Aren And A Manga Panel Redraw (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)(⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

Teenage love

Thin line between doodle and whatever the fuck this is

Obligatory Kuboyasu analysis consisting of me spewing his praises for his birthday

It always continues to astound me how well adjusted Kuboyasu is, considering everything. Yeah his anger is bad, but beyond his moments of getting triggered (whether from moments that remind him of his past, i.e PTSD, or things that genuinely upset him) he’s the most rational out of all them, sometimes even beating out Saiki. More than that, Kuboyasu is evidently more willing to act like a kid than Saiki. The thing is, Saiki is a kid at heart; he just represses those desires. Kuboyasu doesn’t. I’d argue it makes him more mature than Saiki.

More than that, he’s a really good friend. He’s one of the few people who approach Saiki with minimal false assumptions beyond the ones Saiki pushes and the ones Kuboyasu has toward civilians. And those disappear rather quickly. He’s cunning and confident, and knows how to be a competent leader. There’s a lot of traits about him that make him just a genuinely good guy for the others to have in their lives, and definitely has fewer attachment issues than Saiki, making him easier for people to latch onto.

This is one of the reasons Kaido and Kuboyasu stick together like glue. I think both Kuboyasu and Saiki adore Kaido in similar ways, and also seek to protect him. Kuboyasu is just willing to actual let himself be on the same level as ‘his people’ because he doesn’t have a cocktail of god complexes and self-hatred like some people. Kaido would be as close to Saiki if Saiki let him, but Saiki has to heal some wounds before he feels comfortable doing so.

And I don’t CARE that they called it cliche, Kuboyasu wanting to be a teacher is such a fantastic sign of both his desire to do good in the world and his aims to better himself. This is one of the few people Saiki has almost no influence on their character development. Kuboyasu did that.

TLDR, Kuboyasu is amazingly well-adjusted and likely actively seeking to better himself, and despite not showing up as much as the other characters, still manages to prove himself to be a genuinely good friend and person. Happy birthday to one of my favorite characters!

Ofc calling Kaidou would take all of Aren's attention

He's like a puppy (affectionate)

Drawing practice!

Here's what they're saying:

Shun: Ahh... Mine's not as good... 💔

Chiyo: Don't be mean to yourself!

Aren: You've really improved in just a few months! We've been drawing for years.

Having feelings in this Chili's my car today about how Saiki definitely develops a huge soft spot for the sound of Akechi's voice.

Imagine being forced to listen to the thoughts of every angry, depressed, anxious, horny, and weird thoughts of hundreds of people constantly. And then finding out that you can tune into radio Akechi, whose thoughts and chatter are more than enough to drown everyone else out.

Instead of hearing a constant barrage of pettiness, prejudice, and stupidity, Saiki can listen to an almost infinite collection of random facts, interesting observations about the people and world around Akechi in the moment, the occasional affectionate thought about him in particular, and yeah, regular updates on Akechi's bladder status.

At its worst, Akechi's chatter is only benign and boring, and often when he knows Saiki is listening, he'll turn his thoughts to topics he knows Saiki has interest in.

It's like putting on noise-cancelling headphones and playing NPR in the background but the NPR hosts love you and spend half their time trying to entertain you specifically.

Not to mention how Akechi is smart enough to take care of himself, and fond enough of Saiki to keep an eye on his silly herd of friends for him.

Anyways the sound of Akechi's voice/thoughts makes Saiki relax and immediately drops his blood pressure. <3

I think everyone agrees that the most telling scene for Teruhashi and Saiki's relationship is the karaoke mixer scene (with Imu and Chiyo and the guys from the fancy school).

However, I also think it's the most misinterpreted part of the series. I haven't seen a single analysis of it that I agree with tbh, so I figured I'd write my own:

However, as Saiki points out, her understanding of him is completely wrong. She doesn't think he would have a good time or could make things more fun, when in reality, HE'S the one coming up with all the jokes the guys say, and their kind gestures like adjusting the temperature of the room for her. And to top it off, he was even doing actual karaoke during the mixer and killing it, based on his 100% score. Saiki was secretly being the whole life of the party, something that Teruhashi can't even imagine at this point.

Teruhashi appreciates that Saiki doesn't actively chase her, that he treats her like everybody else, that he isn't waiting for her to slip on her perfect pretty projection. However, while Teruhashi wishes Saiki was there with her at the mixer, she also thinks that he would just be there glooming it up with a dull expression in the corner. That seems to show that she finds Saiki's presence comforting but doesn't really think he can contribute otherwise to this kind of social situation. And based on what she's seen of him, it's a reasonable expectation tbh!

And that's because whenever we see Saiki at parties with his friends, he ISN'T charming and funny then. Saiki even feels bad about being so boring and unexpressive, sending in his father as a substitute for one birthday party. But that's because he's actively masking his powers and by extension, his real personality, to almost everyone.

We've only ever seen him at parties with people who DON'T know the truth about him. So we can't know exactly what he'd do at a proper party post power-reveal. But we CAN see the difference in interactions that he has with people who don't know about his powers and people who do.

People who know about Saiki's powers and who he acts genuinely around: his family, the Psychickers, and little Yuuta.

The biggest immediate difference between how he behaves with them vs with everyone else is that Saiki is a huge backtalker lmao. He has a smartass remark for everything but only says it "out loud" if he's comfortable. He disrespects his dad on the daily, roasts Toritsuka half to death, and repeats [no] at Yuuta every time he begs.

In fact, Teruhashi has never seen Saiki be genuine around her, which is why she has to dig desperately for something positive to say to Saiki's grandfather when she meets him. All she can say is that he seems studious (the man gets strictly average grades so this is kind of sad actually lmao) and that he has a lot of friends for some reason hsfjdlshfks.

Saiki is also a bit of a show-off / kind of prideful. We see it when he's a kid in the Time Leap episodes, we see him fly up to get Yuuta that balloon instead of using telekinesis, and we see him refusing to lose any games to his friends despite low or no stakes (and being a very sore loser when Akechi beats him).

My personal favorite example of him being his hilarious self is when he and Aiura are trying to keep Chiyo alive despite her death mark, and Aiura thinks to herself something like "well, there's no way he can hear my thoughts at THIS distance or he'd be some kind of god" and Saiki IMMEDIATELY replies [what's up, God speaking] like WHAT. THE LEVEL OF SASS. He's just naturally that fucking funny and repressing it all the time. And most of his friends have no clue that this guy is actually a hilarious mfer!

However, we as the audience actually *do* see Saiki be his genuine self around Teruhashi: that one episode where she's trying to find him but he turns invisible so her simps can't catch him. Instead of being a quiet, emotionless presence, he steals her milkshake and makes fun of how she can't see him and is generally silly. Maybe one day they'll truly know each other well enough to where Saiki feels comfortable being silly like that where she can see it, but due to all their circumstances (powers/crush/simps), he has to try to be as boring and off-putting as he can be instead.

Which all leads me to say that the end of the mixer scene is actually really bittersweet imo. It's Saiki realizing how much fun he *could* be having with his friends if he was able to be open and honest about himself around them, and if he didn't have to worry about inadvertantly encouraging an unwanted crush. That is the life he's always wanted to have, a normal one where he can just relax and be himself and hang out with his friends without risking cataclysmic consequences at every turn.

And at the same time it reinforces that most of the people he genuinely cares about and considers his friends don't really know him well at all. While they all clearly enjoy his presence and care about him, they don't know that he's sarcastic, selfless, incredibly clever, tsundere af, generally anxious, and kind of nosy.

Does that make all of Saiki's friendships fake? I don't think so. Everyone presents different parts of themselves to different people, this is a normal. We live in a society, etc. The same behavior and conversation isn't appropriate for someone who's a coworker vs a lover, half your age vs twice your age, etc.

But it sure hurts to know that a friendship was built under false premises and could crumble if the truth is revealed. And that's why Saiki even considers never stopping the volcano so he can stay in the same status quo with his friends, because he's certain that once they leave high school, they will all forget about that quiet, stone-faced guy in the background of their memories. He's sure that even if everyone finds out about his powers, after he's been made powerless, giving him the opportunity to be himself for the first time ever, that they won't like the "new" him.

That mixer was Saiki being his whole self with his friends, just through a different face, and while he had fun, it was with the full knowledge that this is essentially as close to being genuine with his friends as he can possibly get, for a limited time only. Because the volcano and their senior year are both looming large on the horizon.

ZZZZONTT talk to me about how mabostiff looks😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭💀💀im so sleepy

happy almost black butler day to those who celebrate