#yttd analysis

Of course, in both situations, there's an aspect of necessity in the way Kai and Midori observe Sara and Shin respectively. Kai's mission from Asunaro was to keep an eye on Sara, in addition to his job as a homemaker for the Chidouins requiring a level of attentiveness, and Midori had to observe Shin for the creation of his AI and doll and likely just to keep tabs on him for Asunaro. Interestingly, they're complete opposites in how close they're able to get to the people they're observing, with Kai only keeping an eye on Sara "from the shadows", and Midori spending almost every day by Shin's side. That's why it's ironic that Kai is the one who outwardly grows and changes the most, while Midori stays adamant about obeying the will of the organization. Kai ends up channeling his experiences within the organization into motivation to protect more people from getting harmed by it, while Midori maintains his distance and mindset until the very end. Despite Kai's physical distance from knowing Sara directly, he cares about her life beyond what he can get in return, while Midori keeps up a facade of knowing Shin and letting Shin know him in return, but maintaining distance from any real emotion or connection he may feel, maintaining a sense of control over the situation.

Their similarities lie in how unnaturally they approach relationships and/or express their care for people, likely having never received a good example of how to care for someone in the past. There's no room for that when you're training to become an assassin, or devoting your entire life to an organization built on lies, that views your life as completely expendable. They're similar in the way they're never really able to get close to anybody due to their positions in Asunaro. But beyond that, they actually become pretty contrasting characters. While Kai was raised with a hint of love and companionship amidst hostility (his connection with Sei and his father trying to give them both bits and pieces of a happy life), perhaps Midori didn't get so lucky. While Midori committed himself entirely to the organization, never given a reason to question it, Kai rebelled against it. Kai learned to love; Midori experimented with love, and pushed himself away further from it.

I think most of all it's interesting how their circumstances and experiences shaped them. It's why I feel very sympathetic towards Midori too, because the thing about him is that he became exactly what he needed to be in his situation. He was so successful in that that he never had the opportunity to question anything different. He didn't have a choice. He's kind of a hard character to have sympathy for because of how readily he commits to not showing weakness and putting himself in a position above others, to removing himself from his humanity, but it's also because of these things that makes me more sympathetic towards him. He's a character built on fear and striving for a sense of control when it really comes down to it. He's built on illusions. He has an air of inevitable tragedy to him because he has nothing outside of the organization that will ultimately betray him, yet seems perfectly comfortable and happy in this role. It makes me curious about whether he has the capability to change in a similar way to Kai, if his circumstances changed. BUT I'm also horribly biased in wanting to look more into him as a character. A lot of things I've brought up in this analysis are kind of up to interpretation due to how little we get about Midori's past in the game...

At first the Banquet seems like a strange choice for the finale of the chapter, after all, we just went through a whole chapter about proving the humanity of the dummies, yet here they are all killed of one after the other here for the sake of Gin, a human. It comes off as a bit jarring, even seeming like YTTD is going back on its message a bit.

But I’m here to argue that isn’t the case, that the Banquet not only doesn’t conflict with the messaging of the chapter and the game as a whole, but instead works to push it even further to culminate in a perfect ending.

And to start with that, let's talk about one of the key players in the banquet, Midori. In a way Midori is everything it means to not be human, and he himself revels in this inhumanity. Midori has thrown away his own humanity, and this is shown to us in so many different ways, but the main one is the way he treats his own body.

What's particularly interesting about Midori is how unclear the line between what's real and what's fake is when it comes to him, from his relationships with the participants during their pasts, to the constant lies and half truths the tells over the chapter, to his death itself, it's hard to get a grasp on the reality of the situation when it comes to him.

And this of course extends to Midori himself, as he is presented as a mystery ever since Alice told Keiji about his murder, and in the way we don’t quite know if he is human or not until the banquet itself, and even then we don’t know exactly how much of his body is human.

During the Banquet Midori reveals that he has slowly been replacing parts of his body with doll parts, 

And to Midori this is equal to no longer being human, this mentality can only be achieved if you equate humanity to what you physically are, and it's through this that Midori acts as the opposite of what the dummies all stand for,

Where the dummies stand for Humanity not being tied to the physical truth, Midori stands for the opposite notion, that the physical truth stands above all. In his eyes humanity is a weakness, and we see that in how he treats them and the traits that prove humanity.

And so Midori tries to escape it, to escape his own humanity, no need for allies or connections or doubts or fears, all those "human" traits when you can just stand above it all, as some unstoppable force.

Midori is the perfect example of this because he constantly rubs it in your face just how inhuman he is, he does so when he starts spinning his head and when he rocket punches Yabusame and literally asks

And he furthers this mentality with his actions too, because Midori is denying his own humanity, he denies his fear of death, he constantly berates and betrays his allies like Maple or Hinako, he denies others of their choices and autonomy, laughing at their despair and refusing to connect, and even his “affection” for Sou is a twisted, messed up version of what affection is. All of it to dehumanise himself and others.

It's honestly hard to call Midori human after it all, and that's just what Midori wants. That's why Maple’s last act of defiance near the end of the chapter was so important, because it shows us and to Midori that that's all it is, a facade.

Just one small moment where Midori wasn’t in control and that's all it took to show us that he isn’t invincible, and with that the image of a fearless unstoppable force is shattered, and it shows us that he isn’t as above humanity as he thinks he is.

It's important that this happens here because it allows the cast to fight back during the next section, both himself and his ideals.

Midori’s mentality of humanity being defined by what you physically are goes head to head with the Dummies in the banquet, and that's what it's about, it's a battle between Midori, and the Dummies, who are trying to prove their own humanity, with all the ups and downs that come with it.

The banquet itself plays into this too, the hint system draws a straight, clear cut answer on who is a doll and who is a human, using exclusively what they are physically.

And the cast isn’t exempt from doing this too, with many of the first discussions being centred around “who is human?”, whether it be figuring out what the lights mean, questioning whether Midori himself is human, or questioning who among the Dummies is a human.

And it's only when Mai’s hands are revealed to be Midori’s human hands, that the lines start to blur. 

Does Mai having human hands make her "more human"? What if they aren't even hers? Plenty of people use body parts from others in real life too right? It gets you thinking about the line between human and doll and just how fragile and unclear it can be.

And sure we designate Midori as the human here, but later we find out we were wrong, because trying to designate a human through physical traits is wrong. But before that…

After picking a coffin and killing either Hayasaka or Kurumada the next hint reveals a human, Sara tells Midori that he must be afraid as hypothetically there is a 50% chance he dies, but Midori denies he is afraid of dying and picks the coffin anyways, revealing it to be Hinako

This just blurs the lines even more, since up to this point we thought all the dummies were dolls, yet a human was able to sneak in there entirely undetected. Can you really say they're that different if you didn't even realise it at first?

And importantly, as we discuss who Hinako really was, we confirm her humanity, but not through any physical traits like many people tried to do during the banquet, but through a painting and the connection between Alice and the real Hinako.

During the next section we figure out the truth about Midori, and about how he has more doll parts than human, spinning his head all the way around to prove it. Obviously this isn’t something that any human could do, but more importantly it shows us Midori’s inhumanity in an undeniable way, it's so flashy, bold and in your face, that you’d be hard pressed to call him human.

When Sara then stands firm and states that this proves Midori is a doll and Gin is a human she is agreeing to the line that Midori drew and separates Humans and Dolls even further. This goes as far as to picking a red coffin, picking a doll, just to keep Gin the human safe, Midori even calls Sara out on it if she is really alright with picking one of the dummies, and notably Sara’s internal monologue doesn’t question that fact, but instead wondering why Midori is so confident, and why he doesn’t seem to be scared.

Sara is being pushed even further into believing Midori isn’t really human anymore at this point, Questioning if their logic was even correct. Until…

The surviving dummies inspire Sara through their words, and with that, prove their own humanities in their own separate ways, showing Sara and the player that their lives have purpose, have value, and that they are truly human.

On the surface it seems like Sara is simply making a choice to sacrifice the dolls for the sake of a human, and the tragedy of that is the fact these scenes show the truest form of their humanity. There is a reason these scenes are such a focal point in my analysis of each of those characters (Mai, Kurumada, and Hayasaka) and it's because it shows that they are able to make their own choices, for the sake of their allies, despite their contradictory emotions, and that's something that's inherently human. 

We see this when characters like Mishima, Kai, and Kanna all do something similar, and it all just works to prove that fact the dummies aren’t separate from the humans.

So why does this happen? Well to me it shows that despite their efforts, Sara still couldn’t shake her bias, playing right into what the Banquet and Midori want, by dehumanising the dummies.

But it isn’t over and the dummies still have a chance to show their humanity.

Tragically, Sara misses, not knowing at this point that Midori isn’t even in one of the glowing coffins, and Midori now has a free shot that's basically guaranteed to hit Gin, but Midori gives her a chance to talk to Gin, and that confidence ends up being his undoing.

While talking to Gin he mentions Keiji, reminding Sara of her wish she got from signing the consent form. She demands Midori to change it, and after some arguing, he does. Only he picks the #2 coffin, killing Anzu, and it's here where we reach our lowest point, where Sara herself admits that she undeniably sacrificed a doll for the sake of a human.

However it's always darkest before the dawn, and that's true here too, this is the Dummies’ last chance to prove themselves, and they won’t go down without a fight.

Through a discussion the cast figures out that Hinako swapped coffins with Midori before the banquet even began, meaning he is actually in a non-glowing coffin, and through this they are given an actual chance to fight back, because, as Sara rightfully called out, this proves Midori is afraid of death.

Despite his claims otherwise, Midori is scared of death, and because of that he swapped coffins with Hinako out of a fear he’d die outwise.

Midori claims that this doesn’t matter though as no matter what all 3 of the non glowing coffins have dolls inside, meaning the hit will be red no matter what. 

Regardless Sara presses the hint and it ends up blue, meaning that there is a human inside, much to everyone’s surprise.

The fact that Midori believed so strongly that the coffins would end up red only for it to be blue just blurs the lines between these two options even more. The fact that the contents in this coffin are unknown is just the first step in this counterattack.

Before that however, Ranmaru’s coffin is picked, sending Sara to give up, but Q-taro tells her that it's not what she thinks, as Midori is revealed to be struggling with his next choice.

This goes into the war of words against Midori, and the thing about this one is that compared to the other war of words our goal here is to confuse Midori as much as possible. First we refute his claim that Keiji isn’t in the coffin, despite it being blue. Then when he brings up the victim videos we tell him that the Hinako in the video isn’t even the Hinako of the dummies. He reasons out Maple must have told Keiji about the Banquet, and reveals that the coffins designate between human and doll through the collars, as both dolls and humans would be ashes after being cremated.

All these contradictions are designed to blur the lines between red and blue, real and fake, human and doll.

The way Midori doubts a human is in the blue coffin, or the way we bring up how not all the dummies are dolls of people who died, or how he admits that the coffins don’t even tell the content apart by physical traits but instead by the collar put on them.

And by the end we’ve blurred the lines so much that Midori thinks the coffin contains his collar, despite his own claim that he himself would be counted as a doll. All due to Q-taro's trick.

As if Hinako being a Human among the dolls wasn't enough, there has been a doll among the humans the whole time, and no one could tell, not even Midori, who dies before he ever learns the truth.

The fact that a doll of someone could so easily fit in just shows how vague the lines really are. We see just how much a doll can seem like a human, how they can feel and learn and grow like any human, how they laugh and cry and shout like any human. And at that point... was there ever really even a line at all? And this all culminates in the final act of the Banquet, Midori and Sara’s last choices. Midori is now doubting himself,

struggling between the 2 options he has to target, struggling with his conflicting feelings,

 and Sara thinks to herself that Midori has no allies to rely on now,

because he denied that connection, and killed them all himself.

She tells him to choose, to make his own choices now,

and he does, he picks the non glowing coffin… Missing Gin and ultimately dooming himself.

Sara ends up making her choice, choosing Midori’s coffin, and as the drill goes through Midori, he realises just how scared of death he is, but it's too late for him.

We prove his mentality of humanity being decided by physical traits is wrong in this moment, because here, in his final moments, Midori is undeniably human, and even he can’t run away from that.

"I'm a human. Which is why I don't wanna die..."

Unlike somebody such as Rio, who also spent his last moments as a human, Midori doesn’t deserve any sympathy, because he did that to himself. Just like how he denied that connection to his allies like Hinako, and killed them, Midori essentially killed his humanity, or at least tried to, so when he’s backed into a corner he doesn’t get to rely on his allies, and while we’ve proven that his mentality of humanity isn’t right, Midori himself he only realises this right as he is about to die, when it's far too late to go back now.

Through the Banquet and its final choice we prove to not only Midori, but to the cast and ourselves that humanity can’t be defined with just the physical truth, and that's what victory means for the dummies, because if someone who actively threw away his own humanity, with all his rocket punches and spinning head can still struggle with contradictory feelings, can try to rely on his allies, can still be forced to make his own choice, and can truly fear death, then humanity  just can’t be defined by something as simple as how much of your body is a doll, and the lines that seemed to divide that, ceases to exist at all.

================================================================================================ Afterword: So that's it. This set of analyses is finally done. Some of you all might have noticed that this is being released exactly one year after my first Anzu analysis, and I just wanted to thank everyone for reading this with me, the fact that there are people who like and agree with what I have to say is still unbelieveable.

I started this series because I thought the dummies were an underappreciated part of YTTD and 3-1 was underappreciated in general. To me this chapter is just incredible, my favourite bit of fiction ever, and I just wanted to put it into words why I love it so much, and as I wrote this series I only grew to love it more!

I hope I was able to share that love to whoever took the time to read any of my posts, its been an incredible time, thank you so much! and i hope you're able to love it a bit more too.

Sorry this one took so long to come out, I've been working on a few projects that i'll hopefully be able to drop soon, and if you're a fan of the dummies I think you'll like what I have in store.

Lastly I want to thank Crazy Sunshine for being such an incredible friend and for helping me so much with the latter half of these analyses, they were improved so much with their help!!!!

And I'll try to be more consistent with these posts but uhh i said that before and that hasn't exactly worked out, regardless this isn't the end, i have a few asks to catch up on still and i am not even remotely close to saying all there is to say about this incredible chapter, so I hope you'll be there when it drops. I hope you've enjoyed this era of my blog and moreso I hope you look forward to the future.

Aa, Sou's scarf. One of his most prominent features along with his bright cyan hair and iconic beanie.

I find it funny how even when I say "Sou's scarf," it doesn't matter which Sou I'm talking about because they both wear the scarf! And I think that's exact what the scarf is supposed to symbolism. The essence of Sou Hiyori.

(Midori jumpscare)

Let's take things back to the beginning. Shin Tsukimi's first trial wasn't some life threatening game like everyone else's– but it was equally as horrifying. Shin's first trial was the knowledge that he was inevitably going to die in this death game. He learned about the AI trials. He saw the survival rates. He knew that Shin Tsukimi was going to die in this, and there was nothing he could do about it.

But what if he wasn't Shin Tsukimi?

What if Shin could survive the game by becoming someone else? Someone who was cunning and heartless enough to survive a death game where the goal is to sacrifice others to save yourself.

Luckily for Shin, he had the perfect inspiration for this new cunning persona.

Took his name, personality, and scarf (somehow). Shin Tsukimi had to become Sou Hiyori, a "weird friend" from the past. To survive.

That whole beginning part is quite obvious, but let's look into smaller details.

Beautiful little devil spawn, isn't he

But pay attention to how he's holding his scarf. He consistently does this and sprites and other CGs.

Every CG of Sou holding his scarf comes from the first Main Game, pretty early on into the game. He's always clinging onto that damn scarf. Why? It can't be that cold in the Asunaro building. I have a couple reasons why, but in order to explain why, I have to explain what the scarf means on a deeper level.

The obvious thing is that the scarf represents the essence of the original Sou Hiyori. Sou's tendency to lie and manipulate others into getting what he wants. Sou doesn't care if those in his way get hurt, hell, he sometimes enjoys it.

But another thing worth noting is that Sou's scarf hides his collar from sight. In Chapter 2-1, this leads Keiji to question if Sou is really a collar-wearing participant, and he is. This scene seemingly only exist to show that despite his scarf covering his neck, Sou is in fact wearing a collar, but I feel like it can go deeper than that.

The collars, in the Kimi Ga Shine Tasuketsu Death Game are visual representations of how the participants are trapped. Every participant has a moment where it becomes abundantly clear how the Death Game has either physically or psychologically backed them into a corner, stripping them of their control over their fate. This is the exact thing Sou desperately wants to avoid. He doesn't want to meet the fate his AI self has met hundreds of times in the simulation. So in a way, Sou covering his collar with a scarf could be Sou trying to hide the fact that he is also trapped.

So, back to the clinging, before Chapter 2, why was he seen clinging to it so much? I believe constantly having a hold of the scarf was a subtle way of showing Sou's insecurity. He literally made up this plan of stealing his weird friends identity and persona on the spot, he probably barely knew what he was doing. So feeling this need to hold the scarf in place is kind of like being insecure about "how well it's gonna fit on his neck". He doesnt want the scarf to fall off, afterall.

(Non symbolic translation; Sou is afraid his false persona– or plan for survival as a whole– might fall because he doesn't know how easy or hard it would be to manipulate everyone.)

So why do his CGs (and new sprites) from Chapter 2 not include his iconic cling anymore?

Because he's not insecure anymore.

Sure, he's still scared and stuff deep down, but he's spent at least a day with these people by now. He's had a decent amount of time to gage their personalities and the which people he can and can't manipulate so easily. Chapter 2 is the chapter where Sou truly solidified his role as an antagonist, and I think that's what makes Chapter 2 so unforgettable for me. Without Sou, Chapter 2 wouldn't have been nearly as interesting.

Now, it's time to talk about the saddest moment in Your Turn To Die.

Choosing between Sou and Kanna

Waaaaghhh this part had 13 year old me in tears... they were literally my 2 favorite characters......

But, an important thing happens with Sou's scarf at this part of the game.

I'll start with the decisions to kill Sou and let Kannada live.

The first thing Sou does when he realizes that he is going to die is–

–take off his collar.

When Shin is faced is faced with death, he doesn't give into fear nor insanity, but instead, makes a calculated decision while simultaneously accepting his fate.

Yes, Shin.

In his death, Shin finally drops the whole Sou act, and we get to see what kind of person the young man really is (or was... WAAAAAA </3)

He uses all of his dying strength to boot up the real Joe AI for Sara, so she can finally have some closure about the death of her best friend. I see this as Shin trying to apologize to Sara for all the hell he put her and the others through. It's so bittersweet, I love Shin so much.

Note all the symbolism mentioned in Shin's death. I previously stated that collars are a physical reminder of how the Death Game participants are trapped by fear– but fear of what? Death, of course. But in this scene, Shin removing his collar, Shin removed the fear that holds every participant in a choke hold. The lack of fear is what leads him to drop the scarf, thus, abandoning Sou. (I mean, he's already dying, so he has no reason to be fake anymore.)

Dropping the act of Sou is what gave Shin the bravery to both apologize to everyone and forgive everyone for voting him out.

Now, it's time to talk about the Sou lives, Kanna dies route.

After witnessing the death of Kanna, we get this CG.

Notice? He still has his scarf.

Sou is still very much alive in Shin. And now that the only person he could truly trust, he's only going to get stronger.

RANT OVER BECAUSE IM TOO TIRED TO TALK ABOUT CHAPTER 3