ofc it seems like mikoto is your Blorbo and i’ve really enjoyed reading your analysis, but did you have any thoughts on the other convicts? i’m especially curious about amane, just because she seems like a character that is incredibly easy to demonize or woobify and completely miss the whole arc of, and i thought she was just . so fascinating
awaa... my thoughts on amane are mostly expressed here here and here. she is unequivocally my fave (considering 09 is unrankable...). i think overall what MILGRAM posits and tries to challenge about age and power and ideology and social 'others' is genuinely really strong and interesting. i think it's done at its best with amane for sure.
(bonus old ass sc; my thoughts re: improving your ideas, societies and customs without necessitating assimilation into dominant cultures.)
my second fave is probably mahiru. i had a lot of interesting thoughts back in the day (before her T3) on the language used in her discourse, specifically referring to her being labelled an 'abuser' by some as a thought-terminating cliche. i genuinely really like(d) her as a very grounded story of poor emotional and sexual boundaries, emotional abuse, and huge subclinical dissociative particles (poor grasp on suffering; forgetting distressing things; not knowing how she feels; grasping onto one thing to define her identity) leading to her becoming responsible for another taking their life. unfortunately it kinda hit home really bad... she is very dear to me as a sympathetic woman, and an awful woman, and so much more. the rat admittedly gets me, but i still love the idea of her that ive held for so long.
i have thoughts on kotoko but none of them are particularly appropriate... i like her as a textual groomer (i said it) and a textual sadist and i lowkey hope that subtext pays off and builds to something. she's fascinating to me for these particles she has in conjunction with her entire philosophy around punitive justice and cleaning up society. i think it really adds to her character and makes her really compelling to me. i think she's awful and a hypocrite and that's why i like her.
kazui mukuhara is a transgender woman and her T3 was so repulsive and agonising and it compelled me so strongly it was so so so so so good.