This Is Really Obvious But

this is really obvious but

Since I only just got it: there is a very nice little creperie in Kichijoji, where you go for Akechi's confidant 3. If you go for a non-rank-up hangout with him, you will go there again. You can go there multiple times. At the end of the game, Morgana will sadly comment on it:

But can we just talk about the fact that this place is a creperie, and what it's called:

A crepe is a pancake. This place is literally called "honey and pancakes".

Akechi's pet café, his favourite café, the one he takes you to for his confidant and takes you to with Yoshizawa and takes you to if you just have nothing better to do that day, is a pancake café.

pancakes

pancakes

pancakes

pancakes.

Much shorter post tonight because I have like 5 other essays about Akechi in the making. I often wonder what the connotations of him, as the black mask, having a helmet are, rather than just a normal mask - especially since it doesn't disappear or is removed even while summoning his persona. Personally, I always viewed it like this: his anger and hatred is there to protect him when everything else failed to. A helmet is meant for protection, and I think thats what I think this persona is for. Any vulnerability can be hidden and buried and crushed under all of that hate. Anger is easier and more efficient than sadness and self-pity. It's so much easier to lay the blame at the feet of the world then to ever admit you may be the problem, or, in Akechi's case, lay all of your problems at the feet of one man and convince yourself that dealing with him will remove all your issues. I also like the idea of him not being able to remove it - his anger is such an embedded part of him that there is no taking it from him. There is no Akechi without that hatred and spite. (Dr. Maruki take notes.)

I feel like one of the best ways Spy x Family presents its anti-war sentiment is how it presents the other side, the side that any lesser media would present simply as "the enemy".

Yuri is an interesting case, because he's not the average "Ostania 4 evur!" type of supremacist - and considering the target audience for this show is very much NOT nationalists and supremacists, this is a very smart move. What we've seen (in the anime) up to now from him, he's not in it because he believes Ostania is supreme for some reason - his only reason to work so hard in its service is because his sister lives in it. Sis lives in Ostania, I shall dedicate myself to Ostania! And while it's taken to an extreme, it's still way easier to relate to wanting to protect a beloved family member than to fucking nationalism.

And yet, even though we can understand why he's protective of Yor, we're not supposed to relate to the lengths he's taking that protection - either by being possessive of her or by wanting to take down Twilight. We saw Twilight's point of view, we know why he does what he does. It's his journey we follow - but then we see the other side. A young man who believes that this Twilight wants to make the world fall into chaos. Our immediate reaction is "No, he doesn't, you're an asshole and you should stop going after him!" but then you take a step back and think, hol'up. He's twenty. He idealizes his sister and his main reason for joining the secret services is to protect her and the country she lives in. Of course he would have been exposed to propaganda about how Westalis is filth and how its spies only want to destroy the beautiful world we have established as Good Ostanian PeopleTM. He's as much of a victim of it as anyone else in the country. And because of that, he not only opposes the character whose goal we're supposed to root for - he calls him a villain and his natural enemy.

The humanization of the "other side" is presented brilliantly here, because again, no extremist will watch this show and relate to it. People who love their family will. So making the antagonist's motivation be his love for his sister (even if it's to the extreme) is how it works to make the audience understand that war is not a natural instinct of humans; that even people who love their family, people like us, can be brainwashed into supporting war.

Our "enemy" is not the "other side"; it's the dehumanization of people, the propaganda and the lies the higher-ups promote in order to keep their high positions. And when we lose sight of that, we lose part of our humanity and understanding.

(Anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)

About Yuri:

Funny thing is that most of us fans are expecting this arc to be the 'Yuri's redemption' arc…. And so…. was something like this…. or so. —I end up as a cry baby after being shot for saving the chihuahua girl- Honestly It's hard to expect that this arc was going to represent such an abrupt change. In SxF the characters suffer from a slow and steady process, at least the Forger's are like that…. So, Yuri will take a while to show the best (or worst) of himself.

One interesting thing about Yuri's character, —at least to me- is that you don't necessarily have to like him, in fact, it can be enjoyable to watch him squirm in frustration and pain when he fails (sabotaging Twiyor) because most of the time he's a huge jerk.

I think Yuri's purpose is to explore how negative country influences can brainwash vulnerable young people even if their intentions are genuinely noble. In the end they fill their brains with a bunch of propagandist garbage in exchange for them working for the government and helping them stay in power. That is, a person's genuine feelings about protecting a family can be severely influenced by the social and political context.

Seen that way, Yuri IS a victim of the war, and he is a rather weak prey, who instead of being seen as someone directly hurt by the government, works for them and is congratulated for his labor…. So, Yuri is not portrayed as a tragic being, with whom you feel sorry despite his bad actions (Like Billy with Red Circus), but on the contrary, you want to give him a good kicking.

However, despite all the negative things Endo exposes about Yuri (which is too much) he shows that he still has a good side to rescue: the love he feels for Yor (as twisted as it is) is a genuine love and superior to any order of the SSS. Because Yuri doesn't care about his government he cares about his sister, his only family.

The biggest problem… perhaps… is that the way Yuri sees his relationships outside of Yor, is very much influenced by the Ostanian mentality of gaining power, to supposedly protect his country (his sister)… when all he is really protecting is the stay of one group of people in control of a country

Endo always punishes Yuri for his bad actions, always looking for us to see him with a weirdo that causes heartburn because he....is very broken. But he also takes care to show us that underneath that mountain of awkward weirdness there is a good person…. even if he doesn't show it very often and so far it's only towards Yor

Yuri's head is full of garbage… governmental garbage and very wrong ideas about protecting

If we recall, a major basis for Yuri is his childhood, as he claims to "hate himself for feeling useless", for being a burden to Yor —Because, Yor doesn't work for her, he works for him— That's why he became obsessed with being an outstanding student and holding a position to repay all the work she did for him.

So Yuri's goal was to become someone important who has a lot of power to obtain the supposed power to protect his sister, (or so he wants to believe). But in Ostania the only way to be powerful is through economic and political means. Yuri and Yor were poor and orphans, therefore, being a military policeman gives him enough political and social power (from the shadows).

The lie is that the power of the SSS is not to protect its sister, not to protect its inhabitants, not even to protect a group of children imprisoned by terrorists. The SSS only protects the political leaders and their stay in power at the expense of the innocent.

Ostania's policy is repressive, violent and cruel -Violence is power, violence controls, intimidates and eliminates whoever crosses your path.. Creating the idea of the evil world outside and inside its borders, everyone is trash and that if something bad happens to them it is because they surely deserve it. The government is supposed to be the good guy, because it protects, but it only protects itself.

His intentions are genuine but his methods are going in entirely the wrong direction. Yuri wants to do what is 'necessary' to create a safer world for his sister but the power he has and is wielding does not create a more peaceful world, but a more violent, hostile and resentful one.

But he has not yet understood the difference

.

The most interesting thing in Yuri's possible evolution is to find the difference between what he actually protects and the way he does it. He can't make the world safer for his sister if he can't even make the world safer for a child...And the SSS way is definitely not!!

So Yuri is a huge idiot Yes! …. but he still has the capacity to change for the better (or worse). Knowing that he felt a shred of empathy for the slanderer because he showed he cared about his family, and especially... He genuinely went to help save Anya (for Yor), his will for his niece is very weak, but at least I think it's a little seed change for the non-favorite uncle

inaccessible scenes: after the engine room

Many sequences in P5R are not deleted exactly—they're inaccessible. They're in game, theoretically, but game mechanics make it impossible for you ever to see them.

For instance, there are a bunch of TV shows that exist, that are presumably in game, but you can't ever get to the TV to watch them—usually because Morgana makes it impossible for you to go downstairs.

A couple of these scenes happen around the end of Shido's Palace, around the Akechi fight. Once you go into the engine room, you cannot leave until you defeat Akechi. You can't use a Goho-M, you can't take the route out. You are well and truly stuck.

Plus, once you have defeated him, the game funnels you to the Treasure, and any attempt to (say) go to a safe room will again be cockblocked by Morgana.

This means that the last two safe room meetings in Shido's Palace are never accessible. And one of them is important. Let's have a look.

We all know about the meetings—you go to the table in the safe room, you talk to the team, you ask how your progress is. They say some shit. It's usually worth a regular check-in:

The first inaccessible script appears to be triggered by entering the engine room. You get it after going in, but before fighting the Cleaner—so presumably after fighting his mooks, while you chase him about:

Morgana: We found the engine room, so all we need to do now is get our hands on the letter of introduction. Haru: It would be nice if we could avoid a fight in the process... Yusuke: Hm, given his attitude up to this point, that is highly unlikely...

The second one appears to kick in after the Akechi fight. After Akechi has given his life to save you:

Yusuke: Goro Akechi... I believe he may have been the greatest casualty of Shido's actions... Makoto: Was there no other way? Ann: We'll avenge him when we take Shido down. Come on, we have the letters now—let's do this!

"the greatest casualty of Shido's actions", huh? And it's inaccessible, of course. Leaving the engine room will warp you to the locked treasure room door. If you run to a safe room, Morgana won't let you go in. If you try afterwards, you've been updated to the "we need to send the calling card" script. You never see this.

But I'd bet money it's there. Just out of reach. Just another instance of the PTs understanding Akechi, and mourning him, rather than (say) hating him and being glad he's gone.

one more thing

Most people probably know that you can lurk mournfully by the shutters in the engine room. Nonetheless, here it is:

I think that Yuri is against the whole marriage thing mostly because the excuse of "i'm married since a year and didn't tell you before and even LIED to you about it, sorry (lol)" that Yor told him.

After all at the beginning, when Yor tells him (lies to him), saying she may see someone, he's happy about it. So it's not the fact that she found someone who bother him but the whole mistery around the marriage and that his sister didn't tell him for a whole year.

It can be pretty suspect for anyone and even more for someone whose the job is to NOT trust people :/

It was not the best start to start to know Loid and appreciate him ^^"

Yeah. As necessary as it was for Loid to have the "we married a year ago, definitely not just for the interview!" excuse, it ended up making the marriage look super suspicious to everyone else.

Now, as far as the fandom is concerned, I think people are too used to stories being poorly written and certain characters being so creepy, that they're not prepared to see the brilliance with which Endo handled Yuri's dynamic. Yes Yuri is a little obsessed with his sister, but it's made understandable due to the circumstances under which they grew up in, and he is willing to accept her getting married. However, that very obsession is there to produce conflict for Loid and Yor, and it's handled with a very delicate balance where it enriches Yuri's personality without making him a creep.

Honestly, I think people misunderstand both his "When I grow up I'm going to marry you" and how he latched onto Yor saying she'd wait up for him. The first one is a thing a lot of little kids tell their parents, older siblings, or any form of caretaker, or even their peers. They know that "marriage" is a form of showing how much you love someone, but they don't know how romantic love works yet, so they connect marriage even with familial or platonic love. So in their minds, telling someone "I want to marry you" just means "I love you very much", and in their age, that can only be familial or platonic love.

About the second, I think Yuri had a moment of ShockTM when he saw Yor about to kiss Loid, not because he felt she was betraying her "promise" to wait up for him, but because reality was very suddenly drilled into him.

It's like when you sit and have a striking realization about real life. Things like "I'm not getting any younger" or "The world is fucked up" or even "That thing that happened to me was actually traumatic". You go by in your life hearing that stuff, and automatically understand them, but you may have a moment of actual realization when you're like oh. Shit. This is Real.

And I think this is what happened with Yuri here. He didn't actually think Yor would marry him, but it was a kind of "dream" that he subconsciously had, probably in the form of "I will always be the one she puts first". So he might have felt secure in that thought, but right then, when he saw Yor almost kiss Loid, that dream/thought was very suddenly pulled from under his feet. He had his "I'm not getting any younger" realization. But because his emotional state is... how it is, instead of taking a moment to self-reflect and just think, he lashed out and tried to protect that safe space he'd built in his mind.

Honestly, he's a very interesting character because he provides conflict while being layered on his own. He's very well written and developed, and it can be very easy for audiences to fall in the trap of calling him a "creep obsessed with his sister" if they don't look a little deeper.

(no spoilers for the manga please 😁)