#nofix

Maybe I’m too kind to B Ichi, having read it after Soul Eater and (I think most of?) NOT, so it was definitely an exercise in “How did these elements get refined in Soul Eater?” but I hope still also an exercise in “Here’s why B Ichi works well.”

In being “too kind,” I found NoFix a fascinating antagonist, even as I re-read it now and say, “Yeah, a lot of having a character who is coded as mentally compromised is disablist,” and “Yeah, this is infuriating to have an antagonist with dark skin be associated with villainy and some tropes that do come across as trying to draw from a ‘gangster’ conceit.”

I think the “stupidly edgy” aspect of NoFix kind of works, given how over-the-top everything is: if you’re going to have someone wacky, who is in the same setting as characters as bizarre and out there as Shotaro and Mana and Tool and Rodigy, then, sure, really exaggerate NoFix, that works for me.

Nofix kills Lin Kinpar (B. Ichi, Atsushi Ohkubo, Chapter 7)