Mou Mayoi wa Nai, and about Yanagi Renji

[pez]

DVD HAS ARRIVED OMG YESSSS!!!! *cradles it*

([edit] Just opened the DVD box and there's this free schedule book and it's got the funniest pictures in it!

And the DVD booklet has the lyrics for all the songs. I can read what Yagami Ren is singing, finally!)

This is me attempting to figure out the lyrics of "Mou Mayoi wa Nai". It doesn't help that Yagami Ren mumbles. Someone please give him pronounciation lessons. D: Or maybe he just kept singing words I don't understand? I just can't catch most of his part and any part when his voice rides over Kanesaki's.


????
??? wo oshiete kureru
yasashii ippo umidasu ????
kibishii mirai ga
??????? kamoshirenai
ima wa kokoro yasurata ni
kisetsu wo keto ????

Taisetsuna mono wo
mamoru tame no yuuki wo
oshiete kure ta
yamai toiu shiren
tesaguri de asu wo
sagasa nakereba naranai darou
shikashi nakama wo shinjite
masugu mae o miyou

mou mayoi wa nai
mou urei wa nai
hito wa shiawase ni naru tamei
????? dakara

mou mayoi wa nai
mou urei wa nai
????? yume wo
kimi ni ageyou


But yes, from what I can understand, Sanada's part BREAKS me. It's about asking for courage to protect what's most important to him against the trial of illness, searching for a way to hold on to tomorrow, that he believes in his friend/comrade, and so let's look straight ahead together. IE HE LOVES YUKIMURA.

*SOB* Someone please tell me what the rest of the lyrics are~~~ PLEASE. *begs*

I'm such a sappy person. (This is Kanesaki's favourite song in the myu. Heh, he's also a sappy person!)

Um, I was asking giving_ground about writing Renji, last night. Every time I write him, he seems to be very... quietly pessimistic and I'm trying to figure out why and figure him out.


First, take his name. Yanagi Renji. It's very... poetic to me. Initially I thought it was a bit feminine, but the more I think about it the more poetic I think it seems, and it kind of makes me think of Buddhist things. The "yanagi" (willow) part and the "ren" (lotus) part, of course.

Which brings me to this "Buddhist" theory. I said to Liz last night that in a different life, I can see Renji being a monk. >_> His quietness (even more prominent in the games than anime), his love for light-tasting food, his love for simple things, for historical or old cultural things (again, a game thing), his simple hair, how he looks just right when in traditional clothing... he also has a gentleness that I can't describe.

I haven't written him much before. There were [Stop Trying] and [Cadence] (both YanaYuki) and of course he was in [The City]. Every time, he appears to be the slightly pessimistic sort - but the quiet type who doesn't let the emo take hold of him - or at least not let others see it's taken hold of him. He sometimes seem quietly resigned, to me. Although "resigned" isn't his approach to tennis.

I wonder if I'm letting the game version of him take root in me more than I should. Though, the game versions are often much closer to the manga (which I prefer) than the anime - apart from Yagyuu who is horrid in most incarnations except manga and myu but let's forget about him for now. He almost seems tragic to me, sometimes. The way he left Inui and the reasons behind it certainly feed to this tragic-ness. He becomes more alive when he's with his friends, though, and I love the way he calls them by their given names - Sadaharu, Seiichi, Genichirou, Akaya. I adore YanaKiri gen. YanaInui, YanaYuki, SanaYana, Troika, those I all like. YanaKiri I am fine with, I think it's cute but don't have much of an opinion on it.

But where was I... I don't know. :D; Yanagi Renji discussion? How do you think of him and how much do you love him?



VLP!Renji is not part of this discussion. XD He's special.

Comments

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

I stayed up all night watching the Rikkai anime arc. Clearly I have issues. I kept wanting Sanada to win. ._. Even though I knew what was gonna happen...I had forgotten just how much SanaYuki there was in the anime. Hot Damn.

Yanagi Renji discussion. About his use of first names. It's almost like an oxymoron. Because he calls everyone in such a familiar way, but he's clearly cut off from being truly close with anyone. It's sorta...similar to Inui, who really is cut off from people, only ever remaining on the peripheral. Which...Data Pair. *_*
They both come off as people who will only find some measure of acceptance when they prove to be useful. That's why it's so sad that Renji and Inui lost their closeness. It was so bittersweet. And they really belong together. Even if it makes the part of my heart that loves Inuikai bleed. Can't they have both? Can't they have their love and have their loves on the side? Without heartbreak? :/

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

They both come off as people who will only find some measure of acceptance when they prove to be useful.

I don't know... I don't get that feeling from Renji. I think he cares a lot about people and have a "self sacrifice" tendency, which led to him not telling Inui that he was leaving - because he knew Inui was a great singles player and didn't want to be holding him back.

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

But sometimes that's a self-fulfilling prophecy...

Still, there is truth in that.

[ikusatami.livejournal.com]

ohh i always love it when people post their opinions about certain characters.. (it helps me understand these characters because my insight is not really good *lol*)

Renji also gives me very traditional vibes. But so does all of Rikkai but especially the Troika. Everyone of them looks right in Kimono and/or Hakama. Just like they were made for this.
Renji = Monk -> yes! I have seen at least one fanart in which he wears monk clothing and he looks like he was born in these closes.
And now a very embarassing question... the reason he left Inui.. I think I still didn't really get it.. he moved but.. was there more behind this..? it feels like because there are som tragic ffs/doujis revolving around this but.. what does canon say?

*gasp* I don't have a Renji icon. *shock*

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Sanada and Renji influence each other a lot with the calligraphy (which Renji learns from Sanada) and other things... apparently Renji lends historical texts to both Sanada and Yukimura. He uses washi instead of tissue paper and lends those to Sanada too. XD

He moved house. I need to double-check the manga, but I remember it at least being hinted that Renji didn't tell Inui about it because he knew Inui was a great singles player and didn't want him to feel guilty for it. There can be a multitude of other reasons, of course. Renji probably didn't want to say it because it was too hurtful, he couldn't make himself tell Inui, or he was hoping there'd be a last minute change and he could stay... anything goes.

[ikusatami.livejournal.com]

oh yes, the calligraphy thing~ ♥ I thought that they would share calligraphy since in 20.5 Renji takes the calligraphy set with him. *lol* (Renji's bag is the most awesome)
Do you learn about all these things from the game? o_o (That makes me wish to own and understand them even more) It sound so.. cute. ♥ Good thing you started this Renji discussion. Makes me love him even more. :D

Yeah he didn't tell him that he would move and just disappeared.. So it's all interpretation from here, more or less..
Especially in the anime, the moment when Renji just runs away from Inui gives me such a bitter feeling.. :( Though in the anime he looked like he was about to cry, in the manga it felt a bit like he is relieved to leave Inui. (But that could be also an impression I received from various ff reading..)

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

He... also takes an aromatherapy kit with him to the Doki Doki Survival island. *headdesk* I wish someone'd tell me WHYYYY.

There are lots of little details in the game. I can't remember what it's called, but he had this book about war strategies and stuff that was first written like 300 years ago or something. He reads that sort of stuff. XD Oh and he seems to be quite accommodating to people. But sometimes says things that you don't understand, sort of like Inui does... not sure if it's a habit or if he does it to freak people out, really...

Need to watch anime again. I didn't like the anime Rikkai arc so didn't watch it as much as I should've. :/

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

Is it Sun Tzu's Art of War?

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

No... it's a Japanese one from much longer ago. I had to look it up on Japanese Wiki. I'll be playing the game again tonight and will note down which book it is. XD

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

I am such a history nerd that I actually do care. D: I was president of the history honours society in college. NERD.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

but history is COOL. That makes you a cool nerd.

That's sort of an oxymoron. But hey. :D

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

One of the things he says he reads (apart from English novels) is the Fushi Kaden (also known as Kadensho), which was written in the early 15th century and has 7 books in total, but that's about Noh theatre rather than strategies... gah, really need to go back and play the game. Not being able to remember the book is really bothering me. XD;

[xiu]

My Renji thought:

WHY THE FUCK IS HIS NAME SPELLED 蓮司　IN 20.5 BUT 蓮二　EVERYWHERE ELSE.

And clearly, I love Renji. Brain not working right for Serious Character Discussion had way too much Yagyuu discussion tonight 8D

And @ YanaKiri... he tops everywhere but in the sack. Then Kiri pwns his ass. 8D

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

BECAUSE PUBLISHERS FAIL. They once had to recall a particular TCG because they wrote Yukimura's name wrong at the top!

Way too much Yagyuu? I thought every conversation last night ended with "......KANESAKI." XD

Still not a major YanaKiri fan. XD;;;

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

Yanagi Renji is my second favorite character ever, right after Tezuka Shinobu from Here is Greenwood. :D So I can discuss away :D

I can see where quietly pessimistic and resigned might come from, but I don't see him that way. Maybe it's because I fail at gaming and so never played any of the PoT games and just admired the pretty, pretty screencaps. :D

Renji is a very calm, quiet person. Teachers probably love him, which is why in the Rikkai that lives in my brain, he is often called upon to save Akaya from himself. :D But behind that quiet, polite face, I've always felt thatt there's an offbeat sense of humor and a wide streak of mischievousness. He was best friends with Inui, and I can't see anyone surviving being close friends with Inui without, ah, sharing similar personality traits. He also calls everyone by their given names, something that's frankly weird in someone as well-mannered as Renji, so I think there's definitely some perversity lurking in there. I also love the idea that Renji spends a lot of his free time quuietly poking Genichirou. So I have any canon evidence for this? No. But it's such a fun Idea.

I could totally go into Renji and His Relationships, but I have to leave for the office in two minutes and I'm still in my pajamas :D Knew I was going to be late as soon as I saw Yanagi Renji Discussion. :DDD I may come back later during a lull.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Yay for Renji love!

He says in one of the games that his motto is "gakko fubatsu", which is to use one's will to remain calm/not be swayed/not show weakness.

I'm not sure about the Inui thing, mostly just because little!Inui seemed very very normal, nowhere near as... strange... as he is now. Though there was very little of little!Inui screentime for anything to be known about him. :(

Hehehe I can see him poking Genichirou too. XD he can probably insult or poke at people very very politely.

There was this bit in the game where Renji tells the main girl character: "Look, Genichirou is coming this way. He is going to look right, then left, then he will think for a while. (or something to this effect) and then he'll turn left and run that way. He is looking for Akaya." He can just look at Sanada and know what he's thinking and predict what he's going to do. Freaky but love.

Maybe when Akaya wants to prank someone (most likely Sanada......) Renji would be able to come up with the best ideas?

I don't know if he calls /everyone/ by their given names, though. Genichirou, Seiichi and Sadaharu are probably because of closeness, and everyone in the team calls the elf "Akaya" anyway. But does he talk to Yagyuu and the rest this way, too?

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

Re: given names - you know, I'm not sure now that I think of it. It could just be the four - Akaya, Genichirou, Seiichi, and Sadaharu. I'll have to go back to my Genius and check. I seem to remember him calling Yagyuu "Hiroshi" but possibly I'm confusing myself with a fanfic, lol.

Renji = scariest prankster ever, because he plans meticulously and never betrays what he's doing, and combined with Akaya it'd be a deadly combination for poor Sanada. I actually once wrote a YanaKiri fic for stagesoflove in which Kirihara gets annoyed and decides he's going to prank the whole team one by one. Sanada's easy. Yukimura is hard but he manages something small. But when he goes to toss water balloons down on Renji when Renji's "napping" under a tree, Renji goes "Are you going to stay up there all day?" I think Akaya fell out of the tree :D

I think Inui was probably more normal than he is now, but some of that weirdness HAS to be innate. :D

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

I need to go revise Rikkai, too... not that I mind. It's a good kind of revision. :D

Oh, Renji. XDDDD I suppose he wouldn't prank people often though, not nearly as often as the rest of them. But when he does it, it'll be a very, very huge plan that tightens with each step and it will be VERY SCARY.

Come to think of it, Inui isn't nearly as weird in the manga than anime. Of course there's the iwashimizu and other juices, but the amount of exaggeration the anime put him through made him extra extra weird.

I love Renji's black hair. *random*

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

Renji loves Renji's black hair too :D As 20.5 tells us, he carries a comb for his hair in his bag at all times. Can you tell I've memorized 20.5 because there's practically nothing to go on re: Renji?

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

His brown anime hair horrifies me. But not as much as Yagyuu's Higa purple hair.

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

Yagyuu's hair isn't just purple. It's a BAD purple dye job.

I didn't hate Renji's brown hair, but black looks so much better on him.

[reposoir.livejournal.com]

lolz that you post this today because I was going to post about why YanaKiri is my OTP tonight.

Renji, Renji...I think he's nastier than we often give him credit for. After all, they are supposedly the three monsters not the three fluffy bunnies on the courts.

And datawise, I've read him spewing off percentages like Inui in fic and he's NOT like that in the manga at all. He only uses Inui-style data twice, both times to mock Inui. He's much more literature-oriented and I see his data style as more...metaphoric.

I also think he's moved on from Inui, but Inui is still hung up on him. After all, Renji's bestest friend!!! is Sanada, not some old incarnation of Sadaharu. I bet he and Sanada have sleepovers at Sanada's house and pig out on...snacks that aren't greasy.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

He's probably very nasty (or he can be) in tennis? Although whoever does the translation called them the three "monsters", the exact wording Akaya used was "kisai". One thing to note is "ki" means demon or demonic. "Sai" is the same word as "tensai", meaning talent. So they are actually referred to as people who have demonic talents. (whereas tensai = those with talent from above) It's referring more to the tennis than the personalities.

Totally agree on the data!

They all occasionally go to Sanada's (because his place is the largest). But apparently Akaya's been thrown out once for breaking something. XD;;

[reposoir.livejournal.com]

Just to piss Sanada-fukubuchou off, Kirihara probably tries to befriend Sanada's brother and get all the dirt on his senpai that he can...;D

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Poor Sanada. d:< Kiri should learn to understand that those are bitchslaps of love!

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

"And datawise, I've read him spewing off percentages like Inui in fic and he's NOT like that in the manga at all. He only uses Inui-style data twice, both times to mock Inui. He's much more literature-oriented and I see his data style as more...metaphoric."

Exactly. It always gets to me in fics because Renji data is not equal to Inui data. If both he and Inui are researchers, then Inui puts most of his stock in quantitative data, whereas Renji puts more stock in qualitative data.

I don't know if I would say he's moved on from Inui, or rather I would say they've both moved on, at least post-Kanto. I've always felt Inui was prevented from moving on because of the way Renji left, but by winning and equalizing them in his mind, he can move past it. Neither are going to be best friends anymore, though. Renji has Sanada and Yukimura, and Inui has...well, he has Kaidou. And I think he and Fuji are good friends.

[reposoir.livejournal.com]

Yes yes~! Quantitative vs qualititative is exactly how I see it too in my mind regarding their data styles. Which is probably why Renji is more into literature and calligraphy and artsy-fartsy things while Inui likes...numbers. And pi. Although his juice could go either way: the concept of specific measurements of ingredients, or the qualitative different ingredients involved. But he probably just makes it because he's sick and weird and amused by the reactions of others ;D

Inui-Fuji friendship is just. Yes, I can see that. It would take a specific type of person to be close to Inui. He'd probably drive most people (ie. like Tezuka) up the wall. ;)

[reposoir.livejournal.com]

qualititative

No can spell today, forgive me. *facepalms*

[muzivitch.livejournal.com]

He LIKES driving Tezuka up a wall. It's his hobby. :D In fact, he and Fuji probably discuss various ways to drive Tezuka completely bonkers.

Somewhere, Tezuka is twitching and wondering whether Inui, Fuji, or Miyuki is plotting against him. His secret nightmare is all three coordinating their efforts. :D

[mayezinha.livejournal.com]

Let me see if I can order my ideas.
I like Renji because of Reposoir, because I like the way she filled the empty spaces about him.
It was because beside manga and anime, I don't have much canon to relay on (when you talk about 20.5, the game, rajipuris and freetalks on singles, I'm completely lost, and sometimes too much fic revolve ideas).
So, yes, I agree with you in your POV, about his classic looks, and if there's any literary connection, I'm so there.
Indeed there's tragicness about him (datapair issue and Yukimura's disease), and his quietness doesn't help.
I see him as one who sees everything (and doesn't show he KNOWS about it), so he can predict that much, but when something is out of statistics a) he freaks a bit b) see what happens for future reference. And his quietness doesn't mean that he couldn't be a little cunning, his pranks are better planned.
But behind all that, he's just a kid, as confused, with doubts as everybody.

And the fics you linked are wonderful. Girl, you can sell me ANYTHING, your writing is fantastic!!
I'm sure that "Lullaby" just turn out great, whatever the way you decide to write it.
I hope this was clear enough.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

I once started a story in which Renji thinks a lot about the consequences of his actions, and the consequences of the consequences. But it got too depressing for me to continue. XD;

You're right - I tend to forget his age, actually, even more so than I forget about say, Sanada or Tezuka. Really need to remind myself of it more often.

♥ thank you. I'm just editing the next chapter of that, actually... hoping to post later on.