So how do you feel personally about Kara-is-kind-because-it's-cool-and-he's-a-narcissist vs actually super kind from da bottom of his heart cinnamon roll as a lot of people think of him? I'm so torn lol...
Rapi, this isn’t new information. I’m actually rather surprised that people are reacting badly to this and saying “he’s a faker!” I’m going to assume that these people think it’s because “Karamatsu can do no wrong.”
Let me explain why this information correlates already to what we know about Karamatsu.
Reflecting on Karamatsu’s personality for a bit: He puts on airs on the surface, but he will cry easily. He cares about the image that he gives to other people, but is self-absorbed enough that he thinks people (girls especially) ought to be throwing themselves at his feet. He waits to be picked up instead of doing the picking up himself, because he thinks he’s that worth it. He doesn’t know humility, but in a pack, he understands that he isn’t the alpha male. He sees himself as a “savior” from other people’s loneliness and a “warrior.” Since it’s known that he’s part of the drama club, it’s possible that he views his actions and behavior as “part of his role.” All in all, he has an actor’s background.
What has been shown to us, but only subtly, however: He isn’t a good person! There are a lot of moments when he acted out of charity from a sly motive; the first example to come to mind is the thirsty flower fairy that he gave booze to, so he could have a girl hanging off his arm. He gave lollipops to Jyushimatsu as a bribe for his silence. He got mad at Totty for lying and acted like a little shit in public along with the rest of them. He will gang up on his brothers to get their money.
This info tells us that he chooses to be kind for himself, not because he’s thinking about other people, but at the end of the day, he chooses to be kind. Inside he’s thinking, “Doing this makes me such a cool guy,” but he still chooses to do it. And he does it. That counts.
How many times have you done a kindness to someone else, not because you were thinking about them, but because it would help to make you feel like a better person? This is exactly what that is. The underlying motive shouldn’t be the determining factor on whether that makes his kindness genuine or not. One life lesson that everyone’s gotta learn is that it doesn’t matter what you “intended” to do. No one gives a shit about what you “intended” to do, ever. It’s what you actually do that counts. And he actually does do kind things.
Also, this doesn’t mean that he’s altogether an unkind person. He followed Chibita because he was worried about him. He went along when Ichimatsu dressed in his clothes to help protect him from embarrassment, even though he still yelled at Ichimatsu later. He made Jyushimatsu lie but apologized to him frantically when Jyushimatsu didn’t want to lie to any of his brothers and self-imploded. Etc, etc.
In closing! Karamatsu is not a saint. He gets angry, he gets annoyed, he gets violent, he gets heartless. He’s a normal human being, albeit probably slightly more trashy than the normal human being because he is of Matsuno blood. People who think of him as a cinnamon roll, I think, are putting him on top of a pedestal or perhaps self-projecting too much. He is a normal guy, who is sometimes shallow and self-absorbed. This confirmation of his attitude adds more layers to his mind and character. As viewers of any well-done show, character layers are a good thing. We love layers. It’s good to be a Karamatsu Girl/Boy.
