#ramblepuff

ishimondo so awesome because you can clearly see the way it helps both mondo and kiyotaka. the way you see mondo genuinely light up the room for the first time with how happy he is that morning after the sauna battle. the way you see taka (who, in the original japanese, is staunchly against addressing someone as anything other than their last name) calling mondo a nickname because it signifies their new bond, one that he clearly holds with pride.

i think of that one manga that shows their sauna battle. where mondo openly cries in front of taka, despite having internalized the notion that vulnerability is weakness. it's because he sees taka as someone safe to be vulnerable around, someone that won't judge him for crying. it's only fitting that he cries after hearing about taka's past and his hardships. it's because he recognizes then that taka is his equal. kiyotaka went through trials a tribulations since childhood, just like mondo. he overcame them through perseverance and sheer will, just like mondo. he is strong in character and beliefs, just like mondo. despite being surrounded by others all the time, he is alone, just like mondo. and through it all, taka cries, so so will mondo.

i think of how mondo shatters kiyotaka's established beliefs, and that kiyotaka is grateful for it. mondo is someone who fits right in the mold of taka's black and white view of what a bad person is. he disrespects authority, he swears and gets into fights, his fashion is gaudy and loud. he is a low-life. but then mondo picks apart all those ideas in taka's head throughout the course of one night. mondo disrespects authority because there was never an authority figure who respected him. mondo swears and gets into fights because he has people to look out for, people to protect. mondo's fashion is gaudy and loud because it's the only thing worthy of representing a culture and community that he is so proud of. kiyotaka no longer sees a bad man. he sees a good man, that survived his bad circumstances. like how he did. it goes against everything he ever believed. but he's glad he got there. he said it himself. he's so glad he met mondo.

utdp and dr:s are give-and-take generally. but two characters they will never mess up are mondo and kiytotaka (mondo especially, but i can get into that another time). mondo giddily promising to build his classmates houses because he's so happy that he can now envision a future for himself. kiyotaka reminiscing on all the connections he made while in hope's peak that are so meaningful that it moves him to tears, because he didn't have that before. mondo keeping kiyotaka in a classroom after class and intentionally steering their conversation to careers so he can tell him in private what he plans to do after high school. like a secret he's been holding onto until he had the opportunity to tell the right person. kiyotaka responding with unflinching support, mondo in turn thanking kiyotaka for said support throughout their entire time at Hope's Peak, complete with promising him a home built by mondo's own two hands. mondo still expressing some doubts about his future in dr:s, but no longer letting those doubts affect him like they used to, because he has taka now. he trusts taka to always be there for him, even after graduation, and to help him during his low moments (because there will be low moments), and taka only affirming that trust while honoring mondo's growth. they love to do that, letting each other know that their support and hard work haven't gone unnoticed.

in the meantime, here’s my attempt at drawing taka’s splash art pose for warmup. because i think it’s really cool. those dangan artists just loved giving him some really prominent lines of action it’s crazy.

the “unwholesome” line set the timeline on a trajectory that messed up a bunch people’s perceptions of him. i’m honestly surprised he didn’t kill anyone in chapter three.

takaaki looks like the most divorced man ever to me, so that kinda informed what i think she was like.

being from a then high profile and wealthy family, and with toranosuke not wanting to risk takaaki ruining their reputation, i think he was arranged to be married to the daughter of another high class business family (it would also strengthen the bonds between that family and the ishimarus, so it was good for business).

while the two of them did grow close, i don't think they would've fallen in a romantic love with each other. there's this silent, mutual agreement that they wouldn't have ended up together had their families not gotten involved. if anything, they were friends who had an "us against them" attitude about their families, since they both have this resentment towards them.

she did love kiyotaka, although she couldn't help but realize that having a child would be the last nail in the coffin to her being forever trapped in this not-loveless-but-not-loving marriage she was forced into. she never took out that frustration on kiyotaka, but she and takaaki would occasionally let each other vent out their frustrations about the whole ordeal, their families, each others families, anything and everything. being the only people they were allowed to be completely honest around strengthened their bond and all that. what she never said out loud was how sometimes, on the very hard days, she wished that something big would happen so that she would have the opportunity to get away from it all.

when the scandal happened, she got her opportunity. it helped that her family was urging her to separate herself from the ishimarus so that they wouldn't be dragged down with them, and that the high tensions and stress everything brought caused her and takaaki to get into fights very frequently. still, she didn't expect leaving to feel so painful. takaaki was a good man, who didn't deserve to go through all of this alone. and she couldn't even begin to think about how her departure would affect kiyotaka. takaaki wasn't surprised when she first brought up the topic of divorce, he knew he couldn't force her to face the consequences of his own father's actions in the way he was. she would constantly talk about how her family forced her to do things she didn't want, which led to her overall unhappiness, and he didn't want to contribute to that.

i know that the manga exists. and i know they exchanged words and had a heart to heart in the sauna then took a bath together after. but then what happened after that??

i like to think that they just hung out in taka’s room and stayed up for most of the night talking to each other. i have the image of them lying down next to each other on taka’s bed and getting increasingly more delirious and lighthearted the more sleep deprived they get. but they love it.

they get to the point that taka’s laughing at everything mondo says and mondo just can’t stop smiling because he feels so light and so happy it’s not even funny.

do they at one point stop talking and just enjoy each other’s presence?? does taka just stare a mondo thinking about how this is the best night of his life and it’s all thanks to him?? does mondo stare at taka and think about how he’s never been this open and authentic with anyone in forever and how great that feels?? does he for a split second think that he could tell taka anything and it’ll turn out okay??