I haven’t been able to post all week so here’s it all at once. But if I had been posting daily, to nobody’s surprise, every single post would be about Kazuma.
There’s very few other characters in fiction who have left so strong an impression on me as Kazuma. He is so simple in concept, yet so complex in practice. An immortal teenage boy who’s heart is so big that he would sacrifice the world for a single person. That one, drastically oversimplified goal drives every decision he makes and influences every relationship he forms. It pushes him to go against his own interests, to sacrifice himself, his friends, and his ideals in the process, to do things he knows that person would not want him to do, all to protect them, even against their own wishes.
It should come as no surprise then that the scene that broke my heart was this one.
That look of genuine shock on his face. After chasing down Yato, begging him to use him, it’s only when Yato finally does that Kazuma understands what he’s been asking for. It’s at that moment he realizes how far he’s gone, and how much farther he’s still willing to go. When Yato called him Kazune for the first time, I think my heart shattered in two right alongside him.
His relationships with Veena and Yato are so rich in their own right, so I won’t go into it here. But (spoilers for the end of the manga), I’m really happy that he gets to be shared between them. I said it in another post but after all they went through, he’s probably only upset because Veena’s upset, not because he doesn’t actually like being Kazune. It’s also a way of living with the consequences of his own decisions, even if those consequences aren’t as bad as they could’ve been.
Personally I think he probably should’ve had more consequences than he got. I don’t think he deserves forgiveness for everything he did, even if he won in the end, though I don’t necessarily wish for it either. I’m glad he got his happy ending. But imagine if after everything, Veena released him, and he had to live out the rest of his existence as Kazune. For all the betrayals and murders he did, it would still be a light punishment. But for Kazuma, who had built his entire personality around Veena, who did all those betrayals and murders in her name (often against her will), it would be the fitting punishment. Live with what he did, and never able to truly be with her again. I would probably cry alongside him. But it wouldn’t be unearned.
I love this character so much, this barely scratches the surface. I love Noragami, but in many ways, Kazuma is what kept me coming back - he’s the reason I picked up the manga after watching the anime. I love his struggles and complicated relationships and mental gymnastics. I love his loyalty and selfishness and bad decisions and how it ate him up inside but he kept going because he truly believed it was the right thing to do. I love how he could’ve so easily become a villain if his story was framed slightly differently, or if he went down a slightly different path. I love this deeply flawed and broken character in all his forms.
