Yume motif explanation: cooking
"Food that makes me belong"
愛島 セシル: 食事は文化の基本。その世界をより知ることができる要素の1つですから。
Food is important to Cecil— or, I should specify it as dishes. It's his emblem half the time: an onigiri. Cooking is a hobby he likes, discovering new foods both to eat and to cook is a recurring topic he often brings up and rejoices over, and in Live Emotion his bond story is about teaching agnapolian dishes on television. This is very meaningful to him, he says as much during the bond story but even more so it's notable how in the first visual novels, wanting to share his culture with the world was a big goal in becoming an idol too.
But again, Cecil's interest in cultures doesn't end at sharing his, he has a marked genuine interest learning others as well. Cecil tries hard on all fronts: he learns to speak japanese with strict textbook correct phrasing, and in his duet episode with Shion he practices over and over again how to bow introduce himself and greet someone. He is very serious at getting japanese customs "right" and learning in order to belong, to not fail expectations and standards, not fail others or his role so to speak, perhaps an instinct he has from being raised as crown prince with all its pressure and duties, maybe.
And Cecil enjoys it as well, outside of working hard: he marvels at festivals, at the clothes and at the food, at beliefs and customs, like the maneki neko and its luck, like his origami hobby or his love and admiration for ninjas. And of course, his quote unquote coup de coeur for onigiris.
I like onigiris for cecil a lot. Assuming that agnapolian cuisine implements rice a lot as middle eastern countries do… There's something to be said about how onigiris, being a rice meal that's different from agnapolian recipes, are like… change but wrapped in familiarity, in a way that makes him embrace the new experience. It's familiar enough for it to feel like the home of his home country, and yet also the home of his birth mother whom he still feels connection to, at once. Comfortingly familiar while still expanding his world. He has a bit of a theme about change and being set in his views, and then becoming able to embrace having his perspective challenged by new things like how he came to love being an idol when he dismissed it at first, how much he admits it made him grow, also paralleled in Shion's aversion to change and new things, and yet how they both were able to open themselves up to a wider vision…
Cecil tries very hard to belong. He has his crown prince role to fulfill, a world to save, people to guide- and then, he becomes an idol to spread his music magic and be loved by all, as a representative of what he stands for still. Overthrown and exiled as a cat, he went to his mother's home country in hopes to find direction again and seeking out his soulmate. He's said how lonely his upbringing was and how hated and dismissed he felt. He has high standards for himself and seeks to perform admirably, and he's troubled when positive attention from fans becomes equal in importance to Haruka to him in the anime, feeling like he's straying from his path and betraying the strength of his feelings for her. He learns japanese and the country's culture and customs with bated breath and wonder, and the simple act of learning new things and then to partake in them is satisfying.
And so to me… It makes sense. That cooking would have that undertone to it- that he's not only learning a new local recipe but also making it himself- becoming part of it, of that world. Of making a spot for himself, by successfully abiding by the recipe and guide and making proof of his 'successfully' partaking in culture and then consuming it. A feeling of pride and "earning his stripes". Look, look how much I've learned, look how well I can do this, look how much I love this dish. Look how much this food means to me.
His quote from his new Live Emotion Never Again Neverland card, at the beginning of the post, lowkey confirms verbally that through learning about its food Cecil seeks to understand Japan deeper. He's aware of how big of a deal food is and conscious of it enough to confidently say this when pixie cuisine is brought up lol oh my god. Like oh my god.
Stare at that quote and then please think about how the one saying it is Mister Onigiri Stan and trying to keep in touch with his culture from his missing mother's side, and then try not to get emo challenge.
And so, "making food that makes us belong", cooking to find belonging, to carve yourself a spot in a place you start out as a misfit in, is a theme and parallel in my yume. Metaphor metaphor building a relationship mindfully tigether, learning lots of new recipes and new things together, cementing through a food theme that change can be good… Bow bow tyvm
