hey! I was wondering if you plan to actually make and sell ur 'Doomed by the narrative' casket keychains or if they were just for fun? asking cuz i think theyre rlly cool and would love to buy a couple if u do decide to physically make em!
Thank you so much! That is the plan! Currently, it's on hold, but I do hope to release them eventually. They were originally supposed to release in the summer, along with a lot of other Persona keychains that were in the works. All my merch is handled by a friend, but because of the current situation with tariffs, he's currently unsure when he can put in an order. If I get a definite answer, I will definitely post an update here! <3 Thank you for the interest, I appreciate it so much!
— a Tribe Nine Kazuki Aoyama (and Q but i dont feel like i do him enough justice nwn) ramble of suffering sparked by the absolute horror that was Chapter 3 (spoilers for the anime and the in-game story up to Chapter 3). I don’t claim to be a lore expert, just wanted to collapse and cry about what this game has DONE TO ME. you can take it as me incomprehensibly crying as i scribble on a whiteboard
Personally, I started playing the game first, and only saw the anime after (this was somewhere before I started Chapter 2 or halfway, i think). First thing that came to mind for me about Kazuki the Anime vs Kazuki the game:
“wow, he’s an asshole!”
However, his arc in the anime seems to be from being this guide that Minato helplessly follows, he watches the games and he orders them to act. In a way, he’s right when he says Minato are just pawns for him to manipulate. That changes when his motivation is revealed— from a fucking MUPPET SHOW no less (ily sonoda).
His motivation appears revenge driven at first, how could it be interpreted otherwise? Ojiro, his childhood best friend, BROKE HIS ARM. Any logical extrapolation would be that Kazuki is trying to get back at the Chiyodas through the most powerful tribe.
Then you hear the full reason from Kazuki himself once the Ota tribe fight is settled. The full reason: he wants to save Ojiro from Tenshin’s brainwashing, from the shackles of being the best and being alone. Something I found especially tragic is that Tenshin likely intended for Kazuki to be the next heir to the Otori throne.
Kazuki, in the way, would be a better XB player than Ojiro because of one thing: he is able to communicate with and understand people. Albeit in the anime, it’s mostly him bossing the other members using his vast knowledge of XB (even knowing just how far he can push the rules, evidenced by the oil spill trick).
This isn’t to say his brains are his only asset: having to hit a ball with your non-dominant arm while the dominant arm is injured, , the speed he runs at and the ease he disarms his opponent, it is clear he hasn’t lost his XB edge. Tribe Nine likes to push home the idea that no matter how powerful, pushing away cooperation will not let you win. Ichinose gets cooked trying to do just that. Ojiro fights with a team during the climax of the anime. And only Zero, who is basically an almost god-like figure, fights alone, but he is tortured by boredom, which is why he sets up Yo’s saga in the first place.
You could say that this speech he gives is something he gives to every child that fails to live up to his expectations, but then look at how he addresses Ojiro.
He doesn’t even see the children as children, just as a number. A potential asset to the Otori name. Kazuki was just a little ahead, having the privilege to be referred to by name. Of the two, Ojiro has been presented as this unfeeling, bloodthirsty juggernaut player of XB who dominates, his pitch being so powerful it can cause internal bleeding to his opponents.
kThe fact Ojiro says this while his back is turned to Kazuki, its almost like he doesn’t believe those words himself, it’s just what he tells himself to keep moving.)
It becomes clear that Ojiro’s motivation behind becoming the best at XB is not driven by winning, otherwise, the rule-breaking tech would be appealing to him (as it was to Tenshin). In the end, it was the horrors of having to best the other children at XB, or risk being eliminated (implied to be killed). Such an upbringing is no doubt scarring. This is very clear with Ojiro, with how he’s juxtaposed with his child self.
A quieter, meeker boy who just wants to be with his friend. He doesn’t care about being first.
And then we have Kazuki, someone who has dreams and wants to make them come true. Cocky, even. It also seems apparent that Ojiro cared less about XB than Kazuki does, this can be seen in the scene they first receive their gear. Kazuki exclaims in wonder, while Ojiro just smiles.
However, it’s a lot subtler with Kazuki. Kazuki’s debut episode starts with him questioning the Minato members for remaining on their high horse while trying to win against Adachi to save Arisugawa. They either win dirty or they risk losing her, to him, there is no ideal way to win, only the optimal one. Would a big dreamer come up with this? Heck, when Arisugawa busts herself out, he’s the one who points out they can stop playing because there’s no rationale behind playing if their goal’s achieved. Would someone who wants to “beat everyone else” be so easily swayed to move on?
We don’t see how Ojiro becomes Q, and how Kazuki matures from a cocky pawn-controller to the competent leader of Trash Tribe. In a way, it feels like they’re returning to embrace their inner child’s wishes. Q gets to be by Kazuki’s side, and vice versa. It gives them happier voices to be around. For Kazuki, he is far more helpful towards the Trash Tribe members than he was to Minato in the anime. Q, on the other hand, goes from a emotionless killing machine to……
Look at his profile picture, a cute penguin. And this chat is just him being completely and utterly afraid of rats. Rats! From this man who killed Shun, who was also portrayed as a juggernaut, the reason for Minato’s success. This can also be seen by the Chiyoda siblings’ almost fanatic worship of him.
(Hina, i love you but his eng dub VA is literally Corpse Husband.)
Initially Chapter 3 threw me off, because the secret of Ojiro being Q was basically immediately spilled. It confused me, especially since Q revealed this under no pressure. Then you get to the very end of Chapter 3. Yo is completely entranced by Magata’s promises. Trash Tribe only has one way to win: defeat Magata at XG (become a bigger streamer) and reveal the truth.
(Perhaps Kazuki is hyperaware that there are no ideal solutions, he is the one most guarded against Magata’s promises of utopia)
Q’s entire character in the game is basically an edgelord who wants to atone for his crimes as Lord Ojiro. This was the best time to do so, in the thick of territory of people who despise the Otori family to the point of injuring random people who even have the surname of Otori. Perhaps, the only way to atone is to save the whole of the city, just as how he doomed them in the past. He saves them by breaking them free of the practical cult that Magata has enslaved the citizens of Chiyoda. Then he saves them again by stopping U-DX, at the cost of his life. Then he is revived by Zero, with a catch. An almost devastating catch.
To Q, it is as if his character arc never happened. Q becomes the introverted, quiet person he has always been, except it is no longer a facade, it is all he has left after his memories of Ojiro has left.
Imagine being Kazuki in this moment, his childhood friend, the man he grew up with, the man who abandoned him in a struggle to survive, the man he fought tooth and nail to save from a horrible fate. The man who he fulfilled his childhood dreams with.
All of that is now gone.
It’s a crazy risky choice that the writers made. Erase a powerful arc that just happened. Why does it work? To me, even though the internal change is gone, the external change stays, no memory loss can change that. No memory loss can erase the fact that Ojiro atoned for his sins.
Just look at Kazuki’s reaction. Even in Chapter 2, where Kazuki talks of the suffering caused by the XG rules, the most emotion we get is a slightly down tone. Then look at him after finding out Q no longer remembers his time as Ojiro.
The man of logic and reason’s first reaction is to run out and look for the antagonistic god-figure on his own to demand just what happened. Kazuki, in the game, has always been cool and collected. Nowhere in the game does Kazuki have such wide-eyed, horrified expressions, and nowhere in the game has he ever screamed with such pain. Kazuki in the game is someone people turn to when the situation is bleak, he has the most XB experience out of all of the Trash Tribe members, and he is their leader. But no experience and no leadership skills can allow one to know what to do when the person you’ve cared for the most in your whole life is gone. He’s not dead, but he’s not the same person anymore. Can Kazuki look at Q and recognise his childhood friend? I doubt so.
”The rest of Trash Tribe doesn’t get the chance to know that Q lost his memories. Kazuki has to lose his childhood friend after fighting to get him back. We don’t know how much Q has lost, after all, he still rushes to Kazuki first, but we know he’s lost too much to carry the bloody legacy of Ojiro Otori, and he should not have to anymore. In a way, it’s a good thing for Q, to be free of the pain of knowing what a horrible person he used to be. But it’s not good for him as a character. Kazuki said it best: “The rest of Trash Tribe doesn’t get the chance to know that Q lost his memories. Kazuki has to lose his childhood friend after fighting to get him back. We don’t know how much Q has lost, after all, he still rushes to Kazuki first, but we know he’s lost too much to carry the bloody legacy of Ojiro Otori, and he should not have to anymore. In a way, it’s a good thing for Q, to be free of the pain of knowing what a horrible person he used to be. But it’s not good for him as a character.
Kazuki said it best: “He carried the weight of that name and was tortured by guilt… He had to change his appearance and his name, and had to run from his past. But for the sake of this city and his friends, he chose to face his past! Do you have any idea how much it takes to make that decision, Zero?!”
And all the resilience. The courage. The determination to be honest and face his past. It’s gone, because Q doesn’t have the memory of making that choice. Kazuki has to carry this all on his own, with no one who shares the memories that he values so dearly. In a way, to Kazuki, Ojiro died. Yet he can’t just say that, because Q is still alive, and Q has to be Ojiro, even if only physically. This is truly the doomed yaoi.
Chat, this is only Chapter 3. Especially with how they set up Yo to be a toxic main character? We might be cooked. Very cooked.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk, I’ll go and cry in my be now
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