myeo

When Yuma first came to Japan, why did he go to school? Like this has been my greatest question from the very first time I watched the series. Yugo told him to go to Japan and find his friend in Border, so why go to school? What made him think that was the best idea? If I was in his shoes, and my father told me my entire life that Border was an organization that tried making friends with neighbors, I would think that a friend of my dad’s is a friend of mine. I would’ve waltzed right up there. I get that he’s a seasoned vet, and is weary of new places, yada yada, he wanted to get information first. But why go to a random middle school to get that information? What made him think that other children would have the answers when Yuma's idea of Border at the time was very different to how it is now.

What’s even the point in enrolling in school, especially because he was so ready to bounce ship three days later? Like, “Oh yeah, I’m the new transfer student, it’s good to be here!” And fucking disappear a few days later. What? He was NAWT planning on staying. If I was in that class, I would've been hella confused. It’s not like he would've been around to deal with it, so it’s no skin off his back, but still. He also came to Japan ready to give up his life and die. So whyyyyyyy school??? I like to think that he simply wanted to know what it felt like lol, but realistically I can’t wrap my head around those decisions. I am a firm believer that if he met Osamu some other way it would be a lot more realistic. Maybe then I wouldn’t have all these goddamn questions lmao. 

I also wonder about how he even got enrolled. Honestly, I’m not very well-versed in Japanese, um, like school laws(?), and I grew up in the midwest so im only really familiar with my state's laws and my perspective is a little limited, I guess, so I’m curious. Like you have to have a parent or guardian sign you up, right, so how did he do it? Did Replica forge documents? Did they lie? Did they put down Replica as a contact or smth or did they put down nothing at all? Or are there laws where you can be emancipated at 15? Because even if he could be emancipated, I highly doubt he’s registered in the legal system anyways. There’s no way that would be possible. I think at this point in the series he’s still not registered anywhere, because how tf would they even go about that, right?

And that brings me to my next question. How is Yugo’s status registered in the system? He kind of just straight up dipped, so did anyone report him as missing? Dead? Governments usually like to keep track of those things (esp for benefits and taxes and stuff), so I would be very surprised if they just let someone disappear and not do anything to update legal documents. Maybe he reported it as moving to a different country? But he would have to be very specific about addresses and stuff, so it would be difficult. I’m pretty sure he just left one day and did not do anything about it. At least I haven’t come across any information that would tell me otherwise. So, If he’s still technically alive in the Japanese legal system because no one did anything to change it, could Yuma have affiliated himself with Yugo to enroll in school? My guess was that they probably did not do that lol. 

Also how tf did they get an apartment? Literally when I first watched the series and Replica mentioned an address, I was like "HUH???" I thought that Replica just made something up to get the police off their backs, but then Iater it mentioned he actually lived somewhere I think??I mean, Yuma has plenty of money, but how did the system allow him to get an apartment without guardianship or emancipation status? Idk if you can even be emancipated in Japan. I tried looking it up and got very unclear answers. I know he’s living at Tamakoma now, but I'm pretty sure it was stated somewhere that he had his own place of residence before moving. If they did put Replica down as a “guardian,” that would fall apart in seconds if anyone had the brains to double check. Replica is most definitely not a legal person in any system anywhere. It would be forgery. 

ANNNDD another point, switching gears here. That’s enough about school and apartments cuz it makes my brain hurt. This is not a burning question about the logistics of the story, but something I personally wonder about. 

I wonder about Yugo’s relatives, namely his parents. I don’t think he had siblings because they’re never mentioned. But everyone has parents, it’s just a question of whether they’re alive, dead, or not in your life for another reason. It’s probably a situation similar to Yuma’s mother where “readers can assume she died” because Yugo said to go find his friend and not Yuma’s mom. He did not tell him to go find his parents lmao. I’m guessing Yugo is similar in age to Kido, so he would've been in his late thirties or early forties when he died. That’s VERY young, and you would assume your parents would still be alive if they didn’t die from unnatural causes. Like my parents are 60 and one of my grandparents is still alive.

It also makes me wonder why he never mentioned them, to our knowledge. To be fair, Yugo didn’t mention anyone from Meeden besides Mogami. It seemed like he didn’t talk much about Meeden at all.

So that leads me to picture a couple possibilities.

The first is that his parents are actually dead. I like to think that they actually died from neighbors, and that’s what initially sparked his interest in the other world and what drove him to help establish Border. The simplest possibility, pretty much all I have to say about that.

Another is that they are alive but he didn’t have a good relationship with them. It would make sense, in a way, to never mention them if he never wanted Yuma to know about them because of a strained relationship. I can also imagine how disappearing one random day could strain that even more. Or if investigating people from another dimension created tension. Especially back then when the Neighborhood was relatively unknown. It would look like a wild goose chase from an outside perspective that didn’t understand. 

And the least likely possibility but the most fun to think about: they are simply still alive and kicking, Yuma just doesn’t know it (lol). Yugo never mentioned anyone he knew besides Mogami, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he just didn't mention them either. They might be living in some part of Japan, not necessarily Mikado, but just living with the fact that their son disappeared one day and they had to move on with their life, unaware of anything. Or maybe Yugo told them, but they haven’t heard anything since. Neither Yugo’s parents or Yuma know the other exists, and it’ll stay like that because there’s no reason for either to think otherwise. 

I like to think about the possibility that Yuma might have some living relatives left because it's so goddamn depressing to know that he’s completely orphaned. Ashihara made quite the point to make him alone. Like no relatives anywhere. Like his mother is dead, her parents are probably dead because they made no effort to go see them in the Neighborhood (to our knowledge), and she probably had no siblings, so no aunts or uncles or cousins. Nothin’. Nada. It was just Yugo and Yuma. BUT Yugo had this whole other life that he didn’t talk much about for some reason. So it’s possible to think that maybbeee he has grandparents on his dad’s side. 

And I think about this because it’s very common for authors to simply not think about characters not relevant to the plot. I know I don’t. Like my ocs? I don’t really think about or develop their families (because most are adults), and they’re not mentioned unless they serve a purpose. It could be very likely that Yuma’s grandparents aren’t mentioned or exist in the story literally because the author put no thought into them whatsoever. And honestly, no other character in the story has their grandparents mentioned (I think), even though we can guess that many of the characters probably do have them. But there’s also people like my twin (hi bestie, if you see this) who puts so much thought into every single character, down to plotting out multiple generations of characters with extensive family trees, and then developing ALL OF THEM. Even if they’re not in the story, we know they exist. I don’t know how they do it fr. So, either the author did not develop it to that point or he does know they exist and they’re just dead, and we as readers can assume they’re dead too.

BUT if they were dead, why? Neighbors, disease, car accident, idk, could be anything and we’ll probably never know. If they were alive, they’d probably be between 60-70 years old. Which is old but not like… that old to be dying of old age? So yeah. 

IIIII don’t know. It’s fun to think about. Still also tearing my hair out about the decision to send Yuma to school right off the bat. It does not make sense to me. Like I cannot be the only one who’s thought about this. But hey, it was entertaining so who cares about logistics. I just like to know things lmao.