i have a fun little headcanon that sasuke really liked tokusatsus growing up and maybe even western superhero comics too since i like to think he knows japanese and english (‘cause i swear there’s been more than one instance where he spoke english outside of a cd and with even his actor in the stage play speaking a bit of english too).
i imagine his admiration for the sengoku warlords stemming from him equating them to the heroes he’d watch on tv or read about. the way sasuke looks up to/glazes the likes of ieyasu and like every other warlord very much reminds me of myself when it comes to characters like superman and nightwing in particular. ieyasu literally revolutionized all of japan out of the warring states era, i don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that he could be called a hero knowing that much at least.
(plus this line screams superhero dork i’m sorry)
he’s also just so flashy in a way that just gives me campy silver age dc comics to me and my best explanation i can think of as to why is because that he takes himself so seriously when he’s such a dweeb.
(this line does too, even if he’s talking about ninjas, c’mon)
i think it’s so cute how he tries to be humble but you know he genuinely thinks he’s so cool because he’s actually become his own image of cool.
saizo going into an open battlefield wearing nothing but a crop top, a single shoulder guard, a useless nipple guard and 3 belts JUST to hold up his pants
yoshimoto during kenshin’s route bc where tf was he
alsoalso genuine question. is yoshimoto ANYONE’S fav?? he was kinda meh in mitsuhide’s act 1 and from the reviews i’ve read on his own route it’s also kinda maybe meh? he never really caught my interest but i think he’s neat.
i mean, i know the polls’ll definitely say kennyo’s the least popular but ive seen way more kennyo stuff on tumblr without looking for it and,, nothing for yoshimoto? are there even fics for brochacho?
i also think he ideally would really connect well with mai and i really liked how they did in sasuke’s route, even if it was brief.
something i will say i love a lot of kicho’s route is how it fleshed out mai in a way i feel like i’ve yet to see in any other route i’ve done so far. she actually went through a little arc that isn’t necessarily tied to her relationship with her suitor, even if that arc came to be because of him. just learning exactly why mai actually likes sewing (to be thought of and missed by someone through something she made) and growing past that mindset that she needs to give anything to be enough was so fascinating and i’m 100% down to see more of that in eien if cybird decides to take that route with one of the suitors. i know that fleshing out what’s supposed to be a self-insert character kind of defeats the purpose of one, but the concept of a universal self-insert or y/n is literally impossible to write. i know not a lot of people can’t entirely relate that much to mai in when it comes to some of the decisions and reactions she makes, and i personally see mai as an actual character most of the time, which is why i call her mai and not mc. i think mai in hideyoshi and motonari’s route was the only instance that i could actually see my own self-insert in what’s supposed to be the self-insert. this isn’t really the fault of ikesen by any means, that’s just how self-insert characters who get given dialogue and thoughts that you can’t pick work.
ANYWAY, i kinda went off the rails there but what i’m trying to say is that yoshimoto x mai could be very cool. i feel like it wouldn’t be that far-fetched to believe that yoshimoto could’ve been the one to make mai reflect on why she loves sewing instead of kicho. not that it doesn’t work for kicho, but given that yoshimoto actually has a mutual interest in fashion, it could’ve gone harder.
maybe this actually happened in his route tho idk i don’t plan on doing it 😓
i think it’s neat how hideyoshi and kenshin parallel and contrast one another in some ways.
they both have attachment issues stemming from a kind of loss they faced in their youth (the death of a loved one for kenshin and the loss of family and really any bonds for hideyoshi when living life as a nomad) that makes them downright obsessive, clingy and overprotective to overbearing at times towards those they care about. they simply go about it in different ways. not the nicest way i could’ve worded it but i swear i adore them both, hideyoshi’s my #3.
besides that obvious comparison, i also found it interesting how in both of their dramatic routes kenshin and hideyoshi have a ‘eyes clouded to the point mai couldn’t recognize him anymore as someone i knew’ moment as a result of the fear of the person they hold dear the most being dead. like they literally use that exact kind of wording in both instances.
also when i started kenshin’s route (i did hideyoshi’s prior), i found myself noting how hideyoshi makes it apparent that he doesn’t like mai apologizing to him and insists that she thanks him instead in the beginning of his route while kenshin makes it apparent that he isn’t a fan of her thanking him at all (as well as apologizing, but y’know).
oh yeah and they both also don’t value their own lives in the slightest until mai pushes them to make more of an active effort to not get themselves killed.
i think the most important connection between them though is how they both have fur as a motif to their designs. so cute :3
i know people have already talked a lot about how cybird kinda fumbled with kicho (even if he did make me kick my feet several times), but i genuinely feel like he could’ve turned out better if the narrative actually didn’t try to paint out his reasoning behind trying to make the warring states last forever as something any reasonable person would think that not even mai could really refute the inherent holes in his backstory when he was 500 years in the future.
i loved the downright creepy vibes he gave me in motonari’s route. pairing that with his genuinely ignorant reasoning behind betraying nobunaga, if the ikesen writers actually, like, locked in, he could’ve been such the well meaning but delused freakster he seems to be in motonari’s route that hasn’t properly processed and grieved his sister’s death (which kicho’s route did note as a contribution to his way of logic).
all i’m say is that if they were going to commit to kicho’s raison d’être then they should’ve done the exact opposite of rationalizing it. i feel like kicho should not have been as much green of a flag as he was portrayed to be.
also i’m still kinda disappointed on how little nobunaga was around in kicho’s romantic route (haven’t read his dramatic) when he’s literally such a significant character to his story and it’s been made clear to me at least how much they meant to one another. if he does get a sequel (if any of the act 2 guys do. i imagine they will? i hope? idk) i hope it’s there that they explore those two more. i’m very shameless about nobukicho.
i always thought kennyo was so underrated before i did his route and i really hate to say that. not that i don’t think he’s still underrated now, but kennyo is honestly the Potential Man in all of ikesen. an awful thing keeps happening to me where i read a route of a character i liked and then i feel less for them afterward. i love kennyo, really, and his route was sweet. but i feel like, and this may just be me and i’m stupid, what made him abandoned vengeance wasn’t strong enough…? i read his dramatic route hoping for dinner and got a snack. idk how to word this, but i feel like it wasn’t that well delved into or anything as to why kennyo stopped? if he didn’t want the person he loves to get hurt by his revenge in turn (either from them literally almost dying as in canon or being heartbroken when he’s dead), why does that not apply to ranmaru? i don’t understand what makes mai so unique from someone who he’s known since he was a boy. i love kennyo and ranmaru’s relationship so i really do wish we’d gotten to see more of it. idk i think it would’ve hit different if it was ranmaru or shingen. plus, like, mai never really gave an argument that convinced kennyo to change his path.
i’m used to my vengeful angsty tsunderes taking over 500 episodes to cease the path of revenge. but the point of kennyo was that he hadn’t completely lost his heart in his pursuit for revenge. spoilers for naruto ig but sasuke descended because no one in the village could or tried to understand him. i feel like shingen and ranmaru were those people that could, however (because i’m also shameless about shingen x kennyo). i don’t think kennyo’s character progression sucked necessarily, but i personally found it underwhelming and didn’t really have enough time to play out messier than it was. i wish mai changed kennyo the way she did motonari. i don’t think there was really any argument on morality made in kennyo’s route, and my vague idea of what mai’s argument to kennyo could’ve been basically boils down to this post, especially because it ties so well to him having once been a monk who did just that and still does (even if he’s a tsundere about it):
i honestly didn’t think i’d find as much fantasy/magical hcs and ocs for ikesen as i have but i get why. ikesen could’ve easily delved into magic since that wormhole might as well be, even if it’s explained away by science. if only ikemen genjiden got officially translated. cybird made an elite miss with that
