#rintaro futsu

Teirlist graphic to grab your attention and more easily show you:

So as you can see im basing it off of 2 main axis, one with 2 points and one with 3. I'll give a brief little overview of what I mean by each category and then go into why I think each character is in each category. Solitary vs Inclusive refers to how they center themselves in the world, this does NOT mean whether or not they are self centered, it refers to how they view themselves and other people IN the world and whether or not they believe other people can be outside of their mindset, i'll explain more later. "Me vs the World", "Me vs Them" and "Us vs the Them" refers to how the characters view 'sides'. Do I think that character is likely to think of themselves as as singular? than they fall under one of the "Me vs" categories. Do I think the character perceives a specific crowd/type of person to be a 'side' or do I think the character perceives everyone as the opposite side until proven otherwise? that denotes the "vs Them" or "vs The World" part of the mindset I'll start from the bottom up, left to right for anyone who doesn't know the characters or cant remember the names.

Starting with Maki Our main character, I put him as Inclusive "Us vs Them" because of a few key reasons we see throughout the anime. For the Us vs Them mindset, we consistently see Maki being a team player heavily in regards to not only the tennis team, but people he identifies or gets along with. Before he ever gets to know Yuu and before they're part of the club, Maki has already mentally categorized Yuu as part of his "Us/We" the same goes for Mitsue after they get along in class. We can actually see him interact with Mitsue before he categorizes her when he bumps into her. He apologizes and makes sure she's alright because he's a good person, but otherwise is off-footed towards her. She's not a "Them" in his mindset, but she's also not yet "Us/We". The main part of his Them" is of course his father and anyone who goes against his "Us/We" such as the bully Itsuki hit with his racket "He had it coming" Isn't something he would say about just anyone. As for the Inclusive or Solitary part, there is NO shot Maki was ever going to be Solitary. He's inclusive because of what i've already said about how he interacts with Mitsue ^. He doesn't just see the world as "Us vs Them" he knows not everyone is against him and his, and therefore not everyone should immediately raise his guard, it's why he's so casual in the first episode while not being necessarily friends with Toma yet. Toma isn't included in "Us" yet. at the start of ep 1, the only ones in "Us" is Maki himself, his mom, and Shou, but he very easily and relatedly lets his "Us" grow throughout the anime. I didn't even mention Arashi but he's another great example showcasing Maki's mindset.

Rintaro So most of the rest of these guys in this category will have a much shorter section than Maki's, mostly because we see less and I have to explain less. It's pretty easy to see that Rintaro doesn't view himself as an island and does his best for the club and his parents. This is all in his small actions and ease around the tennis club, it's hard to say whether or nor Mitsue or Arashi are included in his "Us/We". Similar to Maki, Rintaro clearly has no guard against people other to him and doesn't believe everyone not in his circle is against him.

Yuu I'll be honest I almost put Yuu into the Solitary space, mostly because of their (rightful)fear, but realized that Yuu hadn't put the club or Maki into the "Them" category immediately. While cautious with Maki upon being approached, they quickly categorize Maki as "Us/We" when he is open and kind to them, and when with the Tennis club nearer to the start, it's clear that they don't think of the club as "Them" OR "Us/We" yet. At the start of the anime, the only people in Yuu's "Us/We" besides themself are Toma and their sisters, but much like Maki, at the end the entire Club and Mitsue is clearly included in their "Us/We"

Taiyo Taiyo is mostly a repeat of things I've said about Rintaro, we don't see very much of Taiyo at all but what we do see I've determined to be in this category, and as 3 other people will probably read this I doubt any of you will fight me on it, but you would be welcome to! Even 5 years in the future.

Onto Shingo As the first and only part of our Solitary "Us vs Them" grouping, he kinda makes this category. While having a similar mindset to our other "Us vs Them"s, he doesn't really see people outside of those two categories. As shown with how he interacts with people outside of the club and his family, other people are kinda the enemy to him. He was slightly(not like Ituki and Tsubasa) antagonistic to Maki when he joined to club but swapped him over to "Us/We" seemingly easily, doing the same to Yuu when they become the club's manager. While he has an Solitary "Us vs Them" mindset, he doesn't come across as overaggro to others because he's not a naturally aggressive person, just loud and protective. As a good example, the two boys who appeared in the club room and started to mess with Yuu, their manager and part of Shingo's "Us/Them". He's he first to intervene and does so easily and calmly, Yuu is part of his "Us/We" and these boys are not, making them "Them" automatically.

Up to Istuki Itsuki is in a really interesting spot as an Inclusive "Me vs Them" By having an inclusive mindset, he knows that not everyone is against him and some people are just chilling. He does not have an "Us/We" mentality but he still has friends and people he cares about, shown how along with Shingo, he steps in when Yuu is being harassed. He does it in a more antagonistic way, calling them names with no remorse. Yuu may not be "Us" because there is only "Me/I" for Itsuki, but these two idiots have still come into Itsuki's space, his club room, and are messing with his club member, his manager. Anything like this becomes personal because he's "Me/I" centric which is why he reacts slightly more aggressively than Shingo. However. He doesn't see these as attacks, just slights, because they were against Yuu, not himself directly. The racket incident, were clearly attacks. When two bullies come up to him and bad talk his homelife, he has no hesitation. He talks back, responds once or twice, these are warnings to back off, to reason. These bullies instantly were painted as "Them" as soon as they opened their stupid mouths but Itsuki would have let them go, but they kept talking, kept insulting, kept attacking him. So he strikes to defend himself, with his racket. He feels no remorse, in his mindset this jerk deserves it(kinda did but the racket was a bit much i agree with Maki). We didn't get to see much else of his mindset throughout the anime except maybe how he feels about Nao's mom ("Them").

Onto Arashi! Starting off our Inclusive "Me vs the World" off strong with our dear walking contradiction! To easily sum up his Inclusive part, he isn't actually antagonistic to anyone unless they've recently slighted him, seen as him snapping at Sunaga(his doubles partner) but soon realizing he was wrong to do so and apologizing. While Arashi is very much "Me vs the World", it's not active in his brain at all times. While everyone is against him in a general sense, he doesn't believe they are constantly against him all the time.

Toma! Most of what I would be saying about him is a repeat of what I said about Arashi^ you could argue he's Solitary "Us vs Them" but I just don't see him like that. From how he talks when at the bbq to his surprise at Maki telling him he's having fun playing tennis with Toma, etc etc he's a very lonely boy surrounded by people he doesn't think are on his side and expects one day to be against him.

Up to Tsubasa!!!!!!! I love analyzing Tsubasa he's like a little angry bug to me. Tsubasa has a solitary "Me vs Them" mindset, which means once he's placed you into the "Them" category he doesn't really let you out of it, and upon meeting you he expects you to prove you're not automatically in the "Them" category. Despite not everyone being in the "Them" category, he does not touch a "We/Us" category with a 10 foot pole. Nobody is on his side and he's afraid his own actions will cause people to choose to be in the "Them" category. He didn't look for help from his mom or brothers when his father pushed him down the stairs, he ran. He ran because he had to get away from the "Them" he found his way to Shingo's house, the closest person to an "Us" he's probably ever had, but freaks out upon Shingo actually seeing him and trys to run. He's not running from Shingo himself, he's running from the prospect of Shingo no longer being a neutral, safe, space for him. He's running from Shingo seeing Tsubasa crying and hurt and seeing any reason to slide into the "Them" category. He doesn't know he's part of Shingo's "Us/We" he can't know that. He's used to testing people and see if they leave or push back, he's used to seeing people either fail or not fail. He's not used to people actually winning.

ONTO NAO!!! If Tsubasa is the bug i study, than Nao is the salamander i begged my dad to keep in a lil fruit cup as a kid. Do i know how to care for him? hell no. Do i want him anyway? yes. Nao's mindset knows no neutrals or positives. Everyone is against him in someway including himself. His mother is actively against him, his father is there and does nothing, possibly making everything worse by being around but not around, therefore his mind has taken neutral presences to also be bad. Nao is all about appeasal, about prevention. If he can appease people he meets before they know him than maybe they will just be passively against him instead of actively against him. He lies to Maki and the others to try and appease them, to tell them what he thinks they want to hear. He lies to his mother, in body and mind, tells her what he thinks she wants to hear and pretends to eat he food she makes while he stares into nothing, likely tasting nothing but ash. Taiyo tries to comfort him? He reacts in a way he thinks Taiyo wants, because to Nao he himself is broken and having other people realize this is dangerous and he wants to minimize it. Most of all he lies to himself. He may not even realize he is doing it, like with the infirmary incident, where he convinced himself he didn't know where Shingo's younger sister was. Because he views everyone as against him, he doesn't get them all laughing it off and forgiving him. To him he's messed up again and shown them a broken part of him. He, like Tsubasa, doesn't understand Shingo on an intrinsic level because to Shingo Nao is part of is "Us/We" and Shingo doesn't see Nao as an enemy, as an outsider.

Mitsue :) Lastly Mitsue, Similarly to Nao but with less delusions and mental illness, she views the world to inherently be against her. Unlike Nao, she isn't against herself(most of the time) Maki and the club are good friends to have for her because she keeps convincing herself they're all stupid and incompitant. Whenever Yuu mentions Mitsue actually thinking of Maki as a friend, she always shuts them down and spouts off something negative, putting on a tough front. In her mind they won't become actively against her as long as she is either useful(helping them spy on Joy) or as someone disconnected.