesting i've changed my mind so much in the last year

like it's a fine interpretation but it's not as fun. because IF kenjirou is ENTIRELY clearing eyes after the aug15 takane/haruka/ayano die, then every other time he appears afterwards it's just clearing doing the best impression of kenjirou it can. and that's so funny. but idk. in that case, kenjirou's character is kinda flat. like he is just the funny fail man who misses his wife and keeps being moved around like a puppet, barely his own character at all. like this, he becomes entirely a plot device to me?

there is something so much more fun and interesting to consider kenjirou as slightly more involved. not behind it or on BOARD!! but still involved. *points at the dead and seek lyrics* like it's all in there. kenjirou knows, sooner or later

because, sure, clearing could've taken over completely but there is NEVER an indication it can do this. it can do it to konoha, because konoha isn't technically a person so haruka's body was HOSTLESS. but kenjirou's is not hostless, and the condition has always been that clearing gets to work when kenjirou is asleep. kenjirou appears post haruka/takane/ayano's deaths (gotta come up with a name for this aug15) without red eyes or anything too so... he knows!!

i truly do think kenjirou is completely unaware during the haruka and takane set up, like during the "preparation" year he really didn't know anything. to me, it's mostly him being tired off his mind not knowing why bc saeru keeps him awake all night BUT ALSO since kenjirou lived with clearing for so long, he starts mistaking its thoughts/ideas for his own and he's like ?!?!?!? bc i think saeru would do that on purpose. not to mention saeru totally uses kenjirou's science knowledge to do whatever it does to haruka and takane. like kenjirou is mourning ayaka and he's running on 0 sleep so he's almost entirely dysfunctional anyway, but on top of it he's getting all these intrusive thoughts about killing his students for reasons he doesn't understand like he's SOOO unwell during this year. and that's assuming he didn't know he had clearing (i don't believe he knew at this point, but he could've!! that's also a valid interpretation but if he did know kenjirou would come off as even more inactive and pathetic/neg and despite everything i choose to interpret kenjirou as a good person)

basically kenjirou is not in on the plan but some parts of it keep leaking to the part of the awareness he still has access to and he's very freaked out. after the plan actually goes through, to me it's impossible for kenjirou to just not know unless we decide saeru completely takes over which i already said why i don't think is the case.

ayano's suicide? haruka and takane dying? mekatrio moving out? already a lot together for kenjirou to process but we can still assume he's going through all this as himself. but... a conscious kenjirou would've tried to stop mekatrio from moving out i believe, the only way he could've just let them Go was if he knew they weren't safe with him. which he DID because KONOHA IS HERE. that is something we can't deny. like unless kenjirou is completely saeru, there is no way he doesn't know what "he" did by now. haruka's reanimated corpse is walking around his house man.

he knew about the red eyes thing. like come on it was his beautiful wife's special interest he's been probably falling asleep to that lore for years until ayaka passed. he also knows he died on aug15 with ayaka. he knows ayano and his students died on an aug15 too. he WOULD put those puzzle pieces together.

since kenjirou isn't evil, to me at least, i do think it's a mix of both things. kenjirou is himself but saeru has a lot more control now, even when he's not asleep, mostly because of all the grief kenjirou's going through. his wife and daughter are dead, his remaining living children moved out and he can't convince them they're not a burden and apparently without their sister and mom he isn't enough to keep them around. his students who he also loved and actively sought to act as a parent figure to, are dead. one is missing, and the other... is walking around his house like the living dead

all of that is causing kenjirou's already delicate mind to abandon all will to live, allowing saeru to take control more and more. but all its thoughts and plans blurr together with kenjirou's human mind, and he doesn't know what he has done or not. he doesn't know who he is or when he stopped being him, and if he's really not him anymore, then where even is he?

this is why kenjirou surviving post str is sooooo good. he's completely himself again for the first time in years, but he still feels responsible and guilty for everything and he has no idea how to navigate this. everyone's so happy he's here and they're so relieved because despite everything they're still kids. their youth was stolen from all of them but they're still young enough and they're so relieved there is an ADULT here. but the adult is kenjirou and he's not sure how participant he was and no, he didn't KILL haruka and takane with his own hands, not aware at least, and no he didn't personally FORCE kano to pretend to be ayano's corpse. but he remembers as if he did and this second hand guilt for something else's doings is eating him alive. why does he get to live??? if anyone ayaka should get to. not him. this makes no sense to him!!! anyways.

#kagenalysis #kenjirou tateyama #headcanons #i should be doing hw btw. #kagevinnie

[yuukei-yikes]

when i was a kid and first watched the pvs that were out at the moment, when i got to yuukei yesterday i thought i was in another project entirely and there was probably an error in the song guide i was using. so im once again thinking about the specific vibe of haruka and takane's story. teehee!

jin went out of his way to write a slice of life highschool romance that at first sets up an angst completely unrelated to the actual Red Eyes plot, and then throws those characters into the plot where they undergo visceral bodily transformations against their wills... crazy

everyone has a tragic story and some are so over the top in best kagepro fashion (kido's childhood, hibiya and hiyori's timeloop, ayaki's entire existence) and a lot of insane shit just sorta happens all the time. like as sick as i personally am of seeing the terrorist attack from reading it so many times, i can see any new kagepro fan like what the hell. like it's so fucking random

but man. haruka and takane's story has such a specific genre by itself and it's HORROR of all things. i wouldn't describe kagepro's genre as "horror", rather just sci-fi and drama with heavy themes and imagery. but haruka and takane's story has its own tone because it DOES feel like horror. their crazy scientist teacher is possessed and kidnaps them and "experiments" on them like Bro there's HORROR MOVIES WITH CRAZY SIMILAR PLOTS. i really truly think one of the reasons kagepro is this messy and full of plots that feel different from each other is that jin was really really REALLY experimenting with ALL the genres.

you know that thing about characters making bad choices because they don't know in what genre they're in, so they can be in a horror while they think they're on a romance drama. that's sort of it with them. haruka and takane's biggest problems up to that august 15th were haruka's health and takane's poor eq. and then all of a sudden they're both half alive inside some tank in the secret underground lab. wtf. hilarious honestly

#kagevinnie #kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

something abt kagepro and how all its media represents a different route is so. insane. bc we have a character whose power is literally to remember all past routes, but in the Good End no one will remember the tragedy of the other routes. except for the main character and us, the audience. like we as the audience get invested in what we consume be it the manga or novels and then they just...dont have a happy ending. and then we have to see the characters try again, when they dont even know (yet) that they are trying again. something about that is just sooo...

#im feeling so many things about shintaro. my little meow meow #kagepro #kagevinnie #kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

i was thinking abt how ayano and shintaro r the only two characters who ever die by suicide (shintaro is only in some routes but STILL.) and like how that's a way of showing that they had the potential to understand each other (bc in my opinion they r actually very similar) but not until either of them were dead. idk does this make sense? i just thought of this today so this thought isnt very refined yet i need to think abt it more

they ARE similar!!!!! i totally agree. shintaro and ayano are totally similar people. they're both Justice Seekers but are so depressed and have such horrible self worth they can't actually be proactive about things. but then they are :3

i wish we got ayano pov from hs and why she liked shintaro. I've always thought ayano's crush on him is...cute!!! because she's literally going thru the horrors, her mom died, her dad is being Strange, and she has to take care of the house and her siblings all alone PLUS later learning of all the horrible stuff about the daze and clearing. and yet. she's also a normal hs girl who has a silly crush on her classmate. not that we ever saw it but i definitely think ayano got to see at least once the shintaro we see who fights for good and doesn't let fear get to him like when he yells at the fucking terrorists or acts all cool when they face clearing in the novels. i think ayano got to see shintaro being Heroic or whatever and she was like THIS is the kind of guy we need to be recruiting in the mekakushi dan🔥🔥🔥 like seriously im delusional abt this but i think there should be a shinaya backstory abt this.

man i wish we saw more hs shinaya😭😭😭😭😭 im so mad that they only ever show shintaro being a fucking asshole lord in hs like im not rooting for you bitch FAST FORWARD NOW but the fact ayano knows shintaro likes music and shoujo manga etcetc its clear ayano and shintaro had normal ass conversations all the time. SHOW THEM TO MEEEEEE whatever. i dont even care <- cares

anyways i just wanted to say i think ayano does Kind of understand shintaro. i also wish we saw ayano think of shintaro in the entire conjecture with clearing eyes killing haruka and takane and her sacrificing herself for them and the mekatrio. Go listen to full disclosure from steven universe and you will understand my ayano vision for this. sorry that was weird. i think ayano wanted to keep shintaro as uninvolved as possible, haruka and takane were inevitably already in it. she just wanted to make sure to take them Out of it but shintaro.. i think ayano always had the feeling shintaro would get involved. i think ayano gravitates towards shintaro because she needed help and she needed a hero and deep down she knew this was him. but she never manages to properly reach out or even understand it i guess. but i think ayano did understand shintaro maybe even more he understood himself. on the other hand shintaro DID NOT understand ayano AT ALL but like you said, he could have. who knows how things had gone if shintaro had walked in when he saw ayano crying in the classroom!!! imagine ayano managing to pour her heart out and tell him what's gonna happen to their friends and her family. he would've helped. shintaro would've done something. but ayano wouldn't want him to bc he would get hurt but at the same time she WOULD want him to because she's so scared and alone and desperate for help *holds head *

also i always make myself insane abt shintaro and ayano being depressed legends who wanna die. while haruka and takane struggle with health problems and want to Live So Badly. sorry for bringing up harutaka Hi its me tumblr user yuukei yikes vinnie i will ALWAYS make it about harutaka. i just wanted to say that. shinaya who wanna die and tragedy arises from never meeting in the middle and not being able to understand each other vs harutaka who wanna live more than anything and tragedy arises from being forcibly separated.

ayano's words to takane when she's projecting so hard. there are times you want to tell someone something but you wind up being too late. ayano was never gonna say anything to shintaro because she didnt Want to. she knew what she was going to the roof for. while takane immediately makes a run for it to say something to haruka, she is just too late and has no control over her fate. whatever im normal!

#ask tag #kagenalysis #shinaya

[yuukei-yikes]

I read your analysis on how Takane's treated by the writing and you have opened my eyes as to what's been bothering me despite her being my favorite character, thank you. She's done so dirty by everyone in the series especially the writers omg (and you're so right about most of the kagerou girls' stories being about a guy)

Her scene with Kano and how they never interacted after caught me off guard and irritated me so bad that Kano was my least fave until I decided to just ignore it as canon and hc them as besties that bully Shintaro, and I might just do the same with other parts like the 2nd place thing and her *having no backstory or relationships outside of Haruka* wtf Jin. Jin might be the writer but you? You get it

yep yep yep!!!!

i dont "ignore" kano's behavior bc it sets up really interesting dynamics... i love kano and takane as friends because it makes so much. sense. and like i said in the takane post ur talking about i think they're an amazing duo it was a stupid move not making them friends and instead make kano sort of dislike takane. kano was such a spectacular choice for takane's "out of the quartet" buddy and jin somehow messed it up🙄🙄🙄

but it still gave us a lot of goodies because kano's thoughts over takane are sooooo good because he KEEPS comparing her to himself. there is also something here about kano's writing on his thoughts of takane make her revolve either around him or around shintaro, which is annoying, but it's not like i can expect much else from jin.

that aside: again!! gives us goodies. very interesting bits. i will always say kano is like... iffy? with takane because he sees himself on her except she is like. actually a good person and he's like Augh. bc he sees what he could be in her teehee.

i think post str they can be besties precisely cuz takane forgives people left and right and that just makes kano even angrier because how can she just forgive him like that... he could never do that. kano is incredibly resentful while takane kinda lives in the moment and i think he'd want to be like that so badly. he's jealous of her all the way, it's all over their fifth novel interaction (and he even admits it!) so them being friends despite what kano does makes perfect sense AND gives for very interesting dynamics. kano berating takane for essentially being good to him will never not be funny. that's what he does to her in the anime! he berates her for being good to shintaro. imagine if he did it for being good to HIM! so fun

#ask tag #kano shuuya #takane enomoto #kagenalysis

[yuukei-yikes]

Takane's daze being the end of the world where everything is exploding and falling apart and Ending, even the day is ending bc the sun is setting, and everything is happening all at once and its chaos. and haruka's daze is nothingness for infinity, where nothing happens and nothing will ever happen, there is not a sound.

takane is running while everything ends around her and haruka is bedridden while there's infinity and also nothing around him. anyways

#harutaka #kagevinnie #kagenalysis #ig