another thing I want to point out, while we're talking about the class avenging nirei or whatever is framing. yeah, they're talking about going there to get back at suo for what he did to nirei, but sakura says he wants to hear the truth from him. the theme of this series has been communication since we met shishitoren.
and the class is all smiling and pumped up.
this is not a rage fueled revenge scheme, no one is angry except sugi, and that's his default mode. it's pretty standard shounen formula for a conflict with a friend, isn't it?
i think anzai is supposed to be a student proxy. sakura has his friend group with suo, nirei, tsugeura and kiryu. he has his rivalry with sugishita. anzai and his friend group of named-characters-i-don't-know-the-name-of is supposed to represent the rest of the class. if sakura's friends with anzai, that's also how he is with the rest of the students
i know its hard to believe sakura is friends with someone we never saw before that doesn't even have a name. but that's whats happening. he's equally as close to guy-we-never-saw-before as he is to anzai. which means suo is also equally as close to them as he is to anzai. which isn't that close, but I'll say they're friends.
i've decided we're gonna start next chapter with hiragi receiving a text from nirei saying they're going to bankou-gai. which would be a keel callback. but also! the start of hiragi's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
I think nirei has been feeling useless again which is why he didn't say much during the class 1 meeting, so when they see suo, I want nirei to be like sorry everyone, I'm going first. I need a rematch
i see people have varied reactions to what sugishita had to say + all of class 1-1 going to bkk-gai but personally (and i'm fully open to the possibility of being proven wrong) i don't really see the latest update as suo being villainised at all
in a situation where the entire class felt stuck and frozen because of sakura's state of mind, and sakura himself felt stuck and frozen because of how entangled his thoughts and feelings for suo have become, sugishita comes forth with a simple truth: one of furin's own got their ass beat.
has it ever mattered who threw the first punch? it's always been an eye for an eye, the moment you put hands on a comrade. if sakura has trouble finding confidence in going to confront suo as his friend, he can be assured in his right to go as one of furin's class captains.
as for the class!
the JP raw is literally: "We all get one punch each on Suo!" like it's a distribution line of punch opportunities or something lol
and that, to me, reads more like teaching your friend a lesson than beating up a Big Bad Evil. if you're wondering why they'd talk abt punching Suo at all, well, it's a series about delinquents! these guys are gonna be punching each other a hundred different ways
things can be simple, even if they're complicated. there's no reason to be stuck here, in Makochi, away from Suo. there's also nothing to be obtained from being stuck here any longer.
whatever needs to be done and said, can be done directly with or in front of the guy himself. in bkk-gai!!!
i would like to talk about nirei's and suo's admiration of sakura and why sakura needs someone outside these two to push him
for nirei, sakura is bigger than life. someone who's protected him before. he wants to be by his side and help him achieve his goal
but as much as the view of sakura's back is one of protection, it also shows the distance between them. distance nirei can only hope to catch up to and help sakura in any way shape or form
he wants to be right next to him, but what he imagines is sakura's back
next we have suo, his admiration of sakura is one i've talked about before and i think it stems from sakura's maturity and adaptability. while suo is made up of empty words, sakura lives by his own words
suo starts by being in a competition with sakura
but pretty quickly he gives up on it. there's no competition anymore. he thinks he already lost
like nirei, suo sees sakura as someone that can stand on his own and keep going no matter what. its impossible to reach out to him. even the things suo does better now, if sakura puts his mind to it, he can surpass him
lets take a detour:
umemiya knows that if he takes a leadership role, he needs someone to keep him in check, someone to be objective and tell him no when he needs to hear it. even as they became friends, umemiya has the trust hiragi will intervene if he ever needs to
so, whenever i thought about sakura having a right hand, suo felt like the obvious option. he's smart, he's strong, he's one of sakura's best friends, what more do you need? i even thought their dynamic of suo being silly and pissing sakura off was kinda similar to hiragi and umemiya's dynamic
but admiration is a double edged sword. i think suo and nirei's admiration of sakura makes them almost blind to sakura's faults. not sakura's flaws as a human and friend, but as a leader. from the beginning suo and nirei have admired, trusted and believed in sakura too much to be useful as a second in command
but sugishita, the one that spent the most amount of time observing umemiya as a leader, is able to look at sakura and see what he lacks. sugishita could never be umemiya's second in command just like suo can never be sakura's. but sugishita can be sakura's. in time.
sakura is not the same person as umemiya, not even close, so he doesnt need to be the same type of leader, and he's still deciding what he wants to do (although i think he will want to turn makochi into a safe heaven for outsiders and sugishita having hated outsiders would make the best second in command because of that but that is neither here nor there), and the whole structure of having four kings could be changed to fit sakura better, but some things are true regardless. he needs someone to tell him no
sugishita also sees sakura's back, but that makes him decide to change so he can beat sakura. he doesn't want to be by his side, he doesn't think he can never catch up to sakura. he will just beat him. and we have seen how much he's changed since he made that promise
and in the future, when they're third years and sakura is at the top, i think sugishita is going to be by his side, looking ahead to the future
noooooooo sakura don't go outside and stare longingly with the far and unreachable moon in the sky above that connects both you and suo for unexplained metaphorical and symbolic reasons
is everyone and their mama going to bankoku-gai 😭😭😭😭😭 are they just planning to show up in their furin apparel thus draw attention to themselves->suo hears about it or are they going to be more discreet. actually no way these kids have not once shown any skill in the art of subtlety. suo your circus is coming to get you. your monkeys are on the way
