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Hey slug, i was of the mind that nothing about ramudas cute self is real and it’s all just a cover for chuoku, but when the Catch Us If You Can drama track came out, I second guessed that a bit because ramuda is still shown to be using his cute voice around gentaro and claims it’s for positivity. Do you think that there’s some truth to the mask he wears? Or is he just using his cute self to cope with the horrible situation he’s in? does he think playing his role as the cute one provides comfort?

Hmm... at the risk of putting in too much headcanoning I think this is partially out of habit and partially, as you say, out of comfort.

In terms of who Ramuda truly is, I think his mask/exterior personality is partially reflective of who he is and also partially not. It's hard for us readers to draw the line (and it's probably hard for Ramuda as well) because he's worn this disguise for so long, so it's ingrained in him. Ramuda's inner personality has very different ways of expressing dissatisfaction (anger, crying, smoking) than his exterior personality (exaggerated moping) because both interior Ramuda, aka Ramuda by himself, and exterior Ramuda, aka Ramuda around other people, both deal with quite a lot of crap worth being upset over. But even when Ramuda's being true to himself, like when Fling Posse defends him in the end of Marionette, he expresses happiness in the same way that his exterior self does (laughter, physical affection, claims of "We're a posse!"). While Ramuda has a lot of experience being grumpy on his own, he has virtually none of being happy. So, in unfamiliar situations like this one, it's probably easiest to default to how the exterior personality would act. In time, Ramuda may develop his own methods of self-expression without the influence of the exterior personality, but he may also continue to adopt them in the future. Some aspects of his personality are almost certainly just for show (like playing dumb) and will probably be dropped or modified in time, but Ramuda seems to have grown into others. For example, he definitely enjoys hanging out with his friends, even though this was probably, at first, an excuse to keep a closer eye on the people he was spying on for Chuuouku.

In terms of comfort and coping, I don't know if this fake role necessarily provides him comfort, but there's a definite argument to be made that using his real voice around other people is distinctly uncomfortable. The first time Ramuda's disguise slips is in TDD 9, where Ramuda yells at Jakurai for calling him artificial. This distresses Ramuda to the point where he begins insulting and punching himself (granted, this is done exaggeratedly playfully, but judging by his facial expressions, it's not a completely fake reaction) before Jakurai stops him. Ramuda doesn't use his real voice again until Jakurai confronts him about putting Yotsutsuji in a coma, which in the end is even more distressing to Ramuda. I've been thinking a lot recently about how badly Ramuda internalizes this and refuses to process it, as he doesn't ever comment on this directly in main canon. But he does take much, much longer to warm up to Fling Posse than he did to befriend Jakurai. Compare how physical Ramuda gets with Jakurai starting right after they met (TDD chapter 7 is a good example of this, taking place almost immediately after Jakurai returned to Japan from overseas) and how long it takes for Ramuda to start hugging Fling Posse (FP/M 14, after the first DRB). Also up for consideration is a line from FP/M+ 10 (Marionette) where Ramuda admits "I always feel like I'm going to be abandoned at any moment." Having Ramuda's first friendship blow up in his face shortly after this friend found out who Ramuda really was, deep down, makes Ramuda more frightened than ever of revealing his true self. Noting also how he is ridiculed and disregarded for his emotions, it becomes more compelling than ever for Ramuda to hide himself when others are around. Because of that, even though Ramuda trusts Gentarou and Dice more than anyone else in the series, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Ramuda still had reservations with using his true voice around them all of the time. He has a lot of damage he needs to recover from, and that takes time.

Hey Slug! I need your analysis. I've read that yellow roses symbolize jealousy in japanese. And I wanna know how much that correlates with Hifumi/Gigolo. Thanks a lot!

Hmm... I sat on this for a while as the ask came in a few days ago. I'm not sure, but I may have a possible idea.

Hifumi himself isn't very much categorized by envy. I can't recall any moment of him genuinely coveting something someone else has. Even when he has frustrations about his fear of women, his narration is never "I wish I was like other people who aren't afraid". Instead, it's self-critical, like "I shouldn't be the way that I am," or "I wish I wasn't the way that I am."

However, the roses appear only around the host persona, who also isn't a very good representation of who Hifumi truly is. Instead, the host persona seems to be embracing all the things other people think Hifumi should be - handsome, gracious, and catering towards the fantasies of women. In Don't Stop the Party, Hifumi apologizes for having all these wonderful traits and even says anyone would envy him for them (完璧なTPO　そう誰もが嫉妬 - Anyone would envy my flawless sense of mastering any situation). Since the host persona is created to be a reflection of other people's views, the roses may likewise play into that and reflect the envy that people feel for him or, perhaps, the envy others assume one should feel from looking at someone so physically attractive.

Opinions on the new fits for the characters? (Cus oh boy we got some… interesting outfits this time)

Oh baby you know I have opinions in spades

hi!!! i’m fairly new to hypmic and it’s been really fun since all the characters and divisions seem super interesting! i wanted to ask abt your thoughts on gentarou + dice being hifumi + doppo’s parallels. while reading the manga (thank you for your translations btw!) i noticed how both gentarou and hifumi have a persona, or mask that they use. and while dice and doppo seem very different, they both risk their lives to get by and survive. i just thought it would be cool to hear what you think about them! :D

Oh yeah! MTR and Fling Posse mirror each other in a lot of ways, but they each take a unique approach to their respective situations. For example, Jakurai and Ramuda are both those that exist for the sake of other people, but Jakurai leans into that because it is a choice whereas Ramuda chafes against it because it is a role someone else thrust upon him.

But your question was about the other two. For Hifumi and Gentarou, one obvious parallel would be their usage of clothing to create distinct personas which cause distinct personality shifts. Like I discussed in an ask earlier today, Gentarou's clothing and mannerisms are defense mechanisms which he erects in place of whatever his original personality was like. It's a fairly permanent transformation, as he never willingly relaxes this guard in canon, and even wears this sort of clothing to bed. It becomes a replacement of his original self. Additionally, Gentarou adds on touches of extra personalities, primarily for entertainment purposes, which he drops at the touch of a hat.

By contrast, Hifumi uses his clothing as a transition marker between two semi-permanent states of personality. The host mode and the normal mode are each as fully developed as the other, and Hifumi has no issue converting back and forth between them. Unlike Gentarou, Hifumi's clothing and affectations are two distinct parts of the same person, not a permanent outer shell surrounding an inner core. This may explain why Hifumi does not understand Gentarou's clothing choices, because to Hifumi, removing the suit jacket simply reveals another part of Hifumi. Hifumi also never adds additional personalities on top of his main personas because, again, his personas are not decorative but coexistent.

I like your comparison of Doppo and Dice risking their lives in order to survive. To me, their biggest parallel is in how they live on society's bottom rungs and totally at society's mercy. Doppo is an office worker of middling importance who is mercilessly pushed around by his boss and the societal expectations to be deferential. While he inwardly wants to rebel against the system, he rarely does, and instead lets his anger and aggression build up to the point where he longs to turn the very things that hurt him against others. To Doppo, there is no way out of his situation; therefore, he leans into the situation with all of his might and becomes a part of the very system that he hates.

Conversely, Dice rejects the system entirely. As a freeter (person who works part time in various, usually low-skilled, jobs) and person without obvious education, Dice has little chance to climb the social ladder and engage in a socially acceptable lifestyle. Instead of worrying about this like Doppo, Dice simply doesn't. Dice defines life on his own terms, even when it leads to terrible consequences like losing all of his rent money or gambling the clothes off of his back. While Dice does and can work as needed, he doesn't feel beholden to society and so does not work for work's sake. However, this does not make him without morals, as Dice works hard to repay his friends when he enters into debt with them. Dice follows a moral code based around what he respects, but society as a whole simply has not earned Dice's respect.

in ur opinion, what traits r most important to fling posses characterization :}

Hmm, this is such an interesting question... so I held onto it for a few days to think about. Mind you, these are simply my interpretations, so they're not the only right answers, but they're what I keep in mind as I translate or write fanfic.

As a whole, Fling Posse is centered around the theme of masking the self and, as a whole, determining where the mask ends and the self begins. In some cases, the mask is the part of the self, and that can be fine as well.

Ramuda's primary motivation is survival, and this makes him incredibly self-centered. In any given situation, his first thoughts are based around what will keep him alive or prevent him from getting in trouble, which can make him be exceptionally callous or blind to other people's feelings. For a character with little sense of self, he simultaneously places his primary goal - survival - above the needs and wants of others. This complements his exterior personality well, which is likewise selfish, but in a childish and cute way. By comparison, Ramuda's inner self struggles to conceptualize desires the way most people do. It is challenging for Ramuda to accept the concept of wanting to have friends (outside of the excuses of the exterior personality) or genuinely care about people although such things are second nature for most of the cast. In turn, this further alienates Ramuda from the cast and makes it a challenge to connect with him, a challenge that Fling Posse eagerly accepts. The emotional burden and isolation of Ramuda's situation frequently leaves him surly and irritable, but despite this anger, Ramuda doesn't conceptualize his own ability to leave the situation. He is stuck there unless acted upon by an outside force. However, in spite of all of this, over the course of the series Ramuda has begun to learn to evaluate the feelings of others more and is beginning to act more kindly. When left to his own devices, he seems to enjoy doing nice things for other people.

There is less explicit information on Gentarou's situation, but Gentarou is a good example of the mask becoming a part of the self. Gentarou uses his speech patterns and clothing like an artificial persona as a support system and struggles when the persona is pulled away. This persona is, in a sense, a means for Gentarou to isolate himself from whatever or whoever he was before, but unlike Ramuda, who resents his exterior persona, Gentarou wholeheartedly embraces this isolation. The persona also provides a form of play which Gentarou uses to amuse both himself and others. Like the rest of his lies, the playing also serves as a form of misdirection, but it is not necessarily malicious. Gentarou, much like Ramuda, uses his persona to tease Dice as a means of playfully skirting emotionally distressing topics and entertaining the group as a whole. However, he can be completely serious whenever he needs to be and seems good at keeping his head in a crisis. There the persona takes a backstage to Gentarou's problem-solving core.

Dice's exterior personality is similar to Gentarou's in use but more subtle in execution. Additionally, unlike Gentarou's persona which exists to protect the self, Dice's persona faces outwards and exists to help other people. Dice pretends to be more socially and emotionally inept than he actually is in order to supplement Gentarou's and Ramuda's exterior personalities. This allows him to take their teasing in stride and purposefully invite it when the other two need cheering up. Dice is quite emotionally intelligent and can recognize when and how to intervene in his friend's emotional troubles. He also understands how to make it not obvious or explicitly vocalize the concern only when it is exactly necessary, which removes the emotional burden of feeling noticed and obligated to return the favor from Gentarou and Ramuda's shoulders. When left to his own devices, Dice tends to be depicted very seriously unless in the middle of gambling, which implies that the emotional, spirited personality he displays there is another example of a persona being used for play. One of Dice's primary motivations is to seek constant stimulation and thrills, hence the gambling addiction, so this persona may amplify part of that fun for him.