#dcst meta

I’ve noticed that for a lot of characters after their introduction, they don’t get a lot of character development, and Gen is one of them. I crave to know his persona more in depth. I wanna know his ideals, how he feels about the KoS, what he plans to do after civilization is built again.

I want to see him share his favourite stories from the old world, to know who he is outside of his duties. His past isn’t thoroughly explored in cannon and that crushes me because he’s such an important and loved character. (Yeah his hair’s a little funny but so is. Literally everyone else’s. Like have you seen senku? Don’t even get me started on xeno. Or homura)

Just look at all of his memories of Byakuya, they're not grand things but normal mundane stuff like getting a meal. It's telling that Senku remembers something like that on top of like that year he got a whole-ass lab and if memory serves before then he had been checking out books at the library. This was probably because Byakuya didn't want to get him equipment if this science thing was just a phase. (Which honestly fair, but it also points to him being money-savvy.) The anime also did a nice thing by adding stuff outside of science-related things such as them going to that festival when Senku was younger. Probably to keep him from getting obsessive and burning himself out on The Thing (tm). The Thing (tm) being science. I wouldn't be surprised if they went to museums and the aquarium! (Note: Museums are NOT climate controlled... they get cold ;-; train stations also get cold, hot beverage vending machines are life.)

Backstory

Okay tangent over, thank you. POINT of all of that is, is that he wasn't out here spending money at the drop of a hat. He made a strategic choice of selling his car probably because traffic is a bitch and a half to navigate. Trains *are* crowded too so he inconvenienced himself but didn't make it impossible to get to or from work. Byakuya may be a goof but he is responsible at the end of the day. It probably also helped him save a bit on things like insurance, maintenance, and oil. Also don't forget the recession that happened in '08, if Byakuya was lucky (and from his track record in the series he was EXTREMELY lucky) he probably sold his car before the recession hit which (from some armchair Googling) would have net him $4k USD more or less ( Note: gas jumped to $8 a gal in Japan during this time so most people weren't able to afford cars, don't know all the details on this but I'm going to assume the used car salesman wouldn't have been as happy to see Byakuya if it had been DURING the recession). I don't know what taxes would have been like though!

Once the series starts in 2019 Byakuya has had about 5 years of experience as being an astronaut so it would put him in a different tax bracket. (Does Japan do tax brackets? I don't know. I also don't know if he owned his apartment or rented it. Japan does have negative interest rates, though, so maybe he went through with owning it). Assuming he owned his apartment (two bedroom one bath most likely) it would keep a roof over his and Senku's head in the event of another economic disaster. Byakuya was born in the 70's. He's lived through a couple so it would make sense that he'd want to prepare for another possible one. (Japan had a REALLY big economic downturn in the 90s... right when Byakuya was in his 20s and entering the workforce. I'm not saying it's the reason for his morbid sense of humor but....) And assuming he didn't own his apartment, I think someone else did an appraisal of Senku's room and the amount it cost and came up with somewhere around $1500 which would have left left Byakuya with cash to secure rent and food if he lost his job. We're going off this number, in the event that I'm *wrong* ignore this second bit's math but take the theory.

Preparedness

According to historical data and my questionable math skills I looked at what apartments would have cost in Japan. NOW keep in mind they're not *in* Tokyo, from what I've been able to tell based on maps, they're (starting out) in *Yokohama*. The rent for an apartment like what Byakuya had would have been $542.91 (not including anything extra in terms of fees/utilities) plus an additional $230.42 for food (I'm going for a 3 person household which people said was about 60,000 yen on the high end, am I overestimating? yes, but like I said I'm not good at math and I feel like extra money would be put towards special things.) This would put Byakuya at $773.33 USD in 2004 money per month which means he'd have been able to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads for about 1-2 months (if you do the math you will find over 3 months but I'm also taking into consideration utilities and other costs I don't know about). So yeah... Byakuya was pretty smart with his money. It probably really started paying off when he became an astronaut... shame his riches were completely useless in the end, ouch.

NOTE: Also what I mean by we don't know his financial situation (before I broke down what little I could get a sense of) is that we don't know if he had hidden debts or investments. Obviously the show isn't going to focus on that (and Senku was a kid which typically kids aren't made privy to that kind of info) so we don't know the full scope of things. We can, however, tell that from above information and the overall state of how Senku grew up, they didn't do too bad for themselves even as a single-income household.

Bonus

Another thing that's pretty fun to do (that I just realized) is in order to learn more about Byakuya you have to analyze Senku (and you do the opposite for if you want to learn more about Senku).

Senku himself is pretty thrifty. He tends to want to reuse/ find new life for things sometimes even before they've outlived their purpose in their first form. (The poor lab...) Yes from a purely logical perspective it is energy efficient, but he tends to think outside the box at times. I believe that both of these were learned from Byakuya because of above mentioned finances. Senku absolutely never knew what their financial situation was like, he probably knew they were secure and that was likely enough for him. He was far more content being an internet gremlin which... also ties into Byakuya's character too. Byakuya also valued following his dreams and loved teaching, like he was a teacher until the very end which you can find in Senku and his rambles.

And for the opposite, it's pretty obvious to everyone that Byakuya wants to dote on Senku and I've beaten the horse dead on Senku's atrocious mental health. BUT apparently there was an interview recently (though I'm not a fan of 2 year post-series interviews) where it was revealed that Senku really *is* mentally vulnerable (not the right word at all, but stay with me) and does need a lot of stability. Byakuya just overdid it at first after he adopted Senku. Makes sense, they were getting to know each other. But it would explain why later on they would get ramen together.

The one thing that is constant is Byakuya is emotionally and mentally resilient. Yes he shows emotion and isn't afraid of it, but I don't think we've ever seen a time in the show or manga where Byakuya wasn't putting one foot in front of the other. Yeah he failed his lifelong dream at first but he still went and succeeded. Senku does the same, but it's a bit of a front because he's trying to imitate Byakuya.

Senku spent from when he was ~13-14 to petrification with more or less only teachers as his role models (Due to Byakuya being in Houston for ~1-2 years for training as per usual for space missions (This is according to NASA)) and I don't know about you guys but teachers can be some of the best or most horrid people on this planet. Especially when they get jealous of their students for perceived success. So the fact that Senku consistently kept his head down and worked toward his goal of astronaut in spite of those teachers (saying this because of that scene when he was little) really showcases how important Byakuya's perseverance as a character was and just how much of an influence his dad was on him.

Like I said, you do you. I wear my kimono on the outside and my haori on the inside with a full second outfit in a completely different style under that. Unique and quirky styles are fine, and you clearly do it without being frilly or girlish. It looks good on you.

If you like the breeze around your legs that's fine, and if it's just conserving resources by not replacing clothing that isn't worn out that's fine too. I'm just thinking about gifts and don't want to get you something you'll never wear. I'm thinking a raw silk button down shirt dress that goes down to mid-calf with deep reinforced pockets. Creamy color to match your existing wardrobe, just visible under your lab coats. Nothing feminine about the cut or the trimmings, just a really nice button down shirt that doesn't stop. So am I nuts or is that something you'd go for?

Follow-up Questions

who’s your favourite ishigami villager?

what customs do you think ishigami village has?

what changes do you think happened to their culture when senku came along?

what cultural aspects of their group are you drawn to?

any headcanons about the village?

I know, very strange to list the follow-up questions at the beginning, but this is going to give us structure and remind me to not go overboard.

Who is your favorite villager? Any Headcanons about the village?

The first one is pretty easy for me as it's a 3-way tie with Kohaku, Ruri, and Suika. They almost feel representative of different aspects of the same person (and is very heavily implied that Lillian is a direct ancestor so my HC is they're three of Lillian's "faces" if you will. Her diligence and hardworking attitude, her willingness to fight/protective nature (hers looks different than Kohaku's, it's not a physical manifestation, but a mental one), and her loyalty and sense of duty.

I do have a fair number of headcanons especially one related to the Grand Bout that seems to have gained some popularity as a way to explain how the headstone was brought over. (The Grand Bout being a way to determine who would go on the voyage. You can read more about my addition here)

Additionally, it is also important to remember that smaller groups of people, generally speaking, mean that everyone is in everyone's business. People who come from or live in close-knit communities would know that it just feels like everyone is your aunt/uncle, your grandparent, parent, and so on and so forth. I am not even getting into the headache that is the fact that everyone is literally cousins, though I do theorize that since it is possible for people to break out of stone from mental fortitude alone it is an issue, but they aren't dying from 3,718 years of 6 people intermarrying.

Senku did the math and confirmed that it seemed as though the brain being active+nitric acid helped to speed the process. There is an implication that, say, someone with racing thoughts could have awoken from the stone possibly earlier if in an acidic environment... and Japan does have acidic soil where as Sacramento does not generally have acidic soil... I need to write meta on that.) This is naturally going to have a HUGE impact on dynamics and politics in a group. (But also kind of makes the existing worldbuilding fall apart, it's okay, we'll just fix it with duct tape later.)

BUT I DIGRESS, This is supposed to be BRIEF.

What Changes do you Think Happened When Senku Came Along?

I am AAAAAAAAA, I could write a whole meta on this topic alone. Senku is not exactly the best person, we've established this. Even in the series itself he has mentioned he's not a saint when it comes to his emotions (which he does have... SO MANY). You can be an overall genuine person and have good intentions (which he does) but still not be a good person. He's an incredibly messy character who does view the villagers as people, yes, but as a means to an end. It's an additional benefit for him to make sure they're happy and bribe them to help but there was a HUGE cultural shift that's going to deal irreparable damage when you suddenly introduce things such as the Agricultural Revolution Pt. 2 to society. Generally speaking it didn't end well for women. And considering Japan doesn't have large animals that live there (and would be okay there for almost 4,000 years) it's very likely that the gathering and farming (reliance also on a single crop... which totally doesn't have a history of ever going wrong) would have slowly phased out women from the table. Not to mention things such as processing textiles, hides (from what I have found, plant materials was more common to use in Japan throughout history), dyeing, spinning and weaving were all typically done by women and men. However dyeing with natural plants is anything but an exact science and often times those dye recipes are passed down from one generation to the next. That would likely be one of the areas that Senku would "improve" with synthetic dyes (not all natural dyes are toxic, a lot of times they're just not colorfast or lightfast, lightfastness is a main one because of sunlight. But you can get a wide breadth of colors from just plants and metals (be careful, because that part CAN be toxic, don't just pour copper water down the drain!)

It seemed from the beginning when Senku first joined it was more egalitarian. There were gender roles, but no one really thought twice about Kohaku being a warrior, they were more irritated that she caused trouble and caused her father more worry when he already had one child dying of an unknown illness, the same one that killed his wife. Even Jasper himself mentioned that Senku came and made a mockery of their traditions because Senku is ~15-16 years old, he's still of the mindset of "I have a problem, I need to fix it" and just sort of blunders through life as teenagers are wont to do. For him, his problem is he needs to save humanity so he can find Byakuya, he's not thinking of the implications of destroying thousands of years of cultural traditions. Often times, I've read papers about the invisible elderly or how in archeology it is easy to gloss over the contributions of older folks in society due to older bones not exactly preserving well. This tends to be the reason behind the incorrect assumption that everyone lived to 35-40. In Senku's mind the "best" way is unchecked progress without considering the other areas due to his general lack of wisdom.

After Senku has taken over the village through a marriage and divorce (which I have in my Kos Meta and will include in citation below, but divorce is not a new topic for the villagers, they were just shocked over his audacity and his overall lack of respect for their culture). There is a shift for more men taking active roles. Ruri, it is implied, holds a lot of power as the priestess, but her role and Kohaku's role as what appears to be leader of the village guard, are overlooked for Chrome who was technically banished from the village for "Sorcery". It was meant to show that Senku did it all without one of his generals being a fighter, HOWEVER, it also sends a pretty clear message when ALL of the antagonist factions have women in positions of authority except for the KoS. (Kirisame, Charlotte, Minami, and technically Kohaku in the beginning since it's uncertain if the village will be on Senku's side at first.)

In order to understand how the other groups in the series may view the KoS we have to look at it from their perspective. Starting with the Ishigami villagers. From their perspective they are having some random man come into their village, make a mockery of their traditions which are then voided because outside help (remember he doped everyone so technically the bout was void from the start and he was able to divorce Ruri so easily because he legally didn't win), and then saved the priestess' life.

-The Perception, Ishigami Village

From these changes we can now make deductions for some of how Ishigami village was BEFORE Senku (remember, he's likely considered a god in the religion) showed up.

Customs of Ishigami Village

From how it seems, there's a variety of customs with Ishigami Village, such as the Grand Bout (which may no longer continue after Senku's arrival). Fish is a main protein staple, though it would make sense for the village of that size to move around every so often so they don't exhaust their resources. They likely did practice a form of agriculture, but also supplemented with gathering and hunting. Everyone knows how to sew (not that big of a surprise, sewing is an incredibly useful skill that everyone should know) so it wouldn't surprise me if there were customs around making new ships, I would also not be surprised if there were coming of age ceremonies and ceremonies for early childhood (once you pass through childhood, you are in the clear for living a relatively normal life). I tend to have Kohaku a little more "eh" about privacy as a Kohaku thing, but I generally feel like the village being small with possibly multigenerational houses means that everyone's once again, aware of everyone else's business. Kohaku is just Kohaku.

What Cultural Aspects of the Group are you Drawn to?

All of it. Just. All of it.