#analysis asks

Ichirou:

The framing of Ichirou's story is one of the most fascinating--and, imo, well-constructed--aspects of Hypmic's story to me. The 1st "season" of Hypmic introduces Ichirou's core character problem (an inappropriate need for self-sufficiency) through the eyes of Jirou and Saburou. We see that this issue exists, but because it is framed as concern for Jirou and Saburou's well-being in difficult and dangerous rap battles, we accept that this need for self-sufficiency is neither inappropriate nor irrational. Side material like songs and merch go on to frame Ichirou as both the protagonist of the series and a heroic, supportive character--a famous rapper, one pillar of TDD, and the caretaker of his two baby brothers. All of these things are true, but they are only a small picture of Ichirou's character. We, the audience, are not seeing Ichirou as he sees himself. We are only seeing a persona that Ichirou has worked to cultivate--Ichirou in the eyes of the world or the eyes of his little brothers. In season 2, within the very first pages of the TDD manga, this illusion is shattered. Seventeen-year-old Ichirou provides for his younger brothers, yes, but does so by being a hired thug. Ichirou digs himself out of this hole and reclaims his dignity, but only after Kuukou persuades him to do so (DH/BAT chapter 11). Ichirou is responsible for starting and running the Yamada Odd Jobs business, but he's never done it alone--the business idea and the building itself come from Samatoki (DoD chapter 6). (This is why I say the "Yamada Odd Jobs" sign's shadow, when it hangs over Ichirou's head, is a symbol of Ichirou's hypocrisy. Yamada Odd Jobs was not built alone!) Even raising Jirou and Saburou is not because Rei abandoned the trio--Ichirou is shown to have turned away from Rei and taken his younger siblings with him*, preventing them from making their own choice to go or stay with Rei. Seasons 2 and 3 Ichirou is a flawed and human character, one whose choices hurt as well as help people. From season 2 on, the story is no longer external to Ichirou but internal, enabling the reader to emphasize with this flawed figure.

* Hypmic frames Rei abandoning his three children as Ichirou's decision, but if we think about this with any degree of realism, it becomes obvious that, no matter what a young (I don't know his exact age, but from the way he's drawn and the fact that Jirou and Saburou don't remember their parents, he can't be much older than elementary school age) child thinks about their father, you do not simply allow your eldest child to take the other two and go. It really and truly does not matter whether Ichirou, aged 7 or whatever, was like, "I hate you, Dad! I'm going to run away from home." Seven-year-olds are notorious for saying "I hate you!" and "I don't want to live with you!" We do not honor seven-year-olds' decisions on the matter because they're seven. They are not adults with adult reasoning and adult ability to navigate the world. We especially do not let them take their five- and three-year-old little siblings with them and if, for some reason, we do not have the ability or desire to raise these kids ourselves, we are still responsible for finding competent adults to raise the children in our stead. To do otherwise is neglect. The decision to frame Ichirou as the one responsible for Rei deserting his kids annoys me on a storytelling level because it does not cohere with the level of emotional maturity and complexity Hypmic acts us to expect from characters at most other times. This is the kind of framing that would work in a children's story, but the rest of Hypmic is not a children's story. Hypmic has this issue with most of its antagonists who are also main characters (Rei, Otome, Ichijiku, Honobono to a much more limited degree). We are supposed to both empathize with these people as competent, complex adults and also accept that they make goofy, Team Rocket-esque decisions to further other peoples' story lines. In one scene, Otome is a sympathetic character with 100% valid frustrations about the way she, as a woman, is disenfranchised in her society. In the next, she's building a Meowth balloon with an electricity-proof net to capture Pikachu a stadium with a sibling-killing button in the center to break up the friendship of two men under the age of 25. Like. Okay. These are not the same character. Otome and Rei the people are not Otome and Rei the plot devices, and it is vexing that Hypmic asks us to pretend that they are.

Because Hypmic is a story about gender (among other things), I find it fascinating that all 1stgumi members have core conflicts that are closely associated with masculinity. (I jokingly call TDD "the four horsemen of toxic masculinity.") This isn't to say that these issues only exist in men--they don't! Not by any stretch of the imagination!--but they are common issues for many men because of the gender role that is traditional masculinity. Furthermore, 1stgumi are divided into pairings (Ichirou/Samatoki, Ichirou/Kuukou, Samatoki/Sasara, Ramuda/Jakurai) to explore multiple ways in which the same core issue can manifest. I'll talk more about these core issues in other segments, but in the case of Ichirou--and, as a corollary, Kuukou and Samatoki--we see the traditional masculine provider role manifesting as a need for self-sufficiency that bulldozes over the wants, needs, and comfort of the self and others. And we empathize! It's very clear that Ichirou's desire to be hyper-independent was not created in a vacuum. Ichirou feels that he needs to play the provider role and not rely on anyone else because poverty and parental neglect have followed him for most of his life. If not for Ichirou, who will make sure he, Jirou, and Saburou, will have clothes to wear and food to eat tomorrow? That Ichirou has been able to be such a provider is admirable; at the same time, we also recognize that the provider/hero persona (as seen in season 1) is just that: a role. Ichirou wields it like a shield to hide a lack of trust and fear. He can't not be Ichirou because that means no food, no clothing, no safety. And to be Ichirou is to be alone. He can't accept or ask for help; to do so would be to drop the shield. To do so would to not be Ichirou.

Building from the above, Ichirou's need for self-reliance overlaps with Kuukou's desire for the same. Early in the series, Kuukou says this in no uncertain terms: "A man's got to wipe his own ass" (thank you Kuukou, very cool) (DH/BAT chapter 4). However, Kuukou's desire for self-reliance stems from a different place than Ichirou's (fear); Kuukou is chafing against a system that he feels has no place for him. Kuukou doesn't want to accept help from other, especially older people because doing so would be similar to saying that he doesn't have all the answers, something that he dearly wants. Samatoki also has a need for self-reliance that, like Ichirou's, clearly stems from financial and emotional instability in childhood. However, while Samatoki also insists that he can take care of himself and his family, Samatoki is very different from Ichirou in that he constantly seeks and accepts help from allies. Samatoki finds camaraderie, community, and supporters he can outsource tasks to via his street gang and yakuza gang, but Ichirou accepts help from his community on a purely transactional basis. Ichirou and Samatoki are both figures in their community, but while Samatoki has underlings and a civilian community to accept help from, Ichirou has employers and clients.

Again, this need for self-reliance is treated sympathetically, and we as the audience understand just why Ichirou has embraced the masculine provider role with a death grip. But we also see how this need tramples over his little brothers' desires to be independent individuals and alienates Ichirou. It is only when Ichirou relinquishes some of his iron control over this role and accepts other peoples' support that he flourishes and grows.

Samatoki:

As mentioned in the Ichirou section, Samatoki draws other people to him and extends an umbrella of protection over them. This first manifests with his protective--to the point of being overbearing and stifling--relationship with Nemu and later with his guardian role for all of Yokohama via his yakuza gang. It is very, very pertinent that losing Nemu is the trigger for Samatoki leaving his street gang and being recruited by the yakuza. While not as common as the street gangs in the urban USA, Japan does have youth street gangs that are not incorporated into clan-like and rigid yakuza structures. Samatoki's first gang provides Samatoki much-needed community and purpose; however, the yakuza provides Samatoki family. Yakuza groups borrow the language of family--the "gumi" is literally a clan, the boss or "oyabun" the adoptive father, the members or "kobun" the adopted children, and underlings or "shatei" the little brothers of elder kobun. Samatoki loses his sister and gains a new father, new brothers, and a new territory over which to assert his self with violence.

To build off the previous point, Samatoki's core conflict can be viewed as a conflict with his relationship to violence. It is self-evident that Samatoki's fractured childhood--a violent and alcoholic father and a mother who murdered the father before committing suicide, implied to have been done in front of Samatoki--is a destabilizing force in Samatoki's life. Much like Ichirou, Samatoki would have had to raise his younger sibling with little, if any, support while single-handedly processing (or not!) the traumas of his childhood. Because violence is a presence in Samatoki's life from day one, it remains a part of his and Nemu's life. It isn't stated outright, but I am going to assume--on a personal note, but from having lived through similar circumstances and extensive research on the topic--that Samatoki simply doesn't question violence's role in his life because it never occurs to him to do so. It's too normalized. Samatoki surrounds himself with violence (via a street gang) because that's what he knows, and he asserts himself--Samatoki the protector--with the tool of violence. He threatens to beat up any boy who might threaten Nemu; he fights with rival gangs or salubrious figures to keep his neighborhood "safe." (In quotes because Samatoki is simultaneously adding to the level of uncertainty and violence in the neighborhood.) Again, the audience empathizes, even as we see how this stifles--and probably retriggers--Nemu and elevates neighborhood crime levels. Over the course of Samatoki's story, in tandem with Juuto and Riou, Samatoki must learn how to decentralize violence in his life and relinquish the protector role (which comes from a fear of losing people) to avoid hurting the very people he wants to protect.

Unfortunately, I think this point is undercut by Samatoki continuing his yakuza activities and ending his most recent drama track (Time for Heroes) with the meaningless platitude "we will change society...eventually. Off-screen." This is a larger problem with Hypmic--individual change is allowed and encouraged, but true structural change can't exist outside of broad, silly strokes because of the writers' reluctance to suggest a specific vision for society. On the one hand, Hypmic is a silly music project, and I don't expect it to be a visionary of societal change. On the other hand, Hypmic is rooted in--is fundamentally about, even--the societal issues of misogyny and toxic masculinity. While male characters can grow as individuals and relinquish some of the hold toxic masculinity has on them, female characters have no such luxury because the societal causes of misogyny/toxic masculinity are never addressed. Otome and women like her will not magically be franchised in government when the Party of Words leaves power. Nemu and girls like her will not suddenly have no reason to fear violence and harassment from random men or be overshadowed by the men in their life who fear the same thing on their behalf. It is not simply enough to say "We should treat each other better" when "better" is a nebulous term. There is no discussion of what can be done to prevent more alcoholic and physically abusive fathers, more suicidal and homicidal mothers, and more hurting and hurtful Samatokis and Nemus. Weapons may be outlawed, but the cycle of violence rumbles on.

Samatoki's relationship with violence and MTC is outside of the scope of this post, but I'd like to briefly examine how this intersects with his 1stgumi counterparts Ichirou and Sasara. Like Samatoki, Ichirou uses violence to create a protector/provider persona, although Ichirou is quicker to relinquish this tool than Samatoki is. It is clear that Ichirou's forays into violent means are just that--forays. Violence has not been a constant in Ichirou's life since early childhood outside of the nebulous and infrequently considered influence of WWIII. Ichirou is able to set it aside when Kuukou urges him to, whereas Samatoki can not shrug it off so easily. It would leave too large a hole in Samatoki's life, and Samatoki does not have healthy ways to fill such holes. (See his smoking and drinking habits, particularly after Nemu leaves him.) The comparison with Sasara is, imo, especially fascinating because Sasara doesn't have much of a relationship with violence. Instead, Sasara uses comedy to fill much the same role. Sasara relies on comedy both as a means to avoid engaging with his own emotions and to keep loved ones (esp. Sasara's divorced parents; note the focus on family!) close. Sasara and Samatoki are as dislike as can be on the surface but bond easily because, deep down, both are struggling to make sense of an uncertain and unstable life in similar ways.

Ramuda:

I already talked about his storytelling at length in the post that inspired this ask, so I'll only add on a few things relevant to the topics discussed above.

Related to the asterisked footnote in Ichirou's section, the enslavement of the Ramuda clones is another major factor in my difficulties with Otome's, Ichijiku's, and Rei's stories. I want to stress that I dislike Otome's writing so vehemently not because I think her grievances with the sexist society that she lives in aren't valid--I do!!! I really, absolutely do!--or that I think she's not an empathetic character. I also don't think she's silly because she's a woman in power, and I'm very cognizant of the harms of not taking her or other Party of Word characters seriously just because they're women. However, I'm really, really frustrated that, once again, we are expected to empathize with Otome and Ichijiku while brushing off their enslavement of the Ramuda clones as cartoon villainy. Let me be clear: Rei sells human beings to the Party of Words. The Party of Words enslaves these human beings, physically abuses these human beings, and orders these human beings to kill themselves. These enslaved human beings die under the Party of Words' care frequently, and when technology is developed that would prevent them from being killed in vast numbers, it is not to save their lives or give them a better quality of life. It is to scale up the work the Party has these enslaved human beings do. The lives of human beings are framed as a bottleneck in the system that is the Party of Words' cruelty. I can't take Rei, Otome, or Ichijiku seriously when they talk about human rights, gender equality, and a world free of violence when they enslave human beings and kill them. It would be one thing if the narrative treated this as a serious hypocrisy of flawed, complex people, but it doesn't. It treats enslaving and killing human beings as a momentary blip of bad judgement--an unfortunate but still successful means of achieving a greater good. We see Juuto framed in a similar light, but Juuto is working with a relatively fangless yakuza to arrest cartoonishly villainous drug dealers. Otome, Ichijiku, and Rei are enslaving and killing people. You will forgive me if I don't really care if Juuto has the yakuza on speed dial or that Otome has instituted a random man tax in a nod to the IRL pink tax. She's killing people. She's enslaving and killing people. The solution to societal sexism is not enslaving and killing people. Ichijiku is not getting back at the man when she slaps or kicks people that her government has enslaved. Rei is not a well-meaning scientist who has gone perhaps a bit too far when he sells people to the government for the purpose of being killed.

As a brief side note, I have fewer (but not zero) reservations about Honobono's clone abuse because Honobono is by and large a cartoon villain. It's not suspending disbelief so much as understanding how this act of evil fits into her larger framework of evil.

But back to Ramuda. In the linked post, I talked about one of Ramuda's core conflicts being a lack of trust in other people. That is, Ramuda is reluctant to trust his emotions to other people. This is yet another common trait with toxic masculinity, and it matches with his 1stgumi partner's, Jakurai's, issues. Like Ramuda, Jakurai is reluctant to share emotions or emotional situations with other people, driving conflicts with other characters (Ramuda, Hitoya). However, Ramuda's emotional reluctance stems from unhealthy external standards imposed on Ramuda--to show emotion is to be "broken" (again, consider the importance of this being a character trait for a male character in a series focused heavily on gender)--whereas Jakurai's comes from a place of internal fear and shame. Will sharing emotions or traumatic experiences make other people think less of Jakurai? (Again, the significance of this concern being given to a male character should not go unnoticed.) Jakurai is once bitten, twice shy about emotional intimacy and tries to keep the world at arm's length until Doppo and Hifumi forcibly invade his life for the better.

Jakurai:

Similarly to Ichirou's story line, the majority of the 1st season of Jakurai's story is told through the eyes of other characters. We are first presented with the image of Jakurai as a perfect, almost otherworldly figure. He has medical talents that incite burning jealousy in other doctors (FP/M chapter 5), superior rapping ability, and a calm demeanor. Nothing seems to get under Jakurai's skin, because we only have an external view of Jakurai. That something lurks beneath the surface is apparent--see Jakurai freed of inhibitions when drunk, which establishes that Jakurai's core issue is his desire but unwillingness to be emotionally intimate with other people, and his petty arguments with Ramuda--but we aren't treated to a view of what this is until seasons 2 and 3, when the facade of perfect Jakurai is destructed to nothing. It's not that nothing gets under Jakurai's skin. Everything gets under Jakurai's skin. Jakurai is filled with feelings that are too big for him to handle, so he bottles them up and hides them away so that they--and he--won't hurt other people. Jakurai is obsessed with being selfless to the point that it becomes a matter of ego (Not for You, the most recent MTR drama track, states this outright). It's a wonderfully executed and fascinating way to introduce the complexities of his character.

Seasons 2 and 3 Jakurai is rather pitiful (I say this with love), which is reflective of the degree of self-hatred that Jakurai holds for himself. We see in season 1 that the whole world holds Jakurai to perhaps impossibly high standards, and in later seasons, we see that the standards Jakurai holds himself to are even higher. Of course Jakurai can't save every person on Earth or turn back the clock to stop Yotsutsuji being put in a coma/never have killed people. But Jakurai considers those to be unacceptable failures, and through his great love of humanity and unfailing care, he puts himself into situations where he inadvertently does more harm.

To expand on the above point, I know I never shut up about the lack of explanation for Jakurai having been an assassin. Hypmic plays coy with many character backstories, and I generally don't have an issue with this, but I've always found it an odd writing choice when this should be a veritable goldmine of expansion upon a theme. Jakurai is a character devoted to doing no harm, and he has committed one of the greatest harms of all--murdering outside of self-defense or a war zone. What would compel such a highly moral character to betray his core morals? It hit me recently as I was watching FMOD that we have other examples of Jakurai doing something unthinkable (sort of...more on that in a moment) because the temptation for positive change is too great. Jakurai considers killing Hitoya's elder brother's bully (FP/M+ chapter 6) because he perceives it as the only means to bring this person to justice; Jakurai also considers killing himself (Not for You) to bring Yotsutsuji out of his coma. Additionally, Jakurai goes through with colluding with the Party of Words (FP/M+ chapter 11) to, once again, bring Yotsutsuji out of the coma. The problem (at a writing level) with all three of these situations is that no consequences come from them. In the first two, Jakurai is stopped or stops himself before he goes through with his decision to kill, and in the final situation, Jakurai just kind of...doesn't do anything for the Party of Words...? Being Tuxedo Mask ("My work here is done." "But you didn't do anything!") is hardly a betrayal of one's moral fiber, but it does suggest that Jakurai's moral core is highly susceptible to outside influence. Jakurai's desire to do the right thing is great in volume but lacking in iron fortitude.

I don't want to talk too much about trauma, healing, and being a societal outcast because those are Matenrou-wide themes, and I've tried to limit myself to 1st-gumi content in this post. It's already taken hours to write.

But I do want to bring up selflessness in relation to Ramuda, his 1st-gumi counterpart. Unlike the direct comparisons of most core conflicts, Jakurai's and Ramuda's contrast sharply. Jakurai wants nothing more than to be selfless, so much so that it influences him to act selfishly. Ramuda wants nothing more than to have a sense of self, and in spite of his (again, understandable) navel-gazing in early seasons, he automatically commits acts of selflessness. In TDD and KP interactions, Ramuda's willful insistence on having fun and trying new things is exactly what Jakurai wants but refuses himself. I don't mean that Jakurai wants the material goods that Ramuda insists upon; he's clearly not invested in buying sugary drinks or having Ramuda braid his hair. Rather, he wants the emotional intimacy that comes with spending time with a friend, and he's only able to get that because Ramuda is offering himself up so freely. There is an additional layer of complexity in that Ramuda is also hiding what he understands as his "real" self, and TDD/KP Jakurai is as welcoming of that (see TDD chapter 9, "I'm happy that I think I caught a glimpse of the real you) as Ramuda is of Jakurai's (somewhat) hidden desires for real emotional intimacy.

Sasara:

While Sasara is afraid of emotional intimacy as well, this is a broader issue of being uncomfortable with negative emotions. Sasara can't sit with negative emotions in himself or others, and he uses humor as a means to ameliorate tense situations. While humor isn't inherently negative, Sasara's humor is both a crutch and a cudgel that can clumsily wound those around him. His falling out with Roshou is the chief example--had Sasara been able to engage with Roshou's feelings of inferiority or his desire to leave the group, things might have turned out quite differently. However, when faced with a situation that Sasara can't joke his way out of, Sasara shuts down. When Roshou says he wants to leave their two-person comedy group, all Sasara can say is "Okay."

Sasara's extended reaction to Roshou's departure is also telling. Instead of pursuing a solo act, Sasara takes a break in his career and moves to Tokyo with the stated desire of "taking a good look at who I am" (DH/BAT chapter 7). However, this is prompted by Sasara being uncomfortable with sitting alone in his apartment and recollecting Roshou; he is literally running away from his feelings. He also goes to Tokyo to find a replacement for Roshou (Samatoki) and immediately attempts to mold Samatoki into a comedian. This ends disastrously (DoD chapter 4), but Sasara remains with Samatoki because, in a truer sense, Samatoki does replace Roshou as a plug for Sasara's emotions. Sasara doesn't have to think about the things that bother him when he's clowning for either Roshou or Samatoki. (There are other aspects that tie Sasara and Samatoki together, and it's clear that Sasara likes each for their own merits. Nevertheless, joining Samatoki's gang should be understood as a way to avoid confronting his feelings.)

Using humor as a crutch is not even remotely a men-only trait, but dodging one's own emotions is a classic element of toxic masculinity, hence why it's explored through the trio of Sasara, Roshou, and Samatoki.

Sasara's desire to avoid deep relationships (stated outright in DH/BAT+ chapter 3, "I was pretty broken up about it when [my parents] got divorced... It taught me how fragile relationships are. How easily they can be broken. And that's when I decided to only ever have shallow relationships.") is just another way Sasara's inability to engage with his feelings manifests. Sasara fears relying on other people (also DH/BAT+ chapter 3) or maintaining close bonds with other people because the inevitable fallout would hurt too much to process. Rei (and Roshou, to a lesser extent) must push him again and again to engage with his feelings seriously.

Kuukou:

I unfortunately need to leave for a class shortly, so this one will be a little brief. (Sorry, Kuukou fans!) Kuukou's a funny character. He has a desperate need to prove himself and be a monk--a leader of people--on his own terms. His volatile relationship with his father encourages him to seek out a "family" of people he can trust (Ichirou, Juushi, Hitoya), a family that he goes on to lead. The problem is that Kuukou doesn't know how to be a leader, and he believes that being a leader means doing everything alone. He possesses some innate talent for guiding people through difficult situations (DH/BAT chapter 4, DH/BAT chapter 9), but he isn't perfect. Kuukou is eager to overextend himself, racking up egregious consequences like a broken arm or legal trouble.

Similarly, Kuukou's advice or intervention can fail when engineered alone. When Kuukou stops Hitoya from litigating a man involved in the bullying case that drove Hitoya's brother to suicide, Kuukou ultimately succeeds by telling Hitoya that Hitoya isn't alone--he has Kuukou and Juushi (DH/BAT+ chapter 5). Kuukou's good instincts are tempered by the presence and wisdom of his found family--which, yes, means he needs to listen to Hitoya at times. As much as Kuukou hates doing this.

Fanservice occupies an interesting place within a work by being both a departure from the main plot or setting while simultaneously furthering the works' overarching goals. Fanservice has to be Part of the whole but also recognizably Not--to acknowledge that something is fanservice is to set it apart from the rest of the work with a knowing wink, to say that this aspect of the work is in someway closer to the fourth wall than the rest. If we imagine elements of a fictional work to be two-dimensional panels, inserting fanservice is suddenly turning this two-dimensional stage on its side and revealing that the fanservice panel is closer to the audience than all the rest. It's adding a literal new dimension to the work.

Because fanservice is meant to provide some desirable Thing that cannot be satisfied within the constraints of the main work, fanservice often exists in a quasi-universe of its own. It's like we've jumped onto a new plane--one closer to the audience--when we shifted from the previous two-dimensional panel to the fanservice panel. This plane plays by different rules. Fictional characters can seduce the audience. Men can kiss men; women, women in otherwise heterosexual universes. Then the fanservice ends, the perspective snaps back to the previous plane, and the rules of the universe resume. Fictional characters can't flaunt sexual behavior to an audience whose existence they have no awareness of; homoeroticism can't be anything more than a joke when male/female is the only flavor romance comes in. Whatever happened in the previous panel breaks the rules of the universe--so what happens to it? In most cases, the events of the fanservice panel simply never happened in the main storytelling plane. They're never acknowledged again or contribute to plot, characterization, or themes. Fanservice simply floats on its own plane, disconnected, and can only ever be evaluated in respect to other events in that same plane.

And while that makes the fanservice no less compelling (this isn't a rant against fanservice), doesn't that feel like a waste? Why include a story element if it doesn't work toward some common goal?

Well, it does! Fanservice explicitly performs a feature the rest of the work handles implicitly: defining a target audience. Other story elements (plot, genre, characterization, etc.) create a synergistic effect that suggests certain things about the author's intended reader. People who enjoy misogynistic, medieval fantasy powertrips might also enjoy big titty anime men; handsome, spindly men who solve murders and get covered in blood might also appeal to those who want to see blood-covered men making out. Fanservice rewards those audience members for finding the work and, perhaps unintentionally, can drive away audience members outside of the intended audience. Apart from sheer joy on the author's part to include it, fanservice creates messaging about in-groups and out-groups. Don't like elf titties breasting boobily at the slightest provocation? Stop watching isekai. Don't want to see bloody dudes sucking face? Get out of the ikemen aisle. And so on.

This can cause difficulties, then, when a translator falls outside the target audience. While most established translators have an (often broad) focus, there is generally an aspect of "I sure do like having money for goods and services" that informs a translator accepting a particular assignment. One of the most common complaints I see about otherwise sound translations is a translator failing to recognize fanservice cues or play up fanservice to the degree expected by the target audience. On one hand, this can be really frustrating for the audience! It's understandable to feel slighted or robbed of part of the fun. On the other hand, it can require a lot of extra, unpaid work for a translator to familiarize themself with niche tropes/kinks/etc. It can also be profoundly uncomfortable to write--and attempt to write well!--something you find morally repugnant.

I think matching the author's energies is one of the few things I'm genuinely very good at, so I put a lot of thought into fan service. What does the target audience for this particular type of fan service like, and why do they like it? How should the why factor shape the English text? (This can be fun! Weird kinks? Well, I'm not in the having sex fandom, so off to Ao3 I go. Huh! Here's a byline running through most of these fics--this must be one of the central draws of the kink. I see that same byline in the work, and now I understand the author's intent better. Let's make sure to include that in the translation. This can also be...less fun. My job is to make sexual assault and incest look hot! I'm...not a fan of either of these! I don't really like looking at them, even in fiction! But hey, let's go figure out what the appeal is and see if it can't be reproduced here! Do I feel gross writing it? Yeah, I do. Does that make it any less of my responsibility to do a good job? Personally, I don't think so.) At the same time, it's important that the fanservice doesn't become so off the walls that it fails to integrate into the rest of the translation

This ties back into the question I asked earlier: Isn't it a waste for a story element to be so divorced from the rest of the text? Wouldn't it be nice if fanservice offered something more?

Enter what I call "cohesive fanservice." (I flirted with the term "effective fanservice" but I think that's disingenuous, because fanservice usually serves a different purpose than the rest of the text.) Cohesive fanservice is fanservice that contributes to the rest of the story--be it plot, characterization, themes, whatever.

But wait! Fanservice operates on a different set of rules from the main universe. How are those different rules reconciled? This is usually handled in one of three ways:

The rules aren't reconciled, and the audience is asked to consider the implications of this discrepancy. Here's a fourteen-year-old shaking her butt for the camera in a universe where fourteen-year-olds are sexy. Now we return to the regular universe where that's not true. What does your reaction say about yourself? What does this say about how we as a society sexualize young teens? And so on. It should go without saying that this is not the same thing as pushing the idea that fourteen-year-olds are sexy throughout the entire work. There must be a deliberate attempt to challenge the audience and/or discuss the topic.

The rules aren't reconciled, and this discrepancy has consequences in the plot or characterization. In one of the jobs I alluded to above, a fanservice scene sells a "hot" portrayal of sexual assault. In the rules of the fan service plane, sexual assault is acceptable. But upon returning to the rules of the normal plane, sexual assault is no longer acceptable. Sexual assault is scary and very serious! The assaulter and her victim have a falling out, and we're forced to examine what made the assaulter ever think it was acceptable to force herself upon the victim to begin with. How the assault changes the victim and assaulter and how, if ever, the assaulter can regain the victim's trust are then discussed through the remainder of the series. The discrepancy and its consequences furthers the plot and the characterization thus contributing to the story. While I didn't like translating this scene (it was emotionally draining for maaaaany reasons), I liked what it did for the story and respected the author's choice to include it. I think it's well-written even if not personally enjoyable.

The rules are reconciled because the fan service, outside of its main premise, obeys all the rules of the main plane. Not the same thing as "there's a heterosexual explanation for this." If a character bares their boobies to the camera, then we should expect them to be interested in showing off their body outside of fanservice. If one handsome man waxes poetic about another, he should be the type to deliver heartfelt monologues in general. In a work I have truly egregious creative freedom on (and thus the equally daunting obligation to produce good fiction no matter what), I frequently run up against fanservice walls of this nature. If the author wants character X to do Y--something they never, ever do--it's my job to figure out what would compel X to do Y, how this unknown third thing interacts with the world of the story, and how doing Y affects X. This is Really Damn Hard.

And here I turn to Hypmic for inspiration, because Hypmic is often superb at this third type of cohesive fanservice.

Hypmic is so fanservice heavy it affects the series' ability to cohere--just look at any time the worldbuilding is examined with any degree of seriousness. Between the contradictory and constant needs for the characters to look Hot, act Gay, and be Goofy Goobers (humor can 100% be fanservice), it's kind of a miracle there's any consistency anywhere. Except it's not a miracle--it's really, really good character writing.

Things like ARB that are almost pure fanservice don't need to cohere; there, it's fine if the story jumps back and forth between fifteen hundred different planes because the primary purpose is to entertain. Why not have pterodactyls and also body swapping? You want hot boys too? Sure! Have little a Gentarou bare arms. As a treat. Doppo and Hifumi are confessing their undying love in the corner? Sounds good! Why the hell not! Whee!

But because none of the stakes matter (if ARB!Dice got mauled by a bear, Gentarou and Ramuda would laugh, and then he would show up in the next card alive, shirtless, and pitifully covered in glue), it's hard for audience members to feel emotions outside of levity. Now it's more important for fanservice to follow the rules of the main story plane--because if those rules break in fanservice, why should the audience ever expect them to hold at other times?

Hypmic doesn't always succeed at this, but when it does, it does it very, very well.

The Hypmic movie has lots of good examples of this, but I want to narrow in on the three First Stage leader kiss tease scenes, especially now that the official account gives us references I can legally screenshot and share. There's one that I think is very, very cohesive (IchiKuu), one that I think is not at all (SasaSama), and one that is cohesive on a technicality so bizarre it deserves to be looked at too (JakuRamu).

As a side note, this has nothing to do with my personal enjoyment of the ships--I like SasaSama and IchiKuu pretty much equally. I'm coming at this with my translator hat on, which isn't necessarily objective but is informed on "what do the authors want to convey" and not "what do I, personally, want to focus on."

Let's start with IchiKuu!

Kuukou marches right into Ichirou's personal space and forces Ichirou to lean very far back for the duration of his verse. Then, in Ichirou's verse, Ichirou reverses the position.

Kuukou is shown grinning, and his eyes flare in interest.

(Please ignore the...I can only hope accidental...innuendo in Ichirou telling Kuukou to "take his overwhelming vibes" lol)

I don't think the overall premise of any of these scenes is especially coherent (can you imagine being Juushi in this moment and sweating in nervous horror as Kuukou holds world's most wicked lean, hips fully under Ichirou's, for a solid ten seconds? The way this would blow up on the internet... The questions you, as Juushi, would not be prepared to answer... The pointed silence from Hitoya in the car on the way home... Like come on lol), but each individual action feels true to the character. Both Ichirou and Kuukou would do those things unprompted.

Kuukou is physically comfortable with Ichirou, breaks social conventions, and otherwise gets in people's personal space all the time. Here are two quick examples from DoD chapter 3, which occurs before Ichirou knows Kuukou well.

We've seen Kuukou be aggressive (often and always) and invade Ichirou's personal space in somewhat odd ways, so it makes sense that he'd do so here.

We also know that Ichirou matches Kuukou tit for tat, even when he probably really shouldn't (see Ichirou watch Kuukou break his own arm, call him an idiot, and start fighting him in DH/BAT chapter 9), so it's reasonable to assume Ichirou will ignore common sense and do the exact same thing to Kuukou.

Then, and this is the part that THRILLED me because it showed such deep understanding of the character, Kuukou grins and eats up every bit of Ichirou flexing on him.

A recurring theme in Ichirou and Kuukou's relationship is the idea of Kuukou admiring Ichirou for being "strong." From that same chapter, here's Kuukou admiring Ichirou for beating him up (and being stupid enough to try and beat him up) while expressing anger that someone so cool (again, I must stress, "cool" to Kuukou means physically ripped and dumb as a stump) would be engaged in a morally rotten pursuit like shaking people down for money.

Kuukou doesn't just want to beat Ichirou. Kuukou wants just as badly to see Ichirou beat him and delights in evidence of Ichirou's strength. That's why we see his eyes light up, and that's what cements this scene to me as an amazing piece of fanservice. It reinforces everything we know about these characters and their dynamic and would be feasible, if not a bit exaggerated in this intensity, in a non-fanservice scenario.

Unfortunately, the SasaSama scene falls flat to me for these same reasons, which is an issue a lot of Samatoki and MTC fanservice shares.

Sasara leans in close to Samatoki's mic. Samatoki backs away slightly, surprised, then leans back in with an aggressive look. The camera lingers here for a while as the same "indirect mic kiss" is repeated with the second and third liners. It's reminiscent of MTC's and SasaSama's cigarette kisses.

While I agree with the framing--Sasara doing something to surprise/annoy Samatoki is in character--I think this scene is limited by its position in the song (a chorus where everyone does the same thing; if I recall correctly there's another moment like this further in which isn't much different and similarly failed to impress me) and the need to sell the image of sexy MTC.

It's not that I think MTC is unsexy. It's that I have no reason to believe Samatoki has any desire to make himself look sexy to us.

Compare this image of suave Hifumi (FP/M+ chapter 3) to one of Samatoki breasting boobily (BB/MTC+ chapter 22).

Hifumi is an entertainer by trade. Even not in front of a in-universe audience, as is in this scene when it's just him and the BBs, it makes sense that he would swivel his hips and push his hair back for the IRL audience because he plays up to audiences.

But Samatoki doesn't work in entertainment. He wants to appear tough, not sexy, so it makes no sense for him to turn to the audience and flaunt his body. For this to look natural, the manga often showcases his physical form as incidentally attractive while intentionally threatening.

It feels believable that Samatoki would lunge at the audience and if his shirt just happens to press itself against his massive pecs... oh no... woe is us who have to see that...

This is what makes the cigarette kisses as a whole feel weak to me on a characterization level.

Take the famous SasaSama cigarette kiss in TDD chapter 5 (a chapter so old I don't have it in Japanese...). What reason does Samatoki have to look attractive for the audience? What would compel him to light his cigarette from Sasara's instead of using a lighter, either his or Sasara's?

In general, I think many Hypmic writers struggle to write in-character MTC fanservice because MTC has far fewer reasons to pander themselves. Not only do Samatoki and Juuto have a vested interest in making themselves appear unapproachable, all three have difficulty (at first) trusting one another and (later) showing affection for one another. It's one of the group's core conflicts. While some groups can fall back on shenaniganry (Ramuda tackles Dice! Kuukou whacks Hitoya on the back! Ichirou bearhugs his little bros! and so on), MTC can only do so sparingly to avoid either a) being out-of-character or b) tarnishing the group's tough guy image, which is a major part of MTC's IRL sell. As a result, MTC (and Samatoki in particular) can often feel stiff or muted in group shots, which I felt hard in this movie and in certain segments of the stage plays.

How can this be mitigated? Apart from incidental fanservice (here's a good one from DH/BAT chapter 11--Samatoki lost his lighter in a fight, so he's forced to ask--and therefore trust--Sasara and just so happens to be a pretty boy in the process) and the odd MTC goofball moment, I'd love to see more authors lean into MTC's desire to have connections.

Here's an example from the BB/MTC+ epilogue that handles a group shot with stupendous ease. In it, Samatoki is watching the Buster Bros and Fling Posse after Fling Posse wins the 2nd DRB, swears, is prompted by his teammates, and leaves with a promise that MTC will win the next DRB. This is nothing exceptional--virtually every MTC loss in every medium ever goes exactly like this--but the presentation changes everything.

The deliberate pacing, the focus on Samatoki's attention, the refusal to show Samatoki's eyes/facial expression after the close-ups on the teams hugging, the stark shot of the palpable distance between the MTC members, the hunch in Samatoki's shoulders, and the close-up on Juuto's left-behind cigarette tell a completely different story than "Grr, I'm so tough I'll swear and say 'we'll get 'em next time.'" Suddenly, MTC isn't reticent because it's cool. It's that they're so stuck being cool it forces them to be reticent, but that's a heavy burden and not one MTC bears lightly. That's completely in-line with their characterization and a fantastic take on them! I want to see more like this!

As for what to do about the SasaSama kiss tease... I'd love for them to have justifiable, in-character actions that in turn support their dynamic. Sasara getting in Samatoki's face is fine; he can easily do so if his purpose is to annoy or as part of a physical gag. Samatoki can then fall for the bait and lean further in or grab Sasara by the collar and tug him forward intimidatingly--here's that happening in canon in DoD chapter 4--whereupon we can have another, less surface-level interaction.

Sasara and Samatoki's theme is partnership, so a good piece of fanservice should lean into that. Either Samatoki could suddenly finish the joke (as part of a verse, perhaps?) Sasara started (causing Sasara to be surprised, then elated) because Samatoki's a dork and a softie at heart--source: literally all of canon--or something happens to Samatoki's mic, necessitating Sasara to offer his and letting Samatoki finish the verse from Sasara's mic. (Sasara can still remain in kissing distance to chaperone it as need be.) Inherent trust, leaning on one another, etc. etc. I get that it's difficult to stress partnership in an adversarial scenario, but there's really so much room for creativity here. It's a shame we didn't get more.

Maybe the writers were saving all their creativity for whatever the fuck Jakurai and Ramuda were up to.

In this scene, Jakurai advances at Ramuda during a verse. Ramuda backs up, loses his balance, and falls on his backside. Jakurai, in a certified Jakurai moment, kneels down until he's straddling Ramuda and delivers the rest of the verse a few centimeters from Ramuda's lips. Ramuda blushes. (His model blushes often and freely in the film, including several other times Jakurai's around.)

In some versions of the film, there's a shot of this from the back where you can't see what's going on. This is a common visual shorthand for kissing or sex in JPN media.

Ramuda eventually has enough, flips Jakurai over, climbs on him, and repeats the same procedure. Jakurai looks vaguely unamused like he wasn't the one who started it.

I can't begin to pretend this is a sensible thing to do, so I won't. I cannot formulate a single good reason for Jakurai to have done this. (Ramuda has a weak case for payback, and I'd even understand it if Ramuda started it, since he gets in Jakurai's face to a) be obnoxious and b) bring Jakurai "down to his level" all the time--but Jakurai???) There's an element of entertainment in the DRB which allows us to suspend our disbelief for choreo and other flashy movements, but this isn't choreo and Jakurai is not a flashy character.

However, I can't knock it as hard as I knocked the SasaSama bait because, in ass-backward fashion, Jakurai has canonically exhibited so much inexplicable behavior toward Ramuda in the name of fan service that it's in-character for him to act bizarrely around Ramuda.

This psuedo-canonization of Jakurai's freakshit rests on three things:

Jakurai's universal character trait of socially atypical behavior and difficulty understanding social dynamics. Because Ramuda also behaves atypically and is inappropriately touchy-feely/affectionate in general, this gives all their TDD shenaniganry credibility. It's not. Hmm. It's not not distracting and obvious fanservice whenever Jakurai stares at Ramuda for five panels and the mangaka busts out the lens flares, but there's a whole canon's worth of characterization that the assertion "Jakurai is oddly hung up on Ramuda" can comfortably rest on. We see Jakurai nursing a similarly long-lived (if less in our faces every second of the day) hang-up on Hitoya.

Good lord, the sheer quantity of it. Like DoHifu or GenDice, there are so many examples of fanservicey behavior to point to that they can't all be written off as flukes. That is, we can accept to some degree that Samatoki and Sasara didn't really rap a chorus in kissing distance according to the rules of Hypmic's main story plane--romantic relations between the characters don't canonically exist and, uh, it'd be awkward to be that close. We can't write off every single instance of Jakurai being weird at Ramuda without it breaking the story. To some extent, lack of romantic relations be damned, Jakurai and Ramuda are getting handsy and being obsessed with each other.

Some JakuRamu fanservice is coherent fanservice type 2--it breaks the rules of the main story plane (no gay time for rappers) and this has consequences. Characters will remark that Jakurai and Ramuda are atypically close or even that they obviously want to be closer, two such conversations of which take place in this movie. Here's a more obvious example in the TDD vol 4 bonus. Samatoki and Ichirou find Jakurai's Ramuda-braided hair weird (there's flag 1, socially atypical behavior) and comment on the two of them being especially close (flag 2).

Here's Samatoki being annoyed at their bullshit as a freebie. (I just love the way the mangaka draws him here haha. "What the hell does that [made-up word Ramuda pulled out of his ass to describe him and Jakurai] mean?" He's so long-suffering.)

These three factors essentially instate a rule in the story plane such that, left to their own devices, Jakurai and Ramuda will engage in largely inexplicable shipbait behavior. Which is outrageously funny.

GenDice and HifuDo fall in the same camp, with the latter having somewhat stauncher reasoning (lifelong best friends) than the former (Gentarou, uh...gets a kick out of fucking with Dice). The thing is, whereas this was undeniably intentional with HifuDo--we see this degree of shipbait laid out for them in the earliest pieces of Hypmic media--and arguably so with GenDice, I genuinely don't know if the Hypmic writers intended for JakuRamu (especially Jakurai) to progress in quite this fashion.

While it's clear from creator comments that there is a central writing team and that creators are expected to follow certain mandates from this team, creators are also given a surprising degree of creative freedom. When one creator--a voice actor in a live, a stage actor in a show, a manga artist in a chapter--does something the central writing team/other creators think is clever, this will be picked up and added to the character. One example of this phenomenon is Kuukou backflipping, something first introduced in the stageplay and now ported to the movie. So while early drama track Jakurai is not unreasonably hung up on his old friend and betrayer Ramuda, the manga artists came out the gate swinging with their own agendas. As other manga original content was added to Jakurai's character (much of his body language in the stage play is from the manga; the hand motif is largely from the manga), I can't help but wonder if this came along for the ride. Sure, JakuRamu was always meant to be a marketable ship, but did the writers intend Jakurai to be the driving force of so much of it?

In conclusion: Did these three kiss teases feel "earned" to me?

IchiKuu? Yes.

SasaSama? No.

It's also something that went way over my head when I first became a Hypmic fan. Sure, I read manga and played Japanese video games--usually translated into English first--but I didn't have enough exposure to hundreds or thousands of pieces of untranslated Japanese media. I'm going to guess that most Hypmic fans don't either, which is totally fine and normal. We all exist within our respective cultural communities wherein we're bombarded with messages constantly telling us how to act, think, and speak. We tend to absorb these messages on subconscious levels and reflect them in the art we create and stories we tell, either by reinforcing them or challenging them. Thus, our stories don't exist in a vacuum, and divorcing stories from their cultural backgrounds can suggest the artist is the original thinker of a larger concept or hide their specific point of criticism. That is, if I wrote a story about a man who chooses to not catch fish, drink beer, and drive a Dodge Ram pick-up truck, we should be aware that I'm not the person who conceptualized the stereotype of dudes who catch fish, drink beer, and drive pick-ups. I wouldn't deserve the credit for dreaming up that exact image, and at the same time, it would be incorrect to read that as me targeting those three things randomly. The choice to not drive a Dodge Ram pick-up is not a commentary on Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. It's a stand-in for the notion of masculinity.

Thing is, we're hit with messages about masculinity, femininity, and other gender-related concepts on a daily basis. No matter where you live or what language you speak, every person on Earth is inundated with messages saying, "This is what you are, and consequently, this is how you should act." Our relation to these messages is complicated, and this complexity is compounded by different cultural communities preaching different messages in their stories, marketing, and human interactions. For instance, the US's massive global cultural influence means that those outside the US can still easily recognize what I mean by catching fish, drinking beer, and driving enormous American pick-up trucks. But the location and cultural differences may add or subtract nuances. A person living in, say, Munich is unlikely to have Dodge pick-ups advertised to them the way a person in rural Texas would. Our fictional Munich person does not feel the same social pressures to buy a Dodge and represent their masculinity with a Dodge the way our imaginary Texan would. In turn, the Munich person likely sees a Dodge with an element of absurdity--who the hell needs such a big truck in a European city?--and foreign Americanness. The Texan wouldn't have that concern--why worry about navigating your enormous truck down narrow streets when you live in the countryside?--and sees Americanness as their local default, thus removing any element of foreignness.

That is to say, gendered messages aimed at people (especially women) who live in Japan don't affect me the same way as they impact those who do live in Japan. Like, it's not my dog in the fight, and there are plenty of people who are directly affected who write their own stories and commentaries on gender roles in Japan. Japanese women don't need a random guy in the US to stand up and say, "Damn, your gender roles are fucked!" 1) They already know. 2) They're already saying it. So I come at this from an angle of someone who already has deep, primary frustration with the gendered messaging in my culture and secondary frustrations when similar messages appear in other cultures. I don't have a bone to pick with Japanese media in particular. Plain and simple, reading and working on hundreds of pieces of Japanese media is what I do for a living. It's in my face constantly, and as a result, I am also perpetually bombarded by messages about gender roles in Japanese media.

It's not a hot take to say that Japanese media, like the media of every single other culture around the globe, has a lot to say about gender. There's a lot of slotting people into boxes and telling people what to do. It's chafing, as we see all across history in art produced in reaction to gender roles. In the past couple of decades, global shifts in gender roles have caused media to shift the messages they're pushing, but it's not controversial to say that Japan has lagged behind other countries like the US.

Many, many stories push arbitrary notions of how to be a girl or how to be a boy that don't necessarily come from the author themselves. The authors probably aren't even fully conscious that they're making these choices. If an author writes a story about a library and makes every female character a romance fan and every male character an action fan, it's likely a reflection of endless messaging that says action is for boys, romance is for girls. In turn, this story becomes yet another reinforcing message. If no fictional girls like action, and no fictional boys like romance, it becomes alienating for real girls and boys who don't follow these same rules. These rules are everywhere and have so much to say about gender that it's hard to know where to begin. Girls must like cute things. Boys can't like sweet food. Women must not express sexual desire. Men can't be shy. On and on and on.

Which is why, when there's a relative lack of this in Hypmic, it's kind of a breath of fresh air.

Wrong Ways to Be a Man

Actually, Hypmic does have a few moments where characters claim there are certain things men or women should do, but the writing always frames these messages as incorrect.

Take Samatoki, for instance. After Kuukou and Sasara leave MCD, Samatoki tells Ichirou, "Men shouldn't cry when they lose their friends. Men should only cry when they lose a family member."

(TDD chapter 10)

This line usually appears via Ichirou's perspective. In the stage play, it's told during a song Ichirou narrates, and as shown above in panel 3, the manga frames the line from the angle at which Ichirou sees it. In such moments, the audience is meant to read this as a cool line from a strong mentor figure to Ichirou. That's how Ichirou sees it, and he's a seventeen-year-old with too much on his shoulders who idolizes Samatoki. He is incapable of seeing how much pain Samatoki struggles with.

However, when the manga focuses on more intimate moments of Samatoki's life, we see that Samatoki does struggle quite a lot.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 6)

This isn't a cool, attractive figure meant to be idolized. While Samatoki's cigarette usage and aggressiveness are often framed as sexy or enticing, the juxtaposition with dirty laundry, overflowing ashtrays, and empty bottles make him a sympathetic and struggling figure. Therefore, we should understand that his notion that men don't cry is flawed. It's a means to distract himself from emotions he doesn't want to feel.

Later, as Samatoki begins to process his emotions and open up to his teammates, the unhealthy coping mechanisms recede. Samatoki is more confident, mature, and happier as a result of being more emotionally vulnerable.

We see a similar transformation with Kuukou. As a teen, Kuukou is reluctant to accept help or truly let anyone in. In a conversation with Hitoya, he says (and I am still completely unable to take this seriously), "A man's got to wipe his own ass."

(DH/BAT chapter 4)

However, over the course of his character arc, Kuukou learns that he cannot exist as a good leader or individual without the teamwork of his newfound "family." Only rejecting this classical and toxic notion of masculinity brings Kuukou joy.

In fact, most of the first-line characters have very similar arcs. At the start of the story, Ichirou is insistent on doing everything himself. He has to learn to be able to rely on other people (Kuukou, Samatoki, Ichirou and Jirou) to be happier and unlock his true strength. See below, his final attack and Ability use in the 2nd DRB, which is only possible when his brothers figuratively and literally support him through it.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 25)

Sasara struggles with emotional honesty and trust in favor of using humor to gloss over discomfort. It takes multiple heart-to-hearts with Roshou before he can let humor take a backseat and say how he really feels. Ramuda has difficulty trusting other people and being honest with his emotions when faced with stressful scenarios. Only through Fling Posse is he able to open up and ask for help instead of driving people away when the problems are too big for him to face alone. Jakurai struggles to connect with other people, work through and acknowledge his complicated feelings, and not place himself on a pedestal. Through Matenrou, Jakurai is able to ask for help, be more open, and ultimately be less hard on himself.

The second- and third-line characters follow similar arcs, and this repetition creates a core message for Hypmic: Trust and rely other people. Be open with your feelings. There's a wrong way to be a man, and that's to hurt yourself and other people.

Right Ways to Be a Man...Are Infinite!

But with that being said, there is a surprising lack of commentary on how else to be a man. Hypmic as a whole doesn't do much to constrain the male characters in terms of gender roles.

Sure, some characters do fit into more traditionally masculine roles--Ichirou, Samatoki, Riou, etc. The messaging makes it clear that it isn't wrong to play into masculinity provided it doesn't become toxic. (See above.)

Even then, however, these especially masculine characters are associated with less masculine traits that are either portrayed positively or not portrayed as a joke. Riou is an avid cook, but the joke is never that he wears an apron and knows his way around an outdoor kitchen (tee-hee, men don't cook!). It's that he cooks with horrifying ingredients. Samatoki is a fashionista, but the joke is framed as a counterpart to Ichirou's nerdiness.

(DoD chapter 1)

Here, it's funny that neither of them can shut up (the ペラペラ/blah blah SFX, the long bubbles filled with lots of text that's cut to indicate they kept going for longer), but the object of their attention--a model toy and a pair of jeans--are treated in the same neutral light. It's very common for stories to touch on, even defensively, the social taboo of men being into clothes. Hypmic doesn't even acknowledge that such a taboo could exist.

This is subtle but extraordinarily effective in giving characters the same consideration and weight. The more feminine characters are always treated just as sincerely (or, if there's a joke to be made, irreverently) as the more masculine characters. Take Ramuda, for instance. In Japanese media, a love of sweets is often characterized as feminine and will often be remarked upon, even in LGBT+ media, as atypical for men. Again, there's zero acknowledgement of such a thing in Hypmic. Whenever other characters talk about Ramuda's food intake, it's always framed as a concern about the lack of nutrition.

(FP/M chapter 11... I don't have the source lying around on my computer, so here's the old-ass scanlation lol)

It's also given the exact same weight as anyone else's junk food habits. Here, MCD goes out for burgers (a neutral to masculine-coded food due to the meat and high calorie count) while Ramuda opts to try a sugary Starbucks-esque drink. The parallelism in the comic's framing suggests that the two objects are functionally the same, and there is no comment that a sugary drink is feminine and therefore "inappropriate" for Ramuda. There's also no indication that MCD's preferences are in any way better. They simply happen to be the characters' personal preferences. The punchline is two groups splitting up, only to awkwardly run into each other again moments later.

(DoD volume 4 bonus comic)

Similarly, Ramuda's interest in clothes or fashion is never treated negatively--in fact, the discussions of clothes as a means to find identity and happiness make it a positive!

In ARB cards and promotional materials, Ramuda sometimes wears dresses. It's, again, portrayed in parallel to other characters wearing more masculine clothes and is never commented on as something "unusual." It's just who Ramuda is.

Hifumi is another interesting case. Like Ramuda, his playful personality often doesn't as stereotypically masculine. (To be clear, I read much of this as "gender neutral with a strong emphasis on youth" versus "feminine" in a way that I'm not sure has a good US equivalent...metrosexual/yuppie men's fashion, maybe? In the sense that it's a youth subculture that defies some masculine gender roles but is still focused mainly on men. I wish I was more well-versed in Japanese men's fashion and could give an exact term, but I'm what I'm thinking of is definitely an established thing--young, trendy dudes whose styles focus on poppiness vs. the rugged manly man or "idk, I'm just some guy" subcultures. It's a thing that pisses off old Japanese conservative men in the same fashion as people getting up in arms about "the gayz!!!1!" and their androgynous clothing lol.) Their personalities are often the butt of jokes, but only in the same way that Dice or Doppo are--that is, that they're exaggerated and over the top. There's no commentary on masculinity or lack thereof.

There are also moments when Hifumi, Gentarou, or other characters play feminine characters in roleplay moments, which is usually (but not always) not the sole joke. The audience is supposed to find it funny, but the humor is almost always centered on the absurdity of the scene as a whole. For instance, in a moment where Hifumi and Doppo are pretending to be two drunk karaoke-goers, the humor comes from the composite set-up of Hifumi's hair twirl, Doppo's untucked shirt and tie, Doppo and Hifumi's exaggeratedly flirtatious poses, the spotlights and sparkles, and the same font as used on classic karaoke machines.

(FP/M+ September 2022 oneshot)

Hifumi and Doppo do not perform traditional gender roles in their homelife, and while it's easy to see and often commented on in the English-speaking fanbase when it comes to Hifumi, I find it just as prevalent on Doppo. It's true that Hifumi is taking a feminine role by doing the majority of the household's cooking and cleaning, but if we were to assume Doppo has the masculine role in the household, he would have the breadwinner duty. However, he isn't the main source of income for their household, and he's just as unassertive in finding a (female) romantic partner as Hifumi is. Japanese men are bombarded with media messages stressing the importance of taking an active role in career and romance. That Doppo does not would, in many stories, make him the butt of a joke for not living up to masculine gender roles. But he isn't; instead, Hypmic portrays him as a sympathetic character. It's tough, Hypmic says, for people to get good jobs and maintain friendships/relationships as an adult.

Similarly, it's noteworthy that Hifumi's self-appointed term "Gigolo" is consistently portrayed as a good thing in Hypmic. The meaning of the English term aside, the Japanese word ジゴロ (jigoro) is almost always used as an insult for a man who is financially dependent on one or multiple women. In the strictest sense of the term, Hifumi is a jigoro in that his income derives from his female clients. However, there is never any shame associated with that, and as a whole, Hifumi's career as a host is shown to be a positive thing. I can't express enough how rare that is in any sort of semi-serious media. Certainly, Hypmic acknowledges that his job requires too much drinking (Doppo's verse in Hoodstar), but the overall portrayal is overwhelmingly positive. Hifumi and his coworkers are never treated as uneducated, boorish, or pathetic for "failing" to find other work that does not require flirting with and entertaining women. (This is partially due to the overlapping judgment with sex work.)

All the various harmless preferences and personality traits of the male characters are treated equally with no judgement over what's masculine or non-masculine. Within the broader context of Japanese media, this absence of judgment stands out and reinforces one of Hypmic's core themes: Differences make us better, not worse. In the end, Hypmic suggests, there's no one right way to be a man.

Right Ways to Be a Woman...Are Just as Infinite!

But what about women? This series is, after all, marketed mainly towards women, and while female audience members can no doubt extrapolate the lessons learned from the male characters, it's worth taking a look at the female characters too.

The female characters do receive much less screen time than the men and are not the focus in the series; I'd argue that's less an issue of overt sexism and more that they fall out of focus in the story the writers want to tell. (There's a broader discussion to be had about inherent sexism in the writers' focus which goes hand-in-hand with rap industries across the globe favoring men and rap being an example of exaggerated masculinity, but that's a topic for another day.)

Even so, the framing of the female characters is interesting in a couple key respects. The individual character arcs and motivations of the main female characters are, in my opinion, some of the weakest parts of Hypmic--many times, Otome and Ichijiku do things because the plot demands them to, making them look incompetent or needlessly cruel for characters we're supposed to sympathize with. Nemu's story seems to be handled with more care and takes an interesting twist, wherein she openly acknowledges that she's disenfranchised as a woman in modern Japan but rejects the notion that she needs to find strength on either Ichirou or Samatoki's (male) terms. By choosing to be strong in "her own way" (whatever that means...it's not well-defined), the authors are using Nemu to reject the notion that strength and power are inherently masculine.

What I find to be far more interesting is the character design for the Chuuouku women, both in what is said and what is not said.

To begin with, the characters and their portrayals run the gambit from highly sexualized to completely non-sexual. Some characters (especially Ichijku and Honobono) have conventionally attractive, curvy body types and are often drawn in ways that highlight their bodies.

(FP/M+ chapter 4)

(FP/M+ chapter 14)

In some cases, especially Honobono's, the enticing nature of the illustrations is framed as the character's choice; in the above, her words indicate that she wants to seduce the off-screen listeners. The images included above are largely representative of these characters' raps, regardless of illustrator.

But on the flip side, other characters with large breasts or hips are never drawn in a sexual fashion. By way of comparison, here are two shots of Nemu rapping.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 12)

Even in shots with dynamic poses, no attention is drawn to Nemu's figure in any sort of provocative sense. Nemu touches her chest, drawing the reader's eye there, but the artist does not emphasize the size of her chest--they're allowing a chest touch to be no more than an emphasis of the self. At the same time, Nemu's body isn't downplayed. We can see in panel 2 on page 2 that Nemu has a small waist and wider hips, but once again, she isn't being sexualized. The action lines draw the reader's eye to Samatoki and thus put the action first and foremost. This creates the idea that not only can characters portray themselves sexually, but they can just as easily choose not to.

We see similar with Otome, who does not wear any sort of revealing clothing and is never shown in a sexual fashion. However, Hypmic doesn't equate revealing clothing to sexual portrayals either! While I wouldn't call Tsumabira's outfit revealing, she does have more visible cleavage than most Chuuouku figures. However, her bare chest is never sexualized like Ichijiku's.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 4)

Compare the non-emphasis on the chest and the power stance to any of the many shots of Ichijuku where her breasts are front and center in the camera. Speaking of power stance, Tsumabira remains confident in her power stance without being sexy--that is, no stepping on the camera and showing her whole leg.

Which isn't to say that Tsumabira is a sexless character. She's drawn visibly turned on by the male characters in such a way that is cartoonish but not, in turn, overly sexual. Were this supposed to be titillating to the reader, I would have expected to see a larger close-up on her face and tongue. However, the artist (who is no stranger to focusing on tongues!) devotes the majority of the panel to Tsumabira's body language (which, again, doesn't absurdly exaggerate any of her proportions or focus on her chest) and covers part of the mouth with text bubbles. Tsumabira is drawn as engaging in sexual behavior without being sexualized for reader entertainment.

(FP/M+ chapter 4)

The juxtaposition of such different views with little to no judgement attached to any of them suggests that it's perfectly okay to want to be sexy or not, to wear revealing clothing or not, to be involved in sexual situations without being the object of sexual interest, or to simply exist with an attractive body type without sex ever coming into the equation. Just as some characters choose to tie bodies to sexiness, some don't whatsoever--and either is perfectly fine!

The former idea ("I can choose to be sexy") may not sound especially revolutionary to US audiences, where sexuality is thrust upon women willingly or otherwise, but I find it fascinating because it lets the main characters embrace this idea without associated slut shaming. So much of Japanese media insists that women should be sexy but are also wrong for wanting to indulge in their own sexuality. Therefore, having characters who run virtually every iteration of take on the topic (I want to engage in sexuality and be sexualized, I want to engage in sexuality without being sexualized, I don't want to engage in either) with multiple body types (ie, Tsumabira isn't automatically not sexualized because she has a smaller chest; Nemu isn't automatically sexualized because she has a bigger chest) and no judgement involved feels like another breath of fresh air to me.

As a whole, I find the diversity of the Chuuouku uniforms and character appearances quite interesting. They're undeniably all feminine and relatively militaristic, but different characters wear entirely different wardrobes. Skirts vs pants, blouses vs dresses, high heels vs boots... Since every character has her own take on the common theme, it once again feeds into the idea that each character is her own individual and perfectly valid for defining femininity in her own way.

Haircuts, too, range from longer and more feminine hairstyles to pixie cut-esque looks.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 16)

Again, nothing of the framing suggests this short-haired woman is in any way different from her longer-haired counterparts on the edges of this screenshot.

Finally, while most Chuuouku women are conventionally attractive, I find it extremely compelling that Haebaru is a stereotype of an unattractive Japanese woman. To be extremely clear, I do not think these stereotypes should have weight, but the combination of chubby and/or muscular build, freckles, rounded nose, and non-glossy hair is often used as a visual shorthand for unattractive or otherwise undesirable women.

Sure, it's not fantastic that Haebaru is a scheming, two-bit villain. However, so is virtually every other female character in the series, and in particular, Haebaru is (the conventionally attractive) Tsumabira's counterpart. Both are treated with the same respect or lack thereof, suggesting that one's appearance has nothing to do with your ability to be a no-good baddie. Ha ha ha.

It would be lovely if the female characters were fleshed out further and given intelligent choices and diversity outside of the realms of physical appearance. However, I do think the writers' choices are limited by virtue of all women automatically being antagonistic side characters (which, again, is another discussion altogether). What the writers can and have accomplished is further reinforcing a celebration of differences. Just as there's no one right way to be a man, there's an infinite number of ways to be a scheming snake of a woman HAHA.

Intersection with LGBT+ Topics

Unfortunately, this is a very binary look at gender and gender roles, which, while largely representative of the current state of Japanese media, can be disappointing.

Hypmic appears to want to steer shy of LGBT+ topics as a whole, which is a bit of a shame. In a story so focused on gender and acceptance of diversity, it seems the natural next step to explore the notion of those who experiences don't align with a strict gender binary. Such stories are growing in popularity in Japanese media but have yet to be anywhere near the mainstream acceptance in US media (which is still in a fledgling stage at best). I would imagine Hypmic's writers are unable or unwilling to take a definite stance on these topics in the work due to fears of financial or career backlash. If nothing else, the sexuality of the main characters needs to remain in a limbo in order to have plausible deniability for both self-shipping and shipping with other characters. (Some deniability may be more plausible than others.)

The few instances in which Hypmic does wander into this territory are usually clumsy. I am no fan of the handful of scenes where male/male attraction is supposed to be funny purely by virtue of being male/male.

The inclusion of Urumi, the one minor character explicitly LGBT+, is not stellar either. I am hesitant to apply any definite label to her, as the real-life people her stereotype portrays self-identify as everything from trans women to cis men--or refuse to use these English labels at all! Still, we know from her profession (proprietor of a bar heavily implied to be a gay bar by the neighborhood it's in), appearance (poofy permed hair, exaggerated make-up), and demeanor (feminine speech style, a bit flirtatious) that she's AMAB and choosing to present herself in a feminine fashion. By writing Jirou to ask, "Aren't you a man?" in an exasperated fashion, the writers have put her gender presentation in a boke role--suggesting she's over-the-top, exaggerated, comedic. It's not great. I completely understand why readers find it offensive (and it is) even while I don't think the writers intended it that way. Ultimately, it would have been great to see other explicitly LGBT+ characters portrayed without the joking angle.

With that said, I'm not entirely unhappy with her character. She is a stereotype, but the authors have chosen to take only the visual elements of the stereotype and leave the rest on the cutting room floor. In other works of fiction, characters like Urumi are often hypersexual to the point of being in-universe creepy, especially towards underage boys. Other times, characters like her may be eccentric or off-putting in other ways. However, that's not at all the case here. Urumi seems to play a helpful big sister/aunt role in Jirou's life, and he's clearly comfortable enough with her to spend the night at her bar.

(BB/MTC+ chapter 17. "Sorry, but can I shack up here again tonight?" "Of course you can.")

While she seems to engage in some sort of a bohemian lifestyle, as evidenced by the alcohol and smoking, it isn't anything outside of what many of the other characters do. Additionally, while she isn't drawn in a flattering fashion in scenes where she's playing up her persona (which is par for the course with any character in this series, regardless of gender), there are plenty of neutral shots of her being serious. Finally, the art is never outright rude--that is, she isn't drawn exaggeratedly masculine or flamboyantly...snakey? I don't know how to describe this to anyone who's lucky enough to have never seen this--clearly LGBT+ AMAB characters drawn with noodly limbs and huge, overblown lips winding around male characters.

Maybe because I see so much worse continuing to be produced in this day and age, I feel like Hypmic could have done a much, much worse job with this character. She overall plays a positive role and is treated with much the same care as other side characters. It's unfortunate, then, that the writers have chosen to make her gender presentation the subject of a joke.

In other frustrations, I heavily dislike the unnecessary gender divide in background characters. All punks and other background baddies are male, whereas all adoring fans are female. (But Rhyme Anima has done an interesting job of subverting this!) The vast majority of other background figures fall into strict gender roles, which is likewise disappointing. It appears that diversity may be an accepted trait for none but a lucky few that form the main Hypmic cast.

All in all, I don't think Hypmic's portrayal of gender roles is groundbreaking, nor do I think it's fair to suggest that all Japanese pop culture plays into strict gender roles. There are certainly many Japanese works, popular or otherwise, with much more interesting things to say about gender. However, when compared to the vast majority of the titles that cross my desk on a regular basis, I notice and appreciate the level of care put in to Hypmic's commentary on gender roles. The work consistently reinforces the notion that it's okay to be your own individual, no matter how that plays into your gender, and I find that freeing. That's a message we could all do to hear more often, regardless of culture and language.