Also The Fact That She Acknowledges The Fandom Associating Matakara As A Toy Poodle?!?! HELLO?!

HAI HAPPY NEW YEAARR ALSO

DIGITAL ART STUFF !1!!1!!!!

basalt and kyanite

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

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.

something about the way zabu dismisses matakara's love for the honki people story while arajin also verbally bashes it but is still so clearly endeared by it....

thinking…

it's interesting how despite her freakiness, mahoro isn't on the same level of delusional as arajin or matakara. arajin and matakara keep chasing the object of their affection (mahoro for arajin, arajin for matakara) to fuel their own coping mechanisms, and in the process they start to build up a version of them that only exists in their heads. meanwhile, mahoro fangirls over marito and chases after him, sure, but she knows that he won't listen to her and leaves when she knows he doesn't want her there. i think she's self-aware to an extent because mahoro knows what kind of person marito truly is. i hope next episode arajin finally realises that he and matakara are wearing the same hat and does something about it.

💙🩵💙

Mahoro, Matakara, Aladdin and the Princess

I think Episode 8 finally confirmed to me that the role of the Princess in the Aladdin allusion was actually split between Mahoro and Matakara, rather than it being one or the other. There's a reason why they're both represented by Jasmine-chan during the Nyan Nyaight Love cutaways!

Preface; imo Bucchigiri's narrative takes inspiration from both Disney's Aladdin and the original Aladdin story, so I'm going to switch the Princess's name depending on which version of her I'm referring to. So Jasmine -> Disney's Aladdin, and Badroulbadour -> 1001 Nights Aladdin.

From what I saw in the 1001 Nights Aladdin, Badroulbadour didn't have much of a personality, so it makes sense that a lot of Mahoro and Matakara's personalities were taken from Jasmine, while their roles in the story were slightly more influenced by Badroulbadour.

Mahoro: The feistier side of Jasmine. She has a sharp tongue and always speaks her mind, regardless of potential danger. Eg. Mahoro stands up to Akutaro after he gains the upper hand on both gangs, similarly to how Jasmine refuses to bow to Jafar when he becomes Sultan.

She's also regarded as pretty desirable, and has charmed several men to get them to do what she wants (something that both Jasmine and Badroulbadour do at some point to trick Jafar/the sorcerer). Arajin falls for Mahoro at first sight, similarly to how both versions of Aladdin fell for both versions of the Princess, and like Aladdin his crush on her becomes his driving motivation throughout the series. Akutaro also talks about turning her into a NG Girl and…abusing her, a la Jafar. Ik it's just to trigger Arajin but yk what I mean!

Matakara: The gentler, more naive side of Jasmine, in that he trusts/believes in Arajin...a lot more than he should, really. The main 'lying' plot point between Disney's Aladdin and Jasmine is directly implemented into Matakara and Arajin's relationship. On a surface level there's also their blue colour schemes and phonetically similar names (Asamine -> Jasmine). Near the climax of the 1001 Nights version, the sorcerer tricks Badroulbadour into giving him the lamp with the genie in it, similarly to how Akutaro manipulates Matakara into shooting himself with Ichiya. Both actions trigger a Very Bad Turn of Events that Aladdin stops/will have to stop with the help of his own genie.

Also very interesting how Ichiya has a moon motif, and Badroulbadour's name is a metaphor for female beauty meaning 'full moon of full moons'. Totally not losing my fucking mind over that no sir

Though they both fit the Princess allusion, the entire show is screaming that Matakara is Arajin's true Jasmine, and Arajin is going to realise he was what he needed all along. Honestly, it doesn't get more obvious than Episode 9.

That's not to mention how Mahoro and Matakara also have many, many parallels to each other via their relationships with Arajin. (Both visit him one-on-one at his mom's restaurant to convince him to do something and order the exact same dish, Arajin thinks of child Matakara after seeing both current Matakara and Mahoro get hurt, his meetings with both of them are juxtaposed with one another and described as a 'fated meeting' in this trailer, etc.)

Aside from that, there's also a lot of little stuff that the two have in common! (Both suck at cooking, both deeply care about their older siblings, both are cute as hell etc etc.)

(it's also pretty neat how they're technically both the respective 'princesses' of Minato Kai and Siguma, being the younger siblings of the leader/former leader of each gang!)

went on twitter and actually i think some ppl are slightly misunderstanding what matakara meant when he accused arajin of lying. like...it's true, arajin never lied to matakara about wanting to fight in the present, so it would be unreasonable to call him out on that specifically. but like

with the way the emphasis is placed on arajin's strength the whole argument, plus the cut to the flashback, matakara was asking if a) arajin's strength/bravery, and b) the promise made to him in the past, the foundation of their entire childhood friendship, were a lie. which, y'know, the promise wasn't, arajin definitely meant it at the time. but arajin doesn't want to admit that or outright deny it, so he deflects by saying it's not true anymore.

to me the focus of the argument was arajin forcing matakara to see him as he sees himself (ie. as a weak, selfish coward), shattering matakara's delusional idea of him in the process. arajin using senya to become strong isn't an inherently malicious lie, and i honestly don't think matakara thinks that either. to matakara the 'lie' is both the version of arajin he made up and the genuine things arajin told him in the past.