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x0401x · 5 years

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Yuukei Roadshow Reports and Highlights

Compilation of info found on Twitter and Privatter. Many thanks to ayara-resara for indicating them all!

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@taro4oto2:

Me: Jin-san, in your mind, what kind of adult will Kisaragi Shintarou become in the future...? Jin: Ah~! Kisaragi Shintarou, huh; he is who he is~. I’m thinking of writing songs concerning him from now on too. I’m currently 28, and if I think about him at around this age... I guess he’d probably be a teacher or something like it.

@BlueD01:

“Jin-san, what do you think Momo-chan will be in the future?” Jin-san: Let’s see... *thinks a little* An actress, I guess. “‘An actress’?” *thought process stops* Jin-san: She might also go... overseas. (Memory is faint here.) “Ooh.” Jin-san: I want to write these stories about the future next time. (At last.) “Thank you very much!”

@920ms:

My hands were shaking during Jin-san’s autograph session. Hella.

Although it was a commemorative autograph section for the release of MekaRelo, I’d wanted to tell him no matter what that I get strength from listening to Otsukimi Recital when I have to lighten up... So, I told him this, but I accidentally ended up babbling that Hibiya and Momo’s interactions were the most interesting to me and that I liked them a lot. And then Jin-san said, “I like them too! What will happen to them from now on?? I’m really curious!” as if to dig into it.

Of course I knew that he liked Hibiya and Momo’s combo, but the “What will happen to them from now on?” has been echoing in my brain the entire time... I had a bunch of other things to say, like, “The songs of Momo’s friends are also the best” and, “I’d been listening to Mekakucity Days/Records/Reload a~~ll the time coming the way here”, but my attention was drawn too hard by Jin’s words, so I couldn’t do it...

@BrainBurnShout:

Started with an explosive crossfade.

The host was the woman in charge of KADOKAWA’s Mekakucity Talkers (she’s a beauty).

Jin entered the stage slurping the Shissou Word-themed drink like, “I’d wanted to eat the pancakes but they sold out before I got to it.”

He had his first impression of VOCALOID with “Melt”.

The origin of his conceptualization of “stories told through music” stemmed from Kinniku Shoujo Tai and The Who.

He had planned on the narrative even before Jinzou Enemy, and while gathering up the pattern usage of “a story that ~ the eyes”, the first one he came up with was the one that “locks the eyes”.

One sentence of the initial concept that remained in his PC was: “Medusa does not come out of her house.” (original text)

KagePro is a “curse from his 19-year-old self” because his period of training was long.

He struggles with the consistency of the plot, like, “This and that don’t connect!” and, “That’s my old self~”.

During the innitialization of his PC, he interpreted the “name registration” wrong and accidentally named his PC “Frederica”.

*PC falls down the stairs during moving* Jin: FREDERICAAAAAA!!!!!

He had the ending of the story decided from the beginning.

Due to this, he couldn’t introduce new characters even though he’d always wanted to.

He’s been writing the sequel while thinking that if it turns out impossible to publish, then so be it.

Host: Are you going to make them reincarnate in a parallel world? Jin: That would be a spin-off... like, “Kagerou Quest” or something.

What hides beneath Ayano’s gentleness was something he’d come up with since the initial stages. (He didn’t mention it on Twitter or the like, though.)

[In regards of a question about “becoming an adult”] Jin: Until joining (Edword) Records, I had been in the position of Big Bro, but now I’m a full-fledged Uncle.

Since he’s an adult, he has to pay taxes. He’s been somehow making ends meet with the money that everyone bought the CD with.

[In regards of a question by an Asahiner from the audience about My Funny Weekend] The cheerful verses like the one that goes, “move forward” were said by Hiyori.

The Asahiner who had been waiting all this time for a Hiyori song is overcome with emotion.

The reason why there wasn’t a Hiyori song from the start is that, “If I had included her, everyone’s worries would have been relatively...”

Jin-san: Hiyori-sama.

He has the image of the adult Mekakushi-dan.

It seems Kido will be a caretaker in an orphanage.

When he talked about that image to Sidu-san, the MV’s adult!Kido was suddenly brought up. Jin: Did you turn her into an adult already? Sidu: Should I not have done that?

Hibiya will be an archeologist, and since the Medusa is said to have her roots abroad, he might do a research on that.

Even in Jin-san’s own mind, there are many interpretations: “So and so will get married”, “No, it’ll be so and so”. “The one Shintarou will marry is Haruka!” *audience acclaims*

Jin-san will write the interpretation of the winner of his peerless inner fight.

Haruka is main heroine.

Rather than saying that the albums go from 1st and 2nd to the 3rd, it’s more like the 1st and 2nd are an omnimbus and the 3rd is a backside.

What he depicted with Imaginary Reload was the strength of Mary, who isn’t there just to be protected.

The top was reached by drawing out the 274BPM Konoha~

Remind Blue has parts of Summer Time Record that he hadn’t been able to write about.

It was supposed to be Shintarou’s song, but the lyrics turned out as something that applies to everyone. (Seto has his own Remind Blue and it might be that Kano thinks the same things.)

As a result of Jin-san’s definition of friends, which is “we think alike even without saying anything”, it ended up becoming a song about the whole Mekakushi-dan.

From Jin-san’s childhood experiences, fireworks = summer’s end (an element also used in the novels).

Therefore, the English version of “Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni” is “Fireworks in the Summer End”.

@ndfakvnico:

Shissou Word “She’s bad with words, and I’m the same as her, so I made that into a song.”

Additional Memory A song about regret. Jin-san’s grandfather passed away, and for a while upon coming to Tokyo, he hadn’t been able to see him at all. After the funeral, Jin-san found a file with cutouts of himself from magazines that his grandfather had kindly gathered up. He regretted not having been able to convey anything to him.

Lost Day Hour A song about friends. There was a time during middle school in which he found himself unable to go to school. “If you don’t go once, you become less and less able to.” Back then, he encountered wonderful music. A-kun (provisory nickname), who told him that he also liked said music, came around and the two of them formed a band together. Jin became able to attend high school. He didn’t know what a friend was until then, but he thought, “I guess he’s my friend”.

Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni A song with the image of summertime fireworks. “Tokachi District holds the second largest fireworks festival of the country. I wonder what being second place is like. Just what are they fighting on this? (laughs)” It’s like the scenery of Gin no Saji; a place with that kind of feeling to it.

Remind Blue “Summer is hot and I don’t like it, but it has its charm. I wonder if I was properly able to make that end of summer into a song.”

As always, he drank a lot of water. Actually, in addition to the four bottles that were put there, he also brought a lot of water with him.

As he talked about each song, he would play them with his accoustic guitar.

“Such an honestly pretty library. So many books. It’s my first time singing in a place like this, so I’d been wondering if I wouldn’t get chased out if someone like me suddenly showed up and started singing. (laugh)”

By the way, he was indeed wearing a jersey... lol.

He was super cool when he was singing, but during the time of exiting the stage, he made his way out unsteadily while bowing, so he gave off a feeling of ordinary Nii-chan and it was heartwarming.

He’s good at singing. (my childish reaction)

His manner of speech was extremely gentle, and though I really enjoy the excitement of live concerts and the like, that calm atmosphere and his kind way of performing and talking had me going, “Aah, this totally goes well with Jin-san. It totally goes super well with him. Play-and-talk live concerts are the best...”

There were 100 people with regular tickets, lots of others were standing behind them, the costumers of the nearby Starbucks were all looking too, and many people also stood watching in rows at the second floor’s corridors.

The venue was a Jin World.

I’d been reflecting on the meaning of him doing a library live, and I think it’s something amazing. At the end of it, a staff member asked something by requesting people to raise their hands, and turns out that there were mostly middle and high scholars attending. It felt like there were also grade scholars and college students. Is there any other rock musician who would open an event at a middle school or a public library? Well, there might be, but that’s still incredible...

We were told that we couldn’t enter the venue unless we had a regular ticket, that it was okay to enter because it was a public space, that we couldn’t get autographs, that we actually could get them even without the ticket, and, hum, get your information... together... (tiny voice)

He talked a lot more about the songs, but it’s not coming to me... aah.

In one sentence, it was awesome.

@kugamiryou

The moderator this time was the editor of Mekakucity Talkers, and her hairstyle was kind of similar to Azami-san’s.The song order of the rendition was “Shissou Word”, “Additional Memory”, “Lost Day Hour”, “My Funny Weekend” and “Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni”... but! Guess what: Jin-san said, “I wanna play them after all” and additionally performed the first part of “Imaginary Reload” and all of “Remind Blue”!! Jin-san’s hopping as he played was cute.

The general course of events was that a teaser movie soon played, then the host came on-stage and called Jin-san over, Jin-san showed up slurping a Shissou Word drink, choked while drinking it, and then performed Shissou Word. After that, it was announced that there would be a lottery and some of the prizes were Jin-san’s personal belongings.

The first corner was “Jin-san Talks About Kagerou Project”. It was a talk about why he started making KagePro. With the trigger being that the band he had in high school broke up, he decided to make stuff on his own, and he started creating a story first from the fact that “There are many depictions of ‘eyes that do ￮￮’, huh!” or something of the sort.

“Locking eyes” ➡ “Medusa” ➡ “This is it!!” ➡ “A Medusa who doesn’t want to lock eyes with anyone won’t come out of her house!” - with this trend, it seems the first thing he planned out was Kuusou Forest.

Apparently, the stories of the novel and manga progressed with him deciding their ending first, and he indeed wants to write the next novel. If he ends up unable to publish it, he’ll write it like, “whatever” and turn it into a book anyway, and he talked about writing something like “Kagerou Quest”, lol.

After he finished performing Additional Memory, he stated that he “couldn’t mention it on Twitter”, but he had wanted to say that “Ayano isn’t just a gentle girl”. From then on, we had a questions-and-answers corner.

Q.: What was the moment in which you thought, “I’ve become an adult”? A.: That’s a theme I want to write about in the next novel. I thought, “I’ve turned into an adult, huh” when I was making Lost Day Hour and suddenly felt like calling my friends. Also, when I started paying taxes.

From someone who’s been an Asahiner for 7 years: I want to know the reason why you made My Funny Weekend. A.: I’d wanted to use Hiyori, but I couldn’t until now. Hiyori is strong, so if I’d used her before, she would make everyone else’s worries dim. It feels like Hiyori made me write the parts that go, “being greedier is just fine”. I’m not the one who came up with them.

From a person who used to stan Shintarou and started stanning Ayano after Additional Memory: Please tell us the reason why you gave Ayano that moment in AddiMemo. A.: It’s the one song in MekaRelo in which someone is dying alone. Sorry for going, “I’m sorry” right after singing, “It’ll surely be an even better day!”. This is actually a story that I wished I had included in the manga.

Q.: I would like to know about the Mekakushi-dan of the early stages. A.: There are parts of the way the loops work that I haven’t written yet. There’s a possibility that, epending on the loop, the characters of the first Mekakushi-dan might show up (like the female Konoha).

Q.: Will you write the story of the characters turning into adults? A.: I’ve already thought out what kind of jobs each will have and who will be married to who. There are many stories in the minds of everyone, but I want to write something like, “This kind of future also exists”. For example, Kido taking over the orphanage and Hibiya becoming an archeologist to investigate the Medusa abroad. But whenever I try to make so and so get married, another side of me cuts it off like, “Wait a minute... the one who will marry Shintarou is Haruka, right?”, so whoever wins this unique armed struggle tournament inside my brain will be the one to write.

~About MekaRelo~

He had wanted to make songs regarding what he couldn’t write in the novel.

Imaginary Reload: it’s about the girl who had been waiting to be rescued in Kuusou Forest going off to fight on her own will, and doesn’t just wait to be saved. It’s 274 BPM, so it’s the fastest song?

Shissou Word: it’s based on the fear that Jin-san experienced when he was a child from continuously being asked, “Why can’t you do such a normal thing?” and from wondering, “What is ‘normal’ even?”

My Funny Weekend: it’s the song that feels the most final episode-like to him.

Additional Memory: a song that he thought he “had to write”. It’s the saddest one.

Lost Day Hour: the song that had him thinking, “I have to make this” back when he was writing volume 6.

Remind Blue: a song that made him think, “This is the last summer song”. It’s a song packed with the things he didn’t manage to write about in SumReco. It has the image of Shintarou, but there are parts about Haruka, about Seto and about Kano, so it’s kind of a song with no definite protagonist. Makes one think about not forgetting summer.

Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni: since the fireworks festival that he once watched in his hometown is his image of the end of summer, so he had wanted to make a story that ended with people watching fireworks, but he was indecisive, because “the last battle happens in the basement of a school, what do I do~” (said originally with a northern accent). He didn’t want to let summer end, but if it didn’t end, it would be weird and unpleasant.

After this talk, Jin-san was about to play My Funny Weekend, but realized that the Shissou Word drink he was having had disappeared without him noticing and was like, “Where’s my Never-Lost Word!?”. He drank water instead, sulking.

“I might make a mistake, sorry!” ➡ *makes a mistake during the hook* ➡ “There were no mistakes, right!?”

Then, we had the big lottery. Sadly, although I had a number in hands, I wasn’t able to get Medusa, the amplifier that Jin-san used when making Imaginary Reload. Sad.

And so, we had the last song, Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni. Jin-san played while saying, “I wanna do collaboration drinks again~”

Everyone frantically lined up to pay their checks and buy goods, but then Jin-san suddenly came back, said, “I wanna do this after all!” and played Imaginary Reload and Remind Blue while drenched in sweat. “Why is it that I’m sweating so much even though I’m playing while seated?”

And then it really was the end... however, people quickly queued to get autographs as if racing to board the last train. While stiffly shuddering, I also got autographs on my CDs and MekaTalk, then handed a letter to him.

I was happy to get a “Ah! It’s a folded paper crane!” reaction from him, but I was nervous for real, so I turned into the typical figure of a useless otaku. When he was signing, I told him, “I won’t be able to go to tomorrow’s autograph session, so I’m happy to be getting it now.” and he replied, “I’ll hold lots of other events after this one! So when the time comes, please! Do attend them!!”

I’ll go.

@Hiroyannn168

I arrived at the venue a bit too early, and when I was waiting for the opening, the staff people and Jin-san passed by me like it was nothing...! He was giving off a civilian-like aura. He boarded the elevator crammed with staff members as if having fun, and when the door was closing, he waved a little at us.

During Jin-san’s play-and-talk live, there was a questions corner and Jin-san discussed about the compositions. He had always wanted to try creating collaboration drinks based off the songs, so it seems he talked it over with the personnel like, “Shissou Word is this kind of song” and, “This color will do~” and, “Could you make this thing float? Is it impossible?” in order to have them made. The band BACKHORN, which Jin-san likes, had been doing these kinds of collaboration drinks, so he had wanted to try his hand at it no matter what.

There were also two types of pancakes that had the image of song compositions, RED and BLUE, and just when Jin-san thought of eating them too, he was told by someone from the staff, “There are only five left” and went, “Incredible” www... They were mad popular, so there was a lot of people eating them.

When Jin-san entered the stage, he brought with him a Shissou Word-themed glass and was drinking it like, “Yummy”.

He’d said on Twitter that he wanted to do something like explaining about the compositions of the songs, so he tweeted about it just a little, but he hadn’t been able to tweet at all after that, apparently because he had been practicing for the live and doing all sorts of things in the meantime. It seems that, since Jin-san was late to tweet about it, he decided to do it properly if he had the chance to tweet later. Is what he said. That he wanted to “explain a little about the song compositions tonight~”.

First track was Shissou Word. At the applause that rose naturally from the audience, Jin-san bashfully said, “thank you” in-between the lyrics. The motif behind Shissou Word was Jin-san’s experience with being asked, “Why can’t you do normal things?” Even though normal things are easy to do for other people, they’re difficult for him... that’s what the song says.

He looked happy when he asked a girl sitting at the far right of the first row, “What are you drinking?” It seems that this person was having the Additional Memory drink (it was red).

Second track was Additional Memory. The song goes like, “Ayano has a so-called gentle girl image, but she also bears these kinds of feelings”. I sensed that listening to the hook with Jin-san’s live voice made it resonate even more sharply in my heart. A shout of her emotions... is what it felt like, I guess?

Jin-san also said something along the lines of, “It’s great being able to expand my range of expression by not just using VOCALOIDs but singing with my own voice too~”.

It seems Jin-san spent a period in truancy during his childhood, and what gave him energy back then was music and books. At any rate, by the looks of it, that had been a truancy amongst truancies.

He’d wanted to form a band in high school, but the bassist quit, so he quickly became spineless about it. It appears that when he was like, “What do I do?”, a senpai of his recommended VOCALOID to him. He came to admire songs with high levels of story settings, similar to the ones from Kinniku Shoujo Tai, and started wanting to create something like an album that would turn into a story – that was the beginning of KagePro.

He said, “It’s interesting that there are lots of phrases about things you can do with your eyes.” Like, “Averting one’s eyes is Hikikomori-ish, concealing one’s eyes means that kind of stuff.” (“That kind of stuff”, you say!? This is just the kind of specific term I wanted~)

It seems that the plot of back then is still in his computer. “The Medusa is a shut-in”, and things like that.

Jin-san is still burdened with the curse from when he was 19 years old www

He also talked about how his computer fell from the second floor when he was moving www and about he wound up naming it Frederica www

Q&A corner. It was a corner where he received questions from people that he’d randomly point at after they raised their hands. The contents of all questions were amazing...

Someone who’d been an Asahiner for over 7 years said something along the lines of being really happy that there was a song about Hiyori-chan, and Jin-san commented that Hiyori-chan is a character with an extremely firm notion of self, so he had wanted to release it sooner but it seems he hadn’t been able to. That’s because, back when the Mekakushi-dan members were still fretting and saying stuff like “oh, my dirty”, if Hiyori-chan had been there with her “Move forward! There’s no mistake that tomorrow will be a much more wonderful day~”, she would cut them off with a single stroke.

It seems she’ll have a lot of screen time from now on. And it looks like rather than Jin-san writing the part of the lyrics that goes “being greedy is just fine”, it felt more like Hiyori-chan was “making him write it”. Hiyori-chan is awesome.

Someone asked Jin-san, “At what time do you think you became an adult?” and he answered that, in the past, he would think of himself as an Onii-chan when looking at children, but now he thinks he’s an Oji-san. That he was paying taxes, laying out a path and keeping it clean www. He said he “ended up becoming an adult when creating Lost Day Hour”; he could see his friends everyday when he was a child, but it seems there’s no such thing after growing up, and he’d find himself thinking, “I wanna give my friends a call”.

Imaginary Reload is 274BPM, and apparently that’s the most in all songs he’s made so far. Incredible. By the way, the maximum for BPM is 300.

It seems Jin-san also likes Remind Blue. Even though he had said, “I’ll make this one and then I won’t write songs about summer anymore!”, he made Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni right after that www. His 28th summer song...

Questioner: Even though I’d never budged from Shintarou until now, I ended up coming to like Ayano-chan the most after listening to Additional Memory. Jin-san: It seems a derby happened there. Is this a horse race or what www

Additional Memory is a bit of an unique song even for MekaRelo. He said, “I’m sorry... for bringing about a song that falls down with a hard thud immediately after saying that ‘tomorrow will be an even more wonderful day~’ with My Funny Weekend.” Like, “She dies all by herself...” He also said that what he was going to discuss from that point on were spoilers.

Shintarou’s snake is... The snakes exchange the abilities for lives... Then, lives are their,,,...???

He was like, “Please don’t spread this on Twitter and the like~”.

Remind Blue. This song was supposed to be Shintarou-san’s, but the figures of everyone overlapped in it, and it feels like each of them is being nostalgic in their own spot. The lyrics go, “together with the me of yesterday”, so Kano-kun and Seto-kun were also in it... is what Jin-san said. The way of talking is masculine. So it felt like it turned into everyone’s Remind Blue. Jin-san did say that, to him, friends are people who think the same.

Jin-san had Saiyuki-san draw the manga extra from MekaRelo A, and it seems it went like this: “Is it all right this way?” “It is.” “Is Kido-san okay like that?” “She’s exactly like that.” “The Kido-san that Saiyuki-san draws is really cool!” Jin-san said with great admiration.

Speaking of which, it seems that there’s already a conception of the Mekakushi-dan as adults in Jin-san’s mind and he’s decided things such as, “This person will be like that” and “Their occupation will be this”.

Kido-san will run an orphanage; taking over the will of that orphanage is very much like her. Hibiya-kun will be an archeologist. There are legends about Medusa all over the world, so he’ll be researching that.

He talked about how an adult Kido-san appeared in the MV of Shissou Word after he commissioned it to Sidu-san... something like that. It looks like he’s thinking along the lines of... “this person and this person will get married” as well. But Jin-san also said, “Shintarou’s wife will be Haruka-san (laughs)”. Apparently, these Jin-san’s are on a peerless inner fight inside him, and the Jin-san who wins will have his scenario come to life.

Haruka-san is KagePro’s main heroine www

Jin-san asked the audience, “Do you want to see the children of the Mekakushi-dan?” (I do.) “I wanna write novels,” he said. He was like, “I wanna introduce new characters!”

A parallel universe (one of those that are trendy nowadays?) called “Kagerou Quest” might happen www

Alternatively, it might be set in outer space, and it’ll be like a Martian version of the Mekakushi-dan fighting? Something along those lines? (Martian Mekaushi-dan!?!?)

There was a break of about 10 minutes. In that meantime, we lined up for the sale of goods, ate pancakes, etc...

The latter half of the live started.

My Funny Weeked. Jin-san seems to think that this one is the most last episode-like song. He said something like, “It’s my first time playing it live, so if I make any mistakes, pretend you didn’t notice~” and began playing. There was clapping from the audience seats as if to cheer on him, and he stopped playing right before the hook for an instant, but soon resumed it. After he finished singing, he asked, “See, there were no mistakes, right~?” (lol)

During the play-and-talk part, Jin-san drank water because he was out of options, since he had left the Shissou Word drink that he was having at the beginning somewhere, but he heard someone say from the seats, “The Never-Lost Word has been lost” and replied with, “You say some clever things www”.

Jin-san mentioned that he “was bad at conversing”, but I enjoyed his talk.

Big lotery. I ordered food and drinks and received an application coupon with the second item. The prizes were a set of guitar picks, a set of can badges, a volume of Mekakucity Talkers, a poster of MekaRelo (with Jin-san’s signature), a set of ticket holders and cards that came with the novels as appendix, which Jin-san claimed to have turned his house upside-down in order to bring over, and Jin-san’s own CDs (of Mekakucity~) and guitar effector (he apparently recorded Imaginary Reload with it, and its name is Medusa too). To the people who were sorted, congratulations~!

It seems Jin-san has only told about a part of KagePro until now, and he hasn’t yet talked about the extent of the loops.

When he was a child, he used to think, “I don’t want the new semester to start. It’d be good if summer didn’t end.” but an endless summer is somewhat disturbing, just like the two people living together in the last volume... of the novel.

Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni. It seems the last chapter of KagePro closed with fireworks. That’s because, in the past, when Jin-san lived in Hokkaidou, there was a huge fireworks festival, and he thought back then, “Summer is over, huh”. He was like, “But how will I bring up fireworks when the story led up to the school’s underground, a place that has nothing to do with it!?” (lol)

ENCORE!!!

From a wing of the stage, Jin-san got his face out and peeked through (?) from within the curtains with a glance. He’s kinda cute despite being an adult man...

It seems he was being considerate towards us and saying, “It’s late into the night and there are people here who have to go home...” He then played Imaginary Reload (but just the short version of it). And in the end, he was like, “I do want to do it after all!” He sang Remind Blue.

He bid his goodbyes with waving hands~!

Jin-san, you’ve granted me really fun and good memories tonight. You’re indeed by yourself when you’re making music and writing novels... you’ve also gone through hard times. Tonight was super enjoyable, and even though it was a play-and-talk live, you up and said that you were sweating bullets www

“Please let me perform live again,” he said to us.

It was a tremendously fun night. Good job, and thank you very much.

#kagerou project #kagepro #mekakucity actors #mekakucity reload #kagerou daze #jin #shizen no teki p #sidu #lost day hour #additional memory #remind blue #shissou word #imaginary reload #my funny weekend #wasurete shimatta natsu no owari ni #fireworks in the summer end #my translation

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fuckyeahkagepro · 5 years

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more... Kagepro (theories)? + it turned into a fic somehow

( CANON-BASED THEORIES COMBINED TO BECOME FIC SOMEHOW ) ( NOTE: IT GETS LENGTHY I APOLOGIZE ) Imagine: you’re Hibiya Amamiya. A “boy” from the “countryside”, who has a “weird sounding name” which means “TO ECHO”.

You began this story simply as “that boy�� “from the countryside”. During the summer break, you made up the excuse that you were going to “study for” “summer classes” “in India” so you could go into the big city with the “girl” you “liked”, Hiyori Asahina.

Name: Amamiya Hibiya: After being told that she wants to go to summer school to prepare for the middle school entrance exams, he is half-forced into staying for a summer in the city by Hiyori, who he has (unrequited) feelings for. They visit Hiyori's sister Ayaka's home, but because Hiyori falls for a boy they meet there, Konoha, he's hit by intense feelings of jealousy. In the middle of it he gets involved in a traffic accident while shopping with Hiyori and comes into contact with the Kagerou Daze. He is possessed by the snake of the "Eye Focusing" abilities, and acquires the power to perceive objects and details that are far away from an aerial (bird's eye) view. Name: Asahina Hiyori Ayaka's younger sister, and a little girl who admires the big city. She's incredibly active and also stubborn, and was the person who dragged Hibiya to the city with her. She's popular among her classmates, but not interested in such things, and even Hibiya is only considered a "convenient classmate who listens to what she says." She is dragged into the Kagerou Daze with Hibiya, but her whereabout since are unknown.

You also had one other major goal: “BUY” “A” “PHONE” You claim to “yourself” it’s because you want to “exchange messages” with Hiyori Asahina, the girl you “love”.

In reality, there’s another reason. You just didn’t know it. BECAUSE YOU FORGOT. (Or did you?)

The date is August 15th (or was it August 14th?) when you woke up upon your bed and in your phone, right there,

WAS A VIRTUAL CYBER GIRL CALLING HERSELF “ENE”

AND CLAIMING SHE WAS REAL. (NOT-VIRTUAL.)

^ Summertime Reload.

“ PLEASE HELP US ” “ YOU CAN’T FORGET ”

“ YOU’D BETTER NOT FORGET . ”

You, with phone in hand, go out into the “big city” except, this time, YOU DO IT VOLUNTARILY. YOU SCARILY KNOW YOUR WAY AROUND THIS “BIG CITY”

--- PERFECTLY.

Not because you had the excuse of “wanting to send messages” with the girl you like.

You find out: YOU’RE CAUGHT IN AN ETERNAL TIMELOOP.

Your name is Hibiya Amamiya. If you remember everything, you still die. If you forget? You still die. If you take ONE STEP out into the “big city”. You. Die.

Hiyori Asahina does, too. Repeatedly. (Weren’t you childhood friends once? Somewhere??)

No matter how many times you possibly attempt to save her.

Along the way, you meet another boy. A “white-haired boy” with a “strange-sounding name”. A “tall” boy who “does things at his own pace”. You claim to “hate” this boy because this boy

“ JUST STOOD THERE ” “ AND WATCHED ”

-- As Hiyori Asahina died.

[ Kagerou Daze / - In a Daze - ] Later on, you meet that boy, again. He tries to befriend you, but you reject it.

You don’t want his help.

You still die. Over and over and OVER and ----------

You try to ask for (or, give?) help. First, you interact more with that “girl” “with the red muffler” ( who is trying to recruit you ... ) But, that “girl with the red muffler” -----

Something changes. Suddenly, SHE’S TRYING TO KILL YOUR FRIENDS, TOO.

You decide she’s not a good person to ask. Or help. In some timelines. Possibly.

You try to (discreetly) (or maybe you genuinely don’t remember?) (“everything”?)

(^ “The Missing Children”, Kido speaking to Shintaro re: Hibiya)

( “ I don’t even know what’s going on ... ” ) --- recruit the help of someone else. An “idol” with “Captivating Eyes”. She can draw everyone’s attention towards her. It might be useful?

You become possessed. AGAIN. You push her off of the rooftop. AGAIN You killed her. AGAIN

She was YOUR F R I E N D .

You WAKE UP, more and more desperate. The blue cyber girl can only help so much. The red muffler girl can only help so much. The Captivating idol can only help so much.

You don’t want to ask “the white haired boy”’s help.

You go to the next best option.

“Help us.”

“You’re trapped in this, too.” “Don’t you want to [ LIVE FOREVER ]??” “Please, stop it.” “Just help us already.”

“ What’s in it for me ? ”

“Eternal life ? ” “In the end, won’t you, in actuality, LIVE ? ”

The being contemplates.

“Hmm~ you have a point.” “ If we keep the Kagerou Daze going on ETERNALLY ----- ” “You live ,” “ I live ”

“That’s right.”

“But aren’t THEY trying to stop me, too?”

“ I’ll keep them out of the way. ”

“Hehh~~ you have guts.”

“ Fine, then. Since you can’t ask my “Queen” to REPEAT THE TIME FOR YOU ,

I will . ”

Time repeats. And repeats. And repeats. And --------

A girl awakes upon her bed.

“ I failed this time, too . ”

Your name is Hibiya Amamiya.

You began this story simply as “that boy” “from the countryside”. During the summer break, you made up the excuse that you were going to “study for” “summer classes” “in India” so you could go into the big city with the “girl” you liked, Hiyori Asahina.

You also had one other major goal: “BUY” “A” “PHONE”

“ Are you anxious ? ”

--- You encounter a “white-haired boy”

--- Do you have something you want to --- CONVEY --- To this boy??

( “ Yes ” )

[ “ I’m sorry ” ]

[ “ I didn’t mean it when I said ” ]

[ “ I hate you ” ]

YOU NEVER SAY IT.

You keep dying .

youtube

“ Today, too, I’ll surely see my dream.

Until you encounter me again, SETO. ”

- Mary Kozakura . ... ... ...

In the seemingly blue painted sky, the white clouds stuck closely together. Although it really seemed like a lie, could it be I couldn’t admit it as the real thing?

The overwhelming sunlight scorching the asphalt shook the atmosphere to and fro. But I couldn’t feel the heat, or even smell the asphalt. “You’ve realized already, haven’t you? You can’t exist here anymore. In a world without a QUEEN, you have no worth.” “Ah, you again? I wonder what makes you think that…….” Is this a conversation? Or am I talking to myself? It’s been a surprisingly long time since I’ve come to an understanding like this. Yet if I go back, I’ll forget everything, right? I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed that I started to speak considerably slower than I used to. At a break in the row of hillside trees in front of an intersection, a girl with an empty expression walks unsteadily down the crosswalk. How many times have I seen this scene before? How many times have I let this scene pass before me? I reach out my hand. It’s just within reach. “It’s useless. This isn’t your world. This is already "their” world. If you can’t figure it out, you have no control.“ The signal is flashing, but the girl doesn’t notice. She’s already right before my eyes. I’m close enough to embrace her. But I can’t touch her. My outstretched hand slips through her, and I grasped the sky without feeling anything. "Why……. Tch!” At that moment, it was already drawing near with a deafening roar. Then, the scene before me dissolved into darkness, as if it were a video encountering an error. Looking down, my body ceased to exist. “It appears that it’s already been decided. This is the end. Becoming hopelessly lost, acting this recklessly, and yet you’re still existing here–don’t think that it’s due to your own strength.” “This is your power, isn’t it? To give me such a strong body; how nice of you.” “It’s the body you WISHED FOR, nothing more. Don’t misunderstand. Now, I’ve got to get going.” “Ah, wait, one last thing before I die. Could you tell the other me something?”

“What is it?” “ⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹⅹ.” “……..I can’t promise it.” “Even so, it’s fine. Thanks for everything.” This is probably the end for me. Up until my very last moments, I was so gullible. Ah, if I could have one last wish granted, it would be to tell that girl who would always hit the gullible me….. - Konoha’s State of the World (Haruka’s POV), Novel 1

“’Everyone from the Mekakushi-dan, whom had accepted Konoha, were surely going through a horrible time at the moment. Thinking that it all had been brought about by Konoha… made me helpless.’

“Really, there’s nothing more frustrating. Ever since Konoha was possessed by ‘Clearing’, I became completely unable to see the other side’s situation.””

- Summertime Reload, Haruka Kokonose speaking/thinking.

“ Obviously, there was also the boundlessly callous fact that “Konoha-kun’s body would get thrown into that world”. Still, since Konoha-kun was being possessed, “ it was not as if he were dead ”. ”

^ Kousuke Seto’s thoughts - Kagerou Project: Summer Time Reload (Final Novel / Novel 8) - Children Record -side No.3 (2)- (translated by dennou-translations)

- Summertime Reload (fuyuyuu’s summaries / later half)

“ BLUE “ and “ RED ” are the colors of the “ KAGEROU DAZE ”, [so Hibiya became BLUE ] and [ Hiyori became RED ... PINK ]

- SIDU, (ONE OF THE MCA) INTERVIEWS re: their concepts

^ old Sidu fanart for wannyanpuu’s 2011 fanmade pv (“”non-canonical””)

^ very not related (official art of Clearing Eyes’ new form in COLOR) [ pls ignore the chibi style it’s all we have rn ]

^ “Mary’s Imaginary World” mini-manga (Mary speaking)

youtube

^ HIBIYA

^ Hiyori

(red: “ ??? ”) (AYANO? AYAKI? “ AWAKENING ”? SOMEONE ELSE ?)

(YELLOW: K O N O H A ) (alternate accordingly)

(“Friend” “her” = ???” ) ( HIYORI ??? ) ( OR..... ) [ ENE SEEMS TOO EASY AND I HIGHLY SUSPECT @ JIN ] (ALSO SEE: MANGA ROUTE 2 + “FRIENDS’) (WILL GET BACK TO THAT)

^ Kagepro novels index “ - in a daze - ” (NOVEL 1)

BONUS:

#fuckyeahkagepro theories #fuckyeahkagepro posts #fuckyeahkagepro fic #fuckyeahkagepro writing #hibiya theories #kagepro: theories #kagepro: fic #hibiya fic #konohibi #hibimomo #hibihiyo #hibiya and saeru #heat haze hibiya #long post #very long post #(I'M SORRY BUT I'VE BEEN SCREAMING ABOUT THESE THINGS FOR AN ETERNITY CAN SOMEONE PLEASE SCREAM WITH)#(I'M SORRY IT'S LONG BUT IT MIGHT BE HARD TO READ UNDER A 'READ MORE')#(YOU CAN BLACKLIST 'FUCKYEAHKAGEPRO FIC' OR 'VERY LONG POSTS' IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE IT)#(THIS ISN'T EVEN GETTING INTO RETAINING EYES THEORIES BUT SHE PROBABLY MESSES A LOT OF THINGS UP TOO)#(THERE'S SO MANY EARLY KAGEPRO THINGS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED AGAIN LIKE EVERYONE LITERALLY JUST FORGOT)#(I HAVE A LOT OF ORIGINAL!HIBIYA FEELINGS I DON'T MEAN JUST JIN'S HIBIYA OK I MEAN ORIGINAL!HIBIYA AND !! HIYORI !!! TOO)#(EVEN IF MY 'HIBIYA WORKS TOGETHER WITH CLEARING' THEORY IS WRONG YOU STILL SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO HIM)#(IT COULD ALSO ALWAYS BE 'HIBIYA OR HIYORI WORKS TOGETHER WITH AYAKI')#(GUESS I DIE)#(THIS ENTIRE THING ASIDE THERE'S A SETOMARY THEORIES SIDE TOO BASICALLY)#('IF YOU LET THEM KILL SAERU' 'YOU HAVE NO VILLAIN' 'SO HOW COULD THERE EVEN BE' 'A FUTURE EDITION')#(YOU CANT !!! HAVE KAGEROU DAZE !!! WITHOUT !!! THE 'KAGEROU DAZE' !!!!!)#(I'LL LET YOU DECIDE HOW TO SEE THESE THINGS AS OK DON'T @ ME)#(I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN INTO THE HIBIYA'S CHANGING PHONESTRAPS KEYCHAINS SUBPLOT YET)

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starspatter · 5 years

Note

Main ships from kagepro?

Hoo boy. I’ll preface this by saying I don’t strongly ship anyone in Kagepro and personally prefer all their relationships to remain platonic within the story itself. (Which isn’t to say I don’t wish them happiness with a potential romantic partner someday if they so choose, but it’s not my main objective of the series.)

That said, let’s get the first out of the way…

ShinAya: I have a lot of mixed feelings on this pair. As much as the tragedy of it hurts me, as far as attraction goes I don’t understand why Ayano would fall for Shintaro in the first place (pun not intended). He honestly treated her like shit before she died (although he’s definitely improved a lot since then as a result), so it doesn’t make sense to me why she’d harbor romantic feelings towards him initially. >.> As a friend she wants to help through his depression, certainly. But wanting to pursue anything beyond that at the time is unhealthy IMO, and I really wish Jin hadn’t officially confirmed she had a crush on him/made it the entire focus of her new song…

KanoKido: I used to kinda ship this when I first got into Kagepro, but in the “angsty” sense where I liked the idea of Kano being jealous over Kido actually having a crush on Seto? *shrug* Nowadays I just see them all as siblings, although I don’t deny there’s a special spark there. The banter bw them is cute (if a bit uncomfortable when it crosses into violent territory given Kano’s past). I’m mostly indifferent to it now, although the amount of hate the pair gets kinda scares/puts me off significantly. =/ It just makes me sad to see so much fighting within the fandom itself over something like this, and wish people would just let others ship what they want in peace.

SetoMarry: This pair means a lot to me symbolically since Imagination Forest was one of the first songs that got me into the series, and it never fails to make me cry as a result. As far as actual compatibility goes, it is a little bit squicky if you think about the deeper implications - and even sadder when you realize Marry will eventually outlive Seto. ;( As they are currently though, they are the pure definition of “adorable”.

HaruTaka/KonoEne (for the sake of simplicity I’m counting them as one even though I’m aware Konoha is technically a different entity): I didn’t think much of HaruTaka at first, seeing it as simply a typical “tsun-tsun” ship. However, I do like that Takane has a legitimate reason for liking Haruka, in that he brightens her day by being able to smile despite his pain/approaching death, and she genuinely admires him for that. It’s something I think was only really addressed in the manga, so I wish MCA would’ve also explored her inner emotions, showing how he inspires her to keep living life to the fullest (her supposed “suicide” in the manga notwithstanding…)

HibiHiyo: While I thought the pair would be cute at first based on Wannyanpuu’s PV, the more I learned about the characters’ actual personalities the less appealing it became to me. Hibiya is honestly pretty gross in the novels, and Hiyori’s domineering demeanor can be especially off-putting (although I admittedly like her a lot more in the manga where her bossiness came in handy to drive off Momo’s fans). Nowadays I prefer to ship her with Damian from Batman instead. *shot*

HibiMomo: I actually quite like this pair, since they’re a mirror of ShinAya, and thus also representative of the theme of “moving on” IMO. (Assuming we ignore MCA’s ending, since I honestly think both Ayano and Hiyori should’ve stayed dead.) They remind me a lot of Damian’s and Steph’s dynamic, and while the “bratty little brother” trope might not work in a serious relationship now, I do think Hibiya has room to grow and mature, which Momo can help him with. (Whereas Shintaro has less of an excuse to act shitty due to his age IMO.)

#detalesz #starspeaks

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elegiesforshiva · 6 years

Text

Ghosts Pt III: AM Noir

Masterpost

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Sakura's departure from herself was a gradual, but inevitable one. It started as a slow deterioration after Sasuke's abandonment. After her rape, the incline got steeper. Then the war came and all of Konoha was spiraling into rich hues of blacks and reds.

Ino was MIA and it seemed like it was impossible to get her back—stuck in a sickening cycle where every moment was spent grieving the loss of her father much too soon after Asuma’s death. Sakura had heard Tenten was even worse and she had trouble wrapping her head around how that was possible.

Ino's mother would constantly be sobbing, heavy with the burden of losing her husband and having a child that didn't know how to smile anymore. And Ino couldn't stand the sound. She took refuge at the Haruno residence, much to Mebuki’s antipathy, who never liked her much.

Eventually Tenten attempted suicide and failed. She was committed to the psych ward for a preliminary week but then failed the next evaluation and was retained there for another two more. Sakura heard condescending whispers around the town every time she went out. But Sakura knew it wasn’t her fault. Because Lee had Gai and Hinata had Hanabi and Tenten had no one but Neji was still dead and the war just took too much from them.

Sakura's parents started to go through another poorly timed rough patch and then there was only screaming at her house. One day Sakura catched Ino lining her wrists with angry red marks in the bathroom, so she took all the money she had saved up and got a small apartment for the two of them. Ino never thanked her and she still looked like she was 6 feet under, covered in mud and worms with her father, but Sakura never caught her cutting again and that's all that mattered. Even when she found strange men and sometimes women leaving the apartment at late hours, Sakura swallowed her chagrin. She would take anything over the red.

Ino's first authentic reaction was when Tenten's body was wheeled in on a stretcher during a nightmare shift at the hospital. Her limbs had been torn open and there was blood everywhere. Sakura thought she was dead for sure, her hands shaking as she poured chakra into the pale body. Ino was in shock, body convulsing so bad that their medical team didn't even bother to ask her for help. Sakura was certain she'd have been in the same position had it not been for Tsunade's presence anchoring her.

"What the hell happened?!" Tsunade had been furious. "She wasn't even on a mission!"

"There was an anonymous call to the hospital," a paramedic explained. “We’re not sure what happened.”

It was later revealed that it was done by the hands of the Ame-nin that Tenten had been dating at the time. He was also the one who made the call before fleeing. Sakura wasn't entirely surprised because the few interactions she'd seen between them were uncomfortable at best. She had hoped it was just the strain of a long distance relationship, but shinobi are known to foster unhealthy romances far too often. The psychosis comes with the job.

"I miss him." Tenten said, a week into her hospital stay, mummified in bandages with a voice that barely slipped through the rot. "Isn’t that the most pathetic shit you’ve ever heard? He nearly killed me and I miss him."

Sakura ached all over from that.

"I wish Neji was here."

Sakura felt tired. "Me too."

Eventually, Ino stops bringing home different men and clings to one with amber eyes and blue hair. His name is Jin and he was old enough to be Ino's father. Sakura doesn't bother to point this out because she knows Ino’s mother is likely already giving her shit for it. His smirk reminds her of Sasuke and Sakura's nightmares get worse because of it. He has a short temper too but Sakura took comfort in the fact that he was only a low level chunin. Still, she hears Ino crying in her room sometimes and the yelling was constant. Sakura sees Jin eyeing her when Ino isn't around too and she doesn't know how to tell her best friend that she often fantasizes about killing her boyfriend.

"I don't like the way he talks to you," Sakura had said.

"Fights are normal in any relationship," Ino replied.

"He's abusive."

“He’s been through a lot,” Ino excuses.

Sakura knows neither one of them buy it, but she imagines Ino must want to.

"You pined over a mad man for years." Ino said then. She could see Inoichi's lifeless eyes stare back at her. "Just let me have this."

Sakura couldn't stand looking at his face after that. Nor the screaming. When she wasn't in the hospital, she wore herself out in the training grounds. On the better days she would pass out there too.

"You look like crap, Sakura-chan." Naruto said one day, concerned.

"I feel like crap, Naruto." Sakura replied.

One day at one of Kiba's house parties Ino had gotten too high and her boyfriend too drunk, and he wrapped his fingers around her throat while in the privacy of a vacant bedroom. But his belligerent screaming could be heard from across the house, giving him away. Tenten was the first to reach them and she had snapped. Then there was a kunai lodged in his jugular and Ino and Tenten had been stained with his crimson.

Ino was on the floor, screaming. Tenten was next to her, rocking back and forth clutching a bloody kunai close to her chest, muttering something incomprehensible. Kiba was cursing a mantra, "Fuck...oh fuck what did you...fuck oh my gods, what did you do?"

Sakura's fingers trembled as she tried to stitch the skin of a dead man back together with her chakra. Maybe he'll wake up. She hoped, her hands red.

He didn't.

Tenten and Ino spent the night at the psych ward for an evaluation that she didn't think either of them should have passed. But Sakura was partially thankful they did anyway because she was scared to spend even one night alone in the apartment. When she saw Sasuke's hawk tapping on her window that very same night, she remembered Jin’s smirk, and his throat cut open. So Sakura took the letter and burned it on a candle’s flame. She regretfully watched the paper uncoil in the wake of the embers devouring it. And she caught the last few words of the note before it turned to ash.

I miss you.

-S

Sakura threw up in her white toilet bowl and took a kitchen knife to her wrists that night. She didn't heal herself until the next morning.

Ino and Tenten had avoided each other after that. Sakura cried at night because she knew had it not been Tenten who found them, she would've been the one to kill the pathetic fuck. And she almost wishes it was her who did it too because maybe it would ruin her and Ino's relationship but Tenten didn't deserve that. Not after what she had been through.

There was outrage from the nin’s family and they threatened Tenten to be put on trial. Had it not been for Naruto and Tsunade defending her, she would’ve been thrown in a prison cell to rot for at least 6 years. Sakura was endlessly grateful that Lee started to keep his teammate company after that because she was sure Tenten would try to kill herself again. Ino was quiet during the hellish parade and Sakura was probably the only person who didn’t pressure her to speak up about it.

Sakura and Ino started to sleep in the same bed the following weeks too because Ino would wake up in the middle of the night crying and screaming and it was easier to calm her down if she was right there next to her. One time she woke up and asked where Jin was, that she had a horrible dream and needed to see him. Sakura didn’t have the chance to respond before reality hit her frantic mind and she cried for her Otousan and Asuma sensei. Sakura had held her and cried with her until morning.

"About Tenten," Sakura inquired later that day, handing Ino back a joint they were sharing. She had been formerly opposed to such vices, mostly because it left one vulnerable to unexpected attacks. But then everything became red and she didn't know how else to cope either. So she covered the rooms with genjutsu and seals and got fucked up with Ino every other week. "Are you mad at her?"

Ino took a hit before responding, exhaling with an expression that made Sakura think she wished it was her being burned to fumes and not the joint. "I wish I could be."

A month later Tenten made a second attempt to kill herself and Lee found her in time. Ino finally started to talk to her again after that. Sakura saw the guilt choking Tenten ease just a bit, but she still looked as exhausted and heartbroken as the day of Neji’s funeral.

Sakura had started to encourage Hinata to pursue Naruto with vehemence after that. But whether it was for Naruto’s sake, Hinata’s, or hers—she wasn’t sure. Soon enough, she caught them holding hands while returning from the training grounds.

For Sakura, Sasuke was everywhere and in everything. His gaze was red and drilled through her skin and bone, and she swears there are days where she feels him. And she’s so sick of feeling things she didn’t want to.

She tried to escape it, driving her first into dummies as hard as she can, throwing herself in every new medical textbook she can find, drinking and smoking with the other girls and sometimes alone too, because Ino had finally moved out.

You pined over a mad man for years. Ino had said. And she wished it wasn't true. I miss him. Tenten had said, looking as dead as she felt. And Sakura had known that feeling too well.

Sakura was in etiolation, trapped in a winter she couldn’t shake off. She kept thinking about the Uchiha massacre. Because when she finally learned it all it made sense. And she wept and wept for Sasuke’s burden. Never before had she found her existence to be so loathsome until then—the sacrifice of a clan for lives like hers and her kaasan’s.

She was the last of Team 7 to be told the truth, and it was only a few days before the nature of Itachi’s last mission in Konoha was revealed to the public, apparently against Sasuke’s wishes but on account of Tsunade heavy with the guilt of Hiruzen’s choices and hoping to move forward. She wanted to hate Kakashi and Naruto for withholding it from her for so long, but she owed Naruto her life and so much more, and Kakashi was often more of a parental figure than her own parents could ever hope to be. He respected and handled her journeys through trauma better than any adult she knew.

But the knowledge of Konoha’s participation in Sasuke’s mourning left Sakura sleeping in gradients of terror. Naruto was missing his right arm and sometimes his head too. Kakashi was nothing but a black, charred corpse. She saw Sasuke and he looked like God. He was armed, kusanagi in hand, cutting into her, drawing intricate designs into her organs. Where's Itachi? He'd ask, his eyes as dark as the void she handed her heart to when she fell for a 12 year old boy who lost everything. I want my niisan back. Konoha stole him from me and I want him back. And Sakura couldn’t say anything because he was right. They stole everything from him and this was just deserts. They deserved to die, hands stained with Uchiha blood. But that doesn’t stop her from screaming herself awake.

It seemed like each year that went by had Konoha feeling less like home and more like a still, bleak painting that Sakura didn’t know how she fell into. She started to have strange visions of black birds and their chirps reminded her of Sasuke’s chidori. She saw them stained with red beaks.

Her clairvoyance does not stop her father from dying. He had been killed in a grocery market with three others from a kunoichi who had snapped. It was a pathetic way to go and a testament to the civilian lifestyle he lived. The nin didn’t even make it to trial before killing herself too. Sakura couldn’t tell if there was any justice in that.

Sakura’s mother, who had always been prone to depression, shuts down after that. Eight months later, Sakura found her dead on her bedroom floor the anniversary of her father’s birthday. She was laying in her own vomit, with empty pill bottles scattered along the floor. Sakura held her corpse in her lap and oscillated between sobbing and screaming harder than she ever had in her life.

She doesn’t know how long she was sitting with her mother’s body in her arms, but eventually the neighbours had called the police because of the noise. The next day, Naruto, Sai, and Ino helped shuffle through her belongings and empty the house.

“Did she leave a note?” Naruto had asked.

“She is the note,” Sakura had replied.

Kakashi helped Sakura prepare the funeral and sell it. And she supposed that was a grim fit.

Sakura found it easy to convince her sensei (now Hokage) to let her join ANBU. She was more than qualified, but she figured he’d put up more of a fight, knowing her interest was triggered with the events of her parents death. She’s thankful he didn’t.

Sakura works with mainly groups at first, sometimes leading, but usually preferring to follow because then she can convince herself there’s less blood on her hands when a teammate goes missing. She enjoys the solo missions the best, because she spends less time engulfed in paranoia without the weight of a whole squad’s lives in her hands.

She uses layers of genjutsu on her enemies when she can, practicing and honing her skills, marking the value of her progress by the height of their screams. She’s sickened and in pain and yet she’s ominously attracted to the sounds. Sometimes she screams with them, and it makes her feel less alone. She finds herself asking strange questions in the midst of interrogations before killing them. What was your favorite toy when you were younger? What’s your favorite weapon now? What were your parents like? Did they kill people too? Did they hold you close and kiss you when you had a nightmare?

Have you ever raped someone?

She isn’t surprised when some men admit to doing so in the midst of tortured screams. They repented to her as if she was their God. And perhaps, in those moments, she was.

She relished in the horror in their eyes when she undid their belts, slid their pants over their hips. “What’s wrong?” she would ask. “Don’t you like it?” Sometimes she played with their phallus, admiring the fleshy feel of them in her gloved hands. Sometimes they even grew hard. She loved watching those nin bleed out after cutting the appendage off with a kunai. And on the days she felt sick with loss—heart barely beating inside a monochrome tomb—she castrated them with her hands instead. Their screams were so high pitched in volume that she laughs while she cries because that’s kind of what she sounded like when her insides were mutilated by a stranger too.

One day it’s a young woman she pushes her blade into, her brown strands long and her eyes gold, struck with terror. Sakura pet the girl affectionately while she bleeds out. “Shhh...shhh...it’ll be over soon.” Sakura said, “It’s okay. You don’t need to be scared.” She rubbed the curve of her cheek, smearing the red over her face with tenderness, as if she didn’t just run her through with a blade. Sakura had pushed her healing chakra into the trembling body of her victim, as she often does. It helps to numb the pain as they die. When she looks into the frightened eyes of the young woman, she imagines it’s her own face she is looking into then—imagines it is a younger version of herself she is killing.

She pulls off her mask and kisses the girl’s sweat slick forehead sweetly. “It won’t hurt there. He can’t follow you.” Because Little Sakura is innocent and good. Little Sakura is going to find some kind of peace, some kind of heaven when she dies. And her parents will be there to hold her close and kiss her because she finally woke up from the nightmare of loving a boy with ghosts in his eyes. Otousan will make bad jokes, and Okaasan will finally be proud because there’s no demons in her belly to purge. And Sasuke will surely reign his terror in hell, far, far away from her. In death, they’ll finally be separated. In death, her head will not be muddled with his beautiful face, his haunting absence, his misplaced grief.

And what freedom she found—watching the kunoichi take her last breath before slumping onto the cold ground. What relief.

Sakura held the body close and cried.

Sakura had enough sense to resign the next day. She doesn’t go the hospital for two week, and every night either Ino or Naruto was in her bed, holding her, while she cried into their shoulder. Ino never asked what’s wrong, nor did she lie and tell her it’s going to be okay. More often than not, she cried with her too then made them both drink water together. She doesn’t bother forcing Sakura to eat, because she never did when life was decomposing her insides too. Naruto kissed Sakura’s head and told her that he loves her, that there are many people who love her and that will never change. And Sakura knows it’s true but she also knows it doesn’t matter because love can’t kill the horrors that came with growing up.

Naruto visited her more often in general. He talked about him and Hinata, and Sakura took refuge in their love. It’s soft and warm, and Naruto’s smile is incandescent. For most, romance had finally progressed from a morbid series of trial-and-error to things-are-actually-alright. And Sakura is blessed with a vicarious and vital fulfillment from their peace. And this is in part because she had to–she knew she’d never get that from her own broken heart.

And maybe she should have tried to fix it but she couldn’t be bothered. Relationships were unfathomable things because most of the time she still couldn’t figure out how to touch herself again without crying. So she took the pressure off, lowered her expectations. She didn’t have to be happy. She just had to be functional.

Eventually, Sakura started to feel like she was. Even the bad dreams started to come in more sparse.

And then, he returned to Konoha.

His presence had a way of dictating her every branch of mind and body, ever since they were little. So naturally, hearing about Sasuke’s letter from Naruto sends her brain reeling out of her head and into a red sinkhole of every death she had ever envisioned by his hands. She breaks the mug clasped tightly between her fingers. “What?”

Naruto flinches at the abrasive gesture, his eyes following the fine shards of porcelain as hot tea spills over her hands and onto her carpeted floor.

Sakura swallows hard and tries to name off the systems of the body to take her mind off of the memory of Sasuke’s arm plunging through her body. Respiratory … Cadiovascular … Endocrine … Muscular … Skeletal…

Naruto is quiet, leaning into her couch with crossed arms. He adorns a dramatic pout. “Sakura-chan it’s been years. I thought you said you got help with this.”

“It’s not that simple, Naruto,” she snaps, offended.

“It’s Teme. I don’t get what’s the big deal, it’s been so long and he’s been doing so much to change everything, Kakashi even said so.” Sakura wants to scream, but Naruto saved the village, saved her so she bites her tongue and focuses on his orange jacket. Maybe she can absorb his sunny disposition by staring at the offensive brightness long enough.

“I know, I know.” She wants to brush him off but Naruto doesn’t know how to quit. She wishes she could keep up with him. But nobody shrugs off anguish like Naruto. He was the martyr that never died—a God among humans.

“Then you’ll come welcome him home with me, right?” Naruto asks, persistent. Sakura tries to forget what blinding heat electrocuting you feels like. But the power of a Sharingan’s genjutsu isn’t praised without reason.

She clutches her forearms and makes an effort to impersonate someone who’s not on the verge of having a panic attack. “Look, I’m working on it. But I’m just not ready, okay?” She gets up then, eyes averted as she mechanically reaches for her wallet and keys on the kitchen counter. “I’m going to go do groceries. I need milk.”

“Sakura-chan…”

“I have to go, Naruto. Help yourself to the fridge.” She all but ran out.

Soon enough, Sasuke returns, and as if Sakura doesn’t struggle enough with Naruto, she finds his presence worming itself into the conversations outside of Team 7.

“I heard Sasuke’s back.” Ino says, taking a bite out of her dango.

Sakura strategically starts to sip her glass of orange juice, completely unprepared for this conversation, though she should have expected it.

“Coincidentally, you’ve been walking around with your chakra masked these past few days too,” Ino comments, nonchalant and knowing.

Sakura starts to gulp it down then.

“Relax, forehead,” Ino shakes her head at the spectacle. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine.” Ino eyes her dango, sorting where to bite next. “I do think masking your chakra is seriously overkill though. He’s not going to stalk you.”

Sakura puts her glass down and makes a point to speak softer than she feels. “You don’t know him.”

Ino quirks her eyebrow. “You haven’t had a real conversation with him since you were like fourteen. Chances are, you don’t either.”

“Thirteen.” She corrects. Ino gives her an unimpressed look, as if to enunciate the point.

Ino is right, but she is wrong. Sakura does know him. She would always know him. Even when she didn’t. Sakura takes a deep breath then, inhaling and exhaling through her nose because she feels the tell-tale wave of nausea hitting her then. “Well, better safe than sorry, I guess,” she mutters.

“What does ‘sorry’ entail, exactly?” Ino takes a sip out of her lemonade. “Mildly unpleasant small talk?”

Sakura shakes her head. “Sasuke doesn’t do small talk.” She scratches at her thigh beneath the counter to keep herself reigned into reality instead of the sillhoutes in her head.

“Then?” Ino quirks an eyebrow.

Sakura shifts uncomfortably in her seat. “I thought you said it’s fine if I don’t want to talk about it.”

Ino looks at her inquisitively, and Sakura stiffens beneath her gaze. The blonde sighs then, “Okay. You’re right.” Sakura feels the tension leave her shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” She dismisses while she checks her fingernails for blood. All clear.

“I’m thinking of requesting more missions again.” Ino says then. “You should too. I think we’ve both been cooped up in that hospital for too long.”

“Maybe.” Sakura finally takes a bite out of her own dango, now that the conversation has ventured onto more comforting territory. She wasn’t hungry but it helped to keep her senses distracted. “The hospitals are still always hectic though, I don’t know if they’ll let me.”

“You’re Sakura Haruno,” Ino says, working on her second dango. “Of course they’ll let you. And maybe we’ll even be put on the same team.”

“They rarely put two medics on a team. It’ll be a long time before we’re ever on a mission together,” Sakura says.

Ino shrugs. “You’re not just support. You’re a front line hitter as much as you are a medic in the platoon’s rear.” Ino says with a tinge of pride before finishing her glass. “I mean, that’s why they put us together last time, isn’t it?”

“No,” Sakura snorts. “When we were put on that team, you were the medic. I was dead weight that wasn’t fucked up enough for the psych ward’s priority list.”

Ino is quiet now, eyes downcast. And Ino’s never quiet. Sakura feels a tinge of regret for responding so bluntly.

“I’ll ask Kakashi,” Sakura decides. “You’re right. I could use a break from the hospital too.”

#sasusaku #fanfiction #ghosts #elegiesforshiva #efs writes #homemade trauma soup

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fuckyeahkagepro · 5 years

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CONCLUSIONS re: Kagepro Ages issue + Hibi+Hiyo’s Ages

- in 2012 (May) Konoha’s State of the World TV screens Hibiya Amamiya was “11″: (ALONG WITH) Hiyori, who canonically has ALWAYS had the “March” birthday, as soon as she was introduced with a birthday alongside Hibiya. which would place her on the YOUNGER END of their shared school year going by the Japanese school system* * THE JAPANESE SCHOOL SYSTEM * BEGINS IN APRIL (APRIL 1ST-2ND) * AND ENDS IN LATE MARCH. * HIYORI’S BIRTHDAY IS MARCH 3RD, * EARLY MARCH. * I.E. BEFORE THE SCHOOL YEAR FINISHES. order of Japanese school year w/this all in mind: April - Japanese school year begins -> August 14th-15th - main series canon happens -> November 4th - Hibiya’s birthday / he ages to 12 -> New Years - happens, YEAR CHANGES TO THE NEXT YEAR -> February 14th - Momo’s birthday / she ages chronologically to 16 from 15 -> March 3rd - Hiyori’s birthday / she ages (FINALLY) to 12 -> end of March - school year ends. ->

^ THAT IS VERY CLEARLY AN “11″ THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THIS IS SEEN AROUND 5 TIMES IN THE PV ON MULTIPLE SCREENS. * BOTH HIBIYA AND HIYORI GET THIS “11″. * IT IS CONFLICTING FOR HIYORI BECAUSE OF HER MARCH BIRTHDAY. * IT IS CHRONOLOGICALLY CORRECT FOR HIBIYA. - Hibiya says he is studying for Junior high school exams in “Talkers”, which would imply he’s entering Junior high the next year. - the grade before he’d enter Junior high implied is ‘6′th (ages 11~12*) - * real-world based setting. - this is the grade they’re in DURING MAIN CANON (6th). - 7th is the grade they enter POST-MAIN CANON, THE NEXT YEAR. - a Japanese 6th grader is equivalent to a US 1st-year middle schooler. - by the time they’re in 7th they’re 2nd-year middle schoolers. Talkers chapter 3 w/Hibiya and Ene: Hibiya: I-It’s not a misunderstanding! I really am thinking of taking the admission exam of a [Junior high] school from Tokyo and I’m getting ready for it! (later on): Hibiya: Well, about that… I gotta begin studying for the [Junior high] school admission exam (later on): Hibiya: Hn, looks like it… They (Hibiya’s parents) said, “if you want to take the [Junior high] school exam, try solving this mystery”. (later on): Ene: With this, they will allow you to take the exam! Hibiya: Yeah! Talkers chapter 9 later has:

Hibiya: Yeah… The new semester started and I met up with Hiyori at school.

”the entrance exam season is when students take intense and difficult examinations to CONTINUE ON to the higher school of their choice ” ”schools throughout the country will hold their examinations over a short period from late January through late February”* * this would be post-August 15th loops. * by then Hibiya would have ALREADY AGED REGARDLESS (from “11″ to “12″ on the first November 4th that occurs post-August 15th.) - in 2013 (January) Kagerou Daze Visual fanbook he was “(about ? ) 10″. This was WAYYYYYY back in JANUARY 2013, and Hiyori was displayed with THE SAME, ALSO but HIBIYA CANNOT BE 10 IF HIYORI IS. because then that screws up BOTH of their ages, and especially HIYORI’S, ALONG WITH HER GRADE: 2013:

^ BTW KONOHA WAS STILL “?” HERE IN AGE TOO + DISPLAYED AS “HARUKA KOKONOSE”

^ THOSE SURE ARE QUESTION MARKS

^ 2016 “Perfect Guide” REUSES the 2013 profiles. MY SCAN. ”age” is the first line under Hiyori’s picture with the “10″ “?”. So unfortunately, they are NOT up to date, BUT it means their AGES AREN’T IN THESE PROFILES either. NOTE THE QUESTION MARK. @ayara-resara confirmed to me it means/implies “ about ? ” BASICALLY. it would make HIYORI CHRONOLOGICALLY YOUNGER,

IF THEY WERE THE SAME “10″ AGE AT START, NOT HIBIYA. AND WE KNOW FOR A FACT HIYORI IS NOT “ 9 ″. BECAUSE OF THE KONOHA’S STATE OF THE WORLD TV SCREENS IN WHICH BOTH WERE ”11″ - in the Summer 2012 Children Record booklet they had NO AGES SEEN: ONLY STILL THE BIRTHDAYS (CIRCLED, IN RED):

^ DO NOT USE THIS BOOKLET FOR YOUR AGES REFERENCES. THERE WERE NO AGES IN THIS BOOKLET, ONLY BIRTHDAYS. - in - in a daze - novel Hibiya says he’s been living in his “small town” for: - “OVER 10 YEARS” + - “ten-PLUS” years “of life” ^ PUBLISHED MAY 2012 IN JAPAN. ” I’ve been stuck in this tiny village for over 10 years ”. ” And my short, 10+ (TEN-PLUS) years of life will be a lackluster thing that I won’t be able to remember, too. ” - in 2014 (July, MCA fandom era) PASH! article he was back at “11″. (Hiyori was listed in his same profile box in relation to him.)

^ THAT IS VERY MUCH AN “11″ THANK YOU.

- These were also the ages RE-USED in the official MCA script according to Japanese translator Zushilove , who is also Japanese / living in Japan and speaks it fluently. THOUGH SHE DID NOT SPECIFY HIBIYAS, SHE DID CONFIRM PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE ELSE’S WERE THE SAME CONFLICTING ONES DISPLAYED IN PASH 2014. - July PASH! also reconfirmed Kano’s “17″ age. - official merch from ONLY 3 years ago ALSO RECONFIRMED Kano’s “17″. - Fuyuyuu’s post’s timestamp here is May 17, 2015. (2015 !!!) - this would imply Zushilove was, as always (AND AGAIN), CORRECT. - we still have NO IDEA, HOWEVER, what age HIBIYA was displayed with at the 2014 MCA Japan-only event that Zushilove described

“ Same as Kano and Seto, Kido is one grade below Ayano/Shintaro. So for the current time setting,* * August 14-15th she’s [Kido’s] at an age to turn 16~17 between April 1 to next year’s March 31. Kido’s birthday is in January 2. Her [Kido’s] official age is “17″ (this age was written in the script of MCA as well) but her actual age is supposed to be 16. It’s even canon that Kido is younger than Kano (May 10th), who is in the same grade as her and also has the official age written as 17… ” “ Yeah….so from these facts, personally what I believe [*Zushilove’s opinion]

is that all of the character’s ‘official age’ is written as the age that they’re going to turn into until next year’s March 31, in order to differentiate each character’s school grade to show their age gaps.

For an example, if the staffs wrote the ‘actual age’ for Kano as 17 and Kido/Seto as 16, they may have thought that the fans will misinterpret that “Kido/Seto is one grade below Kano”……

...because there is this one thing I heard from one of the MCA staffs considering this complicated age setting but yeah I can’t really share that here…. “

“ Basically, there is this contradicting ‘offcial age’ thing going on for the characters who have their birthday between August 16 and March 31 “

- Zushilove’s commentary, a year or so ago. * HIBIYA’S BIRTHDAY (NOVEMBER) IS BEWTEEN AUGUST 16 AND MARCH 31ST. August 16 -> November 4th -> etc. (as described above) * HIYORI’S BIRTHDAY (MARCH 3RD) IS BEFORE MARCH 31ST AS WELL. - IT’S VERY POSSIBLE THIS IS WHERE HE /AND/ HIYORI COULD HAVE BEEN LISTED WITH “12″ AT START OF SERIES - AND WHY THAT AGE SPREAD AROUND ONLINE FOR SO LONG. - but even if it WASN’T - HIBIYA AGES TO 12 CHRONOLOGICALLY BY NOVEMBER 4TH ANYWAY - sooooo we COULD just recognize he’s 11~12 - this would place HIYORI at 10~11 chronologically OR, - YOU COULD LET HIYORI BE 11~12 TOO , - BECAUSE SHE IS IN THE SAME GRADE AS HIBIYA, - AND ALSO ENTERING JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL THE NEXT YEAR, - SINCE SHE, TOO, IS ALSO DISPLAYED WITH “11″ - ON “ KONOHA’S STATE OF THE WORLD ” TV SCREENS. - THESE TV SCREENS OF WHICH ARE ALSO STILL CLEARLY SEEN IN THE 2016 GUIDEBOOK IN THE PVs IMAGES SECTION.

- AND YES, THE SERIES TAKES PLACE IN JAPAN (FOR THE FINAL TIME)

ALSO THIS IS MOMO AS OF SIDU’S 2015 ARTBOOK TOO SO:

COMPARE TO KANO WHO HAS HIS “17″ IN 2015 HERE:

^ NOTE THE “17″ ABOVE HIS HEAD

(HOW MANY MORE “17″S DO YOU NEED HONESTLY)

BONUS:

^ NON-CANON WANNYANPUU PV.

STILL-CANON LYRICS. “DECADE S ”. MAKE OF IT WHAT YOU WILL

DO NOT MAKE ME BUY ANOTHER BOOK TO COMPARE OH MY GOD

ALSO IF YOU COULD PLEASE

LET HIYORI LIKE GIRLS AGAIN AND LET HIBIYA LIKE BOYS AGAIN AND LET BOTH LIKE GIRLS AND/OR BOYS AGAIN I’D BE VERY HAPPY AFTER ALL OF THIS BUT WELL Y’KNOW

I FORGOT TO ADD BUT JIN CONFIRMED IN “FUTURE EDITION” SHINTARO WOULD BE AROUND JIN’S AGE WHICH IS 28 WHICH WOULD IMPLY AROUND 10 YEARS LATER WHICH WOULD PUT HIBI+HIYO AT AROUND 20 OK THANK YOU ADULT KIDO WAS CONFIRMED FOR AROUND 25 TOO SO YEAH

#kagepro #hibiya amamiya #hiyori asahina #hibihiyo #hibimomo #konohibi #kagepro: conflicting ages #kagepro: timeline issues #kagepro: ages #kagepro: ages inconsistencies #hibiyas age #hiyoris age #hibiya refs #hiyori refs #hibiya profiles #hiyori profiles #konoha profiles #momos age #(TAGGING RELEVANT TAGS)#(I'M DONE)#(I'M VERY DONE)#(I'M SO DONE DO NOT MAKE ME BUY ANOTHER BOOK)#(THIS SHOULD BE MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR YOU OH MY GOD)#(PLS LET ME LIVE)#(THE 'JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL' SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE THAN ENOUGH CONFIRMATION ON ITS OWN)#(CAN WE PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE THE ACTUAL TIMELINE NOW SO WE CAN UNDERSTAND THIS SERIES PROPERLY)#(..... LET THEM BE LGBTQIA+ BY THE WAY)#(ME LOOKING AT HOW HIYO LOOKS AT MOMO 'JUST GALS BEING PALS')#(ME LOOKING AT HOW KONOHA WANTS HIBIYA TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIM 'JUST BROS BEING BROS')#(ME SEEING HIYORI SAY 'I LOVE YOU' IN SUMMERTIME RELOAD 'JUST-----')

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fuckyeahkagepro · 5 years

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Kagerou Project References -> Things to watch out for during every single new Kagerou Project Route Kagerou Project is a series involving many different forms of media (music videos, anime, manga, novels, etc.) Every single “main” form of the media (as long as its not notably a spinoff) tends to be important to the overall “canon”. Every form of the media tends to be written by Jin. Every new form of media tends to contain a new “Route” showcasing different or even totally new events. Some of these differences and things to watch out for are noted below.

The story may begin completely differently.

This is particularly important to note re: Shintaro’s beginnings.

This may also change the entire course of said Routes.

This may lead to furthuring character development for any main or otherwise major character, including Shintaro himself.

These developments may be very important to future Routes.

Every Route may also end differently.

Every Route (form of major media) is its own canon, and not just “explaining” other Routes [i.e. Music Route].

A Route does not suddenly become unimportant just because it didn’t meet your expectations. They’re still canon.

All major Routes are contributed to and overseen by Jin.

Jin has confirmed this multiple times in the past.

if not completely Jin, Sidu, Kagepro’s official illustrator and music video producer, may still be involved. Sidu’s contributions are just as important and notable. (i.e. MX4D short movie)

Hibiya & Hiyori’s backstories may not be completely the same as they were in Novels Route.

They may be shown, for all we know, as the seemingly “childhood friends” seen originally in the Outer Science pv (2013).

They may be shown not knowing each other at all.

They may be shown with reversed roles i.e. Hibiya could be experienced with the city, Hiyori from the countryside.

They may be shown having different life experiences going by the above (i.e. Hiyori being popular - she may be shown not being popular. Hibiya being unpopular - he may be shown being more popular or matured than he was.)

They may be shown not knowing anything at all, but learning what’s happening (again) later on.

They may be shown as either interfering with various other Routes.

They may be shown as either having Focusing Eyes or with Clearing Eyes forming within them instead.

They may be shown being pulled into the Daze at different timeframes (i.e. daytime [Music Route] vs midnight [Manga Route 2]).

They may be shown interacting with various characters they’ve interacted with before, and with stronger relationships compared to before (i.e. Momo, Konoha, maybe even Saeru.)

Whichever one wakes up having a phone (if either) may be very important, as it tends to indicate they may be more aware then they’re letting on at the start.

The Mekakushi Trio’s dynamics may, again, be messed with / changed.

They may be shown never having met Ayano / Tateyamas.

They may be shown having known Ayano before the orphanage and this could change the entire Route of the story as well as their dynamics with Ayano (i.e. Kano in Novels Route)

They may be shown having different dynamics in future Routes in general. This could go for any combination of Kido, Kano, and Seto. (i.e. Seto particularly noting in Manga Route 2 the Trio’s dynamics have all been “changing”.)

They may be shown as knowing someone else who’s interfered with the groups’ dynamics, even if that interference doesn’t stick in the long run. (i.e. Mary in Manga Route 2)

“Common” Route events may not happen exactly as previously seen.

The Mall Incident is notable for this. (see: MX4D, every Route)

The Park of Kagerou Daze song fame is another very notable place that may or may not appear, but likely will in some fashion if Kagerou Daze is involved.

Someone particularly may tell Hibiya or Hiyori about The Park and may or may not be aware of what happens there. (i.e. Momo in Manga Route 2)

Ayano may not enter the Daze in the same fashion as she has before and may have different motives. (i.e. Manga Route 2)

Ayano may recruit different members of the Dan for different things (i.e. Hibiya in Manga Route 2). This may affect the outcome of the Route (i.e. Clearing Eyes possessing Hibiya in Manga Route 2).

Clearing Eyes may be involved at any early point of any Route.

Saeru’s [Snake of Clearing Eyes]’ new Form may be involved.

Also depending on how Manga Route 2 “ends”.

It may make him stronger in future Routes.

He may not show up exactly in future Routes (i.e. MX4D movie) but may still be implied (i.e. the bomb at the end of the MX4D). This may also be just his influence left in past Routes.

He may not be involved / it could be a new enemy involved (i.e. MX4D)

He may be given more backstory, if vaguely and sporadically.

This backstory may involve commonly seen characters involved with him (i.e. Azami) or someone else (i.e. Shintaro in LTM, Konoha, possibly even Mary herself).

Haruka may exist within the Route as Haruka OR Konoha.

The route may also end differently from other Routes concerning Konoha’s fate.

If possible, he may continue to live as Konoha. (i.e. in spinoffs, MX4D, Konoha is usually seen.)

This may also affect Takane / Ene.

However, Takane / Ene still notably has the same personality / mind while she’s Takane / Ene. Konoha notably does not.

This also depends on if “Summertime Record” happens in the same exact ways as before or if it changes.

Haruka may or may not be in his wheelchair post-Summertime Record. (i.e. Lost Day Hour manga, he is not in wheelchair. In the music video version, he was seen in a wheelchair at points.)

it (Summertime Record) may not even seemingly occur (i.e. Manga Route 2).

New characters may appear.

Jin particularly implied this at a few points in the past year or so, though this is commonly overlooked / forgotten; it still seems like it could be the case for future Routes of the media.

This could even include some of the new songs that were featured on Mekakucity Reload. It also may not.

They may be allies or they may be enemies (MX4D).

They may be anti-heroes, etc.

They may have varying motives.

as enemies, friends, or even as love interests.

They may be shown interfering with various timelines in their own ways, including possibly past timelines.

Characters may be shown with / having “conflicting ages”.

this would not erase the most recent ages / grades ranges that were stated as of 2015-2018. (Those were still stated / can still be used as references).

however, they may also be updated from before to fix any issues with the chronological timeline / or may give characters without birthdays their birthdays (i.e. Takane), which could also affect the later chronological timeline. (i.e. Kano now officially updated to be “17″.)

these updates are also canonical.

Other characters may be shown celebrating a birthday post-series (i.e. in spinoffs / i.e. Kenjirou in Talkers.)

Characters with the closest post-August 15th birthdays include Hibiya (Nov 4th) and Ayano (Nov 22nd), meaning if Ayano is seen as older (18) post-series, Hibiya would be older as well.

grades will likely still be canon, but they also may be shown at various different points of each timeline. (i.e. ‘two years ago’, the timeframe where Ayano, Takane, and Haruka all initially died. Also, about ‘five years ago’; when Momo initially died at the beach via her drowning.)

involvements with the Daze may affect any characters’ supposed “age” (i.e. Konoha having an ‘immortal body’).

Character dynamics may be different in general.

Characters may be shown having strained relationships. (i.e. Mekakushi Trio + Ayano, Ayano + Mary)

Characters may be shown having improved relationships. (ie. Shintaro + Ene, Hibiya + Hiyori)

This may affect the outcomes of any particular “ship” and if they become “endgame” or not (likely at our current point).

It also may not.

These “relationships” may differ amongst various Routes

including said “ship”s.

The outcomes may be different from what you were “expecting”.

References to previous Routes may be made, even in a new Route.

Comparable things may also be seen.

Sidu is notorious for this with their music videos

Watch out for any in-between frames or “hidden” text in said videos, which may reveal plot clues or hints.

previously involved official Kagepro artist / music video producer Wannyanpuu’s Kagerou Daze may always be referenced at any point, even if just in similar imagery. (i.e. how the Daze will look / themes of the Daze.)

#kagerou project #kagepro #mekakucity actors #kagerou daze #mekakucity reload #kagepro: refs #kagepro: timelines #kagepro: ages #mekakushi dan #mekadan refs #(makes this list on a whim)#(man i hope i explained everything here clearly enough)#(basically ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN KAGEPRO)#(AND YOU'D BETTER BE READY FOR IT)#(because otherwise it's going to take you by surprise again)#(can we like... avoid that during the next Route)#(pls? pls fandom ??)#(i know it's asking for too much but you know we could have avoided the entire MekaTrio discourse AGES ago)#(i still flashback to that ShinAya discourse and how you all tried to make it problematic)#(after 'the deceiving'. i'm not even gonna lie. AND HEY the discoursers were wrong.)#(so again like can we avoid this all this time and be AWARE of the many changes that can occur)#(and that no route is better than another just because it went in the way you wanted or didn't expect)#(it'd also be nice if we could avoid attacking jin again when certain routes don't go your way like really)#kagepro spoilers #kagepro manga spoilers #kagepro novels spoilers #(i still need to elaborate on some other things in this list... sometime...)#(why are references hard)#(adds a few more things hmm . i think i covered most though)#(edits a few more hmm keeps it basic though)

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fuckyeahkagepro · 6 years

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since I ... realized many in Kagepro fandom may have legit forgotten about these precious children and what helped jumpstart Kagepro as a series to begin with

remember the old KageDaze fan pv?? this pv is NOT CANON to the current series fyi BUT it obviously inspired a lot of it. Wannyanpuu since went on to work on the series itself iirc, as did Sidu, who helped with Konoha among etc.! most of this artwork is from Wannyanpuus’ verse or otherwise pre-main series / pre-Mekakucity Actors / anime. “Kagerou” (as called by fans) was essentially the “Heat Haze” given a “human” form i.e. Hibiya past a point of hundreds of thousands of loops.

(no I will never stop pointing out this line I mean) (that line’s still canon everyone) “Shirori” (iirc?) was Hiyori’s from the same! (or “Shiro” Hiyori) Hiyori also initially debuted with this short haired design - she wasn’t actually redesigned for canon until the later Children Record !! ... she was also obviously MUCH closer friends with Hibiya in these verses and there’s absolutely no indication of any of the stuff from the main series / novels. (because ... this came before that ....) in this verse she also (it’s implied at the very end of the video, anyway) legit tries to save Hibiya from death for the same amount of timeloops as he tries to save her. (because they care about each other but I digress) (order of the photos/who’s featured) 1) artwork for the pv 2) original Hiyori 3) OT4 ? 4) more [by Sidu, who also helped with Konoha and etc.] 5) more old art 6) Wannyanpuu’s Hibiya 7) KageHibi ..... 8) “Kagerou” Hibiya 9) MARY (an initial character sheet for her!) 10) various Wannyanpuu’s Hibiyas and Hiyoris doodles/designs (KageHibi also used to be a very semi-popular ship back in the day) (early Konoha/this Hibiya too like there’s a reason you know) (also if Haruka really died closer to 16 as said now by translators well you know) (yeah there was confusion re: ages) (negl they were all canon I mean) (you didn’t see this) speaking of that. I literally JUST looked closer at the bottom image above here for the first time in AGES and are those ages for them (14 and 15?!) did they really legit escape and live to those ages in fan pv verse and I never knew this --?! (because if so HEY 14 YR OLD HIYORI AND 15 YR OLD HIBIYA WOW YOU CAN USE THAT AS A CANON POINT FOR AUs WOW or maybe just LET THEM LIVE) (sorry i’m just saying) (ok but seriously I was always under the impression this Hibiya was 15ish or so going by old info was I actually right?! I MEAN?! CANON YOUNGER SETO LOOKED YOUNGER THAN HIM BUT I DIDN’T THINK THAT MUCH YOUNGER I MEAN CAN YOU BLAME ME)

bonuses:

(I think this was for someone’s birthday??) (Kagerou!!)

KAGE/SHIRO (KageHiyo ?? IDK WHAT TO CALL IT EVEN NOW)

more Kage/Shiro (and a bonus old Hiyo)

(LISTEN. WHEN I SAY IT WAS CANON) (THE HIYORIS SHIPPED IT TOO) (negl ? HiyoHiyo ?? f/f ?? hello ??) (I DON’T MAKE THE RULES THIS ISN’T ME OK)

(MARY THOUGH STOP MARY PLS)

(and a bonus old!Seto / “Forest-Otoko” chibi head at the top) (”Forest Boy” is what he was called iirc I mean SERIOUSLY)

( THEY !!! CARE !!! ABOUT !!! EACH OTHER !!! ) anyway when I say RESPECT THIS VERSE AND THEM I mean RESPECT IT LITERALLY WE MAY NOT EVEN HAVE GOTTEN KAGEPRO (and tbh who knows exactly how much inspiration Jin could pull from here) (and a bit more under the cut!) (+old Hibiyas and semi-official SetoMarys)

(LOOK HIBI ESCAPED A LOOP ENOUGH TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS OK) (LET HIM LIVE)

more random Hibi + food

BONUS SETOMARYS (the bottom one was for Pocky Day)

(if you think Wannyanpuu/etc. didn’t ship it. I’m sorry. YOU’RE WRONG)

(I still ship/otp on the side MomoMary too though n e g l) (including in this verse it’d probably be even more canon here tbh)

(there’s a bit more where that came from but i’ll spare you) (it’s easily findable though if you search wikis)

#kagerou project #kagerou days #kagerou daze #hibiya amamiya #hiyori asahina #setomary #kagerou #shiro hiyori #kagepro: official #kagepro: semi official #wannyanpuus kagedaze: official #wannyanpuus kagedaze #wannyanpuu hiyori #wannyanpuu hibiya #(OK AND I'M SERIOUSLY DOUBLE TAKING THAT IMAGE WITH '14' AND '15' ON IT WHAT)#(WAS I ACTUALLY RIGHT ALL ALONG SOMEONE PLEASE LET ME KNOW OH MY GOD)#(BECAUSE I WAS ALWAYS SO CONFUSED BY HIS AGE MAYBE THIS WAS WHY)#(SETO'S TOO LIKE I LEGIT THOUGHT SETO WAS LIKE 7 AND MARY YOUNGER WHEN I FIRST GOT INTO IT)#(AND THOUGHT HIBIYA WAS OLDER THAN SETO LIKE GUYS I'M NOT LYING THERE'S REASONS WHY)#(there's reasons why old fandom was the way it was too)#(ok but seriously why couldn't we have gotten 15 yr old Hibiya in series I mean)#(also if you think Wannyanpuu didn't ship all of this I'm sorry like this. really wasn't me)#(seriously though guys we could have semi legit LGBT+ Hibiya and Hiyori and Mary and Seto and etc. PLEASE TAKE IT)#(i'm still crying because LGBT+ Hiyori could have actually been a thing)#(anyway WHEN I SAY I'LL DEFEND HIBIYA AMAMIYA WITH MY LIFE THIS IS WHY BETA HIYORI TOO)#(braces self too ... i'm sorry I just had to get it out I MISS THEM I MISS THIS HIBIYA AND HIYORI THEY WERE ADORABLE)#(OK BUT SERIOUSLY RESPECT THEM also WAIT WHAT SHE WENT ON TO WORK ON BOOKMARK OF DEMISE PROJECT TOO WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW THIS ?!?)#(literally though RESPECT THEM also please forgive Mary .... either way LGBT+ Mary pls)

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x0401x · 7 years

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Kai-You Interview: Sidu

As promised, here is the english translation of Sidu’s side of the interview from kai-you.net, which was posted a few days after Jin’s. Warning: since this interview is from two months ago, some date-related infos are off, so I had to adapt them in order for them to make sense in the present time. As always, please message me if you have questions or spot any mistakes. Raw here. Jin’s side here.

Here is Sidu-san, an illustrator and video maker that, together with Jin-san – who handles the music, light novels and comic’s script –, is yet another person to have had a major role in the making of “Kagerou Project” (KagePro), which is celebrating its sixth anniversary this year.

Back in 2011, upon meeting Jin through Twitter after watching the video he had posted on NicoNico Douga, Sidu-san was put in charge of making the character designs and MV for “Kagerou Days”, which triggered a lot of attention from the viewers. Later, she was in charge of handling all of the MVs, illustrating the light novel “Kagerou Daze -in a daze-” and making the character designs for the serialization of the manga “Kagerou Daze”.

(T/N: Some of you are probably finding this part weird, but let me clarify. We all know that not all the PVs and character designs were made by Sidu, but when the interviewer says that she “handled” them, he probably means that Sidu had a role in their making, one way or another, even if they weren’t 100% her work.)

With her video composition that relies heavily on unique patterns and high-speed cut-ins, she has become the main person behind the visual image of “Kagerou Project”. Sidu-san also served as animation director for the first time in the production of the exclusive MX4D™ movie “Kagerou Daze -in a day’s-” that was released in November of last year.

Kagerou Daze -in a day’s- Key Visual

This interview discusses in detail about the backstage of this work and the repercussion that followed its release, as well as the different character images of Mekakushi-dan, the interweaving young main group of “Kagerou Project”. Moreover, it discusses how her moves as a creator that has also been supporting “KagePro” have been proceeding, together with how Jin-san has been receiving so much attention from the media.

Kagerou Daze -in a day’s- Scene Shot 1

──It seems that MX4D “Kagerou Daze -in a day’s-” was a work in which there were arrangements being laid out until the very end.

Sidu: Yes. (Laugh) I was editing the alpha in the studio until the afternoon of the final deadline. Until then, I’d spent the days not being able to tell when it was daytime or nighttime.

(T/N: “Alpha” is a term used by animators as short for “alpha channel”. For anyone interested, there’s a small article on its definition here.)

──What part was the most difficult?

Sidu: I’m in the position of a director that has to look after everything, so though the animation director was always present, there were points I had wanted to modify no matter what, and ultimately, I used the software named “After Effects” to work on the so-called “cinematography” by adding effects all on my own.

──The production was in an apparent harsh situation, huh... For starters, what kind of thoughts pushed you to accept being the director of a MX4D movie?

Sidu: It started with the talk about extending the PV. As in connecting all of the BGM, making it into a single track and creating a video for it. I thought, “If it’s something like that, I can do it. If no one else is willing, I can take it on.” and, as the discussion about it went on, the number of things I was put in charge of increased...

In the beginning, there wasn’t even a script, and I was supposed to just deliver to the studio a storyboard consisting only of drawings, but in the end, I also ended up writing down the script myself. However, writing a script all alone was hard, so I planned out the plot together with the novelist Jinzai Aki-san, whose novel, “Bandou Keiko, Nichijou ni Aki Aki” (Shinchou Bunko nex), was illustrated by me.

Kagerou Daze -in a day’s- Scene Shot 2

──How did you make the story?

Sidu: From what I had heard at first, it was supposed to have a 25/30-minute duration. It’s as much as one episode of an anime series, so I wondered if I could create a linear, coherent story from that, but during the actual process of making it, I figured it’s no good if it can’t even fit into 18 minutes. The original story had a slapstick comedy scene with explanations for first-time viewers to understand everything, but I cut it all off. Action scenes, too, were only left in the bits where they were truly necessary.

──This time’s tale feels like it’s set in a parallel world version of a certain incident that happens in the opening of the main story of “KagePro”.

Sidu: That’s right. “If all of the Mekakushi-dan had been in that scene, what would have happened?” is what I imagined when I wrote the plot. Also, this is a MX4D exclusive movie, so I thought I wanted to use the MX4D effects after all, and for such, it had to be that action-packed setting.

Sidu talks about the characters of “KagePro”.

Kagerou Daze -in a day’s- Scene Shot 3

──When making this work, what where the points you were careful with?

Sidu: The personalities of the characters. If it’s Kano, he protects his comrades from the shadows, while Kido sneaks about just like him; things like that. Just like this, I started writing about them by reflecting on what kind of posture each character would take, based off their personalities.

──When you say you were careful with the characters’ personalities, does it mean the images of the characters grew within you while making “KagePro” together with Jin-san?

Sidu: That’s right. This time, Jin-san had to give undivided attention to the music composition while I had to do the same with the movie, so I wrote the story and characters from my own interpretations. That’s why I think it’s become something different from the character images that Jin-san has.

──What part of Sidu-san’s interpretation of the character’s images is different from Jin-san’s, exactly?

Sidu: For example, Kido. When I read the light novel, I get a feeling that Jin-san views her as a pushy character. But, to me, she has the image of a cool young woman that can pull off the role of a confident man.

──I see. I think this is a valuable opportunity for Sidu-san to talk about the characters, so if you would, I’d like to hear about your impressions of all of them.

Sidu: It doesn’t change much regarding Shintarou. I do think he’s got a creepy side, but he also has the aspect of an older brother.

Momo, too, isn’t that different. Just like the image of the songs, I think she’s a bit of an oddball kind of character. Like she’s an idiot but quick-witted.

But... regarding Marry, I feel that there’s quite a gap.

──How big of a gap?

Sidu: Jin-san’s Marry, putting it simply, gives the impression of a psychopath; of someone that isn’t human. Even so, she’s faint-hearted and has a cute side for being an airhead. But within me, she isn’t so much of a scaredy-cat. Since she’d been living by herself for a long time and managed it somehow, she gives me the image of someone who’s got nerve.

Seto hasn’t had enough appearances at all, so I've got no idea about him. Having him there is fun, yet everything is fine even if he’s not around, so he might feel like a character that could run off somewhere anytime. But to me, Seto isn’t the type that moves foward thinking of himself. Similar to Ayano, he gives off the feeling that he’s holding in something dark.

When listening to “Kagerou Days”, the image that I felt of how Hibiya is aloof but doesn’t hesitate to protect the girl he likes was strong in me. But I think the Hibiya that Jin-san writes about is probably Jin-san himself. He’s an elementary schooler that lives in the countryside and is a little gross. (Laugh) Currently, the Hibiya as I see him is the result of this incompatible combination.

──What about Hiyori?

Sidu: Jin-san’s Hiyori is truly a rigid character, huh. Ah, but I don’t know if that’s his taste. (Laugh) The Hiyori as I see her is also the same as her impression from “Kagerou Days”. Though it feels like she’s always pushing others away, it’s not like she’s a character that thinks too ill of anyone.

Ene... is a base character, but she, as Ene, is clearly the number one mascot character as well. Same for the anime. But in the novel, her real character has a strong influence, so it was hard to find a balance.

Though he’s always grinning, Kano is serious when he has to be. Except, Jin-san’s Kano is feminine and feeble. But within me, he has the image of a cool character that hides his dark past and absolutely can’t be understood by others.

──Lastly, what about Konoha?

Sidu: Regarding Konoha, Jin-san and I might be in different vectors. Jin-san’s Konoha is a coward. If I had to compare, Haruka is the active one. The Konoha as I see him is completely detatched from Haruka and doesn’t have any of Haruka’s courage or fears. Konoha’s actions aren’t a result of him thinking; rather, he seems like a character that reciprocates what is given to him.

──I see. Indeed, after listening to this, it does feel like the movie is filled to the brim with Sidu-san’s interpretations.

Sidu: That’s why it might feel different from the light novel to the viewers.

Kagerou Daze -in a day’s- Scene Shot 4

──Jin-san said in his interview that it was something like an “official anthology”.

Sidu: I think that definition hits close to home.

It started out with the Oekaki Keijiban for “Puyo Puyo”.

(T/N: For those unfamiliar with the term, “Oekaki Keijiban” or “Painter Bulletin Board”, also known as PBB and PBBS, are bulletin boards or forums dedicated to drawing pictures by using a paint program that runs in a web browser. For more info, there’s a detailed article on the subject here. And for anyone wondering, Puyo Puyo is a 90′s video game. It seems to be called “Puyo Pop” in Europe and America.)

──I think I should request a retrospective from the viewpoint of Sidu-san, who has been supporting “KagePro” that celebrates six years now with illustrations and videos, if it’s possible. But before that, when was it that Sidu-san started making art and posting it online?

Sidu: I started from the Oekaki Keijiban for “Puyo Puyo”. During those days, I was just a spectator, and believed people drew digital art using the mouse. Then I found out about the existence of tablet pens. (Laugh) Using them to draw became fun, and the first thing I published after that was the Oekaki Keijiban.

──When was that?

Sidu: The time I was in that Keijiban was at around my second or third year of middle school. Either 2007 or 2008. I’d watch MADs and FLASHs a lot on NicoDou.

(T/N: I’m pretty sure that people who watch AMVs are knowledgeable of these terms, but since they are almost exclusively used by the Japanese and were created by them, here we go again. To put it simply, MAD is the Japanese initials for AMV. The letters stand for “music anime douga”, meaning “music anime video”. But, unlike the western fanvideos, they’re mostly mash-ups with lots of effects and heavy editing, so generally leave a more intense impression. The term can also be used to describe the Japanese underground media community. Meanwhile, FLASHs are videos made using Flash Animation, the most popular animation software amongst hobbyists and YouTubers. They could be fanvideos or original creations; mostly the latter. Also, just for the heck of it, “NicoDou” is an abbreviation for NicoNico Douga.)

──Was it also around this time that you made a Pixiv account?

Sidu: Pixiv came a little later. In another Oekaki Keijiban, the word “Pixiv” popped up, so I looked it up and found the site. I had originally made an account just for the sake of viewing and didn’t post anything at all, and that’s the account I’m using until now.

──Looking back, you started using both NicoNico Douga and Pixiv in 2007. Now-a-days, the term “UGC” (User Generated Contents) has become common, but I believe that Sidu-san had been playing around in places like Keijiban as an anonymous creator and threading numerous individual accounts in websites since your teenage years.

Sidu: Thinking about it now, it was amazing. There was actually a popular person in that “Puyo Puyo” Keijiban. I remember finding this person’s art on Pixiv and got emotional while thinking, “That person is still alive!”. It was easy to find them since their art style didn’t change.

Year 2011, where the phenomenon known as “KagePro” overtook a creator.

──And then, four years from there, you discovered “KagePro” in 2011, and three months later, you became its illustrator.

Sidu: Only, I was light-hearted about it back then. After all, every tip I was receiving about how to make the art was via Twitter.

──I think 2011 was an important year, where “Senbonzakura”, “Tell Your World” and “KagePro” debuted together in a contest to become representatives of the 2010 internet’s VOCALOID and NicoNico Douga.

Sidu: It was a lively year. Before “KagePro” started, I’d made acquaintance(s) with VOCALOID song creator(s) through Twitter, but I think that was the time when it truly became lively. I also drew art for their songs.

──Does Sidu-san remember the impression from listening to Jin-san’s musical composition for the first time?

Sidu: Back then, I’d skim over the rankings of VOCALOID songs that came out everyday on NicoNico Douga. KagePro’s first song, “Jinzou Enemy”, was there, and had me going, “This song... is cool,” so I tweeted that. Then came the sudden reply from Jin-san, “Thank you very much”. That was when we had our first interaction.

──What kind of interaction was it?

Sidu: At first, we didn’t talk about songs or art at all, only about games. Then Jin-san saw my Pixiv account’s URL in my profile page and went, “So you were an artist,” then asked, “Could you draw something for my next song?”. From that, we made “Mekakushi Chord” together.

──From this point on, I think the repercussion regarding “KagePro” began to broaden all at once due to the release of “Kagerou Days” four months later, so how did you take it back then?

Sidu: There was a time when all of Pixiv’s rankings were often about “Kagerou Days”. Moreover, everyone was good at drawing. It was a phenomenon full of people that drew the art motifs that I had created better than myself. While I thought, “Amazing~!” I also pondered over things like, “Wouldn’t it be better if I weren’t here? Aren’t I just dragging it down?”.

──It felt like the phenomenon was overtaking you.

Sidu: Right. Everyone had all sorts of interpretations, and there were people who drew accessories and cool Hibiyas. I thought people who thought that far and made that much stuff were amazing.

──By the way, what’s Sidu-san’s image of Jin-san?

Sidu: During that time, I thought he was someone that made cool songs. But as it turns out, all he talked about were damned Otaku subjects, so I started thinking of him like, “This person... is a weird-ass old man, huh...” (Laugh) We also talked about “KagePro”, but half of it was like, “If this person was in a live-action adaptation of it, what role would you want them to play?”

Many adults she didn’t know ended up getting involved.

──“Mekakushi Chord” only contained an illustration, but “Kagerou Days” was fast to be turned into video. Had you wanted to make videos from the start?

Sidu: I had. But at first, the only software to make videos I knew of charged a fee, so I thought I couldn’t handle it and gave up. But upon doing a search, I found countless free softwares. Especially a software named “AviUtl”; I tried it out on intuition and ended up using it a lot.

──The MV of “Kagerou Days” shows stills that move through camerawork like visuals and lyrics that cut in, so an unique style was born from it. Was it inspired by anything?

Sidu: I simply thought, “I want to make a VOCALOID-ish MV” and it turned out like that. There were videos like that since back then. The rest was just the feeling that I “had to create an opening”.

I liked videos with lots of illustrated frames and watched them often, thinking that “it would be great if I could make videos like these, but drawing so many frames is exhausting so it’s impossible”. I believed that “it will be more VOCALOID-ish this way” and made it without enough frames. Although, I don’t know how, I ended up with many frames. (Laugh)

──After that, “KagePro” moved forward as a collaborative work with a particular worldview. How did you feel when the project grew bigger and bigger?

Sidu: During the time of “Headphone Actor”, I had heard about the demo movie of the VOCALOID named “IA”, but back then, I wasn’t co-working with anyone and made everything by myself. Yet, at the time that the CDs, light novels and manga were released, a bunch of adults I didn’t know became involved. “Isn’t this... kind of bad...?” is what I felt.

──Meaning, from 2011 to 2012, the situation was steadily rising to a climax, and the people from companies and labels that keep everything in order became involved.

Sidu: That’s right. At that point, all of the characters had been made. I had suddenly been told by Jin-san, “These characters will come out next, so please make as many prototypes as possible for them” and from then, we made “Konoha no Sekai Jijou”.

The feeling of “Do I feel good about this or not?” doesn’t change from the videos to the anime.

──The phenomenon’s ignition was “Kagerou Days”, and adults started getting involved during the time of “Konoha no Sekai Jijou”. Were there any other songs that Sidu-san feels to have been a turning point?

Sidu: The first time I counted with another animation company and entrusted them with raw materials for the characters and animation was during the time of “Children Record”. It was the first time I’d made a video with someone else, but since it was related to “KagePro”, it was a pain in the beginning.

──What exactly was a pain?

Sidu: I really couldn’t manage to put what I wanted to do into words in a way others would understand. There is also the fact that I’m a taciturn, the type that doesn’t talk much, and the contents of my works are usually messy. Back then, I couldn’t deal well with taking lots of jobs and having to interact with people numberous times, so I thought the proposal of making an anime was terrible.

──Are there any remarkable memories from after that?

Sidu: That would be the opening theme of the TV anime, “daze”. Back then was when I made a video with scarce animation for the first in a long time. I believed I had made a video with an evolution of my old style. Basically, I prefer making videos with motion typography like “daze” rather than animation.

──What does Sidu-san, as a creator, consider a strength in your style?

Sidu: I’m often told I’m not the articulate type, and to tell the truth, I don’t even understand my own style that well. (Laugh) I’m not that conscious of my style; I just think, “I wanna make something like this” when I occasionally see something I consider cool and do it. But my sense of time ─ my way of timing things ─ might have not changed since the past.

──I think it’s a big point for the sound and images to be synchronized. The way of capturing motion in Sidu-san’s videos feels like the motion and the music are in the same session, like it connects with a percussion instrument through a wire.

Sidu: Hoa~, thank you very much. I’ll try to keep that up from now on. (Laugh)

──Is this more of an emotional than a technical thing?

Sidu: That’s right. It’s completely emotional. Whether I’ll “feel good about it or not”.

“Kagerou Daze -in a day’s”, the movie that resonated Jin and Sidu’s music and videos.

Kagerou Daze -in a day’s- Scene Shot 5

──About that feeling, I wonder if it didn’t come to life in the production of this MX4D. I felt something like a connection between the bridging and coordination of this production and the sense of timing of Sidu-san’s videos.

Sidu: I think that success was achieved entirely thanks to the technique of the contributing editors. In the process of making it, I did imagine things like, “I want to put special effects in this bit,” but when the part of adding MD4X effects actually came, it turned out to be fun. So I thought, “Let’s put in a lot of effects,” and it wound up really flashy.

──It flickered a lot; my glasses even got wet. (Laugh)

Sidu: Yes, yes. Makes one feel like, “just shake things up,” huh? (Laugh)

──Was there anything you obsessed over in the coordination of the animation or the MX4D?

Sidu: There are scenes in Shintarou’s point of view, and I thought that, since it was a subjective viewpoint, we couldn’t just halt them, so I made them oscilate all the time. While imagining them, I felt we should just make them flashy.

──This movie’s main point is the subjective viewpoint, huh? Within 20 minutes, the point of view is often switched. The opening scene with the terrorists also starts with a subjective viewpoint in first person. It became a form of narration similar to a virtual reality type of self-insertion.

Sidu: That’s right. We referenced that genre of video games named FPS rather than making it like a regular anime. I thought the MX4D effects were very compatible with that.

──Seeing the feedbacks, there were several positive ones like “they move so much when the frames are put together” or “the water and scents were amazing”, and it gave me the impression that many people enjoyed the aspect of self-insertion provided by the MX4D. I believe you have come across various different feedbacks as well, so how did you take them?

Sidu: I’m extremely grateful to the people who said it was fun. But there are also negative opinions. To be honest, even I think there were things I couldn’t manage to do, so I symphathize with them like, “So you think the same as me, huh?”.

It ended up being a short story, but it started out from a PV-like form of storytelling, so it felt like an omake. That’s why the people who said it was enjoyable (personally) make me the happiest.

──Is that to say that the story and the personal experience were memorable?

Sidu: Yes. However, for the story, “Kagerou Daze -in a day’s-” actually has a sequel, “Route-2”. I won’t go into details yet, but I can say there will be a connection with it through the use of this first-person subjective viewpoint.

──In Jin-san’s interview, he also talked about the pleasure of personal experience, and the keywords were “feeling of immersion”. The opening “RED” expressed a feeling of dizziness from being inside a whirlpool with its fast tempo. He said that, this time, he worked on the song for the movie completely separated from you, but in the end, I believe your feelings wound up linked to one another. Lastly, in retrospect of these six years, what was “KagePro” for Sidu-san?

Sidu: It was a school. I learned a lot of things through “Kagerou Days”. I learned a lot of bad things too. My art simply became better and I became better at making videos as well. I learned how to worldbuild and make videos and anime. I always had to greet lot of people at work, so I also became more sociable. It really felt like a school.

──Meaning you grew together with “KagePro”.

Sidu: That’s right. I also got to eat some delicious stuff. (Laugh)

──Hahaha. By the way, Jin-san said that “KagePro” was “meant to seriously deceive children”. And that “it wasn’t made to please adults”.

Sidu: That’s right. Lately, I have often heard people commenting with disdain, “that thing is aimed at children”. But I believe that everyone makes stories influenced by things they liked as children or animes they watched and mangas they read. That’s why I think childhood is important. It’s okay for it to be a work that adults can also enjoy, but what meaning would it bear if children couldn’t stand it? Is what I feel.

#kagerou project #kagepro #mekakucity actors #kagerou daze #kagerou daze in a day's #sidu #jin #anime #my translation

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