·˚ ༘ kanayu

after watching leviticus, i couldn’t help but put it in my top 4 — it has not left my mind since.

by the first watch, it’s a simple concept. a horror film, a monster haunting the main characters, they scream and cry a little bit, fight it off internally, the end. thanks for watching, now get up. but truly, there’s so much more to this movie that’s way more noticeable after a second, more focused watch. let’s break it down a little!

two souls intertwined

the most focused-on plot point, ryan’s and naim’s relationship. from the first minutes, we see their relationship being playfully/teasingly violent, which mostly comes out from ryan’s side, as that’s what his persona is built on. they’re rushing and pushing it. they don’t give eachother a second to thoroughly explore, feel and connect, they just straight up go into it. throughout the film, their relationship evolves from a ‘friends-with-benefits’ thing to an actual, pure love and intimacy.

it becomes more collected, gentle and you can actually feel the intense tension between the two of them rather than aggressive lust, if that’s how i can call it. naim in one way or another, as shown, introduces ryan to fragility and vulnerability.

also, what i’d like to point out cause i found it interesting! in the scene where naim’s mother has a monologue about her relationship with God; how she found God in a quote unquote, terrifying silence, how he guided her, listened to her and how she could connect with him. during that speech, ryan is shown on the frame from naim’s perspective. this somewhat clears up how naim feels about ryan— it was never sheer curiosity, a hookup, or a half-joke, it was genuine sense of safety and comfort. until, that comfort is shattered by;

shame disguised as horror

shame haunts. it runs after you, leaves a permanent cut that scars your brain and never heals. it’s a personal feeling that belittles and consumes you wholy, much like the entity. yet, the entity not only feeds out of fear; but also out of love and attraction. we can really see it when naim instead of blatantly fighting the entity, he chooses to trick it with affection— and it stops completely. he chooses to stop fighting his love, for a second, and the entity malfunctions. because love can defeat fear. it represents every ugly, flawed emotion that comes along with intense love and desire. it starts to lightly crush the relationship between ryanaim, as they both slowly start to be scared of eachother. who’s the real one? who’s the one i love, and the other one i’m scared of? or maybe they’re both?

another scene where queerness is represented as horror, and so as shame, is when naim goes to the police station to report hunter’s death and ryan being in danger. he gets questioned by one of the authorities; she starts going on about how, sometimes, when things get too bad mentally and turn hard to accept, they can create denial and delusions that we use to cope, run away from and replace that feeling.

after that, naim starts talking about his past relationship with eva and how it amplified his fear. kind of random to bring up a girl after talking about a monster that’s out to get teenage boys, no?

except, that whole conversation was a perfect metaphor for how internalized homophobia feels. you don’t want to accept being queer, because how can you, when the world demonizes it so greatly? and so, your only option is to ignore that, try to mend yourself into someone you’re not and replace queerness with “normalcy”. then you should be fine, but you’re not, because the truth still lives inside you. it can be ugly, saddening and painful, but it’s the raw truth.

a mother’s love

or more so, the lack of it.

naim’s mother, even purely at the start, is shown as ‘playfully’ mocking to naim and just feels shady. she’s also very, very religious and sees it as something wholly personal and absolute. as a parent, it’s clear that she loves her son. but that love is tangled up in her beliefs, own fears and the inability to accept naim fully. that, as hinted in the movie, can be a result of generational trauma that lightly gets put on naim. that disorted love led her to making bad decisions and labeling it as something that “had to be done”. she knew the consequences of sending naim into the healing, but she also pushed them aside and proceeded with it anyway.

hatred so deeply engraved in someone can make a crack on love and break it. she thought she was doing the right thing, but that wasn’t the case, not at all. i took it as a great showcase of how, despite the church & christianity being presented as something kind and saving, it’s destructive not only to a individual, but to a group; even with years of love and depth behind them.

but familiarity isn’t necessarily love. naim’s mother was neglectful, didn’t particularly care about what naim had to say and never believed him, nor did she care about his troubles and fears. “we need fear, naim.” is the most we got out of her after scarring her son and making him live with the entity for the rest of his life.

as her ‘beloved son’ comes to sleep next to her, awfully terrified because of his nightmares, she views it as him bothering her, left him completely alone and made him leave her room like it’s something to be ashamed of, needing your mother. complicated relationship with your own parent like that only fed on the shame, which played an enormous part in naim’s shame and insecurity.

i do wish their relationship was more developed, that’s for sure, but it still proved a clear point.

the light and rocks

what really caught my attention was the intention between the light and throwing rocks. if you watch the movie carefully, naim pre-‘healing’ in the scene where he …, has burning light behind him. that can be taken as a reminder that he’s just like ryan and hunter, or also can be taken as a foreshadow that he’s next in the process, and that’s inevitable.

at hunter’s working place, when naim hides, we can see the word “ice” several times. i stopped and thought; ice is the opposite of fire. fire is intense, all-consuming and suffocating. it’s also been used in the fights against entity.

which led me to a conclusion that not only it can hint at hunter having a totally different relationship with ryan than naim (which i will get to in a second), or how it can also symbolise his failure. he didn’t have the fire ‘in him’ to fight against the entity, he felt defeated. hopeless. he didn’t have anyone that he could live for, precisely, in a romantic connection. that’s what led to his death, somehow. a little bit :)

now, this one is a pretty obvious one, but the boys throwing rocks at eachother also holds a meaning. in the bible, getting stoned is continuously used as a form of punishment. as in leviticus 20:13 it also is stated that lying with another man as a man is a sin and should be punished with a bloody death, you can just collide these two together. amazing religious symbolism from the director, really

and on a quick note, the snake at the beginning is supposed to represent temptation as it’s also represented in the bible. ryan plays with it, not seeing the issue, while naim is scared and tells him to stop. a rather interesting way to show the contrast between naim’s and ryan’s beliefs.

naim vs. hunter

this segment is pretty clear in the movie. hunter and naim are completely separate personalities, different people with different approaches to life. hunter mirrors ryan’s tendency towards violence, throwing the rocks, aggressively making out with him; no raw connection between them, just a desperate attempt at love.

while naim grants ryan with tenderness, delicate touches, softness and passion. he gets a unsual (for him) outlook on love and how it should really feel, which deepens his feelings at their core.

the bus scene

the bus scene is a very talked about topic, but personally, not for the right reason. it’s not meant to be perceived as “hot”, it’s a perfect, short performance that lays out ryanaim’s acceptance for the audience beautifully.

couple of minutes before getting on to that bus, a girl tells them that being with eachother only deepens the entity and makes it worse for them both to bear. nonetheless, they push that thought aside and confidently express their love to eachother. harm doesn’t concern neither ryan nor naim, they both just crave eachother and that’s what matters most.

in addition to that, in a public transport. in a scenery that can ruin their lives and danger them. there’s not a moment when one says “what if someone sees us?”— no. it’s their moment, their shared time and devotion. their realization of one’s feelings (ryan realising naim likes him back and vice versa because the entity takes the form of a person you like most) not only intensifies the scene, but makes it much more wholesome and full of emotions. they’re giggling, smiling at each other,

they’re safe in eachothers arms without a care in the world.

it never stops, but it gets better

the ending is one of my favourite 5 minutes of the film lol. naim finally chooses to fight both for himself and for ryan. he doesn’t comply to his mother, he leaves and finds ryan exactly where he thought he would be.

“please tell me it’s really you” with teary eyes that meet naim’s, with a soft little smile. not only that, but after they get on the bus, naim still sees the entity. lurking at him, waiting. but even so, he doesn’t scream, he’s not scared. instead he looks at ryan, reminding himself that he’s there, with him, and so everything will be okay. he lays his head on ryan’s shoulder, and ryan allows him. he lets naim share burdens on both of them. despite everything; every trauma, every fight, every pain, every wail, they’re with eachother. and that’s what matters.

but i never saw it as anything other than a piece of media that perfectly captures the complexity, hurt and joy of human existence. it shows how humans, even under extreme conditions, can still connect and love. but love isn’t innocen or pure— it stabs, caresses, scratches and kisses. it’s a non-existent line between happiness and sorrow. however, we still crave it for proper function and fulfillment. because as happiness cannot exist without sorrow, humans cannot exist without love.

it comes in different forms, in different lights and darks. mizisua— that displays unhealthy codependency, yet also delicate admiration. ivantill— that displays miscommunication, as well as sacrifise by the hands of emotion. hyuluka, where obsession and a desire to be seen is present, but there’s also softness & vulnerability peeking through.

aka. the best scene in dps 🫰

This moment is my favourite film scene of all time. It’s so full of raw emotion, intensity, achieving freedom and fighting fear.

Todd is known to be a student that’s always silent, doesn’t keen on talking and prefers to stay in his head rather than expose it in front of people. He’s swallowing every word before even opening his mouth, he doesn’t give himself a chance. Keating has obviously noticed this, and never gave up on his potential nonetheless. He wanted to unleash his thoughts, wanted to take off these hands that were suffocating and muting Todd. He heard those quiet whispers, those scared murmurs, and decided to change them into a voice. A loud voice that influences the entire room, a yawp.

These three minutes were executed perfectly, the room stiff and tense. Don’t even get me started on the camera following them as they spinned, making the atmosphere engrossing and all-consuming. There’s only Todd and Keating in the frame, as there is no one else that needs to be seen, no one else that needs to interrupt, nothing else that needs to be potrayed. Just the mere ability to create, and the effect support has on people that quietly need it.

Todd finally breaking and taking over his anxiety, the gasps after every word, his forcefully closed eyes, the shudder in his voice here and there—made the scene feel even more real than it was before. It was anxiously fast, like Todd was scared he’s gonna die if he doesn’t speak, like these choking hands will return any moment. This is more on Ethan’s acting– which was incredible throughout the entire movie.

Keating kneeling before him, giving him the entire scene, making him feel powerful and impactful for the first time. He wasn’t the one performing, he was the one watching in awe and passion. He’s looking at an exhibition of the most beautiful painting that finally uncovered. The clenched fists on his chest, his breath taken away.

It was a very important scene for Todd’s development and a showcase of Keating’s ability to teach. It was done perfectly, such a beautiful and heart-wrenching moment. You can get a grasp on their relationship as well as them individually. Keating simply wants to teach, to help, to try and understand. It’s exactly what happend with Todd in that scene, and gosh… it absorbed every single one of my senses, especially with a parallel in mind.

So. I’ve finished anime jjk recently and Suguru has been a point of my interest since I finished it. Specifically, his unchangable story – how he couldn’t be saved no matter what. Let’s dive a little deeper.

Freedom vs. Fate

While watching, I had a question in mind. How much of what we have seen was truly Suguru’s decision, or maybe it was his destiny? Suguru seems to be shaped by his experiences (Riko’s and Haibara’s death, Gojo, seeing how villagers treated the sorcerer girls) throughout Hidden Inventory as well as his talk with Yuki.

What I also found really interesting is his conversation with Satoru when they’re playing basketball, more so the irony of it. Suguru was confident in his worldview that the entire point of Jujutsu sorcerers is to protect the weak, and he even calls it the proper structure of their world. Gojo dismisses him by saying 1. Protecting the weak is exhausting, 2. He hates moral arguments, it almost turns into a physical fight.

The irony is clear, as in that scene Satoru is the one who disvalues the weak & Suguru is the one who protects them, when some episodes later it goes entirely vice versa and their statements switch.

This makes us go back to the first point, was it truly Suguru’s decision? I’d obviously, say no, which introduces us to a philosophical belief: determinism, that, by simplifying, makes free will an illusion. Before the events he has a contrasted opinion to after, he changes wholly. Even if we made him somehow dodge the unfortunete interactions with non-sorcerers, he’d likely go face to face with them later. His character is a debate whenever a person can heal the sum of the wounds, or will they infect it further. It was like that from the very beginning, that’s why Suguru had no chance of salvation at any point in the story, simply, his final fate was doom.

Active nihilism & inner struggle

Suguru had started to believe that his duty as a Jujutsu sorcerer had no inherent meaning and there’s no rational reason to continue supporting non-sorcerers when they’re ungrateful and evil. He compares humanity to monkeys, treating them objectively.

After Riko’s death, the first thing he notices are several groups of people, specifically, non-sorcerers clapping with wide smiles and Satoru holding Riko’s deaceased body. Gojo asks if they should kill them all and Suguru replies with “There’s no point to that.”

It confused me at first, but now I’m pretty sure it’s meant to represent his internal conflict between protecting & destroying the weak. It plays a big part in his depression, and even makes him think of himself as a bad person.

He has seen the ugly side of the world, and suddenly the good in people he was supposed to protect is blurred, and he’s facing a turmoil, wondering what’s the correct thing to do.

Before the talk with Yuki, he’s touched by depression and exhibits passive nihilism. Yet, when Yuki presents him her goal, Suguru stops succumbing to the fact that there’s no meaning, and he decides to take the matter into his own hands.

He starts viewing it as an opportunity to create a new, pure world that erase non-sorceres. Humanity is disregarding those who protect, so he disregards those he should protect. This is the core of his downfall to insanity & madness.

Superiorty complex

By psychology, a superiority complex is a mechanism that makes the individual unreasonably form the idea of being better / superior to others. Another important point in a superiority complex is that it usually develops as a defense of the figure’s feelings of inferiority.

Now, this one I’m not really sure about, but Geto does display symptoms of a superiority complex. He’s in no position to ‘cleanse’ the world, but he’s certain that he is. This is just his another twisted mindset.

He also always lived in Satoru’s shadow, especially after Satoru mastered the Reverse Cursed Technique, and Suguru tends to exaggerate his abilities. Easiest example is that he thinks he’d be able to murder all non-sorcerers, which realistically is close to impossible. Taking all these things to consideration, I thought of the possibility of him having a superiority complex.

That is all.

the true demon.

douma has been my favourite kny character for a while now, and since i think he’s one of the most interesting & misunderstood characters in kny i decided to do an analysis of him.

douma’s mindset - the horrific savior.

most demons eat humans from hatred, malice etc. but douma is the complete opposite: he devours the struggling, the sorrowful. his actions and persona are heavily built by his past, belief and a desire to save. he’s certain that by consuming his victims they’ll experience complete tranquillity. he sees his body as an object of peace and enlightenment, where his preys are allowed to sleep and rest for eternity, abandoning their bothers and troubles. his being equals to a savior, by his worldview– he quote on quote ‘saves, rescues and guides’ his victims by eating them and making them live inside of him for eternity. by reading carefully, you can also see that douma thinks of absorbing and killing as two different things. by his mindset– when we get killed our mind and body shuts down, and we simply rot into the ground. while (again, by his mindset) when he gobbles his victims up, they continue living inside of his body forever, ‘breaking out of’ the depressing rules after death. i’m also just gonna mention the fact that it’s said douma doesn’t eat his happy, pure-hearted followers. he only ingests the miserable, which only adds to my later point.

“paradise does not exist. it’s a fairy tale created that humans created with their imaginations” —

active nihilism

douma has the opinion that salvation from any of the gods nor heaven and hell exist, and that humans are inherently foolish for believing so and engaging in religion. he holds no value for life, but in contrast to passive nihilism, he doesn’t succumb to despair– he embraces freedom by creating new, self-defined values and meaning to live on his own terms, leading to individual empowerment that his believers only fed into. he becomes the source of his own principles instead of being guided by man. he realizes that there’s no objective meaning to life, so he creates his own– shaped by his saviour complex.

backstory - divine child.

as i said before, douma was heavily influenced by his childhood, no matter if people admit it or not. his way of thinking was largely shaped by his parents and situations he went through at an early age. he was born with a ‘godly’ appearance: pale, gray hair and rainbow eyes. his guardians were definite that douma is special, and is able to hear voices of the gods. that conclusion led them to creating the ‘eternal paradise cult’ with douma, a kid, as a leader. he was mentally shaped to believe he was someone special with a higher purpose. he states that he found it entirely dumb, but played along nonetheless. full grown adults went to him, prayed to him, worshipped him, asked him, a child, to lead them to paradise after exchanging their painful life stories filled with cries. he was forced to carry burdens that weren’t his to bear in the first place. douma was clever, he didn’t think of paradise or god as something real. he pitied his followers, so he had a wish of saving them and making them happy. that is what he was born, was it not? his entire sense of identity was built on his childhood to the point he himself started to indulge in the idea that he only existed to rescue, give bliss. his psychological growth was stunned, ripped apart. he turned himself into an enbodiment of his follower’s expectations.

he was exploited, groomed and went through trauma and abuse under the justification of religion. i wholeheartly believe that he had emotions before, as he felt insulted, pity, discomfort and anger. it’s like… he felt emotions, but didn’t know that he felt them if that makes sense. his parents did nothing but strip him of humanity and treat him as holy. and then, after the brainwash, he had to witness his mother stabbing his father before taking her own life. now he had no one controlling what he does, right? but he was already scarred and impacted, so with a sense of responsibility in his heart, he continued his parent’s work and did not leave the cult.

religious symbolisms & parallels

douma has a lot of religious symbolism, more specifically in buddhism. his blood demon art is full of religion imagery, the same as douma himself. buddha was meant to become a great king who would bring success to his fathers empire, while douma was treated as a divine child thats only destiny is to lead others to salvation. the core of buddhism is to end suffering and get to a state of enlightenment, known as nirvana. in buddhism, there are six realms that represent the cycle of rebirth, determined by karma. but what buddhists want is to escape samsara (the process of reincarnation), and reach nirvana– which is the goal, the complete libaration from suffering.

his blood demon art contains a buddhist figure, bodhisattva. a bodhisattva is differentiated from humanity because they have an intense insight into reality. that’s the reason why a bodhisattva abandoned their own persuation of nirvana, and chose to help others reach that state. douma perceives himself to be, or atleast acts like a bodhisattva, for example through his cannibalism as i explained in the ‘mindset’ topic. we can also assume that douma views himself as a bodhisattva, because he ‘understands reality’– gods, heaven, hell, paradise… it’s all a nonexistent phenomenom to him. in buddhism, in order to reach enlightenment, you need to destroy three mental states, called the three poisons. which douma is in the posess of. the three poisons include: ignorance, greed and aversion.

ignorance: he disacknowledges the presence of heaven and hell– he sees this as a emotional coping mechanism. douma himself can’t feel emotions, in his eyes they’re a far away illusion. he still attempts to understand them and use them as a justification for his violent actions.

aversion: douma looks down on humanity, seeing them as pitiful, stupid and naive creatures that need to be saved by him (a ‘higher being’ in his mind). he thought he, individually, had the intelligence to grasp things that other could not.

greed: as i said, douma sees his cannibalism as a ultimate path to happiness and salvation. but how can a person feel happy, when they’re dead? when their brain shuts down? when they’re unable to move, to think, to see? this is the flaw that douma did not notice. douma isn’t granting them the end of suffering, he’s granting them the end of everything. although he may not realize it, douma’s actions are plainly his own selfish desires to save.

surely you must have seen a lot of comparasion between hannigram / mjjw (i’d actually be surprised if you didn’t), and since i started s2 of hannibal i want to honour it by posting this…….. because why not.

moonjo doesn’t just kill– he creates, constructs and builds his victims. he has this twisted view on reality where violence means beauty and cruelty is expression. he’s immune to social morality, empathy and law– he thinks that one’s true potential can only exist throughout abandoning these civil constructs. for moonjo, trying to fit into that tight, suffocating room of morals is suppression of nature– of the beast sleeping inside. which, turns out to be destructive, and breaks jongwoo bone by bone.

hannibal kills while wearing his warped lens of justice and morality. he devours those deemed rude and impolite. he eats at the mean, he eats at the ones that fit his own judgement, just like moonjo. he relates himself to god by his righteous actions (notice how moonjo does this as well: he highlights our freedom that make us equal to the holy while fighting with jongwoo). he sees his brutality as actions of justice, harming the disrespectful beings– and he’s sort of implied to wield a god complex. they’re both broken characters with broken viewpoints.

jongwoo and will however can be par on par with eachother based on how they’re both more or less pushed to monstrous acts. they struggle in their own way, before and after– mentally and physically. hallucinations, loss sense of time. crushed, swallowed and choked by expectations, assumptions and emotions. jongwoo and will both are aware of the scarring relationships that they hold, and they both are able to come to a conclusion that moonjo and hannibal are harmful people. ji-eun tells him that he should leave the apartament and move out, but he doesn’t. he’s short on money, but is that the only reason? alana warns will, telling him that his relationship with hannibal is destructive. chosing to stay is like a thousand cuts, but they still don’t leave. they still don’t dare to break that bond– will by falling, jongwoo by keeping the bracelet.