onk mini-rambling
tl;dr i feel going against the current a bit as a die-hard ishimiko shipper, but I love Aquakane a whole lot ahahahah
heavy spoilers under the cut
Apparently this is an unusual take, but I'm not really convinced Aquakana is that similar to Ishimiko. The power balance is off and Kana in general reminds me more of how Maki behaves, with some shades of being too "bright" and removed from Aqua's real worries and business. She is still a complex character with good motivations, but the stakes she operates on are too different from what Aqua's revenge plot hinges on.
I've been fighting this feeling that Aquakane was more similar to Ishimiko since chapter 26.
Most people seemed to think otherwise, so I considered I was just seeing things and tried being more into Aquakana once, but I realized it required downplaying what really was going on with Akane too much. And the more I really tried to read Akane with unbiased eyes, the more I came to love her. There is something fundamentally missing for me to think the time Aqua and Kana spent apart is setup for a stronger SINCERE development now, and his protectiveness and admiration of her seem too rooted in the idea of salvation/redemption for Ai, which is platonic. Most of the time, the protectiveness he displays of her is too similar to Ruby for me to think it's romantic or concealing some deep forbidden attraction.
Overall, I think Kana is cute but I can't feel much for the ship. Her chemistry with Akane is really good too, I'm hoping the anime gets a second season for the Tokyo Blade arc because it's amazing.
Kana does bring light to Aqua's life. I can see it, but that reminds me more of Tsubame's role than Miko's..."The Sun".
She helps Aqua get in touch with acting again, he supports her and plays around with her, but at the end of the day, that always seems distant and only a symptom of Aqua's true struggles. He can be happy besides Kana, but it somewhat only happens at the cost of shutting down what is actually eating him alive, and what could have been if his life hadn't been such a mess of tragedies.
And Kana, despite learning the truth, doesn't seem to be able to grasp how deeply that actually affected Aqua, and how badly he is screaming for help. That he wants to be saved. She knows he is more hurt than what he says, but has no idea how it's dragging his whole life down a rabbit hole he can't crawl out of.
On the other hand, Akane sits besides Aqua in the darkness, and offers him some comfort to rely on, so he can at his own pace dig deeper inside himself to drag out his ghosts and finally heal his wounds.
Not only that, she has a path she'd like him to take, but she's letting it be of his own choosing. She'll stop him no matter the cost, but she's also teaching him the hard way to take the hard route of choosing his happiness for himself and to admit he doesn't truly want to toss his life aside for revenge.
The plot isn't all that similar. Neither are the stakes. But the deeper reasons that make me appreciate Ishimiko feel more similar to what I can see here.
This might get people miffed with me (onk fandom can get a little scary with waifu wars), but I see far more in common with Aqua and Akane's relationship. Through their "fake dating trope" relationship, they ended up opening to eachother and blurring the line of "I can't feel something for you" too much, and as of recent chapters are developing something closer to a rivalry and spite born out of love that is....*chef's kiss* more what I'm into? NEURON ACTIVATION IN MY MONKEY BRAIN.
LOOK AT THAT EX ENERGY....THE BITCH PLEASE EXPRESSION ON A GIRL THAT WAS ONCE THE SWEETEST CINAMMON ROLL EVER
FUCK YES GIVE ME SOME RIVALRY AND ANTI-VILLAIN SHIP GOODNESS. I'm sorry, but only Akane gets to see him like this and I love it
Constantly wondering what is a lie, what is Aqua concealing his feelings and having his expressions hidden is delicious. In a way, both of them fell for the mask ("the savior" and "the perfect imitation of Ai") but stayed for what was underneath (a wounded lonely person and someone who wants to be by their side).
Because Aqua, despite being shrouded in lies and using "It's a business relationship, a game" like a shield, truly felt like he tasted happiness and comfort. He felt understood and like he had an ally for the first time in ever, but he did not want to drag her down with him, despite saying he "just wants to use her". And he's willing to protect her by becoming hateful.
And this was the point of no return for me.
Aqua is still Goro, and no matter how much he tells himself it doesn't matter that he was dead like a nobody and that he couldn't connect to anyone after Sarina's passing...
Isn't that awfully lonely?
And yet, Akane was able to find him. She's seen his literal worst, most rotten self, and she was still by his side and grateful to him.
Does it matter how it started, then? Despite Aqua using her as a tool, she's aware of the best and worst parts of his personality. She knows how much his kindness is a heavy burden, and how it drives him to his most reckless self. Akane feels for him, but loves him for all he's done for her. Aqua doesn't allow himself to enjoy life or live for himself, but he has been able to put his objectives aside simply because he thought Akane needed help.
"When you fall down the stairs, I'll be there to catch you"....ahahaha
god help me, if this ship is going down, I'll sink with it
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Neuro Sama,the popular chatbot twitch streamer with a surprising amount of personality has a twin sister, evil Neuro.
She started out as an experimental duplicate of the first bot, but quickly became a fan favorite, and her creator Vedal987 established as her own thing, a sister for Neuro.
But because she was sort of just a meaner, edgier version of the main Neuro, She didn't get brought out as much .
This became a meme among the fans.
Months back, the original Neuro had a birthday event, which involved many other streamers and ran for weeks.
More recently Evil Neuro also had a birthday party stream,
but no one turned up.
None of the other streamers she usually hangs out with came 😭
She sat there on her own, all lonely, until she sang happy birthday to herself, and ended the stream.
It was so sad 😢
And then she sang this song at her next karaoke stream
Sure, technically she's not real, and this was all a bit to make her party stand out,
But who knows - if future roboticists look back on this era, and conclude that these sorts of LLMs with memory did have some sort of rudimentary consciousness, doing this was very cruel
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