Quote:
Originally Posted by Francismeunier
Ayatsuji is really the yandere if she wants to be....could it be Mentar or what would you qualify her as? I did like your analysis of Morishima.  |
O_o;
Characterizing Ayatsuji is exceptionally hard. She is very multifaceted, and we only know incomplete bits of her backstory, which is making things very difficult. Then again, that's why I'm more interested in her story than in the story of any other girl so far.
Okay, so here's my take. Disclaimer: I don't know her from the game, my only source of information are 11 scanlated and 1 (chinese) raw chapter. Alot of what I'm going to write is mere conjecture and "gut feeling". Whoever knows the game should please keep quiet or make an extra effort not to spoil, please.
Executive Summary: Manga and some people have called Ayatsuji two-faced. I think that's wrong. She wears at least three masks, and her "true" face has barely surfaced yet. The "true" Ayatsuji is very smart, but below genius-level. She has a considerable amount of empathy, and she can "read" other people and their dispositions very well, but she is suffering under a crippled social life. Her achilles heel is that she has led a terribly lonely life and is nearly completely isolated, in school and in her family. Therefore, she is playing two roles: The role of Ayatsuji the honor student, and the role of Black Ayatsuji the demon, to protect herself. The "true" Ayatsuji is a deeply scared and desperately lonely girl who is suffering under this charade and would love to end it, but who keeps on playing her other forms because she doesn't know what else to do. My gut feeling is that if she were to open up to Junichi to be betrayed by him later, she would rather become suicidal than vindictive towards Junichi. (Would be interesting to learn about the bad end of her path - if my hunch is right, it should be terribly tragic).
1) Ayatsuji the Honor Student is fake.
That's no big insight, we could see that directly. It's notable that she's wearing this mask perfectly, so she has all the social skills she'd need for healthy relationships. However, she obviously has no friends at all, and even worse: She obviously considers this form of self-inflicted isolation as "normal".
I have the strong suspicion that "Honor Student" Ayatsuji is a creation of her family's expectations of her: Probably her older sister (who outwardly seemed to be kind to her) is extremely successful and the family's pride, and Ayatsuji was neglected. She was forced to follow in her great older sister's footsteps, but didn't receive the same amout of love and attention, leading to a lingering resentment towards her. I believe this is why Ayatsuji doesn't want Junichi to talk to/about her: Junichi is HERS. She doesn't want to have to share his attention with her sister, too.
2) Black Ayatsuji the demon is fake, too.
How do we know? She fainted after she summoned Black Ayatsuji against the three bitches. Doing so requires her to exert energy. This isn't the way she really is, it's a defensive act she puts on when she has to. Against Junichi, she had to summon Black Ayatsuji to prevent her secret from being unmasked. She feels that if someone was able to see the "true" Ayatsuji, she couldn't go on, because it would be too embarrassing (I suspect that the "precious diary" is somehow detailing the "true", hidden Ayatsuji, so reading it = being unmasked = too embarrassing = catastrophe).
3) "Cat" Ayatsuji is getting closer to the truth, but is still also fake
With "Cat" Ayatsuji I describe the later flirty-teasy-playful Ayatsuji that we see during their "dating" chapters. This is her "rebel" face, when she is liberated from playing the honor student. Here, she's playful, teasy, a bit mean sometimes, dons her "perfect face" to mooch off extra meropan off a street vendor... gets irritated, shows her feelings, and likes to kiss her boyfriend. This is how she "should" be, how she "wants" to be, but it's still based on the assumption that she has Junichi under her control, bound by their sealed "contract". This is why she dares showing this "more genuine" side to him (and him only). It's not natural yet.
4) "Inner" Ayatsuji. What's really making her tick.
In her inner core, Ayatsuji is suffering from terrible loneliness. We can see this much in her tearful outbursts and her very truthful self-analysis in which she admits that she's at the same time very happy to have him - and be (3) - and scared of losing him, and with him the (3) life which she enjoys so much. It seems that her past must have been pretty traumatic, otherwise you don't isolate yourself so completely. Simply put, this girl needs a hug. Badly. She needs someone she can learn to rely on, someone to support her, and to take away the loneliness. So that she can stop going through the motions (playing the honor student) and concentrate on synchronizing who she is with who she wants to be in real life.
She is extremely terrified that other people might find out how she really is, to look behind her masks. I don't know why, hopefully the story will touch down on it later. With a bit of luck, Junichi will demonstrate to her that one can see her issues and STILL love her. That she could be accepted for who she truly is instead of accepting the person she merely PRETENDS to be. At the same time, he is taking on a biiiig responsibility. Should he forsake Ayatsuji after she decides to put some trust in him, the damage would be immense. I wouldn't be surprised if her bad ending culminated in her suicide.
tl;dr version: Ayatsuji needs a big big hug. Long, too. Once she gets into her head that people might learn to accept or even love her cat form (3), she might be able to release it permanently and get rid of the demons which haunt her current form (4). So Junichi, help her through her crises and give her alot of skinship. Help her recheck her priorities so that she can determine what's REALLY important to her, who she REALLY wants to be and what she REALLY wants to do. If you do that, you'll have saved a soul. And if you're lucky enough that Ayatsuji still wants you around after she migrated from (4) to (3), and you still like her, feel lucky to bag a very very interesting (and IMHO also exceptionally cute) GF.