Sakura Gari/Fridge

Brilliance

• Once you read the part in Sakura Gari where Youya Saiki aka Sakurako reveals to Masataka her... er, his true gender , you'll be all WHAT THE HELL for quite a bit wondering where did that come from. However... the mostly implied sex scene between Souma and Sakurako had more than one subtle hint towards this particular reveal... We never truly see Sakurako naked, but we do get to see some parts of "her" nude body - the face and torso covered in shadows (with the latter being easy to mistake for a girl's small boobs instead of a teen boy's chest, considering that Sakurako is just 15 years old and still not fully grown), "her" nude body blocked by the view of Souma's fully clothed one when her kimono is discarded, the slender hip that Souma kisses when they're about to have sex. And THE spoken phrase? Sakurako wasn't referring to herself when saying "Dedicate the rest of your life to making amends for your sins towards Sakurako"... Youya was actually referring to the Missing Mom that Katsuragi forced Souma to kill as punishment for all of the abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) she piled on him, and whose death drove Youya towards the edge and made him take up her name. Neat one, Yuu Watase

Horror

• The only way that Souma was ever shown any affection at all was through sexual abuse and rape. It is the only way he was ever able to interpret any kind of affection or care from anyone throughout his entire childhood. Anyone want to make an educated guess at what they thought he was going to actually do to Masataka when he finally realised he loved him? Knowing Souma's backstory, it becomes less surprising that Souma raped Masataka at all than that it didn't happen earlier. However, looking back from those very first chapters, you can see the hints being dropped, the situations slowly closing in. Only later do you find out that, despite being an Empty Shell with a backstory as painful as spending a nuclear winter in hell, Souma didn't ask Masataka to kill him to end his own misery, but to stop him for what he was going to do.^[1] ... There's a very good reason why the Karmic Death of this series' Complete Monsters^[2] feels so very, very satisfying.

1. ↑ Or what other people were going to do because of him.
2. ↑ You'll know them by their use of Cold-Blooded Torture and indiscriminate rape