Thread by @yukiragis, in defense of yuki yoshida—the revival: an extremely long analysis thread nulla. [...]

in defense of yuki yoshida—the revival: an extremely long analysis thread

nulla. introduction

despite the fact that given was written without an antagonist, a character who is undoubtedly controversial and often antagonized is yuki yoshida, who is, curiously, the only character who isn’t alive to redeem himself—if that redemption is even necessary.

in my time in the given fandom, i’ve found that a lot of strong negative emotions surrounding him/his actions are rooted in misrepresentations of what occurred and misinterpretations, so i aim to provide clarity based on observations from two years of consuming the series.

that being said, i am merely a reader, and my interpretations are only my own. i cannot present anything as fact. my observations are accompanied with references to the multiple adaptations for you to form your own opinion. please take this as your disclaimer.

ii. the relationship

in order to understand yuki, an understanding of his relationship with mafuyu is necessary, seeing as that is why his role in the story is so important. mafuyu and yuki met at four years old during this scene in episode 8 (or chapter 11).

( tw / abuse mention )

the most important takeaway from this scene is mafuyu confiding in yuki about the abuse being inflicted on him by his father and yuki saying he’s not his dad in response, therefore inviting him to talk to him without consequence.

( tw / abuse mention )

this already makes communication a foundational aspect of their relationship. although communication was encouraged, the fact that the abuse mafuyu endured likely lended to issues in his ability to openly do so shouldn’t—and can’t, really—be ignored.

we don’t know a ton about exactly how their relationship formed, but we do know that it happened naturally while they were in middle school. we also know that they were very close and constantly around one another, as people began to catch onto the fact that they were dating.

contrary to the somewhat popular belief, their love for one another was genuine, and that’s inarguable. it’s said that their connection was magnetic and it was as though they were two halves of a whole—as if they were made for one another. this has been repeatedly emphasized.

however, as hiiragi mentions in chapter 9/episode 8, they went to separate high schools and “that’s when the small cracks started to form;” as they were thrusted into an unfamiliar environment—an environment where they couldn’t be together half as often as they were used to.

ii. the band

syh was formed by yuki during his first year of high school as he, hiiragi, and shizu went to the same school. yuki got a job to buy a guitar, the rest of his time being spent in the studio. of course, these responsibilities left little time to be spent with mafuyu.

this can be supported with an extended scene in the drama cd (translated by @marutsukete) where yuki is said to have been working 6 shifts that particular week in addition to studio time. mafuyu calls to make plans, but yuki cannot accept because he quite simply has no free time.

the build up to the argument between mafuyu and yuki is greatly summarized in both the anime and manga, so this scene being expanded on allows for more clarity on what specifically happened—a genuine mistake worsened by a failure to communicate.

it’s often argued that yuki should have invited mafuyu into the band, but it’s worth considering that, as hiiragi mentions in mix_7, mafuyu never asked to be included, and regardless of if yuki was aware that mafuyu had an interest in music, an interest is merely that, and it

quite simply wasn’t yuki’s job to speak on mafuyu’s behalf. hounding either of them for this is absurd—mafuyu not making it clear that he wanted to be in the band in the first place and struggling to express that he felt as though he and yuki weren’t spending enough time

together down the line can be attributed to those larger, trauma-linked difficulties with communicating, and yuki couldn’t always silently understand him. these instances and what they sparked in no way change the love they had for one another.

iii. the argument

there is very little dialogue in mafuyu and yuki’s argument in the manga, and the anime cuts the dialogue completely aside from mafuyu’s final line. this has caused a NUMBER of misunderstandings regarding what the fight was about.

the argument, which hiiragi says was a normal, dumb fight, “the kind you see every day,” when narrating in chapter 9/episode 8, was over the miscommunication surrounding the band/music in general—in the manga, yuki says “i’ll quit playing music” to bargain with mafuyu.

this was touched on again twice in mix_7: when hiiragi says that he doesn’t know all the details about what happened but “got the feeling that music was the cause” and when mafuyu says that the current situation made him think of “when everything was ruined because of music.”

there was no awful, irredeemable act. the fight was minor, caused by something repairable—a detail that cannot be omitted when discussing it. it happened in the morning on an unspecified winter day, and two days after, according to hiiragi, both mafuyu and yuki vanished.

vi. the death ( tw / suicide )

yuki died of suicide at the age of 16, and mafuyu was the one to find his body. though his death occurred in the near immediate aftermath of the situation between the two of them, in this case, correlation doesn’t exactly equal direct causation.

when talking about his death in part two of the extra strawberry swing, saeko, yuki’s mother, explicitly expresses certainty that the argument wasn’t the cause of yuki’s death, stating that, in fact, his death wasn’t about anything that happened recently.

( tw / suicide )

so if the argument wasn’t the reason for what he did, what was? truthfully, we’ll never fully know. cases of suicide are like that. but there are things worth noting about his death to help begin to make sense of it—like the presence of alcohol.

( tw / suicide , tw / alcohol )

research proves that alcohol increases impulsivity and deepens depression and feelings of isolation, and a number of attempts occur during binge drinking. the fact that yuki “wasn’t a drinker,” though he was likely trying to make things better,

( tw / suicide , tw / alcohol )

only worsens these already dire circumstances. the link between alcohol and suicide in teens has been proven—most studies center on adults, but the hhs found that lower minimum-age drinking laws were associated with higher youth suicide rates.

( tw / suicide , tw / alcohol )

on top of this, alcohol limits the ability to find rational solutions to problems. that being said, alcohol lowers inhibitions enough for one to act on suicidal thoughts, meaning those thoughts must already exist.

this isn’t absurd to apply to yuki’s case. while uenoyama is listening to yuki’s song in mix_3, he describes what he’s hearing; under ‘pompous’ is a panel of hiiragi, which aligns with his perception of him. under a text box mentioning loneliness is a panel of yuki.

( tw / suicide )

i, personally, do not think this was a coincidence—loneliness is a recurring theme in given, after all—and when it is treated as though it isn’t coincidental, it fits: a study done in the UK found that loneliness tends to lend to future suicide ideation.

when we place yuki insisting that mafuyu will forget their date on the beach that left even mafuyu pondering and saeko saying that she expected mafuyu to be yuki’s anchor, grounding him despite his nature, on top of that and consider that it’s been largely implied that yuki’s

death has more to it than we know, mental health playing a role really isn’t too hard to seriously consider.

v. the character/conclusion

in terms of misinterpretations of yuki’s character, the fairly widespread narrative that he was “toxic” to mafuyu is supported by nothing. the opposite is true; during one of the most trauamtic events in mafuyu’s life, yuki was right by his side.

over the years, there he remained. yuki loved mafuyu more than anything. what’s been mistaken as possessiveness was, in reality, yuki having no interest in hiding his affection towards mafuyu regardless of speculations about their sexualities because he loved him so much.

he would never consciously do anything to hurt him, and even as a much younger, much less informed child, he resented those who did.

it’s always overlooked, but yuki was more than his struggles, and before he died, he lived. he was hardworking and passionate. he loved music and spent so much time in the studio writing and collaborating to pursue that. he was bold. he was a friend, a son, a boyfriend, and more.

what i feel everyone needs to be reminded of most is that he was a teenager. he was still learning, growing, and navigating being in love and having a ton of responsibilities, but an unrealistic expectation of perfection and maturity is constantly placed upon him despite this.

at the end of the day, yuki yoshida wasn’t perfect—he had flaws and weaknesses. but he was a damn good person who was loved, is loved, and will always be loved, and no amount of misinformation can change that.

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