I put some info about this art below, it would be nice if you guys could check it out (ÂŽïœĄâąá”âąïœĄ`)
This piece is about how Toya is healing his relationship with music thanks to his experiences with VBS, especially by learning how to feel more free with it. <- This is an idea explored mostly in Toya5 (Toya6 is another place where I believe its explored)
The flight feathers in the wings (which help birds take off) have Akito and Meiko's (initial VS) colors. The mid-wing covert feathers and the down feathers at the base provide smoothness and warmth, respectively.
The stars are a reference to the piano, violin, and trumpet. And the event Let it ring! Beautiful sound!
I was inspired by Hakushi Hasegawa's KYOFUNOHOSHI and its MV by Shu Yonezawa, especially this part:
I kept the art kinda messy, abstract, and undefined on purpose to show how the halves are just starting to escape their boundaries, as if they're just starting to merge or smth
I was gonna say I wanted to use a style like this because of smth related to the concept of the inner child, but i can't articulate it and I also don't know much about the concept.
I was also inspired a bit by Shu Yonezawa's other work. I plan to use an art style like this at least a few more times.
The lyrics of KYOFUNOHOSHI are really confusing but they still remind me of Toya. I can connect a lot of the lines to him.
toyaâs little pouty face from the connect live đ„čđâïž
he's just too cute... he got pouty and dejected because tsukasa told him out of concern "what would akito think?" when toya wanted to experience the things tsukasa does with rui... he's too pure and precious. i can just imagine akito at the backstage going like "don't teach toya strange things!"
Kohane, Akito, and Touya all have clear symbolic associations with various animals. For example, Kohane is often associated with hamsters, Akito is often associated with dogs, and Touya is often associated with birds.
However, An does not have any repeated animal motifs like her unitmates do. Instead, An is consistently symbolized with different kinds of flowers.
While I do not know much about hanakotoba (flower language) and what specific kinds of flowers symbolize, I do want to discuss the broader reasons of why An is so heavily associated with flowers in the first place.
1. An's Childhood
An being related to a plant rather than an animal is likely a nod to her communal upbringing, but also the neglect she faced by her parents.
Plants, particularly those in public spaces, are often taken care of by multiple people rather than a set of parents. For An, her roots are in Vivid Street's soilâ the community watched over her when Ken and Yuka did not.
An was raised in a similar way to how plants are. Her basic needs were taken care of by Ken and Yuka, but they never acknowledged her emotional needs properly. While An had a cheerful disposition her whole life, her resentment and insecurities only grew with age. The distance between An and her parents is palpable, especially in earlier stories.
After all, they only saw that her petals never wilted.
2. The Infantilization of An
A large portion of An's struggles throughout her life are a consequence of misogyny. The symbol of a flower (one that is stereotypically feminine) embodies An's girlhood and how she is infantilized because of it.
Despite An being around thirteen or fourteen years old at the time of Nagi's diagnosis with terminal pancreatic cancer, Nagi assumed that her death would be enough to kill An's passion for singingâ she viewed An as too fragile to handle the truth. Nagi selfishly convinced the whole town and even An's parents to lie to her, an action that ultimately took away An's right to grieve over Nagi properly and directly caused her to develop attachment issuesâ as she was misled for years that Nagi had abandoned her for a career in America.
The reason why all those adults infantilized An so easily is simpleâ her gender. If An was a boy, she would be assumed to be tough enough to handle itâ because that is "what men are supposed to do."
But the truth is, that while An does act tougher than she actually is, she is not frail. She is incredibly determined, hardworking, and passionateâ having gone through many hurdles to get where she is now.
She fights back without hesitation to the people that wrong herâ lashing out at Ken for lying to her and only accepting any apologies on her terms. She defends herself, knowing full well that she's been treated unfairlyâ their good intentions do not erase the hurt she has faced.
When they plucked the rose from its soil, they did not anticipate the thorns lining the stem.
3. An's Relationship to Her Gender
With the mention of roses comes the discussion of the event that delves into An's gender extensivelyâ Wishing for your Happiness Beyond the Blue Sky.
The event is one that tackles An's internalized misogyny and discusses her gender expression.
Throughout the event story, An is notably insecure about wearing a wedding dress, believing that the tuxedo that Shizuku is wearing would fit her better. She tries to act more mature while wearing itâ revealing the true narrative purpose of the dress.
An is not uncomfortable with wearing the dress because of her stylistic preferencesâ instead, it is that she believes she is not womanly enough to wear it. After being confronted by Shizuku, however, An learns that her usual personality can coexist with the dress, and she has a great time!
However, this brings An to a relevant realization at the end of the event. She pieces together that she was trying to act more like Nagi when she was in the wedding dress, as An saw herself as unladylike in contrast.
An's preference in clothing and her "boyish" personality is the reason why she subconsciously saw herself as "less of a woman." In other words, An infantilized herself because of her lack of adherence to traditional gender norms.
The flower is a representation of how An views herself. But now, the flower has changed from a symbol of infantilization and neglect to one of joy and confidence.
Thank you for reading! Additions to this post are welcomed and encouraged.
please please please just give me a loredrop of aoyagi toya (aka his character and stuff) (could you also do the other vbs characters i mean you dont have to though
Hi! I'm assuming you're asking for a summary of Touya's character, as well as the other members of Vivid BAD SQUAD? If so, I would recommend just reading the actual event stories. If you're short on time, the fastest method to read them is through either the Project SEKAI Fandom Wiki (uses official translations) or Sekaipedia (uses primarily fan translations), though I'd recommend actually watching the event stories in the game or on YouTube for the best experience.
But if you want a character analysis for each member of the entire unit... I think I have too many thoughts about all of them to be condensed into singular posts. For this reason, I'll simply bring up one thing I feel is underdiscussed in regards to Touya's character: his behavior during his altercation with Akito in Chapter 14 of Vivid BAD SQUAD's Main Story.
When we discuss Akito and Touya's fight in Main Story, we usually focus on the fact that Akito punched Touya. And for good reason: it is one of the only instances of physical violence in Project SEKAI, and is an awful thing for Akito to do. Touya did not deserve to be punched.
However, I do believe Touya's behavior is worth discussingâ after all, Touyaâs intention in their fight was to upset Akito as much as possible.
It's obvious through how Touya evades Akito's attempts to start a conversation. Akito is worried about Touya when he says he's quitting music, he thinks something's happened with Harumichi again. Instead of being mature about the situation and discussing his insecurities with Akito, Touya does this:
It is really in this scene where we see the absolute worst of Touya's ego.
He's so thoroughly convinced that he's not worthy of being by Akito's side, that he's not serious about music, while also knowing just how much Akito loves him. Touya knows he can't just leave Akito with no warningâ Akito absolutely will look for him. So, in order to run away from the situation, Touya has decided that hurting Akito as much as possible is an adequate method. Touya needs Akito to hate him, for Akito's own good.
And Touya knows how to make Akito hate him, because they've spent so much time together. He's turned their bond into a weapon.
He tells Akito to grow up, because Touya knows how much Akito wants to be taken seriously by others. He knows Akito hates being looked down on.
He tells Akito his dream is impossible and meaningless, because Touya knows how much Akito is affected by the discouragement of others. He was there when the two of them teamed up and were disparaged by crowds.
He tells Akito that their music doesn't mean anythingâ implying their partnership doesn't mean anything, because Touya knows how much Akito loves him.
It's almost funny, in a way, because Touya's learned this from his parents.
It's the stubbornness and arrogance of his fatherâ insisting he knows best for someone else, disregarding the pain he inflicts onto him. It's the manipulative tendencies of his motherâ twisting his perception of events and invalidating his feelings.
And even after getting punched by Akito for it all, Touya doesn't regret it.
It's something Touya says isn't exactly a fight when Kohane asks about it. It's something he believes should've done a long time ago, after all.
But Touya didn't account for Akito's determination.
He chases after Touya anyways, and he forces Touya to let go of this mindset. That he knows what's best for Akito, that he should keep hurting both Akito and himself to make that possible. Touya accepting that he can do what he wants both frees him from his insecurity and his urge to control the situation. He breaks the habit he borrowed from his parents.
To close this post, I would like to say that this is not meant to demonize Touya whatsoever. I am not saying he is anywhere remotely close to as bad as his parents, but rather, as a victim of their abuse, he was bound to pick up these behaviorsââ especially since they were normalized in his childhood.
I also wanted to talk about this aspect of Chapter 14 because it shows us just how much of Touya's trauma bleeds into his relationships. I appreciate the portrayal here for the fact that it's an unlikable trait for Touya to have, much like how Akito's trauma-fueled immaturity is unlikable. Touya is not a "perfect victim", but rather a flawed teenager that's grown massively through having Akito, Kohane, An and the VIRTUAL SINGERS as a support system. I enjoy reflecting on how much he's changed, is all.
I have seen an influx of posts on various social media sites organizing certain pairs in Vivid BAD SQUAD over others in terms of a relationship hierarchy. To put it more simply, people are insisting, for example, that "hamster headphones" and "coffee pancakes" are inherently closer than any other combination of the four. People are also making the opposite argument, trying to insist that "headphones pancakes" is a closer relationship than "hamster headphones", in one example.
I am writing this post to explain why you should not make these arguments. Not only are they reductive, minimizing the writing of some dynamics in favor of others, there is a bigger reason why you shouldn't talk about these dynamics in this mannerâ amatonormativity.
Amatonormativity encompasses a large set of societal beliefs that assume romance is inevitable, inherently good, and the ultimate form of relationship one can have. It is something deeply ingrained in various cultures, and people with unchecked amatonormativity often cause harm to aromantic people, such as myself. A big part of amatonormativity involves viewing relationships in a relationship hierarchy, where platonic relationships never seen as equal relationships to romantic relationships.
Now then, how and why does this apply to this debate on Vivid BAD SQUAD? After all, it's not like any of these dynamics are romantic in canon.
Except... when the fandom has these discussions, it ultimately comes down to the romantic ships they support. They always place the dynamics they see the most romantic chemistry in above the others, as it's what they interpreted from the text. How accurate these interpretations may be is irrelevant to this post, though.
What people are missing is that the relationship between the partners and non-partners in Vivid BAD SQUAD are indeed different, but this difference should never be conflated with "closeness". Contrary to popular belief, each dynamic of Vivid BAD SQUAD is well-developedâ people simply ignore or push whatever props up their ships. People are so obsessed with shipping discourse that they're missing the point of this unit's relationships entirely.
Partners in Vivid BAD SQUAD's story have different boundaries and language compared to the bonds between teammates. However, the story makes a point that the partner dynamics are balanced and stabilized by the teammate dynamics. If it wasn't for An and Kohane, Akito and Touya might've never gotten back together in Main Story. If it wasn't for Akito and Touya, An and Kohane wouldn't have been able to resolve their codependency. VBS WL2 makes this even clearerâ it has to be the four of them. Each dynamic is equally important. And this fandom needs to start treating it as such.
this lowk looks like bootycheek but oomf (star) told me to postâŠâŠ. i was gonna clean up the lines but i got lazy. ummm hairstyle is based on shuffle au ok shuffle au toya over darkfes akito card edit wowww
Aoyagi Toya: The first Concerto (spot art for writing)
Day 2 of posting my contributions until ive posted everything đ please donât forget to check out @ready-steady-zine to see the contributions from the other artists and writers!!
The Elephant in the Room Concerning Project SEKAI's Depiction of the United States: Colorful Palette's Anti-Blackness
Introduction
In a few ways, Project SEKAI's depiction of modern America (in context of Vivid BAD SQUAD's story) indicates that the writers have done research. Vivid BAD SQUAD are shocked to learn just how impossibly high the cost of living is in New York City. They are also faced with microaggressions and racism by the people they come across. Touya5 touches on how many different people live in New York City, and express their cultures through their musicâ and says it should be celebrated.
Furthermore, the location of Americaâ and New York City, especiallyâ is important for Vivid BAD SQUAD's story. It is the place where hip-hop, the genre that Vivid BAD SQUAD most often performs in, was created by Black Americans.
And yet, the Americans that Colorful Palette has deemed relevant enough to be depicted within the story look like this:
Every single one of these characters is white.
There is absolutely zero excuse for this. The writers have done enough research to know all of these troubling aspects about the United States, but continue to do anything but make a Black character. That is complete willful ignorance, and I think this fandom needs to talk about it more.
Now then, if you are, for some reason, not convinced that this is an issue worth discussing, the rest of this post will be explaining why you should care.
Why (Good) Representation Matters
Beyond the fact that the lack of representation undermines Touya5's message, and that Black Americans deserve to be represented in a story that discusses the music they created while the main characters are in that country, representation matters for a few reasons.
First of all, representation allows for the voices and experiences of marginalized individuals to be expressed. It can be important for people to see people like themselves in the media they enjoy. Furthermore, it invites people who are not marginalized in the same way to empathize with characters unlike themselves, and understand them better. In other words, media has the capacity to bring positivity to the people that are underrepresented, and humanize them to the people who are unaffected by the same issues.
In addition, good representation inherently enhances art. It is more interesting to have characters with a wide range of life experiences than it is not. It adds depth to a story's world and characters.
More Reasons Why You Should Be Critical of Colorful Palette for This (In other words, here's me anticipating bad-faith arguments in advance)
90% of writing is actually just researching for your story, any writer would know this. There is no excuse for ignorance.
There are thousands of resources online for how to draw Black characters, and write them without leaning into stereotypes. They have internet.
Just because other Japanese companies have this issue in their games does not make it less bad. Anti-Blackness in these games should not be normalized in the way it has been. It is something you should be openly critical of.
"Project SEKAI is intended for a Japanese audience" doesn't mean anything when Black people literally live in Japan.
You can still enjoy the story while understanding that this is an issue it has. They're not mutually exclusive.
If anyone wants to contribute any additional thoughts or discussion on this post, it is greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.
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