RaiMurasaki1316

what do you think of the writing for onk?

I find it very underwhelming, it has its strong moments but overall its meh. I don't think aka balances the entertainment industry and revenge aspects well and both sides suffer from it.

This is pretty much how I feel about it as well. I think Aka is kind of trying to do too many things at once. It's an idol story (but we hardly see B-Komachi), a reincarnation story with supernatural elements (which have only become relevant since the apparition of Crow Girl), a revenge story, a story about the different types of love, a revenge story, a murder-mystery, a critique on the entertainment industry...

Sometimes Aka blends the themes in well, other times the story picks up steam only to get side-tracked because it needs to also give some attention to one of the things listed above.

Aka's writing is also very closely tied to his emotions. So, as long as he is personally interested in a topic/a character/a dynamic, he will write some really cool stuff. As soon as he loses interest, he will phone it in. This was really apparent by the end of Kaguya lol

In either case, I'm waiting for the ending before truly making up my mind on how I feel about his writing. It'll all depend on whether the strongest aspects of it triumph over the weaker ones, so jury's still out on that one.

i feel like aka wants aqua to not go through with killing his dad but then why make him into a serial killer?

I don't think Aqua will kill Kamiki, but I think Kamiki will get his comeuppance either way.

It's really kind of you to give my thoughts a chance even on ships we don't agree with, anon! ;-; Thank you! ❤️

Right? I too wondered if Akane already had them, because it's so suspicious that we're never shown her eyes! The one thing that made me more or less abandon that thought is this exchange:

It seems to imply that Akane got that stare after Love Now, most likely because she finally gained the self-confidence enough to be "selfish" before the camera.

All in all though, I still think it would've been really interesting if Akane actually already had them. Maybe she did and they were just less developed, kind of like this:

Akane doesn't want what's best for Aqua, she's just an enabler—

All Akane has wanted to do all along is help Aqua the same way he helped her. When Aqua told her that his goal was to kill someone, Akane said she would help because she realized that the best way to support Aqua was to share his burden with him, so he won't feel all alone anymore.

(Spoilers for the most recent chapters under the cut!)

Akane doesn't want what's best for Aqua, she's just an enabler—

All Akane has wanted to do all along is help Aqua the same way he helped her. When Aqua told her that his goal was to kill someone, Akane said she would help because she realized that the best way to support Aqua was to share his burden with him, so he won't feel all alone anymore.

(Spoilers for the most recent chapters under the cut!)

I'll wait until they're done covering their mini arc to post my overall thoughts about it, especially since they're switching things around for reasons unknown.

There was one thing that had me like this though

(Just in case: this post contains manga spoilers!)

Akane's observation on the top-left right here:

"Meeting Kamiki reeled in [Ai's] self-destructive urges."

Granted, what Akane doesn't know is that it worked the same way for Kamiki and that meeting Ai is what reeled his destructive urges, period. But I digress!

I felt like that inclusion is meant to serve as commentary for what we witness in regards to Aqua and Akane during this set of episodes. Aqua knows that if he goes down the path of revenge, all that awaits for him is self-destruction.

What stands between him and those self-destructive urges is his genuine desire to be happy, and Akane is the person who has come to embody that happiness for him.

So just like meeting Kamiki 'reeled in Ai's self-destructive urges', being with Akane has reeled-in Aqua's.

Another reason I really dug the inclusion of that line is that by subtly inviting anime-onlies to draw a comparison between Kamiki and Ai and Aqua and Akane, it also invites us manga readers to compare what we know about KamiAi's relationship to what Akane tells Aqua here:

The kind of relationship Akane would like to avoid having with Aqua is precisely the kind of relationship Ai had with Kamiki.

Sadly, we know that Akane's gamble doesn't pay off, but I still really liked that the anime pretty much referenced the way KamiAi/AquAka parallel each other.

Funnily enough, this is the second time they have pulled something like this. Though last time it was just an easter-egg lol

It's been a while since I've needed to make one of these 😂

How it started:

Playing myself and not dropping OnK because of Akane

The beginning of the Akane brainrot (back when I didn't ship AquaKane) + 1

How it's going:

This is a theory that will be based on Buddhist cultural elements as well as a symbol of self-destruction by jealousy, hatred, obsession with inferiority and sibling rivalry that this character represents 🧵

The problem is that many people argue about why Kokushibo forgot his ex-wife's face and justify it by saying "Just because she's boring or unimpressive", no it's not the author's interpretation of this character

Try asking why he forgot his mother's face and his children's face, the people who are considered Kokushibo still have a positive impression of them??

I want to share more about the reason why Kokushibo forgot the faces of everyone in his family except Yoriichi, which I recently delved into. It was the consequence of Michikatsu being abandoned. The fact that Aohizan (his ex-wife), his children, his mother, and his father had their faces forgotten in his memory was not a coincidence, but a direct reflection of Michikatsu's own actions and choices.

Emphasizes anonymity and representative role: Mother (Akeno): Represents the good qualities, care, kindness that Michikatsu inherited and received from her

Father: Represents strength and victory with the Samurai spirit, but not to the extreme. These are the Samurai principles and qualities that Michikatsu was taught (however his father did not clarify what the true value of victory and strength of the Samurai is)

Aohizan and children: Symbolize the lasting peace and stability family he has.

(No!! I don't mean Michikatsu is romantic with his ex-wife but he certainly doesn't despise or hate her)

And one more thing is that Michikatsu abandoned his ex-wife and children NOT because this marriage had problems or it was a place that made him miserable or suffocated, but the reason he abandoned his old family was because he was jealous, hated Yoriichi and wanted to have the same power as Yoriichi, Fanbook 2 and Michikatsu's inner monologue in the manga admitted this.

All of these people brought positive values to Michikatsu's life and he had no negative feelings towards them, either emotionally or physically, before his collapse.

Abandonment is the cause of fading: Michikatsu threw everything away with his own hands - wife and children, humanity, Samurai honor - and that is why they became faded, faceless, nameless in his memory. He actively erased those values and people from his life, and as a result, the memory of them gradually faded, becoming only abstract concepts of loss.

Or to be more precise, Michikatsu also betrayed the values that his parents, wife and children had given him.

Yoriichi in Kokushibo's memories: Symbol of mixed emotions and obsession: The fact that Yoriichi is the only person Michikatsu/Kokushibo always remembers the face of is not because he is the only person who matters in the pure sense. Yoriichi is a symbol of many mixed emotions: admiration, jealousy, obsession, desire for recognition, and also self-doubt.

Extreme Idealism and Blind Pursuit: Yoriichi also represents the extreme ideals of power and perfection that Kokushibo blindly pursues. He becomes the embodiment of the illusion of power that Kokushibo believes he must achieve in order to surpass his younger brother.

The Degeneration into a Demon:

When Michikatsu abandoned everything and became Kokushibo, he became exactly that, a cold, bloodthirsty, aloof, ruthless demon, obsessed with power and victory, blindly pursuing illusory power, and living in a demon world filled with turmoil and negativity. This transformation was a direct result of his choices and obsessions.

In Buddhist culture, Kokushibo is a heartbreaking symbol of self-destruction due to hatred, jealousy and sibling rivalry. These negative emotions led him down a path of self-destruction, loss of humanity and finally death filled with regret for his choices, realization of the futility of it all, despair and doubt of the path he chose.

In Buddhism, Greed, Hatred, and Delusion are the three main poisons that cause suffering and samsara. Jealousy, rivalry, hatred, and Kokushibo's obsession with power all fall under these three poisons.

This is the law of karma and Kokushibo's punishment. He actively abandoned the people who brought him peace, love, and human values (father, mother, wife, children). As a result, his memories of them faded, even their faces disappeared, as a reflection of his own act of rejection.

Haunted by what he wanted to forget: On the contrary, Yoriichi - the person Kokushibo hated, envied and wanted to forget, the person who represented his obsession and failure - was the person whose face he could not forget. This was the most cruel punishment. He accepted the pain and degeneration to overcome Yoriichi, but Yoriichi himself became a permanent psychological shackle, unable to escape.

This is the "karma" of jealousy and hatred: Michikatsu sowed the seeds of jealousy, blind ambition, and betrayal. The result is that he is forever haunted by the object of his jealousy, never attaining true peace, and dies in confusion and regret for what he has lost and cannot regain.

The him regretting everything in the end

It is also his depth, which is also the value, the warning for anyone who gets caught up in jealousy, hatred and sibling rivalry so that later on they will destroy themselves and harm others, to later be too late and unable to turn back

Kokushibo is a prime example of how jealousy and hatred can corrode a person. He destroyed himself (turned into a demon, lost his humanity, died in despair) and caused terrible harm to others (family, Demon Slayer Corps, Muichiro). His tragedy highlights that when these emotions take control, people can go too far, to the point of no return, no matter how much regret they have.

Buddhism regards jealousy (妒嫉) and hatred (嗔恨) as hindrances, mental obstacles that cause suffering. Kokushibo's story is a clear demonstration of how these emotions completely destroyed his happiness and development. In Buddhism, rivalry, especially between brothers, is often seen as a form of greed and hatred, causing suffering and division. This makes me think of the wooden flute that Kokushibo himself had cut off, which he had always kept with him, perhaps because deep down he still loved Yoriichi, but the cutting off was destruction and division for both of them.

As in the end Kokushibo is left with only obsession, jealousy, hatred and rivalry mixed brotherly love and admiration with Yoriichi, all regrets of his choices, doubts about his path, realizing everything he did was meaningless and dies in despair.

Tora ships JiraTsu, always has and is pretty vocal about it to Tsunade. She’s not going to sleep with him and ruin his shot with Tsunade.

Tora had a mini crush on him as a child, because look at him. LOOK. AT. HIM. Cute.

But seeing your crush like your cousin very obviously while also having a lot of pride as a kid, landed them in a friendly but distant zone (but she’s still going to appreciate his handsomeness)