heaven by mieko kawakami poses such an intricate question about bullying and about human free will. it addresses the complexities of adolescence and the complexities of social (and occasionally physical) cruelty through such a sensitive but unflinching lens that it is physically unnerving.
the main character, a bullied 14 year old boy called “eyes” by his classmates on account of his lazy eye, meets kojima, a bullied 14 year old girl in the same class.
kojima, attempting to find meaning in her suffering, befriends “eyes” (whose name we never learn in the novel) and searches for the reason and purpose behind the bullying. she explains to the protagonist that there’s meaning in “letting it happen”, that there’s meaning in his eye being lazy, and that there is meaning in her dirty appearance (which she does to feel closer to the time she spent poor and with her dad). she poses their experiences at the hands of their classmates as a form of resistance and as something that makes them strong, rather than just a cruelty done to them by others.
her philosophy is essentially that of “everything has meaning”.
on the other hand, “eyes” has an encounter with momose, one of his bullies. momose, however, differs from the others in the sense that he always seems indifferent to the bullying and rarely ever takes the lead when “eyes” is being tormented. during their encounter, the protagonist questions momose as to why they do it and momose simply responds with “because we want to”. it’s a simple enough answer and he details to “eyes” that nothing really has meaning, that people are free to do what they want, and that the concept of doing “good” and “bad” doesn’t matter anyway. they have a lengthy discussion in which a victim confronts a perpetrator and receives answers for his treatment which completely rival the meaning kojima had been searching for through the previous half of the book.
momose details that it’s not because of his lazy eye that he gets bullied, but by a series of coincidences that ultimately led to where they are, with “eyes” being victim and momose’s friend group being perpetrators. not because the protagonist is different but simply because they want to and they can.
momose’s philosophy, however cruel, is that “nothing has meaning”.
the book poses these two opposite philosophies as valid explanations for kojima and the protagonist’s experiences, juxtaposing them as the viewpoint of both victim and perpetrator. while kojima searches for meaning in their suffering, momose offers that there is none. while kojima states that their complacency and kindness is their way of fighting, momose poses that the only way to escape is to do the same thing back.
meanwhile, “eyes” is caught between these two conflicting philosophies, one in which everything has meaning and cruelty has just as much weight as kindness, and another in which neither kindness nor cruelty have any meaning and we are simply choosing to do what we want, when we want to. both, however cruel or not they may seem, are valid explanations. neither is discredited and neither is posed as the correct answer.
the novel poses these philosophies really startlingly. reading momose’s conversation with “eyes” after watching kojima (and the protagonist) struggle to find solace in meaning, is both jarring and somehow sensible. that’s not to say momose is right, nor to say that kojima is. the novel simply poses these two philosophies as equally factual and equally realistic.
do bad things happen to good people because it means something or are we simply at the mercy of our own whims and the whims of others? does doing good have meaning? does doing bad have meaning? or is everything, the cruel and the kind, equally as inconsequential? is kojima right because she believes in a greater meaning for their experiences or is momose right in his belief that because nothing matters, people are free to do whatever they want, including “eyes” and kojima?
both are equally as valid in the story, carrying a similar weight with the protagonist. it’s a really heartbreaking look at bullying from both perspectives, without a real acknowledgement of which philosophy is right and which is wrong. while the actions may be right and wrong, there is no right way to think about them except through our own personal interpretations.
it makes the ending of the book, in which “eyes” has a surgery done to fix his lazy eye, against kojima’s (who insists that him being the way he is has meaning and suffered a mental breakdown at the climax of the story) adamant protests, all the more meaningful.
upon losing kojima as a friend and suffering a traumatic experience—upon the ending of his first real friendship and his seemingly single point of “real” human connection (if that sort of trauma bond can be considered so)—he removes the bandage from his eyes and marvels at the beauty of the world, now containing depth.
“everything i could see was beautiful. i cried and cried, standing there, surrounded by that beauty, even though i wasn’t standing anywhere. i could hear the sound of my own tears. everything was beautiful. not that there was anyone to share it with, anyone to tell. just the beauty.”
he is freed from the thing he once considered a shackle and is now indifferent to for the first time, but never acknowledges the good or the bad. he is alone, standing in the street, seeing the beauty of the world. without a friend, without peers, without anyone. there’s no right or wrong. there’s no good or bad. just the beauty.
i just finished reading the xenogenesis trilogy by octavia e butler last night and holy shit... it was fucking fantastic.
i found myself enthralled at every turn. every new piece of information, every twist and turn, seemed to do exactly what i wanted it to do without doing what i expected it to do.
it’s difficult to explain what the series is about, as butler’s world-building is deeply immersive and highly detailed. however, the series synopsis boils down to: humanity, on the verge of itS planetary and species extinction due to a nuclear war, is discovered by an alien race called the oankali who wish to interbreed with them in order to create a perfect mix between the species, taking all of the good from both and leaving behind the bad.
(spoilers beyond this point)
the first book, dawn, follows lilith iyapo as she is awoken from suspended animation, made to become used to the grotesque oankali, and “asked” to awaken other humans with the intention of sending them back down to repopulate a restored earth with human and oankali hybrids. it deals beautifully with the concept of freedom versus choice, as well as survival versus morality. the book describes in painstaking detail, what it means for lilith to be human, as well as what it means to not just survive this alien invasion, but to thrive in it.
the oankali do not kill unless on accident, but that does not mean that lilith has freedom. she’s given the choice of coopoerating with the aliens or returning indefinitely to suspended animation, where her genetic material would be used as a backup reserve. it’s not a choice at all, but it offers the illusion of choice to her and to her oankali captors, who cannot understand why humanity would be so resistant to combining genes.
it’s difficult to express just how detailed and complex these books are. each one takes you deeper and deeper into butler’s science fiction world, drawing you into the story and iyapo family in a way you never would have expected.
xenogenesis conjures up imagery of american slavery and global colonialism, of patriarchal society, of the politics of reproductive freedom. it forces us to reconcile the difference between person and property in this genetic context, as well as forces us to view just how profoundly power-dynamics can and do affect the way we interact with others.
each novel expresses a different aspect of this invasion, from the early stages of lilith’s orientation, all the way through to her large, hybrid family. butler’s books introduce us not only to the human side of the story, but to the alien one. through her books become attached to lilith, as well as to her oankali mates, ahajas, dichaan, and nikanj (her ooloi). despite the pain they put her through, we are still encouraged to sympathize with all of them throughout the story.
dawn, the first book in the series, is told exclusively through a female point of view. the second book, adulthood rites, is told exclusively from a male point of view, following the first human born oankali-human hybrid (also called constructs). the third book, imago, is told through the eyes of the first (and accidental) construct ooloi, the third gender in the oankali reproductive unit.
as the books cover each perspective, they become less and less human. each point of view loses a little more humanity than the last, until the third book thrusts us entirely into the alien world of sexual attraction through genetics rather than through physical appearance. we’re made to sympathize with all three aspects of gender presented in the xenogenesis trilogy, as well as sympathize not only with humanity, but with the oankali. they’re introduced to us in the later half of the series not as alien, but as half of the protagonists we’re rooting for. oankali blood becomes as much a part of the reader’s heritage as it is lilith’s children.
overall, xenogenesis (also called lilith’s brood) is an incredible read that focuses on colonialism, american slavery, reproductive rights and autonomy, patriarchy, and what it means to be human through an increasingly unhuman lens. however, that’s not to say butler’s work ever loses it’s humanity. much like humanity in the novel, it changes.
Please, do rant about how chainsaw man is a masterpiece and it's going to have an impact on modern shounen
thank you so much for prompting me to talk about this. i have so much to say about it. im about to write an essay. manga spoilers are a given but here's the warning just in case.
firstly, fujimoto has such a strong grasp of visual storytelling. i know that this seems like a pretty baseline statement for a mangaka but i genuinely think his grasp on it in particular is spectacular. he works so much into his panels and even the placing of the characters in the frame is important.
it's a really obvious element of his work and it's both plot-driven and comedically driven, which makes it all the more compelling. oftentimes in chainsaw man, comedic scenes are indicative of a greater power hierarchy present within interactions (especially with regards to denji and makima).
makima plays a maternal role in the story and is, undoubtedly, a character fujimoto took a lot of care in writing and drawing. she's always in positions of power and almost always the focal point of panels and scenes she's present in. her sexuality as a woman is used as a weapon knowingly and she's presented as both mother, lover, and leader to denji and within the art of the series (which serves to highlight denji's deep-seated need for affection of all forms).
in fact, a lot of her positioning in the series is very maternal. even when she tears pochita from chainsaw man's chest, she is cradling his head as a mother would a babe. her chains come from her womb and diaphragm, often thought to be the location of the solar plexus chakra which dictates personality, ego, identity, personal freedom, choice, and authenticity. which is fitting considering her position as the control devil and her attempt to rob denji of his personhood. (honestly i could go on about makima and motherhood forever. i saw a tiktok about it a little while ago and ended up diving down a rabbit hole of thought).
it's also really interesting to me that denji serves as both comedic relief and a tragic character, as well as being the main protagonist of his story. it's not unheard of, but it is unique and it makes the story stand out within the shonen genre (naruto did something similar but with an entirely different message and theme). it makes denji compelling and incredibly human.
that trope within itself is nothing new. it's somewhat common. however, what I've noticed about chainsaw man is that denji's comedic relief is almost always indicative of a greater theme. his motivations being purely sexual and romantic are, originally, presented as a comedic aspect of the series meant to introduce you to the type of person denji is. however, after reading the series, it quickly becomes an ominous indication of his ability to be easily manipulated, as well as the extortion of those qualities that lead to his (and makima's) eventual downfall and the climax of the story.
a lot of popular shonen media contains some levels of deeper analysis, but chainsaw man does it in a way in which the plot is actively dependent on that further analysis. i think csm kind of took the shonen genre and introduced a deeper level of thought to it I've only seen in a few other examples (jjk being one of them) and i think that what will come out of it is shonen manga with deeper symbolism and heavier themes.
i think chainsaw man's popularity in particular is gonna end up contributing to a greater shift in shonen and action manga towards more deliberate placement of themes and underlying messages.
that's not to say that other shonen mangas LACK those underlying messages, but i am saying that chainsaw man's popularity is largely OWED to that when it is usually the other way around. and chainsaw man, even in the first week of its anime release, is already HUGELY popular for those reasons.
i think that sometimes there is a belief with popular shonen animanga (and action media in general) that in order for it to be popular, you need these cash-grab scenes and characters. it seems to me that a lot of shonen maintains this idea of serving the palpable and blatantly obvious first and the darker second, whereas chainsaw man absolutely does NOT do that. chainsaw man puts the ugly (and somewhat comedic) aspect of tragedy in your face and then asks you to analyze it to find something even uglier and more meaningful underneath, which is a breath of fresh air in the shonen genre to me.
so all this to say: i think that chainsaw man's popularity is gonna lead to a greater shift in the shonen genre that brings analyzable media and themes to the forefront of what's considered "marketable". im really excited to see the works that come after this and what inspiration they take from it.
i realize that im not saying anything new about chainsaw man. all of these things have probably been said before and in greater detail, but from my perspective (as someone who really values composition in manga panels) this is how i see it. and NONE of this is to say that other shonen genres lack this deep of messaging. chainsaw man is, however, where i have noticed it the most of the shonen i have read.
“my six eyes tell me you’re suguru getou, but my soul knows otherwise”
every single time i think of this I become so desperately and deeply mortified and sad. it’s the first time in the series gojo has ever alluded to or admitted just how PROFOUND an affect killing getou had on him. it’s the first time he admits that something HAS damaged him… and that it’s to the point that his SOUL feels the ache. that his VERY BEING feels the pain and regret and grief.
and yes we assume it hurt him because he had to literally KILL his best friend, but this is the first time gojo HIMSELF has ever acknowledged that part of him. it’s the first time gojo really GENUINELY shows just how deeply affected he is by the people he loves. not just that.. but how deeply affected he is by the actions jujutsu sorcer society forces him to carry out.
also just the fact that gojo’s SOUL knows getou. that gojo’s BEING recognizes him and feels the weight of his actions. the fact that it implies that he carries that burden with him every single day. it’s just a simple thing and honestly common sense but I think it’s a HUGE deal for gojo to even allude to just how deep getou was capable of injuring him and just how much grief he feels over having to kill him. BECAUSE GOJO DOESNT DO THAT. GOJO DOESNT ADMIT THAT HES DOWN OR HURTING OR INJURED OR ANYTHING HUT STRONG. I’m gonna lose my mind.
eternally thinking about denji and his connection to love. always thinking about the transactional nature of his sexual desire and how that factors into the importance of his unconditional connection with power and aki. always thinking about how familial love changed the course of his life and how sexual attraction was constantly leveraged as a currency above him but never taken as less than the love he feels for aki and power.
thinking about the importance of human attraction in chainsaw man, of love as a motivator. thinking always about how denji, above all, is motivated by love of all kinds whether it be familial, platonic, or sexual. thinking about how different he would have been had he met them earlier. thinking about how denji’s desire and motivation shifts from sexual attraction to the subtle idea that he could love aki and power as family forever. love as a goal and as a resolution even in his most difficult times. love as the end all be all goal for our protagonists.
thinking denji’s guilt and the weight on his shoulders and the burden of love. thinking about how new it all was to him, how loving people so deeply despite their flaws was something he had never encountered before.
thinking about love in chainsaw man in all of its forms. the currency of it, the weight it holds with all the characters. love as the greatest motivator. love triumphing above all. love keeping our protagonists going until the very last moment. love motivating our heroes to action or inaction. love as a concept of control. love as a safety blanket. love as reason enough to make the sacrifice. just love and the pivotal role it plays in chainsaw man.
im going to try as best i can to put a blue flag analysis/review into words. it is one of those series that is so deeply personal and so deeply moving to me that i find it difficult to articulate just how it makes me feel or just what i want to say about it. that being said, even after my fourth (?) reread, it continues to be one of the most beautiful stories i’ve had the pleasure of reading.
it is a delightfully character driven series. so much so that one of the author’s goals for it was that “nothing happens”. it’s a manga that focuses purely on change, decisions, loving who and what you love, living your life, and getting through the many hurdles that adolescent life poses.
the main character, taichi ichinose, struggles throughout the series with his own feelings of failure, inferiority, and identity. he is someone who is deeply troubled by his inability to act and wants more than anything to coast by as “normal” without causing problems. he believes himself to somehow be less than his counterparts and at first he strikes you as the stereotypical “no one understands me” protagonist. however, what sets him apart (on a fundamental level) from other protagonists is the affection he holds for the people that he loves. he’s deeply emotional, but struggles with accepting himself as he is. taichi’s plight is him trying to reconcile his short-comings, his insecurities, his inability to act, and his feelings of inferiority when compared to his childhood best friend toma mita.
toma mita—6′2, outgoing, smart, captain of the baseball team, and conventionally attractive—has been taichi’s best friend since elementary school. he fulfills the common “popular boy” trope without losing the qualities that make him human. however, taichi and toma are fundamentally different people. where toma is cool and outgoing, taichi is less so. as they grew up, taichi began to recognize this apparent gap between them and as he became more insecure, he gradually begins to separate what toma mita is from what he is. taichi even goes so far as to accept that someone has call him and toma “different species”. taichi struggles to reconcile this difference, not particularly resentful of toma, but unwilling to fight the notion that the reason for the gap between them is anything but a fundamental preordained reason. as a result, toma and taichi drift apart with taichi becoming somewhat gloomy (despite toma’s understanding of taichi as cheerful and creative). taichi has a hard time believing that they are even friends, despite toma’s insistence on remaining connected in some way. this doesn’t change until their third year of high school when they are put in the same class along with futaba kuze.
futaba kuze is a shy, small, quiet girl who struggles with speaking up. she’s clumsy, awkward, easily flustered, and feels herself to be a burden on those around her. despite this, she works up the courage to ask taichi what type of person toma is. as a result, taichi learns that futaba is in love with toma and gets roped reluctantly into helping them get together. at first, taichi doesn’t like futaba. she reminds him too much of himself but he is moved by her desire to change and grow as a person, a desire he is unable to acknowledge within himself. as the year progresses, the three form a meaningful and unlikely friendship that goes beyond the original goal of getting toma and futaba together and connecting deeply with the people around them, including futaba’s best friend masumi itachi.
now this may sound like your run of the mill love triangle story and i’m not saying that it isn’t. what sets this story apart from others like it is the depth of its characters. every character is so delightfully fleshed out with their own motivations, goals (or lack thereof), beliefs, and values. they regularly circumvent stereotypes usually allotted to the character archetypes they fit and surprise you with their emotional depth. this is even (and perhaps especially) true with the side characters in the story, who take on lives of their own in the narrative.
but perhaps the largest theme in this manga is the concept of identity, which is a common thread through the entire thing. the story features many queer characters, all of them dealing with being queer in a society that looks down on it in different ways. it explores some of the many facets that come with a queer identity, as well as the values of the people around them.
the theme of identity and normalcy is an incredibly strong one in this story. KAITO (the author) brings all of his characters together beautifully to pose the question of “what does the world look like to you?” and “what is happiness to you?”. it truly is a story where he demonstrates that the happiness of the individual exists outside of the boundaries of normalcy and that happiness is found in any number of things.
in fact, i think he even showcases this concept of what is normal and expected in his characters. the story revolves around leaving the bounds of “normal” to find happiness and just living authentically with the choices you’ve made. even his characters, which look like they will fall into a classic category, radically circumvent that “normal” and carry the theme just in the way they are written. the story regularly fights and circumvents common tropes, allowing for unconventional solutions, communication, and unexpected closes to things readers would normally assume would be a major arc. emotions like jealousy, insecurity, anger, and discomfort are all talked about before they can become problems and the story becomes a beautiful focus on the choices they make to get to their desired ends. it is entirely about the characters’ growth, as well as what it means for people to have different values and aspirations.
it is not about how they make the choices they do, but rather the choices themselves and how they have lead them to where they are now. it really is such a fantastic showcase of human emotion, as well as the turbulence of discovering who you are in a world where there are so many trivial dos and don’ts.
even now i feel like i’m not doing this analysis justice because there are so many topics i’d like to touch on and go into. it’s such an incredibly multifaceted story with such beautifully written characters and if i could, i’d like to go in depth about each character and then about each theme individually.
but for now all i really am trying to say is that blue flag absolutely continues to amaze me with the quality of its story, as well as the fresh take it has on romance, identity, and the very genre of romance manga. i have a lot of appreciation for it.
i finally got the chance to read tatsuki fujimoto’s one shot “look back” and i have so many thoughts on it.
it’s such an interesting story and a profoundly sad one at that. it felt like that work was very personal to him and reading it gave off the same impression. i think for a lot of artists, writing and creating stories about artistic motivation is a very personal thing and the care that he used in creating that story really shows.
i really appreciated the frustration at coming across someone who has far more skill and talent than you. i think it’s something a lot of artists experience. not the mention the friendship between fujino and kyomoto was so lovely to read. granted, it wasn’t the most healthy but it was a good example of what it is like to be friends with someone who is constantly pushing you to be better.
not only that, i found fujino to be very compelling. her sense of superiority over the others around her, as well as her competitive spirit about her skills was incredibly interesting to read. i also loved kyomoto as a motivator for her and how her jealousy wasn’t used against her but rather as inspiration for her to get better at her craft.
i can’t help but feel that the story’s narrator was unreliable (/pos). i can’t help but feel that fujimoto deliberately depicted fujino’s art as rudimentary while he depicted kyomoto’s art as beautifully detailed because the narrator (fujino) is looking at her own work. kyomoto thinks of fujimoto as a motivator and vice versa so i can’t help but feel that fujino’s understanding of her own work is deliberately shown to be shoddy and insecure.
that’s my favorite way to interpret the story right now because i think every artist has that. i think so many artists are hypercritical of their work while also believing that it just comes easier to other artists. it’s an interpretation that really resonates with anyone working to get better at an artistic craft and probably my favorite detail about the one shot.
hell's paradise and the concept of crime and morality. a duty to oneself vs a duty to country. duty to loved ones vs duty to clan. how the whole does not always outweigh the individual. how morality, and goodness by proxy ,are a personal choice. how one must sometimes turn away from the rules of society or laws of country to protect those they love.
enamored with its concept of love, both familial and romantic. its concept of true self vs self defined by where you come from. nature vs nuture and if they can be changed. an abandoning of values to protect the few.
does the environment you were born in determine who you are or is it simply by your own will that you follow? is someone's nature stagnant or fluid?
shugen and fuchi. the struggle between what is seen as good vs evil. what makes good and evil? is there really a difference? crime is not the same as evil. does killing an innocent for the many make it right? is one life worth sacrificing for the good of society or are all lives precious no matter their backgrounds or deeds? does anyone truly deserve to die or do we just assign them values based on our own and make the call ourselves?
is crime and punishment—good and evil—a true concept or only brought about by what we think we know about the world around us. what makes a person good? what makes a person evil? depending on who is looking are they the same thing?
what is good to one is evil to another and both can exist simultaneously. neither is wrong and neither is right. it simply is.
