chasing your light, at 25:00

just a guy with a lot of thoughts on this game! main blog is @basilelevator

[project-sekai-rambler]

intro post

hello, everyone!

i've started this sideblog to document and verbalize my thoughts and analysis of this game that's come to mean as much to me as it has.

i'll likely be heavily N25-focused, but i have read all of Leo/Need, most of Vivid BAD SQUAD, and i've recently started making my way through MORE MORE JUMP! needless to say, i plan to get through all of the stories eventually, and i may post my thoughts as i go.

i hope at least someone out there will find them interesting!

i've been heavily inspired by both @the-overanalyst and @mizuki-foreshadowing, the latter of whom encouraged me to start this blog in the first place - thank you!

[underpunsideration]

I'm not sure if it was an intentional theme or not, but Niigo's members give extremely contrasting views of what it actually means to be a girl.

Kanade and Ena could not be more different in terms of beauty and fashion–Ena is as "girly" as it gets, while Kanade dresses (and eats) like a stereotypical male MMO addict. On the other hand, Ena's anger and independence are stereotypically masculine traits, while Kanade's kindness and politeness are often valued in women; in fact, when she interacts with most people, Kanade's personality most matches the "good girl" image that Mafuyu puts on. Though Kanade's human interactions are very feminine-coded, her lifestyle and habits are the exact opposite. And in a lot of ways, Ena is the complete inverse.

Of course, neither of them have their femininity dismissed due to their non-feminine traits, either by in-universe characters, the narrative, or the fans. Both are portrayed as pretty in-universe, given unflinching displays of girlishness in their card arts, and never have their femininity scrutinized by the fans.

Obviously, this takes us to Mizuki. In terms of lifestyle and fashion, Mizuki beats Ena in the "number of frills worn" department, works at a fashion store (presumably aimed at women), and is skilled at sewing–one of the most traditionally female professions in the world. And though I wouldn't say Mizuki's personality is hyper-feminine, I can't think of anything decisively un-feminine about it either.

And, well, do I have to finish this point? Despite Mizuki being feminine in ways both Ena and Kanade aren't, there's only one character whose femininity is constantly questioned. A lot of people are willing to accept transgressions against the traditional image of a girl...but one, invisible point seems to cause a lot of dispute.

[renn720]

In the same way though that Ena and Kanade are each others foils in their gender expression, so are Mizuki and Mafuyu. Rather than lifestyle versus personality, Mizuki and Mafuyu contrast along the axis of true self and persona.

It's easy to forget since it's all we see in N25 stories, but outside of her private life, Mafuyu presents incredibly feminine. She's the good girl, the honor student, always smiling and having inoffensive positive interactions with people. While studying her mask to write her better, I learned Mafuyu praises people a lot, and seems to do it to deflect from herself. In Mafuyu's case, her persona is the bare minimum of what's acceptable to her mother. Mafuyu is coerced into femininity.

Meanwhile, Mizuki runs to it no matter how much it hurts her or how it alienates her from everybody around her and bars her from being able to get close with anyone because the trans experience is difficult to understand by outsiders. It isn't an external force coercing Mizuki, it's completely internal; that's what gender dysphoria is.

Beneath the mask, Mafuyu doesn't really have gender presentation. She doesn't know who to be or how to feel. She knows she cares for her friends, and she knows music helps her. Twilight Festival does something interesting. It interrogates whether Mafuyu really wants to help people in life or if that too was part of the mask, and it closes with a counterintuitive scene of Mafuyu with blank affect singing to a child to stop their crying. Despite femininity being an act of violence against her all her life, it still pulls at her.

Mizuki, beneath her own mask, is scared. She knows how to live alone, she learned how to not need people; people rejecting her isn't a problem if she doesn't need anything from them. This was something she learned the hard way without Rui for a year, the same year Yuuki moved away. Secret Distance and the Footsteps arc torments her because it tempts her with genuine human connection and companionship without Mizuki having to sacrifice her femininity. Mizuki's underlying self is defined by loneliness and how she reacts to the certainty that she really may be lonely forever, a certainty that nearly killed her at Mizu5. So, she's also the inverse of Mafuyu here.

[project-sekai-rambler]

i'm a little mad at both of you for stealing most of the words from my mouth on this topic /lh

i would like to add that ena might be the "bad girl" to mafuyu's "good girl," except that i think ena is pretty unapologetically herself and mafuyu's femininity is a cage built for her by her mother and society.

mizuki's femininity is also a burden but it's one she chooses over and over no matter how much it hurts. it's both who she is and a performance - the cutesy affect she puts on, how she dresses, how she interacts with her peers. she can't get angry no matter how much she's mistreated by those around her because it would just make her even less of a girl in people's eyes. mafuyu's consequence of failing to perform femininity would be being a "bad girl" but mizuki's would be her womanhood being denied altogether.

[project-sekai-rambler]

it's so interesting how colopal is intentionally leaving the system mafuyu door open as a possible interpretation for people who want to opt into it. i have a lot more thoughts on this but that requires a longer post.

[renn720]

one of my favorite things to do while reading an N25 story is to read an interaction with one of the VS as being an interaction with Mafuyu, and, honestly, it just works.

[project-sekai-rambler]

no, but like, actually. the virtual singers in empty sekai are unique compared to the ones in every other sekai in the game because they're all just explicitly the manifestation of a different part of mafuyu's psyche. i know we think of MEIKO in particular as being mizuki's VS but in mizu5 MEIKO explicitly pushes mizuki to keep holding her friends at a distance because she thinks it's the best for *mafuyu.* it's mafuyu's sekai, after all, in the end. it's very easy to go a step further and interpret empty sekai in a plural way.

[project-sekai-rambler]

it's so interesting how colopal is intentionally leaving the system mafuyu door open as a possible interpretation for people who want to opt into it. i have a lot more thoughts on this but that requires a longer post.

[project-sekai-rambler]

sorry for the silence, everyone! life has been a bit crazy and i recently started working at a fast food restaurant that's been zapping a lot of my energy. i still hope to get posts out, though, so stay tuned!

[mimikyuno]

i literally just speculated about this in this self rb of my post analyzing the mizu7 set but HEAR ME OUT! LEMME SPECULATE ON KANA7 ONE SEC!!

im now growing convinced that kana7 will be an arc ender. and if not kana7, then mafu7 BUT kanade-centric. because mizu7 set smth in motion. despite their issues, niigo having to disband was on NO ONE’S radar. and even though mizuki’s worries seem make sense (how can she work on video editing if she’s busy with school?) THEY ACTUALLY ONLY DO within the mindset that it’s kanade’s music that unites them. itms working together that makes them a friend group. when that’s not true!!! time and time again, it was their bonds who saved them. they all saved each other, in turn or together.

the thing is, it’s heavily implied that kanade churns out song after song after song at a rhythm that would be unsustainable for any healthy individual. and in fact she’s NOT healthy. at all. and niigo was able to keep with that output bc what else did they have?? mizuki was skipping school, ena had evening school, and mafuyu could only let go of her mask at night and needed that to get through the day. i dont think anyone else, save for three other mentally ill, depressed, lonely teenagers could have matched kanade’s desperate speed.

BUT THEY CAN STILL BE A GROUP!! maybe if kanade took more breaks. cherished herself more. pushed out a song once in a while and spent the rest of the time doing something else she likes. and the rest of niigo could work on those few songs, or just log in and chat bc they dont have time but they still wanna be together. and even if they dont have to celebrate a song being uploaded on youtube, they can still go to the diner and eat together.

BUT KANADE IS THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO BE THE START OF THE CHANGE, BECAUSE SHE’S THE START OF NIIGO. the beginning and the end.