Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun S2 Ep 10

Hooooohhh boy, there’s a lot to unpack this episode. I wish I had been in better condition last week to get it out then. Since the post is relatively long I decided it would be better to keep the episode 10 and 11 posts separate instead of merging them in a double-post like I usually do. So without any further ado let’s dig right into it.

It didn’t surprise me that Fumiya picked up on the fact Fuuka began writing her characters based off real people. I figured he’d pick it up sooner than later. Though she definitely made it more obvious when she revised to flesh them out further to be more Human, she made it so that it matched who was playing their parts better. That said, even before the revision, it was clear that Alucia was modelled off of Aoi, and Libra was modelled off of Fumiya, where as Kris represented Fuuka.

But in order to more accurately write true to their characters, Fuuka felt like she needed to understand Aoi more. So she and Fumiya decided to interview her in hopes that’ll spur some inspiration. However that turned out to be a complete waste of time because they both picked up on the fact everything Aoi was telling them were just lies. This make me wonder if Aoi gravely underestimated their ability to see through her, or had though whatever she was saying would serve to match Alucia’s character, or hope to get them off her back. Anyhow, her lies only prompted the two of them to investigate further in hopes to get a better understand of who Aoi is. So with Aoi’s permission, they got the chance to meet up with two of her peers. Maebashi from elementary and Tachibana from middle school, and that was when things got sketchy.

Through them, they learned how in Grade school, Aoi didn’t stand out much, but she was an earnest and friendly kid, said to be family oriented, that loved her sister
Meanwhile, the guy from middle school told them about how Aoi was the type to always stand out (polar opposite from elementary days), and even Aoi ‘dated’ the VP basketball club, and then dumped him right away.

Well, it would be an understatement to say this revelation definitely shook up the theories regarding what may be causing Aoi to approach things the way she does. Initially I had long thought that Aoi had suffered from bullying at some point, but based on what we’re learned from her peers, we found a discrepancy in her history.

In elementary school, Aoi didn’t stand out much, and was described to be a very family oriented girl who adored her sisters (plural). In middle school, Aoi was described to be the popular girl who even went out with the vice captain of the basketball team, only to dump him right away. However she during this period, she had only ever mentioned having one sister (singular). As soon as everyone noticed this discrepancy, Fuuka quickly made the call to stop investigating any further. And at that time, it was certainly for the best. (But I do wonder if this may result unintended consequences, where it might have prompted Tachibana to start looking into things on his end.)

So what does this allude to? Well a couple of things came to mind, but the first was how this changed the way the way I thought of the bullying theory. Instead of Aoi, perhaps the one who had been bullied was actually one of her sisters.

It is rather suspicious and concerning over the fact start in middle school, she only spoke of having one sister. A couple of things could come out of this, such as separation from family divorce (which I’ll get to in a bit further down), or as result of one of them being bullied, this may have led the other to either hospitalization, isolation by staying at home, or worse case: a case of, or attempted suicide.

Under this context, it would explain a lot why Aoi handled with the bullying incident as ruthlessly as she did, and why she was so fixated on how Tama didn’t need to change. Aoi even admitted it was for revenge, but did it actually make her feel better? Hard to say, there was really no way to tell at the time, but she didn’t show any remorseful about it whatsoever, indicating she would do it again. She dealt the finishing blow to the boss, now she’s moving onto another game without looking back.

Now why would this prompt Aoi to create so many characters? Well a couple of things. Revenge on the world so to speak. Beat society at its own game by moving up the ranks so that nobody can hurt her, or anyone she cares about. Right now she has the power to manipulate the masses as she likes, and we saw her do that with Erika.

Regardless, whatever had driven her to behave this way, there’s one thing we have known for a while now: Aoi is molding herself to be flawless. By holding as many characters as she can, and preparing for just about every situation, the biggest thing Aoi gains is power. She wants to be in complete control so that nothing can catch her off-guard. However there’s holes in her grand scheme. Observant people like Fuuka and Fumiya can see through her lies. When they did her interview, Aoi agreed but gave them absolutely nothing to work off of because she didn’t actually share anything about herself.

That’s why I’m honestly surprised she even agreed to have them meet with her two acquaintances in the first place. And I’m not gonna lie, at first I legitimately thought she maybe bought them out to share a fake story, but the fact they found an inconsistency was probably something that was outside of her predictions. That, or she purposely believed that would serve as a perfect warning to dissuading them not to dig into her any further– which was exactly what both Fuuka and Fumiya did when they realized they touched on something that could be very sensitive information.

Another though I say a somewhat more far-fetched theory (at this time) that had crossed my mind was perhaps the part in Fuuka’s story where Alucia bluffs about Libra being an illegitimate child may actually have some truths in Aoi’s family history.

If there were to be an illegitimate child in her family, or even possibly that child being her, this may have also heavily contributed to not only tension forming between siblings, but also made her feel like in order for that to never happen to her, she needs to be in control at all times. That could also be why she treats love like a game that she keeps her actual feelings separate from.

Or it could the most extreme case: Aoi lied about having any siblings to fit in. And honestly with how Aoi fabricates her whole character, I wouldn’t put it past her to build a wonderful family image in order to fit in during her elementary school days. But I’m not holding my breath for this one. It’s more of a shot in a dark theory.

With that said, we can definitely see things starting to stir, but I do worry about about Minami being placed on the back-burner with how they’ve shifted gears where Fumiya and Fuka suddenly doing a joint-investigation to peel away Aoi’s masks. We can see Minami is very scared of losing out to Fuka (and I’d hate to think what she’d go through if she lost to Aoi, again), and now that they are digging into Aoi, she’s probably going to start feeling even more insecure when she sees that Fumiya might actually like Aoi. Either way, I expect things to get pretty messy. I’m just glad it’s not Fumiya who’s playing the part of Libra. Actually side note, I do find it quite interesting to see Mizusawa and Aoi be playing that part together. Perhaps we’ll get the chance to see how they’ll respond to the script if it ends up striking closer to home than either of them anticipates. Though I’m not gonna lie, (and I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it yet), but I do think that Tama and Mizusawa look cute together— though i doubt they’ll ever be more than friends hahaha, so their platonic relationship is more than enough for me hahaha, but I digress.

Quick Update regard Sign of Affection: Due to having a chronic migraine at the moment, Ep 9 & 10 entries probably not going to be released until Friday/Saturday latest. My head hasn’t gotten any better, and there’s been times when I’ve been feeling too nauseous and tired to write, so I opted to put it off and focus on what comes out first before hand. Depending on the length of the entries, either a double-post will be formed with Ep 9 & 10, or Ep 10 & 11. I’m sorry for the delay, I’ll still try to get them out sooner!