Sigh. Lately I’ve been thinking about Takiishi and Endo and their language barrier. :[
Since the beginning of the manga we’ve been taught that fighting is a language in and of itself.
Fists convey thoughts in ways that words cannot. That’s something that was taught at the very beginning in the Shishitoren arc and ended up becoming incredibly important when we got to the Noroshi arc! We particularly see this shown in our greatest antagonist yet: Takiishi Chika!
He makes it apparent from the very beginning that he doesn’t like talking. Though we don’t get to see him interacting with anyone other than Endo in early childhood we get a glimpse of it through Endo. Ignoring others, seeing them as faceless nobodies.
Then if that doesn’t seem to work then he’ll give them a warning in the only language he truly knows how to speak.
Then. If even that doesn’t work then you kinda have to improvise. Try to mix the languages. He speaks out loud for the first time. He bridges the language barrier. Sure, with the aid of his also using his own way of communicating, but the effort is still there. And we can see that he’s taken aback when Endo blocks the hit. He fights back, he tells him ‘no’ in Takiishi’s own language. So he attempts at communicating again but Endo,, hasn’t quite connected the dots yet.
Takiishi doesn’t like using words. It’s uncomfortable for him. They ‘have no meaning’, as he puts it. When he absolutely must communicate he’s straight and to the point, ending it as quickly as he can.
But even he’s having the time of his life and he’s choosing to speak it’s almost like,,, I don’t know like a doll just out of sync to me. His timing and choice of sentence structure is juuuust off.
Takiishi Chika’s way of communicating is through fighting. That’s why he loves it so very much, it’s the only time he can truly get his feelings and thoughts across the way he wants to. It’s why he’s so drawn to Umemiya, the only other person who understands that fighting is just another form of communication. A far more honest way of communicating too.
This post is also a really good exploration of their communication barrier. I ended up taking a lot of inspiration from August’s reading of the characters so I really recommend you go check him out. :]
I’ve hitting the image limit so I’m gonna do a pt. 2 going over Endo’s fighting style and his way of communicating. :]