ManManTheDanMermaid

vashtijoy

sketchy--akechi

in addition to the tags on my latest rb: i absolutely think people can interpret characters and relationships differently and its not like one version is definitely right and the other wrong but it completely BAFFLES me how often i see people claiming akechi hates akira as if the game didn't literally spell it out to us twice (once in the form of morgana, and once in the form of maruki) that this isn't the case

and whoever thinks akira hates akechi is just projecting there is literally no other way

jellyfish-grave

Morgana
オマエ⋯ジョーカーの事、気に入ってんだろ。
omae... jookaa no koto, ki ni itte n daro
And... you don't really hate Joker, do you?

vashtijoy

sketchy--akechi:
in addition to the tags on my latest rb: i absolutely think people can interpret characters and relationships differently and its not like one version is definitely right and the other wrong but it completely BAFFLES me how often i see people claiming akechi hates akira as if the game didn't literally spell it out to us twice (once in the form of morgana, and once in the form of maruki) that this isn't the case
and whoever thinks akira hates akechi is just projecting there is literally no other way
IM GONNA CRY BECAUSE
I have too many friends who are convinced otherwise and it hurts me so badly HI YOU FINISHED P5?? CAN I TALK TO YOU ABOUT SHUAKE? NO? BECAUSE YOU UNDERSTOOD WRONG???? WHY why must it always be like this

PLEASE LOOK AT THE PUNCTUATION HERE. (the English question mark vs the Japanese sentence marker 。)

MORGANA IS NOT ASKING AKECHI ANYTHING.

MORGANA IS TELLING HIM.

The Japanese sentence is a statement. But because of the way punctuation works with "don't you" in English, the localisation becomes a question. ki ni itte n daro is a contraction IIRC of ki ni itteiru n darou?—literally, "it's that you've taken a liking to him, isn't it?"

I think the business with "you don't hate him/you like him" is about the implied intensity of the sentiment. ki ni itte is not a big liking, it's not a huge deal—specifically, it's not "you secretly love him". And what happens if we translate that sentence as "you like him, really, don't you?" Yeah. We introduce that ambiguity, which the original carefully avoids, into the translation. So we get you don't really hate him instead of the much more explicit you like him.

and another thing

Of course, when we position this line in the scene, it comes right after Akechi's first defeat, when he loses the crow prince mask—the fight strips his masks from him one by one. He tries to get to his feet, and fails. He stays on the ground for Ann and Makoto telling him they're on the same side, that killing them isn't what he wants. He stays down for Ryuji telling him Shido doesn't matter and he's his own man. He stays down for Futaba (fucking Futaba, for heaven's sake) telling him he can start over.

And then Morgana comes in with but you like Joker, follow your heart. He doesn't hate you, like you think. He does want you around. And that is when Akechi loses his shit. That is what drives him to his feet. That's what he absolutely cannot tolerate. The line he actually gets to his feet on is "Teammates? Friends? To hell with that!"

The villainous breakdown, while it's cringy to watch and often hilarious and memeworthy, is about Akechi losing his prince mask—all the inflated ideas of himself that he's not only shown to the world, but to himself. Those ideas have compensated him for his aloneness, for the fact that he doesn't have anyone. They've told him he doesn't need anyone.

But he does want people. He does need people. He's about to tell us so:

Akechi
誰かに望まれる為に、成績や大人の評判に徹底的にこだわり抜いた!!
dare-ka ni nozomareru tame ni, seiseki ya taijin no hyouban ni tetteiteki ni kodawari nuita!!
I was extremely particular about my life, my grades, my public image, so someone would want me around!
I put everything into my image, into school! No matter what! So someone would want me!

Except the person he wants to be wanted by is also the one person who threatens him on every level—personally, professionally, in the Metaverse and out of it. As far as Akechi is concerned, Joker threatens everything he is.

And the idea Akechi might want friends? That he might need others? That's what he's got to absolutely destroy. That's the next mask the Phantom Thieves remove. And what's left at the end has this to say:

Akechi
⋯いいよな、お前は。
... ii yo na, omae wa
...You're so lucky.

Akechi
仲間に囲まれて、認められてさ⋯
nakama ni kakomarete, mitomerarete sa...
Lucky to be surrounded... by teammates who acknowledge you...
Lucky to be surrounded by friends and teammates, who acknowledge you...

He admits he wants what Joker's got—he's not only drawn to Joker himself, but to that cluster of people around him. All those people who see Joker and accept him. Akechi mourns the loss of his fame and reputation, because it's all he has; he mourns that he couldn't make himself special after all, that he couldn't make himself someone worth being admired.

I do find it interesting that he's not worried about ending up in jail.

tiochesnaughty:

harperhug:
abraxasrinbalt:
grimeclown:
velvetys:
How is bnha anime of the decade…… they aren’t even anime of the hour of the minute of the second
The notes on this post were so toxic that staff just axed em
1969………
Yes, when the original post is deleted from the server (not just the blog, but the Tumblr servers), there is no root post for notes to be added onto, and also no root post for time to be counted from, so it starts from zero. Most computer operating systems use Unix, which was launched in 1971 with t.he epoch date of midnight on January 1, 1970 as 1. Therefore zero is one second behind that date: December 31, 1969. Also, very unfortunately, this also means nobody except you and anyone you reblog it to will see this explanation, as you cannot open the notes to see comments when there are no notes.