I think for the first time I will talk about Shijima, even if her story is one of the ones that moves me the most.
Seeing her trying for the last time to do what she loves the most, and trying to immortalize it with lines and colors on paper. The tower, crooked, as if representing her trying to use all the effort she has to stay upright, even if the tower could fall at any moment. And even if it did fall, she would still be there, inside that tower, where her happiness would live.
Her desire to be happy didn't exactly only create another world, but another version of herself, because in her eyes the world is good and she was the one who couldn't keep up, so she recreated herself in a world where it would be possible to be happy, even in a tower about to fall.
Imagining herself in another world, in another place… in a place where she could be herself, even if it wasn't real, still brought joy.
Shijima's story also reminds me of the first Harry Potter book. The orphan boy who one day found a magic mirror that reflected what he most desired. He saw his parents, who had died to save him when he was a baby.
illustration by TomScribble
And Harry went there every night and day, over and over again, to be by their side, to see them smile for the first and countless times. Until Dumbledore, the professor, discovered and told him that dreams bring us joy, take us to the sweetest and deepest pleasure of living what we could never.
But it wasn't worth it to always be dreaming and forgetting to live.
At that time, it didn't make sense to me. Who would choose to stay in the real world? But the truth is that dreaming kills your hopes little by little.
Until you have none left.
Mei dreamed that Shijima would live, she did what had to be done, she stayed in the dream that Shijima made for her, but she never came back.
The wish that she had lost hope.
Tsukasa gave her the freedom to finally have enough strength to stop dreaming.
Shijima never stopped smiling, not because she was resigned to death, but because she knew that the dream would one day come to an end, but she wanted at least one version of her to be happy.
The tower, Shijima's last painting, was the representation of the happiness that she wanted to immortalize.
She was happy while she was alive, and she became eternal in the form that she loved most, painting.
Stopping dreaming is so hard. Watching the world fall apart makes it feel like you're falling apart with it. But it's necessary.
It's better to stop dreaming before you lose hope.
When hope dies, not even the world of dreams makes sense anymore.
Nothing does.
One day Harry Potter would realize that his parents were already dead, and he would have died with them if he had just kept dreaming about something he could never have.
But, just like Shijima, he knew the right moment to break the world of dreams. The boy who found the magic mirror that had been hidden in the deepest part of the castle, for having killed the hope of so many others.
Mei thought that "killing" Shijima would be the best way to break the dream
But killing her would bring nothing but negative feelings. Killing a dream won't bring you peace.
Accepting that it was good while it lasted will bring you true freedom. Like what actually happened.
She accepted that the dream was over, and went to face reality. Shijima accepted death, and Mei accepted that she is the part of Shijima that she wanted to live and be remembered, no matter how she was remembered.
I love how Aidairo make reality so raw and strong and how it reflects so well on them. How Amane "killed" his dreams, when he lost hope, how he quickly realized that the world was fake.
Because that happiness was so unreal to him.
Even if Mei had put him in a world where it would be just him and Tsukasa, happy as it should have been in the past, he would have known it was fake.
Because he no longer had hope, he killed hope when he raised the knife to Tsukasa.
When he spent so much time trying to change the past, trying to make things work out, trying to save his brother at all costs and at any sacrifice.
When he realized that going to the moon was no longer possible.
When he decided not to go anywhere.
He didn't give Tsukasa his freedom, like Mei gave Shijima - even if forced initially - or, Tsukasa himself didn't give Amane the freedom to leave, when he decided to sacrifice himself.
Amane was supposed to die.
Shijima was supposed to die.
But dreams made they postpone it.
In the end, reality still came.
And it's never easy. But at least accepting it completely is less painful than dreaming and losing everything in the end.
Seeing that none of it was real.
You're now drowning in reality and embracing the pain of a dream that never happened, but that you miss. And since that dream never came true, you lose hope.
What's there for you now besides reality?
It doesn't matter, you're not going anywhere.
Like Dumbledore said,
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”
Sometimes, it takes a while to accept even that.
But it's needed.
mitsukou has been lowkey eating my brain (once again) and this will probably sound stupid blabbering but im gonna try to make myself sound convincing. and in my defense this was just a random thought that popped up on my mind.
what if the thing about natsuhiko saying the way for a human to become a supernatural is to become a yorishiro? I mean think about it, what else is sumire other than a supernatural? If she just died normally instead of becoming a yorishiro she would've ended up disappearing along with other girls under the red house.
at first, I thought natsuhiko planned on saying it to kou so it could trigger something but he looks surprised here so I doubt it now but there's still a possibility
i think his face reads as "ooooh an unexpected reaction but I'll take it"
even if he was really mean that time he probably really did care about mitsuba someway and was hoping for him to make kou his yorishiro
AAAND another reach maybe that's why kou asked him out on a date (other than just wanting to hang out with him, ofc) like so he could maybe get more important to mitsuba and make him his yorishiro!
and get this, if he becomes mitsuba's yorishiro, nene LITERALLY wouldn't be able to destroy him at all, thus allowing her to live!!!! two birds with one stone, if you will
(but you could say then 'wouldn't the broadcasting trio not like that?' which is true but they did they'll do ANYTHING to make yashiro destroy every yorishiro, possibly by threatening her and especially looking at the sumire incident she wouldn't want that to happen again AND THE LOWKEY PARALLELS OF WHAT HAPPENED WITH SUMIRE AND HAKUBO WITH THE MITSUKOU CHAPTER. (with the cannibalism and all))
and it could be another reason why kou was so shocked at him when he asked to be exorcised (cough instead of making him his yorishiro cough)
BUUUUUT that is just inherent yapping so that's that. just wanted to get my silly ramblings out there pls dont take it too seriously thank u.
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Gardening on Aoi's balcony (*^_^*)
Abandon all hope, ye who enter
specifically, wilardo's conclusion (though im not finished yet so also warn me for spoilers)
ASHE ACTING LIKE THE CUTIE THAT HE IS (thank you miss invective🗣️🙏)
I laughed too hard at this😭😭😭
I looove this quiz!!!!!! AND HELL YEAAAHHHHHHH I GOT MITSUBA HELL YEAH I really do kin him💯💯💯💯 but a funnier thing I realized is that I was debating on the good poker face thing (until I eventually decided that no I don't really) and the answer leads to aoi WHICH IS ANOTHER KIN OF MINE??!!! this quiz is too good gang...🙏 thank u for sharing this op
and it's quite interesting how similar teru and hanako are! two sides of the same coin if you will, which I find really ironic
I really love this little quiz
Because it tells us a LOT about each character:
Straight off the bat, Akane, Natsuhiko, Aoi, Mitsuba, Teru, Hanako, Tsuchigomori and Sakura all have secrets.
This was actually incredible foreshadowing for characters like Natsuhiko and Mitsuba, whose secrets were revealed in later chapters.
Some are more obvious, like Hanako's secret, and some we have yet to discover, such as Tsuchigomori's, Sakura's and Teru's (unless his crush counts as the secret).
Now for the fun stuff :)
Hanako:
- He likes exercising! Unsurprising with how much fun he was having during the picture perfect arc while in pe.
- He would not be the first to confess, yippee more foreshadowing
He's generally an action over words guy, and probably gets shy actually needing to express his feelings verbally.
Teru:
- He'd also wait for a confession! It's a pretty common topic of debate so I'm happy there's an answer, and also the better answer. It adds more depth to his character.
- He's also a good leader.. he is charismatic but "good" as in "people like him as their leader" is debatable.
Akane:
- Ngl, not much is new. He too likes exercising, and is stubborn especially when confessing.
Natsuhiko:
- He's not actually that stubborn! The rest is well known
Tsuchigomori:
- He dislikes exercising, which is perfectly in character I love that for him (。ノω\。).
- He's curious! That must be hell when you're the fifth wonder.
Both him and Sakura are dog people, which surprised me for half a second before I thought about it:
Yeah no damn wonder.
Sakura:
- She's not curious! If I was an immortal being who knew practically everything I don't think I'd be too curious either, so fair
Aoi:
- She's a cat person, which is rather sad actually (as they dislike her)
- She has a good poker face ofc
Mitsuba:
- He hates exercising yay
- He is a cat person. *Air punch*
- He has a terrible poker face, which I think I need to draw now actually
Mokkes:
- They like sciences over liberal arts. huh.
Tsukasa:
- He isn't easily sacred!
- Likes science, he did use it to create an artificial spirit, so that tracks
Nene:
- Susceptible to trends, which we've seen first hand with the mokke hat
- She takes care of others more than they take care of her :(
Yako:
- Taken care of as she should be
Kou:
- Eats strategically
- He doesn't care much for trends, as Mitsuba loves pointing out
Shijima:
- She eats the best part of her meal first, that doesn't say too much but it's a cute detail :D
That's all! I'm the Aoi type btw ( ̄y▽, ̄)╭
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"Mahiru died. Right before my eyes..."
0206 as that hananene scene
had to post it before I stare at it too much and start hating it
something that confuses me in tadc is that no one feels pain in the digital circus right? (except for getting touched by abstra monster thingies or turning one yourself) SO WHY DID ZOOBLE'S HAND HURT IN THAT SCENE IN EP 4 WHEN THEY USED THEIR HAND AS A SPATULA??? so what, do they get hurt but not die? ragatha literally got stabbed with knives and thrown in a deep fryer and was fine like she did find it inconvenient tho, so I guess now that I think about it I guess that's what zooble felt too?? not exactly painful, but just inconvenient, maybe 'pain' there by objects just feel like little electric shocks
OMG THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING LIKE KOU MAYYYYYY give up his lifespan for nene.....
but at the same time as nene said, all she has to do is not destroy all the seven yorishiros to live (but the broadcasting cast will make sure she does)
but if all the yorishiros get destroyed, the world might literally end too so like..??
anyways whatever I just rambled
i think kous gonna DIE and nene’s gonna LIVE and here’s why:
this is an official art made by aidaro:
as you can see nene is holding the apple in her hands, while kou is about to bite into his own apple. and oh, what’s this?
an apple can mean temptation? and death? so again, kou is about to bite into the apple. i think this might represent kou dying to be with mitsuba. we’ve already seen him frickin jumping out a window for mitsuba, and yeah he didn’t die but i think it still counts for something!!!
now for nene she might die or she might live, me i’m teetering on her living. she’s holding the apple in her hands, which i’m interpreting as her contemplating whether or not to bite into it.
nene has sort of accepted her faith. yeah, she doesn’t want to die but if it happens it happens. on the contrary though, hanako wants her to live.
we know that changing the future is possible in canon-
….aandd that’s all i have bc i forgot i made this and left it to sit in my drafts. was scrolling through them today and found this lol, guess i was right
Through Nene’s pov he’s introduced as a very sweet guy and stuff but the problem here is that Nene’s is an unreliable narrator since she romantices life + Kou speficially treats her a lot nicer.
He is also heavily morally righteous and tries to hear Hanako out even after knowing he murdered someone, saving him from Teru.
Kou also ends up trying to shoulder other people’s problems, and many of his actions are seen as “heroic” or “selfless” BUT sometimes this due to a more ugly part of his character the fandom seems to discard often.
^ To elaborate, I want to bring up this scene since it’s iconic asf
On the surface it’s like: omg wow so brave of him to kill himself for his bf !! However, in the red house arc (which for context shows him his biggest desires) we can see that he just wants mitsuba to rely on him to the point of extreme measures.
This is rooted from his inferiority complex due to being outshined by his older + younger siblings; AND to add on, Hanako straight up tells Kou twice hes unable to do anything. Then to push it further, Teru’s like ur weak lil bro go back to the kitchen during the no.6 fight. Mitsuba dying infront of him 6 times doesn’t help either..
When Mitsuba asks if Kou is okay and needs to talk about his problems, (I forgot which specific chapter..), Kou automatically assumes that Mitsubas just worried about Kou’s reliability because he has such a low self esteem and is used to given up on.
His inability to actually make stuff happen and ppl telling him he can’t do shit make him very eager to try and shoulder other ppls problem in an attempt to have someone depend on him.
So when Mitsuba comes in with nobody (besides tsukasa but he does more harm than help so wtv) who can help him, Kou.. heh.. ig u could say.. JUMPS at this opportunity.
Anyway, in the Nightlife arc Mitsuba is like “hey can u kill me I’ve given up on being human”, and Kou finally lashes out. Mitsuba is indirectly telling Kou that he gave up on him trying to make his wish come true; AND THEN to make it worse, Mitsuba brings Tsukasa right after up..
Kou gets desperate and forces Mitsuba to stay alive even if he doesn’t want to because both
1) if mitsuba leaves nobody will depend on him and
2) he’s gay for him + misses him after watching him die + can’t bring himself to kill Mitsuba
Yes, he cares a lot for Mitsuba as a person and making his wish come true, but he also just wants to be depended on after being told he’s a let down over and over again.
As I mentioned before, Kou has a trend with diverting his problems from other people and keeping his real feelings in. Nobody expect for nene knows about Mitsubas and Kous relationship, and it literally took Kou like 70 chapters or smthn to give her the basics.
He’s speechless when Akane asks if Mitsuba and him are close because Kou never mentions Mitsuba at all. Teru doesn’t know what’s up with him, and just assumes he “has a goal in mind”. Even when having his big speech defeating Habuko Kou just refers to Mitsuba as “him”.
Okay anyways the point Im trying to get is Kous character is a lot more complex than the fandom passes off !! Yes he can be very sweet and all but there’s other parts to his personality that aren’t so black and white.