I love reading all your meta! I'm curious: why is Namatame considered 'Despair' and Adachi 'Emptiness'? When I played the game I thought it was the other way around, so I'm curious to hear your analysis.
It has to do with what drives the characters.
Yu was driven by the “Hope” that the case can be solved, despite the fact that reality is subjective and truths can be wrapped. This was how Izanami tested the potential of “hope”.
Namatame was driven by the “Despair” of his situation, having lost everything he loved, and being put into a situation where he could only watch more people die like his love did. He acted simply because he knew no other way out and panicked, but also because he was desperately trying to give his life a meaning again. This was how Izanami tested the potential of people driven to “despair”.
Then, we have Adachi. Adachi is a mess of a person: He feels life has given up on him, so he’s given up on himself. He lives day in and day out without caring about improving his situation or doing anything, his fridge is filled with beer and cheap cabbage because whatever, he barely even tries doing a good job at work because whatever, he doesn’t try to forge relationships with people because, whatever. Adachi’s given up on life, yet he’s not so desperate he’d be suicidal. He’s in a static state, unchanging, and just numb to whatever is going on around him, because he’s detached himself entirely from his own ambitions out of frustration. This is why he’s “Emptiness”: Nothing drives him. He doesn’t allow his ambitions, or connections, or anything to drive him… Which is why he actually *does* get a kick out of being so terrified when the case is happening: The terribleness of what he’s doing and the fear of being caught *force* him to care. It makes him feel extreme emotions. To someone who’s been cutting himself off from all caring like he did, that must have been one hell of an adrenaline kick, which was probably a big reason why he acted like he enjoyed the whole thing when the IT confronted him: He was terrified of being caught, but that fear itself actually filled the “void” he had created to cut himself off from his own frustration with life. It’s like how some people laugh like mad when they’re on a roller coaster, despite being actually afraid of heights: Being terrified is thrilling.
Izanami used Adachi to test what the basic desires of a person with seemingly no ambitions would be, and if these desires would win out against those of people with hope or people in despair. Adachi was “Emptiness” because he’d emptied out his *entire* life by giving up on having any and all ambitions. Honestly, if the case hadn’t happened, he’d probably just have continued to deteriorate for lack of taking care of himself. Eventually he’d either have caved in to Dojima’s attempts to be his pal, or he’d just have snapped some other way. No person can stand living in the emotional void for that long.
