Among the criticism and complaints of Raise Wa Tanin Ga Ii aka Yakuza Fiance the most common is about how Kirishima "cheats" but what if I were to tell you this aspect of him actually serves an important point within the narrative? Because it does, in fact it serves a few.
First and foremost this is common in the Yakuza subculture. The series is a bit of a send off to Yakuza subculture and media with references that tend to go over your head unless you are into it (most go over mine). This is no different. While this isn't as narratively important it is important to know overall, the series embraces all things Yakuza the good and the bad (unlike some other Yakuza series but that not a rant for here) And like it's implied pretty much all the guys in the series to it to some degree yes even Shoma. I only have some knowledge of this myself so I won't get into it but I would recommend looking into cause it is interesting and makes sense for the series to incorporate on some level due to this and it would feel wrong to not mention it.
Now lets go onto to something more meaty and kinda spoilery, so don't read (though I don't think it will ruin your enjoyment)
So these other women actually help to better understand Kirishima and his relationship/feelings towards Yoshino. One detail the anime leaves out is who these women are and they are women. All college age or older, and all some kind of working professional who has skills or connections Kirishima does not have. Remember Kirishima is not technically Yakuza so he does not have access to resources that actual members of the group have but because he is involved with that world still he has to find a way to make up for what he resources he lacks. The safest resource he has found over the years is women.
Just like how Yoshino unintentionally raises the ire of women, Kirishima does the same to men both intentionally and unintentionally. He has difficulty connecting with people which is a topic in and of itself, but because of this he has learnt how to gain connections on a superficial level so he only does so with those he can feel some control over or feel safer. AKA Women. Kirishima knows he's attractive, and he knows how easy it is to charm people but those had an ongoing connection with are those who understand it's a game and want something back.
It's all quid prop quo, he does something for them and so they in turn do something for him. FYI I'm pretty sure what he's getting out of it isn't psychical pleasure, information, connections and a safe house for sure but actual enjoyment from sex? Not likely again the anime doesn't show it very well but many manga readers have noted how disconnected Kirishima looks during these moments. (Which I will fully get to later) It's an exchange when Yoshino calls him gigolo she's not wrong, and there is a greater discussion to be had here about how early Kirishima started doing this and all the messy stuff that comes with it but because we don't have enough information on how that started I won't get into it. (and its a little off topic)
Overall all though this shows the audience that Kirishima has a kind of warped view of sex and intimacy, he views it as a resource he can use much like his fighting ability, to him it's the same thing. At least at the start.
When Tsubaki tells Kirishima that he is actually very easy to understand when she has Yoshino there to compare, I believe this was a hint the author was giving us. To understand Kirishima and how he really feels about Yoshino who just need to look at how he is with other women.
It is INCREDIBLY telling that the closest thing Kirishima has to an ex-girlfriend is Nao, because notice how that term is never used within the story by the pair as to what their relationship was. Nao calls Ozu an ex but not Kirishima, he's just a guy she had a fling with (with a weird age gap) even though she seems to care more about him than Ozu (another deep dive I'll probably do). Kirishima also never uses the term, he does note that he did like her to some degree more than likely a little more than the other women he has similar situationships with but it was still at its core transactional. They both wanted what the other could offer more than them as a person. (also just fucking for weeks isn't a relationship) Kirishima always keep everyone at a distance, keeps everything close to the vest, makes sure the situation is advantageous to him so he can't get screwed over, every single one. Except Yoshino.
You see it constantly in the series as Kirishima WANTS to connect with Yoshino. He wants to better understand and connect with her in ways he has never bothered to before. In fact you can argue that Kirishima is actually more emotionally unintelligent than Yoshino as he has such difficulty in understanding what Yoshino wants from him. He's so use to being fake, to acting the way women around him want him to be that it throws him through a loop that Yoshino doesn't want that. She forces him to be a person not a persona.
Because of that, like Tsubaki says, he is desperate to understand and connect with her unlike with the women who he is connected to in a superficial way. I know it weirdly upsets some viewers that these women "Know" Kirishima in a way Yoshino hasn't but they don't actually know him Yoshino does. People often conflate love and sex as being the same thing but its not, sometimes it overlaps (and like that should be the standard but its not). This series sort of forces you to confront that assumption, because the real moments of love are in the smaller things.
It's Kirishima helping Yoshino with her garden, its him trying to get her focus on him, its him talking to her about mundane things, its him seeking out the things she wants, its him telling her his birthday, and yes it's him sleeping with other women to keep her safe. A LOT of people don't realize this but it is right there in the text he only reconnected with Nao because it would make the situation in Osaka more advantageous for him to keep Yoshino safe. There is a very good likelihood that if the situation would 100% not get Yoshino involved that Kirishima would have just stayed out of it. (which like damn sucks for you Nao) In actuality Kirishima likely would have preferred just a normal trip to Osaka with Yoshino (even though the chaos does help him confirm his own feelings again) Kirishima wants to desperately to be connected to Yoshino in anyway he can but you don't see that in how he is with other women, and it's in seeing that you can see his authenticity.
For further reference to something I noted earlier look at how Kirishima looks in these scenes with women both during and after sex.
There's little to no actual emotion or care, he operates almost robotically like you see when he fights someone he doesn't really give a shit about. It is something he's doing cause he has to not cause he wants to. Now compare these reactions to how he reacts when he finds out he accidentally/unconsciously felt Yoshino up
It's this flurry of emotions you can't even fully quantify like he can't even fathom he really did that. Kind of a strange reaction to give to someone who has done way more for way longer, but it makes perfect sense if you remember love and sex are different. With these other women he didn't care, sex didn't mean anything they could have been anyone and in all honesty if he could get away with not doing it he'd probably prefer it. But he loves Yoshino so he actually cares, he is actually turned on, he actually feels something.
THAT is the point of the side women. Kirishima is very hard to understand his character is a mystery for a majority of the series (and to a degree still is) these women help to solve that mystery if you take the time to really look at what's happening and not get parasocially angry that he is "betraying" his love for her. In his mind he's not because love and sex are different, sex to him until Yoshino is just a tool, its one of the many things that Yoshino changes in him over the course of the series. Lets not forget that one of his side women actually makes him realize the situation with Yoshino isn't all that great (the scene is better in the manga) cause he doesn't have the emotional intelligence to realize that himself and is a catalyst for the two actually growing closer. Like I keep having to cut myself short cause I'll just go off on how wonderfully complicated and uncomplicated Kirishima is as a character, but this is an important aspect to understand and shouldn't just be written off as "He's a red flag".
These women give us insight into how Kirishima is Pre-Yoshino and shows us how far he's come Post-Yoshino, in a way that could not be done otherwise. So maybe it makes you uncomfy for a bit but it's not bad writing it serves a purpose that could not be done otherwise.
Apparently this player has a very slow PC and was able to record this story chapter completely in horizontal mode.
With more details being apparent in horizontal mode, many people on twitter noticed that Xavier seemed to have rewinded time to prevent MC from getting injured by a mirror shard.
Furthermore, in Xavier’s 4 star card “An Appointment”
MC figures out that Xavier may be a “Chronos” Class Evolver and asks him about it, to which he gives no direct response and simply asks her to keep his secret 🧐
If you look up, then Chronos was the greek God of Time and possessed the ability to manipulate time however he pleased.
Now, we do need further confirmations but what if it's revealed at a later point in the story that Xavier does indeed possess the ability to manipulate time. He does afterall still hold a lot of secrets 🤭
The reason MC wanted to go to the N109 Zone in the first place was to investigate the explosion that took place in Josephine's house and the aether core in her heart. That's her goal, her motive.
Zayne is currently at Mt. Eternal doing Astra-knows-what.
Rafayel did some kind of deal with a shady person in exchange for MC in that last chapter. We don't know what he obtained (contained in a small box).
Xavier's current whereabouts are unknown. If we go by the ending video of chapter 8, he's at the crash site of Traceback II, but we don't know what he's up to.
MC is posing as a rich lady. She's not using her real identity and she might act different than normal. She also has some things that Xavier and Jeremiah gave her beforehand, including a crest of the family of the person she's posing as, a transmitter on her ear which can track her location, a neurotoxin inhibitor, and a tranquilizer with the strength to take an elephant down.
Something is going to happen in Linkon in a few days.
MC has been plagued by nightmares of the Chronorift Catastrophe and 'visions' of red eyes looking at her (Nero identified the red eye as a possible Wanderer, but... it's still in the air).
MC still doesn't remember her past, and as far as the main story goes, she's not romantically involved with any of the guys. They might not act as warm as you're used to, keep it in mind.
If I missed something, feel absolutely free to comment/reblog! It helps everyone :D
Rambling about my new obsession because I'm the sole lord of this glorified trashcan and I can.
Sylus from Love and Deepspace.
Warnings: spoilers for his two story chapters, spoilers about Dawnbreaker, generic spoilers about the game, a lot of self indulgent thinking, error.404 coherence not found, we're hopping from one thought to the other like the sparrows on the window, inaccuracies are likely to happen I'm just a silly guy.
THIS MAN.
So, from the blurred scene we see as flashback when we're on the rooftop with him and stuff, someone made out the figure of a "Wanderer" Sylus on his knees, stabbed with a sword in the chest by the MC. I'll add the link to the Tumblr post with the video here. The video is from TikTok but it's easier to see here if you ask me and besides this is what triggered all my thinking.
Now, hear me out.
We know the other guys (well you guys probably know, I landed on the game for Sylus and saw almost nothing of the in-game lore of the guys, I only know spoilers from social media and something from the anecdotes) all sacrificed something for MC in her past lives. Faith, power, people... They had all to renounce to something to protect MC. Some people were wondering what Sylus sacrificed for her in her past life with him.
This would be the explanation.
He literally died for her.
Like in the flashback he tells MC to press on, so she didn't kill him as an enemy, but he LET her kill him. And for some reason she HAD to kill him too. We can see his clawed hand cradling hers and making her hold the hilt of the sword.
Now if we go down the wanderer theory, y'all are familiar with Dawnbreaker anecdotes right? How people started turning into wanderers and the alternative Zayne had to kill them even though they still had human looks for the most part.
So what if Sylus was, in another life, that kind of wanderer? A human turned into a monster, that MC had no choice but to kill?
BUT WE'RE NOT STOPPING HERE. OH NO WE'RE REACHING WITH THIS ONE.
The surroundings, for what little we could see in the blurry flashbacks, weren't of Linkon, or any place on the current in-game earth for that matter. A very post-apocalyptic vibe, right?
AND we know from Dawnbreaker that his world is going in a similarly dystopic direction: the government is hiding the fact that people are turning into wanderers, Linkon in ruins, normal wanderers roaming free and people forced inside their houses. We've seen suspicious wanderers in the new story chapters too, when we were at the club fighting the other faction of Onychinus. Just reminding y'all.
Now I won't reach THAT much by saying that Dawnbreaker is in the same timeline of wanderer Sylus and MC (though...) BUT what if in their timeline they found themselves in that similar situation, just way further ahead and way worse? MC as one of the few surviving humans with Sylus as her companion, both of them trying to "press on", with ultimately Sylus turning into a wanderer and getting killed by MC, then her dying later on.
This feels like a mashup of Doom Breaker and Eternal Afterlife but it's probably just me.
And all the possible simbolysm, as the person in the video noticed, like the claw gripping a heart on Sylus's necklace? Could it be symbolic of his wanderer self clinging to his humanity? Or maybe his wanderer self, still somehow conscious, offering his heart to MC to be killed, like he did in the flashback?
Also, just to mention the other necklace he has, with the heart being impaled; I don't know how strong vampire lore is in China, BUT a stake to the heart is what is traditionally believed to kill vampires. And vampires, traditionally, are represented as parasites, or rather humans that are possessed by a parasite, and killing them is putting the human soul at peace and saving it. So apply it to Sylus and the earlier reasonings about his past life with MC.
It's the theme of losing humanity and being saved through death before it's too late.
Also it would be such a good parallel with the scene from their first (not exactly first but you get it) interaction, when Sylus presses MC's gun to his chest and encourages her to shoot. Like MC killed him at the first chance she got.
Which would support the wanderer Sylus theory.
And that thing about not being killed by the same thing twice in Lost Oasis??? Hello???
Yes he didn't actually die and can use his energy manipulation to heal himself quickly but you get my point:
He coerced her into shooting at his heart. Where she likely stabbed him in the other timeline.
...
Okay now that we've talked about this (AAAAAAAAAAAAAA THE LORE THE SYMBOLISM THE PARALLELS THE DEPTH I JUST CAN'T WITH THIS GAME) let's go to something lighter!
Like, did you know that crows are one of the smartest and most loyal birds out there?
They have a great memory and will remember you if you help them, becoming loyal to you (following you around, giving you trinkets...) and sort of adopting you as their god in a way (since they give you offerings and expect food in exchange so you are getting my point I hope). What does this say about Sylus? EVERYTHING.
He comes to MC when he needs help and always rewards her, he literally says that he adores her (not in the main story), has his "flock" (Luke and Kieran, and Mephisto if we want) looking out for her, not to mention the stalking...
He's that perfect mix between adorable crow husband and tormented gothic antagonist.
Alr thank you for coming to my LaD talk, have a cookie 🍪
You see, the biggest problem with this is that Five HAD a love story all along.
His love for his family has been THE very foundation of the show and what kickstarted the entire chain of events.
He spent 45 years in the apocalyptic wasteland because he loved them too much to give up.
He found them in every possible timeline.
He reversed time for them.
He became an assassin to get a shot, however small, at coming back to them.
He’s been through countless timelines, doing his best to save and protect them in every single one of them.
No matter how dire the situation, he always pushed to find a way to save his family. His devotion was stronger than anything and there was no line he wouldn’t cross for his siblings. No matter how self-destructive the cost, he sacrificed himself again and again just for a chance at reuniting with them and saving the world so they could live.
It was a destructive kind of love, yes, but also inspiring. I think it resonated with many people because love can be intense, we love and want to be loved with this kind of intensity and dedication.
So, to throw it all away for a romantic subplot that no one asked for is not only a huge disservice to Five’s character but also goes against everything he represents. We already knew he’s capable of love and that he loves deeply.
I don’t understand how the showrunner who worked on the series for 5+ years can say that Five had to have an arc like this. It doesn’t make sense. He already had a love story. Arguably, the most beautiful and deepest of them all. He didn’t need more, what he needed was to have it returned and to finally settle down after multiple lifetimes of putting his life on the line to keep his loved ones safe.
To say otherwise means that the writers fundamentally misunderstood what made Five a great character and what fans loved most about the show. It feels like a betrayal, because it is one. It proves that the creators not only misunderstood the core character of the show but also never paid attention to the fandom and its preferences.
There’s a difference between catering to the audience and what they ended up doing, which is a character assassination at its worst. And it’s not just the character who was ruined but also the entire premise of the show, the reason why fans loved it in the first place. There’s no coming back from something like this.
Questions I still have about The Umbrella Academy after S4
Spoilers duh
🌱 Why did Ray leave Allison? Was he Claire's dad in the new timeline?
🌱 WHERE DID SLOANE GO? I'm sorry, but I'm not satisfied with just accepting that she's gone
🌱 Why did they show us what I presume was umbrella academy Ben at the end of season 3? It was not at all relevant and only raises more questions
🌱 What happened during the five year time jump? Why did they not show us any flashbacks whatsoever?
🌱 Why doesn't the existence of Claire, Grace and the twins cause a Kugelblitz to appear in the final timeline? Their parents never existed, so they shouldn't either?!!
🌱 Pogo. Did he exist in the new timeline? Just anything about Pogo
🌱 How did Five from another timeline make the commission? It would've been so interesting to see that
🌱 Why would Allison say that she has always been the one Klaus depended on? This was literally never shown in the previous seasons, so why even bother mentioning it?
🌱 What exactly was the point of this season?
🌱 Would the Keepers have existed in every single timeline apart from the 'correct' one?
🌱 Why was Jennifer in a fucking squid?
🌱 Why does only Ben have a connection with Jennifer? They all have marigold in them???
🌱 Why didn't Ben recognise Jennifer? Clearly he knew her face somehow, since sparrow Ben had drawn her so much. In fact, what was sparrow Ben's connection to Jennifer anyways? Did he survive the incident or did it never take place?
🌱 Christopher. How exactly does someone give birth to a cube???
Okay I'm definitely adding to this later, but basically I hate the new season. It felt like they just wanted to get towards the ending, but added a bunch of unnecessary storylines to fill time. Klaus had absolutely no relevance to the main story. Five and Lila was completely unnecessary and out of character for both. Ben and Jennifer, who were supposed to be the main story, were not on the screen that much. Also they just suddenly understood all their new powers. They could've added a scene in which they were learning about them? The only bit we got was Lila with her laser eyes and we only saw her use those three times??
It just sucked, sorry :D
Edit: did the underground not have an emergency stop button? Would've saved us a lot of pain
I don’t think writers need to cater solely to fans especially because that tends to lead to over the top servicing that is equally as damaging to the integrity of a media, but when u take characters that hundreds of thousands to millions of people care about u should probably, at the very least, consider not undermining everything we loved about them in their last moments on screen
i’ve never been so disappointed in umbrella academy. i really had high hopes for this season and they met those expectations but were ruined the moment i watched episode 5. the way they managed to massacre two perfectly good characters and their perfectly good platonic relationship for the sake of more bullshit drama just hurts me greatly. five has been my favorite for all 5 years i’ve been apart of this fandom. and to see him turn from someone who cares greatly for his family and would never do anything to hurt them in any capacity to a literal home wrecker and someone willing to give up on his family so easily. and lila turning from a strong independent woman who is willing to fight for herself into a pawn being fought over by two dumbasss brothers. it just really sucks. these characters had so much love and heart put into them and really could’ve been more if they weren’t given the short end of the stick by terrible writing.
there could’ve better ways to create compelling drama without sacrificing the characters integrity.
so disappointed i don’t think i can look at umbrella academy the same again.
(stayed up till 3am to watch this with a friend 😭 never getting these hours of my life back. such time wasted.)
So let me get this straight: Five hid from Lila that he had found his previous journal that told them how to get home just so that he could deepen his relationship with her and hide from the world? So that he could completely forget about his beloved wife Dolores and go on to steal his brother's wife and the mother of their children? And nonetheless without any of his family members knowing where he and Lila are? Completely abandoning his family? And potentially letting them die in another apocalypse?
