unpopular opinion but while i get how mentally unstable / ill ryuki is, i still get uncomfortable a bit with how people attribute that as his only character trait. not how he’s shy or gentle or outdated in his jokes, how he’s a kind person, how he works so so hard even if he’s clumsy socially -- how he genuinely is trying his best to live off the dream of his dead brother. it’s just these constant slew of jokes about how seriously ill he is and after contracting the tc-perge that only gets worse and we see that happening as we play as him on his route. 

we see ryuki get worse and worse until the six year time skip and he’s having hysterical fits; drinking himself to death at only 29 and as much as i adore boss it just feels.... lazy almost, that she just is written to just yes, give him off time, six years of it, but i feel like who genuinely were the most concerned on him as a person and not a pysncer / detective was obviously tama, the person and artificial intelligence literally living in his brain via nerves / left eye socket, date of course, who genuinely mentored him in and off work and probably was the most likely human wise to voice concerns to boss about his mental health? and thirdly, mizuki, who wants him to not work period, and tries to talk logic to him which doesn’t work - and aiba points this out, but even aiba says he’s ‘a real maintenance to work with’. these kind of themes genuinely made me sad and mizuki wasn’t the only character among the three,  date, mizuki, ryuki, that had various degrees of being sacrificed for the twists.

i guess to a point i get why we’re making so many / memes and jokes but i won’t go into that but. it still feels .... uncomfortable? because the entire time i’m playing yeah at first i’m like ‘oh hi what the hell here we go again mr. ryuki’ but then it morphs to like...genuine horror and concern and i do think that’s intentional. and i don’t even write the newest blorbo of ai. i just really want him to get therapy. please don’t get me started on what they did to date and mizuki either, as the date family aiba included, are my favorite things about the entire series. 

and believe it or not, while i don’t like the bibi twist, like her as a character, just not her in any relation to mizuki, but mizuki herself. mizuki date. she constantly is asking aiba if ryuki is ‘going to be okay’ and even before the timeskip after the explosion that took her left eye clean out? she asks boss in the opening of the game if she’s giving him /time off/ making you wonder how keenly focused mizuki is on him because he’s important to date, and while she’d never say it aloud unless it was serious and even /then/, that matters to her. and she’s a caring person. her tongue holds no mercy but she literally says:

“ boss, are you giving him vacation time ? “ i know as he’s the second protagonist because again, my portrayal i’m not even putting bibi in as a protag, i’d have to know a bibi to even try to make it make sense without spitting on mizuki’s individuality -- but like? these three people cared, noticed, hell the entire game is telling you something is not right with him, and because of protag plot armor, ryuki can’t really go to the hospital? and when tama begs him to go saying that ‘a god or a shrine or buddha etc isn’t going to heal your heart! ‘ and ryuki like what, checks in, BLACKS OUT, then by the forcing of the plot, tama HAS To let him leave, despite caring for him the MOST.

i know realistically we couldn’t have ryuki like --- be in the hospital the whole game in its entirety but like, i wish we had instead of mizuki post time skip asking aiba if he’s okay and aiba being like ‘we can’t worry about him’ but people treating his actions with less ‘i hope he doesn’t do anything stupid’ and more to ‘wow he’s really not okay maybe i should keep an eye on him and get him a counselor more break time’ would i don’t know just showing the cast actively cares about him with his extremely serious mental illnesses / disorders would mean a lot? because it’s just sad to watch even on this playthrough, that the majority of the cast is reacting like that. ryuki is so mentally unwell he can’t even remember that he betrayed abis siding with tearer, or that he shocked bibi with a g.un, causing her heart to worsen, or even little moments of where he blacked out.

instead i just see tons of jokes about it and it’s an uncomfortable feeling. i’d literally slam a button on a poll fifty times to get this fictional blorbo to therapy. i don’t even know where to begin with mizuki even getting therapy, she’s so traumatized it’s another matter entirely.

but he kind of felt like the punching bag of the game for an agent so skilled, and it’s sad that i personally, just me, mind you, felt only date, tama and mizuki were actively worried about his health condition.