This post makes me think so much of the parallels but also what the object means in the story aka the importance and symbolism of the card vs the watch.
Card=Name=Introduction=Getting to know each other=The thing that brings them together
Watch=Time=Spending time with each other=The thing that separates them
ALSO
Watch=Money=Reminder of their gap=The thing that separates them
I'll elaborate below.
In Karaoke Iko the card appears in the first and last chapter, completing the narrative circle. Kyouji gives his card to Satomi to let him know who he is and keep it to remember him. What Satomi does isn't to keep it with him or throw it but leave it behind the couch of the karaoke room. This shows how Satomi is not ready to let Kyouji be in his life or accept truly who he is but he is still reluctant to push him away. What he does is to put a boundary, a limit to how far he accepts him. Kyouji is allowed to be with him as long as it's in the secluded room of the karaoke place. Only in this space Satomi allows himself to get to know Kyouji and slowly accept him. When their arrangement stops, Satomi stops going to the karaoke place and thus comes a full stop of Kyouji's presence in his life. And the only time he visits the karaoke place it's like fate for him to sit in the same couch and find the card he had hid long ago. Facing again his secret and the name on the card is like facing again everything that he was trying to get away from. And this time he chooses to accept the card because it's the only thing he has from Kyouji, the only thing to remind him that he is real and what they had was real. But also because he is ready to accept Kyouji for who he is. Because it's better to have him as he is than not having him in his life at all. When Kyouji sees the card in Satomi's hand, he also sees all these things that mean for Satomi. He sees that Satomi has his name in his hand like he does as he has tattooed Satomi's name on his arm. Names play an important role in Karaoke Iko. We see it too with the whole sequence of how Kyouji got his name in the first place. It was an accident that marked the rest of his life and led him to where he is. And after Satomi, he marks himself with his name, accepting him and letting him to lead his life wherever it goes. So names not only have meaning but also actively affect and lead the story. By having these two exchange names and allow the other to have their name, it's like they accept that their fates are now intertwined and will follow them wherever they will lead them.
Famiresu Iko addresses the things that separate the main duo. It's their age, their financial status, their occupation, their social circles (that are shown to mix and end up being one big circle without their knowledge) and on and on. But what separates them physically is space and time. Besides the years that they hadn't seen each other (and still haunt Satomi), now it's the weeks and months in-between their messages and meetings and the distance between Osaka and Tokyo. All these boil down to numbers; time or kilometers or money and all these are symbolized with the watch. Like the card, Kyouji gives it to Satomi with the intention of letting him keep it but also to remind him who he is and accept that. Only that now it's more personal and Satomi seems hesitant but accepts it only with the intention to return it. For Satomi the watch is a reminder of how far they are financially and socially and in life in general. Yet, he doesn't mind wearing it until Junko comments on it, reminding him that not only there is this gap between them but also that this gap, in society's eyes, can't be bridged in an acceptable way. The watch can be excused only if it's from family, not from an older acquaintance unless there's a reason and Satomi isn't ready to address that reason. Thus, all this frustration boils down to literally boil the watch. Still, Satomi turns off the stove, he can't erase its existence but he can abandon it (like he did with the card). Once again Satomi is indecisive (something that Houjou points out in the early chapters with the mark on the painting) and once again fate doesn't let him get away from it by finding again the watch in his locker. From then on we don't see the watch again and we don't know if Satomi took it back home or let it in the locker but in both cases it means that he hid it. Again like the card he's not ready yet to face what role in his life can a thing that Kyouji gave him have. Later the money are addressed more clearly with Satomi's savings to give a present to Kyouji. For him the present will mean their end but if this means the end of their relationship in general or of their specific relationship is unclear. While Satomi was indecisive, he was considering of ending completely their relations with this gift and yet he was still looking of a way for Kyouji to get rid of his tattoo. Which tattoo though? The cranes one or his name? Probably the last one but then why would he look for ways a yakuza can quit and wonder when the boss is gonna die? So completely indecisive. Until he accepts his feelings for Kyouji and stops thinking of what separates them. The years that they hadn't seen each other, the lack of news that always worried him for his death, none matter as long as Kyouji is alive. Kyouji still has time left and their time together doesn't have to end. The only thing that remains for us now is to see how then next chapters will adress Satomi's realisation of feelings and acceptance of them and I personally wonder if and how the watch will play role later on.
– Did you get in contact with him? To let him know you're out? – No, I haven't. And I haven't heard from him since then. Not to mention, I don't think he even knows I was serving time.
Summer 2025 brought us two gloomy, dark haired, gay Japanese anime boys who missed out on an important choir performance (that they've been practicing for weeks for) because of a toxic same sex situationship
I had been rereading Captivated, By You and this panel where Hayashi’s eyes get compared to the Mona Lisa picked at the cracks of something I had been thinking about while I stared at the Satomi version of Mona Lisa, and now the dam that is my mind has flooded over… I have to say it out loud.
If you have experienced fictitious historical retellings of Leonardo Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa, then you’d be familiar with the storyline of Da Vinci convincing his muse to smile for his painting. This isn’t the story behind the real painting, it’s a reference to the ambiguous smile she gives when viewed in person. Her smile is almost not quite there, and, for some, it’s an incredibly neutral look on her that they’re seeing.
Eventually, in those stories, Mona Lisa’s expression finally breaks down in joy. A burst of laughter or a smile finding itself on her face, finally is she “Mona Lisa.” This ending being a metaphor for when the viewer finally finds her smile. Its other Italian name (La Gioconda) is a pun on Lisa del Giocondo’s married name, emphasizing her happiness. The “Mona” part of the painting’s international name had come from “Monna”, translating into Lady Lisa.
Monna was the polite form of Ma Donna, which has become “Madonna” today, a term for Virgin Mary(-like figures), or more simply put, a pure ideal founded in a female partner. This image is applicable to Mona Lisa herself. Lisa del Giocondo had been a second time mother when it was commissioned, even if she never lived to see it. Her right hand over her left speaks to the Mona Lisa being a reserved and faithful wife.
Now, what does this have to do with Satomi?
The Painting
While the parody maintains the setting and posture of the original, this depiction is a complete inversion of the Mona Lisa’s image. A young boy who refuses to meet the eyes of the viewer no matter how you look at it, unambiguously does his tears trail down his face in sadness. His frustration couldn’t be more clear to us. But whenever I looked at it, I couldn’t stop thinking about those stories of bringing Mona Lisa’s passive face to smile.
If the reader isn’t careful while reading Karaoke Iko, they might not realize just how much Satomi cares about Kyouji until his fake-out death happens. Satomi is very neutral with his approach about Kyouji, not because he doesn’t care, but because he doesn’t understand his own feelings yet. Kyouji is a confusing, messed up part of his life that he keeps letting back in. Like many other themes, it is continued and explored in Famiresu Iko.
Not once has Satomi happily smiled for Kyouji in this series as of now. Maybe it’ll change in the future, but this is the truth. There’s the occasional blush, frustrated look, or deadpan stare, but that’s all Satomi’s has expressed facially for Kyouji. The only outliers are when Kyouji made Satomi cry, that was when Mona Lisa’s face finally gave way to feeling.
Like the Mona Lisa, it’s hard to perceive Satomi’s feelings until you find the right angle because it’s encased in a neutral expression. Nothing about the Satomi painting is neutral however, so what’s going on? Well, only twice does Satomi cry so heavily in Karaoke Iko and they’re very similar: it’s when he puts himself in danger to walk into the territory of Yakuza to find Kyouji, both of which Kyouji tells him not to go.
The first time had been when Satomi tried to find Kyouji to give him the Omanori, just to get caught by Cocaine Alien and be saved by Kyouji himself. But I think it’s obvious that the second time, when Kyouji is thought to have died and Satomi runs to find him—only to see his alive after he had just sang his heart out for him—is what the painting is supposed to be depicting. His turning of eyes is him ashamed of being exposed in a vulnerable way when it was “unnecessary”, because it hurts to love Kyouji.
Even so, as I say that, Satomi’s tears of perceived sadness in the painting are as misleading as his neutral expressions. His tears are not just sadness, but love pouring from the depths of his heart that have no way of containing itself. It’s relief that wants to be happy, but expresses itself in just one way. Regardless of the inversion, the loyalty in his stance is kept the same as Mona Lisa. He is not a Madonna figure, but as a young boy in choir and the pure bright white of his shirt being a vocal point of the painting, he retains the same holy ideal.
The Kyouji Angle
This art of Kyouji showing off the painting of Satomi was originally the cover of the Doujinshi version of Karaoke Iko. It’s still in the officially published version, but knowing that it wasn’t a piece drawn offhandedly puts more weight into it. Once upon a time, this is what Wayama thought of to define her work.
It’s hard to tell what Kyouji’s relationship is with the painting, be it the curator, conservator, artist, owner, museum guide, etc. but what we do know is that he’s behind the dividers and the yakuza are not. The bald yakuza being so close to the dividers and Kyouji holding out his arm is in parallel to the yakuza meet-up scene where Kyouji has to come inbetween him and Satomi. If you pay close attention, Kyouji has always put him physically in between the other yakuza and Satomi.
This is one of Kyouji’s many ways of “protecting” the purity of Satomi’s normal life and junior years. He avoids smoking around Satomi, he covers Satomi from the blood getting on him, and he stops talking to Satomi to keep a distance between them. In the artwork, he has white gloves to handle the painting of Satomi. The problem is that he’s behind the divider at all, the problem is that he’s showing off his Satomi to the others. All three interactions with the other Yakuza are directly because of Kyouji’s involvement with them.
It’s less protection, and more a message to not touch something sacred that he selfishly wants to keep framed. The funny thing is that Satomi is right there in the full art, off the side and next to the boss, away from the crowd looking at his painting. He’s not behind the divider with Kyouji either. Kyouji keeps safe the image of what he thinks Satomi needs to have a normal life. It’s also possible to interpret this as Kyouji showing off the most surface level of his relationship to Satomi, but there’s still distance between him and the actual Satomi.
To keep the Satomi in his heart close, but the real one at a distance… is that what he does by having the tattoo of his name on his arm? According to Wayama, he never intended to walk back into Satomi’s life until he saw him at the airport with his business card. He was fully intending to leave Satomi alone until that point. The Kumicho and Satomi being next to each other is symbolic of the importance they both hold to Kyouji, both on his skin and in his life.
It’s heavier to be a yakuza with an Irezumi tattoo, significant to your loyalty in the organization, and to have a name of someone you care about on your skin along side that, than if it were a normal person. Satomi being the most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, alludes to how precious Kyouji finds Satomi. Youthful, emotional, and caring Satomi made an huge impact on him that day of the karaoke competition.
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