Enkai for the ask game and numbers uhh all of them. Whatever strikes your fancy >:) If I have to pick then 5 & 6. And please do ashkai as well hehe
KICKS MY FEET HEEHEE......
5. What type of dynamic do you see them having?
It's sugar daddy flavoured. Endou has access to money and gambling and Kaiji wants those things. On the flipside Endou finds Kaiji's relentlessness interesting enough that it sticks in his head and he can't not fool around with him. It's very casual and unserious for the most part, neither of them is here for feelings, but there's room for moments of vulnerability: drunk admissions that Endou....maybe doesn't respect Kaiji exactly, but recognizes his potential and finds it frustrating that he can't move on and get past his addictions (yet Endou is the one who continues to feed his habits and can't stop himself from doing that, either) and Kaiji, naive as he is, can't/won't stop looking for the good in Endou and trying to bring it out of him.
I imagine it can get pretty fighty sometimes when things are going badly; Endou can and will still betray Kaiji, and Kaiji can and will still get himself into trouble with Teiai even without Endou's help. So as much as Kaiji likes being able to bum around with Endou and get drinks with him and have his pretend fantasy where Endou has a heel-face turn, it crumbles and they have heated fights and can't be around each other until fresh wounds have healed or they need each other for something.
6. Which character developed feelings first?
I don't know that I actually classify there being much of feelings involved here, at least not romantically. Certainly less so from Kaiji; I imagine that if there's any romantic feelings it's more from Endou. He's someone who would get Kaiji's stupid grin stuck in his head and deny that he likes spending time with him until it makes him mad just to think about it. But he has to admit that he likes the fucker. As for Kaiji, he doesn't really see himself as worth loving, so doesn't really approach most relationships with the notion that people would be attracted to him in a serious way; and especially with Endou, because he already sees this as very transactional, he doesn't really want to get feelings involved. But he does like the guy more than most other assholes out there.
What appeals you to the ship?
It's messayyyyyyy lol. It's unhealthy and bad for both of them and they know it. Kaiji kind of hates himself and his lot in life, and is told by everyone that he's trash, and doesn't see himself as having much worth. Everyone uses him and takes advantage of his kindness and judges and ostracizes him so why not say to hell with it and fuck around with this obviously sleazy loser who sucks. He pays and Kaiji gets access to more gambling opportunities and he can call Endou a shitty old asshole bastard, and it doesn't make him feel better or anything but it's funny.
Then on the other hand you have Endou who sucks, and who knows he sucks, and sees himself as a corrupting force on Kaiji - being the one that introduced him to the world of high stakes gambling in the first place. At his most generous he feels conflicted because there's a world in which Kaiji gets to live a normal life and that's the better world, and maybe he feels guilty about it; but then he watches Kaiji crawl his way through the mud to victory and goes, no yeah this is fun I don't want to be the good guy. He fully knows that it's pathetic and he's a bad influence but on the other hand he recognizes the same kind of self-loathing in Kaiji and maybe misery likes company. And he gets to call Kaiji a bratty piece of shit and that doesn't make him feel better but it's funny,
Anyway they're miserable and recognize each other's misery and both are pathetic in different ways and I just think that's interesting to explore.
5. What type of dynamic do you see them having?
It's the fraught exploration of two hurt people trying to navigate around complicated feelings and traumas. There's a similarness between them in that they're both frank and kind of bitey and don't shy from the kind of person that they are; which on one hand lets them be more openly themselves together, but on the other hand it means they can both explode a bit and piss each other off because they both can be extremely reckless yet care very much about preventing other people from being reckless.
They have also both been very hurt and so approach each other with caution and feel out boundaries carefully. Both of these people have reasons to feel like they're not capable of being loved or don't deserve to be, but can't say the same about each other; they're willing to see someone salvageable in each other but not themselves. So a lot of their dynamic is showing each other how they do deserve it and they're allowed nice things and then accepting that of themselves, too.
6. Which character developed feelings first?
It's hard to say when their feelings really became properly romantic, but it kind of happened around the same time. Ash has been through a lot of shit that makes anything even approaching romantic feelings difficult, and Kaiji has a certain desensitization to romance where like, as said he doesn't see himself as romantically valuable...so when it comes to their feelings, it's a little hazy in the first place. It's hard for both of them to acknowledge their attraction or even realize it's there.
Their realization moment was that neither wants to see the other leave. The whole reason that they ended up in a Situationship was because Kaiji agreed to help Ash get to Izumo after slashing his motorcycle (in his defense Ash almost hit him) but through the course of that they both found themselves dreading the moment they're supposed to part ways.
What appeals you to the ship?
Chemistryyyyy and narrative themes. Kaiji is all about the down-and-out getting chewed up by capitalism and takes a microscope to the worst that humans are capable of (thereby also elevating the best that humans are capable of when Kaiji chooses kindness every time) - and Banana Fish, while not expressly a teardown of capitalism in quite as blatant a way as Kaiji, addresses what society does with its undesirables, how the most vulnerable are ignored or even punished, and how someone that's been preyed on all his life responds to a society that refuses to punish evil when that evil holds a seat of power.
So in a large way you have two very similar characters that each feel abandoned and exploited by society and the upper class, who want to see the 1% burn and who both have incredible charisma and a natural ability to bring people together and rally them for a cause. It just makes for an interesting pair of characters that see the world in similar ways, just with different contexts. And seeing that cultural and thematic interplay is so interestinggggg to me.
Also, fairly minor but worth mentioning; it's just fun for me exploring two characters that have a hard time communicating. Ash speaks English and, like, minimal words of Japanese. Kaiji knows some English through early schooling and music and movies, but isn't great at it or anything. So having these 2 have to navigate around that is just a lot of fun for me.
