Prior to her involvement with the Laughing Hyenas Larissa Strickland was in L-Seven, a post punk band that played in Detroit during the early/mid 80s, opening shows for bands like The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus
‼️‼️TW: Mentions of suicide, gaslighting and rat monching; and discussions of toxic love styles, financial abuse, desperation and codependency ‼️‼️
In my opinion, when you look past the shock imagery, the second MV mostly just confirmed the theory most people had about Mahiru.
She was a college student who fell in love with another man, but her love style was horribly toxic and she eventually drove him to suicide. Doesn't change my previous verdict on her at all apart from Kotoko being fucking insane. However, there was a single lyric that was already ticking me off even before the premier and now that we have the context, gives off some veeery uncomfortable implications about a character that's supposed to be a ''bubbly, air head''..........
''Clothes Food Shelter+Love and miss you''
See, before the premier me and bunch of other people theorised that this was implying she was financially dependent on her bf except there were a few problems with this theory, Mahiru does not seem financially bad off. In the 1st MV there is ZERO indications that she has to at least work her ass off to make ends meet, it wouldn't explain giant wardrobe of cute outfits she sporta in the 1st MV that COULDN'T have been cheap, hell, I think she even admits her parents already regularly send her money at one point! There's no reason for you to be sent money from your and not be able support yourself. These two statements are straight up contradictory. There's something else going in here.
And now that the MV is out we see that this line is sung alongside ''My lethal weapon: ''This is how to be in love with you'''' which wss basically a song about how yes her behaviour is over-bearing and stressful but it okay cause that's how ''love'' works. (Essentially admitting it was almost a gaslight song for him) And you have a concept that paints Mahiru in a really ugly light.
The bf was the financially dependent one and Mahiru was using that as one of the ways to keep him metaphorically chained to her.
And it makes sense when you take in other clues:
Firstly, like I mentioned the 1st MV shows off Mahiru in a variety of fashionable outfits that would not make sense for someone who is supposed to be financially struggling. Compare that to the bf who not only has ONE SINGULAR outfit throughout the entire thing but it looks rugged and dirty and something that would not look out of place if you WERE told he was homeless. And if you think that's me overthinking things, in-universe these MVs are extracted from their BRAINS and we already know what a giant fashionista Mahiru is, clothes are obviously going to be something that matter a lot to her!
Second, in the 1st MV, it's mentioned that they went camping at one point, what if they got lost at one point? This would explain the infamous rat scene 🐀as it would have served as the only food and it brings a whole new angle to that scene as I think I can safely assume the bf would refuse to eat a fucking rat under normal circumstances and only did it out of desperation. Which would explain their dynamic perfectly: Mahiru thinks she is feeding him to true love while he only accepts it out of desperation.
So yeah, I am sincerely sorry to all the mappi apologists as I painted your best girl in a really bad light but seriously, I want to present my speculations and let the fandom make up its own damn mind.