Answered Question: Chiaki’s Pushiness
is it just me or is chiaki a lot less pushy now? i don’t know exactly where it started whether it’s his graduation or the events of comet show or what, but like in midori’s FS2 when he wanted to help midori practice but quickly pulled back suggesting midori would probably prefer tetora and shinobu. or like in the wedding event where it happened twice actually! (at first where midori was like ugh im tired and he goes oh okay nevermind then, and then later when he tries to recruit midori for the event)
it’s cute when it happens because we get to see midori pulling him back but also sad that he’s not like he used to be. do you know if this happens more other than the two stories i mentioned?
Sent and answered in June 2025. tweet link of the answer
i’ll do my best to keep this answer simple because the long answer to this is "so about chiaki’s persona vs his true self, and how it relates to the ryuseitai arc as well as his relationship with midori… (i continue for 5k words)"
so: those 2 stories you gave as an example are set in ES year 1, after chiaki graduated and told himself he’ll make ABSOLUTE SURE to give the ryuseitai juniors space now that they’ve grown and have their own responsibilities to fulfill. because of this, there are many moments in the ES year 1 stories where the ryuseitai juniors note how he isn’t as persistent or pushy as they thought, since they’re still used to how he’d behave in ! era.
this is littered in ES1 stories, but two good examples are in motor show, when chiaki was loud and very clingy with the juniors, wanting to talk to them… but then, tetora vents to him about his leader problems. tetora was then surprised when chiaki took a step back from helping him and instead trusted tetora’s word that he’ll manage. after chiaki leaves the juniors, midori notes he was acting odd.
and then later in the epilogue, midori kicks him back on stage right after chiaki monologues to himself how much they’ve all grown and aren’t babies that need caretaking anymore. midori lectures him that he’s still part of ryuseitai so he shouldn’t show an "uncool side" (referring to chiaki hesitating from being part of the spotlight as a hero along with them). chiaki is also A LOT more busy in ES year 1 as a very popular idol, also another reason he wasn’t with ryuseitai as much
there’s also the events of comet show that made him emotionally shut himself off from ryuseitai (by putting all the blame on himself), and that worsened the aforementioned behavior… but it’s kind of in a different way as well, and it’d take a while to get through that layer of chiaki’s distancing. the main thing is that, wedding march and midori FS2 are based on what i just described above!
it’s true, chiaki was extremely pushy and particularly always in midori’s business in ! era. it’s why in midori fs2, midori makes a comment on it:
Chiaki: You’re the only one who’ll stand on the actual stage, but I can help you out with practice anytime, Takamine!
Ah, actually— Would it be easier for you to practice with people your own age instead, like Sengoku or Nagumo…?
Midori: You’ve been pushy this whole time, so please don’t just back out all of a sudden… It throws me off.
…But, right. Morisawa-senpai has always been that sort of person.
but right at the end, he also notes that that’s not "new" per se. this is probably a nod to the very random times chiaki’s backed off at the very last second even though he was pushy the whole time (other than the motor show one i pointed out, climax epilogue 5 also comes to mind)
there are even MORE and MORE layers to talk about this, but i don’t want to overcomplicate the topic too much, so i focused mostly on explaining why he’s like that in those stories.
but it’s not that "he’s less pushy now", it’s that "he was less pushy". after ryuseitai talk things out and unite again by the end of supervillain, stories set after it show him being pushy and persistent (i.e. ES year 2 stories). it’s a little different from his ! era days because he’s grown a lot by this point, but BOY, is ES year 2 filled with him being a pushy person ESPECIALLY when it comes to midori. you can tell he finally feels comfortable and doesn’t have to hold back with ryuseitai as much as he thought he did 😊
check out:
supervillain epilogue right at the end, where his pushiness indicates to midori that they’re returning back to their usual selves
tropical reborn ch1 for a pretty classic pushy chiaki moment (invading midori’s room)
he's extremely silly-pushy in the first few MCs of the ryuseitai album trip
honorary mention to gourmet for doing the most insane thing on live television, that inadvertently involved midori with it too (much to his dismay). this one is an accidental "being pushy" as he didn't know he was being filmed, but still counts in how he feels so close to midori now that he gladly does this
and so many other random moments plastered in ES2 stories/content, sometimes fully unrelated to midori and sometimes related to him.