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if we’re comparing new tl sousuke to old tl no3 mitsuba then yeah i see what ur saying !!!

minor disclaimer !! i haven’t reread tbhk in a bit. i’m probably going to misinterpret stuff. this is slightly unedited. halfway thru writing this i realized how broad the analysis was coming out. so yeah!

i’ll be color coding their names for anyone who gets confused. new timeline sousuke mitsuba is in pink, old timeline number 3 mitsuba is in red.

new tl sousuke vs old tl no3 mitsuba — maturity

maturity is a state where someone has developed physically, emotionally, and intellectually. maturity comes with age and or experience. so it’s obvious that there is already a difference between sousuke and mitsuba in this field.

new tl sousuke has a whole life of experience (actually going to school, being friends w kou) vs old tl no3 mitsuba was created by tsukasa as a pure supernatural (only sees memories through the mirrors, but never experienced it himself).

ch40 and ppa shows pretty well how mitsuba doesn’t have the same experiences as either version of sousuke once had, and he likely never will. he’s never gna have a childhood, a middle school experience, or ever growing up with kou.

ignore that i can’t find any eng translations for the earlier chapters lol

because of their differences in experience, their will be differences in maturity.

past experiences — always needed?

some people are naturally born with an initiative, and don’t always need experience to back that up. whether it’s in their personality or their fight or flight, both sousuke and mitsuba know when to take action. both mature roles.

in alterations, sousuke (even if he’s frightened) knows to trust kou’s ideas when dealing with supernaturals. he even rips a yorishiro. in ppa, mitsuba knows how to snap kou back to reality. he can balance what’s realistic and what’s not.

past experiences — might be needed?

despite personalities and such, sometimes past experiences are needed to shape a person’s motivation.

new tl sousuke pursues his goals, maybe because this timeline gives him the chance to do so. he’s the president of the photography club, he’s an inspiring upperclassman to others, he’s literally living the dream og sousuke wanted. no3 mitsuba is a supernatural. supernaturals, especially the 7 mysteries, are known for giving up quickly. they have such big goals, yet the second it seems out of reach, they give up.

so is there a difference?

i’m gna be broad and it depends on the aspect. both sousuke and mitsuba are just as caring for people close to them. they know what they need to do in times of trouble and will take action when they need to.

when it comes to their individual goals, experience creates maturity. backgrounds do too—sousuke got to live a whole life (and didn’t die the way og sousuke did) vs mitsuba is a pure supernatural. sousuke got to pursue his goals, mitsuba’s mindset as a school mystery is to give up easily.

hiya anon!! yay i’d love to ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

beware there is gna be a lot of text lmao this turned into a small analysis so i will be tagging as such!!

hoto summary !!!

hanako of the opera (hoto) was an au from 2020 that centers around the mystery of who poisoned the popular singer (mitsuba). thru the event, the audience is led to believe the phantom (hanako) poisoned him, but it turned out it was the patron (kou) who did. kou poisoned mitsuba in an attempt to save mitsuba from the opera house, because mitsuba was being overworked and no longer had a passion for singing.

hoto opinion !!!

hoto is literally my favorite of all the tbhk au’s omg. i think it captures mitsukou and their dynamic so so so very well. i make many analyses about kou and his desperate / big acts to suffice mitsuba’s wants. and i think hoto embodies kou’s desire of making mitsuba’s wish come true really well.

we all know that kou would do anything for mitsuba, and he would go really far lengths to make that happen. for eg in canon, he’d jump off a building because mitsuba wanted everyone dead & he exorcised his first supernatural in an instant because mitsuba was hungry.

the hoto au is another version of this idea. mitsuba needed an escape. desperate minamoto kou poisoned mitsuba in order to get him out of the opera house.

kou’s actions are often driven by impulse. he even admits he didn’t think his plans would go well as they did. many of his actions in the manga aren’t even all that thought through; he just runs with it if it sounds right at first. because with more thought, who would be desperate enough to jump off a building or exorcise a supernatural for its heart??

i love how hoto aligns with kou’s canonical thoughts. like seriously in every universe, he’s always going to be devoted to mitsuba and desperate to make his wishes come true no matter what they are.

hoto implications !!!

i always believe that aidairo’s aus & ashk chs are foreshadow of real events about to happen in the manga. for eg, the kisaragi train station au & the alterations au & ashk ch27 released around the same time, lining up in themes with the main character waking up in a foreign setting & ending in doom nd despair.

hoto was released in 2020, immediately after ch65. in chapter 65, we’re given a break from the sacrifice of the grim reaper arc. and guess who’s pov we switch to. kou minamoto’s pov!!! and isn’t it so ironic that one of the first things we notice kou realizing is his impulse.

kou’s desire is being wanted. in every universe it will always be that. he desires being wanted in a way that he can help others, do things for others, make sure he can provide for others.

he’s not just desiring this though, he always tries to take his privileges into consideration. in the canon, he is well aware that he is an exorcist with a sixth sense. he wanted to take action after sousuke’s “death” in the mitsuba arc. he knew that he had some kind of power to change the way of the world, and he wanted to utilize that somehow.

in the hoto au, the exact same thing happens.

for desires, kou wanted to take action when he noticed mitsuba’s passion for singing was falling out. mitsuba felt burdened by the other phantom (tsukasa) to continue this role, and it never sparked the same feeling in kou’s heart whenever he watched mitsuba sing afterwards. so he did what he could: he acted impulsively and poisoned mitsuba so they could escape together.

he knows what he did wasn’t morally right. he knows he could’ve seriously hurt mitsuba if something went wrong. he still doesn’t even know if things will end up okay in the end, because everything he is doing is out of impulse and he is not thinking things completely through.

for privileges, (a lot of it is implied but) we can take from kou’s role as the patron AND as a viscount that he has connections. AND he is the younger brother of the one who runs the opera house. he’s even able to score the old villa (that probably belonged to his family at some point?) thanks to teru, so that he and mitsuba could hide out there and even stay there for awhile while mitsuba recovered after being poisoned.

what could this mean for mitsukou in the canon?

since this au is 6 years old now. which oh my gosh wow time flies. i feel like a lot of it’s foreshadowing has already been shown through kou’s moments of acting impulsively and going far lengths in acts for mitsuba’s sake. but it’s obvious that these kinds of moments are gna come up again, especially with how mitsuba’s story will tie together.

there are so many outcomes: kou dying and becoming a supernatural (impulsive & a big act), kou becoming a supernatural by eating a spn piece (impulsive & a big act), kou giving up his heart for mitsuba to eat (impulsive & a big act), kou finding some desperate way for mitsuba to become a human (impulsive & a big act)—you see the trend right. whatever kou does, he is going to be self-sacrificial about it. but he would do it anyway because it is for mitsuba. just like in hoto!!!

but hoto ends in a bittersweet way, and probably the happiest way for mitsukou in their other universes. which leaves the inevitable outcome, even after any act kou performs, mitsukou is likely going to end up together forever. even if kou sacrifices himself somehow, even if he is not physically there because mitsuba eats his heart, they’re gna be together. bittersweetly or not. that’s how i see hoto as foreshadowing anyway.

(UGGH for some reason tumblr isn’t letting me put in the screenshots so i’ll update this with them attached ASAP)

1. Okay, people do talk about this one, but Nene is taller than Hanako (I love when people remember this in fanart!)

2. Kou is canonically in remedial classes (and he’s failing them. Even art class).

3. In the very first chapter, Teru admits that he’s been in love with someone for a while, but we don’t actually know who it is. He could be lying, or maybe Akane’s suspicions are correct and he likes Aoi. In 2018, while AidaIro was answering fan questions, they were asked if the person Teru likes really does exist and they answered yes. Personally, I think the one he likes is Akane himself, but that’s just my own theory…

4. Nene is strong enough to pick up Hanako. One could argue it doesn’t count because he’s a ghost and can float, but remember she’s ALSO strong enough to pick up Akane.

5. The Minamoto family has a cat.

6. Natsuhiko makes ASMR videos “for kittens only.” Are they good? Probably not, but maybe he has a gift. As a member of the Broadcasting Club, he has access to some recording equipment.

7. When Akane is upset, Nene shows him pictures of Aoi to calm him down.

8. Sousuke was good at cooking when he was alive, but inexplicably lost all ability to when he became a ghost. We know that he was never really hungry in this chapter of ASHK and just wanted to spend time with Kou, so maybe he’s just pretending to be catastrophically bad at cooking.

9. Akane collects books with characters named Aoi in them. Apparently, he’s never read TBHK though, which is too bad because there’s definitely more than the average number of Aois in that one. He would absolutely love it.

10. Satou claimed he almost fell in love with Teru once. Also, both he and Yokoo had crushes on Aoi at one point, but Akane took care of that pretty quickly.

11. Natsuhiko’s necklace is actually a gift from Sakura. Or… so he says.

12. Nene bathes as a fish. I see people all the time wondering how Nene takes baths/showers, but we actually have the answer to this! In one bonus comic, Hanako invites Kou to spy on Nene taking a bath. Kou refuses and freaks out, but it turns out Hanako is just admiring Nene’s adorable fish form as she swims around in a fishbowl.

13. Aoi once walked in on Akane professing his love to another girl. Unbeknownst to her, he was actually just helping out a mokke. And that girl was actually a mechanical doll child.

the short answer: chapter 48 dialogue!

kou says immediately that he doesn’t have a death wish, he wasn’t planning on killing himself whatsoever before the literal moment he pulls himself and mitsuba off the balcony.

the long answer: kou is not suicidal; not once does it imply that he wants to die, but he is willing to go desperate lengths to make people happy.

one of kou’s main and well-known character traits is his impulsiveness. he knows it too. he goes head first into situations without properly thinking them through. so as soon as he hears this train of thought from mitsuba:

“i know [tsukasa] doesn’t give a crap about me -> but who will make my wish come true? -> not even you minamoto kun -> i wish everyone was like me and would just die”

kou immediately takes it as mitsuba doesn’t see him as reliable. he wants mitsuba to rely on him. he wants mitsuba to need him. and impulsive minamoto kou of course is gonna think:

“ok, then want me to die? then i can be with you forever”

again, kou had ZERO intention of dying before mitsuba brought up how he “wanted” everyone else to die!!! kou’s need to be relied on is so great that it drives his impulsiveness. especially when it’s said by mitsuba.

like don’t forget, this is the same boy who’s heart’s greatest desire is mitsuba asking kou to die for him so they can be together. like kou KNOWS that he himself is willing to go to great lengths to make mitsuba’s wish come true.

mitsuba is usually the driving factor in kou’s reckless behavior. of course mitsuba would never actually ask kou to kill himself, because mitsuba knows how much kou is valued by the people around him and he refuses to be selfish. but that doesn’t mean that kou doesn’t envision it happening.

and if anyone’s thinking: “oh but ch48 was a long time ago, what if his idea of death changed with the recent chapters?” lmfao knowing all the trauma he went thru afterward it’s sooo possible but no, because here’s ch90:

hakubo asks him if he wants to die. kou says no. he clarifies it’s not death he wants—it’s to make people happy. no one relies on him, people think he’s stupid and not useful, he wants to prove them wrong.

he is willing to die for others’ happiness. but it’s not what he wants. because of course kou “putting everyone else’s priorities before his own” minamoto is going to make sure everyone else is happy before he gets to think about himself!

tl;dr — kou is not suicidal, he is just impulsive and puts others’ needs before his own. if his death solves everyone’s problems (in his mind) then he is willing to die for that purpose. but he does not want to die.