For today’s obligatory Shigaraki post, I wanna dissect one of the best scenes in the manga to me: how to negotiate like a boss, with Shigaraki Tomura. Yes, obviously chapter 160 is the most iconic “badass Shigaraki” moment but this one is just as impressive. He completely dominates the entire scene from the moment he walks in, complaining at Overhaul’s office, how he was made to run around “like an ant,” and then here, when he sits down and puts his fucking foot on the table and berates them for twisting his words in their favour. He owns all of it.
You know he must be putting his foot there to purposefully piss Overhaul and the yakuza off too, because of two reasons: 1) Overhaul is a germophobe, and 2) it’s incredibly rude to show the soles of one’s shoes/feet in Japan and many other Asian countries, and the yakuza are notoriously traditional (as presented in MHA too). And what’s the response to this giant “fuck you”?
Shigaraki then continues to have his shoe on the table the rest of the scene. What a boss.
After this, he then has a gun pulled on him when he reaches into his pocket. There’s three of the precepts there, including their boss, and just one Shigaraki, but both Mimic and Chronostasis are provoked into threatening him.
So far Shigaraki has been nothing but dominating the room and they see their first opportunity to try and rattle him - and they want him to fuck up, so they have a reason to take back control. But despite this, Shigaraki never loses his cool, and never loses his upper hand. He scolds them and gets Overhaul to order them to leave him be.
Notice the focus on his hand, like the focus on his foot earlier. The next page, we get this shot:
Again and again the emphasis is on Shigaraki’s actions, his movement. He controls the flow of the conversation and the mood of the room since the start, and his actions are highlighted and emphasised.
With word and action, he continously demands respect. This was a new Shigaraki, truly. His hands are pretty much always emphasised, usually threateningly, and his eyes are always depicted with care and attention, but with this whole scene, with Shigaraki dominating the room and putting down his agendea… he truly put his foot down. Right on Overhaul’s table.
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