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Did you know that in the old days of the fandom the bench used to be married to Fudou? The modern victim of the bench jokes became Shishido once the Spanish fandom popularized the "Sam al banquillo" meme.

Did I somehow get Max's style right? While we never actually see him wear casual clothes, he's seen holding a very similar jumper to the one I designed for him.

Here's the inspiration post for reference:

The first three pictures represent the summer version. I couldn't really style the wig to resemble her first two seasons hairstyle rather than her Galaxy one, but I hope you don't mind.

The other two represent the winter / cardigan version.

Here are the main ones:

Endou: Momotaro

Someoka: Monkey

Handa: Dog

Kazemaru: Pheasant

And the other easy ones:

Shourin: Squirrel

Kabeyama: Bull

Max: Raccoon

Kurimatsu: Mouse

The only ones I have a bit of a hard time determining are these three

Is Kageno a rabbit or a donkey?

This month is Autism Awareness. I decided to start this month by making an essay about one of the most autistic-coded Inazuma Eleven characters.

This is my opinion, not something confirmed in canon. Please don't take everything I said as a fact that Kageno is canonically autistic. This is just my vision, so please be respectful. Enjoy the read!

I also consulted a friend of mine who is on the spectrum to make sure I got every trait right.

Starting with the obvious, he has trouble understanding how to interact with people without coming from behind and scaring them. After a while, it becomes very clear he is a little shy. He sometimes prefers to be alone, even though he doesn't explicitly say so. He also seems to have trouble socializing, like that time when Endou drained his social batteries, simply from a simple conversation. And he said that he felt really nervous.

Another trait is the fact that he can't understand the meaning of maid cafe, interpreting it as meido cafe, which means underworld cafe. This is taken from HonoSuto chapter 54. While Max realizes what both Megane and Kageno meant. This leads to...

...an intense interest in the supernatural, which refers to the fact that many autistic people are deeply invested in a subject. His obsession with having a presence could also be interpreted as an autistic trait.

Another autistic trait is the fact that he appears to be sensitive to bright lights. In the Stage Play, he complains when the surroundings suddenly become bright from Haruna's camera. And he has hair above the eyes, which could also be interpreted as light-sensitivity. Only Shishido is the other member from Raimon with hair above the eyes, but he isn't autistic-coded to the same extent as Kageno.

And then there's a running gag in the Stage Play of him with the megaphone, which he keeps playing with. And after Domon is injured, Endou calls him on the field, and guess what he does? He puts it on Natsumi's head XD. And after that, Natsumi and the other Managers are confused.

And finally, there's the fact that he's seen running in this pose in the opening of Inazuma Eleven 1･2･3!! Endou Mamoru Densetsu.

What's even funnier is that both Haizaki and Nosaka are the ones with rizz in the Ares trio. Both of them can be interpreted as being in the middle of a love triangle between a girl, AND a boy. Yeah, the closest to queer representation in the series (besides HiroMido) is the implied one-sided crushes that Mizukamiya and Nishikage have on Haizaki and Nosaka respectively.

Mizukamiya and Haizaki don't get much queerbaiting in the anime, but the InaPen manga is full of this. The former's obsession with the latter is all but stated to be romantic. There are even some moments where even the girls from their universe think they are a couple.

Meanwhile, Nishikage's crush on Nosaka is fairly obvious. He often gets jealous when he sees Nosaka interacting with someone else. There's also this interview that teases the viewers: https://senjutsunokoutei.tumblr.com/post/178200268433/interview-with-hino-oct-2018-animage

And as said before, they also have a female admirer, at least Nosaka does since Haizaki and Akane can simply be seen as good friends. I still like to imagine Akane, Haizaki and Mizukamiya as a love triangle. And Anna has an explicit crush on Nosaka, so a love triangle between her and Nishikage for Nosaka's affection is very plausible.

Especially since he's mostly hated for dumb reasons (and I know because I used to do the same). I actually like all members of Raimon and Inazuma Japan now, although some of them more than others.

My updated ranking of Raimon players would be:

Kidou (S)

Fubuki (S)

Kazemaru (S)

Gouenji (S)

Ichinose (S)

Touko (S)

Tsunami (S)

Endou (A)

Someoka (A)

Aphrodi (if he counts) (A)

Kageno (A)

Max (A)

Megane (A)

Rika (A-)

Kogure (A-)

Kabeyama (A-)

Tachimukai (A-)

Handa (A-)

Domon (B)

Toramaru (B)

Shadow (B)

Shourin (B)

Kurimatsu (B)

And I remember some people theorizing that he transfered to Sengoku Igajima because he's holding a shuriken.

At the end of last year, I made an essay about Handa's friendships with everyone from Raimon, but there is a friendship that caught my interest in particular because of their funny interactions, opposite personalities, and subtle growth that I'll analyze today. These two probably spent a lot of time together due to shared experiences (like the hospitalization during the Aliea Academy arc), but even before that they were often seen next to each other, either training or having their scares running gag.

I'll mostly analyze this friendship in chronological order, but before starting that, let's take a look at their dub names. Jim Wraith is pretty self-explanatory for the ghost boy, but why is Handa's dub name Steve Grim when he's known to be a very average guy? It's probably because he ends up being the most frequent victim of Kageno's running gag, but instead of pushing him away because of this, he still sees him as a friend. It's interesting that even though they are opposites in personality (Handa is too normal and Kageno is very strange), both of their dub surnames have connotations with the underworld.

And now, I'll analyze some key moments from the anime.

This weird friendship started right from the first episode, where their first interaction involves Handa getting startled by Kageno's sudden appearance behind his back, followed by Handa quickly apologizing for not noticing him. From then on, this ends up being a routine for them.

A variation of this running gag is seen in episode 4, where Handa points out the irony that Kageno, of all people, called Occult creepy. Who else would have pointed it out?

However, between these two scenes, there's another important moment for their friendship. After Someoka tackles Kageno to the ground to steal the ball from him, Handa calls him out on the foul play, showing his morals and subtle acceptance of the weirder teammates.

Another moment involving this running gag happens all the way in episode 24 (I skipped the scene from episode 11 since almost the whole team was startled by Kageno, not just Handa). As you can see here, he brushes off the scare with a smile, having accepted these by this point.

However, their interactions don't only involve scares and flinching.

They are sometimes seen training together, with a key element in the series being the way soccer brings people together. And like I showed in my previous essay, Handa is comfortable enough with everyone from the team, even the walking jumpscarer.

Furthermore, in episode 14 and the Reloaded credits, they are seated next to each other in Rairaiken. This might suggest that even before season 2 brought them in the same space, they were getting along fairly well, jumpscares aside.

Let's move on to season 2 now. They were among the 5 people that Gemini Storm sent to the hospital and were appointed in the same room. By this point, Handa already accepted the "creepy bestie curse" and it looks like the shared experience only brought them closer. Since Max is Kageno's other best friend, it's possible these three started a trio.

Headcanon time: check out this siblings headcanon post for more details regarding Kageno's older sister: https://www.tumblr.com/ilincasiatat/798579418983497728/the-sibling-headcanon-about-4-raimon-members. My theory is that this shared experience brought them closer because they got the chance to open up about each other (like how Handa wants to stand out more and Kageno wants to be more visible and not live in his sister's shadow), realizing they have more in common than they thought.

They were also grouped together in season 3 as the few members who didn't get selected for Inazuma Japan and it's safe to assume they continued their close friendship, as well as trio with Max.

Headcanon time: after they were both didcharged from the hospital, even after Handa went back to the people he has always been close to (like Someoka), he sometimes included Kageno (and possibly Max by extension) in his friend group. This scene from Hono Suto chapter 151 seems to support my theory because Kageno and Someoka are seen getting along here.

And then, there's this picture taken at the school festival that shows the trio chose the same activity. And guess what, said activity is Halloween, fitting for the creepy guy himself and the normal guy who learned to embrace the weirdness. Kageno still manages to startle Handa with a flashlight, though XD.

Finishing off the anime, in the last episode, they are both shown to be exhausted after the graduation match, with Kazemaru making them feel better afterwards. There's hope that they'll always be friends, as suggested in this image.

And now, here's some extra content.

Chapters 66-67 from Hono Suto seem to be a reference to their friendship, or at least that's how I see it. In these chapters, Handa wants to try out new clothes that are different from his usual style, only for the Charismatic Saleswoman to choose a style that would fit Kageno more. At first he is embarrassed, but the saleswoman helps him embrace the style, with both her and Gouenji thinking the outfit suits him pretty well. This seems to mirror the subtle growth arc of the Handa and Kageno friendship I've been discussing about.

Before I finish, here's a photo that shows the different reactions of three of Kageno's teammates to his strange aura. Max, one of the few people who doesn't get scared by him (safe for an OOC moment from episode 3), is just eating happily. Megane, the resident Butt Monkey, is absolutely terrified. Handa is somewhere in between. He looks a bit weirdly at Kageno, but he still doesn't flinch.

I've been procrastinating on an essay I promised, but I'm starting to work on it now. In the meantime, here's a comparison I noticed for a long time.

Ever since I watched episode 26 from GO, Yukimura's flashbacks where he felt betrayed by Fubuki after waiting for him to practice together once again reminded me of Spinel's flashbacks from the song "Drift Away" about how Pink Diamond abandoned her (and while she did it on purpose, unlike Fubuki, the feeling of betrayal is similar in both cases).

I decided to start this year redesigning my top 10.

Lindsay

2. Kitty and Emma

3. Leshawna

4. Gwen

5. Jasmine

6. Noah

7. Zee - I already posted this before, but I'm reposting it with the rest of the batch. I also realized the problem was my account being too small, not Zee allegedly not being popular anymore, so I might still post about him when needed.

8. Bowie

9. Zoey

10. Shawn (okay, this is technically my top 11)

Total Drama version - I personally disagree with some choices

Disventure Camp version - this one is perfect