forever thinking about how bomb girl arc opens on reze as a Damsel In Distress trope signifier -> overturns on the rooftop into Femme Fatale -> before the fireworks, reze assumes the role of "Protector" (as set against the damsel; "i'll protect you", thus de-gendering) & this is the one active defining exercise we see her undertake in order to Solve her identity conflict. she is at her core part of that category of characters who want to be solved, but she doesn't have a mouth to say this, so she make believes. & bites out denji's mouth for it...!
she assumes every Woman in Film trope ever in order to convey the genre of the bomb girl arc to the audience & herself to denji; which is why the arc itself is horromance since both romance & horror films are the epitome of on-screen Feminine: the woman//the monster. The Woman//Monster collaboration in films invoke e/o but simultaneously set itself against e/o. until the rooftop, damsel in distress has to be protected from Monster. //-ely, the Monstrous-Feminine is a concept of abject horror, a social distress, that reze occupies as the arc progresses.
the Monster in the arc transforms from the external threat of serial killer to the Monster that takes over the figure of the Damsel, reze. interesting that the scene which immediately precedes the rooftop is that of the pool; sweet cafe dates -> sexuality framed as temptation. the former is the domain of the damsel, & in fact the serial killer's initial promise-threat closes on a panel of denji-reze at the cafe. the latter is something more suited to the trope archetype of femme fatale, so it makes sense that it happens before the inversion. re: the move from Romantic -> Erotic: the fireworks scene with its eroticised violence is a location of transgression, from reze herself, from one genre to the other. the Woman, as blushing girl, kisses the protagonist (romantic element) & turns into the Monster in horror film, & that's how she's presented from that point forth. the girl asking for help outside public safety, her swimming out of the darkness with heads in her hands & the word "monster" at aki's mouth. she's gleeful: the monstrous feminine strips itself of damsel, cannibalising itself.
& it's so compelling that the end of the bomb devil arc, that no one in-story is privy to- not even makima as the story writer or angel, the witness - is entirely internal monologue; she is silent in that scene outside it. we've never heard her thoughts prior; in fact, within the classroom, her hair covering her eyes, she masks them both from audience & the story, even as she clearly feels certain ways about denji's circumstances that mirror her own. it's as if she daren't utter Herself outside the genres she plays with.
when it does arrive, it's akin to a guilty secret whispered to the audience: "i've never been to school either" & that relinquishes her grip on those performed genres & startlingly, reveals reze as a tragedy. bomb girl arc *is* her tragicomedy dissolved into horromance tropes. it also ironically makes you see denji as entirely alike to her - "either". the woman & the monster are most usually presented through a lens of Difference from their respective protagonists; & reze enacts this difference through her performance of maturity & experience & its falseness is what the last scene reveals to you, it's such a childlike statement for a girl bleeding out in an alleyway. such a childish & quiet death! & what's especially cruel is that this very last understanding of her is something withheld from denji, & the Film.
