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Franziska doing her best to not fall after Maya's surprise tackle hug <3

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like i mean kohane was mildly concerned but akitoya had like NO REACTION to an freaking out apart from when it related to rad weekend/the rap battle shit and even koha didnt do anything

To preface: I certainly don't think LUTF is an example of perfect writing, and I think it's not only held back by the 8-chapter limit (it's already very long within those) but by how much of the narrative is necessarily taken up by RADDER flashbacks.

However!

I think takes like this misunderstand something really important about VBS's narrative: it's a shounen, with certain genre expectations along with that, and it is also written within an in-universe culture where all high emotions are expressed through music, not through words.

It's not that nobody on Vivid Street comforts or encourages each other by talking, far from it (Find a Way Out is more than enough example of that), but it's a genre expectation that moments of high tension aren't resolved through talking. Would you expect a basketball anime to do anything off-court except character work and heightening tension, for the inevitable next game? It's like in musical theater, where the genre conventions allow characters to break into song once they feel too much emotion to expess it in dialogue - the big moments are always where the tension is highest, and it can't just be released quietly, that's not how the story payoff works.

You can find this motif explained in-universe in other events that characterise VBS as well, such as Let's Study Hard - An expresses to Mizuki that she's an open and friendly person specifically because Vivid Street taught her to express herself with new people through music, and that they learn about each other and can find common ground more easily through music (specifically duelling).

Because of this, the out-of-world genre expectation which is explained by an in-universe culture, I would argue that stopping to help her was the opposite of what An actually wanted in that moment.

An wanted to sing. She wanted to surpass her heroes. Even in a moment where she was experiencing unimaginable agony and betrayal, all An has done since she was born is express herself through singing, and fight with others as a way to understand them and herself - and you see that reflected in the narrative! As soon as VBS pick themselves up to keep fighting, she gets right back up alongside them, understanding that their actions meant they had her back and she wasn't alone. All she wants is to understand Taiga, and to understand herself, and to do that she needs to sing.

I wanted to see Vivid BAD SQUAD offer her words of condolence as much as the next guy, but not right then, because that's not what the narrative called for in that moment. Mattie pointed out correctly that VBS gave her as much verbal emotional support as they could after the fact, which imo is all she could have asked for (and I imagine there was a lot more offscreen.)

and the entire situation with anchan communicating via rivalry/singing instead of words could be found in whip the wimp girl too, i think - an described her fears regarding kohane in a short summary, and didn't let her say anything back. i saw some people people argue that we lacked an actual, in-depth conversation afterwards. but considering the genre convention and the meaning of singing to an herself, battling kohane head on without wasting too much time on explanations was actually the most straightforward and impactful way they could communicate.

so going by this line of thought, vbs's reaction (or lack thereof) to an finding out about nagi is not that inappropriate. we just gotta accept that they have a different medium of communication to ours. while still being conscious of the format constraints and writing quality, ofc.

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