Kazutora/Chifuyu: Moodboard, Music & Literature Analysis
Kazutora reminds me of Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Wasteland & The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Elliot
"Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing." - Crime & Punishment
Crime and Punishment has the immense guilt and fear that I believe Kazutora has throughout initially killing Shinichiro all the way until he kills (technically) Baji. Románovich and Kazutora, similarly confess at the end to what they've done, taking responsibility for the first time in their lives. I believe their similar punishment is living with the fact that they've killed someone, and really coming to redemption through someone else.
"Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you" - The Wasteland
Between The Wasteland and The Hollow Men, I believe that Kazutora is reminiscent of T.S. Elliot. The way in which he describes the living death, mourning and otherwise, yearing for release. This particular quote matches him exactly however. I think it is self explanitory.
“Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”
- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The wish to be forgiven and loved, despite ones mistakes.
Chifuyu reminds me of Moby Dick by Herman Melville & Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City by Walt Whitman.
What is difficult about finding books for Chifuyu is his biblical level of forgiveness he seems to have. What is really good about Chifuyu and Kazutora has a lot to do with the fact that Chifuyu forgives to an extent that is simply not seen much in other things, especially considering the fact that he did it multiple times without even knowing, speaking to the fact that he truly meant his forgiveness.
Anyways, though it is not forgiveness, which I wish it was, but they are unique in this particular way of it... These will have to do.
"Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents’ beds, unerringly I rush! Naught’s an obstacle, naught’s an angle to the iron way!" - Moby Dick
I think of Ahab like Chifuyu initially chasing the white whale obsessively, and Kazutora as Ishmael who knows the ending can only be bad. In Bad Toman, Chifuyu is Ahab, eventually getting himself killed for chasing the white whale that is Toman.
But the fixed path, the purpose of ones life being set in stone after one moment... I think is very Chifuyu.
"Yet now of all that city I remember only a man I casually met
there who detain’d me for love of me,
Day by day and night by night we were together–all else has long
been forgotten by me,
I remember I say only that man who passionately clung to me--" - Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City
I believe the real love shared between them, the clinginess, desperation, the bold love profession... I think Chifuyu being stuck with Kazutora to the point of remembering him alone in most of his life, made sense.
"You're like a picture, you know you'll never be the same thing again." "I wanna watch it fade into black."
Watching the end of something that is beautiful and temporary is the main point of the song. It really speaks to Kazutora's character with his continued tempority of his relationships, with his friends, with his family, with everyone except for Chifuyu who seems to be by his side till the end. Kazutora, I imagine, is waiting for their beautiful moment to end.
Глаза (прилипли) Eyes (stuck) by Комсомольск (Komsomolsk)
"I'm so tender yet so anxious. My eyes have stuck to you again."
The song is about goodbyes, things going poorly for the person and then, in the middle of the terrible anxiety looking to the person you love again. That they'd follow them anywhere, just to see their eyes glisten.
Anyways, this is very much how I imagine Kazutora who seems to follow Chifuyu anywhere he'd like, in every timeline.
"Living in a world where I can't remember. Throwing it all away trying to get over you."
In particular this whole songs reminds me of the final timeline in which the two of them are the least close out of all the other timelines. Their relationship, not so meaningful anymore. This song in part, reminds me of a quote from a book that doesn't match Chifuyu but the quote does.
"Don't you think it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life." - The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
It was better to be happy for a short while, in each of the other timelines, while knowing eachother, than to just be okay in the last one.
I thought, with the two of them, that even if they were happy in the last one that to know happiness is to know sorrow, and in the last timeline they don't seem to know sorrow.
Take Care by Beach House:
"Its no good unless it grows. Feel this burning love of mine." "I'd take care of you, if you asked me to, in a year or two."
I felt as though this could fit either of them, however, the forwardness of the lyrics in the way they profess so outwardly their emotions, is distinctly Chifuyu.
Chifuyu always picks Kazutora up from the prison. Chifuyu always gives Kazutora a place to work. I think, taking care of Kazutora is very himself.
