Min • DRHD Glazer

Cake:

Presents:

I cannot help but think that Akira’s view of friends. Is a little Skewed. Because of her talent, she doesn’t have the time to properly form many friendships other than Denshi, and the two bond over shared trauma/shared experiences in the yakuza. Shes friends with the yakuza clan, but only because they’re like a secondary family for her, are much older than her (except Ryuuji), and do not fully understand Akira due to their age gap. All four have presumably been born in the yakuza or deliberately chose to be in it— it’s very likely Akira was forced by circumstances to enter and therefore cannot wholly understand them as well, as kind as they are.

So, we take the girl who doesn’t have time for friendships and the boy who doesn’t have time for friendships pt.2, and put them in a room together. I think they could later develop a ‘true’ bond, but the only way Akira can be truly vulnerable is telling her secret. It’s very likely that if they met in a setting with no kg, in the award ceremony that only lasted for a day, they would have not become more than acquaintances.

I think the circumstances their bond is formed in is very circumstantial and unique, which causes them to not have a bond like Katsuhiko and Hideyoshi, where both choose to trust each other of their own volition. My point is, is that they are not friends of typical nature, but formed under the shared trauma of being kidnapped and then the killing game. They choose to overly rely on each other due to survival, a forced friendship by proximity, which leads to my main argument.

I think neither Akira nor Tomoya understand friendship. I think they both care and love each other, but they both do not understand fundamentals of friendship and it’s very likely that in a modern setting, they would not have the time or convenient circumstances to be friends.

I do not think Akira understood what implications are carried when she says this:

Again, I think she very well means it, but her only/deepest friendship is with her colleague, who understands the pain she suffers through. Not because she actively reached out to him out of a whole group of people, but he was likely the best choice out of a very small pool of colleagues and already knew what she was going through because he’s going through it too. Tomoya seems to be narratively made to become ‘Denshi’s replacement’ for Akira, despite the fact that both friendships are very different in dynamic and development. But I think he does not only serve as ‘Akira’s confidant,’ but I also think she will vaguely view him in the same lenses she views Denshi, which is that their friendship is built off of shared trauma and experiences.

But here’s the thing; Denshi and Akira are vastly different from Tomoya and Akira because Denaki’s shared trauma is permanent. Tomoya and Akira’s could be permanent but we know that’s not going to happen. Akira is not doing it out of malicious intent and only wanted to comfort him, but she seems to view him as a friend mostly because of their shared trauma because that’s the only kind of friendship she is familiar with. Not to say forming friendships out of shared mental health issues or certain experiences is bad, but becoming so close so quickly under the ongoing experience is a bit…rushed? Especially when we KNOW that there are sides both of them haven’t truly exposed yet, but still rely on each other greatly which doesn’t often lead to ideal outcomes.

Akira does not realize the impact of her words will hit harder than she expects, because when the special circumstances of a situation is only temporary, unless both parties fight to maintain it, it is very likely that when the regular, permanent circumstances return, the bond ends. With Akira’s side job + fighting to never be truly vulnerable with people she should be, and Tomoya’s dedication to therapy work + tendency to overwork to not remember his Trauma, even if somehow Akira’s secret was never revealed & they escape, itd leave a lasting impact on them both when they realize they cannot maintain a proper friendship.

I think the impact would affect Tomoya the most. He is greatly lonely as well, but has absolutely 0 friends, and he becomes extremely attached to Akira for her sense of reliability, confidence, and strength. Being affirmed from her that they are friends makes him happy, but again— both would likely not become friends if it weren’t for this situation. They could still technically be friends if they escaped in theory prologue, yes, but BOTH parties fighting for it is extremely unlikely. Perhaps Tomoya would, due to promising to take her to the arcade after escaping, but a Rimu script shows the promise was mostly done for himself, to have fun.

Like Akira with her affirmation that they’re friends, I think Tomoya saying that he had fun with her and agreeing to meet up again was done with good intent. I do not think he was selfish or self-absorbed or ‘lying,’ and I genuinely think he likes her as much as she likes him. But when I see this, I can’t help but think of the experience I had where friends would tell me ‘let’s hangout! We should hangout! I’m going to invite you to hangout!’ only to never really do it or follow through plans. I think in this type of situation, the only way to really know if they ‘mean it’ is to initiate first, which admittedly I never did. Unless Tomoya, with his busy ass lifestyle, or Akira, with her also busier ass lifestyle, initiate another specific plan + location/time or get each other’s contact info, I think it is very likely for them to not become close-close friends, even if they would canonically follow through with the arcade plans if they escaped in the prologue.

Tomoya is affection starved and Akira only defines a meaningful friendship from one perspective, so they would never work out. It’s actually quite ‘bad’ in the long run these two in particular are friends, because both parties gaining a friend/confidant, only to lose the connection when one of them does not understand how to trust people and the other being extremely sensitive and against the other’s existence, reinforcing secret-keeping, will be dooming. They both trust and rely on each other a little too quick, unaware of the others true self or deliberately tiptoeing around each other.

We won’t know for sure how Tomoya reacts— perhaps he’ll have a change of heart if it’s Akira— but the scene with Kyouran foreshadows his likely reaction to Akira’s secret. I can’t say much on the…bad…immature…way (?? If that’s even possible for realizing your crush is a killer) he will react because being reasonably upset is pretty standard. But, if he does take it a step too far, even for such a reveal, I think that would cement the idea neither of them know how to hold a friendship with communication and trust.

In summary: I believe the eventual break-up between them will be devastating because their individual flaws/incompatibilities are too grand to be fixed easily, and Akira affirming to Tomoya, a pretty…’incompatible’ choice to be friends with considering he went on a whole tangent on how he distrusts Kyouran (cough cough and also initially likes him only to immediately change perspective), that they’re friends creates an indescribable shield of trust that Akira does not know and could never know she will inevitably break.

+ their friendship is lwk doomed in almost every universe due to the fact modern settings nor a death game setting would they work out without a likely major or minor distance separating them.