Ibara Saegusa ー さえぐさいばら
i'm gonna be so honest here and say i actually didnt like ibara at first. big shocker i know. but when i was reading mainsto and stuff he didn't appear often and when he did i was just like christ this guys a weirdo but he also has such a weird expression all the time??? the way his eyes are super narrow and like so poignant really bothered me because it just looks like hes trying to seduce people even though he really shouldnt be considering this is a room full of men discussing the future of the idol industry as we know it or whatever. but then i read conquest and a bunch of other eden stories and suddenly i love this guy?? hes a fucking freak dont get me wrong but like hes so fun to mess around with as a concept .. only freaks like ibara though thats one thing i learnt off ensttwt
i think as a character ibara is really well built but i think ive always been a little jealous of him the same way you get jealous of gon freecs at 14 because hes younger than you and hes way more atheltic cuz like what do you mean ibaras inhereted like 80% of cospro because he ended up being a bastard child of the godfather how does that even work logically
hes like a role model to me apart from the part of him i want to be inspired by is his willingness to lock in as i am an avid procrastinator and i also hate myself so like ???? teach me your ways .. hes barely older than i am like come on
i think my favourite line of dialogue from him (contrary to most people who like the hwole 'dont call me a good boy your excellency it makes my ass itch' thing) is the one from bogie time where he tells hajime that hed rather shoot himself than wake up at that given moment cuz like yeah i think id be the same if someone called me shit like ibanyan at 9am on a monday morning
the premise of bogie time was really funny to me though i think eden should be forced to participate in more game shows rather than less it's like really funny so i really want them to do it again .. ++ we havent had an eden event since the climax which ik is like . idk i think it was march this year since it was before knights but like please give us something cuz undead had an event n then it was 4piece for a while (tours + event) i just think i'm missing out (ibara and jun were in one of the 4piece tours)
i also have to shoutout to 'f***ing s*n of a b****' and 'your moronic excellency' from conquest; that was also really funny and stuck in my vocabulary ever since. i love and miss conquest so bad.
ibara on the whole is just a really funny character to me but i think the way he's opened up to eden means a lot to me considering how he initially thought of them as solely business partners beforehand but nagisa wanted ibara to get closer to him which in turn led all of eden to become more tightnit than before. i think a good way this is illustrated is especially through how he treats the concept of someone else producing eden: initially, ibara wanted full ownership over eden to keep it under control so he could fully understand its comings and goings, and this was natural for someone taking the idol course and producer course side-by-side whilst running a unit underneath the company he was the vice president for. however, in !! it's been shown now the reason he wouldn't want to let eden get produced by someone else is because of the attachment he's grown for his fellow unitmates. in his eyes, he's built this unit up from the ground by himself, and now they're supporting him, making it mutually beneficial but also meaning ibara no longer has to rely on himself, something he had done frequently as a child due to being raised in a military orphanage.
ibara doesn't like relying on others, meaning we get (you guessed it) gap moe abt him getting flustered over the idea of letting others do his job in any respect, and often insists on doing things himself so he can make sure it's done properly.
my favourite part of ! is in wondergame personally where ibara decided to be a dick so nagisa almost threw him off the roof btw like it was deserved but oh my god the way nagisa gets so complacent after like '^_^ ibara did you like me pretending to be a oresama character im still mad at you though' i love adam with my whole life no joke
i would make a gallery but a lot of this guys cards make him ugly as shit so im just gonna throw this and call it a day
i was a different person when this dropped but i'm just gonna say why is he wearing clothes in the bathtub . like dude sit on the ledge or something come on . but the golden light looks really good i May not be over this
ibara saegusa is a member of both the units adam and eden, and is eden's sole producer. he is also the vice president and representative of cosmic production.
ibara was assumed to be unwanted, as he was left on the doorstep of an orphanage. as he grew older, he was transferred to a military camp, where he met yuzuru fushimi (of fine). they did not get on well, but yuzuru was responsible for taking care/leading ibara as he was older. ibara tried to kill yuzuru a number of times, but none of these ended up successful as yuzuru knew ibara as well as ibara knew yuzuru. at the age of 14, it was found ibara was the only direct relative of the godfather (as he was his great-great grandson) that could take over for him in the idol industry, therefore ibara was suddenly thrust into the world of idols. he wasn't given full juridstriction over everything, as he was only a child, but ibara found this annoying as his so-called supervisors only really wanted to use him to enable their own selfish plans.
after the disbanding of 'fine' (exfine), he picked up both hiyori and nagisa as part of his own unit, considering they no longer were students of yumenosaki gakuen. hiyori enrolled into reimei, mainly because of a sort of 'love at first sight' for jun, and nagisa enrolled into shuuetsu, which ibara also attended. he helped put eden together, and managed them as their producer.
for an example of his managing, most of the autumn live was orchestrated and planned by him. hthis is why it was an 'away' match for trickstar, nagisa acted so high-and-mighty towards mao (and called him a torch among stars) and he tried his hardest to control the numbers of attendees in order to manipulate the numbers into a win for him. this didn't work, which was frustrating for him, but he could fully recognise the potential that trickstar could have if they didn't constantly rely on the 'power of friendship' to get through a lot of difficult things. this is probably because he didn't consider the idea of having interpersonal relationships within his unit 'viable'.
throughout their time as eden, ibara has had problems with hiyori in particular, considering their similarity in behaviour and their polar opposite attitudes to things. they are willing to risk collatoral damage for what they want, but ibara's collatoral damage is planned whilst hiyori charms people into forgiveness. they understand eachother especially well, though, meaning despite the fact they may not get on well they understand what the other wants at any given moment.
with jun, it's a little messier, as ibara lets his guard down around jun. he isn't unwilling to insult him, but he also initially called jun his 'soulmate' when they first met, as ibara felt like him and jun shared a background or an attitude. he also used it as a test of character for what jun was like, but it's not like he was always nice to him. despite considering eachother somehow some kind of soulmate, ibara used to take a liberty from time to time to put jun down, considering jun technically came from a much worse off background. jun has gotten used to this weirdly rough tone ibara can take with him regarding his ability, since he figured he knows ibara well enough to tell what's genuine and what's not.
one point of contention for me between what's putting jun down and what's them being close is their honorofics:
considering japanese culutre between names and titles, it can be assumed that ibara either wants to purposely disrespect jun, or they're incredibly close. the '-shi' honorofic is more formal than '-san', but not as formal as '-sama', but the plain name implies that there's no walls between them or they purposely choose to disrespect eachother.
additionally, ibara adresses hiyori and nagisa as the 'light' (光) of eden, whilst he and jun can be described as the shadows (影), suggesting kinship.
overall, it's well illustrated on how ibara's relationship with eden has grown, and although traces of his militarian background remain, he's growing to be a more well-rounded person who can learn to rely on the others in his unit, and understand burdens can be shared.
PS editors note whatever ; i know i didn't talk about ibara and nagisa but thats because words cannot describe their dynamic and im also very lazy and not fucking over ibara's voiceline about jun. why is he so soft. augh
