The Professional and the Problem Child: Rikichi and Komatsuda as foils
I'm a big fan of the Rikichi + Komatsuda combo — they're two characters I love, and their antics are always fun to watch. But when I thought more about it, I found that they're also interesting together because they act almost as foils to each other.
This is a semi-structured little ramble about how they contrast with each other, how this affects their interactions, and what I'd love to see done with them.
On the surface
It's easy to see their very blatant differences. Rikichi is a country boy who grew up in a secluded area with almost nobody and who's aimed to be a professional from a young age. Komatsuda is a city boy who grew up in a well-off family with his very close older brother and who's supposedly always done things in half-measures.
Rikichi is adept at conversation, can lie just as easily as he can tell the truth, can be a bit cynical about things. On the other hand, when it comes to Komatsuda, what you see is what you get: he's poor at hiding his feelings, he tends to say exactly what he thinks, and he views the world in a simple but rather optimistic light. Rikichi is able to stop and assess a situation and plan; Komatsuda, well... it might not be that he doesn't do those things, but more that he can't.
Family ties
Their differences start to get more intriguing when you think about how each of them view and experience family. For Komatsuda, family is basically always a positive thing: they stick together, they support each other. Even if there's disagreements, things always work out in the end. For Rikichi, however, family is more complicated and brings up dual feelings of love and loneliness, support and self-reliance, the ideals of family should always be together and family is the most important thing vs seeing other things in life as more important or more significant than family.
In addition, the Yamada family is dysfunctional at times and almost kind of try to push or guide Rikichi into things. He was set up on the path to become a ninja at a young age, and his mother has often tried to set him up to get married. On the other hand, from what we've seen of Komatsuda's family, they tend to pull him inward; Yuusaku would've likely been okay with Komatsuda staying in their family home for the rest of his life doing whatever. I think both families want their children to be independent and successful, but their principals and the way they go about it is wildly different.
Childhood and being a child
We haven't been given any real information about Komatsuda's childhood, but we can make an educated guess because Yuusaku still treats Komatsuda like a kid at times. Whether he's reminding Komatsuda of basic things like washing himself off before coming inside or telling Komatsuda he's taking him back home "for his own good," Yuusaku doesn't always treat Komatsuda like his age. In this way, Komatsuda's almost in an extended state of childhood that doesn't show signs of ending.
(I have a lot of thoughts on Yuusaku and Komatsuda and their relationship, including Yuusaku treating Komatsuda as both a child and an adult, all of which you can read here)
On the other hand, Rikichi was often rushed out of childhood. He was rushed out of it by his parents and lifestyle, and he was also rushed out of it by his own desire to escape and see the world. For him, childhood was being stuck at home with no one else around; always practicing instead of playing; always being told "next time" or "later." There's an interesting thread related to this that runs in episodes 30-68 and 33-72. In 30-68, Rikichi refuses his father's offer to play catch because he says doing something like that in the middle of the school is embarrassing. In 33-72, he specifically stops his father from leaving home and says they should play shuriken catch. Perhaps he's afraid of being perceived as "childish," but can't help but want to be able to return to the parts of childhood that he enjoyed (or that he wishes he got to enjoy).
Their differences in action
It's interesting to see how they're foils when looking at them individually, but I think what's equally interesting is how their opposite personalities and upbringing affect how they interact with each other (or, at the very least, how Rikichi reacts to Komatsuda).
Rikichi wears many different hats — the nagging son, the role model, the professional — but in all of these, there's a hint of Rikichi being restrained and not vulnerable. Even when he gets mad at 1-Ha, for example, it tends to be brief. With Komatsuda, however, Rikichi's emotions are laid bare in such a pronounced way. This boy who isn't fit to be a ninja at all is the one who can bring out a very honest side of Rikichi.
Komatsuda makes a lot of people mad at him, but I also think Rikichi has a special ire for Komatsuda because of Komatsuda's upbringing and worldview, and how it contrasts with Rikichi's.
The younger nintama don't necessarily think of the realities of the ninja world, but sure, they're kids. But Komatsuda is basically an adult, and Rikichi has seen and heard of plenty of people Komatsuda's age dying on the battlefield because of their overconfidence, so he might be especially annoyed to hear Komatsuda talking about being a ninja with that same starry-eyed ignorance that usually only children have. This is compounded by Komatsuda's background of growing up peacefully with people who loved him, and the fact that he doesn't tend to give any reason for wanting to be a ninja other than that ninja are cool. Komatsuda doesn't understand the full depth of what ninja go through and is seemingly never able to understand it no matter what he's told, and the fact that he can continue to do so is probably something Rikichi is irritated about... and maybe secretly a little jealous of.
Future developments
I mentioned in the previous section that Rikichi's ire for Komatsuda might stem in part from the way Komatsuda approaches being a ninja. We see this come up a bit in episode 32-62, where Rikichi tells Komatsuda that people like him are the first to die on the battlefield (a comment Komatsuda promptly ignores). We also see Komatsuda witnessing a battle firsthand while with Rikichi in 17-05. I think both of these could be explored further (well, as far as the anime would allow it), especially if Rikichi became aware that resentment played a bit of a part in why he wants to drill this into Komatsuda's head. Maybe he could take Komatsuda to a battlefield, maybe even put him in the middle of it, to prove a point — but he can't help but save Komatsuda when he's in trouble.
The difference between each of their families is another topic ripe for stories. I've always thought an episode with Rikichi meeting Yuusaku would be interesting. Yuusaku isn't quite like his brother, but it seems a Komatsuda is still a Komatsuda, and watching Rikichi interact with him, perhaps with both the brothers there, would be fun. Maybe he could pick up some tips for smoothly dealing with Komatsuda while he's at it. Komatsuda has gotten a little close to Yamada family drama, like in episode 22-29, but there's plenty to be done by actually putting him right in the middle of it. Something he says — about the Yamada family seeming dysfunctional or really different than his own, about how he thinks they should get along — could be downright volatile. Especially if he doesn't understand why Rikichi gets mad at him for it, because for Komatsuda, it's not like he said anything wrong, so why should Rikichi have such an excessive reaction?
Conversely, putting Komatsuda in the middle of family drama could work more in Rikichi's favor. In episode 21-25, Rikichi runs into Komatsuda, Shinbei, and Danzou in front of an udon restaurant and they all end up eating together. When Komatsuda returns to the school, he reports back to Yamada-sensei — and it turns out that Rikichi wasn't shy about discussing family business with the group. Rikichi talking about family with someone who isn't a student and who's around his age could a chance for him to discuss it in a more personal way.
Whatever happens, I hope that their relationship, their differences, and maybe even their similarities continue to be explored in future seasons.
