big cheese

i loved the downright creepy vibes he gave me in motonari’s route. pairing that with his genuinely ignorant reasoning behind betraying nobunaga, if the ikesen writers actually, like, locked in, he could’ve been such the well meaning but delused freakster he seems to be in motonari’s route that hasn’t properly processed and grieved his sister’s death (which kicho’s route did note as a contribution to his way of logic).

all i’m say is that if they were going to commit to kicho’s raison d’être then they should’ve done the exact opposite of rationalizing it. i feel like kicho should not have been as much green of a flag as he was portrayed to be.

also i’m still kinda disappointed on how little nobunaga was around in kicho’s romantic route (haven’t read his dramatic) when he’s literally such a significant character to his story and it’s been made clear to me at least how much they meant to one another. if he does get a sequel (if any of the act 2 guys do. i imagine they will? i hope? idk) i hope it’s there that they explore those two more. i’m very shameless about nobukicho.

i always thought kennyo was so underrated before i did his route and i really hate to say that. not that i don’t think he’s still underrated now, but kennyo is honestly the Potential Man in all of ikesen. an awful thing keeps happening to me where i read a route of a character i liked and then i feel less for them afterward. i love kennyo, really, and his route was sweet. but i feel like, and this may just be me and i’m stupid, what made him abandoned vengeance wasn’t strong enough…? i read his dramatic route hoping for dinner and got a snack. idk how to word this, but i feel like it wasn’t that well delved into or anything as to why kennyo stopped? if he didn’t want the person he loves to get hurt by his revenge in turn (either from them literally almost dying as in canon or being heartbroken when he’s dead), why does that not apply to ranmaru? i don’t understand what makes mai so unique from someone who he’s known since he was a boy. i love kennyo and ranmaru’s relationship so i really do wish we’d gotten to see more of it. idk i think it would’ve hit different if it was ranmaru or shingen. plus, like, mai never really gave an argument that convinced kennyo to change his path.

i’m used to my vengeful angsty tsunderes taking over 500 episodes to cease the path of revenge. but the point of kennyo was that he hadn’t completely lost his heart in his pursuit for revenge. spoilers for naruto ig but sasuke descended because no one in the village could or tried to understand him. i feel like shingen and ranmaru were those people that could, however (because i’m also shameless about shingen x kennyo). i don’t think kennyo’s character progression sucked necessarily, but i personally found it underwhelming and didn’t really have enough time to play out messier than it was. i wish mai changed kennyo the way she did motonari. i don’t think there was really any argument on morality made in kennyo’s route, and my vague idea of what mai’s argument to kennyo could’ve been basically boils down to this post, especially because it ties so well to him having once been a monk who did just that and still does (even if he’s a tsundere about it):