According to Harukawa, she suggested a representative color for each character before the anime production began, so only characters in s1+2 are included, sources under cut
*the exact shade wasn't mentioned so this is a rough reference
This is translated from official Chinese translation, you can find raw and another translation in @/nyarmand's post
also i base some colors from this merch, i'm not sure how accurate the shade is but it matches the colors so i use it lol
So imagine you're like an IT guy doing your job and this job happens to be betrayal but then you become friends with your manager who is like 3 years younger than you and suicidal and also a janitor who he's obsessed with for some reason and then because your job is betrayal you're actually working for the government and so when the government uses this company to go after another, worse company the janitor kills himself after he gets caught in the crossfire of legal disputes between the two companies and loses custody of his 5 orphans and then your manager-friend now blames you and leaves the company and joins another one and years later he calls you again and then hits you with a car and gives you very threatening flowers in the hospital and then tells you he is going to get himself arrested to be in the same place as an evil CEO from a bigger, worse company to save the company he currently works for and he is going to communicate with you via heartrate to do this. That's BSD from Ango's POV
I. Might have to source a third bsd gide bag before I even debut the second because I knew this pin would have been big but this is. Bigger than I thought
⌚ André Gide found a friend in Fukuchi. Both are soldiers who went through hell, and they understand each other. He also will be one of the most aggressive ones towards Agatha Christie when she gets into the Real World.
⌚Gide knows how to play chess. He didn't play against Fyodor or Dazai, but he will play with others.
⌚ Gide is good at learning new languages. If others allow it, he will help teens with foreign language homework.
⌚ Gide works together with Hunting Dogs as a bodyguard. He actually likes the job and even likes making reports.
⌚ Gide will be one of the last ones to start dating with you. He still has a hard time adjusting to the normal life. His dates are simple—just a homemade dinner or a movie night at home. He rarely shares his time with you (he still has a hard time connecting with others after everything he did). But, if he has to, he will share his time with you with Fukuchi.
BSD comic shitposts prompted to me by @from-hell-till-dawn, featuring Odasaku's survival plan, Kyouka's live SSKK reaction, and that good good ADA Odazai.
Mori calls the part of himself his wife — because 妻 is literally "wife". It sounds biblical, innit?
Now we need some Bibles: English, Japanese (and maybe some other languages) and in one of the original languages — Hebrew. Have fun!
The creation of woman is mentioned three times in the "Book of Genesis": in chapters one, two and five.
Chapter 1
1:26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
Chapter 2
2:22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
2:23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”
2:24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
Chapter 5
5:1 This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God.
5:2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind” when they were created.
The most interesting part is the second one.
Line 22: Eve was called "לְאִשָּׁה" or "אִשָּׁה" (idk if לְ is part of a word or participle or smth). It's Hebrew and reads from right to left. In English, Japanese and some of Russian translations it's a "woman", but in some other Russian and Ukrainian traditions it's a "wife". The word "אִשָּׁה" means:
woman;
wife;
Biblical Hebrew) a female animal.
However, I can't believe that the third meaning is always used in the Bible. In the first chapter, the word for "female" or "woman" in line 1:27 is "וּנְקֵבָה" (a form of "נְקֵבָה") instead of "אִשָּׁה".
Line 23: Here, Eve is "אִשָּׁה". In the English, Japanese, Ukrainian and some of Russian translations its a woman. However, in one Russian Bible it's again "wife", which complicates matters because, in old traditions, the word 'wife' sometimes just means 'woman'.
Line 24: This sentence isn't about Eve at all. But here we have the word which must be "wife", because it was translated this way in every version. In Hebrew it's "with his wife" ("בְּאִשְׁתּוֹ"), but this was formed from "אִשָּׁה" (Well, sort of... I really tried to understand how does it work)
Line 25: "Adam and his wife" or "man and his wife" before God told them to leave heaven. Neither "Adam and Eve" nor "man and woman". "And his wife" — "וְאִשְׁתּו" (again the form of "אִשָּׁה"). Here, in the Garden of Eden, Eve was already called "wife" in English, Japanese, Ukrainian, Russian (wtf why one of the Russian translations I read must always make it imperfect? Why? 😅😆 Here, Eve was once called "woman" instead of "wife". Why?!)
Line 25 is that I wanted to show you. In the Japanese Bible, "woman" from the lines 22 and 23 is 女 (onna) and "wife" 8n the line 25 is 妻 (tsuma). Mori called Elise 妻 in omake (yes, he laughs at Fukuzawa). Eve was named Adam's wife before they were expelled from paradise. But paradise did not imply any sexual relationship, I think, and the Bible doesn't mention romantic love directly. Platonic love, “a sense of spiritual communion”, was very much present in Eve and Adam as parts of the same whole, and in Elise and Mori. In that context, it's pretty 妻, why not.
By the way, what was originally "rib" (הַצֵּלָע) also means "side". Eve is half of what God created initially, and Adam is the other half. Elise is a part of Mori, his ability, maybe — the part of his soul. This echoes the myth of the origin of human from androgynous creatures in Analytical psychology of Carl Jung.
I like how Jung says that everyone has two components in their psyche from the outset: the "masculine" and the "feminine" parts.
The “feminine” part, the Anima, is responsible for emotions and intuition. At the moment of war, neither of these is working for Mori. He can't anticipate or sense events and possibilities as he does in Stormbringer, he shows no empathy. (His thoughts on the use of superpowers in warfare were purely logical). He has shut himself off from his feelings and refuses to allow them to influence anything; he has closed his heart. And Elise reflects the state of his Anima: she seems not to be alive.
However, as time goes on, Mori realizes that it can't go on like this. He needs his intuition to run the organization (in Stormbringer, he's already literally bragging about it to Dazai). He needs to become more than he was before. He's not at a war anymore - there's no rigid discipline here. He's slowly becoming more harmonious and integrated.
"I don’t have a useful ability like you all out there do. In that sense, I’m slightly better off than you are. All I have is the intuition to estimate how many men we need and send them to the battlefield."
— Mori in "Stormbringer"
“Geez, now I’m tired.” Mori massaged his shoulders while watching the government ferry get smaller and smaller. “I thought I was used to dealing with bureaucrats from when I was in the military, but now... All I want to do is drink some hot green tea.”
“Dear me, you were in the military, boss-dono?”
— Mori and Kouyou in "Stormbringer"
But what?! Right, Mori's a mafia boss — so what the hell are emotions? Then there's a way out: Elise is literally a part of him, so if you make it so that she's mostly in charge of the emotions, and the intuition stays with Mori, you can fuck up the system 🤔. Okay, but Mori becomes more emotional too. At least he doesn't deny his emotions — he's happy, sad, worried and so on. It's not much, but I think it's better than before. And in the anime, Elise also has a prophetic intuition - she drew headless Akutagawa before the battle with Fukuchi.
It's also interesting that the name Elise means 'God is my oath'. Name origins: French, Scandinavian and Hebrew. Elise doesn't become a human / real woman, she's like an angel from the heaven in bsd (but Fukuzawa called her fiend, hehehe)
She's still the creature from the other world — childlike and out of reach for anyone. She was like the character from 'Dancing Girl' and the real Elise were to the protagonist and the writer. Even being nearby, they were unattainable dreams. Mori is a mafia leader; he can't afford to fall in love and become vulnerable. Imagine the situation: a mafia boss has a lover who isn't a human. He doesn't worry about her safety, but he must worry twice as much about his organization because someone could pretend to be her, and exploit her position within it. The position of a person who does nothing, but is a priori above everyone and under the protection of the boss. It's dangerous. And it would be more difficult to portray little Elise and obtain information with the help of a child.
The Hebrew word "אִשָּׁה" is read as [isha]. You can hear the audio on Wiktionary: [link]. Do you know of any other words with this reading? The Japanese word for "doctor", 医者 (isha), is the same! [Listen]. It's just hilarious!
Mori made a perfect riddle with the answer "Elise is his own part, a doctor and a special ability".
Okay, it was just a theory, why would Asagiri go so far? Bible? And Hebrew?..
