I'm finally able to play Mikuni's updated birthday event!!! ;u; I'm so excited, I know it's dumb but I MISS THEM SO MUCHHHH
I literally just thought of what I want to draw for Mikuni's birthday this morning (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKUNI!!!) and I'm excited about the idea bc I think it's really cute, but also it's gonna take me forever before I have enough free time to even start drawing it lol. I should have a few days off in a row soon, so I'm fingers crossed that I can spend some of that time drawing!
(I've mostly been drawing with pen and paper lately, idk why. I just missed being able to color things with my marker set, I think lol)
Hi I just finished playing the new event and I got fucking blindsided at the very end SCJLKFEEEEEEEE--
Okay, so, it's actually been awhile since I last played Mikuni's birthday event, but most of the steps are the same for getting Misono out of the mirror world. He still returns to the shop to meet up with Tsurugi, and he still laments over the fact he thought Mikuni would really be at the shop this year, and wonders if maybe he'll get to talk to him next year.
This is where the event's new material starts. Tsurugi acts confused about what Misono is talking about, and informs him that after he and Mikuni finished their last mission and parted ways, he firmly ordered Mikuni to return home properly this time. Because of that, Mikuni isn't at the shop -- because his "proper home" is no longer the shop (Tsurugi's words, not mine.)
Once Misono realizes Mikuni is back at home with the rest of the family, he decides to rush home to start getting the birthday party thrown together (and Tsurugi invites himself lol.) Tsurugi wants a strawberry cake, and Misono tells him it's not his birthday, but they would definitely serve a huge cake at the party.
THEN!! OH HO HO, LET ME JUST TELL YOU--
THEN, FOR WHATEVER BLOODY REASON STRIKE THOUGHT THIS WAS FUNNY, Tsurugi and Misono leave the shop together, AND THEN TOUMA APPEARS IN THE SHOP.
Touma just stands there going, "......." (as he is known to do pretty much all the time)
AND THEN THE EVENT IS OVER.
So, ummmm... yeah??? That's...??? WHAT?
I'M SORRY, BUT WHY? WHAT DOES THIS MEANNNN
Like -- is Touma staying in Mikuni's shop now? The new content is very obviously based post-timeskip, and Touma added absolutely nothing to this whole scene except to confirm he's inside Mikuni's old shop while Mikuni isn't around. Does Mikuni know he's there? Does TSURUGI know? Does C3 know? Does Mikuni even have access to his shop right now, or is he forbidden from going there?
I have so many questions and absolutely no idea when or if answers will ever follow. I'm assuming answers WILL follow... but like... in what format? ;u; A movie? Anime s2 with original content? Manga continuation? SLS-style comics?
(shakes the Servamp universe like a snowglobe) TELL ME YOUR SECRETS
Playing the "oc player" route as soon as I got home from work was the right call 😭 I know this is supposed to be about Mikuni but IORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
It's so adorable that Iori was worried about Mikuni (or at least was pretending to be worried, who knows; I think he probably genuinely cares about Mikuni, to an extent.) I also loved when Iori was like, "Everyone's always telling me that I forget to say the important things out loud, but I go on forever about unnecessary details." On the one hand, I always imagined a big part of Iori's "careless" personality was fabricated, but on the other hand, I like the idea of Iori being really smart + completely clueless when it comes to how frustrating it is to socialize with him lol
Also idk why, but when you first meet Iori in the shop, if you pretend you don't know who he is, he tells you his name and then he also pronounces it for you, and I thought that was funny and cute. It's more likely just a normal thing to do, but idk I just really love him SO MUCH
And this is probably just me reading into it too much, but I found it interesting that if you play as yourself, you meet Iori in the mirror world, and it seems like he's in the same condition he was in before the timeskip. Then if you play as Misono, you "meet" Touma instead, BUT it's only after returning to the real world. The parallel sort of reminds me of how Touma and Iori were basically inhabiting different spiritual planes after Iori sacrificed himself to use his consciousness in his spell. (In reality, it's probably just a fun little way to differentiate the two routes from each other -u- )
I'm finally able to play Mikuni's updated birthday event!!! ;u; I'm so excited, I know it's dumb but I MISS THEM SO MUCHHHH
I literally just thought of what I want to draw for Mikuni's birthday this morning (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKUNI!!!) and I'm excited about the idea bc I think it's really cute, but also it's gonna take me forever before I have enough free time to even start drawing it lol. I should have a few days off in a row soon, so I'm fingers crossed that I can spend some of that time drawing!
(I've mostly been drawing with pen and paper lately, idk why. I just missed being able to color things with my marker set, I think lol)
Hi I just finished playing the new event and I got fucking blindsided at the very end SCJLKFEEEEEEEE--
Okay, so, it's actually been awhile since I last played Mikuni's birthday event, but most of the steps are the same for getting Misono out of the mirror world. He still returns to the shop to meet up with Tsurugi, and he still laments over the fact he thought Mikuni would really be at the shop this year, and wonders if maybe he'll get to talk to him next year.
This is where the event's new material starts. Tsurugi acts confused about what Misono is talking about, and informs him that after he and Mikuni finished their last mission and parted ways, he firmly ordered Mikuni to return home properly this time. Because of that, Mikuni isn't at the shop -- because his "proper home" is no longer the shop (Tsurugi's words, not mine.)
Once Misono realizes Mikuni is back at home with the rest of the family, he decides to rush home to start getting the birthday party thrown together (and Tsurugi invites himself lol.) Tsurugi wants a strawberry cake, and Misono tells him it's not his birthday, but they would definitely serve a huge cake at the party.
THEN!! OH HO HO, LET ME JUST TELL YOU--
THEN, FOR WHATEVER BLOODY REASON STRIKE THOUGHT THIS WAS FUNNY, Tsurugi and Misono leave the shop together, AND THEN TOUMA APPEARS IN THE SHOP.
Touma just stands there going, "......." (as he is known to do pretty much all the time)
AND THEN THE EVENT IS OVER.
So, ummmm... yeah??? That's...??? WHAT?
I'M SORRY, BUT WHY? WHAT DOES THIS MEANNNN
Like -- is Touma staying in Mikuni's shop now? The new content is very obviously based post-timeskip, and Touma added absolutely nothing to this whole scene except to confirm he's inside Mikuni's old shop while Mikuni isn't around. Does Mikuni know he's there? Does TSURUGI know? Does C3 know? Does Mikuni even have access to his shop right now, or is he forbidden from going there?
I have so many questions and absolutely no idea when or if answers will ever follow. I'm assuming answers WILL follow... but like... in what format? ;u; A movie? Anime s2 with original content? Manga continuation? SLS-style comics?
(shakes the Servamp universe like a snowglobe) TELL ME YOUR SECRETS
I'm finally able to play Mikuni's updated birthday event!!! ;u; I'm so excited, I know it's dumb but I MISS THEM SO MUCHHHH
I literally just thought of what I want to draw for Mikuni's birthday this morning (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKUNI!!!) and I'm excited about the idea bc I think it's really cute, but also it's gonna take me forever before I have enough free time to even start drawing it lol. I should have a few days off in a row soon, so I'm fingers crossed that I can spend some of that time drawing!
(I've mostly been drawing with pen and paper lately, idk why. I just missed being able to color things with my marker set, I think lol)
My package had no status updates for 10 days, and I was starting to worry, but it randomly showed up today! I love love love Iori and Mikuni’s badges so much
I have no dedicated spot for the badges so they’re just lining multiple shelves lol
I HAVE BEEN SO EXCITED FOR THESE PICS. That Mikuni Tsurugi pic means the world to me. I want so badly to use them as bookmarks, but I don’t want them to get ruined either ;u;
HMMMMMNGHGGNMGH ✨ THEM ✨
It’s truly awful when books include posters that have printed one continuous image on both sides of the poster… so you have to choose which 50% of the poster you want facing outwards if you want to hang it up 💀 like why
I love this picture so much lmao, like ah yes — blond, perfect, and Jeje. The goal. The whole package.
Actually feeling really emotional about strike’s response to a fan asking what the rest of the alicein family think of mikado bc it’s so so realistic and heartbreaking, actually
They can’t approve of his actions and they know he’s made a bunch of mistakes but they still love him and their love is at war with their sense of right and wrong because he’s not just a distant figure who Fucked Up to them, he’s their family
They know better than anyone just how much of a hard worker he is and they know better than anyone that for all his faults he loves his family and they know better than anyone how he has never forgiven himself, even a little bit, but…
It’s difficult. Because they love him. They want him to do the right thing. It’s difficult. They’re disappointed in him. Because they love him.
He’s a deeply flawed man whose insecurities were so deep he even came to fear his eldest child because he felt like all of his flaws were on display and what good is he if he’s not the perfect figure at the head he needs to be? What’s the point if he’s not able to project the illusion of being worthy?
But despite those flaws, he’s also a man whose strength lies in him having a lot of love to give. To his family. To the children. To his employees who he sees as family.
I think it really enhances the gothic tragedy of the Alicein, torn apart by secrets and lies and envy and lust but… Also love.
Because it wouldn’t hurt so bad if the love wasn’t there.
So the choice to make Saint Germain's headless monstrous form "Pandora" comes with a lot of baggage from ancient myths. I discussed this focusing on Tetsu's association with Prometheus in this post here, but Pandora herself deserves more attention.
There are many characters who could be associated with Pandora in the context of Servamp, but the most interesting to consider are Kiriko and Akira.
The legend of Pandora was that the Greek gods sent the first woman down to Earth to punish and tempt mankind, and Pandora dropped a jar (mistranslated as a box) that unleashed evils into the world. Only Elpis, Hope, remained in the jar.
Kiriko unleashed the vampire war onto Tokyo by stealing the Alicein family head's key and releasing Tsubaki, dispersing evil into the world. Pandora's myth later often became intertwined with the biblical tale of Adam and Eve. Eve was tempted into consuming food from a forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden by a snake. Kiriko was tempted by the power of Envy whose form is a snake in a manor associated with a garden (Alice in the Garden). Both were punished after obtaining power, Eve with painful childbirth and Kiriko with the madness that eventually consumes all of Jeje's eves. The children she raised, Mikuni and Misono, are associated with the children of Eve, Cain and Abel.
The child of Pandora, Pyrrha, is associated with the Ancient Greek version of the flood myth. What was Mikuni's Re-Servamp other than a biblical flood destroying everything that existed because the world was too sinful in his eyes? Mikuni clearly saw this parallel as he named the Ninth Servamp Noah, the chosen survivor of the biblical flood myth. Even Mikuni's vaguely incestuous wish to recreate his brother by marrying his father's mistress has its roots in the explicit incest from the flood myth in Genesis.
Akira unleashed evil on the world through the study of forbidden magic and by tempting Touma with a path to infamy. (As it's highly implied that the study of revival/immortality magic is what gave him the idea to try to use Saint Germain's revival to intentionally cause a disaster). One of the Greek gods who sent Pandora was Zeus, the Greek god of Thunder. Akira's brother, Tooru is full of thunder and lightning imagery and is directly given a C3 role named Thor, another mythological deity associated with thunder. After Pandora dispersed evil on the world, hope still remained. Mahiru's attack that he uses to come to understand the hearts of his enemies is Elpis. Mahiru himself is the hope left from Akira's Pandora's Box.
Finding out just how physically weak and slow Iori is — especially compared to the rest of his family — is interesting for me.
Shirayuki’s full profile paints a more complete picture of who she is. She was the president of C3’s Tokyo branch, enjoys watching professional wrestling as a hobby, dreams of getting another chance to battle Gear (lol), practices radio workouts daily, and values being seen as “strong.” Her weakest subject in school was home economics. She has a clear affinity for fighting (further proven by Miyako’s quote in the final chapter, referring to Shirayuki as the Tokyo branch’s number one battle-crazed Mom.)
When we first learned that Shirayuki was responsible for trying to keep Iori away from the combat team, it wasn’t exactly a strange concept. She’s his mother, and regardless of his talents with barrier magic, it makes sense that she would be concerned about him getting hurt. She’s also well acquainted with that world, and likely understands first-hand how easy it is to be killed in that job.
But after seeing the Tsukimitsu family’s profiles in the guidebook, I can’t help but wonder if Shirayuki’s concern for Iori wasn’t so much about “a mother’s love for her son,” but rather, being specifically concerned that Iori wasn’t built for fighting.
(Which is not to say she doesn’t love Iori. She does! She even has a high-scoring “family love” parameter on her chart!)
For a clearer picture, here are some stat scores listed on their profiles:
(Physical strength/speed/mental)
Iori: 3/4/7
Miyako: 8/8/8
Yumi: 5/7/6
Shirayuki: 5/3/9
(Iori’s lack of physical strength is double confirmed on one of the alignment graphs included in the Q&A section, where he’s a lot closer to the “physically weak” side of the chart.
Also, to help put things into perspective a bit more — Mikado is noted to be physically ungifted, and his physical strength score is a 2. Iori is almost as physically untalented as Mikado lol.)
Iori is slightly faster than his mother, and has slightly better mental prowess than his younger brother — but that’s pretty much it. His listed top skills involve him being good at cooperative efforts/listening to others’ opinions and taking them into consideration. And, of course, his barrier magic.
When it comes to the other two -- Yumikage is on the combat team, but Shirayuki doesn’t give him a hard time about it (at least, not that we’ve been shown.) Same goes for Miyako. She was in the kendo club in school, has a very high score for physical strength, and has shown her skills in the actual story, like in the battle against Tsubaki by the hospital. In general, it feels like Shirayuki isn’t nearly as strict with them about avoiding combat. (Still strict, for sure — just not as much as with Iori.)
Shirayuki clearly still worries about her younger kids, but if their trait scores are anything to go by, it would stand within reason to consider — maybe she trusts Miyako and Yumikage can defend themselves in battle, but she has doubts about whether Iori can do the same.
The guidebook had a Q&A that explained how even though Iori is powerful, his magic is geared more towards defense, and he needs to be paired with a strong partner in order to be a real threat. When it comes to Iori’s choice in friends/partners, I imagine Shirayuki wasn’t too keen on the idea of his safety being in Touma’s hands, and expecting Tooru to protect Iori by himself would be unreasonable.
The fact that Iori joined the combat team at 17, and then was forced into the president’s role less than a year later, really speaks volumes about how desperate Shirayuki was to keep Iori away from fighting.
I also can’t help feeling Iori’s obsession with joining the combat team was less about the fighting, and more about knowing both Touma and Tooru were going to be on the combat team. He didn’t want to get left behind by his friends…
(FWIW: This analysis is based on the assumption Iori’s skill chart pertains to his pre-injury stats. If the stats listed on his profile are only relevant after he ended up gravely injured… well, then none of this is relevant! Lol)
Not me crying over the Q&A section of the guidebook— the stuff below is absolutely not everything, just the parts I enjoyed the most.
-Oh my god, there is an alignment chart for a bunch of the characters showing “Popular VS Unpopular, Receives lots of valentines VS Doesn’t receive many valentines”. Iori and MIkuni are the two most popular characters (with Lily in close third) but Mikuni is slightly more popular than Iori. Iori, however, receives more valentine gifts than Mikuni (but they are both extremely popular. That’s that trust fund money at work, baby.) Touma is very popular, but doesn’t seem to get many valentines lol
Other alignment charts:
-Housework skills and frequency of chores performed (Mahiru wins at this chart obviously lol. Yumi is second place after Mahiru.) Iori is apparently awful at house work and doesn’t do it often, I’m assuming he has a cleaning person. Touma is amazing at house work, but doesn’t do it much. Tsurugi does tons of house work… but is apparently terrible at it lmao.
-Muscle capability/strength and weight. Hugh and Misono are the lightest and “softest” fighters lol, while Tsurugi is very light but incredibly muscular/strong. Ildio is the heaviest/strongest fighter. Iori is fairly “light” and not very strong, and Touma is stronger/heavier than him by a fair bit. I’ve always wondered about that, so I’m happy to have this chart.
-A chart showing “high energy when drunk” versus “falls asleep” and also alcohol tolerance level lmao. So Nico is the one who gets the most smashed when drunk, but his alcohol tolerance is very high. Touma comes in second place, with Gear and Otogiri in third/fourth. Yumi has the lowest tolerance, but gets incredibly energetic when drunk. Mikuni has high tolerance, but gets really sleepy when he’s drunk. Iori has poor alcohol tolerance levels, but he gets sleepy when he’s drunk instead of wired. And I love that for him… I love that for myself 😭
That’s all for alignment charts!
-Tanaka confirms Iori receives the most valentines gifts, but pretty much all of them are obligatory. That makes me sad ;u;
-Iori plays the violin. Which is not shocking in any way, but it’s nice to have confirmation c:
-Mikuni and Tsurugi apparently have the most horrendous handwriting skills out of everyone by a long shot lol
-Mahiru dreamed of becoming a teacher when he first entered high school ;u;
-Mahiru was 7 years old when his mom died.
-Iori was the one Tooru was talking to on the phone when he and Mahiru met Tsubaki at the sushi restaurant. He was also the one on the phone with Tooru when he was bragging about Mahiru during that one flashback. Which isn’t really relevant to anything except I love how Tooru openly discussed Mahiru with Iori and Iori was just like, ah yes… Touma’s son… I mean, Tooru’s adorable nephew.
-Tanaka confirms Misono continues to grow taller as he becomes an adult lmao
-Misono was 9 when he made his contract with Lily.
-Tanaka talks about how Mikado loves Mikuni, but it doesn’t always seem that way because he was also afraid of how smart Mikuni is
-Mikado knew Mikuni had gone to C3 after running away, and specifically asked them to protect him. Mikuni was in C3 for about three years.
-Tsurugi was affected by “My Fair Lady” because even though he had only killed vampires up to that point, he carried the guilt of having killed someone. Mikuni looked shocked when Tsurugi began to choke because he didn’t think Tsurugi had actually killed anyone until then.
-Mikuni left C3 just before he turned 20, and opened his shop a year later.
-Mikuni and Tsurugi specifically don’t like being addressed by their family names, because… well, you can imagine lol. So they prefer to be called by their first names.
-Mikuni opened a shop because he wanted a place to store all of the magic items he had collected over his travels. He also wanted to put up a false smile in front of C3 to put them at ease about what he was getting up to.
-Mikuni was seven when he proposed to Hokaze 😭
-Mikuni loved Misono a lot and would stop to play with him whenever he wanted 😭 😭 STOP
-Oh my god, Mikuni would force Jeje to perform difficult jobs in order for them to get enough money to travel abroad, where they would then sell magic items to other magicians around the world. He’s such a prick, I love him so much.
-Apparently, Johan showed up one day in Mikuni’s shop and just started doing whatever he wanted and that’s how they met. Lmaooo.
-Jeje receives blood from Mikuni sometimes, but only after Mikuni himself has put it into a container.
-Tetsu’s other sister is a shogi player and her name is Kaoru (Oh, sure, SHE gets a name 😤 )
-Apparently Licht introduced Lawless to his parents as “the demon I purified” and his parents are just happy he’s found a friend ;u;
-Freya feels she gets along best with Lawless. Lawless apparently disagrees.
-Tanaka gives a scale of “mental degradation due to magic abuse” stages.
Stage 1: You can hear people but can’t make out what they’re saying.
Stage 2: You start to hallucinate faceless people.
Stage 3: More hallucinations and memory confusion.
Stage 4: Retirement
She also notes that during stages 1-3, a magician can recover over time if they don’t use their magic. I’m assuming stage 4 this isn’t possible, and I’m pretty sure that’s what stage Iori is at now, since he even mentions retiring in the final chapter. But that’s not explicitly stated.
-Tsurugi’s mom hid the fact she had a child. She left Tsurugi behind after she found another man and ran off with him.
-MIKUNI, APPARENTLY, DOES NOT PROTEST THE SIGHT OF TSURUGI. He is fine with how Tsurugi looks. It’s only when Tsurugi is speaking that Mikuni wants to fling himself into the dark void.
-Someone asked how Akira and Touma got close, but Tanaka only says to leave it up to everyone’s imagination
-Confirmation that Touma had feelings for Akira, and wasn’t the kind of person who would date someone for the sole purpose of hurting someone else (like Tooru.)
-Touma’s scarf is a magic item that makes his invisibility magic stronger apparently
-Touma was angry that Iori saved his life and he owed a debt to someone he deemed the worst type of person. But while he was crashing at Iori’s apartment, he was free to use anything he wanted apparently. Don’t know if that’s info I needed, but I’m happy to have it now.
-When Gear and Touma were staring at each other in that one popularity poll page, Touma was apparently thinking “So this is the werewolf Tsurugi is related to…” While Gear is thinking, “So this is Tsurugi’s brother… that makes him my grandson, too.” PLEASE. GEAR, TRY CALLING TOUMA YOUR GRANDSON. I would die to see that played out lmao.
-Confirmation that when Touma said, “I’ll drag him down!” In that one flashback, he WAS talking about Iori. I knew he was, but it’s nice to have the cold hard proof lol.
-Touma took on Tsurugi’s debts, and Tsurugi pays him back.
-Touma became the vice president at 33. At 33?!?! Holy frick I didn’t realize his promotion from the combat team happened so recently compared to the series timeline. That’s wild. Iori took fifteen years to convince his mother Touma was right for the position (/jk on that last sentence)
-Yumi quit the archery team in high school because he felt he was following the path forced on him by his parents and older brother.
-Miyako and Kei met during a flight. Miyako was really worn down, and Kei’s kindness touched her heart and she quickly fell in love, so from that moment on, she pursued Kei with a lot of passion. I can’t believe we actually got an answer to that question 😭
-Miyako knew about Iori’s real plan the entire time. Which was pretty obvious, but confirmation is still nice.
-All of the Tsukimitsu kids cross dress when they’re drunk 😭 😭 But Iori is careful not to get blackout drunk in front of other people. Bless you for this little nugget of sustainment.
-A C3 agent who moved overseas couldn’t take their hamsters with them, which was how Iori ended up with them, and he just decided to keep them.
-Iori suspected Mikuni could be working alongside Tsubaki when he met him in the control room, but he didn’t know for sure yet.
-Shirayuki met her husband through an arranged marriage and he joined her family. He left C3 early on so he could better support Shirayuki’s schedule. So that pretty much confirms he was a househusband, yes? I think so 😌 (BUT HE WASN’T GIVEN A NAME, AAAAAAAAA—)
-Mikuni didn’t go to college. Shuhei did, and Touma went to college with Iori and Tooru. I love knowing that. I am so happy to know that ;u;
-Iori met Tooru in their third year of elementary school and they became friends after Tooru spoke to him. Tooru would try to talk to Touma in middle school, but Touma ignored him. Iori used to avoid Touma because he knew about Touma’s home life, but after seeing how much Tooru wanted to be friends with him and how hostile Touma was to them, he started becoming interested in him. (Bless Iori for being brave enough to admit his crush started when Touma was the first person to tell him to fuck off.)
-The three of them became friends because Touma was already on the combat team at 15, and when they joined C3 at 17, they wanted to get on the combat team as well. So they all ended up connecting in that manner.
-Working at C3 while a student was easy thanks to flexible scheduling, so the three of them were able to work at C3 and attend university at the same time.
-Iori and Tooru would compete in cross dressing competitions in high school, just like Yumi and Tsurugi 😭 bless
-They don’t typically drink so much that they get drunk. They know the party is over once Iori starts getting sleepy ;u; because he has low tolerance… adorable.
-Iori, Miyako, and Yumi are all really good at singing ;w; Thank you, that’s good to know.
-In addition to Gear and Yotarou completing odd jobs, Yotarou has an online store where he sells magic clothes and items that he makes.
-Gear rescued a woman (one of Tsurugi’s ancestors) he had become friends with by using his powers to help heal her/bring her back to life. He was afraid what people would do to her/them if they found out about it, so he ran off before the woman woke up and found out what had happened. It sounds possible she had no idea she had been given werewolf genes in order to survive.
