Anything Anything?

Asuka and Asuka-Related Fun Facts:

1. RK’s color palette (02) matches with Raven, except with the places and overall prominence of black and white being opposite between them. They even both have a coin in one eye. Asuka in his right, Raven in his left. This means that between the two they make up one dead man and one alive man.

2. In Vastedge, the Tome of Origin had blood red pages. They absolutely should have kept this it was sick as hell.

3. Also in Vastedge, the folds in the front of his robes resemble stacked pages of a closed book. There’s a concept art of him opening himself up, confirming that he has been fused with the Tome for a long time.

4. I-no’s recurring black wings (i.e, in her super) alongside Raven might be a reference to the two information-collecting ravens of Odin, Huggin (~mind) and Muninn (~will). Odin is often depicted with one eye and is associated with a number of concepts, notably including death, knowledge, wisdom, frenzy, and sorcery.

5. The only time he implies any actual aggression toward someone (as in, wanting to hurt them just to hurt them and not because he feels has to) is against Anji, implied by the following battle intro in Strive:
Anji: “No agreement necessary, right?”
Asuka: “No, but you’ll wish we had one.”

6. While he certainly does care about the opinions of those he likes, like Sol, he’s especially sensitive to the opinion of Jack'O. See the round win line “Please don’t be mad at me!” and the battle intro:
Jack'O: “Trick or… Oh, hey Asuka!”
Asuka: “Are my tricks or treats not good enough for you? That’s… kind of sad.”

7. Related to the previous point, Asuka also describes his separation with Raven as “kind of sad”. The implication is that when something is kind of sad, this actually means he is suffering a million internal deaths.

8. I have heard that buckwheat noodles (re: Asuka’s hobby of making them via rube-goldberg machine) are a stereotypical old-man food in Japan.

9. In Accent Core, he instructs Anji to tell I-no that there are no second chances. In the same game, he also tells Slayer the he can never change. However, after Raven tells Asuka that Anji is not someone who can be trusted, Asuka replies: “Watch what you say, Raven. To survive… people always improve. Humanity keeps on living, even if it goes against God… The fact that you are standing here is only further proof of their tenacity”.
This implies that he considers himself to be something closer to I-no than Anji or Raven. That is to say, not human. Considering his actions and, more literally, the fact that he is literally fused with the source code of the Universe, this is an understandable position.

10. Going off of his model and concept art for Strive, it seems that he is mostly legs. He has a similar leg:torso ratio as Jack'O.

11. There’s something wrong with him. Also, his English VA in Overture would go on to voice Bedman in Xrd.

Some Pictures: