self reblog bc I made some edits to further clarify on some of my points! (indicated w an *asterisk)
this week's episode was one that i've been looking forward to for a while, and while not perfect in execution, i still found it interesting, especially how it expanded on matakara and how his and arajin's fight played out.
arajin is a character that is guilty, that flees unless absolutely necessary not to, and would rather save face. he is a character that is meant to be unlikeable. contrast this with matakara, who is kind and considerate, helps his friends, and is willing to reach out, even if someone has hurt him. even their reasons for fighting could be pit against each other: arajin wants to fight to lose his virginity, and matakara wants to fight for his brother, arajin, and his friends.
the difference between arajin’s idealization of mahoro and matakara’s idealization of arajin is that, at the very least, you’re meant to make fun of/laugh at arajin- because you're not supposed to like him. matakara’s idealization of arajin is not put in a comedic light, because you're made to sympathize with him; you're meant to root for him. another example of a character who idealizing another person: mahoro. mahoro is self-aware she’s delusional. she’s self aware her brother doesn’t want her, and because she is so weird about him, her brother doesn’t open up to her as a result. but even mahoro (as much as i hate the brocon thing) can recognize it'll never happen. she still has her core values that don't stem from her brother.
arajin and matakara idealize people for two similar reasons. arajin is in love with the idea of mahoro, because she represents what is expected of arajin, a guy who wants to be un notable because he believes he can’t do more.
matakara idealizes arajin, because arajin represents the simpler, ideal life, the best life one can live as honki person, one that he strives toward. he idolizes arajin because he himself needs something to cling onto after his brother is gone.
matakara and arajin are two characters both stuck in the past. they both keep ideals from their childhood; because arajin couldn’t protect matakara, he believes he is weak and cannot do more than that on his own. matakara believes that since arajin wanted to become honkibito together, he would still want the same deep down and it’s him who’s weak.
matakara puts his faith in people, even if it hurts him. arajin doesn't put his faith in people, but he gets hurt because he doesn't trust anyone. both put their faith in different things because they don't trust themselves, so they let others dictate it for them. both are stubborn about their beliefs, yet fragile, and it hurts them when they are questioned so they double down on it.
arajin is an asshole, hell, he's a bad friend, but he never lied about his motives. matakara seeing their relationship through rose-tinted glasses and arajin being detached harms the both of them; it prevents their relationship from progressing any further.
arajin is *partially right, he is not is not what matakara thinks he is: the ideal matakara holds for himself and him. one of the key things that is first emphasized about honki people is that, "they don't run away." this is what arajin has been doing all this time. even then, arajin has not been tricking matakara in any capacity, because matakara has an idea of what arajin is, and clings to it for support.
*arajin didn’t lie back then about wanting to be honki people together, but since he believes he can’t do more for matakara (he’s used to running away) he avoids confrontation about it. matakara’s used these ideals as support so basically it’s like his beliefs were a lie
arajin is no longer the ideal that matakara saw in his childhood. now that matakara's ideals are shattered, he is vunerable to akutaro's & ichiya's manipulation.
i do think arajin and matakara are capable of being friends. however, they both need time and space to process their emotions. it’s shown that they can look out for each other, but one is overly committed (to an ideal version of the other) and the other is not. they need to find a middle ground to understand each other. i love their relationship because they're made out to be so different, yet they're so similar. i love how messy they both are, and i'm so excited to see how their relationship could possibly contrast ichiya/senya's. more importantly, i can't wait to see how their relationship develops/spirals from here.
Talking more on the theme of delusion, Matakara relies on it as an escape from his sensitive emotional nature. Since childhood he's been susceptable to these dark thoughts, which his brother (and presumably kid Arajin) helped him deal with. Now, without his brother, the ideal of Arajin he cultivated since childhood, the one who believed in becoming a Honki person with him, is the main thing able to distract him from his painful reality. He was writing a letter to his brother the first time one of the shadows appeared in the series and he proceeded to pick up the stone stamp in order to calm himself. After Arajin rebuffed him when he asked him to call off the gang war, other shadows appeared and he needed to rely on the connection with his brother in order to find strength and later appeal to Mahoro. As he is now, he needs some kind of ideal or delusion to be able to keep functioning.
I've just realized that Sua and Ivan had the same very weird type of jealousy:
- Sua was not jealous of Till even though Till liked Mizi, instead, Sua turned to be upset with Mizi 'cause Mizi was so silly goofy that she didn't realize Till's feelings for her though it was as plain as crystal.
- And in the same way, Ivan was not jealous of Mizi although Mizi won Till's affection. He turned to be upset with Sua instead because Sua's feelings was reciprocated and her affection for Mizi was both-sided while his was not, even though he considered that they were alike, that they were the same kind of person.
Also on the contrary, we can see that Ivan is very close to Mizi in some offical side-arts/side-stories (you can find them on Vivinos X account). Mizi talked to Ivan first and asked him for an explanation when she heard something she didn't understand, and she even asked Ivan to carry her on his back. Mizi and Ivan interaction was far closer than Mizi and Till. Actually, Till's relationship with Mizi was like one-sided, and he just followed behind Mizi to know more about her but did not dare to come closer or tried to strike up a proper conversation.
Sources of images: all are original works by Vivinos and Qmeng on the official twitter, translated by me.
Sources of the idea: the original idea of this post belongs to this blog on Facebook. Credit link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ryTLFhQ1E5VyAa7y/?mibextid=xfxF2i
I have their permission to translate to English and post it on my Tumblr account.
Someone has already introduced the topic, but I want to delve deeper and give my vision on the matter.
This is the kind of thing that, when you think about it, is so obvious that you can't help but feel a little silly for not noticing it sooner.
When we talk about cooking, the doors are opened for many interpretations, but we will not go to something as complicated as… analyzing the dishes that appear next to the names of the episodes. It's something much simpler.
Cooking is something that we can associate with independence and maturity. I think this is easily represented by Arajin's mother, who, although she can be somewhat eccentric at times, let's not forget that she is also the owner of her own restaurant, in addition to having to take care of her son practically alone (as far as we know) both being responsibilities that are not exactly easy to carry. We even have Arajin himself, who despite demonstrating questionable behavior throughout the story, we know that he helps his mother, again, a responsibility about which he usually doesn't complain, being one of the few things that probably helped him with his trauma and develop a skill necessary for adult life, or in his particular case, a business that he will most likely inherit.
We can talk about the scene in which Arajin and Matakara cook together, these are already my conjectures, but perhaps it is a way to contrast how each one has tried to cope with their lives, and it's even more revealing if we remember that they were making gyozas ( They are stuffed/external part, internal part), showing us that Arajin (despite what one might think) has had more tools at his disposal (which his mother also provided him) to move forward than Matakara, who has managed to do so, as we can see, with great difficulty.
Akutaro is another one we see cooking in episode 7, but since it's something he's doing more out of obligation (and possibly threat) perhaps it's more to emphasize that HE NEEDS INDEPENDENCE (he depends on Ichiya) and learning to manage with his own resources to mature.
Now let's talk about what really matters, cooking and love. Cooking has an important relationship with love, being very commonly represented as one of the most sincere gestures of affection, both for those who cook and those who eat. Let's remember when Marito is hospitalized and Mahoro visits him, the food that she prepares for him is well… we know… peculiar, but we see that despite this, even if it's not in front of his sister, Marito makes the effort to eat what she prepared for him, making us understand that despite seeming distant, he appreciates her.
On the other hand we see it in Arajin's mother and the effort she puts into preparing his lunches for school.
We also notice it with Matakara while he prepares the party to welcome his brother, where he offers to help Arajin to make the food. Let's remember that the only person with whom we have seen Matakara cook apart from Arajin is his brother, therefore, the two people for whom he feels the most affection. That's why he wants Mitsukini to eat something that he prepared with his own hands.
But here there is something else. We talk about cooking as a sign of maturity and affection for those we love, but there is something else, and you should already imagine what I mean. Cooking as a representation of a home and its warmth. We already see it with all of the above, especially Arajin, who if there is something he doesn't lack is his mother's love and support . Personally, this makes Matakara's situation even sadder, because if we are good observers, we have NEVER seen Matakara eating or cooking with his "relatives." Basically yelling at us that he doesn't feel part of them, which is confirmed when he simply leaves after what happens with his brother.
In contrast, Arajin's house is a place where we know that beyond being also a restaurant, it's a place where cooking is done with love, therefore,it's not just a house, it's a home.
And now that we know about his past, it's just heartbreaking. Deep down, Matakara not only wants strength, he wants someone who won't abandon him, he wants a home and feel its warmth, maybe that's why we see him so happy making gyoza with Arajin, because it had been a long time since he could experience it. In the end, for Matakara, any place where he can be with a person he loves is his home.
Some thoughts about the nature of the majins and their wishes:
In regards to the plot, I'm pretty sure the "wishes" are less about having them granted and more for the majins to know how to connect with their hosts emotionally so they can fully possess them. Senya has the decency to at least ask Arajin in order to establish some pretext of understanding (even though he can't really relate to Arajin's specific wish). On the other hand, Ichiya imposes his own wish/emotions on Matakara, taking advantage of the boy's personal fears and current vulnerability.
Thematically, I can see these wishes being reflections of Arajin and Matakara's insecurities. Arajin's wish is clearly known (and I've talked a little about it's emptiness before). Matakara's is a bit harder to pin down. He's always wanted to be a Honki person, but why? Ichiya twists it into being about raw strength, but we know Matakara also valued the purity aspect his brother told him about. Perhaps he believed that part of the path would protect him from his darker emotional tendencies. This unfortunately did not work out for him, but the friends he made at Minato Kai become something of a support group. They were able to be there for him when he got overwhelmed. Matakara knows he can't wish his fears away, and has somewhat learned to cope with that, but his current mental instability is allowing Ichiya to manipulate him.
I may or may not be very horribly in love with him but you didn’t hear that from me 🩵🩵🩵
honestly, everytime i see someone say "matakara should've been the mc" in response to them not liking bucchigiri i kind of laugh because like. i really don't think it would've changed your mind. if matakara was actually the mc, people would've gotten mad that he still wants to reconnect with arajin because of the way arajin distances himself from him, or that he gets corrupted, or that zabu is the one who should've stepped in.
i think when people say that bucchigiri sucks because matakara forgave arajin, they fail to understand that arajin was matakara's first friend other than his brother. komao and zabu, while matakara's friends are not as close to him as arajin was (i.e. how they get matakara's favourite gyoza lunch from the convenience store, but arajin teaches matakara how to make gyoza.)
people dismiss arajin because he's an unlikeable, cowardly protagonist, but he and matakara are two sides of the same coin: matakara wants to become strong because he believes he is weak. everyone's left him. he wants to become strong, so he doesn't have to rely on anyone, because he doesn't want to burden them. he pushes the people who care about him away. the biggest hater arajin has IS himself. arajin runs away from his problems because he believes he is weak, so he doesn't try. he thinks he doesn't deserve (in this case) matakara's forgiveness, so he pushes him away because he doesn't believe in himself. he doesn he also doesn't reach out to the people who care about him, and pushes them away. both are flawed people who idealize and project onto others in order to cope: matakara with arajin, as a reminder of his past, and arajin with mahoro, as what an "ideal" and "normal" relationship should be like. and when the illusion is broken, they double down. and, in order to help matakara, arajin has to forgive himself in order to help others. does bucchigiri have flaws when it comes to writing? yes, absolutely. i think there are issues when it comes to pacing, i think certain characters could've been tied into the plot better thematically, and i think scenes could've been added to push the relationships and themes more. however, i want to stress: when you dismiss arajin as a character, you also dismiss matakara as a character as well, and the parallels between them. you ignore what makes their relationship, and in turn, their characters, by extension- the show- so interesting.
it/they- real nyanbinary madness- hey! i'm mew. i ramble a lot about my interests. welcome to headcanon hell- doodle dump galore- multifandom
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