guys i think my style in inconsistent. like wtf. that is definitely not my style??? but i think it's lowkey cute for a quick doodle. (i'm so obsessed with him)
I don't mean sexualizing us or watching trans porn.
I don't mean treating trans mascs like "uwu soft baby boy" and trans femmes as "yass queen girl boss".
I don't mean expecting praise for using the right pronouns and using incorrect ones when "they're a bad trans person".
I mean ACTUAL SUPPORT.
Donate to trans shelters or organizations. DON'T out us to people we aren't out to. Go to protests if you're able, FIGHT ALONGSIDE US. Don't bring us around people you know are transphobic or dangerous, the list goes on. The LGBTQ community is ALL of us not just some of us.
Trans people who are documented as trans on government documents are currently not able to get passports - whether or not they accept their passport being issued as their birth sex, any indication that you're trans on a document that can be accessed by the government is being used as reason to deny a passport.
This is incredibly alarming. Even agreeing to be labeled as your birth sex is not sufficient. They want to deny trans people the ability to leave the country. Any possible reason for this is horrifying.
We need to rally now. Protect the entire community, do not allow them to throw any of us under the bus. None of us will be spared, they're just coming for the most vulnerable people first, and soon enough the most vulnerable people will be YOU.
BSD Stormbringer Manga Ch. 1: Chuuya as a "Dark Gem"
AKA: I got around to reading the first chapter of the Stormbringer manga and I Have Thoughts!
A decent chunk of this first chapter is taken up by the gem trade being explained in-depth, which seems a bit... excessive. Even the translator noted as much in the version I read:
It begs the question of why they spent so much time on this. At least part of the reason is to give the reader an idea of what Chuuya's current role in the Port Mafia entails, providing some necessary context (since timeline-wise the last we saw of him was in 15 and it's now roughly a year later). But I also think it's an extended metaphor for Chuuya as a person (spoilers for the rest of stormbringer ahead).
The part that really jumped out to me was this sequence of panels:
The first two talk about "dark" gems and how they cannot enter the world of light, which is VERY reminiscent of Kouyou's rhetoric when talking about Kyouka (and herself, as she's projecting her trauma onto Kyouka):
The third panel from SB also interests me as it claims that these gems are given a second chance, specifically through how the Port Mafia has reshaped them.
In 15, Mori says that only a diamond can polish another diamond, in reference to soukoku -- so I don't really think it's a large leap to make here that the "dark" gems here are a stand-in for Chuuya himself.
If you consider the connection to Kouyou's rhetoric, that follows because Chuuya is under her tutelage at this point in time, she's the one who oversees his work when he joins the PM and arguably one of the people he's closest to in the organization. There's a decent chance that she's told him similar things that she told Kyouka -- that they belong to the world of darkness and cannot be brought into the light.
This is further supported by the fact that one of the central focuses of Stormbringer is Chuuya's past. He has a "dark" past on multiple levels. The obvious being that he was kidnapped and experimented on to become a vessel for Arahabaki, his past is dark because its horrible. But also he doesn't remember his past at this point, so it's dark because it's literally shrouded in his memory -- his "origins unknown" to him.
And so, Chuuya is a dark gem (a black diamond, perhaps) that has been taken in by the Port Mafia. In doing so, he is no longer the street kid he used to be, scrounging to survive with his ragtag gang. Instead, he's been reshaped -- he wears suits now, he's a 16 y/o in charge of the gem trade -- he's been "given a second chance."
So yeah, basically my interpretation of this is that the allusions to Chuuya's dark past are a kind of foreshadowing for not only what came before, but also what's to come throughout the course of Stormbringer. This story is very focused on the intermingling of past and present, as well as issues of identity and how it is shaped -- is Chuuya a human with free will, or can his existence be chalked up to being lines of code? What bearing does the past have on the present? This is all subtle set-up for these emerging themes.
PS: I don't have any in-depth analysis for this, but the imagery referencing Chuuya's time being experimented on and the clone is QUITE heavy-handed here at the beginning. I'm loving all the intentionality behind the art so far!
I don't remember the exact quote and I'm too lazy to check, but it's something along the lines of "a necklace becomes a bracelet, a bracelet becomes an earrings and an earring becomes a ring". The jewelry gets reshaped over and over again until it becomes "fit" for its new world.
And so is Chuuya. From a "necklace" (Sheep's King) he becomes a "bracelet" (the Jewelry King) and from a "bracelet" he becomes an "earring" (finally actually part of the Port Mafia, now considering them family) and then he finally becomes a "ring" (an Executive). He gets reshaped or evolves, if you may, to fit to the dark world of the Port Mafia. Just like Kouyou was able to shine in the dark world only after she decided that "flowers that bloom in the dark can only survive in the dark".
And the mafia is the one according this "jewelry" a new "chance in life", only after taking the previous one again. The jewelry they were reshaping and reselling was stolen. Similarly, before Chuuya could become what the mafia needed, they "stole" him from his previous "owner", the Sheep.
And the one who "stole" him was Dazai, interestingly enough the one whose job Chuuya took once he joined. "Only a diamond can polish another diamond." Dazai took Chuuya and transformed him into what was needed in the mafia at the time. And while I may not be a skk shipper, I do think that maybe this is also what Chuuya needed. To be reshaped in order to "fit" better in his own life.
Anyway, I'm probably overthinking it. And it's 3 am and I'm high so whatever
I think you make a great point here! And yes, you were accurate with the ordering of the pieces of jewelry:
If you really want to get overanalytical with it, you can even assign meanings to the type of jewelry listed and your associations.
If Chuuya is a necklace with the sheep, he's a big flashy statement piece, a symbol of their "wealth" (metaphorically speaking." But a necklace is also a sort of collar around the neck, because Chuuya's a little trapped in that position, bringing the whole "outfit" together.
So if he's refashioned into a bracelet when Dazai brings him into the PM, then his wrists are tied. This encapsulates the Stormbringer era where he feels similarly trapped by Mori's watchful eye and Dazai's general shitty attitude, and his rebellion against that is trying to find out his past, trying to free himself from the chains that bind him.
After this, though, he's loyal to the PM. He earns his place, and becomes the earrings. Earrings are often elegant, sometimes hidden behind hair, an accessory that doesn't make the outfit, but always enhances it. He's in the ear of the PM at this point, willing to perhaps feed secrets and information to Mori, having proven his dogged loyalty. Note here that he's also part of a pair (soukoku). You can't really wear one earring without the other.
And then as an executive, he's a ring. He's a statement similar to the necklace, but in this instance it's not being used to bring together what might otherwise be considered a shabby outfit, he's a symbol of power and wealth, worn on the manipulating fingers of the PM. He's also not necessarily dependent on being part of a pair anymore, as Dazai has left and they've kind of outgrown that dependence on one another anyway. He's also not constrained anymore, he's got a certain amount of status that allows him certain freedoms.
And yes, I agree that Dazai is the one who "stole" Chuuya, and he is definitely one of the primary people who help "refashion" him in his early years (along with Mori and Kouyou). I mean, again, they are a matching pair for a time. I want to add to your point that this really has nothing to soukoku as a "ship." While I do identify as a skk shipper, the vast majority of the time when I analyze them in the context of BSD and Asagiri's writing, it's with the knowledge and assumption that they are not intended to be a romantic pair. I think thoughtful analysis can be made about the importance of their relationship regardless of personal interpretation of the platonic/romantic nature of it.
Anyway, all this to say I respect your high 3am thoughts asagirisfavpen, and sometimes overanalysis is fun :)
Something a little different today!! This scene is from The Road Not Taken by TopHat69, an ADA!skk AU. This is adapted directly from chapter 3, although I've cut down some things for time (and my sanity)
Necessary context: on their first day at the ADA, Dazai and Chuuya are split between Kunikida and Ranpo. Chuuya accompanies Ranpo to Kyushu, and Ranpo says some things that imply he knows a bit too much about Chuuya's past, which should have been erased along Dazai's. Chuuya, on edge, decides to confront Ranpo that evening in their Kyushu hotel room.
(continued under the cut ↓)
If you noticed, that Chuuya design is the one I posted a little while ago! It was made specifically for this comic because I needed to share this concept so bad. Ranpo deducing Chuuya's entire story from having known Murase, a Yokohama detective who was very involved with Chuuya's "early" life, was so simply clever it blew my mind. And now you can appreciate it too!!!
Once again, this is directly from chapter 3 of The Road Not Taken by TopHat69! Rated E, and/but, if you'd like to read this specific chapter on its own, it is totally safe.
BSD Stormbringer Manga Ch. 1: Chuuya as a "Dark Gem"
AKA: I got around to reading the first chapter of the Stormbringer manga and I Have Thoughts!
A decent chunk of this first chapter is taken up by the gem trade being explained in-depth, which seems a bit... excessive. Even the translator noted as much in the version I read:
It begs the question of why they spent so much time on this. At least part of the reason is to give the reader an idea of what Chuuya's current role in the Port Mafia entails, providing some necessary context (since timeline-wise the last we saw of him was in 15 and it's now roughly a year later). But I also think it's an extended metaphor for Chuuya as a person (spoilers for the rest of stormbringer ahead).
The part that really jumped out to me was this sequence of panels:
The first two talk about "dark" gems and how they cannot enter the world of light, which is VERY reminiscent of Kouyou's rhetoric when talking about Kyouka (and herself, as she's projecting her trauma onto Kyouka):
The third panel from SB also interests me as it claims that these gems are given a second chance, specifically through how the Port Mafia has reshaped them.
In 15, Mori says that only a diamond can polish another diamond, in reference to soukoku -- so I don't really think it's a large leap to make here that the "dark" gems here are a stand-in for Chuuya himself.
If you consider the connection to Kouyou's rhetoric, that follows because Chuuya is under her tutelage at this point in time, she's the one who oversees his work when he joins the PM and arguably one of the people he's closest to in the organization. There's a decent chance that she's told him similar things that she told Kyouka -- that they belong to the world of darkness and cannot be brought into the light.
This is further supported by the fact that one of the central focuses of Stormbringer is Chuuya's past. He has a "dark" past on multiple levels. The obvious being that he was kidnapped and experimented on to become a vessel for Arahabaki, his past is dark because its horrible. But also he doesn't remember his past at this point, so it's dark because it's literally shrouded in his memory -- his "origins unknown" to him.
And so, Chuuya is a dark gem (a black diamond, perhaps) that has been taken in by the Port Mafia. In doing so, he is no longer the street kid he used to be, scrounging to survive with his ragtag gang. Instead, he's been reshaped -- he wears suits now, he's a 16 y/o in charge of the gem trade -- he's been "given a second chance."
So yeah, basically my interpretation of this is that the allusions to Chuuya's dark past are a kind of foreshadowing for not only what came before, but also what's to come throughout the course of Stormbringer. This story is very focused on the intermingling of past and present, as well as issues of identity and how it is shaped -- is Chuuya a human with free will, or can his existence be chalked up to being lines of code? What bearing does the past have on the present? This is all subtle set-up for these emerging themes.
PS: I don't have any in-depth analysis for this, but the imagery referencing Chuuya's time being experimented on and the clone is QUITE heavy-handed here at the beginning. I'm loving all the intentionality behind the art so far!
Character Study: Chuuya Nakahara's Stubborn Refusal to Give Up
Guys its time for me to get back on my little soapbox... and of course it's gotta be Chuuya that I talk abt after being basically inactive in the BSD fandom since the summer.
I haven't read any of it yet, but I'm aware that a Stormbringer manga is currently releasing chapters, and as such, I felt it appropriate to share my thoughts on Chuuya and the story that takes place in the LN, which was one of the major things that made me fall in love both with BSD and Chuuya as a character. So, needless to say, Stormbringer spoilers ahead!!
I will also preface this by saying that I originally read Stormbringer in April of 2022, so it's been a hot minute! If I get things wrong or leave something important out, please let me know!
Put simply, Stormbringer is Chuuya's personal hell. The people he cares most about gets murdered by this guy claiming to be his brother, his entire identity is brought into question by said guy, he's losing control of his ability (which I'll remind you was what he previously centered his identity around when with the Sheep), and all the while Dazai is being Dazai (AKA really annoying).
And Chuuya is only sixteen years old.
Speaking of Dazai, can we marvel for a second that Chuuya hasn't turned out more like him? Given everything we know about his backstory, it would make perfect sense if Chuuya were cynical in the way that led him down a path of self-destruction. And I'm not saying that he's not above such tendencies, but he's not actively suicidal in the way Dazai is. In fact, he resents Dazai's outlook on things and actively tries to differentiate himself, even if deep-down, he knows there's a part of him that might be a bit... depressed.
I'll bring up here the scene in SB where he hallucinates Dazai teasing him whilst being tortured -- Dazai, in a sense, reflects Chuuya's inner thoughts at that point. Internally, he harbors the insecurity that he and Dazai are similar (inhuman), which he cannot allow himself to truly entertain. But he feels it sometimes, that hopelessness, that depression. Chuuya is certainly a cynic, a kid who has seen the worst of the world, but the main difference between him and Dazai is that he refuses to give in, and that's actually a pretty big difference.
(I will note here that I'm primarily using the description of Dazai as he existed in the Port Mafia. In the present day, things are quite different, as that version Dazai is characterized by his choice at least try to live, if not only to fulfill his promise to Oda. Yet, even in the present, he still regularly attempts to kill himself, so he's not fully on the "continue living in spite of it all" bandwagon, but rather, he's kinda tied to the back of it being, dragged in the dirt, even though he could untie the knot at any moment and plunge into oblivion. (Sorry got carried away with that metaphor.))
But back to Chuuya! As previously stated, he quite frankly has every reason to just not care -- about the people around him, about Yokohama, even about the world -- and yet, he does care, and very deeply, even if he's not always overt about it.
After the Sheep betray him, he effectively has nobody. Rather than join the PM, he could've gone off to die in a ditch, and no one would have really cared all that much. And even when he joins the PM he asked them to protect the Sheep when he could have easily left them to their own devices. He cares about them, even when all logic says he really shouldn't, and there's really something rebellious about that. I will say that this example is the most wishy-washy, as Chuuya was very much manipulated by Dazai and Mori into joining the PM, to the point where he basically had no choice.
But that informs a lot of his decisions in SB, as the story basically kicks off with him acting outside of Mori's jurisdiction. He knows that he shouldn't be looking into his past, and that Mori wouldn't be happy with his attempts to do so. But he's determined to not let the system get the best of him. Despite the odds, he finds a group of friends (arguably, a family) who are willing to help him with this and is determined to go forward with it. He's not really loyal to the PM at this time, either, acting on his own despite the danger.
And yeah, it was dangerous, because then the Flags all die. Even then, he doesn't give up, though. He's tempted by Verlaine on multiple occassions to basically forfeit his reason for being, accept that he's lines of code and not actually a human being. It's enticing, and Chuuya certainly entertains the idea, because wouldn't it just be so easy to just give into futility? If he's not a person, then why have qualms about morality? People? Life? He could become an unstoppable storm, destroy everything in his path, not care.
But that he refuses to do, as well. Even when given the ultimatum by Dazai to find out for sure if he's human or try to stop Verlaine from destroying Yokohama, he confidently chooses the latter. He realizes that the circumstances of his existence don't matter, and what does matter is what he does with this life he's been given. So he chooses to fight.
And he chooses to fight over and over again, even (and especially) when things are at their worst. Things will never be easy for Chuuya -- very often he and others he cares about are put in danger -- but what makes him Chuuya is that he will always push back against the forces that be, even if it means risking his life or partnering up with his god-awful ex-partner. To him, it is better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all.
And here is where I'll bring up my favorite way of analyzing BSD: absurdism!
Everything I've described about Chuuya fits the absurdist philosophy, which this post provides a more in-depth description of. The long and short of it is that 1) life has no inherent meaning but 2) we must not give in, but instead revolt against absurdity. It is Chuuya's stubborn refusal to give in (whether thru suicide or becoming part of the system) that characterizes him as an absurdist to me.
Anyways, that's what I've got! I think I need to re-read Stormbringer (or keep up with the manga as it releases) because writing this made me realize that I really don't remember it as much as I thought.
Also, please respond with your own thoughts and ideas! I always want my posts to be a space for discussion, as I love engaging in conversation about this type of thing!
Also I have no clue what’s been going on in the manga since like. The summer. Like there was the Fyodor reveal and Kunikida “death” but I kinda tuned out after that. Anyone feel like filling me in?
hi! this isn’t about skk (sorry!) i was just curious what you are studying in college and if you are enjoying it?💕
Hi!! There’s no need to apologize! I haven’t posted about BSD in a while anyway lol, and partially because of how busy school has been keeping me. I’m currently studying English and communications and I’m actually planning on pursuing a masters degree in English literature once I graduate in the spring. I am enjoying my studies so far but feel as if there’s so much more to learn, hence my plans for graduate study. Thanks for asking :)
Okay really. As someone who is descended from people who survived a two sided massacre that did not equal genocide, this is not two sided. There is a huge difference. 75 years of genocide and exile and occupation and expansion of occupation is not two sided. Look back in history and tell me if you think retaliatory violence never existed in say, the American slavery era, Native American genocide, the holocaust, the Armenian genocide. And NO I don’t think this kind of violence is GOOD in fact all civilian death is terrible but it is definitely the fault of the oppressor and occupier and most people would not be able to deny that in the case of my 4 examples, how do you suddenly have selective memory and alignment when it comes to this genocide. Good god get a grip
People claiming it’s not okay to criticize israel around october 6th/7th because it’s a sensitive time (you sound like people who consider 9/11 a borderline sacred holiday btw) for Palestinians that is every day. You understand that right. Not only did october 7th ruin many of THEIR lives as well every single day is a day they lose hundreds of lives. Every single day they are hit with terror attacks from the idf. Every day is their occupation. They don’t even get an anniversary or a day or minute of mourning or acknowledgement
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