Reasons the Shiki/Akira ship is True Love (or something like that)
Okay, so, I essentially made this Tumblr blog for the sole purpose of dumping any and all ramblings when my fandom feels are overflowing. Iâve been coming across an increasing number of posts (not necessarily on Tumblr, just everywhere) which claim to dislike the Shiki/Akira ship because itâs based purely on obsession. I donât mind people not shipping it, I can even see where youâre coming from with the obsession thing, but I canât accept somebody claiming that it would be an empty relationship if you were to take away Shikiâs (okay, unhealthy) fixation on Akira. I find that untrue on more than one level, hence this post. SPOILERS AHEAD, BE FOREWARNED.
On Shikiâs part, I saw the relationship as fascination (with Akiraâs defiant nature) eventually developing into some sort of obsession. That initial possessiveness explained the events of his route in the beginning, i,e. the kidnapping, the naval piercing, etc. BUT, while I do know that obsessiveness was a big, unavoidable aspect of their relationship, I also saw it eventually giving way to something a little deeper. Consider, for example:
1) the kiss, and Shiki asking Akira for his name. Especially the latter. Can we just consider that he asks Akira for his name after having sex with him twice and piercing his naval as a sign of possession? I mean, for Shiki, itâs not a normal, ordinary thing to know. For him, a name is supposedly pointless, which is why he doesnât bother with it. He tells Akira, âEverything of yours belongs to me,â and, âYouâre mine,â and makes it abundantly clear that his possessiveness knows no boundsâbut he doesnât ask him for his name, not at first. So when he does, you know that it represents something other than his possessiveness. Thereâs some other reason he insisted on knowing it, which wasnât there before.Â
2) the fight with Nano/Nicole. Can I just say that Shiki was as obsessed with Nano as he was with Akira, possibly more? In a completely different way, yes, but he was still obsessed with the idea of killing him. He hated and raged at the guy for years, chased him down to Toshima, and for the longest time, all that drove Shiki was the thought of being able to kill him. If thatâs not obsession, I donât know what is. And yet, when Akira calls out to him, he decides not to take the pure Line. Even though he knew it might well be the only way for him to defeat Nicole, he stops. He remembers Akiraâs words, and he stops. If Akiraâs influence over him goes that far, I certainly donât think obsession was all there was to it. Obsession doesnât beat obsession.
3) their way out of Toshima at the end of the game. This is the point at which Shiki knows Akiraâs status as ânull-Nicoleâ. He knows that Akira carries in his blood exactly what Nano had, he knows that Akira is essentially the same type of 'experimentâ as Nano wasâand he takes Akira with him anyway. Even though you can argue that the whole basis for Shikiâs hate towards Nano was the latterâs inherent 'madnessâ or emptiness (which was a result of said experiment in the first place), he certainly doesnât begin to hate Akira like how he hated Nano. I canât recall the exact dialogue, but I remember Akira questioning Shiki about this on their way out, and Shiki says something along the lines of, âYouâre Akira, and youâre mine.â In other words, what Akira is to him overshadows what Nano was to him (an object of obsession).
4) the Shiki-hen drama CD. The drama CD follows Shikiâs route from Shikiâs point-of-view instead of Akiraâs, but the ending goes just a little bit further than the good ending in the game. If youâve seen it, youâd remember that at the very end, it dedicates a small, epilogue-like portion to Shikiâs thoughts when heâs in the vegetative state the game shows him in. He canât see anything, feel anything, or remember anything, including who he is. He loses all sense of himself in a comatose state. But unlike the game, the drama CD gives us some hope of him eventually waking up, the point of which is the memory he presumably wakes up with. If his feelings for Akira were based on obsession and nothing else, I think the memory he would have chosen to remember would be the naval piercing, or maybe something similar that would denote Akira more as a possession than as a person. What he remembers instead, though, is that brief moment in which Akira tells him his name. This spoke volumes to me about what that little exchange meant to him; I think it marked the first time Shiki looked at Akira and saw a person to really know, rather than just a person to possess. That little moment was possibly the most innocuous of all their encounters, and yet, this is the one Shiki wakes up to. This is the first time they actually talk, and apparently thatâs what reminds Shiki of Akira the most strongly. What that said to me is this:Â he wants to know Akira as a person. He wakes up for Akira.Â
Granted, obsession and possessiveness is the dominant part of their relationshipâbut the point is, that obsession goes from baseless to not-so-baseless through the course of the game. Ultimately, Shiki ends up loving Akira in the only way he knows how. Yes, itâs a pretty twisted way, yes, itâs not normal, yes, itâs plenty obsessive. But itâs not JUST obsessive. It becomes more than that. When you strip down their relationship to its core, they love each other. Thatâs why Akira fights Shikiâs fights for him, thatâs why the first thing Shiki remembers on waking up is Akiraâs name.Â
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