#yamagane

A scarce akagi tsuka tanto

late 14th Century

Japan

Made of wood, with yamagane (rough copper) mounts, decorated with hanabishi mon (Takeda family) among waves.

I just recently finished Tsumugi’s talent development events and thought it would be fun to review them! Overall I quite liked it. It was mild!Mugi at her best.

I liked how most of the events involved her assessing someone’s character, especially around their outfits. I think both the bonus modes do a good job showing that Tsumugi’s natural inclination is to keep a low profile and observe everyone around her, and that cosplay is really the only thing she likes to engage directly with.

My favorite event with a student was probably the one with Hifumi. I feel like with their inclinations they’re probably two of the only people either of them would genuinely get along with. (I lowkey ship it tbh- is that a thing yet? Can I call it Yamagane?) I like that their event ended up with them talking about image politics in con culture and how differently they see it, with Tsumugi’s reluctant involvement and Hifumi’s greedy rush to spread his work. God, they’re both so terrible. I love them.

Other highlights: The one with Toko and Peko where Tsumugi pulls the “I’m so plain” card and Peko becomes like the only person ever to call her on trying to deliberately erase her own presence, and also the one with Leon because of how random that pairing is.

My favorite event period was the one with Monokuma, though, where she reveals that a. she’s chill with Monokuma mass-producing himself and running over everything, and b. cosplaying entire worlds is totally her regular hobby. Does her comment about finding the “next” world she’s going to cosplay imply that she’s responsible for this entire DR bonus mode canon? I certainly hope so. In any case I really enjoyed the reveal that this version of Tsumugi is sinister about her hobbies too.

Interactions I wish were there:

Tsumugi and Mukuro together (I know she came up in Junko and Tsumugi’s interaction but it would be funny to see two failed Junko impersonators interacting)

Tsumugi and Twogami talking about identity

More of Oma making fun of Tsumugi for being a lame nerd

Tsumugi and Hifumi having a reference battle while Celes or Oma look on in scorn

Tsumugi, Junko, and Izuru collaborating on a project and realizing they hate working with each other

Celes describing her gambling exploits and Tsumugi being all like “Wow, that‘s like that one time in Liar Game! Wait, that’s exactly like that one time in Liar Game” and Celes reacting like