barely coherent rant about 10dance and it's obsession with storytelling through clothes.
right off the bat you are slapped in the face with these two scenes, cementing early on the overall personality of the shinyas. where sugiki is suffocating himself and his partner behind their perfect facade, suzuki is perfectly at home in an unbuttoned shirt (you're going to see lots of those, btw).
during their first 'interaction', suzuki is the one initially wearing a turtleneck. and this is about the only time you see him wearing one during a performance, perhaps indicative of his unwillingness to give his all while dancing, hence why he has that specific outfit on as he denies sugiki's request at first as well. but then, once he changes into his usual outfit, he agrees to walk toe to toe with sugiki. we see that sugiki is now the one sporting a turtleneck, and in my opinion it indicates that though sugiki approached suzuki, he's still very much on guard and eager to use this relationship for professional gain only. not to mention, suzuki explicitly asks whether sugiki will run away without fully investing in their deal.
sugiki hardly changes his practice attire. always the same suffocating prim & proper clothes. suzuki, though? changes quick as lightning. take this for example :
he starts off with a loose buttoned up shirt as he enters this new atmosphere, which comes off entirely once he's in HIS element, and comes back on when they're back to practicing ballroom (though this time it stays unbuttoned as he eases into it).
hah, the most sugiki will let you see is an open collar apparently. also, rare suzuki in turtleneck sighting! why, you ask? because he's adamantly refusing to look at their practice through the eyes of the 'female' position. aaaand would you look at that, once he does, he's back to being half naked in the immediate next shot.
sugiki has his defences high as per usual, but suzuki is on edge too. the completely buttoned up ('neat') look in a place where he's being schooled versus the immediate change once he's in his comfort zone™. no changes in sugiki, though, unfortunately.
once again, an open outfit for suzuki as he explains how he can feel all these emotions while partnered up with sugiki, as he picks up a call from the person in question and asks him to "come back soon", in sharp contrast with sugiki's professional facade in place yet again.
okay, lots of quick and fascinating changes here. so, suzuki shows up with his classic loose shirt, switches to a more covered but still somewhat open one, switches AGAIN to a turtleneck while he's quite literally frowning at their interlocked hands (a denial of feelings?), and then he's back to a mostly open top as he and sugiki have a serious conversation. sugiki, once again, stays in his same old outfit.
and just as i say that sugiki hits me with the open collar while they....do whatever bizzare intimate dancing ritual they're upto this time. the open collar that, in the next scene, is back to usual when he dances with aki. suzuki, interestingly enough, has a turtleneck in both scenes. more denial? jealousy? much to consider. he goes back to the usual though, once he messes up again, but is open to actually asking aki how he can improve this time.
a jacket that's partially zipped up as suzuki sort of reluctantly goes over to sugiki, who's our 'quick changer' of the night. he starts off with that scarf (?) wrapped quite securely around him, which he then sheds as he divulges what he did to fusako, and then he's wearing it again, except this time it's not as tightly wrapped because he's putting some small amount of trust in suzuki by asking him not to mention this incident again. but it's so lame, and once that hits him, what does he do? he throws it away. he sheds his fucking armor before he kisses suzuki. before he tells suzuki that he's always admired him.
welp. we're back at it again.
suzuki has not only ditched the turtleneck in his performance, his outfit is deliberately MORE exposed. not to mention similar enough that it gives sugiki flashbacks to the first time he saw suzuki, that same 'spark', so to speak. sugiki's wearing the expected turtleneck in the flashback but once he sees suzuki, he pulls at it. his facade is, quite literally, choking him. killing him.
this time it's really done for. suzuki laid himself bare in front of sugiki, and it was not returned. here's what i love most though :
he doesn't hide. he doesn't stuff it back inside. the clothes stay loose. this is the difference, i think, that is highlighted beautifully. the point of this post, if you will. sugiki never FULLY opens up. even when he sheds those turtlenecks or scarves he still has his uptight formal clothes as a shield. on the opposite end, once suzuki is over denying things, he will never pick that shield up again. he'll stay vulnerable, and there's so much strength in that.
this difference is also the reason why the final scene hits so hard for me, because we don't see sugiki talk to suzuki beforehand. he meets him as the 'facade', straight on the battleground, and he forces his own perfect image to bend to his own will. he's still sugiki, still competitive, but he can't fully go back to how he was before. not anymore.
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