ESSAY: Kaname and EMO
SPOILER WARNING OMG
CANON and Kaname's EMO
First, lets list the above report!
April, 2001 - Enters Tokyo Jindai Public High School
March, 2001 - Kaname’s father and sister move to New York, USA
August, 1998 - Kaname’s mother, Shizu, dies of cancer
July, 1998 - 3 days house detention for malicious damage to school property
May, 1998 - Returns to Tokyo with family and enters local junior high school
October, 1996 - Wins 2nd place in Orange County track and field tournament
August, 1994 - Moves to suburban New York, USA with family
July, 1993 - Wins 1st place in junior swimming competition, Chofu, Tokyo
May, 1992 - Runs away from home. Registered as missing at Izumigawa Police Department. Located and returned home the following day.
December, 1984 - Born in Tokyo, Japan
Notice that Kaname had a very hectic home life- not only did she run away when she was only eight years old, she's been pulled across countries and a month before her mother died she grew very violent. It's shown that Kaname doesn't have any contact with her father now she lives seperatly from him, but instead talks through her little sister, Ayame, who lives with him. Even then, Ayame and Kaname do not talk on a regular basis. She's also a high achiever, winning first and second places in tournaments. It's proven through out the anime and novels that Kaname works hard at what she does- but she also blames her mother for 'leaving' her and not working hard enough. The same goes for her father, for giving up and presumably negelecting her. It can be assumed that Kaname becomes such a high achiever to make up for what she sees as her parents weaknesses.
Later in the novels, it's revealed that Kaname has a very twisted inferiority complex. Not only does she see her best-friend Kyouko better than her, but also idolises her. This causes Kaname to try her hardest at being 'perfect'. Her inferiority complex was made worse when it's revealed to her that she's a 'Whispered', thus confirming that she's smarter than the average person. If you start pressing the issue about how smart she is, her complex will go too far, to the point she'll start blaming other people for not being as good as her or as smart as her- and also how because of that, she shouldn't exist because she's so much better. This shows us that Kaname indeed does put others before herself, because she doesn't think she should be better than others when they're so much better people. If anything, Kaname wants to be normal like everyone else. When her charade of normalness is taken away, her complex comes back in full force. Also, when Kaname seriously emos (not just mere depression)- she gets angry. Kaname's best solution to major sadness and/or worry is anger.
However, I don't take Kaname from that far in the novels. I take her from a month after the novel 'A Dancing Very Merry Christmas' and thus a month before the novel 'Continuing on my own'. COMO is the novel where it is revealed that Kaname has been thinking more deeply about these things and just needs a push to make her go over the edge of her inferiority complex. In ADVMC, she's still her 'normal' snarky self, but is starting to figure out that she can't keep her normal life up forever.
And that is why Kaname may emo at you if you mention family or emo complexes.
RELATIONSHIPS- or camp and Kaname's Emo.
Kaname often 'censors' herself. By censor, I mean doesn't let her temper get away with her first thing (unless in very special cases. I'm looking at you Benibara, Sousuke, Emilio, Natsuo and Youji).
Canonly, Kaname does this alot. She acts nice and happy, or even non-caring, when usually she's thinking of something else entirely. Don't take this as her thinking you're horrible in her head though! Usually she thinks everyone is okay, but she's just not in a good mood. The best example of this is her censoring most of her anger from her bestfriend, Kyouko. Kaname goes out of her way to only show exasperation and anger at other people when she's around Kyouko and she already does this with one or two people at camp. She also does this in front of authority figures (though she does allow exasperation to show much more in front of authority figures). It doesn't mean she won't act childish or get riled up- remember, she tries to censor herself.
If Kaname wants to impress you, she'll censor herself up entirely. This is usually shown with authority figures as mentioned above, but she also wants to impress her friends. This leads to her acting tough in scary situations or again, nice, when she's actually scared or trying her best to get along with you. Canonly, if she owes you a favor or feels responsible for you in a round about way, she will go out of her way to be nice to you, even if you insult her. It's mentioned more than once in the novels that Kaname looks up to her best friend and wishes she was more like her, to the point of sometimes emulating her.
But not only does Kaname emotionally censor herself in front of people, she censors information she gives to them as well. For instance, she doesn't tell people she's violent because she doesn't think she's especially violent- and unless you say you know Sousuke well or you ping her mentally, she will only tell you she and Sousuke are classmates.
Even to friends, Kaname doesn't tell them everything. A key scene is when Kaname is given the chance to tell Kyouko everything- but dismisses it, not only as unbelieveable but also because she can't quite trust herself to tell Kyouko. This decision has major reprucussions later in the novels, because it's revealed that Kaname inwardly thinks alot of people are stupider than her and she gets exasperated at them for that reason- but she doesn't blame them, until she's forced/emo-ed too when she goes through a tough time. Kyouko picks up on this when almost everything is revealed to her.
In fact, the only person in Full Metal Panic that you could say Kaname trusts completely would be Sousuke. She actually says this in a very poingant scene and we come to realize that Kaname doesn't trust easily- thus censors amost everything. Even her anger, at times, censors her other feelings when usually anger is Kaname's most honest emotion.The fact that Sousuke had to go through alot to be trust worthy proves that Kaname has issues about trust. In the novels, even though she thinks Sousuke is stupid, she still calms down and listens to him. However, is TSR and a bit in ADVMC, Kaname's trust is shaken in Sousuke, and she can't bring herself back to trusting him completely. Even though it's insinuated she's a strong person, inwardly it's revealed she is quite weak when she depends on someone- similar to Sousuke.
This doesn't mean things won't slip out! Sometimes Kaname can get caught up in a conversation where her thoughts and her true emotions can be revealed. Or if she sees you tormeting someone, she will rush in and hit you- no second thoughts. Kaname's a retard that way. This usually happens when you mention something that angers her deeply or mention something that she has vunerable/deep thoughts about, or even when she is very exausted. The best time to get information out of Kaname is when she's not 'all there in the head', even if what she says may not make sense (i.e, Kaname revealing to Shuichi she knew he was gay).
So far, in camp Kaname has only told Ari and Bikky about her being a 'Whispered'. She told Ari because even while she doesn't know him that well yet, Sousuke trusts him and that was the most important thing to her when she told him and he also told her about himself. Then, she told Bikky because Bikky reminds her alot of herself when she was 12/13, and it was like admitting to herself what she really was. Again, Bikky also had to share some information with her first. Even so, because in Camp it's pretty hard to keep a secret, a lot of people have already noticed that somethings 'off' about her. Essentially, even if she trusts you, she won't tell you. It depends more on if Sousuke trusts you as well or you really do ping her hard (like Bikky).
In Conclusion!
Honestly, it'd be much easier for me to take Kaname right from the end of the FMP anime, but I feel like that's neglecting a key aspect of her character. In the anime we only get to see Kaname's strengths- not weaknesses. Her anger doesn't count. So that's why I'll be pimping the novels at some point :D