An Aine Kisaragi Character Development Essay
also rant #328575875 about Aine by Rai
tldr; an almost complete analysis of the character Aine Kisaragi written by yours truly - 1.8k+ words;
do note, a a good portion of it is inference but honestly this is the only way I see his character to be as. I’m still actively learning and inferring about him more as I find more concise translations and summaries about him. Have fun reading~
trigger warnings also for: depression, attempted suicide
edit: added prediction why he chose the beach
edit as of 5/14/16: about reiji - reiji was indeed a child actor and enrolled at recommendation of his mother but he wasn’t motivated to work hard as an idol. meeting aine changed him to work towards being an idol.
Well, my anniversary roleplaying Aine is coming up in a few weeks and I realized it’s been 2 years? That’s been a pretty long time and I’ve developed his character a lot to reach where I am now.
Sometimes people ask me how I pulled his character out of thin air, but I don’t really to be honest. I just read and infer. The character development of my Aine comes from reading the stories and background information of other characters. Personally, I feel not just for Aine, but for a lot of characters, you get much information by reading about others because you can infer how different characters interact with each other, and how you would RP their bond.
In Aine’s case, because of his lack of interaction with most characters, 3 relevant characters come to mind to read about in developing his character. (Ai, Reiji, Tokiya)
From Ai’s routes, that’s where we get most of Aine’s background information: physically and emotionally. From Reiji’s routes, we can infer what kind of character he was by his friendships with Reiji, Kei, and Hibiki and his past. Tokiya is a strange character to mention an association with Aine, but Reiji actually compared Tokiya to Aine in debut (though Aine wasn’t officially named back then).
//PHYSICAL APPEARANCE//
Basically, he’s described to be Ai’s twin. His physical canon appearance of when he was in Saotome is shown in Reiji’s ASAS route, where he does look like Ai but with shorter hair. Probably around the same height too or bigger.
In the beginning of Ai’s route in All Star, the heroine meets him in her dream. He’s described by her to look like a foreigner, and wears a blue gem necklace.
We later find out he’s in a coma (and if you read the interview from Ai’s prelude translated by kokoro-no-damu, Ai has been in existence for 5+ years, so roughly Aine’s been sleeping for that long).
Realistically, you have to infer what Aine looks like being in a coma for that long. He probably has longer hair, looks frailer, and less healthier. (I think he’d be really pale too considering he hasn’t been outside either ;;)
//BACKGROUND//
Aine is mentioned to be a musical genius in Reiji’s ASAS bitter route and his uncle has connections to Saotome. What I headcanon, is that Aine’s parents were probably proficient musicians and gave him that name. However, they’re gone from his life now, since there’s really no mention or implication of them, implying Hakase is his only family.
His uncle is a professor at the academy and judging from the background of his home, he also seems to be a very busy person. It’s very likely he couldn’t spend enough time with Aine and Aine didn’t want to burden him.
In Ai’s All Star and ASAS bitter route, we find out Hakase tries to look out for Ai and support him more, not just because it’s for Aine, but he wants to be a better parental figure to Ai because he almost lost Aine and that he hurt Ai for not telling him the truth. I think that’s all the evidence that Aine has a lonely background and prefers not to be alone, because he has a weak disposition being by himself.
Because of his proficiency in music and his uncle’s connections, we can assume Aine enrolled in Saotome Gakuen very easily and he was in the S Class with Reiji, Kei, and Hibiki.
//PERSONALITY//
He talked quite a bit in All Star. In the beginning of Ai’s route, when he stopped Ai from singing at the beach, and in the recording room when Ai was upset he couldn’t sing for some reason.
From our first conversation with him, before we knew who he was (I don’t think the heroine was aware later that she met Aine in that early dream but I don’t have translations for that), we can infer his personality.
His personality seems to be the gentle type and he loves music (seeing how his name means “love sound”), to the point where he lives for it. Reiji had said that Aine was always smiling and laughing. One of Reiji’s CGs in ASAS shows their school days and that was probably the best days of his life. His friends’ sadness over him implies how close of a bond they had. He adores his friends as well and wants them to be happy. During the idol show with Reiji and Ai, he even took control of Ai once to say thank you to Kei for wishing happiness.
Aine was known to be a well-respected person because of his musical genius. From Reiji’s routes, Kei and Hibiki cause trouble for Reiji because they’re still upset about Aine. All three look up to him, and even now chase his shadow. He was the glue to their friendships and when he was gone, everything fell apart. But his presence still affects them and changes each of them to grow up as adults. Because of Aine:
- Kei gave the heroine Reiji’s hometown address to find him so she wouldn’t go through the same thing like he did.
- When the scandal talked about Aine’s disappearance, Hibiki stepped in to apologize to Reiji, because dragging that feud was a disrespect to Aine.
He takes an active interest in people who enjoy music, and that’s likely his way of making friends. I also infer he approached the heroine in her dreams, because she shared that same love for music.
However, because he loves music so much, we can definitely assume the pressure of him being an idol crushed his spirit because he lost sight of what he was singing for and became hurt.
If we take in Tokiya’s debut route and Tokiya’s own past situation as well, it’s comparable. Both suffered being pressured as an idol to sing and restrict themselves from what they really wanted from their dream.
However unlike Tokiya, who’s used to being alone (though he ended up being luckier that Shining approached him), Aine was supported by his friends. His emotional stability depended on them, which was why he called Reiji before disappearing. That’s why I think it must have been a really busy time because they all recently graduated/debuted or was about to.
//ACTIONS//
Why he tried to commit suicide:
Aine was a genius but he worked hard. While Reiji got in easily to Saotome because of his child acting career experience, he wasn’t motivated. Aine changed him with his hard work towards his dream. He was also a natural prodigy with music, to the point where Shining had even funded Hakase to build a robot to wake up Aine. The thing is though: school and work were different. Because he was so talented, he definitely had so much expectations to ride on for his dream. He felt himself pressured to keep to those expectations, of not only his employers and fans, but his friends too and overworked himself.
Sadly, he was overworked to the point where he couldn’t take anymore but he didn’t want to burden anyone. (It parallels with Tokiya’s Debut route) Again, he chose to call Reiji, but we don’t know why he did. But Reiji is NEVER the complete reason to why Aine almost drowned himself. We, as the heroine, learn it’s a misunderstanding that haunts Reiji and try to help him.
During his coma:
The beach is the setting where he chose to disappear at and reappear. It is significant because it becomes something akin to Ai’s home, and represents the friendships and bonds between many characters. (Ryuuya/Ringo/Haruki in Ryuuya’s route, Reiji/Otoya/Tokiya in Otoya’s route, Reiji and heroine, Ai and heroine, and Hakase and Ai). Why he chose the beach was because it was likely to be the place where he felt the happiest and closest to his dream and it becomes the psychological setting in his mind where he stays. Despite being comatose, Aine is still conscious and aware in his dreams. He still sings in his dreams, where it’s quiet and serene that the noisy, scary world won’t hurt him. He was emotionally hurt from what happened to him that he recluses himself in his dream so he won’t be hurt anymore. He builds walls up so he would block out the real world, refusing to wake up from his coma. Hakase mentally linked Ai to Aine to wake him up by his experience and growth of being an idol. I think most of the work Ai had done up until All Star only reaches him little by little but it does have an effect if we don’t go by Ai’s route because he wakes up in Reiji’s route as well.
Aine is very sensitive to music, especially songs that have such strong feelings.
Ai’s feelings for the heroine through his song reaches him because they’re mentally linked. Love is a very strong emotion, and for Aine’s case, who experienced the no-love rule, doesn’t know that feeling and feels scared because it’s so fast and changing and /REAL/. Ai’s love for the heroine and music was turning him into a real person and that scared Aine because Ai wasn’t him. It scared him so much, he stopped Ai from singing. He kept doing it not to be hurt until Ai finally confronted him and disconnected them so he could live as his own person with his own feelings.
Resolve:
Aine definitely listened to Ai’s words before Ai cut their connection, because he loves music. I think Aine did really want to wake up but he’s scared. Ai’s actions to separate himself from Aine and his strong feelings through his song Winter Blossom, moved Aine to understand him and gave him a little courage to love music again.
It was his voice that saved Ai and his memories so that Ai would protect those very feelings he told Aine about.
I feel at that same time, he finally woke up from his coma.
Reiji’s story:
Aine actually still wakes up in Reiji’s route (excluding the Ai/Aine drama). I honestly think it’s Reiji’s strong feelings in his song to the heroine that woke up Aine as well. In All Star, Reiji hopes that Aine was somewhere watching his performance. As I said before about Aine’s mental link to Ai, I think it’s likely through Ai’s observance and interaction with the world, the song was able to reach Aine. In Reiji’s A love ending in ASAS, Aine sent him a letter.
That letter is an acknowledgement of how hard Reiji worked toward the dream they shared and also a sign of forgiveness and blessing for him to be happy. He wants Reiji, Kei, and Hibiki to be happy because they’re his best friends.
//CONCLUSION//
To conclude about Aine’s character, he’s too precious for this world and must be protected. Sure, he shouldn’t have done those actions but honestly he shows how pressuring and stressful being an idol can be. He loves his friends and music and just wants to sing to be happy. Poor baby. OTL I hope they mention him if Ai gets an episode this season…