#CSM213 : The more Yoshida manipulated Denji, the more sincere their bond became.
I'm not going to analyze Yoshida's death by saying that it was obvious Denji would turn into Pochita (a sign of great despair), on the pretext that they had been close from the beginning and SHAAAME ON YOUUU for not seeing it !!!!!!
No. The whole chapter is designed to surprise the reader and upset their perception of their relationship.
Let's go back to the bear theory taught to Yoshida by his teacher: everyone must stay in their own zone to avoid hostility and victims.
This is exactly what Yoshida tried to apply at all times: interacting with Denji while maintaining a cautious neutrality, a veil, strands of hair in front of his eyes.
I like to think of Yoshida as an inkblot: elusive, you never know what he's doing there. You expect him to do something decisive, something incredible, but he always goes against the grain, never where you expect him to be. Whose side is he really on? Denji's? The demon hunters'? With Fami? His strength lies in this obscurity born of his obsessive neutrality: by refusing to fully enter one side, he ends up treading on neither.
This attitude stems from his teacher's lesson: don't venture into the bear's territory. For Yoshida, this means never really bonding with anyone, always putting the mission first. This is how the demon hunter Yoshida acts.
But what Fujimoto explores in part 2 is precisely how, behind this mask of indifference, the teenager tries to express himself despite everything.
Yes, Yoshida manipulated Denji, he is not trustworthy, and these are not the aspects that the story seeks to rehabilitate. What is disturbing about this chapter is something else: Yoshida's obsession with understanding Denji.
Denji functions as his opposite. Where Yoshida restrains and neutralizes himself, Denji acts instinctively, guided by his emotions, even if it means losing everything. He does indeed lose everything, but in this loss he embodies a total freedom that eludes Yoshida.
Denji is so free that he does not limit himself to the single choice that Yoshida wanted to impose on him: he takes two paths at once. He is free to the point of eating cake with his hands and not giving in to Yoshida's ridiculous blackmail about using forks.
Denji acts with the carefree vulnerability and sincere, if foolish, naivety of adolescence—traits that Yoshida has lost. Whereas Yoshida fully embraces social constraints to the point of becoming an elusive character, Denji refuses to be confined and asserts clear and recognizable characteristics.
Furthermore, Denji does not easily trust men, and certainly not a mysterious “handsome guy” like Yoshida. But despite everything, Yoshida was another teenager he saw regularly, a recurring presence in his life.
This is where the power of his desperate reaction lies: despite Yoshida's efforts to remain neutral and distant, Denji saw him as a close friend. Yoshida, who wanted to maintain a barrier, ultimately revealed a connection.
His last pizza meal with Denji illustrates this: Yoshida was intended to be a trigger, not only because of the explosion that would follow, but because his death would cause Denji to break down, allowing Pochita to emerge.
And when Barem burns Yoshida's body, the fire paradoxically symbolizes dreams with the theme of the fire demon: even in the chaos, a dream existed, that of having shared this interaction.
But what Fujimoto emphasizes is that calculations, plans, and manipulations ultimately matter little. Why should Denji despair at losing a neutral, indifferent demon hunter whom he only encountered in premeditated scenarios designed to manipulate him ?
Because it wasn't just Denji's adolescence and naivety that were exploited: Yoshida's were too.
Despite the artificial setting and the pretense, a genuine bond eventually formed. For a sacrifice to have meaning, this relationship had to become sincere, and it did.
Beneath the complexity of the circumstances, what remains is overwhelmingly simple: true friendship.
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