Why I find Kanato to be such an interesting character, and my interpretation of his story.
Ages ago I got questions about who’s my favorite character from the DL game, and why. I promised to explain this, but after replaying the game after so many years I realized that it isn’t the character that I liked, but the story, and how that character fits so well into that story.
This post is my interpretation of Kanato’s route in the original game.
Probably the biggest reason why I enjoyed the original Diabolik Lovers game (apart from Satoi being one of my favorite character designers, and the characters being so fun to draw) is I think the game took the whole idea of vampires and gave it a very interesting new perspective.
I'm fascinated by stories about vampires. In fact, Interview with the Vampire is one of my favorite books. If you think about it, the classic vampire is a very interesting allegory. A living, hollowed out corpse that is extremely susceptible to the scent of blood, and needs to drink blood in order to sustain itself. Feeding on others. Sunlight is deadly to them, the light of day, when you can see things clearly, as they are. They cannot enter your home unless you invite them. They have no reflection, which can be a meaning of no identity. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t use these aspects. Kanato does see his reflection in mirrors (which is actually an interesting moment in the story), and it doesn't seem like they're afraid of sunlight. If I remember correctly, Kanato even mentions in the 2nd game that vampires being afraid of the sunlight is a myth. And probably one of the most important aspects of what a vampire is - they don't age, staying forever young. Which I think can be interpreted in such a fascinating way when it comes to this game. Not aging can also mean being changeless. Being stuck in time. Time ceases to exist. As far as I remember them, at least half of the brothers have some kind of child-like characteristic. Yui even compares Ayato to a "spoiled child trying to get attention from his mother". But I'll be talking about Kanato here, and he's probably the one who resembles a child the most. He carries his beloved Teddy bear and talks to him, he's impatient, he hates losing, his room is filled with toys, and he cries when he doesn't get his way (and laughs at Yui when he says that he was obviously faking it. This also makes analysing his scenes difficult, as it's hard to tell whether Kanato's crying is written as genuine or not).
An allegory of vampires being Children starved of affection, and who grow up
into cruel creatures who try to fill up that void by using and abusing Yui, and literally sucking the life out of her. And this idea works interestingly with the fact that, if you ignore that it's ridiculous, Yui’s heart belongs to the mother of the triplets. I doubt that this was written as some kind of allegory, since it makes sense, story-wise, only if you talk about the triplets.
Yui seems to be convinced that if she gives the boys enough love, that she could save them. And Subaru asks Yui whether she thinks she has to give others unconditional love, and if that's the case, he is disgusted by her naivety.
Yui herself is confused as to why she can't leave them. And wonders if that means if she likes them, or if she's feeling pity.
Unconditional love is something a mother gives to her child.
Kanato's mother prefered the company of men over Kanato. When Richter asks her isn't it weird to have a child play in the same room as they are fooling around Cordelia answers that Kanato will love her no matter what, and that his specialty is playing on his own. We see this confirmed as Kanato doesn't even react to their coversation, as he is busy talking to Teddy about candy flavors. This is probably why Kanato assumes that Yui will behave the same. Since usually a boy’s understanding of what a girl is is based off of his mother.
Kanato is extremely possessive. He accuses Yui of uncontiously seducing his brothers, says that anyone who tries to take anything from him should die, and that Yui should never say his brother's names infront of him. In one of the very first scenes, after being tired of waiting, Kanato shatters a plate with food that Yui made for him. Yui tells Kanato to stop or she'll get angry, which makes Kanato freeze and ask who'll get angry, to which Yui hesitantly says Reiji, since he's the one who does the cleaning. Kanato gets annoyed, and says, "The one infront of you is me! Then why are you talking about someone else? You really are a disgusting woman." Even when Kanato finds Yui simply talking to Laito he becomes angry and says, "It's always and always like that. Every time I see you, you're with another man".
In a way, I think, one thing that can keep you "stuck-in-time" are fears.
In this case, traumatic childhood fears. (And in fact one of the things that is
so interesting about the story is that all of the brothers in some way are stuck in their past).
In the case of Kanato it's his extreme fear of abandonment. That Yui will throw
him away, that she doesn't care about him and hurts him on purpose to laugh at his pain. This is Kanato projecting his fears onto Yui. He isn't reacting to the present, to the person that is infront of him, but to his fears from the past that Yui is unknowingly provoking. Fears that he probably had about his mother. This is shown when Kanato and Yui are playing chess, and Kanato starts to cry because he lost. Yui finds this kind of cute and smiles a bit, and Kanato gets angry because he interprets Yui's smile as her laughing at him. I hope I'm explaining this well, but it's the kind of fear that sticks with you throughout years, that when you bump into anything that could remind you of it, it feels as if you really are back to the time when it originated. For example, almost as if going back in time and becoming again a child who experienced something that scared him so much, that he never forgot that moment.
When Kanato is calm and collected he is quite good at reading people, and even his brothers admit that he's good at figuring out if someone is lying. This goes out the window when Kanato is angry. An angered Kanato will put words in your mouth, assume that you did it on purpose to hurt him, and pretty much tell you all of his fears.
When Kanato brings Yui to his favorite place - the room with the human dolls, Kanato asks her what's wrong, since she doesn't seem like she's having fun. Yui pauses and desides to say that she likes the room, after she thinks about how Kanato went out of his way to show her this place, and that if she says she doesnt like it, he will probably be upset. Kanato immediatelly calls out her lie, and says, "I wonder, why are women so quick to lie?". After Yui denies it, Kanato says, "You see, you just lied again". He gets upset saying "do you want to deceive me that badly, and then laugh at my wounded state?"
It's quite ironic that Yui's white lies, that she said to not hurt his feelings, Kanato sees through and the first thing he says is, "Do you want to hurt me that badly?"
Another scene that shows this, happens on a rainy night. And Yui points out that Kanato's behavior becomes odd on rainy nights. The significance of which you will soon see.
In fact, the prologue of his route happens on a rainy night. When Yui finds Kanato in the cold living room and tries to befriend him, which makes him angry after he multiple times asks her to leave him alone.
On another rainy night, when Kanato calls Yui up to his room and asks to drink her blood, Yui refuses, because Kanato is behaving somewhat differently, as if he's seeing someone else when looking at her, she can't say who though. Kanato gets furious, screaming for her to stop saying such irresponsible things. He sobs out that she's saying those things because she hates him and wants to run away, that she doesn’t care about him and wants to throw him away. When Yui tries to say it’s not true, Kanato says she's lying. And when Yui says that she never thought about him like that, he asks her what does she think of him. "Like? Hate? That I'm troublesome? That I should just die?". Yui hesitates and Kanato adds that he doesn't need an answer, that it's written on her face. Kanato with a quiet shaky voice says that she thinks of him as a trouble that can't be helped, that he's too much to handle, and someone she can't understand at all. And as Yui thinks that she can’t lie to him and say that that's not true, because he'll probably see through it, and that she really doesn’t know the answer herself. Kanato says that it doesn’t matter, that Yui's feelings dont matter, and that either way he doesnt need a heart that changes quickly.
In a way it really doesn’t matter, because no matter what Yui thinks of him, the
words that Kanato uses are the words that he himself describes himself with. Whatever Yui thinks about him won’t change the way he sees himself.
Kanato has an odd, to put it mildly, relationship with his mother. He and his brothers rarely say her name and just call her "that person". In one scene when Yui is looking for Kanato, he sees her through a mirror and gets startled. He says that he thought it was "that person", even thought she looks nothing alike. That it must be because of that oddly nostalgic smell of Yui's blood. Kanato likes looking at his reflection in the mirror, which Yui misunderstands and says that if she was as pretty as Kanato she would probably also like mirrors. Kanato corrects her saying that he likes his face not because he thinks he's pretty, and asks her not to compare him to such a disgusting creature as a narcissist. He says that his face resembles "that person", and that looking at his face makes him remember. It makes him violently angry when Ayato and Laito joke around saying that Kanato and Yui actually look somewhat similar. Kanato screams that he wont forgive that and shatters the mirror with his hand. He screams that he wont forgive it, that he should be the only one who looks similar, that no one else is necessary. After mumbling about how he won’t forgive it, Yui asks if Kanato is alright, and then he forces Yui to lick the blood off his hand.
After this scene Yui wonders who "that person" is, and to what extent was this
person important to him. And then wonders could it be that she was placed as
a replacement for that person. Yui multiple times thinks about how when Kanato looks at her it feels like he's seeing someone else.
It's interesting that Kanato even at one point says that he doesn't understand why, but for some reason he becomes easily irritated when Yui is arround.
Later alone, Kanato talks to himself about how he can see "that person" every time he looks in a mirror. That Teddy should be happy about that. And that "that person" must be proud. That the other remains are held by Teddy. But Kanato is confused by how lately when he looks at himself in the mirror and chats with Teddy, he ends up thinking about different things. About Yui.
One funny thing is that when Yui finally asks Kanato who is this person
that Kanato keeps talking about, Kanato nonchalantly says that it's Teddy.
Obviously Teddy can't be the one, and this at first seems like a joke, but later in the story Yui thinks about how Teddy seems to be something like a replacement for "that person" that Kanato keeps talking about. It's quite an interesting detail, because I think Kanato's behavior resembles his mother’s behavior. You could even say that the fact that Kanato sees his mother in his reflection is an allegory for his identity.
Though we don’t see Cordelia ever being abusive towards Kanato, other than being creepy and ignoring him (I don't know if this is relevant as I'm confused whether the other games are cannon or not, because I don't understand how
that works considering the endings of the 1st game. But we see a lot more of
this in the flashbacks in the 2nd game, when Kanato accidentally cuts himself with scissors, and Cordelia tells him he shouldn't cling to her dress, because the blood will stain it, and that he should look for a maid to help him. And Laito gives Kanato the idea that if he wants mother’s attention then he should cut himself a lot more, and when Kanato ends up becoming drenched in his own blood, which does get a shocked reaction from Cordelia, she doesn't do anything. After this Kanato tells himself that he has no one but Teddy). The way Kanato behaves towards Yui is very similar to how Cordelia behaved towards Ayato. A couple of similarities is the physical abuse and getting extremely angry when talked back to. Cordelia was obsessed with Ayato becoming the best, so that Karl Heinz would notice her. And having Ayato not comply with that desire made her angry. Cordelia punished Ayato while saying that if he can't become the best then she doesn't need him. In Kanato’s case it seems like he is using physical abuse and threats towards Yui to control his fears of abandonment.
Neglect probably seems not as bad compared to other forms of abuse, but I think one scary thing about neglect is that often the child doesn't even notice it.
Neglect, like mean words, doesn't leave bruises. And it often makes the child think that the reason why he isn't getting attention is because there's something wrong with him. That he's uninteresting. Which is why I think Kanato puts words in Yui's mouth when asking about what she thinks of him. Horrible negative discriptions that he labled himself with. At some point Kanato even says that he likes watching humans uselessly struggle. That it's so sweet, because he can see them being more pathetic than himself. This is also probably why Ayato, who was physically and emotionally abused, doesn't have any illusions about his mother. He tells Yui that he doesn't remember their mother ever doing anything motherly. He even says that he honestly thought of killing Yui too when he noticed that her heart is his mother’s. That he couldn't forgive even one part of her living. Although this doesn't mean that Ayato doesn't have his own fears and issues that stuck with him. Like his obsession with becoming the best, which you especially notice when he figures out that he can become the strongest if he has Yui's blood. At the end of his route, Ayato even admits how ironic it is that in the end he became the strongest vampire, which is exactly what "that bitch" wanted. It's also quite interesting that he becomes the strongest precisely through Yui. Also in the heaven epilogue Yui says that she feels like Ayato is afraid of losing her, afraid of losing her blood, of it being given to someone else. Afraid of his strength declining. She asks him why does he insist on being the best. Which makes Ayato angry and he tells Yui that there's no need to think about such things, and that there is no need to expose his heart. In one possible ending Ayato even goes as far as to kill all of his brothers and his father, saying that with this he is finally the best because, duh, everyone else who could rival him is dead.
Another similarity Kanato has with his mother, is how both of them view love. In Laito's route we see Cordelia ask for Laito's help to kill Karl Heinz. She complains that she can't take it any longer. The person who should be her's isn't becoming what she wants. That when she kills him she can finally make him belong to her, because she loves him. She tells Laito that to a vampire killing is the highest form of a confession of love. For immortals like them to receive such
an end is sweet. She moans about how much she loves Karl Heinz, and that he should wait for her, because she'll give him death with her hands.
I first thought that this is some kind of vampire custom (which probably makes
valentine's day a very weird holiday in the vampire world), but it's hard to tell
because of how in Laito's route Cordelia screamed with anger about taking over Yui's body and killing both Karl Heinz and Laito. As well as it doesn't look like Ayato shares these views.
Cordelia also talks about how the only person she loves is that "detestable, detestable, and beloved person." These are the exact same words Laito uses when he's flooded by memories of Cordelia. And when Yui out of curiosity asks Laito who this "detestable, detestable, and beloved person" is, Laito asks whether she will kill them when she finds out? Yui is confused by this, and Laito explains that if Yui kills that person before he does, she would be stealing away his love. He adds that beloved things are things you want to kill, in their world at least. Kanato at one point even tells Yui that because he loves his brothers he is disgusted by them.
On a rainy night, Kanato finds Cordelia after Ayato tries to kill her and Laito pushes her off the balcony (which Laito tells Yui isn't enough to kill a vampire, and that she died because Kanato found her). Kanato calmly asks his mother if something is wrong. That there's a hole in her chest, and asks where did her
heart go. He receives no answer, so he tries to sing to her, something he often
did for her when he was little. Still no response. He says that if she won’t wake up even for his singing, that really means she's dead. He comments on how miserable she is to be so wet from the rain, and then sets her on fire to warm her up. As she's burning Kanato laughs that with this she's finally become his. Finally. He laughs that now they'll be together forever. This sounds a lot like what Cordelia said about Karl Heinz. That when she kills him she can finally make him belong to her.
Does that mean Kanato really wanted his mother to belong to him, because he never felt like she did? Would make sense why he fears that someone will take away Yui from him, or that she will throw him away, abandon him. After burning his mother, Kanato places her cremated remains in a bottle and inside his teddy bear.
An interesting scene that mirrors this moment also happens, unsurprisingly at this point, on a rainy night. Yui goes up to Kanato's door, because she's worried, since Kanato locked himself up for several days. After waiting for some time under his room and asking for him to atleast say that he's fine, Kanato opens the door and pulls Yui into his room. He hugs her sobbing and asking for her not to leave him. Yui says she won't leave him, and Kanato says that he feels cold. Yui is surprised by this, and decides to return the embrace to warm him up, but then realizes that he really is a lot colder than he usually is. He sobs once again that he's cold and Yui tells him she'll bring a blanket, but he cries out that his coldness, loneliness and despair can't be cured by something like that. He begs her to do something because it hurts. He only wants just one thing. He's only obtained traces of what he wants as he glances over at Teddy who is lying neglected on the floor. Kanato whispers that these things aren't enough at all. That every time the rain falls he feels cold. He asks Yui what she thinks he should do to feel warm and his hands tighten around her neck. He asks if Yui will lessen his coldness a little. He asks what should he do. When will he be released? Kanato releases Yui and cries in the corner of his room, not reacting to anything that Yui says.
(I'm not sure if there's a connection, but it's kind of interesting that Kanato sets his mother on fire to warm her up).
On another interesting rainy night scene, in which Yui is searching for Kanato in the forest at night in the rain, she finds him with a bleeding injury on his arm. As she tries to touch his wounded arm Kanato yells at her to stop, and then calmly tells her to leave him alone. That he just caught on a tree branch. Yui insists that they should treat it and Kanato yells that she's annoying.The injury will close up soon, so there's no need to treat it. Yui persists and says that it looks painful. (Which I think is so interesting. The fact that Kanato isn’t bothered by it, and he's a resilient vampire, but Yui is bothered because to her it looks painful, as in, it hurts HER to look at it. This sounds more like it's about her feelings about this, not Kanato's.) Kanato says that it has nothing to do with her. Yui reluctantly agrees, but adds that she still thinks until the wound closes it should be treated. Kanato asks her not to push her opinions on him. Yui tries to disagree, but he interrupts her by asking why she came here to search for him. He did those things to her, and she still thinks about being by his side? Yui herself is puzzled by this. She thinks about why did she come looking for him, about how even though Kanato said multiple times that she can't run away, if she actually tried to she might have a chance. And yet. He asks her if it was a whim, or if she is simply a meddling idiot? Yui confesses that for some reason she just can't leave him alone. To which Kanato is skeptical, and just as he thought she's just meddling. But Yui says that it must be something else. She just can’t leave him like this. Kanato is surprised by that, and then says that if she says she wants to stay with him because she can’t leave him, she should drink his blood. And then sadly asks if she won't do it. Yui says she can't since she's not a vampire. Kanato insists that if she wants to be with him, she should do it. Yui is scared, thinking what would drinking a vampire’s blood do to a human. Kanato, tearing up, asks if she wont drink it, and Yui apologizes. Kanato sounds quite disappointed as he says that she is quite foolish to approach him without being prepared. And then adds that if that's her intention, this is what he'll do. And he wrips her clothes and drinks her blood, saying that he'll make it so she can’t exist without him.
Another interesting aspect of Kanato's character is the way he views beauty.
Kanato, with disgust in his voice, says to Yui that the full moon is so beautiful that it's detestable. (By the way, today is also a full moon.) That beautiful things break easily, as he throws a rock in the reflection of the full moon in the lake. He adds that he wants to break every single beautiful thing like this. And asks whether she understands that feeling. That when he sees beautiful things he wants to trample them unbearably. He chuckles and says that he's not talking about Yui though. And when Yui asks whether Kanato is talking about a person, he answers that she's wrong because he doesnt know any beautiful people.
I thought maybe this could be one of those "if i cant have it, no one can" feelings. Because when he burns his mother he says that she's finally his. And Cordelia says that by killing Karl Heinz she can finally make him her’s. But then I also thought that maybe it's because beautiful things hold your attention, and Kanato really hates when Yui shows interest in anything but him. And after Yui turns into a vampire, and she and Kanato are flying above a town, Yui says she finds the town lights beautiful, Kanato falls silent. When Yui asks him what’s wrong, he says that he wants to break everything that she holds an interest in. That's why he hates that town.
Also when Kanato jumps off the balcony he says that he wants to die, that dying from a fall would be peaceful. But then adds that he won't die yet, as he wants to die after he destroys everything he loves in this world and when he's covered in the blood of the one’s he loves.
In one of the last scenes, when Kanato is watching Yui sleep, he says out loud that he'll aaaalways love her, and break her. That he can't help but want to break
beautiful and loved things. That's why he'll love and break her. Forever and ever.
In one of the last scenes, when Yui calls out to Kanato, right after he was thinking about his mother, he wonders why he never noticed it, that the way Yui speaks is similar. That he doesn't see the same face, and yet at the same time he can see it. Kanato figures out that the nostalgic scent is very similar to "that person". And at that moment Kanato says to Yui that he loves her, while Yui thinks about how it feels as if Kanato is mistaking her for someone else.
I think this as well reflects the "stuck-in-time" point I was trying to make. The
desire to rewrite one's past. The idea that if you can get in the present what you
didn't get in the past, that that will somehow fill up the void you feel inside. Which, unfortunately, never works. Just like if you didn't get enough nutriens as a child, trying to get them when you're an adult wont make you any taller. The time has passed, the child is grown.
Kanato tells Yui that he never thought that he would like someone more than "that person" and Teddy. That unlike "that person" Yui is always by his side. Kanato says he won’t be able to live without her. And Yui says the same. Which makes Kanato happy, and he decides that he no longer needs Teddy. Kanato burns his teddy bear, not because he can let go of his past, but the opposite - because he has found a better replacement for Teddy, which is Yui.
It looks like Kanato is almost entirely controlled by his fears. Like the way throughout the story Kanato gets angry when Yui shows interest in something, like when she's talking to his brothers, or even strangers. She is allowed only to see him, and to think only of him. By doing this, Kanato only reinforces his fears of abandonment. The only way he sees that Yui will stay, is if she has no other choices, no other distractions. Even going as far as to kill all of his brothers.
(In every ending Kanato's brothers are all killed, either by him or Yui for him.) He believes that no one would willingly choose him. Kanato isn't running towards something, but away from something. And he is able to do that by controlling Yui.
We see how nothing has really changed in one of the scenes after the ending. When Yui runs around the castle looking for Kanato, because she's excited to show him a butterfly she caught. Yui releases it and talks about how pretty the butterfly is, she asks Kanato if he knows what kind of butterfly this is, and he flatly replies that he doesn't. When Yui decides to go look in the library Kanato says she can't. He says that he doesn't want her to hold any interest in other things. Kanato crushes the butterfly and adds that an existance that she has an interest in, other than his, cannot exist.
You haven't been posting much lately, so I'm just wondering how your doing :) I always look forward to your drawings. Your style and the way you color is so pretty. And I didn't know you watched Miraculous Ladybug! Would it be okay if I requested a Luka doodle? I would love to see you draw him in your style. And do you have a fave character from the show? Hope your doing well, lots of love!
Oh man, Im so sorry if you had to wait long for a reply. I don't log in that often.
I’m good. Thank you for asking! My computer doesn't work, so I can't draw for now, and on top of that I'm kinda busy. But I've gathered a lot of new ideas for drawings, so I can't wait to start drawing again!
I dont know about "like", as I've only seen a couple of episodes, so I dont know much about the characters, but I guess Chat, because he's goofy and funny. Chloe also seems like an interesting character. Her behavior is mean, but she’s also a fan of a superhero, which I find an interesting mix.
I try not to draw characters I dont know, but he looks kinda cool, I'll think about it.
The main character of a story I've been working on for over a year now. I'm still writing the script. It’s interesting how when something exists in your head it can appear completed and simple, and yet when you sit down to write it down you realize how much blind spots you have, how many questions need answering, and how much work you still need to do.
I found your old Ladybug sketch and I wanted to ask, have you done any other Miraculous drawings? This isnt a request per se, but I would love love love to see you draw Ladybug and Cat Noir someday. You seriously dont get enough attention. Much love!
Thanks!
I think I accidentally drew them older, as adults, but I hope you like it.
Sorry for the lack of activity lately. My computer broke, so I can’t draw. And it will take some time to fix. I hope you’re all enjoying your summers :)
sugurugetos
stormborns
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
