I was particularly struck by the scene between Jouchi and Kazama in Chapter 3 of Book 2, where Jouchi has been running all over town trying to find Kazama, and finally finds him at Jouchi's own apartment. He gets mad at Kazama for testing him, and Kazama responds that both in their relationship and in work, he's been trying to do whatever the other party asks of him, because he needs to be needed and fears being rejected. And then Jouchi actually does everything right, imho--he comforts Kazama and reassures Kazama how much he wants him, while sharing some good career advice that Kurokawa had given him. I was very impressed, thinking that he's not so bad after all--and then he kind of ruins the moment by jumping Kazama, and Kazama complains that he only thinks about sex all the time! ^_^ He's similiar to Katou in that they're both horndogs, although I think that Jouchi lets his hormones rule him more than Katou does. If he could get that part of himself under control, I think that things would go a lot more smoothly between him and Kazama. Also like Katou, I think that he often expresses his affection through sex, which can give their lovers the mistaken impression that all they care about is sex.

But Jouchi's basically a nice and well-meaning guy, and his faults are just that he's a bit dense and immature, which hopefully will improve with time. And I think that Kazama is really lucky that Jouchi is not a malicious guy, because an abusive personality could really take advantage of Kazama's desperate desire to please. Look how seriously he takes Jouchi's half-joking request (from earlier) that he perform oral sex. He doesn't seem entirely comfortable with it, but he wants to please his lover, so he goes ahead with it--although I think his discomfort is more due to inexperience and being afraid that he won't do it "right" rather than disliking the idea. But a nasty personality could totally mess with him and emotionally blackmail him into doing things that he really doesn't want to do, just because he's so insecure and needy. Mochimune, for example, could break him with barely any effort, although I don't think that Mochi is cruel for the sake of being cruel, just ruthless in pursuit of his artistic vision.

(And obviously, I don't meant to tell Lore how to play Jouchi and Kaza in the game--I know that you may have your own, different interpretation of them. But re-reading that scene really made me see both of them in a different light, and I was thinking, "Wow, how did I miss that the first time around?" I think that I was so impatient to get to the Hosaka/Yumi scenes that I didn't pay as much attention as I should've to the other pair.)

And I was also trying to figure out Yaogi: he's dating Miyuki, but seems totally uninterested in her during the scene together in his room. He's ignoring her while she talks to him, not even looking at her, but playing with his phone instead. Maybe for him, it's just about sex and he doesn't really care about her, or he's deliberately ignoring her because he thinks she's playing games with him by trying to make him jealous (by talking about her ex)? Or he did like her at first but is bored with her now? From the way he talks with Jouchi on the subway, he doesn't seem like a very romantic guy--when Jouchi complains that his "girlfriend" won't sleep with him, Yaogi tells him that he should just find another girl.

Or...Yagoi doesn't really like Miyuki for herself, but targeted her because she's Jouchi's ex, as a way to get to Jouchi, whether due to feelings of attraction or rivalry for Jouchi, or both? He claims that he didn't know that Miyuki was Jouchi's ex, but he's a pretty sharp guy, and I think that he might be lying. Anyway, food for thought as I get ready for the game...