"No You Don't Understandd Yakumo Is My Man Fr!!!" I Scream While They Drag Me Into The Asylum.

"No you don't understandd Yakumo is my man fr!!!" I scream while they drag me into the asylum.

But on a serious note Yakumo's entire character scratches an itch in my brain I didn't even know I had.

And he's hot imo but I digress-

I feel like he's a very unique take on the trope of 'starving artist'.

When we're first introduced to him, he's passed out on the floor buck naked scratching his balls and cradling a bottle of alcohol. Unsurprisingly, this instills the idea of him being trashy aand, due to the cultural connotation of balls=funny (which I have a number of opinions about but again I digress) the reader begins to assume that he'll be a rowdy comedy relief type character.

This assumption is blown out of the water at least to an extent by the reveal of his painting during class introductions. The piece portrayed was melancholy and soulful, not to mention the incredible amount of skill present. Even though the manga is in black and white, we can still tell that the colors are rich. This kind of piece is in direct contradiction with his presented personality which is loud, straightforward, and friendly. This lets the reader know that there's more to this character than there may seem.

This is only compounded when he gives Yatora a mini history lesson during the Tokyo project mini arc. The juxtaposition of his smoking the money out of his wallet till he needs to fish to eat and deep knowledge of Japanese theatre history (which, is something that might usually be associated with more wealthy persons) add to the mystery of him. Now, he has evolved from a strange and rowdy broke guy to someone who has the ability to understand and appreciate the finer things in life, despite staying in his comfort zone of poverty, be it on purpose or by accident.

I'd also like to touch on the philosophy behind his work; to make the strongest art. It sounds like something straight out of a typical shounen piece, some broke boy striving to be the strongest. This perception is compounded when we see him associate larger paintings with stronger paintings. It seems childish at first. Just because a painting is large doesn't mean it's strong. Paintings can't even be strong in the first place. This view, however, discounts one important thing, the strength of the artist making the work. Speaking from experience, it's hard as hell to make large works, I've never even made an f100, let alone the gargantuan sizes of paintings that Yakumo churns out for every project or assignment. It takes an obscene level of endurance, focus, and drive to complete a piece of that size, and for him to do that every time without fail takes strength. I saw somewhere online that art isn't the piece, but what happens inside the artist while it's made. If the artist requires immense strength to make the piece, then the subsequent work is strong.

This takes us to the central question of Yakumo's person. What is strength? What does it mean to be strong? As with most things in this series, it's complicated.

Yakumo represents strength. Be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual strength, there are times in the story where he exhibits all aspects of it. When learning of his backstory and how he discovered art, we see that Yakumo was victimized throughout his formative years. Whether it was his so called parents, or the woman he lived with, it seemed like he was constantly subjugated to abuse. I don't know if it was middle or high school when he moved in with the mystery woman (my brain wants to think that it was middle school, but I'm not sure). Either way, he was a child who was living with an adult. We don't get it directly told to us, but it is STRONGLY implied that this lady raped and/or physically hit him multiple times throughout his stay there. He described it as hurting each other, but clearly the child being violated by a full grown adult would be hurt more than the woman victimizkng a child. Despite the hurt this caused him, when recounting his experience, Yakumo focuses more on the few good things that happened, see, his discovery of art. He doesn't act like it was all sunshine and rainbows, but he doesn't emphasize how hard things were for him. To me, the story of his past shows the extent of his mental strength. He not only persevered through his hardships, but he used it as a catalyst for his future. It takes a great amount of strength to do that.

He leaves that house, we know, and enrolls in a cram school. He works in construction at night and studies art during the day. He goes without food and spends hours learning new techniques. It takes physical strength to do that. To endure harsh conditions for that long and not crumble under the pressure requires an incredible level of endurance and, for lack of a better word (or the presence of an opportunity to use the right word) strength. Assuming that he's still working in construction (albeit with less hours assuming he's selling his works too) and going to college and chugging out competition pieces of massive size, he undoubtedly has physical strength.

On the topic of emotional strength, I cite the entire story of Sarada and her death. I spoke on the situation in my first bp post as well as the one about Yotasuke so the story of the thing is already established, but I'd like to elaborate on Yakumo's grieving process. He still used her brush. He still saved her empty canvas. He saved small reminders of her everywhere. It certainly gives an air of guilt, though nothing completely concrete. Something to consider is that he's going to school right after her death. From my knowledge of the timeline, the start of his first year in university is almost immediately after Sarada's death. To be able to not only attend university, but begin to make new friends and carry on despite still being in the throws of grief requires emotional (and mental to an extent, but I already talked about that) strength. This also adds a new context to his introductory scene. Maybe the reason he was drinking till he blacked out on his friend's floor was because his other friend died almost a month prior.

I think that spirit is somewhere in between mental and emotional. As such, I feel the culmination of strength in attitude and behavior results in strength of spirit, as well as vice versa.