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pienhime · 6 months

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Ten Under-Recognized Jirai Kei Characters!

Ive been meaning to make a post on some jirai kei characters that i think are underappreciated by the overseas landmine community! Mostly i think its bc they don't wear girly kei, cybercore, or other fashions associated with us on SNS, and bc their media came out before 2020. So ive compiled a list and an explanation for why i think they're jirai! I have another list for pien kei characters who arent jirai in my opinion too. If u have any characters u think the western jirai comm sleeps on, comment/reblog and tell me who & why!

1. Celestia Ludenberg

Celestia (Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc) has screamed landmine to me for like, ever! She's wrapped up in her appearance and at first glance makes the effort to come off as regal and formal. But she frequently lets that disguise slip and shows her sadistic side at the slightest inconvenience, threatening violence and screaming in peoples faces. She's got both a superiority complex AND inferiority complex, and has an unhealthy obsession with gambling, her super high school level talent.

2. Nijimin Anazawa

Nijimin (Mahou Shoujo Site) is super popular in the japanese jirai comm, and its easy to see why. She's easily lovestruck and a borderline yandere (dependent type), murderous and hellbent on revenge, and her magical power literally revolves around manipulating others. She's a beloved idol and a symbol of cuteness, but she's a murderous magical girl? How much more jirai can you get!

3. Mayoi Ayase

Mayoi (Ensemble Stars) is a very interesting character! From his obsession with the occult to his self depreciating behavior to his obsessive and stalkerish tendencies, he's an overall offputting yet charming guy. As an idol, he has fans who have a totally different image of him than the creep (affectionate) he can be at times behind the scenes. Also, not to stereotype, but his favorite sanrio character is kuromi, whos super popular within jirai.

4. Yuri

Yuri (Dokidoki Literature Club) being a landmine seems a little self-explanatory to me. She's a yandere character who's probably the most unassuming of the cast at first. She's shy, smart, kind... and a self-harming yandere with a knife fetish who will literally kill herself if you get involved romantically or reject her.

5. Yoosung

Wow, when's the last time I thought about Mystic Messanger? No idea, but Yoosung feels pretty jirai kei to me in retrospect. In the beginning of the game, hes the adorkable self-conscious junior with an unhealthy online addiction. But, by the end, he's a self-harming yandere who refuses to let the player character go, and is willing to do whatever it takes to secure a happily ever after.

6. Kusokawa-chan

While I have an immeasurable hatred for her creator, Kusokawa-chan (Menhera-chan spin-off 4komas) is a comfort character of mine... for some reason. With a name that means "kawaii trash", her personality is probably predictable. She's human trash, a sadistic asshole with no respect for others who will insult and berate you at the drop of a hat, and turn on a dime on her fans. She tries to cover it up by putting on an exaggerated innocent act and kawaii-fying herself and her life, but she just cant stop herself from exploding on others with no remorse.

7. Azusa Mukami

Admittedly, everything I know about Diabolik Lovers is through its fandom as I've yet to cave and buy the games. But from what little I know, Azusa seems pretty jirai. He seems innocent, fragile even- but has the typical amount of yandere tendencies for the series. He has a self harm addiction, and if you peruse his route you're in for a toxic time.

8. Satou Matsuzaka

This might be cheating because she's so popular on yandere tumblr, but Satou Matsuzaka (Happy Sugar Life) is ultra jirai kei. It's no wonder she's such a popular choice of pfp on japanese jiraitwt! She's obsessed with living out a fantasy saccarine-sweet life with the object of her desire, and given her full-blown yandere nature and her lolicon status, its no doubt shes a toxic partner. She's beloved at her school and workplace for her seemingly sweet nature and cute looks, but her kindness is only for the purposes of manipulation.

9. Kosame Amagai

Again, I'm no expert on Diabolik Lovers! But based on what my friends on yandereblr tell me, this guy is definately a jirai danshi. He's a lover of all things cute, who uses his cute shota-like appearance and polite manner of speech to lure others in. In reality, hes an abusive partner in his route, and takes his anger out on others verbally. He's willing to cry, scream, and threaten over the smallest of transgressions. Of course, he's also a yandere as per series standard.

10. Momonga

Okay so this is only half-serious, but there's a reason Momonga (Chiikawa) is so beloved by jirai girls and often depicted fitting the visual jirai stereotype in fanart. She's ultra cute! But she uses her appearance and acting vulnerable and innocent to try to get away with shithead behavior. She's loud, erratic, and self-obsessed, and often cries when she doesn't get her way. She's obviously the worlds cutest little manipulator, and she knows it.

I hope you enjoyed this list! There's a list for non-landmine pien kei characters coming soon, so feel free to send me asks with recommendations! And feel free to add on to this list in reblogs and comments!

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epicfranb · 5 months

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@mortpee: if you could come up with a manga, what would it be abt ?

Hmm well i have an idea that i would love to make a comic abt, and it is strongly inspired by the mahou shoujo genre, so it counts hehe :3 it's about magical girls whose powers are based on forms of art! I think about a lot of things that bother me about this genre, missed opportunities, or limitations due to the fact that most of those series are for kids... But my main gripe is that, if you look at action shounen series, even if they're made for young teens, they're still interesting to watch for older ppl, but with mahou shoujo it's like you always have to keep in mind: this was made for kids, and so the conflicts (even tho they can be pretty mature) are aimed at kids, so can be pretty watered down or underdeveloped :"3 and you get SOOOOOO many cool shounen series that do very cool things with the tropes and expectations (mp100, one punch man, hxh), but in the mahou shoujo genre you get the sub-genre of "edgy magical girls" inspired by Madoka (and i don't personally think Madoka actually belongs to that genre, it's a deconstruction of the mahou shoujo genre, but it is still a pretty traditional mahou shoujo). Edgy magical girls rely on shock factor a lot of the time. Like, Magical Girl Site and Magical Girl Raising Project are literally just shounen series but with magical girls - it's not really the same. Funnily enough, Kill la Kill, which is literally a shounen series, leans into the mahou shoujo genre and borrows a lot from it, to the point where it feels more like mahou shoujo than the previous 2 i mentioned 🙃 So i would really really love if the mahou shoujo genre continued to evolve, be taken more seriously, more experimentation to be done within it, etc while still remaining a mahou shoujo genre, with magical transformations and friendship saving the world, and turning into a big god-like magical being and having the final battle in space :"D

So, after explaining my motivation, here are a couple of things i would do in my story:

- older characters. Magical girls in these series are usually aged between 13 and 17, and any more is like an older magical girl. The magical girls in my story would still be young, but i would set the minimal age of all characters to 18.

- a lot of magical girls! What i liked in Magia Record (the game, idc about the anime) was that there was a lot of them! It was established in the original madomagi that girls establish their territories on which they work (i think they did it in Raising Project as well), which implies there are a lot of magical girls. They did do too many in Magireco (they didn't ALL have to be in this one city xD), but i love the idea. With my idea, it would also mean i get to create a lot of unique characters based on different forms of art :D

- RULES!!! It isn't always explained in stories HOW people use magic. In Witch Hat Atelier, you draw your magic! In Tweeny Witches, you need parts of fairies, such as their hair or feathers! For my story, it would make sense that the girls can use any magic they can imagine. But with them doing different arts, they would naturally imagine things differently! "How to use magic?" "What is magic?" They would all have different answers to these questions. Maybe one music girl would use sound waves to deafen their enemy, but another one would play relaxing melodies to put a monster to sleep, a third one could heal their allies because they believe music has a healing effect.

- Worldbuilding! Why are magical girls a thing? What is their bigger purpose? Where did their cute mascots appear from? What are the monsters that keep appearing? How did nobody know about all this before?? How long has magic even been a thing??? I'm certainly borrowing from Madoka with these questions, and i plan to have a "FUCK. OUR LIVES ARE MEANINGLESS" moment in the end, but 1) nobody dies 2) ppl recover from this and find new hope 3) they defeat the evil and lose their magic as an exchange, but it's ok because their art and their friendships are the real magic 🥰🥰

- more diversity! I can't represent absolutely everyone of course, but i would want to have characters of different ethnicities and genders and sexualities at least. There isn't a rule that only girls can be magical, it's just that I'm going to focus on girls, but there will be magical boys and enbies too lol :D i have ideas for some disabled magical girls and trans magical girls and i just have sooo many ideas for designs and backstories in my head!!! (⁠☆⁠▽⁠☆⁠)

So yeah, hopefully i could get to that at some point.... ^_^; and i hope you liked reading my rambles :"D

#life updates

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translationandbetrayals · 7 months

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Madoka Magica, a completely different feeling

I am personally a big fan of the Mahou Shoujo subgenre, started like most with Sailor Moon, have explored some shows from the Pretty Cure franchise and binged to Little Witch Academia. A friend of mine recommended Madoka Magica, and at first glance I thought it was like any other Magical Girl anime. But as soon as the first episode went on I felt this weird feeling of nostalgia, the music and animation style hit me in a really weird way that made me feel uneasy.

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened but I already could feel something was coming. As usual, the magic part for the story was presented and you could already sense an epic feeling to it, like something ancient was going to be reborn. And then the dark stuff slowly started to pop. Madoka, the protagonist, and her best friend Sayaka, meet Kyubey, a magical creature that grants girls magical powers and a wish, if they sign a contract and swear to fight against evil witches, along with Mami, a kind veteran magical girl. Later on, the two friends join Mami on a witch hunt, to help them decide if they want to become magical girls as well. As soon as they get to the mission site, they save a person trying to take her life by jumping off a building. Then they got into the witch's labyrinth. A different dimension, even so drastic from the original, that both the music and animation style completely change into something creepy and edgy. It was full of weird creatures so dark and twisted that even the idea of them getting closer felt like death. Then the witch appeared, Mami fought her and won. It felt like a bright light cleansing the deepest dark. After the fight, they learned that the soul gem that the magical girls own, gets dark after using their powers, and the grief seed that the witches leave after being defeated, cleans them.

Later on, Homura, a quiet and mysterious classmate of Madoka, tried to warn Madoka numerous times of the danger that meant to sign the contract. And so those dangers kept appearing along with the true dark nature of the show. Shortly after, Mami was killed by a witch, and all of Madoka’s dreams and hopes were crushed. Despite that, Sayaka still signs the contract and meets another strong magical girl named Kyoko, who becomes her rival. Their story is one of the darkest of the show. Sayaka signed a contract with Kyubey in exchange for a wish to heal the arm of the boy she loved, a really talented violinist. Sadly, her love was not reciprocated, and her life as a magical girl showed to be incredibly difficult and full of despair. Sayaka became drained by the fights, as she mostly fought familiars, minions of other witches who become strong enough to leave the labyrinth, which don’t leave grief seeds after being defeated. So after some time of not cleansing her gem soul, Sayaka transforms into a witch so strong that Kyoko has to use all of her power to kill it, sacrificing herself. At the end, only Madoka and Homura are left.

Close to ending, it’s revealed that Homura is a time traveler that befriended Madoka and tries to stop her from dying again and again. In the last fight against the most powerful of witches, Walpurgis, Homura fails once again from killing her, so Madoka makes a choice and signs a contract with Kyubey, wishing for all magical girls to be saved, reviving her old friends, and wiping magical girls from existence along with her own. So it ends Madoka Magica, with a hopeful but bitter ending, that leaves some mystery open for future movies.

Madoka Magica is a show that takes the Mahou Shoujo trope and makes it into something different. It’s a show that gives us the brightness of the magical girls and the darkness of their twisted existence as their only fate is to become witches. It’s full of the most beautiful dreams full of hope and light, but also shows the darkest sides of human existence. It plays with the music and animation style to completely connect us with the story and the feelings of the characters. It’s a huge fictional world with all kinds of new and complicated concepts, that just makes you more intrigued to know more and more about it. It may have elements that have been done before but all of them combined, make into something exciting, mysterious and completely new. I definitely recommend it for all types of anime watchers, it’s a classic and a must watch for everyone. I have watched Madoka a million times, but there has not been one time, when I haven’t been on the edge of my seat, with goosebumps all over, a crippling fear and overloaded excitement.

By Daniel Zepeda Hidalgo

#Anime #Manga #Japan #personalstory #essay #Sci-Fi #submission

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mewtonian-physics · 1 year

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Why I Like Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Yes, This Includes Rebellion)

I actually highly recommend people who haven't seen it but are shunning it based solely on what they've heard to read this. I'd say 'if they don't mind spoilers' but I get the feeling most if not all of them have already gotten all the spoilers without the proper context. Anyway, yeah. I have a lot to say about this show.

Let me just say right off the bat that no, I do not like Gen Urobuchi. He's done some truly horrifying things. I do not believe Puella Magi Madoka Magica to be one of those things; however, if someone is turned off from watching it due to his involvement I have no issue with that.

On to address the biggest argument I tend to see against this show.

"It's torture porn!"/"It's just a bunch of teenage girls suffering for twelve episodes!"/And so forth.

I feel like there's a double standard here. For example, there's another show I like called Hunter x Hunter. Hunter x Hunter has an extremely long arc generally referred to as the Chimera Ant arc.

Now, the Chimera Ant arc involves a lot of fucked up things. It's many chapters and many episodes of Gon and Killua, who are around 14 or 15 at the time, going through absolutely horrific trauma. This includes: all but watching a mentor figure die in front of them; fighting inhuman creatures, many of whom used to be human; being put into life-and-death situations by people who evidently don't care that much about their wellbeing; fighting amongst themselves; being driven to the brink of despair and becoming something truly horrifying and wanting nothing more than revenge; and almost dying many times.

These elements I listed... are some of the main things I see people complain about with regards to Madoka Magica.

Yet I have never once seen anyone call Hunter x Hunter torture porn. Not even the Chimera Ant arc specifically. I'm not saying that that never happens, but I've never seen it personally, and I certainly doubt it happens to the degree it does with regards to Madoka Magica. And the Chimera Ant arc is much, much longer. It is drawn out and horrible and gutwrenching and honestly, at some points, genuinely sickening.

So I can't help but wonder, why the double standard? To give people the benefit of the doubt, I tend to assume it's one or both of the following:

Madoka Magica is a magical girl show, which is not a genre you would typically expect such dark content. (Or, at least, it wasn't.)

It's because Gen Urobuchi is involved, and his other works cast a (fully justified) negative light on this one. Again, if this is your problem with it that is your prerogative and I do not blame you. But I actually rarely see people bring that up.

If I'm being less generous, I could say that perhaps it's some form of misogyny--that since the main characters of Madoka Magica are girls, it's worse and more unforgivable than it is for boy characters to go through similar things. (Because girls apparently can't handle trauma like boys can, or something? I don't claim to understand the reasoning behind it.) But I doubt that's actually the case in most situations, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was in a few.

Though really, if people want to complain about magical girl torture porn, Mahou Shoujo Site is right there. (God, I hate Mahou Shoujo Site.)

But that's enough with the rebuttals. I'm here to talk about why I personally like it.

Quality

I mean, come on. In terms of technical skill, this show has so much going for it. Outside of the occasional awkward moment (as showcased in the famous Meduka Meguca), the animation is stunning, particularly in the witch's labyrinths. The music is amazing and adds so much to each scene--some songs that played in particularly heartwrenching scenes still make me sad just to listen to. In my personal opinion, the voice acting in both the Japanese and English dubs is fantastic. (Though I know that's subjective for a lot of people.) The storyline is concise and does what it needs to do without padding things out or feeling rushed. Even the recap movies are worth watching for the new material they offer, to say noting of Rebellion. So much symbolism is packed into it without feeling forced (okay, except maybe for the 'Love Me Do' bit; that one felt a little excessive)--it's just something fun to think about. Hell, they came up with the runes system when they really didn't have to, and it's a great touch. On a purely technical level, I think Madoka Magica is amazing.

(General) Lack of Sexualization

Magical girl series are scary because they are a haven of fun costumes but also at high risk of oversexualizing teenage girls. I'd say it's the second worst genre in that regard. Although it's not perfect, particularly in regards to some of Mami's portrayal, Madoka Magica tends to steer away from sexualizing its characters. (Magia Record, on the other hand, went full tilt into that, which is a major factor when it comes to how much I despise it.) It does have some troubling moments, and honestly whoever animated the opening for the original show should come meet up with me some time (I just want to talk, I swear...) but I appreciate its general avoidance of the problem. (Also, the long transformation sequence in Rebellion not having a single moment of that at all is soooo refreshing. I love magical girl transformations. Right up until they start making the characters naked. Looking at you again, Magia Record... and like ten thousand other shows on top of that.)

Characters

My god. My god. I adore the characters. All five of the main girls feel so real to me, and they subvert expectations brilliantly. That calm, collected mentor figure? She's horribly lonely and acts like that because it makes her seem a lot stronger than she feels. The 'hero of justice'? So focused on her ideals that she doesn't see the truth of the matter until it's already too late. The selfish rival? Traumatized from her own time trying to be a hero and the horrible consequences. The cool, mysterious girl? An anxious kid trying to protect her only friend (and/or crush). And unlike a lot of magical girl shows, the main protagonist isn't a leader at all--she's just a normal kid watching her life fall apart around her and trying desperately to figure out what to do even as everything seems completely hopeless.

The character development feels genuine, and not just that--this show's portrayal of mental health issues is something I'm never going to forget. I watched it for the first time when I was the same age as the main characters and hadn't yet realized just how bad my own issues were, and I felt seen in a way I didn't fully understand myself. The scene where Madoka bursts into tears at breakfast because she's just realized the danger she was in and is grateful to be alive to eat breakfast with her family is heartwrenching. Kyouko and Homura closing themselves off to the world because their painful experiences have left them feeling like they can't rely on anyone else is horribly believable. Mami hiding her loneliness behind the façade of a cheerful, cool big sister figure is painful. And Sayaka. My god, Sayaka. I'll get into her in the next section.

Witches as a Metaphor for Depression

So, this is pretty obvious. I mean, it's despair that makes a magical girl turn into a witch. The things a witch leaves behind are literally called Grief Seeds. But it feels so true to life even outside of that. Watching Sayaka's ideals, hopes, and dreams get crushed and her subsequent spiral is something I've seen multiple other people talk about relating to in the same way I did. Sayaka is perhaps the most relatable character in the show for someone with depression. She starts out as a confident, cheerful, idealistic girl, and then the real world hits her. The world where there are truly horrible people who do awful things for no reason (the men on the train, for example). The world where good deeds don't necessarily get rewarded and good intentions don't make everything turn out okay. The world where sometimes things just suck and no amount of ideals can change that.

As her Soul Gem gets corrupted, it becomes more and more similar to severe depression. She experiences fatigue and dissociation and hopelessness, and she lashes out at her best friend for not being in her shoes even as she knows what she's doing is wrong--she runs away crying in the rain afterwards beating herself up over it. And at the end, when she reaches a point of absolute despair and no longer holds any of the ideals she once had, having become disillusioned with reality, she implodes. She draws into herself and creates a world of the things she loves, and attacks Madoka and Kyouko when they try to bring her out of it. She gives up entirely on the world and on herself. And supernatural influences or not, that's something a lot of people with severe depression can relate to.

But it doesn't stop there.

Rebellion And Its Inevitability

I've seen people talk about how they think Rebellion was out of character and unbelievable, but I have to disagree with that perspective. Rebellion is horribly believable, and despite the relative happiness of the main show's ending for everyone else (Madoka's speech about how people should hold on to hope and keep trying even when things seem impossible still brings tears to my eyes), Homura never really got any closure, and it's honestly not a surprise to me that things turned out how they did. I mean, think about it. The girl she spent literal years trying to protect just disappeared in the end, leaving her little brother and Homura as the only ones who remember her. No one else is even aware she ever existed at all. Homura says it herself in the movie--it made her feel like she was going crazy. Like her most precious memories with the person she loved most were just things she made up. How is a traumatized teenage girl supposed to deal with that? And yes, Homura is still a teenager--no matter how many loops she went through, she never actually aged. Her brain is still at the developmental stage it was when she started--that of a fourteen-year-old girl. She's not an adult and expecting her to make perfectly rational adult decisions is unfair--hell, expecting even an adult to make perfectly rational decisions in that kind of situation is unfair! And even though she decided to play the role of the devil, on some level she really thought she was doing what was best for Madoka, because the amnesiac Madoka told her that what happened would make her sad. Homura still spent the whole movie trying to do right by Madoka, even to the point where she was desperate to die so that Kyubey couldn't hurt Madoka anymore. Sure, her actions were hardly selfless, but again--this is a scared, traumatized teen in a desperate situation making a split-second decision. Even if she thinks Madoka will hate her for it, on some level she thinks she's doing the right thing. Actually, that's how you can tell--if it was a purely selfish action, she wouldn't accept Madoka potentially hating her. She'd want to keep Madoka by her side forever. But she doesn't. She accepts the fact that Madoka might someday hate her for what she did. She wanted to save Madoka even if it meant damning herself. And she didn't go about it in the smartest way, but yet again--scared, traumatized teenager.

All in all I think Homura's despair was inevitable under the circumstances. Rebellion's ending makes sense to me. And I love it just as much as the main show.

Okay, I'm going to call it there since this post is stupidly long already. Hopefully it helped explain at least a little bit of my love for this show.

#pmmm

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otori0 · 2 years

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Kaname Asagiri Analysis

Hi there, I'm Otori!

Here we go with another analysis, this time about Kaname Asagiri from Mahou Shoujo Site.

This will obviously have spoilers of both the anime and the manga, so please read/watch it fully before proceeding.

I will begin saying that Kaname is not only my favorite Mahou Shoujo Site character, but also one of my all time favorite characters as well. Still, I don’t even like Mahou Shoujo Site as a whole, but I found him to be very interesting and well-written, so here we go.

The structure for the analysis will be:

Character overview

Trajectory & development through the manga

Additional info and symbolisms

1. Character overview

I would like to talk about the general aspects of him first. The most obvious thing about Kaname is that he is a sociopath, which is, to be short, someone who tends to disrespect others and has little to no empathy. Statistics show that one of every 25 people is a sociopath, and it’s a mental illness also called antisocial personality disorder. They usually hurt people or animals, are unfair and don't respect other people. So, great. The first thing to point out about the character is that he is mentally ill. Looks good.

Moving to the next point, another main characteristic in Kaname is him being misanthropic. Misanthropy is a general hatred and distrust towards humans. This plus Kaname being a sociopath gives up the perfect image of who he is. But he is much more than an mentally ill boy, and I want to prove that and make people understand this character. Of course, I will never try to justify his actions. I will just try to give you a different point of view so that you can get to know him better.

Lastly, I'd also like to point something about Kaname being portrayed as one of the main antagonists. In the wikia, for most part of the manga he was labeled as the main antagonist, even if later this was changed by the admins. Which is interesting considering that he’s nor a Site Admin nor a ‘’mahou shoujo’’, and he ends up helping the main characters. In fact, at the beginning I completely thought that Kaname would be a secondary character, whose purpose was to serve as one of the reasons for Aya’s misfortune. I think that Kaname being first shown as a ''secondary character'' made people be quick to judge and hate him.

2. Trajectory & development through the manga

From the beginning we see that Kaname looks and behaves like a kind, polite boy, which is obviously a facade. He is in fact manipulative and cruel, and he hits and belittles his sister Aya every day. Why does he beat her? Well, it's said that it's to relieve stress, but I'm pretty sure that this isn't the only reason. There are a million other ways to relieve stress other than this one. First of all, Aya is weak and can't speak up. Even if she did, her parents wouldn't believe her, since Kaname is a cheerful and good boy who obeys all of their orders with a smile; the complete opposite from her, in the outside at least. Kaname tends to feel superior to others and enjoys that superiority, so beating someone like Aya boosts this. This is also the main reason behind general real life bullying too, and Kaname's treatment towards Aya is pretty similar. Also, since Kaname works hard and studies every day, while Aya doesn't, he thinks that it is unfair and that she has to pay for it enduring the pain. While he is totally wrong at this, I can understand his feelings because he works very hard and gets beaten because of a 98 in an exam, while no matter what Aya does or where she is her parents don't care. It IS unfair, for both of them, and the amount of pressure Kaname goes through is by no means normal.

At chapter 12 we get a bit more of introspection in Kaname’s mentality. Basically, more proof of his misanthropy and sociopathy, combined with his narcissism. These three make an awful combination, honestly. Kaname Asagiri is elite, and he's praised constantly by teachers, family and classmates, and he truly believes himself to be superior to all of them by far. To the point of coming to the conclusion that everyone else is worthless.

However, what is Kaname’s conception of ‘’worth’’? Meaning, what makes a person worthy by his standards? What qualities does a person need to not be ‘’shit’’?

Incompetent and dumb people are shit for him, so people who aren’t intelligent are out. Which is a rather common idea, especially for (obviously) smart people, including historical figures, and especifically many ancient greek philosophers.

People who are shallow on the inside and superficial people are also shit for him — which is interesting because in the Mahou Shoujo Site universe there’s a lot of people like this. No need to even mention Nijimi, but their city seems to be full of this kind of people.

Weak, cowardly and unrealistic people are shit too, which adds weight to his hate against Aya. His sister has all of those characteristics, so even if Kaname’s abuse is of course too much, his hate for her makes sense with his general mentality.

However, some pages later all of this is reduced to a single sentence.

All of the qualities that defines somebody’s worth for Kaname are not important anymore when it comes to his mother: He loves her because she’s nice to him. This quote is so simple and almost child-like that it makes a great gap with the rest of Kaname’s inner monologue in the chapter, but not without a reason. Despite of Kaname's way of thinking, the only thing he truly needed was someone to be nice and understanding to him, and that person was his mother. She is the only truly gentle person with him, who doesn't love him by his looks or intelligence but for who he is, and Kaname is grateful for this and likes her back. Plus, he knows that she's a victim to his father's abuse too, so he might feel empathy towards her in this regard.

Moving on, let’s go to Nijimi and their relationship. Nijimi is 14 years old and, being so young, she would obviously fall for a handsome, older boy. However, Nijimi is not a perfect character like the fandom likes to think. She is mentally ill too, and she explicitly said that she wanted to kill Aya quite a few times for hiding things from her. Yes, she had good reasons, but that doesn't change the fact that Nijimi is insane too and not perfect and pure. And thinking objectively it's logical that Kaname would take profit of her. I mean, Nijimi is crazy for him, would do anything for him, and from his eyes she’s just a dumb teenager who can easily be manipulated. It was intelligent from Kaname to use her considering his goals.

Next, let’s go to Naoto's death. This time, Kaname only defended himself, as Naoto wanted to kill him in the first place, and he took the chance to test his new powers too. Yes, maybe Kaname went overboard and this chapter shows just how crazy he is, but it is logical, and he had already had many thoughts of wanting Naoto to die, since by his standards, Naoto is a completely worthless person.

Kaname doesn't feel remorse at all after killing Naoto. This is a typical feature of sociopaths, and it also makes sense because Naoto is a worthless person by his standards.

Aya, after seeing how Kaname ordered Naoto to die, tried to hide it because she didn't want her friends to kill Kaname. Honestly I know that Aya is like this, but it’s so confusing. Even if he is her brother, he is a really horrible person who hurts her and threatens her day after day. Wanting to protect him is stupid. Later we learn that Aya was aware of Kaname’s stress and the fact that he received abuse from his father, which only makes it more weird. Think about it: she knew about this and yet never tried to help Kaname, only quietly receiving the abuse. And yet she tries to help Kaname here? And yet, in chapter 40, she says that she will never forgive him, when it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t going to use the powers for a good cause. Pretty inconsistent of her, but we will leave it aside, as we will talk more about it later.

Moving to the part in which Kaname shows his true self to Nijimi for the first time, in her apartment (chapter 259. Even after Kaname told Nijimi that he was only using her, Nijimi tried to deny by all ways that he didn't need her anymore and say that she would do anything for him. Knowing that he manipulated her and sealing her later fate.

Also I'd like to point how Kaname doesn't care about losing lifespan because of the stick. First of all, Kaname is not happy. He never is truly happy through the entire manga except from the last chapter, but he thinks that gaining power and controlling others can become happiness. Because the control his father puts on him brings him unhappiness, he believes that if he is the one in control instead, he would be happy. And in fact, the scenes where he laughs most and seems to have more fun is when he is controlling someone through the stick.

Let's talk about Nijimi's death. Kaname first of all tries to gather all the sticks. He wants even more power. When Kiyoharu explains to Nijimi all about Kaname, she decides to kill him. She doesn't even listen to Kiyoharu anymore since the anger took over her senses, which is absolutely logical but also the reason why she died. And again, Kaname defended himself when killing her. Yes, there where a million other ways to stop her, but he was clearly surprised and reacted as he could in the little time he had. Kaname didn't even know all about the Mahou Shoujo Site yet so maybe he didn't want to risk his life in learning if Nijimi had a way to kill him or not.

Just before dying, Nijimi attacked Kaname one last time, cutting his throat (honestly the fact that Kaname survived to that makes me lose my mind but this is Mahou Shoujo Site we're talking about). This has many interpretations and maybe it doesn't hold any deep meaning but I like to think that it does. Of course, she was trying to aim a fatal blow so aimed for his neck, but it also makes me think that Nijimi wanted to shut Kaname for good. She didn't want to hear those words coming out from his mouth; to aknowledge that she had been used by him.

For Kaname, not being able to speak becomes a real shock and he looses his cool completely. He hates losing his freedom and this is shown through all the manga. Because of his father, he can't stand being controlled and he hates to be deprived from anything. His thinkings about being God also intensify here. Him believing that he's God is honestly a very interesting feature from my point of view, showing that he really wants and does feel superior from others.

Next is Kaname and Misumi arc. Misumi raped Kaname just because he likes to rape younger boys. That's all the reason or explanation we got, and he didn't just rape him. He confined him, treated him poorly, to the point that Kaname got to call him Master and treat him with respect. The same Kaname who thought of himself as a God. The same Kaname who called all the rest of humans meats with no brains. To see such an arrogant and prideful character in such a pitiful and horrible state is really shocking. Not even Kaname deserved this.

But this is Kaname we are talking about, and there's no way he would just accept the situation and follow Misumi's will like that. Maybe he was waiting for the best chance but after some time, he finally decides to kill Misumi and steals his fork to attack him. Being able to want to break free even in that situation is frankly incredible and his will to survive while also taking revenge is amazing. He was even able to think about it thoroughly and come with a plan, which little people could do if they were in his place.

After finally escaping and going to the hospital, Kaname starts behaving strangely docile due to the traumatic experience, and calm Kaname acts, even when talking to Nana and getting angry he doesn't shout or anything, which he would do in normal conditions.

What’s the first thing Kaname gets once he goes home? His father saying that he must study hard to recover the lost time. This shows just how obsessed his dad is with Kaname making it to the Tokyo university because it's his frustrated dream. Kaname warns him about someone being after them and the father hits him on the face when Kaname literally has a bullet injury. It’s so messed up.

The admins enter the home and what does Kaname's father do? Order him to study. Priorities are priorities: studying goes first, living is second. And as soon as Kaname is free from his control, he punches him to death, which with all honestity is understandable.

Later, when Aya tells him that she endured the pain so that Kaname wouldn't mentally break, Kaname yells to her saying that he doesn't want any pity. He probably felt like she was looking down on him, and can't understand why she would protect him with all the things he did. This is where Kaname starts truly developing as a character.

There’s many scenes in which we can appreciate Kaname’s development from there on. The next time Asahi tells Kaname to shut up, he doesn't talk back or punch her, which is something he'd totally do (and actually did) a couple episodes before. This is already a change. Maybe not a big one, but it's a first step.

When his mother becomes sperm (haha) he totally loses it and starts yelling. He shows anger instead of sadness because that's just how he is used to show his emotions, because he’s never been allowed to show his emotions in any other way, and also because he couldn’t stand looking vulnerable. His mother was the only person who treated him truly well and the only person he could love.

Kaname cooperates with Aya's friends and Nana to recover his mother and save the world, even lying to give Aya an opportunity to use her stick. This is too a very big change on his character. He is willing to lose all of his lifespan to save his mother and the world, and even casted a spell on Aya so that she couldn't end up being the only one unhappy.

And finally, jumping tothe final episode, Kaname's development is fully shown. He shows his very first true smile, his very first free and happy expression.

He goes to the beach with Aya and her friends. He smiles to his parents. His father tells him to relax out there and Kaname replies with a smile. He doesn't hide his emotions anymore. He doesn't lie. He doesn't smile fake nor obey to everything his father says. Usually, characters like him end up either dead or shown as the worst people ever, but Kaname doesn't. He has a proper development and has the final he deserves.

In the anime is much harder to come to like him, which is normal since in the anime we don't see so much of his backstory and his development, while in the manga we got lots of it.

3. Additional info and symbolisms

I want to talk about is Kaname's name. Asagiri means morning fog/mist. Mist (霧) is supposed to cover or hide something, in this case the morning (朝). Every morning is said to be a new beginning and a new hope. Morning depicts brightness, freshness, new beginning, new opportunities, freedom, new hope and transformations. This is exactly what Kaname needed through all his life, and didn't have. He didn't have freedom, he didn't have brightness. Anyhow, morning is meant to represent something bright and light, totally contrary to Kaname. That's why the mist in his name hides the brightness. Because there is some brightness inside Kaname as shown in the end of the manga, but it remains hidden due to his father's abuse.

Later, it's revealed that Aya isn't Kaname's real sister, and thus her real family name isn't Asagiri. Aya in this part of the manga, after learning that Yatsumura is her sister and getting over her death, crying for the first time since long, seems to fit the meaning of morning and a new beginning. That's why she isn't an Asagiri; she can't allow mist (Kaname and her bullies in her case) to hide her morning, and thus forgives Kaname and Sarina to find her path and hope.

In the end of the manga, when Kaname finally gets rid of his problems and makes friends and also smiles to his family, the Asagiri name in the door frame is zoomed. And in this scene it's morning and the sun shines upon Kaname. This definitely means something, as Kaname finally found his new opportunity and freedom.

Kaname, on the other hand, means keystone. He is the center; the mechanism that makes it all work. Just as he saved the world in the end and how he is the main "antagonist". Kaname can also mean need, main point or pivot. Kaname may not be the main character nor the main villain, but he is a vital character for the plot.

Next, spades, which are the symbols of Nijimi’s stick, represent nobility and are a symbol of elite— that elite which Kaname is, and that superiority he wants to achieve.

And lastly, the color blue that is very representative of Kaname, symbolizes power, freedom and elegance. Power and freedom are characteristics that really fit him and his whole character. The power and freedom he wanted but that was forbidden for him, until the end in which he could finally find it.

Thanks for reading!

#mahou shoujo #mahou shoujo site #magical girl site #kaname #asagiri #kaname asagiri #aya asagiri #nijimi #nijimin #mss #mahoushoujosite #misumi kisuke #misumi #character analysis

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animecreator3000 · 3 years

Text

About the Boueibu iceberg

@delphoxqueen asked me to explain about my list for the iceberg so here it is. I might update this from time to time with links and stuff if I stumble across the original posts. This is all from what I know so feel free to add new info. Also, spoiler warning for RobiHachi and the Boueibu manga and novels. (This is like a masterpost it’s very long)

1. There’s a theory in tumblr about which decade the series is set in, using data like the friday the 13th calendar in s2 ep11. In HK we got a second number for when the next monthly Pretty Boy Contest was happening and using the one from Love it was theorized that around a decade had passed since then, which ended up being true.

2. The stage play had a few original songs and characters exclusive to it so unless you watched the full performance, you probably weren’t able to witness all of them. One of the characters is called “Robato Deniro”, as romanized in the stage play booklet I own.

3. The nurse and the cafeteria staff from the s1 mobile game appear in the background in around the first half of s2 ep3.

4. S2 had an unfinished manga that was only available online and was never released on physical format; it was centered around the defense club and sometimes the conquest club and Beppu brothers. All that’s left from what I know are the scans linked on magicalgirlsandcerulean’s blog.

5. This isn’t that obscure because it’s talked about in the anime, but I’m mentioning it because I think many people dropped it before the ova, where right at the beginning it is revealed that the alien that resucitated Mr. Tawarayama twice was, as described by Io, a “mulberry-colored naked mole rat-looking thing”, and was nicknamed “Moley-san” by Yumoto. At least in the anime, we had never heard before of who this was and it never appeared on screen nor was mentioned again.

6. In HK ep8, Karurusu promises the knights to grant a wish if they show him how earthlings spend summer. Kyoutarou reveals at the end of the episode that he wished that summer lasted one more day so he could spend it doing nothing, which prompts Ichiro to theorize that it’s the 32nd of august, and the next day is the second 1st of september.

7. The stage play was was held from march 10th to 13rd, of which the latter is Ryuu’s birthday. There’s an additional recording of a small celebration with cake focused on Ryuu and Io.

8. Atsushi mentions his older sister in the flashback at the beginning of s1 ep4, but she never appears or is mentioned again.

9. There’s a few posts on tumblr theorizing about what happened to the Hakone parents since Yumoto only says in s2 ep3 that according to Gora, “they are busy with their hot springs tour”. En mentions that it’s a bit suspicious, but it’s all the information we have from the anime. Posts talk about the parents perhaps passing away from an accident or an illness, thus the reason why Gora was so worried about Yumoto’s cold in s1 ep10, but from another post I think it’s implied in the second novel that they actually left their home when Yumoto was still a toddler.

10. It’s no secret that the surnames of the characters are all real onsens in Japan that even the seiyuus have visited, but apparently the Arima onsen has two different kinds of water, “kinsen (gold hot spring)” and “ginsen (silver hot spring)”, with different properties each, and the Kusatsu onsen water also has certain properties, both that were used to build the characters. Additionally, Ryuu’s favorite food are Sato Nishiki cherries, which are grown in the same prefecture, Yamagata, as his onsen, Zaou.

11. The press club lose relevance after s1, with only Kinosaki and Tazawa reappearing briefly in s2 ep2 to interview the Beppu twins after they arrive at the school. Tazawa doesn’t even have lines. Hireashi is mentioned by Zundar in ep11.

12. What the heck

13. Exclusively in the manga we see that Arima met Kinshiro and Atsushi when they were little and they were good friends, but when they met again as adults, Kinshiro seemingly didn’t remember Arima. Atsushi, however, stated that Kinshiro’s talent is remembering people’s faces and names, so Arima wonders if he’s just trying to distance himself from him. He also explains to Akoya that he follows Kinshiro and obeys him because as a child, he was fascinated by his radiant smile. This is never talked about in the anime.

14. Like the previous point, the anime never shows Akoya being bullied, at most just a slight dislike of his full name, but the manga shows that he was made fun of for it and how he actually hates his surname, to the point of introducing himself formally to the president and vicepresident of the student council as “Holy Angel Akoya”.

15, 16, 17, 19. Batonama lives were the livestreams done through the franchise by the defense club seiyuus on youtube and niconico. They’re all on youtube, without any kind of translation.

Love-ko is a girl with a shell bikini drawn on a piece of cardboard that was used as a girlfriend in the Batonama Love! lives, acted by the seiyuus themselves.

RobiHachi has one episode full of official Boueibu artwork and a parody of the series too, a Love-ko doll appears, and Wombat appears as well, named “The Don”. It received an english dub, so for a bit, people were excited that Wombat was going to speak in english too. Also, various mechas appear in both Boueibu and RobiHachi.

18. The director of Fairy Ranmaru (Masakazu Hishida if I’m not wrong) revealed in an interview that he was inspired by Boueibu and aimed to make a show like that.

20, 21. The website super-groupies.com has results for defense and conquest club lingerie sets, dc and VEPPer tote bags, the Beppus’ scarf rings, dc bath sets and the pumps magicalgirlsandcerulean mentioned. I’ve found the s1 Loveracelets and Caerula Adamas’ ring on different sites, the True Loveracelets on TheChara’s twitter and the Happybraces (apparently called “Hapibure”) on broccoli.co.jp but I’m not sure where exactly they were all announced and sold, so I’ll just drop that.

22, 33. Boueibu was originally pretty much a copy of Sailor Moon, I think they were all going to be called “Lackluster Moon” and that stuff and be literally Sailor Moon genderbent. They were all different from color palettes to physical features (except Yumoto’s), and Ryuu was a shota, even smaller than Yumoto. Their names were also very reminiscent of the five Sailor Senshis’. Even if they made it more original, the show is still clearly inspired by Sailor Moon (just look at Caerula Adamas lol) and Pretty Cure. It has also referenced, very blatantly, animes like Doraemon, Detective Conan, Aikatsu and even Vocaloid, when Kyoutarou tries to guess what Karurusu is saying with ““Just Google It, Asshole”?” in ep1.

23. Wombat’s real name and the name of his planet sound like gibberish to the earthlings and ends up being named after the Earth animal, but Zundar, Dadacha, Karurusu and Furanui all have original names. And I think Hireashi means “goldfish”?

24. If you google “zundar technology”, it’s actually a company in Shanghai, China. Aren’t Wombat and Zundar always talking about “advanced alien technology”?

25. Zundar and Dadacha are siblings, so are Karurusu and Furanui, and so are their father King Kamopapa and their uncle minister Wao, but neither are the same species and, except the first two, not even the same color. But they are supposedly related because they share birthmarks or something like that...

26. Everyone who’s in this fandom knows about the pixel blur and voice pitch censor from s1, but I’ve added it anyway because it’s so rare for mahou shoujo and shounen animes to explain why the heroes aren’t recognized when transformed.

27. A good while of s2 ep11 is spent discussing Zundar’s ex-wife and his problems to give child support. Naturally, he gets mad at this.

28. “Money doesn’t betray” (s1 ep6) and “The despair hidden behind your smile that comes from not being understood” (s3 ep11) are sentences that came out of nowhere and implied that the people they were said by (Io) or about (Taiju) respectively had some kind of angst going on but were never explained at all. They’re famous for just that.

29. The Beppu twins’ house in Andromeda shown in flashbacks had strange green circles that apparently are from another anime I don’t know but honestly I didn’t get it very well... It was revealed on a tweet from Takamatsu.

30. Alien language mostly appeared in s2 due to the many flashbacks of Aki and Haru in Andromeda, but in Boueibu s1, it appears on the Zundar Needle before it is shot on the human. It appears a lot through RobiHachi as well, due to being a story about travelling through space. There might be an alphabetical chart somewhere, but I can’t assure it exists, I might even have dreamed it.

31. Hikaru Midorikawa as the melon monster, Kousuke Toriumi as the bishounen monster, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as the kotatsu and panda monsters and Takuya Eguchi as the remote controller monster in s1 and 2, before going on to voice the main cast in HK. Keisuke Koumoto voiced Hatchi Kita in RobiHachi as well as Akihiko in Boueibu, and the characters look similar.

A new addition is that so far Boueibu is the only anime I’ve seen where children weren’t voiced by female seiyuus, but by actual children. Personally, it’s charming and makes it so much more realistic, specifically since no women appear in the franchise at all either (not counting Protag-chan in the game).

32. Speaking of seiyuus, Can I Destroy The Earth? had a dub shown in ep11/12 (?) that made Gora the villain that wanted Earth to stay the same and not progress, against the monsters that supposedly wanted to bring good things to earthlings. Aki and Haru quickly dismissed this dub as fake. (I made a mistake in the title in the previous post btw)

34. As seen in the glossary in the Boueibu Mook (I think, but might not be the mook), Caerula Adamas’ speeches are based on an old japanese detergent commercial that went “Gold, silver, pearl, gift”.

35. In the manga there’s a short parody of the first chapter of Sailor Moon with “Pretty Boy Guardian Gakuran Akoya”. The conquest club manga was released before the anime, so I remember reading somewhere that a fake website appeared for the Gakuran Akoya manga, before turning into the conquest club manga website in the day of its release.

36. Cgi was used a few times in the anime: s2 ep10 for a short sequence of the defense club on a rollercoaster and the carousel monster, ep11 for a cenital shot of the Battle Lovers singing, and HK ep12 for the Honyalaland soldiers and the Wao mecha.

37. The toothbrush incident in s1 ep7. (It’s definitely well-known but it’s so weird lol)

38. “We hope we can see each other again someday!” Something along those lines was the last text to appear in the last episode of HK, implying a s2. We all know how that went.

#boueibu #new post bc i didn't put a readmore in the other one and it was getting too long #msorry #long post #speaking of the robihachi eng dub... sarazanmai has one too...#so many animes like those get dubs but not boueibu?! HOW UNFAIR #at least we got the funimation subs #is the game even canon??#i mean with stuff like how everyone is apparently straight in there #even yumoto who pretty much came out as gay in the anime #that's very inconsistent #i mean. it is canon but maybe it's like an au? idk #also we need gakuran akoya to be real lmao #also no prequel with gora or hk s2. WHYYYY #i think this took me four hours

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magicalgirlagency · 3 years

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Why are you still complaining about Madoka? This is getting boring, honestly...

I know I'm sounding like a broken record at this point, but trust me, my complaints this time are on a whole different context.

Apparently, people are complaining about Magia Record, and how its stakes and body counts are lower in comparison to the original.

Some even say "you might as well be watching Pretty Cure", when the only similarity that this series shares with the Puella Magi series is with seiyuus/VAs (Kitamura Eri and Aoi Yuuki).

Like, of course MagiReco won't replicate the same gimmicks that MadoMagi has done 10 years ago. We already know how their magical girl system works, we already how Soul Gems and Grief Seeds function, we already know how Witches are born... WE KNOW.

Everyone and their mother knows what happened 10 years ago. We don't need to go through that again.

The thing is that MagiReco's story is more mystery-driven; starting with simple questions (what was Iroha's wish, and why did she had trouble remembering it?) and leading up to something bigger (the Wings of Magius and their plans of salvation).

The stakes are still there, such as the consequences of the overusage of Doppels and the arrival of Walpurgisnacht, for an example.

Besides, it's not like the OG series is officially over; I mean, the controversial and dreadful Rebellion movie is getting a sequel after eight years.

People like you are just upset that MagiReco isn't like the series that came after MadoMagi's success.

You're just upset that it's not like Magical Girl Raising Project. Or Yuki Yuna is a Hero. Or Daybreak Illusion. Or Mahou Shoujo Site. Or Spec-Ops Asuka.

These series I just mentioned have tried to replicate what MadoMagi has done, but failing epicly as a result and making its spiritual predecessor tamer in comparison.

Because seriously, how much of a soulless monster do you have to be to kill off a trans child, a lesbian couple and a pregnant woman? To bully, torture and abuse a girl to the point of suicide? To treat teenagers like disposable soldiers and sexual objects? To compare disabilities to a terrible curse and a fate worse than death?

These "Tragical Girls" were just a passing trend, and trends come to an end someday. People would have to grown out of their edgy phase somehow.

MadoMagi, as frustrating as it was, at least ended on a somewhat hopeful note (despite the fact that it was a half-assed ending that has eventually resulted into toxic lesbianism on an universal scale).

It IS possible to come up with a high-stakes story and build emotional investment without the need of character deaths and shock value at every corner. If you give MagiReco a chance and do a research on its in-game story, you might see it with other eyes and open up to new stories that don't rely on overused clichés that edgy teens loved to use, reuse and abuse back in the 2000's.

Magical Girls don't share the same universe. There won't be another another series like Sailor Moon. Or like Tokyo MewMew. Or Ojamajo Doremi. Or Mermaid Melody. Or Princess Tutu. And so many others.

These are different stories, each of them with their own sets of rules. They may be similar in some aspects, but they're never the same.

Hell, not even PreCure is the same; there's a different gimmick every year.

Just because something is different from what you're used to it doesn't mean that it's automatically bad. It's nice to get out of your comfort zone sometimes; you'll be in for some surprises.

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heavensickness · 3 years

Note

tysm!!! i enjoy horror and lgbt mangas the most, can u rec some more of that?

Making this list took a long time bc I've been reading horror mangas since I was 12 lmao, if I remember more I'll add them: (Favorites are in bold)

Starving Anonymous

Emerging

Fuan no Tane

Ousama Game

Doubt - Judge - Secret (it's a triology)

Jinrou Game

Jinrou Game - Beast Side

Jinrou Game - Crazy Fox

Pumpkin Night

Signal 100

Chainsaw Man

Hideout

Goth

Corpse Party

Dragon Head

Distant Sky

I Am A Hero

Ibitsu

Higanjima

Litchi Hikari Club

Ichi the Killer

Shiki

Shigurui

Sweet Home

Bastard

Another

Death Sweeper

House of Dolls

Anamorphosis No Meijuu (If you like grotesque stuff, anything by Shintaro Kago is recommended. Most of his works are too absurd for me but he's one of the best guro illustrators tbh)

6000

Anything by Junji Ito; Tomie, Uzumaki, Gyo and Yami no Koe are highly recommended

Kami no Kodomo

Saiteihen no Otoko (this one rlly hit me hard idk why)

I HATE THIS ONE BC IT NEVER ENDS AND GETS MORE AND MORE ABSURD WITH EACH CHAPTER BUT I CAN'T QUIT: Freak Island/Kichikujima. I hope it ends soon so that I can be finally free

Mahou Shoujo of the End

Mahou Shoujo Site

Ajin

Killing Morph

Tales of the Unusual (webtoon)

The Vault of Horror - A Collection of Nightmares (webtoon)

Friday: Forbidden Tales (webtoon)

Chiller (webtoon)

Unknown Caller (webtoon)

Strangers From Hell (webtoon)

Duty After School (webtoon, I love it so so so much. It really affected me)

Dead Days

Koishou Radio

Aku no Kyouten (also has a movie)

Fukushuu Kyoushitsu

Devil's Line

Kuro Ihon

Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw

Tomogui Kyoushitsu

Shiga Hime

Kiriko Kill

Tengoku ni Musubu Koi

Jiisatsu Circle

Apocalypse no Toride

Torture Tournament

Ashita no Esa Kimi Dakara

Doku Mushi

Fukushuu Kyoushitsu

Kyoushitsu Jibaku Club

Rule - Annihilation Classroom

#horror #horror manga #most of these are survival/thriller rather than pure horror btw #manga recommendation #manga recs #keep

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panvani · 3 years

Text

On cats. (Vincent and Alice meta)

Something went wrong when you were born. There was some kind of mistake, some earth-shattering cosmic screwup that resulted in your creation. Nothing can be done about it- that mistake is who you are, something inseparable from the core of your being. Humans must scorn you, or else be made to suffer. You know that. No one will let you forget it.

Supposedly, you’re surrounded by people like you. They find camaraderie in each other, share each other’s pain so no individual is given too much to bear. Supposedly, supposedly they’ve all been tossed aside, declared too sinful to be tolerated by humans, and supposedly that means you’re all family and you’re all friends. They don’t like you, though. You’re a step further.

Who’s there to care for you? Your sibling, in a sense, but also not- they know what you are and can’t ever really forgive you for it. They love you, in their way, and then also love the one who put you there, who tells you your life is forfeit and approaches you intending to one day have you killed. Nothing can be done about it. To go against him would doom you both.

There’s one person, though, just one person who seems to care for you. He’s not like the others- he’s from the outside, where he says he’ll take you someday, away from the family that scorns you. This person is gentle and warm to you in a way no human has ever been, says you’re pretty, says you’re kind, says he loves you. You love him religiously, of course, since it’d be a saint that could love something as hateful as you.

(chapter 103)

There’s someone just like you out there. You hate them.

The first bit of information we’re given about Alice and Vincent’s relationship is delivered in the most shocking way possible- Alice, fawned on by Jack and caught in the sort of innocent infatuation one would expect a young girl to have, is approached by Vincent. Immediately she identifies him as an enemy, talking of how she hates him for how he bullies her. Then he shows her her cat, presumably Alice’s only real friend, whose eyes he’s gouged out. (chapter 31)

It’s something I see PH fans talk about a lot, often with the perspective that it’s proof of how Vincent had always been evil. That’s understandable. The setup of a protagonist whose only companion is a cat, otherwise bullied an isolated, then having their cat be brutally murdered is common in Japanese media (think of Mob Psycho 100, Mahou Shoujo Site, and Misao as examples from different genres and mediums). It’s a very easy way to garner sympathy for a character and to demonstrate the degree of their helplessness. What Vincent had done seemed, when it was first shown, to be an act of needless cruelty.

What Vincent had done was wrong. In no way do I attempt to argue that there’s any justification for animal cruelty, especially to the degree that he had committed. The issue I take here is in how many refuse to take into account the full context of their relationship, one I think is extremely important to understanding both characters. Pandora Hearts is a series whose structure largely relies on going back over the same events from different perspectives, with new information- information that more often than not completely changes the meaning of the events previously shown- displayed each time.

(chapter 39)

Here’s the thing about children- they only know what’s been shown to them. A child that’s been violently abused will not understand the immorality of violence. A child that’s only been shown cruelty will not understand the problem with being cruel. Here’s Alice, told from birth she was dangerous, that she was to be held in isolation and abused, ostensibly for the greater good. Here’s Vincent, told the same thing. Here’s Gil, who wants to kill Alice now, because Vincent needs Gil, needs Gil to protect him from Alice who’s being cruel to him now, and if Gil can’t make Vincent need him, what point is there in Gil being alive?

She makes Gil wear that expression again because of me. It’s worth noting, Alice is gleeful to hear Gil was going to be murdered after Gil threatens and physically assaults her. Vincent was the only child in that scenario who seemed to have no interest in the death of another.

From the beginning of their relationship there’d been a mutual understanding between Alice and Vincent of each being, in some way, interchangeable with the other. It’s why Alice mocks Vincent to begin with- a defensive anger out of the perception that Vincent intended to steal Jack away when Jack was all Alice had. Vincent felt no anger towards Alice for the things she said to him, but Gil’s reaction to them- he recognized his anger at her as being, in a way, a product of Gil’s emotions towards Vincent. The thing about hating yourself is you start to hate anything that looks like you, too.

Alice and Vincent’s respective cruelties were that of children, meaning, ultimately, they were that of adults. Both had been abused and dehumanized by their family and then groomed by Jack, who encouraged conflict between them knowing it would drive them both further into helplessness and isolation. I have no intention of debating whether either deserved it (neither did) nor if one traumatized the other more thoroughly (does it even matter?). I am stating plainly: Alice and Vincent, who were abused children, both treated each other horribly, as they were abused children.

(Do not try to argue that Vincent should have found another outlet. He was an abused and dehumanized eight year old who fully believed his guardian intended to kill his brother. If Vincent had a healthy outlet, he would not have any conflict with Alice to begin with.)

There’s something very important to consider when discussing both Alice and Vincent’s abuse- the fundamental reason as to both why they connected with one another in the way they did and why they were abused in the first place. In fact, it’s the common factor in their connection to Jack, why he had been interested in them in the first place, as they would both eventually find out.

(chapter 72)

(chapter 103)

It’s Lacie. Their connection is Lacie. The reason for their abuse, the reason for their grooming, their reason for their subsequent empathy and hatred for one another is their shared connection to Lacie. Both, for their resemblance to her, were isolated and dehumanized in accordance to the circumstances of their birth. Remember, had that tower not been occupied by Alice, it would’ve gone to the next Child of Ill Omen. It should have been Vincent’s.

The other important piece of knowledge to understanding Alice’s hostility towards Vincent would not be revealed until long after their confrontation is first shown. It further cements that their aggression towards one another was from their shared connection to Lacie, a sort of self harm by proxy between two children with no other means of expressing themselves.

(chapter 71)

Alice knew.

She knew who her mother was, what had happened to her- someone told her, Core of Abyss or someone else. That Alice would know what happened to her mother and know the stigma surrounding the Child of Ill Omen but not understand what the two meant together is unlikely. Alice definitely understood the connotations of what she had said to Vincent- mocking him for being marginalized in a way that had caused him to suffer continuous, extreme abuse- and it’s likely she understood what those connotations meant in relation to herself.

If we assume she knew what happened to her mother- which she did- and assume she knew her mother being a Child of Ill Omen was the cause- which is likely- then her mockery of Vincent for being a Child of Ill Omen takes on a new meaning. Not only is it the recognition that she and Vincent were of the same cloth, similarly regarded as unwanted. It is the recognition that Vincent is the same as that which had birthed Alice to begin with. She implicitly blames him for her creation.

Vincent hates Alice. He hates Alice for hurting Gil. He hates Alice for upsetting Jack. He hates Alice for having caused the Tragedy of Sablier, for have created the circumstances which led to Jack’s death. In the second to last chapter, Vincent says he is sure that he and Alice are the same.

(Consider reading my meta on Vincent and Miranda.)

#pandora hearts #vincent nightray #alice baskerville #meta #logxx #logam #ph spoilers #How to tag this #Uhhhh #grooming #animal death #child abuse #vincent gender essays

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