I have a lot to say with this guy! Few characters have thrust me down a spiral of deep and provoking thoughts as quick as Asuka did when I first met him. 1. Starting off, I feel like his cat ears in Xrd, beyond being for comedic effect (and being peak character design), could be a callback to the classic saying about “Curiosity killing the cat”. Because Asuka, being the strongest magic user besides HC, having the tome of origin, and just generally being the way he is, is naturally a character that seeks out knowledge and is curious. And in this case, rather than killing the cat (him) in the literal sense, that curiosity killed his identity as a human “Asuka R. Kreutz” and brought forth his new identity as “The Gear Maker”, “That Man” and “The Devil”. 2. “The Gravity” is a song that I connect very deeply with, as I am someone that tends to ponder a lot about the meaning of the things around me. There’s this feeling in the song that makes it feel like Asuka feels completely and utterly lost due to not having any concrete answers to any of the questions he poses on himself; I relate a lot to that feeling. I thought a lot about what “The Gravity” truly means. In the post-chorus, the background singers keep saying (These wings) while Asuka asks himself these questions. “Wings” are things that have historically peaked the interest of humanity in ancient times, as they were seen as things that allowed birds to defy one of the things that mankind back then was not able to challenge: Gravity. Hence why great minds like Leonardo Da Vinci tried to device ways to imitate the power of flight. To defy Gravity. Asuka, having the knowledge of basically almost everything that exists, as well as literally being on the moon AND the things that you guys all mentioned about how Asuka removes himself from the world, sees humanity from a birds-eye view. He sees it all from above, like some kind of god taking in the consequences of his actions and the impact they’ve had on his creations. So at the end of the song, when he says that “Gravity holds all the answers”, he means to say that if he wants to find the answers that he seeks, instead of treating himself as some shunned foreigner, some god-like outside force, a random third party that spectates from afar, he needs to land back on solid ground and live among humanity as the human that he is. He needs to stop using “these wings” to run away and instead abide by the law of “The Gravity”. If he wants to find the answers, he needs to stop living like a forbidden god and start living like a human being. And also, I must add that I feel like my interpretation of the song can also be directly connected to Happy Chaos. Both are characters that have looked for answers to their questions and have a lot of knowledge, but both ended up in very different places. While Asuka discovers that he needs to abide by “The Gravity”, Happy Chaos decides to give gravity the middle finger and let himself be consumed by the meaninglessness of existence. And because he doesn’t have any gravity to pull him back down to earth, he “drifts” aimlessly, devoid of purpose or meaning. 3. When I think about Asuka, I feel like he is potentially one of, if not THE most human character in all of Guilty Gear. While every character sort of fits an archetype (Sol being the edgy lone-wolf badass, May being the happy-go-lucky cute girl, Ky being the determined anime protagonist), and while it’s true that Asuka sort of fills an archetype as well (Super smart scientist/wizard that can explain anything), I feel like he acts the least “anime” than any other character. His entire story is never about him being a badass that saves the day, nor is about how he is a tragic victim that should be pitied. Asuka is just someone that wants to do good. And sometimes he does good. And sometimes he does bad. He’s just a human trying to find his place in the world. He’s like the definition of gray morality. If anything, I feel he’s someone that follows the anthem of Strive the most: “Mankind knew that they couldn’t change society change society, so instead of reflecting on themselves, they blamed the beasts. But they found beauty in the lives of beasts and couldn’t lie to themselves about it.” If Strive’s anthem means that mankind should change for the better instead of blaming outside forces for their own mistakes, then Asuka very much fits the bill. Asuka knew he made mistakes, and he didn’t blame the beasts, he chose to reflect on himself instead.

thanks so much again to everyone for coming on!

Best Talk to me about episode.

@Manzisme

14 күн бұрын

thanks boss, i appreciate it

thanks so much for having me on! i had a lot of fun!!

pleasure to be on it was a blast!!

@hughvonramdass8957

9 ай бұрын

omg sof hiiiiii

this made me think of aspects of his character I didn't even realize were there, good work y'all

@Manzisme

9 ай бұрын

thank you so much! that was the goal of this video so im glad to hear it

what song is at 31:55? it sounds like a song from a shmup lol also the points mentioned about the ludo-narrative harmony between his design and story was sick

@Manzisme

3 ай бұрын

Digital Dimension from Sonic Riders.

yipppeeeeeee!!!

Mr exodia himself

1: this was a nice way to spend 2 hours 2: what was the song used at 37:30?

@Manzisme

9 ай бұрын

glad you gave it the full listen! means a lot to me as I worked my butt off for this one! the song is Noirscape - Homestuck Vol. 9 kzread.info/dash/bejne/lntppMyEZJSfZKQ.htmlsi=HCzSd2GNx32Q3U0w

Is Asuka gay!?