the thing about that panel too is daisuke already learned Not to go ape. the entire azumano joyland/argentine arc was to demonstrate that and the way that daisuke connecting/influencing dark with feelings like rage or serious negativity can straight up kill him. this is a shoujo series not a shonen so unfortunately going nuts and Actually Evil and Really Trying to Hurt people around him will always end up turning around and hurting him in equal or worse measure, especially given how dark works in relation to his body.

nobody makes it through the fairy tale by being cruel, they make it through by being kind and through the returned help of others. for dark too every day is him wishing for a kindness and tenderness he doesn't naturally have and can only obtain through daisuke; it's dark being inherently cruel and heartless himself yet also exhausted and depressed and having no choice but to exist the way he does in a way that can hardly be called living, while begging, pleading, asking and demanding daisuke to tell/show him what other way that he can live.

both of them in their own (unified) ways are so lonely and so oooooo sooo sooo empty and hollow. but dark before daisuke was never so kind. dark before daisuke was never so patient. even if the narrative insists that daisuke's doomed to 'get worse' in lawful aspects, to meet the struggle of his genes and accepting dark as well as his parts as a phantom thief (and therefore becoming yes an even more brilliant criminal, lmao) for dark it's a matter of positive personal change and growth. daisuke is a Nice Boy. it's just that dark will always serve as his fatal flaw and sin, making a fallen angel out of him!!

@dnangelic : ❛  oh god. please tell me you haven’t just heard me talk to myself.  ❜

Honestly he probably wouldn't have if what he'd overheard hadn't sounded… very illegal. Not that the laws were really something Maki paid any personal mind to really, but it was a bit unusual to hear what sounded like blatant talking about theft... heard from someone who couldn't be older than him by much.

He was fully intending on going about his business before this point, blending into the background as much as someone can despite a bright yellow jacket. But his curiosity got the better of him as he lingered near the stranger, unable to hide making a baffled face when he realized what he was hearing about. Sort of. Parts of it are not clicking. But what a jumpy reaction too.

It's rude to eavesdrop, his mind echoes back to him.

"I'm...sorry, I think I heard more than you intended on sharing. Though it's not any concern of mine if it helps."

If he was going to commit a theft that was up to the police to handle. Not any of Maki's business. Might be a little fun to watch, though.

{D.N. A n g e l} ~ Stage 4 Vol. 39

BONUS:

this THING

is in LOVE

🌿 im juking you though, daisuke doesnt even get a kiss, he sees the mistletoe above them and immediately sprints deadass away at mach middleschooler speed

accidental mistletoe.  i'm hella late but (ФωФ)✨️ !   @dnangelic  ♡

❛   the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe started in ancient greece, during the festival of saturnalia and later in marriage ceremonies, because of the plant's association with fertility.   ❜

—she didn't mean anything by the comment,  really.  merely an imitation of their talks in museum visits,  how he would detail the history and value of the artwork.  she thought he'd have a similar appreciation for such exposition even in a different context,  doing so the second she took notice of the mistletoe hanging overhead,  but could she have been mistaken ... ?

seems like it.  the answer is plain to see,  obviously felt,  when the turn of his body away from her is enough to send chocolate locks flying from the sheer force of it.  hakuno could only blink in response,  eyes widening slightly as he blasts off  ( rather than art,  shouldn't he be in track ... )  and though  she doesn't chase after him,  fingertips press against stiff lips,  bringing the hand flat to then blow at that area.  a blown kiss  ——  because,  had he stayed a little longer,  he would've reached the part where popular belief has it that bad luck would come to those who refused a kiss under a mistletoe. 

she has no strong beliefs in superstitions,  but he hadn't been able to give her his thoughts on the matter,  so ...  better safe than sorry ?   may this give him some peace of mind if he believes in that tradition ...   she'd have to apologise for blowing a kiss at him without his consent,  though.  right ...  niwa is at that tender age where just hearing the k - word is enough to make one's heart go doki doki.  she doesn't understand it,  never having felt such emotions,  but it is amusing to see.       ❛   ah,  youth ...   ❜

Context person here XD

Oh DNAngel!!! I am kind of surprised that Emu did not react negatively to the house forcing the kid into life threatening situations by putting booby traps in the house.

Oh, Emu's pretty steamed alright- but Gentaro would probably vouch for the parent/s, and Gentaro is one of the few ones Emu would trust on his word alone. That said, he would advise Gentaro to keep a close eye on the kid and immediately intervene if it appears like his life would be in imminent danger if it continues.

Now that DNAngel is officially My City Now, I'm doing a full outline for LaT and my favorite part of the process is trying to figure out how to do Hiwatari in the context of my plotline and---

"If Hiwatari good, why act so bad???????????" is probably my favorite motivation note in the whole thing

i have no idea if i can express exactly what i'm trying to get at properly but every once in a while i do think about how the niwa are Also dark's own fatal flaw and contamination. obviously it's easy to villainize dark as the only one making daisuke 'worse' (according to standard morals) by forcing his life into criminal behavior and constantly influencing him to steal, but when you strip away dark's being a phantom thief and isolate him he's nothing more than half the kokuyoku, created by the hikari, who also decided to betray said creators as soon as manisumea was broken for letting him out of her labyrinth that one time he was sealed. within dnangel's framework, 'perfection' always belongs to unwilling martyrs and empty, completely inhospitable and uncompromising ideals. it's an abusive, tyrannical framework: krad mocking any sort of sentiment or emotional attachment while constantly whispering cruel things to manipulate those strings, it's fukami completely alone in his destroyed studio expressing himself as a monster, it's hiwatari helplessly suffering against a destiny that's constantly consuming him, or the hikari ancestor lashing out and ripping apart both his artwork and himself for not being able to match his ("sold-his-soul-to-the-devil!" forbidden) standards. it's all about control and suffocation, the lock and key metaphor, the niwas being the keys, the ones with wings; freedom.

the way dark doesn't fit any of this is of course by being capable of love, having 'absorbed' the niwa's love and desire in the first place. the og dark came and 'stole him away', which is also a phrasing he uses in his conversation with baku about daisuke: "this guy's a descendant of the legendary phantom thief who stole away the kokuyoku / furthermore, he's now the great me, the legendary phantom thief dark." dark (or at least mine) definitely acknowledges the hikari as his creators and infinitely respects their artistry (especially when he can't do anything like it himself as the metaphorical death god/grim reaper/hell keeper!) but he's also definitely never calling the hikari ancestor his 'father' or claiming lineage. he's bound to the hikari in noblesse oblige as an artwork, but it's the niwa he truly feels he 'belongs' to, who he's been stolen by, who he exists through, setting him uniquely apart from every other hikari artwork that's born/created 'pure' - which, again, in this series' context, is not good, because said purity equates to loneliness, sorrow, and lovelessness. the effect of dark's temperature as wintry cold is a symptom of being a hikari artwork, but his inner longing for intimacy and his immense, albeit harsh or distant (tsundere) at times kindness, those are things that can only come thanks to being a part of the niwa; the niwa being a part of him.

the nature of dark's existence is still technically, inherently, one of a curse. within the context of dnangel dark and krad are literally the product of a mistake, but metaphorically can exist as the punishment for the hikari and niwa family line's fatal 'sins' : the hikari for crossing forbidden lines, playing god and instilling life and magic into their artworks; the niwa for being thieves and interrupting the process and letting things go out of control while attempting to steal the kokuyoku. both dark and krad are entities that are described as hindering their host clan's prospering; dark is meant to obstruct by the transformation gene (more specifically, how uncontrollable it is since the hikari can transform too,) while krad shortens his host's lifespans down to practically nothing.

i joke about daisuke being a magical girl and like he totally does fall under the classification (iirc even asuka tags dnangel as a magical girl manga odhgsbdfkjf) but his burden is much heavier and. well. darker because what he's hiding isn't just an alter ego or like, cute cat features that pop out sometimes, instead an entirely conflicting-seeming 'self' that's regularly guilty of crime and extremely easy to reject or revile and accuse. smth smth 'why was i bound in chains in this cold and dismal place / not for any mortal sin but the wickedness of my own abhorrent face.' dark can look scary! he can totally look evil! he's flat out not human! and this is something that can get daisuke into serious trouble no matter dark's own attempts to protect daisuke within him; even a monster with a human heart can still end up being treated as a monster.

conflicting appearances aside, dark occupies the entirety of daisuke's life: he takes it, possesses it for himself and his own inherited intentions; daisuke isn't saving the world or fighting crime or villains, he is the crime, the infamous azumano troublemaker; was destined and raised for it thanks to dark and his ancestors, and this is an inescapable truth, part of the curse that has remained unbroken for 2000 yrs. dark's appearance or personality being one that's easy to completely villainize is just another aspect of the curse itself; i know that just about every satoshi develops a sense of bitterness, envy, or frustration over dark and daisuke's relationship for their getting along with each other better than the hikari's relationship with krad, and for daisuke, the curse truly is, in a way, 'broken' thanks to his being surrounded by so many people who support and accept him (his family, the other artworks,) but dark absolutely still has aspects of himself that serve to be more curselike than any sort of blessing, something to hide, something negatively and maliciously-twinged, in tandem with the way dark is also daisuke's aspiration and dream. as much as dark constantly supports and goads daisuke on, pushing daisuke's back and helping him to keep going -

he's still getting in the way, in his own subtle, manipulative ways sometimes.