What do you think might happen to Seidou in the future?
Hi LS! I think Seidou’s arc hereon out will revolve around the symbol of Amon’s cross. To put my prediction into context, I’ll also be analysing his development throughout the series.
When we first meet Takizawa, he is introduced in contrast, as the kind of comedic follow-up, to the impressive entries of the big names of Shinohara and Houji into the story.
This is a perfect example of structure reflecting character. The very way we are introduced to Takizawa is exactly how he views himself - the underwhelming and pitiable novice following at the heels of his betters.
Right off the bat we are introduced to the two major character features that will guide the course of Seidou’s development henceforth: his earnest admiration (and desire to emulate) great investigators like Amon, and his lack of confidence in himself. These features are expanded further with Suzuya and Akira’s introductions, who further intensify Seidou’s inferiority complex with their immense skills and frustrate his admiration of the Investigator image with their unorthodox approaches: Suzuya’s complete disregard for the conventional and Akira’s disdain for how Takizawa longs for promotion.
Takizawa desperately wants to overcome his own weakness and become the Investigator he admires, especially with these constant aggravations to both his confidence and his ideals around. Thus his eagerness to get out into the field.
But when the call to arms finally comes, we see his ideals conflict with his confidence as he weeps over his testament. But in the end, Takizawa is able to conquer that weaker side of himself and strive forward to the ideal - even running to the rescue of his old hero Amon. And how is he rewarded for his bravery? For being the “ideal Investigator”?
He is turned into a Ghoul.
After a turn of events so twistedly and tragically ironic, it’s no wonder Takizawa lets go of his aspirations to be a praiseworthy hero and rejects Amon’s determination, especially after devouring his own parents. The human image is turned to meat in the next, and thus does Takizawa’s psychology change. “Give up what?!” indeed - the Hero is dead. So instead, he falls hopelessly into the pit of his other major character trait, his low self-esteem and self-hatred. He embraces the weakness he detests.
And he manifests that weakness in the form of extraordinary violence against the people deemed by himself and by others as his “betters”.
It is Kaneki who experiences this first, the man whose precedent Kanou tortured Takizawa to live up to, mirroring the pressure Seidou put on himself to live up to others in now graphic and hyperbolic format.
But, suppress it as he might, Takizawa’s Investigator complex, an intrinsic part of his character, can’t help but rear its head again when his other hero, Houji, comes knocking. His fantasy from his suppressed desire for heroism can finally become real. Depressive nihilism is not a sustainable ideology and if the light of hope appears, even if its been false in the past, you will still hopelessly run to it.
And Takizawa is disappointed yet again. His earlier rejection of the Investigator image returns tenfold in his fury, symbolically killing the model of it he looked up to. In an ironic reversal of his introduction, Takizawa is the only one of the three investigators introduced in that scene to still be active, and is easily the most powerful, to the extent that one of those ‘betters’ has now been killed by his own hand. Having returned to his crusade of envy, he launches his attack on Akira only to be prevented by Amon, who he similarly turns against. Takizawa is now driven by nothing more than that second part of himself in its most grotesque form - to prove himself better than them, no matter what the cost. But he finds himself backed into a corner by Mutsuki - Kaneki’s parallel, the symbol of the Half-Ghoul - and thus of his own slide into absolute Ghouldom. But on the brink of tragedy, true hope appears, as it does for our main character in this same arc. Seidou is protected from the symbol of his Ghouldom by the symbol of his humanity, and the reconnection to his better, heroic nature begins.
But to put back on the cape completely, Takizawa needs recognition by the vivid symbol of his better nature that still survives - the man he was introduced looking up to.
The cross is one of the most basic and famous archetypes for morality as well as being synecdoche for Amon’s character. In this way, Takizawa is holding his ideal in his hand - it is, quite literally, within his reach, whether he thinks he can handle it anymore or not. It is enough to inspire him to do his first purely good deed in years - saving Akira - and he spends the following arc following the path of self-sacrifice to ensure both her and Amon’s full recovery. Takizawa even states in his internal monologue later on that Amon inspires this change in him.
But of course, when he next meets Amon, the shoe is on the other foot. Despite what his own insecurity told him, Takizawa was a fine Investigator before his transformation - second in the class is nothing to scoff at, and his attempt to save Amon was truly heroic. Now Takizawa finds himself face to face with another fine Investigator transformed into a monster, and swears to make him a person again. He is being confronted with a doppelganger of his worse side and symbolically overcomes it. Kurona realises what he has become even if he himself has not.
However, despite that, and fittingly in the Moon Arc, Takizawa is still unable to embrace his Heroic side. Once again he is undermined by that tenacious lack of self-confidence. He decides that he can never live up to Amon or Kaneki after all he has done, and to simply do this one good deed for the people he cares about and then fall off the radar. Potentially, as Kaneki predicts, falling off this world.
So he tries to return the cross, that symbol of Heroism that reminds him of his inability to reconcile that desire with his own weakness - the “heavy chain”. But Kaneki doesn’t let him.
Kaneki won’t let him give up on that heroic side of his, because he remembers where he himself was headed when he did the same. Because Seidou’s conflict - between heroism and weakness - is, like so many other tragic characters, simply a battle between his duty and his feelings, his Giri and his Ninjo. Kaneki is only here today because he ultimately chose his Giri (without entirely neglecting his Ninjo), and he hopes Takizawa will do the same.
Indeed, Seidou is far more like his idols than he thinks. He might think himself irredeemable, but both Kaneki and Amon have a wide range of sins under their belts while still being heroes today. And what that cross really represents is far more than just moral excellence, as Takizawa probably assumes judging by his resignation to damnation.
It is a symbol specifically for repentance. The fact that Takizawa has been handed this cross once more symbolises, both to him on a personal scale and to us on a narrative scale, that he must one day fully make his repentance, banish his cowardice and become the hero that he always wanted to be. That, I believe, will be Seidou Takizawa’s final triumph over tragedy. His Ninjo ought to focus on the friendships he’s fostered rather than fixating on his own deficiencies. As the Christian imagery indicates, salvation exists for all repentant sinners.
He’s trying to live normally now, but to paraphrase the man himself, with the Oggai around living normally is no easy feat. To even accomplish the meagre goal he’s set himself, he has to be a hero, or a normal life won’t even exist anymore. He’s already been driven to help out Hakatori, someone he came to blows with back on Rushima. His better nature is leaking out, ready to gush like a flood. All it takes is this Judgement phase for it to break through.
I doubt he’ll join the CCG rebels after what happened last time, and just as well - if Marude blamed Urie for failing to save Iwao, he’s certainly not going to forgive Takizawa for outright killing Houji. I suspect he’ll eventually be reunited with them, but right now I see two options, represented by his two most prominent parallels. Either he’ll rejoin Kaneki and help him rebuild his movement, or he’ll seek out Amon and Akira and join them in whatever endeavour they’re engaging in.
He’s been set up to be a force against the Oggai - and this, surely, will bring him closer into contact with the true author of his tragedy, far more than Tatara ever was. A final reckoning with Kanou, I think, lies in Seidou’s future.
And in the interest of parallels, let’s not forget this conversation with Kaneki.
Takizawa very accurately pins down Kaneki’s development as being in the same place as his own - to live for someone else. Helping your friends is just one step down the hero’s path. If Takizawa’s destiny is to become a hero for the world, then it’s Kaneki’s too. He’s already gotten closer to that destination after Touka inspired him to care more for the plight of the Ghouls, just as Seidou has moved closer with his concern over the Oggai - but the rest of their development in this direction lies in the Judgement to come.
Whatever Seidou does henceforth, I’m sure it will be the right thing.
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