gravity.

personally i cant really deal with second-hand embarrassment and stuff, so i kind of skipped through the video. i do think it was pretty cute,,, yuma/kendrick maybe...... please........ if ur reading this xdirinil............ make it doomed if you have to just make it happen JSKFMFKF

despite how asshole-ish akina was to kirb, i do like that akina was kind enough and cared enough about kendrick (kendra??) that she let kirb stay at the party despite hating her guts and even playing into kirbs stupid ass ideas. i mean really, spin the bottle??? you could be more subtle with a "kiss me senpai" at this point kirb.

now, onto episode 8....

i hate to say it but akina has a point. calling kirb pathetic is harsh but she is right. kirb is basically overriding mika's autonomy and violating her boundaries every time they see each other for her own personal gain.

akina is very blunt and harsh, but i do think all her insults in the pool scene come from a mix of animosity towards kirb and care for mika—we've seen mika and akina interact before and mika clearly trusted akina since mika was talking to akina away from the other girls about how someone broke into her house. it isn't hard to say that akina may have been trying to back mika up every time she felt uncomfortable with kirb because she wanted to be a good friend.

akina says "it was a good try, but trust me, you're not doing a good job." and that... feels weirdly gentle? like compared to everything else, akina is trying to let kirb down slowly while trying to preserve mika's autonomy. when kirb denies it, akina says it blunter—akina sounds like she's getting frustrated with kirb not listening and violating mika's boundaries.

at the end of the day: we see them as characters. these characters see each other as real people, real people with autonomy and boundaries. kirb is violating mika's boundaries and akina is protective over mika because of it. (doomed akina/mika anyone?)

i will say i felt absolutely vindicated that kirb killed akina by pushing her in the pool. i was actually pleasantly surprised that we watched kirb wrestle with her morality during it, i wasn't expecting that. i do feel like letting akina have an entire conversation while drowning made the death less impactful for me lol. i feel like if we watched akina yell for help and say she can't swim while kirb simply watched without saying anything, it would've made the scene more gutting to watch, but thats just me nitpicking cz i have my head up my ass abt everything.

NOTICE HOW KIRB SAYS THINGS. THIS IS TRANSCRIPT (aena is akina, ma is mika. youtubes text generation sucks ass)

"she can't take mika from me or influence her."

mika has no autonomy to kirb. mika does not have agency to kirb. everything kirb thinks about mika is centered around herself. mikas want to not be around kirb isn't seen as "mika just doesn't like me" (and if she does think that, it's always with a yet. like she can change her mind.) its always external influence to kirb. its always someone else's fault. like mika isn't a person to kirb, she's a marionette kirb wants to protect.

this is phenomenally disturbing writing, whether XD realizes it or not. kirbs writing is genuinely one of the most well made yandere writing ive seen in years, which isn't exactly a hard bar to clear, i don't watch or read much of these lmao.

YURI YURI YURI (the character) OH IM SO EXCITED I HOPE I CAN DO A DISSECTION OF HER CHARACTER SOON her immediate turning on kirb about akinas death is SO good. i hope i can do a group dissection about her and the mean girls.

oh yuma, you sick son of a bitch, you're not getting away from the "psycho using kirb to kill people" allegations. i am a FIRM BELIEVER that yuma is either gonna keep helping kirb cover kills up because she wants them all dead, or she's gonna keep using kirb and then betray her and act a victim.

honest to god, i enjoyed it. im a very big fan of cat and mouse type relationships, tbf. was she unnecessarily rude? yes, but thats hot so its okay. (it isn't if its irl btw. this is js fiction.)

ALSO EP 6 PROVED MY POINT ON MIKA IN MY CHARACTERIZATION OF HER. SHE'S VERY VIGILANT AROUND KIRB AND THE FACT THAT KIRB LET IT SLIP THAT SHE KNOWS WHERE THE BATHROOM IS,,,,, AUGH. AMAZING.

kirb showing up at 7 in the morning is so real tbh. i also show up unbearably early when i have to do something somewhere,,,,

my favorite thing was absolutely the moment where mika tells kirb she 'did a good job, i guess' which is basically the equivalent of winning an award from mika lmao

Kirb - The MC, the Yandere.

OKAY. so yes, this is absolutely insane. i love it immediately. i went into episode 1 entirely blind, i didn't watch the trailer, i didn't have any spoilers, i didn't ask for any outside opinions except for looking in the comments for how to spell the character's names in ep 1 and ep 5, this is entirely my own notes and thoughts.

its a very bold move making your character the yandere since you have to write and be IN the scene where they're committing the atrocities, but so far kirb is doing an AMAZING job at balancing being the MC and being the yandere.

ENOUGH GLAZE. TO THE CHARACTER ITSELF.

Characterization.

Kirb immediately sets the tone with her first line in episode 1. calling school "jail" and being frustrated with the new teacher. she comes across as a character who is sardonic, self aware, a little mean spirited, and tired of the expectation of high grades, but she also immediately subverts the expectation that she doesn't care about school when talking to the asshole in her math class—calling him names and saying skipping school is bad.

this tonal difference is pretty interesting since most characters who criticize school are usually written as unwilling to learn, lazy, or generally not good at academics.

we get a few hints that kirb is actually either a modestly good student or a top student, as yuma states she'll lie to her friends that she's just getting tutored by kirb which kirb approves as "a good lie." that either means kirb is a good student or yuma is bad at academics—the latter of which being less believable due to the scene where yuma and kirb pair up and yuma is the one keeping kirb on track, and because kirb herself seems very conscious about the school rules.

we're also given pretty explicit dialogue that kirb has no friends and usually sits alone at lunch. kirb is also bullied by her peers and often gets into verbal (and even physical!) altercations with male students, or anyone she finds "dumb."

during the scene where kirb breaks into mika's house, kirb's dialogue is also very interesting. all of her dialogue is very telling, actually. she's very quick to justify herself ("these aren't too valuable, I'm sure she won't miss them"), get annoyed (as seen in episode 5 when first meeting fredrick), and get violent. these traits are pretty interesting to see, and will likely foreshadow how her character arc will progress.

my honest prediction is that kirb will overtime get more and more violent and aggressive over or with mika, and she'll keep justifying herself over and over until she inevitably kills someone. this will likely be a very slow progression over episodes, or if someone shows interest in mika, kirb will likely become more violent as kirb explicitly states that she likes the fact that she has no romantic rivals.

Physical Capability: Capable

Appearance: Unsure, likely decently good looking, as she isn't bullied for it

Grades: High or mid

Popularity: Low

Personal thoughts.

im gonna be honest, i think the character is SO fucking cool. did i think her name was "curb" at first because of captions? yes. did i make a "wow did your parents not love you or something?" joke? of course i did.

her character design is also very very fun to look at, the bangs make it feel like she dyed it to look like a raccoon tail which is an absolutely SICK character design.

nonetheless, so far, kirb has been a very interesting and enjoyable character. ive personally been calling her character arc "descent into madness", which is why thats the title of this lets discuss post.

Mika - The Bully, The Pretty, The "Senpai".

BEHOLD. SENPAI HERSELF. the choice in personalization of these characters are so fucking cool?? im gonna be honest with you, i was caught completely off guard by the fact that mika was so fucking rude. like i said, i didn't watch anything prior to this nor did i have any spoilers and i was absolutely blindsided. and i fucking LOVED it.

again, the interesting writing here comes from the near directly opposing roles being given to the same character. whereas kirb has the mc (typically the protagonist and very likeable) and yandere (typically the antagonist and usually just batshit crazy) roles, mika has the bully (antagonist) role and the senpai ("goal") role.

Characterization.

Mika herself has very little characterization despite having the senpai role. shes very mean, very rude, and very confident in her own very awful choices.

During episode 1, when kirb first talks to her, she seems baffled and almost disbelieving of kirb's audacity to talk to her and sit immediately with her. in the episodes after, she's almost always cussing kirb out and making fun of her and also handing out one of the worst jabs ("no wonder you have no friends" though im not sure if it was actually her or one of the other bullies)

the rest of the information we get about her is from yuma, which, if you know how i am with these roleplays, i rarely take as fact. so we'll take everything yuma says about the girls with a grain of salt.

mika seems to also be quite vigilant? or at least has a keen sense of hearing, especially in episode 3. she seems to hear kirb in her closet and she hears kirb talking to herself despite being asleep. shes also feisty enough that she'd be willing to fight a potential burglar.

something interesting i will note about her though is her phone call in episode 3. we don't get much context for it but it sets up yuma for the next episode and also gives us a little look into what she wants. i.e.: she wants yuma out of the group and she's irritated that yuma was even in the group in the first place.

my best guess right now is the bass being a symbolism for personal foundation, deepening relations, or a deep-seated want to be in the spotlight. since bass is often the supporting role in a band and often goes under appreciated, it could hint at mika having been in a band and not getting the spotlight she wanted, thus she wants to fit in with the popular girls, which would get her in the spotlight and let her be appreciated where she wasn't.

kirb also comments on the fact that mika can paint and play bass, which is interesting characterization. i have no idea what it could possibly hint at, and since the painting is from a mod, im not going to assume anything with that either.

calling it a bass is really interesting because the prop itself is more related to an acoustic guitar, and while there is a specific type of base where it looks like an acoustic guitar, its not the first thing people think when looking at it. that said, this could just be a total fucking miss because if you don't know instruments very well, its very common to call instruments by the wrong names.

Physical Capability: Medium, capable?

Appearance: Attractive

Grades: Unknown

Popularity: High

Personal Thoughts.

hot. SORRY. SORRY. i think everyone and their mothers knows im into tsundere girls and i find them incredibly hot, especially the pretty tsundere girls. unfortunately, im not as big of a fan of her design as i am with kirb. i enjoy her character and the dynamic between kirb and mika, but she is very 1 dimensional so far—im hoping and crossing my fingers that she'll become more human as the series progresses.

she's already become more interesting after kirb broke into her house because she did seem genuinely scared or at least concerned when talking to akira about it. it would also be incredibly fun if she became more 3 dimensional and kirb becoming more and more obsessed with her because she likes seeing the emotions on mika's face,,,, maybe im just insane idk.

Yuma - The Insider, The Self-Sustainer.

okay honestly. love emo goth girl. but also. not emo goth enough, give that bitch a desperate need to hit the popular girls over the head, we need more crazy bitch goth rep. —sincerely, a punk alt motherfucker

her role seems to be the same as info-chan in yansim, wherein she gives the mc or player information they need. which is an interesting role to give to a character, but hey, fuck you, im trusting that tiny voice in my head telling me she's gonna be really important.

Characterization.

so far, she's pretty sardonic and funny. she's also quite nonchalant and honest and kind of flippant about everything? she's not giving me much to work with past the fact that she's a bit cunning and very self aware about how 1 dimensional she is.

she seems to desperately want to be out of the clique, but also keep the benefits of being in the clique. she joined the bullies because it got her popularity points, and she's helping kirb because kirb promised to help her "dethrone" them or "get rid" of the clique.

i will say its very interesting how she talks about her friends and how she talks to kirb about them. how she mentions akina being weak and being unable to swim? it could just be a jab, but personally, i don't usually think about how my friends or bullies don't know how to swim.

the way yuma talks to kirb about the popular girls gives me inklings of how the popular girls will be rid of, this is especially interesting because yuma specifically mentions everyone except mika.

yuma seems to be specifically giving kirb the key and planting seeds of how to lure and kill each girl. the tiny voice in my head is telling me its because she's using kirb to get what she wants and hoping to make kirb kill her friends. specifically because yuma tells kirb that "i dont even think she [akina] can even swim", and while that does feel like a throw away line, the fact that its followed up with "she constantly takes selfies, i don't think she could even live without her phone" feels like an incredibly visible set up for how to get rid of akina.

this is further cemented by the fact that yuri gets barely anything, "no interesting qualities" and "akina's biggest follower" huh? is she going to kill herself if akina dies, yuma? is that why you didn't give us an elimination method?

and then followed by ginko, who she also gives some interesting information on... her teddy bear could easily be used as blackmail, especially considering her ties to the principal. like i said, yuma herself seems pretty observant and very good at keeping kirb on track, so her making kirb do dirty work for her feels like a natural progression.

Personal thoughts.

that said, it could also just be me reading into things. the fact that she specifically agrees to the idea of being one dimensional so easily made my brain go "oh? thats gotta be code for something..."