But no, it's actually hilarious to imagine the Furin boys went to Bankoku-gai, then left Bankoku-gai, only to return to Bankoku-gai with passes and a disguise... all this while they've already put themselves on blast and Rakta knows they're coming.
I feel like I owe the Shishitoren arc an apology for my first impressions of S1 being a little underwhelming (was an anime-only then and went in blind, and was surprised they only covered one rival team for an entire season). Now that we're knee deep in Suo's arc, it suddenly feels like everything in the first arc is a blueprint for what's to come and will circle back to the very beginning when Sakura was still finding himself and searching for connection (and after Suo broke his trust, it did feel like Sakura's progress had indeed been forcefully reset and he's knocked back to square one again).
Characters failing to face each other properly, even throwaway lines from the rival gang made me give pause; like how Shishitorien's "forsaken justice" in its pursuit and worship of power (So if my hunch that Red Chanpuru "champions justice", what is it they have forsaken?) And Suo being made to fight a "grown-up" pretending to be a child when he is a child pretending to be a grown-up, and what could this say about his empathy... or lack of?
But most importantly, I'm reminded that Sakura did already see right through Suo from the very start.
At this point, S1 is not just a required rewatch; it feels like I am finally watching it properly and there's a lot more to think about now.
And now for something a little bit different.
I don't think I've seen this mentioned anywhere yet, but what if I told you that the location and setting of the Bankoku-gai, its people and history are a nod to real-world Yokohama and Kasai? It's one of those things that seems ridiculously obvious now, but it was something that went completely over my head, so I feel somewhat compelled to share the tl;dr of how I got here (feel free to skip the next few paragraphs if you just want me to get to the point.)
When Bankoku-gai was first introduced, I was quite convinced that it might have something to do with Kowloon Walled City. I mean, KWC had plenty of things that matched how Bankoku-gai was presented: An enclave within a "cosmopolitan city", a Chinese population, poverty, triad/gang affiliations, the formation of a tight-knit community where ordinary people called home. (<- Although no longer relevant to this discussion as I've since debunked myself, I'd still highly recommend giving this short documentary a watch!)
But while seeking "bias confirmation", there were things that just weren't adding up for me: 1) the architecture of the Bankoku-gai did not resemble the KWC; 2) KWC did not feel nearly as diverse in ethnicities as the Bankoku-gai, and 3) the Chinese populace in Bankoku-gai spoke Mandarin, which would not match the natives of Hong Kong where Cantonese is the Lingua Franca.
How do I know it's Mandarin? Because the written dialogue was presented in simplified Chinese rather than traditional Chinese (which Cantonese uses). Most tellingly, Hayato [隼飛] was indicated as [Sun Fei] or [スンフェイ] in furigana, something that is quintessentially Mandarin. In Cantonese, his name would have been [Seon Fei] or [せエオンフェイ ].
In other words: simplified Chinese characters + Mandarin pronunciation = the Chinese residents of Bankoku-gai had to be migrants who came from China.
Since these characteristics of the Bankoku-gai felt specific and intentional, I was forced to abandon my first assumption and undo the mental gymnastics that had kept me from the simplest possible explanation - that perhaps the Bankoku-gai drew its inspiration from a location much closer to home... y'know, like Japan. And the minute my blind spot is lifted there was really only one place I could think of ... not Okinawa (don't worry I'll get to you Chanpuru campaigners in a bit), but Yokohama! More specifically, Yokohama CHINATOWN, and... you know what. I really did miss the forest for the trees because...
LOOK AT IT.
I really should have known. Truly blindsided by my own hubris. But sure enough, the more I look into Yokohama, the more similarities to Bankoku-gai come to mind:
Like Bankoku-gai, Yokohama is known as a "Cosmopolitan City".
Their "Chinatown" enclave consists mainly of migrants from China.
Minority ethnicities presenting (specifically in the manga, Vietnamese, Korean and Indian - more on Indian in a bit!).
A "Little Okinawa" enclave exists in Yokohama! Speculation, but the Chanpuru reference might have been a nod to this!
Yokohama is a "Port City" as well and has history trading with the western world, which not just explains the diverse ethnicities but also explains Bacchus.
Yokohama had seen its fair share of gangs and turf wars, though funnily enough, not much detail can be dug up on the Chinese gangs that existed there nor its specifics (WHY THO #anotherdayanotherconspiracy). It IS worth noting that the first thing that pings on the internet about them comes from a Yakuza game (so BUCKET of salt - but their Yokohama Chinese gang is referred to as the "Héngbāng liúmáng", so that makes it two for two in suggesting that Mandarin is the main language spoken by the Chinese migrants who settle in Yokohama, hmm!)
And that brings us to Kasai, which, did you know, is a "Little India" enclave! It also matches its "river island" (中洲) description as a coastal/seaside town. I get the funny feeling that some fans may have misinterpreted "river island" to mean an actual island to mean it = Okinawa. But if you think about it logically, there's really no way.*
But do you see where I'm going with this. Do you see how I see that the irl locations used for inspiration are places where enclaves of minority communities in Japan call home and what this is trying to say about Suo's arc?
Which is where at this point, I stumbled upon what could potentially be the biggest spoiler for Suo's arc and decided to end my train of thought, because there's now bigger Chanpuru to stir-fry. :D
And so I yield my time.
*P.s: There's really no way for it to be Okinawa if locations are based on irl, because far as the logistics of Suo traveling between Makochi and Bankoku-gai go, it's simply impossible to access Okinawa via land. Even a flight from Tokyo to Okinawa would take about 4 hours, not two. But I also found out that it only takes 1.5 hours (correction: 25-45 minutes!) from Tokyo to Yokohama, and so begs a new question - what if Makochi isn't a fictional town set in default Tokyo as one would assume? You know where it roughly takes 2 hours to travel from Yokohama tho (or 1hr 48 mins, but aye close enough!) Kawagoe, Saitama! But that's another speculation for another day!
p.p.s: All this just to say, Suo would have more points of affiliation with Port Mafia (BSD) than he would with the SK8 gang. Source? Trust me, bro.
Mad coincidence that Endo has the DNA of Durarara!!!'s Shizuo and Izaya all over it (crazy strength X scheming information broker), and he and Chika are voiced by the two same seiyuu of the original notorious duo.
I can't get over Suo's "Chibi-fied" eye/expression when he was justifying to Nirei about busting into Sakura's home, because he was absolutely being so unserious about it. Suo has got his normal-expression eyes but we got this beady version instead.
i still can't get over minato's appearence, i rabu him so much, minato u the best, i love you, please don't dye again, waaah
the manga was one thing but waching you in the anime is like a thousand time better bc u sO CUTE REALLY IDK WHAT TO DO WITH MY FEELINGS FOR YOU I THINK THEY ARE EVEN STRONGER THAN MY FEELINGS FOR NARU--
wait... now i remember that you tried to say sakura-bitch was naruto's gf and that's... i'll forgive you just bc you are yOU AND I RABU YOU.
