Lunge and Eva: “I am Tenma“
I think you are referring to this:
This is also true because of society incarnated by Lunge (a justice blind to the truth) and Eva (the corruption within society). It is not by chance that because of these two characters Tenma ends up becoming a suspect and is persecuted by society when he himself is trying to protect it.
The extract is from this meta, if anyone is interested.
Anyway, I think I have to clarify what I wrote since after receiving your ask I reread some parts related to Lunge and Eva’s characters and my pov slightly changed.
In summary, Eva and Lunge are the two people who are mostly at fault for Tenma being hunted by the police:
Eva, as a witness, and Lunge, as a detective, have both worked to have Tenma arrested. This is interesting because one of the themes explored by the series is how the judicial system works. In particular, the series offers a commentary on the death penalty and eventually refuses it. This is very well expressed through Nina’s arc:
Nina starts the series by wishing to become a public prosecutor, so that she can have criminals condemned, while she ends it by wanting to become a lawyer, so that she can save people’s lives. This mirrors her starting the story by shooting Johan and ending it by forgiving her brother.
That said, the story is full of characters who work as detectives, criminal psychologists, lawyers and so on and all together these characters describe a system which does its best, but is also flawed because ultimately the people in there are just people and so they are inherently flawed. However, It is only through these people’s struggle that a solution of the case is eventually possible.
Eva and Lunge are two characters who convey exactly this through their arcs. They are two flawed cogs of the system and because of their mistakes and flaws they end up putting an innocent man in trouble. However, they also show that they can change and by the end they are both willing to amend their mistakes and to make sure Tenma is recognized as innocent.
What is more, Tenma becomes for both Lunge and Eva what Johan is for Tenma and Nina. As a matter of fact Tenma and Nina run after Johan, while Eva and Lunge pursue Tenma. However, the two chases are actually different. On one hand Nina and Tenma are hunting Johan because they both know he is the culprit behind many crimes. At the same time Johan is a representation of Nina and Tenma’s darkest parts, so their search for him becomes soon a self-search. On the other hand Lunge and Eva are trying to find Tenma despite Tenma not being guilty and they are doing so because of their respective flaws. Basically Nina and Tenma’s search for Johan is something which leads the two characters to face their most repressed parts, while Lunge and Eva’s search is something which they use to avoid facing their shortcomings.
This is why the two hunts end up differently as well. In the end Nina and Tenma find Johan and save/forgive him and in this way they save/forgive themselves. When it comes to Eva and Lunge, they stop pursuing Tenma and even apologise to him:
This is because they can finally face their flaw and recognize that they were using Tenma as a scapegoat to avoid facing it. It is not by chance that towards the last part of the story both Lunge and Eva try to go after Johan instead of Tenma. It is because they can see the evil within themselves clearly and so they have finally become able to fight the evil outside with more assertiveness.
So what are the flaws Eva and Lunge have, but do not want to face? They actually share a common flaw which shows itself in different ways because of Eva and Lunge’s opposite personalities:
The both of them define themselves through Tenma and they do so because they are scared of who they really are. They fear being empty inside hence they need to chase Tenma to feel that they are still people.
This meta will explore this and how Eva and Lunge seem opposite in their respective behaviours, but are actually very similar.
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