Some Interview Highlights I Forgot To Post On Tumblr

this is really dumb but ANYWAYS happy pride month

Should’ve posted this yesterday but…

THESE ARE SO ADORABLE!!!!! LOOK AT THEM!!!!

For a show I don't see a lot of fans for, there is SO MUCH merch coming out. The announcements just keep coming. Bucchigiri Twitter page is full of them 😵‍💫.

I ain't complaining though. Gotta find some money asap.

so in every style savvy game there's a guy in it that wants to kiss you so bad. this guy does not exist in styling star. styling star is the game with a very obvious lesbian couple in it. it has just occured to me at 2 in the morning that there isn't a boy who wants to kiss you in styling star because Yolanda wants to kiss you

AWWWWW

arajin i hope your ego death will be painful + you deserve everything that's coming for you 🫶

mulled it over for a while and ultimately decided i'm really digging this arajin-matakara fight, because like

the whole series has set up arajin as a piece of shit fuckhead (and i LOVE that for him) but this whole lying to matakara about wanting to be a honki people thing... is like the one thing he did not actually do

i get real rambly under the cut but tl;dr the way matakara treats arajin is the way arajin treats mahoro and that is suuuch a juicy parallel to me

throughout the whole series arajin has been not at all subtly trying to get away from these fights

could he have been more direct about that with matakara? sure maybe! but matakara was really ignoring all the signs that arajin is not who he thinks he is

which is such a delicious parallel to how arajin willfully ignores all the signs that mahoro is not into him

like. matakara built this version of arajin up in his head, with all these unreasonable, unrealistic, and honestly unfair? expectations based off some past foolishness from when they were very small children. he's clinging to this version of arajin that only exists in his head and has basically shown zero evidence of existing in real life

(yes arajin shows crumbs of courage but i think the scales are tipped pretty heavily towards his I DO NOT WANT ANY PART OF THIS moments)

this fight between them was like if arajin were to blow up at mahoro like "you've been leading me on this whole time!" when obviously. lol. no she has not

she did initially! just like tiny arajin as a child had those honki people ambitions! his ambitions may have been genuine, while mahoro feigned interest in him with malicious intent, but they're same in the sense that after that initial story beat, they have consistently demonstrated that actually no what happened back then no longer applies (whether because they grew out of it, in arajin's case, or they were faking interest in the first place, in mahoro's case)

but arajin is blinded by what he wants (mahoro) and ignores the reality of mahoro snubbing him at every turn, and matakara does the same, ignoring the reality of arajin really just... being extremely reluctant to have anything at all to do with him

anyway that's the main thing i'm chewing on and loving here, but ALSO i think the story paints this parallel in such an interesting way because like

matakara is just a big sweet ouppy dog of a boy! it's so so so easy to feel sorry for him, to root for him, to think the best of him. which i still do btw, in fact this episode made me like him more than i already did

because matakara is so uwu angelboy perfect, and arajin is such a dickhead, it's easy to instinctively think oh matakara must be completely right to be hurt and arajin must have hurt him. even if that isn't the case! this doesn't make arajin any less of a dickhead, but he's a dickhead mainly for other reasons

the fact that they've been set up as the perfect epitome of the Pure Boy and the Pervy Boy tropes is just such clever framing for this parallel between them, because i imagine a lot of viewers, if told what mataakara is doing to arajin is what arajin is doing to mahoro, would be like omg wtf no my pure angel baby is nothing like that disgusting freak?

except in this case! he literally is!! which is brilliant!!! i think it adds nuance to both matakara's character and arajin's character at the same time, making it so it's not just one of them is Perfect and one of them is Wrong All The Time

what's even better is that this made sense for matakara, like his reaction breaks him out of the Pure Angel mold but doesn't feel out of character. his emotions are already running high with what happened to his brother, plus akutaro is malewife mansplain manipulating him behind the scenes, so of course he feels like he's driven towards this emotional high that leads to this blowup

the groundwork was already laid out, and it wasn't even subtle. it was right on the surface! but this episode really highlighted how matakara's way of treating arajin is so much like arajin's way of treating mahoro and how inevitable it was that things would reach this point

(there are moments, even in this episode, that are in hindsight so clearly setting up this parallel! like arajin trying to talk to mahoro during lunch, mahoro CLEARLY not interested, making viewers think ugh arajin get a clue. then matakara often IMMEDIATELY coming in to try to talk to arajin, when arajin is the one who clearly isn't interested, making viewers think boo arajin be nicer to him! like i think the show deliberately set the audience up to have those emotional reactions, and this is the moment where the rug is pulled out from under us, so to speak, where it becomes even more obvious that... wait... double standard much?)

anyway. personally my only gripe with this episode is i wished they'd done more with aniki than just pseudo-fridge him, and hope they do still do more with him in the coming eps? but kind of understandable if they don't, because it is just a one-cour show after all

the actual blowup between arajin and matakara was just. mawh, chef's kiss. perfect

I really love that this show's intense mlm homoeroticism extends to the fact that when the people making it try to come up with a character design that scans as "sexy woman" they can't do it.

I'm sorry but these are the most "gay guy tries to reverse-engineer what straight dudes like in women" designs of all time.

as for Bucchigiri itself, I respect what it's doing and I enjoy watching it for the craftsmanship basically. It's very fun to look at, I love the character designs (other than these girls who are bit characters to be clear, it's possible that their nondescriptness is actually intentional now that I think of it), and the fights are cool. I have yet to truly click with any of the characters and I sort of suspect I won't since this show is clearly made for a different audience than myself, but it's a fun watch regardless.

Oh also there's a bunch of scenes in this episode where Glasses Guy literally whips the protagonist. So that's something for those of you into sadistic guy / goofy dude fujobait dynamics I suppose.

The key to analyzing Bucchigiri thematically is realizing two things:

1. fighting is not the only metric by which passion and worth and love are defined (something shown by Mahoro's personal strength/determination)

2. Arajin's rejection of Matakara is not out of disinterest or dislike, it is as a result of not feeling worthy of him

Despite all its pomp and spectacle, Bucchigiri is a show that cares deeply about how its details portray feelings beyond the superficial. Just by looking at how often Mahoro and Matakara are visually and narratively compared is just one such detail. Specific phrasing and word choice (in Japanese) is another, as Arajin distinctly uses impersonal as opposed to critical language when addressing Matakara (something the sub and dub ignore to varying degrees, often making his dialogue take on a harsher tone).

The biggest thematic takeaway from Bucchigiri is that you don't have to be the person someone expects of you to be loved by them. Arajin doesn't need to share Matakara's passion in fighting to be loved by him and to love him in return. And Matakara doesn't need to always be strong to be able to find some reason to live. He is worthy of other people's love just by being himself.

"Rather than pointless fights, I want promises."

This is the only part in the ending theme that is sung with two voices laid on top of each other and it encapsulates what Bucchigiri wants to say about its relationships. That the bond two people choose to share is more important than any pride you can leverage trying to prove something.

On the Same Planet but in Different Worlds: Gazans are Humans Too!

Allow me to point out some of the blessings that people, unlike those in the strange scary world of Gaza, are inclined to take for granted and rarely do they reflect on:

Plenty of food, vegetables, and fruits.

Electricity 24/7.

Drinkable water 24/7.

No horrifying sounds of explosions, no head-splitting buzzing of Israeli drones in their sky, and no scary shaking of their houses because of the continuous bombardment.

No fear of ending up buried under the rubble of their cozy beautiful houses.

No scary thoughts about getting killed in an airstrike before drifting off at night.

Access to quality education for them and their children.

A plea from one family to another: kindly help me get my family to a safe place before I lose them forever. The situation in Gaza only moves from bad to worse. My family is stranded in the most hellish conditions ever, so I am dedicating to helping them evacuate to Egypt as soon as possible.

Join me in securing a dignified safe life for my family and a prosperous future for the children who have been deprived of education for a year.

Even worse, it seems they won't receive any education for another year at least as the ravaging cruel war continues and most Schools have been viciously and devilishly destroyed. Your support is a lifeline for my family and a chance for a better future for them. It is just too early for them to depart to heaven!

Please donate, reblog, and share.

Note: Vetted by:

1. @el-shab-hussein and @nabulsi # 151 on the spreadsheet of Vetted Gaza Fundraisers List]

2. @fallahifag here # 4 on the list.

3. @riding-with-the-wild-hunt Here #5.

gofundme.com

Donate to Death chases my family in Gaza; help me save them, organized by Mahmoud Khalaf

People say: "Family always comes First," and to that, I say: "Amen!".… Mahmoud Khalaf needs your support for Death chases my family in Gaza;

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