My dear nirei, so caring and protective of your friends, you shouldered them all, and you cared so damn much about the both of them. Protecting sakura, holding on to suo, keeping it all together. I wonder if you’re okay.
so! hi! it's been a bit since my last proper meta post, hasn't it? most of you probably won't remember the poll I ran to pick what my next topic would be, because it's been... a while (six months?! that can't be right). but here's the winning option! finally! right as we're heading into a new major arc! yay! who else is scared!! so before we do, I wanted to finally dig in to one of my favourite characters in the series.
I love nirei.
he gives off a very typical set of first impressions—oh, this is the coward archetype, oh, this is the exposition dump guy, so on and so forth—and while it's true he's both A) anxious and B) possessed of a great deal of knowledge, those are far from the only things he has going for him. so I wanted to talk about all the ways in which I find nirei an appealing character; where his strengths lie, where they don't, and what might be in store for him in future chapters of the manga. needless to say, spoilers enclosed.
strength of mind
this is the first and most obvious of nirei's strengths. he has a memory that at the very least borders on photographic (lest we forget he memorised an entire school's roster of students in a single evening, which is insane—based on the estimated number of students in his class, that's well over 400 individual names and faces).
he also seems data-oriented in general, having collected information on a few dozen people's heights, weights, hobbies, likes, dislikes, the list goes on. this is data that could potentially be very dangerous if misused, but even the concept of this seems so far from nirei's mind that it's almost comical. the only way we've ever seen him use or plan to use the wealth of information at his fingertips is to help sakura find his way around, and aside from that, he's purely in it for the love of the game. he just likes collecting trivia on his blorbos. who happen to all be other guys who are good at fighting. normal things 👍 (he's not normal about it. and to be clear I love that for him)
strength of morals
nirei is someone with an exceptionally strong moral compass. he won't sit back in the face of wrongdoing, especially towards those he cares about, and he'll always do his best to protect those who can't protect themselves, even if it means he gets hurt instead. he would literally rather die than let perceived injustices continue, and I think that's a deeply admirable trait, if one that also frequently causes his friends to worry about his safety.
strength of charisma
I'm not talking about the typical kind of charisma, here. nirei isn't smooth. he isn't suave. he isn't especially persuasive or eloquent. what he has is a more subtle kind of charm.
something I've noticed in a lot of the japanese marketing material surrounding nirei is that he's described as the "moodmaker" of his class, and I think this is an apt description for him. he's the one who sets the tone, and his enthusiasm is infectious. it's hard not to be swayed by him, as evidenced by both sakura and suou letting him physically drag them around from place to place. they absolutely could resist him if they wanted to. but emotionally? imagine the toll.
in addition to this, despite his anxious demeanour, nirei is actually a skilled performer when engaged in his area of interest. after recounting the history of fuurin's unification, he was met with a round of applause, and his storytelling was compared to that of rakugo. I think this is a great example that, although timid, nirei is still very much a people person, and an entertainer at heart. in a series defined by the strength of its bonds, that's a very significant talent to have.
strength of devotion
once you've earned nirei's loyalty, he will do his best to move heaven and earth for you. and though he shows a great deal of willingness to help everyone around him, and obviously holds a deep affection for all of his friends, I think this is best exemplified through his relationship with sakura. I'm not saying this as a shipping thing:
nirei loves sakura.
I don't mean romantically (not necessarily, at least). but I do mean deeply and intensely. nirei is the first person who promised to help sakura achieve his goals, and to be by his side every step of the way. when sakura told nirei, "I don't think you're all that pathetic", it might not have meant much to sakura—but I think it meant everything to nirei.
though it's never explicitly stated, it's likely that, in this moment, sakura was the first person to give nirei the kind of validation he needed most. so I can't help but feel like... yeah. of course nirei would want to pay that back. of course he'd commit himself to sakura's goals. one person who sees something valuable in you, after years of being treated like you're worthless, of feeling like you're worthless? it's hard not to fall a little bit in love with that.
strength of will
nirei is always moving towards his goals. it doesn't matter how many losses he may face in the process; though he is hard on himself, he learns from past mistakes and is constantly, relentlessly working to improve so that he can become worthy—if only in his own eyes—of standing by the people he cares so deeply for.
nirei's core strength is not in his ability to deal blows, nor in his ability to take them, but in his ability to be knocked down and get back up every single time. however, while that unshakable determination is a strength in most cases, it can also be a detriment.
when someone is overly focused on a single goal, it's very easy for them to become ignorant of their surroundings; when this happens, they can end up making a faux pas that otherwise could've been avoided if they'd slowed down and taken a moment to think first. this is a flaw of nirei's that's been played off in a joking manner in recent chapters, but could easily turn into a more serious issue if left unchecked—which I'll discuss more in a moment. but first...
on weakness
nirei isn't just physically weak, though that's the thing that stands out most when we first meet him. it becomes obvious very quickly that the boy also has a devastatingly warped sense of self-esteem. he puts the safety, wellbeing, and even the success of others far above his own, and is constantly second-guessing his own place in the world he inhabits. he also constantly downplays his own achievements, acting as though feats which are objectively genuinely impressive are only worth as much as the bare minimum.
he has so much love for other people, but it seems less important to him that that love is reciprocated, and more important that he can be useful.
nirei doesn't think he needs to be loved; he thinks he needs to be needed. and that is tragic, really, because it sometimes seems to blind him to the ways in which he is loved, the ways he is seen and known and cared for, the value he has which is inherent to himself and not what he can do for others.
this is an internal conflict I'm all too familiar with, not just because it's something I've seen in many other fictional characters in the past, but also because it's something I've seen in myself—the desire to be useful to others is an extremely common one, but it can also be extremely damaging if not managed carefully.
what next?
I currently see two potential paths for nirei's development in the future. the first option: nirei experiences a conflict between his morality and his loyalty. I don't see this as very likely, because in order for a conflict like this to exist, someone nirei is close to would have to act against his moral compass, and nirei's morality is very closely aligned to that of boufuurin. the best avenue for this currently would be if suou did something that nirei found immoral, which I find unlikely, but it's at least more plausible than sakura or one of his other peers doing the same (of course, anything's possible with the right setup, which nii-sensei has proven time and time again. somebody stop them).
the second option, which I consider much more probable: burnout. as I said before, once you've earned nirei's loyalty, he will move heaven and earth for you. he also has extremely low self-esteem and craves the validation of the people he cares about. this is not a healthy combination of attributes if left unchecked.
I think, in the upcoming arc, without suou's balancing influence present to help keep nirei's neuroses in check, it's very possible he will work himself into the ground and start making otherwise avoidable mistakes. I think he's probably going to exhaust himself trying to either A) find suou B) get suou back C) fill in for suou or D) all three, and I think his other friends are going to have to intervene to prevent him from crashing and burning completely (this might also be a good opportunity for sugishita to take a more active role in helping out, since he and nirei now have an established rapport, but I digress).
looking further ahead, I think in the future nirei will also need to find his own goals beyond just helping sakura, though that might be more of a post-canon problem (considering the likely logical endpoint of the story will be sakura's ascendance to the top of boufuurin). but I dunno, personally, I like the idea of nirei needing to grow more into his own person and rely less on the validation of others. I think it would be a good and healthy development for him.
no matter how things turn out, I'm incredibly excited to see what the next arc brings, both for nirei's development, and for the development of the other cast members who will inevitably be affected by suou's absence (not least of all suou himself). this ended up being pretty long, so if you're still with me, thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your own thoughts on everyone's precious sonshine! ☀
red can mean whatever the heck you want it to mean, that is never going to change that this straight up looks like they DRAGGED A BLOODY BODY ACROSS THE FUCKING FLOOR 😂
Hi fun fact, colors do have meaning and there is a legit thing called color theory. Red does has more positive connotations than negative like the @mintymaiden said. Red is associated with more love, lust, passion than blood and death just like the chart shows you but If you want, here’s a link for you to check it out yourself. Also, check out “The Designer’s Dictionary of Color” by Sean Adams. Have fun learning something
Xoxo
-Designer
What isColor Theory? Color theory is a term used to describe the collection of rules and guidelines regarding the use of color in art and de
I like that the presumption here is that “No One On Tumblr Has Heard of Color Theory, Let Me Explain in Depth” rather than simply acknowledging that the VISUAL EFFECTS of this particular color choice, applied in the manner it was, can still amount to “this is a hospital and that looks like blood”
like, color theory doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If your design of choice for Blood Red Paint is asymmetric splatters and sploches against the wall, or in this case, a snail trail on the hallway’s floor, an infographic won’t override the viewers’ instinct.
i just saw a post on reddit titled "the writer is cooking but the food doesn't agree with me" and it was about OP clicking off a fic because they don't like the direction it's going in. slightly different context but can we all be more like this reddit OP. i think "the writer is cooking but the food doesn't agree with me" should be the new "don't like don't read." dead doves may give you diarrhea but don't make that everyone else's problem.
I recently bought a set of acrylic markers. Gave it a try, it drove me nuts. So here's my first attempt at acrylic markers, followed by the second. And the third is a casual SuoNirei I drew out of boredom. I'll strive to draw more pretty Nirei
to pretend that horrible people cannot make good art is another way to conflate beauty and talent with integrity and morality. the works of monsters are best examined with knowledge of the author in mind but art is not inherently reflective. human beings are creative, and habitual liars- it'd be stupid to pretend art must always be a portrait of its creator
it's also a convenient oversimplification of humans to believe that a person who is horrible in one way will be horrible in every way. people can hold terrible views in one area and have something thoughtful to say in another. people can do terrible things to one person and tremendous acts of kindness and empathy to another.
This is also how you find yourself in the "Well, this allegation can't possibly true, because I like their art" situation, or worse, "This allegation must be buried to protect the art."
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