Aww... Maybe they could get along, huh? I have to wonder how brave Ibuki would be about going to an AKATSUKI live though lol. He tries to keep his fannish side on the down low. Kinda shy about that sort of thing. A bit of a baby otaku. He could probably pass it off as work-related since they're in the same agency, but I wonder how many times that excuse would fly lol. I think how well Ibuki gets along with the AKATSUKIblings depends on how close they are in age to him, and in what regard (younger or older). On that note, I wonder what Ibuki would think of Keito's big brother. I'm sure he was curious when he learned of him. "He~h... So Hasumi-san's a little brother? No wonder I feel like I gotta look out for you sometimes~." "What are you talking about... That was one time, wasn't it?" (referring to Youko's Kagetsuden rewrite)

I get where you're coming from. Basically, people who have been detached from the boycott are creating pseudo-analyses of what happened. They discredit many people's efforts and demoralize those who are still making an effort. It feels a bit like an extension of what I was discussing with some anons earlier, about how some Enstars fans try to adopt critical positions that in reality serve as a form of exoneration of the self. In this case, the critique is aimed at a movement they did not partake in. I don't want to speculate too much on the psychology of people I do not even know, but it seems to function similarly on a social level at the very least. When you look at how people respond to posts that misrepresent or dismiss boycotters, it becomes clear that they often work toward socially validating continued engagement with Enstars. If the goal were just personal reflection, the posts would not be made in a public forum. If the goal were to invite genuine conversation, the standard for what "counts" as a social movement amongst Enstars fans would not be repeatedly shifted without evidence. I wouldn't accuse anyone of consciously attempting to demoralize people making real efforts to boycott Enstars, but I do think there is often a level of snark that could be self-serving to those not participating.

If I understand correctly, you're assessing how Ibuki isn't really allowed to just be a kid on safe terms in the canon, right? I agree. Though, I don't think it's just the fandom projecting maturity onto Ibuki. Precociousness is part of Ibuki's character, even if it's something he feels remorseful about. Ibuki's desire to get to be a kid isn't straightforward. It's qualified by how he in certain ways distances himself from people his own age, and instead tries to validate those feelings by proximity to people older than himself as a form of reassurance. In an effort to find dependable adults, he actually ends up in an adult space: the idol industry, specifically in a Unit where the other members are adults. Though we have seen minors participating in the industry since the beginning of the franchise, as of !! Era, we have seen much more adult issues come to surface. Namely, corporate overreach, adults abusing authority over children in much more explicit ways, and imperialism have all become important to the ongoing storylines. These themes appeared earlier, as well, but I feel they have been more prominent in the past six years. The point is, this is one of the tragedies of Ibuki's writing. His current circumstances don't actually meaningfully alter his social positioning. They give him some older figures he can look up to, sure. But the dynamics within AKATSUKI are deeply problematic on another level and, moreover, fail to actually break the cycle of adultification he is experiencing as he is now embroiled in the idol industry. If Ibuki's end goal is "get to live freely like a child," joining AKATSUKI is a strange way to go about that.

Yes, there is definitely a narrow, short-sighted understanding of how the fandom responded to 4katsuki from those who downplay the reaction. Most people who quit Enstars have left the fandom, so they are no longer immediately visible in the fandom. Users such as myself who no longer support official content and occupy that sort of "internal critic" position are few and far between. As a result, there is an illusion that fewer people have stopped engaging with Enstars than in reality.

Recently, I saw a Japanese AKATSUKI fan note that the 4katsuki merch produced to celebrate Enstars' tenth anniversary has sold relatively poorly in comparison to other Units'. Happy Elements' decisions have significantly affected the AKATSUKI fandom, and even the broader Enstars fandom environment overall. This certainly isn't contained to the English-speaking fanbase, by any means.

I find it pretty disturbing when someone attempts to rewrite the fandom's history by making claims like there was no movement around 4katsuki or email campaigns, or making arbitrary diagnoses of how many emails were sent. It's probably a given with what I do, but I take documenting events as they happened very seriously. It's especially bizarre to witness as someone who was at ground-zero with trying to raise awareness and help organize when all of this went down.

?! I don't know if you got it wrong because I don't know much about MDU lol. I know Juis is a postwar dissolved zaibatsu Japanese-American princeling from what I can tell (suspicious implications there.) and Chitose is like a boyfail who dyes his hair. I'm simplifying them to the extreme. Glad to see my "The Pink Thing" designation of the pink one is sticking with some others (genuinely cannot remember his name; he is just pink to me). I kinda figured the lack of cohesion was supposed to be part of MDU's thing, like they're all supposed to be superstars who can hold a candle in their own right. But maybe that's completely wrong. Again, what does Youko know? Only that there's yaoibait between Juis and the Hoyoverse looking one. I agree, the dessert theming doesn't sit right with me. They should be wine sommeliers instead to emphasize their mature image. But in all seriousness, I don't really care that much about MDU appealing to trends or feeling artificial, I guess. Though it's arguably representative of a broader trend in the franchise, I've lost that kind of investment in Enstars. My gripe isn't with MDU so much as it is with people hopping on their bandwagon in ways that contradict previously held positions about Enstars and Happy Elements.

At the end of the day, acknowledging the writing has problems isn't sufficient if it isn't otherwise changing your behavior. It won't work the same way for everyone, but continued engagement with Enstars in any capacity calls for serious reflection. Your critique should inform how you interact with a piece of media. A lot of people act as though a surface-level critique or disavowal of the writers alone is where it stops and they bear no ethical responsibility beyond that. For some people, this may be their actual relationship with Enstars. If they choose to entirely disregard the politics of the franchise, it may be irresponsible and a failure to engage with the text as written, but it's still a consistent (though shallow) position. On the other hand, if someone says they have a problem with how Enstars approaches narratives about imperialism and portrays Ibuki, there needs to be further effort. Investigate the text yourself. Listen to Indigenous voices. Read about Japan's history, and Okinawa's history. Put your money where your mouth is. Seriously change the way you interact with Enstars. Otherwise, it's just self-absolution.