Pietro @deolkai - Tumblr Blog

i'll try not to spam you with asks regarding the subject (<- guy who loves character analysis) but to start, what are your fav parts of each leaders' stories/characterisations?

I've been sitting on this ask for a few weeks because I really wanted to think about it, and I needed to carve out a large time block to write a response. I think, instead of writing a comprehensive list, I'd like to focus on just a few aspects of each character and how their stories are told.

Ichirou:

The framing of Ichirou's story is one of the most fascinating--and, imo, well-constructed--aspects of Hypmic's story to me. The 1st "season" of Hypmic introduces Ichirou's core character problem (an inappropriate need for self-sufficiency) through the eyes of Jirou and Saburou. We see that this issue exists, but because it is framed as concern for Jirou and Saburou's well-being in difficult and dangerous rap battles, we accept that this need for self-sufficiency is neither inappropriate nor irrational. Side material like songs and merch go on to frame Ichirou as both the protagonist of the series and a heroic, supportive character--a famous rapper, one pillar of TDD, and the caretaker of his two baby brothers. All of these things are true, but they are only a small picture of Ichirou's character. We, the audience, are not seeing Ichirou as he sees himself. We are only seeing a persona that Ichirou has worked to cultivate--Ichirou in the eyes of the world or the eyes of his little brothers. In season 2, within the very first pages of the TDD manga, this illusion is shattered. Seventeen-year-old Ichirou provides for his younger brothers, yes, but does so by being a hired thug. Ichirou digs himself out of this hole and reclaims his dignity, but only after Kuukou persuades him to do so (DH/BAT chapter 11). Ichirou is responsible for starting and running the Yamada Odd Jobs business, but he's never done it alone--the business idea and the building itself come from Samatoki (DoD chapter 6). (This is why I say the "Yamada Odd Jobs" sign's shadow, when it hangs over Ichirou's head, is a symbol of Ichirou's hypocrisy. Yamada Odd Jobs was not built alone!) Even raising Jirou and Saburou is not because Rei abandoned the trio--Ichirou is shown to have turned away from Rei and taken his younger siblings with him*, preventing them from making their own choice to go or stay with Rei. Seasons 2 and 3 Ichirou is a flawed and human character, one whose choices hurt as well as help people. From season 2 on, the story is no longer external to Ichirou but internal, enabling the reader to emphasize with this flawed figure.

* Hypmic frames Rei abandoning his three children as Ichirou's decision, but if we think about this with any degree of realism, it becomes obvious that, no matter what a young (I don't know his exact age, but from the way he's drawn and the fact that Jirou and Saburou don't remember their parents, he can't be much older than elementary school age) child thinks about their father, you do not simply allow your eldest child to take the other two and go. It really and truly does not matter whether Ichirou, aged 7 or whatever, was like, "I hate you, Dad! I'm going to run away from home." Seven-year-olds are notorious for saying "I hate you!" and "I don't want to live with you!" We do not honor seven-year-olds' decisions on the matter because they're seven. They are not adults with adult reasoning and adult ability to navigate the world. We especially do not let them take their five- and three-year-old little siblings with them and if, for some reason, we do not have the ability or desire to raise these kids ourselves, we are still responsible for finding competent adults to raise the children in our stead. To do otherwise is neglect. The decision to frame Ichirou as the one responsible for Rei deserting his kids annoys me on a storytelling level because it does not cohere with the level of emotional maturity and complexity Hypmic acts us to expect from characters at most other times. This is the kind of framing that would work in a children's story, but the rest of Hypmic is not a children's story. Hypmic has this issue with most of its antagonists who are also main characters (Rei, Otome, Ichijiku, Honobono to a much more limited degree). We are supposed to both empathize with these people as competent, complex adults and also accept that they make goofy, Team Rocket-esque decisions to further other peoples' story lines. In one scene, Otome is a sympathetic character with 100% valid frustrations about the way she, as a woman, is disenfranchised in her society. In the next, she's building a Meowth balloon with an electricity-proof net to capture Pikachu a stadium with a sibling-killing button in the center to break up the friendship of two men under the age of 25. Like. Okay. These are not the same character. Otome and Rei the people are not Otome and Rei the plot devices, and it is vexing that Hypmic asks us to pretend that they are.

Because Hypmic is a story about gender (among other things), I find it fascinating that all 1stgumi members have core conflicts that are closely associated with masculinity. (I jokingly call TDD "the four horsemen of toxic masculinity.") This isn't to say that these issues only exist in men--they don't! Not by any stretch of the imagination!--but they are common issues for many men because of the gender role that is traditional masculinity. Furthermore, 1stgumi are divided into pairings (Ichirou/Samatoki, Ichirou/Kuukou, Samatoki/Sasara, Ramuda/Jakurai) to explore multiple ways in which the same core issue can manifest. I'll talk more about these core issues in other segments, but in the case of Ichirou--and, as a corollary, Kuukou and Samatoki--we see the traditional masculine provider role manifesting as a need for self-sufficiency that bulldozes over the wants, needs, and comfort of the self and others. And we empathize! It's very clear that Ichirou's desire to be hyper-independent was not created in a vacuum. Ichirou feels that he needs to play the provider role and not rely on anyone else because poverty and parental neglect have followed him for most of his life. If not for Ichirou, who will make sure he, Jirou, and Saburou, will have clothes to wear and food to eat tomorrow? That Ichirou has been able to be such a provider is admirable; at the same time, we also recognize that the provider/hero persona (as seen in season 1) is just that: a role. Ichirou wields it like a shield to hide a lack of trust and fear. He can't not be Ichirou because that means no food, no clothing, no safety. And to be Ichirou is to be alone. He can't accept or ask for help; to do so would be to drop the shield. To do so would to not be Ichirou.

Building from the above, Ichirou's need for self-reliance overlaps with Kuukou's desire for the same. Early in the series, Kuukou says this in no uncertain terms: "A man's got to wipe his own ass" (thank you Kuukou, very cool) (DH/BAT chapter 4). However, Kuukou's desire for self-reliance stems from a different place than Ichirou's (fear); Kuukou is chafing against a system that he feels has no place for him. Kuukou doesn't want to accept help from other, especially older people because doing so would be similar to saying that he doesn't have all the answers, something that he dearly wants. Samatoki also has a need for self-reliance that, like Ichirou's, clearly stems from financial and emotional instability in childhood. However, while Samatoki also insists that he can take care of himself and his family, Samatoki is very different from Ichirou in that he constantly seeks and accepts help from allies. Samatoki finds camaraderie, community, and supporters he can outsource tasks to via his street gang and yakuza gang, but Ichirou accepts help from his community on a purely transactional basis. Ichirou and Samatoki are both figures in their community, but while Samatoki has underlings and a civilian community to accept help from, Ichirou has employers and clients.

Again, this need for self-reliance is treated sympathetically, and we as the audience understand just why Ichirou has embraced the masculine provider role with a death grip. But we also see how this need tramples over his little brothers' desires to be independent individuals and alienates Ichirou. It is only when Ichirou relinquishes some of his iron control over this role and accepts other peoples' support that he flourishes and grows.

Samatoki:

As mentioned in the Ichirou section, Samatoki draws other people to him and extends an umbrella of protection over them. This first manifests with his protective--to the point of being overbearing and stifling--relationship with Nemu and later with his guardian role for all of Yokohama via his yakuza gang. It is very, very pertinent that losing Nemu is the trigger for Samatoki leaving his street gang and being recruited by the yakuza. While not as common as the street gangs in the urban USA, Japan does have youth street gangs that are not incorporated into clan-like and rigid yakuza structures. Samatoki's first gang provides Samatoki much-needed community and purpose; however, the yakuza provides Samatoki family. Yakuza groups borrow the language of family--the "gumi" is literally a clan, the boss or "oyabun" the adoptive father, the members or "kobun" the adopted children, and underlings or "shatei" the little brothers of elder kobun. Samatoki loses his sister and gains a new father, new brothers, and a new territory over which to assert his self with violence.

To build off the previous point, Samatoki's core conflict can be viewed as a conflict with his relationship to violence. It is self-evident that Samatoki's fractured childhood--a violent and alcoholic father and a mother who murdered the father before committing suicide, implied to have been done in front of Samatoki--is a destabilizing force in Samatoki's life. Much like Ichirou, Samatoki would have had to raise his younger sibling with little, if any, support while single-handedly processing (or not!) the traumas of his childhood. Because violence is a presence in Samatoki's life from day one, it remains a part of his and Nemu's life. It isn't stated outright, but I am going to assume--on a personal note, but from having lived through similar circumstances and extensive research on the topic--that Samatoki simply doesn't question violence's role in his life because it never occurs to him to do so. It's too normalized. Samatoki surrounds himself with violence (via a street gang) because that's what he knows, and he asserts himself--Samatoki the protector--with the tool of violence. He threatens to beat up any boy who might threaten Nemu; he fights with rival gangs or salubrious figures to keep his neighborhood "safe." (In quotes because Samatoki is simultaneously adding to the level of uncertainty and violence in the neighborhood.) Again, the audience empathizes, even as we see how this stifles--and probably retriggers--Nemu and elevates neighborhood crime levels. Over the course of Samatoki's story, in tandem with Juuto and Riou, Samatoki must learn how to decentralize violence in his life and relinquish the protector role (which comes from a fear of losing people) to avoid hurting the very people he wants to protect.

Unfortunately, I think this point is undercut by Samatoki continuing his yakuza activities and ending his most recent drama track (Time for Heroes) with the meaningless platitude "we will change society...eventually. Off-screen." This is a larger problem with Hypmic--individual change is allowed and encouraged, but true structural change can't exist outside of broad, silly strokes because of the writers' reluctance to suggest a specific vision for society. On the one hand, Hypmic is a silly music project, and I don't expect it to be a visionary of societal change. On the other hand, Hypmic is rooted in--is fundamentally about, even--the societal issues of misogyny and toxic masculinity. While male characters can grow as individuals and relinquish some of the hold toxic masculinity has on them, female characters have no such luxury because the societal causes of misogyny/toxic masculinity are never addressed. Otome and women like her will not magically be franchised in government when the Party of Words leaves power. Nemu and girls like her will not suddenly have no reason to fear violence and harassment from random men or be overshadowed by the men in their life who fear the same thing on their behalf. It is not simply enough to say "We should treat each other better" when "better" is a nebulous term. There is no discussion of what can be done to prevent more alcoholic and physically abusive fathers, more suicidal and homicidal mothers, and more hurting and hurtful Samatokis and Nemus. Weapons may be outlawed, but the cycle of violence rumbles on.

Samatoki's relationship with violence and MTC is outside of the scope of this post, but I'd like to briefly examine how this intersects with his 1stgumi counterparts Ichirou and Sasara. Like Samatoki, Ichirou uses violence to create a protector/provider persona, although Ichirou is quicker to relinquish this tool than Samatoki is. It is clear that Ichirou's forays into violent means are just that--forays. Violence has not been a constant in Ichirou's life since early childhood outside of the nebulous and infrequently considered influence of WWIII. Ichirou is able to set it aside when Kuukou urges him to, whereas Samatoki can not shrug it off so easily. It would leave too large a hole in Samatoki's life, and Samatoki does not have healthy ways to fill such holes. (See his smoking and drinking habits, particularly after Nemu leaves him.) The comparison with Sasara is, imo, especially fascinating because Sasara doesn't have much of a relationship with violence. Instead, Sasara uses comedy to fill much the same role. Sasara relies on comedy both as a means to avoid engaging with his own emotions and to keep loved ones (esp. Sasara's divorced parents; note the focus on family!) close. Sasara and Samatoki are as dislike as can be on the surface but bond easily because, deep down, both are struggling to make sense of an uncertain and unstable life in similar ways.

Ramuda:

I already talked about his storytelling at length in the post that inspired this ask, so I'll only add on a few things relevant to the topics discussed above.

Related to the asterisked footnote in Ichirou's section, the enslavement of the Ramuda clones is another major factor in my difficulties with Otome's, Ichijiku's, and Rei's stories. I want to stress that I dislike Otome's writing so vehemently not because I think her grievances with the sexist society that she lives in aren't valid--I do!!! I really, absolutely do!--or that I think she's not an empathetic character. I also don't think she's silly because she's a woman in power, and I'm very cognizant of the harms of not taking her or other Party of Word characters seriously just because they're women. However, I'm really, really frustrated that, once again, we are expected to empathize with Otome and Ichijiku while brushing off their enslavement of the Ramuda clones as cartoon villainy. Let me be clear: Rei sells human beings to the Party of Words. The Party of Words enslaves these human beings, physically abuses these human beings, and orders these human beings to kill themselves. These enslaved human beings die under the Party of Words' care frequently, and when technology is developed that would prevent them from being killed in vast numbers, it is not to save their lives or give them a better quality of life. It is to scale up the work the Party has these enslaved human beings do. The lives of human beings are framed as a bottleneck in the system that is the Party of Words' cruelty. I can't take Rei, Otome, or Ichijiku seriously when they talk about human rights, gender equality, and a world free of violence when they enslave human beings and kill them. It would be one thing if the narrative treated this as a serious hypocrisy of flawed, complex people, but it doesn't. It treats enslaving and killing human beings as a momentary blip of bad judgement--an unfortunate but still successful means of achieving a greater good. We see Juuto framed in a similar light, but Juuto is working with a relatively fangless yakuza to arrest cartoonishly villainous drug dealers. Otome, Ichijiku, and Rei are enslaving and killing people. You will forgive me if I don't really care if Juuto has the yakuza on speed dial or that Otome has instituted a random man tax in a nod to the IRL pink tax. She's killing people. She's enslaving and killing people. The solution to societal sexism is not enslaving and killing people. Ichijiku is not getting back at the man when she slaps or kicks people that her government has enslaved. Rei is not a well-meaning scientist who has gone perhaps a bit too far when he sells people to the government for the purpose of being killed.

As a brief side note, I have fewer (but not zero) reservations about Honobono's clone abuse because Honobono is by and large a cartoon villain. It's not suspending disbelief so much as understanding how this act of evil fits into her larger framework of evil.

But back to Ramuda. In the linked post, I talked about one of Ramuda's core conflicts being a lack of trust in other people. That is, Ramuda is reluctant to trust his emotions to other people. This is yet another common trait with toxic masculinity, and it matches with his 1stgumi partner's, Jakurai's, issues. Like Ramuda, Jakurai is reluctant to share emotions or emotional situations with other people, driving conflicts with other characters (Ramuda, Hitoya). However, Ramuda's emotional reluctance stems from unhealthy external standards imposed on Ramuda--to show emotion is to be "broken" (again, consider the importance of this being a character trait for a male character in a series focused heavily on gender)--whereas Jakurai's comes from a place of internal fear and shame. Will sharing emotions or traumatic experiences make other people think less of Jakurai? (Again, the significance of this concern being given to a male character should not go unnoticed.) Jakurai is once bitten, twice shy about emotional intimacy and tries to keep the world at arm's length until Doppo and Hifumi forcibly invade his life for the better.

Jakurai:

Similarly to Ichirou's story line, the majority of the 1st season of Jakurai's story is told through the eyes of other characters. We are first presented with the image of Jakurai as a perfect, almost otherworldly figure. He has medical talents that incite burning jealousy in other doctors (FP/M chapter 5), superior rapping ability, and a calm demeanor. Nothing seems to get under Jakurai's skin, because we only have an external view of Jakurai. That something lurks beneath the surface is apparent--see Jakurai freed of inhibitions when drunk, which establishes that Jakurai's core issue is his desire but unwillingness to be emotionally intimate with other people, and his petty arguments with Ramuda--but we aren't treated to a view of what this is until seasons 2 and 3, when the facade of perfect Jakurai is destructed to nothing. It's not that nothing gets under Jakurai's skin. Everything gets under Jakurai's skin. Jakurai is filled with feelings that are too big for him to handle, so he bottles them up and hides them away so that they--and he--won't hurt other people. Jakurai is obsessed with being selfless to the point that it becomes a matter of ego (Not for You, the most recent MTR drama track, states this outright). It's a wonderfully executed and fascinating way to introduce the complexities of his character.

Seasons 2 and 3 Jakurai is rather pitiful (I say this with love), which is reflective of the degree of self-hatred that Jakurai holds for himself. We see in season 1 that the whole world holds Jakurai to perhaps impossibly high standards, and in later seasons, we see that the standards Jakurai holds himself to are even higher. Of course Jakurai can't save every person on Earth or turn back the clock to stop Yotsutsuji being put in a coma/never have killed people. But Jakurai considers those to be unacceptable failures, and through his great love of humanity and unfailing care, he puts himself into situations where he inadvertently does more harm.

To expand on the above point, I know I never shut up about the lack of explanation for Jakurai having been an assassin. Hypmic plays coy with many character backstories, and I generally don't have an issue with this, but I've always found it an odd writing choice when this should be a veritable goldmine of expansion upon a theme. Jakurai is a character devoted to doing no harm, and he has committed one of the greatest harms of all--murdering outside of self-defense or a war zone. What would compel such a highly moral character to betray his core morals? It hit me recently as I was watching FMOD that we have other examples of Jakurai doing something unthinkable (sort of...more on that in a moment) because the temptation for positive change is too great. Jakurai considers killing Hitoya's elder brother's bully (FP/M+ chapter 6) because he perceives it as the only means to bring this person to justice; Jakurai also considers killing himself (Not for You) to bring Yotsutsuji out of his coma. Additionally, Jakurai goes through with colluding with the Party of Words (FP/M+ chapter 11) to, once again, bring Yotsutsuji out of the coma. The problem (at a writing level) with all three of these situations is that no consequences come from them. In the first two, Jakurai is stopped or stops himself before he goes through with his decision to kill, and in the final situation, Jakurai just kind of...doesn't do anything for the Party of Words...? Being Tuxedo Mask ("My work here is done." "But you didn't do anything!") is hardly a betrayal of one's moral fiber, but it does suggest that Jakurai's moral core is highly susceptible to outside influence. Jakurai's desire to do the right thing is great in volume but lacking in iron fortitude.

I don't want to talk too much about trauma, healing, and being a societal outcast because those are Matenrou-wide themes, and I've tried to limit myself to 1st-gumi content in this post. It's already taken hours to write.

But I do want to bring up selflessness in relation to Ramuda, his 1st-gumi counterpart. Unlike the direct comparisons of most core conflicts, Jakurai's and Ramuda's contrast sharply. Jakurai wants nothing more than to be selfless, so much so that it influences him to act selfishly. Ramuda wants nothing more than to have a sense of self, and in spite of his (again, understandable) navel-gazing in early seasons, he automatically commits acts of selflessness. In TDD and KP interactions, Ramuda's willful insistence on having fun and trying new things is exactly what Jakurai wants but refuses himself. I don't mean that Jakurai wants the material goods that Ramuda insists upon; he's clearly not invested in buying sugary drinks or having Ramuda braid his hair. Rather, he wants the emotional intimacy that comes with spending time with a friend, and he's only able to get that because Ramuda is offering himself up so freely. There is an additional layer of complexity in that Ramuda is also hiding what he understands as his "real" self, and TDD/KP Jakurai is as welcoming of that (see TDD chapter 9, "I'm happy that I think I caught a glimpse of the real you) as Ramuda is of Jakurai's (somewhat) hidden desires for real emotional intimacy.

Sasara:

While Sasara is afraid of emotional intimacy as well, this is a broader issue of being uncomfortable with negative emotions. Sasara can't sit with negative emotions in himself or others, and he uses humor as a means to ameliorate tense situations. While humor isn't inherently negative, Sasara's humor is both a crutch and a cudgel that can clumsily wound those around him. His falling out with Roshou is the chief example--had Sasara been able to engage with Roshou's feelings of inferiority or his desire to leave the group, things might have turned out quite differently. However, when faced with a situation that Sasara can't joke his way out of, Sasara shuts down. When Roshou says he wants to leave their two-person comedy group, all Sasara can say is "Okay."

Sasara's extended reaction to Roshou's departure is also telling. Instead of pursuing a solo act, Sasara takes a break in his career and moves to Tokyo with the stated desire of "taking a good look at who I am" (DH/BAT chapter 7). However, this is prompted by Sasara being uncomfortable with sitting alone in his apartment and recollecting Roshou; he is literally running away from his feelings. He also goes to Tokyo to find a replacement for Roshou (Samatoki) and immediately attempts to mold Samatoki into a comedian. This ends disastrously (DoD chapter 4), but Sasara remains with Samatoki because, in a truer sense, Samatoki does replace Roshou as a plug for Sasara's emotions. Sasara doesn't have to think about the things that bother him when he's clowning for either Roshou or Samatoki. (There are other aspects that tie Sasara and Samatoki together, and it's clear that Sasara likes each for their own merits. Nevertheless, joining Samatoki's gang should be understood as a way to avoid confronting his feelings.)

Using humor as a crutch is not even remotely a men-only trait, but dodging one's own emotions is a classic element of toxic masculinity, hence why it's explored through the trio of Sasara, Roshou, and Samatoki.

Sasara's desire to avoid deep relationships (stated outright in DH/BAT+ chapter 3, "I was pretty broken up about it when [my parents] got divorced... It taught me how fragile relationships are. How easily they can be broken. And that's when I decided to only ever have shallow relationships.") is just another way Sasara's inability to engage with his feelings manifests. Sasara fears relying on other people (also DH/BAT+ chapter 3) or maintaining close bonds with other people because the inevitable fallout would hurt too much to process. Rei (and Roshou, to a lesser extent) must push him again and again to engage with his feelings seriously.

Kuukou:

I unfortunately need to leave for a class shortly, so this one will be a little brief. (Sorry, Kuukou fans!) Kuukou's a funny character. He has a desperate need to prove himself and be a monk--a leader of people--on his own terms. His volatile relationship with his father encourages him to seek out a "family" of people he can trust (Ichirou, Juushi, Hitoya), a family that he goes on to lead. The problem is that Kuukou doesn't know how to be a leader, and he believes that being a leader means doing everything alone. He possesses some innate talent for guiding people through difficult situations (DH/BAT chapter 4, DH/BAT chapter 9), but he isn't perfect. Kuukou is eager to overextend himself, racking up egregious consequences like a broken arm or legal trouble.

Similarly, Kuukou's advice or intervention can fail when engineered alone. When Kuukou stops Hitoya from litigating a man involved in the bullying case that drove Hitoya's brother to suicide, Kuukou ultimately succeeds by telling Hitoya that Hitoya isn't alone--he has Kuukou and Juushi (DH/BAT+ chapter 5). Kuukou's good instincts are tempered by the presence and wisdom of his found family--which, yes, means he needs to listen to Hitoya at times. As much as Kuukou hates doing this.

In addition to the themes of self-reliance and lack of trust mentioned above (see Ichirou's section), Kuukou's story includes an element of finding oneself and learning how to cool one's ego in service of becoming a better person and leader. Again, this is by no means a men-only issue (it's much more a young person issue at large), but bravado and inappropriate self-reliance in leadership is a common issue of toxic masculinity.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Pietro