Jacen's Rants
The Rui Kamishiro Rant Redux
May 12, 2025
Back when I did my initial Rui rant, there was a detail that I wanted to include, but I chose to leave out. Now that I have more of the story, I feel I can revisit it.
A few years back, a screenshot was floating around of a post declaring Rui a war criminal.
Ignoring for the moment that you have to be at war to commit a war crime, a helpful commenter on Reddit provided an explanation.
At the time, the Project Sekai wiki backed up the claim.
It seemed, however, that no one seemed to know exactly when that fact was brought up in canon. A few months later, someone else on Reddit pointed out the line from the wiki and asked about it, and no one could provide any concrete information. I, too, had no recollection of that being brought up in the story. At some point, the claim was removed from the wiki. Without any kind of proof of Rui's behavior, I didn't want to spread misinformation, even in what (at the time) was a private rant, so I opted to exclude it from my rambling.
With that said, the claim that Rui tortured a kid in a pool was so bold and outlandish that I refused to believe it was completely made up. Surely, it had to have some basis in something, right? So, I decided to try to figure out where exactly this came from and why no one (including myself) seemed to remember it.
My first guess was that it was in the "It's On! Wonder Halloween!" event story, since that's an early Rui-focused event, but I wasn't able to find anything there. I was able to track down the original Reddit comment thread, which claimed it was in the WxS main story.
I expected it to be toward the end, where Tsukasa is trying to re-recruit Rui into WxS. However, I still couldn't find it, so I started looking earlier into the story. As it turns out, it's much earlier in the story than I could have expected, all the way back in episode 10. It's available to view in-game or on Sekai Viewer, but here's a quick snippet for your convenience.
Rui: Tsukasa, I have some ideas for this play. Would you like to hear them?
Tsukasa: Oh, you already have something? Tell me, then, I'm curious.
Rui: I'd like to emphasize the hardships the prince must suffer on his journey to make the audience sympathize with him more.
Tsukasa: Hmm, yes.
Rui: I think some lightning strikes would be excellent for this purpose.
Tsukasa: Hmm, yes... No, hold on!
Emu: Zippy zaps! That's sooo cool!
Rui: Right? I brought along this plasma generator—
Tsukasa: Wait a minute! Why do you even have a gizmo like that?!
Rui: Oh, I thought it might come in handy.
Tsukasa: Who'd think that, ever?! Not to mention this must be incredibly dangerous!
Rui: Don't worry, the device can be securely attached to the stage in a way that will keep the audience perfectly safe. Please make sure you don't touch it or you'll die.
Tsukasa: What about keeping ME safe?!
Robo-Nene: And so it starts again...
Emu: What does?
Robo-Nene: When Rui gets excited about an idea for a show, he just has to try it out.
Robo-Nene: He tried suspending classmates from ropes in the school gym, or holding them underwater in the pool...
Robo-Nene: Everyone soon regrets signing up to do shows with him and starts to avoid him.
Emu: But why? It all sounds fun to me!
Robo-Nene: Maybe that's the problem, that there aren't more people as enthusiastic as you are, Emu...
So, there you have it. While not waterboarding, Rui has canonically attempted to drown a child in a pool. Make of that what you will.
