Hello there, I checked your TR characters playlist and I love your picks and would like to know more! You wrote some lil notes, but I need like, a full song analysis to stay alive yk. It's a need to hear you yap more about Baji and Kazutora (or anyone). Character playlists are one of my favorite things since everyone can interpret the song differently, and I would love to hear your interpretation of some songs!
If you end up doing this request, you can choose any song to analyse (or all of them if you wanna go crazy 👀 not complaining!)
I also want to take this opportunity to tell you how much I love your blog and how deeply I appreciate your analyses; it’s clear you put so much heart into them and really strive to understand the characters. I love reading your writings because it’s like someone is putting into words exactly what has been running through my mind like a messy and tangled blur—and so much more! You’ve opened my eyes more than once, making me think "Oh, I hadn't thought of it that way!" I’ve fallen for the fandom's mischaracterizations before.. mainly with Baji (whom I disliked at first, but after understanding the character on my own and reading your analyses, he became my precious boy). Again, I’m so glad there’s someone in the fandom who is so dedicated to the character; at this point, he almost feels like yours haha! Please never stop talking ❤️
Aww!! Thanku for the compliment, anon! That's so sweet, and I do spend a lot of time thinking about Baji lol. I'm glad that u like reading my analyses on him, and I would love to indulge on why I included some choices onto my character playlists. Since u were specifically mentioning Baji in ur ask, I would love to talk about how I interpreted some of the choices that I put on his, and along with some from my BajiTora playlist.
It turns out that I can only add ten songs per post, so maybe I'll talk about my Kazutora, MaiTora, and BajiFuyu playlists in depth in the future!! (or maybe just them being reblogs of this post if tumblr will let me? Anyways.) Having to pick just ten was actually really hard lmao because I have so many.
Without further ado, and starting off with my ultimate favorite song for Baji Keisuke:
"Rebel Heart" from the Arcane s2 soundtrack!!
For one, I feel it matches his intense, destructive energy really well as a character. Not just with the lyrics, but also with the wild, fast-paced nature of the instrumental. Everything about this song screams "Baji" to me, esp in regards to his violent tendencies.
Lyrics that specifically reminded me of Baji:
"In chaos I reign / tear this place apart / rebel heart / in chaos I'm free / destruction is art / rebel heart" (This part, to me, represents how Baji as a character thrives in chaos as a medium.)
"Don't you wanna be vicious? / Don't you wanna tell lies? / Come join me on the darkside" (These lines are in reference to how Baji has a mean-streak, is a liar in the Bloody Halloween arc, and joins Valhalla with Kazutora)
"No rules, pure mayhem / that is who I am / and I watch you do it as we tear it down / burn it to the ground" (Encapsulates Baji's destructive tendencies, along with the burning motif)
"I've been here from the very start / I will give you my rebel heart / I've been here from the very start / you cannot break my rebel heart" (This is my personal favorite part of the song because it can emphasize how Baji is one of the founding members of Toman; how he's the one to have come up with the idea; and how through it all and through all the trials and tribulations he faces, he will not sacrifice his principles.)
"(It's chaos, all chaos) / (I'll give my) Rebel heart / (it's chaos, just chaos) / (inside my) Rebel heart" (In the end, he does give his rebel heart via his sacrifice for the founding members)
"A Pearl" by Mitski
This is another one that I've mentioned in a song post before, but to elaborate in further detail, I love this song in context of live action Baji's dynamic with both Chifuyu and Kazutora. Baji is the speaker of the song, Chifuyu is the person being spoken to, while Kazutora (and the whole situation with Shinichirou's manslaughter) is the "war" that Baji ultimately thinks about and cannot let go of, which interferes with his present relationships.
I don't want to be too repetitive, because I have talked about this particular song multiple times on my blog, but some here are lyrics that are reminiscent to me of live action Baji and why:
"You're growing tired of me / You love me so hard and I still can't sleep / You're growing tired of me / and all the things I don't talk about" (Shows how Baji doesn't want to burden other people with the problems he's going through; how he may hypothetically perceive that other people are getting tired of him. He wants to do everything by himself. Even if Chifuyu loves him he doesn't let him know what's going on in the Valhalla movies and decides to take action alone.)
"Sorry I don't want your touch / it's not that I don't want you / sorry I can't take your touch / it's just that I fell in love with a war" (This is mostly in reference to how many times Baji is shown physically pushing Chifuyu aside or away from him in this version of canon (and there are parts of this movie where they get insanely close to each other, and one such example is this one where Chifuyu invades Baji's space so far you can actually see the way his breath ghosts over Baji's hair near his mouth; like that shit was crazyyy). Through the interpretation of the song, he cannot take Chifuyu's touch because of the responsibility he feels for causing Shinichirou's death and how he feels like he needs to fix Mikey and Kazutora's problems all by himself)
"Nobody told me it ended / and it left a pearl in my head / and I roll it around every night / just to watch it glow" (Shows how Baji was really affected by Shinichirou's manslaughter. This is more so applicable to his character in the spin off, but Baji is shown ruminating over the whole event of what happened between him, Mikey and Kazutora in several chapters. He's constantly thinking about it, even if he's not saying anything out loud, and it's smth he still feels severe survivor's guilt over.)
"Every night, baby, that's where I go" (For this part, I like imagining Baji in the opening shot of the second movie, sitting on the jungle gym where he and Mikey used to play as kids.)
"There's a hole that you fill / you fill, you fill / but it's just that I fell in love with a war / nobody told me it ended / and it left a pearl in my head and I roll it around every night" (Shows that even though Baji is shown in the flashbacks to be much happier with Chifuyu, smiling wide at him when after Shinichirou's death he only scowls, in the end he will always prioritize Kazutora (and his conflict with Mikey) over his love for him. That's ultimately the tragedy of their relationship to me.)
"P. U. N. K. Girl" by Heavenly
This one is my very first song on my BajiMai(/p) friendship playlist lmao since I think it captures the nostalgia in their dynamic really well. Because I don't want to be too redundant on this post, if a lyric in a song appears more than once I will just be writing it one time around.
Lyrics that reminded me of Baji through Mikey's POV:
"People say she's bad / but they don't see / the way she is with me" (In reference to how Baji leaves Toman so suddenly and leaves the audience with a brusque first impression of his character, before going into the flashback where the founding members are at their beach trip and Mikey saves Baji from a bunch of thugs.)
"P is the painful way she makes me feel some days" (In reference to how Mikey doesn't want Baji to leave)
"U is for utopia, the other times with her" (Reference to Toman's beach trip)
"N is for the new wave dreams she had back in her teens" (Reference to how Baji suggests the idea of Toman as a gang)
"K is for the kid in her, my P. U. N. K. girl"
"She is honest and kind but in a way that people see as telling lies and being mean" (self explanatory)
"She has thousands of dreams but what they are I'll never know / I hope I figure in them though" (again, self explanatory with Baji's dreams of Toman, but the lyric of "what they are I'll never know" is really interesting in the context of how Baji doesn't tell Mikey anything that he's thinking within the Valhalla arc.)
"I don't care if they can't see / just how great that girl can be / but I wish, she'd find a way / to act well, for just one day" (This is lowkey a reference to how people that come into the gang like Muchou later don't really know much about how Toman was founded or why Mikey lets Baji do whatever he wants. Talks about how Mikey treasures Baji so much, but also how Baji is ultimately his own stubborn, independent party and will do things to disobey Mikey regardless if he wants his friend to listen.)
"She is hardened to hurt her softness hidden from the world / but almost ready to unfurl" (Shows how Baji is traumatized, but has a lot of love and passion to give if given the chance.)
"She tries so hard to change but something always happens to / persuade her, it's too hard to do" (Touches on Baji's general issues)
Then the chorus repeats with the acronym for "P. U. N. K. girl"
"Last Valentines" by Pink Pantheress
Another song I have on my Baji&Mikey playlist!! I actually have an edit of this one which I will tag here: (wowww a BajiMai/p edit!! I never see anyone talking abt BajiMai/p ever; please I'm lowkey dying lmao)
Lyrics that remind me of Baji and Mikey:
"I crashed my car right into a tree" (Reference to how Mikey ends up wrecking his moped)
"I'd risk my life for a chance you'd come back to me (yeah)" (Talks about how badly Mikey wants Baji back from Valhalla)
"You called 999, then left me to bleed (left me to bleed)" ("Called 999" is in reference to how Baji goes over to the phone in the anime and tries his best to remember the number for the police to get help. "Left me to bleed" is in reference to Mikey running up to the police tape and asking Baji what happened, but the only thing that Baji could do is cry:(, and say he's sorry.)
"I know you'd never cause an accident for me" (Reference to how the manslaughter with Shinichirou was ultimately an accident and how Mikey is still willing to forgive Baji on this respect because he loves him)
"I'll count the stars tonight" (Reference to the scene where Mikey is sitting beneath the night sky with Takemichi reminiscing about Baji)
"So last Valentines, you spent it away / to be with a girl you said you never saw that way" (Talks about how Baji left Mikey to be with Kazutora)
"It hurts now to smile, it hurts more to breathe / it makes me so angry all I do is grit my teeth" (Talks about the resentment that Mikey holds for Baji choosing to side with Kazutora)
"I still let this man take over me" (References how Baji calls out to Mikey to make him stop beating Kazutora into the gravel)
"but I know that I'm not the one it should be" ("The one it should be" in reference to how Baji called out to save Kazutora if u know what I mean.)
"I should really take some time instead / to figure why this plays out again and again" (Baji stabbing himself and dying)
"(I'll count the stars tonight)" (in my edit I contained a shot where Mikey is holding up the charm that Baji had kept with him all this time after Toman's founding)
"Вишенка" (Vyshenka / "Cherry on Top") by ssshhhiiittt!
This is another choice from my BajiMai(/p) list. Fun fact I actually found this song from an edit that I found on instagram and I went "wow... this person is so smart..."
Lyrics that reminded me of Baji and Mikey:
"I'm still on the same bench / near the old home / where we played hide-and-seek / and were ourselves" (This is in reference to how Baji and Mikey would play together all the time at the old jungle gym when they were kids)
"I'm still on the same bench / drowning in silence / and the evening meets / it was endless (whoa)" (This lyric makes me, again, think about the title screen from the movies where we see Baji sitting on said jungle gym)
"Snow kept melting, I kept growing / the bush kept getting taller, less dreams / it's in the yard, right behind the bench / I'm so young, but so in love / now I'm already twenty / and the lamp is tired of being on / and there's no bush or benches / I never ended up reaching the cherry" (The final time the lyrics "I'm still on the same bench" plays, it's from Mikey's POV as an adult and how he can't let go of the grief he has over Baji's death.)
"Aishiteitanoni" by Maretu
Finally onto my BajiTora playlist, but this song really fits their dynamic to me in terms of both the lyrics and the instrumental. The actual message of the song is about how this speaker is stabbing this other person that's betrayed them with the stabbing sounds being incorporated into the instrumental itself.
Lyrics that remind me of Baji and Kazutora:
"You can't run from it / I don't want / you being taken away from me / You're mine / let's become one / from body to soul / (more, more)" (Talks about how Kazutora is afraid of Baji being taken away from him and how he is deeply possessive of Baji.)
"Let's end it before it ends on its own / this dried up game of house" (Talks about Kazutora's tendency to lash out first to prevent the hurt of people from abandoning him. "He can't hurt me if I hurt him first" kind of logic.)
"I loved you / even though I loved you / we'll do things like this / you traitor / please return to me / my feelings and desires / I loved you / Even though I loved you always" (Talks about the betrayal that Kazutora perceives even though he loves Baji).
"Your gentle fingers / and affectionate visage / let's put an end to things here / so they won't be taken from me / you're already / mine, always / (always, always)" (In reference to how Baji was still so gentle, yet firm with Kazutora in the flashback when he swore he would be with Kazutora until the end.)
"I believed it / even though I believed it / I believed it / even though I believed it" (Shows how until the idea is implanted in Kazutora’s head in an external sense, he wholeheartedly believes that Baji would never betray him. However, his attachment to his best friend is still insecure. He already holds the inherent belief that people will always betray him. So, it doesn't matter where that the confirmation comes from; just that his belief system had been confirmed at all whatsoever.)
"I loved you / even though I loved you / we'll do things like this / you traitor / enter me / within my deepest parts / I loved you / even though I loved you / always." (Again with how Kazutora feels betrayed)
"Fight for Me" by Aliceband
Funnily enough, I actually also have another song called "Fight for Me" from the Heathers musical for my BajiFuyu playlist, but this one on my BajiTora list is entirely different from that one. It encapsulates their codependency super well in the way that Kazutora will just continue
Lyrics that specifically reminded me of Baji and Kazutora:
"I'll make you fight for me and pray I pay the bills" (shows how Baji betrays Toman to side with Kazutora. This whole song in general is about the speaker taking and taking from the person that gives them everything, so I think it’s pretty fitting for their dynamic.)
"I'll make you die for me and watch your body spill" (self explanatory with the way that Kazutora stabs Baji and Baji takes his own life)
"I'll make you cry for me and lie for me / and bleed for me and die for me / but most I'll make you right for me / I'm sure I'm right for you" (Reference to how Baji lies with what he’s doing in Valhalla in big part for Kazutora’s sake. Again with the codependency because. Holy codependency bro🥀🥀.)
(Further down into the song) "I'll make you beg for me and plead for me / and I know that you will bleed for me / and I'll play with you until I've had enough" (again with how Kazutora literally makes Baji bleed for him I think this is self explanatory.)
(Then it's the chorus again)
"House of Wolves" by My Chemical Romance
Another song I matched with Baji due to the fast-paced energy to it in both rhythm and instruments!! This has been one of my longtime headcanons, but I feel like Baji would be into MCR. Like he looks like he would just be one of those kids in the 2000's that would go around with their walkers tucked into their pockets with MCR in their earbuds full blast, yknow? Wakui really did have a missed opportunity to make TR a period piece with y2k fashion and other styles that were popular at the time, but surprisingly for a story set in 2005 there sure are a lot more modern choices with the clothing... anyways.
Lyrics that remind me of Baji:
"Well I think I'm gonna burn in Hell / Everybody burn the house right down" (Again with the burning motif and setting things on fire)
"And say what I wanna say. / Tell me I'm an angel, take this to my grave" (Angel motif; also reference to how he dies in the Valhalla arc)
"Tell me I'm a bad man, kick me like a stray" (Reference to how Baji views himself, because it's never explicitly stated but he actually has some pretty bad self-esteem. This is only furthered by the way he actively makes himself look worse than he really is)
"Tell me I'm an angel, take this to my grave / yeah" (reiteration)
"You play ring around the ambulance 'til like you never gave a care" (In reference to Baji's risky, impulsive behavior. He enjoys fighting and violence, but because of that he (and the rest of his friends) constantly puts himself in risky situations where he can get hurt.)
"So, get the choir boys around you, it's a compliment, I swear" (reference to how his loved ones were standing around him as he died)
"You better run like the devil 'cause they're never gonna leave you alone / You better hide up in the alley 'cause they're never gonna find you a home" (reference to how Baji hunts Kisaki down)
"And as the blood runs down the walls (runs down) / you see me creepin' up these walls" (reference to how Baji was bleeding out as he was fighting Kisaki's division)
"Tell, me I'm a bad, bad, bad, bad man (4x)" (again, this mostly refers to how Baji villainizes himself in the eyes of other people, but it's also cool to just imagine him fighting. There's also the S-I-N motif of the song which could apply again to Baji's Christian religious symbolism within canon)
"Chop Suey" by System of a Down
I'm going to be honest, but the parts that remind me of Baji for this one is more applicable to the back half of the song as opposed to the entire piece, but the thing is!! The second of half reminds me of Baji so much that I had to add it to my playlist, especially in the context of him having references to Christianity within the Valhalla arc.
Lyrics that reminded me of Baji:
"I don't think you trust / in my self-righteous suicide / I cry when angels deserve to die" (This one is mainly in reference to how he does end up committing "self-righteous suicide" in order to stop Mikey & Kazutora from fighting each other. That, and this is another song I chose because of the angel imagery that Valhalla has as a gang.)
"Father (father) (4x) / Father, into your hands I commend my spirit / Father, into your hands / why have you forsaken me? In your eyes, forsaken me? / in your thoughts forsaken me / in your heart forsaken me, oh" (Again, mainly included for the Jesus imagery and his sacrifice)
"Trust in my self-righteous suicide / I cry when angels deserve to die / in my self righteous suicide / I cry when angels deserve to die"
"Be Nice to Me" by the Front Bottoms
This one was actually recommended to me by several people on tumblr to listen to!! It was just a recurring choice that people kept on making memes about or generally bringing up, and I was like "huh. Okay! Then it must be good!" And it is really good! This is literally a song that matches Baji to a T and I'm really impressed how applicable it is for his character. I also got recommended a ton of other songs by the Front Bottoms (like this one called "Twin Sized Mattress" but unfortunately tumblr only allows for people to post 10 songs at a time, but just know I also really recommend that one).
Lyrics that remind me of Baji and his dynamic with Kazutora, Mikey or otherwise:
"I got boulders on my shoulders / collarbones begin to crack / there is very little left of me and it's never coming back" (shows how Baji has been affected by his trauma and how he feels like he has to handle the weight and responsibility of managing Mikey and Kazutora's conflict all by himself.)
"What's it matter anymore? / you believe the lies I tell" (I’ve said this a million times within this post alone, but Baji is such a liar lmao, and mostly everybody immediately believes him without questioning if there’s anything else driving his actions, which his really sad I'm ngl.)
"We are running, we are running / but you're killer, and I'm your best friend / I think it's unfair, your situation" (THE BajiTora line ever.)
"You say I'm changing / Sorry I didn't know I had to stay the same / can we talk about this later? Your voice is driving me, driving me insane" (The way I interpret this line is actually from more of Mikey’s POV, or maybe even the audience’s POV because the way Baji is so jaded in present vs the flashback is a really obvious change. Like his features were drawn so softly pre-trauma, whereas post flashback he looks so much older like all the weight he carries on his shoulders is crushing him. Bro is honestly traumatized as hell.)
"I try to write you poems, but the words they don't make sense / the hand tries to grip the pencil, but the fingers are too tense / I try to show emotion, but my eyes won't seem to wet / I'd love to tell you stories, but I can't remember how they went" (reference to how Baji writes Kazutora letters during his friend’s stay in juvie)
"You're a werewolf, and I'm a full moon / and all your very worst enemies will be gone soon" (In reference to how — despite how much Baji cares about Kazutora — he is still ultimately an enabler for his bad behavior. Also smth smth moon smth smth creature of the night smth smth Baji lowkey has a vampire motif going on with the canines of his teeth smth smth. Also the whole “enemy” thing going on with Kazutora.)
"I think you're changing / don't worry, you don't gotta stay the same / Can we talk about this later? / Your voice is driving me, driving me insane" (Mainly in reference to how Baji views Kazutora, and how he will support Kazutora until the end regardless of how much he may rave about killing Mikey. No one is going to be the same after that extreme of trauma.)
But yes thanku for the ask! I quite love talking about Baji. He is, in fact, my son, and do not worry! I do not plan on shutting up anytime soon (Thoughhh within the next month I'll probably be slowing down posting on tumblr since I have my MCAT coming up... Hm. Anyways). When I have the time I will most likely draft out another post dedicated to the reasons why I incorporated a handful of the song choices for my other playlists that I really loved, but if u would like a specific playlist do not be afraid to send me another message over inbox!
I love answering questions like these since the choices that people make on their playlists do inform me on how they view certain characters! Which I honestly find to be so interesting.
