plot twist!

“there’s no ‘deal’, kid. life ain’t fair, and the afterlife sure as hell ain’t, either.”

now that neo has been out for a while, this might be more common information, but i'll give a primer real quick. much like how the shibuya reapers in twewy have a theme for their noise forms (the zodiac), the shinjuku reapers have their own theme. and that theme is hanafuda! (and i can't give myself credit for this concept. i originally came across this idea here, iirc).

essentially, hanafuda are a type of playing cards. they have a long history of different forms and being used for a variety of games (including gambling). highly recommend looking that up if you're interested. in the modern day, hanafuda decks generally have 48 cards split into twelve suits (think like how western playing cards have suits). each suit corresponds to a month and has a variety of symbolism in the art connected to that. generally speaking, every suit is represented by a plant/flower. sometimes they have an animal on one of their cards too. that's why we're interested.

getting back to neo twewy, the shinjuku reapers don't necessarily have the hanafuda link hidden in their names, but instead in their birthdays.

for example, tsugumi's birthday is in january. the january hanafuda suit has a crane as its animal. shiba's birthday is in june. the june suit has a card with butterflies, etc. wondering where ayano got an iris noise from? her name means iris and every card in the may suit has irises on it. even characters who don't get a noise form in-game have some kind of connection (e.g., kaie and hishima both have name references to things on their birthday month cards).

so. that was a VERY elaborate prelude to present my hypothesis: kubo's noise form is a goose.

his (supposed) birthday is in august, and the hanafuda suit for august is quite fun for a number of reasons. most importantly: THERE'S GEESE ON IT.

in fact, i'd like to say there's some interesting symbolism going on, at least for the most colorful cards (a full moon, and flying geese). august is the card suit associated with the changing of seasons to fall, so naturally there's a harvest moon. we are going to choose to ignore the fact it makes the sky an ominous red color in this depiction. or the linguistic implications of a harvest moon. and how haz has the kanji for 'moon' hidden in his name.... the rolling hills depicted are supposed to be fields of susuki grass (one of the seven flowers of autumn. the more you know! but we don't care about that here). the geese are geese. but more specifically, they are indeed migrating!

i've seen at least one site suggest the birds in question are meant to be swan geese, which used to fly to japan for the winter. and i am inclined to think that's an accurate choice.

speaking of birds. does the color scheme look familiar by any chance?

SO. whether on accident or not, kubo matches the geese. also i think it's a really cute coincidence (if it is one) to pick a migratory bird to go with a guy who showed up, ingratiated himself into a team, and would've just picked up and left if all had gone according to plan.

conclusion: i'm gonna let kubo have one thing in common with his fake buddies and get assigned Goose by the hanafuda noise form sorter.

He takes a long drag of the cigarette in his mouth, holds it, and then lets the wind carry the smoke from his lungs.

"Tell me, Kubo," he starts, brown eyes flickering towards him, "what brings you joy?"

kubo laughs—the raucous noise filling the space between them.

he knows full well shiba is asking seriously. but despite that (because of that), he just can't help the immediate reaction.

"...whew. tough question, boss," he says, watching his own cigarette as he twists it between his fingers. the light of the embers catches in his eyes, bringing out a hint of gold hidden beneath the inconspicuous bronze.

"do ya want me to give you some kinda sappy answer? 'gee, shiba, your success is all it takes for me!' something schmaltzy like that would probably do th' trick, right?"

kubo glances sideways at shiba with a smile. sure, it's smug, but with the implication of this being a joke between friends.

"but instead 'a givin' you a proper answer, how's about i play therapist for a minute here?"

he points at shiba with the cigarette.