OMORI

Picking Apart Kou’s Character (Analysis)

Through Nene’s pov he’s introduced as a very sweet guy and stuff but the problem here is that Nene’s is an unreliable narrator since she romantices life + Kou speficially treats her a lot nicer.

He is also heavily morally righteous and tries to hear Hanako out even after knowing he murdered someone, saving him from Teru.

Kou also ends up trying to shoulder other people’s problems, and many of his actions are seen as “heroic” or “selfless” BUT sometimes this due to a more ugly part of his character the fandom seems to discard often.

^ To elaborate, I want to bring up this scene since it’s iconic asf

On the surface it’s like: omg wow so brave of him to kill himself for his bf !! However, in the red house arc (which for context shows him his biggest desires) we can see that he just wants mitsuba to rely on him to the point of extreme measures.

This is rooted from his inferiority complex due to being outshined by his older + younger siblings; AND to add on, Hanako straight up tells Kou twice hes unable to do anything. Then to push it further, Teru’s like ur weak lil bro go back to the kitchen during the no.6 fight. Mitsuba dying infront of him 6 times doesn’t help either..

When Mitsuba asks if Kou is okay and needs to talk about his problems, (I forgot which specific chapter..), Kou automatically assumes that Mitsubas just worried about Kou’s reliability because he has such a low self esteem and is used to given up on.

His inability to actually make stuff happen and ppl telling him he can’t do shit make him very eager to try and shoulder other ppls problem in an attempt to have someone depend on him.

So when Mitsuba comes in with nobody (besides tsukasa but he does more harm than help so wtv) who can help him, Kou.. heh.. ig u could say.. JUMPS at this opportunity.

Anyway, in the Nightlife arc Mitsuba is like “hey can u kill me I’ve given up on being human”, and Kou finally lashes out. Mitsuba is indirectly telling Kou that he gave up on him trying to make his wish come true; AND THEN to make it worse, Mitsuba brings Tsukasa right after up..

Kou gets desperate and forces Mitsuba to stay alive even if he doesn’t want to because both

1) if mitsuba leaves nobody will depend on him and

2) he’s gay for him + misses him after watching him die + can’t bring himself to kill Mitsuba

Yes, he cares a lot for Mitsuba as a person and making his wish come true, but he also just wants to be depended on after being told he’s a let down over and over again.

As I mentioned before, Kou has a trend with diverting his problems from other people and keeping his real feelings in. Nobody expect for nene knows about Mitsubas and Kous relationship, and it literally took Kou like 70 chapters or smthn to give her the basics.

He’s speechless when Akane asks if Mitsuba and him are close because Kou never mentions Mitsuba at all. Teru doesn’t know what’s up with him, and just assumes he “has a goal in mind”. Even when having his big speech defeating Habuko Kou just refers to Mitsuba as “him”.

Okay anyways the point Im trying to get is Kous character is a lot more complex than the fandom passes off !! Yes he can be very sweet and all but there’s other parts to his personality that aren’t so black and white.

I’m going to elaborate on a recent reblog of mine here and say that the “hot take” that Kou is Nene’s best friend instead of Aoi is merely a headcanon, it has no grounding in canon. It holds about as much weight as saying that Teru is Aoi’s best friend instead of Akane, or that Hanako is Kou’s best friend instead of Yokoo and Satou

It’s perfectly fine to have headcanons, I have a ton of them. But it becomes a reading comprehension issue when fanon begins to distort your interpretation of canon. Nene and Kou’s friendship is very beloved in fanon, which leads many fans to overlook any flaws they have in canon (which used to happen with Aoinene a lot). There is also an issue of fans failing to understand that multiple things can be true at once. They recognize that Aoi and Nene’s friendship has faults, and so they characterize their entire dynamic as bad rather than looking at the full scope of things and seeing that their friendship has a lot of good factors too. From what I’ve seen, most fandom analysts seem to be capable of seeing all sides of Aoinene’s dynamic, but the fans who don’t do a lot of analyzing take those points out of context and end up misinterpreting the manga

Let me point out some canon things about both of these dynamics to better explain my point:

• Aoi and Nene have known each other since junior high, Kou and Nene have known each other a couple months at most

• Kou and Nene have been through a lot together because they’re both main characters, and so we see them paired up often. They hang out together after school and team up when a threat appears

• Nene and Aoi also hang out after school for gardening club

• Many of Nene’s character motivations are driven by wanting to protect Aoi. Chasing after her during the Misaki Stairs arc and during the Grim Reaper arc, trying to get her back during the Severance arc, etc. Aoi’s motives are also largely driven by her fear of losing Nene

• Kou’s motives center largely around protecting Nene, but we don’t really see her express that same concern for him. Whereas Aoi and Nene are both somewhat driven by each other, Kou’s desire to protect Nene is largely one-sided (keep in mind that for all three of these characters, their main goals are driven by their love interests so the friendship stuff will take somewhat of a backseat)

• Nene consistently refers to Aoi as her best friend, but never Kou

• Nene overlooks things about both Aoi and Kou. From Nene’s pov, Aoi is this perfect popular girl. Also from Nene’s pov, Kou is her awkward friend. Neither Aoi nor Kou are given much depth until we see things from their pov rather than Nene’s (note- this happens much sooner for Kou since he’s our tritagonist)

• Nene and Aoi are mentioned to hang out together outside of school. They go to the beach every summer and in the karaoke chapter it was mentioned that they’ve done karaoke together. We don’t really see Kou and Nene hang out on their own much unless they’re pushed together by the plot, Hanako is almost always with them (aside from the donut chapter where they hanging out together was still done for Hanako’s benefit)

• Nene notices things about Aoi that no one else does, like that she doesn’t talk about herself much and that she puts a lot of effort into gardening

• Aoi buys snacks to share with Nene at school

So like, if we look at the canon material, it is very obvious that Aoi and Nene are meant to be “best” friends, whereas Kou and Nene are just good friends. Ofc those labels are a bit silly, I feel kinda dumb having to argue this, but for some reason a lot of fans are very insistent on Kou being Nene’s BFF instead of Aoi. I get why fans are more attached to Kou and Nene’s dynamic, as I said they get wayyyy more screen time than Nene and Aoi. But it’s still weird to me that fans use them to downplay Aoinene’s friendship. Both those duos have good and bad sides to their relationships, and it does them both a disservice to portray one as 100% good and the other as 100% bad or less than

And also why are some of ya’ll so pressed that Nene’s best friend is a woman instead of a man. What do ya’ll have against female friendship

Two Women Kissing in Nature (b. 1859)

— by Georges Rochegrosse

AUGH AUAGGHHHHGHHHHH their height difference makes me so ill...

Funny how Hanako believed(believes?) that Nene could just eventually forget him if she got the chance to age and that she'd be able to grow up and lead a normal life and marry some normal guy and have kids.

I think that boat sailed a long time ago. I'm sure Nene still has those desires, to find love and get married and wear that pretty white dress and have a family—but I don't think she wants those things unless there's the possibility she could have all those things with Hanako. Which isn't possible, because as of right now, he's dead as a doornail and can't leave the school grounds, and he's been like that for over 50 years give or take. She can't have those things with him; he shouldn't even be an option for her to fall in love with but he is and she has.

So priorities shift, she becomes a little more honest with herself, and Nene seems quite willing to throw away those wistful dreams of a young teenage girl, as long as it means getting to stay with Hanako.

She found love, and maybe it's imperfect and maybe he's definitely not Mr. Perfect, but she loves him. Enough to accept the fact he has blood on his hands; that he's dead; he can be selfish, and insensitive, and possessive, and closed off. We've yet to see the breaking point of Nene's infinite patience and love for Hanako.

So her getting to have a normal life and grow up and become this average woman who goes on dates and gets married to some guy isn't exactly for her anymore. If she can't have that with Hanako, then I don't think Nene wants it at all. Remember, Nene wanted to go to the moon with Hanako; she wants to have the impossible and she wants to have it not just granted by Hanako, but have it with him, too.

The only reason she went to "the moon" by herself is because he essentially forced her to go without him. Hanako still thinks Nene wants to have that future of hers, even if it costs him, even if she ends up hating him, or forgetting about him.

But Nene first and foremost wants to know if Hanako feels the same way she does about him: she loves him. The rest can be figured out, but all she knows right now is that she loves Hanako and that's all that really matters. Even her impending death has taken a backseat to her feelings for him.

Mokke drew today this!

Minamoto brothers dehumanizing Hanako here is so funny to me. Teru dehumanizes him in the sense that Hanako is an evil apparition that's inherently incapable of redemption. Meanwhile Kou dehumanizes Hanako in the way that he's like . Some rabid stray dog that he's trying so hard to keep

tempted to add another chapter to my koukane fic...

the silliness... it compels me...

to think that we could stay the same / but we're two slow dancers