“We Need More Complex Female Characters!”

Other characters about mitsukou

Was Kou ever drawn with flowers like the rest of the cast? I can’t remember if he was but idk what flower could be assigned to him either ….

The botanical set of drawings pairs him with clivia, as i pointed out in this post:

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Post by @nanabansama · 10 images

💬 5  🔁 67  ❤️ 270 · Card Set Hanakotoba · Recently I was discussing with my lovely friend @istoleyourboat about the meanings behind the flow

But there have been other instances of Kou being drawn with flowers too!

In the pilot, he appears with what I believe to be iris flowers....

... More iris flowers in Chapter 30...

He even sleeps in an iris-patterned futon!

Depending on the color, the flower can mean different things....but generally speaking, it represents hope and good tidings.

Birthday Headcanons!

I recently answered an ask about birthdays, and I wanted to offer some of my headcanons in addition to that. This is all just speculation, so feel free to come up with your own ideas instead!

Nene

I am very firmly of the belief that she is still fifteen years old as of the recent chapter (124). One thing I will say about Nene is she looks kind of young to me? So it wouldn't surprise me if she had a winter birthday. But I'm very torn on which year she was born... on the one hand I really like her having a birthday in February. Another female protagonist of AidaIro's, Neige, was born in February. Nene's name written in goroawase (japanese number puns) is also 22, so a birthday like 2/2/2000 feels very good to me... on the other hand, I really like her having the year of the rabbit as her zodiac. She's dressed up as a rabbit a few times, including for a New Year's celebration art:

But obviously this doesn't mean anything... Aoi could not be a snake, and Hanako is definitely a sheep despite dressing as a dragon in a different new year's artwork... and you've gotta admit that a rabbit just Feels more Nene than a dragon, right? (And sheeps and rabbits make for perfect couples, if you didn't know...)

That said, it's hard to choose a month and day in 1999 that feel right to me for her birthday... given the Yugi twins were born on "Good Twins Day" (11/25), a Japanese micro holiday, I get the feeling AidaIro wouldn't be able to pass up another good joke or pun for our heroine's birthday...

There are some fun holidays that could fit her. Here's a list:

Mermaid Day (June 30)

Strawberry Day (January 5)

Sengiri Daikon Day (February 17)

Goldfish Day/Girls' Day (March 3)

... But as you can see, none of these fit my requirements for what I want her birthday to be. :'( I'd really be happy with anything as long as it hasn't happened yet though!

For now, I guess I'll just give her a birthday like December 2, 1999... which is also really close to Amane's birthday, funnily enough.

Mitsuba

Since this guy is associated with the number three so much, I really struggle to imagine he wouldn't have a 3 in his birthdate somewhere... an obvious answer is March 28, which true fans will know is a fanmade micro holiday to celebrate the man himself because 328 is goroawase for Mitsuba. While it's unclear exactly what lead AidaIro to give the twins 11/25 as a birthday, many fans celebrated "Yugi Day" on the 25th of the month before the birthday reveal (because 25 is goroawase for twins) and so it would be a nice nod to the community and also just a good pun in general.

One thing that is interesting about Mitsuba is we kind of know his death date? It was in December of 2014. Anyway, depending on his birthday, he could have died at either 13 or 14. Definitely something worth considering, but as of right now, I don't think we know the age he died at. Mitsuba is kind of little though, I guess? So I wouldn't be surprised if he died at thirteen... (that would also place him at the same age as Tsukasa when he died!)

Anyway, I don't really have any other good micro holidays for Mitsuba, but I would bet good money that there is a 3 somewhere in his birthdate. ☘️

Mitsuba's Mom

You know what's better than having a funny birthdate? Having a funny deathdate! (Sorry, not to make this entirely about her dead son or anything, but we quite literally are calling her Mitsuba's Mom instead of her actual name, so...)

Anyway, in case you forgot, he died on her birthday.

Unfortunately, I can't really find a good micro holiday for this...so I will have to rely on another crutch.

The day that Tsukasa sacrificed himself was an "unlucky day". To keep this brief, there is a superstition that some days are luckier than others in Japan. There are six different types of days which each hold different types of luck... So basically, I want to find another unlucky day in December 2014 for her birthday!

Since it repeats roughly every six days, we have a few options. We're specifically looking for days marked with 仏滅.

Out of these options... well, I personally like December 4? Eh, I dunno. I really wish there was an inauspicious date with a 3 in it, but we have to deal with the cards we're dealt...

Kou

Since Kou greatly resembles his ancestor, Yorimitsu, and was likely named after him, I really like the idea that his birthday is also linked to him.

Unfortunately we have no exact birthdate for Yorimitsu, but we do have his death date, which was August 28 (or July 19 in the old calendar.)

I don't hate either of these birthdays for him! Sadly this would mean that we already passed his birthday, but Kou just screams "summer baby" to me, you know? Sweet sunshine child, etc...

Anyway, I'm admittedly not that well-versed in western zodiac, so I've been kind of avoiding it, but Kou likes lions and Leo season is July 23 to August 22 so if not the above dates I think something within that timeframe works for him. 🦁

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So that's it! Maybe in the future I'll make up more headcanons, but for now, I can't really think of any other character birthdays that I have a strong opinion on. I would be very interested to hear your own headcanons, though, especially if you have a good reason for them! And here's hoping AidaIro actually reveal them in the future. ^^;

another shijima drawing to celebrate her anime debut!!!!!! i might draw the other version of mei soon! <3 also drew her again bc the other one was ugly

i love hananene because of the devotion but i also love hananene because it's two losers falling in love with each other which is heavily underrepresented in media i think

Ive always wondered and tried to imagine

What would happen if tsukasa experienced freedom for one moment?

To not be tethered to anyone, to be free to go wherever he wants, to do whatever he wants, to be whatever he wants to be..

Well that is somewhat what he is doing right now,, i doubt tsukasa enjoys the afterlife he is leading right now, he wouldn't be so adamnt and quick to try and dissappear if he was, but i wonder if he experienced total and utter freedom, would he go back? To being amane's yorishiro? To being by amane's side? I doubt it, not when he wants amane to be free and happy himself, not when tsukasa believes that amane hates him but tsukasa is so unpredictable i can never tell

But i mostly wonder if amane would allow tsukasa to have that kind of freedom, and if tsukasa was sent free, to no longer be amane's yorishiro but his own apparition, would amane let him go?

I like to interpret Tsukasa's freedom as a feeling, not exactly as a physical state.

Being trapped in a house, in a boundary, in a cage, is not what makes Tsukasa feel unfree - despite being explicitly linked to this - but Amane's love is what makes it a prison.

Tsukasa is trapped by the feeling of love and compassion he feels for Amane, from the moment he decides to sacrifice himself and be trapped in the house, even when he is trapped in the cage.

Tsukasa was fully convinced that his love was not enough. He was unhappy in the red house because he believed that Amane hated him, so the house became a prison, he could not see Amane again, even though he loved him very much, because Amane did not love him.

The walls were nothing compared to the feeling of being rejected.

The twins living in the same house, but who could not meet due to the invisible barriers. Tsukasa in the supernatural world while Amane was in the world of the living.

Tsukasa could leave the house whenever he wanted, he said so himself, but he also said that he "thought he shouldn't".

Trapped in the feeling of rejection.

When he became the yorishiro, the feeling of rejection increased. Amane raised the knife against him and killed him, not only that, but every reception he had when he met Amane again in the afterlife was surrounded by fear, sadness, melancholy.

Amane's obvious expression of discomfort when he saw Tsukasa again would obviously affect him. Amane didn't want to be around him, didn't want to see him.

So that's why he says "you despise me but you never let me go".

Tsukasa doesn't like feeling rejected, so he tends to leave. He's not the type to accept this kind of behavior, but he's forced to deal with it. Being a yorishiro, how could he run away from Amane?

And the cage, his moment of fragility, when Nene was calling for Amane while Tsukasa was convinced that he wouldn't come. The sadness wasn't just in the fact that he was locked up, he would know how to get out at some point - as he did - but in the fact that he was weak and that no one would save him, least of all Amane.

He convinced himself to some extent that Amane would never do it, and we see the sparkle in his eyes when Amane appeared to save him.

Tsukasa's prison has no walls or ceiling, but it has a name, Amane.

The brother he loved deeply and who trapped him in a cycle of love and rejection that he wanted to avoid.

So, Tsukasa will be free when Amane finally shows him his true feelings, without possession, without demands, loving just for the sake of loving.

Allowing Tsukasa to choose his path after Amane is completely honest.

Amane: "I love you, and I've made mistakes, I've made mistakes all along the way, but I ask for your forgiveness. Do you want to stay by my side…or leave?"

"Please…stay…Tsukasa"

This is Tsukasa's freedom. Amane's honesty.

maybe this is just me idk

Akane -> ? Event

(After adding tumblr and twitter responses, the second option won!)

After a moment of deciding, you decided to Look at the signs on the wall… maybe there are clues… which made you notice the evacuation map on the wall. The evacuation map showed the nearest exits and the classrooms that had first aid. Luckily, it seemed like the cooking classroom was one of them… which makes sense. Somekids might accidentally cut their finger or something… yikes…

The way to the cooking classroom seems to be…. down the hall to the left. Huh, you had a feeling you should’ve went there, darn it! Maybe you should’ve trusted your instincts better…

You speedily walk towards the classroom, hoping nothing too bad happened. You knock on the door before entering the classroom. There was a student busily moving around the room, grabbing different ingredients from the cabinets while cursing under his breath…. He must be Akane.

“Hello, are you Aoi Akane? Your teacher asked me to supervise you.”

The student snapped his head back to stare at you before slightly bowing his head. “Oh of course, hello there. Thank you for taking your time to watch over me.”

He then rushed back to whatever he was doing… maybe he’s really busy. You didn’t really know what to do and just stood awkwardly near the door. It was a bit weird but you didn’t want to intrude on a student’s project or something… But you also didn’t want to do nothing…. You opened your mouth to ask if the student needed any assistance when he asked you first.

With nothing better to do, you agreed.

You take the list and head out to the nearest grocery store. As you head there, you decided to read the list and woah…. yikes…. this handwriting is really dogshit…. it’s hard to read…. and you promised to get them so you can’t really back out now… Maybe you should try and get it right…. the crossed out ones are probably not needed so at least that gives you something to work with… That leaves 4 ingredients that aren’t crossed out, which isn’t too bad.

-> There will be 4 polls! Pick which one you think is the correct ingredient!! Poll will be closed tomorrow ^^

Let's talk about Nene and how she find power in other people.

Nene gets overwhelmed easily and is very insecure, not just about her body but about her power, and smarts too.

When she thought Hanako may like her she wasn't sure about her judgement, but when Aoi who never even met hanako said 'oh yeah, he likes you~' she became far more confident.

Aoi must have been her reassurance for most of Nene's school life, so much so that when Aoi tells her "he might confess to you in the confession tree <3" Nene acts like that's the truth and spend the rest of the chapter giggily waiting for it.

She is right that Hanako have a crush on her, but when he start hiding behind excuses, she believes it right away. She never consider that his excuses and his feelings can both be true, he trust what he says more than her own judgement

When she started getting involved with the supernatural she start getting more and more doubts about herself. Her issues growing from the simple 'do they find me cute? can i get a boyfriend?' to questions about what is right and how much power she have.

She have a crisis when she learns Hanako used to be a living student, with a real life, and a real person he killed. She become so helpless by this realization that she can't look at him in the eye.

The idea is so overwhelming, that she keep running away from Hanako.

There is no "Hanako is my friend anyways! His life doesn't matter what matter is the now!! Let's gooo" self talk in the garden. She want to hide. To give up.

Kou is the one that come to her side and reassure Nene that her feelings are valid, that not knowing what to is alright. That there is nothing wrong with being overwhelmed and doing all you can do, even when 'all you can do' isn't much.

They find strenght in each other.

Throught the intire manga Kou is there to cheer Nene up or to back up her plans. They are in this together.

Break the fake world? Rescue Hanako? Go to the Red House cause a kid is crying?? That's a Nene and Kou plan. That's their team effort. They got each other's back! They can do it!

Even when the idea isn't that good, Kou constantly cheer her, rewarding Nene for trying instead of giving up.

Most of the time Hanako is with Kou cheering her up, albent not as upfront, being his indirect and 'haha just kidding i would die if i was vulnerable!' self.

Regardless, Nene got support through every step of this new and scary supernatural world!

Or at least... most of the time. Let's go over the instances where times were tough and Nene didn't have Kou and Hanako by her side. The times when she become her most vulnerable and insecure. She ceases to be "Your overwhelming grass tipe and beloved heroine Yashiro Nene!" and becomes Nene, the insecure high school girl.

When she learned about her death she was lost and confused, she didn't try to imply she could conquer death, she couldn't do anythnig, so she asked for guidance.

When she was given no real answer, just cryptic orders to stay in her caje forever cause hanako will 'solve everything', Nene was even more lost. And she was alone. No one to talk to in her time of need, no one to cheer her up.

We have no panels of her trying to break her window of wiggle between her caje bars because she isn't determined, she was devastated. So she cried and cried and tried to comfort herself

ONLY AFTER who knows how many doodles and time to process her feelings does her hopelessness turn into anger for Hanako and determination to change her situation.

She only fully enter "I will fight this! I can do it!! I won't do what Hanako want!!" mode after Mei visits her with a friendly dispossition and comforts her, giving her sweets to soothe her heart and give her energy.

Nene say her tears are false here, a mere ploy to make Mei lower her guard!! But it is rotted in real sadness.

The fire she gained after doodling her friends in the real world only spread into an inferno of determination when she is told she is deeply loved, that Hanako would sacrifice everything for her sake. That love is why this was made in the first place.

This world want to protect her, not kill her. Her hapiness is cheerished. And she isn't happy. She haven't loss the real world yet, she can still change things.

She was already determined to change things, but she doubles down on it, she gain more confidence and becomes bolder. She will kick and scream and try her best to win! Is amazing. She is sweating but she know what she is doing is right so she will do it!!

Throught the manga, as the time passes she start to stand up for herself more, she tries harder, she takes any opportunity she can to do something and believe in herself. She stop seeking superficial attention to feel worth.

Take her play of Oz for exemple, she want to be dorothy, the big role that is worthy of a beautiful dress and all the spotlight! Despite all her development and traumas she still cares that she was given a unimpressed role, that she 'isn't worthy' of the main role

But instead of being unable to focus on anything else except how bad her role is and how uncute it makes her, as the Nene from the start of the manga would, she get the strenght to move pass it and have fun, keeping her head high because she won't be alone.

Hanako will be there for her.

Hanako is one of her biggest strenghts, and when he is gone she is hit hard.

Her first instinct is to seek someone to talk too.

And when she can't, she falls. There is nothing she can do, her friends are already dead, and just like her own death, she doesn't know how to solve it.

Even when she feels better, going out to the arcade instead of being trapped alone in her room, the moment she remembers that she can't talk to her friends, that they are gone, she relapses again, sapped of all of her strenght.

She is 15, she can't handle this.

Her major sorces of comfort is still her close friends, which is normal, but she does gain strenght from other people.

Enters Teru and Akane.

Akane is one of the characters that push her to act when things are at their most hopeless, but unlike Kou and Aoi he isn't her cheerleader, he never coddles her. If she ask for reassurance that she is beautiful, or useful, or doing the right thing, he will either not give her that or straight up say "I dissagree".

Akane is not a source of hope for Nene, his belief in her is not nearly as strong as Kous or Hanako or Aoi's belief in her. Just as Nene's believe in herself isn't very strong in hopeless situations.

He never sugarcoats tragedy, in fact he consistently drag her back to how bleak things are. Ignore the arcade, don't distract yourself: Face reality.

He is open about his misery.

It mostly feel like he is processing his own feelings when he rants to Nene, but the end message is clear "I hate this, i want to try to change it. You want to, don't you?" which is exactly how Nene feels.

They are hopeless but they're not alone in this hopelessness. Despite Nene never working up with Akane during the rescue arc. This served as a reality check, which serves to process her feelings better.

Reality does sucks, there is no clear solution, she is unhappy, she does want to change things, she hates crying and being helpless while her friends are dead/suffering. So she eat a sugary sweet to comfort herself and she chin up.

Akane never says "you can do it, you are stronger than you think!" he sucks at comforting, I love him but oh god he sucks. But the message he gives her is till important "You have to do it." "You have to try anyways or you'll stay helpless."

Teru is the savior, Nene already idolized him from the start, but he is the one that showed them a way to rescue Aoi too. He is amazing. He can do the impossible!

Now let's jump to the new timeline.

Kou, her buddy, her biggest cheerleader, doesn't know her. It hit hards and she was so so happy to have him back!!

But just as quickly as she gets to see her buddy, Kou is gone, this is just a shell trying to lure her to death, the real one is dead at the bottom of a wheel.

She doesn't have the time to process that, because Hanako, her big source of comfort, doesn't exist. Amane, who she had watched be brutally slashed by Teru, have been possessed and wants to kill her and all her friends instead of protecting her.

Teru, this invincible guy (Nene wasn't present when No.6 took Teru down, so for her he is unbeatable) that made saving Aoi possible, is the first one down.

Everyone is doing what they can, so Nene does too, she want to help her friends, she can't let them be in danger! While Aoi takes charge, she doesn't allow herself to be too shocked and focus on destroying the tentacle attacking Akane.

But she is still terrified.

The last thing she want to do is to be alone. But she have too. Once more, Akane doesn't sugarcoat the situation, he says "This reality, it sucks, and if you want to change it, you have to act! Go!"

But this time he is left behind too. Nene is completely and utterly alone.

She has the weight of the world on her shoulders as she run through the city for who knows how long, but she is terrified and she doesn't have Akane to be terrified with her, just the weight of his words and the faint hope that they'll meet her in the big clock to keep her going.

She is doing something so so big, she need to talk to someone frist, she need strenght. She need people.

So she seek them. And no one answers.

She crumbles, she becomes small. There is no heroine to be seem, just a teen girl in shambles after losing every. single. person that used to give her strenght.

That's why Tsuchigomori was needed.

Let her cry. Let her process the situation with a comforting sweet to gather the strenght to do what she must.