pit babe characters and their outfits
ever since s1 i paid a lot of attention to what everyone is wearing and what it might signify, so let's get into it - they're not as strict with it in s2 as they were in s1 but there are still some things for me to pick apart
i will mainly focus on kim, kenta and pete for the sake of this post, but i might get into the other characters at another point because i have opinions about them too
so let's start at the baseline: colour schemes
x-hunters: white and light blue
red racing: black and red
tony: black
those are the main three groups that everyone can kind of get placed within - and here we already see the alliance of tony and red racing in the shared colour, but as i said they won't be the focus here
let's start with pete:
in s1, he exclusively wore dark blue suits - a mix of both colour schemes
it's predominantly blue, so we know his main alliance are the x-hunters, but it is much darker, almost as if mixed with black - signifying his origins as one of tony's children
i think it also signifies that he is not part of the hunters in the racing sense, he is a business man and thus much more like tony than any of the "blue" characters
in this picture we can see that even if his suit is black the shirt beneath is blue - outwardly he appears to be just like tony, a cut throat business man, but underneath he carries hunter - blue - values
in s2 he dresses pretty similar to s1, predominantly dark blue and black suits - but what is interesting is that we see him undress for the first time - both in the literal and figurative sense. he seeks an emotional connection to chris - or way? that's a different post though - and sheds his businessman clothes.
that's as much as i wanna say for pete's colours but we will get back to him once we talked about kenta and kim a little.
kim, at most points, does not fit into any colour scheme - he mostly wears shades of brown with other colours thrown in
he's not exactly part of the x-hunters anymore, they are not his place in the (racing) world so he doesn't wear their colours anymore - he also doesn't wear the red racing colours anymore, which he partly did in s1
he is his own force, his own person and only involved in the events because he chooses to be - in fact he is pretty much the only character who could up and run away at any point but doesn't, which is why he has his own colour
however, it is important to note here that it's mostly beige and light browns, which still have hints of white and work beautifully with blue - he is no longer a racer for x-hunters, but compliments them well and works together with them.
as we can see in this picture, he wears brown, beige and white - his own colours and the hunter colour
vs what he wore in s1 - when he was still part of red racing. formal, black clothes. he has fully detached himself from tony, unless most others that still have ties to him - emotional or physical.
now, let's talk about kenta - and if you know anything about me, you know i could talk about him for ages, but i'll try and stay focused
in s1, he exclusively wears tony's black, especially in the form of suits and more formal clothes, but always black. i think he is the perfect example of wearing someone else's colour, because unlike every other character, he never mixes it up. no other character always wears one specific colour - kenta does. a sign that he isn't his own person but only what he can do for tony? perhaps (definitely). he wears his proper shirts and tight fitted clothes, but he has no individuality. at least in s1.
but what fun i had analyzing his clothes in s2 because i realized i missed one important thing in s1: it's not just colours. it's materials and textures.
in s2 we see the first little bit of individuality in kenta's appearance when we take a look at his ear: there's a tiny piercing. it's not bold or loud, but it's there. the first sign that kenta is becoming his own person who can make his own choices, at least to an extent. he's not exclusively part of the uniformity that tony wants from everyone.
and then the scene when he eats with kim. i have so many thoughts, but i will focus on their clothes here.
kenta's clothes aren't skin tight is the first thing that comes to mind. they still fight him well but are looser, more comfortable. like he doesn't need to prepare to get up and fight every second, but can relax into more comfortable clothes.
the second thing is the type of clothes - now i'm no expert when it comes to materials, but they seem to be something akin to knit(?) - definitely something comfortable. did he have it in his closet before and just never dared to wear them? did he have dreams about feeling safe enough to be comfortable? or did he go shopping with kim? with pete? how did he get the clothes?
i think this is the first transition to kenta wearing his own black rather than tony's black. i don't think he will ever wear bright colours, he's still kenta after all, but he now wears a comfortable black. one he can breathe in.
but the t-shirt wasn't what excited me most. it was the slippers they both wore. but before we talk about them, i want to point out kim's clothes in this scene: they are also comfortable, casual and seem to be from a similar material as kenta's are. and they are black and white. the bottom (i'm not gonna make that joke, tyvm) is black - kenta's black, because it appears to be rather comfortable, and the top is white - x-hunter's colour. now, i am not 100% certain if it's his sweater or the lightning, but to me it seems kinda off-white. once again, kim isn't exclusively wearing the x-hunter white, he puts his own spin to the colour.
now, the slippers. gray slippers. gray is a mix of white and black. a mix of kim and kenta. they are a symbol of their worlds colliding, of kim taking kenta further and further away from tony. they are the first item of clothing that kenta wears that isn't black - and it's something he received from kim. it is also a sign of comfort. even in tony's house, kenta was always wearing shoes. it is safe to assume that he only ever took them off in his own room, if he even did that. perhaps he was always alert, always wearing the shoes, always ready to jump up and run into a fight for tony. now, he can't do that. he'd have to first change out of the comfortable slippers to his own shoes. he'd have to leave the comfort kim provided behind to join another fight. and we know he will do it, but i love the symbolism.
i love the idea of kenta reacting with disbelief when kim gave him the slippers. i love the idea that kenta secretly treasures them. i love the idea that kenta, for the first time, can walk somewhere and be relaxed. both in the literal sense of his feet not hurting from tight shoes and in the figurative sense that he can be at ease with kim.
now that we established that kenta is moving more and more towards comfortable clothes, let's bring pete back into the discussion. because now i want to raise the idea of kenta drifting more and more away from pete to kim being symbolized by their clothes.
for that, let me recap quickly:
pete - dark blue and black suits
kenta - black suits changing to black shirts
in this clip from s1, they are basically mirrors when we talk about their clothes - both wear dark suits, both are dressed very formally.
in this clip from their childhood, they are both in comfortable clothes, but dressed in opposite colours - they were never meant to be together. even at that time, their loyalties differed, but the material was the same. they were comfortable together. in fact, the only time in s1 that kenta was comfortable was with pete. is it a coincidence that that's when they're wearing comfortable clothes? i don't think so.
but now in s2, pete is still wearing his suits. kenta isn't. their colours are more similar than in their childhood, but their materials differ. pete is stuck in the suit, in the armor it provides him, in the seriousness businessman attire. kenta is drifting away from that. he doesn't want to be what tony raised him to be anymore. and that comes with abandoning his suits. his clothes become more similar to kim's.
i think that's so interesting because it does also mirror their relationship. to pete, kenta is still the child he left behind. he worries about him, sure, but he also severely underestimates him. he wants kenta to wait for him - to still wear suits - but kenta can't wait any longer. he wants to get things done. he's very much like kim in this regard. they both realize that there's no point in sitting around and waiting. tony needs to be dealt with rather sooner than later.
and while pete holds kenta back, kim supports him and comes with him so that kenta is protected rather than making him stand still. kenta is shedding his suit to replace it with a comfortable shirt. kenta is shedding pete's control to replace it with kim's support.
there are so many other things i could dive into when it comes to their clothes, but i think those are my main points. i love when shows signify character traits through clothes and i really hope they keep it up in s2 as they have in s1.
