"is hatsune miku in the 2p world zatsune miku" - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate [aka: ask2ps japan content retrospective]
looking back at my OG japan introduction for this acc and im cringing just a little bit!!! 8 years later, now that ive dedicated my education and career to japanese studies, it feels so culturally off-key
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, we've seen little glimpses of 2p!japan as a character and he is Not Like That.
kiku's reserved nature can be mistakenly perceived as "cold," but kuro's distant, icy nature is genuine. kuro seems better at concealing his emotions, is polite in a distinctly empty/ceremonial manner, and is a bit more clipped/brief in his speaking.
[kuro is indicated by shaded-in hair, kiku's remains white.]
where kiku frets and overthinks without deciding, kuro seems to sometimes make rash, impulsive decisions that aren't typically socially acceptable (such as cutting his own hair with a knife). this clashes with his otherwise formal behavior in a very neat way - very "nations have been tamed by humans to be political figures" core.
kuro additionally seems oddly confrontational at times, if not in words (he maintains politeness, even if only as an affectation) but in actions (soaking himself in mud and rain+falling in puddles to chase kiku down just to stare; buddy, that's what we call a nonverbal threat).
my old bio for kuro mentioned that he "has no fear of insulting you publicly." absolutely not. he would never. what he would do, however, is passive-aggressively kyoto-style humiliate you until you do whatever he wants (which is probably to just go away). if he's feeling particularly feral, he'll corner you in an alleyway, but he won't say anything. its just implied. "its just your imagination."
also, i drew him in youfuku (big ol western suit) when he seems to prefer wafuku (his kimono). that alone makes me think he's suffering from some kind of temporal dissonance (MY FAVORITE TROPE YIPPEE). so i don't think he'd... willingly wear miku t-shirts either, as a i depicted in a 2018 ask. he feels a bit too formal for that?
more on the vocaloid figurine/miku t-shirt joke: i want to avoid the "LOL pervert japanese otaku guy" as much as possible, not only because it feels a little insulting in a way im not prepared to be, but because it seems like such a modern-focused(/neg), reductive, tunnel-visioned joke view of a character who has WAY too much history and restraint. the tragedy/joke of many hetalia characters, but ESPECIALLY japan, is that they're old as dirt and the post-industrial revolution world is new in cruel and unusual ways that they can hardly adapt to before it changes again.
what i mean by that is: if you want 2p japan to be a pervert [i'm leaning towards no], fine. he can have a lewd miku figure. but he's gotta have some lewd woodblock prints too. otherwise it's not a gijinka of Canonical Old Man japan. it's a gijinka of a random pervert otaku who was born in 2005, which i find boring.
anyway rambling end. i would absolutely love to hear everyone's takes on 2p!japan, stemming from either 2026 or 2014 fandom interpretations! im always interested in hearing it through comments or asks! in particular, i've heard a lot about yakuza kuro but haven't seen much of it in detailed exploration.
[im aware that kiku and therefore most likely kuro has a fondness for miku/anime/moe in general. i think thats adorable. he's not publically slobbering over her, though, as i implied in 2018.]
