with yoru not being around i was under the silly impression that i shouldn’t be mentioning her re: asa’s personality, so my bad!
Asa is generally quiet and tends to seem unsociable due to her always hanging out alone and deliberatly keeping potential "friends" at body length. We see her throughout her introduction always judging and bitterly nitpicking what others are doing wrong or what she finds annoying in her head: for example, hanging out in the bathroom (not the place for that!), taking up the entire hallway to walk side by side (in the way!) or couples publicly showing affection (she wants them to drop dead!). She hates devils after her parents were killed by one (but it’s later revealed that she quite blames herself for having put her mother in harms way). After being called out by the class' pet devil (that they kept and refused to kill) to come and play with everyone, Asa expresses genuine surprise for the first time that someone even remembered her full name. She realizes that she had simply been jealous of everyone having friends. She came out of her shell a bit, was starting to laugh and let herself go, and have fun—
Until she tripped and eviscerated Bucky with her own clumsy weight in front of the entire class.
Things get a little more difficult in school, after that. Asa becomes a honed target for bullying to the point that she doesn't want to show her face or even go back. Things take an unexpected turn the day Asa dies: in the street, in the middle of the night, her head cut in half because of the class president's jealousy that the teacher liked her more than the student he was sleeping with— and the confession of the class president's sabotaging to have Asa trip on Bucky on purpose.
Seconds before Asa's murder, she wishes she could have lived a more selfish life. She gets her second chance through the War Devil's possession of her body, and, well— that’s a trip. The War Devil shares Asa's body and keeps her alive— She's called herself "Yoru". Waking up and thinking it all a dream until Yoru appears in front of her, she and Asa are at a constant bicker. Yoru pulls on one side, threatening Asa constantly for some slip on Chainsaw Man, and Asa pulls the other way, wishing not to get involved in something so serious but feeling pressured to stay quiet due to Yoru’s death threats (Asa even thinks to immediately let devil hunters know about Yoru, until she’s shut down with . . . oh boy!! A death threat). Asa doesn’t like this invasion, not at all, but with a promise to have her body back if she helps the devil with what she wants, Asa complies, driven by the prospect of having that second chance at life for herself. It’s very clear that she doesn’t want to die and ebbs closer into the selfish desire to live for herself— which is only natural when you’ve always lived for others, or with resentment for what you didn’t have. She had a chance to do things differently, so she begins to take it.
Asa and Yoru are mostly at odds, though. Yoru is brash and demands Asa kill people for weapons, or asks someone to be her boyfriend on the spot and god that is embarrassing. Asa is seen constantly rejecting most of Yoru’s demands. Even when threatened to return to school, Asa is too nervous and prefers to die than see the faces of her classmates. We also see that Yoru isn’t too deep into these threats when she doesn’t end up killing her on the spot and instead, kind of whines and ends up taking her body for a little boyfriend snatching spin (it doesn’t work). This may be because Yoru still needs Asa to navigate human society for her, or, perhaps something else. A few more chapters in, Yoru recognizes bullying and social hierarchies that exist even among devils, and offers to “take care of them” for Asa, which wouldn’t do much but perhaps in way “lessen” the obstacles present for her.
When faced with a massive Bat Devil, Asa cannot be possessed because of her paralyzing fear and ends up in a tight position with her friend, Yuko. Yoru ends up talking a lot of messy things to Ada’s head when her friend is injured, even having her hesitate at the idea of killing her to make her a weapon and save herself. Perhaps, what’s important in this moment is Asa’s choice to do the opposite in the end: pick up her friend and run trying to save them both. Yoru calls her a fool for this and cannot do much else, but for Asa, it shows that she would still like to do the right thing, with her heart in the right place. She wants to live, but she wants to live with dignity.
This event leads to Asa being “saved” by Chainsaw Man (honestly he just intervened, let a dude die and saved a cat). Yoru is furious, but Asa seems to be a little more casual around her presence. As time seems to go by, Asa doesn’t seem as frightened by Yoru anymore. She talks back to her, tells her to be quiet, and even begins a conversation that Yoru ends up sleeping on, but . . . It has to do with being forgotten. This is Yoru’s fear, and from this point on Asa also seems to feel a bit more sympathetic toward her brain goblin. It seems that she has pinpointed something they have in common, and ends up being thankful to Chainsaw Man for showing up and existing— just so that she could’ve met Yoru and have this whole second chance to live with her.
Ever since meeting with Yoru, Asa is still timid, shy and easily flustered. She's socially cautious about making friends due to the bullying she's suffered but isn't completely immune to people genuinely trying to be her friend. One change that's gradually noticed after her second chance at life is that she's beginning to speak up more— speak her mind or stand up to an idea she dislikes, and continues to get better at it. Yoru has said once already “i’m you, and you’re me,” and we’re already getting hints that Asa is in fact grateful for this opportunity, to be a version of herself she never thought she could be.
One that, perhaps, isn’t so clumsy, isn’t so quiet, and isn’t so bitter about life.
no subject
Asa is generally quiet and tends to seem unsociable due to her always hanging out alone and deliberatly keeping potential "friends" at body length. We see her throughout her introduction always judging and bitterly nitpicking what others are doing wrong or what she finds annoying in her head: for example, hanging out in the bathroom (not the place for that!), taking up the entire hallway to walk side by side (in the way!) or couples publicly showing affection (she wants them to drop dead!). She hates devils after her parents were killed by one (but it’s later revealed that she quite blames herself for having put her mother in harms way). After being called out by the class' pet devil (that they kept and refused to kill) to come and play with everyone, Asa expresses genuine surprise for the first time that someone even remembered her full name. She realizes that she had simply been jealous of everyone having friends. She came out of her shell a bit, was starting to laugh and let herself go, and have fun—
Until she tripped and eviscerated Bucky with her own clumsy weight in front of the entire class.
Things get a little more difficult in school, after that. Asa becomes a honed target for bullying to the point that she doesn't want to show her face or even go back. Things take an unexpected turn the day Asa dies: in the street, in the middle of the night, her head cut in half because of the class president's jealousy that the teacher liked her more than the student he was sleeping with— and the confession of the class president's sabotaging to have Asa trip on Bucky on purpose.
Seconds before Asa's murder, she wishes she could have lived a more selfish life. She gets her second chance through the War Devil's possession of her body, and, well— that’s a trip. The War Devil shares Asa's body and keeps her alive— She's called herself "Yoru". Waking up and thinking it all a dream until Yoru appears in front of her, she and Asa are at a constant bicker. Yoru pulls on one side, threatening Asa constantly for some slip on Chainsaw Man, and Asa pulls the other way, wishing not to get involved in something so serious but feeling pressured to stay quiet due to Yoru’s death threats (Asa even thinks to immediately let devil hunters know about Yoru, until she’s shut down with . . . oh boy!! A death threat). Asa doesn’t like this invasion, not at all, but with a promise to have her body back if she helps the devil with what she wants, Asa complies, driven by the prospect of having that second chance at life for herself. It’s very clear that she doesn’t want to die and ebbs closer into the selfish desire to live for herself— which is only natural when you’ve always lived for others, or with resentment for what you didn’t have. She had a chance to do things differently, so she begins to take it.
Asa and Yoru are mostly at odds, though. Yoru is brash and demands Asa kill people for weapons, or asks someone to be her boyfriend on the spot and god that is embarrassing. Asa is seen constantly rejecting most of Yoru’s demands. Even when threatened to return to school, Asa is too nervous and prefers to die than see the faces of her classmates. We also see that Yoru isn’t too deep into these threats when she doesn’t end up killing her on the spot and instead, kind of whines and ends up taking her body for a little boyfriend snatching spin (it doesn’t work). This may be because Yoru still needs Asa to navigate human society for her, or, perhaps something else. A few more chapters in, Yoru recognizes bullying and social hierarchies that exist even among devils, and offers to “take care of them” for Asa, which wouldn’t do much but perhaps in way “lessen” the obstacles present for her.
When faced with a massive Bat Devil, Asa cannot be possessed because of her paralyzing fear and ends up in a tight position with her friend, Yuko. Yoru ends up talking a lot of messy things to Ada’s head when her friend is injured, even having her hesitate at the idea of killing her to make her a weapon and save herself. Perhaps, what’s important in this moment is Asa’s choice to do the opposite in the end: pick up her friend and run trying to save them both. Yoru calls her a fool for this and cannot do much else, but for Asa, it shows that she would still like to do the right thing, with her heart in the right place. She wants to live, but she wants to live with dignity.
This event leads to Asa being “saved” by Chainsaw Man (honestly he just intervened, let a dude die and saved a cat). Yoru is furious, but Asa seems to be a little more casual around her presence. As time seems to go by, Asa doesn’t seem as frightened by Yoru anymore. She talks back to her, tells her to be quiet, and even begins a conversation that Yoru ends up sleeping on, but . . . It has to do with being forgotten. This is Yoru’s fear, and from this point on Asa also seems to feel a bit more sympathetic toward her brain goblin. It seems that she has pinpointed something they have in common, and ends up being thankful to Chainsaw Man for showing up and existing— just so that she could’ve met Yoru and have this whole second chance to live with her.
Ever since meeting with Yoru, Asa is still timid, shy and easily flustered. She's socially cautious about making friends due to the bullying she's suffered but isn't completely immune to people genuinely trying to be her friend. One change that's gradually noticed after her second chance at life is that she's beginning to speak up more— speak her mind or stand up to an idea she dislikes, and continues to get better at it. Yoru has said once already “i’m you, and you’re me,” and we’re already getting hints that Asa is in fact grateful for this opportunity, to be a version of herself she never thought she could be.
One that, perhaps, isn’t so clumsy, isn’t so quiet, and isn’t so bitter about life.