Iemitsu is a bad father, a cheater, and doesn't love his wife and son a fandom mostly thinks. But what if he does love them? What if his distancing himself from his family is to protect them from the mafia? What if he didn't expect Nine to lose all his sons, so he didn't tell Tsuna anything about the mafia, wishing him a normal life? What if he's terrified that Tsuna, no matter how much he hoped, will still become the tenth, and these harsh lessons in the Representative Battle Arc are an attempt to quickly teach him how to survive in the mafia and become stronger? What if this distance is so his son won't cry too much if the mafia kills him? What if Iemitsu not good, not bad, but simply a man trying to do his best to protect both of his families
(Documenting my research process so I won't forget and get confused why I did something in a fic during a later read through. Nothing serious really.)
Where exactly is Namimori in canon?
As I was writing a khr fic, I realized I needed the exact location of Namimori for one sentence. A sentence that wasn't even important in the long run. Rather than abandon that single sentence I decided to try and locate where the town of Namimori would be in Japan. Because apparently I like pain.
There is virtually no information on the actual location of Namimori anywhere. So I had went on a research binge. And I found something that gave me a starting point.
In 2009, there was a special KHR episode that was aired during the Jump Super Anime Tour titled, Vongola Style School Trip, Arrives!
Saying that I found it is not that accurate. Its more that I went looking for an episode like this specifically. This isn't the first time I tried to locate fictional locations on a map for the sake of the plot. And I've realized that episodes centered around trips provide amazing clues, especially where the trip starts, where it ends, the scenery outside etc.
Thats what I hoped for here as well. And the hunch paid off! Between timestamps 3:07-3:10, there's a map. Not very detailed mind you. Just enough to show the direction where they came from. But that's better than nothing.
So they're going to Nagoya city, which is in the Aichi Prefecture. Its in the Chūbu region. It also looks like they're coming from the Kanto region, possibly from the direction of Tokyo.
So that means we can leave out the Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu regions in the south. There's no way Namimori is in Hokkaido, or Okinawa, so those two prefectures are out as well. The most likely locations for the town to be in is in the Kanto, and Chubu regions.
Comparing the physical map of Japan with the short glimpse we get, I'm reasonably sure they passed by Mt. Fuji as well.
See that little protrusion under Fuji-san? I'm pretty sure thats what we see in the map shown in the episode. So yeah they passed Mount Fuji.
Another thing, see that arch like thing before the protrusion? Thats Kanagawa prefecture, and we can see in the very beginning of the video, around the 0.03-0.04 timestamps, that they don't start anywhere there.
See? They pass by it completely and started somewhere well before Kanagawa. So Kanagawa is out.
Lets go back to Fuji-san again.
The mountain lies between the Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefecture borders.
Why did I decide on Tokyo as the starting point in Kanto despite there being other prefectures in the region?
In KHR's seventh volume, Hot Summer Arrives!, we get chapter 57, Swimming at the Sea. Its a beach chapter.
The beach is described as being close by and the fact that Ryohei's boxing club senpai, Kuroda Eiji and his buddies Kisanuki Yukio and Ookura Takuya, apparently work there as lifeguards, supports this. (You know...cos they're in middle school and all and jobs at that age tend to be close by...for civilians at least.)
Which means that prefectures like Saitama, Tochigi, and Gunma, which are all landlocked as you can see on the map below, are automatically disqualified as locations for Namimori.
By that same logic, Yamanashi is also disqualified.
Ibaraki is not counted because despite the abrupt beginning and ending of the map scene in the episode, we can guess that the starting point of the trip wasn't quite that far back. By the curve of the arrow I mean. {Yeah I know this is a reach but I'm pretty sure I'm right.}
That just leaves Tokyo and Chiba.
The argument in favour of Chiba is a meta one. Tokyo is an iconic location when it comes to manga and anime. Most anime set in Tokyo shows several shenanigans centered around Tokyo's various landmarks. Even works not set in Tokyo sometimes have Tokyo episodes and Tokyo adventures. Like Haikyuu for example.
Considering how much shenaniganry and crackishness KHR has, it would be very strange if it was set in Tokyo and yet didn't have any Tokyo misadventures in it. Reborn would just go ahead and name Tokyo Tower Vongola Tower or something just like he named Nagoya Castle Vongola Castle. So Namimori might not be in Tokyo, but in Chiba instead...which is still part of the Greater Tokyo Area now that I think about it, so still Tokyo in a way?
I couldn't find a way to clearly articulate an argument in favour of Tokyo when a friend send me this link.
Just made a discovery(???) or a least found out something really funny (dunno if somebody else already discovered that):
I was interested i
I was walking on a path well-tread! @ladydraculena had already slashed through the figurative jungles for me!
I went looking for the two locations marked in the map in their post but it seems like Namimori Steamed Buns has since closed down. Hibari Nursery School on the other hand is going strong.
With this information the argument in favour of Tokyo grew much stronger.
Thus canonically the town of Namimori is most likely located in Tokyo and if not in Tokyo proper, definitely in the Greater Tokyo Area.
(Please note that I left the Tohoku region out of this. The region is very distinct and neither anime nor the manga has shown a singular sign of being set in Tohoku. By that I mean that if a work is set in Tohoku, it would be impossible to hide its Tohoku, or mistake it as somewhere else.)
Edit: @rooigseix pointed out that since most of KHR's usual shenanigans strictly happens in Namimori, the usual Tokyo adventure trope meta might not be applicable in this case. Namimori might be far away from Tokyo centre like the Ota or Edogawa districts, which are close to the sea as well.
Edit: @lightning-will-bovino pointed out Kokuyo land and there is in fact a theme park called Noah Forest Amusement Park or Mori-no-Yeunchi near the Hibari Nursery School!
It seems very likely that Amano-sensei was inspired by the area. It might not be where Namimori is actually located but the existence of these establishments in close quarters lends further credence to the theory of Namimori being in the Tokyo area.
In conlusion, the most likely location of Namimori would be in Tokyo prefecture but close to the Chiba border. Not landlocked as well.
Thus, Edogawa ward is the most suitable location.
And after all of that, I decided that Tokyo wasn't a good fit for my fic's Namimori and by my magical writer powers shifted it to Mie Prefecture instead. ╥﹏╥
Hibari's having a mist flame is so fucking funny to me
I mean how he learned about this? How he reacted? Why he decided to use it (in rare times but whatever) despite his hatred for illusionists? WHO TEACH HIM TO USE IT, because apparently he is very skilled in this once he can hide his WHOLE BASE under illusions? Chrome? MUKURO? Amano-sensei I need answers
Hibari's having a mist flame is so fucking funny to me
I mean how he learned about this? How he reacted? Why he decided to use it (in rare times but whatever) despite his hatred for illusionists? WHO TEACH HIM TO USE IT, because apparently he is very skilled in this once he can hide his WHOLE BASE under illusions? Chrome? MUKURO? Amano-sensei I need answers
Hibari's having a mist flame is so fucking funny to me
I mean how he learned about this? How he reacted? Why he decided to use it (in rare times but whatever) despite his hatred for illusionists? WHO TEACH HIM TO USE IT, because apparently he is very skilled in this once he can hide his WHOLE BASE under illusions? Chrome? MUKURO? Amano-sensei I need answers
me finding out cw was just queerbaiting all that time for ratings and money when even actrors shamelessly queerbates on every fan panel even when they are not in characters probably for the same reasons
