you know what i'm thinking about today............ i'm thinking about how one of akito and toya's motifs is stray cats despite their original group name being BAD DOGS.
like. cats can symbolize so many things. independence. balance. freedom. white cats in particular are supposed to symbolize happiness, hope... healing. also like, luck and good fortune - which we can tie back to the way toya and akito met. it was a chance meeting; they were both lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. meeting akito set toya on that path of learning how to stand up against his father's expectations and to choose solely for himself. if they hadn't been so lucky as to meet the way they did, who knows how trapped and miserable toya would still be. how miserable they would BOTH be, actually.
and i don't believeeeee there's specific symbolism assigned to orange and white cats, BUT falling back to just basic color symbolism? orange is the color of warmth, change, determination, freedom once again, encouragement, and it's just like... a bold, happy color. which is funny considering how much of an absolute grouch akito is, but he's like his big sister in that regard. the shinonome siblings both have big hearts, and they love so, so much, but their love is fierce. it's protective. it's unapologetic and yeah. sometimes it's tough to endure. akito's character is very much about encouraging the people around him to keep reaching for the stars, to express themselves in more of a bold way, to be better than they were before. he is very much the rock of his friend group; you can always lean on him, and he'll always be there to pick you back up if you fall. and sometimes that means he is grabbing you by the scruff of your neck and forcing you back onto your feet. he is undeniably a warm person - he just runs a little hotter than you might expect.
(and i mean like if you wanted to take the color symbolism in another direction: white is like the moon [pretty neat how toya's gray and purple jacket literally says der Mond on the back, which is german for "the moon"] - orange is like the sun. you can be too distant and cold. you can be too fiery and burn yourself and everyone you love; irreparable damage. but in basically every piece of literature ever, the sun and moon are equal halves of the same part. light and dark; one cannot exist without the other. the moon is quiet in the way it loves, and the sun may be loud and bright, but it is no less tender and caring. they balance each other out. or some sappy shit like that idk :/)
and we can take all that and combine it with the general symbolism of cats, as well as tying in the bits about white cats in particular since the cat on akito's card is orange and white, and we've got two kids whose lives revolve around striving for freedom. toya is obviously like, caught in a battle of wills between his father and is struggling to be accepted for who he is and what he wants while his family sees this as a rebellious phase and expects him to return to classical music. and akito seems like the "free" one between them... but his own expectations and harsh criticisms of himself have trapped him and hold him back in a big, BIG way.
i have a whole tangent i could launch into right now about the way vivid BAD SQUAD is approaching their music and their whole thing about surpassing RAD WEEKEND and how ultimately unhealthy it is - but i'll spare you for the time being and i'll just say that if all you focus on is your shortcomings, you can't... grow. you'll always find something wrong with what you're doing, and you'll always hate part of it. at least 3/4s of being "good" at anything is just like. having faith in yourself. if you can't rely on your own abilities, then you'll always feel like you're falling short, you'll always feel self-conscious, and you'll always be subconsciously limiting yourself. and besides, pursuing anything with the sole goal of "get good at this thing and succeed" (thanks mr. shinonome for never teaching your kids how to just have fun and enjoy something for its own sake👍🏾 i bet his art is cold and unfeeling and stiff and sucks shit btw.) is a very easy way to kill your passion for it. we've already seen akito do this to himself with soccer.
but - it will be okay. it always is, at the end. they will both find their freedom. and they'll find it in each other. together they are running down the path to healing, two little kitties in the night, running side by side, free and wild, with no one to tell them what to do or who to be except themselves.
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