#we all do eventually

[moomin-toons]

*Me watching the new episodes of Moominvalley and seeing Moomintroll getting fits of hormonal rage and letting his emotions get the better of him. Leading him to do or say something stupid or rude to another person. Him sulking and being dramatic about it for awhile and when he calms down and sees things more clearly realizes how much of a fuck up he had been. Then tries to make things right again and apologize.*

My 16-year-old ass: I feel attacked.

[loonatic-moon]

Preface to say that the following nonsense isn’t meant to stir up any fights or whatever, but I just want to get something off my chest: 

For me, Initial D as a whole sits better emotionally when I think of the first half (or so) being mainly Takumi’s story, whereas the second half is mainly Ryosuke’s, albeit less obvious— since it reads as if the narrative didn’t get the memo in time.  Cut for spoilers/length

The shift between pre-Project D stuff and Project D arc is one of my big gripes about ID’s narrative, because it doesn’t fully commit to this divide, and to Ryosuke being the main character for the Project D arc. Idk how many out there might share this opinion, but I think a full commitment would have landed better. I think the shift to Ryosuke’s perspective and journey should have been clear from the start of that summer, and delved into his would have made more sense given his eventual climactic battle. Instead we got a bit of a grab bag of various perspectives in the 2nd half, and while fun, it also made the emotional investment more diffuse in comparison to the more focused POV we had with Takumi in the first half.

But TBH I think Ryosuke’s story should have been structured more like Takumi’s in this second leg, but unfortunately the narrative - for whatever reason - could get away from Takumi being anything less than front and center, so Ryosuke remained in this weird state of being both supporting and main character, and kind of sucking at both as a result.

This divide also makes sense to me when I realize that Takumi and Ryosuke are really the only two characters who achieve significant cathartic release at what are (I think) the main emotional peaks of the story. The first being Takumi’s decision to Natsuki about how he wants to get out in the world and race (this is where the story divides, imo). The second being Ryosuke returning to Kaori’s grave after having achieved the Dream to honor her. Keisuke should have had a moment like this, too, but goddamn it.  That’s all I have to say.  Goddamn it.

End rant, thank you for reading

[fullmetal-pipsqueak]

what’s the URL? i think she followed me too

kingrumbleroar