Actually i’m not done. Mondo and Taka’s ‘opposite attract’ friendship goes deeper than ‘thug and nerd’; Mondo was constantly playing to an audience, crafting his entire identity around a one-dimensional visage of ‘leader’, that was in itself steeped in his grief-ridden memories of his brother. Mondo was never going to get fulfilment or make any connection doing this, and just spent his life spiralling into grief which forced him further into hiding which forced him further into grief.
Alternatively, Taka is nothing except 100% genuine in everything he says and does. He does a rigid belief in being the ‘traditional Japanese man’ and upholding specific ideals. But those are his ideals. He fully understands that no one likes him. He isn’t playing to a crowd or get anyone to like him, he just does what he thinks is right with a fervent intensity.
Both Mondo and Taka live their lives according to unbending rules and codes they were raised with. Mondo’s entire character is based around bosozoku, a counter-culture that focuses on embracing tradition and following conduct. Bosozoku have always followed a strict set of rules.
Despite the outward skin of someone who rebels against society and doesn’t do what he’s told, Mondo is a man who is scared of substantial change. He doesn’t want to go against his gangs pre-written rules of what is expected of him. He doesn’t want to question his memory of his brother, or his death too deeply. He doesn’t want to change any of the strict gendered rules he knows; boys are strong and meant to protect girls, who are incapable of fighting for themselves. There are hints of his personality not quite fitting right in his design; his soft, calm voice, occasional shy and self-conscious moments and colour palette including soft lilac and gold create the general sense of ‘royalty’ that suggests him being a leader don’t reflect his supposed ‘loose cannon, macho rebel’ mask.
Taka, however, fully embraces his traditionally Japanese style of living and views (boys and girls spending the night together is ‘unwholesome’, he practises calligraphy and kendo as his only hobbies outside of studying, I read a post about how his attitude towards nudity actually reflects older generations of Japanese men, not youth culture. I can’t speak on how accurate that is though).
Despite this, Taka’s characters motivation is based entirely around him demanding change. He wants to change literally everything he can about his peers; from their informal appearance, to their opinions on studying and school, to their morals itself. He wants to change society’s opinion on him and his family name, he wants to go into politics and change the way the very country is run. His character design perfectly matches who he is; the colour palette is literally black-and-white, the harsh red and royal gold play perfectly into his intense ‘holier-than-thou’ personality, he is 1-to-1 with a military soldier including the impractical boots and buzzcut, and he is the only one in the Dangan cast with double rings in his eye, creating a ‘bullseye’ effect. It is simple and to the point, just like him.
If their friendship had been allowed to run its course I think they wouldn’t have just been ‘Mondo learns anger management and Taka doesn’t study quite as hard’. But also Mondo takes charge of his own life and learns who he is as a person, and Taka stops running full-speed into the future and stops to appreciate what’s around him, instead of trying to ‘fix’ everything.
NOT TO MENTION, there’s the conservative belief of respecting your elders and the dead relatives who came before you; the second generation must always cow tow and honour the first generation no matter what, and must spend your life serving them. (Japan society embraces multi-generational homes, as opposed to the west which demands children move out after eighteen, and parents be moved in nursing homes).
Mondo’s opinion of his brother is obviously clouded by grief and PTSD, but he views his dead elder almost like a God; repeating the values Daiya passed down as sacred, and never to be questioned. There’s the clear ‘don’t hit girls’ which Mondo stumbles around when the topic of Sakura comes up. But also Mondo treats ‘a mans promise’ akin to a religious guide; the very idea of breaking it sends him spiralling, and he uses it as a reason to respect Chihiro’s wishes after death; even when that would clearly make the trial more complicated for him.
Mondo’s role also clearly views his gang as family; there are so many members it would be impossible for him to have personal relationship with all of them. However, Mondo’s role in the gang before Daiya’s death was as ‘the little brother’. Daiya, the first generation, made the gang and as such the gang itself has become conflated with ‘the first generation’. When Daiya announced he was passing the role of leader down to his younger brother, many members scorned Mondo as not being capable of leading.
Mondo views the gang as one large entity, but also as his family. However, he has firmly placed himself in the role of the younger brother, constantly seeking approval from his older, wiser relatives. He has spent his life post-Daiya’s death being everything he thinks the gang wants; how he looks, how he talks, how he acts. His moral code and insecurities are made to appease them. Despite the gang being made up of so many individuals that it is impossible for Mondo to be liked , or even know , by all of them. This is why his persona is so one-dimensional, so much like a caricature. It is easy to digest, and is made to appeal to an unimaginable amount of people. Mondo hasn’t even indulged in what his life would look like when he passes the role down; only vaguely mentioning carpentry. Similar to how many second generations write their life story to adhere to what is expected of them, not what they personally want.
Taka has also based his identity and moral code around his dead relative; his grandfather. And the nature of his relationship with him, and Taka’s grief, are altered by having less trauma around his grandfathers death. However, this opens the door for Taka to have a more nuanced and critical view of Toranosuke. Taka has absolutely no moral quandary with denouncing his grandfathers life choices, personality, or intelligence. His belief that the word ‘genius’ only describes lazy cheats with no work-ethic is literally founded in how he viewed his grandfather. Despite the skeleton of Taka’s character being based in tradition and Japanese society, he clearly believes the idea of undying respect for the generations that came before you holds no weight.
He does believe some aspects of it; such as telling Makoto he should thank his parents for giving him as ‘good, strong name’, and telling Mondo not to get a tattoo because ‘your body is a temple, given to you by your loving parents’. Taka upholds the general idea of respecting your family, until it applies to him in which he has more respect for his complicated emotions.
(This is a consistent theme with Taka; in his FTE he insists furthering education is the only valuable way to spend ones free time, until Makoto tells him ‘studying’ TV or having hobbies can help him socially, and Taka immediately changes his mind and agrees. Taka is written as very naive and views the way other people live their lives through a simple lense (obviously not helped by having zero friends, or a single good conversation in his life), but when he is able to see even the slightest nuance in something, he happily accepts it into his worldview. Thus why he accepts Mondo’s brand of living so easily).
In his free-time events Taka does say he has a complicated relationship with his grief surrounding Toranosuke; he knows it was his grandfathers actions that lead to the Ishimaru family name being branded as dirty, but he also admits he respects him.
Taka’s identity is formed around adhering to these ideals, and it would be easy for him to attempt to become someone likeable; he is trying to become a leader in his own way just like Mondo. Except instead of a large gang, the group he’s trying to impress is literally the entirety of Japan. Taka could easily create a persona so thin it can be appreciated by literally every single person but, other than his obvious lack of understanding of social cues, Taka has too much pride in himself to change for anyone, and instead expects everyone else to change for him. Again, he literally plans to rebuild Japanese society from the ground up based on his personal beliefs. Credit where it’s due, the boy has self-respect.
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