Last Words Before Disaster💔

Last words before disaster💔

Why Anzu Kinashi is important (Anzu Character Analysis)

Anzu is my favourite character in the entire game but looking around the fandom I see a major lack of any real discussion about her place in the story as a character, mainly boiling her down to comedic relief and not much more. And while I do think she has a place as a the comedic relief I also think that there is so much more to her that gets glossed over by the fandom and I want to talk about that and hopefully add more to what people think about when they talk about Anzu

So, the question is "what is the point of Anzu story wise?" and the answer, like most things in 3-1, is that she shows a facet about what it means to truly be human. Anzu's death is the tipping point for Sara, it's the moments she realised she valued a human's life over a doll's.

Why Anzu Kinashi Is Important (Anzu Character Analysis)

But why was it Anzu's death which caused this specifically, instead of the any of other dolls like Kurumada, Hayasaka or Mai, who were all directly chosen by Sara? In my eyes it's because Anzu is the most "human" of any of the dummies. throughout 3-1 we are shown many moments "proving" the dolls "aren't human", Ranmaru has his scene where he takes of his hand, Kurumada has the very obvious hole through his stomach, Mai is proven to be a doll when we check on her though the dummies control system after she is left behind with Qtaro and even Hayasaka says "he isn't human anymore" and that "he isn't the real Hayasaka" multiple times, but Anzu never gets a scene like this, even in their early deaths all the other dolls die in clear sight being ripped apart, pierced, or having their head explode, but Anzu dies away from sight in her coffin, still mostly intact. To me it's clear that this was done on purpose since after Ranmaru takes of his hands he uses Hayasaka's death as evidence for him knowing he was a doll

But there is no equivalent to this line of dialogue if Anzu is dead since her death doesn't help prove anything to Ranmaru. On top of that Anzu is the only doll to never really do anything morally reprehensible in any stretch of the imagination. Unlike Mai who stabbed Qtaro to live, unlike Ranmaru who ends up stunning Sara to lock Keiji up and considered killing everyone to escape with sara in a moment of weakness (even going through with it in the logic route), unlike Hayasaka who was forced to gather information on everyone for Asunaro, and unlike Kurumada who was the last doll to trust any of the survivors being the most antagonistic at first, Anzu doesn't ever do anything wrong and even claims

When sara's wish causes Anzu's death she is unable to run from the fact that the only reason Anzu died was because Sara was told she was a doll and that makes her less valuable than a Human, Anzu wasn't ever shown to physically be a doll like Kurumada or Ranmaru, she never did anything morally reprehensible like Mai or Hayasaka, and she is the only doll who wasn't prepared to die during the banquet.

Anzu's death itself even plays into this. Despite being the only doll to not tell Sara she is okay with her picking their coffin at any point unlike the rest of the dummies and by extension being the only doll to be unable to "make her own choice" (a major recurring theme throughout 3-1) in regard to her own death she instead has her "humanity" stripped away from her by Midori, instead Anzu shows her humanity in her final moments through her own fear of death. The fear of death is something that YTTD argues is inherently human throughout the whole game. Anzu even says it herself earlier,

on that note I want to also talk a bit about Anzu's character itself.

As mentioned Anzu fears her own death but interestingly, later when Kurumada refuses to use the charger claiming that it could instead be used to extend the others lives Anzu ends up being the first person to step in and tell Kurumada no, claiming that they're "allies"

she makes this choice knowing the battery could be used to extend her life and still she decides that it's still important her allies stay alive too. And later in the banquet Anzu is always the first person to react to everyone's death up until she ends up dying herself. In the emotion route during the pre-banquet she talks about how she isn't happy about the people who had to die along the way if any of the dummies died.

and in the logic route, if at least one of the dummies are dead alongside Alice/Reko, she says

which just reinforces that idea that Anzu's allies are something that is important to her. Another line that is important for her character that also occurs during the pre-banquet is in the emotion route, if all the dummies are still alive Anzu says

Its a line that really does explain how Anzu thinks about these things and its one that I personally see discussed in the fandom the most in relation to Anzu but I don't think people discuss the full story with this line, in the logic route Anzu instead says

Here Anzu IS thinking about the scary future just ahead of her, exactly the opposite of what her other dialogue would lead you to expect from her. She isn't just this clueless girl who doesn't know what's going on or a static character but someone who has the ability to think about and have her own thoughts and have those thoughts change based on the things around her. (Bonus: She is shown again to actually think about things and not be clueless in her minisode after she gets her outfit and thinks to herself

and later on when she asks Ryuu

it all just reinforces the fact that Anzu is actually capable despite what it may seem at first.)

Anzu is someone who is defined by her fear, she is scared of dying to the point of not even being able to resist, both in her first trial and during Keiji's fight with Midori, and she is just as afraid of the scary future just ahead of her, but she is also someone who shows that at times she is just as capable to work past her fears to help out an ally who is trying to protect others over themselves or think about what needs to be done in order to move forward. But she is still just human and as YTTD makes clear again and again,

When Anzu has to face her death head on she is afraid of it, whether it's during the first trial, during her first obstructor death, or during the banquet, Anzu is TERRIFIED of facing her death head on, just like Nao was when, even after accepting her death, she stops Sara from pressing the button and killing her early, just like Shin was when he first saw his win rate and he takes up the Sou identity, and just like Midori is later in his final moments during the banquet, because fearing death is something that is inherently human, it doesn't matter how far you try to run from it or how much you accept your death, after all

Anzu reminds us and Sara about the value the doll's lives truly have and about how superficial the difference between humans and dolls really are, despite everything, Anzu is still alive, she was never proven to be inhuman physically, she wasn't doesn't want to die just like any human, she never does anything selfish or morally wrong, she is someone who trusts her allies and who doesn't want to see them die just the same as any other human. It all proves that Anzu IS human despite the physical truth, and just adds onto the core themes of chapter 3 and YTTD in general. And that's why it's such a shock to Sara when she realised, she values a human's life over Anzu's and why it had to be Anzu specifically who died for it, at this point the only real justification Sara can bring herself to say is that Anzu is a doll and Gin is a human because past that Anzu is just as alive as everyone else.

To me Anzu is crucial part of YTTD, someone who adds onto the themes we already have in the game and elaborates on them, she is someone who plays an important role in the story, one that couldn't really be played to the same effect by any other character, and a character who feels genuine like everyone else in the game. I think relegating her to "just a comedic relief who doesn't really add anything to the story" or someone who "doesn't have a personality past funny clown girl" and glossing over the character moments that ARE present in game seems sort of unfair and disingenuous to me and I hope this post helps you see that there is more to one of the more overlooked characters in the cast and helps you appreciate her more as her own character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yayay I did it, I made a real post, LET GOOOO!! people who know me knew this was going to be my first post lmao. Some final notes: Its my first time doing something like this (and I am not really good at putting my thoughts into text) so hopefully I still got my point across and hopefully as I do this more, I'll get better at it. There are a few extra points I could have made, like how in her minisode Anzu's friend specifically says "(She's a scaredy cat, so I bet she really is afraid...)" playing into Anzu's fear again or how her going and asking Ryuu about street preforming could be taken as her working past her fears even before the death game, or a few moments in YTTS but I didn't really know how to fit it in anywhere so I am just gonna put it here lmao.

Lastly I just want to be clear, since at times it seems like I am saying otherwise, I am not saying you can't like Anzu just because she is silly what I was trying to say was that there is more to Anzu and that boiling her down to just that and nothing else is kinda unfair, Anzu IS silly and she is so based for that and if you like her because of that then that's also based, I don't ever want to tell anyone they are wrong for enjoying Anzu for being silly because quite frankly, she is lmao, I just wanted to shed some light on why I love Anzu personally. and with that, Thanks for reading!!

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xxbr0k3n-1p4dxx

4 months ago

WILL BE USING THESE ^_^

gakkou gurashi dividers pls .... its ok if u cant :3