Been thinking about Kamimura Kazutoshi and how similar he is to Hasegawa Ken. It is a situation where two people are so different on the surface but loop back around to being extremely similar.
▪︎ For one, they have both been exposed to death at similar ages. Kamimura found the lifeless bodies of his parents after coming home from school at 9 years old, and Hasegawa witnessed his sister die right in front of him at 6 years old.
▪︎ They both have a love for learning and have a field they are passionate about. For Kamimura, it is chemistry and forensics. For Hasegawa, it is facts and trivia.
▪︎ They both suffer from panic disorders.
▪︎ They both have a pattern of withdrawing as a coping mechanism. Kamimura retreated to his room after seeing his parents' bodies, then later stopped coming to school because he felt he had no reason to. Hasegawa chose to dedicate his time to studying and distanced himself from his peers at school to avoid anxiety. After Kamimura's death, he stayed in his room for a while before the other characters came to check up on him.
▪︎ They both had no friends before the killing game, as a result of this aforementioned pattern, and that is why they became so attached to each other so quickly.
Visually, they could not be more different.
Hairstyles : Long hair vs Short hair
Attire : Hoodie vs Tailor-Made suit
Color palettes : Bright blue and red vs Neutral Beige and Brown
They are both very lonely individuals who, despite what they might have told themselves and others, genuinely yearned for connection. If anything, they are both intense individuals who feel emotions quite deeply.
During the killing game, they formed a bond quasi-immediately. In Late Night Chat, their first on-screen conversation, they talked to each other as if they had been long term friends. Despite how cautious and careful of a person Kamimura is, he even tells him "I am glad you're here, Ken". According to him, Ken was the only normal person there compared to "these freaks". Unfortunately, he could not have been further from the truth.
It isn't hard for the observant audience member to realize that Hasegawa is not afraid to play dirty if he believes it will serve a greater purpose. Not only did he use this ability to incapacitate the entire class during Chapter 5 to facilitate his murder plan, he also used it on Kamimura.
Woodshop is a great example of this. When Kamimura opens up about his suicidal ideation, Hasegawa grabs him by the shoulders and screams at him to stay, without stopping to consider how that might have looked to Kamimura. Hasegawa is 188 cms and he has him cornered in the off-limits Woodshop. They are surrounded by dangerous weapons and no one can hear them. When spelled out, this situation seems...fairly dangerous. However, when anyone else would have felt terrified, Kamimura seems calm. Furthermore, he seems ready to confess his feelings before retracting.
I believe this kind of devotion, this kind of desperation to keep him alive rattled Kamimura. Having been deprived of actual affection and appreciation for so long, being shaken by the shoulders and forced to witness it was welcomed.
Hasegawa is not malicious, but he is looking out for his own emotional well-being. He understood that if Kamimura died, his whole world would fall apart so he had to be forceful and aggressive with his confession in order to keep Kamimura close.
From the start, their relationship was established as codependent, mirroring Nakamigawa and Ojima's relationship. Hasegawa is the only person Kamimura trusts, despite becoming friends with some of the other students later on, only ever letting his guard down around him. Kamimura is Hasegawa's anchor throughout the killing game. He is the one who keeps him sane, who gives him hope. Without him, he goes off the deep-end. Kamimura represents comfort, because, try as he may to forget it, he knows they are extremely similar. "You were so smart. It was so impressive to me, how eager you were to learn."
What I noticed upon my first Tetro watch was how insistent Hasegawa was, despite Kamimura'a protests. He seemed to have this idea that he, and he alone, knew what was best for him. And that is when their personalities clash. Kamimura wants to be independent and equates having needs with being weak, whilst Hasegawa's love language is acts of service. He wants to be responsible for someone, to care for them. But when they block every attempt to do so, he panics.
But once again, he doesn't stop to think about Kamimura's point of view, only his own. Kamimura has lived with his conditions his whole life. He knows when he needs help and when he doesn't. So Hasegawa unknowingly insults him whenever he persists in his proposals to help him, because he implies that he thinks Kamimura doesn't know his own body.
Their relationship also has this "Us vs The World" flair to it that is stereotypical of teenage relationships. Especially on Hasegawa's side. This idea of complete and utter devotion to the object of your affection, this pressure to put them at the centre of your life and if you feel anything less than that then your love isn't true. "If I had to choose you or the world, I would burn it down just to warm you up". But what's interesting is that Hasegawa actually means it.
I am not saying their relationship is wrong, this analysis is simply an invitation to not view it through rose-tinted glasses.
I've been wondering about what would have happened had Hasegawa been the one to die in Chapter 3. I do believe it was inevitable that they would be separated at some point, since they were always joined at the hip and we needed to see how they would act without the other but I wonder...how would Kamimura have reacted?
My honest opinion is that he would probably fight tooth and nail to find the culprit, clean up Hasegawa's crime scene until it is spotless, just like he promised, but once that's over, he would probably kill himself soon after. Not necessarily out of despair but more so, out of resignation. He would take it as confirmation that he was only destined to a life of tragedy and he might as well take it in his own hands. Maybe he would act similarly to Ryoma in V3, where he offers up his life to someone who has a valid reason to get out, so he would at least get to die for a good cause. Since his previous suicide attempts were unsuccessful, he would trust someone else to do it for him.
theartofmadeline
kaledo-art
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
snowghoul
areudirty
jbbartram-illu
kianamaiart
