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rickyriddle · 6 years

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Sumireko x Banba analysis

Hi there! So here’s the analysis you were all waiting with hype (well, maybe not, but I do hope some of you were expecting it), the SumiBanba analysis! Yeah!

So let’s do a quick recap of the Banba analysis and Sumireko analysis. If you haven’t read them yet, here’s your chance to do so. It will help you understand more this analysis.

I said in my previous analysis that Banba was suffering from a dissociative identity disorder (DID), also known as split personality. She also shows signs of anxiety, psychosis, schizophrenia, and paranoia. It was caused by her traumatic past with her uncle who sequestrated and abuse her. She created a stronger personality to protect herself because no one else did and is now afraid of being close to others, yet doesn’t want to be alone. This is the reason why she kills to have relics, to fill her lonely heart.

As for Sumireko, she seems to have megalomania, an obsession for power and a deep desire to be the strongest, believing that she’s the true queen. This obsession started because she learned about Haru, and developed an obsession about defeating her. She may also have psychotic and paranoiac tendencies, caused by all the assassination attempts she undergone, which made her believe that she needs to kill Haru in order to be safe, almost as if her life depended on it. She also thinks she must remain alone, showing she lacks trust in others.

Both characters have similar traits: They both suffered from a form of childhood trauma and abuse that left them ‘broken’, Sumireko physically broken and Banba mentally broken. There both a mix of two things, Sumireko is a cyborg (so half-robotic) and Banba has two personalities. They are both lonely, and it might be because they don’t trust others and think they are better alone, because of their respective traumatic past. They both came to Class Black without an actual wish, both of their wishes can be achieved by themselves and doesn’t really require the help of Myojo (Sumireko killing Haru, Banba getting a relic), and both wishes are related to their personal mental issues and coping with their respective trauma. They are both mentally unstable, even if Banba is at her higher level, being mentally ill.

As you can see, even if they are two very different people, both of them actually have a lot in common. Now let’s analyze their moments in the series.

Their first moment seen together in the series was when Otoya bullied Mahiru. Sumireko came to her help. I talked about that scene in my Sumireko analysis, but it also has a big value for this analysis. Sumireko told Mahiru to “pull herself together” and kinda looked...annoyed? That wasn’t the same attitude Sumireko usually has towards Banba during the series. I suppose they had at least met once before that scene, since they are roommates. It leads me to believe that Sumireko, who is confirmed by the author to indeed have a crush on Banba, didn’t fall in love with her at first sight. In this scene, she most likely only protected Banba because she found it unsightly for someone to bully someone weaker. It was more about her personal belief than Banba herself.

Then, when Sumireko fall in love with Banba? Don’t worry, I’m going there. So, after that, Mahiru when to thank Sumireko. Before Mahiru said anything, Sumireko looked a little bit confused, and not that much interested in Mahiru, which goes with my guess that she wasn’t in love with her at this point. Then, after the thanking, Sumireko looked pleased and offer to have lunch with Mahiru. I think it was more out of politeness and of habit than actual interest for Mahiru, but she does seem a little happy about Mahiru thanking her (and Mahiru was freaking adorable in that scene so I guess she might have found her cute, given the blush). But then, the moment I’m sure most people found funny, when Mahiru refused and Sumireko made this face.

Sumireko really looks like she didn’t take this refusal well. She probably didn’t receive many refusals in her life, if it isn’t the first one. I mean, I’m sure anyone would have loved to go lunch with the gorgeous rich girl, who wouldn’t refuse? Apparently Mahiru. It must have shocked Sumireko quite a lot, who was clearly not expecting this. I think Sumireko took it personally. She didn’t accept that someone she invited didn’t want to have lunch with her. This is probably why, at first, Sumireko probably continued to invite Mahiru out of ego, as a way to “refuse her refusal”. But, spending so much time trying to invite her kinda forced Sumireko to actually get interested in Banba, and I think this is how she eventually learned more about her, discovered that they have things in common, and ultimately fall in love with her. So it wasn’t love at fight sight, but a love that took some time to build.

Sumireko developed a genuine interest in Banba, she helped her when she was afraid of the light and the dark and seemed to have done that in a more selfless way, while her initial intention when she wanted to invite her to go lunch was more selfish. It showed that Sumireko’s interest in Banba involved from a selfish desire to a more selfless one. It’s probably the first time Sumireko took the time to learn and have an interest into another person, because of her “watakushi am the strongest, a queen must endure solitude, etc” attitude. The only person Sumireko showed interest in before was probably Haru, and she wanted to kill her, so it doesn’t really count. So Banba is so special to Sumireko because she’s the first one who caught her interest, thanks to her refusal, and that allowed Sumireko to finally bond with someone she has similarities with without wanting to kill her *cough* Haru *cough*.

What Sumireko exactly likes in Banba? Well, as stated in chapter 29 by Sumireko herself, it’s her madness. And it’s at this exact moment realized that SumiBanba wasn’t as cute and innocent as I thought (dammit, first ChitaHitsu, now SumiBanba!). Even if Sumireko also likes everything else, Shinya mentioned, her madness is what she prefers, as well as her scars and Shinya’s existence, because it’s the proof of the madness she when through and makes her soul tough, which she finds beautiful. That may sound cute, but it’s still a little bit fucked up. Especially since she has the “crazy eyes” while saying that. But I feel like Sumireko recognized herself in Banba, she can relate to her, without feeling like her statues of queen in endangered like with Haru. Because Sumireko does relate to Haru too, but they are too similar, while Banba, despite the similarities, has a total different past and has nothing to do with the concept of queen like Sumireko views it. Sumireko doesn’t feel any rivalry towards Banba and even seems fascinated by her, she finds her interesting and relatable. So rather than just being in love with her for her madness, Sumireko loves Banba mostly because she can relate to her, enjoy her company and doesn’t see her as competition.

After that there was that scene where Sumireko found an unconscious Banba and casually asked Nio if she could take her home. I remember when I watched the anime I thought something like that would happen but nope, I was really disappointed. Then the manga happens and I was really glad. So, it may look cute, but personally, I find it kind of twisted. Let’s not forget Banba in unconscious during that scene, and here there’s Sumireko making planned to take her home, kinda like she was some pet, it almost feels like a kidnapping. Maybe Banba did agree when she woke up, but still, Sumireko making plan like that without talking to her first seems disturbing to me. I said in my Sumireko analysis that she was power hungry, well I think she would most likely be like that too in a romantic relationship. She would most likely want to be in control and position of power.

But let’s keep that for later. The last scene we saw with both of them in the manga was during the epilogue, showing that Banba became Sumireko’s maid, therefore Sumireko successfully managed to kidna...I mean, take Banba home.

And that brings us to KnR 6. I include it in this analysis because I personally think it’s canon and find it really meaningful for the SumiBanba pairing. It’s when I saw this doujin that I realized that despite the fluff, SumiBanba has the potential to be quite a dark ship. So, the first part was drawn by Morishima, but still, I think we can view it as canon (I actually made an analysis about KnR and what I think was canon in it, here). It seems that Sumireko surely didn’t hire Mahiru as her maid for her skills, because she’s quite clumsy. That’s just an excuse to have her by her side. Sumireko is really patient with her and isn’t mad when she do mistakes, probably because all she cares about is having Banba with her. The scene where Sumireko insists to have the umbrella and even took it by force from Mahiru’s hands seems odd to me, it was kinda rough of Sumireko, like she couldn’t accept that Mahiru wasn’t listening to her request. It goes along with my thoughts that Sumireko doesn’t accept refusal and want to be in control, and that also seems quite full of pride from her. Tho neither Mahiru nor Shinya were bothered by this attitude so I guess it’s fine.

Then there’s the highlight on this doujin, the fight scene between Sumireko and Shinya. It’s that part that makes me think SumiBanba was becoming darker, but I had to admit that first I misunderstood that scene. I thought that Sumireko, when she said that she’ll return the strap as a relic, meant that she might die by Shinya’s hand, thus making the strap into a relic. But it doesn’t make sense when we think about it. The strap as nothing to do with Sumireko, it doesn’t belong to her, she stole it. That strap belonged to Haru initially and she gave it to Banba, therefore, only Haru’s death can make it a relic. So therefore, here’s what I think Sumireko’s goal is in this part: she stole the strap to ensure that Banba won’t leave her, and also as a way to have an opponent to train and become stronger. This way, she expects to become stronger than Haru and plan to try killing her again, thus achieving both her wish (defeating Haru) and Banba’s (having a relic). Unlike my initial thought about a potential tragic ending, Sumireko might be actually working to get both her wish and Banba’s, as well as trying to keep the one she loves by her side. Shinya confirms that Sumireko indeed still want to be stronger than Haru and Sumireko confirms that she’s indeed in love with Mahiru. But still, even if she has good intentions, her methods are questionable. She stole something valuable to Mahiru, to force her to stay with her. Sumireko herself compared it to what Otoya did to Mahiru. That’s emotional manipulation and, in a relationship, is a form of abuse. She’s causing distress and pain to Mahiru mainly for her own desire, and that’s wrong. Sumireko’s is both being selfish and selfless, but I think she’s mostly selfish in the end. She may feel bad about it, but she still did it. And if she keeps that up, Banba might snap and things could get ugly...but I’ll keep that for later.

A question that needs to be answered first is, does Sumireko’s feeling are mutual? And who loves who? Well, we know for facts that Sumireko loves Mahiru. But what about Shinya? Well, from what I understood, Sumireko is mainly in love with Mahiru, but since she views Shinya as a part of Mahiru, then she also likes her. But Mahiru is her love interest, the series seems to be pointing to that. But as I said, Shinya is part of Mahiru, she’s a being born from her, so by extension, it’s possible that Sumireko also has romantic feeling for her, if she saw her as a part of Mahiru rather than an entirely different being. In fact, she did say she also loves Shinya in KnR 6. But, does Banba (both Mahiru and Shinya) loves Sumireko too? Well, we can’t say that she doesn’t at least like her a bit. As her maid, Mahiru seems to care for Sumireko, and be worried when she thought she might have hurt her with hot tea. And after Sumireko protected her from Otoya, Mahiru went to personally thanks her despite her shyness, which makes me believe Sumireko left a good impression on her. She also blushes quite a lot when she’s with Sumireko, and I certain case, I don’t think it’s because she’s just shy, but perhaps because she actually like Sumireko. We know that Shinya doesn’t hate Sumireko, and since Shinya is existing for Mahiru’s sake, I think they might share the same feelings, or rather, Mahiru transfers her feeling to Shinya. So if Shinya doesn’t hate Sumireko, so does Mahiru. And even after Sumireko stole the strap, Shinya still doesn’t hate her, so I guess it’s the same for Mahiru. So they might be a possibility for Banba to fall in love with Sumireko. I believe that for now, Banba does like Sumireko, but it might not be romantic for now, but it could become like that eventually.

Let’s go back to the ugly part. There is both a possibility for a good, healthy and supportive relationship for SumiBanba, as well as a possibility to be negative, abusive and even tragic. And which one of them become true almost entirely depends on Sumireko’s actions. That’s right, everything is on your shoulders Sumi. Why? Because, even tho she as her own mental issues, Sumireko is the sanest of them. She’s the one who can take rational decisions and help the relationship getting better, if she stopped acting like...well, a jerk. She kinda is. Unfortunately, considering KnR 6, the second possibilities might be more plausible…

Let’s see what it could be. So, if Sumireko continued to be Sumijerk, things could get pretty ugly. Let me explain. Right now, Sumireko is kinda forcing Mahiru to stay with her by using the stolen strap as some kind of blackmail. Now, remember Banba’s past. She was sequestrated by her uncle because he loved her too much. Now, Sumireko isn’t sequestering Banba physically, but she kinda is doing it emotionally. Mahiru might eventually feel like she’s forced to stay, like Sumireko is “sequestering” her...And Banba as a PTSD regarding that, which caused her to kill her uncle, her abductor. What would happen if Mahiru snaps and begin to view Sumireko as the same as her uncle and ended up in an episodic psychosis? She would most likely try to repeat what she had done before, not because she hates Sumireko, but because of her PTSD being triggered in a way that reminds her of her uncle’s abuse. So, the worst outcome would be Shinya, under Mahiru’s delirious order, trying to seriously kill Sumireko. Would she succeed? Maybe. This is actually what I thought would happen when I read KnR 6, until I realized that I was probably wrong about the relic thing. And, it seems more that trying to take down Sumireko is Shinya’s idea, because Sumireko offended Mahiru. Or it could be Mahiru who ask her to get back her strap. In both cases, I doubt Shinya is seriously trying to kill Sumireko at this point, but if Sumireko continued to be a jerk, Mahiru might really snap and try to get her killed for real. That wouldn’t be cool. Sumireko’s emotional manipulation could have a really bad impact on Mahiru’s psyché, and it could also make Sumireko’s mental issues worst, by getting used to manipulate in order to have what she wants. They will both remain trapped in their own solitude and sink even more in their issues. So even if Banba doesn’t manage to kill Sumireko, this option is fated to be unhealthy for both of them.

But wait, don’t lose hope yet! I also talked about a potentially good option, remember? Then here it is. If Sumireko gets her sh*t together (sorry the language), the relationship could improve in a positive way. Sumireko needs to make a choice between her obsession with power and her love for Banba. She needs to decide which is more important for her, because her power-hungry attitude isn’t healthy for her and could greatly affect negatively her relationship with Banba, like you see above. Also, both desires are completely incompatible, since in order to be a queen Sumireko thinks she needs to remain alone, thus can’t fully be with Banba. If Sumireko works on her own issues and try to overcome them, then she would be able to see things clearly, and better understand her own feelings and what Banba needs. She would be able to better support Banba and deal with her mental illness, and perhaps even help her to get better. They both suffered from a traumatic event as child, so they should be able to understand and put themselves in the others shoes. They could help each other overcome their respective traumatism. They could overcome their insecurities and loneliness by finally accepting to not be alone anymore, to work on their trust issues by allowing themselves to trust each other. They both have been broken in the past, and together they could pick up the pieces and put them back together. Realistically speaking, Sumireko would need a therapy for her power obsession and Banba medication for her psychosis, But before that, they need to work things out together, learn to not be afraid of leaving the solitude they find so comforting behind, and to be able to trust others again. Then they could perhaps ask for more medical help, but first they need to help each other with their respective issues. Sumireko could even ask help from Haru, her former rival, as a way to learn more about what a good relationship is and as a way to finally give up on defeating Haru. Really, SumiBanba has so much potential for a beautiful, loving, supportive, positive and healthy relationship...only if Sumireko stops being Sumijerk and gets her sh*t together!

So, if both options are possible, then which one is going to happen? Well, before I thought the bad outcome would happen, mostly because I had misunderstood KnR 6. But with that doujin alone, it seems that the bad outcome is more plausible. But...Nope. I don’t it will happen. I’m pretty sure the good outcome will happen.

Why am I so sure? Well, because I have actual proofs that seem to lead to the good outcome.

So, even if I believe the manga should be considered first to establish the official AnR series canon, my proofs are actually in the anime. But, the specific scene I’ll use as a proof doesn’t contradict in any way the manga canon, so therefore, should be view as canon too.

I’m referring to the anime epilogue. Yeah, both the anime and manga epilogues were different on various points, but doesn’t contradict either other, therefore can be both canons. Anyway, the anime epilogue has more content, even if for all the ships except TokaHaru, it’s kinda the same. Tho in the manga HaruI is acanon so it’s an egality ^^’

So, how is it my ultimate proof? Well, in the epilogue, when one of Sumireko’s servant told her about new cybernetic limbs, Sumireko freaking declined them. Like, miss power hungry was like “nah, I’m over that, now I want to cook”. To me, it’s a proof that somehow, Sumireko finally gets over her “watakushi am the queen” thing and found herself a new “hobby”: cooking. That’s good, really good. I can see Sumireko trying to cook stuff for Banba, or even inviting her to cook with her. It would be so cute and romantic. So it seems that Sumireko did overcome some of her issues and is actually getting better, finding some new more healthy hobby and she seems quite in peace with her decision.

Then we have Mahiru, who also seem quite happy and in peace. Something good must have happened to her, yet the last thing we saw of her before that scene is her getting her ass kicked by Isuke. I don’t think it would make her happy xD. No, I think something else happened to her between that and the epilogue, something good. Sumireko. Sumireko happened. Somehow, after Sumireko got over her obsession for power, things get better for Banba, because Sumireko started to act more selfless and cares for her needs. It might be why Mahiru doesn’t need Shinya anymore. Because she feels like she can trust Sumireko, that she can help and protect her. Shinya exists mostly because Mahiru didn’t have anyone back then to protect and save her, but if she doesn’t have this issues anymore, than Shinya’s existence is put into question.

Then, what happened to Shinya? Did she stop to exist? Well, realistically speaking, a split personality doesn’t go away like that. In fact, I’m not even sure if there is an actual treatment for DID. But there is for psychosis and the other illness Banba has. So if Banba received treatments and has her symptoms weakened thanks to Sumireko’s support, then yes, her split-personality should be lightened. Because in her case, her DID is caused by her PTSD related to light and darkness, so if she works on those issues, then the personality changes should be less triggered. So Shinya would still exist, but perhaps she wouldn’t be there every time during night. More when Mahiru feels in danger perhaps, or if she’s too anxious, regardless of if it’s day or night. But those are mostly speculation, since other than that scene in the epilogue, nothing suggests that Shinya really disappeared, but realistically speaking, her existence could diminish if things go well between Sumireko and Mahiru (and if she takes medication, something she might not even do). But if she did disappear, well...Shinya would be the only characters from the main cast who “died”.

So, the manga, KnR 6 and the anime epilogue are all canons to me, just not happening at the same time. The manga epilogue is what happened first, then KnR 6, and then anime epilogue. Something good between them happened between KnR 6 and anime epilogue, something I might try to guess and work in a fanfiction, unless KnR epilogue answer this question.

I have as headcanon that Sumireko and Banba will open a tea house together, with Sumireko as the manager and Banba the maid (and perhaps Shinya as a butler um...that would be great).

In conclusion, SumiBanba is a complex relationship between two equally complex characters. They have both similar yet different issues regarding their past that could lead both to a good or bad outcome for them. This relationship as both the potential of being good and positive, as well as bad and negative, mostly because of Sumireko’s choices. And I’ll make my coming out. SumiBanba is actually my AnR OTP. Yeah, that’s right, they are. I know most people think OtoShie is my OTP, but it isn’t. It’s true that I’m mostly talking about OtoShie and being completely obsessed over it, but it’s my second fav ship behind. That’s mostly because unlike SumiBanba who can be both dark and twisted yet cute and fluffy, OtoShie is mostly dark and unhealthy. There isn’t the potential of goodness SumiBanba has, the best it could be is less bad, because...well, Otoya. That’s it. I like SumiBanba for being both dark and fluff, it’s a good mix for me. I still love both ship tho and it isn’t a competition, just my opinion.

So that’s it. Do you have any comments or questions? Feel free to tell me and thanks for reading this (really long) post :)

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