The theme of self acceptance in Saiki K.
In the Light novels, Saiki meets an evil version of himself. He discovers this version of himself “got rid” of Nendo. And he is easily defeated by this version of Saiki because he completely isolated himself and spent all of his time training his powers.
The evil version of Saiki tells him he’s grown weak due to his friendships and connections with others. The audience is intended to view this world as a reality where everyone is the opposite of themselves, but he quickly discovers that these versions of them are not opposites, they are just them if they never got to have a connection with Saiki.
Kaido formed his persona to try to make friends but ended up pushing others away, him meeting Saiki helped him find that balance. He has lost his nature of accepting “good” as something that prevails, his values of hope and chivalry and trust weren’t able to thrive without his friendship with Saiki. He is not truly the opposite of himself, he is just what he would have been without those friendships.
Chiyo is shown drawing yaoi in class with nobody around her. This shows how if she never met Saiki, and never had a crush on him she would have never gotten to have any positive female friendships. She formed such a close bond with Kokomi because they both were under the impression that they knew who the other person liked, this wouldn’t have happened without Saiki due to the butterfly effect.
With Teruhashi, we see she has been reduced to nothing but her cult following. She has been stripped of her personhood by not meeting Saiki. Her relationship with Saiki shows her accepting herself as a human being, as someone who doesn’t deserve to be dehumanized. She formed her relationship with saiki because initially she felt insecure because he didn’t react the way she wanted him to, she relied on external validation, her view of herself was purely based off of the validation she got from men in her life.
Her genuinely falling in love with Saiki shows that she has accepted herself as a human being, because she is able to have a friendship with someone that isn’t based off of that validation she based her personhood off of initially.
It also shows how she has accepted Saiki as a person and not a simple gasp from the crowd, which is a major point in Saikis own journey at accepting his personhood.
The scene where Saiki catches Teruhashi when she faints in t he crowd is the most important scene for them as people I believe. Saiki is willing to severely compromise his “like air” social image is is trying to present himself as. He is purposefully drawing attention to himself for the sake of Teruhashi, attention from politicians and school staff and all male students (and some female.) this is everything he has put up walls to avoid, and he did it for something as simple of catching her before someone who didn’t care did. He feels angry at the crowd for not noticing her, and for not seeing her as a person like he does. He is willing to compromise the carefully composed social image of himself he has created purely for the sake of her, even when it wasn’t “needed.”
When she wakes up in the nurses, the men ignore her pain for the attention of her, they’re still focused on themselves. Upon finding out Saiki was the one who caught her, and carried her she breaks the carefully built persona she has been building since she was a baby. She hasn’t slept in days for the sake of keeping this persona, and she was willing to sacrifice it just to tell Saiki a simple thank you. This wasn’t a life or death situation for either of them, they were simply willing to accept themselves as people instead of their personas for their love and care for eachother
When Saiki is forced into the idealized version of himself, he is still unhappy in this idealized version of himself because he is still lonely. He realizes this idealized version of himself is still unhappy because who he was wasn’t what was causing him to be unhappy with his life.
When Nendo shows up, Saiki realizes what truly matters in his life. He realizes that Nendo will always choose to be his companion, no matter who he is, as long as he is still Saiki. They are partners. Nendo chooses to love him, Nendo chooses to care about him, Nendo will always extend a hand, and Saiki now knows he cannot let himself let go. He decides the best world is the world with Nendo in it, the world where he loves and is loved.
Later in the chapter with evil Saiki. He discovers evil Saiki simply didn’t allow Nendo to enroll at PK accademy. He didn’t erase his existence, he didn’t kill him, even when he is a person who could simply erase someone’s existence with a mere thought. Saiki discovers this alternate version of himself wasn’t truly an evil person. Saiki then chooses to help this version of himself that he still despises, he feels empathy for himself which proves he IS an empathetic person, he does love the people around him, and he is capable of loving himself as well even if he thinks he’s a selfish or bad person. In this scene, he extends love and care towards a part of himself he can’t stand, but this part of himself was originally the part of himself he held the most dear.
When Nendo saved Saiki from the bookshelf, this idea of Saiki accepting his personhood is solidified. Saikis language regarding himself shows internally he is calling himself useless. He expresses verbally he never thought he would need to be protected. Nendo tells him being human is about protecting and being protected, and Saiki says he is someone who GETS to be protected. He is someone who GETS to be human. He thanks Nendo for this, he thanks Nendo for allowing him to be human.
In the end scene where Saiki hears Teruhashis prayers, he decides to accept his powers as part of himself, and he decides he “likes troublesome things.” He has accepted himself as a psychic, he has accepted himself as a human, and he has accepted the fact he loves and is loved by others. Saiki has accepted himself.
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